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November 8, 2009
Ashes hero and all-round good bloke
Posted 20 minutes ago in England in South Africa 2009-10
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"I want to play 100 Tests"
© Getty Images
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In the Independent, David Lloyd speaks to Stuart Broad. The England allrounder, seen by many as a very central player in England's future, talks about a summer that changed his life and how he is desperate to help his country reach No. 1 in the world.
The stirring deeds of July and August – collectively and individually – are history now, however, and we will soon discover if they were the start of something big or, as happened four years ago when Australia were last sent home empty-handed, a terrific but pretty much isolated success story. "We are very conscious of the fact that winning the Ashes is not the be-all and end-all," says Broad. "We won them, brilliant, but now we have to build on that if we want to be the best team in the world."
Simon Wilde, in the Sunday Times, says Kevin Pietersen will do well to tread cautiously in South Africa, and not just until he is sure that his repaired Achilles tendon is sturdy enough to withstand everything he wants to put it through.
The main challenge he faces is that even before his lay-off he no longer looked the player he once was. His technique looked a mess, his footwork and decision-making were uncertain and he was not dictating terms as he once had. Opponents had wised up to him and a ploy of bowling to a fuller length on off-stump was paying dividends. The strategy was based on Pietersen’s high backlift — always a potential area of weakness early in an innings — and his penchant for playing across the line.
November 7, 2009
20 not out
Posted 10 hours, 1 minute ago in Indian cricket
When Tendulkar first took guard in his country's colours, the Berlin Wall had just fallen, Nelson Mandela was behind bars, Allan Border was captaining Australia and India was a patronised country known for its dust, poverty, timid batsmen and other outdated caricatures, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Over the decades it has been Tendulkar's rare combination of mastery and boldness that has delighted connoisseurs and crowds alike. More than any other batsman, even Brian Lara, Tendulkar's batting has provoked gasps of admiration. A single withering drive dispatched along the ground eluding the bowler, placed unerringly between fieldsmen, could provoke wonder even among the oldest hands. A solitary square cut was enough to make a spectator's day. Tendulkar might lose his wicket cheaply but he is incapable of playing an ugly stroke. His defence might have been designed by Christopher Wren. And alongside these muscular orthodoxies could be found ornate flicks through the on-side, glides off his bulky pads that sent tight deliveries dashing on unexpected journeys into the back and beyond. Viv Richards could terrorise an attack with pitiless brutality, Lara could dissect bowlers with surgical and magical strokes, Tendulkar can take an attack apart with towering simplicity.
Player power
Posted 10 hours, 53 minutes ago in New Zealand cricket
Hasn't the time come when this power of the players was reined in by their employers, or at least harnessed until there was some semblance of consistency about the team's results? asks Peter Williams in the Herald on Sunday.
Vettori is undoubtedly the best player in the country and in a team that can only be regarded as dreadful under-performers, he wields huge influence simply by virtue of his on-field deeds. Even some of the great New Zealand players and personalities of generations past - like Tom Lowry, captain for the first two tours of England, and manager too for the second in 1931, or John R Reid, captain, star all-rounder, national selector, and de facto coach from 1958 to 1965 - never seemed to pull as many strings as Vettori does today.
Player power in the New Zealand team could rise to new heights if the players successfully lobby for a manager, rather than a coach, to replace Andy Moles, writes Paul Lewis in the Herald on Sunday.
In the same paper, Andrew Alderson looks at the John Wright conundrum - Wright reportedly wants the job but the players aren't exactly falling over themselves with enthusiasm at the prospect.
Too many articles about volume of cricket?
Posted 15 hours, 9 minutes ago in Cricinfo
It's not just the players who are sick of giving interviews on excessive cricket. The media too are tired of writing about it. Alan Tyres in the Wisden Cricketer explains what it's like to step on the cricket treadmill.
One senior correspondent on a national paper admitted: “Actually, I’ve got a button set up on my keyboard – one of the IT lads did it for me – that I can press and it just generates all the key phrases ‘burnout… sovereignty of the five-day game… intensity of Test cricket… what would Cyril Washbrook have made of it all…’ and rearranges them into something approaching a coherent article.”
Pietersen has style of original Brylcreem Boy
Posted 1 day ago in England in South Africa 2009-10
He's not held a cricket bat on an international playing field for months now, but Kevin Pietersen has a lot of focus on him as England go into a highly anticipated series against South Africa. Pietersen should receive a 'warm' welcome from South Africans when he joins up with the England party next week, but don't expect that to bother him one bit, writes Brian Viner in the Independent.
Now he is five years older and wiser, witness the disappearance of that preposterous white stripe from his hair. It has been replaced, moreover, by an eminently sensible Brylcreem bounce, which augurs well, because the last Brylcreem Boy to play cricket in South Africa, in 1948-49, scored what remains the fastest triple century in first-class cricket.
World Test Championship could reignite game
Posted 1 day ago in Test Championship
The time is right for a World Test Championship, writes Mike Atherton in the Times. The concept is nothing new, he says, and a version exists, although you need a degree in quantum mathematics to understand how the ICC’s ranking system works — and, indeed, international captains routinely rubbish its significance.
Test cricket is routinely sold out months in advance in England and is held in high esteem by players, administrators and the cricket-watching public. Therefore, we are often unaware of the indifference felt by the majority of cricket-playing nations towards the five-day game. The empty stands that greeted the two top Test teams in South Africa last winter prompted MCC to commission research into the popularity or otherwise of Test cricket. The findings did not make for happy reading.
Never another like Tendulkar
Posted 1 day ago in Indian cricket
Sachin Tendulkar's Hyderabad epic brought back memories of the legendary Chennai Test in 1999 against Pakistan, when he fought cramps to take India so close to the finish line. AR Hemant does a forensic analysis of both scorecards and discovers some bizarre and startling parallels. Read on in India Today.
Before Chennai, India had never lost a Test match in which Mongia scored fifty or more (five fifties and a hundred).
Before Hyderabad, India had never lost an ODI in which Raina score fifty or more (11 fifties, two hundreds).
In a piece on Rediff.com which has plenty of theology thrown in, Prem Panicker tries to make sense of the Sachin Tendulkar phenomenon in the wake of the glittering 175 against Australia. After saying Tendulkar is treated like god by Indian fans, Panicker asks of the constant references to the batsman's statistical achievements such as the 17,000-run milestone: "Is 'god' god, if you have to parse his deeds against those of the mortals?"
Here his description of the 175: It was all there, every single element of the Tendulkar mythos: the majestic certitude of the straight-backed thumps through cover and extra cover; the nonchalant ease of his many waltzes down the wicket to hit straight with slide rule precision; the calm certitude with which he repeatedly split the field and, when it was drawn in tight, carried it; the unparalleled balance of his many whips off hips and pads; the schoolboy cheek of the impossibly late cut; the exuberant energy with which he repeatedly traversed the 22 yard strip for singles taken with the judgment of a Solomon
Tendulkar's endurance remains a source of wonder to Panicker. What does it say of Tendulkar that having raised the bar to impossible heights in 1998, he is able to effortlessly vault over it 11 years later? We have for the space of two decades repeatedly witnessed the alchemy of genius effortlessly convert the impossible into the seemingly inevitable.
In his column for the Hindustan Times, Ravi Shastri says Tendulkar will need another special effort if India are to stay alive in this series.
Too much power for Vettori
Posted 1 day ago in New Zealand cricket
Adrian Seconi of the Otago Times argues that in the absence of both a coach and a vice- captain, and having been vested with the powers of a selector, Daniel Vettori has too much control over New Zealand cricket. What is the difference between Daniel Vettori and Brian Tamaki? The Black Caps do not bow when they approach Vettori . . . yet. Whether it is by circumstance or Machiavellian design, the left-arm spinner has acquired enough power to dim the environmentally friendly and energy-efficient lights over Seddon Park. He's now a selector, the stand-in coach, the captain, a leading bowler and one of our best batsmen.
November 6, 2009
Players flogged for money
Posted 1 day, 14 hours ago in Australian cricket
Greg Baum writes in the Age that the gurgling sound you might be able to hear is the strangling of the goose that laid the golden egg.
The focus is on player burn-out, but ignores a parallel effect that in the long term may hurt the game more: fan burn-out. ''Spectator fatigue,'' it was called by Adam Gilchrist. Thursday night's stunner in Hyderabad, far from disprove the thesis, adds to it. Though replete with entertainment, the chances are that few were watching - why this one, rather than the last or the next? - and that it will soon be lost to memory in the rush of more matches. That's the pity.
Cricket Australia's sins of this winter can't be repeated, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. Australian players have had an overdose of cricket, domestic and international, and unsurprisingly the injury list has been lengthening by the day. Dizzy? Confused? Exhausted? Media managers and selectors came and went but the senior players hardly saw their front doors for months on end.
Complacent officials point out that strained sides and hamstrings are occupational hazards for pace bowlers while broken fingers are part and parcel of a keeper's life. They add that some of the crocks only joined the tour a few weeks ago. But the longer a trip lasts, the heavier the toll it takes. Peter Siddle had been on the road longer than Mick Jagger. How on earth was he supposed to stay at his peak for 25 weeks? Fast bowling puts immense pressure on the body, and the artificial way of life derails the mind.
Peter Lalor, in the Australian, says the Australian team is threadbare, living on care packages and needs replacements.
The Catholics are worried. The long-hairs, too. For there's news about that Andrew Hilditch, chairman of the war cabinet, is pushing for conscription to fill the quota. How else to make up the numbers? Already there are suggestions that the able-bodied are reluctant to serve. Hilditch is a cold-eyed and desperate man. There's talk in underage cricket circles of him trying to lure strapping young adolescents from suburban fields with the promise that they'll see the world and be home by Christmas.
Forgotten heroes of Harris Shield
Posted 1 day, 21 hours ago in Indian cricket
The Harris Shield is an inter-school cricket tournament, which has been held in Mumbai since 1897. It is named after Lord Harris, former England captain and governor of Bombay, and is perhaps best known for the 664-run stand in 1988 that brought Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli into the limelight. On Wednesday, 12-year-old Sarfaraz Khan blasted 439, the highest individual score ever made in the tournament. The Indian Express' Devendra Pandey looks up others who made their name in the Harris Shield, before fading into obscurity.
Twenty years of mastery
Posted 1 day, 23 hours ago in Indian cricket
In the business paper Mint, Dileep Premachandran marvels at the longevity of Sachin Tendulkar, and writes that its Tendulkar's efforts against the best team over the past two decades, Australia, that make him peerless. More than cold statistics though, it’s the moments that will endure long after he’s put his bat away for the last time. That final over in the Hero Cup semi-final. The audacious assault on Shane Warne in Chennai. The cold-eyed targeting of Shoaib Akhtar at Centurion, South Africa, in 2003. That match-winning century in Chennai, just a fortnight after the streets in the vicinity of his restaurant in Mumbai had resembled war-torn Beirut.
On his blog Cricket with balls, JRod writes that Tendulkar's glittering 175 made the result of the match almost irrelevant. He scored over half the runs, passed some unimportant milestone, seemed to be dragging Raina and Jadeja by the neck like kittens, and then eventually went out to a shot that wasn’t even thought of when he started playing. India didn’t deserve to win, but Sachin did. I wanted him to make 200 and win the game, but he came up short and pretty much no help at all.
KingCricket pens a tribute to Tendulkar on his blog, where he writes that staying at the top for 20 years is the batsman's most jaw-dropping achievement. You get batsmen who are exceptional when they’re 16. You get batsmen with adamantium wrists. You get batsmen who choose their shots well. You get cricketers who are fit and dedicated to their sport. You get cricketers who can cope with the downs and who come back stronger. You get get cricketers who can last for 20 years. You never get all of this.
November 5, 2009
Selectors back youth, and good on 'em
Posted 2 days, 4 hours ago in Australian cricket
The elevation of Burt Cockley to the Australian ODI squad after only four one-dayers for his state is not necessarily a mistake, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. He believes that promoting fast bowlers and batsmen with youth on their side is a bold and positive move.
Of course, the idea has been imperfectly applied. It is hard to justify putting Moises Henriques in front of a player as energetic and effective as Andrew McDonald. Yet the approach has much to commend it. Dirk Nannes and Shane Harwood are splendid bowlers, but what is the point? Cockley has strong shoulders, plenty of pace and can improve. Admittedly, he was a bolter but speedsters were going down like sprayed mozzies. Moreover, the alternatives were either seasoned campaigners or complete novices. Right or wrong, if it is part of a return to youth and aggression, it has merit.
In the Daily Telegraph, Nick Walshaw looks at the rapid rise Cockley has enjoyed.
It's a flight that represents a remarkable rise for this Blues speedster who never played A-grade in the Newcastle competition until he was 18. Who only came to Sydney at 21. Who was even forced to withdraw with injury from that one Australia A match he was selected in last year.
New Zealand domestic teams at a glance
Posted 2 days, 4 hours ago in New Zealand cricket
Ahead of the opening round of the Plunket Shield, Jonathan Millmow in the Dominion Post runs his eye over the six teams and speaks to the captains about the upcoming season as a whole.
Craig Cumming, which competition would you most like to win?
"Obviously the Twenty20 has the greatest reward and we got to experience that in India last month so we'd love to win that again. Having said that the real focus at the start of the season is on the four-dayers, that's an area we haven't performed as well as we would've liked in and if we start well in that I think everything will flow from there."
Trott shows his true colours for England
Posted 2 days, 9 hours ago in England in South Africa 2009-10
Jonathan Trott has been in the news lately for reasons he will eagerly wish be doused by runs from his bat. Trott's performances are what count for England, not his place of birth. But until he plays some more emphatic innings for England, says Simon Hughes in the Telegraph, Michael Vaughan's caustic observations will continue to ring in Trott's ears.
Trott, reared in a suburb of Cape Town, grew up playing in the same Western Province team as Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs and Ashwell Prince and will feel added motivation when he plays against them this month. The pinnacle of achievement for a professional sportsman is total respect from your peers. Trott, whose English father, Ian, is a cricket coach in Leatherhead, inherited his parent's passion for the game and always striven to be as good as he could be. That ambition often leads South Africans here. The money now in the county game is attractive. But what also drives them is the intensity and frequency of our cricket. It is a fast track to maturity.
End tax-free benefits for county cricketers
Posted 2 days, 22 hours ago in English cricket
In the Guardian Mike Selvey tells the tale of James Seymour, a Kent cricketer of the early 20th century. Though Seymour helped Kent to four Championships, his legacy is that through his (and his lawyer's) efforts money made through a benefit were deemed tax-free. Selvey argues that while the system made sense in Seymour's time, county cricketers are now well renumerated, and that the benefit system mostly helps England's international stars, who rarely make domestic appearances. He says better insurance and pension schemes are the way forward instead of benefits.
November 4, 2009
Save delays for a rainy day
Posted 3 days, 4 hours ago in Australian cricket
Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that in a supposedly packed marketplace where cricket is trying to hold its own, it is doing itself a major disservice with unnecessary rain delays. On Wednesday at the SCG, the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Western Australia didn't get started until 3.15pm.
To approach the stadium in the morning was to observe a few apologetic drops dripping from the skies and to notice that the light was a tad gloomy. Only the lamest soul or someone fresh from a coiffeur would have raised an umbrella. Windscreen wipers were not required. The previous day the temperature had soared to 37 degrees and the batsmen had dictated terms. Now the tussle might be more even. Changing conditions are part and parcel of the game.
Apparently the outfield was damp. Research indicated that beads of water could be detected on the tips of the grass. Poor souls, the bowlers might be handicapped with a slippery ball. Poor lads, the batsmen might have to peer into the gloom. Inevitably news broke that the start had been delayed. Not that the players were huddled in the rooms. Instead they were on the park, loosening their prodigious muscles, preparing for the contest. Some cheerfully hoofed a footy ball around, others practised close catches. No one seemed to find any irony in this exposure to the elements. As far as could be discerned none of them contracted pneumonia or fell flat on their face or cracked a bone.
Peter Lalor in the Australian points out that the very few fans who turned up were understandably unhappy.
When the players did come out to start at 3.15pm one paying customer (there were only 241 others) yelled at Stuart Clark to get a move on. The bowler told the man that it was only 3.14pm and the umpires wouldn't let him. It gets that intimate at a Shield match.
It gets heated, too. With poor Beau Casson bowling at times like John Howard did to the troops, another spectator chipped in with some harsh criticism that echoed around the stands. This time NSW captain Simon Katich gave the bloke a single-barrel blast of advice.
No coach, no excuse
Posted 3 days, 4 hours ago in New Zealand cricket
In the New Zealand Herald, Dylan Cleaver writes that New Zealand's dismal display against Pakistan wasn't due to their coaching situation.
No, the coaching debacle is too convenient a scapegoat. The real reason for the calamitous performance was that when the blowtorch was applied NZ's batsmen again melted - and again it started from the top.
Aaron Redmond's early becalming meant Brendon McCullum was forced to initiate desert storm, his brief sortie flaming out when he dragged on to his stumps. McCullum's effectiveness at the top of the order seems inextricably linked to the injured Jesse Ryder. They feed off each other's controlled aggression.
Two major questions still surround Proteas
Posted 3 days, 16 hours ago in England in South Africa 2009-10
South Africa will start as favourites for the Test series against England but they have two issues to address before the series begins. They need to settle on an opening partner for Graeme Smith and a pace bowling partner for Dale Steyn, writes Patrick Compton in the Mercury.
There are also doubts about Steyn's regular pace partner, Morne Morkel. Morkel at his best is a huge asset but he lacks consistency, a failing that resulted in him being dropped for the final Test against Australia in 2008. The big man bowls some devastating deliveries but he doesn't hit the "right areas" nearly as often as he should.
In the Cape Times, Zaahier Adams writes that the South African crowd should have a go at Jonathan Trott because of his strong South African connections.
So when the South African fans, undoubtedly, have a go at KP this summer, they might just want to rein it in a bit for Trott who, but for the lure of the pound, possibly still wants to be sitting in the other dressing-room with his boyhood pals.
Following the runner controversy during the Champions Trophy, Smith will have a score to settle with Strauss, writes Paul Newman in the Daily Mail.
The end of the 100-Test cricketer
Posted 3 days, 21 hours ago in Indian cricket
Anand Vasu writes in the Hindustan Times about how the IPL and the Twenty20 boom has changed the priorities of the upcoming generation of Indian cricketers. In two months, some of these teenagers will pick up more cash than the average middle-class professional makes in a career. What's more, with the contract in the bag, they won't have to worry about some cranky selector dropping them or a section of the media calling for a replacement. There will be all the good things in life without any of the pressure, perfect for the individual in the short-term, and a recipe for long-term disaster.
Before the IPL the sole intention of a cricketer's life was breaking into the Indian team. Once that was done, life was a constant struggle to stay in the eleven. In time, the peripherals too care of themselves. This is why Ganguly fought so hard to stay in the picture... It is the fight to stay in the top 1% that makes it worth it.
India's young brigade is drawing flak, but Dileep Premachandran writes in the Guardian that the criticism must be based on their performances, and not based on their flashy lifestyles.
Nothing wrong with Trott and Co. playing for England
Posted 4 days ago in English cricket
In the Guardian Andy Bull defends England's South African imports a week after Michael Vaughan questioned Cape Town-born Johnathan Trott's loyalty. Bull argues that over 60 players born overseas have represented England and "the fact that selection is open to anyone who cares to qualify and merits a place ought to be a reason for celebration". Some of those 60-plus players came to England when they could barely use a bat – Strauss and Prior among them. Others, like Pietersen and Trott, came later. All of them earned their place on merit. There is no need to mark a dividing line between those who arrived as children and those who made the decision later in life, just as there is no need to draw distinctions between players who have moved from Test-playing nations and those who haven't. The point is that they decided to come at all. That is sufficient commitment in itself. Regardless of where you are born, misty-eyed patriotism is not a prerequisite for selection. There are plenty of better criteria to judge a cricketer on than his place of birth or where he went to school. The runs he scores and wickets he takes are just two of them.
November 3, 2009
Gayle an unworthy captain
Posted 4 days, 4 hours ago in West Indies cricket
Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that Chris Gayle does not deserve to be captain of the West Indies squad heading to Australia.
Gayle is a busted flush. Sympathisers say he cares about West Indian cricket. If so, he has a curious way of showing it. Appointed on a wing and a prayer by authorities desperate to stop the inexorable slide in West Indian cricket, the languid Jamaican has been a profound disappointment. If nothing else, his abject performance during last winter's Test series in England ought to have cost him his job.
Given the honour of captaining the party and therefore following in the footsteps of Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Garfield Sobers and Clive Lloyd, the sunglassed opener promptly signed to play for the Kolkata Klowns (or whatever) in the IPL and arranged to join the team a week before the first Test. Eager to put even more plunder in his pocket, he lingered longer, played an extra match and arrived a couple of days before the series began. So much for leadership. So much for the tradition of West Indian cricket. So much for Test cricket.
Let's see if Wright is right
Posted 4 days, 4 hours ago in New Zealand cricket
Geoff Longley writes in the Press that New Zealand should give John Wright a trial run as coach during the upcoming home series against Pakistan.
There has been a lot of tip-toeing around the issue of whether Wright wants to be involved. Has he expressed official interest and does he want the arduous grind of overseas travel again?
But there is no formal coach at present, and having Wright involved – he is on the NZC staff payroll after all – would be a good way of testing the waters for the players and the prospective coach. This way, Wright could get a feel for the team and the environment and see if they could work together on a longer-term basis, and vice versa.
What if it doesn't swing for England?
Posted 4 days, 18 hours ago in England in South Africa 2009-10
‘If it doesn’t swing,’ Andy Flower said, ‘we can still win the series. We’ve got the attack to take 20 wickets.’ This is a bold statement for any England coach to make at the best of times. And, Ashes or no Ashes, it’s fair to say these are not the best of times, writes Lawrence Booth in the Daily Mail.
In their last 28 Tests overseas – beginning with the previous visit to South Africa five years ago – England have taken 20 wickets only seven times, including twice against a weak New Zealand side in seam-friendly conditions. One in four is not a ratio to set the pulse racing, let alone beat the best team in the world. There’s more. During that period England were able to field possibly their most incisive seam attack ever. Now they arrive in South Africa without any of the Fab Four of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff and Simon Jones that delivered the 2005 Ashes. Flower possibly knows something we don’t.
Twenty20 affecting Harbhajan and Ishant
Posted 4 days, 18 hours ago in Indian cricket
Suresh Menon writes on Dreamcricket that the pressure of bowling dot balls in Twenty20s has reduced the effectiveness of two of India's premier bowlers, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma. He argues that both of them should be excluded from the game's shortest format to ensure success in ODIs and Tests. With television sanctifying the dot ball in the bowler’s analysis, it has assumed a disproportionate importance ... When that same tactic is brought into the one-day international, the team suffers because now wicket-taking is important. Nothing slows down the run rate like a wicket or two. The spinner’s role is a more attacking one, especially in the middle overs when batsmen tend to focus on keeping their wickets. ... Part of Ishant Sharma’s recent problem has been a confusion over the approach to the various forms. The answer is clear – he must be kept out of Twenty20 if he is to be a long-term prospect for Tests and one-dayers.
Cricket a bad fit for the Olympic stadium
Posted 4 days, 19 hours ago in English cricket
It is just under a thousand days until London's Olympic 80,000-seat stadium becomes filled for purpose, but what of the many thousands after that? So far, there has been talk of rugby, football and cricket teams using the venue, though in cricket's case any future relationship should be given short shrift, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.
The trouble is, to cheapen maintenance costs, the Stratford stadium will be reduced to 25,000 seats once the Olympics is over. That would put its capacity behind Lord's and only marginally in front of the Oval's. Unless 50,000 spectators can be accommodated, the only reason for international cricket to be played elsewhere in the capital would be for the novelty. If you want that, far better to build a stadium with a roof to make the game weatherproof.
November 2, 2009
Modi v the world
Posted 5 days, 19 hours ago in Indian cricket
Everything Lalit Modi does makes news. Everything Lalit Modi does divides opinions. Everything Lalit Modi does reverberates around the cricketing world. In a freewheeling interview with Karan Thapar on the news channel CNN-IBN, Modi defends himself against critics, denies the Ranji Trophy has been rendered meaningless, explains why the IPL has revived and rejuvenated cricket, and much more.
Karan Thapar: ‘The Hindustan Times’ says: 'What the IPL has done is create a generation of half-baked players with faulty techniques, they strut around as superstars based on their dubious performances in the IPL. They are living in a fool's paradise but they are only fooling themselves.'
Lalit Modi: If they are fooling themselves, they will fall down. You have to understand that we have eight to ten owners out there, who have very little tolerance for somebody not being able to perform. So, they will just replace him and go forward with somebody else. If a person wants to be in the team then he needs to be consistent.
Karan Thapar: So these players are fodder for you. You are building them dreams and then casting them aside.
Lalit Modi: You may call it fodder but for us, it is giving them platform to showcase themselves, be consistent and prove themselves. You call it fodder, but we don't call it fodder. We call it a great stage to play with the world's best.
Graeme Swann able to laugh in face of convention
Posted 5 days, 22 hours ago in English cricket
Graeme Swann has more than 16,000 followers on Twitter, the internet's latest social networking craze, another ideal platform for his student-union wit and waspish humour. He's fast becoming a cult figure even as, at 30, his irrepressible personality matures. Speaking to the Times, Swann candidly admits he does not really do cricket at all if there is a reasonable alternative, such as loafing on the couch with a can of beer and a movie on the telly. While some players would be angered by accusations of arrogance, Swann shrugs them off with his characteristic laconic humour.
“You get pigeonholed, but if the s*** hits the fan, everyone reacts differently. If I get angry and uptight, I am rubbish. I don’t perform. If people see me having a smile on my face as not knuckling down, then more fool them because they don’t know what they are talking about.
“I have just found over the years I am my own best shrink and I know if I am doing badly. Nine times out of ten, it is about taking it too seriously. I don’t mean stop training and start having a laugh, but in your life you have to be happy."
November 1, 2009
Where does Misbah go from here?
Posted 6 days, 17 hours ago in Pakistan cricket
The emergence of Umar Akmal as an exciting middle order batsman has all but bolted the door on Misbah-ul-Haq. After being dropped once, he showed resolve to make a comeback, but the past has come back to haunt him. He may have responded with a double-century in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, but his response may have come too late in the day, writes Saad Shafqat in Dawn.
With captain Younis Khan at number three, Mohammad Yousuf (Pakistan’s best batsman) at number four, and now Umar Akmal in the side, Pakistan’s Test middle-order is packed. In ODI and Twenty20 cricket, the batting line-up has to accommodate all-rounders too, which leaves even less room. The only scenario in which Misbah forces his way back is if someone gets injured or loses form. No one knows the future, but the odds are against it.
The PCB hasn’t learnt from the way squash and hockey has gone awry in Pakistan. The organisation has run into disarray and failure despite having the world’s top-notch cricketing talent at its disposal. Iftikhar U Hyder presents a grim picture in Dawn, the Pakistan daily.
Pakistan cricket’s Achilles’ heel is not its ability to produce good openers, reliable middle-order batsmen or good fielders. The real Achilles’ heel is the inability to build a cricket structure in which only competent managers could survive.
Big stars, great mates
Posted 1 week ago in Australian cricket
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Blood brothers: Michael Clarke and Shane Warne
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Shane Warne is Michael Clarke’s idol and treasured friend. He talks to the Sunday Telegraph’s Jessica Halloran about their special relationship and how Warne is helping him through his back injury.
"We both love our speed,'' Clarke said. "Our cars, our motorbikes, and a bit of shopping here and there - but we also both love trying to be the best cricket players we can. I guess that's how our relationship continued to grow. I had an idol who was willing to help me. I would have been stupid not to have listened to him. From there, we've built a friendship outside of cricket, which is very special to me. It's something I'm very lucky to have.''
October 31, 2009
Reality check for Brendon McCullum
Posted 1 week ago in New Zealand cricket
Brendon McCullum has recently been stripped of his New Zealand vice-captaincy. In the Herald on Sunday, Mark Richardson wonders what the reasoning behind the move is. Is this simply a case of a good young player getting too big too soon and an ego that needs reeling in?Is it a message to say either put up or shut up? Does it hint that those who may not see things quite like Vettori and/or Glenn Turner are headed for the high jump?
Or has he simply been offering nothing and just caring for himself?
Smith's work ethic guarantees England a test
Posted 1 week ago in South African cricket
Tough and talented, South Africa have taken their inspiration from their captain to become the world's best Test team. Duncan Fletcher, who has ties with both England and South Africa, writes in his Guardian column that Graeme Smith's work ethic guarantees England will be tested to the limit.
What impressed me most when I was with the team before the Champions Trophy was their work ethic. You had to see it to believe it. Coming out of a chill winter, Potchefstroom was a hot place to be training and they ran themselves off their feet. They set themselves some seriously high standards, and a lot of that comes from Smith and his excellent relationship with the coach, Mickey Arthur. They do not treat nets as just another bit of practice – everything they do is designed to take their game forward. It shows in the side's fielding, which is excellent. That's one area where I expect them to have an advantage over England.
When Indira was assassinated ...
Posted 1 week ago in Miscellaneous
On the 25th anniversary of India Gandhi's death, Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express speaks to former India players who were in Pakistan when news of the assassination broke.
As Dilip Vengsarkar entered the 90s while approaching his first ODI hundred at Sialkot during the 1984 tour, he saw Pakistan's motor-mouth Javed Miandad coming towards him from third man. There were a couple of thoughts that crossed Vengsarkar's mind. He wasn't sure if the movement on field was skipper Zaheer Abbas's ploy to put pressure on him by posting a close-in fielder. On second thoughts, he feared it was just Miandad indulging in his old trick of initiating a provocative dialogue with a well-set batsman between overs.
October 30, 2009
Too much cricket for everyone
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago in Australian cricket
Adam Gilchrist is not just worried about how the amount of cricket is affecting the players but also the fans, Peter Lalor reports in the Australian.
"The burn-out issue is there, but then the player has to be smart about management," Gilchrist said. "The lucrative dollars are there, but you have to be successful for the national team to reap the rewards in tournaments like the IPL and the Champions League.”
Brett Lee is off home and will have a break from signing autographs for a while. Jesse Hogan, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says the invention of the camera phone has made Lee's life a lot tougher.
It hasn’t been a great year for the relationship between the Australian team and the media, and Greg Baum analyses the situation in the Age. He takes issue with Tim Nielsen’s Cricket Australia blog and the players' answers to Indian journalists this week, a paragraph which has since been removed.
A welcome break for KP
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago in English cricket
After three months of rest and recuperation, Kevin Pietersen will pick up a bat and try to prove his fitness for the tour of South Africa. More valuable than the physical rest for his Achilles is the mental rest he's had, watching a bit of cricket and catching up with his favourite channel, National Geographic. Alyson Rudd of the Times finds out what KP's been upto in the recent months.
Pietersen breaks with tradition. Enforced rest usually prompts sportsmen to become depressed and allow problems to fester but he turned this on its head. “Preparation is what I bank on and preparation has definitely been hampered because of external thoughts,” he said. “These last three months have cleared my brain and my thoughts.”
Pardoning Agassi will allow other players to cross the line
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago in Drugs
Grand slam champion Andre Agassi's admission to using drugs during his career is not only damaging for his reputation but for the sport itself, writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express.
I have long been a huge admirer of Agassi on court but I do hope people do not rally to his support; like with the pathetic attempt to protect Roman Polanski. The more we pardon offenders, either through the law or through public affection, the easier we make it for someone else to cross the line. And here in India we need to take a tough stance too. Our weightlifters are now a joke around the world as indeed are the officials who looked the other way in spite of fairly obvious proof. If the game isn’t strong those that play it need not be strong and you can see that association at work in the build up to the Commonwealth Games.
Indian cricket excess
Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in Indian cricket
In the 24 months leading into the World Twenty20 in September 2007, and the 25 months or so thereafter, India played almost the same number of Tests and ODIs, but the latter period includes 17 T20s. In case we all forgot, there were two IPLs and a Champions League in-between. Insane numbers indeed. No wonder some of India's leading players and those from across the world are plagued by injuries, writes Kadambari Murali Wade in the Hindustan Times.
On a final note, here’s another interesting stat that might give the BCCI some pause to think before scheduling more and more T20s — the Indian public has been notoriously fickle when it comes to supporting their team and India, despite popular perception, is not a very good T20 unit.
In the same paper, Atreyo Mukhopadhyay, touches on a crucial point in India's big win at Nagpur, the running between the wickets. Mohammad Kaif talks about the importance of taking singles and how it's enough to deflate the opposition.
October 29, 2009
True Blues believe in NSW national XI
Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in Australian cricket
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Are you Australia in disguise?
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It’s been said that New South Wales players are given a baggy green as well when they are handed a state cap. Will Swanton, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, takes it further: just pick a NSW-only Test team and be done with it.
Pipe down, Victorians and assorted other non-Blues. NSW have proved themselves as the dominant provincial side in the world, let alone Australia, so the selectors might as well just flood the Test XI with Blues - 10 of them plus captain Ricky Ponting, who lives in Sydney anyway.
And before all those Victorians and assorted other non-Blues start moaning about NSW's struggles in the Sheffield Shield, come for a meeting in the fair dinkum department - the only reason they don't win the Shield every year is the unavailability of their premier players who are representing their country.
Cast ahead to the first Ashes Test against England next year. Australia lost the urn, NSW can win it back. A Blues-Only-Plus-Ricky-Ponting Test team isn't remotely far-fetched.
Bryce McGain, the legspinner, plays his first game for Victoria since returning 0 for 149 on Test debut in South Africa. Chloe Saltau spoke to him for the Age.
Harmison happy at Durham
Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in English cricket
Alan Tyers' latest entry on his hilarious blog in the Wisden Cricketer analyses why Steve Harmison signed a new four-year contract with Durham. I see my role as being to pass on what I’ve learned: how to adapt to different conditions – maybe an away dressing room that doesn’t have a DVD player for your Lovejoy boxset; how to smuggle a crate of Newcastle Brown Ale through customs at Faisalabad; how to chuck your phone away and hide in the attic when you reckon the England selectors might be calling to give you the nod.
No more dining at Tendulkar's
Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in Miscellaneous
The Indian business newspaper, Mint, has an interesting write-up looking at the decline of the restaurants opened by Indian cricket's biggest names. The Mumbai restaurant named after the man many Indians consider to be the best cricketer to have ever set foot on a cricket pitch, Sachin Tendulkar, has closed for business and may well make way for a night club. Tendulkar’s, as the restaurant was named, isn’t alone in its fate. In New Delhi, Sehwag Favourites, promoted by a man who still sometimes opens the batting with Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, has also shut down and the cricketer is locked in litigation with his business partner. And former India captain Sourav Ganguly’s restaurant in Kolkata has seen its popularity waning.
Players v coaches
Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in Miscellaneous
The recent departures of coaches - Andy Moles (New Zealand), Peter Moores (England), Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad (India) - suggests that players are wielding greater clout in decision making. Makarand Waingankar finds out in the Hindu.
It’s part of the coach’s job to understand the mental make-up of players so that they accept the methods and give their best, but the coaches complain that players refuse to accept the advice of coaches even when their own methods are not successful.
Gone are the days when Ray Illingworth, who was the one-man selection committee and also the coach of the England team, would act like a dictator. Modern players want more of a say in strategy planning.
Tributes for David Shepherd
Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in Umpires
"While the hopping and skipping of a large man attracted a fair bit of attention, it was Shepherd's skill as an umpire – both in terms of decision-making and man management – that earned praise around the cricket world. He made his international debut at the 1983 World Cup, in England, and stood in 92 Tests as well as 172 one-day internationals before retiring in 2005. He was in the middle for three consecutive World Cup finals – in 1996, 1999 and 2003 – and at the end of his final Test, between the West Indies and Pakistan in Jamaica, he was presented with a cricket bat by the home captain, Brian Lara. On the bat was a message which earned approval throughout the game: 'Thank you for the service, the memories and the professionalism'," writes David Lloyd in the Independent.
"David Shepherd and I shared a marvellous friendship over more than four decades. It began when he joined Gloucestershire in the mid-1960s, and it continued all the way up to this terribly sad news. I truly believe that David and I saw the best days of umpiring," writes former umpire Dickie Bird in the Telegraph.
"Shepherd loved cricket. It was his life, and as a player, umpire and ambassador he epitomised everything that is good in the game. The ruddy face, rotund figure and cuddly, jovial Father Christmas-like appearance may have given many the feeling he was something of a soft touch. He was not. When standing, Shepherd insisted that games under his control were played in the correct spirit," writes Angus Fraser in the Independent.
"I played against him once, in 1979 at Fenner's, for Cambridge against the mighty 'Glos', as you could call them back then. As he strolled to the crease, all pot belly and mutton-chop sideburns, he looked like the picture on a Toby jug. But while the entrance was comic, his shots packed power and any sideways sniggers on our part soon turned to bruise-handed admiration," writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.
"He was an absolute beauty and the world will miss him. I remember sitting up for four hours drinking with him in the bar after the World Cup final in 1996. He was a gentleman and great company," Shane Warne told the Times.
"When I was coming up in the game, we would always share a pint of bitter with him after the day’s play. I’m afraid those days might be past now: players and umpires don’t mix together as much as they used to," says Michael Vaughan in the Telegraph.
October 28, 2009
Cassell's back in town
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in Australian cricket
A fast bowler who has suffered with injury several times, Rob Cassell found the jump from the Melbourne club competition to the state level a tough one. Failing to break into Victoria's side after an initial run, he lost his Bushrangers contract in 2007 and went to Europe in the winter of 2008 to get a few things out of his system. He travelled for five months with two old schoolmates, hiring a car in France and driving into Spain. Cassell was done with cricket, or so it seemed. On a cathartic trip, his significant moment came in an Aussie bar in Barcelona, he tells the Age.
A little more than a year on and the journey is far from done. But Cassell, 26, might well be on track for the best comeback cricket has seen in years. Seven years after he last pulled on a Bushrangers shirt, he is playing Premier Cricket for Melbourne with conspicuous success, meaning he is only a step away from state colours. Bowling with an action remodelled over four months at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane during the winter, he took four top-order wickets for the Demons in the first round, and backed up with a career-first hat-trick against Camberwell in round two, employing reverse swing with an old ball.
Luke knows too much cricket isn't Wright
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in English cricket
The Champions League, it seems, has caused quite a stir. The success of sides such as Trinidad & Tobago, New South Wales and the Cape Cobras outdid what the two English counties, Somerset and Sussex, achieved in the tournament. One likely reason, as is being muttered in hushed tones across England, is the amount of cricket those two counties played. As Lawrence Booth writes on the Wisden Cricketer website, the men who run English cricket need to address the problem soon.
The thoughts of the engaging Wright, whose career is still at the make-or-break stage, should be cut and pasted into an email to the England and Wales Cricket Board. “From the county cricket point of view, it is hard and you don’t get the time to prepare as, say, people in Australia do, to work up to a game,” he said. “You go from a four-day game and travel at night to a one-day game, and you try to differentiate between the formats. You find yourself practising the skills in the games themselves rather than having it nailed down ready to play. You almost use some of the games as practice.”
A widely respected and well-loved umpire
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in Umpires
David Shepherd, the former umpire, died on Wednesday aged 68 after a long struggle with cancer. Read his obituary of one of cricket's most popular figures in the Guardian, written by David Foot. Humour was never far away. He was mischievously ever ready to relate tales of those celebratory evenings when, inexplicably, he lost both his car and his shoes. The umpires on the county circuit and those of higher international rankings liked him, too. They approved of the way he dealt with blustering troublemakers at the crease. They were aware how much he detested batsmen, some famous, who affected an air of innocence when they knew well enough that they had got a touch. But even the finest of umpires make mistakes. He always owned up and later in the match might have a confidential chat with the batsman he had ruled out leg before.
The Daily Telegraph calls Shepherd "one of the best and fairest officials in the game". The obituary also has an account of how he decided to take up umpiring when a friend suggested it would offer him "the best seat in the house." Shepherd had the hearty frame and smiling, ruddy face of a West Country landlord. But once he donned the umpire's white coat, he became a formidable adjudicator, as a generation of batsman will testify. He had a sharp eye and an exceptional rapport with the players – virtues that the International Cricket Council recognised when they appointed him for three successive World Cup finals.
In his blog in the Times, Patrick Kidd wonders why umpires aren't loved these days as they used to be in Shepherd's prime.
An obituary in the Times praises Shepherd for his calm deliberations and un-obtrusive control of the game, traits which made him one of the best and most respected umpires of his time.
A rundown of Strauss' side
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in English cricket
After moving to the Daily Mail from the Guardian, Lawrence Booth has started off a new weekly mail called 'Top Spin'. The first installment is out, in which Booth profiles England's players making the tour of South Africa.
Stuart Broad
The beginning of the rest of his career? Possibly, although his Ashes-winning five-for at The Brit Oval has raised the bar to an unfair degree. The talent is there, but he needs direction too. Those close to him say Broad is not the enforcer England crave: his bouncers go for too many runs. He himself nominates Glenn McGrath – the human-form-made-metronome – as his role model. But will the management listen? As for his batting, No 8 seems perfect, especially in the land of Shaun Pollock, who averaged nearly 31 in that slot.
England sleepwalking to an Alastair Cook captaincy
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in English cricket
Maybe I am missing something – a shrewd tactical contribution from the gully, a tendency for stirring dressing-room speeches, or a deep and meaningful appreciation of the game and its place in English history, but the thought of Alastair Cook as England captain so far leaves me cold, writes David Hopps in the Guardian.
England have been blessed by three excellent captains in the past decade. Nasser Hussain was feisty, impatient, demanding. Michael Vaughan, shrewd and self-possessed, inherited a more capable side and taught England to relax and back their ability. Then came Andrew Strauss, appointed later than he should have been, and a diplomat for troubled times. Cook's qualities, outside the dressing room at least, remain a mystery. He might be vice-captain in name but it is Paul Collingwood, as senior pro and Twenty20 captain, who the media, subconsciously perhaps, assumes fulfils that role.
Have I got this entirely right, Mr Majola?
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in South African cricket
In Independent Online, Kevin McCallum tries to get his head around the innovations in South Africa's new and improved domestic one-day competition, the MTN40, which has two Powerplays (with strings attached), a strategic break and a rolling substitute.
There will be three Power Plays, which have capital letters in the official press release, thus making them more powerful than playful. The first PP must be taken during the first 10 overs and the final two by the batting side at any time except from the 35th over onwards ... Teams will be able to use all 12 players at, if I have got this entirely right, any time during the match. So, if, say, Albie Morkel is chucking down juicy beef pies, the coach or captain can call him off the field and replace him with the 12th man, who will be wearing an armband to let every one know that he is indeed the 12th man.
Who could be New Zealand's coach?
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in New Zealand cricket
As New Zealand Cricket begin the search for a replacement for the departed Andy Moles, the first thing they must do is settle on the type of person they want, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.
Tom Moody, if they are starting at the top, and not just because the former Australian allrounder stands an imposing 1.98m. He took over Sri Lanka in 2005 and led them to the World Cup final two years later before heading back to West Australia. He's signed a three-year deal until 2010, and would want serious money. Well worth a hard look.
John Wright, the only New Zealander in the hunt. Would be a popular public choice, a laconic front masking a hard-minded competitor, who made the most of his abilities as a test batsman. Has worked with the batsmen before, and heads the NZC high performance unit. Suggestions he would not be senior players' first choice, but anyone who can keep India on track, as he did for several years, can't be a bad man manager.
October 27, 2009
What’s on Merv Hughes’ TV? Not Australia’s tour games
Posted 1 week, 4 days ago in Australian cricket
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Eye on the ball?: Merv Hughes
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When he's at home the selector Merv Hughes can’t watch Australia’s overseas matches or the country’s domestic fixtures because he doesn’t have pay television. The Age’s Chloe Saltau speaks to Hughes about his not-all-seeing role.
''I think I follow the game closely enough anyway,'' Hughes said. ''If it is from overseas, all the Australian games are covered by another selector. While I saw the highlights on Sunday [against India], and while I followed it on the internet because I don't have pay TV, I have full confidence in the selector on duty, which in this case is David Boon. 'When you've got a selector actually covering the games I don't think it's a problem because we get feedback from him.''
Less is sometimes more
Posted 1 week, 4 days ago in English cricket
My belief is that the counties should play only ten or 12 four-day games, as 16 is just too many. The basic aim has to be to allow players more time to work on their skills, writes Michael Vaughan in the Times.
Speaking of which, I would like us to have a look at allowing every county to play two four-day games per year in India around March and April. It would expose every player, not just the elite 15 who get into a national performance squad, a chance to experience those conditions and learn some of the methods required to take wickets there. It would encourage spin and real pace and the kind of skills needed at the highest level. It would be a test of the guys’ characters and I am sure there must be commercial opportunities in it as well.
Andy Bull has a similar point, but about the international schedule in his weekly Spin column on the Guardian. He also writes that while cricket administrators are wary of kowtowing to the press or yielding to player power, it's the fans who will ultimately decide how much cricket is enough. Contrary to all appearances, the ICC is not entirely incapable of learning from its mistakes. The 2011 world cup, for example, will be shorter than the moribund 2007 edition. By all of two games. Where it once had 51 fixtures it will now have 49, a reduction akin to taking your socks off when you stand on the bathroom scales. You don't cure obesity by trimming toenails. What hope have we then that they will be able to effectively tackle the single largest problem facing the game, the complete redesign and rationalisation of the international, and domestic, calendars?
As for fielding, our servants can do that for us
Posted 1 week, 5 days ago in Australia in India 2008-09
To understand the mind of the Indian cricketer, it is necessary to borrow from the 19th century French writer Villiers de l’Isle Adams, writes Suresh Menon in Mumbai Mirror. In his dramatic poem Axel, the lovers decide to kill themselves because the alternative is so trivial. “As for living,” says Axel, “our servants can do that for us.” And that’s the connection between French Symbolist literature and Indian cricket. Our players seem to be saying, “As for fielding, our servants can do that for us.”
Why do young, fit athletes struggle to bend so much? Or appear off balance when throwing? Is it time the Indian team laid down some qualifying rules – speed of foot, ability to hit the stumps and so on – before a player is considered for selection? Fielding is crucial in all forms of the game, especially the shorter versions, and India’s approach is embarrassing.
The reluctance to run shows itself while batting too. Well as Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar batted towards the end, they certainly sacrificed more than four runs while admiring their shots or assuming that the ball would go to the boundary or running only a single when with better planning they could have run two.
October 26, 2009
Remembering Huma
Posted 1 week, 5 days ago in Pakistan cricket
Huma had a calming influence on Wasim Akram and his career and for 16 glorious years she redefined his life giving it the much-needed stability. Ajay Naidu remembers her, in his obituary in the Times of India.
Amir Mir offers his condolences as well in Daily News & Analysis.
Flower emphasises the importance of values
Posted 1 week, 5 days ago in English cricket
Gordon Farquhar was present when the head coaches of England's cricket, football and rugby union teams- Andy Flower, Fabio Capello and Martin Johnson - joined forces to talk tactics. Read his blog on the BBC Sport.
"Keeping things in perspective is the only way to do it. Training and playing as if it's life and death, but in the real knowledge that it's not, and that there are actually more important things about," said Flower.
"You can be obsessed with your sport, and obsessed with your skill, obsessed with the art of what you do, but also realise that it's not life and death and that the love of your family, or whatever your values are, are actually more important."
All that jazz
Posted 1 week, 5 days ago in Champions Twenty20 League
The Champions League may not have matched the buzz of the IPL, especially when the Indian teams exited early, but the glitz and glamour that has sieged Indian cricket o flate was very much evident in the tournament. Amrit Mathur in his column in the Hindustan Times believes it’s time embrace the new trends and flow with the tide.
Problems aplenty for India
Posted 1 week, 6 days ago in Australia in India 2008-09
The specialist batsmen failing to get going and the bowlers inability to change pace, are two key areas that cost India the match, according to Sourav Ganguly. Read his column in the Times of India.
Prem Panicker shares that view, and writes on his blog Smoke Signals that Ishant Sharma must take the new ball ahead of Praveen. Panicker also writes that perhaps it is time for Sachin Tendulkar to bat at No. 3, and let Gautam Gambhir take over the opening slot. if the brief for SRT — or more likely, the brief he has prescribed for himself — is to bat long, he needs to come in at number three, ceding the opening slot to Gautam Gambhir, who works well with Sehwag, is tuned to turning the strike over rapidly, and is temperamentally tuned to using the power play overs to optimum. One of the odd faults of SRT, among many good qualities, is his insistence on picking his slot in the batting order; IMHO, that will need to change if the team is to fire as a batting unit.
Given their performance in the series opener, India will have to field better if they are to have any chances against Australia, writes Ravi Shastri in the Hindustan Times.
With an international calendar so packed that players are literally going from one tournament or series into another without time to catch their breath, the needle is slowly being eroded. Anand Vasu in his blog on the Hindustan Times website feels there is no bite to the ODI series between India and Australia this time around.
October 25, 2009
Kaif's down but not out
Posted 1 week, 6 days ago in Indian cricket
In the summer of 2002, when Mohammad Kaif chased down a record 325 against England in the NatWest final at Lord's, it seemed there was no turning back. But overlooked in recent years, he wonders why he never got the chance to make a comeback. Kunal Pradhan of the Sunday Express catches up with the batsman.
In one such chase against Pakistan in 2004, Kaif and Rahul Dravid had a long partnership to take India from 162 for five, to 294 and victory. In the middle of that knock, Kaif played a shot that split his bat in two. After the game, Dravid had the pieces of Kaif's broken bat collected, scribbled a `thank you' note and gifted them to him. The pieces still lie in Kaif's trophy cabinet, along with the five man-of-the-match awards in 125 ODIs.
British parochialism and sport
Posted 1 week, 6 days ago in Champions Twenty20 League
The British, while adept at inventing sports, are notoriously backward at becoming involved in other people's adaptations of their inventions. Will Buckley in his blog on the Observer website believes a great sporting moment passed by with Sussex and Somerset missing out during the Champions League Twenty20.
The Moles debate
Posted 2 weeks ago in New Zealand cricket
Given Andy Moles' resignation as New Zealand coach, Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday believes the team is not mature enough for a back-seat co-ordinator. In fact, he says the players need someone with not just CEO-style skills but a highly tuned cricket brain as well.
If NZC wants to take the approach of selecting up-and-coming coaches then they must look very carefully or risk taking a punt.
Perhaps they would do better not to advertise the role but just target the ones they want - to avoid the scenario that may have occurred had they said no to Moles even though he was the final applicant in the race.
Writing in the same paper, Dylan Cleaver claims New Zealand Cricket did not have a lot of luck in their search for John Bracewell's successor, as the IPL brought about a number of highly-paid roles that did not require the fulltime attention that helming New Zealand would.
It is all very well being wise after the event but there was disquiet almost from the get-go. Why didn't they appoint an interim coach - John Wright was under their noses (on the appointments panel, no less) - and wait until they had a compelling candidate?
Instead, they took the path of least resistance, only to find a year into the journey they ran into a rather large obstacle in the form of an emboldened Daniel Vettori, as influential a figure in New Zealand cricket as any before him.
Rather than a mutiny, Moles' ouster has been more like an SOS; and one that New Zealand Cricket couldn't help but answer, writes Richard Boock in the Sunday Star Times.
Moles supporters might have considered some non-committal NZC press releases over the past few days as a reason for hope, but such optimism was always misplaced. To publicly offer any comment apart from support during an employment process would be to effectively premeditate an outcome. That's why so many English football managers are sacked only days after being endorsed by their chairmen. It is the kiss of death.
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