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August 31, 2006
Posted on 08/31/2006 in Australian cricket
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Shane Warne and Michael Clarke share a moment
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The Sydney Morning Herald’s Alex Brown speaks to Michael Clarke about his role as a counsellor for Shane Warne during the 2005 Ashes.
"I had seen it at Hampshire, but during the Ashes it was a lot bigger," Clarke recalled, revealing for the first time his conversations with Warne. "No matter what he went through off the field, he never, ever let the team down on the field. He had nights when he slept two hours, and then we'd lose the toss and bowl and he'd be getting five wickets on the first day of a Test match. And then he'd make runs. Not many guys are that strong mentally. It's an unbelievable aspect that he brings to the team.
"For me, I was just there to listen about what was going on in his personal life. I was just there to be his friend. How could I give advice? I don't know the pain he's feeling. He's 36, 11 years older than me. It's probably something I learned from him. He's a great listener. If I go to him with a problem, he will sit for hours and not say a word. I didn't know the answers."
Posted on 08/31/2006 in Umpires
It could have been a scene out of England, Their England ... two village sides battling it out in rural Gloucestershire, a vicar umpiring, cream teas about to be taken ...
Only one of the teams refused to play on after the Right Reverend Geoffrey Creese gave a controversial LBW decision and went home (but not before offering to pay for the uneaten teas!). As the local Forester newspaper reports, it's not just Darrell Hair who has problems ... and at least he doesn't have to give the sermon the next day.
As the captain of the Rev Creese's side said:
"He doesn't always get it right, but he's not biased ... he calls it as he sees it."
Posted on 08/31/2006 in English cricket
Cardiff was very much under the spotlight last night as it hosted its first one-day international since the somewhat controversial decision to award it an Ashes Test in 2009. While the rain was out of the authorities control, several papers reported on things that were.
In The Times, Christopher Martin-Jenkins gave the venue a warm(ish) pass mark, while noting:
“It may be safely said that it will have the shortest straight boundary for any Test match on the river side. Sixty yards is barely over the internationally prescribed minimum and it will be no more than a forward push for six when the likes of Andrew Flintoff start to put bat to ball against Australia in 2009.”
Charles Randall in The Daily Telegraph was a bit more upbeat:
“Sophia Gardens has the advantage of close proximity to the city centre and a variety of transport options – not least the feet – allowing much easier access than, say, the isolated Rose Bowl at Southampton, where traffic jams and congestion have marred major occasions.”
Posted on 08/31/2006 in Umpires
Speaking of umpires and controversies, Judah Reuben, a former Indian umpire, recalls his moment in the spotlight, during the John Lever-Vaseline controversy in Madras in 1976-77. Reuben firmly beleives that Darrell Hair's actions were justified. Clayton Murzello of the Mid-Day caught up with him at his Pune home.
“I walked up to England captain Tony Greig and he argued that Lever used Vaseline to ward off perspiration. I said, ‘skip, he can wipe away the sweat after every ball.’
Posted on 08/31/2006 in English cricket
Kevin Pietersen could be in hot water for branding Graeme Smith, the South African captain, "an absolute muppet" in his new book, Crossing The Boundary, feels the Mirror's Mike Walters. With a poor run of form in recent one-day internationals, Pietersen's jibe at Smith looked ill-timed, believes the writer.
"Kermit, Miss Piggy and the Swedish chef have so far kept their counsel, but firebrand Smith is unlikely to let the matter rest if England cross paths with him at the World Cup in seven months."
Posted on 08/31/2006 in Indian Cricket
If Munaf Patel could do it, so can Ishwar Choudhury. Also hailing from a village in Gujarat, the young fast bowler's selection for the Under-19 squad against Pakistan is a reward for his toil, overcoming financial hurdles and other difficulties. K Muralidharan of The Indian Express charts his rise.
Sent to Gandhinagar by his father—a debt-ridden farmer—to nurse his flailing academic when he was 12, this tall strapping lad’s cricket instincts drew him closer to the game at the Sports Authority of India.
Posted on 08/31/2006 in Australian cricket
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Big units: Glenn McGrath and Matthew Hayden
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Glenn McGrath tells The Age’s Chloe Saltau he has bulked up to a career-high 100kg in preparation for his international return.
“In the gym I'm lifting a lot heavier weights than I've ever done in the past, which hopefully will mean I will maintain that strength longer through the year. I'm feeling really excited, actually, about how I'm going to put that in play in the middle, and hopefully that will make me even better than I have been in the past."
Simon Katich is featured in The Australian with an AAP report detailing his struggles last summer.
"I was so tense when I was playing last summer because I knew I couldn't afford to make a mistake. And that leads to less opportunities to take the bowlers on or to score and be more aggressive."
August 30, 2006
Posted on 08/30/2006 in Pakistan in England
Derek Pringle, writing in the Daily Telegraph, believes that the first innings may point to ball suspicions.
One answer that has come to light, via the usual information creep, is that the ball Pakistan used in England's first innings displayed such obvious signs of tampering (much more than the ball the umpires eventually changed) that Hair, at least in his own mind, needed only slender evidence in the second innings to pounce.
... Asif's methods of polishing the ball, which he does with both hands on both thighs, though not at the same time. The mystery though is that a red stripe (the usual sign that a ball is being polished) appears only on his left thigh and not his right.
Hair’s career options seem to be widening, even if he is removed from the ICC’s elite panel. Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald Hair could be appointed on the international panel, which is one step down, while Ivo Tennant says in The Times there is a chance of him being an assessor of first-class umpires in England.
Posted on 08/30/2006 in English cricket
Mike Anstead, writing in The Guardian, on why Ashes hero Gary Pratt has to start his career all over again:
I don't want to live off what happened last year. I want to be known as a county cricketer, possibly even as an international cricketer, not just someone who made one run out. That's something only I can put right. I've just got to go out and prove myself for another county.
Posted on 08/30/2006 in Umpires
Darrell Hair should never umpire another cricket match - even though there may be some truth in his claim that he was encouraged by the ICC to make an offer to quit as an umpire, writes Tony Becca in the Jamaica Gleaner.
August 29, 2006
Posted on 08/29/2006 in Australian cricket
Shane Warne has revealed what he and his team-mates have been up to at the boot camp - a John Buchanan concept - in the past week, including some tasks more associated with the military than sportsmen:
I was shattered. But just as the night went silent, voices screamed: "Go, go, go!". What on earth was going on? A stun-bomb had gone off, and we were told the area wasn't safe. We had to move. Now. There were no torches or directions.
All we had been given for dinner was half a can of chunky soup, so our energy reserves were low after pulling vans and carrying litres of water. But we had to go. It was time to prove our mental resolve and move to a different location.
Welcome to the Australian cricket squad's boot camp in regional Queensland, a time where we had only been referred to as numbers, not names, and weren't allowed to communicate with the outside world.
Despite voicing his indifference to the idea beforehand, Warne said "there's no doubt it brought the group closer together."
Read more at the Sydney Daily Telegraph
Alex Brown also writes about the camp in the Sydney Morning Herald while Warne is the focus of Malcolm Conn’s story in The Australian.
The Courier-Mail runs a strange piece about Jason Gillespie worrying about being accused of ball tampering if he wears zinc to protect his nose and lips.
In the Herald Chloe Saltau speaks to Glenn McGrath about ball tampering rules and her story about Michael Hussey appears in The Age.
Cricinfo’s coverage starts here.
Posted on 08/29/2006 in Offbeat
He might have had a glittering career spanning three decades, during which time he played at some of the world's top cricket grounds, but Sir Viv Richards still has fond memories of hitting sixes towards ambulances watched by NHS staff when he played for Bath's Lansdown Cricket Club.
But Lansdown was always my favourite ground because we had the accident and emergency department of the (Royal United) hospital next door. We used to have quite a few people who were supposed to be taking care of others stopping and watching.
Read the full interview in The Bath Chronicle.
Posted on 08/29/2006 in ICC
Percy Sonn’s first few weeks at the helm of the ICC has hardly seen him at his best, and now according to Mihir Bose in The Daily Telegraph, he is to blame for events surrounding the aborted executive board meeting of the ICC.
“Sonn has only himself to blame for this latest fiasco. He had called the meeting on Friday because, as he put it, he wanted ‘to seek legal advice concerning the executive board's powers.’
“But this set in motion a tide of intense speculation on whether the executive board have the authority to overturn a properly laid charge by the umpires. That speculation would only be sure to intensify ahead of the weekend, so cancelling the meeting will allow everyone to focus on the cricket instead.”
August 28, 2006
Posted on 08/28/2006 in Umpires
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Should we feel sorry for Hair?
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The row between Darrell Hair and the ICC continues to rumble on after yesterday’s news that Hair “was encouraged to make the offer that was disclosed by ICC”. Hair’s latest revelations confuse and compound matters though; two days ago, he cited stress - or "a difficult time" - as the explanation for his inappropriate e-mail. The muddle continues.
Mark Nicholas, in the Daily Telegraph, rather sits on the fence but rightly points out that further judgement can only be made after the hearing, at the end of September.
Should we feel sorry for him? This depends on the outcome of the ball-tampering investigation, assuming there is one. If Pakistan are found guilty, then yes. If not, we can only reflect on a small, big man so hell bent on making an impact that it led to his downfall.
Continue reading "Hair: should we feel sorry for him?"
Posted on 08/28/2006 in Obituaries
Player, coach, captain, selector, manager, administrator and unwavering defender of the game's great values, Sir Clyde Walcott was a cricketing giant in every way, writes Tony Cozier in Barbados-based The Daily Nation.
In 44 Tests for the West Indies, he became one of the finest batsmen the game has known, forever linked with a triumvirate of Barbadian batsmen, born within a year and a mile of each other and everlastingly known as the 3Ws through the coincidence of the first letter of their surnames.
Read Sir Everton Weekes's tribute in The Nation, as told to Philip Spooner.
"It's not easy to accept what is inevitable, although we expect it sometimes, when it happens it still chokes you up inside."
Also read Walcott's obituary by BC Pires in The Guardian.
Posted on 08/28/2006 in Umpires
Australians often fall over themselves to defend a fellow countrymen irrespective of the evidence presented, or the lack of it - as in the recent ball-tampering controversy - writes Neil Manthorp in Supercricket. Barry Jarman's defence of Darrell Hair is one such example.
You have to admire the Australians for their sense of musketeerism. All for one and one for all. When a sporting colleague comes under fire, they rally around in defence. No matter what the circumstances or the validity of the arguments.
Posted on 08/28/2006 in Umpires
Malcolm Conn writes in The Australian how Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, has "burnt Darrell Hair at the stake".
Under unbearable pressure for simply enforcing the laws of the game after Pakistan was forced to forfeit the fourth Test against England for refusing to take the field in protest at a ball-tampering charge, Hair stupidly tried to end the grief for everyone by suggesting the International Cricket Council pay out his contract and he retire.
ABC Online runs a story with Ian Chappell saying Hair’s position is “untenable”.
Mark Nicholas, writing in the Daily Telegraph feels it's inconceivable that Darrell Hair can umpire at international level again.
Also read Tony Cozier's thoughts on the issue.
August 27, 2006
Posted on 08/27/2006 in Pakistan in England
The current fuss is just another in a long line of controversies that had no lasting ill-effects on the game of cricket, writes Jon Henderson in the Observer.
One of the main reasons cricket is so wonderful is its crowded cast of crackpot characters and rich history of skulduggery, the latter being an inevitable consequence of the dopey old game's beautifully intricate construction.
The Dawn's Kamran Abbasi minces no words in his column:
Hair has completely crippled his case. Not just the trumped up ball-tampering charge against Pakistan which only seemed to rest on Hair's ‘honourable’ interpretation of the condition of the ball — his honour is now dust — but also Inzamam's disrepute charge which any reasonable lawyer should be able to argue was a consequence of Hair's unwillingness to communicate fairly with the Pakistan captain.
Mike Atherton is surprised at how a small drama has turned into such a big crisis. In time, people will look back in amazement at how one little pimple was allowed to grow and fester into a boil that finally burst at Friday's press conference, spreading puss all over the game.
Vic Marks wonders how Darrell Hair can possibly continue to officiate at the highest level of the game following his request for a secret pay-off.
The current laws governing action over suspected ball-tampering need to be redrawn to avoid the shambles that was the end of The Oval test match, argues Will Buckley.
"Whatever happens it is unlikely that Hair, 53, will stand in another international match. His relationships with Pakistan and Sri Lanka were already shot, and now he has shot himself in the foot," says an editorial in The Age.
Graham Halbish, the former Australian cricket chief, believes Hair's emails should not deter the ICC from thoroughly investigating the ball-tampering claims against Pakistan.
There's an Indian view as well. Writing in the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine says Hair, who most in the sub-continent believe is prejudiced, has given them reasons to smile.
And, according to Chloe Saltau, Inzamam-ul-Haq was never a big hit among Australians.
One of his old adversaries, bowler Damien Fleming, believes there is hardly an Australian player who could say he knows Inzamam. He remembers dismissing him in a World Cup game at Headingley. "He was sort of looking for a bit of love. I yorked him, hit him on the toe, he ran, and then when he was about to get run out, he started limping. It was almost like, 'You guys shouldn't get me out because I'm hurt'," Fleming recalled. "Inzy is one of the better batsmen I ever bowled to, but as for his personality and emotions, I wouldn't have a clue."
Nirupama Subramanian, of The Hindu, tracks the Pakistani newspapers' strong reactions to Darrell Hair.
August 26, 2006
Posted on 08/26/2006 in Australian cricket
Neil Harvey has called the pre-Ashes boot camp as "absolute garbage" but Alan Davidson differs. Find out why in The Age.
"All it can do is get someone hurt. They call it a bonding exercise, but these guys have been playing together for 10 years. If they're not bonded by now, forget about it."
Posted on 08/26/2006 in Obituaries
Writing in The Indian Express, S Santhanam relives some special moments with former Test opener and gentleman cricketer Vijay Mehra, who died of a heart attack yesterday.
Mehra always took keen interest in the domestic matches and would often ring this writer to get the scores of different teams and players. Those phones will no longer ring, I have lost a close guide and admirer.
Also read K Datta's obituary in the Times of India.
Posted on 08/26/2006 in Ashes
Tim de Lisle, writing in The Times, sees the current England and Australian teams on extreme ends of the age spectrum:
It used to be England whose players went on forever, while the Australians picked them young and sent them packing at about 32. Not any more.
Posted on 08/26/2006 in Umpires
Mike Selvey writes in the Guardian on the latest twist in the Darrell Hair saga:
Whatever his motive, Hair was unwise and naive to think that his suggested course of action was an easy way out. As far as the ICC is concerned, he is dispensable, and in disclosing his correspondence, they have all but cut off at the knees his career as an international umpire.
Also check out Richard Williams' piece in the same newspaper where he says, "Hair appears to have demolished his claim to moral authority. Whether he was being greedy or stupid, or even just pragmatic, will be of no importance."
The Daily Telegraph's Mihir Bose on how releasing the letter was part of ICC's strategy.
The Pakistani lawyers, headed by Mark Gay and Wasim Khohkar, thought they had come to be told the one-day series was going ahead. Instead, Speed handed them a copy of Hair's letter and told them that the advice they had received from David Pannick, the QC, was that if they had kept the letter secret and it had later emerged that it had existed then this would have jeopardised the hearings against Inzamam-ul-Haq.
Geoffrey Boycott feels all that Hair has done is make himself a laughing stock.
Also read Christopher Martin-Jenkins' piece in The Times:
His [Hair] own statement said that he wanted to continue as an umpire. No doubt he will, but he is unlikely to take charge of a game involving Pakistan, which makes it the more ironic that his demand for a payoff should so have prejudiced the ICC case and enhanced Pakistan’s.
In The Independent, David Llewellyn relates a brief but belligerent phone conversation with umpire Hair himself.
Not for the first time, you were left with the overriding impression that in Darrell Hair's world there is no middle ground, no grey area. Black, white, right, wrong, he could almost march to the monosyllabic, monotone rhythms that have directed him in his life.
Cricinfo's Andrew Miller comments on the issue here.
August 25, 2006
Posted on 08/25/2006 in English cricket
That was Dominic Cork's reaction when Brian Viner of The Independent asked if he ever raised the seam of a cricket ball. That was convincing enough. Looking ahead to the C&G Trophy final between Lancashire and Sussex, Cork looks ahead to the big match with all the downbeat insouciance of a child on Christmas Eve who suspects that Santa is bringing him a puppy. He also looks back at his career with England and his mood swings, which often hampered his progress. Read the full piece here.
I'm an aggressive cricketer, I like to get stuck in mentally, as well as physically, and there are 11 Australian cricketers very similar to me but nothing's ever said about them because they're very successful.
Posted on 08/25/2006 in Obituaries
Geoff McClure remembers an interesting anecdote about Wasim Raja, who died recently, during his first meeting at Perth almost 25 years ago:
I challenged him to a wager involving the rest of the match. At odds of 2-1, Raja would win $100 if he took at least one wicket when Australia's second innings resumed next day and then score a half-century when Pakistan batted. But, on my insistence, part of the deal was that he also had to celebrate each achievement by standing in the middle of the pitch with his both arms facing towards the heavens.
Read here to find out more.
Posted on 08/25/2006 in Sri Lankan cricket
Arjuna Ranatunga speaks to G Krishnan in The Hindustan Times regarding his stance on The Oval farce and his stint in Sri Lankan politics.
The ICC was wrong in having Hair in its panel. When teams had problems with him, he was kept out. By bringing him back in its panel, the ICC has rehabilitated him of sorts. It is very important for the ICC to get rid of people like Hair. By not doing that, not only teams but also countries get upset with each other.
Posted on 08/25/2006 in Pakistan in England
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Harsha Bhogle: Inzamam is one of the game’s nice guys. He looks relaxed, at peace with the world, and is respected. Some of those are fine qualities for a leader but there are others too
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The Pakistan Cricket Board has much to answer for writes Asif Iqbal in The News.
In this entire controversy, the relationship that Darrell Hair enjoys with other functionaries of the ICC has been a revelation. The match referee Mike Proctor wanted to restart the match but could not prevail upon Hair to do so; the ICC chief executive, who plays a rather bigger role than his position as a paid executive of the ICC would perhaps merit, is also reported to have spoken to Hair, but to no avail. One would have thought that in terms of the hierarchy of the ICC, both the match referee and certainly the chief executive are above the umpire but Hair could flout both.
When the dust settles on this one, Pakistan will have to find another leader and leave Inzamam alone to charm the world with the quality of his batting, writes Harsha Bhogle in The Indian Express.
There can be no more resounding victory than honour questioned and vindicated. But Pakistan chose to sit out and I’m afraid that was a huge failure of management. They needed a calm, shrewd mind in the dressing room and they were let down. The captain has to bear the brunt for that, but so must the manager.
Continue reading "Pakistan will now need a new leader"
August 24, 2006
Posted on 08/24/2006 in Umpires
Barry Jarman, the former match referee, says he confiscated a ball from the South African team, which was being coached by Bob Woolmer, when it was only 16 overs old because the seam had been lifted. He talks to Robert Craddock in The Courier-Mail about the 1997 incident.
Jarman kept the issue secret until yesterday, when he produced the ball which has been in his possession ever since he demanded it be replaced. Jarman, no longer on the refereeing panel, noticed the ball was being scratched by two fieldsmen who would then lift their shirts and rub sweat into one side of it, causing an imbalance that would make it swing at freakish angles.
"The ball is only 16 overs old, yet one side has been tampered with and you can see where they have run their thumbnails down the seam which opens up," he said. "The open seam [which caught the sweat] meant one side was heavier than the other ..."
Jarman told the umpires to immediately replace the ball, triggering a fiery exchange with Woolmer. "They all went berserk, including Bob Woolmer, who raced into my office and said 'what's going on?'," Jarman said. "I said 'your guys are stuffing around with the ball, mate'. I told him who it was and he went out with his tail between his legs.
Posted on 08/24/2006 in Zimbabwe cricket
Peter Whalley in The Zimbabwean looks at the effect that the recent one-day series win has had inside Zimbabwe and the cases for and against the country being kicked out of international cricket because of the deteriorating political situation.
Beating Bangladesh 3-2 was a much-needed fillip to morale inside the country.
“This feel good factor is likely to be swept away when the side faces stronger opposition, but a series win over an improving Bangladesh side cannot be ignored. It would suggest that the young team does have the potential to improve as long as it can continue to have international exposure even if the return to Test cricket is delayed.”
Continue reading "Life after the leviathan"
Posted on 08/24/2006 in Offbeat
If Darrell Hair may be assured of anything in these difficult hours, it is that smirking, jaded telly executives are even now dreaming up vehicles for him, writes Marina Hyde
Posted on 08/24/2006 in Offbeat
This day, 33 years ago, Garry Sobers produced his last Test hundred, an unbeaten 150, to charge West Indies to a massive win. Sobers later admitted that on the first evening (when he was 31 not out at the close), he had spent all night drinking port and brandy and was not in the best state when he resumed his innings. Click here to read an extract from the autobiography of Sobers, Garry Sobers: My Autobiography
I realised I had long gone past the need to sleep. “I have so much liquor in my head,” I said to Reg, “that if I go home to the hotel and go to bed, I’m not going to wake up.” He asked me what I wanted to do and I suggested that we go back to the Clarendon Court, where the team were staying, for a few more drinks and a little reminiscing about the good old days, and that’s exactly what we did. As morning dawned ...
Posted on 08/24/2006 in
The hostile response to the Hair drama has been pathetic and irrational, writes John Birmingham in The Australian.
But the real mystery of this teddy bears' picnic, the reason I cannot believe my eyes, is the spectacle of England's cricket writers dancing to Inzamam's tune down at the edge of the woods. Almost to a man they have hastily scribbled out some perfunctory criticism of the Pakistan skipper, before moving on to have at the umpire with almost insensate savagery.
Posted on 08/24/2006 in Pakistan in England
Mihir Bose, writing in the Daily Telegraph, reports that Bob Woolmer is on the verge of resigning as Pakistan coach. He reveals further schisms in the Pakistan camp.
To add to the farce, 20,000 spectators at the Oval were looking on in bewilderment when the Pakistani dressing room door opened and out emerged Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper, without pads but with a copy of a newspaper, which he sat down and read on the balcony. Commentators have taken that as the Pakistan side showing disrespect to Hair, but I am told that is not the case. Inzamam did not even know Akmal was doing that. It was just a young player, who knew he had no part to play in Inzi's decision, deciding to leave an overheated dressing room and seek some peace on the balcony.
Posted on 08/24/2006 in Pakistan in England
With a bit of statesmanship, it should be possible to make it plain to Inzamam-ul-Haq that he acted foolishly and that standing on national dignity is no excuse for a cavalier disregard for cricket’s laws and rules, without exacerbating the crisis unnecessarily and without any loss of dignity or appearance of weakness on the ICC’s behalf, writes Christopher Martin Jenkins in The Times.
Mike Selvey, in The Guardian, shares Bob Woolmer's opinion on Law 42.3. That it's an ass.
Allow bowlers and fielders to scratch, rub, scuff and pick the ball to their hearts content but to do so mindful that this is the only ball they will get inside 80 overs until they get another new one to desecrate.
Read Andrew Miller's piece on the same subject on Cricinfo.
Posted on 08/24/2006 in Pakistan in England
Darrell Hair may not score a goodwill ambassador job in Pakistan anytime soon, but the Australian umpire has achieved something rare for cricket - front page news in the US.
August 23, 2006
Posted on 08/23/2006 in Australian cricket
Alex Brown says in the Sydney Morning Herald Shane Watson is ahead of Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds for the No. 6 spot during the Ashes.
The 25-year-old all-rounder's recent performances for Queensland and Australia A have greatly impressed selectors, who feel Watson can provide batting insurance for Adam Gilchrist should he fail to rediscover his form of old, as well as bowling back-up for Glenn McGrath who is returning to action after an extended lay-off.
In The Age Chloe Saltau talks to Andrew Hilditch about the importance of team stability.
Posted on 08/23/2006 in Pakistan in England
In The Daily Telegraph, Andrew Baker states that the reaction had the ball-tampering accusations been made against an English player would have been far less dramatic.
“Let us imagine that Sunday's alleged offence had been committed by an England player. This is not beyond the realms of possibility, as any Australian player from last summer's Ashes series might attest, and as the chortling former bowlers in the BBC's commentary box would confirm. Andrew Strauss would most likely have accepted the five-run penalty with a shrug and told his fielders to get on with it. Tony Blair would not have been contacted by mobile phone on his Caribbean holiday, images of Darrell Hair would not have burned on the streets of Stockwell, and ambassadors would have slept untroubled. Nobody, frankly, would have cared very much.”
Baker adds that the Pakistanis’ reaction is, nevertheless, understandable.
“It follows that for a Pakistani player to be accused of cheating, or condoning cheating, is not just a serious slur but a wearisomely familiar one. The response is passionate because it rejects the lazy lumping together of one people under one characteristic.”
In his article, Baker also refers to an editorial earlier this year in the Karachi-based News newspaper which is sure to ruffle many feathers. In it, broadcaster and foreign correspondent I Hassan, talking about a local festival, offers the following opinion:
"Regrettably, one has to say that our people cheat at every step in every walk of life. The concept of fair sport does not exist - be it getting a big contract or just a licence. Our people, unless vigilantly checked, will cheat. Even the fear of God does not prevent them from doing so."
Fazeer Mohammed believes that if the Pakistanis were really serious with all of the post-match comments about their country's honour being at stake, then they should not have returned to the field.
What is it about us former colonials that we feel compelled to measure ourselves by our one-time masters' yardstick of what constitutes civility and fair play? Giving up a Test match is as legitimate a protest as any other, especially if the degree of the perceived offence goes beyond issues of umpiring incompetence, or even bias. Those strident defenders of Victorian values, who will tut-tut and mutter disapprovingly about such behaviour being just not cricket, need to come to terms with the reality that this is only a game, and if it means being disrespected and insulted - as the Pakistanis claim - then it isn't a game worth playing.
For an outsider's account of the crisis, read Aakash Chopra's England diary in The Hindustan Times.
Even as I write, I am idly surfing the internet and hearing of mini-rallies and demonstrations around Pakistan in support of their beleaguered captain and team. I can see an outpouring of emotion on the British websites.
Posted on 08/23/2006 in Pakistan in England
To blame Hair for not having the perfect response to an unprecedented event or to play down the seriousness of Inzamam’s behaviour is fatuous, says Martin Samuel in The Times.
As one of the ten best umpires in the world, we presume that he knows the difference between balls weathered by play and one that has been altered artificially. Ian Botham, Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton and the many others queueing up to argue that something is only true if it is captured for action replay have lost sight of the primary issue. No incontrovertible proof is required beyond the belief of the umpire that cheating has taken place. Everything else is chatter .
Andrew Baker, writing in the Daily Telegraph, sees it as a clash of cultures.
Continue reading "Why Hair's actions may just be enough to save his sport"
Posted on 08/23/2006 in Offbeat
Zaheer Abbas refused to take the field on the last day during the 1983-84 Bangalore Test. Mid-day, the Mumbai-based tabloid, gives the inside dope, courtesy extracts from the autobiography of Madhav Gothaskar, who officiated in that match.
After 14 mandatory overs were bowled, he {Zaheer} along with his team walked off the field without the umpires declaring the close of the play.We maintained that if his team did not complete six more overs, India would be declared as winners. The ruse worked. The Pakistani team returned to the field. Gavaskar duly completed his 28th Test hundred, but it was an inconsequential century. After the Pakistanis left the field, Gavaskar refused to leave the ground and dissuaded his partner Gaekwad from leaving the field, despite the repeated entreaties of his skipper Kapil Dev.
Posted on 08/23/2006 in Indian Cricket
Harbhajan Singh takes pride in the fact that he has mastered a craft which is by no means easy in the modern game. In an interview to S Dinakar of The Hindu, Harbhajan firmly believes that he is at a stage where he needn't listen to experts.
Harbhajan Singh still carries that maroon wallet. It's battered and torn, but it stays with him, reminding him of his humble beginning, his roots
August 22, 2006
Posted on 08/22/2006 in Umpires
Peter Roebuck breaks away from the Australia media pack to attack Darrell Hair for his decision at The Oval. After the local columnists backed the umpire's courage yesterday, Roebuck writes in The Age “cricket has been reduced to a state of high farce by a bone-headed umpire and an impetuous touring team".
Hair and Inzamam-ul-Haq should both be removed from their posts. A plague on both their houses. Actually, Hair should have been sacked years ago because he is an erratic and headstrong umpire whose time has passed. His conduct at The Oval was merely the latest episode in a notably contentious career. Once again, he chose the path of confrontation, throwing his weight around, asserting his authority without much thought about the consequences. Certainly, he did not hesitate to accuse a touring team of cheating. He is not so much a bull in a china shop as a dinosaur in a delicatessen.
Richard Boock of The New Zealand Herald too agrees that Hair and Inzamam were at fault, but makes a valid point that the idea of an umpire taking a unilateral action against one team on the basis of a hunch, in the process provoking an unprecedented forfeiture and tarnishing the reputation of an entire team, isn't likely to go down well at ICC level.
Phil Wilkins remembers England’s walk-off and walk-back-on at the SCG in 1971.
The England fast bowler John Snow never knew how close he came to rewriting Ashes history 35 years ago when he swaggered back to the fence below the Paddington Hill at the SCG in 1971,” Wilkins writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Tony Cozier remembers some acrimonious incidents involving umpires from the past.
At a crucial stage on the last day of the first Test [West Indies' tour of New Zealand in February 1980], which they lost by one wicket, fast bowler Michael Holding vented his frustration by kicking over the stumps with a full, graceful swing of his right foot after yet another appeal, this for a wicketkeeper's catch, had been turned down. When what they felt were several obvious decisions again went against them in the second Test, West Indies delayed their return to the field after tea on the second day for 12 minutes as a mark of protest.
Posted on 08/22/2006 in Australian cricket
Dan Koch reports in The Australian about Australia’s pre-season bootcamp, which is the idea of John Buchanan and will be supervised by a former SAS soldier.
Australia’s elite players will be deprived of food, sleep and water and put under severe stress on a torturous military-style boot camp starting today to kick off their preparations for the Ashes series. Reputations will count for nothing, as some of the biggest names in world cricket are pushed to their physical and mental limits and beyond. The camp, which will operate for four to six days, will be run by a former member of the SAS regiment, Eben Jefford, who developed the punishing program in conjunction with Chris Haseman, a former tactical operations instructor with the Queensland police force.
Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about Glenn McGrath’s longest trip away from his wife Jane since she was re-diagnosed with cancer.
Posted on 08/22/2006 in Pakistan in England
A lead editorial in The Age has slammed the conduct of Pakistan’s players in refusing to take to the field at The Oval on Sunday.
“No one is bigger than the game. Cricket if nothing else is a game built on rules, pages and pages of them. A player if feeling aggrieved about a ruling can sound off about it, but the game must go on. To withdraw from the contest is to abandon the principles of the game. It also achieves nothing in winning the contest against your opponent.”
The article goes on to slam remarks attributed to senior Pakistan officials that they would not play were Darrell Hair to be appointed to matches involving them in the future.
“Pakistan, in a burst of petulant indignation, said they would not play any more matches if Darrell Hair was the umpire. First, no team has the right, nor should it be able, to dictate who the ICC appoints to officiate a match. Pakistan say they have had "problems with Darrell Hair before". Last year Pakistan took umbrage at several Hair decisions, yet in 2003 Pakistan were the beneficiaries when decisions by the same man upset South Africa in a series against them. Pakistan are guilty of playing the man. Darrell Hair did not make up the rules, he just applied them as he saw right and proper to do (and we would argue this whatever his nationality).”
Posted on 08/22/2006 in Miscellaneous
While the very suggestion that anyone might have been ball tampering causes outrage, Darren Berry in The Age says that it is rife - and what is more, that it could even enhance the game.
"A few months ago NSW fast bowler Nathan Bracken was censured after his comments about ball tampering. But what he said was absolutely true. Bracken said that during his time in English county cricket, his team, Gloucestershire, loaded one side of the ball with saliva that was thickened and sugary after sucking on mints. The result was for the ball to start moving through the air in an unnatural manner. The sexy term for this is reverse swing. This practice and others go on in most matches around the world."
While Berry does not advocate the use of industrial sanding machines to scuff up the ball, he raises some intersting points.
"What does it matter if the ball is thrown into the ground early to rough it up? Let the bowlers scratch the ball with their fingers if they wish; it is a skill that arguably adds to the game."
He concludes that with the game so heavily biased in favour of the batsmen, with limits on bouncers per over and improved bat technology, why not even the battle.
"Ball-tampering is rife in world cricket and the easy way to fix it is to loosen the law."
Posted on 08/22/2006 in Offbeat
Writing in Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine asks if cricket world in danger of getting torn asunder by a new global order that is increasingly getting polarised in stark shades of black and white?
Posted on 08/22/2006 in Umpires
While it seems that the world is queuing up to have a pop at Darrell Hair, Pat Gibson in The Times has highlighted that the job of being one of the ICC's elite umpires is not all that it is cracked up to be:
It sounds like a life of glamour, flying business class around the world, staying in the best hotels, watching the greatest cricketers of the day from the best vantage point, but for the members of the Emirates elite panel of umpires, it can be a lonely, stressful existence.
Gibson says that the rewards are decent – they are believed to earn between $75,000 (about £40,000) and $100,000 a year, plus a match fee of about $5,000 for Tests and $2,000 for one-day games – but on average they are abroad for up to 240 days a year.
Small wonder that three of England’s top umpires — Peter Willey, Neil Mallender and Jeremy Lloyds — have recently declined the invitation to join the elite list.
David Frith, writing in the Daily Telegraph, sympathises with the man in the middle.
Posted on 08/22/2006 in Umpires
Simon Barnes, in The Times, writes a passionate piece about the "vanity" of Darrell Hair and "how a single man’s pigheadedness was allowed to disrupt the fun of millions, to give cricket a terrible, gaping wound and to add to the tensions between Muslims and white Westerners at this, of all moments in history."
So now we know it. Officials are more important than players, laws are more important than people, one man’s vanity is more important than the pleasure of millions, principles are more important than common sense, intransigence is better than decency, vindictiveness is better than compromise, trouble is much more fun than peaceful co-operation and a fat man’s dignity is more important than mutual understanding between nations.
Posted on 08/22/2006 in Pakistan in England
Derek Pringle, the former England medium-pacer who's currently the chief cricket correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, says England could well have triggered the ball-tampering row. He writes that Duncan Fletcher, England's coach, had visited match referee Mike Procter before the start of Sunday's climactic play at The Oval. A spokesman for the England and Wales Cricket Board, James Avery, admitted Fletcher spoke with Procter before play but denied he had made a 'specific complaint about the state of the ball'. Yet sources close to the team have revealed that Fletcher did play agent provocateur, a role that probably influenced Darrell Hair's decision to pull Pakistan up for ball-tampering in the 56th over of England's second innings.
Continue reading "Did England trigger the ball row?"
August 21, 2006
Posted on 08/21/2006 in Umpires
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Steve Waugh: 'The laws are there for a reason'
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Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain, has come out strongly in favour of Darrell Hair's decision at The Oval, which received scathing criticism in the English and Pakistani media yesterday. Waugh's sentiment is echoed in the Australian papers as well, with most journalists and former cricketers backing Hair.
Waugh felt that Hair did the right thing by abandoning the Test. "I definitely agree with that [Pakistan forfeiting] - if they don't go back on the field the Test is over," Waugh said in News Ltd papers. "That's quite simple. Sunil Gavaskar tried that one on the umpires in Australia [in 1981]. No-one is bigger than the game. The laws are there for a reason."
Continue reading "Waugh and Aussie media back Hair"
Posted on 08/21/2006 in Offbeat
Mukul Kesavan, writing in the Hindustan Times, looks back at the Dean Jones controversy and advocates a policy of zero tolerance.
The reason ‘kike’, ‘faggot’ and ‘nigger’ are taboo today is because public opinion backed up by social sanction made them unsayable ... Roebuck and Border and cricket’s commentariat seem to think calling a bearded Muslim a ‘terrorist’ doesn’t belong in the same category of proscribed words. Well, it’s up to us to persuade them that it does, through a policy of zero tolerance.
Posted on 08/21/2006 in Pakistan in England
The decision of Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove to award England victory at The Oval has created a massive reaction.
Ted Corbett, writing in The Hindu, tries to track where it all began:
The whole affair began, according to tales sweeping the Oval ground, when an England and Wales Cricket Board official went to the umpires' dressing room in the morning and asked them to watch out for ball tampering by the Pakistan players.
Geoffrey Boycott, writing in The Daily Telegraph describes the events as “farcical and reflected little credit on the England and Wales Cricket Board or the International Cricket Council”.
The ICC must be blind or stupid not to have realised that there is history between Darrell Hair, the umpire who accused them of changing the nature of the ball, and Pakistan. There were mutterings after the Headingley Test that Pakistan didn't like Hair's attitude.
Continue reading "The Oval debacle"
August 20, 2006
Posted on 08/20/2006 in Ashes
Kevin Mitchell, writing in The Observer, believes that the Australians are worried. And as an Anglo-Australian himself, he is better placed than most to judge. The training camps, the barrage of bombastic statements, the average age of the side, it all adds up to a picture of insecurity.
What England will provide this winter will be a side considerably more able and confident than the one Hussain took there to be barbecued four years ago. It is not yet firing consistently, but the signs are mildly encouraging. They will take comfort from their elevation to number two in the world after securing the current series 2-0 at Headingley, although will be disappointed they have not been able to consolidate that supremacy here in the fourth Test
Posted on 08/20/2006 in Pakistan in England
Mike Atherton, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, feels that there is only one consolation England can take from their insipid performance at The Oval. The fact that they've succumbed to the death-rubber syndrome.
Posted on 08/20/2006 in Offbeat
With Monty Panesar and Sajid Mahmood in the current England side and Yorkshire teenager Adil Rashid provoking great excitement, the profile of British Asians in cricket has never been higher. But is the game as free from racism as it appears? Kamran Abbasi reports
Posted on 08/20/2006 in
Thirty years on from his destruction of England, Michael Holding is less than impressed with the stamina of the latest generation of fast bowlers, writes Simon Wilde
“I’ve studied footage of Harmison over recent years and I can’t detect any technical glitches, so I can only assume the reason he has bowled at 81mph on Friday, which is 9mph down on his usual level, is lack of fitness. That, or he has a mental problem. But I can’t comment on that because I don’t know the man.”
Posted on 08/20/2006 in English cricket
Scyld Berry, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, feels Stuart Broad can solve England's one-day fast-bowling problem.
Broad turned 20 only two months ago, and the one way to spoil him would be over-bowling him and provoking stress fractures. But a few one-dayers for England would round off the season nicely for this wonderful prospect, and would allow Steve Harmison to enjoy a few championship games for Durham.
With England struggling for one-day bowlers, John Stern assesses their fast bowling reserves in the Sunday Times.
Posted on 08/20/2006 in Indian Cricket
In a freewheeling interview to The Indian Express Harbhajan Singh tells Ajay S Shankar about the journey so far and his dream to become India captain.
I always stick with what I feel is right, what I feel is the truth. The effect, later on, may be bad for me, as it has happened a lot of times. And I know there’s a lot of lies going around these days, and there are many times when you are cheated. But that’s the way I have grown up, that’s the way I was taught to be. To speak the truth, stand with the truth.
August 19, 2006
Posted on 08/19/2006 in English cricket
If cricket has changed over the decades, so have the flashy wheels the players drive. Mike Selvey compares the eras with some hilarious examples. Read the full piece in The Guardian
Nowadays, players - or at least the big guns - drive their sponsored vehicles largely in anonymity. In the days when suppliers insisted on making the cars into billboards, there was something slightly demeaning in sitting at the lights with a large sticker on the driver's door saying Howzat!!!!
Posted on 08/19/2006 in Pakistan in England
Even when they've been on the field in this match, England have remained mentally out to lunch. Quite what this means when it comes to choosing a captain for Australia remains to be seen, but England have been so flat here that it can't have done much to advance the case for Andrew Strauss, writes Martin Johnson in The Daily Telegraph.
Much more of this and the Australians will be downgrading their Ashes alert from critical to something a good deal less than severe. The commando camp they've set up in Queensland will have to be replaced by more traditional methods of preparing for the Poms. "Now then lads, we'll all meet up in the pub the day before the first Test, and drinking is strictly limited to 12 large tinnies per player."
Read Simon Barnes in The Times who says that England yesterday reminded him of the saddest, bravest, most pathetic sight in sport: that of the plucky British female figure skater who finishes a promising 23rd.
August 18, 2006
Posted on 08/18/2006 in Sri Lankan cricket
S Singh, writing in Mid-Day, a Mumbai-based tabloid, tells the story of Dmitry Ratnayake, forced to return to South Africa midway through a special Sri Lankan tour
Posted on 08/18/2006 in Pakistan in England
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