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June 30, 2007
Posted on 06/30/2007 in English cricket
Andrew Flintoff has been a notable absentee from the start of Peter Moores' reign as England coach as he undergoes his latest period of rehab following further ankle surgery. He isn't expected to play again until mid-August, but is using the extended spell on the sidelines to put together his plans for rediscovering his best form. Simon Hughes spoke to him, for the Daily Telegraph, during a competition event at Lord's.
Flintoff just wants to be himself. He accepts that there is a time and place for everything and that "in the winter I got it wrong. But I've not changed anything much. I'm still doing the things I've always done. I'm happy with myself".
Posted on 06/30/2007 in New Zealand cricket
Mathew Sinclair feels like a bloke who has fallen off the back of an ocean liner and been thrown a lifebelt, writes David Leggat in The New Zealand Herald.
Those who reckon he doesn't warrant another contract point to the substantial troughs; those in his camp cling to the notion that having achieved the big numbers before he can do so again.He's aware of his reputation _ too many lows over a long period of time _ and although it may be too late to make full amends, an older, wiser Sinclair can at least partially put things right in the coming year.
Posted on 06/30/2007 in Indian Cricket
No longer can Indian touring teams be regarded as pushovers on bouncy tracks. The last few years count amongst India’s finest, says Peter Roebuck in The Hindu.
Certainly the past has not been without its glories but the side did not always travel well and often lacked depth; nor was wrangling always suppressed in the name of the common weal. Although always popular and attractive, Indian sides were inclined to disappoint. Sooner or later they had to lose their charm. In that regard, Gavaskar was ahead of his time. He did not merely want to win. He craved success, saw it as a means for personal and national salvation. Now a different tale is told. Robustness counts amongst the qualities detected in the teams led by Ganguly and Dravid.
June 28, 2007
Posted on 06/28/2007 in Umpires
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Northern exposure: Darrell Hair
© Ian Jacobs / Cricinfo Ltd
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Darrell Hair, who was cut from the ICC’s elite umpiring panel last year, will stand in three matches between Canada and the Netherlands in Ontario, AAP’s John Coomber reports.
In an indication of how far Hair has fallen from grace, the 76-Test veteran - the third most experienced umpire in world cricket - is listed to stand alongside Roger Dill, a 49-year-old Bermudan firefighter.
The pair will officiate in the four-day Intercontinental Cup game and two one-day internationals between the sides next week.
June 27, 2007
Posted on 06/27/2007 in Australian cricket
Steve Waugh’s words of inspiration worked throughout his cricket career and now he is being asked to spread his magic to Australia’s Socceroos, who are preparing for the Asian Cup. David Davutovic reports in the Daily Telegraph Waugh will spend three days with the squad as a mentor.
Posted on 06/27/2007 in English cricket
In The Daily Telegraph Derek Pringle warns that the success of Twenty20 cricket is bringing its own set of problems with growing worries about the behaviour of crowds. And the authorities, quick to clamp down on players, are not so proactive when it comes to tackling fans.
Cricket, despite its genteel image of bucolic charm, is not immune from oiks, so we are not talking about the end of innocence here. But part of Twenty20's mission statement was to attract a new audience and many reckon that, along with the rise in the number of women and children at matches, there is a growing boorish element.
At Essex's match against Sussex last Friday, regulars spoke of a section singing ribald football-style songs, a new departure at Chelmsford even for Twenty20. Nothing wrong there you might think, the Barmy Army have been doing it for ages, but with alcohol available for long periods and minimal policing, some feel it is a tinderbox just waiting to be sparked.
Posted on 06/27/2007 in Indian Cricket
The Indian team management's SOS call to Ranadeb Bose, Arjun Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Rakesh Patel is not the first such instance of players being drafted in the last minute in an emergency during an England tour. Back in 1986, Rajasthan pacer Pradeep Sunderam, playing league cricket in London was called up as an emergency replacement for the Headingley Test but never made it. Why? Because he was apparently untraceable, much to his dismay. Stranger things have happened in Indian cricket, writes Sanjjeev Samyal in Mid-Day.
“There were nine days between the two matches. And Raj Singh Dungarpur, who was the team manager, even had my residence numbers. They could have called up my home (in Mumbai) and got my number in England.”
June 26, 2007
Posted on 06/26/2007 in Zimbabwe cricket
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Kate Hoey, the former Sports Minister, demands that her successor, Richard Caborn, takes the same stance that the Australian government recently took, and demands a boycott of Zimbabwean cricket.
Mr Caborn was a noted campaigner against apartheid in South Africa and an advocate of the sporting boycott. He should now join all those in Zimbabwe, including the trade unions, calling for a similar sporting boycott of Zimbabwe. It is time for an end to double standards.
And Hoey's article was followed by an announcement that the Liberal Democrats had tables a Commons motion critical of the decision to grant the visa. The party's shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster MP, said:
Considering the way in which Mr Chingoka was appointed to his job, its is frankly ridiculous to argue that cricket has not become a political tool of this deplorable regime.
Posted on 06/26/2007 in West Indies cricket
In a typically impassioned article, the chief sports writer of The Times, Simon Barnes, hits out at sport's current obsession with money over excellence, citing the West Indies' miserable tour as a prime example.
So why was the series held? The reason, as Sarwan discovered through his damaged shoulder, was money. Well, I hear you say, all professional sport is about raising money in the end, isn’t it? Ah yes, but it’s a question of priorities. When raising money is more important than the pursuit and occasional capture of excellence, sport itself is destroyed.
June 24, 2007
Posted on 06/24/2007 in Indian Cricket
Familiar themes recur as India prepare to take on England in England: opening conundrums, lack of pace, general travel-sickness and pondering over the form of Sachin Tendulkar. On the shoulders of a familiar man, writes Scyld Berry in The Sunday Telegraph, lie their hopes for away success. Welcome Rahul Dravid.
The man who has turned the tide has been Rahul Dravid, an urbane south Indian who has played for Kent and Scotland and become a cricketer of the world as well as India's captain. Modest, too, he is not one to behave like a film star. Last Friday in Belfast I asked him about India's away record and his reply was perfectly correct in what he said, but even more remarkable in what was unsaid.
Posted on 06/24/2007 in Irish cricket
Ireland were, in many ways, the story of the World Cup. But now back in gloomier climes, a defeat to India and half the side missing, reality is beginning to sink in. It isn't, as Kevin Mitchell notes in The Observer, as glamorous as their Caribbean adventures.
This was colder, more familiar, more fundamentally an old-fashioned struggle against a world-class team than their Caribbean odyssey. Shorn of nearly half of that team, through injury and the demands of the County Championship, Ireland have been reacquainted with the realities of trying to master a summer game on an often wet island with limited resources. In that context, they did well again in grinding out 193 runs and using up all their wickets and all the deliveries sent down by India on a two-paced pitch before the rain came. They are never found wanting for effort.
Posted on 06/24/2007 in Pakistan cricket
Bob Woolmer's death sparked off a storm of speculation and rumour unlike any seen in cricket before. Mushtaq Ahmed, former Pakistan legspinner and assistant coach, was one of those at the centre of the episode. He was close to Woolmer and one of the first to his room when the news broke. In an exclusive interview with Sue Mott, which you can read in the Sydney Morning Herald, Mushtaq recounts the shocking circumstances of Woolmer's death and the hell the team went through in its aftermath.
"These were the saddest days of my cricketing life. We lost a great man who spent 3 years with us. It was a bad blow. Sad and shocking. Dark days. The players spent 24 hours a day together in groups. We hardly spoke."
June 23, 2007
Posted on 06/23/2007 in English cricket
England begin rebuilding their ODI side from scratch. Again. The man responsible for that is Paul Collingwood, busybody middle order bat, dibbly-dobbly seaming option, fielding tryo and one of only a few players guaranteed a spot in the ODI side. Mike Selvey, writing in The Guardian, assesses the appointment, as well as the new blood inducted into the side.
As expected, and generally advocated, Paul Collingwood was confirmed yesterday as England's captain for the forthcoming one-day internationals and Twenty20 matches against West Indies. Collingwood has little experience of captaincy - and none at this level - and the England selectors, including the coach, Peter Moores, are offering him the chance to learn the skills on the hoof so that by the 2011 World Cup, England having played around 80 matches in that time, he will be by a distance their most experienced leader ever in limited-overs cricket
Meanwhile, Michael Atherton, in The Sunday Telegraph and Vic Marks, for The Observer, give their take on Collingwood's appointment.
June 22, 2007
Posted on 06/22/2007 in Twenty20
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Pretty in pink: Middlesex and Surrey meet at a sell-out on the opening night of the Twenty20 Cup
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| Patrick Kidd in The Times writes that the Twenty20 Cup, which starts today, has grown from a gimmick into a fully-fledged and respected competition.
Eagles fighting with Sharks, sparks flying between the Dynamos and the Lightning, and a derby between the Brown Caps and the men in pink shirts: it’s Twenty20 time again as the shortest form of cricket starts its fifth season this afternoon. Yet somewhere over the past four years of beach parties, mascot races and evening boozing, a decent tournament has emerged. Counties no longer need gimmicks to fill their grounds, many people come simply to watch cricket.
Last year, more than 500,000 people watched Twenty20 and the growth is set to be even greater this season, with Surrey alone having sold more than 100,000 tickets for the Brown Caps’ four home games and many other counties reporting sell-outs.
In The Daily Telegraph, Martin Smith flags 20 Twenty20 facts you might not know … and interesting they are too.
No one has hit a century in an international Twenty20 match. Ricky Ponting went closest for Australia against New Zealand in 2005 - in the very first Twenty20 international - but finished on 98 not out scored from 55 balls.
Cameron White, predictably an Australian, holds the highest individual score, thumping an unbeaten 141 (14 fours, six sixes, 70 balls) for Somerset against Worcestershire last summer. He also shares the second-highest total of 116 not out.
A crowd of 26,500 turned up to watch Middlesex v Surrey in 2004, the first Twenty20 match at Lord's, the largest attendance for a county game other than a one-day final since 1953.
Middlesex will wear pink outfits in the Twenty20 Cup this season in support of their partnership with Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
Posted on 06/22/2007 in Twenty20
Jon Pierik writes in the Herald Sun the international players’ association and the ICC have not agreed on terms for the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September.
In the same paper there is a report about Cricket Australia meeting the federal government in July as CA devises a drug policy that is likely to be adopted before next season.
June 21, 2007
Posted on 06/21/2007 in English cricket
The Daily Telegraph's Michael Henderson, who had a pop at crowd behaviour at Old Trafford last week, widens his brief and lambastes the way that crowds approach cricket-watching. While the first half of his article is about football, he then turns to cricket, quoting one spectator:
"My family were appalled by what went on at Old Trafford," writes Graham Phipp, of Little Sutton, Wirral, noting the drunkenness, shouting, endless standing-up, and constant use of beer trays (and anything else that came to hand) as missiles. Also (and why is nobody not surprised?), the inability of stewards to do anything about it. Mr Phipp has written to the Lancashire club, outlining the many incidents that marred his family's day, and has asked for his money back.
Phipp continues: “There isn't the will in the England and Wales Cricket Board and the media to do so, except by the management at Lord's. It seems to be the culture these days … to glorify much of this appalling activity as necessary and appropriate fun! Perhaps we have to wait for a major fight to break out or for someone to get seriously hurt by flying debris before something is done."
June 20, 2007
Posted on 06/20/2007 in English cricket
Although England completed a 3-0 rout of West Indies at Chester-le-Street, the reaction in the media in the UK has been low-key, perhaps a reflection on the weakness of the tourists and an acceptance that India will be a completely different proposition.
Indeed, it’s West Indies that are the subject of much of the attention. In The Guardian, David Hopps writes:-
This has been an unmemorable, one-sided series in which a West Indies side disinclined to recognise the demands of the modern age have been predictably despatched. Perhaps it will goad them into rectifying their faults to know that the old colonial power, awash with condescension, is desperate for them to get their act together.
In the same paper Mike Selvey welcomes the end of the series, saying neither side emerged with much credit:-
It brought to an end quite the most drab, dismal, lacklustre, bland, interminable, uninspiring series in recent memory, with the general standard of play all too often plumbing the depths of acceptability for international cricket - and not all of it from the visitors either.
Shorn of its colour, the contest instead has been played out in widows' weeds to a soundtrack of volcanic grumbling from Sir Vivian Richards, who has been close to eruption about the level to which his once proud side have sunk. You would not, were you a West Indian cricketer of the current generation who valued his wellbeing, wish to cross Richards' path at present.
In The Independent, veteran broadcaster and journalist Tony Cozier was depressed but far from surprised:-
As disappointing as it has been, as embarrassingly mediocre as much of their cricket has been, the latest West Indies débâcle has come as no surprise. What is unacceptable is that standards have not improved one iota since England first asserted their superiority over their previous persecutors. The indiscipline, the lack of commitment and the inclination to fold at the first hint of resistance or aggression from the other side were again repeatedly exposed, as they were in each of the previous three series against their oldest opponents.
The disconcerting reality is that there is no quick way out. Sizeable investment in currently minimal facilities and the introduction of a domestic professional league to take the place of county cricket are urgently required to nurture available talent and retain public enthusiasm, understandably waning with every depressing defeat.
The newspaper reaction in the Caribbean has been muted, perhaps a reflection on the declining importance of the game in the region. That is underlined by an article in Jamaica’s Gleaner. On the day of a Test defeat, they carry an interview with Jack Warner, no role model himself, but the leading football administrator in the region. He says:-
"Many of them [governments] also too are still locked in a time warp of colonialism where they believe that cricket is the answer. I make no apologies for saying to you that cricket, as presently organised, is a dying sport and cricket has to revitalise itself and certain things have to be done to save cricket and governments can't save cricket by building fancy stadia all over the place which they can't maintain and which they say of course that football can use. It is foolish."
Posted on 06/20/2007 in Indian Cricket
The Times of India reports of a two-page letter written by the BCCI to the members of the touring party to Ireland and England. The contents appear to be straight out of a Bollywood tearjerker:
"Indian cricket is passing through a difficult phase after our poor showing in the World Cup, and along with the BCCI, the players have also gone through some tough time."
The usual advice (or warning) is not forgotten:
"You are representing the country where all actions of yours will be closely followed and we have to impress upon all the members of the squad to be disciplined, at times, both on and off the field. Please ensure that all the talks in the dressing room and in team meetings is confidential and always respect this."
Posted on 06/20/2007 in Irish cricket
In The Daily Telegraph Tony Francis travels to Ireland to see if the World Cup was a flash in the pan or something more significant. The findings are not that encouraging, but he does flag an interesting point when he talks to some players from Derry. They believe that:-
“The authorities should encourage indigenous cricketers and scale down their dependency on Australians, South Africans and Asians who migrated to Dublin when the economy took off in the Nineties. Unless they can block the drain of talent to England by contracting Ireland's young elite such as Boyd Rankin, Niall O'Brien and Eoin Morgan, who all play county cricket, they'll need more Johnstons and Bothas if they're to have any chance of building on their international success.”
The issue will continue to dominate as a number of players refuse to play for Ireland because of their count commitments.
“The Irish Cricket Union would rather avoid a repeat of the Ed Joyce scenario. While understanding his career decision and wishing him well at Middlesex, most followers were hurt to see an Irishman representing England in the World Cup. It was like watching Roy Keane sing God Save the Queen.”
June 19, 2007
Posted on 06/19/2007 in Australian cricket
Jon Pierik writes in the Herald Sun about Australia’s players, including Shane Watson, supporting more drug testing measures. Watson said he wanted the players to be “clean in every sense”.
Posted on 06/19/2007 in Indian Cricket
Murali Kartik, plying his trade for Middlesex this season, tells The Indian Express that Monty Panesar's ability to the English audience spellbound has been very special, and that the chats they've had have been centered around spin bowling. But despite the recognition he himself gets in a foreign land, Kartik longs for adulation back home in India.
June 18, 2007
Posted on 06/18/2007 in English cricket
Spectators watching Worcestershire play Warwickshire in England's county championship very likely had the privilege of seeing a cricket feat performed for the last time, writes Huw Richards in The International Herald Tribune. He was referring to Graeme Hick reaching 40,000 first-class runs.
To reach his landmark Hick, who started at 16, has had to play until he is 41 and the oldest active player. He has averaged more than 52 runs per innings. He has never, though, played more than 40 innings in a single season - and not since 1991 has he played more than 30. Compare this with Jack Hobbs, who sits at the very top of the list with 61,237 runs. Hobbs played until he was 51. In 11 seasons he had the opportunity to bat 50 or more times, in three he had 60 or more innings.
Posted on 06/18/2007 in Indian Cricket
After 14 years, Chandigarh's Sector-16 Stadium is likely to host its first one-day international when Australia tour India for a seven-match series later this year. Shalini Gupta has the lowdown in The Indian Express.
Posted on 06/18/2007 in English cricket
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It was at Durham's Racecourse ground, 10 miles down the road from the Riverside, where the man now rightfully known as Sir Ian Botham delivered his last bowling spell.
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In The Daily Telegraph, Simon Hughes writes that Sir Ian Botham's greatest quality, his indefatigability, has been matched in the last 15 years by Durham themselves.
The new ground, once just an expanse of park football pitches, began to take shape in 1994 and is now a venue of high standard with a team to match. Currently third in division one of the championship, Durham have only to overcome Essex in the Friends Provident on Wednesday to reach their first-ever Lord's final. It would be no more than the enterprising, loyal people who run the club deserve.
Read more here.
In The Guardian, Steve James welcomes Andrew Strauss' first half-century of the series against West Indies, surmising that the England opener has kicked away the unwelcome 'Mr Negative' from his head.
Strauss recently talked of "concentrating on the method of scoring runs". It sounds trite but it is so important for a struggling batsman. People are demanding runs and you start to listen too much. The result becomes more important than the process. You forget that runs can only be made by taking one ball at a time.
June 17, 2007
Posted on 06/17/2007 in Bob Woolmer
In the Woolmer episode, speculation took a vicious turn, fed by sensationalism, racism and lazy thinking, writes Mike Marqusee in The Hindu.
Newspapers across the world leapt from bald facts to elaborate conspiracy theories. The Pakistanis had thrown the Ireland match, or perhaps the West Indies match; Woolmer had been about to blow the whistle and paid the price. There was no evidence to support any of these far-fetched plot-turns, but that didn’t stop some of Britain’s foremost cricket journalists from drawing the most damning conclusions about Pakistan and its cricketers.
Also read Peter Roebuck's piece in Cricinfo on the same issue.
Posted on 06/17/2007 in Indian Cricket
"Gavaskar's bete noire Bishan Singh Bedi says the 58-year-old wants to be the ultimate god of Indian cricket, thinks of himself as bigger than the game," writes G Rajaraman in scathing piece at OutlookIndia.
Bedi guffaws when you ask him how Gavaskar has contributed to Indian cricket. "I had a lot of time for his batting but never as a thought leader. You tell me what his contribution has been. He is destructive, there is nothing positive"
Posted on 06/17/2007 in English cricket
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'He lives his life full on'
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| David Gower pays tribute to his team-mate Sir Ian Botham in The
Sunday Times.
Come that knock on the door at five he would be straight out of bed, into
the shower and off to the dining room for a cup of strong black coffee,
while I grabbed a few more minutes of peace. That is how he lives his life
– full on.
Gower also reminisces his duels with Botham while playing county cricket.
Botham always used kidology as much as swing to earn his wickets,
especially if he knew you. I remember him in those early days, soon after
we had become England colleagues, running in at me when Leicestershire
played Somerset, changing his action ball by ball and pulling all sorts of
faces to try to distract me. It was hard to put the man out of your mind
and focus solely on the ball.
Posted on 06/17/2007 in New Zealand cricket
Hamish Marshall has become the first New Zealand player to turn his back on a national contract. The Northern Districts batsman has made "the most difficult decision of my life" and, armed with a British passport, will play his cricket in England for the foreseeable future.
Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Dylan Cleaver looks at the three players who appear to have the inside running to take the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) contract vacated by Marshall.
Click here to read on.
June 15, 2007
Posted on 06/15/2007 in West Indies cricket
A Nation on Film special on the BBC (UK) aired this evening, looking back at West Indies' tour of England in 1976.
Documentary about the 1976 Test series between England and West Indies; when the Caribbeans trounced the home nation and emerged as one of the greatest cricket teams to ever play the game. Before a ball had been bowled; the South African-born England captain Tony Greig declared that he intended to make the West Indies team 'grovel'; and the scene was set for a series that went beyond the boundary. Viv Richards; Michael Holding; Clive Lloyd; Tony Greig; Brian Close and Darcus Howe reminisce.
More details (and possibly "watch it again" clips) at BBC's website.
Posted on 06/15/2007 in Stats
Writing in The Guardian, Ian Bell stumbles across a statistic:
Apparently, I average 64 in the first innings in Test cricket and 23 in the second. While I'm delighted to be averaging so many in the first dig, the other figure is probably something I need to look at. Mind the gap, as they say.
Bell finds parallels in greats like Steve Waugh, who had two half-centuries in the fourth innings of a Test.
Posted on 06/15/2007 in Indian Cricket
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For once, Rahul Dravid wants to play more
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| While commenting on the Ford fiasco, Harsha Bhogle also brings up other concerns in his column in the Indian Express.
India's captain has asked for three games before the first Test in Australia, a perfectly valid request since India have always struggled with the bounce when they go there after having played in our conditions just before. Instead, the captain has been told by the secretary that,
being professionals, they should be able to adjust with the one they have been provided.
I am flabbergasted. If I was Rahul Dravid I would have bowed and said "excuse me sir, I play for India. Whose side are you on?" I suspect Dravid is trying harder to win in Australia than the secretary! India are in Australia for more than seventy days and it is difficult to keep the intensity up for so long (talking of which, how come Australia don't come to India for seventy days?). If they lose the first Test, it will be a very very long tour.
Posted on 06/15/2007 in Commentary
Sport may be trivial, however it doesn't mean we have to trivialise people's names, be it Mudhsuden or Sonny, Femi or Muhammad, writes Fazeer Mohammed in The Trinidad Express.
As someone obsessed with maintaining an audience, the occasional appearance of this column on Cricinfo, the world's most popular cricket website, has served to further inflate an already disproportionately large ego.
I was taken aback, though, to see a minor alteration to Monday's piece which focused on the excellent rearguard by the West Indies batsmen on the fourth day of the third Test in Manchester. In highlighting the threat posed by England's specialist spinner, I deliberately referred to him by his proper name, Mudhsuden Panesar (it's actually Mudhsuden Singh Panesar), only for the web editor to replace that first name with the one that he is universally known by, "Monty".
June 14, 2007
Posted on 06/14/2007 in English cricket
Michael Henderson, writing in The Daily Telegraph, has slammed spectators at Old Trafford for their behaviour during the recent Test.
“Good as it was to see the ground full last weekend, too many people had come to admire themselves. This is not a problem exclusive to Old Trafford. The narcissism encouraged by television, which likes to identify 'colourful characters', and people 'having fun', is evident everywhere. It just seems more apparent in Manchester, where the heavy-handed stewarding continues to offend regular patrons.
“What can be done about the increasingly unpleasant atmosphere inside Test grounds? Not much, I'm afraid. Where once spectators were sober observers (in both senses of the word), immersed in the game's history, we now have thousands of people for whom a Test match offers a splendid opportunity to get riotously drunk, and possibly the chance to disrobe and charge on to the field of play.”
Henderson, who has a track record of taking swipes at Old Trafford, writes that when Shiv Chanderpaul completed his half century “thousands of revellers ignored his achievement, preferring to hurl their beer trays higher and higher. The only ground where these high jinks do not take place is Lord's, where MCC members are often mocked for being snobs. Anybody who was at Manchester last week would say that snobbery has much to commend it.”
Posted on 06/14/2007 in Bob Woolmer
Bob Woolmer’s death might now have been declared the result of natural causes but that should not be used by the ICC as proof positive there is no match-fixing in cricket, according to an editorial in The New Zealand Herald.
Cricket's governors adopted a somewhat haughty tone on learning Jamaican police had concluded Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer was not murdered, but died of natural causes. The death had resulted in the game being unnecessarily tarnished by bizarre theories of match-fixing, said Lord Condon, of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit. This may have been so. But Lord Condon might ponder why people were so ready to put the worst-possible construction on Woolmer's death, and what that says about the state of cricket.
In The Age, Chloe Saltau speaks to Barry Richards, who says that Bob Woolmer’s family has been put through the wringer and heads should roll over the bungled investigation into Woolmer’s death.
June 13, 2007
Posted on 06/13/2007 in West Indies cricket
There has been a sharp fall in the number of British West Indian supporters in England grounds and David Conn of The Guardian believes cricket is certainly no longer the glue binding the community together. He quotes a fan:
I used to go to The Oval in the 1970s and 1980s and there were massed ranks of fans, banging tin cans and beating rhythms out, there for the love of the game and pride in the West Indies. We loved it, as second generation immigrants. We didn't quite fit in here, we put up with a lot of racism, and here was our team, coming over and stuffing England. I grew up with parents who called Trinidad home; maybe young black people now don't feel that same affinity.
Posted on 06/13/2007 in English cricket
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Vaughan: 'There must be something holding me back in one-day cricket but I'm baffled by it'
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One of the more interesting topics aired by Michael Vaughan in last week's controversial interview, and one overlooked once furore Fredalo took hold, was his take on one-day cricket and the role he might play as England prepare for the next World Cup in four years' time, says Derek Pringle in The Telegraph.
Ever the candid captain, he said he didn't think he would make the next World Cup, adding that if new coach Peter Moores wants to groom only those who will be around, he might well have to step down. It appears, on the face of it, to be a selfless gesture, but in the same breath Vaughan slips in that splitting the captaincy has never worked, the subtext being that he should continue to lead England in both forms of the game despite his and the team's moderate record in the one-day field.
Posted on 06/13/2007 in Bob Woolmer
"I am pleased to hear that Bob [Woolmer] was not murdered," writes Inzamam-ul-Haq in The Telegraph. "All the boys will feel the same, as I'm sure his family will also. But this verdict will never take away one of the toughest periods in our lives. It was a nightmare."
I was one of the few who saw Bob lying in his room and it was very upsetting. We had become close as captain and coach over the three years he had spent with the Pakistan team. We were already very down and depressed after losing to Ireland. We knew we had let our country down and that we would be leaving the World Cup. Then to go through all that we did, with police interviews and with the world's media after us, it was very, very tough. As I said, they were the hardest days I have known.
June 12, 2007
Posted on 06/12/2007 in West Indies cricket
The news that Bob Woolmer was not murdered and died of natural causes adds to the woes of West Indies cricket, according to Jon Pierik in the Herald Sun.
In a sad way, the confusion around Woolmer's death is almost a representation of what's wrong with West Indies cricket at the moment. While the Test team finally showed some heart in the third Test against England this week, recent scorecards have been abysmal. Clearly, when it comes to all matters cricket, there is much work the West Indies must do on and off the field to repair their reputation.
In The Sydney Morning Herald, Phil Wilkins speaks to Mark Taylor about the difference between the current West Indies team and the outfit Taylor faced in the 1980s and 1990s.
Posted on 06/12/2007 in ICC
The new ICC president’s first public comments do little to offer any real hope of change in the way the game is run, argues Malcolm Conn in The Australian. Ray Mali rejected suggestions the international cricket schedule was too hectic and indicated Zimbabwe would have a say in when they would return to Test status.
Following a shambolic World Cup, a FICA survey of leading players from most major cricket countries found that 56 per cent lacked confidence in the ICC to govern the game. Mali's complete lack of understanding of the serious issues facing cricket will do nothing to reduce that perception.
June 11, 2007
Posted on 06/11/2007 in English cricket
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Are umpires hindering Monty's art?
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| David Hopps, writing in the The Guardian, feels that Monty Panesar is less likely to emulate the artistry of Bishen Singh Bedi if the new trend of umpires promptly giving leg-before decisions continues. He states:
Unlike Shane Warne, whose leg-spin variations often bewilder a batsman before the lbw decision is won, Panesar's success has owed more to a persevering tread. It is generally accepted that more leg-before decisions are to be welcomed because the threat of them forces batsmen to play more with the bat than the pad. But if the umpires' willingness to give lbw decisions persuades Panesar to abandon art in favour of painting and decorating, the advantages will not be altogether apparent.
June 10, 2007
Posted on 06/10/2007 in English cricket
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Scyld Berry feels the time is ripe for Michael Vaughan to quit from the shorter, ‘frenetic’ version of the game:
Vaughan is back at the top of his game, both as a batsman and as a captain who wants to crush under-foot these callow West Indians as if they were a displeasing insect. Ruthlessness he wishes to be his hallmark, and he can acquire even more of it if he sticks to the Test-match captaincy, and thereby conceals his vulnerability in the game's more frenetic versions - and 20-over cricket is about to proliferate in the coming months.
We wonder who could replace him – an out-of-form Andrew Strauss, the injured Andrew Flintoff or perhaps KP. Guess fixing a helmet would be top priority for KP right now.
Posted on 06/10/2007 in English cricket
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Tough times for Steve Harmison
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| The wayward bowling of Steve Harmison has become a cause for concern. Liam Plunkett seems to be afflicted with the same inconsistency. Mike Brearley writes in The Observer on England's wayward duo.
Harmison was all over the place. It was so bad as to go beyond criticism; one could only pity. It was like the shift from viewing one's relative as irritatingly cantankerous to hearing the tragic diagnosis of dementia.
Liam Plunkett gave a different impression. Had the camera shown him running in to bowl, delivering, following through, but with batsmen's orientation and stumps deleted, one might have thought he was in excellent order. The ball swung, bounced, was often on a good length. His speed was generally above 85mph. The only trouble was direction. Mostly, the ball was two feet wide on either side.
In the Sunday Telegraph, Mike Atherton writes a scathing piece on the over-influence of the bio-mechanists - with a particular nod to Liam Plunkett.
I was interested to talk to Peter Hartley, the third umpire, before the start of play. He umpired some of Plunkett's early matches and recalled a "beautiful sideways-on action"' as opposed to the mechanical front-on, and flawed action we are now witnessing.
This is the curse of the bio-mechanists, who reckon that a front-on action (feet, shoulders pointing down the pitch) is the best way to prevent injury without any recognition that it might not be the best to prevent waywardness.
A front-on action means that the left arm cannot be used as any kind of consistent guide. Bio-mechanists should be sent back to the laboratories where they belong.
And for Harmison, Atherton maintains that England's fast bowler is still terrorised by the horrors of Brisbane.
June 9, 2007
Posted on 06/09/2007 in West Indies cricket
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Sobers offers a distinctly different view on the West Indian decline.
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| In an interview to The Independent, Sir Garfield Sobers offers a new perspective on the reason behind the decline of cricket in the West Indies. Sobers states:
The idea that youngsters are playing basketball and baseball ... you know, Richie Benaud started that rumour some time ago and I'd like to stand up and put it to rest.
The great allrounder cuts straight to the point:
It's a myth. And if you look at the American basketball scene, can you name me two West Indian players?
Baseball, we know nothing about baseball. Soccer, yes. Over the last 15 years lots of soccer players have come to play in England. If someone said to me that soccer is the reason for West Indian cricket falling so low I might think about it. But the real problem, ladies and gentlemen, and it is a problem for sport around the world, is television.
Posted on 06/09/2007 in West Indies cricket
American cricket has had a boost of a kind recently and there’s more good news in store. An all-star cast of West Indian players is heading to New York to play a celebrity match as part of a celebratory Caribbean Week in the city. Joel Garner, Gordon Greenidge, Colin Croft and Larry Gomes are among those who will be turning out – although some may say they would be better served at Old Trafford this week.
Posted on 06/09/2007 in English cricket
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Matt Prior makes a sharp take
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| Simon Briggs writing in The Daily Telegraph on how the wicketkeeper with particular reference to Matt Prior, is the player most likely to be exposed by the shortcomings of others.
Any sportsman is reliant on his colleagues: that is the whole point of team games. But the wicketkeeper, more than any other player, can be painfully exposed by the shortcomings of others. If the back four part like the Red Sea, allowing the striker a free run on goal, even the best stopper sometimes finds himself praying for the earth to swallow him up.
Likewise, if the seamers insist on switching off their satellite navigation systems, the man behind the stumps is often tempted to whip off his pads and volunteer his own dobbers or off-spinners as an emergency substitute.
Whatever skills Prior may possess as a bowler, yesterday's play suggested that he would have made a fine trapeze artist. At times he was diving left and right so regularly that he could have been practising for the big top, though without the luxury of a crash mat. By the end, his ribs must have felt as though he had gone 12 rounds with Joe Calzaghe.
June 8, 2007
Posted on 06/08/2007 in Pakistan cricket
Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf remembers his last few moments with Bob Woolmer in a chat with the Kolkata Telegraph:
Yousuf, in fact, took the same elevator as Woolmer when the devastated team returned to the Jamaica Pegasus. “Shoaib Malik and a couple of other players were also there and when it stopped on my floor (third), Bob quipped ‘ladies first’... We laughed... I didn’t get to see him after that...”
Posted on 06/08/2007 in Indian Cricket
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Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh will be looking to impress the national selectors with good performances in the ongoing Afro-Asia Cup.
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| Harsha Bhogle talks about the significance of the Afro-Asia Cup for Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh in The Indian Express. Bhogle, who is covering the tournament for ESPN-Star, makes a keen observation on Sehwag:
With most batsmen, it is the shots they play that determine whether or not they are in form. The back foot punch from Tendulkar, the flick wide of mid-on for Dravid, the cover drive and the pull for Ganguly. But with Sehwag it is what he doesn’t do that gives a better clue. When Sehwag is not reaching out to balls wide off his stumps with his feet firmly planted on leg stump, you feel optimistic.
He goes on:
That is why I was quite excited seeing him play the initial overs in Bangalore. His left foot was forward and moving towards the ball, often he left it alone, and his best shots were played from close to the body.
June 6, 2007
Posted on 06/06/2007 in English cricket
Mike Selvey in The Guardian says that Michael Vaughan’s comments about Andrew Flintoff’s conduct in the World Cup are evidence that England’s captain is always ready to provide an honest opinion, unlike the usual anodyne responses by many media-trained players.
Vaughan needs no special training, though, for ever since he became England captain he has provided intelligent comment whenever questioned. In St Lucia … he was asked about match fixing. Does it go on, Michael? He could have obfuscated, but it did not sit with what he believed. So he said he had no proof but his professional knowledge told him there were situations that gut feeling told him might not quite stand up to scrutiny. It was an honest assessment.
Selvey also says that the outcry in some quarters to Vaughan’s comments are over the top.
What Vaughan might find bemusing, though, is the reaction now to his candid words given that he is not revealing a state secret but reiterating something that was blindingly obvious at the time. Flintoff will be incandescent, say some, which might be the case, but will he be more so now than he was at the time? Is Vaughan telling him something of which he was not already aware and that the general public could not at least surmise?
Posted on 06/06/2007 in Bangladesh cricket
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Habibul Bashar in happier times.
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| A bitter Habibul Bashar reacts to his sacking as Bangladesh captain in an interview to The Daily Star
"No doubt it takes some time to normalise with the change in situation, especially when I had the expectation of continuing as the Test skipper. But what shocked me most was the way I was treated by the authorities. I expected a call from a board official about the decision. Do you think the expectation was too high for me?"
Bashar though did have words of praise for newly-appointed skipper Mohammad Ashraful.
“Ash (Ashraful) is a very good thinker. He is not only a natural talent but also thinks about the game. He follows the game minutely, which is not so common in his generation. Definitely I will give my best support to him but I hope everybody will have patience on him. He should be given enough time to establish himself as a skipper."
Posted on 06/06/2007 in Indian Cricket
With India still to announce their new coach after shortlisting Graham Ford and John Emburey, Rajan Bala, writing in The Deccan Chronicle, questions the methodology used by the BCCI, seeking the player's views on who they want. He says that this is a reflection of the less than desirable state of affairs prevailing in the game in the country.
The Indian team with a Sri Lankan coach when Sri Lanka does not have one at the moment does make curious reading. Yes, it can happen when players choose the coach.
June 5, 2007
Posted on 06/05/2007 in ICC
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Richie Benaud: the best man to take over as ICC president?
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| Richie Benaud is the man who could be best suited to take over as the president of the ICC after the death of Percy Sonn, says Mark Nicholas in The Daily
Telegraph. Worried over administrators overlooking the game's finer
aspects in the race for burgeoning revenues, Nicholas writes:
Sonn's replacement as president until 2009 - in theory, a period without
any major television battles to fight - should be a former player, someone
of such indisputable stature that its board members will listen and learn
about the game they purport to value but are defacing. Top of the shopping
list should be Richie Benaud but given that he is unlikely to want the
hassle, there are crop of younger men worthy of global respect and edgy
enough to give it a crack. Imran Khan is one; Michael Holding and Mark
Taylor are others.
June 4, 2007
Posted on 06/04/2007 in English cricket
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James Anderson, England's 12th man, stands to benefit from the move
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| The entire England Test squad have played county cricket prior to the third Test against the West Indies on June 7. This is in stark contrast to Duncan Fletcher's regime, when players often took breaks between Test matches. Now that Peter Moores has taken over, even the 12th man will not waste his time, resuming county duties the moment he is no longer needed. Mike Selvey, writing in The Guardian, thinks it a good move.
Indeed, the days of the multi-tasking professional 12th man, the bloke who always seemed to be knocking on the door of the Test side, who got within the very precincts of the dressing room with the smell of liniment (actually it's fragrances by Hugo Boss now) only to be stymied again and again as fitness tests were passed, and potentially troublesome pitches re-assessed on match morning as benign, are over. Duncan Fletcher enjoyed inviting people to his party, the more the merrier, and if it meant they were unable to pursue their chosen career beyond bowling between motorway cones and mixing isotonic drinks, then so be it.
June 3, 2007
Posted on 06/03/2007 in New Zealand cricket
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Sinclair- Out in the cold
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Mathew Sinclair went fishing the day he received the news most of us expected but somehow hoped wouldn't happen. He didn't catch anything.
Sinclair is just not having a time of his life, missing out on another contract, writes Dylan Cleaver in The New Zealand Herald
Here's two statistics to consider when assessing Sinclair's test record. Up to 2001, when Sinclair started to be dropped and picked for the test team, he averaged 43.16. Since 2002, when he began to get mucked around, he has averaged just 23.06.
He scored far too slowly (SR 60.76) to ever be truly effective in his 45 one-day internationals and that provided the selectors with enough ammunition to drop him.
June 2, 2007
Posted on 06/02/2007 in English cricket
One of the main features of England's win at Headingley was the successful resurrection of the horses-for-courses policy that saw Ryan Sidebottom take eight wickets on his old stomping ground, says Derek Pringle in The Daily Telegraph.
Sidebottom will find swing less reliable at Old Trafford, though he deserves to keep his place. Swing makes him a match-winner but his accuracy offers Michael Vaughan control, something England have lacked while Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard are injured.
June 1, 2007
Posted on 06/01/2007 in West Indies cricket
Brian Viner speaks to Michael Holding in The Independent.
In the Sky commentary box, Holding looks on aghast, or at least as aghast as his supremely unruffled demeanour will allow, as West Indies crumble to the heaviest Test defeat in their history, by an innings and 283 runs. When he has finished his stint at the microphone, I venture that quite such a steamrollering would not have happened had Brian Lara still been captain. Holding raises an elegant eyebrow. He sees the recently retired Lara as part of the problem. "The team needs leadership and I never rated Lara as a leader," he says. "You hear a lot about his selfishness. Ridley Jacobs said a lot about that when he retired, and people cursed him, saying he had no class. But Ridley Jacobs never did anything out of line as a cricketer, so I have no reason to doubt what he says. I have seen Lara's behaviour. And he was not good tactically. I saw him make a lot of mistakes."
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