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July 31, 2007
Posted on 07/31/2007 in Australian cricket
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Cricket was a safer sport for Andrew Symonds
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Andrew Symonds stepped into a training session with the Brisbane Broncos rugby league team and left with some not-so-gentle reminders of why cricket was a safer career choice. AAP’s Wayne Heming reports Symonds plans to attend a few more sessions in preparation for the Twenty20 World Championship in September.
"Hopefully this will help condition me,” he said. “It's a bit of fun and it's a bit different. You don't realise how skilful and strong these blokes are.''
Symonds considered switching to rugby league in 2003 but stayed with cricket and has become a key member of the one-day team. “For longevity in life, I think I picked the right sport.''
Posted on 07/31/2007 in Indian Cricket
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Sreesanth apologises to Kevin Pietersen after bowling a beamer
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| The Nottingham Test has been played against a backdrop of sledging and other less-than-impressive behaviour from both sides. England’s rather purile use of jelly beans to try to get under Zaheer Khan’s skin was the most reported example, but that’s the tip of the iceburg. In The Daily Telegraph, Simon Briggs says both teams are to blame.
India used to be a deferential sort of team, and a soft touch on foreign soil. But that was before the arrival of Sourav Ganguly, the man with the thickest skin in cricket. He turned them into a more streetwise, self-confident crew, and in this series they have stood up to England's bullying tactics and then replied in kind.
The jelly bean incident is in danger of distracting attention from the real issue - the gracelessness of both sides' conduct. A little edge is a good thing in sport: it shows everyone is committed to the fray. But when sledging becomes systematic, and bowlers insist on finishing each follow-through with a piercing stare, the whole process is subject to the law of diminishing returns. It just gives an impression of pettiness and angst, and that is not going to attract any extra converts to what should be a beautiful game.
In The Guardian Lawrence Booth slams Sreesanth’s behaviour – which cost him 50% of his match fee when he shoulder barged Michael Vaughan – and the beamer to Kevin Pietersen.
It was equally possible to apply a less-than-charitable interpretation of the huge no-ball delivered by Sreesanth as he went around the wicket to Collingwood late in the day. To overstep by at least two feet could suggest malicious intent. "It felt like quite a quick ball, that one," Collingwood said. "I know which one you meant." Did he think Sreesanth meant it? "I'm not too sure. You'd have to ask him."
Chris Foy in The Daily Mail is less restained about Sreesanth.
There is an air of madness around the young seamer. He is evidently a few sandwiches short of the full picnic, as was illustrated by his impromptu, mid-pitch break-dance after hitting South Africa’s Andre Nel for a six. But the malice in him appears slightly forced — all part of the act. When Vaughan reached his century, Sreesanth applauded enthusiastically.
But he adds that England’s antics – and they have been at the forefront of the sledging, with verbose wicketkeeper Matt Prior leading the charge – have done them no good.
The aggression with which England approached this match has been a consistent policy all season, ever since Vaughan returned to the helm. It is one that earned them plaudits when they won the Ashes two summers ago but which many observers thought was lacking when they succumbed so meekly in Australia last winter. The question is: have they now gone too far?
Posted on 07/31/2007 in English cricket
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An angry Zaheer Khan confronts Kevin Pietersen
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| England’s players may have found the scattering of jelly beans in Zaheer Khan’s crease amusing but not many others did, including Zaheer who responded in the best way (no, not by brandishing his bat at Kevin Pietersen, for once possibly the innocent party) but by taking five second-innings wickets. In The Daily Telegraph, Martin Johnson said the prank was “not worth a bean” and he didn’t have much time for all the verbals either.
With all this sledging going on, maybe a toboggan would be a more suitable England crest than three lions, but whenever they do locate a new fielding coach, let's hope he can come up with something a bit less juvenile than planting a jelly bean on the pitch. Now we know why batsmen do all that prodding. They're trying to flatten out all those sugary sweets.
It's schoolboy stuff, it really is. Tee hee, what a wizard jape. Jelly and blancmange will doubtless be on the menu at England's end-of-season dinner, and if England lose this match, Michael Vaughan's worried expression at the press conference will have less to do with the result than wondering whether someone might have planted a whoopee cushion on his chair.
Posted on 07/31/2007 in West Indies cricket
The Editors of the Jamaica Gleaner doubt that the move by the new West Indies Cricket Board president, Julian Hunte, to include the West Indies Players' Association chief executive, Dinanath Ramnarine, in the WICB as a non-member director is going to make the WIPA "part of the solution instead of continuing to be perceived as part of the problem", as Hunte had said.
Mr. Hunte has merely advanced an approach by his predecessor, Mr. Ken Gordon, who had named Sir Alister McIntyre, former captain Clive Lloyd and Sir Granville Phillips as directors.
The editorial goes on to question the approach to the appointment:
The announcement suggests that Ramnarine named to represent WIPA, was specifically appointed. We would have expected that the offer would have been made to WIPA to name a representative and allow the membership or executive of that organisation to appoint the individual. Or, perhaps it is assumed that Ramnarine is the sum total of WIPA.
July 30, 2007
Posted on 07/30/2007 in Australian cricket
Despite his string of recent injuries, Shaun Tait tells the Australian’s Malcolm Conn he wants to bowl faster when he returns.
Tait, 24, broke 160kph during his second one-day match earlier this year and believes there is more to come. "I'll try and get myself ready and see if I can get a bit quicker," he said. "There's no reason why I can't if I'm fresh.
“When I bowled that ball I was coming off a fair bit of cricket and I wasn't as fit as I'd like to be. If I can get myself fit enough there's no reason why I can't bowl a bit quicker."
Posted on 07/30/2007 in English cricket
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Now boys, be nice: the umpires had to calm England down on the third day at Trent Bridge
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England are certainly not going about their business quietly. Earlier this season James Anderson was fined for a confrontation with Runako Morton and yesterday, at Trent Bridge, Kevin Pietersen and Zaheer Khan were involved in an exchange. It's a notable shift in England's attitude, with the young bowlers trying to show increased aggression at the crease. Martin Johnson, in the Daily Telegraph says the tactics aren't convincing.
England's in-your-face, tough guy approach has frightened India so much in this Test match that the visitors had to be satisfied with a paltry first innings lead of, er, 283. And it might have been considerably more had it not been for the assistance of umpire Simon Taufel's index finger.
And in The Independent, James Lawton argues that it has been the excellence of India's middle order which has led to England running out of ideas.
This, after all, is the team who for two days now have been generating the kind of sledging, body-language aggression that any self- respecting Aussie would probably suggest might be most appropriately dressed in a girl's blouse.
In the Times, Richard Hobson says that a stand between Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly is the same as a Lennon/McCartney collaboration.
July 29, 2007
Posted on 07/29/2007 in English cricket
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph Michael Atherton dissects Michael Vaughan's captaincy on the second day of the second Test against India.
He is often at his best on flat pitches, where his constant fiddling and manoeuvring of the field works to his advantage. Rightly, he doesn't like to sit back and let things drift but in bowler-friendly conditions it pays not to over-complicate things. Accordingly, it was strange to see Ryan Sidebottom bowling without a short-leg to Wasim Jaffer at the start.
In the Sunday Times, Dileep Premachandran says India will hope their new opening pair can build on their century stand and solve a long-standing problem.
In one particular school match, he [Wasim Jaffer] played a rash stroke and was slapped by his brother. He responded with a quadruple hundred in the second innings, showing the signs of the steely focus that earned him a debut against the South Africans in 2000. A languid strokemaker who is especially fluent through the covers and midwicket, Jaffer is often accused by critics of being too laid-back. His teammates, though, would tell you otherwise, and many in Mumbai still talk of the day when he went out and made a century just hours after his mother had died.
Continue reading "Time right for Michael Vaughan to earn his corn"
July 28, 2007
Posted on 07/28/2007 in New Zealand cricket
As New Zealand look to toughen up their cricket outlook, there's no better man than John Wright to show them the way, who has joined New Zealand Cricket in a high-performance role. His role is vague for now, but John Bracewell, the coach, and Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand board's chief executive, have their ideas of how best to use Wright's abilities. David Leggat, writing for the New Zealand Herald, illustrates with an example during a tour of India in the 1980s.
Once, the ball rolled a metre away from his bat. Convention is that the batsman lobs the ball back to the bowler. But Wright stood his ground as the youngster marched all the way down the pitch to pick up his ball. Watching this, Wright's teammates chuckled.
Posted on 07/28/2007 in Indian Cricket
Sachin Tendulkar seems less convincing in defence and his recent dismissals stem from a long-standing flaw in his game, writes Peter Roebuck in The Hindu.
Throughout his career Tendulkar has batted this way, and sometimes he has suffered. Few batsmen of his class have been dismissed LBW and clean bowled as often. Obviously Tendulkar is aware of the problem. The idea that great sportsmen remain instinctive is fanciful. Apparently he believes that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Doubtless, too, he is reluctant to tinker with a tried and trusted game.
July 27, 2007
Posted on 07/27/2007 in Offbeat
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'Perhaps I should chuck this for tinted contacts'
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Players have the option of using lenses which increase the amount of light in their field of vision.Pranav Soneji caught up with Nick Dash, England and Wales Cricket Board's optometrist, who configures the England players' individual sunglasses depending on their optical needs.
Sartorial elegance is often the most important criteria for fashionistas when it comes to the ideal pair of sunglasses. And you could be forgiven for thinking the same parameters apply for a select group of cricketers judging by their eyewear of choice.
But the natty wraparound sunglasses serve a more serious purpose than just aesthetics.
Read the full piece in BBC Sport.
Posted on 07/27/2007 in Pakistan in England
While one leggie occupies England's thoughts, another, very different one has been rampaging around the county circuit over the last two years. Mushtaq Ahmed hasn't taken as many Test wickets as a Warne or Kumble, but his career has been just as intriguing, if not more, than either. Brian Viner, in The Independent, chats to the little 'un.
And what guidance has he in turn given Warne? He grins. Under the severe, grey-streaked beard, the 37-year-old still has an appealingly cherubic face. "He doesn't need my tips, although in 1993 when he was touring for the first time in England and I was playing for Somerset, [the Australian wicketkeeper] Ian Healy asked me to have a chat with Warney, to advise him how to bowl in English conditions. I said to him that in the early summer in England the wickets are slow, so you have to bowl quicker, with less spin but more pace, getting people out with pace not variation." A chuckle.
Posted on 07/27/2007 in Indian Cricket
As the second Test between India and England gets underway on a potential turner at Trent Bridge, Ian Bell articulates in his Guardian column the unique challenges Anil Kumble poses to batsmen. Has there been a more underrated, understated champion?
The last time we played a Test in Nottingham we were picked to pieces by a little wizard called Muttiah Muralitharan. I didn't play in that game but now there's another world-class spinner in the opposition ranks and I've done as much work as possible to prepare for him. The strange thing about India's Anil Kumble is that he never quite seems to get the recognition he deserves. When people think about the best spin bowlers of the last 15 years they always come up with Murali and Shane Warne but Kumble has taken more than 550 Test wickets. It is pretty mind-blowing really.
Posted on 07/27/2007 in Indian Cricket League
While the bosses at the Indian Cricket League (ICL) reiterate that it isn't a breakaway league, majority of the world's cricketers who do not have faith in the ICC to administer the game effectively may just pounce at the first opportunity that comes their way. Neil Manthorp compares this scenario with that of a tabloid sub-editor in Australia who masterminded a cunning method to break himself away from his organisation, despite accepting a couple of pay rises.
He had tried resigning before but, being a gentle sort of fellow who hated confrontation, he had been easily dissuaded by the sports editor. He had even been given a couple of pay rises but that, of course, wasn't the point. There was only one way he was ever going to leave. He had to get himself sacked.
Read the full piece in Supercricket.
July 26, 2007
Posted on 07/26/2007 in Australian cricket
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Floods at Worcestershire's New Road ground cost Doug Bollinger "everything except one shoe"
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It wasn’t quite what Phil Jaques had in mind when he planned his English summer. A season at Worcestershire was intended to prepare him for a possible promotion into Justin Langer’s old spot as one of Australia’s Test openers. But as Jaques told Alex Brown in the Sydney Morning Herald, Worcestershire’s floods have kept him off the ground - literally.
"We went back to the ground to have a look at it, and cars in the car park were completely submerged and pads and gloves and bats were floating across the ground. We had to enter the dressing rooms through the roof, and we fed the swans from the second deck of the pavilion. I've never seen anything like it."
Jaques managed to save his gear but his team-mate Doug Bollinger lost “everything except for one shoe”.
"I got a call from Gareth Batty the other night, asking if he could stay at my place because the road to his house has been cut off. It's been a bit like club cricket, with a lot of people swapping and borrowing gear. It probably hasn't been an ideal season over here, but at least I'll be fresh when I get home."
July 25, 2007
Posted on 07/25/2007 in Bangladesh cricket
Just how much does cricket affect one's life? In Bangladesh, with its crippled economy and flood-ravaged countryside, cricket is a distraction from people's troubled lives. But the team's recent performance - losing the Test and one-day series in Sri Lanka - has added to the country's gloom. Mohammad Isam writes in the Daily Star that cricket more often than not played the role of a healer of real life sufferings of Bangladeshis and a good performance in Sri Lanka would have fitted in nice amidst all this because it is a feel-good factor for them.
Cricket and the people of Bangladesh have had a brilliant relationship since the days of the ICC Trophy triumph in 1997. It hit the roof when they beat Pakistan in 1999 and it hit an all-time high this World Cup. Over the last 10 years, the country hasn't had much reason, except cricket, to cheer about.
July 24, 2007
Posted on 07/24/2007 in English cricket
In The Times, David Fulton applauds Ottis Gibson's astonishing ten-wicket haul.
No one, though - not even the man himself - could have foreseen this week’s extraordinary events. “It was unbelievable,” Gibson said. “Something I never expected to do. I had five at lunch and said to Benky (Dale Benkenstein, the Durham captain) to just let me have three or four overs after the interval as I was quite stiff from a long spell in the morning. I somehow managed to get three more wickets and then the rain came. I was getting really tired so the Gods must have been on my side.”
Posted on 07/24/2007 in English cricket
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Ryan Sidebottom's probing inswing, control and nous have been the revelation of this summer
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More praise pours in for England's young bowling attack which had India on the verge of defeat before rain and bad light ruined England's chances of gaining a 1-0 lead in the Test series. Geoffery Boycott insists in the Daily Telegraph that Test matches like the one at Lord's prove that Test cricket is exciting. He writes that England outplayed India in batting, bowling, and fielding and that their three reserve seamers bowled out of their skins.
They bowled as if every ball was important, and got stuck into India's batsmen from the word go. Their intensity and aggression blew India's middle order away. Two of the best players in the world with the best techniques, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, were made to look ordinary.
In the same paper, Simon Hughes writes that the Lord's Test was potentially the biggest mismatch since Kenya took on West Indies in the 1996 World Cup. Four England bowlers with a combined total of only 37 Test appearances pitted against four Indian batsmen who between them had accumulated more than 30,000 Test runs. But there was no need to worry about the bowlers' welfare, Hughes assures.
Sidebottom's probing inswing, control and nous have been a revelation since he was unexpectedly called up for the second Test of the summer. The subtle way he deceived VVS Laxman, following up an inducker with a ball angled across him from wider on the crease, would have had old masters of the art of swing bowling purring with pleasure.
Also, check out Tim de Lisle's piece on why India's batting giants fell to England's greenhorns on cricinfo.com.
July 23, 2007
Posted on 07/23/2007 in English cricket
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If Pietersen plays like this when he is mentally fatigued, India best hope he does not get a chance to recover
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Kevin Pietersen has just scored his third hundred of the summer - an innings that may set up a 1-0 lead for England in their three-Test series against India. A week before the start of the first Test Pietersen had remarked that the huge amount of cricket over the last season had made him "mentally fatigued". Geoffery Dean, at the Times believes five days in Monaco with his fiancee, Jessica Taylor, appears to have done much for Kevin Pietersen. He writes:
Whereas most players are apt to tiptoe through the nineties, navigating them as sensitively as a ship passing through the Panama Canal, Pietersen likes to select full
throttle.
Lawrence Booth, in the Guardian feels that though Pietersen insists his remark was blown out of proportion, his reaction on reaching the hundred betrayed a thought process that was less than clear.
Needing a single for his third hundred of the summer, he worked Kumble through midwicket then charged excitedly another pitch length towards the Nursery End before dropping to one knee and pointing his bat towards his fiancée, the singer Jessica Taylor, in the Edrich Stand. If, as she claimed recently, she didn't know he was a batsman when they first met, she probably did now.
In the same paper, Steve James writes that the display of accuracy and skill James Anderson, Ryan Sidebottom, and Chris Tremlett meant that from England's Fab Four - Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones, and Andrew Flintoff - were hardly missed at Lord's.
Meanwhile Mark Nicholas saves some column inches for James Anderson who he feels has had his late outswinger made more potent after a year of working on his inswinger.
Posted on 07/23/2007 in Australian cricket
Kepler Wessels is back in Australia this month, coaching the South Africa side at the Emerging Players Tournament in Queensland. In an interview with Malcolm Conn in the Australian, Wessels talks about his memories of Australia, his concerns at the current state of world cricket, and his coaching aspirations.
"I've always said playing for Queensland and my eight years here were the most enjoyable ones of my cricket career," Wessels, 49, said this week. Having spent a lifetime in the game playing, commentating, and now coaching, which included a recent four-year stint with Northamptonshire, Wessels believes that if he is going to take the next step and coach at international level then now is probably the time.
In the Sun-Herald, Will Swanton chats to Tim Ambrose, the Australian-born wicketkeeper who has found himself in the mix for selection in the England team.
"I used to think about playing for Australia," Ambrose said with a distinctly English accent. "I just thought, well, I've got a pretty good opportunity here. It was a big decision to make."
July 22, 2007
Posted on 07/22/2007 in English cricket
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Can Sidebottom go where no other England left-armer has gone?
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Ryan Sidebottom has taken 20 wickets at 22 apiece in his Test career thus far but, as Scyld Berry points out in today's Sunday Telegraph, he now has to go where no England left-armer has gone before: take 100 Test wickets.
He has had a few fine predecessors but none has taken 100 wickets in Test cricket. Frank Foster and Jeff Jones were permanently injured in their mid-twenties, an ill omen if ever there was for the latter's son Simon; Bill Voce got closest with 98 wickets. A barrier remains to be broken.
His predecessor of a generation ago serves as both warning and example. John Lever made a very similar start, taking 26 wickets in his first five Tests, all of them in India in 1976-77. He swung the new ball there, by one means or another, but did not do so consistently in other places so that his Test career tally was little more than double. He also had competition for a place from Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Chris Old.
In the same paper, Mike Atherton is full of praise for England's bowlers after their performance yesterday - in particular for James Anderson.
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Older and wiser
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But, of course, this is an older, wiser Anderson, less likely, I would have thought, to celebrate his success by daily changing his hairstyle. A difficult few years, with injuries, loss of form and a remodelling or two of his action, have brought a greater maturity and awareness of how fragile success can be. Good form needs to be cherished and nurtured and success appreciated.
In The Sunday Times, Simon Wilde reserves special mention for Chris Tremlett, England's towering fast bowler who, though not the quickest, is "riding the wave of fashion" by generating bounce.
In the past Tremlett did not always make the best of his height because his left knee collapsed at the point of delivery, but he appears to have rectified this problem at Lord’s, Michael Holding, a fastidious critic of fast-bowling technique, said that Tremlett’s action could not be faulted. His action also bore a remarkable similarity to Harmison bowling at his best: head high, body tall.
Posted on 07/22/2007 in English cricket
The first Test between England and India has had a raft of memorable moments already, but it marks a special milestone for one man in particular: the photographer Patrick Eagar who celebrates his 300th Test match. Mike Atherton, in today's Sunday Telegraph, has a fascinating interview with him in which Eagar looks back at his favourite subjects, and the days of film.
The film needed to be on the lunchtime train to make the first edition, and The Sunday Times had sent a courier (in full livery) who insisted that he needed to leave the ground by 11.30am, the point at which the game was about to start.
Eagar had one over to take his snap for the day, an over faced by Geoff Arnold, who missed all six deliveries. One of them went for four byes, giving Eagar and newspaper readers their Sunday morning image. Even if the communication problems could be overcome, the all-powerful print unions could still cause trouble by refusing to process the film if there weren't two men - one to develop the film, one to put it into the paper - in situ.
A combination, then, of better equipment, better communications and Rupert Murdoch's victory over the print unions has meant that the sports photographer has never had it so good. Only in one respect was the photographer's job easier when Eagar started.
Posted on 07/22/2007 in Offbeat
Getting a name right has been a challenge for the English press, notes Stephen Brenkley in his Lord's Diary in the Independent.
There has been confusion about Sreesanth since he made his Test debut against England last year in Nagpur. For years he was plain Sreesanth, the name given to him by his parents, or S Sreesanth at a stretch, the initial standing for Shanthakumaran, which was his father's given name.
However, the idea at first took root that he was Sree Sreesanth. He explained this was wrong, and gradually he has become Shantha Sreesanth. But this too is incorrect. He is certainly not Sri Sreesanth as he appeared in the papers last week. He said that he did indeed have two names. "I am called Sree Santh," he said. But this announcement has perplexed Indian journalists whom he told last year that he wished to be known only as Sreesanth (one word).
July 21, 2007
Posted on 07/21/2007 in Ashes
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Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting have a bad day in the field during the 2005 Ashes
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| In a freewheeling interview with Brian Viner of The Independent, Justin Langer talks about his love for the game's history, life after retirement, what England could do to regain the Ashes, and also has time to talk about Ricky Ponting's oratory skills.
Speaking of lessons, what can England learn from Australia, not as winners but as losers? Can the 2006-07 Ashes series generate English renewal as the 2005 series did for Australia? "Mate, it depends how badly it hurt. I remember 12 September 2005, very clearly, sitting up there on the balcony at The Oval, next to Haydos [Mathew Hayden], Gilly [Adam Gilchrist], McGrath, and Punter [Ricky Ponting], watching those streamers everywhere, and Vaughan jumping around with champagne. That's when a little piece of kindling was lit.
"We got on the plane and that's when we started talking: where we went wrong, how we could do better, how we could get our disciplines back. There's a book by Scott Peck called The Road Less Travelled. During Steve Waugh's tenure that was our theme: do things a little bit different, things other teams wouldn't do. In 2005 we lost sight of that a little bit.
July 20, 2007
Posted on 07/20/2007 in Indian Cricket
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Dinesh Karthik's missed catch off Strauss typified India's poor display in the field
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| India's pedestrian performance with the ball on the first day at Lord's has come in for plenty of flak. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Simon Hughes bemoans the lack of spinners, and wonders if it's the result of too much coaching.
There is an intolerance of maverick slow bowlers, who are obviously regarded as an expensive luxury. The tender loving care that all spinners need is scant and unique idiosyncracies are smoothed out. Reliability is valued above sleight of hand. The obsession with quick bowlers - symbolised by the Dennis Lillee foundation in Madras - may be denying India traditional raw material.
Continue reading "India lose their maverick menace"
July 19, 2007
Posted on 07/19/2007 in Australian cricket
Brett Lee is set to return from injury at the Twenty20 World Championship, according to Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail.
Lee believes he has recovered fully from the off-season surgery on his left ankle that cost him a place in Australia's victorious World Cup squad. "I'm 100%," Lee said.
Shaun Tait is expected to make Australia's 15-man squad despite not having bowled yet after undergoing elbow surgery last month, writes Malcolm Conn in the Australian.
Tait has started fitness training with South Australia but will be unable to ease back into bowling for at least a fortnight. "If picked in the Twenty20 stuff I'd obviously like to go but if it's not quite right I won't risk it," Tait said yesterday. "Playing for Australia is great, but to risk it in a Twenty20 tournament would be silly."
Posted on 07/19/2007 in West Indies cricket
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Gordon Greenidge makes his return
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Gordon Greenidge, the former West Indies opener who scored 7,558 Test runs, will don his whites (or, rather, "black and golds") for the charity side Lashings who face the club side Colwall on July 27.
Greenidge will be joined by Sri Lankan great Marvin Attapattu, as well as Richie Richardson, Gregg Blewitt, Hashim Amla, Alvin Kallicharran and Rashid Latif.
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Vasbert Drakes, Henry Alonga, Tino Best, Chris Harris and Nantie Hayward are set to be among the bowlers.
The match starts at 2pm and is preceeded by a Twenty20 game between a Hereord Cricket Board Chairman's XI and the Barmy Army - an England supporters' XI.
For more information call Gary King 01684-565071.
More information available at The Ledbury Reporter.
Posted on 07/19/2007 in West Indies cricket
Amid all the flak flying between the West Indies board and its players, the WICB has found an ally in Jamaica Gleaner who have launched a stinging attack on Dinanath Ramnarine, the chief executive of WIPA, the players’ association.
Ramnarine used to play cricket and was a relatively decent leg-spinner at the regional level, playing for Trinidad and Tobago. Unfortunately, for the West Indies, his talent did not manifest itself at the level of Tests we now wonder whether the issue was talent or temperament.
Whatever the reasons why he never quite made the grade as a Test player, Mr. Ramnarine has transformed himself into a trade union leader, as the CEO of WIPA, negotiating on behalf of the players. His is a trade unionism of the old order; one encrusted, in our view, in an archaic confrontationalism rather than an attempt to build partnership and trust.
July 18, 2007
Posted on 07/18/2007 in Indian Cricket
Patrick Kidd writes in The Times his view that Rahul Dravid is better than Sachin Tendulkar.
Tomorrow, Dravid will walk out for the toss as captain and, blasphemous though it may be to the ears of Sachin Tendulkar’s millions of fans, the most valuable batsman in the team. In fact, although the howls of protest from Bombay will be deafening, Dravid has regularly proved to be Tendulkar’s better, in Test cricket anyway.
For all that he has achieved in the game,Tendulkar has yet to put his name on the honour's board at Lord's. Will he manage to overcome the ageing process, various niggles and questions about his ability to play the short ball and his form generally, and right that wrong this time? See what Mike Selvey has to say about it in The Guardian.
Yet for all his stellar status there have always been question marks attached to Tendulkar, anomalies of a kind that ought not to dog a batsman of this calibre. His big innings, it is said, all too often count for little in a team context, mostly coming in matches that are ultimately drawn or lost.
Meanwhile, Simon Hughes at The Daily Telegraph duly looks back at a stupendous career, but asks questions of Tendulkar's future here.
Now 34, and in his 19th season on the international stage, can he quell the rumblings of general decline and steer India to their first Test series win in England for 20 years, or will this be the Little Master's quiet swansong?
Posted on 07/18/2007 in ICC
Zimbabwe have dropped out of the ICC Test rankings, leaving the ICC in the embarrassing situation of being controlled by ten Test countries when only nine are officially listed, writes Malcolm Conn in The Australian.
The International Cricket Council's latest rankings no longer include Zimbabwe, yet its administrators continue to ride the gravy train of elite status and all the money and control that it entails. Zimbabwe's players often complain they are not paid on time, if at all, and a recent financial report by ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed was damning. But Speed's hands are completely tied because of an ICC board dominated by the Afro-Asia bloc, which is more interested in good mates than good cricket. An attempt to take Zimbabwe's future out of its own hands was disgracefully rejected by the ICC board, so now Zimbabwe is painted as making the magnanimous gesture of standing out of Test cricket for the good of the game.
July 17, 2007
Posted on 07/17/2007 in
Is the future bleak for independent schools’ cricket? A piece in The Times raises grave concerns:
So serious are the problems that one Master in charge of a successful cricketing school is calling for a national conference to see what can be done before cricket dies in some independent schools
He's all grown up now barely two years on from his Test debut; shorter, less colourful hair, wedding on the horizon. But has Kevin Pietersen really matured and is he really less a lone ranger than he once was meant to be? Andy Bull, for The Guardian tries to find out.
Was he shocked at how hard the Australians came at them? "Not at all. It was not a shock for me at all. I was prepared for it. I was ready for it. I did my part." That last sentence, I feel, is one of the few lines he speaks that has a truth behind it that transcends the slightly superficial nature of his answers. It is delivered with real poignancy, and it hangs in the air after he has said it.
Posted on 07/17/2007 in Miscellaneous
Christopher Martin-Jenkins believes that a modern tendency has been responsible for demeaning the game’s fundamental spirit. At Lord's on Monday (July 16) he delivered the Cowdrey Lecture, and The Times featured extracts of what he had to say.
Cricinfo recorded 29 million page views from 7.5 million visits to county cricket alone in 2006 - and has already had 19 million this season so, despite the rain, they expect the figure to be exceeded. Obviously because a great many people want to find out the latest scores. Sadly, if they are on the move in their cars they can listen for them in vain; and when they are given it often seems to be as a breathless afterthought following the big story that Scunthorpe's millionaire chairman has denied rumours that their controversial manager Bruno Boscovic is going to be sacked. Or, more to the point, some utterly mundane comment by Jose Murinho such as he thinks that Chelsea have the players to win the Premiership. What a surprise. The media has been conned to a dangerous extent – if you value the variety of life - into becoming a sort of spin machine for the all-pervading, all-powerful Premiership.
July 16, 2007
Posted on 07/16/2007 in English cricket
Freddie's resumed training. News of Andrew Flintoff's road to recovery from an ankle injury will gladden a million hearts in England though an early return to international cricket is not guaranteed. In an interview to The Daily Telegraph, Flintoff reflects on the recent months, the World Cup, the Ashes and the infamous 'Fredalo'.
"I've done my penance for that," he said as we crossed the Pennines with him at the wheel heading for an Asda Kwik Cricket final for children at Headingley, Leeds. They greeted him as if he was an amalgamation of Superman and Father Christmas.
July 15, 2007
Posted on 07/15/2007 in English cricket
Worcestershire have been in the news a lot lately, much of it for the wrong reasons. In The Sunday Telegraph, Stephen James looks at what they could have done better – but also reasons that it's wrong for the counties to have lodged a complaint with the ECB:
It was the curmudgeonly counties who, in a conference call of chief executives during Twenty20, had voted against Worcestershire moving their match against Warwickshire to either Edgbaston or Derby. It was felt Warwickshire would have an unfair advantage; this in a competition which, with its unsymmetrical zonal stages, is inherently unfair anyway.
Posted on 07/15/2007 in Indian Cricket
'Dravid comes as one part of a mouth-watering middle-order that includes Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. But Michael Atherton writes in The Sunday Telegraph that this time around there are more question marks than usual against some of his colleagues.
Tendulkar has been bedevilled by injuries to his elbow and shoulder, three of his last four Test hundreds have come against Bangladesh and, more than that, he looks a little careworn and slower at the crease.
.. suspicion remains that Ganguly is past his best. Like Tendulkar, he has become something of a bottom-feeder, scoring recent Test hundreds against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
Laxman has never scored a Test hundred against England, his average against them eight notches below his overall. Accordingly, English audiences have never been quite able to understand what all the fuss is about.
Posted on 07/15/2007 in Indian Cricket
Sachin Tendulkar has had no more noted admirer than Bradman himself, but are the Little Master’s powers on the wane? Simon Wilde investigates in The Times.
There have been signs in recent Test appearances against the stronger teams, including during the home series with England last year, that he is less comfortable than he used to be with fast, short-pitched bowling.
Tendulkar’s response to such charges is interesting. He rejects them, but does so in the shortest, tersest terms; he simply refuses to discuss the matter. It is as though he doesn’t want even to countenance talk of shortcomings in his game, possibly because he feels it might erode his self-belief, perhaps because he fears it might contain an element of truth. Asked about his recent scores in Test cricket, which look fairly meagre without the boost of easy runs against Bangladesh, he says: “I think it’s probably the way people have looked at things. I think I’ve done reasonably well. Maybe the expectations are too high and unrealistic at times.”
Is he aware that some pundits believe he is uncomfortable against the bouncer? No comment. What does he say to those who claim he does not play enough matchwinning innings in Test matches? Again, no comment.
Posted on 07/15/2007 in Indian Cricket
Kapil Dev tells Will Buckley, of The Observer, how India lost the fear of winning as they prepare for Lord's.
It [1983 World Cup triumph] definitely changed Indian cricket,' Kapil says. 'People started believing. It is hard to have belief when you are not winning anything. Cricket was the one game where we started winning. Sports is not our forte. If there was a gold medal at the Olympics for doctors, engineers, scientists, we'd pick it up every time. Our country is based on education and the middle-class education is very high. Sport is by the way. Whereas if you look at Europe, Australia and America, sport is very important. For us it is important to have three meals a day and then you can concentrate on the sports.'
July 14, 2007
Posted on 07/14/2007 in Indian Cricket
India's tour of England will provide the final opportunity for many of their stars to finally achieve a Test series win in England, writes Angus Fraser in The Independent.
The arrival of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, and VVS Laxman - Sehwag is out of form and not on tour - even if they are all getting on a bit, should provide spectators with a series to savour. On what will undoubtedly be a final tour of England for each of them, victory for the first time since 1986 would help to alleviate some of the frustrations of the past decade.
July 13, 2007
Posted on 07/13/2007 in Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands were granted affiliate member status by the ICC on June 29, along with Cameroon, Peru and Swaziland. They are currently on tour to England. Matthew Pryor gives an account of their current tour and cricketing history in The Times.
The Falklands have been busy trying to raise their game. As part of that and in celebration of 25 years since the end of the Falklands conflict – and because they cannot really tour Argentina – they are in the middle of a whirlwind tour to England, with seven games in eight days.
They are not intending to make their debut at the World Cup any time soon and played Outwood CC, near Gatwick, yesterday. It meant that Outwood, a small village in Surrey, have scored a unique double, having played (and been soundly thrashed by) Argentina when they were touring England in 1979.
The Gloucestershire Gipsies XI await at Lord Vesty’s ground at Stowell Park tomorrow, before a game for the history books against Falkland CC in Newbury, Berkshire. The name of the Falkland Islands derives from the British expedition in 1690 funded by the Fifth Viscount Falkland, an Admiralty commissioner.
July 12, 2007
Posted on 07/12/2007 in Miscellaneous
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Brett Lee: Member of an increasingly rare species
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"Whatever the aesthetics of watching spin bowling, I maintain that for the pure adrenalin of cricket-watching there is no finer sight than that of a thoroughbred fast bowler on song, hurling himself into the fray against batsmen of the highest technical and mental calibre," says Mike Selvey in The Guardian.
Where are the genuine pace aces? There is Lee certainly, Harmison when he can be roused and Shane Bond when fit. The three slingers - Edwards, Shaun Tait and Lasith Malinga - are rapid, but that is about it really, isn't it? Some would argue that the volume of cricket conspires against those who want to bowl on the very edge of physical exertion, but I don't buy that: if you can bowl fast, you do. Nor does the state of pitches around the world offer a clue, for the dullest surfaces of them all produced Imran Khan and, together, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, the most prolific pace bowling combination the game has seen.
Posted on 07/12/2007 in Indian Cricket
"The most memorable image of perhaps the most brilliant era of Indian cricket," says Rahul Bhattacharya in The Guardian, "is of a half-naked man on a handsome terracotta balcony. He is waving a shirt above his head, a tangle of gold and amulets are heaving across his chest, and all the while rather forcefully wishing somebody what looks a lot like "luck"."
In India Ganguly has an unmatched knack for dividing public opinion, but in England it is quite unanimous: the image is of a character so impossibly wealthy and spoilt that it is ultimately amusing. A classic instance is the story of him instructing Michael Atherton to run off for a sweater for him, an account so far from the actual event that Atherton himself dismissed it as apocryphal.
Posted on 07/12/2007 in English cricket
Yanked from pillar to post by their ludicrous itinerary, England's cricketers are playing from memory, on auto pilot, rather than with real zest and focus, writes Simon Hughes in The Telegraph.
Kevin Pietersen, who made 33, 9 and 0 in the three matches, was honest enough to admit it. "I'm just exhausted," he said yesterday, looking it. A few days' break in the South of France can't come fast enough. "The winter was so hard - the Champions Trophy, getting yourself pumped up for every day of the Ashes, then the World Cup rattling into the Test series against the West Indies just 10 days later. I got a hundred and a double hundred and all that and it's just finished me off."
Posted on 07/12/2007 in Pakistan cricket
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Saqlain Mushtaq last played a Test match in 2004
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| Saqlain Mushtaq was once Pakistan's first-choice spinner. He was also perhaps the first offspinner to master the doosra. But he soon lost his place after a knee injury and competition from the likes of Shoaib Malik and Danish Kaneria. His two-year absence from first-class cricket ended when he played for Sussex against the touring Indians.
Rohit Mahajan of The Hindustan Times caught up with Saqlain, who left some hints that his cricketing future lies in England.
So much has changed in his life in the last eight years: the mastery of the doosra, acclaim and ignominy, injury and insult — and now a new British passport. Monty Panesar should soon have competition.
Saqlain, though, wishes to play down this talk. He is in his 31st year, a stage in life when spinners peak, but injury troubles have made him prudent, and he's not looking too far ahead — or at least not speaking about it.
“If I start saying that I want to play for England, and my body doesn't allow me to play, it would be very embarrassing,” he says. “Yes, if my body is okay, if all goes well, then I'll see what happens…”
July 10, 2007
Posted on 07/10/2007 in English cricket
It was, by any stretch of the imagination, a monstrous weekend for British sport - the Wimbledon men's final, the Silverstone Grand Prix, the start of the Tour de France. But what of England's meek one-day series surrender against West Indies at Trent Bridge? Barely a peep was heard. Mark Nicholas, writing in The Daily Telegraph is incredulous.
The cricket failed to register a passing nod, never mind receive a proper bunk-up. It beggars belief, really. Imagine those Botham-Richards head-to-heads failing to make the radar. I think not. There are reasons for this that are not of the team's making, but they still have to take some of the rap.
Posted on 07/10/2007 in Offbeat
David Foot of The Guardian delves into an important aspect of a batsman's game.
There are many stories about cricket's calls of nature. Some players held out better than others. The popular Glamorgan left-hander Emrys Davies, according to a few Arms Park survivors, could rarely go through a session without the obligatory exit. We can only imagine the torment he went through during 7½ hours at the crease when he made 287 in Newport.
July 9, 2007
Posted on 07/09/2007 in Indian Cricket
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'Such resolute batting, showing no fear.'
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| Michael Ferreira, the former world billiards champion, says DilIp Sardesai's heroics sowed the seeds for Sourav Ganguly's assertion of the Indian identity, in The Times of India.
The developments in the West Indies, took us all by surprise. If memory serves me right, Dilip scored a double century - (212, was it?) - in the first Test and then followed it up with another in the second. He did with such resolute batting, showing no fear.
Ferreira, reflecting on a team that suddenly went on from wanting to draw matches to winning them, feels it’s all to do with one’s mentality.
In the earlier days of Fred Truman of England, we Indians, I guess, suffered from a gora complex. Instinctively, we'd bow down to the gora. Nineteen seventy one, changed all that. I remember once speaking to Ravi Shastri and he told me how in his time, they weren't afraid to give the white cricketer a mouthful, asking him to f*** off to the dressing room once they got his wicket.
Now Ravi came from over a decade from Dilip's, and much later, Sourav Ganguly did his bit in asserting the Indian identity and putting the white cricketer in his place, but I guess it all began off from 1971. And, from Sardesai, purely by the words of his deeds much like a Kapil Dev in 1983.
The proud, independent Indian was born then.
Posted on 07/09/2007 in Bowling actions
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Pathan has to learn quickly if he wants to make a comeback to the Indian team
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| Ajay S Shankar of the The Sunday Express follows Irfan Pathan’s progress as he goes back to the basics.
Pathan finally sought the help of Dennis Lillee and the MRF Pace Academy, the place where he was groomed initially.
Lillee says,
“Irfan called us up in May, after the World Cup. He had been out of touch for over a year-and-a-half, we had been waiting, wondering why it took so long. Well, he has come back to where he had started. He has accepted that he needs some help and I welcomed him with open arms.”
The Australian legend rubbished former India coach Greg Chappell's suggestion that Pathan needed work on mind as well as body.
“When you are not bowling well, obviously your mind gets cluttered but that wasn’t the cause, that was the effect. When you coach, you should stick to coaching about what you know.”
TA Sekar, the director of the MRF Pace Academy, explains the re-education process:
“We made him walk up to the bowling crease first, then jog, without holding the ball. Imagine, an India player bowling without the ball! With the ball, the mind is always worried about bowling good length, hitting the stumps, outswing, inswing, everything. Without the ball, your thoughts become more focused on your action.”
July 8, 2007
Posted on 07/08/2007 in English cricket
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A second chance: Chris Schofield's career has been revived at Surrey
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One of the best stories to come out of this year's Twenty20 has been the success of Chris Schofield at Surrey. The former Lancashire and England legspinner has relaunched his county career and claimed 17 wickets in the qualifying stage. Seven years ago he played Tests and was touted as the 'next big thing'. Then it all went wrong and last season he was left trying to forge a living playing Minor Counties and doing some part-time decorating. In The Sunday Times Simon Wilde charts the long road back and finds a motivated cricketer who still has dreams.
Looking back, Schofield, who was born in Rochdale, realises that he should have left Lancashire long before they let him go at the end of the 2004 season. His bowling had been going nowhere for some time and Lancashire were no longer interested in developing it. They had other spinners and the only way he could get in the side was as a batsman. In his last season he bowled just 26 overs in the championship but scored 99 against Warwickshire and 69 against Surrey as a No 6.
Posted on 07/08/2007 in English cricket
At the beginning of the month the nationwide smoking ban came into force throughout England. Away from the obvious changes to pubs and clubs the new regulations will hit county cricket teams, too. How many photos have their been of Shane Warne puffing away on the balcony during a match? In the Sunday Telegraph, Mike Atherton takes a look back the strong link between cricketers and smoking.
Even the Lancashire dressing room of my time was inhabited by half-a-dozen or so. Nick Speak, Graham Lloyd, Phil DeFreitas, Wasim Akram and Graeme Fowler all paid constant homage to nicotine. Early season Benson and Hedges games, when sponsors not only provided loot but product as well, produced a terrific scramble for those distinctive yellow bricks; even the non-smokers were known to hoard a packet or two to bargain with. How about a few half-volleys in the nets then, Daffy?
July 6, 2007
Posted on 07/06/2007 in Commentary
Himalmag finds out.
Boria Mazumdar believes cricket has transformed India, as much as India has transformed the sport.
Cricket today provides India a feel-good space, where nearly all differences can be overcome. The assertion of an Indian ‘identity’, the expression of cultural nationalism or the feeling of a common emotion – these are no longer confined to the stadium and post-match activities. For instance, a poll conducted a few years back found that more than 50 percent of India’s youth would prefer to live in another country. However, as journalist Sandipan Deb has observed: “Even when they do go away to some other country, they have a live cricket scorecard open surreptitiously on their computer monitors throughout their working day, and they turn out in daunting numbers at the stadium whenever India’s playing in their adopted country.” The global Indian wants simultaneously to escape his country and to embrace it. Clearly, cricket is no longer a mere ‘national’ obsession.
Michael Roberts looks at the ceylonese origins of cricket in Sri Lanka.
Amber Rahim Shamsi writes on the journey of women's cricket in Pakistan.
Posted on 07/06/2007 in Indian Cricket
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'I will have more respect for the game'
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Is he back to his best? Is he out of the lean patch? Pradeep Kumar, of Times of India, finds out.
Everything is going well. I working on on my routines well. My fitness level is high. I am bowling well and even played a game in which I bowled 17 overs. I am feeling very positive now. I cannot say anything more now. I'm waiting for things to happen. I just need to be patient.
Also, read Kadambari Murali on the same issue at the Hindustan Times.
What did you work on?
Two-three things. I was hurrying into things. Lower body to upper body coordination with my side-on action wasn't quite okay. With Sekhar, we worked for two days, and he was pretty happy, we gradually built it up. I also had to work on my right arm, which I wasn't using much. For every bowler, the non-bowling arm is very important for guidance, that was missing a bit.
The superstar lifestyle, Mumbai….did it all get to you?
July 5, 2007
Posted on 07/05/2007 in English cricket
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After four years, since it first took off, some of the success of the Twenty20 Cup has now faded
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Tanya Aldred in The Guardian reflects that after four bumper years, the lousy weather has hit the rollercoaster success of the Twenty20 |
