The front of the Age's sport pages reflects the anger inside Australia following the outcome of the Harbhajan Singh hearing © The Age

On the topic of India's over-the-top reactions to the events in Australia, Harsha Bhogle, in the Sydney Morning Herald, explains that it has a lot to do with the change in attitude of the average Indian over the decades.

Since I was a little child, my abiding memory is of visiting journalists and cricketers coming to India and making fun of us.We were a country finding our feet, we were not confident, we seethed within but we accepted. The new generation in India is not as accepting, they are prouder, more confident, more successful. Those bottled-up feelings are bubbling through.

The Daily Telegraph reveals that Ricky Ponting made the decision to agree to have Harbhajan Singh's racial abuse charge downgraded after a series of secret meetings with lawyers during the Test match in Adelaide.

"Just fix it then," Ponting is understood to have said when emotions flared. As Symonds came to terms with the judgment, it's believed he said: "I can't believe this is happening."

The Australian has acquired the full text of Justice John Hansen's decision in Harbhajan Singh's appeal.

Australian newspapers are full of reaction to the outcome of the Harbhajan Singh affair, in The Age it is reported that the Australian cricketers are furious that Harbhajan Singh has escaped suspension.

"The thing that pisses us off is that it shows how much power India has," said a contracted Australian player, who refused to be named. "The Aussie guys aren't going to make it (the accusation) up. The players are frustrated because this shows how much influence India has, because of the wealth they generate. Money talks.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Alex Brown says, "in matters directly involving the Indians, don't expect an impartial outcome. Both the BCCI and the ICC have shown their hand in that regard during the past month."

In the Australian Peter Lalor writes, "India, the team that bleated about the spirit of cricket after being beaten in Sydney, has again held a gun to the game's head and had its demands met."

Adelaide Now's Geoff Roach tracks the day's events.

An air of anxiety began to stir among them as the start of play drew nigh without any sign of the principal players. That soon turned to frustration when it was learned the Australian participants had performed their own version of an Indian rope trick by driving into an underground car park and entering the building via a basement lift.

Fearing the same would happen with the Indian party, most camera operators surged 80m east to the car park entrance – only to have to sprint frantically back as a black BMW disgorged Harbhajan and team manager Chetan Chauhan outside the front at 10.50am.

The Australian sports radio stations too are abuzz with listeners calling in to air their opinions. Click here to listen to a few stations.

It’s not just inside Australia comment that the result of the Harbhajan hearing has attracted comment. In The Times, Christopher Martin-Jenkins is less than complimentary about the BCCI’s role.

One understands, of course, the particular sensitivity of matters pertaining to race, but either the BCCI, like all other national representative bodies, accepts the rules of the ICC and, in this case, the procedures that everyone has agreed, whatever the outcome, or there is potential anarchy.

It would not be a good thing if it were to become the expected outcome of every appeal that, whenever a nation's pride is ruffled, oil will be poured on troubled waters. Every case has to be judged on its merits.

Also in The Times Patrick Kidd writes that both teams should move on.

1) If they felt that he had done nothing wrong, India were right to fight this to clear his name. They should now refrain from gloating or complaining about being picked on and get on with the cricket.

2) If Australia thought they had heard a racial slur, they were right to complain. They should now accept that they were mistaken, not complain about the verdict and get on with the cricket.

Prem Panicker, writing in rediff.com, wonders whether in the light of the judgement ICC would take any action on Mike Procter.

Is it fair to say that Procter brought the game into disrepute by delivering a contentious verdict where there was—according to the ICC’s own man—no evidence to underpin such a judgment? And if that is a fair assessment of the performance of the match referee, is it fair to ask what, if anything, the ICC does, what processes it has, to monitor its own officials, to pull them up, to ensure optimum performance?

January 29, 2008

Tait should be commended

Posted on 01/29/2008 in Australian cricket

If Shaun Tait was struggling with the weight of expectation and had lost the desire to play cricket then he has done the right thing by taking a break, according to Robert Craddock in the Herald Sun.

Tait recently revealed his life motto is, "You can't please everyone, so don't try and please anyone". And he has lived up to it by putting his peace of mind ahead of fame and fortune and by taking a break from the game. He is to be applauded for his courage. Some people, who yesterday asked how Tait could be burnt-out after playing just one first-class match in a month, have misread his condition. Sometimes in sport the most mentally taxing place to be is not in the middle or even on the sidelines because of injury. Even more challenging can be the twilight zone where Tait has spent his entire career.

Tait's manager, Andrew McRitchie, tells the Australian the bowler has not quit the game for good.

"He's just having a break,” he said. “It's a brave call for him … he's a 24-year-old big, proud, strong Australian, and for all we know he's been battling for a while. No, he's not quitting, and no it's not an off-ground issue. He's just really had a gutful."

When Gilly went to water

Posted on 01/29/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	Shane Warne believes Adam Gilchrist provided the Australia team with common sense © Getty Images

Moments before heading out for his final session of Test cricket, Adam Gilchrist admitted he bawled his eyes out, caught up with emotion after addressing his team-mates. Alex Brown has more in the Age.

The tears began to well during the tea break, with Gilchrist preparing for the final session of a decorated 96-Test career. Eager to address his Australian team-mates for one, final oration, the vice-captain arose moments before play was set to resume.

While the tears flowed, Adam's brother, Glenn, was unaware of the events at the Adelaide Oval. Camping in Queensland, he was unreachable on his mobile phone and was finally informed when he walked into a shop to buy milk. Read more in the Courier Mail.

He was uncharacteristically flat. He obviously had something on his mind. I wish the bugger would have told me! I flew home and went four-wheel driving all weekend.

Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist might not have been best mates but in the Courier-Mail Warne reflects on what he liked about Gilchrist. Some of it is arguably faint praise: "Gilly is one of those solid citizens and a very good family man who rarely did anything wrong". Warne even manages to bring John Buchanan into the mix.

We had a mutual respect for each other and our positions in the team. He is a guy who was everyone's friend and Gilly will be missed around the dressing rooms a lot for his input and his commonsense. And when John Buchanan was in charge, let me tell you, we needed as much commonsense around as we could because I believe the coach had none. Speaking of the ex-coach, he should thank Gilly and the captain Ricky Ponting for an extension of his contract at the time because they were the only two people who wanted him to stay. Everyone else who was asked said "let him go, he has had his time". Gilly supported the coach. I say good on him for standing up for what he believed to be the best thing for the team.

Mike Coward writes in the Australian that for the first time in many years an element of self-doubt is detectable within the Australia team.

The Australians will be disconcerted by this unconvincing conclusion to the Test match season. They've lost confidence and rhythm since the first two wins of the summer against badly chosen Sri Lankan teams last November and after taking an unassailable lead against India. Certainly this is the case in the field where so many catches have been missed. This fact alone suggests a changed mindset. While it has been another successful season, there is no doubt the winds of change are gaining in velocity. To maintain heady standards with a restructured team is the task before Ponting.

With Australia's retirement list upto five, Nick Bryant looks at the possible replacements. Read more in BBC Sport

January 28, 2008

Lee - The fast action hero

Posted on 01/28/2008 in

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, picks Brett Lee as the unsung hero of the spicy series.

Ricky Ponting possessed the most lethal bowler in the series. He could throw the ball to Lee with confidence. Lee used the crease resourcefully, his slower ball effectively, his bumper sparingly and his outswingers frequently.

... By the end of the series, India's four senior speedsters were on the physio's table. All of them should be forced to undertake a rigorous rehabilitation program at a facility in a remote desert and run by a bad-tempered 82-year-old with cold hands. Nor could Kumble put complete faith in his own bowling shoulder or an off-spinner whose doosra troubled only the home captain.

January 27, 2008

Combining calmness with confidence

Posted on 01/27/2008 in Australian cricket

	Adam Gilchrist gets a thumbs up from Steve Waugh © Getty Images

Paying tribute to Adam Gilchrist in the Daily Telegraph, Steve Waugh recounts his memories of the wicketkeeper-batsman during his tenure as captain of Australia.

From the moment he entered the Australian dressing room when I began my captaincy of a remodelled one-day outfit, he gave it a calmness with his understated confidence, humour from his larrikin instincts, professionalism as a result of his work ethic and a refreshing vulnerability by never being afraid to display his emotions.

Besides being trusted to bail the team out of trouble with the bat, Waugh also points out that Gilchrist was a vital cog in transforming Australia to a champion side in both Tests and one-dayers.

It was a real luxury to be able to turn to Adam whenever I wanted to increase the run rate in the search for victory. Often it was a gut instinct, spur-of-the-moment decision which meant little or no preparation, but never once did he baulk or resist the notion.

It was on one such occasion that probably turned around the fortunes of the one-day side when, during the tea interval, I contemplated how we were going to turn around our poor form.

It was like a bolt of lightning, an overwhelming urge to elevate Gilly from No. 7 to open the batting to make the most of his natural skills, and the rest is history. He was also responsible, together with Justin Langer, in breaking new ground for the team by chasing down a big fourth-innings total that gave the team faith in its own ability, culminating in the 16 straight victories.

In the Australian, Peter Lalor says the game may never be the same.

It's a loss. You got used to him standing there, egging the team on, bounding in for the return, whispering in the captain's ear, clapping and cajoling.

Ponting stands tall

Posted on 01/27/2008 in Australian cricket

	Ricky Ponting: A gritty hundred for the tough man © Getty Images

Peter Roebuck applauds Ricky Ponting's innings of resolve in Adelaide. He writes in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Ponting's restraint was impressive. Throughout his innings he played to a plan, collecting singles as a taxman does revenues and pushing the ball into gaps in the old-fashioned way. Disdaining familiar straight drives and leg-side flicks, he reached forward and guided the ball past square leg or else leant back to cut. Refusing to leave his crease and keeping a close eye on Harbhajan Singh's doosra, he advanced at his own unhurried pace.

It's just another difficult period this tough cricketer has encountered and overcome, says Roebuck.

Ponting's first task was to demonstrate that he could win cricket matches and so sustain the domination of the Taylor and Waugh years. In some respects it is easier to inherit a losing side with lower expectations. From a distance it seemed that Australia could only go downhill. It is part of the Tasmanian's achievement that he has managed to defy gravity.

In the same paper, Alex Brown says Adam Gilchrist's exit after his brief innings - perhaps his final in Tests - was "not the most controversial walk of his career, but certainly the most emotional."

India's billion-dollar Twenty20 revolution

Posted on 01/27/2008 in Indian Cricket

In the Sunday Telegraph, Michael Atherton says that the Indian Premier League and Twenty20 cricket is poised to take over, so you better get used to it.

It was said after the Ashes victory of 2005 that cricket was the new football; well, the IPL is cricket's version of football's Premier League, and the consequences, in terms of the finances and structure of the world game, are likely to be far-reaching.

But Atherton warns that rather than complement the traditional game, the new formats and new cash might well swamp it.

Further down the line, English county cricket may find itself threatened and the ECB, by sanctioning the IPL, may not so much have kept the barbarians at the gates, as let them through the front door. If the franchise model expands, as is the hope in India, then there will be a limit to how far a market can serve two masters. Even in India, a much bigger market for cricket, there will be a potential conflict between the new and the old. No prizes for guessing where a young, hip Calcuttan businessman will want to spend his company's dosh - and it's not with the antiquated Bengal Cricket Association. Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Red Chillies has far more appeal.

With franchise owners having staked megabucks on the IPL, the Times of India's Indranil Basu crunches the numbers to find out whether the IPL model makes business sense.

Gilly changed the way one looked at keepers

Posted on 01/27/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	"Once he started playing for Australia, he forced cricket boards across the globe to have a rethink on how they wanted their keepers to be" © Getty Images

Adam Gilchrist's retirement has got many emotional, some relieved, and plenty more appreciating just what the explosive wicketkeeper-batsman brought to the game. Anil Kumble, who has played against Gilchrist on numerous occasions, and who shares a mutual friendship with him, writes in the Hindustan Times that he was a different kind of opposition played and that it all boiled down to the fact that Gilchrist was a nice man, humble, straightforward, quite down to earth.

He also came across as someone who cared and made that extra effort to show it. I remember getting a surprise call from Gilly when I crossed 500 Test wickets. We weren’t playing after that and I was home when I got this call and the voice announced, ‘this is Adam Gilchrist’. Australia were touring Bangladesh at the time and he told me that he had been trying to get in touch with me for the last 10 days and that it had been really tough getting through from there. It was really nice of him, but he is that kind of guy.

Meanwhile, Sharda Ugra, who has covered cricket for years, acutely observes Kumble himself, noting a calm demeanor and pointing out how a scientific temper has been of more use than tempers of other kinds.

Over 18 years, he has only ever made news on the field and, on his day, he is a looming, fearsome adversary. But to an India punch-drunk on shortterm heroes, usually younger and younger batsmen in increasingly brief forms of the game, Kumble has virtually been invisible.

Read on in India Today.

As far above rivals as Bradman

Posted on 01/27/2008 in Australian cricket

As news of Adam Gilchrist’s retirement is still sinking in – Damien Fleming today said he had to take ten minutes after being told of the decision – the Sydney Morning Herald explains how he broke the news to his team-mates on the bus heading to the ground on the third day.

The bus was quiet, with each player absorbed in his pre-match routine and pondering his individual role in the third day of the fourth Test. Unannounced and with no fanfare, Gilchrist broke the silence.

Jon Pierik in the Sunday Telegraph says it was the right time for him to go.

Reaction from around the world included Scyld Berry in London’s Sunday Telegraph, who said Gilchrist “has been as far above all other rivals as Sir Donald Bradman himself”, while Simon Wilde in The Sunday Times, added “Bowlers around the issued a sigh of relief”. Even the Scotland on Sunday had an opinion.

January 26, 2008

Silence could be golden for Bond

Posted on 01/26/2008 in New Zealand cricket

The Shane Bond-Indian Cricket League saga has gone quiet of late, which Adam Parore in the Weekend Herald sees as a positive sign that he might still play in the upcoming series against England.

Whether he plays will doubtless come down to the wording of his contract. From my experience his contract is unlikely to say "you can't sign" for an unsanctioned competition, more likely "you can't play in an unsanctioned event while contracted to New Zealand Cricket". Obviously he is not playing for an opposition league yet and until he turns up he will not be in breach of anything. To prevent him playing or even to leave him out of selection because he has signed to go elsewhere after his NZC contract has expired will be seen as a clear restraint of trade.

In the Press, Geoff Longley takes a look at the man with one of the toughest jobs in cricket at the moment - John Hansen, the New Zealand judge who will hear the appeal over Harbhajan Singh's three-Test ban.

Gilchrist should be celebrated, not castigated

Posted on 01/26/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	Adam Gilchrist should be appreciated, not attacked © Getty Images

Adam Gilchrist broke the world wicketkeeping record on Friday but that has been overshadowed by questions over his form and future, which Mike Coward in the Weekend Australian thinks is unfair.

It is a phenomenal achievement and this gentleman cricketer should be lauded like no other for there has been no other like him in the history of the game. His critics, who have been more conspicuous this summer, have one thing in common - a disturbingly short memory. All things being equal this consummate professional cricketer should be celebrated not castigated.

Steve Waugh in the Daily Telegraph reminds readers of the skill with which Gilchrist handled Shane Warne’s bowling.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck analyses Ricky Ponting’s defensive mindset when Anil Kumble was still fresh in his innings.

This conservatism was a mistake because wickets remain crucial in the toughest times. Clearly Ponting did not want to give too much away. India have to win the match to level the series. Nevertheless the field that greeted Brett Lee as he stood at the top of the mark was humbling. A single slip had been placed to pounce on edges. The man behind point was in shouting range. Everyone else was lining the boundary. All seven of them.

Martin Flanagan writes in the Age that Ponting is facing unfamiliar problems, while Jon Pierik in the Herald Sun looks at Brad Hogg’s struggle to have an impact at Test level.

In the Courier-Mail Robert Craddock runs the rule over the five India stars unlikely to tour Australia again.

The long journey from Uganda to Adelaide

Posted on 01/26/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Weekend Australian, Mike Coward tells the story of Jimmy Okello and Patrick Ochan, two members of the Uganda cricket team that played in the ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament in Darwin last year. They have settled in Adelaide and found themselves bowling at Ricky Ponting in the nets this week.

They are now self-sufficient and with the legal assistance provided by the Australian Refugees Association earnestly hope that they will be permitted to remain in Australia. Their legal team will be armed with glowing references from the Western Eagles and from the South Australian Cricket Association. In just seven months, both young men have made a great impact on the local cricket scene. "Every day is like a blessing," Okello said. "We want to settle in Australia." Their working visas are valid only until next month and the uncertainty of their future is causing considerable anxiety.

January 24, 2008

Decreed by the gods

Posted on 01/24/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

Sachin Tendulkar scoring a century at the ground Don Bradman made his own during the 1930s and 1940s must have been a moment decreed by the gods, writes Mike Coward in the Australian.

It has been very helpful for those who did not have the privilege of seeing Bradman to hear the little bloke, as he was so cheekily called by some of his peers - notably Bill O'Reilly and Sam Loxton - speak of Tendulkar in such glowing terms. While Bradman knew many of his records would never be equalled let alone broken, he was gracious enough to recognise the genius of a player of the modern age. After all, he played at a very different time - his career being played on 10 grounds in eight cities in Australia and England. Conversely, Tendulkar has played on 43 Test match grounds in 13 countries if you separate the sovereign nations of the Caribbean.

Alex Brown in the Age wonders if Sachin Tendulkar might do the unthinkable and pass Brian Lara’s record of 11,953 runs during the Adelaide Test.

Following his unbeaten innings of 124 yesterday, Sachin Tendulkar moved within 213 runs of Brian Lara's all-time Test run-scoring record, set at this very ground in 2005. By mortal standards, you'd suggest the prospect of Tendulkar overhauling Lara in this Test as likely as a South Australian conceding the point that Don Bradman was, in fact, a New South Welshman. But here's the thing. Tendulkar is no mortal.

Will Tendulkar play in 2012?

Posted on 01/24/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	Peter Roebuck has reason to believe Sachin Tendulkar will tour Australia for yet another Test series © Getty Images

Steve Waugh, writing in the Daily Telegraph, is impressed with Mitchell Johnson's progress. Waugh says Sachin Tendulkar's hundred was one that was typical of the "last third of Tendulkar's career."

Unhurried yet perfectly paced, mixing control with brutality and text book with innovation while recognising the significance of first-innings runs to his side.

His balance while playing his strokes was guided by a head that was repeatedly over the ball and unwavering in its stability. His knees were supple, allowing a smooth transfer of weight.

The "master of the single", Peter Roebuck believes, will be back in Australia in 2012. He says in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Unless his nerve fails him or batting becomes a chore, Tendulkar will be back in 2012. Far from losing focus, he looks eager. Rejecting the captaincy helped him to renew his vitality. After a struggle, he has come to terms with age; has learnt to combine the singles of experience with the boundaries of youth.

Raking in the millions

Posted on 01/24/2008 in Indian Cricket

With the IPL selling the media rights and the rights to own the eight franchises at eye-popping rates, the Economic Times analyses the revenues and expenses of the Indian board and the franchises.

The total inflow for the Board from sale of TV rights and bid money is about $133 million each year for next 10 years.
...
The Board will also make money from sale of title rights to the IPL, T-shirts of teams, a certain number of in-stadia boards at each venue and a portion of income from various other sources.

Meanwhile, the Business Standard finds that most franchisees are confident that they will break even between the second and fifth year.

Industry experts say that a gap of $3-4 million can be adjusted as a company’s advertising budget, because of the high mileage the corporate gets through its ownership.

Strictly come Gough

Posted on 01/24/2008 in English cricket

	Darren Gough wins the 2007 Christmas special of Strictly Come Dancing © Getty Images

Darren Gough is on a gruelling 39-show tour of the TV show Strictly Come Dancing and, according to John Westerby in The Times, loving every minute of it even though it’s hard work.

“I’m in bits … I’ve just had a massage to sort me out and that hasn’t nearly done the job. And I’ve got to do it all again tonight."

His success in the show – which he won in 2005 – has catapulted him into the realm of being a
TV celebrity, and when he retires, which is likely to be at the end of the summer, a new career is waiting for him. There were even suggestions he could go into musical theatre …

“I’ve not got a bad voice, believe it or not … with a few singing lessons, who knows? If you’d said to me a few years ago that I’d be spending my winter on a dancing tour, performing in front of 12,000 people, I’d have said you were sick.”

Another rift in Pakistan cricket

Posted on 01/24/2008 in Pakistan cricket

	Nasir Jamshed enjoyed a fine debut in Karachi but did Shoaib Malik really want him in the team? © AFP

It's a new year, but there appear to be the same old problems for Pakistan as talk of disagreements between selectors and team management grow stronger. Ahead of the current Zimbabwe series, Shoaib Malik said he preferred Kamran Akmal as opener, but the selectors wanted to try Nasir Jamshed. The Dawn explains further.

Malik’s insistence on playing the struggling wicket-keeper-batsman Kamran Akmal as opener against the Zimbabweans and his unflinching loyalty with a rather expensive Rao Iftikhar are among the few issues that are being constantly debated over by the selectors.

Also, the skipper’s reluctance to try out newer, younger players against Prosper Utseya’s men and his obvious disregard for seasoned all-rounder Shahid Afridi and pacer Umar Gul has also irked the selectors no end.

Now there are also questions being raised as to whether Geoff Lawson is the right man to haul Pakistan out of their slump. Although they reached the World Twenty20 final in September, results have been poor during his short spell in charge. The News says that time is running short for Lawson.

Another charge against Lawson is that he loses his temper too quickly. Sports scribes witnessed it themselves after Pakistan lost the Karachi Test against South Africa last October when Lawson became rude while answering to queries — not an appropriate thing to do considering the fact that it was his first post-match press conference since taking over as national coach. He was also quite unconvincing.

The selectors also got a taste of Lawson’s temper during a few meetings to discuss the team combination ahead and during the ongoing series against Zimbabwe. According to one selector, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Lawson actually becomes ‘unreasonable and rude’ while arguing with the selectors.

Parsons' new spin

Posted on 01/24/2008 in English cricket

England Lions arrive in Mumbai on Thursday for their four-week tour which sees them playing in the Duleep Trophy. They are being coached by a man or never played international or even domestic cricket, but David Parsons has always been earmarked as a coach with huge potential. He tells the Times about the pros and cons of coming into a high-level role without having playing experience.

“I think it can be an advantage [not having played professionally],” Parsons said. “To acquire knowledge and experience I have to use other people’s knowledge. I don’t take any ego into those relationships. The other advantage is I developed skills I would perhaps not have been able to develop if I spent those years playing cricket.”

The disadvantages are more predictable. “I think back to a Level 3 that I ran. I was doing a spin module and I looked around the room and there’s people like Tom Moody, John Bracewell and me talking to them about spin bowling,” Parsons said. “I found it quite a difficult experience.”

January 23, 2008

A champion's farewell?

Posted on 01/23/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	Sachin Tendulkar won't say if this is his last tour of Australia © Getty Images

Will the Adelaide Test be the last in Australia for India’s stars Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman? The answer could be yes and no. The Age finds out that while Kumble knows this is his last visit to Australia, Tendulkar and Dravid have not written off their chances of another tour.

In the Australian Mike Coward writes that if it is Tendulkar’s last Test in Australia, Adelaide, Don Bradman’s hometown, is a fitting farewell venue for a number of reasons.

Aside from his visits as India's master batsman that began in 1991-92 when he was 18, he was also in Adelaide for treatment for a severe back injury in 1999. To the delight of Rod Marsh and Wayne Phillips, principals at the Cricket Academy, he insisted on living with the students in a single room in the dormitory accommodation of the Del Monte guesthouse in suburban Henley Beach. Tendulkar laughed when reminded he had once asked Phillips for permission to leave the digs to buy fish and chips at nearby Henley square.

Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald says Australia need not fret about their Perth loss, as the return of Matthew Hayden and Brad Hogg will help immensely, while India must retain their focus.

India must surge again. Rows about the one-day side will not help. Nothing in Sourav Ganguly's batting or fielding in Perth suggested that he deserved a place in a 50-over side chosen to play on large, antipodean fields. Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman will also be going home, and not a whimper has been heard from their supporters. India cannot allow anything to distract them from matters in hand.

In the Daily Telegraph, Jon Pierik suggests Ricky Ponting faces one of his toughest challenges in Adelaide.

A bold decision

Posted on 01/23/2008 in Indian Cricket

"The best thing that the national selectors did was drop the two seniors [Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly] from the ODI squad," writes Makarand Waingankar in the Mumbai Mirror. "It requires courage of conviction. Knowing fully well that regional-minded observers will ignite controversy for dropping Ganguly and Dravid, the chairman of the selection committee Dilip Vengsarkar stamped his authority."

Gough's quick-step to the future

Posted on 01/23/2008 in English cricket

It would be easy to forget that Darren Gough is still a professional cricketer, and Yorkshire's captain at that. He is now more famous than at any time in his career after taking the reality TV world by storm with his success on Strictly Come Dancing. He has one more year left on his Yorkshire contract, then the TV life will beckon full time. As he takes part in a UK tour of Strictly, Gough chats to John Westerby in the Times about what he might do, and one thing he certainly won't do, after cricket.

His preferred next step would be a move on to the small screen, possibly as Ally McCoist’s replacement as a captain on A Question of Sport. “When I was younger I wanted to present a Saturday-night quiz show, something like The Price is Right,” Gough says. “But Question of Sport would be great. I’m quite similar to Ally and my personality would come across the same in front of a camera.”

He will not, however, be looking to enhance his profile by appearing in any jungle-based reality shows. “That just isn’t me,” he says. “I’m always up for a challenge, but eating a kangaroo’s bits is no way to prove yourself.”

Whatever happened to Cullen Bailey?

Posted on 01/23/2008 in Australian cricket

As Australia struggles to unearth a quality new spinner in the post-Warne era one of their projects, the Cricket Australia-contracted Cullen Bailey, is not even getting a game for his state. In the Age Chloe Saltau chats to Bailey about how he intends to rectify that problem.

When the national selectors were searching the country for a replacement for the injured Stuart MacGill last month, Bailey was so far from selection that he rigged up a rope across the practice nets. In a desperate effort to rediscover the flight and turn that had deserted him, he looped the ball over the rope.

Unlike spin, the stocks of top-class wicketkeeper-batsmen around Australia are overflowing and Jon Pierik in the Herald Sun says it might be time for Adam Gilchrist to step aside from the Test cricket scene.

If Gilchrist plays through another home summer at age 37, will he still be the right man for the job come the 2009 Ashes series? If not, then New South Wales's Brad Haddin must be handed his baggy green next summer. That's only fair for Haddin, who would then have six Tests at home and a tour of South Africa to ready himself for England. At 30, Haddin - who earns a spot in the Australia one-day team as a specialist batsman - is at his peak. His time is now.

January 22, 2008

In famous footsteps

Posted on 01/22/2008 in Australian cricket

	Nick Jewell: 'One of the best jobs in the world, no doubt' © Getty Images

An excellent article in the Age takes a look at state cricket in Australia and what drives the players.

Of course, they all want to play for Australia. Only the cream get there. But the lot of a state cricketer is not shabby. Consider leg-spinner Bryce McGain, who, at 35, cracked his first state contract and has all but had to quit his high-paying IT job with a major bank for the privilege of scraping through as a single dad on a base contract. For him, living the dream of being a professional cricketer has nothing to do with fortune.

The pay’s not bad, ranging from AUS$38,000 for a rookie to Aus$170,000 at the top for those who play every game. Nick Jewell, who opens for Victoria, sums things up nicely.

"One of the best jobs in the world, no doubt … My brother's a plumber and a lot of my friends are tradesmen, out there digging holes in the pouring rain fixing people's plumbing.”

January 21, 2008

The stuff dreams are made of

Posted on 01/21/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	India are winning on a far more regular basis than in the past ©Getty Images

India's cricket history is a story of a few peaks and many heartbreaks. After the victory at Perth, Pradeep Magazine, writing in the Hindustan Times, is hopeful that the Indian team will win on a more consistent basis.

... has our time come? An Indian team after the Sydney fiasco was not supposed to fight back against a real champion side, like this one has done. That itself is the stuff dreams are made of.

Are we finally near fulfilling that dream where victories like these won’t make us react as if we have conquered the world? There does seem a hope that this team is capable of giving our headline-hunters in the media enough wins to treat sport as it should be: Sport and not war.

In the Indian Express, Mini Kapoor wonders whether the uproar following the Sydney Test, along with India's win and Anil Kumble's decision to drop charges against Brad Hogg, would bring back "an Australia we once knew? An Australian team that’s tough but still knows that cricket is, in the end, still a game? A game that is there sometimes for the losing."

The hum of harmony

Posted on 01/21/2008 in Australian cricket

Ah, cricketing harmony, that’s what we like to see and that’s what we got, at last, with the Perth Test. It’s also what Mike Coward likes, as he recounts on Fox Sports and he knows the reason why it came to pass:

The game is indebted to victorious captain Anil Kumble and his vanquished counterpart Ricky Ponting.

The Australian rounds up the Indian newspapers’ reaction and looks at its problem child, causing upset for another reason here.

Michael Jeh, writing in the ABC News website, emphasises that any form of sledging blackens cricket's name.

January 20, 2008

Hayden saved partner's life

Posted on 01/20/2008 in Australian cricket

	Matthew Hayden: saving lives © Getty Images

Phil Jaques may be Matthew Hayden's opening partner following the retirement of Justin Langer, but it wouldn't have been so if not for Hayden's timely intervention. No, Hayden didn't use his muscle power to threaten the selectors to pick Jaques, but instead pulled his team-mate out of trouble.

The incident occurred during a boot camp in 2006, when Jaques had a misunderstanding with an instructor during an abseiling [rappelling] expedition. He is quoted in the Age:

Matty literally saved my life. I'm glad he was on the ball so I could have the chance to walk out to bat with him a few more times.

The same report says that a little difficulty in sighting the ball should not discourage youngsters and cites the example of Chris Rogers, the batsman who replaced Hayden for the Perth Test. Rogers "is partially colourblind, wears spectacles in the field and sometimes loses the ball in the maroon seats when he is playing at the Gabba." However, that didn't stop him from playing for Australia.

Australia played with distinction

Posted on 01/20/2008 in Australian cricket

	Ricky Ponting deserves credit for Australia's changed attitude on the field, says Peter Roebuck © Getty Images

Peter Roebuck defends Australia's mellowed on-field behaviour during the third Test in Perth, and is not willing to accept that the 16-match winning streak ended to due to the change. India played better cricket, he says in the Age.

In short, the Australians were not beaten because they have turned into a bunch of softies. To the contrary, they represented the nation with distinction and after a terrific tussle succumbed to a superbly led and single-minded side that played sturdy cricket for four days. The Australians did not exactly put out a welcome mat for each batsman or blush every time an appeal was rejected. Instead, they shook hands before the match, kept their manners when players collided, did not appeal unless they thought the batsman might be out, did not claim any questionable catches and generally played cricket that the entire world and not just apologists can recognise as hard but fair. As vice-captain and behind the sticks, Adam Gilchrist served with distinction.

Roebuck, who had said that Ponting must be sacked after the controversial Test in Sydney, commended the Australian captain for the manner in which he handled his team in Perth.

Ponting deserves credit for the way his side played. A man under attack faces a stark choice. He can dismiss the remarks and surround himself with backslappers, a species in abundance on this continent. Or he can take the opportunity provided by provocation to re-examine his path. Ponting chose the latter course. It was not a single article that caused the commotion, but the response to it. Moreover, Anil Kumble's comments were altogether more telling, coming from a man of such stature. Australia had lost touch with its better self.

Australia haven't lost their edge

Posted on 01/20/2008 in Australian cricket

	Shane Warne poses with poker champion Joe Hachem © Getty Images

Shane Warne dismisses suggestions that Australia lost the Perth Test due to their changed attitude on the field. He states they were outdone by a team that played better in the Daily Telegraph.

Maybe they were not as aggressive in their body language in Perth as they normally are, but I think that was the nature of this Test, in which they were behind for most of the game.

Maybe a few things were not as they should have been in Sydney, but their body language showed me that the Australian team cared and it was important to them to win the game.

Warne also indicated he was not going to take up poker professionally.

And for anyone who's wondering, I'm not becoming a pro player, just a former sportsman who has a passion for the game.

In the same paper, Robert Craddock says the loss may prove beneficial in the long term, given Australia have away tours to Pakistan, India, South Africa and England lined up.

The Australian team needs to be pressurised and occasionally beaten, as they were in Perth, to learn who can stay in the kitchen when the temperatures are soaring.

Butcher than butch

Posted on 01/20/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	Ricky Ponting: A Norman Mailer clone? © Getty Images

The Observer's Will Buckley likens the Australian team to the famed writer, the late Norman Mailer, who was described by another novelist, Jim Lewis, as being "the greatest lesbian writer since Gertrude Stein." According to Buckley, this was because "Mailer was so aggressively heterosexual that he had crossed the line from macho to butch."

For Mailer, substitute the Australian cricket XI, who can lay fair claim to being the greatest lesbian sports team since Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova doubled up to win a Wimbledon and a couple of US Opens. Ricky Ponting's men are that butch. They are butcher than Terry Butcher at his butchest.

Not that this was always the case. A quarter of a century ago Australia were losing the Ashes and Kim Hughes was in tears, a double humiliation that convinced the Australian selectors to stop selecting curly blonds as captain and start picking Mailer clones. Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and now Ricky Ponting, all hewn from the same baggy green cloth. Has there ever been a ballsier quartet in all of sport?

Success followed with a unique, at the time, run of 16 Test victories; followed by another 16 streak, which they attempted to better on Sky Sports last week. Being Mailerish, the achievement was not without controversy as their record-equalling win was surrounded by insult and injury. The Indians wanted to flounce off, the Aussies stood their ground. The world and his Australian wife took the Indians' side. Ponting's men were on the cusp of history, yet despised in their own land. Totally butch.

Meanwhile, Iain Fletcher, writing in the Independent on Sunday, describes the new-found peace between Australia and India during the Perth Test.

The Sunday Telegraph's Scyld Berry says that after Australia's loss at Perth, "England will have the comfort of knowing the Australians are not invincible" looking ahead to the Ashes.

Miller versus Keegan

Posted on 01/20/2008 in English cricket

Geoff Miller’s appointment as national selector is, according to Mike Atherton in today’s Sunday Telegraph, a good choice. “He knows the game,” Atherton said, “having played it at the highest level; he is not so big a name that he will become a distraction, and, in my dealings with him, he has shown the right mix of honesty, straightforwardness and discretion.” However, the difference between the announcement of England’s new chief selector, and Kevin Keegan’s return to St James’ Park, could not be greater:

There was no clearer demonstration of the divergent paths that cricket and football have taken these last two decades than on Friday afternoon. At St James' Park, amidst a whirligig of cameras and flashing lights and before a throng of reporters, Newcastle welcomed Kevin Keegan back from exile. At a desolate-looking Lord's, meanwhile, five cameras (one hand-held) and a dozen scribes sat at the feet of Geoff Miller, England's new chairman of selectors, now the so-called national selector. Even the biscuits, kindly laid on, were barely touched.

It is interesting to speculate, had such twin events occurred on a wintry Friday afternoon 20 years ago, what the relative glitz factor might have been. Maybe Newcastle would still have been the more powerful magnet. But the satellite-induced football revolution had barely begun, England's cricketers held the Ashes and cricket could boast the biggest name in English sport in Ian Botham. The contrast would not have been so acute.

He adds a cautionary note to the ECB’s communications department, too. “The relative lack of media interest in Miller's ascension could also have been because notice of the press conference was not given until two hours beforehand (memo to the communications department: not everyone can afford to live within an hour of London).”

January 19, 2008

Kumble finally gets his due

Posted on 01/19/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	Anil Kumble: Finally in the limelight © Getty Images

Peter Roebuck pays tribute to Anil Kumble in the Sydney Morning Herald, and says in hindsight India will question its delay in appreciating its champion cricketer.

In so many ways Kumble has been the rock of the team, a constant in the raging seas of life. He has been a Churchillian bowler, prepared to fight them on the beaches and on the fields and never to give up.

Few men have so far outstripped the natural resources assigned to them in their early days. But sport has always been inclined to mistake style for ability, show for substance.

In the same paper, Chloe Saltau says that "[Ishant] Sharma, with his heavy bling and natural physical gifts, could be a megastar in cricket-mad India".

Greg Baum writes in the Age, "three young Indian quicks who are all younger than Australia's youngest and had never set foot in Perth previously, exploited the local conditions better than the Australians. This as much as the result will exercise Australian minds; it hints at decline."

Meanwhile, in the Daily Telegraph, Robert Craddock says that Australian fans must get used to the occasional loss.

Mustard keen to catch selectors' eyes

Posted on 01/19/2008 in English cricket

	Phil Mustard: 'My aim is to make them pick me' © Getty Images

Tim Ambrose might be the selectors' first choice as Test keeper for the forthcoming New Zealand series, but Phil Mustard - rather oddly bracketed as a one-day opener-cum-keeper - is determined to force his way in, as Richard Rae finds out in today's Guardian.

In New Zealand the one-day matches are also before the Tests, and Mustard, described last season by Shane Warne as "the best wicketkeeper/batsman in England", is confident he can score enough runs and keep wicket well enough to secure his place for the five-day matches.

"It was good to play in the one-day internationals, but it's only when you've made it into the Test team that you can say you've made the grade, and hopefully I'll get a chance to prove I'm a Test player," said the 24-year-old. "I worked hard on my batting during the seven or eight weeks we were in Sri Lanka, and over the last couple of weeks here at Chester-Le-Street.

"When it came to the one-dayers my instructions were to go out and play positively, the way I do for Durham. I didn't go on to get the big scores I would have liked [his top score was 28], but I did get the team off to a bit of a flyer in the first two matches. The coaches and I had a few chats after the series, and the message was to be a bit less extravagant - to remain positive, but pick the right ball. Obviously I'll have to progress and bat longer in New Zealand, but my aim is to make them pick me."

India's keeper of faith

Posted on 01/19/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

In a team full of forceful personalities with no shortage of alpha males, Laxman is an ephemeral presence, writes Sharda Ugra in her blog Free Hit.

Laxman's walk to the crease is all purposeful, rolling-shouldered, Johnnie Walker advert. Once there, he combines a stillness of demeanour with a bustle of run-seeking. Unlike in Sydney, his innings at Perth wasn't filled with strokes that picked the ball 13 cms from outside off and sent the disoriented thing to mid-wicket, but he could still look like he was batting for pleasure. At the end-of-day press conference, he remarked bafflingly that he enjoyed playing under pressure. Perhaps he thinks the words are synonyms.

Australia's castle ready to be stormed

Posted on 01/19/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	You could imagine Ricky Ponting getting about the outfield with a much-thumbed copy of the Spirit of Cricket in his back pocket, newly annotated by Anil Kumble © Getty Images

A fascinating fourth day is shaping up at the WACA and Robert Craddock writes in the Daily Telegraph that if Australia are beatable in Perth, they are beatable anywhere.

If India can storm the castle, unchallenged for 16 Tests, you can bet within months other nations will be bursting through the barricades and crash-tackle an Australian side that will soon tour Pakistan, India and the West Indies.

Mike Coward in the Weekend Australian believes that India appeared in a better frame of mind than Australia after the Sydney saga, and the Age’s Greg Baum also explores that theme by observing Australia in the field.

They were not sulking, but they were nonplussed. It was as if they now understood what they couldn't do, but were still unsure about what they could. You could imagine Ricky Ponting getting about the outfield with a much-thumbed copy of the Spirit of Cricket in his back pocket, newly annotated by Anil Kumble.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck says Brett Lee had too little support, while Chloe Saltau in the Age and Peter Lalor in the Weekend Australian both look at Shaun Tait’s miserable return to Test cricket. Lalor writes that Tait “has been the cactus in the school play who somehow managed to miss his cue and forget his lines”.

Australia's latest cricket tragic

Posted on 01/19/2008 in Australian cricket

If Australia’s former prime minister John Howard is jealous of the new man Kevin Rudd for having the Gabba in his Brisbane electorate, he must be equally envious of the new foreign minister. Stephen Smith’s electorate includes the WACA, and in the Weekend Australian Mike Coward looks at Australia’s newest high-profile cricket tragic.

For Smith, the WACA Ground is a very special place and flooded with memories of the feats of cricketers he has long admired, none more than his hero Graham "Garth" McKenzie. He was 12 when first taken to the ground by his grandfather for the Sheffield Shield match between Western Australia and South Australia in 1967-68. The previous year, his family had moved from Narrogin in the south of the state to Perth and his first sighting of some of the great names of Australian cricket is one of his most treasured memories. He carried with him not a modest sheet of paper but the book, the Rothmans Book of Ashes Cricket 1946-1963 edited by Ted Dexter, he had been awarded as dux of Grade VII at Christian Brothers School at Highgate. He was bursting with excitement and somehow hoped he could secure a signature or two.

January 18, 2008

Hayden's absence costs Australia

Posted on 01/18/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	The Australian team are sorely missing the services of Matthew Hayden, with the bat and in the slips © AFP

The Sydney Morning Herald points out that Australia are perhaps lagging behind in Perth due to the unavailability of Matthew Hayden, who's out due to a hamstring injury.

Matthew Hayden's absence from "the leather lounge" - as he describes his customary spot in the Australian slips cordon - has been almost as costly for Australia as his temporary vacation from the top of the order in the third Test against India.

Steve Waugh feels Australia should not lose faith in Shaun Tait, who went wicketless in his 21 overs. He says in the Daily Telegraph,

One of the problems in choosing a four-man pace attack is that the No. 4 bowler, especially if he is the man out of form, can tend to get the thin edge of the wedge.

I always found it very difficult managing an attack overstocked with fast or slow men. It's very hard to give everyone enough bowling, the end they like to bowl from or the ball when it is nice and hard.

Irfan Pathan, who yorked Waugh with a reverse-swinging delivery Waugh in his second Test, came in for praise.

When I first saw him four years ago I marvelled at the way he could swing the ball both ways and it has been surprising to see him dropped because of poor form and only appear for the third Test of the series.

Australia succumb to the tyranny of niceness

Posted on 01/18/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

David Hopps has been dispatched to Perth by the Guardian to cover the aftermath of Bollyline. Except, as he's been discovering, there's not a lot of aggro to report. Quite the contrary in fact. The Aussies have been so concerned about minding their Ps and Qs, they've temporarily forgotten how to win a cricket match.

Many psychologists will tell you that niceness is bad for you. Some psychologists even talk about the "tyranny of niceness", the urge that prevents you reaching your full potential. No psychologist is yet on record as saying that niceness can cost you Test matches but, if Australia lose in Perth, Ricky Ponting might well receive a cold call from one.

Australia have occasionally played about as naturally as Pete Doherty at a gig for the WI. Feral appeals have been arrested halfway through. Umpires have received heartfelt apologies for undue enthusiasm. Close-in fielders have politely asked the non-striking batsmen if they are in their way when they clearly are not. They are behaving as cricket would wish them to behave yet they are not entirely comfortable with it.

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