Not having the greatest of times in IPL II hasn’t really bothered Muttiah Muralitharan. For someone with more international wickets than anybody in history that may seem surprising, but Murali explains to Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in the Hindustan Times that T20 for him is more about containment than taking wickets.
'Not quite. A good player can hit you out of the park because he’s taking more chances. A not-so-good player can do the same because he too is taking more chances. He won’t be blamed by the captain if he’s caught at the boundary line. The same shot that can draw criticism in Test matches will make a player famous in T20. As a bowler, I’ve to accept this.'
In the same paper, Anil Kumble feels for the Kolkata Knight Riders, the only team with a prolonged slump this season. With his team, the Royal Challengers Bangalore, in a similar situation last year he believes the most important thing is to be on the button all the time, as well as the team rallying around one or two players.
When the results are not going your way the challenge , is to look at each game as an individual event, keep away the frustration and be brave till things turn around. If you go in thinking about the last lost match, you’ll only end up making things difficult.
It’s not easy to have such a fearless mindset and we’ve seen that the younger guys can adapt quicker. The way we were brought up, smashing the ball in the air first up isn’t the most natural thing. But the younger guys have grown up with a different way of looking at the game.
He is the team’s official DJ — playing a selection of rock, pop, jazz and blues in the team bus; he’s also a jester of sorts, keeping the team in good spirits. Apart from that, he beats Glenn McGrath and Daniel Vettori in card games every night here, tees off with conviction and surfs as well as any Australian on the beach. But it’s when David Warner walks in to bat that the buzz really catches on in the Delhi Daredevils dug-out. GS Vivek has more in the Indian Express.
In the same paper, he also lists a few must-haves for the shortest format of the game.
While the IPL has been a happy place for little-known Australians, Owais Shah returned to county cricket with Middlesex with little to show for three weeks in the tournament apart from some memories, a few new friends — and almost £100,000. The story is the same for Paul Collingwood, Glenn McGrath, Mashrafe Mortaza and Tyron Henderson among many others. Patrick Kidd in The Times finds out more.
Meanwhile, Steve Waugh, in an interview with Mid-Day, speaks of the pros and cons of Twenty20 cricket and his own interesting association with the IPL.
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