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March 7, 2008
Posted on 03/07/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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India's economic boom has released a new sort of cricketer - tough, independent, materialistic and comfortable in his own skin
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Australia was swept aside by an ambitious, fit, young, fresh and superbly-led Indian side, Peter Roebuck says in the Age.
India's economic boom has released a new sort of cricketer - tough, independent, materialistic and comfortable in his own skin. Suddenly, India seemed to represent the future, Australia the past.
Australia was confronted and affronted by a younger version of itself. Australia always has had a strong and democratic cricketing culture. The captain is a tough nut from Mowbray and his predecessor grimaced more than he grinned. India used to depend upon players steeped in the ethics and traditions of the game.
Roebuck feels Australia lost their focus after the controversial episodes during the Sydney Test.
Whatever the right and wrongs of the Sydney Test, the Australians lost their equanimity and never recovered. Harbhajan's exchange with Andrew Symonds was brief and of little account. And Symonds had started it. Symonds and Matthew Hayden are about as diplomatic as Sir Les Patterson. The rest was madness. Far from breaking their spirit, the attacks on Harbhajan helped the Indians to form the pack mentality that has long been the hallmark of Australian teams. The spinner's refusal to take a backward step was part of that.
Posted on 03/07/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Harsha Bhogle: If Ishant can retain his ability to learn, his spell of bowling to Ponting at Perth will become a defining moment
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Harsha Bhogle wasn't particularly impressed with Ishant Sharma when he first saw him at nets in England. In the practice matches he seemed to lack rhythm and pace, yet those around him were optimistic. It was in Australia, Bhogle writes in his Indian Express column, that Ishant blossomed.
... he worked on the ball that leaves the right-handers. Till that moment, he had been one-dimensional, bowling quickly but predictably. In the years to come, if he can retain his ability to learn, his spell of bowling to Ponting at Perth will become a defining moment. Australia knew they had a fight on their hands from a man who had taken no more than a handful of wickets. He had pace but more than anything else he was confident and willing to back himself. From that moment onwards, with the batsman aware that the ball could go either way, he became, to quote Adam Gilchrist after the Adelaide Test, “lethal”.
March 6, 2008
Posted on 03/06/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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India played a brand of one-day cricket that might have been fashioned by Dhoni: nerveless, intuitive, street-smart
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India's CB Series campaign reflects the personality of Mahendra Singh Dhoni according to the editors at the Hindu.
India played a brand of one-day cricket that might have been fashioned by Dhoni: nerveless, intuitive, street-smart. On the other hand, Australia’s fallibility was mirrored in its captain, Ricky Ponting. He was part of a collective batting failure, produced by fatigue and triggered by the swinging white ball.
In Hindustan Times Seema Goswami writes that the Great Indian Dream is the game of cricket itself.
In many ways, cricket has become the fastest route to social mobility. Virender Sehwag, who had to change two buses to get to cricket practice at the Kotla from his home in Najafgarh, where his father traded in seeds and grains, is now the toast of Delhi high society. Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni share the stage with Shah Rukh at events, with King Khan even teaching them a few good dance moves. Harbhajan Singh, who initially couldn’t follow what was said in team meetings because he didn’t understand English, can now hold his own against the combined might of the Australian media.
And in the Indian Express, Kunal Pradhan analyses the similarities and differences between Sourav Ganguly and Dhoni as captain.
At a macro level, Dhoni is very similar to Ganguly. They both fought for their players, they both defied the age-old law of parochialism, they were both sources of inspiration to a burgeoning new India ...
On a micro level, however, the two skippers could not be more different. Ganguly was hard, in-your-face, loud and audacious. Dhoni is cool, calm, and in control of not just his side but also his own conduct.
"It is debatable if any individual, Muttiah Muralitharan included, has had to endure the ordeal Harbhajan was systematically subjected to by the collective might of the Australian cricket team, the so-called sporting Australian public, and the completely prejudiced Australian media," writes R Kaushik in the Deccan Herald.
March 4, 2008
Posted on 03/04/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Which one of the two is the Suez Canal?
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At times Sachin Tendulkar's bat appears as wide as the Suez Canal, says Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. He says it's a privilege to watch players like Tendulkar and Shane Warne.
Over the past 15 years, cricket enthusiasts have enjoyed many delights but two stand out. Anyone able to follow the careers of Tendulkar and Shane Warne at close quarters has been privileged. They count among the most enchanting and compelling cricketers the game has seen. Both were craftsmen of high calibre but also artists of supreme talent. Warne was a mesmerising tweaker with a fiercely competitive streak. The Indian remains a classical batsman unburdened with ego and capable of exquisite strokeplay.
Anand Vasu, of the Hindustan Times, writes about the magnitude of India's achievement in Australia.
When Mahendra Singh Dhoni spoke soon after the win - perhaps the only Indian in the squad calm enough to say a few sensible words - he, perhaps for the first time, referred to this bunch as "my team" rather than "the boys" or "our team."
In the Daily Telegraph, Robert Craddock says Australia's tri-series loss to India is perhaps only a sign of things to come.
The gap between Australia and the rest has closed to the point where the national selectors must be getting sweaty palms. The Indian team which trumped Australia last night contains just one player - Sachin Tendulkar - over 30.
Australia, by contrast, had just three players - James Hopes, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson - under 30. Earlier this week India stormed to victory in the under-19 World Cup. They are a nation on the rise.
In the same newspaper, Michael Hussey says Adam Gilchrist's retirement will leave a big gap to fill.
Moderation will be forsaken, balance will be lost--but maybe, just maybe, this victory, against all odds, deserves a very special celebration, writes Rohit Mahajan in Outlook. Also read the Pioneer editorial on the triumph.
While Adam Gilchrist and Brad Hogg went off in a blaze of praise, carrying a crystal vase each, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid (and V.V.S. Laxman, don’t forget) were interred sans ceremony, say Sankarshan Thakur and Charu Sudan Kasturi in the Kolkata-based Telegraph.
Devendra Pandey, of the Indian Express, talks to Rohit Sharma about the tour.
What can you recall of your 2006 tour to Australia for the Top End series and what has changed now?
I remember when I came here to play the last time I didn’t have enough money! I couldn’t shop... I didn’t have a single penny to spend. In fact, I even borrowed money from my teammates that time. Now, fortunately, things have changed. That sums up a bit of the difference I’ve been experiencing.
Posted on 03/04/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Matthew Hayden: A superhero or a batsman?
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| Barney Ronay, in his blog in the Guardian, does a take on Channel 9's coverage of the first final of the CB Series between Australia and India in light of Matthew Hayden's controversial comments about Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma.
Happily for Channel 9, we got what everybody wanted 10 minutes in. "One of the great clashes," Ian Healy announced solemnly. "Sharma and Hayden." Jabbing murderously at his crease Hayden looked, as ever, like an anvil-jawed, gorilla-chested Marvel Comics superhero dressed up in a green nylon leisure suit. Sharma, on the other hand, could pass for a sensitive youth from the scholarship set with a passion for 19th century Romantic poetry and playing the bassoon. On the back of his shirt he had "Ishant", which sounds like the peg for an interminable Two Ronnies sketch. Something along the lines of "Can you tell me the name of this bowler?" "Ishant." "There's no need to be like that." "I'm telling you, Ishant." Repeat until laughter track has hysterics.
And over in The Age, Paul Toohey says he is finding Mark Nicholas increasingly tiresome to listen to.
Nicholas feels it his duty to lick the boots of his fellow commentators as if they were gods with his skin-crawlingly admiring questions. He treats standard shots executed by Australian batsmen, or throws to the stumps by Australian fielders (even ones that miss) as though their actions have been personally guided by the hand of the Almighty.
March 3, 2008
Posted on 03/03/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
Steve Waugh in the Daily Telegraph gives his take on Matthew Hayden’s “obnoxious weed” comment about Harbhajan Singh.
Often, as a player, radio interviews - and in particular the more relaxed FM networks - are where the cliches and sportspeak are abandoned as you inadvertently drift off into the spirit of the interview and blurt out something that you wouldn't normally say in a more controlled environment which often leads to a headline and harsh consequences.
Writing in the Age, Peter Roebuck is pleased Hayden and Harbhajan put the niggle behind them and both performed well at the SCG on Sunday.
Peter Lalor, in the Australian, looks at how the eventful series has affected Ricky Ponting.
From the moment the one-day series started in India last September he has battled nonsense and scandal at every turn. Players have clashed on the field and nations have clashed off it. His team and his board are at loggerheads for the first time in years. Controversy has stuck to the Australians like dog excrement sticks to the shoes. It has left a stain across the carpet of the summer and will take some removing.
February 29, 2008
Posted on 02/29/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
India's tour of Australia may have produced the most riveting cricket in recent times, but it has also spewed venom, anger, even hatred, thereby making it deserving enough to put it in a leaky time capsule and bury it deep somewhere, writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express. Matthew Hayden's 'obnoxious weed' comment on Harbhajan Singh and MS Dhoni's suggestion that youngsters need to learn the art of sledging doesn't do the game any credit. He calls on the ICC to step forward and just ban sledging.
And yet, unwittingly, Hayden may have done us a favour for he has surely taken the game closer to the “zero-tolerance” on sledging that the ICC so happily endorsed last week. It can no longer remain on the agenda, it can no longer require another meeting to endorse. It must be done today. Cricket is on the path to hatred and the ICC needs to pull it back now.
February 28, 2008
Posted on 02/28/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
Why did Hayden do it? Kadambari Murali has her say in the Hindustan Times.
There was no earthly reason for a smart, experienced player like Hayden to make obnoxious comments on public radio about an Indian player or make fun of another. If you hear the show, you’ll hear him trying to mimic Ishant Sharma’s accent and manner of speaking and given the current atmosphere, that isn’t fun and games, it’s racial. Period.
David Hopps, of the Guardian, believes 'remorseless Hayden revels in bad reputation.'
It is striking behaviour from a man who talks regularly about himself as a committed Christian; presumably more fundamentalist than pacifist. He has just won an award as Australia's best one-day player of the year. His outburst has received predictable approval from many Australian sports fans on web forums.
..He revels in his reputation as Australia's most unforgiving on-field sledger - many England players privately view him as a loudmouthed bully - and now it seems that he intends to rubbish some opponents off the field as well as on it.
Posted on 02/28/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
In the Hindustan Times Pradeep Magazine writes that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the "new Ganguly of Indian cricket."
He did not want seniors in the team and stuck to his guns, much to the chagrin of many. For many, former captain Sourav Ganguly is his mentor. Yet when it came to what he thought was the future of his team, he shunted him out. Today, after the openers' failures, is he missing the presence of Ganguly? Going by what one can read of the man, certainly not. He would rather lose, backing his gameplan than compromise on what he believes is the way ahead.
In many ways, he is the new Ganguly of Indian cricket. May be much calmer from the outside, but someone who is going to be there for those on whom he has faith. Ganguly, through his steadfast support to those who were talented and his aggressive approach, transformed the Indian team.
R Kaushik, writing in the Deccan Herald, dwells on the rapid rise of Dhoni.
Superstars aren't shown the door; time waits for them to call it quits, however belated that might be. To go against the grain, therefore, and insist on the blooding of youth at the expense of some of the biggest names to have graced the cricket firmament called for not just immense conviction, but also great courage. To the cynical several, Dhoni’s successful push for the infusion of young blood was a pointer to his rapidly growing clout within the establishment.
Posted on 02/28/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
R Kaushik, of the Deccan Herald, writes that "From a very early age, Tendulkar worked out that the best way to silence criticism was to score runs. Not even 18 years of non-stop adulation bordering on worship has spoilt Tendulkar."
February 10, 2008
Posted on 02/10/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Mahendra Singh Dhoni was right on the ball during India's win in Melbourne
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India's attacking approach in Melbourne ensured they could match and even outdo Australia, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. He believes the attitude was best exemplified by the young Ishant Sharma and applauded Mahendra Singh Dhoni's handling of the 19-year old.
As might be expected from a novice, Sharma held nothing back, charging to the crease and mixing corkers with wides and no-balls. Youth knows nothing of mortality let alone fear. In his enthusiasm, he over-pitched and suffered as Matthew Hayden drove sumptuously. His first two overs cost 24 runs and the scoreboard was rattling along.
Now Dhoni faced his most important decision of the day. A lesser man might have withdrawn Sharma until his blood had cooled. Sri Lanka had made this mistake in the previous match at the SCG, scattering the field at the first sight of an antipodean charge. That's no way to beat these hosts. This is a confronting continent of fires and drought.
Dhoni proved his worth by telling Sharma to have another crack. Wisely, he did not ask him to cut his pace but instead suggested pulling back his length a foot or so (one of Ian Thorpe's pedals might have been required). Encouraged, Sharma produced a vivid spell that changed the course of the match.
The Herald Sun says Dhoni is the probably the closest to the retiring Adam Gilchrist among wicketkeeper-batsmen.
He averages 43 and has a strike-rate of 94, whereas Gilchrist averages in the mid-30s and scores at 96.
Two years ago Dhoni smashed Gilchrist's record for the highest score by a wicketkeeper, 172, when he smashed 183 not out from 145 balls with 10 sixes against Sri Lanka.
He's no part-timer with the gloves, either, impressing during the Test series with footwork that compared more than favourably with the Australian's fading efforts.
February 9, 2008
Posted on 02/09/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
"Anil Kumble is to Indian cricket what the house of Tatas is to Indian business ethos. Excellence in a remarkably understated way," writes KN Anand in the New Indian Express.
Had Sunil Gavaskar been leading the side in Sydney, there would have been hell to pay. His temperament and his track record would have guaranteed it ... Had Kapil Dev been in charge at Sydney, he’d have shrugged and got on with the game. A Saurav Ganguly would have thundered, “Damn the torpedoes —full speed ahead.” A Dravid would have sounded like Greg Chappell, issuing a 200-word statement which would have been translated into just one word: “Disappointed.” And Kumble? Well, he displayed an extraordinary ability to see the larger picture without succumbing to side issues.
Posted on 02/09/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
Peter Roebuck says it is unwise for India to be planning so far ahead of the 2011 World Cup. Instead India must set out to win as many matches as possible. Read the full piece in the Hindu.
Dhoni and his think-tank must also avoid the temptation to use inexperience as an excuse every time a match is lost. Responses of that sort display a lack of faith. Rather they should absorb the lessons and promote improvement. Players must become familiar with their roles.
Sharda Ugra in India Today says Dhoni and the young bats need to show India enough signs of why it was a good idea to ask Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman to go home, and not only by taking catching blinders or running fast.
February 6, 2008
Posted on 02/06/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
"What does it mean to be a "good sport"? Is it as obvious as simply playing fairly, or in these days of fiercely competitive professional rivalry does the very idea of being a "good sport" need renovation?" ABC's Radio Sports Factor investigates.
Major-General Michael Jeffrey, lawyer, blogger and cricket fan, Irfan Yusuf, Fairfax journalist and ABC cricket commentator, Peter Roebuck and Debbie Simms, manager of the Australian Sports Commission's Ethics Unit, form the panel.
Roebuck: The sort of outburst of nationalism that began in the 1970s when this country freed itself from English petticoats, in theatre, in comedy, in so many areas, politics, and so many areas it freed itself from that. Subsequent to that for 30 years there's been this great breast-beating tradition, chest-thumping tradition in Australian sport, in some Australian sport of course, not all of them. And that I think, I saw the SCG Test Match as basically the last statement of that, and I almost was challenging Australia to say, Well, we've sort of done that, we've established ourselves as a proud and independent nation now.
I think what happened at the SCG was partly that Australia regressed, because it's trying to be partisan I believe, but also that India started playing the old Australia, that it too is now establishing itself as a proud and independent nation, and those two, like two big bulls at each other, they came. There only used to be one bull in this paddock you know, and now there's two. And that's what happened there. So the Australians, I would submit are trying to move on a little bit; they've made some efforts in that regard. The Indians are determined to establish their right to the paddock as well, and so they're now playing, as they think, as Australia has always played.
Dileep Premachandran, writing in the ABC's Unleashed, says Andrew Symonds only has himself, and his words, to blame for his tarnished reputation in India.
Bang in the middle of a heated one-day series last October, Symonds mouthed off about the country and its celebration of an unexpected win in the inaugural T20 World Cup.
Perhaps he was motivated by envy. Perhaps he forgot to engage his brain. Whatever it was, the anger of the crowds was palpable. Some say that the targeting of Symonds with monkey chants was proof of inherent racism. They neglected to mention the adulation that followed the likes of Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden around the country. The reason Symonds was bagged had very little to do with his ancestry and everything to do with the manner in which he had disparaged a young nation still trying to find its niche in the world.
February 3, 2008
Posted on 02/03/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
There were several reasons for India's second successive batting failure against an inspired Australian attack, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. Asking a jet-lagged Manoj Tiwary to face a rampant pace attack on a juicy pitch was madness, as was the Indian board's reluctance to add a practice game or two for India's 'Twenty20 stars' ahead of the 50-over CB Series.
If India is wise it will keep 20-over cricket in its place. If young batsmen think only about 20-over cricket they will never learn to build an innings or to play off both feet or to counter the moving ball on fresh antipodean decks.
In the Daily Telegraph, Robert Craddock says Brad Hogg's omission at the Gabba is a worrying sign for Australia's spin-bowling future.
Wrist-spin bowling in Australia is officially starting to fade from view again to the point where Australia's next spin bowling debutant could currently be as far back as the under-17s - or even lower.
Peter Lalor in the Australian looks at the decline in Australia's fielding.
Posted on 02/03/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
Writing in the Outlook, Brian Stoddart believes the whole Harbhajan-Symonds saga throws up "some serious questions about the nature and mental attitude of the Australian game in dimensions running from the on-field approach through the game's management to the Australian media's handling of affairs".
Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspaper cricket writers have been noticeably pro-Australian during this series ... That approach has extended to the Channel Nine commentary fed to the Australian and international public. The judicious Richie Benaud is now edged out by the partisan efforts of ex-players like Ian Healy.
... At the on-field level it is easy to see it as just the Australian players having unexpectedly "glass jaws", the ability to dish out on-field invective accompanied by a lowered capacity to absorb it
Posted on 02/03/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Andrew Symonds: People saying I'm not playing cricket in the right spirit really makes my blood boil
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Andrew Symonds has had to watch what he says in the media while the Harbhajan Singh affair has dragged on. Now that it's over, he writes in his News Ltd column that the past month has been the most stressful period of his career.
From the initial racism row to the threats about the whole series being called off, my head hasn't stopped spinning. There have been meetings with lawyers and advisors, a day in the Adelaide courtroom, the charges downgraded by the court, fingers pointed and all of a sudden I'm somehow getting the blame. To have people questioning my integrity as a person and cricketer is pretty ordinary. Anyone who knows me understands that I'm a very straight up and down bloke, what you see is what you get, so to have people saying I'm not playing cricket in the right spirit really makes my blood boil.
Symonds says the experience has been particularly hard on his family and he is thankful to the "rock solid" Ricky Ponting for standing up for him.
I'm quite happy for the general public to make up their own minds about what did or didn't happen, but I can assure you I wouldn't take a stand against something unless I really believed in it.
February 2, 2008
Posted on 02/02/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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The Australians aren't thrilled with the outcome of Harbhajan Singh's appeal against his three-Test ban
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Australian players frustrated at the lack of support during Harbhajan Singh's appeal want to send in a letter to Cricket Australia expressing their disappointment, says Alex Brown of the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Herald understands that the players, through their representative body, the Australian Cricketers' Association, will formally air their grievances to an employer they believe pressured them into accepting a move to downgrade a charge of racism against Harbhajan.
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The association feels the board displayed hypocrisy in having espoused a commitment to stamping out racial vilification from cricket, only to sweep it under the carpet.
In a tongue-in-cheek article in the Daily Telegraph, Robert Craddock wants Cricket Australia to scrap the prestigious Allan Border Medal and replace it with "The Harbies". Awards are handed out for such categories as "Best foreign language actor" (Harbhajan Singh) and "Best comedy" (The Spirit of Cricket pact signed by Australia's leading players) among others.
Meanwhile, Cricket Australia is in negotiations with scientists to develop an appropriate ball for night cricket, reports the Australian.
January 31, 2008
Posted on 01/31/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
Andrew Symonds has earned the reputation of being one of the hardest members of the Australian team as well as the most complex, writes Peter Lalor of the Australian.
He may have won an Alliance Francaise poetry award in 1988, but he is not a cultured man.
He is abrasive, he plays hard and he is his own worst enemy, but he deserves better treatment and more sympathy than he has been shown.
Justin Langer comes out in strong support of his former team-mate and explains why people should stop criticising the way Australian teams play cricket.
I've played against Roy when he's with Queensland and it's like playing against your worst enemy. He plays hard, I admire that, I respect that, that's the way he plays the game.The irony is that the bloke who makes his team-mates laugh the most makes the people who don't know him snarl the most.
January 30, 2008
Posted on 01/30/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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The front of the Age's sport pages reflects the anger inside Australia following the outcome of the Harbhajan Singh hearing
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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
Posted on 01/29/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Shane Warne believes Adam Gilchrist provided the Australia team with common sense
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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 27, 2008
Posted on 01/27/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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"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"
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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.
January 26, 2008
Posted on 01/26/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Adam Gilchrist should be appreciated, not attacked
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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.
January 24, 2008
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.
Posted on 01/24/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Peter Roebuck has reason to believe Sachin Tendulkar will tour Australia for yet another Test series
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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.
January 23, 2008
Posted on 01/23/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Sachin Tendulkar won't say if this is his last tour of Australia
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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.
January 21, 2008
Posted on 01/21/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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India are winning on a far more regular basis than in the past
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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."
January 20, 2008
Posted on 01/20/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Ricky Ponting: A Norman Mailer clone?
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| 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.
January 19, 2008
Posted on 01/19/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Anil Kumble: Finally in the limelight
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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.
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.
Posted on 01/19/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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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
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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”.
January 18, 2008
Posted on 01/18/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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The Australian team are sorely missing the services of Matthew Hayden, with the bat and in the slips
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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.
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.
Elsewhere in The Guardian, Mike Selvey has been musing on the implications of Shane Warne's new favourite sport, Poker.
Well, good for him to get involved in what clearly is a burgeoning market, particularly online. But Texas Hold 'Em's gain is cricket's loss, or more specifically that of Hampshire, the county side he is contracted to lead this coming season as he has done for the past couple of years.
This week it was revealed that he will not be joining them for the start of the season and may miss chunks later on as his poker commitments take over. A contracted cricketer, one of the most famous ever employed by that county, is not going to fulfil his playing obligations because of poker.
Posted on 01/18/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
As Australia face the potential end of their 16-match winning streak Robert Craddock in the Herald Sun asks the question, is this the finish of a great cricketing dynasty?
It is a fair question and one that must be asked in the wake of not just yesterday's collapse, but the startling themes of the past seven days of bare-knuckled Test combat between Australia and India. Even if Australia wriggles off the canvas and wins the third Test, it can be said with some surety that the mighty Australian aura is fading. Since the start of the Sydney Test, India has stood toe-to-toe and eyeball-to-eyeball with Australia, highlighting some deficiencies and cutting down some lofty reputations.
Greg Baum in the Age looks at the strangely unfamiliar Australia line-up that struggled on the second day in Perth.
This was something of an unknown Australia, sapped, by circumstance and attrition, of much of its renowned hard-headedness. Missing were not only Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer, but here, temporarily, Matthew Hayden; four stronger players in the mind Australia has not known. In their place were four players with a total of 13 Tests between them and already learning harsh lessons about how begrudging opponents, umpires and luck are in Test cricket.
In the same paper Chloe Saltau chats to Australia’s fitness advisor to find out how the players keep soldiering on in 40-degree heat.
January 17, 2008
Posted on 01/17/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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Ishant Sharma was impressive on the second day, showing good control to claim two wickets
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| The stunning display by India's young pace attack comprising RP Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma, who shared eight wickets between them to bowl out Australia for 212, has made many take note. Peter Roebuck, in his column in the Sydney Morning Herald, praises the 19-year-old Ishant, who claimed the vital wickets of Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke.
Sharma widened the breach. Already he has captured the imagination of Australian supporters. The sight of any other fellow walking out to bat in Sydney with two left-handed gloves might have provoked suspicion. But the Delhi-ite has an air of innocence that discourages murky thoughts. Presumably his cricket bag works along the same lines as his hair. Even his catching is naive and the sight of him hovering under a skier counts among the game's amusements.
But his spirit shines like a beacon from the lighthouses he resembles. The lofty paceman began by removing the home captain with a late swinger and followed by enticing Michael Clarke to push at another demanding delivery. The heat began to take its toll on the religious stringbean and before long the Australian rally was underway.
The Australian's Mike Coward appreciates Irfan's character and believes that he "still has a priceless opportunity to realise his vast potential and enjoy a distinguished career as a genuine allrounder."
In the Herald Sun, Steve Waugh calls Brett Lee "the world's No.1 fast bowler" and says it will need a strong performance by him to rescue Australia.
Posted on 01/17/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
Despite all the build-up the WACA pitch did not show too many glimpses of its fiery old self, Peter Lalor explains in the Australian.
Oh, there had been talk that the good old days were back. Talk that curator Cameron Sutherland had found a way for men to wear moustaches and open-neck shirts without looking like somebody on the way to a fancy dress party. The curator has applied a few centimetres of the old soil to the top of the deck, but it is not the elixir of youth that all had hoped for. You can sew the hair back on to a balding man's head but it does not give him back his vim or vigour. Alas, it is 2008, there is no way it will be 1976 again.
In the same paper Mike Coward says Australia’s decision to play four fast bowlers was perhaps made due to some dodgy advice.
On the evidence before us, Ponting, Hilditch and the West Australians, have been duped. On Tuesday, former opener Justin Langer recommended Ponting bowl first. But after sighting the deck yesterday before presenting Chris Rogers with his baggy green cap, Langer abruptly changed his advice.
Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that India threw away their advantage with lame dismissals, while Ben Dorries in the Courier-Mail reflects on a day when everyone was conspicuously on their best behaviour.
January 16, 2008
Posted on 01/16/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08
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It was a kind of day where you wouldn't pick up anything interesting on the stump microphones
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The WACA pitch could have perhaps been spared the headlines given how it turned out, but Greg Baum reflects on a rather quiet day in Perth, unlike the preceding Test in Sydney and its ugly aftermath, in the Age.
It looked like the end of the match - not the beginning. As the Australian and Indian teams took the field for the third Test at the WACA Ground yesterday, each player shook the hand of their opponents, football-style. That's 72 handshakes, 73 if you include the extra pat Australian captain Ricky Ponting gave Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh. At any rate, as the gesture count goes, it was a day-one record.
Writing in the Herald Sun, Robert Craddock wonders if the subdued on-field attitude of the Australians will affect their performance.
No doubt Australia's on-field persona will thaw out in time to finish somewhere between their current mood and the boisterous intimidation of Sydney.
But it will be interesting to see whether a more subdued approach to verbal intimidation takes some of the sting out of Australia's game.
Steve Waugh gives his take on the day's play in the same newspaper, and says Australia were conscious of their image right from the first major appeal of the day.
They were appealing with great gusto and then suddenly they weren't.
In fact they were not sure what to do or how to appeal, an obvious post-script to the scrutiny of the side's behaviour in the second Test at the SCG.
Meanwhile, news.com.au reports the Indian team has been provided with a police escort for their trip from the team hotel to the ground.
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