No more monkeying around for spectators at Eden Gardens © Getty Images

The declining crowds at Test matches has been a talking point of late. Although many may infer that lower attendances indicate the reducing popularity of the longer format, Shiloo Chattopadhyay offers an interesting observation in the Kolkata-based Telegraph. He describes the usual atmosphere at Eden Gardens when Tests attracted packed houses:

Come to think of it, very little of pure cricket was discussed or even consumed. How could we? Most seats on this block (others were worse) were at third slip or wider. Making out whether a ball is outside the off stump or the leg stump was difficult till one saw the wicketkeeper collect. We would mostly applaud the gross — a boundary or a wicket. Indeed, not many of us had the cricketing acumen to appreciate a defensive stroke on the back foot that made a chest high ball drop docilely at the batsman’s feet. On top of it India seldom won any matches those days. So, to the vast majority of us, cricket was an excuse for a winter picnic in the Maidan.

.......................................................................................

Some decades back, the cricket authorities in Bengal — especially its current supremo — felt that such peripheral enjoyment was detrimental to the game of cricket. So Eden Garden was concretised. Annual members were shunted to the other end of the ground. The space given for seating a spectator was brought down to the bare minimum. Toilets were made unusable. Drinking water was impossible to find. Food was expensive and scarce.

All this was done with one objective — make the spectators as uncomfortable as possible so that they have nothing else to concentrate on except the cricket. After all, spectators cannot be allowed to open hampers to eat food when the great Tendulkar is square driving McGrath. The authorities were successful. Most people stopped having fun in Eden Gardens — because they stopped going there.

November 26, 2008

150 Novembers since Gin first met Tonic

Posted on 11/26/2008 in Offbeat

Apparently, it is 150 Novembers since Gin first met Tonic in India - since when, of course, the two have remained in a zestfully happy state of wholesome matrimony, writes Frank Keating in the Guardian.

Some take the passion too far - and to hell with the tonic water. Well over 50 years ago, at village cricket for Stroud Stragglers v Frocester, I clapped in their smiter at No 6; he had a flat half-bottle of gin in the back pocket of his flannels, swiped and slurped with equal abandon and when he was out for 60-odd the bottle was empty - the only case I know of the batsman arriving at the crease sober and leaving it blind drunk.

Two of my beloved cricket heroes around that time were our Gloucestershire bowlers and best pals George Lambert and Sam Cook. One evening against Northants at Bristol fearsome fast Frank Tyson was on a terrifying roll in the twilight on a dodgy pitch and George was sent in as night-watchman on the presumption that Tyson would take it easy on a fellow member of the fast bowlers' union. Fat chance. Poor George ducked, dived, and only narrowly survived Tyson's onslaught. He came in, not out but pink-eyed, pallid and quivering - to be met at the pavilion steps by Sam and a triple-strength gin-and-tonic: "Get this down you, George - the bugger'll be twice as quick in the morning!"

November 14, 2008

Perjury - An English game

Posted on 11/14/2008 in Offbeat

Sharad Pawar is lucky not to be English, not just because England keeps losing in cricket but because perjury cases lead more often to jail sentences there, writes Samanwaya Rautray and Tapas Ghosh in the Telegraph. Few people have ever been punished in India for the offence but Britain jailed Jeffrey Archer — peer, millionaire, best-selling author and like Pawar, a cricket-loving politician — for giving false evidence in court.

October 11, 2008

It's all business for Stephen Fleming

Posted on 10/11/2008 in Offbeat

So what's keeping Stephen Fleming busy these days? He's busy trying to find his feet in an elaborate sport management and marketing role with the Australian firm Insite, and the first impressions are that the transition from international cricket to businessman has gone smoothly. Jonathan Millmow of the Dominion Post met him to find out more.

"Working from home isn't the long- term plan but at the moment it is fine, even if the odd Hi-5 stick gets poked under the door," Fleming said yesterday. Fleming's in good form. Work is exercising his brain, golf gets the competitive juices flowing (he plays off a 6.8 handicap at Heretaunga), family is close and the cricket he plays in India is short and handsomely paid.

So what does he actually do?

October 10, 2008

'I haven't changed one bit as a person'

Posted on 10/10/2008 in Offbeat

	Warne: "I played with a certain passion. I showed passion. I was an exciting player, I was an entertainer" © Getty Images

Shane Warne, in an interview with Gary Linnel in the Courier-Mail, reflects on life off the field during his tenure for Australia, and discusses his plans for the future.

"At night I'd lie there and go 's - - -, when am I going to see my kids? There were times I'd sit there and drink my mini bar until three in the morning just to get to sleep. Set the alarm, wake up and say here we go again. I cried a fair bit when I was by myself."

October 4, 2008

Shane Warne: the musical

Posted on 10/04/2008 in Offbeat

In the Guardian, Carrie Dunn says Shane Warne has songs such as Take the Pill (about his ban for taking a prohibition diuretic in 2003) and What an SMS I'm In.

Warne is a god to many Australians, who may not take kindly to their hero being mocked on home turf. The obvious next move for Perfect and his cast would be a UK transfer, but if he wants to cling on to the lead himself I'd guess they'll need some good stunt casting in the supporting roles to pull in the punters. I'd recommend casting Hugh Jackman (long overdue a West End return) as Warne's Hampshire team-mate and good chum Kevin Pietersen, Jennifer Ellison as Warne's ex-wife Simone, and perhaps John Barrowman as England's triumphant captain during the 2005 Ashes series, Michael Vaughan

September 21, 2008

Preserved for posterity

Posted on 09/21/2008 in Offbeat

Anil Kumble’s love for photography is not too well documented. Starting with a Hot Shot and now with a digital SLR, he is enjoying his stint as an “amateur” cameraman even as his professional deeds are shot for posterity by an army of lensmen, says Vijay Lokapally in the Hindu.

August 5, 2008

Why pay for the BBC?

Posted on 08/05/2008 in Offbeat

Stephen Pollard in the Spectator is not too pleased with the BBC's decision not to bid for the TV rights put on sale by the ECB. He says:

The ECB made it clear to the BBC that it wanted to have Test cricket on the BBC and would find a way to accomodate it within the overall rights package. Yet there was no bid of any sort from the BBC, not for one Test a year, not for two, and not for a highlights package. Cricket, as far as the BBC is now concerned, is not worth a penny.

That should lead to further questions about just what we pay our licence fee for, if it is not in part for the BBC to televise the national summer sport.

July 14, 2008

Panesar's lawn at Lord's

Posted on 07/14/2008 in English cricket

	Monty Panesar hogs the attention at Lord's © Getty Images

Wimbledon has its Henman Hill and yesterday afternoon Lord's had its equivalent: Panesar Lawn, reports Richard Hobson in the Times. The MCC have installed a big screen on the Nursery Ground - the stretch of grass behind the Compton and Edrich Stands - and on a good-day for lazing around, one man stole the attention.

Panesar continues to grab the popular imagination but, as the game moved well beyond its halfway stage towards the climax of today, he started to resemble Henman on semi-finals day. He tried, tried again and then tried harder, but for all the optimistic whoops, balls narrowly missed the edge or fell short of fielders.

A delay between the real-time action and transmission on the screen created a double echo whenever Panesar bellowed one of his famous appeals. First would come Panesar's roar, then a chorus from the 25,000 or so watching live and another cheer from those following the big screen.

May 17, 2008

Playing in Staten Island

Posted on 05/17/2008 in Offbeat

Would you read a book on cricket written by an Irishman, raised in Netherlands, educated at Cambridge, now living in New York?

Joseph O’Neill's third novel, Netherland, is the story of Hans van den Broek, a Dutch investment banker working in New York, who after the 9/11 attacks finds himself exiled to the Chelsea Hotel. After Hans’s British wife leaves him and takes their child back to England, he finds solace in an unlikely friendship with a Trinidadian wheeler-dealer named Chuck Ramkissoon, who dreams of starting a pro cricket league in New York. And he finds a second home in the subculture of New York cricket, a world at once exotic and familiar to him from his own cricketing days in The Hague. Read about it in the New York Times:

New York cricket is “bush cricket,” one of the characters in the book complains, played on wickets of cocoa mat instead of grass and on weedy, substandard pitches, where to score a run you need to bat the ball in the air instead of elegantly along the fast ground of a proper pitch. But it has a charm of its own and is played with unusual devotion, in remote corners of the city, by a surprisingly large number of people unable or unwilling to shed their cricketing heritage.

April 16, 2008

Cricket, of a different kind

Posted on 04/16/2008 in Offbeat

With just over a day left for the first match of the Indian Premier League, Rod Curtis looks at the game of cricket [kilikati rather] in an island far away from the glitz and glamour of the billion-dollar league in the Age.

Kilikiti is an interesting exercise in what happens when you take a sport and drop it in the middle of the Pacific and let it evolve without the guidance of wealthy guardians seated in plush chairs in north London.

Played between two villages on a cricket-sized ground — or any-sized ground that's mostly clear of coconut trees and ocean — kilikiti has a pitch running down the middle, with three stumps just off each end made from skinny, bark-stripped branches, that go all the way up to your armpits.

As does the bat — an unwieldy, 1.2-metre-long weapon carved from a single piece of the Fau tree, said to be a cross between an old cricket bat and a war club. And yes, "death by kilikiti bat" has occurred. A note for the weary traveller: if you're invited to bowl in a game, always agree with the Samoan wielding half a tree.

April 6, 2008

End of Test cricket?

Posted on 04/06/2008 in Offbeat

Seeing India go through their motions on a lively Motera pitch, one got a feeling that Test cricket is on its deathbed, writes Pradeep Magazine in the Hindustan Times.

There has to be something terribly wrong in the order of things when the news of a Test match in India is relegated behind whether or not Shoaib Akhtar will be allowed to play in the IPL.

In the Sunday Telegraph, Scyld Berry, the editor of the Wisden Cricketer's Almanack, writes on the role of the yellow brick.

Test cricket is the most wonderful game. It has been played since 1877 and yet, still, the plot of every Test match is different - provided it is not hopelessly one-sided, like those involving Bangladesh. This month sees the end of an era, with 20-over cricket becoming the pinnacle of the game in the commercial and financial sense. But long may Test cricket continue to be played, and Wisden to record it.

March 9, 2008

Not in the right spirit

Posted on 03/09/2008 in Offbeat

Racism in sport is not a new phenomenon, writes KN Anand in the New Indian Express.

It beats me why there is no world body in sport to initiate punitive action — I don’t mean little fines and suspension for a couple of games — on those indulging in racism in any form. It’s a hydra-headed monster with far more destructive implications than even doping. And we don’t need research to tell us whether a monkey chant is a racial taunt or a bhajan by devotees of Lord Hanuman.

January 16, 2008

Life's a beach

Posted on 01/16/2008 in Offbeat

Angus Fraser retired from playing in 2001 to take up the role as chief cricket correspondent for the Independent but this month has made a comeback - playing beach cricket in Australia. He reports from the second XXXX Gold tournament which is touring the main beaches down under and says, after initial scepticism, that he is having a memorable time winning a few matches and catching up with old friends.

Darren Gough, as a current bowler, had been barred from playing after dominating the 2007 event and I was asked to replace him. It did not take me long to reach my decision – I had previously been paid a lot less to make a fool of myself in Australia, and that was when I was playing in the Ashes.

No, the prospect of spending three weeks travelling around Australia playing the occasional game of beach cricket was too good to turn down. I would be lying if I said the fee did not tempt me, but of equal attraction was the chance to spend time socialising with legends of the game. Lillee and Sir Richard Hadlee, who is playing for New Zealand, the third team in the tournament, were my heroes when I was growing up. Gooch, Allan Border and Martin Crowe are three of the players I admired most during my career, while Robin Smith, Gladstone Small, Chris Cairns and Darren Lehmann are great fun to be with.

November 6, 2007

World's highest altitude cricket match?

Posted on 11/06/2007 in Offbeat

Cricket. You can play it on a pitch, on the beach, in the backyard... and even up a mountain. That's what a team of English cricketers including Graham Napier and Nick Compton are attempting to do to raise funds for the PCA – and they're trying to set a world record for the highest altitude cricket match while they're at it. Read the full story on the PCA website - they need 40 spare balls you know. And there's more about Napier's challenge here, as covered by Cricinfo in August.

November 2, 2007

Asif blow for Pakistan

Posted on 11/02/2007 in Offbeat

It would be a huge shame if an India-Pakistan series is deprived of Mohammad Asif's presence, writes Dileep Premachandran in his newly introduced blog in the Times Online website.

October 28, 2007

Cricketers and their addictions

Posted on 10/28/2007 in Offbeat

Past and present cricketers talk frankly about their addictions as the Professional Cricketers Assocaition launch an initiative to assist their members. Watch on BBC Sport.

Also check out Sadiq Saleem's informal chat with Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik in the Dawn magazine.

October 16, 2007

Through the lens: Aussie Goes Bolly

Posted on 10/16/2007 in Offbeat

There is one Aussie in Mumbai these days that the cameras never leave. And he isn’t even a cricketer, writes Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.

Gus Worland can pass off as just another happy fan from Down Under expecting a 5-1 scoreline at Wankhede but he's actually here for an observational documentary called An Aussie Goes Bolly that has Worland in the lead role.

The truth behind white-line fever

Posted on 10/16/2007 in Offbeat

Australia's cricketers might well be beasts on the field, but their charity work off it reveals a more humane side, writes Dileep Premachandran in the Guardian.

Through his ceaseless work for Udayan in Kolkata, Waugh also opened their eyes to the good they could do. Hayden, Gilchrist, Ponting and others have been quick to follow suit, and even though the current tour has been played out in a largely acrimonious atmosphere, the Australians have won hearts with their eagerness to promote worthwhile causes.

October 11, 2007

'Sir Beefy' sends a stump flying

Posted on 10/11/2007 in Offbeat

Botham is nothing if not a rogue, as well, and the interviews he did with the British newspapers this week in the lead-up to the bestowing of his knighthood tell a tale or two, writes Martin Blake in the Melbourne-based Age.

October 8, 2007

Inzy's last hurrah

Posted on 10/08/2007 in Offbeat

Should Inzamam-ul-Haq fall just shy of Javed Miandad's record, he will be in good company. In his Times Online blog, Patrick Kidd draws up a list of 11 cricketers who needed just one more game.

Ian Healy, 395 dismissals: The Australia wicketkeeper has been overtaken by Mark Boucher and may soon be passed by Adam Gilchrist but he could have been the first to 400 dismissials

October 6, 2007

India: a joyous cacaphony

Posted on 10/06/2007 in Offbeat

In the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown writes on his Indian experience: fascinating, frustrating and more than a little intimidating, this country is a 24-7 sensory barrage and a direct challenge to all you thought you knew about life and its possibilities.

On the flight from Bangalore to Cochin the pilot spent five minutes taking photos of the Australian cricketers. And that was on descent. Still, no real surprises: cricketers here can't take a breath without several scores of people documenting their exhalations on camera phones.

In the Melbourne-based Age Chloe Saltau writes on Chris Davies' return to Victoria:

Nearly four years after crippling shoulder and elbow injuries ruined the South Australian's career as one of the country's most promising batsmen, Davies has re-emerged in Victoria and will make his comeback when the Premier Cricket season starts today, alongside Mick Lewis, as captain-coach of Melbourne.

October 3, 2007

Dickie who?

Posted on 10/03/2007 in Offbeat

Patrick Kidd has a few interesting thoughts in his Times Online blog:

All the big guns from the ICC are here and will presumably take the stand: Malcolm Speed, the chief executive, Ray Mali, the acting president, David Richardson, the general manager, and Sir John Anderson, the New Zealand representative on the board who was so engrossed by discussion today that he spent much of the afternoon working his way through a bumper book of Su Doku puzzles.

October 1, 2007

Bang goes Beefy

Posted on 10/01/2007 in Offbeat

Ian Botham said his 1985 trip to Hollywood turned him into a joke. But here his former agent tells Observer Sport's Monthly's Nick Greenslade how close the cricketer came to being the next Stallone.

With his action-man physique and blond locks, Botham, Hudson argued, could become a star to rival Sylvester Stallone and Charles Bronson, whose Death Wishseries Golan had produced. Unlike Stallone and Bronson, he could deliver significant audiences not only in Britain, but in India, Pakistan and Australia.

The movie mogul looked Botham up and down ('Well, he's better looking than Tom Selleck') and laid down his terms: if Botham stayed in town for six months and had acting lessons, then there was a real possibility that he could break Hollywood. There was just one problem. In the January of 1986, the all-rounder was due to fly out to the Caribbean for England's three-month tour of the West Indies.

September 7, 2007

Padding up for the future

Posted on 09/07/2007 in Offbeat

G S Vivek, of the Indian Express, traces the story of an Indian-origin entrepreneur who has made a name by selling the best cricket pads in business today.

Jagodia says, it was Gavaskar really, and then Sachin who helped his brand of pads become what it is now. And he still doesn’t pay any endorsements. “It was really Sunil. He started wearing it when it was totally revolutionary — with all that controversy of the ball bouncing off too much after it hit the pad, he actually established the product as such. No doubt that Sachin, who is such a huge star, took the product to the next level and made it a generic name in pads category,” he says gleefully.

The story is that when Sachin Tendulkar came along, Gavaskar was his hero and he gave Tendulkar a pair of his old pads and that’s how he started. “Sachin was very superstitious, and because those old-fashioned pads had leather straps, we had to make pads with leather straps, because he won’t wear sticker pads, like modern cricketers. Laxman also wanted leather straps, so it’s becoming kind of a nightmare for us.

August 23, 2007

Warne promised warm willkommen in Deutschland

Posted on 08/23/2007 in Offbeat

Germany’s coach is excited by Shane Warne’s passport adventures and has invited him to play for his team. And even if Warne refuses he is still welcome “just for a beer”.

"I was surprised when I heard he was looking into getting a German passport, it's hilarious really,” Keith Thompson told AFP. "I don't know if he would even come here, but we will try and get him over.”

July 27, 2007

The age of tinted lenses

Posted on 07/27/2007 in Offbeat

	'Perhaps I should chuck this for tinted contacts' © Getty Images

Players have the option of using lenses which increase the amount of light in their field of vision.Pranav Soneji caught up with Nick Dash, England and Wales Cricket Board's optometrist, who configures the England players' individual sunglasses depending on their optical needs.

Sartorial elegance is often the most important criteria for fashionistas when it comes to the ideal pair of sunglasses. And you could be forgiven for thinking the same parameters apply for a select group of cricketers judging by their eyewear of choice.

But the natty wraparound sunglasses serve a more serious purpose than just aesthetics.

Read the full piece in BBC Sport.

July 22, 2007

The name's Sreesanth?

Posted on 07/22/2007 in Offbeat

Getting a name right has been a challenge for the English press, notes Stephen Brenkley in his Lord's Diary in the Independent.

There has been confusion about Sreesanth since he made his Test debut against England last year in Nagpur. For years he was plain Sreesanth, the name given to him by his parents, or S Sreesanth at a stretch, the initial standing for Shanthakumaran, which was his father's given name.

However, the idea at first took root that he was Sree Sreesanth. He explained this was wrong, and gradually he has become Shantha Sreesanth. But this too is incorrect. He is certainly not Sri Sreesanth as he appeared in the papers last week. He said that he did indeed have two names. "I am called Sree Santh," he said. But this announcement has perplexed Indian journalists whom he told last year that he wished to be known only as Sreesanth (one word).

July 10, 2007

Comfort pauses for the bladder-heavy

Posted on 07/10/2007 in Offbeat

David Foot of The Guardian delves into an important aspect of a batsman's game.

There are many stories about cricket's calls of nature. Some players held out better than others. The popular Glamorgan left-hander Emrys Davies, according to a few Arms Park survivors, could rarely go through a session without the obligatory exit. We can only imagine the torment he went through during 7½ hours at the crease when he made 287 in Newport.

May 9, 2007

My sweet spot's bigger than yours

Posted on 05/09/2007 in Offbeat

Stop press: an Australian has come up with an innovative way to help a batsman. No, it’s got nothing to do with Adam Gilchrist and his controversial squash ball and everything to do with sweet spots. Bigger is better, so they say, and the developers in question certainly believe this is the case, lovingly creating a huge sweet spot on their Smart Cricket Bat.

And there’s more to tickle your fancy – “Its innovative handle is equipped with electro-mechanical sensors and a vibration-absorbing synthetic material which converts shockwaves into heat and dampens vibration” - according to a report in The Daily Telegraph.

March 26, 2007

China outplays Taiwan

Posted on 03/26/2007 in Offbeat

The USA’s ABC News reports how China has used the World Cup to score diplomatic points over rivals Taiwan. The Chinese involvement in building various stadia in the Caribbean has been well documented, but it appears the knock-on effect has been more wide reaching:

China gave Antigua a $55 million grant to build the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium. It gave $30 million to Jamaica for a new Trelawny stadium. St. Lucia has both a cricket and a football stadium courtesy of Beijing. The 70,000 people of Dominica have received the aid equivalent of $1,600 per person in the form of a cricket grounds, new drains for the capital and better roads.

The immediate reason for this largesse is Beijing's determination to diplomatically isolate Taiwan. Says Harry Sung of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C.: "Their top priority is to isolate Taiwan. Most of the remaining countries that recognize Taiwan are located in the Caribbean and Latin America."

China's cricket diplomacy led to two West Indian countries, Grenada and Dominica, derecognizing Taiwan as an independent country. Of the remaining 24 countries that recognize Taiwan, four are in the Caribbean and two of these play cricket.

November 26, 2006

Simply marvellous

Posted on 11/26/2006 in Australian cricket

	Billy Birmingham relaxes © SMH

Fantastic news for fans of the highly irreverent 12th Man CDs – and that includes most of the editorial team – comes with the release this week of the seventh offering – and the first for five years - from Billy Bimingham. Called Boned, it sees a return of the commentators whose utter scorn of political correctness has become legendary.

The Sydney Morning Herald caught up with Birmingham as he put the finishing touches to the double CD.

Here's the drum on the new 12th Man album. Richie Benaud is so peeved with Eddie McGuire's cost-cutting decision to sack the entire Channel Nine commentary team - and hire Billy Birmingham to do all their voices and cover the Ashes series himself - that he forms a band called Richie and Da Boyz who do a remake of Birmingham's song Marvellous in a bid to get their own back against a man who has forged a career out of taking the piss out of them.

And it’s apparent that Birmingham in the flesh is as irreverent as his characters.

I'm all over the place like a suicide bomber's sandshoe … There's so much material. The drama has been trying to cut it all down so it fits onto a double album … It couldn't have happened in any other country. We're a nation of sports nuts and piss-takers and all I've done is combine the two.

November 11, 2006

Lefties' success is a right-handed compliment

Posted on 11/11/2006 in Offbeat

Everyone has been batting the wrong way around, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald, and coaches have been barking up the wrong tree.

Chris Gayle spent the month belting the ball around Indian parks. Bats left-handed. Bowls, catches and opens beer bottles with his other mitt. Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Ever seen him send down a leg-break? Stephen Fleming? Writes his cheques with the easterly flipper. Jacob Oram? Thumps down his seamers with the right arm.

Consider the past. David Gower? Bowled his few overs in Test cricket with his cork-opening hand - and, for his pains, was called for throwing. Mark Taylor? Turns on his air-conditioner with the right paw. Sourav Ganguly? Kicks penalties with his right foot

October 12, 2006

The new discovery of cricket

Posted on 10/12/2006 in Offbeat

Boria Mazumdar takes a look at the new brand of cricket coverage on Indian television which is set to transform the nature of global cricket coverage.

It may well be that the revolutionary Sony coverage is yet another fantasy, which has the power to enamour and also infuriate. We have already seen that the success of Sony’s entertainment focused cricket programming has led other Indian news and even sports channels to replicate the same model. In fact, the strategy—special programming with women anchors and other innovative attractions have become the standard way of covering cricket in India. With cricket across the world in need for infusion of new innovations, it is only a matter of time before it becomes the global norm.

October 8, 2006

Field of his own

Posted on 10/08/2006 in Offbeat

	Mike Young (left) finds solace in a 'strange game called cricket' © Getty Images

When Mike Young, Australia's fielding coach, came to Australia to play for the Queensland baseball team, his first taste of Test cricket was met with a kind of bemusement natural for young Americans.

"It was a Monday or Tuesday and I asked them when it was over. They said Friday. I said 'oh, my God'. We started talking about prizemoney and trophies teams win and they mentioned 'the Ashes'."And I said, 'You play for five days and might only tie or draw and all you win is some ashes'. I thought 'I hope Australian baseball is not like this'."

Well he has come a long way since then, and cricket has compensated what he couldn't achieve with baseball. The Australian players have given him the respect he deserves, chipping in out of their own pockets to pay for his own room during the 2003 World Cup.
Read the full piece by Robert Craddock in The Courier Mail.

October 2, 2006

Gandhi and cricket

Posted on 10/02/2006 in Offbeat

Cricket might not have affected Gandhi, but Gandhi certainly affected cricket. The political movements he led and the social changes he sought to bring about had their consequences on how the game was played in the sub-continent. Click here to read a article in The Hindu, dated 2001, by Ramachandra Guha on Gandhi and cricket.

In the Mumbai-based tabloid, Mid Day, Clayton Murzello recaps his Pentrich to Pietermaritzburg train ride, where Gandhiji was thrown out of a first-class compartment in 1893, during the 2003 World Cup

September 27, 2006

The Ashes can wait

Posted on 09/27/2006 in Offbeat

	While Matthew Hayden hopes to strike such a pose at the Gabba, Lillee and Thomson will be manning the beaches of Queensland © Getty Images

The Ashes can wait... some serious cricket first as reported in The Australian

After decades of wasting their summers at Lord's, the SCG and Sabina Park, a clique of ageing Test cricketers has finally realised what the rest of us have known for years - the best games are played on the beach.

Mark Waugh, Damien Fleming and Dean Jones will make up the rest of the local side, which will face off old adversaries such as Courtney Walsh, Joel Garner, Curtly Ambrose, Graham Gooch, Allan Lamb and Graham Hick in the international clashes.

One side of the field will be constantly under water, which has caused concern for some of the West Indies players and the English, who either cannot swim or have heard too much about the man-eaters that surf at our beaches.

September 24, 2006

Barmy Army beware the Aussie Posse

Posted on 09/24/2006 in Ashes

The Barmy Army have been entertaining supporting England for a number of years, through the dark depression of the nineties and out into the altogether brighter 2000s. But with the Ashes a mere 59 days, 13 hours, and 28 minutes (ish) away comes the news that Australia are urging their public not only to turn up at the cricket, but beat the Barmies at their own game. Further proof in video format here and here - two commercials airing on Australian TV at the moment.

Never mind the cricket; this winter's real contest could be in the stands.

A lot in a name

Posted on 09/24/2006 in Offbeat

Ramachandra Guha has a look at a few fascinating stories linked to some cricketers' names.

If Pataudi's was the most democratic name change undergone by a cricketer, surely the most charming was that effected by the England fast bowler Bob Willis. He made his first-class debut with the two Christian names his parents gave him. Then he spent a winter following Bob Dylan around the west coast of America. After he returned to England, and cricket, he changed his name by deed-poll to "Robert George Dylan Willis

Read the full piece in The Hindu

 

September 2, 2006

Kambli prepares to tie the knot

Posted on 09/02/2006 in Offbeat

Vinod Kambli is all set for a new innings, writes Clayton Murzello in Mid-Day , the Mumbai-based newspaper. On September 8, he will marry model Andrea Hewitt in court.

Also check out Clayton Murzello's article on Madhav Mantri - the country’s oldest living Test cricketer based in India - on his 85th birthday.

By the time you read this, Mantri would have woken up at 4.30 am; done his free-arm exercises, walked for 45 minutes and after his daily prayers, it’s breakfast at 7.30 am.

August 31, 2006

For Darrell Hair read the village vicar

Posted on 08/31/2006 in Umpires

It could have been a scene out of England, Their England ... two village sides battling it out in rural Gloucestershire, a vicar umpiring, cream teas about to be taken ...

Only one of the teams refused to play on after the Right Reverend Geoffrey Creese gave a controversial LBW decision and went home (but not before offering to pay for the uneaten teas!). As the local Forester newspaper reports, it's not just Darrell Hair who has problems ... and at least he doesn't have to give the sermon the next day.

As the captain of the Rev Creese's side said:

"He doesn't always get it right, but he's not biased ... he calls it as he sees it."

August 29, 2006

The King's favourite ground

Posted on 08/29/2006 in Offbeat

He might have had a glittering career spanning three decades, during which time he played at some of the world's top cricket grounds, but Sir Viv Richards still has fond memories of hitting sixes towards ambulances watched by NHS staff when he played for Bath's Lansdown Cricket Club.

But Lansdown was always my favourite ground because we had the accident and emergency department of the (Royal United) hospital next door. We used to have quite a few people who were supposed to be taking care of others stopping and watching.

Read the full interview in The Bath Chronicle.

August 24, 2006

Hair today, reality television star tomorrow

Posted on 08/24/2006 in Offbeat

If Darrell Hair may be assured of anything in these difficult hours, it is that smirking, jaded telly executives are even now dreaming up vehicles for him, writes Marina Hyde

Not so Sobers

Posted on 08/24/2006 in Offbeat

This day, 33 years ago, Garry Sobers produced his last Test hundred, an unbeaten 150, to charge West Indies to a massive win. Sobers later admitted that on the first evening (when he was 31 not out at the close), he had spent all night drinking port and brandy and was not in the best state when he resumed his innings. Click here to read an extract from the autobiography of Sobers, Garry Sobers: My Autobiography

I realised I had long gone past the need to sleep. “I have so much liquor in my head,” I said to Reg, “that if I go home to the hotel and go to bed, I’m not going to wake up.” He asked me what I wanted to do and I suggested that we go back to the Clarendon Court, where the team were staying, for a few more drinks and a little reminiscing about the good old days, and that’s exactly what we did. As morning dawned ...

August 23, 2006

When Zaheer Abbas refused to take the field

Posted on 08/23/2006 in Offbeat

Zaheer Abbas refused to take the field on the last day during the 1983-84 Bangalore Test. Mid-day, the Mumbai-based tabloid, gives the inside dope, courtesy extracts from the autobiography of Madhav Gothaskar, who officiated in that match.

After 14 mandatory overs were bowled, he {Zaheer} along with his team walked off the field without the umpires declaring the close of the play.We maintained that if his team did not complete six more overs, India would be declared as winners. The ruse worked. The Pakistani team returned to the field. Gavaskar duly completed his 28th Test hundred, but it was an inconsequential century. After the Pakistanis left the field, Gavaskar refused to leave the ground and dissuaded his partner Gaekwad from leaving the field, despite the repeated entreaties of his skipper Kapil Dev.

August 22, 2006

'Us' v 'Them'

Posted on 08/22/2006 in Offbeat

Writing in Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine asks if cricket world in danger of getting torn asunder by a new global order that is increasingly getting polarised in stark shades of black and white?

August 21, 2006

Bigotry at silly point

Posted on 08/21/2006 in Offbeat

Mukul Kesavan, writing in the Hindustan Times, looks back at the Dean Jones controversy and advocates a policy of zero tolerance.

The reason ‘kike’, ‘faggot’ and ‘nigger’ are taboo today is because public opinion backed up by social sanction made them unsayable ... Roebuck and Border and cricket’s commentariat seem to think calling a bearded Muslim a ‘terrorist’ doesn’t belong in the same category of proscribed words. Well, it’s up to us to persuade them that it does, through a policy of zero tolerance.

August 20, 2006

United Front

Posted on 08/20/2006 in Offbeat

With Monty Panesar and Sajid Mahmood in the current England side and Yorkshire teenager Adil Rashid provoking great excitement, the profile of British Asians in cricket has never been higher. But is the game as free from racism as it appears? Kamran Abbasi reports

August 17, 2006

Chill, it's Mondegar!

Posted on 08/17/2006 in Offbeat

The acknowledgements section in John Wright's book John Wright's Indian Summers has a curious mention - Cafe Mondegar, a well-known joint in Mumbai, and one which he frequented often. This is where Wright broke bread, sliced butter and sipped tea or beer on happy and gloomy days whenever he was in town. Clayton Murzello of the Mid-Day finds out why Wright and his support staff could never resist this place.

Wright relished the Mango lassi and remembers Ramesh, who never failed to make him comfortable and offer him a seat by the window. It appears the window seat is special to many and the ‘Reserved’ sign says it all.

August 15, 2006

Marvellous Monty joins the Singhs of praise

Posted on 08/15/2006 in Offbeat

In The Guardian, Frank Keating writes on Monty Panesar and other great sporting Sikhs.

If Panesar has, of a sudden, so delighted English cricket, he has warmed, too, the proud community of some half a million fellow Sikhs in Britain.

August 8, 2006

Radio times

Posted on 08/08/2006 in Offbeat

	John Arlott - the first name in cricket radio commentary © Getty Images

Speaking of commentary, it's time to focus on those who said the right things at the right time. Ted Corbett remembers John Arlott, the man chiefly responsible for young schoolboys cycling home furiously to grab the radio and listen to his analysis and curse if the batteries went dead. Arlott will always be a hard man to emulate. Read the full piece in Sportstar.

His Hampshire burr had become compulsory material for every mimic good or bad and round the world — in those days BBC could be heard everywhere — those in love with cricket arranged their lives around their need to hear him speak.

August 6, 2006

Golf bites Virender Sehwag

Posted on 08/06/2006 in Offbeat

It's not uncommon to see a legendary swinger of the cricket bat grab the nearest golf club and spend time on the greens. Kapil Dev and Brian Lara come to mind. Now it's the turn of Virender Sehwag. His technical skills were so impressive that he couldn't resist calling his former cricket coach for a crash course in golf. Read about his latest addiction in Indiatimes.

Sehwag connects with the ball perfectly, making it sail high, straight out of the field and on to the terrace of a flat at a distance. The sound of the ball hitting a green fibre sheet on the terrace was clearly audible. Even the woman of the house heard it and quickly came out to see if nothing was broken, before returning the ball.

August 5, 2006

The gloved wonder of 1985

Posted on 08/05/2006 in Offbeat

It all happened too fast for Sadanand Vishwanath. His lightning reflexes in the 1985 Benson and Hedges World Championship promised a long career but sadly, he faded away, after his form deserted him. In an interview to K. C. Vijaya Kumar of The Sportstar, Vishwanath reveals his emotional and financial struggles over the last two decades and how things are finally looking up for him in his new career in coaching and umpiring.

"I was young, popular but feeling lonely and insecure. I would never blame my parents' demise for the way my career shaped up. In fact, on the field, I gave my best but at that young age I wish I had some guidance. May be, if we had a Sandy Gordon then, things would have been different."

July 30, 2006

Good Old Trafford

Posted on 07/30/2006 in Offbeat

	The pavilion at Old Trafford © John Dawson

Even the most one-eyed Lancastrian cannot claim that Old Trafford, the ground immortalised by the prose of Neville Cardus and the deeds of Cyril Washbrook, Brian Statham and Jim Laker, is the most picturesque of grounds, writes Michael Atherton in The Telegraph.. Yet, there are reasons to love this strange ground.

The club now finds itself in the invidious position of having to rent back office space it sold in the 1960s; a two-tier stand built in the 1990s has been rarely utilised fully, and only Lancashire could name one of its ends after its greatest bowler who always bowled from the opposite end.

July 28, 2006

'I love maiden overs'

Posted on 07/28/2006 in Offbeat

"I love maiden overs in the same way that civil servants do forms or VAT inspectors a pile of receipts," says Mike Selvey. "What is boring to one person can send waves of pleasure coursing through the veins of another. If this sounds slightly anal then part of it is the feeling of giving nothing away and maintaining control." Read on ...

July 26, 2006

A smile would be nice too

Posted on 07/26/2006 in Offbeat

	'Hard luck mate. It happens' © Getty Images

Camaraderie between opposite teams is dying out.The sight of Andrew Flintoff consoling Brett Lee at the end of the Edgbaston thriller last year was a rarity,a reflection of the good old days, feels David Foot in The Guardian.

There was the pre-Gordon Ramsay tirade from Allan Border when Robin Smith innocently requested a drinks break. Charlie Griffith ran out Ian Redpath at Adelaide without a warning from the bowler. Derek Randall was similarly treated by Ewan Chatfield at Christchurch.

Don't ask how I got here

Posted on 07/26/2006 in Offbeat

Talk about permutations and combinations and if Thandi Tshabalala happens to be around, chances are he would pounce at the opportunity to narrate his real-life tale. In the age of frequent-flyer miles, his journey from Brisbane to Colombo would have fetched enough for a free ticket to his dream destination. Oh and with 72-kilos of luggage in tow, he was spotted with borrowed clothes. Confused? Read the full piece in Supercricket.

Distance is measured in many different units but, so far, there has never been a unit of measurement that combines distance travelled with the amount of hassle, confusement and jetlag encountered along the way. Now there is: Thandi Miles.

July 24, 2006

Australia favourites but it will be a close series

Posted on 07/24/2006 in Offbeat

Read David Llewellyn's email conversation with Steve Waugh on topics as diverse as which four people in history Waugh would want to invite to a dinner party, whether Australia had it coming in the 2005 Ashes series, what his predictions are for 2006-07 battle, and whether he is a culture vulture or adrenalin junkie.

I think Australia will start favourites. I think it will be a pretty close series. I think it will be 2-1 or 3-2. There won't be much in it. Obviously those scores are in Australia's favour. That goes without saying.

July 23, 2006

The story of Saurab Chatterjee

Posted on 07/23/2006 in Offbeat

Saurab Chatterjee was a frustrated young man after waiting three years in the Bengal team reserves.With no state-level opportunities in sight, Dr Ali Bacher had an offer he couldn't refuse - to play league cricket in South Africa, and also be the first Indian to do so.Read what the latest star of the Gauteng Lions has to say about his experiences, in BBC News.

"I jumped at the chance. I talked to my parents (who live in Calcutta as do his three brothers and a sister) who said if the standard of cricket was good, I should take up the offer. I have played continuously for the club since then."

July 22, 2006

It didn't look right. Obviously something was going on

Posted on 07/22/2006 in Offbeat

Ray Illingworth recalls the day Mike Atherton was accused of ball-tampering.

The first I was aware of any problem was when the South Africa team manager, Mike Procter, came to see me on the Saturday afternoon and said: "You'd better have a look at this." I thought he was joking at first but, when I saw the TV footage of Mike Atherton with the ball, I agreed with Procter that it didn't look right

July 19, 2006

Holding bags a degree

Posted on 07/19/2006 in Offbeat

'Whispering Death' aka Michael Holding aka Mickey walks tall with a Civil Law degree from the University of East Anglia for his contribution to cricket. Read on in The Jamaica Observer.

"My mother was a teacher and she used to tell me when I was a young man, 'Mikey, I know you love sport, but I want you to remember one thing: you've got to get a piece of paper behind you.' Well, now I have"

July 14, 2006

Shepherd takes his seat

Posted on 07/14/2006 in Offbeat

Funny as it may seem, but for the first time, yesterday was the first time David Shepherd watched a Lord's Test as a spectator. Geoffrey Dean of The Times caught up with 'Shep', watching England bat, proudly sporting his bacon-and-egg MCC tie.

He admitted to popping up to the umpires’ room in the lunch break to say hello to Steve Bucknor and Simon Taufel. Bucknor, with whom he stood on many occasions.

July 13, 2006

Prince in the limelight

Posted on 07/13/2006 in Offbeat

Owing to Graeme Smith's ankle injury, Ashwell Prince will lead South Africa on their tour of Sri Lanka in August. He answers a few questions on his reaction to the appointment and his plans to counter Muralithraran from his fans on News24.com.

Haroon Lorgat, the convenor of selectors, called me around midday on Tuesday to break the news. I'd heard that Smithy had injured his ankle and was in doubt for the tour. Obviously it's a massive honour to lead your country and the phone has been ringing off the hook with well-wishers so no complaints - it's been fantastic.

June 30, 2006

Beachboys and bushmen

Posted on 06/30/2006 in Offbeat

How do South Africa's busy international cricketers spend the off-season? In the bush, on the beach, and all in white, it would seem. Telford Vice plays Roving Reporter in Supercricket.

Calls to the cell phones of Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher on Wednesday went unanswered, probably because they were together on a golf course somewhere.

June 27, 2006

Gentlemen, please!

Posted on 06/27/2006 in Offbeat

Football is considered 'The Beautiful Game'. Or is it? Mike Haysman questions the veracity of that title, showing where cricket can teach people a lesson or two. Read on in Supercricket.

Controlled aggression is an adage you will often hear bandied about by analysts. The best sportsmen do exactly that, control their pent up anger and deliver the killer blows in a lethal manner.

June 26, 2006

China want to become cricket giants

Posted on 06/26/2006 in Offbeat

If the Chinese Cricket Association's development plans are even half successful, it is only a matter of decades before the cricket world could be looking at the new giants of the game, The Age reports.

The Chinese Cricket Association is hoping that by the end of 2007 China would have 30,000 players, 600 coaches and 600 umpires. Their target is for 150,000 players by 2020.

June 17, 2006

...but again no one died

Posted on 06/17/2006 in Offbeat

Mike Selvey recounts the times when a glass of water in death-like humidity was just a mere mirage - with examples from his own playing days, when the curse of the Albatross struck. And they say Europe is getting hot! Read on in The Guardian.

Opening the bowling beneath the ramparts of the old Dutch fort in Galle, in extreme heat, but more pertinently drenching humidity and flat calm, it felt as if I was breathing in flames while simultaneously being hit in the chest with a sledgehammer.

June 5, 2006

Mystery pitch

Posted on 06/05/2006 in Offbeat

We’ve all heard of mystery spinners, but what about mystery pitches? Residents of the Mallee in Victoria are puzzled by the discovery of a concrete pitch and are hoping to find out more – and they even wonder if there may be others like it, too. Discover more here.

June 4, 2006

Sing it like Shane

Posted on 06/04/2006 in Offbeat

Shane Warne's life is a bit of a gift for scriptwriters everywhere. No surprises, then, that he's about to be given the Broadway treatment. Coming to a theatre near you is Shane Warne: The Musical. More at the Sydney Morning Herald.

May 15, 2006

Rocket Man

Posted on 05/15/2006 in Offbeat

If even Elton John comments on player burnouts, who else wouldn't, one would have to wonder. With his penchant for flamboyant costumes and riotous parties, it may surprise some to learn that prefers Test matches to one-day pyjama cricket. Read the full piece in BBC Sport.

"I was on tour when we won by two runs at Edgbaston. I was in the south of France and on the phone to Michael Caine - who is a big cricket fan. I was saying 'For God's sake' and he was saying 'I can't look'."

May 12, 2006

'Copter load of that

Posted on 05/12/2006 in Miscellaneous

Now the Surfer is going to try its best to stay away from Shane Warne and chopper gags… but it is sorely tempted to after it hears the news that Warne is to fly in by helicopter to deliver the match ball for Saturday's FA Cup final between Liverpool and West Ham in Cardiff. Warne is the first Australian in history to have such honours. Lucky boy.

May 10, 2006

School's out as Warne turns on the magic

Posted on 05/10/2006 in Offbeat

Scandals and regular tabloid appearances never seem to erode Shane Warne's mastery on the field, with England seeking his divine help to arrest their legspin woes. And no better way than to start with young kids in the 'Spin to Win' programme, as Derek Pringle elaborates in The Telegraph.

When he demonstrates the grip, the three-quarter size ball looks vulnerable as he clamps it into his powerful right hand. For the last 15 years, cricket balls around the world have been squeezed, exhorted and spun with such ferocity from that hand that it should look deformed.

April 25, 2006

Gough stands up for England - in a pop video

Posted on 04/25/2006 in Offbeat

Oh blimey, is Darren Gough becoming the new Phil Tufnell? Let's hope not, but if he continues to embrace gimmicks with as much gusto as his bowling then words might just have to be had.

His latest bandwagon de choix? Well, Dazzler is all set to appear in a video for a football World Cup song.

Stand up 4 England is a song by pop punk band Koopa and, The Surfer is surprised to hear itself confessing as it reaches for the repeat button, the tune is actually pretty good.

The cameras are set to roll down at Essex CCC on Tuesday to capture Goughie singing the seminal line "Ner ner ner ner" as he revealed to Cricinfo: "As a keen football fan myself it's exciting to be doing my bit for the World Cup cause - albeit in a small way". Good old boy.

So, does a pop career await? Well, he's keen on any form of TV exposure, as he told The Times. "TV is the way I want to go. It suits my personality."

April 22, 2006

Nude cricket gathers force

Posted on 04/22/2006 in Offbeat

iafrica.com sports editor Dan Nicholl had earlier proposed an ingenuous proposition for injecting a little life into very forlorn stands in domestic games. Nudity!

Now comes its side-splittingly funny sequel. Click here for a hilarious read.

April 17, 2006

India and Pakistan battle for 'biggest' trophy

Posted on 04/17/2006 in Offbeat

Gold, silver, diamonds and more... read the detailed description of the trophy India and Pakistan are playing for at Abu Dhabi in the Khaleej Times.

The 45-inch tall trophy is made of gold, silver and diamonds with Jaipur's famous meenakari work around. There are five players in action at the bottom representing different cricket playing nations. The Indian and Pakistani players are given symbolic colours of their teams — blue and green. They all are playing around five artistic bats, which have intricate designs and are studded with diamonds. The centre part is like a blooming stem unfolding in a flower like platter. This has 10 gold wickets with red ball striking them at from different directions.

April 13, 2006

The Curator Who Knew the Job

Posted on 04/13/2006 in Offbeat

Dhruba Hazarika went to the Nehru stadium in Guwahati before the match to meet Sunil Barua, the curator. Click here and scroll down to read the piece.

I stared at his knuckles, fascinated by the small, round hardened fleshy blobs on the back of the palms. They were hands that had caressed soil and earth, felt the bricks and the stones, hands that had dug into bags of urea, fingers that had separated dubori grass from the rest. It was not just a farmer’s hands. There were the hands of a sculptor and I kept on watching, fascinated.

April 10, 2006

Pawar stumped by economics

Posted on 04/10/2006 in Offbeat

Even a seasoned politician like Sharad Pawar has been stumped by the cricket economics.

The BCCI has marketed 25 off shore matches each for $ 8 million plus. This works out approximately to Rs. 40 crore per match. I don't understand this.

April 9, 2006

Nude cricket a must

Posted on 04/09/2006 in Offbeat

iafrica.com sports editor Dan Nicholl comes up with an ingenuous proposition for injecting a little life into very forlorn stands in domestic games. Nudity! Click here to read the hilarious article.

March 30, 2006

Theory, opinion, analysis...

Posted on 03/30/2006 in Offbeat

What is it that drives cricket fans insane, analysing every minute detail of the game to death? Amrit Mathur in The Sportstar lists out the possible reasons why the game encourages so much opinion.

Indian fans are cricket PHDs who analyse every angle, discover every hidden agenda. Cricket is a social glue, a sport and a religion, and a hot, spicy conversation tool.

March 11, 2006

Pietersen cut goes over school boundary

Posted on 03/11/2006 in Offbeat

Freedom of expression came at a high price for a teenager sent home from school for styling his hair like his cricketing hero Kevin Pietersen.

Read the full story in The Guardian

But, but, but ... it's not even the first time this has happened. Just what is it with KP inspiring a generation of rebel-headed students? Back in September, another boy got sent home for school for copying KP. And that one was without doubt a worse crime - he was apeing the skunk. Dark days indeed.

Now The Surfer wouldn't pretend to have much sense of style but, really, whether these dudes are choosing to copy the GI Jane look or the dead animal isn't important, we just want to know why.

March 4, 2006

Bush bowled over in Pakistan

Posted on 03/04/2006 in Offbeat

As you may have noticed President Bush has been in Pakistan over the last few days, and he has tried his hand at cricket. By some accounts he wasn't too shabby. Chances of him trying to push the game forward in the USA, though, are still pretty slim.

Bush, an avid baseball fan, even had to be shown which way around to hold the willow blade when he met local schoolchildren and members of Pakistan's team

March 3, 2006

How I knocked George Bush off the news

Posted on 03/03/2006 in Offbeat

Mike Selvey on the extraordinary reaction in India to his interview with Greg Chappell.

February 17, 2006

Initiating contact

Posted on 02/17/2006 in Offbeat

England are going to be looking at the world through rose-tinted, er, contact lenses on Saturday. Michael Vaughan and four other of his team are trialling some new eyewear which aims to enhance light and remove the need for sunglasses. More details are here.

January 21, 2006

Trading the bat for a shovel

Posted on 01/21/2006 in Offbeat

Fancy your coach digging graves to make ends meet. Mike Haysman takes us through some of the most bizarre secondary careers of cricketers in the 'less fortunate' era. Where would life be without cricket, you'd have to wonder...

Many to this day will have nightmares of what could have been. Often as a fledgling sportsman trying to make the grade, you are forced to roll up the sleeves and seek employment to make ends meet whilst spending whatever spare time you have forging a career in your chosen sporting field. Often that secondary career choice is suspect.

January 20, 2006

Jagger boxes clever for cricket

Posted on 01/20/2006 in Offbeat

Ah, rock stars, they can be a demanding lot. Specific colours of Smarties; special mineral water; white leather furnishings et cetera et cetera. But at least someone's got his priorities right, as Hello! magazine reveals. Top of Mick Jagger's list for the Rolling Stones' latest tour - and just think of all the things he could demand - is a TV for watching cricket. Good old boy.

Really feeling the benefit

Posted on 01/20/2006 in Offbeat

Veteran warhorse Andrew Flintoff, 27, has been awarded a benefit this year, news which can't have come as much of a shock to the limelight-bathed allrounder, or indeed his adoring nation.

But one man wasn't expecting a similar announcement, having retired from county cricket a full ten years ago. Yet step forward 41-year-old Tony Middleton of Hampshire: the former opening batsman turned Academy Director has finally been rewarded by his county a decade after the original promise.

"I thought they'd forgotten," he said, "but it's a nice surprise." Bless him.

January 12, 2006

It takes team to tango in Essex

Posted on 01/12/2006 in Offbeat

One, two cha-cha-cha; three, four cha-cha-cha ... Darren Gough's Essex team-mates may not yet be too familiar with his dance moves, but that's all set to change. Amazed by Goughie's twinkletoeing and hip-wiggling as would make your granny proud - as indeed Nana Gough was - Essex have announced that they are to incorporate dancing in their preseason warm-ups. "It should improve our poise and balance," explained dance guru Ronnie Irani.

January 11, 2006

Pash for cash

Posted on 01/11/2006 in Offbeat

Following the banning of same-sex kissing at New Zealand cricket grounds, the excellent Beige Brigade ("It's About Passion. Not Fashion") are now running a "Pash for cash" scheme:

We’re encouraging all people to do a protest pash if they see themselves on TV at all during the upcoming NZ v West Indies cricket series. We will be giving out spot prizes to those involved too: ideas include Showgirls vouchers, cold hard cash, lip balm and Make Your Own Movie kits...

December 29, 2005

Cricket at the Antarctic

Posted on 12/29/2005 in Offbeat

Geoff Somers, who is leading a five-man team in the Antarctic, celebrated Christmas in the best possible way: by playing cricket.

THE five members of the Polar expedition team planning to recreate Captain Robert Scott’s 1912 epic trek to the South Pole spent Christmas Day at their Antarctic base camp playing cricket.

December 5, 2005

Cartoon capers with Mark Waugh

Posted on 12/05/2005 in Offbeat

“Curses” as the evil Mojo Jojo of Powerpuff Girls fame no doubt said when he and a team led by Mark Waugh were beaten by a side which included Bob the Builder. Click here if you’re still bewildered, or if you want to know more.

December 3, 2005

Ashes effect still burning

Posted on 12/03/2005 in Offbeat

OK, so the feel-good factor over the Ashes is slipping away faster than a Shoaib Akhtar yorker. However, at least some of the youngsters who caught the cricket bug last summer are not turning their backs on it just because of the odd collapse, or two, or three...

November 22, 2005

The Christmas No. 1 is...

Posted on 11/22/2005 in Offbeat

Please, say it isn't true. The England team are going to release their own rendition of Jerusalem, the new 'anthem' of English cricket in time for Christmas - Girls Aloud and Robbie look out. On a serious note the proceeds are going to be split between the Asian earthquake appeal and two cricket charities. So if you are caught buying one in the shops you can always say it is for a good cause.

November 16, 2005

A picture paints a thousand words

Posted on 11/16/2005 in Offbeat

Jack Russell - he of wonky hats, baked beans and painter fame - has unveiled his depictions of the Ashes this summer, as reported in his local rag, the Bristol Evening Post:

The charismatic Russell, who scored two centuries and dismissed 165 batsmen during his test career, opened his new exhibition at the Jack Russell Gallery in High Street, Chipping Sodbury.

His work includes images from this summer's victories at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge, as well as from the dramatic drawn matches at Old Trafford and The Oval.

The collection consists of a dozen paintings, with prices for the originals expected to cost around £10,000.

Let's hope they're better (and they will be) than this attempt...

November 14, 2005

Freddie's bat saved from ashes

Posted on 11/14/2005 in Offbeat

The Aussies just can't get over their defeat this summer. One of Andrew Flintoff's bats was saved from falling into the hands of a still bitter Australian fan and becoming a 21st century version of the Ashes.

November 12, 2005

Wicket good fun

Posted on 11/12/2005 in Offbeat

Cricket has always struggled to register an interest in America. This group of people are trying their best, but banging ones head against a brink wall comes to mind.

November 11, 2005

43 chicken dinners

Posted on 11/11/2005 in Offbeat

Alec Stewart is grilled in Guardian Unlimited's irreverent Small Talk section, telling them what it's like to tour Pakistan - and more.

November 9, 2005

Have I Got News For You

Posted on 11/09/2005 in Offbeat

Harry Thompson, the man behind Have I Got News For You, the topical news quiz on the BBC, has died aged 45 after suffering from cancer. Aside from launching TV shows such as They Think It's All Over and The 11 O'Clock Show, he was an ardent cricket fan, as James Rampton reports in The Independent:

Apart from comedy and his family, Thompson's other great love was cricket. He set up the amateur Captain Scott Invitation XI in 1979, and it is still going strong with 30-odd games a season. The team has toured all over the world, and down the years people such as Hislop, Hugh Grant, Iain Glen and your correspondent have all donned the whites for this team. Thompson recently finished a book about the club, Penguins Stopped Play, which will be published next April.

Thompson himself played in 640-odd consecutive games, a run that was only broken by his diagnosis with cancer this April.

[Via Chunter]

November 2, 2005

Batting with compund interest

Posted on 11/02/2005 in Offbeat

Bryan Hirsch, in the Business Day, draws an analogy between the length of batsmen's innings and the power of compound interest.

October 26, 2005

Hansie Cronje: The Movie

Posted on 10/26/2005 in South African cricket

Franz Cronje, Hansie's elder brother, has said a film is to be made of the former South African captain:

"We started on the script more than a year ago and a lot of work has been put into it..."

His book has been flying off the shelves in South Africa.

RIP The Analyst

Posted on 10/26/2005 in Offbeat

An excellent, revealing and mostly amusing account of Simon Hughes' last few days as Channel 4's "Analyst," a position he had occupied since Channel 4 begun their coverage of cricket in Britain in 1999:

Go out for dinner with friends including Nasser Hussain, whose contribution at the outset of this England revival should not be forgotten. Mind you, I'm not going to tell him that, since he's in an argumentative mood and keeps his baseball cap on throughout the meal.

Full account at the Daily Telegraph

October 22, 2005

Reality TV + cricket = Scorpio Speedster

Posted on 10/22/2005 in Offbeat

I suppose it was inevitable. "Reality TV" has found its way into cricket, with the news that the Indian TV station, Channel7, is launching Scorpio Speedster, "a nationwide talent-hunt for India’s fastest bowler." More info here.

October 16, 2005

Cricket is Pinteresque

Posted on 10/16/2005 in Offbeat

Samuel Barclay Beckett: playwright, Nobel Prize winner...and a gritty left-hand opening batsman © Getty Images

This year's Nobel Prize for Literature went to the playwright Harold Pinter. Only three playwrights working in English - George Bernard Shaw, Eugene O'Neill and Pinter's main influence, Samuel Beckett - had won the prize before him. And curiously (or not, depending on your point of view), like Beckett, Pinter has a love of cricket.

Beckett played two first-class games (check his player profile) for Dublin University against Northants. And while we've all known Pinter is a life-long cricket fan, Robert Winder reveals more in today's Guardian:

The game is not, however, a light-hearted social affair to him. He grew up awed by Len Hutton and co, and fell for cricket not as some raffish country house pursuit, but as a bold theatre of aggression. His cricket is not simply picturesque; it is Pinteresque, with glints of malevolence in its courtesies, steel beneath its smile.

This is not to say that his own approach is grim; merely that it is serious. He plays cricket as if it matters - so it does matter. It counts.

As if cricket wasn't already the sport of the Gods; it also creates Nobel Prize-winning writers!

October 14, 2005

Shakespearean tragedies and psychological torment

Posted on 10/14/2005 in Offbeat

Russell Degnan writes of Test cricket's enduring appeal. It's worth a read, if only to reconfirm what we already knew...

The problem for people who don't understand cricket is that they really don't understand cricket. They see silly men dressed in white running around a field: characters speaking in pompous Victorian language. We see best laid plans, Shakespearean tragedy, heroism and psychological torment. Alas, 'tis their problem, nay ours.

(Via prolific emailer Zainub)

October 11, 2005

Bradman's a tough cookie ... quite literally

Posted on 10/11/2005 in Offbeat

An Indian biscuit manufacturer has paid a tribute to Sir Don Bradman by announcing it is to make biscuits bearing his name. Read all about it here.

October 7, 2005

A new girlfriend for Kevin

Posted on 10/07/2005 in Offbeat

Kevin Pietersen has a new model girlfriend, having made the short hop from Paris to Caprice. The Surfer is not the only one to struggle to write much more about this - the Australian Herald Sun, who ran the story, managed only three paragraphs.

(Link via email from Zainub.)

October 5, 2005

Flintoff, the champion drinker

Posted on 10/05/2005 in Offbeat

Andrew Flintoff, not content with winning the adoration and respect of Australia's public, has received further praise from Shane Warne - and not just of his cricketing prowess. At a lunch held in Melbourne, Warne told reporters that Flintoff opened beer bottles with his teeth after play during the Ashes, and was quite content to drink with team-mates or opposition. Champion cricketer - champion drinker, too. On ya, Freddie!

September 28, 2005

Time for tea?

Posted on 09/28/2005 in Offbeat

Standing on a pitch all day and concentrating over every ball is hard and tiring work. You’d think, though, that someone would give umpires a break. Well, now they may get one, or at least, an extended one, if they have their way. The Times newspaper reports that the first-class umpires have asked the ECB for extended lunch and tea breaks to squeeze in a well-deserved second cuppa.

Time for extra cream cakes? Even David Shepherd could be changing his mind about retirement at this rate.

September 27, 2005

If not for the Ashes ...

Posted on 09/27/2005 in Offbeat

... David Hicks would have much less of a chance of getting out of Guantanamo Bay.

(Link via email from Aditya Shrivastava.)

When Harry Potter ate humble pie

Posted on 09/27/2005 in Offbeat

Telford Vice reports that Garth King's "The Hansie Cronje story: an authorised biography" has surged to the top of South Africa's non-fiction bestseller list. In Cronje's hometown, Bloemfontein, where he remains a hero to most, the book reportedly outsold J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince" in the first week of its release.

September 26, 2005

Tripping the light not-so-fantastic

Posted on 09/26/2005 in Offbeat

He may be able to do the fandango, apparently, but, mama mia! - Darren Gough’s England career could be thrust right into jeopardy … because of ballroom dancing.

Dazzler, as he his known, will soon be twinkling on the dancefloor in the latest series of the BBC light entertainment show Strictly Come Dancing but David Graveney has warned that he could be quick-stepping off the England stage at the same time.

“We will now see how other people do in his place,” Graveney told the BBC, “and it is a great opportunity for them.” But he refused to give an opinion on Gough’s dancing: “I've no idea what he's like,” he said. Read the whole story on the BBC website.

Freaks of nature

Posted on 09/26/2005 in Offbeat

Bowled Shane © Getty Images

In the Sydney Morning Herald John Huxley reports that four Australian sports scientists have worked out the reason for Don Bradman's freakish ability. The researchers point out to Bradman's unorthodox technique - including his grip and stance - and psycho-physical tests which showed that he had a slower reaction time than the average university student. And they add that both these helped him develop a "perfect" technique".

Another Australian, another legend, another freak. Shane Warne is a unique specimen and cannot be aped, writes Robin Mckie, the science editor of the Observer. He says:

His firm clutch of the cricket ball; the powerful fingers that send it swerving on unguessable trajectories; and the sweeping arcs of his arm propelling it on pinpoint flights: all highlight attributes that have sent Homo sapiens to planetary domination. It may seem unlikely, but the lad from Ferntree Gully [Warne] is a pinnacle of human evolution.

The Surfer wants to investigate why only Australia produces these freaks of nature. Oh, silly Surfer. It's the beer, mate.

September 23, 2005

Ranji’s emerald love

Posted on 09/23/2005 in Offbeat

Haresh Pandya reports that an emerald and pearl necklace estimated at 1.6 million pounds belonging to Ranjitsinhji has been forbidden from being auctioned at Christie.

What intrigued The Surfer more was that nobody still knows how and when the necklace vanished from the royal family. Eagerly awaiting responses from all in the know.