All posts by h716a5.icu

In a cramped calendar, the Asia Cup has little context. However, the unbridled enthusiasm of Dhaka’s fans and marketers could give the tournament the publicity it desperately needs

Siddarth Ravindran in Mirpur10-Mar-2012The Asia Cup has rarely been a high-profile event. Soon after leading India to the inaugural Asia Cup title in 1984, Sunil Gavaskar wrote precisely two sentences about the tournament in his book , an account of the 1983-84 season.Nine editions and 28 years later, the competition remains the passing afterthought it was for Gavaskar. Most casual fans will be hard-pressed to remember who the current Asian champions are. Three days before the start of this year’s contests, another legendary former opening batsman, Geoffrey Boycott, has questioned whether anybody cares about the Asia Cup.As tournaments seep into each other – Sri Lanka played four ODIs over the past week in Australia, get four days to zip to Dhaka in time for this event, three days after which their home series against England gets underway – context and interest get quickly drained. So much so that after India crashed out early of the CB Series, some commentators raised the week’s extra rest for the team as an upside.In this time of excess, no stadium has overdosed on ODIs like the Shere Bangla National Stadium, hosting 50 one-dayers in four years, more than twice any other venue. Judging from the voluminous crowds that have turned up for most of those matches, Dhaka may well be the city with the world’s biggest appetite for cricket.The Asia Cup is looking to cash in on that. Even as you head towards the arrival lounge in the city’s airport a large hoarding informs you of details about the tournament. Drive around the city and you spot numerous billboards urging you to enter a contest to get free tickets to watch “four nations fighting for glory.”The unbridled enthusiasm of the city’s fans and marketers is even more astonishing given the state of the national team. Their captain recently launched a stinging attack on the BCB’s pet new project – the Bangladesh Premier League – their best batsman was controversially left out of the squad and only returned after the national selector stepped down, their most experienced player remains on the fringes after a decade of infuriating inconsistency, and their best fast bowler is among the most injury-prone in international cricket and is now returning to the team after nearly a year. And after the hopes raised by some of their performances in 2010, the past year has been a huge letdown.Dhaka may well be the city with the world’s biggest appetite for cricket•BPL T20India, on the other hand, conquered the world title in 2011 before swiftly sliding to mediocrity. As one of their legends announced his retirement, the future of another, at least in the limited-overs game, remains a source of heated debate. The search for possibly the most written-about milestone in cricket history continues next week in Mirpur, though the wait has extended for so long that even the customary “Tendulkar misses 100th hundred” headlines have now disappeared.With Virender Sehwag rested, the batting rotation policy – a source of much heartburn over the past month – won’t be the center of attention, though the identity of their best bowling line-up will. Less than a year after being crowned world champions, only two peripheral bowlers of the World Cup-winning side are in the current squad.The other World Cup finalists, Sri Lanka, are showing signs of a revival after a horrendous run in the second half of 2011. Tillakaratne Dilshan has revived his scoring touch after stepping down as leader, Mahela Jayawardene’s enterprising leadership has won him plenty of accolades over the past month, and their next generation of batsmen is starting to flourish, complementing the heavyweights at the top of the order. Their off-field troubles remain and their spirited show in the CB Series was in conditions completely different to what they will face in Bangladesh, but they will come into the tournament as the most confident side.The subcontinental team which has had the most successful time in the past 10 months is Pakistan. A year in which the limited-overs captain has a falling out with the head coach is not every team’s idea of a stable year, but 2011 will count as a steady and fruitful year for Pakistan, given the many dramas their cricket have been involved in the years before.The Pakistan head coach job is one of the most challenging and complicated ones in cricket, particularly for a foreigner, and Dav Whatmore will get his first hands-on experience of the difficulty involved during the Asia Cup. The many years of experience in the subcontinent will hold Whatmore in good stead, but the pressure to deliver results will be even greater than usual as he is stepping in after Mohsin Khan’s short and productive spell as interim coach.His biggest test in the league phase will be the match against India. India and Pakistan rarely compete against each other these days, making next Sunday’s encounter a rarity in the overloaded calendar – an eagerly anticipated ODI.Edited by Kanishkaa Balachandran

Tributes to the Surrey batsman Tom Maynard, who has died aged 23

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jun-2012″It’s an absolute tragedy. I’ve known Tom since he was a little boy and our hearts go out to Sue and Matthew, his parents, and all his friends and family. Tom was an incredibly talented cricketer but he was an incredibly likeable young man as well, who had the world at his feet, and it’s just a tragedy. In many respects he played just like his old man did. I remember playing with Matthew, who was such a talented cricketer himself … Matthew played for England and Tom was very much on that pathway, he played for the Lions this winter, he impressed all the coaches, they liked him as a person, they liked what they saw as a player – and to have his life cut short in this way is a tragedy.”
“The lovely kid who was always in our Glamorgan dressing room grew into a man who would have played for England. How can he be gone so soon?”
“Our thoughts at this awful time are with Tom’s family and friends and all those that were close to him. The impact Tom made in such a short period of time for Surrey CCC spoke for itself. There is a profound sense of loss at the passing of Tom. To lose anybody at such a young age is an utterly senseless tragedy.”
“Tom was a player of enormous potential who had already represented England Lions and had an exciting future ahead of him. Our hearts go out to the Maynard family for their tragic loss and we send them and all Tom’s many friends and colleagues within the game our deepest sympathies.”
“Thoughts are with Matt Maynard and his family. Words can’t describe the Terribly sad news that Tom Maynard has died aged 23… #RIPTOM”
“We’ve sadly lost a lovely lad who had the talent to be something very special. My thoughts go out to the Maynard Family. RIP Tom”
“The cricket family is so small. You always tend to know everyone quite well. I know his Dad quite well, his dad was coach of the year in South Africa this year and our thoughts just go out to the family. it is always a tragedy to lose such a talented player. He was certainly flamboyant. He had a lot of potential and had a lot o talent and who knows who he would have ended up. Thoughts with the family and hope they get to the bottom of it.”
“Terrible news, Tom a fantastic athlete, great person who had so much to look forward too, I’m devastated for all that knew him #RIPTomMaynard”
“I was shocked to receive the tragic news of the accidental death of Tom, Matthew and Sue’s son. At the recent CSA awards dinner, Matthew and I were discussing Tom coming out to South Africa this year and possibly playing some cricket in Pretoria. Although I never met Tom, I heard that he was a very talented young cricketer especially in the shorter format of the game. On behalf of Northerns cricket union I wish to express our deepest condolences to the Maynard family and I can assure them that our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
“The Bangladesh Cricket Board and BPL Governing Council express deep bereavement at the tragic death of Surrey and England Lions batsman Tom Maynard … The BCB and BPL GC extend heartfelt condolences to the family of this exciting young batsman whose undoubted talent had made him a prized recruit at the BPL T20 tournament.”
“RIP Tom Maynard. Such a sad loss to everyone that knew him and thoughts are with his family. Absolutely gutted. Will be missed xx”

Ian Bell’s return to England’s ODI side was not championed throughout the land but he is now liberated of his troubles over the winter and in some form to take on South Africa.

David Hopps at Chester-le-Street07-Jul-2012There is something about Ian Bell that means even at the height of his game he will never quite make the earth shake. Bowlers will never feel bullied and spectators will rarely gasp in admiration. Sometimes it has to be admitted that readers might not even bother to read. It is his lot in life and he must put up with it. It cannot be denied, though, he is in the finest of form.He made 69 before chopping on against Clint McKay, extending a run against Australia in the NatWest Series that had previously brought him 53, 41 and 75. His prowess was again apparent, but it is prowess largely without presence, the sort of classical approach that soothes the mind without ever quite quickening the pulse.Well, grant him this: presence or no presence, the manner in which Bell has reclaimed his England one-day place is extraordinary, his graceful talent paraded time and again. England were preparing for life without him in one-day cricket and whatever people might claim in hindsight there were no protests at the gates. Nobody was especially passionate in arguing his case, neither in the media or the public at large. Somebody in Kings Norton might have shrugged a little in disappointment but revolution there was not.Bell, though, retained his hunger. Beneath the forever boyish countenance, desire remains entrenched. Since Kevin Pietersen ditched one-day cricket for England three weeks ago and Bell took his chance to return with a century against West Indies at the Rose Bowl, he has scored 364 runs at 72.80 with one hundred and three fifties. He has become a final component of an England side who have extended their winning run in ODIs to nine. One Australian was heard talking about them as favourites for the World Cup in 2014/15, quite a shock for a country that has never won it.

Bell might never be the tough guy in the tattoo parlour, but at least now he can claim he is so menacing that Australian bowlers are breaking down the moment they set eyes on him.

“He is class, isn’t he?” Alastair Cook, England’s captain, said about Bell. “He is hard to bowl at because he can score 360 degrees. We are getting off to good starts which makes it easier. Kevin Pietersen is a world-class player but we have had to move on and people have had to step up to different roles.”Bell is not unappreciated in our dressing room. The way he has played in the last two years is outstanding. He has worked so hard at his game, he is always first in the nets, and he is getting just rewards for it.”In that comeback innings against West Indies, Bell began with an effortless straight six, but played the shot in such considered fashion that he made the exceptional look routine. Perhaps deep inside himself he wanted it to be seen as a powerful, chest-out statement that he was back, but to the onlooker it did not quite feel like that.Many of Bell’s most dominant shots are understated, so perfectly constructed that they are almost taken for granted. They demand deeper contemplation. As Krusty The Clown once bemoaned in The Simpsons about something entirely different: “Aw crap, I said the soft part loud and the loud part soft”. So it is with Bell in full flow: he flows so effortlessly that the loud shots land softly.The observation on this website after that Rose Bowl innings that Bell’s knock lacked the theatrical appeal of a Pietersen hundred brought howls of protest, much of it not fit to print. The howls, though, came entirely from Pietersen admirers, who felt without justification that their man had been slighted. Hardly anybody ever writes in Bell’s defence. Perhaps they do not view things so emotionally and are out dog walking or spraying the roses.Bell might never be the tough guy in the tattoo parlour, but at least after this innings he can claim he is so menacing that Australian bowlers are breaking down the moment they set eyes on him. Shane Watson and Brett Lee both pulled up with calf injuries and left the field, managing less than four overs between them. They might not play again this series.Up on the hillside stood Lumley Castle where it was reported on a previous Ashes tour that Watson was afraid of ghosts. These days, Australia stay in Newcastle, but Bell may still walk before him at dead of night, his head clasped in the crook of his arm, haunting him for the rest of the series.There were some fine shots for this Chester-le-Street crowd to savour: some fulsome drives through extra cover and serene clips off his legs. He chopped James Pattinson past David Hussey’s fingertips on 21, but that was his only uncertain moment. It was another systematic innings in his orderly universe. His poise was a million miles away from his traumatic time against Saeed Ajmal in the UAE in the winter. He looks liberated, classical, ready to pit himself against South Africa in the contest to be the No. 1 Test side in the world. England can be grateful for that.

The ICC has changed the bottled water provider at the World Twenty20 after teams complained of stomach illnesses, but in drought-stricken villages nearby any water will do

David Hopps in Colombo25-Sep-2012As headlines go, you have to admit it had a certain resonance: ‘ICC denies poisoning cricketers.’ That is good to know. Cricket’s governing body has been accused of many shortcomings in its time but, as far as anybody knows, they have always stopped short of attempted murder.Nobody has any proof that there was the slightest thing wrong with the bottled water supplied for World Twenty20. But to address the concerns of one team – believed to be Australia – the brand of water has been changed for players, media, hospitality and event staff for the rest of the tournament.Australia remain for the Super Eights stage in Colombo, where they will doubtless be following instructions in their five-star hotel to avoid the salad, allow no ice to enter their drinks and not to eat buffet food that has been languishing under heaters for any longer than 9.8 seconds. The new brand of bottled water, called simply American, a brand that for some has a reassuring Western ring to it, should at least persuade Australia’s players to stop bringing their own preferred bottles of water to matches. Both brands are sourced in Sri Lanka and follow Sri Lankan health guidelines.Near Pallekele, the other venue for Super Eights, there is a real water crisis, not one that only exists only in the privileged world of the highly-cosseted international cricketer. A cricketer with a stomach ailment might just drop the catch that surrenders the tournament, and to that extent the health obsession of any ambitious player or team is understandable, but on the edge of the Knuckles mountain range, the safeguarding of a fresh water supply has become a matter of urgency.The Victoria Reservoir, a short distance from Pallekele, normally provides a stunning backdrop to one of the most beautiful golf courses in Asia. Hook your drive at the moment and it will land in the world’s biggest bunker. The reservoir, for the first time since it was completed, is bone dry. The May-June rains failed and the October monsoon cannot arrive soon enough. The people around here are deeply concerned.Sebastian Bernard, 57, now a cook at Rangala House, an appealing old-colonial style property further up the valley, used to turn out Sri Lankan curries, ‘not too spicy’, for the Western engineers who worked on the project in the early 1980s. “They said it would never run dry,” he said. “I have never seen it as dry as this. We need the rain.”In Rangala, an hour into the Knuckles from Pallekele, there has been no rain for four months. The land is parched, although the vegetation somehow retains the dark green that is so typically Sri Lankan. Livestock and wild animals will be in danger of dying if the rains do not come soon.This week the villagers assembled on the playing fields between 9pm and 3am, 700 of them dressed in white, praying to Buddhist Gods, and singing incantations, accompanied by the sound of drumming.The spring at Rangala House has run dry and about 500 metres up the road three people hammer away with picks and shovels to deepen a well by a further six feet. They still have drinking water, but nobody dare take it for granted. They are grateful to have a generator because power cuts are averaging three hours a night and when that happens the villagers are relying on kerosene lamps.At least in Pallekele, on match night, as the floodlights illuminate World Twenty20, the villagers can be confident that there will be no power cuts.

Non-Asian players have had upset stomachs on the subcontinent since cricket began. The stories are endless. It can work the other way, too. The Sri Lankans once famously fell ill in England after eating fish and chips in Grimsby.

They adore cricket in Sri Lanka, and are proud to stage World Twenty20, but give the people a choice between a Super Eights stage uninterrupted by the weather and the sort of prolonged dousing that will secure their future and protect their livelihoods, and for many it is an uncomfortable pick. They need water, any water; it does not need to carry an approved label.Amila Prageeth, the manager, admitted: “If it is between cricket for the next week or rain, I love cricket but I want the rain.”Sebastian disagreed, with the contented air of a more elderly man who has seen the rain fall for a lifetime, and trusts that the October rains will be along soon enough.”I want the cricket,” he smiled.”In that case, you can live not on water, only on cricket,” Amila said.Back in the land of World Twenty20, three New Zealanders, Daniel Vettori, Tim Southee and Rob Nicol, have been affected, as have Australia’s Mitchell Starc and Brad Hogg. Five South Africa players were weakened by gastro complaints but recovered to play in the win over Zimbabwe last Thursday. Half-a-dozen Ireland players also missed practice.The list is a strikingly long one, but non-Asian players have had upset stomachs on the subcontinent since cricket began and nobody has ever thought to blame the bottled water. The stories of illness are endless. It can work the other way, too. The Sri Lankans once famously fell ill in England after eating fish and chips in Grimsby.Among the 300 media personnel, by contrast, there have been no official complaints about official ICC water. An occasional stomach upset is shrugged off as a temporary inconvenience. Anyway not too many of the media can still remember what it was like to be in the peak of physical health.LAUGFS Aqua System said it had asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) for samples of suspect bottles of water, but have just been told that its product is off the table.”We have done our own tests and confirmed that there is nothing wrong with our water,” LAUGFS general manager Chaminda Wijesinghe told . “We asked the ICC to give us water samples but we have got no response yet. We don’t know what caused the problem but I can tell you it is not our water. I am drinking it all the time.”The ICC statement was carefully worded: “Although there is no evidence to suggest that water was the cause of any illness, all products supplied for use in the tournament have been replaced,” it said.I read it out to Amila. “Tell them to bring the bottles here,” he said.

After collecting his 300th Test wicket Dale Steyn was a content man but is more delighted with the team success than his own landmarks

Firdose Moonda05-Jan-2013Dale Steyn, South Africa’s latest admission to the 300-wicket club, acknowledged the speed of his success has been aided by the quality of bowlers around him. Alongside Makhaya Ntini at the start of his career and Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander in the last year, Steyn has been able to operate potently in small doses while his counterparts put in the hard yards.As South Africa’s firebrand frontman, Steyn had the tireless Ntini and hard-working Morkel and now the metronomic Philander do the bulk of the donkey work while he is saved to bowl when it matters. “I pick and choose the times when I need to force speed and force extended spells,” Steyn said.That much was evident as recently as the Newlands Test against New Zealand where Steyn was required to bowl an eight-over spell in the hour after lunch. Graeme Smith wanted to crack through the lower middle order after stubborn New Zealand resistance and he entrusted the responsibility to his senior man.Steyn moved through the gears, firing in a barrage of short balls to unnerve the already vulnerable New Zealanders. He operated at full throttle, steaming in, snorting and scary. Craig Cumming, the former New Zealander opener, said Steyn’s angry eyes get going when he was like that.When Steyn starts to behave irreverently, he bowls better. When he sulks, kicks the boundary rope, sits on the cooler box when he should be fielding and ignores the autograph hunters, he will deliver the ball faster and with more venom. But that side of him only comes out once a series, if that. It only comes when Smith decides South Africa need to pull the trigger.It sometimes leads to people questioning whether Steyn starts slowly or loses rhythm later on. According to him, it’s neither. It is just the difference when he cranks it up is so stark. “I always try to start like that especially as Graeme speaks about bowlers having to lead from the front,” he said. “I try and set the tone but it doesn’t always happen. When you know you can get two more days off in Cape Town, that’s when you try and do it.”It is also when he knows he will have time to recover from the extra exertion that Steyn is willing to extend himself. Having never picked up a serious bowling injury, Steyn is aware that his clean action and good run of luck has served him well and he wants to keep it that way. “I bowled after lunch for an hour-and-a-bit, and my legs are feeling it now. If I had to go back out there and bowl tomorrow, the chances of picking up an injury would be a lot higher.”It is identifying and managing situations like that that Steyn thinks has kept him fit and helped him get to 300 wickets as quickly as he has. His milestone was achieved in the same amount of time as Richard Hadlee and Malcolm Marshall making him joint third fastest in the world. Although Steyn is aware of and proud of the record it is not something he regards as overly important.”I play a lot of games for South Africa and bowl a lot of overs,” he said. “The way I see it, if you’re going to do that, and you stay fit, you will get wickets. For example, if I was a batter, like Hashim Amla, I would be scoring runs. But I was quite happy with the ball that got the 300th wicket.””I was stoked, it was awesome but I’ve got a lot more to offer in the game. I’ve got another Test match to play in Port Elizabeth a few days from now and I’ve got a few more years in cricket. I look forward to a couple more wickets. But 300 wickets is a lot of wickets so I can go to bed happy.”The number crunchers will predict that Steyn could become the quickest to another milestone – such as 400 or 500 wickets. But Steyn is not looking that far ahead and is just enjoying the now. “It’s awesome. A couple of years ago, I wanted to take wickets because of things like strike rates and leading the attack. But now, this attack is led by everyone. Morne Morkel is doing it; Vernon started playing as if he was doing it all the time. We’ve got such a great seam attack that we are able to play with the spinner. This team is an incredible team to be part of right now.”

I will try to make reasoned arguments about why Inverarity is right about the ‘informed player management’ policy implemented by Cricket Australia

Tapan Doshi25-Feb-2013There’s been a lot of talk lately, mostly criticism, of John Inverarity’s stern defence of the ‘informed player management’ policy implemented by Cricket Australia, with critics ranging from credible to self-aggrandising.I will try to make reasoned arguments about why Inverarity is right. Since 1999, Australian one-day and Test teams have enjoyed a sustained period of supremacy and excellence. Precisely when their reign ended in the different formats will only be clear 20 years hence; but for the sake of this discussion, let’s consider periods beginning from the 1999 World Cup till December 2010 for the ODI team, and 1999 till the 2010-11 Ashes for the Test teams.During this period, an obscene number of high-quality players came together to play at the same time. These legends managed to keep Michael Hussey, Darren Lehmann, Andrew Symonds, Damien Martyn, Simon Katich, Greg Blewett, Michael Slater, Andy Bichel, Brad Hodge, Brad Haddin, Damien Fleming, Michael Kasprowicz, Stuart MacGill, Nathan Bracken, Brad Hogg and countless more out of the team, some for the better part of their careers. The bench strength was so strong that an injured player could easily be replaced by someone of equal or greater quality and the result of the match would be unaffected.In this phase, Australian teams used only 73 players to play 345 ODIs, and 59 players to play 141 Test matches and had exceptional results. Warne’s dictum – let your best team in each format play together for as long as possible, and the results will improve – might have been true, pre-2007. But two things happened very soon after Warne retired.Many legends in the team retired in the 2007-2008 period. The Australian cricket team has been the most successful team in both Tests and ODIs in terms of its W/L ratio. Success and dominance are mandatory for its cricket teams as a culture. However, since Warne and his mates retired, Australian cricket lost the luxury of plug-and-play legends sitting on the bench waiting for a fellow legend to get injured so that they could waltz into the team and perform at a level that would make a viewer wonder whether the player was wearing the wrong jersey. The domestic structure, which produced fantastic reserves, simply does not any more. Now the squad is full of fixtures (Clarke, Wade, Starc, Warner), unpredictables (Johnson, Tait), fizzle-outers (Ferguson, North, Forrest, White, Bollinger), honest-triers (Doherty, Hilfenhaus, Bailey, Khawaja, Smith, Cowan, Lyon), awesome-but-frequently-crocked (Siddle, Watson, Harris), and exciting-but-unproven (Hughes, Maxwell, Pattinson, Cummins).In 2007, India won the T20 World Cup, which directly led to IPL and a cluster of T20 leagues around the world. The direct consequence of IPL is that players simply started playing a lot more cricket in a lot more places around the world, and because the Australian domestic circuit was so strong, the Australian players simply became value purchases for most of the new franchises. Australian players started playing more, and Cricket Australia could do nothing about it.The stark reality of today’s international cricket scheduling is that players play one extra format at domestic and national levels that adds further strain. More matches, along with more travel, mean more injuries. The number of injuries faced by the Australian squad, especially the recent fast bowling crop, has been well documented.Secondly, the difference in the requisite skillset and mindset from the slowest to the fastest format is wider than it has ever been before. This is why no single team seems to dominate all three formats of the game simultaneously. England, India and South Africa came close, and occupied the No. 1 spot in Test and ODI rankings. However, none of the teams came close to the Australian dominance in all three formats simultaneously.India were brought crashing back to earth in England and Australia months after their ODI World Cup triumph, and South Africa didn’t perform well during the 2011 World Cup or the 2012 World T20 soon after gaining the No.1 spot. Individual players such as Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Dale Steyn, Kevin Pietersen and David Warner have been able to apply their skills to all three formats with more success than others, but a whole team peaking together consistently while playing one format after the next has not happened since the 2007 World T20.Legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, Inzamam ul-Haq, Glenn McGrath and others either retired before the international T20 became a staple of the international cricket calendar, or simply didn’t play enough matches. Clarke hasn’t played a T20I since 2009 despite being a top ODI player. Some like Hashim Amla, Virat Kohli and Saeed Ajmal have had plenty of time to get used to one format of the game before playing the others. Amla has moved from Tests to T20, while the other two have progressed from T20s to Tests.Kallis, by his own admission, has had to work really hard to succeed at T20, simply because he’s had to widen his skills greatly. The point is, even greats of the game struggle to perform at consistently excellent levels when they have to play multiple formats in short time.Inverarity, Bichel, Clarke and Arthur recognise that they have a relatively young core of players, who are not in the league of Steve Waugh, Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist, Ponting, Hussey, McGrath and Brett Lee just yet. But they realise that, given enough time and patience, this group has the talent and temperament to do very well for Australia.They also realise they have to form a strong group of reserve players ready to step in because this new group of players will be injured more frequently than the others. Since the Australian domestic circuit is no longer as strong as it once was, the only way to produce a high-quality bench is to make a large group of players play a lot of international games.This could serve a couple of purposes. Firstly, it can help identify exceptional talent and differentiate between all-format cricketers and format specialists. Second, slowly but surely, the journeymen will elevate the quality of the reserves and be ready to step in whenever called upon. The only way to do that is to give the new pool of players opportunity and time.Early on in his career, Warne was part of a huge paradigm shift in World Cricket: separate squads and captains for Tests and ODIs. Informed player management is the 2013 version.

From Bhisham Ojha, USA

Akhila Ranganna25-Feb-2013Chanderpaul has quietly crossed into the realm of greatness•AFPIn the 1920’s and 1930’s, West Indies cricket was in its infancy and the side was a hodgepodge of amateurs and weekend cricketers. This team was often bettered by the stronger English and Australian sides. During those forlorn decades, one world-class batsman emerged. He was the bulwark of a frail batting line-up and the team’s fortunes often rested on his shoulders, so much so that CB Fry dubbed him “Atlas”. That player was George Headley.His amazing consistency and penchant for run making earned him another epithet, “The Black Bradman”. Fast forward eight decades, and another batsman, cast in the same indomitable mould has materialised and is drawing comparisons with this great player. He is Shivnarine Chanderpaul, sometimes called Tiger or simply Shiv. For his obdurate batting, resolute temperament and consistent run scoring, almost always in lost causes, he is deserving of another accolade – the Brown Headley.This comparison is not inapt. Chanderpaul came on the scene as the sun was setting on the glorious Lloyd –Richards’ era. In the lean years that followed, as West Indies plummeted from their lofty perch to ignominious lows, the little Guyanese left-hander has grown in stature. Since the retirement of Brian Lara in 2006, he has become the linchpin of a brittle and mediocre batting side. From then to now, in series after series against all-comers Shiv has stood in Casabiancan splendour, quietly accumulating thousands of runs and frustrating bowlers from Lord’s to Lahore.His latest display of Headleyesque run-making came in the just-concluded Test seriesagainst Australia. Chanderpaul’s aggregate in that series was a quarter of the team’s total. His value is starkly evident. In this present West Indies squad [the playing XI in the third Test in Roseau] there is only one other player with a career batting average above thirty and the rest of the team has a total of four Test hundreds. In the last six years (since Jan 2006), he has scored 11 centuries out of the 40 that West Indies have managed. Since 2007 he has tallied over 3,000 runs at a Headley-like average of 66. In the 2007 and 2008 calendar years he averaged over 100, joining Don Bradman as only other player to do so in consecutive years. That period was a purple patch for Chanderpaul .He was ranked the No. 1 Test batsman for seven months in 2008 -2009. He was a Wisden Cricketer for 2008. That same year, the ICC named him the player of the year. All of this was accomplished with an undercurrent of endemic administrative problems that has plagued the West Indies in recent times.Despite these problems, Shiv has maintained his consistency and kept getting better and better. He has done this by putting a high price on his wicket. In these days of fast-paced cricket he has persisted with the old-fashioned method of occupying the crease, playing each ball on merit and building his innings one run at a time.Too often when he is dismissed it has precipitated a ‘calypso collapse’. On other days, as he dug in, preparing to play a significant innings his team-mates have committed hara kiri, leaving him stranded. This has happened so often that he holds the West Indian Test record for most not-out innings [among West Indian batsmen, excluding all bowlers]. His doughtiness’ has rewarded him with another quirky record: In the 2002 series against India he lasted 1,513 minutes between dismissals.Chanderpaul, however, on infrequent occasions, can deviate from the path of stolidity. One rare and startling exhibition of uncharacteristic audacity was against Australia in 2003. On his home turf of Bourda, in Georgetown he came to the wicket with West Indies in trouble at 47 for 4. Everyone expected Shiv to prod and push in a typical rearguard innings. Against all logic he shed his barnacle shell and blasted the flabbergasted Aussie attack for 15 fours and two sixes on his way to the third fastest Test hundred [at the time]. Another instance of his uncommon ebullience was in a 2008 ODI against Sri Lanka .With 10 runs needed off the last two deliveries, Shiv drove Chaminda Vaas down the ground for four and then lofted him over mid-wicket for the six needed for an unlikely victory.He began his unheralded career on 19 March 1994 against England , when as a frail nineteen-year-old he walked out in the Bourda sunlight and took guard with the now trademark hammering of the bail into the crease. After several bouts of nerves he blossomed and Wisden Almanac noted that “Chanderpaul made a debut half-century of wristy elegance”. He notched twelve other half centuries in 18 matches before scoring his first hundred. He now has 25 tons, the third most for West Indians, behind Sobers (26) and Lara (34). Shiv’s career aggregate of 10,055 makes him the second-highest run getter for the West Indies. His fifty-nine Test fifties are ahead of other West Indians and only Allan Border, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, and Sachin Tendulkar have scored more. His career average of 50.02 is greater than his illustrious predecessors: Kanhai, Lloyd, Greenidge, Worrell, Kallicharran and Hunte, and he is only a few decimal points away from topping Viv Richard’s.Shiv seems an unlikely choice for inclusion into a pantheon of batting titans. But his durable class, the dedicated occupation of the crease and the sheer weight of runs made against all countries in all conditions often in solitary, perilous circumstances has placed him in hallowed company. He has quietly crossed into the realm of greatness and can now be unapologetically mentioned in the same breath as Lara, Richards, Sobers and Headley. And as he continues to strive in adversity, confounding both critics and captains, there is the tantalising prospect of years from now whenever a dream team, an all-time West Indies Test side is again chosen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul will take his rightful place in that immortal eleven

Hughes has one thing in common with his coach – unorthodoxy. But Lehmann’s presence should be useful in helping the left-hander deal with spin

Daniel Brettig in Taunton30-Jun-2013Phillip Hughes was not yet in school when Darren Lehmann had already learned to deal with the sorts of criticism so often attached to that most fascinating, entertaining and occasionally infuriating of batsman: the unorthodox left-hander. Now as Australia’s new coach, Lehmann is ideally placed to help Hughes deal with troubles against spin bowling that have become the latest of a series of mountains for the younger man to climb.Much like Hughes, Lehmann’s technique and choices of mentors were questioned. His chances of making it as an international cricketer were dismissed out of hand for reasons like “he plays half his matches in Adelaide”, “looks jumpy against pace” and even the odd allegation of “scores too quickly”. Unlike Hughes, those critiques helped stop Lehmann from playing international cricket until his first-class career was a decade old.Both share a ravenous appetite for run-scoring and a knack for making hundreds. Hughes in fact outstrips Lehmann in his early aptitude for doing so – by the age of 24, Lehmann had 17 first-class hundreds to Hughes’ 21, none of them in Tests. But one major point of difference is their relative comfort when facing spin. Lehmann was near peerless at his best; Hughes is near shot-less at his worst.”Obviously he’s only just come in recently but I’ll be talking to him day in and day out about especially spin,” Hughes said. “Because he really dominated spin bowling through his whole career so it’s something we can all keep working on and he’ll be fantastic for that.”I studied him when I was younger, I loved watching him play, and I think the aggressive way he went about it is something I try and do as well and a number of the boys in the team model our games around. So it’s good to have him around and he’s really putting us into that positive frame of mind.”Positivity is important to Hughes more than most. An improved capability against spin, and the denial of negative or survival-oriented thoughts will be critical if Hughes is to bat down that order, as he was commissioned to do in the first innings at Taunton.”I really enjoyed batting at No.5 and then obviously 3 [in the second innings], but it’s only a number next to your name and I’ve always said that I don’t really mind where I bat,” Hughes said. “It’s just about opportunity really and about performing. I think it’s a good thing giving everyone a go in different positions just to see. I’ve been lucky enough to go from opener all the way down to 5 now so it’s a good thing. It’s only something you can continue to work on.”One point of progress during Hughes’ innings of 76* and 50 against Somerset was his ability to rotate the strike against the spin of George Dockrell. There were well-struck sixes too, but the singles were more instructive as to Hughes’ best chance of thriving against Graeme Swann, not allowing England’s No. 1 spinner to work him over.”Yeah it’s nice to get off strike, doesn’t matter who you’re really facing especially at the start of your innings to work into it,” Hughes said. “They kept changing the field and you want to try and manipulate that as much as possible. I thought he bowled quite well, there was a fair bit of rough outside off stump, so it was nice to get to the other end today against a spinner and on a dry pitch.”Hughes and the rest of the tourists have now settled in Worcestershire, which in 2012 proved a critical juncture for him after a horrid summer in Australia that began with “caught Guptill, bowled Martin” and ended with his departure from New South Wales. Much as Lehmann’s international prospects only gathered momentum after he ventured to Yorkshire and proved his ability to play on a greater variety of surfaces, Hughes’ horizons were broadened at Worcester, not least by their coach Steve Rhodes.”It was nice to get away from a lot of things and go out there and enjoy my cricket and the four or five months I was there, it was times I’ll never forget,” Hughes said. “I speak to Rhodesy a fair bit and I can’t wait to catch up with him again, and have a few chats along the way. But they’ve been real good and he really gave me that freedom to go out there and express myself.”It’s a bit like my second home. They really looked after me there for the four or five months I spent there, it was really good for my confidence 12 months back, and I’ll be meeting with all the guys over the next few days and catch up for dinner. They made me feel welcome when I was there and it’s going to be good to see some mates.”No doubt Lehmann can relate to that, too.

A team that used to programme calculated destruction of the opposition has been reduced to making flawed, human gambles

Jarrod Kimber at Adelaide Oval06-Dec-20130:00

Kimber: Australia ran away with it

There was a time, not even that long ago, that watching England play was like watching a well-organized show dance at a major awards ceremony. Every single person knew their role. The moves had been well practised beforehand. It was entertaining without ever being fun. And behind the scenes you knew there was someone really angry, and focused, with a clipboard and walkie talkie.It was safe, calculated and effective.In Adelaide last time, England took wickets with the new ball on a good batting pitch, then kept Australia below three an over until they had picked them off for less than 300. With the bat, Kevin Pietersen, Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood batted with ease and put on a score that meant batting twice would probably not be needed. On a flat pitch they waited, used Graeme Swann perfectly and rotated the other end well, until Australia just faded away.It was their first win of the series. It was their blueprint working exactly how they would want it: magic from KP, stunning effectiveness and professionalism from everyone else.Now England are not that team. If their batting has showcased that for the last 18 Test innings – during which they have failed to reach 400 – their morning session in the field showed that their whole game was slipping away.Australia started the day 5 for 276. In no one’s estimation were they massively ahead of the game on this Adelaide pitch. Yet England played as if the pitch was completely dead and the only way to get wickets was through improvisation and enterprise. Essentially, England strayed away from the sort of Sensible Solutions cricket they play so well, and went a bit funky.It very nearly worked. With the new ball still only 12 overs old, Monty Panesar had Michael Clarke dancing down the wicket and spooning the ball into the outfield. It could have gone anywhere. England’s decision to bounce, and bounce, Australia with the short ball, also almost paid off as Brad Haddin skied a ball towards a slow-to-react Panesar.But it is here where you start to wonder what is wrong with England. In their glory years, would they have tried to bounce a batsman out with two fielders in the deep if one of them was their worst fielder? And would they have played two of their attacking options at once, leaving them very little to fall back on with two quality batsman at the crease? It didn’t seem like them.Neither did the capacity to miss six chances in the field. Michael Carberry dropped a catch an eight-year-old would take, then followed it up with a failed run-out that a professional cricketer should have executed. Missing that many chances in one innings on a pitch like this is like headbutting a wall on the hottest day of the year while listening to death metal with the heater on. It’s hard to imagine, let alone remember, a time under Andy Flower when they would have missed that many.Despite Clarke’s poor beginning, he soon got completely on top of Panesar and Swann had to be brought on. At the other end, the newish ball was continually brutalised into the pitch by Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Ben Stokes. Haddin and Clarke are essentially designed for pitches like this. England miscalculated and were far from effective.Cook’s captaincy had short covers, two men out for the short ball, a short cover and at times no one behind square on the off side. For Swann it was an in-out field that he rarely, if ever, uses. It was as if Cook was trying to throw every idea he had ever daydreamed about against a wall and hope it stuck. It did not.Mitchell Johnson comprehensively cleaned up Alastair Cook, 145 runs short of his last innings in Adelaide•PA PhotosIf England won the last Ashes by using a formula; they are trying to win this one with random attacking events.The one thing Cook never really tried was just drying the runs and bowling in the channel outside off. England’s staple meal. When an England bowler did bowl a decent length ball in a good area, it looked like it could work. Clarke plainly just missed one and Haddin nicked behind from a no-ball. But that revolutionary tactic wasn’t followed through with.You could argue that they were spooked by Shane Warne’s constant abuse of Cook’s defensive ways. But despite the column inches and ratings they get, it’s doubtful they care about anything Warne says. It could also be a classic case of fear of the flat Adelaide Oval pitch. This is the pitch that more than once turned South Australia’s Jason Gillespie and Mark Harrity into giant flapping birds, because of the sheer lack of life in it.The suspicion is growing that somehow, in a staggeringly short amount of time, England have lost faith in the way they play. It can happen to any team on a tour. Especially a hell tour, which this isn’t yet, but which it is hinting it might be. From the professional robotic machine they have turned into flat desperate gamblers.What is worse for them is Australia have changed too.The flawed side who tried hard in the UK have (with help from England) started to look like the sort of aggressive beasts of doom they were in their heydays. Ryan Harris made a king pair in Adelaide in 2010, this time he blitzed a not-out 50. Doug Bollinger’s career was all but ended the last time in Adelaide; he could be back next week in Perth. At this rate, Xavier Doherty will be a shock inclusion for Sydney and take a ten-wicket haul.Mitchell Johnson was rested/rotated/dropped from this Test three years ago. Today it took only one over from Johnson to turn a jolly crowd into the angry mouth-breathers baying for blood from days of old. It was glorious. It was unscientific. It was brutal.In one ball, Johnson beat Cook in almost every way possible. Last time in Adelaide, Cook made 148. This time he missed the ball by what seemed like 148 metres.Adelaide is different from three years ago. Australia are different from three years ago. So, too, are England.

On a slow St. George’s Park surface providing them little of the assistance they enjoyed at Centurion, Australia’s four-man attack exerted constant pressure on South Africa’s batsmen

Daniel Brettig in Port Elizabeth20-Feb-20140:00

Nathan Lyon: Pretty good day for Australia

Towards the end of a day played at a far more genteel pace than the dramatic and often downright dangerous events at Centurion Park a week ago, David Warner could be seen dancing to “YMCA” in unison with Port Elizabeth’s ebullient house band. He did so with a smile on his face, epitomising Australia’s determination not to be frustrated or jaded by a slow pitch that took just enough edge from the touring attack to allow South Africa the chance to gain a toehold on the series.For all the pyrotechnics of the Highveld, the efforts of the touring ensemble at St George’s Park were equally laudable for different reasons. Where Mitchell Johnson and the rest of the attack were ruthless in exploiting the pace and variable bounce on offer to them at Centurion, here they made the most of the very little assistance they had to work with, and through a combination of patience and alertness kept South Africa very much in check on a surface devised to allow the home batsmen some respite from their earlier horrors.There were a few factors in Australia’s favour. A cool, overcast day did not overly sap the energy of the four-man bowling attack, while the psychological damage inflicted upon South Africa’s batsmen during the first Test meant Graeme Smith’s side were coming from a long way back even if they were doing so on the mildest of strips. Nerves were also on display from the two batting inclusions Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock, allowing the tourists to play the sorts of verbal and mental games at which they have been intermittently adept over the years.But for the majority of the day batting was the preferred activity to be undertaking, as bounce remained true, low and slow, offering time for shots that could barely be contemplated in the first Test. A broadcaster’s graphic quantified the difference between Centurion and Port Elizabeth, Johnson’s deliveries losing an extra 4km in pace after pitching than they had done a week ago. It was little wonder then that Elgar and Faf du Plessis looked more capable of dealing with Johnson and the rest than they had done in their previous meetings with the left-armer.Nathan Lyon, given a flexible role that was equal parts attack and defence, took 2 for 47 in 23 overs.•Associated PressCritical to Australia’s ability to make the most of a day that dealt them relatively few natural favours was the need to take advantage of the new ball. Whatever swing and seam there was had to be used to the maximum, beating bats or finding edges before the initial shine and hardness was lost. The last time Clarke’s men had bowled first in a Test, at the MCG on Boxing Day, they had begun indifferently with the ball and spent the rest of the day reeling England back in. The bowling coach Craig McDermott had rated that start among the few poor hours they had put in for the series, and was eager to see his men tested by another first morning.They were helped by a pre-match regimen far less chaotic than South Africa’s. While the hosts’ team sheet was changed at least three times as coaches and selectors prevaricated around the uncertain fitness of Vernon Philander, McDermott counselled his men on how to approach the task at hand. Johnson and Ryan Harris were encouraged to pursue swing, Peter Siddle braced for long spells into the breeze and Nathan Lyon prepared for a flexible role that would be equal parts attack and defence.Having only a handful of overs with which to make the new ball count, Harris was particularly admirable in his full length and relentless accuracy. Smith faced 18 balls from Harris and was made to play all but one of them as the bowler extracted subtle movement in both directions. One edge fell short of the slips when Harris moved the ball away, but it was to be one straightening down the line of the stumps that beat Smith’s pet flick to leg and crashed into his back pad. Kumar Dharmasena’s raised finger was just reward for an exemplary spell.At the other end Johnson’s radar had been slightly off, but the emergence of Hashim Amla gave him a revitalising target. There could only have been a handful of swinging deliveries left before the ball would begin to whir down completely straight, but Johnson needed only two. His first snaked between Amla’s bat and pad as the No. 3 essayed a drive, and the second pinned the front pad in front of middle and leg. Having glimpsed the low bounce on offer, Richard Illingworth hesitated only momentarily before giving it out.These two breakthroughs meant Australia could afford to be patient over the rest of the day, as they were only ever a wicket or two away from re-asserting themselves. There was nothing spectacular about the yeomanry of Siddle and Lyon across the afternoon, but they were effective in preventing Elgar, du Plessis or AB de Villiers from moving into damaging territory on a small ground with a fast outfield. Aiding in this was an Australian fielding ensemble that did not slacken, and is still to put down a chance for the series – Steven Smith’s snare of du Plessis at short leg from Lyon was not in the class of Alex Doolan’s at Centurion, but it was sharp.For a time, as Elgar neared the outskirts of a century and de Villiers punched the ball wide of mid-on with his singular genius, the Australians might have been stretched for patience and application. But this was the time that the band struck up YMCA, and Warner’s moves reflected a team that was still enjoying the experience, drab as it may have been this day. It was not so surprising after this to see Elgar impatiently swiping at Lyon and offering a catch to Harris, nor Clarke rewarded for the introduction of Steven Smith by seeing de Kock shovel impertinently to mid off.”There wasn’t much going on there even with the new ball so it’s going to be a hard toil to take 20 wickets out there. It was good to get a couple of breakthroughs, and a couple of loose shots on the part of the South Africans,” Lyon said. “But that comes down to us bowling with patience and good pressure. Test match cricket is all about patience, it’s a real mental game, and if we can outlast the opposition hopefully things go our way. There were a couple of shots they wouldn’t be happy with, and I know we wouldn’t be happy with as an Australian cricket team, but credit to the bowlers.”We had a band out there playing all day and that provides a bit of humour, but we’re all switched on when the bowler’s at the top of his mark. Davey was carrying on like a bit of a fool between balls there, but that’s Davey, he provides humour and makes us all laugh. We’re enjoying our cricket as Australian cricketers right now and we’re enjoying each other’s company, so good on him.”Other days may not offer up the gifts that South Africa contrived in the evening session, and a return to bowling fitness by Shane Watson will offer another important option for barren innings such as these, much as he did at a pivotal juncture during the Adelaide Ashes Test to open an end that Johnson could attack. But so long as the Australians can combine diligence with the light-hearted fun of Warner’s interlude, they will be able to prosper on pitches as contrasting as Centurion and Port Elizabeth have been.