'I'm dedicating the next year to getting back into the England team': Vaughan © Getty Images

Michael Vaughan, in the Sunday Telegraph, writes about the reasons that contributed to his resignation as England captain and his determination to get back into the England team.

I’ve given myself until November 10 to decide my best way back. To be the best player I can be, my decision-making has to be spot-on, and I felt recently I was making some wrong decisions as captain and a batsman. The hunger is still there all right – I’m mad to get back into the England team.

Four out of the five England captains in the past 20 years, when every Test match has been televised and media scrutiny has never been greater, have resigned in highly-stressed circumstances, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph.

Part of the reason for Vaughan’s resignation can be traced to the England tour of New Zealand. When he arrived there for the Test series, he found the England one-day players already 'jaded’. Partly this was the consequence of touring: the longer a tour, Vaughan believes, the less effective the players are. But the objective reader, wishing the England captaincy to be a more sustainable job, can also take this as a veiled criticism of the management style of Peter Moores, as it was then, when highly focused on training. After two Twenty20 internationals in New Zealand, and five one-day games, the players should have been livelier, instead of producing flat performances which were only just sufficient to win the Test series 2-1.

England selector Geoff Miller, in an interview with Stephen Brenkley in the Independent on Sunday, talks about Michael Vaughan’s resignation, the surprising selection of Darren Pattinson, and English cricket’s new phase under Kevin Pietersen’s leadership.

About Pattinson's selection

"I was surprised at the reaction because it was unwarranted from Darren's viewpoint," he said. "There was a logical reason behind it. We'd had a special meeting about it and gone through all the contenders, everybody in the frame. He had proved himself at that stage, had created a feeling and was the kind of bowler we wanted. On the morning, circumstances conspired and as the swing bowler he was the choice. Will it be a long time before we make a selection like that again? The natural answer would be yes but I can't really say because a situation can crop up. What I do know is that what Darren had to deal with was unfair and that the buck stops with me."

Laxman's ouster badly timed

Posted 1 day, 18 hours ago in Indian cricket

The second season of the Indian Premier League is to start in April 2009, a good seven months away, so it is hard to understand the need for the Deccan Chargers to announce that VVS Laxman was stripped of the captaincy and it was going to be Adam Gilchrist who will now lead the Chargers. India is due to play the world champions Australia in a Test series in a few days' time and this kind of demoralising news was certainly not what was wanted, writes Sunil Gavaskar in Mid-Day.

India will start favourites

Posted 1 day, 20 hours ago in Australia in India 2008-09

So would it be fair to say that India begin as strong favourites at home all over again? Can they intimidate Australia with turning tracks? The answer, if the initial indications from Hyderabad are anything to go by, is a fairly powerful yes, writes Bobilli Vijay Kumar in the Times of India.

The new selection committee under Kris Srikkanth has put an end to all the speculation churned out by the press with regard to the status of the senior players, writes WV Raman in the Hindu.

October 4, 2008

Too old to rock ‘n’ roll?

Posted 2 days, 6 hours ago in Indian cricket

While comparing sporting icons to rock stars, Ayaz Memon says time runs out on sportspersons much quicker, a challenge facing India's veterans at the moment. He writes in the DNA:

For the professional sportsperson, however, life can be cruel. Success on the field of play is time-bound, and when the skills start fading, so does their perceived value. They have a sell-by date which is so ambiguous that they themselves are not sure when this has arrived. It is then that they are caught in the maelstrom of self-doubt and the whims and fancies of critics, selectors and even the public, as Ganguly will be experiencing every day now.

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

For instance, using forty as the benchmark, we find that there have been 102 players who have played a Test match at this age. Five of these were Indians — Vijay Merchant, C K Nayudu, C Ramaswami, RJ Jamshedji and Vinoo Mankad (who was 41 years, 305 days when he played against the West Indies at Delhi in 1959).

The oldest player ever was Wilfred Rhodes, who was 52 years and 165 days when he played against the West Indies in 1930. While the last over-40 to have played a Test was England’s Alec Stewart in September 2003 (against South Africa), it is significant to note that 78 of these 102 played before 1960, which many historians reckon is the year when the ‘modern’ game is reckoned to have begun.

Siddle's call-up a sign of a new direction for Victorian cricket

Posted 2 days, 6 hours ago in Australian cricket

Peter Siddle's inclusion to Australia's Test squad to play four matches in India has given Victoria reason to believe more cricketers can emerge from that state, reports Lyall Johnson in the Age. Since the retirement of Damien Fleming in 2001 only Shane two Victorians have played Test cricket - the legend Shane Warne, who himself called it quits in 2007, and Brad Hodge, who managed six games.

Yet this summer, Victoria could have as many as seven players wearing Australian colours: Siddle, McGain and White — the latter called up yesterday — at Test level, with Hodge and David Hussey also in contention in either one-day international or Twenty-20. Further down the list, but still very much in the sights of the selectors, are West Australian recruit Chris Rogers, who has already played a Test match and all-rounder Andrew McDonald.

Three slips, one gully

Posted 2 days, 11 hours ago in Indian cricket

Rohit Mahajan, in Outlook, writes that Lalit Modi, the "fiendishly efficient" IPL boss, has his influence pared down.

Modi, says Mahajan, does not gel with new BCCI president Shashank Manohar and, against expectations, was not made chairman of the marketing committee. Modi will also now have to share power with former BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah in the IPL's governing council.

Then Mahajan asks aloud: has Modi soared so high so quickly, Icarus-like, that his wings have been singed?

'I felt like a foreigner in the England dressing-room'- Graeme Hick

Posted 2 days, 17 hours ago in English cricket

Simon Hughes speaks to Graeme Hick about his illustrious career, its highs and lows, and reasons for his limited international success. Read his article in the Telegraph.

“I grew up on a tobacco farm in Zimbabwe,” he said. “The first time I walked into the England dressing room was the first time I’d spent a day in the company of all those guys. I didn’t know anyone really. I did feel like a foreigner in the dressing room.

“There were one or two who resented me being there and we were competing for places. There was one guy with a good Test record – Allan Lamb – and he wanted to say something but he didn’t know what to say or how to say it because I already had more first-class runs than him.”

The fine line between experience and experiment

Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago in Indian cricket

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Hindu, feels that phasing out the old guard is a difficult process, particularly in the case of the current Indian middle order. But there comes a time, he writes, when an “outfit impresses more on paper than on the field”, and tough decisions become imperative.

Sooner or later, though, no matter how finely it has been carried, the flame must be handed to another generation. If that time has not already past then it is fast approaching. Not that age is the only consideration, but it cannot entirely be ignored. Nor can the balance of the team. It is not sensible to allow a side to grow old together. A time is reached when such an outfit impresses more on paper than on the field.

When the five [India's seniors] finally exit, they should with dignity, informed in advance about their imminent sacking as a tribute to their long service, but not given extra opportunities because we want to be nice to them. They haven’t needed the Indian cricket establishment’s charity over the last decade, and they definitely don’t need its pity, writes Kunal Pradhan in the Indian Express.

Meanwhile, Makarand Waigankar, writing in the Hindu, thinks the BCCI selection committee’s decisions defy logic.

One would never know in Indian cricket why a cricketer of repute is dropped by one committee and then selected again by the new committee. It completely depends on the whims and fancies of the different selectors and not any governing principles. This has happened too frequently to make us believe that the selection committees do have any criteria or policies at all.

Shane Warne: the musical

Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago 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

South Africa should not let Zimbabwe back in

Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago in Zimbabwe cricket

Mtutuzeli Nyoka cannot be serious … an olive branch to Zimbabwe’s Peter Chingoka? writes Peter Roebuck in the Witness. Even by the lamentable standards associated with cricket administrators, Mtutuzeli Nyoka’s first pronouncement as Cricket South Africa’s next president was profoundly discouraging.

Some of us receive daily reports from black Zimbabweans describing their plight. In Mandela, Tutu and company, this continent houses the greatest leaders alive. Alas, men of a different ilk are loose in Zimbabwean cricket (ZC). Far from taking Chingoka, Bvute and their racist cronies at face value, Nyoka ought to insist upon the immediate release of the official audit of the ZC accounts. After all, the game’s governing body itself requested the report as a means of ending controversy.

October 3, 2008

'I want to pay my country back for all that it's given me'- Mushtaq Ahmed

Posted 3 days, 6 hours ago in Pakistan cricket

	Mushtaq Ahmed believes Pakistan's ex-players have a big role to play in nurturing future talent © Getty Images

PakPassion.net’s extensive interview with legspinner Mushtaq Ahmed covers various aspects of his long career, starting with his initiation into international cricket to his current stint with the Lahore Badshahs in the ICL. Ahmed also speaks of the problems with the current Pakistan team, his differences with the PCB, and his future.

If you stop investment into anything, then it will die. The PCB needs to invest at the grass roots level, ex-players should play a big part in going to small towns to hold camps and scout for talent. Why am I getting offers to work with spinners in England despite not having any formal coaching qualifications? There are lots of qualified coaches in England that could do the job, why ask me? It's because experience counts for something. The PCB need to learn from that and start to tap into the wealth of experience that they have in Pakistan in the form of all our talented ex-players.

'Will the BCCI ever learn?'

Posted 3 days, 10 hours ago in Indian cricket

Chetan Narula, writing in Dreamcricket.com, feels the BCCI has many questions to answer. The timing of the selection committee’s changeover, the lack of transparency on the part of selectors, or Ganguly’s inclusion in the first two Tests for the Australian series, Narula writes, are all elements of yet another “comedy of errors” on the part of the Indian board.

The BCCI has played out to be the perfect stage, hosting such an emphatic display of yet another comedy of errors. The whole saga of moving on from the debacle in Sri Lanka has given birth to a host of questions, all reeking of confusion in the ranks of the Board ahead of the most important Test series in some time for Indian cricket. Of course, no answers are forthcoming, as always!

Matthew Hayden's long wait

Posted 3 days, 13 hours ago in Ashes

	Matthew Hayden will be keen to better his Test record in England © Getty Images

Line and Length, the Times’ cricket blog, lists Matthew Hayden at No.41 in its weekly countdown of Ashes heroes. Hayden was a part of Australia’s touring party to England in 1993, but had to wait for eight years for his first Ashes Test. Patrick Kidd writes of Hayden’s struggles to cement his place in the Australian team and his relatively modest record in England.

In 1993, the 21-year-old Hayden was picked for Australia's tour party to England on the back of a couple of excellent Sheffield Shield seasons. He was travelling for the experience but on that tour he played 13 first-class county matches (ah, those were the days...), scored 1,150 runs at an average of 57.55 and yet DID NOT PLAY AN ASHES TEST FOR ANOTHER EIGHT YEARS

Durham's triumphant season

Posted 3 days, 17 hours ago in English cricket

The Third Umpire blog hosts a review of Durham’s triumphant county season. It also includes season reviews for Northamptonshire and Nottighamshire.

After the euphoria of 2007 and the club’s first piece of silverware, it was always going to be hard to live up to the expectations, some of it optimistic, of its supporters in 2008. Yet that is precisely what Durham did, by winning their maiden county championship title, just 16 years after gaining first-class status.

Pace can rattle India's batting order

Posted 3 days, 19 hours ago in England in India 2008-09

	Geoffrey Boycott wants England's bowlers to get the ball into Virender Sehwag's ribs © AFP

The pace of Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison will be England’s biggest weapon, because the senior batsmen should all be vulnerable early on to quality fast bowling, writes Geoffrey Boycott in the Telegraph.

Kevin Pietersen must tell his quick bowlers to go after Virender Sehwag, who so often gets India off to a flier. Sehwag scores fast and lifts the whole spirit of the team when he is firing. England have to get up his nose. Don’t try to bounce him out, because Indian pitches give batsmen more time to play the hook shot, but get the ball into his ribs. Get him tucked up and in a tangle. The key is to deny him the room to play shots.

Dream farewells can't be scripted in boardrooms

Posted 3 days, 21 hours ago in Indian cricket

Harsha Bhogle, writing in the Indian Express criticises the idea of a VRS scheme for India's senior cricketers. He's also worried that the Indian media are more obsessed with reporting what happens off the field rather than on it.

If, as in the current situation, you have players who have done very well for a long time and a call has to be taken on their future, the selectors first make up their mind and then have a dignified conversation with the player concerned. The non-negotiable here is the selector’s decision. You cannot sign a deal with a player for four games, for example, and keep him in the side if he doesn’t score a run in the first three and drop him if he makes a double hundred in the fourth ...

... Let’s return then to where we began, to the VRS story. If there is no such scheme should it be flashed in the media? Indian cricket, or indeed anything to do with public life, will always spawn conspiracy theories. But a news channel, by its very nomenclature, tells the ‘news’. It doesn’t gossip, it cannot clothe conspiracy theories in holier garbs because once it does so it no longer has the moral right to claim to be the “news”. It worries me as well that more and more young men and women are getting obsessed with reporting what happens off the field rather than on it.

Fast bowling factory closing?

Posted 3 days, 21 hours ago in South African cricket

Rob Houwing, writing on Sport24, says he will be following the SuperSport Series as closely as possible for any signs of a true new tearaway shock bowler or two.

Of course, things happen in cycles and you can’t always expect fearsome head-hunters of the calibre of Allan Donald, Brett Schultz, Mfuneko Ngam or Nantie Hayward to announce themselves every summer, just as fruit farmers can’t always guarantee a robust annual haul from the trees ... But toothcomb the squads thrown up for the earliest salvoes of the SuperSport Series and you don’t see too many other, intriguingly callow “express men” among them.

Power to the batting side

Posted 3 days, 22 hours ago in ICC

In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat says that the latest tweak to the Powerplay rule, which allows the batting team to decide when either the second or the third Powerplay should be taken, will be a further advantage to the batsmen.

Consider two scenarios: 1: Your openers have made a flyer in the first five overs. The fielding captain might want to drop more players deep for the sixth over onwards to stem the runs. The batting side can exercise their option to keep the field in, and potentially pile on the runs.

2: Late in the innings, when the hitters are breaking loose, the batting skipper could add to their problems by calling his Powerplay, thus turning, say, 12 runs an over from overs 45 to 50 to perhaps 20, with the fielding captain helpless.

The best ODI bowlers

Posted 3 days, 22 hours ago in Stats

Arvind Iyengar crunches numbers and comes up with a list of the best ODI bowlers of all time on ESPNStar. His top five are: Glenn McGrath, Richard Hadlee, Shaun Pollock, Allan Donald, and Wasim Akram.

October 2, 2008

Why English spinners are an endangered species

Posted 4 days, 8 hours ago in English cricket

A day after Derek Underwood took over as MCC president and vowed to use his position to promote spin in England, Mike Atherton writes in Times that the influence of home-grown slow bowlers has been waning by the season. Atherton traces the decline of spin bowling in England and feels there has been no recovery. Yet, he says, there are grounds for hope.

A week spent watching the denouement of the LV County Championship at Trent Bridge last week highlighted the issue. There were four spinners on view, bowling on a pitch that, while slow, was bare and dry. There were two left-armers (Samit Patel and Liam Dawson), an off spinner (Graeme Swann) and a leg spinner (Imran Tahir): three home-produced players and one from overseas; three orthodox spinners and one with more “mystery”. Between them, the home-grown spinners took four wickets and Tahir took eight.

Former Indian Test cricketer battles cancer

Posted 4 days, 16 hours ago in Indian cricket

TE Srinivasan, the former Tamil Nadu batsman who played one Test for India on its tour to New Zealand in 1980-81, is fighting a malignant brain tumour with great courage. His wife Mala Srinivasan has been with him throughout this ordeal. Clayton Murzello from Mid Day meets them.

When MiD DAY visited Srinivasan at his sister's home in Churchgate last week, we expected to see a pitiful sight, but to our pleasant surprise, Srinivasan walked into the living room with a smile on his face, dressed in a t'shirt and a track pant all set for his evening walk down Marine Drive.

A few months ago, says his pillar-of-strength wife Mala, he couldn't move or talk normally. So what's been doing the trick? Chemotherapy yes, love and good care certainly, but more than anything else, the grit displayed not only by the cancer-afflicted former batsman, but also Mala.

Young guns to watch out for in SuperSport series

Posted 4 days, 17 hours ago in South African cricket

SuperCricket looks at some of the players to watch out for in the SuperSport series which starts today. They include Warriors allrounder Wayne Parnell, “the most talked about cricketer to hit the first-class scene for some time”, and 22-year-old fast bowler Basheer Walters representing the Titans team.

The Nashua Titans have developed an ability over the years to identify unfulfilled talent from other regions and turned it into the finished article. Proteas’ spin bowler Paul Harris and young all-rounder Farhaan Behardien are examples that spring to mind and they may have unearthed another diamond in 22-year-old fast bowler Basheer Walters who hails from the Eastern Province. He has done well enough at amateur level to attract attention and will certainly benefit from playing alongside the likes of Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn.

Ganguly's selection saga

Posted 4 days, 18 hours ago in Australia in India 2008-09

	Ganguly was included in the squad for the first two Tests against Australia after being dropped for the Irani Cup © AFP

The new selection committee's decision to retain Sourav Ganguly for first two Tests against Australia, despite his omission from the Rest of India squad for the Irani Cup, has evoked varied responses.

An editorial comment in the Deccan Herald suggests the BCCI’s new selection committee, wary of ruffling feathers early into its term, may have toed the old line by retaining Ganguly. However, acknowledging the value experienced players like Ganguly add to the Indian squad, it favours a gradual 'phasing-out' of the old guard, as the team could not risk losing such a solid middle order in one go.

Over the next few months, the decision to blood younger batsmen must be implemented. It has to be a gradual process, for the less experienced ones will need the comforting presence of long-standing bulwarks to break themselves in at the Test match level. It will be in the best interests of Indian cricket if the seniors are taken into confidence and thanked for their contributions while politely being told of the need to start the rebuilding process so that Indian cricket doesn’t flounder when these men of substance call it quits of their own volition.

R.Mohan, in the Asian Age, agrees that Kris Srikkanth, the new chairman of selectors, must take players into confidence before making the tough calls.

S. Dinakar, writing in the Hindu, feels Ganguly’s inclusion is justified. Ganguly’s experience, his performance against Australia earlier this year and his impressive record since his comeback against South Africa at the Wanderers in 2006-07, he writes, merit him a place in the side.

Meanwhile, in the Times of India, Bobilli Vijay Kumar writes the new selection panel appears no different from its predecessors, and that its decisions are consistent with earlier trends.

As it turned out, the panel proved as adept and slick as all the earlier ones. Instead of picking XIV, it cleverly added a XVth member. Smooth. As the big list sunk in, however, the rumours were up and running again.

Daily News and Analysis’ Ayaz Memon rubbishes rumours of any ‘deal’ between the BCCI’s selection committee and Sourav Ganguly, but feels Ganguly’s inclusion is as explainable as it is confusing.

For an opinion that questions the selection committee’s “sudden about-turn” after Ganguly was excluded from matches in the run-up to this series, read Jayaditya Gupta’s article on Cricinfo.

October 1, 2008

One-day win highlight of Essex's season

Posted 5 days, 16 hours ago in English cricket

Philip Oliver reviews Essex’s 2008 season in the blog Third Umpire. He lauds them for their one-day performances, and is optimistic about the county’s chances of promotion to Division One in the Championship next season. The blog also has season reviews for Worcestershire and Hampshire.

Essex enjoyed a successful 2008 season, confirming themselves as one of the premier limited overs teams in the country. Unfortunately a similar winning formula continues to evade them in the championship, where they will start 2009 in division two for the eighth time in 10 years of the two division structure.

On the Sky Sports website, Ian Ward, the former England batsman, provides a comprehensive review of the 2008 county season.

When I was at Surrey you'd see Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher, Graham Thorpe and the rest going off and playing for England and that made you realise you had to improve if you wanted to stay in the side. You start thinking like an international cricketer and trying to emulate what they were achieving. Durham have had Harmison, Collingwood and Plunkett going into international cricket and that will have motivated the other players. They've been the stars for the last few seasons and it's all culminated this year.

The ICL fights on

Posted 5 days, 17 hours ago in Indian Cricket League

Rohit Mahajan, in Outlook, writes the ICL has defied predictions of an early demise and, has instead, expanded into a potent force that could seriously affect the dynamics of world cricket.

Conventional wisdom suggested its demise was imminent; the mighty BCCI, after all, had decreed that the rebel league must die, banning players who joined it and threatening and tempting the rest with its massive funds.

Yet the ICL showed it's very much alive and kicking when it named the ninth team in its league—the Dhaka Warriors, comprising 13 top Bangladesh players. The reduction of ban on Sri Lankan players was still more significant, showing active dissent outside India. These developments vindicated the Essel Group, owner of the ICL, which was mocked for spending lavishly in a battle it was bound to lose to the mighty BCCI.

Shane Warne's century

Posted 5 days, 17 hours ago in Books

	Warne:"There is no doubt in my mind that Kevin Pietersen can become the best batsman in the world" © Getty Images

Shane Warne includes Graeme Smith at number 44 in a list of his top hundred cricketers. Aside from his immense talent as a batsman, Warne believes Smith, as captain, is “on the verge of something special” as he heads a formidable South African outfit; a team that can potentially challenge Australia. Warne also feels Kevin Pietersen (no.33 in his list) has the all the makings of becoming the best batsman in the world. Read Warne’s Top 100 List in the Times.

At Test level, I reckon Smith could now be on the verge of something pretty special. South Africa have the makings of a side that can challenge Australia. I am still not convinced by their spin options, but in the seam department Dale Steyn has had a lot of success over the past 12 months, and Morne Morkel is genuinely brisk and is going to be a handful in Australia.

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There is no doubt in my mind that Kevin Pietersen can become the best batsman in the world. There will be no doubt in his mind, either. He's not far away now! He has bags of confidence, and, let's be honest, he has a lot to be confident about. Not many batsmen can average almost 50 in Test cricket but still look as though they are capable of better.

Sign of things to come

Posted 5 days, 19 hours ago in Indian Premier League

	VVS Laxman has been dealt an IPL blow ahead of the Australia series © AFP

Reactions to the sacking of VVS Laxman as captain of the IPL's Hyderabad franchise, the Deccan Chargers, has expectedly resulted in mixed views. Speculation of a massive reshuffle has been in the air for sometime, but G Unnikrishnan, of the Deccan Herald, believes Laxman deserved better treatment than the abrupt removal from the captaincy.

Laxman cannot be blamed if he felt hard done by the franchise owners, whose relation with him was not on the desired course from the beginning. First they utilised Laxman's popularity to the hilt by projecting him as the face of the team during its launch, and Laxman even turned down the chance to become an icon, so that his team could purchase big-ticket players like Andrew Symonds for US$ 1.35 million. An icon status would have entitled Laxman to a fee that was 15% higher than their costliest signing, and would have limited the team's purchasing power within the IPL's US$ 5 million cap, and still Laxman did not want to join the icon club of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag. The way Chargers forget that large-heartedness of Laxman was really painful.

Meanwhile, Nick Hoult, writing in the Telegraph, feels the IPL's phenomenal success has signalled India's ascent in cricket's global order.

The success of that tournament has not only heralded a flood of new money into the game, but it has also precipitated a shift in the political order of world cricket. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have built closer ties with the Indian board, evidence of which can be provided by their founding of the Champions League, a tournament that will offer another avenue of exposure for IPL franchises and has already realised more than £500 million in television deals

September 30, 2008

It's payback time

Posted 6 days, 5 hours ago in Australia in India 2008-09

Never mind what Lalit Modi’s motives might be in letting out the premises of the Rajasthan Cricket Academy to the Australians for a camp in the run-up to the Test series. India has always been this way for visiting teams whose cricketers are made to feel quite so privileged and special. India also have a right to expect the same in return, writes Sharda Ugra in her blog on India Today.

The RCA’s was merely a yogic extension of Indian cricket’s routine backward bend. True sabotage, on the other hand, is what happened during the 2004 Nagpur Test versus the Aussies, which was where that Final Frontier actually fell.

Nagpur cricket authorities produced a wicket that was described as a “birthday present for Glenn McGrath” by the curator and a “22-yard suicide note” by a visiting English journalist.

Eddie Gilbert finally gets his due

Posted 6 days, 6 hours ago in Australian cricket

	Eddie Gilbert developed a unique style of fast bowling based on a whip-like wrist action © The Cricketer International

Few may have heard of Eddie Gilbert, an Aboriginal cricketer who once knocked the bat out of Don Bradman's hands. Thirty years after his death, Gilbert is finally getting recognition, with a life-size bronze statue at the Queensland Cricket Academy in Brisbane, to be unveiled next month. Kathy Marks writes in the Independent:

Gilbert developed a unique style of fast bowling, based on a whip-like wrist action, and stories about his prowess abounded. His blistering deliveries were said to raise smoke on a concrete pitch; one of his balls reportedly crashed through a picket fence and killed a small dog. Another struck a box of matches in the wicket-keeper's pocket and set them alight.

While such tales are probably apocryphal, Gilbert was a cricketer of remarkable ability - yet he was never selected to represent Australia. Few doubt that racism was to blame. This was an era when the movements of Aboriginal Queenslanders were controlled by white superintendents, whose permission had to be sought to move around, work, or even spend money. Gilbert, a quietly-spoken man, was not permitted to stay in the same hotels as his team-mates.

The same old selection story?

Posted 6 days, 11 hours ago in Indian cricket

Ashish Magotra, writing in the Mumbai Mirror, feels the BCCI’s new selectors - the first set to be paid - have done nothing different compared to their predecessors as they head into their first meeting.

For selectors, who are going to get paid 25 lakhs a year, they need to much more than just a ‘basic’ idea of what they are getting into.

In no way does the mode of preparation of these new selectors differ from their predecessors. In fact, if anything, they have watched even lesser cricket, so how do we trust their selectorial instincts?

A match made in financial heaven

Posted 6 days, 11 hours ago in New Zealand cricket

	Scott Styris and Chris Martin model New Zealand's newest kit © Getty Images

In his blog Sideline Slogger, Paul Holden marvels at the deal between New Zealand Cricket and Dheeraj and East Coast LLC (DEC), the new clothing sponsors of the national team. The company may have had a zero presence in New Zealand, but the new relationship is a sign of the times as Indian eyeballs all around the world are watching the team play and it is that viewership that gives rise to some less than obvious commercial possibilities. Read on in stuff.co.nz

Perhaps the deal was stitched up through the contacts of Brendon McCullum. How? HDIL, another company in the Wadhawan stable, is one of the six headline sponsors of the coolest team in the Indian Premier League, the Kolkata Knight Riders. Baz has put his 10 cents in on the coach so why not throw out some names and cellphone numbers for potential sponsors of the front of the shirt as well?

South Africa's one-day woes multiply

Posted 6 days, 17 hours ago in South African cricket

South Africa A's victory in the Test series against Sri Lanka A followed by a 4-1 defeat in the one-dayers mirrors the problems facing the senior side, writes Rob Houwing on Sport24.

The outcome adds weight to national coach Mickey Arthur’s contention that the A side not only requires more game-time but a full-time coach as well. Batting depth, in particular, appears not to be a problem in a broad national context at present – the young South Africans won the series of four-day matches primarily on the grounds of strong performances in this department ... But the one-dayers against Sri Lanka A also revealed that the country’s all-round bowling depth isn’t what it should be.

Vaughan still has qualities to do a job for England

Posted 6 days, 18 hours ago in England in India 2008-09

	Duncan Fletcher: "It's up to Vaughan how long he decides to rest now. You don't really need more than a month to six weeks' break as long as you're training during that time" © Getty Images

It's a big blow for England that Michael Vaughan doesn't feel in the right frame of mind to tour India. People will wonder what I mean when they look at the difficult season he's had but I believe they will be in for a nasty shock if they really think he'll be easy to replace out there, writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian.

Successful batting in India requires skill, character and patience - the three qualities Vaughan demonstrated so superbly when he made a match-saving hundred on a turning pitch against Muttiah Muralitharan at his peak in Kandy a few years ago. Who else of the current side can play an innings like that in the heat and humidity they're likely to encounter in Ahmedabad and Mumbai? It's a bit of a worry.

Reports of Michael Vaughan's cricketing death, however, may be exaggerated. If anybody can return from this humiliation it is Vaughan. He spent 18 months stubbornly overcoming a knee injury which came within the width of a cartilage of terminating his career, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.

I don't have any problems with England's squad, but I do like to see consistency of selection, writes Nasser Hussain in his Sky Sports column.

Peter Moores has known Prior and Ambrose for a long time now since their Sussex days and it's just time to work out which one is the better one - and stick with him. For me I would have gone with Prior and I would have gone with James Foster - if they don't believe Ambrose is the right choice - and I am not one just to stick with Ambrose just because he played this summer. I think Foster and Prior are the best two but the selectors have seen it differently. All I would call for is some consistency.

Dullness and consistency of thought are good attributes for selectors since stability is a key foundation stone of any successful team, writes Michael Atherton in the Times. But with the omission of James Foster comes the troubling feeling that the selectors have failed to recognise performances that, over the past couple of years, have rarely fallen below outstanding.

September 29, 2008

Batting for Dravid

Posted 1 week ago in Australia in India 2008-09

	Dravid took the battle to himself first, as it were, and then to Delhi in the Irani Trophy © AFP

The most important performance in the Irani Trophy came from Rahul Dravid, feels Ayaz Memon in Daily News & Analysis. His uncompromising approach to spending as much time as possible in the middle would have told the Aussies that he may well be the man to watch out for in the Test series.

The more significant aspect of Dravid’s performance I believe, however, was his splendid catching at slip. The diving effort to get rid off the dangerous Viru Sehwag was breathtaking in its execution, and match-winning in its impact. Quick-silver reflexes, terrific anticipation coupled with great ball sense showed that Dravid’s cricketing instinct was hardly blunted

Pattinson wouldn't pick himself

Posted 1 week ago in English cricket

Many cricketers have protested against their omission from Test sides, but precious few have criticised their own inclusion. Darren Pattinson tells Alex Brown in the Age that he had disagreed with the England selectors' decision to play him in the second Test against South Africa at Headingley.

'If I never played another international, I'd be OK with that. As far as the England players were concerned, they were nice and very welcoming. I guess (Michael) Vaughan was coming to the end of his captaincy at the time, so there might have been a few issues there. I didn't get all the stuff he said, but I take it, it was mostly to do with the selection'

Somerset miss out yet again

Posted 1 week ago in English cricket

	Justin Langer: "There hasn't been a single game I have been involved in this summer that hasn't felt like a cup final" © Getty Images

Andy Bull, in his blog in the Guardian, laments another loss for Somerset in the County Championship. The anguish is greater this time as the ultimate victory eluded the team despite Justin Langer’s spirited leadership. Somerset have never won the Country Championship in the tournament's long history.

Durham, of course, just won the championship for the first time themselves, but they've only been trying for 16 years. Somerset have been imagining that each new season could be the season for 117.

There isn't another record quite like it in cricket. Northamptonshire are the only other team never to have won the league, but they didn't join until 1905. Gloucestershire have had a miserable time since the championship was founded in 1890, but at least they enjoyed the age of Grace in the 1870s when they won the unofficial version four times. I suppose Bolton Wanderers, who helped found the football league in 1888 but have never won the championship, have a kinship of a kind.

Justin Langer, in his column for the BBC, says "English cricket should be proud of the standards in Division One - and I can see absolutely no need to change anything about it."

There hasn't been a single game I have been involved in this summer that hasn't felt like a cup final and the pressure associated with this is sure to produce better cricket and therefore tougher cricketers.

What next for the ICL?

Posted 1 week ago in Indian Cricket League

S.Martin, in Dreamcricket.com, draws some comparisons between the Packer circus and the ICL, and discusses some of the preparations for the league’s upcoming season

Another leaf that Packer's World Series Cricket overturned after its second season was that it bridged the differences between 'banned' players and their boards. Each realized that they were interdependent on one another. Players returned to donning their national colours and ended up retiring as some of the most talented and famous cricketers of their day. They may have played their hearts out at the World Series but at the end of the day, it's their national contributions that make them what they are today.

Ditto with the ICL - Will Sri Lanka's stand set the ball rolling for other boards to follow? What will the talks between Subhash Chandra and David Morgan reveal? Above all, will the players get what they rightfully deserve? A chance to be treated as equals and rightfully vie for a spot in their coveted 'national teams'.

The Rashid question

Posted 1 week ago in England in India 2008-09

	Is Adil Rashid ready for an England call-up? Or is he too young? © Getty Images

Yorkshire allrounder Adil Rashid's bright future should not be jeopardised in order to give him unnecessary experience in India, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

Any thoughts of including the young Yorkshire allrounder Adil Rashid to give him experience should have been shelved. A single warm-up match in Baroda, in which presumably the projected Test XI will play, is all the cricket outside the Tests in Ahmedabad and Mumbai so there would be scant opportunity aside from assimilating a little dressing-room atmosphere, for which there will be time aplenty in the future. He is barely out of his teens and with astute handling may provide the fulcrum of England's spin attack for a decade in the future. He must not be rushed. For now his progress has flattened off and his development will be served better on the Lions tour.

In the Independent, Angus Fraser, however, is of the opinion that Rashid deserves a place in the squad to India.

Rashid is certain to be named in England's winter performance squad but the selectors could do worse than pick him for the full squad. Sooner or later they need to find out whether or not he is good enough and history suggests that a legspinner is more likely to trouble India's star-studded batting line-up than an offspinner.

The manner of Michael Vaughan's exclusion is strange - after all, cricketers do not often sit down with selectors to discuss the merits or otherwise of their selection as Vaughan appears to have done - but the decision [to leave him out of the squad] is the right one, writes Michael Atherton in the Times.

The best from the County Championship

Posted 1 week ago in English cricket

	Hampshire's Imran Tahir was the best overseas signing of the season, according to Angus Fraser © Getty Images

The Guardian's writers pick their best moments, favourite incidents, and heroes from the English season.

David Hopps' highlight of the season: Sitting on the popular bank at Scarborough at Festival time watching Yorkshire v Kent with, I kid you not, the sun shining from a cloudless sky. And KP's first press conference as captain, which was so full of love it gave me an insight into what the 1960s must have been like.

Paul Weaver's lowlight of the season: The greed with which Twenty20 cricket was pursued could be one of sport's great morality tales. Also, giving Michael Vaughan a new central contact when he's not good enough for Yorkshire.

Angus Fraser has also reviewed the season in the Independent.

Best overseas signing Imran Tahir. Hampshire were looking at Second Division cricket when Tahir joined the county. They have not lost a Championship game since.

Worst overseas signing Shoaib Akhtar. The signing of the controversial and unreliable fast bowler highlighted the depth of Surrey's desperation. In two games he took 1 for 117.