Darren Pattinson finished with figures of 2 for 95 in South Africa's first innings © Getty Images

With barely a murmur of complaint Pattinson has done a lot more in the last few days than take the new ball for the country of his birth, if not his upbringing. He has placed Grimsby and Dandenong on the Test-cricket map. He has given Australians another excuse to guffaw at the old enemy. And he has encouraged the pessimists' perennial grouse that English cricket is going to the dogs. What he was not supposed to do, after just 11 first-class matches for Victoria and Nottinghamshire, was expose worrying holes in England's masterplan, both for this summer and next.

His selection here has offended on non-cricketing grounds. His dad has described him as a fair-dinkum Aussie, and Pattinson himself has admitted he never harboured any dreams of playing for England. But he has also held up a mirror to the nation's supposedly plentiful ranks of seam bowlers. The reflection makes uncomfortable viewing.

In the same paper, Vic Marks feels Geoff Miller's selection committee would have done enough to make Steve Harmison hopping mad.

Meanwhile those who have been selected to bowl for England are causing their employers a headache. If nothing else think of the cost. All those new balls are expensive. For the second South African innings in succession a third shiny red ball has been removed from its wrapper. As one wry new ball wag once observed after another run glut: "we must be onto the colours soon."

Derek Pringle, in the Telegraph, lists six cricketers who qualified to play for England: Tony Greig, Allan Lamb, Devon Malcolm, Graeme Hick, Adam Hollioake and Kevin Pietersen.

In the Telegraph, Simon Briggs writes that England's top order continue to live on past glories since Marcus Trescothick lost his will to play. The averages have been gently dwindling. The South Africans, by contrast, have been on the up ever since they axed the underperforming Herschelle Gibbs at the beginning of the year.

The Aussies take their lead from Ricky Ponting, a man who plays more shots than a hacker at Royal Birkdale. But Graeme Smith and his men prefer to grind out results. They have scored at two-and-a-half an over in this series, subjugating their opponents through cruel implacability rather than outrageous flair.

In the same paper, Simon Barnes feels Andrew Flintoff needs a lethal sidekick if England are to progress on what appears a benign pitch.

England's star allrounder has a double personality. There is Andrew, the doting husband and new dad, dutifully feeding his tribe their breakfast cereal, as he was in the players' hotel yesterday morning. And there is Freddie, the cricketing warrior, national icon and tormentor of Australians.

The whole point of Test cricket is an eponymous one – the examination of character – and few can any longer question where that leaves Abraham Benjamin de Villiers, writes Chris McGrath in the Independent.

On the first morning, he had been cast as pantomime villain after claiming to have caught a ball that might well have killed a mole first. None was more incensed than Michael Vaughan, who left him in no doubt of his views at the lunch interval. De Villiers listened to the England captain in silence, reserving his own response until he had a bat in his hand ... No doubt the few, obnoxious boos that leavened the applause for his century were of similar authorship. By that stage, however, the majority had come to acknowledge the fortitude, forbearance and flexibility of an exceptional cricketer.

July 20, 2008

Lancashire club keep tabs on Prince

Posted 5 days, 12 hours ago in South Africa in England 2008

Morecambe were locked in a top-of-the-table clash with Barrow yesterday afternoon, but at least half an eye was kept on the progress of one of their own at Headingley, says Andrew Longmore in the Sunday Times. The reason:

For two seasons as a young man, Ashwell Prince was the professional at the Northern League club and it is a tribute to the allure of club cricket that he still keeps in touch nearly seven years after he forsook the northwest for wider horizons.

In the heat of battle

Posted 5 days, 12 hours ago in South Africa in England 2008

	David Gower thinks that was taken cleanly © Getty Images

It is amazing there are not more off-field confrontations similar to that between the England captain, Michael Vaughan, and South Africa's AB de Villiers, Angus Fraser says in the Independent on Sunday, given the close proximity of the opposing dressing rooms at most venues. Fraser recollects one such rare flare-up.

There was an ugly incident in a one-day international I played in Barbados when Gladstone Small, one of the nicest men to play cricket for England, pointed to the dressing room when he dismissed Gordon Greenidge, the rather angry West Indian batsman. At the Kensington Oval the dressing rooms are divided by a narrow walkway, and at the end of the match an England player stuck his head in our room to inform us that an irate Greenidge had Small by the throat

.

Both Vaughan and de Villiers were at the centre of controversial catches, both of which were given not-out after being referred to the third umpire. In the Sunday Times, David Gower says he thought Vaughan's catch off Hashim Amla was clean, and feels perhaps the player's word should be taken.

My view was that Vaughan had caught it. Sky tried before play yesterday to demonstrate how the ball can look to be on the ground to the long lens when in fact it is safely in a fielder’s hands. The method of Vaughan’s catch, with a dive involved, left it open to suspicion that the ball might have just touched the grass. In our commentary box there was little agreement. I can sympathise with the third umpire and understand there was enough doubt for him to deny the catch.

So here is the key question: should we return to the days when players were trusted to say if a catch was good or should we be heading for greater use of TV pictures to help in the decision making? The answer has to be a bit of both, including selective use of the latter, which could be extended from its current scope to include a second look to check on whether a batsman has hit the ball for a catch or inside-edged it when the arms are up for an lbw appeal.

Systematically scouting the unorthodox

Posted 5 days, 13 hours ago in Sri Lankan cricket

	Ajantha Mendis is surely not the last of unorthodox cricketers Sri Lanka is going to produce © AFP

Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis may have awed the world with their unconventional styles, but there are more in the pipeline from Sri Lanka, Sandeep Dwivedi finds out in the Indian Express.

Jerome [Jayaratne] is the current head of the system that has produced unconventional cricketers such as Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Lasith Malinga and now Ajantha Mendis. And, as one takes a look at the display window of the academy, one finds that the supply-line isn’t going to stop any time soon. A Malinga lookalike, a leggie who delivers the ball from an awkward angle, and a pacer who till yesterday was a star on the tennis-ball circuit, are a few of the ‘works in progress’.

A lot of effort, though, goes in to unearth that ‘different’ bowler.

The Sri Lankan board has about 700 active coaches spread across the country, who are all linked to the national academy. The complex network explains how tough it would be for a talented cricketer to go unnoticed. Head coach Jayaratne has national coach Trevor Bayliss and the Lanka A coach under him, along with the national pace and spin coaches and their assistants.

There is a Coaching Education Department with three members, looking after batsmen, pacers and spinners, who are under-studies of the national pace and spin coaches. The coaches from the ‘education department’ travel to provinces — comprising of three to four districts — on regular scouting trips. Helping them are coaches with provinces, districts and schools who have a ready data of players from their region. With such a labyrinth spread over the small island, where virtually all districts or villages are wired, the red lights frequently flicker at the academy in Colombo when an unusual talent is spotted. With the coaches having a common agenda, uniformity in the system is maintained.

The secret of Mendis' dramatic success, is not merely his variety, but his pin-point accuracy, says team-mate Kumar Sangakkara in the Sunday Telegraph.

Indeed, while people talk of his variations, his mystery deliveries, his amazingly complicated method of delivery, when I keep to him I see only simplicity. I see a someone adhering to the age-old basics of bowling. Up until the point of delivery, when his fingers rub their magic, his action is perfectly orthodox. This gives him a strong foundation.

Referring to Cricinfo's Round Table, Tony Becca in the Jamaica Gleaner analyses the role of coaching in the development of great players.

Warne still the best

Posted 5 days, 13 hours ago in Australian cricket

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Shane Warne talks about the Indian Premier League experience and captaincy, his family and his views on Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and sledging. He reveals what he told Paul Collingwood during the Ashes in 2006-07.

“I will tell you exactly what I said. He was ripping into me, saying stuff, so I said, ‘Mate, you’re actually making me concentrate, so thanks for that’. He kept going, so I hit back. ‘Paul, tell me, are you embarrassed about your MBE? Don’t you think you should send it back? You’ve played one Test match in the Ashes, made seven and 10. I mean, mate, I would be embarrassed if I were you. But if you do send it back, I’ll pay for the envelope and the stamp’. He went pretty quiet after that. Sledging is actually made out to be more than it is and 10 years ago it was far worse. Now there are too many cameras, too much super slo-mo, and the players have to be politically correct.”

The dodgiest of all decisions

Posted 5 days, 14 hours ago in South Africa in England 2008

	Darren Pattinson: The most numb-skulled of choices? © Getty Images

In a week full of decisions, the most numb-skulled of all was England's decision to select, from nowhere, the uncapped Darren Pattinson, says Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph.

Pattinson's inclusion proffers a depressing statement, the antithesis of the England and Wales Cricket Board's desired message. For they are desperate for their counties to rely more on talent reared in their own academies than ready-made hired hands from abroad. And now this from the national team. It is a dreadful example for the head boy to be setting. And Pattinson doesn't even look that ready-made.

Pattinson's was an extraordinary selection, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.

Our selectors have been boring us to tears for six matches. Same team, same team. Meanwhile, the hacks have been pining for change - just to have something to write about. Geoff Miller has smiled enigmatically when announcing yet another unchanged side; his function is not to make life easier for journalists. Miller, we had decided, was meticulous, logical and conservative in his selections: a policy that would breed trust among his players, boredom among the scribes.

Then, out of the blue, Miller - dear, dour old Dusty - has pretensions to be another Uri Geller: to pluck from his flat, Derbyshire cap some gobsmacking magic in the form of the former roof tiler. A fresh face, albeit a fresh old face.

The selectors have failed their first big test. That's Stephen Brenkley's verdict in the Independent on Sunday.

Read John Stern's take in the Sunday Times. He says:

Seven years ago on this ground, a man whom nobody recognised walked out to bat for England in an Ashes Test. It turned out to be the serial hoaxer Karl Power, whose other stunts included having his picture taken with the Manchester United team on the pitch in Germany against Bayern Munich and playing on Centre Court at Wimbledon.

In a way, history repeated itself on Friday, in that there was a man bowling for England whom almost nobody recognised. It quickly became apparent that the only remarkable thing about Darren Pattinson is his selection.

Pattinson did not appear to have the resources to deal with the leap into Test cricket, Mike Brearley says in his blog on the Guardian website.

Time for a reality check

Posted 5 days, 14 hours ago in Indian Premier League

Pradeep Magazine, in the Hindustan Times, calls for a reasoned analysis of the Indian Premier League.

Back home, our "best-loved commentators" and voices who are on the payrolls of either the IPL or the franchises, are not stopping in praising this revolution and the economic benefits it has provided, and will provide, players in the future. They're giving us sermons on the wonder that is T20 and it would appear that anyone who does not agree with them would be told to shut up.

Blind Twenty20 vision ignores 50-over cricket

Posted 5 days, 15 hours ago in English cricket

	Is two Twenty20 tournaments the right preparation to win a 50-over World Cup? © Getty Images

The ECB's decision to have two Twenty20 tournaments in the domestic season comes at a time when the 50-over game is in an abysmal state, says Scyld Berry in the Telegraph. He writes:

Last week, when the ECB decided on a new domestic structure, the county chairmen last week had the opportunity to do something about the abysmal state of 50-over cricket in England - and did absolutely nothing. England are the only one of the eight major cricket-playing countries never to have won a global tournament (the World Cup or Champions Trophy) and the ECB, by their actions, are manifestly happy for it to stay that way. They want to line their pockets with two 20-over competitions. A successful England team at 50-over cricket? Empty words.

He says that if "the ECB staged a domestic 50-over competition in July and August, with time for the players to practise, England might have a chance of winning a World Cup."

Exploiting the 20 overs of powerplay is essential to a 'successful' 50-over team. But how can that be done on early-season pitches when survival has to be the aim, not power

Match-winning spin is another essential if a World Cup is to be won, especially the next one in Asia. In this year's Friends Provident Trophy only two spinners have taken four wickets in an innings: both modest off-spinners born several thousand miles from Britain, Gareth Breese and Greg Lamb.

In the Observer, Vic Marks says although the ECB have retained the County Championship's current format, there are threats it needs to be protected against.

The rich counties will get richer and may start to use their wealth more ruthlessly to acquire the best players. In the past this has hardly been worthwhile. In 2002 Essex were promoted from both divisions and, according to Graham Gooch, this cost the club money. We are now approaching an era when success may be rewarded financially, which constitutes progress.

There may also be a disparity in the quality of overseas players counties can afford. The commercially minded will contemplate Twenty20 cricket only in India and now with the EPL, provided the appropriate salary is available. Mahendra Dhoni, a must for the TV audience in India, is unlikely to leave his continent for anything short of six figures for three weeks' work.

NZ government must ban Zimbabwe tour

Posted 5 days, 16 hours ago in New Zealand cricket

New Zealand's decision to tour Zimbabwe in 2005 was a farce and any decision to tour in 2009 will be tragedy indeed, writes Paul Lewis in the Herald on Sunday. He lambasts the ineffective decision-making last time around and call on the government to ban the tour instead of sending letters to New Zealand Cricket outlining reasons why the cricketers should not go to Zimbabwe.

July 19, 2008

Forgotten brands alive in cricket

Posted 6 days, 12 hours ago in Miscellaneous

	Jacques Kallis, in the more traditional vanilla by Hummel, cleans up an Ian Bell sporting the bright Mr Whippy white by Adidas © Getty Images

While England trot out at Headingley togged out in bright Mr Whippy white by Adidas, South Africa are in more traditional vanilla by Hummel, which is the subject of Rob Bagchi's article in the Guardian.

The latter, particularly, seems a strange marriage - the chevron merchants first gaining prominence with Alan Ball's white boots in the early 1970s and Denmark's "we are red, we are white, we are Danish dynamite" Euro 84 strip worn by Preben Elkjaer and Soren Lerby.

...

They are not the first half-forgotten brand to latch on to cricket in a bid for renewed prominence. Admiral, manufacturers of iconic kits for England and Leeds United in the 1970s thanks to their close ties to Don Revie as well as that infamous "chocolate" Coventry City away strip, recently finished an eight-year contract with England that put them back on the radar after two relatively moribund decades.

If cricket works wonders for retro brand chic, this trend will surely continue. Give it five years and Bangladesh will be decked out by Patrick, Sri Lanka by Bukta and New Zealand by Stylo Matchmaker. Old labels never die, they just change sports.

Mendis fortunate to be in mature hands

Posted 6 days, 14 hours ago in Sri Lankan cricket

Peter Roebuck reserves special praise for the seniors in the Sri Lankan team for their careful handling of Ajantha Mendis in the Hindu.

Far from rushing him along or trying to change him or claiming all the glory, his coach at Army club was wise to leave him to his own devices, contenting himself with filming his action and showing him the footage whenever things went wrong. The best coaches are not dictators but mirrors. As the months passed, Mendis added other balls to his off-break and leg-break. Nowadays he has numerous deliveries in his repertoire, all of them under control.

Apparently, he sends down most of them every over. Mendis’s next stroke of fortune was that the national team had fallen into thoughtful and mature hands. A lesser leader than Mahela Jayawardene, a lesser lieutenant than Kumar Sangakkara, might have insisted on including the youngster in the team to tour Australia last season.

Let the markets decide

Posted 6 days, 14 hours ago in Twenty20

Harsha Bhogle is not too perturbed with the ECB's announcement of the English Premier League, instead suggesting that the franchise-driven system, with more localised loyalties is critical to the future of the game. He believes that market forces will decide the future of the game. He put forth his point in the Indian Express:

The stage is set then for the football model where there will be T20 leagues in each country; some more lucrative than others. That is why I was amused when I read of a proposal in England to ‘counter’ the IPL. You don’t need to. The Bundesliga exists, so does La Liga as does the EPL. And France, Belgium and Turkey and everybody else has its own league. The leagues with bigger markets draw the better players, the smaller leagues effectively become feeder leagues and that is how it could well be with cricket. Having said that, it raises the question of how much T20 cricket is good for the game.

The key here is the definition of the “game” as we have traditionally known it. If the “game” is Test cricket, it is a valid question but I don’t think any one person decides what the “game” is. The markets decide. We didn’t decide how much rap was good for the music world, people buying cds did. We didn’t decide how much of computer animation and special effects was good for the storytelling style of movie-making. The box-office decided that. So too it will be with T20 cricket. If we believe we can control how much T20 should be played, we will seed another Packer for human enterprise fuelled by finance will always find a way.

Umpiring cock-eyed

Posted 6 days, 14 hours ago in Technology

Billy Bowden and Daryl Harper had a moderate day, but their reputations could have been saved by use of television replays and a greater trust of the player's word, writes Simon Hughes in the Telegraph.

Unfortunately, the ICC, who rule on how technology should be used, display a total lack of comprehension of its benefits. Television can quickly evaluate whether a ball has brushed a pad or a glove, but cameras used to adjudicate whether a catch has been grassed present a flat image and usually cloud the issue. Yet the umpires are allowed to refer the latter and not the former. They are effectively umpiring cock-eyed.

Unrepentant rebels

Posted 6 days, 15 hours ago in Miscellaneous

	Protests during the rebel tour of South Africa © Cricinfo Ltd

Jim White in the Telegraph focuses on Out of the Wilderness, a three-part documentary in which Sky's Charles Colville retells the story of the South Africa's sporting isolation. White says:

What is somewhat dispiriting about Colville's investigations is how many of the rebels remain unrepentant. At least John Emburey admits he went solely for the money. Colin Croft, on the other hand, casts himself and his fellow rebel West Indian side as cricketing Rosa Parks, there to show racist South Africans that the black man could play cricket as well as the white and thus helping to accelerate the end of apartheid. Perhaps Croft should talk to Peter Oborne, the author of the definitive book about the D'Oliveira case, who tells Colville that the tourists "should never be allowed to forget they were giving comfort to a wicked, barbarous regime".

But it was Gatting who finally demonstrated how far a cricketer's moral compass can go awry. By 1990, when he led a tour to South Africa, no one could claim ignorance. The moment he signed up, Gatting was subject to unrelenting opprobrium. At a press conference, he was hectored by a journalist who wondered how he would spend his blood money ("fancy a yacht, Mr Gatting?"). Unlike even the West Indies team whose presence was greeted largely by sullen disappointment among black South Africans, Gatting arrived in Pietermaritzberg into an organised maelstrom of demonstration. Indeed, his very presence highlighted the growing absurdity of a dying regime: a month after his tour was abandoned in embarrassment, Nelson Mandela was released from prison and the swift gallop to normality was unleashed

Pattinson in the limelight

Posted 6 days, 16 hours ago in South Africa in England 2008

	Ryan Sidebottom's injury has surely put the focus on his surprise replacement Darren Pattinson © Getty Images

Darren Pattinson's surprise selection in England's XI for the Headingley Test against South Africa has not just bemused Englishmen, but also a few Australians. Pattinson, two weeks away from his 30th birthday, had spent the last 24 years of his life in Australia, is a roof tiler by trade and has played 11 first-class matches. (Read more in the piece by Cricinfo's Andrew McGlashan.)

Damien Fleming tells Chloe Saltau in the Age:

"It's unbelievable. I don't reckon he'll be doing any roof-tiling for a while."

Jonathan Agnew is surely not impressed. He writes in the Test Match Special blog:

What message does this send to English county cricketers who dream of playing for England - and, specifically in this case, to Chris Tremlett, who was actually called into the squad before Pattinson?

Graham Gooch terms it one of the most leftfield decisions he's seen.

Vic Marks has an interesting take on Pattinson's selection in his blog on the Guardian website.

Headingley can do odd things to selectors. It was here, for example, that David Graveney had a brainwave. He opted for Mike Smith, the little Gloucestershire swinger, rather than Andy Caddick against Australia. A catch went down; the ball refused to swing, England were thrashed and Smith never resurfaced again. Moreover Graveney's confidence and standing as a selector was dented.

As for Pattinson, it's too early to tell. CMJ had a Machiavellian theory: that Miller had picked him as a prelude to next year's Ashes encounter. Until yesterday it might have been possible for Pattinson to play for either country. Now he is English, despite what his father has said - "Darren, he's Australian"- when he was called into Champions Trophy 30. Having been selected Pattinson is committed to England; the Aussies can't have him. So when he takes seven against the Aussies at Headingley next year I shall be leading the calls for Miller's knighthood. Until then I remain confused.

Just the thought of Headingley makes fools of wise men, writes David Hopps in the Guardian.

Remember Martin Bicknell. Well, he too made his debut at Headingley like Pattinson. England selectors have often made interesting picks to exploit the conditions in Leeds, Cricinfo looks at how they fared.

Things like this are not supposed to happen any more. Not in this regimented era of central contracts, national academies, selectorial continuity and all the other trappings of Team England, says Alan Lee in the Times.

Chris McGrath writes in the Independent:

If we learned one thing here yesterday, it is that obscurity and celebrity are just different shades on the same spectrum. All it takes to bring them together is unreasonable expectation. We may think we know an awful lot more about Andrew Flintoff than Darren Pattinson, whose names stood out like neon when the team sheet was handed out on a dank, melancholy morning in Leeds. But just as the superhero exists in only two dimensions, the judgements that brought Pattinson here can hardly be deemed any less trite.

July 18, 2008

Flintoff's new weapon

Posted 1 week ago in South Africa in England 2008

	The one that comes in © Getty Images

Andrew Flintoff returns to the England Test side after more than a year. Alastair Cook, the team's opening batsman, reveals the new delivery that Flintoff has worked on during his time out. He writes in the Telegraph:

When I faced Freddie on Wednesday, I was expecting him to push the ball across me, as he has always done in the past. So I was leaving one that started out wide - and suddenly it came booming back in and hit me on the knee. I was about three hours late on the shot, and was left hopping about in pain.

Allan Donald has called for the inclusion of Andre Nel in place of the left-arm spinner Paul Harris in the South African team for the second Test. Click here to read his article in the same paper.

In the Guardian Mike Selvey wonders whether Flintoff's return will disturb the ecology of a side that has been put together for a record six successive matches.

In the same paper, John Ashdown chats with Ian Bell about pedalos, pork pies and pints of Carling.

The New Zealand Herald looks back at the good and bad sports news of the week.

A good week for ...

Cricketing acronyms

Stunning news from the ECB this week, which is to launch the EPL T20 in a bid to rival the ICL and IPL. An ECB release said the tournament would replace Pro40. It will involve all 18 counties and two sides from overseas, probably the winners of IPL plus a side assembled by Texan billionaire Allen Stanford (RBs or Rich Bastards). No word yet on the fate of the ICL rebels, but when we hear we'll let you know ASAP.

July 17, 2008

The English "Premier" League?

Posted 1 week, 1 day ago in English cricket

The announcement of the English Premier League yesterday came without much fanfare. And in The Times, Richard Hobson questions whether this really is a "premier" competition:

There is a fundamental problem about England and an equivalent of the Indian Premier League (IPL). We can have an English Premier League by name - Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, coined the term when the 2008 season was launched in April - but what is “Premier” about a competition with at least 18 teams?

If the EPL is to really blossom as a viable commercial product, England will need support from India, Hobson continues.

Talks on refreshing the Twenty20 format, which was born in England in 2003, began long before the notion of “New Twenty20” and Collier, who is trying to finalise details of the Champions League with India, Australia and South Africa, said that the ECB has “received enormous broadcast and sponsor interest from around the world”.

The success of the tournament - and value of broadcasting deals overseas - is sure to be enhanced if the ECB can reach agreement with the Board of Control for Cricket in India over the release of its leading players, with the quid pro quo that England players will be allowed to feature in the IPL.

Keith Bradshaw and David Stewart's leaked plans, which proposed a city-based set-up of nine teams, was thrown out by the ECB, but many are concerned that a competition involving 20 teams might lack the cutting-edge talent which the Indian Premier League offered. Over in The Telegraph, Nick Hoult has a rather simple explanation to why Bradshaw and Stewart's plans were rejected: television.

It is believed they threw out Bradshaw's proposal after being told by television companies a nine-team city based tournament was worthless as a broadcasting deal. Sources within the broadcasting industry last night cast doubt on that view.

Paul Newman at the Daily Mail believes that the counties have locked themselves into a "Twenty20 prison".

The 18 first-class counties will all play a full part in a Twenty20 revolution that ends any possibility of city franchise cricket but leaves the domestic game in danger of reaching saturation point in the short format that is taking over the cricketing world.

There is also the possibility of EPL teams being backed by team name sponsors to generate more income. Kentucky Fried Middlesex, perhaps? Or how about Utterly Butterly Lancashire?

At The Guardian, Lawrence Booth was particularly concerned about overkill, but recognised that politics had scuppered any prospect of a slimline tournament.

The announcement confirmed what had become obvious in the days since proposals for a nine-franchise EPL, drawn up by Keith Bradshaw of the MCC and David Stewart of Surrey, were leaked to the press last Friday: namely, that many of the 18 first-class counties were unwilling to be marginalised and the ECB did not want to cede ownership of a potential milch cow to an outside company, in this case New Twenty20 Ltd. It has also been pointed out that any ECB-sanctioned tournament involving anything but all 18 counties would have been unconstitutional in any case.

Blame it on the grass

Posted 1 week, 1 day ago in English cricket

A sixth-successive draw at Lord's is indeed a dubious distinction for the ground and Mike Selvey reckons the swanky new outfield, despite having one of the best drainage systems, is to blame. Read on in the Guardian.

I happen to think that the new outfield is a contributing factor, for it will have helped lower the natural water table, sucking moisture from beneath the square and making preparation a different task from that which the Lord's head groundsman, Mick Hunt, would have had when he first took over the job in the late 70s. There is so much more artificial watering required now which, when added to a top-dressing that binds, results in a true surface but one which has discovered the secret to eternal youth, like anti-wrinkle cream.

Also read Neil Manthorp's Lord's diary in Supercricket, Manners on Tour

Holding, meanwhile, is not as affable and friendly as he was a couple of years ago. He is far, far more so! There appear to be no minutes in the day when ‘Mikey’ doesn’t have a smile on his face and when he boarded the lift to descend from the famous UFO-style media centre after Saturday’s play, he seemed well-prepared for a party with half a case of rum under his arm.

Doping: the myths and reality

Posted 1 week, 1 day ago in Miscellaneous

There's plenty of confusion in India and Pakistan about the rules that govern anti-doping measures in the world of sport in the wake of the Mohammad Asif scandal. The Hindu lists out the various myths and realities of doping.

Myth: A Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) is the way to dope.

Reality: True, a TUE gives an athlete the chance to take a prohibited substance in certain medical conditions, but a TUE is granted by a panel of experts only after satisfying that such a medication is absolutely necessary for the athlete’s health and there is no substitute. For example, an athlete applying for a TUE for an asthma medication is expected to produce results of a series of tests and if the authorities are not satisfied the competitor may be subjected to on-the-spot tests to verify whether he actually suffers from asthma and the TUE he is carrying is in order.

July 16, 2008

55,035 vs 1686

Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in India in Sri Lanka 2008

	Not a bad trio: Sachin Tendulkar (11782 Test runs), Anil Kumble (608 wickets) and Virender Sehwag (4813 runs and two triple-hundreds) © AFP

If wealth of cricketing experience was something that could have been deposited in banks, the cricketers from India and Sri Lanka would have formed the creamy layer of a Forbes list and their congregation at Colombo for the three-Test series would be akin to that corporate thing they have in Davos in January every year, writes Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.

Seven of the 11 active members in the 100-Test club are here and that includes the top four longest-serving present-day cricketers. Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan and Anil Kumble made their Test debuts in the late 80s or early 90s — that’s an era with which no other international team, besides India and Lanka, has any remote connection with. West Indies with 1994 debutant Shivanarine Chanderpaul in their side comes close, but that’s all.

...

Even if one does a real needle-in-the-haystack kind of search, it will be tough to find a series where record-breakers will so frequently brush shoulders, where every other bat versus ball contest is a high-profile face-off with several layers of intrigue. The 55,035 vs 1686 is a kind of contest that has never happened before and the chances of it happening in the near future aren’t very bright either.

Poor captains, poor Razzaq

Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in Pakistan cricket

	Abdul Razzaq now plays for the Indian Cricket League © AFP

In an interview to PakPassion, a cricket forum, Pakistan allrounder Abdul Razzaq says he was handled poorly in the later stages of his international career, and that led to a decline in his performance. Razzaq explains why he couldn't replicate his form during Wasim Akram's tenure under other Pakistan captains:

There's only so much a player can do by himself, the captain's backing and his correct utilization of each players skills is also critical to a players success. Imagine if you've spent the whole day practising your batting and you've got yourself worked up to go out there the next day and bat, then when the next day comes you are slotted in at number 7 or 8 and you either dont get a chance to bat or you only face a dozen balls. How disheartened would you feel? Wouldnt it get you down mentally to know that you were fully fit and mentally ready but you didnt get a chance because you are batting too low in the order?

In the same way if you're confident about your bowling ability but you dont get a proper chance to show your skills then what can you do about it? Fast bowling in cricket is about the new ball, the best time to pick up wickets in an ODI match is within the first 15 overs. That's when the batsmen are unsettled, the ball is new and the batting team is willing to take risks off your bowling. The first 15 overs is when bowlers can either take a bad beating or pick up some crucial wickets, it's the best time to bowl. What's the use of introducing one of your most experienced bowlers between the 20th and 40th overs?

Missing numbers

Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in South African cricket

	No numerical recognition for Mike Procter from Cricket South Africa © The Cricketer International

Although the likes of Bruce Mitchell, Roy McLean, Robert Catterall, Alan Melville and Percy Sherwell feature on the honours board at Lord's alongside South Africa's latest entrants in Ashwell Prince, Neil McKenzie and Hashim Amla, in the eyes of Cricket South Africa they remain "illegitimate children", writes Gary Lemke in the Independent Online.

You might have noticed that McKenzie wears the number '42' below the Proteas badge on his shirt, Prince has '48', Smith '49' and Amla '60'.

This is where they are recognised in CSA's numerical system, a controversial badge of honour that starts with Kepler Wessels, who captained the first unified South African team back into Test cricket. The official excuse a few seasons back was that the "older" generation, like the above- mentioned, plus the likes of Mike Procter, Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock and Eddie Barlow, lived and played in a "parallel universe" and as such could not be honoured in such a manner for having represented their country.

Handle Freddie with care

Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in South Africa in England 2008

Andrew Flintoff's return to Test cricket from injury should be handled with care and importantly, shouldn't be used as a strike bowler straightaway, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.

Becoming a strike bowler is not something a player can just wake up one morning and decide to do. It requires a nose for wickets, a sharp mind with an even sharper bouncer, and a swagger that falls, usually, to those who take the new ball. Flintoff possesses most of these attributes except taking the new ball, which, apart from the odd desperate foray in the last Ashes series, he has tended to leave to others.

In the same paper, Geoff Boycott feels England may have missed the trick by not selecting Steve Harmison for Headingley.

I would have added Steve Harmison to the squad. I have been critical of his attitude and his bowling in the past but he has gone back to county cricket, is bowling better and getting wickets. It was obvious during the first Test that on a flat pitch England lacked pace. After three days of bowling, our three fast-medium guys are knackered. If England bowl first at Headingley, they could be bowling five days out of eight. That is a tall order, let me tell you.

Sheffield Shield makes a comeback

Posted 1 week, 2 days ago in Australian cricket

Malcolm Conn welcomes the return of the Sheffield Shield, which he finds refreshing in an age where crass commercialism have taken over tradition and history. He says in the Australian:

Nine years after the state four-day competition became the Pura Cup, much to the chagrin of cricket lovers around the country, Cricket Australia has found a sponsor which does not want to put its name at the front of the award.

...

State captains were lined up for a promotional photograph with yoghurt smeared across their top lip to make it look like they had been drinking milk.

"I felt like I was committing treason," then Victorian captain Paul Reiffel confided later.

Meanwhile, Maddy Hogan, who has represented Victoria at under-17 and 19 level despite a congenital limb deformity on her left arm, will also feature in 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. Read more on the Cricket Australia website.

July 15, 2008

A farce on a bland pitch

Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in South Africa in England 2008

	Why was the light offered when the batsmen weren't really in any danger? © Getty Images

The first Test between England and South Africa was the sixth successive draw at Lord's but Patrick Kidd wants to know why the umpires offered the light at 4.35pm given that the batsmen weren't really in any danger and that England had given up trying to get them out. He writes in the Times:

OK, the game was going nowhere, but surely the only reason you forfeit the final hour is if neither side can win. By declaring 47 runs ahead, hadn't Smith given England a chance of winning? Scoring 47 shouldn't be beyond England in an hour. Of course, Smith's declaration was only made because England had promised not to chase it, but it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

Kidd and other Times cricket correspondents pick their World XI based on the players they have seen.

In the Telegraph Simon Hughes in unimpressed by the bland pitch, which according to him was was like a cover girl's face after it had been airbrushed: pale, smooth and blemishless: beauty in the eye of the batsman.

The culture needs to change. Batsmen don't want bland pitches any more than bowlers. More risks must be taken. At the moment grass, which can add life, meets the same fate as body hair on Olympic athletes, and is unceremoniously shaved off. Steve Rouse, at Edgbaston, has the right idea and is more expermimental. He relishes a low scoring match. Maybe we need more ex-bowlers as groundsmen.

On iafrica.com, Rob Peters and Ebrahim Moola debate whether Kevin Pietersen is a loss to South African cricket.

Moola: KP could easily be in Hollywood or the House of Lords, such is the man's charisma. He represents the evolution of the game from a twee, limp-wristed game of rounders to a high-octane slugfest suited perfectly to an audience with a concentration span about the length of Glenn McGrath's batting average.

Peters: If cricket was not a team game I might have conceded that Pietersen was a loss to South Africa. If for example, he was a loud-mouthed and far less humble version of Roger Federer, I would admit that I would find it hard to see him turning out in English colours at Wimbledon. But Pietersen is nothing like Federer, not in ability and certainly not in the way of humbleness.

What England supporters can expect in India

Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in English cricket

The proposed itinerary for England's tour of India in November includes only two metropolitan cities - Mumbai and Delhi - and it prompted the ECB to express its disappointment at the schedule. But the Guardian's David Hopps takes time out from watching the Lord's Test to give a list of hidden attractions that the venues offer to England supporters.

Rajkot (1st ODI)
Rajkot is a city in the no-alcohol state of Gujurat, about 70km from the Gulf of Karachi, and offers an insight into the life of Mahatma Gandhi, who was educated here. Visit Gandhi's ancestral home (1880) which now houses the Gandhi Smriti, a memorial museum containing photographs and personal effects. The Watson Museum and Library includes a huge 19th century marble statue of Queen Victoria and is fascinating. Drinkers should stay in Mumbai as long as possible - or even find an excuse to skip the first ODI entirely.

Jamshedpur (4th ODI)
Jamshedpur is a modern city in the state of Jharkand. The city is dominated by the Indian steel industry. It is named after Late Jamshedji, founder of the Tata steel empire. For recuperation, try Jubilee Park, a 200-acre park with fountains, a zoo, a mini golf course and a lake. The park is modelled on the Vrindavan Gardens in Mysore, which is slightly more famous. The Keenan stadium is one of India's better grounds. And you can visit the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary, where you can expect to see some wild elephants, barking deer, porcupines, and perhaps even a leopard and tiger.

Dhoni's pull-out justified

Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in Indian Cricket

With cricket having gone far too commercial to take a break, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's honesty in deciding to skip the Sri Lanka Tests needs to be respected, writes Makarand Waingankar in the Hindu. He lists examples in the past when previous captains like Tiger Pataudi and Sunil Gavaskar drew a lot of flack for opting out of tours.

Dhoni certainly has built his image through the electronic media. His utterances are measured with honesty and purpose. His demeanour presents the character of a true team man willing to do anything for the team. It’s when one has this image, reasoning for any act is accepted without murmur.

However, Amrit Mathur in the Hindustan Times wonders if Dhoni's honesty could lead to a wrong perception in the eyes of the Indian public.

There are some in the Board who are okay with players choosing what to play and what not to. Others, driven by a sense of outrage at this insensitivity towards the country, will wait for an opportunity to pounce on him. To them, the issue is not about a tired player wanting a rest but one of power. In this game, the rules say the ones in authority choose who plays when and where and not, as Dhoni has done, the other way round.

July 14, 2008

ECB's monster

Posted