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While he has made some mistakes, Mikel Arteta has got an awful lot right during his time in the Arsenal dugout.

The Spaniard has overseen a complete overhaul of the squad, instilled a new philosophy, and turned them from a fallen giant into serial challengers for both the Premier League and the Champions League.

However, there were plenty of moments early on in his managerial career when it felt like he was hanging onto the job by his fingertips, including a period in which Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe practically saved him.

Since then, the former has established himself as the club’s talisman, while the latter has fallen away and been sold to Fulham. Interestingly, there is a player in Arteta’s current squad who once felt like the next Saka but could now be closer to becoming the next Smith Rowe.

How Smith Rowe and Saka save Arteta

Even though the club were coming off their 14th FA Cup triumph, the start of the 20/21 season was nothing short of disastrous for Arsenal.

The North Londoners actually won their two opening games, against Fulham and West Ham United and even picked up a third win of the campaign in their fourth match.

However, the losses started coming thick and fast, and from the 8th of November to Boxing Day, the team didn’t win a single league game.

So, when Chelsea rocked up at the Emirates on Boxing Day, Arteta decided to roll the dice and start Smith Rowe in the ten, a decision that instantly paid off as the Gunners came out 3-1 winners and the youngster provided the assist for Saka’s goal.

From that point, results started to improve, and the two Hale Enders were crucial to that, with the midfielder racking up a tally of four goals and seven assists and the winger doing even better with seven goals and seven assists.

The duo continued to impress the following season, with Smith Rowe producing 13 goal involvements and the mercurial number seven producing 19.

However, a combination of injuries and the squad being strengthened around him saw the Croydon-born gem slowly lose his place in the side over the next two seasons.

Finally, after making just 14 appearances in the 22/23 season and then 19 the year after that, the Hale Ender was sold to Fulham for around £34m, while Saka went on to become arguably the team’s best player.

Interestingly, or perhaps unfortunately, there is currently a potential star in the making in Arteta’s squad today who at one point looked destined to follow in Saka’s footsteps, but might now be more likely to become the next Smith Rowe.

The Arsenal gem who could become the next Smith Rowe

It would be fair to say that, as seasons go, last year wasn’t a particularly enjoyable one for Arsenal fans.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

The club looked miles off in the title race and were beset with injuries to key players, only this time they didn’t have the squad depth they do today.

However, there were at least a few bright spots from the campaign, notably the emergence of Ethan Nwaneri.

The youngster had long been a prospect fans were excited about; he became the youngest player in the Premier League, after all.

Yet, it was the injuries to Martin Odegaard and specifically Saka that meant he ended up getting far more first-team minutes than supporters were expecting, and to say he made the most of the opportunity would be an understatement.

Appearances

37

Minutes

1378′

Goals

9

Assists

2

Goal Involvements per Match

0.29

Minutes per Goal Involvement

125.27′

For example, the often “unplayable” dynamo, as dubbed by Jack Wilshere, scored nine goals and provided two assists in 37 appearances, totalling 1378 minutes.

In other words, the Hale End phenom averaged a goal involvement every 3.36 games, or more crucially, one every 125.27 minutes, which helps to justify Joe Cole’s claim that “he’s the most exciting footballer in England and maybe Europe.”

It was these numbers, plus the moments of brilliance on the ball and his time out wide, that led many to see him as someone who could and probably would follow in the steps of Saka and become a key part of the squad in the coming years.

However, fast-forward to today, and it would be fair to describe his situation as more akin to Smith Rowe’s in his final seasons at the club.

For example, as things stand, the teenager has made just ten appearances for the first team, totalling 427 minutes.

Moreover, he’s started just three games all season, two of which came in the League Cup and another in the club’s Champions League clash with Slavia Prague.

Worryingly, the Enfield-born gem has also only scored one goal and, like the Croydon-born star before him, has seen fresh competition arrive in the shape of Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke.

Appearances

10

Minutes

427′

Goals

1

Assists

0

Goal Involvements per Match

0.1

Minutes per Goal Involvement

427′

However, it is still early in the season, and while it’s clear that the manager isn’t as keen to pick the Hale Ender as he was last year, there is still plenty of time for things to change.

Therefore, so long as Nwaneri does get more game time across the rest of the campaign, he could still follow in Saka’s footsteps, but if he doesn’t, he could be another Smith Rowe.

Their new Ozil: Arsenal ramp up move to sign £88m "generational talent"

The incredible talent could be a real game-changer for Arsenal and become Arteta’s own Mesut Ozil.

2 ByJack Salveson Holmes 6 days ago

Former England Women’s head coach reunites with Heather Knight at Hundred franchise

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Dec-2025Jon Lewis, the former England Women’s head coach, will reunite with Heather Knight, their former captain, at London Spirit after his appointment as Women’s head coach at the Hundred franchise.Spirit last week announced Knight’s appointment as women’s team general manager. As part of that non-playing role, she will work closely with Lewis on staff appointments and squad selection before and during the player auction in March as well as advising the on-field leadership group.The pair last worked together during the Ashes at the start of this year, where England’s winless performance led to Lewis losing his job as coach and Knight the captaincy, although she remains a pivotal player for her country, ending the recent 50-over World Cup as their leading run-scorer as the team reached the semi-finals.Related

Jon Lewis leaves role as England Women's head coach

Heather Knight departs as England captain after nine-year reign

Jon Lewis returns to Gloucestershire as new director of cricket

Heather Knight appointed London Spirit Women's general manager

At London Spirit, Lewis will be responsible for team selection and performance.”This is a really exciting opportunity to play a part in shaping the future of this franchise,” Lewis said. “I am looking forward to building a team packed with talent and character, playing cricket that Spirit fans coming to Lord’s will get behind as we aim to win a second title this summer.”Early in Lewis’s tenure with England Women, the team reached the semi-finals of the 2023 ICC T20 World Cup and defeated India in an away T20I series before an unbeaten summer against Pakistan and New Zealand in 2024. He also oversaw England’s 2023 home Ashes series in which the hosts came back from a 6-0 points deficit to draw 8-8.But a group-stage exit at last year’s T20 World Cup ultimately signalled the beginning of the end for his time with the team, which came after England were thumped 16 points to nil on the subsequent Ashes tour.Lewis has also been involved in franchise cricket, having led UP Warriorz since the inception of the Women’s Premier League until earlier this year.Having represented England in all three international formats as a player, Lewis was the ECB’s elite pace bowling coach, working with England Men on their 2021-22 Ashes tour of Australia, and previously coached the Young Lions.He was recently appointed director of cricket – overseeing the performance structure across men’s and women’s teams and pathway programmes – at his former county, Gloucestershire, who agreed to Lewis adding the Hundred role to his duties.Mo Bobat, London Spirit director of cricket, was delighted to welcome Lewis to the franchise, which was valued at £295 million – by far the most expensive in the competition – during the recent private equity sale of Hundred teams.”I know first-hand his capabilities as a coach and his qualities as a person,” said Bobat, who worked previously with Lewis in the England Men’s set-up. “He has a fantastic breadth of experiences, across both the women’s and men’s games, which will stand us in good stead in our pursuit of sustained success.”It’s particularly exciting to consider the potential of his professional partnership with Heather, whom he obviously knows well from his time with the senior England women’s team.”

Liverpool manager Arne Slot has hailed new signing Hugo Ekitike after he bagged another brace to secure a 2-0 win over Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday. The French striker now has 10 goals in all competitions for the Reds so far in 2025-26 and is starting to prove his worth following a big-money move from Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer transfer window.

Ekitike double downs Brighton

Ekitike took just 46 seconds to open the scoring against Brighton at Anfield. The Frenchman volleyed home an excellent opening goal to give the Reds the perfect start to the game on Saturday. Ekitike then headed home a corner from Mohamed Salah to seal all three points for the Merseysiders in a win that takes them up into sixth place in the table. Ekitike has now scored a brace in back-to-back Premier League games for Liverpool, earning big praise from his manager.

AdvertisementAFPSlot thrilled with Ekitike's progress at Liverpool

"Slot told reporters: "Just before I took him off there was a moment, I don't know what happened, but I think he hardly could walk anymore because of cramp. What I see with him and I see this with all the players we've brought in this summer, they had to adapt to the Premier League, to that intensity, because they were all young. All the players we brought in are young players, except for Alex [Isak], but all the others are very young.

"So, adapting to the Premier League, that intensity, some of them had to adapt to the Premier League and [the] Champions League. I see all of them making progress in that. So, Hugo has cramp today but I can assure you that he did probably twice as much as in games in the beginning of the season where I had to take him off with cramp as well. That is what this league brings. If you cannot be so intense for such a long time, it's so hard to win a game of football because the best players, athletes, in the world play in this league, and we are trying to prepare them more and more, better and better for that – and I can see that progress with most of our signings, maybe all of them."

Ekitike enjoys 'great week' with Liverpool

Ekitike was a happy man after the win. The striker was also part of the Liverpool team that Inter in the Champions League in midweek and admits it's been a great seven days on the pitch for the Reds.

He told reporters: "We try to stick together, work together. Even today, it wasn't easy. At the end of the game we had to stay compact, stick together, because when we are in that position it's difficult to get a result. Happy today, because I think we deserved [it]. We did a great week and let's continue. When you play for Liverpool you just have to win games. So, [it's] hard to answer. When you see the games coming, we are Liverpool [and] we need to win."

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Getty Images SportWhat next for Liverpool?

Liverpool will surely be hoping Ekitike can continue in the goals, particularly now the Reds will be without Salah for some time due to his involvement at the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt. The talisman's future at the club is also in doubt following his recent criticism of the club and comments that he felt he had been "thrown under the bus by Liverpool." Saudi Pro League sides are reportedly interested in Salah, and it remains to be seen if he will play for the club again.

The Chicago White Sox are in the midst of another forgettable season and while they got a 1–0 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, one wild mistake by one of their veteran players left the announcers cracking up in disbelief.

In the seventh inning, center fielder Michael Taylor beat a throw at home and seemed to slide in safely to score a run. But with the home plate umpire keeping a close eye on the play, Giants catcher Andrew Knizner walked over to Taylor and tagged him out.

How could that have happened if Taylor had clearly beaten the throw? Well, he somehow didn't touch the plate on his head-first slide.

Check this out:

That's not something you see every day.

Again, the White Sox got the win to improve to 27-56 on the season but that play summed up how things have been lately for the struggling franchise.

The Phillies are making moves ahead of the MLB trade deadline on Thursday evening.

Philadelphia is finalizing a trade to get Twins outfielder Harrison Bader, ESPN's Jeff Passan reported on Thursday afternoon. The Twins will receive outfield prospect Hendry Mendez and pitching prospect Geremy Villoria in return for Bader, 's Matt Gelb reported.

Bader will join his former Twins teammate closer Jhoan Duran, who was traded to the Phillies on Wednesday. The Twins received two of the Phillies' prospects in return for Duran.

The Phillies were in need of a strong outfielder either in left or center field, and Bader could be the answer to that issue. Philadelphia needs all the help they can get as the season gets closer to winding down. They sit in fifth place in the National League in a very tight race for the top with a 61-47 record.

This was Bader's first season in Minnesota. Through 96 games this season, Bader's averaging .258/.339/.439, which are his highest averages since 2021 when he was with the Cardinals. He's totaled 70 hits, 31 runs and 12 home runs this season.

Shohei Ohtani is used to recording stats that baseball has never seen before.

One of the wildest stats the two-way superstar has, though, is about the batter he's faced when throwing his hardest heat. Ohtani threw the fastest pitch of his MLB career, a 101.7-mph four-seam fastball, to Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino in June. He threw an even harder pitch in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, which hit 102-mph, for the fastest pitch in his career.

Incredibly, Pasquantino was on the receiving end of Ohtani's 102-mph heater too, and he's starting to think Ohtani may have a problem with him. He had a hilarious response to the stat back in June, and he recently got to question the superstar as he served as an MLB players ambassador at World Series media day.

"World Baseball Classic, we faced each other. And with Kansas City this year, why do you throw so hard to me?" Pasquantino simply asked. "Why? Why do you hate me?"

Ohtani responded that Pasquantino is a really good hitter, so he has to. He's right, as the Royals slugger led his team with 32 home runs and 113 RBIs this year. That wasn't a good enough answer for Pasquantino though, as he responded, "You throw too hard, Shohei."

Check out the hilarious moment below:

Ohtani and the Dodgers are headed to the World Series after an all-time performance from the superstar where he hit three homers and threw six scoreless innings while striking out 10 batters in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series to close out the Brewers. He hit 55 homers in the regular season, behind only Cal Raleigh (60) and Kyle Schwarber (56).

On the mound, Ohtani had a 2.87 ERA in 14 starts and 47 innings pitched with 62 strikeouts in his return to pitching this year. He's won both of his postseason starts thus far, punching out 19 in 12 innings. He has five playoff homers this year, too, the most outside of Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with six.

Ohtani is doing things never seen before. Hopefully he has it in his heart to take it a bit easier on Pasquantino next season.

Also: were Eoin Morgan’s seven sixes with no fours against South Africa a record in T20Is?

Steven Lynch25-Feb-2020In the last T20I against South Africa, Eoin Morgan hit seven sixes but no fours. Was this a record? asked Richard Hall from England
Eoin Morgan’s match-winning burst against South Africa in Centurion earlier this month was actually the third innings in all men’s internationals (note that the number of fours hit by Jimmy Sinclair in the Cape Town Test of 1902 is not known) – but the first for a Test-playing country – to contain seven sixes but no fours.The other two instances both came in T20 matches between Associate member teams last year. In July, Norman Vanua of Papua New Guinea thrashed 47 from 12 balls, including seven sixes, against Vanuatu in Apia (Samoa), then the following month Razmal Shigiwal of Austria belted seven sixes (but no fours) in his 53 against Luxembourg in Ilfov (Romania).The Test record was also set in 2019: Umesh Yadav’s 31 for India against South Africa in Ranchi in October contained five sixes but no fours.Is Kyle Jamieson the tallest man ever to play for New Zealand? asked Greg Willis from New Zealand
The Auckland fast bowler Kyle Jamieson, who made a stunning debut in Wellington, dismissing Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli in his first four overs, does seem to be the tallest man to play a Test for New Zealand. He is reportedly 203cm tall – that’s six foot eight inches – which is a centimetre more than Peter Fulton, a batsman who rejoiced in the nickname “Two-Metre Peter”. Fulton’s finest hour was scoring 136 and 101 – his only two Test centuries – against England in Auckland in 2012-13. Some sources, however, suggest that fast bowler Kerry Walmsley, who played three Tests for New Zealand between 1995 and 2000, is also 6ft 8in.As well as taking a wicket with his first ball in international cricket, Khizar Hayat of Malaysia took a second wicket before conceding his first run. Was this unique? asked Derek Rouse from England
The Peshawar-born seamer Khizar Hayat had a dream start to his representative career: in an official T20I for Malaysia against Hong Kong in Kuala Lumpur last week, he dismissed Kinchit Shah with his first ball, and Scott McKechnie with his fourth, before conceding a run: he finished with 5 for 4 in his two overs as Malaysia won a rain-affected match.Eight other men are known to have started by taking two international wickets before conceding a run – including Hayat’s Malaysian team-mate, slow left-armer Anwar Rahman, who actually struck with his first two deliveries, against the Maldives in Kuala Lumpur in June 2019. One which I happened to see was the England seamer Richard Johnson, in his first over in a Test, against Zimbabwe in Chester-Le-Street in 2003. The others are the Australians Tom Horan (the only other one in a Test) and Trevor Laughlin, Martin van Jaarsveld of South Africa, Sri Lanka’s Dhammika Prasad, and the Dutchmen Bernard Loots and Daan van Bunge (thanks to Andrew Samson for his help with this one). But pride of place has to go to the Nepal offspinner Anjali Chand, who marked her official T20 international debut last December with 6 for 0, including a hat-trick, against the Maldives in Pokhara (Nepal).US-born Jehan Mubarak played 12 Tests, 40 ODIs and 16 T20Is for Sri Lanka between 2002 and 2015•AFPPakistan have played eight Tests in Wellington and have never lost one. Is this the most at any foreign venue by a visiting team? asked Harshit Goyal from the United States
Pakistan’s eight Tests without defeat at the Basin Reserve – they have won three times there – comes in second on this particular list: Sri Lanka have played nine Tests at the Harare Sports Club in Zimbabwe without defeat, winning five. South Africa have also played seven Tests in Wellington without ever losing, while England are undefeated in seven in Delhi. England have also never lost in six Tests in Kanpur, while India have drawn all six of their Tests in Georgetown; New Zealand have won five out of six at Bulawayo’s Queens Club, with one draw.Have any cricketers born in the USA played for England? asked Divyesh Patel from England
Only two players born in the USA have appeared in Tests so far, and neither of them did so for England. The first was Kenneth “Bam Bam” Weekes, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts: he played only twice for West Indies, but did score 137 in his second match, against England at The Oval in 1939, in the last Test before WWII. The other was Jehan Mubarak, who played 13 Tests for Sri Lanka between 2002 and 2015: he was born in Washington DC in 1981, while his father was working there as a scientist.There might soon be an addition to the list: the West Indian legspinner Hayden Walsh was born in the US Virgin Islands. He played nine white-ball internationals for the USA last year, before making his West Indies debut against Afghanistan in Lucknow in November.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Enough with the goodwill and buddying, now let’s see some old-school brawlin’

Alan Gardner20-Nov-2020There has been a lot of love sloshing around the world of cricket in recent months. Boards flying touring teams over at their own cost. Players buddying their way through weeks in isolation. Goodwill and nasal swabs wherever you look. Everyone was so delighted that the IPL was able to be staged safely out in the deserts of the UAE that it was even more like a hippy commune than normal.Frankly, it’s enough to make the Light Roller scream into our novelty Merv Hughes face mask.Even the upcoming clash-of-evil-empires between Australia and India threatens to be a let-down. Once upon a time, you could rely on Virat Kohli turning up at the Adelaide Oval next month and flipping the bird at the first idiot in the crowd to jerk his chain. Now he is such a paragon of modern masculinity, and a gentleman to boot, that he is taking paternity leave after the first Test – thus giving Australia a helping hand in their attempt to avenge a first-ever defeat at home to India in their previous encounter.Tim Paine’s team, meanwhile, is so full of reformed characters they could pass for a group of Methodist preachers. Ever since Australia experienced their “Are we the baddies?” moment of realisation in Cape Town – the clues were all there: the swearing, the moustaches, the skulls on caps – Paine has borne the captaincy with statesmanlike responsibility, shelving the tantrums and histrionics, and attempting to return a sense of civility to the office. Seriously, who does he think he is, the next occupant of the White House?India-Australia ought to be a rivalry so heated it contributes to global warming, but both sides are now too cool for the old school. So family-friendly was the sledging two years ago that the most memorable exchange involved Paine enquiring about Rishabh Pant’s availability as a babysitter.In the words of Allan Border: “What do you think this is, a f**king tea party?” We’re all for barefoot circles before the series, so long as it’s bare-knuckle from there on. And don’t get too cosy up in your No. 1 ranking, India. Okay, you won last time around, but no Smith and Warner basically means it didn’t count (yeah, we said it).Given the amount of time spent in bio-bubbles recently, it wouldn’t be surprising if everyone was getting a bit tetchy. But that’s okay, better to shake it all out on the field. C’mon, guys, it’s getting close to Christmas and there’s only one thing that we want. We want you bad.

****

Cricket is a simple game, if you leave aside all the complicated aspects like the lbw law, fielding restrictions, and when exactly to take tea. In that spirit, we’re delighted to see that the BBL has decided to look at the flagging T20 format and jazz it up with some exciting innovations such as, erm, the old ODI batting powerplay, and that Supersub idea the ICC tried and dropped 15 years ago. Although turning the much-mocked #atthisstage commentary crutch into a points-worthy metric just to nark Twitter could turn out to be an actual stroke of genius (that or it will go the way of the ECB’s Super Series brainwave from a few years back).Anyway, after dipping into our extensive contacts book – which may or may not include the municipal waste disposal authority that services Melbourne’s Jolimont district – we can exclusively reveal some of the alternative ideas that sadly ended up in the Big Bash trash:Big Top Bash Super Silly Super Over: New method of resolving a tie. Players slap on some extra zinc oxide, grab a red nose and oversized shoes and bowl custard pies at each other. Circus music optional, losers fed to the lions.Powar Surge: The fielding team can actually bring their 12th man on to play – but only if the nominated player is considered sufficiently overweight/inept/unfit to not make much of a difference. Final adjudications to be made by Ramesh Powar himself.The XXXX-Factor: At any point in the match, a team that feels it may be trailing can opt to switch the contest to a boat race decided by which side can scull six beers the quickest. Also known as a “Boonie Bonus”.Hundred-BBL Booster: Both innings reduced to 16.4 overs. Ten balls to be bowled in a row from each end. Bowlers can deliver either five or ten balls consecutively. New batsman always on strike, even if they crossed before a catch is taken. Powerplay of 25 balls with strategic timeouts for… ()

A look at the six men who had scored double-centuries on Test debut before the New Zealander got there on Thursday

Andrew McGlashan04-Jun-2021Tip Foster: 287 vs Australia, Sydney, 1903Scorecard
Standing top of the tree is this epic – the highest individual score on Test debut. Perhaps one of cricket’s records that will never be broken. Tip Foster walked in with England 73 for 3 on the second day and proceeded to dominate the game for nearly seven hours. He added 192 with Len Braund but England were only 47 ahead when the eighth wicket fell. Foster then added 245 across the last two wickets alongside Albert Reif and Wilfred Rhodes, building a lead that was enough to overcome Victor Trumper’s second-innings 185*. Of Foster’s innings, Wisden said: “The third day was marked by the most brilliant and sensational cricket seen during the tour, R. E. Foster, with a magnificent innings of 287, beating all records in Test matches…the latter part of his innings was described on all hands as something never surpassed.” Foster’s 287 – which stood as the best Test score until 1930 – was the highest score by a visiting batter in Australia for 111 years until Ross Taylor made 290 at Perth in 2015.You can read more about Tip Foster here.Jacques Rudolph: 222* vs Bangladesh, Chattogram, 2003Scorecard
No one has really got close to overhauling Foster, although Jacques Rudolph might have done it if given the time. And his debut had quite the backstory. He had faced India at Centurion in late 2001 in the Test stripped of official status after India refused to play under match referee Mike Denness, and then had been in line to face Australia in Sydney before missing out because of the quota system. Eventually, batting at No. 3 in his first Test innings, the left-hander feasted on the Bangladesh attack alongside Boeta Dippenaar in an unbroken third-wicket stand of 429 before captain Graeme Smith called a halt to the run fest in order to ensure South Africa could push for victory. In the end, they won with more than a day to spare. Rudolph would score just five more Test centuries in 47 matches.Lawrence Rowe scored 314 runs in his first Test – still a world record•Adrian Murrell/Getty ImagesLawrence Rowe: 214 vs New Zealand, Jamaica, 1972Scorecard
Though his final numbers do not stack up against the greatest, Lawrence Rowe was one of the most stylish batters West Indies have ever produced. Against a weak New Zealand attack he not only marked his first innings with the double-hundred made across seven hours in the middle, he followed it with an unbeaten 100 in the second innings. He is still the only player to achieve that feat, although Yasir Hameed made twin centuries (170 and 105) against Bangladesh in 2003, and the 314 Rowe scored in that Test remains the most by any man on debut. “His was a phenomenal performance and he did not appear to have any technical weaknesses,” Wisden noted of Rowe. “His subsequent failures in the next three Test matches were more than anything a question of temperament.”Mathew Sinclair: 214 vs West Indies, Wellington, 1999Scorecard
Conway was not the first New Zealander to score a double on debut. That honour went to Mathew Sinclair 22 years ago in a nine-hour marathon at Basin Reserve. Having replaced the injured Matt Horne, Sinclair opened his account with an inside edge but not much else missed the middle of the bat in what was recorded as a chanceless innings. His century was a reasonably brisk 164 deliveries with the remainder taking 283 balls. In his 12th Test, he scored another double – 204 against Pakistan – having also made 150 against South Africa between them. However, he did not add to those three centuries – 34.74% of his Test runs came in the three knocks – and he finished with an average of 32.05.Kyle Mayers led West Indies in a magnificent fourth-innings chase earlier this year•BCBKyle Mayers: 210* vs Bangladesh, Chattogram, 2021Scorecard
London buses? You wait ages for a double-century on debut then two come along almost at once. In February this year, Kyle Mayers marshalled a magnificent West Indies chase with a masterful display (he had shown promise with 40 in the first innings) to hunt down 395 after they were 59 for 3. In a side missing a host of first-choice players because of withdrawals around Covid-19, Mayers added 216 with fellow debutant Nkrumah Bonner. Overall, in a 310-ball innings, he struck 20 fours and seven sixes. “Some balls stayed low, some bounced. Guys were spinning the ball, they bowled arm balls. The wicket was all over the place,” he said. “I just had to stick to my gameplan and try to play as straight as possible, and hope for the best.”Brendon Kuruppu: 201* vs New Zealand, Colombo, 1987Scorecard
While this match had little to recommend it – said that Brendon Kuruppu’s innings “sentenced this match to tedium” – it was nonetheless a feat of significant endurance for the wicketkeeper-batter who was on the field all five days (and did not concede a bye during New Zealand’s 163-over innings). The innings, which included four lives, was also Kuruppu’s first century in first-class cricket. He would only play three more Tests. A double-century on debut guarantees absolutely nothing.

He hasn’t been the same bowler since his action was brought under scrutiny in 2014

Osman Samiuddin17-Mar-2021Sunil Narine is lingering. Narine, explained the West Indies chief selector Roger Harper ahead of the series against Sri Lanka for which he was not considered, had indicated that he was “not ready” to return yet to international cricket.Not ready because last October his action was reported once again, during the IPL. As is the practice in some T20 leagues, he was placed on a “warning list” that would allow him to continue bowling until and if he was called again, whereupon he would be banned from bowling.Unhappy with him dangling in this quasi-purgatory, where he could bowl but with the knowledge that one delivery could see him banned, the Kolkata Knight Riders decided to fight back. They sent slow-motion video footage of his bowling from the game in question to a tournament committee on suspect actions, made up of two former cricketers, a former umpire, a board administrator and approximately zero human movement specialists or biomechanists. They viewed the footage with “the naked eye” from “back and side angles” and came “to the conclusion that the elbow-bend appears to be within the range of permissible limits”.Related

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Five things I'm curious about in the 2021 IPL

The Sunil Narine journey, from pinch-hitter to allrounder

Two things about this occasion are worth noting. One, the umpires reported concerns with all of Narine’s 24 deliveries from the game, which is not often the case. Usually specific types of deliveries are highlighted by the umpire, with details of when they were delivered.Two, unlike in international cricket – leagues have their own protocols for suspect actions – Narine was not sent to a lab for an independent assessment of his action. There he would have been required to replicate his match action in front of sports scientists and have it rigorously tested by all manner of hardware and software before it was deemed legal or illegal. Narine was tarred by the naked eye of the umpire and subsequently cleared by the naked eye of non-specialists, which, as a method, seems to have bypassed entirely the advances in modern science in the 21st century.Since the pandemic began, the more thorough ICC-led process of assessing actions has not been available even in top-flight international cricket – it being difficult to ensure all those reported can travel to labs. If a bowler were to be called in a bilateral series tomorrow, their action would be judged by an expert panel on video footage alone. This panel could have on it people who run the testing labs, but it’s still only video footage they’re looking at. So it’s entirely understandable that Narine doesn’t feel ready right now. The IPL has been his main gig for some time and if he’d played international cricket before it, been reported and his action found illegal, under the regulations he would not be able to play in the IPL.More or less, this is where Narine has been – not feeling ready with his action – and in this lingering pose ever since he was first reported in the Champions League in 2014 – twice in a matter of days. He has been reported four more times since. At various times he has been banned from bowling in international cricket, banned from bowling offbreaks in the IPL, and placed on warning lists in the PSL. Each time he has corrected his action and returned; sometimes, as ahead of the 2015 IPL, he had to be cleared twice by different labs, just because.Can’t bowl? Can bat. Narine’s hitting has come along in leaps and bounds over the last few years•Randy Brooks – CPL T20 / GettyBut at each moment the effect has been to force him to retreat a little further from the game itself. He missed the 2015 World Cup because he wasn’t sure of his action. Ditto the following year’s T20 World Cup and the World Cup qualifiers in 2018. He has only played 12 international matches since 2017, and since September 2019 only two CPLs, one IPL and a bit of the Super50. It’s become real life Whac-A-Mole: here he appears, hoping not to get called, there he goes, here he appears again.The real-deal Narine is long gone, the man with the game’s best carrom ball, the man who had not a doosra but a post-doosra, who was not only the next level in offspin evolution but who looked like he was deconstructing, cherubically, the very idea of offspin.

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Bureaucracy neutered Narine, not a witch-hunt. The ICC’s clampdown on suspect actions in 2014 was a triumph of the former, dousing the charged idea of chucking as a moral failing. In the process, though, it took some of the humanness away from the process of dealing with it. Vicon cameras, human-movement specialists, standardised testing protocols, accredited labs, boxes ticked, reports compiled; suddenly, illegal actions were an infomercial.Historically cricket dealt with chuckers by lynch-mobbing them out of the game. Now it chose to be the pre-recorded voice down the end of a phone, politely informing bowlers their actions were outside the parameters of legality and to take up any complaints with an entirely different department that is experiencing a busy period and may not be able to respond to your query immediately. Or ever.Perhaps it was necessary, given that we weren’t long out of the fires that nearly consumed Muttiah Muralitharan’s career. But because offspinners who could bowl doosras became the biggest victims of this clampdown, it also stopped dead in its track whatever evolutionary jump offspin could have taken, with someone like Narine at the forefront. Certainly in white-ball cricket, deprived of an essential variety, offspin has not been the same since.There’s much less of it overall, for one. Comparing a similar span pre- and post-clampdown (from the start of 2009 to the end of 2014, and then the start of 2015 to the end of February this year) the percentage of balls delivered by offspinners in ODIs has fallen from 20.55% to 15.04%. Legspin has doubled, slow left-arm has fallen slightly, and left-arm wristspin has increased 52-fold. Three offspinners in the first period took 100 ODI wickets but none did in the second; 12 took 50 ODI wickets in the first, only five did in the second, three of whom are allrounders.In all T20s there has been a similar trend, from offspin forming 15.65% of all balls delivered before to 11.57% now. That masks an especially sharp drop in T20Is, from 20.84% to 11.2%.The overall ODI average for offspin bowling has jumped from 35.42 to 41.31 since 2015, as has the strike rate, from 45.11 to 49.68. By contrast, legspin’s corresponding numbers have trended downwards. The fall in these metrics in T20s are not nearly as pronounced but that is against a backdrop of significantly less offspin being bowled in the first place – and much of that is bowled by allrounders: 15 of the 18 offspinners who have bowled at least 1000 balls in ODIs since 2015 are allrounders.Six years on now, we can sense something more has been lost beyond what this data shows. Trends can be cyclical, so offspinners may become important again, particularly in T20s. But not knowing where it could have gone had Narine and others continued, how the balance between bat and ball might have tilted, how the game might have developed, is a loss difficult to calculate.Many will argue that these bowlers contravened a law, but the thing about bowling actions is that the more you learn, the less you know. We still know very little, for instance, about intent in elbow straightening, or how injuries impact it. We know even less about causation: between elbow straightening and speed or greater revolutions, or its impact on the doosra, or whether straightening is an advantage at all.Allowing 15 degrees of elbow straightening is not an entirely arbitrary cut-off limit between what is legal and isn’t, but it does lean heavily towards being an aesthetic one. The game it odd beyond 15 degrees, that it is throwing. And yet, there’s a study co-authored by renowned sports scientist Tim Noakes that concludes that it is actually impossible for an umpire to conclusively call a bowler’s action based only on naked-eye observation. The internal whirring of the elbow and even its external motions, the study says, are simply too complex to process through a pair of eyes.Indeed, if you look really hard, 15 degrees can feel no sturdier than a bandage tasked with holding back a world of biomechanical truth bombs from bursting out and dropping themselves on long-held myths about straight-arm bowling.

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The pandemic has made life harder for Narine. As well as not having access to a testing centre for detailed analysis of his action, he has not been able to work with Carl Crowe, his long-time coach, as often and as regularly as he might like. It’s almost like he’s working blind on rectifying whatever needs rectifying on the action.But – and this is the thing to cling to – Narine is still around, lingering but definitely around. Is there another bowler who has been reported as often who is? Mohammad Hafeez maybe, though he’s primarily a batsman.ESPNcricinfo LtdEvery ball Narine has bowled in the six years since being first reported, he has bowled under a magnifying glass not placed over any other bowler. That’s just the nature of how this works: that the more you get called, the more umpires scrutinise your action and, perhaps, are inclined to call you. Both franchise and bowler expressed surprise when Narine was called at the last IPL. Suggestions that the umpires might have decided pre-game to report him are unfounded, but they’re not outrageous. To bowl under that kind of pressure, in a format where every ball potentially carries the game with it – well, the wonder is that it hasn’t broken Narine yet.It’s changed him, sure. He’s not a strike bowler anymore but he’s still brought control to his teams. Most counterintuitively, he has become a mould-breaking, pinch-hitting opening batsman, and last season in the IPL, he was even teasing more shades in his batting.More power to him, in that if he’s not that bowler anymore, he’s not that cricketer anymore either.