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The fifth-wicket stand between Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq has not only revived Pakistan’s chances in the second Test, but provided a glimpse of the future

George Dobell in Abu Dhabi27-Jan-2012Whatever happens over the final chapters of this wonderfully absorbing Test, Pakistan can surely take comfort in the emergence of two fine young batsmen.It was not just that Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq played some attractive strokes – dozens of talented players can do that – it was that they demonstrated composure, discipline and the precious ability to withstand pressure. With just a little luck, the pair should serve their country well for much of the next decade.When they came together, Pakistan were still 16 behind and all four of their senior batsmen had gone. England sensed blood and the possibility of a three-day finish.Instead the pendulum has swung once again. It is too early to suggest Pakistan have seized the initiative – their lead is only 55, after all – but, thanks to a fifth-wicket partnership of 71, the hosts remain in contention. Chasing anything over 150 will not be easy for England.Azhar and Shafiq have actually been around a little while. Between them, they have 32 Test caps and some track record. Azhar, for example, played a key role in Pakistan’s win over England at The Oval in 2010 and has enjoyed decent innings against South Africa and Sri Lanka. Shafiq played very well here in the first innings.But, in these circumstances, against this attack and on this pitch, this was, arguably, the most impressive contribution of their careers to date. They showed all the attributes of fine Test players, leaving well, defending solidly and still putting away the bad ball with some panache. They have some work to do before Pakistan will be in a match-winning position, but they have given their side hope.Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the careers of these two young men is that neither of them has had the opportunity to play a Test in their own country. Instead they are having to forge careers in foreign lands, in alien conditions and without the support network players could expect at home. It is a substantial, if unquantifiable, disadvantage.It was also only the third time they had batted together in Test cricket and their previous two partnerships had were worth only four runs in total. So far this series, Pakistan have looked heavily reliant on their sold opening partnership and the stubborn defiance of their captain. Now we know there is more to this team.

“Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the careers of these two young men is that neither of them has had the opportunity to play a Test in their own country. Instead they are having to forge careers in foreign lands and alien conditions”

Neither is the finished article. Shafiq’s first innings dismissal, a wild sweep that undid much of his earlier good work, might yet prove to be a crucial, self-inflicted blow. But, if they can stretch their partnership until lunch on day four, they will have taken huge strides towards winning their side the match. You cannot ask for too much more than that.Their contribution was just another enthralling episode in this Test. While run-scoring has been relatively slow – by modern standards, anyway – the game has twisted and turned as beguilingly as the finest thriller. All the fears that pitches in the UAE would produce stultifying cricket have been allayed. The pitches have been fair; the cricket highly enjoyable.It would, then, be a shame if the result of this game is interpreted as all-important. History, so often, is black and white. All the shades of grey that constitute the full person, place or situation are overlooked.Consider this: if England go on to win, Pakistan’s fightback will be forgotten and England’s continuing frailties against spin might be overlooked. People will forget to ask what would might have happened if Chris Tremlett – or Tim Bresnan, for that matter – had been fit. And people will forget what might have happened if Pakistan had called for a review of the Jonathan Trott lbw decision when he had scored just 22. All those edges that dropped just out of reach of Pakistan fielders will be forgotten and it will be as if Kevin Pietersen’s failed run-out and self-destructive batting did not happen. England, we will be told, have mastered Asia. It will be nonsense.But if Pakistan win, England will be condemned. All their progress since Dubai – and they have looked a much better team here – will be forgotten and their reputation as home-track bullies will be sustained. That, too, would be nonsense.The answer, as ever, falls in between. England and Pakistan are fine, if flawed, teams with many admirable strengths and a few potential weaknesses. It is no disgrace to lose for either of them.Whatever the result here, it would be a shame if all that was forgotten.

Emotions were running high in the South Africa squad after Mark Boucher was forced to announce his retirement with a severe eye injury

Firdose Moonda in Taunton10-Jul-2012It was after 11pm on Monday night when the South African squad left Musgrove Park hospital in Taunton, leaving behind a team-mate who was part of the national set-up before most of them had played domestic cricket, let alone for their country. The only one who beat Mark Boucher to an international cap, Jacques Kallis, as well as the captain Graeme Smith stayed behind.Just two days earlier, Boucher had emerged from the dressing room at the ground in Taunton with boxing gloves on. He spent half an hour in the outfield training with Rob Walter, the squad’s conditioning coach. Boucher was impressive in everything he did, he moved quickly, he struck out hard but the most noticeable thing was his expression of pure concentration and determination. He wore a look that said how much he wanted to be on this England tour.In March, Boucher spoke to ESPNcricinfo about his decision to retire after this series. He emphasised that he wanted to leave after a successful last visit, with South Africa at the top of the Test rankings, and remembered how his toughest battles have been fought on pitches in England. Little he did know, the toughest was yet to come and it would be one he would not win.When Imran Tahir took his first wicket on the tour, the resulting flying bail caused something far more serious than just broken stumps. Boucher went down immediately and there was no team celebration. Instead, the eleven closed in to see an unfamiliar clear fluid coming out of his eye. The medical staff spent a few minutes treating Boucher pitch-side before they were ready to take him off the field, but after a few steps, he stumbled. Dizziness had already set in.While South Africa’s bowlers tried to concentrate on their tour match, news began coming in of Boucher’s condition. From the outset, it sounded as though he would need surgery but the injury was not initially described as career-ending. Comparisons were made between Boucher and the rugby player, Brad Barritt, who had a lacerated eyeball during the recent England tour of South Africa. Barritt underwent what he called “minor” surgery and returned to play less than two weeks later.As the afternoon grew longer, concerns over Boucher’s condition became graver. When Mohammed Moosajee, the team manager, came to an impromptu press conference after the day’s play, he was a different person to the one people have come to know over the last decade.Moosajee, who has also acted as team doctor, has dealt with many injuries in the past from Smith’s broken hand in Australia to Hashim Amla’s broken box in New Zealand. He has spoken about those wounds candidly and without much fuss.This time, Moosajee looked grim. He spoke about Boucher’s injury as “severe.” Although he had to wait for a final diagnosis, he doubted Boucher would be ready for the first Test. His tone told of worse, that he was sure Boucher would not play in England this time and even that he might never play again. “We are concerned with Mark Boucher the patient and not the cricketer,” he said.Allan Donald, who spoke briefly after the first day’s play, already sounded resigned to being without Boucher. He called it a “massive loss,” and told how Boucher had worked hard, especially on his fitness, in the lead up to the series. His sparring session on Sunday and his distinctly leaner looks were testament to that.In a show of solidarity, the squad went to the hospital and waited as Boucher went into surgery and came out three hours later. “The guys wanted to show support for him because if the situation was reversed, he would have been the first one there for them,” Moosajee said. Kallis and Smith, Boucher’s closest friends, remained behind to get as much information as they could.Around midnight, the squad was told that Boucher would be ruled out of the series. It was a sombre meeting in which a few tears were shed. The South Africans then had to prepare for another day of cricket and all except Kallis went to the ground to resume their duties as normal. Kallis stayed in the hotel with Boucher, where the wicketkeeper made the decision he had been keeping at bay for almost two years.Another press conference was called, this time on the field with Smith, Kallis, Gary Kirsten and Moosajee. Smith pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and read Boucher’s statement. Kallis stood next to him, expressionless. Smith’s words were few but strong.”We all know what he’s meant to us as a person and his stats speak for themselves,” Smith said. “If you add that to the type of person he is, he will go down as one of the greats of the game. But now we are more worried about Mark the person and getting him through this situation.”The message from the management centred on the health of Boucher, who has yet to learn if he will have sight in his left eye again. For Kallis, it was a rude reminder of the world outside of sport. “It’s not about cricket any more,” he said. “It’s about a mate and hoping he recovers fully. It puts cricket and life into perspective. It’s been a very tough 24 hours not only for myself but for his family and team-mates. All we can do is be there and support. He’s in good hands and he has all of our well wishes as well as from people around the world.”Boucher will return home on Tuesday night, escorted by Moosajee but his departure will have wider effects on the South African squad, most of whom have never played a series without Boucher. “Guys are fluctuating at the moment,” Moosajee said. “It’s all going to hit home and there is a very human element to it. They’re professional sportsmen though. Although most of them would rather not have played today, they know Boucher would love nothing more than for us to play well in England as a whole.”The immediate impact of Boucher’s retirement will be to the balance of the team. AB de Villiers has been named as the replacement wicketkeeper in the squad and both Kirsten and Donald have said he play in that role in the first Test. The national selectors though, have declined to confirm anything, except that they will announce a replacement on Wednesday. What they will not be able to replace is the Boucher way, which Smith hopes to continue growing in the squad.”I don’t think you can replace Mark Boucher. That’s not what we’re trying to do,” Smith said. “We’re trying to respect what he’s given us and hopefully play with him in our hearts and minds through the next few years. He’s created a legacy for a lot of us to be a part of and to look up to. We need to respect what he’s done for our country and be proud of that. Things happened yesterday and his reality has changed. But as people we are trying to stand by him and help him through this process.”We are people first and cricketers second, so there’s naturally going to be emotion around this subject. But we’re a very professional team and Mark was very adamant that our focus needs to be on playing cricket and doing well. We need to deal with the emotion initially and build to the first Test. That’s our goal and that’s how Mark Boucher would have played the game.”

Davy Jacobs and Warriors are focusing on the four-day game this summer after two seasons of T20 success.

Firdose Moonda02-Oct-2012When Davy Jacobs returned home from the 2012 IPL, where he played one match for the Mumbai Indians, he did not think he would ever play cricket again.A recurring hip injury had recurred once more and his constant putting off of surgery could not be put off any longer. The first signs that something was wrong came after the 2010 Champions League, when his performance and captaincy of the Warriors saw him earn the IPL contract. Jacobs felt pain in his hip joint but was able to continue playing. The niggle came back during his first IPL, then again through the home summer and the next IPL and Jacobs had to seek treatment.Doctors warned him that he would need a lengthy recovery period and even then, resuming life as a sportsman may not be an option. A few months later, Jacobs was finally ready to take the field again in a first-class match – his first in three seasons – as he tried to limit himself to T20s before that. He returned with a hundred and captained the Warriors to massive upset over the defending champions, the Titans.”It was really special for me because I really thought I was done after the last IPL,” Jacobs told ESPNCricinfo. “When I eventually had the operation it was everything short of a hip replacement. They shaved off bone, the cartilage was gone, it was tough. I was just grateful to be back in the nets a few weeks ago and it was amazing to go to practice. Now, to score a hundred, and be part of a partnership of 200, that was really special.”Both Jacobs and his opening partner, Michael Price, scored centuries in a stand of 201 in the team’s second innings. The Warriors had a lead of 60 before that but their contribution took the match out of the Titans reach. It also showed Jacobs that the team were putting their pre-season plans into action, after they made a conscious decision to target the first-wicket stand as an area of improvement.”It was something we identified as a problem for us in the past and we wanted to find solutions,” Jacobs said. “We thought we would try with me going up the order again after I batted lower down before and try to set up the game from there.”With Jacobs fit and in a familiar position, half the concerns were eased. The other half smoothed out with the inclusion of Price, who returned to cricket in 2009 after retiring at the age of 25. Price played for the Eastern Province amateur side and never quite made it when he decided to call time on his cricket days. In his comeback season, he averaged 47.65 and has scored over 700 runs a season since then. “He is very organised, he knows his game well so we’ve got that area covered now,” Jacobs said.The opening partnership is just one of the things the Warriors hope to get right as they shift focus away from twenty-over cricket, as it has been for the past two seasons, and onto first-class cricket. “Three years ago we made an obvious decision to target the T20 format. It was when the Champions League had just started and we wanted to play in that competition and we did,” Jacobs said. “Now, we’ve gone the other way. The bulk of our planning in the offseason was towards four-day cricket and it’s a priority for us this season.”The Warriors competed in the 2010 and 2011 Champions League but ended last and second last in the first-class competition in the same period. They also lost, rather than drew, more games than any other team.The players they produced for the national team reflected those biases, with Wayne Parnell, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Rusty Theron (currently recovering from a stress fracture) in shorter versions of the game but none of them making the step up. Jacobs hopes the Warriors will soon produce players who can represent South Africa in all formats, especially as Test stalwart Ashwell Prince forms the core of their line-up.”Colin Ingram has done well for a while and he would like to make the step up, the same for the Smuts brothers, they are exciting players,” Jacobs said. Ingram has yo-yoed in and out of national sides and that could change with consistent performances this season.Others to watch include Gurshwin Rabie, the seam-bowler who took six wickets in the match and Basheer Walters, the quick who enjoyed a five-for. “We’ve got quite a lot of exciting guys around so there’s a lot to look forward to this season,” Jacobs said.

There are pretty grounds, historic grounds, grounds that ooze atmosphere, and those that make you feel like you’re in the Colosseum. Five writers choose their favourites

19-Nov-2012

Galle International Stadium, Galle

Sambit Bal

There’s a photograph in my digital album titled “Sri Lanka” that always fills me with the warmest memories. In it I am with my wife and close friends. We are on a patch of grass, sitting, sprawling, and leaning on each other. We look relaxed, cosy and happy. Looking at that photo, taken in August 2008, it would be hard to guess we are watching a game of Test cricket – and in the subcontinent at that.We were right behind the sightscreen – years of covering cricket have spoilt me to the point that the view of play from anywhere else in the ground seems a compromise. To our left was the gentle expanse of the Indian Ocean stretching into infinity, and behind us, a quaint little world inviting exploration. And we were not even inside the stadium.We had tickets, and I had a seat in the press box, with a view of the waters, but on an overcast day there is no better place to watch cricket from than the ramparts of the Galle Fort. I have seen prettier Test grounds but Galle gets my nod for the whole package.The stadium is informal and charming: it’s perhaps the only Test ground in the world where you can watch the match while driving or walking past, and though the civil war hadn’t ended when I watched the Test in 2008, the security wasn’t overwhelming. But travelling to watch sport is also a cultural experience, and Galle is enchanting all the way.

The other three

Newlands, Cape Town: What can beat Table Mountain as a backdrop?
Adelaide Oval, Adelaide: The canopy rooftop, much imitated now, and the churches in the background
Trent Bridge, Nottingham: Beautiful walk along the river, and both an open and intimate ground

The drive from Colombo, winding and along the coast, is pretty. A new expressway will now take you to Galle in 90 minutes, but if you want memories and a couple of stops along the way for photographs, take the scenic route (at least one way). Stay in one of the boutique hotels inside the fort that, in a maze of lanes and bylanes, houses quaint shops, little houses and rooftop restaurants serving authentic Sri Lankan food. The nights offer the option of driving down to one of the nearby towns for dinner to the sounds of the sea.If you go to watch a Test in Galle – a Test it has to be, because shorter matches are unlikely to provide the space to experience the peripherals – you will not only find that the best seats are free, but that you are likely to come back with a longing to return. As for me, it was perhaps the only place I could have got my wife to accompany me to a Test.Sambit Bal is the editor of ESPNcricinfo

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Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala

Harsha Bhogle

So what makes for a good cricket ground? A comfortable chair, a good internet connection, a dry toilet and good coffee? Oh dear, we’ll have to start again, for you could get at best three of those at any ground. A great setting, a large enough car park, easy public transport and a spectator-friendly attitude? We’re getting somewhere, even if the shortlist is very small. Grounds that evoke awe? Grounds that are friendly? Grounds that you can take your kids to?There were three grounds I was most excited about and each disappointed me on my first experience. The MCG was vast, colossal; I felt like an ant, intimidated. I wanted to get away. Lord’s was shocking. Everybody on the staff seemed intent on being rude, almost as if they would be sacked otherwise. And Queen’s Park Oval… well, it seemed like just another ground. I have had better experiences at those grounds since. I quite enjoy the MCG, and quite grudgingly admitted to even liking Lord’s a bit the last time I was there (it was the smiles at the gate and the girls serving coffee in the media centre that did it).Increasingly, I find I am drawn towards grounds in proximity with nature. Queenstown is dramatic; Newlands is very nice too, though Table Mountain can get a touch monotonous; St Lucia is pretty; and while I haven’t been to the Bellerive Oval in Hobart for a while, it must be very difficult to make that less scenic.Indoors is the best place to be in Wellington, though, I find the idea of a large traffic island being used for Test cricket quite unique. The Kotla in Delhi is a lot better now but till very recently the best spot from which to watch a game there was at home. The Wankhede can only get better, and the Chidambaram Stadium (I still prefer to call it Chepauk) has.

The next best

For the best combination of history, comfort and warmth I am going to pick: Trent Bridge in Nottingham, the Sydney Cricket Ground (probably the greatest cricket ground in the world), and the Adelaide Oval, with the river flowing lazily by and the grass banks providing quite the most brilliant setting. Somebody told me they are taking the grass banks away, and I said not even the worst villains in the Hindi movies could be so cruel. There has to be an element of the leisurely associated with great cricket grounds (oops, the SCG just lost a point, having done away with its grass banks some years ago). It just goes well with the pace of Test cricket.

But I am not going to be a consultant, merely offering options. For long my favourite grounds were the back field at the Hyderabad Public School (sadly, I visited it again), the “A” ground of Osmania University (sadly, I revisited that too), and the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium (I said goodbye to the old commentary box, now a hostel, with underwear put out to dry).And then a couple of years ago I flew in a small plane through the mountains to land at a quaint airfield (it wasn’t an airport, if you know what I mean), drove on roads that went up and down according to the terrain, and encountered hill people who smiled and offered local food at prices that were a pleasant shock. The ground itself had me stunned. I saw the pavilion first, a blazing red pagoda, and then I turned around and saw the mountains; not hills, mountains.The rays of the sun glistened off the snow on the peaks, and the sunset was a cinematographer’s delight. Often I found myself looking at the mountains rather than at the cricket, and more than one evening was spent in an open-air restaurant with simple tables and chairs and eager waiters.For the grandeur of its setting and the simplicity of its people, I will go with Dharamasala. Now if only they can keep away the rude, loud 4×4 gang that comes from Delhi and honks all along its lovely curving paths…Harsha Bhogle is a commentator, television presenter and writer

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St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth

Telford Vice

The biggest single chunk of St George’s Park is also the ugliest.So much so that the Duck Pond Pavilion, which lazes in a slovenly curve on the northern boundary like some obese, rust-coloured slug slowly stinking to death in the sun and salty air, is a cautionary tale against what can result when bricks and steel are stacked symmetrically with not a smidgen of creativity.Had the vast, soulless plastic bowl that is the Gabba existed in the early 1990s, when the Duck Pond Pavilion was “built”, the offending architect, one Terry Baker, should have been sent to Brisbane and told: This Is Not What We Want.But how do we know what is beautiful if we do not have an ugliness to compare it to? The rest of St George’s Park, a hodgepodge of creaking old stands and diabolically pokey corners that seems to exist only to ensure visitors unfamiliar with the ground (let no one who calls the place a stadium make it out of there alive), is its charm.The grandstand along the western boundary is a magnificence of wood and paint and the sense of community that comes with bumping knees and shoulders with your neighbours instead of pretending there is no one in the bucket seat next to you.This is where the St George’s Park brass band is in residence, parping out a well-worn repertoire of standards and occasionally shocking all and sundry with a freshly learned number that might last have been heard on radio ten years ago.

The next best

University Oval, Dunedin Zen garden of a ground; nothing superfluous to requirements. And a large, treed hill brooding over everything.
The Bourda Deep, dark verandahs – which have been known to shine with the incredible whiteness of Mick Jagger’s presence – and a moat around the outside of the ground lend the place the irresistible aura of a murder scene.
The Oval The realness of red brick and wrought iron, and proof that not all Poms are yobs or snobs.

Under the grandstand, the good women of the Westering Methodist Church feed the multitude – not with loaves and fishes but with the best hamburgers and pancakes that surprisingly little money can buy. They have been doing so for decades in the name of charity, and they will do so for many more.The eastern boundary is home to a haphazard collection of stands, a grass bank, and the main scoreboard. Other than keeping spectators statistically informed, the board is an important indicator of what the captains should do at the toss. If the wind is coming off the nearby Indian Ocean and blowing over the scoreboard and across the field, insert the opposition. If it’s blowing from inland and towards the scoreboard, bat.Players, umpires, scorers and media are housed at the southern end of the ground. Stand on a particular landing between buildings and the view into the players’ enclosure is clear and frequently instructive – players are far more likely to reveal their emotions when they can’t see themselves on a television screen. So close are reporters to the action that it seems entirely possible to reach out and tap the captain on the shoulder to tell him to put in another slip.The pitch? It is often a desert, sometimes a jungle, and occasionally both – one end dry, the other green.That’s because players come to St George’s Park to be tested, not to be pandered to or protected from the real world. Cricket could do with more places like that.Telford Vice is a freelance cricket writer in South Africa

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Antigua Recreation Ground

By Chloe Saltau

There’s nothing beautiful about the Rec, unless you like your cricket grounds buffeted by prison walls and rough around the edges. It was a place to bat, and bat, and bat – the Rec hosted both of Brian Lara’s world-record innings, 375 and 400. And yet there was something special about this tiny ground in an unpretentious part of St John’s that hasn’t existed since it stopped hosting international cricket.Australians flocked to the Rec for the carnival as much as the cricket. I shouted myself a trip to the Caribbean to celebrate graduating from cadet reporter to graded journalist in 1999. Happily, the journey coincided with Australia’s tour of the West Indies, and Antigua appealed because it was the island home of my cricketing hero, Viv Richards. I have only vague memories of the rambling interview I conducted with a very generous Viv as he sweated profusely in the press box, but he embodied the national and regional pride riding on everything that happened on that sweet batting pitch. The Rec is within walking distance of the street where Viv was raised. With its white concrete walls and ramshackle stands, it blends in with a town that’s edgier than Antigua’s reputation as an idyllic beach paradise suggests. The rum joints inside the gates did business even when there was no cricket, and the smells of jerk chicken and flying fish burgers pervaded the air.

My next three

My favourite suburban ground is Holbrook Reserve, home of Brunswick Park Ladies Cricket Club in Melbourne. Tucked beneath the Tullamarine Freeway, it’s small enough that well-struck sixes can endanger cars bound for the airport. It’s also where I learnt to play cricket and how to reverse out of the car park without landing in Moonee Ponds Creek.
On a grander scale, the MCG is more than a cricket ground. It’s a meeting place (especially in the Long Room on Boxing Day), a theatre and a workplace. It was a privilege to witness Shane Warne’s 700th Test wicket from the press box, and a thrill to hide behind a concrete pillar as Sachin Tendulkar had a private net.
I love the Wanderers, in Johannesburg, because of its heady mix of intimacy and intimidation. It felt like a cauldron for the World Cup final in 2003, and the high altitude promotes a breathless atmosphere, where the ball seems to sail for miles.

The ground barely holds 10,000 people, and in ’99 it was bursting at the seams. Everyone was desperate to catch a glimpse of the genius of Lara, who had peeled off a match-winning century in the previous Test in Barbados. He saved his most devastating innings for Antigua, where every exquisite stroke made the Rec vibrate even more violently than the reggae music blasting from the Double Decker Stand.What captivated me most was the intense and sometimes delirious way the Antiguans watched the cricket. Lara’s 82-ball century wasn’t enough to stop Australia winning the Test, and when the Frank Worrell Trophy was retained, I remember an Australian flag fluttering above a haze of ganja.It’s possible the Rec has been romanticised in my memory, simply because there is nothing like it in the age of standardised modern venues. I returned almost a decade later to find the outfield overgrown and the buildings in a state of sad disrepair as a game of intra-island soccer unfolded. Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, the soulless stadium built for the 2007 World Cup, is an abomination, shunned by locals because it’s so far out of town and disliked by the man it’s named after. I’ll never understand why the Rec could not, instead, have been lovingly restored to its former glory. Chloe Saltau is the chief cricket writer at the

A factor for Australia’s dominance over Sri Lanka is their psychological edge over them. It was on display on the third day in Sydney as well, with Sri Lanka imploding due to the pressure

Andrew Fernando in Sydney05-Jan-2013In the approach to 2005 Ashes series, Ricky Ponting was pressed on that most Australian of cricketing concepts. “Mental disintegration?” Ponting said. “That’s what it’s all about really, trying to keep England under pressure from ball one of the series until the series ends. That’s what our whole cricket theme, if you like, is based on.”It is not an outlook that is as closely associated with Michael Clarke’s captaincy. His voice is a bit high, perhaps, and his hair too fashionably shorn for him to be cast in that Alan Border-Tubby Taylor-Steve Waugh mould. And Australia have not been so openly aggressive in this series as they were on past tours. Words have come now and then from the fast men, but even Sri Lanka’s cricketers would have encountered that as far back as their school system. Yet, the “theme” Ponting outlined has never been distant.Clarke’s men have not lashed out at specific targets with their tongues, or been given to excessive chest beating when wickets and victories have come, but “from ball one of the series, until the series ends” they have beaten Sri Lanka back again and again, first in the mind, then on the scoreboard.In comparison to questioning the fidelity of opposition players’ spouses and launching expletive-riddled tirades on technique, Clarke’s approach has almost been passive-aggressive. Twice in this series he has laid down the gauntlet by declaring the innings when nobody – not even the batsmen in the middle – could have suspected one was coming.On the third day in Sydney, while the pitch remained fine for batting and Matthew Wade hurtled onward, Clarke’s declaration defied logic. The match was not ripe enough yet for every minute and delivery to have become so valuable, but the arrogance in Clarke’s action was unmistakable. Mark Waugh once told James Ormond “there’s no way you’re good enough to play for England, mate”, in a sledge that is more famous for Ormond’s response. In Sydney, Clarke told Sri Lanka, “We might have to bat last on a dry pitch, but there’s no way you blokes are good enough to stretch us here.” Latent intent. In the third session, Sri Lanka’s middle order could not summon the resolve to thumb their noses at Clarke, like Ormond did with, “At least I’m the best cricketer in my family.”When Sri Lanka look back at this series, they will know that it is in the mind that they gave away most ground, particularly with the bat. Dimuth Karunaratne may have fallen to a good ball straight after tea, but Lahiru Thirimanne allowed Australia’s squeeze to force an error, and he hooked a high ball that even the most seasoned batsman would have struggled to control. Thilan Samaraweera’s jaw-dropping swipe across the line was more a result of baggage from previous psychological beatings on tour.Extreme pressure has been found to drive men to insanity, and for a player whose game is built upon a mighty defence to play that stroke so early is not so far from madness. Angelo Mathews and Mahela Jayawardene were no better at defying the Australian vice, as they contrived a run out. Perhaps distracted, Jayawardene edged one to slip after having progressed so securely before the clatter at the other end.It had seemed so promising for Sri Lanka when Karunaratne and Jayawardene were at the crease before tea. The ball raced off their blades as Australia sprayed it around, and with the deficit almost wiped and nine wickets remaining, an upset victory seemed a firm possibility. But when Australia regrouped at the break, as they have done after poor periods all through the series, Sri Lanka parted with the mental virtues that might have seen them through.”When you play against Australia you can’t go on the back foot,” Karunaratne said at day’s end. “After tea when the ball became old, they started to do various things with the ball. They reverse swung it, changed their pace and bowled variations. They also bowled a very good line and made it tight. We made lots of mistakes and that’s what happened.”But even beyond the batting, Australia seem much more aware of the effect of a positive outlook, and they endeavour to keep spirits high and minds focused at every stage of a match. Sri Lanka’s pace attack is far less experienced than the hosts’, and as such, likely more prone to self-doubt. Yet, when a bowler is carted for boundaries, there is nary a word of encouragement, or a reassuring pat on the behind; whereas when Karunaratne had his way with Australia’s quicks in the second session, three or four bowlers would rush to affirm their mate. There’s something Spartan in all of that, and Sri Lanka were feeble and flat in comparison.There is always room for a “miracle” as defined by the sports journalist’s lexicon, but 87 ahead, seven down and two bunnies to come is not a match situation that bodes well for the visitors. Mahela Jayawardene played his last Test innings in Australia today, as did Thilan Samaraweera and Tillakaratne Dilshan. Kumar Sangakkara, in his whites, has already bid Australia goodbye. Many have spoken of the “talent cliff” Sri Lanka face when that quartet depart, but those who have followed Thirimanne, Karunaratne, Mathews and Chandimal will know that it is not as bleak as all that.Sri Lanka can only hope that when the youngsters return to Australia, they will not only have fostered better habits and forged more muscular techniques, they will also have acquired the fortitude that will see them strike harder when stricken, shove before being shoved and scream defiant bloody murder at an opposition that would have their spirit silenced.

Mohammad Irfan had a hard life before he took up cricket professionally. Now he’s determined to make it better for himself and his family

Interview by Umar Farooq28-Jan-2013″I have played a lot of first-class cricket and bowled lengthy spells, so I believe I can do well in Test cricket as well”•AFPWe’ve heard about you working in a plastic factory in the past.
I was born into a poor family. In lower-class families, we usually quit studying to start working early. In my case, I completed my secondary education because I had six brothers who were already working. But after completing my matriculation, I also joined the factory.We belong to a labour-class family, and this is what my father and his father did.
I have two sisters and five brothers. One of my brothers died some ten years back, and I am the youngest but the tallest of all. If it hadn’t been for the support of my mentor Nadeem Iqbal, I might still be working in the factory and living an anonymous life.How difficult has your life been?
To be honest, I had started enjoying my routine at the PVC factory. I had been promoted to the role of a foreman. I had accepted the fact that I had cricket in my life, but only for entertainment. I was earning enough money for myself and my family. I wanted to earn a respectable livelihood. I dreamt of playing at the national level, but that’s a dream every amateur cricketer has.How did you get into cricket? And what does it mean to you to be the tallest cricketer?
It took nearly a decade to find a real purpose for my height. I don’t know if playing cricket is the best I can do with it, but I am comfortable and I am working hard to give myself a new life. Representing your country is a dream every child has, but only a few are able to convert their dreams into reality. I am one of them. Playing at the national level is not about money, it’s about the honour.I started playing cricket with a tennis ball but was always attracted to hard-ball cricket. I joined a cricket club in my village. I used to play in and school shoes, because I didn’t have cricket shoes or trousers and shirts. In fact, I had never worn those. I managed to find a pair of cricket shoes with the help of my friends.How did you start to develop in cricket?
It was only after I joined Khan Research Laboratory (KRL). I was relatively late to cricket. People started taking me seriously only after I came into first-class cricket. Before that I was a very raw cricketer. My height was obviously an advantage but I didn’t know how to use it.I was uncertain about my future till 2008. I met various stars at the National Cricket Academy and then I realised that I was exceptional. Aaqib Javed [the former Pakistan fast bowler, who was then a bowling coach at the NCA] gave me a plan and worked hard with me, and I finally made it to first-class cricket in 2009. I went wicketless in my first match, against Pakistan International Airlines, but picked up nine in the second, against Habib Bank Limited. That boosted my confidence. I bowled nearly 350 overs at an average of 29 that season and realised that I had to work a lot on my pace, swing and, most importantly, my fitness.Who taught you how to bowl?
No one did, but a lot of people helped me improve. I got tips from Aaqib, Nadeem and Wasim Akram – they all contributed to my development. I used to play with a tennis ball, simply swinging my arms hard to bowl fast. I have my own bowling action, which is simple, and I am comfortable with it. Nobody actually tried to alter it.In Pakistan cricket, generally, if you are talented, nobody can stop you rising through the ranks. You made your first-class debut at 27. Where have you been since?
I was afraid of risking my livelihood for cricket, because I had no contact to lead me through. I felt that if I left my job for cricket, my family could suffer. It took me nearly five years to get noticed in Lahore [by the PCB]. Nobody really pays attention to the small towns, where there are hugely talented cricketers who aren’t able to rise to the top. They are obviously raw but they can flourish once they get proper facilities. Players from the small villages are mentally tough, hugely motivated, and their passion to play for the country is pure.

“Nobody really pays attention to the small towns where there are hugely talented cricketers who aren’t able to rise to the top. They are obviously raw but they can flourish once they get proper facilities”

You were offered a contract with the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Yes, Wasim Akram recommended me. I went to Sri Lanka for the trials and bowled very well there. I didn’t concede more than 11 runs in my spell of four overs and took at least three wickets in every match I played. Dav Whatmore [Kolkata Knight riders coach then and now Pakistan’s coach] was there at the time. He liked my bowling and accepted me. But, unfortunately Pakistani players were barred from the league. Later I got selected for the Pakistan A team and then for the national team touring England.You won’t have pleasant memories of your ODI debut, against England, having gone for 15 runs in your first over. What went wrong? You had done well in Sri Lanka for the A team. Did the pressure of international cricket overwhelm you?
Everything happened so quickly. I was playing in the heat of Sri Lanka and doing well there, but I wasn’t able to adjust to the conditions in England. I couldn’t cope and crumbled under the pressure. I lost all coordination between my mind and body. It was tough, and I honestly had no control over anything. I think it was early for me and I realised it. The premature debut pushed me back to where I had started.How hard was it to reconcile to a poor debut?
It was obviously nerve-wracking. I thought I was done. There were people around me supporting and backing me, but I was worried about my first outing being a flop. I felt I wouldn’t be selected again.I learnt a lot and understood that height isn’t the only factor I should rely on at the international level. I had to work harder than before – more gym work, more training and more bowling practice, with lengthy spells. Eventually I returned to the domestic circuit to play more cricket and gain experience.International cricket demands a high standard of fitness. I am not super-fit yet but I have improved since 2010. In my second debut, against India, there was a clear difference.In India, you kept the batsmen on their toes, but Junaid Khan and Saeed Ajmal took most of the wickets.
I was given a plan to bowl at the right line and length, and I did fairly well. My coach and captain wanted me to maintain the dominance with the ball and keep the batsmen on the back foot. They wanted me to be focused on bowling in the right areas rather than pushing hard to take wickets.You are now in the Test squad for South Africa. Are you ready for Test cricket?
I am positive about it. It will be another exciting challenge for me. I did well in India, where the pitches aren’t really helpful to a fast bowler. I am optimistic about my success in Test cricket. I have a great support staff working with me. They know my limitations and will use me accordingly. I have played a lot of first-class cricket and bowled lengthy spells, so I believe I can do well in Test cricket as well.Where do you see yourself in Pakistan cricket?
I am currently in Pakistan’s plans for all three formats. I can’t predict my future but as long as I am performing, I will remain in the team. I have not set myself any big targets at the moment. The immediate target is to establish myself.

From Balachandhran S, India

Nikita Bastian25-Feb-2013
Dissection is being campaigned against. It is much maligned, I understand. In schools, children and young adults are encouraged to refrain from practical classes in dissection (biology). In reality that is because animals are sadly extinguished in the name of learning. In sport too, there is dissection. And sometimes sportsmen become the victims of the process. Not at all times is dissection illuminating. But then there is only one thing to do after every game for many people – dissect it threadbare and discuss what could have been. Therefore it is very tempting for us, as fans, to dissect the individual games of the Indian players who have featured in six consecutive away Test defeats. But better still is the process of shining the torch ahead to light up the way, rather than looking behind to see who is catching up and on which stone(s) we stumbled. This, primarily, is one such effort.Personal landmarks, a waste of media time
The peerless Sachin Tendulkar’s much touted hundredth hundred probably weighs more on the minds of millions of fans and media people than on the man himself. Popular cricket columnists now claim that Tendulkar’s quest for this statistical gem is bothering the entire team – weighing it down and not letting it perform to potential. Not only are such claims laughable, they are also outstandingly ridiculous for the sheer fact that these are people who have played the game at a very high level. When Virender Sehwag or MS Dhoni is facing down a 140kph delivery from James Pattinson or Peter Siddle, their illustrious team-mate’s elusive landmark is the last thing on their mind.Cricket is a game of moments. Its analysis stretches these moments so much so that individual sagas are made up of them. Batsman putting bat to ball and bowler landing ball on pitch are momentary actions, not ridden with pithy thoughts as is made out. Yes, there is thought process. But the thought process is that of an individual. Every player out there plays cricket because he likes doing so. When motivations are that selfish and simple (and rightly so) the travails or concerns of another do not enter the mind. Tendulkar will get there. What is more, even if he does not his aura and influence on the game will not diminish one bit. And here is the kicker: when and if Tendulkar gets his 101st hundred, the hype and the volume among the media and the people would be lesser than it is now.Averages, statistics and other lies
Before the series in Australia began, we were fed report upon report as to how embattled Australia’s veteran batsmen were. That they certainly were, no arguments about that. The funny thing, though, was that this attention was made out to be a bit unfair in the case of Michael Hussey as he had scored heavily in the previous season.That argument is inherently hollow. You either want the consistency borne out of experience or the exuberance and wild abandon of youth. Sometimes you even want the right mix. But what a sporting team does not expect is wild abandon and inconsistency from their experienced members. The point is, you can have a youngster go without scoring in six or seven matches and still give him a go, citing his inexperience. However, if a senior, having been there and done that for most of his teenage and adult life, falters for a significant period of time, it cannot be looked at in the same light. People tend to fancifully associate elements of faithfulness, respect and even a sense of duty towards these senior players, who have no doubt been the source of inspiration and sometimes everlasting joy to several thousands of people. More so in India, than anywhere else in the world perhaps. But we live, eat, work and play in the present. We feed on our past, yes, but not for long. Moreover, the present fuels the hunger of the future too.With this perspective, once you look at India’s six consecutive away Test defeats, it is slightly damning to say the least. We have always bemoaned our bowlers and their ineffectiveness (relative only to the opposition bowlers), while consistently celebrating our master batsmen. It is only fair to reverse polarities now. Our young bowling unit has toiled manfully and has succeeded more times than not. The celebrated batting doyens – Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sehwag and VVS Laxman have not. Dravid, admittedly, was outstanding all through the recent tour of England. It is another matter that he scored all those runs despite a technical fault that he has developed recently. More on that later.All said and done, the job of these senior cricketers is to ensure unfailing consistency insofar as is humanly possible. If the laxity in rope given to young cricketers extends to, say five Test matches, the sheer experience and know-how of these cricketers only means that they ought to produce results in lesser number of games and keep doing it with more frequency too. This is not something that can be inferred only by numbers and statistics. The day that experience and sheer ability can be quantified is the day the game will lose its charm. There can be science in sport. But sport is not science and thankfully it never will be. In effect, if there is pressure on a senior batsman such as Hussey after just five Tests of low scores, that is rightfully so. The expectations from a seasoned player do not become lesser with time. They always grow. And that is why numbers alone are not an accurate measure of the pressure on each individual.Win and you are right; lose, you are not
This is a syndrome, plain and simple. After more than two decades of following cricket reports, articles and commentary, there is only one thing I have found to be true. No cricketer or team is criticised when the result of the game is a victory. Conversely, sometimes even the best efforts of players and teams are put down when the ultimate result is a loss. For Indian cricket to not only attain that coveted No.1 Test team position but also stay put, this has got to change. The hard words need to be spoken even when the team has won. The nice words have to be said even when the team loses. No two ways about it. This of course is, more than anything, the job of the coach. With all my heart, I hope this happens in the dressing-room.Even as Rahul Dravid performed match after match in England, a fault had crept into his game but nothing much was said about it as he was scoring runs•AFPLet us take a specific example in this case. Dravid stood alone in England. He towered over the rest – facing off against Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan and James Anderson, and everything they had to offer. And he succeeded, match after match. But even as he did that, a fault had crept into his game. Dravid at his best had an initial shuffling movement with his right foot, which brought him in line with the ball. Today, Dravid’s right foot moves in the other direction, further down the leg-stump line, most of the time.This translates to his head being positioned around, or sometimes even beyond, off stump in counterbalance. His surety and balance when handling full-length balls is therefore compromised – especially when the ball is directed at his stumps. Nothing much was said about all this when Dravid was scoring runs. But now, when he is not and is exhibiting an alarming tendency for being bowled, everybody raises a hue and a cry.If India are to become the best, this has to change. We Indians need to realise that cricket is not science. That one can succeed in sport even if one is not technically perfect. And that one can fail despite the best preparation and the best technique. Such is the beauty of sport. Let us celebrate it, while understanding the need to be open in communication and criticism when it comes to players, regardless of the end result. Team sport is about the journey. The destination is a mere culmination, a media highlight. In the case of a win, the highest point, yes, but only propped up by the several rungs of achievement that people have clambered past with great effort and overriding solidarity.By the way, don’t be surprised if Dravid scores a century in the next game even without changing his current technique. This is exactly what makes Test cricket enchanting. The surfeit of factors involved, and the fact that a Test cannot just be reduced to just one or two angles or numbers.The way forward
We Indians are an emotional bunch at the best of times. In times of adversity, we become overly sensitive, ready to burst aflame at the slightest provocation. But we (this composite ‘we’ being the fans, cricket board, commentators and media people) have a duty: to recognise and back good cricket and cricketers, with a view to see our national team being the best in the world. Not just touching the peak of that mountain with a wild leap only to tumble down owing to gravity, but putting in the hard yards and fighting their way to the top, sinking in the national colours atop the peak and staying put there for a sizable length of time. To that end, the winds of change are blowing right now. Perhaps this is the right time to blood more youth into the Test squad. Let us remember that it was exceedingly tough for youngsters to break into the Indian middle order only because the celebrated seniors had been amazingly successful and consistent, therefore contributing to victory. Note that that previous statement employs the past tense: ‘had been’, instead of an ‘are’. Nobody is sacrosanct or above being dropped for the good of the team.Perth is going to be an acid Test. Not just from the cricketing perspective, but also from a selection point of view. If Rohit Sharma replaces young Virat Kohli, we will have fallen back on erstwhile logic and gone along what is the path of least resistance and/or ridicule, as the case may be. If Rohit and Kohli both play, then we would be sailing into what is essentially uncharted waters for Indian cricket. Waters where we help our Test team to fight in the present, while preparing for the future, where we tell our youth that we are prepared to invest trust and time in them. Where we respect them for who they are and are not forever weighing them down by comparing them with veritable living legends.And let us leave out all discussions of ‘fairness’, as the Indian sports lover understands the term. Current performance being the only point of interest, infusion of youth into the batting order can only be a logical move. If the younger players are to be found out now, at the highest level, it is for the good of Indian cricket. We can at least look for other options and develop new talent while still holding forth with the senior professionals in the interim. Inducting young players into the XI would not in any way diminish the worth of each one of our batting legends. If any one of them decides to hang up their boots now, they would have already captured an immense amount of good will and mind share among the Indian public, as well as cricket lovers around the world. Our mantra in deciding the squad should ideally be all is fair in love, war and professional sport. Not just this time in Perth. But every single time.

Learning more about her father’s boyhood hero helps a cricket writer understand her father better

Tanya Aldred29-Apr-2013When I was small, we had shelves of cricket books crawling up the walls. I ate my way through most during my bookworm years, a greedy, speedy reader. But one I didn’t pull out. A small volume with a green cover: by Freddie Trueman.The pages were off-white with funny textured paper; the cover was slightly ripped about the spine: there was something just off-putting about it. So there it stayed on the bottom shelf, tight to the left, increasingly a prisoner of time.I should have picked it out, am ashamed not to have done so. Freddie Trueman was, is, the absolute hero of my dad, Anthony, who bought the book, complete with FS Trueman scrawled in blue biro on an inside page, from the Ilkley branch of WHSmith when he was 14. It cost him 12s 6d, and there was a little about the way he would deliberately tuck it back into place, like a stray hair firmly returned behind an ear, that said: this, children, this really is something.Why Trueman? Just how good was he? Where did he come from? Why did the raging fast bowler with 307 Test wickets turn into a grumbling old man of the radio? And why had he inspired such devotion in my father, a quiet man with a very different upbringing? I didn’t know the answer to any of these questions.Then in late 2011, Chris Waters, a friend from the days when he would disgruntledly follow Kevin Pietersen around as cricket correspondent of the , published a Trueman biography. It had fantastic reviews, winning a mantelpiece of awards.Here was the chance to make up for 39 years of determinedly not reading something that I definitely ought to have read. Who was Fred? Who, for that matter, was Ant?My dad was born in Leeds at the Tower Wood Nursing Home on 23 June, 1947. It cost my grandmother Jeanne seven guineas for board and lodging and five pence for laundry. Her husband, Bob, was away working in Africa and Jeanne named her bouncing boy Anthony Hugh. A telegram came back: call him Robert. So she did, on paper, but won the war – Anthony he remained.Jeanne’s mother was French, short of temper, with a liking for Craven cigarettes, and had come to Yorkshire from Paris around 1910. When her husband died young, the family were left sophisticated but broke. Bob was the son of an electrical engineer, Leeds born and bred, and qualified as a quantity surveyor by studying at night school. There are amusing sepia pictures of him wandering the moors in a tweed suit. They were very different, Bob and Jeanne, but they married in a registry office off the Euston Road in 1938 and had three children – Christine, Susan and Anthony.The family were happy in the Leeds suburb of Roundhay, but in 1951 moved to north Harrow in Middlesex – the beginning of a journey of bettering themselves. They ended up living on St George’s Hill in Weybridge, an exclusive estate in London’s commuter belt made famous when John Lennon and Ringo Starr moved in and which the Diggers had tried to turn into common land in revolutionary 1649. My poor dad, fuzzy-haired, who cried at the slightest provocation, was sent to prep school in Watford to board from ten and then onto Milton Abbey in Dorset – a boarding school of cold showers, early-morning runs and common minor cruelties.So the Aldreds of Weybridge embraced the south, but prick the surface and the white rose ran thick. They went “back home” every year, holidaying in Ilkley and Wharfedale and York. My grandfather might have joined the golf club and held court in the boardroom, but his accent stayed proper Horsforth. My grandmother baked Yorkshire pudding for lunch and parkin for sticky fingers in mid-afternoon. High tea was served with thick sticks of celery in a glass on the table and bread and butter in a basket. And young Anthony wanted to play not at Lord’s or The Oval but Headingley. He followed Yorkshire’s scores in the family copy of the box, eating two microphones.His second wife Veronica told Waters a story of Fred’s terrible anxiety that a new dog they were going to fetch wouldn’t like him. “When we arrived at the kennels, Fred started pacing around the office while the staff went off to fetch the dog, then he went to the toilet, then he came back out again, then he started fidgeting around in his chair… Eventually they brought this dog through and of course the first thing it did was bound over to Fred and lick his face, and the relief on Fred’s face just had to be seen.”Ant loves dogs too. He still mourns the last one, a daft brown thing – in tears as he dug the grave in the garden: deeper and deeper he went as if in shifting the earth he could restore the wag to the still tail.Waters’ book hangs together beautifully – the questioning, the research, the unpicking of a life lived rumbustiously, all this paints a vivid picture of Trueman. From the young Fred who loved bird-nesting with friends to the old man of the Dales who would reach for the bird book from the comfort of his armchair to identify something colourful in the garden. A flawed man, a sometimes bitter man, but mischievous, quick-witted, kind.To my dad though, all this was by the by. It was the young, fit Trueman who was everything. He saw him play only three times: at Lord’s in 1961 against Australia, when Trueman hung about for 25 in the first innings and my dad collected Tizer bottles from the grass to earn pennies at the shop; at Headingley in 1963, when he went with his cousin Christopher to all five days and saw a slightly under-par Trueman take six wickets; and at the Gillette Cup Final of 1965 when Yorkshire thrashed Surrey and Trueman took three wickets in an over. Not much to feed off, but enough for dad.”The sheer excitement of watching him, this seemingly large man starting his run and just getting faster and faster and then that perfect action and the anticipation of wondering, would he get a wicket? Childhood heroes are magic and that’s what Fred was.”Cricket wasn’t everywhere then. Test Match Special only started in 1957, and not many had televisions: heroes were in the head, imitated in the garden, not captured on the computer, ready to call up day or night.Trueman was a link to the place Anthony called home but would never live in again. He needed that. Because the boy who moved from Leeds when he was only four, who has not a single memory of living in the place, and who has the voice of a Surrey commuter, considers himself, still, a true Yorkshireman.

Darren Bravo’s inspiration was Brian Lara but he played an innings that was the antithesis of his hero’s career at The Oval

Andrew Fidel Fernando at The Oval11-Jun-2013When Darren Bravo was in his early teens, he watched cricket for just one man. Perhaps he still recalls the famous innings; the 153 in Bridgetown or the 400 in Antigua. As soon as Brian Lara was dismissed, Bravo would turn away. There was perhaps little else to enjoy in West Indies’ cricket as their empire fell. Dreaming one day to play like his idol, Bravo went out to bat.In the hours before he strapped on the pads, he had absorbed Lara through the television screen. The “Prince” is Bravo’s first cousin, once removed, on his mother’s side. Maybe he figured his blood ran blue as well.Now 24, the languid lunge that precedes Bravo’s cover drive bears the same royal air. The hands and feet glide through the crease like liquid, like Lara. Bravo lacks for a touch of majesty, but the high backlift, the chin that grazes his shoulder in his stance and the leap upon reaching a ton are all there. Only, at The Oval, against India, he played an innings that was the antithesis of his hero’s career. Where Lara had waged a lone, lionhearted war while a once-great side withered beside him, Bravo’s knock robbed West Indies of their early momentum, and amplified the burden on the surrounding batsmen.Upon arrival at the beginning of the sixth over, Bravo blocked a few, then glanced a four. Nothing was awry yet and Johnson Charles soon began his surge, hiding to some extent, the pedestrian strike rate Bravo nursed. Spin came into the attack and Bravo’s plight worsened. Having made only 18 from 38, he dead-batted Ravindra Jadeja’s first over, though there was no alarming turn or exceptional skill on the bowler’s part. After Jadeja removed Charles, next over, Bravo made no move to assume the responsibility for run-scoring, 46-balls old at the crease though he was at the time. His innings grew more laboured still.R Ashwin bowled another maiden against him, after Marlon Samuels and Ramnaresh Sarwan had floundered and fallen at the other end. Having gone at over five runs an over in the first 20 overs, West Indies managed only 25 in the next 10. Finally resolving to attack, Bravo skipped down the track to Ashwin in the 34th over, only to change his mind midway, and find himself comprehensively beaten and stumped. There were many occasions during his 83-ball stay that Bravo might have seized the initiative but instead he oversaw a meandering middle-overs effort that made the task of achieving a par score nearly impossible.How differently Lara might have handled it. Unconquered by the two best spin bowlers to ever play the game, he relished attack, and planned never to let a bowler settle when they began against him. Bravo is proficient against slow bowling, and it is unfair to expect him to replicate the success of the brightest raw batting talent of the last 30 years but, though he has mined Lara footage to recreate his idol’s style, there are vital lessons on substance yet to be gleaned.”This innings to me was one of Darren’s worst innings,” Dwayne Bravo, West Indies’ captain, said. “We’re aware of it and we’ve already spoken to him. Batting on top of the order, we expect a bit more from him, but at the same time, while he stayed in there, we kept losing wickets. So it also makes his job a lot more difficult.””But it’s all in the experience with him. He’s young, and he’s one of our better batters, and once we show a little faith in him and try to let him know where he went wrong, he can improve. Definitely it will do good for him and for us as a team once we can get him scoring runs and turning over the strike a bit more. Like I said, it’s a learning curve.”Dwayne Bravo’s point about rotating the strike is a crucial one. The West Indies batting order carries artillery at the top and furious finishers lower down but, in between, they are short of an engine room. Of the 300 legal deliveries West Indies faced today, a staggering 194 were dot balls. In Tests Darren Bravo has displayed the aptitude to become the link man, whose graft glues the innings together, but in ODIs, the gear in between stonewall and sprint has eluded him.A score of 260 or 270 might have made for a different result, Dwayne Bravo reflected, but perhaps the strength of India’s batting in this tournament would have made easy work of any total on the lighter side of 300. West Indies now enter a shootout with South Africa for the second semi-final berth in their group. If Darren Bravo can imbibe a little more of Lara before that encounter, perhaps the West Indies cannonade will have a sturdier base from which to launch.

Do away with bilaterals, and make every one-dayer meaningful

Rustom Deboo, India20-Jun-2013The ongoing Champions Trophy is the seventh and last edition of this tournament, which initially started off in 1998 as a promising knockout competition to help raise funds for the global development of cricket and ultimately became a liability in the cricket calendar. Usually held every two years, the 2013 edition has instead been played after almost four years, the last being in 2009. With the rise in meaningless, yet lucrative, Twenty20 leagues throughout the world, the ICC decided that something had to give, and the scapegoat turned out to be the Champions Trophy, and probably rightly so.The time is ripe for a meaningful one-day international league. The World Cup remains the premier 50-overs tournament, and continues to do just fine. What is harming the format is the unnecessarily high number of bilateral series being played around the world. It might be bringing in the crowds, but from a cricketing point of view, there is no meaning attached to such contests, except for a few rating points on the rankings table. In the 2013-14 season, Australia will tour India for a mind-numbing seven ODIs in November, while India will also play the same number of games against South Africa on their tour of the country later this year.Prior to these series, a tri-nation ODI tournament involving hosts West Indies, India and Sri Lanka will be played in the Caribbean. The series was disappointingly accommodated after scrapping a two-Test series between West Indies and Sri Lanka. Similarly, two more potentially mouth-watering Test series this season (Pakistan in West Indies and South Africa in Sri Lanka) were scrapped, while the limited-overs legs were kept as per schedule.I was of the opinion earlier that the 2019 World Cup was the last we would see of ODI cricket. But then I realised that without the 50-overs format, the progress of promising Associate nations would be thwarted, for it is this format, and not T20, which will provide a stepping stone for emerging nations who aim for Test status. Following Ireland’s recent heart-warming performances in the short ODI series against Pakistan, I really felt the need for a league system in ODI cricket. The World Cup can remain as it is, but pointless bilateral series have to go. To be honest, watching an India v Sri Lanka ODI match is no longer a source of excitement, rather it is just a waste of time. Unfortunately, the cricketing powers that be think otherwise.The league system that I am suggesting can consist of two divisions of eleven teams each, with Division 1 having the 10 Full Members and Ireland, while Division 2 can have 11 emerging Associate and Affiliate nations, based on their performances in the World Cricket League. The league can run from June to March every season, with each team playing every other team twice, once home and once away. In this way, each team will play 20 ODIs each season, and there will be no issue of one team playing more games than others. Also, with the meaning of a league standing attached to every game, fans can be expected to be hooked onto the games, which can be played on any day of the week.It means a total of 110 matches, with 4-5 games every week, of course whenever the teams are not involved in Test cricket. Logistics can also easily be taken care of, for teams will get enough time to play Test series without the pressures of bilateral series; and, at the same time, the ODI league matches can be scheduled in the respective home seasons.In a World Cup year, the league can be shortened or tweaked in order to maintain the relevance of the tournament. Otherwise, every March will see the table-topper of the league be crowned as the champions for that season. The format will be similar to football’s highly successful English Premier League, where there is a champion every year and it keeps the audiences interested for the full length of the competition.Every season, two teams from Division 1 will be relegated while two from Division 2 will be promoted. This will add to the excitement and also give the weaker nations a chance to play a substantial number of games against top opposition. To give an example, England can finish their ten home internationals during the four-month period between June and September, leaving enough room for them to play their ten away games any time till March. Similarly, a team like India can play in countries such as England, Ireland and Sri Lanka early in the season before moving on to their home leg.In this manner, a team will play twenty ODIs every season – nothing more and nothing less – since bilateral series for each of the teams will only be restricted to Test cricket, and at the most five Twenty20 internationals every year. Thus, a team can easily play around a minimum of 12 to 14 Test matches in a season without any overlap with the ODI League. Having said that, the scheduling must be done meticulously by the ICC with the cooperation of and in coordination with all the boards, not like the current Future Tours Programme, which appears to only fill the coffers of the top cricketing nations.The league divisions can also double up as the World Cup qualifiers – with ample scope for the Associates to qualify for the quadrennial event – which will further raise the relevance of the tournament. A well-contested country v country championship with a points table is what ODI cricket needs at the moment. Consequently, 50-overs cricket will be back in the public consciousness and hopefully in better health.What will really be needed is public support and a genuine keenness of the administrators to ensure the sustainability of the competition. If that is sorted, there is no reason why an ODI league cannot be a success.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line