I have never upset anyone in my life" - Miandad before the 1992 Pakistani tour to England
Apparently Taufel has said that sledging is ok, but originality is very important.
Saturday 31 May 2008
sledging
Pakistan is the sort of place every man should send his mother-in-law to, for a month, all expenses payed" - Ian Botham, after England's 1984 tour to Pakistan
"Why don't you send in your mother-in-law now? She couldn't do any worse" - Aamir Sohail's belated, but effective response after Botham's duck in the 1992 World Cup Final
"Why don't you send in your mother-in-law now? She couldn't do any worse" - Aamir Sohail's belated, but effective response after Botham's duck in the 1992 World Cup Final
"Ive waited 6 years for your autograph, Mr Wog."
"Well, another 10 minutes wont hurt you mate." - conversation between a Pakistani fan and Steve Waugh as the latter left the field during Aus tour of Pak in 1994
"They've always had a lot of talent, a lot of good players, but they're like eleven women. You know, they're all scratching each other's eyes out" - hauntingly accurate words from Ian Bothan on Pakistani sides he's known
"Atleast when a side like Australia tries to rattle you, they do so in a language you can understand" - Billy Alley overestimating the English skills of the Pakistani players in 1992.
"Well, another 10 minutes wont hurt you mate." - conversation between a Pakistani fan and Steve Waugh as the latter left the field during Aus tour of Pak in 1994
"They've always had a lot of talent, a lot of good players, but they're like eleven women. You know, they're all scratching each other's eyes out" - hauntingly accurate words from Ian Bothan on Pakistani sides he's known
"Atleast when a side like Australia tries to rattle you, they do so in a language you can understand" - Billy Alley overestimating the English skills of the Pakistani players in 1992.
Steve Waugh as Coach
BCCI president Sharad Pawar announced on Tuesday that talks are on with Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain, to hire him as the sledging coach for team India. This sudden move has come in the aftermath of the Sydney ODI which India lost. Ishant Sharm, India's rising star, was fined fifteen percent of match-fee, after a showdown with Andrew Symonds.
Indian Captain, Dhoni, has reportedly asked for a sledging coach, as he believes that Indians need to learn the art from the great aussies.
"It's an art and they are good at it, but the Indians will learn soon", was his comment on the Ishant Sharma affair.
Meanwhile, back home, there was a controversy regarding the need for a foreign "sledging coach". A well known TV commentator and former player reportedly slammed the BCCI for insulting the pride of nation.
"When it comes to sledging, there is no shortage of local expertise. Look at our parliament, no further. This is like a drawing dirty water from the sea, when your septic tanks is overflowing into the garden"
Experts debated on the news-channels over whether Ajay Jadeja should have been given the job, instead. Jadeja, who was involved in a match-fixing controversy, and later got cleared from the charges, was known for gamesmanship, as he liked to call it.
"I've nothing against sledging", he commented on NDTV. "Look, grown-ups will use abusive language. It's only kids who need to be told not to use it"
Sunil Gavaskar has refused to comment on the move, saying it's beneath his dignity, while Ravi Shastri has praised the move.
"The Aussies", he said, "will soon get the taste of their own medicine, and what's more — the medicine will be prepared by their own star pharmacist"
The man in the spotlight, Steave Waugh, is reportedly unclear of what the role would entail.
"I'm yet to hear anybody tell me what a sledge is," he said, when asked if he was ready to take up the job.
Quotes
from cricinfo
"He is Moses of the game who has shown the path to blazing success."
Ravi Shastri decides it's time to praise IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.
Presumably he was referring to Edwin, the hurdler
"He's a smashing lad - very un-Australian."
Chris Adams laments the early departure of Ryan Harris owing to a contract
conflict
"I think the pace of the game will help as there will be no time to sledge.
Well, maybe a little sneaky one here or there."
Twenty20 may be breakneck but not so much as to dispense with the verbals
altogether, Shane Warne reckons
"He is Moses of the game who has shown the path to blazing success."
Ravi Shastri decides it's time to praise IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.
Presumably he was referring to Edwin, the hurdler
"He's a smashing lad - very un-Australian."
Chris Adams laments the early departure of Ryan Harris owing to a contract
conflict
"I think the pace of the game will help as there will be no time to sledge.
Well, maybe a little sneaky one here or there."
Twenty20 may be breakneck but not so much as to dispense with the verbals
altogether, Shane Warne reckons
Bhajji & Marshall
What do errant Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and the late West Indian
fast bowling great Malcolm Marshall have in common?
Not much, you would guess, save for the obvious -- both being international
bowlers of repute.
But there is more. Both belong to the 'counting your chickens before they are
hatched' club; and, in both cases, high priced luxury cars were involved.
Clueless? A bit of cricketing history from the 80s is involved, and also
something more current.
Back in 1983, India had shocked the world by reaching the final of the
Prudential World Cup at Lord's. But skittled out for 183 before the end of
their allotted 60 overs by the devastating West Indies fast bowlers, it was
surely only a matter of time before their mighty batting took over. Nothing,
it appeared, could stop Clive Lloyd's Caribbeans from lifting their third
straight World Cup crown.
So confident was Marshall of victory that just before the final was played, on
June 25, he put a down payment on a BMW car.
The rest, of course, is cricket history!
Wrote Marshall in his autobiography, Marshall Arts: "I was sure we were going
to win that World Cup. In fact, I was so positive about the outcome that I had
even ordered a new BMW car on the misguided belief that I could pay for it out
of my winnings. What utter folly! I cannot now comprehend my arrogance and
stupidity...
"To say I was in a relaxed mood [after India's innings] would be an
understatement. I could visualise myself sitting behind the wheel of that
flashy sports car and I hardly paid much attention to the cricket when we went
out to get those 184 runs in the 60 overs available to us. Others were in a
similar state of mind; there was no way we could fail."
Fail they did, as India romped home by 43 runs under the canny captaincy of
Kapil Dev. And the legend of 'Kapil's Dev-ils' was born.
fast bowling great Malcolm Marshall have in common?
Not much, you would guess, save for the obvious -- both being international
bowlers of repute.
But there is more. Both belong to the 'counting your chickens before they are
hatched' club; and, in both cases, high priced luxury cars were involved.
Clueless? A bit of cricketing history from the 80s is involved, and also
something more current.
Back in 1983, India had shocked the world by reaching the final of the
Prudential World Cup at Lord's. But skittled out for 183 before the end of
their allotted 60 overs by the devastating West Indies fast bowlers, it was
surely only a matter of time before their mighty batting took over. Nothing,
it appeared, could stop Clive Lloyd's Caribbeans from lifting their third
straight World Cup crown.
So confident was Marshall of victory that just before the final was played, on
June 25, he put a down payment on a BMW car.
The rest, of course, is cricket history!
Wrote Marshall in his autobiography, Marshall Arts: "I was sure we were going
to win that World Cup. In fact, I was so positive about the outcome that I had
even ordered a new BMW car on the misguided belief that I could pay for it out
of my winnings. What utter folly! I cannot now comprehend my arrogance and
stupidity...
"To say I was in a relaxed mood [after India's innings] would be an
understatement. I could visualise myself sitting behind the wheel of that
flashy sports car and I hardly paid much attention to the cricket when we went
out to get those 184 runs in the 60 overs available to us. Others were in a
similar state of mind; there was no way we could fail."
Fail they did, as India romped home by 43 runs under the canny captaincy of
Kapil Dev. And the legend of 'Kapil's Dev-ils' was born.
Shane Warne, from cricinfo
*A royal fairytale*
*Boosted by the inspired, top-notch captaincy of Shane Warne, the Rajasthan
side have been the romantic success story of the IPL*
Sambit Bal
May 6, 2008
The gambler: Warne has brought his card-player's instincts to Twenty20
with great success Martin Williamson
We often see gestures like it on the field, but only occasionally get to
hear the tales behind them. Here is one. When Yusuf Pathan tempted Adam
Gilchrist out of his crease and had him stranded in only the third over of
Rajasthan Royals' match against the Deccan
Chargers,
no one was more animated than Shane Warne. While his team-mates were still
celebrating, he turned towards the Rajasthan dugout and made a little
gesture that said: "I told you so."
"We knew it was coming," said Jeremy Snape, who is part of Rajasthan's
support staff as performance coach. It had been Warne's idea to throw in
Pathan's offspin early against Gilchrist and he had been certain Pathan
would get Gilchrist out. "It took us a long time to discuss the machinations
of this strategy," Snape said. "When something like that happens, it's
brilliant."
With Warne orchestrating the moves as captain-coach, such things have
happened again and again with the Rajasthan Royals. Batsmen and bowlers are
known to have golden streaks, but for nearly two weeks we have seen a
captain in the zone. After a disastrous opening
match,
the most unfancied team of the competition has won five in row, and
everything Warne has touched has turned to gold. The importance of luck in
captaincy cannot be overstated, but to repeat a hoary phrase, fortune
favours the brave. Warne has backed his instincts and gambled away.
In their second
match,
against Punjab, he had two legspinners - himself and the unheralded Dinesh
Salunkhe, who came into the spotlight through a TV talent-hunt show and is
yet to play a first-class match - bowling together after six overs, and they
claimed three wickets in as many overs. Salunkhe got Mahela Jayawerdene
stumped.
Chasing 217 against the Deccan Chargers, Warne promoted Yusuf Pathan to No.
3 and Pathan blasted a 21-ball half century.
Against the Royal
Challengers,
the customary deep fine-leg was done away with and a man was posted at the
square-leg boundary instead. Rahul Dravid pulled the first ball he faced
straight to him, and three more wickets fell to the short-ball trap.
In the next match, against
Kolkata,
Warne pulled out little-known Swapnil Asnodkar, a frail-looking opening
batsman from Goa with a strike-rate of 41.23 in List A limited-overs
cricket, and Asnodkar blazed away to 60 off 34 balls.
Against Chennai,
Warne handed the new ball to Sohail Tanvir and told him to look for wickets:
in the first over, Tanvir took two.
Outrageous luck or flashes of genius? A bit of both perhaps, but it is worth
nothing that the outcomes wouldn't have been possible without either.
Before he came to Jaipur, Warne, who retired from one-day cricket in 2003,
had played only a couple of Twenty20 games for Hampshire, who he led for
couple of seasons, but it didn't take him to long to grasp the dynamics of
the shortest format. "Twenty20 is all about surprises," he said. "It's about
doing something that the opposition doesn't really expect." And with every
match, Warne's propensity for the unexpected has merely grown.
More inspirational has been the way Warne and he support staff have moulded
a team of bravehearts out of relative lightweights. Their only major current
international player is Graeme Smith. The batting is thin on paper; and the
franchise gambled on appointing Warne - whose antipathy towards professional
coaches is only too well known - head of the coaching team. It could have
all gone hopelessly wrong, as it did for the ICL, which appointed Brian
Lara, another mercurial genius, captain of their Mumbai team. Lara hardly
scored a run in the first season, and didn't play in the second tournament,
and his team disintegrated around his obvious lack of interest.
But Warne evidently still has a fire raging within him. Denied the captaincy
by a conservative Australian cricket board, which feared a public-relations
disaster if he was given the job, Warne led Hampshire with passion. In
Jaipur he has plunged himself into mentoring a young team with sense of a
mission. Every Rajasthan player you meet speaks about Warne's ability to
inspire and visualise, his positive thinking, and his human touch. Warne
hasn't so much imposed himself on the team as he has lifted it. In every
match Rajasthan have found a new hero.
Salunkhe was the one in the game against Punjab. "Mahela [Jayawardene] and
Yuvraj [Singh] were batting when Warne asked me to bowl," Salunkhe said. "I
was afraid - Mahela is such a good player of spin. Warne marched up to me
and said, 'Put your chest out, stand tall, be confident. I believe you can
get him. Tell me you can do it.'
"In the world there can be only one Taj Mahal. Similarly, there can only be
one Shane Warne."
Given Warne's position on professional coaches, Snape, who has a masters in
sports psychology, was initially wary of taking up a role under him. Those
apprehensions have since melted away and been replaced by admiration. "You
can study psychology for as long as you want, but he has lived it," Snape
says of Warne.
"Warnie would never use the p word, "psychology", but he lives it. He's a
great motivator. He's very passionate, he thinks very clearly. One of my big
points for the boys is to choose the strategy carefully with a cool head and
then commit wholeheartedly to it. Warnie exemplifies that in the way he
plays his cricket.
A hero per match: the likes of Yusuf Pathan have shone under Warne's
captaincy (c) Getty Images
He's got careers outside, in journalism and poker. This is a six-week
tournament that's very exciting for him. He's got a chance to leave a
legacy. That comes down to the personality again. Stockbrokers in London
earn millions - but they all want to feel part of something that's bigger
than them. Want to feel like they've created something. We all feel like
that at Rajasthan. There's no heritage, there's no black and white pictures
on the wall. It's a start-up. For someone like Warnie, who's done so much in
cricket, it's exciting to be able to say, 'We were part of that tournament.
And these are the stars that came up from it.' And he's shared his
knowledge, which is one of his great skills."
Rajasthan Royals are the most no-frills franchise in the IPL. They have no
Bollywood starts in their entourage, but they do possess a well-knit support
team. Apart from Snape, who contributes to planning and strategy, there is
Darren Berry, the assistant coach, who, in Warne's words, brings "a
structured approach to training".
Warne says that they have tried to be "the smartest, the cleverest team in
the competition". Snape says they want to the clearest-thinking team.
"Technically, the players aren't going to change over the six weeks, but
it's the ones who are going to have the clearest decision-making under
pressure who are going to do really well. That's the theme of our
discussions. Of course, we'd like our plans to work, but that's when the
real cricket starts - when your plan doesn't work and you've got to adapt."
Above all, Warne has been there to provide the bits of magic that only he
can. The Royals' dressing room is still heady with the 16 runs he blasted
off three balls from Andrew Symonds' final over against the Deccan Chargers,
but it is the dismissal of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the game against Chennai
that will have made fans' eyes moist with nostalgia.
The first ball landed on leg and middle and spun past Dhoni's tentative bat.
Dhoni barely managed to keep out the next one, which pitched on nearly the
same spot and straightened. The third was floated just a bit more to draw
the batsman forward, and held back just a bit to ensure that it landed short
enough to spin and catch the edge. Even if Dhoni had missed it, he would
have been stumped. It was a sublime working-over, a piece of art.
Warne's and Rajasthan's unexpected success is both uplifting and reassuring.
It is a reaffirmation that old-fashioned cricket values and skills have
their place in the game's newest, and to many crassest, form.
Long may Warne continue to reign.
*Boosted by the inspired, top-notch captaincy of Shane Warne, the Rajasthan
side have been the romantic success story of the IPL*
Sambit Bal
May 6, 2008
The gambler: Warne has brought his card-player's instincts to Twenty20
with great success Martin Williamson
We often see gestures like it on the field, but only occasionally get to
hear the tales behind them. Here is one. When Yusuf Pathan tempted Adam
Gilchrist out of his crease and had him stranded in only the third over of
Rajasthan Royals' match against the Deccan
Chargers
no one was more animated than Shane Warne. While his team-mates were still
celebrating, he turned towards the Rajasthan dugout and made a little
gesture that said: "I told you so."
"We knew it was coming," said Jeremy Snape, who is part of Rajasthan's
support staff as performance coach. It had been Warne's idea to throw in
Pathan's offspin early against Gilchrist and he had been certain Pathan
would get Gilchrist out. "It took us a long time to discuss the machinations
of this strategy," Snape said. "When something like that happens, it's
brilliant."
With Warne orchestrating the moves as captain-coach, such things have
happened again and again with the Rajasthan Royals. Batsmen and bowlers are
known to have golden streaks, but for nearly two weeks we have seen a
captain in the zone. After a disastrous opening
match
the most unfancied team of the competition has won five in row, and
everything Warne has touched has turned to gold. The importance of luck in
captaincy cannot be overstated, but to repeat a hoary phrase, fortune
favours the brave. Warne has backed his instincts and gambled away.
In their second
match
against Punjab, he had two legspinners - himself and the unheralded Dinesh
Salunkhe, who came into the spotlight through a TV talent-hunt show and is
yet to play a first-class match - bowling together after six overs, and they
claimed three wickets in as many overs. Salunkhe got Mahela Jayawerdene
stumped.
Chasing 217 against the Deccan Chargers, Warne promoted Yusuf Pathan to No.
3 and Pathan blasted a 21-ball half century.
Against the Royal
Challengers
the customary deep fine-leg was done away with and a man was posted at the
square-leg boundary instead. Rahul Dravid pulled the first ball he faced
straight to him, and three more wickets fell to the short-ball trap.
In the next match, against
Kolkata
Warne pulled out little-known Swapnil Asnodkar, a frail-looking opening
batsman from Goa with a strike-rate of 41.23 in List A limited-overs
cricket, and Asnodkar blazed away to 60 off 34 balls.
Against Chennai
Warne handed the new ball to Sohail Tanvir and told him to look for wickets:
in the first over, Tanvir took two.
Outrageous luck or flashes of genius? A bit of both perhaps, but it is worth
nothing that the outcomes wouldn't have been possible without either.
Before he came to Jaipur, Warne, who retired from one-day cricket in 2003,
had played only a couple of Twenty20 games for Hampshire, who he led for
couple of seasons, but it didn't take him to long to grasp the dynamics of
the shortest format. "Twenty20 is all about surprises," he said. "It's about
doing something that the opposition doesn't really expect." And with every
match, Warne's propensity for the unexpected has merely grown.
More inspirational has been the way Warne and he support staff have moulded
a team of bravehearts out of relative lightweights. Their only major current
international player is Graeme Smith. The batting is thin on paper; and the
franchise gambled on appointing Warne - whose antipathy towards professional
coaches is only too well known - head of the coaching team. It could have
all gone hopelessly wrong, as it did for the ICL, which appointed Brian
Lara, another mercurial genius, captain of their Mumbai team. Lara hardly
scored a run in the first season, and didn't play in the second tournament,
and his team disintegrated around his obvious lack of interest.
But Warne evidently still has a fire raging within him. Denied the captaincy
by a conservative Australian cricket board, which feared a public-relations
disaster if he was given the job, Warne led Hampshire with passion. In
Jaipur he has plunged himself into mentoring a young team with sense of a
mission. Every Rajasthan player you meet speaks about Warne's ability to
inspire and visualise, his positive thinking, and his human touch. Warne
hasn't so much imposed himself on the team as he has lifted it. In every
match Rajasthan have found a new hero.
Salunkhe was the one in the game against Punjab. "Mahela [Jayawardene] and
Yuvraj [Singh] were batting when Warne asked me to bowl," Salunkhe said. "I
was afraid - Mahela is such a good player of spin. Warne marched up to me
and said, 'Put your chest out, stand tall, be confident. I believe you can
get him. Tell me you can do it.'
"In the world there can be only one Taj Mahal. Similarly, there can only be
one Shane Warne."
Given Warne's position on professional coaches, Snape, who has a masters in
sports psychology, was initially wary of taking up a role under him. Those
apprehensions have since melted away and been replaced by admiration. "You
can study psychology for as long as you want, but he has lived it," Snape
says of Warne.
"Warnie would never use the p word, "psychology", but he lives it. He's a
great motivator. He's very passionate, he thinks very clearly. One of my big
points for the boys is to choose the strategy carefully with a cool head and
then commit wholeheartedly to it. Warnie exemplifies that in the way he
plays his cricket.
A hero per match: the likes of Yusuf Pathan have shone under Warne's
captaincy (c) Getty Images
He's got careers outside, in journalism and poker. This is a six-week
tournament that's very exciting for him. He's got a chance to leave a
legacy. That comes down to the personality again. Stockbrokers in London
earn millions - but they all want to feel part of something that's bigger
than them. Want to feel like they've created something. We all feel like
that at Rajasthan. There's no heritage, there's no black and white pictures
on the wall. It's a start-up. For someone like Warnie, who's done so much in
cricket, it's exciting to be able to say, 'We were part of that tournament.
And these are the stars that came up from it.' And he's shared his
knowledge, which is one of his great skills."
Rajasthan Royals are the most no-frills franchise in the IPL. They have no
Bollywood starts in their entourage, but they do possess a well-knit support
team. Apart from Snape, who contributes to planning and strategy, there is
Darren Berry, the assistant coach, who, in Warne's words, brings "a
structured approach to training".
Warne says that they have tried to be "the smartest, the cleverest team in
the competition". Snape says they want to the clearest-thinking team.
"Technically, the players aren't going to change over the six weeks, but
it's the ones who are going to have the clearest decision-making under
pressure who are going to do really well. That's the theme of our
discussions. Of course, we'd like our plans to work, but that's when the
real cricket starts - when your plan doesn't work and you've got to adapt."
Above all, Warne has been there to provide the bits of magic that only he
can. The Royals' dressing room is still heady with the 16 runs he blasted
off three balls from Andrew Symonds' final over against the Deccan Chargers,
but it is the dismissal of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the game against Chennai
that will have made fans' eyes moist with nostalgia.
The first ball landed on leg and middle and spun past Dhoni's tentative bat.
Dhoni barely managed to keep out the next one, which pitched on nearly the
same spot and straightened. The third was floated just a bit more to draw
the batsman forward, and held back just a bit to ensure that it landed short
enough to spin and catch the edge. Even if Dhoni had missed it, he would
have been stumped. It was a sublime working-over, a piece of art.
Warne's and Rajasthan's unexpected success is both uplifting and reassuring.
It is a reaffirmation that old-fashioned cricket values and skills have
their place in the game's newest, and to many crassest, form.
Long may Warne continue to reign.
Bats
MCC to come down hard on composite bats
Cricinfo staff
The MCC is keen to restore the balance between bat and ball by altering Law 6,
one that pertains to bat manufacture.
John Stephenson, the head of the MCC Laws Committee, will present a paper to
modify the law on Wednesday. "We are concerned at the moment about the balance
of the game between bat and ball," Stephenson told mid-day.com, the website of
a Mumbai-based tabloid.
"Kookaburra produced a bat with graphite binding on it [the one used by
Ponting in 2006], which we said did not conform to the laws of the game. That
caused a little bit of a difficulty for us. It meant that we had to redefine
or rewrite the law. We thought we had got there last year, but Gray Nicolls
came up with a bat handle with composite materials like graphite and titanium.
So we decided to redefine the handle in terms of rubber, cane and glue. It's
the first time that the bat handle will be defined in the laws of cricket."
No comprehensive research has proved the effect of graphite or titanium bats
on the power imparted to shots but Stephenson said the move was being
undertaken to preempt the huge influence superior technology could have on
bats. "We have engaged scientists to look at the impact," he said. "The use of
composite materials could already have had an impact and it could have an
impact in future too. It's a thin end of the wedge. If we allow technology to
develop, it might shift the balance down the line. We want to shore it up now
so that we do not have to retrace our steps. It will also give something back
to the bowlers.
Stephenson, who played a solitary Test for England in 1989, said all bat
manufacturers had been apprised of the situation at regular intervals. "The
MCC and bat manufacturers have agreed to an amicable phasing out of bats," he
said. "There are different time-frames fixed for phasing out, so that
manufacturers do not lose financially. From a certain period, the bats cannot
be used, from a certain period of time, the bats cannot be sold. Amateur
cricketers can use the bats till the natural life period. However, after
September, it cannot be used in international cricket.
"While we do not want to discourage innovation, we want to ensure bat
manufacturers make bats made of willow and bat handles of cane, rubber and
glue. That's the rationale behind it, so that in 10 to 15 years, we still look
at a game that resembles what we watch now. That's our job - to safeguard the
health of the game."
Cricinfo staff
The MCC is keen to restore the balance between bat and ball by altering Law 6,
one that pertains to bat manufacture.
John Stephenson, the head of the MCC Laws Committee, will present a paper to
modify the law on Wednesday. "We are concerned at the moment about the balance
of the game between bat and ball," Stephenson told mid-day.com, the website of
a Mumbai-based tabloid.
"Kookaburra produced a bat with graphite binding on it [the one used by
Ponting in 2006], which we said did not conform to the laws of the game. That
caused a little bit of a difficulty for us. It meant that we had to redefine
or rewrite the law. We thought we had got there last year, but Gray Nicolls
came up with a bat handle with composite materials like graphite and titanium.
So we decided to redefine the handle in terms of rubber, cane and glue. It's
the first time that the bat handle will be defined in the laws of cricket."
No comprehensive research has proved the effect of graphite or titanium bats
on the power imparted to shots but Stephenson said the move was being
undertaken to preempt the huge influence superior technology could have on
bats. "We have engaged scientists to look at the impact," he said. "The use of
composite materials could already have had an impact and it could have an
impact in future too. It's a thin end of the wedge. If we allow technology to
develop, it might shift the balance down the line. We want to shore it up now
so that we do not have to retrace our steps. It will also give something back
to the bowlers.
Stephenson, who played a solitary Test for England in 1989, said all bat
manufacturers had been apprised of the situation at regular intervals. "The
MCC and bat manufacturers have agreed to an amicable phasing out of bats," he
said. "There are different time-frames fixed for phasing out, so that
manufacturers do not lose financially. From a certain period, the bats cannot
be used, from a certain period of time, the bats cannot be sold. Amateur
cricketers can use the bats till the natural life period. However, after
September, it cannot be used in international cricket.
"While we do not want to discourage innovation, we want to ensure bat
manufacturers make bats made of willow and bat handles of cane, rubber and
glue. That's the rationale behind it, so that in 10 to 15 years, we still look
at a game that resembles what we watch now. That's our job - to safeguard the
health of the game."
ICC committee recommendation
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/current/story/350178.html
IPL in WSJ
Earlier this week on NYT and now on the WSJ.....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121029047141479239.html?mod=hps_us_in...
Cricket Gets Lively India's New League Uses More Dazzle,
Shorter Games to Win Fans
By *TARIQ ENGINEER*
May 9, 2008; Page W4
*Mumbai, India*
A new cricket league in India is attempting to take over the sport, backed
by nearly a billion dollars, loud music and cheerleaders.
The Indian Premier League, which began its first season three weeks ago, is
a massive departure for cricket. In the traditional format, team members
dressed in white play eight hours a day for five days, with breaks for lunch
and tea.
In the new format, games last about three hours total. During breaks,
spectators sing and dance along to Bollywood songs. One team flew in the
Washington Redskins cheerleaders for three weeks to train its squad of
dancers and perform at matches.
The league consists of eight teams based in different cities around India,
and they will compete in 59 games total over six weeks. It is the first ever
city-based cricket league in India and the first to allow foreign players.
Foreign players make up about 35% of the league, but each team can play no
more than four per match. (A team can have 11 players on the field at a
time.)
In February, 80 of the world's best cricketers were auctioned off to the
teams. India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni earned the highest bid of $1.5 million a
year for the next three years. If his team goes to the final, he will play
16 games this year. That works out to almost $94,000 a game -- about $14,000
more per game than the Boston Red Sox's star slugger David Ortiz will make
in the regular season this year.
Cricket, introduced by the British, is a religion of sorts here. One famous
Bollywood movie revolves around the triumph of a group of villagers over the
occupying British forces on the cricket field. Any strip of dirt long enough
to hold a game is often filled with cricketing kids.
With a population of 1.1 billion and a fast-rising number of televisions,
India dominates the global game financially: It represents about 70% of
global revenue for the sport. The Board of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI), the game's governing body here, had revenue of about $160 million in
its 2006-2007 fiscal year.
"We want to develop the 'My city, my team' concept," says Lalit Modi, the
BCCI executive behind the creation of the league. "And there is no better
sport to do that with than cricket."
Backing the teams are some of India's best-known names from business and
entertainment. Mukesh Ambani, head of part of the Reliance corporate empire
and one of the world's richest men, and liquor baron Vijay Mallya each paid
about $112 million for a franchise. India's biggest Bollywood star, Shah
Rukh Khan, spent $75 million along with two partners for a team in Kolkata,
formerly Calcutta.
The total paid for all eight teams was more than $700 million. Sony
Entertainment and Singapore-based sports agency World Sport Group paid $918
million for the 10-year broadcasting rights.
Games are also being shown globally. Willow TV, a California-based company
that provides live video of cricketing events on its Web site, owns the
rights to distribute the games in North and South America across television,
radio and the Internet.
The teams' cheerleaders -- some brought in from other countries -- have
caused some controversy, especially for their skimpy outfits. The government
of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, told the league it needs to get permission
before any performances by cheerleaders there, while the local police warned
team organizers they will be watching for anything "obscene" or "vulgar." At
the last home game, the dancers for Mumbai were covered in bright blue
sequined body suits. Meanwhile, the Delhi team has dispensed with its
cheerleaders altogether.
Some purists don't approve of the shorter game, called Twenty20 because it
comprises 20 sets of six pitches to each side. Played at its traditional
endless best, cricket combines a mix of defense and offense, with batters
pitting their wits against the pitcher. In the new version, the emphasis is
on smashing the ball to tally up runs quickly.
But the abbreviated version is finding wide appeal among those who don't
usually follow the sport. According to rating agency TAM Media Research, 36%
of viewers have been women.
At a match Sunday between the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Daredevils in
Mumbai, Aaina Menon and Kritika Seth, two 16-year-old girls attending their
first Indians game, were screaming and giggling with delight. Ms. Menon said
she likes Twenty20 cricket because "it is not slow and has music and
cheerleaders."
Once the game started, more than 50,000 fans chanted the names of their
favorite players during the action and stood in the aisles and sat on the
railings to get a better view.
The game was close. Once it became clear the Mumbai Indians could upset the
Daredevils, the crowd grew even louder, blowing on whistles and banging
empty water bottles together or against the railings. When the whole Delhi
team was out and still 29 runs short of a victory, the crowd let out a huge
roar, waved their Mumbai flags and threw their empty bottles into the air.
Twenty20 cricket was invented in England in 2003 and was initially shunned
by cricket authorities in most other countries -- including India. But when
the Indian team returned from South Africa after winning the first Twenty20
World Cup last year, an estimated two million fans packed the streets to
greet them.
Now, Mr. Modi of the BCCI said he is looking at establishing a team in the
Middle East. In about five years, he'd like to see one in the U.S. His
vision is to ultimately establish a Champions League akin to the European
soccer competition, where the best city teams from across the Continent play
in their own tournament.
In India, the arrival of big money is already making an impact. Ishant
Sharma, a 19-year-old who made his international debut for India last year,
was picked up for $950,000 a year by Kolkata. "His father makes $150 a month
and lives in a one-room house," says Mr. Modi. "It is a life-changing
scenario."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121029047141479239.html?mod=hps_us_in...
Cricket Gets Lively India's New League Uses More Dazzle,
Shorter Games to Win Fans
By *TARIQ ENGINEER*
May 9, 2008; Page W4
*Mumbai, India*
A new cricket league in India is attempting to take over the sport, backed
by nearly a billion dollars, loud music and cheerleaders.
The Indian Premier League, which began its first season three weeks ago, is
a massive departure for cricket. In the traditional format, team members
dressed in white play eight hours a day for five days, with breaks for lunch
and tea.
In the new format, games last about three hours total. During breaks,
spectators sing and dance along to Bollywood songs. One team flew in the
Washington Redskins cheerleaders for three weeks to train its squad of
dancers and perform at matches.
The league consists of eight teams based in different cities around India,
and they will compete in 59 games total over six weeks. It is the first ever
city-based cricket league in India and the first to allow foreign players.
Foreign players make up about 35% of the league, but each team can play no
more than four per match. (A team can have 11 players on the field at a
time.)
In February, 80 of the world's best cricketers were auctioned off to the
teams. India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni earned the highest bid of $1.5 million a
year for the next three years. If his team goes to the final, he will play
16 games this year. That works out to almost $94,000 a game -- about $14,000
more per game than the Boston Red Sox's star slugger David Ortiz will make
in the regular season this year.
Cricket, introduced by the British, is a religion of sorts here. One famous
Bollywood movie revolves around the triumph of a group of villagers over the
occupying British forces on the cricket field. Any strip of dirt long enough
to hold a game is often filled with cricketing kids.
With a population of 1.1 billion and a fast-rising number of televisions,
India dominates the global game financially: It represents about 70% of
global revenue for the sport. The Board of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI), the game's governing body here, had revenue of about $160 million in
its 2006-2007 fiscal year.
"We want to develop the 'My city, my team' concept," says Lalit Modi, the
BCCI executive behind the creation of the league. "And there is no better
sport to do that with than cricket."
Backing the teams are some of India's best-known names from business and
entertainment. Mukesh Ambani, head of part of the Reliance corporate empire
and one of the world's richest men, and liquor baron Vijay Mallya each paid
about $112 million for a franchise. India's biggest Bollywood star, Shah
Rukh Khan, spent $75 million along with two partners for a team in Kolkata,
formerly Calcutta.
The total paid for all eight teams was more than $700 million. Sony
Entertainment and Singapore-based sports agency World Sport Group paid $918
million for the 10-year broadcasting rights.
Games are also being shown globally. Willow TV, a California-based company
that provides live video of cricketing events on its Web site, owns the
rights to distribute the games in North and South America across television,
radio and the Internet.
The teams' cheerleaders -- some brought in from other countries -- have
caused some controversy, especially for their skimpy outfits. The government
of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, told the league it needs to get permission
before any performances by cheerleaders there, while the local police warned
team organizers they will be watching for anything "obscene" or "vulgar." At
the last home game, the dancers for Mumbai were covered in bright blue
sequined body suits. Meanwhile, the Delhi team has dispensed with its
cheerleaders altogether.
Some purists don't approve of the shorter game, called Twenty20 because it
comprises 20 sets of six pitches to each side. Played at its traditional
endless best, cricket combines a mix of defense and offense, with batters
pitting their wits against the pitcher. In the new version, the emphasis is
on smashing the ball to tally up runs quickly.
But the abbreviated version is finding wide appeal among those who don't
usually follow the sport. According to rating agency TAM Media Research, 36%
of viewers have been women.
At a match Sunday between the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Daredevils in
Mumbai, Aaina Menon and Kritika Seth, two 16-year-old girls attending their
first Indians game, were screaming and giggling with delight. Ms. Menon said
she likes Twenty20 cricket because "it is not slow and has music and
cheerleaders."
Once the game started, more than 50,000 fans chanted the names of their
favorite players during the action and stood in the aisles and sat on the
railings to get a better view.
The game was close. Once it became clear the Mumbai Indians could upset the
Daredevils, the crowd grew even louder, blowing on whistles and banging
empty water bottles together or against the railings. When the whole Delhi
team was out and still 29 runs short of a victory, the crowd let out a huge
roar, waved their Mumbai flags and threw their empty bottles into the air.
Twenty20 cricket was invented in England in 2003 and was initially shunned
by cricket authorities in most other countries -- including India. But when
the Indian team returned from South Africa after winning the first Twenty20
World Cup last year, an estimated two million fans packed the streets to
greet them.
Now, Mr. Modi of the BCCI said he is looking at establishing a team in the
Middle East. In about five years, he'd like to see one in the U.S. His
vision is to ultimately establish a Champions League akin to the European
soccer competition, where the best city teams from across the Continent play
in their own tournament.
In India, the arrival of big money is already making an impact. Ishant
Sharma, a 19-year-old who made his international debut for India last year,
was picked up for $950,000 a year by Kolkata. "His father makes $150 a month
and lives in a one-room house," says Mr. Modi. "It is a life-changing
scenario."
Friday 30 May 2008
Paul Reiffel on the 1995 Windies Win
We'll take it from here
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/352855.html
How Steve Waugh's Jamaica 200 marked the handing over of power from West Indies to Australia
Paul Reiffel
At the start of the tour West Indies had gone 15 years without loss a series. We were very much the underdogs going into the first Test at Barbados, and our hopes were further dented with injuries to two of our fast bowlers, Craig McDermott and Damien Fleming. Still, we somehow managed to catch them on the hop and beat them inside three days.
The aging pace duo of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh drew a lot of flak for that loss. So they rolled up their sleeves and came steaming down our throats with some intimidating stuff in the third Test, played on one of the greenest wickets I ever saw, in Trinidad. Steve Waugh's unbeaten 63 in the first innings there was a brave effort and it helped him get his eye in and play with the confidence that he displayed to its fullest in Jamaica.
With the score 1-1, the game at Sabina Park was make or break for both teams.
The crowd was an important factor. They were noisy, knew their cricket, and could be intimidating if you gave them room. It was a full house in Kingston and the bowl was resounding in anticipation of a West Indies victory.
Our strategy was for the batsmen to stick around and build as big a score as possible, because we knew that if we had to bat last on a pitch that was definitely wearing, we would have the worst of it. When Steve walked in at 73 for 3, we were in a position where things could have gone either way. But both Steve and Mark [Waugh] batted magnificently and built a fortress strong enough to keep West Indies at bay. Mark nonchalantly scored a beautiful century before getting out, but by then he had helped Steve build a solid platform.
Steve had made up his mind to bat and bat, to stay out there and anchor the proceedings. In the process he copped a lot of blows on his arms, chest and ribs. When he came back to the dressing room at the end of day two, we could see the spots and bruises on his body, but as long as he was out there in the middle he just kept going at them.
I remember when I walked in at No. 9: he didn't say anything to me, but then he didn't need to. We all pretty much knew that we just had to support him.
He was in a trance-like state. Two incidents illustrate this. The first was the famous confrontation with Ambrose in the third Test, where Steve told him to just bowl and Ambrose had to be dragged away by Richie Richardson. The second was when, in the wee hours of the second morning, a security guard was found rifling through Steve's kit bag. That incident, too, didn't affect his concentration. It all it all just went to show how strong a character he was.
Justin Langer said it best: "[Steve] showed he was prepared to put it all on the line, in the toughest conditions ... against probably the best fast bowler of our time. To stand up to him [Ambrose] and go toe to toe, it gave us a huge boost."
On the field, Steve treated each ball on its merits - defending the good ones, wearing the odd one on the body. In the end he ran four to get his 200, off a fast one from Carl Hooper which he pushed towards fine leg. He was last man out. It was one of the greatest feats of batting I ever witnessed.
Inspired by his innings and making good use of the conditions and the mental state of the West Indies top order, I grabbed three quick wickets late in the evening. After a day's rest we returned to complete the formalities and claimed the Frank Worrell Trophy.
We celebrated the win with a few drinks that night, and Steve slept in his whites with his socks and baggy green cap on. That showed how much he enjoyed the victory. It was the start of a new chapter in Australian cricket, and you could say that Steve's legacy gained a lot of momentum from his efforts at Jamaica.
Paul Reiffel took 14 wickets for Australia in the series, seven of them in the Jamaica Test. He was speaking to Nagraj Gollapudi. This article was first published in Wisden Asia Cricket magazine
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Thursday 29 May 2008
Shane Warne, Ganguly
RAJASTHAN Royals captain-coach Shane Warne poked fun at rival skipper Sourav
Ganguly overnight as the Royals thrashed Kolkata by six wickets.
Warne mocked Ganguly when a piece of paper flew out of the former Indian
Test captain's pocket while batting for Kolkata. Warne unfolded the paper
and briefly appeared to be reading Ganguly's tactical secrets.
A clearly embarrassed Ganguly walked away before the grinning Warne finally
relented and handed back the sheet to the grim-faced batsman who turned his
back on Warne's banter
Ganguly overnight as the Royals thrashed Kolkata by six wickets.
Warne mocked Ganguly when a piece of paper flew out of the former Indian
Test captain's pocket while batting for Kolkata. Warne unfolded the paper
and briefly appeared to be reading Ganguly's tactical secrets.
A clearly embarrassed Ganguly walked away before the grinning Warne finally
relented and handed back the sheet to the grim-faced batsman who turned his
back on Warne's banter
richie Richardson
extract from his interview on cricinfo
===================
Courtney [Walsh] is the first person I'll take with me to war. A real
soldier. Even with a broken leg, he's not going to say he won't play. He'll
never ever let you down. Curtly [Ambrose], to me, was a more accomplished
bowler. He didn't love the game all that much but, apart from once, I can't
recall him ever having a bad spell. He had such brilliant control. Curtly
was one of the greatest fast bowlers I have seen
===================
Courtney [Walsh] is the first person I'll take with me to war. A real
soldier. Even with a broken leg, he's not going to say he won't play. He'll
never ever let you down. Curtly [Ambrose], to me, was a more accomplished
bowler. He didn't love the game all that much but, apart from once, I can't
recall him ever having a bad spell. He had such brilliant control. Curtly
was one of the greatest fast bowlers I have seen
Learn from them
Extracted from cricinfo:
Brett Lee, for the two weeks he was available, was a big brother to the fast
bowlers. One young Indian bowler talks of the "highly emotional" atmosphere in
the dressing room the day Lee left. "We became so close to him that we felt
bad when he said goodbye. The amount we learnt from him in such a short time
was unbelievable. He used to treat every practice session as if it was his
last."
Sangakkara has missed the last four games but that hasn't stopped him from
making a serious contribution. "Uday Kaul [the young replacement wicketkeeper]
had never kept to quality fast bowling before," says a team member, "but
Sangakkara has ensured he gets adequate training." Even during the early
games, Sangakkara made sure Kaul got enough preparation in the nets.
The prolific Rohit Sharma has attributed part of his success to Adam
Gilchrist. "He told me not to get swayed by the results, as my job is only to
keep performing." Delhi's young bowlers can't stop raving about Glenn McGrath,
and over in Jaipur, Shane Warne has been inspiring a whole generation.
McGrath's influence goes beyond his role as a fast bowler: he asked for videos
of Pradeep Sangwan's Ranji Trophy matches to analyse his action and suggest
improvements. "McGrath makes it a point to stand at mid-off or mid-on when the
youngsters are bowling," says TA Sekhar, cricket operations chief of GMR
Holdings, the owner of the Delhi franchise. "Now that itself is a great
inspiration for young bowlers like Yo Mahesh and Sangwan. If they bowl a
no-ball, he's encouraging them, telling them how to deal with the free-hit
ball. If they bowl five good balls, he makes sure they don't get carried away
with the sixth."
Halhadar Das, the Orissa wicketkeeper who plays for the Hyderabad franchise,
says he never imagined he would even see Gilchrist, let alone learn from him.
Sumit Khatri, Rajasthan's chinaman bowler, says he needs to pinch himself
every time Warne says "Well bowled." And S Badrinath, who is yet to make the
national side despite years of domestic consistency, talks of the lessons
learnt from Michael Hussey, who went through a similar phase ("His message was
simple," Badrinath says. "Enjoy whatever you are doing and the rest will
follow")
Ricky Ponting's dedication to fielding was an eye-opener for everyone in the
Kolkata side. "His dedication to fielding is unbelievable," says Aakash
Chopra, the former India opener who's currently with the Knight Riders. "If he
gets a direct hit, he analyses what went right. If he misses, he analyses what
went wrong. It's the attention to detail that was mind-boggling for us."
Australians have dominated the tournament so far but it's been their attitude
to practice that has really benefited their teams. McGrath is the first to
arrive at nets and the last to leave (The Editor adds: As captain, Ganguly was
always the last to arrive and first to leave during Wright's time). Ponting
ensured that every batting session was planned properly, and while he may not
have scored many runs, his approach was inspiration enough. Warne has managed
to throw in tactics even while relaxing in a swimming pool in Goa. ("It was
great to sit around the pool and talk about how to construct an over," he
said.)
The approach is likely to rub off. "I always wondered how some Australians
manage to score despite looking so badly out of form," says one former India
player. "Now I realise it's because of the amount they practise. They target
one area and go on striking the ball there, irrespective of the length. It's
such routines that makes them come out of slumps."
Brett Lee, for the two weeks he was available, was a big brother to the fast
bowlers. One young Indian bowler talks of the "highly emotional" atmosphere in
the dressing room the day Lee left. "We became so close to him that we felt
bad when he said goodbye. The amount we learnt from him in such a short time
was unbelievable. He used to treat every practice session as if it was his
last."
Sangakkara has missed the last four games but that hasn't stopped him from
making a serious contribution. "Uday Kaul [the young replacement wicketkeeper]
had never kept to quality fast bowling before," says a team member, "but
Sangakkara has ensured he gets adequate training." Even during the early
games, Sangakkara made sure Kaul got enough preparation in the nets.
The prolific Rohit Sharma has attributed part of his success to Adam
Gilchrist. "He told me not to get swayed by the results, as my job is only to
keep performing." Delhi's young bowlers can't stop raving about Glenn McGrath,
and over in Jaipur, Shane Warne has been inspiring a whole generation.
McGrath's influence goes beyond his role as a fast bowler: he asked for videos
of Pradeep Sangwan's Ranji Trophy matches to analyse his action and suggest
improvements. "McGrath makes it a point to stand at mid-off or mid-on when the
youngsters are bowling," says TA Sekhar, cricket operations chief of GMR
Holdings, the owner of the Delhi franchise. "Now that itself is a great
inspiration for young bowlers like Yo Mahesh and Sangwan. If they bowl a
no-ball, he's encouraging them, telling them how to deal with the free-hit
ball. If they bowl five good balls, he makes sure they don't get carried away
with the sixth."
Halhadar Das, the Orissa wicketkeeper who plays for the Hyderabad franchise,
says he never imagined he would even see Gilchrist, let alone learn from him.
Sumit Khatri, Rajasthan's chinaman bowler, says he needs to pinch himself
every time Warne says "Well bowled." And S Badrinath, who is yet to make the
national side despite years of domestic consistency, talks of the lessons
learnt from Michael Hussey, who went through a similar phase ("His message was
simple," Badrinath says. "Enjoy whatever you are doing and the rest will
follow")
Ricky Ponting's dedication to fielding was an eye-opener for everyone in the
Kolkata side. "His dedication to fielding is unbelievable," says Aakash
Chopra, the former India opener who's currently with the Knight Riders. "If he
gets a direct hit, he analyses what went right. If he misses, he analyses what
went wrong. It's the attention to detail that was mind-boggling for us."
Australians have dominated the tournament so far but it's been their attitude
to practice that has really benefited their teams. McGrath is the first to
arrive at nets and the last to leave (The Editor adds: As captain, Ganguly was
always the last to arrive and first to leave during Wright's time). Ponting
ensured that every batting session was planned properly, and while he may not
have scored many runs, his approach was inspiration enough. Warne has managed
to throw in tactics even while relaxing in a swimming pool in Goa. ("It was
great to sit around the pool and talk about how to construct an over," he
said.)
The approach is likely to rub off. "I always wondered how some Australians
manage to score despite looking so badly out of form," says one former India
player. "Now I realise it's because of the amount they practise. They target
one area and go on striking the ball there, irrespective of the length. It's
such routines that makes them come out of slumps."
Ian chappell on Andy roberts
One of the finest fast bowlers I faced, Andy Roberts of the West Indies,
probably best summed up the mindset of the opening batsman. When I once chided
him about "dumb fast bowlers" he responded by saying, "Ian, the only people
sillier than fast bowlers are the opening batsmen who face up to them."
probably best summed up the mindset of the opening batsman. When I once chided
him about "dumb fast bowlers" he responded by saying, "Ian, the only people
sillier than fast bowlers are the opening batsmen who face up to them."
Martin Crowe on Spin
from a cricinfo interview
Did you make any technical adjustments while playing spin?
I would open my up stance a lot. I felt that the idea of staying side-on was
ridiculous against spin. If you watched Javed Miandad, he was the best at it.
I copied his stance when it came to playing against spin. Not as much as
[Shivnarine] Chanderpaul, but a lot more than what I would do against the
quicks.
How exactly did that help?
I didn't worry about my back foot being square. Because you are not looking to
go on the back foot to defend and have a strong base. What you are basically
doing is making sure that the body is not going to come in the way of hitting
the ball. So you are defending in front of you. It's really head and hands;
you don't have to go around your front pad.
This was for both legspin and offspin?
Everything. But I never really rated the offspinners. They just came into the
hitting zone, which was leg side for me. Watching Miandad bat was the best
education I got in playing spin.
Who did you pick things up from to play fast bowling?
I talked to Greg Chappell a lot, and Graeme Pollock. I modelled my batting on
Greg. I didn't play a Test match against Sunny [Gavaskar], but I have seen
footage, and I talked a lot to him when I was young. He would talk about how,
before he went out to bat, he would put his head against the wall to make sure
his head was level. I used that.
Did you make any technical adjustments while playing spin?
I would open my up stance a lot. I felt that the idea of staying side-on was
ridiculous against spin. If you watched Javed Miandad, he was the best at it.
I copied his stance when it came to playing against spin. Not as much as
[Shivnarine] Chanderpaul, but a lot more than what I would do against the
quicks.
How exactly did that help?
I didn't worry about my back foot being square. Because you are not looking to
go on the back foot to defend and have a strong base. What you are basically
doing is making sure that the body is not going to come in the way of hitting
the ball. So you are defending in front of you. It's really head and hands;
you don't have to go around your front pad.
This was for both legspin and offspin?
Everything. But I never really rated the offspinners. They just came into the
hitting zone, which was leg side for me. Watching Miandad bat was the best
education I got in playing spin.
Who did you pick things up from to play fast bowling?
I talked to Greg Chappell a lot, and Graeme Pollock. I modelled my batting on
Greg. I didn't play a Test match against Sunny [Gavaskar], but I have seen
footage, and I talked a lot to him when I was young. He would talk about how,
before he went out to bat, he would put his head against the wall to make sure
his head was level. I used that.
Inzi
apparently, shastri during a post match interview once remarked that Inzi
had one the toss for 7 consecutive times, so Inzi replied haan, mein
practice karta hoon
had one the toss for 7 consecutive times, so Inzi replied haan, mein
practice karta hoon
Martin Crowe - interesting points
Extracted from a Cricinfo interview
===========================================
Who are the best batsmen you've seen when it comes to picking up the ball
early?
The two best I saw were Greg Chappell - he was a stylist - and Viv Richards -
he was a powerhouse. They had wonderful strengths and powers of concentration
and belief.
There were players that I liked to watch - David Gower, Mark Waugh. These were
the players who just stroked the ball, but were not necessarily so successful.
Sometimes they would come across as a bit lazy, perhaps, but they just had a
style that was nice to watch.
Who were the bowlers you struggled to pick?
The two bowlers that I never really picked very well at all were Jeff Thomson
and Michael Holding.
Holding, just for his change of pace. He could bowl 100mph or 70mph with the
same beautiful, classical action. He was, I think, one of the first to develop
a lot of different types of deliveries without discerningly changing his
action. It's very scary when you know he can bowl at 100mph and you are coming
forward to a slow outswinger, because he is deliberately doing that. He is
getting you forward, and you are thinking about that fast one. He was a very
thoughtful, intelligent bowler.
Thomson was just a freak - a very unique action. You never really saw it.
I have a quote from Thommo on the first time he bowled at you. "I knocked his
helmet straight off his head. It went to pieces and blood came out ... I
thought it was brains coming out. I think he was pretty happy to be alive!" Do
you remember that?
(Laughs) Bruce Laird, at short leg, was the only man in front of the wicket. I
was pretty much just out of school. Wearing a helmet was a new experience -
let alone using a chin-strap. So the helmet just sat on my head without a
chin-strap. I never really saw the ball. I had never faced anything remotely
so quick. The helmet kept flying off and Bruce Laird kept going after it to
get it!
There is one other bowler that I had trouble picking up. The guy who got me
the most times in Tests [six] was Phil Defreitas. He had an action that was
kind of delayed, which threw me a little bit.
In 1984 at Taunton you had a frightening experience facing Andy Roberts,
didn't you?
Oh yeah, it did frighten the death out of me. Roberts was bowling outswingers
off 14 paces and he was just snicking guys out at the other end. When I got on
strike, I treated him like I was playing [Richard] Hadlee in the nets. I would
leave everything outside off stump, wait till he bowled at me before I clipped
him for one or two, and not look to upset him. Once I was in for an hour and a
half, he started to use his bouncers - he had two differently paced ones - and
he also used the crease amazingly well. If he wanted to hit you, he could, at
will. And he did. He hit me four or five times in the ribs.
He bowled me two bouncers in a row at one point, so I charged him and hit him
back over his head for a six. That was it. It was game on. I remember Peter
Willey at gully going "Oh dear ... that was very silly of you." Roberts warned
me about what was coming. "You've got to watch now, be careful." And he hurled
two beamers at my head! I could see the whites of his eyes and I remembered
what I had read about his anger. He taught me a big lesson about facing West
Indies. I never faced anyone so intimidating.
How do you use that fear as a batsman? Sandeep Patil, the Indian batsman, once
said that it was fear that pushed him to attack the fast bowlers.
I just worked out intellectually that to get on to the back foot - you needed
to do that at Test level, particularly in that era - you had to be on the
front foot. You had to be able to go back quickly, and a long way, to give
yourself time to play it under your nose. So I got more on the front foot and
more towards the bowler, the faster he bowled. I gave up going back and
across. I couldn't do that. I just wanted to remain still, go on the front
foot and press back.
My motive was to survive and wear them down if I could. You sense that they
can't just keep on going forever. Even if there are four of them, there will
be a time when they are in their second or third spells where they will not be
as fast and menacing, and you can attack them a bit more.
Speaking of Akram, he is on record saying you were the best batsman against
reverse swing that he had ever seen. You would bat with a minimal back-lift,
which was very crucial there. How did that develop?
The minimal back-lift came about because of playing in New Zealand. To survive
on our wickets, I learnt that I couldn't afford to have a big back-lift. I had
to have a very light bat and get behind the line and make sure I was meeting
the ball full face. I couldn't hit through the covers as I would in Adelaide
or the MCG, which I enjoyed when I went to Australia. At Lancaster Park or the
Basin Reserve or Eden Park you just couldn't afford to do that.
Talk us through those battles against Wasim and Waqar Younis in that 1990-91
Test series in Pakistan. Did you prepare in advance to tackle the reverse
swing?
We had never heard of reverse swing before that. There was, of course, a lot
of ball-tampering. It was happening after five overs, and I would be in at 10
for 2 on an average. I just learnt to get the bat down at the last minute.
I always had slightly open hips - pretty classical stance - which meant the
body was never in the way. I knew where my off stump was, so reverse swing
going out was no problem. I had to concentrate for the one that came in,
attacking my pads and the stumps. I had to get bat on ball - particularly
since I had been quoted saying that I would rather have an Indian umpire than
a Pakistani umpire. The Pakistani umpires were out to get me, and they got me.
I batted nearly ten hours to get 108 [second Test, Lahore], so I didn't
frighten Wasim and Waqar - they just found it hard to get me out. I faced
Wasim a lot. I got a lot of not-outs against him, even in one-day cricket.
What is the first thing you look for when you are watching a batsman?
His eye and head position, his ability to stay balanced and therefore move off
both feet, and the ability to play late - see the ball early and play it late.
It's not easy to allow the ball to come all the way to you and hit it at the
last second as opposed to going hard at the ball. You have to do that - go
hard - sometimes when you want to hit the ball in the air. But I would say
head position, footwork, balance and playing late are the key.
What exactly does it mean, playing late and having extra time?
The greatest skill you have as a batsman is the ability to see the ball out of
the hand. Once you do that, you have created time and are gathering
information instinctively, processing it and making a decision on what to do.
If you see it early, you have time, but if you see it late, you tend to play
it early because you are searching for the ball. You are not decisive. This
differentiates a very good player from a not-so-good player. #
===========================================
Who are the best batsmen you've seen when it comes to picking up the ball
early?
The two best I saw were Greg Chappell - he was a stylist - and Viv Richards -
he was a powerhouse. They had wonderful strengths and powers of concentration
and belief.
There were players that I liked to watch - David Gower, Mark Waugh. These were
the players who just stroked the ball, but were not necessarily so successful.
Sometimes they would come across as a bit lazy, perhaps, but they just had a
style that was nice to watch.
Who were the bowlers you struggled to pick?
The two bowlers that I never really picked very well at all were Jeff Thomson
and Michael Holding.
Holding, just for his change of pace. He could bowl 100mph or 70mph with the
same beautiful, classical action. He was, I think, one of the first to develop
a lot of different types of deliveries without discerningly changing his
action. It's very scary when you know he can bowl at 100mph and you are coming
forward to a slow outswinger, because he is deliberately doing that. He is
getting you forward, and you are thinking about that fast one. He was a very
thoughtful, intelligent bowler.
Thomson was just a freak - a very unique action. You never really saw it.
I have a quote from Thommo on the first time he bowled at you. "I knocked his
helmet straight off his head. It went to pieces and blood came out ... I
thought it was brains coming out. I think he was pretty happy to be alive!" Do
you remember that?
(Laughs) Bruce Laird, at short leg, was the only man in front of the wicket. I
was pretty much just out of school. Wearing a helmet was a new experience -
let alone using a chin-strap. So the helmet just sat on my head without a
chin-strap. I never really saw the ball. I had never faced anything remotely
so quick. The helmet kept flying off and Bruce Laird kept going after it to
get it!
There is one other bowler that I had trouble picking up. The guy who got me
the most times in Tests [six] was Phil Defreitas. He had an action that was
kind of delayed, which threw me a little bit.
In 1984 at Taunton you had a frightening experience facing Andy Roberts,
didn't you?
Oh yeah, it did frighten the death out of me. Roberts was bowling outswingers
off 14 paces and he was just snicking guys out at the other end. When I got on
strike, I treated him like I was playing [Richard] Hadlee in the nets. I would
leave everything outside off stump, wait till he bowled at me before I clipped
him for one or two, and not look to upset him. Once I was in for an hour and a
half, he started to use his bouncers - he had two differently paced ones - and
he also used the crease amazingly well. If he wanted to hit you, he could, at
will. And he did. He hit me four or five times in the ribs.
He bowled me two bouncers in a row at one point, so I charged him and hit him
back over his head for a six. That was it. It was game on. I remember Peter
Willey at gully going "Oh dear ... that was very silly of you." Roberts warned
me about what was coming. "You've got to watch now, be careful." And he hurled
two beamers at my head! I could see the whites of his eyes and I remembered
what I had read about his anger. He taught me a big lesson about facing West
Indies. I never faced anyone so intimidating.
How do you use that fear as a batsman? Sandeep Patil, the Indian batsman, once
said that it was fear that pushed him to attack the fast bowlers.
I just worked out intellectually that to get on to the back foot - you needed
to do that at Test level, particularly in that era - you had to be on the
front foot. You had to be able to go back quickly, and a long way, to give
yourself time to play it under your nose. So I got more on the front foot and
more towards the bowler, the faster he bowled. I gave up going back and
across. I couldn't do that. I just wanted to remain still, go on the front
foot and press back.
My motive was to survive and wear them down if I could. You sense that they
can't just keep on going forever. Even if there are four of them, there will
be a time when they are in their second or third spells where they will not be
as fast and menacing, and you can attack them a bit more.
Speaking of Akram, he is on record saying you were the best batsman against
reverse swing that he had ever seen. You would bat with a minimal back-lift,
which was very crucial there. How did that develop?
The minimal back-lift came about because of playing in New Zealand. To survive
on our wickets, I learnt that I couldn't afford to have a big back-lift. I had
to have a very light bat and get behind the line and make sure I was meeting
the ball full face. I couldn't hit through the covers as I would in Adelaide
or the MCG, which I enjoyed when I went to Australia. At Lancaster Park or the
Basin Reserve or Eden Park you just couldn't afford to do that.
Talk us through those battles against Wasim and Waqar Younis in that 1990-91
Test series in Pakistan. Did you prepare in advance to tackle the reverse
swing?
We had never heard of reverse swing before that. There was, of course, a lot
of ball-tampering. It was happening after five overs, and I would be in at 10
for 2 on an average. I just learnt to get the bat down at the last minute.
I always had slightly open hips - pretty classical stance - which meant the
body was never in the way. I knew where my off stump was, so reverse swing
going out was no problem. I had to concentrate for the one that came in,
attacking my pads and the stumps. I had to get bat on ball - particularly
since I had been quoted saying that I would rather have an Indian umpire than
a Pakistani umpire. The Pakistani umpires were out to get me, and they got me.
I batted nearly ten hours to get 108 [second Test, Lahore], so I didn't
frighten Wasim and Waqar - they just found it hard to get me out. I faced
Wasim a lot. I got a lot of not-outs against him, even in one-day cricket.
What is the first thing you look for when you are watching a batsman?
His eye and head position, his ability to stay balanced and therefore move off
both feet, and the ability to play late - see the ball early and play it late.
It's not easy to allow the ball to come all the way to you and hit it at the
last second as opposed to going hard at the ball. You have to do that - go
hard - sometimes when you want to hit the ball in the air. But I would say
head position, footwork, balance and playing late are the key.
What exactly does it mean, playing late and having extra time?
The greatest skill you have as a batsman is the ability to see the ball out of
the hand. Once you do that, you have created time and are gathering
information instinctively, processing it and making a decision on what to do.
If you see it early, you have time, but if you see it late, you tend to play
it early because you are searching for the ball. You are not decisive. This
differentiates a very good player from a not-so-good player. #
My comment
Sachin did today what he used to in tests and ODIs - did not bat when it
mattered, in fact, his 30 off 34 probably cost them the match. also, as
captain he again did what Srinath always complained about - he wanted to
talk to the bowler before every ball.
Dravid has batted in the T20 much better than Sachin, and save for Ganguly's
last innings, has been more consistent and faster as well. Both Ganguly and
he have played equally well. Laxman would have probably done as well, he was
looking good, we will never know.
This at a time when Dravid is in the worst form of his career, and Sachin is
in the best form seen in the last 8 years. Dravid came in as the best Test
batsman almost from the word go, and even though he took time to become
India's best ODI batsman this decade till recently, even late 90s while
playing outside the subcontinent if Dravid would get out, India would get
bowled out within 50 overs. Regularly. He was the best batsman alongwith
Klusener in Wcup 99 (The expert had predicted his success and sachin's
failure in the cup well before). I predict that if he gets back to his form
in tests now, in T20 too he will be the best batsman of our test batsmen (I
am not saying he will come anywhere near Jaya and types).
mattered, in fact, his 30 off 34 probably cost them the match. also, as
captain he again did what Srinath always complained about - he wanted to
talk to the bowler before every ball.
Dravid has batted in the T20 much better than Sachin, and save for Ganguly's
last innings, has been more consistent and faster as well. Both Ganguly and
he have played equally well. Laxman would have probably done as well, he was
looking good, we will never know.
This at a time when Dravid is in the worst form of his career, and Sachin is
in the best form seen in the last 8 years. Dravid came in as the best Test
batsman almost from the word go, and even though he took time to become
India's best ODI batsman this decade till recently, even late 90s while
playing outside the subcontinent if Dravid would get out, India would get
bowled out within 50 overs. Regularly. He was the best batsman alongwith
Klusener in Wcup 99 (The expert had predicted his success and sachin's
failure in the cup well before). I predict that if he gets back to his form
in tests now, in T20 too he will be the best batsman of our test batsmen (I
am not saying he will come anywhere near Jaya and types).
Steyn, Sidebottom
From Cricinfo:
Over the last 12 months, of pace bowlers, only South Africa's Dale Steyn has
taken more wickets (78) than Sidebottom, whose entire career total of 63 has
come in that time. (His debut Test back in 2001 was fruitless.) Steyn and
Sidebottom will, fitness permitting, come head to head in six weeks' time or
so, when South Africa play a four-Test series in England. It is a contest to
decide global pace bowling's pre-eminent exponent. Brett Lee might just
consider himself in the mix as well.
Even to think of Sidebottom as worthy of consideration is to undergo some
severe head-shaking and skin-pinching. This is a man who, as previously
mentioned, has been told on more than one occasion that he's not up to it. His
selection in 2001 scarred his image to a point where he became something of a
joke figure, an emblem of a failed domestic system that produced only
trundlers ill-equipped to deal with the rigours of international cricket.
Sidebottom has the capacity to bowl properly quick now, in the same 90mph
bracket as Steyn, and he has the rat-like cunning and variations that every
successful bowler must have in these bat-friendly times. He has developed the
crucial nip-backer to the right-hander and he has learned how to bowl round
the wicket, having observed RP Singh in England last year. He might also like
to know, if he doesn't already, that Singh has got Mike Hussey four times -
one to store in the memory bank for the 2009 Ashes.
It is still early days for Sidebottom. He has had success against West Indies
and New Zealand, the two weakest batting line-ups in the world apart from
Bangladesh. Against India and Sri Lanka he took 13 wickets at 48, though he
did have five catches dropped by the wicketkeeper, Matt Prior, in those two
series. Steyn has laid waste to every line-up he has come across. Yes, he has
cashed in against Bangladesh but also against India and Pakistan. He has never
played a Test in England but then he has a tidy attack to back him up.
Sidebottom is part of a green England attack that, as Ross Taylor showed at
Old Trafford, is fragile when their plans are undermined. Taylor flayed three
sixes of Sidebottom.
Steyn is the man to beat in the global pace bowling stakes right now, but
Sidebottom, as a rare breed, has the chance to write his name in history.
Australia's Davidson took 186 Test wickets and he is the third greatest
left-arm pace bowler in Test history. Sidebottom is a third of the way there
already and, as a later starter, is still approaching his peak at 30. He'll
never be Wasim, or Chaminda, but he could be the next best thing.
Over the last 12 months, of pace bowlers, only South Africa's Dale Steyn has
taken more wickets (78) than Sidebottom, whose entire career total of 63 has
come in that time. (His debut Test back in 2001 was fruitless.) Steyn and
Sidebottom will, fitness permitting, come head to head in six weeks' time or
so, when South Africa play a four-Test series in England. It is a contest to
decide global pace bowling's pre-eminent exponent. Brett Lee might just
consider himself in the mix as well.
Even to think of Sidebottom as worthy of consideration is to undergo some
severe head-shaking and skin-pinching. This is a man who, as previously
mentioned, has been told on more than one occasion that he's not up to it. His
selection in 2001 scarred his image to a point where he became something of a
joke figure, an emblem of a failed domestic system that produced only
trundlers ill-equipped to deal with the rigours of international cricket.
Sidebottom has the capacity to bowl properly quick now, in the same 90mph
bracket as Steyn, and he has the rat-like cunning and variations that every
successful bowler must have in these bat-friendly times. He has developed the
crucial nip-backer to the right-hander and he has learned how to bowl round
the wicket, having observed RP Singh in England last year. He might also like
to know, if he doesn't already, that Singh has got Mike Hussey four times -
one to store in the memory bank for the 2009 Ashes.
It is still early days for Sidebottom. He has had success against West Indies
and New Zealand, the two weakest batting line-ups in the world apart from
Bangladesh. Against India and Sri Lanka he took 13 wickets at 48, though he
did have five catches dropped by the wicketkeeper, Matt Prior, in those two
series. Steyn has laid waste to every line-up he has come across. Yes, he has
cashed in against Bangladesh but also against India and Pakistan. He has never
played a Test in England but then he has a tidy attack to back him up.
Sidebottom is part of a green England attack that, as Ross Taylor showed at
Old Trafford, is fragile when their plans are undermined. Taylor flayed three
sixes of Sidebottom.
Steyn is the man to beat in the global pace bowling stakes right now, but
Sidebottom, as a rare breed, has the chance to write his name in history.
Australia's Davidson took 186 Test wickets and he is the third greatest
left-arm pace bowler in Test history. Sidebottom is a third of the way there
already and, as a later starter, is still approaching his peak at 30. He'll
never be Wasim, or Chaminda, but he could be the next best thing.
Ponting TV
Apparently, ponting wants to use "Ponting TV" as a training tool after he used a plasma TV to get out of his form slump.
He was replaying his strokes with a 5-sec delay and watching it on a massive screen to see what he was doing wrong
"That might be something that we will look at taking around the world with us," Ponting said yesterday.
He was replaying his strokes with a 5-sec delay and watching it on a massive screen to see what he was doing wrong
"That might be something that we will look at taking around the world with us," Ponting said yesterday.
IPL article
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article4022575.ece
Nice article, and a Shah Rukh Khan dialogue to top it heh
Arrogant IPL owners must admit mistakes
(and arrogant bollywood stars too)
Nice article, and a Shah Rukh Khan dialogue to top it heh
Arrogant IPL owners must admit mistakes
(and arrogant bollywood stars too)
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