Royals signed off from the Jaipur leg of their campaign with a seventh win in eight matches to cement their table-topping status

Andrew Miller22-Apr-20243:10

Sandeep ‘nailing’ new death-over role at Royals

Rajasthan Royals 183 for 1 (Jaiswal 104*) beat Mumbai Indians 179 for 9 (Tilak 65, Sandeep 5-18) by nine wicketsSandeep Sharma announced his return from injury with magnificent figures of 5 for 18, the best by any bowler in this season’s IPL, before Yashasvi Jaiswal blazed back to form with a sparkling 59-ball century, as Rajasthan Royals signed off from the Jaipur leg of their campaign with a seventh statement win in eight matches to cement their table-topping status.Set a middling 180 for victory after a Mumbai Indians’ innings that owed everything to a 99-run fifth-wicket stand between Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera, Royals’ chase was signalled and sealed by Jaiswal, who had 31 from 18 balls prior to a 30-minute rain delay, before converting his first fifty of a difficult season into a towering 104 not out from 60 balls.Jaiswal added 74 in eight overs with the in-form Jos Buttler, who made 35 from 25, and a further 109 in 65 with Sanju Samson, whose terrible reprieve on 19 by Tim David at midwicket was the moment all hope evaporated for Mumbai. By then, Jaiswal had also had a major let-off, on 50, when Wadhera at deep cover dropped a leading-edged swipe off Piyush Chawla over the ropes for six.Related

Jaiswal bats himself back to form, for Royals and for India

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Chahal becomes first bowler to to take 200 wickets in IPL

Yuzvendra Chahal's milestones on the way to 200 IPL wickets

Mumbai’s performance was summed up by the deployment of their two outstanding bowlers of the campaign. After being riled by a first-ball slap for six, Gerald Coetzee bowled like the wind in his solitary powerplay over, visibly troubling Jaiswal with his 150kph-plus pace, in particular with a top-edged pull that flew over the keeper for four. Yet he was not given another over until Jaiswal was into the 80s, when he again got a well-set batter flinching, but by this stage the match was already lost.And though Jasprit Bumrah bowled with his peerless verve up front, including a two-run first over to limit Buttler’s early intentions, he too was held back too late into the chase – and when he did return, his comeback over was not a success. A first-ball no-ball was followed by a second-ball wide on height, where upon Jaiswal swung the rolled-over free hit for six, en route to a 16-run over, Bumrah’s most expensive of a stellar season.Boult, Sandeep boss the powerplayAt the Wankhede three weeks ago, Trent Boult silenced Mumbai’s home support with the prized scalp of Rohit Sharma, who grazed his first ball of the match – and the fifth of the innings – through to Sanju Samson behind the stumps. It was a case of rinse-and-repeat in the rematch: Rohit c Samson b Boult, again from the fifth ball, albeit this time with 6 to his name. One filleted four through deep third, then a wild swing through the full length, for Samson to rush round from behind the stumps and gather with a tumble. Remarkably, it was the 26th time that Boult had struck in the first over of his IPL career.Mumbai had batted first after winning the toss, on the proviso that there’s not a lot of dew on offer when chasing in Jaipur. There was, however, sufficient movement off another dry surface to reward Royals’ attacking full lengths, and after one ball of the fourth over, Sandeep had launched a memorable performance in style, to reduce his opponents to a ropey 20 for 3.The first of his victims was Ishan Kishan, caught behind for a third-ball duck as he went fishing to Sandeep’s wide line, pushed tantalisingly up into his arc. Then, after a flurry of two fours in three balls that had hinted at riches to come, Suryakumar Yadav swung without timing across the scrambled seam, and was already wincing as the ball plopped into Rovman Powell’s hands at midwicket.Mohammad Nabi ended the powerplay with an 18-run flurry against Avesh Khan’s first over, but at 45 for 3, the damage at the top was already telling.Yuzvendra Chahal is the first bowler to take 200 wickets in IPL•BCCI200 up for Yuzvendra ChahalOnly two bowlers in the history of T20 cricket had previously taken 200 wickets in a single competition – Danny Briggs and Samit Patel, both in the T20 Blast. With his extraction of Nabi in his first over of the night, Yuzvendra Chahal became the third entry on that list, and against Mumbai too – the team for whom he had made a one-off, wicketless debut in his maiden IPL season in 2013.The moment arose with another cunning piece of bowling, as Nabi, on 23, closed the face on the front foot to lob a leading edge back to the bowler, off his third delivery. Chahal sunk to his knees as his team-mates engulfed him, fully aware of the feat of excellence and endurance that he’d just recorded. And, at 52 for 4, Mumbai were on their knees too.Tilak, Wadhera find some fightMeasured at first – particularly while R Ashwin was rattling through four wicketless overs for 31 – and then with mounting assurance, Mumbai’s revival was entirely down to two of the younger men in their ranks. Tilak led the line with a combative 65 from 45, bringing up his fifty with a six that also made him, at the age of 21 years and 166 days, the third-youngest player to 1000 IPL runs.However, it was the less heralded Wadhera, playing his first match of the season, who provided the impetus that met the needs of this extraordinarily high-scoring edition. His 49 from 24 balls included three fours and four sixes – two of them in consecutive balls from Chahal, who moments earlier thought he had managed to trap Tilak lbw for 55 on the reverse-sweep.DRS, however, showed the ball to be missing off, and the pair celebrated the reprieve with the verve of a century, which spoke volumes for the importance of their stand. But, as it turns out, their alliance would end on 99 from 54 balls when Boult was recalled to the attack for his final over. His first delivery was a slower-ball bouncer, which Wadhera could only lob to backward point.Sandeep Sharma removed Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in his first two overs•BCCISandeep applies the gloss finishAt 170 for 5 in the 18th over, Mumbai still had designs on a 200-run total, but Royals’ death bowlers had other ideas. Avesh was on the mark to pin Hardik Pandya lbw for 10 as he walked across his stumps, and after leaking just six runs, even with Tim David looking to cut loose, Sandeep snapped the innings shut.Tilak’s excellent knock ended with a tumbling take from Powell at long-on, following which Coetzee’s first-ball launch picked out Shimron Hetmyer down the ground. David finally got the strike back with three balls remaining but he too picked out a boundary rider to make it three wickets in the over, and 5 for 18 all told for Sandeep.Not only were they the best figures by an Indian bowler for Royals, Sandeep’s figures marked a triumphant return after an injury-plagued season – he had previously managed one wicket in two outings before a side strain had kept him sidelined for most of a month.Jaiswal finds his range at the right timeAfter two double-centuries and more than 700 runs in a startling Test campaign against England, Jaiswal’s IPL had been something of a comedown – just 121 runs and a top score of 39 in seven previous knocks. But there’s never been any doubting his precocity, and when he did finally reach his first fifty of this campaign, the acclaim on the Royals bench was notable. They are already top of the table at the halfway mark, after all … if he is hitting his straps for the run-in, so much the better for their prospects of a second title.By the end, it was as if he’d never been away. His innings was studded with eight fours and seven sixes, including the winning carve through point off Tilak with eight balls left unused. On his watch, Royals are four points clear at the top, and getting better with every outing.

Manchester City and Manchester United have been put on alert as Gianluigi Donnarumma is set to leave Paris Saint-Germain this summer. The European champions have agreed personal terms to sign Lucas Chevalier from Lille. PSG have identified the Frenchman as a replacement for Donnarumma, who has entered the final 12 months of his contract.

• Donnarumma set to leave PSG
• Eyeing move for Chevalier from Lille
• Premier League giants on alert

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  WHAT HAPPENED?

  Donnarumma is close to leaving PSG in the summer transfer window. The French giants have initiated transfer talks with Lille after agreeing personal terms with Chevalier as a replacement. They are expected to submit an initial bid worth €40 million (£35m/$47m), according to .

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  PSG have failed to convince Donnarumma to put pen to paper on a fresh contract and he has entered the final 12 months of his current deal. Club officials do not want to go through a similar situation to Kylian Mbappe's when the France captain walked out of the club as a free agent in the summer of 2024 and joined Real Madrid. Thus, PSG will be willing to part ways with the Italian in the coming weeks.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  If Donnarumma decides to move back to his homeland then Juventus and Inter are his likely destinations, however, the Italy international reportedly wants a move to the Premier League.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR DONNARUMMA?

  Several top English clubs like Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea are still in search of a quality goalkeeper and could make a move for Donnarumma. It remains to be seen where the 26-year-old ends up.

Keith Miller, who died today aged 84, was a barnstorming allrounder who lit up the decade after the Second World War with his performances

Steven Lynch22-Jun-2005181 on first-class debut, 1937-38
Miller was only 66 days past his 18th birthday when he took the field for the first time in a first-class match, for Victoria against Tasmania at the MCG in February 1938. Tasmania weren’t in the Sheffield Shield then, and as Victoria had a Shield game in Adelaide the day after this match finished it was very much a second-string side – Miller was one of seven debutants. But he scored 181 in 289 minutes as Victoria made 470. It wasn’t the biggest crowd that Miller was to enthrall: the three-day attendance was 864, and the total takings £17.105 in the first Victory Test, 1945
Miller first made a mark at Lord’s with a century in the first of the “Victory Tests”, a hastily arranged series to celebrate the end of the Second World War. They weren’t official Tests – the Australian side was largely drawn from servicemen who happened to be in the country – but proved very popular. Miller, playing alongside his future Test captain Lindsay Hassett, was the backbone of the Australian first innings of 455, which set up a six-wicket victory.185 for the Dominions at Lord’s, 1945
The end-of-war celebrations concluded with a star-studded side, captained by the old West Indian allrounder Learie Constantine, taking on England at Lord’s. The New Zealander Martin Donnelly made 133 in the Dominions’ first innings, but it was Miller’s 185 that lit up the match – there were seven sixes, and Plum Warner called it the greatest exhibition of batting he ever saw. It gave Miller’s side just enough runs to secure victory.7 for 60 in first Ashes Test, 1946-47
Miller’s first Test against England, and after scoring 79 at Brisbane he cut back his pace and moved the ball around on a helpful pitch, for what remained his best Test bowling figures. He removed Len Hutton first ball in the second innings, too, as England crashed to a huge defeat (an innings and 332 runs).141 not out, 1946-47
In the fourth Test at Adelaide, in unrelenting heat over the 100-degree mark, Don Bradman fell for a duck after England had made 460. Arthur Morris made 122, then Miller stepped up with an unbeaten 141, his first Test hundred. Bruce Harris, a watching British journalist, wrote: “Miller, big and buoyant, is no pleasant batsman to have in opposition at 5.30 of a hot January day in Adelaide.” The match was drawn, with both Morris and Denis Compton making centuries in both innings.109 v England, Lord’s, 1953
A restrained, chanceless 109 from Miller at Lord’s – Wisden said he “subjugated his natural inclinations” – set up what seemed to be a matchwinning position for Australia. But Trevor Bailey and Willie Watson resisted for four hours on the final day to force a draw. John Arlott observed: “As he has so often done, Miller adopted a particular role in this innings. He has succeeded in turn – and as Australia has needed it most – as attacking or defensive bat, fast bowler or spin bowler, stock or shock, cover or slip fieldsman. This was a faultless hundred … quite how rare they are is not always appreciated, but I doubt one in five of Test hundreds is made without a chance.”147 v West Indies, 1954-55
Miller kicked off this high-scoring series with 147 at Kingston, which remained his highest Test score. By now batting at No. 4, Miller hit 15 fours and put on 224 with Neil Harvey. He made three centuries in that series, including one in the final Test, also at Kingston, where a record five batsmen scored hundreds as Australia piled up 758 for 8.281 not out against Leicestershire, 1956
Miller kicked off his third and final tour of England in 1956 with 281 not out in the second match (he didn’t play in the first) at Grace Road. “Driving superbly,” according to Wisden, Miller hit 35 fours, a six and a five. Peter West watched the innings, and wrote: “Such is his reach – and such the qualities of his wrist and timing – that he can drive, apparently quite effortlessly, the ball which to lesser mortals would be of unimpeachable length.”Ten wickets at Lord’s, 1956
Nearly 37, Miller had been hoping to rest his dodgy back in England in 1956. But at Lord’s Ray Lindwall was out injured and Pat Crawford, his replacement, broke down. Miller responded with a magnificent bowling effort, taking five wickets in each innings, the only ten-wicket haul of his Test career. Said Wisden of his first-innings display: “Miller, bowling for long spells and moving the ball either way at varying pace, took half the wickets for 72.”102 on debut for Notts, 1959
Miller’s last hurrah came in 1959, when he turned out to play for Nottinghamshire as a guest (no overseas players then) in one match against Cambridge University at Trent Bridge. He was nearly 40, but spanked the students for 62 and 102 not out – his hundred came up in 125 minutes, and he clouted 13 fours and two sixes. They were his last runs in first-class cricket – he played for MCC against Oxford University the following week, but pulled a calf muscle and had to retire hurt before he’d scored.

Some of our correspondents have written about great series fightbacks from the past. We’d love to hear from you about similar fightbacks

01-Sep-2005

Two Tests into his captaincy, Don Bradman’s reign was in rain-soaked tatters. Boosted by wet wickets, England opened the 1936-37 series with victories by 322 runs and an innings and 22 to place his leadership in doubt. “After the second Test in which Bradman scored 0 and 82 I heard many strong opinions to the effect that the great man was on the downward path,” wrote Neville Cardus in . Not after the next match, or the two that followed it. The weather broke again at Melbourne for the third Test, but Bradman employed the shrewd tactic of turning the order around so his batsmen could escape the pitch’s dangers. Arriving at No.7, Bradman struck 270 in a sixth-wicket partnership of 346 with Jack Fingleton, which is still a Test record. Scores of 26, 212 and 169 followed as Bradman’s Australia not only retained the Ashes, but won three matches in a row to take the series. “His performances in these games stagger credulity,” Cardus said. Could the phrase “leading by example” been coined from this series?

England were playing catch up through out the series after Graeme Smith,
South Africa’s fresh-faced but passionately driven captain began the
series with back-to-back double-hundreds. South Africa dominated the
first, won the second and, but for a shocking last-innings batting
collapse, should have won the third. Gary Kirsten played his last great
innings on an unreliable pitch at Headingley to take South Africa ahead, and
at 290 for 1 at more than four runs per over on the first day of the Oval
Test, they seemed to have sewn up the series. But after spanking 35 fours
and a six, Herschelle Gibbs heaved across the line to get himself out and
England somehow managed to dismiss South Africa for 484, hardly a
pittance. Marcus Trescothick put England on par with a muscular 219, but
England were only 18 in the front when the 8th wicket fell. Andrew
Flintoff had scored a hundred in the previous Test throwing his bat about
when all had been lost. But here he played his first truly significant
Test innings, scoring a scorching 95 off 104 balls. The ninth wicket
produced 99 runs to which Steve Harmison contributed only six. England
then chipped away at the South African batsmen to dismiss them for 229 and
raced away to a series-leveling victory. South Africa had no business
losing the series and it was all downhill for them from here. For England,
it was the beginning of the Michael Vaughan era.

It was a four-match series after the World Cup, not on the face of it one
of the epic Test encounters. Yet on both sides of the fence the result
resonated for years to come.For England the writing should have been on the wall. They had a new
captain (Nasser Hussain) and no coach (Duncan Fletcher had been hired but
would not take charge until October). They had bombed out of their own
World Cup at the first hurdle.But somehow they won the first Test despite trailing by 100 on first innings (226 to 126). Andrew Caddick bowled his compatriots out for 107 and then England chased down 208 as if it was a benefit game losing only three wickets. They even found a new hero, the fast bowler Alex Tudor who had come in as nightwatchman and finished on 99 not out with 21 fours.New Zealand lost their pace bowler Simon Doull through injury and England
started dream of a comfortable series win. And they started to
under-estimate New Zealand, which is just how the Black Caps like it.England continued their hateful relationship with Lord’s losing by nine
wickets and losing their new skipper with a broken finger. England were
outplayed again at Old Trafford with Mark Butcher in charge but saved by
the rain. Selectors Mike Gatting and Graham Gooch resigned in an
increasingly gloomy atmosphere.Chris Cairns was the difference in the decider at The Oval, rescuing New
Zealand’s floundering second innings with 80 off 94 balls to set England
246 to win. At 123 for 2 they were in with a shout but collapsed yet again
to 162 all out, Dion Nash taking four for 39.It was only the ninth time in Test history that a side has won a series of
fewer than five matches after going behind.For England the result meant they were officially the worst Test side in
the world. And the rebuilding started in South Africa two months later.
New Zealand felt aggrieved that they had not been given due credit for
their achievement, a resentment that seethed for three years until
Hussain’s England took on Stephen Fleming’s New Zealand in 2002.

For a month, between March and April 1988, Pakistan’s tour of the West Indies seemed a typically Pakistani rabble. Imran Khan, aged, jaded, retired and disinterested had been coerced into returning as captain by President Zia-ul-Haq; fitting that one dictator called back another.Matters and morale plummeted further when Imran publicly questioned the record of the man he perennially replaced as captain, Javed Miandad. Without a century against the West Indies, Miandad, in Imran’s eyes, didn’t warrant comparisons with the greatest batsmen. The ODI series was ominous, a 5-0 blanking only suggesting that the worst was yet to unveil itself, something not many were inclined to disagree with.Then, at the first Test at Georgetown, arrived first some fortune and eventually a rare, stirring Pakistani retort. With Malcolm Marshall and Viv Richards both out injured, Imran forgot a bruised toe, willing himself to his last great bowling performance, an amalgamation of new-ball and reverse swing to dismiss the home side for 292. Whether indignation drove him we will never know, but Miandad then grafted a near seven-hour century. Saleem Yousuf, about to have his nose re-arranged courtesy Marshall two matches later, spanked a fifty, helping Pakistan to a 143-run lead.With Abdul Qadir in tow, Imran again wrecked the West Indians. And when a target of 30 was reached in just over three overs, somehow against possibly even their own expectations (although it is doubtful Imran and Javed between them ever doubted anything much) Pakistan became the first side to win a Test in the Caribbean in the 80s. And it set up what remains, arguably, one of the best Test series from the decade, between the two best teams of that time.

India has succumbed by an innings in the opening Test at Sydney, with Greg Chappell scoring a magnificent double-century in his first Test against them. Sandeep Patil had been one of the few batsmen to show defiance in the face of fearsome fast bowling from Dennis Lillee and Len Pascoe, but he had to retire hurt on 65 after being felled by a vicious bouncer from Pascoe. His response was a glorious counterattacking 174 at the Adelaide Oval, a knock ultimately responsible for India keeping the series alive – they finished with eight wickets down and nails bitten to nothingness after being set 331 for victory.The MCG crowd saw more Australian dominance on the opening four days of the third Test. Allan Border’s hundred gave them a big first-innings lead, but India had wiped off 165 from the arrears when Rex Whitehead’s umpiring once again came to the fore. Having upset the Indians with one debatable decision after another throughout the series, Whitehead raised the finger after Lillee had rapped Sunil Gavaskar on the pads with one that jagged back sharply. Gavaskar gestured to his bat, and was incensed when Lillee resorted to fruity language to suggest that he exit stage left. The team management had to step in and prevent a farce after Gavaskar tried to drag Chetan Chauhan off with him, and the volatile atmosphere had much to do with India adding only a further 159.The sense of injustice inspired the team, though, and after the much under-rated Karsan Ghavri had bowled Chappell behind his legs on the penultimate evening, a spellbinding display from Kapil Dev – bowling after painkilling injections for his hamstring – set up the unlikeliest of victories. Set 143, Australia slumped to 83 all out as Kapil scalped 5 for 28 to give India a share of a series where they had been outplayed from ball one. Kolkata and Adelaide may resonate more with young Indian hearts, but it was the MCG that first saw the phoenix rise.

Martin Williamson reviews the latest Ashes books offerings

Martin Williamson and Will Luke19-Nov-2006In his foreword to Cricket’s Burning Passion (see below), Michael Atherton writes: “In the aftermath of the wondrous 2005 Ashes series, a raft of cricket books appeared on the bookshelves. There were the usual gruesome mix of ghosted autobiographies, ghosted diaries and rushed, ill-considered reviews …”. Ahead of the 2006-07 series a number of books have been issued, as expected, but the quality is far superior than those Atherton refers to. In 2005, the writers were all up against tight deadlines as publishers sought to cash in. The current offering shows that the authors have had the advantage of having time to prepare, and the result in a much more enjoyable and readable selection

Stiff Upper Lips and Baggy Green Caps Simon Briggs (Quercus, 280pp)

So much has been written about the Ashes, especially since September 2005, that finding a fresh angle on such a well-documented history would seem to present an almost insurmountable challenge. However, Simon Briggs has managed to rise to the occasion, and the end result is a delightful offering which should appeal to both seasoned fan and relative newcomer. The strength of the book is that it eschews the worthy-but-dull statistics which often form the bedrock of such histories and, by concentrating on the colourful characters and events the result is an easy read but a far from unfulfilling one. If you want a potted history of Test cricket’s oldest continuous rivalry – and you want to be entertained into the bargain – then look no further.The Ashes Miscellany Clive Batty (VSP 146pp)

The problem with books of miscellany is that the originals have spawned some dreadful offspring with little merit aimed at nothing more than cashing in on the sales boom. In the last couple of months there have been two such dire offerings, so it was a delight to find that The Ashes Miscellany is a return to the well-researched and entertaining kind of book that made the genre so popular in the first place. The contents will appeal to both those who consider themselves well versed in Ashes history and casual cricket fans who want trivia to impress their friends in the pub. It would have been too easy to pad the book with well-worn anecdotes and page-filling statistics, but Clive Batty has avoided that short cut and produced a genuinely good publication.The Book of Ashes Anecdotes Gideon Haigh (Mainstream 376pp)

The delight of setting out on a review of anything by Gideon Haigh is that you know it will be a quality read, and this collection of quotes and book extracts is no exception. He has produced a similar offering before – his 1997 Australian Cricket Anecdotes is well worth snuffling out – and this follows a similar format. Some of the entries are familiar but many are not, and it is those that shed a new light on many events in Ashes history. What really makes this, however, is that Haigh has not gone down the route of reproducing pithy one-liners but has opted for longer extracts, and this allows the flavour of the writers and characters to come through and make a more lasting effect. I found the Bodyline section the most interesting, especially Douglas Jardine’s reflection on it and Bradman some years later. “You know, we nearly didn’t do it,” he said. “The little man was bloody good.” That last sentiment also applies to Haigh’s book.

Cricket’s Burning Passion Scyld Berry and Rupert Peploe (Methuen 206pp)

In his introduction, Michael Atherton notes that amid all the Ashes brouhaha in 2005, few actually knew much about the urn at the heart of all the fuss. The challenge for Berry and Peploe (the great grandson of Ivo Bligh, the man who regained the Ashes lost in 1882) was to bring alive a tour which took place 124 years ago. That they have done, and the end result is a remarkable story and a compelling read. Bligh is one of the game’s more colourful characters and those who toured with him – and almost all of them died young – are a fascinating rabble. And as for the urn? Well, there remains some uncertainty about its contents. Some say it is a burnt bail, others a burnt piece of leather from a ball. Most likely, however, it is ash from fires at Bligh’s run-down stately home – more than one tale exists of the urn being knocked over and the contents spilled and replaced from the fireplace by clumsy servants. The Ashes are possibly sports’ least intrinsically valuable trophy. This book helps to explain why they are priceless.Match of My Life Sam Pilger and Rob Wightman (Know the Score books, 240pp)

It requires something really unique for a new Ashes book to poke itshead above the masses. And though Sam Pilger and Rob Wightman’s lacks a certain gravitas, the 12 namesfeatured provide enough interesting and amusing anecdotes to hold thereader’s attention span. The premise is simple: 12 famous Ashes namesrecount their stories. The usual and the modern are all there: AshleyGiles, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer – but far too much has alreadybeen said about 2005, the series which apparently beats all that precede it.Fortunately there are others to address the balance and Neil Harveyopens the book’s innings. Written in his own words Harvey recounts hisfirst Ashes Test (he made 112in the first innings scored the winning run in Australia’s chaseof 404). It is written with candour with amusing stories of the tours -meeting King George VI and Keith Miller’s friendship with the currentqueen, Elizabeth – which comes as a relief. Langer’s, on the otherhand, is too misty-eyed; a syrupy tone is best left for the biography.And writing in the third person, which he does once or twice, is aninstant mood-killer too. Talking of killing the mood, Geoffrey Boycott- an inevitable name to appear in such a collection – ischaracteristically candid, although offers a little too much on hisown achievements. It’s Geoffrey, though, and therefore requiredreading. Overall, it is a crisp, brisk and enjoyable view intoplayers’ experiences of playing in the Ashes. It’s a little different,too, and therefore worth a look.

Dav Whatmore speaks on the progress of Bangladesh cricket and also the shortcomings

Sambit Bal15-May-2007

Depending on which way you are looking at it, Dav Whatmore has either had the easiest or the hardest job in world cricket for the last four years. There were no expectations to manage, and starting at the bottom, Bangladesh could only have gone up. But conversely, dealing with failure
daily and having to work with meager resources and lack of knowledge could have been draining. Whatmore, it must be said, has coped. He kept his chin up through defeats and kept his feet on the ground after the odd moment of glory.The World Cup brought Bangladesh’s finest hours, but somehow aptly, it also ended gloomily, with a defeat at the hands of Ireland in the penultimate match. Whatmore announced his resignation a day after the World Cup campaign ended, but he says it was always meant
to be that way.This interview was conducted a couple of hours after his resignation had become public and Whatmore spoke candidly about a wide range of topics. About Bangladesh cricket, he didn’t hide his frustrations, but neither did he let it cloud his optimism.This will be your last series with Bangladesh. There are clear signs that Bangladesh cricket has progressed under you, so what made you give it up?
After four years, I just felt that the time was right to move on. In those four years I’ve been away from family, which wasn’t the case in Sri Lanka – we’d made a home in Colombo. So we knew that when I took up the job in Bangladesh, we were going to be apart.I guess it was a slow build-up over that time. The team has improved and I just get the feeling that the time is right. And, together with the Bangladesh Cricket Board, we have agreed that at the end of May we should part ways.How was coaching Bangladesh different from coaching Sri Lanka?
We are in the process of becoming a competitive team, and we have shown some really good examples of what this team is can do. We are becoming consistent but we have to get a lot more consistent. When you are developing, you are working with boys who are trying, boys who are a product of their own culture. Domestic cricket here has not been as well developed as in India,
Pakistan and the western countries. So you are expecting these boys to play locally and then pick them to play pretty tough international competition. To me that is the number one thing that
needs to be addressed over time and it is being addressed – they are doing as good a job as possible in preparing a tough domestic competition from which you pick the national team.
Then you have to look at their background, their ability to understand, the ability to then go and apply it. It’s all to do with being able to cope with stressful situations. And this is where the boys fail a bit. I mean, they can play fantastic shots as batsmen, but being able to make the right decisions in stressful situations in the issue.Yes, sometimes I wonder about basic cricket knowledge. We know
that when a right-hand batsman is facing a left-arm fast bowler trying to
bowl quick across your body, trying to pull is harder, and that is the
natural thing that you expect to be taught when you are younger but
it is unheard of. The lack of basic knowledge is a bit staggering really.
When these young cricketers were growing up in youth cricket, they weren’t
told about the basics of cricket.How much of the batting really flows naturally and how much can be
ingrained?
You can teach. If there is an area that is weak, improve that. But not to
the point where, if you have a favourite shot and a least favourite shot, no matter
how much you practice you are not going to bring it up to the level of the
favourite shot. But you can improve skills in areas where you are deficient
and it is enough to get you out of trouble. People are bouncing you all the time and
knowing how to handle it and to be in a position to get there a fraction
earlier will help you.But coaching Bangladesh is perhaps very different from
coaching any other international side.
Not so very different but the boys need more guidance, a bit
more technical assistance.

You have had four years with Bangladesh. How much of the distance has been
bridged in that time?
First of all, we have jumped from 9 to 8.But, that’s because Zimbabwe have disintegrated completely.
Now they have, they were still beating us earlier. Only about a year ago,
when we went there they won 3-2. On the next tour, inside 12 months, we beat
them 3-1. It’s significant for us to go to Zimbabwe and win there. For the
first time, we went out and won outside our home conditions. To win abroad
was still a difficult task for us at that time. But now we can. That’s an
indication of the team growing.Is there a belief now that at your very best you can compete with anybody?
We have shown we can win a game. We have done so against Australia, South Africa, India twice, Sri Lanka and New Zealand in a practice match. When you are
looking at progress in the team, you will also have boys like Rafique,
who are getting on in years. We might make a change or two with our senior
players and we might have a horrific loss of form with a good youngster.
Teams will change. We are averaging around 23 years but there will
still be some changes. You have to be lucky sometimes to be around with
an era of good youngsters coming through. At the moment we are okay, we
have found Saqibul Hasan, Aftab Ahmed, Tamim Iqbal, a few more coming
around too. When you look at the prognosis you have to contend with
that too, other teams are also facing the same thing. Are they going
to move further ahead, or will we bridge the gap? It’s not always
easy to forecast.What you can confidently project is that the domestic competition can get
better. They are going to put more money into the four-day game. Parallel to
that is the cricket board’s commitment to developing the under-19
programme, which has a World Cup every two years. We have done very
well in that.That’s one of the noticeable changes. There seems to be a sense of
confidence and belonging among the guys who have come through the under-19
route that wasn’t the case 4-5 years earlier.
They have the added advantage of being exposed to more
contemporary coaching and techniques, because we have had a
couple of Aussies here. We still haven’t got the infrastructure and
facilities like other countries. Maybe even India, what they’ve got is more than what
has been the case in the past. The youngsters are getting a bit more
confident with the help of the Australians coming in and coaching
them. Now that they have done well in the World Cup, it has given their
confidence a boost. It’s a snowballing effect. I want to see
temperament in the team. I want to see a nice ordinary guy doing
extraordinary things on the field. I want people to look at you and admire
you for what you do.A lot of them have the hardware, but the software they need to improve on.
We have all seen Aftab Ahmed play unbelievable shots but he get to the 20s and gets out. His intensity is high because he has always had this desire to do well. He has learnt fairly quickly and we all can see it. It’s a big contrast from what it began as. He is a brilliant fielder too. But he needs to be more disciplined. It needs a bit of discipline to ensure you get to that timing in the middle just flows.

The two teams you beat in this World Cup you beat quite comprehensively, it wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t that you beat them on their off day. You beat them because you were the better team
that day.
I always felt that when we start well we are much better. If we don’t start that well, then it becomes a much bigger job to bring it back in line. This has happened very often. The ability is there, but sometimes it just clicks. So it may be that on those days you don’t have
to be as disciplined to get into the zone. That doesn’t happen very often, that’s when you have to work to get through difficult periods to be in that comfortable zone. That’s when sometimes the boys don’t work hard enough. They are better used to slogging rampantly to get out of trouble. They are trying to work harder now in terms of discipline. But still some way to go!But there were times when they just couldn’t close out anything. They would get themselves to a winning situation and blow it. We have seen in a couple of Test matches, it happens a bit more now.
We were close to winning against Australia. It was so much of a disbelief. We had a lead of 150. We got out in the second innings with a target of 300 plus for Australia to get. The one thing that everyone overlooked was the condition of the pitch. You could have played eight days on it. The bloody thing wouldn’t turn either, and still if Mashrafe [Mortaza] had taken Ponting’s catch we would have been close to winning a Test match. We were close on Pakistan too, but we were desperately unlucky with a few decisions. There have been some good first innings performances in Test matches. The players are not versatile enough, batting in the second innings is not the same as batting in the first innings. They still haven’t acquired this skill completely. It will happen, with the help of the four-day games in domestic cricket.Now a tough question. There is a belief that Bangladesh are not yet Test -ready and it actually doesn’t help anyone, including themselves, if they get beaten hopelessly so often. We have seen how competing and winning against Zimbabwe and other Associates has helped develop their one-day game. Would not a similar approach help them develop their Test cricket too?
The fact that we play a few associate countries in one-day internationals gives us the winning habit and keeps the boys doing well. We haven’t played Test match cricket in 12 months but, in the games that we did play, there were some very encouraging signs though at the end of the day we were still beaten. There are two schools of approach to this; one is as you have put it, and the other is to continue playing games against strong opposition so you understand the level of competition, what you have to do over a five-day period to end up winning.Can Bangladesh look at the possibility of playing Duleep Trophy to improve their abilities at Test cricket, instead of being thrashed by teams like Australia?
I don’t think its possible. But I am aware that the cricketing world wants to see a strong Bangladesh Test team because it has naturally the ingredients in the country – the population, the interest, the money, it has all the prerequisites that you think they need to become a pretty decent team in time. How we get there is the question. We are a full member country, I don’t think stripping it will help. What we need is assistance. Maybe it is a course of thinking that would be acceptable to the cricket board and also to the ICC and other countries.That they consider this as an interim situation, where we don’t play as many a games against full members but to do something similar to what we have done in the one-day competition, especially when we play higher ranked teams. It has to be done with everyone’s full cooperation, with the express concern being that we need Bangladesh to be a strong team in Test cricket. It has to be something like an interim condition, where they remain a full member country. We need to create conditions for them to compete and play proper Test cricket.

Cricinfo runs through the A-Z of 2006

Andrew Miller03-Jan-2007

The Ashes series was meant to be the highlight of the year, but turned into an Australian cakewalk © Getty Images
A is for Ashes
Or Anticlimax, as it turned out. Sequels invariably suck, and this one wasno exception. The Australian fans turned out in their droves, desperate towitness a re-run of last year’s classic. Instead they witnessed a re-run ofevery other England visit of the past 16 years. But at least they hadvengeance to keep them satisfied.B is for Boot camp
The beginning of the end for England’s Ashes prospects, not that Shane Warnequite saw it that way. “I think it is one of John Buchanan’s wonderful,mastermind things that keeps everyone stumped,” he said, with more than ahint of sarcasm. Warne and his team-mates were packed off, I’m aCelebrity-style, to the Queensland jungle to where they were referred to asnumbers, not names, and made to lug full jerry-cans on 20km hikes. Still, itall paid off in the end, I suppose.C is for Chittagong
The venue for the most flabbergasting performance of the year, bar none. Theonly shame about Jason Gillespie’s astonishing unbeaten Test double-centuryagainst Bangladesh – on his 31st birthday to boot – is that hisworld-beating mullet wasn’t around to share the moment. It had already gotthe chop, as Gillespie himself did immediately after the match. He has sinceembarked on a successful second career as a pub-quiz question.D is for Dad’s Army
He may be England’s unofficial cheerleader, but this was not one of IanBotham’s cleverest jibes. “They are just a bunch of colonial geriatrics,” hetold The News of the World. “I want to hear England saying how goodthey are and how piss poor the Dad’s Army of Aussies are.” Whoops.

If you were burning in 2006 you’d been in the news © AFP
E is for Effigies
The ultimate guide to what’s hot and what’s not. If your image wasn’thoisted onto the shoulders of angry mobs, set alight, and paraded throughthe streets of Lahore, Kolkata or Varanasi, then you simply weren’tnewsworthy enough. Congratulations then to Darrell Hair, Greg Chappell andRicky Ponting, the mob’s men of the year. And a special mention to Damien”The Donkey” Martyn.F is for Flintoff
AKA the Fallen. Poor old Freddie didn’t have a good year. Ankle surgery,poor form, an Ashes hammering to remove the gloss of 2005. Mumbai aside,he discovered – like Ian Botham before him – that the England captaincyisn’t very conducive to allround heroics.G is for Ghosts
… of captains past. Michael Vaughan has been hanging around Australia likethe spectre at the feast, Sourav Ganguly has been embarrassing hisobituarists in South Africa. Both England and India would benefit if theirformer captains moved along quietly and let the next generation get on withit, but that’s not exactly in the nature of either man.H is for Hair
The man who split the cricket world asunder with his pig-headed performanceat The Oval. Never mind the rights and wrongs of that infamous five-runpenalty or Pakistan’s subsequent protest. It was the absurd inevitability ofthe whole episode that still rankles. You could just sense that Hair, a manwith “previous” where subcontinental teams are concerned, was itching tocause a scene … and he amply succeeded.I is for Inzamam-ul-Haq
A moderately eventful 12 months for Pakistan’s man-mountain of a captain.Comedy dismissals, forfeited Tests, diplomatic stand-offs, seven-matchsuspensions. Like cricket’s Forrest Gump, Inzy seemed to have been thebewildered focus of every major event last year. Life wasn’t quite abox of chocolates for his team, though.

Mark Boucher and Makhaya Ntini celebrate incredible victory at the Wanderers © Getty Images
J is for JohannesburgA glorious freak of a performance, or a glimpse of the future of one-daycricket? The pitch was pristine and the bowlers were cannon fodder, notleast Mick Lewis (10-0-113-0) who joined Gillespie in the pub-quiz stakes,but the entertainment was unstinting. Australia made 434 … and lost. By onewicket. With one ball to spare. A disbelieving Bullring pinched themselveswith every six.K is for KP
No absurd hairstyles. KP’s weekly appearance in Heatmagazine had been secured by his celebrity engagement to Liberty X’s JessicaTaylor. His daily appearances on the back pages, meanwhile, were secured by another series of colossal performances. But watch this space.The rumour is that he’s less loved by his team-mates than he is by himself.When you see his kit go flying out of the dressing-room window at Sydneythis week, you’ll know it’s official.L is for Lalit Modi
Rampant commercialisation was the story of India’s year, and Modi was aman who would build a block of flats on the site of the Lord’s pavilion ifhe thought the BCCI logo could be weaved into the architect’s plans. Comeback Jagmohan Dalmiya, all is forgiven!M is for Monty
The new darling of English cricket saw it all last year. He was lauded and lampooned, showered with accolades and snubbed by his own coach.The BBC Sports Personality crown just eluded his grasp, Beard of the Yeardid not, but amid all the triumphs and tribulations, the one thing that shone through was his devout professionalism. Never mind his 40 wickets inthe year, his proudest achievement was his promotion to No. 10 in England’sbatting order.N is for Nandrolone
Cricket always thought it was too grand to get involved in such grubbyissues as steroid abuse, but then along came the incredible ego of ShoaibAkhtar to disabuse the naïve of such a notion. He and the less worldly-wiseMohammad Asif were busted for using the muscle-booster, Nandrolone, andbanned for two years and a year respectively. But then, inevitably, they gotoff on appeal, and a murky business got even murkier.

Darrell Hair sparked cricket’s biggest crisis of the year at The Oval © Getty Images
O is for Ovalgate
The first Test forfeiture in cricket’s 129-year history was a schemozzlefrom start to finish. The five-run penalty for alleged ball-tampering, theimpromptu post-tea protest from the Pakistanis, the brief flirtation with aresumption, the refusal of Hair and Billy Doctrove to play ball, thesingular lack of information being imparted to the crowd. At 10.30pm, almostsix hours and a thousand meetings later, England were awarded the mosthollow victory of all time.P is for Ponting
Or “Possessed”, for that is what Australia’s captain has been in his bid toright the wrongs of 2005. That summer, he was as tactically mobile as aDalek facing Doctor Who; this winter, he’s been as focussed as England havebeen flaccid – his furious 196 at the Gabba a case in point. And it’s notjust been the Ashes – his burning will scorched all opposition all yearlong; 10 Tests, seven hundreds, nothing less than victory on each occasion.R is for Retirements
Of which there were several, most of them high-profile and Australian.R is also for Ramprakash, who finally demonstrated he can cut it on the bigstage by inheriting Darren Gough’s crown in the BBC’s celebrityballroom-dancing caper, “Strictly Come Dancing”.S is for Stress-related illness
The mystery ailment that has, in all probability, brought MarcusTrescothick’s international career to a sadly premature end. He left thetour of India in February in tears, beneath an ECB smokescreen of incredibleimpenetrability, and has not been the same since. The threat of “burn-out”was voiced on numerous occasions in an over-loaded year, and Trescothick, one of the game’s hardest-working and most likeable characters,became its most high-profile victim.

Shane Warne passed 700 Test wickets and called an end to his Test career © Getty Images
T is for Terrorist
“The terrorist has got another wicket” was Dean Jones’s heroically dimremark, shortly after Kumar Sangakkara had been caught by South Africa’sbearded Muslim, Hashim Amla, during the second Test in Colombo. Jones wassacked by Ten Sports almost before the utterance had passed his lips, butwithin the month he was back, denying he’d ever erred. “Amla got the catch,Nicky Boje was the bowler,” he wibbled. “I’ll leave it up to you to work outwho I was referring to.” Nice one. Except it had been Pollock bowling at thetime.U is for Urn
After years of Aussie indignation that their Ashes urn was stillholed up in the museum at Lord’s, the MCC finally arranged for a specialone-off trip Down Under. “Urn, Ashes Mr” arrived in Sydney on October 17,having flown business class from London, strapped into its very own seat.The tour could have been the ultimate insult, given that England were, foronce, the holders, but it ended up as the ultimate incentive for victory.”It’s clearly too fragile to fly home,” said Ricky Ponting after sealing theseries in Perth.V is for Vermeulen
A sad footnote in the wider decline of Zimbabwean cricket. When thecountry’s cricket academy was burned to the ground in October, the finger ofsuspicion soon pointed at the troubled figure of Mark Vermeulen, a man whoearlier in the month had been found at the gates of Robert Mugabe’s palacein Harare, demanding to speak to the president, in spite of the fact thatpeople had been shot for less. In September 2005, he was banned from Lancashireclub cricket after a raging altercation with a member of the crowd, and asubsequent on-pitch punch-up.W is for Warne
Even the great man himself seemed pretty dumbfounded at the MCG last week.”I don’t know who’s writing my scripts, but they are pretty good,” heremarked, after grabbing five first-innings wickets, including his landmark700th, on the first day of his final Test in front of his adoring homecrowd. He went on to take seven in the match, as well as a valedictory 40not out, to set up the prospect of a farewell Ashes whitewash. What aperformer.

Conversion rates: a record-breaking year for Mohammad Yousuf © AFP
X is for crossing out a name on the team sheet
Which is what Graeme Smith was forced to do moments before the toss in November’s third ODI against India at Cape Town. As he walked down the pavilionsteps, he was met by Haroon Lorgat, the convenor of South Africa’sselectors, who insisted that Andre Nel was not fit to play and that AndrewHall should replace him. Smith vented his opinions in no uncertain terms,before kneeling on an adjacent pitch and making the necessary adjustments.Minutes later, still steaming with indignation, he was dismissed second ballfor a duck.Y is for Mohammad Yousuf
In 2006, the man formerly known as Yousuf Youhana gave a new meaning toconversion rate. He abandoned the underachieving wastefulness that haddefined the first seven years of his career, embraced Islam and all thedisciplines that are inherent in it, and clattered his way to a world-record1788 runs in the year, including nine hundreds in 11 matches. Coincidence? Idon’t suppose he thinks so.Z is for Zombies
Those poor fools who turned their winters upside-down, hoping to watchEngland retain the Ashes Down Under in a series so exhilarating that 2005resembled a seven-match ODI series between USA and Zimbabwe. Like the team,most fans had drifted out of contention before lunch on the first day atthe Gabba.Are there other incidents that we have missed out? Tell us what you would include.

More people are flocking to Australian domestic Twenty20 games than before and the board plans to cash in with an extravaganza that sounds a lot like the one in India

Brydon Coverdale21-Jan-2010A funny thing has been happening this month: people have been going to domestic cricket in Australia. A lot of people. Last week, 43,125 turned up to the MCG to watch Victoria beat Tasmania in a Big Bash match. This wasn’t the tournament final, you understand (that’s this Saturday at the Adelaide Oval); it was just a regular Twenty20 game between two states. Fewer fans showed up for day three of the Boxing Day Test this summer.By contrast, going to Sheffield Shield cricket at the MCG is like watching a school play at the Sydney Opera House – only family, friends, and a handful of curious onlookers bother showing up. A four-day game between the same sides at the same venue would be lucky to attract 1000 people a day, and you half expect the batsmen to be distracted by tumbleweeds rolling across the field.It’s not surprising that Cricket Australia is excited, for it is already planning a bigger Twenty20 tournament that will rewrite the way domestic cricket is played in Australia. For the 2011-12 season, Australia’s Twenty20 tournament will not feature teams like Western Australia and Queensland. Those sides will be Perth and Brisbane. The six state capitals will field teams and there will be two extra sides, likely to be based in non-capital-city growth areas like Geelong or the Gold Coast or Newcastle.A national draft is on the cards, meaning that a state icon like Brad Hodge, if he’s still playing, could line up for Sydney instead of his beloved Victoria. Foreign players will be in the mix as well, although whether teams could choose any more than the current limit of two is undecided.It all sounds suspiciously similar to another tournament that held a player auction this week, and while there are strong parallels the Bigger Bash, or whatever it’s ultimately called, will never rival the IPL. For starters, the teams won’t be privately owned in the beginning – the state cricket associations will run the city sides.Mike McKenna, the general manager of marketing at Cricket Australia, is in charge of a working group looking at how to structure the new competition. He said franchising of teams could be a possibility in the future, but for the time being the aim was simply to build a club-like following among fans, similar to that seen in the Australian Football League or the National Rugby League, with the teams funnelling into the existing Champions League.”The IPL has been one of the references,” McKenna told Cricinfo. “We’ve looked more at Australian sport for an example of what’s worked. There are plenty of good examples, we’ve got some fantastic professional sports leagues. We’ve got to get the foundations of the game right before we can even talk about private investment. Sport in Australia is not full of great successes in private investment.”The IPL, one of the things they have is an unbelievable amount of money. We’re never going to get that sort of money. It means we can’t splash around the way they do. One of the things we will focus on is the quality of cricket in our teams. From year to year, hopefully our teams will do well at the Champions League and prove that it’s a very good quality competition.”There’s an argument that the Big Bash is already a high-quality tournament. New South Wales won the inaugural Champions League and so far this year, Big Bash crowds are up 80% and the television viewing audience is up 15% on last summer. But Cricket Australia wants the eight teams so it can not only push into parts of Australia where cricket is a massive participant sport without an elite presence, but also to expose more players to the top level.

For the 2011-12 season, Australia’s Twenty20 tournament will not feature teams like Western Australia and Queensland. Those sides will be Perth and Brisbane. The six state capitals will field teams and there will be two extra sides, likely to be based in non-capital-city growth areas like Geelong or the Gold Coast or Newcastle

Of course, it’s not that simple. Many questions are yet to be answered. With more elite positions up for grabs, will young players focus on winning a Twenty20 spot with the Gold Coast Gold-Diggers, and the IPL deals that could follow, rather than on breaking into their state’s Sheffield Shield team? Cricket Australia’s party line is that the baggy green will remain the ultimate goal for emerging players, but that’s of little relevance if they have spent their junior years slogging sixes instead of building patient innings on difficult pitches.When can it be played? If foreign stars and Australia’s Test and ODI players are to take part, and Ricky Ponting believes that must happen for it to be a success, the options in peak holiday time are limited. Late January is a possibility but the scheduling raises another even more important question.Will the Sheffield Shield be cut back to make way? Money and pizzazz aside, that’s the question that could most shape the future of Australian cricket. Six teams play each other twice in the Sheffield Shield, which results in 10 first-class games a season and one of the most elite domestic competitions in the world. It’s where the baggy-green stars are born, and if 10 matches becomes nine or eight or seven, then Australia’s Test team cannot help but suffer.”There’s not actually a real problem at the moment,” McKenna said. “We’ve done some modelling around it and the modelling is based around the principle that we keep the same number of Shield games we’ve got now. We see it as the pathway to the Australian cricket team.”We’re not looking to tinker with that too much. The reality is the season, when it’s bookended by the Champions League at one end and the IPL at the other, and other sporting codes, that there’s only so much time to play. So our expansion at the moment is based on that principle. If it changes, we have to be very careful how we handle that from a talent-development point of view.”For now, the details remain sketchy. But fans of domestic cricket in Australia should prepare for a big shake-up.

The Indian batsmen threw away the opportunity to beat Australia in two successive matches, turning a deaf ear to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s call for caution

Nagraj Gollapudi at the Adelaide Oval17-Feb-2008
Irfan Pathan took 4 for 41 with ball, but the move to push him to No. 3 batting spot didn’t work © Getty Images
The Indian bowlers have every reason to be annoyed. Led by Irfan Pathan, they did an admirable job in the afternoon, forcing Australia into a corner and giving their batsmen an opportunity to achieve the rare feat of beating the world champions in successive games. Instead, the Indian batsmen threw away that opportunity, turning a deaf ear to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s call for caution. The result was a huge disappointment for the visitors as Ricky Ponting and his men rose to the challenge and thoroughly exposed the frailties in the Indian batting order.Chasing a small target is often tricky, and the best way to avoid the pitfalls is to keep wickets intact. That lesson was, unfortunately, lost on the Indians today. It’s not the first time this Indian batting order has proved vulnerable. In the series opener, against the same opposition at the Gabba, their batting order was a series of stumbling blocks. Even though they beat Australia in Melbourne, their run-chase of 160 was anything but smooth – they slumped to 5 for 102 before Dhoni and Rohit Sharma performed the rescue act.After that victory, which remains the solitary one for India in the tournament, Dhoni had pointed out that there was a lot of work to be done by the batsmen, especially in the area of protecting their wickets. However, apart from their second game, against Sri Lanka at the Gabba where they amassed 267, the Indian batting order continues to be creaky, and Dhoni must be tired of being constantly forced to do the repair job.One area of concern is the middle order’s dependence on Sachin Tendulkar – if he falls early India invariably struggle to post a significant total. At a time when Dhoni and the selection committee have shown their commitment to back youth, Tendulkar’s imprint remains hard to replace. India’s final score has invariably had a strong correlation to the opening stand: in the first game against Australia the first wicket fell at 12 and India folded for 194; an opening stand of 68 was the launching pad for the 267 against Sri Lanka; in the third clash, against Australia, the opening pair was split at 18 and India struggled to overhaul a small total; in their fourth game, the openers gave a flying start of 45 which was converted into a final total of 195 by the middle order in the rain-reduced encounter against Sri Lanka.On Sunday Tendulkar struggled in his brief stay of 15 balls. His innings epitomised the problems for the rest of the batsman. At a time when the key was to keep wickets in hand, rotate the strike and build partnerships, all the batsmen failed on each of those counts.To make matters worse, the think-tank continued with the experiment of promoting Pathan to No. 3. Dhoni insisted later that the move was the right one, but he might want to reconsider this policy for the rest of the games. In the two matches in which Pathan has batted at one-down, he hasn’t looked the part and has been dismissed cheaply. Moreover, the tactic left Robin Uthappa with the unenviable task of attempting a rearguard with little support at the other end, which ultimately forced him to try outrageous and low-percentage shots. Uthappa at six and Pathan at seven would have given India’s last specialist batsman a much better chance to turn things around, knowing that he had a player at the other end who could hold his own.It’s not every day that a team gets the opportunity to beat Australia in successive matches. But the Indians had that chance, and, thanks largely to their young bowling line-up, have become a constant thorn for the Australians. Unlike the batsmen, who crumbled in a heap, the Indian bowling attack had a plan, and they worked diligently at it. Even when things occasionally went awry – like it did when Sreesanth lost his way in his opening spell – the mistakes were quickly corrected, thanks to a combination of astute captaincy, sharp fielding and the bowlers’ willingness to stick to the basics. These lessons now need to be passed on to the batsmen.

Within the next week or so, several of the Stanford Superstars must come back to earth and link up again with the established WICB management

Tony Cozier10-Aug-2008

As Julian Hunte and Donald Peters were at their kiss-and-make-up lunch in Antigua last week, settling an issue that had absolutely nothing to do with the depressed state of West Indies cricket, 30 players were going through the rigours of training and coaching nearby.They were all West Indian but, even though the next official West Indies assignments are the Associates tri-series in Toronto in August and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in September, they weren’t there as a West Indies team.While president Hunte occupied himself with chief executive Peters’ handling of a report claiming the WICB paid for the work on his office in St Lucia, no side had yet been announced for either Toronto or Pakistan – and still hasn’t.What is more, confusion remained over Chris Gayle’s resignation as captain.
There were no such distractions for the players in Antigua, members of the initial Stanford Superstars squad for the breathtaking US$20 million one-off winner-take-all challenge match against England, devised and financed by Texan billionaire Allen Stanford at his ground adjoining the VC Bird International Airport, almost three months distant on November 1.They were there for a fortnight’s training camp, ending on Wednesday, that the Stanford organisation said was “designed to upgrade the fitness levels of the players and fine-tune their all-round cricket skills”. There would also be “emphasis on other critical aspects of the game such as team work, strategy formulation and video analysis review”.The Superstars are under the direction of head coach Eldine Baptiste and his deputy Roger Harper, the former West Indies allrounder with compelling coaching credentials. Sir Viv Richards, the chief selector, and Lance Gibbs, the manager, are the West Indies icons who are part of the event. Cardigan Connor, the Anguillan who played for several seasons with Hampshire, will be Gibbs’ assistant.They were augmented by “specialist advice from several of the legends of West Indies cricket on the Stanford 20/20 board of directors and other experts including the internationally-renowned fielding coach Julian Fountain”.As his investment of unprecedented millions into the game confirms, Stanford doesn’t deal in half-measures. He has no intention of depositing his US$20 million into English bank accounts and has called in West Indian heavyweights to ensure that he doesn’t have to. If those picked do not benefit from the exercise, they had no right being there.Yet it gives rise to an obvious dichotomy. Within the next week or so, several of the Superstars must come back to earth and link up again with the established WICB management for the upcoming tournaments.Coach John Dyson, assistant David Williams and manager Omar Khan are all relatively new to their jobs. They are still feeling their way, trying to overcome the inconsistent performances of the team and the consistent bungling of the board.Now their main charges return from a fresh experience under different coaches, presumably with different methods. It is a situation to be repeated over the next five years that these multi-million dollar, one-off extravaganzas are scheduled.For the past two weeks in Antigua, the adrenaline of Stanford’s Superstars would have been driven by the hype surrounding the November 1 event. They would have been flattered by the close and constant attention of the West Indies greats and five-star amenities. Not least, they would have had ample time to contemplate the unprecedented wealth on offer.They now have to return to reality, to a low-key series against Canada and Bermuda in Toronto, followed by the Champions Trophy in Pakistan that most players would rather avoid. November 1 can’t come around fast enough.It all adds up to a formidable challenge for Dyson and his associates to assert their influence once more.