Praveen Kumar exhibited some deadly swing bowling at the Wankhede Stadium, prompting Manoj Prabhakar to label him a magician

Sriram Veera in Mumbai18-Jan-2008

Labelled a magician by Manoj Prabhakar, Praveen Kumar has his eyes set on the ODI series in Australia © Cricinfo Ltd
“He is a magician”. When Manoj Prabhakar, a wonderful practitioner of theart of swing bowling, says that about someone, therecipient must possess some talent. That’s exactly what Praveen Kumar exhibited at the Wankhede Stadium in the Ranji Trophy final.The lanky bowler comes from a family of wrestlers and it shows when hehas a bat in his hand – it’s easier to hit a six than a four, he once said in an interview – but with a ball, especially a shiny one, he uses more brain than brawn. As Aakash Chopra duly realised, trapped in front with the late curling inswinger on 102.”His biggest strength is that he bowls these inswingers fromclose to the stumps,” an impressed Chopra said. “Most of the others bowlthat from wide of the crease and it’s easier for a batsman to play that angle. But when someone does that from close, the swing starts late and the angleis difficult to play.”Without taking anything away from Chopra’s fine knock, the fact that he faced only nine Praveen deliveries in his opening spell on thesecond day and lasted only two today is a tribute to the bowler.Hustling in from a medium-pacer’s run-up, Praveen moves close to the stumps and keepshis wrist cocked up till late. A whipping motion at the point of release allows him to move the ball both ways, with much work coming from the wrist.Ashish Zaidi, Uttar Pradesh’s bowling coach, has been working withPraveen to develop his outswinger. “He has a natural inswinger andwe have both worked hard on his wrist position to get the other one,” Zaidi said. “He hasbecome much more dangerous now.”Prabhakar shot a note of warning though: “He has to increase his pace abit and not lose his swing obviously. Then he can trouble internationalbatsmen.”I faced such a problem in my early days. I used to swing it morebut the batsmen had the time to play me. So I worked on increasing the paceand it paid off. Kumar has to do it. I am not talking about express paceor sacrificing it for swing but a little more – that combination ofpace and swing hurts the batsman.”Zaidi concurred and said Praveen had increased his pace since lastseason. “[In the last three years] he has started to think the batsmen out. He always hadthe ability to swing into the batsmen and has begun to move it the other way now but themost important thing is that he has matured and has started towork out the batsman.”Hustling in from a medium-pacer’s run-up, Kumar moves close to the stumps and keepshis wrist cocked up till late. A whipping motion at the point of release allows him to move the ball both ways, with much work coming from the wristThe left-handed Shikar Dhawan was set up nicely with two away swingersbefore he curled one back in to clean him up. Gautam Gambhir’s ego wasplayed on – a lone man in the covers on the off side saw Gambhir play anexpansive drive off his second ball – and Chopra was done in by thesecond successive inswinger.Asked whether he thinks this performance will push his case for selectionfor the one-day series in Australia, Kumar’s retort was swift: “What case? I have beenperforming consistently over the season. I just want the team to win andhopefully everything will go all right.”The answers are spat out in away as if he doesn’t really care what you think of him. But there is noapparent malice.On Thursday, while batting, he sent the first delivery he faced – a good length ball -soaring over long-on, was dropped off an attempted pull and repeated thatshot to get out. “Lag gaya to jayega hi (if I hit it, it willtravel),” the wrestler from the akhada in Meerut said with a shrug ofa shoulder.It says a lot about his character. Zaidi calls him a mastmaula (free spirit).”He can come across as abrasive at times but he just speaks his mind,doesn’t put up an act or bother about any one. Someone you would like on your side.”

The most prolific against the men from the Caribbean, most runs without a duck, and English teenagers

Steven Lynch15-Jan-2008

I saw that Jacques Kallis passed 2000 runs in Tests against West Indies the other day. Has anyone else scored more, against West Indies or anybody? asked Joubert Franck from Cape Town
Jacques Kallis was actually the sixth man to reach the milestone of 2000 runs in Tests against West Indies. He now has 2073 runs against them, just ahead of Allan Border (2052), but still behind Steve Waugh
(2192), Graham Gooch
(2197), Geoff Boycott (2205)
and the clear leader Sunil
Gavaskar, whose 2749 runs included a record 13 centuries against West
Indies. Kallis, though, averages 74.03 against them, the highest of anyone
with more than 2000 runs. The record against a single Test opponent is held
by the one and only Don
Bradman, with 5028 for Australia against England.Has anyone taken 100 wickets in ODIs against a single opposing team?
asked Nishin de Silva from Colombo
No one has yet managed this particular feat. Top of the list, with 92
against Sri Lanka, is the leading wicket-taker in all ODIs, Wasim Akram. He’s also in
second place on this particular list, with 89 wickets for Pakistan against
West Indies. Third is his longtime new-ball partner Waqar Younis, with 84 against
Sri Lanka, just ahead of Muttiah Muralitharan, with 81
for Sri Lanka against Pakistan.Who took the most wickets in one-day internationals in 2007? asked
Ahmat Ranawat from Vadodara
The top wicket-taker in ODIs in 2007 was New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori, with 43, just ahead
of Zaheer Khan of India, with
40. They were both quite a long way short of the alltime record, 69 wickets
by Pakistan’s Saqlain Mushtaq in
1997. For a full list of the bowlers with most ODI wickets in a calendar
year, click here.Mike Hussey just passed 2000 Test runs without a duck – is this
unique? asked Dan Martin from Adelaide
Before the Perth Test against India Michael Hussey had scored 2120 Test
runs without a duck. He’s just behind the South African AB de Villiers, who has now scored
2201 runs without being out for 0 – his 63 duckless innings is the current
record (Hussey has 33). Sri Lanka’s Aravinda de Silva holds the
overall record – he had scored 2779 runs before being finally out for a duck
in his 75th innings, in his 45th Test, in 1994-95.Have any teenagers ever played Test cricket for England? asked Tim
Milgate
The youngest man ever to play for England was Yorkshire’s Brian Close, who was 18 years and
149 days old when he made his Test debut against New Zealand at Old Trafford in 1949. Two other
teenagers have represented England in Tests: Denis Compton and Ben Hollioake were both
19 when they made their debuts in 1937 and 1997 respectively. Compton made a
century against Australia at
Trent Bridge in 1938, just 19 days past his 20th birthday, and remains
England’s youngest Test century-maker. For a list of the youngest Test
players from all countries, click
here.Who made the most runs and took the most wickets in one-day
internationals in 2007 for a non-Test team? asked Johan van Gerrits
from Amsterdam
The leading ODI run-scorer from a non-Test country was Ryan Watson of Scotland, who made
560 runs, five more than Ireland’s William Porterfield. Top of the
wicket tables for the non-Test nations was Kenya’s Peter Ongondo, with 30: another
Kenyan, Steve Tikolo, and
Holland’s Ryan ten Doeschate
were equal second, with 23. For a full list of the top ODI runscorers of
2007, click here; for the top wicket-takers, click here.

Top Zimbabwean cricketers have resorted to black-market hustling to survive

Steven Price07-Jun-2008
Warning note: the Zimbabwean currency introduced by the reserve bank in January is valid for six months only and its value falls daily © AFP
It is mid-afternoon in brute heat. Tafadzwa Gumbo (not his real name) is oneof several people dotted around a popular municipal park in central Harare. He franticallytries to make a call on his mobile. The nightmarish state of the networkmeans the connection rate is about once a day. He could almost give up buthe cannot.Gumbo is one of Zimbabwe’s “professional” cricketers. A bright prospect, heattended the national academy when it was still an institution of repute, andwent on to represent Zimbabwe A. He is still a key player for his provincein domestic first-class games.In Zimbabwe the public still see cricket as a rich sport. Once provincialcricketers were well-remunerated and some even drove sponsored cars. NowZimbabwe Cricket (ZC) pays Gumbo around £6 a month (or Z$600m on the blackmarket).Only the 13 regular national-team players can now be said to be comfortable.For the 20 or so on the fringes, such as Gumbo, whom ZCexpects to survive solely on cricket, it is hard to earn a living. Afterpaying his rent – one of the lowest in a middle-income suburb – Gumbo hasjust enough to buy four pints of lager at current prices.So what does he do to survive? “Hustling, of course,” he says – street lingofor money-changing on the black market, buying and selling almost anything,and other, not always orthodox, ruses.”Tell me, if I didn’t do this, how would I survive?” he asks. “I have abillion dollars on me right now,” and he empties the pockets of hisprovincial side’s tracksuit trousers to reveal a bundle of Z$10m notes.”I’ve just made it today. My employers don’t even pay me this in a month,yet it’s peanuts.”Gumbo says players like him are used only for propaganda by the Zimbabweboard. “They only care about us guys when it’s time for the Logan Cup and Faithwear (the provincial one-day competition), when they need players to fill the first-class sides so that ICC and everyone can see cricket is being played. We are there to makeup numbers. After that they dump us. They don’t care about the standard ofcricket and our welfare. One of the selectors asked me why my form haddipped. I asked him back how he expected me to perform when I was alwaysthinking of how to get the bus fare to commute to practice and even to buy food.”Players like Gumbo are “rewarded” by being given hotel stay and hotel foodfor a month or so during a reluctantly organised Logan Cup. They are notentitled to out-of-pocket allowances, while highly paid board managers flybusiness class, claim hefty allowances and enjoy top executive rooms onfrequent trips. And now the board is considering accommodating first-classteams in school hostels to cut costs.At least, this season a Zimbabwe side were invited to play in South Africa’ssecond-tier provincial competition, where daily allowances in rand werewelcome cash relief.This kind of treatment has led to several young players leaving cricket. Oneformer national Under-19 and senior provincial player, widely seen as asolution to Zimbabwe’s left-arm pace problem, “retired” dejectedly at 21after being suddenly ignored by a new set of out-of-touch selectors. He nowdeals in mobile-phone credit from his parents’ house in Harare’s high-density Highfield suburb. Another 22-year-old with one-day caps is now a currencydealer.For those who still look to cricket the future hinges on the next few monthsand the outcome of Zimbabwe’s disputed election. Gumbo says: “A lot of guyswill retire if things don’t improve. As for me, I am just waiting for theelection outcome to see if there is a future.”

Cricinfo lists some of the best knocks from Stephen Fleming

Cricinfo staff25-Mar-2008

106* v West Indies, Port of Spain, 1995-96Fleming, then 22, was at the centre of a day of firsts for New Zealand. West Indies set the visitors a gettable target of 239 and when New Zealand fell to 71 for 4, somebody had to step up. Fleming paced his innings beautifully against an attack boasting Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop, finishing unbeaten on 106 and striking the winning runs with one ball to spare. It was his first ODI century, the first by a New Zealander against West Indies and New Zealand’s first ODI win in the Caribbean.116* v Australia, Melbourne, 1997-98Another chase, another superbly paced Fleming century. New Zealand’s only win on this tour of Australia came as they overhauled the hosts’ 251 at the MCG. An under-strength Australia attack still managed to have New Zealand at 42 for 3 and by that stage the bookmakers had the visitors at 20 to 1. Things hadn’t improved much as they strolled past 100 in the 30th over but Fleming gradually reeled in the target – he only hit eight fours in the innings – and finished unbeaten on 116. It was one of many big knocks Fleming would play in come-from-behind victories.174* v Sri Lanka, Colombo, 1998Before this match, Fleming was sometimes accused of lacking concentration as he tried to build big scores. That trend looked set to continue when he absentmindedly strolled to the crease without his box and had to rush back to retrieve it. A lazy shot brought his dismissal for 78 but in his second innings he displayed a rarely-seen resolve, batting for nearly eight hours and setting up a 167-run victory. It was Fleming’s second Test century and New Zealand hoped it would be his turning point. As it turned out, Fleming didn’t reach triple-figures again in a Test for nearly four years.134* v South Africa, Johannesburg, 2003This was a match New Zealand simply had to win. They had lost their World Cup opener to Sri Lanka and were about to give up a forfeit to Kenya because of security concerns. Another loss and they might not reach the Super Sixes. The home side piled on 306 but Fleming was not giving in. Wisden called his 134 an innings of “graceful power” and after rain and electrical failure shortened the match, he guided New Zealand to their revised target with a four off Allan Donald. It was Fleming’s fourth century in 192 ODIs and it gave his team their first limited-overs win over South Africa.274* v Sri Lanka, Colombo, 2003Fleming’s tenacious performance in this match made it hard to believe he was ever accused of lacking concentration. He batted for nearly 11 hours to register an unbeaten 274 – easily his highest in Tests – and his unselfish declaration left the door open for a result. But Sri Lanka refused to play ball, batting so long that a draw became inevitable. Fleming added 69 not out in the second innings and was on the field in searing heat for all but the first 44 minutes of the match.192 v Pakistan, Hamilton, 2003-04As if to prove his effort against Sri Lanka was no fluke, Fleming dug in for another lengthy stay nine months later. This time he fell short of a double-century but his 192 in 479 minutes set up a New Zealand total of 563, batting first against Pakistan. Things didn’t go so well in the second innings when he failed to score and his side made 96 for 8, but rain stole enough overs to ensure a draw.202 v Bangladesh, Chittagong, 2004-05Another double-century did come his way the following year and for Fleming it was a match to remember for many reasons. He became New Zealand’s most capped Test player and also passed Martin Crowe’s record of 5444 runs for New Zealand. His 202 might not have been his most challenging innings, given the opposition, but the overall occasion helped confirm Fleming’s place as one of New Zealand cricket’s greatest servants.262 v South Africa, Cape Town, 2005-06With his side down 1-0, Fleming lost the toss in the second Test and New Zealand were sent in on a dreary day. James Franklin made his maiden century but Fleming was the star, racking up 262 and becoming the first New Zealander to score three Test double-centuries. He batted positively – his strike rate was 61 – but the home side’s hefty reply was slower and the match petered out to a draw.

Ever wonder who the top players in the women’s game are? Now, thanks to the new rankings, it’s all down in black and white

Jenny Roesler16-Oct-2008

It means a lot to be world No. 1 in anything. Cricket is no exception; indeed the game is such a statistical heaven for many fans that it’s a wonder official player rankings didn’t come along sooner than they did.Male players have known since 1987 who has officially been the best among them – good news for individual sponsors, good news for those wanting dressing-room bragging rights. Now it’s the women’s turn to find out who is the official No. 1 batsman, bowler and allrounder in the world. The unveiling of rankings for women’s ODIs is the latest benefit of the women’s game being brought under the ICC’s auspices, and will help them market their cricket better.It has been a while coming, partly because, until the end of the 1990s, there were often fewer than ten women’s ODIs a year, which would have left rankings meaningless. Tests are still played too infrequently to be worth measuring as the top ten may not change for many months on end.How exactly are the player rankings devised, and who decides who is the best? If visions of men in white lab coats and milk-bottle glasses typing furiously into oversized calculators spring to mind, then you’re not far off the money.The original idea was Ted Dexter’s – and came from golf. As well as being a former England cricketer, Dexter had a passion for golf, which introduced player rankings in the early 1980s. He saw the potential for them to be used in cricket, and their advantage over averages, and he enlisted maths and computers experts Rob Eastaway and Gordon Vince.”Averages have only ever been a crude yardstick, especially when comparing players from different countries,” explains Eastaway (although some averages don’t lie – Don Bradman’s 99.94 being an obvious, if freakish, example). “Which is worth more, a century made against second-rate bowling on a flat track, or the same score on a minefield at Headingley against the world’s strongest attack? The second, of course, but both will look the same in your average. Likewise, averages give no more credit to the bowlers who remove the top-order batsmen from those who pick up cheap wickets at the tail.”Rankings – which women players will now automatically be eligible for upon playing international cricket – aim to delete these disadvantages. In each match, the strength of an opposition is factored into the worth of an innings, while scoring quickly is given extra credit. A bowler is rewarded for taking wickets but also for bowling economically. Also, more emphasis is placed on recent performances than early matches, helping keep the rankings current.All of these calculations are done using an algorithm, based on information from a scorecard. As Eastaway explains: “Tempting though it might be to make manual interventions – ‘Beautiful cover-drive, give him another ten points!’ – we leave it entirely to the computer to crunch the numbers. It’s the only way to be equally fair to all players.”I was lucky enough to have an insider’s view this year, after being invited to help regulate the rankings from the outset. A panel of six was chosen, and given strict instructions to keep the news under wraps until the methodologies had been perfected. What we needed to figure out was whether the ratings and weightings felt right to us. We were asked to monitor women’s international games, and see if perhaps one decent score moved a player up the rankings, or one low score seemed to unfairly drop someone down the list.

Over the last year the panel has been making constant suggestions for modifications, so the rankings reflect current standings as accurately as possible. Women’s cricket is played so infrequently (compared to men’s) that some players slipped right down the rankings because they had not played any matches, or shot right up after playing only a few.The feedback helped adjust how points change after an individual performance, so that the rate at which the rankings change is similar in the men’s and women’s games. The panel also helped point out that decisions were needed as to when to remove retired players from the reckoning, and on a smaller level, how a player was more popularly known: Suzannah or Susie?Vince and Eastaway further amended some of the weightings because scores in women’s matches tend to be slightly lower; and because the volume of women’s ODI matches is much lower than the men’s, it affects how frequently the top tens change, for example. There will always be some volatility lower down the list, so only the top few players will ever be revealed – as with the men’s rankings.After a nip and tuck, the list of players has now been smoothed out. Any cricketer who reaches 800 points or more – male or female – can be deemed a top-class player at the peak of their game.Behind the curtains, we have tracked Karen Rolton’s recent slip down the rankings and Claire Taylor’s ascent to the slot of batting supremo, and watched Isa Guha climb the bowling list, while all the time England became a much better side. India’s Jhulan Goswami reigns as the No. 1 bowler, however, and Australia’s Lisa Sthalekar is the best allrounder after a consistent year.There is another benefit for women’s cricket – the rankings are another stepping stone in its being recognised widely as a serious game. Within cricket the women are converting more and more new fans with every match, although first-time spectators are admittedly few and far between. The rankings will do much to help media, commentators and spectators in the upcoming World Cup in New South Wales in March, and more when the game is launched on a dual stage alongside the men in the Twenty20 World Cup in England a few months later. Then people will be able to talk with real authority about who the best players are.Some international men’s players even use rankings to help negotiate their contracts. Perhaps one day the same will happen for the women.

Gloucestershire’s folk hero embodied the dash and splendour of a more gracious age

Frank Keating17-Dec-2008The first time is always the best – and for romantics anyway, as the years roll on, the first remains the most enduringly gratifying for mind and spirit. I talk, of course, of hero worship. Recollection warms the memory as well, for you are seldom betrayed by the figure you first lionised in the uncomplicated purity of early childhood. In my case, I am even more fortunate – my boyhood’s callow, idol worship has grown into a fond and comradely relationship. When I was 12, Tom Graveney was ten years older and already a champion folk hero of Gloucestershire in England’s pastoral and cuddly west country. Now he is 76 and I talk to him as a contemporary. And my hair is greyer even than his. Yet I am still in schoolboy awe of the valorous chivalry of his deeds at cricket, of the genuine creative invention and artistry of his batsmanship.Gloucestershire, of course, had a noble heritage in batsmanship. It was the county of WG Grace, and of Gilbert Jessop and Walter Hammond too. Once a midsummer, the cricketers would travel north into the blissful hills to play two or three championship matches in the stately town of Cheltenham. This visit would be the season’s high-temperature mark for us local urchins.August 1950 held the most red-hot two days of my sheltered life till then, when the county gathered to play the mesmerising West Indian tourists at Cheltenham. Of course, our fellows were skittled soon by the ravenous and magical guiles of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine. The only one to play the two with any degree of certainty was “our Tom” – fresh country boy’s hale face, coltishly upright and gangly shy at the crease, but with a high, twirly backlift and a stirring signature flourish in the follow-through of his trademark cover-drive. A man sitting sardined on the grass next to me in the rapt throng said: “Our Tom’ll be servin’ England within a twelvemonth, you’ll see.”And so he was, and so we did. He was blooded for one Test against the South Africans in 1951, at Old Trafford on a sticky, and he stayed in for nearly an hour to make 15 (“full of cultured promise”, said John Arlott on the wireless). That October he left for his first overseas MCC tour to take in the new sights, sounds, and differing surfaces of “All India”. He scored warm-up centuries at Lahore and Karachi but missed the first Test match, in Delhi, with a severe bash of dysentery. After a week in hospital he was still uneasily queasy when the second Test came along, in Bombay.More than half a century on, he remembers: “I reckon I felt and looked like a skeleton when I walked in to bat.” He took a pint of water and a salt tablet every half-hour, which turned into an awful lot of water and salt – because he endured for eight hours in the fierce heat against the craft and cunning of Lala Amarnath, Sadu Shinde and Vinoo Mankad. His epic 175 was the highest Test score by an Englishman in India, until Dennis Amiss made 179 in 1976.Us hero worshippers continued to raise the rafters back in Gloucestershire as Tom served England with grace and charm for the next ten years – matching first the elderly monarchs, Len Hutton and Denis Compton, stroke for stroke, then the two lordly and haughty amateurs, Peter May and Colin Cowdrey. By which time a group of dullard “industrial” selectors at Lord’s became grudging. This Graveney, they said, was all very well, but, horrors, he treats Test cricket like festival cricket; his manner is too carefree, his strokeplay too genial, that he only seeks to present his great ability rather than enforce it ruthlessly. So England dropped him for three years and Tom moved across the border to play for Worcester, where the mellow architecture of his glorious strokeplay matched the resplendence of the ancient cathedral.

The batsmanship of Our Tom was of the orchard rather than the forest, blossom susceptible to frost but breathing in the sunshine. Taking enjoyment as it came, he gave enjoyment which still warms the winters of memory

He continued to enchant all England every summer, but not the Test team. Till, in 1966, another string of sad England performances had the selectors seeing sense and turning, once again, to Graveney, now 40, to pull them out of a deep hole dug by Garry Sobers’ West Indians. At Lord’s, too. Tom answered the ferocity of Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith with a majestic 96, then 109 in the following Test, and an even more regal 165 in the fifth, at The Oval. He was back, and all cricket was under the spell of his masterclasses.The following summer, against India at Lord’s, Graveney unrolled another masterpiece – 151 against Chandra, Bedi, and Prasanna. In the New Year honours list of 1968, the Queen awarded him the OBE and he celebrated with a sublime 118 against West Indies in Port-of-Spain – his personal favourite century. The following year, Graveney’s 105 against Pakistan in Karachi rounded off the enchanted odyssey.The hero still lives in Cheltenham, where it all began. We still take a beer together, and I sit at his feet and listen, rapt again as the schoolboy was. Content and smiling, still hale and hail-fellow, Tom has had both hips replaced, but still plays regular golf and keenly follows his beloved cricket (he thinks modern bats far too heavy – “only a tiny minority, a Lara or a Tendulkar, can use them as we did; like a rapier, a wand”).When he retired from the crease in his mid-40s, the wise old cricket writer JM Kilburn hurrahed Graveney’s approach: “In an age preoccupied by accountancy, he has given the game warmth and colour and inspiration far beyond the tally of the scorebook.”Precisely. The batsmanship of Our Tom, was of the orchard rather than the forest, blossom susceptible to frost but breathing in the sunshine. Taking enjoyment as it came, he gave enjoyment which still warms the winters of memory. Still the hero.

Whether by means fair, foul or extraordinary, you expect something unusual to transpire over the next few days in Dunedin

Fazeer Mohammed10-Dec-2008

Why they have to send us quite down there?It’s probably just as well that the current crop of West Indies cricketers isn’t that big on history. They already have enough of a challenge trying to be competitive at Test level without the additional burden of an exceptionally painful Caribbean memory from almost 29 years ago.Granted the opening fixture of the two-match series against New Zealand begins this evening (West Indies time) at the University Oval in Dunedin and not at Carisbrook, where the team led by Clive Lloyd, fresh from a first-ever Test series victory in Australia, were robbed blind – it’s really insulting the intelligence to just say they were victims of dubious officiating – on the way to a controversial one-wicket loss in the first match of a three-Test series.It was the only outright result of a series that could have come to an abrupt end in the midst of the second Test at Lancaster Park in Christchurch. The tourists felt they had had enough of the umpires, especially Fred Goodall, who Colin Croft barged into (‘accidentally’ is the official line) during his run-up to the crease in that match, and were prepared to abandon the tour, refusing to resume play after tea on the second day before being eventually persuaded to continue, to a chorus of boos from the home fans.Poor losers, said the hosts. Protesting against injustice, said the visitors, and the whole acrimonious episode came to an end with a 1-0 series triumph for New Zealand. It would be the last time West Indies lost a Test series for 15 years, until Mark Taylor brought his Australians to the Caribbean in 1995 and reclaimed the Frank Worrell Trophy by a 2-1 margin, at the same time formally landmarking the decline of the former undisputed kings that continues to this day.Should it be any surprise then that when Chris Gayle’s squad arrived on Monday at the southernmost Test venue on the planet (45 degrees south, four degrees lower than Hobart in Tasmania), it was miserably cold and wet, with temperatures dipping to ten degrees Celsius? I’m sure Dunedin is full of history and charm and is a delight to behold when bathed in the sunshine of a Southern Hemisphere summer. But for West Indians still haunted by that experience of January, 1980, it seems appropriate to associate that city with overwhelming gloom and a palpable sense of foreboding.Indeed, the last day of that Dunedin Test, where New Zealand scrambled and scraped their way to a modest victory target of 104, has left us with one of the enduring images of the game, that of Michael Holding kicking two stumps out of the ground in frustration after John Parker, who is seen in the famous photo putting his batting gloves back on, was ruled not out to a concerted appeal for a catch to wicketkeeper Deryck Murray.Looking at that image again, you wonder why none of the teams in America’s National Football League didn’t think of signing Holding as a place-kicker. I mean, it was a thing of beauty: feline grace, athleticism, power, fully-extended kicking leg, solidly-planted support leg and two stumps in mid-air heading in different directions. When old “Whispering Death” knocked over Geoffrey Boycott at Kensington Oval so memorably in 1981, he only knocked over one piece of timber, albeit spectacularly as well.We can joke about the experience now, but way back then, you were enraged and powerless at the same time listening to what was transpiring more than half-a-world away via the crackling “live” radio commentary in the dead of night over here.In the midst of all of that robbery in the broad Dunedin daylight, Desmond Haynes stood tall among West Indies batsmen, being last out in both innings for 55 and 105 respectively as the Caribbean side, minus Vivian Richards (who had returned home after the Australian leg of the tour to recuperate from injury) otherwise capitulated to the combined threat of Richard Hadlee – 11 wickets in the match, 7 by the lbw route – and umpires Goodall and John Hastie.When West Indies last toured New Zealand in February-March of 2006, I recall former Kiwi batsman John Morrison, who didn’t play in that contentious series, stating unequivocally, on air, that Lloyd’s side were clearly the victims of poor umpiring, this at the same time that many other former New Zealand players and even seasoned journalists preferred to sidestep the issue, suggesting that even if it was unfair, the West Indian response was entirely unwarranted and inappropriate.It’s sort of like our own reaction to criticism over the years of West Indian umpires, or critical decisions that made all the difference to our champions prevailing over their opponents. Almost everyone likes to claim to be unbiased, even as they continue to observe through one myopic eye.Maybe the relative proximity to the South Pole has something to do with it, but even for this tour there has been controversy in Dunedin with officials having to withdraw their ‘It’s All White Here’ slogan to market the Test series amid strong condemnation by West Indians at official and unofficial levels who wondered how their New Zealand counterparts could not have recognised the racist interpretation that may be attached to such a phrase.Somehow or the other, whether by means fair, foul or extraordinary, you expect something unusual to transpire over the next few days at the University Oval in Dunedin.

In an exhibition of responsible defence followed by clean hitting, Vidyut punished the Karnataka bowers and scored 193 to put Tamil Nadu on the way to three points

Sidharth Monga15-Nov-2008In 2001 Virender Sehwag was a middle-order batsman, S Badrinath was in his debut season, Robin Singh snr and Robin Singh jnr were still playing, Tamil Nadu were a force in the Ranji Trophy, and S Vidyut was a No. 11 batsman. In March that year Vidyut, then a left-arm spinner who could bat, was about to play a career-defining knock.In the pre quarter-final, he walked in to join MR Shrinivas at 434 for 9. Seventeen fours and three sixes later when he left, Delhi were under the cosh, and he had scored his first first-class century – 115 off 122 balls. Four seasons after having become the first No. 11 to score a century in Ranji Trophy, he scored one from No. 1 – against Hyderabad. In between he scored a century for Haryana in the one season he played for them before rejoining Tamil Nadu.Three lean seasons followed: he didn’t cross 42 during that time, and was used sparingly as a bowler. Against Karnataka, last week, he came in at 51 for 3, with Badrinath and Dinesh Karthik back in the hut, and debutant Arun Karthik for company. In an exhibition of responsible defence followed by clean hitting, Vidyut punished the Karnataka bowers and scored 193 to put Tamil Nadu on the way to three points.He is still to cement a place in the middle order, but has finally done something substantial to live up to the promise he showed in the walloping 87 he scored alongside Sachin Tendulkar in the 2005-06 Challenger Trophy final. Vidyut traces the transition from being an unsure left-arm spinner to becoming an important middle-order batsman to that Delhi hundred. “It was a very important knock for me,” he said. “I started as a bowler who could bat, but that knock gave me the confidence I could bat. You want to do well at a high level, and Delhi was a good side.” With my kind of game, if I bat for long enough, runs will automatically come. Sometimes when you keep looking at the scoreboard you get bogged down. I have really been trying to bat long, and trying to get big scores S VidyutIt was not a surprise for Vidyut that he was sent in at No. 11. For his clubs, he had not batted higher than Nos. 7 or 8. But after that hundred, VB Chandrasekhar, former national selector, pushed him to open the innings. “VB made me open for club where I started getting lot of 50s and 60s and a few hundreds. That gave me a lot of confidence facing the new ball.”The adjustment he had to make was big, as others who have done so will testify. “Opening and batting in the middle order are different ball games altogether,” he said. “As an opener, you go in straight away. As a middle-order batsman, you have to wait. So you have to learn to relax and not stay intense throughout. The new ball comes on, you can play shots right away. The old ball is difficult to play, and you might have spinners on immediately. But it feels good to do well at both.”The improvement in batting has helped him immensely in his career. By his own admission, the captains were reluctant to use him as a stock bowler, giving him one or two overs before breaks in play. There had to be some way to justify his place in the side. “I was bowling well, but not getting enough opportunities,” he says. “For two years I didn’t get any bowling at all, so I started working on my batting. For some time it was difficult for me.”I don’t know how and why [ bowling took a back seat]. I took it in my stride. I didn’t worry much. Maybe if I was not good at my batting, I would have concentrated much more on my bowling.”But that middle period was difficult, when he didn’t get runs and didn’t get to bowl much. “The one part of the game I needed to improve was to bat time and bat long,” he said. “Raman [WV, Tamil Nadu’s coach] has been telling me to bat for time, not look at the scoreboard. With my kind of game, if I bat for long enough, runs will automatically come. Sometimes when you keep looking at the scoreboard you get bogged down. I have really been trying to bat long, and trying to get big scores.”In that scheme of things, 193 will go a long way in establishing him in the Tamil Nadu middle order. “We had lost Dinesh, Badri and Abhinav [Mukund, the opener]. It was very important for me to bat long. I am happy I didn’t let my team down.” He put this innings alongside the 87 in Challenger Trophy, and the 158 he scored against Central Zone in a Deodhar Trophy match in 2005-06.He will know that an average of 35 from 44 first-class matches is not great. He will also know that now that he has found a somewhat stable place in the team, at 26, he has enough time to make up for it.

Shane Warne’s night was ruined by a shoddy batting performance from his team. But what a pleasure he was to watch. We must be grateful that he is still in our lives, however briefly

Sambit Bal18-Apr-2009I have known no better sights in cricket than watching Shane Warne bowl. Watching VVS Laxman’s batting comes close; however, there are days when VVS may look a stranger, plodding and grafting like a pedant. But Warne is a joy even when he is being had.A lot of it comes from being a legspinner. They are enchanters. Sublime,
magical, unpredictable, fallible, they possess an art that tugs at the
soul. Just as they can make your heart soar with joy, they can make you feel
their pain. But even among these rare men, Warne is a man apart.Twenty20 is not his stage. The limited nature of the game constricts and
diminishes his craft. Legpsinners are meant to bowl like millionaires, with
leisure and pomp. They are creatures of rhythm and the build-up for them is
gradual. The first four or five overs, they are meant to feel their way
through. Twenty20 allows them no fifth over – perhaps not even a second if
their first doesn’t land right. Cameron White has had some success in this
form, but he is a legspinner only by definition, not in practice.This season, the odds were stacked even higher against Warne. Not only is he
a year older, he is also far rustier, having played no competitive cricket since the
last IPL and, going by the practice match a few days earlier, he
was far from match-fit. But geniuses find a way to express themselves on the
big stage, and how Warne lifted his game.Three balls is all it took. The first three balls were short, but
length was growing fuller every ball and, by the fourth, Warne had found
his mojo. When the fifth one left his hand, Virat Kohli sensed a four, but
the moment he left his crease he was a goner. The ball floated up in the air,
inviting the charge, but when the batsman went down the pitch, he found a
grand deception. The ball had drifted away and it had dipped. The bat
created an empty arc, and the ball found legstump. The next one nearly took
off as it spun viciously past B Akhil’s hopeful prod.Rahul Dravid swept him away for four the next over and worked him away for a
couple of singles, but the third over was sensational. It started with the
legspinner’s perfect ball: it drifted in, dipped in flight and spun from leg
to outside off. Beaten all ends up, Dravid looked up and nodded in
appreciation. Good batsmen know a great ball when they see one. With the
third, out came the flipper: skidding, fast and on target, it found Akhil’s
pad even before the bat could make its way down. It looked plumb, but replays
showed the umpire was right. The impact had been outside the offstump. But
the next ball he was gone, dragged forward by the flight, deceived by the
dip and defeated by the turn.Praveen Kumar managed to swat a straight six in the his last over, distorting
his figures somewhat, yet 4-0-18-2 wasn’t bad returns for a man who will turn 40 in
a few months in a game that is supposed to be a young man’s game.In fact, the day belonged to the golden oldies. Dravid, so berated in
the first edition and stripped of the captaincy this year, played the innings
of the day, Sachin Tendulkar carried his bat and was Man of the Match in the
first match and Anil Kumble finished the day with five wickets.Warne’s night was ruined by a shoddy batting performance from his team. But
what a pleasure he was to watch. We must be grateful that he is still in our
lives, however briefly.

When he first came on the scene he was called the new Merv Hughes. Now Australia’s meanest new quick is looking to add patience and consistency to his mix

Nagraj Gollapudi02-Nov-2009He puts a lid on his lunch as I enter the hotel room. A couple of lie at one end of the tray. “I don’t get it back home and I’m pretty open to trying good food,” Peter Siddle says with a smile as he moves stuff from one of the chairs for me. “I love the . I have it all the time at breakfast,” he says. It is early October in Delhi. Siddle is relaxed and says he is enjoying leading Victoria’s bowling attack in the inaugural Champions League.It is his second visit to India in the last 12 months, after he made a surprise debut in Mohali during the 2008 Test series. With his work ethic and determination Siddle has managed to create a place for himself in the Australian bowling line-up. Such has been his belief, honest attitude and work ethic that he has managed to keep the more experienced and talented Stuart Clark out of the team.Fast bowling is partly about turning up fresh every ball at the crease, regardless of the conditions. Siddle has managed that so far. His bowling is aggressive and based on a simple, fluid action. As he showed at the MCG against South Africa, and then in Cardiff, he has an aggressive streak that has been largely absent in Australian fast bowlers after Merv Hughes retired. He charges in and bangs the ball in hard, mostly on the spot he wants to. Only 24, he used to be a woodcutter, and as he folds his arms, you can see the well-toned muscles bulging out from his shirt.”The key to my career has been to run in and hit the wicket hard,” Siddle says. Which is just what he did with his first delivery in Test cricket: pitched short, it hit Gautam Gambhir flush on the helmet. “I left a good impression, I think,” Siddle laughs.It was uphill from there, though, as a commanding Indian batting order piled up over 300 runs in the day. But having bowled 16 overs, Siddle returned to take the second new ball and immediately induced an edge from Sachin Tendulkar. An instant, mighty smile erupted on the sweaty, flushed face of the Victorian. “I can never forget that for the rest of my life,” Siddle says about his first dismissal.Earlier that day his captain, Ricky Ponting, had given Siddle his baggy green. “He said, ‘Don’t change a thing. You got picked because they [the selectors] liked the way you played, so just go out there and try your hardest for Australia as you will,'” Siddle remembers. His life had turned dramatically in a month. He had come to India as part of the Australia A squad and got a call-up into the Test squad while on tour. He was excited even if he understood he would most likely be an understudy. Once he joined the national team he made sure he did not miss any training sessions, even if they were optional.The call came at the 11th hour. “It was pretty late. Stuart Clark was carrying an injury and I had been warned a couple of days earlier that if he doesn’t come I might be playing,” Siddle recollects. They gave Clark till the day before the game before finally informing Siddle he was playing. “Usually I’m a good sleeper but it was the weirdest bit of preparation going into a match as different thoughts raced through my mind. I could barely sleep for two or three hours,” he says.After Mohali, he played no further role in the remainder of the India series, and made a comeback against South Africa in Perth, where he took a solitary wicket. In the final two Tests of that series he bounced back to take 12, finishing third in the wicket-takers’ list and with the best economy rate among the fast bowlers. On the return leg in South Africa, he picked up another 12 wickets – the fourth-best tally in the series – and was again the most economical bowler on show.The transition from the four-day game to Test cricket was difficult for Siddle initially. A few months into it, he knew that if he had to emulate his idols, Glenn McGrath and Allan Donald, he would need limitless patience. He has always admired McGrath for his line, accuracy, consistency and ability to hit, ball after ball, the same spot. Donald was a hero for the way he charged in, free flowing, and bowled fast. “I’ve always said I want to bowl fast like Allan Donald and at least half as accurate as Glenn McGrath,” Siddle says.

“I will do anything. If they want me to run in and bowl six bouncers I will do that. if they want me to go and bowl like Glenn McGrath, I will do that”

Clark has been another helpful ear always. “In the past year I’ve spent a lot of time with Stuart Clark, and the advice, the knowledge and the support he has given has been really good,” Siddle says. “It is good to watch these top players, just how consistent they were at doing what they did and being able to do it for long periods, and that is definitely something I want to get better at. Someday I would like to be known for my consistency just like these guys are talked about now.”At 22, Siddle was the drinks carrier for the Australian team in the Boxing Day Test of the 2006-07 Ashes, at his home ground. He spoke to McGrath, who stressed the mental side of things. “He spoke about how he went about things in the nets, how he wanted to execute those balls over and over again, and how he went about training, trying to keep repeating it when you are not in the heat of the moment,” Siddle says.That Test remains dear to Siddle. “It did sort of spur me on as it was the Ashes before I played [2009],” he says. Paul Collingwood, Andrew Strauss, Andrew Flintoff, Stephen Harmison and Alistair Cook were the players he remembers vividly. “And to play against the same guys after two years was just amazing,” he says.To see his heroes walk out on to the field, to watch Shane Warne take his 700th wicket, Ponting walk out for the toss, to experience the buzz, it confirmed to Siddle that it was what he wanted to do. “And if you like anything you try and do it as soon as possible.”The variety in the Australian bowling line-up is helping Siddle settle into a groove. He knows his role is to charge in, bowl fast, hit the wicket hard and put pressure on the batsmen. It worked in South Africa and towards the end of the Ashes. Siddle agrees that the absence of superstars, barring Brett Lee, in the fast-bowling department is an advantage. “This way we all are relatively pretty new in Test cricket. Even if our spot is always on the line, if we all do well together we could be a good unit.”Australia need a fired-up, fit Lee to lead their young fast-bowling pack. His absence cost them dear in the Ashes. The trio of Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus and Siddle floundered somewhat in the first three Tests, and at the end of the game in Birmingham, Ponting admitted his frustrations. “Siddle has a little bit of work left to do,” Ponting said before the fourth Test.Not that Siddle had lost his mojo – he had lived up to his nickname, Sid Vicious, when he roughed England up on the first day in Cardiff. But he was far from confident. And unlike Donald, who would back his intimidation up with wickets, Siddle had only a few strikes to his name.Mindset was a key grey area for Siddle in England. The Australians went into the Ashes on the back of their success in South Africa, where the crowds had relentlessly sledged Siddle, which had served to motivate him. But the Ashes were bigger, and Siddle allowed the expectations to bog him down.Making an impression not just on batsmen’s ribcages: with the ICC’s Emerging Player of the Year award•Getty Images”I probably tried a lot more different things to try and get wickets, whereas in South Africa I’d been patient, bowled for long periods and gone for minimum runs, and worked to get my wickets and was successful,” he says. His attempts to make a quick impression, Siddle thinks, proved expensive. “I agree, definitely the first two or three Tests were a big example of where I did something different, and it probably even cost us a Test at Lord’s.”It was not the first time he had been on the verge of being dropped. After he didn’t exactly set the world alight in Perth against South Africa, the selectors were in two minds about retaining him for the Boxing Day Test. But Siddle hit his straps and bowled one the fiercest spells of the Australian summer on the second day at the MCG, taking 3 for 24 in nine overs.At Headingley he was up for it again, and picked up career-best innings figures of 5 for 21.”The way I play, the way I bowl, the way I want to do things for the team… I will do anything. If they want me to run in and bowl six bouncers I will do that. If they want me to go and bowl like Glenn McGrath, I will do that,” Siddle says.Siddle reckons Australian fast bowling is in good shape and there is lots of competition around. The upcoming Australian summer will be a big test for him, especially with Lee returning to the Test fold on the back of solid form in the shorter versions. Siddle, who recently won the ICC’s Emerging Player of the Year trophy, is not going to let himself be cowed by the pressure of expectations. “People will expect a lot more. But it is about continuing to do the same things, staying level-headed, staying the same player,” he says.In the ODIs against India, Siddle has maintained a hostile pace throughout. Even on the slow pitch in Delhi he was sharp enough to make Virender Sehwag sway hurriedly out of the way of a bouncer. In the opening game, in Vadodara, he bowled a loose over at the death before redeeming himself with a near perfect last over. He has not had an extraordinary series, but it hasn’t been for lack of effort. The pace he has extracted, and his desire to always make something happen speak for it.In the gymnasium at the cricket academy in Brisbane, Siddle once read a line, written by one of the coaches: “When a winner loses, he trains harder, while a loser will always blame others.” It’s not hard to figure which side Siddle is on.