An emotion-fuelled hour of the most intense Test cricket imaginable hauled England back into contention on the second day at Edgbaston

Andrew Miller at Edgbaston31-Jul-2008
Andrew Flintoff glares at Jacques Kallis after the lbw reprieve that sparked an onslaught © Getty Images
An emotion-fuelled hour of the most intense Test cricket imaginable hauled England back into contention on the second day at Edgbaston, as South Africa faltered in the face of a furious onslaught from Andrew Flintoff. Two wickets in three overs of exceptional pace and aggression banished the blues of their first-day batting debacle, and ensured that – with three days remaining of a breakneck contest – the match and the series remain wide open.Flintoff and England awoke to caustic headlines in the national press, and rightly so, given the abject nature of Wednesday’s batting effort. Their first-innings total of 231 was at least 200 runs below par after winning a crucial toss, and by the time South Africa had chiselled their way to near-parity with six wickets still standing, their hopes in the series were receding with every passing minute. But in England’s hour of need, up stepped Flintoff, with a spell that might not have propelled them back into the ascendancy just yet, but has without doubt transformed the dynamics of this match.”It was an important hour for us, wasn’t it,” said Flintoff. “We’d scrapped all day, but we needed to get wickets to get back in the game. It means a lot to us, getting back into the series, and doing well for England, and we’d not scored enough in the first innings. A lot of hard work was needed, which meant everyone getting involved and making an impression. I think we’ve done that today.”Flintoff’s close-of-play figures of 4 for 68 are already his best in Test cricket since his annus mirablis of 2005, with the promise of more to come when play resumes on Friday morning. But it was a measure of his magnificence that he could and should have reaped even greater rewards. Having struck with his second ball of the match to remove Graeme Smith, Flintoff needed three attempts to see off Neil McKenzie – after a drop from Paul Collingwood and a reprieve-by-referral after Andrew Strauss’s low catch at slip – before Aleem Dar delivered the not-out verdict that lit a furnace of indignation within the most mild-mannered of strike bowlers.Incredulity, closely followed by incandescence, was Flintoff’s reaction when Jacques Kallis, on 55, was struck flush on the toe, plumb in front of middle stump, and with the bat not even close to the action. He appealed, then pleaded, then demanded, and at the end of the over, could still be heard giving Dar an earful as the pair moved to their positions at square leg.Flintoff’s reaction was entirely out of character, and he quickly apologised at the close, but as Kallis would testify, he backed up his furious words with even more livid deeds. “My emotion was running quite high,” said Flintoff, “but you can chunter as much as you want, you’ve just got to get on with it. When you’re bowling to one of the best players in the world, and Kallis is right up there, it brings the best out of you. It was probably one of my better overs.”Flintoff has always been a master of understatement, but he can only really judge the value of his onslaught at the end of the South African innings, when the final four wickets have been picked off and the true balance of power has been laid bare. But, with memories of past South Africa-England confrontations thick in the air, in particular the Donald-Atherton clash at Trent Bridge in 1998, it was left to the vanquished batsman, Kallis, to assess the true worth of Flintoff’s spell.”Any time you get good battles in Test cricket it’s good for the game,” he said. “People say that with Twenty20 around Test cricket is going to die, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near dying. People are still coming to watch it and you get exciting afternoons like that, what more do you want?”He bowled a fantastic spell and it brought England back into the game,” said Kallis. “There’s still a bit in the wicket and he got it in the area more often than not, which made life tough for our batters. It’s not the first time we’ve faced a spell like that, but when a bowler bowls a spell of world-class quality, you’ve just got to try and work through it, and fight and hang in there.”Kallis was unable to tough it through, as his off stump was detonated by a perfectly pitched outswinging yorker, but when AB de Villiers fell three overs later to a loose pull to fine leg, a bristling Mark Boucher arrived to shepherd South Africa to the close with Ashwell Prince solid on 37 not out at the other end. There were plenty sharp words exchanged in the dying moments, however, particularly after Boucher lost sight of another yorker that fizzed past his off stump.The light, as Kallis said, was not the issue. More of a problem was Flintoff’s height, which allowed his stream of full-length deliveries to burst unnoticed out of the darkened windows of the committee room above the sight-screen. Kallis admitted he did not see the ball that ought to have claimed him lbw, and had little idea of the “good nut” that eventually did for him, but added that he hoped that “common sense would prevail” and that the umpires would ask for a sheet to cover the offending gap. Morne Morkel, who will have watched the drama with interest, might not take too kindly to that sort of suggestion.Regardless of Flintoff’s efforts, Kallis remained confident of South Africa’s position at the end of the second day, and with Boucher already primed for the sort of scrap that his career has been built around, England also know how much can be won and lost in the first hour on Friday. But for now they are happy merely to be back in contention. After the drubbing at Headingley and their batting embarrassment, pride – however temporarily – has been restored.

Ian Bell was earmarked for greatness as a boy but supporters are still waiting for a game-changing innings. Was the flattery deceptive?

John Stern20-Feb-2008

It was March 1999, a dreary day at the equally dreary Westpac Trust Park in Hamilton. It was not a setting for inspiration or enlightenment. England Under-19s’ six-week tour of New Zealand had come to a bizarre end, a bout of food poisoning depriving both sides of key players for the final one-day match.

It seemed like a good opportunity for a debriefing from Dayle Hadlee, New Zealand’s academy director, the older brother of Sir Richard, and the coach of their Under-19 side. What had he thought of Ian Bell, England’s baby-faced batsman, who hit a century and a ninety in the three-match “Test” series? “He’s the best 16-year-old I’ve ever seen,” said Hadlee.It is a label that has stuck with Bell and has often hung heavy round his neck. Only now, nine years on from that tour, are we witnessing his flowering. The freckly, timid boy is maturing gradually into a still freckly, still occasionally timid man. And yet he is still not there. In Sri Lanka before Christmas he batted beautifully, matched among team-mates only by Michael Vaughan for pure class. As Kevin Pietersen’s star dimmed towards the end of 2007, so Bell began to look like England’s best batsman. He passed 50 three times in six innings but his top score was 83, made in the first innings of the series.His failure to convert fifties into hundreds has been symptomatic of England’s recent problems. It is not that he was not playing well; indeed the opposite. He has shown what he is capable of. He is on the cusp. He knows it and so does everyone else. Can he deliver on the promise? In other words, how good is Bell?Bell does not look very different from how he did in 1999. He has grown physically, of course, but he is not an imposing figure. He has the sort of compact, athletic stature that is ideal for a batsman. His complexion is fair, his highlighted hair under a baseball cap which remains sculpted to his head throughout our interview. He talks more confidently now but on replaying the tape it is apparent how often he fails to finish a sentence. It is not because he is inarticulate – far from it. He is bright and chooses his words carefully, possibly too carefully. It is as if he is still wary of saying the wrong thing, wary of delivering the punchline. With his batting, it is the punchline we are waiting for, the tour de force that puts him in the highest echelon.When it is put to him that Hadlee’s comment all those years ago was quite a claim, he responds with an ironic “Ye-ah”, half-laughing in bewilderment. Did it help or hinder his development? “It gave me some good exposure but it probably set me back a bit in terms of expectation. I could sense that people were targeting me in county cricket.”The best sportsmen are often ones who do not – or cannot – think about their craft too much. Bell would not come into that category. His self-consciousness is endearing, a very human, very normal quality. His willingness to talk about his shortcomings as well as successes make him a willing interviewee, even if his caution makes him a less spectacular interlocutor than, say, Pietersen.Bell must be the only Englishman who could describe the 2005 Ashes as a low point. He admits to doubting himself throughout the series, and the Australians thought they could smell fear. “I was probably playing those guys [Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath] rather than the ball.” There was much talk about his demeanour, about his bad body language. “It’s something I wasn’t great at earlier in my career,” he says. “Top players send a message to opponents in everything they do, whether it be walking out to bat or taking guard.

“And that to me is as important as the way I bat.” He has been mentored by Alec Stewart and Steve Bull, the England team psychologist. “I had to learn to walk out with a bit of …” One senses he wants to say swagger but is worried that might sound arrogant. He continues “… not ridiculously but something that sends a message.”The return series in 2006-07 was a disaster for England but, paradoxically, a success for Bell, who made four fifties. He was still sledged mercilessly by Warne & Co, who labelled him “The Shermanator” after a ginger-haired geek in the teen movie .
England carried Bell in 2005; 18 months on he was unable to carry them. His performances did not affect the outcome of either series. That has to change and he knows it. “I should have scored a hundred [in Sri Lanka],” he says. “I’m desperate to score a lot of runs for England. I look at guys like [Kumar] Sangakkara and [Mahela] Jayawardene and I want to do what they do – make an impact, change the face of a game.”Bell has been working closely with Andy Flower, England’s batting coach – more closely, he says, than he did with Duncan Fletcher. “He has six Test hundreds and 17 Test fifties,” says Flower. “That conversion rate isn’t good enough. If he wants to be one of the best in the world, if he wants England to be one of the best in the world, then he’s got to be tougher on himself and demand better results.”Flower, the former Zimbabwean wicketkeeper-batsman, retired with a Test average of 51. Here he was impressive: articulate, thoughtful, engaging and forthright, as those comments indicate. It was almost as if he were talking to Bell.So can Bell do it? Can he be one of the best in the world? “He can definitely do it and I’ve got no doubt he will do it, to be honest,” continues Flower. “He can do anything with a bat in his hand, and I think he’s only just starting to realise that. He’s got to realise his responsibility as one of the best batsmen in the England side and behave accordingly.”Nick Knight played with Bell for Warwickshire and has observed his development closely. He is equally sure that deliverance will come. “We saw that progression in county cricket and there’s no question he will do the same in international cricket,” Knight says. “He’s so aware that he needs to be making big scores, but you can’t preoccupy yourself with those thoughts. You just need to get on and play.”

Knight empathises with Bell’s occasional insecurity. “He’s pretty comfortable with himself now. He has had a perfectly natural fear of failure. You just have to convince yourself that you can do it.” Knight also raises the issue of Bell’s lack of centuries when batting at No. 3 in Tests – though he has made nine fifties – and prefers him at No. 6. That may well be where Bell ends up in New Zealand now that Andrew Strauss is back.Nasser Hussain reckons that Bell needs to be truer to himself at the crease. “He plays like Ian Bell until he gets to 50 and then he starts trying to play like Kevin Pietersen or Ricky Ponting. The tempo of his innings is always going in one direction. He should bat the same way between 50 and 100 and then 100 and 150 and so on.” By contrast, Bell says he became withdrawn in the second Test at Colombo (when he scored 15 in 80 minutes) because “10% of my mind is thinking, we need to get 500 here; so I played within myself.”It is apparent from talking to Bell that he is utterly devoted to cricket and to self-improvement. For some players talking about the game can seem a chore. Hearing Bell talk about preparing to play Murali – how he went about trying to work him out, his sessions with Flower – was to hear a truly dedicated professional but also a passionate cricket nut who has been on Warwickshire’s radar since he was ten and refers to the late Bob Woolmer, a former county coach of his, as “a Bear through and through”.Bell and Flower both mention the Australian Michael Clarke – a near contemporary of Bell’s – by way of comparison when talking about playing spinners. Clarke did not make a seamless progression into the international game, but it seems that the limelight and its pressures are a bit more to his taste.For Bell that self-belief does not come so naturally. It has to be acquired by achievement. Two mediocre seasons of county championship cricket in 2002 and 2003, when he averaged 24 and 29 with a single hundred, led to a winter playing for the University of Western Australia on the advice of John Inverarity, the West Australian who was Warwickshire coach at the time. “I had been trying too hard and that winter freed me up mentally and got me enjoying batting again,” says Bell.He made his Test debut at the end of the following summer, one in which he scored 1714 first-class runs at 68. He has looked back since but only fleetingly. The forward progress has not been unfettered but it has been consistent. He has all the equipment to make the next step. Everyone knows it – but does Bell?

Indian cricket’s next big thing seems to be a 20-year-old from Rajkot determined to break the selectors’ door down by producing triple-hundreds on demand

Nagraj Gollapudi10-Jan-2009
Shining hour: Pujara after the hundred that took his team to an improbable victory against Karnataka © Cricinfo Ltd
Moments after Saurashtra’s dramatic victory over Karnataka, ecstatic team-mates mobbed Cheteshwar Pujara and raised him onto their shoulders. Pujara’s wonderful 112 not out had guided Saurashtra into their second Ranji semi-final in a row.” (you remember what I said?),” Shitanshu Kotak, with whom Pujara had shared a match-turning 163 partnership asked. Amid the delirium Pujara turned to his senior partner and replied, “Hats off to you.”The previous evening, chasing 325 for victory Saurashtra had lost two quick wickets and needed a further 310 on the final day. Kotak was positive. “He told me if we took some calculated risks Karnataka would not know whether to defend or attack,” Pujara said later. “That is what happened. The way he batted – especially his subtle method of attacking – I had never seen him bat that way.”Pujara himself had done something for the first time in that game. Normally, by his admission, he thinks a lot about his batting, but that day he shut his mind. “I told myself, ‘Let’s just go there and bat and not worry about how much more we need and what day of the game it is.'” The aim was to settle down, get through the first session without losing a wicket and then see what happened. What unfolded over the six-odd hours was a perfectly acted script, with Pujara performing his role as a future star.The knock against Karnataka has been a big stepping stone, he says. “The way I batted was really good for the team and for me as well. It was the best innings in my career because I was under pressure. We were underdogs and to come from behind and secure that victory was just amazing.”

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Pujara was the top-scorer in last year’s Ranji Trophy; but critics pointed to his relatively poor, sub-60 strike-rate, a bit of an anachronism in modern cricket. This year, after Saurashtra’s exit in the semi-finals, Pujara’s strike-rate read 71.45, the highest among batsmen who had played all nine games till that stage. Pujara had hit back squarely at his critics. He finished this year’s tournament with 906 runs, behind Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane in the run-scorers’ list.Though he failed to convert a good start in the semi-final, against Mumbai – he scored 39 as Saurashtra lost on first innings – Pujara remains in contention for a possible middle-order slot in the Test team. The likes of S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina may be ahead in the pecking order, based either on experience or just plain talent, but Pujara has in his favour his proven ability to make big runs.At the start of the current season he thundered two triple-hundreds inside a week with ridiculous ease in the Under-22 tournament. Before anyone could dismiss those efforts as having come at a lesser level, Pujara forced journalists and TV stations to move their radar towards Rajkot, where he cobbled together another triple, this time against Orissa. That game put both Saurashtra and Pujara back on track after Gujarat had slapped an innings defeat on them in their season opener; Pujara made only eight in that game, including a second-innings duck.After his unbeaten 302 against Orissa, where he stitched together an all-time record partnership of 520 for the fifth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja, Pujara also scored big run-a-ball hundreds in the next two games, against Punjab and Mumbai.According to Pujara everything was fine last year, but he wanted to deal with the strike-rate issue. “This year I’m more positive and it started after I played in the Under-22 matches,” he said when I met him on the eve of the quarter-final clash against Karnataka.The turnaround came during his mammoth 386 in the Under-22 tournament, where, he says, having visualised what was required for the team’s safety, he could then accelerate as needed. “We had to cross 368 to grab the vital lead for points. Once that was achieved I had the liberty to do what I wanted. On the final day I moved into one-day mode, and if there was a half-volley I would drive it.” Pujara’s vigil lasted more than 11 hours in all on that occasion.All three triple-hundreds have come on his home ground, infamous for its flat pitches. “I agree the pitches in Rajkot are batting tracks,” Pujara says. “Still, it is difficult to keep on scoring big runs. It tests your fitness as well – once you score 300 and come back and field for two more days, it is a difficult thing.”

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Pujara started playing when he was eight. His father, Arvind, would roll balls to him along the ground.Arvind, who played a bit for Saurashtra in the 1970s, focused on having his son develop a strong base to his game. “From the initial stage my father wanted me to be a good batsman with proper technique,” Pujara says.Rajkot was not quite the ideal place to achieve this goal: Pujara did not have proper cricket gear in his formative years, and there were no turf pitches (still an issue). “If you want to become a good cricketer, somehow you have to manage with what you have – whatever the conditions are you utilise those,” Pujara says.
Young and hungry: during his 97 against West Indies at the U-19 World Cup © ICC
Perhaps it is the resilience he had to show in the face of trying circumstances that has helped him develop large reserves of patience – on the field as well as in person. During our conversation Pujara never once rushed into his answers, giving every question due thought before saying just what he wanted to.He retains that calm posture on the field too. At the crease he is still, moves his bat and feet without fuss, and there are no mutterings aimed at self-motivation. As a batsman Pujara cuts a neat figure. He maintains a relaxed, erect posture facing the bowler. When he plays his shots the bat-swing is minimal, and he finishes with a textbook follow-through. Mostly he plays his shots along the ground, leaning intothe strokes rather than using the bottom hand. His front- and back-footplay is sound, and he can hit some gorgeous square, off and straight-drives, aswell as pulls. If there is a weakness, it is perhaps his tendency to be tentative early on – as in the case of the late-cut that brought about his dismissal in the semi-final this year. The other, more prominent, deficiency is against the short ball. Ajit Agarkar pitched it short frequently at Chepauk and Pujara failed to get into the right position to deal with itAt the age of 12, playing for Saurashtra Under-14, Pujara scored 306 not out in nine hours against Baroda. It was his debut match, his first time out of Rajkot, first time away from his father’s vigilant eyes. “That gave me confidence that if I continue the right way I can do something.”Over the years he gained experience at the zonal cricket academy and the NCA, learning to adapt and respond to various kinds of situations and pitches.A few years ago Pujara endured the biggest loss of his life when his mother lost her battle with cancer. He put it behind him to emerge the top run-getter in the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2006, beating the likes of Rohit and up-and-coming Australian Moises Henriques, who too is vying for an international berth.Amol Muzumdar, a domestic giant, with 100-plus Ranji games over more than a decade, has seen many potential talents, but he thinks Pujara is exceptional. “Based on the first couple of balls he plays, you know he has experience behind him – of having runs behind him. He knows how to score runs,” Muzumdar says.Pujara is aiming big, but he is in no hurry. “One thing I always keep in mind is: your standard should be always high.” During the Under-19 World Cup, India’s coach, Venkatesh Prasad, shared a valuable nugget of information. “He told me, ‘If you score 100, you should ask if that century is helping the team first. And are you only good enough to score a 100 or are you good enough to score 150 in the same number of balls?'” That’s one question Pujara seems to have laid to rest.

Given the record at the Queen’s Park Oval, Joey Carew’s pronouncement that there will “most definitely” be an outright result in the decisive fifth Digicel Test starting today was simply stating the obvious

Tony Cozier09-Mar-2009Given the record at the Queen’s Park Oval, Joey Carew’s pronouncement that there will “most definitely” be an outright result in the decisive fifth Test starting today was simply stating the obvious.

Against the shocking atrocities in Lahore last week that have shaken the game to its core, a little local controversy in a regional match would seem to be of negligible consequence. It is, in fact, very pertinent to the present state of West Indies cricket.It involved the closing stages of the match between Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados at Guaracara Park last week Monday. With the home team going helter-skelter after a victory target of 142, Barbados sent down seven overs in an hour to an unsurprising backdrop of abuse from the few hundred home spectators.When, finally, umpires Bashir Ali and Vincent Weekes determined that the light had deteriorated enough to end the match, T&T were 99 for 3 off the 12 overs they received in an hour and 40 minutes, and their officials and supporters were fuming.It was, charged Forbes Persad, chief executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TCCB), “a deliberate act of time wasting to deprive Trinidad and Tobago” of victory. In a letter published in the press, one Noel Kalicharan was beside himself with rage. He cited Lord Kitchener’s “Tek yuh meat out mih rice” calypso to describe the “low down, cheap and rotten tricks a Bajan would resort to in order to outsmart a Trini”.He even managed to draw a connection between the Lahore deaths and the Guaracara go-slow.
“It is one thing for terrorists to assault cricket’s reputation but those who undermine the reputation from within are no less guilty than those with guns and grenades and must suffer appropriate penalties,” he added.It seemed a touch extreme. Persaud put it more calmly. He hoped the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) would “take a strong position” on the matter. All the evidence indicates he was wasting his breath. The Guaracara furore is the latest in a sequence about which nothing has been done by the WICB, the organisation specifically charged with protecting the reputation of West Indies cricket and guarding against indiscipline.Perhaps all were not what they seemed. So it might be in this case. Livy Coppin, the Barbados manager, cited a few extenuating circumstances when I sought his take on the matter – although it is difficult to imagine what circumstances could lead to seven overs in an hour.This, like all the others before it, requires an official investigation by the WICB and, if necessary, the “strong position” Persad is after. Once nothing is done, as it hasn’t been time and again, our cricket, at all levels, will continue to be dragged down by such cynicism.Ironically, Barbados were on the receiving end of the same slothful over rate in their 2003 Carib Beer Cup match against Guyana at Albion. As they went after 72 more for victory off 24 overs with seven wickets standing following a rain break, the Guyanese meandered through 11 overs in an hour and a quarter in an obvious and, as it turned out, successful effort to thwart Barbados.Courtney Browne, then Barbados captain, now paradoxically chairman of their selectors, charged that “the sort of cricket the Guyanese displayed was horrendous”. Nine overs an hour, he said, was “total madness”.Horrendous or not, madness or not, there the matter rested without a peep from the WICB, a tacit endorsement of such tactics. Two years earlier, Dinanath Ramnarine and Merv Dillon, the West Indies eighth-wicket pair, engaged in methods to ensure a draw against South Africa in the Kensington Oval Test I described at the time as “demeaning”. A stronger adjective would have been in order.Ramnarine claimed a strained muscle and removed his pads to receive on-field attention. Dillon called for a change of boots. Critical time and overs were consumed. Umpires Steve Bucknor and Daryl Hair did little to stop the nonsense-just as Ali and Weekes reportedly did little at Guaracara.Ramnarine and Dillon are both Trinidadians, prompting Alloy Lequay, then president of the Trinidad and Tobago Board, to state: “If this took place while they were wearing national colours, I would have ensured that an inquiry be held to get all the facts and not just a public relations exercise”. Lequay was also a WICB director. Of course, no inquiry was held, no action taken.Two years ago, in the final of the Carib Beer Challenge, the showpiece of the regional season, the same combination as Monday-Guarcara, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados-witnessed some of the most petulant behaviour by players in any match in the Caribbean.”Here are the two best teams in the region, role models for our cricket in the future,” Deryck Murray, the TTCB head, WICB director and former West Indies vice-captain, noted. “We need, in the WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) to address the issue and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”Of course, the issue was never addressed and, once players know that they won’t be censured for indiscipline or bringing the game into disrepute, it will happen, time and again. And that is one reason for the present state of West Indies cricket.

Instead of scratching their heads for clone of Andrew Flintoff, who haunted them during the 2005 Ashes, the penny has started to drop that attempting to copy natural ability is like trying to replicate the Mona Lisa

Brydon Coverdale at the Wanderers27-Feb-2009
The highlight of Mitchell Johnson’s display was a string of lusty slog-swept sixes off Paul Harris that brought an Australian Test record of 26 runs in one over © Getty Images
Australia’s obsessive search for an allrounder has been so fruitless that it is tempting to look at the brilliant innings from Mitchell Johnson and Marcus North and argue that they have found two in one day. But what they have really discovered is the value of playing their best XI with each man in a position suitable to his skills.Instead of sending in a solid jack-of-all-trades like Andrew McDonald at No. 6, as they did in Sydney, they chose a genuine top six batsman in North. He rewarded them with a superbly composed century on debut and if he chips in with some handy wickets with his part-time offspin then all the better.Instead of scratching their heads for a clone of Andrew Flintoff, who haunted them during the 2005 Ashes, the penny has started to drop that attempting to copy natural ability is like trying to replicate the . At best you’ll appear silly for trying and at worst you’ll have the credibility of an art-school dropout.North has proven himself to be a thoroughly capable Test No. 6, which is no surprise given he has spent the past decade holding down a middle-order spot for Western Australia with an average of 44. He entered the game with 22 first-class centuries compared to McDonald’s two.North raised his century with a late cut from the bowling of JP Duminy and became the 18th Australian to score a hundred on Test debut and the first since Michael Clarke more than four years ago. His team-mates, perched in the Wanderers dressing room, offered him a generous ovation – a celebration as much for his momentum-shifting innings as the arrival of a batsman who, finally, adds starch to the middle-order.He will be a valuable person to have around the group this year in particular. Stints at five different counties have given him more than a taste of the English conditions and he has a spell at Hampshire coming up ahead of this year’s Ashes tour.His all-round skills mean there will be less urgency to rush AndrewSymonds back, whenever he is deemed to be available. But the fact that North has nearly 100 first-class wickets – including a career-best six in last week’s tour match in Potchefstroom – is a bonus. If Australia throw in a frontline spinner when conditions suit, in place of McDonald, their balance will look even better.The fact that North has nearly 100 first-class wickets – including a career-best six in last week’s tour match in Potchefstroom – is a bonus. If Australia throw in a frontline spinner when conditions suit, in place of Andrew McDonald, their balance will look even betterThere is no reason McDonald can’t be a useful Test player but at the moment he appears surplus to needs at No. 8, a position that Johnson can easily fill. His duck – albeit to an excellent, swinging Dale Steyn delivery – looked all the poorer when contrasted with the 117-run partnership compiled by North and Johnson, which broke the eighth-wicket record for Australia in Tests against South Africa.Johnson was desperately unlucky not to match his partner and score his first Test century. He watched on as Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus fell in successive balls to leave him stranded on 96, but his innings was every bit as century-worthy as that of North. The highlight of Johnson’s display was a string of lusty slog-swept sixes off Paul Harris that brought an Australian Test record of 26 runs in one over but to label him a late-overs basher is to do him a major disservice.Compared to top-order men like Simon Katich and Phillip Hughes, who score runs in spite of their weird techniques, Johnson’s batting style is pure. His stance is so rock solid and his bat so straight that he could have been the inspiration for the little plastic batsman in the Test match cricket board game.Before he lost a ball by sending it over midwicket and out of the stadium off Harris, he had sent it rocketing to the boundary several times, including with a perfectly timed cover-drive off Jacques Kallis that he has produced so often in the past year that it’s clearly not a fluke. In his last three Test innings, Johnson has made 203 runs and has been dismissed once.When he walked off the Wanderers to a rousing reception, he boasted a Test batting average of 31.47. For the record, Flintoff’s average is 31.69. But that’s a figure Australia shouldn’t get too carried away with.At some point Johnson will make a Test century but he shouldn’t be bumped too high up in the order. North at six, Brad Haddin (who made a valuable 63) at seven and Johnson at eight. Three quality performers in positions that suit them. There’s no need to manufacture a Flintoff clone.

India’s batsmen have an opportunity to slay a demon: batting to save a Test. It’s their third opportunity to pass such an examination in 2008. They would want to forget the first two efforts

Cricinfo staff12-Oct-2008

India’s batsmen have an opportunity to slay a demon: batting to save a Test. It’s their third opportunity to pass such an examination in 2008. They would want to forget the first two efforts.In January, Australia declared shortly before lunch on the final day in Sydney, a situation that is likely to recur tomorrow. India were one down at the break but all out in 70.5 overs with minutes to go before stumps. A few months later in Colombo, Sri Lanka made India follow on with a little more than five sessions to go. They didn’t even last two. At this venue in 2005, India were 103 for 1 at lunch on the fifth day against Pakistan. After Virender Sehwag’s dismissal, however, they batted in super-slow mode and collapsed for 214.The dangers they face in trying to keep this Test off that list include the vagaries of a fifth-day pitch, an accurate pace attack and customised field placements. In the 13th over of the Australian innings, Zaheer Khan trapped Matthew Hayden lbw with late swing; during the final session an offbreak from Harbhajan Singh spat off the pitch and bounced so high that Shane Watson and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were both beaten. The uncertainties in bounce, and the slowness of the pitch, helped exert control over the scoring rate. Both factors will be enhanced on day five.The Indian fast bowlers, Zaheer and Ishant Sharma, looked the most threatening in the given conditions. They swung the new ball, got the old one to reverse early and forced the batsman to play by bowling straight. Australia possess a four-pronged pace attack: Stuart Clark, elbow injury permitting, will attempt to contain at one end; Brett Lee and Watson will try to hit pads and stumps with inswing or reverse; Johnson’s deliveries slanted across the right-handers tempt them into driving on a slow pitch.The Indians have plenty of first-innings mistakes to learn form where they fell into specific traps. Gautam Gambhir played across the line to an inswinger; Sehwag edged a wide delivery; Sachin Tendulkar drove too hard at a slow ball and spooned a catch. VVS Laxman and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were unable to find new areas of opportunity once their strong zones were cut off.Harbhajan and Zaheer showed that aggressive batting could succeed in beating the pitch and the field. Their approach, blocking when they had to and trying to force the pace at other times, was not a one-off. Watson and Brad Haddin made it work as well. The Australians were scoring at just over two an over but the Watson-Haddin partnership went along at nearly four.The key to India’s chances could lie with the batsman who best dealt with the stifling conditions in the first innings – Rahul Dravid and his ability to bat time irrespective of whether runs are forthcoming. He has the best fourth innings – 57.41 since 2000 – among the Indian batsmen. Gambhir averages 55 but he’s played only four innings while Ganguly, Tendulkar and Laxman are below 40. Sehwag scored his only second-innings century earlier this year and averages 30 in the final innings.The examination of India’s much-vaunted batting line-up will begin the moment Ricky Ponting decides it’s time to declare on Monday.

The top man in the USA’s cricket administration believes America is the sport’s next sunshine destination and he’s pulling out the stops to make sure it is

Martin Williamson and Andrew Miller04-Sep-2009Don Lockerbie, the new chief executive of USACA, believes that the time has come for USA cricket to draw a line under the disputes and controversies that have marred its recent existence, and believes that Twenty20 cricket is the vehicle to drive the sport into a vast and untapped market in North America.Lockerbie was chief operating officer and venue development director of the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, but has had previous experience of promoting unfamiliar sports in the USA, having served as a venue design manager and a senior consultant for the 1994 football World Cup.His vision centres around three key aims: firstly to turn the USA into a major centre for attracting the best talent in the world – either through the creation of an IPL-style tournament or simply by attracting the leading international teams for limited-overs tournaments. And then, having created an interest in the game, the next step is to push for a fully professional USA team, by tapping into an estimated USA fanbase of more than 15 million people.”That fanbase is more than in Australia or in the UK. It’s a good number,” Lockerbie told Cricinfo. “Our primary aim is to satisfy the hunger of those who crave the sport, which in turn will help fuel interest. Americans may find cricket amusing at first, but then it’s really exciting. Americans love sport, and they know of cricket. Most people I meet want me to explain the game to them. They find it fascinating, and I know they’ll be enthusiastic about the Twenty20 game.””Destination USA” is the catch-all title that Lockerbie has given to his expansion plans, because by making North America into the best neutral venue in world cricket, he can in turn generate sufficient interest to enable a fully competitive (and professional) homegrown outfit. Already there exists a highly promising Under-19 USA team that has qualified for the next youth World Cup, and Lockerbie’s next step, through his catchily titled “Project 15″, is to ensure that the senior team re-enters the world’s top 15 (they are currently a lowly 32nd), while at the same time qualifying for the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.”When you think about the history of cricket, you have to go back to the very first international, between USA and Canada in 1844,” said Lockerbie. “And yet, in the modern era not a single full-member country has played in USA. A few representative teams played in Los Angeles in the 1990s, but we have never attracted full members, not even with the West Indies, at the height of their powers, in our backyard.”Cricket is coming back to the Caribbean in a big way next spring when the next World Twenty20 takes place, and Lockerbie is determined that the USA should be ready to roll out the red carpet to the game’s elite players. “In April 2010, all the best teams in the world will be in the region, so we are trying to create matches and get them televised,” said Lockerbie. “There is no reason why they can’t stop off in the USA before and after the tournament. This is a serious initiative for us, to show that cricket is here and has arrived in a major and positive way. We want to play meaningful matches in filled-up stadiums, because the USA would welcome the opportunity.

“Golf is a massive sport in the USA, but when Tiger Woods tees off on a Thursday, he doesn’t win until Sunday evening, and sometimes he doesn’t win until Monday. USA can be a patient sports-watching country”

“With our weather and the range of venues available to us, we are ready to host cricket in the USA 365 days a year,” said Lockerbie. “From Fort Lauderdale, which has already received ICC approval, to New York, to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Texas and Chicago, we have great pockets of our heritage, and immigrants with a culture of cricket. There are 15 million fans who have been very hungry for cricket for decades, and we’re ready to exploit that.”That immigrant population is the real driving force behind the growth of cricket in North America, and as Lockerbie conceded, the creation of the Fort Lauderdale stadium stemmed directly from the demands of the West Indian expat community. Now, he claims, USA’s self-styled “sports capital”, Indianapolis, is next in line to join the bandwagon. “With the growth and interest of the game, cities are eager to host cricket,” said Lockerbie. “It’s a perfect storm to move in the right direction, to move up the food chain quicker than in the past.”The twin concerns about promoting cricket in the USA, notwithstanding the buzz currently surrounding Twenty20, are the long-held assumptions among Americans that cricket is “boring”, and the lack of a national identity for domestic fans to latch onto. In the short-term, however, Lockerbie is unconcerned by either issue.”Take golf for example,” he said. “It is a massive sport in the USA, but when Tiger Woods tees off on a Thursday, he doesn’t win until Sunday evening, and sometimes he doesn’t win until Monday. USA can be a patient sports watching country. And it doesn’t always require a recognised American team either. In our Major League Soccer, we can attract maybe 15-17,000 a match, but when Man United play Barcelona, we’ll sell out an 80,000 stadium, just as an NFL game can sell out at Wembley.”If the leading international teams come to USA, we’ll fill our stadiums, no problem. In 1994, the world laughed when we were awarded the football World Cup, but we still hold the record for the most tickets sold in the event. And we are particularly adept at creating modular or temporary venues. As long as we have excellent fields and turf wickets, we can take a round oval and wrap 30000 people around it in a heartbeat. Just think what happens at Augusta during the Masters golf – there are suites, press boxes, broadcasters, fancy tents, portable toilets, all of it temporary, even though it can look like it’s been there for ever.”In the long term, however, Lockerbie appreciates that true growth of cricket in the USA depends on a fully professional structure, and that requires a team worthy of attracting full-time employees. “Most of the cricket fans in our country would barely know the USA team exists,” said Lockerbie. “We need to make cricket an American sport, starting in schools and working our way up. We are negotiating with Canada for an annual series, and we want to play regularly against Bermuda, and the individual Caribbean countries. There are plenty of opponents to be found in our region.”We are working closely with some potential donor partners, who are currently waiting for cricket to take a professional turn,” he said. “They are investor types, but we are not trying to rush anything. If you look at the big sponsors that the ICC has attracted in recent years – Pepsi, Yahoo, ESPN – even allowing for their Asian affiliates, they are American companies in origin. A lot of the money that people enjoy in cricket comes from the USA already. We want to put that back into our field.”Before their suspension, the USA were the No.2-ranked team in Associate cricket•International Cricket CouncilTo that end, the ICC faced accusations of bias when they allowed the USA to leapfrog their current standing and take their place in the qualifying rounds for the World Twenty20 despite initially failing to earn a place when they bombed out of the group-stage qualification in Jersey earlier this year. Lockerbie, however, said that his team had been placed in an impossible position, having only just had their suspension from ICC tournaments lifted prior to the event.”We faced accusations of commercialism at the ICC associates meeting, and there was a potential motion to add more teams, instead of wildcards,” he said. “But the point I made in that meeting was that before we were suspended, we were the No. 2-ranked team in Associate cricket. When our suspension was lifted, we were rushed into World Cup qualifying, and given 30 days to prepare a team. Should two bad days in Jersey mean we’re not a good team anymore?””Last November we beat Canada and Bermuda, and we were unbeaten in the Americas tournament. We are regional champions. Before we were put on probation, we showed in 2004 by reaching the Champions Trophy that we have the potential to be a good team. At least we’ve been there before. We’ve played well enough in the past to move on from that suspension, and what I’ve promised the players is that I intend to professionalise the game as soon as possible.”Our Under-19 team could be professionals by 2015,” he said. “We can’t succeed as an amateur team; no one can. You can’t work nine to five, then hit the nets at evenings and weekends and expect to compete with the best in the world. But with calculated strategic initiatives we can do it. Especially where Twenty20 cricket is concerned. That is a huge plus for us. Four to six years ago it was marginal, whereas now the game is a serious part of cricket.”Lockerbie’s ultimate dream, however, is to replicate the success of the Indian Premier League and set up an American franchise league with the backing of the world’s star players. “The IPL is a remarkable, fantastic model,” he said. “It’s so successful, and yet it is merely a three-week tournament. Our hat is off to Lalit Modi and the people behind this property. It’s a model to emulate, or to partner with.”We want to be a significantly contributing federation in cricket. We want to be successful and stable, and we want to move cricket from underground to mainstream,” he said. “The USA wants to see superstars, so first we’ll invite them to play, and then we’ll develop our own superstars.”

Although she has won three World Cups with Australia, as captain her side came fourth in their worst-ever finish in March

Alice Dean18-Jun-2009If Australia are not careful, the World Twenty20 against England on Friday could be captain Karen Rolton’s last match in charge. Rolton said in May that she would hand in the captaincy after the World Twenty20 so someone else could learn while she was still in the team.At 34, this is also almost certainly Rolton’s last world tournament even as a player – unless she hangs on until the World Twenty20 next year in the Caribbean – and her side owe it to her to go all-out to beat England.Although she has won three World Cups with Australia, as captain her side came fourth in their worst-ever finish in March. Australia will want to make amends for Rolton and delay her big send-off until Sunday at Lord’s. The game could do no better for the player made the first ICC Female Cricketer of the Year in 2006.Australia aren’t in their best-ever shape but they are hitting some decent form. The post-World Cup retirement of Emma Sampson left a large hole in the pace bowling department which has been exposed already this tournament. Spin bowlers Shelley Nitschke – who leads the bowling with five wickets and the batting with 93 runs – and Lisa Sthalekar are holding their ends up, though.Batting-wise, Australia are firing of late, with contributions all the way down throughout the group, though they flopped inexplicably in the opener against New Zealand. Nevertheless, their batting depth is superior to England’s without question.Unusually, their fielders have been guilty of some glaring misses, butnow is the time to turn it on at The Oval.Australia also take the sharp psychological edge with three winsagainst England in their most recent meetings. The Southern Stars may havecome second in their group courtesy of a loss to New Zealand but insome ways they are happier to be playing England than India – who beatthem twice at the World Cup.England may have the home crowd and home advantage but, for all theirprotestations that the trio of losses mean nothing, their coach MarkLane has openly admitted that it haunts them and they can’t work outhow to shake it.They’d better think fast – and also hope that their middle ordersucceeds if called upon. Too often have England relied on their startrio of Sarah Taylor, Charlotte Edwards and Claire Taylor.England have won three out of three group matches so far and are thetournament favourites but Australia have shown time and again that youcan never write them off. It’s too close to call but Australia may just shade it.

Before this tournament started there were two Twenty20 international hundreds. In the last 48 hours that tally has been doubled and Mahela Jayawardene’s even 100 will rank among the finest innings played in the format

Andrew McGlashan in Guyana03-May-2010Before this tournament started there were two Twenty20 international hundreds. In the last 48 hours that tally has been doubled and Mahela Jayawardene’s even 100 will rank among the finest innings played in the format. It proved, beyond doubt, that there is still a place for elegance and grace in the smash-and-grab world of Twenty20.For a while it looked like rain would scupper Sri Lanka, but they managed to race to five overs in Zimbabwe’s chase before another downpour. Now they are likely to progress to the Super Eights, and Jayawardene is going to take some catching as the tournament’s leading scorer if his form continues, having begun with 81 off 51 balls against New Zealand three days ago.On early form it is shaping as a race between him, Suresh Raina and possibly Shane Watson. Raina and Watson made their mark yesterday against South Africa and Pakistan respectively, but they were both innings more akin to this format. That isn’t for one minute suggesting they weren’t worthy knocks, far from it as Raina produced a glorious 60-ball 101 and Watson pulverised Pakistan with a 49-ball 81.But watching Watson, and to a lesser extent, Raina hammer the bowling attack wasn’t nearly as fulfilling an experience as watching Jayawardene toy with the Zimbabwe attack. The bowlers he faced weren’t of the class of South Africa or Pakistan, but Jaywardene was in complete control from the moment he struck the second delivery of the match for four and the third for six as 14 came off the first over. It was a faultless innings.”I’m relieved and happy we managed to play a game out there but I thought the day belonged to Mahela who batted absolutely brilliantly,” said Kumar Sangakkara. “To score a hundred in Twenty20 isn’t easy but the way he is batting I think he’ll keep on doing things that are incredible.”It is a complete justification of his elevation to opening, which has led to Sanath Jayasuriya coming in at No. 8. Only twice in his previous 579 internationals has Jayasuriya batted so low and they were back in 1990 and 1991. Before Jayawardene moved, he had an underwhelming average of 22.05 from 23 Twenty20s and the task of launching the innings was left to Jayasuriya and Tillakaratne Dilshan. Now Sri Lanka have found the way to make the most of Jayawardene in Twenty20, especially with Jayasuriya coming towards the end of his career.”It wasn’t that I was disappointed batting lower down, I had a different role, it’s whatever fits in but I knew I could be a lot more free and express myself a bit better batting higher up the order,” Jayawardene said. “I started in provincial cricket back home and it went well and continued at the IPL, then I had a chat to my skipper. When you are in form you have to make best use of it, and in Twenty20, you need guys to control the innings so the big hitters can bat around you.”Jaywardene has always been one of the most pleasing batsmen on the eye and it is testament to his skill that he has been able to translate that into Twenty20, where the temptation is to leather the cover off the ball. However, regardless of how quickly runs need to be scored, there is no point swinging blindly because the net result is unlikely to be as successful as retaining the basics that make for successful run-scoring in any format. However, Jayawardene could probably make slogging looking graceful.”I had to challenge myself to be a bit different in Twenty20 cricket as well as all the other aspects of the game,” he said. “So you keep pushing yourself to try and be a better cricketer every day.”His impressive IPL form has no doubt played a part in his prolific start to this event, as have pitch conditions in Guyana, which are akin to those in Colombo and Galle. Still, batsmen normally like to take a little time to get their eye in but Jayawardene drove his third delivery over long off to signal his intent. It wasn’t even a half volley, yet the back-of-a-length ball from Chris Mpofu was lofted on the up; in a Test match, or even an ODI, it would have been left or defended with a high left elbow.Against New Zealand he had dominated the scoring – after six overs he had 30 of Sri Lanka’s 36 – and was at it again here, when Dilshan’s poor run continued as he miscued a lofted drive for 2. This time after six overs, Jayawardene had 48 (off 25 balls) out of Sri Lanka’s 59 for 1 and his fifty off 27 balls was the fastest of the tournament to date. Because there was so little outlandish swinging by Jayawardene, the opportunity of the hundred almost crept up, and when he nudged a single into the leg side he celebrated with an understated lift of the bat to the dug-out and the crowd.There has also been a role reversal with his opening partner Dilshan, who led Sri Lanka’s batting at last year’s World Twenty20 but can’t buy a run this time. However, you couldn’t get two more contrasting players and there isn’t a Dilscoop in sight when Jayawardene has his bat in hand. There is no need for such extravagance when the tried and tested methods work so well.

It wasn’t easy, and there was plenty of soul-searching on the way, but Michael Hussey seems to finally have put his lean spell behind him and is looking to build on the form he has regained

Brydon Coverdale18-Mar-2010Michael Hussey is such a fixture of the Australian team that it’s easy to forget he has been in the Test side for less than five years. He turns 35 in two months – the same vintage as Ricky Ponting, yet they have been team-mates for only a third of Ponting’s international career. They are not old men – heck, they’re still in the age bracket for Contiki party tours – but questions of longevity are starting to be asked. Ponting’s single-mindedness means he is aiming for the 2013 Ashes trip to England to regain the urn; Hussey’s goals are more short-term.”I’d love to be there with him for that, but I think that’s too far away for me to be thinking about at this stage,” Hussey told Cricinfo this week. “In the coming year, we’ve got three huge tournaments coming up, which I would desperately love to be involved in – the Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies, the Ashes coming up next year and the 50-over World Cup coming up throughout the subcontinent as well.”They’re the big three that I’d really love to be involved in, and I think after that I’ll see how I’m going. I don’t want to speculate on if that will be it, but I’d love to get through those, play the best cricket I possibly can, and reassess from there.”To achieve all those objectives, Hussey will first need to break back into Australia’s Twenty20 side, and secondly maintain the form that he found during the Australian summer. It’s easy to see why retirement couldn’t be further from his mind. Many times over the past 18 months the axe could have fallen, so he is entitled to enjoy his success. He’d also spent a decade trying to make the team in the first place.If anyone can realise his goals it’s Mr Cricket, who the former Australia coach John Buchanan called the model template for any aspiring cricketer. His knowledge and obsession with the game is so well known that you half expect to see him wandering around in whites and pads during his spare time, but in the lobby of the team’s Wellington hotel he is almost incognito in a t-shirt, casual trousers and cap.The main aim of his New Zealand trip, besides of course contributing to a series win, is to build on his good form. Despite his century in the final Ashes Test, Hussey entered the Australian season as one of the most vulnerable members of the side. Until The Oval, he had endured the sort of lean patch bound to cause panic in a man for whom a slump had previously meant two small scores in a row.”I had a few times where I was questioning myself a fair bit,” Hussey said. “I just knew that if I kept sticking to what I had been doing in the past, what I knew made me successful, and had a lot of faith and belief in my game, then I knew it would turn eventually. I just hoped it wasn’t too late before it did turn. I think Ricky and the coaching staff and selectors showed a lot of faith in me and I’m really appreciative.”Leading in to The Oval, he had averaged 23.85 in his previous 12 Tests and when his first innings brought another duck, he was possibly on his last chance. He made 121 in the second innings, not enough to win the Test for Australia but enough to rescue his career. Despite some scratchiness at the start of the Australian summer – some commentators even wondered if his eyesight was failing – runs came. It culminated in a match-winning unbeaten 134 against Pakistan in Sydney.”Coming in to the season there was a lot of speculation about my position in the team,” he said. “I felt like I hadn’t been playing too badly but I needed to be more consistent. The longer the summer went on and the more confidence I got from consistent scoring, the better I felt all the time. But every Test match is hard. You’re going to have to scratch and scrape together runs at certain stages throughout your innings. I don’t think I’ve ever had one Test innings where I felt that everything just cruised along nicely.”

“I had a few times where I was questioning myself a fair bit. I just knew that if I kept sticking to what I had been doing in the past, what I knew made me successful, and had a lot of faith and belief in my game, then I knew it would turn eventually. I just hoped it wasn’t too late before it did turn”

This week brings a new challenge for Hussey. Already he has made headlines, for his comments that the New Zealanders shouldn’t sledge Michael Clarke over his personal life. It raised the question, does Mr Cricket himself sledge? He is obsessive about writing lists to help him focus, so he’d be the perfect candidate to keep a database of potential sore spots for certain opponents. Alas, it is not his style.”I had a bit of a sledging match with Matthew Hayden once in a Sheffield Shield game at the Gabba and he just absolutely pulverised us everywhere. I can’t remember how many he made, but he made at least 150. Walking off then I just thought, this is stupid, because I know I’m going to cop it when I go out there now as well.”I pretty much gave up on it. At times there’s always going to be emotion in the game and sometimes you get a bit carried away and get involved, but to be honest, most of the time I’ve got involved in sledging, the player has gone on and scored heaps of runs, so I try and steer clear of it as much as I can.”While Clarke might be a target in Wellington this week, Hussey’s only words will be of encouragement for his team-mates. He will be embarking on his first Test in New Zealand and another of his goals is to play Tests in every country and master their conditions. Assuming Pakistan remains on the no-go list and Zimbabwe doesn’t return, the only other trip left to tick off is Sri Lanka. The touring lifestyle has its professional challenges but it’s also personally tough for Hussey, who has a wife and three children at home in Perth.”It’s probably the hardest thing about playing the game, I must admit,” he said. “I don’t enjoy the amount of time away and I’m sure that will probably come in to the decision when it is time to go. But we’ve got a couple of decent little breaks coming up, so I’ll just really look forward to that time at home. I try not to do too much outside of cricket, I’m pretty much home 24/7 when I do get a break. Then when it’s cricket, you just try and concentrate on the other life.”It’s the life he’s always dreamed of, and he’s not ready to give it up yet.