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What is the BCCI doing to raise the level of umpiring in the country?

Sriram Veera in Hyderabad13-Jan-2009

“I have been playing domestic cricket continuously for the last two years and you can never be sure you will get a good complete game from the umpires. There are good umpires around but consistency is lacking.”Mohammad Kaif, the Uttar Pradesh captain, was a very disappointed man at the end of the second day. He had hung around tenaciously for 172 minutes, trying to consolidate when he lunged forward to defend a Zaheer Khan delivery. Amiesh Saheba, the umpire, heard a noise and put his finger up but Kaif went limp and stood motionless for some time. Replays revealed the bat had hit the pad and the ball went past the edge. Saheba had a bad semi-final as well, with couple of poor decisions. The other on-field umpire, Shavir Tarapore, has made two poor decisions in the game, but also a brilliant one – he picked up the edge from the toe end of the bat of Tanmay Srivastava.Bad decisions are no crime. Kaif himself said it’s part and parcel of the game but the key point he raised was that he sees a similar pattern of inconsistency around the circuit. It’s also reflected in the fact that India have no umpires in the ICC’s elite panel. So, what is the BCCI doing to raise the level of umpiring?VK Ramasamy, a former umpire who is the BCCI-appointed umpiring coach for this match, explains the process. Since the last season, the board has been spending money in installing cameras in every Ranji Trophy game and having an umpire coach at each venue.”Every appeal is tagged and the video is sent to us at the end of the day. We have a look, analyse the decision, see what is the mistake or the right thing the umpire has done and table it,” he said. “At the end of the match, we sit with the concerned umpire and run through the videos again. We find his thought process on why he made the decision and if we disagree with his verdict, we explain why. And we suggestive corrective measures wherever possible: his head position, his technique, his decision-making skills, on his man-management, you know the entire umpiring process.”The umpire coach also files a report to the BCCI where the umpire is graded on a rank of ten. The board is set to issue a new performance guideline which will ask the umpire coach to grade the umpire as bad, satisfactory, good or very good. “Also, at the end of the season, Mr Srinivas Venkataragavan, the director of umpiring, goes through the videos with the umpires in the scanner and suggests his point of view.”So the system is really good. The umpire can only get better and if he is not the system will ensure it weeds out the bad umpires. And please, this is just the second year with this system. You have to give us more time to see the result. It’s too early now but I think the system seems pretty tight.”The problem according to Mumbai’s coach Praveen Amre is that the existing pool of good umpires is very small. “There is no option but to back the men who are good. They are humans and like good players, out of form, you just have to support them.”Many have felt that former cricketers should be encouraged to take up umpiring. Some like Maninder Singh and Yashpal Sharma tried but while Yashpal left because of lack of money in the job – the board has now increased the remuneration considerably – Maninder left it because he felt the BCCI was not supporting him.”I cleared the exam, but there are too many people in the board to discourage you. Their main grudge was the TV jobs that had come my way. Despite my good reports, the board took ages to promote me. Then I let it go because I didn’t want to call people and say, ‘Sir, sir, give me this match, give me that match’.”In another initiative, the Indian board has signed deals with Cricket South Africa for exchange of umpires and is soon to have similar agreements with Cricket Australia and the England board. In the upcoming Duleep Trophy, South Africa’s Marais Erasmus will officiate while India have already sent Suresh Shastri to umpire in South Africa’s domestic circuit. But the question remains, when will India throw up a quality umpire good enough to enter the elite panel?

The final Test of the series summed up where India and New Zealand stood vis-à-vis history and Test rankings. Sidharth Monga reviews the series

Sidharth Monga in Wellington08-Apr-2009The final Test of the series summed up where India and New Zealand stood with regard to history and Test rankings.India, not having won a Test series in New Zealand for more than 41 years, shed the daredevilry that has become their trademark of late and went for safety first. It showed how much series wins outside the subcontinent, rare as they have been, mean to an Indian team. You can’t really dump all the historical baggage.With a little help from the weather, New Zealand hung on, which will give them some satisfaction, a mini-milestone for a team on a long road to recovery after sudden retirements and an abrupt changing of the guard. The emergence of Jesse Ryder and the return of Chris Martin will be their biggest gains.The series confirmed the ICC Test rankings, but in Napier, New Zealand showed they could not be written off as a Test side. After their capitulation in Hamilton, a 3-0 result had become a distinct possibility. In application New Zealand might have lacked, in talent they didn’t. But as usual they left their followers wondering which was the real New Zealand: one that almost won in Napier or the one that almost lost next week in Wellington? Did they play above themselves in Napier, or did they under-perform in Wellington? We will know over the next year or two.India as a professional unit did what was required to win the series, as they were expected to. They showed early aggression in Hamilton, character and resolve in Napier, and circumspection, induced by their dismal overseas record, in Wellington. But the way they played the first two Tests is a serious warning to Australia and South Africa; they could play their natural flashy game, but they could just as well bat for close to seven sessions to save a Test.Gautam Gambhir’s batting and Harbhajan Singh’s bowling are the big success stories for India. Gambhir showed he could transform his game to any situation, something Rahul Dravid had earlier mentioned was critical to the success of a Test cricketer. Harbhajan showed he could lead the attack, when the pitch offered assistance, as in Hamilton, and that he could play back-up and perform the thankless act of bowling into the wind, as in Wellington.Another big success for India was that the likes of Dravid and VVS Laxman slipped into a support role with ease. That they did so efficiently, and that their big centuries were not missed, is a good sign for a team that will again be in transition in the near future. Sachin Tendulkar will be 36 in 16 days, Dravid turned 36 three months ago, and Laxman is going on 35. The series win will be most satisfactory for the trio, who were humbled on green tops when they last toured here.The pitches were much better this time around: even the worst of them produced the most gripping of the matches, in Napier. The ones in Hamilton and Wellington were excellent Test-match wickets, with something in them for skilful bowlers and skilful batsmen. Wellington, especially, was worth a pat on the groundsman’s back, because the match started in April, with winter almost in.The second Indian innings in the Wellington Test featured an event symbolic of what happened through the series and what could be expected in the years to come. Tendulkar walked off to a warm reception from the crowd, who suspected this could be the last time they would watch him bat, but Tendulkar didn’t make a special acknowledgement of that reception. “Perhaps they think this is my last tour,” he had said earlier during the tour, when asked about the standing ovations wherever he went. You never know with Tendulkar, and who would complain if he came here again? He entertained the crowds to the fullest: wholesome and innovative at the same time, while scoring a century each in the two formats he played in.The series overall wasn’t one that made neutrals sit up and take notice, as did Australia and South Africa in back-to-back series. New Zealand fought over seven days out of the 14 days of cricket. But those seven days made for compelling viewing, Ryder and Daniel Vettori thwarting India’s charge on day one, Ryder and Ross Taylor setting up a huge total in Napier, and Martin and Co surprising India on the first day in Wellington. That India survived those days was crucial to the 1-0 result. And those should be the days to remember the series by.

Michael Clarke may be the captain in waiting, but Australia need to ensure he rediscovers his hustle at the crease before leading full-time in one-day cricket

Alex Brown at The Oval04-Sep-2009Calls for Michael Clarke’s elevation to the limited overs captaincy have increased in frequency and volume ever since Ricky Ponting trudged from The Oval minus a certain terracotta urn last month. Splitting the leadership role, the theory goes, would provide Clarke with experience before his anticipated Test coronation and ease the workload on Ponting who, approaching 35, is hoping his twilight years will operate on daylight savings time.On the surface, the succession plan appears to have merit. Ponting, after all, won’t be around forever and Australia will at some stage require a steady hand to guide them through a transitional period that has thus far proven more painful than most had expected.But, on closer inspection, the case for the immediate promotion of Clarke is more nebulous than visionary. Over the past two years, Clarke has struggled to score at anywhere near the industry-standard strike-rate for limited overs batsmen, placing tremendous pressure on those around him to lift the team’s scoring. Clarke’s strike-rates in the 50 and 20-over formats since the start of 2008 stand at a modest 67.52 and 80.91 – all at a time when the Twenty20 game has encouraged batsmen to devise new, innovative ways to accelerate scoring. Australia’s ODI and Twenty20 win-loss records stand at 23-15 and 4-6 respectively over the corresponding period.Friday’s innings at The Oval proved a continuation of the theme for Australia’s stand-in captain. During a 72-ball stint at the crease, Clarke glanced, nudged and glided his way to 45 through the middle overs. Certainly, there was a case for consolidation after two early run-outs, but Clarke’s orthodoxy and general reluctance to play across the line allowed the likes of Paul Collingwood and Adil Rashid to tie him down, leaving it to Callum Ferguson and Michael Hussey to up the tempo later in the innings.”I thought we were maybe 15, 20 runs short but that was mainly down to my batting, I reckon,” Clarke conceded after play. “I took too many balls to score the runs I did. Hopefully that’s an area I can improve on come Sunday.”I felt like the last two innings I’ve had have been very scratchy, the T20 and here tonight. Unfortunately I got out in the second ball of the powerplay, where normally you cash in or catch up with your strike-rate. I feel like my one-day form has been pretty consistent. The last one-dayers we played was in Dubai and I thought I batted very well there. It’s just a different form of the game and it’s probably taken me a couple of games to get back into it. I’ve got some work to do in the nets tomorrow leading up to Sunday’s match but hopefully I can score a little bit freer come Sunday.”It may well be that the very transformation that turned Clarke into the talisman of Australia’s Test batting line-up has caused his deceleration in the limited overs formats. The move to stow away the impetuous hooks and risky sweeps has undoubtedly led to a general swelling of his batting averages across the spectrum, however accumulation alone is no longer sufficient in the modern 50 and 20-over games. The Clarke who scored at clips of 82.61 and 137.50 in ODI and Twenty20 cricket prior to 2008 has been conspicuously absent of late.The Australians, deposed from the No. 1 ODI ranking by South Africa earlier this year, need Clarke to rediscover his fifth gear of old in the limited overs formats without compromising his Test consistency. And while he embarks on this transformative journey, he could presumably do without the added burden of the 50 and 20-over captaincy on a full-time basis. There are few more uncomfortable sights in cricket than that of a captain battling with his own game, and Australia’s selectors would be taking an unnecessary risk by passing on the torch at a time when Clarke is searching and Ponting is willing.That is not to say Clarke should be replaced as Australia’s captain-elect. The talk within the camp indicates that the 28-year-old is evolving as a leader – an opinion not always universally held by the players – and serving Ponting well in his role as deputy. But more than a step-up in responsibility, Clarke needs to address the tempo of his limited overs batting to alleviate pressure on the middle-order in the short-term. Once the bat feels good in his hands, so too will the baton.

Keith Miller had a batting average that was 14 more than his bowling average, which easily puts him in the top rung of allrounders the world has seen

S Rajesh17-Oct-2010More than 50 years after he played his last Test match, Keith Miller remains, quite easily, the best allrounder Australia have ever produced. Despite the lingering feeling that he never quite had the drive and the hunger to pursue statistical milestones, Miller still finished with outstanding numbers, with a career batting average touching 37 and a bowling average of under 23. Sid Barnes, his Australian team-mate, accurately summarised Miller’s sheer talent and his attitude to cricket: “If Keith had had the same outlook as Bradman or Ponsford, he would have made colossal scores. He could, if he desired, have become the statisticians’ greatest customer.” Miller perhaps fell short of becoming the statisticians’ greatest customer, but nevertheless he visited them often enough, achieved significant numbers, and did it all with a flamboyance that was thrilling to watch.When he began his first-class career, he was a specialist batsman, and a very occasional bowler. On his first-class debut he scored 181 for Victoria against Tasmania in Melbourne in 1937-38. When first-class cricket in Australia was stopped due to the War, in 1941, Miller had, in 14 matches, scored two centuries and two fifties and had taken a solitary wicket, from seven overs. When he came back from the War, after serving with distinction as a fighter pilot, though, his fast bowling was a potent weapon, and it surprised England in the “Victory Tests” in which Miller played for the Australian Services team.In the Test match arena too, Miller’s batting was his stronger suit in the early days: in the first 20% of his career, his batting average exceeded 54 and his bowling average was less than 21, though he only took 27 wickets in 11 matches. In only his second Test, against England in Brisbane, he had match figures of 9 for 77, but that was an exception in what was largely a batting-dominated period in his career. Thereafter, though, the batting fell away slightly but the bowling remained lethal, as Miller formed a formidable combination with Ray Lindwall.In his last year-and-a-half in international cricket, Miller’s batting stats improved, but his bowling dropped off marginally. However, his highest Test score, 147 against West Indies in Kingston, and his only ten-wicket haul – against England at Lord’s – both came during this period. He had also scored a century at Lord’s on his earlier visit, thus making him one of only three overseas players – Vinoo Mankad and Garry Sobers are the others – to be on the honours board at Lord’s both for batting and bowling.

His all-round skills were so good that Miller remains one of only two Australians (Monty Noble, who played in the 1890s and 1900s, was the other) who scored more than 1500 runs and took over 100 wickets, and had a higher batting average than a bowling one. The difference for Miller was 14, which is easily the best among Australians.

In fact, Miller’s numbers compare favourably to the all-time best allrounders in the world: among those in the 1500-run-and-100-wicket club, only three have a higher difference between batting and bowling averages. One of them, Jacques Kallis, clearly favours batting – he averages less than two wickets per Test. Apart from him, Garry Sobers and Imran Khan are the only ones who rank higher than Miller.

However, the Australian teams Miller played in generally had strong batting line-ups, and it was as a bowler that Miller was needed more. With new-ball partner Lindwall, Miller formed an awesome combination. As a bowling pair they complemented each other superbly: Lindwall had exceptional control, and Miller was so unpredictable that batsmen didn’t know what to expect. Both were highly effective: during the 11 years in which Miller played his international cricket, both were easily among the best bowlers of their era.

When Miller performed to his potential, Australia usually won. Of the 55 Tests he played Australia won 31, which illustrates how strong the team was during that era, and Miller’s contributions in those victories were immense: with the bat he averaged 43.39, and he scored four of his seven hundreds in those games; in contrast, in the nine Tests he played in that Australia lost, his average fell to a miserable 17, and he scored only one half-century in 18 innings.With the ball, he was an even greater match-winner, and is one of only seven Australians who’ve taken more than 100 wickets at a sub-20 average in victories. All of his seven five-fors helped Australia win matches.

Miller had a special affinity for the West Indians: four of his seven Test hundreds and three of the seven five-fors came in the 10 Tests he played against them. In each of the two series versus West Indies, Miller achieved the double of 250 runs and 20 wickets, a feat that has only been accomplished 22 times against all opposition in Test history. Sobers and Ian Botham are the only ones to do this on three occasions, while Kapil Dev is the one player, apart from Miller, to do it twice.In one of those Tests against West Indies, in Kingston, Miller took 6 for 107 in West Indies’ first innings and scored 109, thus making him only the third Australian at the time to manage the double of a century and a five-for in the same match. Since then, Richie Benaud has been the only Australian to match the feat; he did it in 1958, which means it hasn’t been achieved by an Australian in the last 52 years. The degree of difficulty of the task can be gauged from the fact that it’s only been done 23 times in Tests; and of the four famous allrounders who played in the 1980s, neither Kapil nor Richard Hadlee achieved it in their entire careers.

As with almost every selection meeting here, the focus will be on the batsmen though the bowling line-up looks increasingly like a one-man show in captain Shakib Al Hasan

Mohammad Isam11-Jul-2011When Bangladesh’s selectors meet, sometime over the next day or two, to select the squad for the Test and ODI tour of Zimbabwe, they will be staring past the safety net of the 15-man touring party and at a playing XI that to most other observers has seven empty spots. Those blank spaces are symbols of poor form and insecurity among the players, a cricket board unable to cope with its various issues and, above all, a talent pool that is rapidly drying up.Last year’s stunning ODI series win over New Zealand was due in large part to rigorous preparation but that example hasn’t been followed this year. In fact any unsatisfactory outcome in Zimbabwe will probably be traceable to what has been happening in Bangladesh since the Australia series in April.While the players took a well-deserved break, the cricket board triggered a media free-for-all with their hunt for the new coach by the serial leaking of names – even the final announcement of Stuart Law’s name was no surprise to the media. The BCB spent too much energy playing hide-and-seek when all it had to do was get its head down and structure a whole team of coaches.Law’s arrival, on July 18, will be followed in no urgent manner by that of his support staff and it is likely he will have a makeshift team under him in a series fairly crucial to Bangladesh’s reputation.This confusion lends greater importance to the selection by Akram Khan and his team. As with almost every selection meeting here, the focus will be on the batsmen – the squad will have more batsmen than is required so that the new team management can take a good look at all their options – though the bowling line-up looks increasingly like a one-man show with the captain Shakib Al Hasan having virtually marked out his run-up at one end at the Harare Sports Club.The last committee – headed by Rafiqul Alam – kept a settled opening pair in Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes, and gave Junaid Siddique a fair go at No 3 but the team’s problems began with their poor handling of the next spot, leaving a terminal hole in a crucial position.That the inconsistent Mohammad Ashraful has survived, and remains on the selectors’ radar, is only due to a lack of options. He is expected to be named in the 15-man Test squad and stay back for the five ODIs.Raqibul Hasan, the man tried in place of Ashraful, has flattered to deceive and his tendency to slow up the game doesn’t sit well with the new selection committee, yet he remains one of the main contenders.Akram is also said to be less inclined to promote Mahmudullah, who struck an unbeaten 68 against Australia in April at No 4, given his limitations against the fast bowlers, though the allrounder has a Test hundred in New Zealand batting at No 8.The solution could be a toss-up between Raqibul and Shahriar Nafees at No 4 – with Nafees having made a first-class hundred in his previous game to add to his two half-centuries against Australia. Including both in the playing XI, however, is probably how the selectors could go given the recent tendency to bloat the batting line-up and leave Shakib at his favoured position.It is on the bowling front that Akram’s ever-present smile could turn into a scowl. The real lack of bowling options could force the selectors into picking a three-man seam attack led by Shafiul Islam and Rubel Hossain with the third spot a fight between Syed Rasel, Nazmul Hossain and Robiul Islam. The left-armer Rasel, who recently had a stint in the Essex league, is probably the best option on the soft surface of Harare. A crucial performer in the 2007 World Cup, Rasel fell away during Jamie Siddons’ time as coach.With Shahadat Hossain having suffered a broken toe while playing beach football in Cox’s Bazar and Mashrafe Mortaza undergoing rehabilitation after his knee surgery in Australia, Rasel’s experience could work in his favour. Robiul, after one wicketless Test at Lord’s, has received good reviews for his performance with Bangladesh A in South Africa while Nazmul is a certainty for the ODI side.If Bangladesh do go with three seamers, Mahmudullah could claim the second spinner’s slot over Abdur Razzak. It won’t be much of a surprise – Razzak has played only eight Tests in four years and has never been a frontline option, spurning the chance offered by Mohammad Rafique’s departure.The squad, once announced, will play two games against the A side.

Dustin Silgardo picks his favourite IPL moments of 2011

Dustin Silgardo30-May-2011The Malinga warning shot
In the first game of the IPL, the bright orange shoes that some of the players wore caught the eye. From then on batsmen’s shoes played the role of targets for Lasith Malinga’s scorching yorkers. He set the marker down with his second ball of the tournament, fired in at the base of David Warner’s stumps and sending the bails on a long-haul flight. Such was the threat Malinga posed that Virender Sehwag, for whom maidens are an alien concept, played one out in Malinga’s next over. By the end of the tournament, Malinga had taken 28 wickets and the purple cap had been remodelled into a purple hat.The destruction of gravity
The front end of the tournament was played in the haze of a World Cup hangover, and nothing seemed worse affected by the visible tiredness in some of the players than the standard of fielding. Catches went to ground with a Kamran Akmal-esque regularity in the first week. Then, at the Wankhede Satdium, Kieron Pollard pulled off one of those juggling acts on the boundary that have become to the IPL what the rabona is to football. Pollard sprang up to clutch a Ravindra Jadeja shot that seemed destined for a six, then realising he was going to land outside the field threw the ball back in and got up quickly enough to restrict the batsmen to a single. That match had a century from Sachin Tendulkar, Davy Jacobs standing up to Malinga and a remarkable chase from Kochi Tuskers Kerala, but it was the leap from Pollard that exemplified the flair element the IPL boasts off.The bold prediction
It wasn’t quite the equivalent of Shane Warne tweeting the India-England World Cup match would end in a tie, but for Mahela Jayawardene to say his Kochi team could defend a score of 130-140 in an IPL match was certainly perceptive, considering the tournament is moulded to serve up high-scoring thrillers. Jayawardene calmly gave notice of what his side were targeting after Kolkata Knight Riders had put them in. They never seemed in a hurry on their way to 132, and sure enough they defended it by six runs.Atlas’ shrug
Virender Sehwag may not have been entrusted with holding up the sky, but he certainly had the entire weight of his Delhi Daredevils team rested squarely on his shoulders. The early part of the tournament hadn’t gone well for him and he found his troubles compounded by a minefield of a pitch in Kochi. As Sehwag stood at the non-striker’s end he watched a ball from Sreesanth shoot along the ground and bowl his opening partner David Warner. Sehwag turned to the umpire and held his arms up in protest. Rather than give in to frustration though, he shrugged off the situation and composed himself to build a masterful 80 – an innings that despite Chris Gayle’s later belligerence stands out as the classiest of the tournament. Justification of that statement is in the reading of the scorecard, which will tell you no other batsman in the game got past 31.The tuk-tuk train
Chris Gayle came into the IPL with a point to prove. He had gone unsold in the original auction and was then left out of the West Indies squad for the first two one-dayers against Pakistan, before Dirk Nannes’ injury opened up a spot at Royal Challengers Bangalore. No wonder then than his first few innings carried with them an undertone of vengeance, mercilessly unleashed on whoever his opponents were. By the time Bangalore played Kings XI Punjab at home, though, he was just enjoying it. After smacking 107 off 49 balls, Gayle celebrated each of his three wickets by flapping his arms around, punching the air and chugging around like a locomotive. The “tuk-tuk train” celebration, he called it. It didn’t run out of steam till the final.Dada returns
The silence when Sourav Ganguly’s named was called at the auction was treated as a snub not just to the man but to the nation’s ethos. How could the man who had lent teeth to the lambs of Indian cricket, the man who had left Steve Waugh waiting at the toss, the man who had whirled his shirt around his head on the balcony at Lord’s be left out of a tournament that claimed to be the Premier League. When “Dada” finally played his first game for Pune Warriors, after joining them as a replacement for Ashish Nehra, one fan was so overcome with emotion he ran on to the field in Hyderabad and fell at Ganguly’s feet in reverence.Warne’s last hurrah
Knowing it was his to be his last tournament as a professional cricketer, Shane Warne attempted to encapsulate his entire career into the six weeks. Moments of brilliance were marred by a controversy regarding the Jaipur pitch that eventually saw him fined $50,000 for a spat with Rajasthan Cricket Association secretary Sanjay Dixit. In his farewell match, against Mumbai Indians, it looked until his last over that Warne’s exit would be anticlimactic. Then, in the 20th over of Mumbai’s innings, Warne reminded everyone of why most rate him as the best legspinner of all time. He got Rohit Sharma to top-edge a slog-sweep, only to see the chance put down; then he had James Franklin driving uppishly at a googly. With the fourth ball, he drew Rohit out, beat him with flight and turn, and grabbed his last wicket in cricket.The timely washout
Despite having added two more teams, leading to a longer tournament, the IPL managed to go to within a week of its close without a completely meaningless match being played. That record was set to be spoiled in Delhi, where the last-placed hosts were to take on the ninth-placed Pune Warriors in a dead rubber. As if the gods themselves were determined to maintain the IPL’s reputation for constant competitiveness, the heavens opened and washed out the inconsequential game with just ten overs bowled.R Ashwin delivered Royal Challengers Bangalore the knock out blow in the final, snagging Chris Gayle for a duck•AFPThe Javed Miandad moment
Until its last week, the IPL had been fairly kind to supporters’ hearts, with nerve-wracking finishes in significantly rarer supply than previous seasons. The last match of the IPL seemed set for a facile end as well, with Mumbai needing an improbable 44 runs off 18 balls to deny Kolkata a place in the top two. Even though they knocked off 23 of those in the 18th and 19th overs, with 21 needed off the last over Kolkata fans were still looking calm. Then, James Franklin got away four boundaries off L Balaji, through a combination of skill and luck, and it came down to four needed off one ball. Balaji, who had a solid tournament till then served up a Chetan Sharma-esque full toss on middle stump, and Rayudu sent it into the stands at midwicket.The sickening blow
The term violent is used loosely in the IPL, to describe particularly quick knocks or shots that travel a distance. But what happened to R Ashwin in the first Qualifier really was brutal in the true sense of the word. In the 18th over, Saurabh Tiwary stepped down the wicket to him and hit one back with such ferocity Ashwin didn’t have time to either set himself for a return catch or get out of the way. He was hit on the head so hard the ball ricocheted all the way to long-off. Ashwin looked dazed, but luckily wasn’t badly hurt.Pollard gets Pollarded
In the group stage, Kieron Pollard had nearly taken the catch of the tournament against Kochi. In the Eliminator, with Mumbai already on the brink of defeat, he had to watch as Abhimanyu Mithun bettered his effort by actually holding on to one that seemed destined for six. Mithun set himself at long-off, even as the Mumbai players made way for the ball to land in their dug-out. Realising that if he jumped, he would lose balance and fall backwards over the rope, Mithun leaned back and contorted his body in a way that he held on to the ball and managed to stay just inside the boundary. Pollard could only shake his head.The final blow
With 205 on the board in the final, Chennai could already smell a second IPL success. One thing, though, was keeping premature celebrations in check. Chris Gayle, with 608 runs in the IPL at an average over 70 and strike-rate of almost 200, was opening for the opposition. R Ashwin, so often given the new ball by MS Dhoni was charged with getting rid of Gayle early. He spun two sharply past Gayle, and with the fourth ball of the over had Gayle edging one that skidded on. Chennai knew that was the killer blow, and Suresh Raina came charging from midwicket to rugby tackle Ashwin in celebration.

Australia’s fast-bowling future was on display during the first day at the Wanderers. It’s just not clear how much of it

Brydon Coverdale at the Wanderers17-Nov-2011Pat Cummins and Mitchell Johnson began the first day at the Wanderers from opposite positions in every way. They shared the new ball, Cummins running in from the south end and Johnson from the north, Cummins seeking to prove that at 18 he was not too young for Test cricket, Johnson at 30 hoping to show that he still had something to offer.They each took one wicket in the day, but it was Cummins’ performance that was more encouraging. Johnson was one of the men who entered this match looking over his shoulder at the new national selector John Inverarity. He still should be. A tally of 34 wickets at 44.08 in the past year and a half is inadequate for Johnson, who is supposed to be Australia’s spearhead.Before the match, the captain Michael Clarke let out a Freudian slip in saying that Johnson had potential, before correcting himself: “Well, potential is not the right word, he’s played for long enough”. Perhaps Clarke meant nothing by it, but maybe there was a subtext. After 46 Tests, Johnson is still viewed as a man who could be so much more. But at 30, will he ever fulfil his potential?On the first day in Johannesburg, Johnson was – again – frustratingly inconsistent. There were some fine deliveries early in the day, including the inswinger that nearly had Hashim Amla lbw, and the ball that seamed away and took the edge of Graeme Smith’s bat. Equally, there were many bad balls, particularly as the day wore on. Johnson bowled too straight, targeting the pads of both right-handers and left-handers, or too wide.If it seems churlish to criticise Johnson on a day when South Africa were bowled out for 266, it is worth noting that many of the wickets fell late in the day to poor strokes. It is also worth noting that after 12 overs, Johnson had 1 for 60; after the same amount of overs, Cummins had 1 for 26. Importantly, Cummins kept challenging the batsmen through the day, his high leap at the crease hardly flagging.It is difficult to judge Cummins on one day, but he was full of raw pace and enthusiasm. In his opening spell he bowled full and swung the ball a fraction, and was unlucky not to have Jacques Rudolph’s wicket when an inside edge rocketed past the stumps. His maiden Test wicket came with a full outswinger that Hashim Amla edged to slip where Ricky Ponting, twice Cummins’ age, took the catch.His first ball to Jacques Kallis, Test cricket’s fourth-highest run scorer, was a good bumper. Later, he grazed the helmet of AB de Villiers with another well-directed short ball. The bouncer, Cummins said after play, is a good way to assert yourself. Not that he overdid it. If anything, he erred on the side of bowling too full, which for a man aiming to swing the ball is not a bad thing.”I felt a bit nervous,” Cummins said after play. “It was good that we bowled today so I didn’t have another day to mull over my debut. I was a little nervous but I got over it pretty quickly.”Cummins didn’t appear nervous. On the contrary, he looked like a natural at Test level. If he continues to handle Test cricket with aplomb, and assuming his body is strong, he provides the new selection panel with an interesting conundrum ahead of the Test series against New Zealand, which begins just over a week after the side returns from South Africa.Should Ryan Harris prove his fitness, and if Peter Siddle keeps up the hard work that earned him three wickets on the first day in Johannesburg, Inverarity and Co. will have four fast men to squeeze into three positions. Combined with the other young talent in Australia, it leaves Johnson in a precarious position. The former captain Steve Waugh believes a mid-1980s approach is required from the selectors.”We’ve got some really good young players coming through,” Waugh said on radio in Australia on Thursday. “[James] Pattinson from Victoria looks an outstanding prospect and then you’ve got Mitchell Starc and a host of others out there. We’ve got the talent in Australia.”It’s now about the selectors rebuilding for the next couple of years and saying these are the guys we’re going to stick with, much the same way they did with myself and a few others back in the mid-80s. It took a while to get some success but they showed faith in that team and that was rewarded in the long run. Once they pick a player now they’ve got to try and stick with those players.”Is one of those players Johnson? Is one of them Cummins? Is there room for both?Late in the day, both men considered going for a catch when AB de Villiers miscued a pull off Siddle. The ball lobbed over the head of Johnson, at mid-on, but he was beaten to the ball by Cummins, who sprinted from mid-off and took a terrific catch. Johnson was left to look behind him and wonder what could have been. It might not be the last time he is overtaken by a younger bowler.

ESPNcricinfo previews the Bangladesh Premier League, on the eve of the player auction in Dhaka

Mohammad Isam18-Jan-2012The landscape of cricket in Bangladesh is set to be altered on January 19, when 180-odd cricketers go under the hammer during the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) player auction in Dhaka. The prospect of Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi and Kieron Pollard being fought for by the six BPL franchises, who can spend up to $2 million each, is exciting, but it is the potential for a few Bangladesh cricketers to change their fortune through unprecedented riches that will bring fervor to the event.On Thursday morning, the Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel, the venue for the auction, will be buzzing with organisers, team owners and the media. The “open bidding” conducted by Cyrus Madan – better known in India as a horseracing expert and commentator – will take place behind closed doors. Each franchise will have six representatives seated at different tables, as it is for the IPL. It begins at 10.30 am and will be telecast live on Channel 9, a Bangladesh television channel.The six franchises were bought for prices ranging between $1.01 million and $1.2 million, with SQ Sports picking up Chittagong for the highest value during the auction on January 10. SQ Sports had previously run the Chittagong Tigers side in the Port City Cricket League. Orion Group bought the Khulna franchise for $1.10 million, Shakib Al Hasan’s presence as the icon player being the drawing card for a leading industrial conglomerate.The BPL governing council released a list of 176 players, both international and local, a week ahead of the auction but are likely to update both sets before the hammer falls. Afridi, Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Abdul Razzaq are the marquee names up for auction at a base price of $100,000. Some of the other players in the auction are Scott Styris, Shoaib Malik, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis and Azhar Mahmood. Gayle, Dirk Nannes and Herschelle Gibbs will be available for a few matches.The Zimbabwean contingent includes their captain Brendan Taylor, who is in the A category, while Vusi Sibanda and Stuart Matsikenyeri are in the B category. Taylor will join the competition five days after it begins on February 10. The base prices for categories B and C are $50,000 and $30,000.The team owners, most of whom aren’t known faces on the cricket circuit in Dhaka, have hired ex-cricketers as consultants and most have finalised the coaching staff. They can buy up to eight overseas players with at least one from an Associate nation. A maximum of five overseas players are allowed in a XI.The six icon players – Shakib, Tamim Iqbal, Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim and Alok Kapali – could also feature in the auction, though their salary is not yet confirmed because the BPL governing council was asked to review their cost (5% more than highest paid player in franchise) by some of the teams. Among the listed local players, Mahmudullah, Abdur Razzak, Nasir Hossain, Junaid Siddique, Imrul Kayes and Mashrafe Mortaza will have their bidding start at $45,000.A Bangladeshi player, who earns no more than 1 million Taka from first-class cricket and the Dhaka Premier League, could hit a massive payday since the base price of category C is about 1.6 million Taka.For category A players, the bidding will increase by $15,000, while there will be raises of $10,000 and $5000 for categories B and C. BCB director Mahbubul Anam is the commissioner and will be called to resolve disputes if any should arise.A franchise will be allowed to spend up to $2 million in the auction, though rumours abound that some of them have already negotiated with players, making the auction redundant. The admission by former cricketer turned commentator Athar Ali Khan, who is also a Rajshahi team consultant, that they have contacted players has cast a shadow over the bidding process.”We will be very strict with underhand deals,” BPL secretary Sirajuddin Mohammad Alamgir said. “We have been hearing of these rumours but we won’t let it happen. There will be strict punishments for franchises and players, so I hope they refrain.”

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the third day of the second Test in Colombo

Andrew McGlashan in Colombo05-Apr-2012Clonk of the day

A wicketkeeper’s job is tough enough without wild throws from your team-mates. Prasanna Jayawardene had a difficult day behind the stumps with low bounce not making his task easy and at the end of an over from Randiv was given a blow on the head for good measure. Randiv picked up the ball in his follow through and, as bowlers like to do, hurled it back towards the batsman who momentarily blinded Jayawardene and the ball struck his head. An inch or two lower and it would have been the eye.Warning of the day
No, not Kevin Pietersen. In the fourth over of the day Alastair Cook was facing Dhammika Prasad and will have been grateful the delivery that scooted low was outside off stump rather than straight. The previous evening Angelo Mathews had said the bowlers needed to be more consistent to exploit the cracks and Prasad had clearly located the spot. It was a warning to England to score as many as they could during the day.Bad review of the day
Sri Lanka were justified in reviewing the not-out decision when they thought Alastair Cook had gloved to leg slip. It was mighty close but only Hot Spot would have confirmed it one way or the other. Using up their second review an over later was less understandable. Suraj Randiv appealed for lbw against Jonathan Trott but replays showed a huge inside edge. Trott had even suggested as much to the fielders. Not that the batsmen can always be trusted but on this occasion Sri Lanka should have listened.Periscope of the day
There was not much bounce in the surface for Sri Lanka’s pace bowlers and it came close to costing Trott. Facing Prasad he ducked to avoid a bouncer but left his bat in the air behind him. The ball did not climb as much as Trott expected and clipped the back of his blade, deflecting wide of Jayawardene to fine leg.Bowling change of the day

Tillakaratne Dilshan has shown he can be effective with the new ball in one-day cricket so it was not a surprise to see him handed it when just four overs old. He didn’t let his captain down, producing a perfect offspinner first delivery which took the edge of Alastair Cook’s bat low to first slip. It was the second time Cook had fallen for 94 this year, after the second Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, and meant his wait for a 20th Test hundred continued.Shot of the day

Many in Pietersen’s innings stood out, but watching him bring out the switch hit against Dilshan showed that he still retains that free-spirited approach he regularly unfurled in his earlier days. And it is not reckless batting. Far from it. Dilshan had a 7-2 leg-side field so Pietersen decided his best scoring option was the vacant off side.

Warwickshire director of cricket Ashley Giles talks about his eventful journey with the club, during which they went from rock bottom to county champions, and his England aspirations

George Dobell08-Sep-2012″They laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian,” Bob Monkhouse used to say. “Well, they’re not laughing now.”Ashley Giles’ was a similar case. When it was first suggested to him towards the end of the 2007 English county season that he should consider taking the role of director of cricket at Edgbaston – a job soon to be vacated by the hapless Mark Greatbatch – he laughed. He had never thought of himself as a coach and, having only given in to the inevitable and retired through injury a few weeks earlier, had given little thought to his future.But the decision to appoint Giles at Warwickshire was wise. Not only has he revitalised the club, he has emerged as the obvious successor to Andy Flower as England coach. Not imminently; not in a coup, but when the times comes. England can make succession plans for the coaching role just as they did with the captaincy. That can only be a good thing.It is worth reflecting on the club Giles inherited when he became director of cricket. Warwickshire were in sharp decline. They had just been relegated in both leagues – first-class and List A – senior players (such as Nick Knight and Dougie Brown) were retiring and those seen as the next generation (such as Mark Wagh, Alex Loudon and Moeen Ali) were heading for the exit. It was, arguably, the lowest point in the club’s history.Life had not been easy for Giles, either. His playing career – like most playing careers – was ended by injury before he was ready and, during the Ashes tour of 2006-07, his wife, Stine, was diagnosed with a brain tumour.But sometimes adversity brings the best out of people. Giles, a man who had to struggle through much of his career, has never been afraid of hard work. So with a phlegmatic attitude acquired over years of suffering the vicissitudes of a playing career with more peaks and troughs than most, Giles patiently rebuilt a club and a team that had been living off reputation for longer than they could afford.Now, with the CB40 final still to come, he can reflect on two major trophies in three seasons (the CB40 in 2010 and the County Championship in 2012) and having played a part in the development of several players who could have a role to play in the England team. While Ian Bell’s development was well advanced by the time Giles took over, the likes of Varun Chopra, Chris Woakes and Jonathan Trott owe him plenty.Trott, who scored just 473 runs at an average of 22.52 in first-class cricket in 2007, credits Giles as being the catalyst behind his blossoming as a batsman, while Chopra, who had never scored more than 650 runs in a season, has now scored 1,000 twice in a row and could well have earned a place on the Test tour to India. Woakes, you suspect, would have flourished in any environment, but Giles has helped him develop into an allrounder who might go on to win games with bat and ball at the international level.”I had a horrid time towards the end of my playing career,” Giles said, as he watched his Warwickshire side crush local rivals Worcestershire in the game that sealed the 2012 Championship title. “The Adelaide Test in December 2006 was my last international game and my last game for Warwickshire was the C&G final against Hampshire in September 2005.”I had explored a few different options – mainly media work – and it was turning into a bit of this and bit of that. I’m not really that sort of guy. I like to know what I’m doing and I like to get stuck in.”But then Dennis Amiss [the former England and Warwickshire opener and then chief executive] approached me towards the end of the 2007 season and said I should think about the Warwickshire job. My first reaction was to laugh. I wasn’t looking for it. I swear on my life – and I have done to Mark Greatbatch – that I wasn’t looking for the job.”But Dennis planted a seed. I started to think about it more and more. And the more I thought, the more I realised that the club was going in the wrong direction and I wanted to help turn it around.”I love commentating. But there were no bad days in the office. There was no ups and down. And although you have some real downs in this job, at least you’re living. I was only 34. I was too young to be rolling over and just talking about cricket.

The only way you gain instant success is by buying it and that’s not sustainable over a long period. I don’t just want to buy ready-made cricketers. I want to take cricketers who are not the finished article and take them on a bit of a journey.

“I was surprised at how bad things were at Warwickshire. It really wasn’t great. We were poor. We had some good people, but no direction. There was a complete lack of discipline. Even the simple things like dress codes and time-keeping – and I know they sound like little things – but they all add up to big things. I remember our slip fielding: people used to let balls go if they bounced just in front of them. Everything lacked intensity.”I remember saying at the time that I thought it would take five years to turn things around. The only way you gain instant success is by buying it and that’s not sustainable over a long period. We are nowhere near the salary cap and that’s fine. I don’t just want to buy ready-made cricketers. I want to take cricketers who are not the finished article and take them on a bit of a journey. What we have now is beginning to look sustainable.”Winning the Championship is huge in my career. The Ashes is probably as big as it gets, but this is right up there. Last year really was awful. It was horrible. That journey home; that night … I’m still living it, really.”There were many ups and downs on the way. Warwickshire’s List A form in 2008 was grim; at times in 2010 it looked as if their top-order could be blown away by the softest breeze; in 2011 they missed out on the Championship title by an agonisingly small margin. And, through it all, the concern over his wife’s health loomed over everything. A few months ago, during a routine scan, doctors discovered that the tumour had returned.”Fortunately she has not needed an operation again, but six weeks of radiotherapy instead,” Giles said. “I have tried not to let that have an effect on the team or our preparation.”She has taken the pressure off me and said: ‘You just get on with your work, you have got your job to do.’ She has shown amazing strength and she has always been incredibly supportive.”I sat the team down at Durham just before the start of the Twenty20 because I knew that Stine’s treatment was about to start. I said: ‘Guys if I am in and out there’s nothing sinister going on, I’m not neglecting you, I’m not going somewhere else. This is why it’s happening and I would appreciate your support.'”The guys have handled it in different ways. Some don’t mention it, some come up and ask how it’s going. It’s nice to talk about it.”So while Giles admits there have been moments when he has struggled to contain his equanimity, perhaps it is not surprising that the travails of cricket have seemed relatively minor in comparison.He remains largely unappreciated as a player. But the fact is that Giles played a key role in England winning the Ashes in 2005 (it was Giles who hit the winning runs at Trent Bridge and made a vital half-century at The Oval), in sides that won Test series in Pakistan (in 2000) and Sri Lanka (in 2001) and was good enough to have Sachin Tendulkar stumped (the only time he has ever fallen that way in Test cricket) and produce a gem of a ball to bowl Brian Lara to claim his 100th Test victim.”I never found cricket very easy,” he said. “I had to battle very hard to get where I did. I had a lot of bad times during my career. I had my fair share of criticism from the media and spectators. I always felt I was doubted. You learn a lot about yourself in those moments.”And sometimes you find that the best coaches are the ones who have had to work a bit harder on their game, too. Maybe, if you are not a genius, you have to think about things more and work a bit harder?”The year 2010 was hard at times. I had some moments where I started to be a bit up and down; where I felt I’d said everything and it didn’t make any difference. In the end our psychologist, Joce Brooks, told me the players were starting to second guess my reactions and I realised I had to get a hold of things. It was all part of the learning curve.”I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m ambitious. Otherwise I wouldn’t have applied for the England job”•PA Photos”It all looks nice today. You ask the players today and they’ll all tell you what a good guy I am. But ask some of them halfway through the season when I’m on their backs, pushing them to do better and they’ll tell you I’m a prick. We all have dark times.”The important thing is to stay calm. Duncan Fletcher was icy. Phil Neale was pretty calm, too. Bob Woolmer was a bit up and down, but when that happens you see both sides of things and realise what works best. I’m a much better coach now than I was a couple of years ago.”Giles admits that missing out on the England coaching role – he applied at the time that Flower was appointed – was for the best. He also admits that it is a role he would still like to have one day.”In hindsight, it was far too early for me as a coach and a manager,” he said. “Andy is fantastic and I have much to learn from him, but we are similar in many ways. He’s very structured, he believes in hard work, he believes the team comes first and that no individual is bigger than the team. And what that has done has reinforced my own beliefs and show that they work. It’s fantastic for me to spend time with him.”Like him, I think that people are everything. Character is everything. The quality of the person is the No.1 thing. Clearly you need to have certain skill sets and, looking at our squad, you can tell I’m a bit biased in terms of liking multi-skilled cricketers. That’s a reflection of the Warwickshire side in which I grew up. It was full of allrounders.”I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m ambitious. Otherwise I wouldn’t have applied for the England job. But I don’t want to take my eye off the ball. There’s plenty of time.”How long can I keep doing this job? I don’t know. I believe I’m already the longest serving director of cricket Warwickshire have had. It’s my home club. It’s a big club. It’s where I’ve always been and I love working here. But it’s still a job and I need to get results. I’m constantly driven to do better and better.”He has his critics, though. Quite apart from those who deride his playing ability, there are those who feel his role as an England selector creates a conflict of interest with his Warwickshire role. They claim, without a great deal of evidence, that it provides an unfair advantage to the club in the transfer market and has created a situation whereby it is easier for Warwickshire players to win selection. Conversely, at the same time, it is also alleged that he keeps Warwickshire players from being selected so as not to weaken his team.”I find it laughable,” he said in an irritated manner that suggested he finds it anything but laughable. “I’ve been an England selector for almost four years now. I think it works really well. We’ve missed out on signing a few players – remember James Taylor last year? And we’ve two players in the England side and two or three pushing for a place. I think I still have a lot of value in that role. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t do it.”I see all first-class cricket. Sometimes it works against Warwickshire as opposition players might try harder in front of a selector. But the suggestion that I have so much power in a system containing Andy Flower, Geoff Miller and James Whitaker … well, it’s a joke.”Giles is used to critics, though. And he knows he will never win them over. But if he keeps producing players and keeps winning trophies, it may well be that, by the time he retires, he is remembered more for his coaching than his playing. It is surely only a matter of time before an international team – maybe England, maybe another country – comes calling.