Sarul Kanwar shook off his early stage fright and took on the Cape Cobras bowlers

Nitin Sundar at the Chinnaswamy Stadium01-Oct-2011The Champions League Twenty20 games begin with a pre-match routine that underlines just how much tournaments like these are made for theatre. The emcee booms out a series of couplets that highlight the real or imagined feats of the teams, after which the players stride out on a red carpet and exchange pleasantries, choreographed to pop music blaring from the PA system. Experienced players who have witnessed the commercial transformation of cricket, and career freelancers like Kieron Pollard, know they are a part of a charade, and go through the motions without over-indulging in the gimmickry.Today, however, there was one wide-eyed youngster debuting for the Mumbai Indians who was taken in by the lead-up to the game. Sarul Kanwar looked every bit the excited youngster savouring his first feel of the limelight, both nervous and eager as he took in the ambience and shook hands with his opponents.One could sense the nerves when he took strike, and nearly edged his first ball – a 138 kph outswinger from Dale Steyn. In the next over, Charl Langeveldt beat him for pace with a sharp bouncer. Kanwar went for the pull, but the ball was through him before he played the shot. Another Indian kid without an answer for pace and bounce?To Kanwar’s credit, he shook off his stage fright quickly. The moment Langeveldt bowled it in his half, he produced an audacious pick-up shot that sailed over square leg. Langeveldt tried the short ball again in his next over, but this time Kanwar was ready, and pulled it emphatically in front of square for four. Langeveldt’s response was length again, and Kanwar rolled the bottom hand viciously to cart another six over the leg side. Kanwar was belatedly at ease, and seemed to have convinced himself that he belonged.Sarul Kanwar made 45 from 21 balls to help propel Mumbai Indians to their highest total in this year’s Champions League Twenty20•Associated PressHe went on to produce a bright innings that propelled Mumbai Indians to their first good batting performance of the tournament. The shot that stood out was the inside-out loft with which he welcomed Robin Petersen to the crease. Kanwar fell off the next ball, but his 45 from 21 balls had given the MI middle order the rare luxury of being able to take their time getting in. James Franklin did just that, while Pollard expressed himself in pressure-free circumstances. MI surged to 176 for 5, but rain denied their bowlers a first chance to defend a total in the tournament.”We had discussions on who was going to play, a couple of days ahead of the match,” Pollard said. “We did take into consideration that Sarul hasn’t played any game before. This was an important game for us, and he got the opportunity to go out and express himself. It was a surprise to them and it worked in our favour.”Robin Peterson admitted that Kanwar’s spirited blitz threw the Cape Cobras off their game-plan. “It is never easy to plan against someone you don’t know,” Peterson said. “We were expecting someone else to open and all of a sudden they threw in another guy, a talented Indian player, so it was obviously harder to plan. The next time, though, it will be tougher for him, since people will know where he hits the ball but he is definitely a player to watch out for Mumbai Indians.”With their regular top-order batsmen either injured or out of form, MI were probably forced to experiment with Kanwar. They may have chosen to gamble in a game they could afford to lose, and Kanwar cashed in memorably. On a day when the “injured” Suryakumar Yadav took Man-of-the-Match honours in an age-group game, Kanwar’s cameo reiterated that Indian talent is capable of delivering results that a fifth overseas recruit might not always produce.

ESPNcricinfo presents Plays of the Day from the second day of the first Test between Australia and India in Melbourne

Sidharth Monga at the MCG27-Dec-2011The start
The last time Virender Sehwag played in Australia he went a session without hitting a boundary, while saving the Adelaide Test in 2007-08. There was anticipation as to how he would start here, playing the last Test of a year in which he hasn’t scored a century. His first ball was very Sehwag. A length ball outside off, shaping away and he drove at it, mis-hitting but clearing mid-off with ease.The drop
Michael Hussey can’t catch a break these days. On day one he was given out first ball when he didn’t touch the ball. On day two, he got an early low offering from Sehwag at gully. Both the openers had been uncertain until then. Sehwag was 11, India 13. Hussey, though, couldn’t hold on.The collisions
Early on in his innings, while running between the wickets, Sehwag ran into James Pattinson, whereupon words were exchanged between him and Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Ricky Ponting. A minor scene was created. That was not the end of pleasantries. Later, when Siddle came on to bowl, Sehwag smacked him for a four down the ground, touched down at the non-striker’s end, and ran into Siddle on the way back. Sehwag apologised this time, but Siddle didn’t look back. It doesn’t look good when you mouth off just after being hit for a four.The field set
When Nathan Lyon was introduced early on in the Indian innings, bets were on in the stands as to whether he would bowl the first ball to Sehwag with a long-on and deep midwicket in place. Sehwag was only 29 then. Rahul Dravid then heightened the excitement around the bet by playing the first 10 balls that Lyon bowled. Michael Clarke and Lyon didn’t surprise. Long-on, deep midwicket and fine leg were firmly rooted to the fence as Lyon bowled to Sehwag for the first time.The stumble
Joe Previtera, the artist famously known as Joe the Cameraman of the “can’t bowl, can’t throw” fame is back. He now operates the Channel 9 segway camera, which is basically a kind of unicycle you move on when filming. Just after lunch on day two, when he was taking his final shots of the Aussies warming up and moving back to the stands, with his eyes firmly on the viewfinder, he tripped over Brad Haddin’s helmet, which lay harmlessly until then. Cue a loud cheer in the stands. Joe was a good sport, and acknowledged them with raised arms. Later he told Channel 9 that he feared he had hit a player down on the ground, stretching before the start of the session. Scott Muller would have had a good laugh.

England were beaten by the better team in Abu Dhabi but the mark of champions is how they respond to setbacks. The challenge starts now.

George Dobell in Abu Dhabi28-Jan-2012It would be easy to be critical. It would be easy to call for heads and demand explanations. It would easy, too, to state that England were always overrated and that it is all downhill for them now.But it would not be true. Not entirely true, anyway. Yes, England were poor in Dubai – simply not up to speed for this level of competition – but they were beaten by the better side in Abu Dhabi. A side with two superb spinners on a pitch that turned. England did not surrender. They were beaten. There is a difference.Anyone glancing at the scorecard in years to come will probably conclude this game was either played on a dust bowl or that England were wretched. Neither conclusion would be correct.The pitch was true. The ball did not spit or roll. There was no uneven bounce. It turned. And, because England’s batsmen were often deceived in the flight, the effects of the turn were magnified.Let’s be clear: a total of 72 can never be acceptable. It was their lowest score since the debacle of Jamaica in 2009 and the first time they had lost two Tests in a row since 2008. It was also only the second time in a century that they have failed to chase a target under 150 in the fourth innings. The other occasion was when Geoff Boycott’s side were beaten by a Richard Hadlee-inspired New Zealand in Wellington in 1978.Some of England’s batting against spin bowling was close to hapless – four batsmen were punished for going back to deliveries to which they should have played forward – and there is clearly vast room for improvement in their approach.But it would be doing Pakistan a disservice to suggest that all these wickets were due to batsmen error. The mastery of Saeed Ajmal – his variations and subtly – and the excellence of Abdur Rehman meant the target of 145 was always going to be testing. Any team would have struggled. Batting was desperately difficult.The truth is that England came up against a couple of fine bowlers on a turning pitch and were found wanting. Pakistan have now won four Tests in a row (and seven out of their last nine) as well as four series in a row. They are very good. Don’t just write off England; praise Pakistan.Perhaps we should not be so surprised at Pakistan’s excellence? They have, for decades, produced players of outrageous talent. It is just that, in the last few years, they have been hindered by off-field events. Thankfully, under the calm guidance of Misbah-ul-Haq, those days would seem to be in the past. It is just a shame that they are scheduled to play so little Test cricket in the near future. A series against India would be mouth watering.It is not the first time Pakistan have burst England’s bubble, either. In 2005 England arrived in Pakistan on the crest of a wave having just won the Ashes and Pakistan defeated them. And in 1992, England looked as if they were going to win the World Cup only for Imran Khan’s cornered tigers to rediscover their roar. This series might be remembered equally ruefully.England had attained the No. 1 Test ranking quite legitimately. But to answer all the critics, to prove to themselves that they really were the best side in the world, they had to win in Asia. That has proved beyond them. For now, anyway.So, what do they do? Change the captain? The coach? The men who have planned and plotted their remarkable success? Bring in a host of new players forgetting that most of these have enjoyed a suburb time over the last year or two? Of course not. This England XI is, by and large, the best XI available to them and it is only through more exposure to such bowlers and such conditions that they will improve. The Lions side are, right now, playing in Sri Lanka and England’s schedule this year will allow them every opportunity to adapt to Asian conditions. Tours to Sri Lanka and India loom.That does not mean this defeat should be accepted with phlegmatic shrug. Far from it. England have to acknowledge their weakness against spin bowling and improve.They also have to reflect on their tactics. In the fourth innings, their understandable desperation to occupy the crease crossed over into strokelessness. Alastair Cook’s innings of 7 occupied 15 overs, Strauss’ 32 took 29. It allowed Pakistan to pile on the pressure and gave England no release. They struggled to even rotate the strike.It is somewhat facile to suggest they should have simply “got on with it”. Just think of how the media would have chastised batsmen that were caught at mid off or square leg. Besides, any aggressive approach against this spin attack – an attack which bowls at unusual pace, with a bowler who can turn the ball both ways – involves risk.But England would do well to examine how other Asian teams play spin bowling. Kumar Sangakkara, for example, either went right back in his crease or came a long way forward to disrupt the length of these bowlers when Sri Lanka played Pakistan. Meanwhile the likes of VVS Laxman have come down the pitch to combat bowlers as skilled as Shane Warne. It can be done. It is not easy, but it can be done.There are questions too, over a few members of this side. Kevin Pietersen is averaging 4.25 in this series and his missed run-out of Asad Shafiq on the third day was a crucial moment. Eoin Morgan appears hapless against spin and Ian Bell has faced 29 balls from Saeed Ajmal and been dismissed by him three times. They are meant to form the spine of the team. All of them are now potentially fighting for their Test careers. Morgan, in particular.Perhaps there are questions to be asked, too, about the continuing absence of England players on IPL duty. Had the likes of Pietersen and Morgan played more county cricket last year, they may well have come up against Monty Panesar, Saeed Ajmal and even Graeme Swann. If England really want their next generation of players to enjoy the best possible preparation, they have to ensure their domestic cricket is as strong as it can be. They are not doing that at present and the acceptance of the Morgan Review will inflict further damage.But remember, England fought well throughout this Test. Stuart Broad, Monty Panesar, Cook and Jonathan Trott all produced performances that deserved better. Had Shafiq and Azhar Ali not led a Pakistan fightback, England might well have won. It was, hard though it may be to see now, a step in the right direction from Dubai.England were beaten. But so was Muhammad Ali. The true measure of champions is how they respond to such setbacks. The challenge starts now for England.

Six lessons New Zealand learnt during the Test series against South Africa

Andrew Alderson27-Mar-2012Williamson is the business
Kane Williamson’s century to help New Zealand draw the third Test is perhaps the gutsiest, most inspirational knock by a New Zealander in years. Striding to the wicket at 1 for 2 to make your second Test ton and save a match is a tremendous achievement for anyone, let alone a 21-year-old in his 12th Test against arguably the most lethal four-prong pace attack in a generation. With Williamson-esque application New Zealand Test cricket will survive. Yes, it ‘only’ earned a draw but it was the embodiment of grit as he let the blood-coloured face of his bat do the talking. Dunny-door forward defence was mixed with calculated leaves that showed he had a GPS-like knowledge of his off stump’s location. Williamson becomes just the seventh New Zealander to score a second-innings century in the past decade and just the second to do so against South Africa (John Reid did it in 1961-62).Earning the right to win with the bat
Williamson’s effort was one thing but South Africa treated New Zealand to a lesson in application across the series. They adapted better to batting time rather than demonstrating flair. Of the 56 innings played by New Zealanders in the first two Tests, 20 (36%) finished with scores between 20 and 50. The visitors had 18 of 46 scores (39%) fall in the 20-50 bracket. The difference is at least one or more South Africans generally continued to a substantial score. The South Africans made five centuries and seven half-centuries; New Zealand could only produce one century and four half-centuries.It is possible to sympathise with New Zealand’s batting woes against the pace juggernaut. The batsmen failed to ignite beyond Williamson’s back-to-the-wall 77 in Hamilton and 102 not out in Wellington, backed by Brendon McCullum half-centuries in the first two Tests (58 and 61) and Martin Guptill’s 59 in the third. The first innings at the Basin Reserve was the worst example; each of the top six got a start but no-one could progress beyond 59. The second innings was further evidence a crumble is always lurking. South Africa eased to 189 for 3 declared; New Zealand slumped to 83 for 5 within 36 overs before the reprieve.Encouraging signs of bowling depth
The efforts of the New Zealanders must be seen as meritorious against a side which has ambitions to be the best in the world by mid-year. In the first two Tests they had South Africa dismissed for 238 and 253 in the first innings before the visitors piled on 474 runs to start at the Basin Reserve. Fans learnt Mark Gillespie has still got what it takes at Test level with five- and six-wicket bags, combined with the guile of Chris Martin and the tenacity of Doug Bracewell (even if he struggled in the last two Tests). Trent Boult could consider himself unlucky to get the chop after one relatively redundant Test in Dunedin but, with Neil Wagner eligible for the West Indies tour and the likes of Tim Southee and Mitchell McClenaghan in the wings, there is competition.Test specialists are the way to go
Provided New Zealand Cricket can rubberstamp the flight budget there might be value employing more Test specialists and keeping players refreshed by cutting down workloads. Martin and Gillespie have been good examples in the home Tests while arguments can be made for Bracewell, Southee, Boult, BJ Watling, Kruger van Wyk, Dean Brownlie and Daniel Flynn to stick with Tests. Many players will otherwise experience non-stop touring until next February after the South African series. April-May’s IPL is followed by tours to the West Indies, India, Sri Lanka and South Africa before New Zealand returns home to play England.Australia and South Africa have split their squads over the past few years. Just two of Australia’s 14-strong T20 squad against India (Shaun Marsh and David Warner) were Test incumbents. Likewise South Africa have five players in their Test team (Mark Boucher, Alviro Peterson, Vernon Philander, Jacques Rudolph and Imran Tahir) who were not picked for any other format this tour. However, rhetoric about wanting a stronger Test team may be impossible to action if four-day domestic cricket merely bookends the season with a 76-day gap in between.Vettori deserves a chance for redemption
Contrary to some schools of thought, New Zealand can far from afford to drop Daniel Vettori. Vettori equalled Stephen Fleming’s record for Tests (111) in the final match – anyone with that record over 15 years would need significant justification for dismissal when the team struggles against top opposition. Vettori’s batting form as a makeshift No 6 was mediocre with 97 runs at 19.40 (career average 30.31) but his wicket-taking is of more concern with three wickets at 95.00 over the series (career average 34.16), albeit going at just 2.44 an over. However, Vettori deserves a chance at redemption after a rare blip in an otherwise exemplary career.Tarun Nethula shapes as the next best spinner. He should be taken away as back-up this winter. The Central Districts legspinner debuted nervously in the one-day international against Zimbabwe in Whangarei but rebounded in Napier. Had it not been for poor fielding he would have done better than 2 for 60 against South Africa, also in Napier. His domestic record this season (20 wickets at 35.25) is effective heading into the last round of the Plunket Shield. He faces competition from Auckland’s Bruce Martin (33 wickets at 35.54), Canterbury’s Todd Astle (29 wickets at 34.44) and Wellington’s Jeetan Patel (23 wickets at 33.13).van Wyk a Test-quality player
After getting a late call-up to his Test debut in Dunedin for the injured Watling, van Wyk looked at home in the Test arena, taking eight catches and conceding just nine byes in 484 overs of cricket. His skills on both sides of the wicket have been welcome, as has his general vim in the field. Gutsy batting – 123 runs at 24.60 including a 100-minute, 39-run vigil which helped New Zealand draw the final Test in Wellington – has placed further pressure on Watling to regain his spot when he returns from his hip injury.Edited by Brydon Coverdale

Opportunities have come and gone for Ravi Bopara’s Test ambitions. Before the start of the first Test injury had him cursing his luck once more

Andrew McGlashan in Galle26-Mar-2012One of the finest traits of this England team is how closely-knit they are. No player will begrudge another their opportunity or success. However, Ravi Bopara could be forgiven for a little curse under his breath after seeing the chance of a Test berth snatched away for the second time in under a year.Shortly before the toss in Galle the England players gathered in their obligatory huddle and were soon applauding as Bruce French, the former England and Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper and now on the national coaching staff, handed a cap to Samit Patel. Plenty of handshakes were exchanged before the players split up; Patel went and bowled on an adjacent pitch along with Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar while Bopara went and took some high catches along with other non-selected players.Ultimately, the side strain Bopara picked up bowling against the Sri Lanka Development XI in Colombo during the second warm-up came at a crucial moment, although he was fit enough to act as a substitute fielder on the first day of the Test. Even in the days leading into Galle the feeling was Bopara would still play, but after assessing the conditions Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss felt the demand for a fifth-bowling option better than Kevin Pietersen or Jonathan Trott was too great.Bopara will have had similar emotions in a steamy Galle as he felt in a chilly Derby last May. On that occasion, playing for England Lions against Sri Lanka, he was on the verge of a Test recall to replace the retired Paul Collingwood only for Eoin Morgan, who had arrived a few days earlier from the IPL, to crack 193 and sway the selectors’ minds. Patel also scored 119 in that match.Morgan went on to play 10 consecutive Tests before suffering for his horrid series against Pakistan in the UAE and losing his place for this tour. That, finally, appeared to open the door for Bopara to get an extended run in the No. 6 spot only to miss out again. The two Tests he played against India last year, as a replacement for the injured Trott, barely constituted a chance especially when he walked to the crease at 596 for 4 and 487 for 5. He would not be human if there was not the odd thought in his mind about when, or if, that extended run will arrive.This is not to say that Patel did not deserve his debut. He was selected in the squad to give England precisely this option having been told in no uncertain terms what he needed to do to fit into the squad’s fitness ethos. There is still work to do but he has put in some hard yards. During the match against the Development XI he struck 72 off 78 balls in the successful chase although his bowling was less convincing with overall figures of 1 for 127 off 24 overs, which makes figures of 2 for 27 in nine overs on debut very respectable.It takes a lot for the Strauss-Flower axis to move away from the tried and trusted. This is the closest they have come to playing five bowlers since against Bangladesh, in Dhaka, in early 2010, but Patel cannot really be classed as a specialist spinner with a first-class record of 132 wickets at 38.45. For Nottinghamshire he has often played as the one spinner behind a four-man pace attack but at Trent Bridge that is often all that is needed.However, at the toss in Galle, Patel was also stated to bat at No. 7 with Matt Prior moving up to No. 6 which suggested he was not a direct replacement for Bopara. Otherwise England do not have as much faith in Patel’s batting. He was given a bowl before lunch on the first day in Galle and at the end of his first day in Test cricket he had more wickets than Swann, who was expensive, or Panesar. He also offered another option to spin the ball away from the right handers, but if he continues to be the leading wicket-taking spinner the series will have gone badly for the visitors.The last time England selected three frontline spinners in a Test was against Pakistan, at Faisalabad, in 1987-88 when Nick Cook, John Emburey and Eddie Hemmings all played together. But on the 1992-93 tour of India, Graeme Hick, a comparable quality spinner to Patel, did more than enough bowling – and topped England’s averages – to be classed alongside Emburey, Phil Tufnell and Ian Salisbury although had been selected firstly as a batsman.If England had wanted a genuine fifth bowler, who has won Test matches and taken five-wicket hauls, they could have gone for Tim Bresnan but he has had a difficult few months. Firstly he had to fly from the UAE having failed to recover from elbow surgery and then he did not impress during the warm-up match last week. Still, a batting average of 45.42 and bowling figure of 23.60 from 10 Tests – all of which England have won – suggests he would still have been worth looking at and a useful bowler to turn to with Sri Lanka 15 for 3. But Patel is the man and no one will begrudge him success.

Graeme Smith believes his side is ready to end the cycle of repeats that has seen them miss out on No. 1 spot in the Test rankings

Firdose Moonda01-Aug-2012Like and , South Africa’s cricket team have been on your screens doing their thing time and time again. The only difference is that despite numerous episodes and re-runs, too many to count, the team have not come out with a fairytale ending like Rachel and Ross, or laughing like Homer and Bart.When the sporting equivalent of a 30-minute TV episode is over, South Africa have usually found themselves in the same place they were when the opening credits rolled: somewhere close to the top but never actually on top. Frankly, it has not been a bad place to be. Always second- or third-best, although once much lower, it has allowed them to command adequate respect and put them in a position to continually challenge to be the absolute best.That they had only been able to call themselves that for a few months three years ago, illustrates how close but how far they have always been. And here they are again. The scene setter has been broadcast, the jingle has played, louder than on previous occasions, with an innings-and-12 run win at The Oval, and the first ad break has been taken.This time it was spent playing a two-day tour match in Worcester while the captain jetted home to welcome his new-born daughter into the world and the rest having a fancy dress party in the lead up to the second part of the show. While both those are circumstantial differences to the norm, for South Africa to have a different outcome at the end of this series to the one they are usually stuck with, something more substantial has to have changed.In cricketing terms, South Africa cannot do much more. With an unbeaten record away from home that stretches back to 2006, a thundering victory in the first Test and the big name players living up to their reputations, only fine-tuning is necessary. Concerns such as Alviro Petersen’s lack of form on the tour so far, Jacques Rudolph and JP Duminy’s lack of time in the middle and assessing and adapting to conditions at Headingley have been dealt with.
It is other terms that South Africa’s real progress will be measured. Having not won consecutive Tests in a single series since 2008 and not won back-to-back matches in two years, maintaining momentum is one of those things.Historically, South Africa have not been able to do it. The last two times they have played against the No. 1 side in the world, which was then India, they squandered a 1-0 lead. In 2010, they won by an innings in Nagpur only to lose in Kolkata, and in the return leg, South Africa were held 1-1 at home, again after opening with an innings victory. Overall, they have lost immediately after going ahead in three of their last four series.Conversely, not allowing the momentum that has taken them to the brink of No. 1 again to sweep them away is another issue that must be addressed. Pressure presents itself in a different form because it is the not anxiety of win-or-lose-everything, situations that have haunted South Africa in knockout matches, but the expectancy of win-and-gain everything that has existed before and will come again. Managing that is going to be the most challenging thing that will face the squad over the next five days.The person who has led the team throughout their seemingly endless hover near greatness and maintained the stoic attitude needed to prevent losing sight of the ultimate goal, knows that best. “Keeping emotions in check is crucial,” Graeme Smith said. “The mental energy that we have in our squad is an important thing. You can feel the intensity among the group at the moment.”A fresher attitude at the key stage of the series is the only tangible thing Smith thinks makes this time different to all the others. They have kept their performance graph a fairly straight line and their gazes firmly fixed on that distant point in the future that has almost always eluded them.

“We’ve got most of our bases covered in terms of players but as a group of men, this is the best group of men that I have been around”Graeme Smith

“Nothing has been too up or too down. We’ve trained as hard and we’ve prepared as well as ever,” Smith said. “We don’t expect England to give us anything for free. We know we are going to have to earn it and we have the mindset where we can do that.”As insurance against making this match the ultimate as far as South African cricket’s future is concerned, Smith already went as far as talking about the need to maintain good form rather than just achieve it for brief periods. “We understand that the job is not done and it’s not done for a period of time, if we want to see ourselves at the top of the rankings consistently,” he said.This is not South Africa’s last chance to become world No. 1, neither is the final Test of the series at Lord’s because they go on to play a three-match series in Australia in November. But it is as clear cut a chance as they have had in recent times.Smith knows it and so coloured his words carefully, making sure he said the immediate goal was the next five days. He also provided extensive evidence that South Africa are ready, not just to win one match and rise to the top but, once they do that, to stay there. “We are training every day to be the kind of team that can consistently go forward. We need to walk that walk out in the middle and win those games now to prove that to people. We would love to be holders of the No. 1 title and be the team that can push forward.”What can dramatically aid that cause is what Smith identified as one of the immeasurables that have made the team he is currently in charge of different to any other. “We’ve got most of our bases covered in terms of players but as a group of men, this is the best group of men that I have been around,” he said. It’s a group he will be hoping are not keen on repeats but who will be eager to break new ground from Thursday.

Ricky Ponting, Ed Cowan and Mel Jones reflect on the importance of club cricket

Brydon Coverdale24-Oct-2012Michael Clarke played club cricket a couple of weeks ago. It was a news story. Imagine the novelty of seeing Australia’s captain turning out with the regulars at a suburban ground in Sydney. His appearances for New South Wales have been few and far between in the past few years, let alone for Wests. Among Australia’s elite cricketers, that is a common theme. In part, it is due to the international team’s rigorous schedule. Who can find time for a club game when Australia play nearly 100 days of international cricket per year, on top of state commitments?But a disconnect between club and country has been occupying the minds of Cricket Australia for some time now. Administrators have been canvassing clubs for ideas about what needs to be done to help cricket’s foundations. International players have been encouraged to return to their clubs when they can. It’s all about the grassroots. The importance of club cricket was the theme of Gideon Haigh’s Bradman Oration on Wednesday. After the speech, three international cricketers – Ricky Ponting, Ed Cowan and Mel Jones – sat in the ballroom of the Langham Hotel, one of Melbourne’s finest five-star establishments, and reflected on what club cricket had meant to them.For Ponting, arguably the best batsman Australia has produced since Bradman, club cricket was everything when he was young. The Mowbray Cricket Club in Launceston was the centre of his universe. His father, Graeme, had been a first-grade cricketer in his younger days, and came out of retirement to play in the third grade when Ricky was starting out as an 11-year-old. Ponting is an all-time great but his story could be that of any amateur player anywhere in Australia.”My club survived on volunteers,” Ponting said. “We’re a very working-class club that basically was run and operated on how much money we took over the bar on a Saturday afternoon. There were a few people who would put their $2 in to get a beer out of the fridge and they’d take $5 out. We’ve done things pretty tough at my club. I’m very proud of my upbringing and where I came from.”I remember as a nine- or ten-year-old boy, getting on my BMX and riding all over northern Tasmania to find wherever the Mowbray Cricket Club was playing. I was always the first there. I’d be sitting in the change rooms when the boys got there and when they went out on to the field I’d be going through their bags and picking their bats up and putting their gloves on, and making sure I put them back in exactly the same position again so they didn’t know.”They’d come off at lunch and I’d be sitting in the corner waiting for the boys to come in. Then after play I’d sit around and listen to the stories they were telling about the day’s cricket. That’s where I learnt the game. I learnt from my club-mates and older guys who had been through many on-field battles. Through listening and watching and learning, I think a lot of what I learnt from them is part of what I am now as a cricketer.”Ponting put something back into his club as soon as he was able. When he emerged as a first-class cricketer, while still a teenager, he was sponsored by a local Launceston bakery. He appeared in a TV commercial for the bakery and he donated his fee to the Mowbray Cricket Club. It was enough to build new club-rooms. Mowbray had made Ponting, and he wanted to return the favour.Cowan also has fond memories of life as a teenage club cricketer. As a 15-year-old, he started playing with Sydney University so he could play with his brother, a uni student. As a kid in a university environment, he learned quickly the ways of the world. He also learned that a cricket club doesn’t run by magic. As every volunteer at every sporting club around Australia knows, keeping the cogs turning is a hard, and sometimes thankless, task.”At the time when I went to Sydney Uni it was really a struggling cricket club in the competition,” Cowan said. “There was talk of mergers, there was talk of being kicked out of the competition. At that point of time it was a very amateur club being run essentially by undergraduates. Some very good people behind the club got the club moving forward, and it’s done a full circle. It’s probably now the premier cricket club in Sydney, has a very effective management and some great players are coming out. I think for 50 years they didn’t produce a first-class cricketer and all of a sudden they’ve had five or six in the last five years. It shows what a cricket club can do when it gets its act together.”On the day that Ricky Ponting scored the 78th first-class century of his career, he spoke of the importance of Australia’s club game•Getty ImagesCowan now lives in Hobart and plays for the Glenorchy Cricket Club, and for Tasmania. But he feels more a part of the Sydney University community than his new club. Every Saturday he texts his old mates to see how the club fared. A group of his Sydney club-mates flew to Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test last year and watched Cowan make his Test debut. They had seen him through his ups and downs, progressing from fringe state player to a recipient of the baggy green.The sense of community provided by club cricket isn’t exclusive to men’s teams. Jones represents the oldest women’s cricket club in the world, the Essendon Maribyrnong Park side. For 108 years it has been providing female cricketers with a base. Some go on to play for their state, a few for their country. They all call their club home.”As much as most Australian cricketers would like to play more and more international games, the beauty of it is we spend 90% of our time in club land,” Jones said. “When you speak to most of the girls, they have some of the strongest connections to club cricket. It is really like a family. We probably know our people and our club members more so than the guys do.”Last Friday night I put the hessian and the covers down while all the young kids were doing something else, it’s all the same things [as the men]. You go through the fact that the club-rooms are rat-infested, you try to clean the barbeque, all those sorts of things. All those things are exactly the same. We used to wear culottes so we’d get bad wedgies. That’s a bit different to the guys, but overall it’s the same sort of community.”*************So what is the future role of these clubs, these mini-societies that have allowed Australia’s finest players to blossom? For decades, they were the only avenue a player could take if he or she wanted to progress to state cricket, and ultimately to represent Australia. These days, that is not always the case. Skilled junior players can be identified early and are whisked off to under-age carnivals, where their talent is further spotted. Names are pencilled in as future first-class players and piles of club runs are not a pre-requisite. It’s an issue that worries Cowan.”[We need to] make sure that club cricket is still the most important pathway to first-class cricket,” Cowan said. “I think there has been a tendency to maybe veer away from that and look at youth carnivals and these kind of things. But a strong club competition where young players can play with men and learn about the game and learn about themselves, I think that’s the most important thing for Australian cricket.

“If there’s been a regret in my life it’s the fact that I haven’t had a chance to be around club cricket more”Ricky Ponting

“I’ve seen people come into state squads who haven’t done particularly well in club cricket, because they’ve done well in youth cricket, and they haven’t quite understood the game or how to succeed at the game. I think club cricket gives people that base. You know if you’ve succeeded at club cricket you’re ready for first-class cricket. I think that’s the biggest challenge, to make sure it’s the most important pathway.”Reconnecting Australia’s international players with their clubs can only help in that regard. Last year, Cricket Australia asked its players to ring some randomly selected club cricket volunteers from all over Australia and thank them for their hard work. Coincidentally, Ponting called a woman from Mowbray, who was thrilled to hear from him.”The four or five other guys who I rang thought their mates had set them up on a prank,” Ponting said. “Thirty seconds into the conversation they were saying ‘mate, I’m busy, I’ve got some work to do, I’ve got to go’. I’m not sure how it went down or what the feedback was like back at Cricket Australia but I thought it was fantastic, one to be recognising the volunteers that have made our clubs survive.”Having the international and state players return to their clubs as often as possible is another goal. Last time Ponting played for Mowbray, nearly 5000 people turned up to watch the match. But that was seven years ago. International commitments, combined with the fact that he now lives in Sydney, have prevented Ponting from playing for his club since then. That’s something he wants to change, and he has a genuine passion to give back to the game that has provided him with so much.”If there’s been a regret in my life it’s the fact that I haven’t had a chance to be around that club more,” Ponting said. “The way that my life has been, being a professional cricketer at the age of 17, being on the road and away from home for most of that period of time, you just don’t get as much time back at our clubs as we would like. I know that’s a big thing that has been spoken about in the last 12 months since the Argus review, international players being back in their states and playing more, and what that hopefully means is you can get back to your clubs more, and be involved with a younger generation of people.”Cricket and young cricketers need to be able to see their heroes. It would be great if I could spend more time around my club, or around primary schools, promoting the game and giving these young kids something to aspire to in the flesh. I’ve always been passionate about that. Once my life starts to wind down a bit as far as cricket is concerned I’ll make sure I’m doing that, because I feel that’s a role of mine.”And you never know. The next Ricky Ponting could be in one of those schools, or he could be sneaking into a club-room somewhere around the country, absorbing everything he hears. All the more reason for Australian cricket to tend to its grassroots.

Canterbury’s legspinning allrounder Todd Astle may be the one to fill those big shoes

Andrew Alderson16-Nov-2012The search for Daniel Vettori’s spin-bowling successor takes another turn this week with the possible introduction of Todd Astle to Test cricket in Sri Lanka.Vettori is resting out the two-Test series with an inflamed Achilles tendon. If Astle plays, he’ll become just the seventh specialist spinner used by New Zealand since Vettori debuted in February 1997, and only the third specialist legspinner since one of the country’s best exponents, Jack Alabaster, played his final Test in 1972. Astle’s forebears are Greg Loveridge (who famously broke his finger without bowling a ball during his solitary Test against Zimbabwe in 1996) and Brooke Walker whose five Tests yielded five wickets at 79.80 from 2000-02. Wristspin is a fickle calling in New Zealand.Such trivia hardly concerns Astle as he edges towards his childhood ambition. The 26-year-old has taken 68 Plunket Shield wickets at 33.3 over the last two seasons, including 37 at 29.08 to help secure the 2010-11 title for Canterbury. In all, he has 129 wickets at 35.39 from 56 first-class matches.His batting could also be an asset. Astle made a first-class hundred, opening in the early part of his provincial career. He recently contributed 95 and 78 from the lower order in Canterbury’s loss to Otago.Astle opened but did not bowl a ball for New Zealand at the 2006 Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. He was third on the run-scoring list, behind Indian Test No. 3 Cheteshwar Pujara and England middle-order batsman Eoin Morgan.Depending on the state of the Galle wicket on Saturday – and the prospects of play on the monsoon-ravaged tour – Astle could form a partnership with Jeetan Patel at the expense of a pace bowler in the starting XI. Coach Mike Hesson indicated as much last month.”Todd’s a good character who trains hard and has taken plenty of his wickets in the second innings of matches,” Hesson said. “He’s got the confidence to chuck the ball up and beat players in the air. His record’s pretty good by New Zealand spinning standards. He’s excellent in the field but hasn’t fulfilled his potential with the bat.”When playing two spinners, you’re committed to one guy who can at least bat a bit. Todd’s that man, because we can’t expect too many runs from Jeetan.”Todd’s passionate and we’d be more inclined to use him on this tour as opposed to South Africa or England. Dan will more than likely be back by then and pace bowlers might also be better options.”

“When playing two spinners, you’re committed to one guy who can at least bat a bit. Todd’s that man because we can’t expect too many runs from Jeetan”New Zealand coach Mike Hesson

The message seems clear. Astle has been preferred over Tarun Nethula, who took five wickets in five one-day internationals between February and July, but is suffering from a bowling confidence crisis – to the point where he couldn’t be used recently in India on conducive wickets.Astle says the shift to being a bowling allrounder from a batsman wasn’t conscious, but there was a turning point. “I had opened for four years and didn’t kick on for Canterbury, so I need to thank Chris Martin. He got called up to the New Zealand team [in March 2010] when we were playing Otago in Queenstown. I replaced him [on day three] and took my first five-wicket bag.”Canterbury won the match and Astle was their bowler of the year the following first-class season. He is in the process of completing a feat similar to that of Mark Richardson, who was a promising left-arm orthodox spinner before he got the yips and swapped to become one of New Zealand’s most successful openers. Richardson eventually bowled just 11 overs and took one wicket in 38 Tests.”A big help has been the way Peter Fulton has captained me at Canterbury,” Astle says. “He’s always provided a measure of confidence by backing me with a lot of overs. Sometimes you just need someone to take you under their wing, work out the best way to get into spells and find a rhythm to go about your business.”New Zealand captain Ross Taylor might take note, since Fulton credits Astle as one of the main reasons Canterbury won the title in 2010-11. “Hopefully they use him as an attacking weapon,” Fulton says. “Legspin’s not easy to do. Look at Shane Warne; he still had to learn his craft. There’s got to be understanding that legspinners bowl the odd bad ball.”And he’s also a handy batsman•Getty ImagesWarne is a perfect case study of someone who initially delivered too many pies and too few chainsaws. Midway through his third Test, in Sri Lanka, he had one wicket and his average was 335. Then, with Sri Lanka needing 31 runs to win, chasing 181 in Colombo, Warne took three wickets in 13 balls without conceding a run to mop up the innings and the match. His career rarely dipped again.Fulton believes Astle could also shine with the bat. “He’s never really fulfilled his potential but his last couple of knocks [95 and 78] were as good as I’ve seen him play. Todd’s just a team man who’s passionate about winning.”Astle had lost none of that enthusiasm when he spoke after his first business-class flight, travelling to Sri Lanka. “I’ve now played over 50 first-class matches and know most of the guys,” he said. “I’ve dealt with Hess [Mike Hesson] when he was Otago coach, [assistant coach] Bob Carter coached me at Canterbury and I even captained [bowling coach] Shane Bond for a few games at [Astle’s Christchurch club] Old Boys Collegians.”You always dream of bowling to the best players in the world, like Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. I’ve watched them a lot on television and completed plenty of video analysis sent through by the coaches. I’ve got confidence in the environment I’ll be working in.”

Plays of the Day from the fourth ODI between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Hambantota

Andrew Fernando10-Nov-2012The run out
BJ Watling has been New Zealand’s batsman of the series so far, and he looked set to knuckle down for another good innings before Brendon McCullum caused his dismissal in the 12th over. McCullum knocked one into a gap on the leg-side and the batsmen took off with two on their minds. As he turned though, Watling saw that Nuwan Kulasekara was closing in, and protested. McCullum was insistent however, and Watling was forced to attempt the second run but was nowhere near completing it when the throw came in and the bails were removed.The double-strike
Jeevan Mendis’ legspin has been used sparingly in this series, but he ensured New Zealand would not rebuild after four top order wickets had gone cheaply, when he dismissed Kane Williamson and Nathan McCullum off consecutive deliveries, in the same fashion, with the same delivery. Williamson had played Mendis’ legbreaks comfortably, but did not pick the googly, leaving a gap between bat and pad for the ball to bisect as it broke the other way. McCullum failed to read the googly as well, and was also bowled through the gate next ball.The delivery
Tim Southee and Trent Boult were moving the ball viciously in the air and off the seam in their opening spells, and were unlucky to finish with just one wicket between them, having beaten the batsmen on numerous occasions. Southee’s best delivery came the second ball of his second over and, typically, it went unrewarded. Southee moved the ball in through the air, pitching it on a length on middle stump, before getting it to straighten dramatically off the seam. The ball beat Dinesh Chandimal’s prod and flew inches above the bails. Southee was so adamant that he should have something to show for that ball that he turned around to appeal raucously by himself, despite the fact that the batsman had got nowhere near it.The déjà vu
Upul Tharanga was dismissed by Southee after the bowler had had words with him in the second ODI, and so would have been desperate to get the better of Southee in the next match. But like in the second ODI, Tharanga hit a beautifully timed punch off Southee through the offside before throwing his wicket away, this time cutting straight to backward point. No words were necessary this time.The misfield

New Zealand pride themselves on their fielding, but in the 13th over James Franklin failed to make a regulation boundary stop. It was a slip-up that most backyard cricketers would be embarrassed by: sauntering around from sweeper cover, Franklin got down to intercept a Dinesh Chandimal cut shot, didn’t get his hands near the ball, and it duly rolled between his legs and onto the boundary.The umpires’ justice
Having worked hard to see Sri Lanka through the chase, Kumar Sangakkara was livid to have been deemed caught behind off Trent Boult in the 25th over, when the deflection had come off his thigh pad. Justice prevailed however, in a slightly complex fashion, as the third umpire ruled that Boult had overstepped, even though replays suggested a fraction of his boot had landed behind the line. In the end, two wrongs made a right, and Sangakkara finished unbeaten on 42.

A tribute from an Ashes rival and a fellow commentator

Ian Chappell29-Dec-2012I’ll always remember Tony Greig as a very combative cricketer. He was the sort of player who gave it everything he had. I have always described him as a cricketer who got the absolute best out of his ability.As an opponent you knew you were in a contest with Tony Greig, and he always made his presence felt. He could do it in a lot of ways – with the bat, with the ball, and what is probably forgotten is, he was a hell of a good fielder, a terrific catcher.I only captained against him, Australia v England, on three occasions, but I had a lot of reason to thank him in the second game, played at Headingley, in 1975. That was where they dug up the pitch and poured oil on it, on the fourth evening. The game at that stage was pretty evenly poised. (Evenly poised as far as I was concerned; Tony always said that England were in front.)We got a call to do a meeting early in the morning at the ground with the umpires. So, as the two captains, we went out and had a look at the pitch. The umpires came to us and said, “Look, we feel the nature of the pitch has been changed, that we don’t believe it is fit for playing, but if either of you captains want to play, then we’ll agree to it.” I thought to myself, “Oh, I’m going to get left in the lurch here”, because obviously as the Australian captain and the team holding the Ashes, it wasn’t in our best interests to bat on a pitch that had been damaged. And it was also very much in England’s interests to play the Test match and try and level the series, with a chance of then regaining the Ashes with the final Test at The Oval.But Tony immediately stepped forward and said, “I agree with you” to the umpires. “I believe the pitch is unfit for play and that the match should be called off.” Afterwards I went to him and shook him by the hand and said, “Mate, thank you very much. I really appreciate what you did there. You could have easily left me in the lurch.” That was typical of Tony. He was a very combative cricketer, a very combative captain, but he wasn’t about to take advantage of you in an underhand way.Probably the finest innings he played against us was in the Gabba Test in 1974-75, where he scored 110 against Lillee and Thomson, who certainly was at peak pace in that game. It wasn’t easy out there. But Tony, every time he would hit Lillee for four, he would signal four like an umpire, and that obviously antagonised Dennis enormously. There weren’t too many people around in world cricket at that stage who were looking to antagonise Dennis, but Tony did it, and he carried it off by scoring 110.It was in that match that the “Sandshoe Crusher” was born. Before we went out to bowl in the second innings, I said to our guys, particularly our fast bowlers, “Guys, any chance we can get Tony Greig out rather than trying to knock his block off?” That’s when Thommo came up with the Sandshoe Crusher that bowled Tony, and that was where the term was born.We then went on to play each other a lot during World Series Cricket. Tony was an integral part of World Series Cricket. He was given a pretty tough job. You can imagine, as a white South African, having to travel around the Caribbean to sign up a lot of West Indies players. It couldn’t have been easy for him but he was never one to shirk a challenge. He went and he did that job and he did it very well, and he signed up a lot of those international players for World Series Cricket.Tony and I, our relationship deteriorated quite badly during World Series Cricket. Mostly, I have to say, instigated from my side. We finished a couple of years of World Series Cricket not on the best of terms. But then, after I played one more year, I went and joined the Channel 9 commentary team. Tony was part of that team. I thought to myself, “Well, we’re obviously going to be working together pretty closely here. If we happen to work together for quite some time, this is going to be pretty silly, being antagonistic all the time.” And because I had been the main offender, I thought it was up to me to get back on good terms with Tony. Nothing was ever spoken but we just go on with our job. It was, sort of, a case of “that was then and this is now”. We just got on with our job, spent a lot of time together not only in the Channel 9 commentary box but a lot overseas.

He was a very combative cricketer, a very combative captain, but he wasn’t about to take advantage of you in an underhand way. I really appreciated that

The thing that always came through with Tony was his passion for cricket. He had a lot of opinions, he was quite prepared to state them, and he was quite prepared to argue them. Always the thing that came through was his passion for the game. I can remember there’d be times when he’d get on one of his hobby horses about batsmen walking. He’d say, “Batsmen should walk.” Occasionally I would remind him of Lord’s in 1972 and say, “Well, you didn’t actually walk in your career, Tony. What about Lord’s, where you edged one and grabbed your shoulder to try and indicate to the umpire that you hadn’t hit it?” His reply often was, “Well, do as I say, not do as I do.”We had some good times in the commentary box, we had some arguments even, but we could always sit down afterwards and joke about it.That was another thing about Tony as a player. The Australian and South African style of play was very similar: play very hard and very competitive on the field but then sit down and have a beer and laugh about some of the silly things that happened on the field. And because Tony had grown up in South Africa, and grown up in that atmosphere, even when he joined England, he would still come in at the end of the day’s play, or if we went into their dressing room he would always be there, with a bottle of beer. I think he used to bring a few of the Englishmen in with him to get them into that habit of mixing with the opposition.I have a recent fond memory of times spent with Tony. We were commentating together on the World Twenty20 in Colombo, and there was a holiday, I can’t remember exactly which holiday it was. I went to the bar to order a drink and the barman said, “There’s no alcohol today.” I said to him, “Well, mate, isn’t there somewhere we can get alcohol?” And he said, “You can go to your room, order room service and get a bottle of wine.” So we all did that. There must have been a dozen or so commentators, we came downstairs and we spoke to one of the security guys and he said, “Look, if you go quietly over to the dark corner by the swimming pool, that’ll be okay. You’ll be out of the way and we’ll just let you have a drink and you won’t bother anybody else.”So we did that, and over a glass of red, Tony, who liked to have a cigar occasionally, he said to me: “Would you like a cigar?” I quite enjoyed one every now and again but not very often. On this occasion his cigar smelt good and I said, “I’ll join you.” I had this cigar and a glass of wine with him and it’s a decent memory of Tony.In fact, when I got back home and got the news that he had lung cancer, I rang him up and said, “Jesus mate, I hope that wasn’t a bad batch of cigars we had in Colombo,” and he just laughed.It was good to hear him laughing, even as recently as the first Test match in the South Africa-Australia series. The first day at the Gabba, I knew he’d be hurting because he always loved to be there and everybody loves to be there for the first Test, the first ball bowled. And knowing it was South Africa, I knew he’d be hurting a bit.And Greigy, he was always the driver. He always drove us to the ground in the mornings. The cars were leaving at eight o’ clock, and right on eight o’ clock on the first morning of the Gabba Test this year, I rang his mobile. He answered and I said, “Greigy, where’s the car?” And he said, “What are you talking about? Who’s this?” And I said, “Mate, where’s the car, we’re waiting to go the ground.” He suddenly realised who it was and said, “Sorry mate, you’ve just woken me up”, and he laughed about it. That was typical of Tony, that he enjoyed the joke and the mickey-taking, and he loved to be part of that.The Test match at Sydney is going to be hard work for all of us on the 9 team. Particularly because Tony and Viv, his wife, always had a big party on the third night of the Sydney Test. They would invite a lot of the international people who are in town, commentators from other countries, we’d all go to his place and it was always a very memorable evening. They were great hosts, Tony and Viv, so it’ll be a tough Test match.I’m sure it’s going to be really hard for his family, particularly his younger son Tom, who is a real cricket fanatic. He used to love Tony bowling to him in the backyard and him bowling to Tony, and he always used to come to the Sydney Test match to watch the game and he’d sit in the commentary box and watch the cricket. It’s going to be hard for his family. And we’ll miss him greatly.