All posts by n8rngtd.top

To one teenager at least, Fraser made relentless application and sweaty doggedness glamorous. Almost

Andrew Miller11-May-2009The summer of 1989 was a desperate time for an impressionable 11-year-old to get hooked on cricket. Four thumping Test defeats, 29 players, a raft of rebel-tour defectors, and Gooch lbw b Alderman 0. Try picking the positives out of that.And yet there was one. A lone pillar of rectitude in a ransacked temple. His shoulders were perpetually stooped but his spirit was never broken, and while the charlatans and showponies were being ruthlessly disembowelled by Allan Border’s freakishly focused Australians, Angus Fraser just ran in and bowled, and ran in and bowled, and ran in and bowled.I had hit upon my hero largely by accident. I had been struggling, as a patriotic Scotsman born in Germany and raised in Dorset, to justify on the one hand my loathing of the England rugby team and on the other my adoration of all things leather and willow. Fraser, born near Wigan and based in Middlesex, but blatantly as Scottish as they came, was all the evidence an 11-year-old needed to have his cake and eat it.But as soon as I saw him bowl, I realised the connection went deeper than any spurious claims to shared ancestry. In Fraser I recognised an anti-athlete at the peak of his powers, a sportsman to inspire the fat, the slow, the red-faced, and the sweaty. I was all of these and more. I loved cricket but was exquisitely hopeless at it.Fraser taught me that there was another way. Line and length, rhythm and control. Parsimony over panache. Every spare moment was spent in the nets, lumbering in, reaching high, competing for the first time with my flash athletic peers who had all the pace but none of the guile. When I was picked as first change for the junior third XI, it was the proudest day of my life.As the summer wore on and England’s poundings continued to mount, Fraser’s pyrrhic successes became the only thing worth clinging to. Take the fifth Test at Trent Bridge. I surveyed it from afar, having been whisked away on a family holiday to Yugoslavia, but a sneaked glimpse at a rare copy of the told me all I needed to know. Australia had amassed 602 for 6 declared, but Fraser had put his peers to shame with 52.3 overs, 18 maidens, 2 for 108. It was genius repackaged as futility.But then suddenly Fraser’s wickets started coming as well and my hero worship went into overdrive. Five for 28 in 20 overs at Sabina Park, as West Indies were sensationally toppled on home turf; eight in the match against India at Lord’s, when Gooch scored 333; and another five-for in the very next Test at Old Trafford. When my parents caught me bouncing on the sofa in glee after India had been skittled for 432 (Fraser 5 for 124), they realised it was time to bite the bullet and indulge my odd obsession.And so off we went to the Oval to watch my very first Test. It was an abominable day’s play, dominated by a tedious Ravi Shastri century, but at the close, I finally met my man. In fact I almost missed him. I’d been immersed in autograph-hunting behind the pavilion, ticking off the names like a trainee anorak, but my mother spotted Fraser’s loping figure plodding into the distance, and bang, I was off – hurtling down the Harleyford Road to intercept him as he fled. I don’t recall speaking as I thrust my bat under his nose. Adrenaline could carry me only so far.

While the charlatans and showponies were being ruthlessly disembowelled by Allan Border’s freakishly focused Australians, Angus Fraser just ran in and bowled, and ran in and bowled, and ran in and bowled

But no sooner had I met him than he was gone. A mystery hip condition, brought on by yet more Ashes futility, left his career hanging by a thread. For two seasons I searched for him in the county scorecards, but under ARC Fraser I found only an imposter with a handful of expensive appearances to his name. “Why aren’t you playing, Angus? We need you,” I shocked myself by shouting when I bumped into him again at the Oval in 1991. “I want to play,” came the plaintive response.But he couldn’t, and didn’t, and I had no choice but to move on. Mike Atherton became my new favourite player (no other bowler cut the mustard), and I took pleasure in England’s rare moments of success. But I still checked the Middlesex card every week, hoping that the big man would return.And then suddenly it happened. A spell of 7 for 40 against Leicestershire in 1993, and the cry went up from the shires that Fraser had got his “snap” back. Two games later he – and I – were back at the Oval for the sixth Test against Australia. But how would I respond? I was now 15 with my first vaguely teenage pretensions – clearly too grown-up for such childish obsessions.Like hell I was. Eight match-winning wickets later I was smugly reminding anyone I’d ever met that Fraser was the greatest medium-fast seam bowler that had ever walked the earth.And I was still doing it five years later as Fraser routed the West Indians in the third Test in Trinidad. Did he lose a certain something after his injury? Maybe. But in an era of slim pickings for players and fans alike, he still cared more passionately than any other English bowler of his generation. His main failing was that he was a sweaty knacker who looked defeated after a single delivery. But as the man himself has been known to grumble, “Bowling is bloody hard work.” It was never in Fraser’s nature to try and pretend otherwise.

To win a game of Twenty20, teams need to win the big moments. Since humbling Rajasthan Royals on the opening day of the tournament, Bangalore have developed a habit of losing them

Victor Brown26-Apr-2009One year on, Bangalore Royal Challengers have spent a lot of money treading water. Now, as then, they have lost four of their first five IPL matches. Now, as then, the correlation between spending and success has been badly skewed. The extra ingredient of Kevin Pietersen’s increasingly tricky return to top-level captaincy after he lost the England job earlier in the year has added an irresistible subplot. But Pietersen will play just one more game before flying home, leaving Bangalore a further eight group matches to avoid humiliation. On this evidence, it will be tricky.To win a game of Twenty20, teams need to win the big moments. Since humbling Rajasthan Royals on the opening day of the tournament, Bangalore have developed a habit of losing them. Today’s match summed the tendency up, and no moment was bigger than the 17th over of the Delhi reply, which began with the Daredevils needing 43 off 24 balls with seven wickets in hand.Undeterred by the pull for six with which Dinesh Karthik had greeted Jacques Kallis’ return to the attack two overs earlier, Pietersen asked Kallis to try again. This was questionable at the very least. Kallis’ career Twenty20 economy-rate is almost 10. In last year’s IPL he reduced that to 9, but was still the costliest of Bangalore’s regular bowlers. His stock ball in Tests, the widish away-swinger, is eminently hittable in Twenty20. Even so, Pietersen asked him to try again.The first two balls yielded three runs, which was fine. The third was well outside off-stump, but swung just inside the mark umpires use to determine wides. To Kallis’s horror, Sudhir Asnani disagreed and signalled a wide, at which point it all went horribly wrong. Tillakaratne Dilshan, surely one of the world’s most under-rated batsmen, whacked the next ball over wide long-on and out of the ground, before Mithun Manhas lifted Kallis over the head of Robin Uthappa at long-off and away for four.Uthappa should have been standing on the boundary, but worse was to come as Manhas drove Kallis’s next ball wide of mid-on, only for KP Appanna, the left-arm spinner who had earlier done well to concede only 24 off his four overs, to turn a single into a boundary with a mis-field. From then on in, Delhi couldn’t lose. In fact, they’ve now won three out of three. (Kallis, incidentally, has figures in this tournament of 11-0-135-1, which is even worse than Andrew Flintoff.)”The plans that we wanted to do, we executed,” said Pietersen afterwards. “We just let ourselves down with the [Uthappa] catch that went for four, and another one went down to the boundary that went for four. Some of those don’t help you in situations like this. Fielding definitely cost us today.”Bangalore had blown it with the bat too. Pietersen has not played as well as he did today all tournament and together with Ross Taylor was busy dragging Bangalore back from the rubble of 10 for 2. Twice Pietersen advanced down the track to loft a six over long-on – once off Ashish Nehra, once off Daniel Vettori – and when he swept Vettori for four, an imposing total looked on the cards.Next ball, though, he tried the switch-hit and was bowled – just as Vettori bowled him during a World Twenty20 match in Durban in September 2007. Taylor went in the next over, the first after the time-out, and Bangalore had to settle for a gettable 149. “It might have been the wrong option, but that’s how I play,” said Pietersen after his otherwise sparkling 25-ball 37. “I’ve played like that for five years in international cricket and I ain’t changing now.”Pietersen flies home on Wednesday after the game in Durban against Kolkata Knight Riders. Defeat then, and his contention today that he has found the IPL to be “absolutely fantastic” may be tested to the full.

“Players on both sides didn’t hesitate at the end and shook hands knowing it was the finish,” the Ireland team manager said

Peter Della Penna18-Jun-2018Team representatives from both Ireland and Scotland camps have said there was no plan in place for a Super Over to be played after their tied match on Sunday in Deventer. The fourth game of the tri-series became the first T20 international that ended in a tie which wasn’t decided by either a Super Over or a bowl-out, even though playing a Super Over is the current provision in the ICC’s playing conditions in T20Is after a match is tied.”We weren’t expecting one,” Ireland team manager Chris Siddell told ESPNcricinfo shortly after the match when he was asked why no Super Over had been played. The match had been livestreamed online by the Netherlands Cricket Board (KNCB), but players on both sides started shaking hands immediately after Stuart Thompson scampered a two to long-on off the final ball to level the scores in Ireland’s chase of 186.”Players on both sides didn’t hesitate at the end and shook hands knowing it was the finish,” Siddell said.Under the ICC playing conditions for T20Is adopted on September 28, 2017, Law 16.3.1 reads: “If the scores are equal, the result shall be a tie and no account shall be taken of the number of wickets that have fallen. In the event of a tied match the teams shall compete in a Super Over to determine the winner.”Siddell said he was well aware of the law. “My understanding is it’s not mandatory and playing conditions of specific tournaments or series dictate if there is or isn’t one,” he said before referencing Appendix F of the ICC playing conditions, which lays out regulations for a Super Over and the reasons for not having one.The reasons given for a Super Over not being played are weather conditions such as rain or failing light between the final ball of the match and the 10-minute interval before the start of the Super Over, or previous delays resulting in the match exceeding its allotted time. However, there were no delays in Sunday’s T20I due to weather or any other reasons. The final ball was bowled at 8.22pm local time and the official sunset time in Deventer was 9.59pm.Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer said that, like Siddell, he was also under the impression that the Super Over had been discarded for the tri-series.”It was just said at the start of the competition that there will be no Super Over,” Coetzer wrote in a text to ESPNcricinfo after the tie. “I think [ICC match referee David] Jukes said it. Not sure where or why the decision was made.”ESPNcricinfo reached out to ICC officials in Dubai for a comment on the matter but repeated emails did not receive a response.In the nine prior ties in men’s T20 internationals, the first three were decided by a bowl-out, with the most famous instance occurring during the group stage of the 2007 World T20 in South Africa when India defeated Pakistan. The subsequent six tied matches were all decided by a Super Over, with the most recent being England beating Pakistan in the third T20I in Sharjah in November 2015.

Shivam Dube had to adapt on tough USA pitches but India will need his power at some stage

Sidharth Monga18-Jun-20244:17

Do India have every box ticked going into the Super Eight?

If you include the warm-up game, Shivam Dube spent 60 legal deliveries in the USA to hit his first six on the tour. This is a batter who has been hitting a six every eight balls or so in the IPL over the last year. In his T20 career overall, which includes times when he was not the six-hitter he is now, he has still hit a six every 16 balls. The six-hitting ability has brought him to the World Cup, and he has had to wait so long to put one in the stands. He jokes he has only ever waited for this long in first-class cricket.Dube is also somebody who loves to hit sixes at practice. He does train other parts of his game, but he absolutely loves range-hitting. Sometimes his training sessions with CSK are just about hitting sixes as soon as he feels ready. It was not possible in New York where India – and other teams – practised in a small facility that can house only the nets. In Florida it just kept raining.You’d expect Dube to be the happiest person to get out of New York, and the USA, and onto more reliable pitches and better training facilities. He isn’t. When asked how easy or difficult, and how important, it is to delete the memories of New York before going to better batting tracks, Dube said he wasn’t going to do any such thing. “I won’t delete this from my memory because this is my first World Cup. Why should I?”Related

• Afghanistan's bowlers will ask questions, and India's batters must answer them

• Hayden expects short-of-runs Kohli to 'work out what to do' in the Caribbean

• How Dube evolved into the disruptor India need

• Suryakumar and Arshdeep the architects of hard-fought India win

• Rohit on Suryakumar: 'He showed he's got a different game as well'

Relish such conditions is not what six-hitters do. They are in here because of their six-hitting. They know the six-hitting can’t happen on surfaces where the bounce, pace and direction of the ball after the pitching are all unpredictable. So survive them, yes, co-exist with them, but enjoy them?”What I have done in the past is never doubt myself,” Dube said. “What I see is these conditions don’t demand what I have done at CSK. These conditions demand a different game. So I was batting in a different way.”That Dube enjoyed the challenge, trying to find a way to win matches for India, tells you he wants to be more than just a six-hitter. Watching him in the nets, the wind-up always suggests he is going to hit a six. And then he acts according to the ball. It’s as though his batting is all about doing something else only when the option of hitting the six is eliminated. And so far he has found himself in conditions where you have to hit your best possible shot for it to clear the field. You can’t afford even a slight mishit. It is to Dube’s credit that he has done his job without hitting these sixes.Shivam Dube has had to bide his time at this World Cup•ICC/Getty ImagesDube’s arrival in the West Indies hasn’t necessarily been the opening of the floodgates either. The pitches in the nets at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados have had both seam and swing – then the further garnish of a passing shower, which spiced them up further. Dube didn’t opt for range-hitting either, instead spending more time bowling than batting.Some day or the other during this World Cup all this denial will make way for a pitch that calls for 200. It could well be on the main pitch at Kensington Oval, which has already hosted one score of 200. It could be in St Lucia, the highest-scoring ground this tournament. Or the final. It could be against the spinners of Afghanistan or against the varied quicks of Bangladesh.It is on these high-scoring grounds that India really need Dube. While what he did during the chase against USA must have reassured the team of his quality, India have batters who can anchor a middling chase. With the rest of his team-mates, Dube has had two training sessions at Kensington Oval to probably undo the muscle memory, if any, of the USA.Now that switch will have to flick quickly because there is hardly any time in T20s. The skill, though, is not just batting that way but identifying when to do so. Suryakumar Yadav says the captain and the management trust the batters in the middle to know which pace to aim for. Dube will have the feedback from two of the most experienced batters in international cricket to fall back on, but, especially when batting first, India will rely a lot on his instinct to inform what they are aiming for.Whatever the conditions might be in the Super Eight, it is unlikely Dube will have to wait 60 balls for his next six. India might yet need a few from him.

Marco Silva says Erik ten Hag was correct to stand behind Bruno Fernandes after Fulham mocked the Manchester United star on a TikTok video.

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• Fulham mocked Fernandes on social media
• Outraged Ten Hag demanded apology
• Silva understands counterpart's fury

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Fulham's social media account posted a video that mocked Fernandes for going down following a tackle from Sasa Lukic, pleading for a free-kick and then getting up to continue the match during last week's Premier League clash between the two teams at Old Trafford. United issued a statement in response to the video and Ten Hag subsequently demanded an apology from the Cottagers.

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  WHAT MARCO SILVA SAID

  Fulham boss Silva was asked on Friday about his United counterpart's reaction to the post and he is sympathetic to the Dutchman's stance. He said: "Ten Hag defends his player, I can understand that. When a manager defends one football player, I think it's a normal situation, I think if it's one of our players I am going to defend him until the last."

  The Portuguese coach was also full of praise for Fernandes, saying: "He is the captain of Man United, he is a player I know really well and he is a top player, he is a top professional. You are not a Man United captain if you don't have all the package to be in the same box to be a Man United captain and to be so important."

• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Fulham went on to claim the three points away at United last week, taking the lead through Calvin Bassey midway through the second half. Harry Maguire popped up with an equaliser for the Red Devils after 89 minutes but Alex Iwobi fired in a stoppage time winner for the visiting team.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR FULHAM AND UNITED?

  Fulham sit 12th in the Premier League and will hope to build on last week's win when they host Brighton on Saturday. United face a much more daunting task a day later when they visit reigning champions Manchester City.

Manchester United youngster Kobbie Mainoo has been added to the latest England squad after his stellar display in the FA Cup against Liverpool.

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• Midfielder brought in to Gareth Southgate's setup
• Initially part of Three Lions' U21 squad
• Made 14 Premier League appearances for Man Utd this season

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Gareth Southgate has responded to the widespread clamour for the teenager to be brought into the England setup, with the Three Lions announcing that he will be part of the squad for their friendlies against Brazil and Belgium. Mainoo turned in a star performance as Erik ten Hag's United beat Liverpool 4-3 in an instant classic FA Cup quarter-final encounter on Sunday.

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• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Mainoo's call-up comes as an apparent U-turn from Southgate, who preached patience around the teenager as recently as last week, when announcing his initial squad for the March camp. The manager had previously called up Declan Rice, Conor Gallagher and Jordan Henderson, who all play in the same position, with Mainoo initially named in the U21s squad.

• WHAT GARETH SOUTHGATE SAID

  Southgate highlighted Mainoo's quality last week: "He's doing really well for a young player. He's a good footballer – you can see that. And he's getting some fabulous experience with Manchester United at the moment. And he looks a really good character."

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  WHAT'S NEXT FOR MAINOO?

  The midfielder will join the England setup ahead of Saturday's meeting with Brazil and will hope to make his senior international debut before attention turns to the game against Belgium three days later. After that, he will return to club duty for the Red Devils, when they take on Brentford in the Premier League on March 30.

Somerset’s game resistance has given them every chance to save the match at Chelmsford and keep their own title challenge bubbling

Dan Norcross27-Jun-20181:57

Kent go top of Division Two

ScorecardThe best days at cricket are comprised of numerous moments. Singular moments, such as a wicket taken or a pleasingly creamed cover drive, and extended, even occasionally tantric moments; a battle royale, for example, between batsman and bowler, such as that enjoyed by Atherton and Donald at Trent Bridge.This match has been graced with too few moments; plenty of runs, plenty of toil, plenty of earnest endeavour but very few moments. The most significant today was a moment to forget; Westley dropping a sharp but eminently gettable chance above his head at slip when James Hildreth had just 16. Harmer, the bowler, would almost certainly have pouched it. He can’t, despite Theoretical Physics’ best efforts, be in two places at once though.Hildreth went on to produce the innings of the day but even his 75 was not garlanded with enough of those trademark Hildreth moments to make it an innings that will stay long in the memory. Neither the pitch nor the ball were conducive to his aesthetic.Running it a close second was the controversial catch that wasn’t. Harmer thought he’d clung on to a low chance at slip when Lewis Gregory had 11, and Somerset, on 322 for 6 still needed 46 to avoid the follow-on. The umpires consulted. The catch was not granted. Ryan ten Doeschate, returning after a two match ban and conscious of not wanting to incur further wrath, remonstrated as politely as any remonstrator has ever remonstrated, but Gregory survived.Neil Wagner produced the most entertaining moments. For the vast bulk of the 22 overs he bowled today (32 overall in the innings) he seemed intent on breaking Anthony Thornton’s record for walking backwards the longest distance in two days as he accompanied every bouncer, which was pretty much every ball, with a glare, a smile and fixed eyes on the batsmen as he made his way slowly back to his mark. The record, incidentally, is 95.4 miles, was set in 1989 in Minneapolis and still stands, but only just.He also produced the ball of the day to remove the most eye catching batsman of the day. Dom Bess arrived with Somerset in a spot of bother on 310 for 6 and five overs to go until tea. The new ball had just been taken and Porter had done for Peter Trego, taking the top of off stump.Bess counter attacked, saw off the new ball and his 35 from 38 balls was threatening to speed his side to the relative of safety of 368 and follow-on avoidance. Wagner bent his back that bit further, got one to rear at Bess’ throat (admittedly not a towering achievement) and caught the outside edge as Bess, fully off the ground, did his best Robin Smith impression of trying to evade a Curtly Ambrose snorter.Briefly the game was alive. Lewis Gregory’s miserable run with the bat (he now has 123 runs in 11 completed innings) continued with a hideous swipe that ended up at Third Man and seven were needed with just two wickets in hand. Wagner, unsurprisingly, peppered Overton with more bouncers. Overton survived, then flung the bat. The follow-on was averted.Eventually the innings was wrapped up in the softest of whimpers when Overton gently offered a catch to Bopara off Westley’s sixth and final ball. All out for 407 conceding a lead of just 110 and with only 9 overs to go on the third day the match looked as good as dead.
But just when we thought we’d have no more moments today, and in all likelihood tomorrow as well, Tom Westley, opening in place of Alastair Cook who is laid low with tonsillitis was trapped by Davey for a duck. The debutant Michael Pepper went next over to Gregory for 1. Suddenly it was 3 for 2. The slip cordon peaked at four. Momentarily nerves jangled but Browne and Bopara survived to the close with Essex leading by 127.The pitch is showing no signs of deterioration and it may require an improbably generous declaration to prevent the very real possibility of Essex slipping 39 points behind the leaders Surrey who have a game in hand. The grip on their title is loosening by the day.

ECB’s standards of corporate governance ‘fall well short of what’s acceptable’, says former Somerset chairman

George Dobell07-Mar-2018A county chief executive has called for an independent inquiry into the ECB’s decision to make payments to Test-hosting grounds, in the wake of the resignation from the ECB Board of Andy Nash, the former Somerset chairman, who cited standards of corporate governance which “fall well short of what’s acceptable”.Nash, once tipped as a potential successor to Colin Graves as ECB chairman, was responding to revelations – published by The Times in recent days – that several Test-hosting counties will receive large payments (understood to be GBP500,000 a year) in years they do not host Tests. These payments, Nash alleges, were agreed without the ECB board’s approval or even knowledge.As a former Somerset chairman, Nash was alarmed that the payments would marginalise the 10 non-Test hosting clubs and “clearly signals to many a move to promote eight counties as the first among equals”.It is not hard to understand Nash’s concerns. In recent days Hampshire – a club who will benefit significantly from the arrangement – have announced the signing of Sam Northeast in the face of substantial opposition from other counties. Kent, Northeast’s club since his schooldays, will not benefit from the payments. Is it fair, Nash asks, for such counties to be disadvantaged in these situations? Equally, is it fair that a club such as Glamorgan – that has seen loans of public money written off and has a modest record of producing England players – is rewarded with extra funds?It is also understood that Nash’s attempts to raise his concerns in recent days have been most unwelcome to members of the ECB executive – especially Graves – and he therefore came to the conclusion that he could serve no further purpose on the board.”I hereby resign with immediate effect from the ECB Board,” Nash wrote in a letter to Graves.”I’ve recently become concerned that the standards of Corporate Governance at ECB are falling well short of what’s acceptable and in all conscience I can’t allow myself to continue to be associated with it.”I would be failing in my duty as a director if I didn’t bring these to the Board’s attention and this I’ve tried to do. The current fiasco over the actual / alleged / planned payments to TMGs is an exemplar. Whether intentional or not it clearly signals to many a move to promote 8 Counties as the first among equals. As an ardent supporter of the 18 FCCs this is not a direction of travel I can live with.”It’s also come to my attention in the last 24 hours that my actions as a listening and conscientious NXD are sadly misunderstood and misinterpreted by yourself. I sincerely regret that because all I want is the best for the game and for good governance of the ECB.”I wish English cricket every future success: it’s been an enormous privilege to serve this great game as a County Chairman and ECB Board Director since 2004.”At this stage, the resignation is only an embarrassment to an ECB executive that have talked a good game about corporate governance – Tom Harrison, the chief executive, even used it as mitigation for Ashes defeat. But it has the potential to become much more serious.In the event of an independent inquiry, one obvious area of interest would be the on-going situation whereby Yorkshire, who fared well both in major match allocations and in terms of being awarded the right to host one of the new T20 teams, owe family trusts set up by Graves over GBP20 million. Those Grave trusts also retain a right of veto over who joins or leaves the Yorkshire board.Graves, it might be remembered, left the room when the ECB Board approved the recent major match allocations, as he accepted there was the possibility of a perception of conflict of interest. But did he leave the room when Durham were stripped of their Test status, or when the chairman’s meeting rejected the ECB’s own working-party recommendation into a future T20 competition featuring promotion and relegation rather than the new-team version?There may also be scrutiny of a letter, signed by Graves and sent to Somerset, at a time when the club was faltering in their support of the new-team competition. In the letter, Graves seems to imply that Somerset would be well placed as a future host of one of the new teams, though they subsequently missed out on that opportunity. ESPNcricinfo understands that Somerset did briefly consider a legal challenge to that decision but have been assured they will be better served, in the long term, if they accept their fate.And that may be considered the nub of the problem. For too long, deals have been conducted out of sight and scrutiny. For too long, counties have been forced into acquiescence by offers of patronage or fears of retribution. The ECB, who insisted on non-disclosure agreements during the debate over the future direction of domestic T20, has now reacted to recent negative publicity by threatening to report anyone suspected of ‘leaking’ information to the media to their new regulatory committee designed to uphold standards of integrity. Does that sound like an organisation that welcomes scrutiny and openness?Nash had served as a board member and county chairman for more than a decade but this act, bringing to light the high-handed management of the game, may prove to be his most influential moment.

Watching the second Test wend its way towards a draw, it occurred to Vaneisa Baksh that the most exciting cricket really comes from evenly matched teams

Vaneisa Baksh03-Jun-2008

Watching the second Test wend its way towards a draw, it occurred to me that the most exciting cricket really comes from evenly-matched teams, even if they are not strong ones. The cricket is at its most competitive, twisting us into the knots we need to be in to keep watching for five days.By the final day in Antigua, with Australia having declared twice, and West Indies never really sparkling, it had become onerous. Even when the captain Ramnaresh Sarwan made his 11th Test century it had a tired air, as if we had waited too long for him to convert another fifty to a hundred. Ian Bishop mentioned that Sarwan had experienced a good season on account of his three fifties and a century in the Sri Lanka series. That is true, but Sarwan has been playing for eight years, and is an exceptionally good batsman who should have been able to turn more of his 30 half-centuries into hundreds. As it was, he lasted until 128 – a necessary innings if only for pride and to keep the series alive with a draw – and alongside him was the rock, Shivnarine Chanderpaul.Chanderpaul made another century in the first innings, and when the match ended with Ricky Ponting deciding it was not worth his while to plod on, he was 77 not out, having partnered Sarwan to guide West Indies to their first draw with Australia since 1995, and earning the Man-of-the-Match award. “Play it safe,” he said, just try to last it out – an ethic that seems terribly at odds with the flamboyance associated with West Indies cricketers.He held ground the way only Chanderpaul can in these times. In the first innings, his heroics had been simply another day’s work to him, that stoic, workman’s approach to the game that has empowered him above all in this team given to view their wickets as castaways. In truth, it was every man playing according to his nature during the series thus far. Nothing really new has emerged.In the first Test, the bowlers did what had been longed for and reaped wickets, and by doing so went into the second match with a larger measure of hope. Yet the batting was indifferent, and cost a game that should have been the reward for four good days. This has been the nature of the West Indies team; when the bowling and/or fielding is true, the batting tells lies, and vice versa. Rarely do all the elements join the chorus, and this is not just reflective of the squad members.At the barely scuffed grounds of the Sir Vivian Richards stadium in Antigua, what greeted them? They found a pitch that the journalist Garth Wattley described as “a lifeless, brown stretch of earth,” adding vividly that “there was more discernible movement in molasses than off it [on the first day]”.To compete on this corpse, there were no recognised spinners, and five pacers with little difference among them. In a grand sweep, the selectors managed to deflate the momentum gained by the quicks in the previous match because they were asking them to ply their trade on a surface that absorbed their wiles without giving anything back. They also managed to suppress further what little hope there might be for spinners having a chance on the West Indies team, as they again communicated their vision that spin is part-time work for some batsmen.One imagines pitch preparation aligned to the strengths of the home team, and one imagines selections based on maximising conditions that exist – desirable or not. Home advantage did not seem to be a worthy consideration for the administrators.The result was a first day’s play that was excruciatingly lifeless, as if the pitch had sucked away all the energy in its precincts. Spectators could not be bothered to come. There was no West Indian energy to come from off the field, as it did at Sabina Park. Even the fielders couldn’t keep their focus, and under the circumstances, the fumbles were costly and painful to the hard-working bowlers.To make matters worse, the drainage on the outfield was bad enough to lose two sessions on the third day, causing much lamentation over the enormous cost incurred to try to fix this problem repeatedly after it had become evident at the World Cup last year. It was embarrassing, and one wonders whether this had been factored into the decision to hold one of the matches on the ground. Poor umpiring decisions contributed to reducing the scores, a continuing source of debate over technology use.For Ricky Ponting’s men, it would be gratifying to hold on to the Sir Frank Worrell trophy even before they set foot on Barbados soil for the final match. The retirement of Stuart MacGill leaves Australia with yet another hole to fill, but they are a resilient bunch, with a cricket ethic that leaves them formidable even under pressure. The third Test may yet be the most revealing of what might be a turning point for both sides. If only the series was longer.

You cannot curse Wahab Riaz. Especially when the man has a five-for on debut.

Nagraj Gollapudi at The Oval18-Aug-2010You cannot curse Wahab Riaz. Especially when the man has a five-for on debut. Not on the day when he proved to be an able replacement for the injured Umar Gul and bowled long and testing spells on a pitch he described as ‘batsman’s paradise’. Not when he kept constant pressure on England, sharing duties with Mohammad Asif after Mohammad Amir seemed out of sorts. Still, back in Pakistan, his achievement will be viewed with a sceptical eye. Some even might hold a grudge against him.According to the critics, what lies behind the unfair criticism is the fact that Riaz lacked the necessary credentials to deserve a national contract ahead of other aspirants like the erratic but experienced Mohammad Sami, who destroyed Australia with a fearsome spell of bowling at the SCG in the first week of 2010. Other competitors included the towering Mohammad Irfan, another left-armer, nearly seven feet in socks, who caught the eye not only for his height but also his bowling skills. Then there was Tanvir Ahmed, the best bowler in the 2010 Quaid-e-Azam competition with 86 wickets for Karachi Blues. The 30-year-old Ahmed was up against Riaz for the spot left vacant by Gul.On Tuesday afternoon, just before the final training session, Pakistan coach Waqar Younis told both men that he would make his choice based on which of the two bowlers would display more confidence. It helped Riaz that he has a permanent smile on his face. That and a penchant to engage with the batsman did not go unnoticed. In the end Riaz was preferred.Ijaz Ahmed, the assistant coach, and one of the few Pakistan batsmen to succeed in England, gave Riaz the cap with the simple words “make sure you do your best”. He proudly wore it and was embraced and backslapped by his team-mates. Half an hour into the morning he would take the cap off to measure his run-up as Amir, probably exhausted after a long summer, for the first time on the tour failed to dominate with the new ball.Riaz’s excitement lasted just a few deliveries as Andrew Strauss stroked two sumptuous boundaries at the end of his first over in Test cricket. Next over Riaz made use of the true bounce on the Oval pitch to seam it slightly away and pocket the England captain as his maiden Test wicket. It wasn’t long before he’d added Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen, before returning to successfully gain an edge off Eoin Morgan’s bat just after the lunch break. 10-5-19-4 were not bad figures after barely a couple of hours on the field.While England were left scratching their heads as to what had hit them, Riaz must have been wondering ‘is Test cricket always so easy?’ To give due credit, he had been performing overseas in the last two years. On the ‘A’ tours of Australia and Sri Lanka, he topped the bowling charts with 11 wickets in each of the twin Test series in 2009. Against England Lions this year he was the second highest wicket-taker.But if his initiation was made easy it was because of the help he received from the A-pair – Asif and Amir. Like a conveyor belt Asif returned to harass the batsmen with his never-ending probe. In the morning Trott was on the hop almost every delivery he faced from Asif, Pakistan’s highest wicket-taker so far in the series. So when Riaz offered him width on his very first ball Trott plunged excitedly to drive the fuller, angling-away delivery, but could only succeed in edging to second slip. Amir, before he left the field with dehydration, was constantly egging Riaz to remain persistent with his lines while offering valuable tips to work out the batsmen. “Amir and Asif’s contribution was big and they have been supporting me and they were boosting me, giving me the confidence that I could do it,” Riaz said.Riaz’s stock ball is the one that is angled away from the right-hander. But what also caused discomfort was his ability to move the ball at speeds consistently hovering around the 90mph mark . Allied with the bounce and a slinging action, the batsmen needed to pay attention and even that could not save them at times – as Pietersen and Morgan found out.”The main thing he had today was the element of surprise,” is how Matt Prior, England’s best batsman on the day, described Riaz. “We hadn’t seen a great deal of him, so that played into his hands. He bowled well but having seen his action and how he bowls and tries to get people out, that will stand us in good stead in the second innings.”But Riaz today showed that uncanny ability to constantly frustrate the opponent with his consistency. In the second session Prior and Stuart Broad had put up a record stand for the eighth wicket and threatened to spoil Riaz’s debut until he bounced back to deceive Broad with a clever slower ball. In the preceding over leading up to the dismissal Riaz had pitched fuller and was varying his pace smartly, forcing Broad to wait for the ball. It was a good contest between two youngsters not shy to exchange a few words.Though Riaz was warned by the umpire to not waste time talking to the opponent he enthusiastically chased the batsmen and irked them with his antics. Even after the day’s play, he crossed paths with Prior after the media scrum and could not resist saying: “Now, I’ve to get your wicket.””Next time I want to get 10 wickets,” he said with a big smile. He is clearly hungry for success and for now the critics can rest easy.