In a tournament where much depended on which team held their nerve at crucial junctures, Dileep Premchandran picks out the moments to cherish

25-Sep-2007

Misbah-ul-Haq had an excellent tournament but did a Devon Loch in the two matches against India © Getty Images

The Last Scoop: Against a genuine pace bowler, Misbah-ul-Haq’s cute attempt to scoop the ball down to fine leg might have been a four. But with Joginder Sharma offering no pace to work with, it was a stroke laced with risk. As soon as he played it, millions of anxious eyes looked towards the rope, but instead of getting that far, the ball merely looped into Sreesanth’s hands at short fine leg. As the Indians basked in the enormity of their achievement, Misbah sat on his haunches in disbelief – the defiant sailor who had evaded the U-boats only to be sunk as the harbour came into view.Direct hit parade: Rohit Sharma had shown the way against South Africa, and it was Robin Uthappa’s turn in the final as Imran Nazir and Pakistan threatened to waltz away with the match. Nazir had blazed his way to 33 from just 14 balls when Younis Khan tapped one to mid-off and called for the run. Nazir, suffering from a groin strain, was slow to react, and Uthappa’s pick-up and measured throw caught him inches short at the keeper’s end. India were seldom behind the eight-ball after that.The Eccentric Returns: Matthew Hayden loves to bully the bowlers, but had looked like a novice against an inspired new-ball spell from Sreesanth. But having ridden the rough waves out, he and Andrew Symonds were threatening to see Australia home when Sreesanth was brought back for his final over. Coming round the wicket to Hayden, he produced the perfect ball for the situation, the fast yorker. Hayden missed, the off stump was uprooted, and India were on their way to a famous triumph.Ton up: When Chris Gayle drove Shaun Pollock down the ground for two in the 15th over of the tournament opener, history was made. It had taken Gayle just 51 balls to bring up the first century seen in Twenty20 at the international level, and no one that watched it will ever forget the amalgam of brute force and sweet timing. A shame that it was all downhill for West Indies thereafter.All Tied Up: In the space of less than three overs, Misbah had transformed certain defeat into likely victory at Kingsmead. With Sreesanth conceding 11 from the first four balls of the final over, Pakistan needed just one from two. But Misbah missed the penultimate delivery, and then miscued the next to cover before haring down the pitch. Yuvraj Singh swooped, threw to Sreesanth, and the World Cup had its first tie. In the bowl-out that followed, both teams were 100 percent – three Indians hit, and all three Pakistanis missed.Almost a Michelle: Mornè Morkel had magnificent figures of 4 for 14 two balls into his final over against a struggling New Zealand side. With Mark Gillespie facing, the first five-for in this format was a distinct possibility. Sure enough, his third delivery to Gillespie was a superb yorker that uprooted the off stump. Unfortunately, Billy Doctrove cut short the celebrations with a no-ball call. History would have to wait.Thrice as nice: Lee’s no stranger to hat-tricks, but the tournament hadn’t seen the best of him until the Bangladesh game. Having seen Shakib Al Hasan caught behind and Mashrafe Mortaza bowled with a lethal off-stump yorker, the Newlands crowd was buzzing as Lee walked back to the top of his run-up. As the noise grew, he ran in and pitched one on a length. Alok Kapali had shuffled across the crease, and the pace of the ball beat his attempted flick to midwicket. The moment the ball thudded into the pad and Lee went up in appeal, you knew there would only be one outcome.Maximum Man: By the time the fifth six of the over landed in the crowd at midwicket, Stuart Broad had a glazed look in his eyes, a bit like Ernie Terrell after Mohammad Ali had punched him into a stupor while asking; “What’s my name, uncle Tom, what’s my name?” The similarity ended there. Ali never administered the knockout punch in that fight, but Yuvraj did, leaning back and hitting the final delivery with pristine power over wide mid-on for another mammoth six. Sobers, Shastri and Gibbs had been there before him, but no one had ever done it against a Test-playing nation.Can’t catch, can bowl: No matter how big a total you’re defending, the last thing you want to do as a fielding side is give Sanath Jayasuriya a reprieve. But that was exactly what Sohail Tanvir did in Mohammad Asif’s opening over at the Wanderers, fluffing a simple chance at short fine leg. A weaker individual would have slunk away and searched for a corner to hide, but when Shoaib Malik tossed him the ball a minute later, Tanvir produced the perfect riposte. A yorker on off stump, a wild flail from Jayasuriya, and the stumps in a mess.Brendan the giant-killer: Zimbabwe had exceeded all expectations against Australia, getting to the final over with only 12 needed for victory. Nathan Bracken was the bowler though, one of the stars of Australian successes at the Champions Trophy and World Cup and a man with some canny variations. But Taylor had a trick up his bright-red sleeve too, and when Bracken delivered a low full toss outside off stump, Taylor adjusted his body, stuck the bat out and somehow deflected the ball past the man at short fine leg. Four balls later, four leg-byes clinched one of the great upsets in the game’s history.Fire and ice: Bangladesh had careered out of the blocks against South Africa, slamming their first 38 runs in boundaries. Aftab Ahmed was the chief instigator of the mayhem, clouting 32 from the first 12 balls he faced. When Mornè Morkel was given the ball, Aftab’s response was dismissive, a whiplash cover-drive that sped to the rope at Concorde speed. Morkel’s response was chilling, a fairly full delivery timed at 146.9 km/hr. Aftab swung and missed, and the off stump was given a long kiss goodnight.

Christopher Martin-Jenkins, who has written and commentated on the game for more than 35 years, talks about his experiences and the changes he has seen in the game and its reporting

Sa'adi Thawfeeq13-Jan-2008 Daily TelegraphThe Times (TMS). He has been a member of TMS since 1973 when he joined them at the age of 28. For the past 20 years he has divided his time between commentating and writing. As he approaches his 63rd birthday, he also approaches another milestone: England’s tour of New Zealand in February and March 2008 will be CMJ’s final assignment as chief cricket correspondent of The Times

	CMJ, as he is popularly known: “My great ambition was to be a cricket commentator and I was lucky to get that when I was young” © Getty Images

How did you get into cricket journalism?
I was lucky in that I got a job straightaway from Cambridge University on magazine, as it then was. EW Swanton was my editorial director. He was only part-time because he was also the correspondent and I was pretty well put in at the deep end to learn all aspects of cricket journalism, strictly magazine journalism. It was a fortnightly and almost a 24-hour job. I joined the BBC in 1970 initially as a general sports reporter, but with the intention of getting into cricket as quickly as I could, and worked with Brian Johnston as the BBC’s cricket correspondent in 1973.I had a young family and was obliged to get away on all the tours. For about three years I opted out and went back to as editor. For a number of years I did it, then BBC asked me back and I was cricket correspondent and editor of . For the last 20 years I have been writing for the the first and then for . My great ambition was to be a cricket commentator and I was lucky to get that when I was young.Can you distinguish between writing and commentating?
I thoroughly enjoyed writing. As they say today’s paper is tomorrow’s fish and chips wrapper, but at least there is a certain satisfaction in polishing off an article and getting the words exactly as you would want, which, when you are commentating, you don’t have the time to do. You can be as fluent as possible, but you can’t dot the Is and cross the Ts.How do you manage to meet deadlines doing both commentary and writing for a daily paper?
Somehow I have seemed to have got away with it. It would be quite nice from now onwards to mainly do commentary and just to write occasional articles and not be under great pressure.To what extent has cricket journalism grown?
The arrival of the internet and laptops has changed cricket writing completely from what it was. In the early days it was dictating and I never really had to use telex as my predecessors did. That cut down the time of actually transmitting it, providing the technology works. If it doesn’t, I’d have torn more of my hair out with technology or laptop not working than I would have before, because there were wonderful copy-takers. But when it works it’s wonderful because you don’t have to carry so many books around and you can get most of the information on the internet.

	As they say today’s paper is tomorrow’s fish and chips wrapper, but at least there is a certain satisfaction in polishing off an article and getting the words exactly as you would want which when you are commentating you don’t have the time to do –

Has the style of cricket reporting changed with the advent of television?
The fact that so many international matches are being televised inevitably colours what you write. For example you wouldn’t have written about umpiring decisions or maybe catches dropped in such detail before because you only got one quick view of it and you couldn’t be so sure of your facts. I suppose writing has become more critical of players and umpires because their mistakes are laid bare and repeated over and over again on replays. Television has changed the game more than anything. That and the helmets.Is it good or bad for the game?
The game just evolves as life evolves and you have to go with it. Some aspects are good and some bad. Personally I prefer the pace of the old international circuit. We were missing an awful lot, I am sure. Sri Lanka, for example, could have played Test cricket probably 50 years before it did if all the other things had been in place. It is much more hectic now and people really don’t have a chance to smell the roses, as the American golfer Walter Hagen said. I prefer the pace of a five-Test series with matches in between to give other players a chance to make a case for themselves and everybody a chance to relax and see the country. It was a more gentle way of life before the one-day game arrived, but I suppose it was less professional.Is one-day cricket good or bad for the game?
You can’t turn the clock back. In many ways it’s very good. My personal view is that most one-day games are not interesting as most Test matches. Kandy was a classic example, with Sri Lanka bowled out cheaply in the first innings. In a one-day game England would have won it, but Sri Lanka won the Test match because you have that wonderful capacity of cricket to turn on its head with a couple of great performances.What was your most frustrating day as a cricket journalist?
Definitely the Test match that was called off after a few overs in Sabina Park, Jamaica. That was simply technology. I had a terrific story – a Test match had never been abandoned after half an hour. The pitch was ruled dangerous. Match referee Barry Jarman said the match had got to stop as the pitch was not fit for Test cricket and people were getting hit. There was a story, a big front page piece, and a big back page piece, and I lost the whole lot sending it. It just disappeared. To this day I don’t know how. Then I had a deadline and I had to try and dictate and somebody had put on the public address incredibly loud with reggae music. I could not hear myself think and everything that I had written had gone from my mind. I dictated something and I was grateful to the agencies for the match report tailored to my name. I didn’t want to read it.

	“How to beat 1981 at Headingley? Botham’s Ashes was the most exciting” © Getty Images

Your most memorable occasions?
How to beat 1981 at Headingley? Botham’s Ashes was the most exciting. England win the Ashes so rarely that all those occasions stand out, particularly in Australia. I was on the air when they won in 1986-87 at Melbourne. Then the first World Cup final at Lord’s in 1975, an amazing day. It started early and finished at nine in the evening. It was a great occasion and a great game. There was real novelty in the one-day internationals then. A pity they’ve overdone that. The other occasion for personal reasons is when Sussex won the championships for the first time in their history after trying for about 160 years. My son [Robin] was a member of the winning team. They won the championship twice since not so much because of him, but because of Mushtaq Ahmed. He’s been sensational.Counting all your experience as a journalist what kind of advice would you give a budding journalist?
Just love the game and play as much as you can so that you understand as much as you can. Try to remember that cricketers inevitably make mistakes like everybody else in life. Criticise if you must, but criticise generously being aware of what a difficult game it is. Read as much as you can so that words become second nature. These are the guidelines that I followed to become a successful writer and a broadcaster.How do you spend your leisure hours?
On tour these days a meal and a drink and bed. Usually I have a good book with me, not necessarily cricket but a wide variety. On this tour I read a Thomas Hardy novel and a detective story. If you have to leave your wife to pay the bills it’s a great advantage.

Just what is it that endears Sachin Tendulkar to crowds and cognoscenti alike Down Under? We asked a selection of Australia’s great and good for their opinion

Nagraj Gollapudi29-Jan-2008

Loved to bits: the SCG gives Tendulkar a standing ovation after his 154 © Getty Images

Back in Melbourne, “Aussie Ana” was adding to her ratings. Twenty-year-old Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, the 2008 Australian Open finalist, endeared herself to sports fans Down Under thanks as much to her knockout good looks as for her tennis skills. A nation that feeds off the deeds of its sportspersons, Australia has always welcomed the talented with open arms. It was the same 16 years ago, when another youngster, the 18-year-old Sachin Tendulkar, arrived on his maiden voyage and returned with two spectacular centuries, leaving behind impressions that still endure in the minds of the natives.Now, nearly two decades on, it is almost as if they have adopted him as one of their own. There have been other visiting champions during this age, such as Brian Lara of the West Indies, but none has attracted quite the sort of rapturous applause that has greeted Tendulkar every time he has walked out onto a cricket ground in Australia during this series. Yes, much of it has to do with this tour probably being his last, but it was much the same in the 2003-04 series, and in 1999-2000.Just what it is about Tendulkar that the Australians so love? The reasons have as much to do with Australia as with the man himself.Bill Lawry, the former Australian captain, points out that Australians have always had time for champions. “We’ve always enjoyed champions and they could be in any sport.” Peter Roebuck, who captained Viv Richards and Ian Botham at Somerset, and enjoys something approaching Tendulkar-like status in cricket writing himself, reckons it has to do with the sentimentality of Australians. “It’s a new country, and its people get excited when they see great innings like Tendulkar’s.” He goes on to stress that the likes of Lara and Shane Warne were “mixed blessings”, while Tendulkar is not.Gideon Haigh, historian and cricket writer, agrees that his countrymen admire anyone who does well against them, but presents a unique point. “It is partly a mark of respect, partly a symptom of national narcissism. I think Australians are also fascinated by Tendulkar’s status in India. Australian cricketers are hugely popular in their own country, but they do not need protection from their fans in the fashion Tendulkar does. His fame, to us, makes him an emblem of Indian extremity and exoticism.”There is also the matter of two ringing endorsements, delivered by Australian greats.When Tendulkar was at his peak in the mid-to-late-1990s, one day Sir Don Bradman called his wife Jessie to the television set and said how he could see himself in the young man he was watching play on the screen. Then Warne, talking about his contests with the Indian, said Tendulkar gave him “nightmares”.Mark Taylor, another Australian captain who played against Tendulkar and has been an admirer from the day he first watched him play, thinks the Bradman compliment was a major head-turner. “Suddenly people thought, ‘Hold on, you don’t have the greatest batsman saying things just like that.'”Taylor also points out that part of the admiration has to do with the sheer amount of runs Tendulkar has made in Australia. Six of Tendulkar’s 39 Test centuries have come in Australia, each worth its own photo album. Haigh’s personal favourite was the MCG Test of 1999. “The Indian batsmen struggled awfully. [Rahul] Dravid was lifeless, inert,” he remembers. “But Tendulkar was so immediately at home that it was almost like the Aussies just gave up trying to get him out and decided to work around him.” Haigh calls Tendulkar not just a great batsman but a fascinating batsman: “so correct, so compact, as intricate and exquisitely functioning as a Fabergé egg.”Tendulkar came to Australia for the 1991-92 series as a impressionable youngster. His legend was already on the way to being established, thanks to the world record he had set with Vinod Kambli in school cricket. When he arrived in Australia, people wanted to see the young phenomenon. “People loved him then because he seemed to be still a boy but played brilliantly,” recollects Mark Ray, a senior Australian journalist.Ray, the author of , a brilliant photographic travelogue of his various cricketing tours, touches on another aspect of Tendulkar’s appeal. “His modesty is a bit old-fashioned these days and appeals to many Australians. We have an image of being tough, very self-confident sportsmen, but most of the public here still prefer the modest champion. He stands out in that regard.” Jim Maxwell of ABC Radio believes it’s Tendulkar’s flawless character that has defined him. “Australians like the humble, the laconic, no-complaining types, which Tendulkar is.”Mike Coward, the eminent cricket writer, says: “Humility and civility have followed him all his life.” For Coward it is Tendulkar “who has raised awareness about Indo-Australian cricket, given it a profile more than anyone else. He is someone people can relate to.”

‘Australians like the humble, the laconic, no-complaining types, which Tendulkar is’ © Getty Images

Tendulkar for his part has valued the importance of gaining the respect of the most feared opponents around. Ravi Shastri, a team-mate at the time, recalls how Tendulkar, even on his first Australian tour, wanted to take the fight to the Aussies. “We were at the SCG and the contest was getting heated. Both of us were batting well and the Aussies were shooting sledges from all directions. I told him that I would take care of them while he focused on his batting. He was mentally charged. I still remember him saying, ‘Let me get past my 100, then I will give it back’, in Marathi. Let me point out again that he said he wanted to get to the century and only then would he distract himself.”When asked recently if Australia ever felt like a second home to him, Tendulkar said, laughing: “I only have one home. But it’s truly a special feeling to walk in to such a reception, when I don’t know if I am batting on zero or on 100.”In private conversations with friends Tendulkar has talked about his appreciation for the respect he has been accorded in Australia. He told a senior Indian journalist friend how satisfying it was to score his 39th Test hundred at the Adelaide Oval, the home of Bradman, who would have been close to a hundred years old if he were still alive. Tendulkar wouldn’t admit that in the public lest it was mistaken for false modesty, but thereby he adds another layer to his greatness.General Peter Cosgrove, a former head of the Australian Defence Force, delivering the 2008 Sir Donald Bradman oration at the University of Western Australia two weeks ago, said, “Australians are among the most overtly competitive people on the planet. Cricket defines our approach to competition: it has rules and teams, it demands focus and self-confidence. It entails an intense desire and will to win; it needs an abundance of skill, stamina, courage and perseverance.” Indeed, these are the qualities Sachin Tendulkar has come to define for Australians among others. And in so doing, he has come to represent an unreachable ideal.Greg Baum, columnist at Melbourne’s , wrote in magazine a few years ago: “Here is a man not susceptible to human failing in any endeavour, a man not so much invincible as invulnerable.” He ended his appreciation by calling Tendulkar “the game’s secular saint”.

Given the right tutoring and direction, Ishant Sharma has the potential to develop into an asset India has rarely possessed, a tall and aggressive fast bowler

George Binoy at the Chinnaswamy Stadium11-Dec-2007

Having taken his maiden five-wicket haul, Ishant Sharma is a strong candidate for selection to the Australian squad © AFP
A spate of injuries since the tour of Pakistan began reduced India’s fast-bowling reserves to the minimum before the third Test but, from the shambles, Ishant Sharma has emerged as an encouraging prospect. Given the right tutoring and direction, he has the potential to develop into a rare asset for India: a tall and aggressive fast bowler.From the individual’s point of view, Ishant couldn’t have timed his maiden five-wicket haul in Pakistan’s first innings any better. The Indian selectors are due to pick the 16-member squad to Australia on Wednesday and his performance, on a lifeless pitch, has made him a strong candidate to make the grade for the livelier pitches that wait in December – and, if picked, put pressure on the likes of Sreesanth and Munaf Patel in the way Yuvraj Singh has put pressure on the middle-order batsmen..Should all of that come to pass, though, Ishant will probably take more impressive five-wicket hauls than this one. He was rewarded, as the Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson put it, “for persistence rather than brilliance” on a back-breaking wicket on which Pakistan batted 168.1 overs and scored 537. The scorecard will reveal that his five wickets comprised a middle-order batsman, a bowling allrounder and three tailenders. Having said that, it would be unfair to dismiss his wickets as cheap for the Pakistan tail has proved hard to dislodge in this series and Ishant succeeded where none of the other bowlers could unsettle Misbah-ul-Haq or Yasir Arafat. Once he bowled Arafat, he dismissed the tail efficiently, during a spell of 4 for 6 in 2.4 overs, something India has failed to do in the past.In the absence of Zaheer Khan and RP Singh, and given the tepid form of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh on a pitch that did not spin, Ishant showed impressive stamina by bowling over 33 overs in the innings. However, he still has a lot of work to do to evolve into a complete fast bowler. For starters, he often loses his run-up and frequent no-balls disrupt his rhythm. He bowled five in 13 overs on debut in Bangladesh and overstepped nine times, more than all the other bowlers put together, in the first innings here.Another area he needs to work on is his physique. At 6’4″ he has the necessary height for a fast bowler but he needs to fill out more and build up his strength, which will also help increase his pace from the mid-130s into the 140 kph zone.

Venkatesh Prasad, India’s bowling coach, advised Ishant to use his height and fine-tune his line and length © Getty Images
His performance on the third day was a mixed bag. He tested the batsmen on occasion, – especially with the short ball, but couldn’t build pressure for sustained periods. Younis Khan attempted to hook him but got beaten once and hit on the body another time while Mohammad Yousuf top-edged towards fine leg. However, those incidents were interspersed with periods where Ishant, though set attacking fields, was unable to pitch an entire over on the necessary length. He struggled with the second new ball late on the third day, often spraying it down legside and playing a significant role in Karthik’s 31 byes.He clearly needed some help and Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach, spoke to him overnight regarding his run-up, advising him to use his height and fine-tune his line and length. The effect of the advice took time to kick in for Ishant began the fourth day with a no-ball before Misbah began to drive him confidently for his length was too full. The moment he pitched it shorter he caused a few problems; on more than one occasion Misbah turned his back away from a short-of-a-length ball and got hit on the body. He could have had a wicket in his first spell had Anil Kumble persisted with the second slip. As soon as Laxman was removed from the position at the start of Ishant’s fourth over, Kamran Akmal edged a shorter ball wide of Rahul Dravid at first slip.Another delivery that is essential to a fast bowler is the yorker and the ball with which he dismissed Mohammad Sami was one of desperately few deliveries that found the block-hole over the first four days. Incidentally, all five of Ishant’s wickets fell to the ball that came into the body of the right-hander and he later said it was important to bowl wicket-to-wicket on such a pitch and patiently stick at it.Ishant’s rapid burst brought a swift end to a laborious day in the field for the other bowlers. A tall quick can make a heck of a difference to a team’s chances of taking 20 wickets in a Test and Lawson said Ishant’s height – 6’4″ – could make a difference on the bouncy pitches in Australia. On the evidence of his performance on a flat Chinnaswamy track, the Indian selectors might feel the same.

Jenny Roesler speaks to Lydia Greenway ahead of England women’s series against South Africa

Jenny Roesler06-Aug-2008

	Greenway: “I’ve got more confidence now and I’m really enjoying it” © Getty Images

As a birthday present, Lydia Greenway couldn’t ask for much more. On Wednesday, when she turns 23, she will take to the field on Wednesday for England’s first one-dayer against South Africa in front of her home crowd at Canterbury. But the talented batsman isn’t fussed about the pressure of playing in front of a loyal band of spectators: “A few might be coming down. Hopefully the weather will be all right,” she smiles. “It’s a nice ground. We used to go down there and watch the men play. You can take your car there and sit on the hill and bring a picnic.”Greenway is undoubtedly one of England’s best fielders but she has yet to deliver the goods at international level with the bat. She averaged 16.55 before being dropped in 2005 and has been gradually improving with a more respectable average of 24.53 in the 20 innings since. She has only one fifty in 44 knocks but says, amiably and confidently: “I think I know within myself that I’ve got more to give and I hope that I can. I’ve realised more about the mental side of it. You can have all the shots but it’s how you apply yourself and that’s what I’m working on. I want to take more responsibility – looking at people like Lottie [Charlotte Edwards] and Tails [Claire Taylor], that’s what they do every game.”She has always been compared to Edwards, her captain at Kent and now England, which she admits used to be tough: “When I was younger I probably put pressure on myself from what other people said. But as I’ve continued to play I’ve learnt – especially after being dropped – that you always have someone to look up to and Lottie is someone I look up to. She’s an amazing player but it’s important to focus on your capabilities. I’ve learnt my game a bit more.”Her confidence is always building and time in Australia – in arguably the strongest domestic league in the world – has helped. She was one of five England players to spend last winter in Sydney, and will be returning to her club Wallsend before next year’s World Cup in New South Wales in March. Though England don’t have any international cricket from October, a quintet will be getting plenty of practice and time to acclimatise.Greenway took up a Chance to Shine contract when she got back, on a part-time basis to allow her to go to Australia. In the meantime she is doing 25 hours a week including travel, which means coaching in schools in Kent for three days and Berkshire for one, with Wednesday off for training. “It’s been really good. If you’ve got another job, some have struggled in the past to get time off. Everyone’s keen for us to get the most out of it work-wise and getting the cricket in,” he said. “It’s trial and error and making sure we’re not doing too much driving. The coaching has been good as well. I struggled in primary schools when I was younger and not that experienced. I’ve got more confidence now and I’m really enjoying it.”It’s all a confidence game with Greenway, whose self-belief grows by the year. She is certainly excited about being a pioneer where the contracts are concerned. “All the girls are keen to make an impact so we can hopefully continue it in the future. We’re showing that girls do play women’s cricket and there is an England women’s team.”We go in to schools with our kit on – if you were in normal clothes they wouldn’t think twice. Some of them are like ‘So you play for England? What, for the women’s team?’ Some of them go, ‘What, you play with the men?’ It’s astounding.”It just raises awareness. I’ve seen girls in the past can get overawed by the boys but secretly they might want to join in. It influences them and they get involved. The other week, a woman teacher joined in as well. All the children loved it. Another school, the kids were coming out with cricket bats instead of a football.”Her younger brother Adam is a semi-professional footballer with Croydon Athletic but Greenway chose cricket over football (she played for QPR) because the travelling for both sports was getting too much. Her dad introduced her to cricket and coincidentally played at the same club, Hayes, as Lynsey Askew and the daughters ended up joining the boys’ junior team. “I didn’t think there was an England women’s team till I was sixteen,” she shrugs. Now she plays club hockey in the winter, too, which is great for fitness.In the meantime, the challenge ahead is with the South Africa series, when she is likely to bring up 50 ODIs (she is currently on 48). The sides were supposed to meet for a Test, but with two world tournaments looming, that got scrapped in favour of five ODIs and three Twenty20s. Greenway says it’s a shame the Test was cancelled. “But, for the women’s game especially, it [Test cricket] is not boring but people do prefer to see more action. From that point of view and getting more people to watch it’s good that we’re heading towards Twenty20 rather than Tests. But you could say that the proper cricket fans also like to see Tests so it’s swings and roundabouts I suppose.”The sides last played each other three years ago and South Africa can expect more aggression than ever. Greenway says England found it hard to be aggressive in matches when they get on so well with the opposition afterwards. But an increasingly professional set-up has brought a more professional mindset. “We’re making that change now and recognising that you can still play hard on the pitch and still have that same relationship off the pitch. What goes on the pitch stays on the pitch. Not sledging or anything, just getting the ball in to the keeper and not worrying about the batter being in the way and just being a bit tougher.”To this extent Edwards have been building on the tough foundations laid down by Clare Connor, now the ECB’s head of women’s cricket. “Lottie always has such high standards for herself that she expects a lot from us a team and she always wants more,” says Greenway. “We wouldn’t be allowed to just think we’d done a job. That’s what we did in the winter.”We had a really good first leg on the tour, it would have been easy for us to have gone to New Zealand and rested on our laurels – ‘We’ve just beaten Australia, we don’t need to do much else’ – but we didn’t, we went on to beat New Zealand and I think that’s just shown that we’ve moved on.”Greenway is set to square up with her former county colleague, South Africa’s captain Cri-Zelda Brits. “She gives a hundred per cent to everything, but we’ll be the same. We just need to concentrate on what we’re doing and not so much what they’re doing. It will be good to see her – and maybe have a bit of banter.”

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has played the most internationals of anyone in the last 15 months. How long can he keep going at this rate before something gives?

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan17-Mar-2008

Another day, another airport © AFP
Here’s one way to spend 15 months of your life. You could experience five continents and eight countries, taking about 50 flights, covering approximately 112,000 kilometres. Along the way you could take part in 47 one-dayers, 11 Tests and eight Twenty20s, in a period spanning 105 days of international cricket.If you’re more ambitious, you could also captain your country, pulling off two historic wins in the process. If you’re fit enough, you could keep wicket, squatting and straightening all day, totalling a mind-boggling 26,906 sit-ups. You could push yourself to the limit and shrug aside back strains, leg aches, and finger sprains. Welcome to the world of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is not only the world’s most highly-prized cricketer – going by the money he fetched at the IPL auction – but also the busiest.India’s fitness report at the end of the Australia tour highlighted the problems of Sachin Tendulkar, Ishant Sharma, and the two Singhs – Yuvraj and Harbhajan. But the stunning part was right at the end: Dhoni had finished the 80-odd day-long tour with only a finger sprain. Given his schedule, it’s some surprise he continues to stand upright. We knew about his power and dash; the last year has told us a bit about his endurance.The fitness report gives a chronological list of injuries during the tour. Dhoni’s first came as late as March 2, two-and-a-half months in. One-day specialists like Robin Uthappa, Praveen Kumar and Gautam Gambhir sustained injuries. Others were bogged down by viral fever, stomach upsets and food poisoning. Dhoni seems to have dodged it all. His only other trouble on the tour appears to have been an infected tooth.It’s strange that Dhoni has had to endure such a gruelling schedule when there has been another specialist wicketkeeper in the squad all along. “We can only select two wicketkeepers but it’s up to the team management to use them judiciously,” one of the national selectors told Cricinfo. “It’s tough for Dhoni to rest in ODIs and Twenty20s because he’s the captain. So it’s a tricky situation. As of now there has been no talk of resting him but things could change in the future, especially with the IPL adding to the hectic schedule.”Since the start of 2007, India’s schedule has been cricket’s version of . In this period Dhoni has played 20 ODIs, three Tests and oneTwenty20 at home. On his travels, he’s made a short, if forgettable, trip to Port-of-Spain, tasted victory in Belfast and London, experienced a world triumph in Johannesburg, crashed in Melbourne, soared in Perth, and risen to the top of the world in Brisbane.One mustn’t forget the tour games. Dhoni was part of the side for the matches against first-class sides in Hove, Chelmsford, Leicester and Northampton. He also played both of India’s warm-up games before the World Cup and the two first-class games in Australia. He could have had two more Tests if not for injury: finger bruises kept him out of the Cape Town match in South Africa in early 2007, and an ankle strain caught up with him before the Bangalore Test late last year.He heads the list of those who have played the most ODIs during this period – and that’s after missing three games. Two of those, in Belfast, were missed not because of any injury but fever. The other time, he was rested against West Indies in Chennai in early 2007, when the side were trying to get their combination right for the World Cup.”It’s strange how often the role of the wicketkeeper is overlooked,” says Andrew Leipus, the former India physio. Leipus was part of the set-up till late 2004 and watched Dhoni make his his international debut in Chittagong in December 2004. “So many squats, so many changes of ends, 90 overs a day, different environmental conditions … it takes its toll. The career span of a wicketkeeper is reducing. Adam Gilchrist’s decision to retire was partly because his knees were giving way. Credit to Dhoni and his fitness trainers that he has lost a considerable amount of weight [since 2004]. Otherwise it would have been a bigger stress on his knees.”Since the start of 2007, this has been cricket’s version of . In this period Dhoni has played 20 ODIs, three Tests and one Twenty20 at home. On his travels, he’s made a short, if forgettable, trip to Port-of-Spain, tasted victory in Belfast and London, experienced a world triumph in Johannesburg, crashed in Melbourne, soared in Perth, and risen to the top of the world in Brisbane “Look at the guys who played Tests and ODIs on the tour,” Robin Uthappa points out. “Look at Dhoni – he has not got a break for the last two years. Besides the Bangalore Test match, he has not had a single break. You need to give him a break. He was not feeling too well in the [CB Series] finals and his hand was not too good. I went up and told him, ‘If you want me to keep, I can. Don’t stress yourself.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, I will manage.'”So is “resting” Dhoni the best solution? “It’s really tough,” says Leipus, “because fatigue in cricket, unlike other sports, is very difficult to quantify. The cricketer himself is probably the best judge but it’s difficult for them to ask for a rest because they want to play as much as possible. It’s a career that lasts 10 or 15 years and everyone wants to make the most out of it. It’s very tricky.”Second on the list is AB de Villiers, with 63 international matches, but only half of those (32) have come away from home. Dhoni has played close to 70% of his games away, which clearly implies a more hectic schedule. Paul Collingwood, another specialist ODI captain, is at third with 61, followed by Adam Gilchrist, another wicketkeeper (57).As you would expect, batsmen dominate the top of the table. All those who have played over 50 matches in this period are batsmen or wicketkeeper-batsmen. Daniel Vettori is the first bowler on the list (50 internationals), and one has to go way down to No. 24 to find a bowler who plays all three formats with some sort of regularity (Harbhajan).The bowlers have collapsed at some point and many of the batsmen have fallen but nothing has stopped the Energiser bunny. It’s fitting Dhoni works for Indian Airlines: after all, no other cricketer has clocked so many miles recently.

A statistical preview of the four-Test series between West Indies and England

Siddhartha Talya03-Feb-2009England’s domination of West Indies for the last nine years is an indication of how chronic cricket’s decline has been in the Caribbean. England have been ruthless after finding themselves at the receiving end of much hardship from West Indian teams for almost 20 years, and have favoured playing them more than anyone else since winning the Wisden Trophy for the first time in over 30 years in 2000. They’ve won 13 Tests against West Indies since then – including three out of four in the Caribbean – and lost just once. And despite the recent turmoil in English cricket, Andrew Strauss has a good chance of putting the off-field drama out of the spotlight and further extending England’s dominance.

England against West Indies

SpanWonLostDrawnWin-Loss RatioOverall4152450.78In WI1323240.56Since 2000131313Since 2000 in WI301-Strauss has been in good form since the start of 2008, but has a modest record against West Indies: he had a forgettable home series against them in 2007 where he averaged 24. However, the rest of the top six have performed impressively and will bank on their past record to improve their recent run. Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood all averaged under 40 since last year, but against West Indies, they’ve been formidable. Andrew Flintoff missed the home series in 2007, but in nine Tests before then, he averaged 51.25. (Click here for the batting records of England’s batsmen in the last one year.)

England batsmen against West Indies since 2000

BatsmenTestsRunsAverage100s/50sKevin Pietersen446666.572/1Matt Prior432464.801/2Paul Collingwood435959.832/0Alastair Cook439856.852/2Andrew Flintoff961551.252/3Ian Bell529749.501/2Andrew Strauss848534.641/2A feature of England’s success has been their ability to seize the advantage in the first innings. In 17 Tests since 2000, England have gained the first-innings lead on 13 occasions – the average lead has been 157.46 runs, and they’ve won 11 of these Tests. Partnerships have been the key: England’s top six wickets have averaged 44.75 per stand since 2000, while West Indies have managed 33.98 – a significant difference of close to 12 runs for each wicket. The fourth wicket has been the most productive for England, averaging 63.96 in 28 innings, but for West Indies, no stand has yielded an average of more than 50 – 43.90 for the fifth wicket is the highest.

England and West Indies – Partnerships since 2000

For WicketEngland (Partnership Runs)Average100/50West Indies (Partnership Runs)Average100/501110636.862/6100532.412/52119141.062/666521.450/33137949.255/6123239.742/74159963.967/5101732.802/7565526.201/2136143.903/86118653.903/5100833.601/7However, in two of England’s three wins in the 2004 series in the West Indies, the home team ran them close in the first innings, only to capitulate in the second and surrender the Test. England managed a lead of 28 in the first Test in Kingston, but Steve Harmison took a career-best 7 for 12 in the second innings to bowl out West Indies for 47. The Bridgetown Test was more closely fought with the visitors gaining a slender lead of just 2 runs, but their fast bowlers skittled out West Indies for 94 in the second innings to win by eight wickets.The England bowlers have played a pivotal role in the victories – five of England’s ten Test wins since 2004 have been inside four days. Harmison has been their most successful bowler, with 56 wickets at 24.85, but he had a poor 2008, averaging 57.33. Despite the slide, his past record may win him a place in the eleven after being dropped for the second Test in Mohali against India. Flintoff, recovering from a side strain, missed the 2007 series, but has proved a handful in nine Tests against West Indies, taking 26 wickets at 24.69. Monty Panesar and Ryan Sidebottom featured prominently in England’s wins in Manchester and Durham in 2007; their impressive display against the hosts, and a satisfying 2008, augurs well for their team’s bowling attack. (Click here for England’s bowling records since 2008.)

England bowlers against West Indies since 2000

BowlerTestsWicketsAverage5w/10wMonty Panesar42318.693/1Ryan Sidebottom31619.681/0Andrew Flintoff92624.691/0Steve Harmison125624.853/0James Anderson3731.280/0The statistics of West Indian batsmen show the extent to which their team has struggled against England. Only Shivnarine Chanderpaul stands out as a noteworthy performer, as none of the others average over 35. West Indies are without allrounder Dwayne Bravo for the Test series, and have an inexperienced team which will also rely heavily on the services of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle. The two, however, have struggled to rally around Chanderpaul – who is in terrific form, averaging over 100 since last year – in previous encounters against England, but with a productive 2008 behind them, they have the confidence to change that trend this series. (Click here for West Indies’ batting records since 2008.)

WIbatsmen against England since 2000

BatsmenTestsRunsAverage50/100Shivnarine Chanderpaul12108860.443/7Chris Gayle1380234.861/6Ramnaresh Sarwan1365732.851/4The performance of Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Gayle will be critical to the home team’s fortunes in this series. England’s main strike bowler against the hosts, Harmison, has gone for a plenty against Chanderpaul, conceding 232 runs and dismissing him just once. He’s had more success against Gayle, getting him out seven times, but at a price – 235 runs at a rate of 5.88 an over. Sarwan has struggled against Harmison – dismissed six times at an average of 16.83. Flintoff has bowled well to Chanderpaul and Sarwan, but Gayle has dominated him, scoring 76 off 78 balls. James Anderson, who had an impressive 2008, has struggled against the three, conceding 120 runs and taking one wicket. Panesar and Sidebottom, while doing well against the rest, have been handled with ease by this trio.

England bowlers against the big three since May 2001

BowlerShivnarine Chanderpaul (Runs – Dismissals – Average)Chris GayleRamnaresh SarwanSteve Harmison232 – 1 – 232235 – 7 – 36.14101 – 6 – 16.83Andrew Flintoff75 – 3 – 2576 – 0 – -59 – 3 – 19.66Monty Panesar130 – 2 – 6516 – 0 – -16 – 1 – 16Ryan Sidebottom67 – 1 – 6762 – 1 – 62not playedJames Anderson30 – 0 – -33 – 1 – 3357 – 0 – -West Indies have an inexperienced bowling attack, but the ones who have played against England have struggled. Fidel Edwards averages 43.68 for his 22 wickets, and Darren Powell, 48.55 for his nine. Jerome Taylor has taken three wickets in four Tests against England at 90 apiece, but was West Indies’ second-highest wicket-taker in 2008 with 27 at 32.92. (Click here for West Indies’ bowling records in 2008, and here for their top individual performers against England since 2000.)Kingston stats
West Indies have played 43 Tests in Kingston – the venue for the first Test – winning 21 and losing 9Since 2000, all the Tests here have yielded outright results, with West Indies winning five and losing fourIn the same period, the side winning the toss has opted to bat on seven occasions, winning the Test four times.Sarwan remains the highest run-getter in Kingston since 2000, scoring 591 runs at 49.25. Chanderpaul would want to improve on his average of 33.15 at the Sabina Park, while Gayle has struggled here, averaging 18.57 in eight Tests.

New Zealand’s slow-medium men ruled ODI bowling in the nineties, but their time seems to have passed

Sidharth Monga10-Mar-2009

	Larsen: That’s Mr Dobbly to you © Getty Images

On a manic evening two days ago in Christchurch, the heart went out to the bowlers. Thirty-one sixes were hit in Lilliput and 726 runs scored in 95.1 overs. All through, as the captains struggled to defend the boundaries, the mind kept thinking of a species that is going extinct. It’s very likely they wouldn’t have worked, but the slow-medium fellows, bowling at 120-130kph, just short of a length, mixing up their little cutters, swingers and slower ones, were missed.They were the fad of the nineties; every team had at least one. At their best they choked the life out of the middle overs in ODIs. They were named dibbly-dobblies; the less charitable variations were wibblies, wobblies, winklers, weaslers, and some unprintable ones. Gavin Larsen sees the name as a mark of respect and acknowledgment that the breed were successful at what they did, while Chris Harris would rather he wasn’t called dibbly-dobbly.Such bowlers are rarely seen nowadays. In the Christchurch game Jesse Ryder did try his slow-mediums, but he bowls too many yorkers for a self-respecting dibbly-dobbly.New Zealand was where the dibbly-dobblies enjoyed their most glorious prime. Though the term has been in existence for long to refer to slow-medium bowlers, it became a cult in New Zealand around the 1992 World Cup. Larsen, Harris, and to an extent Rod Latham and Willie Watson, were weapons of mass containment. They were the antithesis of the fearsome foursomes of West Indies. They looked half as quick, and were not scary at all, but you just couldn’t hit them. All the power for the shots had to come from the bat, and given their accuracy and clever variations, taking them on was just too risky to do.The dibbly-dobblies were as much a product of circumstances as they were a masterstroke in that World Cup. Richard Hadlee and Ewen Chatfield had left without successors in place, New Zealand were going to co-host the tournament, and the pitches were slow and low. It’s not sure whether the pitches were a coincidence or not, but they played a key role.Watson – far short of express – and Dipak Patel would open the bowling before Larsen and Harris would do their business. Latham would bowl a few overs, and then Watson would come back. It was a ploy that had worked, especially in home conditions. Before the batting side knew it, 40 overs would pass without much activity. Between them the four bowled 250.1 overs for 1041 runs in the World Cup. What that resulted in was for all to see.The phrase “dibbly-dobbly-wibbly-wobbly” is said to have been coined by a commentator during New Zealand’s win against Australia. Which is which, and who is who is not entirely clear. The popular theory is that Harris and Larsen could each take either of dibbly or dobbly, Latham – because of his girth – was wobbly, and Watson wibbly because he was known thus by his fans.Watson and Latham were getting on towards the end of their careers then, but Larsen and Harris kept the flag flying for slow-medium bowling for a few years. Their bowling averages took a hit outside New Zealand, but they were just as miserly abroad as they were at home: Larsen gave away runs at 3.90 an over outside New Zealand (3.78 overall), and Harris 4.41 an over (4.28 overall).”Lots of people told me that I wouldn’t be effective, but that was not the case,” Larsen says. “My style suited the seaming conditions, but I did well in places like India.” The simple principle of accuracy worked for him: he was the postman who always delivered. Harris was an expert at the slower legcutters and the ones that came out of the back of the hand. They were medium-pacers with the brains of spinners.Harris and Larsen stayed part of the success formula till about the end of the century. Part-timers like Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan on occasions filled in after Larsen’s retirement.By then success had started breeding imitation. New Zealand had started looking for bouncier pitches, and in the process began creating tracks that helped seam bowlers. A new kind of dibbly-dobbly bowler was emerging – one who would just put the ball there and wait for the conditions to do the rest. The originals had bowled on slow tracks and learned to seam and swing the ball. The pitches did the work for the new breed, who would come up short on unhelpful surfaces. Injuries to the proper pace bowlers – Geoff Allott, Dion Nash and Chris Cairns – didn’t help either.

	Legbreak specialist Harris is still plying his trade in the ICL and New Zealand’s State Shield © Getty Images

It didn’t stay that way for long, though. Ross Taylor, a member of the current New Zealand team, makes an interesting observation. “The wickets have improved a lot since then [India’s last tour]. It shows in our domestic form. It’s probably been a fault that bowlers who bowl 125-130ks and come in would just put the ball there and the wickets did the rest for them. In domestic cricket at the moment, the little dibbly-dobbly bowlers aren’t having as much success as 10 years ago. That’s good for New Zealand cricket that the bowlers are having to work harder for their wickets.”Allott agrees with Taylor. “The major focus of New Zealand cricket has been to improve the wickets. Earlier medium-pacers could come here and bowl a real tight length on a green wicket and the ball would do everything. And more often than not they would be successful. But now the bowlers have to learn to seam the ball, try the slower ball and the bowlers are far more equipped to play international cricket than when I was playing.”Also, bowlers like Harris and Larsen concede that when they played, the game was played to a type. Batsmen would look to hit in the first 15 overs, then consolidate till about 40, and then go all out in the death overs. That gave the bowlers a rhythm to aim for. Three hundred would be a safe target then, but now teams go for 350 more often, targetting the weaker links in the middle overs. Batsmen didn’t switch-hit, paddle-sweep and slog in the middle overs then.”I think the game has just moved on,” Larsen says. “I think that the days where a guy is bowling at 130 kph and bowling just back of a length, using slower balls, are gone now.””In present-day cricket it has become tougher,” Harris says. “The batsmen are becoming more effective and hitting bowlers to all parts of the park. We used to come to the field, get the rhythm right, bowl tight, and unless one bowled a bad ball they wouldn’t be hit for runs. These days batsmen are hitting the good balls too.”Harris was the last specialist dibbly-dobbly bowler. Now it’s either the pace bowlers or spinners. Most part-timers are spinners. The likes of Paul Collingwood, Ryder, Grant Elliot and Dwayne Smith are used sparingly, and can’t quite be accused of possessing the art of the dibbly dobblies. It was, perhaps, an art form limited to ODIs, which became too common for its own good. We may never again see a slow-medium bowler as successful as a Larsen or a Harris. But when the batsmen were going berserk on Sunday, the mind did ask the question: What if they were there?

The selectors have come up with a squad that reflects a mental state of confusion, presumably triggered by events in England

Tony Cozier21-Jun-2009Given their obvious limitations, West Indies overreached themselves to make it as far as the semi-finals of the ICC World Twenty20 championships.Their notorious unpredictability, as that of Pakistan who have gone one better to contest today’s final against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, has been one of the features of a wonderful tournament that further enhances the reputation of the game’s newest incarnation. But they lacked the depth needed to go all the way.There was a shortage of the aggressive batting and creative strokeplay essential for 20 overs, only compounded by the successive ducks in the last four matches by Chris Gayle’s immature opening partners.Held back to Nos.5 and 6, the only real contributions from Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, on whom so much depends in the longer game, came in their calm, match-winning partnership against England, but that required just three overs. The main bowlers, Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Bravo, were inconsistent and incapable of the repeated yorkers Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga, Pakistan’s Umar Gul and South Africa’s 19-year-old left-armer Wayne Parnell showed are so crucial in restricting gung-ho batsmen.Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the other semi-finalists, South Africa, each used three spinners, two of the highest class. Sri Lanka’s finger-flicking mystery man, Anjantha Mendis, hoodwinked more batsmen than just the clueless young West Indians on Friday. The solitary West Indies’ tweaker was the worthy left-armer Sulieman Benn. And, as usual, the fielding was slapdash, even more of an affliction in such compressed cricket.Unseeded, along with Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands, and placed in the qualifying round in what is known, in any sport, as the “group of death”, alongside Australia and Sri Lanka, the West Indies yet managed to overcome such handicaps and go as far as they did. Three factors effectively got them through to meet Sri Lanka on Friday at the Oval where their shortcomings were starkly exposed by opponents strong in all the areas where they were weakest.Gayle’s typically awesome 88 off 50 balls trumped Australia in the first match, Bravo’s all-round brilliance (66 not out and 4 for 38) took care of India and the Duckworth-Lewis reduction favoured them against England. While such triumphs lifted the depression that hung so heavy after the preceding humiliation in the Tests and ODIs against England, Friday’s defeat came as a reality check.It marked the end of exactly two months’ cricket against assorted opposition and of every variety (Tests, first-class and 50 and 20-overs limits) during which West Indies cricket made no advance. If anything, it went backwards. Even before it started, it was obvious the players were peeved with the way the unscheduled series in England was hurriedly arranged without consultation with their association. The mood was only aggravated by the late arrival of captain Gayle and Edwards from the IPL, the puzzling absence of Bravo for the Tests, May’s biting cold, and home opponents bent on vengeance for their loss of the Wisden Trophy in the Caribbean only weeks before.Once in England, Gayle openly proclaimed himself exhausted by a surfeit of cricket and keen to escape the pressures of Test cricket and the captaincy. They are issues that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) needed to urgently address but, with a home Test series against Bangladesh starting in less than a month, still haven’t.Gayle has made his position clear. He does not want the captaincy. Nor, it seems, does anyone else for the position has become a poisoned chalice and strong characters are in short supply.Yet a replacement is needed immediately. Denesh Ramdin is vice-captain and, as such, next in line. Given such a background, the outcome of the Tests and the ODIs was as predictable as the attitude was lamentable and unprofessional. The improvement in the World Twenty20, a tournament long since on the programme, was instructive.Such is the way of the modern world of international cricket that the West Indies hop right back onto the merry-go-round on Friday for the first of four ODIs in Jamaica. The selectors have come up with a squad that reflects a mental state of confusion, presumably triggered by events in England.They have dropped Lendl Simmons and Darren Sammy, aged 24 and 25, two admirable young cricketers of all-round potential in whom a lot has already been invested and two of the better performers in the World Twenty20. Simmons’ 77 off 50 balls against South Africa was batting of genuine class. He had 44 against India, along with three catches, among them one of the best of the tournament, and took 4 for 19 with his medium-pace in the opening round against Sri Lanka.Sammy, inexplicably underrated and repeatedly disregarded, was omitted from earlier Tests and ODIs and only got in for the last two Twenty20s when Edwards’ back went. Given the new ball, his response was to concede a mere 33 off his eight overs combined, grab a superb catch in the deep and, like Simmons, lift the intensity of the fielding. Committed and enthusiastic, they should be integral to the development of West Indies cricket. Instead, they are rejected, as they have been more than once before.So who have the wise panel of Clyde Butts, Robert Haynes and Raphick Jumadeen, presumably with advice from coach John Dyson and captain Gayle, turned to? Runako Morton, that’s who, a player now nearing his 31st birthday whose modest international career is surely behind him. Additionally, and importantly, his litany of disciplinary problems, the latest as recently as last season, begs the question as to what message his recall sends about the standards expected of West Indian cricketers.The selectors’ illogic extends to the retention of David Bernard, the allrounder, and Narsingh Deonarine, the left-hand batsman and occasional offspinner, who were not used in a single international match in England. It was clearly to their advantage.They have included one newcomer, Dwayne Bravo’s half-brother, Darren, aged 20. Left-handed, with a wide range of strokes, from the same Santa Cruz area and related on his mother’s side, he has already been dangerously dubbed “the new Brian Lara”.West Indies cricket could do with a batsman half as good at present. One threat to his development, as Simmons, Sammy and a host of others are aware, is selectors’ inconsistencies.

New Zealand’s batting effort resulted in an inadequate end to what promised, refreshingly, to be a day on which they broke even.

Jamie Alter at the SSC27-Aug-2009By the end of a bewildering day’s play, the quandaries for New Zealand were plain for all to see. Looking back at the hour after lunch, when – aided by an imploding tail – they took five wickets for 27 runs and kept the total to 416 when 500 seemed a certainty, it was frustrating to see them slip at the top and lose two wickets in the last half hour to leave Ross Taylor high and dry.New Zealand began confidently, with Iain O’Brien denying Mahela Jayawardene a seemingly inevitable century in a good first spell. But that confidence was splintered by Thilan Samaraweera’s attack after being stuck on 99 for what seemed an eternity, and the breezy 72-run stand he shared with comeback kid Chamara Kapugedera. Prior to the day’s play, Daniel Vettori had spoken about getting past Jayawardene and Samaraweera and into the middle order. O’Brien provided that in a spell of quick bowling on an unresponsive track, but New Zealand failed to put pressure on Kapugedera, who enjoyed a life on 9, and eased his way to 35 in that decisive fifth-wicket partnership before miscuing to mid-off four minutes before lunch.Yet again, New Zealand came back hard only to falter. Chris Martin delivered a breakthrough early in the session and Jeetan Patel, who, until dismissing Kapugedera, didn’t look like taking a wicket all Test, picked up three self-assessed “cheapies, as they’re called” to run down the tail. It was just the lift New Zealand needed. “It was a bad morning session and a good afternoon session,” said Patel, “and it shows that if we stick to our task we can do well.”But once New Zealand slipped to 49 for 2, and later 63 for 3 when Martin Guptill fell to the short-ball trap, pulling out to deep square leg, New Zealand’s tempo was irretrievably altered. Messrs McIntosh, Flynn and Guptill – sounds like a law firm, though one charged with malpractice – may not have a better chance than this tour to prove they have the wherewithal to play Test cricket but again they failed, putting all the pressure on Taylor and Jesse Ryder. Muttiah Muralitharan and Rangana Herath struck before stumps, and there were flashes of 1998 again, when New Zealand fought back and seemed to have earned themselves a shot at glory, only to be spun out cheaply.Taylor, lucky to still be batting, thanks to another poor judgment call from Daryl Harper, has responded positively but now must try and avert a crisis. He played Murali and Herath confidently, using the sweep shot to good effect and playing soundly off the back foot. Trying to go top of Murali is not an easy feat and requires plenty of positivism and practice, yet Taylor showed glimpses of being able to do so. He should have been an example to his batting team-mates, especially after Daniel Vettori called on New Zealand’s batsmen to take a leaf from Jayawardene and Samaraweera yesterday.Up against the odds all tour and battling to square the series at Sri Lanka’s fortress, the SSC, there is perhaps no disgrace in an inexperienced New Zealand wavering at this stage. But that doesn’t deter from making it thoroughly disappointing. It was an inadequate end to what promised, refreshingly, to be a day on which New Zealand broke even.