Eleven numbers from the World Cup

S Rajesh27-Aug-2012South Africa had impressive numbers in the Under-19 World Cup•ICC/Getty3 – The number of centuries Unmukt Chand has scored in tournament finals in Under-19 ODIs. He is the only U-19 batsman to score more than once hundred in a final. In four innings he has scored 358 runs and has been dismissed twice; the second-highest aggregate for any batsman in U-19 finals is 180.3 – The number of U-19 World Cups won by India, which makes them the most successful team along with Australia – both have won three titles. Pakistan have two and England one.365 – The tournament aggregate for Anamul Haque of Bangladesh, which was the highest in this tournament. Haque was the only batsman to score more than 300. Overall, this was the eighth-highest in any World Cup tournament.19 – The total number of wickets for Reece Topley, which was the highest in the tournament, and the second-highest in any U-19 World Cup. Bangladesh’s Enamul Haque had taken 22 in the 2004 edition.4.23 – The overall run-rate in the tournament. Among the nine U-19 World Cups, this one sits right in the middle in terms of run-rates, and fourth in terms of batting averages.15 – The number of centuries in this tournament, which equals the record for any U-19 World Cup – 15 hundreds were also scored in the 2004 tournament in Bangladesh. On the other hand, the lowest is three hundreds, in 1988, 2000 and 2008. Among the individual teams in this tournament, Bangladesh scored three hundreds and South Africa two; no other team managed more than one.5.39 – The batting run-rate for South Africa, which was easily the highest among all teams in this tournament – the second-highest was Sri Lanka at 4.91. South Africa’s batting average of 33.37 was second only to Australia’s 34.23. India’s average of 26.17 was seventh among all teams. South Africa’s 359 for 6 against Namibia was the highest score of the tournament, and one of only two 300-plus totals in this World Cup.3.62 – South Africa’s economy rate, which was also the best among all teams in the tournament, as was their bowling average of 15.80. However, India did better with the ball than with the bat, averaging 19.30 at an economy rate of 3.81. South Africa were also the only team not to concede 200 even once in the tournament (though Australia beat them by scoring 193 for 6 in 48.3 overs in the semi-finals).212 – The stand between South Africa’s Quinton de Kock and Chad Bowes against Namibia, which was the only 200-plus stand of this tournament, and the fifth in all U-19 World Cups.130 – The partnership between Unmukt and Smit Patel in the final, which is the highest, and only the second century partnership, in an U-19 World Cup final. Unmukt’s unbeaten 111 was the fourth century, and the highest score, in a World Cup final.5 – The number of World Cup finals, out of nine, which have been won by the team batting second. However, the team batting first had won the last four finals before this one -in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.

If there is a template of how to build a Twenty20 innings then West Indies produced it against Australia, but there is still one more match to go

Sambit Bal in Colombo05-Oct-2012Johnson Charles shouldered arms to the first ball of the West Indian innings and Kieron Pollard holed out to the last ball. In between those two balls, West Indies mounted the most sensational assault that defied prediction and logic. You couldn’t say it was without precedence though, because it was on this ground that the West Indians had pulverised the Australia bowlers for 191 runs in their league encounter but were beaten by the rain rule.But the pitch then was young and fresh, the bounce was even and the ball carried, and the outcome of the match was largely inconsequential. To better that performance in the semi-final on a tiring pitch, though a far smoother one than for the first semi-final, West Indies needed at least one extraordinary performance. They got one better: they got the perfect Twenty20 innings.When it is commonplace, bowlers being thrashed out of wits can be a tiresome sight. But tonight it came against the tide, or the run of play, as it is said in sports. The average score at this ground in this tournament had been 150, and in the Super Eights 148. West Indies were expected to play a few big shots: but what they managed to pull off was almost beyond belief. From the start to the finish, it was the purest and the cleanest, and the most flawless exhibition of power-hitting.Chris Gayle hit one to the second tier, Pollard jammed his bat on a yorker and it sped to the ropes and a mis-hit from Dwayne Bravo cleared long-off. It was breathtaking, and if you were an Australia bowler, frightening.In seven matches since the Super Eights started, 48 sixes had been hit at Premadasa. That made it a rate of 3.42 per innings. Sri Lanka hit none in the first semi-final and Pakistan managed, just barely, one. West Indies produced three in the first six overs, and they kept coming, and getting bigger.It would be reasonable to assume that Chris Gayle would be the propeller-in-chief of any West Indies charge. Remarkably on this occasion he was the fulcrum. You could hardly call a man who savaged 75 runs off 41 balls the anchor, but he allowed the West Indies innings to surge around him.West Indies went into this tournament as one the favourites primarily because they carried the world’s most adept and explosive Twenty20 batsmen. In reality they had only won one match in normal time until today, against England, alongside beating New Zealand in a Super Over. But astonishingly each of their big guns fired today. Even the best writer in the business couldn’t have scripted it better.Every batsman got going. Wickets fell periodically, but never together. And instead of halting the innings temporarily it gathered momentum with each new batsman. Marlon Samuels hit two sixes in his 26; Dwayne Bravo hit three in his 37 and Pollard three in the final over. It would have always seemed inconceivable that Gayle would bat through an innings in a high-scoring game and not score a hundred. But he faced only 41 balls, and was happy to do so. A lot has been spoken about his lack of commitment to the West Indies cause; he couldn’t have played a more committed innings than this.Things also turned to gold in the field. Opening with a spinner is commonplace in Twenty20 and it has been the norm in this tournament, but Darren Sammy chose the unconventional option of opening with a legspinner, although one that has done it regularly at domestic level, and Samuel Badree rewarded him with a wicket in the first over. He chose Samuels, who has been used exclusively as the death-over bowler, for the second over, and suckered Michael Hussey into spooned sweep.Ravi Rampaul came on first change and claimed two wickets in three balls. It nearly sealed the match. Badree looked poised to finish his spell in the eighth over when Sammy changed his mind and introduced Sunil Narine who had troubled Mathew Wade on Australia’s tour of West Indies, and Wade duly top-edged the second to backward square.The local fans cheered lustily from the stands today. The animosity towards Australia still runs deep in this part of the world. West Indies wouldn’t worry about those same fans turning against them on Sunday.What they might be worry about is that the perfection they achieved bordered on the freakish. Have they peaked 48-hours too early? But it is unlikely that will keep them awake tonight. The partying surely will. When the West Indians waltz, cricket feels so much more fun.

Thilan Samaraweera throughout his cricketing career has proved himself a fighter; more so than any of the decorated men he bats below

Andrew Fernando at the P Sara27-Nov-2012One of the most startling stories in Sri Lankan cricket is that of Thilan Samaraweera’s machine gun celebration. In Lahore in March 2009, he nestled his bat under his armpit and sprayed pretend bullets out of the handle for the first time in international cricket. He had capered thus many times before in first-class cricket, he says, but as even the old man and his dog have long since taken their leave of domestic cricket in Sri Lanka, only his team-mates and maybe the groundstaff would have witnessed his hijinks before Lahore. As fate would have it, Samaraweera had a bullet travel 12 inches into his thigh the morning after the double-hundred that sparked that celebration.It is not a celebration he has had chance to bring out yet at the P Sara, for he is still 24 runs adrift of a fifteenth hundred, but it is one he has earnt already in the second Test. It is also a fitting way for Samaraweera to enjoy his milestones, for throughout his cricketing career, but especially in recent years, he has proved himself a fighter. More so than any of the decorated men he bats below.Tillakaratne Dilshan may man the cannons while Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara command heavy cavalry, but Samaraweera does his work in the trenches. Today, he went to work injured. He split the webbing on his bottom hand attempting a catch at slip on day two, but despite the pain, he has lifted Sri Lanka beyond the follow-on total and have them now striving for a draw or better. No one will say his defiance was pretty – it rarely is – but on a day when Tim Southee had the ball moving as much as it has in this Test so far, and with Trent Boult and Jeetan Patel also threatening, New Zealand will feel they should have had more than 3 wickets in almost 70 overs.Samaraweera stood with Suraj Randiv for 97 unbeaten runs. Rescuing his side from a mire of the top-order’s making is a craft in which his aptitude seemingly increases with each series. In Sri Lanka’s most celebrated Test win in recent years at Kingsmead, Samaraweera came to the crease at 84 for 3, then saw Jayawardene depart to leave Sri Lanka 117 for 4, but still managed to wrestle his side to 338 alongside a debutant and the tail to set up the first-innings total that let Sri Lanka establish a large lead. In the next match 98 for 4 was his lot, and he guided Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 115 to at least ensure South Africa would have to bat again, if only for two balls.At the P Sara, he was the only batsman in Sri Lanka’s top six not to be troubled by New Zealand’s fast men, and Southee’s movement in particular. While others peddled wafts outside the off stump, Samaraweera’s judgment was defined by parsimony. Though he left plenty alone, when Southee threatened the stumps, Samaraweera adjusted for the movement and middled almost everything.

Tillakaratne Dilshan may man the cannons while Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara command heavy cavalry, but Samaraweera does his work in the trenches.

It is strange that he is now perhaps Sri Lanka’s best batsman against the moving ball. For three years now, his average has been above 50 – the figure which supposedly distinguishes the very good batsmen from merely the good – but Samaraweera has been accused of making cheap runs to qualify. Nothing about his innings at the P Sara was cheap, and those who have watched him bat in the last year can no longer question his true worth to the side. He has overcome that perception, just as he overcame a gunshot wound, and the inability to break into the national side as an offspinner. It should not be forgotten that he was not born with bat in hand. He had taken most of his 357 first class wickets at 23.43 before realising he would not play as a slow bowler in the national side while Muttiah Muralitharan was there, and transformed himself into a Test batsman. The traits that served him on that journey characterise his innings as well.Sri Lanka’s coach, Graham Ford, confirmed after day three’s play that Samaraweera was battling through pain in his injured hand, and hoped his fortitude was instructive to the youngsters in Sri Lanka’s squad.”It hasn’t been comfortable for him, but it goes to prove how tough the man is both mentally and physically,” Ford said. “Sometimes batting is not fun, but lot of hard work. There are lot of players who work really hard and reap the rewards, and Thilan is a fantastic example. Any youngster who is aspiring to play Test cricket needs to have a look and understand that even though it’s tough, even though it’s painful, you’ve got to dig deep and fight hard for your team.”Samaraweera has plenty yet to achieve in this match to make Sri Lanka comfortable, and in a few weeks, he will again be tested in Australia, where the improvements to his technique against fast bowling will get a thorough work-out. On Colombo’s evidence, his innings’ will have to serve as Sri Lanka’s ladder out of trouble there as well. He has become his team’s man-for-a-crisis, and if Sri Lanka are to fight their way out against New Zealand, and in the ambushes that are to come, you suspect his machine gun will need more use.

The first ODI against Pakistan epitomised how much Dhoni’s safety-first approach has benefited him as a batsman, while shackling him as a leader

Nitin Sundar in Chennai30-Dec-2012It was the end of the 40th over of Pakistan’s chase. India had jousted their way back into the contest through a frugal Powerplay, which cost just 13 runs and accounted for Misbah-ul-Haq’s wicket. Ishant Sharma and R Ashwin had bottled up the new batsman, Shoaib Malik, who remained run-less after eight balls. The equation narrowed down to 55 off 60. For the first time in two hours, the near-full stadium was buzzing. The contest assumed a whole new complexion, even as Chepauk’s canopied stands glistened under a gorgeous sunset.India could have nosed ahead with another wicket at that stage. MS Dhoni had nine overs to come from his main bowlers, who had all bowled impressively. Yet, he turned to Virat Kohli. At the game’s most pivotal moment, with a contest waiting to be taken control of, Dhoni thought it wiser to get the one pending over from his fifth bowler out of the way.Kohli trotted in, allowing seven runs off the next five balls. Just like that, there was release – Shoaib Malik began to get the ball off the square, and Pakistan were flowing again. By the end of the next over, the fight was collectively knocked out of India when Ashwin dismissed Malik off a no-ball.As captain and as batsman, safety-first has been Dhoni’s mantra for a while now. This game epitomised how much that approach has benefited him as a batsman, while shackling him as a leader.India’s disastrous run in Test cricket, and their indifferent ODI form since the World Cup, have led to all sorts of questions being raised about Dhoni’s role in the set-up. The Test argument is for another day. As far as ODIs go, Dhoni is now the best batsman in India, and arguably the best middle-overs man in the world. Today he marched past 7000 ODI runs, while averaging 52.00 per innings. That’s seven runs clear of Sachin Tendulkar’s average when he got there, and a whole 10 runs more than Ricky Ponting’s. And despite restraining himself in the middle overs in recent years, Dhoni has got those runs at a strike-rate of 88.45. Those are the stats of a master.When Dhoni took guard today at 29 for 5, Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan were getting the ball to dance devilishly off the seam. Each of India’s top four had lost his stumps, undone by nip and zip, but Dhoni thrived by falling back on first principles. In Tests, Dhoni is prone to the odd waft outside the off stump, but he’s so much surer of himself while starting an ODI innings. Overnight rain, spicy pitch, extra bounce, crisis situation – no problem. Dhoni stayed on the crease, covering the line and playing with a straight bat, nudging and gliding singles, and running like the wind. His first boundary came only after 78 balls, which had yielded a mere 34 runs, but he changed the rhythm with seamless ease in the end overs.Unlike his younger colleagues, Dhoni likes to tuck into the short stuff, climbing over the bounce and pulling powerfully whenever the chance comes. With dehydration sapping him of his speed, Dhoni opened up emphatically in the second half of his innings. The inside-out six off Irfan that brought up his hundred captured the essence of Dhoni’s batting – it was brutality at its most beautiful.As a batsman, Dhoni always backs himself to take the game deep and turn the tables in the end game. It’s a marked difference from how he played when he first emerged at the highest level; with seniors such as Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and, now, Sachin Tendulkar, exiting the scene, Dhoni has assumed more responsibilities as a batsman.As a captain, however, the story is vastly different . Several India captains of the past – be it Mohammad Azharuddin (in Perth and Kolkata), Sourav Ganguly (in Ahmedabad) or Sachin Tendulkar (in Mohali) – have shown the imagination to attack with their best bowlers when the game is in the balance, even if that meant holding a weak over for the end. With Dhoni, especially in the last couple of years, you’d be hard-pressed to single out one such instance.It’s not just the handling of the fifth bowler. Nasir Jamshed betrayed a diffident approach to the short ball early in his innings. Dhoni responded by pressing backward square leg into service, and getting his seamers to bounce Jamshed. They had him hopping for a while, but eventually Jamshed began to settle down. By the end of the chase, he was displaying as much assurance against the short ball as Dhoni had shown earlier in the day. That, however, didn’t stop Ashok Dinda and Ishant Sharma from trying to bounce him out, seemingly at the cost of trying something else.Through turbulent times, to his credit, Dhoni hasn’t shunned his responsibility as the face of the team. As much as he receded into the background when his team was winning, he is now in the forefront taking the blame for the team’s reversals. “I feel good that I’m the punching bag because there’s less pressure on the team,” Dhoni said after this defeat. “You need to have a few punching bags in the side. Sachin has been there for quite some time now, he takes away all the tension. I don’t think everybody gets chance to be the punching bag, so I am happy that I can take a bit of tension for my team.”Tendulkar is gone, and with him India’s last link to a different time in the ODI game. Dhoni the batsman facilitated a transition by reinventing himself. Will the captain follow suit?

From venkattraman04, United States When Australia’s tour game started, who had the best chance for solid match practice

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013venkattraman04, United States
When Australia’s tour game started, who had the best chance for solid match practice? Was it Ponting and Co.? No. It was S. Badrinath. He had to go in at the fall of the first wicket and face Lee, Clark, and Johnson, all of whom would be bowling in the first Test starting in a few days. How interesting would it have been if Badri had scored a few runs instead of the 2 and 14 that he made in the two innings.Say, he had made the 90 odd, like Jaffer, that would have left Kumble in a similar situation to the one he faced in Australia. Yuvi had blasted Pakistan only in the previous Test and finally Kumble was forced to play Yuvraj. What would have happened now? Would Ganguly the man under serious pressure, as of now, be dropped for Badrinath, or would it be Dravid, or would it be someone else (including Badri himself being excluded without paying attention to his innings)?But what did Badri do in the game? He was lbw for 2 and caught behind for 14. Badri’s bad performance with the bat has made Kumble’s choice of the playing XI a lot simpler. A lot of guys may not know that Badri’s first class average is only next to that of Ponting and Sachin, among contemporary players. Now thats a fantastic statistic for someone who is yet to play a test.But all that does not count now. He failed in both innings of the tour game thereby making his already minimal chance non-existent.

Cathryn Fitzpatrick, the Australia women’s coach, can teach her charges plenty about work ethic, though she doesn’t think they are less mentally tough than their predecessors

Interview by Abhishek Purohit10-Feb-2013Cathryn Fitzpatrick ran behind garbage trucks and rode pushbikes to deliver mail to keep fit•Getty ImagesWhy did you take up fast bowling?
When I was growing up, my older brother and I used to play cricket. He would want to bat all the time, so I had to bowl all the time. When I got him out, he would say he did not want to play anymore. I would want to, so I would keep bowling. So it had something to do with my brother’s unsportsmanlike behaviour in the front yard!You look at fast bowlers, they come in different sizes. You look at somebody like [Shabnim] Ismail from South Africa. She’s tiny but she just looks like she really wants to bowl quick. I think a fair bit has to do with your genetics and mechanics also. I did it because I just wanted to do it. I wouldn’t put it down to anything else. What made you so mentally strong? You lasted for so many years.
I am a competitor. I love the competition, the tactical component of the game. I loved bowling to the good batters, trying to work out where the weaknesses were and getting the right sequences of deliveries to get them out. In my entire time, I never stopped enjoying that challenge.Where does that toughness come from? I guess it comes down to being the youngest of three siblings. My brother was close to my age and all his friends were boys. When you are the only girl hanging out a lot with a few boys, you have to be tough to survive.Did your body ever tell you to stop?
No. Only when I wanted to go on and coach. At that time I felt I could keep going for a year or two more, but it just seemed the right time. I had a lot of injuries throughout my career but we had really good physios and medical people that gave me the confidence that I would get myself right and go again. Pre-seasons are always tough. The older you get, the more you have to prove yourself to the young kids coming through.You just train smarter as you get older. When you are young, you are not much on the physio table. I always thought I had to do a lot of bowling to feel good. So I was never one to skip training. You could even say towards the end it gets a bit easier as you get smarter with what you have to do.What excited you most about fast bowling?
I loved the battle. I wanted the captain to throw the ball to me in any circumstance. To be confident enough to turn the game for the team was something I loved. When you plan something and it works, that is what I loved seeing. Trying to upset a batter’s footwork and make them go for a nick or trying to exploit a gap between bat and pad. It wasn’t any specific type of dismissal.You built up quite a reputation as you went on. How much did that egg you on?
It is not something that you set out to do. There is an expectation that you have to perform. I didn’t mind that. It drove me to keep working hard on my fitness. Having that reputation, I think I picked up some wickets I shouldn’t have. I didn’t mind that. That is part of what I try to teach our girls. We have some talented batters and I talk to them about having a presence. You can have that presence at the crease, and that can create doubts in the bowler’s mind.You once said cricket has cost you a lot of money and time but there is something about it that keeps you going.
Our girls are semi-professional now, but back when I played that wasn’t the case. You just played for the cap and the honour. You go to any male players who played in the ’40s – they’ll say the same thing. It involved a lot of leave without pay from work. That changed towards the end of my career. The investments were worth it, though. For whatever reason, the desire to have the badge on your chest was always there and I never took it for granted. I am more than happy to have had it at a cost.You paid that cost. But the world around changed massively through your career. Did it get harder to go on?
If things hadn’t changed for female cricketers I would have probably struggled to play for such a long time. That’s because your commitments change as you get older. You can’t just keep changing jobs. You have different responsibilities with your finances. Had it not become easier for females to play, I might have had to make a different decision. We got a little bit of compensation and things balanced out for me.

“When you are young, you don’t have worries about money. You just get by. It means you drive a shitty car. You don’t go out as much. I chose to spend my money on playing cricket rather than buying new clothes. I don’t have any regrets about any of that”

What were the finances like in those days?
We paid to play as well as took leave from work. So that is your holidays gone, plus leave without pay. That was a choice we made. These players now haven’t experienced it so much and that is a good thing. The women that played for Australia in the ’30s had it harder. Our role – people like myself, Belinda Clark, Karen Rolton – hopefully made it easier for these girls to come through. Certainly no resentment towards that. I feel proud that we paved way for girls coming through now.Did the lack of limelight ever bother you?
When you play, all you want is respect from your team-mates. The people in the dressing room count the most to you. When you stop playing, it is what those people have to say, and that is your legacy, that this player played with determination – that is the legacy you want. I don’t think you play for the experience of the limelight.You think the current generation is like that?
I think so. I can speak for our girls, not for others. Our girls understand our legacy. Being the coach of this team, I take the responsibility of ensuring the legacy of previous players goes on. We have talked about that a lot. That is part of our tradition that we respect. We don’t take it lightly and we respect the badge, which means everybody that played for Australia before us.How much of your time was devoted to cricket and how much to your job?
It was cricket most of the time. Early on, I did jobs that allowed me to get to training on time or where there was a fitness component involved. I ran behind a garbage truck for four or five years early in the morning. I was on a pushbike delivering mail. Every day of the week had a cricket component. You certainly watched what you ate all the time.You worked with the postal department.
Yeah, for about five or six years. Started on a pushbike, which was good for fitness. I finished riding a motorbike because they wanted to motorise, as it was a lot more efficient. I would do the rounds for about three to four hours. When I was running behind the garbage truck, it was similar – three or four hours of just running, which was a fantastic. That is not for everyone, but I didn’t mind getting up in the morning and getting the work done so that it allowed me to work on my cricket skills in the afternoon.Were you recognised on those rounds, being an Australia fast bowler?
Not a whole lot. At work I was, because a lot of my work environment was male-dominated and a lot of the guys loved cricket and wanted to talk about it. On my rounds, the only reason anybody would know was if someone else was doing them when I was off playing cricket. When I’d come back, they’d say, “You didn’t tell me you played cricket for Australia.”Was it difficult maintaining that duality in your life?
Not for me. It was never a problem. I always knew because I was away playing when I came back I had to be the best at what I worked at, so that people didn’t begrudge me for nicking off all the time and going and doing other stuff. As a member of the Australian team, I also had to make sure I did everything right at work and not cut corners.Was money ever a concern? How did you manage?
I didn’t save money at that time. When I did, I would spend it on cricket. When you are young, you don’t have worries about money. You just get by. It means you drive a shitty car, you don’t drive big shining cars. You don’t go out as much. I chose to spend my money on playing cricket rather than buying new clothes. I don’t have any regrets about any of that.What would it have been for you if it hadn’t been cricket?
When I was finishing high school, I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to work with young people. I guess I didn’t have to think about it. I am lucky it was cricket.How much has the game changed from the time you started playing?
A whole lot. The confidence and skill of the players has improved. Someone like Belinda Clark did not have a power game but her timing was second to none and would still hold up in today’s environment. Now there is nowhere to hide for players. Before, there might have been three or four players who would have been picked solely as a batter or a bowler. Now when we pick a team you have got to be able to field, do at least two of the three skills. The playing and travelling demands are more on the girls now. The fitness requirements to be able to cope with those demands are also more.The scores have changed, which partly has to do with getting better wickets. Previously we would not get to play in stadiums like these [Brabourne Stadium]. We were not playing at the MCG. We were playing on wickets that were not as well prepared. The power in the game has changed a lot. The girls are doing more with the ball and the batters are hitting to more areas. The men’s game has gone a similar way.Today, a 17-year old Holly Ferling has an Ellyse Perry to look up to.
The beauty of Ellyse Perry is that she is a dual international. What that does back home for girls considering playing one sport or the other is to show them they don’t have to choose. Holly Ferling also plays netball at a good level. So now Holly can look at Ellyse and say, “I can do both, I don’t have to choose.” Ellyse is a great role model and Holly will become a good role model as well. We get more coverage at home. Young girls being able to have idols that they see all the time is invaluable for us to attract and retain more girls in our sport.”Being the coach of this team, I take the responsibility of ensuring the legacy of previous players goes on”•Getty ImagesWould you say cricketers from your era required more mental strength? Or these ones do?
These girls are in the spotlight a whole lot more, with games on television. It is a tough one. We had girls that were mentally tougher than others and we also have that now. That is a hard one to compare, really.Is it easier for women players to multi-task, to balance different responsibilities?
It is not easier but more accepted. These girls play, they study, they work. If they live away from their homes, they are running their households. It has become more acceptable for girls to be out pursuing sporting careers. It goes back to these girls being role models – that you can work full-time and you can travel the world playing cricket.Was it difficult for you, being a role model?
I think it is harder for the girls now as they are more in the spotlight. I didn’t feel I was in the limelight so much. I always felt, though, that I had to be a good representative. That flowed on into my work environment as well, where people knew I was an Australian cricketer, so I ensured I lived up to my values as best as I could. Not everyone can do that. I possibly was a role model but not as much as these girls, so I can’t say it was difficult.

In India people got interested in cricket because of nation v nation concept. It provided us an observable platform to get even with the English who ruled us for over two centuries; it also provided us a stage to upstage an unfriendly neighbour

Sourabh Bhargava25-Feb-2013As almost every news channel displayed video clippings of Spanish fans’ celebrations after triumphant Euro 2012 campaign, my memories flashed back to last year’s similar jubilant scenes witnessed in India after their World Cup cricket victory. More than the joy one derives from witnessing the drama, the supreme skill-set and the mental fortitude of the greatest athletes in these tournaments, I am intrigued by the super natural power of these revered sportsmen to elevate fans to an unreal world where their real life problems are put to backburner, at least temporarily.Sports fans rarely display rationality. Otherwise, how does one explain a bunch of die-hard English fans called Barmy army travelling across the globe and cheering their utterly mediocre cricket team in the 1990s? Or for that matter how does one justify every English fan’s singular obsession with the idea of Tim Henman being crowned the next Wimbledon champion in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The only Englishman it seemed who thought otherwise was Henman himself.Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir pointed out that most poignant moment for him post the World Cup victory was the sight of an impoverished man in Mumbai sleeping on the pavement with Indian tricolor flag draped on his semi-naked body! What explains this sort of allegiance bordering on insanity?In my view there are certain factors which make the sports fan the world over behave in a manner that would be dismissed as utterly impractical in other spheres of life. First, people love the directness of the confrontation associated with any sports. In India people got interested in cricket because of nation v nation concept. It provided us an observable platform to get even with the English who ruled us for over two centuries; it also provided us a stage to upstage an unfriendly neighbour.Second, these sporting spectacles provide a platform where the teams have opportunity to prove that they are indeed the best; unlike other professions like medicine, engineering, banking, etc where the privilege to be branded as the best in business is strictly a matter of opinion. In sports, the winning team prove themselves as best by getting better of their opposition. People love the fairness part. Victory has to earned and not bestowed unlike coalition politics in India, where compromise formula and not the merit determines who is going to be the Prime Minister and the President of the country.Third, in a sport the only thing of prominence is performance. The experience is counted only if it is able to make the difference. An 18 year-old Mohammed Amir is given the license to fully examine a consummate 37 year-old Master Sachin Tendulkar with his bowling skill sets. Further, he is fully entitled to celebrate if he gets better of Tendulkar. There is no place for decorum, hierarchy, politics or respect on the field. Certainly one cannot live on past laurels. We have all witnessed so many greats of the game being elbowed out once they are past their prime. How dearly many of us would have wished the same culture in our work life?Fourthly, as famous American sportswriter Heywood Broun put it aptly, Sports do not build character; they reveal it. For example to score 300 in a Test match is the work of a lifetime expressed in a single innings. It tells of childhood dreams and hours of practice in backyards and speaks of obsession and dedication. Contrast this with the statement of former chairman of the largest bank in India who when asked on his day of retirement about his biggest challenge in his tenure candidly admitted “In many impromptu discussions I had with media I was asked to air my views on many topics I was not aware of. My main challenge was not to let others know about my unfamiliarity on those issues.”Success in corporate, bureaucracy and politics to a large extent depends on zealously safeguarding your darker side. Sportsmen, on the other hand, are not allowed such luxuries. Hence, they are revered for their dedication, hard work and single-minded pursuit of excellence, without which they would not have reached the pinnacle of success. Sadly the same cannot be said about other professions.Lastly, sports offer us an endless drama with possibilities that are rarely witnessed in real life. Whether it was Yuvraj Singh striking six sixes in an over off Stuart Broad* in 2007 T20 World Cup or Usain Bolt clocking a staggering 9.58 seconds in Berlin in 2009 or Manchester City scoring two goals in injury time to lift the English Premier league this season; the sheer audacity and self belief made watching the phenomenal achievements like these even more compelling.In short, sports celebrate success in a riveting manner that is unmatched by success in other facets of life. It further helps that ingredients for this success tie well with what our books taught us about ethics when we were in school. As former American jurist Earl Warn put in succinctly -“I always turn to the sports pages first, which record people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.”*10:10 GMT, July 6: This article had incorrectly mentioned Chris Broad. This has been corrected

England’s premier spinner provided a rare sight at Heagingley as slow bowling proved the potent weapon

David Hopps at Headingley27-May-2013Not since Derek Underwood bowled England to victory against Australia in 1972 on a pitch that was not much better than rolled mud has an England spinner had such an influence on a Headingley Test as Graeme Swann has against New Zealand.Even Underwood’s return of 10 for 82 owed much to chicanery. Wisden recorded that the square was flooded by a “freak thunderstorm” a few days before the match and suggested that the pitch was not up to Test quality.The Australians put it down to fusarium – a fungus that was once infamously used in biological warfare by being baked into bread, but which on this occasion just helped England to win a Test and retain the Ashes.Swann has had no such advantages. But the footmarks outside the right-hander’s off stump have made a pleasant change for him. By the close of the fourth day, he had 4 for 61 in New Zealand’s second innings and 8 for the 103 in the match with four more New Zealand wickets available to surpass Underwood’s performance.Whether he will get the opportunity is debatable. The Leeds weather forecast for the final day remained unpromising, inviting criticism both of England’s decision not to enforce the follow-on and of a declaration timed as mid-afternoon approached on the fourth day which left New Zealand 468 to win – 19 runs more than the combined figure they had made in their first three innings of the series.Jonathan Trott was adamant that England’s tactics were beyond reproach. “I think we got it spot on,” he said. “Today we set out to get the total we wanted and we achieved that. To get six wickets as well is a good day of Test cricket. We need four wickets on the final day to win a Test match.”When you are 1-0 up you can afford to let the game take its course. You don’t have to chase it or let the weather dictate how you are going to play the game. It’s a pretty dry pitch and you don’t want to be batting last on it. When you are on top you want to stay on top.”We knew how many overs we wanted to bowl at them and how many overs were left in the game. We just wanted to get to stumps on day three and reassess. You can always catch up. It is not a type of wicket where you could go in and force it and smash it to all parts of the ground. It was a tricky part of the game to get through.”The most any side has made in the fourth innings to win a Test is West Indies’ 418 for 7 against Australia in Antigua in May 2003. New Zealand’s record is the 325 for 4 they posted against Pakistan in Christchurch in Febraury 1994, although they did run England close at Trent Bride 40 years ago when Bev Congdon and Vic Pollard both made hundreds before they fell 38 runs short in a valiant pursuit of 479.Ross Taylor, whose 70 out of 158 for 6 was New Zealand’s main source of resistance, was outfoxed three overs before the end of play, a slightly premature end because of bad light, when he virtually yorked himself and became Swann’s fourth victim.”Swann is a world-class bowler and had a bit of assistance with the footmarks and he kept asking questions the whole innings,” Taylor said. “We will be looking at the weather when we open the curtains in the morning. England are in the box seat and we need a little bit of help.”But Swann will not be Taylor’s most painful memory. That accolade will rest with Steven Finn. Taylor described him as a “big-bounce bowler” and a big-bounce bowler on a small-bounce pitch can be a difficult proposition as his trajectory regularly targets the body.New Zealand’s leading batsman has been tattooed, with three bruises on his upper arm, a centimetre apart. Underwood probably left a similar pattern on the Headingley pitch with his first three deliveries back in 1972.

The youngest player on either team, Joe Root appeared the senior man during a potentially match-defining partnership with Jonathan Trott

George Dobell at Lord's18-May-2013There must be something disconcerting about being thwarted by Joe Root. Like being held at gun point by a toddler, there is something incongruous about the baby-faced batsman providing such mature resistance.Root, the youngest player on either side, has not just produced the highest innings of this match to date but may well have struck the defining blow. His stand of 123 with Jonathan Trott is the single century partnership of the game so far and England’s only half-century stand. The lead is still only 205 but, on a pitch that is providing substantial assistance for the offspin of Kane Williamson, England may well hold the trump card with Graeme Swann to bowl in the fourth innings. He will rarely have conditions more in his favour.The true value of the partnership between Root and Trott was put into context by what preceded and followed it. Just as New Zealand lost their last seven wickets for just 60 runs (including six for 52 in the morning session) so England lost four wickets for 12 runs in 39 balls once Root was dismissed by Tim Southee’s well-disguised offcutter. Such evidence would suggest that this slow pitch remains desperately demanding for batsmen. Scoring the highest total of the match in the fourth-innings – which New Zealand may well have to do – will not be easy.The notable feature of Root’s innings was how few of his runs came from drives. All eight of his boundaries came square, or just backward of square, of the wicket and only one run came in the V between mid-on and mid-off. He pulled or hooked the fast bowlers particularly well, cut the spinner nicely and, despite one or two misunderstandings with Trott, maximised their scoring opportunities with some swift running between the wickets.Perhaps England had some fortune. Root and Trott batted through the only period of sustained sunshine in the game and New Zealand struggled to obtain the swing they had generated in the first innings. On the face of things, the loss of Bruce Martin, the left-arm spinner, to a calf strain in the evening session might have been a body blow to New Zealand as well, though it actually brought Williamson into the attack. Bowling his offspin quicker and a little straighter than Martin, he immediately proved more demanding. Swann will have observed with interest.Trott’s suitability for such situations needs little reiteration. Suffice it to say, his sound defence and determined temperament render him an ideal player to negate a striving attack in match-defining situations and he has now scored a half-century at least in all seven of his Tests at Lord’s. But, so impressive was Root that he looked the more assured of the pair for much of their partnership. It was a remarkably calm display from a man not just in his fifth Test but playing his first game at any level at Lord’s. Both his younger brother and father have played at this ground before him.

Trott’s suitability for such situations needs little reiteration but so impressive was Root that he looked the more assured of the pair for much of their partnership

Perhaps he was helped by that family influence. His younger brother, Billy, is in the England dressing room for this game, fulfilling 12th man duties, while his parents and grandfather were among the spectators at the ground. But such aids are peripheral: when it comes down to facing international bowlers such as Neil Wagner – a man who surely looked older than Root even in his prenatal scans – he is all on his own. He coped admirably.It may prove relevant that Root’s best performances to date – this game and his debut match against India in Nagpur – have taken place on unusually slow wickets. Perhaps, when international teams have had a chance to analyse his technique, he will undergo a fallow period and certainly the Australia pace attack will provide a different test. But whatever happens, Root has underlined the impression that he is a young man with a long future at this level.Such is his apparently unflappable temperament and his ability to adapt his game to the differing demands he has faced – he has also impressed in his ODI opportunities – that few would bet against him finding a way to overcome whatever obstacles life presents. Forget the boyish exterior – really, he might struggle to be served in one of the bars on this ground – where it matters, in his head, he is as cool and calm as anyone.His success is also testament to the system that helped produce him. Root had not enjoyed an especially outstanding season in 2012 but, such was the good impression he had made while involved in the England Lions set-up, he won selection on the Test tour to India. It has proved an inspired decision and one for which the England selectors and staff – particularly Graham Thorpe, who pinpointed his attributes – deserve much praise. It might also prove a timely reminder of the worth of the Lions system, imperfect and inconvenient to the domestic game though it may sometimes appear.”We played exceptionally well for the majority of the day and hopefully we can take that confidence into tomorrow and get a good partnership in early,” Root said afterwards. “It’s very disappointing not to finish as strongly as we would have liked, so the first hour tomorrow will be crucial.”The rough outside the right-handers’ off stump is encouraging and Graeme Swann will look at that and enjoy it. The pitch is quite slow and is obviously deteriorating. The longer we can stay out there the harder it will for them.”Some will suggest that his most recent success again poses a threat to Nick Compton. It is true that Root, coming in at No. 4 due to Ian Bell’s incapacitation with “flu-like symptoms”, has played as an opener for Yorkshire and that, in time, he may well move up to perform the same role for England. And it is true, too, that Compton, late on a pleasing inswinger from Wagner, has done his case few favours in this game.But England’s success in recent years was not built on cut-throat selection and it is not so long since Compton contributed back-to-back centuries in New Zealand. It is encouraging to have options and the likes of Varun Chopra, James Taylor and Ben Stokes ensure that a healthy competition for places remains.

Lancashire bet their house on a redevelopment that would return Test cricket to Old Trafford; with the arrival of Australia, that dream has been realised

Paul Edwards29-Jul-2013In sport, as in life, some events are freighted with so much significance that the moments in which they occur seem barely capable of holding the weight.For Lancashire’s officials and supporters, just such an event will take place at 11am on Thursday when, Manchester’s weather permitting, the first ball will be bowled in the Third Investec Test between England and Australia.An Ashes Test is always something to be savoured, of course, but this contest will be uniquely special for Mancunians because in the eight years since the last such game, Old Trafford has been redeveloped – some might say reborn – to the extent that spectators at the 2005 match might initially struggle to recognise the new stadium if they had seen no cricket at the ground in the intervening period.Gone are the broadcasting boxes at the Stretford End; gone is the massive stand opposite the pavilion; gone are the seated areas to the right of that twin-towered pavilion, which itself has been virtually gutted and rebuilt with only the façade and the towers remaining. Lancashire have even realigned the square on a north-south rather than east-west axis. If some have problems getting their bearings on Thursday, that is partly because those bearings have changed.In place of the old structures, which were, truth be told, a rather ramshackle collection of buildings badly in need of refurbishment, Lancashire have built a stadium with all the shock and awe that size often evokes.There are new player dressing rooms and a media centre at the Statham End, both of which seem to have the “wow” factor; there is a huge temporary stand of 9,500 tiered seats at the old Stretford End, all of them in the distinctive scarlet livery used elsewhere in the new arena; and there is a massive hospitality and function suite, The Point, which overhangs the ground like a symbol of the modernity its architecture exemplifies. If the familiar intimacy of the old ground has been lost, the new Old Trafford possesses a confident swagger befitting a stadium in Manchester, a world city to which many businesses and organisations, not least major departments of the BBC, are relocating. The new place may have only a third of the capacity of the other Old Trafford across the way, but it no longer looks like its poor relation.Yet the moment when the first ball is bowled on Thursday will be charged with even more emotional power because of what Lancashire risked in order to create their new home. The £44m redevelopment was financed, in part, by a four-way agreement between Lancashire, Ask Developments, Tesco and Trafford Council. As part of this agreement Tesco were given the go ahead to build a huge new superstore in Trafford. A rival developer, Albert Gubay of Derwent Holdings, objected to this permission being granted and took his case to the courts.Indeed, Gubay took his legal proceedings so far that he imperilled not only Old Trafford’s redevelopment but also the very future of the county club. Reviewing what he agrees was the most fraught time of his entire professional life, Lancashire’s chief executive at the time, Jim Cumbes, makes no attempt to hide the stakes for which Lancashire were playing. Given legal costs and the possibility of losing vital grants, Old Trafford officials had bet their beloved house on winning the case.

“If we’d lost, there was really no Plan B. The club might have just disappeared or we would have downsized and become a county ground”Former Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes on the legal battle to redevelop Old Trafford

“In that two- or three-year period there were times when you’d wake up at 3.30 in the morning and argue with yourself,” Cumbes says. “Outwardly I was confident and optimistic and I always thought we’d win, but I didn’t know when or how much it would cost.”It was hard because we were getting into financial difficulties. We were spending money on legal cases and as soon as we got over one hurdle, another appeared before us. All the staff were nervous but we ploughed on. Nobody got a rise in salary for three years but we told them there’d be no redundancies. We kept that promise and the curious thing was that we won the Championship in the year in which we’d had to clip the financial wings of Mike Watkinson and Peter Moores, as regards player recruitment.”And all the time that Cumbes was being reassured by the club’s QC Robert Griffiths that he was very confident of winning in court, he was also mindful of the barrister’s “but”: you never know what happens on the day.”If we’d lost, there was really no Plan B,” Cumbes says. “The club might have just disappeared or we would have downsized and become a county ground like Taunton, Northampton or Leicester. We wondered about the wisdom of going ahead with our plans but ultimately we thought we owed it to our members, to Manchester and to the people of the northwest to try to build a ground fit to stage an Ashes Test.”That Old Trafford was no longer fit to stage an Australia Test had been made abundantly clear by the ECB in 2006 when Cardiff, well-funded and soon to be well-presented, had got the nod in preference to Manchester for a game in the 2009 series.”We were going ahead with redevelopment before we heard the bad news in 2006,” Cumbes points out. “But we were all former sportsmen and being told that we had lost the Ashes made us all that much sharper and competitive. That was in our nature and when it went to court we were all saying, ‘We’ve got to win this bloody case.'”All the same, being reminded that hosting a Test was a granted privilege, not an inalienable right, was good for Lancashire officials who quietly accept that they had become a little complacent. So whatever emotions are felt by Old Trafford’s present hierarchy on Thursday morning, complacency is unlikely to be among them. On the contrary, Lancashire are now keen to present the best case they can for their new ground staging as many Test and one-day international matches as possible. Thus, there was manifest concern and urgency when a brief but embarrassing power cut occurred in part of the ground during last week’s FLt20 game against Yorkshire.The ground has changed significantly, more than half a century on from Jim Laker’s famous Old Trafford Test•PA PhotosDoes the new stadium have as much character as the old ground? Of course not. Or, at least, not yet. This is partly because experience often endows a place with character and only when spectators associate the new Old Trafford with games to cherish in the memory will they really think fondly of the place. What’s more, massive banks of tiered seats can be found in most Test venues now and not everywhere can be Trent Bridge. That said, while the old ground was an eccentric and endearing collection of bits and pieces, it was also a pain if you were queuing for almost anything.Ultimately, though, the story of Old Trafford’s rebirth illustrates the granite truth that heritage counts for diddly-squat in the brutal business of international cricket. When the Old Trafford hierarchy were fighting for Lancashire’s very future three or four years ago, they knew that little consideration would be given to black-and-white footage of Jim Laker modestly hitching up his flannels after taking 19 wickets against Australia in the 1956 Manchester Test, and even less to the epic battles of 1896 and 1902, both won by Australia.More recent memories of comparable richness – Benaud bowling May behind his legs in 1961; Botham’s hundred in 1981; Warne to Gatting and Gooch being given out handled ball in 1993, both watched by this journalist, who wondered if it was too late to make an honest woman of cricket writing – helped to make Old Trafford a much-loved home. If the match beginning on Thursday can produce one innings, one spell, or even one moment of comparable stature, Jim Cumbes may permit himself a quiet inward smile of satisfaction. The epic battle will have been worth it, after all.