Is the world’s top allrounder trapped in the wrong sport? Hear it from the man himself

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi21-May-2012What is the secret to being the best allrounder in the world?
Keep working hard, keep doing the right things, and try and contribute to your team.You spent a lot of your teenage years at boarding school. What are the advantages of staying away from home?
You become independent because you have to do lots of things by yourself. If you are home, your family will try and do it all for you.Did you ever cook for your parents when they came to visit you in Dhaka?
I can only cook omelettes. That is the best I can do.Tell us something we don’t know about you.
I always say what is in my heart. I try to control myself but on certain occasions I can’t hold it in. I am very emotional.Has there been a time when you lost your temper while captaining Bangladesh?
I remember during the 2011 World Cup, I made some comments against some former Bangladesh players who were critical of me. I reacted strongly. I do regret that now. At that moment it felt like the right thing, but I have grown up now, I think differently.Five-for or a hundred?
When I got the seven-wicket haul against New Zealand in Chittagong, I was ecstatic. But I will always put a hundred over a five-for because I do not need to work hard on my bowling. That is not the case when it comes to batting.Do you have a hobby outside of cricket?
I like football more than cricket, seriously. I am football-crazy. I would stay up late to follow soccer in Europe. Barcelona, always. If the team hotels do not have football on TV, I will follow it on the internet. I have never been to Camp Nou yet. Maybe next year. I would like to watch Barca play Real Madrid.Your nickname is (after the bird, the mynah). Who gave it?
I was at the High Performance Centre, where most players graduate into the Bangladesh team. Once, during a camp, Naeem Islam, one of my senior Bangladesh team-mates, started calling me for no particular reason. Tamim Iqbal ( – paunchy) and Mushfiqur Rehman ( – short) have funnier nicknames than mine.Recently you came to an Asia Cup press conference in a clown hat. What was that all about?
Someone from the crowd threw me the hat after we made the final. The press conference came immediately after the victory ride. The next match, there were so many fans with similar hats in the ground.Do you agree the Bangladeshi fan is the most emotional in the cricketing world?
Both India and Bangladesh have highly emotional fans.What’s the one question the media should be banned from asking you?
What will happen in tomorrow’s match?What is one thing you can teach Shahrukh Khan?
Perhaps I can teach him how to spin the ball. But I am a little shy in his presence because I don’t know what exactly to say.Is it true that your fans have sent you marriage proposals in blood?
It has happened once or twice. I thought the woman must be really mad. Once, I was in a restaurant, and a lady fan sent me a love letter on a piece of tissue. I did not know who she was, as I did not see her.Is there a match from the past where you wanted to be the player who turned the game on its head?
Either of the innings played by Gautam Gambhir or MS Dhoni for India during the 2011 World Cup final in Mumbai against Sri Lanka. The occasion was such that you couldn’t express it in words. They absorbed the pressure and showed they were capable of playing such an innings. I would have loved to perform in such a situation.What’s the one thing tourists should always do in Bangladesh?
Never leave before tasting , which is an amazing fish dish.What Olympic sport would you buy a ticket to watch?
The 100 metres final. I don’t have any tickets yet for the London Olympics, but if I go there I know someone will help me get in.

Kevon Cooper thought his career might be over after doubts were expressed about his bowling action, but he’s now reaping dividends in the IPL

Tariq Engineer10-Apr-2012Kevon Cooper did not expect to be here. Before the IPL began, the 23-year-old allrounder from Trinidad & Tobago was just hoping he would get a game with Rajasthan Royals. But having picked up seven wickets from his first two matches, he now finds himself in possession of the Purple Cap as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. For good measure, he hit his first ball in the IPL for six. And the second for four. It was a start beyond his wildest expectations, and is a far cry from where Cooper found himself a little over a year ago.Following the 2011 Caribbean T20, match officials raised concerns about Cooper’s bowling action, placing his cricketing future in doubt. Luckily the Trinidad & Tobago government stepped in and sent him and team-mate Sunil Narine to the University of Western Australia in Perth to remodel their actions under the supervision of ICC-approved experts in biomechanics.Over the course of ten days, using a combination of biomechanical tests and remedial exercises, Cooper practised mornings and evenings to re-learn the seemingly simple art of bowling a cricket ball. He recalled sitting in his room confused and depressed, wondering whether his career was over before it had even really begun. “That was a very difficult time for me,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “[But] it taught me to never give up.”Cooper comes from a footballing family. One of his brothers, Kevin Molina, was part of T&T’s squad that played in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the London Olympics.* Cooper grew up playing football as well but was persuaded by his father, a cricket fan, to switch his allegiance. When he was picked for the T&T Under-19 squad, he left football behind. Then he found himself in Perth, his cricket career hanging in the balance.His determination paid off and a rejuvenated Cooper was cleared to play in the Champions League T20 for T&T later the same year. His spinning team-mates, Narine and Samuel Badree, may have grabbed the headlines during that tournament, but Cooper was almost as effective. Mixing up the speeds of his medium-pacers to good effect, he took five wickets in six games while conceding just 5.29 runs an over. “The wickets in India suit my bowling,” Cooper said, explaining that though they are slow, so are the wickets in the Caribbean. “It’s not like when Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall were bowling.” Cooper was explosive with the bat too. Coming in at No. 7, he posted a Gayle-esque strike rate of 191.17, with an average of 21.66.It was these attributes that drew the attention of the Royals, who bought him for $50,000 in the IPL player auction earlier this year. “We had done a thorough analysis on him, especially on his Champions League performances,” Raghu Iyer, the franchise’s chief executive, said. “The coaching staff was extremely impressed. It was based on their insistence that we bid for him.”With so many better-known cricketers in the side though, Cooper wasn’t about to get carried away with earning an IPL contract; he was prepared to wait his turn. But the Royals had other plans for him.The team lacked a big hitter down the order last season. When Cooper met Rahul Dravid and the coaching staff, he was told that was the role they wanted him to fill as an allrounder.Cooper admitted to being nervous in his first game. “Any player will tell you there are a few butterflies when you take the field, especially in front of such big crowds,” he said. A wicket in his first over – Paul Valthaty sliced a full toss to third man – quickly settled his nerves and Cooper proceeded to strike in each of his next three overs to finish with 4 for 26, ensuring the Royals got off to a winning start. He followed that up with 3 for 28 against Kolkata Knight Riders as Rajasthan climbed to the top of the points table (albeit very early in the season).Cooper simply wants to build on his first few performances and contribute to the team in any way he can. He would like to avoid being classified only as a T20 specialist, however, as some have come to think of him. Cooper harbours ambitions of playing international cricket in all formats (his idol is fellow Trinidadian Brian Lara).Having played 31 T20 matches before making his first-class debut in March, though, he is aware he will have to overcome that stereotype. While he had a forgettable opening game against Jamaica, he made a crucial 58 in the first-innings against Guyana to ensure T&T picked up the six points for a first-innings lead. “I hope that showed Trinidad & Tobago and West Indies that I can play first-class cricket,” he said.When he decided to pursue cricket at the expense of football, Cooper said, there were plenty of people who questioned whether he had made the right decision. After his performances in the Champions League and now the IPL, his choice is clearly turning out to be the right one.07:13 GMT, April 12: The article has been updated to reflect that the T&T football squad didn’t qualify for the 2012 Olympics

The dramatisation of the Packer affair is just as exciting as all the drama that unfolded 35 years ago

Brydon Coverdale02-Sep-2012There is a scene in in which John Cornell goes behind Packer’s back to organise an advertising blitz for World Series Cricket, having the “C’mon Aussie C’mon” campaign played ad infinitum on Channel Nine at the expense of paid advertisements. It’s tempting to wonder if Cornell was in charge of the ads during Nine’s coverage of the Olympics this year, so pervasive were the promos for Both bombardments worked. World Series Cricket gradually gained momentum and eventually thrived, but there was no such slow start for the two-part drama .It made for fascinating viewing. The re-creation of the late 1970s was vivid – safari suits and moustaches all round – and the performances generally convincing. Lachy Hulme stacked on the kilograms to play Packer, who was portrayed as a menacing employer and a man who would always get what he wanted – eventually. Despite his frequent abusive outbursts, Packer was cast as the hero and the cricket authorities as the stuffy, clichéd villains who wouldn’t give the players a fair go.The portrayal – or non-portrayal – of Don Bradman was intriguing. Though he is never seen in , references are made by the Australian Cricket Board administrators to phone calls from Bradman and the inference is that his words – initially anti-Packer and in the end conciliatory – are not to be ignored. The then-ACB chairman Bob Parish, as represented in the show, notes that Bradman is “good at sniffing the breeze”.Thirty-five years on, the politics of World Series Cricket are still open to debate. After the first instalment of was aired, the batsman Gary Cosier, portrayed as a naïve young man who could not work out what was going on around him, spoke in a radio interview of his belief that he was not given a World Series Cricket contract because he voted against a player strike in South Australia several years earlier, which had stuck in the mind of WSC captain Ian Chappell.Cosier also spoke in the media of his loneliness during the 1977 Ashes tour, shortly before the news of WSC broke. “At one stage in England I was waiting in a bar for my team-mates to come downstairs, but because everyone was up the street with Packer, they never came,” Cosier told the . “The portrayal of me in the TV show is fairly close. There is a little bit of a hole in my heart there, but I’m not prepared to make the hole get any bigger.”Several other portrayals were spot-on. Alexander England, an Australian actor, embodied the South African-born Englishman Tony Greig; Peter Houghton captured some of Richie Benaud’s facial expressions and mannerisms brilliantly; and Brendan Cowell seemed born to play Rod Marsh. You’d swear you were looking at Max Walker when Andrew Carbone is on screen, though he barely has a line. And it would be remarkable if Hulme does not win awards for his work as Packer.Not that the series was perfect. Some aspects of the two-part saga were fictionalised and the actual cricket shown, though generally believable, occasionally grated, no more so than when Dennis Lillee ran in to bowl to Clive Lloyd and “Lloyd” square-drives for four – batting right-handed instead of left-handed. The eagle-eyed cricket fan will also spot the occasional Victoria player on camera as “cricket doubles” for the actors; at one point Clive Rose plays a World XI spinner who gets hit for six.Rose is from a generation who would know of World Series Cricket through hearing about it or reading about it, but did not live through it. For those viewers especially, is a fascinating dramatisation of the tumult that engulfed cricket 35 years ago. It is a reminder that Twenty20 and the IPL are drops in the ocean compared to the Packer revolution. And those who are old enough to remember the era enjoyed reliving it.The technological advances brought on by World Series Cricket and its televisual demands are an interesting sideline, including when Lillee struggles for form and then makes changes to his run-up having analysed it on screen, or when the TV producers find a novel way of keeping pitch microphones from getting wet, sheathing the equipment in a condom. They clearly didn’t use the same method for the cameras, so fast did they multiply in number.Whether these events happened exactly as they are portrayed is not especially relevant, for is a piece of entertainment, not a documentary. Above all, it is about capturing an era and telling a story, and that it does superbly. Even if Clive Lloyd was transformed into a right-hander.Howzat: Kerry Packer’s War
Channel Nine

At 24, Matthew Wade is set to become Australia’s youngest first-choice Test wicketkeeper since Ian Healy

Brydon Coverdale28-Oct-2012Matthew Wade is expected to be installed as Australia’s full-time Test wicketkeeper on Monday when the selectors name the squad for the first Test against South Africa, which starts at the Gabba on November 9. The choice between Wade and Brad Haddin was the major decision for John Inverarity’s panel over the past few weeks, with the top six having been locked in since Australia’s last Test six months ago and the wider bowling group remaining settled.Ed Cowan will retain his position at the top of the order alongside David Warner, while the rest of the batting group – Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey – will also remain in place. The bowling unit will be led by Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus and the squad is expected to also feature James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon, with Pat Cummins more likely to come into contention later in the series.

Possible squad for first Test

David Warner, Ed Cowan, Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke (capt), Michael Hussey, Matthew Wade (wk), Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon

The choice between Haddin and Wade did not appear clear-cut when both men were given Cricket Australia contracts in June. But Wade is expected to win the battle and was told by Australia’s physio Alex Kountouris to rest from Sunday’s Ryobi Cup match at the MCG, after suffering a minor injury to his thumb during last week’s Sheffield Shield match, although he will play this week’s Shield game for Victoria.”I got a hit on my thumb during the week in the Shield game and spoke to the medical staff and I made myself available but they told me to have a rest,” Wade said on on Sunday. “I had a hit yesterday and everything felt fine, I just spoke to Alex Kountouris and they decided to give me a rest.”I’m pretty relaxed. I’ve done everything that I can do in Shield cricket. Fingers crossed I get that opportunity … Hadds is a terrific player and I’ve hopefully done enough to get that opportunity but we’ll know tomorrow.”Wade is the incumbent gloveman having been given a chance in April in the West Indies, where he played all three Tests and finished the series with a Man-of-the-Match performance in Dominica, where his first-innings 106 set up Australia’s series-winning victory. However, Wade only earned his baggy green after Haddin had flown home before the first Test in Barbados to be with his ill daughter Mia.Until that point, Haddin had been Australia’s incumbent Test keeper for four years, missing only five matches through injury in 2009 and 2010, when Graham Manou and Tim Paine filled in. But on virtually every criterion, Wade deserves to be given the gloves for the Gabba Test, the start of Australia’s battle with South Africa for the No.1 Test ranking.Haddin, 35, is nearing the end of his career while Wade, 24, has a long future ahead of him. Not since Ian Healy joined the side at 24 in 1988 have Australia had a full-time Test wicketkeeper so young, and Healy provided them with more than a decade of sturdiness behind the stumps. The time is right to give Wade an extended run in the side, while there remains an abundance of experience in the middle order. Wade and Warner will be the only two men aged under 30 in Australia’s top seven.But age is far from Wade’s only advantage. Over the past five years with Victoria, he has earned a reputation as the kind of man any team would like to walk to the crease in a crisis. His Test century in Dominica came after he joined Michael Hussey with Australia wobbling at 5 for 157, and he impressed Inverarity with 89 for Victoria earlier this month, after he walked out onto the Gabba at 4 for 39.”It shows what a very good batsman Matthew Wade is,” Inverarity said of the innings. “That innings, in the context of that game was the match-winner. They [Queensland] bowled very well in helpful conditions and that 89 was a very significant batting performance.”Notably, Wade’s record is best at the Gabba and Bellerive Oval – arguably the two toughest domestic pitches in Australia. His glovework is very good – it has improved enormously since he first appeared on the Sheffield Shield scene – and with 55 first-class matches and nearly 3000 runs to his name, lack of experience is not an issue.Wade’s case was strengthened because Haddin’s past year has been far from his best. His 114 for New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield last month, before he headed to South Africa for the Champions League Twenty20, was impressive, but against India last summer he was disappointing with bat and gloves. And his reckless slash outside off in Cape Town last November, when Australia were 5 for 18, is hard to forget.That South African tour also provided Cummins with his first taste of Test cricket and he was Man of the Match on debut in Johannesburg. However, he has not played a first-class match since, last summer due to injury and this season because of his short-format duties with Australia and the Sydney Sixers. There is a chance he will be named in a 13-man squad for the Gabba, but he is unlikely to be a realistic Test option until he has some red-ball cricket behind him.Australia’s plans to rotate their young fast bowlers this summer will bring Cummins, 19, into contention later in the South African series. At the Gabba, Australia are likely to play Siddle and Hilfenhaus, with Pattinson, the leading wicket taker so far this Shield season, as the third fast man. Starc should only be considered if conditions are excessively favourable to the pace bowlers, while the injured Ryan Harris won’t be available until the series against Sri Lanka.Almost every year since the retirement of Shane Warne, there has been pre-match speculation that Australia will play an all-pace attack at the Gabba, which is always friendly to the seamers in Sheffield Shield matches. But Brisbane generally provides a better surface in Test cricket and last summer the offspinner Lyon took seven wickets in the Gabba Test, and he deserves to be part of the starting XI again.The first Test will also provide Cowan with an opportunity to make the opening position his own after he missed out on a central contract this year. However, should Cowan stumble early in the South African series he will come under pressure, most likely from the resurgent Phillip Hughes, who has tightened up his technique and is still viewed by the selectors as a Test player of the future.

So far this series has taught Australia several lessons – some useful, some less relevant – which they will do well to remember when the challenges of the India tour and the Ashes roll around

Brydon Coverdale at the MCG28-Dec-2012Australia have retained the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy. Was it ever going to be any other way? In Hobart, Sri Lanka showed enough fight to drag Michael Clarke’s men into the final session of day five. At the MCG they barely reached the halfway point of the Test. In the stands, spectators were surprised at the rapidity of the finish. Some were only there because they feared the match would not reach day four, when they had intended to come. It was a wise change of plans.Such a one-sided victory might give Australia’s fans reason to celebrate, but what does it really mean for an Australian outfit that next year flies to India for four Tests and then faces the prospect of back-to-back Ashes battles? In that context, the victories themselves mean little. In 2009-10, Australia won seven of eight Tests at home and in New Zealand, but that was irrelevant when they lost in India later that year and were then obliterated by England.Still, over the past two Tests, Australia have learnt some useful lessons. Some are new – that Jackson Bird is good enough for Test cricket, for example. Others – including that Shane Watson’s body cannot handle significant bowling loads – were timely reminders of past realisations. The challenge for John Inverarity and his selection panel, and for Clarke and Mickey Arthur in their management of the side, is to sift through the lessons to find those with significance for the coming year.The emergence of Bird is unquestionably one that is relevant to the Ashes. A tall, accurate bowler who works with both seam and swing, moving the ball both ways, Bird might not be the next Glenn McGrath but Australia will be happy if he is the next Stuart Clark. He was unfazed by the big Boxing Day crowd and his building of pressure was critical. It was a Ben Hilfenhaus role, and he did it better than Hilfenhaus has this summer. He should be strongly considered for the tour of England.So should Mitchell Starc. The way he bowled on the final day against Sri Lanka in Hobart would have troubled any batsmen from any Test side. His yorkers were dangerous, he moved the ball in the air, he attacked the stumps and he bowled Australia to victory. Not that Australia are short of quality fast bowlers. Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Pat Cummins and Ryan Harris will all be jostling for Ashes roles.As will Mitchell Johnson. How relevant was his Man-of-the-Match performance at the MCG? Moderately. He was fast, aggressive, awkward and impressively accurate. But few batting line-ups would handle such an assault as poorly as Sri Lanka’s batsmen did in this game. Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook will be a vastly different challenge.Johnson works as part of Australia’s rotation system. Bring him in, set him loose, rest him. And the rotation system works when the bowling depth is there, and against weaker opposition. It is hard to imagine Australia resting fit fast bowlers during an Ashes tour. How would this more mature Johnson handle the pressure of being part of Australia’s first-choice attack throughout an Ashes series? That remains to be seen, and no piles of wickets against Sri Lanka can tell us.

It is significant that the Australians have included Glenn Maxwell in the squad for the Sydney Test. If Nathan Lyon continues to bowl a flatter, containing trajectory, and if Maxwell shows he can do the same job, Lyon will be under pressure. Who would you rather have in an Ashes series – a containing offspinner with a first-class batting average of 11.96, or one averaging 42?

Australia have also learnt that Watson can still not be relied upon to bowl a significant number of overs. In Hobart, he sent down 47.4 overs, easily his biggest workload in a Test. Surprise, surprise, he broke down in Melbourne. Just what to do with Watson remains one of Australia’s biggest quandaries. He is good enough for Test cricket. He is the vice-captain. But is he good enough if he doesn’t bowl? He would need to lift his output of runs. If he does bowl, he provides a useful wicket-taking option, but also forces batting reshuffles every time he is injured. There is no easy answer. Most likely, Clarke will use his medium-pace more sparingly than ever.Clarke also needs to think about what he asks of Nathan Lyon. At the MCG, Lyon was almost irrelevant, bowling 7.4 overs and only removing tailenders. In Hobart, his final-day bowling was too fast, lacked guile, and allowed Sri Lanka’s batsmen to defend with ease. He bowled the same way in Adelaide against South Africa. Before Boxing Day, he said he was in constant dialogue with Clarke about his speed. The captain needs to encourage Lyon back to the flight he displayed earlier in his Test career. Unlike the fast men, his big challenges will come in India more than England, and against quality players of spin. Lyon has some work to do.It is significant that the Australians have included Glenn Maxwell in the squad for the Sydney Test. If Lyon continues to bowl a flatter, containing trajectory, and if Maxwell shows he can do the same job, Lyon will be under pressure. Who would you rather have in an Ashes series – a containing offspinner with a first-class batting average of 11.96, or one averaging 42? That’s why Lyon must regain his wicket-taking style. He is the best spinner in the country, he just needs to remind everyone of it. Maxwell’s challenge next week is to show that he can be more than a Steve Smith type bits-and-pieces player.On the batting front, the Sri Lanka series has so far taught Australia little. Clarke has continued to show why he is the No. 1 batsman in the world, but he will be judged on whether he can maintain that form away from home next year. Phillip Hughes has had insufficient opportunities to prove himself in his third incarnation as a Test batsman. Ed Cowan and David Warner have continued to develop and Michael Hussey remains in outstanding form. But runs against a struggling Sri Lanka attack have little relevance to the upcoming challenges.At the SCG, Australia’s management needs to have one eye on the India and England battles. That is not disrespectful to Sri Lanka. This series is decided. It has offered some useful lessons, and some irrelevant ones. And over five days in Sydney next week, Australia have one last chance to learn.

Plays of the day from the first day of the first Test between India and England in Ahmedabad

George Dobell in Ahmedabad15-Nov-2012Detail of the day
If anyone knows about the strengths of the England attack, it is their former coach, Duncan Fletcher. It was under Fletcher than the England team first mastered the skill of reverse swing. It helped them win the Ashes in 2005 and it has been a key part of their armoury ever since. So we should not be surprised that Fletcher, ever one to focus on details, ensured that the Ahmedabad outfield was unusually green and lush. Not only that, but there were no used pitches on the square and nothing else abrasive that may have accelerated the wear of the ball. So, instead of finding reverse swing as early as the 10th over as they did in the warm-up game against Haryana, England were forced to wait until tea before gaining any real assistance.Drop of the day
Virat Kohli was on just four when Jonathan Trott, a new face at slip, failed to cling on to a tough one-handed chance, to his left off the bowling of Graeme Swann. Kohli had endured a tough start to his innings – he did not get off the mark until he had faced 30 deliveries and, perhaps frustrated, attempted to cut but edged to Trott. The decision went to the third umpire after Trott, who lost control of the ball as he turned, allowed it to bounce and then found it in his forearms, admitting he was not sure if he had held on to it. It meant all the pressure England – and Swann and James Anderson, in particular – had built up upon Kohli was wasted.Telling moment of the day
The ball from Tim Bresnan was not that short. Nor was it that wide. But such was Virender Sehwag’s confidence on a pitch of minimal bounce that he had the time – and the power – to pull it through mid-on with an ease that bordered on the disdainful. It underlined the lack of pace and bounce in the wicket and the tiny margin for error high quality batsmen will allow in such conditions. England’s bowlers, with one or two honourable exceptions, were not up to the challenge. Sehwag hit the next ball for six back over Bresnan’s head to underline his dominance.Misjudgement of the day
Cheteshwar Pujara was on eight when he mistimed a stroke off Bresnan and saw his leading edge loop in the air towards mid-on. Anderson, sensing the chance, dashed in only to realise he had over-committed himself and the ball was dropping agonisingly out of reach behind him. He tried to backpedal but it was too late. The ball fell to ground and Pujara hardly played another false stroke on the way to stumps unbeaten on 98. Sehwag, on 80, was also dropped by Matt Prior, down the leg side off Anderson.Stroke of the day
It says much for Pujara’s abundant class that his batting bears such striking resemblance to Rahul Dravid. While only time will tell if Pujara has the defensive technique to survive against all bowlers in all conditions, he certainly has some of The Wall’s attacking flair. One drive through extra-cover bore the hallmark of real class: seizing on a fraction of extra flight from Swann, Pujara skipped down the wicket and drove beautifully between the fielders. It was a fine shot and typical of a fine innings.Debut of the day
Nick Compton has taken the scenic route to international cricket but, aged 29, he received his first cap from Graham Gooch before the start of play. Compton is just the second man, after Chris Tremlett, to follow his grandfather into the England side. Denis Compton played for England between 1937 and 1957, while Maurice Tremlett played three Tests in 1948.Milestone of the day
There was not too much to cheer about for England on the first day of this game. But at least Swann, who offered control and bite for England, finished with four wickets and overtook Jim Laker’s tally of 193 Test victims. That means Swann has taken more Test wickets than any other England offspinner. Swann went past Laker with the wicket of Sehwag, who was bowled attempting to sweep. Bearing in mind that no other England bowler has yet taken a wicket, perhaps Swann may yet surpass Laker’s more memorable record: 19 wickets in a single Test, achieved against Australia in 1956.

From Brendan Layton, Australia Australia has been blessed with plenty of determined and classy captains

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013Brendan Layton, Australia
Australia has been blessed with plenty of determined and classy captains. From the original skipper Dave Gregory, to the classy all-rounder and now legendary commentator Richie Benaud, and on to the strong-willed and canny Ian Chappell. In arguably Australia’s greatest cricketing age, there have been four that have taken on the challenge: Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. All had unique skills and abilities, and all were determine individuals.On pure ability, Punter is miles ahead of the other three, while Tubby was the least gifted. AB and Tugga were decent all-rounders in their prime, but Punter and Tubby were highly gifted fieldsmen. Their respective terms of leadership were also highly unique and reflective of their character.AB was probably the most singled-minded of them all, probably based on the fact he played during Australia’s lowest ebb and then worked his hardest to get the team back to the top. Ponting and Waugh have been in charge during Australia’s dominance in the last eight years or so. But they inherited a team that had already claimed the top spot. The man who set that chain of events off was Mark Taylor, close to, if not already, Australia’s greatest test captain.Taylor inherited a strong team from Allan Border that had established itself well and then set the wheels in motion to make that squad invincible. During his time Warne and McGrath came of age, players such as Steve Waugh came into their prime, and they churned out talent at a time that could have enabled two strong Australian teams to run around.Taylor was the most balanced captain of the four. He was bright, energetic, generous and highly diplomatic. At the same time he could also be utterly ruthless without being downright cruel. He was immensely respected for his courage and tenacity, and tactically he was not merely astute, but can be considered one of the finest visionaries of his time.Taylor did what no Australian skipper had done since Ian Chappell in 1972-73 and toppled the West Indies in the West Indies, thus establishing themselves as the undoubted world champions, a position they still hold. He is held is such high regard by those he led that they consider him the finest captain they have played under. Such a credit is not to be taken lightly in Australia’s golden era, but it could go to no better player than the lad from Wagga Wagga.

How can you not be irked by the outbreak of dawdling on day three in Kolkata?

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013Yesterday’s play was not the most riveting. India were improved but still, for the first half of the day in particular, mostly passive, unthreatening and devoid of expectation. England had no need or inclination to take the initiative until Pietersen came in, as Cook, batting with none of the fluency he showed on day two, and Trott, forcing himself back into form in a turgid but valuable innings, consolidated English dominance. Neither side took a single risk, and with no sense of contest, intensity, drama or jeopardy, the cricket was tedious. The game livened up later in the day with a few wickets, some belated Indian enterprise, and some enterprising batting by England’s fast-scoring middle order, but the sense remained that India were content to minimise damage and wait for either declaration or for ten wickets to materialise out of the ether.All in all it was largely an unremarkable and predictable day, enlivened by a comically fluffed caught-and-bowled chance batted to the turf by the weird run-out of Cook, and good, brisk innings by Pietersen, Patel and Prior that snuffed out any hope India had of restricting the English lead to vaguely manageable proportions on a pitch showing increasingly inconsistent bounce and progressively sharper turn.Ishant’s drop was truly spectacular. Was it a moment of heroic incompetence, or the first sign of the Indian fightback, a renewed determination to avoid defeat and battle for the draw? Cook mistimed a defensive push, and the ball looped slowly back towards the bowler. Ishant had enough time whilst the ball was somnolently parabolising towards him to have a nightmarish vision of being carted to all corners of Eden Gardens by a rampant Pietersen, and England’s total cavorting to 600 by close of play. He swiftly, and understandably, decided that he would rather be more controllably dinked to all corners by a remorseless Cook, and duly spannered the catch. Strategic brilliance, or rank fielding ineptitude? You decide.Play overran by only five minutes yesterday, but given that there were 18 overs bowled in the first hour, not many wickets fell, and 63 of the 90 overs were bowled by spinners ‒ including 31 by Ojha, who has almost no run-up ‒ it took a frankly superhuman effort by all concerned to slow the pace of play down sufficiently to avoid giving the spectators any bonus overs that they had not paid for.Manfully leading the time-wasting charge, as so often, were the umpires, moving at such a sub-funereal pace that it seemed they were trying not to disturb any pregnant worms that might be resting in the Eden Gardens soil, walking in from square leg in between overs with the demeanour and pace of a 95-year-old shuffling to his medicine cabinet in the middle of the night. They stood idly by, wondering about the origins of the universe whilst action-unpacked minutes were taken slightly resetting the field, or 40 seconds of everyone just standing around doing nothing for no reason at the start of an over, apparently waiting for the blue sky above the stand behind the bowler’s arm to move away, or some kind of divine intervention to help the persevering but thoroughly conquered Ashwin take a wicket.Midway through the afternoon session, the cricket almost reached a point of suspended animation. The Indian 12th, 13th and 14th men sauntered onto the field with drinks for the team. Twelve minutes before the scheduled drinks break. Everyone stood around having a nice chat. The umpires watched this happen, thinking, “Oh, look at that. They’re having a drinks break they shouldn’t be having. That looks nice. They seem to be having a lovely time.” Then, just as the Indians were finishing their subsidiary drinks break, England’s 12th and 13th men, concerned about missing out on the fun, also trotted into the arena with drinks for Trott and Cook. The umpires eventually seemed to suggest to the players that they should perhaps maybe, at some point in the not-too-distant future, consider getting on with the cricket. No one took any notice. Played eventually restarted.Two balls later, Trott was out – a tactical masterstroke by Dhoni, clearly, applying the age-old if scientifically unproven adage “Drinks break always takes a wicket”, by calling an unscheduled extra drinks break.A few minutes later, the scheduled drinks break was taken. It took precisely six minutes and five seconds, the last 40 seconds of which appeared to involved the umpires waiting for TV clearance to restart. Shortly after this, Zaheer came on to bowl. He and Dhoni spent two minutes setting the field at the start of the over. Then, between balls three and four, they reconvened for 90-second conference to reset the field. Ball five brought the Cook run-out. Perhaps he was discombobulated by the action having slowed to a crawl and assumed that Kohli’s throw would also be in slow motion. Perhaps he was the victim of an intricately planned and perfectly executed Indian masterplan over eight hours of low-octane out-cricket, an ambush strategy that lulled Cook into ruling out a brilliant piece of fielding from his mental calculations, leaving him fatally vulnerable to this isolated moment of vigour and accuracy by an Indian fielder.That single Zaheer over, with all the fiddling around, then the assorted earnest discussions about the run-out, took 11 minutes. Including a bit of time for Umpire Tucker to forget that it should only have six balls in it, rather than allowing it to go on for ever, as it seemed destined to, and almost allow a seventh ball, then spend another half a minute or so having a natter with the third umpire to clarify the situation.All in all, cricket has greater issues to address than slow play. What makes it so frustrating as a spectator, however, is that it is so unnecessary, so easily resolved, and is becoming progressively worse with the infinite range for needless microbreaks in 21st-century play. The endemic dawdling in top-level cricket could easily be resolved, and, if it were, the spectacle of the game would be improved for spectators both in the grounds and on television. The authorities evidently care little for this. The umpires even less. Players, in all sports, generally do what they are allowed to do.

In which the next generation of Zaltzmans gets enthusiastic about the shortest form of the game

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013Thank you for your responses to last week’s blog on English interest in the IPL, which provoked some lively and varied reactions. Some agreed with my viewpoints, others did not. Some in a more strongly worded manner than others. Several Indian readers expressed a similar lack of emotional connection with the tournament, some from elsewhere in the cricketing world have fallen for the new-fangled charms of the talent-packed short-form spectacular.The IPL continues to be the biggest issue in the game at the moment. It clearly arouses strong and divergent opinions, in India and outside. I do not, however, think there is any element of “English jealousy” involved. Test match fans the world over – whether they love, hate, or remain undecided about Twenty20 as a format ‒ are rightly concerned about the impact it is having, and will inevitably continue to have, on the game they love. Its effects have already been seen in international schedules, team line-ups, players’ techniques, and the volume and unchangeability of the excitement in the voices of stadium announcers.Clearly, T20 and the IPL have done and will do much good for the game globally. They could also, in some ways, do irreparable harm. The balls are, literally and metaphorically, up in the air, swirling around in the floodlights after cricket took an almighty swish with its eyes partially closed, and we do not yet know if those balls will land safely pouched in our hands, splash messily into our plastic beer glasses, or plummet hard and fast straight on the bridge of our cricket-loving nose. Or a combination of all three. The anxieties many people have about the future of the game are nothing to do with national affiliation.A final footnote to last week’s piece (which, I would like to stress, I did not intend to be an “anti-IPL” piece, still less an “anti-Indian” one, nor do I think it was one)… During my children’s supper time on Monday evening, we watched the closing stages of the republican-minded IPL fan’s nightmare match-up between Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals, won easily by Bangalore after some characteristically brilliant striking by the Virtuoso of the Veldt, AB de Villiers.My children, aged five and three, asked a range of questions of varying pertinence, from “Is he out?”, “Why has that man got big gloves on?”, and “Why do the blue team keep hitting the ball in the air?”, to “Whatever happened to getting your foot to the pitch of the ball, keeping your front elbow high, and stroking the ball along the ground?” (The last of those questions may, on reflection, have been asked not by my offspring but by the ghost of Gubby Allen, who had popped round unexpectedly for a cup of tea and a quick haunt.)With a few overs remaining, my daughter chose to support the Royal Challengers, largely because I told her they were by this stage definitely going to win, but partly also because I had been to Bangalore. We have therefore picked the RCB as our team for the rest of the tournament, thus giving us the not-quite-umbilical emotional connection to an IPL franchise that I wrote about English viewers generally lacking. I am taking her to the tattoo parlour tomorrow morning to have a portrait of Vinay Kumar inked indelibly onto her bicep. Whilst I go into surgery to attempt to have my hair rendered as gloriously luxuriant as Zaheer Khan’s. It may be a long operation.These early encounters with cricket can prove deeply influential – my children may well grow up thinking that RCB’s four-wicket hero KP Appanna is the greatest bowler in the history of the game, just as I grew up convinced that Chris Tavaré was the inviolable blueprint for the art of batsmanship.After supper, we retired to the children’s bedroom, armed with a plastic cricket bat and ball, and for the first time in their young lives, the junior Zaltzmans showed genuine interest when their daddy tried to make them play cricket. My son displayed a penchant for leg-side drives that can only have come from his mother’s side of the family (if he had sliced everything through gully, any paternity issues would have been verifiably laid to rest), whilst my daughter clonked a straight six ‒ all the way to the curtain on the other side of the room, a mighty carry of some 10 or 12 feet ‒ of which Ian Botham himself would have been proud. If their strokeplay was a little on the agricultural side of the MCC Coaching Manual, their youth and inexperience can probably be held responsible more than the IPL hoicking they had just been watching.Would the same youthful enthusiasm have been created if I had switched over to the West Indies v Australia Test match? Probably not. The children’s questions would certainly have been different – “Why aren’t they hitting the ball in the air?”; “Whatever happened to the concept of risk-taking initiative in Australian batsmanship?”; “Why are both teams wearing white?”; “Why are you so interested in this, daddy?”; and “Why isn’t Chris Gayle playing?” To all of which, the answers would have been: “It’s complicated, darling. It’s complicated. Eat your broccoli.”● Australia’s left-arm tweaker Michael Beer is few people’s idea of the spiritual descendant of McGrath, Lillee, Davidson, Lindwall and Spofforth. But last week, in just his second Test, he became the latest addition to the illustrious line of baggy green new-ball tearaways. History will probably judge Beer to not have been the most terrifying opening bowler in the history of Test cricket, particularly on the ground where Curtly Ambrose’s soul-curdling new-ball spell in 1994 obliterated the cream of English batsmanship like a divorced steamroller squishing the bowl of satsumas that had run off with its wife.Nonetheless, Beer became the first Aussie spinner to bowl the first ball of a Test match since Bill O’Reilly in 1938, and ‒ possibly ‒ the first spinner to bowl the first over in both innings of a Test match since 1909.Possibly, but not definitely. My dear, dear friend Statsguru, a trusted and loyal companion on many journeys through the strangely chirping jungles of cricket statistics, a source of refuge and comfort in an increasingly troublesome world, enables the curious-minded (by which I mean, those with nothing better to do) to tick a box to find only statistics relating to those defined as “spin bowlers”. The Guru and I therefore searched for tweakmen who had bowled the first over in two innings of a Test. This is the result of that search. The almost-all-knowing Statsguru lists 1960s Indian batting stylist and part-time bowler ML Jaisimha as the only other spinner to have bowled the first over in both innings of a Test since mystery wrist spinner Douglas Carr did so for England in his only Test, at The Oval in 1909. I conveyed this information to an understandably ambivalent universe via Twitter, the 21st-century’s version of shouting at traffic.Moments later, thanks to the magic of technology, the renowned Indian cricket writer Ayaz Memon had tweeted back to inform me that Jaisimha, in defiance of his official Statsguru accreditation, had also bowled seamers on a fairly regular basis, proving that, sometimes at least, human beings, with their rather more nuanced memory chips, still have the edge over computers.Ayaz described Jaisimha as a childhood hero (as he also was, apparently, to Sunil Gavaskar), who was “stylish, charismatic, an astute captain, and loads of fun” (qualities which Michael Beer may or may not prove to share, although the early two-Test evidence of his career is that he probably does not share all of them).I admit that Jaisimha had been little more to me than a name on vaguely remembered scorecards, before Ayaz furnished me with this microbiography hinting at an engrossing cricketer. The internet is a remarkable tool that enables the human race to share everything instantly and globally ‒ its life-changing scientific discoveries, its revolutionary innovations, its artistic creations, its political movements, its boobs, and most importantly, its articles about cricketers from times gone by, from an age before Jaisimha’s Test average of 30 would have been dissected, harangued and yelped about on message boards and chat forums. So here is some more on Jai, a player who clearly enchanted his contemporaries as well as confused the mighty Statsguru.Duly corrected, I returned to a chastened and apologetic Statsguru and broadened the search remit to include that most enigmatic of bowling categories – “mixture/unknown”. And I can (almost) confirm that it is (perhaps) a fact that Beer is (in all probability) the first spinner to bowl the first ball in both innings of a Test Match for over 100 years. He might not be, but he probably is, and at the very least he is now entitled to treat himself by slapping on a Dennis Lillee headband, twizzling out a Fred Spofforth moustache, and going to bed in commemorative Ray Lindwall pyjamas. Even if he has been left out of the third Test.

The Official Confectionery Stall prediction for the series in the UAE

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013As I write, Pakistan and England are hours away from resuming a rivalry that has sparked some of our great sport’s most cantankerous cricket and least savoury squabbles. This time, hopefully, tempers will be tempered, and the cricket will not be an incidental curtain raiser to the controversy.Provided that the Gulf pitches are not unremittingly somnolent ‒ and they have had a tendency to display the spritely vigour of a hypnotised and hibernating walrus ‒ the cricket should be compelling. Pakistan have been stable and steady, if not resurgent, and are unbeaten in six series since the legal blooper at Lord’s, although of those series, only one was against a team ranked in the top five in the world (a not-especially-thrilling nil-nil draw with South Africa in the Gulf late in 2010, the highlights of which have not been challenging the top of the DVD bestseller charts).England, meanwhile, have had a prolonged Test break after a nine-month period in which they annihilated two of their greatest rivals. For the previous couple of years, England had veered between brilliance and debacle, as if they had read Rudyard Kipling’s smash-hit poem “If”, taken on board his suggestion that they should seek to treat the two impostors Triumph and Disaster just the same, and therefore attempted to spend plenty of quality time with both of them in turn. They then decided that Triumph was the preferable impostor to hang around with, and have since scaled peaks of performance dominance untouched by English cricketers for generations.This dominance has been founded principally on high-class swing bowling ‒ which will be a less potent force in the billionaires’ sandpit that is Dubai ‒ supported by a batting line-up that has pulled off one of the most startling collective improvements of recent times, feeding off each other’s successes and confidence like lions at an all-you-can-eat zebra buffet.Some stats: In England’s three major series before last winter’s Ashes (v Australia in 2009, South Africa in 2009-10, and Pakistan in 2010), only Jonathan Trott averaged over 38, with Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen below 30. In England’s three major series after that (Ashes 2010-11, and against Sri Lanka and India last summer), five of England’s regular top seven have averaged over 50, with Cook and Ian Bell close to 100. Were they underachieving wildly before, or are they overachieving wildly now? Probably a little bit of both. This year should provide a reasonably reliable answer, and Pakistan in the UAE should offer a stern challenge for a side that is reaching for greatness.The official Confectionery Stall series prediction: England to win 1-0, provided they are not distracted by wondering how and why Dubai came to be full of so many empty skyscrapers. Or scuppered by the wiles of Saeed Ajmal. Or neutered by the heat and pitches. Or about to embark on a startling collective dis-improvement. Or possessed by a sudden urge to abandon the seven-batsman-four-bowler strategy that has served them so well. In which case, they will win 2-1. Possibly. Or it might be 1-1. Depending on what happens, and who does what, and when they do it.One to watch (England): Monty PanesarHe has been out of the England side for so long that it is easy to forget that Panesar was once much more than a bizarrely (and very intermittently) stylish No. 11 batsman, who in effect won the 2009 Ashes single-handedly. He was for a couple of years, against everyone other than India, a bowler of skill and penetration, and England’s most consistently effective spinner since Derek Underwood. He was then surpassed by the new England’s most consistently effective spinner since Derek Underwood, Graeme Swann.Panesar is 29, with 125 Test and 500 first-class wickets under his specialist belt. With away series in the UAE, Sri Lanka and India, 2012 is a good year for him to be entering his tweaking prime. (Although his record in Tests in Asia is hopeless.) (But those Tests were quite a long time ago now.) (And England might not pick him anyway.) (Predictive punditry is pointless.) (What am I doing with my life?)One to watch (Pakistan): Azhar AliAzhar Ali is a throwback, a one-man war against 21st-century batting fripperies, a defiant protector of the coaching manual. Of the 55 top-seven batsmen who have played ten Tests this decade, Azhar has the second slowest scoring rate, behind only Tharanga Paranavitana. Throughout his 18-Test career, Azhar has shown defiance, patience, and a willingness not to edge the first available outswinger to the slips that some more celebrated batsmen around the world would do well to emulate. He has the classical style and methodical approach of a 1950s cricketer (although it should be noted that his strike rate of 39 runs per 100 balls faced would, by 1950s standards, have made him something of a reckless cavalier). I find him quite fascinating to watch. I would not want all batsmen to play like Azhar Ali, but I do want some batsmen to play like Azhar Ali. Including Azhar Ali.(Warning for neutral spectators: four of Pakistan’s current top six are in the Eight Slowest Test Batsmen of the Decade list. Whether that is a negative warning or a positive warning is up to you.)ExtrasI will write more about India’s statistically staggering disintegration next time. I have not enjoyed watching this cricketingly-macabre series, for all Australia’s excellence with the ball, and Warner’s thermonuclear innings in Perth. For a man recently viewed as a Twenty20 specialist, he has played two of the best innings of the decade in his first five Tests, which he, the baggy green selectors, and the whole of Baggy Greenland must be quite excited about. Maybe Pakistan should unleash Azhar Ali in their next T20s.Most players and teams eventually decline before finally departing the scene, but few have done so as precipitously as Dhoni’s India. A year ago they had won several Tests by chasing down testing totals with skill and resilience. They had won in England, drawn in South Africa, and beaten Australia twice. They were about to successfully withstand arguably the most-high pressure cricketing campaign of all time. They were a good team, and a tough one. Now they are neither of those. They have responded to adversity in England and Australia by fighting like cornered tigers ‒ but tigers which, once cornered, have been shot at point-blank range and turned into fetching fireside rugs.At least if India want to seek inspiration from a team that has emerged rapidly from an apparently long-term slump, they need only to knock on the home dressing room door and ask for a cup of tea and a chat.