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  • "The fact is that once I was playing again I was automatically available for everything on the schedule and that meant Stanford. I make no apologies for that and, as for the suggestion that I should waive the fee or give it to charity, I don't see why I should be a special case."
    Steve Harmison feels strongly about suggestions that he came out of one-day retirement in order to play the Stanford Twenty20 for 20

    Sep 7, 2008

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    It’s all in the mind

    By Will 1 month ago Leave a comment on this post

    If there was any doubt about how dominant the mind-to-talent ratio is, you only need look at Graeme Smith. He is a diligent, grafting, muscular batsman but his real talent lies upstairs. After one of the very best fourth-innings centuries at Edgbaston, a vast 154, you’d think he’d be seeing the ball alright today. But no. God no. He resembled a rabbit, and a desperately out of form one at that. Somehow, he scraped 46 tortuous runs before his pain was eventually ended by Steve Harmison.

    He has nothing to fight for. Neither do South Africa. The series is in the bag and their eyes are on their WAGs and the golf.

    It really is all in the mind you know.

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    2 Responses to “It’s all in the mind”

  • David Barry wrote:
    August 7th, 2008 at 11.17 pm

    While I agree that the mind has a huge part to play in cricket, I don’t think that this is evidence for it. There’s not much evidence of ‘form’ being something you can carry over from one match to the next (or, at most, it’s not a big thing).

    Good batsmen are able to pick up the length of the ball early, but that’s all they can train muscle memory for. Each new day brings its own conditions - slightly different bounce and movement - and you have to re-train the muscles and get your eye in again.

  • Annabelle wrote:
    August 15th, 2008 at 2.04 pm

    Smith hasn’t got a WAG though. I think he’s actually more talented than people realise.

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