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IPL on Youtube
By Will 4 minutes ago, No Comments; be the first!
Anyone else able to access the Indian Premier League on Youtube? Seems to be broken for me:
“I don’t let spinners bowl to me” – Pietersen, 2006
By Will 4 days ago, late at night, 5 Comments »
“I don’t let spinners bowl to me,” Pietersen said bluntly. “I feel a little bit sorry for the little kid who bowled today but that’s just how I play spinners.”
That was Kevin Pietersen, three years ago to the day after bashing young Piyush Chawla to all parts at Mohali. The 2006 vintage of Pietersen was a fizzy bottle of tangy arrogance, the sort of confidence which overflows so quickly and without pause that he won admirers as quickly as he did enemies. It was difficult to warm to him as a person, but you couldn’t deny that he talked a good game and played an even better one. “Is this bloke for real?” was invariably met with “shit. I think he really is. Thank you, South Africa. Thank you so much. Got any more like him?”
Three years on and the foundation of his arrogance – his ability; his runs – has deserted him. Mediocre spinners are licking their lips; his bat isn’t coming down straight and where is the audacity, the skip down the pitch and the arrogant follow-through?
“I don’t let spinners bowl to me,” he said three years ago. What happened, Kev? Perhaps it’s time he opened the batting: the only safe position for him.
5 Comments »The 2010 IPL
By Will 5 days ago, late at night, 4 Comments »
You up for it, then? Excited or unbothered? I’m at 60% at the moment, which is surprisingly high – my interest probably peaked at 6% last year – though I’m mainly interested in seeing how successful the YouTube venture goes.
I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. Anyway, I want to garner your reaction to this year’s Modi Party, so wibble away to your hearts’ content.
4 Comments »John Howard reaches career zenith
By Will Wednesday, last week, No Comments; be the first!
John Howard probably achieved plenty during his tenure as Australian prime minister. I don’t know a thing about Aussie politics, but the impression Howard gave off – a combination of Bush’s feigned blokeishness and Blair’s transparent fawning – somehow appealed to me. That’s clearly bullshit. I liked him because he liked cricket. And when I say liked, I lie. He is obsessed by the game.
I always knew he’d make it into the game eventually. He’s got the top job as ICC president, starting in 2012. For a man who can barely wipe the child-like grin off his face whenever he’s watching bat on ball, this is a victory sweeter than any he achieved in his political career.
However, this is the man who called Muttiah Muralitharan a chucker. He’s never been involved in sport in his life, to my knowledge, so apart from his obvious and healthy love of the game, and a career in politics, it’s a curious decision by the ICC. He will be surrounded by sport and cricket administrators, and though his experience in handling diplomatic and governmental matters will do him no harm, will he have the balls to stand up to India and the Asian bloc or take a hard line on excruciatingly sensitive matters like Zimbabwe?
In other words, will his being a fan hinder his presidency? It’s going to be fascinating to watch how he copes.
No Comments »People of cricket: I am your leader
By Will Sunday, last week, 4 Comments »
Lalit Modi: two words or four syllables which can invoke either nauseousness or sycophancy. He has abrasively dictated his terms on the game, and upon the ICC, so it’s perfectly understandable that he has courted bitter-sweet reactions of controversy and adoration. I quite admire him nowadays. He’s seized an opportunity like no one at the ECB could do, and though I’m uncomfortable with the power he has now obtained, some other canny sod would’ve done the same soon enough.
However, I made the mistake of subscribing to his Twitter feed the other day, and it’s been a fascinating – if at times uncomfortable – insight into his character. There are replies, snippets of gossip and general newsy things, but he seems to be using Twitter as a vehicle for teaching the world How To Be A Sports Administrator. Fascinating for some, perhaps. For the rest of us, it’s like listening to an unelected prime minister outline his visions for the game – and there’s nothing we can do to stop him.
Wait a minute. Have you ever seen Lalit Modi and Gordon Br…no. Forget it. Anyway, here’s what Lalit K Modi has been saying on Twitter an hour ago.
Its not a person who can revive a sport. It is fans like you who can. If people watch the game – money will come automatically. Watch hockey
If you all start tuning into any sports it will thrive. So fans play the most important role in survival of any sports.That’s the first step
Sports globally is supported by viewership and attendance. Once we get that sponsors will come. Off course good administration is needed.
Players in any sport need to be supported first as its there hard work and skill and endurance that makes a good team.
If players interest is not looked after – that sport can never thrive. Players need to believe there is a future for them to excel.
He’s been watching the hockey today, when India beat Mas 3-1 to lift the Azlan Shah Cup. And there was me wondering which sport he was next training his eye on…
4 Comments »Afghanistan chase down 494
By Will 1 month ago, 3 Comments »
Even I was beginning to wonder when the bubble would burst. It hasn’t yet. Afghanistan’s progress as a cricketing nation has reached a whole new, perhaps worrying, level after chasing down 494 to beat Canada. It is the ninth-highest fourth-innings run-chase in first-class history. If that’s too much to comprehend (or too many hyphenated words to stomach), just check out the bulletin to get your head around it all.
Have they finally peaked? And why do I ask? What is it about human nature that appeals for failure, modesty, mediocrity? Or is it my fear that if the bubble bursts, it’ll never re-inflate? Who knows. I’m beginning to think, though, that that doesn’t matter any longer. They’ve achieved enough already. And let’s be honest: this is not merely a sporting accomplishment but one that impacts on a fractured, oppressed society. At least, that’s one of the things I’m trying to write about for Sports Illustrated magazine – in newstands in a month, folks!
Anyway. I don’t want them to fail, but watching this side pole-vault their way past opposition is a little like watching someone try to sprint on an icy pavement: you can’t help wondering when they’re going to fall flat on their backsides. But, flippin’ heck, it’s fun.
3 Comments »Cricinfo cricket wicket alerts on Twitter
By Will 1 month ago, 1 Comment »
If you use Twitter and you like cricket, you might like to sign up to our new Twitter account, @cricinfowickets. Within about a minute of a wicket falling, you’ll be notified with the commentary, the latest score, who got them out, and so on.
I’ve been pushing for us to do this for about a year, so it’s good to see it live.
1 Comment »Morgan. Fairbrother or Thorpe?
By Will 1 month ago, 3 Comments »
Eoin Morgan reminds me of Neil Fairbrother a touch. And Graham Thorpe. And someone else that I can’t quite put my finger on. That’s all.
3 Comments »Test cricket shines, briefly
By Will 1 month ago, 4 Comments »
They didn’t look like they believed they could do it. At least, judging by their body language, that seemed to be the case with India today while South Africa’s Hashim Amla did a Paul Collingwood. One of cricket’s most romantic venus, Eden Gardens, was electrified by the suspense, the ground abuzz with passionate followers engrossed by the theatre, and were soon rewarded for their patience with the wicket of a devastated Morne Morkel. Ahh, bliss.
So India win by an innings, thus levelling the series. It’s all perfectly set up for a five-Test thriller. Can South Africa bounce back in the third? Will India’s victory carry them through? Can anyone get Hashim Amla out? What pitch will they prepare for the third and who will they pick? Will South Africa have the resolve to fight back? So many questions, none of which will be answered because this is, in nobody’s wisdom, a pathetically short two-Test series.
Today highlighted the modern sporting world. On the one hand, tradition waved its flag triumphantly: Test cricket again demonstrated its long-lasting appeal – even in India, the new home of Twenty20 and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, a rapidly evolving nation dealing with extraordinary change at social and political level. On the other, India (or the ICC – it’s difficult to be certain about how much control the governing body actually has these days) only had two Tests against supposedly one of the best teams in the sport. This should have been the ideal opportunity to showcase the prime format of the sport with a long, arduous, impossibly engrossing series which takes over the lives of the fans and keeps both the authorities and television execs happy.
Instead, we’re all left kicking our heels and feeling strangely empty, like reading a really good book and having it snatched away from you or the pages torn out. Worse, the very fact it was only two Tests completely put me off the series at the start. I couldn’t be bothered in wasting my energies getting excited when I knew the tablecloth would be whipped away just when I was tucking into the main course.
Tests cannot be brief dalliances. They demand a long, emotionally-scarring, gut-wrenching relationship to be formed, leaving you exhausted but elated; confused, sometimes mournful, but ultimately glad for the experience. These one (or two) night stands are good for nobody, save the boards and TV companies who demand the sugar rush of Twenty20 be fed intravenously and anonymously and constantly.
4 Comments »Harmison: I want to play the Ashes again
By Will 1 month ago, 2 Comments »
OK. So, you remember the 2006-07 Ashes, right? England held the Ashes and were trooping down under to slay the Aussies. Or something like that. Steve Harmison was back. Here’s what Rob Key said just before the circus began:
“I think the best thing Steve has got going for him is they go to Brisbane for the first Test and that could be the quickest pitch in the Ashes,” said Key. “You saw this summer whenever he gets on a pitch with a bit of life on it there is not a batsman in the world who would want to face Steve Harmison.
“If he goes to Brisbane and sees what it is like, as opposed to the sub-continent or here in England sometimes, I think he will be licking his lips and be desperate to go on. He loves bowling on wickets where you can get bounce and hopefully that will kick-start him into the series.”
The idiots among us, me included, sensed this could be his moment: a pacey Brisbane surface, the brand new ball in his hands. And then he wanged down that wide, like a gold-medalist wally. Here it is, in case you’ve forgotten:
The rest of his career has been quite tortuous viewing. Last July, he inferred he’d retire after the Ashes. Then, about October time, he said he wasn’t quite ready to put on his moccasins. Now, though, he’s produced a gob-smacker: he wants to play in the Ashes later this year. YOU WHAT?
On ya, Stevey! Please, if there is a cricket-selecting god out there, make this happen. Cricket needs another Brisbane moment, and only big Stevey H – the H bomb, if you will – can come close to replicating it. Let this charade of a career continue for one more Ashes, and let us continue to mock one of English cricket’s most naturally attributed fast bowlers in a generation for a few more months.
PS: possible reason for his sudden desire to tour Australia? He’s just had a vasectomy. I’m not saying all cricketers are, well…you know. Could be why. I mean, he’s not the best tourist, is he? Anyway. You know what I mean.
2 Comments »Modi lures football to take over the world
By Will 1 month ago, 5 Comments »
Lalit Modi has risen from seemingly nowhere. Unlike us sleepy Englishmen, with our excellent ideas but reluctance to ever commercialise them – or, perhaps more fairly, our endemic resistance to change – Modi’s timing was spot on. He saw Twenty20 as the adrenaline kick cricket needed, a drug for the fans and moreover for television executives to crave. The ICC, like the ECB, were caught off guard yet Modi spotted his chance and got the international board on side, brushing off the Indian Cricket League – and doubtless others – with a disdainful arrogance not readily afforded to someone who had, apparently, appeared from nowhere. Remarkably, he calls the shots.
That, ladies and gents, is the man we are dealing with. There is a distasteful arrogance to the way in which he announces some of his latest ventures and his name does not attract great affection or joy, rather a looming fear. But that’s only because the rest of the world is envious, shaking their heads disbelievingly at the ease with which he has transformed the game, occasionally showing an insouciance of self belief in his vision not seen since Steve Jobs first took to the stage wearing loose-fitting jeans and grubby trainers. Modi knows he’s nailed it. The IPL is his iPhone, a game-changing device applauded by the world.
The rest of the sport and her clubs are fawning for his attention, and not just cricket teams. Modi might havs snared football into the bargain now, too:
“There is a football club, a very famous football club in the UK, very interested in bidding,” Modi said. “[They are] probably one of the most famous football clubs – that’s all I can say. Probably top three. They are interested in taking a stake.”
Responding to speculation in the Indian media, Modi later said on his Twitter page that the club in mention was not Chelsea. A report in the Sun named Manchester City as the team looking at buying a franchise although the club told Cricinfo they were not involved.
The IPL will include two more teams from the 2011 season and will auction the franchise rights at a base price of $225 million ahead of the third season, which starts in India on March 12, and will invite potential investors this week. That figure – double of what the most expensive franchise was sold for in 2008 and more than four times the base price in that first auction – is, in an uncertain market, a sign of the league’s confidence in itself and the Twenty20 format.
According to Modi, the MCC would be a value addition to the IPL and open up the possibility of taking the bandwagon overseas to Lord’s. “I have talked [to MCC] last night and they are quite interested,” he said.
When will he have his iPad moment?
5 Comments »Sehwag rides the wave
By Will 1 month ago, 7 Comments »
Virender Sehwag has done it again. A fourth consecutive hundred in home Tests; a fourth ton in his last Test six Tests. That’s good enough as it stands, but consider his strike rates: 107.37 during his 131; his 293 against Sri Lanka lasted 254 fleeting deliveries. His overall strike-rate – get this – is 80.57. Cavalier, uncomplicated, selfish even: but a natural batsman and, moreover, entertainer.
A colleague wondered whether he’ll become the all-time great batsman, which is probably pushing it. But already he’s transformed opening batting like nobody thought was possible (and for that, should we thank ODIs? We’ll leave that for another day), and long may it last.
The only downer to Sehwag’s derring do are the comments from his gushing fans, which convey someone on the verge of their first orgasm in months:
It is always such an immense pleasure to see Sehwag and Sachin bat together – they use their bats like ageold gladiators sporting a menacing Excalibur. Sachin, the master, is sheer poetry ala Dravid these days, the effortless ease with which the ball seems to kiss and run away from the bat is like Wordsworth. Sehwag, the pupil, is a rock star who fuses raagas. Mindblowing combination really – speechless, words are fewer than runs to describe the game.
Steady on.
7 Comments »Covering all bases
By Will 1 month ago, 1 Comment »
Paul Collingwood:
Pakistan are a very strong Twenty20 side and we’re going to have to be right on our game to beat them. It might be a good time to play them, but you never quite know what you’re going to get on the day so I think we’ve just got to concentrate on our own game and see what we get on the day
So then. That’s:
1) Pakistan are a very good side
2) But we think they’re there for the taking, maybe
3) Who knows? We might win. But they might win, too.
Press conferences don’t get much more gripping.
1 Comment »Afghanistan conquer USA
By Will 1 month ago, No Comments; be the first!
Admittedly, I hold what might be described as a vested interest in Afghanistan cricket. I met them in South Africa last year and watched them qualify, but I wasn’t the only writer or observer who was instantly struck by their talent and determination. Much of this freedom of expression on the pitch was reflected by their past, a story now romanticised and in danger of becoming cliched if spoken about too often (by me, most likely), but until that time comes, we can enjoy watching them play and win. And win, and win.
They’re owning the current tournament. Today, in a match written in the minds of cynical sub-editors the world over, they took on the USA and thrashed their pants off.
The current group of players are decent and fearless, born into a generation of war and oppression. They’re using cricket as their chance to prove Afghanistan is more than simply a flattened nation of plight and famine and dictatorship and blood. What, though, will happen when the money from the ICC arrives into the hands of a hotch-potch, inexperienced and – let’s be honest – possibly unsafe hands of their administration? Corruption is endemic in the country. It would be a miracle if the sleepy sport of cricket avoided that particular bombshell.
Let’s enjoy them winning while we can because, with the almost non-existant facilities they have, it’s becoming more and more remarkable that they continue to achieve so much from so little.
No Comments »Test Mach Special
By Will 1 month ago, 2 Comments »
There was a frivolous and fun game on Twitter a few months ago, the hashtag being #radio4minus1letter, and they produced some gems.
“lose ends” an invited panel have to find the end of the sellotape roll ·
A look at Judeo-Roman history through one woman’s obsession with a charioteer: Woman’s Hur
The Shipping Forecat – a daily nautical report from a feline stowaway
But this is particularly good. Because it’s about cricket.
Geoffrey Boycott and Blowers travel supersonic in the world\’s fastest planes – Test Mach Special !
Suggestions welcome…
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