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« Previous EntriesVirender Sehwag goes a little bit bonkers
By Will 2 months ago, 29 Comments »
I suppose I should salvage what few Indian fans I have left by at least mentioning Sehwag’s blistering knock today. Truth is, I only caught brief glimpses of it - just as much fun can be had getting your head around the legalese of the ICL and county players - but it was the speed of his innings which most stood out. He only has two gears: quite fast and very fast. And his footwork - or lack of - was fascinating to watch. He barely moved them an inch, at least to those few scorching drives I witnessed, which tells us two things: he has a ridiculously good eye and fast hands, and the pitch is a screamer.
There was one particularly deft back-cut (you can never have enough late cuts, I say) which sped past the lone slip for four - a model of timing, placement and bravado. His feet didn’t move, he just wafted the bat and it flew away for four. When you’re on a roll…
Still, I was slightly alarmed by all the praise. “Sehwag is an all-time Indian great,” commentators gushed. Steady on. He’s unstoppable on his day, and if South Africa keep feeding him boundary balls he’ll give Brian Lara’s record a run for its money. But he’s no Lara.
Is he?
29 Comments »South Africa unearth the new Jonty
By Will 2 months ago, 2 Comments »
Congratulations to India who beat South Africa to raise the Under-19 World Cup trophy today. Tanmay Srivastava top-scored with 46 in India’s 159 and there were two wickets each for Siddarth Kaul, Ajitesh Argal and Ravindra Jadeja. South Africa fell short by 12 runs.
But perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the day was the unearthing of a South African fielder, Sybrand Engelbrecht, who is already drawing comparisons with Jonty Rhodes. My colleague, George Binoy, has a piece on him:
Engelbrecht was the most visible player on the field in the final against India. Fielding at point during the initial overs, he walked in with purpose as the bowler ran in, made quick ground to dive to his left or right, rushed to back up throws from fielders and egged his team-mates on vocally. He moved from point to cover or midwicket when the spinners came on to bowl, always coveting the position where the ball went often. When Manish Pandey drove Mohammad Vallie twice to cover, Engelbrecht, at midwicket, indicated that he wanted to change positions. Towards the final overs, South Africa had him at long-on for that’s where the batsmen were hitting the ball most frequently.
I’ve always found electric, mouth droppingly brilliant fielding is cricket’s most appealing aspect to the ignoramuses among us. You can take a cricket heathen to a match and watch Michael Vaughan cover drive, causing you and fellow tragics near-orgasmic gasps of wonder. But your non-cricket-fan friend won’t be any the wiser; for all they care, the ball has moved from bowler, to batsman, to the boundary. Good fielding - a swoop on the boundary; a one-handed pluck at slip; a desperate, brilliant save at point - is appreciated by everyone.
So look out for Engelbrecht - a name which sounds rather like a German trying to say “angel breath”.
2 Comments »Handbags at dawn
By Will 3 months ago, 126 Comments »
Children, children. Is anyone else finding the constant spat between Australia and India nothing short of pathetic? I read that India have complained for Matthew Hayden calling Harbhajan Singh “mad boy”, and Hayden’s followed it up with the less than timely statement that the same bloke is an “obnoxious weed“. Isn’t Hayden meant to be one of Australia’s church-going, cross-bearing, holier than thou ministers? And who gives a flying toss if Singh was called a “mad boy”? It isn’t racist, other than to the mentally fragile, and in no way could be considered offensive. At most, it is merely dismissive. Perhaps that’s why it upset them so much: they want a real fight.
When Australia tour England next year, they will share and enjoy every vulgar insult under the sun. Captains’ virility will be called into question by a short-leg (apologies for the pun there). The opening batsmen’s mothers might be mentioned, and you can bet that every Englishmen will, in the eyes of the Australians, not deserve to be out there. Everyone will laugh about it and we’ll all go home chuckling.
Why, then, do these two countries have such a problem with eachother?
Pathetic. The sooner this tour’s over, the better.
126 Comments »BCCI flex their muscles
By Will 3 months ago, 24 Comments »
There is yet more evidence of the power that the BCCI wield, and the influence of the Asian bloc, with the news that the Indian board have bluntly warned Australia not to pull out of their tour of Pakistan. What right do they have to “warn” Australia? Not a lot, you would think. After all India is only one of ten members. But such is their immense financial clout, they will always get support from the Asian bloc (and support any Asian country who, in the BCCI’s opinion, need it) and Zimbabwe, West Indies and South Africa are easily swayed to help give India a 7-3 majority.
BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla said Australia would face major repercussions if it abandoned the six-week tour, due to begin mid-March.
“There will be serious consequences because you can’t just pull out a committed tour when the host board is giving you assurances about security and so is the government,” he said.
“If the host board and government is willing to give assurances, you have to accept that you can’t just cancel a confirmed FTP tour,” he said.
From Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
A deeply worrying development. Cricket is as unstable now as it has ever been, and I have absolutely no idea where it will all end up in five, 10, 20 years. Asian bloc v the rest? You wouldn’t bet against it.
24 Comments »Natural born prejudices?
By Will 3 months ago, 9 Comments »
A thought-provoking piece from Soumya Bhattacharya who tells India to grow up:
I thought of it because in that swirl of emotions, we Indians have tended to lose sight of a problem we need to tackle: we are still in denial that we are a deeply racist country. Often, we are racist although we are not conscious of being so. (It’s time we were.) We, with our fondness for light skin tones, tend to be prejudiced against those with darker ones. We don’t think of it as racism. But the world does. And it is. It can’t go on. We need to grow up.
A few examples. In the aftermath of the overturning of the ban, a board administrator was quoted as having said something like: “We shall not stand for our boys being called racists.” Our boys? Racists? Gosh. Cue incredulity, shock, horror. (Denial.)
Don’t shoot the messenger, etc
9 Comments »Cricket’s wealth in Australia
By Will 3 months ago, 3 Comments »
We talk and moan about India’s vast financial grip over the game, but however much it narks us, it is of little surprise: with a growing economy and a colossal population, the majority of whom love the game, India have the two crucial ingredients to making a lot of money out of an entertainment sport. The same goes for football in the UK: it’s watched and loved by millions, and advertisers know they’ll get decent exposure and are willing to pay for it.
The same can’t be said for cricket in the UK. After the Ashes, in particular the following summer, advertisers were swarming like bees over all things cricket. Even this humble blog was targeted. But the interest, like England’s Test form, has slipped away with depressing haste and we’re back to where we were pre the 2005 Ashes.
The same can’t be said for cricket in Australia either, and they come up with some brilliant advertising campaigns. I’m not a sales man and nor will I ever be, but I do find it fascinating how each country uses advertising to exploit the interest of a game to attract new visitors. Inevitably Australia do it with humour, and do it pretty well. Thanks to Duncans.tv here is Mike Hussey in an advert for the CB Series:
…continued…
…and…
3 Comments »Twenty20 sledging match
By Will 3 months ago, 1 Comment »
“Each team has only 20 seconds to insult the opposition”. Witty animation from Nicholson at The Australian.
Ishant Sharma to Ricky Ponting (video)
By Will 4 months ago, 5 Comments »
I managed to catch some of the highlights today of India’s rather epic win over Australia, and what an effort from Ishant Sharma. His long spell to Ricky Ponting, which lasted about an hour, was skilful fast bowling and must have been mesmeric to watch live. It reminded me of Andrew Flintoff’s over to Ponting at Edgbaston in 2005, but this was a sustained examination of the batsman’s technique - not just six crackerjack deliveries. Some brief highlights of it, and the rest of the fourth day’s play from Perth, are below:
If you can’t see them, click here or here.
5 Comments »Australia v India, 3rd Test, Perth, 4th day
By Will 4 months ago, 15 Comments »
So the fourth day of the third Test and India are superbly placed to cause an upset. Australia need another 348 runs to win; India, another eight wickets. If Australia chase the runs down, it’ll be the second-highest run chase in the history of the game…while also handing them their 17th win in a row. It’s all rather massive.
I’m going to attempt to get up for the final session of the day, if the Test is still alive. In the meantime, check the scorecard and leave your comments below.
15 Comments »The fading of the Australian aura
By Will 4 months ago, 12 Comments »
If Australia are to win their 17th game on the trot, treading into territory no team has ever tiptoed, they will have to score 413 runs to beat India. It will be the second-highest run chase in the history of the game. Consequently, every Indian and anti-Australia fan is salivating at the prospect of Ricky Ponting’s remarkable winning run being cut short. Is this the end of a dynasty?
Robert Craddock, who my colleague (hello Gnasher) refers to as Crash Craddock, thinks there is enough evidence to suggest the Australian aura is diminishing:
Since the start of the Sydney Test, India has stood toe-to-toe and eyeball-to-eyeball with Australia, highlighting some deficiencies and cutting down some lofty reputations.
Australia is still outstanding, but it is not what it was and nor could it expect to be after the retirement of a handful of long-serving champions.
The champs are not chumps but India has proved one thing — they are gettable.
The rest of the world will feed off the brazen Indian uprising in a series in which the great Ricky Ponting has averaged just 16, Michael Clarke just 23 and, shock of all shocks, a four-pronged Australian pace battery in this Test has been completely outbowled by three unsung Indian rivals.
The thought that Australia’s world dominance is coming to an end is always an enticing prospect, but champion teams tend to bounce back off the ropes quicker than most. After the 2005 Ashes, Ponting set out to really put his mark on the team and has done so brilliantly, if not so appealingly for the rest of the world. Or, indeed, for cricket itself. “Win at all costs” is a mantra most teams would like to obey, but only Australia have had the tools and balls to execute it in the past 20 years. In doing so, it hasn’t endeared them to the rest of the world; their cricket is pure, their method is not. As Mike Atherton said last week, “being nice will always be associated with losing in Ponting’s mind”.
I’m not convinced this is the end of Australia’s dynasty or aura - call it what you will. India have upset them in many ways, and although the rumpus of the past few weeks scarred cricket irrevocably, it does at least show Australia’s softer underbelly. Not that I’m advocating racism or severe sledging as the solution to beating them…
They hate teams fighting tooth and nail, eyeball to eyeball, and yet it is what they apparently crave from touring teams. England did it in 2005, winding up Ponting and co so much that they lost all composure and focus. The same has happened with India, albeit in far more contensious circumstances. It’s almost as though they’ve forgotten what it is like to be challenged, on or off the pitch, much in the same way England have forgotten how to win.
The thought of India winning is less than appealing on a personal level - I hope and pray they are gracious, for their (and the media’s) sake - but the prospect of Australia’s winning run coming to an end is far sweeter.
12 Comments »Listening to Australia v India
By Will 4 months ago, 14 Comments »
For those without TV or radio, here’s ABC’s stream. They claim it doesn’t work for those outside Australia, but I’m hearing it loud and clear:
http://abc.net.au/streaming/cricket/cricket.ram
14 Comments »Where’s the charm?
By Will 4 months ago, 3 Comments »
A fine and balanced piece by John Benaud in today’s Independent on Sunday. So good, in fact, that I’m pasting it below.
3 Comments »Cricket is always having crises. Books are written and entitled, inevitably, ‘Cricket At The Crossroads’. You’ll recall Bodyline, the World Series Cricket breakaway… and in between the occasional tuppenny bunger, like pathetic over-rates, chucking and so on. Generally, there’s a good guy and a bad guy, and in the above real-deal controversies Douglas Jardine and Kerry Packer were nasties.
The India captain Anil Kumble’s self-indulgent hijacking of “good guy” Australia captain Bill Woodfull’s line “only one team is playing cricket”, uttered during the 1932-33 Bodyline series, was immediately spotted by us cynics with “ocker” accents as code for: “My team have just lost a Test nobody thought they could and I’d like you all to bag nasty Australia and their captain instead of me, in case back home they think we’re the bad guys and torch our houses.”
Ponting is tactically dull, abrasive, prone to snap and a sometimes ungracious winner, but of more urgent concern than any character study of him is the bunch of no-hopers who wander/administer aimlessly under the abbreviatedanonymity of “The ICC”.
One can only guess how embarrassing it must be to have anyone know you are officially part of the International Cricket Council and your claim to fame is the absolute shambles that passes for world cricket in 2008. Put the chief executive, Malcolm Speed, and his team in the dock and even Rumpole’s most junior solicitor could win, his case rested on the evidence of the World Cup last year.
Laws have been changed to accommodate bowlers who throw; the Darrell Hair case remains impossible to fathom, at least for those of us who played and understood the spirit of the game before the ICC lawyers measured out their runs; the crooks of Zimbabwe are rewarded with ongoing recognition; and now a talented umpire who has a bad game can be sent home.
There was a time when the greatest insult to an Australian cricketer was to mention the phrase “no sheep in the top paddock”. After the SCG Test the words “monkey” and “bastard” are apparently offensive. Speed and Co have a new challenge: compile a dictionary of words that are offensive to the modern cricketer, or his culture.
Before they make bigger asses of themselves they should recall the Collis King incident, Mount Smart Stadium, New Zealand, 1978. King, a most talented West Indian all-rounder then playing in World Series Cricket, took a terrible blow to the right groin and collapsed. The physio applied the magic “freeze” spray, but to no avail, and the stretcher arrived. This roused King, who looked down at his “magic-sprayed” groin, sat up abruptly and announced: “Jesus, I’m turning white; quick, spray me all over!”
Past players think modern cricket has no sense of humour, subtlety, finesse and characters, and little goodwill; that it lacks a certain class, charm even. Here’s proof: in 1961, Australia’s Richie Benaud and West Indies’ Frank Worrell agreed pre-series to “have some fun”.
In 2008, when Ponting and Kumble met before the start of the series, it was to discuss how best to defuse an evolving problem: fielders claiming catches that bounce. Cheating.
The ICC, with a little pressure from the odd cricket board, will surely find a way to legalise that in no time.
Harbhajan gets the monkey off his back
By Will 4 months ago, 7 Comments »
Here’s Harbhajan Singh signing a fan’s t-shirt, and enjoying a rare lull from the media melee during India’s tour match against an Invitational XI in Canberra. But what’s that word on the front of the t-shirt?
It begins with an M and ends in a Y!
7 Comments »Does India run the game?
By Will 4 months ago, 108 Comments »
I find the sacking of Steve Bucknor a real worry. He was at fault numerous times in the Sydney Test, and from this bystander’s perspective didn’t appear to handle the pressure at all competantly. But what right do India have to threaten the abandonment of a tour unless an official is replaced?
Where does this end? What if his replacement in the next Test - Billy Bowden - has a similar shocker, and makes six or seven errors which, India feel, cost them the next Test? Will he too be stood down at the bequest of an agitated India?
India alone contribute 70% of the game’s finances, and in that respect they do run the game. Heck - three New Zealanders have been banned from appearing in a film by their employers, the BCCI, because of their involvement in the Indian Cricket League!
This sets a horrible precedent. Will umpires who are sent to officiate in India Tests now decline or go on strike? Why would they want to work on a Test in which they don’t have the full backing of their employer?
So, does India run cricket now or not? Oh, and incidentally - India say the tour will go ahead, but only if the ICC overturn the banning of Harbhajan Singh. This is an utter outrage. How can they be allowed to behave in this way?
Does India run the game?
- Yes (63%, 233 Votes)
- No (37%, 135 Votes)
Total Voters: 368
Loading …On effigies, cheating and monkeys
By Jonathan Liew 4 months ago, 56 Comments »
This has all the makings of an Asia-Rest of the World showdown that has been threatening a denouement for several years now. I really hope not.
But first things first: fire and the burning of effigies don’t exactly have the same significance they might have in Britain or Australia. Fire is an intrinsic part of Indian culture - at a Hindu wedding, for example, a fire sacrifice is made, and the bride and groom have to walk around it seven times. And nobody really takes the death threats seriously. And the donkey thing - well, that was just funny. Some of Benson’s Kent team mates will have had a good chuckle at that.
As for cheating - well, there’s no evidence anybody deliberately cheated. Walking is nice, but not compulsory, and while some of the appealing and catch-claiming was pure, cynical gamesmanship, it wasn’t illegal. It’s therefore a disciplinary issue alone, to be discussed at length in an air-conditioned room with plenty of cold drinks available.
And the ‘racist slur’ - it doesn’t really matter if the word ‘monkey’ is racist or not. We can’t be sure it was said. There was certainly enough evidence to charge Harbhajan (and possibly Symonds too) with verbal abuse, but Mike Proctor and the ICC are really going to wish they hadn’t opened up the whole ‘racist’ can of worms. How - I mean, honestly, how - did they think this was going to end?
But however wronged India may feel, they’re forgetting rule number one of cricket - get on the field and play. You can get angry afterwards. Let’s hope that the TV companies have a quiet word with the BCCI. Perhaps money can achieve what diplomacy clearly can’t.
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