Cricinfo Select
Twelve from '06
It's that time of the year again and we at Cricinfo undertook an exercise to pick the Test team of the year
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
It's that time of the year for Cricinfo to pick the Test team of the year and so, while the world celebrated the festive season, our staffers burned the midnight oil coming up with their nominations. Those nominations were then tallied and the 11 players with the most votes fitted into a batting order/bowling attack. The choices were largely based on performances through the calendar year - but we strongly suspect some instances of rank personal favouritism.
The openers' debate was most hotly contested. In the end it came down to the age-old dilemma - do you go for team flexibility and pick non-specialists or stick to conventional wisdom? All but one chose Michael Hussey as an opener - he bats in the middle order for Australia but has vast first-class experience at the top. There was a tie for picking his partners - Alastair Cook (four hundreds and three fifties) and Rahul Dravid (three hundreds and seven fifties) received an equal number of votes but the fact that one was a "specialist" and the other a "makeshift" resolved the tie.
Full postThe latest twist in Shoaib soap
Shoaib Akhtar's ommission from the Pakistan squad to tour South Africa is just another twist in the saga that is his career
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
Osman Samiuddin
If every Pakistani had a paisa for every time they heard "Shoaib Akhtar has not been considered because he is not fit", then the percentage of the entire population deemed to be below the poverty line might not be as high as 35%. We could probably be a first world country now.
Full postDancing to Lara's theme
Vaneisa Baksh takes a look back at West Indies cricket in 2006
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
Vanesia Baksh
The February tour of New Zealand for five ODIs and three Tests seemed a pivotal series for West Indies cricket, but time revealed the pivot to be more of a pirouette. Having lost the first four one-day matches, the West Indies avoided a whitewash with a Dwayne Smith 5-45 inspiring victory in the last game.
Full postLivewire from laidbackwaters
Sreesanth's spunk epitomises the new Kerala, shed of the leftist influence that saw cricket as an elitist sport, writes Anil Nair
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Anil Nair
He doesn't have the time today, and there's always the fear of being mobbed. Once upon a time, though, before he became an icon in his home state of Kerala, Sreesanth would follow a tiring nets session at Kochi's Durbar Hall ground by accompanying his club coach and mentor, Shivkumar, to the promenade along Marine Drive. They'd walk to the unused jetty at the northern end, lean on its wooden railing and gaze at the Ernakulam-Vypeen ferry make its slow passage along the sleepy river. Under the setting sun and cotton-wool sky, they'd spend the time in contemplative silence, taking in the space.
Full postRetirements expose missing link
Peter English
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Peter English
Late next year Australia will face India without half of their bowling attack. More than 1250 wickets will be missing and the replacements will be fortunate to have five Tests between them. So much for all the talk of carefully planned generational change.
Full postHussey hot but not bothered
Hussey has not failed in five innings against England but this was his most scratchy display
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
by Peter English
Orderly queues snaked away from the water fountains as the temperature rose. At every interval the clever supporters sought any sort of shade. From the first over hastily-constructed fans were waved on the hills, but they were soon discarded as discomfort was preferred to conserve energy. In the middle session, when Michael Hussey was sweating on his fifth century, the mercury peaked at 39 degrees Celsius and even the batsman was affected by the heat.
Full postDuncan's Folly comes crashing down
Andrew Miller says that Duncan's folly has been to ignore the genuine claims of a rising star of the game, until such time as his inclusion could only backfire on one party or the other
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
by Andrew Miller
Buried deep in the jungle on the island of Utila, near Honduras, there exists a hulking great structure known as Duncan's Folly. Built in the 1970s and 1980s, it consists of seven self-contained buildings including a power generator with a 60-foot concrete shaft well. The ensemble was the brainchild of a visionary architect named Bradford Duncan, who wished to construct the finest and most exclusive hotel complex in the whole of the Caribbean Sea.
Full postAssault on the bastion
Winning in South Africa is tough but not impossible
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
by John Wright
For all teams except Australia, South Africa are like a fortress. They are one team who know how to defend their castle. The opposition don¹t seem to know how to play well there. And that extends to other sports too: even the
All Blacks struggle against the Springboks at home. For India, especially,
it is the toughest place to tour because of the added disadvantage of the
wickets, which offer the least turn of all the Test countries.
Full postSamuels's night on his day
Marlon Samuels must make it his ambition to remove the words on his day from the keyboards of journalists and mouths of commentators when they talk about his batting
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
David Gower once wrote that the two words he hated the most, after "caught Dujon", were "laid back". He made batting look so easy that people were lulled into believing it came easily to him and, when he failed, that he didn't care enough about it. Marlon Samuels must make it his ambition to remove the words on his day from the keyboards of journalists and mouths of commentators when they talk about his batting. And that he can only do by playing like he did today, with regularity.
The talent is undeniably there. So much so that when he played his first defining innings - that blistering unbeaten 108 against India at Vijayawada in 2002 to take the series scoreline from 3-3 to 4-3 in West Indies' favour, Viv Richards, who was with the team, was the first man on his feet, on the balcony applauding.
Full postMost Read
Writers