Different Strokes
What is the Spirit of Cricket?
The only way for a noble but essentially irrelevant concept like this to meaningfully find its way back into cricket is for the ICC to take a firm position on what it stands for
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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I mean, what does it really mean? Does it exclude gamesmanship? Is it about promoting sportsmanship? Does outright cheating contradict this charter or is cheating itself a matter of being caught doing it? Is it about playing within the laws of the game but walking on the very edge of the line that separates black from white? Where do the umpires fit in to this charter – are teams only contravening this spirit if they question the umpire’s verdict? What about things like sledging, walking or claiming a doubtful low catch when no one but the player knows the real truth?
The fall-out from the thrilling finale to Cardiff Test match merely underscores the pointlessness of an amateurish concept like ‘the spirit of cricket’ in what is essentially a cut-throat, professional business. At the end of the day, it’s about the bottom line, it’s about winning. And it’s about not losing. How does something spiritual expect to exist in that sort of environment?
The only way for a noble but essentially irrelevant concept like this to meaningfully find its way back into cricket is for the ICC to take a firm position on what it stands for. Otherwise, it will simply become a toy gun conveniently toted by captains when it suits them. The moral high ground will merely become another cynical platform that floats on very thin ice.
Full postA thriller on an unfit pitch
England have made their best start to an Ashes series this century
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
I would have made Paul Collingwood Man of the Match. His was the innings which decided the Test or, perhaps more correctly, undecided it. When people talk about this game in years to come, as they may, it will be his dogged resistance they recall rather than Ricky Ponting's characteristically crushing 150 – just as it was Ponting's innings which is remembered from Old Trafford 2005 rather than Michael Vaughan's or Andrew Strauss's.
At the end of that Old Trafford Test, Vaughan was able to hearten his deflated and frustrated side by pointing out that the team whooping with delight across the field was Australia, and they were celebrating a draw. It seems unlikely that Ponting would have been offering much comfort to his men if he tried something similar this evening. Rather, he has been reduced to the inevitable taking of positives, as Strauss had to do after the Tests at the ARG and Queen's Park Oval in the spring.
Full postCricket's brief time in the spotlight
The bulk of the English public have the same attitude to cricket that I have to swimming: most of the time I couldn’t care less about it, but when the Olympics come round, I’ll be as glued to the TV as anyone else
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
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During the ICC World Twenty20, our esteemed editor was struck by the lack of hoopla as he strolled up to The Oval. There was little sign that a world championship was taking place, and he then went on to suggest that the ECB had concentrated on marketing the Ashes.
Well, maybe, except that if there is an event which the ECB do not have to market at all, it’s the Ashes. In the run-up to a series against anyone else, there are interviews with England players and tourists on the sports pages of the newspapers but as an Ashes series approaches, the features editors and news editors muscle in on the act, the players get interviewed by the same people who interview Hollywood stars and politicians and the results appear in the colour supplements and stories about the build-up appear in the news section. It is not the judgement of the ECB that the Ashes is the most important thing there is, but the view of news editors in what used to be Fleet Street.
The bulk of the English public have the same attitude to cricket that I have to swimming: most of the time I couldn’t care less about it, but when the Olympics come round, I’ll be as glued to the TV as anyone else. And then I forget about it for another four years.
Full postOut with the excuses, now
I’m firmly in the camp of those who think that this modern preoccupation with multiple coaches and support staff is a case of massive overkill
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
With less than a week to go before the Ashes series begins, perhaps both teams might do us all the courtesy of telling us whether they think they are well prepared for the series or not? Anyone can make excuses after the event – let’s hear the truth before it all starts so that we can then judge the final outcome with all grudges and platitudes aired beforehand.
The graceful Damien Martyn, he of silken touch and impeccable balance with bat in hand, appears to lack that poise in a recent interview that is as clumsy as it is ungracious. In dissecting the 2005 Ashes loss, Martyn appears to be keen to join the list of cricketers who now view the John Buchanan era in a far less favourable light than at the height of the Australian dynasty.
Full postFast Bowlers United
To get some answers from someone who has recent experience of the art of fast bowling in Australia and India, I hunted down Joey Dawes, former Queensland and Middlesex fast bowler and the current fast bowling coach of the Queensland Bulls.
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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My recent post about Queensland replacing Western Australia as the production line for fast bowlers, got me thinking about why such patterns emerge and what factors may trigger change. Why has the West Indies’ factory come to such a shuddering halt for example? There was a time when some of the guys who could not make their first XI would have been snapped up by any other international team. Chaps like Sylvester Clarke, Wayne Daniel and Ezra Moseley were genuinely scary but couldn't regularly crack the top team.
As much as Australia and South Africa continue to churn out good quicks, why is it now the case that some of the best fast bowling talent is emerging from the subcontinent? It’s a much a cultural shift as anything else – fast bowlers are no longer viewed as the quick entrée before the main meal. Is it down to coaching, nutrition, equipment or even a change in the physique of the Asian male?
To get some answers from someone who has recent experience of the art of fast bowling in Australia and India, I hunted down Joey Dawes, former Queensland and Middlesex fast bowler and the current fast bowling coach of the Queensland Bulls. Just in case there was any doubt about his commitment to the ‘club’, Joey also runs a specialist business which converts 'joggers' into fast bowling shoes by spiking them according to the individual’s running style, heel pattern, bowling action etc. It’s a pretty scientific operation, in consultation with podiatrists and other health professionals. His clients include Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Jimmy Anderson. Not surprisingly, his business is called Fast Bowlers United. They’re a close knit bunch these dumb, quick bowlers!
Full postNo more excuses Mr Afridi
It’s easy to forget how young Afridi still is
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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Just when I thought it was safe to assume that Shahid Afridi’s career as a genuine all-rounder was well and truly extinguished, he finds a maturity in his game that I was convinced he did not possess. Perhaps now, nigh on ten years after his stunning entry into the international game in Nairobi, we might yet see the sort of cricketer his talent always promised. If his last two Twenty20 innings is any indication of the new Afridi, strap yourselves in. This could be a wild ride!
The great irony of the Twenty20 triumph is that it now offers Afridi no more excuses for wasting his batting talents. For too long, he has taken refuge under the convenient umbrella of being classified, perhaps wrongly, of being a one-dimensional slogger. It has been an excuse that he has probably been only too happy to use because it afforded him immunity from those who tried to convince him that he was selling himself short by trying to slog every ball out of the ground. No more excuses Mr Afridi. We all know now that you’ve got the class, the patience and the shot selection to play much more meaningful innings than the brief cameos that you’ve become all-too-famous for.
His bowling has improved out of sight but that’s always been a steady part of his game. He rarely bowls that astonishingly quicker delivery that is through the batsman before he is on his downswing but is more consistent even without that variety. I remember Greg Blewett being completely dumbfounded by his Exocet missile in an ODI in Australia early in Afridi’s career but I can’t remember his googly being anywhere near as effective as in the last few months. In tandem with Ajmal, those middle overs now belong to Pakistan again, something they’ve missed since Saqlain Mushtaq finished up.
Full postWe are the champions
Being honest, though, one must admit that the women’s game is never likely to be spectacular
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
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While the public stands were only sparsely occupied for the women’s ICC World Twenty20 Final, the Pavilion End was packed. Admittedly this was mostly because seating for MCC Members and their friends is unreserved so those wanting a good viewing spot for the afternoon’s proceedings were obliged to turn up early, but the prospect of seeing an England team in a final they were actually expected to win made this far less of an inconvenience.
I had not realised how much I cared about it until the national anthems. I had stood for them before the men’s games at Lord's, respectful but unmoved – except when the Pakistan and Sri Lanka teams stood interleaved with one another in solidarity before their group game – but as the British dirge struck up for the women, I felt the tears welling. Not that I hadn’t been paying attention to the women’s progress: when those headlines about Edwards being a doubt for the semi-final appeared on Cricinfo mid-week, my first reaction to was to panic about Charlotte’s availability for England rather than be concerned about Fidel’s for WI.
But though the MCC were out in force for the final, they do not go in for community singing. Instead, about three dozen women at the Nursery End took on the onerous duty of representing the Barmy Army. I am no fan of their anthem - in its customary form as a baritone bellow it resembles a herd of cattle protesting at being woken up; as rendered yesterday it sounded more as though a fox had got into the henhouse. On the other hand, I usually like the songs for individual players, and the rewording of the old favourite “Michael Vaughan, my Lord, Michael Vaughan” for Jenny Gunn was felicitous.
Full postThere's something about Dhoni
Why apologise
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
What’s not to like about MS Dhoni? Even as an outsider, a neutral, someone who just watches cricket for the sheer pleasure of the sport without any patriotic leanings, I find myself drawn towards a character like Dhoni. He is hard to dislike.
Reading his post-match interviews after India’s surprising exit from the World T20 Championship, it is clear that Dhoni is a man who is comfortable in his own skin. He offers reasons, not excuses. He accepts blames, shares it sometimes but never looks to shift it. He concedes mistakes, both by himself and from his team without appearing to be too self-effacing or disloyal. He has a quiet dignity that is able to accept defeat with relative grace whilst still showing the right measure of pain and disappointment. The captain of India needs to walk this line carefully. Too many self-recriminations and the knives will be out. Too blasé and they’ll accuse you of not caring enough. Dhoni looks to have found the right balance.
Full postYounis Khan's masterstroke
Back at the pre-tournament meeting, Younis would have contemplated this campaign knowing he was up against much more than just cricketing opposition
Saad Shafqat
25-Feb-2013
At some point in the build up to this World Twenty20, Younis Khan would have assembled the rest of the Pakistan team think-tank to pore over the tournament's list of fixtures. Shoaib Malik would have been there along with Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal.The coach would probably have not been around, this being the kind of meeting where you only invite those you can call upon when it hits the fan out in the middle.
There would have been an intense seriousness to this meeting, a sober atmosphere that Pakistan's cricketers, with their trademark devil-may-care attitude, are loath to display in public. There would have been an implicit recognition of what was at stake. After the visiting Sri Lankans were attacked by terrorists in Lahore in March, John Stern, Editor of the Wisden Cricketer, questioned in an interview on CNN whether Pakistan would even be able to play in the World Twenty20. Stern's was only one prominent voice among many fussing about Pakistan's threat of cricketing isolation. The nucleus of Pakistan's team saw clearly, as indeed did the rest of the country, that the World Twenty20 would be their last chance to push back.
Full postWhat is it about Perth?
Whilst Queensland supporters are irate at their system for allowing Noffke to fly the coop, I can see why the CEO decided to hold his ground and not be held to ransom by one player
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
“Go West young man”. It appears to be the new anthem for any fast bowler in Australia looking for a new home. Western Australia, long considered to be the breeding ground for fast bowlers, is now the migrating home for disillusioned 'quicks' seeking opportunities on pitches long considered to be the fastest and bounciest pitches in the world.
Ashley Noffke is the latest quick bowler to join the Western Australia Warriors. Nurtured in Queensland, Noffke has had a very public falling-out with the locals and has decided to move to Perth to begin anew the quest to add to his solitary ODI cap. A fine bowling allrounder with a high action and a good outswinger, he joins a West Australian attack that is virtually entirely "Made in Queensland". Steve Magoffin and Ben Edmondson were both fringe players in the Queensland system when they left home, unable to crack the pedigree attack of Michael Kasprowicz, Andy Bichel, Joey Dawes, Mitchell Johnson and Noffke himself. For Queensland, an embarrassment of riches has now become a fast bowling kindergarten again, having lost the first three of those players to retirement and the latter two names to the West.
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