Different Strokes
What just happened in England?
For a team which was in turmoil five months ago, this is an impressive tribute to the management skills of Strauss and Flower
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
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West Indian cricketers are not supposed to fear anyone – except their mothers. So what must have happened is that when Chris Gayle got home with the Wisden Trophy, his mother took one look at it and told him that it wasn’t his and he was to give it back to the people it really belonged to as soon as possible or there would be trouble. And if the other boys’ mothers said similar things, then we can understand why their performances at Lord’s and the Riverside were so abject, and perhaps even forgive them.
All right, so it was pretty chilly out there in the middle and the ball moved in the air and off the seam at times, but international-level cricketers ought to be able to make a better fist than that of conditions other than idyllic. Fidel Edwards managed to make some good use of the moving ball but his colleagues did not even get the ball to whisper, let alone talk. The batsmen decided to play as if the ball was not moving at all and trust to luck for survival, a policy with predictably grim results.
It gives me no pleasure at all to have to write that whatever credit they justifiably accumulated with their gritty determination to win in the Caribbean, they squandered in seven days of rolling over and dying in an English spring. Unless they really were doing what their mamas told them to.
Full postMessing with Shaun Tait
Tait can have no complaints about missing out on a contract
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
It’s clear that Cricket Australia viewed him as a risky proposition and have therefore left him off their contract list. He’s not long returned to the game after battling a bout of depression/anxiety/battle fatigue, call it whatever.
His return from that mental injury did not stop him from breaking down with more physical ones. Unable to sustain his pace for more than a few overs, Australia’s selectors obviously felt they cannot afford the luxury of a fast bowler who can’t bat and is ponderous in the field. Perhaps when Warne, McGrath and Gillespie were in their prime, they could have contemplated a high-risk match winner but those halcyon days are long gone. They now need 11 fit players, each of them operating at full throttle. That’s what happens when you’re back with the rest of the pack. Like the global economy, this is a time for consolidation rather than speculation. Fair enough. Even Tait wouldn't argue with that logic I'm sure.
I can’t help but feel for the poor chap though. Denied the chance to play in the IPL because he was supposedly being rested for national duties, he is then informed that his contract will not be renewed. What exactly was he being saved for?
Surely the selectors must have known their own minds a few weeks ago. What has happened in the last few weeks in the physiotherapy room to suddenly make them realise that he was not going to make the cut? It’s hardly like he’s played a few games of cricket, bowled poorly and cooked his own goose. Has he turned up late for his massage sessions or something? If they honestly felt that he was probably going to miss out on the next contract list, why on earth did they deny him a chance to earn his living in the IPL and find his form again? It would be upto his IPL coach to decide whether to pick him or not.
Full postHow IPL affects Test form
This is a very small sample from which to try and draw any conclusions, but the obvious one is that form is continuous from one form of the game to another
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
Five of the players involved in the Wisden Trophy series went to South Africa with the IPL, which many thought would be very poor preparation for playing Test cricket. So how have they done?
Ravi Bopara and Chris Gayle both both recorded similar figures, averaging about 28 with the bat at a strike rate of about 117. Gayle’s contributions were generally useful without being outstanding, while Bopara played one match-winning innings and some small ones. Both were thus moderately successful.
Bopara is the batting success story of the Tests so far. Gayle was going pretty well in the first innings at Lord’s before dragging one on, and was done by Anderson’s swing for a duck in the second.
Kevin Pietersen had a disappointing IPL, failing to record a hundred runs even in total over six innings. At Lord’s he was out first ball, beaten by a superb delivery from Fidel Edwards, who was the best bowler in the Test. Edwards had also been to the IPL, where his returns were adequate, being neither as impressive as Lasith Malinga’s nor as laughable as Andrew Flintoff’s.
Full postWhy Pakistan is right to take the ICC to court
Put yourself in the PCB's shoes
Saad Shafqat
25-Feb-2013
There is one scenario in which Pakistan's legal confrontation with the ICC over World Cup 2011 hosting rights could prove an intelligent move: if it forces both the ICC and Pakistan into a compromise that relocates the Pakistan-based games to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Indeed, this may well have been the ultimate strategic outcome in the mind of the PCB officials as they planned a litigious attack on the ICC.
Deep inside, even the PCB hierarchy understands that no visiting team will feel safe in Pakistan after the calamitous events of March this year in Lahore. Pakistan as a political and social entity has to enjoy a long run of peace and stability before the prevailing mood on that situation can be expected to change. But don't expect the PCB to admit as much; as the official protector of Pakistan cricket, it cannot afford to give the appearance of surrender.
The opportunity for a legal challenge to the ICC popped up unexpectedly for the PCB. It is only understandable that with the chips down and their backs to the wall, they will pounce on it. Unlike on previous occasions, when security concerns have been discussed, it appears that this time around due process was not followed. The PCB claims that relocating World Cup matches was not on the agenda of the recent ICC meeting, and when it was brought up, the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt was caught off guard. If this is true, then the ICC has no defence. Any law firm worth its salt – and DLA Piper, the group engaged by the PCB, is certainly one such – will smell blood and go for the kill.
Granted, Mr Butt should have done his homework on this topic. Granted, he and his aides should have been able to think on their feet and propose Dubai and Abu Dhabi as proxy venues. Had he done that during the meeting, it is possible that the compromise now being hoped for could have been reached without much fuss.
Full postNot good enough for Australia
England deserved their win, and it is a significant step forward for them to be one-nil up rather than one-nil down after the First Test of a series, but they will have to improve their batting considerably if they are to challenge Australia later in
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
The BBC commentators made Graham Swann’s dismissals of Devon Smith and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in consecutive balls their champagne moment, but I would have awarded it to Fidel Edwards for that beautiful ball which did for Kevin Pietersen.
Admittedly, bowlers start with a big advantage when delivering Pietersen’s first ball. They know in advance that he will come forward and attempt to dink the ball to mid-on before setting off for a suicidal single, but even armed with that knowledge it takes a high degree of skill to bowl the right ball. Fidel landed it absolutely to perfection.
Full postCricket in the time of IPL
There will come a day though when a player will strongly disagree with the need for rehabilitation or rest and will challenge that sort of edict
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
So Cricket Australia has pulled Nathan Bracken, James Hopes and Shane Watson out of the IPL in order to manage their niggling injuries. It may well be the right thing for the country and all three players have the maturity and commonsense to not bleat too loudly (yet). As fringe players, they understand that their brand value is enhanced by playing international cricket.
It begs the inevitable question though: at what point will we begin to see the first cracks opening up between players and their home countries' boards? It’s unlikely that India will ever have to face this problem because the IPL is their very own cash cow. Other countries though, despite overtly supporting the BCCI’s money-spinner (if indeed it does make money which I suppose it does), might soon find themselves in a situation where they are at odds with their players if they exercise their right to withdraw them from IPL commitments.
Full postWho selects the English team?
Interpreting anything that happens through the prism of the coach being Lord High Everything does us all a disservice
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
If I were Geoff Miller, I think I’d be a little miffed at the coverage given to the various England squads announced last week. There is scarcely a mention of the national selector who chairs the selection committee and acres devoted to the influence allegedly wielded by the newest addition to the committee, team director Andy Flower, whose imprint we are supposed to be able to discern.
Excuse me? The head coaching honcho, whether you call him coach, team director or Grand Panjandrum, spends his time working with whomever is in the current squad, giving him extremely detailed knowledge of today’s personnel while preventing him gathering much of interest about potential recruits.
Flower won’t have seen Eoin Morgan, Graham Onions or Tim Bresnan play much, if any, cricket over the last two years, so how can his imprint be seen in their selections?
There might be something in the picks of Graham Napier and James Foster since Flower came to the England job from Essex, but they have earned their elevation by performances in last year’s Twenty20 Cup, mostly played when England were busy losing ODIs to New Zealand and Flower was presumably fully occupied trying to inculcate the basics of shot-selection into Ian Bell.
Full postNot Imran's Pakistan
Watching the 4th ODI from Abu Dhabi, I suspect that had Imran been captain, the game plan would have evolved differently
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
The first time I began to understand the true significance of the term ‘momentum shift’ in cricket was the 1992 World Cup when Imran Khan used it to devastating effect. He picked the moment when he felt his ‘cornered tigers’ were ready to attack and set them loose. The sudden shift in gears when Inzamam and Imran were batting and his decision to unleash Wasim Akram at crucial times underscored his total mastery of the art of sensing momentum swings and then exploiting it with sudden, brutal aggression. It was great theatre.
What’s happened to Pakistan recently then? They seem to have lost that legacy that Imran handed down to them in the early 1990s.
To be fair, it is more an art than a science, difficult to measure or describe. It is probably a gut instinct but it’s certainly something that cricket has now tried to turn into a science. The most successful captains in recent times are the ones who sense these game-changing periods in the wind and can then execute a daring attack that is difficult to counter. Once momentum starts to shift, a game can change forever in a few short overs of mayhem.
The mighty West Indian teams rarely had to worry about momentum shifts – it was usually just one-way traffic with chin music playing in the background. The only way some countries occasionally beat them was to pick a rare moment to try and swing the game violently away. India famously did this in the 1983 World Cup Final, Australia did it to Richie Richardson’s team in the 1996 World Cup semi-final and England did it in front of a packed house at Lords in 2000 when Caddick and Gough bowled like West Indians themselves!
Full postDeconstructing the Batting Powerplay
My prediction for the future is that fewer teams will take their batting Powerplays so late in the innings
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
As a general comment, without the benefit of statistics or specific team strategies, I’d have to say that I think the Batting Powerplay has often been more of a negative than a positive to most teams. I didn’t really watch the recent ODI series’ in West Indies and NZ so I can’t comment on them but in games involving Australia, it seems to me that most captains have yet to learn how to best use their Powerplay.
South Africa have used it to best effect thus far, mainly because they have managed to keep wickets in hand and therefore been able to use Albie Morkel’s clean hitting (and to a lesser extent Duminy and Boucher).
Australia have rarely benefited from it and Pakistan too seem uncertain of the tactics involved in using it for maximum impact. Too often, it is left too late and the teams are almost forced to take the powerplay when their No 9 batsman is at the crease, caught between trying to bat out the full 50 overs and capitalising on the Powerplay.
Too often, batsmen have played a little bit too conservatively leading into the Powerplay and then promptly got out in the first two overs, therefore wasting the very prize they had been waiting for. Perhaps it’s because middle order batsmen are not accustomed to batting in traditional Powerplay situations – they are more adept at finding gaps and working the ball around until the final slog is on.
Full postCricket sans frontiers
Having captained Yorkshire to their first championship in thirty years, Australian Darren Lehmann has a plaque in his honour on the West Stand at Headingley
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
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Samir wrote recently about his problem in adjusting to the idea that a team allegedly representing Delhi had a load of foreigners in it. Here in England, this is not exactly a novelty, since most counties have had overseas players for forty years - even Yorkshire relaxed its Yorkshire-born-only rule nearly twenty years ago.
There are probably still a few diehards hanging around among the membership of every county who think the use of overseas players is immoral or unpatriotic, but the vast majority have completely adjusted to the idea of adopting someone from abroad as one of their own.
Winning things for the team is a fantastic way of breaking the ice: people can forgive a great deal in someone’s background if they are instrumental in bringing silverware or even just winning a few games. Having captained Yorkshire to their first championship in thirty years, Australian Darren Lehmann has a plaque in his honour on the West Stand at Headingley. If parochial Yorkshire can take an Aussie to their bosom, anyone can.
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