Different Strokes
Head to Head
A captain establishes his right to lead his players by doing important things which merit his players’ respect
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
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With the WI-England series only four completed innings old, both Andrew Strauss and Chris Gayle had produced uncharacteristic centuries of considerable stature. Neither were the traditional “captain’s innings” played when the side is in big trouble, but they were important innings for them as captains. As one of the ex-England skippers in the Sky commentary box observed, it is one thing to stand up in front of a team meeting and say how you want people to play, and quite another to go out in the middle and give a practical demonstration.
Pre-captaincy, Gayle had a one-track mind. He would go out and hit the ball as hard as he could until he was out, which could be anything from five minutes to five hours later, depending on the skill or luck of the bowlers. Since acceding to the captaincy, however, his batting has become more richly-textured and better attuned to the situation his team is in.
England’s first innings in Jamaica raised only a moderate challenge on an uninteresting pitch. There was no need to hurry in reply; what mattered was achieving a first innings lead and Gayle was perfectly content to reach it at whatever time it arrived, just so long as it eventually did. He only broke from patient accumulation for a calculated thwacking of Panesar’s fragile composure, and was dismissed by an awkward ball which snaked through his defence rather than holing out. Of those who followed him, only Xavier Marshall failed to hang around and chisel out hard-won runs.
Full postCaught napping
All the pre-series talk, both in England and in the Caribbean, was of how England were expected to win, as the form book would predict
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
Ouch! In fact, ouch and double ouch! That hurt.
Stuart Broad managed his first Michelle in Tests, which is a useful milestone on the way to a successful career, but otherwise the only England player who had a good match was Owais Shah.
But let us not get too carried away.
Tempting though it is to blame the off-field shenanigans and distractions, my view is that far too much is being made of them.
Full postA captain's break
For Ponting to take an unscheduled break at this particular point of the season when Australia have lost four games on the trot is just poor timing
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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Timing is a strange beast though. Sometimes, inexplicably, it deserts you. Everything else seems perfectly normal and the bat swing is exactly the same as it always has been but the magic just disappears.
Ricky Ponting understands this better than most. For a man whose greatness as a batsman can never be questioned, his timing has deserted him lately. On the field, he has struggled to find fluency in his last few innings, mistimed a second run on the bullet arm of Neil Broom and then completed a day of poor timing by falling horribly behind the over-rate. These things happen sometimes. It’s hardly a hanging offence, this temporary lack of timing.
Off the field though, whoever decided that Ponting was going to be rested for the rest of the ODI series against NZ needs to have a long think about their timing. To be fair to Ponting, it may not have been his decision. Cricket Australia may have insisted on it. For all we know, Ponting may have questioned the timing of this ‘rest’ but may have been overruled by the men in suits.
Full postWhat is not Australian?
What about the fact that if the Deccan Chargers reach the final against his beloved Qld Bulls (if they hadn’t been knocked out), Symonds would be happily playing against his own mates, against the team that nurtured him to his current stardom
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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It’s an amusing little by-play to a competition that needs to be kept in context. It is Twenty20 after all, a bit of a circus, a bit of fun but never meant to be taken too seriously. Unless of course the Champions Trophy prize money warrants it being taken very seriously indeed. So seriously that a team is prepared to fly in an international ‘import’ to help them win a game.
To Symonds’s comments first though: he is obviously referring to the fact that a local NSW player must make way for McCullum in the final. By invoking the ‘un-Australian’ theme, he has chosen to follow the lead of opportunistic politicians and aim a blow at the very heart of the national psyche. For those of you unfamiliar with the gravity of being labelled “un-Australian”, it is a tactic that is regularly used in this country to describe the lowest of low acts. Once you have been labelled thus, you are nothing but a cad and a bounder, lower than a snake’s belly, deserving of contempt. Being called un-Australian is about as shameful as it gets (apparently).
Politicians use it all the time to describe anyone who unfairly sacks their workers or someone who steals a pensioner’s handbag or deserts a friend in need. It is an act that goes beyond being merely wrong – it strikes at the very heart of national pride. With these cutting words, Symonds has ensured that all of NSW will choke on their barbecued prawns and sausages on Australia Day on Monday. It is a mortal wound, this un-Australian business.
Full postAnyone for cricket?
England start as favourites, a position they usually dislike but will have to learn to cope with if they are ever to fulfil their stated ambitions
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
What with captains resigning, bombs going off, or arguments with Stanford (whether about over-familiarity with the WAGs or huge sponsorship), there has been a deal too much off-field nonsense for both England and West Indies these last few months. We can but hope that dramas in the forthcoming series are confined to the field of play.
England start as favourites, a position they usually dislike but will have to learn to cope with if they are ever to fulfil their stated ambitions. West Indies are near to having a very handy bowling attack, with Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor looking increasingly convincing and Suleiman Benn’s height making him an unfamiliar and therefore awkward sort of a spinner, but their top order is still far too dependent on Chris Gayle and the Rock of Guyana for any sort of comfort. England ought to be too strong for them, but Australia got a bit of a fright in the Caribbean last year so there will be no room for complacency.
Captain Strauss and his fellow tour selectors have three main decisions to make, so the warm-ups will be of considerable importance.
Stuart Broad’s incipient all-rounderism guarantees him one spot, which leaves two for Anderson, Steve Harmison and Ryan Sidebottom to fight over. Sidebottom is probably the one who most needs an eye-catching performance to get picked, but his prospects will rise quickly if either of the others turns up unable to bowl fast or straight.
Full postSlogger’s Paradise
As you can see, Thornton’s gargantuan effort dwarfs the contemporary players’ tonks
Paul Ford
25-Feb-2013
Down here in New Zealand, wannabe national heroes can be spotted executing standing barbell curls, lying barbell extensions, reverse curls and dumbbell wrist curls as they strengthen up their arms for next month’s assault on cult hero status.
Why? Because, in an echo of baseball’s homerun derby and golf’s world’s longest driver competition, the quest to find the nation's most monstrous six-hitter is on, via the inaugural Big Hits Competition. New Zealand's longest tonker of a white cricket ball will be found at the final of the domestic cricket Twenty20 competition at the Cake Tin in Wellington on 26 February. Here, qualifiers from each of the six provinces, a nominee from domestic cricket, and one of the New Zealand team will be pitted against each other in an 8-way slog-off.
Full postThe Irreplaceables
I will not be surprised if Sachin Tendulkar is replaced fairly quickly
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
Politeness dictates that when a long-serving player retires, it is said by all and sundry that he will leave a big hole and be missed greatly. For Shane Warne, it has obviously been true or we wouldn’t have had people wishfully hoping that he might come out of retirement for the 2009 Ashes, but for plenty of others it’s merely a gracious fib.
Nobody will miss the Matt Hayden who played in 2008, for instance. Were the 2007 version still available, it would be a different story, but Hayden’s retirement was that of a man who in earlier times would have been provided with a bottle of whisky and a pearl-handled revolver. After his horrible performances against South Africa, there’s little doubt the selectors would prefer to see Phil Jaques playing instead. Since Jaques had almost established himself before his injury and Katich has since done so, Hayden’s departure simply completes the handover from a great opening partnership to at least a pretty good one.
Full postDid Hayden jump the gun?
As for Matt Hayden – my personal view is that he probably mistimed his jump by a few weeks
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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Matthew Hayden’s decision to finally hang up his boots has sparked lots of debate about whether he is Australia’s greatest opening batsman and where he sits in the list of All-Time-Greats. I played with Matt from his early days in Grade cricket and watched the development of a batsman with the most incredible self-belief of any human being in any walk of life that I have encountered. In that respect, he is the greatest "positive thinker" I have ever met. Being dropped or overlooked was only a minor speedbump to him. There was always another comeback, another reason to prove selectors wrong. Until now of course!
Who are the greatest cricketers? Is it based on total runs/wickets, averages, match-winning innings, match-saving innings, quality of opposition, helpful pitches etc. It’s a fascinating question that has no definitive black and white answer.
There is no real way to settle this argument is there? We’re all entitled to our own opinions and personal favourites and we’ve all got our own reasons for arriving at that decision. I’ve come up with one interesting benchmark to come up with one such list. Let’s try to find a list of players who have never been dropped in their entire Test careers. We’re not talking about injuries, team rotation policies or voluntary unavailability but actually “not selected” when available.
Full postAfterword
Pietersen will no doubt be very disappointed, but I expect him to get over it quickly
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
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The merciful difference is that the average Ludlum doorstop weighs in at 700 pages, whereas the KP-as-captain interlude lasted less than five months.
The point to realise is that it was inevitable. Whether it’s Bradman, Sobers or King Viv, Botham or Flintoff, Lara or Tendulkar, whenever you have a superstar towering above a team, especially a team of relative nobodies, the superstar will inevitably be made captain at some point whether or not he is fitted for the job.
There are two possible good outcomes to this: one is the Bradman result, where it turns out that he is a brilliant captain; the other is what has happened with KP – it takes very little time for it to become apparent that he is the wrong man for the job and he leaves, whether voluntarily or not. The saga of Brian Lara, who by the end was so hated by his team that only Dwayne Bravo was prepared to speak his name, shows what disasters await the team which does not lance the boil early.
Full postPride of place
In this instance, KP may have misjudged his power play slightly but the writing is on the wall
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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It is poignant that Kevin Pietersen was on safari in Africa last week. Inspired perhaps by the roar of a young lion, in the prime of youth, on the cusp of inheriting a kingdom, KP threw down the challenge to the ECB, confident that his ageing rival would realise that the new King had arrived and make way without the need for a dangerous fight.
Cricket, like other professional sports before it, had better get used to this. It will happen increasingly so, as cricketers fully come to terms with the massive shift in power that comes with huge salaries and multiple paymasters.
To that extent, the ECB’s alleged disenchantment with KP’s ultimatum is a breath of fresh air. Rumour has it that if he hadn’t resigned from the captaincy, the ECB may have removed him from that honour anyway. If true, it is a brave but ultimately futile attempt to redress the balance of power between employer and employee. In this instance, KP may have sensed that his earlier brinkmanship was a miscalculation but it is a portent of the way things will be in international cricket.
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