Different Strokes
Ponting answers Sehwag
Indians, more than anyone else, should know the dangers of pulling a tiger by the tail
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
Indians, more than anyone else, should know the dangers of pulling a tiger by the tail. It's predictable the reaction will be savage.
There’s a lot to like about Virender Sehwag. He seems to be someone who plays instinctively and with wonderful timing. He doesn’t seem overly weighed down by the pressures of being an Indian cricketer, revered (and sometimes reviled) by millions. His inflammatory comments about the 2008 Sydney Test may have been instinctive but for once, his timing let him down.
Full postNo respite for Bangladesh
Even when they bowled well enough to restrict Australia to a sub-200 total, a feat which would give most teams a pretty fair chance of winning, they lost by a huge margin
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
Are you ready for the historic series which starts on Thursday? No, not that one, the other one. The ODI series between Bangladesh and New Zealand will be the first in which the batsmen can disrupt the fielding captain’s plans by demanding a Powerplay.
This rule change opens up tactical challenges for both sides. Fielding captains will have to at least consider holding certain bowlers in reserve until the batsmen’s Powerplay is taken, and the batsmen will be seeking to take the Powerplay at the most advantageous point. It remains to be seen whether it will make much difference.
Full postAdvantage India
Will India be comfortable with being the team that has to now make the running instead of reacting to it
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
Finally, a look at what Australia’s world will look like after Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist. All three men were ‘once-in-a-generation’ players. Australia were indeed blessed to have them all playing together. Especially when you add the other great names of that period.
That golden era is about to end I’m afraid. The two alpha predators of the jungle are about to face off and that aura of invincibility is no longer the birthright of the next generation of players to don the famous baggy green. Don’t get me wrong – they will be competitive of course and they will probably win more matches than they lose. But they will need to change their hunting style to suit their strengths. There will be change.
Full postWill Vaughan return?
Vaughan was a brilliant captain in his dream job
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
In the early 90s, rumours circulated among the Yorkshire faithful of a schoolboy in Sheffield, said to be the best batting prospect seen in the Broad Acres since the young Len Hutton sixty years earlier. In 1995, soon after he made his Yorkshire debut, I saw him play against Gloucestershire. He made 74 runs with an elegance and class which bore out the rumours, so I became a devoted fan of Michael Vaughan.
After establishing himself as a Test player, in 2002 he embarked on a year playing as regally as anyone I have ever seen. He was my idea of batting perfection apart from a tendency to throw things away in the nervous 190s, and at the start of 2003 the ICC rankings briefly agreed that he was the best batsman in the world. Had he carried on like that, the phrase “the great Michael …” would not today inevitably end in “Phelps”.
Full postBowled over by Durham
If any single number other than the points total can sum up why a team won the championship, Durham’s collective bowling average for the season was 23 compared to 28 for Notts, their nearest rivals, and about 30 or more for everyone else.
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
Before getting down to the serious business of congratulating them, a word of thanks to Durham for their efficient demolition of Kent in the final match, which quelled the nervous palpitations of this Yorkshire fan during the last round of matches. At the beginning of day two, with Yorkshire starting on 84-6 and looking destined for zero points, relegation had looked certain but the heroics of David Wainwright and Adil Rashid down at Hove and the lack of same from Kent at Canterbury allowed me to follow the last couple of days with equanimity.
So, all hail Durham!
Full postThe sweep spot
My prediction is that the India-Australia series, and England’s tour to India, will be a 'sweep-fest'
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
The subcontinent used to be a graveyard for so many visiting teams but ever since the sweep shot was seen as the answer to local conditions, the game has changed significantly. Watch these next two series in India (vs Australia and England) and see how regularly the shot is used as an offensive and defensive ploy against the Indian spinners.
Australia’s recent successes against the Asian teams, especially in the subcontinent, rely heavily on their mastery of the sweep shot. Against good spinners on tracks that don’t bounce as much, their use of the sweep has probably been the biggest tactical change in the last decade.
Full postBy the bye
Another Indian season gets underway, so Samir and Fox start to quiver with anticipation while I get wistful as another English season comes to its close
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
Another Indian season gets underway, so Samir and Fox start to quiver with anticipation while I get wistful as another English season comes to its close. As they look forward to new arrivals, I reflect on departures.
Graeme Hick has gone. One day this summer, he was dismissed cheaply and walked calmly back to the pavilion. For it not to hurt when he was out meant that it did not matter, and if it no longer mattered, it was time to step away. It was entirely his own choice to end one of the greatest county careers of all time.
Full postA passage to India
It’s a reflection of India’s strength that the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is now assuming the level of status that used to be reserved for The Ashes and the Frank Worrell Trophy
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
Australia leaves for a much-anticipated tour of India. Awakening from a rare winter solstice, there’s a real sense of anticipation. Australian cricket fans needed this (relatively) long break from cricket to re-ignite their interest in a game that was becoming all-too-predictable because of their continued dominance for so long.
The series against the West Indies barely registered on the radar, a combination of inconvenient time zones and an almost foregone conclusion. Bangladesh registered no real interest whatsoever, once again a victim of a remote location (Darwin), football finals fever and not even the hint of a genuine contest.
The India series though is an entirely different kettle of fish (with apologies to Symonds for mentioning fish). Almost every club cricket fan I have met recently has been talking about what the make-up of the team will be and who will win. I haven’t heard this sort of excited chatter for a long time. It’s infectious. And fun.
Part of that anticipation is undoubtedly a sense of unfinished business (from both sets of supporters). The events of last summer are not yet buried and injustices, perceived or real, provide that bit of extra needle. No sense denying the obvious.
Full postThat's rich
But really, how terrible is it that players should be able to rake in huge jackpots by winning games of cricket as well as by standing around in a studio in borrowed gear and letting the resultant photographs adorn billboards?
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
Vulgar, tasteless and divisive. Such are the adjectives attached to the Stanford Twenty20 jamboree.
It is allegedly divisive because if the 'England XI' beat the 'Stanford All-Stars', the players who actually play will get a million bucks each and the four who sit in the dressing room will only get a quarter of a million, and those England players who only feature in the Test squad won’t get anything at all.
What a terrible prospect. There will be big differences in the income levels of the various members of the various England squads, and this will have a hugely damaging effect on team unity, or so we are told.
Things could get as dreadful as they are in the Indian team dressing room, where Sachin Tendulkar is a squillionaire and Gautam Gambhir is not. I am sure there are tensions in the Indian dressing room, and that some of the fault lines are between the seniors (mostly very rich indeed) and the juniors (not yet very rich but hoping to be so), but they do not seem to be caused by money. If you, dear reader, are in your mid-thirties, consider how many 20-year-olds you know who aren’t irritating, and then think what it must be like to be cooped up in a dressing room with a bunch of them.
Full postInside Mr. Inconsistent
It was Trent Bridge that convinced me that Anderson had supplanted Hoggard in the pecking order
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
How much does having a memory hinder us when watching cricket? How hard is it to change your mind?
Or, to put it another way, how accurate is it to describe Jimmy Anderson as inconsistent, as some people did replying to my piece about Matthew Hoggard?
Imagine, if you will, an Andy Jameson. Without a past to live down, Jameson comes into the England team at Wellington and gets a five-fer on debut. Then he has a horrible match at Napier where he goes for plenty. A decent match at Lord’s is followed by a truly dismal performance in the first innings at Old Trafford, and then a devastating 7-43 at Trent Bridge shoots New Zealand out for 123. In the series against South Africa which follows, he has match returns of 3-114, 3-136, 4-132 and 5-127.
After nine matches this year, he has 42 wickets at just under 28 apiece. He has had a spectacular peak and a couple of nasty troughs, but generally he seems to be doing pretty decently and getting better.
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