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How to manage a batsman's workload
All that standing around and occasionally prodding at the ball can be exhausting, so skip an innings or two to up your skills
Alex Bowden
17-Oct-2013
What do people mean when they say "I'll manage"? They mean that they don't really know what they are doing, they have no expertise, but they'll bumble through somehow. Managing means just about getting by, even though you are woefully unprepared for what you are taking on.
It's the same in business. Managers manage. Just about.
After South Africa's solitary warm-up for their Test series against Pakistan A, Graeme Smith was asked why he had sat out the second innings, even though this was the first time he had played a competitive cricket match since May. He answered: "Not batting today was just a management process."
Full postIndia's administrative tour of South Africa to go ahead
Months of speculation and politicking brought to a close with announcement that series will proceed
Andrew Fidel Fernando
15-Oct-2013
India's cricket administrators have announced the much-awaited dates for their month-long meetings tour of South Africa in December and January.
The meetings fixtures had been held to ransom over the past few months by the threat of live cricket, but the BCCI triumphantly announced that cricket will not spoil the mouth-watering summer of negotiations in South Africa.
The tour will begin with two short meet-and-greet functions, before moving on to a series of more substantial talks. The centrepiece will be the three five-day conferences to be held in the biggest cricket meeting rooms in the country.
Full postWhat if Tendulkar were English?
An alternative timeline of how the Little Master's career might have panned out
Alan Tyers
11-Oct-2013
1989 Makes international debut against Australia, aged 16. Scores 4 and 0 but after bowling an okayish over of seam, is immediately dubbed the New Botham.
1990 Emerges that Ted Dexter had handed him his debut in a case of mistaken identity.
1991 Injured while trying to carry a crate of Carling Black Label over security fence at Uxbridge during NatWest Trophy quarter-final celebrations.
Full post'I'm certainly no Mr Miyagi'
Frank confessions of inadequacy and much else besides, in this fortnight's Twitter round-up
Alex Bowden
10-Oct-2013
I don't want you to overreact, but this week's Twitter round-up features a player complaining about Nando's. I know that seems pretty unlikely, but stranger things have happened - even if nocturnal furniture assaults aren't among them.
The fear
Alex Hales has an enemy.
Full postAlex Hales has an enemy.
BCCI in couples counselling with Cricket South Africa
And Ajmal congratulates journalists for not misquoting him in this week's alternative news round up
R Rajkumar
08-Oct-2013
Ajmal insists he was quoted within context
Saeed Ajmal insists his controversial comments about Dav Whatmore's coaching methods have been taken well within context.
Saeed Ajmal insists his controversial comments about Dav Whatmore's coaching methods have been taken well within context.
"Allegations that I made disparaging remarks about Dav Whatmore's role as coach of Pakistan are unfounded," declared the spinner. "Please understand that they are not allegations at all but actual fact. When I said the only difference between Whatmore and some of our other Pakistan coaches is that Whatmore is being paid more, I meant exactly that and nothing else.
"As for what I supposedly said about him having language difficulties here," the offie continued, "it's no secret that you people in the press like to twist my words around to make it seem as though I said something other than what was intended. Rest assured that didn't happen this time. Thank you for your journalistic integrity."
Full postWho will get the top job at the ECB?
Irani? Beefy? Knighty? Which deserving candidate with a moniker ending in "y" or "i" will it be?
Alan Tyers
04-Oct-2013
Speculation is reaching fever pitch around English cricket as to who will succeed Hugh Morris as the managing director of the England team. Here's a guide to the likely candidates.
While Nasser Hussain maybe the frontrunner, former Essex team-mate RONNIE IRANI has also thrown his hat into the ring, missed, but kept on giving 110% until he got it more or less in the ring or thereabouts anyway. It is believed that Irani will stress his ability to involve players and crowd alike in keep-fit exercises, while also doing an opinionated but humorous radio show with Alan Brazil about major cricketing issues facing the ECB.
Also well-known for his radio work is Darren Gough, who has advanced the possibility of a joint candidacy with ANDREW CADDICK. Gough believes the cat-and-dog chemistry that allowed them to take so many wickets as an opening pair could provide what he, in a press release, called "the essential creative tension and inherent dichotomy of disparate personalities unified in one purpose that engendered such rare alchemy in our halcyon days with leather in hand". It is thought that Gough may be on an earner with the Yorkshire University Press to promote sales of dictionaries, but this would not necessarily compromise his application.
Full postThe importance of being Graham Onions
That and other gleanings from this year's County Championship
Alex Bowden
03-Oct-2013
Employ Graham Onions. If there's one thing I've learnt from this year's County Championship, it's that you should always try to employ Graham Onions. I'm not sure this applies to every industry, but I wouldn't bet against it. Seventeen first-class counties didn't employ Graham Onions this year and those very same 17 counties failed to win the County Championship.
In simple terms, employment of Graham Onions provides the foundations on which everything else is built. No one took more wickets, no one who took more than 20 wickets did so at a lower average, and no one took more five-wicket hauls. Onions' only failing has been in his performances when pitted against the England tape measure. It seems he will never play another Test unless he learns to bowl in stilts.
Height is the only possible reason why England do not want to employ Graham Onions. In fact, it seems safe to assume that centimetres have come to supersede wickets as a selection criterion to such an extent that the latter is no longer even a consideration. Sadly, as Will Jefferson has retired, we cannot properly test this theory.
Full postTambe's success inspires Tendulkar
And Sreesanth inspires the rest of us in this week's round-up of cricket news you could live wihtout
R Rajkumar
30-Sep-2013
Writers who made Neil Broom pun at large in society
Police have warned that a number of sportswriters who have at some point or the other incorporated Neil Broom's name into a lazy cricketing pun of a headline - all of them variants of "Broom sweeps Otago/NZ to win" - continue to live at large in society.
Police have warned that a number of sportswriters who have at some point or the other incorporated Neil Broom's name into a lazy cricketing pun of a headline - all of them variants of "Broom sweeps Otago/NZ to win" - continue to live at large in society.
Worryingly, the number of sightings of these people has been on the rise in recent times, with members of the public and investigators alike reporting having seen them washing their cars, going grocery shopping, walking the dog, having a beer at the local tavern, and other such mundane activities as would belie their criminal history.
"Looking at these guys, you'd never guess that they were responsible for writing such an instantly hackneyed headline," said Peter Marshall, New Zealand commissioner of police. "Which is why we owe it to society to keep as close a tab as we can on these disturbed individuals to make sure they don't do anything else dangerous."
Full postA guide to Surrey's double-ton hero Dominic Sibley
Some incredible* facts about the youngest-ever player to score a double-hundred in the County Championship
Alan Tyers
27-Sep-2013
1) Dominic Sibley is so young that he does not speak in actual words but instead communicated with his batting partner, Hashim Amla, in text messages.
2) At 18 years and 21 days, thanks to the selling off of playing fields and putting the sport on Sky, Dominic Sibley is in fact the youngest person in Britain to know what cricket actually is.
3) Some of Dominic's Surrey team-mates are old enough to be his DAD! Assuming they had kids at 11.
Full post'Motion sickness does destroy me every time'
Revelations of startling vulnerability and more in this fortnight's Twitter round-up
Alex Bowden
26-Sep-2013
The world's cricketers have been handing out a lot of advice this week. Needlessly to say, most of it is completely worthless. If they're not totally ignorant regarding the locations of celestial bodies, they're confusing mountains with agricultural land or advocating change for change's sake. Unless they're talking you through the menu at Nando's, don't listen to them - they'll be out of their depth.
The astronomer
Kemar Roach thinks he's aiming high.
Full postKemar Roach thinks he's aiming high.
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