The Buzz
The unwelcome travellers
Cricket clubs are used to not being able to honour fixtures because of the weather or player shortages, but Roborough Cricket Club in Devon have a more long-term issue after a group of so-called travellers set up camp on the outfield earlier this
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
Cricket clubs are used to not being able to honour fixtures because of the weather or player shortages, but Roborough Cricket Club in Devon have a more long-term issue after a group of so-called travellers set up camp on the outfield earlier this week and let their children loose on the square.
“They've been riding across the wicket,” said club treasurer Mike Gaylard. “We're going to inspect it on Monday morning and carry out any necessary repairs. We're hoping we'll be able to play in the afternoon. They just think they've got a God given right to be there.”
“We're just passing through; it's our way of life,” one of the travellers countered. “It's the only way you know when you've been brought up with it.”
The police washed their hands of the situation and the local council, who own the ground, said that they could “only move as fast as the law allows”.
Full postWhen Warney nipped a sip
Shane Warne walks on water but is famously partial to beer – even in the middle of an IPL game
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Shane Warne walks on water but is famously partial to beer – even in the middle of an IPL game. Leading his Rajasthan Royals back on to the field after a strategic time-out against Bangalore at Centurion on Thursday, Warne was walking along the boundary when he spotted a spectator holding a glass of beer. He reached out, the beer was proffered, a quick swig ensued, a few drops were spilled and one spectator was left with a glass he probably will keep forever. It was all over in a few seconds and, though captured live by the TV cameras, was studiously ignored by the commentators. Warne, typically unfazed by the potential for controversy, carried on from where he’d been interrupted by the break: leading Rajasthan to yet another win and, by the end of the night, to second spot in the table.
Full postCould broadcasters start picking teams?
Just how far the ECB is prepared to bend over to earn an extra buck - and it would probably win many limbo competitions – might be gauged by its reaction to ESPN-Star’s reported multi-million dollar bid for rights to cover the planned new domestic
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
Just how far the ECB is prepared to bend over to earn an extra buck - and it would probably win many limbo competitions – might be gauged by its reaction to ESPN-Star’s reported multi-million dollar bid for rights to cover the planned new domestic Twenty20 tournament, due to launch in 2010.
The Daily Telegraph claims that it is a condition of ESPN-Star's bid that every team taking part in any televised match must contain an Indian player. This will leave the ECB between a rock and a hard place. In the past it has tended to follow the dollar and risk public opprobrium, as evidenced by its decision to take live English cricket completely off terrestrial TV and place it in the hands of BSkyB.
But if it does accede to ESPN-Star's demands, then it raises the prospects of all future bids being accompanied by similar demands. Where does that end? Could we see BSkyB have a place on England’s panel of selectors, or picking overseas players for counties?
Full postSpin summit for Australians
Australia haven’t had a match-winning spinner since Shane Warne hung up his boots after the last Ashes series and the situation is serious enough to warrant calling a ‘spin summit’ next month to discuss the issue
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
Australia haven’t had a match-winning spinner since Shane Warne hung up his boots after the last Ashes series and the situation is serious enough to warrant calling a ‘spin summit’ next month to discuss the issue. The country’s spin bowling experts – including Terry Jenner, Warne’s mentor, and John Davison, the spin bowling coach at Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence (COE) - will meet at the COE in Brisbane to find a solution for the lack of quality spinners in all formats. According to AAP, the reluctance of captains to use attacking spinners is the reason for the lack of spin options. Australian selectors are expected to pick Nathan Hauritz, a containing offspinner, for the Ashes ahead of more attacking spinners like Jason Krejza and Bryce McGain. But Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, felt “attacking” was an over-rated term, saying "to assert pressure from one end is attacking cricket". That, presumably, will be up for discussion at Brisbane as well.
Full postA different kind of cricketing buzz
It’s not been a good year or two for Bermudan cricket, with poor on-field performances and lurid off-field tales dogging the side
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
It’s not been a good year or two for Bermudan cricket, with poor on-field performances and lurid off-field tales dogging the side. Hopes that the only way was up after the recent failure to qualify for the 2011 World Cup were dashed with news that fast bowler George O’Brien had been charged with using a Taser stun-gun against what local papers described as a “love rival”.
O’Brien pleased not guilty when he appeared in court, his lawyer claiming the incident was related to “matters of the heart”. The magistrate was duly unimpressed and expressed concern that O’Brien actually owned a Taser in the first place. He will stand trial in August.
O’Brien has a chequered record. In 2005 he was handed a two-year suspended ban after reportedly punching an opponent during Bermuda's Cup Match, the biggest game of the year. In 2006 he was dropped from the national side after he missed a number of training sessions and failed to impress at the ones he did attend. That led to him being excluded from the 2007 World Cup squad, and days after being left out he broke his leg playing football.
Full post'Lethal weapon' fires 'Desert roses' to victory
Which IPL team opens with the ‘Rock at the top’ and the ‘Cannon’
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Which IPL team opens with the ‘Rock at the top’ and the ‘Cannon’? If you guessed Rajasthan Royals you’d be right, but bonus points if you said ‘Desert Roses’ for those are the nick names Shane Warne (aka ‘King’) has given to Graeme Smith, Swapnil Asnodkar and his team.
The rest of the players also have fitting aliases. Rajasthan’s hard-hitting match-winner Yusuf Pathan goes by the name of ‘Lethal weapon’, while the ‘Terminator’ (although he hasn’t terminated much as yet) is Dimitri Mascarenhas, the Times of India reported. Abhishek Raut is the ‘Young gun’, wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat is ‘Reliability, while the team’s ‘Rockstar’ is allrounder Ravindra Jadeja.
There are a couple of natural disasters as well, ‘Tornado’ and ‘Cyclone’ (Kamran Khan and Shane Harwood respectively) which would fit right into an X-Men movie. ‘Home run’ and ‘Big fury’ refer to Tyron Henderson and Munaf Patel while Darren Berry is the team’s ‘General’.
Rajasthan also have a ‘Secret weapon’ which they deployed in the last game against Deccan Chargers. It fired as well with Lee Carseldine contributing important runs towards the victory.
Full postMark Waugh bats against a snow ball
Not to be outdone by the Englishmen who played cricket on Mount Everest, Mark Waugh and thirteen other tough Aussies climbed three of the highest mountains in Australia in only three days
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
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Not to be outdone by the Englishmen who played cricket on Mount Everest, Mark Waugh and thirteen other tough Aussies climbed three of the highest mountains in Australia in only three days. They did it to raise money for The Smith Family charity.
The group was split into two teams Middle Order (cricket) and The Super 7 Blues (rugby, because former Wallaby, Michael Brial, was also part of the event) pitted against each other to scale Bimberi, Australian Capital Territory’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciusko and Victoria’s Mount Bogong.
“The last climb really took it out of us, our legs were starting to cramp and the early morning starts were beginning to take their toll,” Waugh said. The group didn’t play a Twenty20 match, like the Everest trekkers did, but Waugh did hit a snow ball on Mount Kosciusko.
Full postA century off 37 balls with Tendulkar's bat
When Shahid Afridi walked out to bat for the first time in a one-day international, against Sri Lanka in Nairobi in 1996, the bat in his hands once belonged to someone who had played many memorable innings, and several of them against Pakistan
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
When Shahid Afridi walked out to bat for the first time in a one-day international, against Sri Lanka in Nairobi in 1996, the bat in his hands once belonged to someone who had played many memorable innings, and several of them against Pakistan. It had belonged to Sachin Tendulkar and found its way to Afridi via Waqar Younis, who said “it could prove lucky as it belonged to a great player”. It was lucky indeed for Afridi reeled off the fastest ODI century off 37 balls, a record that still stands.
“Waqar gave me the bat in Nairobi where I made my debut for Pakistan. He told me Tendulkar had given him the bat and asked him to make similar model bats from Sialkot,” Afridi told PTI. “That record [fastest hundred] still stands today and makes me proud. I also got other good scores with this particular bat so it is very valuable for me and I have no intention to auction it off to anyone.”
Full postAfghanistan hammer Jamie Theakston XI
Afghanistan, the newest ICC country to be inducted into their enjoyably competitive list of one-day nations, have won their first ODI
Will Luke
25-Feb-2013
Afghanistan, the newest ICC country to be inducted into their enjoyably competitive list of one-day nations, have won their first ODI. Well, sort of. That’s what the Afghans will tell you after thumping an English village XI containing names such as Matthew Fleming, the former Kent and England allrounder, and Jamie Theakston. Yes him, off the telly.
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Ditchling Cricket Club, captained by Theakston, were walloped by 124 runs at a heavily-secured NATO base in Kabul on a humid and rainy Friday. Afghanistan, who recently and sensationally qualified as a one-day international nation, took great pleasure in smacking six after six out of the compound, as one journalist told Cricinfo. “There were sixes all over the shop,” said Leslie Knott, a film-producer covering Afghanistan’s rise from obscurity. “And then a giant storm came in and blew the tent down.”
Fleming, who was once an officer in the now-redundant Royal Green Jackets, is out in Afghanistan on behalf of MCC, unveiling pitches to local communities, as revealed in Cricinfo’s interview with him this week. "We believe that cricket can change people's lives,” he told AFP. “We just want to give the people who wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity, the opportunity. The challenge for them now is to become more experienced and harness that talent, and that intensity, and enthusiasm."
Full postThat heady feeling
Don’t run singles at high altitude
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
Don’t run singles at high altitude. That is the advice of Gareth Lewis, 27, a British policeman who has just played a 20 over-a-side game at Gorak Shep, close to Mount Everest base camp, a staggering 17,000 feet above sea level. “It was difficult to bat and bowl at that height. There were not many singles. Batsmen hit lots of sixes and fours," Lewis said. "I took just six or seven paces to bowl instead of a full run-up."
Lewis was vice-captain of Team Tenzing which lost to Team Hillary by 36 runs on April 21, but he was not disappointed. "It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life," he said.
His team-mate Nick Toovey, 28, shared that feeling. "It was fairly surreal. There was Mount Everest next to you, and yaks on one side of the pitch. I was sad it was all over, I wished it had lasted a bit longer." Jonathan Hill, who umpired the game, had even thought up an excuse for possible poor decisions. "Concentrating was difficult because your brain works slower up there," he said.
It was literally a heady feeling for the two teams and the umpires, doctors and handful of spectators who climbed for nine days carrying their bats, pads and even a roll-up pitch to get to Gorak Shep for the world’s highest cricket match. Next stop? Getting the game registered with Guinness World Records.
Full post