The Buzz
The drugs don't work for tourism
The internet can do wonders in helping to promote a place to the world, but it also has a down side – just ask Hastings, the south coast town in England.
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
The internet can do wonders in helping to promote a place to the world, but it also has a down side – just ask Hastings, the south coast town in England.
A cricket team cancelled their tour after finding a guide online that pinpointed Hastings local drug hotspots under a map entitled: ‘Map to show hotspots for discarded injecting paraphenlia' (sic).
Fleckney Village Cricket Club, in Leicestershire, instead opted for a five-day tour of the West Country after studying the map, but local officials said it didn’t paint a true picture.
Hastings MP Michael Foster told the Argus: "I will contact the cricket club and invite them to Hastings and I'm sure they will be impressed when they get here."
Full postDhoni masters the tongues
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is surely not of the ilk to be flustered easily, nor the kind to shy away from a challenge, and the India captain seems to have found an ingenious way to handle a few language issues.
"In countries like Australia or England, people speak English in such an accent that it is very hard to understand. So, at parties when locals come to us and start talking, even if we are not getting anything, we say yeah,” Dhoni joked during a show on NDTV. "Or if I have a drink in hand, I excuse myself by saying, 'I'll just get a drink' but never show up in front of that person again.”
Full postTwo hat-tricks and a tie
Two hat-tricks are taken by team-mates in the same game and the match ends in a tie
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
Two hat-tricks are taken by team-mates in the same game and the match ends in a tie. Sounds like a quirky cricket tale but that was exactly the scenario when South Launceston's Under-16 side played the North-East Bushrangers at Scottsdale recently. Shaun Field, 15, and Ben Jackson, 16, opened the bowling for their club, and each took their first-ever hat-tricks in the game, as well as their maiden five-fors.
While both boys were elated by their hat-tricks, South Launceston U-16 coach Peter Linger, who has played cricket for 35, said he had never seen anything like it. South Launceston were set a target of 169, and the match went down to the wire with two runs required off the last ball. However, they could only manage a single. The stuff of dreams. Well sort of.
Full postSunny and Viru make a combo
Virender Sehwag, arguably the modern era's most unorthodox and audacious batsman, has credited Sunil Gavaskar, one of the most composed and technically correct batsmen ever, for opening up more methods to attack.
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Virender Sehwag, arguably the modern era's most unorthodox and audacious batsman, has credited Sunil Gavaskar, one of the most composed and technically correct batsmen ever, for opening up more methods to attack.
"Once Sunil Gavaskar asked me look to take middle-or-off-stump guard. And I think it has suited me," he told PTI. "With a leg-stump guard, you could be chasing a wide delivery. Or leaving a gap. With a middle-and-off stump guard, the bowler doesn't know where to pitch his stuff.
"If it is on [the] stumps, you could whip it to [the] onside. If it is outside the off stump, he is allowing you to play your favourite shots. I always take a middle-stump guard." if In 2008, Sehwag scored 1462 runs (of which 856 were in fours and sixes) in 1703 balls for a strike rate of 85.84.
Full postMcGrath vies for Aussie honour
Glenn McGrath's playing engagements are becoming increasingly rare, but the honours don't seem to trail far behind the former Australian fast bowler
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Glenn McGrath's playing engagements are becoming increasingly rare, but the honours don't seem to trail far behind the former Australian fast bowler. In 2008, 18 months after he finished his Test career, McGrath was awarded life membership of Cricket New South Wales. And he now finds himself a finalist for this year's Australian of the Year, a "huge honour" according to the legend himself, for his fund raising efforts for the McGrath foundation.
Since retiring from Tests at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes, McGrath has bravely promoted his late wife Jane's cancer awareness campaign since her death in June, while raising their two children. "To be acknowledged in this way, it's something very special," McGrath told reporters ahead of the announcement. "I'm sure there's a lot of other people out there who probably deserve it more than me."
The McGrath Foundation is a charity that raises awareness of breast cancer and lobby to fund specialist breast care nurses. Publicity for the foundation was boosted earlier this year during the third Test between Australia and South Africa in Sydney when the ground was bathed in a sea of pink.
"The foundation's growing, the support we've had from everyone in Australia is great, so that's growing by the day so my involvement will become a lot more there," said McGrath.
Full postGreybeard Matthews upstages Jaques
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Greg Matthews, the former Test offspinner, talks a great game – and still bowls one. In the lead-up to Phil Jaques’ return from back surgery, Matthews, 49, let the Test opener know he would be in for a tough time during Sutherland’s first grade match against Sydney University.
“Phil is a great batsman," Matthews said. "I'll give him an hour to get a feel for things, but that's it. If Stuart Clark or Mitch Cook don't roll him, hopefully the old man can come on and get lucky."
Full postSymonds says McCullum is a lump of what?
So sometimes it’s a bit hard to make sense of Andrew Symonds, but his radio interview with Australian comedians Roy and HG on Triple M on Friday was particularly hard to work out
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
So sometimes it’s a bit hard to make sense of Andrew Symonds, but his radio interview with Australian comedians Roy and HG on Triple M on Friday was particularly hard to work out. He was talking about New South Wales’ decision to hire Brendon McCullum for their Twenty20 final and Cricket Australia will decipher the recording to determine whether Symonds should be punished.
“They're trying to use him [McCullum] as the out because he's a Kiwi,” Symonds said. "Yep, we love to hate them, but he's the lump of s..., sorry, lump of cow dirt, that people are thinking of. Now to get away from that, the actual topic is about playing cricket and getting into a final.
"To get yourself to that position and if you haven't brought anybody in, personally I wouldn't be changing a winning team. It doesn't matter about McCullum, mate, he could have been Irish, he still would have got it.” Are you keeping up?
“It's not his fault, he's doing his job and trying to earn a wage. But what happened here is an injustice. I said Daniel Smith, his opposite number, was going to miss out. But they said this morning that Daniel Smith is going to play, but at the end of day somebody is still going to miss out.'' Something is definitely missing.
Full postWhat's in a name?
So cricket won't be India's national sport - not for the moment, at least
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
So cricket won't be India's national sport - not for the moment, at least. Populism be damned, India's sports minister, MS Gill, a highly respected former bureaucrat and Himalayan mountaineer, not only batted for hockey but also took swipes at cricket and Sachin Tendulkar. "Hockey is a spiritual sport in India and is directly related to one's heart," he said, drawing a distinction. "Let cricket be as it is."
He was evoking that spirit when he pointed to how cricket had changed. "Those players [of the past] would face balls at 90mph with very little protection - there would just be a thin cap and cotton clothes. Now, however, there is all sort of protection, head gear, shoulder gear and things like that. In fact, a batsman is so covered with protective gear that if I go into the middle to bat one might say (Sachin) Tendulkar is playing."
Full postSilence of the Vaughan
Cuts across the editorial departments of most of the UK’s national newspapers have been well documented, with the Daily Telegraph being among the leaders, cutting back many established journalists while hiring past and present players to plug
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
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In October the paper announced that Michael Vaughan had joined their ranks. "He will be a real asset to our cricket coverage," gushed Mark Skipworth, the executive sport editor. “His experience of captaining the England cricket team and being one of the best batsmen in the world puts him in a remarkably strong position to comment on cricket.”
In December Private Eye noted that Vaughan had produced only one article – on golf – but it seemed that the departure of his successor, Kevin Pietersen, would allow him to spill all and offer a unique insight into captaincy alongside also-sacked coach Peter Moores. Vaughan had, after all, worked with Moores for the majority of his time as coach.
Remarkably, Vaughan, has remained silent on the matter, raising the question that if this is not something he feels able to comment on, what on earth is.
Full postAdding splice to a post-match curry
However late it is, and however many post-match beers you might have had, it might be best to avoid popping into the Mandarin House in Knighton, Wales where the owner showed his love for the game by using a rat-gnawed cricket bat to stir a pan of
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
However late it is, and however many post-match beers you might have had, it might be best to avoid popping into the Mandarin House in Knighton, Wales where the owner showed his love for the game by using a rat-gnawed cricket bat to stir a pan of curry. That, and the presence of rats in the kitchen itself, led to owner Chun-Hung Cheun being fined £2000 by Brecon magistrates.
Full postMost Read
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