The Buzz
Left a loan on the highway
The recession spares no one
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
The recession spares no one. That’s what three of India’s rising young players learnt ... the hard way.
On Wednesday evening, Saurashtra batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, Mumbai spinner Iqbal Abdulla and Gujarat batsman Bhavik Thaker were going to the airport after their West Zone team won the Deodhar Trophy tournament. But euphoria soon turned to fear as their car was blocked and stopped by two men on a motorcycle on the Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar highway. One of the men got into the car and started driving while the players were still in the car. The players feared the worst, but the situation turned out to be slightly different.
Pressed for answers, the men said they were recovery agents repossessing the car because the owner had turned defaulter. Sensing a glimmer of hope, the players hastily explained that they had nothing to do with the owner of the vehicle, and were in fact unsuspecting cricketers caught in a mess that wasn’t of their making. Following a 15-minute discussion, the men finally relented and dropped the players, with bag and baggage, on the highway. Another car was summoned from the Orissa Cricket Association and the players reached the airport, without further incident.
Th end result? A blacklisted travel agent and a dose of ‘economic’ reality for three young Indian aspirants.
Full postMarsh swaps secrets with baseball hero
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
| ||
It wasn't the same as when Babe Ruth met Don Bradman, or Shane Warne showed Michael Jordan his flipper, but Shaun Marsh has traded tips with the baseballer Manny Ramirez in Arizona. Marsh, the Australian one-day international, showed Ramirez, the LA Dodgers and former Boston Red Sox slugger, some of things needed to succeed as a batsman in the game Robin Williams called baseball on valium (see video).
"I have faced some tough pitchers before, but we don't have to ever swing at a bouncing ball that is rising as it passes us," Ramirez said after his short innings at the Arizona Cricket Club. "Shaun is a great hitter and he gave me some great pointers.” Marsh was impressed after his short coaching clinic and said “maybe he can return the favour next spring”.
There are a few similarities for Marsh and Ramirez: they are capable of launching balls out of stadiums and are both out with hamstring problems. The major difference between the pair is Ramirez has just signed a two-year contract with the Dodgers worth US$45m, dwarfing the US$30,000 Marsh earned playing for King’s XI Punjab in the inaugural Indian Premier League.
Full postClarke embarrassed after email farce
Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, has been subjected to further embarrassment after an email intended for him from Nigel Hilliard, the Essex chairman, was instead sent straight to the inbox of his most outspoken opponent, Leicestershire's Neil Davidson
Andrew Miller
25-Feb-2013
Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, has been subjected to further embarrassment after an email intended for him from Nigel Hilliard, the Essex chairman, was instead sent straight to the inbox of his most outspoken opponent, Leicestershire's Neil Davidson. The subject of the email? Advice on how to deal with Davidson's threat of legal action after Clarke's particularly forthright opinions in the media.
Speaking to the The Independent, Clarke variously described Davidson and his fellow critic, Rod Bransgrove of Hampshire, as “two men with a megaphone”, “flawed individuals” and “useless people who couldn't run a piss-up in a brewery.”
Davidson, in an email response that has been circulated around the counties, wrote: “The statements which you have made about me are offensive and totally without foundation. I am considering the best way to proceed given that what you said about me is clearly actionable and totally unbecoming of the chairman of the ECB.”
The situation was then compounded when Clarke, seeking advice on how to proceed, contacted Hilliard, who inadvertently sent his reply straight to Davidson.
Full postIs India's future being undermined by cheap bats?
A report in the Wisden Cricketer magazine says that India’s coaches are becoming increasingly worried by parents buying their children cheap but heavy bats because they last longer
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
A report in the Wisden Cricketer magazine says that India’s coaches are becoming increasingly worried by parents buying their children cheap but heavy bats because they last longer. The net result is that children are using equipment too big and weighty for them, with the result that they are suffering injuries and acquiring dodgy techniques.
“If [a parent] buys a bat he knows the boy is going to grow taller, so he buys a bat that is at least one size bigger than what suits him,” said coach Sandeep Dahyad.
With bats made from English willow lighter but more expensive than their Kashmiri counterparts, it is the latter which many go for because of price and durability.
The report also quotes Dr Rene Ferninands, a Australian bio-mechanist, who said that the heavy bats cause serious technical problems as the children “don’t have the top-arm strength to hit the ball … hence they lift with the bottom hand and find it difficult to play straight. And what about the cut and the pull shots? What happens to them?”
Full postJohnson learns not to annoy Jessica
When the wives and girlfriends joined the touring squad in Cape Town over the weekend, most of the Australian players indulged in a bit of romantic sightseeing or some retail therapy
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
 |
 |
When the wives and girlfriends joined the touring squad in Cape Town over the weekend, most of the Australian players indulged in a bit of romantic sightseeing or some retail therapy. If the men were holding bags they were likely Prada or Louis Vuitton. Not so for Mitchell Johnson.
His girlfriend Jessica Bratich enjoys a bit of fashion, as she revealed at the Allan Border Medal, but she also happens to be a karate champion. While he was enjoying a break from Test cricket this week, Johnson found himself holding a punching bag for Bratich and things got a little dangerous for Australia’s key bowler.
“She actually did punch me in the gut yesterday,” Johnson said on Monday. “She was doing 30 punches really quickly and as she was getting a bit slower she hit me in the gut. I might have said something, I don’t know.
Full postA cricket museum for Yorkshire
Attendances for county games may continue to be low, but there’s no denying that there are still some die-hard fans
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
Attendances for county games may continue to be low, but there’s no denying that there are still some die-hard fans. One of them, Keith Howard, has donated ₤300,000 (about US$427,000) to Yorkshire, the county with the most success in the Championship, towards building a museum to showcase the club’s 146-year history.
The museum will be in the East Stand at Headingley, and work is due to start next summer. Design firm Mather & Co, who have helped with museums of some of England’s biggest sporting institutions including Wimbledon, Manchester United and Arsenal football club, have been appointed to oversee the project.
The museum is to have interactive displays detailing the club’s history, a theatre, and will also house the club’s archives. Perhaps it will help us learn how a non-Yorkshireman like Lord Hawke overcame the county’s almost-fanatical refusal to field any player born outside Yorkshire to become its captain for 28 years.
Full postDhoni the deep-sea fisher
Cricket tours are hectic, with weeks passing by in a blur of venues, hotels and airports
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Cricket tours are hectic, with weeks passing by in a blur of venues, hotels and airports. So when you get a chance to unwind, you take it. The Indians did precisely that on the eve of the fifth ODI in Auckland. Having already won the series, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Paddy Upton, India’s mental conditioning coach, headed out for a deep-sea fishing trip. Rahul Dravid went with them. Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and some others chose a walk in the sky at the City Sky tower while Zaheer Khan attempted to climb the harbour bridge. Coach Gary Kirsten, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Gautam Gambhir and Munaf Patel settled for the more laid-back entertainment provided by a dolphin and whale safari.
Full postTendulkar becomes a god
Many have thought it has been the case for years, but Sachin Tendulkar has been turned into a Hindu god by fans.
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
|
| ||
|
| ||
|
|
 |
The Daily Express in London reports that supporters in Delhi commissioned artists to create icons of Tendulkar as the monkey god Hanuman. The works show him holding a bat instead of the more traditional mace.
“He is truly a god to millions of people who worship this sport,” explained artist Gautam Bhatia.
Full postSiddle gets his chants back
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Peter Siddle is learning that what goes around comes around. Ten years ago he used to sit at the MCG and join in the nasty chants about opposition players. Now he’s on the receiving end. “Siddle’s a wanker” has become something of a series catchphrase in South Africa. The fans would never admit it but it’s a perverse mark of respect.
Richard Hadlee was the target of similar jeers in Australia during the 1980s and Siddle recalls handing out the same treatment to Courtney Walsh. There was a fitting symmetry when Siddle ran in to the rhythm of the chants in South Africa; Walsh was watching on from the commentary box.
Full postBatty regulations
The European Court has ruled that a tennis racquet is not a terrorist threat, despite an airline deciding it was and throwing a passenger off a flight for the temerity of bringing one on board.
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
The European Court has ruled that a tennis racquet is not a terrorist threat, despite an airline deciding it was and throwing a passenger off a flight for the temerity of bringing one on board.
It emerged that while the EU had a list of banned hand luggage, it was actually secret for “security reasons”. The court's decision was based on that fact … how could anyone know what was allowed if the airlines and airport operators wouldn’t tell them?
The most that anyone could gather was that "any blunt instrument capable of causing injury" was prohibited. So what about cricket bats? Easyjet have ruled that they must be carried in the hold (as with fishing rods and snooker cues) while British Airways allows “bats, wickets, pads and balls” but, again, in the hold only. It’s the same in the USA, although, bizarrely, metal scissors with pointed tips under four inches in length are not deemed unsuitable to carry on.
In short, if you are travelling, out the cricket bat inside luggage in the hold (if it’s outside the luggage it may count as a separate item and attract a surcharge.
Full postMost Read
Writers