The Surfer
From Rajkot to Oxfordshire
03-Aug-2014
Manoj Parmar, who kept wicket for Saurashtra in the 90s, is now an ECB-certified Level 4 coach who owns the biggest sports shop in Oxfordshire. Sandeep Dwivedi of the Indian Express pays him a visit.
The number of Parmar's wards bloated with time and the spike got noticed by the club officials. One day, as Parmar went out collecting litter from the ground after training, an old habit from his playing days, he was called by club chairman, the late John Fulkes, who was the secretary of Oxford Cricket Board, ECB's cricket manager for south region. Fulkes, unmarried but a true cricket romantic, was an Oxford graduate and a deputy head of local school. He stayed with his mother and spend most of his after-work hours drawing schedule for school cricket, score for them or being the lone little league spectator.
"Mr Fulkes asked me to buy a house. I could just spare 800 pounds but he would give me about 3 to 4 lakh pounds since my family was growing. He really liked what I did and he wanted to me to make Thame my home," says Parmar. In a twist of fate, the day after Parmar got the cheque, Fulkes succumbed to a heart attack. "I wanted return the cheque to the family, but his mother told me that 'If John had given the cheque, you must have done something good."
Full postKallicharran revisits his roots
03-Aug-2014
The Trinidad Guardian catches up with West Indies legend Alvin Kallicharran during his first visit to the Caribbean in 20 years, and talks to him about his career, his idols and his life post-cricket.
Who are the people who influenced and inspired you the most, in your career and in life in general?
All my uncles on both sides were cricketers. My father captained the local team, so it was cricket all around. We followed them around, fed off the passion and learnt a lot from them. Interestingly, it was a shopkeeper back in my village, Mr Ramsey and his family, who influenced me in the early days by providing money to travel to Georgetown to see and play cricket, and I was inspired by being in a village that produced so many West Indian cricket heroes like Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher, Joe Solomon, John Trim and Robert Christiani. I also read a lot at the local libraries about earlier heroes like Learie Constantine, George Headley, Weekes, Worrell, Walcott (the 3 W's), and then came the genius Garfield Sobers. These were the people who influenced and inspired me the most, people who you copied mentally and physically and felt their vibrations and sense of purpose, those who set high standards and the strong foundations for us who came later.
Full postClear humiliation for India and Dhoni
In the Telegraph, Derek Pringle calls James Anderson's not-guilty verdict a "clear humiliation" for India
ESPNcricinfo staff
02-Aug-2014
In the Telegraph, Derek Pringle calls James Anderson's not-guilty verdict a "clear humiliation" for India, whose "players have long thought Anderson's boorish sledging to be unacceptable and their admission probably weakened their case here which smacked of opportunism to get the bowler for past misdemeanours."
Dhoni's persistence with the charge, after the two boards had instructed the players to sort it out, made it look like a personal crusade for which Duncan Fletcher, India's coach, in a rare misjudgment, backed him. You cannot hope to get a player banned (the intended outcome once India had lodged a level three complaint) for being annoying, that is a separate matter, and with no independent witnesses and no video evidence for the alleged spat in the Trent Bridge pavilion (which India claimed to have) Lewis clearly found there was no case to answer.
Also in the Telegraph, Scyld Berry says Anderson needs to "channel his energies better."
He is second in England's all-time list of Test wicket-takers, after Sir Ian Botham and ahead of Bob Willis and Fred Trueman. But Anderson is now in a class of one among England's all-time greats when it comes to sledging. He used not to say boo to a goose. Then he said boo to batsmen with a hand in front of his mouth, and in mid-pitch so the stump microphones would not pick him up. Now it is an overt torrent of abuse for all to see, and it is ugly.
Serene Moeen could fill spin void
One quality that Moeen Ali has shown in his short Test career is serenity, writes Scyld Berry in the Telegraph
ESPNcricinfo staff
01-Aug-2014
One quality that Moeen Ali has shown in his short Test career is serenity, writes Scyld Berry in the Telegraph. He showed it while scoring a century at Headlingley, he showed it while fielding at long leg, cut off from the rest, and he showed the same quality while bowling in the second innings at Ageas Bowl. It is also the quality that might help Moeen fill up the void left by Graeme Swann, Berry suggests.
Graeme Swann would surely have bowled better than Moeen did to India's left-handers, Shikhar Dhawan and Ravi Jadeja, sliding the ball into their pads. But would he have bowled better, on the day, against India's right-handers? There is no guarantee. Moeen has now registered a century and 18 wickets at 32 runs each in his first five Tests. He may take nought for 100 at Old Trafford, if India bat first, but he is still on course to become England's specialist spinner - who can bat.
England lost the Lord's Test in the first session by not making full use of helpful conditions and India lost the Southampton Test in the second session when MS Dhoni asked Ravindra Jadeja to bowl a negative line to two well-set left-handers Alastair Cook and Gary Ballance, writes Aakash Chopra in Mid-Day.
Full postKallis transcended thrill
Sriram Veera writes in Mirror that Jacques Kallis stripped batting of its accoutrements. It was what made him great and it was also what kept many cricket watchers aloof to that greatness
31-Jul-2014
Jacques Kallis' fans have said he is a greater all-rounder than Garry Sobers and his critics have pointed out that Sobers made you rush to the ground as his style exuded that thrilling sense of expectancy which Kallis never quite managed to stir in many. Sriram Veera writes in Mirror that Kallis stripped batting of its accoutrements. It was what made him great and it was also what kept many cricket watchers aloof to that greatness.
Kallis didn't do dares; his feet moved just about enough, the bat would unobtrusively cover for the swing, and the solidity in the defense was remarkably non-fussy. It made one feel that there was no venom in the first place. He almost denied that moment of its potential romantic battle that perhaps left some a touch cold.
Wristband or wrist-banned?
Writing on the issue of Moeen Ali's 'Save Gaza' wristband issue, Ally Fogg, in the Guardian, says the sports bodies are being hypocritical in an attempt to keep politics out of sport
30-Jul-2014
Writing on the Moeen Ali 'Save Gaza' wristband issue, Ally Fogg, in the Guardian, says the sports bodies are being hypocritical in an attempt to keep politics out of sport.
In times of great humanitarian crisis, there can be indifference but there cannot be neutrality. To do nothing, to say nothing is in itself a political act. In declaring which causes are appropriate for sports audiences and which are not, David Boon and the ICC have made a political statement of their own. It is not Moeen Ali's statement that is in the wrong, but theirs.
The ICC states categorically in its regulations that displaying political, religious or racial messages is not approved, but how does one decide which message is political and which is not, argues A Cricketing View.
It is worth reflecting on this idea of a thing not being "political". When is a thing political? And why does the ICC's Match Referee get to decide what is political and what isn't? A military charity raises money, it takes advantage of incentives to raise this money (tax breaks, for example). Supporting it might influence the public's opinion of an individual running for political office. Is it simply the case that we say a particular idea isn't political because we all broadly agree it? Are political things only those about which people might still want to have a debate? If so, shouldn't everything be open to politics?
'Dhoni is a very principled man'
27-Jul-2014
Duncan Fletcher speaks to bcci.tv about his coach-captain relationship with MS Dhoni, whom he describes as an approachable man who "never pre-judges anyone".
What was the first thing that struck you about MS Dhoni?
That he is a very, very honest man. He would quietly sit down and discuss the point that he wants to make. He likes clarity when he is discussing something with you. What I really admire about him is that he is a very principled man. And because of his principles, he wants to give everyone a fair chance, sometimes to his own detriment. I try to share that sentiment with him because some people get a fair chance and the others tend to be judged in a different light. But with him it is very straightforward and simple; if you give one guy so many games to perform, it must be equal for everyone.
Full post'I was always aggressive' - Jayawardene
Mahela Jayawardene says he has always been vocal and aggressive both on and off the field but maybe that part of his personality went unnoticed earlier
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Jul-2014
Mahela Jayawardene, in an interview to Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror, says he has always been vocal and aggressive both on and off the field but maybe that part of his personality went unnoticed earlier. He also talks about his competition with Kumar Sangakkara, his captaincy and the need in Sri Lanka to prepare the upcoming cricketers better for international cricket
Even when I was a young cricketer, I was very aggressive. May be people did not see that side of me. If opposition says something I would always get back at them. I was very vocal. Even in press conferences I would raise my voice, I was aggressive at teams meetings with certain decisions. I have had lots of confrontation with media as well in early part of my career when it came to player rights and image rights. I was quite happy to do that. I went through these emotions when I had to but in other times I am calm and collective. I felt that I needed that aggression.
Rose Bowl and the smoking hole
Paul Downton, the managing director of England cricket, has lent support to Alastair Cook's captaincy, which may have roots in the bad memories of a series Downton played in 26 years ago
24-Jul-2014
Ian Tulk, the groundsman at Rose Bowl, the venue of the third Test, has seen a piece of forest land turn into England's most recent Test venue. And he has stories to tell. Sandeep Dwivedi, in the Indian Express, writes:
With Kevin Pietersen too having made the Rose Bowl his home once, you know Tulk will surely mention him. And he does. "KP was once facing Alan Mullally, who was repeatedly bowling big no balls," he says. KP, in an evidently sarcastic tone, asked the left-arm pacer to might as well take a few more steps ahead. Mullally agreed, the next ball was fired from 15 yards. "Not too high, parallel to the ground, the ball rocketed and hit that wall," he says showing a six-feet fence.
The doubts around the England camp have lingered after the defeat at Lord's. However, Paul Downton, the managing director of England cricket, has lent support to Alastair Cook's captaincy, which may have roots in the bad memories of a series Downton played in 26 years ago, when change brought chaos rather than clarity, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.
Downton played the first three Tests of the series before being replaced behind the stumps by Jack Richards for the last two. But he would have seen, after an honourable draw in the first match and a loss in the second in which England were competitive, how quickly matters can spiral out of control when change is indiscriminate.
Gray Nicolls Scoop turns 40
The Gray Nicolls Scoop, the bat every kid wanted for Christmas, turns 40 this year
23-Jul-2014
The Gray Nicolls Scoop, the bat every kid wanted for Christmas, turns 40 this year. Russell Jackson gives the history of the bat, popularised by the Chappell brothers and David Hookes, in the Guardian.
"I tell you what, you've hit the bonanza!" says Robert "Swan" Richards as he pulls a pile of photo albums and scrapbooks out of storage containers under a desk in his office. I've turned up to Richards' cricket store in Collingwood, north of Melbourne, in search of clues about the somewhat mythical origins of the Gray Nicolls Scoop, the sword in the stone of all cricket bats and a bona fide object of desire in the cricket world of the 1970s and 80s.
