The Surfer
'It has been quite a show'
Writing in the Hindu , Peter Roebuck says the Champions League is the freshest tournament staged for years.
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Writing in the Hindu, Peter Roebuck says the Champions League is the freshest tournament staged for years.
Indeed the tournament has surpassed expectations, providing a richness absent in technically superior endeavours. The Champions League (CL) has had several particular attractions that have made this first edition all the more enjoyable. First and foremost CL has none of the tiresome flag waving that emerges when countries lock horns. Oscar Wilde was wrong. Patriotism is admirable and Nationalism is the scourge. No good comes of it.
In the Witness, Roebuck writes Trinidad & Tobago "have helped to improve the battered reputation of West Indian cricket" with their performances in the Champions League.
At the same time they strengthened the case for breaking up West Indies as a cricketing entity and leaving each nation to its own devices. After all, West Indies exists largely for cricketing purposes. Otherwise it is a region with its own complexities and complexes loosely bound together by geography, history and common practices, but as prone to self-interest as any other collection of countries. Moreover, one of the West Indies’ most prominent contributors, Guyana, is actually a South American nation struggling to recover from the toppling decades ago by the British secret service of a duly elected leader.
Siddle makes mark but misses bed
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Peter Siddle is at the end of his first year as an international cricketer and he looks back with the Age’s Jesse Hogan.
Siddle's progression from injury replacement to mainstay has taken him from India to Australia to South Africa, back to Australia, then a marathon stint between England, Scotland, South Africa again and now India. This newly imposed transient lifestyle is why Siddle has not been home in Melbourne since May 27 and will not get home until mid-November.
Why IPL teams should fail in the Champions League
In a hilarious piece in the Wisden Cricketer KingCricket elaborates why he isn't a big fan of IPL teams
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
In a hilarious piece in the Wisden Cricketer KingCricket elaborates why he isn't a big fan of IPL teams. Chiefly, because they are businesses first and sporting clubs next. Sample what KingCricket thinks could be the thought process behind Deccan Chargers signing on Andrew Symonds:
Full post“How does Andrew Symonds represent the Deccan Chargers ideals and values?” they’d have asked. “Do his qualities fit with our image? What’s our official stance on the shoulder-charging of streakers? Do we have one? Why don’t we have one? Let’s say that we’re pro shoulder-charging streakers so that we can sign Roy.”
The BCCI's unprofessional hire-and-fire policy
Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad came to know through the media that their stint as fielding and bowling coach of the Indian team was over
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad came to know through the media that their stint as fielding and bowling coach of the Indian team was over. "Is it too much to ask that the BCCI follow basic principles of human decency while carrying out that function [sacking their employees]?" asks Prem Panicker writes in his blog Smoke Signals. He also talks about a conversation with Robin Singh in 2003, when Robin was looking for a coaching job with the US cricket association.
Full postHe had, Robin said, been coaching [India] U-19 on someone’s say-so. A board official called him up and told him he had the job; he did it. Through that period, he had no formal meeting with anyone in the board, no contract spelling out his duties, no idea who if anyone he was supposed to report to, and certainly no idea what he was going to be paid and when.
And when it was all over, Robin waited. “I thought someone would call, tell me if they were satisfied or not, tell me what I was supposed to do next. No one called — how long am I supposed to wait?” And so he was in the US, shopping for jobs.
Trescothick's departure a setback but not a calamity
Marcus Trescothick's departure from India is a setback in his recuperation from the stress-related illness that prompted his premature retirement from international cricket
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Marcus Trescothick's departure from India is a setback in his recuperation from the stress-related illness that prompted his premature retirement from international cricket. But it is not the end of the world for Somerset or for Trescothick, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian. The team still remains as positive as ever and are focussed on the road ahead.
Since his illness Trescothick has established some ground rules about how to react when he senses his torment, which is triggered by separation anxiety, is returning. No longer will he try to battle with the demons, which is what he attempted both in Pakistan in 2005 when he felt obliged to stay on since he had suddenly been landed with the England captaincy, and in India in 2006. Instead, when he sees the signs, he is minded to withdraw immediately.
There is life beyond internationals
It isn't just nation versus nation contests which stir the public's imagination
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
It isn't just nation versus nation contests which stir the public's imagination. The ongoing Champions League seems to have brought the best out of certain players, especially the unknowns, and it's thanks to these tournaments that the game is still alive, writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express.
It could never, for example, allow you to experience the combination of disbelief and joy that we saw with Alfonso Thomas of Somerset. Not many people knew much about him, we knew that he was a cricketer, no more, but against the Deccan Chargers he kept his cool, took his side home and then produced one of the most wonderfully innocent and unrestrained exhibitions of happiness I have seen. “I can’t believe what I’ve done” he gushed and for that moment alone I thought the Champions League was worth it.
Jaques stands tall again
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Phil Jaques, who opened for his country last year, continues to score heavily in New South Wales after his recovery from a back injury. The Australian’s Malcolm Conn writes about Jaques’ career-saving operation.
The opening batsman is several centimetres taller thanks to a prosthetic disc in the base of his spine. Jaques laughs about his sudden elongation, but has not bothered to measure himself. He's just delighted to stand up straight again and be able to move freely enough to play a proper cover drive without stabbing pain.
Smart move by Oram
Jacob Oram's decision to quit Tests to prolong his limited-overs career is a smart one, because he knows his time at the top is running out, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Jacob Oram's decision to quit Tests to prolong his limited-overs career is a smart one, because he knows his time at the top is running out, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald. It also gives Daniel Vettori the chance to claim the top allrounder's role.
Oram didn't fancy giving away bowling to take his chances as a specialist batsman. He had been a two-for-one player for the last 10 years. Putting away the bowling boots was not on.
'It's a very good time to be a batsman'
Bob Simpson, the former Australian captain and coach, has never been one to hold back his thoughts
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Bob Simpson, the former Australian captain and coach, has never been one to hold back his thoughts. In an interview with Sportstar, Simpson talks about the Australia's current status, Ricky Ponting's captaincy, the future of the Test game, the current rage, Twenty20 cricket, and much more.
Full postCommentators and players are talking about yorkers all the time. What is a yorker? It’s a full toss and a batsman’s mistake really if he gets out. It’s not a ball you can bowl at will. In the end it becomes an overpitched one. We should get back to the big boundary lines. If a batsman wants to hit a six, let him hit it on a proper field. I find the sixes in Twenty20 just as boring as the dot ball. The footwork for all forms of cricket should be similar, just judge the length of the ball properly and you have a shot for every ball.
Spirit of the game distilled by golden memories
Mike Atherton doesn't think cricket occupies a higher moral plane to other games
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Mike Atherton doesn't think cricket occupies a higher moral plane to other games. Nothing in its history suggests that it does. In his column in the Times, Atherton attempts to articulate what the game means to him, and begins by describing two images that first come to mind.
When Patrick Eagar was on a “booze cruise” during the tour to the West Indies in 1974, he passed Accra beach, Barbados, as the sun was setting and saw a game being played with, as it turned out, a young Gordon Greenidge.
The other image is of three urchins playing a game of street cricket in Mumps, Oldham, with a dustbin for the wicket and the narrow, cobbled street for a pitch. It suggests that cricket was once, more so than it is now, an essential part of the fabric of the British way of life.
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