The Surfer
The brief history of a friendship
Even before the overrated controversy around a reality show, Vinod Kambli and Sachin Tendulkar were drifting apart
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
Even before the overrated controversy around a reality show, Vinod Kambli and Sachin Tendulkar were drifting apart. Akshay Sawai narrates the moving story of what was once a pure and improbable friendship between a boy from the shanties and a professor’s son, in the latest issue of Open magazine.
True, a bad childhood does not end with childhood. It stays. But there was enough fortune in Vinod Kambli’s adult life for him to break free from the attitudes that an unfortunate child has. Time and again, Vinod began to use his past as an excuse to cross the line.
A test of initiative
In this week's Outlook Rohit Mahajan looks at dwindling ticket sales in India and says that in order to save Test cricket in these very commercial times, audiences must be made an interested party
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
In this week's Outlook Rohit Mahajan looks at dwindling ticket sales in India and says that in order to save Test cricket in these very commercial times, audiences must be made an interested party.
Full postThere’s also politics to countenance—matches are allotted by turn and often, critics say, with prejudice. An official of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) complains there are few matches in Calcutta, which has always drawn huge crowds for Tests, because the CAB is headed by Jagmohan Dalmiya, who’s daggers drawn with the current BCCI czars. Empty new stadiums, destitute of ambience, can hardly be expected to generate interest in the classic format of the game for those in their early teens.
Players can't be spoon-fed all the time
As experts weigh in on Mitchell Johnson's bowling woes Harsha Bhogle, in the Indian Express , recalls a comment made by Wasim Akram
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
As experts weigh in on Mitchell Johnson's bowling woes Harsha Bhogle, in the Indian Express, recalls a comment made by Wasim Akram. According to the fast-bowling legend, bowlers nowadays are pure lazy and are happy with whatever they are being given on a platter. Troy Cooley, who was credited as the mastermind behind England's devastating use of reverse swing during their 2-1 series triumph in the 2005 Ashes, has been under the scanner as he attempts to get Johnson back to his best. But how much can one man do, asks Bhogle.
Full postGood cricketers become great when they hone their instinct, when they study the opposition they have to compete against rather than wait for notes or video clips to be handed to them. And that is why this is not Cooley's test but Johnson's test.
Indian board must back players
Indian players are unhappy at a clause that requires them to detail their whereabouts for an hour every day for the next three months to allow random drug testing
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Indian players are unhappy at a clause that requires them to detail their whereabouts for an hour every day for the next three months to allow random drug testing. And its an issue that has created a buzz in the Indian media. Writing in the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine believes players already have enough on their plates to now be subjected to one more assault, this time on their right to privacy.
Full postSince the International Cricket Council is now a signatory to the WADA rules, it cannot escape by giving this somewhat naïve reasoning to escape the edict. What it could possibly have done is protested and told WADA that it can't force cricketers to be available, even if it is for one hour of the day, for these tests. Since cricket is not immune to protests and where adjusting powerful lobbies even at the expense of breaking rules is not uncommon, this draconian rule can be challenged by a cricketing body even at the peril of being sanctioned by the world Olympic body.
No looseners from Onions
Graham Onions, who took four wickets on the second day in Edgbaston, wastes no time in turning the Test on its head
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
Graham Onions, who took four wickets on the second day in Edgbaston, wastes no time in turning the Test on its head. He underlines the virtue of getting the looseners out of the way before play and rewards the gamble to open with him, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
For his first delivery his strides to the crease were long and purposeful. He was at full pace and that first ball had that wonderful, mysterious property: it was straight. Shane Watson had looked the part, to the bewilderment of many on Thursday night, but not today. His feet did not move; nor did his bat and before he could look up Aleem Dar's finger was raised. Onions was at his peak at 11am; Watson had not quite got there.
In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain writes that Onions is the sort of bowler he would have loved to captain.
Also in the Guardian, Paul Weaver describes Ian Bell's 47th debut.
Full postRobbing Phil to save Mitch
Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian that the decision to install Shane Watson as Australia's new Test opener smacks of panic from the selectors.
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian that the decision to install Shane Watson as Australia's new Test opener smacks of panic from the selectors.
The selection panel of chairman Andrew Hilditch, David Boon, Merv Hughes and Jamie Cox is robbing Phil Hughes to save Mitchell Johnson. There is no question that while Hughes has not looked convincing during this series, it is not his form that has cost him his place so soon in the series. It is spearhead Mitchell Johnson's complete radar meltdown.
It is Johnson's inability to build pressure, witnessed by England scooting to 0-196 in little more than three hours on day one of the Lord's Test, which forced the selectors' hand. Tampering with the top of the order and installing a player who averaged less than five during his brief stint opening the batting for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield smacks of panic.
Robert Craddock writes in his Courier-Mail blog that he doesn't blame Australia for sacking Hughes but he does blame them for having no specialist opener in the squad to replace him.
Full postStrauss right to let Manou play
Scyld Berry writes in the Daily Telegraph that Andrew Strauss's decision to let Australia field Graham Manou in place of the injured Brad Haddin, who was originally in the XI, was the right one, both on moral and pragmatic grounds
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
Scyld Berry writes in the Daily Telegraph that Andrew Strauss's decision to let Australia field Graham Manou in place of the injured Brad Haddin, who was originally in the XI, was the right one, both on moral and pragmatic grounds.
Full postStrauss’s assent was also consistent with the modern adage that you want to test yourself against the best 11 that your opponents can raise.
It would have been inconsistent to have blocked Manou’s selection after Haddin was injured just before the start, when all the players have been saying they want to face a fully fit Andrew Flintoff and Brett Lee and Kevin Pietersen in this series.
'We are so not happy with ur bodyline thing, innit'
After all the fuss about Phillip Hughes revealing that he was dropped from the Australian team on Twitter, Patrick Kidd has a hilarious piece in the Times imagining how iconic cricketing events would have been recorded if social-networking sites
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
After all the fuss about Phillip Hughes revealing that he was dropped from the Australian team on Twitter, Patrick Kidd has a hilarious piece in the Times imagining how iconic cricketing events would have been recorded if social-networking sites had been invented earlier. A sample: “500-1? I like those odds. Let's give it sum umpty. Mind the confectionery stall. Everyone back to mine afterwards for big piss-up” @Beefy.
Full postThe fuss over ball tampering
The modern game heavily favours batsmen, and the statistics prove it
Ashwin Achal
25-Feb-2013
The modern game heavily favours batsmen, and the statistics prove it. In this context, was Allan Donald right in asking for ball tampering to be legalised? Mike Atherton, who has had epic battles with the South African fast bowler, feels that Donald's opinion is worth discussion, but is not the right way to go. In the Times, Atherton, however, argues that while batsmen have become more aggressive of late, bowlers have gone into a defensive shell.
In the 1950s the average runs per wicket was 30.1 and 6.8 per cent of scores were more than 500. This stayed relatively constant until the turn of this century, which has seen a sharp spike to 34.1 and 8.7 respectively. Runs per hundred balls have never been higher than now.
Expectations of runscoring have soared. When Australia began the final day of the Lord's Test, already five wickets down and needing to score more runs in the last innings than any other team in first-class history, the bookmakers were willing to go only so far as 5-2 on an Australia victory.
Full postCan Flintoff carry the weight of expectations?
With Kevin Pietersen out of the Ashes, Andrew Flintoff now carries England on his shoulders
Ashwin Achal
25-Feb-2013
With Kevin Pietersen out of the Ashes, Andrew Flintoff now carries England on his shoulders. Australia will look to work on Flintoff's fitness, trying to get him tired and test his stamina. James Lawton, in the Independent, asks if Flintoff will be able to deliver once again or if he will fade away like the 2007 Ashes series.
The question is a big one, however. Can he really carry the freight? Can he do what he did so memorably four years ago, when his body was much less assailed, and wage the fight right up to the moment the Ashes are regained? Or will he lapse into the mode of 2006-07, when the highest expectations foundered amid some of the worst neglect of competitive responsibilities ever seen in a major sportsman?
That might sound like a mean appraisal of Flintoff's situation after his spectacular performance at Lord's but we can be sure it is one the Australians, however highly they rate the recent evidence of their most celebrated opponent's match-winning potential, will be entertaining today.
Ricky Ponting is just 25 runs short of becoming Australia's highest Test run-getter. David Lloyd, also in the Independent, wonders if it is now time to call Ponting is the best ever Australian batsman, barring Donald Badman.
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