The Surfer
Playing for the people and not themselves
There are reasons to smile for West Indies cricket after one of the more rewarding home seasons in recent times, despite the threat of a players' strike, writes Tony Becca in the Jamaica Gleaner
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
There are reasons to smile for West Indies cricket after one of the more rewarding home seasons in recent times, despite the threat of a players' strike, writes Tony Becca in the Jamaica Gleaner. The smile will only continue, however, if the board looks at itself and deals with the business of West Indies cricket and its representatives properly, fairly, and with respect while knowing, and accepting that, like the players, they can be removed.
Regardless of how its members behave sometimes, probably most times, cricket does not belong to the board, and regardless of what they may say and believe, regardless of how great they may be or believe they are, cricket does not belong to the players - to the Test players, or to the first-class players. Cricket belongs to the people.
In the Jamaica Observer, Garfield Myers comments on the composition of the West Indies' touring squad for England.
Full postDhoni - special or plain lucky?
What's with MS Dhoni
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
What's with MS Dhoni? He is a marvellous wicketkeeper, he bats like a brute, he captains and looks cheerful while doing it. Son of a pump house operator, he is today the world's highest paid cricketer. Wax he born under a special star or is he the luckiest man alive, asks Sanipan Deb in the Open Magazine. Turn to page 17 to read more.
Full postMake selectors more accountable
The selectors are a group of people who are generally the least appreciated
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
The selectors are a group of people who are generally the least appreciated. They are always wrong and will be part of a team that fights a losing battle. Roshan Abeysinghe in the Sunday Times believes that as much as the selector is a part of the problem, the decision-making body appointing them is also responsible. They need to ascertain whether the person selected has enough time on his side to do the job.
The problem for a selector is the fact that, they are fighting against time to balance their act. After all they are not full time professional selectors unlike, shall we say, the players, the umpires or even scorers for that matter. The problems or the challenges faced by selectors are tough ones and needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.
Since the appointments of Jeevan Kumaratunga and Gamini Lokuge as sports ministers of Sri Lanka, sports as a whole has suffered immensely. At the same time, people like Arjuna Ranatunga, who do have some sporting credentials, would take a little time in taking over the hot seat of sports. However, SR Pathiravithana, writing in the same paper, is of the opinion that a man with credentials along with other agendas will also not be in the healthiest situation for the cause of sports in this country.
Sri Lanka Cricket’s selection policies and selection committees have always been subject to constructive criticism, however, in the recent past their gaffes have been even more patent. Why else would a struggling Sri Lankan batting line-up be relieved of its most consistent performer, Jehan Mubarak, over the last year? Asanga Athukorala has more in the Daily Mirror.
Full postCricket on the Adriatic
Descendants of a hero in Nelson's navy, who established one of cricket's most unlikely outposts on the island of Vis, are returning to the remote Adriatic island to take part in an historic cricket match
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
Descendants of a hero in Nelson's navy, who established one of cricket's most unlikely outposts on the island of Vis, are returning to the remote Adriatic island to take part in an historic cricket match. The Telegraph's Alastair Jamieson writes on how Sir William Hoste encouraged locals to play cricket with his crew and how his family, which includes a vicar, a minor cannon and an HSBC employee from Hong Kong, are forming a Hoste XI which will play the locals.
Full postIPL can help KP work on poor Twenty20 skills
The IPL will be a good opportunity for England cricketers, Kevin Pietersen in particular, to improve their Twenty20 skills ahead of the World Twenty20 in June, writes Steve James in the Telegraph .
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
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Despite attracting the top dollar (1.55m of them, along with Flintoff) at the recent auction, he is not yet very good at Twenty20. In this format he has not yet found the ideal batting tempo. It has become a well-used, if perplexing to some, Twenty20 cliche that players have more time than they think. But they have; 120 balls is a long time. And a journey cannot often begin in the outside lane. Pietersen must learn this.
He is also to captain the Bangalore Royal Challengers, with a rather appetising confrontation coming a week tomorrow in Port Elizabeth against Chennai Super Kings, captained by his old rival from the winter, MS Dhoni, with Flintoff in his ranks. One must pray that, amongst such a galaxy of stars (he has the likes of Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher in his squad), Pietersen rediscovers a desire for leadership, so evidently missing in recent pronouncements. England need Pietersen to skipper their World Twenty20 campaign. If required, bended-knee entreaties must be made.
Full postBlowers' ways missed in clinical era of reporting
Anachronistic, perhaps, but personalities like Henry Blofeld will be missed in this clinical new era of sports reporting, writes Scott Murray in the Guardian .
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
Anachronistic, perhaps, but personalities like Henry Blofeld will be missed in this clinical new era of sports reporting, writes Scott Murray in the Guardian.
Compare and contrast Blofeld's carry-on to the way modern sports hacks operate. Recently, in a story rather less shocking and surprising than 11 professional cricketers mustering just over a run per man between them, a former Newcastle United footballer took over as the manager of Newcastle United. This meant action stations on Rolling 24-Hour Breaking Quotes service Sky Sports News, whose chuck-everything-into-the-pot news agenda can be summed up with the pithy maxim: if it spews from Sam Matterface's face, it matters. Mustering levels of gravitas not witnessed on television since Walter Cronkite slowly took off his spectacles to announce the death of President Kennedy on CBS in November 1963, the Sky anchor STARTED TALKING IN CAPITAL LETTERS, THEN BOLD, THEN WHEN THEY MOVED ACROSS LIVE TO ST JAMES PARK, BOLD ITALICS. WITH THREE EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!
Test stats tell a grim story
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
New Zealand's six-month Test journey began in steamy Chittagong and ended in wet and windy Wellington this week, notes David Leggat, and the bare bones of New Zealand's nine-match campaign aren't impressive. Because in those nine Tests there was just one win.
In those nine Tests New Zealand fielded 19 players. Five played in all nine Tests - Daniel Vettori, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum and Iain O'Brien. In a country this size, wonders Leggat, are there 19 Test-quality cricketers?
Full postWarne plots repeat of IPL success
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
Peter Roebuck meets Shane Warne, captain of the defending champions Rajasthan Royals, and finds that the legspinner has an organised programme of preparation for his squad. Read more in the Hindu.
Full post.. the old trouper [Warne] said he had not bowled a ball for 12 months and was unusually nervous. No sportsman, let alone a champion, wants to make a fool of himself. His hide is not quite as thick as it seems. ... Everyone thought the last word had been written on Warne but the old rogue, the great competitor, is still around, catching the eye, embracing the spotlight, playing poker off the field and on it
Fancying the idea of fancy dress
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
While some have disapproved of the idea of allowing fans to turn up in costumes for matches at the World Twenty20, the Times' Patrick Kidd welcomes the move. He has a couple of riders, though: dresses shouldn't block the view of other spectators, and they should be creative.
Full postAnyone who shows up in a Jimmy Savile wig or a 118 running vest should be evicted. Certain standards must be upheld: this is the Home of Cricket after all. Those who arrive looking like W.G.Grace should be rewarded with extra cake at tea, especially if it is a real beard. Instead of dressing as the Pink Panther, why not come as Peter, the Lord's cat, who was so famous that when he died that Wisden gave him an obituary?
Being equal does not mean being identical
The world's attitude to women's sport is changing, but the process is, like a glacier, slow and inexorable rather than, like a flash flood, altering everything in an instant of time, writes Simon Barnes in the Times .
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
The world's attitude to women's sport is changing, but the process is, like a glacier, slow and inexorable rather than, like a flash flood, altering everything in an instant of time, writes Simon Barnes in the Times.
Women are not athletically inferior to men. In most sports, women operate to different kinds — different standards if you must — of performance. But it is a physiological fact that in many ways women are physically superior to men. When it comes to extreme endurance, tolerance of pain, coping with extremes of temperature and sense of balance, women beat men every time. But most sporting events - being invented by men - are not tough enough to reach the point at which female superiority kicks in.