The Surfer
Bats out of hell
Is the current Indian batting line-up the best ever to visit New Zealand
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Is the current Indian batting line-up the best ever to visit New Zealand? Dylan Cleaver asked John Reid, Warren Lees and Mark Richardson for their opinion in the New Zealand Herald.
All three agree this Indian line-up compares favourably with any team that has toured here before, though Lees and Reid are both dismissive of the attack they are about to face and the conditions in which they are predicted to make hay.
Drug testing for women
England batsman Claire Taylor has been picked for the International Registered Testing Pool to be monitored for drug use
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
England batsman Claire Taylor has been picked for the International Registered Testing Pool to be monitored for drug use. She explains what the protocol includes, how she worries she might mess it up, and why it is a burden for women cricketers, who need to take time off from work to turn up for tests and account for their whereabouts.
... for three months at a time, supply information to a central body with the following compulsory facts for each day:
a) Where I will be sleeping that night
b) What is my appointed hour for that day
c) Where I will be during the appointed hour.
Then I have to supply information about all my competition time; every England game, every club, county and MCC game. Then more information about my training time. They even asked me to supply information for all significant periods of time (who decides what's significant?) just in case they decide to visit me outside the appointed hour or outside training or competition time, which they are entitled to do.
Full postMany hits, very few misses
In the Times of India , Bobilli Vijay Kumar writes that the flexibility within India's batting line-up is a major reason for their success.
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
In the Times of India, Bobilli Vijay Kumar writes that the flexibility within India's batting line-up is a major reason for their success.
India open in T20s and Tests with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir; in the in-between, however, there is a minor change with the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar. Gambhir usually bats at No. 3 in such a scenario; but he drops down like a potato if the team gets off to a bumper start, as it happened in the first ODI at Napier. Captain Dhoni himself came in at that position in that intriguing game; he has, however, batted at No. 5 and 6 in other games too.
Rainbow nation shines after revolution
Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald , likes what he sees in South Africa’s line-up for the third Test against Australia in Cape Town
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, likes what he sees in South Africa’s line-up for the third Test against Australia in Cape Town. Four of the top six batsmen will be non-white, which Roebuck calls a “remarkable achievement”.
And it has been effected without a bloody revolution. The rise of the current crop confirms that the game is rising in all groupings - only the English have fallen back, largely because many South Africans have moved to England or Perth. It'll take more than a few bombs in Mumbai and Lahore to defeat cricket's cosmopolitan ideal.
England fail to enter Twenty20 party spirit
England could not even bat out their 20 overs, so overwhelmed were they by the atmosphere and their own ineptitude
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
England could not even bat out their 20 overs, so overwhelmed were they by the atmosphere and their own ineptitude. Trinidad does parties like nowhere else has done since Bacchus drained his last dregs, and the Queen’s Park Oval was filled to the gunwales with 21,000 swaying inside, at the pitch of excitement which comes only from having people milling outside desperate to get in, writes Scyld Berry in the Telegraph.
Having played some fine cricket as the Test series wore on (and on, it seemed), England reverted to a red-shirted shambles. The captain, Andrew Strauss, did not so much not know what he was doing – this was a trying match for him such was the way his team responded in the field – as not know who he was, wearing the absent Matt Prior's shirt. His kit had been lost in transit apparently, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.
Perhaps England's affairs have to become truly appalling before improvement can begin. Perhaps they must hit rock bottom. Perhaps they have. It felt as though they were plumbing those murky depths yesterday in losing the Twenty20 international to West Indies by six wickets, says Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.
Andrew Strauss was pictured with the ICC World Twenty20 trophy on Saturday morning as part of a promotional drive by the governing body, but the England captain will not be lifting the silverware again in the summer unless his side can bring about a marked improvement over the next three months, writes Richard Hobson in the Times.
Full post Featherbeds are futile
WV Raman writes in his column for Sportstar that the decline in the quality of pitches can contribute to the decline of cricket
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
WV Raman writes in his column for Sportstar that the decline in the quality of pitches can contribute to the decline of cricket. The pitch is an integral part of the game, says the former Indian batsman, and as such the quality of pitches needs to be good if a game of cricket has to provide real entertainment to the public.
Full postThere is some merit in the ICC wanting pitches across the world to be reasonably similar but I believe the idea behind this is to eradicate under-prepared pitches that the countries in the sub-continent sometimes dish out for Test matches. However, there is still room for every nation to retain its uniqueness when it comes to the nature of pitches that international matches are played on.
Australia rising for the Ashes
Ricky Ponting has plenty of reasons to set his sights high in defence of the Ashes, believes the Sunday Times' Simon Wilde
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Ricky Ponting has plenty of reasons to set his sights high in defence of the Ashes, believes the Sunday Times' Simon Wilde. While he savours his team’s triumphs in Johannesburg and Durban, and watches the South African selectors panic, Ponting can say to his players: Look at the poor old Poms. They appear more confused than ever.
Full postBedi slams IPL as 'cricket's nadir'
Former Indian captain Bishan Bedi is typically blunt in his criticism of the IPL, and the BCCI's insistence on holding the Twenty20 event at the same time as the general elections in India
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Former Indian captain Bishan Bedi is typically blunt in his criticism of the IPL, and the BCCI's insistence on holding the Twenty20 event at the same time as the general elections in India. He writes in Outlook:
Terror clouds are hovering over the subcontinent ... But if some are least bothered about the dangers lying ahead, they are the BCCI and its ancillary, the IPL governing council. They're blissfully unaware of terrorists who might lurk in general elections booths as well as in IPL venues.
The BCCI is adamant that both the elections and the IPL can run smoothly with proper distribution of security forces—some wishful thinking that.
Full postTwo new skippers at the same time, but leadership qualities....
SR Pathiravithana, in his column for the Sunday Times , says that Kumar Sangakkara, the heir apparent to Mahela Jayawardene, has finally has got his chance to prove his credentials
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
SR Pathiravithana, in his column for the Sunday Times, says that Kumar Sangakkara, the heir apparent to Mahela Jayawardene, has finally has got his chance to prove his credentials. As for the newly appointed interim committee chairman D Somachandra de Silva, says Pathiravithana, he bowled a googly well to drive onto the hot seat, but quite a few still wonder how effective he would be in his new role.
In the same newspaper M Shamil Amit reports on the final of the Inter School's Annual Big Match, where true Thomian grit prevailed at the SSC as the lads from Mt. Lavinia, led by Faahim Saleem, halted the Royal victory charge with a clever display of patience at the crease.
Full postTo blossom under Flower, England need to win
England are now ranked sixth in the ICC's Test table and any expectations of a repeat of the drama of the 2005 Ashes series are receding fast
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
England are now ranked sixth in the ICC's Test table and any expectations of a repeat of the drama of the 2005 Ashes series are receding fast. England's temporary coach Andy Flower needs a victory to earn the job permanently, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.
The Independent's Stephen Brenkley says the countdown to the Ashes has begun but Andrew Strauss must not panic. Barring resignation or catastrophe, Strauss is certain to be in charge come 8 July. England do not need, cannot afford, a fourth captain within a year.
In the Sunday Times, Martin Johnson looks at England's performers in the Tests and says they were not the biggest failures in the Caribbean capers.
Ramnaresh Sarwan’s role will be crucial to West Indies’ resurgence, writes S Dinakar in Sportstar.
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