The Surfer
Walking tough, Dravid style
Over the past year, Rahul Dravid has not been in the best of form and though he has learnt a lot from his recent failures never did he think about walking away from the game
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
Over the past year, Rahul Dravid has not been in the best of form and though he has learnt a lot from his recent failures never did he think about walking away from the game. In an interview to Nihal Koshie in Daily News & Analysis he confesses that he still loves the game and enjoys playing it, even if it is a match in the Ranji or Duleep Trophy.
'I just try and enjoy it and hopefully I will know that when I am not enjoying it. The thumb rule is as long as I can enjoy... coming to the gym, practising and training... I will keep doing it. Hopefully, I will get to know some day when I am not enjoying it and that will be the time to walk away.'
Baggy green or baggy greed?
Australian cricket is not in the best health, and Fox Sports’ James Hooper says that the problems are also growing off the field, with that he describes as “its worst crisis since the Kim Hughes era 25 years ago amid growing fears the revered
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
Australian cricket is not in the best health, and Fox Sports’ James Hooper says that the problems are also growing off the field, with that he describes as “its worst crisis since the Kim Hughes era 25 years ago amid growing fears the revered baggy green is being compromised by baggy greed”.
Amid this horror backdrop and talk that the schedule is undermining our national team, players are still putting their hands out for the millions of dollars on offer in the Indian Premier League.
And Cricket Australia is also asking our leading players to front up for an unprecedented number of matches.
Full postFour And Twenty20 Blackbirds
The mess between the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League and Indian cricket's governing body, the BCCI, continues
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
The mess between the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League and Indian cricket's governing body, the BCCI, continues. Refusing to be snuffed out, the ICL now prepares to breach the BCCI's rigid defences against it, writes Rohit Mahajan in Outlook.
Though the ICL and the BCCI refused to discuss the matter, those familiar with the developments in the ICL camp say the BCCI's tactics are designed to tire them out and discredit Kapil. "For instance, by asking if there were allegations of match-fixing against him and not asking if he was found guilty, they wanted to establish that his credibility is questionable," says an ICL source.
England favourites against fragile West Indies
After witnessing the sorry state of cricket in the West Indies, David Gower finds himself longing for the eighties
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
After witnessing the sorry state of cricket in the West Indies, David Gower finds himself longing for the eighties. He writes in the Sunday Times about feeling nostalgic about 5-0 blackwashes and facing Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall and Co.
Playing in the West Indies in those days, one had to endure the test of “pace like fire”, one of the catchphrases of the time, while attempting to appreciate the vibrant atmosphere of the grounds and the unquenchable enthusiasm of the fans. ... Nowadays the fire of West Indies cricket, on the field and in the stands, has been quenched. There are still fireworks to be seen from Chris Gayle’s bat, and once again there is some pace in the attack, but it does not come with the quality stamp of the 1980s.
With problems for the West Indies in both the batting and bowling departments, England are strong favourites to prevail in the Caribbean, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.
It's a view that's shared by Simon Wilde in the Sunday Times. He wonders which of England's five fast bowlers will be excluded from the XI for the first Test.
He also believes England must find a way to dismiss Shivnarine Chanderpaul on his home turf if they are to succeed, but it will certainly not be an easy task
Full postPaws off cricket please
Watching a media opportunity ahead of the five-ODI series between Sri Lanka and India, SR Pathiravithana noticed something he had never before seen in all his years covering cricket in his home country
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Watching a media opportunity ahead of the five-ODI series between Sri Lanka and India, SR Pathiravithana noticed something he had never before seen in all his years covering cricket in his home country. Sitting with Sri Lanka's captain, coach and board chief executive were the sports minister and his secretary. A politician leading an international cricket exchange in Sri Lanka?
It doesn't gel with Pathiravithana, who in the Sri Lankan daily, the Sunday Times, says that it all looked a bit out of place.
Full postA new golden age in South African cricket?
South Africa’s tour to Australia has been a greater success than most of us anticipated
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
South Africa’s tour to Australia has been a greater success than most of us anticipated. Nearly all those who played on the trip have returned home with their reputations enhanced, writes Ray White in the Witness.
The South African batting has an embarrassment of riches. It is by no means certain that Ashwell Prince, one of the stars of the tour to England, will regain his place in the team. His inclusion would mean a reshuffling of the batting order, which apparently would not be to anyone’s satisfaction, least of all Kallis, who would be forced to bat at three.
'I played Warne with ease'
Not much has been heard of Mohammad Wasim, the former Pakistan batsman, since he faded away from the international scene in 2000
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Not much has been heard of Mohammad Wasim, the former Pakistan batsman, since he faded away from the international scene in 2000. In a rare interview on the pakpassion website, Wasim opens up on his domestic and international career, his favourite Test innings, playing for Otago, his inspirations and promising talent he has scene on Pakistan's domestic circuit.
I remember walking out onto the ground before the game [his debut Test] and the crowd were shouting who is this sifarshi to me. It was a big crowd and there was quite a lot of abuse as they didn't know who I was and why I had been selected. It startled me a little in that this was a Pakistani crowd saying this about a young Pakistani debutant, but it also made me feel more determined to do well. I was very young and didn't really feel any pressure.
Test Match Special's Frindall dies at 69
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Bill Frindall's death after a brief illness comes as a shock to those of us who worked alongside him as well as to the hundreds of thousands of cricket fans who felt they knew him after listening to his interjections and mischievous grunt of a laugh on TMS for more than four decades, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
Bill would delight in recalling that he was born (in Epsom, Surrey) on the first day of the famous, timeless Test between England and South Africa in Durban on 3 March 1939, and that he was a "record" 11 days old when the game finished – prematurely – because the England team had to catch their boat ...
Ponting is having the time of his life
This is Ashes year
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
This is Ashes year. Series defeats to South Africa in the long and short forms of the game were unpalatable enough. The prospect of further slippage against the Poms has heightened anti-Ponting sentiment. A winning percentage (68), second only to Steve Waugh, a century count (37), second only to Sachin Tendulkar, afford nil protection, writes Kevin Garside in the Telegraph.
Put away those tears. Ponting has softened, not weakened. There is no sense of a cricketer in decline or one in whom desire might be fading. Matthew Hayden's retirement lumped his team further down the evolutionary line. Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist have all gone. Temporarily in abeyance with injury are Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Andrew Symonds.
A rational mind might weigh the claims of a Sydney mansion and the golf clubs against the opprobrium of an ungrateful nation and reach the sane conclusion. Instead, Ponting says bring it on. "It's a big career challenge to turn this round. It is not going to happen overnight either. But I was really proud of the way the guys performed against South Africa even though we went down 2-1 in the Tests. The public is so used to seeing us win. It must seem all doom and gloom. But there have been enough positives for me to remain upbeat about what we are doing and where we are going."
Full postAbandoned Test still haunts Kingston groundsman
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
A piece of notoriety has seized Joseph and it will accompany him to his grave, for he was the groundsman here 11 years ago when the Test match between West Indies and England was abandoned after only 56 minutes. All sorts of things are abandoned, including cars and ships, houses and careers, even spouses and babies. But not Test matches, writes Paul Weaver, who spoke to the groundsman Charlie Joseph, in the Guardian.
There had been almost 1,400 of them in 121 years of Test cricket when the game was called off in January 1998, after 10 overs and one ball. England were reeling at 17 for three, but if that sounds familiar the circumstances were not. On a new clay surface that bore an uncanny resemblance to a strip of corrugated iron, the ball flew, from a length, towards the throat, or scuttled along the ground, so Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, who could never be negotiated with comfort in the most benign of circumstances, were unplayable.