The Surfer
The mental aspects of Lankan cricket
Going by their performance in Pakistan, Sri Lanka proved that what they lack is not a shortage of class, but a little bit of dip in their confidence – or as Asoka de Silva, the former Test cricketer-turned-umpire calls it – “a slight mental block”
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
Going by their performance in Pakistan, Sri Lanka proved that what they lack is not a shortage of class, but a little bit of dip in their confidence – or as Asoka de Silva, the former Test cricketer-turned-umpire calls it – “a slight mental block”. SR Pathiravithana in the Sri Lankan daily, the Sunday Times, has more.
Full postDisunited front
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Pakistan's embarrassing 234-run defeat against Sri Lanka has sparked questions on the unity of the side under Shoaib Malik, an insecure captain in charge of an equally insecure team, writes Khalid Hussain in the News. He writes that several seniors, including Younis Khan and Umar Gul, feel they are on Malik's hit-list.
According to an insider, Malik has spent the best part of his first two-year tenure as captain trying to convince the PCB top brass and national selectors that the national team will be better off without the services of several senior players.
“Malik used to bring a list of five players, whom he wanted out of the Pakistan team. From day one, he was against Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan and even Umar Gul,” said the insider who was present at the meetings held between the selectors and the national team management during 2007 and 2008.
Sacrifice the solution to the non-stop slog
Fixture congestion means that Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff should not play in the IPL this year, writes Vic Marks in the Observer
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Fixture congestion means that Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff should not play in the IPL this year, writes Vic Marks in the Observer. Andrew Strauss knows all too well that the success or failure of his period in charge is disproportionately dependent on this pair. In the short term, barring Flintoff colliding with a pedalo or Pietersen with Andy Flower, the relationship between captain and his key players should not be a problem.
In the Sunday Times, Simon Wilde says that England return to the Caribbean armed with a battery of pacemen they hope will repeat the feats of the fondly remembered Fab Four.
Wilde also traces how Brendan Nash, West Indies’ first white player since 1973, has cracked the Caribbean barrier.
Once England's net sessions were over in St Kitts, the Independent's Stephen Brenkley didn't find it hard to sit down Graeme Swann, who is in pole position to be England's No 1 spinner. Brenkley finds it 'fascinating' to hear about the dark days when Swann felt like giving up. He also finds out that Swann enjoys banter with Andrew Strauss.
Full postNSW date could end up in bad taste file
More on Brendon McCullum's signing for New South Wales and the repercussions it has on the global game.This time it is from Paul Lewis in the New Zealand Herald , who says that there's something here that doesn't sit right
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
More on Brendon McCullum's signing for New South Wales and the repercussions it has on the global game.This time it is from Paul Lewis in the New Zealand Herald, who says that there's something here that doesn't sit right. The rationalisation from New Zealand cricket advanced the astonishing logic that NSW will give McCullum the chance to participate in the lucrative Champions League Twenty20 series in India if his IPL team, the Kolkata Knight Riders, don't qualify. How's that again?
Full postSelection policy is nuts... and Boults
Dylan Cleaver questions the composition of New Zealand's ODI squad for Australia, with the inclusion of Brendon Diamanti and Trent Boult over more experienced players
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Dylan Cleaver questions the composition of New Zealand's ODI squad for Australia, with the inclusion of Brendon Diamanti and Trent Boult over more experienced players. The selectors may have got it right this season with Martin Guptill and Tim McIntosh but can they hope that any name they draw out of the hat now will make them look like geniuses? Read on in the Herald on Sunday.
If only that were the most startling selection in this squad of 14 picked to wrest the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy off an Australian side that can no longer claim greatness. Diamanti, you could argue, is a straight swap for Jacob Oram, though if it were a debating society you'd be praying to land on the negative side of that proposal.
In the same paper, Mark Richardson feels Diamanti's selection was logical given his ability to bowl yorkers at the death overs and contain the scoring in the Powerplay overs.
While the fluid and unpredictable nature of cricket requires players to be relatively flexible in approach, the time is soon coming when the weighting on traditional play versus specialised play will reverse - seeing skills tailored to specific areas of the 50-over game. Players will spend far more time and even spend their total practice time working on things like yorkers, slower balls, hitting yorkers and slower balls, ramping bouncers, various sweeps and the like.
On hindsight
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
Gary Kirsten, who will complete a year as India's coach in March, believes at the end of the day it is the team which comes foremost and not the coach, and that his job is to work behind the scenes, assisting the players in getting as good as they can become. In an interview to Lokendra Pratap Sahi in the Kolkata-based daily, the Telegraph, he says though it’s a challenge, he is comfortable knowing he’ll be judged by results.
Is it an advantage or a disadvantage that you played international cricket till as recently as 2003-04, when the Irfan Pathans made their debut?
The voice of reason
Michael Holding is worried about the future of the game
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Michael Holding is worried about the future of the game. The way the cricket world is going, as Holding sees it, is into smaller, consumable bites of Twenty20, with avaricious players and administrators feeding on the carcass like hyenas. Kevin Mitchell, of the Observer, met him in Miami and found a man saddened by what is happening.
"He [Allen Stanford] is not interested in West Indies cricket. As soon as he got in bed with ECB I knew he would walk away from West Indies cricket. He no longer needed it. It was a stepping stone to international cricket."
"The West Indies board and their affiliates are the people responsible for nurturing our game. If they don't put the infrastructure in place then nothing will happen. But the board can't even organise cricketers to go on tour. They landed at an airport in Pakistan and didn't have a visa to enter the country. How can they, when things like that happen, think they can run our game?"
Short-term liaison for game’s three formats
Tim Lane, writing in the Sunday Age , worries that the modern game is more about fast money and is unsure how long Tests, ODIs and Twenty20s can live together.
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Tim Lane, writing in the Sunday Age, worries that the modern game is more about fast money and is unsure how long Tests, ODIs and Twenty20s can live together.
It has to be said that the three forms of the game have co-existed in a way to, at least temporarily, calm the nerves of doubters. Not everyone has been sure they would sit comfortably together. Cricket's modern custodians have adopted as an optimistic mantra in recent time that there's no other sport so lucky as to be played in three popular forms. The past few weeks lend some credence to their case. It may be a short-term loan, though, as little in the modern game gives the impression of being about more than fast money.
In the same paper David Hussey looks back at a busy week for Australia and Victoria.
Full postBanter and the odd bouncer
The Guardian 's Mike Selvey says from St Kitts that Andrew Strauss could make life easier for himself if he makes the difficult decisions England require to flourish on the Caribbean tour
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
The Guardian's Mike Selvey says from St Kitts that Andrew Strauss could make life easier for himself if he makes the difficult decisions England require to flourish on the Caribbean tour. The island comforts offer England a gentle start to their tour but team selection will not be so breezy, writes Selvey.
Also in the Guardian, Paul Weaver says England's players may on the surface appear to be all friends together, but there's plenty of leftover baggage in St Kitts.
Full post