The Surfer
Asif blow for Pakistan
It would be a huge shame if an India-Pakistan series is deprived of Mohammad Asif's presence, writes Dileep Premachandran in his newly introduced blog in the Times Online website.
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
It would be a huge shame if an India-Pakistan series is deprived of Mohammad Asif's presence, writes Dileep Premachandran in his newly introduced blog in the Times Online website.
Full postCommunicate plans to senior players
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
You could argue that Rahul Dravid need be treated no differently from anyone else and that if he doesn’t score enough runs he should be left out like anyone else. The problem with that theory is that seeks to treat proven match-winners like young hopefuls, writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express.
All good teams back their players when they are down. It is easy to back a man when he is scoring runs, the strength of a unit is seen when it rallies around someone who isn’t. Indian cricket needed to back Dravid, to give him confidence.
Hogg and MacGill battle it out
Australia named their squad for the first Test on Thursday – and included 13 players who are in line to take on Sri Lanka
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Australia named their squad for the first Test on Thursday – and included 13 players who are in line to take on Sri Lanka. The inclusion of both Brad Hogg and Stuart MacGill raised eyebrows across the media, although it is generally agreed that only one slow bowler will make the XI.
Robert Craddock, writing for Fox Sports, reckons that Hogg's inclusion is “a sobering slap in the face” for MacGill, who had been thought of as the front runner prior to the recent Pura Cup matches in which Hogg impressed. But, he says, the decision to give them both the chance to impress in the nets was the correct one.
Ricky Ponting, Australia's captain, told The Australian however that they weren't going to be assessed in the nets at all, and that the inclusion of both was to allow them to choose the best bowler for the conditions at the time.
Full postSymonds up for Murali challenge
Andrew Symonds tells the Australian that he's up for the challenge of facing his old friend and rival, Muttiah Muralitharan.
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Andrew Symonds tells the Australian that he's up for the challenge of facing his old friend and rival, Muttiah Muralitharan.
Full postTheatre goers set for a ball with Shane Warne musical
Shane Warne: The Musical is set to roll out in Australia next year, according to a report on the News.com.au website.
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Shane Warne: The Musical is set to roll out in Australia next year, according to a report on the News.com.au website.
Our Cricinfo reviewer was impressed when he went to the premiere in Adelaide in June this year, as Eddie Perfect – the writer and star – trialled the production. And, if rumours are to believed, one day the show could be coming to England.
Full postBoycott slams 'tawdry' Fletcher
Geoff Boycott says players and coaches shouldn't be allowed to write about their experiences for at least two years after they finished
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Geoff Boycott says players and coaches shouldn't be allowed to write about their experiences for at least two years after they finished. Boycott, like many, is dismayed by Duncan Fletcher's revelations this week and believes it's nothing but destructive.
As for players writing during their playing career, he believes this is not necessary:
Today's players earn far more than my generation ever dreamed of. I am delighted for them — it is right that they should be well remunerated. In cricket, the top players' contracts start at £350,000, and that's before all the sponsorship deals and endorsements; they don't really need the extra cash that comes with a ghosted autobiography or newspaper column.
He even admits that he should have waited more than a year after retiring before publishing his autobiography – it got him into plenty of hot water with the Yorkshire committee. Powerful and forthright stuff from Boycott, as ever, so read all about it here in The Daily Telegraph.
Full postDuncan Fletcher's book reopens old wounds
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
The settling of scores in print is bad for the game and reflects poorly on Duncan Fletcher, says Christopher Martin-Jenkins in the Times.
Coming from the centre of the bubble inside which Fletcher sought to control the England team between late 1999 and his enforced resignation in April this year, they cannot be ignored, but in return everybody is having a go at Fletcher, which is no less distasteful. The sum of the two minuses, it is doing nothing for the good name of cricket, however much it may be adding to the sales of his book and the bank balances of himself a>nd his ghost writer.
Warne: Go after Murali
Shane Warne, writing for Fox Sports , explains the best way to play Murali and says he wants to see aggression from Australia in their forthcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka:
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Shane Warne, writing for Fox Sports, explains the best way to play Murali and says he wants to see aggression from Australia in their forthcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka:
You need to make a statement and get after him before he gets you.
Full postBeing Rahul Dravid
The perception that far too much of Indian cricket is about the individual has been proved again by Rahul Dravid's dropping
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
The perception that far too much of Indian cricket is about the individual has been proved again by Rahul Dravid's dropping. Rahul Bhattacharya in the Hindustan Times, writes that Dravid should be allowed the latitude of fallibility. And sooner or later he will be back, not because he is a saint, because he is that even rarer thing in Indian sport: a champion.
Sportspersons touch followers in a way that is unique. You watch them in strife and in glory, in unremarkable situations and dramatic ones, exposed always, unfolding slowly - most slowly and revealingly in cricket. Soon you let them into your life, consider them somebody you know well. That - the assumption of intimacy - becomes a premise that is in fact more accurately a reflection of how you see the world. And in the case of Dravid the verdict is unanimous: we see him as a saint.
Sport’s other language
"Three key points of aggression in sport are: is it instinctive or conditioned
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
"Three key points of aggression in sport are: is it instinctive or conditioned? How closely related are instances of on-field aggression and crowd violence? And at what rate is aggression fed back into the system, with kids mimicking their heroes? These questions need to be addressed. They concern sport’s premise, they shape its future", writes S Ram Mahesh in the Sportstar.
Full post