The Surfer
Time to promote free spirit Flintoff
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Call it a rant, call it a rave, but Geoff Boycott wants Andrew Flintoff to bat well up the order, because he just isn't scoring any runs.
If Boycs and his mum were in charge of that scraggly outfit, free-spirited Freddie wouldn't sit at No. 6 - a place where "he finds himself needing to build an innings against the spinners and the dibbly-dobbly seamers".
Full postRage of the corporates
The Indian board took a firm stance when it decided to limit player endorsements to three each but then relaxed its grip a bit when it agreed to P Sainath , a writer normally associated with social issues and not cricket, believes the watering down
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
The Indian board took a firm stance when it decided to limit player endorsements to three each but then relaxed its grip a bit when it agreed to P Sainath, a writer normally associated with social issues and not cricket, believes the watering down of the board's earlier decision is due to the power of corporate rage. He writes in The Hindu:
Even the most experienced and strong-minded cannot evade the effects of endorsement raj. So imagine a 21- or 22-year-old caught up in this. A kid who has been blazing away at the best bowlers in the world without fear of failure. Once the endorsement web closes in and you have crores riding on your next performance, it's different. That too when you've had a couple of bad outings. With what freedom will you play that next innings? Will you play safe or with spirit?
There are no more boundaries in cricket. There's only Corporate X's Fantastic Fours, Business Y's Super Sixes and Company Z's Magic Moments. Not to forget some other concern's Sizzling Catches. As this whole culture takes root, the successful player drowns in sponsor money. The distinction between cricket player and product peddler blurs in more ways than one. Logos and uniforms proclaim who owns the players and it's not the country.
When Srikkanth was asked to dump seniors
Kris Srikkanth rewinds to 1989 when he was the captain and to the sordid events just before the tour of Pakistan.
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
Kris Srikkanth rewinds to 1989 when he was the captain and to the sordid events just before the tour of Pakistan.
For long, the issue of graded payments had been uneasily hanging in the air. Senior cricketers were insisting that this be implemented ... Raj Singh Dungarpur, the then powerful chairman of selectors, who was staying in the same hotel (Taj Palace in Delhi), called me to his room. He told me in no uncertain terms that if I abandoned my senior colleagues, he would give me a brand-new team, a second XI of sorts made up totally of youngsters, for the Pakistan tour. He said I would have the BCCI’s complete backing.
I refused.
Read the full article in the Hindustan Times.
Full postVaughan and Fletcher searching for magical missing ingredient
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
England arrived in Barbados with Michael Vaughan and Duncan Fletcher still insisting that the team are not far from their eureka moment, writes Richard Hobson in The Times.
The seven-wicket defeat by Australia on Sunday mirrored the two-run loss to Sri Lanka four days earlier. For some of the time England played very well, but they proved unable to put together a complete performance and, with one more reversal enough to bring elimination, time is running out, Hobson feels.
Full postPonting breaks his own sledging rule
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Ricky Ponting wanted Australia to keep quiet when Kevin Pietersen batted on Sunday, but he couldn’t help himself, writes Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail.
"Pietersen's name came up at a team meeting and I had got the feeling that he is a little like Tugga [Steve Waugh], Matty Hayden and Brian Lara, in that when you have a go at them it makes them play better ... they enjoy it," Ponting said. "I actually said to the team: 'If he starts something, let him go.’ But as soon as he started, I could not help myself. I jumped all over the top of him. It wasn't great leadership as far as I was concerned. But I am not sorry I did it."
Gough admits he nearly retired
A few months ago Cricinfo revealed that Darren Gough was on the brink of retiring after leaving his Essex contract unsigned
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
A few months ago Cricinfo revealed that Darren Gough was on the brink of retiring after leaving his Essex contract unsigned. He now admits that he was indeed on the verge of jacking it all in, but only an offer from Yorkshire for the captaincy – an offer they had to make three times in all – changed his mind. Read the interview in The Guardian.
Full postSelectors will stand up to BCCI
Indian selectors brush off the rumours that high-profile seniors are dropped for Bangladesh's tour, reports Kadambari Murali.
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
Indian selectors brush off the rumours that high-profile seniors are dropped for Bangladesh's tour, reports Kadambari Murali.
“I am shocked and appalled by what I saw and read,” said one selector. “How can unnamed board sources be quoted saying Ganguly and Tendulkar and the others will be dropped? On what cricketing grounds can we drop someone like Zaheer Khan? If the BCCI has disciplinary issues with any of them, that is something it has to take a call on. If it doesn’t, we can pick whoever we want to. Who told that mysterious official whatever he has said, and what locus standi has anyone but the selection committee have to decide on selections?”
Read the entire piece at The Hindustan Times.
Meanwhile, Rudi Webster, the psychologist, is of the opinion that Greg Chappell should have stayed for a couple more years. Click here to read the interview by Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.
Full post Will paid selectors solve the problem?
The BCCI working committee meeting held last week threw up some pretty drastic changes; the Indian board took a number of good decisions and made some right noises.
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
The BCCI working committee meeting held last week threw up some pretty drastic changes; the Indian board took a number of good decisions and made some right noises.
Some measures look attractive, but will they yield results, asks Makarand Waingankar in The Hindu.
And in the Indian Express, Anil Kumble says that outgoing coach Greg Chappell's principles were...pretty basic...in terms of what what he wanted from the team.
Elsewhere, news filters in that Suresh Raina is giving a post-surgery rehab programme the look-over. Kolkata's The Telegraph says Raina told them that he recently had an operation on his left leg and it’s unlikely that he'll be available for the trip to Bangladesh. Hmmm.
Full postPurring Australia not quite perfect
Australia have been unstoppable, writes Robert Craddock in the Daily Telegraph , but questions remain over the make-up of the bowling .
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Australia have been unstoppable, writes Robert Craddock in the Daily Telegraph, but questions remain over the make-up of the bowling.
There will be days, perhaps as soon as New Zealand next week, when the Hodge-Clarke-Symonds ticket may not be the right one for Australia and Stuart Clark or Mitchell Johnson will be the men for the day if Shane Watson does not return. Not only does the four-bowler option put the heat on Symonds and Clarke, but the top four bowlers are also under heavy pressure to fill their ten-over quota and not misfire. If any one of them goes down it could spell big trouble.
Jon Pierik writes in The Australian about Ricky Ponting’s exchange with Kevin Pietersen during Australia’s seven-wicket win.
Full postBowing out among the big boys
Ireland are still mixing it with the big boys and one man who helped to put them there is their coach Adrien Birrell.
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Ireland are still mixing it with the big boys and one man who helped to put them there is their coach Adrien Birrell.
He has just ten days left in his job before he hands over to Phil Simmons. In his five years in the job, Birrell’s noted changes aplenty, as he tells the Sunday Tribune, an Irish newspaper. "It was a bit dispiriting in the beginning. Cricket was never in the press. It was a really low-key affair."
Full post