The Surfer
Stamp duty
Clayton Murzello meets who he says is “one of the most fascinating, yet unknown enthusiasts of the game”, a stamp collector who has amassed more than 30,000 cricket stamps in three decades of collecting
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Clayton Murzello meets who he says is “one of the most fascinating, yet unknown enthusiasts of the game”, a stamp collector who has amassed more than 30,000 cricket stamps in three decades of collecting. Read the interview in Mid-day, a Mumbai daily, here .
Full postHope abounds through fearless Flintoff
I feel distinctly uneasy, writes Simon Barnes in The Times
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
I feel distinctly uneasy, writes Simon Barnes in The Times. The Aussies are getting cocky: they are still beating everyone, the last Ashes series was just a blip, the Poms got lucky but when they come to Oz we all know they’ll curl up and die.
In other words, the Australians are strong and ever-so-slightly smug, the English are stronger than they have been but ever-so-slightly anxious. Exactly as it was 16 months ago, when Australia came to England.
Vengsarkar: firm believer in performances
A failiure in his first Challenger Series outing doesn't necessarily mean the end of the road for Sourav Ganguly
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
A failiure in his first Challenger Series outing doesn't necessarily mean the end of the road for Sourav Ganguly. Makarand Waingankar in The Hindu feels that Ganguly can take inspiration from Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, and Mohinder Amarnath, both of whom defied the odds and made successful comebacks.
Full postDestiny is irreversible. Yet ambitious people hope to reverse it. To a participant in sports, all that matters is top quality consistent performance
Thank goodness common sense has prevailed
Thank goodness Inzamam has been properly called to account for his intemperate conduct at The Oval, writes Peter Roebuck in The Hindu
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Thank goodness Inzamam has been properly called to account for his intemperate conduct at The Oval, writes Peter Roebuck in The Hindu. Admittedly his team, and he seemed to think his entire nation had fallen foul of an untimely accusation made by a headstrong umpire.
Thank goodness Dean Jones has been allowed back into the commentary box. Certainly he deserved to be censured for his silly gag, but there was no need to send him permanently into the long dark night. His employers were right to teach him a lesson and then call him back.
'We are trying to be Australia's No.1 sport'
As Australia gears up for a momentous and hectic summer, James Sutherland speaks to Jon Pierik about the key issues facing the sport.
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
As Australia gears up for a momentous and hectic summer, James Sutherland speaks to Jon Pierik about the key issues facing the sport.
Finding a coach to replace John Buchanan is the biggest decision we'll face over the next 12 months. It's a really important time for the development of the Australian cricket team. That's partly because John Buchanan has done such a great job. John is standing down when Australia is No.1 in the world. How do we manage the transition?
Too many what-ifs
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Brett Lee has never watched the replay. Too painful. Too many what-ifs, writes Alex Brown in The Sydney Morning Herald. What if, for example, the third-last ball of the Edgbaston Test last year had breached the boundary rope and not been cut off by the off-side sweeper?
"It's too painful," Lee said. "You want to take yourself back in time and think the one that I hit to cover point, if I had hit it a metre to his left or right it could have been a different story. So I have never sat down and watched it."
ICC ... the real villains
The ICC has come under fire at the weekend for its handling of the row that followed the Oval Test.
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
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The weekend newspapers were almost universally critical of the way the whole episode was dealt with, and while there was not much sympathy for Darrell Hair’s on-field actions, there was concern about the way the ICC has treated him.
Leading the assault was Michael Atherton in The Sunday Telegraph. he wrote that the affair:
Showed the ICC at their worst: prevaricating, in that a judgment which should have been handed out on the fourth evening of the game was allowed to fester for a month; callous, when it revealed confidential e-mails from an employee; and ultimately fudging a verdict so as not to upset the key players in this very political game – the Asian bloc.
Defiant Inzi's done cricket a great service
Inzamam-ul-Haq's actions are also forcing the ICC to reconsider its laws regarding umpiring protocols, particularly in regard to accusations of ball-tampering and the decisions involving forfeitures, writes Richard Boock in The New Zealand Herald
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Inzamam-ul-Haq's actions are also forcing the ICC to reconsider its laws regarding umpiring protocols, particularly in regard to accusations of ball-tampering and the decisions involving forfeitures, writes Richard Boock in The New Zealand Herald.
But more than anything else, Inzamam showed that despite all the opposition and outrage, there is still a place in sport for protest.
Go on, fire away ...
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
As they prepare for an encounter that could leave fans bleary-eyed for weeks after late nights on the edge of their seats, the Observer Sports Monthly meets both Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen - and find out why darts could be vital to the tour.
Read Jamie Jackson's interview with Andrew Flintoff where he says, "We'll go out there confident. And I have every intention of enjoying the whole experience."
Full postGandhi and cricket
Cricket might not have affected Gandhi, but Gandhi certainly affected cricket
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
Cricket might not have affected Gandhi, but Gandhi certainly affected cricket. The political movements he led and the social changes he sought to bring about had their consequences on how the game was played in the sub-continent. Click here to read a article in The Hindu, dated 2001, by Ramachandra Guha on Gandhi and cricket.
In the Mumbai-based tabloid, Mid Day, Clayton Murzello recaps his Pentrich to Pietermaritzburg train ride, where Gandhiji was thrown out of a first-class compartment in 1893, during the 2003 World Cup
Full post