The Surfer
Expect a happy ending to the Oval controversy
Michael Atherton, the former England captain, wonders if anyone really cares 'whether a cricket ball was tampered with and whether one man brought the game into disrepute'
S Rajesh
25-Feb-2013
Michael Atherton, the former England captain, wonders if anyone really cares 'whether a cricket ball was tampered with and whether one man brought the game into disrepute'. Looking ahead to the hearing on the Oval controversy, he reckons that all the parties involved will be pleased with the verdict.
Given the lack of television evidence, and the absence of any absolute condemnation from the expert witnesses, Inzamam will not be charged with ball tampering. In order for the ICC to save face, however, he will be charged with bringing the game into disrepute and so the blame for the cancellation will be laid firmly at his door. A small rap on the knuckles, maybe a fine and a small suspension, will ensue.
Read the full piece in The Telegraph.
Full postA lot in a name
Ramachandra Guha has a look at a few fascinating stories linked to some cricketers' names.
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
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Ramachandra Guha has a look at a few fascinating stories linked to some cricketers' names.
If Pataudi's was the most democratic name change undergone by a cricketer, surely the most charming was that effected by the England fast bowler Bob Willis. He made his first-class debut with the two Christian names his parents gave him. Then he spent a winter following Bob Dylan around the west coast of America. After he returned to England, and cricket, he changed his name by deed-poll to "Robert George Dylan Willis
Read the full piece in The Hindu
Full postTendulkar is back, doesn't it feel better?
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Cricket fans better stay tuned in as we can expect a long season of action and drama, with the Ashes series and the World Cup ahead, as well as Sachin Tendulkar's return to form, writes Peter Roebuck.
By next April, a hundred issues will have been settled, a thousand rumours will have been heard — some of them almost true — fifty conspiracy theories will have been mooted, none of them well pitched.
Read the full piece in The Hindu.
Full postInside edge or clean as a whistle?
It's 20 years since India and Australia played out a titanic contest at Madras, only the second tie in the history of Test cricket.
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
It's 20 years since India and Australia played out a titanic contest at Madras, only the second tie in the history of Test cricket.
The Times of India revisits the day and speaks to Maninder Singh, the last man to fall, who maintains that he got an inside edge and was wrongly given lbw.
On the other hand, Mid-day, a Mumbai-based tabloid, chats with Vikram Raju, the umpire who delivered the verdict, who sticks by his guns: "My decision was clean as a whistle".
Also read Cricinfo's coverage of the events - Eye-witness accounts from Bobby Simpson, Dean Jones, Greg Matthews and Ravi Shastri. There's also an interview with Dean Jones, who had no hesitation in terming the Test as one that 'marked the renaissance of Australian cricket'.
Full postWhen Sachin met Ricky and Brian
Ben Dorries attempts a look at the lives of Lara, Tendulkar and Ponting in The Courier-Mail .
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Ben Dorries attempts a look at the lives of Lara, Tendulkar and Ponting in The Courier-Mail.
Three cricketing worlds collided for a few precious moments in exotic Malaysia as modern-day greats Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar chewed the fat in a rare get-together. The private lives of the world's three top batsmen – with 30,766 Test runs between them – could not be more different away from their glossy magazine ads and rich endorsement deals.
AAP's Daniel Brettig writes about Ponting's planned team approach in the early overs of today's game against India.
Full postHadlee gives Monty advice on Australian crowds
Richard Hadlee was the favourite target of Australian supporters in the 1980s and he tells Robert Craddock, of The Courier-Mail , Monty Panesar has done the right thing by seeing a psychologist to deal with potential problems
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
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"Greg took me aside and said I was over-reacting to the crowds and if you antagonise them or show them they are getting to you it will only get worse," Hadlee said. "In the early days as a young puppy I overreacted.
"Greg said forget about the distractions and do your talking with the ball – and at the end of the day there were more Test wickets for me against Australia than any other nation. I think it worked out pretty well.”
In The Australian Malcolm Conn writes about Kerry Packer, another high-profile figure during the 1980s.
Full postFlintoff's rousing rooster
Will
25-Feb-2013
Simon Hughes follows Andrew Flintoff in and around the hills of Bolton, with Dave 'Rooster' Roberts, as he continues to prepare for strapping on his bowling boots again.
Roberts, who cajoled Ian Botham back to fitness after a back operation in 1988, leads the way. Having lived in the area since boyhood, it is very much his territory. Flintoff, eight weeks after ankle surgery, follows gamely behind. The undulating, uneven terrain would be a good test of a mountain goat never mind a 100kg cricketer in rehab. He exhibits no discomfort as we skirt the water and climb the first of several wooded slopes. Everything is tailored to cricket-specific fitness, so we canter for three minutes, then walk for three, in keeping with a fast bowler's normal match cycle.
Texts about girls! It's absolutely outrageous!
There are mountains and there are molehills and The Surfer suspects that the latter is about to turn into the former with the news that a private text allegedly sent by the chairman of Leicestershire, Neil Davidson, has caused much indignation at
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
There are mountains and there are molehills and The Surfer suspects that the latter is about to turn into the former with the news that a private text allegedly sent by the chairman of Leicestershire, Neil Davidson, has caused much indignation at Somerset, who have lodged a complaint with the ECB. And it’s about girls. Read the sorry saga, as reported in The Times here.
Full postVictorian drought breaks into recycled water
Chloe Saltau reports in The Age how a Victorian country association has resorted to expensive measures to save their turf competition .
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Chloe Saltau reports in The Age how a Victorian country association has resorted to expensive measures to save their turf competition.
At a meeting this week of the Bendigo and District Cricket Association, in the part of Victoria most severely affected by drought, clubs voted unanimously to invest in a recycled watering system worth about $60,000. The alternative was to cancel the turf league, a breeding ground for elite Premier Cricket in Melbourne, or move their gun players onto hard, synthetic wickets, far from ideal for cricketers aspiring to play for their state or country.
"It's going to be hard," said association president Darren Lewis. "We had a meeting last night with the clubs, and we spelt out the financial possibilities and said, 'Either we put our hand in our pocket to guarantee our future, or we don't,' and the clubs unanimously said, 'We've got to do it.' "
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