The Surfer
Big screen pulls a fast one on Dhoni
Rahul Bhattacharya writes in The Guardian on the two giant screens at the Wankhede Stadium.
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
Rahul Bhattacharya writes in The Guardian on the two giant screens at the Wankhede Stadium.
It was the one on the north-east corner of the ground that informed Mahendra Singh Dhoni - the thrillingly vulgar wicketkeeper who hits mighty boundaries with both feet off the ground and who till recently had orange streamers for hair - of his dismissal. Only in classic Indian cock-up style the third umpire, Krishna Hariharan, had still to reach his conclusion.
Focus on Guwahati
A bomb blast in the north-eastern city of Guwahati, the venue for the fourth England-India one-dayer, has caused the authorities at Lord's to keep a tab on the security situation
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
A bomb blast in the north-eastern city of Guwahati, the venue for the fourth England-India one-dayer, has caused the authorities at Lord's to keep a tab on the security situation. Mihir Bose has the story.
Full postProteas suffer Johannesburg hangover
Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald South Africa’s first-Test defeat doesn’t seem to have happened
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald South Africa’s first-Test defeat doesn’t seem to have happened. Brown also looks after the Herald’s blog The Tonk.
The evening after South Africa slumped to a seven-wicket Test loss to Australia inside three days, a television commercial for a local sports channel asked: "Can the Proteas carry momentum over to the Test series?"
And the very next morning, Cape Town's largest-circulation Sunday newspaper carried just one story on South Africa's Test loss, but detailed the previous week's one-day win over Australia in the news, sport, business and opinion pages. Readers even received a free souvenir medal of the one-day encounter.
In the same paper Peter Roebuck says Australia deserved their victory.
Full postBooing the master
It's not often that Sachin Tendulkar is booed from a cricket ground, but the unthinkable happened at the Wankhede Stadium, his home ground, yesterday.
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
It's not often that Sachin Tendulkar is booed from a cricket ground, but the unthinkable happened at the Wankhede Stadium, his home ground, yesterday.
Bishan Singh Bedi, who witnessed the scene, called for a more dignified reaction from the cricket followers.
Full postOdumbe: Life after the ban
Kenya's Daily Nation caught up with Maurice Odumbe and he talked about his life after being banned for associating with bookmakers
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
Kenya's Daily Nation caught up with Maurice Odumbe and he talked about his life after being banned for associating with bookmakers. These days he stays away from cricket, preferring to read and play golf.
“I am in transition. Cricket was my life, you know, and I can’t just wake up one morning and forget about it ... I was born to enjoy myself. Why should I be miserable? Life is too short. Live and let live and don't have enemies. It's not worth it.”
Full postGrounds for concern
The ECB has admitted they lost out on £12million during last year's Ashes owing to their under-sized grounds:
Will
25-Feb-2013
The ECB has admitted they lost out on £12million during last year's Ashes owing to their under-sized grounds:
Thousands of spectators had to be turned away during the five-Test series, which England won 2-1. The venues - Lord's (capacity 30,000), Trent Bridge (15,350), Edgbaston (21,000), Old Trafford (19,000) and The Oval (23,500) - could have sold tickets twice over.
Now the ECB is putting together plans to help those Test-staging counties spend the millions required to increase their capacities to nearer that of the top Premiership football stadia.
ECB marketing chairman Giles Clarke admitted: "It just frightens me when I think of how much more money we could really have made last summer. We could have sold at least another 200,000 tickets. "
Full postEngland's Ashes selection dilemma
It might only be March but one eye is, inevitably, on the Ashes next winter
Will
25-Feb-2013
It might only be March but one eye is, inevitably, on the Ashes next winter. After a difficult subcontinent winter, England's debutants have shown immense character and no shortage of talent which, as Mike Atherton says, could cause immense headaches for Duncan Fletcher and the selectors:
With Marcus Trescothick set to make himself available for the summer and Michael Vaughan on the mend, what is England's best line-up? All eyes, inevitably, are on Australia next winter and the defence of the Ashes and it is likely the selectors will want to use the summer to bed down the top six who will take on Australia.
Trescothick, Vaughan, Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are all certainties, leaving one place for Paul Collingwood, Bell, Cook and Shah to fight for. The competition is fierce.
None of the middle-order candidates is the complete package. A combination of their best qualities - Bell's orderliness and method, Collingwood's intelligence and spunk and Shah's undoubted flair and natural ability - would produce the ideal prototype and solve the selectors' dilemma. At the moment Cook looks the best bet, and he may yet spark a move to the middle-order for Trescothick.
Full postCoo the new pigeon for Australia
Stuart Clark is the new Glenn McGrath, Australia's metronome and affectionately known as "pigeon"
Will
25-Feb-2013
Stuart Clark is the new Glenn McGrath, Australia's metronome and affectionately known as "pigeon". At least, that's the view of the Sydney Morning Herald. Clark fell one wicket short of becoming the third Australian to take ten wickets in their first Test match. Bob Massie's 16-137 against England at Lord's in 1972 and Clarrie Grimmett's 11-82 against England at the SCG in 1924-25.
Alex Brown from the SMH argues that the new Australian attack showed a lot of promise in Australia's victory over South Africa in the first Test:
Having relied so heavily upon the pace trio of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz in the past, Australia's current line-up of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Kasprowicz gave plenty of cause for optimism after running through the South African batting order for the second time in three days. At lunch on the third day, the Proteas were in desperate trouble at 6-127, holding just a 24-run lead.
Kambli's bit part in Sachin's surge to stardom
Michael Atherton writes on a lifelong friendship between Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
Michael Atherton writes on a lifelong friendship between Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli:
A story of middle-class comfort and working-class poverty, of fulfilment and disappointment, of discipline and distraction, of acquiescence and rebellion, and, ultimately, of what is and what might have been.
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