Tour Diary
From one World Cup to another
For almost all the players involved, the Under-19 World Cup is the most publicised event they've been part of on the international circuit
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
For almost all the players involved, the Under-19 World Cup is the most publicised event they've been part of on the international circuit. But there's one who has had a bigger experience: this is Malachi Jones' second World Cup but unlike others who played the U-19 tournaments in 2004 and 2006, Malachi's prior World Cup experience was in the Caribbean in 2007.
Bermuda have just been thrashed by ten wickets in their Group D match against England at the Royal Selangor Club. Malachi scored 2 and didn't take a wicket in 5.4 overs. Believe it or not, he feels the heat more in Malaysia than he did in the West Indies, both literally and figuratively.
Full postRed Irish faces, and playing the unknown
Ireland prepare for the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifiers in Steelenbosch, South Africa
Isobel Joyce
25-Feb-2013
Preparation for this ICC World Cup Qualifier tournament started at the end of the last World Cup, which was also in South Africa. But intensive training began once our squad of 20 was chosen in September.
To say that we were disappointed when the tournament was cancelled in November would be an understatement. All of our preparation was done with a view to travelling to Pakistan. Pakistani cricketers in Ireland spoke to us about conditions and traditions in their home country, and everybody altered their diets to prepare for the change there would be in available food.
Two of my brothers, Dom and Ed, have toured in Asia before and they were able to give me and my sister Cecelia an idea of what to expect, what food we should eat and what to bring with us. Not to be however, and training began again a few weeks after the tournament was cancelled.
Full postCricket really can take you places
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
While walking around the Kinrara Oval on Saturday, a journalist friend pointed someone out to me who said that he was a fast bowler who had bowled Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid at the nets when India were in Kuala Lumpur for the DLF Cup in 2006. So I went up to him and asked him who he was and felt quite sheepish when he replied that he had been playing for the Malaysian national side for 15 years and captained them for eight. Suresh Navaratnam is 33-years-old now. He began playing for Malaysia in 1993, at the age of 18 and led the country from December 1998 to 2006.
A common gripe, and a realistic one, in smaller cricketing countries is that you can’t make a living out of playing cricket. Suresh, though he understands the larger problems, has had an extremely different experience with the sport. “People say, in this country, that cricket won’t take you anywhere,” Suresh said. ”But for me, cricket has taken me everywhere. You’ve got to grab your opportunities.”
Full postPlayers feel the heat in opening ceremony
For all practical purposes the Under-19 World Cup began for the teams the moment they landed in Kuala Lumpur
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
For all practical purposes the Under-19 World Cup began for the teams the
moment they landed in Kuala Lumpur. The build-up to the first round of
matches has been hectic: apart from practice sessions and warm-up matches,
the teams have had to attend seminars on anti-corruption and anti-doping,
go for photo shoots, do introduction videos for television, sign miniature
bats for sponsors, and meet the competition. England and India even found
time to attend a charity function. In short, everything has been new and
most of the players are soaking it all in.
However, the tournament was officially opened on Friday during a short
ceremony at the Kinrara Cricket Academy and the teenagers had to shed
their jerseys and shorts and get spruced up. You couldn’t help but feel
for them as they stood in single file on the field, looking spiffy but
sweaty in their blazers, trousers and boots. Not all of them came
completely formally dressed though: Bermuda beat some of the heat by
wearing bright red Bermuda shorts with their blazers, while South Africa
might not have been the smartest in their collared t-shirts but they
certainly looked more comfortable.
The media contingent had grown considerably and there were several local
journalists, from print and television, as well as one from Papua New
Guinea. The families of the players also formed a sizable section of the
crowd. The families of Bermudian players Rodney Trott and Malachi Jones
were here, as well as several parents of the Australian and Ireland teams,
who announced their presence by applauding loudly when their teams walked
out. There were loud cheers for the local Malaysian team and when Pakistan
marched out, the claps were almost in respect for the champions of 2004
and 2006.
Full postWith a little help from dad
Jude Rose's son, Clive, is a left-arm orthodox spinner in the Australian Under-19 squad
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
The diversity of teams involved in the Under-19 World Cup offers a unique opportunity to meet journalists from different countries and gain an insight into cricket and its intricacies in various nations.
However, there were hardly any at the team hotel on Thursday and so when I saw a man with a backpack and camera at the Club Aman, where Australia were playing West Indies in a warm-up match, I labeled him as a journalist from a distance.
Turned out that I was wrong. He was Jude Rose, whose son Clive is a left-arm orthodox spinner in the Australian Under-19 squad. He’s in Malaysia following Australia’s, and Clive’s, progress in the tournament. Jude was there first but there are more coming. Fast bowler James Pattinson’s father is expected as are allrounder David King’s and captain Michael Hill’s.
Full postA quiet beginning
The people of Kuala Lumpur seem blissfully unaware that a 16-team international tournament is about to take place in their city in a few days
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
The sun hadn't risen when the plane landed in Kuala Lumpur at 6.50 am, which was odd. What was perhaps odder was that the average Malaysian was oblivious to the fact that their country was hosting a 16-team international tournament, due to begin in a few days time. The businessman on the flight didn't know until he saw the headline about Pakistan's defeat in the in-flight paper. Badminton, he said, was Malaysia's biggest sport. The woman in an electrical appliance store was wide-eyed and said "Cricket World Cup? Here?" while the cashier at a fast food chain didn't know either, though his outlet was a five-minute walk from the hotel where the teams were staying.
It's the first time the Under-19 World Cup is being staged in a non-Test country and the build-up to it has been quiet. Perhaps that's the way it should be, to reduce the pressure and spotlight on the teenage contenders. I spotted two small banners advertising the tournament at the airport and none on the drive into Kuala Lumpur. But walking towards the team hotel, it was impossible to miss the decorations in red, pink and gold. False alarm. The dressing up was for the Chinese New Year and not the U-19 World Cup. There were no banners in the lobby either announcing that the cream of cricket's teenagers were in Malaysia.
Then Larry Gomes, the West Indies U-19 coach, walked by followed by a bunch of kids in maroon T-shirts and soon you could see several clusters of yellow, green, blue and red. The teams' itinerary was choc-a-bloc: they had net sessions, head-shot sessions and player-promo sessions, the kind in which Paul Collingwood introduces himself as "right-hand batsman and
right-arm 'fast' bowler. Then they had to sign countless miniature bats for sponsors and, most importantly, attend a talk by the ICC's Anti-Corruption Security Unit where they were briefed on the dos and don'ts of the circuit. In between, the captains and coaches found time to speak to the media, albeit there were only two media people around. I was told that there was quite a crowd when Malaysia had their media stint on Tuesday.
Full postA cricket-lit lover's dream
For lovers of cricket literature, there is a venue that one cannot miss: Roger Page's unbelievable collection in a suburb outside Melbourne
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
The cricket-playing world contains its set of pilgrimages. Few West Indian fans leave Barbados before paying respect to Frank Worrell's grave and Aussie diehards do the same with Victor Trumper's tombstone in Sydney. For lovers of cricket literature, though, there is a venue that one cannot miss: Roger Page's unbelievable collection in a suburb outside Melbourne.
Page began as a scorer and statistician in Melbourne before moving to a profession in cricket books back in 1969. Over the years he's built up a remarkable collection of close to 10,000 books, all stacked and catalogued in his spacious house in Macleod, Victoria. So prolific is the collection that even his kitchen isn't spared – with two stacks beside the cutlery.
Full postPapua New Guinea: How many Aminis?
Most of us are influenced - to a certain extent at least - by our parents, and they by their parents
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Most of us are influenced - to a certain extent at least - by our parents, and they by their parents. So when all the members of your family sitting at your dinner table are national cricketers, it's only natural that you tend to take up the sport. That's precisely what happened to Colin and Charles Amini. Colin's the captain of the Papua New Guinea Under-19 side and Charles jnr, his younger brother, is also part of the squad. Their aunt, Cheryl, is the media manager of the Papua New Guinea team, and she talked me through several generations of cricketers from the Amini family.
Her grandfather, Amini (Colin and Charles jnr's great-grandfather), began playing cricket in the early 1900s. He used to form a team and travel by boat to Port Moresby, the capital city and main cricketing centre of Papua New Guinea, to challenge the city teams. And so it began.
Through Amini, his children took to cricket. His son Bryan (Cheryl's father and the grandfather of Colin and Charles jnr) had a chance to do his schooling in Toowoomba in Australia and was exposed to cricket there. Bryan went on to become the first local to captain the Papua New Guinea team at a time when cricket was played primarily by the English and Australian expats in the country. He led his country against the touring Fijians in 1975, and also against Clive Lloyd's West Indies.
Like his father had an influence on him, Bryan had an impact on his children. Everyone in the family played regardless of age or sex. Backyard cricket, even with makeshift equipment like bats carved out of wood and cardboard, was a popular pastime when the family got together.
Full postThe Adelaide Oval's biggest celebrity
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
You know it's not a state day when the ground is buzzing to brimming and the beautiful Adelaide Oval 2 has been turned into a car- and marquee-park. You know it's not a state day when 60 or 70 journalists, not five, turn up.
The indoor training centre is now also a media hang-out, where lunch is served, too. Big fridges chill hundreds of bottles, and huge vats offer curry after succulent curry and plenty of rice.
Full postMonkey on his back
Nagraj Gollapudi
25-Feb-2013
Pardon me, but I had to record this. Just as I entered the main gates of the Adelaide Oval on the second morning of this final Test I happened to read the word 'monkey'. Obviously in the aftermath of 'Bollyline' that was the last word anyone expected to see inside the confines of Cricket Australia's grounds. But there it was printed in acrylic green, on the backside of a yellow tee-shirt, worn by a 25-something Australian spectator.
Without hesitation I tapped the gentleman on his shoulder and inquired if it wasn't a touch brave in the prevailing circumstances, what with Harbhajan Singh's appeal against alleged racist abuse of Andrew Symonds coming up in a few days. He didn't agree, adding that it was a moniker he had had for years. In normal circumstances, it would not seem out of place amid other nicknames like 'banana boat', 'duck', or even 'giggy'. Lucky for this eager fan that he didn't have to carry that monkey on his back through the normal stands, as he was safely ensconced
inside a corporate box.
Full post