A remarkable debut gave way to a year spent on the fringes, but Munaf Patel is finally back, action tweaked and body stronger. Sidharth Monga met him.

Sidharth Monga16-Aug-2007

“If people call my home and get the answer ‘He is at his second home’,” Munaf Patel says, “they know I am in Chennai, at MRF.” Indeed, the pace academy seems to have become something of a home away from home for Munaf – much like a boarding-school kid who does not want to go home during vacations because he won’t be able to play there. Whenever he finds the time, Munaf comes to Chennai. He has been doing so for five years now.It is easy to see that Munaf is at home at MRF. In Chennai he is a relaxed man. If he has much on his mind, he doesn’t show it. He has bonded with the students at the school; he has picked up some Tamil; he knows the names of the kids who come for autographs. (“They come every year,” he says.) After a period of play with the children, who are clearly having a ball after a day at school, he gets to the nets.The nets are housed in the premises of the Madras Christian College High School. The ground is quite nondescript, and even the immediate neighbours would likely not be able to provide directions if one asked for the MRF Pace Academy. It is just the kind of place for an international fast bowler in rehabilitation.In a career of just over a year, Munaf has broken down twice – in fact, since November last he has largely been a passenger with the team. He did not play a single full Test on the South Africa tour. He then missed the four-ODI series against West Indies but returned in time for the World Cup, which for India lasted just three matches. He then broke down with a back injury in Bangladesh. The selectors, this time, decided to be stern and sent him back home. Before the England tour Munaf was declared fit at the bowlers’ conditioning camp in Mysore. And then he was found to be less than match-fit just before the team was picked.Munaf cannot not know that he has got himself a reputation for dubious fitness. The comments made by Sandeep Patil in 2004, when he coached the India A team that Munaf was a part of, began to ring true last year. “Munaf was a big disappointment,” Patil had said. “He developed a shoulder injury. The physio checked him and said everything was okay. But he could not bowl and finish his spells. I see it as more of a mental problem than physical. He played one-and-a-half matches in a one-and-a-half-month tour.””He has let us down,” a national selector was quoted as saying by The Times of India recently. “We cannot keep picking him again and again just on promise. He has to back it up with fitness and play out a full series.”***

At the academy, head coach TA Sekhar is happy with what he sees. He does not believe Munaf is a walking magnet for injuries. “He does have a fast twitch to his muscles, which gets him the pace, but he is not a special case.”At the nets Munaf works up a good pace; he is visibly faster than any of the others there, Irfan Pathan included. The mind goes back to a recent article written by Mike Selvey in The Guardian, bemoaning the lack of fast bowlers in world cricket. “Where are the genuine pace aces?” Selvey wrote. “There is [Brett] Lee certainly, [Steve] Harmison when he can be roused and Shane Bond when fit. The three slingers – [Fidel] Edwards, Shaun Tait and Lasith Malinga – are rapid, but that is about it really, isn’t it?”A little over a year ago Munaf would perhaps have been part of that roster. Back then he was hitting about 140kph consistently, impressing all who saw him. During the Champions Trophy last year, though, a new Munaf was on display – running in from wide of the stumps and moving towards them in the final leap; more accurate, economical, but down on pace. Although he had developed into India’s best one-day bowler, the change surprised everyone – not least Sekhar.”To me, he was asked to bowl like [Glenn] McGrath, that’s where the problem started,” Sekhar says. But that doesn’t explain Munaf’s brittleness, does it? It does, according to Sekhar – at least the latest back injury.”The idea behind fast bowling is to have all your movements towards the batsman,” Sekhar says. “He ran in straight, but he jumped towards fine leg, just before the stride. The batsman suddenly was at a different angle.”Naturally and biomechanically, if your force doesn’t go in the right direction, problems are bound to happen. McGrath can do it because he is bloody strong. Munaf is strong but not that strong. When you are bowling that way, you have to rotate to bowl. Naturally there is a twist. Initially it would have been stiffness, then pain; then he is not able to bowl.” Munaf has now eliminated that final sideways movement, but just why did he do it in the first place?”I thought line and length was more important in one-day cricket,” he says. “I was feeling good with that action; the team was getting good support too. I was feeling good because that inward jump made the away-going delivery more effective.” One wonders if the presence of a specialist bowling coach then would have helped, if the tinkering with the action was what caused the injury.”But now,” says Munaf, “as Sekhar sir has advised, I am running in straight and going for full pace. I enjoy it, people watching also enjoy it. That pace is natural; that I won’t lose. I can raise it whenever I want to.

“I feel bad that I have got injured twice in a short career,” he says. “It’s worse to see the team do well from outside. The worst feeling was getting injured in South Africa. I played next to nothing. The wickets were such that I felt we could have won the series had I played.””Rustic” is a tag that gets naturally attached to Munaf. There is a somewhat patronising school of thought that says he is the sort that needs to be guided constantly, that his brittleness lies in his mind and not his body. One of the reasons for coaches and selectors to have developed such an opinion could be that Munaf has frustrated by showing promise and not being able to live up to it. Munaf thinks otherwise, though. “They must have seen something to say that. But only I know what’s happening in my back or my shoulder. That they can’t see. If I am talking to you right now, how will you know if I have an internal injury?”It has not helped that I have got injured twice in a year and a half. But before that, I have only got injured once in domestic cricket.”Munaf seems to know his game better than people give him credit for. At MRF he can be seen correcting other bowlers, advising them. Pathan, who is also at MRF, looks for Munaf’s approval of the way he is loading, going into his delivery stride. In fact, Munaf is referred to as “coach” at the academy. “When he talks to them, he is also looking to learn something,” Sekhar says. “He is looking to improve himself whenever he sees other bowlers.”Munaf has fulfilled his first short-term goal: to get fit and selected for the one-dayers in England. He is also reportedly close to signing for Worcestershire, where Zaheer Khan spent the last season and came back an improved bowler.The time of agony is over, and his first chance comes against the team who were at the receiving end when he made his debut at Mohali last year. With the other fast bowlers doing well in England and a few more looking to make comebacks, Munaf will hate to create vacancies again – through injury most of all.

Shane Warne is used to taking centre stage in Adelaide … only this time he’s on the other side of the River Torrens. And it’s not actually him, either

Mark Partridge24-Jun-2007

Eddie Perfect – a perfect Warne? © Mark Partridge

Shane Warne is used to taking centre stage in Adelaide … only this time he’s on the other side of the River Torrens. And it’s not actually him, either.I’m at The Adelaide Cabaret Festival, a short walk from the Adelaide Oval, for the world premiere of Shane Warne: The Musical. Well, it’s almost a musical – more accurately, it’s a work in progress, and as such the performance is an actual workshop. If only Warne was afforded the same luxuries.Still, it’s enough to get a flavour of the full production that could be launching if tonight is a success.But Warne… and cabaret… are they the right mix? The Melbourne-based comic Eddie Perfect, who has put the production together, and plays the star, certainly believes so. And, thinking about it, given Warne’s life – stuffed, as it is, with theatrics, outrageousness and farce – perhaps by creating a cabaret Eddie has come up with the perfect fit.Nevertheless, it seems odd that Perfect, a political comedian, has chosen to celebrate the life of this sports star. But he is interested in the concept of Australian masculinity and, well, Warne is simply more than the game. And it works – surprisingly well.Perfect is convincing as a sympathetic and vulnerable Warne, who leaves the audience understanding that he didn’t always surround himself with the best people. He also manages to make all Warne’s mistakes and vices comical. And some of the songs will no doubt become classics, like “S-M-Mess”, “I’m Coming Home”, “110% Me”, while Shane’s mother rocks out to “Take the F**king Pill”.When Cricinfo asked Warne whether he was pleased there was a production about him, he said: “It depends on what sort of spin he wants to put on it, doesn’t it? He can be factual, he can not be factual. He can exaggerate it. I haven’t thought whether I like it or don’t like it.”He wasn’t invited to the premiere, although I suspect that if he did come he would be pleased with his own portrayal – even the more risque elements are treated with a warm humour. In fact, if anything, it’s the portrayal of his supporting cast that may make Warne bristle and object. Simone isn’t too bright and his mum is depicted trying to convince him to take the diet pills.Did Perfect fill the boots of the magician? Most of this evening’s crowd aren’t actually so bothered. They are dedicated cabaret lovers, and not necessarily Warne fans, and the pre-performance chatter focuses on the rest of the Festival, not on Australia’s next series.The parents of Rosemarie Harris, who plays Simone Warne, are an exception. They love Warne and would have attended whether their daughter was playing Mrs Warne, or not. Rosemarie has only recently arrived back from New York where she was appearing in “Virgins”. Quite a step up, then…The production itself was billed as “Part personal history, part hallucination”, but the chosen inference of the show was obviously to dramatise themes like success versus failure, overindulgence and the burdens of the Australian urban legend – not necessarily an ode to the great man himself.

Shane Warne: The Musical – a sell-out, for the right reasons © Mark Partridge
The stage was lit in blue and soft gentlemanly tunes from the 50’s echoed across the Playhouse. On stage was the band set up, a series of chairs for the cast and an isolated chair for the narrator, Warne.The story went like this: One cold night in 2005, Warne passes out on the lawn of his East Brighton home after a late night out. His dreams cast him back, step by step, through his career.From his time lounging about at home, striking out with the St Kilda A’s in the footy, his time in the Cricket Academy under Terry Jenner, his debut, that ball, road-kill Cullinan, John the Bookie, the World Cup, the SMS troubles, his mother and those pills and then his comeback, only to return to the lawn where he is confronted by his wife, Simone, and the torment of separation. The show concludes with a re-enactment of his retirement speech, laced with Perfect’s humorous vocals.The crowd were unanimous in appreciating a very funny, sympathetic and well-executed show, although there is much to do for Perfect to realise his vision of a full-scale comedy. One man asked his wife: “Is it what you thought, dear?” She looked puzzled. “Oh no, I thought he’d be bowling”. Like everyone else, they went in with mixed expectations. And like everyone else, they left pleasantly entertained.As a cricketer Warne himself arrived at the wrong time, during the hangover of the alcoholic and taboo-free sporting culture of 1980s Australia. Should the show mature beyond the workshop phase – and it should – then Perfect will have finally answered the lasting question from Warne on his career: “I don’t know who’s writing my scripts but he’s doing a good job”.

It’s that time of the year again and we at Cricinfo undertook an exercise to pick the Test team of the year

Cricinfo staff02-Jan-2007

It’s that time of the year for Cricinfo to pick the Test team of the year and so, while the world celebrated the festive season, our staffers burned the midnight oil coming up with their nominations. Those nominations were then tallied and the 11 players with the most votes fitted into a batting order/bowling attack. The choices were largely based on performances through the calendar year – but we strongly suspect some instances of rank personal favouritism.The openers’ debate was most hotly contested. In the end it came down to the age-old dilemma – do you go for team flexibility and pick non-specialists or stick to conventional wisdom? All but one chose Michael Hussey as an opener – he bats in the middle order for Australia but has vast first-class experience at the top. There was a tie for picking his partners – Alastair Cook (four hundreds and three fifties) and Rahul Dravid (three hundreds and seven fifties) received an equal number of votes but the fact that one was a “specialist” and the other a “makeshift” resolved the tie.Ricky Ponting (averaging 88.86 in 2006), Mohammad Yousuf (99.33) and Kumar Sangakkara (69) made it to every list, as expected. Sangakkara, who kept in eight of the nine Tests that Sri Lanka played, was the near-unanimous choice as the wicketkeeper (Gilchrist got one vote). Kevin Pietersen, the second-highest run-scorer in the calendar year (1343 at 53.72), completed a formidable middle order.Muttiah Muralitharan, with a staggering 90 wickets in 11 Tests, was statistically light years ahead of the rest (Makhaya Ntini was a distant second with 58 victims) and duly made the list (then again, which list won’t he make?). Shane Warne, who tormented England in the Ashes and waved goodbye to a magnificent career, joined him in the spin department – he, too, was in everyone’s team.Makhaya Ntini, the fast bowler with the most wickets this year, leads the fast-bowling department. Partnering him is Stuart Clark (42 wickets at a superb 17.76), who began the year with a Man-of-the-Series performance in South Africa and ended it with an impressive Ashes. Mohammad Asif, with 30 wickets in five games, was the third most popular fast bowler but picking him would have meant having five bowlers in the side. One vote behind him was Andrew Flintoff and the jury decided to have him in the side for his bowling prowess, batting ability and sheer size of his heart.AB de Villiers was the most popular 12th man, owing largely to his outstanding catching and ground fielding throughout the year. That leaves us with the final question – who will captain? No Dravid, no Mahela Jayawardene, no Brian Lara. One respondent went for Shane Warne. That left Ponting and Flintoff and you don’t need to be Einstein to work out the overwhelming winner.Cricinfo’s Test team for 20061 Alastair Cook, 2 Michael Hussey, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Kevin Pietersen, 6 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Shane Warne, 9 Stuart Clark, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan, 12 AB de Villiers.

No runs in the 50th over, and the castle that is Australia

Steven Lynch06-Nov-2007The regular Tuesday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:

How many times has a maiden been bowled in the last over of a one-day international? asked Shikhar from India
This has happened a few times in ODIs – we can’t be sure quite how many as we don’t have complete ball-by-ball stats for many early matches. The most recent occurrence was in Adelaide in January 2006, when Sri Lanka began the last over, bowled by Andrew Hall, needing 11 to beat South Africa, but didn’t manage anything off the bat. The only run was a leg-bye (Muttiah Muralitharan faced the first three balls, and Tillakaratne Dilshan the last three). The most famous instance was probably in 1990-91, when Australia started the last over in Hobart needing two runs to beat New Zealand, but with their last pair at the crease. No. 11 Bruce Reid was facing Chris Pringle, needing just a single to tie the match and give his senior partner, Greg Matthews, the strike. But Reid didn’t manage a run, hitting the first five balls straight to fielders or missing them completely: he was then run out trying a suicidal single off the final ball of the match, so New Zealand squeaked home by one run.Who has the most number of sixes under his belt in ODIs and Tests? asked Sai Pogaru from Singapore
Leading the way in Test cricket is Australia’s Adam Gilchrist, who needs three more hits to reach 100 sixes in Tests. He’s a few clear of Brian Lara, who managed 88 sixes in his Test career – and a record 1559 fours. For a full list, click here. In ODIs, there’s a battle at the top between Sanath Jayasuriya, who currently has 245 sixes, and Shahid Afridi, with 235. A long way back in third place, with 188, is Sourav Ganguly. For the full one-day six list, click here.When was the last time Australia lost a Test series at home? asked Surinder Kaushal from Canada
Remarkably, it’s 15 seasons now since Australia lost a Test series at home – and that one in 1992-93, like their earlier home defeat (1988-89), was inflicted by West Indies. In 1992-93 West Indies won 2-1, but only after drawing level with a famous one-run victory in Adelaide and then clinching the series with a more comprehensive win in Perth. Between the 1932-33 Bodyline series and the 1970-71 Ashes encounter, Australia lost only one home series – the Ashes in 1954-55.With England about to tour Sri Lanka, who has been their most successful batsman and bowler in Tests there? asked James Wilson from Brighton
England have only played eight Tests in Sri Lanka, between 1981-82 and 2003-04, so the records aren’t terribly impressive ones. Their leading run-scorer is Graham Thorpe, with 452 in six Tests at an average of 45.20, ahead of Marcus Trescothick, with 415 in six. Apart from those two, the only other Englishmen to score a Test century in Sri Lanka are Nasser Hussain, Robin Smith and Michael Vaughan. The leading wicket-taker for England in Tests in Sri Lanka is Ashley Giles, with 25, well ahead of Darren Gough, with 14.

Who is the oldest surviving Australian Test player? asked Brad Johnson from Brisbane
If you’re lucky, you might spot him during this week’s Test at the Gabba: it’s the Queenslander Bill Brown, who is now 95. He first wore the baggy green in England in 1934, which makes him the senior surviving Test cricketer in terms of debut, although two players who started later are actually older than he is. Brown won the last of his 22 Test caps as one of Don Bradman’s Invincibles in England in 1948. For a full list of the oldest surviving Test players, click here.Sourav Ganguly currently has 96 Test caps. If he plays all three Tests against Pakistan in the coming home series, he will finish with 99, and could play his 100th Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day. Has anyone else played his 100th Test at the MCG? asked Prasanth Naik from India
As I write 43 people have played in 100 or more Tests – but only one of them reached that landmark at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. That was Australia’s Allan Border, who won his 100th cap against West Indies at the MCG in 1988-89 – in a Test that began on Christmas Eve, rather than the traditional Boxing Day.And here’s an afterthought to last week’s question about the Test cricketers born in Goa, from Mohammad Kaushik
“I believe that the parents of Wallis Mathias, the first non-Muslim to play for Pakistan, came from Goa – although he himself was born in Karachi.”

The reality is that, despite all of the ego massaging and bigging up marketing campaigns ahead of the series, West Indies are expected to struggle anyway against Sri Lanka and then against Australia

Fazeer Mohammed07-Mar-2008
Had it not been for the injuries to Gayle and Edwards in South Africa, West Indies might well have pulled off an upset – but that alone is not grounds to expect a marked improvement © Imran Khan
We must be the stupidest people to ever walk the face of the earth. Excuse the poor grammar, but “most stupid” doesn’t seem to carry the same degree of forcefulness necessary to properly reflect the ignorance, deliberate or otherwise, that blights this chain of territories from Negril at the westernmost tip of Jamaica to Guyana’s Amazonian border with Brazil.Yesterday, I had the distinctly uncomfortable experience of listening to two participants at a two-day conference at the Crowne Plaza give their views on some of the reasons why the abuse of guns has resulted in such chaos, tragedies and near anarchy in so many societies. The two gentlemen, one from Jamaica and the other from Brazil, without any prompting, identified exactly the same issues that are relevant right here, from glorifying violence through music to politicians legitimising gang leaders, to corrupt police.Most of us with any sense of what is going on in the world would be aware of this anyway, but it reinforced the frightening reality that none of the social challenges confronting us now are new, and that we are blindly repeating the same mistakes of other nations in our region, yet seem to be making no meaningful effort to change course as if we are somehow so special and so blessed that we will escape the consequences.This sort of head-in-the-sand mentality appears to be the same at the critical, decision-making levels of West Indies cricket, although the challenges there, in the context of the bigger picture, are almost irrelevant. In fact, if it could be proven that by the regional game plummeting further to the bottom our societies would be saved from imploding, then the theme song for the 2008 Digicel Series should definitely be: “Down with the Windies!”Yet the reality is that, despite all of the ego massaging and bigging up marketing campaigns ahead of the series, West Indies are expected to struggle anyway against Sri Lanka from Easter weekend and then against Australia from mid-May. You wouldn’t think that, though, in the wake of Tuesday night’s launch of the international season in Kingston.Here’s what Tony Deyal, the West Indies Cricket Board’s corporate secretary, had to say about the organisation’s vision:”Our goal is to regain the pinnacle of world cricket by 2012 and to do that we need all the help and support we can get and all the sponsors. Also we have a new team management and we have a new approach, the purpose of all this is to develop a positive culture within the team as well as the bench strength in order to achieve our goal.”But for injuries to Chris Gayle and Fidel Edwards at critical stages of the second Test in Cape Town at the start of the year, West Indies could very well have pulled off victory and a Test series triumph in South Africa that would certainly have been one of the greatest upsets in the contemporary game. Is that enough evidence, though, to expect so much improvement so quickly, especially in the context of the rapid, injury-blighted decline that followed?Now Tony is a real cricket pyong, so there’s no questioning his passion for the game. But you really have to wonder if pragmatism was flung out the window before the officials sequestered themselves to come up with the strategic plan that identifies the primary goal as if it was actually achievable.Like the entertainers who give thanks and praises to the Creator before launching into their vulgar or anger-laden inflammatory lyrics, there is a worrying degree of disconnection from reality here. Like the mistakes that continue to be repeated, we have heard of all these lofty ambitions before.Every WICB president of this decade has dangled the carrot, in different ways it has to be said, of the return to the glory days being just around in the corner. Wes Hall said, among many other things, that we just needed to get two genuinely fast bowlers. Teddy Griffith targeted a top-three ranking before the end of his term. Ken Gordon established a “Win World Cup Committee” in the countdown to the 2007 Caribbean event. And now we have Julian Hunte’s administration offering its vision of a promised land that isn’t all that far away.Oh, and how could I forget that the man whom many now see as the real saviour of West Indies cricket, Sir Allen Stanford, has set a deadline of 3-5 years to make it back to the summit, although that represents a hedging of his bets from five months ago when he stated, definitively, that it would happen in three years’ time?However no-one holds them, or the captains, managers and other officials who make similar unsubstantiated claims to proper account when the objective and reality remain miles apart, just as this shot into the optimistic air surely will be. So you really can’t blame them for persevering with a modus operandi that keeps a gullible populace perpetually expectant of the miracle just beyond the horizon.But for injuries to Chris Gayle and Fidel Edwards at critical stages of the second Test in Cape Town at the start of the year, West Indies could very well have pulled off victory and a Test series triumph in South Africa that would certainly have been one of the greatest upsets in the contemporary game. Is that enough evidence, though, to expect so much improvement so quickly, especially in the context of the rapid, injury-blighted decline that followed?When you look at the standard of regional cricket and the fact that we have languished near the foot of the international rankings for so long, it is bewildering as to how such a goal was not only identified, but stated publicly as a realistic target.Maybe, deep down inside, we all want to be hypocritical entertainers, power-hungry politicians or corrupt police and therefore choose to remain blind to reality. Or maybe we’re just really, really stupid.

Stats highlights from the second day of the Ahmedabad Test

S Rajesh04-Apr-2008
AB de Villiers’ highest score lifted the South African lead to record proportions on the second day of the Ahmedabad Test © AFP
de Villiers’ unbeaten 217 is the 21st Test double-hundred by a South African, but the first against India. The previous highest by a South African against India was Herschelle Gibbs’ 196 in Port Elizabeth in 2001. (Click here for the highest scores by South Africans in Tests.) It is also de Villiers’ highest Test score, going past his 178 against West Indies in Barbados in 2005. Before this series began, de Villiers had only scored 102 runs in six innings against India, averaging 17. Thanks to the double-hundred, his average against India has now gone up to a healthy 46.75. The highlight of the day was the 256-run fifth-wicket stand between de Villiers and Jacques Kallis, which is the highest for South Africa against India, going past the previous best of 236 between Andrew Hudson and Gary Kirsten in Kolkata in 1996. This was only the third double-century partnership for South Africa against India; Kirsten, the current India coach, had been involved in both the previous stands. The stand fell just 11 runs short of the South African record for the fifth wicket, when Kallis and Ashwell Prince had put together 267 against West Indies in Antigua in 2005. It’s also only the second 200-plus stand in Ahmedabad, and the first by an overseas pair. Kallis’ 132 is his 30th Test century, which takes him past Don Bradman’s and puts him in sixth place in the all-time list. It was his second century versus India, against whom he averages 62 from ten Tests. de Villiers knock is also only the third double-century in Ahmedabad, and the first by an overseas batsman. He needs just six more to go past Rahul Dravid’s 222, which is currently the highest score at the ground. South Africa ended the day with a first-innings lead of 418, which is their third-highest in Tests. Their highest is 509, against England at Lord’s in 2003 – a match they eventually won by an innings and 92 runs – while against Australia in Durban in 1970 they finished with a 465-run advantage. If the South Africans add 73 more runs, it’ll be the biggest first-innings lead conceded by India – the record is currently 490, in a Test against West Indies in Kolkata in 1959. This lead, though, is easily the highest in India-South Africa Tests.

New Zealand’s No. 4 looks back on his first Test in England, and prepares for the Old Trafford showdown

Ross Taylor21-May-2008

It’s a happy New Zealand camp after we overcame the worst of the batting conditions on the first day at Lord’s and went from being the only side that could lose the game to making it very difficult for England had there been an extra day. Our aim is to take that momentum into the second Test here in Manchester. Significantly, too, our bowlers were not over-exerted, having to bowl just the once.There were some brilliant performances by the guys and it was a thrill to witness Jacob Oram’s ton and Daniel Vettori’s five-for. Hopefully I’ll be back on the next tour to see their names etched on the honours board in the dressing-room. I felt for Brendon McCullum when he was out for 97. He dug us out of a big hole in the first innings and watching him blaze away from the balcony was great fun.On his debut, Daniel Flynn impressed us all with a very composed knock, supporting Jacob on the last day. Aaron Redmond showed promise too: there’s not much you can do when you get two good balls as he did from James Anderson.Speaking of Anderson, I was mightily relieved he missed the stumps when I took off for that single off the third ball I faced. I was looking to rotate the strike, which is important to do wherever possible when the conditions are as testing as they were in that first session.I was very disappointed with the way I got out. I was a little nervous when I walked out to bat, but playing across the line as I did to a shorter ball from Stuart Broad was not part of my game plan. Test cricket has its own special tempo and I was too rushed. I’ll learn from that, as I do each time I bat in Test cricket. Though I’ve been in the side for a while, the next game will be just my seventh Test match.The key is to work hard in the nets between Tests. I’ll be focusing on tightening up my defence, with help from our batting coach Mark O’Neill. I’ll be getting our bowlers to bowl with the new ball, to swing it both ways, so I can simulate match conditions as much as possible.Video analysis is one tool available to help us prepare. The bowlers in particular, they like it for looking at their own actions and the opposition batsmen to make sure they don’t miss something that might give them a new plan of attack. Personally I don’t use video analysis a lot, especially not during a tour or tournament. I like to keep things as simple as possible.Getting from London to Manchester was a mission, with the bus trip taking five and a half hours. James Marshall was in charge of entertainment and normally a movie and a good comedy TV show would get a pass mark, but with the extra hour or so, he was found wanting.Actually, James has had a rough time of it on this tour. If I was a bit annoyed when the Test programme at Lord’s said I was Maori when I’m in fact half-Samoan, James must be sick to death of people thinking he is his brother Hamish. There have been some classics: “Who’s playing in your place at Gloucestershire now?” was one; “So, are you any relation to Hamish Marshall?” was another. James simply replied “Yeah, I’m his twin brother!”The boys find it hilarious but it must be starting to wear thin for James. As for me, my mother is Samoan and I love it when our heritage is recognised. What’s really cool is hearing about how many of my relations and their friends are now into watching cricket. I took up cricket after watching my Dad play each weekend when I was young and I really enjoyed it, just as other Samoan kids enjoy rugby and league.There’s a good vibe around town and we were looking forward to watching Man United in the Champions League final. Some of the guys are quite into soccer, including Jacob, who was a useful goalkeeper in his time. Maybe he even dreamed about playing at Old Trafford. Come Friday, though, like the rest of us, he’ll be focused on trying to knock over England at the cricket ground next door.

The women have played eight World Cups so far and Cricinfo asked former and current players what their lasting memories from each tournaments was

07-Mar-2009
Bird: wouldn’t stand for physical violence © Getty Images
1982, New Zealand
Gill McConway
I am struggling to remember stories from 27 years back, really.An interestingfeature of the 1982 World Cup was that Dickie Bird had been invited to umpirethroughout the tournament.It was so windy we had to play without bails, because eventhe heavy ones wouldn’t stay on. Dickie’s first game was a warm-up, which a lot ofpeople had come to watch. There were lots of them pointing and saying, “That’s thefamous England umpire.”And then one of the big Australian girls from ourInternational XI, Rhonda Kendall, hammered the ball to the square-leg area. She hitit so hard that Dickie, probably still jet-lagged, just dropped to the ground as itsmashed into his leg. I really felt for him.I noticed he stood a lot further back after that!

Gideon Haigh on the biography of Australia’s first significant cricketer

Gideon Haigh20-Mar-2009

“I have felt beastly bad this week[.] I do not know what I am standing on – & when anyone speaks to me I cannot for the life of me make out what they are talking about – everything seems so curious.” Thus puzzled the 22-year-old Tom Wills in a halting and dissociated letter to his beloved sister in September 1857 – and “curious” his life would prove. The first Australian cricketer of significance and pioneer of his country’s indigenous football code was a colonial man of action but has remained a deeply mysterious figure. His father was a grazier slaughtered by aborigines, yet he himself championed
their cricket; he was a beau ideal sportsman educated at Rugby in England and destined to die in squalor at his own deranged hand.Greg de Moore’s comes as a relief after so much conjecture and sentimental myth-making. The author is a consultant psychiatrist at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital who started on Wills’ trail by seeking admission papers of his last visit to hospital, and in a decade collecting material for a doctorate, uncovered an astonishing wealth of material, from annotated schoolbooks to family correspondence. The latter provides de Moore with a sense of “a mind full of energy and histrionic ideas without a centre”; the veerings of Wills’ allegiances and the frequency of his quarrels steadily suggest something similar.For the most part de Moore writes with studious restraint – so much so that it jars when occasionally he does otherwise. “When he played cricket, it was not merely a game amongst mortals – Tom Wills bowled with the Gods,” comes out of nowhere. So does: “The script is physically contorted, in
sympathy with the pain of the writer.” Physically? In sympathy? Nor has the generally attentive editor remedied a confusion of “disinterested” and “uninterested”. Otherwise there is much to admire here, and also to haunt, occasionally simply because the survival of some of de Moore’s sources feels so
miraculous, on other occasions because the unknowable stubbornly refuses to yield. Even more enigmatic than Wills proves his “wife”, Sarah Theresa Barbor – of whom no image survives – who was
resilient, defiant and embarrassing to a respectable family.De Moore is circumspect in his conclusions. Although he theorises that Wills suffered a species of post-traumatic stress after the slaying of family and friends on Cullin-La-Ringo station in Queensland in October 1861, he reads little into the cricketer’s involvement in an aboriginal cricket tour six years
later: “Beyond a paying job and an ill- fated attempt at entrepreneurship he never gave the impression through word or deed that he considered the broader social or political context of the tour.” He likewise sidesteps the abiding controversy about aboriginal influence on the origins of Australian football. Here again is unusual: a biography that, at a time when it is hard work getting through the blurbs of most Australian cricket books, actually leaves you wanting more. Tom Wills: His Spectacular Rise and Tragic Fall
by Greg de Moore
Allen & Unwin A$32.95

Gavaskar was was not just another cricketer but a metaphor for a country’s aspirations

Ayaz Memon10-Jul-2009A few weeks ago, shortly after Sunil Gavaskar had delivered the first Dilip Sardesai Memorial lecture at the Cricket Club of India, a twentysomething man asked me if Gavaskar had been a better batsman than Sachin Tendulkar, reducing me to a hum-and-haw wreck. I could understand the legitimacy of his curiosity, but was there a legitimate answer?I must here confess to being a Gavaskarphile. Who from my vintage isn’t? The passage of time sometimes tends to either exaggerate or diminish the value of the past, but the Gavaskar phenomenon, all things considered, makes for one of the great stories of not just modern sport, but also Indian life.I was 15 when he exploded into the Indian consciousness with his record-breaking exploits in the West Indies in 1970-71, and since then have followed his amazing journey, largely for professional purposes, sometimes with deep personal flourishes, mostly with awe and admiration, but sometimes also with despair and anguish.On my first few tours as a cricket writer I got to know first-hand not only of Gavaskar’s supreme batting skills, but also the different facets to his persona. In Pakistan in 1982-83, he scored in excess of 400 runs, but became increasingly moody as the series started going awry and his captaincy came under threat. Despite that, his innate sense of humour never deserted him. In Hyderabad (Sind), after India had lost the Test and the series, I remember Gavaskar being asked by a journalist how he would have liked India’s batsmen to play the rampaging Imran Khan. “The best way would be to put a sightscreen between him and us,” he replied with a straight face.This humour could, of course, move from being self-deprecatory to caustic in the matter of minutes – or a few tours. In 1985, when India went to Sri Lanka, Gavaskar was still determined to bat in the middle order, much to the chagrin of the captain, Kapil Dev. Soon after arrival, asked informally by the press corps if he had given up opening, Gavaskar was vehement in denial. “I will open doors and bottles, but opening the innings is another matter,” he said with a smile.Our paths have criss-crossed several times over 30 years, and we even worked together at the same publication, , for a while, but I can’t claim to know Gavaskar intimately. Apart from his immediate family and a few close friends, I doubt anybody does. Like most virtuosos – in any walk of life – he can be aloof to the world around him, living out his personal convictions with an inner strength that makes him almost immune to what people think.This was more pronounced in his playing days, when he could be stubborn, obstinate, tantrum-prone and sanctimonious – apart from being a record-breaking batsman. Sometimes it would appear that he was at war with the world, sometimes with himself; both were probably true. He fought furiously for pride and self-respect at a time when Indian cricket was easily dismissed; he also raged for perfection as a batsman because he wanted to be the best, no less.
Not all the time was he in the right. At times he could be easily riled by trifles or be seduced into petty-fogging to prove a minor point. In his time he has had a few memorable altercations with umpires, opponents, fellow players and administrators, which he would see as silly now. As captain, he sometimes stretched defensive tactics to bizarre levels (with active help from rival captain Keith Fletcher in 1981, it must be added), which accentuated his “mean” image. More infamously, he once batted 60 overs for 36 runs in the 1975 World Cup, and in 1981almost conceded a Test match after getting into a spat with Australian umpires.But over a long career and life these prickly facets must be balanced by several other sanguine ones, not all known, for a more balanced picture of the man. Gavaskar’s general disposition is usually sunny, as his nickname goes. He has a sense of fun that can oscillate between the droll and the ribald, depending on the company he is in.He is also a terrific after-dinner speaker because he is a splendid raconteur. In an informal setting he can be a great mimic, bringing to the fore the tremendous powers of observation that helped him read the game so well. He can hold his own in any company, be it Nelson Mandela or a Bollywood starlet. His world view is large, his knowledge vast, and he can be an engaging conversationalist.He has been Indian cricket’s strongest minder. Few mess with him when he has a cause to fight. He was in the forefront of championing players’ rights and was instrumental (along with Bishan Bedi) in giving the cricketers’ association voice and meaning. It must be a cause of some regret to him that the current players don’t see the Players’ Association as important anymore.After he retired, when we worked together at , there was not a week in which I didn’t see him try to help out cricketers less fortunate than him with their benefit matches or some other financial assistance. “These guys have given everything for the game, and deserve support,” he would say.Some years later he started the Champs Foundation – without too much fanfare or publicity – to provide financial help to needy and ailing sportspersons across disciplines. Also, during the 1993 riots in Mumbai, as is famously known, he went and rescued a Muslim family from a mob near his residence.

Like Tendulkar, Gavaskar was for India not just another cricketer, but a metaphor of the country’s aspirations and hopes. His very presence provided emotional and psychological security far beyond the parameters of a cricket field. He left an indelible impact on not just scorebooks, but on the Indian psyche

Students of psychology might see contradictions here, and they might not be entirely wrong; but then again, they wouldn’t quite be completely right either. For, at his core, Gavaskar is no different from any of us: highly complex, but essentially human.It is as cricketer that Gavaskar emerges unique and as one of the most towering personalities in the game. In a broader context, like Tendulkar, he was not just another cricketer but a metaphor for the country’s aspirations and hopes.In his tribute in , Peter Roebuck, writes, “[…] Such were his powers that he’d have been productive 50 years earlier or 50 years later; even in this hurrying world, some things do not change, the principles of batsmanship not least amongst them.” But this is only half the saga. Gavaskar’s very presence provided emotional and psychological security far beyond the parameters of a cricket field. He left an indelible impact on not just scorebooks but on the Indian psyche.It intrigues me that not till his magnificent 221 in the heart-breaking run-chase at the Oval in 1979, which compelled Sir Len Hutton to call him the best opening batsman in the game, was Gavaskar’s genius acknowledged worldwide, and he was rated alongside Viv Richards and Greg Chappell. By then, he had been playing for eight years and had scored more than 5000 runs! Sir Len, of course, had greater reason for empathy with Gavaskar, having been an opener himself.There are several analyses and tributes that I can cite, but an anecdote involving another great player of the 80s, Javed Miandad, and a couple of his colleagues, perhaps puts things in the best perspective.We were at Miandad’s house in Lahore in 1989, celebrating his 100th Test match and in between the partying I asked the Pakistani maestro his opinion about Gavaskar. ”Many have played this game brilliantly but few have understood it as well as this man,” said Miandad pointing in Gavaskar’s direction. “He knows cricket like the back of his hand. Did you see his innings against us at Bangalore two years back?”Would there have been a Tendulkar as we know him if there was no Gavaskar?•AFPI had, and consider it perhaps the most skilful and poignant knock in Indian cricket history. Only one batsman in three innings of that Test match had crossed the 50-run mark. The ball turned square from day one, and India were to bat fourth chasing a little over 200 for victory. This was like climbing Mount Everest in a snowstorm. But Gavaskar was not to be fazed. With sublime technique and dogged determination, he mastered the conditions to keep India in the hunt even as wickets fell around him like nine pins.On the rest day of the Test I went to interview Tauseef Ahmed, the offspinner, and his room-mate Iqbal Qasim, the left-arm spinner. The spin twins had reduced the Indian innings to rubble. Now only one man stood between them and victory: Gavaskar, unbeaten on 50-something. Tauseef and Qasim were usually chirpy souls, but on this day appeared so high-strung that they wouldn’t even talk to each other.” [that old man is still batting],” said Qasim, breaking the silence. ”Bat ? (does he have a bat or a wall?)” Tauseef chipped in. ”We’ve not been able to sleep because of the tension.”The next day, just when it appeared that Gavaskar would win the match single-handed, he fell for 96. Imran Khan called it the best innings he had seen. India eventually lost that Test match by a small margin of 16 runs, and Gavaskar bowed out of Test cricket a forlorn, but never to be forgotten, hero.It’s almost 22 years since he retired, but memories of his exploits are still fresh. He arrived with a bang in 1970-71, scoring 774 runs in his debut Test series (still a record), and finished with a flourish, scoring 96 in his last Test innings, a century in his last first-class match, and a maiden hundred in his penultimate one-day game – all in 1987, at age 38. He retired as he always wanted to: when people asked why, not why not.Which, of course, brings me back to the original query of the twentysomething lad at the CCI about Gavaskar and Tendulkar. I still don’t have an answer, but I have a counter-query: Would there have been a Tendulkar as we know him if there was no Gavaskar?