An American talking cricket with Pakistan fans in Sri Lanka. Plus, a garden party Sri Lankan high-society style

Wright Thompson02-Oct-2012War-torn, third-world hellhole? Not Colombo•AFPColombo, Sri Lanka. Last night, already in a haze from jet lag, cheap beer and the seething energy on the eve of a Pakistan-India match, I stood in a living room and listened to friends explain the Green Bay Packers to the head coach of Pakistan’s cricket team. Andy and Melissa Heger live on a quiet lane in central Colombo, moving here after falling in love with it during a sailing trip around the world, somehow ending up in the inner circle of subcontinent cricket. Andy went to the same college as I did, so we connected for the World Twenty20. Like many residents of Sri Lanka, he hates the Indian cricket team, so he had T-shirts made in the green and yellow of both Pakistan and Green Bay with the words “I Back the Pak.”He held one up to Pakistan’s coach, Dav Whatmore, a blunt force trauma of a guy, all shoulders and forearms, with a salt-and-pepper buzz cut and rough moustache. As Andy and Melissa launched into the story of a rabid fan base, about Wisconsin and Lambeau Field, Whatmore cut them off.”Lombardi,” he growled.

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The trips I anticipate most are to the subcontinent for cricket matches, mostly because of moments like the one in Andy’s living room when something bridges what had been, seconds before, an impossible divide. I’m hoping for one of those moments tonight at my first India-Pakistan match. It is, without question, the most intense sports rivalry in the world.Right now, I’m sitting in the press box of an empty stadium, waiting on the match to begin. The sun is shining, hot on my face. The seats of the stadium are blue and yellow, and the green pitch below is full of players warming up. It’s been about 28 hours since I landed. After I file this story, I’m meeting friends in the upper deck. Beers cost about a dollar. You can buy 12 at a time.It’s also my first trip to Sri Lanka. I knew only what I’d read about in the dispatches from the seemingly endless civil war fought between the Sinhalese government and Tamil rebels. The LTTE – either the Tamil army or a terrorist group, depending on whom you ask – pioneered the suicide bomb, assassinating a Sri Lankan president, a former Indian prime minister and anyone else unlucky enough to be in a blast zone. The war spread to the cities from time to time, with people turning on their neighbours. Three years ago, the government finally crushed the LTTE, releasing photographs of the group’s charismatic leader with an enormous exit wound in his forehead. Human rights groups want to investigate the final battle, and the reported on Sri Lankan soldiers murdering Tamil civilians. The government wants to move forward. The country is reinventing itself, locking away the past in the place where unspoken original sin goes to metastasise. Given all this, I don’t know what I expected Sri Lanka to be like. What would New York have been like in 1868?Here’s what I didn’t expect: a garden party in the shaded yard of a white mansion. Andy and I walked through a gate into the birthday celebration of one of his friends, an Oxford-educated Sri Lankan banker. The house, a palace of crown moulding and fresh flowers, belongs to her mother. An infinity pool rippled gently. A jazz band played in the corner of the yard, breaking into Louis Armstrong’s . A man walked barefoot in the grass. Waiters circled with drinks. Women in willowy silk dresses held delicate wine glasses. Expensive handbags piled up in white-cushioned chairs: Gucci, Fendi, Marc Jacobs. Guys wore Wayfarers and linen pants. We were living a scene out of a Sri Lankan Gatsby. Andy caught me gawking.”You enjoying your visit to the war-torn, third-world hellhole?” he said.Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore, a blunt force trauma of a guy•AFPI met the nation’s biggest talk show host – “the Oprah of Sri Lanka” is how she was introduced – and a cake mogul, and a restaurant and nightclub impresario, who had opened his latest place three days earlier. Two patterns emerged. One, every person I met is pulling for Pakistan to beat India; the birthday girl described being Sri Lankan as like being Irish, resenting the dominant big brother a thin channel of water away, cricket once again a safe language for expressing deeply held geopolitical ideas.And two people, over and over, told me they’d recently moved back. There are generations of Sri Lankans who ran from the war and the hatreds behind it, and now they’re coming home, to be the part of a new beginning. There’s a streak of fatalism laced through the national psyche – in the way the pioneering spirit is part of America’s self-image – but returning is an act of hope. The Tamils and Sinhalese have fought each other for a thousand years. Later, when Andy described the war from the Western point of view, defining the conflict as beginning in 1983 and ending in 2009, a local friend corrected him. “It’s not a 26-year-old war,” he said. “They have been at each other since Sri Lanka existed.” He didn’t mean the nation. He meant the island. The next morning, I’ll find a newspaper outside my door with a lead story about LTTE survivors hiding in India, trying to regroup.There’s no way to know what will happen next in Sri Lanka, or how the lives of the people at the garden party will turn out, but they are together, partying hard in the afternoon, concerned not with some unknowable tomorrow but with a booze- and laughter-soaked today. So when the Sri Lankan team takes the field in this tournament, it will play not just for itself but also for a nation determined to look ahead.

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So what is there to be understood at a cricket match?
What does winning a World Cup mean for a country?
What can it do? What can it not?
Is there value in Sri Lanka winning this tournament?
What about in Pakistan beating India? Or the other way around?
There’s a paragraph I love from a novel about Sri Lankan cricket called , set around the 1996 World Cup. It describes the power of sports better than anything I remember reading.

“Of course there is little point to sports. But, at the risk of depressing you, let me add two more cents. There is little point to anything. In a thousand years, grass will have grown over all our cities. Nothing of anything will matter. Left-arm spinners cannot unclog your drains, teach your children or cure you of disease. But once in a while, the very best of them will bowl a ball that will bring an entire nation to its feet. And while there may be no practical use in that, there is most certainly value.”

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I took a three-wheel tuk-tuk over to a local cricket club to meet Muttiah Muralitharan, lovingly known as, simply, Murali. He’s one of the greatest spin bowlers in history, a star of the 1996 World Cup (the real World Cup, not the less prestigious World Twenty20; if you are a cricket fan you know all about this, and if you’re not, you don’t care).Murali watched his six-year-old son’s cricket training session. He’s 40 now, with four or five grey hairs that will soon be four or five hundred.”I’m just a dad,” he said, smiling.He didn’t just take wickets for the world champions. He fuelled the team’s anger. His bowling action is unorthodox, and with the naked eye, it looks like he’s breaking the cricket rule about bowling without flexing the arm. That would be chucking, and it’s not allowed. Even though tests showed he throws a legal ball, an umpire in Australia in the lead-up to the ’96 World Cup kept calling him for chucking. Sri Lankans thought it had as much to do with the colour of his arm as the motion of it, and instead of meekly backing down, the team backed Murali. It wouldn’t be intimidated.Winning the World Cup changed his life. Everywhere he goes, he can sense the love Sri Lankans feel for him. It’s a palpable thing. While we talked, two kids came up to him and asked for his autograph, one of them too scared to make eye contact. He thinks that the peace will last and that a new country is being born before our eyes. Look at him, he said. He’s Tamil and is beloved by everyone.”Some politicians make us feel there’s a separation,” he says. “My friends are Sinhalese. They are Tamil. They are Muslim. Christians. Every religion, every ethnicity. In 10 years’ time, it will be a different country … Unless the politicians spoil it, like they did in the 1970s.”There are many reasons he believes in the future of Sri Lanka, but maybe the biggest one is hard to articulate. He knows what it feels like when the country is united.Once, for a moment, it was united in its support of him.

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The night before the Pakistan-India World Twenty20 match really felt like the night before a big game•Associated PressThe Indian and Pakistani teams are also playing for something larger, and heavier, than their individual hopes and ambitions. Their nations share a border, a long history and little else. They’ve fought four wars since 1948 and live every day with nuclear weapons pointed at each other. About the only chance either nation has to measure itself against its enemy is when the cricket teams meet. I will never know what that weight feels like, but I got a tiny window the night before the game. Pakistanis filled Andy’s house, flying in from all over the world. The whole town was full of people wearing yellow and green. It’s hard for Pakistan fans to get a visa to see their team play in India, so this neutral site provided a rare opportunity. Andy said to expect fights in the stands. It felt like the night before a big game, if that makes sense.When Whatmore and his wife arrived, Melissa introduced him to their cook.”This is Dav,” she said.”I know,” Matilda said, wide-eyed.Whatmore, as every person on the island is aware, was the coach of Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup champions. Now he coaches Pakistan. We hung out in Andy’s courtyard. Whatmore described his team at that moment, back at the hotel, guarded by Pakistani security, as a mix of self-doubt and determination. When his guys play India, he said, “They grow a leg.”I sat down next to his wife, who said his calm exterior is a front.”I can tell,” she said.”How?” I asked.”I’m not gonna tell you the signs,” she said, pausing, then offering a hint. “He’s very controlled. I’m really glad I got him out of the hotel.”Later, I saw what she meant. Whatmore stood in the corner of the room, quietly rolling up his jeans and rolling down his sock, showing his leg to Dr Saeed Jaffer, a dermatologist from Pasadena who flew over for the game. A nasty rash spread down Whatmore’s leg. Saeed looked it over and chuckled.”You know what it is?” he told the coach. “Stress.”

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Sri Lankan cricketer Jehan Mubarak, a member of the 2003 World Cup team, sat across from me at Andy’s house. Sharing a tall bottle of Lion Lager, we watched an online video of Sri Lankan star Kumar Sangakkara trash-talking a South African opponent. Sangakkara knew the soft places in his opponent because they exist in every athlete whose play is tied to a nation’s self-esteem.”Local hero,” he chirps, his digs caught on a microphone. “Lots of pressure here for the skipper. Gonna let his whole country down. Lots of expectations. Come on. The weight of all these expectations, fellas. The weight of the country, chap. Forty-two million supporters right here.”Right now, as I type this, the Indian and Pakistani teams are in the belly of the R Premadasa Stadium. Eleven men a side. The pressure is enough to make a coach break out in a rash, and he’s not even playing. In the dressing room, the players are alone with their doubt and their fear and their hope. Everything is about to stop in India and Pakistan, all over the world, really, generations crowding around television sets. The weight of the country, chap.After the players finally walk out onto the field, they cannot hide from those eyes, who have doubts and fears and hopes of their own. When the cricketers’ careers are over, after their last match, be it tomorrow or in many years, they will move back to their hometowns and be judged on how they did during these few hours. Will they be forgotten? Will they be disgraced? Will they bring a nation to its feet with a single ball? These are questions that can be answered in a cricket match. Long after the specifics are forgotten, the feeling will remain, for those who played in the game, and those who watched it. I am about to pack up my things and head over to the stands to meet my friends. Row 5, seat 107. India plays Pakistan tonight in a bandbox of a stadium, and the place is filling up.

Plays of the Day from the first ODI between Sri Lanka and India in Hambantota

Abhishek Purohit in Hambantota24-Jul-2012The catchIn his short career, Thisara Perera has shown he can do everything in the middle; he can crack big sixes, he can run through sides with his deceptive seamers, and he can create dismissals with his fielding. Today, during Perera’s first over, Virender Sehwag swatted one in the air to the bowler’s right. Perera instantly arrested his followthrough, dived and plucked the ball mid-air, tumbled down, but still managed to hold onto the ball.The bowling changeWhen India bolted to 31 for 0 in three overs, it appeared Sri Lanka were set for another tough day in the field. Mahela Jayawardene turned to … who else but Perera, who removed Sehwag with the last ball of his first over. Three balls later, he had Virat Kohli edging behind. Seven balls later, he bowled Suresh Raina. His figures would have read an incredible 3-3-0-4, but Angelo Mathews put down a sitter off MS Dhoni at first slip.The run-outR Ashwin has a reputation for being a slow runner. In the 24th over, he ran one down to third man and took two comfortable runs. He turned around for the third and took a few steps forward. Gautam Gambhir held his hand up to indicate his lack of interest, but Ashwin had built up some momentum. By the time he slowly turned back, it was too late, despite a dive. It was Ashwin’s seventh run-out in 21 completed international innings.The disturbancesYou would think batsmen carry their fussiness with the sightscreen too far at times, but no one could blame Upul Tharanga today after he was disturbed at least three times in the eighth over by too many people moving across in the background. It was in an area that was difficult to control – a small exposed portion of the corridor behind the sightscreen. The officials tried to curb the movements a couple of times without much success, while a frustrated Tillakaratne Dilshan walked down the ground with upraised arms. The third time it happened, the batsmen gave up and just got on with the game.

Aakash Chopra21-Sep-2012When Twenty20 cricket first came around, everyone thought that it was just going to be a slog-fest. To be fair, such expectations weren’t without reason, because the same batsmen who could easily bat 50 overs in an ODI were asked to finish their job in 120 balls. The new playing conditions also meant that it was absolutely fine to lose a wicket every two overs. In Tests and ODIs, the price-tag on every wicket would match high-street prices, but in T20, wickets are on discount sales.But as the format evolved, a few patterns have emerged, quite similar to the patterns in 50-overs cricket. For instance, the first six overs of Powerplay and the last six overs – the death overs – yield the most runs and, even with the frantic pace of T20 cricket, there’s a relatively quiet period from overs seven to 14. The patterns also show that the teams which lose more than two wickets in the Powerplay end up losing more games. So, while it’s imperative to score at a fair clip in the first six, it’s equally important to not lose too many wickets. Hence, both the opening and the death overs make the difference between winning and losing.Though the talk around India always concerns the lack of teeth in their bowling, it seems their shortcomings in that department have become an accepted fact and the team has made peace with it. MS Dhoni has made it very clear that he believes that it’s their depth and strength in batting that is likely to win them the World T20, and hence it’s better to play an extra batsman. But at the moment, India’s strength is also India’s weakness, for the openers haven’t been firing for quite some time. While India’s batting line-up boasts of many match-winners, it’s invariably Virat Kohli who’s saving the day for the team these days. The law of averages is likely to catch up with him soon, and hence it’s imperative that the openers find some form by then.Gautam Gambhir, irrespective of the format, has been guilty of poking at everything that is outside the off-stump. Even though he plays every stroke in the book to all parts of the ground (except, perhaps, the hook or sweep), for some strange reason, recently, he has been looking to dab everything down to the third-man region. The moment you get into such a mindset, the bat comes down at an angle and then either you nick the ball to the wicketkeeper or drag the ball back onto the stumps.Another problem with looking to score in the third-man region is that you stop getting to the pitch of the ball, which spells doom. He, or someone else, needs to remind him that he’s a much better player when he’s looking to hit the ball in front of the wickets. It may not be a bad idea for Gambhir to go back to the basics, mark his scoring areas (in front of the stumps) and try to be around till the seventh over; he’s too good a player to not make up for lost time later.

For the last one year, [Sehwag’s] consistency has dropped alarmingly. This can happen to players who back their eye and quick hands to work the ball away without using their feet. The moment the eyes lose a bit of sharpness or the hands slow down a fraction, the movements go out of sync

The same is the case with Virender Sehwag, who’s also playing a shot-a-ball right from the beginning. There was a time, about three to four years ago, when he could do it successfully, innings after innings. But for the last one year, that consistency has dropped alarmingly. This can happen to players who back their eye and quick hands to work the ball away without using their feet. The moment the eyes lose a bit of sharpness or the hands slow down a fraction, the movements go out of sync. Sehwag’s prolonged below-par performances should encourage him to discover a new method of operating.Just like Gambhir, it may not be a bad idea for Sehwag to cut down on high-risk shots for the first few overs and, more importantly, he must also try to make it count when he gets in. Chris Gayle does it very well in T20. He bides his time initially, and more than makes up for it once he gets set. Sehwag also has the potential to do the same, provided he allows himself a quiet start. All good batsmen, at some stage of their career, need to rethink and rediscover their modus operandi. Since India is in the middle of a transitional phase, it’s imperative that Sehwag delivers.However, it’s a lot easier said than done, for unlike 50-overs cricket, the paucity of time in T20 cricket doesn’t give you the luxury of finding form by biding your time. You must look for other ways of achieving the same goal. But if India are to make a real attempt at reclaiming the trophy they lifted in 2007, both openers need to start firing more often, or Dhoni must find an opening combination that does.

England will probably need to bat four sessions to secure a series win but their cause has not been helped by Tim Bresnan’s continued poor form

George Dobell in Nagpur15-Dec-2012Although England fought back in the final hour in Nagpur to take four India wickets and regain some control of a Test they need only draw to ensure a series win, their bowling attack, not for the first time recently, appeared to be a man short during the 198-run association between MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.Tim Bresnan, England’s second seamer, endured a chastening day. Perhaps it is harsh to judge a man by his performance on such a track – this remains a desperately poor Test wicket – but it was hard to avoid the conclusion that Bresnan no longer looks like an effective performer at this level. It was not just that he lacked pace – that is not a huge issue on this surface – but that he drifted on to the batsmen’s legs or pitched short noticeably more often than any of his colleagues.Thirteen months ago, Bresnan looked to be at the start of a long international career after producing valuable performances in the Ashes and against India. England won the first 13 Tests in which he played and, at that stage, he possessed a Test bowling average of 25.46 and a Test batting average of 40.22.But an an elbow injury necessitated surgery in December 2011 and, despite his best efforts, he has been unable to recover that bit of nip that made him such a valuable member of the side. Since his return he averages 55.43 with the ball and, since the start of the series with South Africa, that rises to an eye-watering 210 runs per wicket. Perhaps due to diminishing confidence, his batting has also fallen away and, in 2012, he is averaging just 17.14.It is hard to understand what he did between Ahmedabad and Nagpur that justified his recall. While Steven Finn and Stuart Broad are absent with injuries, Graham Onions, in particular, must wonder why he was brought on the tour. There were also other options with the England Performance Programme – Stuart Meaker, in particular – who could easily have been called up. There is a great deal of affection and respect towards Bresnan in the England camp but it is becoming hard to ignore his dip in form.Bresnan may still have a role to play with the bat in this game. While India did not start the day in a great position, Virat Kohli and MS Dohni played the hand they were dealt perfectly. The fact that both demonstrated the discipline to reign in their natural, aggressive game was testament to their dedication and maturity and while Dhoni may be disappointed not to reach his century, his sadness should be more than assuaged by the knowledge that he has revived his side’s chances of squaring the series.If England do hold on, or even win, it may prove once again that their superior fitness and fielding made the difference. Alastair Cook’s direct hit to run-out Dhoni was another example of the difference between the sides: England have now conjured three crucial run-outs in India’s last three innings.Ultimately England will probably have to bat for four sessions to ensure they win the series. It should not prove beyond them on this pitch. But it should not have proved beyond them to save the Test at The Oval on a flat track or win the Test at Abu Dhabi when chasing a small total. Remember the wobble in Kolkata, too.One thing is certain, though: when they set off for this tour almost two months ago, they would have jumped at the chance to bat four sessions to win the series. They are in sight of the summit, but have one last, tough climb ahead.

The question facing South Africa ahead of the Gabba Test is whether they play six or seven specialist batsmen. Jacques Rudolph will be under pressure, with Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy as competition

Firdose Moonda in Brisbane07-Nov-2012Two days before the start of the first Test, the Gabba pitch is a strip of green. Its characteristic and colour could be toned down in the 48 hours before the Test starts but it should still be the scene of first-hour fireworks, if not first-day sparks. The batsmen will have as important a role to play as the pacemen and that’s the way Jacques Kallis sees it. “Both bowling attacks are up there with the best in the world and it could end up being a tough battle for the batters,” he said. “The side that doesn’t crumble against the pressure will be set up well.”With South Africa’s extended seven-man line-up, they may seem the side better equipped to put up that wall but Ricky Ponting was hardly convinced. “I don’t see their batting line-up being much stronger than India’s was last year.”Considering that India lost the series 4-0, scoring 400 just once and passing 250 on only two other occasions, Ponting was obviously taking a dig. Add to that that India were dismissed for less than 200 four times and he may have been just plain insulting. Of course, he could have simply been referring to the fact that India, like South Africa, also had a seven-strong batting line-up (save for the fourth Test when MS Dhoni had to sit out) and most of them consistently failed.Ponting’s opinion may offend South Africa, but it stings of some sort of truth – their obvious weak link. Jacques Rudolph at No.6 has not performed to the standard of the rest of the line-up and it is understood that he has been told his pressure to keep his place is not far away.Since his Test comeback a year ago, Rudolph has scored three half-centuries and a hundred in 16 innings, which does not make it sound like his head is on the block. The circumstances, more than statistics, will explain. Rudolph went seven innings before he reached a milestone and his approach had gone from fairly sedate to overly and unnecessarily attacking in that time. His unbeaten 51 came against Sri Lanka in Cape Town, after Alviro Petersen and Jacques Kallis had both scored hundreds and while AB de Villiers was going berserk at the other end.In other words, those runs came in stress-free fashion and not when the team was in trouble. The only time Rudolph has produced in that situation was when he came in with South Africa at 90 for 4 in Dunedin in March and ground out 52 in tough conditions. His century in the second innings was also once a platform had been set by twin hundreds from higher up. At Headingley, he made 69 as an opener but had the settled Graeme Smith on the other side.With his mettle proving pliable when the heat is turned up, Rudolph’s place is in question on two fronts. Either South Africa will look to go back to a more traditional six man line-up and play the specialist wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile to relieve the burden on AB de Villiers’ back, or they will persist with the seven-man approach. Whichever way they go, Rudolph will be first in the firing line.JP Duminy, who currently bats at No.7, has admitted that he will “get more opportunity,” if he is able to bat one place higher and seems deserving of the spot. Duminy, unlike Rudolph, has taken the chances he has been presented with. In Wellington, when he was included because Kallis had a stiff neck, he scored a hundred and he made an important 61 at Lord’s in August.Should they drop a batsman for de Villiers’ sake, it is likely Duminy will replace Rudolph. If they continue to operate with seven though, there is someone else knocking on the door. Faf du Plessis is part of the Test squad, played in the warm-up match at the SCG and has enjoyed resurgence in his first-class game.When du Plessis moved up the order for the Titans from No.7 to No.5 last season, he scored 599 runs in four matches and showed a penchant for spending time at the crease. His overall first-class average is 38.30, which may not see him as an automatic pick in a Test team but Rudolph’s average since his comeback has been 37.14. There’s little to choose between the two apart from temperament and technique and Rudolph can be certain his will be tested fully in Australia.”Short balls are an area that we think we can really attack them,” Ponting said. Rudolph was one of the batsmen the England attack also targeted with bouncers and on occasion, he succumbed. Kallis was not overly concerned by that. “The nature of Australian wickets with pace and bounce mean that the short ball will be used but invariably it’s balls in good areas that tend to get batters out,” he said.That can only mean a thorough examination of anyone who walks to the crease with willow in hand will be conducted over this series and the Gabba’s surface – green or not – will be a good place to start.

Harnessing the interest of the UK’s population of enthusiastic expats from the Indian subcontinent is going to be important to the future of the English game

David Hopps05-Feb-2013In the afterglow of the London Olympics, Sport England’s funding allocation for the next four years was always going to be a tough one for cricket. The emphasis was on Olympic medals, legacies, and the importance of minority sports, which were suddenly held to be a vital part of the nation’s fabric.That the ECB emerged with some relief, with a reduced grant of £20m – and with a further £7.5m awarded to the Chance to Shine initiative to promote cricket in State schools – owed much to the board’s strengthened commitment to engage with South Asian cricketing communities. Easy to say, difficult to make a real and lasting impact.That both professional and recreational cricket is becoming more multi-racial is undeniable. Integration is happening. But progress has been patchy, slowed variously by old-school league officials or clubs with little appetite for change, and by the itinerant nature of many cricketers with Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan antecedents, many of whom still play ad-hoc cricket in Sunday park leagues, where facilities are poor and pitches are rarely of a quality for players to progress.Sport England’s Director of Sport, Phil Smith, outlined the challenge when he told ESPNcricinfo: “Participation in cricket has traditionally been very strong within South Asian communities. Over 40% of current regular cricketers in England are non-white, making cricket one of the most diverse sports already.”Some individuals are playing regularly in informal settings or unaffiliated leagues outside the realm of formal cricket structures of the county cricket boards, so the challenge for the ECB is to bring this community into the mainstream of the game.”The ECB has worked in the past with the traditional club sector, queasily aware that a vibrant yet informal Asian catchment was largely passing them by. Nick Marriner, policy and research manager at the ECB, said: “There’s a massive untapped demand for more participation amongst the South Asian community. We know a lot of South Asians play cricket outside the traditional affiliated club network. Previously we’ve not really engaged in that way.”The solution is both imaginative and unproven. With the help of the Club Cricket Conference, the ECB will focus on five “target cities”: London, Birmingham, Leicester, Leeds and Bradford, where research has shown there is most potential for progress.Paul Bedford, head of non-first-class cricket at the ECB, said: “There was the highest level of latent demand for playing cricket in the South Asian community than in any other group. In a high proportion of cases, we weren’t as close to [tapping that demand] as we should have been. We have also identified the cities where people wanted to play cricket more than anywhere else.”The Club Cricket Conference is little known outside the Home Counties, but a programme of fixtures and tours against Affiliate and Associate nations has recently shown it has an appetite for regaining its influence of half a century ago, when it would produce representative sides to face touring teams.Two years from its centenary, the Club Cricket Conference has the chance to re-establish itself as a driving force in England’s club network. It has been asked to act as a catalyst to persuade South Asian park cricket to become more mainstream and to awaken the county boards, run largely by well-meaning elderly white middle-class men, to the untapped potential on their doorstep.The county boards responsible for the five cities chosen have until October 1 to prove themselves fit for investment. Good things are happening in Leicester already, according to Bedford, and they need to be, because, strikingly, the Leicestershire Premier League does not include one club from the city itself.

The task is to win over hearts and minds, to find community leaders who can instil the right virtues, and to prove to the traditional clubs and the tens of thousands of informal South Asian cricketers that the pace of integration will be quickened

Land in Birmingham has been identified that can be developed, but Yorkshire’s passive approach at amateur level has yet to show the foresight of the county club itself, which in the past 15 years has made giant strides in terms of minority ethnic communities. Announcing that you are from the ECB in Yorkshire league circles is not always a passport to popularity; heaven knows what they will make of the Club Cricket Conference.The task is to win over hearts and minds, to find community leaders who can instil the right virtues, and to prove to the traditional clubs and the tens of thousands of informal South Asian cricketers that the pace of integration will be quickened. For a body with only a handful of full-time paid employees, it is an onerous task.Gulfraz Riaz, the conference’s development manager, says eight leagues representing 2300 cricketers have been persuaded to affiliate in the past eight months. “We are not saying it is a takeover,” he said. “We are saying there are certain guidelines that must be followed for the good of cricket.”Representatives of communities need to understand their responsibilities. There is the need for a player pathway, there are welfare issues, there is the need for child protection and first-aid training, there are constitutional issues, insurance, community cohesion, player registration, coaching opportunities. That is where the conference, under the umbrella of the ECB, can provide guidance.”The conference is most recognised these days as a fixture bureau, helping clubs arrange friendly games outside the normal league structure. It can also offer representative cricket for men and women against county 2nd X1s and a developmental U-21 side, and is building links with university cricket, all of which offers opportunities for the best players from park leagues who are willing to embrace a more integrated future.The Rev David Sheppard arrives at the Club Cricket Conference to lead an MCC side, in 1962. The conference is key to the ECB’s plans for British-Asian cricket in recent times•Edward Miller/Keystone/Getty ImagesThe next task is simple but potentially hugely beneficial. They plan to develop an online ground-sharing scheme in which traditional clubs, which tend to play league cricket on a Saturday, will hire out their grounds on a Sunday to South Asian cricketers seeking better facilities either because council upkeep of their squares has deteriorated, because their grounds have been closed, or simply because the thriving parks cricket scene is simply outgrowing the facilities available. Ground shares are already happening, but the possibilities are much greater. Ground shares are the first stage to a sense of belonging and, for the best players, a pathway to a first professional contract.”Asian guys will be able to play on better grounds, traditional clubs will get a bit of revenue, and equally importantly, we will encourage integration,” Riaz said. “Some players will say, ‘We would like to be part of this club and still have our own identity on a Sunday.'”We see traditional English clubs struggling financially and we have these thriving cricket communities looking to better themselves. Ground shares can be the first stage in closer relationships. Once you get junior members from an Asian background involved in traditional clubs then change quickens. Parents want to sit on the committee. They say, ‘I might not drink alcohol but I can help organise a barbeque with halal food, I can support fund-raising events.’ The knock-on effects are potentially huge.”My club in Watford has about 20% Asian membership. At the time of the Pakistan floods we raised £4000 in an afternoon of cricket, food, auctions and raffles and collected donations of 150 bags of clothes. Times are changing and we are working together. The sense of a cricketing family is absolutely vital. It is about the right people from the right communities saying the right things at the right time.”Riaz accepts the argument that many South Asian cricketers have been too itinerant for their own good. “Players do tend to join and leave clubs in fours and fives. That’s disruptive and that’s a fact,” he said. “Our brief is to achieve sustained integration, which will provide a pathway for park cricketers and will help to sustain traditional English clubs. In some places the mindset hasn’t changed from 30 years ago. In wanting to be recognised, sometimes you have to meet halfway.”Tomorrow in our series on engaging with South Asian communities in England: Tim Wigmore’s profile of Shiv Thakor, the exciting young Leicestershire allrounder and England U-19 captain

From Michael Sheppard, Australia
Since the retirements of Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill and Brad Hogg, the search for the next Australian spinner has continued with little success

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013Michael Sheppard, Australia
Since the retirements of Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill and Brad Hogg, the search for the next Australian spinner has continued with little success. Cricket Australia are aware of the issue; indeed, they have recently appointed Shane Warne in a consultative role to discuss the art of spin bowling with the captains of the Australian States and to mentor young spin bowlers. It is far too early to pass any judgment on what this role will actually achieve, but it is clear that Cricket Australia are attempting to be productive.This is evident in the fact that Daniel Cullen, Cullen Bailey, Daniel Doran, Beau Casson, Cameron white, Steven Smith, Stephen O’Keefe, Jon Holland and Aaron Heal have been invited to the Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence, which is run by Cricket Australia and the Australian institute of Sport, in the hope that one or more of the invitees would go back to their states with the armoury capable of allowing them to succeed. The Australian selectors briefly considered Daniel Cullen and Cullen Bailey sufficiently promising to confer upon them Cricket Australia contracts and, in more recent times, they have given Beau Casson and Cameron White contracts. The unavoidable truth for most of the above players is that after attending the Centre of Excellence (which they were selected to attend on their promise or on their merits as spin bowlers), they have all regressed.In Daniel Cullen’s first year, he spun the ball prodigiously and was not afraid to use his variations. He took an amazing swag of wickets and was talked of as the next test spinner for Australia after MacGill and Warne. Cullen Bailey aggressively flighted the ball and attacked – looking always for wickets. After receiving their respective contracts and attending the Centre of Excellence, however, the two Cullen (s) lost their way. Cullen Bailey was reduced to bowling in a net, with a rope tied half way down from one side to the other, so he could find the flight that had deserted him. Same too Daniel Doran, who leapt on to the first class scene, spinning the ball and claiming wickets like his hero, Shane Warne. After attending the Centre of Excellence and enduring the ignorance of Jimmy Maher (his Queensland captain), he also faded in the reckoning. Although Beau Casson has now been picked for Australia, performing adequately in the West Indies, his career stalled terribly after attending the academy. He was unable to gain a place in the New South Wales side and was forced to change his action.In Ashley Mallett’s excellent biography of Clarrie Grimmett, the wizardly leg spinner that played for Australian in the 1920’s and 1930’s, he describes how important Grimmett and his bowling partner, the fiery Bill ‘Tiger’ O’reilly, considered developing one’s own style of bowling. The commentator Kerry O’Keeffe tells of the time he saw Cameron White play cricket as a teenager and being able to spin the ball the way in which he wanted – a skill which O’keeffe believes is less evident for Cameron White in present time. The question is, therefore, are the coaches tinkering excessively with the techniques of the young spinners entrusted into their care? Is this the reason Australia fails to produce bowlers like Muttiah Muralitharan or Ajantha Mendis, great bowlers but who possess a curious technique? Would Clarrie Grimmett be instructed not to keep his arm so low, or tiger O’Reilly told not to bowl so fast if they were beginning to spin today? I hope not, but I have my doubts.

Praveen Kumar’s suspension for failing to control his anger points to the need for more man-management and counselling in the Indian set-up

Amol Karhadkar27-Feb-2013Uttar Pradesh competed in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy without their two , both of whom, nevertheless, have grabbed headlines. Bhuvneshwar made his Test debut in Chennai, and Praveen was suspended for a serious code of conduct breach in a Corporate Trophy game earlier this month.It was the latest, and most serious, transgression for Praveen, who has had disciplinary issues both on and off the field through his career, like the alleged street fight with a doctor in Meerut in 2008 or a spat with spectators in Port of Spain during India’s tour to the West Indies in 2011. But, match referee Dhananjay Singh’s report, which stated that Praveen was “not in a mental state” to play the game, is probably the strongest official indictment against the player.Predictably, it has led to sharply divided opinion, and raised question marks over the handling – especially within the BCCI’s set-up – of a fairly volatile character. “Had he been mentally unfit to play, how could he have given such consistent performances for UP and for India for all these years?” asked Gyanendra Pandey, who was the Uttar Pradesh coach for five years before handing over charge to Venkatesh Prasad. “PK is short-tempered and in your face, so sometimes his actions are misinterpreted by those who don’t really know him.”Praveen’s case is best seen in context. After being dropped from the Indian team, he suffered a recurrence of his tennis elbow in UP’s Ranji Trophy opener against Delhi. With the IPL round the corner, Praveen possibly saw the Corporate Trophy, his first competitive outing for almost three months, as his best chance to return to national reckoning – and that could have led to his crossing the line.Prasad, who worked with Praveen during the former bowler’s stint as the India and the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling coach and billed him as a perfect team man, put his finger on the problem and a possible solution. “Everyone has their own emotional boundary and his may be different. He is a great competitor who speaks his mind, to coach, captain, anyone, and if you are able to take it in the right sense, it can be of benefit to the team. Handle him as a friend and you’ve won half the battle. He’ll do anything for you on the field. On the other hand, it is very easy to needle him.”Yet one UP teammate, requesting anonymity, said many were not really comfortable with him these days. “Most of the players in the dressing room are hesitant to approach him. They are not sure how he will react.”Paddy Upton, who worked as a mental conditioning expert of the Indian team for three years along with coach Gary Kirsten, said there were “many fiery individuals” in the sport who, if “well-managed”, could be “world beaters and seldom be problematic.”The consensus is that players like Praveen, with anger management issues, need to undergo a counselling program. That’s a touchy subject in a country that looks down on mental conditioning almost as a kind of weakness.

Handle him as a friend and you’ve won half the battle. He’ll do anything for you on the field. On the other hand, it is very easy to needle himVenkatesh Prasad

In fact, the BCCI has, at its National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, been conducting for the past few years a mental conditioning program for all junior cricketers based on a module by Sandy Gordon, the psychologist who worked with the Indian team in their 2003 World Cup campaign. It’s fairly intensive, including four to five sessions on motivation, goal setting and anger management and one-on-one sessions, too, where necessary. It was used by members of India’s victorious 2012 Under-19 World Cup campaign and has been used on occasion by younger players, incuding Manoj Tiwary, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suresh Raina and Ajinkya Rahane.For players like Praveen, though, the program possibly came too late, and has not been made mandatory by the BCCI. Till now, the Board hasn’t summoned Praveen to go through counselling or mental rehabilitation at the NCA. While a plethora of physiotherapists and physical trainers have been employed to look after the top cricketers’ physical fitness, their mental framework seems to have been ignored.Sports psychologist Dr Chaitanya Sridhar, who spoke to Australian and Indian players while researching a doctoral thesis on “emotional labour in professional cricket”, advocates close and detailed interaction with such players. “A fine or a sentence – is it a lesson? Has he understood the fine print? Has it told him that he needs to look into himself? Someone needs to show him a mirror.” Such players, she says, have a lot of energy that needs to be tapped into and channelised, else in the long run their behaviour will see them lose out on maximising their potential.”They need someone they respect talking to them… It is all about self-awareness, and this insight of figuring what works and what doesn’t may do wonders to him. In PK’s case, this part of his personality needs just a little tweaking because if you don’t do that you lose a lot of potential players and performers.”It’s the sort of care that New Zealand batsman Jesse Ryder, who suffers from drink and anger management issues, has received. He played the IPL in India last year while travelling with his clinical psychologist Karen Nimmo.Upton suggests that coaches and captains should be trained in man-management. He said that similar to the corporate sector, “players benefit most when they are having quality leadership. I believe the greatest benefit to players is if coaches and captains have regular good quality leadership support.”India’s cricketers occupy a unique space in the social structure, where to acknowledge any sort of physical ailment, leave alone mental, is a sign of weakness and puts one’s financial security at risk. This, say those who have dealt with cricketers, leads them into denial mode – and this is where a man-manager comes into play. With the BCCI treating the team manager’s post as a major vote bank handout rather than appointing a professional, it is imperative for either of the captain and the coach, if not both, to be an exceptional communicator and motivator.

It appears that Pietersen appears poised to lose his battle against authority, and English cricket will have driven away another talent while the men in authority continue in their unrepentant ways

Girish Menon25-Feb-2013Kevin Pietersen’s latest comments, immediately after producing a super human performance in the Headingley Test against South Africa, is a cry for help against the faceless managers of the ECB, who appear hell bent on driving this flamboyant superstar away from English cricket. It appears that Pietersen, like so many illustrious sportsmen before him, appears poised to lose his battle against authority, and English cricket will have driven away another talent while the men in authority continue in their unrepentant ways.This is a problem not peculiar to team sport and can be found in other areas of endeavour where functional specialists are considered mere commodities and are divorced from managerial decision making. This trend is definitely dominant in the National Health Service and in the education sector, where managers schooled on efficiency ideas interfere in the daily work of trained doctors and teachers.So why does this problem arise? In this writer’s view, the Pietersen problem has arisen because of the ECB’s irrational and obsessive pursuit of standardisation of player contracts. Why can’t the ECB offer a tailor-made contract to an England player who demands one? Pietersen today is a global brand that definitely deserves a separate contract and should be treated differently from say a Strauss or a Cook. It is high time the ECB recognised Pietersen as another Tendulkar and dealt with him the way the BCCI has done with the Indian maestro.There is also a bit of the Little Englander culture affecting the treatment of Pietersen. Unlike the melting-pot culture in the US, the English media and selectors have reluctantly admitted but never truly accepted the ‘outsider’. In an article on this site, Rob Steen talked about the unique pressures Mark Ramprakash, a player who did not live up to his potential, faced in the England dressing room. The same pressures may have also adversely hounded the performance of Hick, Panesar and Bopara.Those who refute my Little Englander argument will readily point to the achievements of Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis. Fortunately for these athletes they excelled in sporting areas where individual endeavour was all important and so they were cocooned from the team pressures faced by ‘outsider’ cricketers like Ramps.Pietersen’s experience as team captain is an excellent example of a man who was not given a fair chance at the helm of the team. Pietersen’s personality may be brash, cocky and arrogant, but he is an exciting batsman who draws in the crowds. Also, as a batsman, he realises that he is only three quick dismissals away from being ousted from the team. So he needs to make the maximum amount of money to help him lead the rest of his long life.So I do not grudge him his mercenary attitude, instead I demand that the mandarins in the ECB should offer him an individual, tailor-made contract. He is a pleasure in full flow in a team that has to otherwise rely on Matt Prior to score quick runs. So power to you Pietersen!

They will find it easier to get the best out of the big Indian contingents in the IPL squads, and form a stronger connect with the crowds

Krish Sripada, India09-May-2013There is a reason why IPL is spelt with an ‘I’. The big stars are roped in, the celebrities make an entry and the cheerleaders try their best to drag our attention away from the action. At its core though, it still is a platform to let local players mingle with the big stars from other countries. India’s international commitments have made it impossible for their top players to participate in the Ranji Trophy. The IPL ensures that local players get to share the dressing room with their idols – cricketers whose posters have adorned their walls in their formative years. An Indian captain for each IPL franchise would have been the icing on the cake. That hasn’t quite transpired, though.Rajasthan Royals, because of their lack of resources, handed the reins to Shane Warne, a tactical genius, an astute student of the game and a charmer. Soon, Kings XI Punjab followed suit, handing Kumar Sangakkara the baton, a move that perhaps adversely impacted Yuvraj Singh’s returns in the IPL.IPL 2013 has an interesting mix. Chennai, Rajasthan, Kolkata and Bangalore went for Indian captains. Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Punjab went for foreign options. The message was loud and clear from the team owners: local players don’t possess the tactical nous and ability of the foreign players. Interestingly, the Indian captains have outperformed their foreign counterparts. Mumbai Indians turned it around midway with Ricky Ponting dropping himself, allowing Rohit Sharma to take over. Coincidentally, the team has responded with three wins in four games. Delhi, Pune and Punjab are languishing on the wrong side of the table. The results perhaps don’t say much about the abilities of the respective captains, but there are a few points worth delving into.One reason why captaincy is an important consideration is the mix of players – four foreigners and seven Indians per XI. Most squads have a huge Indian contingent, so you’d expect communication channels to work far more smoothly with an Indian at the helm. Given the professional grounding that the foreign players already have, they would find it easier to work with an Indian captain compared to local players having to deal with foreign captains. Players will always respond better to a captain who can pronounce their names perfectly, no offence given or taken.All the teams have huge contingents for man management and planning. In such a scenario, the captain’s job doesn’t really imitate the pressure-cooker situation of international cricket. The IPL is a great opportunity to groom leaders, and a wonderful testing ground of their maturity. Bangalore did that by handing Virat Kohli the captaincy, instead of taking the easier option of going with AB de Villiers. Perhaps, a lesson was learnt when Anil Kumble swung their fortunes around after a disastrous start to the 2009 campaign under Kevin Pietersen. Kohli commands the respect of his team on the strength of his batting and fielding. What he lacks in experience, he makes up in flair and passion. De Villiers and Chris Gayle aren’t too far for a quick word either. Surely in years to come, the heir-apparent to Indian captaincy will ruminate upon the lessons learnt in the IPL.Mumbai took a bold step with Rohit at a crucial juncture and it seems to have paid off. Had Ponting been more successful with the bat, we wouldn’t have seen Rohit in this role. Mumbai have got into a winning run under him, and Rohit’s batting has also blossomed.With Shikhar Dhawan back from injury, perhaps the Sunrisers should’ve considered him as a captain. Neither Cameron White nor Kumar Sangakkara has consistently figured in the playing XI. With Angelo Matthews standing down as Pune captain, it might be a good idea to give Yuvraj another run to see if he can rediscover his batting touch. Of all the teams, Delhi is the only one that probably has no choice, Virender Sehwag being reluctant to lead.The IPL is at an interesting point in its evolution. The third auction will initiate a new round of shuffling, with players changing colours and loyalties. What the IPL has lacked so far is the long-term fan loyalty that is seen in football. Chennai and Mumbai have the most loyal fan following – helped by the fact that they retained more players than any of the other franchises in the first reshuffle. Perhaps there’s a message there for the other franchises.An Indian captain will find it easier to get the best out of the Indian contingent, and will also get the crowds going. Additionally, he will definitely fuel fan loyalty. Even if one wants to be a die-hard fan of the Delhi, for example, it is hard to not support RCB led by a Delhi lad when pitted against Jayawardene’s Daredevils.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line