David Moore was a fairly unknown when he took on the role of West Indies coach, but after an eye-opening tour of England he has big hopes for the future if he gets the job full time

Will Luke in Dublin14-Jul-2007

‘An academy will have a massive influence on the future of West Indies cricket’ © Will Luke
It is arguably the most poisoned of chalices, coaching West Indies. Many have tried, few have succeeded and when David Moore replaced Bennett King after this year’s World Cup, the consensus was “who?” Yet although he has only been in power for a matter of months, the effect he is having on West Indies has already been felt.Moore is an uncomplicated character; straight-talking, passionate about his job and speaks fluently (with a strong Australian twang) about the future. He believes in himself and his players. The notion that he was taking on a role widely perceived as a nightmare, or a thankless task, is utterly alien to him and it is palpably clear that he thrives on getting the most out of his players.”I don’t necessarily think it’s a poisoned chalice,” he told Cricinfo at a drizzly Dublin this week, where West Indies were taking on Scotland. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity. I know the players; I know they’re very good quality players and we’ve just been a bit short of the mark.”Though West Indies turned around their summer, beating England in the one-day series, their decade-long decline has been so stark that the masters of the 1970s and 1980s are still viewed through rose-tinted spectacles. This was Moore’s era – if not as a player (he played once for New South Wales in the 1980s) then a fan – and he witnessed the bulldozing effect West Indies had on the world. They were the top dogs, an accolade now belonging to his native Australia. However, Moore isn’t depressed or weighed down by the hope of reliving the glory days.”It’s very difficult [comparing present to then], yes – but cricket’s very cyclical. I lived through the time where Australia were at the bottom of the table. Look where they are now,” he said. “I remember Australia getting beaten by India, New Zealand – everyone. So I think it’s cyclical but I also think the structure the boards put in place also have an effect.”I think the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are implementing in the right direction, and they’re trying to implement their new cricket academy. I think one of the very important positions that they’re going to advertise for is the head of their academy. That will have a massive influence on the future of West Indies cricket. I know that they’re moving very quickly to try and get that finalised.”

‘Hard work is the key. Hard work, discipline, energy and commitment’ © Will Luke
Academies – the buzz phrase of the last few years – and their impact on Australian cricket has been plain to see. Quite whether the WICB can manage to build one is another matter entirely. Nevertheless, Moore insists they are the way forward.”It gives them good, hard training to practise and to modify skills – and that can have a massive effect on their development,” he said. “With any academy, it underpins focus to that group of players. They’re playing together, living together – living, breathing and eating cricket, 24 hours a day. It’s a very important institution in every cricket-playing nation or team.”A cricket academy would help create consistency because consistency is formed through hard work. Get them together, build their fitness, build their skills, their mental approach…the raw talent is certainly there.”Raw talent or not, Moore will need the full support of his board if his dreams are to become a reality, and he is quick to insist that an academy alone can’t resurrect West Indies’ glory days.”It takes time to understand and relate success to hard work,” he said, “and some of our guys are realising that. Hopefully they’ll maintain that, and their focus. As head coach…I just like players to be able to express themselves as cricketers and in the way they think. But also to make them realise that hard work is the key. Hard work, discipline, energy and commitment. I’m not saying it’s been lacking before I came on board but I think we’ve got those to work on for sure.”And Moore has joined a growing number of people impressed with the impact Chris Gayle has had on the team.”His captaincy has been very good, yes. His relationship with players and [the coaching staff] has also been very good. Chris is a very good judge of cricket: he identifies points that we can be happy about, but he also recognises points that we can work on, so I’ve been very impressed by his ability to read the game and I hope he gets other opportunities in the future.”The impression you get from Moore is that he lives and breathes West Indies cricket and that he too would welcome further opportunity. He is still not full-time, but clearly the chalice isn’t so much poisoned as precious and promising.

Virender Sehwag has ensured that India haven’t felt the absence of a second specialist spinner so far in the St Lucia Test

On the Ball with S Rajesh12-Jun-2006When India went in the match with only one spinner and the pitch showed signs of taking turn, it was thought that Harbhajan Singh would be missed. So far at least, that has hardly been the case, thanks to Virender Sehwag, who followed his spanking 180 with an exhibition of offspin bowling that would have done Harbhajan proud. Not only did Sehwag manage plenty of drift and turn, he also maintained excellent control over line and length, as figures of 3 for 33 from 16.1 overs testify.The graphic below shows that he bowled an impeccable length, as good as what Anil Kumble managed. Seventy-six of his 97 deliveries landed on a good length – that’s 78%. For Kumble, the corresponding figure was 76%. Sehwag also induced false strokes from the batsmen 22% of the time, slightly more than Kumble’s 18%. So far in this series, Sehwag has taken seven wickets at an average of 14.85, easily the best among all bowlers in this series. Add that to a series aggregate of 257 runs – the highest among batsmen from both teams – and it’s clear that he’s the early frontrunner for the Man-of-the-Series award.

Osman Samiuddin speaks to Pakistan’s new fielding coach, David Dwyer, and his plans for the side

Osman Samiuddin09-Oct-2007

“The team has been hugely responsive,” says Pakistan’s fitness trainer David Dwyer © Getty Images
How did cricket happen?I worked in the University of New South Wales looking after their high performance sports section. Geoff Lawson was there through his affiliation with playing for the cricket club. He was also working at NSW cricket and the university’s cricket club asked me to come do their fitness in the off-season. Then Geoff came along a couple ofmonths ago. I had worked with the university’s cricketers and one of theirmajor students or players was Michael Slater, so I had some experience ofworking with cricketers at various levels.How different is the approach to fitness in rugby and cricket?There is a difference and there isn’t. That doesn’t sound soclear but it depends on the level of athlete you have, how much of anatural athlete a player is. Take the Australian cricket team. If you wereto walk in with them, you wouldn’t have to do the same thing as I have todo with Pakistan. The Australians continue to have this emphasis onfitness.Pakistan also has had it, but having done the testing for them, there area lot of areas where we could improve. All I’m doing is defining whatmovement and motions are required and used. You programme exercises specificto the individual and their roles.How has the team responded? There’s a perception that they’re notparticularly fit. When Bob Woolmer arrived, he thought they were the worstteam fitness-wise he had seen.I sort of leant towards Bob’s sentiments only because I’ve comefrom another country and a sport. But the team has been hugely responsive.When we arrived we said there is no longer any excuse why we’re not No. 1.We have a white towel with ‘No Excuses’ written on it. The first person togive up, we put their name on it so they’ve thrown the towel in. Itdoesn’t matter if it’s someone who has played 200 Tests or less. We’re allworking towards the same goal and can’t have any link willing to give up.They’re very much willing to accept that. We’ve created a large squad of 16-17 guys, so the non-players are doing double sessions every day: fitness and strength or fitness and speed We’ve got a long way to go but the best thing was at the end of the firstday at Karachi when we were stretching down. One player came up and said,after 90 overs, he continued to run to the wicket, run to the stumps andwhile stretching felt the freshest he had felt. After a full day in thatheat: that person is in a crouching position all the time and has to runto the stumps. He’s on every ball.Pakistan looked more intense at the Twenty20, especially in the field.We trained every day. There were travel days but the format, you only havethree hours. Of that, if you’re a fielder, 90 minutes is spent on thefield and yes there might be intense periods. But we used to go to the gymstraight after every day.Test cricket is different altogether. What changes here?It’s a big challenge, but the players are extremely open to it.They’re young, up for it, open to new thoughts, ideas. Over five days wewanted each of them to do two weight sessions if you are in the playing XIand if there’s a possibility then a third.We’ve created a large squad of 16-17 guys, so the non-players aredoing double sessions every day: fitness and strength or fitness andspeed.How do you plan to keep them fit during the off-season?If it was up to me, and it will be, I am going to flog them. Wehave people at the academy and the idea that I wanted is that regionalacademy guys also assess them. The guys will report to me and as part oftheir testing we have set them targets. Players will come, do fitnesstesting and they’ve got to achieve those targets. Anyone who doesn’t, itwill affect them. Targets will be set between myself, the coach and theplayer so that they are reasonable, fair and something they are willing towork towards. Once in place, I’ll keep feeding them programmes for the time they’re away from international cricket.

Geoff Lawson had a hand in bringing Dwyer over © Getty Images
Pakistan have suffered a lot from injuries recently. Is it badmanagement or is it to an extent unavoidable?A bit of both. It’s hard for me to comment on what happenedbefore but there are unique stresses placed on the body here, likebaseball, with a lot of twisting and power through the spine. We’re moreadvanced about knowledge of the body and the stresses placed on it. We’veplaced a huge amount of time on the recovery aspect. We’ve got some newsport leggings from Australia and this helps to try and repair the body,providing more oxygen to the muscles to help them repair. The guys arefinding that so much better than anything they have had.Diet is important too and you work around factors like Ramadan whereplayers fast. But they are becoming stronger. We could maybe use arotational system. In rugby the players’ association has a policy whereplayers are only allowed to play 30 games a year to avoid burn-out. If wecan build the perfect squad we can choose, just like Australia, from readyback-ups. McGrath goes and Mitchell Johnson comes: think about theinjuries they have had in the past. I can’t remember many.Was it a difficult decision to come here?</bI had to think a little. My family all live in Australia and Ihad just bought a house and settled in. Ultimately it wasn't a harddecision because it was an opportunity to step out of my comfort zone asfar as rugby was concerned and into something that is not my top sport. Ispoke to Geoff about it a couple of times, researched the team. You've gotto push away all the padding in the media sometimes and look deeper.And you see the incredible fast bowlers they have. Pakistan had a hugechange of fortune in the last year. My hope before I came was to see a newattitude. We were starting from the bottom, we lost to Ireland. We'rereally hoping to build these guys block by block. We have the right coach,staff, captain and players. The Twenty20 result was justification.How has the communication been?I worked in Japan last year so I know what the troubles are. Itmakes you a better coach. You really have to be able to explain yourselfclearly and make sure, step by step, you go right to the basics and takethem through it. The guys are pretty good at English but my Urdu I have toapologise for unfortunately.

How has the IPL been received outside India?

Cricinfo staff01-Jun-2008

The telecast times have helped in places like Bangladesh. Not so in Australia © AFP

Pakistan

The reaction to the IPL has been massive, as it was for the ICL, which suggests the format more than anything is one Pakistanis love. The tournament has been followed by just about everyone who has even a fleeting interest in cricket and has actually attracted many more who wouldn’t normally watch the game (my sister and mother, for example). The fact that Bollywood is involved – and Bollywood is massive in Pakistan – has helped. Shah Rukh Khan’s team has been popular, and not only because it has four Pakistanis playing for it.The matches have been telecast on cable TV (GEO Super) and so rural audiences have probably missed out, but urban Pakistan, where cable penetration is high, has been able to watch. Viewership, from what GEO says – and certainly from the ad rates –
has been big. GEO has managed mostly to prevent cable operators from beaming other channels that are not legally aired in Pakistan and which may be telecasting the tournament, such as SuperSport or Sony. GEO also has a dedicated weekly show for the league called , hosted by a hottie and featuring one cricket guest and one celeb.All the big newspapers have given matches coverage. Two newspapers, and , have actually sent a correspondent but all the rest, including and have had substantial coverage.The performances of Pakistani players have been followed, though as a team the Lahore Badshahs in the ICL generated greater interest. Mostly, the performances have been lamented, the general feeling being that the true value of Pakistani players internationally has been revealed in the IPL. But Sohail Tanvir has brought much-needed cheer with his bowling, and Shoaib Akhtar as much cheer as ridicule. Osman Samiuddin

Australia

In Australia the IPL is a yawn. It is telecast on free-to-air television, but for those watching it involves sleepless nights as in most places the weekday game begins near midnight. For the traditional cricket fan, or those more interested in the winter football codes, it’s now a big-hitting bore.During the first two weeks there was interest in how the A-list Australians were going, but once they left, Shane Warne has been the only player who can earn more than a couple of paragraphs in the papers. And it’s hard to remember if anyone from another country has been mentioned since Brendon McCullum’s opening. In the past week many people have asked if the tournament is still going.Conveniently for Channel 10, the free-to-air broadcaster, the games are staged out of ratings times, so the only judgment on how many people are watching is that the IPL is winning its time slot. Peter English

New Zealand

A quick recent vox pop survey at an Auckland club cricket season-end function showed little knowledge of the results, or details of scores of matches in the IPL. Pay-as-you-go Sky TV has carried occasional highlights packages in the 7-10 am watching hours – not highly popular times during a workaday week. There was also competition from the Stanton tournament highlights from West Indies. In comparison, the ICL got no coverage at all.Brendon McCullum’s amazing opening-day century did get some mileage, but the various Twenty20 circuses were overshadowed by the ups and downs of the New Zealand team in England as they drew the first Test they might have lost. By the time New Zealand lost the Test they should have won easily, the one at Old Trafford, the long-suffering public turned most of their attention to the final stages of the Super 14 rugby tournament. Don Cameron

West Indies

The IPL has all but done in Test cricket for certain sections of West Indian fans. Test cricket has lost much of its lustre on account of the West Indies team dawdling in a slump for more than 15 years, and Twenty20, by contrast, has been captivating, what with the Stanford tournament and the recent WIPA excitement hanging in the air.

	Big cities, everyone has heard their names. But Rajasthan Royals? And King’s XI? Some people even wrote to newspapers and telephoned radio stations to protest the lack of a city called Deccan

In the West Indies, live Test cricket is not available on television unless it involves the home team, and with recent series shortened, there is no sustained interest anymore. Cable television offers the chance to watch games in the rest of the world, but mainly if the regional sports channel, SportsMax, airs them.The IPL matches have been broadcast on one of the free-to-air channels in Trinidad and Tobago – but only the matches on weekends. For those with cable coverage, more games can be had, though. Radio and newspaper coverage has been regular, but fairly superficial, relying mainly on paragraphs lifted from online reports.The interest was fairly high when West Indies players such as Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle were playing, but now that they are back home for the Australia series, it has tapered off.People generally seem to like it, but it has not provoked the angst and passion that Tests do – which is probably the best thing in its favour: at least there is more joy than pain in this arena for West Indies. Vaneisa Baksh

Bangladesh

If the IPL’s organisers were expecting their billion-dollar enterprise to have an immediate impact worldwide, they should be encouraged by the results. In Bangladesh, viewership figures would definitely have been a great deal higher if there was a reasonable Tigers presence in the tournament, but with only Abdur Razzak getting a contract that hasn’t been the case. Nevertheless, cricket fans have watched in numbers, and speculated about how the likes of Mohammad Ashraful and Tamim Iqbal would have fit in.The telecast has been available on normal cable channels, and the timings have made a positive difference: the late-evening starts have allowed people plenty of time to get back from work before tuning in. There has also been considerable coverage in the local print and electronic media, and live updates have been available via sms.The event has caught the popular imagination, with cricket buffs, college and university students organising their very own “PL”s. Still, it is too early to predict whether the IPL will have a serous lasting impression here or just be a fun-filled annual picnic. Rabeed Imam

Zimbabwe

The IPL has received minimal interest in a country reeling under economic and political crisis. The average cricket fan in Zimbabwe does not know about the existence of IPL, and even if he did, the late-afternoon telecast times make it tough for him to tune in, as he is still at work then.Given the mediocrity of its programming, it would be folly for anyone to expect the country’s only television station, the state-controlled ZBC, to beam the IPL. The few Zimbabweans who can afford the Wiztech decoder enjoy a highlights package of the games, but not full coverage. Those with access to Supersport, Zimbabwe’s privileged class, however, speak highly of the IPL, saying it provides a refreshing alternative to the 50-over game, which is slowly becoming stale.

Big in Pakistan: the Kolkata team has been a draw across the border because of Shah Rukh Khan’s involvement © AFP

As for the print media, it has virtually ignored the tournament, despite the participation of Zimbabwe’s own Tatenda Taibu. The inclusion of Taibu ahead of in-form players such as Elton Chigumbura and Keith Dabengwa has been questioned as well, by the likes of local cricket commentator Dean du Plessis. “Because we are a small nation, people don’t look at facts – they just pick the guy whose name fits,” du Plessis said. “A good example is Andy Flower, who was selected for a World XI in 2000 alongside Neil Johnson. Johnson got in because his ODI record was good. They picked Andy because his name was Andrew Flower and he had a Test average of just under 50. Surely Zimbabwe’s best ODI batsman then was Murray Goodwin. Nobody did any research. They just said, “Zimbabwe? Ah, Andy Flower, pick him!” Steven Price

South Africa

South Africans – at least those who have the means to subscribe to the satellite supply offered by Supersport – enjoy more live sports television coverage than almost any other nation on earth. More Premiership football games than anywhere else, the golf majors, tennis majors, and everything else, from triathlon to hockey and underwater basket-weaving – if it exists. And every IPL game.Consequently, sports watching is an addiction that afflicts many who cough up the £30 monthly fee, and the IPL has attracted healthy viewership. But unlike Premiership soccer, or anything else for that matter, the IPL has been a peripheral sport in most homes, not actively watched but merely glanced at from time to time.”I love the vibe and energy, it’s good to have on in the background, but I don’t know who to support, that’s the problem,” says businessman Gary Mulder, a travel agent in Cape Town. The problem for South Africans, clearly, is the naming of the franchises.Knowledge of Indian geography is, at best, extremely limited here, so it was no surpise that that the Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians attracted the greatest support – especially with Shaun Pollock captaining Mumbai. Big cities, everyone has heard their names. But Rajasthan Royals? And Kings XI? Some people even wrote to newspapers and telephoned radio stations to protest the lack of a city called Deccan.By and large South Africans have enjoyed the inaugural season of the IPL, but they didn’t, in any way, “connect” with it. Most still weren’t sure who the SA players were representing until they actually saw them or heard their names mentioned.It looked pizzazzy on TV, it was fun, and it was a fabulous thing to have on TV in bars for the after-work drinkers, because the timing was perfect – the late matches finished around 7.45pm. But unless some thought is given to marketing or, more relevantly, personalising the teams and the tournament, it may struggle to establish a foothold, even in the most established sports-addicted market. Neil Manthorp

Sri Lanka

Overall, the reaction has been positive. The after-office hours starts to most matches have meant that people have been able to tune in. The games are available free on the local MTV channel and also on cable and viewership has been very good.
The form of the Lankan players has been followed with great interest – especially Sanath Jayasuriya for the Mumbai Indians. However, newspaper coverage has been restricted since the leading news agencies are not covering the tournament due to disagreements over conditions for accreditation laid down by the IPL. Sa’adi Thawfeeq

	In England the interest centres less around the quality of the competition, which has been hard to judge given the paucity of the coverage in the national press, but more on the money been thrown at the players – which has generated huge column inches

England

The IPL has had a massive impact on English cricket, even though Dimitri Mascarenhas is the country’s sole representative in the tournament, and the coverage (on the little-known satellite channel, Setanta) has gone almost unnoticed, seeing as it is available only to those few who have already paid up to watch the occasional Premier League football match.The interest centres less around the quality of the competition, which has been hard to judge given the paucity of the coverage in the national press, but more on the money been thrown at the players – which has generated huge column inches. Most of the elite players in England, most notably Kevin Pietersen, have expressed a burning desire to take part, and as a direct result of their dissatisfaction, the ECB has found itself cosying up to Allen Stanford and his visions of an even more lucrative English Premier League.Stanford’s proposed multimillion-dollar winner-takes-all fixture in Antigua is the most tangible evidence of the IPL’s upheaval, but there are other offshoots as well, such as the proposed reversion to a three-day county championship – a measure that would increase the days available for a Twenty20 extravaganza. Having invented the format, England has once again found itself being overtaken by the rest of the world, but this time there seems to be a will, for better or worse, to muscle back onto centre stage. Andrew Miller

A statistical review of the three-Test series between England and New Zealand

Mathew Varghese09-Jun-2008
Ryan Sidebottom was once again a thorn in New Zealand’s side © Getty Images
A 2-0 scoreline for a three-Test series might suggest one side dominating the other, but barring the final Test at Trent Bridge, where New Zealand lost by an-innings-and-nine runs – they did manage to put up a keen fight against England.England averaged nearly nine runs more per wicket than their opponents for the series, 34.67 to 25.85, but if you exclude the drubbing in Nottingham, England manage 33.95 in comparison to New Zealand’s 30.61.The star at Trent Bridge was James Anderson, who took career-best match figures of 9 for 98 – including 7 for 43 in New Zealand’s first innings – and scored a career-best 28. He finished as the leading wicket-taker in the series with 19 scalps, also his personal best for a series. Anderson and new-ball partner Ryan Sidebottom took 36 wickets between them. For New Zealand, Daniel Vettori, their captain, led the wicket tally with 12 dismissals, one of his better series of late.Sidebottom has been the second-highest wicket-taker in Tests since his return last year. New Zealand’s batsmen struggled against the trio of Anderson, Sidebottom and Stuart Broad, while their fast bowlers struggled to make the same impact. While Iain O’Brien did commendably, Chris Martin and Jacob Oram found it difficult to take wickets, with the former averaging nearly 60.

England v New Zealand bowlers

Bowling type England wickets Average New Zealand wickets Average

Pace 43 24.23 21 37.66 Spin 9 29.55 12 27.58 Batsmen on both sides failed to dominate, with the highest total in the series being 381. Andrew Strauss, who came back to the England fold during the New Zealand tour, ended as the leading run-scorer, but he was the only England batsman to score more than 200 runs.New Zealand struggled right at the top, with newcomer Aaron Redmond failing to make an impression, while James Marshall was a failure at No. 3, and the visitors soon found themselves missing the reassuring presence of Stephen Fleming. In the Test series in New Zealand, Fleming and Jamie How combined well to make the second-wicket partnership average nearly 70, but in England with no Fleming, that figure dropped to 12.16. New Zealand’s struggles are best reflected by the fact that they averaged over 50 only for the fifth wicket, while Vettori’s poor run – 61 in six innings, arguably his worst return in recent years – compounded the problem.In contrast, England’s first two wickets averaged over 50, while a paltry 11.50 for the fourth wicket came about due to the wretched run of Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood. Significant late-order contributions from Broad boost the tally for the lower order.

Average partnerships per wicket

Wicket Eng – ave stand 100s/ 50s NZ – ave stand 100s/50s

First 57.00 1/1 30.00 0/1 Second 56.25 0/2 12.16 0/0 Third 39.75 0/1 32.33 0/0 Fourth 11.50 0/0 27.66 0/1 Fifth 30.00 0/0 54.83 2/0 Sixth 55.00 1/0 26.83 0/1 Seventh 25.33 0/1 29.20 0/1 Eighth 46.33 0/1 20.80 0/0 Ninth 8.33 0/0 3.80 0/ 0 Tenth 8.66 0/0 8.00 0/0 Player v player stats
Ross Taylor managed better than most against Anderson and Sidebottom, scoring 167 runs against them at a healthy clip, and getting dismissed only once. Redmond was all at sea against Anderson, while Sidebottom did well against the left-handers Oram and Vettori. Monty Panesar also did his job as well, removing the dangerous Brendon McCullum three times and Taylor twice. Kevin Pietersen also found the going tough against left-arm spin, while Vettori dismissed his spin counterpart Panesar twice for just one run.

Player v player stats from the series

Batsman Bowler Runs Balls Dismissals Average

Aaron Redmond James Anderson 14 60 4 3.50 Brendon McCullum James Anderson 46 52 3 15.33 Jamie How James Anderson 62 98 3 20.66 Ross Taylor James Anderson 110 117 1 110.00 Daniel Vettori Ryan Sidebottom 11 50 3 3.66 Jacob Oram Ryan Sidebottom 64 139 3 21.33 Ross Taylor Ryan Sidebottom 57 72 0 – Brendon McCullum Monty Panesar 37 62 3 12.33 Kevin Pietersen Daniel Vettori 55 129 3 18.33

The strokeplay was majestic and the approach worlds removed from the hesitancy that coloured Sachin Tendulkar’s innings at times over the past couple of years

Cricinfo staff29-Oct-2008
Sachin Tendulkar’s pick-up over midwicket off Cameron White was a damning verdict on the paucity of Australia’s slow-bowling resources in the post-Warne era © Getty Images
At times you could have fooled yourself into thinking that it was the irrepressible teenager of Perth 1992 vintage batting, and not the 35-year-old veteran who was supposed to be on his last legs. The strokeplay was majestic and the approach worlds removed from the hesitancy that coloured Sachin Tendulkar’s innings at times over the past couple of years.The situation when he walked in was hardly that in which to unleash a fusillade of shots. At 27 for 2, he might even have been reminded of the bad old days, when the batting rode on his shoulders, especially away from home at venues like the MCG and Edgbaston. These days though, the line-up around him is far more robust and the freedom he batted with today was that of a man determined to enjoy a final flourish in the game that he hasilluminated for so long. Even when India were under siege in the first session, there was safety in the thought that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Man of the Match in Mohali a week ago, was pencilled in at No.7.Brett Lee had already been taken off by the time Tendulkar emerged to raucous cheers, but Mitchell Johnson was bowling just as quick in his place. One bouncer whizzed past his helmet at 151 km/hr but if that was meant to intimidate, it had little effect. A couple of balls later, he was on tiptoe and striking the ball through point, much as he had done at the WACA all those years ago.Johnson tried to tempt him into the sort of airy drive that Rahul Dravid had perished to, but the bait was never nibbled. For 20 balls, Tendulkar was in watchful mode, intent on seeing off the challenge of Australia’s premier fast bowlers. Only when Johnson started to err on the short side did he start to open up, first tucking one off the hips past square leg and then lashing one through the fielder at point.Lee was the culprit on that occasion, and Ricky Ponting turned to him a quarter of an hour before lunch. It was a crucial passage of play. Had Australia picked up a wicket then with the run-rate still well below three, the game might have turned. Instead, Lee was greeted with the most sumptuous of cover-drives. Lee continued to bowl quick and full, but Tendulkar either guided the ball into the off side, or played it straight back. There was no hint that the eyesight or reflexes have faded, no sign of a batsman on the wane.The contest within a contest continued right after lunch, with Lee charging in as he had to dismiss Virender Sehwag earlier in the morning. Earlier this year, in the CB Series in Australia, Tendulkar had decided to use Lee’s pace to bunt the ball over the slip cordon. It was a stroke he unfurled to telling effect in Bloemfontein in 2001, but this was Lee, the quickest bowler in the world, in the quintessential Test match battle of our times, Australia against India.Such labels clearly meant nothing to him because the third ball after lunch nearly went over third man for six. Once again, he had rocked back, arched his spine like a gymnast and twirled the wrists to devastating effect. The score was still modest, 71 for 2, but a massive statement had been made. The unerringly accurate Stuart Clark was then thumped behind point for four more, before Lee responded the way fast bowlers do. The straight, quick bouncer would have parted Tendulkar’s hair if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet, but all he did was drop the wrists and sway out of harm’s way.
Sachin Tendulkar’s innings ended with a false shot but not before the momentum had shifted inexorably in India’s favour © Getty Images
His riposte was far more damaging, a whiplash square of the wicket that got to the ball boys before anyone in the off side cordon had even moved a couple of feet. When Lee subsequently searched for the yorker, Tendulkar drove in classical fashion to the man at midwicket. More than Lee’s raw pace, it was Clark’s accuracy that troubled him most, with one superb leg-cutter almost kissing the outside edge on its way to Brad Haddin.There were still moments to drive the bowler to distraction though. There was little wrong with the delivery that Clark bowled to him when he was on 46, but Tendulkar merely waited on it as though it were a loopy leg break and then cut it fine for four. Soon after, the field changed to 7-2, but rather than be tempted into the shot across the line, he chose the path of discretion.Cameron White was initially viewed with similar suspicion, but once a gorgeous on-drive off Clark had loosened the shackles, Ponting’s first punt at spin was made to look foolish. When White tossed one up fairly wide, he pounced to drive it past extra-cover, and the pick-up over midwicket that followed was a damning verdict on the paucity of the slow-bowling resources in Australian cricket’s post-Warne era.After Johnson and Watson tied him down for a while, it all ended with a false stroke, but by then the momentum had shifted inexorably in India’s favour, with Gautam Gambhir trading circumspection for aggression. Tendulkar has scored nine hundreds against Australia, and as a result half-centuries don’t really linger too long in the memory. This little gem though should have a special place in the collection, right up alongside the one in Adelaide , when he launched into Glenn McGrath after the previous evening’s monastic denial, and the minor masterpiece in Mumbai , when he and Laxman batted sublimely on a minefield to transform a match that had been within Australia’s grasp. Even for the masters, centuries aren’t everything.

South Africa’s greatest strengths on their triumphant tour of Australia were unity and dignity. Those two qualities are disappearing fast

Brydon Coverdale in Cape Town12-Mar-2009South Africa’s greatest strengths on their triumphant tour of Australia were unity and dignity. Those two qualities are disappearing faster than the shine off a new ball. Their unity started to go when the selectors cut Neil McKenzie and Morne Morkel, which clearly displeased the captain Graeme Smith. Their dignity took a hit when those same selectors gave Ashwell Prince the leadership and took it off him less than a day later.The coach Mickey Arthur has always been a fan of the “the innocent climb”. It’s a concept put forward by the NBA coach Pat Riley, who believes that when a team comes together unselfishly and feels itself growing stronger, turf wars and power struggles are put aside. It described perfectly the South Africans in Australia. That’s no longer the case.A team that had been run quietly, calmly and successfully by Arthur and Smith for the past few years has started to whiff of internal tension. The new convenor of selectors Mike Procter has already annoyed Arthur by plumping for JP Duminy over Prince for this home series. After the Durban loss, which confirmed South Africa’s first series defeat since mid-2006, Procter and Smith sat next to each other to talk about the decisions, but it was about as united as they would get.Smith spoke first and voiced his disappointment that the same XI that he had taken into all five Tests against Australia this season was about to be ripped apart. It was natural that Smith was despondent – he had a broken hand and his team had just lost the series – but his body language took an even more negative turn when Procter began to speak.As Procter explained his rationale for leaving out McKenzie and Morkel, Smith slumped back in his chair, turned his head away and looked off into the distance. It was like he didn’t want to listen. Procter’s opening statement, which he directed to Smith and Arthur, who wasn’t present, gave a strong hint that his panel’s choices had been unpopular with the team.”Neil Mac has done a wonderful job,” Procter said. “He came in as a makeshift opening batsman and had a fantastic year last year, so it wasn’t an easy decision to come to leave him out. But there does come a time when decisions have to be made. Sometimes it’s very tough. At this stage, the selectors obviously feel for Graeme and Mickey because those guys that have been left out have obviously been together for a long time.”Smith’s choice of words was equally revealing. After noting that it was naturally disappointing for a group to be split up after achieving so much together, Smith said: “Unfortunately the way of life or the way of sport is that if the selectors feel you haven’t played well enough then it’s a natural progression that things are going to change.”If the selectors feel you haven’t played well enough. It was impossible not to derive that Smith was thinking specifically about McKenzie when he said those words. As McKenzie’s opening partner over the past year, Smith knows how hard it is to face the new ball against world-class attacks in a wide range of conditions and consistently give the team strong starts.A permanent part of the Test top order since the start of 2008, McKenzie had a strong calendar year and finished it with 1073 runs at 53.65. He was a key man on the tours of India and England but his form tailed away and he managed only one half-century against Australia.Losing McKenzie will be a major change in the South African structure.
Hugely popular in the dressing room for his humour and affability, McKenzie also has a sharp cricketing brain and was the acting captain on the field when Smith had a broken hand during the Sydney Test. That he was not given the same responsibility in Durban was telling. At 33, it will be difficult for him to come back.He and Smith will be replaced at the top of the order by Prince, who is not a regular opener, and the debutant Imraan Khan. It’s a risky strategy to play two unfamiliar openers but Procter was adamant that the middle order could not be altered. Hashim Amla, he said, didn’t like opening.But how does the preference of Amla, a supremely talented batsman who has failed to fulfil his promise in the five Tests against Australia, earn more weight than that of Prince, the man who was supposed to lead? Amla opened in Smith’s absence at Kingsmead and showed no discomfort with the new ball as he scored 43.It’s just another example of confused logic, as was the decision to make Jacques Kallis captain for Cape Town after initially handing the job to Prince. They’re the kind of moves that do little to inspire confidence.How must McKenzie feel to have his Test career all but ended by a panel that reverses its decisions so quickly? What must the supporters be thinking about the rapid promotion and demotion of Prince? And how nervous will the to-ing and fro-ing make the rest of the squad?South Africa must rediscover their unity and their dignity. The players and fans deserve better than to lose the innocence of the innocent climb.

A stats analysis of Dennis Lillee’s Ashes career

S Rajesh18-Jul-2009Australia have had a tradition of producing some outstanding fast bowlers, but few will rank higher than Dennis Lillee, who has turned 60 today. For many, he is the perfect definition of the ultimate fast bowler: he was fast, aggressive, and possessed the complete armoury, with the ability to swing and seam the ball both ways, and bowl long spells.He also saved his best for Australia’s oldest rivals, taking 167 wickets in only 29 Ashes Tests, an average of 5.76 wickets per match, which was better than his overall stats of 5.07 wickets per match. Lillee is second in the wicket-takers’ list, next only to Shane Warne, who, in seven more Tests, took 28 extra wickets. Both took five wickets in an innings 11 times and ten in a match four times; the latter is a record, with Fred Spofforth and Tom Richardson the only other bowlers to achieve it.The top three are all Australians, with Glenn McGrath in third place. The most wickets taken by an Englishman in Ashes is Ian Botham’s 148, but he needed 36 Tests for that tally, an average of 4.11 wickets per match. (Click here for the complete list.)

Most wickets in Ashes Tests

Bowler	Tests	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	5WI/ 10WM
Shane Warne	36	195	23.25	55.1	11/ 4
Dennis Lillee	29	167	21.00	50.9	11/ 4
Glenn McGrath	30	157	20.92	46.3	10/ 0
Ian Botham	36	148	27.65	57.2	9/ 2
Hugh Trumble	31	141	20.88	55.9	9/ 3
Bob Willis	35	128	26.14	56.9	7/ 0
Monty Noble	39	115	24.86	59.9	9/ 2
Ray Lindwall	29	114	22.44	59.0	6/ 0
Wilfred Rhodes	41	109	24.00	53.1	6/ 1
Sydney Barnes	20	106	21.58	54.2	12/ 1
Clarrie Grimmett	22	106	32.44	86.4	11/ 2

Overall, too, Lillee was one of the most feared bowlers for England’s batsmen, though a fair number of West Indian bowlers also make the list of most successful bowlers against them. Curtly Ambrose and Malcolm Marshall both averaged around 19 against them, which is slightly lesser than Lillee’s 21.Almost half his 355 wickets came against traditional rivals England, a team which brought out the best in Lillee. In only 29 Tests against them he took 167 wickets – that’s an average 5.76 per Test – at an excellent average of 21. Only Warne has taken more wickets against them, while both have taken exactly the same number of five- and ten-wicket hauls.The list is dominated by Australian and West Indians, the two teams who have played England most often. Eighty-three of Lillee’s wickets against England came in the 12 Tests that Australia won against them, at an outstanding average of 17.68. The only bowler in the top ten not from Australia or West Indies is Muttiah Muralitharan, who, in only 16 matches, has racked up 112 wickets against England.

Highest wicket-takers against England

Bowler	Tests	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	5WI/ 10WM
Shane Warne	36	195	23.25	55.1	11/ 4
Dennis Lillee	29	167	21.00	50.9	11/ 4
Curtly Ambrose	34	164	18.79	50.5	8/ 2
Glenn McGrath	30	157	20.92	46.3	10/ 0
Courtney Walsh	36	145	25.40	60.8	5/ 1
Hugh Trumble	31	141	20.88	55.9	9/ 3
Malcolm Marshall	26	127	19.18	45.5	6/ 1
Monty Noble	39	115	24.86	59.9	9/ 2
Ray Lindwall	29	114	22.44	59.0	6/ 0
Muttiah Muralitharan	16	112	20.06	59.0	8/ 4

Overall, Lillee was one of Australia’s most effective matchwinners. In the 31 Tests that Australia won with Lillee in the team, he took 203 wickets at a fantastic average of 18.27, with 17 five-wicket hauls. Among Australian bowlers with at least 100 wickets in wins, only Clarrie Grimmett, the legspinner who played in the 1920s and 30s, had a better average. Clearly, Lillee’s performances went a long way in determining his team’s fortunes – in Tests that Australia lost he averaged 29.49, and in draws he averaged 32.73 per wicket.In Ashes Tests too, he was one of the biggest matchwinners, with 83 wickets in a mere 12 Tests at an outstanding average of 17.68. Lillee ranks fourth in terms of wickets taken in Ashes wins, and among bowlers who took at least 50 wickets in such games, his average is sixth best, but the greatest since 1940. He also took a whopping 6.92 wickets per Test in these games, a stat bettered only by two bowlers in this list – Fred Spofforth and Bill O’Reilly.

Biggest matchwinners in Ashes Tests (Qual: 50 wickets in wins)

Bowler	Tests	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	5WI/ 10WM	Wkts per Test
George Lohmann (Eng)	12	59	11.96	37.2	4/ 2	4.92
Fred Spofforth (Aus)	6	51	13.11	30.4	6/ 3	8.50
Robert Peel (Eng)	12	77	14.85	46.7	5/ 1	6.42
Bill O’Reilly (Aus)	7	54	15.53	47.4	6/ 3	7.71
John Briggs (Eng)	17	63	15.74	39.1	7/ 3	3.71
Dennis Lillee (Aus)	12	83	17.68	41.6	8/ 3	6.92
Keith Miller (Aus)	13	50	17.74	52.1	3/ 1	3.85
Monty Noble (Aus)	19	84	17.78	44.8	8/ 2	4.42
Hugh Trumble (Aus)	14	77	18.00	52.0	4/ 1	5.50
Terry Alderman (Aus)	8	53	19.28	41.9	7/ 1	6.63

Overall, Lillee was involved in seven Test series against England, plus two centenary Tests, one each in Australia and England. Australia won four of those series (though Lillee didn’t have much of a role to play in 1982-83, playing just one Test), lost two and drew one. His most successful series, in terms of averages, were in 1972, in England, and in 1979-80 at home, when Australia won 3-0. In terms of wickets, though, Lillee’s best was in the historic 1981 series in England, when he took 39 in six Tests and yet couldn’t prevent an Australian defeat.

Lilllee’s stats in each Ashes series

Year	Tests	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	5WI/ 10WM	Winner
1970-71 (Home)	2	8	24.87	62.3	1/ 0	England
1972 (Away)	5	31	17.67	48.3	3/ 1	Drawn
1974-75 (Home)	6	25	23.84	58.4	0/ 0	Australia
1975 (Away)	4	21	21.90	59.1	1/ 0	Australia
1976-77 (Home)	1	11	15.00	34.8	2/ 1	Australia
1979-80 (Home)	3	23	16.86	40.4	2/ 1	Australia
1980 (Away)	1	5	19.20	40.8	0/ 0	Drawn
1981 (Away)	6	39	22.30	47.9	2/ 1	England
1982-83 (Home)	1	4	46.25	106.5	0/ 0	Australia

Openers are a neglected breed on the country’s domestic circuit, and that’s been a key reason for the team’s failures in Tests in recent times

Sidharth Monga09-Jul-2009This is not a post-mortem. One frame on TV during the Galle Test, though, summed up a bulk of Pakistan’s problems. The screen was split in two, each one showing the stances of Salman Butt and Khurram Manzoor, the former’s weight too far forward and the latter’s back. Those who follow Pakistan cricket will say, “What’s new?” Those who follow Pakistan cricket will know there haven’t been solid Test-match openers since Saeed Anwar and Aamer Sohail, and very few before. Even Anwar was a naturalised opener: he used to play in the middle order in domestic cricket.There is no better feeling in a small chase than the knowledge of having reliable openers, especially when the bowlers have finished their stupendous work in the final session, with an edgy period to follow. In the first innings in Galle, Pakistan lost Butt and Manzoor before the half hour was out on the first day; in the second they lost Manzoor in the evening and Butt first thing in the morning. There is no way the openers should solely be blamed for the dramatic loss, butNo’s 1 and 2 have always been a lottery since Sohail and Anwar opened together for the last time in March 2000.Nineteen different openers have been tried since that period – and 37 combinations – including Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi. That even by Pakistan’s standards is a fairly big number: 56 players opened in their 48 years of Test cricket before that.Younis Khan’s response to the issue tells a story. “If you see, this has been the story for the last four-five years,” he said moments after the defeat. “Sometimes they do well, sometimes they do badly. That’s not a big issue – anybody who’s played there. It keeps going up and down like this.” In the land of reverse-swing, masterful spinners and great middle-order batsmen, opening the innings has been a neglected art, perhaps non-glamorous. Heroes do play a big part, andPakistan simply haven’t had enough heroes opening the batting.Ramiz Raja, himself a fairly successful naturalised opener, wants an emergency declared on the opening front. He has seen over the years that in all levels of cricket in Pakistan the opener is the most neglected entity. “It has never been given importance by captains,” Ramiz told Cricinfo. “It was thought that on docile subcontinental pitches, where you played almost 70-80% of your cricket, specialist openers were really not required. That has been the thinking of most Pakistan captains, but it doesn’t help.”The approach perhaps comes right from the domestic circuit, where more such pitches mean the openers are hardly tested, and anybody does the job. The business, as is the case in Indian domestic cricket, starts in the middle order. Sohail, one of the more traditional openers, has an interesting theory.”Ultimately reverse-swing hasn’t helped Pakistan cricket at all,” Sohail told Cricinfo last year. “How many new-ball bowlers have you seen who are very good? Reverse-swing has helped Pakistan achieve things temporarily, but when you look at it in the long term, it has actually hampered Pakistan cricket. You are not getting good new-ball bowlers. If you are not getting good new-ball bowlers in your first-class structure or club cricket or at the top level, how do you actually think of getting good openers?”

“You need a special temperament for the job. Different levels of energy for different situations and times. There isn’t enough emphasis on that at the domestic level, or at the academy level. Openers are not made at Test level.”Ramiz Raja

But if that be the case, why aren’t there openers scoring thousands of runs in domestic cricket and putting pressure on Butt, who can’t complain of not having been given a full run? “I have no plausible reasoning,” Ramiz says. “The players in the seventies, even in theeighties, had a chance to hone their skill in county cricket, so that helped Pakistan batsmen to rise to a certain level. When it got stopped, our domestic set-up was not of a certain standard that provided a strong base for openers to grow.”It’s just that we have got to develop openers,” Ramiz said. “There is not enough importance given to that aspect. When I say that, I mean both technically and temperamentally. You have to leave a lot of balls, you have to be technically correct, you have to see off toughsituations like batting in the last half an hour of the day. You need a special temperament for that job. Different levels of energy for different situations and times. There isn’t enough emphasis on that at the domestic level, or at the academy level. Openers are not made at Test level.”Times changed, foreign coaches came and went, but the callous attitude towards openers didn’t. In the 2005-06 series against England, under Bob Woolmer and Inzamam, Pakistan went with Butt as the only specialist in the squad of 16, with Akmal, Malik and Afridi as options.Butt, who’s enjoyed the longest run in the post Sohail-Anwar era, had the promise, but needed a better opener to learn from. Openers grow together. They are a team within a team. They are often good friends, they often sit and discuss their batting and the bowlers even afterthe cricket. They are honest enough to ask the other to farm the strike against a particular bowler who’s troubling one of them. They point out to each other the mistakes they are prone to making. They are almost a couple, and Butt has been pretty polygamous there, though not by his choosing.There is an interesting story about how Sohail chose to become an opener. When he was fairly young, Wasim Raja, his captain at Lahore, told him if he wanted to play for Pakistan he needed to start opening the innings. Sohail hesitated. Raja said, “Do it. Pakistan won’t be needing middle-order batsmen in the next four or five years. There is Saleem Malik, there is Javed Miandad; it will be hard for you to get in. Start opening the innings, you will play for Pakistan.”By that logic, chances of a 16-17-year-old starting to open the innings look bleak. From the current middle order, Yousuf and Younis are nearer to the end than the start. Pakistan better start doing something about it, as Ramiz said, at the school level, club level, academy level and first-class level.

Brendon McCullum did everything that could have been asked of him in a whirlwind of an innings and threw down the gauntlet for Ross Taylor; he picked it up and replied with a flurry of boundaries. Taylor won the points, McCullum won the crowd’s sympathy

Sriram Veera at Centurion12-May-2009This was a match between two struggling teams but the battle within that contest was between two struggling Kiwis. Brendon McCullum did everything that could have been asked of him in a whirlwind of an innings and threw down the gauntlet for Ross Taylor; he picked it up and replied with a flurry of boundaries. Taylor won the points, McCullum won the crowd’s sympathy.As he sank to his knees at the end, with the haunted look that he has worn almost right through this tournament, someone in the crowd shouted – “Don’t worry McCullum, we love you”. One wonders what he would have made of the sympathy, if at all he heard it; it’s not a sentiment that appeals to sportsmen. Yet one could only sympathise with a man who had done almost everything he could to win the game – till the final overs, when his bowlers let him down and Taylor seized the moment.Carpe diem is a fine aspiration but not everybody manages to do it. Like McCullum, Taylor was struggling so far, in and out of the team, but exploded in a spectacular way. “It was a relief to contribute,” he said later. “It felt good to repay the faith of the management.”Perhaps it was the situation that released him from the recent past. There was only one thing he could do out there after the top-order had been dismissed and the required run rate shot up. Hit out. In moments of trouble, you turn to your strength, your stock weapon. Taylor’s is the big mow across the line. Time and again, he walked across and swung everything out of sight to the legside. It revealed as much about his batting as it showed up Kolkata’s bowlers. Of his 81 runs, 67 came on the on side with 47 in the arc from midwicket to fine-leg. The equation was 52 from 24 when he began the violent on-side hitting as the bowlers – Ajit Agarkar and Ishant Sharma -choked and sent down full tosses. Game over. As McCullum cursed, Taylor was hugged by his team-mates.It wasn’t all negative for McCullum, though. Indeed, his best moment didn’t come when he was batting, although it was a indeed a fine return to form, but when he took a spectacular diving catch on the field. Bangalore had begun the chase well when McCullum flew full stretch to his left, arching back to pluck the ball that seemed to have gone past him. Kallis stood stunned. McCullum’s team-mates mobbed him, hugged him, ruffled his hair. It was a private moment being celebrated in public. It was a moment of solidarity for a troubled skipper from a bunch of individuals who had failed to rally as a team. Until now.McCullum was also one of the first to reach Ganguly and envelop him with a hug when he took a catch a short while later. It’s a little moment, something you wouldn’t notice or make a big deal off in normal circumstances but there has been nothing remotely normal for this beleagured team in this IPL. The two were involved in another little big moment when they were batting together. McCullum’s innings graph might indicate that he settled himself in, willing to look ugly, before going for the jugular in the end. But it didn’t exactly happen that way.It was an adrenalin-charged start, as expected from an attacking batsman who has been runless so far. But he was living on the edge early on. After hitting a four, he charged out to Kallis and had a wild dash, missing the ball completely. Ganguly immediately strode across to have a chat and, as McCullum nodded, Ganguly put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a gentle pat. The next three balls were studiously defended before he unfurled a crisp square drive to fetch another boundary.Ganguly soon departed but McCullum had got over the solitary moment of madness. He put his head down and, though not in fluent nick, started rotating the strike to the likes of David Hussey, who donned the attacking role. He didn’t allow himself another impetuous moment and it wasn’t until his 46th ball that he stepped out again, to play a classy inside-out lofted shot off Kumble. Soon after, he unfurled a couple of pull shots off B Akhil and it wasn’t until the 19th over that he really tried to improvise. Twice in a row, he paddle-scooped attempted yorkers from Vinay Kumar to fine-leg boundary before swinging the next one to square leg. In the end, though, his bowlers could not ensure that he would be the happy Kiwi celebrating tonight.