Bell’s silky presence in the middle-order is providing far more than mere embellishment

Andrew Miller at the Rose Bowl19-Jun-2011When all else is said and done, when all the psychological by-plays are taken out of the equation, cricket is in essence a numbers game, and right at this moment, Ian Bell’s are stacking up phenomenally. Sunday’s unbeaten century was his second of the series and his third in his past four Tests, and by the time of England’s declaration his series average stood at a monumental 335.In a team that already possesses Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott, two of the most avaricious run-hoarders in the world game, Bell’s silky presence in the middle-order is providing far more than mere embellishment. As Stuart Law, Sri Lanka’s frustrated coach, admitted, he is becoming “a pain in the backside”. Time and time again, he steals in from his No. 5 position to turn shaky positions into solid ones, and formidable positions into impregnable ones, without ever compromising the silken nature of his strokeplay.Today’s performance was as inevitable as it was attractive to watch. From the moment he resumed on 40 not out overnight, he exuded a sense of purpose and belonging that bent Sri Lanka’s bowling to his will. Whereas Kevin Pietersen, in a thrilling return to form on Saturday afternoon, had played exclusively in the V to maximise his strengths (and shield his current weaknesses), Bell soon proved there was no shot beyond his remit. “He scores quickly but hits the ball in 360-degree arcs,” said Law. “It’s very difficult to contain. He’s full of confidence and you can see that in the way he plays.”These days, the psychology of the game can go hang. Bell’s only interest is the numbers, which – from the days he was marked out as a teenage prodigy – is all he has ever really sought. At the age of 29, and with 4500 Test runs safely tucked away alongside a mounting Test average of 47.11, he seems to have cultivated an immunity to all external pressures. It’s hard to believe this is the same batsman whom Shane Warne once derided as “The Sherminator”, and who briefly developed a cringe-inducing habit of puffing out a still-mousy frame in a bid to improve his body language.It used to be the case that Bell saved his most fluent performances for situations devoid of pressure. Nowadays he takes the pressure out of situations through the fluency of his performances. “Playing good cricket is all about consistency and Ian has started to fulfil the promise he showed coming through the ranks as a youngster at Warwickshire,” said Law, who saw him at close quarters during his long service on the county circuit. “Hats off to him, he played another great knock today.”Qualitatively, there was scarcely a jot of difference between this latest breeze of an innings and the 162 not out he pillaged off the over-awed Bangladeshis at Chester-le-Street in 2005. Then as now, an outclassed attack was further demoralised by every new swish of his bat. But the context has been transformed in the intervening years. These days Bell’s team-mates, his opponents, the press and the paying public all know he’d be playing with the same clarity of purpose, regardless of the match situation.”I feel like I am batting as well as I can at the minute, and it’s nice to contribute to us getting in winning positions.,” said Bell. “I think in the past I’ve played well at times, probably not when it’s got very tough, but hopefully in the last 12-18 months I’ve started to put in performances when the team have needed them most, and doing it more consistently, which is what you want to do as a batsman. I’m really happy with the way my game’s going, and the improvement I’ve made, but there’s still a long way to go hopefully with where I can take my game to.”Bell knows better than any player that his 335 series average is unsustainable. In the immediate aftermath of that Bangladesh performance, his overall career mark stood at 297 – an unfortunate prelude to his run of seven single-figure scores in ten innings of the 2005 Ashes. But right at this moment, it is a fitting tribute to a run of form that has crashed past innumerable benchmarks in the past two years, ever since his axing in the Caribbean forced a complete reappraisal of his game.Bell was made the scapegoat for England’s 51 all out in Jamaica in March 2009 – the match that marked the nadir from which Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss plotted their rise towards world Test domination. A feckless cut in the final over before lunch led to his banishment, and he wasn’t recalled until Kevin Pietersen’s Achilles injury in the subsequent Ashes campaign. He trained harder in the interim, toughening himself up in the physical sense which in turn brought the mental side along with it, while facing up to the fact that he had to embrace his seniority in the team.Bell’s series average is now 335•Getty ImagesThe returns were almost instantaneous. From the moment he marked his comeback with a half-century in the drawn Ashes Test at Edgbaston, Bell has averaged 69.04, which is a notch below the 72 he made in the decisive victory at The Oval two matches later. That was the first occasion in which he really made runs when it mattered, but his defining innings was his 140 in Durban four months later, since when his figure has been 91.46. Since the tour of Bangladesh last March, when at the tenth time of asking, he scored a century without another batsman doing likewise, it has risen to 106.60.As Trott and Cook are no doubt aware, and as Pietersen has spent the past two years confirming, such good times are unlikely to continue in perpetuity. But as Graeme Swann aptly put it while describing England’s top three as “cures for insomnia”, most of Bell’s fellow batsmen have limitations on their games that he does not seem to possess. Like Eoin Morgan, whose Test credentials are improving by the match, his wealth of scoring options create new opportunities with every new switch of the field.His 57 from 43 balls in the declaration rush at Lord’s was a case in point. At the other end was Cook, unquestionably admirable in reaching yet another Test century, but defiantly one-paced even when the match situation demanded more haste. His belated attempt to up the ante brought him out of his comfort zone, and resulted in the first stumping of his first-class career.With the retirement of Paul Collingwood, Bell has been landed the extra responsibility of being England’s insurance policy in times of need, but it is a burden he has worn particularly lightly. Awkward situations – such as England’s first-day 22 for 3 at Lord’s – have been greeted with the insouciance he demonstrated all throughout the Ashes, the series in which it was clear he had outgrown his No. 6 position. At Brisbane and Perth, he alone possessed the fluency to overcome tricky conditions, but he was twice forced to chance his arm, for 76 and 53 respectively, as the tail subsided around him.Can it last? It’s hard to see a reason why not. With the possible exception of Andrew Strauss, no-one else in the current England team has a range of experiences quite like Bell’s, and Strauss would never pretend to have anything like the same range of shots. After years in the shadows, his time has finally come. And his quest for greater numbers could yet define that of his team as a whole. No. 1 in the world is attainable for both.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the one-off Twenty20 between West Indies and India at Port of Spain

Sriram Veera at Port of Spain04-Jun-2011The reaction of the day – I
It went off the bat. It really did. Surely, Shikhar Dhawan felt the impact? It was a short ball from Darren Sammy and Dhawan made a lame attempt at an upper cut. The ball lobbed up to the wicketkeeper, the umpire nodded his head to suggest it was out; perhaps he felt it was so clearly out that he didn’t have to raise the finger, but he had to since Dhawan didn’t budge. And as he trudged off ever so slowly, Dhawan even had a wry grin as though he had been wrongly given out. Strange.The reaction of the day – II
Lendl Simmons couldn’t believe it when he was given out. He was cramped for room by an offbreak from R Ashwin and the ball seemed to go off the thigh and bounce off Parthiv Patel’s helmet. Never mind whether there was an edge or not, since a batsman cannot be given out if the ball touches the external protective gear of a fielder. His partner Andre Fletcher even tried to argue the case, but the umpires did not agree. Perhaps they just didn’t see the impact with the helmet. Simmons had to depart. Shame.The effort of the day
It was a free-hit and S Badrinath lifted it to the left of long-off, but Ashley Nurse was in some mood. He dashed across, flung himself full-length to his left and caught the ball with both hands. It was an outstanding effort but he couldn’t help but touch the ropes before he managed to throw the ball inside the boundary. Pity.The flying turf of the day
It happened off the fifth delivery of the day. When Ravi Rampaul landed the ball on a length, a piece of the pitch flew up. It was the sign of things to come. It proved a slow turning track. If such surfaces persist through the series, things are going to be difficult for West Indies.The distraction of the day
It came from Chris Gayle. Dressed in a white costume, he was seen in the stands sitting with Jerome Taylor. As the game progressed, he tweeted that he planned to move to the Trini Posse stands. As the game neared the end, Gayle was seen there, mixing with the crowd and posing for photographs. Christopher Barnwell then launched a massive six and the cheer-girls, standing in front of Gayle, swayed ever so joyously. Gayle smiled and waved a small white towel that he held in his hands. Later he even tweeted: “WI Fans..Don’t worry about a thing,cause every little things gonna be alright…” (sic). Were the white flag and the tweet that followed signs that he has reached some sort of compromise with the board? Hope floats.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the day from the fourth day of the third Test between Sri Lanka and Australia, in Colombo

Daniel Brettig in Colombo19-Sep-2011The curious exit
Shaun Marsh has had an outstanding start to his Test career, but on the final day he had a momentary lapse of reason. A Herath delivery bounced out of the rough, struck his pad, then his chest, and looped out to short leg. The Sri Lankan appeal was convincing, the umpire’s finger was raised, and a slightly miffed-looking Marsh shuffled off, out for 18. Yet replays showed clear daylight between bat, gloves and the ball. A review of the decision, emanating either from Marsh or the non-striker Phillip Hughes, would have brought a reversal of it. Yet Marsh seemed uninterested in questioning the call, thus reducing his series average to a mere 80.00.The fist
Hughes reached his third Test century, and first since 2009, with a scampered two and then a clenched fist in the direction of the SSC press box. Hughes has had to endure plenty of scrutiny and criticism since his recall to the Australian team midway through the Ashes series last summer, as befitted a batsman who had not passed 50 in any of his 10 innings between then and now. But the hundred in Colombo will silence the doubters for the time being at least, and go a long way towards building the confidence of a young batsman with the drive to make the biggest of scores.The go-slow
Angelo Mathews’ celebration upon reaching his first Test century was ebullient, as he raced towards the dressing room and punched the air. But it was a wildly inaccurate representation of the latter half of his innings. Midway through the final session on day three, Mathews had cracked a Mitchell Johnson delivery back past the bowler to reach 61 from 132 balls. It should have been the signal for acceleration and aggression, but instead proved perhaps the last genuinely joyful moment of the innings. Mathews’ next 44 runs took a painful 137 balls to arrive, sapping energy from the contest and letting off an Australian team that had started to wilt in the field on that third evening.

Trueman’s latest biographer does a better job of fleshing out his subject than his more illustrious predecessors – perhaps because he didn’t know him as well

Rob Steen12-Nov-2011Five years ago, when the cricket correspondents, quotes this line with the same relish as that with which he tackles his fascinating subject. It is, of course, both typical and stereotypical Trueman: ornate enough to have been rehearsed and reheated countless times over, arrogant enough to be credible (asked by Michael Parkinson to think of a working title for an autobiography, the response passed straight into legend: “‘Ow about: ‘T’ Definitive Volume Of ‘T’ Greatest Ruddy Fast Bowler Who Ever Drew Breath?'”). If ever a cricketer’s reputation preceded him, it was assuredly Fred’s. None, certainly, has been the subject of more dressing-room yarns or after-dinner wisecracks; some are even true.Trueman was an aggressive, sometimes vicious bowler with a flair for self-mythology, self-promotion and waging the class war on his own. Fame and infamy sat side-by-side on those chipped shoulders. He was big enough in his own time; had he made his Test debut in 2002 rather than 1952, in a world of satellite TV and instant communication, one shudders to imagine how dazzling his star would be. So vast does he still loom in the popular imagination, if a vote were taken to acclaim England’s greatest fast bowler, he would probably still pip John Snow and Bob Willis; Harold Larwood too. Unlike those luminaries, he failed to make an indelible stamp on a victorious Ashes series, but where Larwood, Snow and Willis fanned the flames of controversy almost despite themselves, Trueman did not so much embrace the spotlight as eat it whole. And demand another helping.Waters is Trueman’s third biographer. Unlike his predecessors, Arlott and Don Mosey, he was not compromised by having worked closely with his subject on previous books. It was Trueman, nonetheless, who proposed, shortly before his death in 2006, that Waters write this book. The result is the fullest picture yet of a great sportsman and all-too-human being.Trueman, attested Arlott, “was the kind of fast bowler he had created for himself; a larger-than-life-sized figure compounded in the imagination of a boy from the fancies, facts, loyalties, cricket, reading, traditions and all the other influences of a semi-rural, semi-industrial area of South Yorkshire in the nineteen-thirties”. Waters goes one better by capturing that South Yorkshire, in particular Maltby, the grim and grimy pit town where Trueman grew up in severely straitened times.Besides eliciting memories from several family members and team-mates, Waters extends his net of witnesses to Cecil Kippins, the umpire at the centre of the most notorious incident on Trueman’s maiden tour. Cast as the scapegoat for what the Times called “the second most controversial tour in cricket history”, that Caribbean sortie in 1953-54 begat Trueman’s reputation as a roughneck and a troublemaker, but he was wrongly fingered.Context was all. Emboldened by changes in India, Jamaicans and Bajans and Trinidadians were clamouring for independence. “For God’s sake, beat these people,” Charles Palmer, the assistant manager, recalled members of the white ruling class pleading at official functions, “or our lives won’t be worth living.” During the game against British Guiana in Georgetown, Kippins no-balled Trueman, who was already seething at a dropped catch and a string of rejected lbw appeals. Kippins suddenly walked towards gully, where Hutton, the MCC captain, was fielding, and spoke to him. At stumps, Trueman was accused of calling Kippins “a black bastard”, which despite vehement protestations of innocence saw him docked his £50 tour bonus. Kippins, now living in the US, holds his hands up: “It was my fault entirely. It wasn’t Freddie, it was Johnny Wardle. I mistook one for the other.” He did not correct his error, he added, because he’d fallen out with Hutton.Trueman never played under Hutton again and missed 23 of England’s next 26 Tests. Had he been born in less class-conscious times, he would surely have exceeded Ian Botham’s national record of 383 Test victims instead of settling for 307; bar Simon Jones (59 at 47.8), no English player with 50 wickets on his CV since the First World War has matched Trueman’s strike-rate of 49.4. The year before he died, reunited for the first time in 30 years with the other three standout Yorkshire cricketers of the second half of the 20th century, Boycott, Brian Close and Ray Illingworth, he was still incandescent: “The selectors seemed more interested in picking decent blokes than decent bowlers.”Gallantly, respectfully, Waters allows Arlott the final word: “He could be very harsh and gentle; witty and crude; unbelievably funny and very boring; selfish and wonderfully kind… and he was, when the fire burnt, as fine a fast bowler as any.” Nevertheless, the previous 296 pages do more to explain those contradictions than his vaunted predecessor did.Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography
Chris Waters
Aurum Press Ltd
A$35

He had to wait more than a decade for his second Test century and it is a moment he says he feared would never come

Firdose Moonda in Harare 05-Aug-2011When Hamilton Masakadza was playing cricket for his primary school, in Highfields, the second-oldest suburb in Harare, his friends gave him a special, but complimentary nickname. They called him “Test cricketer” because of his extraordinary staying power for someone so young.”Growing up I was always patient,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “Tatenda [Taibu] and Vusi [Sibanda] and those guys were the ones being aggressive and I was the one holding up the other end.”It turned out to be an apt description of his character, because Masakadza is one of the most-patient men cricket has seen; the fifth most to be exact, if you take the amount of time between Test centuries as a yardstick. He had to wait 10 years and six days between his first Test century, in 2001, and his second, which he brought up on Friday in Harare, in Zimbabwe’s first Test since returning to Test cricket. That is a length of time surpassed only by India’s Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Merchant, England’s Frank Woolley and Australia’s Warren Bardsley, who waited 13 years and 346 days between his fifth and sixth centuries. All those players had their careers interrupted by the World Wars.Although Masakadza’s wait didn’t involve an event as catastrophic, the political and cricketing turmoil Zimbabwe has been through in the last decade has not made his interval easy. Besides the country’s cricketing woes, he has also had to deal with the expectation that came from registering his first Test hundred – a match-saving knock on debut – at the age of 17, and the disappointment of not being able to push on from that.When the pressures of sport can become overwhelming, Masakadza said strong support kept him grounded and that he felt his early achievement helped build his confidence. “At that age if you don’t do well you will spend a lot of time wondering if you are good enough or not, so I was pleased that I was able to do well for that reason. Even when I didn’t follow it up in the best way, people encouraged me and believed in me.”Those people may have been surprised when, a year after his debut, Masakadza took a break from the game. He went to complete a degree in marketing at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where he spent three years. There, he played for the varsity’s club team alongside Ryan McLaren, Cornelius de Villiers and against Rusty Theron.He said the time away from the international game helped him improve. “I learnt a bit more about how to play seam bowling while I was there. I also worked on my off-side game; I think before I was stronger on the leg side but now if you look at my wagon wheels, I play all around the wicket.”When he came back to Zimbabwe, in 2004, he established himself as a regular in the one-day team, but missed out on selection for both the 2007 and 2011 World Cup squads. His career was punctuated with breaks and so he was hardly surprised when it took him eight years to score his first ODI century. “When I eventually scored it, it was one of the highest points in my career,” he said, laughing as he remembered the opposition. “And it was against Bangladesh.”Now, he has brought up his second Test century against the same team, and Masakadza cannot contain his joy at being able to achieve it, especially because there was a time when he thought it would never come. In the middle of Zimbabwe’s self-imposed exile from Test cricket, Masakadza thought he would have to forget his dreams of Test success. “I thought I may have retired by the time we get Test cricket back. That question definitely went through my mind. But now I understand that I am an integral part of the team and I relish being a senior player.”He admits that he had some doubts during the course of this innings in Harare, but they only crept in later on. “I only actually got nervous when I was on 99. [When on 95], I hit the ball through mid-off and I thought it was three and that I would be able to wait at the other end for a while but then I saw it trickled down for four and I knew I was close. Getting past the hundred was the best part of my innings today.”

India, thoroughly outclassed with bat and ball so far, have to derive inspiration from their record at The Oval to avoid their first 4-0 series defeat in almost 20 years

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan17-Aug-2011England and India head into the final Test at The Oval with the scoreline reading a scarcely believable 3-0 in favour of the home team. What was expected to be a close contest has turned out into a highly one-sided series, with India’s performance declining with every game. After the 196-run defeat at Lord’s, there has been no semblance of a fightback from India. Instead, the loss was followed by a 319-run hammering at Trent Bridge and an innings defeat at Edgbaston which turned out to be their third-largest margin of defeat in Tests. The Oval, however, presents India with an opportunity to salvage some pride. It is by far the best batting venue in England and one where India have not lost a Test in their last six visits. India’s maiden Test win in England came at The Oval in 1971 and they nearly chased down a record 438 in 1979. The visitors will need to draw some inspiration from their past record at the venue if they are to avoid their first 4-0 loss since the 1991-92 series in Australia.England may not have beaten India at The Oval in the last three attempts, but in general their venue record has been excellent. Among home venues, their win-loss ratio at The Oval (2.00) is second only to Edgbaston (3.00). Their record at the venue in recent times is even more impressive. In Tests since 2000, their only two losses have come against Australia in 2001 and Pakistan in 2010. England will also be well aware that this is a great opportunity to complete their first series whitewash against India since 1974. Despite their overwhelming dominance in the series so far, England’s quest for a 4-0 win will be challenged by an Indian line-up that has scored 508 and 664 in their last two Tests at The Oval.

England’s Test record at The Oval

PeriodMatchesWinsLossesDrawsW/L ratioBatting avgBowling avgAvg diffOverall933819362.0034.0429.774.271990 onwards2110651.6634.4535.70-1.252000 onwards116233.0037.5635.552.01v India102172.0045.0134.5010.51v India since 19903003-54.0055.94-1.94England’s best batting ground
The Oval has by far been the best batting venue in England in Tests since 2000. In the first innings, teams have averaged nearly 42 runs per wicket with seven centuries. The second innings has been slightly more even with the runs-per-wicket figure dropping to 35.37. While the third innings has proved to be the most challenging for batting (average 31.32), the pitch has demonstrated a tendency to become easier for batting in the fourth innings (average 37.72).Unlike most venues in England, the difference between the averages for spinners and fast bowlers isn’t a lot. Fast bowlers average under 30 in the third innings and just over 36 overall. Stuart Broad, who has picked up 21 wickets at an average of just 11.95 in the series, was instrumental in setting up England’s victory in the final Test of the 2009 Ashes series at The Oval. After Muttiah Muralitharan’s outstanding 16-wicket haul in 1998, there has been very little success for spinners. Like the pace bowlers, spinners have also bowled best in the second and third innings. Graeme Swann, who has had a very ordinary series by his standards, has picked up 15 wickets in two matches at The Oval and will hope the venue brings him some much-needed luck.

Innings-wise stats at the Oval in Tests since 2000

InningsRuns per wicket100s/50sWickets, avg (pace)Wickets, avg (spin)1st innings41.927/2473, 39.3926, 43.502nd innings35.378/1773, 37.7125, 34.323rd innings31.325/1164, 29.5623, 34.604th innings37.722/522, 38.8611, 41.72Overall36.5822/57232, 36.1085, 38.16Pietersen a huge threat
While India have failed to reach 300 in any of their six innings, England have rattled up scores of 474, 544 and 710 in the three Tests. Alastair Cook, who had a disappointing start to the series, roared back to form with 294 in the third Test at Edgbaston. Cook averages nearly 47 at The Oval, and he, together with captain Andrew Strauss (473 runs at 39.41), will hold the key to a strong start. India will be especially wary of Kevin Pietersen, the top run-getter of the series, who has a superb record at the venue. In ten innings at The Oval, he has scored 552 runs with three centuries including a brilliant 158 to help England regain the Ashes in 2005.Rahul Dravid, India’s best batsman in the series so far, is also their highest run-scorer in Tests at The Oval. He scored 217 in 2002 and another half-century in 2007. While VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni have done fairly well at the venue, Sachin Tendulkar has failed to score a century in four innings and averages 39.50.

England batsmen at The Oval in Tests since 2005

BatsmanInningsRunsAverage100/50Kevin Pietersen1055255.203/1Andrew Strauss1247339.411/4Alastair Cook1046846.801/3Ian Bell1025228.000/3Matt Prior612330.750/1Trial by pace
India’s top-order batsmen (positions 1-7) have struggled against the high-quality display of England’s pace bowlers in all three Tests. While Virender Sehwag fell for a first-ball duck in both innings on his comeback, the rest of the top order except Tendulkar failed to handle the threat of James Anderson and Stuart Broad with any degree of assurance in the second innings of the third Test. In fact, the stats of Indian batsmen in Tests outside the subcontinent show that most of them haven’t done so well against pace. However, almost all batsmen have handled spinners with ease. The one exception to the rule is Sehwag, who has scored at nearly seven runs per over against spinners, but has been dismissed four times.The story against pace is quite different. Laxman and Dhoni have far lower averages against pace than their corresponding numbers against spinners. While Sehwag averages 38.84 with a run-rate of 4.26, his opening partner Gautam Gambhir has done much better; he averages 61.11 against pace bowlers in Tests since 2007. Dravid and Tendulkar also have lower averages against pace (40.32 and 47.28) when compared to their averages against spin (64.00 and 108.00). The problems faced by Indian batsmen against pace bowling outside the subcontinent have come to the fore in this series and England are unlikely to change the strategy that has brought them extraordinary success in the first three Tests.

India’s top batsmen against pace and spin in Tests outside Asia since 2007

BatsmanRuns/dismissals (pace)Average/run-rate(pace)Runs/dismissals(spin)Average/run-rate(spin)Virender Sehwag505/1338.84/4.2676/419.00/6.90Gautam Gambhir550/961.11/2.68226/456.50/2.72Rahul Dravid1008/2540.32/2.20384/664.00/2.49Sachin Tendulkar1182/2547.28/3.15432/4108.00/3.28VVS Laxman1013/2836.17/2.99410/582.00/2.95MS Dhoni659/2427.45/3.31282/394.00/3.44

Though he didn’t enjoy touring, Warren Lees, the former New Zealand keeper and coach, doesn’t get why players are so insular these days

Firdose Moonda13-Mar-2012International cricket is a little like Christmas: in most places it comes only once a year. When it comes to Warren Lees’ town, you can excuse him for feeling like a kid who has kept on Santa’s good side.But despite a lifetime romance with the game, in recent years Lees, the former New Zealand keeper and coach, only keeps one date a year with international cricket. When Dunedin hosts a match, he allows himself to be seduced by it. He doesn’t have the desperation of some ex-players who don’t know what to do with their lives now that cricket is no longer in it. For him it’s like a short-lived but intense love affair.”I’ve drifted out of the game,” he says paradoxically. “I didn’t mean to drift out, because I’ve just realised in the last five years how much I miss it.”One thing I really treasure is doing the radio commentary once or twice a year,” Lees said. “My wife can’t get over the change in my behaviour when I do radio commentary. It’s because it’s only at this time that I meet up with Ian Smith and I see Doully [Simon Doull]. I only want to see them once a year, and they probably don’t even want to see me that often! I just get a buzz being around the circuit and I just realise how much I miss it.”Lees retired from first-class cricket in 1988 but continued being actively involved in the game. He coached his home side, Otago, and then the national team, from 1990 to 1993.People with lesser credentials are now full-time television analysts and there seems no reason why Lees could not join those ranks. Except that he does not want to. He describes himself as a “bit of a home person” who does not like touring. “There would be long tours when I played,” he says. “The first tour I played in was ten weeks long, to India and Pakistan. People don’t have ten-week tours anymore.”Lees does not like the travelling circus that modern-day cricket has become. He says it breeds self-involvement rather than fostering a sense of community. “I couldn’t have the headphones on and loud music on the plane over an eight-hour flight. We used to play cards and things like that. It was a social scene, so our players knew each other very well,” he said. “Some of the cricketers these days don’t know anyone.”He thinks more face-to-face association should be enforced on players on a tour. “We had rules when I was coaching: between 7pm and 10pm, if you were in your room at night, you’d leave your door open so people could come and go. People go in their rooms now and they close their door. I wouldn’t say I am overly interested in what people are doing in their rooms, but it’s like they are not meeting people.”Although he “enjoyed coaching more than playing”, Lees’ first tour in charge was very tough. “We went to Pakistan and we just got thrashed.” New Zealand lost all three Tests and three ODIs, by big margins. “The two openers [Trevor Franklin and David White] almost begged me not to pick them in the last Test. They were making up injuries not to be selected.”Travelling did not get any easier, and they managed only one win on the road, against Zimbabwe in Harare. But there was one standout moment as coach for Lees – the 1992 World Cup.”The highlight for me overall was taking that team and doing so well at the World Cup. There were changes to the team personnel, but on the whole the team was just so broken and everyone had given up. There had been retirements, [Richard] Hadlee had gone, and guys who really shouldn’t have been playing first-class cricket were all of a sudden playing for New Zealand. Taking that team for three years and growing it into a family was great.”New Zealand reached the semi-final of the tournament, losing to eventual champions Pakistan. “The team that I had at that World Cup, just about every one of them I would have been proud to call my son,” Lees said. “They weren’t great cricketers, Gavin Larsen, Rod Latham, Willie Watson, but they were great guys to work with.”While Lees may not have thought of those players as naturally talented, he had one prodigious talent in Martin Crowe, who was the New Zealand captain when Lees was coach. “I found him absolutely fascinating,” Lees said. “He was a fantastic person, he was completely misunderstood and he misunderstood a lot of things about life too. He was a challenge but he was also just a great person to work with. We met at 6:30 nearly every day we were on tour or playing, and he was never late; he was organised.”Eventually, and perhaps ironically, it was a tour abroad that ended Lees’ national coaching role. After the team abandoned their trip to Sri Lanka in November and December 1992, when bomb blasts threatened their safety, Lees knew he would “lose the job not long after”.At that point he felt cynical about how New Zealand cricket was being operated, because of the way the situation was handled and the pressure they were under to continue the tour. “The way people were treated was just disgraceful. In the end you think, ‘How the hell did New Zealand make progress during those years?’ And we didn’t, until we actually treated people the way people should be treated.”He thinks things have changed and will continue to change under John Wright. “Wrighty is a very fair person. At times he needs to be perhaps a little bit more decisive but I think Wrighty’s relationship with the players will be strong.”Lees’ own involvement with coaching today is at the micro-level. He lives close to Alexandra, a town in Central Otago, and spends his days coaching what he calls “country kids”, who do not have access to the same resources as their counterparts in big cities. “I like coaching country kids because they are receptive and they are polite, and in a way even their parents are grateful because they have had no coaching at all. I’ve got a database of 300 kids and I’d say 280 of them had never been coached.”Also Lees, of course, commentates on the Dunedin Test as often as he can and writes a column for a local newspaper. “It’s not about cricket at all. It’s about life,” Lees said about the column. “People seem to laugh at it, or perhaps they are laughing at me, but it doesn’t really matter.”

They came to the Asia Cup after five games in 10 days in Australia and had their first practice the day of their first game. But it was the loss of their two allrounders that proved too big a blow for Sri Lanka to adjust to

Siddarth Ravindran at the Shere Bangla Stadium15-Mar-2012How often has an away team arrived for a series earlier than the home side? Even as Sri Lanka began their second match of the Asia Cup, England’s first warm-up game was underway in Colombo. The warped international schedule has already prompted Sri Lanka to rest some of their Test bowlers for this tournament, to allow them to recover for the England series.To compound their problems were the injuries to allrounders Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera. It left Sri Lanka utterly imbalanced, and highlighted a long-standing problem for them – the lower-middle order. Not only do Mathews and Perera provide them viable bowling options, but their completely contrasting batting styles provide just what Sri Lanka have been searching for. Mathews brings the cool head and malleable game to orchestrate the latter stages of the innings, while Perera’s brute force allows him to play the impact innings, as he recently showed in Kimberley and, to a lesser extent, in Hobart.For a couple of years, Sri Lanka’s batting had five permanent members – Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Mathews – and they hunted for candidates to fill the remaining two slots. Many auditions were provided, but most of the candidates fluffed them. None of Thilina Kandamby, Chamara Silva, Thilan Samaraweera and Chamara Kapugedera proved consistent enough.During Dilshan’s troubled time as captain last year, among the most heartening things was the emergence of youngsters Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne as batsmen who could flourish at the international level. With them, and the pair of Mathews and Perera, Sri Lanka finally seemed to have covered the blemishes in the batting.The injuries, though, meant Sri Lanka were again looking for two lower-middle order players. In the absence of other allrounders, Sri Lanka deployed Tharanga at No. 6, an unfamiliar position where he has done a decent job, with three half-centuries in four matches though he is yet to convince as a finisher.The other spot remained. With Dilshan doing a stellar job with the ball towards the end of the Commonwealth Bank series, Sri Lanka trusted him to deliver in the Asia Cup as well, and decided to gamble in the first match by using specialist batsman Chamara Kapugedera at No. 7. That left them with exactly five bowlers (including Dilshan) and no room to manoeuvre if any of them had an off day. The tactic backfired quite spectacularly, with Sri Lanka turning to Kapugedera’s rarely used medium-pacers to try and rein in a free-scoring India. And worse, when it was his turn to bat, with Sri Lanka in the sort of situation they picked the extra batsman for – needing about eight an over for the final 12 – Kapugedera picked up a golden duck.That prompted Sri Lanka to go in for the extra bowling option against Pakistan, dropping Kapugedera and pushing Farveez Maharoof to No. 7. While Maharoof using to be quite a handy bat earlier in his career, his batting has regressed in recent times and No. 7 is at least a position too high for him. Players from all four teams have said during this tournament that batting becomes easier under lights, but Sri Lanka’s decision to go with the additional bowling option also meant they were likely to bat first on winning the toss.Sri Lanka’s biggest mistake in the game may have been the reckless top-order batting, but Sangakkara and Tharanga had dragged them back to more solid ground. Even when Tharanga fell in the 36th over, some support at the other end would have been enough for Sangakkara to lift Sri Lanka to a more competitive total. Instead, with the wickets tumbling at the other end, Sangakkara was forced to attempt some big hits and was dismissed in the 43rd over, and Sri Lanka in the 46th.One-hundred-and-eighty-eight proved too small a total for their bowlers to defend, virtually ending Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup campaign.After the spirit and verve Sri Lanka showed in the CB series, these were a couple of flat performances in Mirpur. When your first chance to train is an hour before your first game of the tournament, and when key players need rest or are injured, you are bound to trip up in a compressed event like the Asia Cup where there are few chances for a comeback.At least the players have the consolation of having finally been paid their outstanding salaries.Edited by Dustin Silgardo

Australia were hoping to prove that their latest crop of seam bowlers can hold a candle to their attacks of the past, once again the reality was far different from their ambitions

Daniel Brettig at Chester-le-Street07-Jul-2012This was supposed to be the day Australia’s pace attack bared its teeth. Freed from the claustrophobia of the indoor nets by an unlikely break in the Durham weather, they were to be unleashed on England. Four quicks had been selected, the ineffectual Xavier Doherty dropped and the enigmatic Mitchell Johnson left out. In damp air, and on a seaming, tacky pitch, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson, Brett Lee and Clint McKay were resolved, as Hilfenhaus put it, to “show England what we’re made of”.Not for the first time on this tour, Australia’s lofty expectations were to prove completely out of step with the prevailing reality. Given only 200 runs to defend by batsmen who admittedly had to cope with much the worst of the conditions, the touring bowlers were swatted away by Ian Bell, Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott without anything like the sort of discomfort anticipated. Their ineffectiveness was to be compounded by a pair of ruinous injuries to Shane Watson and Brett Lee, the latter perhaps walking from the field in England for the very last time.That Australia’s bowlers should struggle to get past England’s Test match proven top three was not in itself a surprise – the hosts had lost only eight wickets across the first two matches before Edgbaston’s wash-out. But the fact that on a seaming pitch the visitors could not even manage to claim one early wicket, let alone pressure England for any length of the chase, added another disheartening chapter to the book that may be written on why the team coached by Andy Flower remains well in advance of Australia’s. For those citing the injuries as a possible excuse, it can be countered that the match was slipping away well before Watson and Lee hobbled off.Of the touring bowlers, only David Saker’s former student McKay has offered a consistent, nagging threat to England on this trip. Fractionally too short at Lord’s, he has improved with each match, and here returned a meritorious 2 for 29. The rest, however, have struggled to put the ball where they need to in the manner of their English counterparts, whether they be experienced or callow.The example for the rest was thought likely to come from Lee, but by the time he left the field at Durham it was possible to ponder how capable he is of providing it. Lee’s calf complaint is the probable end to his tour, but it had already been a frustrating one, for the precision he showed against Ireland in Belfast had not been matched against England. Lee was unable to nail his yorkers at a pivotal time at Lord’s, allowing Eoin Morgan to wriggle the total beyond 250 where for most of the innings 230 was the favourite. The Oval came and went with a similar lack of threat at the required times.

Pattinson has now been introduced to a sensation that has become all too familiar among Australian cricketers: that of defeat against England.

At Chester-le-Street, Lee followed up a shortish maiden in his first over by conceding 12 from his second, either dropping short or drifting wide to force his removal from the attack. A return spell lasted only two balls before Lee was unable to bowl, and he remains short of Glenn McGrath’s Australian ODI wickets record. The question for the national selector John Inverarity is how much longer Lee, at 35, can be permitted to pursue it.Lee had been preceded on his unhappy path to the treatment room by Watson, another who has not met expectations with the ball. One wicket in three games at a cost of 6.11 runs per over left Watson looking very much the fifth bowler on Australia’s team sheet, when for so long his medium paced swing and seam has been arguably the ODI team’s most versatile asset. Watson has been unable to contain or take wickets, leaving Clarke less able to call on him in the Powerplay overs or at the death of an innings, as he had done frequently during the Australian summer. After a lengthy period in which he became admirably robust, injuries have begun to creep back into Watson’s story, a fact arguably more disquieting than the runs he has conceded in these games.Hilfenhaus had conveyed his urgent desire to play in the lead-up to this match, but, as against Ireland, his ODI bowling was to prove curiously muted next to the shrewd and strong displays he had offered against India and the West Indies during the Test matches that preceded it. While a better bowler than he had shown against England during the last Ashes series in Australia, Hilfenhaus was not as much of a challenge for Bell, Cook and Trott as he should have been on this surface. By his own admission Hilfenhaus remains a student of the one-day game rather than its master, but he will have to bowl more incisively than this on the Ashes tour next year.All this left Pattinson with a considerable weight on his shoulders in his first match against England. His first over was bedevilled by an introductory no-ball, and was studded with a pair of Ian Bell boundaries. Pattinson improved in subsequent spells, bowling as well to Cook as his fellow young firebrand Pat Cummins had done at Lord’s. On another day he might have had a wicket or two, and can be said to have bowled better than his figures showed. But he has now been introduced to a sensation that has become all too familiar among Australian cricketers: that of defeat against England.Between the rain, the defeats and the injuries, this has been a most unsatisfactory visit for Clarke’s tourists, and a most sobering one. While the shortcomings of the batsmen are widely known, the selected bowlers have been left in little doubt that they have plenty of work to do also. Sharper teeth will need to be found in time for next year, otherwise the same story will be related.

The freedom with which Kevin Pietersen batted confirmed his form and offered further encouragement that England can adapt to Asian conditions

Andrew McGlashan in Colombo05-Apr-2012″The likelihood is I’m in a position now to go and score some runs.” That was Kevin Pietersen before the first Test in Galle. It wasn’t the brash statement it may appear – Pietersen had also admitted he could score four ducks in the series – but after a difficult time in the Tests against Pakistan he was feeling back to his best. Those who watched his magnificent innings at the P Sara saw batting at its most clinical.Throughout this game England have played much more like the side that reached No. 1 in the world. A strutting, confident Pietersen is part of that package. He is, has been and always will be a remarkable talent. The fact that in 2008 he brought in a shot that sent the lawmakers into conference shows what an impact he has had on the sport. That shot, his switch hit, again came to prominence in this innings but there was so much more about his display.”When I’m in form I like to play like that,” he said. “I’ve never been able to explain how I bat, it’s instinct. I’ve got a pretty simply technique and have been working on something very simple. It just worked today.”It was his 29th international hundred and set a new record for England, going ahead of Graham Gooch (which puts Sachin Tendulkar’s feat into some perspective), and came after a lean time in the UAE where he made 67 runs in the three Tests.”It’s a very proud day for me and my family,” Pietersen said. “Records will get broken but I don’t want to stop there and I’m so pleased mum and dad were here. There are blokes that have so many more [hundreds] than me. At the end of my career I’ll be very proud of the way I’ve trained and the way I’ve played. It’s stuff that dreams are made of.”He was the first batsman to score freely on a slow surface. Even Mahela Jayawardene had to grind out his runs on the opening day. This was Pietersen from the first part of his career (BC, before captaincy, is perhaps how it should be known) when he was one of most of dazzling batsmen in the world. Since then he has gone through times when batting has been tougher, but he retains that stroke of brilliance that sets him apart.”After the two months off I found it quite difficult to move my feet quickly,” he said about his struggle in the UAE. “I’d like to play those Test matches again playing the way I am now. You can’t always score runs and you can’t always be in good form. Players go through cycles and you can feel like an idiot. I certainly felt like an idiot in the first couple of Test matches but have turned the corner after a lot of hard graft.”For the first time this year he had the perfect foundation to work from. The top three had taken England to 213 for 2 and the timing of Alastair Cook’s dismissal may actually have helped him. The new ball was only four overs old, so there was some hardness for Pietersen to work with rather than having to play himself in against a soft ball. “The stability of the top three is amazing,” he said. “The guys laid a platform and in that weather, with bowlers in their third or fourth spells, they can be pretty tired so you have to cash in.”

“This was Pietersen from the first part of his career (BC – before captaincy) when he was one of most of dazzling batsmen in the world”

Not that a new ball prevented Mahela Jayawardene going straight away to Rangana Herath although that tactic lasted one over. By lunch Pietersen had 18 off 33 balls and then, like great batsmen can, he decided to flick the switch after the interval. In the second over of the afternoon session he skipped down the pitch and lofted Tillakaratne Dilshan over long-on.Pietersen has had problems against spin, but rarely ordinary offspin. Suraj Randiv was made to look like a club bowler as the 17 deliveries he bowled to Pietersen went for 39 runs and he had a strike-rate of over 100 against Dilshan. It was a ruthless, calculated assault. The head-to-head with Dilshan turned into an enthralling contest and led to Pietersen being warned for preparing to switch hit too early. Then, after three-and-a-half dazzling hours it ended when he tried to paddle Herath.”A longer innings would have done us a world of good, but it was so hot out there,” he said. “There was no way I could bat until tomorrow. My right hamstring had gone and both my forearms had gone. I think we let ourselves down a bit in that final session, I’m not sure we should have been bowled out but it sets up a fascinating Test match.”Pietersen may have wanted more runs – and a lead of 250 would have all but removed the chance of an awkward fourth-innings target – but another great value of an innings like his is that it buys England time in the match. It is hard work taking wickets on this surface although there are increasing signs of uneven bounce that will encourage the fast bowlers.This could yet prove a crucial match in the context of the rest of the team’s year, not so much for the summer coming up at home but the series against India in November and December. If they can leave the subcontinent with evidence of improvement it will give them something to work with, although the spin bowling on that series should be of a higher quality. That is why Pietersen is so important. He was vital to England reaching No. 1 and he’ll be vital if they are to stay there. Innings like this show why.