ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the first T20 at Chester-le-Street

David Hopps09-Sep-2012Guv’nor of the Day
Jade Dernbach, an England bowler whose method relies on infinite variety, treated Jacques Kallis to a slower offcutter. Kallis saw it early, seemed to have an hour to play the shot and struck it imperiously through cover for four. In one ball, Kallis seemed to tell Dernbach that he had seen all his tricks and was even a little bored by them.12th man of the Day
A close contest, this one. Hashim Amla was rested from South Africa’s side and when he came on, polite and bespectacled, he might have been a University professor rather than a great international batsman. Luke Wright, by contrast, ran on with his usual energy for England and looked what he is – an allrounder on the back of a successful T20 season desperate for a game.Fall guy of the day
It cannot get much worse than this for Ravi Bopara. He looked defeatist, nicked a fast bowler to slip – in this case, not for the first time, Dale Steyn – and departed, hangdog. He deserves sympathy for a time of emotional upheavel but as an England batsman has he ever really been as good as the England management loyally profess?Question of the Day
The group of fans with “Kevin Who?” signs attached to their shirts were obviously banking on England’s batsmen backing up their bravado with a bravura display to provide firm evidence that life was just fine without their superstar-in-exile. They weren’t the only ones who were let down.Disappointment of the Day
No, not England’s performance, which barely bordered on competitive, but the size of the crowd. With temporary seating, Durham’s ground can hold almost 20,000, but there was no need to throw up extra stands for the first of this three-match series, as around half of the tickets went unsold. Worrying signs for what is supposed to be a cash-cow format.Tweet of the day
@JohnSunCricket: “Another day, another rubbish cricket match. Surely one of the remaining two T20s will provide some excitement.” The Sun’s cricket correspondent feels the strain after a long season.

The route to a draw in this Test was not clearly charted, as both teams sought victory as well as a psychological advantage for the rest of the series

Firdose Moonda at Headingley06-Aug-2012There are winning draws and losing draws. There are boring draws and exciting ones. There are draws that invoke frustrations and elicit criticisms with Test cricket that, unlike the telephone, typewriter and light bulb, it has not evolved enough from its 19th century beginnings. Then there are draws like Headingley 2012.It proved the modern game is every bit as analytical and tactical as it needs to be to fit into times it has been told it cannot keep up with and that a contest, when properly kindled, will burst into flames at just the right time.Although the speed at which the match moved on the final day – 13 wickets, two different innings and all three results still possible until the final hour – was fascinating, the maze of mind games that took place during it will be the legacy of this fixture, because there was no clear winner. For every question England asked of South Africa, someone had an answer. For every answer, England had another question. Just when South Africa thought they had answered all the questions, one more came.Stuart Broad asked it when he plucked five wickets from South Africa’s middle and lower order. In the context of the game, those wickets only hastened what Graeme Smith was aiming to do anyway: end the South Africa innings. But they would have added volumes in confidence to an England attack which, until then, did not look as though they could bowl South Africa out twice.That Smith did not allow them to do that, consciously or subconsciously, by declaring when South Africa lost their ninth wicket could be one of the factors that plays on England minds ahead of Lord’s. While South Africa’s attack have taken 20 wickets in a match this series, England have not.By putting England back in, Smith also took the obvious result, a draw, folded it up, tucked it under his arm and ran around the corner with it, leading England into a labyrinth he hoped they would get lost in. It would have taken a performance of the magnitude of England’s Cardiff efforts against Sri Lanka last year – and batting as inept as the tourists’ was that day – for that to have happened but Smith believed it was possible.He laid down a marker of intent, however unlikely victory was, with his second positive declaration in as many matches. He may even argue that he came closer than Andrew Strauss to achieving what seemed impossible. “We wanted an opportunity to win the Test match and in the end, we were probably one wicket away from having a real go in the last 15 overs,” Smith said.With a bowling attack as varied and charged up as South Africa’s – Dale Steyn bowled what could be the fastest spell of the series – Smith thought he had the trap laid. But Strauss could read the map too and played his ace in Kevin Pietersen at the top of the order. It was just what Smith wanted. “England took the game to us, which I was kind of hoping they would do, because it would give us chances,” Smith said. “When someone is playing like Pietersen there is always an opportunity.”Opportunity came four times in the second innings as the beauty of the game unfolded like a spring flower and the balance shifted. England did not give up the chase until Matt Prior’s run-out and South Africa did not stop trying to take wickets until Jacques Kallis’ last delivery. Given more time, more runs, more overs and less rain, the result may have been something other than a draw.Even though it was, the draw did not struggle out like the last drops from a tap. It was a draw that held attention the way a burst pipe does, because in the space of a few balls the gush could have caused damage on either side. It was a draw that captivated and thrilled at the end because it had been built on a solid, although not always eye-catching, start and both teams deserve credit and praise for their role in that.

“The ECB clearly needs to talk about and with Kevin Pietersen, while South Africa can sit on the other side and continue to play happy families”

To pick the side that inched forward after the five days is not the easiest task. England came back, not as strongly as they promised they would, but they came back nonetheless. South Africa stretched an unenviable record and have not won the follow-up Test after a big victory in their last seven attempts, dating back to 2010. This time, it was not for lack of trying, so they may draw some inspiration from that.What could provide the real impetus is the schadenfreude they may derive from glancing over the fence and peeping at what is going on next door. They don’t even have to look actually, they can just listen because the neighbours are causing such a ruckus.The ECB clearly needs to talk about and with Kevin Pietersen, as his increasing number of issues with playing for his country seem to have no end. South Africa can sit on the other side and continue to play happy families.From a distance it seems not even the sharpest blade could slice the squad apart. Fringe players such as Faf du Plessis have spoken about how they have been made to feel welcome and been embraced into the team culture. No-one is threatening anything, nevermind something as dramatic as what Pietersen is stirring up on the other side.The three walking wounded are on the mend. Alviro Petersen batted, despite his hamstring strain, and should be fully fit within six days. Smith’s knee is strapped but healing and Kallis batted and bowled, having fully overcome his back spasms.It may be a quaint notion but South Africa’s mental edge in the final Test could come from being completely at peace, while their opposition seem to be readying for a big battle with themselves.

When others experience problems and he finds a point to prove, Kevin Pietersen flourishes

George Dobell in Mumbai25-Nov-2012There may have been more reliable batsmen, there may have been more responsible batsmen and there may have been more consistent batsmen. But there have been very few batsmen to have been so destructive, so often, as Kevin Pietersen.Certainly it is hard to think of another England batsman of recent vintage who could have played the innings Pietersen played. On a pitch offering substantial assistance to the spinners and on which other batsmen have struggled for fluency, Pietersen created the illusion that he was operating on a batting paradise. Only when others, some of whom are considered experts in such conditions, prodded and struggled were the true nature of the conditions exposed.This was an innings that many thought could never be played. When Pietersen was dropped from the England team in August, bridges were smouldering and, so deep were the divisions between him and his colleagues, that it looked for a while that there could be no return. It is surely for the best that a rapprochement was achieved. At a time when Test cricket is fighting for relevance and room, talents like Pietersen are to be savoured by anyone from any nation. His return is an asset not just to England, but to the game. Players like this do not come around very often.Pietersen is often at his best with a point to prove. It was after a poor tour of the UAE earlier this year that he produced the innings of 151 in Colombo; as the chasm between him and his teammates grew that he produced the innings of 149 in Leeds and as he sought to restate his worth after “reintegration” that he produced this innings. Most players are at their best when they feel comfortable; Pietersen is at his best when he feels doubted.Each great innings has been produced as his colleagues have struggled. Here, apart from the excellent Alastair Cook, no other England batsman could manage more than 29. At Leeds, Matt Prior, with 68, was the only other man to get out of the 30s and, even in Colombo, where England started well, Pietersen’s departure saw England lose their last five wickets for 49 runs. He has produced three match-shaping centuries in his last eight Tests. No-one in the world has scored more runs in first-class cricket this year, either. He is a great batsman at the peak of his powers. His worth to the team is immense.We should not be surprised. After all, before Pietersen, England had never won a global trophy. Before Pietersen, England had not won the Ashes in nearly two decades. Before Pietersen, England could barely dream of reaching No.1 in the ODI, Test or T20 rankings. It is largely through him that all those hurdles were cleared. He was, remember, the man of the tournament when England won the World T20 in the Caribbean in 2010 and it was his century at The Oval that clinched the 2005 Ashes.

It was masterful innings containing a medley of Pietersen’s greatest hits. But what made it all possible was the fact that he was prepared to wait for the opportunity to play them.

Yet, despite it all, some will never take to Pietersen. They doubt his motives, his commitment and his loyalty. It is a state of affairs that perhaps says more about the doubters than the doubted. Pietersen, like everyone else who has ever played the game, will be a mixture of virtue and vice and it is often unwise to judge a sportsman on anything other than their performance. Whatever Pietersen’s qualities off the pitch – and the truth is that most with an opinion are basing it on presumption rather than evidence – as a batsman it is hard to dispute his greatness.His technique may, at times, look idiosyncratic, but there is thought and logic behind it. At his best, his eyes, his hands and his feet work in harmony consistent with most great players. It is just that, such is Pietersen’s reach, his strength and his range of stroke, that he has more options than most. There will be occasions when he over-reaches or when his ego – so often a power of good in his batting – seduces him into danger. But that’s the price you pay for the wild genius. Viv Richards was not so different.So dominant was Pietersen in the opening session of the third day that he took a game in the balance and stole the initiative for England. He read R Ashwin’s variation and, having done so, was confident enough to use his feet to hit the ball into the gaps and produced strong evidence to scotch the theory that he struggles against left-arm spin: at one staging thrashing Pragyan Ojha for two fours and three sixes in a 17-ball spell.It was masterful stuff containing a medley of Pietersen’s greatest hits: the slog-sweep, the reverse sweep, the scoop, the cover drive, the cut and the lofted drive. But what made it all possible was the fact that he was prepared to wait for the opportunity to play them. There was none of the premeditation we saw in Ahmedabad, as Pietersen demonstrated the patience and the technique to block the good balls and wait for the bad ones. And when you have the arsenal of scoring options of Pietersen, you never have to wait too long.Cook is a different creature but must also be defined as great. Like Pietersen, Cook now has 22 Test centuries – no England player has scored more – and both should have plenty to come. Critics often judge a player’s merit or talent not on effectiveness, but on aesthetics. While it is true that Cook may not time the ball with the sweetness of Ian Bell, the more apt criteria for judgement should be who you would rather bat in your team. Cook, by such a benchmark, scores well. His mental strength and determination may not create the pleasing elegance of Bell, but they will win more matches.The excellence of Pietersen and Cook helped England to a first innings lead of 86 and, just as relevant in the long-term, a score of 400 for two innings in succession. On surfaces designed to exploit their weaknesses, that is an encouraging statistic.It may be mis-leading, however. Cook and Pietersen apart, England’s batsmen continued to struggle against spin. Jonny Bairstow showed some understandable naivety in playing across the left-arm spinner and Samit Patel has yet to justify his reputation against spin. England still look overly reliant for their runs on a couple of individuals.The success of their spinners was a major boost, though. To lose the toss on a wicket tailor-made for the opposition and beat them at their own game would be a remarkable achievement. It may also provide India with some food for thought going into the rest of the series.But let us not get ahead of ourselves. Bearing in mind England’s struggles against spin this year, and the ghost of Abu Dhabi hanging over them, a target of as little as 120 may still provoke discomfort. This beguiling game may offer us another twist or two yet.

For contrasting reasons, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli were under pressure but they responded in the best possible manner to keep India in the Test

Sidharth Monga15-Dec-2012Saturday in Nagpur was not a big test of skill. It was a slow and low pitch that it was difficult to get out on, which – if you look at it in isolation and as a neutral – has provided drab cricket. This was a different kind of test for two different kinds of men in two different kinds of predicaments. You can look at MS Dhoni’s face when he is walking back, and not tell whether he has won a game or lost it, or even tied it. But turn to Virat Kohli and there is a full match report written on it. They have both been copping it of late, and not entirely unfairly.Dhoni has led India to nine defeats in the last 10 Tests he has played against Australia and England. Any captain will be questioned after that, but the way it has been handled isn’t been ideal. First we got the impression the selectors didn’t want to touch him, then when they became former selectors they alleged they couldn’t touch him because of the BCCI president’s backing. All that in the lead-up to a Test India need to save to avoid a first home series defeat in close to nine years.Kohli, the man most likely to replace Dhoni as captain whenever he is replaced, had gone through a perplexing series until today. One of the best traits of his batting is that he doesn’t gift you his wicket. In this series, though, he had been playing loose shots. It was tempting to think Test cricket was getting to him, but that couldn’t have been the case. Just before the series started, in a tricky but successful chase against New Zealand in Bangalore, he faced 15 dots before scoring a run under immense pressure from a good attack under overcast skies.Lesser batsmen have been known to throw it away at such times, looking for release from that pressure. Suresh Raina did so with a shot that might have ended his Test career (maybe not, for you never know with Indian cricket). Kohli, though, showed no emotion or itch. He waited and waited before a ball arrived that deserved to be scored off, and came back with an unbeaten fifty and a Test won. Incidentally, his partner then was Dhoni.Kohli is too good a batsman to keep getting out the way he has been, playing nothing shots outside off. It isn’t the bottle or the technique that he has been lacking. Whatever it was, those who had not followed his efforts in Perth, Adelaide and Bangalore were questioning him, and his scores deserved those questions.A current captain and a future captain were both losing trust, and they needed to do something about it. Okay so this was not a test of their pure batting skills, but it was a test of temperament, of patience, of mental and physical energy, and most importantly of staying in the present. Don’t think of the past. Shut out Jimmy Amarnath, Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket, the loose shots outside off. Don’t think of the future. Shut out the ticking clock because this is not a pitch where you can score quick runs, and starting at 87 for 4 you can only cause damage by thinking of whether you will have enough time to force a result. Also forget that one of you plays possibly the best cover-drive in the world, and the other has never faced more than 187 balls in a Test innings.The biggest target for India on day three was to end in a position where they could make use of it should the pitch break up and start turning. Had India trailed by 100 on first innings, which looked quite likely at the start of the day, no amount of turn would have helped them. Alternatively if the pitch doesn’t break up, quick runs won’t help anyway.

“This pitch isn’t made for pretty but India don’t need pretty. Batting like millionaires hasn’t been working; they need to bat like paupers for a bit”

Dhoni and Kohli showed that if you just put your mind to defending, it’s too difficult for a bowler to get a wicket. They just batted. Defend, defend, defend, sneak a single here, convert two into three there. And boy did they run? It wasn’t pretty. This pitch isn’t made for pretty. India need the unpretty. Batting like millionaires hasn’t been working; they need to bat like paupers for a bit.For a long period, it didn’t seem even the centuries mattered to them. Kohli reached 90 in the 109th over and the hundred in the 115th. In between he hit Dhoni’s bat with a straight drive, which cost him four runs. That was the only time his expressive face showed any sign of anxiety. Dhoni reached 90 in the 113th over and was run out for 99 in the 130th, but until that run-out you would have thought he was batting in the 30s.Perhaps it was the non-expressive Dhoni face that led you to believe the hundred didn’t matter. Perhaps it didn’t matter. Perhaps Dhoni thought that was a normal run: remember he had to run slightly around James Anderson, and still he had reached the line when the stumps were hit.Whatever the case may be, the two had fallen at crucial moments. From a position where they could have gone after quick runs on the fourth morning, they had been reduced to a situation where being bowled out is the best thing that can happen to them. As has been happening over the last 18 months – Raina bowling in the middle session on day four at Lord’s, the hat-trick at Trent Bridge, the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid either side of stumps at the MCG – India had come second-best in a critical phase once again. A side that has been losing a lot of its talent can’t afford that.

Harsha Bhogle, Tom Moody and Peter Kirsten review the tournament, and CSA’s head Jacques Faul offers his assessment of the league

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Oct-2012
Was it a successful tournament from a South African perspective? (2.10 – 3.05)
Peter Kirsten: Definitely. The great thing about the Champions League is that it gives the franchise teams in South Africa a chance to show what they can do against top-class international players of different nationalities. It gives the franchises all around the world not only an opportunity to make a lot of money – if they make the finals or win it – but also show the IPL bosses what exactly they can do. With the Lions making the final, it was a great success for the South African public and the organisers.The best team won in the end… (3.06 – 3.57)
Tom Moody: I agree. The Sydney Sixers showed true form and consistency throughout the tournament. They looked dominant in all three aspects of the game. I thought they were the best fielding side, the best performing bowling attack, and they also showed depth in their batting, particularly after Shane Watson left to go back to Australia early. They showed they were capable of doing something without such a key player around.Why did the IPL teams do badly? And why is it that the South African sides did well? (3.58 – 7.24)
TM: The IPL teams struggled with the conditions – they are a lot different to what Indian players would face in the subcontinent – and it’s early season in South Africa. There’s seam movement, swing, and there was that extra bit of bounce. The most significant point is that the IPL teams didn’t gel as quickly as the other teams. The IPL teams are brought together over a two-month period for an IPL extravaganza in the middle of the year. The teams that tend to do well in the IPL are the ones that get together and gel together quickly. In such a short tournament like the Champions League, there’s not a lot of time for that.PK: There’s quite a lot of national diversity in many of the other IPL teams. If you take the Lions, Titans and the Sixers, there’s only Nathan McCullum and Michael Lumb and [Sohail Tanvir]. The local teams definitely had the advantage, and it’s very difficult for a diversity of national players, such as the IPL teams, to suddenly get it together. And certainly, the conditions suited Australia and South African teams with the bounce. Unfortunately on the day, the Lions batsmen succumbed – yet again a South African team succumbing to the pressure.A well-fought contest between bat and ball… (7.30 – 11.25)
PK: Twenty20 cricket is also about playing good, decent cricket shots as Brad Haddin and Lumb showed in the final. The Lions batsmen played completely across the line against quality fast bowlers and spinners. So definitely, the bowling skills are coming to the fore. In terms of captaincy, I thought it was a masterstroke from Haddin to go with his gut feel and start with the spinners and it worked superbly for him on the day. A good bowling side definitely has a distinct advantage in Twenty20 cricket.TM: When there’s a little bit more in the conditions, it tests a true player and a true team. A player, whether bowling or batting, needs to adapt to the conditions and the situation. That was the beauty of this particular Champions League. It made it an intriguing contest between bat and ball, where it wasn’t one-way traffic. What it showed was that batsmen prepared to play with good technique and composure under pressure were generally the ones that came out on top in those contests.Were you happy with the quality of cricket played? (11.26 – 13.52)
PK: The Sialkot Stallions might have been a decent introduction to the [main round of the] Champions League. They definitely would have drawn the attention of many more Pakistan fans. The standard of cricket was generally pretty good, at this time of the year there’s a bit more movement similar to Australian pitches. Generally speaking, the quality of cricket improved, the fielding was excellent and what the batsmen would have learnt in South Africa is try and play straight down the ground, as you saw with the Sixers batsmen yesterday and Symes of the Lions. Perhaps they would need to look at the structure of the qualifying rounds the next time around.Is the role of spin changing in different conditions? The Indian spinners didn’t do well but the others did. (13.53 – 15.37)
TM: That’s more a coincidence. The Indian spinners didn’t perform, more to do with the fact that their team had no momentum and was playing poor cricket. At the end of the day, the spinners that did do well were complemented by the remainder of their attack. They were made as strong as what they were and their attack was also complemented by the way they bowled. It was a collective effort. Talk about Steve O’Keefe and McCullum – any spinner would love to know that at the other end is a Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood or a Pat Cummins, because it just complements their art.The standard of national teams is above that of franchise cricket, which is sometimes contrary to what we see in football. Also, is the South African national side a fair representation of the best franchise teams in the country? (15.38 – 19.25)TM: The national teams are the cream of the crop in every country. They are well-drilled and at the absolute peak of their powers as cricketers. What you’ve got is a hot-house of the very best of that country that are selected because they are good at that format of the game.PK: The domestic scene in South Africa is very strong. Over the last ten years, dare I say this, we’ve tended to copy the structures of Australian domestic cricket and in many ways it has worked. There is depth in South Africa. Coach Gary Kirsten and the selectors are looking to give guys a chance. Aaron Phangiso, Chris Morris came through beautifully. South Africa still need to pay a lot of attention to the dotting of the Is and crossing of the Ts in Twenty20 cricket. They were found out in Sri Lanka, and again in the final a South African franchise struggled to put it together on a big day. It’s a difficult one for coach Kirsten and the others to get the right team together.Who were the players that excited you in the Champions League? (19.26 – 21.53)
TM: There’s two from the Sixers side. One is Josh Hazlewood: he was the most consistent quick out of that star-studded line-up. The other is Moises Henriques: he was touted a few years ago as a star allrounder, was thrown into the deep end and he struggled. Henriques has had that period out of the international spotlight and he’s ready to go back in. He looked the real deal as an allrounder.

“The domestic scene in South Africa is very strong. Over the last ten years, dare I say this, we’ve tended to copy the structures of Australian domestic cricket and in many ways it has worked”Peter Kirsten

PK: It was wonderful to see Neil McKenzie have such a great tournament. I’ve had a bit to do with Neil’s batting over the years. Playing for South Africa in your mid-30s, mentally you’re strong. Unfortunately for him in the final, he played a poor shot. He was a key batsman in the middle order for the Lions.George Bailey had talked about the need for Australia to have mystery spinners. But John Inverarity has said Australian spinners won’t bowl like that, effectively saying the 15-degree rule is not right for the game. How does Australia approach slow bowling in T20s, for example? (21.54 – 24.10)
TM: I tend to agree with Bailey. You always look to expand and develop your game and if you come up with something different – like the switch hit, reverse sweep – why not. As long as it stays within the rules of the game – the 15-degree rule came over a decade ago – why not try to be a little different? Too often we try to develop players out of the manual. Sanath Jayasuriya, Brian Lara, if you take a look at them through the ICC coaching manual, they probably wouldn’t pass. By goodness, haven’t they passed the test of time of international cricket? As long as it’s kept within the guidelines that’s clearly stated now, I don’t have a problem with it at all.What would you do different to the Champions League? (24.11 – 25.24)TM: I would like to see every country represented in the main competition and there not to be a qualifying stage for them.Excerpts from an interview with Jacques Faul, acting chief executive of Cricket South Africa and a member of the CLT20 governing council.In your view, has this tournament been a success?
The one thing is does do is provide your local domestic player an opportunity to play international stars, also from other countries. From a South African perspective, we’re very happy with the tournament and also because it provides the incentive for two of our six franchise teams to qualify.Are you concerned that viewership ratings are down, sponsorship is changing and as a viewing spectacle, this hasn’t quite taken off the way it should have?
There’s a concern in terms of the volume of entertainment and sport in general in the world. It seems to be escalating. I don’t think it’s isolated to the Champions League in itself, but it’s definitely something you’ve got to be mindful of. But it’s still a good product, if you compare it to other forms of entertainment and sport. The financial incentives are very good, so is the exposure value for players. For our South African teams, it’s a very important tournament. It boosts our domestic product.What does it mean to cricket in that territory to have that kind of money coming in?
They all receive, from CSA, US$600,000 as a yearly grant. That’s an annual grant, so to receive US$1.3 million or even US$500,000, that’s a lot of money. It’s a good incentive for players to win it as prize money. To give you the formula – the players get 50% of it, 25% goes to the winning franchises and the other franchises share in the remaining 25% of it. So, all our professional cricket structures benefit from it.Was the timing right? There was always the threat of rain.
Unfortunately, we had a lot of rain, it’s not the norm. I don’t think it’s a bad window.Were you happy with the number of people who turned up?
We are, but that’s affected by rain unfortunately as well. The opening match was unbelievable. The final, a lot of these matches were sold out. It also brings new people to grounds that have not supported cricket in the past, so very happy with it.Is it a weakness of the Champions League that it’s almost got to be too India-centric?
You can never underestimate the value of Indian teams playing in the tournament. The focus is not to deprecate the IPL, but still have the value of a large IPL influence and yet open it up to the world. It’s wonderful playing the IPL teams – they’re strong, well-structured and coached, but you can benchmark against it as well. Twenty20 brings teams closer. It’s good to have the best of the IPL combined with the rest of the world.How do you make the league stronger? For example, in the qualifying round, teams played one match and then were virtually out after losing.
Stronger teams from the members taking part will make it stronger, with the value in having strong and good players in it. Structurally, you can look at it. We’re going to have a debriefing on the tournament, get inputs from all stakeholders, team owners, officials, also the broadcasters. It is an evolving tournament and I can’t see it staying the same for the next five or six years.Is it possible for the tournament to move to Australia, with the time difference etc?
That’s probably an issue. Ultimately, it’s also important to have a strong television product. The financial model relies a lot on broadcasting rights and you’ve got to take that into consideration. I can’t say we’ll never have it in Australia, but you’ve still got to pay the bills and listen to your biggest investors and that’s probably broadcasting as well. I think there’s something wonderful and romantic about playing in India.Numbers Game (35.43 – 38.02)
Question: In the Champions League 2012, the spinners from which team had the poorest economy rate?

There’s yummy food in Hobart, and lovely buildings in Australia’s second-largest city. Too bad Sri Lanka don’t quite show up for the second Test

Andrew Fernando01-Jan-2013December 12
Leave Hobart airport worn and weary and am comforted by how small the place feels. The town is over the other side of the river from my accommodation, but the Russian motel owner insists I have to see the city today. He moved here eight years ago, and it does not surprise me to learn that he is also an immigration agent, specialising in bringing people to Tasmania.”This is the greatest place in the world to live,” he says. “If you live 15 minutes from where you work, people ask, ‘What the hell is wrong with you? Where are you living?'””Unemployment is high here too, but I don’t tell that to my clients.”December 13
First sighting of the gorgeous Bellerive Oval. It’s so close to the edge of the Derwent River you feel that if a strong easterly blows in, the stadium could slide into the water.The view from the press box is lovely. “It used to be better before they raised the southern stand,” complains an Australian journalist.”We should enjoy the view we’ve got now, because in a couple of year’s time, it won’t be there,” another chimes in.Meet Mahela Jayawardene for a short interview at the team hotel later in the afternoon. He’s got his fingers crossed about the Bellerive pitch.”Hopefully they’ll leave the grass on and our quicks can get something out of it,” he says.”Not a request you always hear from a Sri Lankan captain,” I reply.He flashes a smile. “That’s the only way we’re going to win a Test match here.”December 14
I had heard from several journalists that Hobart’s press-box food was the best around, but I had been skeptical. The city is charming but a little vanilla, which doesn’t usually make for a vibrant culinary scene. I was wrong. So very wrong.They serve up oily, fresh, flavoursome salmon on the first day, and I’m hooked. The fish are farmed, rather than wild, but the brochure provided to each reporter claims that that did not compromise on taste, and I am not in any position to argue.I’ll have my cheque made out to cash, please, Tourism Tasmania.December 15
Coming from Sri Lanka, where the largest contingents of spectators at Test matches are routinely the hordes of groundstaff, I had hoped to witness the kinds of numbers cricket’s best format deserves in Australia. I soon find it is not to be the case in Hobart, where the stands are sparsely occupied on all five days. Strangely, Tasmania Cricket’s chairman then goes on to warn, “If you don’t like Tasmania, don’t come here,” which seems to me like the opposite of what needed to be said.December 16
So Mahela never got his wish, and for the first three days of the Test, the Hobart pitch is fairly tame. Tillakaratne Dilshan gets a warm ovation for his hundred, from an almost entirely pro-Australian audience. Australians want their side to win, but perhaps not always at the expense of good cricket, which they appreciate better than most.December 17
As I leave the ground in twilight, several local teenagers in their swimming costumes are daring each other to take a dip in the Derwent. I test the water temperature with my hand and proceeded to suppress a loud slew of expletives. They make them hard in Tasmania, I’ve heard, but I’m not sure that will slow hypothermia down any. They all seemed terrified of taking a dip, but intent on making fun of each other for not going in first.December 18
The Sri Lankan contingent in the press box breaks the news on Peter Siddle’s suspected ball-tampering on day three, leading to much murmuring and covert calling for the remainder of the day.”Was Australia too quiet for you blokes?” a local journalist asks in jest.I’m called by an Australian sports radio station to outline Sri Lanka’s position on the whole issue, which is basically: “We think he maybe, might have, possibly raised the seam a teeny bit, and we’re very concerned, but also, under no circumstances, in any way, are we ever going to make an official complaint.”At the end of the day the ICC sends out a press release claiming Siddle had already been cleared by the umpires at the end of day three, which is information that might have saved everyone time, stress and migraines, had it been brought to light promptly.December 19
Catch a very early flight to Melbourne, and first impression of the city is that everything seems to be a slick operation. Traffic doesn’t appear to be a major issue. The public transport is frequent and punctual, though a tad expensive. And being very cosmopolitan, there seems to be a huge variety of eateries.Arrive at my lodging, fairly close to the city, to find that it is right across the road from an establishment of dubious ethics named The Harem. I offer a friend money to go in dressed in a kaftan, wielding a falsetto, claiming he is a eunuch looking for work. He briefly considers and wisely declines.December 20
Does not take long for me to run into another Sri Lankan in Melbourne, on the tram. We discuss the team’s chances, and his assessments are about as pessimistic as mine, but we both hope we are proven wrong. He tells me about the massive Sri Lankan community in Melbourne.”There seems to be a Sri Lankan concert every other week, and in some of the suburbs, you will meet more Sri Lankans than Australians.”Several of the team have family and friends here too, whom they have been visiting, while the other Sri Lankan journalists are also spending time with relatives. I quickly begin to feel like the only Sri Lankan in the world who doesn’t have family in Australia.December 21
Meet Asanka Gurusinha for an interview and he is as thoughtful as he is gracious. The beard is gone but the gut has been embellished. He’s going back to Sri Lanka just before Christmas and is there for a month. He’s particularly excited about this visit because he will be catching up with the legendary class of ’96.”We are playing a charity match in Colombo on January 11. I think the only members of ’96 World Cup team who can’t come are Marvan [Atapattu], because he’ll be here with the team, and Kumar Dharmasena, who might be umpiring. Murali will definitely come if his team gets knocked out of the Big Bash.”After the match we will have a dinner just for the players and families, so I’m really looking forward to that.”Oh, to be a fly on that wall.December 22
The most striking thing about Melbourne’s central business district is the juxtaposition of the old and the new. Flinders Street Station is right across the intersection from St Paul’s Cathredral. They are two of the oldest and most majestic buildings in the city. On another corner of the junction is the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, a senseless modern cube in a fractured shell. The friend who is travelling with me tells me he hates the ACMI building, but personally I’m a fan. Without the awful there, right in view, perhaps the enduring charm of the two other buildings would not seem so stark.December 23
The MCG is as overwhelming as I’d imagined. I go down to field level and stride onto the playing surface with as much confidence as I can muster, so as to look like I am allowed to be walking to the pitch. I just want to get a feel for what it would be like to stand in the middle. I’m stopped about 10 metres in from the boundary, though, and even with a press pass around my neck, I can’t argue my case for getting a closer look at the surface.December 24
Melbourne CBD on Christmas eve is more enchanting than I expected. There is a fair share of last-minute shoppers and the usual commercial gimmicks associated with the holiday, but there is also a festive atmosphere that is quite irresistible. The town hall’s façade is lit up beautifully, and a crowd admires the building from across the road as trams buzz regularly by.Federation Square and St Paul’s Cathedral and in Melbourne•Getty ImagesDecember 25
I am tasked with working on Christmas day, and to my dismay, Jayawardene and Michael Clarke both give press conferences nearing 20 minutes each.Meet with a couple of old friends for a drink after a lonely Christmas dinner in Chinatown, and go to bed excited about covering my first Boxing Day Test.December 26
The crowd is over 67,000 and the roar for Mitchell Johnson as he approached the crease to deliver his hat-trick ball is an experience that will never leave me.”I almost pulled up halfway through my run-up because I was about to smile. I couldn’t concentrate,” Johnson says at the end of the day.December 27


Receive an invitation to have lunch with MCC members on day four – apparently a Boxing Day Test tradition for journalists. Someone in the press box is skeptical the game will last that long, but I go to Sri Lanka’s defence, foolishly, in hindsight.Finish work early enough to sample a little of Melbourne’s nightlife and a few locally made drinks, including something called a “Dirty Granny cider”.December 28


Am up bright and early to talk about Sri Lanka’s chances in the Test on the radio. Proceed to take even more careful aim at my foot as I predict some fight from the visitors. Sri Lanka pull the trigger for me in the first few overs of their innings. Most Sri Lanka fans are unsure whether to laugh or cry. Mitchell Johnson goes on a bouncer rampage and Sri Lanka’s physiotherapist Steve Mount ends up spending more time in the middle than most of their batsmen.December 29


Wake up still unsure of what to make of what happened the previous day, but it only gets worse as I hear of Tony Greig’s death. I call Sri Lanka’s team manager, Charith Senanayake, for an injury update, but end up relaying the news of Greig’s passing, which leaves him speechless – a reaction many Sri Lankans will have had to the news.December 30


As Sri Lanka have no media activities planned, I explore Melbourne a little more. Have the best dumplings I’ve ever had, and take a peek inside St Paul’s Cathedral and Scots Church, which are as beautiful on the inside as their exteriors. There are Australian Open billboards everywhere, and I sense a twinge of longing to see Roger Federer play, but I will be gone long before the tennis starts.December 31


Tens of thousands of people have flocked to the CBD on New Year’s Eve, and as the calendar rolls over, I see why. About a dozen sets of fireworks go off in perfect synchronisation from the top of various skyscrapers about town. Even the sleepy children who have been dragged around the city muster a smile and a shout. Surprisingly few drunks to negotiate on the long walk home.

What batsmen want out of their bats has changed over the years – but not so much that they are any less finicky than their predecessors

Paul Edwards18-Feb-2013″Bats no longer have edges. They have a front, a back – and two sides.” Michael Holding’s judgement, given on air during one of last summer’s Tests, was delivered in his typically deep Jamaican tones, and it brooked no disagreement.One has only to look at the weapons being used by first-class cricketers to see that the profile of bats has changed. Long gone is the traditional blade, the 2lb 5oz scimitar. Willows are no longer particularly willowy.Yet, as many league cricketers can testify, while the modern bat may look like a mighty piece of wood with its huge 70mm edges, it is very far from the 3lb clubs used 20 and more years ago by Clive Lloyd, Graham Gooch and their like. The average weight of today’s bats is around 2lb 9oz, and this in a craft where taking an ounce off a blade can make all the difference to those key criteria, balance and pick-up. So how have manufacturers managed to make 41 ounces look like 48 or more?Welcome to the arcane world of pressing, bowing and concave shaping, a realm where professional sportsmen still take delivery of the highly crafted tools of their trade and then put them in the airing cupboard to dry them out a bit. One thing before we start: you can forget linseed oil; that’s just so last century.Pressing the wood is vital to a bat’s performance. All bat makers do this but if they press too little, the bat will be more likely to break, while if they press too much, its responsiveness and performance will be reduced. “There is an optimum amount of pressing,” said Stuart Waterton, brand manager at Kookaburra UK. “It is vitally important to produce the drive, and will vary for each piece of wood.””Each pressing is different, even if you’re making two bats from the same tree,” said Alex Mace, cricket product manager at Slazenger. “We press a bat three times, and under-pressing a bat is better than over-pressing, particularly for the bats we provide for the professionals.”It is expected that our professionals will break more bats given the amount of use they get. You’re only talking about a few per cent but the performance of a professional’s bat will generally be better than what you’d get from a bat bought off the shelf. That’s explained by the pressing techniques. We’d like to get the two more aligned but we’re not there yet.”In the meantime, bat manufacturers attempt to provide their customers in club cricket with the highest-quality product they can. Slazenger’s top-of-the-range Jonny Bairstow-endorsed, limited edition Retro V12 will set you back £425, while Kookaburra’s Players bat retails at 500 quid.”In terms of a top-price bat there’s no difference between the one we sell to a customer and that we provide for a professional,” said Waterton. “The cricketer who buys a Players bat will be getting a bat of pretty much the same quality as that we would provide for a Team Kookaburra Player like Stephen Moore.”And very well-heeled club batsmen visiting John Newbery’s workshop in Sussex last summer could treat themselves to a Cenkos, the first £1000 bat. Reassuringly expensive, some might argue, the Cenkos was custom-built in every respect and came in its own case. Newbery’s made a limited edition of just 25 and sold the lot.Many adjustments need to be made before a cricket bat meets the requirements of either endorsers or customers. Most players prefer a round handle, although some still like an oval shape. Some – Jacques Kallis, for example – opt to have more wood towards the bottom of the bat, while Eoin Morgan requires a medium-high profile. However, it is no longer the fashion for players to use a different profile of bat depending on the pitches in the country where they are playing. “The bats we made for Ian Bell to go to India this winter were exactly the same as he uses in the UK,” said Waterton.The majority of batsmen also prefer there to be a slight bow in the shape of the bat and for its face to be flat. (The traditional view was that the face should be slightly convex, but the current consensus is that this makes the bat look narrow, which is absolutely not the feeling a member of the top order wants to have.)Then there’s the back of the blade to be dealt with. In order that the bat can be as thick as possible without any increase in weight, bat makers have developed a technique whereby the traditionally sloping areas either side of the spine are made a little concave to allow wood to be removed in compensation for the size of the spine.”The holy grail is a big bat with a light pick-up,” said Mace. “People now look at size rather than the grain, even though the grain might be perfect.” Yet a decade ago customers in sports shops could be found closely examining the grain of prospective purchases and regarding it as a vital criterion in their final choice. Maybe some still do, for grain undoubtedly counts for something, but the need for a bat to have seven bands that are as even as the stripes on a Hove deckchair is no longer quite so important.

“I picked up one of the Surrey players’ bats in the changing room very recently and I expected it to feel like a railway sleeper. Instead, I thought to myself that I could almost use that”Micky Stewart

Lancashire’s Tom Smith admits that he tends to go for bats with knots in the wood because he was once told that they were the best bits of timber. Waterton uses an anecdote from his own time as a county cricketer to illustrate the occasional limitations of mere appearances. “I went to a bat maker and he asked me whether I wanted a pretty bat or one that wasn’t so good looking but ‘went’,” he said. “I chose the latter and it was a firecracker, it went like a bomb.”It is true that you can get good bats from all grades of willow but the general rule is still that the higher the quality of the wood, the more likely you are to get a good one.””It’s all about performance and power, and the growth of T20 has aided that,” said Mace. “Batsmen want big edges, a light pick-up and a bigger carry.” The modern cricketer is also, many believe, better physically equipped to take a 2lb 9oz bat and do serious damage with it. Newbery’s chief executive, Neil Lenham, a former Sussex batsman, points out that the current county player spends far more time in the gym than he and his counterparts did. “As a result, the bat speed created is probably greater than it has ever been in the history of the game.”All of which brings us to the Mongoose MMiR, the longer-handed, shorter-bladed bat that, so the argument goes, makes room for a bigger sweet spot and more weight though thicker edges, thus transferring more impact to the ball. Since the MMiR made its debut in 2009, Mongoose has added the conventionally shaped ToRQ to its range, and also the CoR3, a hybrid of the two other styles in which the standard-length blade is cut down by an inch and a half. The firm’s marquee endorser is Marcus Trescothick, but Gareth Andrew and Brett D’Oliveira also use Mongoose bats, and more names are set to be unveiled in 2013.”We saw the popularity of T20 and thought there was a gap in the market for a particular design,” said David Tretheway, Mongoose’s sales and marketing director. “Players were using the same bat for both T20 and Test cricket and yet the type of shots they were playing was very different. The need to help the attacking style gave birth to the short-bladed bat.”When the unconventional Mongoose was introduced, some thought it presaged a revolution in bat design. (In fact, the shape of the new bat in the blockhole was somewhat similar to that favoured by cricketers in the middle of the 18th century. Comparing the Mongoose to the bat held by the fresh-faced Lewis Cage in Francis Cotes’ beguiling 1768 painting makes the point.)It is probably fair to say that so far more players have used Mongoose bats in the nets than have taken them out to the middle. The English county cricketer can be a pretty conservative animal and batsmen the world over will do anything to prolong the life of a favourite willow with which they have scored a pile of runs. Nor is there any demand to limit the number of times a bat can be pressed. Which is probably fortunate, given that pressing techniques are so varied: commercial considerations mean that one bat maker won’t let colleagues from other firms see the machine he uses to press bats.The professionals, most of them anyway, are just as particular about their bats. Lancashire’s Stephen Moore endorses Kookaburra, and his preparation is meticulous. “Kookaburra’s main site is at Corby and I go down there and say what adjustments I’d like made,” he said. “I use an extra short handle and they tinker with the toe a little bit. They’re made precisely the way I like them, although I do tend to let them dry out a little bit more.”When I get a bat, it might be 2lb 9 or 10oz, but by the time I’ve let it dry out in an airing cupboard it’s about 2lb 8ozs. While I very seldom take one out of the wrapper and use it, I’ll use tape or glue to keep a bat going if I’ve scored a lot of runs with it. Bear in mind that I bat at the top of the order, but I’ll probably get through four or five bats a season, sometimes more.”Francis Cotes’ 1768 painting has the young Lewis Cage holding a bat not dissimilar to today’s fashionable Mongoose•Getty ImagesMoore’s habits and foibles needed little explanation to Micky Stewart, who must be a fair contender to be England’s most forward-thinking 80-year-old. Despite having never used a bat weighing more than 2lb 5ozs – and powerful contemporaries like Peter May and Ken Barrington favoured willows of comparable weight – Stewart is entirely attuned to the approach of cricketers in the second decade of the 21st century.”The ball can go off the edge of a modern-day bat and go for a two-bounce four,” he said. “Or players can be caught at third man off the edge. You have sweepers on both boundaries now because that is where the ball goes. When I played, the best batsmen were strokers and placers of the ball, although Peter May and Ted Dexter were exceptions to that. I picked up one of the Surrey players’ bats in the changing room very recently and I expected it to feel like a railway sleeper. Instead, I thought to myself that I could almost use that.” (Quite so. Persuade an ex-player to pick up a cricket bat and he will wonder if a comeback is on the cards.)Stewart’s final statement that “so many of the top players absolutely murder the ball now” is a pithy summation of the dominant characteristic of current batting technique. So it is not surprising that the names given to bats have ballistic connotations. David Warner’s current Gray-Nicolls is called the Kaboom, a word that could have been found in a balloon above the head of a very different batman. A Mongoose slogan is “See the ball, smash the ball.” Thank you, Mr Graveney, we’ll let you know.Yet when it comes to bats, 21st-century cricketers make room for both folklore and fanglements. They are interested in new technologies and changing designs, but they still cling to adages and axioms passed down to them by their fathers’ generation. The majority of bats may now be made in India but that does nothing to reduce the intimacy with which they are viewed by batsmen whose professional careers or deep recreational pleasure depend upon their performance. In Gerald Martineau recounts how James Broadbridge of Sussex carried his bat with him when out walking. Yorkshireman George Anderson took his to bed with him. And Daniel Day and John Bowyer of Mitcham were buried with theirs beside them. Death may have parted them from their wives but not from their willows.Some of today’s cricket widows might empathise, for some current players still lavish oodles of attention on their bats. Others take out a multi-room subscription and keep willows in the kitchen, living room, library, bedroom – and some even more private sancta. The profile of bats has changed, and will probably change again; the players’ approach to the precious implements of their trade remains endearingly unaltered in all its slightly obsessive splendour.

By Shahzaib Quraishi, USA

Nikita Bastian25-Feb-2013By Shahzaib Quraishi, USAAnother Twenty20 league has come and gone. While the Bangladesh Cricket Board did a decent job of putting on a good show – within a reasonably limited amount of time, and with just enough teams to make the tournament competitive yet not long-drawn – there were more cons than pros.The first news to come out of the Bangladesh Premier League threatened the integrity of the tournament itself, with Dhaka Gladiators’ Mashrafe Mortaza reporting an approach from a fellow cricketer regarding potential spot-fixing. Later on, there was an arrest made of a man suspected to be involved in fixing in the league. ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ and all that aside, this seriously put a cloud of doubt over the matches played.Payments to players had also been raised as an issue, but this is not unique to the BPL. The now defunct Indian Cricket League had similar problems and even the Sri Lanka board had been under considerable pressure until recently to release overdue payments for its contracted players.What surprised me the most, though, was the general lack of any serious contributions from young, unknown Bangladesh players. Here the unearthing of a ‘star in the making’ was woefully missing, unlike the IPL, which, for all its faults, has given India young hopefuls like R Ashwin, Varun Aaron and Rahul Sharma. Australia’s Big Bash League had some noteworthy local performers as well, like Travis Birt and Ben Edmondson. For sure, it brought some international careers that were considered as good as dead back to life, as in the case of Brad Hogg. But where was any of this in the BPL? Here are the stats:1. Only one of the top-ten run-getters was local (Shakib Al Hasan at No. 10), three of the top 15 (Shakib, Mohammad Ashraful and Junaid Siddique), and five of the top 20 (Shakib, Ashraful, Junaid, Mushfiqur Rahim and Nasir Hossain), none of whom are new to the national setup.2. Among the top 20 wicket-takers, there was only one Bangladesh bowler who does not bowl left-arm spin: Mortaza. Again, Mortaza is no stranger to the legions of Bangladesh cricket fans, and is in no way a “find”. This just highlights the dependency of Bangladesh cricket on left-arm spinners, the lack of variation in any prospective attack.3. No Bangladesh player scored more than one half-century in the tournament. At a time when more consistency is needed from the batsmen, this is as bad a piece of news as any.4. Perhaps the lack of big scores from local players could be attributed to this: in only three innings (for Chittagong in the tournament’s second match, and for Rajshahi in the fourth and ninth matches) out of a possible 66, were both openers local. That is a measly 4.54%.5. In the four semi-final innings, and the two innings in the final, only Barisal Burners had three local batsmen in the top six. All other teams had at least four overseas players slotted in from No. 1 to No. 6, with Khulna Royal Bengals playing four out of four foreign players from No. 1 to No. 4 in the second semi-final.The greatest good to come out of the BPL was young local players rubbing shoulders with players of the calibre of Chris Gayle, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan and Brad Hodge. One can say that overseas signings like Ahmed Shehzad, Nasir Jamshed and Shahzaib Hassan were successful, but these players were themselves students in the BPL, not nearly experienced enough to impart any considerable knowledge. Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal, meanwhile, were not available for long enough to have an impact.Any domestic tournament, like the BPL, looks to produce players for the national setup. Commercial success is usually a secondary aim. The BPL just might turn out to be a commercial success in the long-term but the current format, with five foreign players permitted in the playing XI, hardly allows any local players to make a name for themselves, grab the selectors’ attention, or push for a spot in the national team.

How does the KKR offspinner continue to bamboozle batsmen? Because he knows when to bowl what

Aakash Chopra13-Apr-2013It’s hard to remain a mystery today, what with all the footage available for replays in slow-motion and every player painstakingly scrutinised. The action has shifted from the 22 yards to the editing table.Yet Sunil Narine continues to beat technology and stay ahead of most analyses. Even though he has been scanned time and again, he manages to get the better of batsmen and fascinate spectators.He’s not the first mystery spinner; there have been quite a few who batsmen couldn’t decipher immediately, if at all. Yet there’s something about this lad from the West Indies, with a peculiar hairdo and an equally peculiar action that has enthralled aficionados worldwide.In his debut IPL season, last year, Narine took 24 wickets and helped Kolkata Knight Riders win the trophy for the first time. But it isn’t just his ability to take wickets that makes everyone sit up and take note, it’s the way he spins around hapless batsmen.One particular over that he bowled to his fellow West Indian, Andre Russell, in the opening match of this season’s IPL comes to mind, because it looked like Russell had no idea which way the ball would turn after pitching. Each time almost, he played down one way when the ball was heading the other.It’s not too hard to decipher a doosra or a carrom ball from an offspinner while watching on TV, when the camera gives us the view from the back, but Narine’s variations are hard to pick even for viewers sitting at home. So what chance did Russell have?By bowling even his offspinners with a scrambled seam, Narine manages to keep the batsman guessing which one will head the other way. And since he bowls both his variations from the front of the hand (the doosra is usually bowled from the back of the hand), you have to look very closely at which way his fingers are turning at the point of release – not an easy job.But it isn’t just the variations or his ability to disguise them that make Narine a difficult bowler to bat against in T20. There are many bowlers who have more variations up their sleeve. All good legspinners have three deliveries (legspin, googly and a flipper), and most offspinners these days also possess more than a couple variations (offspin, doosra and a carrom ball), but it isn’t about the quantity, it’s about the quality of execution. Having different types of deliveries won’t mean much unless you know when to use them.In fact, Narine has only two variations in his bag – a regular offspinner and the one that goes away after pitching. But unlike other spinners, he is a master when it comes to using his subtle variations, and he rarely overdoes them.In his first over in this year’s IPL, he did not bowl a single away-going delivery. He realised that there was some turn and bounce on the Eden Gardens pitch, so he was better off bowling offbreaks. In fact, in the entire game, he didn’t bowl a single away-going delivery to the well-set Mahela Jayawardene, having arranged a leg-side field for him. If Jayawardene had picked the variation, Narine would have run the risk of leaking runs. But against Russell, Narine strengthened the off-side field, with a slip as an attacking option, and bowled the other one repeatedly. His ability to judge the demands of the situation and then move from being smart and defensive to brave and aggressive sets him apart.In addition to his game sense and variety, Narine’s pace and his effective stock ball make it very tough to score off him. He bowls really flat and slightly quicker but without compromising on turn off the surface. If there’s something in the pitch for the spinners, he really rips them across the right-handers and away from the left-handers.The delivery that got David Warner in the first match was an example of his ability to turn the ball with bounce at reasonably high speed. His pace and flat trajectory take away the batsman’s crucial attacking strategy – stepping down the track to play the lofted shot. There aren’t many who can hit the long ball without coming out of the crease.If you can’t come down the track, you look to either slog-sweep towards cow corner or go deep into the crease to pull the slightly shorter deliveries. Narine’s extra turn and bounce on pitches like the one at the Eden Gardens make both these shots tough to execute. The turn ensures the ball misses the bat’s sweet spot. If that fails, the bounce ensures the ball’s impact on the bat is higher than the batsman is comfortable with. Either way the batsman rarely gets the intended height or distance.If batsmen look for five or six runs off a Narine over instead of going after him, he might not turn out to be such a prolific wicket-taker. Unfortunately for all IPL teams, Knight Riders’ captain, Gautam Gambhir, brings Narine on either in the Powerplay or during the death overs. That forces batsmen to go after Narine and increases his chances of picking up wickets. I won’t be surprised if he finishes as one of the top wicket-takers this season as well.

Yorkshire have a new man at the helm and he is quickly confronting the challenges of hosting international cricket, but knows the club also has to help itself

David Hopps at Headingley24-May-2013Yorkshire’s new chief executive, Mark Arthur, less than a month into the job, has dared to voice the fears of cricket in the north of England by warning the ECB that they must resist all temptation to maximise revenue by concentrating all their most prestigious international cricket in the south-east for short-term economic gain.Arthur also dared to suggest that the growing number of international grounds had reached “unsustainable” levels. There are 10 international grounds in England and Wales while Somerset have been granted approval to achieve the specifications necessary to become an eleventh.It can safely be assumed that the opinions of his chairman, Colin Graves, recently elected as vice chairman of the ECB, are in sync. It might also be that any Somerset application would come under fierce examination from northern counties down the line.”Eleven international grounds is unsustainable in my opinion,” Arthur said. “There is a finite amount of international cricket and to spread it amongst 11 international grounds and expect all those 11 grounds to be at the same level as top international grounds around the world – it doesn’t work does it?”What are we all after? A sustainable game of cricket at club, county and international level. We all have to work together for that balance.”Arthur, a former chief executive at Nottinghamshire and at Nottingham Forest, insisted that a geographical balance should also be part of the ECB’s assessment of how to allocate matches, so ensuring that cricket remained a truly national game to the long-term benefit of the game as a whole and the England team.”One of the best things that happened to football was the reconstruction of Wembley because England took their games around the country,” he said. “For a period of time, people were able to watch England from various parts of the country.”One of the unique factors of cricket in England is that it does get taken around the country. It is important to understand that not everybody has the spending power of people in the south-east. I think that has to be factored in by the [ECB] when they are allocating matches. There is a finite amount of money that you can charge in the provinces.”The north of England has endured two years of discouraging weather as well as suffering the brunt of the UK’s economic downturn. There are fears of gulf streams moving south and revenue streams moving with them. The difficulty of fostering a commitment to cricket in this period should not be under-estimated. At times, it has been hellish.Yorkshire went wild for their two homegrown Headingley debutants, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow on Friday, but sadly it was only the Yorkshire weather. The morning drive to Headingley was a story of overturned lorries and fallen trees as heavy rain was joined by howling winds. Shortly before 4pm, the umpires abandoned play.Better weather is forecast over the Bank Holiday weekend, and Root and Bairstow can still hope to be acclaimed in glorious sunshine, but after the washout of the one-day international against West Indies last summer, these are nervous times for international cricket in the north of England.Durham, the only international ground more northerly than Headingley, have relinquished two matches because they feared they had over-bid and the risk of heavy losses was too great.The ECB’s latest strategic plan, announced last week, guarantees there will be no regional shift to the south, but that guarantee largely, if not entirely, covers matches already awarded.”The policy of the Board is to promote the game by staging international cricket on a broad geographical base,” it states. “The game appreciates that a number of venues have found it difficult to remain competitive in staging Test cricket. The Board will seek to ensure sustainability at venues by reviewing and communicating policy regarding Major Matches through 2019, increasing the differentiation between Test and ODI status.”Arthur is convinced that the one-nation approach must remain part of English cricket’s DNA. “There could be a discord if you played all your top matches in the south. That would damage interest in the England team.”As more and more money comes from TV, the reliance on income through the turnstiles becomes less and less important, so, de facto, the responsibility becomes to provide the wallpaper so it looks good for those people paying most of the money.”Arthur recognises that Yorkshire, who with Lancashire are responsible for almost 25% of recreational cricket in the country, have to improve their performance.”Trent Bridge has proved that people always want tickets for an event they can’t get a ticket for,” he said. “We need to start selling out. We have to grow our base of cricket supporters who want to come to Headingley. We have to improve the capacity of the ground. We have to improve the environment of the ground. The spectator experience when they first arrive at the gate is absolutely vital.”There is also a belated recognition within Yorkshire cricket that there is a disconnect between the county and many of those who profess to love it yet have also gradually become distanced from it.This winter, Arthur will embark upon the biggest commitment to reconnect with the grassroots ever seen in Yorkshire cricket, making himself available to clubs and leagues four days a week throughout the off-season. Yorkshire’s hierarchy will also visit Trent Bridge shortly to see how Nottinghamshire connect with communities.If English cricket is still debating where Test cricket should be played, the results of a major survey suggests that the effort is worthwhile.English cricket has received a vote of confidence in its policy of promoting Test cricket as the pinnacle of the game with the results of a fan survey which suggests that a majority of young supporters still share their view.More than 90,000 members of Twelfth Man, the ECB-approved fan community, were invited to state their preferred form of the game. Strikingly, although barely 3% bothered to respond, 61% of the under-25 age group favoured Test cricket with only 25% opting for Twenty20, so challenging assumptions that the shortest form of the game was connecting most successfully with young fans.The survey contrasts markedly with attitudes elsewhere in the world, notably India, where Test matches are increasingly submerged below an emphasis on one-day games, and will persuade the ECB that their commitment to Test cricket remains valid.Certainly, the conclusion has to be that Test cricket is still the preferred option for younger fans in England – or that any younger fans who can be bothered to complete an ECB survey are bound to have the patience to prefer the longer form of the game.