All posts by n8rngtd.top

Former Yorkshire bowler Peter Hartley says that if he can succeed at the sport of Alpine skiing, he is not at all daunted about standing as an umpire in the upcoming Ranji Trophy semi-final and final in India

Nagraj Gollapudi08-Jan-2012″It ain’t easy,” Peter Hartley tells you, pointing to the top of the cantilevered roof covering the North Stand at Wankhede Stadium, “Falling down two or three kilometres on the floor; some of it is ice and some of it is snow. It is such a great buzz to get down a steep hill in one piece.” Hartley, who is part of England’s panel of first-class umpires, says if he can succeed at the sport of Alpine (downhill) skiing, he is not at all daunted about standing as an umpire in the upcoming Ranji Trophy semi-final between Mumbai and Tamil Nadu and subsequently in the final.”I work to ski,” Hartley, who has also officiated in six ODIs and three Twenty20 internationals, says with a loud chuckle. Hartley landed in India on Friday evening as part of the umpire exchange programme between the BCCI and the ECB. Dressed in a light blue T-shirt, dark-coloured formal trousers and brown moccasins, Hartley is enjoying the Mumbai weather, a far cry from the bone-chilling winter back in his native Yorkshire.Once he was told he was travelling to India, Hartley picked the brains of fellow English umpires Peter Willey, Neil Mallender and Greg Evans, all of whom had travelled here in the past. “You can’t pre-judge what is going to happen. They just asked me to do what I was doing in the UK,” Hartley says. If anything, they asked him to “eat sensibly” and enjoy India.According to Hartley the biggest challenge for him in India is bound to be the pitches. “The challenges are similar to the UK: just analysing the bounce of the pitch, probably there won’t be much seam movement and the ball may swing when it is new but probably not much as in the UK.”Hartley reckons that as far as an umpire is concerned things are generally similar to a degree. “It is the entire challenge of doing something in a different country, how people go about it and how teams develop the game plan.”He is also not bothered about the fact that SG balls would be used in the semi-finals and in the final. In England Hartley is used to the Dukes, Kookaburra and other brands but never an SG. He is not really concerned though. “It is a cricket ball. It ain’t gonna bother me.”If he turns heads now with his skiing credentials, Hartley did the same as a player too, when he became the first Yorkshire player to play for another county and then debut for Yorkshire. “There is another first,” Hartley remembers fondly. “My first first-class wicket was Richard Lumb from Yorkshire. And my last first-class wicket was Michael Vaughan, when I was playing for Hampshire. So my first and last wickets were from Yorkshire,” Hartley, who picked 579 wickets for Yorkshire, says. He was part of a select band of five Yorkshire bowlers to take 500-plus wickets in less than 200 matches.

When Tendulkar had to wait for his century

If you thought that Sachin Tendulkar is having his longest sequence without a century, think again. In 1992, when he became the first overseas player to play for Yorkshire, Tendulkar had to endure virtually the whole season before he could get a hundred.
Peter Hartley was part of that Yorkshire team, which Tendulkar, then only 19, had joined. “He was very nice with the team,” Hartley recollects of the young Tendulkar, who was coming to grips with the different conditions.
Hartley relates to the present predicament Tendulkar is facing, unable to breach the three-figure mark. “He did get one eventually but he did keep on falling just short but his record was quite good,” Hartley remembers. He is right. In 25 innings spread over 16 matches, Tendulkar got out in the eighties thrice, in the nineties twice and had seven half-centuries. His lone century arrived in his thirteenth match of the season, against Durham, when he scored exactly 100 to help Yorkshire to an easy win.

When he dismissed Lumb, Hartley was part of Warwickshire, where he played for one season before moving onto the Somerset second eleven but eventually earning his way back into the Yorkshire squad where he played till 1997. He finished his career at Southampton at the age of 40.Being a fast bowler with a long run-up, young Hartley had his own run-ins with umpires. Hartley picks a favourite in Dickie Bird. “It was a Yorkshire v Derbyshire game at Scarborough. The last batsman had just come in. First ball I had pitched up and he played and missed. Next one, he drove it through the covers for two runs. Then a bouncer, which he played badly and was hit on the shoulders. I bounced him again. I had got it a little bit too wide but the way he played it, he ended up looking terrible,” Hartley recollects.
Before the next ball, Bird interrupted him and said, “This batsman cannot defend himself. No more short stuff. You are going to injure this guy.” So the last ball of the over Hartley pitched it up, but was smacked through the covers for a four. “I asked Bird, “are you taking the mickey out of me?,” Hartley says.Hartley himself was in the line of fire in his debut ODI, between England and India at The Oval in 2007, when he requested for a delayed referral of a run-out decision involving then England captain Paul Collingwood. Kevin Pietersen had called Collingwood for a tight single. The Indians believed Collingwood was short of his crease and appealed to the advancing Hartley, who was coming in from square leg to replace the bails removed by the wicketkeeper MS Dhoni.”When this incident happened I was only twenty yards from the stumps but it was a too close a call to make, real tight. Dhoni and the Indians appealed. I thought I would go and pick the bails up and then send (the decision to the TV umpire).” Dhoni asked Hartley if he was going to send it upstairs. Just then somebody said Collingwood is out. Hartley was confused. He realised that the big screen at the ground had shown the replay and that Collingwood was out. Hartley by now had called for the TV umpire.The England captain argued with Hartley that he could have not referred the decision because a lot of time had passed but Hartley gave Collingwood out once it was confirmed. Hartley admitted he learned a lesson that day. “I should have done it [referred to the third umpire] while I was walking to pick the bails,” Hartley says, admitting that he does not know all the 42 Laws in the MCC book. “But if you cite me an incident I can pin point which Law [applies] then.”Hartley’s short career has already been full of incidents including the Oval fiasco where he was the TV umpire when Pakistan forfeited a
Test for the first time in cricket history. Hartley would rather not talk about that incident but agrees that the umpire’s job is a very difficult one. “We are not here to keep everybody happy,” Hartley says, summing up his job.The toughest call for an umpire, Hartley says, is when the batsman plays too close to his body while trying to flick, glance or roll the ball off his hips. That and the bat-pad are always difficult. “Every umpire will say them two are the most difficult,” he says. That is where his experience of being a player comes handy. “You know the frustrations that bowlers have; you can see weaknesses in the batsman’s game. You can read that something more.”So far Hartley has logged in about 1000 first-class days as an umpire at the rate of 96 days per season from 2002. “The problem is we never win the toss. Every day is a fielding day,” he says. At the moment he is not bothered about standing for a maximum of another nine days in India because immediately after that he is ready to take a flight of adrenalin. “I leave India on January 25 and on January 28 I will be in France to get ready to go downhill.”

A shoo-in at the top, a shoo-in at the bottom and plenty of match-winners in between

George Binoy28-May-2012
Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni both make our XI, but it’s Gambhir who’s captain•AFP1. Chris Gayle

A no-brainer at the top of the order. Let’s move on.2. Gautam Gambhir (capt)

Edged out Virender Sehwag, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane for the other opener’s slot because of his consistency and ability to score on difficult Eden Gardens pitches. Gambhir’s passion trumped MS Dhoni’s cool, so he’s our captain. Also because of this legendary line, “We did it for Balaji.”3. Suresh Raina

Had an average season before a blitz in the final, during which he pulled bouncers and successfully attacked Sunil Narine. Made the cut because he can chip in with a couple of overs of spin if one of our bowlers has an off day. Raina was expectedly exceptional at cover.4. Jacques Kallis

The dearth in quality Indian allrounders meant this role had go to an overseas player – Kallis, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Kieron Pollard and Azhar Mahmood were the contenders. Kallis won because he was in better bowling form than the rest, and that majestic extra cover drive off Bravo in the final was the highlight of an innings that captured Kallis at his reliable best (in the T20 format, of course).5. Rohit Sharma

Played one of the innings of the tournament on a not-so-easy pitch at Eden Gardens. Didn’t have a spectacular season but still was one of the better Indian middle-order batsmen going around. Pairs up with Raina to strengthen the off-side field.6. MS Dhoni (wk)

Overseas players are more useful as bowlers or allrounders – unless you’re Gayle – so this spot had to go to an Indian, ruling out AB de Villiers and Kumar Sangakkara. Among the Indians, Dhoni did not have much competition. Dinesh Karthik, anyone? While his keeping was top notch right through, Dhoni’s batting was ordinary until the playoffs, and then he brought out the helicopter shot and everything else.7. Ambati Rayudu

The finisher in our team. Rayudu often had to speed up innings after Mumbai Indians’ top order took its time, and he performed the role admirably. Good to watch too, played almost no cringe-worthy shots.8. Dale Steyn

Perhaps the toughest spot to fill because Morne Morkel and Lasith Malinga were worthy contenders. Both of them, however, flagged towards the end of the season but Steyn left with the spell of the tournament. His 3 for 8 that knocked out Royal Challengers was unmatched for its hostile accuracy and frightening pace. It takes someone special to rattle Gayle.9. Parvinder Awana

With quality Indian fast bowlers in short supply, Awana was one of the best on show in the IPL. A vital cog in the Kings XI attack, he bowled at brisk pace and moved the ball away consistently.10. Umesh Yadav

The highest Indian wicket-taker, although Umesh did play five more games than Awana did. Vinay Kumar also claimed 19 but his economy rate was poor. Umesh found the Kotla pitch to his liking – it was fast and had bounce.11. Sunil Narine

Another no-brainer, and he has a mohawk too. No other spinner came close.12th man Steven Smith
Because he fields like superman would have.

He may be just 22, but Nasir Jamshed has the blend of assurance and aggression to flourish in all formats

Abhishek Purohit in Pallekele23-Sep-2012One day, Nasir Jamshed could become the missing link between Umar Akmal and Azhar Ali among men who carry Pakistan’s batting into the future: the bridge between flair and fortitude, between roulette and rock. He is that rare young Pakistan batsman who contains the two contrasts within him, and yet seems natural. The kind whose hitting does not appear to be desperate. The kind whose defence does not appear to be sedate.This was a Twenty20 international all right, but the blend of assurance and aggression suggested again that he should probably be playing in the top order across all three formats for Pakistan in time to come. He has a solid defence and is also a quite competent and eager puller, which he showed when he deposited the seriously quick Adam Milne over deep fine leg for six.The brawn and the clip to midwicket have brought comparisons with Graeme Smith, but on Sunday, Jamshed displayed his variety on the off side. His wrists put so much timing on two Nathan McCullum deliveries that both sailed over for six over the deep extra cover rope. No wonder former Pakistan captain and commentator Ramiz Raja called his 56 the “most cultured knock” of the World Twenty20 so far.Jamshed has given enough demonstration of his unique talent in his short international career, which has already seen him suffer injuries, get dropped and make a comeback. The first phase, as an 18-yeard old in 2008, started and ended with a brace of fifties, including one against India. He was out for nearly three years before forcing his way back for the Asia Cup in March through performances on the domestic circuit and in the Bangladesh Premier League. Since then, he averages more than 50 in ODIs, and has already had three century opening stands in seven games with fellow opener Mohammad Hafeez, including 224 against India in the Asia Cup.Hafeez, the Pakistan T20I captain, was sitting on the sidelines of Jamshed’s post-match press conference, watching the young batsman soak in the admiration from the media. Jamshed, who comes across as a grounded man, spoke with a boyish happiness that betrayed that he is still well short of turning 23.”I really enjoyed batting with the captain, Hafeez,” Jamshed said. “The kind of confidence I got from the captain, I want to have partnerships like the one I had with him today. I am the captain’s choice and I am enjoying it here. He has given me a lot of confidence.” Hafeez smiled broadly in satisfaction at these words, a captain silently acknowledging his part in the coming good of a talented tyro.Jamshed was asked about the various strokes he played in his innings. “I am a stroke player that is why I am playing shots like these,” was his simple answer in English, before he explained further in Urdu. “From when I started batting I was never scared of anything, whether it is opposition bowlers or pressure. I just try to handle the pressure and enjoy my game. I just go out there and [just start playing].”He made it sound too simple but at 22, Jamshed already knows what it takes to regain a place in the side. “I was confident while coming back as everyone was saying that when Nasir Jamshed comes back he’ll be an important player,” Jamshed said. “I have improved my game and today I showed those skills in the match.”We just wanted to stick to our plans despite the loss of wickets. I wanted to control the game because I was the set batsman at the time. I wanted to take as much of the strike as possible and score as much as I can.” Control the innings. Set batsman. Mature terms to use at 22. He could be the missing link after all.

The England bowler’s Test career started off like a dream in Delhi in 1976

Will Hawkes15-Nov-2012If England want to make a quick start in India, someone should call John Lever. No Englishman has better figures in that country than Lever’s, on debut in December 1976, when he swung the ball prodigiously to take 7 for 46 in India’s first innings in Delhi. It set the tone for the series: by the time it finished in mid-February the following year, Lever had taken 26 wickets in England’s 3-1 series triumph.Much has changed since, of course: India are likely to prove rather less accommodating hosts this time. Back in 1976, a bit of flattery from Ken Barrington, England’s tour manager, had ensured that first Test was played with an Indian-produced ball that swung prodigiously. It was the perfect implement for Lever, a fastish left-armer with an easy, rhythmical approach, whose smoothly delivered stock ball, when it swung, had a habit of dipping into the batsman very late.”Ken said to me: ‘If you play in the Test match, would you like to use them?'” Lever, who had enjoyed success with the ball in warm-up games, says. “I said yes. He went to them and said, ‘We think you’ve made great strides in your cricket-ball making, we’d like to use them in Test matches.’ They said: ‘Thanks very much!'”The first ball didn’t swing an awful lot. The problem with these balls, though, was that they went out of shape – and that one had certainly done so. Tony Greig got it changed and the next ball swung quite a bit. We were very pleased!”It was to prove a happy series all-round for the touring party. England had a strong side, captained by Grieg and including a mixture of experience (the likes of Derek Underwood, Dennis Amiss, Bob Willis and Alan Knott) and younger talents like Lever. India, under Bishan Bedi, proved no match. Much is made of the unique difficulties of an Indian tour by English cricketers, but Lever speaks of that trip with undisguised nostalgia.”It was absolutely fantastic,” he says. “It was something I’d never experienced; I’d played a few finals in county cricket in front of big crowds, but these were massive. Calcutta was 100,000-plus; it was a real experience and a real eye-opener, and quite enjoyable. At the end of the day you needed a quiet moment because that noise carried on throughout. It was wearing.”The Indian supporters were lovely people: they obviously wanted their side to win, but they were happy to see people do well. They were happy to see Amiss get 200 [179], they thought the world of him, and to see Greig do well.”Lever’s own standing amongst that Indian support suffered during the third Test in Chennai due to a ball-tampering row.Lever was accused of using Vaseline on the ball to help make it swing: as Greig explained in an article for ESPNcricinfo two years ago, Lever and Willis had been told to wear Vaseline-impregnated gauze strips across their eyebrows to stop the sweat getting in their eyes. Lever had decided to take his off and dropped it at the foot of the stumps, where one of the umpires found it – and the furore began.For Lever, it clearly still rankles. “It took a lot of satisfaction away as far as I was concerned,” he says. “They found nothing on the ball but it still took a little bit away from the fact that I ran up and swung the ball. I guess Bedi was under a bit of pressure, they were 3-0 down: he was looking for something to justify the performance of that Indian side.”The worst thing was that those Indian supporters, all they’re going to know is what they read in the paper – so all the good that I’d done was taken away a bit.”

“Greigy being 6ft 7in, blond hair, stood there in his whites, he waved down two motorbikes and said to the guys, ‘We want to go to the so-and-so hotel’. There we were careering through the streets of Delhi – I’ve never been so scared”

Nonetheless, Lever clearly has more good than bad memories of that time – many of them involving Greig, who, Lever says, was a fine captain. “Greigy was quite a character – and as a leader, he did stir the passions,” says Lever.” He got people really working for the team. Of course, it backfired when he said he would make the West Indies grovel – it was probably taken slightly out of context but the press had a field day with that one.”Lever experienced Greig’s impulsive streak in the moments following the press conference at the end of that first Test in Delhi. “We came out of that press conference and stood at the side of the road,” says Lever. “Greigy being 6ft 7in, blond hair, stood there in his whites, he waved down two motorbikes and said to the guys, ‘We want to go to the so-and-so hotel’. There we were careering through the streets of Delhi – I’ve never been so scared! I’m thinking, ‘It started well but it could end here!'”These guys couldn’t believe they had Tony Greig and John Lever on the back of their bikes, so they were trying to look at us all the time. I don’t know how we stayed upright!”Lever’s career never reached the heights of that series again. He returned to India in 1981, to play in a series widely regarded as one of the dullest of all time. The home side won the first Test and five draws followed. “The pitches were flat, flat, flat and we never had a chance of a result,” Lever says. “It was absolutely awful, so dull! Even to play in it was mind-numbing.”After that, he went on a rebel tour of South Africa and played domestic cricket for three seasons there, for Natal. Those were the best years of his career, he says, and the figures bear him out: he played a crucial workhorse role in Essex’s first-ever Championship in 1979 and then again when they repeated the feat in 1983 and ’84, when only Nottinghamshire’s Kiwi titan Richard Hadlee took more wickets than his 106. Lever, who played 21 Tests, clearly regrets the fact that he didn’t get more chance to display his talent in the highest form of the game.”I felt as though I could have played a lot more Test matches and after the ’81 Indian trip, which came on top of not really playing too many matches in England, I felt slightly disillusioned – so when the chance came to go on the rebel tour I took it.” He played just one more Test – against India, at Leeds in 1986.Lever, now 63, has spent the last 23 years teaching cricket at Bancroft’s School in Woodford Green and will be an interested observer during the upcoming series. “We’ve got a very, very, talented seam attack,” he says. “If we’re going to do well, that could be the answer: Steven Finn, in particular, is looking better and better every time I see him.”If we get wickets with any sort of life at all we’ll bowl any side out – but they know that. Certainly, it won’t be an easy contest but it should be worth watching.”

The last year and a half have brought him plenty of ups and downs, and he’s determined to learn from experience

Alex Malcolm09-Mar-2013Only three Australian tourists currently in India have scored Test centuries on the subcontinent. Australian fans will be a wishing there was a fourth. But as the disastrous tour unfolds, Shaun Marsh, with that debut Test century in Sri Lanka replaying in his mind, sits quietly in a Perth coffee shop. His right knee is still tattooed in black marker pen, pointing to the bandage protecting the sewn-up incision, from the procedure to fix his recently torn hamstring tendon.”Obviously the boys have had a tough start but they’re a good bunch of guys and good cricketers, so they’ll bounce back,” Marsh said. “When you do watch Test cricket you do want to be a part of it and you do want to get back there.”There are few rollercoasters in the world that could match the highs and lows of Marsh’s last 18 months. In September 2011 he became the 19th Australian to score a Test century on debut, and the second only since Bill Ponsford to do it from No. 3. It was thought Ricky Ponting’s replacement had been found. But a back injury flared and forced Marsh out for six weeks, making him miss three Tests in the process. One stunning Big Bash knock, in his only match during that time, was enough to see him return on Boxing Day for the first Test against India. But the high point of Michael Clarke’s captaincy era corresponded with a low-point in Marsh’s career. A 4-0 series whitewash for Australia matched the West Australian’s batting average for the series. His stocks, which had soared so high in Sri Lanka, suddenly plummeted so low he was dropped from the national set-up.”From the start I had against Sri Lanka to three months after that, with the series against India, it was one extreme to the other,” Marsh said. “I certainly learnt a lot of things from that. You can’t take things for granted. Especially at that level. It’s a tough industry. I learnt the hard way.”But just as the rollercoaster seemed to level off, a sickening, sudden descent explored deeper depths. An off-field indiscretion at the Champions League in South Africa in October 2012 saw Marsh dropped from the Perth Scorchers, and subsequently the WA team.The Lindisfarne Oval* in Hobart hosted a Futures League match in November which he was asked to start his redemption.”It was a bit of a shock I guess. Obviously playing Test cricket only 11 months before that to finding out I wasn’t playing for WA was a bit of a shock to me. I was struggling mentally at that time. I knew I had to just get away and score runs again.”A full and frank discussion with new WA coach Justin Langer helped facilitate the rollercoaster’s upward curve.”He laid down the laws for me. It was a good chat. I knew exactly where I stood with him, and I went away with a new belief, in terms of where I wanted to head. It gave me a lot of confidence to know that if I went back and scored runs in grade cricket and 2nd XI, I could get back into the team straight away.”Runs came, both in that game and with the immediate change of format. The start of the BBL was perfectly timed for Marsh, who has flourished in T20 cricket for both his home state and Kings XI Punjab in the IPL. It is a format that simplifies both his mind and his technique and allows his rare gifts to be showcased uninhibited.”That’s one of the good things about it and it’s probably why I’ve had so much success with it. I just try to keep my game plan as simple as I can. I can just go out there and play with a bit of freedom from ball one. It’s a format that I really enjoy.”Obviously with all the things that happened in South Africa, I made a conscious effort that I wanted to play really well for the Scorchers in this year’s Big Bash. I was really pleased with the way I went and the boys played really well and we’ve got to another Champions League. We’ve got some unfinished business there. I’m looking forward to that later on in the year.”Marsh was integral to the Scorchers reaching the BBL final. He finished the tournament as the leading run scorer, making five half-centuries in nine innings. It led to a recall to the Australian side for the T20s against Sri Lanka.He then continued his form on his return to WA ranks. He bludgeoned an unbeaten 155 in a one-day game against Queensland, and backed that up with 84 in the second innings of a remarkable come-from-behind Sheffield Shield win at the Gabba.

Blackwell stamps her authority

Alex Blackwell was the most accomplished female cricketer in Australia in January, and underlined the fact by being part of the national side’s World Cup triumph in India in February. Scoring freely in both the National Cricket League and the national T20 competition, Blackwell maintained the consistent scoring that has made her a critical part of the Australian team over the past decade. This set her up nicely for the passage to India, where she contributed handy scores across several matches. Blackwell’s sturdy style has served her well down the years, both for Australia and throughout New South Wales’ latter-day dominance of domestic competition.

“I tinkered with my technique a little bit with JL before the Big Bash and it seemed to work really well. Hopefully I just play with a little bit more freedom in the longer formats of the game now. It’s one thing to try and take that Big Bash into one-day cricket and four-day cricket.”In the second innings of the Shield game up in Brisbane, JL had a chat to me and said, ‘Just go out and play with freedom as you’ve got nothing to lose’. I did that. I played my shots and it’s certainly something I’m going to try and do lot of more of in the coming years.” Marsh said.The rollercoaster had almost climbed back to its highest peak again. Named by his peers as the Australian Cricketers’ Association player of January, he was called up for ODI duty against West Indies. National selector John Inverarity indicated the importance of Marsh’s resurgence.”With Shaun we’ll just take one step at a time,” Inverarity said. “His form in the BBL has been absolutely compelling. He’s batted brilliantly and we all know how well he can play when he’s in a good space, and he seems to be in a very good space at the moment.”But just when Marsh thought the ride was over, that rollercoaster dipped again. At Bellerive of all venues, seeking his 100th run of all things, against the England Lions of all teams, his hamstring tendon gave way. Given the ills of the Australian Test team right now, the surgery and two-month recovery could not have come at a worse time.”Yeah it’s obviously been really hard over the last couple of weeks. Especially given that I’ve got myself back into the WA team now and playing well,” Marsh said. “It was one of the toughest periods of my life. It certainly only makes you stronger and it only drives you to be a better player.”I probably read too much stuff and looking back on it now, if I had my time again I probably wouldn’t read anything at all. It only puts doubts in your mind. If I get another opportunity I’ll definitely learn from the mistakes I made.”Marsh is hoping to be fit for the IPL. Given his return in the Big Bash, Kings XI Punjab would be keen to have him at full fitness.”I love playing the IPL. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been a part of that now for all six years. It’s a great place to play cricket. It’s a great place to travel. Hopefully I can get the injury right before season starts and hopefully I can help the Kings XI boys play finals this year.”Marsh has no intention of playing county cricket in a bid to be in England for the Ashes mid-year. He will instead target the Caribbean Premier League as a springboard for the Champions League, as a trophy with either Scorchers or WA is becoming a major priority for him.”It’s really good down there at the moment. It’s a great feel, the team spirit is definitely there, trying to build that culture of winning success. Justin has certainly been at the forefront of that and the boys have taken on everything he’s said. It’s exciting times I think.”As far as Marsh’s personal ambitions go, he is keeping it simple.”I think the key thing for me is working hard, putting in the extra sessions outside of the cricket team. Having the extra hits, which is something I probably wasn’t doing at the start of the year. When I went away and did all that stuff, things started to turn around for me. I think also just having that belief, to know I’m good enough to play at state level and at national level. I’ve performed there before. I just need to keep that belief that I can do it again. There is a lot of cricket coming up in the next 12 months and I just want to be a part of it.”No doubt he will be hoping that rollercoaster stops so he can play a major part again.* March 10 1.45pm GMT The venue of the Futures League match has been corrected

The man himself has told, but we can’t quite be content with that now, can we?

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013News of Kevin Pietersen’s characteristically unorthodox retirement from limited-overs international cricket shook this nation to its core. The Queen, just days before celebrating her Jubilee by being plonked on a flotilla and fired down the Thames, was reportedly “beside herself”, after booking a two-week holiday in Sri Lanka for her and the Duke of Edinburgh to coincide with the World Twenty20 this autumn.Pietersen’s partial retirement was an announcement that, whilst not quite in the category of Elvis Presley appearing at an emotional press conference at Lord’s announcing that he was (a) still alive, (b) available for selection for England in all formats, and (c) turning down an IPL contract to focus on playing for Kent, was nonetheless still a shock.From a cricketing perspective, whether you are an England supporter, player, administrator, or none of the above, Pietersen’s premature exit from the shorter forms of the international game is a massive disappointment. Albeit not quite as massive a disappointment as it would have been if Elvis Presley, at the end of that emotional press conference, had pulled off a mask to reveal that he was in fact Kent skipper Robert Key.Inevitably, within seconds of the announcement, in which Pietersen declared unequivocally why he had taken this rather drastic step ‒ due to the physical demands of the international schedule on his ageing body ‒ speculation began as to why Pietersen had taken this rather drastic step. Was it to concentrate on his Test career? To maximise his potential T20 earnings? To spend more time with his family? Or, as some outlandish conspiracy theorists suggested, due to the physical demands of the international schedule on his ageing body?Time will tell. Pietersen has already told, but time will also tell. As will the number of T20 contracts he hoovers up over the next few years. Personally, I think his stated reasons are understandable. Cricket, like most professional sports in the increasingly competitive 21st-century era, has been busily trying to squeeze eggs out of any even vaguely golden, silvery or bronze-tinted geese. In a summer when it was apparently impossible to schedule even a four-Test series against South Africa, let alone the five Tests it merited, Pietersen can be forgiven for looking at the calendar of 13 ODIs and thinking that it would be hard to maintain his focus and enthusiasm throughout. I am sure many England supporters are thinking the same. This absurd menu of 50-over porridge now looks even less appetising without England’s most exciting player.As the current make-up of the West Indian team testifies, players are being forced to make choices that there is no good reason for them being forced to make. Cricket’s calendar urgently needs to see a psychiatrist. Its behaviour is increasingly irrational, and it is starting to alienate even those who love it. It clearly has deep-seated issues that need addressing, before it does itself irreparable harm. And, like the rest of us, it needs to find a satisfactory life-balance between money and spiritual well-being.● Pietersen’s ODI career has been a rather baffling journey, but his back-to-back hundreds in Dubai in February suggested that he could have gone on to become a dominant, potentially tournament-winning one-day opener and England’s best-ever ODI batsman (not an especially hotly contested category, admittedly) (barely even warmly contested) (he possibly/probably is that anyway, but his overall ODI career has nevertheless been something of a disappointment) (in his first ten and final two innings combined, he averaged a supernatural 178, and scored five centuries – in the 104 innings over six and a half years in between, his average was a distinctly human 34, and he hit four hundreds) (so the feeling persists that ODI cricket had not seen as much of the best of Pietersen as it should have).His retirement is also a sizeable baseball bat to the midriff of England’s hopes of retaining the World T20 title they won in the Caribbean two years ago, in which Pietersen was the dominant influence, scoring 73 not out (off 52 balls), 53 (off 33), 42 not out (off 26), and 47 (off 31) in the four successive victories that took England to their first major limited-over trophy. He can stake a claim to being the best batsman to date in the short history of T20 internationals, a format in which he scored consistently and rapidly ‒ he was out in single figures just four times in 36 innings, and scored 40 or more 14 times, more than any other player, ahead of Brendon McCullum (12 times in 47 innings).However, if his voluntary streamlining of his England schedule results in him being mentally, physically and technically fresh for Test cricket in the next few Ashes-laden years, few will complain.● Amongst the innumerable reasons for the West Indies’ continued failure as a Test team is the high turnover of players. From the completely pointless 2009 two-Test series in England, eight of the England XI were playing at Trent Bridge in this year’s second Test. Of the remaining three, Onions was in the squad, and Bopara close to it. Only the retired Collingwood is out of the Test picture.Of the 2009 West Indian XI that capitulated so meekly it looked like they were trying to fast-track themselves to inheriting the earth (a possible legacy of the Allen Stanford era), only two remain – Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the recently recalled Denesh Ramdin. Fidel Edwards played in the Lord’s Test, but the rest have gone their various ways, including paceman Jerome Taylor, who, having destroyed England in a series-winning blitz in Jamaica just months previously, has gone on to play only one more Test after the 2009 series.Taylor now seems engaged in an endless squabblathon with the impenetrable mystic entity that is the WICB. Part of the elongobicker revolves around the allegation that his fitness is not up to the standards required to represent West Indies in a Test match. Having seen the not-entirely-Bruce-Reid-esque girth of Ravi Rampaul at Trent Bridge, this raises suspicions that Taylor had succumbed to a diet of battered cheese and lard ice-cream, and ballooned to the size of an unusually gluttonous sumo wrestler, and that, aside from issues of declining form, he logistically cannot be squeezed out of the dressing room door onto the field of play. Or that the WICB has still not mastered the delicate art of player management. Your call.● I promised in my last blog that this blog would feature Marlon Samuels. I am now promising that the next blog will feature Marlon Samuels. If you are Marlon Samuels, I apologise. The rest of you, I expect to take this grievous disappointment with good grace.● Kent captain Robert Key has announced the release of his new single, a catchy rock’n’roll number entitled “Jailhouse Rock”.

Twenty20 is not about mindless slogging; calculative assaults are the way to go as Chris Gayle demonstrated yet again, against Kolkata Knight Riders

Nikita Bastian at the Chinnaswamy Stadium12-Apr-2013We could debate for hours on who’s top dog in modern Test cricket, or who could win your one-day fantasy team the most points. When it comes to Twenty20 cricket, though, there are few who would dispute that Chris Gayle is No. 1. If you want a lesson in T20 batting, you couldn’t do better than watching Gayle construct an innings. And on Thursday night, for Royal Challengers Bangalore, he put together another one of those incredible knocks that have earned him this reputation; the sort of innings he has proven time and again to be the template for T20 success, this time flattening Kolkata Knight Riders along the way.Leading up to the match, Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir spoke of the challenge facing his team in a newspaper column. “Half my day is gone answering questions on how will we stop Chris Gayle,” he wrote. “One suggestion from a more enlightened team-mate was to lock him in his room.” Jocular that may be, but it does reflect the general perception. Because, really, how do you stop someone who marries awesome power with meticulous planning and flawless execution so consistently?This was the case at the Chinnaswamy Stadium; Gayle’s 85 not out off 50 balls reiterated that the shortest format is not so much about mindless slogging, as about launching calculated assaults. Royal Challengers were set 155, not a daunting total given the batsmen-friendly track and relatively short boundaries. Gayle was coming off two failures against Sunrisers Hyderabad – in the away game, he had fallen first up to the part-time offspin of little-known Hanuma Vihari, prompting talk of how he is prone to struggling early on against spin to resurface. Subsequently, the key battle in the Knight Riders game was touted to be Gayle v Sunil Narine.How does Gayle respond? No egotistical attempts at blitzing Narine. No change in strategy at all. He just did what Gayle does: show caution where necessary, pick which bowlers to target, dispatch balls that deserve to be dealt with, play straight rather than resort to typical limited-overs fare – ramp shots, reverse-sweeps and the like.Narine was nudged for singles and defended, even left alone when required. Gayle might have been beaten a couple of times, but he made sure he cut out the risks. In nine balls against Narine, he managed just four runs but did not let it worry him.Neither did the Bangalore crowd let it worry them. If Virat Kohli swipes across the line and is dismissed, you might hear a few chuckles at IPL grounds. When MS Dhoni defends, questions of whether he is taking it too late arise. These days even Sachin Tendulkar cannot escape a few murmurs of disapproval when he scores too slowly. But in Bangalore, while Gayle remains at the crease, the crowd is never in doubt that Royal Challengers hold the upper hand. Even if he leaves balls outside the offstump; on Thursday, as Gayle saw off Narine, there were shouts of “well left” echoing around my stand, while a spectator in the row behind me was busy explaining to his family that “this is how he bats, watch, he will explode soon enough”.This crowd has good reason to put so much trust in their superstar and his methods. In 2012, Gayle scored 31% of Royal Challengers’ runs. At the Chinnaswamy, he averages 60 and has a strike rate of 170. Second-best Kohli averages 30 at the ground, scoring those runs at the rate of 125 per 100 balls.

Knight Riders looked like they were straining themselves for that final surge, and still it didn’t come. Gayle and Royal Challengers battered their opponents even while staying well within themselves

Gayle did not misplace that trust. Having survived Narine, he didn’t spare the easier targets. He slammed seamers Ryan McLaren, L Balaji and Pradeep Sangwan, scoring off them at strike rates of 244, 218 and 200. But there was a certain rhythm to even this brutality: Royal Challengers’ chase was built around three overs of madness, spread across the 17.3 it took them to chase down the target.First, was the final Powerplay over, were Gayle lofted consecutive length balls from McLaren majestically over cow corner and cover. Kohli knocked off two fours in the over as well, as they shaved 22 runs off the target. In the ninth over, Gayle greeted 22-year-old Sangwan with four through mid-off before handing over the strike to Kohli; 19 came off the over.The third focal over was all Gayle. The assault might or might not have been in response to a request from the adoring crowd. “We want six, we want six,” they chanted, prodding him. On cue, he lifted a fullish ball from Jacques Kallis over long-off. Kallis, who had conceded 12 runs off 20 balls until that boundary, responded by changing the angles a bit, coming round the stumps. He overstepped in the process. Gayle deposited the delivery, which came into his body, over long-on. The free hit disappeared over point for four. That left Royal Challengers with 20 to get off the final four; match done and dusted.Prior to that Kallis over, Gayle had 54 off 40 balls with a strike rate of 135. Those numbers were not too different from Gambhir’s: Knight Riders’ top-scorer, his 59 in 46 balls came at 128.26. If you had not watched the match, you could be excused for thinking the innings’ – till that point at least – were alike. They were not. The numbers might have mirrored each other, but the character of the knocks was poles apart.Gambhir and Knight Riders left you feeling rather ungratified. They looked like they were straining themselves for that final surge, and still it didn’t come. Gayle and Royal Challengers battered their opponents even while staying well within themselves. Gambhir’s 59 off 46 left you feeling that he hadn’t quite done enough. Watching Gayle get to 54 off 40, you knew the game was already firmly beyond the opposition.But then, Gambhir’s effort was not the first that was made to look pedestrian by Gayle. He finished things off in typical brutal fashion, pulling Balaji over deep square leg before scorching one over long-on with 15 deliveries to spare. It was time for the electronic displays strung up on pillars around the ground to flash images of Royals Challengers players’ caricatures doing the ‘horse dance’, Gangnam style. It is a Gayle celebration that is mimicked with regularity these days. It can’t be long before Gayle’s T20 batting template is even more imitated.

James Faulkner will be Australia’s 17th player in this Ashes – the equal most for them away from home – and it comes as no surprise that so much uncertainty surrounds selection

Brydon Coverdale20-Aug-2013Darren Lehmann and Rod Marsh have said not a word in public about their reasons for choosing James Faulkner for the final Ashes Test. But despite their silence, their message is loud and clear. This is a team that needs to harden up. Is it any wonder, really? Soft cricket no more has a place in the world of Marsh and Lehmann than soft drinks. They played with an edge so hard that Hot Spot could have detected it through three layers of silicone tape.It was left to the captain Michael Clarke, who is no longer a selector, to explain the choice on Tuesday. Notably, Clarke used the word “tough” or “toughness” at least three times to describe Faulkner and the qualities he would bring to the side. Even more telling was his final, one-word answer. When asked if this toughness had been missing from the team on this tour, Clarke said, with apparent reluctance: “Maybe”.There are times when “maybe” means no, sometimes it means “I don’t know”. Here it meant yes, for otherwise no captain would miss a chance to defend the character of his players. Australia’s capitulation on the fourth afternoon at Chester-le-Street was an example of such fragility, of throwing wickets and a game away. It was not the only one on this tour, but that crazy day has cost Usman Khawaja his place.Khawaja’s dismissal in what should have been a gettable chase was tame, just a prod at Graeme Swann, who straightened the ball and struck Khawaja on the pad in front of the stumps. He has now been dropped three times from the Test team, always having shown hints of his promise but failing to display any more. Khawaja’s talent has never been in question but his intensity – and intent – has been a constant question-mark.Faulkner has effectively replaced Khawaja in the side, though not in the same position. It was revealing that when he was picked in the squad, Faulkner was described by national selector John Inverarity as “a very competitive cricketer who gets things done”. The logical extension of Inverarity’s statement was that there were other players who lack the same spirit, who despite their ability, don’t get things done.By gambling on Faulkner at The Oval, the selectors have backed tenacity over talent. That is not to say that Faulkner lacks skill – far from it, in fact, for he has collected 111 Sheffield Shield wickets in the past three seasons and scored 444 runs last summer. But his bowling alone would not force him above Ryan Harris or Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc or Jackson Bird. Neither would his batting earn him a place on its own.But his “overall package”, as Clarke described it, is appealing. Of course, the same has been said of others in recent times. Glenn Maxwell and Moises Henriques both played on this year’s disastrous tour of India and neither would have made it for their batting or bowling alone. Both batted at No.7 in that series, behind a wicketkeeper at No.6. So did Mitchell Johnson against Sri Lanka at the SCG in January. None have lasted in the role.Really, it should be no great surprise that Australia have ended up imbalanced again, for in five of their nine Tests so far this year they have batted the gloveman, either Matthew Wade or Brad Haddin, at No.6. It is not the result of needing more bowlers, but of having so few batsmen who have stood up. Clarke said this week that he was not one for statistics, but he knew no Australia batsman had made a Test double-hundred away from home since Jason Gillespie.Forget double-hundreds, centuries would be enough. This year, only Clarke, Chris Rogers and Wade have scored Test tons for Australia. If the batsmen keep failing, the selectors feel they might as well pick an allrounder. They have shown it again and again. And again. Still, it was surprising that Faulkner was preferred over Matthew Wade, whose two Test centuries have come in winning causes. And Wade, like Faulkner, is tough.”I bring a bit of aggression and a competitive streak,” Faulkner said on Tuesday. “That’s how I play my cricket and that’s how I enjoy playing the game, get in the contest and soak it up a bit, get involved.”It is not surprising that Faulkner has that approach, for otherwise he could not have survived when playing against grown men as a young teenager in Launceston club cricket. He made his first-class debut at 18 and was immersed in Tasmania’s cricket culture, generally considered the best in Australia over the past few years. Faulkner has been Tasmania’s player of the year for the past three seasons and has been a key performer in three straight Shield finals.In 2010-11 he scored 71 and took four wickets in Tasmania’s win over New South Wales, in 2011-12 he collected five wickets in a tight loss to Queensland, and in 2012-13 he scored 46 and 89 against a Queensland attack led by a fired-up Ryan Harris, and also picked up four wickets of his own in the victory. In two of his three Ryobi Cup final appearances he has completed four-wicket hauls. He is, the selectors hope, the kind of man who stands up when it matters.Of course, it is easier to stand up when you’re not worried about anyone cutting you down. Faulkner’s inclusion and the consequent reshuffle of the batting order – Shane Watson will bat at first drop – means that not since the first two Tests of the tour of India have Australia sent in the same top six in the same order for two consecutive Tests. The selectors do not know their best XI or what order to bat them.Australia used 16 players in the series in India this year; that they will use 17 in this Ashes series – an equal Australian record for any away tour – is an indictment on the performance of the players, but also on the lack of trust in them shown by the selectors. The only other time Australia have used so many in an away series was in 1983-84 in the West Indies, when they lost 3-0.Here, Faulkner was not considered in the best team at the start of this series, for Watson was the allrounder and Phillip Hughes, Ed Cowan and Khawaja were all options to fill out the top six. Effectively, the selectors seem now to believe none of those men, nor Wade, are good enough. For a team in desperate need of runs, it is a worryingly desperate situation.Choosing your men and sticking with them has its merits. So does playing hard cricket. And if Faulkner succeeds, it may just open up a whole new criteria for John Inverarity’s panel to judge players by for the home Ashes.

Plays of the Day from the first T20 international between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Dubai

Andrew Fidel Fernando11-Dec-2013The grumpy catcher
Kumar Sangakkara’s dismissal is often cause for unhinged celebration, but Shahid Afridi was anything but joyous when he caught a mistimed Sangakkara shot at cover. The catch was simple enough, as Afridi snaffled the chance in front of his face, but his apparent irritation suggested that he had lost the ball momentarily in the background, perhaps in the stadium lights. The rest of his team did not share his displeasure though, particularly as it was Saeed Ajmal’s 400th international scalp.The catch
Ahmed Shehzad had held on to a flying cut shot at point to secure Pakistan’s first breakthrough, but he was the victim of an awe-inspiring take from Lahiru Thirimanne, who set a standard that will be difficult to match. Spotting a wide half-volley from Sachithra Senanayake, Shehzad struck the ball powerfully, but aerially, wide of cover. In split seconds, Thirimanne was airborne and horizontal, both arms outstretched above his head like he was reaching for a trapeze. The ball had passed him by about a metre when he intercepted it with his fingertips, and it stuck firm to Thirimanne’s palms, at the zenith of his arc.The almost-freebie
Ajantha Mendis’ first ball of the ninth over was perhaps among the worst he has bowled in international cricket – a loopy full toss about half-a-metre outside the leg stump to Sharjeel Khan. Nevertheless, he was inches from gleaning a wicket from it. Sharjeel swept at the ball, and connected with his top edge, sending it over Angelo Mathews at short fine-leg. Mathews ran backwards quickly from his post, and got a few fingers to the ball as it descended, but couldn’t hold on.The misfield
Sri Lanka were average in the field, despite Thirimanne’s catch, but in the 12th over, a failed attempt at fielding the ball brought them an important wicket. The new batsman Sohaib Maqsood drove a full Ajantha Mendis delivery back to the bowler, who stooped to field the ball, but let it slip through his fingers. Unintentionally, he had redirected it at the non-strikers’ stumps though, and while Umar Akmal can feel his run out was unlucky, he contributed to his demise by not sliding his bat.

England were fancied to end their tour on a high against an understrength Australia but after three hefty defeats, worries in important areas have been revealed

Vithushan Ehantharajah03-Feb-2014What initially looked like a week for light relief and a desperately needed series win, proved to be anything but for England. For Australia, one of the most emphatic international summers was brought to a close in an efficient and entertaining manner.George Bailey’s side were a healthy mix of old and new. The second T20 at the MCG had the feel of Brad Hodge’s testimonial, after years of Victorian wishes for an international comeback to their favourite son. Giving James Muirhead time around a confident group of players will, going forward, prove just as valuable as the 10 overs he bowled to return 4 for 64.Cameron White’s renaissance gave the series a nice undertone. Those close to him say they have never seen him so balanced and at ease with his game. The stats suggest as much – 174 runs at 87.00 – as did the fluency of his straight, lofted shots, each featuring his trademark “stand up” follow through.But the likelihood is that those three will not register in Australia’s plans for their final World Twenty20 squad. Even White, who seemed fairly at ease with the idea of being dropped, despite his success – clearly proud to be part of a unit that will welcome back David Warner and Shane Watson, at his expense.It’s a far cry from the England side, despite their deficiencies, who are likely to go into the same competition largely unchanged. Now 8th in the ICC T20 rankings (Australia are 6th), there are concerns in important areas that need addressing.In the spin department, Danny Briggs, an effective bowler in domestic cricket, has so far,been unable to replicate the control and capacity for wickets in international T20s, albeit in six excursions spread across 16 months. He was particularly unfortunate that his one appearance in this series came at a short-sided Hobart. James Tredwell did not fare much better at the MCG.A batting line up that started out as “scary” turned to more of a worry. An explosive front three of Alex Hales, Michael Lumb and Luke Wright only managed 88 runs in eight innings between them.But before calling for wholesale changes, it’s important to look at the alternatives. And the truth is, there aren’t many that would cure these ailments. But there are options that could, at least in Bangladesh, alleviate these problem areas.Craig Kieswetter and Michael Carberry, the top two runscorers in last season’s Friend Life t20 would be good options for an opening spot alongside Hales, allowing Wright to stick at No. 3 (but Kevin Pietersen will most likely take this spot should he be available). A move for Stokes to a more natural position at No. 7 would then allow Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler and Ravi Bopara to shift up a place. The more balls those three face, the better.With the slow bowling, it will be a case of spreading the workload around. Joe Root could assist one of either Tredwell or Briggs; for variety’s sake, the left arm option may be preferred. Alternatively, Moeen Ali – 43 wickets at 25.46 in domestic T20 – could also press his case as a remedy for both of the above issues.

Like a street performer rushing through his routine, desperate for your coins and attention, Jade Dernbach ignores the importance of consistency

But there does remain one issue. You know him best as Jade Dernbach.Dropping him entirely seems like the smart thing to do, especially after returning the worst figures of any bowler, in a three-match series. But his last five outings before Australia saw him take 13 wickets at 12.46, including an impressive 3 for 34 at the Ageas Bowl when Aaron Finch hammed England’s attack for 156 from 63 balls, as Australia posted 248. Dernbach was the only bowler to concede fewer than 10 an over (8.5).The issue is, as regular as clockwork, he undermines himself by mixing things up for the sake of it.Perhaps it’s the pressure he puts on himself to succeed in international cricket that has him unloading all his tricks in an over. Like a street performer rushing through his routine, desperate for your coins and attention, he ignores the importance of consistency. By the end, you’re only watching for the inevitable catastrophe; be it choking on fire or, worse still, conceding 26 in an over.England are clearly hooked and you can sort of see why. Underneath the tats, needless chat and oafish behaviour lies something unique. In isolation, his tricks are a treat. Whether you like him or not, his armoury of deliveries – slower balls, cutters, back of the hand sliders, wobbly-dippers – is a set that very few bowlers in the world have. His manipulation of the ball, through nifty wrist work and the careful cutting across of his fingers, in a number of directions, with no discernable change in his action, is actually quite stunning.While his role has always been to bowl in the Powerplay overs and at the death, it is evident that the England coaches have drummed into Dernbach that they want him to go through his full repertoire.If you can, watch him bowl in the County Championship. He is a far cannier operator in whites.He plugs away on a good length, with very good pace and appreciates the fact that, at times, he will be bowling for someone else’s wicket. His stock ball – an inswinger which moves later and later as the day grows old – is up there as one of the most incisive on the circuit. Of the handful of slower-balls he dished out last season, the majority resulted in wickets.This is by no means an impassioned defence of Dernbach. He is his own worst enemy at the best of times and, ultimately, does not warrant a place in the final 15. But England clearly fear that he has something that no one else can give them and, by tossing him aside, they may lose it forever. Given his current form and poor on-field behaviour, that may not be the worst thing.