The pick of the chatter from the year gone by

27-Dec-2008
Shoaib Akhtar shoulders the burden of being his country’s last diamond © AFP
Oh so humble”I can get Ponting out any time. I think I can get him even after I come post a six-month lay-off … [he] had a lot to say about our players and about the way we play our cricket. In fact, it is Ponting who first needs to go and learn to bat against spin bowling.”
“There isn’t a player I haven’t dismissed, from Brian Lara to Sachin Tendulkar. And if you’re talking about the last series against South Africa, I’ll give you CDs and you can watch them. Then you’ll know if I bowled or not against South Africa.”
“How many diamonds can you retrieve from one single mine? There has to be an end somewhere. I don’t see any natural fast bowler after me.”
“I appeal to people not to damage public property and to remain calm.”
“You are not God, you are a cricketer, and I’m a better one.”
The best of friends”The first time I ever met him he was the same little obnoxious weed that he is now.”
Matthew Hayden on his good mate Harbhajan Singh“We’re not good friends at all, I just pretend to get on with him because he’s bloody fast and I don’t want him to hurt me in the nets.”
“Our friendship’s blossomed… can I say that?”
The IPL and big money”There was a little element of feeling like a cow.”
“I know I am worth much more. And based on my performances, I think I can easily get a million dollars, if not more.”
“I could end up being the bargain buy of the tournament, you never know.”
A smiling Ricky Ponting brushes off his comparatively low IPL price tag“When you go to your grave, people will remember what you did with your life rather than how much money you made.”
“It’s a little sad, but I can’t go to the supermarket and say that my name is Tino Best, I bowl at 90 miles an hour, I want $400 in groceries.”
Job hazards”I don’t do heights. I’ll go in helicopters and planes but they’re meant to fly – commentary boxes aren’t.”
“It’s kind of hard to go on one date, have a nice dinner and then say: ‘That was nice – what are you doing in six weeks’ time? I’m going to Chittagong.'”
Stanford, and Twenty20″I’ll probably just take as much as possible off my mortgage or maybe put it under the bed – that’s where money is safest at the moment!”
“Twenty20 is here to stay, as is the future of coloured-clothes cricket, but white clothes separate the men from the boys.”
“Maybe some of these guys are thinking about their bank accounts before they start playing.”
“He’s got more tape on his fingers than an Iraqi war veteran.”
“When this was announced in June I was a hero; now I’m a skunk in October.”
“It’s like three-minute Maggi noodles. Bang, bang, and it is over. For me, it is not cricket.”
“Had I been 21, I would easily have cracked this.”
Allsorts”It is a $5 bit of cloth. I haven’t got one, haven’t had one since the day I finished. I don’t need to look at an Australian cap to remind me of what I did.”
“I like king prawns with a bit of garlic. And I don’t mind lobster. But ‘Vaughan the Prawn’ — what’s all that about? Who writes these headlines?”
Sun”I’m not Jerry Maguire.”
“My cricket age is also my real age.”
“I was a little bit like a frog in a blender, arms and legs everywhere.”
“Welcome to the world of mere mortals. The difference between you and the rest of us is that we only have to remember a couple of months back for our last bad month – you have to remember ten years ago.”

Allen Stanford: from saviour to skunk in a matter of months © Getty Images
“The Shoaib Akhtar [of our team] is Asmavia Iqbal… The only difference between him and her is that she’s completely fit, sticks to her game and does the job she’s asked to do.”
“I think it’s great… but they’re going to have to manage the change rooms pretty well!”
“I’m going to take Yuvraj out in the hotel tonight and make sure he doesn’t come to Kanpur for the next game”
After back-to-back hundreds, Kevin Pietersen has had enough of Yuvraj Singh“The world must get a lesson from Obama’s win, which got an African-American into the White House. That proves anything is possible and Pakistan can take inspiration from that.”
“Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching.”
“I might be watching the Australians on television, and I will think of a field setting while watching a certain batsman, and I will scribble it down on whatever is in front of me – a tissue, a bit of newspaper, anything.”
“I prayed and prayed and asked God to give me the strength to hit that ball out of the ground.”
Shivnarine Chanderpaul recounts the moments before his thrilling last-ball six off Chaminda Vaas in Trinidad“Should there be only one government school in the country? What if some private schools come up and provide education to few more?”
“Collingwood, with respect, is a poor man’s Mark Ealham.”
And…”Just one last thing, lads.”

England’s women are on the verge of the biggest moment of their careers

Will Luke20-Mar-2009England’s cricketers are in a World Cup final. The leading bowler in the tournament is 22 years old and English, with 14 wickets at the disgracefully meagre 9.35. England can also lay claim to the World Cup’s top run-scorer, who averages a smidgen over 75 with an urgent strike-rate nudging 92. What riches. These are not hallucinogenic dreams of a frustrated nation; these are cold, hard fact. England’s women are on the verge of the biggest moment of their careers.Sixteen long years have passed since England last reached a World Cup final, but the team themselves are taking success in their stride. This has been a golden period for England’s women, who retained the Ashes last year before walloping South Africa and India. Until their defeat to Australia on Friday (a dead rubber, as it happens) they had won 17 games on the trot, an achievement that the men can only dream of emulating in any form of cricket, least of all in one-dayers. For their phlegmatic captain, Charlotte Edwards, the success they have enjoyed so far is a result of two key factors: talent and hard work.”We always realised this was our opportunity to do well this time round, but we were realistic,” Edwards told Cricinfo. “We knew we’d be up against some tough opposition – being India, Australia and New Zealand – but having done well against them over the last 12-18 months we were confident we could do well.”As we all know, in a World Cup you have to play good cricket pretty much every game, and we’ve been lucky enough to do that so far apart from yesterday’s minor blip. We were confident coming in but obviously can’t take anything for granted and we haven’t. We’ve taken every game as seriously as we could and wanted to win every single match.”Yesterday’s “minor blip” may have ended their impressive winning streak, but it was not without its silver lining. Claire Taylor, the evergreen right-hander, fell one short of notching yet another fifty to add further weight to her status as the world’s top-ranked batter. At 33, Taylor is the sage of the team and complements the youthful pride of the side’s younger members.England’s bowling attack is in similarly rude health. Isa Guha is the top-ranked bowler in the world, while Laura Marsh is the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. This is the sort of balance that sets apart the good teams from the excellent, and England – with an injection of young, fearless players – are undoubtedly worthy World Cup finalists.”We have really, really good youngsters who are performing on the international stage and we have experienced people in Claire and myself, who are helping them through,” Edwards said. “The real strength is, these youngsters have no fear of anyone, and I think that’s a fantastic place to be in. They’ve had success from when they started playing, so all they know is that they’re winning. Me and Claire had to take the hard route to the top! It’s probably made us the people we are and the players we are.”Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of England’s performance in this World Cup is their frankly un-English determination to strive for perfection. Second-best will not do for Edwards. “I don’t believe we’ve played our best cricket yet,” she insisted. “We’ve been really tough on the girls. Every time we think we’re not playing as well as we should, they come back with a really good performance. I’m sure the girls are going to react to [losing to Australia] in a positive way and come back like they have in recent times.”We’ve not played our best, which is exciting for us as a team, and the coaching staff I believe. I’m sure we can deliver on the big stage on Sunday; we’ve had a magnificent 18 months of cricket and it would be a great way to top it off on Sunday.”The England women are now just one win away from claiming the most presitgious trophy in their sport, and none of this has come by chance. Edwards, their passionate and determined leader, has been instrumental in improving the players’ games to ready them for the grand challenge of a World Cup.”Two years ago I realised the girls had to be tougher. International cricket is tough. We had a quadrangular series in 2007 and we performed really badly out there, and if you’d have said back then that [now] we’d be in a World Cup final, I’d have said there would have been no chance,” she said. “We came back from there, had to have a hard look at ourselves; we weren’t tough enough and weren’t playing good enough cricket. We’ve been so lucky to have Mark Lane take over the team, and Jack Birkenshaw too, and they’ve instilled a lot of belief in the team. We’ve got tougher as a group and we’re playing better cricket. Key performers are performing, and ultimately we enjoy playing cricket with one another, and I think that’s definitely shown in our results.”Sunday’s final, against New Zealand, is perhaps more special for Edwards than for England’s younger personnel. To qualify for her first World Cup final after four attempts is a dream come true. “Since I was a 12- or 13-year-old, when I watched them [England] lift it in 1993, it was always a dream of mine to win the World Cup. So I think it’s definitely the pinnacle of women’s cricket and something I’m desperate to get my hands on.”Bigger, even, than the Ashes? Well, yes. England’s women received a ticker-tape parade in 2005 along with the men for beating Australia, but as Edwards is quick to point out, Test matches are fewer and farther between in the women’s game. One-day cricket may still bewilder the men but the fairer sex are far more adept. “The World Cup is the pinnacle for us. We don’t play as much Test cricket as the guys; obviously the Ashes is important, it’s against Australia and the tradition of it all. But for me, it’s the World Cup which really matters.”England’s last 18 months have dripped with success and encouragement for the future, but to hold the title of world champions will be the biggest boost to a sport that remains in the shadow of men’s cricket. It is nothing less than Edwards, and her predecessors, deserve.

Bangladesh’s new captain retains the exuberant spirit that marked him as a talent to watch, and he wants his team-mates to play the same way

Utpal Shuvro09-Jul-2009Every cricketer’s dream is to lead his country, and even if you didn’t seek Mashrafe Mortaza’s reaction you could almost predict it – it is a dream come true. But what sets Mortaza apart is, he never had ambitions of being captain, he says. This may just be a carefully constructed persona to ensure he stands out. Or it may just be the truth – because the notion of him as captain is so unbelievable. In any case, Mortaza repeats his stand: “Believe me, I never ever harboured ambitions of being captain. I like playing under someone else.”There are two ways of seeing this. One, that the honour bestowed on Mortaza by the Bangladesh Cricket Board after removing Mohammad Ashraful has proved to be a crown of thorns. The more positive explanation goes thus: Mortaza doesn’t see the captaincy as a do-or-die situation and isn’t weighed down by pressure, but instead cherishes the respect and recognition attached to the job. When the responsibility has been entrusted to me, why don’t I try and make an impact seems to be his attitude.It is this attitude – a stubbornness, if you will – that helps one understand Mortaza better. Hailing from the small district town of Narail, he exploded like a meteor on to the Bangladesh cricket scene when he caught the attention of a coach, resulting in his induction at the Under-17 level. A few days later, he was steaming in during a Test match, and he looked every bit Bangladesh’s best fast bowler – a spot that had practically not existed in the previous eight years.However, the bigger challenge lay elsewhere. There have been times in his career when the meteor looked to be a falling star. The past four years have been largely injury-free but the earlier part of his career has coexisted with fitness issues, beginning with a dodgy back and problems with his knees. In fact, both his knees have been operated on four times, with the landing foot going under the knife thrice. It’s a wonder, then, how Mortaza continues to be bowling fast. Perhaps it’s his inherent stubbornness that helped him fight the battle against injury. If so, it’s a quality that will help him when he captains the team.Will that be enough, though? Cricket and captaincy at the international level is a whole new ball game and Mortaza’s stubbornness, his refusal to quit when others have done so, may not be enough. Where will Bangladesh’s players get the strength from? Theirs is a weak domestic set-up; opportunities and facilities are scarce. When they are thrust into the trying conditions of international cricket, you have to feel for them.Ultimately, the captain is only as good as the team. The coach, Jamie Siddons, points out that captaining Bangladesh is the toughest task in international cricket. Mortaza will have no go-to bowler who will guarantee a wicket when handed the ball, nor a batsman on whom he can depend to bat out a session.

Cricket and captaincy at the international level is a whole new ball game and Mortaza’s stubbornness, his refusal to quit when others have done so, may not be enough

The assignment has become even tougher in recent times. The hopes and expectations of achieving the impossible have also gone up. The joke went that there was no easier task than captaining Australia and Bangladesh, for albeit polar opposite reasons: While the Australian captain knew that his team would always win, his Bangladeshi counterpart had no expectations to fulfill.The expectations first surfaced in December 2004, when Bangladesh defeated India; the tag of “giant-killers” in ODIs has stayed on ever since. Even as Bangladesh lost 47 matches on the trot, their fans revelled in the sheer joy of international cricket. Repeated failure, though, has now resulted in impatience.Ask Mohammad Ashraful, whose two-year stint at the top was tumultuous. Under his captaincy not only did Bangladesh defeat New Zealand and Sri Lanka in one-dayers, they played two closely fought Test series against those opponents. It seems a trifle unforgiving, then, that Ashraful was shown the door after one Twenty20 defeat to Ireland.The BCB’s stated reasoning was that it wanted Ashraful to concentrate on his batting without the pressures of leading the side. The youngest Test centurion on debut, Ashraful is perhaps associated with inconsistency, and it’s easy to apply that to the captaincy as well. Mortaza remains a huge fan of Ashraful’s batting. “He is the biggest match-winner for Bangladesh. When Ashraful is on song, Bangladesh are a different team,” he says. Whether cricket watchers will warm up to a changed Ashraful under Mortaza remains to be seen.Whether cricket watchers will warm up to a changed Ashraful under Mortaza remains to be seen•Bangladesh Cricket BoardMortaza, though he has matured, has retained his simplicity and a childish streak – neither hidden too far deep. Star power and fame don’t interest him; instead, like a hyperactive teenager, he usually seems hellbent on spending his vast reserves of energy.His impishness came through a few days before the West Indies tour, when he was visiting Narail. Covered in debdaru [a tall, bushy tree] leaves, his face dirty, he and his group of friends were wild with excitement as they went around the town one afternoon.Will captaincy change the carefree spirit? Mortaza doesn’t think so. He wants his colleagues to enjoy the game with the teenage spirit and exuberance he embodies. He has just the one wish, which he clarified at his first team meeting as captain: that everyone, whether they have the ability or not, give 100% on the field. He has promised that he will never let down a player who ensures his best performance always.Mortaza may not have dreamt of being captain, but the significance is not alien to him. He understands that the fans, with little success to boast of, have also made them their carrier of dreams. They celebrate every success, though they mostly have cause to shed tears at defeat. As in the rest of the subcontinent, cricket in Bangladesh is not just a sport but something bigger, a way of life perhaps.It’s a point Mortaza acknowledges. “It’s actually the national flag we are holding in our hands,” he says. He may not feel it yet but his load is the heaviest of the lot.

What do cricketers do when they’re not playing? Work on correcting errors that have crept into their techniques and limber up for the season ahead

Aakash Chopra27-Aug-2009Tillakaratne Dilshan amazed everybody when he scooped the ball over the wicketkeepers’ heads off the quicker bowlers earlier this year. That innovative shot was the toast of this year’s World Twenty20. It is a tough shot that requires eyes and nerves, which Dilshan has in heaps.It might have seemed that Dilshan was responding to the then-and-there demand of Twenty20, but the scoop is far from a spur-of-the-moment shot. It is a result of a lot of work in the nets. Dilshan had been practising the scoop since the first edition of the IPL, but he didn’t use it in matches till he had mastered it and was sure he could execute it to perfection. Such mastery might look effortless and spontaneous, but it can only come out of a lot of practice.Cricketers, and I suppose professionals in any field, put a lot of thought and effort into preparation. Like they say, “Failing to preparing is like preparing to fail.” I am a firm believer in preparing thoroughly before embarking on any new journey, be it a season, a match or an innings.When I talk about the importance of preparation, recent images of MS Dhoni and RP Singh playing badminton, or Ricky Ponting and Brendon McCullum playing golf might spring to mind. If preparation really is that important, what were these guys doing? Admittedly it was during the off season, but then why weren’t they resting at home, recouping for the next season?It’s a myth that cricketers should rest during the off season. The off-season routine at the highest level of the sport involves physical activity, but preferably something other than cricket. Believe it or not, playing cricket constantly beyond a certain limit pushes you away from the game. You don’t feel like holding the bat again or rolling your arm over to bowl yet another tiresome delivery. The limbs, and more importantly the mind, get so tired that the body craves time away from cricket. This is why after the initial phase of complete rest, which doesn’t last more than a few days, we are advised to get involved in some kind of physical activity. It could be swimming, tennis, badminton or any other sport we choose. Anything but cricket. The idea is to keep the body in motion while resting the muscles involved in cricket.After a few weeks of this we start adding gym workouts in our schedule. My dad once told me something he learnt in his days with the air force: “The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” It holds true in cricket. Cricketers have to be regulars in the gym even during the off season.Workouts for cricketers are focused on maintenance rather than on putting on muscle and getting stronger. During the off season we work on the parts of the body that were found wanting in the previous season or need to be worked on to improve in the next one. Even if no amount of hard work in the gym can guarantee an injury-free season, the chances of successfully enduring the rigours are higher with a stronger and fitter body.Most people think cricketers have a merry time when there’s no cricket, when in fact they are actually sweating it out in the gym. Some players also practise yoga during the off season to strengthen the mind.Then comes the next phase, “pre-season”, where the focus switches back to the skill aspect of the game. In this day and age, where there hardly ever are long breaks between seasons, pre-season starts almost immediately after the active recovery is finished. This is the time to go back to the drawing board and work on the areas we were found lacking in during the previous season. We look at old videos – of days when we were batting at our best – and compare them with the latest ones. The future plan of action is decided based on what the videos reveal. Such analysis also helps fix bad habits that players tend to pick up during the season – playing across the line, the head falling over, and so on. We need to be careful not to let these habits become part of our skill set. Watching videos and taking inputs from coaches and senior team-mates helps eradicate any such habits.During the season the focus is on strengths, while being aware of shortcomings, but the off season is exactly the opposite. Since there’s hardly any time to rectify mistakes during the season, we look for ways to succeed despite the faults; but those areas need to be addressed, and pre-season is the time to do that. I have no doubt that the Indian batsmen who were found wanting against short-pitched bowling recently are putting in hours in the nets to get that in order.Hayden swept until he could sweep no more in his preparation for the tour of India in 2000-01•Getty ImagesThe next bit of preparation is based on what’s coming next once the season starts. Are we going to play Test cricket or the shorter formats? In which part of the world? Against what opposition? Such questions determine our action plan.Last year I attended a camp in Bangalore, just before India’s Test tour to Sri Lanka. Muttiah Muralitharan was expected to be the biggest threat – we didn’t know much about Ajantha Mendis back then – and we had sessions where we asked the offspinners to bowl into the footmarks from a shorter distance. This way even the local boys managed to add spin and pace to the ball. We practised stepping out to get to the pitch of the ball, and then playing along the ground. We also practised the forward-defensive shot, along with padding the ball away if it was too wide outside the off stump. When we were leaving for Australia, the practices feature negotiating short-pitched deliveries, either against a bowling machine or against bowlers bowling from 18 yards away.Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana practised clearing the in-field against bowling machines for weeks before the 1996 World Cup. Matthew Hayden was told well in advance about his inclusion for the tour to India in 2001. For months leading up to the tour, he practised the sweep and using his feet against the spinners. To handle Shane Warne’s legspin from round the stumps, Sachin Tendulkar got legspinners in Mumbai to bowl at him from round the stumps into the rough.Such groundwork can only be done during the off season. Once the season starts you have to prepare on a day-to-day basis. In my next column I will focus on all that goes into preparing before a match, an innings or a tournament.

India’s weakness against the short ball on a lively pitch was exposed by West Indies a couple of days ago at Lord’s and England exploited it to the hilt to send the defending champions crashing out of the ICC World Twenty20

George Binoy at Lord's14-Jun-2009India’s weakness against the short ball on a lively pitch was exposed by West Indies a couple of days ago at Lord’s and England exploited it to the hilt to send the defending champions crashing out of the ICC World Twenty20. England’s fast bowlers sent down a volley of bouncers and back-of-a-length deliveries, aimed at head, neck and chest, rendering India’s top-order batsmen helpless during their Powerplay, a period in which the game was won and lost.A succession of bowlers, from Ryan Sidebottom to Luke Wright, concentrated on not giving the batsmen anything in their half of the pitch and got the ball to rear off the surface. And no one, from Gautam Gambhir to Ravindra Jadeja, could counter the barrage effectively. It was startling to watch batsmen with formidable Twenty20 reputations hop, jump and fend, make futile attempts to pull and hook, and eventually perish to the short ball. They could do little else, for balls full enough to drive, wide enough to cut, and straight enough to glance were a rarity.Rohit Sharma fell while pulling for the second time in a row: against West Indies he skied a short ball from Fidel Edwards while today he played Sidebottom on to his stumps. Gambhir hit boundaries – a drive and a flick off James Anderson – when the ball was pitched up but his attempts to pull barely cleared the infield. Suresh Raina kept transferring his weight on to the front foot, only to struggle for time and space as the short ball hurried on to him. He looked a pale shadow of the hard-hitting batsman on show during the IPL in South Africa and eventually top-edged a bouncer from Sidebottom.Jadeja, who India gambled on by sending him at No. 4, was painfully out of his depth, the quality of fast bowling far superior to any of the IPL attacks he succeeded against. India hobbled to 36 for 2 after the Powerplay and the struggle against the short ball did not ease up even after the field restrictions were lifted.India were one of the favourites going into the tournament, a billing based largely on the strength of their batsmen, rich in Twenty20 experience and renowned for smashing the ball into the stands. The majority of those reputations, though, were acquired on the flat pitches of the subcontinent, the stamp-sized grounds in New Zealand, and on South African surfaces that were slower during the winter.Those who observed Raina batting in New Zealand, for instance, would have watched several mis-timed pulls and hooks clear the small boundaries. And Yusuf Pathan, who carried Rajasthan to victory during the initial stages of the 2009 IPL, was seen to struggle against the short ball later in the tournament. Even Yuvraj Singh, who has success against most medium-pacers, irrespective of the length they bowl, struggles when the really quick ones bounce him.”It’s not the first the first time it is happening to us,” Dhoni said. “Even if you see in the last World Twenty20 in South Africa, the wickets were lively. The bouncer was used [then as well] but we adapted pretty well last time. Whenever you go out of the subcontinent, you play fast bowlers who bowl bouncers against you.”They [England] bowled the bouncer really well. They used the short balls and mixed them with slower bouncers. There are quite a few lessons to be learnt from this, hopefully during the time we have off from here, we can really look to work on this area.”India were deprived of the one batsman who had worked on his weakness against the short ball. Virender Sehwag used to succumb when bowlers targeted his body with the short-pitched delivery – England have used that ploy against him – but in recent series he’s added the hook and the flick off his hips to his repertoire of shots. And few other Indian batsmen have Sehwag’s hand-eye coordination and gumption to send a slightly wider short ball sailing over the backward point and third man boundaries with a rapier like slash.The Indian team that was beaten today barely resembled the six-hitting, world-beating, brimming-with-confidence team they were talked up to be. England came at them with one plan and it succeeded: the Indian challenge was bounced out. South Africa will have been watching and India, with nothing more than pride to play for, can expect more of the same from Dale Steyn and Wayne Parnell at Trent Bridge.

The BCCI’s amnesty to 79 ICL players might weaken the league but it is unlikely to change the face of domestic cricket in India

Sriram Veera02-Jun-2009The BCCI’s amnesty to 79 ICL players might weaken the league but it is unlikely to change the face of domestic cricket in India. It does offer an opportunity to a few individuals like Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Ambati Rayudu to resurrect their careers and help a couple of teams like Bengal and perhaps Hyderabad improve their standings in the Ranji Trophy. Some of the state associations told Cricinfo they would welcome the ICL players but the ground reality is not going to be smooth.As one coach put it: “Reinstating these players is going to be a sensitive issue and it will come down to strong personalities at the association level. What about the players who didn’t leave for the ICL and stayed faithful to the associations? There might be some rancour if one or two are dropped. It’s going to come down to an ad-hoc decision at the individual association level. The various club secretaries could have problems if their players are ditched for someone from the ICL.”

Good performances will obviously make it an easier decision, but there are not enough games and tournaments to prove oneself. A state official said, “These players have only played Twenty20 and that too sporadically. How do we know whether they are good enough to play a longer version or not?” Not all states have a good competitive league or club structure programme and selection is not going to be easy.Though not every cricketer will get reinstated to his Ranji team, the move out of the ICL will open up other avenues for them. They can put up their names as “professionals” and offer to play for weaker sides like Tripura or Assam. Also, they can now play in the leagues in England without any harassment from the boards.Some of the state associations, especially those who were hit hard by the ICL exodus, are looking forward to the return of the players. “These are our boys. The good thing is that the birds have returned to the nest,” said MV Sridhar, secretary of the Hyderabad Cricket Association. “Obviously they should perform well in the league cricket to be eligible for playing in Ranji Trophy.”Likewise, the Bengal association was happy with the return of Jhunjhunwala, Rohan Gavaskar and Deep Dasgupta. Rayudu, for his part, is looking forward to playing domestic cricket and the IPL. “I am not looking too far ahead, just want to concentrate on domestic cricket and push for the IPL,” he said.Some, like Dinesh Mongia, have admitted that the ICL has not been great for their career. “I took a step to play some cricket which didn’t go really well with my career,” he said. “I think that has passed now and I will have to take it in my stride and hopefully things will improve now. Mentally it was very tough because I was playing active cricket, and after I joined the ICL there wasn’t much cricket. As a cricketer I went there for more cricket but I ended with no cricket actually. That was the toughest part.”

Pakistan must overcome the fear of playing in Australia by displaying more aggression if they wish to meet with any success in the series

Osman Samiuddin at the MCG27-Dec-2009Timidity will kill you on the cricket fields of Australia. Pakistan teams
in recent years have not taken heed of this basic tenet when coming out to
play against Australia, and the hammerings they’ve experienced have generally been preceded by submission to fear. If this side is going to learn the lesson, it has started off slowly.It is easy to be meek tourists here. Stadiums, like the MCG, are not
playing fields as much as they are vast, lonely chambers of interrogation.
The sheer size can eat you up. The crowds are huge and loud and
the more you let them get to you, the more they bring it to you.There used to be days, of course, when the Australian side really brought it
all to bear upon tourists like some brutal theatre; the noise, the crowd,
the glares and chatter from players, forever pecking away at you like some
wild-eyed malevolent woodpecker. Those days are gone but Pakistan have
still been playing their ghosts in this Test; ghosts of men such as
Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and their intimidating ways. There are no demons in the pitch or in the bowling. Australia’s batting is
solid, but not murderous anymore. And yet Pakistan has played them like it was 1999, not 2009.The initial selection told it. Abdur Rauf is a sum of many commendable things but
he is not, as is Umar Gul, an attacking fast bowler. Gul may be in an uncertain patch in his career right now, but can anyone deny that he is,
in essence, a wicket-taking bowler? They would’ve played with two spinners
had Danish Kaneria not been injured, but a case could even be built for
going in with five bowlers. It further weakens an already dodgy batting
order but then Pakistan are not, and have never been, India. They win
Tests with their bowling not their batting. Pakistan’s was an honest
effort with the ball, but when did honesty ever win anything?They then began their innings in the afternoon so meekly it was difficult
to know they were there. Solidity is often the order of the day as far
as Pakistan’s opening is concerned, but not sluggishness; surviving 13
overs of the new ball as an opening pair is an achievement for Pakistan,
but going at two-an-over negates that, especially if wickets are never
stable. So unwilling were Pakistan’s top three to dictate terms that it
took them 32 overs to find the first boundary, a passage of extraordinary
conservatism in this day and age. Their coach Intikhab Alam didn’t think
it was, arguing that stability was needed, this being Test cricket. It is, but not from 1969.It is precisely why Umar Akmal is so refreshing; he is not timid, in fact,
he may be even a little too cocky, though time will better judge that. But
he has intent and clarity and in these days when the meek no longer
inherit the earth, that can take you places.Australia have made a national habit out of it. India have been successful
this decade because of it; they’ve had men like Virender Sehwag,
Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh, men who do not take backward
steps and who make themselves known by coming at you. The Pakistan
sides that have been successful in Australia have had such men – Javed
Miandad, Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Mushtaq Mohammad and Wasim Akram.There is natural aggression in this Pakistan side, but it stands strangely
doused and latent. Young men like Mohammad Aamer and Akmal junior have it;
even in Mohammad Asif’s wily ways there is a streak. But there are too
many who look restrained and submissive and that cannot be the successful
way. Perhaps it is the natural calm of the leader and though that is
sometimes necessary with Pakistan, it can also be lethargic and reactive.
The aggression somehow needs to be harnessed and a snarl needs to come out
soon, for otherwise the Test and series will be gone before they know it.Already, the maximum they can hope for here is a draw. And that will be a
kind of victory in itself, given they have lost nine on the trot against
Australia. But that cannot be the extent of their ambition, not in this
land. Somehow they have to open up, they have to chance it and really let
themselves go.

Salman Butt has intrinsically the mind to play a Test innings, but most always finds himself needing to secure his spot

Osman Samiuddin at Bellerive Oval16-Jan-2010The short, interrupted career of Salman Butt tells a great, sad story of Pakistan cricket and its cricketers. It is about the talent of men, notexceptional perhaps but fit enough to succeed globally, existing anywhere in the world in whatever circumstance. It is also about the poor habits that come with unchecked talent. But it is most about not knowing how the talent should be nurtured and not knowing how fragile it can be.Before the Sydney Test, Butt talked about batting well but not scoring big. Meekly he added that being in and out of the side hadn’t helped much. It is such a usual thing for Pakistan players to say that the significance of what they are actually saying is often forgotten. To remind, Butt hasalready been dropped times from the Pakistan team in only 27 Tests. That means he has had to make his way back into the side eight times already by the age of 25 over six years, each time knowing that another edge, a leg-before, a little mistake might be the last, for awhile at any rate.Butt has been dropped when he hasn’t been scoring, and dropped when he has been; once, he scored a fifty and a hundred in Australia and was dropped one Test later in India. That will do as much for your self-belief as finding out your spouse has been cheating on you. A therapist might be more useful than a coach.He is here still after that first trip but he has gone a long, twisted way in five years to get back to where he began. The sadness is that he comes here his career not having gone much further. This series – like that first one – is still about securing his spot.Partly he must admit the fault is his. For such a player, he has careless ways. The running, as Pakistan again discovered, is far too lazy for someone so young. He doesn’t harry nearly enough for runs, content with singles where the more alert sniff out two. Already in his career he has been cautioned a few times for running down the centre of the pitch and in the run-out of Umar Akmal yesterday, he paid for it, running into Nathan Hauritz.The concentration can also be loose and usually at key moments. At the beginning of an innings, just after he has settled, soon after fifties or hundreds, these are dangerous times for Butt. He has good wrists but not the greatest hands, so keeping up a steady patter of singles – an essential batting discipline now – is difficult. More batting sense is needed. A little more in the field wouldn’t be amiss either.But Pakistan needs to know that the good much outweighs the bad and that these are materials that can be worked with. They should’ve known it five years ago but he has to be, from here on in, at least one half-answer to the vexing problem of their opening, in Tests and ODIs.Butt has intrinsically the mind to play a Test innings, to bat long, which is always priceless in Pakistan. He can bat long and doesn’t always get fazed by scoreless periods. Once in Multan, a solid England attack played with his head, placing two short covers and drying up his scoring. He held out for a second Test hundred and a fifty, batting nearly eleven hours in the process. Eight ODI hundreds, in a different way, say much the same thing.His captain reckons he plays better on difficult pitches. Certainly he has prospered enough in Australia now to become a part of that rarest Pakistan fraternity: batsmen who do well in the land of fast, bouncy surfaces.His third Test hundred has come far too long after his second, nearly half a decade. But it was an important one, for him, for Pakistan. Quite a typical one too: moments of carelessness, but prolonged bouts of beauty, patience and good sense. The leg-side game has sharpened and expanded. The touch on the off remains, as ever, finely measured.There came one moment, off Mitchell Johnson, when he no more than guided a ball off the bat, to the left of gully, the right of point and the left of a square, deeper gully as well, guided it as delicately as a cat burglar skipping through the infrared alarms at fancy museums; suddenly theBellerive Oval looked even more beautiful than it already is.The innings took some nerve. The dressing room cannot have been a fun place to be in after yesterday’s run-outs and the night would have been spent uneasily taken with the headlines morning would bring. The sense, all in all, was only how he is not more of a player than he has been so far?

In what could possibly be his last Test in India, the Australia captain has a chance to set things right in his team’s most successful venue in the country

Sidharth Monga at the Chinnaswamy Stadium08-Oct-2010When India went to New Zealand last year, John Wright made a trip to the Bert Sutcliffe Oval, half an hour’s drive from Christchurch, where the Indian team was training. He had short chats with some of his old wards. A visibly emotional Wright then said he missed India. “Once India gets under your skin, it’s hard to get it out.”Of course Wright had a different sort of relationship with India, but Ricky Ponting wouldn’t be too far off the mark if he feels the same on the eve of what could be his last Test in the country he has “never mastered”. Except India hasn’t quite got under Ponting’s skin in the positive way: he averages 22.30 here, has scored just one century in 13 Tests, and hasn’t won a Test here as captain.”I feel like I have been coming to India all my cricketing life and in truth I have,” he wrote in his column in the . Having travelled here six times just for Tests since 1996, he actually has. Twelve years ago, on his second tour to India, he had to be shown out of a Kolkata night club against his will. He was the Tasmanian George Best in those years, as Malcolm Knox wrote of him.Over his Test trips to India, we have seen Ponting grow as a cricketer, as a leader, and as a human being. He has grown immensely in stature as a batsman, perhaps second only to Don Bradman in Australia. He might not be the best tactician going around, but as a leader he has not shied away from responsibility. He has taken over a team that doesn’t win nearly as often as what seemed like Ponting’s birth right until 2006-07. He is risking becoming the first captain to lose the Ashes thrice. But he is there for the team that needs him and looks up to him.

The task that Ponting faces now is immense. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is already gone, and the way it went doesn’t make it easy for a team to bounce back. It will take plenty of character to achieve that

India remains one of those unsuccessful battles. Ponting has toured India with a great team that fell at the last hurdle, and with a team that conquered the Final Frontier without him. He has had Harbhajan Singh torture him for entire tours. Equally, he has had a random man at a sponsor function try to kiss him. He has started his two previous tours looking like he would finally “master” the place, but the box remains unticked.Like with captaincy of late, Ponting retains the enthusiasm for India. “I have always enjoyed playing cricket here, although I haven’t had the success here that I have had in other countries,” he said. “It’s always been a great place to play Test cricket as far as I am concerned. The Australian team has always enjoyed every contest we have had here, and we always enjoy our team around the country outside of the cricket venues.”As far as hurt goes, Ponting rates the defeat in Mohali last week more painful than what happened in Kolkata in 2000-01. Perhaps more so than what happened in Kolkata in 1998. Soon after that Kolkata mishap, Ponting came to Bangalore, and was part of a winning team. This year, with a team he wants to shape as his legacy, Ponting returns to Bangalore, hoping for a similar result to ease the pain of a devastating defeat. Bangalore, in fact, has been Australia’s most favoured venue in India: they are yet to lose a Test here. Ponting’s only century in India has come here. An oasis in the middle of the desert that India has been for Ponting.The task that Ponting faces now is immense. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is already gone, and the way it went doesn’t make it easy for a team to bounce back. It will take plenty of character to achieve that. “This just goes to show unless you are ready to play cricket very, very well for five days sometimes you don’t achieve the result you are after,” Ponting said. It might take four very, very good days of good cricket to get back to a similar position.It will apply to the captain too. A pretty 71 might not be good enough, he will know. At least he is not putting pressure on himself thinking this could be his last Test here. “I haven’t thought about that if this is going to be my last Test or not,” he said. “Hopefully this is not my last tour, as it turns out we are in India almost every year. I still believe I have got a few more years of international cricket ahead of me and hopefully that means I will be back to India for another Test tour.”That said, there are no guarantees either. At least for now, Australia are not playing Tests here next year. If he doesn’t come back, though, it will be a shame if India doesn’t get to see one of the best batsmen of this era at his best.

Plays of the day for the opening day of the first Test between Sri Lanka and India in Galle

Sidharth Monga in Galle18-Jul-2010One man’s last cap, another man’s first
Before the start of the match, Muttiah Muralitharan, playing a Test for one last time, was duly felicitated. School bands played marching tunes as the players and support staff from both teams came out to join Murali for a group photograph. A specially minted coin and other mementos were presented, Sachin Tendulkar hugged Murali (the last time in a while that we will see the highest run-getter and the highest wicket-taker in the world play together). Soon, without much fanfare, Abhimanyu Mithun ran in for his first act in Test cricket.Choices have repercussions
There has been much talk about India’s resistance to the Umpires’ Decision Review System (UDRS) in this series. Not a long way into the first session of the series, they would have regretted their choice when Abhimanyu Mithun trapped Tillakaratne Dilshan on the pads, adjacent with the leg stump. All that was missing was Daryl Harper’s approval. Surely this is not the last we will hear of UDRS? Not sure if India would have made the same choice had they known Harper would be one of the officials.Captain knows best
When Mithun bowled a good first spell in Test cricket, 4-1-6-0, an eyebrow or two was raised when MS Dhoni removed him to introduce Harbhajan Singh. A profligate Ishant Sharma had conceded 26 in four overs until then. That, though, just proved to be a change of ends for Mithun. And with the first ball from the Fort End, Mithun got Dilshan’s wicket.Getting the field you want to bowl to
Pragyan Ojha, who began his Test with a gentle long hop, was soon reduced to bowling to a 7-2 leg-side field. It must not have sat well with the left-arm spinner’s self-respect, for without wasting time he bowled short and wide, was cut away for four, and immediately got a more respectable 6-3 leg-side field.A mid summer afternoon’s dream
Your side is being battered by home batsmen in the heat and humidity. You bring on a part-time offspinner, give him a defensive field with three men deep on the on side. He bowls a long hop to the batting side’No. 3, who has completed a fluent century. The No. 3 pulls ferociously, but somehow, by some act of fate, the ball lands straight into deep midwicket’s lap. And lo, Kumar Sangakkara is gone. Dreams do come true.