The upward curve of the Australian team over the period of Michael Clarke’s captaincy has been by no means an accidental occurrence

Daniel Brettig at Windsor Park27-Apr-2012Played 14, won nine, lost two, drawn three. By these bare numbers Michael Clarke has established himself as a successful Test captain of Australia, ending a long sequence of cricket a little more than a year after he took the job from Ricky Ponting. It was a tired touring team that allowed West Indies to swing their way to within 75 runs of a distant target on the final morning, but the Australians’ unstinting earlier efforts ensured that the Caribbean tour and the elongated “summer” of eight months’ duration ended on a note of victory.In the finish it was the captain himself who did much of the heavy lifting, claiming the second five-wicket haul of his Test career with left-arm spin of the kind that Allan Border once employed with similar success against West Indies. Clarke’s other major tally was a freakish 6 for 9 on a Mumbai pitch that existed in name only, and here he had to work for his wickets on a surface that offered generous turn but not the spiteful bounce or grubbers that fill batsmen with fourth-innings fear. It was fitting that Clarke played such a role in bringing the team home to a 2-0 series success, for the upward curve of the Australian team over the period of his captaincy has been by no means an accidental occurrence.As a batsman, a tactician and occasionally a bowler, Clarke is always keeping the game moving, always looking for opportunities for runs or wickets, always pushing his team towards greater efforts. Clarke’s players have taken on his appetite for meticulous preparation and hard training, preserving their bodies as he must do in order to stay ahead of a troublesome back that has humbugged him numerous times over his career. They are also a more ebullient and enthusiastic group under his leadership, as much because they know their leader is a shrewd one as because he is a cheerful one. Winning helps too.Since he walked out to toss the coin with Sri Lanka’s then captain Tillakaratne Dilshan in September last year, Clarke has taken the team through plenty of peaks and also a few notable troughs. It was those that he pointed to as critical to the building of the team’s character, particularly the way the team found a way to regather itself after the trauma of being razed for 47 by South Africa in Cape Town, squaring the series in Johannesburg within a week. There was also a galling defeat to New Zealand in Hobart as the team settled under a new captain, coach and selection panel.”Cape Town showed us how quickly things can change for the worse and then to be able to pull off a win in Jo’burg – and we’re talking about a very strong Test cricket team in their own backyard – so to be able to level that series was a great learning curve for us,” Clarke said. “And we probably saw a little of that again against New Zealand. There are highs and lows in this game and you’re going to experience both, whether you like it or not individually as a player. And that gave us the opportunity as a team to see that it doesn’t matter what opposition you play against, if you’re not at your best, you’re going to get beaten. And we continue to learn, especially, from those two games, from Cape Town and Hobart.”I’ve been very lucky to have some other great leaders around me, wonderful support staff who have played a part in me having success. And the captain is only as good as his stock. The players have played so well that they’ve made my job so much easier and they’ve put me in a position where it allows me to take a risk, or to declare, or to bowl a certain bowler because I have the confidence of the boys in that change-room. So I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I’ll look forward to having a bit of a break now.”There are still plenty of flaws evident in the team Clarke is leading. The batting is the cause of most doubt, as the opening combination of David Warner and Ed Cowan has not yet reached the level required, Ricky Ponting’s future in the game is a series-by-series proposition and Shane Watson has yet to prove he is capable of scoring centuries at No.3, an essential requirement for any top-class performer in that position. Beneath them, the next group of young batsmen is struggling to attain the heights they had initially promised – Phillip Hughes, Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh among them. This point of weakness will require plenty of considered discussion between Clarke and the selection panel but also Rod Marsh as the designated director of coaching among the states, for South Africa and England in particular are unlikely to be as accommodating in future series as India were during the home summer.However the major strength Clarke has been able to call on across his first year in charge is a battery of pace bowlers that is burgeoning with speed, swing and promise. Older practitioners like Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus have learned new ways to succeed, and younger striplings including Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Pat Cummins have all shown how formidable they can become. Further back are the likes of Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Bowlers, it is so often said, win Test matches, and for now Clarke is well stocked with options.He also now has a spin bowler he can rely on in most situations, as Nathan Lyon builds his stamina and savvy on foreign pitches. While Lyon has not dominated every innings, and struggled notably in some, he is establishing the sort of record that very few Australian offspin bowlers have been able to boast of. None have surpassed Ashley Mallett’s 132 from 38 Tests at 29.84, yet with 42 at 27.83 in 13 matches, Lyon is on his way. Most heartening in his growth is how much Clarke and the coach Mickey Arthur have worked to let him develop without being unfairly exposed by batsmen or critics. The lessons of a misspent first four years after Shane Warne’s retirement, with slow bowlers tossed about like boats in Dominica’s impending hurricane season, appear to have been learned.The most significant transition that lies ahead for Clarke and his team is the choice of wicketkeeper for next summer and the Ashes series beyond it. Matthew Wade’s contribution in the Caribbean was meritorious, for how he gleaned lessons from early struggles to capitalise in supreme fashion in Dominica. While his batting at Windsor Park will be the most memorable element of his work, Wade’s keeping has also progressed greatly. Brad Haddin, meanwhile, sits at home with his family, older and wiser and a valued member of the team even though he was forced to leave it behind by difficult personal circumstances. Clarke does not want to lose Haddin, but he does want his team to move forward. His first 12 months in charge provide the strongest possible evidence of that fact.

Martin Guptill batted with lots of patience and application against Sunil Narine for most of the day, before giving it away three short of a hundred

Subash Jayaraman in Antigua26-Jul-2012So near yet, so far. That, in a nutshell, was Martin Guptill’s sedate and measured innings on the opening day of the Test series. He was three short of his first century against nations other than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. There were only 3.3 overs left in the day, and Guptill’s survival would have given New Zealand the edge over West Indies on a day of attritional cricket.As soon as he played the shot, a slog-sweep prompted by either a rush of blood or the anxiety to reach his hundred, Guptill could scarcely believe what he had done. He turned away from the pitch, took a few steps, shook his head and just keeled over. Squatting, with the bat for support, his head hung low, Guptill did not move for several moments, even as the ball was still descending towards the safe hands of Narsingh Deonarine. A golden opportunity to score big and consolidate New Zealand’s advantage had been frittered away.Guptill’s patient and disciplined 97, however, was a far cry from the part of the tour that is past. Sunil Narine had spun webs around the New Zealand batsmen during the limited-overs segment, producing numbers that would be hardly believable even in grade cricket. He took seven wickets at 6.57 each in the Twenty20s and 13 at 11 apiece in the ODIs, while conceding less than three runs per over. How they coped against Narine was going to be the deciding factor in the Tests, and Guptill was also under pressure, having scored only 96 runs in five ODIs with a best of 51.Having chosen to bat on a pitch that was a little flat, New Zealand needed to cash in on the opportunity. Guptill, in the company of Daniel Flynn and later with Ross Taylor, almost achieved that objective. There was swing early for Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach was asking questions with his pace and accuracy, Darren Sammy beat the bat on more than few occasions and Narine was introduced in the 21st over.New Zealand were 71 for 0 at lunch and they would have taken a wicketless first session no matter what the score. Sammy set 7-2 offside fields and four slips at times, and used Narine for five overs. Three of those overs were maidens, which Guptill played out. Guptill’s second scoring shot against Narine, however, was a soaring six over long-on that perhaps gave him the belief that he was picking the spinner. “It’s a great wicket to bat on. Once you put down your head and bat, I don’t think it’s much of a problem.” Narine said after the close of play. Guptill did just that.Amid this ongoing battle with Narine, Guptill punished the fast bowlers whenever they erred in length or line with sparkling straight drives down the ground. He was equally comfortable keeping the good balls out or just leaving them alone. There was only one close call, when an lbw appeal from Rampaul was turned down by the umpire and reviewed. The decision stayed with the on-field umpire because the ball seemed to have hit the pad marginally outside the line of off stump. Besides that, Guptill was in almost complete control against the quicks.The nervous nineties may have caused Guptill to take an undue risk so close to sealing the day for himself and New Zealand. He was stuck on 90 for 18 deliveries spanning nearly seven overs and on 94 for five deliveries across four overs. Lack of strike and scoring may have played their part in his gut-wrenching dismissal but it does not take the sheen off a well-composed innings.It was quite an uncharacteristic knock from Guptill. His strike rate barely rose above 50 – he ended with 38.95 – but such a gritty innings was the need of the hour. It is now up to his team-mates to make sure his toil is not wasted.Ross Taylor believed his side was “still on top” and in the “box seat”. With batting expected to get harder during the third and fourth innings of the match, Guptill’s innings could be more valuable than it initially appears.

This book offers the story of England’s much misunderstood band of travelling supporters from the inside

Rob Steen27-Oct-2012R-E-S-P-E-C-T. That’s all the Barmy Army crave. That they still have their detractors is almost certainly because they’re such an easy target for the primarily middle-class English media, and it all starts, of course, with that self-mocking name. Barmy, after all, is another take on “loony”, “bonkers”, “potty” and sundry other deliciously wry English words denoting a lack of mental mettle. Happily, as journalist Winslow affirms in his wry, perceptive and winningly written travelogue of life on the road “chasing the cricket dragon”, the brand of looniness favoured by foot soldiers such as himself is not only almost entirely benign (Ricky Ponting doubtless disagrees) but, in its way, rather beautiful. In a sweet, sweaty, bromantic sort of way.Rewind to North Sound, Antigua, February 2009. The briefest Test match yet is over, done and dusted in ten balls. “The bowlers were having trouble with their footings,” explained Alan Hurst, the match referee. “We considered it very dangerous.” So uncannily did the outfield resemble a beach, it was a shock to discover that water wasn’t lapping the boundary edge and the spectators weren’t aboard their pedalos.At 3pm, remarkably, came an announcement: another Test would start at St John’s two days later. The driving force behind this rare instance of on-the-hoof administration was Giles Clarke, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, who’d made his fortune trying to satisfy his customers, in particular their desire for affordable plonk. This time, he’d been listening to an angry crowd. As was now the norm, thousands of British tourists were spending their vacations following the England team to far-flung former territories. On tours of the Caribbean, moreover, it was now almost habitual for holidaymakers to outnumber locals, often considerably so.But for the presence and remonstrations of the Barmy Army, it is extremely doubtful that such swift action would have been countenanced, much less taken. Yet until fairly recently, among the English media, the consensus was both unequivocal and unshiftable: not only was the average Barmie rude, crass and never knowingly sober, he (and they were always “he”) possessed a few thousand cells too few for an operable brain, not to mention having far too much in common with his f***ball-besotted counterpart.Indeed, that provocative maestro of the look-at-me tirade, Matthew Norman, actually had the brass balls to claim in the that, unlike the Barmy Army – “that coalition of saddoes… the only faction of any sporting audience in history whose primary motivation for attending games is not to watch but be watched” – football thugs “had integrity”, a statement Winslow neatly and thoroughly demolishes for its intergalactic remoteness from fact. The image, nonetheless, was set in stone and ink: a bloody national disgrace.This has always struck me as profoundly snobbish, not to say grotesquely unjust. After all, what national team, in any sport, can command such a devoted caravanserai, such a loyal source of lung power and lusty encouragement? Even now, the most damaging and regrettable incident involving an England cricket fan dates back to Perth 1982, a dozen years before the first Barmy Army t-shirt went on sale, when Terry Alderman dislocated a shoulder bringing down a pitch invader. Consider, too, those allegations of self-aggrandisement. A recent browse through the Army’s website forum revealed 1685 posts for “Barmy Army Chat” and 19,408, more than ten times as many, for “General Cricket Chat”.The main difficulty, attests Winslow, lies with perceptions and, in particular, the Army’s “schizophrenic identity issues”. “Those who have been involved in shaping it, maintaining it, developing it and caring for it have a clear definition of what it is, but those who write about it, those who join it without realising what it stands for, and even those who are not involved at all can both skew public opinion and have a damaging effect on its reputation.” Yet even that definition – cricket-loving patriots – falls short: sure, there’s the hardcore group that flew steadfastly to India after the 2008 Mumbai atrocity but then there are those who turn up for a couple of Tests in the more attractive cities. “Even to us the Army can be a different beast every day, and some days we like it more than others.”It is impossible to quantify how much Andrew Strauss’ team benefited from Bill Cooper’s uplifting trumpet or those endless renditions of “Everywhere We Go” and “Jerusalem” on their triumphant Ashes tour of 2010-11 (by when Norman was virtually alone in his condemnation), but why not settle for the view propounded by Graeme Swann in his foreword to this entertaining volume: “They are not hooligans, they are not troublemakers, they are just cricket nuts who fly the flag for this brilliant country we live in. They are the very heartbeat of our Test team abroad. And I love them for it.”Going Barmy: Despatches From a Cricketing Foot Soldier
by Paul Winslow
SportsBooks
£8.99, pp 310

A new format, a strict directive against poor pitches, a home Test season, and the availability of Test stars could breathe some life back into the only Indian domestic tournament that should matter

Sidharth Monga01-Nov-2012Bryce McGain went for 0 for 149 in 18 overs in his only Test, in 2008-09. He is mostly a forgotten legspinner now. He thinks he will never play a Test again. It still doesn’t take away from his enjoyment of playing the game. In an interview with ESPNcricinfo in 2010, he said if his mind were dictated by figures, he would have gone crazy 10 years ago. He said that being with his mates at 8am, for any level of cricket, on freshly cut wet grass, trying to turn the ball as hard as he can, he is happy to just be there. Perhaps only a legspinner, the most optimistic breed among cricketers, could have put it so beautifully.Around a neglected tournament, in another country, you can almost smell the freshly cut wet grass. England are here for a big Test series and their first cricketing visit to the Brabourne Stadium had them all walk past the Ranji Trophy that sits regally in a CCI foyer. In less than 24 hours from now, 12 matches will start simultaneously, and about 400 cricketers will be happy to just be there. This is the real start of India’s domestic season, the only tournament that really matters to the players and to a majority of the small number that follow Indian domestic cricket.Another legspinner – Anil Kumble, now the head of BCCI’s technical committee, is remembered slightly more than McGain, though – has taken it upon himself to keep the Ranji Trophy relevant and fresh, which is a huge challenge, given the length and breadth of the country, and the number of rather needless tournaments that eat into the calendar.The start, though, seems to have been made. There is a palpable buzz around. Some, but not all of it, is down to no foreign tours for India this season. Almost all of India’s Test team is playing the season opener. And for the rung just below that, there is promise, a hope that performances in Ranji Trophy could bring immediate and tangible results. For the last few years, with the Test team touring abroad, once the squad was selected, that was it. After that whatever you did in the Ranji Trophy, you were almost invisible. Now if Suresh Raina fails in Ahmedabad and if Ajinkya Rahane scores a big hundred in Hyderabad, there could be a change in the middle of the series.Yet the beauty of the Ranji Trophy is not this alone. It is democratic, it allows a Plate team like Rajasthan to win the real thing. It allows players who have no realistic hope of playing Test cricket proper time and space to take their team ahead. The change in format, from Elite and Plate to three groups of nine each, has made it even more democratic now.The class system is gone, which will give the neglected teams more involvement. The new format, where two teams from Group C will make it straight to the quarter-finals, saves the best team from the Plate league what could be a heartbreaking knockout game that used to be played over just four days and has at times been decided on the basis of the faster scoring rate. Nor did those Plate semi-finals lead to finals.”All teams have got equal opportunities,” says Amol Muzumdar who has been part of the have-nots of late after a long career with the haves, Mumbai. “Eight games. Four home games and four away games. In Plate League there used to be five games. That wasn’t enough opportunities for a team.”Over five games and a crunched schedule, if you went down with flu, you had missed almost half the Ranji Trophy. And like players from injuries and illnesses, teams will get a better chance of coming back from poor starts. Three out of nine, not seven or eight, in the two top groups will make it to the quarter-finals, making it a sterner test. The near-obsessive need for at least a first-innings result – five days for every knockout game and an extra day if needed – will ensure no home team prepares snooze fests of pitches to exploit the run-rate rule.

This year, the champion team will have played 47 days of cricket in a little under three months. It is just killing for everybody in general and the fast bowlers in particular, whose bodies are allowed no time to recuperate. “Bowlers who start the season bowling at 135kmph become trundlers by the end of it,” says Aakash Chopra

The Ranji Trophy evolves every year, this year it will evolve a little more than usual. Kumble and friends will be watching closely. Teams are playing ball too, taking steps towards professionalism. Uttar Pradesh, known for their rustic ways, have hired an outsider, Venkatesh Prasad, as coach. They even paid an external agency to organise a 15-day pre-season camp, in an attempt to build a sense of team and work on mental strength. Himachal Pradesh and Haryana sought paid help from the National Cricket Academy. Andhra have hired a New Zealander to coach them.Still, big challenges remain. India just can’t seem to find enough time for the Ranji Trophy. The matches are still lugged together with a three-day gap in between, suggesting not a prestigious first-class tournament but a chore that has to be got out of the way.And what of the players? This year, the champion team will have played 47 days of cricket (considering no knockout game goes into a sixth day) in a little under three months. Last year, Rajasthan played 10 matches over 80 days. It is just killing for everybody in general and the fast bowlers in particular, whose bodies are allowed no time to recuperate. “Bowlers who start the season bowling at 135kmph become trundlers by the end of it,” says Aakash Chopra. Forget about working on your game during the season. There’s no time. You want to change your grip a little? How about trying next season?Add to it other tournaments. Teams might arrange camps before the Ranji Trophy, but they regularly miss all their good Under-25 cricketers, who are away playing U-25 tournaments. This year they have been hit worse with the A game against the touring English finishing only hours before the first toss in the Ranji Trophy. Vinay Kumar and Ashok Dinda could be bowling 15 overs each on November 1, and hoping like hell Karnataka and Bengal don’t end up bowling first on November 2.The Ranji Trophy, unlike the Duleep, Irani, Challenger and Deodhar, fosters team pride, where you are always striving to take your team to the next level; in other tournaments you hardly feel you are a team. In the Duleep Trophy, for example, players meet each other for the first time only in the nets. Some of them wear their state gear, some go for their club clothes, and some are seen in Nike India shirts after having represented India or India A. More than a month can easily be freed up by getting rid of those tournaments. The choice is between having 20 uncared-for trophies and two or three really well-planned ones.Most of the players who are happy to just be there will be happier if they had a sizable number who are happy to just be following their fortunes. And those people just need to be told the Ranji Trophy is something worth caring for. Otherwise the freshly cut wet grass can dry up in no time.

West Indies’ outstanding win at the Premadasa Stadium means they’re world champions in a format for the first time since 1979

S Rajesh07-Oct-2012West Indies scored more runs in their last ten overs than Sri Lanka did in their entire innings•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

• West Indies have become the second team, after India, to win all three world tournaments conducted by the ICC – the World Cup (1975 and 1979), the Champions Trophy (2004) and the World Twenty20 (2012). They’ve also reached three other finals of ICC events. India won the World Cup in 2011, the World Twenty20 in 2007, and shared the Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka in 2002.
• In the Powerplay overs, West Indies scored only 14, which is the lowest for West Indies, and the lowest for any team against Sri Lanka. The previous-lowest for West Indies had been 17, against South Africa in the 2010 World Twenty20, while the previous-lowest by any side against Sri Lanka was also 17, by New Zealand in Lauderhill in 2010. The lowest Powerplay score by any team is 10, by Canada against Zimbabwe in 2008.
• In the last nine overs, though, West Indies scored 99, which is their fifth-highest in Twenty20 internationals. Their highest is 131, against New Zealand in Lauderhill earlier this year. West Indies also scored 122 – their second-best – in the last nine in the semi-finals of this tournament against Australia, which means two of their best five efforts have come in successive matches.
• West Indies ended up scoring more runs in their last ten overs (105) than Sri Lanka did in their entire innings.
• Marlon Samuels’ 78 is his highest score in Twenty20 internationals, and also the highest by any batsman in the final of a World Twenty20. The previous-highest was Gautam Gambhir’s 75 in the 2007 final.
• Lasith Malinga went for 54 in his four overs, which is the most runs he has conceded in a Twenty20 international innings; it’s also his worst economy rate in an innings in which he has bowled four overs.
• Malinga was hit for five sixes in the innings, all of them by Samuels. It’s the most sixes he has conceded in a Twenty20 innings – his previous-highest was two. In fact, no batsman had hit him for more one six in an innings. In all, Malinga conceded 39 runs from 11 balls to Samuels, which is joint fifth-highest that any batsman has scored against a bowler in a match. The highest is 46 off 18 balls, by Chris Gayle off Brett Lee in the 2009 World Twenty20. The previous-highest against Malinga was 30 in 11, by Michael Hussey in the 2010 World Twenty20.
• Malinga had a terrible day, but two other spinners put in terrific performances. The figures for Ajantha Mendis (4 for 12 in four overs) and Sunil Narine (3 for 9 in 3.4 overs) are the two best figures in the final of World Twenty20 tournaments. The earlier best was Irfan Pathan’s 3 for 16 in the 2007 final. Mendis also finished with 15 wickets in the tournament, the highest by any bowler in a World Twenty20.
• West Indies beat Sri Lanka in an international game for the first time since April 12, 2008, when they won an ODI in Port-of-Spain by seven wickets. Since then, they lost six matches and drew three against Sri Lanka. This was also West Indies’ first win against Sri Lanka in a Twenty20 international.
• For Sri Lanka, this was their fourth successive defeat in the final of a world tournament, following on their defeats in the 2011 and 2007 50-over World Cups, and the 2009 World Twenty20.

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the second day in Colombo

Andrew Fernando in Colombo26-Nov-2012Poor shot of the day
Martin Guptill missed a straight one that clattered into his stumps in Galle, and his misjudgement – which seems an embarrassing one for international cricketers to be making – appears to be contagious among the openers in this series. Tim Southee angled one in to Tillakaratne Dilshan in his second over, and Dilshan left a huge gap in between bat and pad as he played a leaden-footed defensive stroke, and the ball went on to hit middle and leg, despite not having moved in the air or off the seam.Suspicious batsman of the day
The practice of taking a fielder’s word on a contentious catch is now archaic, but batsmen do generally accept their dismissal when they have been bowled. But not, seemingly, Kruger van Wyk. Dilshan bowled one full and flat and van Wyk failed to get his bat down in time, and although the ball hit off stump almost dead on, removing the bail, van Wyk chose to stand his ground. The umpires asked for a video referral, which confirmed what the Sri Lanka team already knew, and only then was van Wyk content that he had been bowled.Fielding showcase of the day
Fielding coaches may want to get a replay of Kane Williamson’s second boundary of the day, as in one ball, it showcases fielding commitment at its best and its worst. Williamson pulled Nuwan Kulasekara behind square leg, and Suraj Randiv who was fielding at deep midwicket was after it in a flash. He had a lot of ground to make up and he put in a dive in an attempt to reach it, but the ball still evaded him by a good metre. Shaminda Eranga meanwhile, had a shorter distance to go from fine leg, and though he easily covered the ground, he attempted to stop the ball with his boot rather than bending down to pick it up, and ended up deflecting it onto the rope.Impression of the day
The back end of a New Zealand innings is far less rewarding for spectators when Chris Martin is not playing, but No. 11 Trent Boult produced a decent impression, when he became Rangana Herath’s sixth victim. Both Southee and Jeetan Patel had proved the pitch held no terrors when they survived 34 and 45 balls respectively but Boult decided to leave a length delivery that pitched in line with the stumps and straightened, and the ball predictably hit the top of middle and off. Batting incompetence even the Phantom might have cringed at.

Australia have grown familiar to being three down for not many in Tests of late

Brydon Coverdale at the Gabba11-Nov-2012Over the past two years, David Warner, Ed Cowan, Shane Watson, Phillip Hughes, Shaun Marsh, Usman Khawaja, Ricky Ponting, Simon Katich and Rob Quiney have between them scored four Test hundreds while batting in the top three. So has Pakistan’s Azhar Ali. Hashim Amla and Kumar Sangakkara have seven each, Rahul Dravid six. Leaving aside Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, only New Zealand have produced fewer runs from the top three positions in that period than Australia have.Three for not many has been a recurring theme for the Australians for some time now. On this occasion at the Gabba, they were 3 for 40. As has often been the case after such wobbles, the captain Michael Clarke came in and steadied proceedings, this time with the help of one of the openers, Cowan, but the lack of output from the men at the top of the order must be a worry to Clarke and the coach Mickey Arthur.Sometimes, it hasn’t mattered. At their best, Ponting, Clarke and Michael Hussey form as effective a counterattacking middle-order as any side could want. Australia have done well enough during a time of top-order transition to be playing for the No.1 Test ranking during this series against South Africa. But no team can expect sustained success if the top three batsmen continue to stumble.It was encouraging, then, that Cowan reached stumps on the third day unbeaten on 49, albeit with a little bit of luck after he appeared to glove a catch behind off a Morne Morkel no-ball. But his opening partner Warner was undone by an edge to slip off a Dale Steyn delivery that he could easily have left alone. It is true that Warner is the type of batsman who goes after the ball, but this wasn’t that type of shot – it was a tentative poke that spoke of an uncertainty of mind.The shot aptly described where Warner’s cricket has been in the past month – neither here nor there. A number of players from both Australia and South Africa have had less-than-ideal Test preparation due to their Champions League Twenty20 commitments, but Warner is an unusual case in that he spent most of the tournament sitting in the rooms fine-tuning his iPod playlist. He had only one innings for the Delhi Daredevils, barely felt ball on bat, and then came home for one Sheffield Shield match before the first Test.The Steyn ball that got him at the Gabba was pretty good, not great, but it didn’t need to be. Warner’s contractual obligations might have meant Cricket Australia had no option but to let him stay at the Champions League, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was ill-prepared for this series. Warner can’t afford to rest on the laurels of last summer’s outstandingly patient hundred against New Zealand in Hobart and his brutal 180 against India in Perth.Quiney, on the other hand, couldn’t have been described as tentative in his first Test innings. He was welcomed to Test cricket with a bouncer from Steyn that he confidently pulled for what was almost a boundary to deep square leg, and it was a similar shot that brought his demise. He will have a chance in the second innings to prove that he can be a valuable Test player, but on this occasion he added to the thin recent record of Australia’s top three.And then there was Ponting. Batting at No.4 these days, Ponting enjoyed a hugely productive summer against India a year ago and has been in majestic Sheffield Shield form, but like Warner played at a ball well wide of off stump that could have been left alone. Having seen some tricky domestic surfaces this season, perhaps Ponting was put at ease by the apparently true Gabba pitch, but whatever the case his edge to slip off Morkel left Australia three down with few on the board.If Cowan manages to bring up his maiden Test hundred on Monday it will be a step in the right direction for Australia’s top order. That they have used nine men in those positions in the past two years says a lot. Excluding nightwatchmen, South Africa have used five. And in Test cricket, few things are as valuable as a strong, stable top order.

Despite drifting into the wilderness, Ravi Bopara could still be the man England are looking for

George Dobell17-Jan-2013When he left the pitch after his dismissal in Pallekele with England’s defence of their World T20 all but over, it seemed Ravi Bopara may not represent England again.Devoid of confidence, Bopara’s record in recent games has been not so much modest as agoraphobic: his last eight international innings have yielded two double figure scores – the best being 22 – and three ducks. World-weary, diffident and even sad, he has looked unrecognisable from the carefree player who had once scored centuries in three successive Tests.But, as Bopara returns for Chittagong Kings in the next few days, it may be time for the England selectors to consider him once again for the ODI side.England require an allrounder to balance the side. With five specialist batsmen (Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan), four specialist bowlers (James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann and Steven Finn) and a wicketkeeper (to be decided) all highly likely to feature at start the Champions Trophy in five months, it is clear that they require someone who can reliably provide another 10 overs and bat in either defensive or offensive fashion. Bopara may yet be that man.Samit Patel has made a decent claim for the position in the first two ODIs in India. His batting, in particular, appears well-suited to the role – he averages 37.00 in ODIs with a strike-rate of 95.62 – but concerns over his bowling linger. He has not taken a wicket in his last 10 ODIs and, in that time, has delivered 56 overs at a cost of 277 runs and only twice contributed a full 10-over allocation. While his ODI economy-rate, 5.42 overall, the effectiveness of his gentle left-arm spin on Indian pitches may well not be replicated on home pitches in June.Bopara offers a viable alternative. His ODI economy-rate is an impressive 4.63 – better than Anderson or Broad – which drops to 3.23 in his last 11 ODIs as his well-controlled medium-pace has improved and, while his batting average, 30.62, and strike-rate, 75.68, are inferior to Patel’s, it is worth noting that, at No. 6, Bopara’s strike-rate rises to 90.90. As he showed with unbeaten innings of 45 in 16 balls against Bangladesh at Edgbaston made from No. 7 and 37 from 22 balls against India in Cardiff made from No. 5, he has the power and ranger of strokes to add late impetus to an innings. The selectors will not have forgotten his cultured innings of 60 against South Africa in a low-scoring game in the 2011 World Cup, either. It led to a victory and was one of the higher points for England in a dismal campaign.

He will need to prove he has rediscovered the ability to focus on his game but Bopara is still only 27 and should have the best part of his career in front of him.

But there is a sense that they may have lost patience with him. It is true that he has been on the periphery of the England sides for several years – he has played 118 international games for England across the three formats – without ever nailing down a position. It is true, too, that younger men have passed him in the struggle for a Test place. There are those who have concluded that Bopara is the sort to go missing under pressure; not so much the sort you want beside you in a trench, but opposite you in the enemy’s trenches.But it would be wrong to judge Bopara on the form he showed in the last few months of 2012. Troubled by matters off the pitch, he was unable to dedicate himself fully to his work and his performance suffered. He is better than the shuffling mess that was, against all logic, promoted to bat at No. 3 at Trent Bridge in September. While he will need to prove he has rediscovered the ability to focus on his game, he is still only 27 and should have the best part of his career in front of him.There are other candidates. Chris Woakes, Luke Wright, Tim Bresnan and Ben Stokes are among those who might do a good job for England. The selectors may also decide that the wicketkeeper should bat at No. 6 and allow the inclusion of five specialist bowlers with Broad or Swann batting as high as No. 7. Bearing in mind that four of England’s current top five in the ODI side – Trott, Pietersen, Cook, Morgan and Pietersen – currently feature in the top five of England’s highest all-time ODI averages, then that may not be as big a risk at it appears at first glance. Bell and Patel feature in the top 16, too.But, in English conditions, a seam-bowling allrounder capable of batting in the top seven will remain the preference. If Bopara can prove he has put his troubles behind him, he is worth bearing in mind.Of more immediate concern to England ahead of the third ODI, for which Tim Bresnan will return to contention having recovered from bruising just above his knee, is how they bowl to MS Dhoni. England’s assistant coach, Richard Halsall, said the side were frustrated that they had let match-defining opportunities slip away from them in the second ODI, but it might be more accurate to admit that Dhoni wrestled them away.”At one stage they were 119 for 4, a great opportunity, and even when they made 285 we got to 60 for 1 after 10 overs and were thinking ‘we are going to win this’,” Halsall said. “The disappointment is that we created two very good opportunities to win a game of cricket in India, which is very hard to do, and we didn’t take them. It was a heavy defeat and the lads were disappointed they didn’t deliver.”

From Bhisham Ojha, USA

Akhila Ranganna25-Feb-2013Chanderpaul has quietly crossed into the realm of greatness•AFPIn the 1920’s and 1930’s, West Indies cricket was in its infancy and the side was a hodgepodge of amateurs and weekend cricketers. This team was often bettered by the stronger English and Australian sides. During those forlorn decades, one world-class batsman emerged. He was the bulwark of a frail batting line-up and the team’s fortunes often rested on his shoulders, so much so that CB Fry dubbed him “Atlas”. That player was George Headley.His amazing consistency and penchant for run making earned him another epithet, “The Black Bradman”. Fast forward eight decades, and another batsman, cast in the same indomitable mould has materialised and is drawing comparisons with this great player. He is Shivnarine Chanderpaul, sometimes called Tiger or simply Shiv. For his obdurate batting, resolute temperament and consistent run scoring, almost always in lost causes, he is deserving of another accolade – the Brown Headley.This comparison is not inapt. Chanderpaul came on the scene as the sun was setting on the glorious Lloyd –Richards’ era. In the lean years that followed, as West Indies plummeted from their lofty perch to ignominious lows, the little Guyanese left-hander has grown in stature. Since the retirement of Brian Lara in 2006, he has become the linchpin of a brittle and mediocre batting side. From then to now, in series after series against all-comers Shiv has stood in Casabiancan splendour, quietly accumulating thousands of runs and frustrating bowlers from Lord’s to Lahore.His latest display of Headleyesque run-making came in the just-concluded Test series
against Australia. Chanderpaul’s aggregate in that series was a quarter of the team’s total. His value is starkly evident. In this present West Indies squad [the playing XI in the third Test in Roseau] there is only one other player with a career batting average above thirty and the rest of the team has a total of four Test hundreds. In the last six years (since Jan 2006), he has scored 11 centuries out of the 40 that West Indies have managed. Since 2007 he has tallied over 3,000 runs at a Headley-like average of 66. In the 2007 and 2008 calendar years he averaged over 100, joining Don Bradman as only other player to do so in consecutive years. That period was a purple patch for Chanderpaul .He was ranked the No. 1 Test batsman for seven months in 2008 -2009. He was a Wisden Cricketer for 2008. That same year, the ICC named him the player of the year. All of this was accomplished with an undercurrent of endemic administrative problems that has plagued the West Indies in recent times.Despite these problems, Shiv has maintained his consistency and kept getting better and better. He has done this by putting a high price on his wicket. In these days of fast-paced cricket he has persisted with the old-fashioned method of occupying the crease, playing each ball on merit and building his innings one run at a time.Too often when he is dismissed it has precipitated a ‘calypso collapse’. On other days, as he dug in, preparing to play a significant innings his team-mates have committed hara kiri, leaving him stranded. This has happened so often that he holds the West Indian Test record for most not-out innings [among West Indian batsmen, excluding all bowlers]. His doughtiness’ has rewarded him with another quirky record: In the 2002 series against India he lasted 1,513 minutes between dismissals.Chanderpaul, however, on infrequent occasions, can deviate from the path of stolidity. One rare and startling exhibition of uncharacteristic audacity was against Australia in 2003. On his home turf of Bourda, in Georgetown he came to the wicket with West Indies in trouble at 47 for 4. Everyone expected Shiv to prod and push in a typical rearguard innings. Against all logic he shed his barnacle shell and blasted the flabbergasted Aussie attack for 15 fours and two sixes on his way to the third fastest Test hundred [at the time]. Another instance of his uncommon ebullience was in a 2008 ODI against Sri Lanka .With 10 runs needed off the last two deliveries, Shiv drove Chaminda Vaas down the ground for four and then lofted him over mid-wicket for the six needed for an unlikely victory.He began his unheralded career on 19 March 1994 against England , when as a frail nineteen-year-old he walked out in the Bourda sunlight and took guard with the now trademark hammering of the bail into the crease. After several bouts of nerves he blossomed and Wisden Almanac noted that “Chanderpaul made a debut half-century of wristy elegance”. He notched twelve other half centuries in 18 matches before scoring his first hundred. He now has 25 tons, the third most for West Indians, behind Sobers (26) and Lara (34). Shiv’s career aggregate of 10,055 makes him the second-highest run getter for the West Indies. His fifty-nine Test fifties are ahead of other West Indians and only Allan Border, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, and Sachin Tendulkar have scored more. His career average of 50.02 is greater than his illustrious predecessors: Kanhai, Lloyd, Greenidge, Worrell, Kallicharran and Hunte, and he is only a few decimal points away from topping Viv Richard’s.Shiv seems an unlikely choice for inclusion into a pantheon of batting titans. But his durable class, the dedicated occupation of the crease and the sheer weight of runs made against all countries in all conditions often in solitary, perilous circumstances has placed him in hallowed company. He has quietly crossed into the realm of greatness and can now be unapologetically mentioned in the same breath as Lara, Richards, Sobers and Headley. And as he continues to strive in adversity, confounding both critics and captains, there is the tantalising prospect of years from now whenever a dream team, an all-time West Indies Test side is again chosen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul will take his rightful place in that immortal eleven

Haseeb Ahsan was everything a selector ought to be, and his impact on Pakistan cricket was long-lasting

Saad Shafqat09-Mar-2013The qualities that have left the deepest impression about Haseeb Ahsan are his sharpness and shrewdness. They reflected his character and approach to life, as much as they described his offspin bowling. Born in 1939, Ahsan debuted for Pakistan in 1958, and went on to serve in a series of administrative cricket roles. His influence thus straddles generations; he was as much a figure of the 1950s as of the 1980s.The art of administration and management came naturally to him, and eventually came to be recognised as his true forte. Success outside of cricket confirms this judgement. As an employee of Pakistan International Airlines, Ahsan rose to become general manager of the carrier’s UK operations. Later in life, he joined American Express and became country head for Pakistan. He was astute at handling people and understanding their motivations and reactions.Yet he was no diplomat. Not above holding grudges, he did not shy away from confrontation when it mattered most. This was most evident when Ahsan was manager of the Pakistan team on the 1987 tour to England, which perhaps most dominates his legacy. In Imran’s Summer of Fulfilment, an account of that tour published by the author Khadim Hussain Baloch, Ahsan is described as “a genial man whose smiling exterior masked a character with endless reserves of strength, and whose determination to succeed was as fierce as that of the captain, Imran”.It was a time when Pakistan were in ascendancy, and had begun to assert themselves as one of the strongest teams around. At the start of the tour, Ahsan bluntly asked the English cricket authorities not to appoint Ken Palmer or David Constant as umpires, as they had left previous Pakistanteams unduly aggrieved. This outspokenness made Ahsan immediately newsworthy, and he was in the crosshairs of the English press for the rest of the tour – which brought out his combative best. “It was a role he relished,” recalls Javed Miandad, Pakistan’s batting mainstay on that trip, which eventually produced Pakistan’s inaugural series victory in England.Ahsan also served at different times on the PCB’s selection committee, including stints as its chairman. He is remembered as an honest and commonsensical selector who called it like it is. One of his most courageous positions, unpopular at the time but eventually vindicated, was to advocate for the sidelining of Imran Khan from the 1983-84 tour to Australia, after the Pakistan captain developed a stress fracture of the shin. It brought Ahsan nothing but grief – including a much-publicised dust-up with the board’s formidable chairman, Nur Khan – but the needless aggravation of the injury proved Ahsan right.

“A genial man whose smiling exterior masked a character with endless reserves of strength, and whose determination to succeed was as fierce as that of the captain, Imran”Ahsan as described by author Khadim Hussain Baloch

Even by the standards of the 1950s, he had a short Test career, playing only 12 matches between 1958 and 1962. Yet this too is surrounded by lore. Qamar Ahmed, the veteran Pakistan cricket journalist, who played a great deal of first-class cricket with Ahsan, says he never saw an offspinnerturn the ball as much as Ahsan did. His Test figures (27 wickets at 49.25, including two five-fors) are creditable for someone who bowled mostly on dead pitches.In his sixth Test, a drawn affair in Bombay, Ahsan was called for throwing. He went on to bowl in subsequent matches, but the issue resurfaced on the 1962 tour to England, triggering Ahsan’s return to Pakistan before the Test series had even begun. The unofficial word is that Ahsan did not see eye to eye with the captain Javed Burki, who may have exploited the matter to get rid of Ahsan. Regardless, it effectively ended Ahsan’s Test career at the age of only 23.He was born in Peshawar to an Urdu-speaking family. His father was a high-ranking civil servant during the Ayub Khan days, and died prematurely in 1963. Ahsan attended Islamia College in Peshawar, where his cricketing ability was first noticed. Two eight-fors playing for Peshawar in theQuaid-e-Azam Trophy earned him selection on Pakistan’s 1958 tour to West Indies.Though he never married, Ahsan acquired scores of well-wishers during his lifetime. Friends and associates remember him with much affection. Aftab Baloch, the Pakistani batsman famous for scoring a quadruple-hundred, and who was Ahsan’s colleague at PIA, describes him as a “fine gentleman” and a “perfect administrator”. Qamar Ahmed remembers him as “humble anddown to earth” and unfailingly helpful to anyone in need. Miandad points out that during the 1987 England tour, Ahsan took personal ownership of fund-raising efforts for Imran’s cancer hospital and proved instrumental in netting a windfall.For someone who did not enjoy a long playing career and never held high executive office within the PCB, Haseeb Ahsan casts an unexpectedly long and influential shadow over Pakistan cricket. He will be fondly remembered as a doer, a positive thinker, a patriot, and a man of intelligence andnous who served Pakistan cricket with sincerity and impact.