All posts by h716a5.icu

Imran was at the heart of shaping modern-day Pakistan cricket, and all we love about the team and their play can be traced back to him

Osman Samiuddin31-Oct-2010There lies, pop stars and politicians will tell you, great reward in transformation. Imran Khan, who hung out with the former and has become one of the latter, will tell you there lies greatness itself in transformation. This is the truth of his life and career. Many are conceived great but it can also be achieved by not necessarily being yourself as at conception, by changing, evolving, renovating.The broad outline is that he went from being a good player to the finest one his country produced, and arguably the finest allrounder cricket has seen in a gathering not involving Sir Garry Sobers. Underpinning this was his real genius: an unbending commitment and a pig-headed focus, a blind devotion, really, to any given single cause – to better himself, to better his side, to better his country, to better the world.So fierce is the single-mindedness that it has often become divisive, as with the 1992 World Cup-winning speech remembered so bitterly in Pakistan. So obsessed had he become with building the cancer hospital in memory of his mother, he didn’t think to thank his own team or anyone else, speaking only of the project. That is the downside; the upside is that the cause drove him, and thus his team, to win the damn thing in the first place. And it isn’t as if he was building something that would devour babies.Details, though, are instructive.His action, for example, when he began in the early 70s, looking like a misplaced Beatle with a mop top, had more windmills in it than Holland, and was as flat. Yet by 1982 it had become such a leaping study in the beauty and grace of the human form, all it needed was a catwalk; to half the human race it was a mating call. Visually it was as unrecognisable from his natural action as the Michael Jackson of 2008 was from the Michael Jackson of 1978. It came about after much consultation with greybeards and contemporaries and defiance of others, but above everything, from an inner voice that told him he could be far more than what he was.His bowling itself underwent several recalibrations of pace, length, attitude and modes. When he began, he couldn’t control big, booming inswingers of modest pace. But when cricket was gripped by a prolonged vogue of bouncers from the mid-70s on, Imran unthinkingly jumped in. When the run-up and rhythm were right, he was sharp, and he targeted heads with commendable indiscrimination.But by the early 80s, a scholarship in Kerry Packer’s World Series with the world’s best to the good, and quicker still, he was hitting fuller lengths and ignoring the surface. He was swinging the new ball but more radically, the old; 40 wickets in the 1982-83 series against India in Pakistan was a mind-altering moment in fast bowling.Then, post shin-injury, another face. The pace came down but the mind remained sharp; nearing 35 he took over 20 wickets in leading Pakistan to their first series win in England; a year later he took 23 in a three-Test series in the Caribbean; even at 37 he bowled a remarkable, long-forgotten two-wicket maiden last over of an ODI in Sydney, which Pakistan won by two runs.Through this immense journey were the imprints of a few minds. Mike Procter and John Snow, Garth le Roux, the Kiwi John Parker, Sarfraz Nawaz, all chipped in, but overseeing it all at each step was Imran himself, pushing himself to whichever point and in whichever direction would bring him success.

Just imagine cricket’s landscape in Pakistan without him. For sure the country would’ve been one of spinners and medium-pacers, no Wasim, Waqar, Zahid, Shoaib and Amir in sight

Nowhere more than in his batting did he inflict – and that really is the word – upon himself such stark transformation. The epiphany came in his very first Test as captain, until when he had been a free, reckless spirit in the lower order. A careless hook off Bob Willis ended a careless innings, and immediately he resolved to become more responsible; there was no harsher critic of Imran than Imran, not even slighted ex-players from Karachi. It didn’t require the structural re-jigging of his bowling, for his batting was built on sounder, correct principles. In his head he had always been a batsman, even if in his blood he felt the flow of manlier pursuits. All it needed was for his mind to win. Obviously it did.A solid 65, batting mostly with the tail in the second innings, was, in his words, a “watershed”. The conclusion cannot be doubted; in his last 50 Tests after that, he averaged twice – nearly 52 – what he did before. He quintupled his century haul and quadrupled his fifties. More immeasurably, by career’s end he was the calmest, most versatile influence on a batting line-up forever a wicket or two from panic.Strictly speaking, these were all personal, isolated transformations. Even off the field he was chameleonesque, unrecognisable from the homesick 18-year-old who first went to England in 1971. A shy, introspective mama’s boy, he became cricket’s James Bond, as smooth on the field as away from it, as easy in whites with 10 sweats gathering round as in a tux with 10 royals, celebrities and the world’s beauties. Some transformations cannot be matched: turning a productive day in the field with Javed Miandad, for example, into a heady evening with Mick Jagger.But it was when he went from being a rebellion-happy superstar to captain that he initiated a process of change vastly bigger and beyond his own person.Cricket in Pakistan probably would’ve become the most popular game anyway – and by the late 70s, hockey was a formidable match – but there was no bigger propellant than Imran’s emergence. He had been at the very centre of Sydney 1976-77 – a triumph as significant as the Oval one of 1954 – in which was conceived modern-day Pakistan: a delicate, easily disturbed balance between fractiousness, indiscipline and supremely gifted athletes, between hostile fast bowlers and erratic batsmen. Thereafter, as the sport burst out of urban Pakistan, pouring out a hurl of talent, he remained at the centre, driving his side forth and, by default, shaping the game as it grew.Imran’s run-up: a mating call to half the world•PA PhotosIf that sounds too much, just imagine cricket’s landscape in Pakistan without him. Might not hockey be the national sport in name and spirit? For sure the country would have been one of spinners and medium-pacers, no Wasim, Waqar, Zahid, Shoaib and Amir in sight. There probably wouldn’t be the modern attacking mores of their play, the gung-ho shot-making, the wicket-taking lengths and stump-hitting lines that were Imran commandments, developed as an antidote to the ennui he felt was drowning him on the English county circuit.Without him they might still be the meek inheritors of nothing that they were in the 60s and early 70s. He was lucky to lead in a time of demographic change, so that for his players, partition and colonialisation were mere words in history books they hadn’t read. But how well he harnessed these players into a new brave, defiant and unbowed visage, much of it still glimpsed today, even though it has since developed a schizoid moue. And almost certainly he was the difference between a mediocre, underperforming cricket nation and an excitable, winning one. Without Imran, Pakistan would not be as we know and love them.This is what made him, to this writer at least, much more than his great all-round contemporaries. Maybe his peak as batsman and bowler didn’t quite coincide to produce the starburst of Ian Botham early on (Imran did, by the way, average more than 50 with bat and less than 20 with ball in the last decade of his career). There wasn’t the early precocity of Kapil Dev. Neither was he as calculatingly brilliant with ball as Richard Hadlee. But to be, at once, the best player in the side, the best leader of the side, and also the man to transform the entire sport in a country, that is some trump.Now awaits the final, logical transformation. This is trickier, philanthropist to politician not being as straightforward a switch as it might appear. Perhaps he is better off sorting out the game first, for upon his own departure in 1992, just as he once wrote had happened on the retirement of AH Kardar, it was thrown to the wolves.

For two days, Mike Horn, high altitude climber and Arctic explorer, offered the Indians some unique insights into the do-or-die mindset

Nagraj Gollapudi19-Feb-2011What do you do when a team of eleven men are about to face the toughest challenge of their career and a mountain of expectation? If you are the Indian coaching brain trust of Gary Kirsten and Paddy Upton, you get help from an unusual expert. For two days, Mike Horn, high altitude climber and Arctic explorer, offered the Indians some unique insights into the do-or-die mindset.Harbhajan Singh’s first question for Horn: just how does a man scale a mountain 8000 metres high without additional oxygen and come back alive?Last July, Horn, an extreme athlete, climbed Broad Peak (8047 metres above sea level, on the border of China and Pakistan) on a Himalayan expedition. “[I wondered] how he could cope with such extremities,” Harbhajan says, pausing midway into his dinner. “Horn recalled how over 8000 metres the oxygen was minimal and he struggled to breathe. It took him 35 hours to climb up, but 56 to climb down, all without eating or drinking. He says when atop the mountain your mind doesn’t work as the brain cells are hardly functioning due to the lack of oxygen. He knew he couldn’t sit down or even stop because if he did, he would have frozen to death.”These kinds of stories are mind boggling,” Harbhajan says, shaking his head.Horn dropped in at Bangalore for a two-day consultation with the Indian team during their World Cup preparatory camp last week. Despite being dressed in the same red-coloured t-shirt as the team’s coaching staff, he stood out in his denims and moccasins, with a wiry physique and skin that looks more weather-beaten than tanned – a testament to the different terrains the 45-year-old had traversed in his years as an adventurer-cum-explorer. As the players went through various drills, Horn kept his distance, observing the Indians keenly while enthusiastically fetching the balls hit to various corners. That was on the first day. On the second day, he sat on the ice-boxes and had some private words with various players individually. It had not taken him much time to become one of them.This was the second time that Horn, who studied with Upton, India’s mental conditioning coach, in South Africa, had come down to share his experiences with the team. In 2010, two days before India faced South Africa at Eden Gardens, having already lost the first Test, Horn arrived into Kolkata sailing from Port Blair in the Andamans, where he was involved in an environmental project. Upton took advantage of his proximity and invited him to speak to the team. “He arrived at 5pm and spoke to the guys at 7pm,” one of the team members says. It was just a two-hour chat in which Horn shared his personal stories of various expeditions, every one of which may seem impossible to a normal human.In one of his first major forays, in 1997, he navigated the 7000 km of the Amazon river using a hydrospeed (human floatation device), hunting for food to survive and resting along the dangerous riverbanks at night. Two years later, he circumnavigated the globe around the equator by foot, bicycle and canoe, a journey that included scaling the Andes mountains and crossing the Pacific and Indian oceans. On his final leg, he walked through the drug zones in Congo and Gabon before returning to his starting point, one that he called Latitude Zero, after an 18-month journey.In 2002, using a boat, kayak, ski-kite and later on foot he became the first human to traverse the Arctic Circle without the use of motorised transport. In 2006, Horn, along with Norwegian explorer Borge Ousland, walked, pulled sleds, and swam in the freezing Arctic ccean to become the first men to travel to the North Pole unaided by dogs or motorised transport.Days after Mike Horn’s first session with the Indian team, Harbhajan Singh’s five-for handed India a tense win against South Africa in Kolkata•AFPClearly this is a man who has triumphed in the face of some of the greatest challenges to human endurance. In Kolkata, the Indian players were stunned to hear Horn tell them how he had accomplished some of those remarkable feats. Five days later, a resurgent India had bounced back to snatch a back-to-the-wall victory to level the series. Horn, however, feels he did not do anything special to spur the Indians and states that it was Gary Kirsten and the players who actually worked hard to achieve success. “What can I really do? I might be able to give them a small taste of my thought process in critical moments.”Horn has also shared his insights with the South African rugby team, some European soccer teams, the French sailing team and was invited by the ICC’s umpires’ and referees’ manager Vince van der Bijl, to speak to the umpires as part of a motivational exercise. To everyone, his message is simple: “I cannot afford to lose. There is no second innings for me in my job. Patience is not one of my greatest strengths, but when in the mountains it is important to stick to the rules otherwise Nature will not reward us with this magnificent victory.”On both occasions on which Horn spoke to the Indian team, he was not paid. What matters to him is that his message is understood. “That passion that drives you to go beyond what you know to be able to progress as a human, to start when all others stop. My role is to be an example to myself and others.”It is easy to see that for a crucial tournament like the World Cup, both Kirsten and Upton wanted to remove any lingering doubts from the minds of the Indian players. According to the players, Horn’s biggest strength is his will. It is the strength of the will that at times makes an athlete achieve incredible things and Horn was the right man to deliver that message. “The fear to lose,” Horn says, is the single biggest fear sportsmen have. “How can you win if you afraid of losing? It is only when your will to win is bigger than your fear to lose that you can win. This is the most important aspect that differentiates sport stars. Some play to win and some play because they are afraid of losing. This is no different to what people fear in their daily life.”According to Horn, a player cannot rely on outside opinion to make himself feel strong and confident. “If people think you are strong and confident, and you are not, there is a big problem. To be honest to yourself and your preparation is the key to success.”It is easy to see how people are drawn to him. Yuvraj Singh, who was not there in Kolkata, was wondering who Horn was when the South African wandered around the dressing room on the first day of training in Bangalore. Hours later, Yuvraj, having heard Horn, was affected by his “impossible” feats. “He makes the impossible things look possible,” says another senior Indian team member.

How can you win if you afraid of losing? It is only when your will to win is bigger than your fear to lose that you can win. This is the most important aspect that differentiates sport stars. Some play to win and some play because they are afraid of losing

Harbhajan, for one, is completely in awe of Horn, who he says is a “real-life hero”. He says there was a lot to learn from Horn’s feat of climbing the Broad Peak. “He says most of the people who go to those places don’t come back. Once you reach a peak, dying is very easy but not to give up is really difficult. A lot of people reach the top and feel this is what I wanted to achieve. But most don’t know how to come back once you reach the top,” Harbhajan says while asking for for dessert. “When you hear something like that, then whatever you think in your mind can be achieved. No one can stop you, no one can do anything if you are fresh in the mind and your thinking is clear and if you are only thinking of only success and not even thinking failure.”When asked how he could translate Horn’s stories to the cricket field, Harbhajan says, “You have to prepare yourself. That was the message Horn was passing. You can’t just hold a ball when you are not even there mentally and instead are getting worried about the results. He says it was important to remove the excess baggage. (This and that), expectations, crowds, pressure are excess baggage we carry on our shoulders.”During his chats in Bangalore, Horn pointed out an important fact to the players. He says, “I saw all of you in the nets. You were enjoying practising, but what happens suddenly in a match situation: people get tight, people feel nervous, people feel pressure. Why? Because your mind is thinking too many things.””Actually he is right,” Harbhajan says. “The mind is thinking . Rather than concentrating on what you are going to bowl we think what if this happens, what if….we are thinking the result before you ever deliver the ball.”Horn does not want to talk about what he says to individual players, but agrees to Harbhajan’s point about preparation. “That could be one thing that he got out of the couple of talks we had. But knowing how to mix the ingredients to bake the cake of success is what he knows now.”Horn has little doubt that India are in pole position to win the tournament: “Gary and his team did an amazing job preparing the individual players and the team. India has never been so well prepared, since the last time I spoke to them in Kolkata to today there is a day and night difference to the better in all aspects.”So can India win it? “That question I will answer not if India wins the World Cup, but when they win the 2011 World Cup.”

Carlton Baugh’s battle with Munaf Patel stood out as the contest of the day. Baugh played a rumbustious knock to lift West Indies out of a hole, and also managed to ruffle Munaf

Sriram Veera at Windsor Park07-Jul-2011Sometime in the afternoon, with the clouds drifting away to reveal the peaks of the nearby hills, this match came alive. It had Carlton Baugh at the centre of the Indian storm. West Indies were in a precarious state, despite a patient hand from Darren Bravo, and were threatening to end on a sub-150 total. It was then that Baugh seized control.Baugh is an interesting batsman. Often it appears that his skills don’t match his desire. You can sense the ambition he possesses. He had to wait long for the West Indies selectors to get disillusioned with Denesh Ramdin to get his second chance and he has shown that he is hungry to grab the opportunity. “I feel confident at the moment and am looking forward to being in the team for a long time,” Baugh said.His character came to the fore during the ODIs against India, when he batted the team through a couple of tough situations, but it was in fading light on the fifth evening of the second Test that he really starred. His character shone through the bad light. West Indies were in danger of losing the match but Baugh took control with his aggression.As he did today. He began with a slog-swept six off Harbhajan Singh but it was his battle with Munaf Patel that stood out as the contest of the day, one packed with Baugh’s adrenalin, Munaf’s desire, and MS Dhoni’s intervention. It started right after lunch with a surprise yorker from Munaf. Baugh just about pushed his bat inside the line as the ball rushed past the off stump. A couple of deliveries later, Munaf produced a leg cutter that teased the outside edge. A dismissal looked just around the corner. It was then that Baugh seemed to have decided that offence was the way to go.”I was just being positive against him. Munaf Patel is a good bowler and he can at times be unplayable,” he said later. “But when you are on the go, you have a go at pretty much everybody. I play my game regardless of what has happened before. I don’t want to be a negative player and try to push and pull. It has worked for me.”He flashed Ishant Sharma past gully before going for an on-the-up drive off Munaf in the 58th over. The ball flew again to gully and past the left of Virat Kohli. Munaf stared, Dhoni shuffled. Kohli was moved to his left. Next ball Baugh edged another drive, this time to Kohli’s right. Munaf wanted more changes. Dhoni moved midwicket to cover and transferred Suresh Raina from cover to a second gully. Munaf hurled another full delivery outside off but Baugh shouldered arms. More stares from Munaf.Baugh responded by lacing the next delivery – another full one outside off – through extra cover. Munaf wasn’t pleased and in fact didn’t collect the throw neatly; he just slapped it away. Anger or frustration? Take your pick. Baugh seized the opportunity to take an extra run to complete four runs. Munaf responded with a peach of a legcutter that went past the edge and a screaming bouncer that flew past the chest.At the end of the over, Dhoni ran after Munaf, who kept walking. Dhoni said something. You wondered what the discussion could have been about. The next Munaf over offered some hints. Baugh drove one hard to covers and expertly cut the next delivery past backward point. Dhoni had had enough. He signalled Munaf to bowl straighter and moved the second gully back to midwicket. The next delivery was in line with the stumps and Baugh stabbed it for a single.Munaf was taken off the attack and Baugh got to his fifty with a whippy flick through midwicket off Ishant Sharma. The crowd gave him a generous applause and he acknowledged the cheers with a raised bat.””If a shot is there to be played I go through with it. I am not a person who does not do that. But I don’t go hunting for it if it is not there,” he said later.Six overs later, Munaf returned from the other end and produced an uppish drive from Baugh off his second delivery. Kohli dived to his left at covers but couldn’t hold on to a tough chance. A couple of overs later, with his partners deserting him, Baugh tried to hit Harbhajan for a boundary but ended up becoming his 400th Test wicket. “”He came to me after the game was called off and asked me to sign the ball with 400 on it,” Baugh said.Until that moment, Baugh had played a rumbustious knock to lift West Indies out of a hole. And had also managed to ruffle Munaf.

New Zealand struggled to post a score to challenge the home side, but their bowling managed to expose Sri Lanka’s middle order problems

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan29-Mar-2011Sri Lanka undoubtedly started strong favourites against a New Zealand side whom they had beaten convincingly in their previous four World Cup meetings including the most recent one in Mumbai. Except for a brief while in the New Zealand innings when Ross Taylor and Scott Styris came together for a 77-run stand, it always seemed like Sri Lanka had things under control.Against a potent and varied Sri Lankan attack, it was imperative that New Zealand have a strong start. However, the loss of three early wickets put them on the backfoot immediately. Though Styris and Taylor restored the balance temporarily, there was a flurry of wickets after the batting Powerplay was taken in the 41st over. From a healthy 192 for 4, New Zealand lost their last six wickets for just 25 runs to be bowled out for 217 in the 49th over.New Zealand were expected to struggle against spin but they faced an even bigger problem in form of Lasith Malinga. His accurate and deadly yorker-length deliveries were almost impossible to score off and produced three wickets. In between, Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan picked up five wickets while conceding just 77 runs. England managed just 48 runs in boundaries in their quarter-final defeat to Sri Lanka and though New Zealand did slightly better, they were stifled by the Sri Lankan spinners and never quite managed to dictate terms in the middle of the innings.All opposition teams have found the going extremely difficult in the final ten overs against Sri Lanka in Colombo. England scored just 56 runs and lost three wickets whereas New Zealand lost six wickets for 58. Malinga was also destructive in the game against Kenya as Sri Lanka picked up six wickets for just 15 runs in the final overs. Only Pakistan managed to play with some confidence in the final overs, scoring 68 runs for the loss of four wickets in their 11-run win.

TeamPeriod (Overs)RunsWicketsRR1s/2s4s/6sDotsNew ZealandOverall217104.4493/1216/2166Sri LankaOverall22054.5963/527/4187New Zealand0-156014.0019/56/159Sri Lanka0-156714.4617/29/161New Zealand16-4010534.2054/66/081Sri Lanka16-4010734.2835/312/297New Zealand41-505265.8820/14/126Sri Lanka41-504615.8711/06/129Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan started from where they left off against England and despite the fall of the aggressive Tharanga, Sri Lanka were well and truly on top for most part of the innings. They scored 132 runs in boundaries and were always above the required run-rate. New Zealand refused to go down without a fight though, and as they did in the game against South Africa, they seized the moment when Dilshan fell at the score of 160. The loss of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara for the addition of just nine more runs brought New Zealand right back into the contest. However, with Daniel Vettori completing his quota of overs, Sri Lanka were able to achieve the target after scoring some easy runs off the part-time bowlers.Although Sri Lanka managed to win the game quite comfortably in the end, they will be concerned about the loss of wickets in the middle which made the chase far tougher than it was meant to be. Their middle order has hardly been tested in this tournament and there has been only one fifty scored by a lower middle-order batsman (No. 5 to No. 9). In contrast, Pakistani and Indian lower middle-order batsmen have scored four and three fifties respectively.More stats from the game
Scott Styris moved ahead of Martin Crowe on the list of highest run getters for New Zealand in World Cups. His tally of 900 is now second only to Stephen Fleming’s 1075 runs. His half-century was his third fifty-plus score against Sri Lanka in World Cups following his centuries in the 2003 and 2007 World Cup games.With his haul of 2 for 42, Muttiah Muralitharan moved to within three wickets of equalling Glenn McGrath as the highest wicket taker in World Cups. He now has 68 wickets from 39 matches at an average of 19.05 with four four-wicket hauls.This was Muralitharan’s 39th appearance in World Cups, the highest for a Sri Lankan. He went past Sanath Jayasuriya’s record of 38 appearances.Sri Lanka became the first subcontinent team to reach two consecutive World Cup finals. Overall, this is their third appearance in the final.With their half-centuries, both Dilshan and Sangakkara went past 400 runs in the World Cup. Dilshan, with 467 runs., leads the run tally in the World Cup so far and Sangakkara is third with 417 runs.

Every empty space at the Feroz Shah Kotla is covered with advertising, but the crowd at the stadium did not need a hoarding to tell them of Sachin Tendulkar’s upcoming landmark

Sharda Ugra at the Feroz Shah Kotla08-Nov-2011The Feroz Shah Kotla must be the most insalubrious ground in the cricket world; as it rises to its full height, every possible empty space is wallpapered with advertising hoardings, for a range of products that is a study in itself.It must be the only ground in the world where Sachin Tendulkar can look up from his crease and in his peripheral vision see himself blown up to a two-storey-high megascale, holding a sticker-free cricket bat. It is an advertisement for the cement company he endorses, one of three cement companies that find themselves represented at the stadium.The unconventional products advertised around the ground included the following: Kamla Pasand and Rajshree (paan masala), Chaini Khaini (chewing tobacco), Haywards (beer), Pataka Chai (tea), Oxyglow Cosmetics, Makita Power Tools, Sanjay Ghodawat Group (a business group in Kolhapur with interests in agriculture, chemicals, real estate, engineering, textiles etc), Red Chief (footwear) and Kaspersky Anti-Virus.In the middle of this melee of screaming logos, clashing colours and subliminal advertising, a gripping Test match unfolded. Like a racy gangster novel, it was enveloped in smoky atmosphere, replete with unpredictable incident and loaded with the constant possibility of corkscrew turns of events.Virender Sehwag stripped it of all portent, until of course he decided to leave, with fury-inducing extravagance. India were still 181 short, and the ball was 18 overs old, getting softer and harder to score off.Enter the “so we meet again” pair of Dravid and Tendulkar. The two oldest (they will both be, jeepers, 39 in less than five months), most skilled men in the Indian dressing room collected their runs as methodical weavers pluck out the warp and the weft. The smoke thickened, the light faded and the setting sun stood like an orange lozenge in the sky.All the while, the stadium was building up to an event. The sense of expectancy was driven not by television, not by a flashing scoreboard (that responded to minor events on the field with ambiguous messages like “Brilliant/ Great hands/ What a shot”), not by PA announcements, but by the much-condemned Delhi crowd. Their numbers were paltry on the Tuesday but their voices could be heard scattered in the stands. They were counting down.Not with the help of radio commentary or egged on by TV experts; they had nothing but their own calculations to go by. Twenty eight was the figure in their heads. The last leg of that journey, from 20 to 28, took 28 balls. When the number arrived from Tendulkar’s blade, with a humble single off Devendra Bishoo, the crowd leapt to its feet, applauded and cheered. Only then did the scoreboard mention the landmark and flash: “Congrats Sachin, 15,000 Test runs.”To discover what the shouting was all about, Tendulkar checked the screen. When he saw the number, he raised his eyes to the sky, his bat to his team-mates and the crowd, accepted Dravid’s congratulations and stood at the non-striker’s end as the over played itself out. Four balls later, with only three overs of play left, Dravid almost ran himself out. He had not grounded his bat when crossing over and was perilously close to being in mid-air when the bails came off. The third umpire’s decision took an age and, with no replays on the screen, the crowd was mumbling in anxiety, Dravid holding his breath. The result had him exhaling, the crowd cheering and chiding his carelessness.The day ended with a back-foot drive through extra cover from Dravid, the ideal image the Indian fans would want to take home. The teams returned to their dressing rooms with 124 runs left for India to get, a game to be won or lost, Dravid and Tendulkar still around, and that Other Big Number luring the crowd back for one more morning.Kotla’s hideous advertising? It was like it had vanished.

Plenty of boundaries and wickets. But the entertainment was questionable

Scott Hazebroek09-Jan-2012Choice of game
This match, between second and third on the ladder, shaped up to be one that could decide who hosts the second semi-final. The Strikers had a great net run-rate leading into the match, and with a win, would jump over the Scorchers into second spot. However, the Scorchers were in hot form, with three straight wins. A Scorcher win would put them behind the first-placed Hobart Hurricanes on net run-rate only. My prediction was the Perth Scorchers by a small margin.Team supported
Being a Perth boy, I have supported the Scorchers throughout the tournament and that didn’t change tonight.Key performers
The two players who stood out for me were from the winning home side.Herschelle Gibbs set up the innings, scoring 65 off 41 balls with 12 boundaries. Brad Hogg’s 3 for 20 off four overs was a fantastic performance and his run-out of Cameron Borgas, although lucky, sealed the game. He was very difficult to play and his spell turned the match.One thing I’d have changed about the day
I would have changed the colour of the security guards’ vests. The bright orange often made it difficult to distinguish them from the Scorchers.Face-off I relished
During the first over, Alfonso Thomas bowled a bouncer to the Scorchers captain Marcus North. An appeal for caught-behind was turned down, and after North blocked the next ball back to the bowler, Thomas feigned throwing the ball. This started the contest in a tense manner, but it quickly settled down.Wow moment
I said “whoa” when Adam Crosthwaite advanced down the pitch and smacked a cover-drive off Nathan Coulter-Nile. It was smoked; the fielder at wide mid-off didn’t stand a chance. Sublime.Fancy-dress index
Six men in orange costumes that covered them from head to toe were cheering the Scorchers. But they were pretty pathetic. Their idea was to run onto the ground after each boundary and fall on top of one another. There were also a few ladies on stilts dressed as butterflies, and while walking around, they almost poked above the sightscreen!Cutting it a bit too fine, maybe?
With one minute until the scheduled start time, two Strikers bowlers and an assistant walked onto the ground near the pitch, set up two flexible stumps, and started bowling. The umpires walked past them at 6:01pm, and they started to pack up. The game eventually got underway at 6:06pm.Blooper of the day
Late in the Scorchers’ innings, Paul Collingwood hit a ball firmly along the ground to long-on. Tom Cooper slid and easily gathered the ball but his momentum rolled him over. Which would have been all right had the ball not slipped from his grasp. Which still would have been all right had the ball not made contact with his leg, and as a result gone over the rope. He got the loudest cheer of the day.Crowd meter
It was a sell-out at the WACA. The crowd was very vocal, especially in supporting Hogg. Even the MC, Lachy Reid, started a ‘Ho-ggy, Ho-ggy’ chant. Whenever Hogg went near the ball, there was a massive cheer. Towards the end of the night, when he was taking a few wickets, the crowd went bonkers!Although a few sixes were hit, none were caught. It was a shocking performance from the crowd.Entertainment
I was rather disappointed on the fire front. There were only a few flames shot up near the western bank, but no fire when the batsmen walked out to bat. And there were way too many songs between balls. Where are the good, not-so-old days when you’d only play songs at the end of overs? However, the songs were pretty good. After the Scorchers’ first four, “Hot in the City” was slightly amusing. And “Another One Bites the Dust” was funny when some Strikers got out. But “Good Old Collingwood Forever”, when the Englishman went out to bat, took the cake on the songs front.The only entertainment during the innings break was the orange men playing a very… well… interesting match of cricket.Underachiever
The underachiever was the non-members section of the crowd. They are quite famous for their many “snakes” made out of beer cups. However, tonight there was only one tiny little thing, and it wasn’t even big enough to get ejected. But they were brilliant with their cheering for Hogg and whenever a Strikers’ player made a mistake.Twenty20 v ODIs?
I have pretty much grown up with T20s and love the quickest format of the game. ODIs are okay but they just drag on, and the middle of the innings are quite boring. So I prefer T20 to ODIs, but I think if there is too much of it, Test cricket, my favorite format, could die a slow, painful death.Banner of the day
A person had written on a Scorchers banner: “Gilchrist, where are you?” It was appropriately shown after Luke Ronchi was out for a duck.Marks out of 10
8.5 for the on-field entertainment, controversy, Hoggy’s performance, and the Scorchers win. But the match loses a mark and a half for the tame ending.Overall
It wasn’t as close as I would have liked, but there were some nice big hits and controversial decisions, and as a Scorchers fan I enjoyed the game. The Strikers will have a job to do if they want to make the finals, although their net run-rate is okay.

With their senior-most batsmen out of form, the premier spinner lacking bowling rhythm and no chance to warm-up, Pakistan have several challenges to overcome as the first Test begins in Galle

Kanishkaa Balachandran21-Jun-2012Mohammad Hafeez cut a serious figure as he walked in for the pre-Test series press conference at the team hotel in Galle. True to his nature, his answers were direct, polite and non-confrontational, even when grilled about his own batting form. He wasn’t supposed to be holding the series trophy with Mahela Jayawardene in the first place, when the captains posed for pictures. Misbah-ul-Haq’s unexpected absence, serving a one-match ban for a slow over-rate offence, meant that Hafeez had to take over. Hafeez had a taste of the captaincy during the Twenty20s, but a Test, especially away from home, will be an entirely different challenge.Hafeez’s readiness for the role is irrelevant, for he was identified as the ideal candidate to take over in such emergencies. Pakistan’s immediate concern is rectifying the glitches in their batting, which contributed to at least two of their three defeats in the one-dayers. It was a point highlighted by Misbah time and again. The openers had failed to provide solid platforms. Younis Khan’s edginess compelled the management to drop him for the fifth ODI. Hafeez himself is in need of runs …Batting aside, Saeed Ajmal hasn’t had the best of tours either. It could be partly due to the fact that Sri Lanka played him better. With problem areas in the two main departments, plus the lacklustre fielding, Pakistan find themselves with more headaches than expected before the Test series, now further inconvenienced by Misbah’s ban. The lack of contributions from the seniors will end up putting enormous pressure on the younger players like Azhar Ali, who ended up taking more responsibility than he would have anticipated in the one-dayers.There’s also the question of the readiness of Test specialists like Taufeeq Umar, who hasn’t played an international match since February. Players themselves will testify that no amount of training and net practice can substitute for actual match practice. This predicament could expose a scheduling anomaly. The tour schedule does not include any warm-up games for either format. While it isn’t always a practice to have one for limited-overs games – especially with two subcontinent teams playing each other in familiar conditions – not scheduling one before a Test series could be a potential banana peel for a visiting team.When asked if this had hampered their preparations, Hafeez was confident it wouldn’t be a factor. “Switching from one format to another requires practice, but we are not complaining about it. We have to go through with it,” Hafeez said. “Some of the players coming in to the Test squad played some practice games in Pakistan. As a player you have to adjust yourself quickly and we have players experienced enough to do that.”To illustrate the importance of practice games, Pakistan needn’t look beyond their neighbours India. In South Africa in 2010, it was as if they stepped out of the plane and hopped straight to the ground in Centurion, where they were hammered by an innings, before getting their bearings and bouncing back in Durban. Given the circumstances Pakistan find themselves in, a three-day game to fine-tune skills and iron out glitches wouldn’t have been out of place. Younis could have spent some time in the middle to get his confidence back, Ajmal could have used the opportunity to bowl a lengthy spell and get his rhythm back.Nevertheless, Hafeez backed Younis to come good due to his experience. He also acknowledged that Misbah’s seniority will be missed. “Younis has been the backbone of the team for the last ten years. I don’t think there is any undue pressure on him, but we need to come harder [at the opposition] this time,” Hafeez said. “Obviously we will miss Misbah in this team because of his calm and stable personality, but we have to move forward.”Pakistan’s chances of competing in Galle will depend on how they tackle these challenges thrown at them.

The arrival of the IPL teams will give the Champions League its customary noise and colour. For now the lesser-known teams are warming up for the main event

Firdose Moonda05-Oct-2012Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium has a wardrobe most women would be envious of. A seasoned international host, she has worn the branding of sponsors for so long that some of them, like cigarette companies, are not even allowed to promote themselves anymore. This summer, the empress’ new clothes are bright blue, pink and green and have the letters C, L, T and the numbers 2 and 0 on them. The Champions League T20 has come to town.The 2010 edition in South Africa is remembered as a high-profile, noisy, colourful event, what Lions’ batsman Neil McKenzie calls the “closest thing to international cricket.” Unlike other domestic tournaments, which is essentially what the CLT20 is, the teams are bussed in by police escorts, put up in some of the city’s best hotels and interact with more media than most see over the course of a quiet career.Many of the cricketers who play in the CLT20 will have exactly that. Although they are professional sportsmen, their careers will not often be punctuated with glamour. It is they that the CLT20 should actually be about because they, more than anyone else, relish the opportunity of playing in a tournament like this.Two teams with players like that were out practicing at the newly made up Wanderers four days before the qualifiers begin. Some casual observations of both the Lions and the Auckland Aces provided enough of a glimpse to know the tournament is important, taken seriously by domestic teams the world over and can provide opportunity if it is properly run. First, there was the intensity. Summer has arrived in full force and both held longer sessions than in over 30 degree heat and took turns using the nets and outfield.Then, there was the camaraderie. The Lions asked Auckland if left-arm spinner Ronnie Hira wouldn’t mind turning his arm over to some of their batsmen. He obliged and was soon joined by the veteran Andre Adams. Chris Martin kept a close watch.

With the IPL teams comes the bling and the superstars and in their shadow this afternoon at the Wanderers will not be remembered by anyone. If the CLT20 hopes to make gains in credibility terms, its afternoons like these which must take precedence over the gimmicks

Mark O’Donnell, who coached the Lions before they became a franchise, exchanged pleasantries with McKenzie and Lions’ coach Geoffrey Toyana, who he has known for years. Some of the younger players got to know each other as Chris Morris shook hands with Colin de Grandhomme. Numbers were exchanged and plans to meet made. Cricket in its simplest form was being practiced.There was no indication that the teams were gearing up to contest prize money of US$6 million – the winner will walk away with $ 2.3 millon – or that these men thought they were celebrities rather than people. In three weeks’ time, some of them will be celebrities. Notable performances at the CLT20 have kickstarted careers – just ask Sunil Narine or Kieron Pollard – and they earned some, like Davy Jacobs, IPL contracts. A massive television audience across many countries will soon be able to recognise these players and if the preparation is anything to go by, the two teams training at the Wanderers this afternoon are ready.Auckland have been in South Africa since September 22. Even though they could end up playing nothing more than their two qualifying matches, they have spent two weeks preparing for it. Coach Paul Strang has acquired the services of fellow Zimbabwean Heath Streak as a bowling consultant for the tournament. Streak is missing the start of his domestic season, where he will coach the Tuskers franchise, to do the job.As a team that has participated in this competition before, Auckland do not want to repeat the mistakes of last year. There, they failed to get past the qualifiers, which included a narrow defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders followed by a heavier one against Somerset.The Lions have also had experience of the tournament. They played in the 2010 edition in South Africa but did not make it out of the group stage and are determined to put that right this time. Being in a group with a qualifier, the Sydney Sixers, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings will not make that task easy.The presence of IPL teams overshadows almost everything in this tournament. Just from a numbers perspective, they skew the balance because there are four of them. The other shareholders, South Africa and Australia, only have two teams and Sri Lanka, Pakistan, New Zealand and West Indies have only one team who may not even play in the tournament proper.The IPL teams also tend to house the bulk of the marquee players, though the IPL franchises pay $150,000 to the home team of a player who opts for them – so everyone gains in some form.With the IPL teams comes the bling and the superstars and in their shadow this afternoon at the Wanderers will not be remembered by anyone. If the CLT20 hopes to make gains in credibility terms, its afternoons like these which must take precedence over the gimmicks.

Plays of the Day from the Super Eights match between South Africa and Pakistan in Colombo

Abhishek Purohit at the Premadasa28-Sep-2012The double surprise
With Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Shahid Afridi, and himself available, Mohammad Hafeez opened the Pakistan bowling with the young left-arm spinner Raza Hasan, playing his first game of the tournament. As if that wasn’t enough of a surprise for South Africa, he gave the second over to bowling allrounder Yasir Arafat. As if even that wasn’t enough, Hasan and Arafat went on to bowl the first five overs.The departure from modernity
South Africa were trudging at below five an over around the halfway stage of their innings. With Ajmal bowling the 12th over, Pakistan were confident enough to have no sweeper cover or deep point, a position modern captains love to have even in Tests. Farhaan Behardien used the largesse to cut through the region for a four.The delayed déjà vu
Umar Gul was carted all around the Pallekele stadium during the group stage by New Zealand and Bangladesh. With Pakistan’s spinners squeezing South Africa right from the start, Hafeez brought on his premier fast bowler as late as the 18th over. It changed little. First ball, AB de Villiers lofted him over wide long-on for six. Gul got de Villiers next ball, but went for 19 in two overs. He was to later hit South Africa back, with the bat though.The height of predictability
Shahid Afridi in. Spinner on. First ball. Long-off? Long-on? Sweeper cover? Swung straight to long-off, this time. Sigh.The presence of mind
Gul fell off the last ball of the 19th over after a blinder. Even as sweeper cover ran in to take the catch, Gul sprinted down the pitch for a possible run. The non-striker Umar Akmal was wise enough to stop, and also told Gul to, ensuring they didn’t cross. It proved to be decisive as Umar Akmal took strike for the final over and swung the second ball over deep square leg for six to all but ensure Pakistan’s win.The maiden – I
Raza Hasan, 20, beginner in international cricket to Jacques Kallis, 36, legend in international cricket. He even beat Kallis a couple of times in the over.The maiden(s) – II
South Africa responded with consecutive maidens, one each by Robin Peterson and Johan Botha, who also bowled Kamran Akmal during his.

Having played for England since his was 20, Stuart Broad is now at a crossroads and needs to fulfil his potential or remain a perennial prospect

George Dobell21-Nov-2012Which seam bowler has taken the most Test wickets in world cricket this calendar year? And which seam bowler has the best match figures in a Test this year? Who was England’s Man of the Series the last time they played India and who claimed the best innings and match figures of their Test career only a few months ago?The answer to all these questions is Stuart Broad. Not only that, but Broad has a Test century and nine Test half-centuries to his name and his batting once moved Geoffrey Boycott to say: “There’s a bit of Sobers in him.”So it might be somewhat surprising that some, including former England captain Sir Ian Botham, are calling for Broad to be dropped. But, after a disappointing performance in the first Test at Ahmedabad, there appears to be a growing number feeling that Broad has become just a little complacent in the England team and could do with a wake-up call. Such a reminder was administered by Twitter users, in response to whom Broad launched a rebuttal.Broad was out-bowled by both Indian seamers, Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav, in Ahmedabad. He looked to have lost some pace and, as a consequence, lacked the potency to strike on pitches offering little. But most concerning was the impression that Ahmedabad was not a one-off poor game. Broad also struggled against South Africa, finishing the series with a bowling average of 39.72 and, despite showing rich promise with the bat when scoring 169 against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2010, he has made only one half-century this year. Since June, his bowling average is 48.54 and his batting average is 14.But the picture with Broad is far from black and white. While his recent form may be disappointing, his overall record is still good. And, aged 26, he should still have his best years in front of him. It is worth remembering, too, that until the South Africa series, Broad looked to be developing well. A hat-trick against India at Nottingham in 2011 had inspired the best form of his career. He bowled beautifully in the UAE.Part of Broad’s problem is that he promised so much. Fast-tracked into England’s limited-overs team after just six List A appearances, Broad has been playing for England since he was 20 years old. He was elevated to the Twenty20 captaincy in 2011 and, at the start of this tour, was named as vice-captain of the Test squad. There are those who believe promotion came too easy for Broad. There are those who think reward preceded achievement. That he has never known the motivating power of being excluded. That a period out of the team would provide just the impetus he requires.It is true that such a tactic has worked in the past. Matt Prior and Andrew Strauss were both dropped and used the pain of omission to drive them to make improvements in their game. The same could be said for former greats such as Graham Gooch and David Gower.But there is equal evidence to suggest that continuity of selection brings rewards. Towards the end of the 2010 England season, Alastair Cook looked out of form and confidence and was struggling to justify his retention. The selectors maintained faith and Cook repaid them with a prolific Ashes series. He has hardly looked back.

And before u listen to too many ex playing ‘experts’ being negative, ask them if they ever won a Test series in India….#28years

— Stuart Broad (@StuartBroad8) November 19, 2012

Injury to Steven Finn, who is set to continue his rehabilitation by playing for the Performance Programme side next week, may well mean a reprieve for Broad in Mumbai. But, even if Finn had been fit, England would be loathe to drop Broad. It is not just that they have a naturally conservative selection policy and a new captain who, understandably, may be keen to avoid souring the relationship with his right-hand man; it is that England believe in Broad.He was, after all, the man that produced the key burst at The Oval to clinch the Ashes in 2009 and produced the series-defining spell against India at Trent Bridge in 2011. Nor are there many obviously better cricketers than him in the county game: between 2009 and 2011, Broad played only six Championship matches, but claimed four five-wicket hauls, taking 37 wickets at 21.32. Broad’s talent is not questioned, but England are not currently maximising it.It is possible the pitch in Mumbai may suit him a little more. But, while its reputation suggests it will offer a little more bounce, it has been used previously, at the start of November, for a Ranji Trophy match in which Sachin Tendulkar scored a century. All the signs suggest the spinners will be to the forefront once again.In time, we may come to see Broad as a victim of England’s schedule. It may be that he and his fellow seamers are simply weary. Broad, in particular, plays all three formats of the game and, though he has been rested and missed games through injury, has appeared jaded in recent times. All the games and, just as importantly, all the training, may be taking their toll. International cricket is becoming a squad game and fast bowlers, especially, may require rotation.Either way, Broad is now at a crossroads. He still has time to fulfil his potential but should be aware of other prodigiously talented allrounders – the likes of Chris Lewis – who remained promising for their entire careers. It is hard to escape the conclusion that time is running out.