Jake Fraser-McGurk echoes his captain’s sentiment, saying NRR was foremost on Capitals’ mind after routing Titans for 89

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Apr-20241:18

Aaron: A win like this would infuse belief in the camp

After dismissing Gujarat Titans for 89, the only chat in the Delhi Capitals dugout was to get the job done quickly. They went on to chase down the target with 67 balls to spare and, as a result, their net run rate (NRR) jumped from -0.975 to -0.074 and they leapfrogged Titans to sixth spot on the points table.”We talked about champion mindset,” Rishabh Pant, Capitals captain who was also the Player of the Match, said. “The only conversation was to get it as early as possible because we lost a few NRR points in a few matches and tried to cover it up.”It was Jake Fraser-McGurk, who led the way for them with the bat. After a half-century on IPL debut he got going here with a six and a four, taking 14 off the opening over of the chase bowled by Sandeep Warrier. He made 20 off nine balls with two fours and two sixes before being dismissed by fellow Australia Spencer Johnson.Related

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'Everything's happening so quickly' – Fraser-McGurk on his rapid rise to stardom

A Capital win after Titans routed for season's lowest total

“[I was] just trying to get on to a nice start and hopefully get the net run rate going in our favour,” Fraser-McGurk said. “When you are riding this phase [of good form], you’ve got to ride it for as long as you can. Keep going and trying your luck, cricket is a feeble game when it turns.”Opting to bowl, Capitals struck regularly in the powerplay with Ishant Sharma picking up two wickets. Tristan Stubbs also picked up two wickets in an over – that of Abhinav Manohar and M Shahrukh Khan – while Mukesh Kumar finished with three wickets for just 14. It all added up to Capitals having to chase just 90.”[The NRR] was definitely something we talked of during the break,” Fraser-McGurk laughed, “I don’t think I needed much encouragement to go out and try and chase that fast. Something we talked about and happy to get it done pretty quick.”We got the better of the conditions. There was a little bit of dew and it skidded on nicely. Kept a bit low though. I didn’t face much spin or slower-pace balls, so it was nice personally.”Fraser-McGurk rose to fame with a 29-ball century, the fastest in men’s List-A cricket, in the Marsh Cup last year and then made his debut for Australia earlier this year. He received a message from Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting in February, asking if he would want to play for Delhi as a replacement player. He was then brought in for Capitals as an injury replacement for Lungi Ngidi.”It’s pretty surreal; you have to pinch yourself every time you are here,” he now said of sharing the dressing room with Ponting. “The last memory I have of him playing is of his last Test where Nathan Lyon came out to bat as nightwatchman instead of him. That was pretty funny.”We [Capitals] have got confidence in the way we play, we know how to go about our business. Took us a few games to find that out. We can keep looking up and jumped up a few steps on the ladder here. We keep going [like this], who knows…”This was Capitals’ third win in seven matches.

Readers send in accounts of series fightbacks that they find memorable

12-Sep-2005

A West Indian revival

When West Indies arrived in India in 1995 without Richie Richardson and Curtly Ambrose, no-one gave them a chance to stand up against the spin of Anil Kumble and Venkatapathy Raju on Indian dustbowls. After a humiliating 4-1 defeat in the the one-day series and a loss in the first Test at Bombay, confidence was at an all-time low and a 16-year-old record was about to be broken. But two men had different ideas.In the second Test at Nagpur, after India, riding on a brilliant 179 by Sachin Tendulkar, scored in excess of 500, the record was slipping fast. But Jimmy Adams gritted his teeth and stood up to the spin of Kumble and Raju, scoring 125 off 312 balls. West Indies just managed to draw the Test after being 22 for 3 in the second innings on a fifth-day pitch. India were now smelling a series victory, and the honour of becoming the first team to win a series against West Indies in 16 years. No team had managed to come back in a series in India in the past 10 years.The base shifted to Mohali for the final Test, a venue where the pitch was to the liking of West Indies’ fast bowlers. And when Adams played the best and perhaps the most important innings of his life and helped his side to 443 with an innings of 174 not out, they sensed a chance to slip through the Indian defence. After a defiant century by Manoj Prabhakar, India were 56 behind. What followed was breathtaking. Brian Lara played a majestic innings of 91, his best to date against India, and West Indies compiled 301 in no time. Then Courtney Walsh broke Prabhakar’s nose in the first over. India’s confidence plummeted and they took the crease with drooping shoulders. West Indies duly completed a big victory to level the series.

Beating back the shadows

The spectre of Hansie Cronje’s involvement in the match-fixing scandal
had cast a deathly shadow over South African cricket. While the full
extent of his skullduggery was still being uncovered, a young Shaun
Pollock would now bear the onerous responsibility of leading his side
to Sri Lanka. Bereft of their talismanic leader, and with a cloud of
mistrust hanging over their team, South Africa were widely expected to
capitulate.Two hours into the series at Galle, it certainly appeared like that.
Sniffing blood in the enemy ranks, Sanath Jayasuriya launched into an
audacious initiative-seizing assault on the South African attack,
hurtling himself to an unbeaten 96 at lunch on the opening day. He
continued to 148, providing the perfect platform to build a large
first-innings total. Predictably, South Africa crumbled twice to
Muttiah Muralitharan’s craft to leave the Sri Lankans sitting pretty with a
1-0 series lead. The South Africans were at their lowest, while the
Sri Lankans were probably busy envisioning a glorious cricketing
send-off for their most revered cricketing son, Arjuna Ranatunga.Somehow, the South Africans proceeded to pick themselves up, mustering
considerable mental strength to become competitive in the face of
alien conditions and a master offspinner. Lance Klusener, Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock all contributed to set a tricky run chase of 177 in the fourth innings
at Kandy. Sri Lanka stuttered to 21 for 4, but Ranatunga, batting with
wondrous skill and supreme legerdemain, began to carve the attack to
all parts of the ground. His 50 came off just 36 balls, but wickets
continued to fall rapidly around him, and when he finally fell for 88,
the tail was shot out in time for a thrilling seven-run win.Despite the third Test at Colombo fizzling out to a draw, Pollock and
his teammates had reason to be ecstatic at the overall result. Their
fightback from the depths they plumbed at Galle instilled hope in the
community that all was not lost to the cudgel of corruption, and it must
surely count as one of the most captivating series rearguards of all
time.

Zimbabwe’s moment of truimph

This series is a telling reminder of India’s uncanny ability to do the tightrope trick one day and follow it up by choking at easier times. But this series should be remembered not for that but for Zimbabwe’s producing an outstanding performance on the fourth day of the second Test to level the contest at 1-1.India had a fairly easy first Test at Bulawayo with an eight-wicket victory. But in the second Test Zimbabwe, with a host of superb performances from the Flower brothers, Heath Streak and Andy Blignaut, ran the Indians ragged. India, having just beaten Australia in a thrilling home series, had perhaps the best batting line-up in the world at that time. The hosts had to do with a set of ultra-honest workers. Yet it was flair from the likes of Blignaut in the Indian second innings that turned the tide.Needing to overhaul a first-innings deficit of 78, India started well, reaching 150 for 2 with Tendulkar still in. From then on, Streak, with swing, and Blignaut, with pace, shared eight wickets between them to set their batsmen a target of 157, with more than a day to go.Hardworking Zimbabwe won the day thanks to 62 not out from Stuart Carlisle, around whom wickets kept falling. India had been brought back to earth from the heights of the previous series, but the designers of Zimbabwean cricket’s future do not seem to remember this monumental triumph.

Gower’s hurrah

England’s tour to India in 1985 could not have started off worse. Within hours of arrival of the English team in India the then Indian Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi was shot dead. A few days later the English High Commisioner was also shot dead. Things were going wrong on the field too. An India under-25 team led by Ravi Shastri and inspired by a century from a slim young Hyderabadi by the name of Mohammad Azharuddin thrashed David Gower’s team in a four-day game. A week later England lost the first Test at Mumbai and it looked like it was going to be one way traffic for the Indians.However, Gower’s men fought back. They were helped by typical Indian Harakiri at Delhi during the second Test , which enabled them to level the series. The next Test at Eden Gardens was drawn but Chennai brought another victory for England. A draw at Kanpur meant that England had won their first series in India for twenty years.New stars were born for the English team in that series. Mike Gatting did not have a Test hundred before that series. He scored a hundred in Mumbai and, more importantly, a matchwinning double-century at Chennai. Neil Foster bowled with a lot of spirit. Phil Edmonds had run-up problems before the series started but the Indians had no answer to him during the series.But the star of the show was Gower. From previous experiences he would have known that coming back from being down in a Test series in India is next to impossible. It was his inspirational leadership which helped the English team to achieve this.

The revolutionary Hawkeye technology provides a boon to television coverage

S Rajesh19-Jul-2005

Even the most controversial umpire could not call this one out© Hawk-Eye Innovations
“At least about one in five lbws that are given by the on-field umpires are incorrect,” says Dr Paul Hawkins, the 30-year-old managing director of Hawk-Eye, and the brains behind the technological device which has proved to be such a boon to television coverage and such an eyesore – generally – to the umpires. I am sitting in Sky TV’s van, from where Hawkins and Gary, his colleague, operate and give inputs to the director of the telecast team.It’s an impressive set-up. There are 19 miniature TV screens showing various angles of the actual game and Hawk-Eye’s simulation. (Actually, only 18 are dedicated to the cricket: one of the screens is tuned to Great Britain’s Davis Cup tennis match against Austria.) There, between feeding the Sky team with data, Hawkins explains how the system works: there are six cameras, at long-on, long-off, fine leg, third man and two square of the wicket.Only three of the cameras are used to capture the motion of the ball from each end – those at long-off, long-on and one of the square ones – but these are special cameras, capturing data at the rate of 120 frames per second, compared to the 25 frames per second by regular TV cameras. The camera square of the pitch only captures the last third of the ball’s journey towards the batsman, ensuring that any deviation in the air or off the pitch is captured accurately.Then, all this is fed into a central computer, which extrapolates this information to predict the path of the ball. There is also the wicket-to-wicket pitch mat which, combined with Hawk-Eye’s analysis, gives the viewer a pretty good idea of whether a batsman was lbw or not.Most of the time, at least. Soon after I am in the room, Wavell Hinds bowls a gentle in-dipper which Paul Collingwood plays forward to. However, the ball clearly strikes pad first. “That’s plumb,” both Hawkins and I say in unison. Sure enough, technology proves us right – the ball strikes pad between middle and off, and is probably clipping middle. Hawkins immediately feeds this information in to the director of the telecast who, however, chooses to ignore the data – probably because there was no appeal from the West Indians – leaving only the three of us privy to the information that Collingwood got a life in his brief innings.To further demonstrate the accuracy of the system, Hawkins shows me the Hawk-Eye image of a ball which just misses Geraint Jones’s outside edge. The simulation is almost exactly like the real thing – the ball pitches, shapes away, and goes past the bat. I am impressed.The Sky van is only the front end of Hawk-Eye’s operations, though. The actual processing of data happens in Hawk-Eye’s own van, where Matt and John monitor the data after every ball, and ensure that nothing’s amiss. “Paul gets all the credit,” jokes Matt, “but we’re the guys who do the groundwork.” He then proceeds to explain to me why the cameras are placed where they are, how they identify and track the ball, and how data from all cameras are processed to get the actual mapping of the ball’s trajectory.”Today’s weather is just ideal for us,” says Matt. If that comment had been broadcast over the public-address system at The Oval, the chances are that he would have been lynched by the spectators freezing to death in the cold, but Matt soon explains what he meant: “Sometimes on a sunny day the shadow of the ball may hinder the tracking of its flight, but on a day when the lighting is diffused, as it is today, there are no shadows to worry about.”What happens on a sunny day, then? “We need to instruct the cameras to track the ball, not its shadow.” That, he says, is something they can overcome by tuning the system between the real ball and the shadow. On a regular day, there may be one or two deliveries which are tracked incorrectly and need to be rectified, but so far today, the team has a 100% accuracy record.How have the umpires reacted to this technological innovation? “Some of them have come to me and tried to find out more about it, but most of them have their doubts,” says Hawkins. The system is not totally foolproof – on a rare occasion, one of the cameras may not work, says Paul – but most of the time, the results are extremely accurate, he assures. It has certainly added to the TV coverage; how long before the umpires benefit from it as well?

Justin Kemp’s magnificent unbeaten 100 from 89 balls completely changed the complexion of a match that seemed to be in India’s bag. Here at the stats highlights from his knock

S Rajesh26-Nov-2006

240.74 – Justin Kemp’s strike rate in his last 27 balls. After 62 balls he had made just 35.76 – The number of runs South Africa scored in the five-over period from 43 to 47. The sequence read 12, 15, 19, 11, 19.138 – The eighth-wicket partnership between Kemp and Andrew Hall, which is a record for that wicket in ODIs, beating the earlier mark of 119 between Shane Warne and Paul Reiffel against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in 1993-94.240 – Kemp’s strike rate against Irfan Pathan (24 off 10 balls). Against Zaheer Khan he hammered 21 off 11, while Harbhajan Singh vanished for 27 off 24. The only bowler who had respectable stats against him was Anil Kumble, who conceded just 11 from 25 balls.24.07 – Kemp’s average in his 20 previous ODIs this year. He had only scored two fifties in these matches.3 – The number of No.7 batsmen who have scored hundreds in ODIs. Before Kemp, only Hashan Tillakaratne (100 against West Indies at Sharjah, 1995-96), and Mohammad Kaif (111 not out against Zimbabwe at Colombo, 2002-03) had managed this feat51.20 – Rahul Dravid’s average in ODIs against South Africa in South Africa. In 11 innings, he has scored seven fifties25.89 – Sachin Tendulkar’s average against South Africa in South Africa. In 18 matches, he only has one fifty-plus score

It’s time for another competition

Cricinfo staff10-Aug-2007

Just was it who once listened to his own obituary? © Cricinfo
It’s Test time again, with India coursing towards a series victory against England at The Oval.But it’s not just the players who will be working hard out in the middle. We have a test for you, too (see what we did there).Without further ado, let’s crack on with the question:Which India lower-order batsman, who featured in India’s last Test win at The Oval in 1971, once listened to his own obituary mistakenly read out on the radio?If you’re not sure, the answer’s somewhere on the site so get searching.Send your entries in to [email protected] for a chance to win one of three copies of Harry Thompson’s and Gideon Haigh’s

When Stuart Broad was left out of the England team for the final Test at The Oval he had little time to ponder the disappointment

Andrew McGlashan20-Aug-2007

Stuart Broad has already had success against the Indians this summer, with 5 for 76 for England Lions © Getty Images
When Stuart Broad was left out of the England team for the final Test at The Oval he had little time to ponder the disappointment. Two-and-half-hours later he was back with Leicestershire for their County Championship match against Derbyshire. It was a worthwhile journey. He made career-bests with bat and ball to inspire his side a thrilling 28-run win. However, there is no doubt that Broad’s future is with country rather than club.He came within touching distance of his Test debut at Lord’s, but after England’s inexperienced attack flourished he couldn’t find a place in the side. The motorways were given a pounding as he met up with his England team-mates before returning to Leicestershire. On Tuesday, though, he will be back on the international scene as the seven-match NatWest series begins.”It was disappointing to be left out of the Tests,” he told Cricinfo. “But we have a great group of fast bowlers and it’s just about going away and putting pressure on the other players in the squad.”That pressure comes from the sort of all-round performance Broad put in against Derbyshire. A crucial, unbeaten 91 was followed by 5 for 67 when Derbyshire appeared on course to chase down 425. “It was a good performance,” Broad said modestly. “The batting was very pleasing, unfortunately I couldn’t get to a hundred but it was great to spend time in the middle.”One of England’s key failings in the Tests against India was the inability of the tail to hang around. Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Tremlett are not Test No. 8s – they don’t even bat that high for their counties – but Broad is often talked up as a true allrounder in the making. He began life as a batsman and retains the basic solid technique.”[The batting] is something we have talked about since last winter on A tour. Whether I end up batting at eight it’s vital to have bowlers who can score 30s, 40s and 50s like Brett Lee does for Australia. He has made himself into a very good batsman. In Test cricket, the more strings you have to your bow the better.”It’s no surprise Broad has some batting pedigree. His father, Chris, scored six Test centuries for England, including three during the 1986-87 series, but he’s not a major source of advice for Broad jnr. “We don’t talk much about batting,” he said, “and I certainly won’t ask about bowling, he only got about 10 wickets his whole career. I talk to him more to unwind.”But has he imparted any wisdom in his role as a match referee? “He hasn’t told me much yet, but I think he believes it’s only time before I get pulled up for something. I have his attitude, but that’s a good thing.”

‘Whether I end up batting at eight it’s vital to have bowlers who can score 30s, 40s and 50s’ © Getty Images
Although he is being made to wait for Test duty, Broad, still only 21 with nine ODI caps under his belt, is already a key member of Peter Moores’s one-day side as he tries to build a team to challenge in the next World Cup. Given the paucity of England’s one-day resources many people thought Broad should have gone to the last tournament, in West Indies, but he only made it as an replacement for Jon Lewis.Now he is preparing to bowl against India’s star-studded line-up. “I’m really excited by the challenge,” he said. “You have to play against the best. I had some experience against them at Chelmsford [where he took 5 for 76 for England Lions] so I’ve had a look at some of their weakness so hopefully can take that into the series.”But England’s one-day form hardly inspires. They lost 2-1 against West Indies earlier this season, in a series which highlighted familiar problems of death bowling, poor fielding and a lack of boundary hitters. However, the return of Andrew Flintoff brings another dimension to the team and Broad says they are not far away from being a real force.”With the likes of Fred and KP [Kevin Pietersen] and class finishers like Paul Collingwood we have a very strong batting order. There are also some really talented youngsters like James Anderson, who has been bowling brilliantly. There is a confidence in the squad.”Whether that confidence is enough to turn over an Indian side still riding high from their Test success remains to be seen, but if England do start to find their feet in one-day cricket there is every chance that Broad will have played a leading role.

Stats highlights from the third day of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and India

HR Gopalakrishna28-Dec-2007

Ricky Ponting was Harbhajan Singh’s 250th Test wicket © Getty Images
Ricky Ponting’s dismissals 4 and 3 in this match was only the fourth time he has been out for single digits in both innings in 113 Tests. The previous occasions were 9 and 4 versus West Indies in Sydney in Nov 1996, a pair versus Pakistan in Hobart in Nov 1999, 6 and 0 against India in Kolkata in Mar 2001. Michael Clarke scored freely against the spinners during his second innings. He scored 26 off 32 balls against Kumble, and 21 off 27 balls against Harbhajan Singh at a combined strike-rate of nearly 80. Harbhajan did not take a wicket in the first innings but he picked up three in the second and went past the milestone of 250 Test wickets. Harbhajan became the fourth Indian, after Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev and Bishan Bedi, to take 250 Test wickets when he had Ponting caught by Rahul Dravid in the second innings. He is also the sixth spinner to take 250 wickets.Brett Lee became the sixth Australian to take 250 Test wickets. The others are Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Dennis Lillee, Craig McDermott and Jason Gillespie. Anil Kumble was Lee’s 250th Test wicket. Kumble and Muttiah Muralitharan now share the record for most caught and bowled victims in Tests. Phil Jaques was Kumble’s 31st caught-and-bowled victim. Dravid’s catch of Ricky Ponting was his 160th in Tests. The three peopleahead of him are Mark Waugh (181), Brian Lara (164) and Stephen Fleming (161). Matthew Hayden has now scored 1072 runs at the MCG making him the seventh batsman to pass 1000 at this venue. Australia have set India 499 to win which will smash the world record for the highest successful chase should India beat the odds and achieve it. The highest target that a team has successfully chased at the MCG is 332 when England won by three wickets in 1928. West Indies’ successful chase of 418 against Australia in Antigua in 2003 is the highest overall in Tests.

There has been a sense of unfulfilled promise about Suresh Raina for more than two years now, and his last two innings are perhaps signs of a coming of age

Sidharth Monga in Karachi26-Jun-2008
Suresh Raina has begun to convert the starts into bigger scores © AFP
Suresh Raina wouldn’t have been very pleased by the comments made by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, his captain, after India’s recent Kitply Cup loss to Pakistan. Although that remark – Dhoni said he should have batted ahead of Raina – pertained to that game, it would have hurt a youngster trying to recover from being written off as the most-hyped player in recent years. Two matches later, when Dhoni promoted Raina to No. 3, the latter ensured the decision wouldn’t be regretted.Dhoni was at the other end when Raina went on the rampage against Hong Kong on Wednesday, and that perhaps would have prompted the promotion against Pakistan. Raina’s maiden century had come against a weak team, and although he looked in prime touch, he needed to prove himself against stronger opposition.On Wednesday, Raina walked in against a Pakistan attack sans Umar Gul. Gautam Gambhir had fallen cheaply, and Virender Sehwag hadn’t yet got into his groove as India chased 300. Not many can outscore Sehwag, as Gambhir will testify, but Raina had raced to 21 off 14 balls while Sehwag was still stuck on 1 off nine. Two shots early in his innings indicated what Greg Chappell, India’s former coach, would have seen in Raina. The first one, a cover drive on the up off Iftikhar Anjum, did not require any foot movement either before or after playing the stroke. The second one, off Sohail Tanvir, ended up at the same place, but this time he went down on his knee, got in line with the wide ball, and then crashed it through the field.There was nothing new: Raina has got off to starts before and has one of the best cover drives in present-day cricket. What he also had was 11 dismissals between scores of 20 and 40, out of his 33 ODI innings. His last fifty before the Hong Kong match had been 20 innings ago.A similar trait had haunted him in the Ranji Trophy last season: he would get off to some of the most promising starts, and then throw his wicket away. Out of the 683 runs that he scored in 14 innings, 411 came in three innings alone. And he got starts in almost every match.The way he played suggested this wouldn’t be just a start. Pakistan were out of sorts – one of their strike bowlers was off, their captain had not taken the field, and the National Stadium pitch was inert, but that alone didn’t provide the sense of inevitability around Raina’s knock. The only blemish for Raina today was that he got out to a soft dismissal on 84.Dhoni would be the man most pleased by Raina’s performances. “Of course it was good to see that,” Dhoni said. “Especially for someone batting at No. 3, you have to carry on with good starts. More so when you are chasing more than 270.” The only batsmen scoring big in the middle order have been Yuvraj Singh and himself. If Raina can take off from these two innings, Dhoni, overworked already, can afford to come further down the order.There has been a sense of unfulfilled promise about Raina for more than two years now, which would have troubled him more than it has done his followers. But he is still 21, still evolving, still understanding his own game and his role in the team. For him to have made the comeback to the side as soon as he has, he must have more to him than just the cover drive.

Also, Australia’s decline, the effects of the IPL, and the little allrounder who made a big impression

Sambit Bal01-Jan-2009
I’ll take it from here: South Africa are a shoo-in for the No. 1 team in the world, and Graeme Smith is easily cricket’s man of the year © Getty Images
Two thousand eight was an epochal, tumultuous, rancorous, but eventually fulfilling year. It was a year of revolution and churning, of big money and big egos, of acrimony and conflict, but also of wonderful spirit and luminous cricket. It was the year of the possible, the year in which the world of cricket turned upside down and yet landed on its feet.For a while money threatened to overshadow everything. Certainly players, the chosen ones, got richer quickly, but fear loomed that the game itself would be left poorer if Twenty20, the brash, muscular new form, began to marginalise Test cricket, the grandest and richest version. The Indian Premier League was a roaring success, but the shambles that the Stanford gig, which offered cricket’s biggest-ever booty, ended up as was comforting evidence that money alone can’t buy success. And as the year wound down, Test cricket bloomed in the most glorious manner possible.The year began in the ugliest manner imaginable, and traces of the anger, ill-will and malice that Sydney generated can still be found in the readers’ comments sections on Cricinfo. But it ended with a powerfully humane gesture from England, who returned to India to complete their tour, which had been disrupted by the Mumbai terror attacks, and in the warm glow of two wonderful Tests, in Chennai and Perth.It was also the year the umpiring review system was trialled, cricket dried up in Pakistan and all but died in Zimbabwe, and the ICC grew even more irrelevant. But most of all, 2008 will be remembered as the year cricket changed: judgment must stay suspended whether for the better or the worse.Life after the IPL: an opportunity to reshape cricket
Who could have imagined that a domestic tournament would transform cricket so radically and so profoundly? The IPL was the biggest thing to happen to the game since Kerry Packer, and its impact is likely to be more far-reaching.Of course, the focus in the first year was money – eight franchises were sold for over US$730 million; over 150 players, including 72 foreign players, were bought for over $45 million, and the television rights were sold for $1 billion. The tournament was an unqualified success. It attracted unique viewership in excess of 100 million in India, an 18% increase on the number that watched the World Twenty20 in 2007. Stadiums spilled over with fans, some of whom had never been to a cricket ground before. Most of all, the cricket was of the highest quality. What had seemed like an audacious gamble the previous year had paid off spectacularly. The IPL took cricket beyond a new form – it created a new world for itself.The challenge for cricket now is to accommodate the new entrant in the existing universe, and therein lies a huge opportunity. In a sense, the biggest impact of the IPL is yet to be felt. If the administrators play it right, and are able to rise above self-interest, they can use the compulsion to find windows for IPL and its offshoot, the Champions League, to force through some much-needed reforms.In theory, the Future Tours Programme of the ICC is an egalitarian concept, aimed at providing equal opportunity to each Test-playing country. In reality, it is a blight. Administrators cried themselves hoarse in 2008, hailing Test cricket as the pinnacle of the game. Without doubt it is, but not when it is a mismatch. In between playing India and South Africa, Australia swatted aside New Zealand despite having collapsed in the very first innings of the series. Brett Lee took two wickets per Test against India away, and is averaging 249 against South Africa; against New Zealand, he took nine wickets in one Test.Test cricket is the pinnacle because it presents the ultimate test of skill. Between mismatched teams, it can feel farcical, and be economically unviable. Rich nations have an obligation to sustain and develop cricket – not by indulging weak countries with a quota system, but by providing a competitive playing field. India have got away with not inviting Bangladesh home even once since they were admitted to the Test fold – at India’s behest. At one level, it seems hypocritical, at another it is pragmatic and justifiable. England are likely to follow suit next year, and it is a welcome decision. Bangladesh, their performance in the final Test notwithstanding, boost only one thing in Test cricket: the batting and bowling averages of their opponents. If they can offer a semblance of competitiveness, it is at home. It is futile having them play Test cricket in conditions that render them hopeless.What cricket needs is not a lot of Tests, but more meaningful ones. When the current FTP expires in 2011, it will be a good idea to bin the formula altogether and start clean. There can only be so much cricket in a year: let it be the best possible the game can provide. For years India have dominated world cricket with their financial muscle, but now they have a team that is beginning match their wealth. When they travel abroad now, they will be expected to win. That’s a significant changeAustralia’s decline: a more level playing field
It was inevitable and anticipated. No team can lose three of its biggest match-winners and carry on like before. Between them, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne took 750 wickets at 20.78 in the 71 Tests Australia won with them playing together. McGrath took 377 wickets of batsmen from numbers one to six, of which the top three accounted for a staggering 225 at an average of 18.22. Australia lost only one Test match in which Adam Gilchrist scored a hundred. It was always a question of how much the team would fall after the departures, not if.For the record, Australia had their worst year in 15. Since winning the fractious Sydney Test at the start of the year, they didn’t manage to beat India, losing to them thrice. They lost twice in Perth, their fortress, and failed to take 20 wickets in four out of their last six Tests of the year. They turned to six different spinners in an attempt to replace Warne, including Cameron White and Nathan Hauritz, who were not the first-choice spinners even for their state sides. Their last Test of year, where they struggled to finish off South Africa’s first innings, merely highlighted a problem that has haunted them all year: Harbhajan Singh scored four Test fifties against them.Australia’s decline is both good news and bad news. It opens up the field, makes Test cricket more exciting. For years they have almost been competing with themselves: Can Ponting’s Australians go one-up on Waugh’s Australians by winning 17 Tests in a row? After you were done being awed and dazzled by them, it got monotonous and boring. A more level playing field makes for better watching. This year will carry huge anticipation: Any one of the four top teams – Australia, South Africa, India and England – could end the year on top of the Test ladder.But the bad news is that the level playing field hasn’t come about as a result of others raising their game but because Australia have fallen. For years they have set the benchmark for excellence in world cricket, and that mark has been lowered now. India’s series victory in 2000-01 felt far more special than the one this year because it came against Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. Wonder if opposition batsmen will feel the same satisfaction in milking Mitchell Johnson, a fine bowler, but no more, and whichever spinner Australia might fancy putting up?After their first series loss at home in 17 years, even Ricky Ponting will be forced to concede that the sun has set on a glorious era. Australian cricket must now ponder if Ponting is the man to lead them out of a slump. A team of winners can almost run on auto-pilot, but a struggling team needs a leader. A feeling has been growing that Australia under Ponting have grown too triumphalist, too blinkered and too self-absorbed. They have also been living in denial. Cricket needs a strong Australia, but the regeneration will need a fresh approach: It will need both strength and humility, steel and statesmanship. Ponting is still Australia’s best batsman, but is he is the leader they need at this hour?The challengers: take a bow, South Africa
It was apt that South Africa and India split the Test series they played this year. They were the teams of the year, the ones that brought Australia down. India began the process and South Africa completed it resoundingly. But South Africa ended the year ahead: They haven’t lost a series in over two years; they now hold the trophies in all but one of the bilateral Test series they compete in; and they won 11 out of their 15 Tests in 2008, seven of those away from home. Now that they have dispelled the cross that weighed them down, repeated ignominy against Australia, they are the legitimate No. 1 Test team in the world. India, who lost to Sri Lanka away, and needed a rank turner to draw level with South Africa at home, have some catching up to do.To Graeme Smith must go a large share of the credit for fashioning a team in his own image. Smith has always been an impressive leader and cricketer, but in the early years of his captaincy, the South African team reflected Smith’s own personality then: angst-ridden, overwrought, and somewhat desperate. Smith has mellowed since, without losing his fire, and the team under him now plays mature, confident and controlled cricket. Of course, it helps that Smith is also playing the best cricket of his career: He has led every South African charge this year, reeling off match-winning and match-saving hundreds Test after Test. He is, by some margin, cricket’s man of the year.
Shakib Al Hasan punched above his team’s weight all year © AFP
In many ways it was India’s year. While South Africa were ruthless and clinical, India were sparkling and captivating. They were the ones who first ambushed the champions in Perth, the Australian bastion, and beat them in the one-day finals. For the last few years India have been crossing items off their to-do list: Test wins in Australia and South Africa, series wins in West Indies and England, openers providing hundred-run partnerships abroad, batsmen coming to terms to pace and bounce, and pace bowlers coming to the party. For years India have dominated world cricket with their financial muscle, but now they have a team that is beginning match their wealth. When they travel abroad now, they will be expected to win. That’s a significant change.Shakib Al Hasan: Bangladesh’s little dynamo
Bangladesh maintained their familiar routine through the year: the occasional sparkle extinguished by overwhelming inconsistency. The final Test of the year promised to be their best, when they mounted a spirited chase of an improbable 520 and ended only 107 short. But even this featured a familiar failing. The bowlers did their job in the first innings but fell away in the second, and the batsmen left too much for the final innings after having been miserable in the first.But one man kept shining through the year: Shakib Al Hasan was Bangladesh’s best bowler and best batsman in Tests, and their best bowler and third-best batsman in all forms, both qualitatively and numerically.Hasan will be 22 in March, but all through the year he batted with an assurance and composure that eluded his more experienced team-mates – standing firm against New Zealand when all collapsed around him, not wilting against South Africa, and finally, giving Sri Lanka the scare of their lives with a skilful and nerveless innings during which he worked Muttiah Muralitharan away dexterously off the back foot. That he fell four short of his first hundred was one of the tragedies of year. With the ball, he was equally exceptional, claiming four five-wicket hauls, including a 7 for 36 against New Zealand, the best-ever Test figures by a Bangladeshi spinner. With over 500 runs and 30 wickets he was the surprise allrounder of the year, not just for Bangladesh but in the world at large.

A hotchpotch collection of articles on West Indies through the years that tends to play and miss

Darcus Howe28-Mar-2009

spills forth a range of short pieces on West Indian cricket. The editors’ choices appear to be governed by a stick-of-the-pin principle – a random selection of poets and peasants alike.This anthology boasts two Nobel Prize winners: Vidia Naipaul and Derek Walcott. The essay by the former can and will be dismissed as simplistic babble. The latter attempts an appreciation of the best book on cricket, by CLR James, but drifts into romantic space – his eyes well off the ball, like any pedestrian who speaks or writes about cricket.The editors of , Mervyn Morris, a Professor Emeritus at the University of the West Indies, and Jimmy Carnegie, an archivist par excellence, who died in 2007, choose Eddie Baugh, a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, and Neville Cardus to open the innings. Baugh offers us a toast to a New Zealand cricket team on a visit to the West Indies, but his front and back feet are rooted in the crease as he slashes at every ball that comes his way. A deserved duck.At the other end Cardus approaches the spirit of the life and times of Learie Constantine, whom he describes as a primitive force with animalistic instincts: “He played like a sort of elemental instinctive force.” And he ends with words encompassing a colonial statement about the black savage on his way to civilisation.Cardus describes an innings of Constantine’s for West Indies against Middlesex at Lord’s: “From the press box I looked down on this fury of primitive onslaught, beautiful if savage and violently destructive.” This was not the black savage in the game of cricket but an advanced citizen on his way to challenging the racial configuration of the Empire.James had his work cut out to transcend such racial platitudes. An essay or two from him in this book are but a sop to placate our expected hostility to Cardus, one of the great cricket writers of the day.I invite readers to page 154 to discover a direct and hostile opposite, an article by Tim Hector, a fine Antiguan writer, who holds forth on Viv Richards. Hector links Viv with Bob Marley, a duet wailing in their different disciplines, a revolutionary presence among Caribbean people, and quotes Bob in song, a heaving and articulate expression of Richards at his best in and for West Indian cricket: “Bars could not hold me/Force could not control me/Now they try to put me down/But Jah want I around.”In spite of my sharp criticisms is useful, a point from which West Indian peoples can ascend, or like Haitians move on in a descent into barbarism. Haitians do not play cricket. Lunchtime Medley – Writings on West Indian Cricket
edited by Mervyn
Morris and Jimmy Carnegie
Ian Randle Publishers £13.95