All posts by h716a5.icu

More than a year after retiring from international cricket, Shane Warne had captained the underdogs of the IPL to top of the table. And everyone is bewitched

15-May-2008

‘He takes his gambling instincts onto the field’ ©Getty Images
“In the world there can be only one Taj Mahal. Similarly, there can only be one Shane Warne.”
“It shows that when you play under good captains you tend to pick up a lot of good leadership qualities and instincts. Warne has, I think, benefited from playing under good captains and he is very much in control of things in the IPL.”
“You can study psychology for as long as you want, but he has lived it.”
“Not only has he led the cheapest franchise to the top of the table … he has cajoled his team’s unheralded youngsters and – even more difficult, this – almost convinced everyone that he is now best mates with Graeme Smith.”
Guardian”He is a great player and he leads from the front. He has done a great job in putting the team together and motivating them to give their best.”
“His captaincy creed, ‘We can win from any position,’ is like the common cold – it’s contagious. If a team under Warne pulls off a stunning victory or two, the players start to believe that it wasn’t a miracle, just an everyday occurrence.”
“Even a long break from the game doesn’t seem to faze him.”
“Incredibly, his devotion to the team, and especially to the young players in it, even includes learning the Hindi language so he can communicate better – and not just the [G’day] that is about as far as most expatriates living in India can go. Example: “” [Now you go and bat], Warnie the linguist was heard telling Ravindra Jadeja during a net session the other day with such nonchalance that he never turned to see if anyone noticed.”
Australian

The delay by the Australian captain to introduce Shane Watson and Simon Katich into the bowling attack on the second day in Delhi is likely to go down as a tactical blunder

Ali Cook30-Oct-2008
Ricky Ponting has a lot of options but has made some unlikely choices among the bowlers in the Delhi Test © Getty Images
Ricky Ponting now carries so many complicated plans in his head that when something unexpected happens it takes a while to adjust. A lot of things have occurred throughout the first two days that Ponting has been unable to do anything about, but the significant problem of India’s 613 for 7 might have been eased if he had taken some different paths.On the first day, Shane Watson and Simon Katich were two of the few bright spots in a list headed by Stuart Clark. Watson, an allrounder, calls himself a role bowler in this team. He has done a useful job, but nobody outside the side is sure why Katich, a casual wrist spinner, was not employed even for a few spells in the first two Tests.It took 35 overs for Watson to be introduced on the second day in Delhi and Katich wasn’t thrown the ball until after Ponting had given himself two overs. The captain’s medium pace has been a partnership breaker at times in his career, but not on Thursday. He has a lot of options, and has made some unlikely choices.He left Watson in the field until well after lunch and then watched him bowl Gautam Gambhir for 206 with his sixth ball. It could have been Clark or Mitchell Johnson or Brett Lee who got the wicket, but it wasn’t. When Watson had Mahendra Singh Dhoni caught behind for 27, during Australia’s most successful period of the innings when they took 3 for 46, the delay became even stranger.Katich came on at the same time as Watson and broke through in his second over, with Sourav Ganguly hitting to Ponting at short cover. Captaincy is a hard business and relies on a lot of thought and luck. Had these two bowling changes occurred on a day when the opposition was less than 300, Ponting would have been a genius. When they arrived with India three down for more than 400 there were questions over why things didn’t happen earlier.Part of this was due to the strong performance of the Indian batsmen, who have only found trouble scoring off Clark. What it also exposed is why the selectors chose to leave Beau Casson, the left-arm wrist-spinner, in Australia. Nobody knows whether the bowler, whose debut came in the West Indies, will develop into an international bowler, but he is a far better exponent of spin than his New South Wales captain Katich, who has been Australia’s most dangerous slow option in this match.Had the two bowling changes [Shane Watson and Simon Katich] occurred on a day when the opposition was less than 300, Ponting would have been a genius. When they arrived with India three down for more than 400 there were questions over why things didn’t happen earlierDespite a useful opening Test return, Casson is at home in Sydney and currently ranked No. 5 in Australia’s depleted spin stocks, behind Cameron White, Jason Krejza, Michael Clarke and Bryce McGain. In explaining Casson’s omission for India the selectors said they wanted a right arm finger spinner and a legspinner. The logic becomes more confused by the day – and the runs.Katich has turned the ball into the batsmen and delivered some loose offerings, but he has created moments of danger. If a part-time spinner can do it, a specialist would have been able to achieve more. Australia’s only full-time slow bowler in the squad is Krejza, the offspinner who struggled so badly in one of the two tour games.Choosing White for this match was not a mistake because he may offer more runs than Krejza and the difference between their potential bowling returns is negligible. It’s the decision over the tour party that was made weeks ago that has become the issue, especially with the fast bowlers struggling. It has taken three Tests to be exposed, so perhaps the selectors feel it hasn’t been too bad.Delaying Katich’s bowling involvement in the series may be because Australia have not wanted to admit a mistake in not choosing the similarly-styled Casson. Katich has showed that Casson could have been productive. He’s not in India, so Australia need to use the bowlers who look like having some impact rather than none. In the first innings, Watson, Clark and Katich proved to be the best options. On another day it will be someone else. Ponting must recognise the man and the moment.

Dwayne Smith hadn’t played the last game and Chaminda Vaas hadn’t played at all this season but Deccan dropped Herschelle Gibbs, off colour after starting the tournament in a fury, and Ryan Harris, and reaped the benefits of their bold gamble

Sriram Veera in Kimberley11-May-2009Deccan Chargers made two changes for this game and it changed their fortunes. Dwayne Smith hadn’t played the last game and Chaminda Vaas hadn’t played at all this season but Deccan bit the bullet and dropped Herschelle Gibbs, off colour after starting the tournament in a fury, and Ryan Harris, and reaped the benefits of their bold gamble.Smith, with 214 runs at 30.57 and a strike rate of 164.61 this IPL, has shown the world and the WICB selectors what he can do. Actually, everyone knows what he can do; it’s what he does in the middle – or not – that has thrilled and infuriated Caribbean fans. After a immensely promising debut, where he smashed a Test hundred against South Africa in South Africa, he has slowly let himself go the way of Ricardo Powell.His script was simple: Flashy big hits, a thrilling six and an adrenalin-fuelled dismissal. Far too often he would get cleaned up by the full delivery or hole out to mid-on or mid-off, trying to force the length ball over the infield; no wonder he was nicknamed “Tarzan” in the Caribbean. Worse, he seemed to repeat his mistakes, unable to check the bat swing that starts slightly too early. Today, he played himself in, playing with soft hands and, importantly, showing immense wisdom in shot selection.It was much later that he unfurled his trademark swings over midwicket and long-on to push Hyderabad to a defendable total. It was an innings that highlighted his steady improvement from those early days. Through this tournament, he has spoken about his commitment and desire to get a call back to the West Indies team and has, importantly, admitted his mistakes in the past. If the first step towards solving a problem is admitting you have one, Smith has taken some giant strides.After the match, he revealed his gameplan. “All I wanted to do was keep playing straight, get singles and get to the end to have a blast.” It’s too early to say whether Smith Version 2 has arrived but it’s very possibly in the beta stage. Asked about the fact that he seems to have got bit more methodical in his hitting, he pointed to his Sussex stint last year as the turning point – where, he said, his county coaches helped out with his mental transformation.If Smith’s is a story of a man trying to forget his past, Vaas is a man desperate to show he doesn’t belong in the past. This IPL was threatening to go the same way as his international limited-overs career has been unravelling. The Sri Lankan think-tank wants to look beyond Vaas and build for the future but the man refuses to fade away.Today, he got his first game in the IPL and he delivered. First ball. He trapped Smith with a delivery shaping in and, though it might have hit the batsman high, Vaas cashed in on his appeal. What a pressure-relieving moment it must have been, even for such an experienced campaigner. A little later, after a series of deliveries that strangled Lee Carseldine, he had him stumped by an alert Gilchrist. Swapnil Asnodkar tried to go after him but never found the ball in the slot.Typical Vaas. He might have lost pace but his skills have actually improved with age. The inswing has got better, he learned reverse swing and mastered the variations of pace beautifully. Today, he deployed his repertoire to almost kill the chase even before the Powerplays ended. Smith and Vaas have created more selection headaches for Gilchrist – but he’s unlikely to reach for the aspirin.

As the team looks back at a one-sided series, there is more to ponder than just a spirit-sapping defeat. In the last five years New Zealand won just 12 Test wins from 40

Jamie Alter at the SSC30-Aug-2009There is no sugar-coating the pill when a team gets beaten 2-0 and yes, New Zealand made a meal of this tour. Daniel Vettori’s goal of keeping Sri Lanka to 0-0 didn’t quite go to plan and he was left to almost single-handedly carry a flagging team. Vettori was New Zealand’s highest wicket-taker and run-scorer in two Tests. The 2-0 defeat highlights the gulf between the two teams.What will rankle, and this was a massive factor in the final scoreline, was an inability to learn from repeated mistakes. New Zealand’s mantra in the build-up to this Test was “gameplan, gameplan”, but irrespective of the guts shown by Vettori, Jacob Oram and Iain O’Brien today, the team’s naivety was their defining characteristic all series.It was ironic that after watching videos of Mark Richardson and Stephen Fleming stonewalling in 2003, New Zealand erred in being too attacking. “It is the hardest bit,” said Vettori. “You cross the initial tough period, cross 20-30 balls and get a feel for the surface. We just struggled with that tempo. We were too aggressive and that’s been our downfall.”Andy Moles, the coach, spoke on day four about how utterly frustrating it was for the batsmen to waver from a plan. Despite watching the Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera hand out free of charge “masterclasses in batting” as Vettori termed them, the message didn’t seem to get through to New Zealand. Vettori called his batsmen a talented group of players lacking application. “We’ve been guilty of trying to force the game too much and getting ourselves in trouble from there. There is no doubt this is a good group of batsmen and I have high hopes of them. We need results.”As the team looks back at a one-sided series, there is more to ponder than just a spirit-sapping defeat. In the last five years New Zealand won just 12 Test wins from 40, five against Bangladesh and two over Zimbabwe. For much of those five years fans of New Zealand cricket have looked on as their team stumbled from series to series, home and away, competing but never quite dominating apart from the minnows. Injuries and retirements didn’t help but neither have the replacements always been adequate.This series has been indicative of that malaise. Tim McIntosh, after a dour first-innings dig in Galle, hardly spent time at the crease. Daniel Flynn was a phantom until his 50 in the final innings, which he undid through loss of concentration. Martin Guptill’s lack of footwork was exposed, as was his temperament. That ridiculous pull shot when the trap was set on day two at the SSC was indicative of the problem.As Vettori also pointed out, many of these players faced unorthodox and highly skilled bowlers they would not have encountered back home. So for them to face that kind of bowling and be successful, in bursts, was a huge learning curve for the future. Still, it was disappointing to see how uneasily the batsmen tackled Rangana Herath given how often they face Vettori in the nets. “The good thing about Herath is he put the ball in the good spots consistently and there was hardly a bad ball bowled,” said Vettori. “He kept asking questions and unfortunately we didn’t have answers at crucial times. Credit to the bowler; he didn’t give us any respite. Herath has played a big part in Sri Lanka winning.”And hopefully for New Zealand he will have played a big part in their growth. Ross Taylor has spoken of the knowledge gathered during his stay, having to face top-class spin: “I came over here very inexperienced in the subcontinent but I’ve learned things I have to store away for when we come over next.” Jeetan Patel has kept his belief across a disastrous first Test and a face-saving second, speaking of the importance of balancing attack versus restraint while watching Herath. No doubt this has been a learning experience for others.With Pakistan due to visit later this year, the hope is this bunch has absorbed the pressure and hardship of this tour. “The big thing is consistency,” said Vettori. “We don’t have people knocking down the door. You take note of performances in the A games. There are two before the Pakistan series but I would like to back these guys.”Vettori’s view, which will carry plenty of weight when he sits with the other selectors to pick the squad to face Pakistan, should rekindle self-belief. For New Zealand’s sake, the hope has to be that continued exposure will buttress the requirements of how to perform under pressure. But that can only happen when runs are on the board, especially from the top order.

Robin Uthappa’s successful contribution to Bangalore’s winning start in the IPL this year, marks a delayed, yet significant, step towards reaffirming his role in the team

Siddhartha Talya at the Chinnaswamy Stadium23-Mar-2010Robin Uthappa has had to learn some harsh lessons since making his international debut. A hard-hitting batsman, he made a bright start to his international career and, with the advent of Twenty20, was in favour with the Indian and the IPL set-up. But issues with fitness, frequent shuffling within the batting order and the accompanying inconsistency cost him. However, his successful contribution to Royal Challengers Bangalore’s winning start in the IPL this year, marks a delayed, yet significant, step towards reaffirming his role in the team.Uthappa entered the third edition of the IPL with his reputation in need of repair. In South Africa last year, following a transfer to Bangalore from Mumbai Indians, for whom he had been the second-highest run-getter in the inaugural version, Uthappa mustered an average of 15.90. Promoted to open the batting, he suffered a series of failures which refused to abate even when he was dropped to No.3. He’s been fluid in the batting order this year as well, but has notched up two match-winning performances. His US$800,000 bid in the 2008 auction had much to do with his potential as a game-changer. He has lived up to that bid this year, using his ability to find the boundary with brute power as well as crafty innovation while managing to shift roles when plans have had to be altered.In a line-up featuring Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid, players accomplished at dropping anchor, Uthappa is one of the aggressors. Against Kings XI Punjab, faced with a target of 204, Uthappa had little time for assessment and attacked from the outset. What Piyush Chawla and Yusuf Abdulla suffered at his hands was meager in comparison to the treatment meted out to Sreesanth, who was smashed for three sixes and a four in an over which yielded 25. In the space of six balls, Uthappa had cut the required rate from over 11 to under 10 and had set Bangalore on course.He played a useful cameo against Mumbai Indians, but today’s performance against Chennai Super Kings came under more challenging circumstances. On a track conducive to fast bowling and taking turn, and the loss of three wickets inside the first ten overs – a rarity for Bangalore this season – Uthappa had to stick on for longer. Not that the realisation had sunk in early. As instinct sometimes tends to overpower strategy, Uthappa’s inclination to attack led him to attempt an audacious reverse-slog off Muttiah Muralitharan, which was dropped. The cue: be more selective.Uthappa, amid a couple of digressions, remained largely steadfast to that plan, scoring three boundaries in the next six overs before taking off in timely fashion in the penultimate over off L Balaji. The first ball was crisply driven for four through extra cover, but the next three underlined the influence he could have on the fate of a game. Three sixes – two dispatched over long-on and the other over midwicket – stretched the damage to 24 runs in the over, and by then, as it turned out during Chennai’s abject reply, Banglore had enough on the board.India’s selectors haven’t picked him since July 2008 and Uthappa hasn’t been included in the 30-man preliminary squad for the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean next month. While his Bangalore compatriots Manish Pandey and R Vinay Kumar will be anxiously waiting to hear the announcement of the final squad of 15 on March 26, Uthappa has no such immediate incentive. And unlike his two team-mates, his form in domestic cricket hasn’t hit the headlines either. In this IPL, however, he has set about resurrecting the faith in his ability which could yield the rewards he seeks. “I am just an ordinary player working hard,” he said after his knock. His timing, given that the chairman of India’s selectors, Kris Srikkanth, is Chennai’s brand ambassador, was near perfect.

On the night, Chennai were the better team by a margin rather greater than eight wickets

Telford Vice in Johannesburg26-Sep-2010″The sheep are so thin this year,” goes a joke among Eastern Cape farmers, “we can fax them to the abattoir.” The jibe, like the farmers themselves, is a hardy perennial. It has to be. Without a robust sense of humour, nothing survives, much less prospers, in the Eastern Cape.A province that bulges like a bicep along South Africa’s wind-whipped south-eastern coast, beyond which lay the skeletons of so many stricken ships, is no place for the soft of heart, mind, body or soul.Any team representing it faces critics as prosaic as they are stoic. So there will be no tears in the wake of the Warriors’ implosion in the Champions League Twenty20 final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Besides, they’ll tell each other unblinkingly down on the farm, this was no accident. On the night, the Chennai Super Kings were the better team by a margin rather greater than eight wickets. More like the 300 kilometres that separates Port Elizabeth from East London.To Chennai, undeniably, goes the accolade of the best franchise Twenty20 team in the world. Whoever said this format of the game doesn’t deliver worthy champions? Fact is, Chennai have spent the Champions League gliding to victory after victory as effortlessly as Fred and Ginger. Not for them the sweaty scramble of the close-run thing. They lost just once, to Victoria. That is if ending up on the wrong end of so dubious a yardstick as a one-over eliminator can rightfully be called losing.Chennai’s closest scrape with authentic defeat came at the hands of the same Warriors in their Port Elizabeth backyard. R Ashwin and Muttiah Muralitharan got them out of that jam, and they won by 10 runs.The Wanderers pitch is an entirely different animal to the one that spends its lazy days stretched out in the sun at St George’s Park. However, quality bowlers remain just that, whatever the surface, and Ashwin and Muralitharan were again key to Chennai’s success on Sunday.The sting of the match was drawn as early as the sixth over, when Davy Jacobs lurched into a reverse sweep off Ashwin, got it badly wrong, and was trapped smack in front having scored 32 of his 34 runs in furiously hit fours. Jacobs has carried the Warriors on his spare frame these past two weeks. He maintained a defiant, bristling presence, and was never shy to show the guts required to chase glory. But on Sunday, he needed to score twice as many runs as he did to give his men a fighting chance. That is unfair to him given that cricket is played by teams and not individuals, a point Jacobs has made himself when he has read between the lines of questions asking indirectly whether he is bigger than the side he leads.In the Warriors’ sumptuous win in their semi-final against the hitherto unbeaten South Australia Redbacks, that most certainly was not the case. Against Chennai just 24 hours later, it most certainly was. Ashwin, L Balaji and Muralitharan tied the Warriors down for 25 balls after Jacobs’ dismissal. The 26th brought a dodgy boundary as Colin Ingram’s thick edge off Muralitharan squirted to the ropes. But Murali laughed his wild laugh last, dismissing Mark Boucher and Justin Kreusch in the space of five deliveries to reduce the Warriors to 82 for five. Game, as they say in the comics, over.Chennai’s run chase was not unlike the last stage of the Tour de France, a ceremonial chore conducted on the Champs-Elysees during which no one challenges the man who has, in the eyes of his opponents, already won the race. So it was as Chennai whittled away at their small target, of which M Vijay and Michael Hussey scored all but 26 in a deeply blue-collar stand. Whoever said Twenty20 cricket couldn’t be boring?The fact that Jacobs tossed the new ball to Makhaya Ntini, who went for 22 runs in two bilious overs in the semi-final, seemed in itself an acceptance of an impending thrashing. You might say the Warriors went like lambs to the slaughter.

Alastair Cook’s latest Ashes ton has effectively thwarted Australia’s faint hopes of saving the series

Andrew Miller at the SCG05-Jan-2011It wasn’t much fun being an Englishman in Australia on the last Ashes tour in 2006-07, but at least the Barmy Army landed a blow for Blighty with the best sledge of the trip – a mocking line of T-shirts bearing the legend: “Captain Cook only stopped for a ****”. On the back, there was a picture of the skipper perched on a dunny in Botany Bay, apparently intending to move onto pastures new once he’d done what he had to do.Nearly two-and-a-half centuries later, the descendants of that expedition show no sign of moving on, and neither did the latest English-born Cook to leave his mark on the country’s east coast. Much like the T-shirt version, Australia had expected Alastair Cook’s visits in this series to be brief and perfunctory, as befitting an Ashes career average of 26.21 in 10 previous Tests. But at the back-end of a campaign that began with him matching his previous tally Down Under in a single Test at the Gabba, Cook has marched on to conquer some of the most extraordinary peaks in the game.By the time he snicked off to Shane Watson for a monumental 189, Cook had batted for 36 hours and 11 minutes in the series, or the equivalent of six full days out of the 19-and-a-half that have taken place to date. No Englishman has ever spent longer at the crease in a Test series, and only Wally Hammond, who scored 905 runs on the Ashes tour of 1928-29 has amassed more runs than Cook’s current tally of 766. With a lead of 208 and two days of the Test still to come, it’s not impossible that he’ll get one last opportunity to push on towards the elusive 800 mark – which has been passed on just nine occasions in Test history, and only six times by a player not called Don Bradman.”It hasn’t sunk in yet, well, it has a little bit,” said Cook, who flies back to England at the conclusion of this match, while his team-mates press on to play the one-day series. “When I get home and it’s cold in a week’s time, and you’re on the farm walking the dog, you think actually, yeah, I’ve achieved something special. But it would be even better if we play well for the next two days and get the right result.”Like his fellow left-handed opener Graeme Smith, who stunned England with consecutive innings of 277 and 254 at Edgbaston and Lord’s in 2003, Cook will never be a player to please the purists. He’s a functional entity with a manufactured technique, and when his mechanics let him down – such as occurred in England last summer – he can look both ugly and horribly ineffective, a combination of factors that can leave him closer to the chopping block than a pretty practitioner such as a Gower or a Lara.As far as the England management are concerned, however, Cook is a banker, and has been ever since he defied jet-lag, debutant nerves and India’s spinners to rack up a century on debut at Nagpur in March 2006, when he had only recently turned 21. The faith in his temperament has superseded all qualms about his technique, and it’s remarkable to think that he has now amassed 1022 first-class runs on the current tour of Australia, even though he began the tour with a dreadful pair of innings against Western Australia at the WACA.He made 5 and 9 in that game to reawaken the doubts about his Test berth, but responded with a century at Adelaide in the second warm-up match at Adelaide, and has scarcely looked back since. “I could only have dreamt about this six or seven weeks ago, especially after that first warm-up game,” said Cook. “I didn’t get any runs and this looked a long way away, so I can’t really believe what I’ve achieved and what the side has achieved. It’s been a good couple of months but there are two days of hard work left.”Throughout his latest epic, in which he matched Michael Vaughan’s feat of three centuries in Australia in 2002-03, Cook’s watchfulness outside off stump was matched by a keen appreciation of his scoring opportunities, particularly off the toes whenever Australia’s seamers overpitched, and through midwicket and point respectively on the regular occasions they banged it in too short. He rode his luck on two notable occasions, on 46 when a no-ball referral earned him a second chance, and again on 99 when Phil Hughes failed to scoop a low chance at short leg. But Australia found him to be a roadblock once again, as their faint hopes of saving the series were effectively thwarted.Given that Cook’s game is built on the solidity of his character, the numbers that he has racked up in the past eight months are extraordinary. Going into the second innings of the Pakistan Test at The Oval back in August, he had limped to 106 runs in eight innings at the puny average of 13.25, and was one false stroke from being dropped from the side (if only for the fourth and final Test at Lord’s, because his mental strength would have been sorely missed at the Gabbatoir). Typically, he responded with a gutsy 110, and has now made 886 runs in his last nine innings, at the extraordinary average of 110.75.”I had a tough summer, it was obviously well documented, but when you score runs people tend to leave you alone,” said Cook. “So it was important in that second game at Adelaide, where I scored that hundred in the second innings, I just thought to myself I can score runs in Australia. It gave me that little bit of confidence that you need, and that time in the middle to tell myself that my gameplan does work if I execute it well. It’s worked well so far this trip.”The exact reason for Cook’s transformation still eludes him, however, but all that matters to him is that he enjoys the sensation of being in the form of his life. “Form comes and goes, and I couldn’t hit the middle of the bat six months ago,” he said. “But that’s the secret of sport, isn’t it, why form comes and goes as much as it can do, I don’t know. But you keep working hard and enjoy it when you do do well, because there were some pretty dark times last summer and I’m sure there will be in my career at some other time.”One key reason may be his supreme fitness. As he admitted at Adelaide during the second of his back-to-back hundreds, Cook has been blessed with a physique that hardly sweats even in the most extreme temperatures. What is more, England as a squad have adopted an exhaustive regime under their former rugby-playing fitness trainer, Huw Bevan, in which they practice batting while already knackered. Though he admitted it wasn’t always fun, Cook conceded that the benefits were plain to see.”There’s the modern game, you have to be fit to bat for a long time, it’s not to look good on the beach unfortunately,” he said. “I remember turning up to Perth and before I’d even batted for the first time on tour I had to do a pre-fatigue session. That’s how seriously we were taking it, and I was pretty grumpy at the time because all I wanted to do was bat. But little things like that adds on, and you get rewards later on.”You work hard physically, you work hard on the mental side of the game, but when you’re in this form it all happens quite easily,” he added. “Suddenly, you bat for an hour and you don’t realise you’ve batted for an hour, whereas last summer when I was desperately trying to bat for ten minutes, it felt like a lifetime. You just get in that rhythm, that tempo, and tell yourself not to make mistakes. When you’re not worried about your technique or anything else, that makes it a lot easier. Physically you get a little bit tired, but you’re rather be a little bit tired and get a hundred.”

Ravi Rampaul has seen through tough times and the sheer hard graft and dedication with which he’s fought them is an example to those inclined to seek out other reasons for their troubles

Tony Cozier27-Jun-2011West Indies cricket has long since become a virtual international television newscast.The controversies and the chaos, the defeats and the decline dominate the bulletins. With more than enough to fill the reports, they obscure the positives, few as they may be.So, this season, it has all been about the status of Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the two most senior players, following their straight-talking radio interviews that aired their grievances with board, team management and selectors.Chairgate, as the reported flare-up between West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief executive Ernest Hilaire and West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president Dinanath Ramnarine at the meeting to sort out the Gayle issue has been inevitably dubbed, occupied more attention than the cricket. Darren Sammy’s credentials as captain are so widely and repeatedly questioned that the head coach has felt compelled to beseech the critics to back off. The prelude to the series against India centred, not so much on the cricket as on their patronising decision to leave their greatest player at home to rest prior to the far more significant series in England to follow.Other spicy items have taken the headlines. WICB director Sir Hilary Beckles’ analogy of Gayle as a notorious ‘don’ filled space for a couple of weeks. The president of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, no less, gained the desired media attention by parading at the ODI in Providence with a sign proclaiming “WICB is a disgrace”.If noticed at all, upbeat cricket items such as the dramatic advance of Ravi Rampaul from obscurity to bowling spearhead, the arrival of Devendra Bishoo as a visionary selection, the development of Andre Russell as potentially quality allrounder and the return of Adrian Barath and Fidel Edwards, fit and fast after his back operation, have been mere footnotes. The fact that Russell, Barath, Darren Bravo and Kemar Roach are all under 23 and that the West Indies Under-19s triumphed over Australia in both four-day and one-day formats in Dubai in April hint at a brighter future. Yet gloom and doom lead.If it is up to the WICB, with the cooperation of WIPA, to provide the support such players require to progress, Rampaul provides the example of the individual responsibility that is also necessary but is so often missing. A year ago, he might have despaired over his prospects. He first wore West Indies colours as far back as 2000, a growing boy in the successful campaign in the Under-15 international Costcutter Cup in England in 2000. He then graduated through two Under-19 World Cups, in New Zealand and Bangladesh, and into the senior team for 53 sporadic ODIs before he finally fulfilled his ambition of Test cricket in Australia in November, 2009. It was a long and, in every sense, painful wait.In July 2004, after the West Indies ODI series in England, Rampaul felt the sharp twinge just behind the shin bone, the first sign of the condition known as shin splints common to athletes who place pressure on their legs and the bane of fast bowlers. The problem kept him out of the game for three years. When he returned in July 2007, for another ODI series in England, the layoff showed in his bulkier physique.

If it is up to the WICB, with the cooperation of WIPA, to provide the support such players require to progress, Rampaul provides the example of the individual responsibility that is also necessary but is so often missing.

Fitness was an issue in his debut Tests, three in the 2009-10 series in Australia and two at home against South Africa a couple of months later. His returns were five wickets at an average cost of 109.75 each. Not surprisingly, he was dropped.Coming up to 26 and after his misfortune with injury, he could have thrown out his boots in hopelessness and confined himself to playing for and coaching Preysal, the club in central Trinidad where he had grown up to become the West Indies’ first new ball bowler of east Indian descent. Instead, he chose not to waste the nine years he had waited to fulfil his ambition of Test cricket.He has revealed that, with the encouragement, indeed the insistence, of West Indies new head coach, Ottis Gibson, he worked incessantly on his fitness, as he did on his bowling rhythm and discipline. He pounded the road and dropped pounds. He sent down ball after ball in the nets. His stamina noticeably improved as did his control. At the same time, he also concentrated on his batting, an aspect of his game he had tended to neglect.He hankered to return but it was not until the World Cup that his chance came – and only then because of Kemar Roach’s absence through illness in the last group match against India in Chennai. His sixth ball was to be as crucial as any in his career. It rose from a length and just kissed the edge of the most famous bat in the game on its way to wicket-keeper Devon Thomas. As Sachin Tendulkar turned to head back to the pavilion, Rampaul’s whooping celebration was all to be heard above the deafening silence in the stands. “It was the perfect ball at the perfect time, one of those moments in life you dream of,” he said afterwards. Tendulkar’s opening partner, Gautam Gambhir, No.3 Virat Kohli and Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel at the bottom of the order made up his five wickets, his first such return for the West Indies. The performance would restore the self-belief that injury and disappointment had severely tested over the years.The transformation is substantiated by his returns in the season’s Tests (11 wickets at 20.90 each in two matches against Pakistan, four at 27 in the first Test against India) as has the advance in his batting (a Test average of 23 and increasingly valuable contributions at No.9 hint at allrounder potential). The most astonishing aspect of his bowling are the early strikes that have shaken the foundations of opponents’ innings. The sequence: Against Pakistan, first Test: 1st innings, second ball (5 for one); 2nd innings: third ball (two for one) and fifth ball (two for two). Second Test: 1st innings: 21st ball (17 for one), 25th ball (22 for two). Against India, first Test: first innings, 11th ball (15 for one); second innings, second ball (0 for one). Twice he was denied another early victim by straightforward catches missed at slip. Sammy’s fumble off Rahul Dravid, then six on his way to 112, arguably cost the Test against India.As Steve Waugh in 1995 (missed at 42, out for 200) and Inzamam-ul-Haq in 2005 (missed at nought, unbeaten 117) proved, batsmen of such calibre generally make the most of such generosity. Just as India did last week, Australia won in 1995 and Pakistan in 2005. It was another case of the anguish and the ecstasy Rampaul has had to cope with throughout his career. That he has done so on his own, through sheer hard graft and dedication, is an example to those inclined to seek out other reasons for their troubles.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium

Nitin Sundar22-Apr-2011The reunion
It was biggest talking point after the auctions. Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds in one team. Both of them tried hard to diffuse the build-up, but no one looked away. The first moment came in the fourth ball of Chennai’s chase, when Symonds leapt in the covers to stop a Michael Hussey cover drive. Harbhajan ran across and patted his mate on the back. In the fifth over, Harbhajan foxed Suresh Raina with a lovely piece of flight and pouched the return catch. It was now Symonds’ turn to show his appreciation and he did so with a hug. Later in the evening, they were seen sharing ideas on the field, and this time Sachin Tendulkar wasn’t required to pull them apart. The hatchet had truly been buried in Sydney.The bluff
It was the moment that turned the match, and it came about through a clever piece of bowling. Chennai were coasting along when Lasith Malinga returned for his second spell. Everyone expected a barrage of yorkers, and the first ball was duly destined for the toes. S Badrinath somehow played it away for a single and handed over to Michael Hussey. Clearly, he was expecting another yorker next ball and chose to crouch low and back in the crease in anticipation. Malinga, however, hoodwinked Hussey by sending down a bouncer that took off from a length. Hussey was caught off-guard, and ended up going down on a knee and taking his eyes off it as he played an ungainly pull. Kieron Pollard scooped it inches from the ground, and Mumbai found a way back into the game.The slip and the lap
Doug Bollinger’s second spell was a series of incisive short balls and wide yorkers that Mumbai struggled to lay bat on. One ball, however, slipped out of Bollinger’s fingers, possibly because of the dewy atmosphere. Rohit Sharma was already shuffling across in anticipation of a wide yorker and must have been shocked to see a waist-high beamer hurtling straight at him. Rohit did not panic, though, and calmly lapped it straight back over MS Dhoni’s head and all the way for the most interesting six of the day.The elbow
You might watch the whole IPL and not see an innings more orthodox than Badrinath’s unbeaten 71. There wasn’t a single ugly shot on display, and he got his runs through precise footwork and an array of textbook strokes. The charm of his innings was epitomised by the six he hit off Rohit in the ninth over of the chase. It was a classically flighted offbreak on off stump. Badrinath shot out of the crease at the exact moment when the bowler was past the point of no return, got to the pitch and swung it in one sublime arc, all the way over long-off. The backlift was not extravagant, and the follow-through ended with the leading elbow held high for an extra moment. It was the 210th six of IPL 2011, and among the most beautiful.The clunk
Suresh Raina turned the third ball of Harbhajan’s spell off the pads and took off for a typically cheeky single. Harbhajan, not known for his fleet-footedness in the field, sped away after it and Raina realised he had to scramble. Harbhajan picked up, swivelled and fired a throw at the non-striker’s end even as Raina dived in. The throw missed the stumps, but clunked Raina hard on the helmet. Don’t expect Raina to exchange the helmet for a cap when the spinners come on.The triple-jumper
Mumbai were electric on the field from start to finish, barring one moment of comedy from Munaf Patel. Badrinath got one on the pads in the eighth over, and glanced it along towards fine leg. The ball was travelling much faster than Munaf at fine leg initially anticipated, and he realised he had to move fast to his right to cut it off. Instead of sprinting and diving, Munaf loped across languidly before trying to reach the ball with a series of laboured long steps. He lurched over like someone trying the triple-jump for the first time, and tried to stop the ball with the boot. The ball, however, easily slipped through for four.

England will have to take their winning game to the subcontinent to tick off a crucial box, but they have a few ingredients that suggest their grip on the top ranking will be firmer than India’s

Sambit Bal at Edgbaston13-Aug-2011The only lament for the supporters of English cricket at this moment of glory would be that it was utterly devalued by the abjectness of the opposition. The matter got so desperate on the fourth day that they joined the Indian fans in chanting Praveen Kumar’s name as he threw some meaty punches and warmly applauded him back to the dressing-room after his dismissal. No one who had paid for a seat would have wished to be so emphatically denied of a contest.Of course England cannot be held to account for the feebleness of their opponents. They dealt with what was presented to them to with full force and have now seized the No. 1 ranking with the swagger of a team that belongs. As India have been reminded so painfully on this tour, the top rank on the ICC table doesn’t necessarily translate to indisputable supremacy but, by administering India the mightiest of routs, England have built the most compelling of cases.It is a moment of huge significance for English cricket because their success hasn’t arrived merely by accident or by the happy coincidence of a burst of talent. It has been engineered through years of planning and building and the meticulous construction of a template that made success inevitable.It can be argued that the best of England met the worst of India in this series. But as India’s resistance dissolved into nothingness on the fourth morning, so did the grounds for excuses. Batting on a pitch that yielded England 710 runs, India – fielding their best possible batting line-up – were reduced to 130 for 7.The Indian task was hopeless to start with but in many ways it offered their batsmen a last shot at redemption. In one hour of magnificent swing bowling, James Anderson put the final stamp on the comprehensive superiority of England’s bowlers over India’s batsmen. It became abundantly clear in that hour, if it hadn’t been apparent already, that no matter how well India had prepared, and how mentally and physically fresh they were, England would still have prevailed. Not once in their climb to the top had India’s batsmen encountered a bowling unit so skillful and so persistently relentless.It is futile to go on droning about the ill luck with injury that first removed Zaheer Khan and then Harbhajan Singh. England lost Chris Tremlett after the first Test and Jonathan Trott during the second and for the third and yet grew stronger by the Test. Ian Bell took the No. 3 spot at Edgbaston and made a hundred, and Tim Bresnan has made such an impact that Tremlett will struggle to regain his place in the playing XI. Teams are also judged by their depth; India found themselves hopelessly exposed.It is futile now to look back on those two post-tea sessions in the second Test at Trent Bridge that decisively tilted the series England’s way. Test matches are rarely won by winning only a couple of sessions. The striking difference between the two sides was that India were never able to hold their advantage and England always found the means to retrieve a lost session.Tim Bresnan has starred with both bat and ball in the series•Getty ImagesAny comparison with the great teams of the past would be premature – and England will have to take their winning game to the subcontinent to tick off a crucial box – but they have a few ingredients that suggest their grip on the top ranking will be firmer than India’s: the strongest and most versatile bowling attack in the world currently; a batting line-up that combines solidity at the top with flair at the bottom; a strong number seven and the best tail in the world; and the belief, instilled by performances, that no cause is lost until it is lost. Most crucially, they are a relatively young team with players yet to hit the peak of their careers.India’s hold over the No 1 ranking was always tenuous. Unlike England, their climb to the top was driven not by the system but by the talent and passion of a group of extraordinary cricketers. It was sustained not, as it is usually the case with dominant Test teams, by a group of match-winning bowlers, but by the ability of a once-in-lifetime batting line-up. The wins were achieved by a few memorable bowling performances, but the batsmen ensured that not many Tests were lost.The reason why the air of despondency is so thick around Indian cricket in the aftermath of their Birmingham defeat – their third biggest in history and the biggest since 1974 at Lord’s when they were bowled out for 42 – is that their batting has not, in the past ten years, been so embarrassing over a period of six innings. As they slumped to 56 for 4 in the morning session today, there was a real danger that they would be beaten by Alastair Cook alone. And when the last wicket fell midway through the second session, someone wondered if they should be granted a third innings for the sake of the 8000 spectators who had shown their faith by buying non-refundable tickets for the final day at 15 pounds each.The scary part for the Indian fan is that the golden age of Indian cricket might have already passed. The batting isn’t likely to grow stronger in the immediate future. If anything, it will grow progressively weak as the greats start departing. The Indian cricket administration has done a spectacular job harnessing the passion of the Indian fans to become the richest, and consequently, the most powerful cricket body in the world. But a vision for sporting excellence has rarely been a boardroom agenda. During this Test, Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni were asked about the effect of excessive cricket on the mental and physical readiness of the team. Both refused to offer direct answers. Gambhir said it was a question for the BCCI. Dhoni offered no comments, saying that he didn’t want to start a controversy. What they didn’t say said enough.It is no shame to lose to a team that has been decidedly superior. What should hurt Indian cricket is that there hasn’t even been the pretence of a contest. It’s hard to recall a fall from grace so dramatic, so swift and so complete. While it shouldn’t obscure what this team has achieved over the past decade, it’s the next ten years that Indian cricket should worry about. Something could still come out of this if the lessons from the wreckage were absorbed.