All posts by h716a5.icu

ESPNcricinfo take a look at the career of former Essex bowler Mervyn Westfield, who has become the first English cricketer to be convicted of match-fixing

David Hopps12-Jan-2012Mervyn Westfield has his place in cricket history. It was not how he might have imagined it when he first caught the attention at the Bunbury Festival, a prestigious schoolboy tournament, in 2003. Then he would have dreamed, like many alongside him, of a chance to play for England. Now he will never achieve fame, only infamy.Back in 2003 at the Bunbury Festival at Shrewsbury School, Westfield’s teammates included Adil Rashid, who was later to lead the long-awaited influx into Yorkshire cricket of players of Asian origin, and Rory Hamilton-Brown, who was entrusted with the captaincy of Surrey strikingly early in his career and has taken up the job in combative fashion.Westfield never achieved such heights. By the time he was released by Essex at the end of the 2010 season, he was already caught up in spot-fixing allegations. But Essex’s official line that he had been released “for cricketing reasons” did possess some logic. He returned to his roots and played for Wanstead in the Essex League. He was their player of the year in 2010.He made his Essex debut, aged just 17, in 2005 and represented England U19. But, by the time his career came to an ignominious end five seasons later, he had played only seven first-class and eight List A matches. He had taken just 11 first-class wickets at 37.81. Four of those came in a career-best display against Somerset at the Southend festival when he helped to bowl Essex to a convincing victory but he was inconsistent and plagued by injury. His last first-class appearance featured a token run-out against Cambridge UCCE in June 2009. He was 21-years-old.The match that destroyed his reputation was symptomatic of his career. By the time Durham and Essex met in the Pro40 in September 2009, neither county retained an active interest in the competition and the first hints of autumn had already reached county cricket’s most northerly outpost. It was the sort of a dead match to whet the appetite of the fixers and, for Westfield, the temptation proved irresistible.Westfield took his £6000 in return for deliberately bowling badly in his first over. He continued to bowl badly thereafter, conceding 60 runs from seven overs, bowling four wides and two no-balls. One Essex teammate confided to ESPNcricinfo that there was immediate unease in the dressing room about the validity of his spell.But it was not as much Westfield’s corruption as his naivety that brought about his downfall. Incredibly, he told a team-mate, Tony Palladino, about his winnings and Palladino, courageously pushing aside loyalty to a teammate for the greater good, followed anti-corruption guidelines issued by the England and Wales Cricket Board to all cricketers in England and reported the matter to the Essex management.When Essex police began to investigate few had faith that they would show much interest in what many at the time regarded as a cricket-related matter. But Westfield and his Essex teammate, the Pakistan leg-spinner, Danish Kaneria, were arrested the following May. Charges were dropped against Kaneria at the end of that season. Westfield, now aged 23, was left to face a criminal trial.His moral failure, and the successful prosecution that followed, might just be the moment when English cricket underlined its determination to fight back against the corruption brought about by illegal gambling. From Essex, there remains not a word. Sentence has yet to be passed, which may partly explain it, but as the long as the silence persists, Essex’s cricket followers will not be entirely confident that the county has a coherent policy in place to avoid a repeat in the future.

Lisa Sthalekar tackles the difficult topic of depression with maturity and candour in her autobiography, but fails to use the same rigour when discussing the rest of her career

Tariq Engineer01-Apr-2012Marcus Trescothick, Iain O’Brien and Andrew Flintoff among others have in recent years publicly acknowledged their battles with depression and brought a difficult subject to light. Now Lisa Sthalekar, currently the No. 1 women’s player in ODIs, takes the same brave step in her recently released biography: .Women’s cricket may only get a fraction of the public attention devoted to the men’s version, but the pressures of the game are no less for it. Sthalekar, an orphaned Indian girl who was adopted by a bi-racial couple (Indian father, Australian mother) when she was three weeks old, began playing competitive cricket early. She admits she was not much of a student, so it is no surprise that her self-esteem is linked to her performances on the field. As Ed Cowan wrote in a column for ESPNcricinfo last July: “A professional sportsperson his or her performances. From experience I can say it can feel like you have ceased to exist when failure is the story of your day.”In Sthalekar’s case it was a combination of poor results for Australia and questions about her leadership ability that started to wear her down. When the same problems trickled down to state level, she lost her last refuge in the game. There appears to have been little sympathy or understanding from those administering the game and caring for the players. “I knew from then on there was no point telling anyone in the administration how I really felt, it only made things worse,” Sthalekar writes in one of the more poignant lines in the book.It took her father’s urging to get her to realise she was dealing with depression and to seek help. She rejected the option of completely taking a break from cricket and played the World Cup on home soil; she decided instead “to go on some medication and try to segregate my world into work, playing cricket and home time”. The family stopped discussing the game at home and slowly the fog lifted and she was able to go back to functioning “at a fairly normal level”.Sthalekar’s stated intention in relating her story is that other players ought not to suffer the way she did. Hopefully those in positions of power are listening.Dealing with depression is but one chapter in the book, the vast majority of which covers Sthalekar’s playing career through to 2011. Sthalekar, though, appears reluctant to place her experiences in the wider context of women in sports, or even in the context of how the profile of women’s cricket has changed since she started playing international cricket. (On top of playing cricket, she still needs to hold down a full-time job to pay the bills.)The only discussion on women’s cricket comes in the final chapter. That she still raises pertinent questions, such as those on the effect of Twenty20 cricket on a player’s development, is perhaps proof that she should have run the same eye over her whole career in the book.There is little also about how cricket and her experiences playing it have shaped Sthalekar’s personality. She mentions, for instance, growing up without best friends or a stable social life because she was always travelling to play cricket, but it comes across as a mere fact, mentioned in passing.We know Sthalekar is capable of insight and reflection from the descriptions of her depression and the chapter dealing with her mother’s ultimately losing battle with breast cancer. In the latter there is an unexpected revelation towards the end of her mother’s struggle that speaks of an emotional honesty and the ability to put those emotions in context. In contrast, Sthalekar’s descriptions of games and tours are just that, descriptions, which ultimately lack depth.Her story is also weighed down by poor organisation. The chapters are arranged by subject and not chronologically, giving the book a clunky, disjointed feel. A better editor and a wider lens would have lifted from an interesting look at the life and career of a woman cricketer to a captivating must-read about women’s cricket and the life of a professional sportsperson.Shaker: Run Maker, Wicket Taker
Lisa Sthalekar
The Global Cricket School and Shaun Martin Associates, 2012

Current and former players react to the situation that has led to the omission of Kevin Pietersen for England’s third Test against South Africa

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Aug-2012″Frankly, as players, all this has been a distraction we could well do without as we approach a massively important final match at Lord’s, one we must win to retain our hard-earned status as the No 1 ranked side in world cricket … Kevin talked about having issues within the dressing room. What’s frustrating is that this was, literally, the first we knew about it. Kevin has mentioned nothing to us.”
“Over the last week, Kevin has acted like a child who does not know what he wants and, as any teacher will tell you, you only need one unruly kid in the class and the whole structure of the classroom can come crashing down.”

“The message to Pietersen is clear: he has to be a team man, fully committed and nothing less.”
“What I’m hearing is that England players are now sick and tired of hearing about Kevin Pietersen in what is one of the biggest series England play.”
“Kev speaks his mind a bit and you’d like that to be refreshing but it often falls the wrong way for him.”
“Much depends how Pietersen reacts to this. If he takes his punishment and keeps quiet, then there is a chance he will come back. If he reacts badly to this and he has a history of falling out with people then there may be a permanent falling out and breakdown in relationships.”
“Put simply – cricket lovers around the world will miss watching KP’s serious talent and skill on the international stage.. Also… If KP didn’t play second test v SA the score line would read SA 2 ENG 0.. SA ranked number 1 test team in the world, need I say more..”

A touring journalist’s life isn’t one to envy, especially during dinner time

Abhishek Purohit06-Oct-2012September 23
“Come quickly to the ground if you want to meet Saqlain “, Rabeed Imam, the ever-approachable Bangladesh media manager, tells me over the phone. It is a warm morning in Kandy. The lake is shimmering in the sun, and traffic has just started to increase around its shore. I gulp down breakfast and rush to the Asgiriya Stadium. Bangladesh are practising in their blue training colours. A calm, bearded figure is spinning the ball in his fingers and talking to the slow bowlers. He bowls a few deliveries with an action that takes you back many years. Saqlain Mushtaq, all of 35, Bangladesh bowling consultant, has a wisecrack a minute. “Twenty20, go for plenty,” he chortles.First sighting of Tamim Iqbal. Walks with the kind of confidence that screams “I am Tamim, who are you?” Speaks English with a Western sort of accent. Bats confidently against Saqlain in the nets.First competitive full game of the tournament, between New Zealand and Pakistan. Decent crowd on the Pallekele grass banks for a non-Sri Lanka match.September 24
There is a small Indian restaurant in Kandy, near the Temple of the Tooth. Frequented by Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Run into a couple of men from my hometown, Mumbai. They seem to have relatives all over Pakistan, going by their conversation with a group of fans from the country. They talk about Anarkali Bazaar, the old Lahore market. Inevitably move on to how politicians are responsible for India-Pakistan relations being what they are. “No problem between the people,” one of them says.September 25
Finally feels like a world event is in town. People stream into the Pallekele stadium. Lot of supporters for both Bangladesh and Pakistan. Helps that it is a night game. Doesn’t matter to the crowd that it turns out to be one-sided in the end. Feel for Shakib Al Hasan as he watches his side go down after top-scoring in the game and being their most economical bowler. Not the first time that has happened. Won’t be the last either, sadly.It is that rare night when Imran Nazir swings at everything and connects, for 72 off 36. It has been 13 years since he debuted for Pakistan in 1999. “Still feels like it’s my debut,” he says in the press conference, smiling shyly.It is after midnight when our car leaves the stadium for Kandy. Spot groups of young fans walking back to the city. Little transport available at this time apart from tuk-tuks that are free to charge just about anything so late. The walk back is close to 15km. They’ll do anything for cricket on the subcontinent.September 26
Just enough time to rush to the Earl’s Regency hotel, overlooking the Mahaweli River, to talk to Brendon McCullum about T20 batting. Speaks as calmly as he bats wildly. Makes a lot of sense too.Think about visiting the botanical gardens in Peradeniya, just outside Kandy, on my way back to Colombo. Driver reminds me about the heat outside the air-conditioned car. Enthusiasm drains immediately.Stop midway to Colombo to eat. Try a local sweet made with coconut, jaggery and sesame seeds. Should have bought more than one. Down the hills and caught in Colombo evening traffic. Already miss Kandy.September 27
Back to business at the Premadasa. Four press conferences lined up. Devotional Hindu playing at the India practice session. Virat Kohli sitting close to the speakers, looking completely out of place with the music. Atmosphere of solitude backed up by cloudy weather. Virender Sehwag asks a group of journalists to stay quiet as he bats.”Shane Watson is dependable, but we are not over-dependent on him,” says George Bailey, the Australia captain, trying to keep his idle middle order motivated.Dinner at one of the restaurants at the fancy Galadari Hotel. “Last order at 10.45pm,” says the waiter. As Indians, we assume that means no new customers are allowed in after that time. In the middle of our dinner we run out of and curries. It is a little over 11pm. “Sorry sir,” is the only reply we get. Waiter tries to offer a single Arabic as consolation, between five of us. “What do we eat it with?” we ask. “Sorry sir.”September 28
First Super Eights double-header evening in Colombo. After the taller Umar has Guldozed South Africa, I get a feel of how hectic the remaining two such nights are going to be. India’s national anthem begins playing even as I am about to record Ramiz Raja’s views on Pakistan v South Africa. “,” Ramiz smiles as he stands up respectfully.After South Africa let Pakistan escape from 76 for 7, AB de Villiers says if his side gets to the semi-final, there will be no choking. Now, AB, if you had only made the semi-finals…India ignore the weather forecast and pick three spinners. The rain arrives in due course, the outfield and ball get wet, and MS Dhoni says that is why India bowled rubbish. Against Watson and David Warner, you wonder if it would have made any difference if they hadn’t.The bus ferrying journalists back to their hotels winds through Colombo, which looks even cleaner than usual after the light shower.India v Pakistan: everybody is psyched•Associated PressSeptember 29
A day before their game against Pakistan, India’s practice session consists mostly of a long football game. Sehwag wisely remains goalkeeper as the others run around in the heat at the lovely Colts Cricket Club ground. Imagine a boundary composed almost entirely of large shady trees, broken by an old pavilion where you can lounge in wooden armchairs, put your feet up on the low tables and lazily watch the action. Long-off view.Run into Sudhir, the India supporter who paints himself with the tricolour and blows conches during games. He is a worried man. “,” he says of India’s loss to Australia.September 30
Even on neutral territory, you feel the excitement and pulse of an India-Pakistan game. Every tuk-tuk driver seems to know the two teams are playing. “Big game,” they say. The hotel staff too.At the ground, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans are supporting Pakistan, and hopelessly outnumbering the Indian supporters. You feel the anticipation soar as the national anthems finish and the teams take the field.Osman Samiuddin, former Pakistan editor of ESPNcricinfo, is sure Mohammad Hafeez and his side are going to freeze against the Indians. Says the roles have reversed from the ’80s and ’90s. Which is what happens. An uncharacteristically tame Hafeez sums up Pakistan’s night. Later on the bus, an Indian reporter says the Indian media are nuts for asking the Indian captain the wrong questions. Well, of course, you could say that.

Stats review of the third round of Ranji Trophy matches

S Rajesh20-Nov-2012 After 51 hundreds were scored in the first two rounds, 24 more were added in the third, taking the overall tally of hundreds in this Ranji Trophy season to 75 in 36 matches. On the other hand, there were more five-wicket hauls in this round – 15 – than there were in the first two rounds combined (13). Despite bowlers having a slightly better time in this round – the average runs per wicket was 34.23 compared to 39.29 in the first two rounds – only two of 12 matches produced decisive results. In the first two rounds, eight out of 24 had decisive outcomes, which means in the season so far, there have been 26 draws in 36 games. Among those on the fringes of national selection, Manoj Tiwary used this round better than anyone else. His 191 against Gujarat was the second-highest score of this round, and it lifted his season after ordinary performances in his first two matches, in which he had scored 98 runs in four innings. His tally for the season is 289 in five innings, at an average of 57.80. Overall, though, the highest run-scorer for this season is Himachal Pradesh’s Paras Dogra, who has 462 runs in four innings, including hundreds in each match – 121, 210 and 122, the last of those against Andhra Pradesh in the third round. Punjab’s Jiwanjot Singh is the other batsman with 400-plus runs in the season so far – 442 in four innings. Arlen Konwar, Assam’s offspinner, remains the only bowler to take ten wickets in a match this season, but three bowlers came close to achieving the feat in the third round, as Basant Mohanty of Orissa, Saurashtra’s Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar of Uttar Pradesh all took nine wickets in their matches. The leading wicket-taker in the season so far, though, is Jharkhand’s Shahbaz Nadeem: in three matches he has 24 wickets at 16.79. In fact, two Jharkhand bowlers are among the top three wicket-takers, with Sunny Gupta, the offspinner, in third place with 18 at 17.61. In second place is Konwar with 20 wickets at 19.50. Yashpal Singh of Services scored an unbeaten 250 against Tripura, which was the only double-hundred of the round. It’s also the highest score by a Services batsman; the previous record also belonged to Yashpal, who’d scored 240, also against Tripura, a decade ago. The other stand-out batting performance in this round came from Amol Mazumdar, who scored a century in each innings for Andhra against Himachal Pradesh, in the process taking over from Wasim Jaffer as the highest run-getter in Ranji Trophy history. One of the two winnners in this round was Odisha, who beat Haryana by four wickets in a low-scoring match in Rohtak. It was Odisha’s first win in a Ranji Trophy game in four years: the last time they won a match was in November 2008, when they beat Punjab in Bhubaneswar. Since then, and before this win against Haryana, they’d played 25 matches, losing 11 and drawing 14. For Haryana, meanwhile, this has been a forgettable season so far, especially for their batsmen. They’ve lost both their matches, and languish at the bottom of group B, with the batsmen largely responsible for these results: in their first match of the season, they were bowled out for 55 by Vidarbha, their lowest first-class score; against Odisha, they were bundled out for 66, which is their joint third-lowest.

A look at the squads and purses of the IPL franchises ahead of the player auction on February 3

Vishal Dikshit02-Feb-2013A total of 108 players* will go under the hammer during the February 3 auction for the 2013 IPL. Each franchise has a salary cap of $12.5 million to spend on their squad, which can have a maximum of 33 players, including 11 from overseas. Here is a team-by-team break-up of the players they currently have and the amount left with them to spend during the auction.Chennai Super KingsB Aparajith, one of the Under-19 World Cup stars, will play for Chennai Super Kings•ICC/GettyCurrent Indian players: 11, slots left: 11
Current overseas players: 6, slots left: 5
Salary cap spent: $9.4 mn, salary cap remaining: $3.1 mn

Present squad: MS Dhoni, M Vijay, S Anirudha, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha, S Badrinath, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, B Aparajith, Vijay Shankar, Michael Hussey, Ben Hilfenhaus, Faf du Plessis, Albie Morkel, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dwayne Bravo.
Signed before auction: B Aparajith, Vijay Shankar
Released in November: George Bailey, Doug Bollinger, Joginder Sharma, Suraj Randiv, Yo Mahesh, Abhinav Mukund, Scott Styris, Sudeep Tyagi, K Vasudevadas, G Vignesh.
Delhi DaredevilsCurrent Indian players: 15, slots left: 7
Current overseas players: 8, slots left: 3
Salary cap spent: $11.1 mn, salary cap remaining: $1.4 mn

Present squad: Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha, Ajit Agarkar, Yogesh Nagar, Umesh Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Varun Aaron, Unmukt Chand, Pawan Negi, Manpreet Juneja, Kedar Jadhav, Siddharth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Venugopal Rao, Mahela Jayawardene, Ross Taylor, David Warner, Roelof van der Merwe, Kevin Pietersen, Morne Morkel, Andre Russell, Gulam Bodi.
Signed before auction: Kedar Jadhav, Siddharth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Venugopal Rao (re-signed), Gulam Bodi (re-signed).
Released in November: Puneet Bisht, Robin Bist, Gulam Bodi, Doug Bracewell, Aaron Finch, Sunny Gupta, Glenn Maxwell, Prashant Naik, Kuldeep Raval, Aavishkar Salvi, Venugopal Rao, Vikas Mishra, Tejashwi Yadav, Zafir Patel.
Kings XI PunjabCurrent Indian players: 14, slots left: 8
Current overseas players: 7, slots left: 4
Salary cap spent: $5.6 mn, salary cap remaining: $6.9 mn

Present squad: Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Mandeep Singh, Siddharth Chitnis, Nitin Saini, Sunny Singh, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Paul Valthaty, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Parvinder Awana, Rajagopal Sathish, Manan Vohra, Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, David Miller, Ryan Harris, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Azhar Mahmood
Signed before auction: Manan Vohra
Released in November: Kyle Abbott, Love Ablish, Amit Yadav, Ben Cutting, Paras Dogra, James Faulkner, Vikramjeet Malik, Abhishek Nayar, Ramesh Powar, Nathan Rimmington, Stuart Broad
Madhya Pradesh spinner Jalaj Saxena has been bought by Mumbai Indians•West Indies CricketKolkata Knight RidersCurrent Indian players: 12, slots left: 10
Current overseas players: 9, slots left: 2
Salary cap spent: $10.3 mn, salary cap remaining: $2.2 mn

Present squad: Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwary, Debabrata Das, Manvinder Bisla, Yusuf Pathan, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Rajat Bhatia, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Iqbal Abdulla, Shami Ahmed, Pradeep Sangwan, Sarabjit Singh Ladda, Eoin Morgan, Brad Haddin, Brendon McCullum, Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, James Pattinson, Sunil Narine
Released before auction: Marchant de Lange
Released in November: Chirag Jani, Sanju Samson, Iresh Saxena, Jaydev Unadkat
Mumbai IndiansCurrent Indian players: 17, slots left: 5
Current overseas players: 6, slots left: 5
Salary cap spent: $10.2 mn, salary cap remaining: $2.3 mn

Present squad: Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Amitoze Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Pragyan Ojha, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Pawan Suyal, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rishi Dhawan, Jalaj Saxena, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Aiden Blizzard, James Franklin, Mitchell Johnson, Dwayne Smith
Signed before auction: Rishi Dhawan, Jalaj Saxena
Released before auction: Robin Peterson, Herschelle Gibbs, RP Singh, Apoorv Wankhade, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Shukla, T Suman (transferred to Pune Warriors)
Released in November: Davy Jacobs, Richard Levi, Clint McKay, Sujit Nayak, Thisara Perera, Jaydev Shah
Pune WarriorsCurrent Indian players: 21, slots left: 1
Current overseas players: 8, slots left: 3
Salary cap spent: $9.2 mn, salary cap remaining: $3.3 mn

Present squad: Robin Uthappa, Ashish Nehra, Murali Kartik, Rahul Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Manish Pandey, Yuvraj Singh, Raiphi Gomez, Mithun Manhas, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ali Murtaza, Harpreet Singh, Anustup Mazumdar, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Mahesh Rawat, Shrikant Wagh, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Ishwar Pandey, T Suman, Udit Birla, Angelo Mathews, Alfonso Thomas, Wayne Parnell, Marlon Samuels, Luke Wright, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Tamim Iqbal.
Signed before auction: Ishwar Pandey, T Suman, Udit Birla, Steven Smith (re-signed), Tamim Iqbal (re-signed)
Released in November: Sourav Ganguly, Michael Clarke, Callum Ferguson, Kamran Khan, Harshad Khadiwale, Nathan McCullum, Mohnish Mishra, Sachin Rana, Jesse Ryder, Graeme Smith, Steven Smith, Tamim Iqbal, James Hopes.
Pune Warriors will play their first season without Sourav Ganguly•AFPRajasthan RoyalsCurrent Indian players: 11, slots left: 11
Current overseas players: 7, slots left: 4
Salary cap spent: $4.8 mn, salary cap remaining: $7.7 mn

Present squad: Rahul Dravid, S Sreesanth, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Menaria, Stuart Binny, Siddharth Trivedi, Ankeet Chavan, Shreevats Goswami, Ajit Chandila, Harmeet Singh, Dishant Yagnik, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Kevon Cooper, Owais Shah, Samuel Badree.
Signed before auction: Samuel Badree, Harmeet Singh, Dishant Yagnik (re-signed), Owais Shah (re-signed)
Released in November: Johan Botha, Deepak Chahar, Dinesh Chandimal, Aakash Chopra, Paul Collingwood, Aditya Dole, Samad Fallah, Faiz Fazal, Sumit Narwal, Pankaj Singh, Amit Paunikar, Abhishek Raut, Owais Shah, Pinal Shah, Amit Singh, Dishant Yagnik.
Royal Challengers BangaloreCurrent Indian players: 18, slots left: 4
Current overseas players: 6, slots left: 5
Salary cap spent: $10 mn, salary cap remaining: $2.5 mn

Present squad: Vinay Kumar, Arun Karthik, Karun Nair, Sreenath Aravind, Mayank Agarwal, Vijay Zol, Abhimanyu Mithun, KP Appanna, Virat Kohli, Harshal Patel, Syed Mohammad, Cheteshwar Pujara, Zaheer Khan, Saurabh Tiwary, Abhinav Mukund, Sandeep Warrior, Sunny Sohal, P Parameswaran, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Muttiah Muralitharan, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Daniel Vettori, Andrew McDonald.
Signed before auction: Abhinav Mukund, Sandeep Warrior, Sunny Sohal, P Parameswaran (re-signed).
Released in November: Raju Bhatkal, CM Gautam, Mohammad Kaif, Abrar Kazi, Charl Langeveldt, Dirk Nannes, Ryan Ninan, Prashanth Parameswaran, Asad Pathan, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, S Thiagarajan.
Sunrisers HyderabadCurrent Indian players: 14, slots left: 8
Current overseas players: 6, slots left: 5
Salary cap spent: $5.5 mn, salary cap remaining: $7 mn

Present squad: Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Akash Bhandari, Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, Biplab Samantray, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Ishant Sharma, Parthiv Patel, Shikhar Dhawan, Veer Pratap Singh, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Dale Steyn, JP Duminy, Rusty Theron, Kumar Sangakkara.
Released in November (who were in Deccan Chargers): T Atchuta Rao, Darren Bravo, Daniel Christian, Kedar Devdhar, Manpreet Gony, Daniel Harris, Ishank Jaggi, Tanmay Mishra, Syed Quadri, Sneha Kishore, Sunny Sohal, Tanmay Srivastava, Arjun Yadav.
*18.05GMT, February 2: The number of players has been updated following the IPL’s press release on the eve of the auction

The evolution of England from the second innings in Ahmedabad

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013One-all after two is the ideal beginning to any series. Apart, perhaps, in a distinctly non-cricketing sphere, from the Rest of the World v Germany and Friends series that scarred the early 20th century. When a 2-0 scoreline was applauded by most neutrals. Particularly after the Rest of the World had gone one-nil up.Yesterday morning, India seemed to want to take no chances of leaving the rubber unappetisingly almost secure by snatching a miraculous victory, and comfortably avoided setting England an awkward target of 130 or 140 that might have prompted some jitters and some flashbacks to their 72-all-out debacle at the start of the year in Abu Dhabi. When, to make the parallels even more pertinent, an inexplicably-left-out-of-the-first-Test Monty Panesar had taken six second wickets to put his side in a winning position.Another 70 runs could have made the match a tense affair, although England would have still been strong favourites not to repeat their disastrous freeze against Ajmal and Rehman. However, after the top order had been cauterised by some excellent deliveries and one horrific mishit, Ashwin, Harbhajan and Zaheer perished with injudicious strokes when a calmer, more patient approach might have helped Gambhir set England at least a nerve-inducing target. Might have, or might not have. They probably would still been bowled out for not very much.But they maximised their chances of failure, before Gambhir entrusted Ojha with the task of smashing a quickfire 40 whilst he kept one end safe and let Ojha, the notoriously flamboyant Indian Garry Sobers, farm the strike. (I may have misread that situation, but that is how it appeared. It was hot, though, and I have pale skin and a very English body-thermostat.)India did not exactly go down fighting. Although England had been fully whooped in the first Test, at least Cook and Prior’s second-innings rearguard had given them a foothold against the Indian spinners, which the captain and Pietersen then transformed into a chokehold on the Indian spinners in Mumbai, and a full body slam as KP cut loose with awesome power and control on the third day.England were duly able to wrap up one of their finest Test victories of recent years under negative pressure, a superb performance driven by four players ‒ their two best batsmen of the last 25 years, and their two best spinners since Derek Underwood’s 1970s peak.When you see Pietersen bat as he did in Ahmedabad, you think: “How on earth does this guy have a Test average of just under 50?” Then, when you see him bat as he did in Mumbai, you think: “How on earth does this guy only have a Test average of just under 50?” This year has been an extraordinary one for England’s flawed, brilliant superstar.India have major problems. Their batting looks frail, Pujara aside, and their bowling appears confused and worryingly blunt. Dhoni seems to lack faith in his two most experienced bowlers, the mystifyingly underused Zaheer, who extracted an edge from Cook late on day two and was economical throughout, and the returning Harbhajan. Between them, they bowled fewer overs than either Ojha or the decreasingly effective Ashwin.● Panesar restarted the trend of bearded Englishmen taking ten or more wickets in Wankhede Tests. Admittedly this was a trend that lasted for only one Test, in 1980, when Ian Botham gave the cricketing world what is far and away the greatest single all-round Test match performance in the history of humanity – 13 for 106 (ten of them top-seven batsmen), and 114 runs off 144 balls, after coming in with England struggling at 57 for 4 (soon 58 for 5), in a match in which no other batsman reached 50.Monty, not entirely unexpectedly, contributed rather less with the bat – although the abject failure of India’s tail to even contemplate wagging denied him the opportunity to smash a match-winning day five century (stranger things have happened) (let me correct that, stranger things have not happened). And, to be fair to the would-be-allrounder Monty did score at a faster strike rate even than the mighty Botham in his two-ball innings of 4.● The Test matches in Mumbai and Adelaide have generated statistics like an out-of-control helicopter in a jelly factory generates mess. For example, India’s less-than-flawless second innings in Mumbai was the first time in Test history that seven batsmen have been out in single figures but for more than 5. Only once before in 7290 Test innings have more than five players been out for between 6 and 9, and the previous Indian record for “unconverted microstarts” is four. There you go. That’s one for you to use as a conversation-starter at a party.Furthermore, in Adelaide, South Africa lasted 762 balls after losing their fourth wicket, obliterating the previous record fourth-innings middle-and-lower-order rearguard length, a barely noticeable 586 balls by Pakistan as they subsided in slow motion to defeat in Galle earlier this year. That nugget of information might be more appropriate in breaking the awkward silence at a wedding after the bride has sprinted out screaming, “No, no, I can’t do it, I know a bet is a bet, but this is the worst mistake I’ve ever made.”These are just two of the deluge of stats emerging from the last few days of cricket. I will share more of them with you in the World Cricket Podcast later this week, when I attempt to set a new world record for Most Cricket Stats Delivered in 90 Seconds. Strap in. It will be like Usain Bolt in the Beijing Olympics, but more exciting.

And Clem Hill’s pioneering work in the field of narrowly avoiding personal milestones

Andy Zaltzman30-Apr-2013″April is the cruellest month,” wrote poetry whiz TS Eliot in his smash-hit 1922 blockbuster ) does not recall the idiocy, misfortune or twitchiness of the shots Hill played on those five occasions when he fell within a single controlled clonk of three-figure glory. History (by which I mean, the internet, including Youtube) does provide us with evidence of Slater’s five extremely near-misses. He scored his first Test century in his second match, at Lord’s in 1993, an innings of blazing confidence, and a decisive speed of foot and bat that may have been reminiscent of a young Bradman, for anyone old enough to reminisce about a young Bradman. He famously gave the Australian badge on his helmet an extremely amorous smooch on reaching three figures.Slater, however, would prove to be the most vulnerable of all Test batsmen in the 90s. He reached 90 on 22 further occasions, and fell in the 90s nine times, against six different opponents, on eight different grounds. (Only England were unable to exploit Slater’s vulnerability in close proximity to the century. He converted all of his seven 90-plus scores into hundreds in Ashes Tests. Against the rest, he fell short nine out of 16 times. This is entirely understandable. He was an Australian. Playing in the 1990s.)Why was he so regularly floored within touching distance of honours-board immortality? Perhaps he was vicariously infected by the nervous 90s – in that 1993 Lord’s Test, he had seen both Mark Waugh and Mike Atherton fall for 99, the latter painfully run out. Perhaps the prospect of further romantic encounters with the Australian badge distracted him. Most players kiss it these days. It clearly has some moves.On the five occasions that Slater was out for 96 or more, he: charged down the wicket and was stumped (twice, both for 96); attempted to spank a wide legbreak over extra cover, but instead spanked a wide legbreak directly into extra cover’s hands (out for 96); slavered over the juiciest of leg-stump full tosses, and, with drool-soaked bat and with the number 97 gleaming temptingly from the scoreboard, spooned the ball straight up in the air to square leg; andon 99, thin edged a leg glance. Each time, he was out playing a shot that would have brought him to his century. Slater has an esteemed position in the history of the game, and is fondly remembered as a thrilling, high-risk opener who could shape a match from the first ball. But how differently would he be viewed had he never faltered within sight of the milestone? Slater’s 14 centuries put him in joint 16th in the all-time chart of Australia’s leading Test hundred-hoarders. If he had converted those nine 90s, he would be joint seventh, alongside Michael Clarke and Justin Langer on 23. In fact, he would probably not have been alongside Justin Langer, who in all likelihood would not have played quite as many Tests, or scored quite as many hundreds, had Slater converted all of his 90s. And Slater would probably have played more, and scored more tons. The IPL understandably hoovers up the cricket world’s attention like a lonely vacuum cleaner comfort guzzling a dust milkshake, so here are some stats from the Zimbabwe v Bangladesh series, which is operating at the other end of the Glitz Scale.Bangladesh’s troubled Test history has generated its fair share of records, but few of them have been positive ones. In the Harare Test against Zimbabwe, however, the Tigers have achieved a small piece of immortality – they have become the first team whose numbers 5, 6 and 7 have all scored 50 or more in both innings of a Test. Shakib Al Hasan (81 & 59), Mushfiqur Rahim (60 & 93) and Nasir Hossain (77 and 67 not out) were the players responsible. In the first Test, they had amassed just 45 runs between them – the worst performance by Bangladesh’s 5-6-7 since 2005, amidst one of their worst team displays even in their impressive catalogue of failures.The second Test thus represented an impressive fightback in the shootout between Test cricket’s two most defeatable teams. Robiul Islam become the fourth Bangladeshi bowler, and first pacer, to take five wickets in an innings twice in a series.In the first Test, Brendan Taylor became the second player in the last two months to score 171 in a Test, after Hamish Rutherford’s dazzling Dunedin debut for New Zealand. Before then, in 2076 Tests, only one player had scored exactly 171 – Ian Redpath, in the Perth Test in the 1970-71 Ashes.Taylor followed up with an unbeaten 102 in the second innings. The next highest score – and only other half-century – in the match was Malcolm Waller’s 55. Taylor thus became the seventh player to score two centuries in a Test in which no other player has reached three figures. On each of previous six occasions, at least four other half-centuries were scored in the match. Few batsmen have ever been so individually dominant in any Test match.Out of interest (which, by this stage of the article, I assume you are), here are the previous six players to score the only two centuries in a Test match:Rohan Kanhai (West Indies, v Australia, Adelaide, 1960-61) – ten other half-centuries in the matchGlenn Turner (New Zealand, v Australia, Christchurch, 1973-74) – four other half-centuriesAlec Stewart (England, v West Indies, Barbados, 1993-94) – six other half-centuriesSteve Waugh (Australia, v England, Old Trafford, 1997) – four other half-centuriesGrant Flower (Zimbabwe, v New Zealand, Harare, 1997-98) – five other half-centuriesTillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka, v Bangladesh, Chittagong, 2008-09) – six other half-centuries

Bangladesh A’s tour to England has the potential to answer several questions for the senior side ahead of the 2013-14 season. But the BCB need to ensure that fringe players are not deprived of opportunities in the A team

Mohammad Isam02-Aug-2013Bangladesh A will head to England later this weekend for a three-week tour which has the potential to answer several questions for the senior side ahead of the 2013-14 season. The squad is packed with international cricketers, as has been the practice with Bangladesh A teams, since their formation in 1995.This norm of picking mostly international cricketers in the A team has made it easier for the national selectors to make the second-string side another version of the Bangladesh team. The method differs from the concept of an ‘A’ team in other countries, where selectors pick upcoming youngsters in order to ready them for the national side.On previous tours of England, in 2005 and 2008, the Bangladesh A team had more internationals than uncapped players; the 2008 squad included the likes of Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal. In the A team that played the Shafi Darashah Trophy in India last year, eight of the 13 members were internationals.The situation in Bangladesh is different because the senior side hardly gets enough opportunities to play abroad in different conditions. Only the players assured of a place in the senior team are not picked in the side. For the others, A tours are a chance to regain experience. Jahurul Islam, who is leading the A team, Anamul Haque and Mominul Haque have played for Bangladesh in the last season, so the tour would serve to consolidate their positions if they put runs on the board.In essence, the eight one-day matches – five against county sides and three against England Lions – will be important to the selectors, who are keen on keeping batsmen in touch against top-quality bowlers in a variety of conditions.The likes of Naeem Islam, Shamsur Rahman, Marshall Ayub, Imrul Kayes and Raqibul Hasan have been on the fringes at different times, and will be eyeing some of the available slots in the national side. Among them, Naeem has to reclaim a position which he first strengthened, with a Test hundred against West Indies last year, but lost unceremoniously in February when he played in the BPL’s final stages with a groin injury. The decision to continue playing in spite of the injury cost him a place in the Bangladesh side for the rest of the season.It will be more traditional approach for the other batsmen in the side, i.e., the ones who wait for such tours to stake a claim. There are several like them who have missed out on this tour of England because the national selectors are keener on keeping an eye on the season ahead, rather than focusing on long-term development.Imrul and Raqibul, who have been out of the side for nearly two years, are among the batsmen looking to earn a recall to the national side. Marshall will aim to score runs like he did in the last domestic season – where he finished with more than 1,000 first-class runs – to have another shot at cementing his place in the side.”I didn’t play in Sri Lanka and missed out on the Zimbabwe tour, but I see this tour and the subsequent Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League as big opportunities,” Marshall said. “The conditions will be a challenge but I really want to grab this chance. I don’t have a big ambition but I want to stay in the runs just like last season.”Among the bowlers, too, there is only one uncapped player – pacer Al-Amin Hossain. Robiul Islam and Rubel Hossain, both Test bowlers, will lead a bowling attack that includes pace-bowling allrounders Ziaur Rahman and Farhad Reza and spinners Sohag Gazi and Elias Sunny.Robiul, who was player-of-the-series in the Tests against Zimbabwe earlier this year, is keen to not pass up on the opportunity of playing in England, even if it means playing for a team that is a rung lower than the national side.”I will hopefully get to play eight matches, which is a rarity in August. Plus the conditions are suitable to a bowler like me, so who would want to miss it?” Robiul said.For Rubel, the tour is a chance to test the fitness of his shoulder, while Ziaur will have the chance to bring more discipline into his all-round ability. Gazi will have the chance to improve his offspin by playing in different conditions.If the three-week tour serves the selectors’ purpose of finding in-form players to plug the gaps in time for the home series against New Zealand in October, not many will complain. But the A team must also be used to groom and sustain the flow of fringe players who will push those in the senior side. It is the highest stage for those on the outside to stake a claim but, if the A team is used to create playing opportunities for international players instead, it will only serve to decelerate the senior side’s long-term progress.

Sachin Tendulkar’s career in numbers

Shiva Jayaraman10-Oct-2013 24 years – Span of Sachin Tendulkar’s illustrious Test career. He will retire with the fifth longest career ever. If the second Test against West Indies goes into the fifth day, he would have played Test cricket for a span of 24 years and 3 days. 34,273 – Runs scored by Tendulkar in internationals, the most anyone has scored. This includes 15,837 runs in Tests, the most any batsman has scored, and 18,426 runs in ODIs, another record. 50,024 – Runs in first-class, List A and Twenty20 matches, put together. Tendulkar is the 16th batsman to aggregate 50,000 or more career runs. 13,408 – Runs Tendulkar scored in Tests batting at No. 4. He has scored 4502 runs more than the next batsman on that list, Jacques Kallis. He has also scored 44 of his 51 Test centuries at that position, which is ten more than what Kallis has at No. 4. 100 – Centuries in international cricket by Sachin Tendulkar, 29 more than the next batsman on the list. Tendulkar has hit 263 fifty-plus scores, again, the most by any batsman. 2541 – Runs scored by Tendulkar in 1998. The first of only six batsmen to score 2500 runs or more in a year. Tendulkar is one of only two batsmen to score 2000 or more international runs in a year five times. Kumar Sangakkara is the other. 20 – Hundreds Tendulkar scored against Australia, the most any batsman has scored against a team. He has hit ten or more centuries against three teams – Australia, Sri Lanka and South Africa – one of the only two batsmen to achieve this feat, along with Ricky Ponting. Tendulkar has hit 11 centuries against Australia in Tests, the fourth highest for a batsman against a team. 12 – Centuries by Tendulkar in 1998, the most any batsman has scored in a single year. His seven Test centuries in 2010 is the joint-second highest for a batsman in Tests. 28 – Scores in the nineties by Tendulkar, double the number for the next batsman on the list. 4 – Hundreds in consecutive Tests by Tendulkar, one of 14 batsmen to do it. 6 – Number of times Tendulkar hit 1000 runs or more in a calendar year in Tests, the most by any batsman. (Click here for a list of batsmen to hit 1000 runs or more in a year.) He also holds the record for scoring the most ODI runs in a year – he scored 1894 ODI runs in 1998. Tendulkar scored 1000 or more runs in ODIs in a year seven times, a record. 76 – Number of Man-of-the-Match awards won by Tendulkar in his career, the most by any player. He won 14 awards in Tests and 62 in ODIs. His 62 awards is a record in ODIs. 2044+ – Fours hit in Tests by Tendulkar, the most any batsman. 17 years, 107days – The age at which Tendulkar scored his first Test century, against England at Old Trafford. At that time he was the second youngest to hit a century after Pakistan’s Mushtaq Mohammad. Now, he’s the third on the list after Mohammad Ashraful of Bangladesh and Mohammad. 10 – Fifties in consecutive Tests by Tendulkar, one of only five batsman to hit fifties in ten or more consecutive Tests. 12,400 – Partnership runs added by Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly in international cricket, the most by any pair. Tendulkar has added 6920 Test runs with Rahul Dravid, which is the most by any pair in Tests. 38 – Century partnerships Tendulkar has put on with Ganguly in all international cricket, the most by any pair. The next pair on that list is Tendulkar and Dravid, with 31 centuries. Tendulkar and Dravid have added 20 century partnerships in Tests, which is the most by any pair. 7 – Number of Test teams against whom Tendulkar has scored 1000 or more runs. He is one of only two batsmen, the other being Dravid, to achieve this feat.