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With New Zealand touring South Africa, Kruger van Wyk, who made the journey in reverse and called New Zealand his home for nearly a decade, talks about his cricket experiences in the land he briefly adopted

Luke Alfred11-Aug-2016According to Kruger van Wyk there are many things to like about his former coach John Wright, but top of the list is his humour.”I remember him waiting a while before telling me that the South Africans were going to give me shit during my debut Test [for New Zealand],” says van Wyk. “Thinking back on it, that was probably his way of telling me I was in the team, because he was always very dry. John was very much a man’s man: he had that old-school toughness and was really comfortable in those sorts of environments. The best thing about him was his sense of humour, because he’d listen to things for a long time and then come in with perfect timing. In that respect he was always very good to me.”Van Wyk spent the three days prior to his Test debut, in Dunedin against the South Africans in March 2012, flat on his back with a bad case of gastroenteritis. “I lost 5kgs and really wasn’t in the best of shape,” he says. By the time it came to the Test itself he was, however, back in the saddle – slightly lighter but ready to pounce should the South Africans forget he was there and lapse into some ill-advised (swearing) or off-the-cuff analysis in Afrikaans.Far from the South Africans “giving him shit”, the Test passed off reasonably amicably. Van Wyk had grown up with players like Jacques Rudolph and AB de Villiers and the verbals were restricted to a good-natured trickle. “Chris Martin nipped [Jacques] Kallis and [AB] de Villiers out on the first day and we led on the first innings by 40-odd,” van Wyk remembers. “They batted well in the second innings [with hundreds to Kallis, Smith and Rudolph], and then at close on the fourth day we were about 140 for 2, with Brendon [McCullum] and Ross [Taylor] at the crease; we needed 300 runs to win with eight wickets standing on a flat track on the final day. Kane [Williamson] was due to come in at five. I think we could have been in for a very exciting final day of cricket, except that it rained on the fourth night and that was it.”

“The Kiwis’ ingenuity is something they’re really proud of. If they need to pick three spinners in a World T20 to beat India in India, they’re going to do that”

By his own admission, van Wyk wasn’t ready for international cricket when he arrived in New Zealand. He was there because Dave Nosworthy, his former coach at Titans (in South Africa), had been recruited by Canterbury and the South Island outfit needed a wicketkeeper. Mark Boucher wasn’t going to relinquish the gloves for South Africa anytime soon and the opportunity seemed like a godsend. This was a chance to reinvent himself, have an adventure and subsume himself in the New Zealand cricketing way.”I think we play a boring brand here in South Africa – we’re one-dimensional,” he says. “The Kiwis’ ingenuity is something they’re really proud of. If they need to pick three spinners in a World T20 to beat India in India, they’re going to do that. They’re really proud of their ingenuity. [Brendon] McCullum and [Mike] Hesson were always prepared to be brave, and that’s absolutely great.”While the stereotype of the canny Kiwi can be overplayed, there’s no doubt that their mentalité, as the French would call it, is to put everything they have to the best possible use – in terms of being prepared to lose as they gamble for a win. Van Wyk says he loved this approach, the idea that they were exhausting every available opportunity to improve themselves, and found himself growing exponentially as a cricketer.He played nine Tests, being knocked off his perch by BJ Watling, but there is no sign of regret. Indeed, you rather feel that his sojourn turned out far better than he ever had reason to expect. Here, after all, was the boy from Wolmaransstad, a veritable Wagga Wagga of the veld. He was too small for rugby and didn’t like disappearing into the wastes of the outfield, so became a wicketkeeper. His entire career was a story of scaling heights he didn’t naturally reach.”You have to allow players to grow outside of a structure or a game plan, to keep challenging them in different ways”•AFPVan Wyk and his young family (one boy, one girl) returned to South Africa in December 2015, after nine years in New Zealand, and he became director of cricket at the Assupol Tuks Cricket Academy at the University of Pretoria. He’s hoping to back up words with deeds by inculcating a far more adventurous brand of cricket, saying that he’s frequently gobsmacked at the conveyor belt of talent that the African sunshine and good facilities seem to almost carelessly produce. “You have to allow players to grow outside of a structure or a game plan, to keep challenging them in different ways. I’d say it’s a state-of-mind thing rather than a technique or set of techniques.”Van Wyk has an opportunity to see what Tuks can do when they defend their Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals title in Sri Lanka early next month. In preparation for the event, van Wyk has been hard at work simulating the kinds of conditions he expects to find in Sri Lanka, roughing up wickets, underpreparing them and leaving them bereft of grass. “Twenty-over cricket provides players with the opportunity to be reckless – and you’ve got to allow them that freedom and license.”Prior to the New Zealanders hopping up to Zimbabwe, they spent a week at Tuks’ Pretoria facility where van Wyk’s boys were able to rub shoulders with the tourists. It was great, he says, for his left-arm quicks to swap notes with Trent Boult or his fast bowlers to bask in the presence of, say, Tim Southee.Unlike the South Africans, who haven’t played much recent Test cricket, the visitors look well-grooved. Kingsmead, the venue for the first Test, has been known to be unkind to home sides in recent years, and the New Zealanders will probably be closer to where they want to be than the hosts. It’s increasingly tempting, in fact, to see the two teams as different sides of the same ball: South African cricket is in the midst of blithely frittering away its riches (some of those riches heading for New Zealand), its Test outfit less successful than it should be. By contrast, New Zealand make best use of what they have, proud to innovate and bold enough to try. It’s the very shift Van Wyk is trying to initiate with his young charges.

Cricket gave Patel two second chances – one at Jadeja’s expense – before snatching it all away through Ashwin’s abilities

Sidharth Monga in Kolkata02-Oct-2016Before this Test match, one of the last snapshots of Jeetan Patel in international cricket was that of him on the way to square leg when facing Dale Steyn with the score on 62 for 8 in Port Elizabeth in January 2013. With BJ Watling fighting at the other end on 25. Patel was bowled.If you are a New Zealand cricketer, you are known for making the most out of the limited resources available, through acumen, through spirit and through courage. The last thing you want to be known for in New Zealand is a soft dismissal. The tag just sticks. It is no surprise then that when three-and-a-half years later Patel was remembered again, he had almost given up on wearing that black cap again. Even New Zealand hadn’t thought of him until Mark Craig got injured.In this second life, which might not extend to any cricket outside India, Patel first showed improvement as a spin bowler. A wiser and fitter man now, leading wicket-taker in this year’s county championship, he bowled at an optimum pace for a spinner in Indian conditions without overly sacrificing his length. Ajinkya Rahane said he was the toughest bowler to face on the first day of the Test in which fast bowlers have done most of the wicket-taking. It was with the bat, though, that he had come a full circle. Once again walking out to join that fighter Watling, once again during a collapse, out to face a hat-trick ball in fading light.How was Patel going to react to this déjà vu cricket had given him? He went after the hat-trick ball, but didn’t move away from the stumps. Still he came pretty close playing what could be seen as a soft shot in a time of strife. When he drove at the next ball – this one was slightly fuller and hence he connected properly – it seemed like there might have been a plan to look for runs because the pitch was doing too much and might have undone the defence of a No. 9 anyway.Patel had to survive only one more over before the light faded enough for the umpires to take players off the field. This morning, the same intent was clear as he punched the first ball down the ground, between bowler and mid-off for four. Watling kept his vigil going at the other end, and Patel looked to keep scoring. If a drive went gracefully through cover, an edge would fly wide of slips. Once in his 20s, Patel began to rely less on luck and more on finesse.Ravindra Jadeja’s first ball of the day was driven through cover for four. A sweep for four soon followed. Then came three boundaries in the same Jadeja over. A short ball cut away, two full ones flicked wide of mid-on. He was going with the spin, against the spin, and everything was connecting. With Watling solid at the other end, with runs flowing from Patel’s end, with Virat Kohli getting increasingly impatient, New Zealand fans would have just started wondering if this side was going to pull off another scarcely believable escape.Cricket was about to play a cruel joke now. Playing back to a ball from Jadeja with flatter trajectory but still on a full length, Patel was caught so plumb he almost started to walk. It turned out Jadeja’s front foot had failed to stay behind the line, though. This was a man who had bowled three no-balls in 4446 deliveries in Test cricket before this series. It just so happened that Patel caught Jadeja on a streak during which he had just bowled a fourth no-ball in 480 deliveries this series. Cricket was smiling. It was giving Patel yet another chance. Cricket was obviously only going to snatch it away again.R Ashwin was Kohli’s fourth choice on the day. Perhaps, while others were doing the damage, Kohli wanted to rest the finger of his main weapon; Ashwin has been bowling with some discomfort thanks to a corn on the middle finger of his right hand. Thirteen overs into the day’s play, Kohli finally went to Ashwin. Jadeja had already bowled four overs for 25 runs. He had been attacked right away. There was no reason to not look to attack Ashwin if Patel got one in his zone. This is how he had got so far, and he now had his eye in.The first ball was full enough, outside off, the seam rotating towards fine leg, an offbreak. Patel looked to play it with the turn, but the ball pitched and almost changed direction. The ball straightening is enough to defeat you once you have committed to a shot, but this one did more than that and lobbed up for an easy catch. A commentator on air wondered if Patel had played a bad shot in his anxiety to get to his fifty – he was three short. It might have looked like that on first viewing, but Patel had been unlucky here. He was playing the way he had played until then, but Ashwin’s natural variation did him in.

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It is quite possible Ashwin didn’t know this ball was not going to turn, but he had given it the best opportunity to not turn. Therein lies the skill of Ashwin and Jadeja. Natural variation is a part of the game. You are bowling on soil, over five days, with a leather ball stitched with a hard seam. It won’t always behave as expected. India have derived more natural variation simply because they have put themselves in a position to do so. And that has not just come through accuracy. If you look at visiting spinners, the seam position on their offbreaks is at 45 degrees, or one to seven on a clock. Asian finger spinners have the skill to bowl an offbreak with the seam parallel to the ground, or three to nine on the clock. This gives them the possibility of landing the ball on the leather and bringing in the possibility of that variation. If it lands on the seam it turns.It is not a matter of just flipping the seam in the hand and bowling the way Ashwin and Jadeja do. It takes hours of practice and strong wrists. Watch Ashwin’s instructional video on . His offspinning action is like turning a doorknob. Try sending a leather ball across 22 yards with that action. It is bloody difficult. Both Ashwin and Jadeja can keep doing this seemingly tirelessly. With Ashwin it becomes even more difficult because he doesn’t bowl all his balls this way. Sometimes the seam comes out at 45 degrees, sometimes parallel. He bowls the seam-up arm ball. He bowls carrom balls. He bowls them all accurately. Don’t undermine the role of drift in Patel’s dismissal either. Ever since he has sorted his action out, Ashwin gets beautiful drift and dip on his offbreaks.Cricket is a game of luck where you can’t leave things to luck. All you do is try your best to eliminate it as a batsman, and try to put yourself in the best position to catch some luck. The more you try to understand it, the more it can drive you to insanity. Sometimes you just sit back and watch the drama.

Stats highlights of David Warner’s knock in the third ODI against New Zealand

Bharath Seervi09-Dec-20167 Number of ODI centuries for David Warner in 2016 – the joint second-highest in a calendar year. Only Sachin Tendulkar, who hit nine in 1998, has more. Sourav Ganguly also scored seven centuries in 2000. However, both Tendulkar and Ganguly played more than 30 innings, compared to Warner who has only played 23 innings. This is Australia’s last ODI of the year.59.09 Percentage of Australia’s runs scored by Warner in this innings – 156 out of 264 – the second highest for Australia. The highest is 60.73%, by Damien Martyn (116* out of 191) against New Zealand in Auckland in 2000. Warner’s 58.44% in October in Cape Town, where he made 173 out of 296, is third on the list. Australia’s total of 264 is the second lowest to include a 150-plus score, behind India’s 261 against New Zealand in 1999, when Ganguly made an unbeaten 153.595 Runs scored by Warner in his last six ODI innings – the second most in six consecutive innings. Kohli had made 617 in six innings in 2012. Kohli’s scores were: 21, 133*, 108, 66, 183 and 106. Warner’s scores are: 117, 6, 173, 24, 119 and 156.7 Instances of an Australian batsman outscoring the opposition team in an ODI (in matches excluding the Associate teams). The last such instance before today was in August 2008, when both Michael Hussey (85) and Shaun Marsh (76) scored more than Bangladesh’s total score (74 all out) in an ODI in Darwin. In today’s game Warner scored nine more runs than New Zealand’s total; the highest such difference for Australia is 38, when Matthew Hayden scored 146 and Pakisan replied with 108, in Nairobi in 2002.

1 Higher aggregates in a year with an average of more than 50 and a strike rate of more than 100 than Warner’s 1388 in 2016. He scored these runs at an average of 63.09 and a strike rate of 105.47. Tendulkar had scored 1894 runs in 1998 at an average of 65.31 and a strike rate of 102.15. De Villiers had scored 1193 runs at 79.53 and 137.91 last year. Warner’s aggregate is the fourth highest by an Australian batsman in a year.4 Centuries for Warner in his last six innings. Zaheer Abbas, de Villiers, Kohli, Hashim Amla, Kumar Sangakkara and Quinton de Kock (twice) are the other batsmen to score four centuries in six or fewer consecutive innings. Before this year, Warner had made only four centuries in 63 innings.1 Warner became the first Australia batsman to score centuries in consecutive ODI innings on more than one occasion. Warner ‘s first two centuries came in consecutive innings, in the first two finals of the 2012 CB series against Sri Lanka. Dean Jones, Geoff Marsh, Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Shane Watson did it once each for Australia.4 Number of scores of 150 or more for Warner in ODIs – the joint second most. Only Tendulkar (five) has more such scores than Warner while Sanath Jayasuriya, Chris Gayle and Rohit Sharma also made four 150-plus scores. No other Australia batsman has more than two 150s.2013 Last time New Zealand were whitewashed in a bilateral ODI series of three or more matches before this series. They lost to Bangladesh 3-0 then. The only other whitewash against Australia in a series of three or more matches was in 2004-05 in a five-match series at home. New Zealand averaged only 22.16 runs per wicket in this series compared to the hosts’ average of 46.299 Runs scored by Warner in this series – the most by an Australia batsman in a bilateral series of three or fewer matches and sixth for any team. He went past Watson’s 294 against Bangladesh in 2011. Warner’s 156-ball innings is the fourth-highest at MCG in ODIs and joint third-highest for Australia against New Zealand.128 Balls faced by Warner for his 156 runs, the third lowest for an opener batting through a 50-over innings. Warner was run out off the final ball of the innings. The lowest is 126 balls, by Amla against Pakistan in 2010. Marvan Atapattu faced 127 against South Africa in the 2003 World Cup.

We have seen some big innings and vital bowling spells in the latest season of the Big Bash League. Which of these do you think made the biggest difference?

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Feb-2017
Do you think we have missed out on an impactful performance in our list? Tell us at [email protected].

An increased allocation of resources in a short format allows teams to invest heavily in impact, albeit inconsistent, players that can break T20s open

Sidharth Monga20-Apr-2017Between the CPL last year and his 38-ball 77 against Gujarat Lions in Rajkot, Chris Gayle had an extended run of ordinary T20 form. Over three different franchise tournaments, in 17 innings, he scored just 329 runs at an average of 19.35 and a strike rate of 116.25. He went through a similar phase in the last World T20 in India, leading into the previous IPL. He scored 32 runs in eight matches in that period, never once reaching double figures, and still played in 13 out of 16 matches for Royal Challengers Bangalore.Murmurs outside the franchise gained momentum with every Gayle failure. People wondered if Gayle was done, but there was no chance Royal Challengers weren’t retaining him despite the year he had had. It was unlikely they were going to bench him for too long this IPL either. It says something about the impact Gayle can have when he comes off – 70s in three innings in under 40 balls – but it says much more about the T20 format. With six to seven batsmen available over 20 overs, teams can simply afford a misfiring batsman who can have the kind of impact Gayle has when he comes off.It is not limited to batsmen. Bipul Sharma is a tall left-arm spinner. He was born in 1983 in Amritsar, played some cricket for Punjab, then moved to Himachal Pradesh, and is an IPL champions medal holder. Since April 18 last year, he has played 10 matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad, including the last year’s final, but chances are, you would not have noticed him because he has bowled just 21 overs and batted only 39 balls.However, Bipul got the wicket of AB de Villiers in last year’s final, and was taken off immediately. He has got Brendon McCullum out twice. His batting, at No. 8, is a bonus. Out of his 10 matches, two have been against Royal Challengers, three against Gujarat Lions, and two against Kolkata Knight Riders. He has been the ultimate tactical pick. Sunrisers select him for specific match-ups against certain batsmen. They are also satisfied if those batsman get out early and Bipul ends up doing nothing. Only thrice has he bowled more than two overs in an innings despite an acceptable economy rate of 8.04 over this period.Sunrisers can afford Bipul for the same reason Royal Challengers can afford a misfiring Gayle. While you still need 11 fielders in the format, the duration of a 20-over match allows teams the luxury of carrying a player or two. It is usually batsmen, but the presence of Moises Henriques – a proper allrounder – in the Sunrisers XI opens up a bowling slot too.The IPL is filled with Gayle-like sporadic match-winners. Knight Riders invest in Yusuf Pathan and Suryakumar Yadav even though they hardly bowl and get only a few chances to bat. Even when their first-choice opener Chris Lynn is injured, they don’t all move up one spot; Knight Riders want them to be the fail-safe that provides the top order the freedom. They can afford to do so because they rarely need all their batsmen to contribute.Kieron Pollard had been struggling for form, but Mumbai’s persistence paid off when he struck a 47-ball 77 against Royal Challengers Bangalore•BCCIAt arguably the most successful IPL franchise, under the watch of arguably the most successful IPL captain, S Anirudha managed to get in 25 matches to face 153 balls and not bowl a single delivery. Chennai Super Kings won 18 of those 25 matches and lost six, a much better win-loss ratio than their overall 1.593. Unlike Bipul, Anirudha wasn’t even a tactical pick. Knowing MS Dhoni, he was probably just pushing the limits of the format. And The format allowed them to.Johnson Charles is an unadulterated slogger in T20s, who has had about nine special innings in his 98 T20s. One of those was in the semi-final of the World T20 last year, in a tournament that he didn’t do much outside that innings, apart from superb ground fielding. Yet such is the nature of the format that his selection was considered a success. Consistency is not as important in this format as impact. A team of six batsmen who come off once every six innings but score at a strike rate of 175-plus is likelier to do better than a team of six consistent batsmen, who score well every second innings but at a strike rate of close to 135. Gayle has already had more impact on this tournament than, say, Shikhar Dhawan, who has had a start in five of his six innings but has a strike rate of 120.58.Especially in a long league like the IPL, expect franchises – they can be ruthless when making selections – to give players like Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Yusuf more leeway than they would get in any other format. They are not paid big bucks for consistency but for impact. For example, a higher rate of Gayle’s half-centuries results in wins than, even, Virat Kohli’s: 68% to 62%. Three out of four Pollard fifties end up in wins. The big hitters might not succeed as often, but that doesn’t bother franchises because they don’t need to succeed as often. Their failures can be accommodated because there are only 20 overs to bat and only so many batsmen can fail in a given match.Even conservatively speaking, four batsmen, four bowlers and two allrounders are plenty for a 20-over match. If an innings comprised 40 three-ball overs or 30 four-ball overs, there would be merit in playing more bowlers, but not in this format. Currently, there is at least one surplus player in every team. For some teams that player is a batting fail-safe, for some he is a big hitter, and for others he is the floating bowler. It has resulted in longer ropes for T20 superstars such as Gayle, and careers for tactical picks such as Bipul.

Kane Williamson talks about his approach to captaincy, his equation with Mike Hesson, and the non-stop nature of the cricket calendar

Interview by Arun Venugopal09-Apr-20174:57

“Captaincy is about different experiences”

How do you feel things have panned out for Kane Williamson the captain over the last one year?
It’s been a good year – some good results, a lot of learning curves as well. But I do look at it as a year of growth. Obviously losing the likes of Brendon [McCullum] – he did a fantastic job – along with a number of other senior players, the team is going to take a slightly different shape. So, it’s been great to be a part of that [and] see the team grow over a period of time. Hopefully we can continue that moving forward.Tell us about the Auckland ODI against Australia when Marcus Stoinis was going all guns blazing, threatening to close the game out. And then you station yourself at silly mid-on and finish things with a run-out. What was the thinking behind that move?
Yeah, that was a great game of cricket. Stoinis played fantastically well. On a small ground at Eden Park, that can happen. You get in and you can start hitting the ball out of the park quite easily, and he did that superbly. Yeah, probably a little bit lucky in the end. We had a couple of opportunities for run-outs. [Josh] Hazlewood was at the other end, and I think he faced just one ball for a good half an hour or so. So it was a very effective partnership that took the game right down to the wire, but it was nice to get across the line.Is that piece of tactical work evidence that you have evolved as a leader?
Ah, it’s spot on, mate!No, look, I was a bit lucky. I was fortunate that I was there for a throw from someone else to take the bails off. A direct-hit run-out isn’t always the easiest thing, but nice when you are about 30 centimetres away from the stumps. I was a bit lucky.”I think when you have that team-oriented focus, the results can take care of themselves without individuals thinking about their little stats and things”•AFPWhat has been the toughest part of captaincy so far? Has it brought out a side of yours that you weren’t familiar with?
Umm, yeah, I mean there are a lot of different experiences. The nature of the role is that you are going to be having a number of different experiences and there are a lot of things that are new, so whether it’s a positive experience or a negative experience is almost irrelevant. It’s just the fact that it is different and adopting that, embracing that and maintaining your focus on what the job is, which is about your team that you are looking after. Trying to see the team track in the right direction is always the focus.What were the lessons learnt from the series defeats in India and South Africa?
They were some really tough tours. I think previously we had a couple of really good years and had a lot of cricket at home, and I suppose we had a really good rhythm about our cricket. Losing a number of players, like I mentioned, there is always that transition and coming up against some of the toughest sides in world cricket in their backyard is a really difficult challenge.But I think any experience you have, particularly a tough experience, is great and there are things to learn from them to move your game forward. I think when individuals are doing that then that’s certainly contributing to moving the team forward. I think that’s why I mentioned it was a growth year. There were some ups, there were some downs, but to see the team get to a point where we are playing South Africa at home – a very strong side – and I think we saw a number of improvements that, I guess, were based on experiences that we had throughout the year.

“I think any experience you have, particularly a tough experience, is great and there are things to learn from to move your game forward”

As one of the world’s best batsmen, and as someone constantly looking to get better, do you think that is one of the ways you can set the bar for everyone else as a leader?
You are always looking to improve, always looking to contribute to the team performance. And that truly is the focus. I would like to think that I am one of the XI at any given time that is all sharing that same focus. Yeah, you talk about stats and things, that’s cool, but it’s not really what it’s about. It’s about trying to move your team forward, trying to help your team get across the line. I think when you have that focus, you build a good team culture, and often those results can take care of themselves without individuals thinking about their little stats and things.Does it sometimes frustrate you that the team probably isn’t moving at the same pace as you are?
No, I think there are always guys who have had less experience. There are a number of guys who have had a lot of experience, who are world-class players. You look at Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner in the Test team – they have been really, really good for a long period of time. [There is] Ross Taylor, who has been world-class for a number of years. When you mix it in with a number of younger players who have had their first experience of international cricket, there is a pretty good blend to move forward with a relatively young unit. So it’s the nature of the beast. Guys come in at different times, learn at different speeds, but ultimately it’s about tracking in the right direction and pushing each other to get better.Tell us about the equation you share with coach Mike Hesson and how that has helped put a core philosophy in place that everyone buys into.
It’s been a good journey over the last year. I mentioned that the team is slightly different, which means you have to accommodate that [difference]. He has been really open for us. We are working really well together to try and create that [openness] and see the team moving in the right direction. I mentioned our success last year with the Sunrisers Hyderabad and how we would perhaps have to be a little bit different this year to keep ahead of the game, for want of a better term. And that’s sort of similar with the New Zealand cricket team that takes a different shape. Or any side in any sport takes a different shape – you do have to go into it with an open mind to be able to create a bit of change to help the side move forward.Williamson runs out Hazlewood to clinch the Auckland ODI in January: “Nice when you are about 30 centimetres away from the stumps. I was a bit lucky”•Getty ImagesGiven the amount of cricket you have had with very little down time, do you find enough bandwidth for you and Hesson to chart out a long-term roadmap for New Zealand cricket?
Yeah, it is a constant challenge in the international calendar where there is so much cricket. Then you throw in the IPL and some other T20 competitions and you don’t have too many days off. But we are fortunate to do it and I guess it is learning on the job and trying to stay elastic with your thinking. We are always looking to think ahead and that’s the best way to do it. We have got a little bit of time off international cricket now – we have the IPL – where a lot of those conversations will be had.How do you recharge your batteries?
Come to India, play in the IPL ().Look, it’s always nice spending time at home. I live near the beach, so I spend a bit of time there, bit of surfing and doing different things. It’s great travelling, changing formats. That can help keep you fresh, changing teams as well and being involved in different cultures. It’s always nice coming to India with the fantastic culture that is here.

“It’s great travelling, changing formats. That can help keep you fresh – changing teams as well and being involved in different cultures”

Over the years there have been different styles of leadership in New Zealand cricket. You have Richard Hadlee, Martin Crowe, Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum, who have inspired in different ways. How do you want to lead?
Difficult question. I think your style is based around the team that you have, and trying to move it in what you think might be the best direction. I guess all those players that you mentioned have retired, and you reflect and maybe give them a style. Who knows, maybe in time you will be saying the same thing and say that I had perhaps this style or that style. But it isn’t a focus to just adopt a style. I think the team comes first, how the team operates best, and then the style or terminology you might use comes afterwards.Has the team moved on from the Brendon McCullum era? Is the transition from his “going all out” style to your calm and sedate approach complete?
I hope they have moved on because it’s been a year since he has been playing! And it has been a really good year of growth and team tracking nicely. That’s the main thing, that’s what we are wanting to achieve. As a unit, we put a lot of focus into the culture and hopefully reap the rewards.

The presence of established IPL franchises and other international businesses in South Africa’s new T20 league shows what the future of the format could look like

Firdose Moonda25-Jun-2017Knight Riders are not a team; they are a brand. The competitions they play in are not matches or tournaments; they are products. Their function is not to only to provide entertainment, it is also to add value.This is new-age sports speak and plenty of it was heard at South Africa’s T20 Global League launch last Monday. If the average fan had been present – they weren’t, because the event was held in London and was by invitation only – they would have been forgiven for wondering what the hell any of it meant.Simply put, it is what sport is becoming. In some codes, it is what sport has already become. Cricket has been late to the evolutionary process that has taken what started as a recreational pastime and turned it into a corporate entity. Football is perhaps the best example of what the new model looks like: a monetised global club game.Take Manchester City as an example. After being bought by UAE royalty, beefing up their squad with big names like Yaya Touré and Sergio Aguero and winning the English premiership, they created an opportunity for their owners to expand the brand. City Football Group is now a triad that includes teams in Melbourne and New York, who have a common identity and share common resources, which can also include personnel.

Cricket has been late to the evolutionary process that has taken what started as a recreational pastime and turned it into a corporate entity

Knight Riders are a perfect comparison. They are the best-performing team, financially speaking, in the IPL and recorded a profit of US$2.14 million in the 2014-15 season. Around the same time, they expanded into the Caribbean Premier League, with the purchase of the Trinidad and Tobago franchise, which they renamed Trinbago Knight Riders. Now they also have a presence in South Africa with Cape Town Knight Riders, and they plan on following a City-style model of sharing expertise across their different teams.”What we have tried to do in building our business and our brand in IPL and CPL and now the Global League is to have some level of commonality between teams – whether it’s at the player level or at support-staff level,” Venky Mysore, Knight Riders’ CEO, said. “We had a support staff which works with us in KKR as well as in TKR and I am hoping that will be the case with the Global League as well. Jacques Kallis is the favourite son of South Africa and Cape Town and is our head coach at KKR and works with us at TKR as well, and I certainly expect he will work with us in CTKR as well. We have been able to achieve that to some extent. The assistant coach and analyst, they are all common but players – we will have to wait and see how it plays out.”With each league having its own draft and its own auctions, a brand like Knights Riders needs to “see if some of the stars align”, as Mysore put it, to be able to have similar squads, although they haven’t exactly managed it yet. “The reality of it is that Brendon McCullum is our marquee player for TKR and he played against us for Gujarat and smashed us all over the place in the IPL. And that’s okay, It’s just the way the leagues are set up. Each player is extremely professional to do the best they can for their respective teams. I don’t know whether the alignment will ever be possible as a practical matter. You just have to go with what you can. What we do have, which we control a little bit, is to make sure the culture across our teams is reasonably common.”Kagiso Rabada, GMR’s man in Delhi and Jo’burg. Brand continuity across tournaments and countries benefits from common personnel•BCCIGMR Sports, owners of the Delhi Daredevils, who have bought the Johannesburg franchise of the T20 Global League, have similar ambitions and can see the value in keeping the playing personnel consistent across the various teams. “The idea is to keep as much continuity as we can because it helps create the brand. But we will provide for the coaches to see the talent and work with them throughout the year,” Hemant Dua, CEO of GMR, said. “The IPL provided a very small platform where you couldn’t really go out and build from, so if coaches work with Kagiso [Rabada] in Delhi and also in Johannesburg, they get to know him better and he gets to know them better. That’s the direction we want to head in. That will work great for us.”The only way the idea of common squads will work, especially for the likes of Knight Riders and GMR Sports, who are IPL owners at the outset, is if Indian players will also be allowed to play in other leagues. Currently the BCCI does not make its male players available for anything other than the IPL, but in time, Dua can see that changing.”The more these leagues mushroom and become successful, the more cricket will eventually head in one direction. People will get wiser and there will be more free flotation of people around the world and then that will help us build on a core that can play in different formats around the world for us.””They’re trying to create brands, just like Coca-Cola started in America, Gucci in Italy, Yves St Laurent in France – now they are everywhere, they are synonymous globally with certain products,” says sports economist Stefan Szymanski, who has consulted with the ICC, among other sports organisations. “One day, they would like a common brand in every country, even if the players, coaches, etc are different. This would then give them leverage in selling sponsorship and broadcast rights. It would also help them to standardise the product globally so that its appeal can be widened.”

The only way the idea of common squads will really work, especially for the likes of Knight Riders and GMR Sports, who are IPL owners at the outset, is if Indian players will also be allowed to play in other leagues

While Knight Riders and GMR both bought into South Africa’s league because they have already seen how owning a T20 franchise in a big league can work, the PSL investors, Lahore Qalandars and Peshawar Zalmi, want to create greater awareness of their own brands. Neither of the PSL’s owners were asked about the possibility of Pakistani talent having more playing opportunities in South Africa because of this league, but it seems a given.CSA and the PCB have had a good relationship in the recent past – Pakistan filled a small gap in South Africa’s calendar in 2013, when India dramatically shortened their tour – and CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat is keen on building on that. He spoke about a passion for cricket development that was “particular to the Pakistan owners”, who, he said, are “doing some phenomenal development in their respective franchises in Pakistan” and who have “committed to bringing a lot of that to South Africa”. Javed Afridi of the Peshawar franchise, who has also started the Zalmi Foundation, has already committed to assisting with projects for children in Benoni, where they have bought the franchise.The other two foreign buyers in South Africa’s league are from Dubai and Hong Kong, and they also saw the business opportunity. Ajay Sethi, from the UAE’s Channel 2, is hopeful of broadcast opportunities, while Sushil Kumar, from City Sports in Hong Kong, who own a T20 Blitz team, City Kaitak, is after increased cricketing profile. Collectively, the six foreign parties own three-quarters of the South African league and have probably contributed most of its money.Exactly how much these international investors have put in is not known because CSA has said the bidding amounts are confidential, even as an overall figure. The reported that City Sports will spend US$100 million over ten years. That is around 1.3 billion South African Rand and it is unlikely any local companies would have been able to come close to that.The future: expect more of the same group of top T20 players to turn up in more T20 leagues across the world•AFPOnly two South African businesses bought teams – in Pretoria and Stellenbosch – and CSA would not comment on how many South African companies expressed interest or put in bids. ESPNcricinfo has learned that CSA approached businessman Johann Rupert, the fourth richest person in Africa, according to magazine, owner of a Swiss-based luxury goods company, founder of the Laureus Foundation and developer of the Leopard Creek Golf Club, to invest in the Global T20 league but Rupert declined. All attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.The end result is that the South African T20 Global League has more of a flavour of the latter part of its name than the former, and that sets it apart from other tournaments of a similar nature. It is impossible to ignore the obvious – that there is a strong Asian connection – an indication of where cricket’s financial muscle is now being flexed. But there is also a strong connection to teams that already exist, which could be a sign of things to come.It’s not impossible to see a future where the same ten or so brands have teams in all the different leagues around the world and those teams have largely similar looks, feels and faces. In business terms, it’s a way of establishing multinational corporations in cricket, and Lorgat does not see that as a bad thing.”If you think of the globe as being a single village today, the different cultures one would have experienced in the past, a lot of that has changed,” Lorgat said. “You find uniformity more now. It looks like a single village. So I think that’s become more of a reality. You look at global corporate companies, they’ve got a single culture. They build their brand. They’ve got synergies between different continents, different offices. So I don’t think it’s different to any of the global corporates in the world. We’re in a very singular kind of village now.””All this is everything that traditionalists despise about the T20,” Szymanski says. “But then, the whole issue is whether cricket should appeal to a narrow purist market or a larger but less particular body of consumers.”

Australia completed their 33rd Ashes series win to move ahead of England overall

Shiva Jayaraman18-Dec-2017 Yet another 3-0 Ashes win for Australia Australia’s innings victory at the WACA – which is hosting its last major Test – means they have regained the Ashes at the end of only the third match of series. This 3-0 margin is the 10th time a team has clinched the Ashes series by the end of the third Test. All but one of those ten wins were achieved by Australia, seven of which have come at home for them. The only England win in this manner came way back in 1928-29.ESPNcricinfo LtdOverall, this is the 19th time in the history of the Ashes that a team has secured the trophy before losing a Test to the opposition in a series involving five or more matches. In ten Ashes series played since the turn of this century, this is the sixth time when a team has won the series before conceding a match to the opposition. England won the 2013 Ashes at home by the fourth Test of the series by a margin of 3-0, while the other wins to be achieved in this manner have all been by Australia.ESPNcricinfo Ltd England equal their worst away streak This was the seventh successive loss for England in away Tests. The last time they came away without a defeat from a Test match played outside England was in Rajkot, when they drew the first Test of the 2016-17 series against India. They have endured only one other similar stretch before this, from 1993 to 1994 when they lost three away matches in India, one in Sri Lanka and three in the West Indies. Since the beginning of 2016, England have a 2-9 win-loss record from 13 away Test match. Only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have a poorer win-loss record in away and neutral venues in this period.With this loss, England also equalled the record for the most successive Test matches they have lost in any away country. Their eighth straight loss in Tests in Australia equals a similarly long streak they had way back from 1920 to 1925 when they also lost eight in a row. Visitors flatter to deceive, again As they have often done in the series, England seemed to put up a fight in this match on the first two days of the Test before running out of gas. The record 237-run stand between Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow had placed England at a promising 368 for 4 in the first innings before a lower-order collapse meant that they could not capitalise on the good work done by the pair. This was just the fourth instance in Ashes history that a team lost after being 350-plus for the loss of fewer than five wickets in the first innings of a Test. England were the team at the receiving end on the previous instance too, when a 310-run stand between Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen in the first innings couldn’t prevent England from eventually losing the Adelaide Test in 2006-07. Malan shows mettle One of the few positives for England from this Test was Malan: he added to his first-innings hundred with a hard-fought 54 in the second innings, in all scoring 194 runs in the match. This is the most runs any England batsman has scored in a Test at the WACA. Before this, the highest was by Derek Randall, who made 193 runs in 1982-83 Ashes Test. Malan is also only the fourth England batsman to get two fifty-plus scores at this venue. Kevin Pietersen was the previous England batsman to do it: he made scores of 70 and 60 not out in the 2006-07 Ashes Test. Australia bid adieu to their most favourable Ashes venue This was Australia’s eighth straight win in Ashes Tests played at the WACA. This is the best streak any team has had at a venue in the history of Ashes. The next-best run for any team at a venue in the Ashes is five wins, which was achieved by Australia at the Adelaide Oval from 1895 to 1908 and by England at The Oval from 1886 to 1896. The WACA, Perth has been the most favourable venue for Australia in the Ashes, with nine wins out of the 13 Tests played while losing only one. For either team, no Ashes venue that has hosted more than two matches has been as favourable in terms of win-loss ratio as the WACA has been for Australia.

Having amassed 552 runs in six innings in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the 27-year old has been in red-hot form across formats and has also earned the praise of MSK Prasad, the chairman of selectors

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Feb-2018This has by far been Mayank Agarwal’s best season. After a slow start, he led the run charts in the Ranji Trophy with 1160 runs at an average of 105.45 with five centuries, including an unbeaten triple hundred. He didn’t enjoy the same heady success in the T20 format (Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy), but he still managed to score three half-centuries to finish with 258 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 144.94. Agarwal, though, was quickly back to his barnstorming best at the 50-over competition – the Vijay Hazare Trophy – where he has amassed 552 runs in six innings opening the batting, with scores of 140, 89, 102, 28, 84 and 109. The second highest run-scorer in the tournament – Siddhesh Lad – is 179 runs behind Agarwal’s tally.Mayank Agarwal’s 1970 runs across formats is now the second-most in an Indian domestic season•ESPNcricinfo LtdOn Wednesday, Agarwal smashed a 111-ball 140, including 12 fours and seven sixes, to power Karnataka to a 103-run win over Hyderabad in the quarter-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. His bountiful run hasn’t gone unnoticed; MSK Prasad, the chairman of selectors, remarked that Agarwal “has been absolutely terrific”. Given the selectors’ inclination to reward consistency with low-intensity launches into international cricket, Agarwal, 27, will be hoping to get picked in the India squad for the Nidahas Trophy tri-nation T20 tournament in Sri Lanka next month.Agarwal’s success this season, however, has largely been a product of having a “blank mind”, and he wouldn’t like it any other way. “Stats bore me, I don’t play to prove a point to anyone,” he told the after the Hyderabad game. “I’ve been enjoying my game over the last four months or so. This can be attributed to being more self-aware about my game and just knowing what my strengths and weaknesses are.”A striking feature of Agarwal’s batting is he has maintained a steady tempo across formats. This has been down to a lot of pre-season work with his coach of three years, R Muralidhar. Together, they ensured Agarwal didn’t sweat over pre-determined goals and let go of the fear of failure. “There isn’t much difference to batting in the three formats. It’s just making minor adjustments and playing according to the situation of a game,” he said. “In order to address this, Murali sir put me through a lot of situation-based training and asked me to keep setting targets at every five overs of the game.”Agarwal’s 242-run stand for the second wicket with schoolmate and friend R Samarth proved decisive in Karnataka’s decimation of Hyderabad. Samarth, who made 125 off 124 deliveries, proved the ideal foil to Agarwal. “I am more aggressive in my outlook, while Sam is more dogged in his approach. I guess, that helps both of us,” Agarwal said.

Fakhar Zaman became Pakistan’s first double-centurion while putting on the highest ever opening stand by any team

Gaurav Sundararaman20-Jul-2018Pakistan openers’ historic standFakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq added 304 runs for the first wicket in the fourth ODI in Bulawayo. This is the highest ever opening stand in ODIs, going past the 286 runs added by Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga against England in 2006. This is also the highest partnership for any wicket for Pakistan, superseding the 263 runs added by Inzamam-ul-Haq and Aamer Sohail against New Zealand, in 1994.ESPNcricinfo LtdFakhar and Imam became only the fourth pair across teams to add 300 or more runs for any wicket in ODIs. They also struck their third individual ODI centuries each, making it only the seventh instance of both openers scoring centuries for Pakistan.The 323 combined runs scored by the two openers is the second most ever in ODIs and 90 runs more than Pakistan’s previous record. Fakhar breaks a 21-year-old Pakistan record Fakhar became the first Pakistan player to score a double-century in ODIs and the sixth overall. The previous highest score for Pakistan was Saeed Anwar’s 194, against India in 1997. Fakhar now has 980 runs from just 17 innings in ODIs and averages 75.38. Five players have reached 1000 runs in ODIs from 21 innings and Fakhar needs just 20 runs from the next three innings to become the first to do it in 20 innings. Fakhar ‘s innings consisted of 24 fours and five sixes which is the most for Pakistan. A record team score for Pakistan Pakistan’s total of 399 is their highest team score in ODIs, going past the 385 runs they scored against Bangladesh in June 2010. This is only the fifth instance of any team putting together a total in excess of 300 while losing only one wicket. Sri Lanka have achieved this feat thrice earlier but Pakistan’s score is the highest for any team going past the 362 for 1 made by India against Australia in 2013.