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Shahid Afridi has always been an uncertain choice as captain and how Pakistan performs in the World Cup will provide vindication for either his supporters or his detractors

Osman Samiuddin22-Feb-2011Until 2009, the words Shahid Afridi and captaincy were used only in the lingo of left-field cranks in Pakistan. Captaincy, they said, would settle down an intrinsically hyper man; the rest, in generally exasperated tones, asked how such a personality could bring any stability to ten others?Those leftists won when he took over first as T20 captain in 2009 and then again when he became ODI leader last year (he had captained two ODIs as stand-in before). But they lost when he chewed on a ball in Perth and did so again when he abruptly walked away from the Test captaincy after losing to Australia last year at Lord’s.Even the PCB isn’t sure about Afridi’s captaincy credentials, though that is about par for the course for them. They’ve only ever appointed him captain on a series-by-series basis. Until two weeks before the tournament began they still weren’t sure. It probably suits him, the uncertainty of it, given how he plays every game potentially as his first and last: lose and be gone, win and there won’t be a hero like you.And yet, here he is, as captain in a World Cup, the biggest platform of them all, and one on which he has been a miserable presence: 125 runs and seven wickets in 12 games. Over the next many weeks, one side will claim victory.For what little its worth, this scribe has come round to the idea of Afridi, the captain. Nine wins and 11 losses say little, but he hasn’t done a bad job really. He’s consultative but strong-minded enough to ignore advice he doesn’t like. He has an involved presence in the field, though it might not be a bad option for the bowlers to carry around earplugs. This is Afridi, so nuanced understanding of strategy and tactic need not take up too much time here. In any case, barring two, possibly three, the great Pakistani tactician-leader does not exist: personality and the ability to create and seize a collective vibe are far more important.And it’s not as if he has had the greatest luck with the personnel available, or that he has led in particularly settled times, or that alternatives are overflowing. In fact, you’d be right to question the mind of any man who take on the captaincy. Like the Presidency of Pakistan, if it brings rewards, arguably it brings greater tension and pitfalls, as Afridi noted a day ahead of his side’s opener against Kenya in Hambantota.”It’s difficult to be the captain, in India or Pakistan it’s difficult to handle it,” he said with an old, worn smile. “Situations are tough at times but you have to come out of that, you have to give sacrifice at times, but my effort is always that I do well as captain. It was difficult in the beginning, when we had all those issues, we had to rebuild, we had to lift the team again and that was affecting my performances but now our team is settled and we have a good combination. I think in my 13-14 year career, we haven’t done as much hard work as we are doing now.”Publicly he has said that the delay in appointing him and the criticism from various ex-players doesn’t affect him. Here, he said it again. “My chairman had already announced me captain for the World Cup but I never felt worried about whether I am the captain or not. I am enjoying my cricket both as captain and player. That is the main thing.”But inside, it has bothered him as, naturally, it would anyone. He is quick to tell anyone who questions his position and place, for example, that he was Pakistan’s top ODI run-scorer and joint leading wicket-taker in 2010. Lead by deed in Pakistan and half the job is often done.A semi-final spot is a realistic target he believes. Any further, and not for the first time in Pakistan, left-field cranks will have won the day.

Delhi’s dumping of tradition, the story of Sreesanth’s career in an over and more in a review of the action from the third week of the IPL

Abhishek Purohit29-Apr-2011Kotla’s green break with tradition
“Grass is for cows,” said Ivan Lendl. Curator after curator at Feroz Shah Kotla agreed with the tennis champion, and resolutely refused to let even a blade of green appear on their pitch. But the IPL has left hardly anything unchanged, and after consecutive losses at home, Delhi Daredevils decided to dump tradition into the Yamuna. Suddenly, the brown surface sprouted grass. It was the kind of green that suited Delhi as they proceeded to smash Kings XI Punjab for 231 in a rare win. More curiously than it had appeared though, some of the grass disappeared for Delhi’s next two games, bringing them two more losses, and keeping them in familiar territory, at the bottom of the table.The Shane Warne monitor
Taking a cue from Delhi, Rajasthan Royals took a look at their squad, realised they had Shane Warne, and gave him a dry Jaipur surface that had different-coloured patches, and plenty of unpredictable bounce. Warne, delighted by the Rajasthani hospitality, bamboozled his way to three crucial wickets against Kochi Tuskers. He tossed them up, he slid them in, he even welcomed former team-mate Ravindra Jadeja with a 109 kph bouncer. He also found time to doff his cap and shake hands with the endless assembly that was the presentation party as he collected his Man-of-the-Match award. All was well with the world.The aesthetic accumulator
S Badrinath is doing for the Chennai Super Kings what he usually does for Tamil Nadu. He comes in, pitches tent at the crease, splits the field with the most graceful of high elbows, and just refuses to get out. The man one commentator called India’s version of Mr. Cricket eased his way to 145 unbeaten runs in three games last week. He comfortably beat even Rohit Sharma, no small competitor, in the elegance stakes. Badrinath makes the mow over midwicket appear mellifluous, lofts languidly over extra cover, and slams the straight six with rarely seen serenity. And he makes truckloads of runs. Yet he’s been dumped from the India side after two Tests and three ODIs. Staggering.Thank you, come again
0-4-0 is the national dialling code for Hyderabad. Ishant Sharma decided to add 0-0-0 to it, and put it down on the Kochi scoresheet as Deccan Chargers’ calling card. Kumar Sangakkara had made a masterly half-century on a surface where the ball was talking rudely, and had given Kochi 130 to chase. Sangakkara needn’t have bothered. Ishant was in a tearing hurry, and delivered a spell that brought back memories of Perth 2008. He blew Kochi away with five wickets in eleven deliveries. At one stage, he had figures of 2-0-6-5, Kochi were 11 for 6 after four overs, and that was the end of that.My story, in six balls
If ever an over has revealed everything about the bowler, it was Sreesanth’s second one against Deccan. After seeing Sangakkara carefully defend two straight deliveries, Sreesanth, as has been his wont, went for something extra and the short ball ended up being pulled to the midwicket boundary. True to form, Sreesanth came back with an unplayable brute that pitched on off and took out middle stump. Truer to form, Sreesanth had over-stepped, and Sangakkara lived on. Truest to form, Sreesanth lost it and let the to-be “free-hit” rip, getting an official warning for bowling a beamer, albeit unintentionally. For good measure, he even bowled a wayward wide outside off. Firdose Moonda, ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentator for the game, called it “a mixed bag from the Kerala Express”. It was the story of Sreesanth’s career in a nutshell.Sreesanth’s jaffa of a no-ball•AFPThe nail-biter
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s game against Delhi turned so many times that Bangalore’s owner Siddhartha Mallya was out of nails to chew by the end. After Bangalore’s seamers had made the Delhi top order hop around on the pacy Kotla wicket, James Hopes lifted them to a fighting 160. Delhi got Tillakaratne Dilshan second ball to start their ascendance but ran into Virat Kohli, who threatened to drown them in a deluge of boundaries. Delhi began another round of counter-punching with three wickets in three overs but Saurabh Tiwary and Daniel Vettori resisted again. Not to be outdone, Morne Morkel winkled out two in three balls as the Kotla crowd roared with anticipation. Before Mallya could turn his attention on Deepika Padukone’s nails though, Vettori and J Syed Mohammad somehow managed to drag Bangalore home.The double payback
After Chris Gayle gave it back in style to his former franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, it was the turn of Deccan to be paid back, twice over this time. Rohit and Andrew Symonds, who had prowled the cover cordon and scored prolifically for Deccan until last year, made their former franchise pay for not retaining them ahead of the auction. Rohit caressed, Symonds bludgeoned, and a wobbly 70 for 4 turned into a match-winning 172 for Mumbai Indians. Deccan were themselves reduced to 70 for 4 in the chase, but they no longer had the luxury of Rohit and Symonds to mend matters. Soon, a crushing defeat followed.

Behind Sri Lanka’s understated, unfussy style is a team performing with ruthless efficiency and playing with confidence

Sambit Bal in Mumbai31-Mar-2011Away from the arch lights and drum beats, Sri Lanka have arrived at the final not quite unnoticed but in the unfussy manner that befits a team that plays vibrantly but rarely boisterously. Their journey to the final has been quiet and efficient; they have rarely been stretched and, apart from a brief middle-order stutter against New Zealand in the semi-final, their progress through the knockout phase has been so smooth it’s almost eerie.From the beginning this has been a World Cup of two halves. From the moment Virender Sehwag crashed the first ball of the tournament to the cover boundary, Group B remained a constant whirl of action and drama whereas Group A flowed along serenely and predictably, simmering and occasionally bubbling but never really boiling over. The pattern has continued through the knockout stages: India have been through the wringer with two high-octane and emotionally draining matches against Australia and Pakistan – two finals before the final, if you insist – whereas Sri Lanka have cast away their opponents as gently as blowing away a feather.And now these two contrasting worlds are to collide. It could work either way. India could be so exhausted that one more tough match could break them; or they could be so battle-hardened that nothing would faze or shake them. Sri Lanka, having eased through to the final, could be the fresher and the more relaxed team for the biggest match or – never having really been challenged, their only loss in the tournament coming more than a month ago – they could be ill-prepared for the rigour and the pressure of a final.The reality is that not being overwrought suits the way Sri Lanka play their cricket. They are fortunate that of all the cricket-playing nations in the subcontinent, their fans, though not lacking passion, are the most balanced. While they celebrate their victories with as much vigour as their neighbours, they retain the perspective to take defeat in their stride. Consequently, Sri Lankan cricketers lead the most normal life among their peers on the subcontinent.In India, no one is ever allowed to forget that this is a World Cup that must be won for Sachin Tendulkar. Sri Lanka too have in their ranks a legend playing his final World Cup. In fact, Muttiah Muralitharan, fitness permitting, will be playing his final match for his country on Saturday. But it can be safely said that it will barely be a distraction for Sri Lanka.Mahela Jayawardene, who gave up the captaincy of his own volition but is happy to assist Kumar Sangakkara as vice-captain for this tournament, was asked if Sri Lanka were playing to win this World Cup for Muralitharan. His answer carried simple clarity. “When we started this World Cup campaign our goal was to win this for Sri Lanka,” he said, “we haven’t changed our thinking.” The Sri Lankan team isn’t shorn of high achievers – Muralitharan is a colossus of the world game, and Jayawardene and Sangakkara are among the most prolific batsmen in contemporary cricket – but Sri Lankan cricket has rarely been about superstardom, and it’s a strength they will carry to the final.Jayawardene also spoke candidly about the significance of the first all-Asian final. Did it mean that the balance of power – in the cricketing sense – had shifted decisively towards Asia? “We mustn’t forget that this is a World Cup on the subcontinent,” he said, “and obviously home conditions suit us. In fact, it would have been disappointing if Asian teams hadn’t made it to the final. The World Cup will be played on a different continent the next time, and we can say the balance of power has truly shifted if two teams from the subcontinent make the final then.”Sri Lanka have done their bit. This is their second consecutive appearance in a World Cup final and it can be said to their credit that both in 2007 and 2011 the finals have featured the tournament’s two best teams. Added to their 1996 victory, they have now made it to three finals in the last five World Cups. And as an aside, each World Cup final since 1992 has featured a team from the subcontinent.That Sri Lanka and India have played each other with mind-numbing regularity over the last three years confers on neither team a natural advantage. But that the teams are so familiar with each other does lead to a sense of anticipation with regard to strategy. Sri Lanka have played with three frontline spinners almost throughout the tournament, trusting Angelo Mathews with a few overs of medium pace in the bowling Powerplay. Will they change their team to adjust to their opponents? Will Virender Sehwag force them to opt for another quick?When they played a group match at the Wankhede, the pitch was so tinged with green that Jayawardene said they struggled to separate it from the square. On Thursday, though, it looked a perfect brown and it is unlikely that grass will be allowed to grow on it over the next couple of days. Though this is Sachin Tendulkar’s home turf, this is an entirely new surface, and Sri Lanka are the only finalists to have played on it. Does that somehow negate the fact that Sri Lanka have managed to win only one ODI against India in India in the past year?In reality, none of this will matter when the teams step on to the field on Saturday. As Sangakkara said after his team made it to the final, nothing of what they have achieved so far will mean anything if they fail to get over the line on Saturday. That India will start as favourites, however slightly, will suit Sri Lanka. They have never been the glamour boys of the subcontinent, but they are a team of substance. Tendulkar and Sehwag have cornered all the attention during this World Cup, but Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga have been the most successful opening pair of the tournament, and, for all the buzz about the Indian batting machine, three of the top five run-getters in the World Cup are Sri Lanka batsmen.But they would rather not talk about it.

Ravindra Jadeja arrived in England only on the eve of the third ODI but managed to make significant contributions with bat, ball and in the field

Nagraj Gollapudi at The Oval10-Sep-2011Ravindra Jadeja trudged off The Oval with head bowed, having done everything possible to try and secure India’s maiden win on this tour of England. He led them back from the depths of 58 for 5 with a half-century, took two wickets at critical moments during England’s chase, and threw himself in the field to choke the flow of runs. He did all this despite landing at Heathrow only at 7.30 am on the eve of the third ODI.When Manoj Tiwary played the second match at the Rose Bowl hours after arriving in England, Jadeja was in Mumbai, waiting for his UK visa to arrive. Tiwary’s call-up as a replacement for Rohit Sharma had been announced on September 4, while Jadeja had been named as Gautam Gambhir’s replacement on August 31. Yet, Jadeja had to wait nearly a week in frustration before he could join the squad.Jadeja, however, has already had to face greater tests in his fledgling international career. At 22, he is part of the wave of young cricketers whose fortunes have been shaped by the IPL. Soon after being part of India’s Under-19 World Cup triumph in 2008, Jadeja played a significant part in Rajasthan Royals’ victory in the inaugural IPL. His success coincided with the Indian selectors’ and captain MS Dhoni’s push for youth in the Twenty20 and one-day squads.Jadeja was a fit for the second allrounder’s role, after Yuvraj Singh, but failed to secure his place despite several opportunities. His inconsistent batting hurt his cause at a time when Yusuf Pathan’s big hitting attracted a lot of attention. Jadeja eventually had to make way.The BCCI then barred Jadeja from playing the third season of the IPL because he had tried to sign deals with other franchises when his contract with Rajasthan did not allow it. Jadeja admitted his fault and sat on the sidelines. A year later, however, demand for him had not dropped. Kochi Tuskers Kerala paid $900,000 for him and he repaid them with all-round performances, finishing the fourth IPL season as the franchise’s second-highest run-scorer.Jadeja brought all his IPL learning to The Oval today. At 58 for 5, with 31 overs to go, he was up against Graeme Swann, who has phenomenal success against left-hand batsmen. Jadeja paid him respect, playing predominantly on the back foot, a method Rahul Dravid, India’s best batsman on the tour, used successfully against the world’s leading spinner.Alastair Cook, the England captain, did not set attacking fields, perhaps assuming Jadeja would try to battle his nerves by doing something rash. Like Suresh Raina had. Jadeja, however, batted with composure. Even when subjected to a short-ball barrage from Stuart Broad, Jadeja stayed in his crease, rode the bounce and scored behind point.Ravindra Jadeja helped rescue India’s innings from disaster•Getty ImagesIt helped that he had Dhoni with him. They annoyed England’s bowlers, Swann in particular, with their swift running between the wickets. They stole singles and took two when other Indian batsmen would have settled for one.Before he tapped James Anderson delicately to the fine-leg boundary, Jadeja had barely played two scoring shots on the leg side. There were plenty on the off though. With three overs to go, Anderson surprisingly had four fielders deep on the leg side. Jadeja capitalised by lofting twice over the fielder at mid-off for successive boundaries. He added 60 runs with R Ashwin in the last five overs, leading India to a modest total of 234 for 7.A bigger encouragement for India than Jadeja’s batting, though, was his slow left-arm bowling. To arrive on the eve of the match and adapt to English conditions without any overs under his belt was a significant achievement.”[When] I was batting, Graeme Swann was turning the ball, so I thought if I bowl slow I can also get the turn,” Jadeja said after receiving the Man-of-the-Match award. He did bowl slowly but he also gave the ball a hard rip on a pitch that turned more as it got older.Not having faced an Indian left-arm spinner on this trip, England’s batsmen were not at ease. Bowling an off-stump line, Jadeja mixed his orthodox deliveries with arm balls. Craig Kieswetter, who had given England a brisk start, could not read a straight delivery, having been beaten by turning deliveries the previous two balls.With the penultimate delivery of his final over, Jadeja angled the ball sharply into Tim Bresnan and bowled him, breaking a 60-run partnership for the sixth wicket. England needed 25 from as many deliveries. Jadeja had finished his quota of nine overs and, as he had done with the bat, had brought India back into the contest.”His bowling was always up to the mark. Maybe it was the batting which was a bit of a concern,” Dhoni said about why Jadeja was dropped last year. “He showed improvement from the IPL, where he faced bowlers who bowled close to 140kph, and he was able to play those big shots needed when you bat at No. 7. Overall he looks more complete right now.”

Pakistan’s spinners set up their first whitewash against England by picking up 48 of the 60 wickets to fall in the series

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan06-Feb-2012Saeed Ajmal finished the series with 24 wickets at an average of 14.70•Getty ImagesPakistan completed their first ever whitewash of England, and their fifth overall in series of three or more matches. It is also their first whitewash since their 3-0 win against Bangladesh in 2003. It was the second time a subcontinent team whitewashed England; they lost 3-0 in India in 1993. Overall, they have lost all Tests in a series (minimum three matches) on seven occasions, including three series against Australia and two against West Indies. For the second time in eight months (the first being India’s series in England), the No. 1 Test team has lost all Tests in a series. Pakistan became the first team in over 100 years to win a Test after scoring less than 100 in the first innings of the match. The last time this occurred was when England scored 76 but still defeated South Africa in 1907. It is also the ninth time overall that a team has won despite a score of less than 100 in the first innings. England’s batting average of 19.06 in the series is the second-lowest for them in a series of three or more matches, and the lowest since 1888. It is also the lowest average for any team in a series of three or more matches against Pakistan. England’s average fell below 30 for the first time in their last seven series (three or more Tests). No England batsman scored a century in the three-match series. This is the first time since the 1999 series against New Zealand and the eighth time overall that England have failed to score a single century in a series of three or more matches.Pakistan’s win had a lot to do with the performance of their spinners. They picked up 48 wickets in the series at an average of 15.64. This is the highest number of wickets taken by Pakistan spinners in a three-Test series with the previous highest being 45 against England in 1987-88. The average of the Pakistan spinners (15.64) is the second-best in a series of three-plus matches against England. The series also witnessed 75 wickets falling to spin. Only twice before have spinners picked up more wickets in a three-Test series.Saeed Ajmal finished the series with a haul of 24 wickets. His tally is fifth on the list of most wickets taken by a Pakistan bowler in a three-Test series and the second-highest by a spinner after Abdul Qadir, who picked up 30 against England in 1987-88. Abdur Rehman ended the series with 19 wickets at 16.73.Misbah-ul-Haq won his ninth Test as captain. Among all Pakistan captains to have led in at least 15 Tests, Misbah’s win-loss ratio of 9.00 is the best. England were dismissed for less than 200 four times in six innings in the series. Since 2005, England have been bowled out for less than 200 more than four times in a series only once, in the Ashes 2006-07 series when they lost 5-0.

Jacob Oram feels the pitch hasn’t changed much from two years ago, which could mean more dull cricket in America

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jun-2012On May 22, 2010, cricket entered a truly foreign territory. Sri Lanka and New Zealand walked out to loud Punjabi music – Punjabi being a language used in India and Pakistan. After New Zealand won the toss, Angelo Mathews bowled the first international delivery in Florida, Kumar Sangakkara stood up to the stumps, and the first ball was short and failed to bounce higher than the knee.International cricket’s debut in America is remembered for the tacky lifeless surface that sucked all juice out of the two Twenty20 Internationals between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in May 2010. The pitch helped neither the batsmen nor the bowlers. “It was a dull and lifeless track which sucked the pace and bounce from the deliveries and made shot-making almost impossible,” said ESPNcricinfo’s report. “The ball stopped on the batmen, kept low, and was immensely hard to time. And it certainly wasn’t the perfect advertisement for cricket in a foreign land.”The two T20Is produced first-innings scores of 120 and 81 by New Zealand. They defended 120 successfully, and comfortably.Two years later, New Zealand, officially committed to spreading cricket in America, are back again, this time to play two T20Is against West Indies as the first leg of their full tour of the Caribbean. The presence of West Indies as one of the teams certainly promises a much bigger crowd owing to the population of Caribbean origin there, and also tangentially much more suitable choice of music to be played at the ground.Yet the conditions remain the biggest concern before the weekend that will feature the back-to-back games. By all accounts, it’s not the training facilities that are cause for concern at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground. Daniel Vettori, New Zealand’s captain in 2010, acknowledged them back then, and in his diary, Andrew Ellis has written in the : “The training facilities at the ground have been improved from the Black Caps’ last visit, which should give us an excellent preparation for the first game.”It’s the actual pitch that should worry both the players and the fans that will turn up. Jacob Oram has already sounded warning bells. New Zealand Cricket had sent its leading curator Mark Perham to Florida to try to address the issue, and somehow breathe some life into the track. Oram didn’t think much came of it. Fairfax News NZ quoted him as saying: “Apparently the pitch has improved, but what we’ve trained on is similar to the match wicket and still quite similar to when we were here two years ago.”Oram played one of the two T20Is two years ago. Overhead conditions, Oram said, were going to be a bit of a challenge too. “It’s warm, very muggy and extremely breezy,” he said. “While the West Indies will be able to see that, we’ve had the experience of playing in these conditions.”

Titans found the correct length with the ball on their home turf, making their bowlers far more effective than the Scorchers’

Firdose Moonda13-Oct-2012Local knowledge was going to be an advantage for South African sides at this year’s Champions League and the Titans showed why. A major factor in their 39-run win over Perth Scorchers was their ability with the ball, which helped them find the correct length on their home turf to far greater effect than Scorchers’ bowlers did.Evidence of that can be found in a simple score comparison. At the end of 12 overs, the Titans were 105 for 0. At the same stage of the Scorcher’s innings, they were 64 for 4.Scorchers’ bowlers pulled it back and gave away only 58 runs in the last eight over of the innings to restrict the Titans to 163 but their lapses earlier cost them at the end. On a pitch with good bounce, every bowler in the attack preferred length and full deliveries to ones just back a length, which the Titans later showed would have made it more difficult for the batsmen.Titans captain Martin van Jaarsveld was surprised at the lack of penetration from the Perth attack upfront, especially since he thought whoever had first use of the surface would make it count. “I was quite disappointed to lose the toss because I thought it was going to do quite a bit,” he said. “But at the beginning they bowled either too full or too short and our openers were electric.”For 73 balls, Scorchers allowed Henry David and Jacques Rudolph to dictate proceedings. Davids enjoyed shimmying down the track and hitting through the offside, and took the pressure off Rudolph, who was allowed time to show why he should not be labelled a Test player.Only when Davids was dismissed did Scorchers get measure of how to operate. Brad Hogg led the way, giving away only two runs of his third over and the Titans batsmen had to do more than just help themselves. “It was tough to hit the spinners,” van Jaarsveld said.With a rein on the innings, Nathan Rimmington did the rest of the containing and gave away only five singles in his last two overs. Scorchers’ captain Marcus North said that performance gave the team some belief as they went into the break and enhanced Rimmington’s reputation as his go-to man.”He is our banker. As a captain he is the guys you want to throw the ball to and you know he will get it right more often than not,” North said. “It comes with the confidence of having a few good games and it is down to hard work. He has worked really hard at those yorkers and trying to be a step ahead of the batsmen. He is very easy to captain and very clear and decisive about what he wants to execute and what fields he wants.”Van Jaarsveld must feel as though he has three Rimmingtons. His seamers, Alfonso Thomas, Ethy Mbhalati and CJ de Villiers did not put a foot wrong, after Eden Links set the tone with a tight first over. Links got the length right immediately as he beat Herschelle Gibbs with a short of a length delivery. And the rest of the attack very rarely swayed from that plan.”We decided to hit four-day lengths and aim for the top of off stump,” van Jaarsveld explained. “I found that the tall bowlers were able to extract a lot of bounce off the wicket.”CJ de Villiers, who will remind some of Marchant de Lange, was the tallest of the lot and had the most success. He used his variations well too, something a bowler like Mitchell Marsh was not able to do. “There is slight inexperience in their bowling line-up,” Van Jaarsveld said. “And we sort of took the wind out of the sails upfront.”North said the air stayed out, even in the batting department, where he would like to see improvement. “The wicket played really well and we left too much work for the middle order. The top four have to take responsibility. With the make-up of our side – five batsmen and the keeper at six – we really need the top four to fire.”

The young Sri Lankan batsman isn’t intimidated by the toughest opposition, or shy about pursuing personal goals

Andrew Fernando17-Nov-2012Seven years to the day before Dinesh Chandimal’s Test debut, he was watching Sri Lanka’s first ODI of their tour of New Zealand when his mother came into the room and told him there was a boat coming quickly towards their house near the beach. Chandimal took one look at the colossal wave, called out to his family, and they ran.”My family and I lost everything that day,” he says, “including my cricket bag.” But it is not an experience that weighs heavy on him. His description of the trauma is cursory. He reflects, instead, on his good fortune. “We were lucky that no one in my family lost their lives. Others had it much worse. It was very difficult, but we were able to rebuild our lives without that kind of grief, and I am grateful for that.”He seems taller in person and smiles quickly and often, even through a tale as harrowing as the one he has just told. A slightly misplaced incisor melds mischief to his grin. He trains in two hours but his curls are immaculately ordered to seem disordered. He has not been long in the side but the stories about him are already among the most colourful.Chandimal is taking English lessons, and he put his learning to use while appearing at a recent charity tournament, when he called out to his friend, a tournament organiser, yelling, “Hey you, f*****”, over a throng of fawning fans. Once, during the World Twenty20, he boarded the team bus and began hollering roughly at another friend in the support staff only to realise a national selector had taken his friend’s place on the bus. A stream of sheepish “Sorry, sir’s” followed, according to his team-mates, who retell the tale with relish.He is also sheepish when he describes his first foray into competitive cricket. Chandimal started as an offspinner at Under-13 level but his bowling career was short-lived. “They stopped me because I chucked,” he admits. “I only played two matches before I was told not to bowl.”Not wanting to see Chandimal quit the sport altogether, his coach handed him keeping gloves and pads. “I think that was one of the best things that happened to my cricket,” he says. “For a long time, I wasn’t a very good batsman. Until I was about 17, my highest score would have been around 30. But because I could keep well, I was able to play in the Dharmasoka College first XI at 14, and I won awards for being the best keeper in the country for my age.”Before long, he was spotted by one of the biggest Colombo schools and offered a place, which he accepted after some initial reluctance to leave home. Ananda College counts Arjuna Ranatunga and Marvan Atapattu among its old boys, but neither achieved what Chandimal did for the school: his batting burgeoned suddenly and he became one of the top run scorers in school cricket on the island. He was elevated to captain in his final year – an honour no scholarship student had ever received – and he led Ananda College to an unprecedented 12 outright wins in one season, breaking a record that had stood for over 40 years. He was soon asked to join the Nondescripts Cricket Club (NCC), where he played alongside one of his heroes.”When I first came to the side, I was very nervous. I didn’t think I would make it to the XI of a team like the NCC, but Kumar Sangakkara took me aside and said, ‘Chandi, don’t be afraid. I can’t play a lot of matches for NCC, so you will get a chance to keep’. Batting with him in a match was like a dream. He gave advice and always kept talking to me, and when you bat with someone like that, everything becomes very easy.”

“The team should come first, but depending on the match situation, if there is time, you can go for personal achievements as well”Chandimal on delaying Sri Lanka’s victory to get a hundred at Lord’s

Chandimal has had several senior players take him under their wing as he progressed to the national side, and in gratitude, he reels off a list of names comprising nearly everyone who has played cricket for Sri Lanka in the recent past, from Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas to Angelo Mathews. On Test debut, Chandimal arrived at the crease in Durban with Sri Lanka stumbling towards another poor first-innings score, at 162 for 5, but Thilan Samaraweera eased him in against the best pace attack in the world before the pair put on the biggest partnership of the match.”It was really good that Thilan ! Just like Aravinda.’ We laughed and that helped me to relax, and I focused on my game. I didn’t worry about who was bowling, whether it was Steyn or Morkel or Philander. I just played the ball that came, and I think that worked for me.”In the second innings, Chandimal made his second fifty of the match, and put on another century stand, this time with Sangakkara – the second-highest partnership of the game. The Durban Test was Sri Lanka’s biggest triumph in years, being their first victory in South Africa, and Chandimal played the crucial role of partnering a senior batsman to haul the side out of distress in each innings.”I wasn’t thinking about the tsunami when we started that match on December 26, but looking back now, I think it was quite apt. Experiencing what I did in 2004 gave me a lot of strength as a cricketer, and I think that helped me.”Though it held that special significance, Chandimal says the Durban Test wasn’t his proudest moment on a cricket field. That had come six months earlier, at Lord’s, in an ODI against England. At the time, he and Angelo Mathews had caused controversy when Mathews refrained from scoring until Chandimal completed a ton – a century he would almost certainly have been denied had Mathews simply knocked off the runs required. In the end, Chandimal sealed the hundred with a six over long-on, but not before Mathews batted out a maiden in the 47th over as team-mates wore expressions ranging from anxious to furious on the balcony.Perhaps the senior players held back their thoughts on Chandimal’s pursuit of a personal milestone, because all his memories of the aftermath are positive, and he says he wouldn’t necessarily have changed his approach if he was given the chance again. “When I was on the bus going back, I was crying on the phone to my family. I was so overjoyed. To make a century at a historic venue like Lord’s – that is a special achievement for a Sri Lankan. I hadn’t even thought of going for a century until Angelo said we should go for it, because he was confident of finishing the match by himself. The team should come first, but depending on the match situation, if there is time, you can go for personal achievements as well.”In addition to impressing in South Africa and England, Chandimal has also made difficult runs in Australia, where Sri Lanka will tour after the home Tests against New Zealand. His technique is not the cleanest or the most attractive, but in his short career, he has been undaunted by even the most intimidating opposition – a quality many Sri Lankan batsmen take years to develop. He has been poor in the subcontinent – another oddity for a Sri Lankan – but has grasped almost every other opportunity afforded him on his way to international cricket. If, as it is hoped, he becomes the bedrock of Sri Lanka’s future top order, that is a trait that will have served him well.

Perhaps the cruellest ordeal of all for these prisoners is that they are not allowed to tell the truth about a particularly hideous piece of merchandise that regularly appears on our screens

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013Andrew Hughes, United Kingdom
When you commit to watching the IPL, you resign yourself to spending several weeks in the company of a rag-tag bunch of presenters, pundits and media personalities. Over the course of the tournament, these people will become as familiar to you as your own family and in many cases, just as annoying. And none more so than Setanta’s hand-picked studio guests.For the opening day, they had drafted in noted former slogger and radio persona Ronnie Irani as their IPL in-studio instant analyser. His mission: to give us the inside track, to be our mole, our secret agent; letting us in on what really goes on behind the scenes and explaining the nuances of the wonderful game to the uninitiated.And we learnt many things on that first day. We discovered, for instance, that Kevin Pietersen and Shane Warne have something of a rivalry. Yes it’s true and apparently that meant that both of them were really keen to win their first game. We also learnt that playing in the IPL is a great opportunity; that Tendulkar is a really good batsman and that Freddie will be a bit disappointed with his opening day performance.All too soon, our Irani time was over. I was keen to be further enlightened and so when I discovered that Sunday’s studio guest was to be one Darren Gough, my cup ranneth over. A fine bowler, a belligerent blade swinger and a nifty mover in the ballroom, he was sure to embroider the fine cloth of the day’s entertainment with the golden thread of insight.It is difficult to sum up the full effect of an afternoon with Goughie, but I will give you just a flavour. Early on, he ruffled a few feathers by tipping everyone’s favourite losers the Kings XI Punjab. Hello, I thought, this is more like it. Controversy. A maverick opinion. Excited, the studio presenter pressed him further. What was it about the Kings XI that made him pick them out as tournament winners? Turned out that Goughie liked Brett Lee, he liked the boy Sreesanth and he was enamoured of Marsh and Hopes.It matters not that one of them will miss the whole tournament and the other three will be unavailable until the second half. Their influence will be felt strongly in their absence. Unfortunately, on this occasion, the phantom Lee, the invisible Sreesanth and the cardboard cut-outs of Hopes and Marsh proved unable to overcome the Delhi Daredevils and Punjab received a predictable and not entirely unenjoyable spanking.Of course, Yuvraj had other players available, such as the talented young Indian batsman Kamran Goel who blazed away so effectively at the top of the order. What, the studio presenter wondered, did Goughie think of him? “To be honest,” opined the Dazzler, “I’ve never heard of him.” Eat your heart out, Nasser Hussain.Now you may be thinking that this is just a cheap shot at the expense of a great player. And you’d be right. But I would offer one mitigating plea in my defence. If the only requirement for obtaining a seat in a Setanta studio is the capacity to state the bleeding obvious, or to look down a list of names and spot the good players, then I’m sure there are many cricket fans out there who would happily do the job for a fraction of the fee earned by Mr Irani or Mr Gough. Heck, I’d do it for nothing.Of course, the task facing the studio analyser is as nothing compared to the job of match commentator, for whom the IPL represents the ultimate challenge. In a Test match, they are allowed to wax lyrical, to speculate, to fall asleep, even to snore occasionally. There is no such respite for the average IPL microphone jockey. They have a script to stick to and at regular intervals, prodded by the muzzles of the rifles wielded by the Lalit Modi Revenue Maximisation Squad, must correctly acknowledge certain benevolent corporate bodies.This coercion has taken its toll on the minds of those held captive in the commentary booth. Sunil Gavaskar is no longer able to screw in a light bulb without declaring it a Citi moment of success. Mark Nicholas involuntarily greets the popping of his toaster with the words, “DLF Maximum!” And Ravi Shastri wakes up screaming in the middle of the night from a dream in which he forgot to read out the list of tournament sponsors.Perhaps the cruellest ordeal of all for these prisoners is that they are not allowed to tell the truth about a particularly hideous piece of merchandise that regularly appears on our screens. No, not Kevin Pietersen; I’m referring to the IPL Trophy.When I first saw it, I assumed it was a homage to the IPL prepared by some Cape Town schoolchildren using plastic cups, pipe cleaners and glitter pens. But no, it is the reward for winning the richest tournament in cricket. Apparently it is covered in diamonds. Rarely can so much money have been spent to such little effect (and I include Surrey’s signing of Shoaib Akhtar).And yet, presented with an image of this monstrosity, Robin Jackman is not allowed to point out that it is the tackiest piece of decoration you are likely to see outside of David Beckham’s third living room. Nor can Greg Blewett politely suggest that it might have been better if they’d simply piled the diamonds up on a silver plate. Instead, they must show due deference and declare it a stunning piece of trophyware.Truly, we should feel their pain and give thanks that they have sacrificed their commentating careers for the good of the IPL.

There was help for good bowling on the Harare pitch, but Bangladesh’s batting was well below what was required for Test cricket

Firdose Moonda in Harare20-Apr-2013Try to imagine the picture these analyses from Brendan Taylor and Mushfiqur Rahim paint.”They have struggled in our conditions and we are comfortable at home. When we play them in Bangladesh, we will struggle but we know they are not used to playing on grassy wickets,” Taylor said. “We were expecting difficult conditions and good bowling,” said the latter.Does it make you think a pitch like the Wanderers? Or the WACA? Of bowlers swinging it like Dale Steyn or James Anderson? Of bounce that the likes of Mohammed Irfan can extract? If you had been listening to rhetoric like this all week, it might.Now, here’s a little secret. Harare Sports Club is not the Wanderers or the WACA, even with a grass covering on it. It may sound harsh to say Kyle Jarvis and Keegan Meth are not Steyn and Anderson but they are not. They are skilful, improving bowlers and in helpful conditions, they are a handful.There was assistance for good bowling, but that is not the sole reason Zimbabwe achieved their biggest margin of victory by runs (they have two innings wins to their name as well). When application was needed by the batsmen, Bangladesh were found sadly wanting.Their shot selection was poor – Mahmudullah’s pull to a strategically placed deep midwicket in the second innings was the most glaring example – and they were too easily frustrated by quiet periods. There was some swing and some extra bounce but it was nothing they should not have been able to counter. The question they must ask themselves is why they didn’t.Bangladesh will be criticised for not including a tour match in their schedule for purposes of adapting to conditions but Mushfiqur said he could not put the blame on that. “We had a long tour against Sri Lanka and a few injury concerns so we needed a break. But the tour match is not a big deal, we had five days here before the match.”I am just really disappointed with the way we played, especially the batting,” he added. “We had the technique to cope with that but there were too many soft dismissals especially from the senior players.”Mahmdullah faces the axe with Tamim Iqbal almost back to full fitness, but batsmen like Mohammad Ashfraful, who fought hard for 40 before being run-out, and Shakib-al-Hasan, who was cramped for room, will be expected to do better. Having had the experience of playing on this ground already – which is also where the second Test will be played – Mushfiqur is confident they will. “We’ll have a few more days to prepare here,” he said.And so will Zimbabwe’s top-order, who also need the time. Taylor aside, as Mushfiqur pointed out, “they didn’t have too many batsmen.” The openers were out cheaply, which may prompt a change in who partners Vusi Sibanda, and Hamilton Masakadza also found the going tough against Robiul Islam, who enjoyed the conditions as much as Zimbabwe’s seamers.”We know we’ve got work to do with the batting. We have to make sure we get that right especially at the top,” Stephen Mangongo, the interim coach, said. “Overall we needed to work on technique after we were exposed in West Indies. I am happy with the application. There is great desire to improve and we know that we have some work to do.”That was the only area Zimbabwe could be disappointed in, after an impressive all-round showing. Mushfiqur admitted “they outplayed us,” in all departments. That they did so by such a large margin was unexpected especially given the turmoil Zimbabwean cricket has been in during the lead up to this series but for Taylor, it was simply a case of hard work paying off.”We took a lot out of the West Indies tour and I think we needed that experience to give ourselves a wake-up call about how much better we needed to be,” he said. “We were taught a lesson there but we are willing to learn and train hard. Our bowlers are putting in the work, our batters are trying hard. We want to carry that into the next Test and better ourselves.”