Zimbabwe may have half-decent batting, but overall they will clearly be outclassed at the highest level. By Martin Williamson

Martin Williamson05-Sep-2007

Taibu is possibly the lone international-class player in the current Zimbabwe side © Getty Images
Despite Ray Mali’s rather far-fetched claims that Zimbabwe could be the No. 1 ODI side in the world within three years, the reality that all bar the ICC president seem to realise is that the gulf between a young and experienced side and the other Full Member countries remains vast. Despite seemingly creditable performances against South Africa in three ODIs last month, the side is lacking almost any international-class players – with the exception of its prodigal son Tatenda Taibu – and while those thrown in at the deep end are keen, they are woefully inexperienced and, in several cases, technically flawed.At the World Cup last March Zimbabwe were out of their depth, and the draw this time has not done them any favours. They face England, who have five seasons of Twenty20 experience, and Australia, who remain awesome whatever the format. Only a madman would even consider waging a bet on either match producing an upset.Home truths
There was an inaugural Twenty20 tournament in Zimbabwe last season but it took place over three days and attracted almost no domestic coverage. Even the Zimbabwe board only issued basic details, but judging by standards in the Faithwear Cup, the one-day tournament which preceded it, the quality was unlikely to have been much to shout about.Strengths
Their batting and fielding should not embarrass Zimbabwe. On paper they possess a strong top- and middle order, with Taibu, who will need to bat even higher than No. 4 in the shorter format, and Brendan Taylor particularly suited to the demands of Twenty20. Some of the other mainline batsmen will need to contribute more than the 20s or 30s they seem content with now, however.Weaknesses
Inexperience against top-class sides is the biggest issue, with recent drubbings by A teams from India and South Africa fresh in the mind. The tail is long, and there isn’t a bowler who appears likely to be able to contain Australia or England ‘s big hitters. Of the batsmen, Vusi Sibanda, who entered the World Cup with a burgeoning reputation, has repeatedly underperformed since and is in need of runs. Zimbabwe have many players who can bowl and are handy with the bat, but quantity is not a suitable replacement for quality Ian ChappellPlayers to watch
Tatenda Taibu Back after almost two years of self-imposed exile following a well-publicised spat with the Zimbabwe board, Taibu’s appetite appears undiminished if performances in the A-team series and the ODIs against South Africa are anything to go by. His improvisation and attacking intent – he had a strike-rate of 100 against South Africa last month – put him head and shoulders above his team-mates. He promised so much when he impressed in the Caribbean in 2006, but the captaincy, thrust on him at the age of 21, soon after Taibu quit, has had a detrimental effect on his form and confidence. But Taibu is back and there were signs against South Africa that Utseya might be on the mend. If he is, his nagging offspin is perfectly suited to Twenty20.Dark horse
Sean Williams The former Under-19 captain has been out of the frame of late with a serious back injury, but is fit again after treatment in South Africa. A powerful batsman and useful slow left-armer, he has the ability to be one of the cornerstones of the side for the next decade, although doubts continue as to where his future lies.Ian Chappell’s take
Zimbabwe shouldn’t have been competing at the highest level of international cricket for some years now, and for a number of reasons – all related to the cruel dictatorship of Robert Mugabe.

Sean Williams could be a key player for Zimbabwe in future © AFP
Yet again, they will be cannon fodder, this time for the Australian and English line-ups. However the return of the talented and competitive Taibu means that at least their opponents will have to work a bit harder for the inevitable victory. Sibanda, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Hamilton Masakadza and Elton Chigumbura all have talent with the bat, but they are not consistent at this level to be a support to Taibu or a major concern for their strong opposing attacks.Batting first, they are unlikely to set a challenging total and they are likely to be chasing targets that are way beyond their means. Zimbabwe have many players who can bowl and are handy with the bat, but quantity is not a suitable replacement for quality when you’re up against top-class opposition. Utseya, their consistent offspinner and captain, has a formidable task ahead of him, in trying to contain two strong batting line-ups, never mind dismissing them cheaply.Zimbabwe cricket would have been better served if they had built up their playing strength and confidence at a lower level in the last few years. It does talented young cricketers no good to be constantly thrashed by opponents who are well above their class. It’s sad to see how far the once-proud Zimbabwe cricket team have slipped since they qualified for the Super Six stage in the 1999 World Cup. This time they will fail to qualify for the final eight stage, and till they unearth a satisfactory political solution to their problems, their cricket is unlikely to make much headway. Rating: 4/10

Looking back to two legendary Indian ODI wins in England, and a 1984 classic

Dileep Premachandran21-Aug-2007

Whenever a list of the great sporting upsets is compiled, India’s 1983 World Cup triumph will come right near the top, if nothing else for the sheer lack of pedigree on one side and the all-conquering nature of the other. As the years go by, it becomes ever more difficult to comprehend that a team of thoroughbreds was defeated by one comprising dibbly-dobblers like Mohinder Amarnath, Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Madan Lal.Whenever India play a one-day series in England, it brings back happy memories of that more innocent time, a time before Match Ke Mujrim [The Accused], inane sound-bites and stomach-churning ads about the so-called Blue Billion. By the time India clinched a three-nation tournament almost exactly 19 years later, cricket in India had long since taken off in a hype balloon; you could even get commemorative DVDs of the win against England – no West Indies by any stretch of the imagination.Despite the opposition, though, that Lord’s success was an important step for Indian cricket in the run-up to a World Cup in South Africa. Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly did the damage at the top of the order, with Sachin Tendulkar piling on the runs from No. 4. Rahul Dravid provided the solidity and the finishing touches, but it was the freshness of youth that imbued the win with such significance.Half a decade on, Yuvraj Singh is still around. In Greg Chappell’s first season as coach, he threatened to take the step up to world-class, but after a poor start to 2006-07, a knee injury and a rotten World Cup, he’s a man who still has much to prove.At least Yuvraj gets that opportunity. Sehwag and Kaif are not so lucky, axed after dips in form that coincided with India’s one-day cricket going into a tailspin last season. Others from 2002, like Ashish Nehra – who would go on to wreck English World Cup hopes in Durban a few months later – are also gone, while Zaheer Khan may have to be nursed through after his exertions in the Test series win.One-day cricket in England still hasn’t changed much since the day Sandhu uprooted Gordon Greenidge’s off stump with an inswinger that Imran Khan would have been proud of. Unlike on the subcontinent, where you can start the flaying from ball one, in England the first half hour usually belongs to the bowler. The innings needs gradual acceleration rather than a rocket launch.Most of the pyrotechnics are saved for the death, when the soft ball and quick outfields tilt the scales away from the bowler. With wickets in hand, anything’s possible, as Mohammad Ashraful and Aftab Ahmed so thrillingly demonstrated at Cardiff against Australia two seasons ago.English fans will look back fondly at the golden years of Robin Smith, and the all-too-brief summer when the brothers Hollioake helped rout Australia, but for most people born before Nadia Comaneci was perfect, late surges will always equate to the King at Old Trafford.

You can twist the figures any way you like, but there’ll never be a greater one-day batsman than Vivian Richards, nor will there be an innings as effortlessly paced and spine-chillingly destructive as the one he produced in the opening one-day match of the 1984 Texaco Trophy.Till then, the mighty West Indians had been faces on cards we collected. And when Ian Botham and friends reduced them to 166 for 9, they didn’t seem so mighty either. But Richards remained at one end, the epitome of cool with his maroon cap, wrist bands and chewing gum, and he was joined by perhaps the most athletic figure to take a cricket field – Michael Anthony Holding.”I didn’t have to do anything,” said Holding with a laugh years later when asked about that remarkable 106-run partnership. That was being excessively modest, though. He stayed steadfast at one end, managing the odd single, even as Richards freed his arms and unveiled a repertoire of strokes that we’ve rarely seen since. The disdainful flicks over the leg side were awesome enough, but nothing approaches the huge sixes over mid-off, shots he made room for by stepping away to the leg side.Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist came closest to matching that magnificence, in the World Cup finals of 2003 and ’07, while Tendulkar was eerily good in his 1998 pomp. But for all the emotions associated with Indian wins at Lord’s in ’83 and ’02, the main memory – the tricks of childhood adoration, perhaps – of one-day cricket in England will always be of the day when a proud man reminded us just why it was worthwhile to collect those beautifully drawn picture cards.

Years from now Perth might be remembered as the city where Rahul Dravid recovered from his toughest phase in Test cricket. Back to his favourite No. 3 position, his value as the side’s cushion was evident

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan at the WACA16-Jan-2008

Rahul Dravid looked in good touch batting at his customary
No. 3 position © Getty Images
Years from now Perth might be remembered as the city where Rahul Dravid recovered from his toughest phase in Test cricket. Back to his favourite No. 3 position, his value as the side’s cushion was evident. The compact defence was back, as were the long strides to meet the ball on the full. Unfortunately the innings might be temporarily remembered for the way it ended. It shouldn’t.After opening in the first two Tests, today when Dravid entered, in the 17th over, India had already had their best opening stand of the series. He began with some controlled trickles past the slips, endured a good spell of bowling from Brett Lee and survived a dropped catch on 11, before flowing freely. The second half of his innings was played with as much freedom as his innings were in mid 2006, the last time he made a hundred against top-class opposition.”It’s nice to be back in a familiar position,” he said, “and the openers got us off to a good start. They played positively, took their chances and put fifty on the board. It gives you a psychological advantage when you walk in then. I’ve done well and badly at No. 3. I wouldn’t want to attribute scoring runs to my batting position. There’s a lot of hard work that went into it, not just the position.”Then why does he distinctly prefer the No. 3 position? “It’s tough to explain,” he said. “It’s maybe because I’ve never really done well as an opener. I haven’t found an answer to it. I just feel different. It doesn’t feel the same in the two positions.”When in form he could adjust to any position. He reeled off hundreds while opening against Pakistan in early 2006 and settled into the No. 4 slot later in the year in West Indies. Since then, though, he’s struggled at home and away. He went through an entire tour of South Africa without a half-century and didn’t hit the high notes against England as well. He turned in some crucial innings against Pakistan at home but kept getting out at the wrong time. He didn’t seem out of form, just out of luck.Things have been different on this tour, though. He’s waded through the turbulent times with a bit of luck, both in Sydney and here. “This was a good pitch with better bounce and pace,” he said of his comfort factor. “The ball came on to the bat. In fact I’ve been moving my feet well through the series. I felt comfortable in the second innings in Sydney and did well in the practice game as well. It’s slowly coming together.”It came together all right, especially after he raised his bat to bring up his half-century. He doubled his run-rate and bisected the field perfectly with his cover-drives. Seven short of his hundred, Dravid attempted to slog-sweep Andrew Symonds’ offspin, only to lob a catch to the covers. The force with which he swung the bat after that indicated the disappointment.”The shot was on,” he later said, “and I had played it earlier as well. The ball was tossed up. When it comes off, it looks great, otherwise it looks stupid. There’s a fine line to being positive and throwing it away. People accused us of being negative in the first Test and we’ve been trying to be positive throughout. It’s a little disappointing but there’s a lot of cricket left in this game yet.”Would his side have settled for this position at the start of the day? “Maybe four down for 300. But we’re happy overall. There were a lot of fighting performances and a lot of guys showed character. If the lower order does well we have a chance of getting to 400. And that’s a score we would have settled for at the start.”

A cultured World Cup classic; one captain comes, another goes; a Boxing Day miracle, and more: in the fourth part of our staffers’ picks of the best and worst of 2007

06-Jan-2008

Dileep Premachandran

Best: Mahela Jayawardene in the World Cup semi-final
He played one sweep with such precision that the fielders running across from deep square leg and fine leg nearly collided. After eking out 22 from the first 50 balls he faced, Mahela Jayawardene proceeded to illuminate the World Cup semi-final with an exhilarating exhibition of strokeplay. He bludgeoned the ball with a straight bat when given the chance, but it was the delicate touches that most enthused the fans of the George Headley-Lawrence Rowe tradition. He finished with 115 from 109 balls, and Sri Lanka won at a canter. “We were outclassed at key moments,” said Stephen Fleming. He was right.Worst: Viv Richards being cold-shouldered at the World Cup
A World Cup opening ceremony in the Caribbean without Viv Richards in attendance? A rock ‘n roll retrospective without any footage of the Rolling Stones? This wasn’t just the worst moment, it was sacrilege that deserved burning at the stake.

Sriram Veera

Best: Kumble being appointed captain
To see a bowler given the biggest responsibility was special. To see Anil Kumble get the job was heartwarming. It wasn’t so much an honour earned after playing so many years of ruthless cricket but something he fully deserved.Kumble has made a living of proving people wrong. They said he couldn’t turn the ball, but he has nearly 600 Test wickets; they said he was too focused on his own art to be captain, but he has led the team well. The sample size is too small to pass a verdict, and critics have harped on the late declaration against Pakistan in Bangalore, or not picking Virender Sehwag to open in Australia, but generally, it has been a satisfying performance. Till Dhoni matures, Kumble has shown that he can do the job adequately. For a bowling captain, he has not over-bowled or under-bowled himself, and he took five wickets on the opening day of the first Test in a land where they have made a tradition of targeting opposition captains. Good start, Jumbo.Worst: Pakistan suspected of involvement in Woolmer’s death
It was human nature at its worst. The death of Bob Woolmer held up a mirror to our darker selves. Many suspected the hand of the Pakistan team. In the post-9/11 hysteria, old stereotypes were trotted out. Pakistanis have been accused of being involved in match-fixing in the past, and it seemed all to easy, for many, to go one step further and view them as murderers as well. Pity.

Anand Vasu

Best: Ganguly’s comeback
As a journalist there is only one thing better than making a cricketing
prediction and seeing it come predictably true, and that is being proven
wrong in the best possible way. It sounds strange, but as a colleague of
mine once reminded me, that’s the beauty of sport: no matter how well you
know it, how much or how carefully you’ve watched it, it will surprise you.Sourav Ganguly surprised many, and reinforced the faith of those who
constantly believed in him, by rediscovering the kind of batting that made
him a genuinely great ODI batsman and a good Test batsman. His hundred at
one of the genuine homes of cricket in the world, and his own, was a
sentimental beauty, the kind of moment you want to be part of just so you
can say, “I was there.”At the post-match press conference in Kolkata, one reporter asked Ganguly, “Century at Eden, now what’s left a double-hundred?” He only smiled, and said, “Hopefully.” Even in that emotional moment, even after all that happened in the year gone by, it was scarcely believable. And then it came, as inevitably as the hundred at home, in Ganguly’s 99th Test. These are the moments that take sport from being merely a pastime to a compulsive obsession for some of us.Worst: Dravid resigning from the captaincy
Why did he do it? Was he pushed? What did he know that we didn’t? Rahul
Dravid’s stepping down from the captaincy raised a slew of questions and led to a
passage of uncertainty that Indian cricket did not need. The one thing that
was certain was the manner in which he stepped down: not just quietly but
with stonewalling silence and elusiveness, not offering so much as an
explanation beyond a two-line press release that the Board of Control for
Cricket in India had sent out.Of course, having completed his tenure of two years, he did not owe anyone – save his team-mates – an explanation, but it still left those who had the best of Indian cricket at heart with a feeling of being stranded. To call it a selfish decision is harsh on a cricketer who has done all he has been asked to, and more, for Indian cricket. To think it was an impulsive decision based on something a selector said is to not know Dravid.It was sad that one of the country’s greatest cricketers ever did not want the captaincy, the job everyone who has ever picked up a bat or a ball as a child dreams of. Dravid’s resignation said more about the job itself than the man, and what it left you with was not a happy feeling.

S Rajesh

Best: West Indies winning in Port Elizabeth
No one gave West Indies a chance when they began their three-Test series in South Africa, but they needed just four days to prove all the pundits wrong. Their 128-run win in Port Elizabeth wasn’t special just because it was their first Test win in South Africa, or because it broke a seven-and-a-half-year barren run against meaningful opposition overseas. The win was a result of contributions from almost their entire line-up, who displayed an intensity and passion that has long been missing in West Indies cricket. Here’s to more good times for the Caribbeans in 2008.Worst: Rahul Dravid’s rut
He has long been India’s go-to man, especially overseas, but 2007 was an entirely forgettable year for Rahul Dravid. He oversaw India’s World Cup debacle, but it was as batsman that he let the team – and himself – down. He failed in two successive series outside the subcontinent, and by the end of the year batting had become such a struggle for him that was it was painful to watch. Nothing typified the rut more than his last three innings outside the subcontinent: 12 off 96 balls at The Oval, followed by a match total of 21 runs from 180 deliveries at the MCG. Two thousand and eight will show if this is only a temporary blip or the beginning of the slide.

Leslie Mathew

Best: Australia v India, World Twenty20
Relentlessly electric – a game where both sides kept raising the stakes with their chests puffed out, cranking out the thrills till our eyes popped.And Australia’s third defeat in under two weeks. It’s not just in fairytales that monsters are bested.

Worst: McGrath’s retirement
How did it happen? Who told Glenn McGrath he could retire?All good things must come to an end. The point of being a metronome is, you go on and on endlessly, running in in that calibrated, sweatless way, like a marvel of German technology. Then you walk back, eyes on the ground, muttering about how the fringes of your eggs weren’t trimmed just right at breakfast that morning and how bloody humans can’t be relied on to get the simplest things right.Cricket can sell its soul all it likes. It was sold in the Caribbean, apparently, and not for a lot either. But to lose the clockwork ticking away at the heart of the Australian machine in the same year? Tragic. Worse, Australia didn’t even have the good grace to drop a few Tests in acknowledgment of the magnitude of their loss. Sheer gall.

Siddarth Ravindran

Best: Hayden in 2007

A couple of months before the World Cup, Matthew Hayden wasn’t even a certainty to make the trip to the Caribbean for cricket’s showpiece event. Not only did he make the tournament, he finished as the leading run-scorer with an astounding 659 runs. In his team’s first match against significant opposition after a run of five straight losses, Hayden made a ferocious century (off 66 balls) which set the tone for Australia’s clinical campaign, and earned him honorary citizenship of St Kitts as well. The first match at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium was graced by Hayden’s masterly 158 – an innings that would have made the Antiguan genius proud. Hayden rounded the tournament off with small but significant contributions in the semis and finals.Worst: Shoaib Akhtar’s spat with Mohammad Asif

Given Shoaib Akhtar’s disciplinary record, one should perhaps not have been surprised that he was involved in an altercation with a team-mate just days before the start of a major tournament. But in an era where batsmen have it easy, it was exasperating to see Shoaib, one of the few bowlers around who batsmen fear, miss out on a third global tournament in less than a year. And for a Pakistan team that had spent much of the year grappling with off-field issues, another controversy was the last thing needed. While there were several calls for a life ban for Shoaib’s latest transgression, he escaped with a 13-match ban.

Jamie Alter reviews Sri Lanka’s performance in the five-match home series against India

Jamie Alter in Colombo 30-Aug-2008
Thilan Thushara showed the potential to be a genuine allrounder © AFP
Since the final of the World Cup Sri Lanka have had a poor run, losing three bilateral series against significant opposition besides a disappointing show in the CB Series earlier this year. Things appeared to be falling in place during the victorious Asia Cup campaign, but losing 3-2 to a young Indian side has opened up huge cracks again. Thilan Thushara and Nuwan Kulasekara performed well but poor series from Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, coupled with an abysmal batting display, led to a second consecutive one-day series loss at home for the first time.BowlingIt was hardly a coincidence that Sri Lanka’s travails in this series coincided with the failure of two senior players. Vaas bowled some tidy opening spells, dismissing Gautam Gambhir for a second-ball duck in the series opener and taking his 400th wicket in the fourth game, but his overall failure to get wickets hurt Sri Lanka. Murali was decidedly off-key, finishing the series with four wickets (three in one game) at 43.00. However, there is plenty for Sri Lanka to take from the spirited performances of Kulasekara and Thushara.After a poor Test series Kulasekara bowled some very good opening spells, troubling India’s top order, and a career-best 4 for 40 earned him the Man-of-the-Match award in the dead rubber. A mere four months after his debut, Thushara has emerged not just as a bowler capable of making inroads but also as a batsman with the potential to develop into an authentic allrounder. He filled the third medium-pace slot superbly and almost always produced wickets; he took two in an over in the second game and pulled India back with his maiden five-wicket haul in the fourth.Thushara is 27 and Kulasekara 26, but the duo could provide a potent ODI pace-bowling partnership in the coming years, and with the likes of Lasith Malinga and Farveez Maharoof on the mend, Sri Lanka’s fast bowling stocks look in good health. Ajantha Mendis finished as the highest wicket-taker in the series with 13, polishing off the tail in the final game, but oddly wasn’t close to the standards he has set this year. Once India’s batsmen negated his threat for three straight games, the series was decided.BattingLike India’s famed middle order in the Tests, Sri Lanka’s top and middle orders came a cropper. Bar Mahela Jayawardene’s two fifties – his 94 nearly got them home in game three – there was not one stand-out innings. Most damningly, Sri Lanka’s opening acts were woeful, as one fifty from three different openers in five matches, with a highest stand of 28, indicates. Sanath Jayasuriya dazzled with 60 in the fourth game, but was otherwise a disaster. There is no time frame on when Jayasuriya is likely to retire from ODIs, but with the Champions Trophy postponed till 2009, he might take a second look at his options.More worryingly, Kumar Sangakkara’s best was 19. Not once did he bat out the Powerplays, and every time was beaten for pace and movement by one of India’s fast bowlers. He struggled as opener, one-drop, and at No. 4.The middle order was shambolic apart from Jayawardene. Chamara Silva was dropped after scores of 0, 1 and 0 while Tillakaratne Dilshan stitched together 44 runs in four games; both were exposed by bounce and movement. Chamara Kapugedera came up with an unbeaten 45 in the series opener but his form nosedived thereafter. The selectors and captain have kept faith in Dilshan for some time now, but he has only responded with occasional bursts of brilliance, while Silva’s place is no longer guaranteed. The lack of confidence was all too evident, and Jayawardene’s repeated mention of his disappointment at inconsistent batting clearly fell on deaf ears. A new opening combination needs to be established and at least a couple of middle-order spots are up for grabs.There is no time frame on when Jayasuriya is likely to retire from ODIs, but with the Champions Trophy postponed till 2009, he might take a second look at his optionsFielding
This is the one aspect that Sri Lanka had going in their favour. As in the Tests, the fielding remained energetic. Silva’s run-out from midwicket in game three was athletic, and Dilshan and Kapugedera were sprightly inside the circle. Jayasuriya, at 39 years and 58 days, pulled off a beauty to his left at cover in the fourth game. Most outfield chances were held, and the ground-fielding was generally sharp.LeadershipLike Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Jayawardene was his side’s highest scorer but the lack of support was disappointing. His captaincy, though, was generally competent, and the field placements were rather effective. He almost always kept a short cover and short midwicket and got Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh early thrice. He even tried the aggressive option of three fielders around the bat during the low-scoring second match. Lack of runs from his main batsmen meant that despite these moves, the results didn’t go Sri Lanka’s way.

The long and short of Middlesex’s John Murray was elegance in all he did
with gloves or bat – and he could have done more for England

Christian Wolmar17-Jun-2008

John Murray’s most amazing characteristic is that he could look both tall and small
simultaneously. As a wicketkeeper he needed to be squat and compact but such
was his emphasis on style and stance that he managed this despite being 5ft
l0in – rather tall for one of his craft.I was attracted to him because my annual told me that he was born
in Kensington, where I lived, and I also had aspirations to be a wicketkeeper. There could not have been a better model.Style was JT’s watchword. I first watched Middlesex in the early 1960s and he was already there, ensconced as that underperforming side’s wicketkeeper, a position he
first gained in 1956 and would retain for two decades. I used to cycle to
Lord’s from South Kensington after school and the kindly gatekeepers would
usually let me in for free, as well as keeping an eye on my bicycle for me.I particularly liked catching up on the post-tea proceedings on the first day, when I would normally get the fag end of the innings of the side batting first, who would, in those days, traditionally declare at around 300, and then watch the Middlesex quicks, Alan Moss and JJ Warr, steaming in for half an hour hoping to
capture a couple of cheap early wickets. Murray would stand far back to
them, going through his little routine before every ball, lifting his hands,
touching the cap he always wore and crouching down, ready to snaffle an edge. He would move effortlessly, rarely tumbling to take the ball, but occasionally he would dive full length, making extraordinary catches look simple. While he was naturally stylish, one
suspects that some deliberate effort went into staying so controlled and so
neat as even the way he passed the ball through to the slips after he had
taken it was done with panache.His batting was the same. His drives, in particular, were perfection,
straight out of the textbook, and Tony Lewis once wrote that he was the only
batsman who could make hooking the West Indies fast bowlers, something that
took courage in those pre-helmet days, look elegant, “with the balance of a
skater”.His Test batting average of around 20 could, indeed should, have been much
higher. His most famous innings, after all, was a century scored against
West Indies in their pomp with Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith spearheading
the attack and Garry Sobers and Lance Gibbs as the other two main bowlers. I
was at The Oval for that match in 1966, when England had nothing to play for
except pride as they were 0-3 down in the series. Murray came in at No. 9,
when England were still 102 behind West Indies’ first-innings total of 268.
Another defeat seemed on the cards but there was still Tom Graveney, who
matched Murray in elegance. They put on 217, with both scoring centuries,
and the combined perfection of their batting must have so inspired the tail that both Ken Higgs and John Snow, at Nos. 10 and 11, went on to score fifties, an unprecedented feat in Test cricket. England won by an innings, some consolation for a painful summer.

I remember, too, the other side of Murray’s batting, coming in late down the
order for a county game when Middlesex had needed just over 100 to beat
Glamorgan and had unaccountably collapsed on an easy pitch. A couple of
boundaries would have done it and that was too tempting. He was out for one
or two, lbw, aiming to drive when perhaps he should have just tried to grub out a few singles,
and Middlesex lost by a couple of runs.At the time Middlesex’s trademark dismissal was c Murray b Titmus, though
there was quite a smattering of st Murray b Titmus too. It was the
ball that drifted away from the batsman which so often ended up in Murray’s
gloves off an edge, and the stumpings were invariably brilliant leg-side
efforts to balls fired in deliberately – presumably on a prearranged signal
– outside the batsman’s legs at yorker length.Murray professed little interest in statistics, but those of his career are truly remarkable. He was one of only six wicketkeepers to achieve 100 dismissals in a season, and even more amazing, in 1957 when he scored 1025 runs and obtained 104 dismissals he became only
the second player to achieve the wicketkeepers’ double. His career total of 1527 has been beaten only, later, by Bob Taylor’s 1649 from four more matches.Murray was, though, a nearly man. The fashion for choosing keepers who could bat
rather than the best stumper had already been established and he lost out to
Jim Parks, who like Alec Stewart had got into the Test side on his batting
alone before taking up the gloves. Despite that brilliant century against
West Indies, Murray in his long career played only 21 Tests.He deserved better. His batting could undoubtedly have
improved sufficiently to make a useful contribution at No. 7 in Tests but in
those days selectors tended to look at already developed skills rather than
potential. He was a better wicketkeeper than Parks, and though there was
Keith Andrew to consider, the Northamptonshire man was a genuine tailender
with very little batting ability. Murray never complained, though. It would
have been inelegant to do so.

An emblem for a nation, he came to be defined by one stark image… and for one boy growing up in Zimbabwe at the time, an item of cricket kit

Dan Nicholl02-Apr-2009I no longer have it, sadly, having passed it on to a younger cricketer, much as it was passed on to me. But I can still picture it clearly: battered black bag with a large, halting zip, and a sleeve stitched heavily to the outside to hold my precious Duncan Fearnley Colt, a bat I was barely able to wield but clung doggedly to nonetheless, despite an almost complete lack of run-scoring success.The bat was the jewel, certainly, but when you’re eight years old and living in kit-starved Zimbabwe, a Slazenger cricket bag packs an awful lot of street cred – all the more when said bag was previously the property of one Andy Flower. Passed on by Andy’s father, Bill, it created a link between the elder Flower brother and myself, and while Andy neither had nor has any inkling of said link, it’s one of several reasons why he’s my favourite cricketer.I’ve had many passing favourites, I suppose – when you’re a cricket-mad kid with big dreams and a vivid imagination, all it takes is a Richie Richardson hundred or Waqar Younis five-fer, and suddenly you’ve got a new hero you simply have to emulate. Adulation is flippant when you have so many heroes.But 20-odd years on from taking possession of Andy’s old cricket bag, a sense of perspective settles in. Herschelle Gibbs or Ricky Ponting may still get the pulse racing, and Brett Lee in full flight may elicit delusions of speed. Over time, however, naming a favourite is actually quite simple, even if running through the reasons why doesn’t leave me quite as elated as such an act of tribute should.The bag isn’t my only link to Andy – together with his brother Grant and former Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell (an unfulfilled talent to rank alongside any Mark Ramprakash or Vinod Kambli you may care to offer), Flower senior coached me at the Zimbabwe Academy in Harare – a rather grand term for a weekly net session among a handful of schoolboy hopefuls from around the country.That was before he truly came of age as a world-class batsman, however. Before he played on subcontinental pitches as if brought up in the back streets of Mumbai. Before he climbed into attacks with an authority only Campbell and Davey Houghton had shown flashes of before for Zimbabwe. And before he showed the world how to really play a reverse sweep.Accustomed to taking solace from the occasional fifty, or close-run defeat, Zimbabwean fans were used to being on the receiving end of world-class performances, not to dishing them out. As Flower’s flowing knocks became increasingly frequent, the world began to take notice. “Late Blooming Flower” headlines may have elicited groans the world over but the relentless left-hander was exactly that.

As a young Zimbabwean watching Flower, there was simply the unbridled delight that one of our own was the world’s No. 1 batsman

He may not have played with the gung-ho savagery of a Virender Sehwag, or quite the imperious elegance of a Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara; if anything, there was a determination to his game that nodded in the direction of Steve Waugh. But to be honest, comparisons were hardly of consequence – as a young Zimbabwean watching Flower, there was simply the unbridled delight that one of our own was the world’s No. 1 batsman.But despite 12 Test hundreds and close on 5000 runs in his 63 Test matches, Flower won’t be primarily remembered for his time at the crease. Instead, it is his departure from the international game that will remain his enduring legacy. Donning black armbands to mark “the death of democracy” in their country, Flower and Henry Olonga began the 2003 World Cup in South Africa with a political statement that both men knew would effectively seal the end of their time in international cricket.But the sacrifice wasn’t the catalyst for change the two cricketers had hoped for – a forlorn group of schoolboys is a poor excuse for a national team, and a sadly accurate reflection on the demise of a country once rich in promise. And so there’s a sadness in recollecting my favourite cricketer, for he represents everything I used to love about Zimbabwean cricket, while reminding me of what the game and the country have since become. But I also remember the hundred at the World Cup against Sri Lanka in 1992, the twin Test hundreds against South Africa at the Harare Sports Club, and the imperious form in India that saw him hit 183 and 232, both unbeaten, in successive Tests, with two fifties in the remaining innings of those two games for good measure.Above all, I remember an old Slazenger cricket bag that was once so treasured a possession; the bag is gone, but the memories of Andy Flower, bittersweet as they might be, will never leave me.

If the two teams needed any motivation before the start of the Tests, it has arrived in the form of L Balaji and James Franklin

Sidharth Monga in Hamilton16-Mar-2009
James Franklin has developed from a left-arm swing bowler into an allrounder © Getty Images
After a breathtaking ODI series, if the two teams needed any motivation before the start of the Tests, it has arrived through reinforcements to the Test squad. One each in particular for the two sides. Men who lost years in their prime to injuries. Men who came back transformed: one with a changed bowling action, the other with a different role. They will both be looking to fulfil primarily the third pace bowler’s responsibility for their teams. For inspiration, look no further than L Balaji and James Franklin.Two years ago, Franklin was struggling to get through the 2007 World Cup. In the game against Bangladesh, he had to go off the field because of what seemed like a migraine attack but was actually much worse. “I get tunnel vision and a headache that spikes me in the head,” Franklin said then. “In the drinks break I was fine, but when I tried to focus on something it was all blurred. I bowled an over after that. It was a blur and in the later part it was all blue vision.”Franklin has had such attacks since he was 12, three times on the field. But what really laid him low was a crippling knee injury. Six months later he learned he required surgery.Around the same time Balaji, already out of international action because of his back injuries, was not sure which way his rehabilitation was heading. That was when he was told he needed to undergo back surgery. Before he went in for the operation, he needed a reassurance from mentor and friend WV Raman that he would be able to bowl again.Franklin has been ahead of Balaji in terms of rehabilitation and comeback. After the knee surgery, Franklin said he wanted to make a comeback as an allrounder, not as the same left-arm swing bowler who could bat. He worked hard on his batting, trying to become the “50-50″ allrounder. Sure enough, he scored 219 against Auckland in the initial part of this season to back up his claims. The reward came in the form of two Tests against West Indies at the end of last year.”[I bring in] just a little bit of variation,” Franklin said. “Left-armer, I can swing the ball so it’ll be a different angle of attack for the batsmen to come up against. I’d like to think I can do the job both with the ball and the bat.”Franklin has taken only 14 wickets in seven matches in his comeback season but has averaged 69 with the bat, scoring two hundreds and two fifties. “My focus this season hasn’t changed so much,” he said. “It’s just been a case of being able to get myself in and the runs have been forthcoming, so it’s just a continuation.”Unlike Franklin, who is almost a sure starter in the New Zealand XI, Balaji will most likely be competing against Munaf Patel for a final place. But it’s no less a credit to him that he is in the squad. Back injuries and surgeries do not leave even the strongest of men unaffected. Balaji has come back with a modified action, running in a unique fashion, tiptoeing for the first few steps and then slowly easing through. The big challenge was to get through the season and repeat the restructured action over and over again. The back injury has not affected Balaji’s wrists and his release, which produces the swing that got him 36 wickets at 17.5 on unresponsive wickets in the Ranji Trophy. As a reward he was selected for the ODIs in Sri Lanka, and now finds himself in New Zealand.”[I am] feeling good [to be back],” Balaji said. “I have worked very hard in the last two years, and I am looking forward to the big series. It’s good to be coming back to the side and I am enjoying the team atmosphere.”Balaji realises the scale of his comeback, the hard work that has gone in to just come level with his team-mates and opponents. “I haven’t set any expectations,” he said. “I am just enjoying my bowling so far, given whatever I have come through in the last two years.”The last two years, both Franklin and Balaji will know, are history. Test cricket is a tough place. Come Wednesday, if both play, the Seddon Park pitch will make no allowances for their past troubles. After having been through so much, ironically the Test is just starting.

He has opened his mind and his array of strokes, and South Africa’s limited-overs teams have opened their arms for him

Simon Borchardt22-Sep-2009The accumulator is now the dominator. Caution has been replaced with confrontation, and a fear of failure with a freedom of expression. Introducing the new, improved Jacques Kallis, South Africa’s greatest post-apartheid batsman. Fully adaptable to Test, ODI and Twenty20 cricket. Able to stamp his authority on a match, put doubt into the minds of opposition bowlers and entertain the crowds.This hasn’t always been the case with Kallis, which is why he is yet to join Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting in the elite group of modern batting greats. Instead he has been relegated to another, less illustrious group of batsmen, who have superb international records but haven’t quite done enough to earn godlike status. The best of the rest, you could call them.Unfair? Perhaps, but Kallis has been guilty in the past of batting himself into a position from which he could move into fifth gear, only to keep going along in fourth. Often this was because his role as South Africa’s anchorman demanded a safety-first approach and he received little support from other batsmen in the side. However there were times when he had only himself to blame for failing to play an innings that would really make the cricketing world sit up and take notice – something like Brian Lara’s 277 at the SCG in 1993.Much has been made of Kallis’ failure to score a Test double-century, yet he could have easily reached that mark as long ago as September 2001 against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. When South Africa declared their first innings closed on 519 for 8, Kallis had reached 189 not out in a 443-ball knock that lasted over nine-and-a-half hours. Had he batted at a strike-rate of 45.10, instead of 42.66, he’d have reached 200 and got that monkey off his back early in his career. And he should have, considering Heath Streak was the only world-class bowler he faced during that innings and rain over the first two days meant the Test was always going to end in a draw. You can’t help but feel that had the Kallis of 2009 faced those 443 balls, he would have become the first South African to score a Test triple-century. He would have made it count.Kallis’ conservative approach wasn’t only restricted to Test cricket. He also often had to hold South Africa’s ODI line-up together. Yet there were times when he could have played without the weight of the world on his shoulders, but chose not to.At the 2007 World Cup, for example, he scored 48 off 63 balls against Australia in a group game when 378 were needed for victory. When Kallis came to the crease, South Africa were looking good at 160 for 1 after 21 overs. When he was dismissed in the 44th over, they were 277 for 7 and the game was gone.The barrage of criticism Kallis received after that loss almost certainly played a part in the wild shot that had him bowled for 5 by Glenn McGrath in the semi-final rematch. He was trying to prove a point that day but found himself ill-equipped to do so.Later that year Kallis’ one-day career nosedived even further when he was omitted from South Africa’s World Twenty20 squad, albeit after then-Cricket SA president Norman Arendse allegedly got involved in the selection process. Kallis was furious and promptly resigned as the team’s vice-captain, but on some level he must have known that he had not helped himself through his performances in the middle. It became clear that if he wanted to become indispensable to South Africa in all three forms of the game, he would have to reinvent himself.

Kallis scored 189 not out in a 443-ball knock against Zimbabwe in 2001. Had he batted at a strike-rate of 45.10, instead of 42.66, against an attack whose only world-class bowler was Heath Streak, he’d have reached 200 and got that monkey off his back early in his career

“I wanted to improve my batting in the one-day formats and looked long and hard at making a few technical changes,” recalls Kallis. “Mickey Arthur and [mentor] Duncan Fletcher helped me make the necessary adjustments, but I’ll admit it was a lot of hard work.”Arthur says Kallis had no choice but to ditch the anchor role that he’d performed for the one-day side. “The ODI game has changed drastically over the past few years and totals of 250 or 260 are no longer good enough,” says Arthur. “It helps that we have guys like AB de Villiers and Graeme Smith doing well, but we also wanted Jacques to express himself more and take more risks. I’ve always believed Jacques could give another 10-20% of himself from an attacking perspective, and he has done exactly that recently.”There is a perception that Jacques is a slow batsman, which is because he’s always performed a specific role for this team,” Arthur continues. “I challenged him to change his approach. We worked long and hard and you can see the results in his limited-overs form, especially in Twenty20 cricket.”Kallis had just 43 runs to his name after four international Twenty20 appearances going into this year’s World Twenty20, yet he was South Africa’s top-scorer in the tournament, with 238 runs in five matches, at a strike-rate of 126.59 (behind only AB de Villiers and Albie Morkel).Kallis opened the batting with Graeme Smith, having been successful in that position during the IPL, and adapted effortlessly to the various match situations. When facing Scotland’s pie-chuckers in their first match, he chanced his arm a bit and smashed 48 off 31 balls, with de Villiers (79 not out off 34) continuing the onslaught. Kallis played a similar innings against West Indies (45 off 31), receiving good support from Herschelle Gibbs (55 off 35). However, against England, when South Africa needed just 112 to win, Kallis chose to torture the bowlers instead of bludgeoning them, scoring 57 not out off 49 balls. In the semi-final against Pakistan, the loss of early wickets forced him to play more measuredly, yet he still finished with 64 off 54.A few weeks earlier, Kallis had played an important part in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s surprise march to the IPL final, making 361 runs in 15 appearances at a strike-rate of 108.73 (compared to the 199 runs he scored for them in 11 matches in 2008).One of his best IPL performances came in Bangalore’s second-last match of the league stage, against Delhi Daredevils in Jo’burg, which they had to win to stay in semi-final contention. Chasing a target of 135, they made a poor start when Robin Uthappa got out in the first over. Kallis, though, made 58 not out off 56 balls, effectively sealing the win in the 18th over by launching Daniel Vettori for a six and a four (further evidence that he can now turn it on when he has to).”When I saw the way Kallis batted in that match, I just knew he would be there at the end of the innings,” Mike Procter, South Africa’s chairman of selectors, told Cricinfo. “Throughout the tournament he scored quickly when he had to, and made some big scores. It’s evident how much he has learnt.”Kallis says he was always willing to make changes to his game. “As a player, you are constantly looking for new challenges; it’s what keeps you fresh. I had always adopted a more conservative role, so it was great to be given the freedom to dominate a bowling attack.In the second edition of the IPL, Kallis was instrumental in Bangalore’s run to the final•Associated Press”I’ve always said the anchor role was boring, as I was effectively doing the donkey work. I knew I could be more aggressive, so I was thrilled to be handed this new challenge.”Kallis’s mind-shift was relatively simple. He focused on giving himself more space, which allowed him to hit the ball further. “It took a while to come right and I only really started to click in the IPL,” he says. “I think I understand the structure of Twenty20 cricket a lot better now. Last year I learnt some harsh lessons, but it was a necessary part of the process.”Kallis also realised that Twenty20 cricket was a unique form of the game and required a different mindset. “You are never going to consistently make runs in Twenty20s, so when you do fail, you can’t let it stop you from taking risks in future,” he explains.His focus has shifted back to the 50-over game with the Champions Trophy. Having been part of the South Africa side that flopped at the 2003 World Cup, and missed out on the World Twenty20 in 2007, he now has one last opportunity to get his hands on some major silverware in front of his home fans.”I’m very excited about the tournament,” he says. “We are the No. 1 ODI side in the world and we’ll be playing in familiar conditions. Winning the Champions Trophy would give us a big boost ahead of the 2011 World Cup.”Kallis’ recent ODI form with the bat has been impressive. In eight matches against Australia last season, he strung together scores of 41, 72, 60 and 13 Down Under (at an overall strike-rate of 81.22) and then 31, 70, 17 and 64 at home (at 82.35). The only criticism that could be levelled at him is that he didn’t convert one of those four fifties into a century, but don’t be surprised if he reaches three figures at some stage during the Champions Trophy.”The best thing about Jacques’ recent achievements is that he still has a desire to get even better,” says Arthur. “I feel massively encouraged going into the Champions Trophy with him thriving in his new role. He’s going to make a big impact.”

Bangalore’s crocodile hunter likes the great outdoors, giving lip to Hayden, and hoping his girlfriend partners him in a Bond movie

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi07-May-2009You always appear cheerful. What’s your secret?
I enjoy playing cricket. I would rather be playing cricket than doing any other kind of job. I was born to play. Once I walk on to the field, there is no tiredness – it is all about performing and playing well and competing and pushing myself.Does anyone or anything make you angry?
I can get upset like anybody else. I try and keep a smile on my face.Dale Steyn, cricketer or Dale Steyn, crocodile hunter – which one do you prefer?
A mixture of both. I like to do my thing. I like to fish.I caught a crocodile not so long ago and it was a total accident. It wasn’t like I was fishing for one but a croc came out and hit my lure. I got some photos and even grabbed some videos. I can write about it in my book one day.If not for cricket, what would you use cricket balls for?
Definitely to throw on the beach for my dog to catch. Sadie is a beautiful golden retriever. She’s a machine. She follows me to the ocean and enjoys herself. She has already chewed up a couple of the cricket balls in my house.What’s your nickname?
I’ve got a couple. My grandparents call me Champ. All my team-mates call me Julio. AB de Villiers gave it to me about five years ago and it just stuck. There is no real reason for it.Who’s the most damaging batsman in cricket?
Virender Sehwag on his day, especially in home conditions, can be quite devastating. So can somebody like Chris Gayle.Which cricketer would you pick to go with on a trip into the wild?
Actually I’ll have to take both Morkel brothers – Albie and Morne. All three of us enjoy fishing, and they have a long history going into the bush and stuff like that, so they know their way around in the wild.If you were to play James Bond, who would you pick as the female lead? Not counting your girlfriend.
You’re gonna have to put my girlfriend, purely because she is an actress. Jeanne Kietzmann is her name and you need to put it down. Otherwise Natalie Portman, because she looks similar.Tell us about one sledge you will never forget.
I still remember what Matthew Hayden said in my very first Test against Australia, last year in Perth. I bowled the first ball of the match to Simon Katich and it ran wide and Mark Boucher took it in front of first slip. Hayden turned around and said I was going to be so nervous the whole game that I would be bowling wides for the rest of the game. I shot back saying, “I doubt that I’m the nervous one because I don’t have to come a day before the Test and sit in the middle of the pitch and try and visualise where I’m going to score my first runs.” It was an interesting chat we had.Are you talkative?
Very.What does your girlfriend complain about regarding you?
That I am never at home.When in South Africa do not forget to…
To go to Table Mountain and visit Kruger National Park.The ball you cherish?
The delivery I bowled Michael Vaughan with in my debut Test, in the second innings.Tell us something we don’t know about you.
I don’t like wearing shoes off the field. I’m a t-shirt-and-shorts sorta guy, completely.