After a self-inflicted break, Ravi Bopara’s form with the bat has slumped and it is beginning to pose a dilemma for England

Andrew McGlashan03-Sep-2012When Ravi Bopara bowled Hashim Amla at Lord’s, and celebrated with polite handshakes from his team-mates, he had the wide smile of a man enjoying the game. A few hours later, when he edged Ryan McLaren behind for 6, he walked off wearing the expression of someone with the weight of world on his shoulders.It has been a tough few weeks for Bopara, stemming from the personal problems that forced him to withdraw from the second Test against South Africa at Headingley. There is no need to speculate on what those problems were, but since returning to action he has had a miserable run with the bat: 1, 3, 2, 16, 0 and 6.Yet his bowling is as effective as ever in one-day internationals. His 2 for 34 at Lord’s included the wickets of Amla (who many of England’s frontline bowlers have struggled to dismiss this season) and Faf du Plessis. It followed a tight 10-over spell at The Oval, just the second time in his ODI career he had bowled his full quota and he is giving Alastair Cook a valuable option. This season he averages 23.28 with the ball in ODIs – with an economy rate of just 3.46 – and let’s not forget he almost removed Amla early in his triple hundred in the Test series.”Ravi’s bowled well all summer and manages to keep picking up wickets,” Cook said. “He’s always had a bit of a golden arm, but I think he’s managed to control his length a little bit better than in the past. He bowls wicket to wicket, and a lot less four-balls.”The problem is, however, that as one of the top five he needs to score runs. Batting orders rarely have everyone in top form, but Bopara looks so short on confidence that he is being carried by the others. Coupled with Cook attracting some good deliveries against the new ball there is a lot of onus on Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan.Cook, though, did not sound overly concerned about his Essex team-mate: “You get a little bit frustrated, like anyone, when you’re not scoring runs,” he said. “But that’s why it’s great when you have both strings to your bow – like he does. It’s not quite happening with the bat for him at the moment but he showed his class with the bat against Australia, and he’s certainly making a massive contribution with the ball at the moment.”It is hard not to feel a little sympathy for Bopara, although it is not often a common senitment used in comment sections or social media. Things had all started to look so promising for him earlier in the season against Australia where he scored 182 runs in four innings to hint at a greater maturity to his game. After a match-winning 82 at The Oval he even said he thought he “was batting as well as ever”.Then came a tough Test return at The Oval where he made 0 and 22, twice falling to Dale Steyn, but he would certainly have had the Headingley Test and probably Lord’s as well to try and convince the selectors he was was the man for No. 6. But his self-inflicted absence forced him to watch James Taylor and Jonny Bairstow leapfrog him in the queue to the extent that, even if Kevin Pietersen’s exile continues into the India Test series, Bopara is no certainty to be there.The other, more immediate, problem for England is that they are in danger of heading into the World Twenty20 with their No. 3 badly out of touch. Bopara is inked in for that position following a steady half-century against West Indies earlier the season in what is an inexperienced top order outside of Eoin Morgan and, to a lesser degree, Craig Kieswetter.Yet the shortest format may just be Bopara’s best route back to form. There is really no choice but to play shots (despite the maxim that 20 overs is longer than you think) and exploiting the six Powerplay overs will be a key period in Sri Lanka. Maybe the less time Bopara has to worry about building a score can free his mind to be more instinctive.His place in the one-day side is probably secure for the final match of the series. Cook did not sound like a captain who wanted to dispense with his bowling, while there are concerns over Trott’s hand injury. However, one of the major debates this season has been whether England are too wedded to picking bowlers because of their batting skills and the reverse situation is quickly coming to the fore about Bopara.

After being caned for 233 runs in his return to top-flight cricket, the allrounder made up for it with a blistering century that thwarted Maharashtra’s plans of securing a first-innings lead

Amol Karhadkar in Pune12-Nov-2012As Suresh Raina and Parvinder Singh were batting in the nets after the third day’s play of Uttar Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy encounter, Piyush Chawla, who had figures of 3 for 233 off 51 overs on his return to top-flight cricket after a six-week layoff due to a thumb injury, was expressing his displeasure over Maharashtra’s negative tactics and the featherbed of a pitch.Suddenly, he said, “Let me pad up and have a few hits in the nets.” In no time, he replaced Raina in the nets and for the next fifteen minutes, consistently sent the ball flying into the stands. One sensed that not only was he practicing the big shots that could have been required on the last day, but was also venting his anger for his struggles with the ball on a torturous track for the bowlers.That short stint in the nets was just a dress rehearsal. The main show was on display on Monday, the last day of the tie that turned out to be the most interesting one. He not only raised his highest score in first-class cricket, but also helped UP deprive Maharashtra of the first-innings lead.Coming in to bat at 408 for 5, with Parvinder falling to Samad Fallah, Chawla had a challenging task to Fallah and Co at bay for the rest of the day’s play. With more than half the day’s play and a maximum of 50 overs remaining, Chawla and Arish Alam had a lot to do.The allrounder decided to take the best bowler, Fallah, on immediately as his first three balls were dispatched to the off-side fence. Having succeeded in overcoming the toughest challenge, Chawla grew in confidence and raised his fifty in quick time, off just 29 balls.Despite losing Alam – who played a patient knock, Chawla kept the runs flowing, primarily scoring boundaries. He targeted all the spinners, hitting all his eight sixes, including three successive hits off the left-armer Akshay Darekar just after celebrating his century. He also cut and pulled the three pace bowlers at will.Every stroke indicated that he was making a statement at the curator. “It is one of the flattest decks I have ever played in my career. I am primarily a bowler, so I enjoy my bowling,” Chawla said. “And after seeing the whole game, I feel I have done a reasonable job for my team. Getting three wickets and scoring more than 150 runs is good for me, especially after playing the first game after being injured for almost two months, going ahead into the rest of the season.”Chawla’s onslaught was finally over as he failed to time a quick one by Anupam Sanklecha. Even though he had helped his team escape from a slightly precarious position – with the lead at stake – Chawla was a tad disappointed not to have stayed till the end.”You’re bound to get an odd good delivery. It was perhaps the only defensive shot I played towards the end of the innings and I missed it, so it happens. But I am reasonably happy with my effort.”

Sri Lanka’s second innings lasted only 24.2 overs, which is their shortest in Test history. Here are more stats highlights from the match

S Rajesh28-Dec-2012

• Sri Lanka’s innings-and-201-run loss in Melbourne is their third-heaviest in Test cricket, and their worst in almost 12 years. Their two heaviest defeats have both come against South Africa, in Cape Town in 2001 (by an innings and 229 runs), and at the SSC in 1993 (by an innings and 208 runs).
• In 12 Tests in Australia, Sri Lanka have lost ten, including four by an innings and another by ten wickets. They’ve drawn the other two. In 25 Tests against Australia, Sri Lanka have won only once, and lost 16 times.
• Sri Lanka’s second innings folded at 103 for 7 – it’s only the second time in Test history that a team has been bowled out after having lost seven or fewer wickets. The previous such instance was in Kingston in 1976, when five of India’s batsmen didn’t bat in the second innings.
• Sri Lanka’s second innings wound up in 24.2 overs, which is their shortest completed innings in Tests. Their second-worst effort is 24.4, in Cardiff last year, when they were bundled out for 82 in their second innings, spectacularly losing a game that seemed headed for a draw going into the final day. Thus, two of their poorest such efforts have come in the last 20 months.
• Over the course of the entire match, Sri Lanka lost 17 wickets for 259 runs, at an average of 15.23 runs per wicket. That average is their sixth-lowest (in Tests in which they’ve played at least 15 overs). It’s also their lowest in the last eight-and-a-half years: in Darwin in July 2004, they’d been bundled out for 97 and 162, at an average of 12.95 runs per wicket.
• Four of Sri Lanka’s top five batsmen were dismissed for 0 or 1 in the second innings, which is a first for them. It’s only the eighth time this has happened in Test history.
• The entire Test match lasted only 202.4 overs, which is the fifth-fastest MCG Test to produce a decisive result, and the fastest among matches that started on Boxing Day. The last time an MCG Test produced a result in fewer deliveries was in 1932, when Australia thrashed South Africa by an innings and 72 runs in 656 deliveries.

From Sagun P, Australia
They say that in times of despair, you should look at the brighter side of life and new hope for the future ahead

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013Sagun P, Australia
They say that in times of despair, you should look at the brighter side of life and new hope for the future ahead. If one had been following Australian news and media channels over the past few weeks, they can be forgiven for thinking that Twenty-20 is the best format of the gentleman’s game and that Lee, Johnson, Clarke & Clark, Hayden, so and so have disappeared off the face of the earth. And why not? When you have David Warner!If I got a cent for every time I’ve heard about how we miss Warnie and that he should be recalled, I wouldn’t be writing this blog right now. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’d be lining up Warnie to be my star transfer for next year’s expanded IPL, where I’d apparently be owner of the new Bihar-based franchise with Lalu as my spokesperson. But all that’s for another day.Richie Benaud still thinks Warne can make a comeback in this year’s Ashes series and KP’s desperate attempt to have Sir Shane made the coach of England goes a long way to confirming the fact that the Poms are scared that it might happen as well! But, as I mentioned earlier, all this talk has suddenly died down once David Warner has arrived onto the scene.Andrew McDonald made his debut for Australia this summer and Ricky Ponting affectionately nicknamed him “Fanta”. I wonder if Warner will be the new “Warnie”; if not just to get the opposition onto the back foot – something the Australians are masters of (among other things). Australia’s fixation with all things Warnie is starting to get a bit creepy now. Just go see the new musical about him. Next thing you know, he’ll be hosting his own reality TV shows: “Search for Australia’s next top Warnie”. But wait, we’ve already found him.His name is David Warner. Critics have already started doing what they do best and labeled him a one-hit-wonder. If that is the case, I wonder if and how long they will persist with him in the hope that one day, one day he will repeat his heroics from his first hit out; and not just turn up and bowl his fast leggies with returns of 2/45 from every match and get out first ball. My Pakistani friend Ahmed suggested I put that last sentence in, by the way.It’s astonishing that a cricketer would get selected for what was the greatest cricketing team in the world without even a first class match under his belt. It’s even more astonishing that some people want this man to be selected to don the baggy green left vacant by Matthew Hayden and enter a team which only 18 months ago was described as “harder to get in than out”. Maybe Haydos thinks the same, for he retired the day after he saw Warner spin the Proteas out of the MCG.Wait, I think Brad Hodge is at my door. ….. No, it was just the postie with my tickets to Sydney to join the Bankstown Cricket Club. For his sake and whatever happens next, I hope he does well and goes a long way to fulfilling his early promise, both in Australia and in Delhi. After all, Sehwag and Co wouldn’t want to have let go of Shikhar Dhawan for nothing.Now if only my German mate Hans Warneberger from Nar Nar Goon would stop thinking he suddenly has new found batting superpowers and strut out to bat with such disregard for the bowling that as the next man in, I’d have to get padded up even before he faced a ball.

For any ICC decision to be applicable it needs a 70% vote and India, with support from other boards, has been able to thwart some of the recommendations of the erstwhile veto-wielding nations

Girish Menon25-Feb-2013At the MCC Spirit of Cricket address this year Tony Greig, cricket commentator, Kerry Packer rebel, former England captain who grew up in apartheid South Africa urged India, the current cricket superpower, to follow Nelson Mandela’s approach to solve the problems of world cricket. Instead of adopting Mandela’s conciliatory attitude, Greig said, “India eschews his approach by indulging in a little pay back.”In , Naomi Klein has vividly captured the changes in South Africa as the erstwhile apartheid regime made way for an all-inclusive rainbow nation. As the FW De Klerk government’s power began to fade, Mandela had to decide if South Africans needed political and economic equality or to settle for political equality and let the beneficiaries of the apartheid era continue with their hegemonic power over the South African economy. He chose the latter but he also set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to record the atrocities of the apartheid regime. For those who came forward, confessed to their crimes and got amnesty, the justice wasn’t retributive.Now, in this rainbow nation, the winners of the apartheid regime and a few blacks live in gated communities but are isolated from the poor black majority. Thus, in South Africa, there’s a new but global form of apartheid in which money is the basis of discrimination. To understand the problems in world cricket we need a brief history of cricket’s administration.International cricket was once governed by England, Australia and South Africa under the aegis of the Imperial Cricket Conference which was later re-christened the International Cricket Conference (ICC). Until recently, cricket was run primarily by England and Australia who enjoyed veto powers on the game’s decisions and which they used to advance their own interest with occasional decisions of noblesse oblige. It was only in 1996 that the ICC’s constitution was rewritten and the veto powers rescinded. Today, for any ICC decision to be applicable it needs a 70% vote and India, with support from other boards, has been able to thwart some of the recommendations of the erstwhile veto-wielding nations.The erstwhile ‘imperial’ powers of cricket had not reckoned with India’s arrival as a global cricketing superpower. The process started in 1983 when Kapil Dev’s team won the World Cup at Lord’s. Along with the introduction of colour television and the increasing wealth of India’s burgeoning middle class, cricket found a market hitherto unheard of. The BCCI now had its coffers overflowing, made many new friends and found itself leading the group of the Asian members of the ICC. When the BCCI’s representative Jagmohan Dalmiya was elected as the President of the ICC in 1997, it was the culmination of a transfer of power within the game’s governing body. Ever since, India, with its supporters, has ruled the roost in ICC matters and even Australia and South Africa support India in lure for the largesse that BCCI has to offer.So, the most disgruntled power in the ICC is the ECB, which hasn’t really welcomed the IPL with great excitement. Most media in the UK, with the exception of ITV, did not cover the cricket played in the IPL which attracted most of the leading players in the world. With this historical background, I will now discuss the validity of the Mandela-esque plea made by Greig.Imagine a market where two firms enjoy dominant market shares for a long time and used this power to sustain their hold on the market. Imagine a hitherto small firm from this market suddenly outstripping the dominant duo with significantly larger revenues. Is it incumbent on the new monopoly to co-operate or collude with the ancien regime? Also, has the USA, the dominant hegemon, shared its power and wealth with the people of the world or at least with all of its own people? Doesn’t the UN resemble the Imperial Cricket Conference with five countries wielding the veto power? Has the South African elite shared its wealth with its impoverished countrymen in the new rainbow nation? And if a wrong has been committed, should the perpetrator be punished or co-opted in the new power dispensation?To this writer, it appears the behaviour of the BCCI, if Mr. Greig’s thesis is correct, is entirely consistent with the historical behaviour of dominant powers. Is that the right way for the BCCI to behave? This will need an examination of the BCCI’s position on issues that Greig claims the Indian board is using its muscle power to influence and stop ‘progress’ in the cricketing world. And on the subject of the DRS, where the BCCI and Indian cricketers have been portrayed as Luddites, there is more than a case for the Indian position. The Indians have consistently opposed the DRS especially on its predictive characteristics, and they have a point that technophiles ignore to their own peril.In the modern system of justice, for someone to be convicted of a crime the prosecution must prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the accused actually committed the crime. In recent judicial cases here in the UK, original verdicts have been overturned because the expert testimony used to convict the accused was found to be of dubious quality. Hence, the Indian position on an lbw decision appears to be valid, for it questions the validity of replacing the opinion of an umpire with the opinion of an expensive piece of technology. Therefore, Greig is not right, at least in the case of the DRS, when he argues that India is abusing its position and in the process preventing cricket from progressing.Of course, there is a possibility that racial undertones, schadenfreude and power politics could govern relations between the ICC members. But for India to behave like Mandela, the ICC will need its own Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Until then hegemonic power-plays, I predict, will continue.

Mumbai’s predatory opening pair, Dale Steyn, Amit Mishra and James Faulkner produced the most memorable spells in IPL 2013

Nitin Sundar27-May-2013Dale Steyn – 1-0-15-0 (Super Over) v Royal Challengers BangaloreDale Steyn – magnificent in all formats, in spells of any length•BCCIThe IPL isn’t the most challenging assignment for someone who has bowled marathon spells of unrelenting menace at the Test level. Dale Steyn was outstanding right through IPL 2013, piling up 19 wickets at an economy rate of 5.66, often while defending low scores. We could easily make a list of five memorable Steyn spells alone. He tormented top orders, blew away tails, and made a mockery of sloggers, who fumbled against him even on their best days.But his brilliance can be distilled to one Super Over of pin-point pace and accuracy against the most destructive top-order pair in the tournament. With 20 to defend against Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli, Steyn did away with the variations – no subterfuge, slower balls, loopy bouncers or back-of-the-hand stuff. Steyn thundered in hard and sent them down at blistering pace, straight and full enough to negate leverage. On a slow pitch he clocked 147 kph three times, and five out of the six balls were unhittable, even by Gayle who thrives by making his own room. RCB fell five short, and Gayle smiled resignedly in the end, knowing he’d been quelled by a superior force; one that could cut it in all formats, in spells even as short as a single over.Amit Mishra 4-0-19-4 v Pune WarriorsFourteen to win off 12 balls with four wickets in hand, and all three seamers have bowled out. Nine times out of ten, you’d expect the legspinner tasked with bowling the 19th to fire them in and delay the inevitable win for the chasing team. Amit Mishra trotted in with plans of his own, tossing up each delivery higher than the previous. Angelo Mathews was enticed off the second ball and lofted straight to long-on. A couple of balls later, Mishra floated the googly, and it broke back to nail Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the pads. There was panic in the Pune ranks, and Mishra brushed aside the last two – Rahul Sharma and Ashok Dinda bowled with the legspinner and the wrong ‘un respectively. Four wickets in five balls, to good, old-fashioned, attacking leg-spin bowling.Mitchell Johnson and Lasith Malinga 8-0-52-0 v Royal Challengers BangaloreFour-over spells, and the innate imbalance between bat and ball in T20s, don’t afford bowlers the canvas to hunt in pairs. In the game against Bangalore, Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson knocked the stuffing out of Chris Gayle and co. with five predatory overs that did everything except produce a wicket. Malinga warmed up by curving a few away from the out of form Tillakaratne Dilshan. At the other end, Johnson dug it in to Gayle whose one real weakness is quick chin music. Gayle showed bravado, swatting a six over midwicket, but it only spurred Johnson to go faster. The bouncer went higher, with deep square leg lying in wait, and Gayle lobbed a ramp shot just over the slips. Johnson produced two more vicious short balls and Gayle weaved out of harm’s way, but Malinga hit his shoulder in the next over with perhaps the best bumper of the tournament. The bouncers had shown the RCB party the way out, and the revelry wound up in quick time.James Faulkner 4-1-16-5 v Sunrisers HyderabadIf it’s Rajasthan v Sunrisers, it’s got to be a James Faulkner five-for•BCCIJames Faulkner’s success is founded upon sharp pace, smart lengths, skillful seam movement, and the natural awkwardness created by the left-armer’s angle. He brought all of them to bear against Sunrisers, who gave him two of the three five-wicket hauls in the season. The first led to a win for the Royals, but the second, in Hyderabad, was the better spell. Parthiv Patel was beaten by Faulkner’s very first ball, and inside-edged a steer onto the stumps. Soon after, Faulkner got Shikhar Dhawan to cut to point for the second time in two games. Faulkner came back to dismantle the innings in the death. Darren Sammy and Biplab Samantray holed out in the deep, before Steyn lost his stumps to a sharp, straight yorker.Michell Johnson 3-0-27-3 v Chennai Super Kings and Lasith Malinga 4-0-22-2 v Chennai Super KingsThe strategy to beat Chennai Super Kings is straightforward: derail the top order before they can take the game away from you. Mumbai Indians beat Super Kings three times in four games this season, and on two of those occasions – including the final – it was down to a scorching opening burst from one of their opening bowlers.In the league game in Mumbai, with only 139 runs to defend, Johnson steamed in with visible intent. In his opening over, he got Michael Hussey to cut to point three times in three balls, and incredibly Kieron Pollard dropped it each time. Undeterred, Johnson decided to do it all by himself in his next over, and induced an inside edge from M Vijay that clattered into the stumps. Next ball, he induced Suresh Raina to close the face on a quick delivery angling in, and this time Pollard held the catch at point. Three balls later, a dazed S Badrinath walked back after a searing inducker burst past before he could play his cover drive and struck him in front. Game over.In the final, it was Malinga’s turn to take the lead, after having been deprived of the new ball for a few games. He began with three deliveries that curled away at pace, and Michael Hussey and M Vijay pushed watchfully for singles. The fourth ball was fuller, and swung deviously late to beat Hussey’s bat, hit the pad and crash into the stumps. Suresh Raina then walked out, and he would have known that Malinga was going to bounce him. Malinga knew he was going to bounce him, and placed a man ready for the catch at short backward square leg. Out came the bouncer, it’s pace and direction making short work of Raina’s anticipation. He was back in the crease, yet late on the shot as the ball reared up at his ribs. He fended awkwardly, and the catch popped to short backward square leg. In the next over, Johnson sent Badrinath back for another duck. Game over. IPL over.Honourable mentionsSunil Narine 4-0-13-4 v Delhi Daredevils
Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-1-12-2 v Chennai Super Kings
Mohit Sharma 3-0-10-3 v Delhi Daredevils

The Bangladesh top order seemed intent on sticking to their natural games rather than playing to the situation in the Zimbabwe ODIs; maybe it’s time to shake things up by playing only six batsmen instead of seven

Mohammad Isam09-May-2013If Zimbabwe’s 2-1 ODI series victory was fashioned by a collective effort, Bangladesh’s loss could be put down to a collective failure. Most of the Bangladesh batsmen could not decide whether to stick to their own game or play according to the situation. A pragmatic approach would have been suited to the early morning conditions, but even when one of the batsmen headed down that road, it was not wholeheartedly.In all three games, instead, the batsmen played their natural games. It started off well when Tamim Iqbal and Mohammad Ashraful added 65 for the first wicket in the first match of the series. They went after a rusty bowling attack, but later both were dismissed to deliveries on leg stump. The rest of the batting order didn’t make much use of the start, as they went thrashing about. Soon it was 94 for 4, as they played one bad shot after another.Not much time was spent dwelling on these dismissals or the general lax attitude towards the Zimbabwe bowlers, it seemed. The theme continued in the second match, which was against a better bowling attack that included the pace of Kyle Jarvis. The visiting batsmen kept on playing their shots, and sooner or later, they fell prey to their own attitude rather than the conditions.One would have expected a bit of sobering up in the third game, but once again, nothing changed. This time, admittedly, Bangladesh were first forced into a corner by Brian Vitori’s initial burst, but then three of their most experienced batsmen just gave it away. Captain Mushfiqur Rahim’s slog sweep was caught at deep midwicket after he resurrected the innings. Shakib Al Hasan suddenly lost his composure as he too went for the slog and, in between, Tamim’s heave only took an edge and ended up in the wicketkeeper’s glove.Of the three, to his credit, Tamim did slow the pace purposefully. Two early wickets had had an effect, and for a while he was content at grinding the bowlers rather than playing his own game. Soon enough though, he needed a release and out came the slog. He forgot to shift through the gears one by one, and instead went from first to fifth at one go.He and Shakib have been nondescript performers on this tour, the latter probably still a bit out of touch due to the long injury break. Tamim is the type of batsman who decides for himself how to approach each game. He has been found out in this series, and has to find out a way out of mediocrity.Ashraful had a series to forget, and it will put him under some pressure, he having made a comeback mid-season in Sri Lanka. He played one too many shots in the first two innings, before being knocked over by Vitori’s bounce in the third game.Inability to curb natural instincts apart, there are a few more theories as to why such talented batsmen failed so miserably over three ODIs. One of the popular ones is that that they were complacent, and that notion was backed by Mushfiqur’s affirmative reply when asked about the same after the third game.There was definite complacency to the Bangladesh batting, and that they play seven batsmen probably contributes to this relaxed approach in their shot-making; maybe these top-order batsmen are prone to play their shots when there is batting security in the dressing-room. For example, Nasir Hossain bailed Bangladesh out on three occasions, Mahmudullah also helped out, and even Abdur Razzak managed to carry them to a 250-plus score in the second game.If the talk is about complacency, perhaps there is a need to make the batting line-up more efficient by playing six batsmen instead of seven. There will be more competition for places, and it could solve the problem of the No. 3 position as more batsmen will battle for that spot. By playing seven, the team management maybe courting lethargy, as now everyone in the top order seems to believe there is always someone at six or seven who can clean up their mess.

Kallis might have just about pulled his weight this IPL season, but the demands of T20 and his slow strike-rate has made him look desperate with the bat

Sidharth Monga19-May-2013It was a flat pitch, surrounded by a quick outfield, on a hot day in Chennai, and 263 runs had already been scored in 26 overs by the time Jacques Kallis came out to bat. Kallis didn’t bat badly. There was one loft back over the bowler’s head for a six. You couldn’t say he was struggling. When you looked at the scoreboard, though, he was only 19 off 19.Then you saw Kallis do only what the quickest of the bowlers might have made him do, that too with the sharpest of bouncers: he played a shot while not looking at the ball, a length ball from Dwayne Bravo. Kallis premeditated a shot he has hardly ever felt the need to play, the ramp, and went down on his knee too early. The head fell away and the eyes were almost shut as he dragged this from outside off and into the lap of short fine leg. We don’t need to see Kallis to be brought down to this level, but it’s a format he has chosen to play on in. And obviously he felt under the pressure to do something crazy.The thing with Kallis in T20 is, we still see the lovely shots and the poise at the wicket, we still see he looks good and untroubled, but when we check the stats we see a season strike-rate of 97, which is not appreciated in this format. If you listen to commentators, though, you’d think Kallis has been Kolkata Knight Riders’ most valuable player.Kallis has done his fair bit with the ball. He has been canny, and has used the cutter on the slower pitches superbly, but it is as a top-order batsman that he has hurt Knight Riders. He has faced close to 54 overs for just 311 runs, which can possibly work in the company of big hitters in red-hot form. Not with the way the other Knight Riders batsmen have gone this season.Kallis is not the reason Knight Riders have failed to defend their title. In fact if you look at his bowling contribution – 16 wickets at an economy rate of 7.43 – he has pulled his weight. However, Kallis will hate to be judged against that low a standard. He is used to doing much better. Nor should he be reduced to playing ugly T20 shots. Once again, even as the commentators exclaimed about a great contest between Dale Steyn and Kallis today, it began and ended with an ugly hoick.Kallis had scored 24 off 28 balls when Steyn came back, and under the pressure he just went after the first ball. To call it a contest would be to insult the word. Just like it is an insult to the great batsman to go through uncricketing shots, but it is a choice he has made.

Brand experts believe the fixing scandal has affected the value of the league and how advertisers will view it, but that it hasn’t threatened its viewership

Amol Karhadkar11-Jun-2013The recent spate of bad news related to the IPL has raised questions about its viability and credibility, perhaps even putting into doubt its immediate future. The IPL’s penchant for controversy was long seen as a plus – on the grounds that any publicity was good publicity – and even its strength. But the gravity of the current situation – allegations that some players and team owners have indulged in corrupt practices – is unlike anything the league has had to tackle so far.”The brand has definitely been damaged,” says Samir Phadnis, director and chief operating officer of Next Level Media Communication, a PR firm that operates in sport. Phadnis says he “won’t be surprised – and I am sure most of the fans too won’t be – if one of the major sponsors pulls out” as a fallout of the controversy.Santosh Desai, the chief executive officer of Future Brands, a brand management firm, stresses on the fact that this time the allegations have been made against not just players but also an umpire and team owners, and says the corruption scandal gets “into the heart of IPL”. “So potentially it can upset the viewer or a sponsor so much that he can lose his confidence in the product. One party being set aside doesn’t affect the overall brand much, but if many stakeholders are offended, the credibility of the brand is bound to suffer in the long run.”While most experts are convinced that the brand of the IPL will take a severe hit, not many feel it will affect the viewership. “Even in the middle of all the arrests and accusations, the IPL 6 final was sold out and the ratings were almost as much as the previous seasons,” says Indranil Das Blah, chief operating officer of CAA Kwan, a talent management agency.While last year’s final had a rating of 8.92, this year’s had 6.9, though part of the drop is attributed to the digitisation of the cable-TV business in Indian cities, a work in progress that left many viewers without access to subscription channels. Reports in Hindustan Times state that the revenues for the official broadcaster, MSM, rose nearly 50% this year to Rs 900 crore (approx US$154 million), a change from 2012 when revenues were calculated at Rs 650 crore (approx $111 million). The newspaper reported the change was driven by the broadcaster lowering ad rates by 20%.The contrast between the IPL’s image taking a knock while ratings and ad revenues stayed high is guided by factors like ad spots being paid for in advance and news of the spot-fixing scandal breaking only ten days before the scheduled close of the league. The IPL has been able

From Donald Bradman to Michael Clarke, state school graduates have dominated the ranks of Australian Test teams. What are private schools doing wrong?

Steve Cannane 26-Jul-2013In cricketing terms Ed Cowan comes from a disadvantaged background. Australia’s top-order batsman was educated at Cranbrook, an elite private school well known for producing accumulators of wealth (James Packer, James Fairfax) as well as a few de-accumulators (Jodee Rich, Rodney Adler), but not so many accumulators of runs and wickets.But Cranbrook is not alone. Despite having access to the best facilities and good coaches, cricketers from elite private schools across Sydney are up against it when it comes to making it into the Test arena.When Jackson Bird made his debut in last year’s Boxing Day Test, veteran sports journalist David Lord pointed out that he was just the fifth Sydney GPS old boy to play Test cricket for Australia in 80 years. (The others are Stan McCabe, Jimmy Burke, Jack Moroney, and Phil Emery – Cowan’s old school is part of the Associated Schools competition). By Lord’s calculation, Sydney GPS schools have produced 132 Wallabies but just ten Test cricketers since 1877.So why the imbalance?One of the reasons is that cricket, unlike rugby, is a game in which 15-year-old boys can compete against men. If you attend a state school or a non-elite private school, you don’t have to play for your school on a Saturday. A teenage boy playing grade or district cricket early has his temperament and skills tested against men. As a result, his development is accelerated.”Historically yes, not being able to play against men regularly between those formative years of 15-18, particularly in New South Wales, is a bit of a disadvantage,” Cowan told me in the lead-up to this Ashes series. “Playing on good wickets you get mollycoddled a little bit in the private school system, and you’re not playing against great cricketers.”Cowan was lucky his headmaster at Cranbrook, Dr Bruce Carter, was a cricket fan. Carter released him from school first XI duties so he could play first grade for Sydney University in his final year of school. Cowan was able to test himself against first-class bowlers and has no doubt it made him a better cricketer.”I definitely think that last year, if I had to play school cricket, that would have been a bit of a handbrake on my development.”Former Australia captain Greg Chappell is adamant that quality young cricketers need to test themselves against men. When I was researching my book on the formative years of Australia’s best cricketers, he told me attitudes needed to change in the private-school system.”This whole idea of holding kids back in their age group is one of the greatest impediments to their development.”Chappell was one of three brothers who played Test cricket for Australia. All attended Adelaide’s Prince Alfred College. But when Greg and Ian went to school, the first XI played in the men’s District B Grade competition. At the age of 14 they were facing bowlers who had played, or would soon play, first-class cricket.By the time younger brother Trevor attended Prince Alfred College, the first XI team was only playing against other school teams. Trevor dominated schoolboy attacks but never dominated Test attacks like his older brothers. Both Ian and Greg believe the school’s withdrawal from the men’s competition was detrimental to their young brother’s development.”I believe,” Ian wrote, “playing against grown men at a young age gave Greg and me a huge advantage over Trevor.”When Ashton Agar made his extraordinary debut at Trent Bridge, cricket fans were struck by his maturity and unflappable nature. Playing in his first Test at the age of 19, he broke two significant records: the highest ever Test score by a No. 11 batsman (98) and the highest partnership for the last wicket (163 with Phil Hughes).Agar is only 18 months out of school. Would he have been able to show such maturity if he hadn’t been playing against men from an early age? Agar’s old school, De La Salle College in Melbourne, plays their first XI cricket on a Wednesday. This allowed Agar to play district cricket for Richmond on weekends. He made the club’s first-grade team when he was in year 11.Agar’s school coach Marty Rhoden, a former first-grade legspinner, has seen other young boys stagnate after winning sporting scholarships to elite private schools.”I’ve witnessed several cases of students who would have benefited if they stayed at their schools, where they could keep playing club cricket on Saturdays. I’d argue it had a direct effect on their development.”Of course there are exceptions. Shane Warne won a sporting scholarship to Mentone Grammar, as did current fast bowler James Pattinson at Haileybury. Pattinson’s school coach Andrew Lynch, now Victoria’s chairman of selectors, believes it benefits good cricketers to keep playing for their school.”They get an opportunity to dominate, which is important, and the competition only goes for ten weeks, so if they’re good enough they can still go and play for their clubs.”

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Of the 12 players chosen for the Australia Test team of the 20th century, eight went to state schools

Cricket is a game of statistics as well as stories. So let’s lay out some numbers. If we take the NSW squad as an example, of the 19 players contracted last season, 14 went to state schools, four went to religious private schools, and one went to both. None of the squad attended an elite private school in Sydney.If we look at the Australian team at Trent Bridge, the figures are closer. Six went to state schools: Michael Clarke (Westfields Sports High); Phillip Hughes (Macksville High/Homebush Boys High); Steve Smith (Menai High); Brad Haddin (Karabar High); Mitchell Starc (Homebush Boys High); and Peter Siddle (Kurnai College).Agar, as discussed earlier, went to a Catholic college that allowed him to play cricket for his club. Four went to elite private schools: Shane Watson (Ipswich Grammar); Chris Rogers (Wesley College in Perth); Pattinson (Haileybury in Victoria); and Cowan (Cranbrook).But if we split it up into those who grew up in NSW, it becomes five state school boys, and one private school boy, who was released from school duties to play club cricket in year 12.If we look at how elite private schools in other states go about their business, there may be some clues. Watson played grade cricket in Brisbane for Easts/Redlands while still at school. According to Ipswich Grammar’s cricket coach Aaron Moore, in Brisbane’s GPS competition they play only eight games, kicking off the season in February, and encouraging their boys to play senior cricket up until then.In Tasmania it’s similar. Launceston Grammar, which produced David Boon and current Ashes squad member James Faulkner, only plays six to eight games, freeing up their boys to play for their club sides more often than their Sydney counterparts.In Western Australia, the private school system seems to be working. In recent decades, the Darlot Cup has fostered Test players such as Justin Langer, Stuart MacGill, Chris Rogers, Simon Katich, Geoff Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Tom Moody, Terry Alderman, Brad Hogg, and Brendon Julian. Seven private schools play each other in a competition that lasts seven weeks, with each game played over two days – Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. While the schools are considered elite, they are more accessible and affordable than those in the eastern states.According to John Rogers, a former NSW Sheffield Shield cricketer, and father of the current Australian opener, the Darlot Cup was where his son first found his feet.”I had no prospect or intention of sending my sons to GPS schools in Sydney. I was astonished to find I could in Perth and the facilities were superb and the competition played with intensity. Darlot Cup is a long, tiring exhausting battle and the boys love its drawn-out, competitive nature. Perth is quite different from Sydney and Melbourne. What Greg Chappell says has always been the case in Sydney – but in my view it doesn’t apply to Perth.”Having scored several hundreds in the Darlot Cup, on wickets as good as the WACA, Chris Rogers made a seamless transition to club cricket with Melville in his last term at school, making 70 in his second first-grade game against a trio of two-metre tall Test bowers – Jo Angel, Brendon Julian and Tom Moody.”At the same time,” Rogers says, “Michael and David Hussey were making their way through the grade system. WA has the advantage that both systems have been shown to work well.”Despite the productivity of Perth’s private schools, graduates of state schools have tended to dominate the ranks of Australian Test teams. If we look at the top tier of Australian cricketers, they tend to have been exposed to men’s cricket from an early age.Of the 12 players chosen for the Australia Test team of the 20th century, eight went to state schools: Bill Ponsford (Alfred Crescent School); Arthur Morris (Newcastle Boys High and Canterbury Boys High); Don Bradman (Bowral Public School); Neil Harvey (Falconer St School); Keith Miller (Melbourne High); Ian Healy (Brisbane State High); Dennis Lillee (Belmont High); and Allan Border (North Sydney Boys High). Two went to private schools: Greg Chappell (Prince Alfred College); and Ray Lindwall (Marist Brothers, Darlinghurst). The remaining two players went to both state and private, the rogue legspinners Shane Warne (Hampton High and Mentone Grammar) and Bill O’Reilly (Goulburn High and St Patrick’s College, Goulburn). Of the 12, only Warne did not play regular club cricket against adults in his final years in school.If we analyse Australia’s team in the first Ashes Test 12 years ago, when they put one of their best ever teams on the field, it’s an almost identical story. Eight of the 11 went to state schools: Michael Slater (Wagga Wagga High); Ricky Ponting (Brooks Senior High); Mark and Steve Waugh (East Hills Boys High); Damien Martyn (Girrawheen Senior High); Adam Gilchrist (Kadina High); Brett Lee (Oak Flats High); and Glenn McGrath (Narromine High). Two went to private Catholic schools: Jason Gillespie (Cabra Dominican College); and Matthew Hayden (Marist College, Ashgrove). Shane Warne went to both state and private schools, as mentioned, and once again was the outlier, being the only one in the team who did not play regular club cricket against adults in his final years at school.In 1998, fast bowler Matthew Nicholson was picked to play against England in the Boxing Day Test match. A former student at Knox Grammar, Nicholson was the last graduate of Sydney’s elite private schools to make it to Test cricket before Cowan and Bird were selected. He is now the director of cricket at Newington College.Michael Clarke, who went to a sports high school, had the time, the inclination and the facilities to hit balls for hours on end•Getty ImagesNicholson doesn’t feel that attending a private school held back his development: “I don’t think so. I captained my side and was able to develop in other ways. I learnt how to be a leader and learnt about myself, and I was still able to play for my grade side, Gordon, for eight weeks in the school holidays.”Nicholson makes a valid point that in private schools, boys have to juggle a range of activities that might put them behind cricket-obsessed boys in state schools: “A lot of our boys are pulled in different directions – school commitments, drama, music and academic. For many of them cricket is a small part of their life, for other boys it can be almost everything; all they do is hit balls.”You can’t imagine a 16-year-old Michael Clarke having to miss a net session to rehearse for , or make sure he did his euphonium practice. Clarke went to a sports high school and his parents ran an indoor cricket centre. He had the time, the inclination and the facilities to hit balls for hours on end.If neuroscientists like Daniel Levitin are right when they say that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master any skill, then Clarke had a big advantage over his private school contemporaries. Private school students in Sydney often spend hours commuting to and from school. State school students and private school boys in smaller cities can spend more time in the nets and less time stuck on the bus in traffic.In an interesting aside, in England it is an advantage to go to a private school. Writing in , former English Test cricketer Ed Smith points out that having a private school background is an advantage in England: “Simply, if you want to play for England, first attend a private school.”Smith claims over two-thirds of England’s 2012 team were privately educated, an extraordinary figure when you consider around 7% of English children go to private schools. In Australia, it’s a different tale. Around 35% of Australian children go to private schools, or five times the number in England, and yet the majority of our Test team continues to come from the state-school system.So what are the lessons from all of this? Should private schools in Sydney look at the Perth and Brisbane models? Should they be more willing to release their best players to play grade cricket?Nicholson says the most important thing is the development of the boys: “If they feel like they are being held back, then we should let them go.”Maybe the private schools should be asked to move their first XI cricket to Wednesdays or Sundays so all the boys get a chance to play against men from an early age on. But there’s little chance of that happening. In elite private schools, tradition is everything.As one coach told me, “We had enough troubles changing the start time by half an hour, let alone changing the days!”