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Simon Hughes examines batsmanship through his own experiences and those of the greats of the game

Alan Gardner17-Oct-2015Who wants to be a batsman? It feels like a leading question and in a sense it is. Batsmen – the good ones, at least – are cricket’s millionaires (and who doesn’t want to be one of those?), but as Simon Hughes writes at the outset of his new book, everyone who plays the game has to take guard at some point. You would be daft not to try to maximise your winnings.Another question might swiftly follow, however. What does a former bowler with one fifty and a first-class batting average of 11.37 have to say on the subject? Well, Hughes largely uses his own experience as a self-deprecating study in how not to do things, while quizzing some of the great run guzzlers of our time on their methods. Along the way “The Analyst” applies some science to the artistry.It should be noted immediately that is not a technical manual; there are no diagrams showing the best stance or how to play a cover drive. And while Hughes promises to “unveil the secrets of batting”, this does not come in the form of a prescription. One of his conclusions is that the greats all stuck by what worked for them – “Not a right way or a wrong way, but way.”There are “Ten Wanna Be a Batsman Rules” but only one – Keep your head still – touches on technique. The majority focus on the mental aspects of batting, such as concentrating for extended periods of time, blocking out distractions and adapting to the situation. Oh, and play at The Oval (home to five of the 25 batsmen to have scored 100 first-class hundreds) if you can.Simon Hughes (first from left) in his role as the Analyst at the 2014 Trent Bridge Test•Getty ImagesPerhaps the most important challenge, in the long run, is how to deal with failure. Hughes’ own career, as he tells it, was full of hard lessons (most of which he did not learn) and the examples – running himself out first ball, demolishing his stumps while pulling Geoff Lawson for four – usually involve a joke at the author’s expense. But his close relationship with Mark Ramprakash also provides a more serious study in the agonies of underperformance.Hughes was a Middlesex team-mate when Ramprakash debuted as a 17-year-old prodigy and followed his notoriously unfulfilled England career closely after crossing the boundary to join the media. There is probably a whole book to be written on how a man capable of scoring 114 first-class centuries managed only two in 52 Tests, and an average of 27.32, but a mind clouded by self-doubt and anxiety emerged as the principle block on his talent.England’s confused selection policies and a lack of early success bit further into Ramprakash’s chances of success. Hughes notes that the leading Test run scorers all made a half-century within eight innings – you have to go as far down as Alec Stewart, currently 23rd, to find someone who took longer, and even then he reached 50 at the tenth attempt. Ramprakash needed two years and 17 innings and it was another five years before he finally reached three figures in a Test, in his 38th knock.Simon and SchusterThe result was Ramprakash’s mind becoming ever more cluttered, burying his immaculate technique beneath a muddle of neuroses. Contrast that with the advice of two other batsmen Hughes speaks to. “When you’re in form you’re thinking about nothing,” says Michael Vaughan, while Kumar Sangakkara, who did not excel at an early age but retired this year with the highest Test average since Garry Sobers, adds: “The moment you think, it slows you down. It restricts your body and movements and that’s when you make mistakes.”Failure is inevitable – at some stage – so there’s no point in dwelling on it. Graham Gooch, who made a pair on debut but went on to amass 8900 Test runs, puts his success down to a “philosophical” approach. “When I came back in the dressing room, people agreed you couldn’t tell whether I’d got nought or a hundred and fifty.” As Hughes describes it somewhat more prosaically, “batting can be a head-f***”.Weaved in among the psychology are nuggets such as the fact that the ball is only actually in play for around 45 minutes during a day of Test cricket (hence the importance of being able to switch on and off at the crease); a suggested ideal height of 5ft 10in; and Hughes’ theory that the DRS has effectively increased the size of the stumps (as far as lbws are concerned) by 70%.It should all be about enjoyment, of course, and if the batting life begins to weigh you down, just remember that Devon Malcolm hit more international sixes than Bradman.In all, is an interesting examination of one of sport’s more precarious pursuits. It even strikes a mildly progressive tone at the close, with Hughes’ realisation that his daughter Nancy is a better batsman than he was. For that, perhaps, we can forgive the dad jokes and references to checking out “well-endowed females in the Tavern”, crimes on a par with using your slightly naff broadcasting nickname to describe yourself in the third person.Other analysts are available, just remember that time at the crease won’t necessarily be improved by time on the couch.Who Wants to be a Batsman?
By Simon Hughes
Simon & Schuster
280 pages, £18.99

Runs did not flow in the Ashes, but Jos Buttler has dazzled this season in his two T20 outings for Lancashire which have helped the county to another Finals Day

Tanya Aldred27-Aug-2015Standing behind a small table, just inside the foyer of the Central Manchester branch of NatWest, is a man in full-length Lancashire-red nylon pyjamas. He’s tall for a bank clerk, and his hair is immaculate; he has a certain, quiet, presence, yet, remarkably, a handful of people have approached to ask about mortgages.But Jos Buttler is too nice to scoff, even if less than a week ago he was standing at The Oval as Alastair Cook lifted the Ashes, a vital cog in the surprise sporting hit of the summer, and enjoying the most fun he has ever had on a cricket field.He’s back up north now, preparing for Lancashire’s trip to Edgbaston on Saturday for T20 finals day, where they will play Hampshire in the second semi-final. It is another big stage and a chance, perhaps, for his batting to click back, for although his performances behind the stumps were quietly excellent during the Ashes, his batting, so admired since he first walloped a tennis ball as a little boy in Somerset, faltered – he finished with 122 runs at an average of 15.25.”I didn’t score the runs I’d like to, but that can happen,” he says, seemingly sanguine.” I guess that’s the beauty of being an allrounder.”I still feel very confident with my batting, and I feel like I’ve learnt a lot, mentally. I’ve learnt about the intensity of an Ashes series, the media interest and not getting caught up in that and what it takes to score runs. I’ve really enjoyed watching Joe Root, who obviously had a fantastic year, 18 months, forever really!”The biggest thing is, hard as it is, is to worry less. I have to try and look at what can I do as opposed to what people perceive I can’t do.”Lancashire know very well what he can do, even though he has only played two T20 games for them all season. He made 71 off 35 balls as Lancashire beat Yorkshire off the last ball at a heaving Headingley in June and hit another half century off Kent in the quarter-final.Buttler is no stranger to Finals Day. This will be his fifth – he went three times with Somerset (and lost every time) before returning again with Lancashire last summer where Andrew Flintoff narrowly missed carrying them to the title. It was Lancashire’s fifth loss in five attempts. With that history, Buttler and Lancashire can hardly be regarded as a lucky combinationBut he can’t wait.”It’s a great day out. It has become the biggest day of the calendar for the domestic diary, in a way it has taken over from the Lord’s finals. It is such a big thing to get to. It’s pretty much an international environment, with a huge crowd and partisan support. At the start of the year it’s the one every county cricketer pencils in, in the hope that they’ll be there.”

Finals day attracts record sales

NatWest Blast Finals Day is set to be bigger than ever at Edgbaston with record ticket sales confirmed for the biggest day in domestic cricket.
For the third consecutive year, Edgbaston will set a record attendance for the tournament, with 24,300 spectators expected on Saturday with the temporary stand used at the third Investec Ashes Test Match in July swelling the numbers.

And then, in the always polite but slightly steely way of a man who knows his own mind, he hints at a frustration with England’s domestic format, strongly shared by other players, as Wednesday’s PCA survey revealed.”I think that there is such a big opportunity in England to create a T20 competition that really reaches out to kids and the wider audience who might not necessarily be massive cricket fans but can really get into Twenty20. It is such a great format and if we can have a product that works, especially on the back of this summer which has been so exciting, it could be really a good way of getting kids into the game.”You know what it’s like, when you’re that age and you go and watch something with loud music and fireworks and acrobats and cheerleaders and it’s a bit of a show and it’s not just about the cricket, they’ll go home and tell their parents all about it, which is how you get people really involved.”That innings at Headingley – playing for Lancashire against Yorkshire in a Roses match – gives you an idea of what you can have in English Twenty20, a bit of rivalry, a packed house and a really close game.”Joining Lancashire for the 2014 season was a gamble for Buttler who left his beloved Somerset behind to try and further his career hundreds of miles away in a northern city. The coach who recruited him, Peter Moores, left to join England a few weeks into Buttler’s first season, and it was a tough first year. He felt homesick at times, but things have settled down with his girlfriend moving to Manchester and his old England coach Ashley Giles getting the Lancashire job.”It was great that Ashley got the Lancashire job so I wasn’t having to build a new relationship with a new coach from afar. He knows my game from working with me before, which is almost a safety blanket, and makes it a lot easier.”There are a great group of guys at Lancashire who make you feel very welcome even though I’ve not been around much this summer. You feel like you want to do really well for the club and your team-mates because you feel like you’ve missed out and you want to be part of that side.”It really feels like home now. And now when I finish a match I come back to Manchester, which makes a huge difference, as does the passage of time. I took a leap into the unknown to try and get the rewards of what I really wanted from a cricket career and I guess winning an Ashes series means leaving Somerset has really been justified, which makes you feel a lot more at ease with the decision.”And so he returns to Edgbaston in the scarlet pyjamas on Saturday, more familiar, more confident, and determined to win that prize for Lancashire at last.

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Dec-2015The pair added 42 together before Dushmantha Chameera had Guptill caught by Tillakaratne Dilshan at point for 30•AFPWilliamson, standing in for the injured Brendon McCullum, then got into his groove with three successive fours off Angelo Mathews•Getty ImagesLatham too kept the scorecard ticking until rookie legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay produced a double-strike in his second over to dismiss Latham and Ross Taylor•Associated PressWilliamson went onto make a fifty off 65 balls, but fell soon after Chameera removed Henry Nicholls as Sri Lanka pulled things back in the middle overs•Associated PressNew Zealand then saw a useful contribution of 38 from Mitchell Santner as he helped the score past 200, before he was run-out in the 42nd over. Doug Bracewell too chipped in with a score of 30 before Tim Southee struck 16 off the last three balls to push New Zealand to 276 for 8•Associated PressDanushka Gunathilaka gave Sri Lanka a blazing start in their chase of 277, smashing seven fours and four sixes in his 45-ball 65•AFPHe fell to Mitchell McClenaghan, but not before Sri Lanka had raced to 98 in 12.4 overs•Associated PressTillakaratne Dilshan and Lahiru Thirimanne then combined to add 111 runs for the second wicket, taking Sri Lanka past 200•AFPDilshan top-scored with 91, before he was run-out in the 34th over with Sri Lanka still needing 68•AFPThirimanne then steered the visitors to the target in 46.2 overs with an unbeaten 87, as Sri Lanka picked up their first win of the tour to stay alive in the series•AFP

After an inglorious spell as an England cricketer, Boyd Rankin is back with Ireland, and keen to finish the journey he helped to start

Tim Wigmore08-Mar-2016On a resplendent Dublin day in September 2013, 10,000 Irishmen crammed into Malahide to see the ODI against England. Only sold-out signs greeted stragglers. It was the image that Irish cricket aspires to project to the rest of the world.Many of those in Malahide had long cheered on Boyd Rankin. In a land brimming with stodgy medium-pacers, here was a different sort of bowler: big, brawny and venomous. Ireland aspired to be a Test team, and Rankin, with the pace and bounce he garnered from his 6ft 7in frame, had the look of a Test bowler.Yet, thousands at Malahide were booing him. For Rankin, six years an Irish player and a proud product of a farming family in Bready, was now making his England ODI debut in the Emerald Isle. “We don’t want our best players playing for England,” read one aggrieved supporter’s sign in the ground. “Irish cricket deserves better.”Ireland had been here before. In 2006 Ed Joyce made his England debut in Stormont a year after leading Ireland to their first World Cup. Three years later Eoin Morgan made the switch across the Irish Sea, playing for England a month after securing Ireland’s qualification for the 2011 World Cup.Rankin’s defection was by far the most irksome. Joyce’s switch came at a time when Ireland had only two paid staff, a chief executive and a part-time PA, and Morgan’s at a time when Ireland were only flirting with genuine professionalism and Test cricket still looked like an age away. When Rankin made his England ODI debut, Ireland were a fully professional cricket team preparing for their third consecutive World Cup and had already declared their intent to gain Test status.

“You can understand the frustration seeing born-and-bred Irishmen not playing for Ireland”

As his second delivery hurtled egregiously down the leg side for five wides, Rankin did not seem like a man relishing opening the attack against his friend and long-time international captain William Porterfield. After a torrid start Rankin responded admirably to take four wickets. Still, he did not much enjoy combining with Morgan, who scored a century, to inflict a defeat upon his home country.”It was a bit of a strange experience to be in the England side in that game. It was not something that I would want to do every day of the week,” he reflects. “You can understand the frustration seeing born-and-bred Irishmen not playing for Ireland. It was quite frustrating for fans that we weren’t playing for Ireland at that stage.”Like Joyce and Morgan, Rankin’s motivation for switching to England was simple. “I wanted to play at the highest level and at that stage it wasn’t possible to play Test cricket with Ireland.”Rankin only got one opportunity to do so with England. In Sydney at the start of 2014, he was awarded his Test cap as England hurtled towards a 5-0 whitewash. He later found out that he entered the game carrying a serious shoulder injury, to which Rankin added a back spasm and cramp during the Test. His was an utterly miserable debut. The delivery that snared Peter Siddle caught behind, Rankin’s solitary Test wicket, was his last for England in a Test.The disappointment that he never got another chance still rankles. “I didn’t feel I got a fair crack of the whip in Test cricket.” So distressed was Rankin in the aftermath of the Sydney debacle that he even briefly contemplated giving up cricket altogether as he recovered from injury.”I had a bit of time to think about that tour. It was quite a tough thing to come from,” he says. “I’ll always look back and be frustrated with how it went but these things happen for a reason and it wasn’t meant to be.”At least Rankin’s truncated England career has proved a boon for his native land. When he was ignored for England’s Test squad to South Africa this winter, despite taking 71 Division One wickets at 22.88 in the two summers since the last Ashes tour, Rankin accepted his fate as an England one-Test wonder. Cricket Ireland then negotiated a deal with Warwickshire to cover the county’s shortfall from Rankin no longer being England-qualified, and in January he made his Ireland return.Rankin took four wickets against Ireland on his England ODI debut•Getty ImagesIt was long overdue. Last year’s World Cup painfully exposed the paucity of pace and variety in Ireland’s attack. Since then Alex Cusack and John Mooney, who opened the bowling together in the World Cup, have both retired. Rankin turns 32 this July, but does not intend to stop for another “four or five” years. He is still young in bowling terms, having not become a regular in county cricket until turning 25.In the World T20, Rankin will be used as Ireland’s middle-over enforcer, a role he has honed for Warwickshire in recent years. A haul of 5 for 33 across his eight overs in Ireland’s two T20Is against the UAE suggested his return to the Emerald Isle has been seamless. “It’s just been really easy. It’s still pretty much the same core of players as it’s been over the last eight-ten years.”While Porterfield will envisage Rankin helping to topple Bangladesh en route to making the Super 10s, his greatest worth lies in the longer formats. Rankin hopes that his second Ireland career culminates in a chance at Test match redemption. “There is the possibility of playing England at Lord’s in 2019 if things go our way. I’m hoping I’ll still be around for that.”To earn that opportunity at Lord’s, Ireland have to win the Intercontinental Cup, and then defeat the lowest-ranked Test team over four matches in 2018. It is a convoluted route, and hardly welcoming considering no country has won their inaugural Test since Australia in 1877. But the pathway for Associates to Test cricket could be opened up if a proposal advocated by David Richardson, for Test cricket to be played in two divisions, with seven countries in Division One and five, including two Associates, in Division Two, is agreed at the ICC Annual Conference in June.

So distressed was Rankin in the aftermath of the Sydney debacle that he even briefly contemplated giving up cricket altogether

“I’m all for that,” says Rankin. “The standard of the top four or five is a lot better than the bottom four or five so it stops those games that are fairly one-sided and gives Associate sides coming in a chance to play the lower sides. It would be a big benefit for us if that were the case. We’d then try and get promoted up to the next level.”Since his return from England, Joyce has established himself as a fine advocate for Ireland’s merits on and off the pitch. Now it is Rankin’s chance to do the same.Together with Porterfield and the O’Brien brothers, Rankin is one of four survivors from the side who toppled Pakistan on St Patrick’s Day in 2007, the moment that awakened Irish cricket from its 200-year slumber. “We can leave it in a much better place than when we started, when it was very amateur and there wasn’t much happening. It’s improved a hell of a lot over the past ten years.”Enduring success would mean ensuring that Rankin is the last Irishman to play for England. “I’m hoping I’m going to be the last person to do it and that in the next few years we can kick on and get the opportunity to play Test cricket and more one-day cricket as well,” he says, envisaging a future in which “Ireland will be a Test nation and we can afford to employ all our best players fully contracted at home, which would be our ultimate aim.”It is a lofty aim, but it is testament to Ireland’s recent success that it does not feel like an absurd one. While Test cricket “could be too late for a few of us,” as Rankin admits, securing it for future sides would be a fitting legacy for Ireland’s greatest cricketing generation. As the disgruntled fan put it at Malahide three years ago, Irish cricket deserves better. Rankin’s return increases their prospects of getting it.

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Apr-2016But he was foxed by a Piyush Chawla googly soon after Manan Vohra fell to Morkel, and the hosts slumped to 47 for 2 in 7.5 overs•BCCIKolkata Knight Riders’ spinners made further inroads – dismissing four of Kings XI’s top six – as the hosts suffered yet another middle-order failure•BCCIDavid Miller’s bad run of form continued, as he could manage only 6 before falling to Yusuf Pathan•BCCIRobin Uthappa took two sharp catches off the spinners and one of Morne Morkel to cap off a good day behind the wickets•BCCIMorkel and Umesh Yadav returned to bowl well in the end, continuing Knight Riders’ chokehold on Kings XI’s innings•BCCIShaun Marsh’s unbeaten 56 off 41 was the sole resistance Knight Riders’ bowlers faced as the hosts could just manage 138•BCCIKnight Riders’ reply started strongly – Uthappa leading the way by smashing the third-fastest fifty in this year’s IPL, off 24 balls•BCCICaptain Gautam Gambhir provided steady support from the other end with a run-a-ball 34•BCCILegspinner Pardeep Sahu removed the openers, with Gambhir falling to a fine catch by Glenn Maxwell at deep midwicket•BCCIAxar Patel chipped in with two wickets but Knight Riders’ chase never looked threatened•BCCIYusuf joined Suryakumar Yadav at the crease and the two put on 18 in 8 eight balls as Knight Riders reached their target with 17 balls to spare, and climbed to the top of the points table•BCCI

Sanjay Manjrekar analyses the reasons behind India’s strong batting show on the second day in Kingston, and what West Indies need to do to get better

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2016‘Rahul could cement a spot in top three’KL Rahul impressed with his third Test century, which Sanjay Manjrekar says, could compel the team thinktank to give him a more stable run in the team1:49

Manjrekar: Rahul could cement a spot in top three

‘West Indies need better leadership and guidance’In spite of having limitations with skill and ability, proper leadership can still motivate an inexperienced West Indies side to do better2:42

Manjrekar: West Indies need better leadership and guidance

‘Pujara does not look the assured batsman he used to be’It looked like Cheteshwar Pujara would be back to his run-scoring ways after a century in Sri Lanka last year, but his recent form suggests otherwise2:00

Manjrekar: Pujara does not look the assured batsman he used to be

‘West Indies had a defensive approach overall’The West Indies bowlers kept the runs in check in the first session, but that didn’t help them much as they failed to take wickets1:25

Manjrekar: West Indies had a defensive approach overall

Stats highlights from the first Test between Zimbabwe and New Zealand in Bulawayo, where Neil Wagner took a career-best six-for on the opening day

Shiva Jayaraman28-Jul-20160 Previous instances when a pace bowler has returned better figures than Neil Wagner’s 6 for 41 in a Test innings at Queen Sports Club, Bulawayo. The previous best at this venue was also by a New Zealand bowler – Shane Bond’s 6 for 51 in 2005. Wagner’s six-for was the fourth instance of a bowler taking six wickets in a Test innings at Queens.1 Number of times a New Zealand bowler has returned better figures than Wagner’s in a Test against Zimbabwe. Chris Martin took 6 for 26 in Napier in 2012. Bond’s 6 for 51 in 2005 is the only other instance of New Zealand pace bowler taking a six-for in a Test innings against Zimbabwe.6/106 Wagner’s previous innings best in Tests, against Australia in Christchurch in February this year. This is the third time Wagner has taken five or more wickets in Tests. He has taken 80 wickets at 30.51.85 The partnership between Prince Masvaure and Donald Tiripano – the second-highest stand for Zimbabwe for the ninth wicket in Tests. Paul Strang and Bryan Strang added 87 runs against Pakistan in Sheikhupura in 1996, which is the highest.3 Number of larger ninth-wicket stands than the one in Zimbabwe’s innings when a team has lost eight wickets for a score of less than 100. Tiripano joined Masvaure when Zimbabwe were 72 for 8. It is the highest such partnership since Roger Binny and Madan Lal added 117 runs against West Indies in Kanpur in 1983 after India were 90 for 8.49* Runs scored by Donald Tiripano, the highest by a Zimbabwe batsman at No. 10 or 11 in Tests. Bryan Strang’s 42 against Pakistan in Sheikhupura in 1996 was the previous best.6 Instances when Zimbabwe have been dismissed for a score lower than the 164 they made in this innings in Tests by New Zealand. Their lowest all-out total at home against New Zealand is 59, which came in Harare in 2005.4 Wickets lost by Zimbabwe on the score of 72, their worst four-wicket collapse in a Test innings. Their previous worst was also against New Zealand in Harare in 2005, when they slid from 9/0 to 11/4 in their first innings.2009 The last time two players from opposing teams made their debut as captains in the same Test, before Graeme Cremer and Kane Williamson in this Test. West Indies’ Floyd Reifer and Bangladesh’s Mashrafe Mortaza captained their respective teams for the first time in their career in St Vincent on that occasion. Overall this was the 24th such instance since (and not including) the first ever Test.126 Internationals played by Chamu Chibhabha – 96 ODIs and 30 T20Is – before making his Test debut, in this match. This is the second-most international matches played by anyone before making his Test debut. Rohit Sharma had played 144 international games before making his debut in Tests, against West Indies in Kolkata in 2013-14.

Almost two-thirds of Dhoni’s 9000 ODI runs have come as captain and all of them with the extra responsibility of keeping

Shiva Jayaraman23-Oct-20162 Batsmen to complete 9000 runs as wicketkeepers in ODIs before MS Dhoni. Kumar Sangakkara and Adam Gilchrist are the only others to do it. Dhoni is the fastest in terms of innings having taken 244 innings, ahead of Sangakkara’s 252 and Gilchrist’s 262.1 Dhoni is the first batsman to complete 9000 runs with an average of 50 or more. Jacques Kallis’ average of 45.68, when he got to 9000 runs, was the previous highest.5 Batsmen who have taken fewer innings than Dhoni to get to 9000 ODI runs. Dhoni is the sixth-quickest to the milestone, with 244 innings, despite playing a majority of his innings at No. 4 or lower.1 There is only batsman other than Dhoni to score at least 1000 runs as wicketkeeper and captain at the time of completing 9000 ODI runs. Sangakkara had made 1654 runs with the
dual responsibilities at the time of completing 9000 runs. Dhoni has made 6581 runs. More than a third of the 18507 runs made by keeper-captains in ODIs have come from Dhoni.10109 Deliveries played by Dhoni to complete 9000 runs – the third-fewest by a batsman. Gilchrist reached the landmark in 9328 deliveries. Sanath Jayasuriya took 15 deliveries fewer than Dhoni to get there.196 Sixes hit by Dhoni in ODIs; among batsmen with 9000 runs, only Chris Gayle (229 sixes) has hit more sixes at the end of the innings that took them to the 9000th run. Dhoni’s 196 sixes are the most by an India batsman, passing Sachin Tendulkar’s 195.6581 Runs scored by Dhoni as India’s ODI captain – the highest share as captain when reaching the 9000 landmark. Mohammad Azharuddin is the only other batsman to get at least half his 9000 runs while captaining in ODIs. Azharuddin had made 5147 runs as India captain at the end of the innings in which he completed 9000 runs.

Suranga Lakmal took a maiden five-wicket haul, and then settled down to watch Sri Lanka bat. We put ourselves in his shoes

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Port Elizabeth27-Dec-2016Ah well, this day couldn’t really have started any better, could it? What a morning. What a place.In the fourth over, Nuwan Pradeep gets Vernon Philander out with a bouncer. Perfect. Next over, I get a wicket and complete my first ever five-wicket haul. When we play at home, people keep saying my only job is to bowl until the ball is soft enough for Rangana Herath’s little hands to hold. There are entire sessions when my main job is to run into the huddle and give the spinners some good high fives.Not here. I like this place. When we came here, we didn’t even have to suffer the normal pre-series insults we get when we tour, like when Rodney Hogg called us “the worst attack to ever tour Australia”, or the time Michael Vaughan said we were “a glorified county attack”.Superb, we’ve got them all out for 286. Where are the jokesters now? Are they watching as I lead the team off the field? I’ve been dreaming of getting five wickets for Sri Lanka my whole life. Do they have an honours board here? I should get them to put my full name as a joke: Ranasinghe Arachchige Suranga Lakmal.Why not? I deserve it. This is the life.It’s time for a shower, but when I come out, what’s this? One wicket down already? He was out playing an attacking shot, wasn’t he? These opening fellows are supposed to knuckle down and protect the middle order, but every time I walk out of the shower, we are always 5 for 1 or 10 for 2. It’s like teenagers who get sent to their rooms to study, but when their parents walk in they are on the internet, with their pants on the ground, looking at bad websites. Never mind. Still nine batsmen to go.Now Kusal Perera has gone to bat. Why is he trying to whack the ball so much? This not a polygraph test, Kusal. Your career doesn’t hinge on you smashing it. Take it easy – I have bowled 27 overs and need some time to rest, no? Bloody hell, he’s out trying to cut a ball that pitched just outside off stump. I know he has been cleared of doping and all, but do the drug tests check for amphetamines? What about crack cocaine?Kusal Mendis is walking out now. Surely he’ll do something. No, he’s out driving at the ball as well. I mean, imagine if I got to bowl at these fellows. I’d get a five-wicket haul pretty much every over. What honours board? There would be small towns bearing my name.Ah, at last, Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal – you guys are the senior batsmen. Show us how it is done. I don’t have to tell you that it is good for us to bat time, since we want the pitch to wear enough to bring Rangana into the game, right? You don’t have to be told that leaving the ball and settling down will make things easier for the tail as well? Then how come, Angelo, you’ve hung your bat out and given a nick to second slip, while Chandimal has sent an edge to the keeper (but was dropped) as well?How can we teach you guys where your off stump is? Can I draw you a picture, so you know what to look for on the field? Should we go on a team expedition to locate it? Would it help if I dropped a google pin and sent you the GPS co-ordinates?Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I should give more money to the poor, and adopt some street animals to get good karma, because, truly, I don’t know what I did in my past life to be born a Sri Lankan fast bowler. I must have been a terrible person. Maybe I committed genocide.Oh good. Now Chandimal is out. And he’s wasted our last review on a ball that was hitting pretty much the middle of middle stump. So it’s time for me to go put on the pads again.Why? What did I do to deserve this? How is this my life?

Rachael Heyhoe-Flint was a larger-than-life personality who was never afraid to take on cricket’s male establishment

Raf Nicholson18-Jan-20171:03

Women’s pioneer Heyhoe-Flint dies aged 77

There will be a women’s World Cup final at Lord’s this year thanks to Rachael Heyhoe-Flint. The sad thing is that she will not be there to see it.It was Heyhoe-Flint who first devised the idea of a world tournament, back in 1971. She stayed with millionaire Jack Hayward at his Sussex home during a weekend of women’s cricket at Eastbourne, and the two of them remained awake into the small hours, discussing how best to advance the cause of the women’s game. At that stage still small-scale and entirely amateur, with international tours limited by the empty coffers of the associations who paid to stage them, it was a sport clearly in need of a boost.Between them they dreamt up the scheme. Heyhoe-Flint somehow convinced Hayward that he should spend £40,000 on bringing the best players from all over the globe to England. Even men’s cricket had not yet conceived of the idea. It was big, brash and bold: Rachael to a T.Two years after that initial conversation, she hit a half-century in the final, at Edgbaston against Australia, and lifted the first ever World Cup trophy. It was, she said later, “a great bonus” for the women’s game. For her personally, it was also the pinnacle of a career in which she captained England for a decade, and went undefeated in Tests for the whole of her reign.Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, with the former England captain Charlotte Edwards alongside her•Getty ImagesShe was in so many ways a pioneer, on and off the pitch. It was she who hit the first ever six in women’s Test cricket, against Australia in 1963: a favourite stroke, which she famously described as “a hoick to leg”, also fondly known as the Heyhoe Heave-Ho. In 1976 at The Oval she batted tirelessly for eight and a half hours across the third and fourth days of the last Test, saving England from sure defeat in the game and the series. For eight years prior to her final international appearance, in 1982, she juggled cricket with the demands of motherhood, returning to competitive cricket within two months of giving birth to her son Ben in the summer of 1974.Interviewing many of her team-mates decades later, I had it confirmed to me that Heyhoe-Flint was a person who “got things done”. Between 1970 and 1975, she raised over £4000 for the women’s game (a staggering amount of money at that time), through fund-raising matches against men’s teams: throughout the season, she would take an England Women’s XI, made up of the top female cricketers in the country, to play against a men’s club side, who would guarantee a certain amount of money in return. She was famously involved in the 1963 match against an Old England XI in which Len Hutton declared that “women playing cricket was like a man trying to knit”. He evidently had never seen Heyhoe-Flint bat.For those who never had the pleasure of meeting her, it would be hard to capture Heyhoe-Flint’s personality in words. The first women’s cricket celebrity, she was unique, wonderfully charismatic and humorous: forever telling those who asked (many did) that, no, women did not wear boxes when they batted, but coconut shells.Her overwhelming force of personality and her ever-increasing profile were always used for the good of the women’s game. Prior to England’s 1968-69 tour of Australia and New Zealand, she personally negotiated the biggest sponsorship deal the women’s game had ever seen, worth over £500, with Marks & Spencer, who agreed to supply the official tour uniforms. Herself a freelance journalist, on that 1968-69 tour she would dash off at the end of an exhausting day in the field to produce copy, which was sent home and published in the Daily Telegraph.Perhaps the hallmark of Heyhoe-Flint’s life was that she was never afraid to take the most important people on. She lost the England captaincy in controversial circumstances in the summer of 1977, having, in her own words, failed to “endear myself to the […] establishment of women’s cricket”. After Lord’s refused to host the final of the 1973 World Cup, she stated publicly that she was toying with the idea of hauling them before the Equal Opportunities Commission.Heyhoe-Flint and Shelly Nitschke at the ICC Awards•Getty ImagesThis never came to pass: by August 1976, Heyhoe-Flint had become the first ever Englishwoman to captain a team at the ground. In fact, her head-on collision with the men’s cricket establishment did not come until two decades later, when, in 1991, she applied for membership of the MCC – still a bastion of masculinity – sparking in the process a wider campaign to force the club to let women in.The initial vote went overwhelmingly against her, but undeterred, she continued to press her case, gaining support from famous names including Tim Rice, Dennis Amiss and Brian Johnston. By the time the final vote took place, in September 1998, 70% of the members voted in favour, won by Heyhoe-Flint’s straightforward argument, outlined to me in an interview years later: “I’ve played cricket all my life, I got to the top, and I just wanted to become a member of this club”. Two decades on, the MCC is transformed. Even that in itself would be quite some legacy. Heyhoe-Flint’s, though, are myriad.It is perhaps ironic that someone who spent so much of her career on the wrong side of the establishment ended her days as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, but Heyhoe-Flint was, after all, one of a kind. Going to interview her two summers ago for my PhD research, I was overwhelmed by her kindness: amidst a ridiculously busy schedule, she not only agreed to meet me, but took me for tea on the terrace at the House of Lords. It was obvious that she had remained a formidable personality, telling me her intentions to thoroughly scrutinise the government’s attempts to push through this, that and the other. We barely scratched the surface of all I wanted to discuss; there was just so much to ask her.She was vivacious and witty until the end. The last contact we had was just after Christmas, via email: I was writing a piece on her innings of 179 not out at The Oval in 1976, and she told me to “research if my name is up yet on the Honours Board for century makers. And if not, why not?!”Why not, indeed.