Mitchell Johnson and Doug Bollinger are starting to form a particularly useful bowling combination

Brydon Coverdale at the MCG28-Dec-2009While families all around Australia continue to enjoy their Christmas leftovers, the country’s cricket team is filling up on left-arm overs. For most of the past two decades, Australia have relied heavily on right-arm fast men but Doug Bollinger and Mitchell Johnson, who combined for six wickets in the first innings at the MCG, are starting to form a particularly useful left-arm combination.Johnson is the leading Test wicket-taker in 2009 and, as Australia’s spearhead, he continues to tally up victims with speed and unpredictability. Bollinger is a new man in the Australian team but has rapidly bowled himself into a position from which the selectors will find it hard to drop him.Bollinger’s 13 wickets in two Tests against West Indies, and then 3 for 50 at the MCG, means he might not be the one to make way once Ben Hilfenhaus recovers from his knee problem. Today, he was again the catalyst for a run of wickets after the nightwatchman Mohammad Aamer, a promising left-armer himself, frustrated the Australians for more than two hours.When the new ball arrived, a well-rested, fired-up Bollinger found the outside edge from Aamer. Such was the pace and bounce that Marcus North at first slip did well to snare the chance in front of his face, which was a surprising result given the general deadness of the pitch had caused several edges to fall short of the cordon.All of a sudden Pakistan lost 4 for 17 including two more for Bollinger, as his angle across the right-handers drew edges that were taken behind the wicket. Having earlier had the dangerous Umar Akmal caught at slip, Johnson then finished the task by coming round the wicket and rattling the off stump of the No. 11 Saeed Ajmal.Before Johnson and Bollinger came together for the first time in Sydney last summer, Australia had not played two left-arm fast men in a Test for more than 20 years, since Bruce Reid and Chris Matthews joined forces in 1986-87. Other countries haven’t had the same predilection for right-armers and various combinations of Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra have worked well together for India, while Sri Lanka have regularly used Chaminda Vaas in concert with Nuwan Zoysa and Thilan Thushara.Part of the attraction towards Johnson and Bollinger lies in their contrast. Both men are very quick but that’s where the similarity ends. Bollinger is all aggression, loud and brash, and sprints in like he’s racing against Usain Bolt. He has control over his swing and enjoys reverse when the ball gets older, but equally loves to dig in short ones.Johnson is quiet and sensitive, ambles in off a short run-up and generates his pace with his slingy action. He too can swing the ball but just as often the seam is scrambled, angling across right-handers and in towards left-handers. His unpredictability is one of his biggest weapons, because occasionally he’ll unexpectedly curve a delivery in to a right-hander or bang in a nasty bouncer lethal enough to injure or dismiss.He has taken 60 wickets at 28.03 this calendar year and was named the ICC’s Cricketer of the Year, and is already the third-most successful Australian left-arm fast bowler in Test history. But then, with the exception of Alan Davidson, Bill Johnston and the injury-prone Bruce Reid, the team has rarely had a quality left-armer on a permanent basis. They might now have two for the foreseeable future.

In the wake of the bans on three former Pakistan captains, Cricinfo looks at some other instances of player bans and boycotts

Cricinfo staff10-Mar-2010WIPA-WICBFloyd Reifer led a makeshift West Indies squad to defeat against Bangladesh•AFPThe relationship between the West Indian Players’ Association (WIPA) and the board had been rocky since 2005, mostly over a new contract with sponsor Digicel. The situation flared up sporadically with isolated strikes and considerable ill-will, but it reached a flashpoint in July 2009, when the entire first-choice team pulled out of a home Test series against Bangladesh.The entire first-choice squad – thirteen players in total – including Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo and Fidel Edwards, who were part of the battle with the board over annual retainer contracts, had not signed those contracts since October 2008.While WIPA claimed the players had played four tournaments in a row in 2009 without the contracts, the WICB said the demands of the players are unjust. The ‘second-string’ West Indies team, led by Floyd Reifer, went on to surrender the Test and ODI series, and even as the strikers and made themselves available for international duty following the appointment of an arbitrator to settle their dispute, the board decided to stick with the depleted squad for the 2009 Champions Trophy in South Africa that followed.Rebel ToursIt is too easy to forget how the spectre of South Africa haunted international sport through the 1970s and 1980s. Increasingly isolated as the stranglehold of sanctions tightened, the authorities in the republic used money to attract sportsmen who were willing to turn a blind eye to what was going on. The idea was to bring sport to an entertainment-starved (white) public and to give the impression to the world that things weren’t so bad after all. Across eight years, various rebel teams toured South Africa with impunity.The first to land were Graham Gooch’s 1982 team. West Indians, Australians – twice each – and Sri Lankans soon followed, and all were welcomed by the majority of the white South African establishment. The final batch of rebels led by Mike Gatting had assumed they were trading cash for a three-year ban, the punishment meted out to the 1982 squad. But no sooner was the venture revealed in the summer of 1989 than those involved found themselves vilified in the British press and rounded on by the public.At the end of it all, there were big heads which rolled. These suspensions ended the careers of more than half the 1982 squad including Geoff Boycott, the world’s leading Test run-scorer at the time. John Emburey, the English spinner,was twice banned for three years and both times returned to play for his country. Australian captain Kim Hughes, who had accused the ACB of fostering dissatisfaction among the players, thereby easing the recruitment process for the rebel tours easy, never played international cricket again. However, Terry Alderman, Trevor Hohns and Carl Rackemann returned to represent Australia in later series. The West Indians – Lawrence Rowe, Collis King and Sylvester Clarke among them – and Sri Lankans had a far more wretched time. Banned for life and socially ostracised, for some it destroyed their lives.Packer sagaKerry Packer signed on many of the world’s leading cricketers for World Series Cricket•Getty ImagesKerry Packer, a 39-year-old media magnate, had been trying to secure TV rights for his Channel Nine network in Australia but was thwarted by a cozy long-standing relationship between the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1976, after his offer was turned down even though it was worth more than the ABC’s, he decided to set up the World Series Cricket for his channel.From late 1976 through to May 1977 Packer set about signing players (at the time of the launch in May he had 35 contracted), from Australia, West Indies, England, Pakistan and South Africa, who were in sporting isolation. The Australians – including leading players such as the Chappell brothers, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh – were banned from all official cricket, including state matches, and while initially England wanted to do the same (to the likes of Tony Greig, Alan Knott, John Snow and Derek Underwood) the hardline approach at the county level was unsustainable in view of the High Court ruling.No Packer players, though, were picked for England after 1977. West Indies opted not to pick some players (Desmond Haynes, Deryck Murray, Richard Austin) leading to the remainder (including Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Colin Croft) walking away, while Pakistan were perhaps in the biggest mess with a major split in their ranks over how to treat players .Qayyum reportWith the match-fixing lid blown off after the Hansie Cronje scandal in India, the radar turned towards Pakistan. Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum, a Pakistan High Court judge, headed an inquiry that eventually handed fines to Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed, and life bans to batsman Saleem Malik and fast bowler Ata-ur-Rahman from the game.Despite it being the result of a comprehensive and wide-spanning inquiry, the report, made public in May 2000, received some criticism for being too vague in its findings, implying involvement of players in the team by imposing fines but not confirming it beyond reasonable doubt. However, Qayyum regretted the fact that his investigation into games under suspicion at the 1999 World Cup – Pakistan’s loss to Bangladesh foremost among them – was blocked.Zimbabwe boycottThe sacking of Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak as captain in 2004 sparked a boycott from his team-mates, plunging Zimbabwe cricket into another crisis. Streak had presented the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) with a set of demands, including a condition that all selectors have first-class experience, and said he would consider quitting the game if they were ignored. The ZCU response was to remove Streak from captaincy and announce his retirement.In protest, 15 players (including Grant Flower, Stuart Carlisle, Craig Wishart, Andy Blignaut and Ray Price) refused to represent the national team and signed a petition, calling for the instatement of a minimum wage and the establishment of a players’ association among other demands. The boycott resulted in the formation of a makeshift team, and the board, faced with a declining player-pool, announced a withdrawal from Test cricket in 2006, which stands to this day.

Players must smile even as they are abused, harassed and vilified. In India it’s worse than elsewhere

Sidharth Monga08-Jun-2010So what exactly is a role model?Mervyn Dillon is called a black bastard by the North Stand crowd at the Wankhede Stadium. Sri Lankan cricketers are repeatedly called worse at the SCG. Justin Langer has to go through “pretty strong abuse that went on for a long time” during the Old Trafford Test. What does a role model do? There is a Test that has to be won, don’t forget.”It is a 100% one-sided contest,” says Langer. “You just can’t react. You have to concentrate on what’s important. Almost like a Zen master.” Langer didn’t react on the field at the time, but condemned the crowd’s behaviour in a press conference. He was called a coward on internet forums. Coward that man wasn’t, as many a mean fast bowler will testify. “People who criticise you for this have no idea what it is like to be in your shoes.”All of it isn’t only on the field. Irfan Pathan remembers what happened at the Mumbai airport when he arrived from the 2007 World Cup, a disaster for India. “Someone swore at me very badly,” Irfan told Cricinfo later that year. “He was in the queue and pushing me and swearing at me. I got upset. But what could I do? Had I reacted, people would say it has all got to Irfan’s head. I am a human being too. Eventually I called the police guy and said, ‘Do something, he’s harassing me.'”Rahul Dravid signs autographs, is never seen drunk, is always on his best behaviour. “Luckily I haven’t been in any incident off the field,” he says. “I have had the odd offensive comment, but I have been able to brush it off.”But that’s not right,” he says, questioning perhaps the unwritten rule that says the player should always walk away. “That’s [abusing a player] unfair. It is cowardly. You know the sportsman has no chance to get back. If the cricketer reacts, he is done for. If he doesn’t, you have had your fun and you have had a laugh. Many people, under the influence of alcohol, have this ego trip, and then they tell their friends, ‘See I went there and I abused this player. What do these guys think of themselves?’ It is a kick for them.”It happens during training hours as well. When India were in New Zealand last year, a senior player was waiting for his car outside the Basin Reserve. A bunch of Indian expatriates, respectable-looking people in their mid-thirties, started to heckle him. They chanted slogans, expecting him to finish the lines. Almost like playing with a kid, or a toy. “” and they would expect the player to say “”. “…” and they would expect him to shout, “” (India will win). There were other slogans too, and this went on until he got annoyed and replied, “If you loved the country so much, why did you leave it?” That shut them up, and now we had a laugh. When told about the incident, Dravid smiles and says, “He was lucky there was no television camera around. This is prime story material.” Welcome to the world of role models. No banter allowed, and keep that smile on.It’s not just the international cricketers either. Indian domestic cricket invites many spectators whose only interest in the match is to swear at the odd player who has been dropped from the national side and is trying to regain his spot. One such player was once asked to sign an autograph in Rajkot during an Irani Cup. The player obliged, and was asked in return, ” [Hey $&*@#&, what’s your name?]”Aakash Chopra has written about this problem, and Ramesh Powar and Praveen Kumar have been at the receiving end in incidents in the recent past.Where does the public persona end and the private person begin?•Getty ImagesThe relationship between sport and abuse is not new. Many of us use the ubiquitous four-letter word in exasperation and in exultation. Players curse each other too. “That’s part of the game,” says Langer. It’s one-on-one, man to man, and both parties stand to gain or lose from it “But it’s a lot easier to abuse from outside, to pay some money and say whatever you like to the players from the comfort of the crowd.”Abuse from the crowd is not new; it was on even before Douglas Jardine annoyed the Aussies with his harlequin cap. But from the often witty sledging of the famous barrackers of the past, it has now mostly deteriorated to racism and swearing.Players have learned to deal with it. There is a lovely eyewitness account by a user called vcfsantos, presumably an Englishman, on a BBC blog, of how Glenn McGrath won over the Bristol crowd in 2005.

“Fielding on the boundary at long-off, he was copping a load of flak, most of it in good nature, and giving it back with interest and with a grin on his face. When one lagered-up fan started to become abusive, GM walked up to him as close as he could get and simply smiled. Didn’t say a word. Remarkable self-restraint, and a touch of class. By this time he’d won most of us over, so a few of us got together and took the abusive fan to the stewards. He then took the time to say thanks and sign autographs for all the kids.”

Ian Chappell, never a man for nonsense, made sure crowd abuse didn’t affect his side. “A couple of times in my career we had a fan abusing a bowler and he was starting to become distracted,” Chappell says. “The next time the fan yelled out, I called back something that got his attention and he started abusing me. As I was prepared for it, the abuse wasn’t a problem, and the bowler was better able to get on and do his job.”Not everyone has the McGrath charm, or the Chappell toughness, but abuse – like packed schedules – is something the players have learned to live with, except for the odd Inzamam kind of incident, where the player takes matters into his hands and ends up being crucified. But when it goes off the field, infringing on a player’s life and personal space, it’s a different kettle of fish.That’s when these superstars, these young millionaires, these icemen on the field, plead with the fans to understand that they are human beings too. “We are always under pressure on the field,” says Dravid. “We need to get away, we need some release to bring a sense of normalcy in our lives. Some people find it in family, some in books, some in music, some people find it in going out. If people are going to become Mr Room Service, it will affect their personality and the way they play.”Chappell had a simple yardstick. “After the game I believed it was my private time. It caused a few fans to become irate when I wouldn’t sign [autographs], but if I was paying for my drinks in a bar, I felt I had the right to some privacy.” He once nearly paid the price. “At The Oval in 1979, some goose became so angry because I wouldn’t sign that he grabbed me by the hair,” he says. “When Rod Marsh arrived on the scene he decided to scarper.”A sound enough argument, but in a different culture, say India’s, this sort of behaviour by a player will be considered the worst form of rudeness. “We are different people,” Dravid says. “We are lot more personal. Pressures on an Indian cricketer are different, unreal. Some of the foreign guys ask me, ‘How do you do it?’ And I think that myself sometimes. But it is the passion, drive, emotion and love of the Indian fan that makes sure cricket is not a minor sport.” There is a clear understanding among the players that it is this passion that makes them what they are, not least financially. Yet just how much of their lives should they give in return for that passion and money, they are not sure.Usually players from outside the subcontinent are spared off the field, but there has been a rise in pub incidents: Jason Gillespie was hit outside one in Traralgon in 2008, and Jesse Ryder has had his troubles.It is sad enough that fans drag cricketers into altercations; it is sadder when it is the other way round. Players are easy targets, but on rare occasions they turn the tables. Alcohol is a big problem with sportspersons across the world, across disciplines, and sporting success itself is a big high. On rare occasions, often while under the influence, cricketers can behave like brats. There have been reports from fans alleging a few young Indian cricketers of causing trouble by making indecent comments about the fans’ female companions.It might be human to make such mistakes at a young age, but there is a certain basic awareness any public figure – sportsman, actor, politician – needs. Malcolm Knox, the respected Australian author, has written about how he – in the pre-IPL days – “saw Australian cricketers coming across Indians sleeping on a railway platform in Jamshedpur and nudging them awake with their feet in order to take a happy snap”. While many tourists can be accused of indulging in such poverty porn, not least Indians who have moved to greener pastures, cricketers are supposed to be better.The other 95%: players know most of their fans give them unwavering support•Getty ImagesAll that said, for every drunk idiot, there are at least 19 others who sacrifice their comfort to sell stadiums out, who are happy just patting a player’s back and letting him know he makes them proud, who forgive and forget and support their team despite losses. Like Dravid says, “I don’t want to sound like being an Indian cricketer is tragic. I wouldn’t want to change for anything in the world. There are more positives than negatives. It’s the other nice people we play for.” For every brat cricketer, there are tens of well-behaved gentlemen.From Langer to Chappell to Irfan to Chopra, they agree. They also concur that the world has changed. Chappell is thankful there were no cell phones with cameras in his day. Adam Gilchrist is thankful the press did not make stories out of the internet rumour that the baby his wife had just delivered was actually Michael Slater’s. “With media becoming bigger and bigger, almost 24×7, they need to find a new edge to everything,” says Dravid. “Incidents of cricketers being heckled by the public are not news; cricketers’ reacting is not new. This has not happened for the first time, but they get blown out of proportion. A small argument becomes a brawl, a brawl a punch-up, a punch-up a full-blown war.”Of course it would help if the fans and the media saw the cricketers as human beings. Humour, charm, mental toughness are a cricketer’s friend, but they don’t always help. Cricket boards can give players talks on how to politely walk away from situations – Cricket Australia does that – but there can’t be one way.David Lloyd, an immensely likeable former cricketer, coach and umpire, endorses the CA way. And he does enjoy his pubs. “I would be disciplined enough to walk away from a situation,” he says. “It just isn’t worth it. There are far more important things in life. I would expect any player in any situation to handle himself in a proper manner, because to some extent we public property. I always told me England lads to not do anything their parents wouldn’t be proud of.”Dravid’s way is pretty effective too. “From the team bus, when I put the curtain down, I often see there are people lined up waiting for you, waving at you,” he says. “There is a young kid on the road, selling magazines. He smiles at you, recognises you through the tiny window, waves at you, does a cricket action for you. That’s passion. That’s what it is about. I always look at it and say, that’s the world game. The whole world’s got to be grateful for that. And when I came across the rare idiot of the other kind, that kid is what I think of.”

This romantic tour through the 2009 English season is a must-read for those who love the game, and those who control it

Alan Lee18-Sep-2010Anyone who has watched cricket from the prim old Ladies’ Pavilion at Worcester, gazing through the green-and-white canvas to the cathedral and river beyond, will appreciate that such moments are made for profound thoughts on the best-loved game.Duncan Hamilton, whiling away a dreamy afternoon and doubtless awaiting the homemade cakes, found himself musing
on what it is that sets Anglo-Australian rivalries so distinctly apart. “Beneath the thick crust of cynicism England and Australia are like the two old men in Somerset Maugham’s short story “The Sanatorium”, who squabble and feud, complain about and provoke one another – mostly over trivialities. The fractious relationship gives meaning and purpose and identity and definition to both their lives.”It was a summary to linger in the consciousness, encapsulating the work of a book that achieves more than its ambitions.
Hamilton, already the recipient of five prestigious book awards, can confidently expect more to follow for this lyrical, evocative but absolutely timely volume, a kind of travelogue of the English cricketing summer of 2009.His inspirations were threefold: first his grandfather, who had introduced him to cricket and whose memory lives with him
still; secondly JB Priestley’s , a ramble round a changing land in 1933; finally Hamilton’s deep fears that the rhythms and romance of the game were about to be lost forever, bulldozed by rampant commercialism.Because cricket has, indeed, become avaricious and celebrity-led, Hamilton’s thoughts are not fashionable; these days the banal soundbites of Freddie or Jimmy or KP are so much easier to market. If sales of this book suffer for that, however, it will be the greatest shame. Everyone who loves the game, and especially those who administer it, should read this and prepare to weep.Hamilton admits he is something of a modern misfit. “To describe oneself as a ‘cricket purist’ these days risks derision. You’re dismissed as ultra-conservative, unprogressive and as fogeyish as a pocket watch and chain. I am that cricket purist.” He calls himself a “raving sentimentalist” and adds: “I am always measuring today against yesterday. I know there are times when it makes me sound one hundred years old.”

Mostly Hamilton’s comparisons are sharp and his longing for the eroded joys of the county game shrewdly expressed. Unsurprisingly he reserves his bile for Twenty20, and specifically for the noise and ballyhoo seemingly inseparable from it

And, yes, just occasionally, he does get almost tiresomely wistful, straining a shade too far for the right, regretful image. There is, too, the odd misspelling of a player’s name to irritate.Mostly, though, his comparisons are sharp and his longing for the eroded joys of the county game shrewdly expressed. Unsurprisingly he reserves his bile for Twenty20, and specifically for the noise and ballyhoo seemingly inseparable from it. He loathes “the show-off announcers” and the “acts of forced jollity”, comparing the experience to “someone at a party constantly blowing a streamer in your face and telling you to enjoy yourself”.Hamilton regards the IPL as “plastic cricket, pre-packaged and oversold”. The domestic product, he warns, has already been given undue priority. “Twenty20 is barging in on every summer like an exasperating holiday guest; not only demanding the best room in the house but insisting that everything is run to fit around its whims.”His graphic disapproval of the beer-drinking marathons that have been allowed house room in English cricket will strike a chord with many. He experienced it at the Edgbaston Test and reports his revulsion at the abuse and “rank obnoxious” conduct of the drunks. “If the ECB ignores the drinking culture, or allows it to go unchecked, it will at some stage find itself trying to explain away a profoundly serious incident.”Hamilton starts his odyssey at Lord’s, for the MCC v champion county fixture, and ends it at Canterbury deep in September. He is at his best and happiest away from the rowdy throng – at Colwyn Bay, for instance, earwigging on endearing conversations in the crowd, or at Scarborough, where his cricket-watching routines are engrained.At Cheltenham he reflects how county cricket has lost so much of its character through the steady elimination of outgrounds. He steals a look at a 1978 and counts 26 that have since disappeared. “It is as if cricket’s own version of a flint-eyed and unfeeling Dr Beeching stared at a map of England one summer’s day and tut-tutted his disapproval.”Hamilton feared the end of the line for the cricketing time tables he reveres. Most of us join him in hoping he is wrong.A Last English Summer
by Duncan Hamilton
Quercus
377pp, £20

Marshmallows can’t withstand. Trap them in a clenched fist and they’re soon squashed. Heat them up and they become gooey and pliable, a little like the South African middle-order

Firdose Moonda at Chennai06-Mar-2011A marshmallow has many redeeming qualities. It’s sweet and light and fluffy and tastes as good dipped in chocolate as it does chargrilled over a flame. That it can so easily get burnt is one of its shortcomings.Marshmallows can’t withstand. Trap them in a clenched fist and they’re soon squashed. Heat them up and they become gooey and pliable. In other words, place them in a situation of pressure and they’re likely to become unrecognisable, a little like the South African middle order.”It’s the first outing they’ve had for a long time,” Graeme Smith said at the post-match press conference. A forgetful outing it was, as seven wickets tumbled for 41 runs, and the flames of spin, swing and attacking bowling them burnt them beyond recognition. Once the top four were gone, they panicked, like Faf du Plessis, who called for a run that simply wasn’t there; they were outclassed, like JP Duminy, who has no answers for James Anderson’s accuracy, and they couldn’t settle like Robin Peterson, who looked like getting out from just about the first ball he faced.Morne van Wyk, a first-class campaigner of 16 seasons, showed a certain composure and maturity to combine with Dale Steyn and then also played a shot in anger – only to play it onto his own stumps. It left Steyn and Morne Morkel, both proficient with the bat, with a simple enough task to complete, but one that was made difficult because of the carnage they’d seen before them. If batsmen at positions five, six, seven and eight had been squashed, what chance did they have?This middle order, particularly from No. 6 downwards, has not spent any time at the crease in this World Cup, so it’s only natural that they would need a period of adjustment. Maybe that period would mean scoring slowly, trying to make sense of the conditions and work out to play on them. Maybe it meant one or two of them perishing in the cause. On a bowler-friendly Chennai surface, they had no such luxury.Conditions favoured the bowlers and even though patience would have been rewarded, the pace of the game at the stage when they entered it demanded a quick adjustment and an immediate plan to shut out the pressure. Such a plan can only be executed with confidence, and confidence will only come with time in the middle, time that they have not had. It’s too early to panic though, according to Smith. “We need to show a little bit more faith in them rather than to just give them one go.”No, it’s not fair to call them melting marshmallows after one collapse. There Smith is correct. Where he isn’t, however, is that it hasn’t been just one. In the last seven ODIs, there have been three collapses, two while chasing. One of them was today. The other two came against India, South Africa’s next opponents in this tournament. Munaf Patel was the man who made it happen both times. He took 4 for 29 in Johannesburg, when South Africa watched seven wickets fall for 29 runs and lost the match by one run. His 2 for 42 was part of a collapse in which South Africa lost 5 for 20 and crashed from 200 for 5 to 220 all out.It’s positions six, seven and eight that are most problematic. This time, they were the domain of Duminy and van Wyk, but Peterson, Johan Botha, Wayne Parnell and Colin Ingram have all been tried, in different combinations, to fill the slot, none with enough success to last. It presents South Africa with a puzzle they haven’t had to solve too many times in the past – with the likes of Mark Boucher and Lance Klusener lurking at No. 7 to steady or surge as needed.These days there is something less solid than the two mentioned above, and it doesn’t look like South Africa are anywhere closer to hardening it up. “I thought Faf and Ab hung in really well. If they could have hung in a few more overs, we could have got home. That was a crucial part of the game,” Smith said when asked about the middle order, not making any reference to the batsmen who come after du Plessis, who was pushed up to No. 5.Inexperience is what undid du Plessis, while Duminy has yet to find a sustained period of form that made him a superstar against Australia three seasons ago. An extended run for van Wyk may turn him into the dependable man South Africa need in that position and if Botha comes back into the starting XI, he may provide stability and security in the lower middle order. Until then, it’s going to remain a cluster of talented players, the kind that look good if their job is to build on what the top order has created but who can still get singed when the heat is really on.

Michael Clarke is no prima donna leader, but large chunks of the Australian cricket public still haven’t warmed to him

Peter English at the Gabba30-Jan-2011The fifth ODI was dedicated to charity but there wasn’t much given to the captain Michael Clarke. For so long the anointed leader, Clarke is out of form as well as being out of favour in large sections of Australia.Of course big parts of the country quite like him, but boos usually find a way to drown out the cheers, as Clarke discovered when he walked out to bat at the Gabba this afternoon. Jeering the leader has been a popular past-time this summer, whether it was the England fans targeting Ricky Ponting during the first four Tests, or the locals showing displeasure at Clarke’s elevation when the incumbent was injured.Pockets jangled with coins headed for the collectors’ buckets, raising money for the Queensland flood victims, but there was only sympathy for Clarke after he was welcomed with boos. After that most supporters clapped him extra hard when he hit three boundaries in his first 13 deliveries, and later brought up his first one-day half-century since the game here against Sri Lanka in November.He was also applauded loudly, with some standing in acknowledgment, as he left with 54 off 74 deliveries, an innings which became the high point of Australia’s 248. A handful of angry radio listeners texted apologies to Clarke for the behaviour of the people in the stands, especially on a day throbbing with community spirit.It probably happened to Mark Taylor in 1996-97 – although most of his most famous slump occurred overseas – and Greg Chappell can’t have been popular during his duck run in the early 1980s, but turning on the leader is a rare event in Australia. Booing the opposition is standard, as Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen re-discovered tonight, but Clarke is a victim of the displeasure in the early stages of his captaincy.”Obviously you’d like people to be cheering but I can understand why a few of them were booing,” Clarke said. “I’ve had a lot of support throughout this time, I haven’t performed as well as I’d like, so I don’t blame the public for being disappointed with my performances. It was nice to finally contribute and help the boys get a win. It was a great feeling.”All the unwanted attention is extra strange because his team is doing so well. Under Clarke the side has moved on quickly from the Ashes defeat and the 51-run success gave Australia a 4-1 lead, sealing the series with two games remaining.The best way for him to win the adoration is to score fluent runs, but that has become increasingly difficult over a summer without much love. What he has shown is his dedication to exiting his slump, even if it is not paying off yet.He has given up the associated riches of Twenty20 by retiring from the international format to focus on Tests and ODIs. This week he was so desperate for a decent bat that he suggested to the Australian hierarchy that he turn out for his Sydney club side. The request was rejected. Those two actions are not the behaviour of a prima donna leader, but a man who wants to excel for himself and his country.As a person Clarke can be generous. The day before this game he walked on to the Gabba with a group of under-9s from a Brisbane club side to spend time with them, just like he did on Friday with school children affected by the floods. Part of it was his job, but there is more to him than professional duty.Like all of his team-mates, he donated his entire match fee to the flood appeal. “It was a no-brainer for the boys,” Clarke said. “Everyone is doing that and the boys are signing a shirt as well.”It’s great to see so many people in this country be willing to put their hand in their pockets for such a wonderful cause. A lot of people have been devastated by what’s happened and the least we can do is donate a bit of our money and our time. That’s a reason why it’s even more special tonight to get a victory. It’s great we’ve won the series.”By the end of the game the tally from Cricket Australia and its supporters had reached approximately A$6million, a phenomenal amount of financial support. Over the next week, before the team leaves for the World Cup, Clarke deserves some goodwill too.

Cricket at Lord’s is some experience, even with overzealous stewards, pedantic umps and lots of rain

Nick Campion22-Jul-2011Choice of game
I picked this game last winter as soon as the tickets went on sale. I wanted to see a Lord’s Test and see some of the best players in the world come together in a potentially explosive and series-shaping day of cricket. But that wasn’t quite how it turned out.Team supported
England.Key performer
The rain, unfortunately. After a very steady 49 overs, it felt like things were about to happen. A jumpy Kevin Pietersen was battling his desire to launch Harbhajan Singh into the stands, while the run-machine Jonathan Trott was picking up the pace. Ian Bell was due next, with his silky smooth strokes, and Eoin Morgan was practising his reverse-sweeps in the changing rooms. Alas, the rain struck before the story unfolded.One thing I’d have changed
Waitress service. Not just to save ourselves trips for beer, food and ice-cream, but so everyone else on our row could do the same, and therefore not keep having to ask us to stand up to let them past. It was more like an exercise class than a cricket match sometimes.Interplay I enjoyed
Between the spectators and stewards. Although unfailingly friendly and polite, the stewards seemed to have developed an obsessive-compulsive ticket-checking disorder. Being on the top tier of a stand, we had to pop downstairs if we wanted to get anything to eat or to use the toilet etc. When we returned five minutes later, the steward we’d just passed asked to see our ticket. Then when we got to the top of the stairs, another one had to see it again! What did they think happened between the bottom of the stairs and the top? The worst was when people were balancing their beer carriers while trying to find their tickets – one man lost all four pints when they slipped from his grasp while he tried to get the ticket out of his pocket. Oh how he laughed as £18 worth of beer ran down the drain. At least he had his hands free to show his ticket to the steward at the top of the stairs.Filling the gaps
During the lunch break we watched the kids play Kwik Cricket, and witnessed the first and only sixes of the day. We also saw some very dubious bowling actions that were clearly more than 15 degrees of bend in the elbow – about 75 degrees more.At lunch I made my choice of food purely by length of queue than taste. The system worked well, as within 15 minutes I had pie, chips, peas and gravy of no little quality.While on the subject, I can confirm that despite stiff global competition, the snack of choice for the nation’s Test match spectators remains the humble, yet great, British pork pie.Wow moment
When the umpires walked onto the field, we finally knew we had beaten the forecasts and were going to see some cricket. Either that or my first mouthful of steak-and-ale pie.Crowd meter
Lord’s just has a different crowd to any other Test match venue in the UK. Blazers and ties sit next to t-shirts and shorts, panama hats next to baseball hats, champagne flutes next to cans of lager – all bonded by the love for the game.The wine and beer were out of the coolboxes before the covers were off, and the next few hours were punctuated by the reassuring pop of champagne corks. One gentleman misjudged his champagne a little, spilling some all over the floor. Another spectator mopped it up with his copy of the .Lord’s is to be commended for treating grown-ups like grown-ups and allowing spectators to take in a reasonable amount of alcohol, unlike other Test grounds. This indulgence is rewarded by spectators enjoying their drinks and having their fun but never letting anything become unsavoury.Entertainment
The best entertainment during the rain break was a group of young lads playing cricket under the stands and using an umbrella as a bat. You had to admire their ingenuity but wonder if their parents would be so pleased next time it rains.Regulation irritation
The authorities seem to be trying harder than before to keep spectators happy, but still they drive us mad sometimes. There was no reason to delay the start until 11.30am today. It should have been 11.15 at the latest. Then, after three hours waiting, we were all geared up for a resumption for an hour at 6.30pm but three small drops of rain fell at 6.26, so the covers went back on and because the restart hadn’t happened by 6.30pm the day’s play was called off. That’s the regulations, you see. Never mind the fact that they could have started at 6.35pm and played for 55 minutes. I think the 10,000-15,000 spectators who had waited three hours in the rain would have appreciated that.Overall
The cricket was absorbing but we were robbed of half the day and a potentially fascinating passage of play. Being there, though, was a pleasure – to experience the ebb and flow of play, the warm embrace of Lord’s, even the rhythm of each delivery: the hum as the bowler walks back, the rising “Wooaaahh…” of anticipation as he runs in, a crescendo followed silence as he delivers, and an “Ooohhh” as it passes the outside edge. Then the hum begins again.Marks out of 10
7. Damn you, rain.

ESPNcricinfo presents plays of the day for the Royal Challengers Bangalore v Warriors CLT20 game

Siddarth Ravindran at the Chinnaswamy Stadium23-Sep-2011The attentive sidestep
A quick straw poll of people lining up to enter the Chinnaswamy Stadium confirmed Chris Gayle was the man people were turning up to see. “Gayle show mercy on the ball and on the opponents,” said a poster. It didn’t take long for Gayle to give the Royal Challengers faithful what they wanted: in the second over of the match, a brutal hit off Rusty Theron sent the ball flat over cover and all the way to the boundary. An attentive ball-boy proved all eyes were on Gayle, nimbly stepping out of the way as the ball bounced next to his feet and thudded into the advertising hoarding.The tumbling take
It took less than 15 minutes for Gayle to have the opposition in despair. A monstrous hit over long-on off Lonwabo Tsotsobe followed by a boundary to midwicket powered Royal Challengers to 34 in three overs. Rusty Theron had already been whacked for 14 in his first over, and taken out of the attack. The new bowler, Wayne Parnell, managed to keep Gayle quiet for three deliveries, prompting a mow over mid-on off the next. Gayle didn’t middle it, but the top edge looked likely to beat Johan Botha at mid-on. The fielder, though, quickly back-pedalled and plucked a left-handed overhead catch before tumbling over. “It was a little bit of a fluke in the end,” Botha said, adding that he recalled Ian Chappell’s advice about always turning round and chasing the ball instead of back-pedalling. “I thought, ‘Oh, you’ve made the same mistake here.’ I just stuck my hand out and it stuck in there.”The ironic cheers
As Ross Taylor and Gayle have found out, an ability to belt sixes is sure to make you the Bangalore crowd’s favourite. Those with a more sedate batting style don’t get quite the same warmth from the fans. When Mohammad Kaif, not a renowned hitter, walked in at No. 6 and played out four dot balls, the crowd let him know how they felt by mockingly cheering every run-less delivery. There was no derision from the crowd, though, when Kaif lashed a couple of leg-side sixes soon after.Guess who hit the biggest six?
During a media interaction earlier this week, Ashwell Prince had bristled at suggestions that his game was more suited to Test cricket than the slam-bang versions. “Those are just others’ perceptions, I know what I’m capable of,” he insisted when asked whether he could provide the firepower at the top in the absence of Davy Jacobs. A career Twenty20 strike-rate a little above 100 is hardly something to set the fans’ pulse racing. He backed up his talk, though, with a 55-ball 74, the highlight of which was a superbly timed 82-metre hit over long-off that nearly went into the second tier.The redemption

In the space of seven deliveries, Abhimanyu Mithun goofed up in the field twice. When Virat Kolhi rifled in a throw from point, attempting to run-out Ashwell Prince, Mithun couldn’t back-up properly, letting the ball through his legs for four. Soon after, he shelled what should have been a simple catch at third man, stopping short after misjudging where the ball was landing. Four balls later, the ball soared towards Mithun again, this time at deep square leg as Colin Ingram swiped at the ball. This time Mithun clasped the ball safely, and flung it up in relief.The crowd-silencer
After 12 overs of the chase, it looked like game, set and match to Royal Challengers as the asking-rate was over 11 with four Warriors’ batsmen dismissed. Prince and Johan Botha kept Warriors in it with a brisk stand, but with 36 needed off the final three, the crowd sensed the home side still had the edge. Botha swung the game, though, and left the home fans nervy and rather quiet with consecutive ferociously hit sixes off Gayle, to bring the equation down to a gettable 20 off 13 balls.

The time invested in the likes of Devendra Bishoo, Kirk Edwards, Kraigg Brathwaite, Lendl Simmons and Darren Bravo, that they were given the space to do their own thing, has paid off for West Indies

Mohammad Isam02-Nov-2011West Indies have won a Test series away from home for the first time in eight years, the previous occasion being the heart-stopping 1-0 win over Zimbabwe in 2003. After several upheavals, changes in leadership, player strikes, suspensions and a dearth of trophies, it fell to a young team to give Caribbean cricket a rare sniff of success.Of course, the 229-run win in Mirpur left captain Darren Sammy pleased no end. “The positives from this tour have to be the way the batsmen went about their business. Not just putting the runs on the board, but also spending time at the crease,” he said. “It feels really good to win. We left home hoping to play well, we achieved our goal. We always knew we were in for a challenge, with the way Shakib [Al Hasan] and Tamim [Iqbal] batted especially.”The discipline displayed by the bowlers, said Sammy, had a major bearing on Bangladesh’s batsmen playing rash shots that brought about their downfall. “In the first innings we didn’t concede any extras. I don’t recall this ever happening before. That shows the discipline in the bowling unit.”Devendra Bishoo, the ICC’s Emerging Player of the Year who picked up his first five-for in Test cricket in Mirpur, heaped praise on his captain and support staff. “When I started off, I was not bowling that well,” he said. “The coaching staff and skipper just told me to believe in myself, to do what I knew best. I just had to vary my pace and just be containing.”It worked for Bishoo, and for the team. The time invested in the likes of Bishoo, Kirk Edwards, Kraigg Brathwaite, Lendl Simmons and Darren Bravo, that they were given the space to do their own thing, has paid off. Now, slowly, they seem to be growing comfortable with their role in the team at the game’s highest level.A series win over Bangladesh wouldn’t have sounded too flash in the last decade, but with their inexperienced top-order and a thin bowling attack, West Indies were always facing a tricky battle against Bangladesh, in conditions that heavily favoured the hosts. The youngsters, though, responded adequately. Following a drawn Test series with Pakistan, they impressed in a lost cause against India before coming to Bangladesh, a team they had lost to in 2009.Simmons led the way with his twin successes in the one-day series, with a little help from the experienced Marlon Samuels and Ravi Rampaul, and a burst of wickets from Kemar Roach in the second ODI. Bangladesh succumbed to their own follies, but one had to applaud the way Simmons efficiently anchored both the limited-overs games in Dhaka. After the blip in Chittagong – where West Indies were shot out for 61 in the third ODI and lorded over for most part of the Test – the opening partnership in Mirpur between 18-year-old Brathwaite and Kieran Powell, a last-minute replacement for Simmons, set the tone for what turned out to be a fine Test win.Edwards built on the platform with a proper No. 3 innings; he held the innings together and strung together a series of small stands as he reached his second Test century in only his third game. Brathwaite had batted to a plan as well, occupying the crease for as long as possible and giving the more attacking Powell a chance to open up his shoulders.Darren Bravo, whose batting style has often been compared to that of Brian Lara, too, came of age in this series. The pressure was on him, with cynics claiming that it was only the mannerisms of Lara that could be found in him, that the comparison ended there. He responded with a knock of 195 in the second innings that set up the big win, with some of his shots – especially the lofted drive down the ground – showing us just why the comparison with the legend was made in the first place.

Top individual scores in the Ranji Trophy finals

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jan-2012

BatsmanScoreTeamOppositionYearGul Mohammad319BarodaHolkar1946-47Vijay Hazare288BarodaHolkar1946-47Vijay Merchant278MumbaiHolkar1944-45Ashok Mankad265MumbaiDelhi1980-81Denis Compton249HolkarMumbai1944-45Gundappa Viswanath247KarnatakaUttar Pradesh1977-78Ajit Wadekar235MumbaiRajasthan1961-62Chandu Sarwate234HolkarGujarat1950-51Sanjay Manjrekar224MumbaiPunjab1994-95Wazir Ali222*Southern PunjabBengal1938-39KC Ibrahim219MumbaiBaroda1948-49BB Nimbalkar219HolkarBengal1952-53Bapu Nadkarni219MumbaiRajasthan1962-63Phiroze Palia216Uttar PradeshMaharashtra1939-40Rahul Dravid215KarnatakaUttar Pradesh1997-98Hanumant Singh213RajasthanMumbai1966-67V Mohan Raj211*HyderabadDelhi1986-87Vineet Saxena207*RajasthanTamil Nadu2011-12Sunil Gavaskar206*MumbaiDelhi1983-84Vijay Hazare203BarodaServices1957-58CK Nayudu200HolkarBaroda1945-46