A reporter on tour at the 2003 World Cup remembers seeing the great man up close

Sharda Ugra06-Dec-2013Writing about other World Cups, Sanjay Manjrekar said that Indian cricketers lived and moved in tunnels; in the 2003 World Cup, so did everyone attached to the tournament. Outside life filtered in like sunshine when least expected.It happened very early and very quietly in the World Cup, and everyone who was there could hold on to it later when things got rough or intolerable. It was the figure of Nelson Mandela in the lobby of the Holiday Inn in Strand Street, Cape Town, arriving to meet the South Africa team on the morning of the first match of the World Cup.It is said he takes a back seat in public life or else President Thabo Mbeki will forever come off looking like second fiddle. At the opening ceremony the night before, he was seen on the giant screen as one of the seated guests, a blurred, distant figure. When he waved and smiled, it set the crowd off, much as when Mandoza’s “Nkalakatha” played over the speakers as South Africa’s team walked into the stadium after all the rest at the formal march past.I wondered whether Mandela would be doing any events around the World Cup and whether we would be told. It would always be a story.The front desk at the media centre has no information of that kind. Pity. No story, no chance of seeing Mandela at work, close up.Before I leave the venue, a local reporter I had got to know comes over and says, “Madiba’s going to meet the South African team tomorrow at their hotel. In the morning. Not an event, no statements, a private meeting. Very quiet. If you want to see him, go.” Jermaine Craig, I will always be grateful.The next morning, the hotel lobby is humdrum, a few scatterings of people, a tinkling piano, buffet breakfast. No stirrings of anything about to happen. The hotel security frowns at the sight of the bright yellow media World Cup accreditation hanging from my neck. The best you can do is raise your palms, like people do to police to show they are not armed. “And?” the guard asks. Only looking. From a distance. Nothing else. “Nothing else,” he says. No names are being taken but something happening. A lurking Reuters photographer smiles good morning. Yes. Only looking. Nothing else.A car drives up to the porch, followed by another, not giant government automobiles screaming bulletproof importance, just regular. Then an ambulance follows. That’s it. He’s here.Mandela gets out of the car, escorted by his staff. He is wearing a South African team t-shirt. He is tall but looks frail and walks with the help of a stick, slowly and haltingly. Slowly also because he is ready to say hello and shake the hand of everyone in the lobby who is reaching out to him. The frail old man becomes the public figure, not of authority but stature, not the weight of history but of a larger humanity.The pianist in the lobby changes his tune from something Richard Clayderman-esque to the South African national anthem. The German tourists waffling down their waffles, retired hotel executives who have been roped in to help during the World Cup, bell boys, receptionists, all melt into a state of charmed babyhood as the man with “Madiba” on the back of his shirt greets them like he knew them from earlier. Excitement here becomes a hush. No one is talking. The only voice that can be heard is Mandela’s.Only after he has gone from sight to do what he has come to do, meet the South African team, do people turn to each other and speak. After a short while, Mandela returns with his party grown larger. He is on the arm of Shaun Pollock, who is red in the face and wears a four-year-old’s grin. Gerald Majola is on the other side. Mandela is shaking everyone’s hand. The Reuters photographer is taking pictures. South Africa’s cricket World Cup 2003 can now begin.

Bangladesh have moved on from a one-man show to a team that has a new performer on a daily basis. That they won yet another home series without Shakib Al Hasan shows their progress

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur31-Oct-2013Bangladesh won another home ODI series against a higher-ranked team by believing in their abilities. They batted first after winning the toss in Mirpur where, in late October, dew is already a major factor, particularly for the finger spinners. They used four of those in their chosen conditions, the most effective of whom opened the bowling at one end. Their injury prone fast bowler also came through. They won the second match with unconventional, yet useful methods.Mushfiqur Rahim showed a lot of confidence in his main spinners, Sohag Gazi and Abdur Razzak, in deciding to bat first. Both bowled accurately, didn’t let the wet ball be too much of a distraction and ensured they remained calm after every big hit. The wicket of Ross Taylor was a good example of how much Gazi has progressed as an international cricketer, and how quickly he learns.Taylor had smashed him for a six, and like the first game on Tuesday, it would have been easy for Gazi to continue firing them in as a defensive ploy, hoping to restrict the batsman to ground strokes. This time he tossed it up outside the off stump, and Taylor chipped it down long-on’s throat. He was lucky to pick up James Neesham’s wicket with a short ball, but it was the build-up that often gets bowlers wickets. He also ended Anton Devcich’s misery (he scored 19 off 44 balls) with an easy caught and bowled chance and a few words.Razzak dismissed Grant Elliott, the highest-scorer from the first match, with a flattish delivery that went straight, the batsman caught plumb in front. Razzak may have contributed only one wicket, but his discipline and leadership skills have been recently praised by the Bangladesh management.Mushfiqur’s gamble with Mominul Haque also paid off, his two wickets a bonus for the team. These series wins are important for Bangladesh’s growth as they have done it without their main allrounder, Shakib Al Hasan. He was also out of the squad with injury when they won 3-2 last year against West Indies in the ODI series.The team should be most pleased with Mashrafe Mortaza’s performance over the two games. He is known for missing more international matches than playing during his 12-year career but this latest comeback has begun very well.He was the quiet performer in the first game, making sure his transition from injury to rehabilitation to match fitness was smooth. His three-wicket haul on Thursday was his first since April 2011, and his best bowling figures since July 2010. His first spell kept the two left-handed New Zealand openers on tenterhooks, and he soon accounted for the miserably out of form Hamish Rutherford. He continued to be accurate, but when he gave width to Corey Anderson in his second spell, the edge was snapped up by a diving Mushfiqur.When you have a player with a history of major injuries and one who has to resettle almost every year, exiting suddenly after a comeback, it has two different effects in a team. Mortaza and his team-mates have experienced both, like when he felt unwelcome more three years ago when he made a comeback. But Mushfiqur’s catch said that the team wanted to do something for their rickety warrior.Bangladesh have their concerns too. Like their counterparts, the Bangladesh batsmen struggled to convert good starts into big scores, were poor in the batting Powerplay and didn’t have the flourish in the end overs. They took a chance by handing Shamsur Rahman a debut in such a crucial match. The right-handed batsman didn’t have the best of starts but it was progressive thinking to break a winning combination, knowing fully well how the public and media would react if Shamsur failed like Anamul Haque.Mominul, Tamim Iqbal and the rest of the batsmen all flattered to deceive, as they didn’t bat for long or put together a big stand. Even during their problematic phase, at 173 for 6 in the 39th over, two batsmen stood up. Gazi and Mahmudullah added 48 precious runs that got them past the 200-run mark.Bangladesh have moved on from a one-man show to a team that has a new performer on a daily basis. Someone or the other stands up. Mominul and Gazi did so in the Chittagong Test while in Mirpur, Tamim batted out of his comfort zone to guide his team to safety. Rubel Hossain did it on Tuesday with his best performance in international cricket. Today it was Mortaza, Gazi, Tamim and Mominul.There was a lap of honour at the end of the game, with the players’ families converging in the field, and a majority of the crowd that stayed back. The word out was that the Bangladesh players don’t celebrate in the dressing-room as much these days. But one can imagine that the players nowadays toast each other’s success, rather than one man’s.

The sustained excellence of Australia’s bowling attack – never bettered according to a past great, Glenn McGrath, has brought deep satisfaction to their mentor Craig McDermott

Daniel Brettig04-Jan-20140:00

I’ve another Ashes series left in me – Harris

Pressed a few days ago to recall the moment when Australia’s bowlers delivered their finest spell for this Ashes series, their mentor Craig McDermott was momentarily short of an answer. After a pause, he remarked that it was actually easier to think of the odd occasions on which they had dipped below that level, such was the sustained excellence provided by Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon.Watching from his familiar perch at the boundary’s edge on day two of the final Test in Sydney, McDermott would only have added a few minutes at most to his aggregate of shifts for the series.For most of England’s innings, including a brief but close to terrifying six overs on the first evening, the standard maintained by the bowlers was unimpeachably lofty. Against batsmen well and truly broken by their weight of failure and now longing for home, it quickly became an embarrassingly lopsided spectacle.At the moment of Ian Bell’s dismissal by Siddle the SCG scoreboard read 5 for 23. What it might have quantified, had Shane Watson held a garden-variety slips catch from Bell’s first ball from Harris, can only be imagined.Either way, McDermott had further reason to be proud of his men’s efforts, even more so for the fact they have kept charging in with remarkable hunger and energy despite going unchanged throughout the series. Whatever aches and pains harboured by Harris they were unnoticeable. The only wounds on display were psychological, and exclusive to the England batsmen.No more was this evident than in the exit of Cook, who will leave these shores as perhaps the most harried captain since the West Indian Jimmy Adams limped home in possession of an 0-5 Frank Worrell Trophy series ledger in 2000-01, and was soon relieved not only of the captaincy but also his place in the team.

Harris sets 2015 Ashes goal

Ryan Harris has revealed his desire to push his battered body on to the 2015 Ashes series in England after another display of surgical fast bowling in the final Test of the summer at the SCG. Harris claimed the wickets of Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen and Scott Borthwick – he also had Ian Bell dropped first ball – as Australia set themselves on the path towards a 5-0 sweep.
Harris said he had not previously set the goal of playing in 2015, but was now eager to go on having sought the advice of the caoch Darren Lehmann and the captain Michael Clarke. Knee cleanout surgery is scheduled for the end of the South Africa tour to aid his progress.
“I’m a chance, simple as that. I’ve got I think 11 Tests before I get there,” Harris said. “I’ve got a bit of stuff floating around in my knee that I’m going to get cleaned up after Africa, that could give me another year or two, who knows.
It wasn’t too long ago, I was just hoping to get through this series and re-assess. Let’s get through this Test and then South Africa and go from there. But I’d love one more chance to go to England and try to defend the Ashes.”

Cook scrapped heartily to reach stumps on day one in a period of dull light at the ground and roaring speed from Johnson, but on the second morning lost his equilibrium more swiftly than a jetlagged Englishman catching a cab straight from Sydney airport to the SCG.Harris’ precision against Cook has been a wonder to behold through both series, playing tricks of perception and balance that have made some straight balls appear to move, while other deliveries curling in the air or seaming off the pitch have met the England leader’s bat at an angle of the bowler’s choosing.Sometimes the battles have been protracted, but this time it took only two balls. The first was defended stoutly, but the second swung fractionally back from a line Cook was inclined to leave and struck him palpably in front. The moment Cook was pinned, he looked around in a moment of panic, realising too late where his pad and stumps had been. Among Australia’s slips cordon there was no surprise, only jubilation.Ian Bell’s promotion to No. 3 had been called for by many throughout the series, but was delayed by an England hierarchy reluctant to move him from the middle order post from which he had warded off so many Australian attacks in the northern summer.His supremacy in the earlier series was unquestioned, but on faster pitches Bell has had less time to use his cultured hands to make late adjustments to high quality pace bowling. The cumulative result has been edges of the kind he offered up first ball on day two, bat straight but feet on the crease.”One of the main goals for us was to cut Ian Bell out and I think we’ve done that beautifully,” Harris said. “It’s been good. You don’t get many opportunities at all to play 10 Tests against the same players. The main thing has been to execute and we’ve done that, we started it in England and topped it off here.”We know we’ve bowled well to them: there’s no coincidence they haven’t made runs – it’s because of how we’ve bowled. It’s just the pressure we’ve put on the whole series that has not allowed them to play their own games and play the way they want to.”Craig McDermott, right, has observed Australia’s sustained excellence with the ball with satisfaction•Getty ImagesA first-ball reprieve for Bell in England would have caused much gnashing of teeth, but in Sydney when Shane Watson put down a simple opportunity the Australians simply continued to pursue the lines and lengths that would suffocate their quarry. Watson was on hand to claim a catch for Harris when Kevin Pietersen edged an uncertain push forward, before Bell replayed his first ball with a thinner edge from Siddle that Brad Haddin held neatly.The crowd were rapturous, the Australian players beaming broad smiles. Among those watching was Glenn McGrath, who had generously labelled Australia’s bowling in this series the best he had ever seen. But little triumphalism emanated from Harris or the other bowlers, their modest commitment to the trade being as much a key to their success as the speed and accuracy of their bowling and the unity of their purpose.”Glenn’s come out and said those nice words but we don’t see it that way, we’ve got to go out and do our job and do it to the best of our ability,” Harris said. “At the moment it’s working, and hopefully we’ll be able to maintain that for another two years … I’m getting old so we’ll wait and see but we want to make sure we keep putting pressure on whoever we’re playing. If we do that, teams won’t make many runs.”The respect Harris speaks of now extends well beyond the small group who assembled at McDermott’s Brisbane home for a fast bowlers’ barbeque before the series began. Much as McDermott had done, there is barely a soul who has witnessed these Tests who would easily be able to choose a moment of brilliance from Australia’s bowling attack to outshine the rest of their work in the Ashes summer of 2013-14. That’s because, to borrow a phrase beloved of Harris, “It’s all good.”

Plays of the day from the fourth ODI between New Zealand and India in Hamilton

Abhishek Purohit in Hamilton28-Jan-2014The partnership breaker
Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor had put on their second century stand of the series and would have wanted to cash in on the batting Powerplay. But just an over before it started, Ravindra Jadeja played spoilsport. He dashed to the leg side after Williamson nudged him there, picked up the ball, turned around and hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end to catch Williamson well short.The instant success
Virat Kohli was opening today, meaning he had more overs to cause damage than usual. But New Zealand got him cheaply for the second time running. Kohli was kept quiet with a tight line and fuller length. The tenth delivery Kohli faced was a Tim Southee bouncer, the first one that had been bowled to him in his innings. Kohli tried to pull, top-edged it and turned back in disappointment even before the ball came down in the hands of midwicket.The authoritative charge
Rohit Sharma edged and survived for quite a while before finally starting to middle the ball. The shot he played to get to his half-century was as emphatic a connection as many. Rohit charged James Neesham, got under the length delivery and slammed it way over the long-off boundary into the crowd on the grassbank.The authoritative charge II
Brendon McCullum had defended his way to an uncharacteristic 8 off 17 when he decided it was time to revert to type. He charged out at Bhuvneshwar Kumar and swung so hard at a length delivery that it flew flat and fast for six over the deep extra-cover boundary.The soft fall
You would not fall to Kane Williamson’s part-time offspin. And you would definitely not want to fall to him caught by the wicketkeeper down the leg side. But that is what Rohit managed to do; in fact, he neatly guided the ball almost off the face of the bat to the keeper, who could not take it on the first attempt, but did not fail the second time.The shocking miss
The pressure of the slog seemed to get to Neesham in the last over of India’s innings. Even as one dribbled off Jadeja’s pads to the keeper, MS Dhoni dashed up the pitch for the run. Jadeja responded too late, and had no chance of making it safely across. The keeper under-armed the ball to Neesham, who was close to the stumps. All the bowler had to do was to stretch and he would have been able to take the bails off. But Neesham decided to try another under-arm himself, and missed.

An age-related incident may have kept Ankit Bawne out of the 2012 Under-19 World Cup, but he has not let that controversy affect his batting. Instead, he is making his presence felt by the weight of his Ranji Trophy runs for Maharashtra

Karthik Krishnaswamy27-Jan-2014In September 2011, Ankit Bawne was removed from the India Under-19 squad ahead of a quadrangular tournament in Visakhapatnam. He had earlier been named captain of the side. The date of birth in his passport, it was discovered, didn’t match the one in his birth certificate and the BCCI’s records. It didn’t fulfill the cut-off date for the 2012 U-19 World Cup.Bawne protested that the agent who arranged for his passport had messed up the date. The selectors, not wanting to take a risk, left him out. Unmukt Chand took over the captaincy. A year later, Chand led India to the World Cup title with a century in the final.Chand earned lavish praise from Ian Chappell, won an IPL contract and wrote a book. In a TV commercial, he sneaked into the senior India team’s dressing room for a bottle of Pepsi. Confronted by MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, and asked if he thought there was no difference between him, an U-19 player, and them, the seniors, he told them: ” (I can get into your team right now, but you people can never get into mine).”Bawne couldn’t get in either. You wonder if Bawne, watching that ad, thinks to himself, “That could have been me”.”Obviously if he [Chand] is doing all this, then… he made a hundred in the final, the Indian team won the final, so the credit has to go to him,” Bawne says. “Whether I had a chance [to do that] or not, I can’t keep thinking about that.”What was it like, though, when he was left out?”It was obviously a shocking time for me, individually speaking, but it’s okay,” Bawne says. “Basically, my aim is to play for the senior Indian team. U-19 is obviously a good thing. It’s a shortcut, but my dream is to play for the senior Indian team.”At that time, family, coaches, players, everyone supported me a lot. But this is a big stage, if you play well in the Ranji Trophy, you will get the chance. India A opportunities will open up. And it isn’t like if you are the U-19 captain you will automatically move up from there. You have to perform there. That was what was in my mind. The Ranji Trophy is there, and I have to do well there. After that, I’ve been averaging 60-65 in every season.”In his last three first-class seasons, Bawne has averaged 75.85, 60.30, and 77.33. Since his debut in 2007, he has scored 2616 runs in 40 first-class matches at 54.50, with eight hundreds. Chand, as an aside, has 1688 runs in 31 games at 36.69, with four hundreds.Bawne began 2013-14 with an unbeaten 115 against South Zone on his Duleep Trophy debut and has carried that form into the Ranji Trophy, where he’s scored 581 runs for Maharashtra at 64.55. His numbers, though, get a little lost amid those of his team-mates. Kedar Jadhav has scored more than a thousand runs, and Harshad Khadiwale needs 20 more to reach that mark. Even Sangram Atitkar, after his 168 in the semi-final against Bengal, has scored more runs than Bawne.But it was interesting that Surendra Bhave, Maharashtra’s coach, singled out Bawne’s 89 against Bengal as the innings that set the semi-final up for the team, and raved about his defensive technique. “Look at his front-foot stride,” Bhave said after the match. “I can’t see anyone else who has a front-foot stride as big as that against fast bowlers. Middles everything, bat sounds very sweet, and he gives us solidity, real solidity.”From the press box, Bawne’s innings was remarkable for how unremarkable it looked. If you hadn’t seen anyone else bat in that match, you might have thought Bawne batted comfortably against an average attack in pretty good batting conditions, and missed out on a century. That, though, wasn’t the case.On a green pitch at the Holkar stadium, Maharashtra had rolled Bengal over for 114. In reply, their batsmen had looked much more comfortable than Bengal’s, but not uniformly so. Khadiwale and Chirag Khurana survived their share of plays and misses in a 78-run opening stand. Vijay Zol and Rohit Motwani, the left-hand batsmen, got trapped on the shuffle early in their respective innings. Jadhav shuffled down the pitch to the fast bowlers and struck eight fours in scoring 40. He looked good, and could have made a lot more. With that approach, he could have also made a lot less. Even Atitkar, early on, looked uncertain outside the off stump and saw a few edges scream away to the third-man boundary.’I can’t see anyone else who has a front-foot stride as big as that against fast bowlers’ – Surendra Bhave on Ankit Bawne•ESPNcricinfo LtdNone of them, in the early parts of their innings, gave you the feeling you could open a book, read two pages, and confidently look up to see them still at the crease. You could have done that with Bawne.It might have appeared straight out of a manual, but Bawne’s technique doesn’t owe all that much to formal coaching. Growing up, he says, he didn’t have a coach. When he played for Maharashtra’s U-15s, after playing for Aurangabad in the MCA Invitational U-15 league where he made “11 hundreds in 12 innings” and helped them reach the final, he came under Bhave for the first time. Apart from that, he says he watched TV (Rahul Dravid is his favourite batsman) and taught himself how to bat.”I haven’t had any personal coach,” Bawne says. “Whatever I’ve learned is from TV, from watching matches, and from state camps. You get the chance to play with experienced players, I’ve attended a lot of camps at the NCA, matches are coming on TV continuously, so I’ve learned small-small things.”It’s apparent that Bawne learned a lot more than just technique, as he talks you through his innings of 89 against Bengal. When Atitkar walked in to join him, Maharashtra were five down and only 50 ahead. Bawne, by then, had sized up the conditions, and communicated to his partner exactly how he needed to play.”On that wicket, you weren’t going to get out to the bouncer, because the bouncer wasn’t coming through quickly,” Bawne says. “Secondly, if the ball seams in off the wicket, you have to cover the pads so that you don’t get lbw or bowled. Against the [second] new ball, if it swung, you could get caught in the slips, which was how I got out. It was just a question of playing out four-five overs against the new ball, and against the rest just cover your stumps and play the line. Then there was no chance you’ll get out. you are that strong, mentally.”I told Sangram that, and I was telling him continuously, ‘Look, our lead is only 100, and from here, rather than get out and bat again, it was better if we batted just once, and put the opposition under pressure’. We kept playing, the lead went from 100 to 200, then I got out, and after that the wicket eased out so much that batting with a lead of 50 and batting with a lead of 200 were entirely different. If he had come in with a lead of 50, Anupam [Sanklecha, who made 52] couldn’t have played so freely. Those guys wouldn’t have given the ball to the legspinner. After the lead was 200, they would have thought, ‘okay, the lead is now 200’, and gave him the ball, and Anupam batted freely, and the game opened up. They gave us a target of 8. If we had taken a lead of 150, we might have got a target of 200 and anything could have happened.”As it turned out, Bawne fell 11 short of a hundred. It took more than just reading the scorecard to know how big a role he had played in Maharashtra’s win. Something similar happened in the quarter-final against Mumbai as well.That win will most likely go down as one created by the fast bowlers, who bundled Mumbai out for 129 in the second innings, and finished off by Zol and Jadhav, who remained not out on 91 and 120 respectively as Maharashtra raced to their target of 252 with eight wickets in hand.Bawne’s first-innings 84, however, was just as important. He came in with Maharashtra 24 for 3 replying to 402, survived a couple of early chances, and counterattacked alongside Jadhav in a 115-run fourth-wicket partnership.”At that stage, when I went in, there were four slips and a gully, a leg slip,” Bawne says. “So I decided, these guys are attacking us. In this situation, rather than just survive, why not attack them? I don’t play like that normally. But at that time, I did what was necessary for my team. I started a counterattack, and from there, the game opened up. Suddenly 20 for 3 had become 145 for 3.”In that way, what I did in that innings was, I showed how Maharashtra had to play through the rest of that game to win that game. We weren’t going to play like underdogs. We were going to play with aggression.”Still, Bawne “only” made 84. In this Ranji season, he has one century and five half-centuries. Last season, when Maharashtra were in the top rung of the tournament, he scored six fifties before getting that elusive century in his team’s final match of the season. Five of those fifties came in successive innings, some at venues as challenging to batsmen as Lahli and the Roshanara Club in Delhi, but they were still fifties. Batting at No.5, Bawne says, has restricted his chance of getting big hundreds. But he isn’t complaining about it.”If you see that match in Roshanara also, even when I had made fifty I was batting with the last few batsmen,” he says. “The opportunity wasn’t there for me to go make double-hundreds and hundreds. I try to see, in the role I’m given, how best I can help my team succeed.”I don’t mind any number. In Duleep Trophy, I got to bat at three and I scored a century. Last year, last innings, I got to bat at three and got a century then too. Whatever the team’s requirement is, you have to bat according to that.”

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the fifth one-day international between New Zealand and West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Jan-2014Catch of the dayMichael Morton probably owes Kieran Powell a drink. He can certainly afford it. He was the supporter who clung onto Powell’s six off Mitchell McClenaghan and earned himself NZ$100,000 courtesy of the sponsors, Tui. It is a contest running throughout all the limited-overs matches in New Zealand this season and Morton is the first to be successful, although the fans at Queenstown had plenty of chances and almost ended up trampling each other trying to get to one of Corey Anderson or Jesse Ryder’s sixes. This time, Morton jostled a little for position but then stuck out his hand and held on coolly. Does he play cricket? “Not anymore,” he said, “but maybe I should.”Missed review of the dayPowell was racing along during the opening Powerplay, laying an ideal foundation for West Indies, and was closing in on an eye-catching hundred when he went to sweep Nathan McCullum. He was taken on the boot and the umpire quickly raised the finger. Powell did not hesitate to leave the crease, but when he returned to the dressing room will have wished he’d used the DRS as the ball was missing leg stump.Inside edge of the dayIt wasn’t the most authoritative of the strokes Kirk Edwards played, but it meant the world to him. Facing Anderson, he aimed to whip a full delivery through the leg side and it came off an inside edge to whistle past leg stump to take him to a hundred – the first time he had even passed fifty in his ODI career. During the celebrations he dropped his bat and was left holding both arms aloft; a rare moment of joy for a West Indies top-order batsman on the tour.Ball of the dayIn the absence of Ravi Rampaul and with Tino Best having been dropped, Dwayne Bravo gave himself the new ball and managed something many of the West Indies bowlers have struggled on this tour: good line and length. It brought an early reward, too, when he nipped a delivery back between Martin Guptill’s bat and pad to take off stump. You can pick apart a batsman’s technique all day, but it was an excellent delivery on a flat pitch.

The class of Craig Kieswetter and Ravi Bopara lead ESPNcricinfo’s countdown of the things that mattered in the latest round of NatWest T20 Blast matches

Tim Wigmore16-Jun-20145. A tale of two England wicketkeepers
If this were the IPL, Craig Kieswetter would be a run shy of wearing the orange cap given to the top scorer in the tournament. The T20 Blast eschews such wheezes, but there is no doubting Kieswetter’s T20 pedigree. He is currently second in the scoring list and, since his last international appearance, he has scored 801 runs in English T20 at 57 apiece.It was raw power that earned Kieswetter his first international caps, in Bangladesh in 2010, but his game now possesses more refinement. He has spoken about his improved ability to assess conditions and gauge a match-winning total; a 48-ball 55 in Somerset’s opening game at Bristol may have appeared sedate but it was the prelude to a comfortable win.Kieswetter is closer than many think to an England recall: he was an injury replacement in the World T20 squad in Bangladesh and will hardly have been harmed by missing the defeat to the Netherlands.Thanks to Jos Buttler’s emergence, his route into England’s limited-overs sides would be as a specialist batsman opening the innings. If his Powerplay impact smiting the ball down the ground is not in doubt, there are legitimate questions over what comes next: even his 70 at Arundel on Sunday contained a 22-ball lull without a boundary. Yet to focus on this feels churlish given Kieswetter’s fourth half-century of the season set-up a 34-run win. If England’s interest is reawakened, they would find much more than a harum-scarum hitter.And what of the other would-be England keeper? Having relinquished the gloves for his county five weeks ago, Steven Davies may no longer qualify for membership of the group. Forty-seven runs in four T20 innings as a specialist batsman led to Davies being dropped from Surrey’s side on Friday night. He turns 28 tomorrow.4. Notts need overseas aid
With Alex Hales, Michael Lumb, James Taylor and Samit Patel, a formidable quartet unwanted by England apart from Hales’ T20 involvement, Nottinghamshire have one of the most intimidating batting line-ups around. So it is a curiosity that they have still only registered two victories this season.One explanation lies in a lack of overseas aid: Peter Siddle is focusing exclusively on Championship cricket. What they would give for David Hussey. He averaged 35 with the bat in T20 cricket for Notts, but his 10-year association with the county ended last season.Director of cricket Mick Newell has conceded: “His type of cricket is exactly what’s missing.” But Caribbean Premier League commitments render a return impossible. Unless Notts change their policy, more success from Michael Lumb and James Taylor – who average 17 between them – is urgently needed to prevent a shock exit in the first round.

Player focus: James Hildreth (Somerset)

“Who should replace Marcus?” Somerset regulars have wondered in recent years. The reassuring thud emanating from Trescothick’s bat in the Championship has made the question seem less pressing, but a groin injury, forcing him out of both Somerset’s weekend matches, perhaps provided clarity about his successor. James Hildreth led Somerset to a pair of wins and, with Trescothick preoccupied by the tantalising prospect of the club’s first Championship title, may get more captaincy experience in white-ball cricket in 2014. It would be apt if Trescothick handed the baton on to another batsman sharing his undiluted commitment to the West Country.

3. We’re all Boplievers now
With England’s Test players available only fleetingly, attention has been on others to inject the Blast with some homegrown razzmatazz. For all the hype, Andrew Flintoff has not appeared and Kevin Pietersen has managed five runs. Into this void, step forward Ravi Bopara. His runs have always contained panache. Now this is being married to a most welcome quality: inevitability.In the space of three nights last week, sumptuous unbeaten innings of 81 and 66 made a pair of onerous-sounding chases seem facile, and took Essex top of the South Division. Bopara now has 207 runs – 72 of them in sixes – in this year’s competition, and has only been dismissed once. We are all Boplievers now.2. The UK’s worst T20 team
Memories of the formidable Sussex T20 side that reached five quarter-finals in six seasons from 2007, including winning the tournament in 2009, are fading. A pair of weekend defeats, including a ten-wicket thumping at The Oval, reinforced Sussex’s status as the country’s worst T20 side around. The problem is primarily with the batting: for all Ed Joyce’s elegance, Sussex are over-dependent on Luke Wright for impetus to reach imposing totals. Since scoring 56 against Surrey, Wright has failed to pass 31 in his last six T20 innings.The upshot is that no county has won fewer than Sussex’s three games since the start of 2013, and they have lost all but two – the opening games of this season – of their past 15 T20s. “Focus on the league” time beckons.1. Glamorgan’s premature revenge
“Let’s Get Revenge” declared Glamorgan’s posters in preparation for the visit of Somerset to Wales on July 4. Nothing wrong with that: a little spice never goes amiss in county cricket. But then Glamorgan had to go and ruin it all by having the chutzpah to win at Taunton, ruining the presumption of the marketing men. They should have had a little more faith. After Friday’s tie against Kent, when a superlative final over from Michael Hogan prevented the visitors scoring the three runs they required for victory, Glamorgan lie third in the South Division.

The new format for England’s T20 competition represents an invaluable chance to inspire a new generation of supporters and players

George Dobell15-May-201412:54

The County Show: Prepare for Blast-off

“It’s the economy, stupid.” Bill Clinton was almost certainly not thinking about the re-launch of the English domestic T20 tournament when he adopted that slogan for the 1992 US presidential elections but it remains pertinent, nevertheless.The launch of the NatWest T20 Blast on Friday provides counties with an opportunity not just to boost their finances in the short-term, but reassert their relevance to communities in the long. Which county wins is largely irrelevant. It is about the county game winning as a whole.For many years the counties have been accused – unfairly, given the development role they fulfil – of surviving on hand-outs earned by the England side. While the launch of the original one-day competition, the Gillette Cup, in 1963 and the T20 Cup in 2003 provided welcome revenue, the value of such events has been diluted over the years. There have been times in the last few seasons when some of the T20 cricket seen in England – attritional, percentage cricket featuring flat spinners and begrudging medium-pacers on damp Tuesday afternoons in largely deserted stadiums – has been almost everything it was set-up to avoid.Packed out crowds and inspiration for the next generation: these are key ingredients for the NatWest T20 Blast•Getty ImagesNow, with a regular, predictable place in the schedule, the casual cricket watcher – and that is exactly the sort this competition is designed to attract – can attend games without needing to check and double-check fixture lists. They can budget their finances and their time so they can attend a game every couple of weeks across the summer, rather than face a glut of three games in six days as has, at times, been the case in recent years.It is essential the counties buy into the re-launch. It is essential that they understand the primary aim of the competition is to attract a new generation of supporters. So it is essential that tickets prices remain accessible to a mass-market audience that is just finding its feet after recession and that the visitor experience is, in every way, welcoming.Players must sign autographs until their arms ache, the grim-faced stewards who have presided in some grounds for far too long must be banished. Members, too, must appreciate the requirement for some of the more populist marketing ploys – the cheerleaders, the music, the talk of Andrew Flintoff’s return – that they might find trying. Cricket in England has to realise that it cannot afford to be exclusive.And, crucially, it is vital the counties provide the appropriate pitches. Seasoned cricket lovers may celebrate the absorbing battle of low-scoring games; the uninitiated will not. This tournament requires good-paced pitches that encourage free hitting and fast bowling. Those counties that prepare slow, low surfaces they think will benefit their slow bowlers have to understand the long-term damage they will inflict on the game. This has been spelt out to them by the ECB.Warwickshire’s decision to rebrand themselves ‘Birmingham Bears’ has proved one of the more controversial marketing initiatives of the re-launch. But there is nothing to be feared by such an experiment. The club reasoned that its somewhat austere image – again, a largely outdated image – had failed to engage the inner-city spectators that live within easy reach of Edgbaston. Specifically, the club has failed to attract the Asian spectators that attend in such numbers when their favoured international teams play at the ground. Warwickshire’s attempt to reach out to this audience is laudable and should not be mistaken for a move towards a city-based mentality.A city-based franchise league in England would be a mistake. While such leagues may work in Australia or India, the landscape in the UK is vastly different. Cricket, in England, is a niche sport. It cannot rely on the passionate support that exists in India to draw people from the shires to the cities. It will always live in the shadow of football. If cricket does not go to the people, the people in market towns around the nation, it will be in danger of becoming irrelevant to vast swathes of the country.The counties, especially in an era when cricket is so rarely seen on free-to-air television, do not exist simply to entertain their members or produce England cricketers – worthy aims though they are. They also exist to keep the game alive by inspiring, identifying and developing players. They offer, for many people, the only realistic chance to witness professional cricket and have a role to play in inspiring young people and then going into clubs and schools in their local community to develop their skills. The Blast is their shop window and their opportunity to earn the resources required to afford the development schemes and the wages demanded of the best players.

A city-based franchise league in England would be a mistake. While such leagues may work in Australia or India, the landscape in the UK is vastly different

And that must be the longer-term aim of this re-launch. It must engage and inspire a new generation of players. For as the identity of the next generation of England’s Test team has taken shape over recent weeks, it has become apparent that, once again, a disproportionate number of the new members – the likes of Sam Robson, Chris Jordan and Gary Ballance – will have been, to a greater or lesser extent, products of foreign systems.To a large extent, that is to be celebrated. Not only does it reaffirm the attraction of county cricket to aspiring young players across the world, but it helps England field a team that reflects the mobile, multicultural society that it represents; a team that reflects a nation with a unique history of commonwealth and empire.But it does beg the question: how good could England be if they utilised the hugely untapped pool of talent that must exist in their own backyard? With competitive cricket now hardly played in state schools, England is obliged to draw its side largely from those who attended private school and those who were given their first exposure to the sport abroad. Those breeding grounds will always be valuable, but it makes sense to also try to utilise the vast, underdeveloped resources of the state system. T20 offers a chance to reach that resource.In the long-term, the ECB may well decide that the benefit of returning some cricket to free-to-air TV outweighs any relatively short-term financial gain. Just as the Sunday League proved the ‘gateway drug’ to several generations of cricket lovers, so could a knockout T20 event incorporating, perhaps, the minor counties. With a little imagination, this free-to-air coverage could be provided by Sky. No amount of coaching clinics, Chance to Shine visits, inner city facilities or autograph sessions – excellent though all those things may be – can replace the simple thrill of stumbling upon the sport on TV and falling in love with it.There will always be challenges. Not least, there is the suspicion that the competition’s success hinges to a large extent on a factor beyond the control of governing bodies or marketing companies: the weather. Several counties are concerned that the tournament begins a week or two early and that a later start might provide a better chance of good weather and increase the chances of the event building early momentum.The Caribbean Premier League offers further competition for players and attention from the cricket-watching public. While the county game has long since grown resigned to losing players to the IPL, the likes of Shahid Afridi (who declined an approach from Warwickshire in the hope of securing a deal in the Caribbean) and Kevin Pietersen plans to commute between Blast and CPL commitments. Various football tournaments and the Olympics will compete for attention, too.So it is into a crowded marketplace that the NatWest Blast must venture. But with a sensible schedule, a few more appearances from the England players and some good weather, it has at least given itself a chance to prosper. County cricket is always involved in a fight for its survival; the T20 Blast represents a significant battleground.

A stats preview of the Champions League Twenty20 2014

Bishen Jeswant16-Sep-20144 Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Trinidad & Tobago are the only teams to have been part of four seasons of the Champions League. No team has played all five tournaments. Highveld Lions and Royal Challengers Bangalore have been part of three, while no other team has been part of more than two.4 Dirk Nannes has represented four different teams in the Champions League, and is the only player to have been part of more than three teams in the tournament. Nine other players have played for three different teams. Nannes has played for Delhi Daredevils, Highveld Lions, Victoria and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Apart from Nannes, there are two players who have competed in the Champions League for teams from three different countries – Glenn Maxwell (Hampshire, Mumbai Indians and Victoria) and Andrew McDonald (Leicestershire, Uva Next and Victoria). McDonald, however, is the only one to have played for three non-Indian teams.3 The top three scores by an Indian in the Champions League are by Suresh Raina – his unbeaten 94 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (2010), 87 against Wayamba (2010) and 84 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (2013). Virat Kohli ties with Raina for the third highest score, having made 84 not out against New South Wales in 2011.9.40 Sunil Narine’s bowling average in the Champions League, the best for any bowler who has bowled in more than five innings. Narine’s strike rate of 12.50 is the second best, after Muttiah Muralitharan, for a spinner who has bowled in more than five innings. Narine is also the second highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 27 scalps, behind Dwayne Bravo (28).4.3 Misbah-ul-Haq’s sixes per innings ratio is the best for any player who has hit at least 10 sixes in the Champions League. Misbah has 13 sixes in three innings. Chris Gayle has a ratio of four – 24 sixes in six innings. Kieron Pollard has hit 45 sixes in the tournament, the most by any player, followed by David Warner with 27 sixes in 13 matches.20 Thisara Perera has the poorest economy rate in an innings for a player who has bowled at least three overs in a Champions League game. Perera conceded 60 in three overs, while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Chennai Super Kings, in 2013. The most runs conceded by a bowler in a single match is 69, by S Aravind, in four overs, against South Australia in 2011.5 Henry Davids is the only batsman with five 50-plus scores in the Champions League. Davids made four of those scores for Titans, and one for Cape Cobras. Davids’ five 50-plus scores were against different teams – Victoria, Sunrisers, Sydney Sixers, Perth Scorchers and Super Kings. Callum Ferguson, Ajinkya Rahane, Michael Hussey and Raina have made four 50-plus scores each.70 The lowest score for which a team has been bowled out in the Champions League – Central Districts against Wayamba in 2010. Central Districts are also the only team to have been dismissed for less than 100 twice in the tournament.0 Batsmen who have been dismissed after scoring a hundred in the tournament. There have been six hundreds in the Champions League, and the batsman has been unbeaten every time. There has been only one instance of a batsman being dismissed after reaching the score of 90 – Chris Gayle, after making 92 against New South Wales, in 2011. There have been four instances of batsmen remaining unbeaten in the 90s.1 Bangladesh is the only Test nation to not have had an umpire in the Champions League. Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena has officiated in 30 matches, more than anybody else. The country that has had the most umpires in the tournament is India, with eight. Australia and South Africa are next in the list, with five and four umpires respectively.

The cricket book of the season brings many regrets about the rancour surrounding an incredible talent

David Hopps10-Oct-2014There have been outspoken autobiographies in English cricket before. A generation ago, Geoffrey Boycott outlined the wrongs he felt he had suffered at the hands of Yorkshire and England. Even further back, in 1960, a few tart paragraphs from Jim Laker – scandalous for their time – caused his MCC honorary membership to be rescinded and instead brought him Life Membership of the Awkward Squad. takes the grievances and the settling of scores to a new level. Like it or loath it, it is a book of considerable significance, the aggrieved story of the most maverick, bloody-minded, exciting and ultimately tragic England player of his generation.Even as publication day arrived, such had been the publicity generated that battle lines were already deeply entrenched, countless words written. is not destined to change minds. It will be dismissed as self-obsessed bleating by his critics, presented as a courageous attack on cricketing conservatism by those who cherish the entertainment he has given them. This will be before most people have read it.Is it the truth? As somebody remarked perspicaciously, “It is the truth as Kevin sees it.” Nobody should question that. But it is a truth seen through a distorted lens.Pietersen v the World (because that is how it reads, with suitable apologies to wife, child and Piers Morgan) is variously Man v Machine, Rebel v Conformist, Agitator v Compromiser, Freedom v Responsibility, Individual v Team, Instinct v Planning, Attack v Defence, Difference v Normality, New v Old , Sensitivity v Machismo (and what sensitivity!), Emotion v Logic, Perception v Judgement. Sometimes it is also about Right v Wrong, but mostly it is about English cricket’s failure to control – and, yes, often to understand – the most individualistic, egotistical, inspirational, crowd-pleasing cricketer of his generation.Whether Pietersen realises it or not, it is also about a failed relationship. Virtually every breakdown in Pietersen’s career can be traced back to a disastrous and debilitating character clash with Andy Flower, known to most as the former England coach, now routinely referred to by Pietersen as the Mood Hoover. Flower, in Pietersen’s terms is “contagiously sour, infectiously dour”. Flower has rarely allowed himself to comment upon Pietersen, but if he felt inclined to retaliate there is reason to think that “supremely talented, self-obsessed brat” would not be far from the mark.In his drive for marginal gains, Flower once encouraged psychometric testing of England’s players and one of the discoveries was that Pietersen was an introvert; Flower did not need a psychometric test to know that about himself. But that is where their similarities surely ended. Flower is conventional, diligent, precise and rigid; Flower likes to plan and gives praise sparingly; Flower is a private man of great integrity who keeps his relationships on an even keel. Pietersen is the opposite. Pietersen is intensely emotional, lives for the moment, craves praise and dislikes criticism. By his own admission, he has no time for planning – he stares out of the window at team meetings and views coaches as largely redundant.This aversion to critical thinking was so pronounced that he tells how he routinely avoided breakfast with Moores and Flower in case they deflated his mood. Moores’ attempt to bring him into the fold by promoting him as captain after the departure of Michael Vaughan therefore failed almost as soon as it began. Batting liberates him and to capture that perfect state of mind he seeks truth in psychology and something called The Chimp Paradox, which basically tells him how talented he is. Pietersen and England’s coaches never build a trusting relationship. Flower, it appears, quickly dislikes him.When does not push you into taking sides, it leads you into a contemplation of a flawed character. It is forthright, populist and written in such an agitated, self-justifying manner that even the brashest paragraphs cannot disguise the loneliness of the sporting maverick. There is an “I” in team he asserts, reminding us that cricket is an individual game in a team setting. And so there is. But there is a limit. He forever smacks of an individual refusing to accept the strictures of a team sport.

It is forthright, populist and written in such an agitated, self-justifying manner that even the brashest paragraphs cannot disguise the loneliness of the sporting maverick

Many will read all this and wonder how this madness was ever allowed to happen. It is as if those in authority repeatedly sense a virus in their midst only for their clunky anti-virus programs to warn that if they quarantine him several major programs will not function so effectively. Pietersen’s very presence repeatedly lays bare the problems of a conservative, fastidious and unwieldy hierarchy in handling the assertive individualism more prevalent in the modern game. The moment England start losing, and Pietersen’s form dips, they get shot of him.Right from the outset, Pietersen identifies with Fred The Soldier, who “follows a different drummer”. He says: “I don’t set out to go against the flow… but I won’t sit down and be told to bat this way or train this way without asking why.” This assertion of self, often blind to the team ethic, does not go down well. Everybody who has raised a family can remember the “why?” phase. The first claim to individual freedom comes at two years old. Pietersen has it in abundance.Some of his explanations of his behaviour are more convincing than others. His version of his fallout with Moores, a coach he found to be a “human triple espresso – so intense” is instructional. He insists that he never gave the England and Wales Cricket Board a Him Or Me ultimatum, just told them that his philosophy was so different from Moores that they could not work together. The ECB, fearing player power, sacked them both. It is a decision that smacks of convenience.When Pietersen is not demeaning Flower, he is warring with the ECB, forever suspecting – often with good reason – a “world full of little agendas”. When Andrew Strauss, who replaces him as captain, proves to be at ease in mollifying such a world, he thinks less of him because of it, suggesting that he is “playing the long game”. His unabashed belief in the IPL is another fault line – he loves it, so English cricket does not love him. Here, more than anywhere, he is a victim of his time. As cricket changes, coming generations will see him, on the IPL at least, as unfairly brandished.But he is not the only victim. Pietersen, who likes to play cricket in a happy frame of mind, sparked a debate in the days leading up to publication by complaining of a bullying culture in the England dressing room. His criticism struck a chord. But there have been few nastier pages in cricket literature than his own destruction of Matt Prior, a sequence where his ghost writer is allowed to go for the jugular – a task he accomplishes with considerable skill – without on the face of it too much justification.As for fake Twitter accounts and Textgate, why the coaching staff did not bang heads together and sort both in 24 hours is a question that lingers. In English cricket, authority is too often invested in those away from the action. England players’ involvement in KP Genius displays a crass failure to recognise that with his ego came sensitivity. For Pietersen’s exchange of texts with friends in the South Africa side criticising his captain, Strauss, to be magnified into traitorous behaviour still seems to be an overreaction. The world has heard too much about both subjects. This book adds too many pages to the nonsense and it will be a reader with a healthy sense of perspective who skips the lot of them.But it’s batting that Pietersen is about – even if, reading this autobiography, it is easy to forget. Only when Pietersen gets a bat in his hand, is he truly liberated. “I’m a risk taker by nature,” he says in response to those such as the Sacking Judge Paul Downton, who deemed him reckless, not accepting that without the risk he is vastly diminished.Off the field, he is forever insecure; he jars with those he must live with in close proximity for 250 days a year. He can say he loves someone one day, hate them the next, and both responses feel equally true. He is a South African in England, a star player who needs his ego perpetually feeding, but who is not just excluded from the dressing-room clique but is mocked by it. When he asks for a break to see his wife and family, it is routinely refused. Others get their breaks: it is that IPL punishment thing again. Even his injuries – serious injuries – are disparaged by Flower. A fair and honest man, Flower’s disenchantment with Pietersen begins to demean him.KP: The Autobiography has briefly descended English cricket into chaos. It has no humour, only fleeting references to camaraderie, no praise for the talents of his team-mates, and precious little cricket analysis. But it is a legitimate work of propaganda (so much propaganda has been thrown in his direction, he had little choice but to reply in kind). For those of us not wedded to one side or the other, it leaves an immense sadness that so wonderful a talent has repeatedly exasperated, vexed and been disparaged and excluded.Why did it have to be this way? Why was England’s man management so unsuccessful? As those in charge of England cricket congratulate themselves on the prospect of simpler times ahead, they need to reflect on that question.England cricket is hurting because of the arguments surrounding Pietersen: arguments that are often Machiavellian in high places, often rabid on social media, ultimately unbearable in the dressing room. But the chaos in England cricket will be transient. New heroes will come and one hopes the public will eventually learn to love the game in records numbers again. Disillusionment is evident and widespread. As Pietersen remarks, you cannot promote a game for the people without communicating with and respecting the people.Saddest of all perhaps is Pietersen’s imaginings that, even after a book as uncompromising as this, he might somehow play again for England. His naïve failure to understand that his challenge to the system has been so extreme that it will never be tolerated symbolises how gauche his self-obsession can make him. It’s over and it was quite a ride.But at a time when so many cricket autobiographies are cravenly dull, when player interviews are delivered as if by rote, and the governing body forever asserts its right to rule in near-secrecy, Pietersen’s flawed and overwrought cri de coeur is a book that was better written. Somehow, in this imperfect, suspicious world, he summoned some of the finest innings in England history. We should all be grateful for that.KP: The Autobiography
By Kevin Pietersen
Sphere
324 pages, £20