All posts by csb10.top

The band played on
The in-house band – trumpets, booming drums and all – started belting out tunes in the morning. But with empty plastic seats and chairs staring at you from every corner of the ground, it was hard to see who they were playing for. Unless Asian cricket heeds Geoffrey Boycott’s suggestion and starts giving serious thought to day-night Tests, it will soon resemble the man who loves the sound of his own voice in an empty room.Whetting the appetite
Unless you’re Farokh Engineer or Michael Slater, the over before lunch, or any other interval, tends to be played out in circumspect fashion. That isn’t Tillakaratne Dilshan’s style though. He had 97 when Harbhajan Singh came on to bowl the final over of the first session, and a meaty sweep took him to his century from just 145 balls. After a hesitant start on the second evening, the next 80 runs had taken him a mere 90 balls.Hook, line and sinker
Perhaps Virender Sehwag had read about Allen Stanford’s winner-take-all Twenty20 game in the Caribbean and perhaps the band seduced him into thinking that he was playing in front of a rum-happy Trini Posse. Either way, there wasn’t much thought involved in the top-edged hook off Nuwan Kulasekara that went straight to the man at square leg. In Twenty20 terms, 25 off 16 balls is sterling stuff. This, though, was a five-day game that needed to be saved.I flick, you miss
Ajantha Mendis didn’t make the sort of immediate impact that he had in the Asia Cup final, and when Gautam Gambhir dismissively swatted a full toss through midwicket for four in his opening over, you feared that all the hype and nervous excitement had got to the young man. We needn’t have worried. The first ball of his fifth over was a ripper, the delivery now christened the carrom ball. It pitched on middle stump and crashed into the top of off after a hesitant spar from Rahul Dravid.Cat got your tongue, boys?
One welcome consequence of the review system for umpiring decisions has been a marked reduction in the number of silly appeals. But that can be a two-edged sword as Sri Lanka found out on the third afternoon. Mendis got one to pitch on middle and leg, and go on to rap Sourav Ganguly on the pad. The fact that the ball then ricocheted onto the bat appeared to distract the Sri Lankans who didn’t even appeal. A big let-off for Ganguly, albeit one that he couldn’t take advantage of.Ignore the old master at your peril
With such a fuss being made about the Mendis debut, some forgot that the man bowling from the other end came into the game with the small matter of 735 Test wickets. And as champions tend to do, Muttiah Muralitharan saved his best for one of the game’s other legends. Sachin Tendulkar decided to shoulder arms to a doosra bowled from round the wicket, but a brief moment of hesitancy was to be his undoing. The ball took the inner edge of the bat as he was lifting it out of harm’s way and then dropped onto the stumps. Clash of the titans won, and perhaps a Test match too.

The County are also pleased to announce the Award of the Holsten NUL EssexPlayer of the Match in the recent floodlit game against Middlesex Crusaders as James Middlebrook. This is James’ consecutive award, achieved by bowling figures of 3-40 in the defeat against the Crusaders.James will be presented his award at Essex Eagles v NorthamptonshireSteelbacks at the Colchester Festival on Sunday 25th August.

It’s absolutely necessary to give positive support for the players in the Piton Malta Herman Griffith Primary Schools cricket competition.It is vital at this stage, I think, to create the correct psyche in players so young because the environment in which they learn their trade is crucial in their overall development.After all, what’s learnt in the cradle lasts forever. An incident I saw at the Lumber Company ground last week has convinced me even more that youngsters do indeed need the right kind of guidance to help them to blossom.I couldn’t imagine in my wildest dreams that a teacher would pull his players off the field, thereby causing the game to end prematurely.It happened at approximately 12:05 p.m., much to the dismay of supporters of both Holy Innocents and Lawrence T. Gay.At that stage the Lawrence T. Gay batsmen were beating the stuffings out of their opponents attack . . . 156/3 was the clearest indication that they were the superior team.With 20.4 overs bowled, lo and behold the teacher called his players off the field, engaged in heated discussion with the groundsman and Lawrence T. Gay officials. Soon after, the team bus arrived and took the players away. It left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth.The problem? Would you believe that after allowing so many overs to be bowled the teacher apparently suddenly realised that the pitch was too long?Admittedly, they were playing on a full-length pitch when in fact it should’ve been 18 yards according to competition regulations instead of the conventional 22 yards.The adjustment was made taking into account the age and size of the players.If the teacher raised the question about the length of the pitch as an issue, he was certainly within his rights, but the question remains: why didn’t he identify the discrepancy from the start or even well before the 20.4 overs were delivered?What made matters even worse was the crude way in which the issue was handled. You just can’t instruct 11 youngsters to leave the field just like that.In any event, if the game had been played to its logical conclusion, it means that neither side would have been disadvantaged because they would have played under the same conditions.Not only that, it would have been in order to play the game and then send in a letter of protest to the National Sports Council who would in turn make a ruling on the outcome.It was to the credit of the L. T. Gay management that they tried their very best to have the matter resolved in a civil way but the other side would have none of it.And we wonder "how the youth get so"? I know that we know.

England are hoping that Mark Butcher will be able to play in the final Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford. Butcher wore heavy strapping on his left knee when England trained today, but came through without apparent discomfort.”The news about Butcher is encouraging,” said an England spokesman. “We will reassess the situation in the morning.”If Butcher doesn’t make it, England have a tailor-made replacement in John Crawley, who’s used to batting at number three and is an accomplished player of spin bowling.”I am obviously desperate to play,” Crawley said today. “It has always been a dream since March when things turned round for me to come back here and play a Test match.”After making the decision in the winter that I could not play here any more,I still had plenty of ambitions and dreams to come back here. At the start of the season that was just to come back here with Hampshire, but things have moved on a lot quicker than that.”Although it took Crawley months to extricate himself from his Lancashire contract following his replacement as captain over the winter, eventually joining Hampshire, he bears no ill-will towards his old club and hopes to have some support on his old ground.”During my time here I had a lot of support from players and members, so itwill be a little bit emotional for me if I do stride out here,” he said. “It is an opportunity for the crowd here to see my play again and for my family to see me play up here again as well.””My dad is the only one who is still in this area, but whether he will comealong or not is up to him,” said Crawley. “I think he was a bit shaken up about what happened in the winter. It is worse in a way because he could not actually put himself in a position to do anything.””The problems I have had here have stemmed from a very small minority ofpeople. It is a big ground, and I hope I will not come across those people.”I don’t really know what to expect. All I can say is I had many good memories here and many good years and I am very much looking forward to going out there and playing a Test match.”

Chris Gayle’s typically punishing 83 off 79 balls, followed by Ryan Hinds’ telling all-round performance of 68 and six wickets, led the West Indies `A’ team to victory over Gloucestershire yesterday.The West Indies compiled 279 before they were all out with two balls of their 50 overs remaining and bowled the county team out for 235 in 45 overs to win on the last match of their England tour by 44 runs.Test opener Gayle struck a six and 12 fours to give the West Indians a powerful start after Daren Ganga batted on winning the toss.Ganga, caught at square-leg, and left-hander Devon Smith, taken at point, went cheaply.But Runako Morton (41 from 40 balls with seven fours) and the left-handed Hinds (68 off 86 balls with two sixes and five fours) took their cue from Gayle to revive the innings.After Gayle was dismissed by England international Jeremy Snape, Hinds and Dwayne Bravo (38 off 43 balls with three fours) added 82 and, even though the last six wickets went down for 38, the West Indies posted a challenging total.Gloucestershire started with two openers with West Indian connections: James Pearson, 18, who plays club cricket for Bristol West Indies and Tim Hancock, whose mother is Barbadian.But Pearson was bowled without scoring by the pacy Tino Best who also bowled Chris Taylor. The experienced Hancock fell to Jermaine Lawson for 27 before a fourth-wicket partnership of 111 between Matthew Windows and Snape renewed Gloucestershire’s hopes.As the required scoring rose to over eight an over, Windows and Snape fell within six runs of each other to Hinds, who added four more wickets as Gloucestershire subsided in spite of Alex Gidman’s run-a-ball 36 and bowling that gave up 12 wides and 11 no-balls.The West Indies ended the tour with five wins (over Ireland, British Universities, Sussex, Yorkshire and Gloucestershire) and two losses (to Sri Lanka and Kent) in the one-day matches.They had one win, one loss, one tie and three draws in the first-class matches.They fly to Toronto today for matches against Canada before returning home next week.

Who would have imagined that our national side would be leading the one-day series – against India in India, of all places – by two victories to one? It seems almost unbelievable, and their victory in the third match of the series was most convincing.It must be admitted that India were without their best batsman and bowler, in Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble, respectively, as both are nursing niggling injuries in the effort to get fully fit for their coming tour of West Indies. Their absence would certainly have given Zimbabwe a great psychological boost, and we may well not have won the first match, at least, had either or both been present. It also appeared that India in this series have at times been suffering from overconfidence and have not played with the necessary discipline.Having said that, our most recent victory was won without Andy Flower, resting a thigh injury – the first official international match we have won without him since we beat Australia in the World Cup of 1983, if we want to check the records! The series has also come at a time when we would expect the team to feel distracted by the controversial elections going on back home, where their families were. In view of the results announced by the government, several of the players may well be thinking over their futures.And we did play with the discipline that India lacked, if we overlook the 14 wides bowled in the third match. We can now begin to suspect, with guarded optimism, that Geoff Marsh’s influence is beginning to pay off and the revival of spirit on a more regular basis is returning. One victory in the next two matches would see us win the series, an almost inconceivable thought, and on past experience that pressure may well be too much for our players to handle easily. But even if they are up to it mentally, the odds are still against them, because India have vast resources of talent and they will take the last two matches very, very seriously. Unless, in fact, their nerve has been broken, which would be a surprising state of affairs.It was great also to see two newcomers to the side play such a significant part in our victory. Pommie Mbangwa was playing his first international match for well over a year, and as usual bowled his accurate medium-paced line and length, a style which is at its most effective when the opening bowlers have made an initial breakthrough. And this had indeed been the case, the hero and Man of the Match being Douglas Hondo.Douggie has played one Test and one one-day international before, but on both occasions looked totally unready for it, pushed into international cricket by over-enthusiastic selectors. He had the talent, but it was still too raw. He has spent most of the past season playing club cricket in Australia, and we have published a couple of good reports in ZCO about his progress. On Wednesday’s showing he looked an unrecognizably better bowler.We have had players in the past who have surprised us with a remarkably good performance and then lapsed into anonymity again, but a first time always shows that the ability really is there and gives rise for hope.In this issue we are able to include some more articles by Trishna Bose on Zimbabwe in India, and also the updating of records. We have the new set of records for Zimbabwe v India in Test cricket and also the detailed Test career records of all the Zimbabwean players who took part in the recent Test series.Included also are biographies for three of the Academy players: Andre Hoffman, Innocent Chinyoka and Jordane Nicolle.

Following his first innings of 63, Jamie Troughton again made light of a slow wicket with a well made century to put Warwickshire in command after the third day of the Frizzell Championship match at The Rose Bowl.Hampshire gained a first innings lead of 27 thanks to an eighth wicket partnership of 42 between Dimitri Mascarenhas and Shaun Udal. Shaun Pollock who had spent much of the second day off the field after the news that his friend Hansie Cronje had been killed in South Africa, finished the innings off soon after.Nick Knight and Michael Powell put on 56 for the first wicket, before both were entrapped by Mascarenhas’ in swingers, Chris Tremlett accounted for Dominic Ostler following a wonder catch from Will Kendall, to put the home side in charge, however, England hopeful Ian Bell, who has been struggling for runs since returning from the English Academy, got his head down and with Troughton in charge the pair shared 90 runs. Bell whose 145 ball stay including 3 fours was out when he was dragged forward by Udal and was smartly stumped by Nic Pothas.Shaun Pollock took the bat to the ball, smiting 3 fours and a six before he drove at a quicker ball from Mullally and skied a catch to Nic Pothas who did not have to move from his position. Troughton remained not out after an innings of quality, from a young man with a future.Warwickshire, with 5 wickets remaining lead by 240 going into the last day.

Like any keen follower of the game, I have always understood that Lord’s is a very special cricket ground ever since I first came across the name some forty years ago. It was the headquarters of cricket, the hallowed turf, the ground among grounds and many other such exalted and reverant titles. And like any other cricket lover, I longed to pay a visit to Lord’s.In succeeding years, however I heard less complimentary things about the game’s holy of holies. Fellow journalists told me that the ground was uninspiring, others wondered what the ballyhoo was all about. Sunil Gavaskar of course had a few unkind words to say about Lord’s and this was even before his well publicised misunderstanding with a gateman at the entrance. The ground had no special atmosphere, it was alleged and the common complaint was that the members were stuffy and the staff high handed. Of course, over the same period, I also heard from visitors that Lord’s was indeed something special, that therewas a special aura about it, and its bond with history and tradition had earned for it the sacred place it has acquired in the game.These contrasting opinions did not in any way diminish my desire to visit Lord’s and see a day’s cricket. For all the opinions expressed by others, I wished to make my own judgement and last week I finally achieved a lifelong ambition. A personal trip to London could only mean that a visit to Lord’s was on top of the agenda. Of course, I planned to go to the Oval too but that remained second on the agenda.The first time I saw Lord’s was from the outside when my host drove me past the ground. The one obvious structure that one could see from a passing car was `the spaceship’ – the press box constructed for the 1999 World Cup. A few days later, I finally entered the ground thanks to the initiative taken by a member. I gingerly took my first steps past the WG Grace Gates after having taken a long and close look at it. My host graciously took me around and I finally saw the museum, the shop, the committee room, the pavilion, the administrative area, the lounge and the bars, the library, the dressing rooms and the one place I wanted to see above all – the Long Room. It was all what I had expected. Swathed in history and tradition and full of the kind ofmemorabilia that one rarely comes across, I understood why it is a room quite unlike any other anywhere. I went around the various stands – the mound stand, the grand stand, the Compton and Edrich stand and all along my mind was full of rushed vignettes depicting the great deeds enacted and the great matches played on the ground. I stayed there for long, looking at the image of Father Time and soaking in the unique atmosphere. And to complete the happy picture, I found much to my surprise – considering what I had heard and read – that the membersand staff were pleasant and even gracious. With a ready smile, they provided information and some even helped me in taking photographs at various places.Unfortunately it was not a totally happy picture. For the fickle English weather did not allow me the opportunity to see a day’s cricket on the hallowed turf. As I was making my tour of the ground, the skies were grey following rain in the morning. And with no improvement in the weather, the umpires called off play in the scheduled one day game between Middlesex and Durham at 1 pm.All good things have to come to an end and I had to tear myself away from Lord’s because of a prior engagement. And shortly after 2 pm, I reluctantly passed through the Grace Cates and suddenly found myself in the rather mundane area of St John’s Wood, staring at a residential building appropriately called Lord’s View.Whatever Gavaskar and others of his ilk might say, Lord’s has everything – a unique atmosphere, a lush green outfield, the very epitome of neatness and cleanliness, a structure gold rich in tradition and history and an aura of style, taste and elegance in the furniture. One visit and anyone would be quickly aware of being in the game’s headquarters, a very special ground and a venue quite unlike any other in cricket history. What more can one ask for?

Sir Donald Bradman, as anyone even remotely associated with the game of cricket is aware, ended his Test career with an average of 99.94. But that is not the highest Test career average of all time. In a freak case, a relatively unknown West Indian batsman going by the name of Andrew Gordon Ganteaume has an overall batting average of 112. A right handed opening batsman and wicket keeper, Ganteaume played just one Test against England in 1947-48 when he scored 112 in his only innings. For some obscure reason, he never played in another Test andthat explains the reason for his freak average, which remains the highest in the annals of Test cricket.A lesser known, but still rare, feat is to average 100 against any one country. It is possible that a batsman may have a specially good record against a particular country and there have been cases when a batsman has even averaged over 100 in such cases. Against India, for example, there are three cricketers who have an average of 100 plus and to avoid freak cases, I have maintained a minimum of five Tests as a benchmark.Batsmen from many countries have relished Indian bowling. Players like Walter Hammond, Gary Sobers, Ken Barrington, Zaheer Abbas, David Boon and Sanath Jayasuriya all have averages ranging from 70 plus to 80 plus in Tests against India. But the three who have topped the century mark against India are Sir Donald Bradman, Everton Weekes and Andy Flower.Bradman of course played only one series, in 1947-48, against India. In the five Tests, he had scores of 185, 13, 132, 127 not out, 201 and 57 (retired hurt). He finished with 715 runs at an average of 178.75.Weekes played ten Tests against India, five in an away series in 1948-49 and five in a home rubber in 1953. In the first contest, the West Indian right hander punished the Indian bowlers to the tune of 779 runs from seven completed innings. Four years later he was still at his ruthless best, knocking up 716 runs from eight innings (one not out). The carnage gave him a tally of 1495 runs at an average of 106.78.After this, many batsmen had a splendid record against India but fell short of averaging 100 plus. Sobers for example scored 1920 runs from 18 Tests at an average of 83.47. That obdurate English professional Ken Barrington always had a special taste for Indian bowling, particularly on our featherbed pitches at home. He ended up with 1355 runs from 14 Tests at an average of 75.27. In the seventies and eighties, Zaheer Abbas was the scourge of Indian bowling – but only on home turf. The elegant Pakistan right hander had a nightmarish tour ofIndia in 1979-80 and only a modest one when he led the side out here four years later. But in three successive series in Pakistan, Zaheer Abbas averaged 100 plus each time. But the poor record in India brought his overall average against this country to 87 from a tally of 1740 runs in 19 Tests. Burly, beer loving Australian opening batsman David Boon followed Zaheer Abbas as the scourge of Indian bowling. In 11 Tests, from 1985-86 to 1991-92, Boon scored 1204 runs at an average of 70.82.Walter Hammond, in the 30s and 40s and Sanath Jayasuriya in the 90s both threatened to top the 100 run average mark against India but they fell short. Hammond had successive innings of 167 and 217 in the 1936 rubber but a modest run in the three Test series ten years later saw his overall average slip to 79.28 from a tally of 555 runs in six Tests. Similarly, Jayasuriya had successive scores of 340 and 199 in two Tests in Sri Lanka in 1997. But his other scores were modest and his overall average stands at 78.20 with a tally of 782 runs from seven Tests.In the last few years, however a rather unfancied cricketer from Zimbabwe has taken heavy toll of the Indian attack. Andy Flower, the pugnacious left hander and wicketkeeper took little time in displaying his relish for Indian bowling when in the inaugural Test at Harare in October 1992, he scored 59 and one not out. A few months later in the return Test in India, he top scored in both innings with 115 and 62 not out. In the only Test back home in 1998, he had rather modest returns of 30 and 41 not out. But last year in the two Test series in India he really blossomed with successive scores of 183 not out (topscore), 70 (top score), 55 and 232 not out (top score). As the Indian team prepare to take on Zimbabwe, they are aware they will face an enormous obstacle in the 33-year-old former captain who currently has a tally of 848 runs from five Tests. Five not outs in ten innings have boosted his average to 169.60. close behind the Don’s figures. The coming two Test series in his country gives Flower the opportunity to go ahead.

Central Districts kept their hopes alive in the Champions Cup tournament by beating Indian side Mumbai by 106 runs in Perth last night.CD will now meet the Australian entrant, the Western Warriors, tonight in Perth (NZ time) and will need to win if it is to be a chance of playing in the final on Wednesday.Mumbai ended the tournament winless, and it was well beaten last night.Mumbai asked CD to bat first, and must have been delighted when having the New Zealand Shell Cup champions 88/5, but a superb 108-run partnership between captain Jacob Oram and Glen Sulzberger got CD out of a hole and set up the winning margin.Oram showed some of the big-hitting form that made him such an important new figure in the New Zealand’s international one-day programme this year. He hit three sixes, each on of them memorable blows which gave the scoring a jolt at just the right stage.Sulzberger also moved the ball around, picking up the odd boundary to do his share in the stand.Oram brought up his 50 off 51 balls and went on to score 74 off 64 balls. The only criticism of his innings could be that he looked set to score three figures but got himself out, caught in the deep when he couldn’t get enough power into a skied shot to avoid a fieldsman at deep mid off.Sulzberger scored his 50 off 56 balls and the pair added the runs between 150 and 200 in 31 balls.Once they had departed, 18-year-old Greg Todd showed great maturity in his batting to keep the attacking momentum going by scoring 29 off 27 balls while Andrew Schwass chimed in with 22 off 16 balls.CD ended their 50 overs with 269/9 with left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni taking 3-38 while Santosh Saxena, who had taken out the top order finished with 3-39.Mumbai, facing a tough battle to keep their hopes alive, were unable to handle the early pressure, found themselves 11/3. But another 18-year-old in the game, Vinayak Mane kept Mumbai in the hunt with a solo hand with 53 runs.He found a suitable ally in Sairaj Bahutule but he was out attempting to hit off spinner Glen Sulzberger only to be caught in the deep for 38, scored off 46 balls.That came down to CD bowling pressure. There was a looseness at times, especially in the bowling of too many wides. But Brent Hefford bowled superbly, while Oram tied the batsmen down and after he was hammered earlier, with 35 runs off his first four overs, Andrew Schwass came back very well and was sitting on a hat trick at one stage.Schwass ended the innings the most successful bowler with three wickets for 43 runs while Sulzberger took two for 28.The CD success has left plenty of interest in the last game of the round robin phase of the tournament.Coach Dipak Patel said the side could not be over-awed by the job in front of them and was sure the young side would be ready for the big game.It was a chance for the side to be positive and for the players to learn where they were at in their game.Skipper Jacob Oram praised Sulzberger’s contribution to their partnership.”I was amazed the way he batted and came out and hit the ball in the middle from the start. He was the impetus we needed,” he said.Oram was delighted with his innings although he said that if there was a fault he should have gone on until the 45th over.He said the side would have to play a lot better to compete with the Wests side. The top order would have to contribute with the bat and the bowlers would have to be a lot more accurate and not concede so many wides. They bowled 19 wides and five no balls.