Atherton tweaks the the West Indians chasing moghuls in India … and elsewhere

Mike Atherton, in The Times and the Weekend Australian, 26 May 2009, with title “Swatting balls in Delhi doesn’t compare to facing up at Lord’s, it’s just Gaylic”

Pic by Getty Images

 

LET’S call it Gaylic, shall we, the language of the modern, supranational, jet-setting Twenty20 cricketer. It is almost universal now, cricket’s version of Esperanto if you like, and it doesn’t matter whether it is IPL, BPL, Big Bash or the original, the Friends Life t20, the language is the same – cash is the game – and the building blocks of this new language are taken from its founder, the biggest, baddest Twenty20 cricketer in town: Chris Gayle.

Gaylic was being played out over the loudspeakers with deafening effects during the first Test at Lord’s. While his fellow West Indians were fretting about swing, seam and the slope, and other variables that make batting at Lord’s in May such a difficult task, Gayle was freewheeling for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Every shot he played echoed all the way to Lord’s.

West Indies in England — Sammy’s reflections after the First Test

 

Darren Sammy said West Indies continued to show signs of a competitive edge, despite losing the first Test against England by five wickets on Monday at Lord’s here. The West Indies captain said he was “quite pleased” that his side had pushed the World No.1 Test side, but he felt there were areas where his side could tighten up, making them even more ready for action in future battles.
“We were told there were no fifth-day tickets printed,” said Sammy. “. . .But we took the game into the fifth day. The team continued to show the never-say-die attitude which we promised to bring out here in England. And we had some good performances from some of the players. We’ll take these positives into the next Test.”

Strauss under Stress at Galle and Beyond

Michael Atherton in The Weekend Australian, 31 March 2012 and the Times, under a different title: “Fall of Galle leaves discordant Andrew Strauss in need of a big innings”

GALLE has rarely been kind to England captains. More often than not, they have travelled the coast road back to Colombo having been gently basted in the sun, knowing that they have come off second-best. No England captain has left Galle a winner. Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss have all struggled there, both as captains and batsmen, Vaughan’s twin draws (hanging on, nine wickets down in 2003, and then saved by the rain in 2007) a triumph compared with the innings defeat suffered by Hussain and the 75-run defeat inflicted on Strauss yesterday.

Watching Strauss in the aftermath of defeat, it was Hussain I was thinking of. During England’s first ever Test match in Galle, Hussain was in the middle of a horror trot.

Evaluating Rangana Herath with Plaudits – Rex and Scyld

The Lessons We could learn from Herath –Rex Clementine in The Island, 31 March 2012

The country’s one of the most respected cricketers, Kumar Sangakkara once called Rangana Herath ‘the work horse’ of the team. Now that he has emerged as country’s premier bowler, we should talk about his other virtues as well and how tough the rise for him has been having represented two unfashionable entities – Maliyadeva Vidyalaya and Moors SC. (Only two seasons back he left Moors after an association of 14 years after the club got demoted).

Loyalty and perseverance are two virtues of Herath that we should admire. Although HeThe rath made his debut in 1999, opportunities were rare for him due to the presence of champion Muttiah Muralitharan and Sri Lanka always had Sanath Jayasuriya to bowl a bit of left-arm spin.

But occasionally Herath was used in Test cricket, particularly against Pakistan once John Dyson developed this idea that Pakistan were in fact susceptible against left-arm spin.

Windies down Aussies and Narine stands out as Man-of-Match

 Pic by AFP

“Special feeling” as Narine bowls Windies to win

Sunil Narine came to the party in a big way on Sunday with a superb spell of spin bowling as West Indies beat Australia by five wickets in the second Digicel One-Day International. The 23-year-old off-spinner took a career best four wickets for 27 runs off eight overs as the Windies limited the visitors to 154-9 off 40 overs in a rain-reduced match at Arnos Vale Cricket Ground. The target was then set at 158 (Duckworth/Lewis Method) and the home side romped home at 163-5 with 10 balls to spare.

The victory was celebrated by a capacity crowd of over 12,000. It was the Windies’ first win  Pic by Zee News  over the Aussies in an ODI since 2006, and brought them level 1-1 with three matches left in the five-match rubber. Big-hitter Kieron Pollard smashed four sixes in a topscore of 47 not out off 61 balls. Carlton Baugh ended the match with a big six over deep square-leg into the celebrating crowd. Earlier, vice captain Dwayne Bravo made a responsible 30 off 49 balls in a crucial fifth-wicket stand of 64 with Pollard.

Chamara Silva first to score 1000 runs this season

Roshen Steelman, Sunday Island, 18 March 2012

Middle-order batsman Chamara Silva came-up with a magnificent and rare performance when he became the first batsmen to score 1000 runs in this year’s Premier League Tournament. Silva reached the milestone when scoring 86 runs in his team’s match against Moors SC played at Reid Avenue on Friday. Playing in nine matches, Silva has scored 1035 runs averaging 79.61 per innings. Silva’s highest score was 216 runs made against SSC. Only two players have passed 1000 runs in the recent Premier League history. Sri Lanka’s opening batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan scored 1000 runs in 1999 and Dinesh Chandimal scored 1000 the previous season.

Q and A with Andrew Strauss introduced by Rex

Rex Clementine in the Island, 15 March 2011

Bungling by Sri Lankan cricket officials has reduced the national cricket team’s Test series against England into a two match affair, contrary to the traditional three match fixture, but nevertheless there’s all the more reason for Sri Lanka’s contest against the tourists to be looked forward to, as England are currently the number one ranked team in the world They have been expertly led in the last couple of years by Andrew Strauss, who became the first English captain since Mike Gatting in 1986 to win an Ashes series down under. Although England are the world’s top team, there’s some pressure on Strauss, after his side was whitewashed 3-0 by Pakistan in the UAE. Strauss has been in Colombo for nearly two weeks now with England’s batting group, trying to adjust to Sri Lankan conditions and the England captain spoke to the media for the first time, yesterday. Here are the excerpts of Andrew Strauss’ talk with the media.

Question: You have been here in Colombo for a while now and how have your preparations gone ahead of the contests?

Strauss: One of the advantages for those of us who were not involved in the ODIs (against Pakistan), is that we had the opportunity to come here early and because it was a small group, we were able to be specific and focused and get a lot done, both in terms of cricket skills preparation, as well as physical preparation. I suppose in some way you feel a little bit ahead than you normally feel at this stage of a tour. The challenge now is to put preparation into practice on the pitch.

England XI face Warm-ups as well as Political Heat in Sri Lanka: two Items

ONE: “Geneva issue won’t upset England tour of SL” by Rex Clementine, in Island, 15 March 2011

England skipper Andrew Strauss yesterday stressed the need to act responsibly  before making up their minds when he was asked about the ongoing US-led efforts  to move a resolution against Sri Lanka at the current session of the United  Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. The first English captain to win back to back Ashes titles since 1986 was  responding to Paul Newman of the Daily Mail at his first media briefing  in Colombo since arriving here two weeks ago to prepare for the two-match Test  series against Sri Lanka.

Those behind ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ and ‘War Crimes Unpunished’  scheduled to be telecast Wednesday night campaigned in the UK to pressure the  England team to cancel the tour over accountability issues.

UK Minister for human rights Jeremy Browne on the opening day of the UNHRC  sessions on Feb. 27 called for UN intervention in Sri Lanka to help change the  situation here.

“We have seen atrocities taking place all over the world. In war, a lot of  unsavoury things happen on both sides. I personally think that these sort of  political issues are best dealt by the politicians and administrators. But that  doesn’t mean that we  should stick our heads in the sand. If the UK  government feels that there are cases to answer and the situation is serious  enough that the England cricket team should not be touring somewhere, then  that’s the call they have to make. Until then, it’d be wrong for us to focus on  anything other than cricket,” the England captain said.

“As I said, we should not stick our heads in the sand. But you’ve got to be  careful that if you start investigating, you investigate very thoroughly. There  are people to look into these things and it’s important they do their job and  it’s even important that I do my job, which is to win cricket matches,” Strauss  added.

TWO: “Prasanna and Kandamby to captain Lankan teams”

Wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene will lead Sri Lanka Board XI  in a warm up game against the touring England cricket team that will get  underway at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo today at 10am.

Jayawardene returned half way through Sri Lanka’s tour of the  UAE and missed the series in South Africa as he was forced to undergo surgery  for hernia. Jayawardene was one of Sri Lanka’s successful batsmen with Test  hundreds against England and Pakistan.

Middle order batsman Thilina Kandamby, who was Sri Lanka’s  vice-captain during the ODI leg of last year’s tour of England has been named  captain for the second warm up game that gets underway on the 20th at SSC.

Sri Lanka Board XI for today’s warm up game: Prasanna Jayawardena (Captain), Dimuth Karunaratne  (Vice-Captain), Banuka Rajapakse, Roshen Silva, Sachithra Serasinghe, Malinga  Bandara, Dilruwan Perera, Tyronne Gamage, Nilanka Premaratne, Kanishka  Elvitigala and Ashen Silva.

Sri Lanka Board XI for the second warm up game:Thilina Kandamby (Captain), Chamara Silva (Vice-Captain),  Malintha Warnapura, Dilshan Munaweera, Angelo Perera, Kushal Janith, Sajeewa  Weerakoon, Kaushaliya Lokuarchchi, Tharanga Lakshitha, Vishwa Fernando and Isuru  Udana.

Aussies arrive in the Caribbean as Narine shines in warm up practice match

Media Release: Australia captain Shane Watson said his side will be looking to build on the momentum they gained from success on home soil, when they face West Indies in the forthcoming Digicel 2012 Series.

Members of the Australian One-day and Twenty20 squads arrived on Saturday here, ahead of theDigicel 2012 Series, which includes five ODIs, two T20Is, and three Tests. “Hopefully, we can produce some very good cricket for the fans over here,” said Watson. “We have just come off a very big series in Australia, and hopefully, we can continue the form that weshowed and bring it in the games against West Indies.”

The Aussies arrived minus Michael Clarke. The regular Australia captain was sidelined with a hamstring injury and will miss the limited-overs matches on the tour. Watson expected his side to overcome the setback and play with typical aplomb.“We are always confident,” he said. “We know that if we are at the top of our game, we are goingto be very hard to beat. Right now, the most important thing is to make sure we have recovered from our long flight andmake the best of the next couple of days to make sure we are ready to go for the first match.”

Watson encouraged fans of the game to attend the matches, expecting spectators to get value for money from the battles on the field. “We have some really talented players and we expect that this series will be a spectacle, so people should come out to see it,” he said. “There is always an amazing following of the game in the West Indies and very passionate crowds always come out to the matches, so hopefully we can help to provide some entertainment that willallow the spectators to enjoy their days at the matches.”

Windies Squad for ODI

West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Selection Panel today announced the West Indies squad for the first three Digicel One-Day Internationals against Australia to be played on March 16, 18 and 20 at the Arnos Vale Cricket Ground in St. Vincent: Darren Sammy (captain), Denesh Ramdin (vice-captain), Tino Best, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard,Kieran Powell, Kemar Roach. Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels.