Critiquing Cricket

Slinger Malinga takes to the streets of Colombo

thuppahi — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:25:51 +0000

Tributes to Ranil Abeynaike: Thomian, Sri Lankan Cricketer, Curator, Commentator

thuppahi — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:23:04 +0000

ONE: Ranil’s illustrious innings comes to an end – Lal Guneskera in The Island, 21 February 2012

Former top class cricketer, curator and well known TV and radio commentator and former The Island columnist Ranil Abeynaike (57) died of a sudden heart ailment, last morning (21), at Asiri Hospital, in Colombo. Abeynaike captained S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia in 1973 and was adjudged the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and Best Bowler. In the same year, S. Thomas’ were adjudged the Best Schools Cricket Team.

A slow left-arm spinner and middle-order batsman, he was in the national squad from 1974 to 1985 and led the Board President’s XI against Australia, led by Greg Chappell. Abeynaike played in the Bedfordshire League in England between 1978 and 1982. During that period, he also represented MCC. He was a member of the MCC.

He qualified as a curator in England and when Sri Lanka gained Test status in 1982, SSC appointed him as its curator and he assisted in preparing pitches at Nalanda, Wesley, Panadura CC, Uyanwatte Stadium in Matara, Air Force grounds, Katunayake etc. He did up the turf at St. Benedict’s too in 2006.

Abeynaike also turned out for Seddon CC in Melbourne, Australia in 1990 and within a week, was offered the job of head groundsman. He also captained and coached Authorn-Naverly CC and was also its groundsman. He was the only Sri Lankan to hold a Recreation Turf Management Certificate.

He turned out for SSC with distinction and was its General Manager cum Curator from 1997 to 2002.

Abeynaike also excelled as a coach and held the Level I and II certificates from the Australian Cricket Board. He coached S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia too, from 2002 to 2008.

He was a knowledgeable cricket commentator and made his contributions in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Abu Dhabi, South Africa, England, the West Indies and Canada, besides Sri Lanka. He was also one time member of the SLCInterim Committee and National Selection Committee.

Abeynaike, a ‘Born Again’ Christian, has gone to be with the Lord, but his memory will linger on.

TWO: Commentator Ranil Abeynaike dies –Sa’adi Thawfeeq in ESPN-criciinfo, 21 February 2012

Ranil Abeynaike, the Sri Lankan commentator and former first-class cricketer, has died in hospital in Colombo after a heart attack. He was 57. Abeynaike played 14 first-class matches and six List A games for Bedfordshire and Sinhalese Sports Club between 1973 and 1990. He was better known for his work as a television commentator, though, and completed 25 years in the profession during the second Test between Sri Lanka and West Indies at the Premadasa Stadium in November 2010.

A left-arm spinner from St Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, whom he captained in 1973, Abeynaike was also a qualified cricket coach and curator. He played for Sri Lanka in the unofficial Test against Tony Greig’s MCC side in 1977 and played minor county cricket in England. He returned to Sri Lanka to play matches for the Sri Lanka Board President’s XI against West Indies (1979) and Australia (1983).

THREE: A Personal Note from HSM Pieris, 21 Feb. 2012

I am grieved. Ranil was a fine Thomian sportsman who excelled as a cricketer. He was a very good left arm spinner and a useful middle order batsman.

I remember him as an extremely alert young man on the cricket field when he was a Thomian cricketer, as I was helping in the coaching of the team in which he was a member and took a keen interest in him.Thereafter he played in the SSC team during my hay days and was a superb fielder in the gulley position, clinging onto many a difficult catch to my delight.He was also a member of the SSC teams I captained and his untimely departure is a sad loss to me of a team mate.

I recall with nostalgic memory those wonderful moments in the dressing room both during and after matches, where Ranil excelled as a raconteur with his high pitched laughter keeping everyone’s spirits up.Ranil also excelled as a cricket commentator and writer. He had a superb understanding of the game and delivered the commentaries with extreme clarity and meaning.

“I know that the day has come, and thy sight of this world is lost, and life has left in silence, drawing the curtain over thine eyes. Yet stars will watch at night and morning rise as before and hours shall heave like waves of the ocean, casting away pain & pleasure alike”. —- An amended verse of Tagore.

It was my delight to sit next to Ranil & his good wife at Hasi Obeyesekere’s home coming reception at Waters Edge held a few weeks ago.It was a great opportunity to stroll down memory lane and talk of old times. I enjoyed the evening immensely.

I take this opportunity to extend to his dear wife and brothers my deepest sympathies. Ranil the great batsman has played his innings and now has returned to the pavilion of his Heavenly Father.

May his soul rest in peace

** Mevan Pieris is a former Sri Lankan fast bowler who represented the country in the mid 1970′s and is also a renowned local commentator.

Bradman’s Advice to Batsmen at the Bowler’s End

thuppahi — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:15:55 +0000

Mahinda Wijesinghe

Quite a furore was created in the current CBN series game between India and Sri Lanka played in Brisbane when Sri Lankan batsman Lahiru Thirimanne, at the non-striker’s end, was run out by Indian off-spinner Ashwin when the batsman was found to have left the crease before the ball had been delivered. In other words, Thirimanne was found to be taking a ‘foul start’. When Ashwin appealed to umpire Paul Reiffel – with Thirimanne well out of his crease – the latter without doing his avowed duty of giving his decision walked across to his partner Billy Bowden. After a three-way discussion, with Bowden and the Indian skipper Sehwag, Thirimanne was permitted to continue. Despite this let-off, Thirimanne still continued with his walkabouts. Something that confused most. Indeed the Laws of Cricket are very clear on this issue. Last year, to dispel any doubts on this vexed matter, the MCC reiterated and stated very clearly that “the bowler is permitted before releasing the ball and provided he has not completed his usual delivery swing, to attempt to run out the non-striker.” Can it be any clearer?

Hence, the Indian bowler Ashwin was not doing any act that even bordered on questionable sportsmanship. That question should be posed to the Sri Lanka batsman who was wittingly or otherwise taking an unfair advantage by taking a foul start. Remember, just one run could quite easily make the difference between victory and/or defeat, and more so in the shortened version of the game.

Take for instance, when a batsman hits a ball to (say) cover point and through poor fielding permits the batsman to scamper for runs, naturally the bowler and the fielding side stands to lose. If the cover-fielder however, collects the ball fast and finds the batsman yards out of his crease, does the fielder warn the batsman and ask the latter to get back to his crease? On the same principle why does one expect the bowler who finds the batsman, at the non-strikere’s end out of his crease to act similarly?

So far in the history of ODI cricket there have been 26 instances of games being tied (plus two more in World Cup games) that includes the tied game versus India (at Adelaide) in the current CBN series, whilst not forgetting the close call when Sri Lanka lost to Australia in a nail-biting encounter by a mere 5 runs in Perth. So let us be pragmatic on this issue. If one is involved in a fun-match (say) between “Married vs Bachelors” or “Smokers vs Non-Smokers” then it is another kettle of fish – warn the corpulent married cousin or an emphysematous, cigarette-puffing friend at the non-striker’s end to get back to the crease. But in a competitive/tournament/international encounter, if a batsman takes a foul start then in all probability he is cheating or is clearly unaware of the Laws, situations both of which are definitely untenable. As a former reputed cricketer/coach/mentor told one of my contemporaries who committed a Thirimanne-like faux pas: “Young man you are a competent batsman, an active fielder and a reasonable bowler but not a good cricketer.”

The act of the bowler running a batsman at the non-striker’s end had been sometimes described ‘Mankading’ in a deragotary sense. This term originated during the Indian tour of Australia in the 1946/47 Test series when Indian left-arm spinner Vinoo Mankad ran out Australian opening batsman W.A. Brown at the non-striker’s end. Here’s what Don Bradman has to say on this issue in his autobiography “Farewell to Cricket” and there, as the saying goes, I rest my case.

“An early sensation came in Australia’s innings when Brown was once more run out by Mankad, who, in the act of delivering the ball, held on to it and whipped the bails off with Brown well out of his crease. This had happened in the Indian match against Queensland (No,Bradman is making a mistake here. It happened during the game against an Australian XI played at Sydney where, incidentally, Bradman registered his hundredth first-class hundred though the hosts lost the game by 47 runs thanks in the main to Mankad who captured 8/84 in the second innings. MW), and immediately in some quarters Mankad’s sportsmanship was questioned.

For the life of me I cannot understand why. The laws of cricket make it quite clear that the non-striker must keep within his ground until the ball is delivered. If not why is the provision there which enables the bowler to run him out? By backing up too far or too early the non-striker is very obviously gaining an unfair advantage. On numerous occasions he may avoid being run at the opposition end by gaining the false start.

I am well aware that few bowlers ever seek to take advantage of such an opportunity. It would be well nigh impossible for some of them to do so…..only the slower types of bowlers have a chance. Mankad was an ideal type and he was so scrupulously fair that first of all warned Brown before taking any action. There was absolutely no feeling in the matter as far as we were concerned, for we considered it quite a legitimate part of the game.

I always make it a practice when occupying the position of a non-striker to keep my bat behind the crease until I see the ball in the air. In that way one cannot possibly be run out, and I commend this practice to other players.”

Thirimanne please note.

Making a Fetish out of “human error”: BCCI and Dhoni on the DRS in Cricket

thuppahi — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:21:18 +0000

SEE http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/hegemonic-idiocy-bcci-and-dhoni-on-the-drs-in-cricket/

OR http://www.islandcricket.lk/columns/michael_roberts/160450219/drs-indias-hegemonic-idiocy

Cricketing Stars to battle it out in Toronto

thuppahi — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 09:37:52 +0000

James Christie in the Globe & Mail, 16 February 2012 with title “Toronto cricket match will pit Asia vs. the world”

The most talented international cricketers to play under a Canadian roof in almost 20 years – a mixture of legends and up-and-comers – will meet at Rogers Centre on May 12 in an all-star match that organizers hope will be at catalyst to move the sport into the Canadian psyche. “We got the idea from watching NBA and NHL all-star games and we’re putting together a couple of good teams, one representing Asia and one International,” said Herb Choga, president of Kat Rose Inc., which is promoting the event with Cricket Canada.

Canada’s national squad will not play, although two Canadians – wicketkeeper Ashish Bagai, 30, and top-of-the-order batsman Rizwan Cheema, 33 – were among players picked for the International XI Thursday. “The proceeds from this game will go toward the development of the sport in Canada,” said Ingleton Liburd, operations officer for Cricket Canada and a former national captain.

There are more than 300 teams playing recreational and competitive cricket in the Toronto area, drawing mainly from an immigrant base. Some Mississauga schools have greater cricket participation than they do for conventional football, but organizers say cricket still has to make the leap into the sports mainstream from being a sport popular because of heritage.

The players chosen Thursday include, for the International XI: Zimbabwean wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor, 26; fast bowler Tino Best of Barbados, another West Indies Test veteran, 30; Mark Boucher, 35, of South Africa who set a record for most dismissals by a wicketkeeper; Canadians Bagai and Cheema – who in 2008 hit 10 sixes in one match (hitting beyond the boundary, the approximate equivalent of a baseball home run); and a contract is pending with Brian Lara, 42, from Trinidad who captained and starred for the West Indies in Tests. Grant Flower was appointed as the coach of the International XI.

Named for the Asia XI: big-armed all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya, 42, of Sri Lanka; outstanding all-rounder Shahid Afridi, 34, of Pakistan; Sunil Joshi, 41, of India; right-armed fast bowler Mohammad Sami, 30, of Pakistan; Saeed Ajmal, 34, of Pakistan who impressed when he made his international debut at 30; opening batsman Tamim Iqbal, 22, of Bangladesh. Because of the Indian Premier League’s operation at the time of the Toronto match, it is expected that various Pakistani players will form the nucleus of the Asia XI.

The umpires will be Canadians certified by the International Cricket Council.

The match will be played on an artificial surface, and the format is called T20 – each team has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Each innings lasts around 75 minutes.

Organizers said the halftime show would be a Bollywood showcase, with a musical appearance by Imran Khan – a melting pot himself as a Dutch-born Pubjabi singer of Pakistani heritage – with the birth-name of Singer.

Q and A with Courtney Walsh

thuppahi — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:21:30 +0000

Courtesy of PakPassion

PakPassion.net is delighted to present an exclusive interview with West Indian fast bowling great, Courtney Walsh. 49 year old Walsh is quite simply a legendary fast bowler who terrorised opposition international batsmen for over 16 years. Hailing from Jamaica, Walsh was a member of the great West Indian fast bowling quartets that took Caribbean cricket to the top of the cricketing ladder for many years. Walsh’s tremendous levels of fitness and his aptitude for hard work enabled him to take an incredible 519 Test wickets and bowl 30,019 balls in the 5 day format.

Extremely tall, unorthodox, but very effective Walsh formed one of the great opening bowling partnerships with Curtley Ambrose and between them they took 421 wickets from 49 Tests. Walsh was a true gentleman and well-liked by team mates and opponents. His facial expressions whilst bowling always brought great entertainment and his batting was equally entertaining. Walsh was also a loyal servant for English County side Gloucestershire whom he represented with great dignity for 14 seasons.

PakPassion.net : When you started your international career in 1984 did you have any idea that you would represent the West Indies with such dignity, success and for such a long time?

Courtney Walsh : No I had no idea. I thought I would just try my best, maintain my form for a few matches and then see how it goes. I certainly did not expect to play for the West Indies for as long as I did.

I wanted to do well and to play a couple of Test matches. Looking back I’m really happy, proud and very pleased that I served the West Indies team for so long.

PakPassion.net : You are the only fast bowler to have ever bowled more than 5000 overs in Test cricket. How did you manage to stay fit for so long and injury free? Was it down to a particular fitness regime or down to luck?

Courtney Walsh : I would say it’s a combination of both. I looked after myself very well and I tried to stay as fit as I could and I got a little bit lucky too. But with the love I had for the game, I always wanted to play and that proved to be very helpful. I tried to do everything I could to look after myself and make sure that I was fit enough to play whenever I was needed.

PakPassion.net : A lot of modern day fast bowlers seem to be struggling with injuries and having to restrict the number of matches they play and reduce the formats they play in. Where are they going wrong?

Courtney Walsh : I think it’s partly bad luck and also overuse of their muscles down to pushing themselves a bit too hard and playing too much cricket. Of course they want to give a good account of themselves, but with the amount of cricket being played these days you have to look after yourself a lot better and that extra effort can be the downfall for some of these fast bowlers.

PakPassion.net : Your thoughts on the current crop of West Indian fast bowlers?

Courtney Walsh : Fidel Edwards, Kemar Roach and Jerome Taylor have impressed me. They have shown that they have potential but the fitness levels are a major concern. You cannot take wickets if you are not on the field of play. It’s down to them to get their fitness levels higher and maintain those levels.

What the West Indies needs is for all of these quick bowlers to be available for selection together and for all three of them to be fit and on the field together for a sustained period of time. We need Fidel, Kemar and Jerome at the top of their game, fit and ready and that is what has been lacking.

We need all of these boys fit and raring to go and it will definitely help the team to perform better and win more games.

PakPassion.net : We hear all the time that world cricket needs a strong West Indies side. However in recent times we haven’t seen the West Indies team struggle. Where is it going wrong at the moment in your opinion?

Courtney Walsh : We just have not been playing good and consistent cricket. It’s something we are working on and there are signs of improvement. For example the first Test in India is one that I felt we could have done much better. But the key is to improve our levels of consistency and to raise the standards of performance from all of the players. Consistency in performance remains the key for the current West Indies team.

PakPassion.net : It’s a travesty that Chris Gayle is not currently featuring for the West Indies. Your thoughts on the Gayle versus WICB affair?

Courtney Walsh : I would love to see Chris Gayle back in West Indies colours. Both parties need to move on, forget what has happened and for the sake of West Indies cricket to move forward and leave what’s happened in the past.

Chris is a good friend, he is someone who I have coached a little in the past when he first started playing cricket and he went to the same school as I. We need Chris back on the field for the West Indies. It will be a huge lift for everyone involved in West Indies cricket when Chris takes the field again for the West Indies.

PakPassion.net : A few pundits and fans around the world are saying that Darren Sammy isn’t the right man to be leading the West Indies side. Your thoughts on Sammy as skipper?

Courtney Walsh : I fully endorse Darren Sammy as captain. I think he’s doing a fantastic job. Yes his form has not been tremendous and has dipped a little of late but I think he is doing a good job as captain. You cannot question his performances in the Test arena. In one day internationals recently he picked up an injury and didn’t fully recover from it, but I have no problems at all with Darren Sammy as captain.

PakPassion.net : We are seeing Twenty20 cricket becoming hugely popular around the world. It wasn’t a format that you played in and some are worried about the future of Test cricket. Your thoughts on the future of Test cricket?

Courtney Walsh : Test cricket is the number one format and I sincerely hope that it remains that way. I’m sorry that I never got the chance to play the Twenty over format as I’m sure I would have enjoyed it. No bowler likes to see the ball flying to the boundary on a regular basis but the challenge would have been a good one. Twenty20 brings the fans to the stadia, it puts people on seats but there has to be some caution here as overkill can put the fans off too.

PakPassion.net : What can the ICC and the Cricket Boards around the world do to ensure that Test cricket retains its status as the number one format?

Courtney Walsh : I think it’s important to set up the Test championship so that teams can compete for the number one spot in a play off every 2 or 3 years or however long the ICC want to hold the play off. That battle for the number one spot will add extra interest and more intensity. It will also add more interest from a fan’s perspective. The Test championship really needs to be implemented soon by the ICC.

PakPassion.net : Your own future, do tell us all what your plans are?

Courtney Walsh : I’m still involved in West Indies cricket. I worked with the West Indies Under 19s on their last couple of tours. I want to play an active part in helping West Indies cricket in future and I want to help West Indies cricket in any way I can.

I want to put something back into West Indies cricket. From working with the Under 19s if that leads to working with one of the regional teams then that will be great too.

However if things don’t work out at home, then I have to go overseas to continue working in cricket and to develop my coaching, then I am prepared to do that also.

Full interview: http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/showthread.php?t=147969

Shattering the Kalu myth

thuppahi — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:57:48 +0000

Michael Jeh, courtesy of ESPN cricinfo, at http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/diffstrokes/archives/2012/02/shattering_the_kalu_myth.php

Web Editor: Just yesterday I heard Tony Greig refer to “little Kalu” in striking admiration of his aggresive batting style, while Michael Slater referred to his explosive century at the SSC in his first Test Match against Australia when he took young Shane Warne apart. Thus, this essay is pertinent; but note my caveats on missing dimensions in the ADDENDUM at end. Also see the comments in the original site.

Pic from Getty

Nostalgia can indeed be a seductive mistress, can she not? Watching Sri Lanka dismantling the Australian bowling attack in Sydney tonight, I heard Tony Greig waxing lyrical about the feats of Romesh Kaluwitharana in the 1996 World Cup. Greig’s insinuation was that Kalu’s breathtaking innings at the top of the order in that tournament were the catalyst for the new style of opening in ODIs. It is easy to be fooled into thinking that Kalu set the world alight and got Sri Lanka off to some amazing starts, but my distant memory forced me to check the facts.

Truth is, Kalu actually had a pretty average World Cup as a batsman. His scores, listed here as runs/balls faced, were: 0/1, 26/16, 33/18, 8/3, 0/1, 6/13.

They certainly weren’t slow starts but, apart from the 33 against Kenya, his contributions could hardly be considered significant. It’s easy to remember him as that explosive little stick of dynamite but if you actually look at his scores during that season, even leading into the World Cup, the numbers tell a very different story.

It seems the Kalu legend was born in the Benson & Hedges Series in Australia, a few months before that World Cup. He made three half-centuries in that series, but when you actually look at those games his strike-rate was not that high. Not as high as the legend suggests anyway. Here are his runs/balls faced stats: 8/21, 0/4, 8/14, 0/1, 77/75, 20/27, 50/54, 74/68, 13/9, 0/1.

Even the three significant scores he made were virtually at a run-a-ball, a far cry from the sort of strike-rates that we are now accustomed to in the modern game. Admittedly, in that era, the boundaries were long and the cricket bats not that powerful, but I still maintain that the Kaluwitharana myth has grown despite the reality.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching him bat. I’m not knocking the bloke. My point is that despite the hype and awe that his name evokes, the truth is that he wasn’t quite the “excitement machine” that Michael Slater described him as when he was responding to Tony Greig’s comments about Kalu. In 102 ODIs, his strike-rate was 77.70 and his average was 22.20.

It’s almost the reverse of the point I made about Jacques Kallis in my piece a few weeks ago. Kallis is one of those cricketers whose numbers are phenomenal but he never quite gets the international acclaim. He averages 45.55 at a strike-rate of 72.96 in his long ODI career. Yet we’d never describe him as an excitement machine.

Even Slater himself, fondly remembered as a swashbuckling strokeplayer, had an ODI average of 24.07 with a strike-rate of 60.40. Mark Taylor, stodgy in comparison to Slater, had a strike-rate of 59.46. Wonder why it is that we seem to remember players in different ways, despite the facts suggesting that there wasn’t much to separate them really?

Let’s think of someone like David Warner, a thrashing machine if ever there was one. He averages 20.07 in ODIs with a strike rate of 78.71. I expected his strike-rate to be much higher than that I must confess. Perhaps the true test will be at the end of his career when he has had time to carve out some consistency; but for a bloke who strikes at 142.00 in Twenty20 internationals, he just can’t seem to get close to that in the 50-over format, despite having four more Powerplay overs at his disposal. Curious….

I’d love to hear your contributions to this debate. Can you think of any cricketers who have a reputation that doesn’t quite match the cold hard facts? Kalu is certainly one such player; his reputation seems to have been forged on the back of his stunning Test match debut against Australia. I remember Allan Border describing that innings to me; he seemed to suggest that for those few hours that Kalu unleashed his magic the Aussies were wondering if this was the next Don Bradman, such was his amazing strokeplay. What a shame he didn’t repeat that again in his short and ‘explosive’ career. There we go again with adjectives that don’t quite fit reality!

WEB EDITOR: While wholly endorsing the contention in the last sentence of this review, I emphasise here that statistics can also mislead or rather provide only a partial picture at times. Let me take Kaluwitharana’s two striking ODI engagements in 1995/96 seriatim, deploying here a vivid picture of the events that are firmly implanted in my mind [for reasons obvious].

ONE: Sri Lanka was not expected to make the finals of the Benson & Hedges tri-series that also involved the West Indies. That they did was due their victories in the last two matches of the League. Note Michael Jeh’s figures for Kalu’s statistics in these two games: 50/54, 74/68. That Sri Lanka won both games was partly due to the lightening quick starts engineered by Kalu and Sanath. This was heightened by the shock effect of their assault on Glenn McGrath, Australia’s leading bowler. In assessing this impact one should also not be misled by the increased scoring rates today, rates that are assisted by improved bat-technology and the experience of T20 cricket.

TWO: Kalu’s batting scores during the World Cup on the sub-continent were quite poor, as Jeh points out; but his one coruscating innings had a critical and match-winning impact on their march to the finals [though obviously aided substantially by the achievements of other players, the team as a whole and the behind-the-scenes work of Whatmore and Kontouris.**

This impact was at the Group stage when Sri Lanka faced India at the Feroz Shah Stadium in Delhi. India batted first and scored 271 runs for 3 wkts in their 50 overs –a solid score. But what happened then? Kaluwitharana and Jayasuriya blazed 53 runs in a few overs to shell-shock India and Sri Lanka reached 272 runs for the loss of four wickets in the 49^th over. Manoj Prabhkar was taken apart in that first spell and one could say that he never recovered after that –his career ended more or less.

More to the point, there was a disastrous flow-on effect upon India. When they faced Sri Lanka again in the semi-finals at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, they decided that it would be best to chase a total. This decision, in my surmise, was directed by their failure in stemming the Sri Lankan batsmen at Delhi. So they opted to field [replicating the course adopted by Sri Lanka at Delhi]. They did not read their own pitch. The wicket turned out to be a batsman’s nightmare that evening and dream for spin bowlers. Facing 251 runs India were 120 for 8 wickets when the crowd erupted against their own and forced an abandonment of play. Sri Lanka waltzed into the finals.

** See Michael Roberts & Alfred James, Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press

Gilchrist bats way to top in corporate world

thuppahi — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:44:06 +0000

Andrew Burrell in The Weekend Australian, 17-18 February 2012

ADAM Gilchrist’s arrival at last year’s World Cup cricket final in Mumbai was dramatic — and the former Australian Test superstar wasn’t even playing. Gilchrist, who is building a post-cricket business career aimed at the massive potential of the Indian market, was with about 30 clients of one of his corporate sponsors when the group’s bus driver mistakenly dropped them about a kilometre from the stadium. As they made their way to the ground to watch the match between India and Sri Lanka, Gilchrist was spotted by the crowd and mobbed.

SEE http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/gilchrist-bats-way-to-top-in-corporate-world/story-fn91v9q3-1226274229474

This is what one calls a TIE — A Tie in so many ways

thuppahi — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:15:35 +0000

Dhoni’s Sensible Equanimity in Reviewing Matches Past

thuppahi — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:09:45 +0000

Michael Roberts, courtesy of http://www.islandcricket.lk/columns/michael_roberts/159360216/no-baloney-from-praiseworthy-dhoni where a different tile was used

Many cricket fans would continue to marvel at the coolness and authority displayed by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in crunch situations at the end of tense ODI matches. But let me highlight and praise Dhoni’s balanced commentary in reviewing India’s performances and unfortunate moments after a match is over. His equanimity and reasonableness is praiseworthy.

Several years back I was able to sneak into a media review at the end of a match where India had beaten Sri Lanka at Adelaide Oval, an occasion where Dhoni fronted up for the Indian squad he captained. I was impressed by his clinical commentary and clarity of expression. More recently, he faced the press in adverse circumstances after the Australian Test series where India was trounced and his own batting was rather disappointing. He avoided clichés and accepted India’s shortcomings four square.

Likewise, after the pulsating and historic tie between Indian and Sri Lanka at Adelaide Oval on the 14^th February he referred to his own fatal error when India was on top, that is the moment where he sparked Gambhir’s run-out [though replays viewed subsequently told me that Gambhir had also contributed to it in not diving for the crease, while we must also mark Kulasekara’s fielding as top-drawer].

Pic from Getty

Again, when informed that the three umpires had combined to allow Sri Lanka to get away with a five-ball Malinga-over, Dhoni did not rise to the bait and indulge in the song and dance which the pressmen were probably waiting for. He immediately doused the potential fires arising from this failure – an act that may have cost India a win, yet another “If Only.” So, I say bravo MS for your good sense.

………….. Read the news item below for the details

Dhoni not fazed by five-ball over after tie

Courtesy of The Island, 16 February 2011

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni refused to let a potential controversy take the shine off the thrilling tie played out at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday.

Chasing a testing target after Dinesh Chandimal’s 81 and Mahela Jayawardene’s 43 had pushed Sri Lanka to 236 for nine, India rode on the back of Gautam Gambhir’s 91 and Mahendra Dhoni’s unbeaten 58 to draw the scores level. Requiring a boundary off the final ball of the match to triumph and all but seal a berth in the ODI tri-series final later this month, Dhoni could only strike Lasith Malinga’s fullish delivery for three, with Sachithra Senanayake putting in a superb diving stop in the deep cover region to prevent the winning run.

With the humdinger clash ending in a deadlock, it later emerged that the match umpires — Nigel Llong and Steven Fry — had allowed the 30th over of India’s innings to last just five balls, meaning Sri Lanka had faced 300 legitimate deliveries to the opposition’s 299.

“Coach Duncan Fletcher told me there was a five-ball over,” said Dhoni. “We have seen this in the past. We’ve bowled an over and almost changed sides but the third umpire interferes and says you have to bowl one more ball in this over. Usually that’s what has happened in the past.

“It didn’t happen in this game — I don’t know why. Not much can be done now. A dot ball could have happened. It’s done and dusted. We could create a big fuss out of it, but what’s the point? It’s like a controversy that’s really standing right on the edge, just about to happen. We don’t really want to create a controversy out of it. We just want to stick to the result that has happened. Hopefully it won’t be replicated, not with us or any other side.”

Dhoni, part and parcel of India’s ongoing stance against the full use of the Decision Review System in ODI and Test cricket, remained adamant that human error is an understandable facet of cricket.

“If this can happen, I don’t know why people can back the DRS so much,” he added. “We have seen people being really happy with DRS in one series when it goes in their favour and then it doesn’t go in their favour, they’re quite unhappy about it. “I’m quite happy with the two umpires in the middle, the third and fourth umpires, the match referee and the scorer. If that ball-counting error still happened, it’s better off accepting it, because as humans we are bound to make mistakes.

(www.cricket365.com)