All posts by csb10.top

Shaun Pollock, the local hero who picked up his 400th Test victim in thefirst Test at the Wanderers, admitted that South Africa would need to lifttheir game by at least “20 to 30 percent” if they were to revive theirfortunes in the three-Test series against India. Pollock accepted that heand his team-mates had been well below their best in the 123-run loss, butwas confident that they had the quality to turn things around.”We have done very well in South Africa over the years,” he said, alludingto a record of only 14 defeats in 71 home Tests since readmission to theinternational game. “But we lost here in Durban against the Pakistanis[1997-98] and managed to turn it around. It’s always there in the back ofour minds that we don’t want to lose the series. In order to win it, we’vegot to win the next two. So it’s a huge Test match for us. We need tolevel the series here, go on to Cape Town and hopefully win there.”Pollock said that the mood in the dressing room remained upbeat, and thatthe team would make the most of one further practice session on Mondaymorning before the Test starts on Boxing Day. Pollock will spend Christmasat home with his family, but was clear that the Indians shouldn’t expectany belated presents once they cross the boundary line at Kingsmead.”We’re disappointed at having lost the Test match,” he said. “It was asevere blow for us. It damaged our pride a little bit, so we need to getthat back and we’re very keen to set the record straight.”Though he himself had a fine game at the Wanderers, having Rahul Dravidcaught behind for his 400th wicket, Pollock said that the collectiveperformance had been a depressing one. “We’re quite disappointed on thebowling front, we could have done better,” he said. “On the batting side,to be knocked out for 84 is just unheard of for South African sides,especially back home.”We haven’t focussed too much on that. We’re moving forward now, and weneed to hit the right areas in the next Test match. It’s a different kindof wicket, so what we discussed there doesn’t really count here.”He defended his new-ball partner, Makhaya Ntini, saying that everyone wasentitled to the occasional ordinary game, and expressed his doubts overwhether Graeme Smith would opt for a spin option in the shape of PaulHarris. And when it was put to him that South Africa’ bowling line-up hadbeen predictable and one-dimensional at the Wanderers, he came back with asharp response.”It makes good stories, doesn’t it?” he asked. “If you look at the fivethat played at the Wanderers, we’ve got the sheer pace of Dale Steyn whoshapes it away, and Makhaya Ntini who shapes it in. Andre Nel is a tallbowler who has got a different action, I’m the sort of the guy who hitsareas, and Jacques Kallis is a genuine away-swing bowler. If that’slacking variation, then I would hate to see a combination that has gotvariation. Probably the only thing we might have lacked was a spinner.”There was praise for Sreesanth – “The ball comes out of his hand lovely,the seam is upright” – but he hesitated to label India’s attack the bestto come out of the country. “I have played against an attack that hadJavagal Srinath, and I think he was the best fast bowler that India hasproduced,” said Pollock. “He was remarkable over the years, the way he gotthe ball to talk, not only in seamer-friendly conditions in South Africabut on some very flat wickets in India. So any attack that had him wouldprobably be the best Indian fast-bowling attack that I have seen so far.”There has been the odd rumour doing the rounds that the upcoming Testseries against Pakistan could be Pollock’s last, but he insisted that suchthoughts hadn’t been given any serious thought in the midst of a seasonthat will culminate with the World Cup in the Caribbean.”I always re-assess at the end of each season and see where I’m going,” hesaid. “I feel like I have got this one and another one, maybe, in me. Sono, there’s no retirement imminent.”The cricket fraternity, poised to lose two of its all-time greats atSydney, will be relieved to hear that.

Rumours that Shane Bond is set to retire from international cricket have been floating around ever since he recently said that it was “frustrating” to keep getting injured.But Heath Mills, the New Zealand Cricket Players Association chief, tried to quash such rumours, insisting Bond was available for New Zealand. “At this stage Shane Bond is certainly available to play Test and one-day cricket, but I’m not in position to make any other comment at this stage,” Mills told the .Bond was unavailable for the Chappell-Hadlee Series and will also miss the entire series against Bangladesh due to an abdominal tear he suffered during New Zealand’s tour to South Africa. He hopes to recover in time for England’s visit in February.Reports hinting at his retirement were also fuelled by offers that Bond had received from the Indian Cricket League, which he decided not to join, and the Indian Premier League, which he expressed an interest in. Leanne McGoldrick, Bond’s agent, said he was in regular contact with Justin Vaughan, New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive. “When he [Shane] is ready to let everyone know what he is doing, then he will,” she said.

Malinga T20 captain, Mathews vice-captain, Chandimal third in line

Lasith Malinga, if fit, will captain Sri Lanka at the World T20, Sri Lanka Cricket has confirmed. SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala: “Angelo Mathews will be the vice-captain and Dinesh Chandimal his deputy. “These three players have been given the responsibility to work together and build the national team. They have a colossal amount of experience and ability to build the team.”
Malinga, who will miss the upcoming T20s in India as he recuperates from a knee injury, will lead in the Asia Cup as well if he regains fitness in time. Chandimal will captain in India in his absence.

Sri Lanka’s new coach, Graham Ford, who is set to begin his second stint with the team, has cautioned against expecting quick fixes. The team, he said, is in transition, so he expects the job to be challenging.”Sri Lanka is in the early part of a rebuilding phase, so don’t expect any quick fixes,” Ford said on arrival in Sri Lanka. “I am very aware what a huge challenge it is. A lot of hard work needs to be done. It’s very important that this team building is done on a very solid foundation, so patience is required.”I know there is an abundance of talent within the system, but it is about identifying those who have got the mental toughness to go on and become consistent players and match-winners at international level.”Jerome Jayaratne, Sri Lanka Cricket’s head of coaching, who took charge of the team on a temporary basis when Marvan Atapattu resigned as coach in Sri Lanka, is expected to be appointed full-time assistant coach. Ford said it was important to draw on his experience, and for the entire Sri Lankan cricket set-up to work together.”It’s quite a long process which is required. A lot of hard work, not just for me but all involved, particularly Jerome who has been involved in Sri Lanka cricket for a long time, knows the players so well and has a wealth of knowledge technically and tactically.”It’s important to have his input, and also to have the selectors and the board all working together to ensure the long-term process can take place so that we can take Sri Lanka back to the top of the international stage.”Jayaratne also expected to play the role of team manager, a position previously held by Jeryl Woutersz.Ford’s first assignment is the three-match T20 international series in India, which he said would be a tough beginning but one he could use to find out how good the team is at present.SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala said Ford was one of 12 coaches his board interviewed for the post, and he was confident they had made the right choice. “We have secured the services of one of the best coaches in the world,” Sumathipala said. “We have appointed him for 45 months [from February 1] so that he covers the 2019 World Cup in England, where he has first-hand knowledge of the conditions having coached the counties.”Sumathipala also thanked Kumar Sangakkara for playing a pivotal role in securing the services of Ford from English county Surrey, which Sangakkara represents.

Singapore defeated Kuwait by six wickets to win the ACC Under-15 Elite Cup in Bhaktapur, Nepal. It was, however, a slightly hollow victory, as eight of the ten competing sides had earlier been disqualified for fielding over-age players, and so Singapore and Kuwait contested the final as they were the only teams remaining in the competition.The Asian Cricket Council had taken drastic action on Saturday and kicked out hosts and defending champions Nepal as well as Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Thailand after its medical board reported that all the squads from those countries contained players over the stipulated age limit. Sunday’s semi-finals – Nepal v Singapore and Afghanistan v Hong Kong – were scrapped.”In instances where more than two players in each 14-man squad have been found to be over-aged, the teams have been disqualified from the competition,” an ACC media spokesman explained. He added that some teams contained as many as nine over-age players. “One hundred and forty radiology examinations have been conducted in Nepal since the team’s arrival with all the players from the ten participating teams,” he added.Ashraful Haq, the ACC’s chief executive, met team managers to explain the decision. “Our age-verification protocols have been tested and proven to work,” he said. “We stand by the results found. In the long-run, cricket in Asia will benefit. Results such as this should act an eye-opener to all our members.”The tournament had already got off to a bad start when UAE were sent home as their squad did not contain any UAE passport-holders.An ACC spokesman explained that age verification was not easy in some areas. “All countries were asked to provide the appropriate medical data on each of their players before the tournament started. They did not comply.”

“I love the spotlight. The Aussies should be worried I am coming.” Meet the quote-a-minute, bold and brash Sreesanth. He even refers to himself in the third person. “Sreesanth’s way is to be aggressive. Sreesanth will always remain Sreesanth.”Sreesanth was in Delhi, where it’s bitterly cold, as the chief guest for the Gatorade Pacers’ talent hunt but didn’t allow the weather to dampen his spirits. The press descended on the arena and he indulged them, extensively and individually. Even as the event wrapped up in the evening and the attendees hurried towards the warmth of their cars, Sreesanth was addressing his audience, revelling in the spotlight.A shoulder injury had ruled him out of the home Tests against Pakistan and the ongoing series in Australia but he has been training and is ready to make a comeback during the triangular series in Australia in February.”More than their [Australia’s] batsmen, I have been working on my own bowling,” Sreesanth said. “I felt my left arm was not kicking into the bowling action properly. So I went back to the technique I picked up at the MRF Pace Foundation years before. I held a ball in my left hand too and, now, I had to drag it back down so that I could hurl the one in my right hand properly. As a result, the left palm doesn’t open out and the hand doesn’t fall away. I have just worked on my load-up too and I’m very pleased with the way everything is going.”He cannot wait to get to Australia. He recounted with glee the sledging in the recent Australia-India encounters that he played in and took pride in how “we [India] never backed down. Why should we? We have players who can give it back with interest.”It’s not all hot air, though, and his talent for the verbal battle surfaced when he told of an incident involving Brian Lara. “He [Lara] defended a ball with an exaggerated back-and-across movement and I just stood there and murmured my disapproval,” Sreesanth said. “Next ball he was beaten and I said, ‘is this the King Charles Lara? Who is this impostor, moving around nervously?

“I should have kept my mouth shut for the next ball – mind you, it was a length ball – Lara just pulled it over the church beyond the boundary! He is a true legend.”Sreesanth’s cricketing life seems to be a series of Youtube moments. He explained his famous dance after hitting Andre Nel for a six in Johannesburg.”He [Nel], along with [Mark] Boucher and [Herschelle] Gibbs were constantly at me. Nel tapped his chest and said, ‘you need a big heart to play’ and he sniffed in the air and said, ‘I smell blood.’ I sniffed back, ‘where where?’ and prayed to God to give me the strength to hit that six. You should have seen his face. I asked him, ‘how was that slap and where is your tongue now?’ He just went quietly back to his run-up.”The manner in which Sreesanth re-tells these incidents makes you feel that he enjoys the adrenalin rush in the middle. In his mind, he is the biggest star in the world and the cricket field is a great stage for him to enact his own script. “What’s the worst that can happen? Six sixes? I can always come back next over. All I need is just one ball to get him [the batsman] out.”Unlike other bowlers who remember their wickets, Sreesanth remembers how many catches were dropped off him. “They will tell me I took x number of wickets but I will add these dropped catches to them. It helps me lift myself when my mood is down.” Sreesanth’s brother actually records the number of dropped catches and keeps him informed and motivated.In February, Sreesanth will once again encounter the likes of Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds with whom he has had run-ins in the past. Unless he has mellowed down during his forced rest, expect more fiery exchanges on the field.

Western Australian medium pacers Damien Martyn and Kade Harvey have combined to lift their team to a two-run victory over Tasmania in a thrilling Mercantile Mutual Cup encounter between the teams here at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart today. It was a stunning triumph which not only capped another of the cliff-hanger finishes that have loomed large over this season’s competition but which also came after the home team had appeared to be well in command.More than anything else, this will be remembered as a day of heartbreak for the Tasmanians. Plagued by a poor history of results in one-day cricket, and a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, they allowed both maladies to come back and curse them again. Through long periods of the match, they had seemingly held the upper hand; by its conclusion, though, success had escaped their clutches once more.”We should have won the game,” bemoaned home skipper Jamie Cox following the defeat. “They didn’t actually win the game; we lost it.””We had two blokes playing nicely. But for some reason, we didn’t keep our heads … which is really disappointing.”Having amassed what could be described as no more than a competitive score of 8/246 from their fifty overs (on a beautifully true pitch) and then watched as the Tasmanian batsmen made exemplary progress toward the target, the Warriors, by contrast, could barely believe their good fortune. With their opponents only four wickets down and requiring just twenty-six runs off the final six overs, the act of revival engineered by Martyn (2/12 off three overs) and Harvey (1/67 from ten) was little short of spectacular. They conjured a remarkable turnaround which saw Shaun Young (70) and Dene Hills (20) hit catches high into the leg side and permitted only a tentative twenty-three runs to be added to the total. The Western Australians’ jubilation by the end was about as palpable as the gravity of the Tasmanians’ stumble.”It was a bit tense, wasn’t it?” beamed Martyn after the match. “There wasn’t any plan, really; luck was on my side.””We know they’re young guys,” he said of the inexperienced pairing of Andrew Dykes (5* off ten deliveries) and Scott Kremerskothen (6* from eight balls) that was left to attempt to lift the Tigers to victory as the wheels rapidly began to come off around them.”It’s hard batting at the end anyway and once we got the two experienced guys (Young and Hills), we felt we were a real big chance,” opined the current international one-day player.Martyn’s two wickets and Harvey’s concession of six runs from his closing spell of two overs allowed them to walk away with most of the individual plaudits. But the visitors also owed an enormous debt of gratitude to youngster Simon Katich and the experienced duo of Tom Moody and Jo Angel.It had been Katich (73) and Moody (68) who had provided the batting impetus to an innings that had otherwise been devoid of momentum through the morning. Until finally the victim of a mistaken decision to attempt a fourth run from an off drive in the forty-sixth over, the left handed Katich continued a love affair with Bellerive that has seen him amass runs here voraciously over recent seasons. Particularly strong through the off side, his driving from the front foot was a feature.At the other end in their rapid-fire stand of 125 for the fifth wicket, Moody was also in sparkling form. He was more productive off the back foot than his partner but also played a number of crunching cover drives. Crucial in the final analysis was the duo’s capacity to capitalise on a bizarre decision from Cox to throw part-time spinner Hills the ball in the forty-fourth over. In such a tight match, the twenty-one runs that were smashed from Hills’ six deliveries of naked turn assumed critical importance.Around the dismissals of Adam Gilchrist (5), Ryan Campbell (13), Justin Langer (17) and Martyn (31) through the opening half of the morning session, the Tasmanians had in fact held a very firm upper hand initially. Leading an attack which rebounded strongly from the hammering that it received at the hands of New South Wales last week, Young (1/36 off ten overs) and teenage paceman Brett Geeves (1/23 off seven) stood out, but the Tigers’ general accuracy and control was impressive throughout the early stages.Although unable to make any more than one incision – the caught and bowled of Michael DiVenuto (13) – Angel (1/25 from ten overs) later produced his own brilliant spell of bowling, without which the Warriors would well and truly have been on their way to defeat. Relying on impeccable length, the veteran right hander conceded a mere nine runs from the opening seven overs of the afternoon at the River End. At a time when his teammates were being savaged by the likes of Young (70) and Cox (61), it was a performance which did enough to keep the Western Australians in with a glimmer of a chance. And in the end, the lifeline that he had thus thrown his team proved decisive.

Ricky Ponting might have been 20,000 kilometres away in St Kitts, but he kept up to date with Tasmania’s maiden Pura Cup win at Hobart. And it could have been a suggestion from Ponting back in November that helped them to their 421-run victory – he advised Tim Coyle, Tasmania’s coach, to give Luke Butterworth more opportunities.Ponting played a one-day game with Butterworth for Tasmania against Victoria at Melbourne and was impressed with what he saw. Butterworth was Man of the Match in the Pura Cup final, scoring 66 and 106 and taking 4 for 33.”I said to the coach then [in November] that I thought he should play him for the rest of the Pura Cup season,” Ponting told . “I watched the way he bowled and he looked pretty capable with the bat and I thought he could slot into our side really nicely, especially on a wicket at Bellerive that might have assisted the seamers.”He has got a hundred in the final and he got 60 in the first innings as well. More importantly he has taken a lot of wickets in the last five games. He’s only a young bloke as well. He’s got a very bright future.”Ponting said the 15-hour time difference did not keep him from getting regular updates on Tasmania’s progress. “I’ve had a chat to the boys and I’ve been speaking to Michael Di Venuto who is a good mate of mine,” he said. “I haven’t had my phone off for the last two nights, especially last night when we were racking up all those runs.”Ponting, who is technically the Tasmania captain although he rarely plays for them, said Coyle had done well to get the most out of his young squad. “Full credit to the coach and what he has done down there,” he said. “He has stuck by a lot of the young blokes and given them opportunities. They have been the best team all year.”

The most impressive part of England’s performance today was that they overcame a home disadvantage. Edgbaston, a ground renowned for its partisan English supporters, transformed itself into little India with large sections of blue dominating the stands. Conches, bugles, flags, banners … this was an away game for England in every sense.Ian Bell, a Warwickshire local, might have felt out of place. Here he was, striking the dangerous legspin of Piyush Chawla for a sensational straight hit – only to be greeted by lukewarm applause. Imagine his mortification when the Eric Hollies stand, a bastion of the Barmy Army, was resonating with . As if two Indian spinners causing problems wasn’t enough, England were made to feel as if they were in Mohali.Did it feel like a home away from home? “Possibly at times,” said Bell in what must go down as the under-statement of the series. “It was a great atmosphere to play cricket, in front of a packed house. Good Indian side and a full house it was really a nice feeling to get a Man of the Match at the home ground.” Bell is a soft-spoken chap but that must roughly translate to: ‘I was shocked’. But it felt great to knock the stuffing out of them. And his 79, two catches and a run-out was a big factor.England’s captain Paul Collingwood couldn’t have had it easy at the start. The medical staff had decided to “err on the side of caution” with respect to Andrew Flintoff and Dimitri Mascarenhas, the star of the show at Bristol, injured his thumb while warming up. Further, he lost the toss. But England have been inserted at Edgbaston before (remember the Ashes in 2005?) and responded in style. He ended the day comparing the performance to the one they had put in at the Rose Bowl, an effort which he termed “near perfect”.”The openers came in and gave us a good start and then the bowlers also delivered,” he said. “It did get difficult against spinners with the ball stopping a bit, but to get 280 [sic] was in itself incredible. We’ve scored almost 300 every time, which proves that we are improving.”

Chris Tremlett’s comeback illustrated England’s tenacious performance. After being pounded at Bristol (0 for 73) and carted around in his first spell here – leaking 20 in his first two overs – he returned to remove Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, the two most important wickets of the day.”You’ve seen today that he’s got the character to bounce back,” said Collingwood. “We have a lot of faith in him. He’s quite relaxed to be honest. He is quite laid-back and he showed it in the Test matches. He’s a huge guy bowling with a lot of aggression at times but got the important wickets.”Facing spin in the middle overs is a bugbear. Chawla arrived with his quiver of legbreaks, googlies and top-spinners and engineered the dismissal of the series, bamboozling Kevin Pietersen for the second match in a row. On a ground that has a stand named after Eric Hollies, and on a day when Donald Bradman was born, Chawla’s googlies did a lot of talking.Ramesh Powar must have broken a new barrier today when one of his deliveries clocked 42mph. It’s a surprise that India got through their overs in quick time, what with Powar’s lobs taking an age to get to the other end, but he troubled them with variation.So Bell is maturing with every match – Dravid spoke about how England’s decision to persevere with him at No. 3 was paying off – Chawla is growing in confidence and Collingwood is growing as a leader. Powar is no doubt growing. England are talking about injecting fearlessness into their bloodstream and India are talking of positives. Someone should tell them that using words like “inject” and “positives” in a span of a few minutes is not advisable.

Jacob Martin, the Baroda batsman who also played 10 ODIs for India, has informed his association that he is ending his 16-year first-class career.”Martin was selected to go with the Baroda team, which left here [Baroda] today for Hyderabad, for the Ranji Trophy Super League division tie from November 23-26, but withdrew from the trip last night saying he is retiring from cricket,” a spokesperson from the Baroda Cricket Association told PTI on Tuesday.Martin, 35, was a prolific batsman in the domestic circuit, scoring 8563 runs at 48.10 from 127 matches, with 23 centuries and 44 half-centuries. In the 1998-99 domestic season, Martin made over 1000 runs, a feat accomplished by only five players before him, and a couple after.The national selectors took note of his performances and drafted Martin into the national one-day squad for the three-match against West Indies in Canada. But Martin could not mirror his domestic success in ODIs. He scored 158 runs at an average of 22.57 from 10 games with a highest score of 39 against Pakistan in the Carlton and United tri-series in Australia. Martin scored 36 in his last ODI, but could not prevent India’s 70-run loss to Kenya in Port Elizabeth on October 17, 2001.Martin shifted allegiance to Railways in the 2002-03 domestic season before returning to represent Baroda for four more seasons.

Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium will not be hosting any of the matches of the Indian Premier League after the league and Reliance Industries, owners of the city franchise, found unacceptable the conditions imposed by the Cricket Club of India (CCI), to whom the stadium belongs.The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) had enquired whether the CCI could stage matches at the Brabourne; the CCI’s executive committee decided to offer the ground but not the clubhouse and the club members’ children’s enclosure.These conditions were unacceptable to both the IPL and Reliance Industries Limited, the owners of the Mumbai franchise, since the agreement between the franchise and the IPL states that 80% of all categories of seating must be available to the franchise, and the remaining 20% to the concerned local association, in this case MCA, the BCCI, and the IPL.”If the [club] members are not able to watch the match, we won’t have it. It’s an inherent right of the CCI member to watch the match and not pay for it and this is mentioned in the by-laws of the club,” Raj Singh Dungarpur, the CCI president and former BCCI president, said. Hosting future international matches, he said, would not, however, be an issue.”There is no confrontation between us, our issue is that just the staging authority wouldn’t be able to watch the match and that’s not right. There is no misunderstanding and we will continue to host matches for the board [BCCI].”The move puts the MCA in a quandary, since the local associations are responsible for finalising the stadiums for the eight city-based franchises of the IPL. Mumbai is slated to host a total of ten matches, including the seven home games of the Mumbai Indians, and more importantly the semi-finals and final of the inaugural edition. The Brabourne Stadium had been tipped to host the semi-finals and final.However, with it being ruled out, the options left are the DY Patil Stadium and the Wankhede Stadium; renovation work scheduled for the latter may now have to be postponed till the end of the IPL.