In the aftermath of India’s defeats in Melbourne and Sydney, several former players expressed their views on what the team must do for the third Test in Perth, and for the future

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Jan-2012″I would still drop VVS [Laxman] and get Rohit [Sharma] in for next Test. Makes long-term sense. Give Virat [Kohli] one more Test … just to be sure he does not belong here. VVS averages 20 in last 12 overseas innings. Even if he gets a good score in next Test, it will not serve India long. Also if Virat, before the tour, was India’s next big thing, should he not get more than two Tests on his first stint in Australia?”
.”I think the left-arm spinner [Pragyan Ojha] could come in and do well. He’s a good bowler and he’s ready, and Ashwin obviously hasn’t bowled well. I thought Umesh Yadav bowled very well in Melbourne, so you can’t leave him out after one bad Test match, and he had bowled very well previous to that. It was probably just one of those Test matches for him.”
“A line-up may look brilliant on paper, but whether it’s the best or not depends how it fares on the given day. Retirement is something a player should understand. But if you are not performing and the team isn’t winning, your past laurels shouldn’t help you retain a berth.”
“We can’t always think short-term. We need to start building a team as well. Sachin [Tendulkar] still has the class, Rahul [Dravid] is very hard working but I am not sure how long Laxman will be able to continue. You can’t phase out all the three seniors at a time. You have to do that gradually. The youngsters will learn only in the company of the seniors.”
“I would play both Virat and Rohit in Perth. You should let Virat play. He should be given more chances. If you drop him now, he will not enjoy his cricket anymore.”
“I am sure many in this team now must be fearful of their future. Many don’t have the back-foot play to ride over the pace, bounce and movement of these tracks. Nor do they have the patience to let deliveries outside off stump go harmlessly to the keeper … the visitors need to break the mould in which they presently are trapped. Do they need to go for a change of personnel? They do. Rohit Sharma must be given an opportunity.
“The pendulum has shifted. Indian cricket must be bold and be prepared to lose with younger players. Let them learn the ropes. There is no point losing with declining giants.”
“The bitter truth is that we don’t have new champion players who can take up the mantle. We might have left the best behind. We’ve been spoilt by success in the past 10-12 years. The big batting guns have long covered up other shortcomings but they are nearing the end. The increased dependence on Tendulkar after more than two decades is a sign of poverty.”
“If you need to, play Dravid lower down and give the future No. 3 a go, maybe [Cheteshwar] Pujara. Play [Virender] Sehwag lower down if need be. Nothing is set in stone. We not only lack spirit and attitude but also the skill to adjust our technique. Our captain desperately needs ideas too.”

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the fourth day at Trent Bridge

George Dobell at Trent Bridge28-May-2012Gesture of the day
At the end of West Indies’ innings, England’s players were about to run up the pavilion steps when many of them stopped. Trailing behind them was a dejected Marlon Samuels, trudging off the pitch knowing that the 193 runs he had contributed in the match would still not be enough to save his side from defeat. England appreciated the effort, though. They waited for Samuels, allowed him to climb the steps before them and applauded him all the way. Whatever else that has happened this series Samuels has earned the respect of this England team.Review of the day
If West Indies were to have any chance of setting England a testing total, it was essential that someone in West Indies’ tail stayed with Samuels well into the afternoon session. The dismissal of Kemar Roach snuffed out their last realistic chance. Roach was caught on the crease, playing across a straight one from James Anderson. While Asad Rauf, the on-field umpire, said not out’ England were convinced and utilised the DRS. Replays showed that the delivery would have hit leg stump and, for the second time in the match, Rauf was over-ruled. It was due reward for another deserving display from Anderson but capped an uncharacteristically flawed performance from the normally excellent Rauf.Shot of the day
Left with only Ravi Rampaul for company, Samuels decided the best response to the situation was to counter-attack. The second six in an over – the first one hit an unfortunate spectator – was a brutal blow over long-on off Graeme Swann and helped West Indies take 17 off the over. It was a rare moment of joy on another disappointing day for West Indies.Miss of the day
By the time Andrew Strauss, on 34, edged Darren Sammy between the keeper and the wide first slip, the game was already decided. England were 64 without loss and required only another 44 for victory. By the fact that Denesh Ramdin did not even attempt the chance that flew a little way to his left provided an illustration of the ebbing spirit within this West Indies side. While they have, once again, fought hard for sustained periods, they have now lost six of their last eight Tests and have won only two of their last 32. After all that, do they really believe they can win?Delay of the day
Jonathan Trott’s ritualistic marking of his guard has been known to delay – and irritate – a few bowlers. While most have contented themselves with a few words and a mean glare, Marlon Samuels decided to make Trott wait for him. Having watched while Trott took guard, surveyed the field, adjusted his thigh guard to ensure it was comfortable and then checked his guard once more, Samuels could see the batsman was finally ready. Instead of bowling, though, Saumels aimed a practise delivery towards mid-on to leave a bemused Trott in the unfamiliar position of waiting for the bowler.Frustration of the day
With only one wicket to his name and well over a hundred runs conceded, Shane Shillingford could not be said to have enjoyed a good match. But, as England closed on victory, there were a few signs of what might have been had West Indies top-order been able to deliver a larger target. Shillingford beat the bat on several occasions and, by drawing a bat-pad edge from Jonathan Trott that flew past short-leg, showed the skill that helped him take 10 wickets against Australia in his previous Test. He also beat Alastair Cook’s forward grope with one that turned sharply past the batsman’s outside edge. Had West Indies not endured that awful final session on day three, Shillingford might have been a dangerous proposition on the final day.

Analysis of individual batting and bowling performances in IPL 2012

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan21-May-2012In a week which witnessed the end of the league phase of IPL 2012, two of the top performances ironically came from players whose teams failed to make it to the play-off stage. On the batting front, Chris Gayle scored his third IPL century and set up a massive total for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Delhi Daredevils. However, Gayle was one of the batsmen dismissed by Dale Steyn in a fiery spell which knocked out Royal Challengers and allowed Chennai Super Kings to qualify instead. Steyn, who had bowled remarkably earlier in the tournament in lost causes, helped Deccan Chargers defend 132 with a stunning spell of 3 for 8 off his four overs. David Warner, who had scored a century earlier in the tournament against Chargers, was in top form again in the game against Kings XI Punjab. Other notable performances in the previous week include JP Duminy’s 74 out of Chargers’ total of 132 against Royal Challengers and Morne Morkel’s 4 for 20 against Kings XI.Gayle, by far the highest run-getter in IPL 2012, struck a record 13 sixes in his knock against Daredevils. The 128 was his eighth century in the Twenty20 format and his first in this IPL season. Gayle’s strike rate of 206.45 was much higher than the combined strike rate of the other batsmen in a high-scoring game (151.68). Gayle’s effort comes out on top of the ESPNcricinfo analysis of best batting performances in IPL 2012 and is slightly ahead of Shane Watson’s 90 against Pune Warriors. In third spot is AB de Villiers’ stunning 59 off 23 balls against Rajasthan Royals which enabled Royal Challengers recover from a precarious 67 for 3 in the 12th over. Warner, the only batsman to have two performances in the top ten, scored a rapid 79 against Kings XI in a low-scoring game. While the rest of the batsmen could only manage a strike rate of 102.15, Warner scored his runs at a high strike rate of 179.54.

Steyn, whose performances for Chargers in this season have often gone unrewarded, produced yet another brilliant spell of fast bowling in Chargers’ final league game against Royal Challengers. Defending just 132, Steyn removed the dangerous Gayle and Tillakaratne DIlshan before returning later at a crucial juncture to dismiss Zaheer Khan. Steyn’s economy rate of 2.00 stood out in a game where the run-rate was 6.38. Steyn’s performance is in second position, marginally behind Ravindra Jadeja’s 5 for 16 against Chargers. Four of the five spots from the third to the seventh positions have been taken by spinners. The top ten is rounded off by L Balaji, who bowled Kolkata Knight Riders to a 42-run win against Royal Challengers with a spell of 4 for 18.

Gayle, who has one century and seven fifties in 15 games this season, is far ahead of the rest of the pack on the list of top batsmen in IPL 2012. Gautam Gambhir, who is in second position, is more than five points behind Gayle. The third-placed Pietersen, who had to leave mid-way through the tournament, did superbly in the eight matches he played scoring over 300 runs. The presence of Cameron White and Shikhar Dhawan in the top ten is some consolation for Chargers who finished second from last. De Villiers, who turned in match-winning performances for Royal Challengers on more than one occasion, is in ninth position while Rohit Sharma, the top run-getter for Mumbai Indians is tenth.

Sunil Narine’s ascent to the top of the pile is expected given his astonishing returns. Not only is he the second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament behind Morkel, his economy rate of 5.14 is easily the best among bowlers who have bowled at least 35 overs. What makes Narine’s performance this year even more remarkable is the fact that the maximum runs he has conceded in a game is only 29. Steyn, who has risen to second position on the list of top bowlers in IPL 2012, has five completed spells (four-over spells) with an economy rate under five. Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga have slipped down two spots each to finish third and fourth respectively. Morkel, the highest wicket-taker in this season, is in fifth place followed closely by the consistent Parvinder Awana of Kings XI.

Unsurprisingly, Gayle takes top spot on the overall list of best IPL batsmen. Gayle, who started the tournament marginally behind Shaun Marsh, has turned it around completely and has gone more than four points ahead of Marsh. Watson, who made significant contributions despite entering the tournament late, is in third position. While foreign players dominate the top seven (six of seven spots), the last three positions have been taken by Indian batsmen. Interestingly, the bottom three batsmen on the top-ten list are the highest run-getters across the five seasons of the IPL.

Despite falling to fourth on the IPL 2012 list, Malinga retains top spot on the overall list of bowlers across the five seasons. Muralitharan, who has had a highly successful season with Royal Challengers is in second spot just ahead of Steyn. Amit Mishra, who regained some form with good returns in Chargers’ last two league games, has dropped to fifth spot after starting the season in second position behind Malinga. Following a terrific IPL 2012, Morkel continues to be in eighth position followed by R Ashwin and Munaf Patel, who are separated by less than a point.

Plays of the Day from the Super Eights match between South Africa and Pakistan in Colombo

Abhishek Purohit at the Premadasa28-Sep-2012The double surprise

With Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Shahid Afridi, and himself available, Mohammad Hafeez opened the Pakistan bowling with the young left-arm spinner Raza Hasan, playing his first game of the tournament. As if that wasn’t enough of a surprise for South Africa, he gave the second over to bowling allrounder Yasir Arafat. As if even that wasn’t enough, Hasan and Arafat went on to bowl the first five overs.The departure from modernity

South Africa were trudging at below five an over around the halfway stage of their innings. With Ajmal bowling the 12th over, Pakistan were confident enough to have no sweeper cover or deep point, a position modern captains love to have even in Tests. Farhaan Behardien used the largesse to cut through the region for a four.The delayed déjà vu

Umar Gul was carted all around the Pallekele stadium during the group stage by New Zealand and Bangladesh. With Pakistan’s spinners squeezing South Africa right from the start, Hafeez brought on his premier fast bowler as late as the 18th over. It changed little. First ball, AB de Villiers lofted him over wide long-on for six. Gul got de Villiers next ball, but went for 19 in two overs. He was to later hit South Africa back, with the bat though.The height of predictability

Shahid Afridi in. Spinner on. First ball. Long-off? Long-on? Sweeper cover? Swung straight to long-off, this time. Sigh.The presence of mind

Gul fell off the last ball of the 19th over after a blinder. Even as sweeper cover ran in to take the catch, Gul sprinted down the pitch for a possible run. The non-striker Umar Akmal was wise enough to stop, and also told Gul to, ensuring they didn’t cross. It proved to be decisive as Umar Akmal took strike for the final over and swung the second ball over deep square leg for six to all but ensure Pakistan’s win.The maiden – I
Raza Hasan, 20, beginner in international cricket to Jacques Kallis, 36, legend in international cricket. He even beat Kallis a couple of times in the over.The maiden(s) – II

South Africa responded with consecutive maidens, one each by Robin Peterson and Johan Botha, who also bowled Kamran Akmal during his.

Was it worth having Olympic athletes walking all over the sacred turf of Lord’s a fortnight before the ground’s biggest cricket event of the year? The jury’s still out

Liam Herringshaw04-Aug-2012A sunny Thursday morning in early August, and Lord’s is ready for the first session of yet another high-level, high-quality battle. The crowds arrive in their droves, hopeful of a full and exciting day’s play. It isn’t cricket they’re here for, though, as England are taking on South Africa 200 miles north, in Leeds. No, the public have come to St John’s Wood for something completely different: Olympic archery.For me, it’s my last day on site. They call me a Games-maker, but that doesn’t feel like the correct term. I’d love to say I volunteered at the London 2012 Olympics for purely altruistic reasons, but I didn’t. I offered to help out at the archery because I wanted to see behind the scenes at its host venue. As a cricket fan, where else would I want to be but Lord’s?I may be an interloper, then, but no one in my team seems to mind. Many colleagues volunteered for similar reasons. Not that everyone here is happy: the MCC has surrendered control of the home of cricket for three, prime, midsummer weeks. The idea was to use London 2012 to promote Lord’s to a new audience, but some of the old guard are less than impressed.I began my stint in mid-July, and the ground was eerily quiet. Walking past the pavilion in my Sergeant-Pepper-becomes-a-supermarket-cashier uniform, I saw an elderly gentleman walking towards me. I smiled non-confrontationally at him.”Go away,” he spluttered at me. “Go away! We don’t want you here!” And he walked on indignantly.I couldn’t entirely blame him for his outburst. We’d hindered him from going about his usual lordly business, plonked bright pink access boards all over his beloved pavilion, and the brand protection team had gone berserk with the white sticky tape. This was Lord’s, Jim, but not as he’d know it.And then there was the outfield. Rather than use existing seating, spectator stands were erected on the hallowed turf, right in front of the pavilion. The archers would shoot straight across the square, towards targets on the bowlers’ run-ups at the Nursery End. Swathes of grass would see no daylight for weeks, and the wicket would be completely open to the elements.Geoffrey Boycott might hail a temporary return to uncovered wickets, but with fewer than two weeks between the end of the archery competition and the start of the third Test, what chance is there that conditions will be properly playable? Especially with this being the soggiest British summer in living memory.”We are working with the MCC and its turf specialist to ensure the venue will be in good condition for the Test match,” a spokesperson for the Olympics organising committee told me. “Lord’s groundsmen will be able to access the ground for maintenance before and after sessions during the Olympic Games.”New grass is being grown in Lincolnshire, and squares of fresh turf will replace the damaged outfield. Mick Hunt and his MCC ground staff have managed to keep much of the ground in an impressive state. Nonetheless, a 13-day repair job is a monster of a task: dismantling the stands, removing the targets, screens, cables, banners, cabins and tents; removing all signs that the Olympics were here. MCC Head of Cricket John Stephenson admitted earlier this year that Lord’s may not be at its resplendent best in time for the Test.The “Have A Go At Archery” practice range in the Coronation Garden, with WG Grace playing a (fairly) straight bat to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune•Liam HerringshawIf that’s the case, and a crucial England-South Africa match is affected, will the experiment have been worthwhile? The answer seems to be an almost unqualified yes. Sell-out audiences have come to enjoy a new twist on an ancient place. One press veteran of ten Olympics told me he’d never seen archery so popular, whilst the MCC Museum staff were delighted by the number of visitors. High-profile guests have been drawn in too: the Princess Royal, Lennox Lewis and Paul McCartney, to name but three. And cricket even made it into Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony.The archers, meanwhile, have seemed very much at home. The Australians acquired inside information from advisor Steve Waugh; the South Korean men broke both individual and team world records on the first day of competition; and Britain’s Larry Godfrey – the Kevin Pietersen of archery – celebrated his second round victory with a flurry of cover drives*.There were some appropriate pairings: Yorkshire’s Amy Oliver against India’s world No. 1 Deepika Kumari in the women’s event; an Ashes clash between Taylor Worth (Aus) and Alan Wills (GBR) in the men’s. Britain claimed a surprise win in the former, but Australia took the second.Sadly, the promise from India’s male archers that they would celebrate a medal a la Sourav Ganguly never materialised. Italy took the men’s team title, and, in the individual event, neither Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee, nor Tarundeep Rai got beyond the second round. In making the last 16, only Godfrey and Worth flew the flag for cricket-playing nations.The weather hasn’t always been helpful, but rain doesn’t stop play. The archers just have to adjust, and the skill on display has been amazing. Not that I’ve been able to see many matches first-hand. Perhaps aware of my background, the organisers gave me a volunteering role in Lord’s most glamorous setting: a Portakabin in the No. 6 car park. Still, I’ve been able to sneak into the pavilion now and then to watch some of the action, and our workforce canteen in the Mound Stand has a fabulous view of the field of play.Anyway, it’s not the watching, it’s the taking part that counts. I’ve been privileged enough to see Lord’s in a way I’d never imagined, to achieve a lifelong dream and walk down the steps and out onto the field of play, and to discover many useful things. Don Bradman looks like Bono, for example, whilst real tennis is a very strange game indeed.And when Seb Coe zoomed in to see a thrilling finale to the women’s competition, ending with a golden arrow shootout that South Korea’s Ki Bo Bae won by the slimmest of margins, the place was a different Lord’s. Whether all is “normal” again in a fortnight remains to be seen, but for now there was no doubt this strange test had been a great success.*though they did look a bit golfing

In a bid to get things right the second time round, the Bangladesh Premier League has adopted a more practical approach in the lead-up to the 2013 tournament

Mohammad Isam12-Oct-2012The controversies that marred the first season of the Bangladesh Premier League have forced the tournament to take on a more streamlined form in its second edition, as organisers look to right the wrongs. The league’s chairman, Gazi Ashraf Hossain, calls the 2012-13 edition a “more realistic” tournament than the previous one and he has assured financial security for the players. A meeting on October 10 produced sweeping changes, including toned down players’ pay packages at all levels and doing away with the icon player obligations of the franchises.”It will be a more realistic tournament, catering to the call of the hour,” Ashraf told ESPNcricinfo. “I am speaking about all our stakeholders. I don’t want players to come here and experience the BPL for just a couple of years. We have the long-term in mind.”That long-term view has meant a drastic change in the players’ retainers, after the organisers faced tough questions from players’ associations regarding completion of payments. A team’s highest paid player will this season receive no more than $150,000, replacing the structure from the first edition which had top players Shahid Afridi and Chris Gayle being auctioned at $700,000 and $551,000 respectively. The icon players were supposed to get 5% more than the highest paid player in their particular teams, but the franchises had never taken to the concept. Other foreign players stand to earn no more than $75,000 per season, while the other local players are set to earn between $10,000 and $50,000 – a more accurate reflection of their market value.The players’ auction will take place on December 7 and according to Ashraf, the teams will undergo a complete makeover. He is confident that despite the lower salary cap, the standard will not fall. “It will be a complete re-auction, 100%. We have had good response so far with some players from the IPL having already shown interest; their agents are getting in touch with us,” he said.”There won’t be any icon players this season. The golden [top] category will not have too many players as we want to restrict it to eye-catching players who are of the highest caliber; of course, there can be local players in this category. The players are also our stakeholders and they will be totally secured. All bank guarantees will be taken, though I can’t let out any more details on this at the moment.”The main obstacle the players have faced has been securing their payments from the first season. To ensure that all matters pertaining to payments are resolved at least three months prior to the next tournament begins, Ashraf says they have tentatively scheduled the franchise auction in November. This is a precautionary measure that he believes will force the existing franchises to act quickly on payments.”We have asked the teams to send out all their due payments by October 20, if they don’t meet the compliance standard, the franchise auction will be used to find a new franchise. Also, if the governing council feels it requires another team, the auction will be used,” he said.The organisers are also working towards drawing in a wider audience across Bangladesh by including Khulna as the third venue for the league and switching the venue in Chittagong from the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium to the centrally located MA Aziz Stadium.”We will conduct an inspection of the MA Aziz Stadium, which will also host domestic matches this season,” Ashraf said. “We are also keen to hold the warm-up matches at new venues.”It will be a more organised tournament and despite the toned down measures, we also hope to earn revenue from the BPL, like we did last year. We also have the bank guarantee from Game On Sports [BPL’s event management right-holders], so I am confident of financial success.”The BPL announced this week that the second edition will begin on January 17 but this scheduling would mean many of last season’s top players would either be completely unavailable or available only for a few matches. Pakistan play in South Africa from January 25, while West Indies tour Australia from January 29. South Africa will also compete in a series against New Zealand till January 25. The Australian and Sri Lankan players will also be busy till January 28, so it is increasingly likely that the tournament will be a magnet for journeymen Twenty20 specialists.

The Lions, after a few years of mediocrity, are showing signs of revival with a newfound belief

Firdose Moonda at the Wanderers20-Oct-2012The Wanderers Club, not to be confused with the stadium, sits across the road from the grand lady and is in some ways equally grand. The main building is a stately structure of brown-face brick that was rebuilt after a fire destroyed it in 2004 – on the same night South Africa A were playing New Zealand at the stadium. The two small fields next to it are picture-perfect club cricket venues, one of them with a tree within the boundary. It is on this one that the leftover Lions – the ones not part of Lions’ Champions League squad – have been training every morning.The likes of Steven Cook, Eddie Leie and Hardus Viljoen are among this lot. They cannot use their own nets because they are being commandeered by CLT20 sides and don’t have any of their coaches with them. But between 9am and noon, they have made sure they keep up with their program. Maybe there is nothing remarkable about that observation except to say that such commitment and pride was absent in the Lions a few years ago.Five seasons without silverware has had an effect on the team, who spent the mid-section of that time in some sort of slumber of mediocrity. Taking 20 wickets was beyond them, scoring runs went better but they battled to get enough and in the shadows of the Titans and Cobras there was not much belief.You may ask why that did not affect the other three South African franchises. The Dolphins are probably worse off, having become the whipping boys. The Warriors won two trophies recently and the Knights have always had a strong culture to fall back on. The Lions did not seem to have much.The 2010 Champions League changed things only slightly. They beat Mumbai Indians in the opener but faded and then it was business as usual. This time it is different. The Lions went into the competition on the back of a morale boosting first-class win over the Dolphins. In unlikely circumstances, the Lions took six wickets on the final morning, with only 96 runs to play with. Confidence ran high.So did calmness. Alviro Petersen, the Lions captain, is one of the least fussed cricketers out there. He treats delight and disappointment with the same coldness – just the right temperature to show he is enjoying it but not enough to look gluttonous. Even on watching the team qualify for the semi-finals, he smiled gently while the rest of the squad stormed the field as though they had won a World Cup.”We’ve done well as a unit so far. We knew that we would have to do well together and not focus on individuals,” he said afterwards. “But we have only performed at about 75% in the last three games. There is still a lot of work to do. We want to get to 90% by the semi-final.”The Lions depth is evident. In every match they have had a different hero and the two overseas players, Sohail Tanvir and Dirk Nannes, have done well without overshadowing the local talent. Most impressively, they have got themselves out of tough situations in three of the four matches they played, the exception being against Sydney Sixers.It requires a certain mental fortitude that South African sides are said to lack. The Lions seem to have some of it. “You have to keep calm and back yourself. It helps when you know you are probably going to win,” Jean Symes, the Man of the Match against Yorkshire said. Symes, for the second time, showed maturity in a chase and said he does it by, “just keeping on going, getting bat on ball, the boundary will come.”With the Titans looking set to take one of the other spots in the last four, South African cricket is on track to overturn its major tournament record and some may already be thinking about them ridding themselves of the chokers’ tag somewhat. The Lions cannot look that far ahead yet but have already shown that confidence, calmness and commitment are their c-words.

Hardly any rough has developed on the pitch in Khulna, even after 263 overs of play; the batsmen can be assured too that it won’t make strokeplay any trickier in the remainder of the game

Mohammad Isam in Khulna23-Nov-2012After Bangladesh’s batting performance in the first innings of the Dhaka Test, the demand from the batsmen had been to do more of the same. At the same time the assumption was that the home side is going to be comfortable on featherbeds, especially after they had collapsed during the fifth-day chase. It has not been said by anyone concerned that this is the sort of track the Bangladesh camp had desired, but the state of the pitch hasn’t changed much between Dhaka and Khulna. Even the state of the match at the end of the third day is similar. The Bangladesh bowlers, much less experienced than West Indies’, have also toiled as much as, if not more than, in Dhaka. But they have had little in return, and this raises questions on the cricketing value of such surfaces.The pitch in Khulna has been generally slower than the one in Dhaka despite its newness, having been relaid only a year ago. Hardly any rough has developed even after 263 overs of use in this game. It is expected to remain the same on the fourth day but may take some turn on the final day. The batsmen can be assured that this pitch is not going to break up or make strokeplay any trickier.The Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium was a backup venue for the 2011 World Cup but since it wasn’t used, the tracks were relaid after the tournament. Only three longer-version matches have been played at this ground this year including one between West Indies’ Sagicor High Performance Centre side and the BCB Academy side, which was played on this very pitch. Not enough cricket has been played here to give a conclusive judgment on the nature of the pitch, but it is clear for Rubel Hossain that this is a much more batting-friendly surface than the one he played on last time. So on this pitch, an attack without an express fast bowler has very little options and it is down to the bowlers to stay patient.The conditions as a result, and rightly so, have actually made Rubel’s performance look better, although he has just two wickets in 28 overs, including that of Marlon Samuels. Rubel applied the type of control Bangladeshi pace bowlers can only dream of in a Test. His adjustments against different batsmen were remarkable given that he has returned to cricket after a long injury lay-off. He said that there were moments of despair, but his effort was attuned to the team’s needs.”When a bowler keeps trying on this sort of pitch and nothing happens, the edges don’t carry or the batsmen are beaten but are not dismissed, you do feel hopeless,” Rubel told ESPNcricinfo. “Being a pace bowler, I would want some support for the bowlers but we have to take decisions keeping the team in mind.”The plan in these surfaces, he said, was to keep changing the pace and be clever with the use of the bouncer. “You have to keep trying different things. Raju [Abul Hasan] tried the slower balls. I tried the bouncer even though there was not much bounce in the pitch. It is useful because the batsmen don’t expect it to bounce and if you can put in enough effort, they will be surprised,” he said.The spinners too found it tough. Shakib Al Hasan and Sohag Gazi put in a lot of overs with very little success, and managed just two wickets between them in 87 overs. Shakib is adjusting back to Tests after playing a lot of limited-overs cricket this year, while Sohag, who picked up the wicket of Darren Bravo today, is still a newcomer in international cricket.Pitches are an area of concern in Bangladesh cricket; the players point that out as well. With so many other concerns going around, they are mostly ignored and batting-friendly pitches are regarded as the “highest quality” surfaces. Better tracks, however, will not only give something to the bowlers, they will also help the Bangladesh batsmen to hone their techniques for sterner tests when they travel abroad.

A look at why Panesar and Swann have outbowled Ojha and Ashwin in India

Aakash Chopra13-Dec-2012There were times in India when the sight of a spinner running in to the crease was intimidating for the batsman. The close-in fielders hovered, standing by to take the catches that would inevitably be produced. Back then Indian spinners sent out strong signals – that they were as lethal as the Caribbean quick bowlers, and no second fiddles. Invariably India’s spinners were superior to those from other countries, and the land of Bedi, Chandrashekhar and Prasanna kept producing quality spinners, so much so that some of them didn’t even play for India – for these three kept going for years.Today, though, even on wilting, dusty turners, Indian spinners don’t hold the same threat. For the longest time, dishing out a dustbowl guaranteed success, for India’s batsmen would score a mountain of runs and the spinners would bowl the opposition out twice, double quick. But since the retirement of Anil Kumble, things have changed.The signs of the downward spiral have been there for everyone to see. The lowest ebb has been reached in the ongoing series against England – probably the first time in Indian cricket’s history that a visiting team from outside the subcontinent has had the services of better spinners, and the decision to dish out a rank turner has been more likely to backfire on India than guarantee success – as happened in Mumbai.Why is it that Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann are extracting a lot more out of the tracks than their Indian counterparts? (Remember also that they’re bowling against a batting line-up that is known for its proficiency against the turning ball.)Panesar has been the most impressive bowler in the series, operating at a pace ideally suited to the tracks provided thus far. He bowls at least 10kph quicker than is usually recommended for spinners. While that extra pace goes against him on good batting surfaces – because he doesn’t keep the ball in the air long enough to create deception – it’s working absolutely fine on slow Indian pitches. The extra pace in the air doesn’t allow the batsman the luxury of stepping out or of waiting on the back foot. It is this extra pace that made Panesar unplayable at times in Mumbai, because handling a viciously turning ball at high speeds is extremely difficult.If it was only about the pace, then why didn’t India’s spinners crack the code and bowl quicker too? After all, how difficult could it be to increase your pace as a spinner?That’s where the basics are important, for speed can work in your favour only if the ball comes out of the hand properly, with enough revolutions on it. That’s precisely where Panesar has scored over Pragyan Ojha.Panesar’s action is that of a classical left-arm spinner, with the bowling arm very close to the ear, which enables him to not only get the wrist position slightly tilted (about 45 degrees) at the point of release but also to extract more bounce off the surface with the higher point of release.He delivers from the middle of the box, which allows him to bowl a lot straighter. Bowling closer to the stumps makes his arm ball a lot more effective, for it is always pitching and finishing in line with the stumps. Also, his follow-through takes him towards the batsman, which means the body momentum is heading in the direction of the ball; that translates into him getting a fair bit of zip off the surface.In contrast, Ojha releases the ball from the corner of the box, and his bowling arm is further away from the ear than in Panesar’s case. Ojha’s position on the crease creates an acute angle, which might give a false impression of the ball drifting in. It also means he needs a lot of assistance from the pitch to generate spin off the surface to compensate for that angle. His wrist position is slightly more tilted than Panesar’s at the point of release, which negatively affects not just bounce off the surface but also his chances of turning the ball. Finally, there’s no follow-through whatsoever: Ojha stops as soon as he delivers the ball, which indicates that his bowling is a lot about wrist and shoulder instead of being about hips and torso as well.Swann is technically superior to R Ashwin too. His bowling is all about using every limb to impart more revolutions on the ball. Since he plays most of his cricket on unresponsive English pitches, he has learnt the importance of putting revs on the ball every single time, which creates deception in the air by making the ball dip on the batsman, and also produces bite off the surface.

In Test cricket there needs to be a stock ball that one should bowl, ball after ball. You need to create deception in the air by varying the lines and speeds ever so slightly

Swann doesn’t have too many variations; in fact he has got only two deliveries – the one that spins in to the right-hander and the arm ball that goes straight on. Having fewer variations has led him to become more patient, and made him rely on changing the point of release, speed and flight without compromising on length. He has struck a fine balance between being aggressive and being patient.His lines of operation to right-handed batsmen are slightly outside off, challenging the batsman to play against the spin. Against the left-handers, he bowls a lot closer, cramping them for room. Like with Panesar, Swann’s body momentum too takes him towards the batsman.Ashwin, on the other hand, has a lot of tricks in his bag. He can bowl the traditional offspinner, a doosra and a carrom ball at will, and with a reasonable amount of control. His high-arm action gets him bounce off the surface too. But while having so many options works wonders in the shorter formats, where the batsmen can’t line him up, it works against him in Test cricket.Wickets in Test matches are a result of setting up a dismissal, and for that you need to be patient, almost bordering on being boring and predictable. There needs to be a stock ball that one should bowl, ball after ball. You need to create deception in the air by varying the lines and speeds ever so slightly. The longer you keep the batsman occupied with one kind of delivery, the better your chances of the variation catching him off guard. Ashwin, with all the weapons in his armoury, feels obliged to bring them out at regular intervals. This hampers his consistency with line and length, and results in him offering up boundary balls often.Technically, while his wrist and arm position are good, like Ojha he too doesn’t put his body behind the ball as much as he should; he falls towards the left after delivering the ball, instead of taking the momentum towards the batsman.The quality of India’s spinners was one of the reasons the team became a force to reckon with in Test cricket. The remarkable records at home were all courtesy spin. India may have had a pantheon of quality spinners but the current crop does not seem to have been able to master the craft. There are plenty of former players around who were masters of the skill. Time India got these veterans to guide the youngsters on how to spin a web around teams again.

I appreciate that not everyone has access to Sky and that is not right

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013

It’s hard to make up one’s mind over what is the better option© Getty Images
Cast your mind back to September, 2005. England had just won that series, cricket was cool, and people who previously mocked the game were annoyingly approaching you in the street or at work and saying how much they now loved the game. All was rosy in the English cricket garden. But a cloud loomed over the game in England, one that split cricket fans opinions down the middle.The Ashes series of 2005 was the last to be aired live on terrestrial television for the foreseeable future, as Sky were now the top dog when it came to test match cricket coverage in the UK. Before Sky we had the BBC and Channel 4. Growing up in the eighties, cricket to me was Peter West, Soul Limbo by Booker T and the MGs, and of course Richie Benaud. So you can imagine my astonishment, and the general shock among the cricket viewing public of the UK, when it was announced that from 1999, Test match cricket would move to Channel 4. Channel 4! The station of low viewing figures, of horse racing, a Liverpudlian soap opera, a letter/number quiz, but not our national summer sport, surely not.But this was how it was to be, and there was nothing we could do about it. To be fair to Channel 4, their coverage was a breath of fresh air. Within a year I was a convert to Mark Nicholas, Mambo Number 5 by Lou Bega, and of course Richie Benaud. The BBC’s coverage now seemed so archaic, and it felt like I had my head turned from the safe older option I had grown up with, to a more attractive and younger looking alternative.Although Channel 4’s dalliance with the game was short, they should be commended on their involvement in the game. And then came Sky. They had been covering England tours since 1990 and to cricket fans they were a godsend on those cold wintry nights. To top it all, they really knew how to present the game to the viewing public. Having said that, it was still a surprise when it was announced that from 2006, English Test matches would be shown exclusively live on this platform. It was a decision that enraged many. How could our summer sport be screened on a station that only a few million people had access to? Why should we pay for the privilege of watching English Test matches? How could the future generations of the game in England gain any heroes if they didn’t have access to Sky? All valid questions.On the other hand you had the pro-Sky brigade. Those who hoped that the company’s investment in cricket would help the game’s grassroots, and who no longer wanted to have to put up with an Andre Agassi tennis match or horse racing interrupting an important Test. It was a divisive issue.So where do I sit on this? Somewhat annoyingly on the fence. I appreciate that not everyone has access to Sky and that is not right. Whereas I grew up watching Botham, Lamb and Gower, who will the kids of today learn to idolise if they are not lucky enough to have a dish stuck on the side of their house? But on the other hand, I appreciate having the cricket shown on a dedicated sports channel. One that won’t miss Adil Rashid’s first Test wicket because they have to nip off to Hollyoaks. And if the vast amounts of money ploughed into the game by Sky can be wisely spent then surely that must be a good thing?To be honest, I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. Perhaps if I didn’t have Sky then my opinion would be much more definite, although even with access to satellite television I can see where the problems arise. It would be interesting to hear what others think about this. What I do know is that although Sky’s current Ashes coverage is first class, it is a shame that the 2009 series was not viewed by a much wider audience. Perhaps I secretly yearn for that feel-good summer factor of 2005, conveniently forgetting the fact that at key stages of that series, Channel 4 left the cricket to cover horse racing. Oh I really don’t know. If my thinking is so muddled, I wonder what the rest of the nation is like.