All posts by csb10.top

	South Africa’s win in Cape Town might have been dampened by a fine for a slow over-rate © Getty Images

The South African players were fined 5% of their match fees – Graeme Smith, their captain being fined 10% – for a slow over-rate during the second Test against West Indies in Cape Town.Roshan Mahanama, the match referee, imposed the fine after South Africa were ruled to be one over short of its target after time allowances were taken into consideration.In accordance with the ICC Code of Conduct regulations governing over-rate penalties, players are fined 5% of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double that amount.South Africa won the match by seven wickets to square the series 1-1. The next Test, to be played at Kingsmead in Durban, begins on January 10.

Can Chris Gayle continue his splendid form against tougher opposition? © AFP

“But how allyuh could advantage the people so?” The query on Wednesday night from someone who really isn’t a fan of West Indies was intended to be provocative and I was only too happy to take the bait.”When you have a side to mash up, you mash them up!” I responded. “These days we take what we could get, and by the way, how come nobody does feel sorry for we when we getting licks all over the place?” It was like an early goal silencing a hostile crowd.It is only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, but it’s good to revel in performances that emphasise the gap between the Champions Trophy holders and, believe it or not, the two teams immediately behind them in the international rankings. Those one-sided matches on Sunday and Wednesday were really just a tune-up for the real business of defending the title, and the Caribbean side will have to be firing on all cylinders tomorrow because Sri Lanka, who also brushed aside the same two opponents in the qualifying phase, are equally as keen to emphasise that they must by no means be considered among the ranks of the underdogs in India just because they had to play preliminary matches.Both sides are assured of places in the main tournament, which begins on Sunday with the hosts taking on England. However, there are several reasons why this encounter in Mumbai will be fought with the intensity befitting the final itself in three weeks’ time. For the victors will be placed in the group comprising South Africa, Pakistan and New Zealand, while the losers move into the pool for which favourites Australia, India and 2004 beaten finalists England were already drawn into.In other words, there is no easy group and finishing in the top two to earn a place in the semi-finals will involve considerably more intense competition than in any of the opening round groups of next year’s World Cup. For the team that would be on a roll with three consecutive wins after tomorrow’s encounter, Group A offers the chance to maintain that momentum as their three matches against the Pakistanis, New Zealanders and South Africans (in that order) will all be played in an eight-day period beginning next Tuesday.In contrast, the losers will take on the might of the Aussies next Wednesday and are not in competitive action again until October 26, when they take on the Indians, before rounding out the schedule against England two days later. More than that, especially for a team so inconsistent as West Indies, maintaining a winning momentum is almost essential to the quest to retain the title that was won so memorably at The Oval in London 25 months ago.Lara has restated the point (he really didn’t need to after what happened in his team’s last preliminary match of the DLF Cup in Malaysia) that there will be no fooling around against the Sri Lankans. The only concern, it seems, revolves around the health of the players. On a personal level, success tomorrow will present an opportunity to put New Zealand in their place next Friday. The Black Caps are a well-drilled, disciplined unit led by one of the finest captains in contemporary cricket, Stephen Fleming. But even if the players aren’t too concerned about it, some of the comments that West Indies endured on the tour of New Zealand earlier this year bordered on insulting and demeaning.From writers sounding the death knell of West Indies cricket to allrounder Scott Styris accusing the visitors of a lack of compassion when New Zealand batsmen were hit by short-pitched deliveries, you would have thought that the game was only now being mastered in the island territories.Almost everyone, not just in New Zealand, have had their chance to bemoan the decline of West Indies cricket on the global stage while also offering their own solutions, although, by their utterings, it is clear that very few understand the complexities of this place we call home. Such sanctimonious sermonising really rankles with those who experienced the days of near-invincibility by the West Indian juggernaut, yet were never so presumptuous as to pass judgement or prescribe solutions to the teams that they were hammering into submission.I suppose it is a matter of different attitudes: one conditioned by historical experiences and self-appointed privileges to determine what is good and bad or right and wrong about the other. One day, boy, one day. It may not be at this Champions’ Trophy or the World Cup next year or for another 10-15 years still, but one day those global pundits will regret ever directing their condescending tone towards the West Indies and wish for the return of the days when the visit of the Caribbean cricketers was an eagerly awaited opportunity to beat-up on a fallen giant.In the meantime, we will live in hope, not so much for the turnaround (that is still a long, long way off, especially in Tests) but for the reawakening of the consciousness and awareness of all who wear the burgundy cap of their responsibilities as representatives of their people on the world stage. Then again, maybe the turnaround has begun, at least off the field.”I always know you was the blight on the fellas,” my verbal combatant shot back. “The longer you stay here, the better their chances out there!” Final score: 1-1.

	Haroon Lorgat, the former convenor of Cricket South Africa’s selection committee, is a strong candidate for the ICC CEO post © Getty Images

The ICC is looking at a speedy resolution to the search for its next chief executive officer, with Imtiaz Patel declaring on Sunday that he had withdrawn interest in the position. Its four-man recruitment committee may discuss the issue as early as this week and Cricinfo has learnt that Haroon Lorgat, the former convenor of Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) selection committee, has emerged as a strong candidate for the post.Lorgat has already received a preliminary inquiry for a possible meeting with the ICC this week. “It’s very premature to even talk about this subject,” Lorgat told Cricinfo. “But obviously if the job is indeed offered to me, I would consider that a great honour.”Incidentally, the other significant candidate in the ICC’s shortlist is also a South African – Dave Richardson, the former wicketkeeper, and currently the ICC’s general manager, cricket. “In fact, we have been fortunate to have several high-calibre candidates on the shortlist, all of whom bring something slightly different to the table,” the ICC president-elect, David Morgan, said.Lorgat, 47, headed CSA’s selection committee for three years till the 2007 World Cup. A qualified chartered accountant – whose roots, like Patel’s, are in India – and formerly a senior partner in Ernst & Young, he is currently on the board of Kapela Investments, a private venture he set up last year with five other associates.The next CEO will be picked by a recruitment committee that includes Morgan, Ray Mali, the ICC president, Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president and Morgan’s chosen successor, and Creagh O’ Connor, the chairman of Cricket Australia.”Once the recruitment committee has identified a preferred candidate, it will make a recommendation to the ICC executive board with a view to confirming the appointment at the earliest opportunity,” an ICC spokesman said.The new CEO will take over from Malcolm Speed, who steps down from the position after this year’s ICC Annual Conference, which will take place between June 29 and July 4.Even as the ICC moves to replace Speed, there is also a deep sense of disappointment at Patel’s decision – especially after his participation in the recruitment process, which included a detailed interview. Patel is understood to have reiterated his interest in the job, which is believed to have involved an annual salary package in excess of US$500,000, when Morgan spoke to him just before announcing his name as the “preferred choice” during the board meeting in Dubai last month.”We need to remember that this is not a minor appointment that is being discussed and it was obvious that a fair amount of groundwork was put in before the preferred choice was announced last month. There is a deep sense of disappointment about how things have turned out after that,” said a source.

John Wright will not be joining Richard Hadlee on New Zealand’s selection panel yet © Getty Images

John Wright has missed out on a place on New Zealand’s selection panel, with the existing four-member group reappointed for at least a year. Glenn Turner, Richard Hadlee and Dion Nash will again join the coach, John Bracewell, in choosing national squads.Justin Vaughan, the CEO of New Zealand Cricket, did not rule out making Wright a selector in the future but before he could be seriously considered he would need to spend time familiarising himself with the domestic players. Wright begins work for New Zealand Cricket next week, although his exact role remains unclear.”Many key selection decisions need to be made in the short-term before John has had an opportunity to view many of the New Zealand player pool,” Vaughan said. “We felt he would be best to reacquaint himself with the players in New Zealand before any decision is made on whether he should be included on the panel.”Although the current selectors survived the review process, there has been a change to their tenures. A staggered system will mean selectors are offered two-year terms after which they can reapply, with no more than two members retiring in any given year to allow continuity in the decision-making process.Hadlee and Nash have initially been given one-year deals to begin the rotation, while Turner and Bracewell are on two-year contracts. “Richard, Dion and Glenn have the skills and knowledge we want in our selection panel, and we are very happy to retain their services,” Vaughan said.

Nathan Astle’s strategy to cope with the conditions and the Indianbowlers was masterful. He played mostly on the front foot – 159off the 207 balls he played, showing minimal footwork on 19 ballsand stepping out four times. He played the ball late, allowing itto come to him instead of reaching for it. But when he did rockback, he made it pay; 42 off his 103 runs came off the 25 timeshe went on the back foot. His strike-rate on the back foot was168; the rest of the time, it was 35.

Astle’s footwork	Balls	Runs	Strike-Rate
Front foot	159	56	35
Minimal footwork	19	3	16
Stepping out	4	2	50
Back foot	25	42	168
Total	207	103	49.8

As the above statistic indicates, he played the bowling on itsmerit. Off the 181 occasions that he received a ball on a goodlength or just short of a good length, he made 57 runs. The 13balls that the bowlers dropped short to him went for 34 runs. Hisshot selection was immaculate.

Playing the ball on its merit	Balls	Runs	Strike-Rate
Full length (including half-volleys)	13	12	92
Good length or just short	181	57	31
Short	13	34	262

While many of Astle’s singles and twos came via sweeps and dabson the on side, most of his boundaries came from cuts off shortballs on the back foot. In terms of runs, Astle’s wagons wheelappears quite balanced: 56 runs on the off side, and 47 on theoff. But in terms of boundaries, it is decidedly different. Ofhis 14 fours, 12 came on the off side, with 10 of them in the arcbetween extra cover and backward point.

The Wagon Wheel	Runs	Runs off boundaries
Behind wicket – off side	8	8
Square of wicket – off side	26	20
Cover – off side	21	20
Front of wicket – off side	1	0
Front of wicket – on side	3	0
Midwicket – on side	22	8
Square of wicket – on side	12	0
Behind wicket – on side	10	0

New Zealand are known for planning for their opponents andconditions. Clearly, Astle had done his homework exceedinglywell.Amit Varma is managing editor of Wisden Cricinfo in India.

	Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, hopes the forthcoming Test series would be “tough and uncompromising but played in the right spirit” © Getty Images

Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, says he is “worried” about the addition of Paddy Upton to Gary Kirsten’s coaching staff for India’s home series against South Africa, since the mental-conditioning specialist possesses inside knowledge on his key players.Arthur hoped Kirsten, the retired South Africa opener and the team’s former batting consultant, would do well as India’s new coach “except against South Africa”, but suggested that he was not so sure about Upton.”I am worried about Paddy Upton,” Arthur told Cricinfo. “I hope that he will respect the confidentiality of his relationship with the players, which is similar to a doctor-patient relationship because he has worked on the mental approach of most of our top six.”Kirsten took over as India coach on March 1 and recommended Upton to the BCCI, which is finalising the paperwork for a full-time contract.Upton, closely associated with Kirsten’s academy in Cape Town, has worked with most of the current South Africa players, including Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis. He was also South Africa’s biokineticist and fitness trainer in the mid-to-late 1990s, and a fitness trainer with the team from 1994 to 1998.”Gary is a genuine cricket man and I wish him all the best except against South Africa,” Arthur said. “Coaches analyse their opponents anyway so I not worried about his intimate technical knowledge of our players.”Arthur is currently in Bangladesh with his team for a two-Test series and three one-dayers. South Africa is expected to reach Chennai a few days after their Bangladesh tour ends on March 14, for the first of their three Tests against India.Asked to assess India’s performance during the recent Australia series, Arthur felt they had played particularly well. “They put pressure on Australia and seem to have developed a ruthless streak,” he said. Arthur, however, hoped that unlike in Australia, the forthcoming Test series would be “tough and uncompromising but played in the right spirit”.On the Indian Premier League, which follows the India series, Arthur said that while it was good for cricket, “there must be a window period for it in the international schedule.”

Experience prevailed over youth as the star studded ONGC team pipped PCAColts XI by two wickets in the 7th JP Atray Memorial cricket tournament atthe PCA Stadium in Chandigarh today.The PCA Colts piled up a huge total of 318 for the loss of four wickets inthe allotted 50 overs. However ONGC managed to overhaul this challengingtotal for the loss of eight wickets with one over to spare.The Colts team opened through Gaganinder Garry and Ankur Kakkar. Theopening pair started off slowly, scoring 45 runs in the first 10 overs.Garry was first to go as he has caught brilliantly at gully, trying to cuta short delivery.Yuvraj Singh and Kakkar were in good nick. Yuvraj, fresh from his inclusionin the Indian team for the Nairobi tournament, placed the ball neatly inthe gaps. His knock of 60 included 10 elegant boundaries. Trying to boostthe scoring rate further, he was stumped off the bowling of VirinderShewag. By then he had put his team in a strong position as they were 142runs after 26 overs for the loss of only two wickets.Kakkar carried on merrily at the other end and completed his 50 off 72balls. The brightest part of the innings came when Pankaj Dharmani andSanjay Kumar came together at the crease with the score at 190 at the endof 35 overs. The two added 96 runs off just 77 balls. Dharmani was in fullflow as he smashed an unbeaten 96 off just 76 deliveries. He hit 12powerful boundaries and a huge six. Sanjay Kumar gave him good support insmashing 50 runs off 45 balls.ONGC XI got off to a flying start as openers Gagan Khoda and Sandeep Sharmahammered 80 runs off just 56 balls. Sandeep was in fine form, slamming 50runs off just 29 balls which included nine hits to the fence. Khoda alsoscored at a run a ball for his knock of 34. After the fall of these twowickets, ONGC lost three more wickets cheaply and they were down in thedumps at 117 for five. Mithun Minhas and Shewag however took the team outof the woods. Both scored half centuries to take the team to the doorstepof victory. Towards the end Md. Saif took charge with an unblemished 52runs off 62 balls to clinch the issue in favour of his team. Yuvraj Singhand Vineet Kumar tried their level best to change the course of the matchin their favour, but despite capturing three wickets each for 47 and 66runs respectively, they could not. Shewag was declared man of the match.

Clyde Butts and Ezra Moseley, members of the West Indies Cricket Board’s junior selection panel, will join senior selector Joey Carew in scouting for talent during the Carib Beer 2003 Cricket Series.Butts, a former Guyana captain and West Indies off-spin bowler, now chairman of the junior panel, and Moseley, a former Barbados and West Indies fast bowler, will assist Carew in the absence of Sir Vivian Richards and Gordon Greenidge.Sir Vivian will be attending the Cricket World Cup 2003 in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya in his capacity as chairman of the senior selection committee, while Greenidge has made himself available to help Bangladesh prepare for the same competition.The Carib Beer 2003 Cricket Series opens on Friday with matches in Kingstown, The Valley and Pointe-A-Pierre.

Stephen Fleming hits out on his way to an unbeaten 112
©AFPLocal predictions that New Zealand might wilt in harsh Sri Lankanconditions proved overly optimistic on an attritional opening dayof this two-Test series at the P Saravanamuttu Oval. The heatwas stifling, baking the smattering of spectators housed in themetal-roofed pavilion, but the pitch was pancake flat and SriLanka’s quartet of spinners made little headway against thevisitor’s stubborn pair of left-handers, Mark Richardson andStephen Fleming.Brought together by the early loss of Matt Horne, they profitedfrom some butter-finger catching and crawled along in the firsttwo sessions – scoring 66 in the morning and 73 in the afternoon- before turning the screws slightly in the evening.A breakthrough with the new ball by Chaminda Vaas – who hadotherwise had a relatively innocuous day, failing to swing thenew ball or reverse the old – immediately after the last drinksbreak pulled the home side back into the game, but by then,Fleming and Richardson had extended the partnership to 172 – ateam record for the second wicket against Sri Lanka, surpassingthe 141 by Bryan Young and Horne in 1996/97.Fleming, who prior to the match had called for his senior playersto shoulder responsibility in the absence of key middle-orderplayers, led from the front. During the first two sessions, he wasrarely fluent, content just to keep Sri Lanka’s spinners -especially the probing Muttiah Muralitharan – at bay. But duringthe final session, he started to assert himself, eventuallybringing up his fifth Test century with a cover-drive for four. Hefinished the day on 112 from 248 balls.”The aim is to get a big score tomorrow and definitely have a go at the SriLanka batsmen sometime in the afternoon,” Fleming explained. “Muralitharan was difficult to play as usual, but I have told my batsmen to watch him carefully. I am happy with my century, but a lot more needs to be done on the second day.”Richardson pulled his hamstring in the first session and battedthroughout the afternoon with a runner – meaning that poorHorne faced an evening of rehydration despite scoring just four -anchored the innings, carrying through his good form from thewarm-up matches when he had scored 106 and 93. He alsolooked set to reach three figures, although he had virtuallyground to a halt against the spinners.Patient and unflustered throughout – even after being rattled onthe helmet by a skidding Vaas bouncer in the afternoon – heeventually chopped one on to his stumps, having occupied thecrease 325 painstaking minutes for his 84 (192 for two).It could have been different for Sri Lanka, who were left to rueanother fumbling performance in the field. Richardson the chiefbeneficiary, was dropped first by Mahela Jayawardene at firstslip when he had made 34 – a regulation chance – and then on63 by Romesh Kaluwitharana, playing his first Test for two years.Fleming, too, had moments of alarm, edging between slip and thewicketkeeper in the morning and pulling within inches of a divingKumar Sangakkara at mid-wicket later in the day.In all, it proved to be a frustrating day for the new captain,Hashan Tillakaratne, who stamped his authority early on byensuring his players wore their traditional caps during the firstsession. Unfortunately, the dropped catches exposed the sameproblems faced by his predecessor: the lack of penetrativesupport for Muralitharan.The offspinner caused problems throughout the day but after 27overs of effort, he left the field wicketless. The other spinnerswere economical but far less threatening.Horne’s wicket was the only one to fall in the first two sessions,a first Test victim for Prabath Nissanka, the 22-year-old fastbowler with rickety knees and tree-trunk thighs, who bowled animpressive spell first up. Horne appeared to have weathered thenew ball, digging in for 44 minutes, before being surprised bysome sharp bounce from Nissanka. He fended off a sharp chanceto short leg, where Dharmasena clung on to a fine one-handeddiving catch (20 for 1).And that was pretty much all Sri Lanka had to celebrate for along while thereafter. Advantage New Zealand, after a day whenaggression was firmly pushed into the background.

Geoffrey Boycott has said Andrew Flintoff could be an even more effective one-day international player if he was promoted to open the innings.Writing in , Boycott said: “For me Andrew Flintoff has been a revelation and shown he is England’s most valuable player.”Personally, I feel we need to experiment to find his best battingposition. He can do so much damage so quickly that I would like to see himtried as an opener.”He continued: “Adam Gilchrist of Australia moved from Test middle-order to one-day opener with amazing results. Like Gilchrist, Flintoff could soon put the bowling side on the defensive and wondering what the hell has hit them.”England beat Pakistan 2-1 in the NatWest Challenge and defeated South Africa byseven wickets in the NatWest Series final at Lord’s last week. These were two large steps forward for a new-look side which the England selectors hope will form the nucleus of the 2007 World Cup team.Boycott added: “I think they played splendidly, fielded athletically and looked as if they were enjoying themselves.”Even more surprising than his generally wide-ranging endorsement ofEngland’s players was his praise for the selectors, whose decisions he hasoften criticised. He said: “Our selectors have done well and our team has done even better.”But any thoughts that the usually hard-hitting Boycott had gone soft were dashed with his comments about Vikram Solanki: “He gets out cheaply too often, playing extravagant shots that are not on.”This was Boycott’s first major article since he revealed last month that hewas optimistic about winning his battle against throat cancer. He aims to return to television broadcasting when given the go-ahead from his doctors.Click here to read the article in full