A day before the start of the Jharkhand vs Haryana Ranji Trophy fixture at Jamshedpur’s Keenan Stadium, while the local Jharkhand boys were training, a young boy strolled out to the turf. When a securityman stopped him, he teared up and said he only wanted a selfie with Saurabh . Saurabh Tiwary wasn’t around at the time, but the fans didn’t know that. After the boy, a few others attempted to get into the ground to try and meet him.Tiwary’s popularity in the Jharkhand cricket circles has to be seen to be believed. Plus, of course, a few days earlier, it had become known that Tiwary would retire at the end of Jharkhand’s run in the ongoing season, which came on February 19, also at the Keenan, as Jharkhand beat Rajasthan to finish their Ranji Trophy campaign. When Tiwary went out to bat a second time in that game, the opposition players lined up to give him a guard of honour.”Saying farewell to your favourite thing isn’t easy, my friend,” Tiwary, now 34, said afterwards. “When I left the dressing room and was entering the ground, it was very emotional. My whole journey, from the time I was a kid to now, flashed before my eyes. I started my career here [at Keenan Stadium] and am finishing here too. My favourite people, including my coach [Kajal Das] had come to be part of the occasion. Sometimes, it’s difficult to express the feeling.”Related

• 'Satisfied' Shahbaz Nadeem retires from all cricket in India

• Vidarbha's Faiz Fazal retires from professional cricket

• Varun Aaron to wrap up red-ball career after Ranji season

Once the farewell match got over, Tiwary walked over the pitch, tears in his eyes, bent down and kissed the turf. Das, who has also coached the Jharkhand team in the past, was in attendance, and recalled an old story that gives you a glimpse into Tiwary the person.”He must have been 15 or 16, and a ball hit his head during training. He needed some stitches. He went to the hospital and came right back to me. I told him to pad up and go bat in the nets [and he did so] – I wanted to see if he was scared and wanted to test him,” Das said. “I have never had a student as dedicated as Saurabh. His keenness to be at the ground and his hunger for runs is unmatched.”Tiwary wore the India cap – in three ODIs, in late 2010 – and had a lengthy run in the IPL, playing 93 matches across 11 seasons between 2008 and 2021, missing out only in 2014, 2018 and 2019. The only time Jharkhand won a domestic tournament, the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2010-11, Tiwary was the captain. Add to that 8076 first-class runs, 4050 in List A cricket, 3454 in T20s… one dream, however, remained unfulfilled.”Cricket has taught me two things. One is that you have to fight for everything, and the second is that you need to understand you won’t get everything in life. Some things will remain out of reach,” Tiwary said. “I had a dream that we will win the Ranji Trophy but I couldn’t achieve it. That takes us back to the thing about fighting for everything. I will now try to play my part in helping the team win the Ranji Trophy, but from the outside. And I will do whatever I can to make it happen.”

Punjab’s cricketing visionary speaks about cricket in the state, and more

Interview by Rahul Bhattacharya08-Jul-2005When people think back to Indian cricket’s financial revolution in the early 90s, the name that readily comes to mind is that of Jagmohan Dalmiya. People forget that it was Inderjit Singh Bindra who was BCCI president, the visionary leading the way through the many legal tussles the board needed to fight against government monopolies.Yet the driving force soon found himself on the other side. He fell out with Dalmiya, who went on to head the ICC, and the animosity grew so strong that Bindra once called a press conference in Delhi with the sole purpose of demonstrating that Dalmiya was the evil of Indian cricket. When he sensationally announced on CNN (in London, in a fit of rage after having been declined an audience by the ICC), that the identity of the man who Manoj Prabhakar had alleged offered him a bribe to underperform, was none other than Kapil Dev, it alienated him further from mainstream Indian administration.But through all this, Bindra has nurtured Punjab cricket with a passion and foresight perhaps unmatched in the country. As an administrator, he takes pride in his work, and is also the first to take responsibility when things don’t work out. “The buck stops with me. I will make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said on air about the dead pitch at Mohali that effectively killed the series.Nevertheless Mohali should serve as an example to the rest of the country. He talks to Wisden Cricinfo about this, and larger issues in Indian administration.

Leaving the pitch aside for the moment, Mohali shows us that it is very much possible to have a truly world-class centre in India. Can you tell us the story behind it?
In 1992, when we had this land allotted, this was a swamp; there were 30 feet deep ravines, it was waterlogged totally. It was an area where nothing apart from mosquitoes could grow. We had a vision for it at the time. We made a corporate brochure – `PCA 2002′ – where we described a long room like the one we’re sitting in now, a video screen like the one across the ground, corporate hospitality boxes, a swimming pool, tennis courts, a clubhouse … I was surprised when I saw that brochure after exactly 10 years, virtually everything was in position, including our cricket academy. In two things there was a delay of six months: the health club – the second health club, we already had one – and the video screen.At our academy we have almost 80 junior trainees picked up from all over the state running for about 10 months in a year. We have one of the best practice facilities. We created a third practice ground where the juniors could play their matches, so in this complex we have three grounds.Why did you choose this swamp land to build upon?
We had this land at that time and the person in charge of urban development and housing was a dear friend and colleague of mine. He told me that this is the most rundown area of Mohali because of the swamp. He told me, if you make a stadium over here, the value-addition will be tremendous. We accepted the challenge, and they said that whatever extra expenses we incur, they would subsidise that.At the point of time we started the construction, the price of land in this area was 800 rupees per square yard. When we completed the construction in 1993, the price was 3,600 rupees per square yard. The urban development authority which allotted us the land had a gain of 2,800 rupees per square yard for something like 500 acres, which runs into millions and millions of rupees. That’s the kind of value addition we are talking about. I was not only the president of the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA), I was also associated as a civil servant in the state government. I was conscious of our responsibility to the city and its development.Traditionally, the centers of cricket in Punjab are Patiala, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Ludhiana. Mohali was a surprising choice in that sense too, was it not?
We thought that proximity to city beautiful, Chandigarh, will bring in dividends in terms of better city infrastructure and airport facility. Jalandhar was a centre, but it didn’t have an international aiport. Amritsar at that time was going through a lot of political turmoil and law-and-order disturbances. Ludhiana is a big industrial centre but again, does not have an airport. For an international centre you need city infrastructure, which is equally important. We thought the best infrastructure in Punjab is in Chandigarh.

One of the things you feel strongly about is spectator comfort. You’ve said that the conditions they are subjected to encourages rioting. How did you try and provide for them while building this ground?
I saw the replay of the match last night on TV and I was surprised to see the girls in the general blocks, how they had no problems or apprehensions. This is because the crowds here don’t have trouble walking into the stadiums, they don’t have to go without soft drinks, they have toilet facilities. But we still want to improve. People say that this is the best facility in the country, but we are not satisfied till our facility is, in terms of public amenities, as good as the facilities existing anywhere in the world. At the moment it is not. Our ground facilities, our practice facilities are as good as anywhere but our public facilities are still lagging behind those in South Africa or Australia.There have been some progressive measures, like selling beer, for example. Any criticism on that?
Not at all. We take permission, and we haven’t had instances of bad behaviour yet. We have never had a match being interrupted – and we don’t have fencing in between. Nobody has jumped onto the ground. Coming to the cricket ground is more of a social thing. People take a day off. They don’t come here to go through miles and miles of lines and rough it out, and take half an hour to get out of the stadium. I remember at one of the grounds, a former board president had a chest pain, and to escort him from the pavilion to the car took me an hour and thiry minutes. God forbid, if something like a fire were to happen at such a venue, can you imagine what would happen?

I have always maintained we are shortchanging the public. We are enjoying a total monopoly situation in this country. Cricket is the only game [of mass popularity]. If tomorrow hockey is to become as popular, cricket is bound to lose sponsorship.Three things are responsible for making this game great. First is public support, second is media support, third is corporate support. We’ve been shortchanging each one of them. In some of the places the media facilities are inadequate. Corporates have to run from pillar to post. There should be one man who’s looking after the corporates, one man who is looking after the TV rights holders …You’re talking now about the central board?
Well, these rights are sold by the board. The board should have professional people dealing with that. I accept I am equally responsible for that, having been the board president. I’m not putting the blame on anyone. I’m just saying that these are the areas we have to focus on.A day before this Test, you announced the sponsorship of `centres of excellence’ around the state. What is your vision for cricket in Punjab?
We are in the process of formulating a document – `PCA 2020′. It is a masterplan for the next 17 years. And our plan is that in 17 years PCA should be the best. We should be the national champions, we should be as good as New South Wales. A champion state team should be a world beater. Today NSW could beat many countries. Our objective is that by 2020 PCA should be able to open centres of excellence in 400-500 schools in the state, totally financed and funded by us. We have already started. We are funding about 30 schools; by 2020 we want to go practically to every school that has a ground.What exactly do you mean when you say `centre of excellence’?
Basically, that practice facilities should be as good as they are here at Mohali. You have about 30 nets. You have synthetic wickets. That is our concept of `centre of excellence’. At the moment, we are running them at the district levels. There are 14 in all, where we give coaches, equipment, sprinkler systems, money for infrastructure, a physical trainer. Out of these 14, we have gotten three sponsored by Lifebuoy. The plan is that gradually they will take over all of them. That means more money is being pumped in – our share and an equal share from them [the sponsor]
.
We want to get the best coaches in the world for our academies. Mr Raj Singh Dungarpur is co-ordinating a meeting in Bombay on November 1 during the one-dayer. We feel that for one centre to get foreign coaches and pay for them is a waste, but if 7-8 academies combine, it would work. Even the NCA could be included. PCA is happy to share the cost, Mr Raj Singh from the CCI academy is willing, Mr Shashank Manohar from Vidharbha is willing. So in Mumbai, eight centers will meet. The plan is also to send our coaches abroad and get them trained. There’s no point in getting coaches from abroad for all times to come.Where do you see the funding for your schools program coming from?
From our sponsors and a share of the money from the board. It’s adequate. We feel that money is the least of our constraints. When we conceived the vision for Mohali and started the work, we had [Rupees] 30 or 35 lakhs. In three years between 1993 and 1996, we raised 23 crores and spent it. We had some loans which we paid back within two years.Would you agree that the Punjab Ranji team has been underperforming? How much an impetus was that to your development program?
It has been underperforming. There is so much of talent but they have a mental block. They reach the semi-final and don’t go on. The junior teams have been doing exceedingly well. They have been winning year after year. Yes, the underperformance at the Ranji level is one of the main reasons that we want huge bench strength and cricket at the grassroots level. Once you bring sponsors into coaching and they get mileage they are very happy. At the Patiala district academy Lifebuoy had said we should get at least 400 children; they got 950 children. I’m sure the second and third trials in Amritsar and Jalandhar will have 2000 children. Everything picks up and it is bound to have a cascading effect. We’re making a beginning to take cricket to the grassroots level.Changing track a little bit, you’ve kept a fairly low profile since 2000 and the Kapil Dev controversy. How do you look back upon that now?
No, I had decided to keep a low profile ever since I had ceased to be the board president. I made a statement at the time that former board presidents should have no role in the day-to-day working of the board and should not accept an office. I was offered chairmanship of a committee or post of treasurer but I said, `nothing doing’.But when you feel that cricket has reached a stage it could be destroyed, when an issue concerns the very existence of the game, you have to speak. It’s not meddling in day-to-day functions. The issue is over. It was accepted by the ICC, they took action, they constituted an anti-corruption unit and they have guidelines in place. The board took cognizance of this. Every board in the world has given its recommendation. I have no reason to say that the board is doing wrong or so-and-so is doing wrong.What led you at that time to take such a strong step, and to do it so dramatically?
I don’t want to look back, I want to look forward. That thing is over.You would have done it the same way again?
I took a stand, and I always stand by my stand. I’m not one to go back on that.Are you happy with the ICC measures, though? There’s a lot of skepticism about them.
I prefer not to comment on an issue like this. But at least something has happened. It takes time. In baseball they constituted an anti-corruption unit in the 30s, it took another twenty or thirty years for full effect. A beginning has been made; a good beginning has been made. I’m sure things will keep improving.Are you happy with the way the Indian board is run now?
As I said, a former board president should not have any interference with the functioning of the board. I worked with Mr Dalmiya for a long time, I think he has been an outstanding administrator, and I don’t believe otherwise now.

Let’s look at a couple of the broader issues in Indian administration though. What do you think of our selection setup – the zonal setup?
See, the board is a democratic polity, and any democratic system is not perfect. But still it is the best system that could be conceived. You have drawbacks and you have good points. If you don’t want a democratic polity then the only other way is the nominated system of Pakistan. I’ll prefer a democratic sytem any day.Is it not possible to do away with the idea of having zonal representatives on the panel?
I genuinely feel it has pros and cons. India is a vast country and if you have three honorary selectors at least they watch some cricket within the zone. They know the talent existing in the zones. I believe if they are national selectors and they have considerations other than merit then the board has the right to change them. They are not there to represent the zone but the whole idea of having zonal selectors is that they should know what is happening, where the talent is.The other option is to have full-time paid selectors whose only job is to watch cricket. Unless you watch cricket at junior levels, unless you watch cricket at school level, unless you watch all domestic matches, you can’t do justice to selections.But is there anything stopping us going down that path?
If you have an honorary system, then you have to have the zonal system. If you have full-time selectors whose job is to watch cricket 365 days a year, then it is okay. That will be a better alternative, but till then we have to live with the zonal system.What do you make of the contract crisis. Do you encourage player bodies?
In my experience we have been the luckiest board. We always had wonderful relationship with the players. I don’t know what the existing situation is, I wouldn’t like to comment on it, but we’ve always had a very good equation. If I know Mr Dalmiya – I’ve known him pretty well – this equation must be continuing. This board has never had a problem – the only hiccup was when the boys went to the US [for exhibition matches, without the permission of the board] and the matter went to the Supreme Court. Otherwise, we’ve been settling everything across the table. I think we are most fortunate; our players are the most disciplined, the best behaved.In principle are you in favour of long-term contracts between the board and players?
I think there is no easy option. There was a time when the board had offered contracts to the players but the players were not ready. This was in the early eighties.Once the contract system is worked out, do you think it would be right or wrong to control player endorsements?
Without full facts at my command, I can’t say. I never avoid questions – but I really don’t know what the present stage of discussion is and what the points of view and the details are. But I feel that they give their 100% to the game when they are on the field and if they have an opportunity of maximizing their potential commercially, they have every right to do it. The jealousy that cricketers are making too much money is all crap. They have every right to do so; anyone in their position would do the same. I’ll be the last person to grudge that.Finally, what are your plans for the future?
My plan is to enjoy my golf, and look after the PCA for as long as I can continue. The day I feel that I cannot contribute, I will quit, and I’ll quit while the going is good.

Three years after being banned for attempting to bribe two national selectors, Abhijit Kale is sadder but wiser – and an example of the problems in the pressure-cooker world of Indian cricket

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan22-Jun-2007

Kale: ‘I was mentally gone – I put on weight, I didn’t have the motivation to practice, I was totally blank’ © Mid-Day
In March 1988 he was chosen, along with Sachin Tendulkar, as the most promising junior cricketer in Bombay; in March 1992 he cracked 153 against the New Zealand Under-19 tourists, overshadowing a young Rahul Dravid; in December 1993 he rattled off 132 on first-class debut against Baroda; in November 2001 he made 122 against the touring English at Jaipur; in April 2003 he played his first and only ODI against Bangladesh at Dhaka; and in November 2003 he was accused of offering two national selectors a bribe for a place in the Indian side.Not many had heard of Abhijit Kale before November 2003, far fewer have heard of him since. On November 20, 2003, though, he was front-page material, when Kiran More and Pranab Roy, two former cricketers turned national selectors, accused Kale of offering Rs 10 lakhs (approximately US$21,900 ) for a place in the Indian side. A BCCI enquiry was instituted and Kale tendered a letter of apology to the BCCI in which he admitted that he tried to “influence the selectors” while insisting that he had never tried to bribe them. In June 2004 he was banned from the game, allowed to return only the following January.Since his return to first-class cricket, Kale has slipped into further oblivion. He’s changed his team and gone right across the country, leaving Maharashtra for Tripura, in the part of India that lies east of Bangladesh. He has struggled for runs. He’s a changed person too – “sadder, without as much humour, but more sensible” – and is trying his best to “start enjoying the game once again”. One of India’s most promising junior cricketers and one of the most consistent first-class batsmen is trying to figure out where it all went wrong.”It all happened in too much of a hurry,” he told Cricinfo, “and initially I didn’t have time to stop and think. Suddenly I realised that I’ve been banned for a whole season of four-day games. I was broken.”Being banned for most of the 2004-05 season had a traumatic effect. “I was mentally gone – I put on weight, I didn’t have the motivation to practice, I was totally blank. I used to go to work at Bharat Petroleum but it made things worse. I was so obsessed with the game that taking it away from me had a drastic effect.”There’s not an ounce of anger in Kale’s voice; instead it’s sober and indicates the process of introspection. It helps because the conversation turns into a discussion where he refers to his “big mistake” and “serving punishment”. He mentions “destiny” and admits he can’t blame anyone but himself and “circumstances”. He isn’t too comfortable recounting the details but is remarkably candid while analysing the possible motive.”When I look back now I have a clearer understanding. All my life I have been desperate about being selected in teams. Starting from Under-16, I always felt I was not rewarded for scoring big. I remember making 153 for India U-19 early on, yet I was never picked for Mumbai. For three seasons I was in the Mumbai reserves. I scored heavily in all the local matches, yet there was no recognition. At one point my only aim was to play one Ranji match.

‘I have served my punishment and look forward to 2-3 years of cricket ahead of me. My only wish now is to enjoy my cricket, something which I never did enough of’ © Mid-Day
“All this made me excessively focussed towards cricket. Every time I didn’t get picked I would go back and work harder, think more, be more desperate to make it. It used to eat into me almost. Looking back I regret that obsession – I shouldn’t have taken all this so seriously, I should have enjoyed my cricket more.”Kale doesn’t want to make excuses; yet he wishes there was some help at hand. “Maybe a team psychologist could have helped, someone to tell me not to take cricket so seriously, someone who could help me deal with disappointments. Anyway I have served my punishment and look forward to 2-3 years of cricket ahead of me. My only wish now is to enjoy my cricket, something which I never did enough of.”And perhaps get among the runs again. Since his return to first-class cricket he’s managed just two 35-plus scores in 17 first-class innings. “I made a mistake by leaving Maharashtra – they dropped me and I took an impulsive decision to shift states,” he says of his move to Tripura before last season. “It was a communication gap – they didn’t exactly tell me the reasons. Also, there were too many things going on in my head then – I hadn’t yet recovered from that incident. I am trying to move back to Maharashtra; I can’t think of playing for any other state now.”The Tripura experiment was a complete disaster. “It’s the first time in 14 seasons that I’ve failed in first-class cricket and I just want to put it behind me. Somehow nothing clicked.”Several years later, Abhijit Kale will be the answer to a quiz question. It won’t be about a teenage prodigy who dominated bowlers in the Bombay leagues, neither will it involve a ruthlessly consistent domestic cricketer. Kale knows that he will always be associated with that incident. Importantly he’s accepted that and is now trying to move on.

Anand Vasu reviews by John Wright

Anand Vasu16-Sep-2006

If you are a supporter of Indian cricket, or just plain interested in
knowing more about how Indian cricket – with it’s big-ticket stars, hordes
of cricket crazy fans, behind-the-scenes board politics – functions, then
you must pick up a copy of John Wright’s Indian Summers. This could
well be the single most important book written by someone intimately
involved in Indian cricket since Sunil Gavaskar wrote Sunny Days
back in 1977, when he was still a player.For all the talent it produces, and for the volume of writing that comes
out in daily newspapers, websites and weekly and monthly magazines, you
could barely fill a shelf with books on Indian cricket worth reading.
There’s no shortage of unabashed hagiography that attempts to pass off as
unauthorised biography, and of blow-by-blow tour books which seldom do
more than summarise matches and events, quoting extensively from what was
published in newspapers at the time.If you expect stunning new revelations about scandal, or sensitive
personal information from inside the dressing-room, you don’t know Wright
well enough. Even from distant Christchurch, far from the places and
scenes he describes vivdly, Wright is careful about how the things he writes
can affect people. When describing incidents he takes names only when
they add to the telling of the story, and even then rarely quotes
something that anyone could take offence to.But Wright, unlike his successor Greg Chappell, always kept the media at
more than a cricket bat’s length through his tenure. To be fair to him,
Wright didn’t play favourites – he was equally unavailable to everyone
from the media. In all this, though, it was possible to get a sense of
what the man was like, if you interacted with him, and the occasional
beery evening and odd bummed cigarette was not unheard of. But in reading
the book you get a clearer picture of what he was trying to achieve.”Sometimes I talked too much and smiled too little,” he writes, talking of
his time coaching Kent. When coaching India he might have spoken too much
in the dressing-room but he didn’t say too much in the media. “A huge part
of coaching and management is making players believe they’re better than
they are,” explains Wright when talking about having to deal with some
tricky cricketers in the side.Wright also understood Indian cricket well by the time he had completed
one year as Indian coach. He lived out of hotel and club rooms, did not
even have a contract for the longest time, and when he writes, about the
BCCI office in Mumbai, “I reckon those ramshackle surroundings are the
greatest feat of camouflage since a wolf put on sheep’s clothing,” you
know he’s comepletely with it, and no foreign coach. And that is saying
something, given the widespread scepticism of the efficacy of a foreign
coach when he was first appointed, admittedly mostly from former Indian
cricketers who he was now putting out of work. Wright could have used this
book as an opportunity to give the finger to some of his persistent
baiters, but he resists the temptation to do so.What he does do in the book is tell you about the little incidents that
reveal so much about some of the cricketers in this team. For example
there is still a feeling among the most staunch Indian fans that butter
wouldn’t melt in the mouths of the likes of Rahul Dravid and Sachin
Tendulkar, and they’ll be surprised to hear that the two are not
incapable of producing the odd sledge, like the time when India were on
top in the 2001 home series against Australia and asked Steve Waugh, “So
how’s the final frontier looking now, Steve?” The book, which is
fast-paced and readable enough to finish in one sitting, is filled with
little things like this that will tell you a bit more about the
protagonists of the India cricket scene.There’s a genuine warmth of feeling Wright has for the team and for India
and it comes through in the book. This is never more evident than when he
writes, “When I finish with cricket in a professional capacity and get
back to watching it purely for pleasure, I won’t bother going to Lord’s;
I’ll go back to India.” Similarly, if you’re a genuine fan of Indian
cricket, read Wright’s book. Cardus and company can wait.John Wright’s Indian Summers (Indian edition)
by John Wright with Sharda Ugra and Paul Thomas
Published by
Price Rs 495, 244 pages

No, coach-and-tell memoir, this book is John Buchanan’s manifesto on the art of winning

Peter English23-Dec-2007If Better is Possible by John Buchanan
(Hardie Grant Books, 239pp) A$35

If John Buchanan was a North American he would be celebrated as a sporting guru and his catchphrases would be commonplace. Instead he is an Australian who is under-appreciated in a culture that values doing. In the country’s macho team games it’s not hip to be a nerdy, hands-off, planning-focused coach, especially if you failed as an athlete.After seven years as Australia’s mentor Buchanan was unable to win respect from some elements in the cricket establishment, and one figure close to the national set-up still sums him up by the Ned Flanders-style moustache, even though it went three years ago. Buchanan may not have been able to change perceptions of himself, but he has achieved something much bigger in altering the way cricket views the managing of teams. is his manifesto and it will be absorbed by coaches, corporates and players desperate to understand his world-leading approach. It will probably be ignored by the masses as being too dry, though small chapters have been used to try and overcome the problem – most are about five pages. They range in topics from “culture of success” to “John who?” and “mental toughness”, and carry snippets about the side and about the broader philosophies behind the success of Buchanan and his teams.While he admires the way Duncan Fletcher prepared for the 2005 Ashes, Buchanan does not, like his former opponent, dump on players in his book. Buchanan cared – and cares – about them too much to coach-and-tell, even when it comes to Shane Warne, a regular and at times vitriolic critic.The most damaging Buchanan gets is in writing two paragraphs about Warne’s 2003 drugs ban, which is only enough to excite a tabloid paper. The rest is spent analysing what made him such a wonderful bowler. Perhaps the only thing that would make any of the players uncomfortable is the revelation that Adam Gilchrist and Shane Watson don’t mind a good cry, but he uses their tears to justify why men need more emotion in their lives.The greatest example of the detail in Buchanan’s work is his outline for the 2007 World Cup. He wanted Australia to be “the best-skilled team the world has ever seen”. Not only did he demand new standards in bowling, defensive fielding and professionalism, he wanted the most athletic side and a “full expression” batting approach.In bullet points, he wrote that bowlers had to average 55% of dot-balls during a game, develop signals for particular deliveries, and try to force the opposing batsmen to run around them during their follow-throughs. Runs needed to be scored from 60% of the opportunities, while each player had to improve his personal bests in speed, agility and power tests. Everything had to be organised before the World Cup.”We certainly didn’t achieve all our aims and goals – but we were always driving towards them,” Buchanan said. In the lead-up to the tournament, the Chappell-Hadlee and CB Series were lost and injuries to Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds reduced the skill level in the Caribbean, where the team was nevertheless undefeated. However, the document was devised shortly after the Ashes were lost in 2005, showing Buchanan’s expertise in development and foresight.Buzzwords are essential to his teaching and sections from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War are used as often as lists. Secretly he would hope his phrases – “Understand your strengths and use them as often as possible. But also understand that to have them as your only means leaves you vulnerable to defeat.” – will be quoted by the robot mentors that look after teams thousands of years hence. In his era the sayings never caught on, unlike his coaching methods.

A few statistical snippets from the second ODI between England and India at Bristol

Mathew Varghese24-Aug-2007

* Tendulkar’s 99 is the second of his career, and in quick succession too, the earlier one was in the first ODI against South Africa in Belfast. He joins Sanath Jayasuriya as the only batsmen to have been dismissed twice on 99 in ODIs. Tendulkar also tops of list of batsmen being dismissed the highest number of times in the nineties.* Dravid’s 92 came off 63 balls, a strike-rate of 146.03. Dravid’s innings was his third-fastest knock of fifty and over, behind his 50 off 22 balls against New Zealand in Hyderabad in 2003, and his 54 from 35 balls against West Indies earlier this year. Dravid’s Man-of-the-Match performance was also a far cry from his slow crawl in the second innings at The Oval (Click here to read more on that innings).* India and Tendulkar extended their great run at Bristol. Tendulkar has previously made hundreds in both the matches India had played at the ground, an unbeaten 140 against Kenya in 1999 and 113 against Sri Lanka in 2002, both resulting in wins for India. Tendulkar has 352 runs from three matches in Bristol, averaging a mammoth 176. Tendulkar had batted at No. 4 in the earlier matches, and both he and Dravid scored centuries in the match against Kenya.* A score of 300-plus had been posted in Bristol only twice before this game, with India being involved on both occasions. India’s 329 for 7 equalled the highest total at the ground, along with India’s 329 for 2 against Kenya during the 1999 World Cup. The total is also the second-highest against England, the highest being Pakistan’s 353 for 6 in Karachi in 2005.* The match aggregate of 649 is also the second-highest posted in England. The highest is 651, and involved England and India, during the Natwest Series final in 2002.* Andrew Flintoff managed to sneak in his first five-for while the runs were being piled. His 5 for 56 is the second most-expensive five-wicket haul for an England bowler after Ashley Giles’ 5 for 57, also coming against India, at the Feroz Shah Kotla in 2002. Waqar Younis’ 6 for 59 off eight overs against Australia is the most expensive figures for a five-for in England, ahead of Flintoff’s effort.* Tendulkar also became the player with the highest number of appearances in England-India ODIs, a record he previously shared with Anil Kumble. Tendulkar has now played 29 matches against England, ahead of Kumble’s 28.* Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly posted a 113-run stand for the opening wicket, their first century partnership against England.* Dimitri Mascarenhas kept England in the hunt with his big-hitting, and his five sixes is a record for England-India matches.

Pakistan have kickstarted a hunt for emerging talent, hoping to produce results for the U-19 World Cup in 2010

Faras Ghani18-Dec-2007

The new talent hunt hopes to find potential in places other than urban centres like Rawalpindi and Karachi © AFP
Imagine this: Pakistan take the field at the World Cup 2011 and the opening bowlers are not from Rawalpindi and Karachi but two lanky rookies from the snow-ridden valley of Chitral and the flats of Bannu: the same pair who shone in the previous year’s junior World Cup and have progressed steadily through various age-groups.It may seem a far-fetched prospect presently – Chitral and Bannu being represented as much as a seamless transition through different age levels – but it may well become a credible vision soon. Or so a new talent hunt scheme launched earlier this year hopes.Mobilink Hunt for Heroes, a joint effort between the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Mobilink, Pakistan’s premier mobile-network provider, was launched after the debacle at the 2007 World Cup. The embarrassing exit not only left the country weeping for a second successive World Cup, but also forced the entire cricket fraternity wondering into introspection: where was Pakistan cricket going wrong?At grassroots level, it was discovered. And so amid the broad belief that there lies hidden treasure in the most obscure corners of the country, this massive program was unveiled. Covering 52 districts throughout the country and all four provinces, the hunt reached out not only to residents of urban centres such as Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi, but also to locations off the beaten track, such as Hub, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, Nawabshah and Chitral.The plan was not to spot talent ready to be drafted into the first-class system and, after a couple of seasons, in to the national side. No, for that would, in effect, not be different from other talent hunt schemes in the past. This joint venture aimed solely at 13-16 year-olds who believed they had what it takes to play for Pakistan.”Post the World Cup, we felt that the problem was not with the current team but with our existing system,” explains Khurram Mahboob, Mobilink’s talent hunt in-charge. “And there was a massive need to update and upgrade the middle-tier, namely the 13-16 age group.”For whatever reason, the board was not able to reach those far-flung areas and had to rely on whatever talent they had on display on the domestic circuit.”Haroon Rasheed, the former Test batsman and coach who heads the scheme for the PCB and has worked with Inzamam-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis at the junior level, says it is high time basic skills were developed and honed at a young age.”Before we went ahead with the scheme, there was no grass-root level unearthing of talent or development in the country. Being involved at the junior level for so long, I felt that basic knowledge was not passed on at the right age. This resulted in the catastrophe earlier this year.”Over 6,000 youngsters turned up for the first day of trials in Karachi. “That turnout was nothing compared to the excitement and eagerness seen in areas of the North-West Frontier Province, where we had kids literally begging us for a chance to show their prowess,” Khurram Mahboob said.The hunt began in September and is hoping to produce results for the Under-19 World Cup in 2010. A mass promotional campaign prior to it produced a fantastic response. According to Mahboob, over 6,000 youngsters turned up for the first day of trials in Karachi.”That turnout was nothing compared to the excitement and eagerness seen in areas of the North-West Frontier Province, where we had kids literally begging us for a chance to show their prowess,” Mahboob said.With talent officers, including former internationals such as Tauseef Ahmed and Ehtesham-ud-din, accompanying the team that visits every district, the project was undertaken simultaneously in all four provinces. The team spends ten days in each district, of which the first two are open trials. From the mass, 15 players are short-listed who then undergo basic cricket training from the coaches for the next five days. The final three days are set aside for three limited-over matches.For the majority, the sojourn ends there; a chance of being part of a squad trained by former internationals. But for some, there lies a place in a regional team, of which twelve will be formed by the end of January. Following a mini-tournament, the national junior selection committee plans to handpick 36 individuals to be taken to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) from where, finally, a 15-man Pakistan U-16 squad will be picked.”It’s a massive project but one we felt was of utmost importance,” Rasheed said. “The process won’t end with the formation of the squad. We will invite other countries to send in their junior squads or even send ours abroad so that, two years from now, we have an experienced and well-trained U-18 squad ready to take on the world at the 2010 World Cup.”Cricket, as Mahboob acknowledges, is one platform that brings the entire nation together and by seriously investing in cricket, Mobilink and PCB hope to make a change. “We have set a target of three years to see the results. However, from the response and feedback thus far, we hope to carry on indefinitely.”Our aim is to produce the Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis of the future.”

Peter Roebuck writes with the authority of a former player, and the occasional whimsy of someone who can see, most of the time, that cricket is a game

Stephen Fay28-Oct-2007In It To Win It: the Australian Cricket Supremacy
by Peter Roebuck (Allen & Unwin, 2007)
246pp, £8.99

Peter Roebuck, who is one of a handful of the best contemporary cricket writers, is an elusive character. He is proud and prickly; judgemental and a disciplinarian by nature, who is also easy-going and caring. He writes with the authority of a former player
(Somerset and Devon) and the occasional whimsy of someone who can see, most of the time, that cricket is a game.Roebuck describes this book – written after Australia’s 2005 Ashes defeat and now reissued in paperback – as “a search for Australia through cricket”. The argument, stated briefly, is that until Ian Chappell and Kerry Packer erupted on to the scene in the 1970s, Australian perceptions were still informed by Bodyline: “a sense of injustice – never quite subdued – of being thwarted on the very cusp of achievement”.Aggression replaced the sense of injustice in the ’70s: “Australia needed its spirit, its assertiveness to establish a sense of belonging – it is no coincidence that the
disrespect shown by Chappell and Packer to the idea of England was followed by the longest period of domination the game has known.” Rejoicing in success, he writes,
arises from a desire to confirm that Australia is a nation state.The logic is fascinating. If Ricky Ponting goes on winning, does it mean Australia will
embrace republicanism? Roebuck is just the man to identify this trend. He shares
with Packer and Chappell a disrespect for the idea of England. It grips him hardest here in his account of the final day of the final Test in 2005. The behaviour of the crowd was “jingoistic, self justification – the mood of the crowd bordered on the demented,” he writes. “The spectators were, manifestly, more interested in England winning than in
watching cricket.” Exactly. These spectators had endured years of Australian cricket supremacy, and here they were, behaving aggressively and assertively, just like a crowd of Australians.He ended the book in 2006 by stating that Australia would soon recover the Ashes: “The
Australians have no intention of accepting defeat as part and parcel of the game of cricket.” And before he gets to the end he describes with skill and perception the games that exhibited their cricketing greatness. These teams require and deserve a fine
interpreter. As long as Roebuck is writing for the they have got one.

How Dhoni changed his game to become the world’s top ODI batsman again

Sidharth Monga05-Sep-2008

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a rock star among cricketers. Everything about him is cool – his hair, his adverts, his bikes, his Bollywood friends, and his general demeanour on the field. His cricket has a raspy, rough edge to it; when he riffs with the bat, it is fascinating to watch.Shortly after a sensational start to his career, the world’s bowlers sorted Dhoni
out. At one point he looked no more than an extremely powerful man who had two or
three strokes. Seamers on helpful pitches and good spinners seemed to
exercise a fair amount of control over him. No longer was lusty hitting possible.But the thing about Dhoni is that he manages to find a way. He may fail once, but no matter what the predicament, he goes back, does his homework and somehow finds a
way. After a superb series against Sri Lanka, during which he tackled
Ajantha Mendis creditably, Dhoni has returned to the top of the ICC’s
rankings for one-day batsmen. It would not be an overstatement to say that since the end of the World Cup last year he has been the best ODI batsman in the world.Long before Mendis, there was Muttiah Muralitharan. Long before the Asia Cup, there was the World Cup. Dhoni’s dismissal in the World Cup match against Sri Lanka was
the enduring image of India’s debacle in the tournament. He went back to cut
Murali, his bat coming down from the fifth floor, and the ball skidded
through to hit his pad before the bat had come down to the
level of the stumps. It was one of the most comprehensive lbws ever; Dhoni even
walked for it. It seemed time – and there seemed evidence enough – to dismiss Dhoni as a bully on true tracks and against predictable bowling.That was then, though. Now that huge, unwieldy back-lift has been cut out almost completely, courtesy an almost Rafael Nadal-like resolve to eliminate a mistake from one’s game. So much has Dhoni changed that the image of that dismissal is now a comfortably distant memory.Weeks after the World Cup, India found themselves in another mess,
against Bangladesh in Mirpur. They had lost five wickets for 144, and needed another 107 in 19 overs. It was a match India simply couldn’t afford to lose: they were supposed to extract revenge after the World Cup, not embarrass themselves again.That game, perhaps, was when Dhoni traded exuberance for efficiency for good. He was running out of body fluids and partners fast, but he remained the last man standing. A dasher and a finisher he had been until then; now he took the first steps towards becoming an accumulator and a pressure-absorber, while still finishing matches. India didn’t lose on the tour after that jailbreak. Rahul Dravid, Dhoni’s captain in the match, observed: “He does not play in just one fashion. He has got the ability to change gears, to change the tempo of the game, play according to the situation, and that’s a fantastic gift to have at such a young age.” Dravid had seen what the world had yet to.Aided by bad light, Dhoni went on to save the Lord’s Test, another turning
point for India in their rehabilitation after the World Cup. Towards the end of
that trip to England, the captaincy of the one-day side fell to him, and soon he
created for himself a circumstance that would demand he take his batting to
another level altogether. Slowly he got rid of the older players, thereby placing more responsibility on himself than there already was. Grandly he invested in youth, though seldom was his faith repaid: while the youngsters brought a much-needed freshness to the fielding unit, only one of them, Gautam Gambhir, batted consistently.

It was Dhoni who absorbed the pressure and took it upon himself to lead India’s batting. Much of his success as a captain flows from his being a leader by example. When the team fails, he is the first one to take the blame, the first to go back to the drawing board.When Mendis bamboozled the batsmen in the Asia Cup final, Dhoni was
the only one to provide any sort of resistance, trying desperately to read
the bowler from the hand, in the air, off the pitch, hanging in somehow,
delaying the inevitable for as long as possible. The next time he faced
Mendis, he was up against a different monster altogether, one who had begun the
end of the most feared middle order in modern Test cricket.It took Dhoni a match and the best part of another to successfully tackle Mendis. In the second game he soaked up the pressure that the fall of early wickets in a low chase brought. In the third he gave Mendis a bit of stick, punishing any error in length, scoring 29 off the 28 balls he faced from him. And in the fourth he accumulated like a true workman, running hard despite cramps, showing just why it is his team-mates respect him so. The way he pushed Suresh Raina while the two ran between wickets sent a strong message. Dhoni had promoted himself ahead of two men who were playing as batsmen alone, and was key to the wins that resulted in India’s first series victory in Sri Lanka. He may not have the immense natural talent of Virender Sehwag, or the quick footwork of Gambhir, but he managed to do better than the rest of the Test line-up.Since the World Cup he has scored more runs than any other batsman in the world, at an average of more than 50, but it’s the manner in which his runs have come that tells a story. His strike-rate in his 69 matches up to and including the World Cup was 98.51; since then, he has scored at 84.51 per 100 balls. In 51 matches in this period he has doubled his centuries and half-centuries tally to four and 24 respectively. The 1987 runs he made before the World Cup featured 161 fours and 63 sixes, and 51.43% of his runs came in boundaries. After the World Cup he has hit 137 fours and 27 sixes in 1805 runs – a boundary percentage of 39.31.In the last year and a half Dhoni has performed well in almost every situation the middle order has thrown up. He has accumulated on difficult pitches in Guwahati, Brisbane, and more recently in Colombo. He has soaked up the pressure of tricky run-chases in Mirpur, Adelaide and Dambulla. And every now and then, when the need has arisen, he has brought out the big hits, like in Chandigarh, against Australia, and variously in Karachi during the Asia Cup.

Less tangibly, but more importantly, he has inspired the batsmen around him: Raina has fed off him, Yuvraj Singh has enjoyed competing with him, and Gambhir has revelled in the faith shown by Dhoni, which has had its part to play in his transformation as a successful Test opener. Versatile and consistent, Dhoni is on his way to becoming a complete ODI batsman, both in setting up scores and chasing down totals.The transformation could not have come easy, though. This is a batsman who
has completely rediscovered his game, in the public eye, notwithstanding the added
pressure that his captaincy moves have surely brought.The abbreviated back-lift
is believed to be the single most effective technical change he has made.
It has been a
simple change, but one that no doubt required a thorough knowledge of his game to
bring about.The way Dhoni tackled Mendis, especially, was exemplary. For
starters, he didn’t mind looking ungainly at times. He didn’t commit and looked
to play as late as possible, taking his front pad adjacent to the line of
the ball, eliminating the lbw.With his heavy, bottom-handed grip, when
he nudged the balls round, it seemed he was actually putting the ball into
the gaps more with his hands than with the bat. He has always had the
bull-like strength to fall back upon, whether it is the occasional big hit
or the running between the wickets.When he came back into the side from the self-imposed break during the Test series, it was without any promise of a magical transformation, just renewed
commitment. “Do you have any special plans for Mendis?” he was asked a day
before he left for Sri Lanka. “You’ll see once the time comes,” he said. And
so we did.

On the eve of the five-match bilateral series, Sri Lanka and India both have problems to solve

Jamie Alter in Dambulla17-Aug-2008
Dhoni’s batting and captaincy skills will both be tested over the next couple of weeks © AFP
On the eve of the five-match bilateral series, Sri Lanka and India both have problems to solve. The home team have had a patchy record in ODIs recently, which is reflected in the ICC ranking – they are seventh, compared to India’s fourth. Their Asia Cup triumph was a return to winning ways after a home series defeat to England, followed by a poor CB Series, and then another series defeat to West Indies earlier this year.However, Sri Lanka go into the five-match series a confident unit, having beaten India in the Asia Cup and the three-Test series before this. Mahela Jayawardene has stressed on how Sri Lanka need to improve on all areas of their game, and this is as good a time as any for them to put that theory into practice.They could start with greater consistency and commitment from their batsmen, who would want to improve on their most recent performances in Dambulla, against England last year. In a span of four days, they were bowled out for 169 and 164, losing both matches and eventually the series as well. The batting has been the main reason for Sri Lanka’s below-par results recently, but for inspiration, they need look no further than the talismanic Sanath Jayasuriya and the destruction he wrought with his match-winning hundred in the Asia Cup final. Jayasuriya brings 526 games of experience to this side, and his explosive ability could well decide matches.Sri Lanka’s biggest assets are their two matchwinning spinners. Much of this series’ storyline depends on how India cope with Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, who is set to play his first ODI at home. India failed to find the answers in the Asia Cup final, and are up against a lethal pair that played havoc with a famed Test line-up, sharing 47 wickets between them in three matches.For India, the main puzzle is how to handle Mendis. They had no idea about how to do that in the Asia Cup final last month, or in the Tests. There is little to suggest this series will be any easier, given that India’s batting order for this series is the same as in Pakistan.Part of Dhoni’s method since taking over the captaincy has been to experiment with his batting line-up. Himself a regular floater, he has tried out different options at Nos. 3 and 6, not always with success. This bilateral series offers him another shot at finding solidity before a busy season ahead. Dhoni believes Sri Lanka is the toughest country to bat in, but is confident India will do better than they did in their last two series, especially when it comes to “crucial” matches. This has been identified as India’s core ODI team for the future. It could be their toughest test.Overall, India have been doing consistently better than Sri Lanka. After an abysmal first-round exit from last year’s World Cup, they won the inaugural ICC World Twenty20, beat Australia in the best-of-three CB Series finals, and made the finals of the Kitply and Asia Cups. From the outset, India will start the series hoping to avenge a 100-run defeat to Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup final last month. “We are not doing too badly, it’s just we are losing the key games,” Dhoni said. “We shouldn’t be too high or too low in confidence. We’ll try to keep a positive frame of mind.”Apart from team skill, individual decisions are going to dictate this series. Jayawardene is a proven exponent of how to use the Powerplays and his experience of playing in Sri Lankan conditions, where the ball softens on slow and low pitches, could prove decisive. Dhoni relies a lot on instinct. His decision to play five bowlers at Hobart last year, keeping in mind ground conditions, worked a charm. Munaf Patel replaced an erratic Sreesanth and Praveen Kumar came in for Virender Sehwag. It didn’t matter for Dhoni that Praveen had gone wicketless in a tight chase in Adelaide under lights; he entrusted Praveen with the new ball and it worked wonders.Such calls are going to be crucial in Sri Lanka, a place Dhoni has readily admitted is tough to bat in. The first two matches – in three days – are in Dambulla, a notoriously spin-friendly track. Dhoni is inclined to use five bowlers for the two matches in Dambulla, two of them being spinners. The last three matches are day-night affairs at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, another venue where scoring runs is difficult.An intriguing contest is in store, which will be a test of both skill and nerve.