Cover Points : England

England's (t)urn?

gchakravarthy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:09:00 GMT

The way the English and the Australians have been treating the forthcoming Ashes for more than a year now, any of those "new eyeballs" (that the IPL and/or the World T20 might have managed to capture) that fall upon the build up can't be blamed for concluding that the Ashes was a tussle between the ECB's marketing forces and Australians' vicissitudes.

Under these circumstances, the Aussie traveling party was announced first, as expected, since they have to then travel ... duh! Their English counterparts were decided upon by Geoff Miller and co. more recently.

Let's take a look at the repercussions of these according to some of our own counterparts on the blogosphere.

In the green and gold corner, the Aussie perspective:

The fingers that type @ "A cricketing view" summed up the differences between the current bag of baggy greens and the last one that went to England in 2005:

2009 Ashes Squad - Australia
Ricky Ponting (c), Michael Clarke (vc), Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin, Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, Phillip Hughes, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Graham Manou, Andrew McDonald, Marcus North, Peter Siddle, Shane Watson.
2005 Ashes Squad - Australia
*Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke, Jason Gillespie, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Brad Hodge,Justin Langer, Michael Kasprowicz, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Shaun Tait, Shane Warne, Stuart Clark (added 9/8/05)

"The Cricket-Bloggers" danced a few steps further down and actually forced a final XI out of their system:

Phillip Hughes
Simon Katich
Ricky Ponting
Michael Clarke
Michael Hussey (demoted one spot due to lack of form)
Marcus North
Brad Haddin
Mitchell Johnson
Brett Lee
Peter Siddle
Stuart Clark

From the greener pastures of England, the view seems to be ... well, greener on the same side. The English seem to be hopelessly in love with the idea of an encore of the 2005 scoreline:

The "3rd Umpire", though, seems to lament the demise of Michael Vaughan, at least as an Ashes cricketer.

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The selection of a 16-man Ashes training squad, alongside an England Lions XI to face Australia, provides many portents for the summer ahead. The complete omission of Michael Vaughan is the clearest indication yet his Test career is at an end.

The English also seem to have come to terms with the fact that the reduction in Monty Panesar's cricket prowess has either meant or coincided with an enrichment in England's spin coffers. The rise of Graeme Swann and Adil Rashid has tickled the English imagination and led to the sort of pre-series chatter that one might encounter before an India-Sri Lanka series where spin bowling commands prime real estate with the fourth estate.

That feeling itself seems to be at (b)loggerheads (haa!) with the Aussie version, headed by the popular JRod, which suggests that Hilditch and co. should ditch all spin completely for a pace battery.

In the meanwhile, Australia's first warm-up match against Sussex shows that their batsmen need to learn quickly to play the quicks in England. Patrick Kidd points out how even the Italians and Germans seem to be enough to dislodge the Aussies this time around:

It is possible that by this dent to Aussie morale, Sandri could become the most important Italian cricketer since Ted Dexter (born in Milan). Ponting fell to Luke Wright and James Kirtley bagged Hussey but Sandri came roaring back by dismissing Katich and North to make it 3-2 to Italy.

Speaking of bloggerheads, looks like the Ashes have been advanced:

Whoever told you the first game will be on 8th July was wrong.
The first game of the Ashes series will take place between the best of England and the best of Australia at Barnes CC in London on Monday, 29th June.

Harmi-chameleon

gchakravarthy — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:21:00 GMT

As the ECB's marketing team ensures that The Ashes will scatter all over the cricket landscape in the next few weeks a familiar pre-Ashesquestion also makes in customary (at least from the evidence of the last 4 campaigns) rounds:

Will Steven Harmison be back in the English side?

Our friends @ The Corridor certainly agree:

It may be a trend, Steve Harmison starting the season well for Durham to yet again persuade England’s selectors that he should be picked. It’s a depressing one though, isn’t it, when his domestic performances are laced with evidence of extreme talent which has only emerged occasionally in internationals, interspersed with nervous and occasionally appauling efforts for England.

Steven's recent, aggression-filled performances for Durham have not gone unnoticed by, well, duckingbeamers:, even as Harmy himself seems to have been affected more by the outcome of such aggression that the batsmen who bore the brunt of it ... at least, physically:

“It’s the worst thing in the world when you hit somebody,” Steve said. “I really don’t like it at all. I s*** myself when I hit Tony Frost. I was upset by that. And the same when I hurt Ian Bell.”

Statements that were interpreted by Patrick Kidd @ Line and Length to be indicative of his "softness":

I want my fast bowlers to enjoy hitting batsmen if that is what the occasion demands. Remember the aggression at the start of the 2005 Ashes, when Langer was hit on the forearm and Ponting's cheek was cut by a bouncer into his helmet? It set the tone and showed that we would not be bullied.

On the other hand, the guys @ The Ashes Cricket Live think the only thing relevant from the recent domestic tournament is that the English bowlers seem to be hitting more than just batsmen ... they might be hitting prime form:

England bowlers participating in county championship action this week have been in top form. With all bowlers all hoping for a place in the starting line up in The Ashes, England vs Australia, come the first test match in Cardiff on 8th July.

So while many, like the few @ Cricket 24x7, wonder how Australia's premature ousting from the World T20 might affect their morale going into the Ashes ... or won't ...

It's funny how Shane Warne's brain works. I daresay quite a few other Aussie cricketers (current and former), cricket administrators and cricket commentators/writers would have also thought along similar lines after Australia were bundled out of the T20 World Cup.

the English selectors have clearly seem to have indicated, they don't want any mental cases coming into this year's Ashes by leaving our Michael Vaughan and Steve Harmison out of the squad ... a couple who know what it takes to beat the Aussies but also know, and only too well, what it feels like to be beaten really badly by them.

Introducing: The Manoachirector

gchakravarthy — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:48:00 GMT

First there was the captain, then came the manager, then the "coach". Each with an increasingly lower shelf-life, maybe not individually but as a breed. Now walks in Andy Flower. The great lefty opener that he was, he opens once again for this new breed ... and guess what, it is from the left-field to boot! Trust the ECB to "innovate" yet again by creating the: "Team Director".

As if to confirm the warne-ing that It is already a cliche to call the coach a team-bus, the English cricket establishment has established yet another new post that their prima donna national players could have a beef with, although there seems to be enough "e-pinion" that suggests that the two men newly at the helm of the English team probably have more in common than, well, just being familiar with being at the top of the order in a lefty kind of way .. .and a first name.

You know what they say about e-pinions though (e-pinions are like blogs ... e-veryone has them!) and so does this one.

If one thought a coach was one too many, John Buchanan has taken off on a different tangent altogether by instituting the ploy of multiple captains for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Actually, if one were to pay a modicum of attention more than needed to the name of the franchise itself, one might immediately realize that in the fantasy world of Knight Riders, there has to be more than one knight! But the "real" world doesn't need more than one Knight to Ride a team if you were to believe this Gentleman.

One of Sunny's ex-adversaries, Tony, feels that the Andy-Andy combo might not be that handy if and when Strauss leaves the scene.

Regardless of how dandy things might be between the Andies, manager, coach, and team director all just seem to be euphemisms for a non-playing captain, and that is someone cricketers and captains just don't seem to want at all.

Which begs the question ... is the "Team Director" a new beginning for this non-playing captain or is this the beginning of the end for him?

Lanka progress and Fab Four decline

dcsiva — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:57:00 GMT

As England wrap up a final Test win against South Africa, with that cynical little man back in action, Sri Lanka win the series against India. Straight Point breaks out a statistics analysis against sleepy Fab Four supporters to argue that the Fab Four are in permanent decline not just in a temporary dip:

i wanted to put stats of other two (sehwag and gambirs) but i dropped the idea coz figures were embarrassing to compare...

if you further break it series per series basis...i.e. starting from Oz series to SA to SL series or breaking it from last 20 innings to last 15 to last 10 to even last 5 innings...

whichever way you wanna look at it...i am sure that...the decline will appear more continuously downwards...almost like a pattern...indicating that the fall in form is not temporary...or sudden...as we are being made to believe...

I'm not sure I'm awake yet. Mohan meanwhile sees a silver lining in Tendulkar getting injured---Badrinath gets a recall. But as Ottayan points out, the Vir-Gati opening combination that Tendulkar would have disrupted means that Badrinath is unlikely to play.

Lastly, a quiz from Patrick Kidd to help wake me up.

Smith smites England

dcsiva — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Graeme Smith extraordinary century gives South Africa their first series win in England since their re-entry into the international game:

Smith made an unbeaten 154 as South Africa won by five wickets to take a winning 2-0 lead in the four-Test series. "I've had some meaningful innings in my life but with the whole situation and for the people back home, it's bigger than just us, this victory. I'd have to say it's my best innings," said Smith.
England counterpart Michael Vaughan said defeat was a bitter blow but paid tribute to Smith. "We've all just witnessed a very, very special innings. The way Graeme Smith came out and played was as good as I've seen anyone chase down that sort of target under that sort of pressure."
South Africa were set to make 281, by 70 runs the highest successful fourth innings chase in a Test match at Edgbaston and South Africa's fourth highest of all time.

Brian Carpenter calls it just right:

The undefeated 154 with which he took his country to its first victory on English soil since the summer before I was born was a true classic, combining determination, measured strokeplay, good judgement and the priceless ability to ignore what was going on at the other end, namely that a series of batsmen were getting pinned by deliveries which they didn't see.

And here's The Tooting Trumpet back again with a wonderful piece on the meaning of it all:

If you’re a Son of the Voortrekkers or the Zulu or any other group of the Rainbow Nation, this is a proud day. Your captain, Graeme Smith, has emerged from the IPL winning Rajasthan Royals a less intense, but equally driven man, who has learned much from the greatest captain Test cricket never saw, one SK Warne, and delivered a series win in England for the first time since 1965. If you’re a Son of The Old Dart, it’s like the Fletcher years (1999-2006) never happened.

Next up, Australia in December.

Gamesmanship and luncheon

dcsiva — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:25:00 GMT

Clearly New Zealand were robbed of a victory against England in the recent ODI:

The New Zealanders were desperate to complete the 20th over, which would have allowed them to win under the Duckworth/Lewis regulations if they had scored seven further runs without losing a wicket.
But to the agony of Brendon McCullum, who was unbeaten on 60, the umpires decided that the conditions had deteriorated too severely and the game had to come to an end.

But was it because of the rain, the fixed length break between innings, or simply because England bowled at an astonishing rate of 13 overs an hour? The latter, surely? But the fix is in for the fixed length break only:

Umpires will now have the option of reducing it to a minimum of 10 minutes to try and ensure a result. ICC regulation 15.1 now reads: "The duration of the interval shall be agreed mutually by the umpires and both captains subject to no interval being of more than 30 minutes' duration or less than 10 minutes' duration.

Meanwhile, the BCCI is being generous enough to discuss the possibility of a Test Championship with the ICC, whilst also warning the English counties of the consequences of picking ICL players in the English Twenty20 league. And, on another note entirely, here's Q's great post on switch hitting.

Champions League planning

dcsiva — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:55:00 GMT

Homer covers the possibility of an Twenty20 champions league. As does Miriam, both with not much enthusiasm. The main issue being how to reconcile which team a player should play for if two or more of their teams make it to the league. And of course the ever present ICL problem. Homer on Modi on both:

As Commisioner of the IPL, it is Mr Modi's responsibility to take care of the interests of the IPL ( and the franchises). It therefore follows that Mr Modi will make a strong case for the IPL franchises that are going to be involved in the "Champions League". Hence the first priority over players. ( This is a dichotomy that the English Counties will face also, given the number of Kolpak and overseas players ( two per team per last count) present in the 18 Counties. How they intend to resolve this is yet to be determined).

Whether this is viable and will come to fruition is a whole different story altogether, but Mr Modi would be doing the IPL and the franchises a dis-service if he said anything otherwise ( to the detriment of the IPL franchises).

Then there is the question of the ICL players -the IPL ( and the BCCI) had taken a hardline against the ICL and I don't see why that would change for the Champions League.

King Cricket reviews the state of England's cricket team. First the batting, and then the bowling. Suave's is altogether more succinct about the series as a whole. And here's a great take on batsmen taking guard by Gideon Haigh. And an account of quite possibly India's best cricket writer by Suresh Menon.

IPL identities and blog sledging

dcsiva — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:25:00 GMT

Homer links to posts by Ducking Beamers on identities in the IPL. Beamers starts with:

Recently, I’ve found it difficult to make even the most basic points to my friends — the importance of empirical evidence in rational debate, for instance — but I want to take on a much complicated topic, involving post-colonialism, sledging, and media coverage. Stay with me.

And the first comment in response:

so you are ashamed of your fellow indians…they didn’t act western enough for you. I don’t think the problem is with indians i believe its with you…your are ashamed how this will reflect with your WESTERN friends.

Over in the West, Chrispy went to the Rose Bowl to see the England Lions take on New Zealand and has some great photographs to prove it.

And Patrick Kidd lists his probable XI:

So... Probable XI: Strauss, Cook, Vaughan, Pietersen, Bell, Collingwood, Ambrose, Broad, Sidebottom, Anderson, Panesar. In other words, no change bar the opening pair from the winter. I'd play Bopara instead of Collingwood and Hoggard instead of Anderson. And warn Cook, Vaughan and Bell that they owe a few big scores if they want to play against South Africa. And what about Saqlain Mushtaq...

Finally, Nanda points to a wonderful cartoon site reflecting on the IPL.

Ramps up to Test cricket and mental toughness

dcsiva — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:38:00 GMT

Why isn't Mark Ramprakash playing for England? Mark reckons it's all down to...what exactly? Is it social class or race or just being anti-establishment?

Why am I pointing all this out now? Well, there's much talk at the moment as to why Mark Ramprakash can't get in the England side. Well, if you go back and re-read some of the descriptions applied to Trueman in the third paragraph, you might get an idea why Mark Ramprakash wasn't given the extended run in the team he deserved, whilst people like Mike Gatting and Graeme Hick were given every opportunity. It also might explain why Owais Shah wasn't picked ahead of Andrew Strauss last winter.

Also, if Ramprakash's surname was 'Richardson' or 'Roberts' I reckon he'd be in the England team today. Let's face it, with an average of over a hundred in the past two years, and one ton already under his belt this year, he certainly justifies it on form.

Sandy Gordon, he of coaching psychology fame, is doing research on emotional intelligence on and off the field. Perhaps Harbhajan and Sreesanth and all the various mental frailties that good county cricket players are exposed to when they step up to Test standard are related?

"While other sports play a similar form of global entertainment that professional sport has become, only cricket seems poorly equipped to deal with the market forces at work," he noted. "We will leverage off our current research on refining a Cricket Mental Toughness Inventory, which was funded by Cricket Australia," revealed Dr Gordon. He is also the senior lecturer at the School of Human Movement and Exercise Science of The University of Western Australia.

Meanwhile, Sajith points to yet another synergy between film and cricket:

In an event, which has been lorded by the Bollywood, the epsiode was a replica of the
tear-jerkers seen on the small screen. Sreesanth, and his teary face, resembled Tulsi and Harbhajan resembled the strict father-in-law. But, to me it was Gabbar Singh v/s Mogambo. For once, Bollywood was rampant on the cricket field.