Cover Points : South Africa

Semi Final brings Pakistan a full circle

gchakravarthy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:08:00 GMT

A tale of the PowerPak v. the Safferers:

Albie in the Finals!!! Steyn alive, charging like a Jacques ... for one Morkel, made it to Botha Finals" - Younus Khan 23 minutes ago
Will this be Pakistan's Doom(iny)? 29 minutes ago
Wasim bowling to Wessels ... in the commentary box!! Oh! It's a *** comment followed by a *** comment. It's all crappening here ... 31 minutes ago
Akram WAZ a great bowler, but 'IM a crappy commentator. "Suppperb bowling ... supperb bowling ... suppperb bowling ..." 35 minutes ago
Full-of-crap Wessels is silent now!! 40 minutes ago
Says one green to another ... you're blue! ABD falls to AfriD and in comes JPD about 1 hour ago
Said one charger to another ... you're out of juice! But Gibbs checks the ball from Afridi after it has bowled him. Is this a sign of more hapless allegations to come? about 1 hour ago
Pakistan take a catch ... AMIRacle! Graemey innings ends. Maybe just as well for the Saffers! about 1 hour ago
Umer Goal! about 2 hours ago
Empty Wessels is making too much noise. about 2 hours ago
JP TooMany about 3 hours ago
Roll off van Der Nerve !! about 3 hours ago
Can Y. Khan do an I. Khan in the cricket World Cup? about 3 hours ago

Choke De! South Africa?

gchakravarthy — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:27:00 GMT

Indian fans might not have the opportunity to chant their favorite catchphrase any longer in the second ever World T20 Cup.

The news cloud online seems to be full of suggestions that they could have a similar-sounding one for South Africa, if their previous performances in World Cups, indeed in any major ICC tournaments for that matter, are anything to go by.

And that was when they were NOT expected to win those tournaments anyway.

This time around, they actually have been the favorites from day -4.

The last time they went into something having been expected to come out winners on the other side thereof, they lost a test series to Australia.

Some Aussies would like to firmly believe so, especially since the Australian team was unceremoniously sent off from the tournament. Others are pretty sure that will happen.

But, looking from within South Africa, it seems like the chokers tag might be turned right on its own head in what is a factually well backed up take.

Hindsight is 20-20

gchakravarthy — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:19:00 GMT

Ok ... what just happened?

We all have come to terms with the fact that the 2009 edition of the Indian Premier League is NOT actually being in India. But how many of us were ready for the rest of the topsy-turvy ouctomes in just 2 days of IPL?

All 8 teams have played at least one match each and here's what's happened:

Last year's finalists both lost their first matches.
Last year's champions, in fact, ended up with the lowest total in "IPL history".
Last year's worst 2 teams won their first matches and that too with huge margins.
Last year's champions, in fact, lost to last year's worst team.

As far as individual performances go, the so-called old-timers, the ones who are supposedly "not suited for the shorter game", the "slow movers", the ones who are not considered good enough to be part of their national team, were indeed the stars of the first round:

Rahul Dravid ended up with a 120+ rated 66 to give his team's bowlers a something to defend
Anil Kumble, one of those bowlers, ended up with figures of 3.5 overs 5 wickets for 5 runs!
Sachin Tendulkar held his team's batting order in order and did what Rahul Dravid did for the Royal Challengers.

Batsmen were supposed to take everything the away bowlers and into the stands:

Anil Kumble has already been mentioned above
Ojha and Vettori did exceptionally well for the Chargers

You heard it ... this IS South Africa we are talking about and it is spinning like a top and the top spinners are out to hunt.

Captains were swapped around:

Gilly for VVS
KP for the Wall
Paaji for Bhajji (even though Bhajji did it since Sachin was out due to injury the last time around)
McCullum for Dada

One thing that stayed in line with expectations was the importance of an all rounder. This was illustrated in the match up between Kolkata and Deccan which staged quite a first in that it had or captains 2 players who were truly all rounders. McCullum and Gilchrist are each wicket-keeping batsmen, openers at that, AND captains of their respective star-studded teams.

It was quite intereting to note that South Africans refer to their kids who attend school as learners and not students. So even as Lalit Modi hands over a cheque for ZAR100,000 to a South African school and thier learners jump up in joy, one can't but wonder what the older but equally keen and astute learners of cricket will be learning from the benefit of their hindsight from the first IPL season. Those IPL "leader caps" might exchange very strange hands this time around.

The T20 format might not have too much of a history, but has enough for cliches to have come out already. "All it takes is one over for the match to turn completely" anyone?

Well, looks like all it takes is one season for some seasoned cricketers to turn their limited overs career around.

And then there were (n)one - Part 1 - The wins

arvi — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:10:00 GMT

Agatha Christie's famous novel did have one left in the end though the readers find that out only in the end. Similarly, when Edwards walked in,walked in the latest thriller @ ARG(ggg), England could have been forgotten for thinking that it was a...(read more)

Bradman's perfection

dcsiva — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:27:00 GMT

Do you know what Don Bradman's Test average is? Of course you do. Except, apparently, you don't. Via Ottayan comes news that Charles Davis, a cricket-mad statistician, says he's uncovered a possible missing four runs from Bradman's record:

In the scorebook of the epic eight-day fifth Test of 1928-29 against England in Melbourne, won by Australia by five wickets, there is a "problem" boundary in the final stages, when Bradman was batting with Jack Ryder. (I found this when rescoring the Test, ball by ball, to re-create the exact sequence of events.)

The relevant sections of Bill Ferguson's original score are illustrated: there are four runs attributed to Ryder that are in the wrong place in both the batting section of the score and in the bowling section (Maurice Tate's 35th over). There is no doubt that a recording error of some kind has occurred. So where do these runs belong?

Perhaps Ryder scored them at some other point of the innings. Perhaps they were not scored at all (in which case Australia, technically, did not win the match). More importantly, perhaps they were scored by Bradman. Just perhaps.

This would, of course, make Bradman's average the perfect 100.00. But Davis' account of his quest---for quest it is---is more illuminating for the details of his and other statisticians' attempts to reconcile anomalies:

It is worth remembering, of course, that errors could easily cut both ways: Bradman could lose runs as easily as gain runs this way. Ultimately, that iconic average of 99.94 will probably stand. Wisden is against the retrospective alteration of scores ("that way madness lies") and I tend to agree. I do think, however, that problems with scores from the pre-computer age may create uncertainties of a few parts in a thousand.

For most statistics, this is no more than historical footnote. The Bradman average is an exception: if it really is 99.94 "plus or minus", there will always be that tantalising possibility of the magic 100.

Another lovely article on Bradman (there'll be many to celebrate his 100th anniversary) looks at his role in opposing apartheid, specifically cancelling the Aussie tour of South Africa in 1971:

Accompanied by the South African ambassador, Bradman witnessed 1971's Australia-South Africa rugby Test in Sydney. He abhorred the violence of protesters, who invaded the field, and left with concerns that a cricket match would be hard to police, and that cricket would be worse for it.

But in his last year as chairman of the Australian Cricket Board, Bradman stood firm. The cricket tour was still on. He told Rivett the rugby team "comprised mainly of [apartheid-supporting] Afrikaners", while white cricketers were "basically of English descent" and supported a political party not opposed to mixed sport.

But his mind was open to other possibilities than this rather odd one. He sought other opinions and deepened his own:

But Bradman had a flexible mind, and decided to explore the issue himself. He wrote to the anti-apartheid protest movement in Australia, asking them to explain the demonstrating. Meredith Burgmann was astonished to receive such a request from someone she regarded as typically, trenchantly Establishment.

Bradman was intrigued. He flew to South Africa to meet its prime minister, John Vorster, a wartime admirer of the *** and Adolf Hitler. Vorster expected Bradman to support the tour, but the meeting quickly became tense, then sour. Bradman asked questions in his direct way about why blacks were denied the chance to represent their country. Vorster suggested they were intellectually inferior and could not cope with cricket's intricacies. Bradman asked Vorster: "Have you ever heard of Garry Sobers?"

Vorster's racist attitudes - Bradman thought them "ignorant and repugnant" - contributed to his change of mind, which had been precipitated by Burgmann and Rivett. Bradman flew to Britain to meet Harold Wilson and Ted Heath, British political leaders who had dealt with the protest problem in England. Bradman returned to Australia with his mind made up. He reached agreement with Cricket Board fellow members, called a media conference and announced the tour's cancellation. Bradman made a simple one-line statement: "We will not play them [South Africa] until they choose a team on a non-racist basis." In South Africa, Vorster vented his anger publicly against Bradman while the African National Congress rejoiced.
...
In April 1986, a Commonwealth group of seven "eminent persons", including Malcolm Fraser, visited the imprisoned Nelson Mandela, whose commanding presence belied his 24 years of incarceration. His first question was, "Is Don Bradman still alive?" Bradman had been Mandela's sporting hero, and his 1971 ban-the-tour decision deepened the endearment.

In 1993, a South African team, chosen on a non-racist basis, toured Australia.

The same article carries Meredith Burgmann's recollections of her correspondence with Bradman.

Perhaps we could have done with better administrators to the Hair situation? He's retired finally.

Team ESPN takes on ICC/BCCI?

dcsiva — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:48:00 GMT

Even before this Sunday's ICC teleconference decision day, South Africa have backed out of the Champions Trophy:

CSA studied security in Pakistan and plans for the event, along with reports from the South African government.
South African Cricketers’ Association CEO Tony Irish said: "This was a difficult decision but the right one."
...
The ICC task force has travelled to Australia, New Zealand and England in recent weeks to discuss security issues with the national cricketing bodies.
And those countries could now follow South Africa's example by withdrawing from the tournament.

As India and Pakistan have hardened their position on having to have the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, and they're bound to have at least Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on their sides, the stage is now set for ESPN-Star to sue the ICC!

If the board, the ICC's ultimate and often incompetent decision-making body, does not decide to move the tournament, broadcaster ESPN-Star is likely to sue the ICC for tens of millions of dollars in compensation.

Countries which refuse to compete may then in turn be sued by the ICC, which is why player associations in Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa have all been far more vocal than their boards.

Will the money-men of the BCCI now finally realise that they're playing with fire here? ESPN won't like losing millions of dollars on broadcasting an event that none of the big nations are playing in, that's for sure.

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.

India win by spin; England struggles with Twenty20

dcsiva — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:03:00 GMT

India manage to win what was a close game in style. Mahesh tries to find a turning point:

After the game, I tried to look back at the turning point of the game. Was it Ganguly’s 87 in the first innings, the 46 runs India added for the last wicket or even Sehwag’s double strike of Kallis and Smith?

King Cricket argues subtly and accurately that in India batsmen face an extreme trial by spin:

Harbhajan Singh opened the bowling for India today, hinting that South Africa’s batsmen were to face an EXTREME TRIAL BY SPIN. South Africa pretty much failed their EXTREME TRIAL BY SPIN, getting bowled out for 121.

Mike Brearley, now head of the MCC, and author of the much admired (and read?) The Art of Captaincy gave a speech about liking the Twenty20 form of the game:

Clearly we have to embrace the fizz-buzz appeal of Twenty20 cricket, but how do we - by we I mean the ICC, ECB and other interested bodies - stop the tail wagging the tiger?

Perhaps this is the wrong question? It leads to a conclusion like this.

Of course, there could be far more sweeping changes to the structure of cricket, to its administration and to its priorities. If we were going to start from scratch, we wouldn't start from where we are at all. But we are where we are. We have county set-ups. Clearly the Indian tiger in the shape of the BCCI will have to be talked to; and listened to. Inconveniently, this tiger is not going to become extinct. The problem will not go away.

Meanwhile, Jamie Jackson interviews the folks on the business side of the equation:

Andrew Wildblood, the IMG executive who dreamed up the IPL with its commissioner, Lalit Modi, over a cup of tea at last year's Wimbledon, tells Observer Sport: 'Cricket like any "product" has to respond to changes in its consumers' demand and must innovate to protect its future. The authorities need to be at the forefront of this, as has clearly been the case in India. I believe that the ECB should at least consider something like a franchised, private ownership model, or creating new entities playing Twenty20. I think this can be done in a manner that is complementary to the existing structure and creates new value for existing stakeholders.