Cover Points : county cricket

Durham are Kings and Srikkanth's the Chief

dcsiva — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:51:00 GMT

Durham are county champions! Not just that, but the manner in which they won is compelling:

Durham's route to the title has been due to their excellent team spirit, with various people stepping forward to take responsibility and few stand-out performers. Only Michael di Venuto, and he only just, passed 1,000 runs in the Championship and only three batsmen who played more than half the fixtures finished with an average above 22. In bowling, they relied on Mark Davies, Callum Thorp and especially Stephen Harmison for most of their wickets but their rotation system brought forth other wicket-takers. They claimed fewer batting points than four of the eight teams below them and fewer bowling points than five others. But most importantly they won more games than anyone else.

Tooting Trumpet has the individuals' review run down for the division one county season as a whole.

And, of course, Kris Srikkanth is now the chief selector. Sandeep Patil reckons changes are afoot. Straight Point kicks off the analysis of his chiefness' intentions. Finally, Mohan gives us the new look BCCI, complete with a review of the official BCCI website.

Edit: More on the BCCI's website.

More Mendis, no Sehwag

dcsiva — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:40:00 GMT

Sri Lanka beat India easily. Will India come back again in the second game? Dileep Premachandran says Mendis is the culprit:

Eight of the Indians reached double figures, but came no nearer to finding a solution to the Mendis conundrum that has ruined their tour of the teardrop-shaped isle. Mendis, who took out Dravid and Laxman for fun during the Test series, accounted for Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni as India's youth proved as clueless as the experienced hands had against Sri Lanka's spin duo.

Soulberry is less than impressed by the Indian batsmen's inability to watch the ball:

What can it be about Mendis that foxes Indian players? Are they watching the hand? Are they watching the ball's rotation of seam and flight to judge the final result? Are they aware of the pace of the ball as a matter of sixth sense? Why can't they come forward and play? Why can't they use their feet and play? If they watch the ball closely and use their feet, don't tell me there is a spinner (and this one isn't a big one...he relies on deception...fooling players with a large variety of balls with subtle varations) who cannot be dealt with 7 out of 10 times!

I know the above para opens me to mockery...here are cricket gurus with lakhs of runs and hundreds of collective man-years playing and failing, and here I am, an arm-chair pundit talking this and that. I acknowledge that I am open to mockery, but only a fool ignores suggestions when he has no answers. The least anyone can do is look at the options and suggestions and reject those which do not work.

Martyd succumbs to the Mendis "hype" with a great work on Mendis in action. But more of a problem for India is that Muralitharan has started taking wickets again (just tailenders this time) and that Vaas and Kulasekara bowled well at the beginning. Will it all look different again, when Sehwag comes back?

Meanwhile a couple of tennis ball cricket authorities in India are fighting for recognition of tennis ball cricket as an official sport. Has no judge seen Chennai 28 yet?! And The Atheist gives us a lovely fan's eye view of the Friends Provident Final.

Banning playing with ICL players

dcsiva — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:43:00 GMT

It's a convoluted piece of logic, to be sure. Apparently the BCCI has seen fit to tell Indian players not to play for any teams that have ICL players in them:

"The BCCI has advised its players to stay away from counties that have ICL players," board secretary Niranjan Shah told Mumbai's Mid Day tabloid on Friday.

"We are not saying that no player can play county cricket in the future. The England and Wales Cricket Board is coming out with a policy regarding ICL within a year. So, we will see how it goes," Shah added.

There's the restraint of trade angle to all of this, of course, but most of all the degrees of separation aspect is extraordinary:

So you play for the ICL, then travel to England and play for Notts, then VVS Laxman can’t sign up for Notts. You go to Aberdeen for a vacation, and Rahul Dravid can’t vacation in Scotland for the rest of his life. You book in to a British Airways flight to go to England to watch the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and you’ve denied Sachin Tendulkar the opportunity to meet Lewis Hamilton.

As Geetha Krishnan suggests, there's more than a hint of the contamination logic of caste here. The ICL's route forward is obvious: get their players into as many different teams around the world as they possibly can and make it impossible for a BCCI-sanctioned player to play anywhere at all... Hah!

EPL, a bitter pill

dcsiva — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:53:00 GMT

Hold the press! The ECB has a new competition in the offing that will revolutionize the game...featuring all the counties and then some more playing Twenty20. Who would have thought that the county boards could have thought of something just so exciting and revolutionary.

Or was that self-serving and stultifying? I forget. The actually interesting Stewart/Bradshaw proposal is out and we have this instead:

The EPL will have two divisions of 10 teams featuring the 18 existing counties plus two overseas teams.
There will also be a Twenty20 League to replace the existing Twenty20 Cup.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has yet to confirm which foreign teams will play in the EPL but the winners of the Indian Premier League and a Sir Allen Stanford XI are rumoured to be the ones that will be chosen.

Andrew Miller is quite scathing, and Jonathan Liew compares it to the Premiership:

What the EPL vision reminds me of most is not its Indian counterpart, but its footballing equivalent: the bloated, joyless Premiership. A middle-class preserve, a place where corporate fools will go to show how ‘down with it’ they are, the domain of Sky or Setanta subscribers alone. We will be told, patronisingly, that this is the price you pay for higher standards.

Finally, Q has the run down on Pakistan's probables squad for the Champions Trophy, including an introduction to the 5 unknowns in the squad.

Sri Lanka all tear shaped

dcsiva — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:57:00 GMT

Sri Lanka Cricket just solved a payrise problem---Ottayan says that their debts have been cleared by the upcoming India tour---but are in all kinds of trouble over the newly scheduled tour next year to England. Looks like they're seriously considering letting their star players play in the IPL next year instead of touring England:

"The issue is yet to be finalised and very much at a discussion stage," the source said, asking to remain anonymous. He said they were awaiting a response from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Some 13 Sri Lankan cricketers, including star players Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara, have signed three-year contracts to play in the IPL.

The players argued they received permission to play in the IPL before the ECB came up with the idea of replacing Zimbabwe with Sri Lanka for the early part of the summer 2009.

Meanwhile the MCC, Surrey, Hampshire and Lancashire have been caught with a plan for a 50 million pound Twenty20 for the top nine counties only:

The quartet had planned to launch their manifesto at Tuesday's board meeting of the England and Wales Cricket Board but it was leaked yesterday. Tuesday's meeting will now be an explosive one. While the competition, it is claimed, could realise £85m annually, some of which would be passed on to all the 18 existing counties, those outside the charmed circle are bound to resist. The basic principle that all counties participate in domestic competitions is the bedrock of the existing domestic system.

Not only that, but the ECB wouldn't be fully in charge. And the backlash has been swift in coming. Finally, a brilliant post on Michael Vaughan by David Barry.

IPL fallout

dcsiva — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:23:00 GMT

Scorpicity argues that the IPL is really already over. The Royals won:

Seriously they have! Because how meaningless in context are these so-called knockout rounds in the name of Semi-finals and finals are in the IPL!

Why? Because a six league team just doesn't need a knock-out stage. A best of three final with the top two teams maybe. I think the deeper point may be that that all the narratives built around the different teams (Rajasthan are intelligent, Bangalore stupid, Kolkata fancy, etc.) are based on pretty flimsy grounds...not enough data.

Jagadish goes through all the injuries caused by playing over a month's worth of IPL. Hayden and Tendulkar stand out in particular:

All this makes me wonder if talk about international cricket being more important than the IPL is hogwash. If that indeed were the case, players wouldn't be risking aggravating injuries when they had international commitments immediately after the IPL ended.

And Sanjay posts news of the Indian ODI squad while the English counties start panicking over the ECB's trawling for ideas from broadcasters.

IPL league summaries

dcsiva — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:21:00 GMT

Q writes his 4th quarter report with not much time left for the start of the first semi-final. Shaun Marsh and Sohail Tanvir stand out with the bat and ball respectively, and Q picks out Piyush Chawla's excellent bowling too:

One man hasn't made his international debut yet, while the other is barely 8 months old in international cricket.

Yet Shaun Marsh and Sohail Tanvir are at the top of the leading run scorers and leading wicket takers at the end of the group stages of the Indian Premier League.
...
Its interesting to note the similarity between Warne's and Chawla's figures - same number of wickets, similar average, a similar economy rate (7.9 and 8.3 respectively), and exactly the same strike rate of 15.5!
One is the master leg spinner, arguably the best bowler ever to play test cricket. While the other is trying to cement his place in international cricket.
Yuvraj recently said that Chawla has always delivered when asked to.
That's true. He has consistently picked up wickets and checked the scoring of the opposition.

Rajneesh Gupta has a good statistical summary. The thing that stands out the most is the lack of value in all that information given the small number of matches and the haphazard nature of Twenty20.

Meanwhile, Suresh Menon writes about the IPL's spin doctors. And the BBC writes about the ECB's upcoming meeting about reforming county cricket. What are the bets that they'll do nothing much?

Disenchantment and money

dcsiva — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:50:00 GMT

Mohan is a little disenchanted with the IPL, worrying about its length and ability to generate fan following, while Richard wants to rethink the league format of county cricket to make it more competitive. Continuing in the rethinking mode but this time on the relationship between the IPL and all the money swilling around, the Business Standard has interviews on accountability, the Hindu on outsourcing marketing in the IPL, and Partab Ramchand somehow concludes that cricket is no longer a sport:

Cricket is no longer a sport, it is a business and that point has just been driven home by the failures of two high-profile teams and the reactions to their disastrous campaigns.

What's the contradiction? Lastly, in this series of links, Vivek Chaudhary contrasts money in the English Premiership and in the IPL.

Ottayan links to Robin's link to a touching Times of India story on Gony.

County cricket and improving with age

dcsiva — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:21:00 GMT

Brian Carpenter links to a wonderful article by Simon Hughes on Mark Ramprakash. I too remember Ramps making his start in county cricket and thinking that he would soon dominate world cricket:

Even though I belong to the apparently small group of people who feel that it would have been a retrograde step to bring Ramprakash back into the England side in the last few seasons, Hughes's excellent article has many resonances for me. In 1988 I was a Middlesex supporter and was at Lord's for Ramprakash's heroics in the NatWest Final. Indeed I still have a scorecard which he signed for me at a reception afterwards in the Lord's Banqueting Suite.

Those of us who knew what he could do then were among the most disappointed by what came afterwards, but we'll surely be among those who raise a glass highest when the inevitable hundredth hundred comes.

I share your disappointment, Brian. But surely that doesn't mean that it's too late now? From Hughes' article, a telling moment for me:

When he moved to Surrey in 2001 the coaches ascertained that he conformed to one of 16 classic psychological types - introverted and prone to occasional hissy fits. They were sensitive and made allowances. At the same time he developed self-awareness through coaching. "I completed the level-four coaching course last year," he says. "I really enjoyed that and I've got a lot out of it which I can take into playing. For instance, in the first two weeks we did a management course where you learn about being with people and relating to different personalities. It's made me more aware of myself too. I wish I'd done that at 21."

It's too easy to be cynical about these things. Coaching does matter, and perhaps learning how to coach matters more.

Meanwhile, Ottayan spots a link to Mascarenhas' version of the real reason behind all the announcements about not wanting to join the IPL from English county player. The counties have not "given" permission.

Abolish the counties!

dcsiva — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:58:00 GMT

What would Twenty20 look like in the future in England? Cities, regions, or just plain old counties as it
is now? The last options seems entirely unworkable given the amount of money in the IPL and ICL. Is this, finally, the end of the counties' hold over English cricket? Q digs into the not-so-ancient history of Twenty20 cricket:

What I am going to delve into is what took place in Leicester, England in September 2005 - It was the International 20-20 Club Championship.

This was an idea that originated from Leicestershire with the backing of some Asian investors interested in cricket. The idea was to hold a 20-20 championship between the domestic 20-20 champions from around the world.

Will settles on regions as the best idea, because cities couldn't be inclusive enough:

We can forget 18 counties being involved. That much we know. And I’m not in favour of city-based franchises either as this will inevitably lead to some cities and towns being left out, or merged with a neighbour. For example, thinking purely geographically, Gloucestershire and Glamorgan would presumably be combined…but as what? Bristol or Cardiff? Exclude one and you’re effectively ruling out 50% of the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Regionalisation seems a fair and simple solution...

The BBC carries a story on splits within the counties on this question. AYALAC celebrates the climb-down from Giles Clarke.

And, lastly, those well known comedians in the Lok Sabha, pass the time discussing Twenty20:

And then came his questions, "Where are the funds coming from? Should cricket lose its nobility? Should gambling and betting be allowed in such an open manner."
The verbal jousting between the Speaker and Dasgupta went on for a couple of more minutes only to the delight of the House, with Chatterjee telling the CPI leader, "Afraid of you, the finance minister has fled." And as soon as Dasgupta had finished, finance minister P Chidambaram returned to his seat.
Dasgupta retaliated by saying, "I used to play cricket." The Speaker, however, had the last word, asking, "Why did you not continue?" The House had a good laugh before taking up the serious issue of the Finance Bill.

Bhajji fines and Cappy Clive

dcsiva — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:43:00 GMT

Bhajji has been banned from the rest of the IPL this year. But all the players are paid pro rata...so the fine is around 2.67 crore rupees! And the BCCI haven't got their hands on him yet.

Meanwhile, Chrispy rounds up the action in county cricket this week. Q goes over the stats so far in the IPL. And Rain No Play congratulates Jamaica on the triple. Finally, a lovely review of the biography on Clive Lloyd, Supercat, by Tooting Trumpet:

But to have seen him live (as I did many times) was to stare as this long, stooped figure, so very black in the bright sun, loped to the wicket, looked up at the umpire through his famous glasses and took guard. Hush, and then the unveiling of those uncoached, but perfectly honed strokes, all around the wicket, with a shot for a ball of any line, any length. Like everyone who has ever met him or seen him at work, my life was enriched by Big Clive and I am very, very grateful.

Bad pitches and good cricket?

dcsiva — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:02:00 GMT

Laxman and Ponting complain and the curator at Eden Park apologised for the pitch...as D.S. Henry puts it:

Well, yeah, if you ask a pair of batsmen, of course they're going to say it sucks. (It makes them look bad, what do you expect?) Did anyone bother asking Chaminda Vaas, who finished with figures of 2-for-9 in that game, how much of a "shocker" the wicket was for him?

To drive home the point, have Twenty20 sixes become devalued, even boring?

Heavy bats, short boundaries and flat pitches have ensured it is raining 'six' in the IPL
However, when we contemplate, these 'six' have no meaning in the larger context of the game. They leave no lasting impact and are mere statistics.

Finally, Richard Lake reviews the first week of county cricket.

Sehwag at Chepauk

dcsiva — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:47:00 GMT

Cricket guru, arguing that the flat pitch robs something from Sehwag's performance, describes Test cricket at Chepauk:

Chepauk, in past, has been witness to some remarkable test matches, beginning with the third and final test match of the 1933 home series against England. India’s first ever victory in a test match (1952) and the near victory against the WI in 1966/67, Vishy’s superb batting (1974/75), the tied test against Australia (1986), Hirwani’s dream debut against the West Indies (1988), Sachin’s memorable knock against Mark Taylor’s Australia (1998) and the standing ovation to the visiting Pakistan team (1999) bear testimony to it.

Shiv Kumar writes generously about Sehwag, pitch notwithstanding:

Sporting geniuses, who go on to become great, almost always wrap a few layers of illusion around their opponents. Sehwag typically prefers another illusion, that of vulnerability. The dangling backlift fooled the bowlers and the slips fielders- the in-sliders were met with a straight drive that had his arms trace a classical arc. If GR Vishvanath’s uncorking was an artistic suspension, Sehwag’s was no less thrilling, no less magical in execution and no less sweeter on the sound of leather kissing the willow.

King Cricket looks forward to the county season. And Srikanth and Soulberry welcome back Kaif.