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The ICC deserves credit for helping weaker teams prepare better for this World Cup – though the Big Three are threatening to undo all the good work that has been put in

Tim Wigmore16-Mar-2015The clarion cries to keep the “world” in the World Cup were largely absent four years ago. And the sea change has been driven by the ICC.If few organisations are more castigated than the ICC, perhaps even fewer are less understood. The decision to contract the 2019 and 2023 World Cups to ten teams is the will of the ICC Executive Committee – in reality, Giles Clarke, N Srinivasan and Wally Edwards. Yet the ICC is brimming with employees who look at the plans no more favourably than the Twitterati do, and are zealous in their commitment to the organisation’s creed of building “a bigger, better, global game”.The 2015 World Cup has provided much vindication for their work. While, just as in the 2011 World Cup, Ireland have been the flag bearers for those who want cricket to be more than a ten-nation game, the real story has been the improvement in the other three Associates.They often made for unpalatable viewing in 2011. Netherlands (who did push England hard in their opening game) lost by 215 runs to West Indies and 231 runs to South Africa, and were bowled out for 160 in their six-wicket loss to Bangladesh. Canada lost by 210 runs to Sri Lanka and by 175 runs to Zimbabwe. Worst of all were Kenya, who were bundled out for 69 in their ten-wicket thumping by New Zealand, and then lost by 205 runs to Pakistan, nine wickets to Sri Lanka, and 161 runs to Zimbabwe. Few were willing to argue that this trio added to the spectacle of the tournament.So there was plenty for the ICC to review when it analysed the performances of the four qualifiers in 2011. “We looked at 50 or 60 different factors across everything from administration to domestic structures to the support around the team,” explains Richard Done, the ICC high performance manager.The ICC did well to have the 2014 World Cup qualifier played in New Zealand, co-hosts of the World Cup•ICCIreland were regarded as the model, and not just on the pitch. They had “the best structure, the best administration, the best support staff and the best coaches”. Done endeavoured to import these standards into other leading Associates. “Over the last four years we’ve really worked hard on the quality of the people. We’ve got a better group of CEOs.”Until 2011, most leading Associates were pop-up cricket teams. Besides the World Cup and the qualifying tournament, many had no other guaranteed one-day cricket. That changed during the latest World Cup cycle: the World Cricket League Championship gave Associates 14 games against each other between June 2011 and November 2013, providing a constant focus and a barometer of their progress. It also gave Associates a pathway to World Cup qualification, with Afghanistan and Ireland securing the two automatic berths to the World Cup.Qualification for the 2011 World Cup was determined exclusively by a tournament in South Africa in April 2009. This was deeply unsatisfactory for two reasons. Firstly, the four qualifiers in 2009 were probably not the best four Associates by 2011; Afghanistan “may well have made it,” had the qualifier been a year later, Done notes. Secondly, conditions in South Africa did not much resemble those in the World Cup in Asia. Judiciously, the tournament to determine the final two qualifiers for the 2015 World Cup, alongside Afghanistan and Ireland, was held in New Zealand last January. “It certainly helped getting some experience on the wickets,” says David East, the chief executive of the Emirates Cricket Board.The challenge now was to ensure the four qualifiers would provide the ICC with more to show for its work in expanding cricket beyond its traditional frontiers than in previous tournaments. At a meeting of the ICC High Performance Programme in 2013, a target of four wins for Associates over Full Members – three more than in 2011 – was set.An extra $1 million was released to help the four qualifiers prepare. The bulk was spent arranging tours to Australia and New Zealand between September and November. All four qualifiers played seven or eight matches against state, district or representative sides, including at venues they would play at in the tournament.”There’s no experience like playing against good teams in the specific conditions that you’re going to be playing in in the World Cup,” says Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of Cricket Ireland. “It certainly helped our guys visualise what they could expect when it came to the matches themselves.” Camps were then arranged for all four teams in November in Dubai, to review the tours and work with specialist coaches like Paul Collingwood.In 2011, none of the Associates were fully professional (Ireland, with 13 professionals, came closest.) But in 2015, three have fully professional squads. UAE are the exception, but it is not quite accurate to label them a team of amateurs. UAE introduced player support agreements for 20 players in preparation for the World Cup, providing coaching staff with far greater access to the players in the nine months prior to the World Cup.They also recruited a strength and conditioning coach. “This improvement in fitness and agility has arguably been the biggest, most important difference to the professionalism of the team,” East believes. Indeed, better fielding has been a hallmark of all Associates this tournament. “If you were to compare the Associate sides this time round to the Associates in the past, you can see the quality of fielding has really picked up,” Deutrom says.The ICC’s decision to contract the next two World Cups seems myopic, thanks to the fight shown by the Associates this time round•AFPIncreased funding for top Associates has helped this cause. Since the last World Cup, the ICC has tweaked its funding model for Associates to target the more successful nations, which have received around 20% more in real terms than in the previous four-year cycle.But most important has been the introduction of the Targeted Assistance Performance Programme (TAPP), a fund created in 2012 to boost the competitiveness of Associates and the lower-ranked Full Members. The fund paid for Ireland to set up its new inter-provincial structure in 2013, providing players not involved in county cricket with strong domestic competition in all three formats of the game. TAPP also bankrolled a new academy in Afghanistan.It has funded playing opportunities for Associates, like Ireland’s tour of the West Indies last January, and Afghanistan’s four-match ODI series in Zimbabwe in July. It also funded New Zealand A’s tour of UAE last winter, when they played Afghanistan, Ireland and the hosts. Lindsay Crocker, New Zealand Cricket’s head of cricket, credits TAPP as being “essential” in helping emerging talents like Adam Milne be “schooled” before playing international cricket.The New Zealand A games against the Associates were mutually beneficial: Andy Balbirnie’s 129 against an attack including two members of New Zealand’s World Cup squad sealed his Ireland berth. However, as part of the Big Three’s drive to reduce spending on ICC development programmes, TAPP was scrapped after the restructuring of the ICC last year. “It’s a worry if TAPP funding isn’t going to continue,” Deutrom says.Although Done admits that more competition between Associates and Full Members would have helped – Ireland played only eight ODIs against Test teams between the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, and Bangladesh and Zimbabwe declined to take part in a pre-World Cup tournament with the Associates in the UAE – the four qualifiers for the 2015 World Cup were comfortably the best prepared in the tournament’s history.With every passing world event the trends point to Associates becoming more competitive still. The ICC only developed an interest in expansionism in the mid-1990s. Only now is the first generation of cricketers to develop since then benefiting from much-improved domestic structures. Most importantly, there are a lot more of them. Since 2005, official participation numbers in cricket have risen six-fold in the UAE, quadrupled in Ireland and Scotland, and risen by 30 times in Afghanistan.So while David Richardson described “relief” at the performance of the Associates in the World Cup, those in the ICC who follow them more closely do not share his feelings. “I haven’t been surprised at all. What we’ve shown in terms of competitiveness generally has been exactly what I hoped for,” Done says, noting that the Associates also toppled three Full Members in the 2014 World T20. “We’ve had four or five really good opportunities to secure more wins and just haven’t got across the line. We’d all be a bit disappointed as a collective.”Still, that the Associates’ showing this World Cup has converted so many to their cause amounts to that rarest of things: a triumph for the ICC. It only makes the will of Australia, England and India to contract the World Cup look more myopic.

Indian cricketers are the chief beneficiaries of the IPL’s salary boom

Amrit Mathur22-Apr-2013Here’s the most telling stat about star player salaries in the IPL: Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni earn Rs 1 crore (about $180,000) every year as part of BCCI’s Grade A list of centrally contracted players. That is said to be a fair estimate of the amount they also make from a single 20-over, 3.5 hour IPL game.Recently I talked about this to Rahul Dravid, who said the commercially driven IPL has dramatically changed cricket’s ecosystem and with it the mindset of players. He cautioned that we shouldn’t be taken in by the politically correct noises players make about Test cricket being the ultimate challenge. The truth is, every young player wants to somehow land an IPL contract. That is what he is playing for. It is like every bright Indian student who wants to crack the Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management exams to get into the country’s most prestigious colleges.Indian cricketers are the chief beneficiaries of the IPL’s salary boom. As the tournament mandates that each team must play seven Indian players in its starting XI, the nine franchisees need to hire about 14 Indian players to build their squads. This means that approximately 125 Indian players benefit from what is effectively the BCCI/ IPL’s employment guarantee scheme.Player salaries for capped Indian (and overseas) players are decided by forces more complex than in the era when cricketers were paid by their boards in a structure dictated by them. In a departure from that norm, the value of the players’ skills at the IPL are settled through an open and transparent auction. This hammer price becomes a combination of many different aspects: talent, important skill sets (in the 20-over format, multi-utility allrounders are priceless), specific team needs, and/or the whims of an indulgent owner.This ends up leaving little room for reputations or sentiment. All that matters is the perceived ability of the player to deliver in exceedingly challenging pressure situations. No surprise then that VVS Laxman, stately and stylish, did not interest buyers, Sourav Ganguly was spurned and Brian Lara received no bids. Meanwhile Adam Gilchrist and the Hussey brothers continue to go for plenty. Even an unproven Glenn Maxwell gets a massive million-dollar contract, while Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, neither known for their T20 skills, attract much lower numbers.When asked what the IPL means for seasoned pros like him, Dravid smiled and neatly deflected the question: it is a different world altogether, he said. “The other day I walked the ramp as part of a promotional event. When I started my career, I never imagined this would be part of a cricketer’s life!”Non-cricket factors also affect a player’s price, as teams are mindful of the commercial value they bring to their table. Three seasons ago, when Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, AB de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan had moved to other teams, Delhi opted for “value” picks but the change provoked disapproval from sponsors, who bemoaned the lack of buzz around the squad. Not only does a team need stars who perform on the field but also marquee names that excite their commercial partners, who are looking for to find a way to leverage their association and reach their customers.In this complex arrangement there are some unsaid, unwritten rules. One: Indian players count. Except for a handful of overseas names like Gilchrist, Brett Lee and Kevin Pietersen, Indian corporates and Indian fans want Indian cricket stars, which is why Munaf Patel and R Ashwin matter more than Morne Morkel and de Villiers. Two: controversy is bad for commerce, so there is no place for anyone, however good, if he spells trouble.While commercial forces may be fundamental to every aspect of the IPL’s functioning (including the franchise sale in the first place), the IPL’s most bizarre move has been denying domestic Indian players market-driven rewards. Instead, it has arbitrarily capped payments to Ranji and Under-19 players, ostensibly to prevent them from getting “corrupted” by cash. Under these regulations, Ambati Rayudu, who is yet to play for India, can only earn Rs 30 lakhs (about $55,000) while Saurabh Tiwary, Venugopal Rao, Abhishek Nayar – all of whom represented India briefly – fetch far more.Even at these artificially depressed rates, there still remains a crazy scramble for IPL contracts among uncapped domestic cricketers. The contracts are a passport to a dazzling world of unimaginable fame and riches. All manner of player agents – sleazy, slick and suave – have popped up and they lobby and aggressively pitch on behalf of their clients. Most Indian cricketers, including U-19s now operate through these agents. It is not unusual for IPL team managers to have their inbox flooded with smartly produced player portfolios.

Not only does a team need stars who perform on the field but also marquee names that excite their commercial partners, who in turn need to find a way to leverage their association and reach their customers

In the early days of the IPL, franchisees paid serious money to hire top players in order to attract attention towards their brands and engage with fans. Later, faced with financial losses, and alive to the danger of rising player cost that could damage the balance sheet and permanently cripple their business, teams got smarter in picking players. They are still a distance away from the levels, but a clear understanding now exists that the player salary expense, unless capped, can wreak havoc.Players have become rich, but for some, the cash has become a curse. Yusuf Pathan, Saurabh Tiwary and a host of high-cost players have withered, crushed by the weight of expectation, the gnawing anxiety to justify their cost and the fearsome, although tacit, disapproval of annoyed owners.There are two sides to earning large salaries in the IPL. Players who earn large sums may also have to surrender some of their commercial rights to team sponsors and partners. Player images are used for advertising but conditions apply: the association of sponsors must be with the team as a whole and advertising cannot be turned into a player’s personal endorsement. Players are not individually required to promote a product and any commercial communication requires a minimum of three players to feature together, all wearing the official team jersey.Players believe there are not enough safeguards in place to protect personal endorsements, because in the wake of the IPL, the market has slumped sharply and demand for individual player endorsements has dried up, except for the few Big Boys (like Tendulkar, Dhoni, and Virat Kohli) who have commercial currency of their own. The rest have been blown away in a marketplace where it makes better business sense for sponsors to associate with a team, and gain access to key players through this partnership.Still, players stand to benefit cost-wise. For overseas players the money on offer for six weeks of work is game-changing. Sensing this ground reality, cricket boards (especially those with a history of payment defaults and delays) have made peace with their players about participation in the IPL. The ECB is yet to sort out its response, but after the KP controversy and Matt Prior’s articulations and the PCA statements, there should be some shift in its position soon.For Indian players, the IPL is a major leap towards making cricket a viable career. The money offers incentive, insurance, compensation and a certain amount of job security. Of all the IPL’s stakeholders, the players are the most critical. The player contract reflects this and is completely pro-player – all players are assured performance-delinked guaranteed payment, and there is no penalty clause. The extent of pay protection in the IPL far exceeds that provided by the Indian government to its employees. (I say this as a former government employee myself). The suggestion some seasons ago that 20% of a contracted player wage would be payable only if the team qualifies for the Champions League was promptly shot down by Indian players.Besides the comfort of assured payments, there are other benefits too. The IPL mandates that at least 50% of prize money is shared with players. Any trading or transfer can only take place with the consent of the player, and his wage can’t be lowered during the contract period under any circumstance.The peripherals are equally enticing: players are entitled to business-class travel, five-star hotel stay, and a $100 daily allowance. The franchise picks up the service-tax liability, and in the case of foreign players, contributes 10% of the salary to their national boards. Players lose out on minor amounts when they miss games due to injury (50% of the match fee, which is an individual calculation based on their auction fee divided by the number of matches they play) and for non-selection.In any business, the customer is king but in cricket normal rules of economics don’t apply. In the IPL ecosystem it is the players, and in this case the Indian players, who call the shots.

South Africa losing the plot against New Zealand was more panic than choke. There is a difference

Aakash Chopra07-Apr-2011South Africa’s capitulation against New Zealand has brought the c-word out again. Nothing seems to have changed for them in big tournaments ever since they came back to international cricket after the apartheid era. They have always had the arsenal to go all the way and yet have fallen short, always in the knock-out stages. Not a single win in knock-out games in a World Cup is a record they’d give both their arms and legs to change.While their record cannot be contested, whether they choked or not against New Zealand can be debated. There’s a fundamental difference between choking and panicking, which the writer Malcolm Gladwell explains quite proficiently. While Gladwell talks in the context of tennis, his theory explains choking in cricket too.What happened to South Africa against New Zealand in Mirpur was a bad case of panic, though it was conveniently considered a choke. So what exactly is choking and how is it different from panicking?The fundamental difference is that while you think too much when you choke, you think too little when you panic. While choking, you want to delay the inevitable, but when you panic you want to get over with it as soon as possible, for you can’t bear the growing pressure.ChokingYou play safe You may finish 30 runs short of the target if the opposition bowls really well and you lose all your wickets in the bargain. On the other hand, if you get to the 50th over needing 40 runs with five wickets in the hut, that’s more of a problem. Some may call it a miscalculation but it really comes down to the mindset: to play safe for as long as possible.South Africa have done this more times than any other team. Remember the tied game against Australia, when Allan Donald was run out? The match would have finished much earlier had Kallis and Co. not allowed Mark Waugh to bowl a lot of overs in the middle.Chasing a target is a lot about identifying threats and weak links in the opposition and then treading with caution against potential threats while going after the weak links. Playing in safe mode can take you only so far; you must change gears at some point.You don’t take calculated risks Yuvraj Singh could easily have dabbed the ball towards third man instead of going over the point fielder against Brett Lee in the quarter-final in Ahmedabad. Going aerial may look dicey to some but it is extremely important to take calculated risks when you’re playing strong opposition. If you wait forever for things to happen, chances are you won’t be there when they do. When you refuse to take these calculated risks, you run the risk of digging a hole for the team, i.e. choking.

Chasing a target is a lot about identifying threats and weak links in the opposition and then treading with caution against potential threats while going after the weak links. Playing in safe mode can take you only so far; you must change gears at some point

You think too much “When thinking goes deep, decisions go weak” is an old saying and it describes choking perfectly. Sport is more about instinct than intellect. Intellect is the primary requirement while planning but once the game starts, instinct must take over. You are more likely to succeed when you react, not over-think, for there’s hardly any time to think too much.When you over-think, you tend to think about how things can go wrong, and so you stop trusting your instincts. When you think before every step you take, you end up walking too slow. If you keep thinking about the possibility of getting stumped, you will never be able to go down the track.Playing an aggressive shot is, most times, about backing yourself and trusting your instincts to go through with it. But the fear of what may happen if the shot is mistimed, or the ball bounces a bit more or less than expected, can result in a defensive prod. This is choking at a micro level.I’ve also found that teams and individuals who are more inclined to technique than flair are more likely to choke. Their strategic and technical know-how tell them to play it safe. On the contrary, people who have a healthy mix of technique with flair – say, Pakistan – are less likely to choke.PanicYou commit hara-kiri Panic is, in fact, the exact opposite of choking. If you play it too safe for too long when you choke, you self-destruct in fast-forward when you panic. What happened to South Africa in Mirpur was a straightforward case of panicking. There were no demons in the track and the New Zealand attack wasn’t all that formidable. South Africa were cruising at 108 for 2 at the halfway stage but once they lost a couple of wickets, panic set in. When you start trying to take non-existent singles (the AB de Villiers run-out), start manufacturing shots when you only need to play percentage cricket (JP Duminy’s dismissal), play reckless shots despite having a set batsman at the other end (Dale Steyn’s and Robin Peterson’s dismissals), it’s a sign the team has lost it.You abandon rational thought You think too much while choking and too little when you panic. You may need to score a run a ball, but somehow it feels a lot more than that. A couple of dot balls are followed up by a high-risk shot to ease the pressure. When you panic you tend to overestimate the pressure. A run a ball, with wickets in hand, is like walking in the park on most days, but not when you’re panicking. Rational thinking deserts you the moment you panic.Why did Bangladesh play silly shots when wickets were tumbling all around them against South Africa? It’s common sense that if you’re four down for not many, you must drop anchor, but they did exactly the opposite and tried playing ambitious shots. A six or a four can’t win you the game, but you don’t think along those lines when you panic.Fear takes hold When you choke, you fear making mistakes, and subsequently you fail. When you panic, it is the prospect of failure that you fear, which leads to committing mistakes. The fear of failure cripples you so much that you self-destruct and bring about the failure you fear.AB de Villiers was in self-destruct mode when he took off for a non-existent single and got run out•Associated PressPanic has a domino effect. It is like an epidemic that spreads through the team, while choking can be restricted to a couple of batsmen in the middle. Once panic sets in, it’s quite apparent and visible to everyone, including the players in question, but choking goes unnoticed till the eventual calamity is at the door.If I may draw an analogy from tennis: when a player chokes, he keeps hitting safe shots, bang in the middle of the court, ensuring they miss the net and are well inside the baseline, hoping the opponent will make a mistake. When the same player panics, he goes for non-existing winners, resulting in enforced errors.The outcomes of choking and panicking may be the same but both are different from each other. So the next time you see a team lay down their arms, it might be worth looking closely to see if they have choked or panicked under pressure.

From just another item of kit to an emblem of Australian excellence – the baggy green cap has come a long way

Gideon Haigh16-Jun-2008

You ratty beauty: the cult of the baggy green grew immeasurably under Steve Waugh, but his own cap was a famously distressed-looking specimen © Getty Images
Twenty years ago, when somebody at an auction bought the baggy green in which Clarrie Grimmett played the Bodyline series, for A$1200, it probably seemed a lot of money. “You spent what?” you can hear his wife saying. “On a cap?” Pleas that it was an “investment” would hardly have placated her – why, the damn thing wasn’t even fashionable.Twenty years later, one can only dip one’s own metaphorical lid. The 121 caps sold at auction since have fetched an average $17,254, and selling that Grimmett green would knock a fair dint in any family’s school fees. Particular windfalls have awaited custodians of Don Bradman baggies: five have fetched an average $160,000.In Bowral last Friday night the Bradman Museum hosted a function to celebrate that capital appreciation, and also to ponder its meanings. An audience of 200 heard Mark Taylor speak in honour of an excellent new book, , a joint project of memorabilia entrepreneur Michael Fahey and veteran cricket writer Mike Coward, and a fascinating exhibition grouping 28 caps, no two of which are alike. For a symbol so storied, the Australian cap has been subject to relatively little historical inquiry; this book and exhibition fill the gap both snugly and appealingly.Taylor, who is shaping steadily and surely as the next chairman of Cricket Australia, introduced himself cheerfully as a “cap tragic”, sharing some samples from his collection of 100, including the distinctive headgear of the Lake Albert CC from Wagga Wagga, and of the Riverina Secondary Schools Sports Association, to illustrate his point that a cap is a repository of memories, of games and places and people. He is well placed to testify: Fahey and Coward speculate that he is one of only two 100-Test veterans to have played their whole career in the one cap. Justin Langer, to whom the cap was as his blanket to Linus, is the other.Two other Australian captains, Brian Booth and Ian Craig, and former Test men Gordon Rorke, Grahame Thomas and Greg Matthews chimed in with their own reflections. Having consulted his diary of the journey, Booth was able to report that he was presented with his cap in the Launceston hotel room of Australian team manager Sydney Webb QC on 14 March 1961. “It’s a bit hard to remember back that far,” he commented. “I did well to remember to come along tonight.”In interviewing 45 past and present Australian players, however, Coward has refreshed the memories of others. Ian Chappell, for instance, divulges the origin of his habit of removing his cap while on the way back to pavilion: the experience of having his headgear snatched at the Wanderers in February 1970 as he ascended the steps. A couple of years ago, he adds, he met the cap’s current Zimbabwean owner. “You’re not the bastard who took it off my head?” Chappell asked. “No,” came the reply. “But I might have bought it from the bloke who did!” At current exchange rates, it is probably worth 500 billion Zimbabwean dollars. Hitherto there has been a synergy between the advance of the baggy green cult and the rise of the players as commercial commodities. But is the time coming when the cap will be a brand in competition with the players’ , restricting their commercial freedom, scrambling their individual messages? The exhibition, meanwhile, is comfortably the most complete of its kind, gathering caps as antique as Victor Trumper’s, as recent as Adam Gilchrist’s and as ugly as Tony Dodemaide’s from the Bicentennial Test 20 years ago – a white cap ribboned in green which looks better suited to a Dairy Queen dispensary. The exhibition, brainchild of the industrious cricket collector and publisher Ron Cardwell, gives the lie to the idea of the cap’s precise historical continuity, while actually making it a richer historical artefact.This is overdue. In his speech, Fahey described the baggy green, rather artfully, as “an icon and a sacred cow”. For despite the fashion for lachrymose expressions of loyalty to it, the cap belongs less to the world of antiquity than to the realm of what Eric Hobsbawm called “invented tradition”: a set of practices which “seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past”. So it is that faithfully reports the evolution not just of the symbol but of the reverence inhering in it – to the extent where, under Steve Waugh, it became like the Round Table to Australian cricket’s Camelot.We learn not only of the rituals established by recent Australian XIs – the numbers, the tattoos, the corroborees – but those indulged in by their forebears. “In my day, they were just caps and flung into our bags,” Bill Brown muses; like his fellow Invincibles Sir Donald Bradman and Arthur Morris, he gave all his away. Neither Richie Benaud nor Ian Chappell owns a cap between them. “I don’t ever remember having one discussion about the cap during my playing days,” Chappell insists. His contemporary John Inverarity, in fact, recalls an apathy about the cap that occasionally shaded into hostility. When he donned a baggy for the traditional Duchess of Norfolk’s XI game at Arundel, he found he was the only player wearing it. “I felt a little self-conscious,” he recalls, “but felt I wasn’t in a position to share that thought for it was a little too earnest or conscientious.”It’s not as though the players’ elders taught them much differently either. Ken Eastwood recounts how before his Test debut in February 1971 he was asked to try on caps by Australian Cricket Board secretary Alan Barnes. The first one didn’t fit; the second did; he was allowed to keep both, thus obtaining the unique record of one Test for two caps. Similarly, veteran administrator Bob Merriman recalls Barnes scattering caps among the team on its way to tour India almost 30 years ago “as though he was delivering newspapers from a moving vehicle”. No wonder then that when Len Pascoe found a mislaid cap in an Australian dressing room at Lord’s during his career, nobody claimed it.These brisk and practical reflections are seasoned with some regrets – Doug Walters laments not having worn his more often – and some surprising differences of opinion. Incongruously, Steve Waugh comes in for as much blame as praise, especially his consecration of a cap in what, had it been a fashion accessory, would have been described as “distressed felt”. Waugh’s former captain Geoff Lawson says it was “disrespectful not respectful” for Waugh to wear his cap until it was so battered, his erstwhile coach Bob Simpson that the cap should always “be in pristine condition”. Keith Stackpole expresses bafflement: “I can’t understand why they mean that much when they don’t bat in the things.”

Former Australian women cricketers are honoured with baggy greens in 2004 © Getty Images
Deliciously, the players are now having reflected back to them their own public avowals of unswerving allegiance. When the Australians wore a sponsor’s blue practice caps into the field against a Jamaican Select XI last month in the pipe-opener to their Caribbean tour, it must have been one of the few occasions in sports marketing where a corporation has been embarrassed at their logo’s visibility. In a typically trenchant column in the , Greg Baum saw CUB as muscling in where corporates should fear to tread: “Plainly, they [the Australian team] were playing not for us, but for yet another franchise. This was a breathtaking contempt, not just morally, because of the campaign against binge-drinking, and not just aesthetically, because it made the Australian team look like a pack of Sunday afternoon pub players.” Tabloid headlines reverberated; talkback radio hummed for days. There might not have been the same fuss had the players turned up in identical rainbow tams.Even by the eccentric standards of Australian cricket controversies, this was a most peculiar incident. Team protests that they were simply acting out of solidarity with Brad Haddin, not yet capped at Test level, cut no ice: you tamper at your peril even with the totems you help create. Yet nobody seemed much bothered by the publication in April of an Australian Cricket Association survey revealing that almost half of Australia’s contracted players would consider retiring prematurely from international cricket in order to maximise their IPL earnings potential. No wonder players are confused if the substance of change no longer bothers Australians so much as its symbols.Perhaps, then, we are at a historic hinge point. Hitherto there has been a synergy between the advance of the baggy green cult and the rise of the players as commercial commodities. But is the time coming when the cap will be a brand in competition with the players’ , restricting their commercial freedom, scrambling their individual messages? A survey last week by polling company Sweeney Research reported that six of the ten most “marketable” Australian sportsmen were cricketers: Ricky Ponting (1), Adam Gilchrist (2), Brett Lee (5), Glenn McGrath (6), Steve Waugh (9) and Andrew Symonds (10). How readily does a backward-looking symbol of collective purpose reconcile with the forward-looking promotion of standalone stars? All the more reason to check out , to check on where we’ve come from in readiness for where we’re going.

New Zealand batter set to be available for full season across formats

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jan-2024Lancashire have signed New Zealand batter Tom Bruce as their second overseas player for 2024. The 32-year-old will link up with the club in April and, like Australia’s Nathan Lyon, is expected to be available across formats for the full season.Bruce, who has been capped 17 times in T20Is, averages 49.85 in first-class cricket and his arrival will help cover for the departure of Dane Vilas after seven seasons at Lancashire.Bruce’s most-recent New Zealand appearance came in 2020, while he captained the A side to victory in two four-day games against Australia A last September. His likely availability while the T20 World Cup is being played was cited as a factor in his signing by Mark Chilton, Lancashire’s director of cricket performance.”Tom will be available throughout the 2024 season, and this was a big draw for myself and Dale [Benkenstein] when going into the market for our overseas signings for this year,” Chilton said. “This will allow Tom to settle in, become part of the squad and create consistency and stability in our team selections throughout the summer.”Tom is a hugely experienced cricketer, and we feel that his skillset will be a good fit within our squad. He has had a hugely impressive few years with the bat in domestic cricket over in New Zealand – with an outstanding record in both the Plunkett Shield and Super Smash competitions as well as for New Zealand A and is very close to full international selection.”With the ICC T20 World Cup taking place in June and July this year at the same time as the Vitality Blast, the availability of overseas options is at a premium. Therefore, Tom’s quality, experience and full season availability makes him a strong addition to the squad.”We believe that Tom will offer us a lot of options as he strengthens our middle order in the County Championship whilst his powerful hitting will give our batting line-up a new dimension towards the backend of an innings in the Vitality Blast and Metro Bank One Day Cup.”Lancashire finished mid-table in County Championship Division One last year, after back-to-back runners-up spots, and were beaten at the quarter-final stage of both white-ball competitions.That led to the departure of Glenn Chapple as head coach, with Benkenstein recruited from Gloucestershire during the off-season.”This is a really exciting opportunity for me, and I can’t wait to get over to England in a few months’ time,” Bruce said. “To have the opportunity to spend a full county cricket season with a club like Lancashire is a dream come true and to have Emirates Old Trafford as my home ground was another massive draw for me once I heard about the interest.”I feel that I have a lot to add to Lancashire and after speaking to Mark Chilton and Dale Benkenstein I am really excited about what we can achieve together with such a talented group of players in the 2024 season.”

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund both turned down the chance to sign Cristiano Ronaldo before the Portuguese icon ended up at Al-Nassr.

Ronaldo’s agent Mendes offered him to Bayern and DortmundKahn confirmed Die Roten held talks over a potential dealPortuguese superstar eventually joined Al-NassrFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

After seeing his Manchester United contract terminated following a dispute with the club, Ronaldo dreamed of continuing his career in Europe and approached both Bayern and Dortmund in 2022. According to Christian Falk’s book , published by , Mendes actively pitched the Portuguese star to Bayern chiefs, preparing a special dossier that highlighted the marketing, merchandising and global reach CR7 would bring. Oliver Kahn, Bayern CEO at the time, later admitted the discussions took place, while BVB also received the same pitch. Both German clubs, however, decided against making a move despite Ronaldo’s availability.

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The 40-year-old's pursuit of a European stay coincided with a turbulent spell at Old Trafford under Erik ten Hag. The Bavarians seriously considered signing him, but concerns quickly emerged as club chiefs feared the Portuguese forward’s superstar status could have a negative effect on the dressing room and damage the wage hierarchy. Robert Lewandowski was Bayern’s top earner on €24 million (£20m/$26m) a year, while the ex-Real Madrid star was pocketing around €29m (£24m/$32m) at United and reportedly wanted a similar figure. 

Dortmund reached the same conclusion, deciding that the commercial boost Mendes promised was outweighed by the sporting and financial risks. The stance from both clubs underlined how Europe’s elite were unwilling to compromise team spirit and long-term balance for short-term global headlines.

AFPWHAT JORGE MENDES SAID?

Mendes reportedly told Bayern: "It would be a dream for Ronaldo to continue his career at FC Bayern.” Despite this, Kahn and ex-sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic concluded that Ronaldo simply didn’t fit Bayern’s philosophy. 

"We came to the conclusion that, despite all the appreciation we all have, he wouldn't have fit in with our philosophy in the current situation." Dortmund, meanwhile, rejected Mendes’ projections outright, dismissing his claims of financial upside.

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Getty Images SportWHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

With no European offers materialising, Ronaldo’s United chapter ended abruptly in November 2022 after his falling out with Ten Hag. Following the World Cup in Qatar, he joined Saudi Pro League giants Al-Nassr, where he remains under contract and continues to play at the age of 40.

Former Middlesex captain puts on vital stands with Rehan Ahmed and Tom Scriven

ECB Reporters Network04-May-2024Middlesex 64 for 1 trail Leicestershire 306 (Handscomb 109, Bamber 4-68) by 242 runs Peter Handscomb’s first century at Lord’s rescued Leicestershire from early trouble as their Vitality County Championship clash with hosts Middlesex finally got underway on day two.The Australian never passed 50 on home turf in two partial seasons at the home of cricket, but the former Seaxes skipper haunted them here with a stoic effort spread over 304 minutes and 188 balls as the visitors reached 306 having earlier stumbled to 83 for 4. Handscomb shared stands of 64 with Rehan Ahmed and 82 with Tom Scriven – the latter partnership for the ninth wicket.Middlesex, guilty of dropping both Handscomb on 48 and Rehan on 18, employed some bizarre fields over the course of the day, conceding a plethora of runs to a too often vacant third area. However, there were some inspired bowling changes with wickets falling in the first over of a bowler’s spell on three separate occasions. Ethan Bamber proved the pick of the Middlesex attack with 4 for 68.The hosts, left 18 overs to bat and closed 64 for 1, Mark Stoneman the wicket to fall.Another quirk of an interesting day meant Middlesex were onto their fourth ball before 36 overs were completed, the previous three having gone out of shape.After an opening day lost entirely to rain it came as little surprise, despite bright overhead conditions, that home skipper Toby Roland-Jones opted to bowl first on winning the toss, yet Leicestershire made a fast start with 27 coming off the first four overs.The first change of ball in only the fifth over brought a breakthrough when Bamber swung one into Rishi Patel which straightened off the pitch and crashed into his off stump.Marcus Harris, who’d already edged two through the slips in a skittish effort, soon followed, pinned lbw in Bamber’s next over and when Lewis Hill edged Ryan Higgins’ third ball to slip the Foxes were 50 for 3.Louis Kimber threatened briefly before lazily hooking Henry Brookes’ fourth ball of the day down the throat of deep square to leave Leicestershire in some trouble.Handscomb though had begun positively, despatching a Roland-Jones half-volley to the fence and with Rehan for company they reached lunch without further loss.The spinner was given a life soon after the resumption when Stephen Eskinazi dropped a regulation catch at slip – Bamber the luckless bowler. The reprieve seemed to liberate the all-rounder who twice lifted Bamber over mid-wicket for four before the seamer held a caught and bowled to finally get his man.A trio of Bens, Cox, Mike, and Green didn’t detain us for long and at 208 for 8 the hosts must have thought they were through.However, Handscomb, dropped on 48 by Roland-Jones – a tough return caught and bowled – found an ally in Scriven who played with enterprise to strike four boundaries.It meant Handscomb, who drove and deflected the ball well throughout the day, was only three short of a century and Leicestershire within 10 of a second batting bonus point when Scriven smeared a mishit to Max Holden at midwicket to fall four short of a sixth first-class 50.Handscomb though would reach his landmark with the help of nine fours and add one more boundary before being last out, giving Bamber a fourth victim.Stoneman fell early in Middlesex reply, bowled around his legs by Mike, but Sam Robson, playing for the first time since injuring his thumb in the opening game of the season against Glamorgan, and the in-form Holden batted through to stumps without undue alarm.Before play began, a poignant minute’s silence was observed in memory of Worcestershire spinner Josh Baker, who tragically passed away earlier this week, aged just 20.

Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi are the three venues proposed by the PCB in the initial draft schedule of the 2025 Champions Trophy, sent recently to the ICC. The tournament has been inked in for a mid-February window as the PCB hastens plans to upgrade venues that will host the first ICC event in the country in nearly 30 years.Pakistan are defending champions having won what was thought to be the last edition of the Champions Trophy in 2017. But, in 2022, the ICC brought back the tournament in the new rights cycle (2023-27) and awarded the hosting rights of the 2025 edition to Pakistan.The eight-team tournament is expected to be played over two weeks, though the exact dates are not known yet. The PCB finalised the venues and the schedule after an ICC sent a team to conduct recces.”We’ve sent the schedule for the matches in Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi said at a press conference in Lahore. “The ICC’s security team came and we had a very good meeting. They looked at arrangements here and we’ll also share stadium upgrade plans with them. We’re continuously in touch with the ICC. We are trying to ensure we host a very good tournament in Pakistan.”Discussions on the schedule will likely focus now on India’s presence at the event. ESPNcricinfo understands the initial draft has all games, including India’s, being played in Pakistan.Normally, once the host board sends in the draft schedule, it undergoes various iterations which are done by various teams within the ICC, which then shares it with the broadcaster and the other boards before the schedule is finalised. The next official ICC meeting is the global body’s annual conference in July.Ultimately, however, the fate of India’s games will hinge on the political climate between the two countries and whether or not the Indian government grants permission to the BCCI to let its team travel to Pakistan. Frosty relations between the two governments has meant India have not toured Pakistan since the 2008 Asia Cup. Last year, the PCB had to adopt a hybrid model while hosting the Asia Cup, whereby some games were played in Pakistan but all of India’s games and the final were held in Sri Lanka.A month later Pakistan travelled to India to play in the 50-over World Cup but the decision for either country to play in the other is always a politically guided one.Pakistan last held an ICC event back in 1996, when they co-hosted the ODI World Cup with India and Sri Lanka. Since then, they’ve gone through two periods when security concerns have meant teams have been reluctant to tour: in the early 2000s when Australia, England and New Zealand didn’t tour because of the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing war in neighbouring Afghanistan; and from 2009 to 2015 when no teams toured because of the terror attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team. Pakistan were due to host the Champions Trophy in 2008 but that was postponed and moved to South Africa in 2009. They were also due to co-host the 2011 World Cup but had to pull out as a venue.The Champions Trophy will be the centrepiece of a busy home season for Pakistan. They are also hosting South Africa and New Zealand for an ODI tri-series right before the ICC event (and start the home season this year with visits by Bangladesh and England).The scheduling crunch will also mean finding an appropriate window that year for the PSL’s 10th season. January is an option after Pakistan return from a tour of South Africa, though that puts the league in a direct clash with the SA20, the ILT20 most likely, the BPL, as well as the BBL. Scheduling the PSL after the Champions Trophy, in March, means playing it right through Ramadan, a clash the PCB has generally tried to avoid as it impacts attendances, timings as well as commercial opportunities.There will also be the challenge, as Naqvi acknowledged, of improving the stadiums in the three cities, stadiums that have not had serious upgrades for a number of years now.”If you look at Gaddafi [stadium in Lahore], it is good, but the viewing experience is not great for cricket. Football maybe, not cricket,” Naqvi said. “We need to improve facilities in the stadiums, where there are some old problems. [The National Stadium in] Karachi is in bad shape. So on May 7th, we’ll finalise bids from international companies who will come and help us design. We will work with local consultants as well. We are already late but we need to do these upgrades in four-five months. It will be a very tough test but we can do it.”

18.1Axar to Wade, FOUR runsToo full to Wade and he absolutely muscles that through the covers, beats a diving long-off as well for four!18.2Axar to Wade, 2 runsShort and towards the hips, Wade pulls it away towards long leg and Tilak Varma does very well to cover ground to his left and save two18.3Axar to Wade, FOUR runsJust over SKY for four more! Outside off, Wade frees his arms with hard hands again, and the ball just evades a leaping SKY at cover to find the gap in the deep18.4Axar to Wade, (no ball)Well wide outside off to try and beat Wade’s bat, and it does beat his bat. It’s called a wide but Kishan has whipped the bails off quickly and they’re checking for a stumping now. No edge first of all, going by the protocol. Wade’s back foot his outside the crease when he misses the ball, but Kishan’s collection is such that the third umpire says his gloves are not completely behind the stumps, so that’s not legal and called a no-ball18.4Axar to Wade, SIX runsFuller now towards Wade, he goes down on a knee and dispatches that high into the sky on the leg side, smoking it for a six over long-on!18.5Axar to Wade, 1 run95kmh, doesn’t give him the length or width now, Wade swings again but mistimes it to long-on for one18.6Axar to Maxwell, 4 byesBeats Maxwell’s bat but Kishan misses it and it’s gone for four byes! Outside off, Maxwell takes out the reverse, the ball goes under the bat and Kishan puts his hand up to apologise after missing that19.1Prasidh to Wade, FOUR runsStarts with a short ball at 135.5kmh and Wade will take that happily because there’s pace on the ball, fine leg is in the deep, and he can pull that late to send it crashing into the long leg boundary19.2Prasidh to Wade, 1 runIt’s a slower one at 122.4kmh nearly in the block hole and Wade middles the lofted drive, doesn’t carry to deep cover though19.3Prasidh to Maxwell, SIX runsIt’s too wide on the off side, he has a lot of room to free his arms and he waits before slicing that right over Rinku Singh’s head at deep cover. The field placement was right, but the connection even better19.4Prasidh to Maxwell, FOUR runsThe crowd cannot believe it, it’s four more! Short and wide, slices that late and even though the connection didn’t look good enough this time, it was enough to beat a sprinting deep third behind squareMathew Wade and Glenn Maxwell added 91 off 40 balls to take Australia to victory•BCCI

19.5Prasidh to Maxwell, FOUR runsMaxwell gets to another stunning century! It’s a full toss – was it above the waist though – and Maxwell won’t leave that. He heaves it to to leg and finds the gap between long-on and deep midwicket to send it to the boundary for four19.6Prasidh to Maxwell, FOUR runsMaxwell has done it and stunned the crowd! Full, straight, and Maxwell sends it back straight over the bowler’s head to run into Wade’s hug with a massive smile that didn’t leave him since his fifty

Inoshi Priyadharshani’s career-best returns of 4 for 10 backed up by a quick 32 from Anushka Sanjeewani helped Sri Lanka brush aside Thailand by eight wickets and advance to the semi-finals of the Asian Games in Hangzhou.Chasing 79 in the rain-reduced 15-overs-a-side quarter-final, Sri Lanka coasted to a win in 10.5 overs.Rain and a wet outfield had delayed the start of the game by close to an hour-and-a-half. Once the weather cleared, Sri Lanka opted to field under grey skies.Udeshika Prabodhani found some movement in the air, but it was Priyadharshani who inflicted the early damage, accounting for four of the first five wickets to fall. She struck twice in her first over – the second of the innings – dismissing Suwanan Khiaoto and Natthakan Chantham. In her next over, she removed Nannapat Koncharoenkai before accounting for Naruemol Chaiwai with a smart caught and bowled.At 37 for 6, Thailand were sinking rapidly but a 29-run stand between Chanida Sutthiruang and Phannita Maya arrested the slide a touch. Sutthiruang top-scored with an unbeaten 31 and was the only batter to get into double-digits as Thailand managed to reach 78 for 7 in 15 overs.Chamari Athapaththu and Sanjeewani then made light work of the chase. They brought up their 50 partnership in the sixth over before Thipatcha Putthawong accounted for Athapaththu, who top edged a slog sweep to mid-on.Putthawong also removed Sanjeewani but the damage had been done by then. Thailand were not helped by their ground fielding; they committed a number of misfields and dropped chances. Harshitha Samarawickrama closed the game in the 11th over with a pull over deep square leg.Sri Lanka will face Pakistan in the second semi-final on Sunday.

Bangladesh advance to semi-final after washout

Rain had the final say in the fourth quarter-final of the Asian Games, with the Bangladesh-Hong Kong game getting washed out without a ball being bowled. As a result, Bangladesh have qualified for the semi-final as they have a higher seeding and will now face India in the first semi-final on Sunday.Three out of the four quarter-final games have been abandoned, while the other game was reduced to a 15-overs-a-side affair because of persistent rain.The India-Bangladesh semi-final serves as a tantalising prospect given the recent history between the two sides. India had toured Bangladesh for a three-match T20I and ODI series in July this year. While India won the T20Is 2-1, the ODI series ended in a 1-1 draw and was followed by huge controversies surrounding the umpiring. The incidents also saw India captain Harmanpreet Kaur being fined and handed four demerit points for her outbursts, which meant she had to miss the first two matches at the Asian Games.