Plays of the day from the IPL match between Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians in Hyderabad

Abhishek Purohit24-Apr-2011The stumping
Davy Jacobs has already stood up to Lasith Malinga, of all bowlers. So it was no surprise when he decided to stand up to Munaf Patel. But Munaf would not have expected a stumping to be added to his modes of dismissing a batsman, which is what Jacobs did to Daniel Christian. As the asking rate mounted, Christian decided to have a swipe at a length ball from Munaf, who normally gets extra bounce. He did, and Christian missed. Jacobs didn’t. He collected the ball nonchalantly even as it climbed, saw Christian had stuttered out, and had the bails off before the batsman’s foot was grounded back.The inevitable – I
Sachin Tendulkar held back Malinga, opening the bowling with Munaf and Harbhajan Singh. He even went to Abu Nechim before finally unleashing Malinga in the sixth over. Tendulkar had made him wait but Malinga gave his captain an early birthday present. Three balls into the over, the screaming yorker arrived. Shikhar Dhawan was in the firing line. He backed away to save his toes, but the bat came down too late, and the leg stump took a walk.The inevitable – II
Cameron White can’t buy a run at the moment. He can’t even steal a run at the moment. After pottering around for six balls to get off the mark with an edged single to third man, White managed to push a Kieron Pollard delivery to mid-off and eagerly set off for the single. But to his horror, Malinga was lurking close by. Even as White lumbered across, Malinga fired in a throw that clattered into the stumps, catching White short and putting him out of his misery.The inevitable – III
Pollard just has to turn up, roll over his arm, and he promptly gets a wicket with his slow-mediums. The longer the hop, the sooner the wicket comes. He had MS Dhoni caught at third man with a delivery that was a foot outside leg stump against Chennai. Today he got Bharat Chipli with a short delivery that was miles outside off. It even came excruciatingly slowly off the wicket, begging Chipli to hammer it to the point boundary. Probably tired of waiting for the ball to arrive, Chipli launched into a cut that flew straight to point.The vintage show
Andrew Symonds is slowly cranking it up this season. He showed glimpses of his brute power against Chennai, and today, he displayed another vintage dimension of his batting. While Symonds has always been ruthless in slogging deliveries over long-on, at this best, he also used to back away outside leg and drill deliveries anywhere in the arc from square third man to long-off. He tried that on numerous occasions today, and towards the end, was pulling it off at will against Deccan’s fastest bowlers, Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma. First he made room and dismissed Ishant to the sweeper cover boundary. Then he hammered Steyn over extra cover, and as if to prove that it wasn’t all power, played a pleasing punch from outside leg that split sweeper cover and long-off.

Chris Gayle continues to enthrall, Sourav Ganguly continues to come back, and Shane Warne continues to court controversy. All this and more in a review of the action from the fifth week of the IPL

Abhishek Purohit13-May-2011The Gayle show continues
Runs, wickets, mile-wide smiles, ‘tuk-tuk train’ celebrations. Christopher Gayle’s party with the Royal Challengers Bangalore moves from one match-winning performance to another. Numbers don’t tell the story. They scream it out. In six matches, Gayle has muscled almost 400 runs, at an average of almost 100, and a strike-rate close to 200. Almost unreal, but there’s more. He’s also deadpanned his way to six wickets, firing it in off a two-step walk. It doesn’t stop there. He celebrates each dismissal, sometimes like a plane taking off, sometimes like a locomotive chugging away, and sometimes with a bit of sparring. The Bangalore crowd can’t have enough of him. Ross Taylor who?The Ganguly show reruns, again
“?” (My name is Sourav Ganguly. You haven’t forgotten, have you?) Remember that commercial from about five years ago? Ganguly was making a comeback then. He has made another comeback now.The crowd at Hyderabad, the venue of Ganguly’s latest return, was buzzing with anticipation as he walked out at No. 3 for Pune Warriors. A largely competitive – if somewhat streaky – unbeaten 32 later, the phoenix had risen, again.Towards the end of that commercial, Ganguly asks, “?” (You’ll listen to your dada, won’t you?) Listen? One fan at Hyderabad was moved so much that he charged on to the field to touch his hero’s feet. It was supposed to be an away game for Pune. Ganguly couldn’t have been made to feel more at home. Pune have a home tie coming up against Kolkata Knight Riders. Guess whom the crowd will be listening to.The Aravind show begins
Bangalore seamer S Aravind is used to playing second fiddle. Normally, he plays third fiddle behind Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun for Karnataka. This season, he has been opening the Bangalore bowling along with Zaheer Khan, and has nipped it around on his way to 13 wickets from seven games. Daniel Vettori has called him the find of the season for Bangalore. Aravind justified the faith with a Man-of-the-Match performance against Rajasthan Royals that included the wickets of Shane Watson and Rahul Dravid in three deliveries. The easy-going person he is, he will seamlessly slot in behind Vinay and Mithun when the domestic season arrives.Jaipur: The fortress that crumbled•AFPThe dashers’ revenge
Fast bowlers hunt in pairs. If the first one doesn’t get you, the other will. The dictum applies to the dashing batting duo of the IPL as well. Prasanth Parameswaran, the Kochi Tuskers Kerala seamer, found out the hard way. His first IPL wicket was that of the first dasher, Virender Sehwag, and instantly catapulted him to overnight fame. Parameswaran who? The man who got Sehwag. Gayle, Sehwag’s fellow destroyer of bowlers, didn’t like it one bit. And he decided to give it back for the sake of the dasher brotherhood. Parameswaran’s first over against Bangalore went for 6, 6 (no ball), 4, 4, 6, 6, 4. Parameswaran who? The man whom Gayle tonked for 36 in an over.Warne and the Rajasthan chronicles
During his international career, Shane Warne didn’t bother about the playing surface as he foxed batsmen by the strength of his mind and the guile of his wrists. But leading an average Rajasthan side for four seasons has led to him becoming increasingly reliant on the slow-and-low Sawai Mansingh Stadium pitch that suited his slow-and-medium attack.Against Chennai Super Kings, Warne complained that Rajasthan were forced to play on a side track with good bounce that reduced the ground to having “kiddies” boundaries. The BCCI issued a clarification saying that no team had the choice to choose the wicket and that it was the decision of the curator and its pitches committee.There was more controversy coming Warne’s way in his last IPL game in Jaipur. Rajasthan crashed to another defeat against Bangalore on the same side wicket, and this time the tremors were felt at home. The Rajasthan Cricket Association complained to the BCCI that Warne had abused its secretary Sanjay Dixit after the latter had allegedly ignored Warne’s demand that the surface for the Bangalore game be shifted to one that suited the home team.As a parting shot, Warne claimed in an interview that he had threatened to walk out of the Rajasthan side during the IPL’s inaugural season over “certain people” interfering in team selection.The IPL shows its depth
It was billed as a no-contest. Mumbai Indians against Kings XI Punjab, top against bottom. And a no-contest it turned out to be. Only, the sides decided to switch places. In the biggest upset of this IPL, Punjab thrashed high-flying Mumbai by 76 runs, the second-largest victory margin of the season. Only the first four Punjab batsmen managed to get into double figures as Munaf Patel became the third Mumbai bowler to take a five-wicket haul this year. Surprisingly, Mumbai’s much-vaunted batting line-up never turned up, folding for 87 inside 13 overs. No.1 lost to No. 10, showcasing the famous depth of the IPL.

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.

India needed to survive 13 overs but Virender Sehwag was dismissed first ball, attempting an ambitious drive, for the second time in the Test

Sambit Bal at Edgbaston13-Aug-2011Even at the best of times batting is a matter of chance. Every stroke carries the prospect of dismissal. A half-volley can be dragged onto the stumps and a long hop can land in the hands of an outfielder. Batting involves constantly balancing risk and opportunity, and the assessment of risk varies from batsman to batsman. Alastair Cook hit only three boundaries in the first two sessions of the third day at Edgbaston, but he ended with 294 runs. Virender Sehwag aimed to cream the first ball he received through the covers and ended with his second golden duck of the match.Cook began the day with England leading India by 232 runs with seven wickets in hand; Sehwag took guard with India needing to score 486 to avoid innings defeat. When Cook’s innings ended, ironically with a forcing shot, he had batted over 13 hours; Sehwag lasted only eight minutes over both innings. Barring a miracle, or a washout, England will win.Rewind to December 2008 in Chennai. Andrew Strauss, Cook’s opening partner, scored 123 and 108, batting for more than 12 hours in the Test. Sehwag played a leaden-footed drive in the first innings to be bowled for 9, but two hours of extraordinary hitting from him in the final session on the fourth day set India on the road to an improbable chase. His 68-ball 83 was good enough to earn him the Man-of-the-Match award. It was the defining innings of the Test.When Sehwag belted his first hundred as a Test opener, in Nottingham in 2002, his methods seemed too outrageous to survive the rigours and scrutiny of international cricket. But with more than 7500 runs scored at a strike rate of 81.89, it can be argued he has earned the right to bat as he pleases; or rather to bat in the manner that is most profitable to him. After all, a couple of hours of mayhem from Sehwag can ease the path for those to follow.Why is it considered more criminal for a batsman to lose his wicket to an aggressive stroke than to a defensive one? After all, in the first innings at Edgbaston, Sehwag was dismissed not attempting a stroke and it was deemed merely unfortunate.These arguments are not without merit. That Cook’s epic was the result of monumental patience and meticulous application is of little consequence to Sehwag’s approach to batting. He is entitled to choose the method most likely to bring him success. However, to apply this argument without a caveat would be both naïve and simplistic.Batting in Test cricket is also about adapting to varying conditions and match situations. That Sehwag had consigned the first ball to the boundary almost all through the World Cup didn’t meant anything when it came to opening in Test cricket in England. Even Sehwag knows the virtue of grafting, of playing out a tough period to set a base. He did so in Melbourne in 2003, when the pitch was damp on the first morning, and ended up with 195. More tellingly, he batted out a whole session in Adelaide in 2008 without hitting a four, to save India a Test.Runs were of little consequence to India this evening. Their only logical target was to bat out 13 overs. James Anderson was likely to nip the ball away. Sehwag hadn’t played a Test since January, and had batted only half an hour in the practice match after missing the first two Tests. And Rahul Dravid, India’s best batsman in the series, deserved to be given the best chance to succeed. Trying to hit the cover off the first ball wasn’t the smartest way to begin.Perhaps the stroke came out of nervousness. Or perhaps Sehwag was as dead sure that he could hit it for four as Dravid was when he cut the first ball of Anderson’s second over to the point boundary. But given that the percentages were loaded against a drive on the up, and that it brought about his dismissal when India needed to sell every wicket dear, it was a moment of madness that described the shambolic nature of India’s campaign in England.

Every cricketer understands, knows and senses this; this game produces strange, twisted events in the careers of men

Sharda Ugra at Edgbaston12-Aug-2011Having batted for almost 13 hours, making his highest score in any form of cricket and virtually ending India’s chances of staying alive in this series, the first question Alastair Cook was asked was whether he had felt satisfaction or disappointment. “It’s mad, isn’t it, how you can still be disappointed when you score 290-odd,” he said. “I suppose only cricket can do that to you.”Every cricketer understands, knows and senses this; this game produces strange, twisted events in the careers of men. “Tell me about it”, several of the Indians might well respond as they nurse aching limbs. For all the usual merits of his carefree cricket, Virender Sehwag will be one of them; his Test series has so far involved fielding for 12 hours and 47 minutes, batting for precisely eight minutes and receiving, for all his labour, the first king pair of his Test career.In the space of two balls, Sehwag has gone from being the turbo-engine the Indian team needed to get moving, to an advertisement about how not to approach any series in England, never mind the one that has been labelled ‘marquee’, ‘big ticket’ or ‘clash of the titans’.Sachin Tendulkar’s first ever non-injury-related break from Test cricket has turned into an extended wait for the richness of form that would give his team the meat its middle-order now badly needs in the series, and along with it, the now unmentionable hundred for the history books.Within four months of winning the World Cup, MS Dhoni’s No. 1 India are being skewered for their lack of intensity, and in the two completed Tests of this series, have scored ten runs less than Bangladesh did in their two Tests in England last year. Bangladesh scrapped to a tally of 1003, compared to India’s 993. The scoreline after two Tests: 0-2. Same difference?Only cricket can do that to you.India have the personnel to kick off the turnaround but it will have to – as it should have at the start, as it always did – begin with the batsmen. Cook’s innings marked a grim day of struggle in the field, but one in which England played exactly as they intended. They put as much distance as they could between themselves and the Indian first-innings total and used up the scads of time available in the game, given that India’s first innings folded in just over two sessions. It required, as Cook described, batting that was essentially “grinding out a day”.To save themselves, India will have to do that for about as long as Cook did. As he walked off the field, six runs short of becoming the first triple-centurion from England in two decades, he was patted on the back by the bowler, Ishant Sharma, who’d taken his wicket. One by one, Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Suresh Raina came across to shake his hand. Gautam Gambhir, who had sprinted to the pavilion to prepare to go out and bat again, did so at the end of the day’s play.Cook was of the opinion that the wicket at Edgbaston, which is often called a batsman’s track, was playing well. “You can see that when people got in, a lot of people got in, so it can’t be that bad a wicket,” he said. The wicket had begun to turn but that should not be a dark art for the Indian batsmen to tackle. It is surviving the onslaught of the England seamers that has given them the most grief in this series, and India’s top four need to make it through 50-odd overs to give themselves a chance to bat with freedom, confidence and flair.India first four wickets were gone by the 56th and the 50th over at Lord’s, the 51st and the 16th over at Trent Bridge and within the first 27 overs here at Edgbaston, in the first innings. India were supposed to be slow starters but on this tour it has not been a long-distance race, it has been quicksand.In his very candid media conference on Thursday, Gambhir remembered that he batted for 11 hours to save a Test in New Zealand. It was a different situation, against a very different attack but it is times like these that cricketers draw solace and strength from. After all, who knows what else cricket can do?

There is a perception that Wriddhiman Saha is an inferior batsman to some of the other wicketkeepers competing for national selection. It is time that perception changed

Abhishek Purohit in Indore13-Feb-2012Wriddhiman Saha walked back a satisfied but tired man, having made 170 in more than six hours in East Zone’s first innings. Before that, he had kept wicket safely and unobtrusively for Central Zone’s first innings, which had lasted for barely four hours. The handful of spectators at the Holkar Stadium, who had implored Saha to raise his bat in their direction when he reached his century, called out to him again. Saha went to them and patiently signed autographs and posed for photographs with a few fans. There was something in his demeanour that led a veteran journalist to remark that in all his decades of covering cricket he had never seen a more humble player.Saha’s humility does not seem to be put on. It is part of his nature. He is rated by many as the finest wicketkeeper in the country at the moment. He goes about his job with the look of an accountant passing journal entries. Without a needless show of emotion. He is known to be a batsman capable of fighting in adversity, a quality he displayed during the first innings of the recent Adelaide Test. He did it with the look of a man who knew he was in for a tough examination but was going to face it without fretting.Saha is not known – or at least he wasn’t until today – to be an aggressive batsman with a range of strokes. He showed he was, with the look of a man who saw aggression as part of his job description for the day, and went to carry out his duties. With humility.Saha’s batting looks as safe as his keeping. That he is technically sound was demonstrated in Australia. Today, he hammered 26 boundaries against a decent attack without a trace of ostentation. His drives were effective but not fierce. His pulls were powerful but not violent. His clips were executed with balance but without flourish. Even when he lofted the fast bowlers a couple of times just over mid-off, the strokes were not mis-timed. And all were safe.After stumps, Saha spoke about his innings. “The ball was moving around in the morning,” he said. “We knew the first session would be crucial. We decided to target only the loose deliveries and keep out the good ones.”The wicket eased out after lunch, and we came out with a positive mindset to look for runs. Their spinners were not getting much help from the pitch.”This 170 came after Saha made 124 in the semi-final against North Zone in Delhi the previous week. Both centuries were scored after East Zone had lost three wickets for not much in the first innings.Saha is an excellent keeper and a capable batsman, but he lacks glamour. There have been murmurs about his perceived inferior batting ability from the moment he was chosen as the reserve Test wicketkeeper to MS Dhoni. Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel, the others in contention, are flashier than Saha.The perception seems to be just that though, a perception. A look at the first-class batting averages reveals that Saha averages more than Karthik and Parthiv, and Dhoni as well.Saha said something today that revealed much about his merits as a batsman. “I go for my strokes only when I am well set, and depending on the match situation,” he said. It is a trait the other three cannot be said to possess in the longest format, at least not in the same measure as Saha does.After consecutive Duleep Trophy hundreds, it is time for the perception to change, and for Saha to be given some respect for his batting ability.

Kerry Packer died on the first day of the Boxing Day Test in 2005. A look back at the man who changed the fortunes of the world’s best cricketers forever

Ashley Mallett25-Dec-2011During the Boxing Day Test match our millionaire players should reflect about the man whose vision gave world cricket (and them) veritable truckloads of gold. On the first day of the 2005 Melbourne Test match between Australian and South Africa came the news that Kerry Packer was dead.Through his extraordinary life (1937-2005), Packer was a paradoxical mix of hard-headedness and compassion. On the one hand he could be ruthless, on the other he often displayed a bedside manner that seemed incongruous in the extreme.In Las Vegas one day a croupier kept Packer in a good mood during a game of Texas Hold ‘Em. As Packer raked in a mountain of chips, the pretty young card dealer unloaded her tale of woe. A single mother of three, she had a huge mortgage. It was enough to make the tears well in the multi-billionaire’s eyes.”How much have we got here?” he asked the girl.”Oh about $80,000,” she replied.”How much is your mortgage?””It is almost exactly $80,000.””Right,” Packer said almost inaudibly, in a tone of preoccupation. He signalled for the manager and whispered in the man’s ear.”But Mr Packer, an employee of the casino cannot accept tips of any sort.””Okay,” Packer said, pointing to the croupier. “Sack that woman.”Not daring to argue the point with such a high roller, the manager sacked the croupier.Immediately Packer told the girl to cash in her chips, and as she walked off, he said to the manager, “Now re-employ that young woman.”In 1977 I was working for News Ltd and had retired from cricket. News of Packer’s World Series Cricket had no sooner hit than I rang Ian Chappell, who would captain the Australians. Actually getting paid to play the game resonated with me. Chappelli sounded a little lukewarm about the prospect of me playing. He said, “I’ll have to talk to Kerry.” At that point I had no idea that Packer didn’t think much of my bowling, and it was probably a blessing that I didn’t hear him say to my old Test captain: “I’m not hiring that f****** straight breaker!”About a day later I almost fell off my chair in the newsroom when I received a phone call from the greatest batsman who ever lived.”Don Bradman here, Ashley. We want you to come back to play for Australia.”

For two days I sweated it out, then Chappelli got back to me: “Kerry’s willing to give you a contract, but only if you agree to fly to Sydney and bowl against him for one over. If you get him out twice in the six balls, he will make an offer for your services.” I did not hesitate: “Chappelli, tell Mr Packer to get f*****!”

It was a miracle that the call got past my “chief of staff”, Doug “Stainless” Steele, who might well have told the caller, “Oh yeah, if you’re Don Bradman, I’m Lord Mountbatten!””Thank you, Sir Donald, for the offer,” I said. “Does that mean I will be picked for every Test match?””Oh, no,” he replied. “You’d have to make yourself available and take your chances like everyone else.”I knew the newly appointed Bob Simpson would play all the matches, so I queried the Don on this point.”Bob’s different. He’s the captain.”Mind you, Simpson was one of Australia’s cricket greats. I was a good Test bowler, but not a great one.I informed Sir Donald that I was a chance to play WSC and that I would need to seriously consider an offer that would guarantee me a lumpsum for the entire summer. For two days I sweated it out, then Chappelli got back to me with an offer… of sorts.”Kerry’s willing to give you a contract, but only if you agree to fly to Sydney and bowl against him for one over. If you get him out twice in the six balls, he will make an offer for your services.”I did not hesitate: “Chappelli, tell Mr Packer to get f*****!”I got a contract.Some 30 years later I asked Chappelli if he had relayed our conversation verbatim to KP. He said, “No, Rowd. I didn’t think it would be in your best interests.”Playing WSC was a financial boon for me, for I had come from a background of struggling to make ends meet to play big cricket.During my first summer for South Australia I recall bowling late on the third day against Queensland. A tailender hit the ball high in the air and John Causby got under it. Neil Hawke yelled from short leg, “Drop it, drop it, Caus.” Hawkey was jokingly referring to the way we were paid in those days. We got A$30 all up for the four days (with $7.50 deducted for taxation), and if you won in three days, you were docked a day’s pay.I went on a number of Test tours where we were treated badly by the Australian cricket board in terms of pay and accommodation. During a seven-month tour of Sri Lanka, India and South Africa, we were paid peanuts (and although we batted and bowled out of our skins to beat a very good Indian outfit 3-1 in India, we played like monkeys and lost 0-4 to the Springboks). In India there were some good hotels, but we stayed in many that could only be described as hovels. That tour was the catalyst for World Series Cricket getting off the ground.WSC happened some eight years down the track, but being paid good money to play top cricket was a revelation. I just wanted to be part of it. It was Kerry Packer who provided that opportunity, and his televising Test and one-day cricket was the start of big money for top cricketers the world over. These days television is the financial life blood of the game, and the players get huge money for their efforts. In my time the boards ran the game and were veritable landlords, lauding it over the players, the serfs. There has been a big turnaround, for today it is the players who call the tune. They dictate what form of the game they play: some decide to opt out of Test cricket and play just one form of cricket – T20 or the 50-overs format.Melbourne 2005: the teams line up in a moment’s silence for Packer•Getty ImagesBe that as it may, it is thanks to Kerry Packer that the money is there for the players. Speaking of which, another incident from the time of WSC comes to mind.In the second year of the league, Australia were about to leave for a tour of the Caribbean. All the players were on $16,000 for an eight-week stint against Clive Lloyd’s terrific side. Chappell, Australia’s captain, was called in to Packer’s Park Street headquarters in Sydney, where Packer asked if he was happy with his team, and it emerged that the sum of $16,000 was less than the daily rate stipulated under the WSC contract.Packer turned to Lynton Taylor, his executive, and said, “Aren’t we paying according to the contract?”Taylor replied: “No, Kerry, but Ian’s sorted it out with the players. It’s all fixed.”Packer asked again: “Aren’t we paying according to the contract?””No.”Packer bellowed: “Then f****** pay ’em according to the contract!”Chappelli interjected: “This is ridiculous, Kerry. You’re not going to make any money out of this tour to the Caribbean. Our blokes are going to make more money on this tour than they’d earn at home.”But Packer was determined. He turned to Taylor. “How much more would it cost if we pay according to the contract?”Taylor did his sums quickly and replied: “About $340,000.”Packer hardly drew a breath before he said, “Well, pay ’em according to the contract.””Son, I’ll tell you something,” he said to Chappelli. “$340,000 is about the price of a B grade movie for my TV station. That’s not going to break me. What will f****** well break me is not sticking to to the word of my contracts. Lynton, pay ’em.”If he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Packer may well have been a leading union boss, for he had a feel for the mood of the people. He knew what stories the people wanted, as evidenced by the amazing success of his flagship magazine, the , and he knew what sort of television programmes won the heart of the common man.Kerry Bullmore Packer was born on December 17, 1937 and died on December 26, 2005. The day after his death, the Australian and South African teams wore black armbands as they lined up in respect for the astute businessman and cricket lover. I shall never forget the image of Shane Warne and Co. standing in the MCG sunshine for a minute’s silence, remembering a good mate and perhaps contemplating what might have been had Packer not taken the Establishment to task. As Michael Clarke’s young Australians take the field, they might also look skyward and thank their lucky stars that Kerry Packer made such a colossal impact on cricket.

A dramatic slide handed Sri Lanka a match Pakistan had no business losing, and it’s likely the visitors lost the game in the mind rather than on the pitch

Kanishkaa Balachandran in Colombo17-Jun-2012Misbah-ul-Haq couldn’t offer any explanation as to why Pakistan combusted, converting what appeared to be a walkover into an embarrassing defeat. It must have been hard enough digesting the numbers – seven wickets fell for 13 runs inside four overs – and worse would have been the realisation that the collapse actually began with his wicket. Pakistan weren’t supposed to lose this game. With 81 needed off 78, two set batsmen at the crease and eight more to come – including their most experienced at No.6 – it would have taken a lot to bet against them winning. The pressure created by one sharp catch in the infield followed by a bouncer barrage, though, resulted in Pakistan’s crumble.What is more glaring in Pakistan’s defeat is the fact that they cannot hide behind the excuse of being a batsman short. A heavy defeat in the second ODI at Pallekele exposed an imbalance in their line-up, so they sought to rectify that by dropping a seamer and bringing in another batsman. With at least two batsmen struggling for form, including Misbah, it was imperative they played seven batsmen apart from the keeper.Spare a thought for Azhar Ali. A half-century in a format he wasn’t associated with at the start of his career invariably ends up in a losing cause, due to no apparent fault of his own. True, he may never find himself in the league of swashbuckling openers, but that wasn’t the role intended for him in the first place, as his captain reiterated on this tour. As a grafter, he was meant to be the pivot around which others would bat. For the second time in three games, he was ditched by his more experienced colleagues. For the second time, a hard-fought fifty was drowned in defeat.Misbah didn’t extend any excuses. “Having played so many batsmen, each of them realise their responsibilities. We needed a run-a-ball and the batsmen should have taken more responsibility but they didn’t,” Misbah said. “We took it for granted that we had the match in our hands.”While together, Azhar and Misbah had adopted a conservative approach towards the target of 244, grafting the singles and dispatching the odd bad delivery to the boundary. The pair had added 99 – the bulk of it during the non-Powerplay overs – but as it happened, the period in which the field restrictions became mandatory also coincided with Pakistan’s slide.Predictably, the Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene had saved his best bowler, Lasith Malinga, for the batting Powerplay. Pakistan took six off his first over in that spell, but in the following over – the 37th – an incident hampered Azhar’s chances of batting through. Turning back at the crease to avoid a run out, he pulled a calf muscle, and with no runners allowed, the pair had to look for boundaries.Misbah tried exactly that but fell to a sharp catch at mid-off by Kulasekara. Malinga then softened Umar Akmal up with three consecutive bouncers, and the batsman appeared jolted by that barrage. Kulasekara cleverly pitched it up the following over and had Akmal chasing and edging to the keeper. Suffice to say though that Akmal botched yet another opportunity to guide his team home.A wobbly Younis Khan, dropped to No.6 owing to his poor form, also fell edging in a freakish over from Thisara Perera that included a hat-trick and a run-out. Shahid Afridi fell to the poorest shot in that maniacal period, before the pressure got to Sarfraz Ahmed, who steered the hat-trick ball to slip. Sri Lanka were within touching distance of avenging two famous collapses in Sharjah, in 1999 and 2011.It wouldn’t be fair to blame the Pakistan captain for the collapse as there was enough competency in the batting to follow. Misbah admitted his players lost the game in the mind. “It was a simple equation. We should have achieved it easily, without taking risks,” Misbah said. “In my view the batsmen need to have a compact technique in conditions in Sri Lanka, where the ball swings and seams a bit. We need to be mentally strong.”Misbah also defended demoting Younis to No.6, given his average of 44 in 28 innings in that position. “He was struggling at the top. My form too was poor so I promoted myself to No. 4. Asad Shafiq is playing well. Even in Sri Lankan conditions, you need experience even at the bottom. He [Younis] has played at No.6 before, so we pushed him down.”Not for the first time on tour, Misbah admitted that the fielding was a let-down. He refrained from singling out individuals, saying he hoped none of those mistakes will be repeated. Besides the collapse, the other sore point was that this was Pakistan’s 15th defeat in 18 chases of 240-plus in the last three years.Now 1-2 down in the series with a must-win final game on Monday, Pakistan would hope this collapse was just an aberration in their recent impressive head-to-head record against Sri Lanka. Public memory is short, and Pakistan would hope it remains that way.

The weather is changeable but South Africa are steadfast, wrapping up the tour with three series wins out of three

Firdose Moonda28-Mar-2012March 14
Sunshine. Graeme Smith says what we have all been thinking: Hamilton’s weather is much more hospitable now. It should not change moods as much as it does, but it does. Remember hearing that people who live in countries where gloomy skies are more common than blue ones tend to feel less upbeat. Can understand why.Walk into the Grant Bradburn sports shop, looking for the man himself. Cricket and hockey equipment decorates the walls. Bradburn started in the retail business when he was in partnership with Billy Bowden, but went out on his own. He also coaches Northern Districts, which has produced national players in abundance over the last two seasons. He tells me how he hopes to sort out Tim Southee’s form dip and that Brent Arnel will make the starting XI in the second Test.March 15
Arnel and Mark Gillespie both make their comebacks but have to wait to actually take the field because the first session is washed out. Even though there is very little actual rain around, the outfield is too wet to play. They have to wait even longer because South Africa choose to bowl on the green “bride”, as groundsman Karl Johnson calls it. There’s not as much in the surface as anyone expected and New Zealand set up for a solid first-innings score. South Africa engineer a dramatic collapse and take five wickets without conceding a run to turn the day on its head. Brendon McCullum is a sorry sight at the post-day press conference and says the team had been scolded by John Wright. Makes me wonder about the temperament of the New Zealand line-up. They can see off pressure in pockets but then something gives way. What is it?March 16
The bride turns into Bridezilla as 12 more wickets fall. Lack of application is costing most batsmen. Gillespie takes five on his return and is presented to the media for the first time most New Zealand journalists can remember. He is an abrasive personality and his words come out like knives. He says he “doesn’t really care” who he gets out as long as he takes wickets. He makes a reference to a back injury that almost ended his career two years ago and says he still bowls through pain every day. He mentions an idol who said that all fast bowlers learn to push through the pain barrier but won’t say who it is.March 17
The colour of the day is still green but not because of the pitch, although the television crew play a heated match on it after the Test is over. It’s St Patrick’s Day. Lots of New Zealanders have some Irish heritage in them, so it promises to be a big night. The locals are headed to the Quadrant bar and we join them. The South African team is also there, celebrating victory. Smith has a small green hat perched on his head. He looks more relaxed than I have seen him in a long time. Don’t see any of the New Zealand team but then remember that they have dispersed for two days off.March 18
Have booked a bus trip to Auckland. It’s the only opportunity to see the big city on this trip, with no Test at Eden Park. It’s a comfortable two-hour ride from Hamilton, which starts off through the suburbs. Notice that very few houses are made of brick walls; most are timber weatherboards.Eight hours is not nearly enough to take in everything Auckland has to offer. First stop is Devonport, a pleasant seaside town with cafés and bookstores, a 12-minute ferry ride from the harbor. From the grass banks that border the seafront, the Auckland skyline is in full glory. The Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, is its defining feature. The sea is a major attraction on the day because it is the start of the fifth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. The Devonport vantage points are not crowded and provide a perfect view of the loop the six yachts travel on before setting off for Brazil.Back in the city, architecture is the attraction of choice. Auckland is home to a variety of building styles, most of them concentrated on Queen Street. The most striking of them is the Civic Theatre, a brown building in rococo style. After a quick meet-up with a friend from high school, it’s back on the bus to Hamilton.March 19
Just as well the Test did not need five days. Rain pours down into Hamilton, unrelenting. Most of the South African squad are not around to see it – they’ve been given two days off to look around New Zealand. Dale Steyn, Jacques Rudolph and a few others go to Raglan beach and Lake Taupo.With no sign of the wet weather abating, three of us decide to take umbrellas on a visit to Hamilton Gardens, built as part of a public works project. Despite having to trundle through soggy grass, it is quite romantic to wander around. The Italian and Indian gardens are the most ostentatious, the Japanese, American and English quite minimalist, and the Chinese the most thoughtful. We end with hot chocolate at a local café to warm up.March 20
Having travelled by plane, bus, car and ferry, the only thing left to do was train. Hamilton to Wellington on the Overlander is it. Supposed to be one of the most scenic rail journeys in the world. The train travels over hundreds of kilometres of volcanic land, through the Tongariro National Park and across many viaducts, including the famous Hapuawhenua one, which is 414 metres long. The real feat is the climb up the Raurimu spiral, an engineering marvel designed in 1898 that spirals up a steep slope, impossible to ascend if not for this unique design. There’s no point on the spiral from which one can see the entire thing; once you’ve reached the top, you can see the horseshoe bend far below.There’s something quite civilised and old-school about taking a train. Even though there is no dining carriage and the lounge is a small section at the back of one of the carriages rather than an actual lounge, we all enjoy it. There is a practical benefit too. We are told taking the train was probably the best way to travel to Wellington that day because strong winds caused those on flights to experience landings of a far more exciting nature than they are used to.March 21
More rain. And wind. Training at the Basin cancelled and moved to the Wellington School of Cricket at Westpac Stadium. Walk there in the rain and wind. Arrive too late for New Zealand’s presser but in time to hear Gillespie practising Hindi. ” Mark ,” he repeats, at least three times. IPL calling? He confirms that Allan Donald is the idol he made reference to during the Hamilton game. Donald flew home the day before, to get some time off in what CSA call “a busy year”.Vertigo alert: the Sky Tower in Auckland•Firdose Moonda/ESPNcricinfo LtdMarch 22
The weather conspires against New Zealand. Rain in the morning, brief bursts of sunshine in the afternoon. New Zealand train indoors, South Africa at the Basin. First sight of the ground. Just lovely. The South African squad enjoy a run around outdoors. Everyone in high spirits except Jacques Kallis, who strains a muscle in his neck in training.March 23
South Africa’s team sheet has to be shuffled frantically as Kallis is ruled out. Reminded of his massive worth as he is replaced by two players, one to bat, one to bowl. The one to bat, JP Duminy, shows signs of being deserving of a Test recall.March 24
Rain has become a familiar sight. More of it in the morning. Use the time to stroll around an empty Basin. Look at each of the historical reminders – the William Wakefield Monument, the plaques – and spend at least two hours in the museum. Reminders of years gone by are everywhere, including in the Norwood Room, where a reunion of the 11 members of the 15-man squad that travelled to South Africa in the summer of 1961 is being hosted. Don Neely organises the get-together. John R Reid, who enjoyed a fruitful visit of South Africa, delivers a speech about the four players and the team manager who have since died.March 25
Wellington looks a different place. The sun shines, the wind does not blow, the air even has a little bit of warmth in it. Glorious. South Africa make good use of the conditions. Alviro Petersen and JP Duminy score hundreds. New Zealand put on their best opening stand of the series. Batsmen are in the game once again.March 26
South Africa make sure the only results possible are a win for them or a draw. It sets up a tense final day. How much time will they give themselves to bowl New Zealand out? Will the New Zealand batsmen have the temperament to survive? The journalists ponder it in one of the many cafés in the city centre. Have not had much time to see Wellington but the little I have seen has confirmed it as the food-and-drink capital of the country.March 27
South Africa win their third series of the tour, ticking every box. Every member of the team has performed. The smiles are wide. All-round. Jacques Rudolph and Kruger van Wyk share a drink in the change room afterwards. It hasn’t been a marquee series but it has been competitive. Pity it had to end so soon. Maybe a pop-in at the famous Te Papa Museum tomorrow and then the start of the 11-time zone travel back to South Africa. Thank you, New Zealand. We made some good memories.

Azhar Mahmood has lit up the early stages of the Champions League and if he keeps that form up, Auckland could go deep into the tournament

Liam Brickhill at Newlands16-Oct-2012Auckland had every reason to feel at home in Cape Town on Monday night. The North Island climate of their home city was replicated almost perfectly, as an icy south-easterly wind kept Shakib Al Hasan wrapped up in a blanket until he came out to bat, and had the cheerleaders hoping for boundaries to keep them dancing and warm on the sidelines.Add to that the sparse turnout from Capetonians with no home side to cheer and little reason to brave the cold, and this might’ve been an Aces v Central Districts match at Pukekura Park. Indeed, Lou Vincent made the Knight Riders attack look like park cricketers in a ferocious assault that launched their chase, and with three wins on the trot Auckland have shown a hunger and fearlessness that should take them deep into this tournament.But Auckland’s success was not built on familiarity with conditions alone, and it was neither Kyle Mills nor Michael Bates who made the most of a green, New Zealand-style wicket. It wasn’t Martin Guptill, ostensibly Auckland’s best batsman, who guided their chase. On both counts, it was the evergreen Azhar Mahmood who shone for the unheralded Kiwi domestic side.It says a lot about Auckland’s fortunes that Mahmood, a few months from his 38th birthday and forgotten by Pakistan since the Caribbean World Cup five years ago, is their star player. The man who’s plied his trade for Dhaka Gladiators, Islamabad Cricket Association, Kent, Kings XI Punjab, Lahore Badshahs, MCC, Pakistan International Airlines, Rawalpindi, Surrey, United Bank Limited and, of course, Pakistan, is now an integral part of yet another side.”He’s great to have in the side,” said Auckland captain Gareth Hopkins. “His knowledge of cricket helps me out as captain, and helps both the bowlers and the batters out. He’s a big part of our team.”Mahmood is in a fearsome run of form at the moment, and rode into this match on the glory of his record-setting five-wicket, fifty-run combo against Hampshire at Centurion. His MVP status is backed up by the stats: He’s scored 130 Champions League runs, for just once out, and now has nine wickets at just 6.67 in the tournament.His performance with the ball, removing Jacques Kallis and Manoj Tiwary with consecutive deliveries for ducks, was the fulcrum upon which this match turned, and Kolkata captain Gautam Gambhir admitted as much. “Azhar picked up two wickets in one over and that is where I think the game turned in their favour,” he said. “I think he’s a quality player. When things go your way, you’ve got to make the best use of it, and he is doing that.Hopkins said: “The way that we bowled in that middle period, with Azhar picking up two quick wickets in that one over, I think that was the key to them only getting 130-odd.”Mahmood was at it yet again with the bat, guiding Auckland to victory with 14 balls to spare with an unbeaten 42-ball 51. That it was he who hit the winning runs proved a fitting end to the game for a man who has lit up the early stages of this tournament. That the stroke, a one-legged pull through midwicket, also took him to a second consecutive half-century made it even sweeter.”Mahmood is such a quality player that he fits in around the other batters, and he assesses the situation and deals with it and he passes on that experience and gets confidence into the other batters,” Hopkins said.Apart from the Kolkata-Delhi derby, when one IPL team to come out on top, the Fancy Dans of this tournament have struggled against the Plain Janes. Mahmood is rapidly showing that there’s nothing plain about the Champions League’s less glamorous teams.