by Lillee calls for separate test and one-day teams
PERTH, Nov 8 AAP - Australia should have separate selection
panels and teams to keep Test cricket distinct from one-day games,
according to fast bowling legend Dennis Lillee.
Lillee is Australia's all time leading Test bowler with 355
wickets and was part of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket
revolution that made the limited overs game a *** force.
Writing in his weekly column in the West Australian newspaper,
Lillee has urged the Australian Cricket Board to revolutionise its
approach to the one-day game or get lost in the stampede.
"Horses for courses must be the policy, with meticulous
attention paid to the strengths and weaknesses of every member of
the batting order," Lillee said.
"And not one member of a one-day attack should be named without
evaulating who he will be bowling against -- and where."
Lillee advocated new coach Geoff Marsh be in charge of both
sides.
On his return from India on Wednesday Marsh said Australia
should vary selections to ensure the most potent combination for
whatever brand of cricket it is playing.
Lillee said this would also help extend careers by giving
players spells at certain stages for what should be minimal
financial loss, if any.
Atherton comes under attack
LONDON, Nov 9 (AFP) - The former
Warwickshire and England all-rounder
Dermot Reeve launched a blistering
verbal *** on England captain
Michael Atherton on Saturday.
Somerset's new coach Reeve
rubbished Atherton's captaincy during
the World Cup saying he "lacked drive,
purpose and flair."
He added: "Add to that his passive
body language and you're struggling
when the team is up against it".
Reeve, the most successful county
captain of the 1990s, was equally
critical of the then-chairman of
selectors, Ray Illingworth.
He said: "I don't dislike Ray
Illingworth as a person but, when I
played for England in South Africa and
the World Cup last winter, I was
surprised and disappointed by his
approach to management.
"I believe in getting the best out of
players by encouraging them rather
than attempting to motivate by
intimidation as Illy did."
Reeve, writing in his autobiography
Dermot Reeve's Winning Ways which is
due to be serialised in the Daily Mail
next week, said he was never given the
chance to discuss tactics during team
meetings.
"Atherton, who should have taken the
lead, seemed to want to get the
meetings over as quickly as possible.
So the team went out badly prepared,"
he continued.
Reeve's criticisms of big-name cricket
figures included West Indian Brian
Lara who joined him at Warwickshire in
1995 after his record-breaking
exploits against England the previous
winter.
But the two failed to hit it off and
Reeve admitted: "From the start, the
chemistry wasn't right between us. It
soon got back to me that he was making
sniping comments about me on the
field."
Dawn (Pakistan)
Windies beat W. Australia
By Ihithisham Kamardeen
PERTH, Nov 10: West Indies strike bowler Curtly Ambrose may go into the
first cricket Test cold after suffering a groin strain in the three-day
against Western Australia.
Ambrose did not take the field on Sunday as his team-mates stole an unlikely
win in the last session, and is likely to be rested from the match against
an Australian XI in Hobart starting on Friday.
West Indies would struggle to beat Australia in Brisbane without the giant
Antiguan, one of the several players who arrived in Australia 10 days ago
carrying niggling injuries from the recent domestic one-day competition.
"Once they get accustomed to the harder pitches and outfields I think
they'll be fine by the time the Test match comes around," manager Clive
Lloyd said of his walking wounded. "Ambrose has still got a bit of a problem
but at least he has two weeks. It will depend on how he responds to
treatment."
The normally taciturn Ambrose told reporters, "It's cool, mon."
The injury toll means they may be down to the bare 11 for Tuesday's one-day
game in Alice Springs against a Northern Territory invitation side. Reserve
wicketkeeper Junior Murray was absent after lunch today due to a hamstring
strain.
Western Australia then crashed from 55 for one to 90 for four before first
innings century maker Adam Gilchrist and former Test batsman Damien Martyn
put on a fifth wicket stand of 63 in better than even time. But after they
went on 153 the home side lost six for 17 in seven overs to be all out for
170. Spinner Carl Hooper took four for 59, Walsh two for 47 and fellow quick
Kenneth Benjamin two for 23. Chase of 23 for victory got off to bad start
when Robert Samuels fell for a second ball duck thanks to a screaming catch
by Langer at short midwicket.
Fellow opener Adrian Griffith and Roland Holder, whose 68 earlier today did
his Test chances no harm, carried them to 26 for one with 11.3 overs to
spare in the last hour. Benjamin atoned for a bad day on Friday by
dismissing both Western Australia openers while Hooper's match haul of seven
for 123 was a timely reminder of his nuisance value when the quicks are
resting.
Sydney Morning Herald
November 9, 1996
With fire in his heart and leadership on his mind
By MALCOLM KNOX
THERE is something familiar about the West Indies' two new opening
batsmen, Robert Samuels and Adrian Griffith.
Slight of build, both left-handers address the bowler with
balanced, full-faced stances. Their first movements at the ball
are almost identical: a flex of the knees, the bat twitching high
in a backlift suggesting attack is the first instinct, defence a
necessary evil.
When the next man arrives at the crease, you realise where you've
seen the style. Just as Vivian Richards inspired a crop of
imitators in the 1970s and '80s - most notably Richie Richardson -
it is now Brian Lara whose manner and attitude set the mould for a
new generation of West Indian batsmen.
It makes sense that Lara, the best Caribbean batsman since
Richards, should have such influence. But it is only on this tour
that Lara's leadership has been recognised and formalised, with
his appointment as West Indian vice-captain.
After leading his team for the first time on Australian soil
against Western Australia on Wednesday, the 27-year-old Lara
reflected on his role as linkman between the junior and senior
members of the squad.
"Most of the younger guys I've captained before, because they're
around my age and a bit younger," he said.
"We've played West Indies B team or under-23 or some sort of
cricket where I've led them before.
"I seem to have a very good rapport with them. It's necessary as I
start in management to have that respect from the guys, and it
seems to be going well so far.
"It's also a good opportunity to work with Clive Lloyd, Malcolm
Marshall and Courtney Walsh.
"Being a part of the tour management as vice-captain gives me a
lot of responsibility on and off the field, and that will
certainly help my whole demeanour while I'm in Australia."
The subtext for his comments is always his burning ambition, his
assumption that he is captain-in-waiting. Associates say that
Lara's aim since his early ***s has been not simply to play for
the West Indies, or to be their best batsman, but to be their
leader.
Yet this is the same man who, a year ago, stayed in Trinidad while
his teammates toured Australia under Richardson.
Lara, claiming to be "sick of cricket", had built a wall between
himself and the team. He was one of four players - Curtly Ambrose,
Kenny Benjamin and Carl Hooper were the others - who had been
fined for indiscipline on the 1995 tour of England.
In Lara's case, it was for leaving the team to stay with friends
in Birmingham. Lara had been given permission to do so by the then
president of the West Indian Cricket Board, Peter Short. But Short
had not told the team management, and the fine stood. Lara was not
to rejoin the team until the World Cup in February.
What rankled with Lara - and still does - was that the competitive
fires burn more brightly in him than in most of his teammates. His
closest companion in the touring group is Shivnarine Chanderpaul,
whom he sees as a fellow trier.
Lara resented having come into a declining West Indian team. He
felt that some of the senior players who had played in the
*** team of Viv Richards and Malcolm Marshall were no longer
putting in the effort to sustain that greatness during his,
Lara's, time. Richie Richardson, perhaps insecure about his own
authority, failed to give Lara the confidence the younger man
thought he deserved.
Marshall, now coach, believes Richardson's retirement has given
Lara a fillip.
"Brian captained Trinidad when he was very young," Marshall says.
"Some players are more ambitious than others. Some individuals
want to make suggestions, and eventually want to take over. Then
when you have a leader who's not willing to listen, it comes over
very badly."
Richardson's successor, Courtney Walsh, is happier to include Lara
in what is, with Marshall and manager Clive Lloyd, a sort of
captaincy by committee.
"It's perfect," Marshall says, "in that you have an experienced
captain and the premier batsman in the world who obviously at some
stage in his career will take over the captaincy. He captained
Trinidad in the domestic competition and did a fantastic job.
"There was nothing staid, always something different about his
captaincy, imaginative, so he's got the ingredients of being a
good leader ...
"He's very knowledgeable about cricket. He reads the game very
well, which is obviously an advantage as a captain.
"He's always willing to try new things. He gets everyone involved
in planning strategy."
In Lara's first match as captain, on Wednesday night, he did the
unthinkable for a West Indian leader and threw spinner Carl Hooper
the new ball. Lara's explanation was that the outfield was wet and
Hooper might have trouble gripping the ball later.
It was thoughtful cricket, and a daring challenge to the
philosophy of a side that has come here without a specialist
spinner.
Yet Lara stresses he is not captain yet, and likes to douse
expectations that he is the key man.
If anyone smells like team spirit now, it is Lara. While he has
predicted a personal run feast this summer, he rejects Allan
Border's contention that he is the pivotal player in the coming
series.
"Sometimes I play well and sometimes the other guys play well," he
says, "but it hasn't been a team effort.
"Jimmy Adams gets runs, or Hooper gets runs, or Chanderpaul gets
runs, but we don't seem to get them at the same time. I don't
think it depends on any one person. It depends on a team effort.
We're trying to get the guys as consistent as possible, and make
it a team effort, all of us making big scores."
Lara said, on arrival in Perth, that he wanted to score three or
four centuries in the five-Test series. Take note. The last time
he publicly expressed such a hunger for runs was in early 1994,
just before the English arrived in the West Indies. In that
series, Lara scored 798 runs at the Bradmanesque average of 99.75,
including his world record 375 in Antigua.
Lara's batting has always responded well to motivation. If his
relish for the responsibilities of leadership is any guide,
Australia's bowlers are in for a toilsome summer.
For fans not blinded by parochialism, it will be one of the great
sights in sport.
Sydney Morning Herald
November 9, 1996
Trigger finger concern puts it all on the line for Shane
Back at the bowling crease ... Shane Warne in action
against Victoria. Photo by TIM CLAYTON.
By MICHAEL KOSLOWSKI
THE future should be full of unlimited riches for Shane Warne. A
bottomless pit of endor***ts, the Australian captaincy, the
highest wicket-taker in the history of cricket - all should be his
in time.
However, the fragility of it all has been raised by the delicacy
of one little knuckle on the ring finger of his right hand.
With that finger the source of his annual income of more than $1
million and rising, some, such as former Test legspinner Kerry
O'Keeffe, have questioned the sanity of Warne letting a surgeon's
knife near it. He argued the use of painkillers for the remainder
of his playing days - that could be around another decade - was
the only safe option. There would be plenty of time for surgeons
when the playing days were over.
Already by 27, Warne has suffered a serious shoulder injury,
aggravated when he bowled several dozen wrong 'uns in succession
at practice, and now has has had surgery on his most valuable
tool, the spinning trigger finger.
Warne's problem, as it is with so many contemporary international
cricketers, is will the body last the distance?
Given his phenomenal rate of taking wickets - 207 in 44 Tests, or
almost five wickets a Test - he should overtake all-time
wicket-taker Kapil Dev (434) by the time he has played 90 Tests,
which at the current rate of scheduling of more than a Test a
month, should be in about four years, when he is still only 31 -
prime time for leg spin, whose tradesmen traditionally mature
late.
When Warne was appointed Victorian captain earlier this year,
taking over from Dean Jones, there was talk Warne was being
groomed for the future national leadership.
Victoria's cricket manager and former Test captain Bill Lawry was
one who believed Warne was future Test captain material. Another
to lend support to the belief that Warne is the man most likely to
succeed Mark Taylor as Australian captain was vice-captain Ian
Healy, who during the Warne-less tour of Sri Lanka, labelled the
leg-spinner the leadership standout among the younger generation.
Then there is already a mounting list of endor***ts, from a
seven-figure deal with Nike, a contract with Channel 9 and even
his own cricket ball.
At the time of his operation last May, the Australian Cricket
Board said the finger had been giving Warne trouble for about 12
months, with the expectation that he would be able to return to
full fitness well before the tours of Sri Lanka and India.
But he did not bowl a leg spinner for the next three months, and
despite a few encouraging 10-over spells in limited overs
competition for Victoria, will not really know whether the
operation has been a success until he has bowled 70 overs in five
days of a Test and then has to back up for another spell a few
days later.
Warne has not played for Australia since the World Cup final
against Sri Lanka in March. He has subsequently missed tours to
Sri Lanka and India, which included nine one-day internationals
and a Test.
Without him the side managed just two limited overs victories, and
suffered defeats in seven others and the one-off Test against
India.
That led colleague Peter Roebuck to rightly query whether the
dismal performances on the sub-continent had exposed a dangerous
overconfidence hidden for too long by the genius of Shane Warne.
Over the next 17 months, Australia will play 20 Tests and up to 32
one-day internationals against the West Indies, South Africa,
England and New Zealand. On top of that are tour matches,
Sheffield Shield, Mercantile Mutual Cup, eight-a-side,
invitational tournaments ... all of which will be desperately
seeking Warne's contribution.
Apart from being good friends, Warne and Brian Lara have much in
common. They are standouts, and, along with India's Sachin
Tendulkar, are Test cricket's most highly remunerated players.
Each has the ability to single-handedly win matches, and even if
they do not perform, their presence lifts teammates and
intimidates the opposition alike.
With the dual abilities of being able to both take wickets and
stem runs - a rare feat for a leg-spinner - Warne is his captain's
most prized weapon.
When he has the ball, his bowling partner benefits enormously as
batsmen are constantly under threat from Warne, to the detriment
of their confidence, concentration and footwork. His genius fuels
the confidence of his teammates, makes good Test bowlers better
ones and makes captaincy a much easier vocation.
For if you can always turn to Warne, you always have a
match-turning option.
While the publicists sprout that Lara versus Warne will be the
battle of the summer, a more important fight for both Australian
cricket and its star player of the present and future will be the
one between Warne and his trigger finger.
Warne seems to have responded to the reality of the situation,
heeding counsel on the need for physical preservation.
"The problem with me is that I want to play every game," Warne
said. "I always want to be available for every game.
"But, maybe, they will have to lasso me and some other players
with the heavy program ahead."
Sydney Morning Herald
November 11, 1996
Bevan's 150 puts selectors to the test
Four more ... Micheal Beavan continues on after getting
his century at the SCG yesterday. Photo by ADAM PRETTY
By PHIL WILKINS
NSW, 264 and 8(dec)-353, took first innings points. Victoria (161
and 5-100) need another 357 runs to win outright with today left
for play.
The Australian cricketers took a pot-holed highway around India,
but Michael Bevan has returned to the Sydney Cricket Ground via
the Silk Route.
If the pitch was under-prepared and ***ly on Friday and placid
yesterday, Bevan was serenely indifferent to its vagaries as he
remorselessly buried Victoria with an unbeaten 150 after his first
innings 79.
Last night, Bevan quietly and candidly confronted the reality that
reservations persist about him facing fast bowlers, stemming from
his omission during the Ashes series two summers ago.
Bevan should be an automatic choice for the Brisbane Test on
Friday week. Beforehand, however, he will play for an Australian
XI against the West Indies in Hobart on Friday.
"I had a tough time against England and unfortunately I have not
come out of that yet," he said.
"But every game against the West Indies gives me a chance to shrug
it off. If I come away with runs against them, the monkey's off my
back.
"In another three or four weeks, we'll find out."
Picked for the Delhi Test against India, Bevan believed "it was my
spot until I did not score any runs again, but it's not for me to
decide who's got it or who hasn't.
"Unfortunately, I have been labelled. I can live with that. I
probably played the short ball worse than I ever played it after
being labelled but scored more runs.
"It's a matter of coming to terms with my game.
"I think I'm a Test player and I think I can become a good Test
player."
The moisture in the square made Bevan's performance on Friday
decisively more demanding, an innings worth a century in any
language.
Yesterday, his professionalism was satisfied with his 30th first
class century, by virtue of almost six and a half hours of pure
concentration, 16 boundaries and the most destructive cut shot
this side of the Murray.
Having claimed first innings points through the fast bowling
excavations of Anthony Stuart (5-63 and 0-12) and Phil Alley (2-31
and 2-24) - before tea on the second day - NSW saw only bright
daylight through the rain showers.
Undismayed by the loss of Mark Taylor (one) and Steve Waugh (one),
Michael Slater (69) cover drove the new ball off Paul Reiffel
(2-58) and Damien Fleming (0-41) into submission with nine
boundaries.
Slater and Bevan***ed 75 in just 56 minutes before Brad Williams
(4-63), enjoying the harder, quicker strip as it dried, made a
delivery kick from the shoulder of Slater's bat to slip.
Shane Lee (40) emerged for another gem, driving Williams through
cover for two boundaries in three balls and short-arm jolting
Fleming forward of square leg for six.
Phil Emery (34) relishes these battles. All grit and gristle, he
and Bevan muscled a 67-run stand in an hour as NSW moved into a
400-run lead.
Stuart celebrated his Australian XI selection, crunching away two
boundaries before Williams, the speedster he deprived of the
Hobart game, deflected a ball high towards fine leg for Darren
Berry to race 20 metres for a splendid catch.
The Healy-Gilchrist-Seccombe arguments continue, but Berry's
keeping was excepional against NSW.
Victoria's near-international attack was without inspiration,
labouring to contain Bevan. Shane Warne (0-75) spun the ball
without threatening to tear its hide off.
But Alley had Warren Ayres (five) caught on the leg side, and
Victoria began taking on water through every port hole.
Leg-spinner Stuart MacGill (2-37 and 2-20) again found his niche
immediately, pitching one ball well outside leg stump for Mark
Taylor to hold the catch from Ian Harvey at slip.
Shane would have been happy with it.
Sydney Morning Herald
Healy safe for Windies series
By PHIL WILKINS
Insomnia has never troubled wicketkeeper Ian Healy and he should
not start losing sleep now, for his Australian position is secure
for the Frank Worrell Trophy Test series.
Despite an avalanche of advance death notices over the weekend,
Healy will appear in his 81st Test on Friday week, and as
vice-captain.
Adam Gilchrist's reward for his impressive batting and improving
wicketkeeping will be a flight to Hobart for the Australian XI's
four-day game against the West Indies at Bellerive starting on
Friday.
Likewise, Ricky Ponting's exclusion from the Australian XI can be
interpreted as a trip to Perth for Tasmania's Sheffield Shield
match, then back across the continent to Brisbane for the Test.
Since Healy's promotion through the shield ranks to the Test berth
against Pakistan in 1988, he has guarded his Australian position
jealously.
Healy is 32. He wants to undertake next year's Ashes tour of
England, perhaps as his swansong.
Generously, Healy conceded no man was indispensable, nor did any
have a divine right to national selection.
At least for the present, the selectors disagree with him.
One Australian official said of Healy: "He's a champion player and
should be treated as such. The only thing that will stop him is a
broken leg."
Chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns and his panel of four - Jim
Higgs, Steve Bernard, Peter Taylor and Andrew Hilditch - gather in
Sydney today for their usual early-season policy meeting.
The vice-captaincy will be touched on, with a view ahead to the
tours of South Africa and England, but no dramatic announcement is
anticipated about the team's executive positions.
Shane Warne may well captain Australia one day, but like
Gilchrist, he knows patience is a virtue.
Gilchrist is one of the more exciting young players in the game.
At the back of the selectors' minds is his performance behind the
stumps at the Gabba only last December when he captained the
Australian XI against the West Indies. His glovework was not
without blemish, and they remember it.
Gilchrist went back to Perth and by the end of the season was
making breathtaking leg-side stumpings. His day will come.
As ever, the Hobart XI reflects the selectors' thoughts on the
Test team and players on the verge of national representation.
NSW fast bowler Anthony Stuart, 26, and Queenslander Andrew
Bichel, 26, are worthy new-ball selections, both strong candidates
for higher honours.
In the light of Michael Bevan's successes against Victoria,
however, it is perplexing to see him facing the West Indies before
Friday week.
Perhaps the selectors wish to compare Bevan with Stuart Law.
Perhaps, more logically, they wish to balance up the situation
with NSW meeting Queensland in a Sheffield Shield match at
Bankstown Oval from next Friday.
The selectors might well have chosen a batsman such as Justin
Langer or Damien Martyn instead of Bevan.
Regardless, the batting combination they have chosen is one off
the top shelf. Matthew Elliott will surely show Bellerive and the
citizens of Hobart that next weekend.
The Australian XI for the match in Hobart is:
Matthew Elliott, Andrew Hayden, Greg Blewett, Michael Bevan,
Stuart Law (c), Darren Lehmann, Adam Gilchrist, Bradley Hogg,
Andrew Bichel, Anthony Stuart, Jason Gillespie (12th man to be
named from Tasmania).
The Age (Australia)
Bevan vows to bounce the pace bogy
By ANTHONY MITHEN,
Sydney
Michael Bevan, the only incumbent Test player picked for the
Australian XI trial match against the West Indies later this week,
said yesterday he was looking forward to banishing the idea that
he could not handle raw pace bowling.
Bevan was clearly, but diplomatically, disappointed to be forced
into a position where he must avoid failing to ensure he makes the
first Test. He had just completed a faultless 150 not out for his
state.
He admitted he had been dubbed suspicious against pure speed
bowling and said without question that he had his detractors at
the top of the Australian Cricket Board ladder, but was willing to
prove them wrong, beginning Friday.
"I've been labelled . . . I guess I had a bit of a tough time
against England and unfortunately I haven't come out of that yet,
but I think these West Indies games will be good.
"If I don't play the Test, too bad, but every game against the
West Indies will be a chance to shrug that off," he said.
"I've really got nothing to lose. If I come away with runs against
them, the monkey's off my back. So over the next three or four
weeks we are going to find out."
Bevan said he thought his position in the Test team was safe until
he stopped making runs (he had a postive tour of India, where he
made 23 and 33 in the Test and scored runs freely in the one-day
series), but conceded he was naive to think so.
He admitted he had also put his hand up to bat in the No. 3 hole
left by David Boon, citing his versatility to bat in any number of
positions for NSW, Australia, and for South Australia during a
brief stint at the Cricket Academy.
"I know for a fact I still have to prove something. I'm
comfortable - I think I'm a Test player and I think I can become a
good Test player, but I know for a fact there are people that are
for and against me.
"That's just the way it is, and you can't please everyone. I guess
I'm not a natural *** or puller, but I guess runs are the
bottom line.
"I guess it plays on my mind a little bit, but I have played quick
bowlers before. I've played Devon Malcolm a couple of times and
(Allan) Donald, and I can't really remember them getting me out.
"I've probably played the West Indies a couple of times, too, and
scored all right runs against them, too, when I was a little bit
younger."
While Bevan was forced to face the music of no-confidence after
what should have been a fine day following his handsome knock for
NSW, Victorian opener Matthew Elliott was preparing for Friday by
grafting out 63 by stumps and grinning at the prospect of playing
for Australia.
Elliott will take one small career step at Bellerive Oval on
Friday and hopes to make the giant leap to Test level the
following week.
He said he was delighted to make the Australian XI, but there was
an edge of anxiety to his words that signalled nothing short of
Test debut would satisfy.
"There have been a lot of little steps - I want a big one. But it
is good; another opportunity and hopefully I can get some runs and
do it in front of the right people," Elliott said.
The Age (Australia)
Healy to keep on keeping on
By PHIL WILKINS
Insomnia has never troubled wicketkeeper Ian Healy and he should
not start losing sleep now, for his Australian position is secure
for the Frank Worrell Trophy Test series.
Despite several advance death notices over the weekend, Healy will
appear in his 81st Test on Friday week, and as vice-captain. Adam
Gilchrist's reward for his impressive batting and improving
'keeping is a place in the Australian XI's four-day game against
the West Indies in Hobart on Friday.
Likewise, Ricky Ponting's exclusion from the Australian XI in
Hobart suggests a trip to Perth for Tasmania's Sheffield Shield
match and then back across the continent to Brisbane for the Test
against the West Indies.
Since Ian Healy's promotion to the Test team against Pakistan in
1988, he has guarded his Australian position jealously. Healy is
32 and wants to undertake next year's Ashes tour of England,
perhaps as his swansong. He acknowledged no man was indispensable,
nor any with a divine right to national selection. At least for
the present, the selectors disagree.
One Australian official said of Healy: "He's a champion player,
and should be treated as such. The only thing that will stop him
is a broken leg."
The Australian selectors meet in Sydney today for their usual
early-season policy meeting. Vice-captaincy will be touched on,
with a view ahead to the tours of South Africa and England, but no
dramatic anouncement is anticipated about the team's executive
positions. Shane Warne, tipped by some as a candidate for the
vice-captaincy, may well captain Australia one day, but knows
patience is a virtue.
When asked about the issue during the Sheffield Shield match
against New South Wales, he said: "That's the first I've heard
about it - I've got no idea. I think Heals has done a great job as
vice-captain and I don't think it's for me to say whether I should
be vice-captain or not. I'm just worrying about getting back and
playing for Australia."
Likewise Gilchrist, one of the more exciting young players in the
game, will not edge out Healy yet. At the back of the selectors'
minds is his performance behind the stumps at the Gabba last
December when he captained the Australian XI against the West
Indies. His glovework was not without blemish, and they remember
it. Gilchrist went back to Perth and by the end of the season was
making breath-taking leg-side stumpings. His day will come.
As ever, the Hobart XI reflects the selectors' thoughts on the
Test team and players on the verge of national representation. NSW
fast bowler Anthony Stuart, 26, and Queenslander Andrew Bichel,
26, are worthy new-ball selections, both strong candidates for
higher honors.
In the light of Michael Bevan's successes against Victoria,
however, it is perplexing to see him in the batting line-up.
Perhaps the selectors wish to compare Bevan with Stuart Law.
Perhaps, more logically, they wish to balance up the situation
with NSW meeting Queensland in a Sheffield Shield match at
Bankstown Oval from next Friday.
The Australian XI for Hobart is: Matthew Elliott, Matthew Hayden,
Greg Blewett, Michael Bevan, Stuart Law (c), Darren Lehmann, Adam
Gilchrist, Bradley Hogg, Andrew Bichel, Anthony Stuart, Jason
Gillespie (12th man, from Tasmania, to be named).
Rediff (India)
Crowd control the main agenda at convention of cricket referees
The two-day National Grid match referee's meeting in
Bombay, on November 8 and 9, will consider various
methods of investing crowd control power to its
members in view of the serious problems it has
created in recent times in international cricket.
International Cricket Conference chairman Sir Clyde
Walcott, under whose aegis the conference will be
held, said in Bombay today that recent instances of
stone throwing and invasion of the playing field by
crowds have undermined the spirit of the game, and
the referees' meeting will try to find some solutions
to the problem.
Citing the instance of Calcutta, where match referee
Clive Lloyd had to concede the World Cup semifinal to
Sri Lanka against India due to crowd ***, and an
instance in Bangalore during the just concluded Titan
Cup, he said there was a move to blacklist guilty
centres from holding international matches.
Other items on the agenda, Walcott said, would be to
make the code of conduct for players stricter, and to
usher in uniformity in penalties.
Eigh*** match referees, two each from the nine Test
playing nations, are participating in this first such
meeting.
Reviewing the workings of match referees since their
introduction in 1991, Walcott said he was satisfied
with the result. The meeting, he said, would take
note of the achievements and look at further
empowering the match referees. "I find scope for
further improvement in refereeing," Walcott said
here.
ICC secretary Dave Richards said that though the
referee's powers would be enhanced, it could not
solve the problem of commercialistion of cricket
gear. For instance, he pointed out, there are certain
firms that at least on paper describe themselves as
manufacturers of cricketing gear and thus entitled to
have their logos on players' kits, and it was
impossible to prove otherwise. South Africa, Richards
said, was the only country which protested against
non-sports logos on cricket bats.
Referring to the growing protests against tobacco
companies sponsoring cricket tournaments, Richards
said it would be difficult to curb that at this
present point in time as tobacco accounted for fifty
per cent of all cricket sponsorship. "We will need to
find alternative sources of sponsorship before taking
any steps in this direction," Richards said.
The ICC secretary admitted that various international
captains had complained about sentences and fines
imposed by match referees varying from game to game,
even for similar offences. "We are working at
evolving a common system, and bringing consistency to
the penalties they impose," Richards said.
Referring to the modern practise of putting up huge
television screens in stadia whereby the crowd got to
see closeups of controversial umpiring decisions or
player behaviour that could be incendiary, Richards
said there was no solution to that problem. "It is
part of cricket entertainment, and should stay,"
Walcott added.
Rediff (India)
Locomoting with foot firmly in mouth
Prem Panicker
Phew!
For a day and a half after the Titan
Cup final at the ***hede, all I
wanted to do - all I did, in fact - was sit and watch
the semifinal (okay, the virtual semifinal, the game
at Mohali between India and Australia which decided
who would go into the final to face South Africa) and
final of the tournament, on video.
And if that sounds like *** of the highest
order, then think again. The problem with doing a
commentary through the entire course of a match can
best be summed up by that old cliche, that you don't
get to see the wood for the trees. In other words,
you are focussing so intently on each successive
ball, that you somehow miss out on the enjoyment of
just kicking back and watching a match.
And then, coming back to work today after that little
layoff, I was going through the transcript of my live
commentary for the final - and laughing helplessly to
myself. I mean, this is the first I realised how
silly a commentator sounds as he tries his hand at
predicting the course of the game, then hastily
backtracking when the game in question goes an
altogether different course. Sort of like Richie
Benaud said once: "The only possible result is a
draw. The alternative, of course, is a win for
England."
I mean, did I actually say, when analysing the wicket
at the start of play, that "It is hard enough to
assist the fast bowlers, and soft enough to give the
spinners something to smile about."? And did those
hundreds of people who logged in to get the
commentary live actually take that sort of piffle
without rioting?
There's no excuse for that kind of bilge, really -
but there is an explanation. You see, commentators
are human blokes. And asking said commentator to look
at the TV screen, keep in mind disparate elements
like the state of the weather, the number of overs
bowled and still to go, the batsman's abilities and
lack of them, the placing of the field, the direction
of turn the bowler's getting, the difference between
a deep backward square leg and a fine leg inside the
circle... and still make sense while talking (or, in
this case, typing) up proceedings on the run.
Sort of like putting a man up there on a tightrope,
without a net below him, and telling him to walk
across to the other end while trying to finish off a
bowl of noodles with a pair of chopsticks.
And predictably enough, the results can be hilarious.
I don't plan to recount my own follies - enough
people have bust a gut laughing over them during the
course of the Toronto and Titan Cup tournaments.
But since it is the holiday season,
and you guys out there have had your
fill of cricket theory, here's some fun and games to
keep you going. In the form of blunders, bloopers and
other wonders pulled off by cricket experts over
time...
Remember that time when South Africa, after being six
down for almost nothing, staged a miraculous recovery
through Dave Richardson and Pat Symcox? What could
have described such a situation better than this gem
from journalist Christopher Martin-Jenkins,
describing a similar situation? "It is now possible
for them to get the impossible score they had first
thought possible."
Of course, the six for next to nothing situation
itself can be best capsuled by this quote, the source
of which I am not too sure of - "The West Indies will
need to dig deep to get out of the hole they now find
themselves in".
The presence of slow motion cameras brings with it a
rather peculiar problem - how do you describe real
time action when it is being replayed at the speed of
molasses? The great Richie Benaud once tried, and
came up with this gem: "The slow motion doesn't show
you how fast the ball was travelling". And Ian
Chappell topped that when he once said, "Fast bowlers
are quick... Just watch this. Admittedly, this is in
slow motion."
When a captain is also a bowler - and both Sachin
Tendulkar and Hansie Cronje belong in that category -
then the pitfalls for the commentator multiply. Brian
Johnston, one of the wittiest of
commentators/journalists, once provided unintentional
humour when, commenting on a match where Raymond
Illingworth, leading his side, was bowling himself in
short spells, said in the heat of the moment: "You
have joined us at a very appropriate time: Ray
Illingworth has just relieved himself at the pavilion
end."
My favourite commentator - both because he tends to
liven up a session in his own inimitable fashion, and
also because you pay close attention because if you
don't, you just might miss a classic quote - is Henry
Blofeld, he of the ear-ring ***. Here are a few
reasons why I like Blowers:
"The lights are shining quite darkly" - and I'll let
you figure out for yourself what that meant.
"It's a catch he would have held 99 times out of
1,000" - which, to this day, I am not sure whether it
was meant as compliment, or insult.
"The small dimunitive figure of Shoaib Mohammad, who
can't be much shorter than he is" - which indicate
why Blowers is such a favourite, simply because he
tends to rattle on at a pace quite out of sync with
his own thoughts.
But of course, my all time favourite Blowers quote
came when he found himself opening a telecast in
Calcutta, and telling his audience why there was a
packed crowd because it was a national holiday. Over
to Blofeld: "Calcutta is celebrating the
assassination of Mahatma Gandhi."
One of the major problems of commentating lies in the
fact that silence can be daunting - the commentator
who is stuck during one of those periodic lulls in
action rushes to fill the space with words, while his
brain is lulled by the very lack of activity he is
seeking to compensate for. And it is to this
phenomenon, of talking when there is little to say,
that we owe the following gems:
"An interesting morning, full of interest" - Jim Laker
"The black cloud is coming from the direction the
wind is blowing. And now the wind is coming from
where the black cloud is" - Ray Illingworth
"The rain has now stopped. Only a heavy drizzle now"
- Benaud
"The first time you face a googly, you are going to
be in trouble if you have never faced one before" -
Trevor Bailey
"Unless something happens that we can't predict, I
don't think a lot will happen" - Fred Trueman
"It makes you realise that he is probably a better
batsman than you realise" - Ian Botham
"This was a tremendous six. The ball was still in the
air as it went over the boundary" -Fred Trueman
"He will certainly want to start by getting off the
mark" - Don Mosey.
Another problem commentators face is that your mind
tells you something, but somehow, when you vocalise
that thought, it comes out all wrong.
As witness Ravi Shastri, who recently said "His feet
were a long way away from his body" - which could as
easily have described a dismembered corpse as a
batsman who was playing a bad cricketing shot.
Or England coach David Lloyd, who described a part
time bowler in the Jimmy Amarnath/Steve Waugh mould
in these words: "He is a dangerous bowler. Innocuous,
if you like."
Hey, like I said, I didn't include myself in this
list because you've been busting a gut over my
follies anyways.
But if you have a favourite cricketing blooper, write
in and share it with us - we'll take your entries and
put them together into another compilation...
Meanwhile, have a great festive weekend, wherever you
are.
Rediff (India)
Hitting out in a pinch
V Gangadhar
During the 1992 World Cup in Australia, Imran Khan's
Pakistanis who were on the verge of being knocked out
of the preliminary rounds, adopted a new strategy in
some of their crucial league matches. The batsmen
were told not to worry over the run rate. The aim was
to lose as few wickets as possible and then unleash
an attack from over number 35 onwards. An early
collapse was to be prevented at all costs.
Gifted strokeplayers like Saeed Anwar,
Aamir Sohail were told to graft.
Skipper Imran promoted himself to the strategic
number three position and batted solidly. This policy
was successful in the crucial last league tie against
Australia, the semi-final against New Zealand and the
final against England. Pakistan lost only two or
three wickets by the 35th over and the final ***
was brilliantly carried out by the genius, Javed
Miandad and the rookie star, Inzamam-ul-Haq.
But cricket strategy,
particularly in one-day cricket,
is constantly changing. Soon after the World Cup and
the retirement of Imran Khan, Pakistan went back,
quite successfully to the old slam-bang tactics.
Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail played their strokes
from ball one and runs gushed forth during the first
15 overs. And today, Pakistan is fortunate to have
discovered yet another genius, the 16-year old Shahid
Afridi, who recently broke Sri Lankan Sanath
Jayasuriya's records for the fastest 50 and 100 in
limited-overs cricket. Afridi is now all set to take
over the opener's slot from Aamir Sohail, and the
Anwar-Afridi combination may turn out to be more
devastating than the explosive Lankan duo, Jayasuriya
and Kaluwitharana.
The pinch-hitting approach of the
Sri Lankans, which they formulated
while touring Australia in 1995, had revolutionised
batting in one-day cricket. Prior to that, most
nations preferred to let their openers and middle
order batsmen settle down and then go full steam
ahead during the final ten slog overs. But with Sri
Lanka treating the first 15 overs as the slog overs,
the other nations were tempted to follow suit. India
did it briefly, with Sachin Tendulkar promoted to
open the innings against New Zealand and going full
blast. But unlike the Sri Lankans, India did not have
the consistent batting strength down the order. If
Tendulkar got out cheaply, the rest of the team
collapsed. Today, despite occasionally promoting
Srinath to the number three slot, the Indian approach
had been normalised with Tendulkar forced to adopt
the sheet anchor role. What the Indians appear to be
missing is someone like Krish Srikkanth, who was a
one-man demolition squad against even the very best
attacks in the world! Today, we do not have a settled
opening pair, let alone a pinch hitter.
Even the greatest opening pair in
international cricket, West Indians
Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, did not go in
for pinch hitting. I do not remember them scoring at
the same hectic pace as the Sri Lankan openers. But
Haynes and Greenidge were no slouches and, with a
judicious mixture of big hits and singles and twos,
they managed a rate of four or five an over. This was
quite enough considering the fact that the batsmen to
follow included strokemakers like Viv Richards and
Clive Lloyd. Today, the West Indians have no settled
opening pair and have tried out even wicketkeeper
Courtney Browne as an opening pinch hitter, a move
which did not click. Of course, with Brian Lara
batting at number three, the Windies can accelerate
at will when Lara is in full flow. But they have
really not mastered the pinch hitting technique.
The Australians and the South Africans do not go
berserk as the Sri Lankans. Their approach is
smoother and better planned. For Australia, skipper
Mark Taylor can never slog but Mark Waugh, without
much effort, can lift the scoring rate to
astronomical heights without resorting to the ugly
cross-batted heaves of Kaluwitharana. But whenever
Mark Waugh fails, the Australians get stuck and I
wonder if Tayor has thought of pushing himself down
and promoting Stuart Law to open with Waugh. Law,
like Waugh, is a classy player, who can really tear
apart any attack.
The South Africans revealed for the
first time during the 1996 World Cup
that their low-profile openers, Gary Kirstein and
Andrew Hudson, were no slouches. In fact, they caned
the famed Pakistani attack consisting of Wasim Akram,
Waqar Younis and Aaqib Javed so furiously that the
home team simply gave in. Since then, the South
Africans, despite losing to the West Indies in the
World Cup quarter-final and to India in the Titan Cup
final, have gone from success to success. Kirstein
and Hudson had proved themselves capable of scoring
at a hectic pace. The South African skipper, Hanse
Cronje, seemed to follow the system of pinch hitters
because he often promoted big hitter Pat Symcox to
the number three spot. Of late, the South Africans
have the best record in one-day cricket, but I would
love to see them chase a target of around 270-odd
against the Australians, Sri Lankans or the
Pakistanis.
Since the decline of Mark Greatbatch and the
premature retirement of Martin Crowe, New Zealand had
reached the nadir of their cricketing fortunes. Of
course, it was Crowe who promoted the beefy
Greatbatch to open the innings and ordered him to go
for the bowling. England is too inconsistent in its
approach to focus on pinch hitting techniques and
flopped miserably in the 1996 World Cup.
Of course, there can be no consistent approach to
such batting techniques and each side has to
formulate its own strategy. If a side did not have
the players of the caliber of Jayasurya, Saeed Anwar
or Mark Waugh, the best strategy is to go along at
the rate of around 4.5 runs an over and then lash out
during the last ten overs. But no batting side can
dawdle early on, hoping that things could be
rectified during the slog overs. Wickets may tumble
and the entire strategy of reserving everything
towards the end may boomerang. It is the duty of the
openers and the middle order batsmen to avoid falling
into such a trap which puts great pressure on the
batsmen to follow. Pakistan lost out to an inferior
Australian team in the 1987 semi-final at Lahore
because the earlier batsmen were too slow. Miadad and
Imran were left with the job of scoring eight an over
a long stretch of overs and when Imran was given out,
the team had no chance.
Rediff (India)
War and fees - the story of modern cricket : Part One
Arjun Appadurai
Corporate patronage of cricket is a fascinating
factor in the sociology of Indian sport, and its
essential are these: many prestigious companies
hired ( and still do) outstanding cricket players
early in their careers, gave them considerable
freedom to maintain the rigorous practice schedules
to assure their staying in form, and, most
important, assured them secure employment as regular
members of their staffs after their cricket careers
ended. Such employment of cricketers was seen,
originally in Bombay in the 1950s, as a beneficial
form of social advertising, accruing goodwill to the
company by its support of an increasingly popular
sport, of some 'stars' and of the health of the
national image in international competition.
Corporate employment of cricketers has
meant support of talent not just in the big
cities; the State Bank of India ( a huge
public-sector operation) recruited and hired
excellent cricketers in its branches throughout
India, so that this patron was single-handedly
responsible for the nurturance of cricket far from
its urban homes. Thus corporate patronage of cricket
is not only responsible for providing a
quasi-professional means of security for a sport
whose deepest ideals are 'amateur', it also provides
a steady initiative for drawing in aspiring young
men from the poorer classes and from semirural parts
of India.
In turn, corporate support has meant
that the state has been able to make
a relatively low investment in cricket, yet reap a
large profit in terms of national sentiment. While
the patronage of cricket since World War II has been
largely a commercial investment on the part of major
corporations (as part of their public relations and
advertising budgets), the state in India has been
generous with its extension of media support to the
game. This alliance between state-controlled
investments - through media and the provision of law
and order, through private commercial interests in
providing career security to players, and through a
complex public (though not governmental) body called
the Board of Control for Cricket in India - provided
the infrastructure for the transformation of cricket
into a major national passion in the four decades
since Indian independence in 1947.
The television phase in the history of Indian
cricket, of course, is part of the intense recent
commercialisation of cricket and the associated
commodification of its stars. Like other sports
figures in the capitalist world, the best known
Indian cricket stars are now metacommodities, on
sale themselves while they fuel the ciruculation of
other commodities. The sport itself is increasingly
in the hands of advertisers, promoters, and
entrepreneurs, with television, radio, and print
media feeding the national passion for the sport and
its stars. Such commodification of public spectacles
appears at first glance to be simply the Indian
expression of a worldwide process, and thus to
represent neither decolonization nor indigenization
but recolonization by the forces of international
capital. But what it mostly represents is the
aggressive mood of Indian capitalists in seizing the
potential of cricket for commercial purposes.
Transformed into a national passion by the processes
of spectacle, cricket in the past two decades has
become a matter of mass entertainment and mobility
for some, and thereby has become wrapped up with
winning. Indian crowds have become steadily more
greedy for India victories in Test matches and
steadily more vituperative about losses, both at
home and abroad. Thus players, coaches, and managers
walk a tigheter rope than ever before. While they
reap the benefits of stardom and commercialisation,
they came to be increasingly solicitous of critics
and the crowd, which does not not tolerate even
temporary setbacks. This has meant a steady growth
in the pressure for technical excellence.
Continued...
War and fees - the story of modern cricket: Part Two
Arjun Appadurai
After a serious slump from the mid-fifties
to the late sixties, Indian cricketers won
some extraordinary victories in 1971 over the West
Indies and over England, both on the home grounds of
their opponents. Though the 1971 national team was
hailed by crowds and critics alike, there were
suggestions that the victories owed much to luck and
the poor form of the opposing teams. Nevertheless,
1971 marked a turning point for Indian cricket, under
the leadership of Ajit Wadekar. Though there were
some real setbacks after that, Indian cricketers had
shown that they could beat their opponents in
convincing fashion. The 1971 victories thus marked
the psychological inauguration of a new boldness in
India cricket.
The seventies were a period in which every test team
was humbled by the West Indies, who seemed too
powerful to touch, with their brilliant batsmen,
their extraordinary (and scary) fast bowlers, and
their speed in the field. Cricket had become the
Caribbean sport; everyone else was struggling to stay
in the picture. In this context, the sweetest moment
for India cricket was the victory over a strong West
Indies team in 1983. with that victory India
established itself as a world force in international
cricket whose real competition was the West Indies
and Pakistan rather than England and Australia. South
Africa, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka remained largely
our-side the top rank in Test cricket. By 1983
England appeared to be a spent force in test cricket
(in spite of occasional stars like Ian Botham) and
India a major one.
But it is important not only that the black and
brown ex-colonies now dominate world cricket. It is
significant that their triumph coincides with a
period in which the impact of media,
commercialisation, and national passion have almost
completely eroded the old Victorial civilities
associated with cricket. Cricket is now aggressive,
spectaclar, and frequently unsporting: audiences
thirst for antional victory, and player and promoters
are out for the money. It is hard to escape the
conclusion that the decolonization of cricket would
not have occurred without detaching the sport from
its Victorian m***integument: Nor is this process
restricted to the colonies: it has been noticed that
Thatcherism in England has done much to erode the
ideology of 'fair play' that once dominated cricket
in its home country.
Cricket now belongs to a different m***and
aesthetic world, far from the one imagined by Thomas
Arnold of Rugby. Nothing marks this change in ethos
as much as the arrival of the professionlised,
striclty commercial phenomenon of World Series
Cricket, a global, media-centered cricket package
created by an Australian named Kerry Packer. Packe's
WSC was the first major threat both to the colonial
ecumene of amateur sportsmanship and to the
post-World War II ethic of cricket nationalism,
centered as it was on the major innovation in the
sport since World War II -- one-day cricket, in which
a single day's play (as opposed to five or more days)
settles the outcome. One-day cricket encourages risk
taking, aggressiveness, and bravado while suiting
perfectly the intense attention appropriate to
high-powered television advertising and a higher
turnover of events and settings. Packer's WSC
bypassed national loyalty in the name of media
entertainment and fast economic benefits for players.
West Indian, English, Australian, and Pakistani
cricketers were quick to see its appeals. But in
India, players were slower to respond, since the
structure of patronage gave them much more security
than their counterparts enjoyed elsewhere. Still,
Packer's bold enterprise was the signal that cricket
had moved into yet another, postnationalist, phase in
which entertainment value, media coverage, and the
commercialisation of players would transcend the
national loyalty of the early post-Independence
period and the Victorian amateur ethic of the
colonial period.
Today, Indian cricket represents a complex
configuration of each of these historical
transformations. The rule structure of the game and
the codes of behaviour on the field are still
nominally regulated by the classic Victorian values
of restraint, sportsmanship, and amateurism. At the
same time, national loyalty is a powerful
counterpoint to these ideals, and victory at any cost
is the demand fo crowds and television audiences.
From the point of view of players and promoters, both
the Victorian code and nationalist concerns are
subordinated to the transnational flow of talent,
celebrity, and money.
Continued...
War and fees - the story of modern cricket - Part three
Arjun Appadurai
The new ethos is best captured in the recently created
Australsia Cup, hosted by the tiny Persian Gulf
emirate of Sharjah, which has a considerable
population of Indian and Pakistani migrants. This
cup brings out both the commercial and the
nationalist logic of contemporary cricket. In an
extremely exciting final sequence in the decisive
match in 1986, watched by a television audience of
15 million, Pakistan needed four runs to win and
achieved them in one stroke against the last ball of
the match. The live audience for the game included
film stars and other celebrities from India and
Pakistan as well as South Asian migrants making
their living on Gulf money.
The Sharjah cup is a long way from the playing field
of Eton. The patronage of oil money, the
semiproletarian audience of Indian and Pakistani
migrant workers in the Persian Gulf, film stars from
the subcontinent, all sitting on a sports field
created by Islamic oil wealth, an enormous
television audience in the subcontinent, prize money
and ad revenue in abundance, ***-thirsty cricket.:
here, finally, is the last blow to Victorian
upper-class cricket codes, and here is a different
global ecumene. After Sharjah, all cricket is
Trobriand cricket, not because of the dramatic rule
changes associated with that famous form of cricket,
but because of the successful hijacking of a ritual
from its orginal English practical hegemony and its
Victorian m***integument. From the perspective of
Sharjah, it is the Etonians who seem like
Trobrianders today.
Part of the deconlonization of cricket is the
corrosion of the myth of the Commonwealth, the
loose fraternity of nations united by their previous
status as parts of the British Empire. The
Commonwealth has largely become a community of sport
(like the Ivy League in the eastern United States).
Politics, and diplomacy has become a farce: Fijians
drive Indian immigrants (while Sinhala cricket teams
tour India); Pakistan and India teeter continuously
on the edge of war; the new nations of Africa fight
a variety of internecine battles; South Africa is a
site of new *** anxieties; and England is
embarrassed by Bradford Muslims and Salman Rushdie.
Yet the Commonwealth Games are a serious and
successful international enterprise, and global
crcket is still on the face of it an affair of the
Commonwealth. But the Commonwealth that is
constituted by cricket today is not an orderly
community of former colonies held together by common
adherence to a Victorian and colonial code. it is an
agonistic reality in which a variety of postcolonial
patholigies ( and dreams) are played out on the
landscape of common colonial heritage. No longer an
instrument for socialising black and brown men into
the public etiquette of empire, it is now an
instrument for mobilising national sentiment in the
service of trans-national spectacles and
commoditization.
The peculiar tension between nationalism and
decolonization is best seen in the cricket diplomacy
between India and Pakistan, which involves multiple
levels of competition and cooperation. Perhaps the
best example of cooperation in the spirit of
decolonization is the very complex process through
which politicans and bureacrats at the highest leves
of the two antagonistic nations cooperated in the
mid-1980s to shift the venue of the prestigious
World Cup from England to the subcontinent in 1987,
with the financial backing of the Reliance Group of
Industries (one of the biggest, most aggressive
business houses in contemporary India) and the
encouragement of the leaders of the two countries.
Yet in Sharjah, as well as in every venue in
India, in Pakistan, and elsewhere since
Partition, cricket matches between India and
Pakistan are thinly disguised national wars. Cricket
is not so much a release valve for popular hostility
between the two populations as a complex arena for
reenacting the curious mixture of animosity and
fraternity that characterises the relations between
these two previously united nation-states. England,
in any case, is no longer part of the equation,
whether in the tense politics of Kashmir or on the
cricket grounds of Sharjah.
Recent journalistic coverage of the Australasia Cup
matches in Sharjah suggested that the Gulf States
have moved into increasing prominence as venues for
international cricket, and the national rivalry
between India and Pakistan has been deliberately
both highlighted and contained in order to create a
simulacrum of their current tension over Kashmir.
While the armies face each other across the borders
of Kashmir, the cricket teams privide a star-studded
simulacrum of warfare on the cricket field.
Concluded...
Excerpted from Consuming Modernity: Public Culture
in Contemporary India, by Carol A Breckenridge,
Oxford University Press, 1996, with the publishers'
permission.
Please note: Readers in the US may secure a copy of
the book from Oxford University Press Inc USA, 198,
Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10016, USA. Tel:
212-726-6000. Fax: 212-726-6440.
THE HINDU
Performance, not age, must be criterion for selection -
Tendulkar
By G. Viswanath
MUMBAI, Nov. 8.
After winning the Titan Cup, India's captain Sachin
Tendulkar spoke his mind out on a specific issue. ``Age
ought not to be the factor in judging players for
selection. It should be performance. A cricketer is good
as long as there is performance to back him,'' said the
24-year-old Tendulkar with seven years of international
experience at the post final press conference on
Wednesday.
But a few hours before India's win against South Africa,
the National selection committee chaired by Mr. Ramakant
Desai, and consisting of Messrs Kishen Rungta, M. P.
Pandove, Sambaran Banerjee and Shivlal Yadav ignored
years of performance by a few bowlers when they chose
the Board President's XI team for the three-day match
against South Africa to be played at Baroda from
November 15 to 17.
The selectors have been blissfully ignorant of a few
bowlers' consistent performance over the years. What is
shocking is their not giving more opportunities to
bowlers who were tried against Australia and included on
tours to Sri Lanka and Canada. This raises the question
that on what basis do the selectors pick the teams?
The Board President's team has three medium pacers.
Mumbai's Salil Ankola, Bengal's Arindham Sarkar and
Rajasthan's P. Krishnakumar. The two specialist spinners
are Narendra Hirwani and Venkatapathy Raju. In the last
seven years Ankola has been in and out of the national
team. Tendulkar's predecessor Mohammad Azharuddin did
not have confidence in Ankola. The situation has not
changed a bit under the leadership of Tendulkar.
Ankola was seen as `Borde's boy' when he went to
Pakistan with the Srikkanth-led Indian team. The right
arm medium pacer, who had a slinging action, shortened
his run up after being advised by coach Frank Tyson and
has been effective. Till date he has 162 wickets from 46
first class matches (upto 1995-96 season). Will he be on
trial against South Africa at Baroda if he is picked in
the XI?
The second medium pacer in the team is Bengal's
23-year-old Arindham Sarkar. He has played 11 first
class matches and taken 26 wickets. Last season he took
12 wickets from seven first class matches at an average
of 37.91. Sarkar may be a talented medium pacer, but
does his performance merit selection in an important
team like the Board President's XI and against an
international team.
Weighty displays
Sarkar's 26 wickets in two seasons pales into
insignificance when one views the weighty performances
by Mumbai's Abey Kuruvilla and Tamil Nadu's Diwakar
Vasu. Kuruvilla has taken 159 wickets from 43 first
class matches with an impressive economy rate. Last
season 28-year-old Kuruvilla took 28 wickets from eight
first class matches at 23.71.
Left handed allrounder Diwakar Vasu has been another
cricketer whom the selection committee has chosen to
ignore. Vasu will soon turn 28 and ought to have been
developed as a fine allrounder. Vasu's cricketing
credentials can be deemed only excellent. He has played
56 first class matches, scored 2413 runs (average 34
plus) with two centuries and 17 fifties, taken 189
wickets. Last season Vasu claimed 35 wickets at 25.51,
besides taking 51 catches.
The third medium pacer in the side is 22-year-old
left-handed all rounder Krishnakumar. He has taken 77
wickets from 24 first class matches and scored 1047
runs. Another bowler, who has been included in the team,
is Saurashtra's Hitesh Parsana. The right arm off break
bowler has taken 45 wickets and scored 600 runs in 21
first class matches.
Karnataka's David Johnson was selected for the tours to
Sri Lanka and Canada. He was not played in both the
tournaments. The right arm medium pacer was picked on
the strength of his 76 wickets from 21 first class
matches. After playing him in one Test against
Australia, the selectors have ignored him.
Doddanarasiah Ganesh's tally at the end of the 1995-96
season was 18 wickets from 18 first class matches. But
he made a big impact in the Irani Cup and then impressed
against Australia at Patiala.
The selection committee chairman Mr. Ramakant Desai
feels, Johnson and Ganesh will get one chance against
South Africa at Kochi. This argument is difficult to
understand. How do the selectors evaluate players like
Johnson and Ganesh who are said to be India material?
Are the selectors going to sit in judgment on one match
performance or on performances over a number of matches?
If Johnson and Ganesh are what they are said to be then
they ought to have been in the Board President's team,
too.
Robin Singh's record
Tamil Nadu allrounder Robin Singh must consider himself
lucky to have got a recall after seven years. Robin
Singh is 33 and got a chance only because opening
batsman W. V. Raman had pulled out of the Tamil Nadu-Goa
match owing to injury. It will be interesting to note
Robin Singh's first class career statistics. The left-
hander had played 95 first class matches at the end of
the 1995- 96 season, scored 5304 runs with 19 centuries
and 20 fifties, captured 121 wickets and held 77
catches. His 18 catches last season was only five short
of Sunil Gavaskar's 23 catches which is the best by an
Indian in a first class season.
The performing medium pacers _ apart from Javagal
Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad _ in the recent past have been
Ankola, Kuruvilla, Vasu, Robin Singh, Paras Mambhrey and
Johnson. Yet the National Selection committee has
preferred Arindham Sarkar and Krishnakumar _ whose
performances have not been all that great to merit
attention _ to others who have being doing well. Those
who have showed consistency must get recognition while
those who are on the fringe must get more than one
chance for proper assessment. At least in the case of
medium pacers the selectors do not seem to have done
justice. In the case of the spinners, however, they have
gone on performances _ Hirwani who has taken 413 wickets
and Raju 328 wickets _ are in the Board President's
team.
THE HINDU
Missing the wood for the trees
Date: 09-11-1996
The best umpires of our country are not assigned to do
duty in the one-dayers as the cricket Board hands out
assignments like favours to please various people,
writes R. Mohan.
IT was somewhat amusing to read the other day that
Sachin Tendulkar had no comment to make on the umpiring.
The reference was to the one-day international between
South Africa and India at Rajkot in which dubious
decisions against Sachin and Azharuddin had been handed
down by an umpire standing in his first international
match.
Now, bad umpiring cuts both ways. There are occasions on
which home teams profit from umpiring errors as India so
obviously did in Bangalore where S. K. Bansal had a
terrible match and so simply stopped giving anyone out.
There are, of course, other times in which even the home
team will have complaints against the umpiring.
To go into the details of good and bad umpiring
decisions would be to miss the wood for the trees. Quite
honestly, what is happening in our country is the best
umpires do not do duty in the one-day internationals.
This is the crux of the matter. The Board of Control for
Cricket in India hands out umpiring assignments like
favours to please various people and accommodate diverse
pulls and pressures.
The general idea within the limitations imposed by the
need to pick balanced teams would be to pick the best
possible players for international cricket. If that
premise is accepted, is it not logical then that the
best umpires should be doing duty? What then was the
Board trying to achieve in posting 20 umpires for 10
matches in the just concluded Titan Cup? This is a kind
of cruel joke we impose on ourselves.
While most of the time visiting teams may leave cribbing
about the umpiring, sometimes they go away smiling but
almost always go away laughing at the joke being imposed
by such practices.
It is not always amusing to see how the quota system is
ruining the image of cricket in the country. Not for a
minute is it being suggested that bad umpiring exists
only in our country. Far from it. The quality of
officiating worldwide has come down considerably in the
'90s even as umpires are facing more and more pressures
from all-seeing cameras which are getting better by the
day.
A peculiar problem has been created by the policy of
appea***t by which the Board tries to please as many
regions as possible. What happens as a result of such a
foolish appointment policy is quality is terribly
compromised. Umpires who are not qualified to stand in a
one-day international are getting in and ruining the
tempo of play between professional cricketers who aspire
to play to very high standards.
Arguments like `the umpire is always right' do not cut
ice anymore. The camera is the unforgiving master in the
electronic age. It is exposing umpires virtually every
minute. The super slow motion should be ruining the
appetite of many an umpire as it must have done that of
Peter Willey in the one-off Test in which he gave Ricky
Ponting in when the Indians claimed the catch behind the
wicket off his glove.
Human error? Yes. But errors like these are becoming
unacceptable in an era in which there is such a premium
on excellence and in which sportsmen strive not only for
success but also battle for huge payoffs. Imagine the
plight of someone like Azharuddin who would not have
been too keen about any examination of his form until he
came good in the Mohali match.
Azhar is batting in a most relaxed way but such a free
approach must merely be hiding his anxieties. And to be
given out at least once in a series when `in' must be a
bit thick for anyone, more so for the former captain who
was desperately keen to scotch any idea that he is not
trying hard enough for his side. But he too is just one
victim of the kind of comical errors committed in the
series. What makes the whole issue stranger is despite
years of having posted umpires to one-day series on the
quota basis, the Board is yet to impose some kind of
quality standards. It was clear from the Titan Cup
series that the former players fared better than those
who have not played the game at a high or intense level.
Subroto Porel had such a good match in Bangalore despite
the tensions and the ruckus caused by Bansal's decision
and Azhar's peevish reaction. Vijay Chopra proved his
competence even as his colleague was picking up the
dubious reputation of dismissing two Indian captains in
half a day. Jayaprakash has built up an impressive
record.
It would make a lot more sense to short list the
competent and create a national panel from which umpires
can be promoted to ICC's international panel as and when
vacancies arise. To give more matches in a one-day
series to the competent would be the best route not only
to finding and rewarding the better umpires but also to
raising the image of the game in the country.
The last thing players want is tight, competitive
cricket matches to be spoiled by poor umpiring. Such
errors may cut both ways but what cannot be recovered is
the loss of tempo of the game or of an innings disrupted
by a dubious decision. Is it humanly possible to compute
what may have happened to the result of a match in which
the leading batsmen of both sides were wrongly given
out?
The world's best umpires, too, can have bad days as we
saw in the case of David Shepherd in the Sahara Cup in
Toronto, Canada. But as Wasim Akram kept saying ``It's
fine so long as they are consistent.'' What he may have
meant is if both sides are affected by bad umpiring
decisions, as they were in that tournament, there should
really be less room for complaints.
The point is the system of appointments in our country
is too diffuse to allow quality to come through. Also,
there is some suspicion that merit was not the real
factor in the replacement of V. K. Ramaswamy by S. K.
Bansal in the ICC panel which only the BCCI could have
brought about because the federation does not choose
between officials. The nomination of umpires to the
panel is the responsibility of the individual Boards.
Even a young and competent umpire who is a former player
and who is found acceptable by the touring team as well
as the home side would have difficulty in maintaining
his motivation and his efficiency level if all he can
expect in a season is a single one-day international.
Since Test appointments even for the home umpire are
generally made only from the core group of umpires who
are already on the ICC panel, very little opportunity
exists for others.
Also, the habit of posting two debutants in a one-day
international must be given up. There must always be one
senior umpire in a match so that, when and if things go
wrong, there will be at least one umpire who can take
tough decisions as in, say, times of crowd trouble or
any extraordinary incidents. The sooner the Board sees
the merit of the argument the better it will be for
cricket in India. For too long we have lived out a joke.
But it is never too late to change.
A compact national panel in enlisting for which merit is
the sole criterion should be the priority. This may not
be popular with the cricket board because words like
compromise and consensus are far more important in its
affairs. But the damage being done to the image of the
game can be arrested only if the Board's umpiring
committee wakes up. Let's hope the Titan Cup would have
served to open some eyes.
THE HINDU
Playing ducks and drakes with the fortunes of players
Date: 09-11-1996
GEOFF BOYCOTT got to the gut of the matter when he noted
on TV: ``The Indian team is always a few runs short,
whether Tendulkar and his men are batting first or
chasing!'' But the day (October 29) when this percipient
reader of the game made the above observation, it had to
be acknowledged even by Boycott that, against South
Africa. India came to total a not-so-Titan 185 only
because Tendulkar and his band were done in by the rank
ineptitude of fresher umpire Suryaprakash Rao.
Late in that Indian innings against Cronje and his men,
when Suryaprakash Rao failed to call as such a blatant
wide on the legside, bowler Allan Donald was viewed to
pat this umpire on the shoulder. That act of
thanksgiving by Donald was not just for Suryaprakash
Rao's having been `wide of the mark' just that one time.
Donald, via that gesture, was also communicating South
Africa's deeply felt sense of gratitude to Suryaprakash
Rao for having, earlier in the same innings, given short
shrift to Sachin Tendulkar (28) and Mohammed Azharuddin
(9).
Two dicey decisions against India's two best batsmen,
attested to as such verdicts by Boycott on TV, fatally
disturbed the rhythm and momentum of that vital Indian
innings, after Tendulkar had elected to bat upon winning
the toss. India could conceivably have reached 225-230,
but for those two verdicts going against it. Tendulkar's
being adjudged lbw was visibly a case of the Donald ball
missing leg-stump.
As for the fall of Azhar, there had been no appeal at
all for a catch at the wicket against him! As Boycott
pointed out, that Nicky Boje ball spun across the face
of Azhar's bat, so that Dave Richardson, in reality, was
appealing for a stumping, not a catch. But the umpire
standing straight. Suryaprakash Rao, promptly put his
finger up. That left Azhar with no option but to walk _
in the wake of `Bangalore and Bansal' having already put
him in the third eye of the storm. From the moment,
Azhar was thus confronted with Hobson's choice, that
crucial October 29 India-South Africa game stood ruined
as a contest. Is that what we want to see in an
international competition staged in this country?
But we live in a country in which, no matter what be the
cost, the accent is on compulsively giving every umpire
an international exposure. On the lines of the maxim
once laid down by the Madras station of All India Radio
by which every budding cricket commentator had to be
given the mike. No matter if that led to three wildly
varying sets of commentators performing on the three
days of the Ranji Trophy match.
But the Titan Cup is not the Ranji Trophy, being a
triangular trial of international strength. A trial of
strength in which there could rationally be no scope to
pitchfork, into the middle, umpires still to be tested
in the cauldron of pressure-cooker situation. Or was it
the controversial Rao tradition in our cricket being
kept up here? From Sathyaji Rao to Hanumantha Rao to
Suryaprakash Rao, they have now all covered themselves
with dubious glory.
It is no laughing matter really. If we are indeed living
in a more open cricketing society under the control of
Raj Singh Dungarpur, we have the right to know how S. K.
Bansal came to stand merely in the October 29
India-South Africa league encounter, when, as the new
umpire in the ICC panel, he had been originally named
(with S. Venkatraghavan) to officiate, logically, in the
Titan Cup final. The issue of how Bansal came to win
this belated ICC promotion, at the expense of V. K.
Ramaswamy, is something that abides as a matter worth
further debating. Indeed, it is a mystery how Bansal so
came to supersede Ramaswamy, remembering how sadly this
umpire had sent Martin Crowe packing during a Test match
in which that world-class batsman was attempting a
comeback, after a long lay-off from the New Zealand
side.
What precisely is it that umpire Ramaswamy did wrong to
lose his coveted slot in the ICC panel, all of a sudden?
Surely, after Bansal's having been appointed for the
Titan Cup final by the Cricket Board, Ramaswamy's
ultimately taking his place, in that decider, was
nothing if not a tacit admission by our cricketing
authority that Venkatraghavan and Ramaswamy continued to
be the two best umpires in India.
Early this year, Ramaswamy might have erred in
`third-eyeing' Robin Smith as run out _ instead of
giving him the fringe benefit of the doubt _ as that
Wills World Cup league game got underway in Pakistan.
May be there have been other errors of judgment by
Ramaswamy in the international games in which he stood
since.
If that be the case, the viewing public has a right to
be kept informed in the matter. A sudden laconic
announcement _ to the `after-effects' that S. K. Bansal
had replaced V. K. Ramaswamy in the ICC panel _ only
left cricket buffs in India totally mystified. After
such an announcement, how could Ramaswamy possibly
replace Bansal in the Titan Cup final? If our two ICC
panel umpires now are S. Venkatraghavan and S. K.
Bansal, surely these two alone should have officiated in
the Titan final? But then our Cricket Board got its
priorities all wrong in the Titan Cup matches. It was a
tournament that cried out for two new white balls in
each match. Instead, we got two new white coats in each
match!
Bansal is a good umpire. But is
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