All posts by h716a5.icu

All the talk about the state of Kolkata pitch has deflected attention away from the real problems in the India team

Sidharth Monga04-Dec-2012MS Dhoni must be sick and tired of being asked about the state of pitches and his preferences and groundsmen. He has had a hard time explaining to people that he doesn’t want slow turn and low bounce, and can’t understand what is wrong with his views. You can argue his way of going about getting that – public criticism of pitches – is not ideal, but his demands are ideal: Mumbai made for far more exciting cricket than Ahmedabad.It’s the result in Mumbai – when Indian spinners were thoroughly outplayed – that has lost Dhoni’s idea some fans in India, but the captain is willing to die by the spin sword. Once again, his pre-match press conference was dominated by questions surrounding the pitch.”If you are not doing that [playing on pitches that turn and bounce], the concept of playing around the world and facing different challenges goes down the drain,” Dhoni said in response. “Because if you come to India, why do you want to play on wickets that are flat on the first three or four days? Sometimes you have seen even five days are not good enough to get a result. So I feel the challenge is to play on tracks that turn and assist the spinners. It doesn’t matter if we lose a few games or if you win the series…”It’s not like when Australia play in Australia or when England play in England, they win all the games. Still they stick to the kind of speciality they have got. It’s the same for subcontinental teams.”Dhoni is not letting one defeat change his mindset. He had to make that clarification three to four times. And by all accounts, he is not getting the pitch he wants in Kolkata. Going by his own description of the surface, Dhoni and his team will have to play on just the track he doesn’t want. He expects no help for spinners, and is relying on wear and tear.At the same time, India could be secretly looking at all this pitch talk as some sort of respite. They are well and truly under the pump. If Indian Test cricket were strong right now, more than half the team would be playing for their places in the side. If this pitch talk had not dominated the aftermath of arguably India’s worst Test defeat since they first became a competitive side, Dhoni would have had a tough time defending some of his players, and some of his captaincy moves for that matter.Deep down, Dhoni will know the pitch is one of the lesser concerns for India right now. For even if they keep getting spitting turners every time, their spinners are no better than an even chance of winning them the match. Only one of their batsmen can claim to be not under pressure. Well, make it two: Virender Sehwag usually doesn’t take much pressure either.It must be getting a little tiresome for Dhoni to come out and defend some of the players. Asked about the openers – and barring Sehwag’s century in Ahmedbabad, neither of them has done anything extraordinary for two years – Dhoni said: “We are a side that relies a lot on the openers. We don’t really want to put extra pressure on them. What’s important is for them to enjoy their game.”If you see Viru Pa, he just loves to go onto the field and express himself. We just want the two individuals to back the kind of game they play. It’s just a matter of time. They have done well if you see the recent few games. Both of them have scored runs; if they score together in the same innings, it will be a great plus for us.”About whether the break between the Tests had been enough for them to sort their issues out, Dhoni said they were not losing sleep over the Mumbai defeat. “Winning and losing games is part and parcel of what we do,” he said. “I don’t think cricketers get bothered a lot if they lose a game, and they aren’t really at the top of their emotions when they win a series or a game.”The good thing is, the bowlers had to do a lot of work in both the first two matches, so the rest between the games will really help them to come back to their best. It gives time for the batsmen to assess the situation as to what went wrong, so it was a healthy break for both the sides.”There is not much else Dhoni can say when all indications from the selectors suggest there aren’t many replacements available for consistently underperforming players. What he needs from his team-mates is the kind of improvement he showed in his keeping after a horrid Test in Ahmedabad.

Michael Clarke’s successful management of degenerative back trouble has been a triumph of meticulousness. But it will only get harder from here

Daniel Brettig20-Feb-2013Among the most revealing passages of , Mike Atherton’s autobiography, is his depiction of the compounding problems stemming from a back condition he carried into cricket. The cycle of misdiagnosis, treatment, medication, side effects and excruciating days robbed of all reasonable movement is told frankly and graphically, providing ample justification for why his batting seemed less than supple at various times, and how his career was shortened. Atherton retired at 33, and concludes he was lucky to get that far.Tellingly, the years in which Atherton was least hindered by his back were from 1993 to 1998. In that time he went from the age of 25 to 30, now widely regarded as the period most likely to represent an international cricketer’s physical peak. They also happened to be the years in which he was England captain, when the pressures and dramas of the job might have cracked a lesser man.The weight of expectation on Atherton, as England’s captain and most reliable batsman, and the nagging doubt created by a bad back, are feelings to which Australia’s captain Michael Clarke can easily relate. Clarke is also humbugged by a degenerative back condition dealt to him in his youth – believed to be the lingering cost of early attempts to bowl fast before he resorted to the gentler arts of batting and left-arm spin.He is also now leading a team that is set to rely on his batting as heavily as England leaned on Atherton’s – his wicket the one most valued by opponents who recognised the brittleness beneath. While Atherton was appointed captain early on and left the job before his body began to fail him, Clarke is entering the most vexing phase of his captaincy at an age when his physical durability is going to be increasingly tested. The imminent Test series against India, and those that follow against England away and at home, will be an examination of his batting, his captaincy and his physique – if the body fails, the other skills will be rendered useless.Few achievements in the game give Clarke more pride than never missing a Test match through injury. For all the handicaps presented by his back, which once confined him to bed for a day of the 2005 Old Trafford Ashes Test and has also forced him to miss numerous limited-overs engagements, his meticulous preparatory efforts have so far meant he has always been deemed fit enough, not only to walk out onto the field on day one but to still be thriving on day five.”I’ve been lucky throughout my career, to be honest, with the degeneration I have in my back, to have played 80-odd Test matches and not missed one is something I’m very proud of, but I certainly couldn’t do that on my own,” Clarke said recently. Alex Kountouris is the physio he has spent most of his career with around the Australian team; he also has a physio at home, and his trainer, Duncan Kerr. “I’ve been lucky to have so many people around me who know my body and have been able to get me up and continually get me on the park. It is something I’m very proud of.”Kountouris has been working with the national side since 2003, Clarke’s first year of international cricket. Over that time they have established a relationship of trust and honest judgement, making calculated gambles at various times along the way that have so far paid off handsomely in the Test match arena. Initially, Kountouris says, there was little indication to him of the back trouble that he had researched before working directly with Clarke.”When I came in I knew Michael had this history, and you do your homework on everyone, what they’ve got,” Kountouris said. “When I saw [Clarke’s first episode of back pain] I realised how much it affected him and how hard it was to do what he wanted to do. But he’s incredibly tough – tough mentally more than anything, getting himself up for games.Alex Kountouris on Michael Clarke: “He doesn’t accept second-best as an option when it comes to his preparation. He wants to be the fittest, he wants to be the strongest”•Getty Images”One thing he does do is work incredibly hard. He’s as professional as any athlete I’ve ever seen. He crosses every ‘t’ and dots every ‘i’, and that’s the key for him. He has his treatment he needs to, he does his rehab every day. If you tell him, ‘This is what you need to do’, he’ll do it. He doesn’t accept second-best as an option when it comes to his preparation. He wants to be the fittest, he wants to be the strongest.”He’s got a set-up at home to do his rehab as well – he does it in the clinic, he does it when he’s on tour. He’s up every morning, having treatment or whatever he needs to get done.”The maintenance work Clarke has done almost continually since his international career began has been focused on keeping his core as strong as possible, while also maintaining flexibility for his back. Conditioning has been vital too, and there is always a balance to be struck around training intensely to ensure he is able not only to bat but dive around in the field. He has also needed to avoid an excess of the sort of activity that might cause his back to lock up at the wrong moment. Clarke’s habit of standing up for long stretches of team bus or plane trips to save his back is well known.Just as Atherton’s batting form ebbed away on the 1998-99 Ashes tour of Australia, when his troublesome discs flared badly, and Mark Taylor’s infamous drought of Test runs was preluded by his own bout of back trouble, Clarke’s lowest series as an Australian cricketer followed one of his most unfortunately timed relapses. In the Sheffield Shield match immediately before the first Test against England in 2010, he felt the familiar pain, and hobbled through the latter stages of the match in obvious discomfort.By the time the Gabba match rolled around, his condition had improved, but there was ample evidence of restricted movement in one of his least characteristic innings, a tortured 9 from 50 balls that ended with a pained half-pull shot and an edge behind. It was an innings that more or less defined his series. Looking back, Kountouris remembers a race to get Clarke fit enough to play, though he denies he was still struggling with movement when he was cleared to play.”It was a race around the clock. He had the Shield game and then it was only a week before the first Test in a massive series and he was keen to play and the team was keen for him to play,” Kountouris says. “But by the time it got to the Test, he was pretty good. Once you’ve had an injury, you’re a bit ginger and a bit hesitant to throw yourself around and it’s a natural process to be protective and look after yourself. If he’d made a hundred, everyone would have said fantastic, but because he didn’t make runs and they bounced him, everyone said, ‘He’s restricted.'”We wouldn’t have played him if he was carrying back pain. One thing about Test cricket is how tough a game it is. It goes for five days, and you don’t want to bring people in with things like that because over the five days they’ll be exposed. That’s one of the hardest parts of the job, trying to predict what’s going to happen over five days. If the game goes for two hours, a different story, you can cope. But six hours, five days in a row, it’s pretty tough.”Conversations with the players are along the lines of, ‘Can you do this? Can you bowl 40 or 30 overs in the second innings?’ We work on the worst-case scenario in the game. When Michael Clarke goes into a game I expect him to be fit to make 150… although now I have to be sure he’s fit to make 200. We literally have that conversation: ‘Can you make 150 with how you are?’ And that’s the expectation.”The back injury has forced Michael Clarke to miss a number of limited-overs matches, but never a Test yet•Getty ImagesIt will be no tougher than over the next five weeks in India, where Clarke’s fitness will be central to his team’s chances. Towards the conclusion of each of the past two summers, Clarke has battled hamstring trouble, linked to his back, and the stubborn nature of the problems has forced him to miss numerous limited-overs matches, though not yet a Test. Kountouris is aware that Clarke is no longer the young man who burst into the side in 2004, and the captain’s management must reflect his advancing years.”You’ll say to him, ‘Yeah, you want to do that but we need to get there a different way than you used to when you were 23-24,'” Kountouris says. “With him it’s been more tinkering with what he does now, the way he goes about training. He’s 31 now, not 21 anymore, so we adjust that and then hope he gets through. He knows he’s had these injuries in the past, so because of that he does his rehabilitation or pre-habilitation, or strength training to make sure he remains strong.”There’s always times when there’s something he can go down with, like the hamstring injury in the Melbourne Test match – it happened seven days before the Boxing Day Test [against Sri Lanka]. There was concern he wasn’t going to get up for that game, and when you play someone that soon after a hamstring injury there’s a risk of re-injury. But it’s an informed decision. He’s a senior player and he’s comfortable, he understands his body. If he says he’s confident he can do it then you trust him. Fortunately we manage him on a constant level, try to be as regular as we can with his strength and his treatment and stuff like that, and we don’t get into those scenarios very often.”There will be times ahead when Clarke may need to manage himself extra carefully. The IPL that follows the India Tests is a period of particular concern. Other moments may arise when self-preservation precludes him from taking part in training, or he may disappear from the team’s inner sanctum for a visit to a clinic. Clarke’s longevity in the game is as much about his desire to continue doing all the extra work that has become a part of his career, doubly so since he became captain. After ten years there will be times when it becomes tiresome.In 1998, with England on the brink of their much-celebrated victory over South Africa at Headingley, Atherton was not in the field, nor the dressing room. He was in a cab scuttling through Leeds, having gone to hospital for a check-up on stomach problems related to his back treatment. His oblivious driver listened to , and at the moment of the final wicket exclaimed: “I knew we’d win something, now that Atherton’s not in charge.” For Clarke, the physical ailment is familiar, but the team scenario quite different – right now, no one can imagine Australia winning a series without him.

Plays of the Day from the second day of the first Test between New Zealand and England in Dunedin.

Andrew McGlashan in Dunedin07-Mar-2013Relief of the dayBruce Martin’s first significant touch of the ball in Test cricket was not the best. Diving to his left at midwicket he spilled a chance offered by Alastair Cook, on nine, not a batsman who normally misses out on on a reprieve. However, in the next over, Neil Wagner’s first, Cook was offered width and instead of sending it to the boundary picked out Hamish Rutherford at point. Nobody enjoyed it more than Martin.First ball of the dayFor a great batsman, Kevin Pietersen is a very jumpy starter. Bowlers around the world know they have a very small window to make the most of it. Wagner, already with his tail up after Cook’s wicket, was spot on with his first delivery; full and straight with just a hint of shape to catch Pietersen in front. It was the fifth golden duck of Pietersen’s Test career, the previous one was against Pakistan, at Lord’s, in 2010 when he edged Mohammad Amir to the wicketkeeper. It also meant he joined Ian Botham at the top of the list of  the number of golden ducks by those considered batsmen for England.Spitting image of the dayDaniel Vettori, New Zealand’s premier slow bowler since 1997, is currently sidelined by injury but in nearly everything except the name there was a replica on show at the University Oval. Martin has operated in Vettori’s shadow since being named in a Test squad in 2000 and 13 years later his chance had finally come. His run-up, gather and delivery stride were the signs of someone who has studied Vettori for years. The moment he had waited for arrived early in the afternoon session when Matt Prior cut to point and in the blink of eye Martin then had three. By the end of the innings he had four.Dim shot of the dayThere was competition for this tag from the England batsmen, but Stuart Broad’s demise topped the list. Following a strong sweep against Martin that went for a boundary, Brendon McCullum moved Dean Brownlie back towards the rope. Martin served up another delivery that Broad felt he could dispatch but either he hadn’t noticed the field change, or inexplicably forgot about it in the few seconds that elapsed because he could not have placed it better for Brownlie to take the catch.Father-son stat of the dayHamish Rutherford does not overly enjoy being asked about his father, Ken, and the meaning of following him into Test cricket. However, there was an obvious comparison to make because when Hamish reached 12, which came swiftly off 12 deliveries, he had made more than his old man managed in his first seven innings. Ken bagged a pair in his first Test, against West Indies, so as soon as Hamish clipped his fourth ball sweetly through midwicket he had avoided a repeat of that.Partnership of the dayHundred opening stands for New Zealand have been like hens’ teeth. On the eve of this Test, McCullum admitted he was at “risk” to bring together a new pair but by the end of the day it looked like a masterstroke. Rutherford and Peter Fulton combined for New Zealand’s first 100-run opening stand since Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum put on 124 against Zimbabwe in Napier 12 Tests ago. Their previous against a major nation was facing Pakistan in January 2011.

N Srinivasan has been free to stay on as BCCI president because politicians in the organisation kept silent

ESPNcricinfo staff29-May-2013N Srinivasan’s future as BCCI president is now in the hands of a group of senior politicians who are part of the BCCI, some of them holding positions on the board. These politicians, cutting across party lines, had maintained a studied silence through the spot-fixing and betting scandal and even after Srinivasan asserted his decision to stay on in charge following the arrest of his son-in-law and top Chennai Super Kings official Gurunath Meiyappan. That sparked outrage among the public, and especially in the media, that these politiians had failed to apply the standards of probity and transparency to Srinivasan that they demand in the political sphere. On Wednesday, it seemed that the wheels had started moving – prompted, most likely, with an eye on the general elections due in 2014 – and politicians began speaking out. The power they wield goes far beyond cricket and is more than sufficient to twist arms on the board. Here’s the who’s who of the BCCI’s political bossesArun Jaitley
President, Delhi & District Cricket Association; vice-president, BCCI; and member, IPL governing council
MP (BJP), Leader of the Opposition Party in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament
The Supreme Court has given it (BCCI) a 15-day time limit. It will give its report which will come up before the Disciplinary Committee. Be rest assured we are going to take tough action (against anyone found guilty).Narendra Modi
President, Gujarat Cricket Association
Chief Minister, Gujarat (from the BJP)
NothingAnurag Thakur
President, Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association and joint secretary, BCCI
MP, Lok Sabha (BJP)
NothingRajiv Shukla
Secretary, Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association and chairman, IPL governing council
MP (Congress), federal junior minister for parliamentary affairs
No official press conference since the first arrests on May 16.Jyotiraditya Scindia
President, Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association
MP (Congress), federal junior minister for power
The only politician in the BCCI to say Srinivasan should step downCP Joshi
President, Rajasthan Cricket Association
MP (Congress), federal minister for railways and road transport
NothingFarooq Abdullah
President, Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association
MP (National Conference) and federal minister for new and renewable energy
“Let the investigation get over. If it comes out in investigation that N Srinivasan is responsible, he will go, he is an honourable man.”

Some say he is 24, with time on his side. Others say his Test career is going sideways

Rob Smyth15-Jul-2013Try telling Steven Finn that victory has a thousand fathers but defeat is an orphan. As England celebrated their victory over Australia at Trent Bridge he will have felt if not alone then certainly detached. Finn’s relief at victory was probably greater than anybody’s – had England lost, he might have been a Fred Tate for the 21st century – but even that will have been overshadowed by the insecurity that surrounds his Test career and his apparently recurring Ashes nightmare.The final day at Trent Bridge was almost humiliating for Finn. Alastair Cook only trusted him to bowl two of the 39.5 overs, and they disappeared for 25 to get Australia back into a game that they had apparently lost. Then he dropped Brad Haddin at deep backward square leg, a difficult chance but one he would have taken to the grave had England been beaten.Finn had allowed Australia back into the match once already, with a poor spell to Phillip Hughes and Ashton Agar on Thursday. He went from taking the new ball in the first innings to not getting a bowl until the 29th over of the second. Even allowing for the context – Stuart Broad’s first-innings injury and Graeme Swann’s early use in the second innings – it felt like a significant demotion. For a bowler there are few things as hurtful as realising his captain does not trust him. The match wasn’t an unmitigated disaster – Finn bowled a superb five-over spell on Saturday evening – but it wasn’t far off, and his place in the team will be England’s main point of discussion ahead of Lord’s.There are two ways of looking at Finn: he is either 24, with time on his side, or he has been a Test cricketer for three years – Jonathan Trott and Graeme Swann, established stars, only began their Test careers seven and 14 months before Finn – and is going sideways. The sense that he has not progressed is most acute in an Ashes series, for Finn is enduring the same problems as on the 2010-11 tour of Australia, when he was dropped for the fourth Test despite being the leading wicket-taker in the series. The reason was simple: he was a walking four-ball. The problem has re-occurred two and a half years later. Finn has been set aside for potential greatness for a few years; his development is taking a frustratingly long time.In the age of media training, sportsmen are not encouraged to be lavish with the truth, yet Finn recently suggested that he had not developed as he had hoped. His overall career record is fine – 90 Test wickets at 29.40, a lower average than any of his team-mates – yet a more relevant statistic is his economy rate of 3.65. This compares unfavourably to James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan and Chris Tremlett, who are all between 2.90 and 3.10, although Graham Onions concedes runs at a similar rate to Finn.That does not fit the ethos of a side obsessed with bowling dry. The peculiar thing is that, on paper, Finn is David Saker’s driest dream: he could have been invented by boffins trying to create a parsimonious fast bowler, and when he first arrived as an international player, he cited Glenn McGrath as the bowler he wanted to be.Increasingly Steve Harmison seems a more relevant point of comparison. Both make the little girl with the little curl seem like the model of equilibrium. Finn’s outwardly secure exterior suggested he was a different animal to Harmison, yet increasingly he seems to suffer damaging lapses in confidence. His two overs on the final day against Australia were those of a man whose head had gone. Yet at other times he has been unplayable, most notably during a wonderful spell against South Africa at Lord’s a year ago. He has excelled at times in one-day cricket, although he was dropped from the England side during the Champions Trophy.

The most encouraging thing for Finn is that, generally speaking, he is good at the things you can’t teach and not so good at those you can

Much of Finn’s success in one-day cricket has come from a drive-inviting length, whereas in Tests he frequently bowls too short. McGrath is an obvious reference point for a tall fast bowler, but in some ways Finn is more reminiscent of Jason Gillespie. At his best, Gillespie bowled a much fuller length than almost all new-ball bowlers, allowing the snarling seam movement to do the rest. This is something Finn does not do nearly enough at Test level. It is not possible for Finn to simply change his default setting; Finn needs to train his brain over time.In the short term it might be beneficial to replace Finn with Bresnan, merciful even, yet it’s hard to know how that would impact his confidence in the medium-term, especially as it would be the second time he had been dropped in the middle of an Ashes series. After that spell against South Africa at Lord’s it seemed that Finn had left Bresnan in his slipstream forever, and that he would always play when England were picking three seamers. After a decent series against India, he was poor in New Zealand and has not recovered.Finn shortened his run-up during that tour, which has been cited as the main problem by many; equally significant if not more so, however, is Finn’s relative lack of tactical awareness. England, particularly Saker and Anderson, are big on understanding the game and reacting to circumstances. This is one of Finn’s weakest points, and was demonstrated again during Agar’s innings on Friday.The most encouraging thing for Finn is that, generally speaking, he is good at the things you can’t teach and not so good at those you can. There is no need to panic yet. In Anderson he had a perfect role model. The two are incomparable as bowlers, yet their early careers had a similar arc: a burst of success followed by some lost years as they attempt to understand their game and their action.Anderson went through some extremely dark times, far darker than Finn is going through at the moment. At Finn’s age, Anderson had not been a regular in the team for over three years and had 46 Test wickets at 38.39; at Trent Bridge yesterday he went from extremely good to truly great. Anderson may have been born with a degree of greatness in him, but ultimately he had to achieve it. There is no reason why Finn should not do the same.

The fate of the Ashes, and the jobs of numerous senior figures at Cricket Australia, may now hinge on the enigma that is Mitchell Johnson

Daniel Brettig12-Nov-2013Would you bet your house on Mitchell Johnson performing in the Ashes series? Australian cricket just has.It is no overstatement to say that by recalling him to the Test team for the series opener in Brisbane, Cricket Australia have staked the farm on Johnson bowling with more reliable speed, consistency and sustained menace in the forthcoming matches than at any other time in his career. Every spell Johnson bowls may swing not only the fate of the Ashes but also the jobs of the team performance manager Pat Howard, the national selector John Inverarity, the coach Darren Lehmann and perhaps even the captain Michael Clarke.James Sutherland, CA’s chief executive, will not be watching Johnson’s bowling in the Ashes with quite the same level of trepidation, after the chairman Wally Edwards guaranteed his job even in the event of a 5-0 drubbing. But for a series that Australia must win to provide solid evidence of progress on the field two years since the release of the Argus review, an enormous amount now depends on Johnson conjuring his very best.This, of course, is something he has struggled to do consistently throughout a Test career that effectively began with 12th man duty throughout the 2006-07 summer, when he watched the last gleaming of the great sides led by Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. Johnson’s best stands comparison with the most exhilarating displays of any of those teams, typified by the Perth spell during the last Ashes bout down under when he tore England’s batting limb from limb in the space of little more than an hour. But his worst is risible, and has been glimpsed more often in Ashes contests than those against any other nation.No one was more aware of the Johnson enigma than Ponting, who wrote of the aforementioned Perth spell in his autobiography. It is a telling passage among many. “There were days like this when Mitch was as lethal a bowler as any in my experience; at other times, however, he was so frustratingly erratic and ineffective,” Ponting wrote. “I never questioned his work ethic and commitment, but for someone so talented, such a natural cricketer and so gifted an athlete, I found his lack of self-belief astonishing.”Hence the Barmy Army’s considerable repertoire of Johnson song material, and also his non-selection for the earlier Ashes series in England. At the time, the selectors sought the ability to wear England’s batsmen down with consistency and accuracy – “be prepared to be boring” was a frequent catch-cry among the bowlers at the Brisbane camp that preceded the tour – and also favoured the younger Mitchell Starc. But now Starc is injured, and Australian grounds and pitches are hoped to provide the sort of atmosphere and turf that Johnson can thrive upon.

“I said a couple of days ago if Mitch was selected in this squad, it wouldn’t surprise me if in a couple of months’ time you see Mitch being Man of the Series.”Australia captain Michael Clarke on Mitchell Johnson

Much has been made of the fact that George Bailey’s selection for the Gabba has arrived on the strength of ODI batting form in a different country, against different bowlers, on pitches in no way relevant to the Ashes. Yet the same is true of Johnson, who has convinced Lehmann, Inverarity and Clarke he is in the sort of confident, relaxed frame of mind for five-day battles on the basis of limited-overs form alone. His only first-class appearance since a muted display in the Delhi Test in March took place against South Australia at the WACA ground last week, and while five wickets and sundry other chances were created, he leaked 4.5 runs per over throughout.A similar scoring rate for England against Johnson during the Ashes would release a considerable amount of the pressure imposed by the likes of Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Shane Watson, should he be fit to bowl. It would undo much of the good, diligent work done by those same bowlers in England, causing Clarke to spread his fields and resort to other options more quickly than he should need to. There would be a toll in terms of fatigue as well as runs conceded. In James Faulkner’s retention in the Gabba squad can be seen not only a reward for a smart and feisty young cricketer but also a potential insurance policy for Johnson’s bad days.Mitchell Johnson’s consistency has improved in recent one-day matches, but can he transfer that form into the Ashes?•Getty ImagesClarke and Lehmann have acknowledged that Johnson had been chosen at least partly on faith that he can demonstrate greater control across the series. Lehmann said that while Johnson can be unplayable when swinging the ball at speed and pitching it right, “he knows he needs to do that and do that more often”. When pondering the scenarios that might await him on the field this summer, Clarke admitted that the upward trend of consistency he saw in England and from afar in India needed to continue.”I think he’s bowling a lot more consistent at the moment,” Clarke said. “His pace is certainly high, which is a great start. But it doesn’t matter how fast you bowl, if you don’t know where they’re going it’s always easy to face as a batsman. I think Mitch has that control. He showed that in the one-day format. I said a couple of days ago if Mitch was selected in this squad, it wouldn’t surprise me if in a couple of months’ time you see Mitch being Man of the Series.”It is this thought of Johnson’s capability, of the damage he can inflict at his best, that has ultimately swayed the selectors. Inverarity, Lehmann and Clarke all saw Michael Carberry, Jonathan Trott and others hopping about when faced by Johnson during the ODI series in England, and have not forgotten it. As Inverarity put it, Johnson “really unsettled two or three of their batters”. Harris, not averse to peppering the odd batsman with short stuff himself, spoke with typical frankness about Johnson’s ability to plant fear in the mind of an opponent.”He hasn’t put too much pressure on getting back in there [the Test squad], he’s just wanted to get his game right, get his mind right, work on a few little technical things – he’s gone and done that and come back beautifully,” Harris said. “Watching him bowl in the one-dayers in India and speaking to Brad Haddin who was talking about how quick they were coming through. So he’s back to his best, he’s moving the ball a bit as well, so if he gets it right he’s going to take a lot of wickets. Bowling at that pace, speak to the batters – no one likes to face it. If he gets it right we’re in good shape.”If.

Murray Goodwin reveals secrets of ageing, scoring big hundreds, and of his own anatomical extras

Interview by Jack Wilson15-Jan-2014What’s the secret to playing into your forties?
Clean-living, Guinness and KFC!Seriously, it’s by having so many good youngsters around. I have to keep my standards up to try to set an example to them of how to go about the game. T20 cricket has helped me change my game, especially because I am not a power hitter like some of the other guys these days. That’s a real great challenge.You’re nearing 100 centuries in all forms of cricket – and many of those have been big ones. Tell us the secret of turning those hundreds into doubles and triples.
You have to stay in the present. Respect the bowler and play each ball as it comes. It’s important to try to do the basics for as long as possible.What has been the greatest innings you have ever played?
It’s hard to say. My international hundreds are special. The 335 I scored to win the County Championship with Sussex for the first time is special too – and the 87 not out to win the Pro40 game against Nottinghamshire in 2008 was up there. We needed 12 an over, there were ten overs remaining and we were eight wickets down – and we won. We needed four off the last ball to win and I managed to hit a six.Do you keep mementos from games?
I have a few stumps from a few games. I also have a couple of signed shirts, which are nice memories to have.Your son is playing for Wales Under-11s. Tell us about that.
I love the fact he is playing and I honestly believe he will be better than me as long as he stays away from booze and girls! As long as he stays humble and works hard, he can go places. His legspinners excite me as he idolises Shane Warne.Are you one of those parents that get too into his games when you are watching?
No, I’m very relaxed. I want him to make mistakes so he learns.Cricketers have all sorts of strange traits. Are you one of the superstitious ones?
Not at all.If there was one rule in cricket you would change, what would it be?
In a dead four-day game, both captains should be able to agree to call it off at tea on the last day.Who’s the funniest team-mate you’ve ever had?
Me, for no other reason other than that I’m hilarious!Who spends the most time in front of the mirror?
Grant Flower.You spent a lot of time playing with Andy Flower. Did you always think he’d move into coaching like he has?
Of course. He was destined to move into coaching. He has a very good cricket brain.We’re seeing more and more players go down that route. Do you want to do that yourself?
Yes. I fancy looking at the options of becoming a batting coach first and see where that takes me.If you had one superpower, what would it be?
To be invisible.Tell us one thing about you that the average cricket fan wouldn’t know.
I have three testicles!What’s your favourite position to bat?
Either at three or four.Which ground in world cricket has the most hostile crowd?
In India there is just sheer passion everywhere. So it would be either there or at Chelmsford. They always get stuck into me there – and they are not very smart. I’m like a brain surgeon compared to the average fan in Essex!

A refreshing dip in the numerical magma chamber of the second New Zealand-India Test, and more

Andy Zaltzman18-Feb-2014English cricket is back. After a Winter Of Wretchedness, in which Cook and his men were thrashed on the field in all three formats by their greatest cricketing rivals, dismantled on the field by their erstwhile anti-nemesis Mitchell Johnson, and dismantled off the field by themselves, things have finally taken a positive turn.In fact, this week has been comfortably England’s best of the 2013-14 season so far, and a stirring comeback from the depths they have inhabited for most of the last few months. And it has all been achieved without the drab hassle of having to take the field.They have watched Australia dole out an identikit clobbering to the world-No. 1-ranked South Africans, and they have seen India’s bowlers, against whom England will play five Tests this coming summer, ground and macerated into a record-breaking pulp by New Zealand’s middle order. The glory days are back. Relatively.It may be, arguably, too early to attribute England’s Lazarusian renaissance of the past week to the ECB catapulting Kevin Pietersen into the international afterlife, but at least it has become clear that England’s failures in Australia were not (a) something that would never happen to a genuinely good team like South Africa, (b) a Baggy Green flash in the pan, or (c) all Pietersen’s fault.Johnson’s obliteration of South Africa in Centurion was even more complete than his demolitions of England had been, a rampaging eruption of targeted venom, and one of the great match performances by a quick bowler. Ten of his wickets were top-seven batsmen, five in each innings.A seam/pace bowler has taken 12 or more wickets in a Test on 43 occasions. Johnson’s match strike rate of a wicket every 16.5 balls was the third-best of those 43. The only two men to beat him were Surrey’s medium-pace genius George Lohmann against South Africa in February 1896, and George Lohmann, the medium-pace genius from Surrey, against South Africa in March 1896. (The South London Sorcerer took 15 for 45 and 12 for 71 in the first two Tests of the series, and, after three innings of the series had the tidy figures of 24 for 73 off the equivalent of 33.1 six-ball overs. Thereafter, he tailed off disastrously, taking a paltry 11 more wickets at the frankly profligate average of 11.8 in the final three innings of the rubber.)Even the most rabid 19th-century fan would concede that the 2013-14 Proteas are a rather more testing challenge for a bowler than EA Halliwell’s rather underwhelming team of 118 years ago. The only thing those two sides have in common is that Jacques Kallis is not playing for them. He understandably ruled himself out of the 1895-96 series due to being 79 years away from birth, and his somewhat inopportunely timed retirement this year left a vulnerable and unbalanced batting line-up. Johnson duly and thrillingly brutalised it, defied only by the sublime talents of AB de Villiers.If Johnson can continue his landscape-shifting barrage of speed, and bowl Australia to another series victory, his performance in the 2013-14 season will stand high in the pantheon of individual cricketing greatness.Meanwhile, in Wellington, a Vesuvius of statistics buried India’s hopes of drawing their series with the increasingly impressive New Zealanders. Matt Prior’s magically adhesive bail denied the Kiwis an almost-certain series victory a year ago, and a limp first innings in Wellington, subsiding to the at least temporarily resurgent Ishant Sharma, appeared to have cost them again this time. Brendon McCullum and BJ Watling, however, set about rewriting, defacing and shredding the record books. The highest sixth-wicket partnership in Test history turned the match on its head, the captain and Jimmy Neesham then plonked a sombrero on the match’s now-upturned feet, and India, despite having a richly promising and almost unfeasibly stylish top order, lost yet another away series. On the plus side, they at least bowled well in half of each match. On the minus side, they were series-losingly ineffective in the other halves.Among the stats emerging from the numerical magma chamber:* Since their tour of the West Indies in 2011, India have played 12 Tests away from home. In only two of those Tests have they not conceded at least 450 an innings – at the MCG and Perth on the disastrous tour of Australia two years ago. They have shipped 700 once, 600 three times, and 500 four times.* In those 12 away Tests, India have now conceded eight double-hundreds, including triples by Clarke and McCullum, and Cook’s 294 at Edgbaston in 2011.* McCullum’s 302, rightly lauded for being New Zealand’s first Test triple-century, was insufficiently slammed for being the joint-smallest triple-hundred in the history of international cricket. Only Lawrence Rowe’s 302 against England in 1974 has ended as soon after passing the 300 mark. McCullum has, in the past, failed to capitalise on good starts. On this occasion, he did capitalise on his good start. And then he capitalised on having capitalised on that good start. And kept on capitalising on that capitalisation for two days, whilst memories of India taking the previous 28 New Zealand wickets for 404 disappeared like an absinthe-addled mirage. But then, having passed a historic milestone for his nation’s cricket, McCullum failed to knuckle down and capitalise any more. Deeply irresponsible batting.

The highest sixth-wicket partnership in Test history turned the match on its head and the captain and Jimmy Neesham then plonked a sombrero on the match’s now-upturned feet

* New Zealand’s 680 for 8 was the highest second-innings score in Test history.* The undefeated 137 scored by New Zealand No. 8 Jimmy Neesham was the highest score ever on Test debut by anyone batting lower than 6, beating Romesh Kaluwitharana’s 132 not out, at 7, for Sri Lanka against Australia in 1992.* The highest debut scores by numbers 6, 8, 10 and 11 have all been scored in the past 18 months (No. 6: Rohit Sharma, 177, for India v West Indies, November 2013; No. 8: Neesham; No. 10: Abul Hasan, 113, for Bangladesh v West Indies, November 2012; No. 11: Ashton Agar, 98, for Australia v England, July 2013). The second- and third-highest scores by a No. 2 on debut have also been made in that time, by Shikhar Dhawan and Hamish Rutherford.* Zaheer Khan took 5 for 170 in 51 overs in New Zealand’s second innings (his first Test five-for since October 2010), thus becoming the first pace bowler to take a five-wicket haul and bowl more than 50 overs in the same innings since Kapil Dev took 5 for 130 in 51 overs Adelaide in 1991-92. Since then, spinners have performed the partially successful feat of endurance wicketry on 48 occasions.* McCullum finally ended India’s suffering by declaring after 210 overs – 172.4 overs after the fifth wicket had fallen. The 586 runs added in that time did not just break the existing record for Most Runs Added After the Fall of the Fifth Wicket in a Test innings, they smithereened it like a killer whale in a shop specialising in full-scale porcelain replicas of baby seals.Previously, the most runs added by the sixth- to tenth-wicket partnerships was 474, by Pakistan, against the Kiwis, in 1955-56, one of only previous five occasions on which more than 400 had been scored after the fifth wicket fell.* The almost-all-knowing Statsguru only has full information on balls faced by partnerships dating back to 1998, but in that time, the longest the final five wickets had batted in a Test innings before McCullum and Watling began the Kiwis’ 172.4-over epic was the 123.1 overs it took England to recover from 47 for 5 to 446 all out against Pakistan in the naughty-off-the-field-activities-overshadowed Lord’s Test of 2010. The longest in a second innings was when Zimbabwe’s lower order batted for a barely noticeable 97.3 overs, against New Zealand, in September 2000.* It was the first time a team has batted for more than 200 overs in the second innings of a Test since South Africa’s 209-over Gary Kirsten-inspired rearguard against England in the 1999 Boxing Day Test in Durban, and only the third such occasion since 1975. The other instance was in the innings in which Martin Crowe missed out on becoming New Zealand’s first ever triple-centurion, scoring 299 out of 671 for 4 in 220 overs against Sri Lanka, also in Wellington, in February 1991, in a similarly shaped match to the one just completed.* And a couple of Mitchell Mayhem Stats: Johnson’s match analysis of 12 for 127 was the best by a pace bowler against South Africa since Alec Bedser took 12 for 112 in 1951; and he has become the fourth seamer in the last 25 years to take seven wickets in an innings on three separate occasions, after Waqar Younis, Glenn McGrath and Matthew Hoggard.

Plays of the day from the first ODI between Bangladesh and India in Mirpur

Mohammad Isam and Alagappan Muthu in Dhaka15-Jun-2014The change-up
Caution seemed to be Bangladesh’s only concern in the early overs. The effort to preserve wickets took precedence over gaining any kind of fluency. But the game plan shifted after Mushfiqur Rahim’s arrival at the crease and the urgency he showed infected his partner as well. In the 21st over, Anamul Haque thrust forward, switched his stance and lay in wait. Parvez Rasool was unable to counter and a reverse sweep sailed to the point boundary. The crowd had largely used the signs bearing “4” or “6” as portable fans. This time, they were up on their feet, waving them enthusiastically.The captain’s compensation
Umesh Yadav tested the hardness of the Mirpur pitch and extracted appreciable bounce in his first spell. However, when he induced the outside edge from Anamul Haque, Suresh Raina could not react sharply enough. He leapt up at first slip, but the ball popped out of his hands and dribbled to the boundary. It took until the 46th over for the captain to remedy his mistake, and he did so in some style. Ziaur Rahman sought the extra-cover boundary, but Yadav’s shorter length lured a miscue. Raina’s eyes were locked on the ball and as it looped to his right, he dived low and the extended right hand clutched the ball before it could spill on to the turf.The desperate appeal
Amit Mishra was on a hat-trick and he had Bangladesh’s No.10 in his sights. The legspinner had bowled a fluent Mahmudullah with one that didn’t turn. The same ploy accounted for Nasir Hossain and he looked to go one better when he opted for a seam-up yorker. Abdur Razzak was slow on his attempted flick, but the ball was slid well down the leg side. Mishra would not accept he had shelled his opportunity and launched a vociferous appeal for both caught behind and a stumping. The umpire firmly shook his head and the keeper was already throwing the ball to one of the fielders.The quiet, erroneous exit
Tamim Iqbal’s wretched run in 2014 continued with an eleven-ball duck. He was squared up by Umesh Yadav in the fourth over, and after the bowler and the fielders appealed in unison, umpire Kumar Dharmasena raised his finger. Tamim was curiously quiet about the decision as replays later showed that the ball hadn’t exactly taken the edge but the bat hit the pad at the same time the ball went past it. Tamim copped booing as he walked off but replays shown at the ground were not definitive.The inside edge
In his first ODI after six years, Robin Uthappa was batting fluently but his innings was cut short by a poor leg-before decision after he edged Shakib Al Hasan on to his front pad. Umpire Enamul Haque waited for Shakib to reach a crescendo in his appeal before raising his finger. Uthappa half-showed his bat when the appeal was taking place but then walked off disappointed. It was the last act before rain came down hard in Mirpur.

Australia’s selectors have rewarded form and chosen a good squad for the Tests against Pakistan but the real challenge will be finding a balanced XI

Brydon Coverdale08-Sep-2014It was revealing that only once during his press conference to announce Australia’s Test squad on Monday did Rod Marsh seem stumped. When asked who was unlucky to miss out, he let out a deep sigh, had a think, and said: “I dunno, I reckon we’ve got most of them haven’t we?”He was right. Fifteen men for two Tests. This was the first Test squad picked by Australia’s new selection panel of Marsh, Mark Waugh, Trevor Hohns and Darren Lehmann. It’s a good group, with plenty of options. But they’ve barely had to make a decision yet.So luxurious was the 15-man allocation that there was even room for a bloke who Marsh said hadn’t earned his place. That man was Glenn Maxwell, the most fortunate member of the touring party and the only real surprise selection. Deciphering Marsh’s comments on Monday was at times challenging, but never more so than when he spoke of Maxwell.”He hasn’t done enough to warrant selection”. “He is the x-factor”. “He has a very good record against Ajmal”. “Technically I think he’s a very fine batsman”. “Technically I don’t think he’s a fine bowler”. “He could play both Test matches”. “He could play no Test matches”.What it boiled down to was that Maxwell was lucky to be picked, but could be a match-winner, but might not even play. There are times when selectors know their starting XI before the squad is even picked. This is not one of those times.Marsh himself will be the selector on duty against Pakistan in the UAE, and that’s when things will get difficult. How many spinners, allrounders, fast bowlers, batsmen will actually make the XI?There are some certainties, barring unforeseen injuries. David Warner and Chris Rogers will open. Steven Smith will be in there somewhere. So will Brad Haddin. Mitchell Johnson will lead the attack. Nathan Lyon should be a certainty, but will these selectors make the mistake of their predecessors, who dropped him in India for Maxwell and Xavier Doherty?In the UAE, Steve O’Keefe is the left-arm spinner of choice. He thoroughly deserves his place in the squad, having been the Sheffield Shield’s top spinner for two years. If he plays, it must be alongside Lyon, not in his place. But Marsh noted that Australia would be unlikely to play two offspinners together, so how does Maxwell fit in if not alongside O’Keefe?And what of Mitchell Marsh? His first-class form for Australia A and one-day performances in Zimbabwe made him a natural selection, but how does he fit in? In place of Shane Watson? Alongside Watson? Rod Marsh said Watson was “in a good place” at the moment, and spoke highly of his credentials. He appears likely to play.”You can fit more than one allrounder in a Test team, yes,” Marsh said, “but whether it’ll happen remains to be seen.”One possible scenario is for Marsh and Watson both to play in the top six, giving pace backup to Johnson and Peter Siddle, an important function in the very hot conditions expected. That would create room for both Lyon and O’Keefe. Or they could do the same with Maxwell instead of Marsh. Either way, it would mean dropping the incumbent No.3, Alex Doolan.In that case Clarke, among others, could bat first drop in spinning conditions. But even Clarke’s selection remains uncertain as he continues to recover from the hamstring injury he picked up in Zimbabwe. When asked if he was confident Clarke would be play in the first Test, Marsh was equivocal.”No, you can’t be confident about Michael,” he said, “but I tell you what, he has only missed one in over 100 Tests he’s played. He’s got a great track record for getting up for Tests … No, I am sure he will be right, there is no more dedicated bloke in getting his rehab in than Michael.”And don’t forget Phillip Hughes is there too. And Mitchell Starc. Any closer to working out what the starting XI will be?”We’re not entirely sure of what we’ll get,” Marsh said of the pitch conditions in the UAE. “So what we’ve tried to do is cover all bases.”They’ve done that. And they’ve chosen a good squad, with no glaring omissions. Form has been rewarded and for that, Marsh and his colleagues are to be commended. But the true selection work has not even begun.