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New Zealand did away with their selection panel last year. Instead they have a selection manager who reads pie charts before drawing up a squad list

Firdose Moonda02-Apr-2012The Oakland Athletics baseball team did not have the most talented players in the US major leagues, nor the most money. What they did have was a strategy for “the art of winning an unfair game”. Unfair because other teams had the cash to buy up the most talented players, which Oakland did not. Oakland, though, had an edge in detailed statistical analysis, which allowed them to make best use of the resources available to them and, in the end, to punch far above their weight. New Zealand Cricket is aiming for something similar.The country has a population of just over four million, whose overriding sport of choice is rugby. Cricket is small in New Zealand, with a correspondingly small pool of players to choose from. In terms of cricket numbers, though, they are no worse off than some of the game’s powerhouses. Across the six provincial teams, with a group of Under-19s, New Zealand have about the same number of domestic players in their system as South Africa and Australia do, around 140.However, in real terms there is a marked difference. New Zealand’s smaller population means that the chances of less talented individuals making it into those 140 are greater. It results in a less competitive cricket environment, the effects of which are felt in the national team. Still, New Zealand compete, fiercely if not always triumphantly, with every other team at the elite level of international cricket. The problem facing John Buchanan when he was appointed director of cricket in New Zealand last May was how to turn that spunk into success. He started by revamping the selection process.It’s a theory somewhat similar to the one applied with Oakland in , and zones in on optimal use of the available supply of cricketers to ensure the national team is best stocked. “We are working towards getting the sort of skills that we need to play with in all formats,” Buchanan told ESPNcricinfo. “The selection system needed an overhaul and needed to produce something that everybody had confidence in, and we are moving in that direction.”It’s a clean-cut and clinical look at cricket, an idea that was born out of Buchanan’s eight-year tenure as Australian coach. “I always felt there were way too many people in and around the team environment, whether it is selectors, coaches, captains or team managers,” he said. “You hear them talk about a person and then they leave the room and say something completely different about that same person. There were too many confusing messages, particularly when you are dealing with selection issues.”Buchanan explained that selectors’ jobs are not only about managing players who already represent the national team, but also about dealing with those who are pushing for places. For that reason, he believes the system that selectors use should be as unbiased as possible, so every candidate who is deserving of a chance gets one. “Selection is not only about those who are in, it’s about those who are not in,” he said. “It’s important to try to streamline the whole system.”Buchanan’s approach is based on objectivity. The blueprint he has put in place relies heavily on statistical data to make selection as impartial as possible. New Zealand’s newspaper was leaked a copy of the selection policy in practice. Each player has a pie-chart drawn up for him, which is divided into slices of different sizes that stand for different aspects of his game, in order to create a total score. “The most important selection criteria is now significant performance at 35%, followed by consistent performance at 25%, contribution to the team, 15%, fitness, 10%, fielding, 10%, and least valuable, at 5%, is selectors’ intuition,” Jonathan Millmow, sports editor of the wrote.The pie-chart attempts to reflect how well and how often players put in notable performances. “Significant performances” are classified as centuries and five-wicket hauls, but they are worth less if scored against a part-time attack or if obtained when blowing away a tail. “Consistent performances” are judged on batting averages and on bowling economy and strike rates. If these numbers are maintained or improved in a season, a player is regarded as consistent. There is also a rating for the role the performances have in team success, with contributions that are key to victories rating higher than those that come in losing causes.Buchanan said the numbers in Millmow’s report were not entirely correct but the principles were. “There’s a range of things that go into making [the pie-chart] up. It makes selection far less subjective. Although there will always be subjectivity, hopefully it makes it more objective.”Kim Littlejohn, New Zealand’s selection manager, collects all the data from the provincial coaches, analyses it and presents it to John Wright, the national coach. Together they pick a squad and it is up to Wright to choose the XI who will play on any given day.

Buchanan’s approach is based on objectivity. The blueprint he has put in place relies heavily on statistical data to make selection a process that is as impartial as possible

Essentially it means if a player has performed well in the domestic season, irrespective of age or personality, such as Mark Gillespie, his chances of playing in the national side are almost guaranteed. It also means if someone has missed out, Littlejohn will be able to tell him exactly which area he needs to work on to increase his chances of being picked. It takes away the uncertainty of not knowing why someone was overlooked, which Buchanan thinks will improve relations between players and administrators hugely. “All the players are looking for is consistency and specific feedback. They need to believe somebody is watching and seeing what they are doing,” he said. “We are utilising a tool that is relatively objective and therefore consistent.”New Zealand do not have a selection panel, unlike other countries, because Littlejohn runs the department himself. Buchanan said they would gradually look at appointing a group of scouts who will assist Littlejohn in putting the information together, but for the moment all the work sits on his plate.”It is about placing a lot of responsibility on the provincial coaches to provide very good information on not just their players but other players that they see. The coaches are much closer to individual players than anybody else, so we are trying to utilise their information along with statistical information,” Buchanan said.After its first season the system is still a work in progress, Buchanan said, but he is pleased it is being applied at all levels, from the national team and women’s team to age-group levels. One of the glaring weaknesses it has highlighted is the need for greater depth in all aspects of the game, particularly batting, because not enough players are scoring as highly on the consistency index, so replacements for the current internationals are not easily available. “I wouldn’t say that if we lose two or three players we can immediately replace them,” Buchanan said, “but we are beginning to develop and increase that depth,”Kane Williamson was the team’s only centurion in the recently completed Test series against South Africa; the rest of the top five struggled. On the bowling side, when Tim Southee was dropped, New Zealand called up Gillespie and Brent Arnel. Only Gillespie was successful, leaving them with the same problem they had when Southee played, in that one of their four seamers was the weak link.Even without the pie-chart to assist them, New Zealand should have been able to isolate the shallow playing pool as their biggest concern. It is how he addresses that problem that will be a measure of Buchanan’s tenure. He insists it will take some time before he can be judged on results, especially after this summer ended with losses in all three series against South Africa. “It depends how you measure success. If you measure it by results in the field, you couldn’t regard it as a success,” Buchanan said, although he was able to take some positives as well. “If we look at systems and processes, then we are going along nicely.”

Australia’s openers have done a good job in shielding the middle order but now they need to covert useful partnerships into more substantial figures

Daniel Brettig at Queen's Park Oval15-Apr-2012Upon being chosen together to open the batting for Australia, David Warner and Ed Cowan were quickly dubbed, via the hackneyed parlance of the deadline journalist, the odd couple. Five Tests and one innings in, and the truth is Warner and Cowan have indeed made a quite odd start to their international union. There has been one mighty and match-winning stand, against India in Perth, a small fleet of handy starts, and a couple of all too brief ones.So far, their collective return as a partnership has been satisfactory, buttressing the innings against early losses more often than not, and keeping the strokemakers Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey away from the potential swerve, seam and bounce of the new ball. However the problem mounting over the course of nine innings is the fact that the loss of one opener has invariably been followed by the exit of the other.In Port-of-Spain, on a pitch that proved worthy of the mistrust built up among the visitors in the two days leading up to the second Test, Warner and Cowan added 53 before the former was confounded by Shane Shillingford’s first over of sharp spin and snicked an unsure drive to slip. Warner’s innings was less than fluent, punctuated by plenty of plays and misses and a few edges, while he evaded dismissal in the first over of the match due to an appeal for a catch withdrawn so quickly that the umpires were unable to consult TV replays that suggested he was lbw.Cowan, by contrast, looked sure-footed and firm in his judgement of what to play and what to leave. Twice he arrowed pull shots through square leg, and after Warner’s demise pinged one princely cover drive through the field. Yet he was not to make it to lunch, beaten for pace and line by the decidedly slippery Kemar Roach and given lbw. As befits a man who takes pride in knowing where his off stump is, Cowan queried whether or not he had been struck outside the line. But as in Sydney against Zaheer Khan at the beginning of the year, replays showed the call to be marginal, enough to uphold the umpire Marais Erasmus’ original verdict.A score of 65 for 2 was no disgrace on a surface as capricious as this one. Nevertheless, Australia’s advance as an international side requires opening batsmen capable of more than handy starts, and both Warner and Cowan have matters they need to address in order to be more consistently capable of doing so. Personal chemistry is not one of them – they have developed a decent rapport together. Cowan responds to Warner’s mix of brashness and humour off the field and a keen desire to succeed on it, while Warner has drawn strength from Cowan’s life experience, technical acumen and awareness of the wider world.Instead, Warner and Cowan have to look within themselves for answers to their problems. In Warner’s case it is a weakness against decent spin bowling; in Cowan’s, an inability thus far to clear his mind long enough to play the long innings he has shown himself capable of in first-class cricket. The answers to their questions may, in fact, be found in looking a little more at the ways of each other.First, to Warner. Since beginning in Test matches against New Zealand in Brisbane last year, he has demonstrated a sound method against the new ball, interspersed with natural episodes of aggression that result either in boundaries, edges or a collective “oooh” from the opposition slips cordon. Most of the time, Warner’s approach has been successful, harrying the bowlers into error while not giving them the impression that he may get out any ball. It reached its zenith in January at the WACA ground, where his sprint to a century with a star-burst of sixes would not have been possible without a handful of wonderfully crisp drives against Zaheer Khan with the new ball.However the fading of the shine and the introduction of spin has commonly created problems for Warner, bound as he seems to avoid the more outlandish tactics he resorts to against slow bowling in Twenty20 matches. Opening the batting in T20s, Warner wrong-foots spin bowlers by switch-punching with tremendous power and timing. He has previously stated that he would be unlikely to do so in Tests. As it is, his batting against spin lacks conviction, and it did not take long for Shillingford to find a way past him in Trinidad – five balls in fact.Warner could do worse than speak with Cowan about how he combated his own weakness against slow bowling while playing for New South Wales. Early on in his career, Cowan was left shotless and often hopeless against the off breaks of the onetime Australia Test spinner Dan Cullen, before finding a method that relied on close watching of the ball and the use of the sweep to break up a slow man’s line and length. So accomplished at the switch-hit, Warner may find himself a quite natural exponent of the more orthodox swipe to midwicket.Cowan, meanwhile, has added plenty to the Australian dressing room with his good humour and evenness of temper. As his state captain George Bailey has observed, Cowan thinks deeply about the game but does not allow that introspection to darken his mood around team-mates. That said, it is possible that the cerebral is impeding the instinctive when he bats. Cowan ascended to Australia’s Test XI after a run of first-class centuries that demonstrated an uncluttered mind and a sensible approach. Yet his appearances for Australia so far have not allowed him to quite reach that zone.Warner is a man of simpler pleasures, but had forged the right Test match approach with long hours in the nets, and the advice of luminaries including Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Virender Sehwag. Organised as he is, Cowan may need to go on a similar search between now and Australia’s next Test assignment against South Africa. As contrasting batsmen and characters, Warner and Cowan are ideally suited to Australia’s needs, but they must find a way to go from handy contributors to hefty ones.

With a misfiring seam attack and the mystery absent from their chief spinner, West Indies must hope their batting can gun down all before them

David Hopps30-Sep-2012It was Poya day in Sri Lanka on Saturday and at dead of night, in the hills beyond the broad, slow-moving Mahaweli River, dogs were howling at the full moon. It was quite a concert, each howl or bark encouraging another until the luminous green hills were awash with noise.It was not a time for restful sleep and, if he heard the racket a couple of miles downriver in his Kandy hotel, West Indies’ captain, Darren Sammy, might have been tempted to emit a guttural cry of his own. The West Indies were many people’s favourites at the start of the World Twenty20, but after their convincing Super Eights defeat against Sri Lanka they, too, are howling at the moon, anxious, powerless, no longer having the strut of potential champions.Their batting can potentially overpower any opposition, especially if the chief attack dog, Chris Gayle, is in the mood, or if Kieron Pollard, hugely disappointing so far, begins to muscle the ball over the ropes, but if it takes a strong bowling attack to win Twenty20 then they might as well be discounted now.West Indies can still qualify for the semi-finals. They feel like they have the measure of their final opponents, New Zealand, after beating them heavily in the Caribbean in July, 4-1 in an ODI series as well as Test victories in Jamaica and Antigua. Victory would give them four points, enough to go through if Sri Lanka beat England, but leaving their fate to be determined on run rate if England discover the “perfect performance” against Sri Lanka that their captain, Stuart Broad, believes is just around the corner.Deep down, Sammy must know that his batsmen are best placed to fashion that victory, and that Gayle is more likely to fashion it than most. Sammy bristled during a qualifying match against Ireland when it was suggested that spectators just watched West Indies to watch Gayle – such suggestions undermine the team ethic he has fought so hard to implant – but Gayle’s influence on West Indies’ success is undeniable.Against Sri Lanka, for the first time in the tournament, Gayle failed, and West Indies failed with him, indubitably so. Even then attention remained with him. When he was dismissed, the Sri Lankan DJ dared to taunt him by playing Gangnam Style, the Korean rap song from which he has adopted his signature dance. The assumption in Sri Lanka’s celebrations was clear to see: get Gayle and you get West Indies.

To hide behind the enduring image of West Indies cricket as under-resourced and, as a result, slightly ramshackle, is hardly a vision for the future.

What was it someone once said about Sammy? That he was the sort of big-hearted, affable man they would gladly follow him into battle but they would not give much for their chances of survival? That remark sprang to mind at Pallakele on Saturday night as Sammy took it upon himself to bowl four overs of mundane medium pace while Sri Lanka eased their way past an inadequate West Indies total of 129 for 5, winning by nine wickets with nearly five overs to spare.His combined record in all formats produces a batting average of less than 20 and a bowling return in the mid-30s. In T20 cricket, he barely averages double figures with the bat. On West Indies’ tour of England last summer, he was persistently asked whether he was worth his place in the side and he would respond heartily that he was captain, he was in the side, showing no sense of ill will towards his inquisitor. When he made a rip-roaring maiden Test hundred at Trent Bridge, there can hardly have been a person in the ground who was not cheered by what they had seen.But his presence in the West Indies side at No. 8 adds further vagueness to a side that since their opening match of the tournament has omitted three specialist batsmen – Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith and Darren Bravo – and yet even with this imbalance still managed to field a bits-and-pieces attack in which it was difficult to place much faith.Tactically, West Indies came adrift against Sri Lanka. A dry pitch had the capacity to turn in the opening match between England and New Zealand. By the end of the night, it was a perfect surface for Sri Lanka’s spinners, but West Indies omitted Samuel Badree’s legspin (he will surely return against New Zealand) and, as Mahele Jaywardene batted much as he pleased, overlooked the spin options of Gayle and Marlon Samuels.As for the mystery spinner Sunil Narine, the only mystery at the moment is why there no longer seems to be much mystery. So far there has been more mystery in a bad episode of Agatha Christie. His success against New Zealand only two months ago will give him hope of better denouement on Monday.Jayawardene insisted, though, that as well as he and Kumar Sangakkara played Narine, he could not be discounted. “The bigger picture is we were just chasing 130 and we had a good start, so we didn’t have to take unnecessary risks against Sunil,” he said. “We just milked runs off him; he had a very defensive field. According to the situation we just handled him.”I have played him three or four times in the IPL but he is still a fantastic bowler. It is one thing to pick him; it is another thing to play him as well. Kumar played him for the first time and batted really well against him. When we bat against guys like Murali and Mendis in the nets we learn to watch the ball properly or those guys will have a web around us.”Either West Indies did not bowl much spin against Sri Lanka because presumably because they felt that, even if they picked Badree, they did not have the quality to trouble them or they simply misread the pitch. “I don’t think we have a pitch consultant,” Sammy said when asked how the decision had been reached. To hide behind the enduring image of West Indies cricket as under-resourced and, as a result, slightly ramshackle, was a jovial response but it was hardly a vision for the future.”I said the Sri Lankans would be a challenge in these conditions and they proved to be,” Sammy said. “The pitch definitely suited them but we are playing international cricket and in Sri Lanka we expect the wickets to turn. It is nothing new to us. But I don’t think we adapted quickly enough when we batted. Even though they had a lot of dot balls, normally they get the partnerships.”Against New Zealand, Sammy hopes for a substantial turnaround with bat and ball. “It will be good to have a big total on the board – 190 plus – so it gives our bowlers a little bit of leeway.” As the tournament progresses, the pitches tire and the scores potentially fall, that would certainly be some leeway, even with Gayle and co. at their most destructive. In fact, as the Sri Lanka hills were bathed in half-light, Poya day slipped away, and the dogs began to howl, 190-plus felt a little like moonshine.

Vernon Philander is least bothered when people still question how he manages to pick up wickets. In Australian conditions, he is likely to be deadlier and silence a few more critics

Firdose Moonda in Sydney02-Nov-2012November 9, 2011. Vernon Philander made his debut against Australia at Newlands. He was given the new ball and took eight wickets, including 5 for 15 in the second innings as Australia were bowled out for 47.November 9, 2012. Philander will play Australia again at Brisbane. In 12 months, he has taken 63 wickets in 10 Tests and averages 15.96.Despite his remarkable numbers, in the last year, Philander has been regarded with suspicion from Hamilton to Headingley. In New Zealand, they were too afraid of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel to give much thought to him and in England, they called him nothing more than a county trundler. Both countries changed their minds when he took 21 and 12 wickets respectively in their backyards.”Stats don’t lie,” was his comeback. In Australia, he does not need to pull out that line. Here, he is respected, even feared. The Australia batsmen have been victims of him once before and know what he is capable of. His response to that? Nothing.Philander has learnt to treat criticism and compliments with the same indifference because both can be quite fickle. “I don’t really care how people receive me,” he said. “For me, it’s just to go out there and do my thing. As long as we take 20 wickets per Test, I’m happy. I just try and play my role in taking those 20 wickets As long as I am doing that, I don’t give a hell what people have to say about me.”Most cannot understand how and why he takes so many wickets. The destructiveness of a Steyn or Morkel is more obvious – swing and bounce – but with Philander it’s far more subtle. There is little flashy about being able to move the ball just enough both ways, certainly nothing as emphatic as stumps splattering or batsmen being hit.But that’s what Philander can do: exploit anything in the surface and expose weakness in the opposition. If they can’t figure out how he does that, that’s too bad as far as he is concerned. “The longer people keep on harping as to why I take wickets, the better for me. It’s going to take them some time to work me out. If people can’t work me out, all the better for me,” he said.Batsmen may not know what Philander is all about, but he makes sure to find out everything he can about them. Philander’s preparation involves careful strategic planning rather than endless overs in the nets.He said he bowls between six and eight overs per practice session and then spends time fine-tuning his approach. “When you bowl the first ball in a Test match, you to be ready for it and make sure you’ve got simple tactics for different batters,” he said. In Australia, he suspects he will have to make adjustments to his length, “probably to bowl a bit fuller,” and has been working on that.But there is also an overarching reason that Philander has had so much success. Steyn calls it his “super consistency,” and Philander agrees that discipline has brought him enormous rewards. “It’s just the control factor. If you land the ball five out of six times in the same area the batters have to make a mistake somewhere along the line. I just keep it really simple and wait for the batters to make errors.”On the seamer-friendly pitches that are expected in Australia, Philander hopes to have even more opportunities to show off that mastery. “Upfront, I like to see guys playing at me with the new ball. It gives us more chances to strike,” he said. “It’s definitely a plus if you can move it just enough and it catches the edge all the time.” In England, he found the edge on many occasions and the ball repeatedly fell short of the slips. That is unlikely to be the case in Australia, where the pitches should have sufficient carry to make Philander a dangerous prospect.To imagine that Philander could be more devastating than he has already been is difficult but in conditions that may assist him better than any other, it remains possible. Already he has had unprecedented achievement, something he credits with being allowed to do what he does best from the beginning.When Philander was picked as an opening bowler and Morkel relegated to first change, there was much shaking of heads. Some were of the opinion that Morkel and Steyn remained the best two bowlers in the attack and should share the new ball. Philander defied them but would not have been able to do that had he not been entrusted with the role he was best accustomed to.”In domestic cricket I’d taken the new ball and if you’re going to give a guy a chance you want to give him a chance doing what he’s good at,” he said. “For me, that’s with the new nut and that’s exactly what Gary has done, he’s given me the new nut and the freedom to perform.”In that space, Philander has already had many important feats and he said his accomplishments occasionally overwhelm him. “Sometimes it does get to you, but I’m the type of guy who goes back and finds time just to reflect on what I’ve done. I don’t let the hype get to me.”And when he does, there’s always someone like Gary Kirsten “to bring me back to earth,” Philander joked. Kirsten was doing throw-downs on Monday and struck Philander on the shoulder, so hard that he could not bowl on Tuesday and had a swelling. He laughed off the coaches’ faux pas as a way of keeping him grounded.

ESPNcricinfo selects the BPL’s best eleven, keeping in mind the tournament’s stipulation of having only five overseas players in a team

Mohammad Isam20-Feb-2013Shamsur Rahman
Before this BPL, Shamsur was one of those run-of-the-mill Bangladeshi batsmen who hadn’t done any justice to his talent. After it ended, he was the third highest run-scorer, going some way to fulfill his potential. It also won him a place in the 25-member preliminary Bangladesh side for the Sri Lanka tour. Shamsur hit six fifties in the tournament, the most by any batsman in a single BPL. Out of those six fifties, three led to wins for the Rangpur Riders. His best innings was an unbeaten 98 against Sylhet Royals, though he could have easily got to his century had he upped his scoring rate, as he made just eight run in the final five overs.Brad Hodge
It is hard to keep Hodge out of these elevens, because the 400-odd runs he scored in this edition is quite a regular performance from the Australian batsman. He is the tournament’s highest scorer with 756 runs in two seasons, and led the Barisal Burners quite well once again. They were within one win short of another last-four finish but couldn’t get through. Hodge’s best knock came in a losing cause. Against the Riders in Khulna, only two Barisal batsmen made it to double figures, yet Hodge and Sabbir Rahman went after the Riders’ competitive total of 174 runs, falling seven runs short with Hodge finishing 58 off 38 balls.Brendan Taylor
Before Taylor was thrust into the Chittagong Kings captaincy, the teams’ hopes had begun to dwindle on the field, with their only success being Brian Lara’s appearance in the dugout. After losing their first home game, Mahmudullah relinquished the captaincy, and Taylor was asked to lead. For the next seven games, he turned around the team’s fortune by not just scoring runs, but also managing the multinational team appropriately. In the knockout stage, Taylor’s presence was heavily missed as the Kings struggled to chase Duronto Rajshahi’s 107 in the elimination final. But the team will certainly take advantage of the winning mentality he instilled during the seven matches he was in charge.Shakib Al Hasan
In a Dhaka Gladiators line-up that is studded with Twenty20 stars, Shakib still stood out even if he had limited opportunities with the bat. He often had to bail out the batting line-up with considered knocks, but this BPL campaign was mostly about his bowling. Shakib tended to bowl the required quiet four-over spell, as the batsmen struggled to get him away. He conceded less than a run a ball in four games. On each of those occasions, the Gladiators walked out winners. His rapid 41 in the final was vital, along with the 38 he made in the race to the final game against the Royals. These performances were enough for the organisers to judge him as the Man-of-the-Tournament.Mushfiqur Rahim, captain and wicketkeeper
He was consistent with the bat throughout, scoring important runs and not minding where he batted, as he finished as the season’s highest run-scorer. In the latter part of the competition, Mushfiqur had to anchor the innings right till the end as Paul Stirling, Hamilton Masakadza and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were inconsistent. He was also good enough to be among the late-order hitters, striking the ball almost as long as he did hard. There can always be a debate whether Taylor was the better captain in the tournament, but to carry an underdog like Sylhet Royals all the way to the second semifinal took some doing. Mushfiqur praised coach Mohammad Salahuddin for a balanced dressing-room, but it was still he who led where and when it mattered.Ryan ten Doeschate
The Kings needed one batsman to take charge, and after Brendon Taylor left that responsibility was taken by Ryan ten Doeschate. Ten Doeschate finished as the second highest run-scorer of the tournament. The form of Ravi Bopara had initially led to ten Doeschate being benched, which seems almost improbable when you consider how successful he was for the team. Ten Doeschate held firm, and in the crucial moments, his stylish shots came out readily when required. Even when wickets were falling at the other end, and he was struggling with his timing, ten Doeschate had an answer: case in point, the second semifinal against the Sylhet Royals, when he struck a vital 44 off 28 balls to steer the Kings home, and into the BPL final.Azhar Mahmood
He tweeted his regret at missing out on the Man-of-the-Tournament award just after Shakib walked away with the car, but it had indeed been a stellar tournament for Mahmood. Much of what Barisal Burners did this year revolved around him, their captain Hodge and youngster Sabbir Rahman. Mahmood’s runs came at a fair clip, though the average was low by his standards. His wickets however, were more important as the Burners had neither the firepower nor the guile to defend small totals. He provided accuracy and skill to take wickets and kept his faltering side afloat through the tournament.Alfonso Thomas went past 200 Twenty20 wickets in this tournament•Getty ImagesAlfonso Thomas
Thomas could have finished the BPL with a hat-trick if it wasn’t for Enamul Haque jnr’s drive to sweeper cover for a couple of runs. It was the only time Thomas was thwarted in the final, where he took a three-wicket haul. He hardly gave many runs away in this tournament, yet none of his performances were particularly magnificent. He did just enough, especially at the death where he was tough to get away. Thomas also became the second bowler in Twenty20 history to take more than 200 wickets.Sohag Gazi
Gazi could have classified himself as a new-ball bowler; such was the number of times he opened for the Sylhet Royals against the oppositions’ biggest hitters. And he was successful. Most of his 17 wickets came in the first spell, with Mushfiqur Rahim using him wisely up front, and then right at the end, where he sometimes struggled to keep shape. Gazi improved tremendously as an offspinner, and was vital to the Royals’ impressive run in the tournament.Mosharraf Hossain
His 3 for 26 in the final changed the course of the game completely. Chittagong Kings were in visible comfort during their chase when he removed ten Doeschate to an attempted cut shot. But that was not all; he kept it tight thereafter, making things easier for the other spinners. This has been a fruitful tournament for Mosharraf, a left-arm spinner who has been around for a long time in domestic cricket. He was picked regularly by the Dhaka Gladiators, and performed well throughout. He finished with 17 wickets, but could have had a few more, had the Gladiators’ fielders held catches off his bowling.Enamul Haque jnr
Chittagong Kings would have had a difficult BPL campaign had it not been for Enamul Haque jnr’s wickets. He struck regularly, and also began to lead the attack. After Shakib, he is Bangladesh’s best left-arm spinner. He doesn’t enjoy the Twenty20 version too much, but did well in the last BPL (he took 13 wickets) and can now add another 18 wickets in this tournament. He is the leading wicket-taker after two editions, and without his calm overs, the Kings wouldn’t have progressed to the last four, let alone the final.

From Pradeep Ramaratnam, USA

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013From Pradeep Ramaratnam, USAMy grandfather was an amazing man.The shipment of my books, from Mumbai along with the rest of my stuff arrived in New York this morning. All mental and physical faculties were singularly focused on ensuring they were stacked in their rightful positions in my bookshelf. Fat History Books at the bottom, Craig Thompson, Gaiman and Sacco at the top and my beloved cricket books at eye level. I was almost done, when I chanced upon The MCC 1787-1937.My grandpa grew up in a place called Manathattai in Tamil Nadu, India. Growing up, we were conned into thinking it is a village, while all it was was an “Agraharam”, a tenement of nine or ten homes, with fewer people than at my neighbourhood Irish Bar on a Tuesday afternoon. So his first real brush with cricket came in college, when he had a chance to be coached by the legendary AG Ram Singh.My grandfather was a wrist spinner (leg, of course), and was renowned among his peers for his fourth-innings performances on the dusty TN provincial centres. One particularly favorite uncle from Papanasam told me about his 6/19 against Thanjavur Colleges in 1941.Thanjavur was a fancied team, although the captain, from memory, was a curious blend of Vizzy (he had a masseur tend to him between innings), Rajam from Swami and Friends (he had 4 Junior Willard bats) and Sultan Zarawani (he had a car).I would like to believe the Kulithalai town administration declared a holiday the day after my grandfather won them their most important match.I can’t remember if my grandfather gave me any toys or comic books. I do remember, though, on my ninth birthday, there was a cricket kit and a copy of Bradman’s How to Play cricket waiting for me. On my tenth birthday, my granddad pulled out an innocuous bunch of bound Sport and Pastime magazines from the 40s. I saw pictures of the Bedser Brothers and Vijay Merchant, I saw pictures of Vizzy, who seemed exactly what I thought he would be like (an overgrown Billy Bunter), and read a most magnificent anthology of Jack Hobbs by, of all people, Dattu Phadkar. I came 51st out of 55 students in my fourth standard finals.But I was going to be a leg spinner, just like my grandpa.As years grew by, my granddad fed my fascination with cricket with books I have never seen since – Cricket Delightful by Mushtaq Ali (with a foreword by Keith Miller. Respect), Indian Cricket’s almanacks of the late 40s, and a most magnificent Esso Scrapbook when the MCC team visited in 1961. And so on. I fell asleep on his bed many times , listening to why CF Walters trumped Frank Woolley in the elegance stakes and how MA Sathasivam from Ceylon made the greatest double hundred he ever saw, in the MJ Gopalan trophy between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. I never saw Walters, or Sathasivam, or Ramchand or Vasant Ranjane. But I have an unpixellated, graphic picture in my head of what their backlift must have looked like, what their run-ups must have looked like, and I am fairly sure I’m close to the real thing.My grandfather was a man of incredible virtue. He said in his time, a batsman was given not out if even the wrist of the fielder catching the ball touched the ground.He would have cringed at Ponting in the Sydney Test of ’08. He extended his values to other facets of life. Businessmen of high repute and who possessed many safari suits were summarily discharged from my house if they tried to bribe the good chartered accountant.My grandfather never even “thumbed”, while playing carrom, a form of cheating so accepted, it is incorporated in the rules now.It has been 10 years since he left us. But I have hung on to his memory, like Eknath Solkar to an inside edge. His memory, and his incredible impact on me growing up lives through these faded, yellowing books. And it is for this reason, that I will never be sick of cricket.As I said, my grandfather was an amazing man.

How has South Africa’s captain lasted so long with a technique that shouldn’t work in Test cricket?

Aakash Chopra28-Feb-2013When at 22, Graeme Smith was charged with leading South African cricket following the Cronje storm and Shaun Pollock’s matter-of-fact captaincy, not many envisaged this unorthodox, upfront, untested player would bring back to their cricket its lost loyalty and pilot the team in a whopping 100 Tests.That is an epic stat, and Smith is the first in the history of the game to acquire it. So much so that his batting successes, which have been tremendous, look a bit pale in comparison.Going only by his style of batting – a strong bottom hand, stiff foot movements, and an unhealthy affinity for the on side – no one would have handed him a lot of Tests. But Smith has, first with his bat and then with his astute mind, rewritten the rules of consistency.It’s an extraordinary feat to not only survive but also thrive in Test cricket without having changed a technique that is considered un-Test like. In fact, Smith’s skill has made quality bowlers look completely clueless at times, for their good balls to other batsmen are run-scoring opportunities to Smith.Is it his captaincy that builds the batsman in him, or is it the player in him that leads by example? That’s a tough one to answer. From a technical vantage point, though, this is how he does it.Angles
Few have mastered the art of decoding the angles bowlers bowl better than Smith. He has a reasonable back-and-across movement to all fast bowlers, which allows him to get inside the line of the ball. Since he covers all three stumps even before the ball is bowled, most bowlers get lured into attempting to hit his pads, because he will be trapped in front if he misses. But Smith seldom misses balls pitched within the stumps.To complement their lines of operation within the stumps, bowlers crowd the on-side field, but even that doesn’t work on Smith, because he has the ability to create unbelievable angles with his bat. While most batsmen turn their wrist at the point of impact, Smith brings the bat down with the blade facing the on side. At times the leading edge of his bat is facing the bowler even before the point of impact. Conventional field placements simply don’t work with Smith, for his method isn’t conventional. Even the most astute bowlers have been sucked into this trap and have bowled to his strengths – on the legs.He also knows how to deal with changes in angles when bowlers switch sides. Whenever a right-hand bowler goes around the stumps, Smith goes further across and works even the balls pitched outside off through leg. By doing this, he makes sure that if he’s hit on the pads, it’s always outside the off stump.

Whenever a right-hand bowler goes around the stumps, Smith goes further across and works even the balls pitched outside off through leg. By doing this, he makes sure that if he’s hit on the pads, it’s always outside the off stump

Self-control
For an opener who doesn’t cover-drive, it’s an achievement to last over 100 Test matches, especially when you play most of your cricket on seamer-friendly pitches. The most common mode of operation for new-ball bowlers is to bowl in the corridor outside the off stump to induce edges off the front foot. But since the cover drive isn’t Smith’s most preferred shot (because his dominating bottom hand and limited front-foot movement make him susceptible to nicking), he exercises immense self-control to avoid playing it. But while he rarely attempts to cover-drive balls that aren’t full, he’s always quick to latch on to anything that’s short and wide. He’s a ferocious cutter of the ball, and that, somewhat makes up for his lack of fluency on the front foot through the off side.Where to bowl to him?
It’s imperative that the bowler guards against the lure of trying to hit Smith’s pads. Instead, focus on the channel outside off, with the length on the fuller side. If you err in line, you must err towards off and if you err in length, it must be fuller. While Smith is at his best against right-arm bowlers operating from over or around the stumps, he finds it difficult when a left-armer bowls to him from over the stumps, because that bowler has the option of coming close to the stumps and bowling straight on the off-stump line, which doesn’t give Smith the angles he likes to work with. That’s why Zaheer Khan has enjoyed an upper hand in their duels.No matter how close a right-arm fast bowler gets to the stumps while bowling over the wicket, it’s nearly impossible to bowl a straight ball that pitches on off and finishes on off, because the straight ball tends to go through to the slips. Similarly, it’s impossible to come close enough to the stumps while bowling around the stumps; and bowling from the edge of the crease creates an angle that Smith is happy to work with.It’s relatively easier to contain Smith if you have a good left-arm fast bowler in your team, but if you don’t enjoy that luxury, it’s prudent to devise an off-side strategy and stick to it for as long as possible. If you can’t get Smith out, try not to fall into his leg-side trap.Playing 100 Tests is a huge milestone. Smith has not only played but captained in as many. He’ll be remembered for both, and that is rare.

If you are a fan of Indian cricket, the Sunday game in Delhi would have made you very happy

Prithvijit Roy22-Apr-2013Choice of game
It was my dream to watch a good Virender Sehwag innings live and write an account of the day. I have watched matches in stadiums since 2005, my under-grad days, and it’s an addictive exercise. This was the first time I got to watch Sehwag in the flesh.Getting to the stadium
Since it was a marquee game, the stadium was packed. With all the security checks and general crowd mismanagement by the authorities, we missed the first three balls. I was heartbroken, because I had wanted to watch Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting walk in together. However, I was relieved to see that it was Dwayne Smith and not Ponting who had accompanied Tendulkar.Fan love
All the spectators watched Tendulkar’s entry with bated breath, regardless of the team they supported. Everyone must have cheered his defensive prod as much they did as his trademark straight drives or his vicious pulls to the boundary line. Shahbaz Nadeem became the darling of the crowd because he dropped a catch off on 37. It was only when Tendulkar was dismissed that you could make out the difference in allegiances.As the evening wore on and a cool breeze blew into the stadium, Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard made mincemeat of Delhi’s hapless attack.Key perfomer
I had already got my money’s worth from seeing Tendulkar bat. But I soon realised that was only the appetiser, because the main course was to be served by the artist and the butcher – Mahela Jayawardene and Virender Sehwag. From a spectator’s point of view, both styles were equally appealing. While you could hear a loud thwack when Sehwag struck the ball, it was only when you saw the ball race towards the boundary that you realised Jayawardene had made contact.My friends know I am an ardent Sehwag fan and he was indeed the showstopper yesterday, but in the years to come, perhaps, I will recall the razor-like precision with which Jayawardene manipulated the field. Who could believe this team was at the bottom of the table? I can proudly say I was a part of an evening crowd that watched one of the best batting displays. There were no slogs, no dilscoops or ugly hoicks. Just proper cricketing shots that struck a chord with the audience.One thing I’d have changed about the match
I’d have preferred to see Ponting bat rather than sit in his pads in the dugout.The comic relief
In between all the Sehwag-Jayawardene mania, Harbhajan Singh entertained us when he got hold of a kite that had floated down to the ground.Crowd meter
I usually try to get tickets for the East Stand, which has a better view, but this time I only managed to get seats in the West Stand. It was fascinating to watch all those mobile phone flashing across the stand to capture Tendulkar at the boundary line, the closest many fans would get to him. The good thing about players like Tendulkar and Harbhajan is that they acknowledge their supporters wherever they play, making it a point to wave to the crowd.Unfortunately my phone had got switched off, so I could not analyse the match with my friends who were watching TV, nor could I add a photo of Tendulkar on the boundary to Facebook to make them envious.Overall
As the match was drawing to a close, with Daredevils needing seven to win (and Sehwag on 91) David Warner became the villain of the day as he clipped a boundary and prevented Sehwag from getting a hundred before the match finished.Knowing that it would take us a long time to get out of the stadium, we hurried down from the third floor to the first so that it would be easy to make our exit. Seeing the floodlit stadium from the bottom up made me think how beautiful some of the innovations of this game are, like coloured clothing and day-night cricket. It has given the sport a wider appeal.

Matured and focused, Marlon Samuels recognises his responsibility and can now play the anchor role in his cricket and his life

Nagraj Gollapudi09-Jun-2013Marlon Samuels is still waiting for his copy of the . One of the five Cricketers of the Year, Samuels was chosen for the honour after his commanding performance during the three-Test series last May in England, where he was the top run scorer in the Wisden Trophy with one century and three fifties.It was the one of the first times Samuels had handled the responsibility of being a senior batsman. It carried much meaning for him personally because finally he made the headlines for cricketing reasons, his two-year ICC ban forgotten. Even though West Indies lost the series 2-0, Samuels dominated the formidable England bowling attack with a combination of calmness and anger.Twelve months down the line Samuels is back in England, his reputation enhanced after his heroics in the final of the World Twenty20 formed the backbone for West Indies’ first world title in nearly two decades.Yet Samuels curiously remains unconvincing in ODIs. Somehow, despite being one of the few Caribbean batsmen to possess the right combination of flair, patience and bravado, he seems to have betrayed his talent.On the handful of occasions he has succeeded, it has coincided with West Indies victories: Samuels averages 49.54 in matches West Indies have won, with all his four centuries coming in team victories. In 2012 he scored 482 runs at 32.12 from 16 ODI innings, including two centuries; his overall career average is 30.84. But in the Champions Trophy, Samuels has failed – he has scored only 71 runs from eight innings. His performance in England in ODIs is also mediocre – an aggregate of 159 runs from six innings.In West Indies’ thrilling low-scoring victory against Pakistan, Samuels made his presence felt with a valuable third-wicket partnership with Chris Gayle, scoring 30. As crucial as his innings was, Samuels failed to bolt the door shut on Pakistan and exposed the middle and lower order to some anxious moments. In terms of matches, Samuels (143 ODIs) is the third-most experienced player in the team, behind Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan, but has mostly failed to perform the role of the senior statesman.Be that as it may, after his comeback from the ban, Samuels has said he now enters every ground purposefully. He even said he channels his anger at being denied international cricket for two years in a positive fashion.”I am determined to score a bit quicker, rotate the strike as much as possible,” Samuels said. “In Test cricket you spend a lot of time out there and wait for the bad balls. It is not so much of a difference batting between both formats.” According to him, conditions in England have posed the biggest hurdle. “The ball moves around. The hardest part is to get a start in England. Once you get a start, things get easy.”

As he sat by the picket fence at The Oval it was the same still nature you observed in Samuels. He can exude confidence and provide reassurance even in the deepest misery

Samuels agrees that he is well suited to perform the role of anchor better than anyone else in the team, considering he has done the same in the past. “I’m batting at four, so I’ve been carrying a lot of load for the team,” he said. “I’ll definitely continue to play that role and take a lot of responsibility. I have to bat through the innings. Depending on the situation I have to speed it up or slow it down. A lot of it is a thinking process. At the moment mine is the anchor role, so I have to bat through, but I can make up for it at the end because there are still a lot of shots that I can play at the end.”It is not just experience he is relying on. Technically he has been trying to work hard on encountering the seaming conditions prevalent in England. Like he had done before the England tour last year, Samuels revealed that he had worked extensively, playing against the taped ball.”It is a rubber ball with tape on one side,” he said. “It swings a lot. I practise with it a lot especially before I come to England. It works well for me.”You can’t just come here and bat. Last year was a big moment for me where I had to come here and score some runs. I make plans and work towards it.”Observed from a distance Samuels can come across as isolated from the pack. At The Oval, on a cold Sunday morning, Samuels sat by the picket fence below the dressing room for about half an hour, padded up, gloves in hand, exchanging banter with a team official. His non-branded bat rested like an oar by his side, even as other batsmen, including Gayle, enjoyed blasting the ball out of the ground in the distance. As Darren Bravo, taking throwdowns from Ravi Rampaul nearby, hit the ball towards him, Samuels remained unmoved, forcing Rampaul to retrieve the ball himself.It is the same stillness you see in Samuels’ stance. He can exude confidence and provide reassurance even in the deepest misery. Take the World Twenty20 final, when West Indies were 32 for 2 after ten overs. Samuels single-handedly swung the momentum with a ferocious half-century as West Indies picked 105 runs off the final ten overs. It was an assault that silenced Sri Lanka.Samuels has reiterated at every opportunity that the biggest lesson he learned from the ban was to be more responsible. And that will always stand him in good stead. “To be honest, for the last two years, being out and coming back and playing have created a lot of responsibility around me outside of cricket,” he said. “So going out there and playing the role that I’m playing right now, I find it much easier because off the field I have greater responsibility.”That includes looking after his kids and taking care of his numerous dogs. “They can’t feed themselves. I’m taking care of my entire family. I can’t afford to fail because I’m the breadwinner. For me to come out here and play the anchor role for the team, the entire Caribbean – I really enjoy it.”

South Africa’s reputation of being arguably the most professional and respectable team has taken a hit by the ball-tampering episode

Firdose Moonda in Dubai26-Oct-2013Once the anger has subsided, there may be some time to appreciate the irony. Pakistan, the last and only other team to have penalty runs awarded against them for ball-tampering in a Test match, were on the receiving end of another side’s wrongdoing.Despite AB de Villiers’ insistence that South Africa “play in a fair manner”, Faf du Plessis pleaded guilty to the Level 2 offense of changing the condition of the ball. His misdemeanour is in cricket circles what not wearing your seatbelt is in real life – it’s the wrong thing to do but it’s so widely done that it only really matters if you get caught.All teams look after the ball in ways they think will advantage them. That is allowed. What they are not allowed to do is change the ball so much that it disadvantages the other team disproportionately. That sounds confusing because it is and with so much grey area, there have been some arguments over the years to legalise “preparing” the ball.That is the term Allan Donald, the current South Africa bowling coach, used to describe what bowlers need to do to ensure they are not shut out of a game that has increasingly grown to advantage batsmen. Four years ago, Donald said bowlers need a defence mechanism to “fall back on” so that they are able to generate reverse swing on flatter pitches. While he said he knew the ICC would “shoot me for saying it”, Donald advocated getting the ball “in the dirt” to accelerate the scuffing up of one side while protecting the other.Televisions pictures showed du Plessis was doing exactly that. He was rubbing the dry side of the ball on his trousers, in “vicinity of the zipper on his trouser pocket” as the ICC’s release put it. Du Plessis’ actions were brazen, they were easily found out by the cameras, immediately picked up by the television umpire, conveyed to his on-field colleagues and quickly acted on. The changes made to the playing conditions at the beginning of this month allowed Ian Gould and Rod Tucker to deal with the issue as soon as it happened.Perhaps South Africa were not aware that could happen. De Villiers revealed he did “not know all the facts of the matter” when runs were added to Pakistan’s total and the ball was changed. He was certain South Africa had not done the wrong thing, even though the ICC immediately called it a case of ball-tampering. That was how the questions began.Why would a team 351 runs ahead, who had their opposition three down with more than two days left in the match on a surface that was deteriorating, feel they needed to do something extra? Yes, the Dubai surface has not got a drop of moisture the seamers can take advantage of, neither has it cracked open. But South Africa should not have been in that much of a hurry.All teams look after the ball in ways they think will advantage them. What they are not allowed to do is change the ball so much that it disadvantages the other team disproportionately•Getty ImagesWhat they may have experienced was extreme frustration, particularly since they had dismantled their opposition for 99 in the same match and have become accustomed to ending Tests swiftly. De Villiers jokingly said South Africa would have liked to finish the match “in two days if we can”. Even though that may be a reflection of what they really expected to happen, it reveals something about their impatience.Given the match situation and the nonchalance with which du Plessis conducted his mischief, could also be a sign this is something that they have become accustomed to doing. And that thought could be the most damaging thing to happen to South Africa in the aftermath of this incident.It means their previous performances will be scrutinised and their many fine achievements in the recent past examined with this incident in mind. Take, for example, just this match and you will find people wondering how it was possible that Dale Steyn managed to find reverse swing from the 20th over of the Pakistan first innings while Pakistan’s bowlers barely found any for the 163.1 overs they were in the field.Having become the world’s No.1 team on the back of a reputation for being a group of cricketers who conduct themselves arguably in the most professional and respectable way, to have a blight of this nature on their reputation will hurt South Africa. They are seen as a team who do the right thing, now one of them is seen as a culprit who got away.Du Plessis was fined 50% of his match fee after David Boon was “satisfied that this was not part of a deliberate and/or prolonged attempt to unfairly manipulate the condition of the ball”. Boon called the sanction “appropriate”. More severe sanctions attract a higher percentage of money being docked – up to 100% – and a match ban of one Test, two ODIs and two Twenty20s, but none of those were meted out to du Plessis despite the visual evidence suggesting he was aware of what he was doing.On the same day as Saeed Ajmal was officially reprimanded for excessive celebrations – something few people even noticed – it seemed as though the variance in the punishments for offenses was too great. When considered in the context of previous players who have been suspended for the same, such as Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi who had to sit out two matches each, du Plessis can be considered to have got off lightly.There may be other consequences and South Africa’s clothing manufacturer may be among the parties involved. The zipped pockets could come under scrutiny and the mechanism may be removed. There may be a debate sparked about the various methods used to shine the ball and possibly another wave of lobbying for ball-tampering to be less regulated.For now, it remains a breach of the code of the conduct and if players are found doing it, they will probably be punished in some way. That is what happened to this South African team. Their defenders will say they just did what everyone else is doing and were not smart enough to hide it. Their critics will call them cheats. Like the other c-word they are called, it’s not a label they will wear with pride.