All posts by n8rngtd.top

The blog was the sensation of the second season of the IPL. The book seems an unwieldy, long-winded cash-in

Jayaditya Gupta03-Apr-2010The problem with covering the IPL, as any journalist or blogger will tell you, is that events change so fast as to render the morning’s news redundant by lunchtime. And so , the (barely) fictionalised account of the 2009 IPL season, is hamstrung by the fact that, on publication, it has already been overtaken by events. Calcutta Cavalry is so 2009; this year it’s all about the Haryana Hurricanes, though the cast reads eerily similar: a franchise fronted by a Twittering Bollywood A-lister, coached by an Australian and featuring a temperamental left-handed Indian batsman ousted from the captaincy in favour of a foreigner wicketkeeper-batsman.That’s just one of the reasons why the FakeIPLPlayer (FIP) should have stuck to the blog. Another reason is the format – think Twenty-20 stretched into a Test match: short, sharp bursts welded into an unwieldy and long-winded narrative. The 2009 blog was an instant and smash success, with its wickedly sharp, eerily prescient take on life inside a franchise with the wheels blown off. Even as the questions grew – Who “FakeIPLPlayer”? Was any of it true? How did he/she/they come so close to reality? – the answers became irrelevant. The blog at once offered an instant connect with the tournament, being staged thousands of miles away, and the wit punctured a lot of the bombast that had grown around it (that season we didn’t have Navjot Sidhu in the studio). It helped in the suspension of reality, and after a point it didn’t really matter what was fact and what fiction. takes those blog posts and constructs a story around them – the story of FIP, the havoc his blogs cause to the paranoid franchise owner and his aides, the mistrust they sow within the Calcutta Cavalry, and the undercover search to find him. There are several parallel strands, chiefly the exploits of the Bangalore Bangers and their megalomaniac billionaire industrialist owner, who sacks their iconic, upright Indian captain, replaces him with an upstart Englishman, and reinstalls him when the season goes pear-shaped. There are the aforementioned Hurricanes, whose captain is having an affair with the Bollywood A-lister. And at every turn, pulling all the strings, is Lalu Parekh, the head of the Indian Bollywood League, who believes in “inclusive capitalism”.Then there’s the everyday working of a high-profile billion-dollar league: tantrums, contract issues, libellous newspaper articles and subsequent apologies, failed dope tests and how to get around them (I’d never heard of powdered urine before this!) and of course all the off-field nocturnal activity. Add to this the complex name changes – it’s a story within a story, remember, so each of the principals has at least two names, and a third if you connect him to real life – and you’re a little confused by the time you get to the humour.At the end of 401 pages, it’s tough to figure out whom this book is aimed at. The casual cricket fan will miss out on the in-jokes and, unable to connect many of the references to incidents real or imaginary, be left bemused by the minutiae of international cricket politics. The more informed fan will simply be too closely absorbed in IPL 2010 and wonder why FakeIPLPlayer hasn’t resumed his blog.The writer hasn’t yet disclosed his/her/their identity, it is still unclear whether this is fact, pure fiction or something in between. The sad fact, though, is that truth is often stranger than fiction. You get far more reading , the compilation of Cricket Australia’s uncensored, declassified documents, or , David Davies’ account of life at the helm of English football in the turbulent noughties. And far more laughs on Twitter feeds.The blog was a ripping yarn; the book turns it into a gaping yawn.The Gamechangers
by the Fake IPL Player
HarperCollins India, 401pp, Rs 199

Murali’s ability to take on the largest workloads and produce results, and his desire to constantly improve himself were fundamental to the sort of bowler he was

Mahela Jayawardene17-Jul-2010When I first came into the national side, Muttiah Muralitharan was the player I was closest to, because he was the youngest of the lot, along with Chaminda Vaas.My first memory of Murali is of this man who made it comfortable for new players. Even today, when new players come into the team he is the first one to take them out for meals when on tour, and makes sure that they settle quickly. Murali has many qualities, but this is what I admire the most. He has been consistent with it throughout his career.Murali will speak to anybody, even in the opposition. Ask any cricketer around the world, and they will say Murali is a very friendly cricketer. When you are playing a big game against some team, you just say hello to the opposition players, but not Murali. He makes sure he has a decent chat with them.Only when it comes to bowling does he get serious. Before he goes onto the field to bowl, he is a bit quiet. That’s about the only time he’s not talking. When he is batting, when he is relaxed, he can’t stop talking. A lot of guys try and stay away from him when travelling because if you get Murali sitting next to you, you won’t be able to sleep. He is one of the guys you have to have in the dressing room to keep the buzz going, to keep it lively. He sometimes talks nonsense, but he is one of the players you need to have. We will definitely miss the lively character who always had everyone smiling, laughing.It has not always been easy for him to keep smiling. I remember he had been called in Australia for the second time, hours before I played my first major innings in international cricket. He was really disappointed, but he came back well – he was the one who scored the winning runs. After the game he was happy, but I know for a fact that underneath he was disappointed that he had been called again. But that’s Murali: he will be down for a little while but not for long. He has tremendous will power to overcome that kind of situation.Murali put out of his mind things he couldn’t control and just went about doing his job. He never said he wouldn’t get another test done on his action. Everywhere the ICC wanted him to go and test himself, he went and tested himself. He proved that he had a slight disability, and subsequently a unique action. It has nothing to do with him cheating. He was born like that and he became a bowler like that.Murali didn’t have anything to hide, he knew he wasn’t doing anything wrong. That’s why he wasn’t angry with anybody, that’s why he hasn’t been bitter, that’s why he has always enjoyed his cricket.

A lot of guys try and stay away from him when travelling because if you get Murali sitting next to you, you won’t be able to sleep

It is the desire to win that has kept him going through the toughest of times. He loves to win matches, he loves to perform well. He doesn’t want to take five or 10 wickets and lose a match. He wants to win that match and every match. He is a winner.For a captain, Murali has been an absolute dream. We are fortunate to have had him with us for so many years. He has been our main bowler; he has taken that pressure on himself and won matches for us single-handedly. He has never complained; he would bowl his heart out for an astonishing number of overs – 35-40 or more – in a Test match innings, and just keep going. And it wasn’t just about the workload he shouldered. You knew you just had to throw the ball to Murali and he was going to create something for you: he had that ability to always pick up the wickets.For a coach, he was an absolute nightmare. He is one of the hardest workers I have seen, not only in the nets but in terms of extra bowling sessions. He calls coaches up at odd hours and wants them to come out and help with bowling. When he is with the coaches, he bowls a lot, but when he is not with them, he can be a real handful.He worked hard on his doosra with Bruce Yardley when Bruce was our coach. Murali found out that because he had to use the wrist rather than the finger, he didn’t have as much control as he would have liked. He couldn’t use it in a match for at least six months. Over a period of time he even managed to get it to go the other way as well, which is phenomenal.Murali will be remembered as a cricketer who came from off the beaten track, did something really special with a lot of humility and hard work, went through a lot of turbulent situations and emerged stronger. He just didn’t get rattled, didn’t do anything crazy, and he had the discipline to get through. He will be an inspiration for future players who are out of the ordinary – born with a similar deformity or whatever you call it.

Andrew Strauss’s decision to spread the field with Australia at 8 for 189 may have taken the pressure off the hosts’ tail, but his rapid half-century seized back the initiative for England

Andrew Miller at the SCG04-Jan-2011By the end of the second day at Sydney, Andrew Strauss had set up England’s innings with a brilliant assault on the new ball, but for a brief and uncharacteristic spell towards the end of Australia’s first innings, he appeared to suffer something of a loss of nerve. It was almost as if he believed the rumours of a correlation between Mitchell Johnson’s batting form and the occasional explosiveness of his bowling, because with Australia reeling at 8 for 189 against a ball that was just five overs old, there seemed no other reason to abandon a gameplan that had suited his side so well.Until Johnson was joined at the crease by the unassuming Ben Hilfenhaus, a boa-like run-rate of 2.22 had been asphyxiating the Australians, not least the hapless Mike Hussey, who picked out the cover cordon for four sweetly timed shots in a row before inside-edging Paul Collingwood’s final delivery onto his leg stump. But then in a slightly doo-lally passage of play, England’s fields were scattered and the tail was allowed to break free, adding a further 91 runs at nearly five an over.It is true that Johnson is a cricketer who thrives on confidence. On the three previous occasions he had made significant runs in the first innings of a Test match, he had followed up with searing spells with the ball – his 96 not out against South Africa at Johannesburg became 4 for 25, his 47 against India at Mohali became 5 for 64, and of course his 62 against England at Perth last month became an unplayable 6 for 38.When, however, Strauss decided that six men back on the fence was the best way to prevent Johnson’s inner beast being unleashed, it was a counterproductive spell of captaincy that enabled a substandard first-innings total to grow in stature with every rasping strike. Apart from anything else, the time and runs equation meant that England were unable to get their noses in front before the close, meaning that regardless of their own impressive response with the bat, they’ll still need to push on until tea at the earliest on day three to secure the sort of first-innings advantage that they might otherwise have taken as read.”It is frustrating when that happens but it does happen quite often in Test cricket, the tail wagging,” said James Anderson, who eventually wrapped up the innings for his third four-wicket haul of the series. “Johnson and Hilfenhaus had a licence and free rein to swing the bat, and sometimes it comes off – it did for Hilfenhaus, who had his eyes shut for the majority of his innings.”I wouldn’t call Mitchell Johnson a tailender – he’s a very competent batsman,” added Anderson. “We saw reasonably early on that he was hitting the ball well, so we decided we wanted to bowl at Hilfenhaus and Beer. I think we had every right to [do what we did]. We still had two or three slips to Johnson but just had an in-out field to him – and then attacked the other guy.”But if you’d given us 280 when they chose to bat on that pitch we’d have taken it,” he added. “So we were pretty happy with our couple of days’ work as bowlers. We think it’s a challenging total, that we can get past.”All the same, England memorably failed to overhaul a similar scoreline at Perth last month, when Australia’s first-innings 268 was given a whole new complexion by the ferocity of Johnson’s old-ball assault. But where Strauss may have erred in the field, he made fine amends with the bat, taking personal responsibility for clawing back the lost momentum with a 58-ball 60, before leaving the stage to his sidekick Cook after being undone by the best delivery that Hilfenhaus has bowled all tour.It was a scenario reminiscent of the Boxing Day Test last year at Durban, where Dale Steyn’s whirlwind 47 had given South Africa an improbably formidable total of 343, only for Strauss to respond with a brilliantly counter-punching 49-ball half-century. Then as now, his silent accomplice was Cook, who played the tortoise to his captain’s hair in making just 15 of the first 71 runs of the innings, before going on to record a brilliant anchorman hundred. At 61 not out overnight, and with 638 runs to his name in the series already, Cook has the chance to extend the similarities even further.”It’s been a massive thing for us to be getting off to good starts,” said Anderson. “It just settles the dressing-room down when you know it could be a nervy start with the new ball doing a bit, and when you see those guys leaving the ball really well and putting away the bad ball, it gives everyone a lot of confidence.”The two batsmen were helped on their way by a shapeless spell of new-ball bowling, not least from Johnson, who was entrusted with the cherry for the first time since the same pair had destroyed him at Lord’s in 2009, but responded to the honour with three wayward overs for 13. But the manner in which Strauss in particular climbed onto the offensive was instantly reassuring. “I honestly just think that Straussy is quite a positive batsman, no matter what form of cricket he is playing,” said Anderson. “He puts away bad balls, and that’s exactly what he did today.”Cook by the close was ensconced in his own little world, oblivious to anything but the very next delivery – albeit grateful for Umpire Bowden’s no-ball referral on 46. Shortly after posting his fifth half-century in seven innings, he overhauled Michael Vaughan’s tally of 633 runs in 2002-03 to become England’s highest run-scorer on an Ashes tour since the seven-Test series of 1970-71.”He’s been fantastic. Considering people were questioning his spot during the summer, I think he’s shown exactly what a player he is,” said Anderson. “He’s got huge character, huge talent – and there were no doubts in our dressing room that he was going to perform when he came out here. He relies on the shots that he has got, and his mental toughness to get him through, and he’s shown how talented he is this trip.”

Plays of the Day from the IPL game between Rajasthan Royals and Pune Warriors in Jaipur

Nitin Sundar01-May-2011The reverse-jinx
It wasn’t a good day for practitioners of one of the most popular unconventional shots in the game. Robin Uthappa got more than half his runs against Rajasthan against spin with that shot. Johan Botha got half his runs in IPL 2011 playing that shot. But today, both of them perished attempting the reverse-sweep. Uthappa had already reverse-swept Shane Warne for two fours in seven balls when he went for the shot again, to a ball landing well outside leg stump and bouncing. He top-edged, and the wicketkeeper completed the catch. During the chase, Botha had already reversed his stance to redirect Yuvraj Singh to third man, before trying the same against Rahul Sharma. It was fuller and quicker than he thought, though, and jammed into his boot before the bat could come down, leaving him plumb in front.The lull after the storm
Uthappa v Warne was one of the most exciting mini-battles of the season. In eight balls of thrill-a-second action, it included two reverse-sweeps for fours, one sweep for four, one lofted flick for four, three near lbws, and finally a wicket. With Yuvraj walking out at Uthappa’s dismissal, one expected the excitement to continue. Warne played along, tossing one up full and wide outside off. Yuvraj leaned out with intent, and the anticipation was unmistakeable. Will he drive against the spin? Will he loft him straight? Will he pop a return catch? None of that happened. Yuvraj shouldered arms. Anticlimax.The imitation
From the moment Ashok Menaria first appeared on the scene, he has been compared to Yuvraj. The same build and gait, the same demeanour, the same swagger that suggests extreme confidence, and even the tendency to bowl seemingly innocuous left-arm spin. Today Menaria played a shot straight out of the Yuvraj book of audacity. It was a pacy ball from Jerome Taylor, homing in on the pads from a length. Crouched stance in place, Menaria calmly skipped inside the line, and whip-lashed it with minimal effort for one of the biggest sixes of the match. It wasn’t helping his team’s cause, but the opposition captain would have approved of the execution.The namesakes
Rahul Sharma got only two balls at the most illustrious Rahul to have played for India – Rahul Dravid. He dismissed him with the second, despite dropping it really short. Dravid went for the pull and hit it hard, but straight back at the bowler. Later in the day, the Taylors – Jerome and Ross – went up against each other. This time, Jerome could have dismissed Ross almost immediately. It was a length ball on the stumps, and Ross went for his bread-and-butter slap-slog over the leg side and mis-hit it. Two fielders converged from the deep, but it landed safe.The unintended seamer
Not too many balls moved off the pitch on this slow and low Jaipur wicket, where both teams opened with spinners. Rajasthan’s medium-pacers did not look to get the ball to move much, with Siddharth Trivedi resorting to slow offcutters, and Shane Watson to a bumper barrage. Later in the evening, though, one ball moved away magically off the seam. Alfonso Thomas angled in from slightly wide of the crease, and nipped it sharply away from Watson, who went for the drive and ended up edging it behind. Funnily, though, replays revealed that the movement was accidental. Thomas had released the ball with a crossed seam, and it happened to land on the thread and jag away.

Indian batsmen have better stats than their West Indian counterparts against spin in this tournament so far, which could be key given the nature of the Chennai track

S Rajesh19-Mar-2011West Indies have been struggling to compete against the top teams for a while now, and their record when playing at the home of their opponents is quite poor – since 2000, their overall away record is 35 wins and 53 defeats. However, India is the one country where they’ve competed well, with six wins and as many defeats against India in India since 2000. In fact, India have an overall head-to-head advantage against West Indies since 2000, but that’s mainly because of their win-loss record in neutral venues – 6-2.In World Cup games too there’s been nothing to choose between the two teams: the two teams have shared the six matches equally, and so egalitarian have they been that neither team has won two in a row. West Indies won the first one in 1979, India won two out of three in 1983, while West Indies won in 1992 and lost in 1996. If that trend continues, West Indies can look forward to upsetting the form book on Sunday.

The West Indian batsmen have generally enjoyed the pitches and the conditions in India, though the track in Chennai might not be as favourable to run-scoring as some of the other venues in the country. Chris Gayle averages almost 56 in ODIs in India, with six of his 19 ODI centuries coming in this country. Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan both average more than 40 too, though neither has got going in the World Cup so far: in seven innings between them, the highest either batsman has scored is 49. In fact, batting has been a worry for West Indies in the tournament, with Darren Bravo, Chanderpaul and Sarwan all averaging less than 30.

The Indian batsmen have done reasonably well at home against West Indies since 2000, but the one player who has struggled is Yuvraj Singh: in eight innings he has managed only 209 runs at an average of 26.12.If the last two matches at the MA Chidambaram Stadium are any indication, spinners will have plenty to do on Sunday, and the batting team which handles the spin better could be the winner. On that count, India seem to be better equipped. West Indies have lost 19 out of 39 wickets to spin, and their average and run-rate against spin are much poorer than the corresponding numbers against pace. The Indians have a much higher average against spin, while there’s almost no difference between their run-rates against pace and spin.

The overall pace and spin numbers for Chennai in this World Cup suggest that fast bowlers have done better than spinners, but that’s largely because of the first game at the venue, when Kenya crumbled against New Zealand’s fast bowlers. Excluding that match, there’s little to choose between the stats for the two, with the spinners faring slightly better in terms of average and run-rate.

Stats highlights from Zimbabwe’s outstanding one-wicket win against New Zealand in Bulawayo

S Rajesh25-Oct-2011

• Zimbabwe have become the 13th team to win an ODI after scoring more than 300 in a run-chase. They are, however, one of only ten sides to do so against one of the top eight teams. Their previous best successful run-chase had been 290 against West Indies in 2000.
• This was the 41st time a team scored 300 or more in a run-chase to win the match. India have achieved it 11 times, which is easily the highest. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have done it five times each. In terms of teams being on the receiving end of such a defeat, England top the list with eight such defeats, followed by India with six.
• It’s only the second time that New Zealand have lost after scoring 300 or more batting first. Their previous instance was against India in December 2010 when Yusuf Pathan’s unbeaten 123 off 96 balls helped India overhaul a target of 316 with seven balls remaining.
• It’s also the first time New Zealand have lost an ODI after two of their batsmen have scored hundreds. In all, this has happened on 17 occasions, with India being at the receiving end four times.
• The match aggregate of 657 runs is the highest in an ODI in Zimbabwe, going past the previous record by a handy 32 runs. Among all ODIs, it ranks 21st.
• Despite the high aggregate, there were also four batsmen who got out without scoring a run, which makes this the ODI with the highest aggregate in which four or more batsmen have got ducks.
• Kane Williamson’s poor luck with centuries continued. This was his second ODI hundred, and his second in a losing cause. He’d earlier scored 108 against Bangladesh in 2010-11 during that ill-fated series when New Zealand were drubbed 4-0.
• Meanwhile, Malcolm Waller became the third Zimbabwe batsman, and the 33rd overall, to score 99 in an ODI. Of those 33 knocks, 23 have been in winning causes.
• There wasn’t much to cheer for the bowlers of either team, but Njabulo Ncube dismissed both Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor on his debut, and finished with figures of 3 for 69, making him one of only eight Zimbabwe bowlers to take three or more wickets in their debut ODI.

Against an Australia team that have got their plans for him right, at the fag end of his career, perhaps VVS Laxman’s duck in Perth was a logical result. But the essence of Laxman is that he has always defied logic

Sidharth Monga at the WACA14-Jan-2012I don’t know if this is the last time I have seen VVS Laxman bat. He has never surprised me so, that much I can say. I have never seen him so passive at the crease.Today was about as an un-Laxman-like innings you will get from a body double from Serbia. I have seen Laxman in form worse than this, but infinitely more strong-willed. In Sri Lanka in 2008, when all of India’s middle order failed against Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan, Laxman did too, but not passively. He wasn’t reading which way Mendis was turning the ball, but at one point he made up his mind that he was going to whip everything to the leg side. He scored 56, 21, 39, 13, 25 and 61 not out. There was a lot to like about that effort.In Australia he has been hanging back in the crease, uncertain outside off. They have plugged his boundary areas, they haven’t given him boundary balls, and Laxman hasn’t shown the inclination to do much about it. It has mostly been poke, push, nudge. That’s what happened today. Eventually he nicked, pushing tamely outside off. It just felt wrong. That’s not what Laxman does. I can’t remember a worse innings from Laxman, especially because the state of the match was crying out for a typical Laxman firefighting effort.I am not sure when in my mind Laxman became the man who would always play the most important innings at the most important times. It was not when he scored 281. It happened sometime later, during one of his forgotten masterpieces. Sometimes he would be saving his career, sometimes a follow-on, sometimes pulling off incredible chases in crippling pain, but he would do it. Nor have I ever found an explanation for he did what he did when everything suggested he couldn’t do it. He did it in every country except for England. The direr the situation, the riper it was for Laxman.Situations hardly get direr than they have for India during the English and Australian summers. In the English summer, he looked good at least. You could see he was trying to do things. He scored two half-centuries, one of them an attractive boundary feast at Trent Bridge. He got out either pulling or cleaned up by really good deliveries, not hanging out his wash to dry.Then he came back to India, and scored another cool fourth-innings half-century to help India win a match against West Indies that they had fallen behind in. There was no reason to believe Laxman was done just yet. They spoke about his fitness earlier too, but he would keep scoring runs. I don’t remember him dropping a catch over the last three years either. He did in Sydney, but Sachin Tendulkar cleaned up behind him.And he was, after all, coming to a country and playing an opposition he has always relished. The true bounce, the aggressive bowling, the appreciative crowds; there wouldn’t be any grinding here, nor utterly defensive fields. He wouldn’t be batting No. 6 either, stranded with the tail. For some reason, though, Laxman hasn’t been Laxman on this tour.Before this Test, many wise voices, logical voices, called for Laxman’s axing, so that young blood wasn’t held back much longer. The voices said Virat Kohli should be given a longer run, and Rohit Sharma should be introduced in Laxman’s place. That even if India continued their six-match losing streak, they should do so with youngsters who won’t get such testing situations for the next two years. There was merit and logic to that suggestion, but when has Laxman’s batting followed logic? was what you ask when Laxman batted. Not how he did it, but how could he do it. For he defied all logic.At 5.03pm today, though, Laxman finished a logical duck. He was not getting scoring opportunities, and he was not going out of his way to create any. There was no respite from Australia’s quartet either. What happened was no surprise. Australia have got Laxman doing this all series. He did it again. Maybe the critics, some of them trial-and-error merchants, were finally right.Maybe this is the last time I have seen Laxman bat in a Test. Maybe my last memory of Laxman will be a limp push outside off, helpless against disciplined bowling. And then a quiet, disbelieving look back. And then the long walk back. Maybe it will not. Who can tell with Laxman and with sport? This innings was Laxman’s most passive and its eventual conclusion most logical. That’s why it doesn’t feel right.

Tributes to the Surrey batsman Tom Maynard, who has died aged 23

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jun-2012″It’s an absolute tragedy. I’ve known Tom since he was a little boy and our hearts go out to Sue and Matthew, his parents, and all his friends and family. Tom was an incredibly talented cricketer but he was an incredibly likeable young man as well, who had the world at his feet, and it’s just a tragedy. In many respects he played just like his old man did. I remember playing with Matthew, who was such a talented cricketer himself … Matthew played for England and Tom was very much on that pathway, he played for the Lions this winter, he impressed all the coaches, they liked him as a person, they liked what they saw as a player – and to have his life cut short in this way is a tragedy.”
“The lovely kid who was always in our Glamorgan dressing room grew into a man who would have played for England. How can he be gone so soon?”
“Our thoughts at this awful time are with Tom’s family and friends and all those that were close to him. The impact Tom made in such a short period of time for Surrey CCC spoke for itself. There is a profound sense of loss at the passing of Tom. To lose anybody at such a young age is an utterly senseless tragedy.”
“Tom was a player of enormous potential who had already represented England Lions and had an exciting future ahead of him. Our hearts go out to the Maynard family for their tragic loss and we send them and all Tom’s many friends and colleagues within the game our deepest sympathies.”
“Thoughts are with Matt Maynard and his family. Words can’t describe the Terribly sad news that Tom Maynard has died aged 23… #RIPTOM”
“We’ve sadly lost a lovely lad who had the talent to be something very special. My thoughts go out to the Maynard Family. RIP Tom”
“The cricket family is so small. You always tend to know everyone quite well. I know his Dad quite well, his dad was coach of the year in South Africa this year and our thoughts just go out to the family. it is always a tragedy to lose such a talented player. He was certainly flamboyant. He had a lot of potential and had a lot o talent and who knows who he would have ended up. Thoughts with the family and hope they get to the bottom of it.”
“Terrible news, Tom a fantastic athlete, great person who had so much to look forward too, I’m devastated for all that knew him #RIPTomMaynard”
“I was shocked to receive the tragic news of the accidental death of Tom, Matthew and Sue’s son. At the recent CSA awards dinner, Matthew and I were discussing Tom coming out to South Africa this year and possibly playing some cricket in Pretoria. Although I never met Tom, I heard that he was a very talented young cricketer especially in the shorter format of the game. On behalf of Northerns cricket union I wish to express our deepest condolences to the Maynard family and I can assure them that our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
“The Bangladesh Cricket Board and BPL Governing Council express deep bereavement at the tragic death of Surrey and England Lions batsman Tom Maynard … The BCB and BPL GC extend heartfelt condolences to the family of this exciting young batsman whose undoubted talent had made him a prized recruit at the BPL T20 tournament.”
“RIP Tom Maynard. Such a sad loss to everyone that knew him and thoughts are with his family. Absolutely gutted. Will be missed xx”

Plays of the Day for the Champions League semi-final between Lions v Delhi Daredevils in Durban

Firdose Moonda25-Oct-2012Selection of the day
When Ross Taylor was named Delhi Daredevils captain for their match against Titans on Tuesday, it was thought of as nothing but squad rotation. New leader Mahela Jayawardene stepped aside for Australian opener David Warner* to be a part of the starting XI. In the semi-final, when Taylor appeared at the toss, it was the real surprise. Jayawardene had dropped himself again and given Warner another go.Tension of the day
There was always going to be some needle when Morne Morkel faced up against a South African side and he had a few things to say to Gulam Bodi. But the real tension came when Pietersen had to bowl to Bodi. Pietersen had named Bodi as the reason he was denied a place in the Kwa-Zulu Natal team of the late ’90s and called Bodi a “quota player”. The hostility was there but Bodi proved his worth when he hit Pietersen for back-to-back boundaries.Under-19 battle of the day
Quinton de Kock and Unmukt Chand will probably know each other from the recent Under-19 World Cup and could become two of the most talked-about players in future. They provided a small glimpse into their battle today. De Kock tried to end a slow run-scoring period for Lions by pulling Umesh Yadav but Chand was waiting at deep midwicket. He did not have to move much to take the catch but lost the ball in the background and it burst through his open palms. Two overs later, de Kock tried to pull again but top-edged and Chand had the last laugh.Drops of the day
With the wind blowing at 50kph, there were bound to be some errors in the field. Daredevils did not fare too badly until consecutive deliveries from Morkel. Birthday boy Yadav put down Neil McKenzie at long-on and then Pietersen dropped him at deep square leg. The latter drew more jeers from what used to be his home crowd. Pietersen was himself dropped later on when Chris Morris could not hold on at long-on.Flop of the day
Virender Sehwag’s tournament was not as dismal as some other openers (Herschelle Gibbs and Sachin Tendulkar come to mind) but he still disappointed on the big day. After a near run-out to get on strike, Sehwag did not justify that action. He holed out to mid-on off the first ball he faced to put Daredevils in trouble early on. Sehwag last scored a hundred in South Africa 11 years ago, in a Test match in 2001 and has never brought up three-figures in a limited-overs game in the country.Promotion of the day
Daredevil’s batting tactics continued to be flexible and they tried something different when they sent Irfan Pathan in at No. 5. With 78 runs required off less than nine overs, Pathan was sent in to bat ahead of Ross Taylor as a pinch-hitter and the move backfired almost immediately. He managed just a single before top-edging an attempted pull off the left arm-spinner, Aaron Phangiso, and was caught at deep backward square.Celebration of the day
Lions haven’t had that much to be cheerful about in recent seasons and this must rank as one of their best, if not their best, moments of the last few years. The Red Thunder, as they have chosen to nickname themselves, stormed the Kingsmead pitch and hugged and high-fived. But the face of their captain, Alviro Petersen, remained unchanged as, in the words of Rudyard Kipling, he met with “Triumph and Disaster and treated those two imposters just the same”.* Oct 26 5.50am The name of the Australia opener has been corrected

The World T20 was a three-week burst of entertaining and meaningful cricket; the administrators should resist the urge to expand the tournament and dilute its charm

David Hopps09-Oct-2012Now the rains can come. Sri Lanka has waved farewell to World Twenty20 and, perhaps to its own surprise, has run a widely-praised, appealing tournament with considerable efficiency. The monsoon conveniently stayed away, the world’s best cricketers have been on show in a meaningful competition and the game has shone with vitality and confidence. If only it was always so.No sooner had World Twenty20 finished than the next show began. It is faintly ridiculous that opening media conferences for the Champions League Twenty20 were being held before the World Twenty20 final had taken place and that the Trinidad & Tobago players in the West Indies squad had only a few hours to celebrate their achievement before they headed to airport, after no sleep, for their flight to South Africa.This is cricket’s endless merry-go-round. Players find themselves team-mates one moment, opponents next, just by crossing a continent. Some do not turn up at all, such as Yorkshire’s Jonny Bairstow and Tim Bresnan, whose priority is to get fit for England’s tour of India. There is too much cricket, too many claims on too few players. So another tournament is denuded and spectators suffer as a result.It is amazing that the players keep up. As they pull on new shirts, do they check the name tags to remind themselves of who they are and who they are playing for? When their agent tells them they have still to be paid for a particularly tournament, do some players scratch their heads and wonder: ‘Did I ever play in that one?’It seems counter-intuitive at best – some will say crazy – to consider the World Twenty20’s place in cricket’s overcrowded calendar and conclude that it should become an annual event, or at least take place in every year where there is no 50-over World Cup.But the attraction of the World Twenty20 was that it had real significance at a time when so much one-day cricket serves little purpose at all. Do not doubt that this tournament mattered. Nobody needed a name tag on their shirts. They were there because they cared.This was a competition that teams were desperate to win and supporters cared about. Coaches studied statistics and determined new strategies, particularly the importance of not losing early wickets, which had received little attention before. The shortest game suddenly felt longer.Best of all, from start to finish, the World Twenty20 lasted a few intense weeks. The 50-over World Cup could learn something from that.The tournaments that should be trimmed are the mountain of one-day and T20 internationals in bilateral series as cricket’s caravan travels from city to city simply to fill the coffers of impoverished cricket boards and grounds and give the local fans a live game to watch that, for all their understandable desire to see their heroes in the flesh, will probably turn out to be much like the last one, contested by players running on empty.

The danger for the World Twenty20 is not that the administrators might one day imagine it as an annual event, it is that the ICC will allow the tournament to become a swollen version of its fit, lithe self, becoming more corpulent with age and losing its appeal in the process

The danger for the World Twenty20 is not that the administrators might one day imagine it as an annual event, it is that the ICC will allow the tournament to become a swollen version of its fit, lithe self, becoming more corpulent with age and losing its appeal in the process. Even now an influential TV producer is probably emailing an equally influential administrator to suggest how much more money could be made if it lasted twice the time, with twice the games, how much more television coverage, how much more promotion, how much more fun.All such blandishments should be resisted. The short, quick game needs a short, quick format. Everything about it should recognise the impatience of its audience for instant gratification, a quick outcome and then the chance to move on to the next thing. Its momentum must be protected.Then there will be an army of fiddlers tirelessly debating the tournament’s structure. What can we do about the preliminary round, should points be carried forward into the Super Eights, do we need Super Eights at all, why should there be a Super Over for a tie in the group stage? All are fair questions. But when they are resolved, they should be resolved for a lengthy period of time and the administrators should be told to meet less and reduce their expenses. The 50-over game has long been undermined by such persistent meddling that it is a sign of sanity not to know, or care, how many people need to be outside a circle at any given time.There is a warning, incidentally, for Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in the way they were often carelessly referred to in conversational shorthand during World Twenty20 as associates, mentally classified alongside Ireland and Afghanistan irrespective of the fact that Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are Full Member nations.An overwhelming majority of onlookers paid lip service to the possibility of a giant-killing, but they did not want one so overwhelming that it would carry a weaker nation into the next round – instead they wanted to see it threaten, then fail. Afghanistan played the role perfectly. Too often, international cricket’s appeal is restricted to the top eight and as Ireland and Afghanistan improve, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe decline. It is an unhealthy situation.As for Sri Lanka, they have played their part well. It is impossible to put their achievement into historical context without being accused variously of being an LTTE sympathiser one minute, an apologist for Sri Lankan nationalist the next. But what is undeniable is that this is a nation free of conflict, full of new ambition.Finally, with the considerable input of the ICC, Sri Lanka’s hosting of the tournament embraced new standards. Gone was the confusion (many will prefer a more damning description) over ticket sales for the 2011 World Cup and England’s Test tour of Sri Lanka later in the year. Instead, the World Twenty20 proceeded with an order and efficiency that Sri Lanka has never before achieved and new grounds at Pallekele, in particular, and Hambantota were uplifting places.There is sadness and frustration in Sri Lanka at the loss of another final, but off the field the ICC has implanted a welcome maturity. It is those standards that their administrators, as they are once more left to their own devices, need to foster in the years ahead.