Shahryar Khan’s memoir recalls the Inzamam-Woolmer heyday, and the nadir of the Oval, 2006

Tim Wigmore29-Jun-2013There’s no shortage of people who have analysed the problems of Pakistan’s cricket from afar. Inevitably this lends itself to half-truths, stereotypes and generalisations. Aided by his three years as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Shaharyar Khan avoids these traps.As a former foreign secretary, Shaharyar was well placed to straddle the meshing of sport and politics that characterises cricket in Pakistan. Most of his three-year reign was successful: he restored cricketing ties with India and organised the Friendship Tour of 2004, recruited Bob Woolmer as coach, and presided over a stirring on-field rejuvenation. But Shaharyar’s tenure was marred at the end by the debacle of the Oval Test of 2006.Shaharyar was desperate to avoid the forfeiture. Indeed, he was instrumental in convincing the Pakistan side to return to the field after tea, only for the umpires to leave the field just as the players were taking their first steps.While the match referee, Mike Procter, is described as “passive and weak”, the obstinate Darrell Hair is Shaharyar’s villain: given his history of altercations with Pakistan, he was a “time bomb”. There is nothing surprising in that, although Shaharyar’s criticism of the ICC is astute. Why was Hair given four Pakistan series in 18 months, when the ICC had taken a very different attitude in the wake of Sri Lanka’s complaints about him, at one stage giving him no Sri Lankan series for eight years? And what of Steve Bucknor being removed by the ICC after wrongly giving Sachin Tendulkar out? Shaharyar’s contention that some ICC members are more equal than others seems hard to dispute.Inzamam-ul-Haq also comes under heavy scrutiny. His reluctance to play in the ODIs following the Oval Test is put down to “base instincts and crass stupidity”. Inzamam’s stubbornness amounted to “player power at its worst with a leader who seemed to be guided by a self-destructive urge”, Shaharyar writes.Inzamam is criticised for his “excessive religiosity” as captain. During his reign, no answer from a player would be complete without an “inshallah”; several players grew traditionally Islamic beards; and prayers seemed the main facet of team bonding. While Shaharyar concludes that the benefits to team unity outweighed the difficulties, we hear of Woolmer at one point complaining about “the constant and lengthy prayer sessions that the team held, which gave him no time to strategise or advise the players”. And, as Shaharyar observes, there seemed a particularly noticeable increase in the religiosity of fringe players keen to win Inzamam’s favour.Since Inzamam’s resignation, ostentatious religion has faded from view in the Pakistan side, returning to the “middle Pakistan” attitudes of before. This bears out Shaharyar’s central thesis: that Pakistan’s cricket team reflects its wider politics and society: “Its lack of accountability [is] evident, as are its insecurities and patronage structures.” Perhaps nowhere does the point hold truer than in regard to corruption, with Shaharyar contending that a lack of strong role models in the side has allowed it to linger. Few, sadly, would dispute his view of the spot-fixing scandal of 2010 as being only the tip of the iceberg.Unfortunately the book occasionally slips from insightful, providing largely redundant summaries of matches. “Sehwag, Laxman and Ganguly played steady knocks and Yuvraj seemed to take the game away from Pakistan with a quick-fire 78, leading to a respectable total of 292” is padding of the most banal sort. This is a book that would have benefited from sharper editing, as the factual inaccuracies highlight: Pakistan won the World Cup in 1992, not 1996, while the World Test Championship did not take place this year.Shaharyar himself emerges as a sympathetic figure who is outward-looking and rides above the factionalism cricket boards are so prone to. If there is a hero of his book it is his friend Woolmer, who Shaharyar appointed to replace Javed Miandad, despite considerable opposition. He writes that Woolmer “proved that with a sensitive approach, a foreign coach could overcome the cultural and language gap”.Like Woolmer, Shaharyar has a grasp of the wider good cricket can do. He was instrumental in Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s daughter returning to Pakistan for the first time since her father’s death to watch the series against India in 2004, and writes of an “extremely warm and gracious” foreign leader netting with local schoolchildren – George W Bush.Shaharyar also has interesting ideas for the future of cricket in Pakistan. His suggestion of building five-star hotels on Test grounds (so negating the need for daily travel to the stadiums) is relevant to the country’s hopes of hosting internationals once more.Seven years after Shaharyar’s resignation, it remains unclear whether his aim – “to change the PCB from being a dictatorial one-man show to an institution with a corporate structure” – has been realised. But it was no coincidence that his reign coincided with perhaps the most successful period in Pakistan cricket since the days of Imran Khan.The game needs more independent-minded cricket administrators capable of looking beyond the next pay cheque: a lesson that extends way beyond Pakistan cricket.Cricket Cauldron: the turbulent politics of sport in Pakistan
by Shaharyar M Khan and Ali Khan
I.B. Tauris
320 pages, $26.96
<img src="/inline/content/image/212283.gif?alt=" align=topborder

Also, lowest “missing scores”, a hundredth ODI on one’s birthday, and West Indians with 20,000 international runs

Steven Lynch12-Nov-2013I noticed that the lowest score Sachin Tendulkar never made in a one-day international is 56. The corresponding number in Tests is 30. Does any other batsman go higher than this in Tests or ODIs? asked Vineet Malani from India
Two people have a higher “missing score” in one-day internationals than Sachin Tendulkar’s, which is indeed 56. Inzamam-ul-Haq did make every score up to and including 56, but never finished on 57. But well clear is Ricky Ponting, who made every score from 0 to 70, but never ended up with a 71. Jacques Kallis has also made every score up to but not including 56. In Tests, rather surprisingly perhaps, there are eight players above Tendulkar on the list. Out in front is Andrew Strauss, who made every score from 0 to 40, but never 41. Then come Desmond Haynes (lowest missing score 37), Graham Gooch and Steve Waugh (35), David Boon and Godfrey Evans (33), and Alistair Campbell and Colin Cowdrey (31). Tendulkar and Mark Boucher both never ended up with a score of 30. (Many thanks to ESPNcricinfo’s database guru Travis Basevi for his help with this, and some of today’s other answers.)Rohit Sharma played his first Test after more than 100 one-day internationals. Was this a record? asked Seena John from the United Arab Emirates
Before his successful Test debut in Kolkata last week Rohit Sharma had played 108 one-day internationals, which is indeed a record. The previous mark was 98, by another Indian, Suresh Raina – who also marked his long-awaited Test debut (in Colombo in July 2010) with a century. Andrew Symonds played 94 ODIs before making his Test debut for Australia, and Adam Gilchrist 76. The new leader on this particular list is Kieron Pollard, who has played 85 ODIs so far without appearing in a Test. That excludes five Kenyans – Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo (both 134 ODIs), Collins Obuya (102), Kennedy Otieno (90) and Jimmy Kamande (86) – who have obviously never played Test cricket.Who has dismissed the most different batsmen in a Test series? asked Mike Allen from Australia
Top of this list is Terry Alderman, who dismissed 23 different batsmen during the 1989 Ashes series in England. He’s three clear of another Australian, Ted McDonald, who removed 20 different Englishmen in the 1921 Ashes. England used a record 30 different players in 1921, and 29 in 1989, which obviously helped Alderman and McDonald to their respective hauls. More significant, really, is dismissing every opponent you come up against in a series – after all it’s not up to the bowler how many players the other side chooses. And I don’t think many people would guess the identity of the leading “hundred percenter”, who faced 16 different players in one Test series and dismissed them all at least once. It’s Ravichandran Ashwin, who removed all 16 Australians he played against in India’s four-match home series earlier this year. Subhash Gupte (India v New Zealand in 1955-56), Johnny Wardle (England v South Africa 1956-57) and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (India v England 1972-73) all came up against 15 different batsmen in a series and dismissed them all.Gurdeep Singh, who is only 15, opened the batting for Kenya in a one-day international last month. Is he the youngest ODI player of all? asked George Harbinson from Kenya
It’s difficult to be entirely sure about this. The left-hand opener Gurdeep Singh was, if the details supplied to ESPNcricinfo by Cricket Kenya are correct, only 15 years 258 days old when he made his full one-day international debut against Afghanistan in Sharjah last month. The only younger player on the list is Hasan Raza, at 14 years 233 days for Pakistan against Zimbabwe in Quetta in October 1996. But serious doubts were raised, not least by the Pakistan Cricket Board, about Raza’s age – and I think it is generally accepted that he is at least a year older, possibly a little more, than his published date of birth suggests. For the full list, click here.Brad Haddin played his 100th one-day international on his birthday. Is this unique? asked Abbas Khambati from India
Brad Haddin’s 100th one-day international came against India in Ranchi on October 23, which was his 36th birthday. The only other man to do this was Inzamam-ul-Haq, who made 53 not out against England during the 1995-96 World Cup in Karachi, on what was his 26th birthday. Carl Hooper played his 200th one-day international on his 35th birthday in December 2001 – and scored 72 against Sri Lanka in Kandy.Shivnarine Chanderpaul went past 20,000 runs in international cricket at Kolkata. Is he the first West Indian player to reach this milestone? asked Richard Webb from Britain
During the Kolkata Test Shivnarine Chanderpaul became the tenth batsman to complete 20,000 runs in all international cricket – but the second from West Indies after Brian Lara, who ended up with 22,358. Top of the list, of course, is Sachin Tendulkar with 34,283 in Tests, one-day and Twenty20 internationals (as of today’s date). After him come Ricky Ponting (27,483), Jacques Kallis (25,304), Rahul Dravid (24,208), Kumar Sangakkara (23,541), Mahela Jayawardene (23,493), Lara, Sanath Jayasuriya (21,032), Inzamam-ul-Haq (20,580) and Chanderpaul.

Plays from the first ODI between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Hambantota

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Nov-2013The scoop shot junkie
On a day when Tillakaratne Dilshan appeared to be short of fluency, he seemed addicted to trying one of the most difficult shots in the game – even if it is one of his own devisement. Dilshan scooped one over his shoulder as early as the seventh over, and when Corey Anderson came on to bowl during the batting Powerplay, he appeared intent on playing no other stroke. He sent Anderson’s second ball of the 38th over above the keeper, then tried it again next ball, but missed. He played the scoop again successfully on the penultimate ball, but eventually, Anderson got wise. The last ball of the over was slightly slower and Dilshan was early into the shot, sending it straight up for the advancing wicketkeeper to pouch.The adaptive advance
Angelo Mathews says he loves to play the hook and pull and, although he got himself into an awful position for the shot in the 36th over, a good eye and quick hands ensured he executed it superbly. Having already hit a four in the over, Mathews ran down the track to Mitchell McClenaghan who dug the ball in very short, maybe having seen Mathews charging. The wise thing at this point would perhaps have been to duck but Mathews, with his Plan A foiled, was still keen to be aggressive. Judging the length quickly, Mathews hooked the ball, which was above head height when it reached him, and he connected so well the ball pierced the gap on the leg-side boundary, well in front of square.The sense of déjà vu
Almost a year ago, against the same team, Dimuth Karunaratne had been lbw for a duck on Test debut, to a ball that pitched around off stump and swung back into him. Though he hit a torrent of List A and first-class runs in the past three months, he suffered almost exactly the same fate in his first ODI in two years. Kyle Mills pitched the first ball of the innings on middle stump, angled across the left-hander, and got it to straighten off the seam. Karunaratne could not get his feet moving and was struck in front of the stumps on the crease, leaving the umpire with an easy decision.The yorker
Lasith Malinga has an excellent record against New Zealand, having terrorised many of the visitors’ batsmen before. Chasing a tall total, newbie Anton Devcich became Malinga’s latest victim, falling prey to his trademark yorker in the first over. Malinga had swung a couple of deliveries onto the batsman’s legs, and bowled a wide down the leg side, but on the penultimate ball of the over, he got the ball to move in towards the batsman from outside the off stump. Devcich misjudged both the line and the length of the ball, and it continued unimpeded to strike the base of middle and off stump.

Pakistan’s seamers failed to create opportunities as a unit. Their bowling coach Mohammad Akram reiterated that the bowlers let Sri Lanka off the hook by not maintaining any pressure

Umar Farooq in Dubai09-Jan-2014Saeed Ajmal went wicket-less. Junaid Khan was tidy. Bilawal Bhatti was ineffective. Mohamamd Hafeez was under-bowled and Rahat Ali was unlucky. That was the tale of Pakistan’s bowlers on the second day in Dubai. They managed to take only three wickets, conceded 261 as Sri Lanka walked away with a decent lead of 153 runs and six wickets in hand. Pakistan walked away with few positives in terms of the bowling, on a pitch that is expected to get flatter and test them further.Pakistan stumbled to 165 after losing the toss yesterday – an improvement from their 99 after opting to bat first against South Africa on the same pitch in October. The toss was the difference but bowlers toiled hard on both occasions to mend the mistakes made by the batsmen from day one.The chatter in the press box was mainly about Rahat being ‘unlucky’. He toiled for 26 overs with little success, with several edges dropping in front of the slips and a regulation take that was spilled by the wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed. Ajmal was economical but unsuccessful. Bhatti, playing in his second Test, was the quickest – clocking 147 kmph – but lacked discipline. Coach Dav Whatmore said before the Test that his bowlers had the ability to take 20 wickets to win the contest but today, the bowlers struggled to take half that number to try and restrict the Sri Lankan batsmen.”The pitch played better than yesterday and it was very obvious when they (Sri Lanka) won the toss and bowled first,” Mohammad Akram, Pakistan’s bowling coach, said. “There was a bit of juice in the pitch yesterday. We knew that the pitch will get better (for batting) but still, our bowlers held them well. But yes, they needed to be more disciplined.”There was occasional seam movement but the lengths didn’t work and the bowlers rarely troubled the Sri Lankan batsman. Rahat was in fact lucky when Kumar Sangakkara’s bat was stuck under his boot, only to be trapped in front of the stumps. It was Rahat’s only wicket. Akram said the bowlers didn’t put in enough effort.”When you are bundled out for 165, there is a bit of frustration (among bowlers), and you look to pick up wickets,” Akram said. “That’s the time when you really need to be disciplined. At times we bowled too many loose balls as well but the effort was there as the bowlers still ran in with their heads up.”We lacked disciplined in the bowling. You can’t offer a loose ball early in the day and let the batsman get set. The pitch is far different today to what it was on the first day so had we batted sensibly and survived, it could have been a different scenario for us.”Our bowling attack is still the best in the world. But what we are lacking is the experience and if you add the number of matches the seamers have played it is hardly 17 or 18. Unless these bowlers play, they won’t thrive.”Akram wasn’t worried about Ajmal being off-color, acknowledging that the conditions had challenged him. Ajmal had picked up a six-wicket haul in the Test against South Africa.”Ajmal is our main bowler, but there was a lot of grass on the pitch and hence not much purchase for Ajmal,” Akram said. “The seamers had to do the job. We need not panic and there is no reason to be frustrated if he (Ajmal) isn’t picking wickets. It happens and you can’t judge him on these two matches as he has done a lot in the past.”

In their win against Pakistan, Sri Lanka truly knew the boundaries of their ability and rarely sought to exceed them

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Dubai12-Jan-2014″I know that I am intelligent because I know that I know nothing,” goes a common misappropriation of a Socratic quote. It was originally intended to reveal something of the nature of knowledge itself, but has lately been used to advance the thought that awareness of personal limitation is wisdom.The world of sport often charges in the opposite direction to this sentiment. Self-belief is deemed a pre-requisite for any elite sportsman – the ability to achieve in the face of great odds, and to overcome where many have tried and foundered. The idea that nothing is impossible is propagated even beyond athletic pursuit. Such notions may have their uses in cricket, but in Sri Lanka’s second away-victory in almost five years, they have truly known the boundaries of their ability, and rarely sought to exceed them.Asking the opposition to bat first, particularly in Asia, is sometimes construed as weakness. Many perceived greentops often have little in them for fast bowlers beyond the first session, and countless touring captains have unwittingly surrendered prime batting days to the opposition.Angelo Mathews’ preference to field first had of course been vindicated when Pakistan had been dismantled for 165, but not only had it been an unprecedented choice at this venue, Mathews had watched on for hours as Pakistan’s experienced batsmen blunted his quick men’s movement in Abu Dhabi. Shaminda Eranga and Suranga Lakmal had undoubtedly bowled well in the first Test, but there had been little in their Test history to suggest they were capable of skittling Pakistan as they did, much less that Nuwan Pradeep would be the key man to sparking the opposition’s collapse. His team’s feeble first-innings returns in the previous game, and the consequent hankering for safety-first were the more likely forces to driving Mathew’s decision. Perhaps somewhat to his own surprise, Sri Lanka’s own first innings could hardly have begun at a more advantageous time – just as the pitch had begun to slow and flatten.”Apart from the first day, this was a regular Dubai wicket,” Mathews said. “The spinners weren’t able to be that successful on this wicket, because it was very helpful for the fast bowlers on the first day. After that it became a bit slow, but still good for the batsmen, as usual.”Sri Lanka’s longest innings was more evidence of self-awareness coming good. Mahela Jayawardene sizes up situations better than any Sri Lanka player, and though that usually means he reads conditions well, on this occasion, he also knew the limitations an injury would impose on his own game. The favoured cover-drive and well-loved sweep were largely shelved, and even when Pakistan’s bowlers strung together admirable spells, Jayawardene and Kaushal Silva did not venture a counterattack.Control defined the bowling too, as Pakistan kept Sri Lanka in the field for 137.3 overs in the second innings. No wickets fell for almost two sessions on day three, but on a pitch that did not favour Rangana Herath’s spin, Sri Lanka did not devise tricks for Misbah-ul-Haq or Younis Khan, they simply waited. At times it seemed Sri Lanka lacked flair and imagination, persisting with an in-out field that did not challenge batsmen, but as the fast bowlers had already made giant leaps in the series, Mathews may understandably have been wary of asking too much. In the end, the visitors waited Younis and Misbah out – both fell to balls that gleaned unexpected venom from the surface.”The toss was a bit crucial but I thought you need to bowl in the right areas to get them out,” Mathews said. “The bowlers did exactly that. I thought they were brilliant in the first innings as well as the second innings. Given the conditions, they had to put it on the right spot, which they did.”As the threat of rain loomed in their run chase, Sri Lanka veered towards conservatism again, small though their target was. In 16 overs before lunch, only 35 runs had been gathered. Such steady progress might have appeared foolish if the rains had actually come, but instead, Sri Lanka secured the last of their many moral victories in the match – their first century-stand for the first wicket since June 2011.”We actually thought it might rain as well, but thankfully it didn’t rain,” Mathews said. “Sarfraz Ahmed was batting well and we wanted to stop him scoring runs, and to bowl to the new batsman. We couldn’t let them off the hook by giving them too many runs. We had to be a bit cautious about the runs as well.”Six of Sri Lanka’s XI have fewer than 17 Tests’ experience, so perhaps Mathews will tread with caution in the near future as well. As Mathews exulted at the close, the inexperienced cricketers had all shown Test-match fortitude. Few would have imagined Sri Lanka could have an unassailable lead in the series without a big haul for Herath or a hundred for Kumar Sangakkara.In the past, Sri Lanka’s most prosperous periods have also featured their most attacking cricket, and while one win is not enough to prove that they are suddenly better suited to the reverse, they have shown that ambition need not breed every success.

With an unpredictable run-up and an urgent, hustling style, Maharashtra seamer Samad Fallah has scripted a tale of resilience and passion for cricket

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Indore19-Jan-2014In the middle of his second over on Saturday morning, Samad Fallah came to a halt halfway through his run-up. Most fast bowlers, in that situation, would have turned around, walked back to the top of their mark, and started again. Fallah simply resumed running from where he had stopped.Over the course of the 16 overs he delivered in dismissing seven Bengal batsmen at the Holkar Stadium, Fallah’s run-up was a wild and unpredictable thing, seemingly without a fixed starting point.”When I start, I do mark my run-up,” Fallah says. “But as my bowling goes on, sometimes I try to surprise them, don’t let the batsman get ready, make my run-up short. But run-up is not in my brain. I can run from anywhere and I can bowl. With my run-up I’ve played lots. I’ve run zig-zag also. To take wickets in first-class cricket I’ve done so many things.”A lot of bowlers nowadays use a measuring tape to mark out their run-ups. For them, achieving rhythm is a matter of scientific precision. If rhythm is an ingredient in Samad Fallah’s bowling, it is probably the rhythm of free jazz. His run-up, which begins with a two-second shuffle on the spot, barely contributes any momentum to his action, which is all shoulder and whirring arm, culminating in a Rafael Nadal grunt.The grunts grew louder with each ball – and were frequently followed by desperate appeals for lbw – over the course of Fallah’s first spell on Saturday, which spanned ten overs. “The first spell is 10 or nine always,” he says. “Eight is minimum.” When he came back for his second spell, he replaced Harshad Khadiwale, who had taken an unexpected wicket in a three-over spell of gentle medium pace.Khadiwale might only be an occasional bowler, but his textbook run-up and delivery stride spoke of his rigorous schooling in the game. He has played for Maharashtra’s Under-14, U-15, U-17, U-19 and U-22 teams.Fallah’s action is as much a product of his upbringing as Khadiwale’s is. He’s never played age-group cricket for Maharashtra. In his early 20s, he gave up cricket for two years, apart from the odd tennis-ball match, and worked behind the counter of the Irani cafe established by his grandfather, and run by his father, in Pune.Fallah kept taking wickets in tennis-ball cricket, though, and found himself a place in the Poona Club team. Big wicket hauls in the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s invitational league – “73 wickets in nine games,” he says, “which is a record still” – earned him a call-up to the Maharashtra team at the start of the 2007-08 season. At that point, his father didn’t even know he was playing serious cricket. Fallah called him from Chennai, where Maharashtra – he wasn’t in the playing XI yet – were playing Tamil Nadu.”I called him, and I said I got selected for Ranji Trophy, and he said, ‘No no, you can’t be selected’,” Fallah says. “I had to call from a landline number, and then he realised, okay, he’s in Chennai.”A painting of Fallah in his bowling action, with a selection of his first-class statistics, now adorns a wall in his father’s cafe. “It was not me who asked for it,” Fallah says. “My dad actually wanted to surprise me, so suddenly I saw a picture that was not looking like me at all.”The left-arm seamer on Cafe Alpha’s wall doesn’t have the shoulder-length hair, the soul-patch, or the studded earlobes. It might well be a painting of Irfan Pathan. The stats, moreover, need an update. The wall says 134 wickets in 34 first-class matches; Fallah now has 198 in 50.

“When I start, I do mark my run-up,” Fallah says. “But as my bowling goes on, sometimes I try to surprise them, don’t let the batsman get ready, make my run-up short. But run-up is not in my brain. I can run from anywhere and I can bowl. With my run-up I’ve played lots. I’ve run zig-zag also. To take wickets in first-class cricket I’ve done so many things.”

In his debut season, Fallah took 20 wickets, at an average of 23.90. Since then, he hasn’t gone a single first-class season without crossing 25 wickets. He reached that mark for 2013-14, during the course of his seven-for on Saturday.At the start of the season, when he took just two wickets in Maharashtra’s first three matches, that number seemed a distant prospect. Left out of the game against Andhra, Fallah came roaring back. In his last five matches – he only bowled 9.4 overs in one of them, a spin-dominated game in Assam – he’s taken 26 wickets.”After [the first] three games I was not feeling good, then I was not picked for the next game,” Fallah says. “I was supposed to be rested for the other game also, but I got a chance because somehow the selectors felt that one game was enough for me to get back. If I would have dragged myself that time, I would have been worse, because I was not in good shape also in my mind. I was doubting myself.”What my bowling is all about is believing. I kept on believing in my instincts and the things that I do, bowling around, over [the wicket] … to enjoy myself. Basically I enjoy my bowling, which I was not doing in the first phase. After one break I realised, okay, now I can’t stay out of the game also. So I came back against Kashmir and I took four and that’s how I got back. So it was good actually, what happened. Sometimes you need that kick, that ‘okay, I’m not doing that good.’ And you see your players, your team, wanting you. Everyone was calling me, the team, coaches, selectors, saying they need you. The team wanted me. Me being a character also, they need me somewhere.”Fallah says he is a talkative, needling presence in the dressing room and on the field. “Normally I talk too much,” he says. “I express too much.”It shows in his bowling too, in his urgent, hustling style, always at the batsman, probing away from different angles. It shows in his frantic appealing. He might yet cop a fine for the amount of lung-power he expended against Bengal. But, you suspect, he’ll accept it with a grin and carry on appealing as raucously as ever.A couple more successful appeals will take him to 200 wickets. It might also bring about a long-overdue update to the stats on Cafe Alpha’s wall. “The first hundred took only 21 matches,” he says, alert as always to his own statistics. “I’ve played almost 30 matches after that, so I guess I’m slowing down.”

Bangladesh picked a lone specialist seamer for the first time in a Test, but their choice of Al-Amin Hossain over the more experienced Robiul was puzzling. The focus seemed more on containing runs

Mohammad Isam04-Feb-2014Seam will play a role – Chandimal

Dinesh Chandimal suggested Sri Lanka’s seam bowlers would have a vital role to play on the slow, low surface in Chittagong. Bangladesh chose only one frontline seam option for the match, but Al-Amin Hossain had the best economy rate of bowlers who delivered more than five overs on the first day.
“As a player, I feel that it’s hard to get runs off the seamers,” Chandimal said. “So we’re looking forward to doing the basics with the ball. It’s similar conditions to Galle, so we have these kinds of pitches back home.”
Chandimal and Angelo Mathews had been dismissed late in the day, and putting his own form down to the fluctuations international cricketers must endure, he suggested Sri Lanka aimed to bat out most of day two.
“Bit disappointed because I played a rash shot and Mathews also got out. But still we have Kithuruwan [Vithanage] and Dilruwan [Perera], so they are going to get more runs tomorrow. It’s difficult to bat in these conditions, but we’ll hope for 200 runs – that might be a good total.”

On many occasions, the short-term in a five-day game is given more priority. Presented with a situation where his bowling attack hemorrhaged 730 runs in the Mirpur Test, the Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim cut down on attacking options in the Chittagong game, thereby underselling his team’s ability.Even on the opening day, it was apparent that wickets were going to be hard to come by. Al-Amin Hossain was the only pace bowler in the attack, the first time Bangladesh were playing a Test match with a single front-line seamer. Spinners Abdur Razzak and Mahmudullah were included in place of Robiul Islam and Rubel Hossain to keep the runs down, probably string together dot balls and hope the batsmen make mistakes.It was strange to see Robiul serve drinks on a ground where he has taken 16 wickets at an average of 20.87. He was the Player of the Series in Zimbabwe three Tests ago and in the Mirpur Test before this he had created enough opportunities to remain an automatic choice.By only including Al-Amin, Mushfiqur has confused the status quo among the pace bowlers. Here is an understudy, without the full physical and technical build-up, being asked to bowl long spells and do a holding job, when he should have had the support of another hardworking pace bowler at the other end.The explanation, through Mahmudullah’s press conference, was that the lack of swing or bounce in the Chittagong wicket encouraged that decision. But Al-Amin, to his credit, did what was expected of him. He made few attempts to drag Kumar Sangakkara out of his driving area, but swerved some deliveries away from the left-handers. He had the openers on a leash by varying his length quite regularly.Nevertheless, it was quite difficult to understand why Robiul wasn’t picked as the team’s leading seamer when his record and form says enough. But a less experienced, more vulnerable pace bowler was chosen ahead of him, because the team management wanted Al-Amin’s control rather than Robiul’s wicket-taking ability.When Razzak walked off with a strained left hamstring after just four overs, Mushfiqur was a bowler short against the might of Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. They duly put on a sizable stand of 178. Mahmudullah, as expected, was insipid. He bowled short to Sangakkara and got punished, but later accounted for Jayawardene against the run of play. To be fair to a middle-order batsman who bowls spin, it is quite harsh to expect him to do a specialist spinner’s job despite taking 12 wickets in his last game, a first-class Bangladesh Cricket League match.He said the new ball spun more than the older one, but he didn’t hold an opinion on the pitch just yet.”It is a little tough to make predictions about this wicket,” Mahmudullah said. “We have to see what happens tomorrow. We hope that there will be spin. This morning it spun for a while with the new ball while it didn’t during the middle period and then later with the new ball. We have to work hard tomorrow so we have to start well. If we can take two early wickets, we can capitalise on that.”On the second day, Bangladesh will depend on Shakib Al Hasan’s dipping flight and ability to extract turn. Sohag Gazi too will have to bowl a less flat trajectory.Mahmudullah said it was the team’s tactic to bowl to cut out runs. “It is not defensive, just a different tactic. They are good players of spin, so it becomes necessary to contain the runs. Then you wait for them to make a mistake.”There were times when we did miss the length. Sometimes when the ball doesn’t turn, spinners get frustrated. We did bowl a few bad balls but when we regrouped, the discussion was to contain the runs. We came back well at the end of the day,” he said.Sri Lanka’s vice-captain Dinesh Chandimal said they too were surprised that Bangladesh picked only one seamer. But unlike Angelo Mathews, Mushfiqur doesn’t boast of fast bowlers topping the speed guns and moving the ball in barren conditions, or spinners who can regularly break partnerships. There could be an attempt to keep Robiul’s axing within the same mindset but it was far too defensive to drop your best fast bowler.

England have never lost to Scotland but Peter Moores could think of more straightforward first assignments as he prepares to head north with the independence argument in full swing

Jon Coates02-May-2014England’s misadventure against the Netherlands is still fresh in the memory, but they have never lost a match to Scotland. There again, they have only deigned to play Scotland three times, and only once has there been a result.Scotland have been active as a cricket team for 149 years, but only as a recognised international team since 2006. When you consider that the Union came into being nearly 400 years ago, it is farcical that the two neighbours took so long to get together on a cricket field. But here we are, bound for Aberdeen.It was one of international cricket’s support acts, the Netherlands, whose victory in Chittagong finally banished Ashley Giles’ hopes of getting the England coach’s job. Now the Scots are a potential pitfall for the man preferred to Giles, Peter Moores, as he embarks upon his second term in charge.There is certainly enough anti-English sentiment around at the moment to spice up the contest. As the Scots squabble over whether or not to end a political pact that was signed in 1707 and declare independence, there is for the first time an expectation across the border that their team might just have enough ammunition to outgun the Sassenach forces.Such an upset would be cheered especially loudly by the champions of Scottish independence, so it is the last thing they will want to hear about in Westminster. From small shifts in self-belief, mood swings can take place. Why, to stretch the point, Moores might just have the future of the Union in his hands.According to the polls, the Yes vote is currently creeping on the No vote, which was previously thought to be protected by impenetrable walls. England look as vulnerable as they have for a long time, while Scotland have the new-found confidence of World Cup qualifiers.This is their first game since the ICC World Cup qualifying tournament in New Zealand, where they lost only one game and pulled off many victories with an unfamiliar swagger. Suddenly they are no longer dreaming of the win that would make them national heroes but purposefully plotting it.From an England perspective, at least the Mannofield ground does not carry bad memories. It has only been an ODI venue since 2008 and Scotland have yet to make it a fortress. Unless the scalp of England is taken it will remain most famous for being the last place Bradman batted on British soil – he made a century there in September 1948 at the end of the “Invincibles” tour.Aberdeen is not a nationalist heartland, either. North Sea oil has made the city and surrounding county a cosmopolitan and increasingly wealthy part of Scotland, all of which has helped cricket to flourish. Scotland’s current shirt sponsor is the Parkmead Group, an oil and gas exploratory firm run by Tom Cross, father of Scotland’s hard-hitting wicket-keeper batsman Matthew.Both teams have new coaches, albeit one, in Moores, who has been in this position before. “You don’t take games like this lightly because if you do, you get stung,” Moores said on the eve of the first Scotland-England ODI in 2008, when he was England’s coach and Kevin Pietersen the captain. That was one Union which failed to stand the test of time.Moores could probably think of better ways to begin his second coming than the danger of a defeat in Aberdeen of all places. As for Craig Wright, his Scotland adversary, he could not imagine a better statement ahead of next year’s World Cup than Scotland’s first ODI win over a full ICC member other than Bangladesh.Wright, a former captain and seam bowler, is only in caretaker charge until Grant Bradburn, currently coach of New Zealand A, takes over in early July, with Wright as his assistant. But he has never failed to impress cricket people in the shires and his career prospects would be buttressed by a famous win at Mannofield.But what is all this loose talk of a revival for Scottish cricket? Haven’t they been banished from the county one-day circuit after becoming so weak they no longer even enjoyed the occasional win? Didn’t they fail to reach the 16-team World Twenty20 finals, unlike Nepal, the UAE and Hong Kong? Haven’t they been left lagging behind by the Irish?Weren’t they mocked on the Emerald Isle for writing to every county professional, including William Porterfield and Paul Stirling, to ask if they could trace any Scottish blood in their ancestry and did they fancy a crack at playing at the next World Cup?All of those things are true, but Scotland turned a corner at the qualifiers in New Zealand, they now have a six-match World Cup campaign to work towards and there is much about the team to like, and to respect.Because they are young and largely homegrown, fans no longer have to sheepishly acknowledge that their only decent players are Dougie Brown, Gavin Hamilton and southern-hemisphere sorts who found a girl in Arbroath or Motherwell and settled down.They are energetic and ambitious, fortified by three or four of the players who answered Cricket Scotland’s infamous correspondence, and they have uncovered individuals like Calum MacLeod and Preston Mommsen who not only know how to play but also how to win.Ireland would probably never have beaten England had some of their players not accelerated their development within the English system, and the Dutch have benefited from county links of their own.Scotland have given seven or eight domestic players enough money to dedicate themselves to full-time training in Edinburgh, but players such as Yorkshire left-armer Iain Wardlaw, Sussex batsman Matt Machan and Rob Taylor of Northants have also made key contributions.Four months ago, though, before the renaissance, they returned from the World Twenty20 Qualifier having lost four of their games and finished seventh. Despite the introduction of Wright and Paul Collingwood to the coaching ticket, they had been so mentally weak that Collingwood admitted when he looked back over the winter: “There were moments when, I’ll be honest, I thought ‘these guys can’t take the heat’.”He challenged the players to prove him wrong, and within weeks of that Scotland interview he was coaching England in his guise as a temporary fielding coach and coming to terms with the reality that their players could not cope with pressure terribly well either.England have not struggled to stifle the Scots in their previous meetings, but it feels like there is far more riding on the result this time, and the hosts are in rude health.MacLeod, who reinvented himself as a free-flowing opener after his action was judged illegal at Warwickshire, is on a short-term trial at Durham. Machan is rated highly by Sussex and the Scotland captain, Kyle Coetzer of Northants, was born and bred in Aberdeen and averages 82 in ODIs on his home ground.One thing that probably won’t give the Scots an advantage is the Mannofield wicket. In ten ODIs on the ground the average run rate is 4.73 and there have been seven centuries, two of them by New Zealanders who christened the track in style with 402 for 2 against Ireland in 2008.Most Scottish cricketers have benefited at some point from an association with England. Few, if any, will be supporting the Yes vote when they enter the polling booths in September. But they will realise they have a chance to make cricket history next week, leaving the more significant political battle to others.

On his day, Gary Gilmour could change the game with bat or ball, but a debilitating foot injury, the Packer era and an offhand attitude to fitness meant he played his last Test at 25

Christian Ryan10-Jun-2014The AgeWas joining Packer the right decision? “From a financial point of view, yes. From a career point of view … I don’t know”•Getty ImagesThe photographer is ready to start snapping and Gary Gilmour is fishing about for props. The living room is stuffed with them. He ignores the beer mugs autographed by Australia’s 1975 Ashes squad. He steers clear of his Centenary Test bat, blackened with spidery signatures. He goes straight for his baggy green cap. It’s the first thing you notice when you walk in: a shimmering, strangely intimidating presence on the mantelpiece. And dazzlingly, ludicrously green. It looks as if it has never been touched.”This one’s not like Steve Waugh’s,” he says. “Look, it’s still brand new inside. Never wore it once. Couldn’t stand the thing. It was bloody uncomfortable.”Mid-afternoon and the Gilmour household is abuzz with activity. His three sons traipse in and out, sliding bemused glances at the couch. It’s not everyday some bloke with a tape recorder hangs on the old man’s every word.All the boys play cricket, two of them first grade. And all of them, once a month or so, dig out the tapes of that inaugural 1975 World Cup – when Gus, for two days in June, was king. “The long hair, the long sideburns. When you hear them laughing you know they’re watching the World Cup videos.”The English batsmen didn’t see the funny side in the semi-final. Gus had been 12th man throughout the preliminary matches. Now he was asked, ahead of Jeff Thomson, to share the new ball with Dennis Lillee. “I only found out as we were going out on the field,” he said. “You never knew with Ian Chappell what was going to happen until it happened.”Chappell’s timing was impeccable. Headingley was blanketed in cloud and the ball was spitting and reversing, darting every which way. Gus, a brisk left-arm swing bowler, was in heaven. “They kept shouldering arms and the ball swung back in and did the rest,” he said. “I wanted to bowl and bowl. I didn’t want my overs to run out.”His figures still defy belief. Twelve overs, six maidens, 6 for 14. When Wisden compiled a list of the 100 greatest one-day bowling performances in 2002, based on 10 sets of statistical gobbledegook, Gilmour’s 6 for 14 was No. 1.I intended to ask whether that pleased him, but there’s no need. On another wall is the list.Still he wasn’t finished. Australia, chasing 93, were 6-39 when Gus joined Doug Walters. “I was still on a high. I felt like I was infallible and I was going to be the hero.” A few lusty blows and lucky edges later, Gus had creamed a run-a-ball 28. Australia was home. “It was one of those days,” he said, “that happen once or twice in your lifetime.”Three days later it happened again. The West Indies won a gripping final by 17 runs but nothing could stop Gus. His 5-48 included four king-size scalps: Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Alvin Kallicharran and Rohan Kanhai. The key wicket was Lloyd for 102. “They still say it was a doubtful decision,” smiles Gus. “But I’ll take it. The other blokes got out throwing the bat.” Another smile. “I wouldn’t say I bowled brilliantly.”He averaged 42 with the bat in one-day internationals and 10.31 with the ball. Had he sustained those figures over 50 matches, he would be as famous as Garry Sobers. But Gus played only five one-dayers.”Test cricket was what we played for,” he said. “One-day cricket was something you had to do for your boss because he was paying the bills.” Back in 1975 the World Cup was the “social event of the year”. All the teams stayed together and drank together. Strategies started and ended at deciding whether you would retire to the hotel bar or venture further afield.

“I couldn’t play under today’s conditions, what with the travelling and training and scientific aspects. It’s not a sport any more, it’s like going to work”

“I couldn’t play under today’s conditions, what with the travelling and training and scientific aspects. It’s not a sport any more, it’s like going to work. You know how some mornings you get up and don’t want to go to work – that’s how I’d feel playing cricket these days. I’d clock on for a sickie.”But it doesn’t answer the elusive question: whatever happened to Gary Gilmour? It doesn’t explain why Australia’s last genuine allrounder – a man who swung matches with bat, ball and a ready grin – played his final Test at 25. Or maybe it does.The photo session over, Gus plonks himself back on the couch. He’s breathing heavily. Fitness, so they say, never was his strong point. “That’s pretty unfair,” he shot back. True, he didn’t fancy sit-ups and push-ups. “But in the nets no one worked harder than me.”There is a story of Gilmour, in his World Series Cricket days, being threatened with a $1000 fine unless he could run four kilometres in 15 minutes. It was as if Kerry Packer had asked him to pilot a space shuttle. “I had Ray Bright as my frontrunner and Rick McCosker up my arse. Every time I lagged back, McCosker gave me a push.” When four minutes were up they caught a cab and measured, on its tachometer, how far he had run. He made it. “I always told Packer there were sprinters and stayers. A Golden Slipper winner never won a Melbourne Cup.”Rudimentary medical practices were a bigger curse, he said. He bowled all summer in 1976-77 with a bone “the size of a five-cent piece” floating around his heel. When his performances plummeted, the selectors kept choosing him, thinking he was simply out of form. By the time the Centenary Test came round he could hardly walk. “I was a fool,” he says, for not pulling out. He bowled nine overs, made 4 and 16, and never played another Test.His bitterness at missing out on the 1977 Ashes tour is palpable. He shared a drink and chat with the selectors, who had secretly picked the squad, during the Centenary Test. “They didn’t have enough guts to tell me,” he said. “I was driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge one night and the team was read out. My name wasn’t in it. That really peeved me.”Once peace was declared and Packer packed up his caravan, the Chappells, Lillees and Marshes were welcomed back. Not Gus. “They had me earmarked for destruction.” He played two more matches for NSW and was dropped forever. His last pay cheque totalled $109 for four days’ work. “I was only 27 and that was the end of my career.”He is 51 now. He coaches a bit and gets invited to the occasional class-of-75 reunion. “Plenty of state reunions too but I don’t go to them.” So, 26 years on, is he glad he signed up with Packer? “From a financial point of view, yes. From a career point of view …,” his voice trails off. That baggy green cap is staring straight at him. “… I don’t know. The jury’s still out.”For a while he could have been anything. His World Cup final should have been just the beginning. Only with Gus Gilmour, the cap never quite fit.

Samiullah Beigh and Parvez Rasool are confident that the Jammu & Kashmir players can compete in the Ranji Trophy if the board arranges training facilities

Nagraj Gollapudi & Amol Karhadkar20-Sep-2014On Thursday Samiullah Beigh, Jammu & Kashmir’s senior-most and best fast bowler, went to the suburb of Nishat, about eight kilometres outside Srinagar, to attend his friend Tariq’s funeral. Though it’s unclear how he died, it has been suggested that Tariq, volunteering to rescue victims caught in floods that ravaged the north Indian state, might have been electrocuted while clinging to high-tension power cables, a survival tactic thousands were using as water levels rose dangerously.On September 7, the river Jhelum, the lifeline of J&K, breached its embankment and submerged not only remote districts of the state but also Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, half of which continues to lie under water.Cricket, then, is the last thing on anyone’s mind. Beigh last played cricket on September 1. Heavy rains washed out the Ranji Trophy trial matches, scheduled to start on September 3. The ongoing Downtown Champions League, a local T20 tournament, also had to be abandoned. Three days later, the flood waters entered Srinagar. Beigh was at a relative’s place in Buchpora, a town on an elevated level on the outskirts of Srinagar. But in Allochi Bagh, in the commercial heart of the capital, Beigh’s family was not so lucky. Jhelum was raging and houses were fast filling with water. Phone and power supply had been cut. “The last thing I heard from my sister was the ground floor of our three-storey house was under water. That was on the afternoon of September 7. For half the following week I did not hear from them,” Beigh recollects.Beigh’s tale is similar to that of J&K captain Parvez Rasool, who was stranded along with his family, trying to stay afloat above the fast-rising flood waters in his house in Bijbehara in Anantnag district, about 50 kilometres from Srinagar. Rasool had seen cars floating in the water from the third floor of his house but had taken the risk to extract his kit from the boot of his car in the nick of time.”The last 15 days have been the most difficult days of my life,” Rasool says over the phone, explaining it’s still difficult to get a phone signal in Bijbebara. “Every year or alternate year, floods cause some damage, but this year, it was worse than I could have ever imagined. All the vehicles in my neighbourhood were washed away. At least 125 houses have been badly damaged. Even houses constructed on elevated structures above flood levels were virtually submerged this year.”Back in Srinagar, Beigh used makeshift rafts to join the relief squads. On the way he was heartened to meet fellow Ranji team-mates Obaid Haroon, Zahoor Sofi, Sajad Sofi and Abid Nabi. “I was delighted to see Nabi alive, because, according to reports, Pampore, where he comes from, was one of the most severely affected,” Beigh says. “No one among us can even think playing cricket because we are yet to recover from the shock and the loss due to the floods.”Beigh says most of the state’s cricketers depend on the game for their livelihood, so the current situation is going to affect them badly. But he doesn’t know whom to approach for help.The Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association offices are housed in Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium, which is reported to be still under 15 feet of water. The players usually train at the stadium because the facilities are better than any in Jammu.ML Nehru, the JKCA secretary, believes it is highly unlikely any cricket will be possible in Srinagar this year since winter will set in two months and the grounds will soon be covered by snow. “We still cannot really say that the situation is under control. There are plenty of boys who we have been struggling to get in touch with, across age groups. The natural calamity was so severe that all the grounds in Srinagar are still submerged. Though the situation in Jammu is slightly better, all the wickets are severely affected, so we are not really sure when will things get back on track.”According to Nehru, the selection trials’ matches for various age groups will need to be moved to the Science College ground in Jammu. But Beigh is uncertain about the inadequate facilities at college ground. “The problem is there are no facilities in Jammu. There are no practice pitches. There is only one turf wicket, which is in the central square and needs to be utilised for the four home Ranji matches, so it needs to be preserved.”Rasool is anxious to get on with his cricket as he is likely to feature in the Duleep Trophy starting in October. If the Jammu ground is unfit, he may consider moving to Delhi and practise on his own.Both Beigh and Rasool hope the BCCI will step in and help the players.”If the BCCI could help us train at NCA, or some good facility outside J&K, that could be a solution,” says Beigh. “In a month the domestic season will start. In November the domestic ODIs will start followed by the Ranji season in December.”The BCCI is “very cooperative”, Nehru says, without elaborating on any plan of action. “They have assured as that they will extend all sorts of help we will require.”Nehru says without help the JKCA’s hands are tied. “The Under-16 tournament starts early in October and I doubt if we can participate in it. I doubt if we can conduct the selection trials of the kids and it is not advisable for the kids to travel at the moment. We will explain the situation to the board and take a final call.”Beigh is confident of bouncing back if help is offered to J&K’s cricketers. “Provided we get the best facilities during our preparation in October,” we can put up a good show. Without that I am not sure we can even participate in Ranji Trophy.”Rasool is equally confident. “Till the floods, we were playing trial matches, were training hard, but now cricket has taken a backseat. If it’s difficult to restore the facilities even in Jammu, it would be better if our training camp is moved out of the state.”