Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013At last, the waiting is over. Again. A tortuous, seemingly endless five entire days with no Test cricket have finally wended their pointless way into the history books, and the long-awaited England versus West Indies rematch now marches towards its thrillingly decisive climax at the Riverside today. The Wisden Trophy is still literally anyone’s. The two captains have been at each other’s throats like two top surgeons in a one-on-one emergency tracheotomy competition. And the Ashes (not to mention West Indies’ forthcoming home clash with Bangladesh) loom with massively gargantuan enormity as the players strain every conceivable physical and mental sinew to touch the elusive heavens of cricketing immortality. Truly, the eyes of the universe are trained through excited binoculars on the green Durham sward, and it is hard to envisage that this will not prove to be the greatest match cricket has ever seen.Perhaps I am guilty of talking things up a little. The advance ticket sales suggest I may even be guilty of talking things up more than a little. Following three days of medium-to-low calibre action at Lord’s, and with the West Indian captain essentially proclaiming that he would rather be doing something else somewhere else than spending a long weekend standing outside in the north of England in the middle of May, the cricketing public is showing little appetite for this game. In fact, it is pushing this game around its plate. It may nibble the odd morsel, but it is clearly watching its weight and saving itself for a far more satisfying main course – Ashes pie.The first Test was an unsatisfying match, despite its nail-biting denouement. Admittedly, it was only nail-biting for the friend with whom I watched the evening session of day 3 – he had tickets for day 4, and would have missed out on his refund if the West Indies had resisted until stumps. The tension in his wallet was unbearable.England played well enough, but the startling ineptitude of their opponents in the field and with the bat renders judgement largely irrelevant. If the Australians are not quite quaking in their boots, it is at least partially because the Ashes remain sufficiently far away that they have not yet put their boots on.Here, then, are the official Confectionery Stall Conclusions To Be Drawn From The First Test:England’s main concern will be about Ravi Bopara. He is clearly a good player, and, on the evidence of his last two Test innings, a lucky one. However, questions must be asked about his temperament under pressure. He had a chance to carve himself a unique place in the history books – he could have been the 700th player to be out in the 90s in Test matches. No-one could ever have taken that away from him. Instead, he played himself calmly to a century, the 3281st century in Tests, yet another name on an overfilled honours board. He had the chance to make his mark by throwing his innings away to any one of the 20 balls he faced after passing 90 before reaching three figures. And he blew it.Graham Onions, after perhaps the most inept two-ball start to a Test career (100% bowled out by a full toss, then a long-hop demolished to the boundary), showed himself to be a decent bowler, and his giddy enthusiasm was magnificent to see. He prompted some slightly overexcited comparisons to Glenn McGrath. Other than a good action and a propensity for skittling teams out in Lord’s Tests, this may be a little premature. Onions’ first-class economy rate is 3.7, compared to McGrath’s 2.5. Onions has also thus far shown no capability for unleashing needless barrages of verbal abuse into batsmen’s faces. If he wants to match the Australian’s 563 Test wickets at 21, he will have to work on both of these aspects of his game. The McGrath-style batting is clearly almost there.However, the British media clearly do not consider Onions to be a long-term prospect. They blew every conceivable onion-related headline and wordplay at the first available opportunity, rather than pacing themselves over a 70-Test career. Already, journalists and sub-editors will be rifling through their recipe books trying to find more onion-based dishes in case the Gateshead Goliath transpires to be one of England’s greats. Tim Bresnan will never be a Test cricketer. Unless he stops (a) being given out lbw when the ball was not even contemplating hitting the stumps, and (b) not having to bowl very much.Those wickets in the West Indies really did flatter the batsmen and insult the bowlers. A boring five-day Test is much, much more boring than a boring three-day Test.History will never know whether Chris Gayle would have played better or worse had he arrived more than two days before the game began. He would certainly have played in the same way. Arguably, he would have been stroppier for having had to leave the IPL even sooner. In fact, it is possible that Gayle had too much acclimatisation time. If he had arrived just in time for the toss, he might not have had time to remember that he doesn’t like Test cricket much any more.On then, to the Riverside, the mostly empty Riverside. During his entertaining to-and-fro with Gayle, Andrew Strauss said: “The important thing is that Test cricket gets the attention it deserves. And that means that people prepare themselves properly for any Test match you play. You don’t want Test cricket to be devalued in any way, shape or form.”These are noble thoughts, which all Test fans would support. But these words ring a little hollow before a Test at a ludicrous time of year against a team that had not been planning to be involved. Test cricket is the pinnacle of the game, but it is not always treated as such by its authorities. Teams (both home and away) are habitually underprepared, some are depopulated by the tedious political squabbling over the ICL, series are raced through at breakneck speed, and pitches are often designed to provide time-span rather than contest. Test cricket is increasingly often devalued in many ways, shapes and forms.Gayle’s recent mutterings to the media also proved what a phenomenal entertainer the man is, both on and off the pitch. After encouraging Strauss not to “sleep with Chris on his mind” (sage advice at any time, unless the Chris to whom he was referring was Chris Tavare, who was often prescribed as an insomnia cure by the NHS in the 1980s), Gayle bemoaned how the demands of captaincy force him to go through innumerable onerous tasks. “There’s always something you have to go and do, you know, extra,” said the Kingston Cavalier. “Lunch or dinner, some other thing.” These, of course, are meals of which Gayle would normally steer well clear. He is very much a breakfast, elevenses, teatime nibbles and bedtime snack man. The fact that he is prepared to alter his dietary timetable for the needs of the team is a mark of the man.England should win this game – they have beaten West Indies in 11 of the past 13 Tests in this country, and it seems unlikely that Gayle’s comments about wanting to give up the captaincy and not being particularly fussed about the future of Test cricket will serve to inspire his troops to follow their captain in a Test match. Let us hope it is a better game than Lord’s, however, and that Captain Chris enjoys it. He might not need Test cricket, but Test cricket needs him.

Team-mates pay tribute to former India allrounder Rusi Surti, who died at the age of 76

Nagraj Gollapudi13-Jan-2013Chandu Borde, former India team-mate
When a batsman hit the ball hard, Rusi, usually standing at a close-in position, would rush to the ball. That approach was completely in contrast to the rest of fielders who would normally wait for the ball to come. He was a very good allrounder and if he had played one-day cricket, he would have been really successful. He was an asset to the Indian side.Unfortunately, he was not consistent and that played against him. But his best quality was his grit. He was a (braveheart) cricketer. He would never take things lying down, he always liked to fight it out.Bapu Nadkarni, former India team-mate
He was a very old colleague of mine. We played together for about 18 years for Bombay and Times of India in the local Mumbai leagues. He was a really bold, big-hearted cricketer. Take the example of the second Test of the 1967-68 tour of Australia: it was a horrible wicket, an absolute green pitch with lot of movement. There was no chance we could face the likes of Garth McKenzie. India won the toss and elected to bat and were 25 for 5. Surti had retired earlier, hit just that once by McKenzie, but returned later to give Tiger (Nawab of Pataudi Jr) good support. If not for their daring knocks (and partnership worth 74 runs for the eighth wicket), India would have faced the disgrace of getting out for a low total. Rusi’s 30 was the finest innings on one of the fastest pitches, and he was proud of that innings, but would never talk about it himself. I have not seen a bigger fighter than him against all odds. Whatever side, tournament and level he played for, Rusi was a great team man. Farokh Engineer, former India team-mate
[how would it matter to him?]” was the line Rusi loved to use from his young days. Delivering it with that Parsi-Gujarati accent, he made it sound more interesting. He once said it reacting to Bill Lawry in the 1967 Mumbai Test, after the Australian had missed an easy full toss. Rusi, standing at silly mid-on, had turned his back as the batsman went for the stroke, but as soon as he heard the Australian captain use curse words, he instinctively came up with his favourite line. I had to pacify him in native Gujarati, but Rusi would not listen.I had known him from our days at the Dadar Parsi Colony Sporting Club and our careers ran parallel. He was an extremely talented player and a brilliant fielder. Along with Tiger Pataudi, Eknath Solkar, Abid Ali and myself behind the stumps, we comprised a very good fielding unit at one time. I would thank Rusi for improving my wicketkeeping skills. Playing for the Parsi Cylicsts in the Kanga League on horribly wet pitches, he would turn the ball from wide outside the leg stump and curl it outside off stump. He should have played more Test matches considering he was an extremely talented cricketer.

From Rahul Oak, United States

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013
Indians loved Kapil Dev since he at least made the batsmen think about coming in to bat with a helmet•Bob Thomas/Getty Images I’ve often wondered what it must have been like being an Indian batsman in the pre-Kapil era. Say you toured a place like the West Indies and found yourself staring down the pitch to find a fire breathing Marshall or Roberts or Holding … basically someone who, from your point of view, looked at least 20 feet tall and was trying to decimate you by hurling a heavy object in the general direction of your helmet-less head at a million miles an hour. The reason the post-Kapil era was different is that you might have found yourself in that situation as well, but at least you had someone like a Kapil or a Prabhakar (hey, beggars cannot be choosers) or Prasad (ok, that’s going a bit too far – cancel Venky) on your team who might have been able to return the favor every once in a while. But to look at your dugout only to find Bedi, Prasanna and some other fairly unathletic looking types playing cards, sipping hot tea and discussing grips that impart maximum spin on the ball must have been a disheartening experience.That is the biggest reason Kapil was such a revolutionary figure in Indian cricket. Batting ability and athletic fielding aside, people just simply loved him for the fact that he at least made opposition batsmen think about coming in to bat with a helmet on and actually ponder going on to the backfoot every now and then. After the heady moments of 1983, every Indian supporter imagined it to be the start of a new era where Kapil’s success gave rise to a new generation of truly genuine and hostile fast bowlers who would make batsmen the world over shake in their boots. Twenty-seven years later, we are yet to unearth such a species.It’s not like India haven’t produced any fast bowlers in that period of time. Javagal Srinath and, lately, Zaheer Khan have been the torch bearers of the pack and deserve all the accolades that they have received. Zaheer, at his rawest, probably made every Indian sit up and take notice: he had the physique, the action and the skill. So also with Srinath at the beginning of his career (although Srinath was probably more raw than Zaheer at that point). But then they were the lone warriors – due to the serious lack of back-up (except for Srinath when Prasad was at his peak), they had to assume the role of leader of the pack, swing bowler, stock bowler and third seamer. With it came torn rotator cuffs and a host of other injuries which only accelerated (ironic how an adjective used to describe an increase in speed is apt here) their journey towards medium-fastness.Of course, none of this is to say that we don’t appreciate Zak and Jaggu’s contributions to Indian cricket – far from it. But we are still obsessed with raw pace! Why you ask? Well, here’s a little insight into the psyche of the Indian supporter. Every time their team does well (or poorly), they take a look across the border at our dear neighbors. As long as they are doing worse, we are happy. This is one area where we have never been able to match Pakistan who seem to have a nearly unending supply of genuinely quick bowlers. From Wasim to Waqar to Sami to Shoaib, every generation seems to throw someone who absolutely rouses the speed gun and makes it sing. Compare this to our very own Praveen Kumar who barely manages to tickle the speed gun behind its ear as it stirs a little bit out of its slumber only to turn the pillow and fall back into a deep, dreamless sleep. We might laugh at their administration and politics and a bunch of other things that make Pakistan an entertaining team to follow, but for their fast bowlers we always have a grudging admiration.The most annoying thing of all is that there have been times of real hope! From Ashish Nehra to Munaf Patel to Irfan Pathan to Sreesanth and more recently, Ishant Sharma – they have all showed promise. There has been at least one moment in all the above mentioned careers where they have bent their back and produced the odd delivery at over 140 kph. The next day Indians all over the world have YouTube’d the video and have stared at it in admiration and awe. But then something happens to them and they are somehow coached into bowling “line and length” at anywhere between 120 and 130 k’s an hour.It could be a combination of many factors – maybe the diet (Srinath, for all that he was, was also vegetarian and ate the odd egg when a gun was held to his head), maybe it’s the pitches – but whatever it is, it is doing Indian cricket a serious disservice. Of course, one cannot fail to mention stupid selection policies. Remember Abey Kuruvilla and Salil Ankola – The tall pair of Bombay fast bowlers who used to bowl with pace and bounce? What happened to them? One was picked at the ripe age of 29 when he depended on slow offcutters for most of his wickets whereas the other decided that there was more promise in a television acting career. The absolute nadir, however came when on a tour of the West Indies, both Srinath and Prasad broke down and Kumble was shouldering the responsibility of being the leading spinner as well as quickest bowler in the team (Dodda Ganesh is said to have bowled faster than him on occasion, but it is hard to distinguish between truth and legend in this case).But then, say what you will about Indian supporters, we are an optimistic lot. We will continue to forward each other YouTube videos of promising pacemen. We will continue to keep watching the speed gun hoping for a streak of 6 deliveries over the 140 kph mark. We will continue to hope that someday, at some point in the future, a generation of Indian supporters will be able to talk about how they saw an Indian paceman running in from a long run up, with the wind in behind his back, bowling fast as lightening and making the batsman (preferably Aussie or South African) hop, skip and jump before getting out fending a delivery in front of his face. Until then, we have Ijaz Butt.P.S. Agarkar was not excluded from this article because he was forgotten. He was not mentioned for a reason.

At an open session organised for the media in Chennai, Taibu came across as an engaging young man. He had a ready smile, sparkling eyes, and stories to tell

Nikhilesh Bhattacharya25-Feb-2013News from Zimbabwe about Tatenda Taibu’s decision to quit cricket for the church took me back to my only meeting with the man ahead of last year’s 50-over World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.At an open session organised for the media in Chennai, Taibu came across as an engaging young man. He had a ready smile, sparkling eyes, and stories to tell. He laughed when he was told that his life had been quite a journey, starting as he did as an international cricketer at 18. “Yeah, as I tell them in the dressing room, ‘take care of the old man, guys’,” Taibu, 27 at that time, said, prompting laughter all around.When talk veered to his family, the wicketkeeper-batsman said he had two sons: the elder, unimaginatively named Tatenda Junior, was “um, seven” at the time. The younger, only a few months old in February 2011, is called Gershom. Now, “if you know your Bible,” said Taibu, Gershom means a stranger in a strange land, a name Moses had given his first-born son.What struck me then was that Taibu himself had been a stranger in strange lands for quite some time after quitting the Zimbabwean set-up in 2005, plying his trade in Namibia and at one point declaring his intention to qualify for South Africa. But in 2011, after yet another comeback to the Zimbabwe team, Taibu appeared settled in his role as he hoped to “steal some fans from soccer to cricket” with a big performance in the World Cup. Now we know it was only a temporary refuge.

Haseeb Ahsan was everything a selector ought to be, and his impact on Pakistan cricket was long-lasting

Saad Shafqat09-Mar-2013The qualities that have left the deepest impression about Haseeb Ahsan are his sharpness and shrewdness. They reflected his character and approach to life, as much as they described his offspin bowling. Born in 1939, Ahsan debuted for Pakistan in 1958, and went on to serve in a series of administrative cricket roles. His influence thus straddles generations; he was as much a figure of the 1950s as of the 1980s.The art of administration and management came naturally to him, and eventually came to be recognised as his true forte. Success outside of cricket confirms this judgement. As an employee of Pakistan International Airlines, Ahsan rose to become general manager of the carrier’s UK operations. Later in life, he joined American Express and became country head for Pakistan. He was astute at handling people and understanding their motivations and reactions.Yet he was no diplomat. Not above holding grudges, he did not shy away from confrontation when it mattered most. This was most evident when Ahsan was manager of the Pakistan team on the 1987 tour to England, which perhaps most dominates his legacy. In Imran’s Summer of Fulfilment, an account of that tour published by the author Khadim Hussain Baloch, Ahsan is described as “a genial man whose smiling exterior masked a character with endless reserves of strength, and whose determination to succeed was as fierce as that of the captain, Imran”.It was a time when Pakistan were in ascendancy, and had begun to assert themselves as one of the strongest teams around. At the start of the tour, Ahsan bluntly asked the English cricket authorities not to appoint Ken Palmer or David Constant as umpires, as they had left previous Pakistan
teams unduly aggrieved. This outspokenness made Ahsan immediately newsworthy, and he was in the crosshairs of the English press for the rest of the tour – which brought out his combative best. “It was a role he relished,” recalls Javed Miandad, Pakistan’s batting mainstay on that trip, which eventually produced Pakistan’s inaugural series victory in England.Ahsan also served at different times on the PCB’s selection committee, including stints as its chairman. He is remembered as an honest and commonsensical selector who called it like it is. One of his most courageous positions, unpopular at the time but eventually vindicated, was to advocate for the sidelining of Imran Khan from the 1983-84 tour to Australia, after the Pakistan captain developed a stress fracture of the shin. It brought Ahsan nothing but grief – including a much-publicised dust-up with the board’s formidable chairman, Nur Khan – but the needless aggravation of the injury proved Ahsan right.

“A genial man whose smiling exterior masked a character with endless reserves of strength, and whose determination to succeed was as fierce as that of the captain, Imran”Ahsan as described by author Khadim Hussain Baloch

Even by the standards of the 1950s, he had a short Test career, playing only 12 matches between 1958 and 1962. Yet this too is surrounded by lore. Qamar Ahmed, the veteran Pakistan cricket journalist, who played a great deal of first-class cricket with Ahsan, says he never saw an offspinner
turn the ball as much as Ahsan did. His Test figures (27 wickets at 49.25, including two five-fors) are creditable for someone who bowled mostly on dead pitches.In his sixth Test, a drawn affair in Bombay, Ahsan was called for throwing. He went on to bowl in subsequent matches, but the issue resurfaced on the 1962 tour to England, triggering Ahsan’s return to Pakistan before the Test series had even begun. The unofficial word is that Ahsan did not see eye to eye with the captain Javed Burki, who may have exploited the matter to get rid of Ahsan. Regardless, it effectively ended Ahsan’s Test career at the age of only 23.He was born in Peshawar to an Urdu-speaking family. His father was a high-ranking civil servant during the Ayub Khan days, and died prematurely in 1963. Ahsan attended Islamia College in Peshawar, where his cricketing ability was first noticed. Two eight-fors playing for Peshawar in the
Quaid-e-Azam Trophy earned him selection on Pakistan’s 1958 tour to West Indies.Though he never married, Ahsan acquired scores of well-wishers during his lifetime. Friends and associates remember him with much affection. Aftab Baloch, the Pakistani batsman famous for scoring a quadruple-hundred, and who was Ahsan’s colleague at PIA, describes him as a “fine gentleman” and a “perfect administrator”. Qamar Ahmed remembers him as “humble and
down to earth” and unfailingly helpful to anyone in need. Miandad points out that during the 1987 England tour, Ahsan took personal ownership of fund-raising efforts for Imran’s cancer hospital and proved instrumental in netting a windfall.For someone who did not enjoy a long playing career and never held high executive office within the PCB, Haseeb Ahsan casts an unexpectedly long and influential shadow over Pakistan cricket. He will be fondly remembered as a doer, a positive thinker, a patriot, and a man of intelligence and
nous who served Pakistan cricket with sincerity and impact.

Bracing weather, a picturesque landing, and men with famous surnames making their mark – they all feature in the first edition of our correspondent’s New Zealand diary

Andrew McGlashan12-Mar-2013February 25
London-Dubai-Sydney-Christchurch. Not really sure what day it is. First time back in Christchurch since the devastating earthquake in 2011. On the drive from the airport you can see corrugated road surfaces that are among the effects of the quake. Decide to take a walk around; quite a sobering experience. A section of the CBD is still cordoned off, although shrinking all the time as construction continues. The hotel I stayed in on my previous visit is one of many buildings no longer standing. This will be a low-rise city from now. Love some of the initiative shown in temporary structures, such as a shopping area made of shipping containers, and an entertainment block of packing crates. The city wants to be a host for the 2015 World Cup. Hope it comes their way.February 26
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have begun out descent into…” When the captain makes that announcement it is not, normally, a precursor to much more than closing your tray tables and putting your seats in the upright position. However, when those words are followed by “Queenstown”, it is the cue to fix your gaze outside the window, or to politely ask the other passengers in your row if they mind some encroachment into their personal space.Arriving in Queenstown, on New Zealand’s South Island, is one of the world’s great landings. Google a list and it is often alongside places such as Hong Kong, St Maarten (where you land just metres beyond the beach), and some of the white-knuckle runways in the Himalayas. Aircraft take a narrow course between the mountains, banking left and right. As the landing gear is lowered, and the earth approaches, you can see the Queenstown Events Centre – the rather unglamorous name for the cricket ground, which has provided the foreground for many airplane-landing-over-match pictures.Straight from the airport to England’s first red-ball training session. Andy Flower is back in charge and directs the centre-wicket practice. Alastair Cook and Nick Compton bat together. Presume that means no batting changes.February 27
There are not many better locations for a cricket match. The contest on the pitch is good too. New Zealand’s eager attack nip the ball round and it needs a classy ton from Ian Bell to keep England on track for a decent total.After play, make it to the waterfront in time for sunset. The light catches the top of the mountains. They are truly remarkable.February 28
It’s always interesting when players likely to appear in a Test a few days later face the opposition in a match such as this. Notes are taken by both sides. Hamish Rutherford makes an impressive 90. The England bowlers are forced to work hard. During his innings he has contact-lens trouble. “It ended up somewhere near my brain,” he says afterwards.March 1
Corey Anderson picked up a side strain bowling in the first innings, but it doesn’t appear to impact his batting as he clubs England for 67 off 62 balls. One over from Graham Onions costs 22. Then England’s top order falls to 67 for 4. Not a convincing day.The evening is spent with Mike Walters, who is covering the trip for the and is back on tour for the first time in seven years. Listen to some great stories of touring years ago. Things have certainly changed.March 2
Neil Wagner has close to the perfect day. Gets added to the New Zealand Test squad and hits the winning runs as the XI chase down 334 with eight balls to spare. Isn’t afraid to speak his mind at the press conference: “It’s good that Kevin Pietersen hasn’t batted very long.” Looking forward to Wagner v KP in the Tests.Last evening in Queenstown, but it’s a quiet one, spent with a couple of colleagues discussing the new county cricket season. (Well, it’s only a month away.)March 3
Another lovely journey, this time from Queenstown to Dunedin. You really do get spoilt over here. Valleys, mountains, lakes, rivers, forests and wildlife. Pass through a small town called Waihola just outside of Dunedin. Sign on arriving says, “No doctor, no hospital, one cemetery.”Immediately feel the chillier climate of the east coast, although, like most of New Zealand, Dunedin has had a warm, dry summer. There’s a cricket match in town. Isn’t that normally the signal for a change?An entertainment block in Christchurch, where packing crates feature prominently•Andrew McGlashan/ESPNcricinfo LtdThe game also coincides with Freshers’ Week for Otago University. That coupled with the Barmy Army in town means it should be lively.March 5
It’s New Zealand census day and visitors to the country have to fill a form in as well. The census has been delayed two years because of the Christchurch earthquake, which caused so much displacement that it would have distorted any survey. The news channels have stories of the lengths the census-takers go to to ensure everyone fills out a form and all properties are logged. It means going around abandoned buildings and making trips to the many remote islands, especially in New Zealand’s north, where people who don’t want to be found often go. I make it easy for them. One page, a few tick boxes and my duty is done.The early evening is spent at a function put on by Otago Cricket at University Oval. They are immensely proud of hosting this Test. “Four years ago we set out our aim to get an England Test,” Ross Dykes, the Otago CEO, says. “This is the pinnacle for us.” Finishing touches are being put to the ground, which looks a picture.March 6
The cricket-weather jinx strikes again. The cloud rolls in almost as Brendon McCullum says, “We’ll bowl.” The front row of the press tent quickly gets soaked – not ideal for the electrics – and the grass banks, which were filling up moments earlier, start to empty as fans hunt for cover. Feel desperately sorry for the local organisers.March 7
Close-of-play score: 167 all out plays 131 without loss. Not the dominant start many expected England to make. They have been inept; New Zealand have had a day they could scarcely have dreamt of. Wagner is the main man, marking his first home Test with the notable scalps of Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell.March 8
Hamish Rutherford makes a magnificent 171. Feels like we’ve seen the start of a long Test career. His father, Ken, followed every ball from his home in South Africa and his mother, Karen Broad, was at the ground. ”I remember when he was six months old and from the moment he could sit up he had a little bat. We spent all day bowling to him,” she tells the . “And Tom [Hamish’s younger brother] was no different. “It is overwhelming. I’m just so proud of him. He has just done so well and he is so confident and calm.”March 9
Turning into a family Test at University Oval. Following Rutherford’s innings, Nick Compton fights to his maiden Test century. He gives a press conference of rare emotion and openness. When asked about the family name, he just replies. “It’s nice to do something my grandfather did, sure, but right now I’m happy for myself and my family.”March 10
Catch a few minutes with Richard Compton, Nick’s dad, while queuing for coffee. He is still beaming with pride. The photos of his first-pump when Nick reached his hundred are all over the press. “The support from South Africa has been amazing as well,” he says, “I spent all night replying to messages.” He was particularly delighted with a couple of Nick’s cover drives. “I hadn’t seen him play them so well before. In England he would say it was just too risky.”The batting story of the day, though, is Steven Finn. He doesn’t quite seem to know how to celebrate when he reaches 50. Maybe he’ll get another chance. Anyway, it’s all square. Next stop Wellington. I bet it’s windy.

Plays of the day from the IPL game between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Jaipur

Sidharth Monga29-Apr-2013The view
The best view – as you will know if you have played snooker – is from the same level as the ball is. In the first over of the match, Chris Gayle tried to sweep Ajit Chandila, slipped, and landed on his face. However, instead of looking embarrassed he lay down there and watched the ball travel all the way to the square-leg boundary for four. As if watching TV from the bed.The reaction
When Shane Watson removed Gayle with an innocuous shortish delivery outside off, he didn’t exult as bowlers who get Gayle should. Gayle had already scored 34 off 16, but this was still a huge wicket. Watson just smiled with his face brighter than ever. It began as a smile of relief, then glee, and it stayed just as wide until he had walked past Gayle and to the cordon.The reprieve
In the 12th over, AB de Villiers lobbed Stuart Binny straight to deep cover, but Sreesanth was too charged up, ran in too far, completely misjudged the catch, and watched it lob him like a tennis player after playing a poor approach shot. And no, he couldn’t have lost it in the setting sun because the sun was behind him.That was not the reprieve, though. The reprieve was for Sreesanth. His captain, Rahul Dravid, threw him the ball and asked him to right the wrong. He responded with a wide half-volley, but de Villiers lofted it to the deep cover again, and this time James Faulkner took the catch easily, despite the sun being in his eye. Sreesanth was relieved, and followed it up with six dot balls in a row.The slower balls
Faulkner has been bowling back-of-the-hand slower balls well, but as with all good and bad things excess is not good. In the final over of the Royal Challengers innings, with the visitors stuck and the final kick nowhere in sight, his slower ball became predictable, and R Vinay Kumar smote two of them over long-on for massive sixes. When Faulkner corrected the length, Vinay smote that length ball too. Not how you wish somebody on a birthday.

Leicestershire still bring through talented players but their prospects for success on the field look limited

George Dobell02-Apr-2013Last year: 7th, CC Div 2; Group stage, FLt20; 6th in Group A, CB40.2012 in a nutshell: One of the also-rans. Leicestershire never threatened to challenge for promotion or in limited-overs cricket. After winning their first Championship game, they failed to do so again until late August and only by winning their final game did they ensure they would not finish bottom. They never got going in the CB40, failing to win any of their first five matches, and were similarly irrelevant in the FLt20, where they lost their first four matches, despite being the holders. There were a few areas of encouragement: only the two promoted teams lost fewer games in the lower division of the Championship and Shiv Thakor emerged as a player of rich promise. Ramnaresh Sarwan settled in well, too, and was rewarded with the captaincy.2013 prospects: There can be few expectations of silverware. Wayne White, easily their leading wicket-taker in the Championship last year, has left for a fresh start at Lancashire and Sarwan’s form has put him back on the radar of the West Indies’ selectors. Matthew Hoggard, who did not take a five-wicket haul last year, is not the bowler he once was and ongoing financial pressures limit the club’s competiveness in the transfer market. Still, Australian Joe Burns has been signed as cover for Sarwan, Niall O’Brien’s arrival from Northants should strengthen the batting and Anthony Ireland, Robbie Williams and Ollie Freckingham will add competition for bowling places. A decent run in T20 cricket remains possible but a promotion challenge looks unlikely. Off the pitch, the club hope they can progress the ground development plans which would enable them to spend more on their cricket budget.Key player: Nathan Buck, the 21-year-old seamer, endured a tough 2012, averaging 47.75 with the ball in the Championship. He is better than that, though, and if used – and rested – sensibly could develop into a match-winner.Bright young thing: Thakor, a 19-year-old batting allrounder, is the latest to emerge from Leicestershire’s remarkable production line. He topped the county’s Championship batting averages last year and is tipped to have an outstanding future. How long Leicestershire can keep hold of him remains to be seen but, for now, he should enjoy and benefit from first-team cricket in all formats.Captain/coach: Sarwan is the Championship captain, with Josh Cobb taking over for limited-overs cricket. Phil Whitticase remains the head coach.ESPNcricinfo verdict: While promotion or a trophy are unlikely, Leicestershire do at least continue to produce players. If Cobb, Thakor, Buck, Matthew Boyce and co. can find form, they could surprise a few.

One man spent over a year cycling from England to Australia to watch the last Ashes. If that’s not devotion to the game, what is?

Alan Gardner04-Jul-2013Oli Broom is not a member of the Barmy Army, though he is surely qualified. He is not strictly a journeyman cricketer, though he has played the game in locations all over the world. Having spent 14 months during 2009 and 2010 cycling from England to watch the Ashes in Australia, he is easily cast as a cricket tragic, though he doesn’t come across as an anorak. He is an ordinary fan who came up with an extraordinary plan; and now he has written a book about it.On his journey from London to Brisbane, which raised £75,000 for charity, Broom pedalled more than 14,000 miles across 23 different countries on four continents, equipped with little more than a cricket bat and a few panniers of camping gear.Abandoning his career as a chartered surveyor, Broom set off on an adventure that saw him feature in TV bulletins and newsprint around the world – sample headline: “He cycled to Serbia armed with a stick” – and become a mini social-media phenomenon. All quite impressive for a man who describes himself as a “home bod”.Cricket certainly attracts its eccentrics – from Vic Flowers to the club players who organised a game on Everest, and Peter Chismon, the globetrotting Sussex fan – but Broom doesn’t come across as a Mongoose-toting loon. He seems a little sheepish about being compared to wilderness expert Bear Grylls, quoted on the book sleeve, and is genuinely happy to have a “proper job” for the next year (working on the Tour de France’s 2014 grand depart in Yorkshire). He’s not the cricketing messiah, just a slightly nutty boy.”Even now, two and a half years after I got back, I wouldn’t want to do it again,” he says cheerfully, reflecting on a tour that took him along 1500 miles of the Danube, across the deserts of northern Africa, through the heat and bustle of the subcontinent and into the Australian outback. “It was a hell of a long time but it just flew by. Before I left, I wouldn’t have believed that I’d be able to get to Australia, and now that I’m back I almost don’t believe that it was me.”There are plenty of pictures, tweets and blog entries to prove it was – as well as a potential documentary, still being pieced together by Laszlo, a Hungarian film-maker and one of the many friends Broom made along the way. Daft caper as it sounds, the experience clearly had a profound effect on its protagonist.”It’s the best thing I’ve ever done by a hell of a long way. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that but it was just amazing to meet all these different people from around the world. That was the best bit about it, meeting these random, hilarious characters and having some very weird experiences. Part of me is a bit sad I didn’t have any death-defying moments because that would have been great for the book but it shows what a good place the world is. Some of the best people I met were in Sudan, Syria – you don’t hear a lot of good news about those countries in the Western press.”

Broom was pole-axed by dengue fever in Thailand, knocked off his bike by a truck in Bulgaria, and had a few nervy moments with the wild dogs of the Anatolian plains

Even if he didn’t confront his mortality, Broom still had to deal with a few scrapes. He was pole-axed by dengue fever in Thailand – threatening his chances of making it to the Gabba for the first Test as promised – knocked off his bike by a truck in Bulgaria, and had a few nervy moments with the wild dogs of the Anatolian plains. And that’s without mentioning the sore knee that almost convinced him to give up before reaching Dover.His fitness improved, though he could not quite keep to the original schedule he set for himself (using a thumb to measure rough distances on the map). The book conveys a sense that Broom set off on a whim and a prayer, and he candidly describes the tears and exhaustion, as well as the moments of epiphany.”I was a stranger everywhere I went; vulnerable – emotionally and physically,” he writes, after an encounter with a Serbian turnip farmer who doesn’t speak English but donates him some produce for the road induces another bout of sobbing.”I was completely underprepared and so I didn’t really know what I was getting myself in for, which was the only way to do it, for me,” he says. “There’s a guy called Alastair Humphreys, who cycled round the world for four years, and he says in his book, if he knew everything he knew now he wouldn’t have set out in the first place. So there’s a sort of naivety and ignorance attached to cycling off round the world.”The undertaking was inspired by the “malady known as wanderlust” but Broom didn’t return with a cure. “It definitely hasn’t answered all the questions. I didn’t come back at the end and think, ‘Ah, I know what I want to do with my life.’ I never thought I would.”While the book contains moments of introspection, Broom leavens the tale with regular comic episodes, often sending himself up. He writes of composing his own tune, “The Majesty of Industry”, to sing to himself whenever he came across appropriate subjects. “In my low moments it was a melancholic Leonard Cohen-esque dirge. When I felt chipper it turned into a bouncy number that Stevie Wonder might have been proud of.” In India, he is like Ahab in search of a spot of shade, only to end up in the middle of yet another scrum of men who want to touch his bike. what jazz is to (although the comparison stops there). From the grave of former England spinner Colin Blythe in Ypres, via the unexpectedly devoted converts of the Serbian Cricket Federation, to playing in a hotel hallway with the West Bengal youth team, Broom maps the game in obscure European outposts as well as its commonwealth redoubts. The only place he couldn’t get a hit was in the Australian outback.”What I enjoyed most was just meeting people who were much madder on cricket than I am. I love cricket but meeting people like Vladimir, Haris and Slobodan in Serbia – they cricket. They used to stay up watching the Ashes and that series, after I got to Australia, they were up all night every night supporting England, in former socialist tower blocks in the middle of Belgrade. You just can’t believe how committed they are.”Broom admits he didn’t keep a tally of runs and wickets on tour, like any self-respecting tragic would. But his story is more about self-discovery and the life-affirming experience of making friends of strangers all over the world than a obsession with sport.He knows as much as anyone about spreading the game in foreign lands, though, having worked in Rwanda for the last 18 months on a project to build a cricket stadium, in addition to his travels. His “get cape, wear cape, fly” attitude may have been hung up in the wardrobe for now but when we meet he mulls the possibility of examining cricket’s ever-strengthening toehold in China.”I’d like to do some more travelling but I probably won’t do a 14-month bike ride again. I definitely want to explore cricket further. I’d love to go and explore the game in India and would like that to be in a book. We’ll see.”

A look back on Mickey Arthur’s turbulent 19 months as Australia coach

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jun-2013November 22, 2011: Mickey Arthur, the former South Africa coach, becomes Australia’s first foreign-born coach. He is given the post after its redefinition under the recommendations of the Argus review, which took place after the disastrous 2010-11 Ashes. His contract is set to run until the end of the 2015 World Cup.December 2011: Arthur says the players should get used to rotation for reasons of balance, as it is something that will become more frequent under the new team-performance regime. All the players, he says, have to be prepared to accept the possibility: “That’s a maturity that we want to try to get into the group getting down the line.”December 2011: In a dramatic finish, Australia lose the Hobart Test to New Zealand – the visitors’ first victory in Australia since 1985 – to end with a 1-1 draw in Arthur’s first Test series in charge.January 2012: Australia complete their Test summer with a 4-0 drubbing of India.January 2012: Arthur says David Warner has the potential to lead the team “in any form of the game”.April 2012: Australia win the Frank Worrell Trophy in the West Indies comfortably, 2-0.July 2012: Australia are thumped 4-0 on their limited-overs tour of England.August 2012: Steve Rixon, Australia’s fielding mentor, takes over as head coach for the ODIs against Afghanistan and Pakistan in the UAE, to allow Arthur to focus on preparations for the World Twenty20.October 2012: Australia lose to West Indies in the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.November-December 2012: The most anticipated Test series of the year: South Africa’s tour of Australia. After dominating but having to settle for draws in the first two Tests, Australia fall to a 309-run defeat in Perth to surrender the series.December 2012: The Perth Test against South Africa is Ricky Ponting’s last. His retirement leaves Australia and Arthur with a big minus on the experience front.January 2013: Australia whitewash the touring Sri Lankans 3-0 in the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy.January 2013: Australia and Arthur lose another vital cog in their setup, as New Year’s Test against Sri Lanka is also Michael Hussey’s last.February 2013: Australia gear up for a high-profile, demanding tour of India. Arthur talks about his plans for his batsmen to “show intent” against the Indian spinners, who were “under pressure” after losing a home Test series to England.February-March 2013: India hand Australia a 4-0 thrashing. The poor on-field performances on tour are overshadowed by the off-field chaos, as vice-captain Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja are banned for the third Test, in Mohali, for failing to deliver a team-development assignment. Watson goes home, but it’s only for the birth of his first child, and he returns for the final match. Arthur says the players’ suspension was the result of “minor indiscretions that built up”, and insists that the India flop is not an Ashes barometer.April 2013: Shane Watson stands down as Australia’s vice-captain across all formats, declaring that he wants to focus his attention on his own performance.June 2013: Defending champions Australia have a woeful Champions Trophy, where they don’t win a game in the group stage. Adding to the on-field woes, again, is off-field controversy: David Warner is suspended from the tournament and the Ashes’ warm-ups following Australia’s first game, for punching England’s Joe Root in a bar-room incident after the match. Arthur then admits it would be a gamble to select Warner for the first Ashes Test, given he will not have played any competitive cricket in the preceding month.June 24, 2013: Arthur is sacked as Australia’s head coach less than three weeks before the start of the Ashes, and is replaced by Darren Lehmann.