Not Cricinfo

Good news

2005-06-06T20:35:00.000+05:30

I just thought I might post here that there's been a bit of good news. I was short-listed for two awards by the Sports Journalists' Federation of India. While I did not win the Cricket Writer of the Year award, I did win the award for the best interview of the year. For more, please click here.

Sports Journalism Awards

2005-05-13T14:44:00.000+05:30

Just a quick note to let you all know that I've been short-listed for awards in two categories in the inaugural Sports Journalists' Federation of India awards. I've been short-listed for Cricket Writer of the Year and Interview of the Year. For the full media release from the SJFI click here. The final results will be announced at an awards function in Mumbai on June 4.

Patriotism? Hardly.

2005-05-12T20:50:00.000+05:30

Somehow sport seems to inspire more misguided patriotism than most other things. Fortunately it never gets serious enough to be a matter of life and death. Here (corrected link now works) is a piece I wrote on Cricinfo about the madness surrounding the search for India's new coach.

The honest jogger

2005-04-19T10:59:00.000+05:30

John Wright's five years with India have finally come to an end. And you can't really grudge him his departure, his two kids, Harry and Georgie, have hardly seen their father, and understandably want him back. India's Mr. Wright is a piece I've written on him for Cricinfo.

A moment for Scott Mason

2005-04-11T14:58:00.000+05:30

Scott who?

Well, in the whirl of international cricket, where one day is a long time, where the condition of Sachin Tendulkar's elbow sends an entire nation into a tizzy, spare a moment for Scott Robert Mason, the Tasmanian opening batsman, who died at the age of 28 of a heart failure. While it always seems a terrible waste when someone dies so early, you can't help feeling worse when it happens to a young cricketer with his best ahead of him.

So, as Peter Newlinds writes in his piece, on ABC Sport let us look beyond the obvious for just one moment.

... for those of us who watched him and who followed his career closely "Maso" won't be forgotten and his cruel, tragic death at the age of 28 will remind us that there are plenty of more important things than a man's career stats.

And, here's what colleague, captain and team-mate Jamie Cox had to say about him:

Just such a likeable guy, and an inspiration, and I guess you could say tragically but ironically he was one of the heartbeats of our team. There aren't enough words to say enough about this little mate, he was a beauty.

The Prince of Calcutta

2005-03-23T22:06:00.000+05:30

The last few days have been hectic. Two colleagues are out on tour, three are stricken by chicken pox. And I've been having doubts about why I should be writing a blog at all when I write for Cricinfo. Writing blogs is so often self-indulgent ... The future of this blog is in serious doubt, and a retirement announcement may well be around the corner.

But, I thought I might point anyone who still reads this to an interview I did on Cricinfo. Sourav Ganguly spoke to me on the eve of the final Test. The interview is here

Sacrilege

2005-03-12T23:51:00.000+05:30

I know it is sacrilege to write about New Zealand when India and Pakistan are playing a series, but there's good reason. Regular readers of Not Cricinfo may sense a trend in criticism of New Zealand, and New Zealand cricket, but this deserves notation.

For all those enthusiasts - especially the ones who played some sort of cricket in their life, either for school, college, or club, this is especially relevant - the latest column of my colleague and friend Martin Williamson, on Cricinfo is a must read.

Martin's dug deep into various libraries and picked out some startling things to write about, but this one takes the cake. He writes about the 1990 New Zealand domestic match between Canterbury and Wellington where a captain instructed a bowler to deliberately bowl enough no-balls to give away as many as 77 runs in one over. There are ways and ways to make a mockery of the game - Stephen Fleming once engineered a game in the VB Series to come up against the right opponents in the final, and I wrote about that here - but this doesn't just take the cake, it begs you to suck the cherry and lick the icing. Just read what Williamson writes:

Although when the penultimate over started Canterbury were eight wickets down, Germon, their wicketkeeper and no dunce with the bat, was still in and on strike. Morrison and Erve McSweeney, Wellington's captain-wicketkeeper, hatched a plan and Bert Vance, the New Zealand batsman who nearing the end of his career and so had no bowling figures of any note to worry about, agreed to help them.

The idea was to feed Canterbury enough runs so that they would get close enough to the target and then perhaps risk their last two wickets going for glory. They began the over on 196 for 8 with Germon 75 not out.

Give away runs in a first-class match? For free? This is what cricketers are made of? These are the people fans worship, chatting endlessly over beer or coffee, about domestic cricket?

I don't know about you, but some of us would give a hell of a lot (Not an arm, but one missing little-finger may be manageable) just to have been able to play one first-class match. And to think in New Zealand people bite the hand that feeds them, and we don't care. At least now we've been reminded about how low people can stoop, with no concerns to the sanctity of the first-class run or wicket.

Dharamsala? High altitude? Hardly ...

2005-03-03T11:02:00.000+05:30

The Pakistanis have been slightly bemused at being asked to play their warm-up match against the Indian Board President's XI at the high-altitude venue of Dharamsala. But, it could easily have been worse, had this fixture been played at another venue in Himachal Pradesh - the Chail Cricket Ground.

When you have to hike three-and-a-half kilometres uphill at an incline that is steeper than most staircases you must be heading somewhere special. If such a hike is undertaken from main market area in a sleepy little town called Chail in the Himalayan slopes of Himachal Pradesh close to Simla, you will find yourself at the world's highest cricket ground. At approximately 2500 metres above mean sea level, (some say 2444 meters) the cricket ground at the Army school at Chail is certainly one of the highest.

“Why would anyone want to build a cricket ground at such altitude?” you might ask. Having reached the top, puffing and panting, I certainly asked that question when I stood on the outfield of that ground a couple of years back. If folklore is to be believed, the Maharajah of Patiala was a keen follower of the game 'twenty two fools' played and it was he who indulged himself with this ground. In days when there were no cricket boards and no leagues, the Maharaja amused himself by watching teams slug it out in his hilly hometown. What is even richer is the fact that the Maharaja invited several British teams to play at the ground and they actually obliged, for generous purses, of course.

Set at the very top of a hill, the cricket ground boasts two permanent sight screens. The outfield is a trifle patchy these days, as the Maharajah is a thing of the past, and with him the funding and the doting groundsmen. As if to rival the St. Lawrence Cricket Ground in Cantrerbury, England, the Chail Cricket Ground has a stately little tree well within the confines of the playing arena. The wicket is a rather low quality one, but one has to grant that the soil has little or no clay in it. This makes the surface very susceptible to cracking, and it is extremely difficult to hold the top layer together. It is not uncommon to see a mat pinned down over the wicket to make the bounce more even.

At most times, the conditions at the ground are very windy, inspiring visions of lanky swing bowlers routing out oppositions. However, this is a bit misleading. Former Indian captain and legendary left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi regularly conducts camps at the ground. At one such camp, Yuvraj Singh, then not even a first class cricketer, was one of his wards. Bedi has mentioned to several interviewers that the bowlers were mercilessly thrashed. After Yuvraj had sent more than a few cricket balls sailing over the ropes and down the valley, it was decided that the guidelines laid out in the MCC rule book might not be sufficient to deal with the situation. Yuvraj was sternly told that if he hit one more ball out of the ground he would be declared out! That tells you a bit about the sheer drop that begins just yards behind the boundary.

Little inconveniences like this only go towards increasing the quaintness of the place. With increasing demands on cricket grounds to be uniform in pitch condition, ground condition, media facilities and things of the kind, the Chail Cricket Ground stands tall and high in defiance of all this. It's outdated, outmoded and an anachronisym. It truly is the spirit of cricket.

Thank you Davenell

2005-02-20T11:45:00.000+05:30

Finally there's one person who agrees with me. Dav Whatmore, one of the men responsible for the change in approach to one-day cricket in recent times, has said the rules were fine, and it's the players that are making the game tired and boring. Whatmore used the aggressive pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana at the top of the order with amazing results, forcing people to re-evaluate the tried and tested strategy of beginning slowly and keeping wickets in hand for the death. Now virtually every team plays like that.

Speaking to the Melbourne Age, Whatmore said, " ... making big rule changes is not the answer. It just so happens that the tri-series you had over there was drab because players didn't perform well." This comes as a breath of fresh air amidst calls from experts around the world to make wholesale changes to the format of one-day cricket. Whatmore, however, does think one tweak may help. "If there was one change I'd make, it's that you could take to the field with 11, but your 12th man could be a replacement and come on to bat and bowl," he said, suggesting the substitute be given full empowerment, just like in the case of football or basketball.

Whatmore stressed the point that it was unimaginative bowlers and captains that made games dull, not the format itself. "I was watching a game this week, which was a perfect example of that," Whatmore said. "Ashley Giles was bowling, a new batsman at the crease and both mid-on and mid-off were back and there were just four in the ring ... it was crazy. You've got to think on your feet and be flexible."

Call me a traditionalist, but one-day cricket is pretty much fine as it is. There's room for all sorts of players, even bits-and-pieces cricketers, and to me this just adds to the charm of the game. There's only so much you can optimise excellence without losing out on relaxation and joy.

Thank you Davenell Frederick Whatmore for striking one blow for us chaps from the other side of the fence.

Pot calling a kettle a pot

2005-02-20T11:12:00.000+05:30

It's official. It's not only selectors of the subcontinent who are incompetent, bumbling, parochial, and political when choosing teams. The holiest of the holy, the Australians, are apparently just the same. That is if you believe Mark Waugh, the former Mr. Lazy Elegance of Australian cricket. Junior is being heavily pushed by New South Wales, his home state, for a place in the National Selection Panel. And Waugh has already fired his first salvo.

Writing in The Sun Herald he has had a solid go at the current selection panel, accusing them of favouring Queenslanders when it comes to making tough selections. He begins by listing the members of the panel - Trevor Hohns (Qld), Allan Border (Qld), David Boon (Tas) and Andrew Hilditch (SA) - and then has a go:

"A fine selection of men, no doubt, but half the selection panel is from Queensland. I, like many, believe there is some bias towards Queensland players."

Bias towards Queensland players? "You cannot be serious", I can hear the Queenslanders raving, John-McEnroe style. But, Waugh doesn't stop there.

I think there are a couple of Queenslanders in the past season or two who have been lucky to gain a spot in the one-day or Test teams. Andy Bichel is probably the exception, but I can count three players and situations that would support the theory that the bananabenders are receiving a leg-up.

As examples Waugh cites the selection of Andrew Symonds ahead of Simon Katich for the Sri Lanka tour, the selection of Nathan Hauritz over Stuart MacGill for the India tour and, most recently, the selection of James Hopes over Cameron White.
For each player he has a barb:

Symonds - "That was one of the worst decisions I'd seen for years."

Hauritz - "... it was a shocking selection and one that could have come back to bite the selectors."

Hopes - " I played against Hopes last season and I couldn't see him wearing Australian colours."

Incredibly, Waugh goes on to qualify Hauritz' omission by calling MacGill "the second-best spinner in world cricket." One assumes Waugh considers his old pal, and partner in providing pitch and weather information to punters, Shane Warne, the best spinner in the world. In that case is he suggesting MacGill is a better bowler than Muttiah Muralitharan, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh?

I don't know about bias, although I have heard casual mentions of how you get a baggygreen free when you get your New South Wales Blues cap, but I certainly know that this is one piece of judgement no other sane person in the world would agree with. Why, I don't think even Stuey MacGill's mother would agree with Mark Waugh's absurd claim!

PS: I'm as big a fan of Mark Waugh the batsman, as anyone about. Here's what I wrote on Cricinfo when he retired.

Pat on the back for domestic bliss

2005-02-18T14:52:00.000+05:30

People often talk of cricket being a religion in India. But that isn't quite right. International cricket is a religion, and cricketers who play for India are treated like gods. But very few people have any time for domestic cricket, where matches are often played in front of the proverbial four men and a dog. In some cases it's only the dog that's actually watching the cricket. But Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, my colleague at Wisden Cricinfo, and friend, has been writing about domestic cricket all year.

His latest piece, a look back at the trends in domestic cricket over the last few years, has come in for serious praise from Harsha Bhogle. Writing in the Indian Express, Bhogle says:

"... we can rejoice because of a pathbreaking piece of research by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, another of our highly promising young breed of cricket writers. He has looked at data from domestic cricket over the last five years and his findings are like music to the ears. I have read his article twice and each time I have felt like old scientists must have as elements were discovered where they ought to have been in the periodic table."

You can read Harsha's full piece by clicking here. But what you really should do is read Siddhartha's piece, which is here.

And remember, this piece didn't just magically happen. It was made possible by the fact that Siddhartha has followed Indian domestic cricket closely for more than a year. He has read every scorecard, spoken to countless people about the matches, and been at the grounds when possible. In the end, there's no substitute for that.

15th degree murder

2005-02-12T14:43:00.000+05:30

The little boy stood cowering in fear as his mother went through the contents of her purse and found several currency notes missing. She went into a frenzy, knowing fully well it was her errant son who pilfered the notes.

After letting off enough steam she asked,
"Son, did you steal 14 Rupees from my purse?"
Scared, but not petrified anymore, he replied,
"Yes mama, I did."
Relieved that she had got to the bottom of the matter, she asked,
"But, don't you know it is wrong to steal?"
"Yes mama, but it's ok to steal less than 15 Rupees, isn't it?"

That's precisely what the International Cricket Council is saying to youngsters who want to become the next Shoaib Akhtar or Muttiah Muralitharan. You can throw, feel free, but just make sure you keep the degree of flex under 15 degrees. It's tough not to be cynical when talking about the ICC. Who is to say this bar won't be raised to 30, 40 or 50 degrees when a few years down the road some scientist finds that 15 degrees is passe?

And, far more importantly, with what authority can a coach tell a young bowler that his action is illegal and needs correction? The ward can legitimately suggest that he is bending his arm, but under 15 degrees. He can tell his coach to forget his old-fashioned way of thinking, of judging a throw with the naked eye, and get with the latest technology. After all, if the International Cricket Council allows you to throw, who is a mere coach, at the school level, to tell you not to?

This new law has been widely welcomed by the great and the wise of cricket. You can be sure it has also been welcomed by the chuckers, from village green to Test arena.

Normal service resumes

2005-02-12T14:30:00.000+05:30

I've been away relaxing, lolling and recharging my batteries at a family wedding. But now, with Pakistan's tour of India barely weeks away, normal service resumes. There's so much to talk about, so much to blog about. Watch this space.

Breakfast with a fallen angel

2005-01-20T13:50:00.000+05:30

For a week now I have not been able to bring myself to write anything in these pages. Not because I have been too busy, although that could be proffered as an excuse. Not because I was under the weather, though I have been that too. But because there is something I have been desperate to write, but simply unable to find the form or words to. So, I’m just going to blurt it out.

About a week ago, I arrived at the Marriott in Juhu, to meet someone for breakfast. I hadn’t met in him in more than a year, but he looked just the same – fit as anything, trendily dressed, with a shy smile on his face. No, it wasn’t the breakfast that was a problem either – he ate papayas, drank fruit juice without sugar, and ate boiled egg whites. I, not being as fitness conscious, helped myself to something more substantial.

The problem was the conversation – and it lasted about an hour, was always cordial, occasionally friendly, but consistently surreal. The man was Mohammad Azharuddin, a man who has given unbridled joy with his lascivious flicks through the on-side, with his wrists-of-steel inside-out lofted drive over extra-cover, why, even with his one handed catching at slip. And yet, here was a man claiming matchfixing never happened, claiming Hansie Cronje was a victim of circumstance.

There are some players who you simply cannot hate. If you love the game you have to hate those that betrayed it by fixing matches, or even merely compromising the integrity of play by underperforming in a personal capacity. And yet, even with a lifetime ban hanging around his shoulders, it is impossible to hate Mohammad Azharuddin.

He spoke with such tenderness about his two young sons, Asad and Abbas, and how their cricket was coming along. He spoke about the public, and how he had never once faced a hostile reaction after the matchfixing crisis. He spoke about some of India’s players, and listed the small adjustments in technique that would make a huge difference to the way they played. He spoke with humility about being destined to end a career on 99 Tests. If you spoke to him, you would believe he is a humble man who cared deeply about cricket.

For a moment, I too was taken completely in. Then, after he left for a spell in the gym, I was left, sipping my coffee, smoking a cigarette, thinking.

What is the cricket world to do with its fallen heroes?

Do we discount more than 15,000 international runs? Do we put aside everything that we know as true, and yet can rarely prove, merely because someone is an irresistible character? So many questions.

And yet, while one meeting with Azhar is enough to make you question so many things you believed strongly in, disturb you even, there are others, perhaps equally guilty, who get by without causing a ripple. Wasim Akram was slapped on the wrist by the Qayyum Commission for his involvement in betting and matchfixing. He was fined, even prohibited from ever becoming captain of Pakistan again. Yet, we talk of him merely as the god of left-handed fast bowling.

What hypocrites we all really are.

Spare the rod

2005-01-13T19:26:00.000+05:30

If you have a stick, and want to beat someone with it, steer clear of Bangladesh. That team, more than any other in the world, needs nurture. They were given Test status four years ago, and are now on the verge of recording their first-ever series win. Sure, it has only come against a lowly, depleted Zimbabwe team. But, if you have only critical things to say, everyone is probably best served by silence.

That Bangladesh were given Test status in an unseemly haste, for reasons that were more political and parochial than hard cricket, is a fact most people would accept. But, having given them Test status, it's no good bashing them. They're here to stay, and they will one day, in the not too distant feature, be competitive enough to give a few Test teams a run for their money.

Taking Test status away from Bangladesh is not the solution. That will just make all the effort that has gone into project Bangladesh thus far - and it's a considerable amount - a total waste. As Habibul Bashar told Rabeed Imam in an interview recently,

"I feel deeply frustrated when I hear such things. What I have learned in Test cricket is that if we do not play at this level, we will never improve. If we stay at a lower level, we will remain stuck there. The difference in standard between Test nations and associate members is huge. If we play them, we will never again be able to compete at this level; we will never learn anything. On the other hand, if we stay here, I'm absolutely sure that in a couple of years we will have a settled position in Test cricket"

And Bashar is dead right. More importantly, the sponsorship will dry up instantly, and cricket will suffer deeply in Bangladesh. Bashar makes this point as well:

"Besides, when you play at the top level, sponsorship and patronisation come easy, which is very important for the development of cricket in Bangladesh. Cricket is huge here. Every youngster wants to play the game. If we are not playing Tests, they will lose interest as there will be no role models, which will mean the death of the sport."

If you've been to Bangladesh, and I have, to cover India's tour, you will see the potential for cricket in the country. Cricket is not merely about producing teams that can stretch Australia. It is also about fans packing the stadium. It is also about sponsors keen to support the game. It is about a large population deriving joy from 13 people fiddling with a leather sphere out in the middle. And, from that point of view, Bangladesh has everything going for it, as a Test-playing nation.

When Mohammad Ashraful scopred that audacious 158 not out against India at Chittagong, the boost it gave the team was incredible. Suddenly, there was belief, that they could take on the best in the world. But, Wasim Akram, an astute observer of the game, had a word of caution for them. "Forget about Ashraful's 100. That's over. You can't rest on that for next year," he advised one of the Bangladeshi cricketers. And Akram knows a thing or two about the psyche of subcontinent cricketers.

Thankfully, Bangladesh have Dav Whatmore at the helm of affairs. He wasn't over the moon at Bangladesh's Test win. "We've done well against this opposition. But I have my feet on the ground. We have to make sure we win the series next week," he told Not Cricinfo, in response to a congratulatory email. Then at least, some of the people calling for Bangladesh to be shunted to a lower rung, will hold their fire for a few days.

Warne 106,500, Tendulkar 7,600, Sehwag 1600, Kumble 685

2005-01-12T10:18:00.000+05:30

The World Cricket Tsunami Appeal rattled in the moolah like no other cricket charity game has. One of the interesting sidelights was the auction of the shorts players wore during the game. Shane Warne's jersey, unbelievably, rang in a whopping Au$ 140,000 (US$ 106,500 approx). Compare that with, say, Sachin Tendulkar's shirt, which only attracted bids of about Au$ 10,000 (US$ 7600 approx). Is this just a representation of the purchasing power of the Asian market when compared to the West? Or is it that Indians, even those that are incredibly wealthy, don't have a culture of spending on things like memorabilia?

If the jersey auction was an embarrassment, then the auction organised back home in India was downright humiliating. The bat Virender Sehwag used to score 309 against Pakistan at Multan, the highest-ever score by an Indian in Tests, was sold for a mere Rs. 70,000 (US$ 1600 approx), and amazingly, the t-shirt Kumble wore when picking up his 434th Test wicket, to draw level with Kapil Dev at the top of the Indian heap, fetched just Rs. 30,000 (US$ 685 approx).

Could it be that this is because our heroes seem too distant to us in India? Warne was all over the MCG during the tsunami appeal match, signing autographs, talking to the crowd, waving to them, playing games with them. In general, getting the crowd into the game. Kumble, on the other hand, was dead serious about going about his business. Poker-faced, quiet, and deeply committed to cricket, it is not natural for Kumble to indulge in any sort of tomfoolery. Did this, in some way, contribute to fans not willing to fork out as much, even for a good cause, whenn Kumble's record-sealing t-shirt came under the hammer?

Or perhaps it is merely that the match was played in Australia, and attracted mostly local patronage even on an Internet auction. We'll just have to wait for the return charity game, to be held in Asia, to get closer to the answer.

14.6 million, but could have been more?

2005-01-10T17:29:00.000+05:30

The cricket world for once stood up together as one and made its presence felt at a time when it mattered. More than 14.6 million Australian dollars were generated from the Rest of the World v Asia XI one-day match in Melbourne. Call me churlish for saying so, but if the ICC hadn't granted this match official ODI status, that number would have been higher.

After racking up 344, the ICC World XI were well and truly home. Especially when Asia XI wickets tumbled in the top order, leaving them with an impossible run-rate to score at. At this stage, had it not been an official ODI, the bowlers would have taken it easy. Some part-time dobbers would have come on and served up dollies so the match at least looked competitive. Remember, each six hit made the charity richer by Au$ 50,000 thanks to Toyota, and every run scored fetched Au$1000 courtesy 3G the mobile phone company.

So, if this was not an official ODI, the likes of Stephen Fleming and Ricky Ponting could have tossed a few up and let Asia XI closer to 344. Hypothetically, if Asia XI had scored 320, with four more sixes (how apt it would have been to see Muttiah Muralitharan carve one of those?) the fund would be richer by Au$ 288,000!

Now that is a bundle of cash that just went abegging.

Why do our heroes do this to themselves?

2005-01-10T11:47:00.000+05:30

If you love cricket, you almost certainly love cricketers as well. There’s something about the men (and occasionally women) who play the game that draws you to them. Cricket, more than any other sport, forms a protective umbrella around the players that made the game. Nowhere do you see former sportsmen accommodated – in coaching roles, administrative posts, media spots – as cricket. But, in recent times, this has eroded the respect fans would normally have for players.

Which Indian now remembers Krish Srikkanth for his fearless hitting? Who remembers the manner in which he took on great fast bowlers – men no lesser than Andy Roberts and company – and hooked with only a visorless helmet for protection? Who remembers the startling batting at the top of the order? Who remembers him top-scoring in the final of the World Cup in 1983 when India won? Sadly, he is now remembered for his outrageous, often ill-timed but well-intentioned comments in front of the mike in one TV show or the other.

But, it’s not just the hard-hitting Srikkanths who have come out worse for wear through media work. Anyone who has met Bobby Simpson, as I have in his frequent visits to the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai, will tell you he is a charming man. Full of the old values and anecdotes that you associate with a well-thumbed cricket book you might find in a library, Simpson is a man you can spend hours listening to. His views – especially on illegal bowling actions, a subject he’s an expert on, having served on several panels to deal with this thorny issue – have always been accepted with some manner of reverence.

But, recently, Simpson has done himself no good with the columns he has written. Not weeks ago, he wrote a piece panning Dennis Lillee for the dearth of quality swing bowlers in Australia. Lillee, who was fast-bowling consultant to the academy in Australia, did not swing the ball, contented Simpson. Anyone who has seen footage of Lillee bowl knows this is not true. Lillee certainly had the pace, bounce and mental strength to get rid of batsmen even without swinging the ball, but as one of Lillee’s contemporaries put it, “Simmo must have had an old black and white TV then, and had trouble spotting the ball, for Dennis took half his wickets with away-swingers.”

But, if having a go at one of the finest fast bowlers ever to grace the game was not enough, Simpson went one better in his latest column. Charged with the task of picking an all-time Australian Test XI, he struggled, meandered, explained, and finally picked himself as one of the opening batsmen. Now, there’s no doubting that Simpson was one of the great opening batsmen Australia has produced, but it’s beyond the scope of this piece to debate the merit of Simpson’s selection. The manner in which he laboured to justify his selection left you shaking your head and feeling just a little sad. No former great – who has proven himself as a cricketer and coach – should do this to himself.

Yet, they routinely do, and the cricket world is poorer for it.

Frindall takes on the ICC

2005-01-08T19:04:00.000+05:30

Not Cricinfo yesterday made the point that the International Cricket Council was making a mistake in granting official one-day international status to the fund-raiser in aid of tsunami victims. It appears that we are not alone.

Bill Frindall, widely accepted as the last word when it comes to statistics in the cricket world, had this to say, in an email, in response to the ICC's statement announcing that the match was going to given official status:

"This statement beggars belief. Limited-Overs International status and Records cover matches between national teams, not hot-potch multi-national games with no significance beyond fund raising. In no sense should the WCTA game qualify for inclusion. The ICC, for whom I was then statistician, dealt with this matter following the Rest of the World v England series in 1970, when we ruled that those five matches would not count in the official Test match records. And those games featured one international side."

While the statistical world is not quite united on this issue, it is fast becoming clear that many respected statisticians are, despite the ICC's assertions, going to ignore this match for official purposes. Frindall, adds:

"This ruling, which should be reversed immediately, is as bizarre as your recent one declaring that a match starts when the toss is made - a monstrous flouting of the Laws of Cricket. It will not have my support, and performances in Monday's match will NOT be included in any records published under my name."

The ICC won't reverse the decision now. But you can be sure this won't be the last we hear of this business. If the ICC have a good reason for granting this match official ODI status, and we haven't heard one yet, you can probably bet the reason is not cricketing.

It's official ...

2005-01-07T15:06:00.000+05:30

Just when you thought the International Cricket Council had got things right in organising a jamboree cricket match to raise funds for victims of the Tsunami disaster that struck South Asia, they bungle it up. Staging associations, sponsors, television channels and sundry other parties came together spontaneously, in the right spirit, along with the players, and this, you would think was enough for the game to be a resounding success.

But the ICC is greedy. They want the match to have official one-day inernational status, so, conceivably, it can be monetised more completely. Well, we've been through these grounds before - not any match can be a one-day international.

"The ICC board is of the view that due to the extraordinary circumstances that have brought about these two matches an exception to the existing rules should be made," Ehsan Mani has said. "This decision applies only to these two matches and does not change the status of other one-day matches from the past or in the future."

But, what in heaven's name are you going to do with the records? When you list teams that have played one-day internationals will you also include Asia XI and ICC XI? And what happens to players' records? Do you count these in their one-day international stats and put an asterisk next to overall record?

We could go on and on about how silly this is. But, thankfully, this is not the first time someone has tried to pull such a stunt. Best have a look at Sorry, but they can't be official.

Bradman's balls, Tsunami appeals, and Habibul Bashar

2005-01-06T20:56:00.000+05:30

If it was not bad enough to hear normally distinguished gents like Ian Chappell and Mark Taylor flogging the latest piece of strictly limited edition Sir Sonald Bradman memorabilia during the broadcast of the Pakistan-Australia Test at Sydney, the gent has struck once more. But first, let me not be the one to discourage you from buying yourself a slice of history. The "limited edition" - yes, for the charitable people at the Bradman foundation 974 is limited - high-quality ball featuring a full-colour portrait and a signature, mounted on some special wood thingamajiggy, costs a mere Aus $ 1440.

At a time when the world is opening its collective wallet to donate to the victims of the Tsunami tragedy that has devastated South Asia, the Bradman Foundation is selling cricket balls that you can't even chuck around in the backyard for a mere Aus$ 1440. Of course, the editorial board at Not Cricinfo is not one to thrust its views down your throat. If you'd like to buy the ball, click here. On the other hand, you may like to give a tenth of that money to the Red Cross appeal, click here.

But, that's not only why we're a bit miffed with Bradman this day.

The man they call the Bangla Bradman, Habibul Bashar, led flawlessly from the front after winning the toss and choosing to bat against Zimbabwe. In fact, he was, as usual, the backbone of the innings, with 94 out of the team's 280. But, and you may well abuse us for this, we strongly believe that it was the bad luck of the Bradman tag that pushed the cricketing gods into denying Bashar a century in a match that will go down in history books as Bangladesh's first Test triumph. Bradman wasn't unlucky? Can you imagine anyone else ever getting so close to a magical 100 average and being denied?

If the powers that be needed to shave 0.06 of a point from an average, couldn't they have chosen Graeme Pollock (60.97), George Headley (60.83), or anyone else to whom it wouldn't have made the slightest difference?

No the couldn't. Because it wouldn't have hurt anyone as much as it did Bradman. And therein lies the tragedy in Bashar being unfairly called The Bangla Bradman. He too earned the wrath of the cricketing gods.

Burnt wood

2005-01-06T19:10:00.000+05:30

How can a genuine cricket lover not be deeply saddened by South Africa's most unfortunate and untimely win against England in Cape Town? After the mighty English were cruelly denied victory in the previous Test at Durban, it was just unthinkable that once again the Gods would conspire such ...

After all, England have been the most improved team in the last year ... think Steve Harmison, say Freddie Flintoff. And, for once, instead of cringing in their flannels, they have been shouting from the rooftops to anyone who may listen, "Bring on the Ashes!"

If only they went into the Ashes, still six months away, with an unblemished, untarnished record, roaring past every team but Australia ... if only they could claim they were the second best team in the world when the first ball of the 2005 Ashes were sent down in England ...

... then the fall would have been so much harder, so much more spectacular.

At least two Australians have said they never want to be part of an Australian team that presided over a series loss to England. One is Shane Warne. The other Adam Gilchrist. And people still think England will win the Ashes?

How can an SRW fail?

2005-01-06T17:53:00.000+05:30

Sometimes initials say more about a cricketer than anything the pundits can come up with. Michael Colin Cowdrey was always going to a blue-blooded bacon-and-tie wearing MCC man. Stuart Charles Glyndwr MacGill, could only have learned his art at the Sydney Cricket Ground. We could go on and on in this vein, but that would take a lot of research, so just take our word for it. The reason initials have come in for such special scrutiny at this moment was the quiet debut of one SRW. No, Stephen Roger Waugh has not stepped back into the cricket world. That red-rag farewell was more than enough, thank you very much.

The quiet debut we're referring to is that blonde-mane flapping, broad chest puffed out allrounder who picked up one wicket and scored 31 for Australia against Pakistan. Yeah some other bloke scored a double-hundred, and someone took a bagful of wickets. But we of the keen glance, the discerning lot, had eyes only for Shane Watson.

In an age when everything is extra-large - people look at you funny if you say you want a small coke, or ask for something as unreasonable as a dosa that actually fits on a plate - his was the classical debut. Not for him the in-your-face showmanship of that other blonde marvel, Michael Clarke. Not for him a stirring hundred in a foreign land with parents, grandparents, siblings, agent and labrador weeping on the sidelines. Watson knew, instinctively, that you must first walk before you can run.

When he batted, Australia had already battered Pakistan so furiously that a Red Cross body count would have been more accurate than some one-eyed statistician ticking off the records. Already, the oppponent's spirit had been crushed. There was no need for any rescue act, no need to play out of the skin, no need to prove many points at once and deliver slaps in the face to any critics. Realising this, Watson delivered a simple innings. His 31 - the first three scoring shots of which were cool boundaries - did not win him throngs of admirers. It merely waved hello to those who have long believed he has it in him to be the best genuine allrounder in world cricket.

When he bowled, and rumour has it Trevor Hohns and co. want Watson to be a bowling allrounder and not a batsman who bowls - he threw people back to an era when it was still fashionable to have a straight run-up, a side-on action, and a strong leap. Few bowlers have such a classical approach, and it's no mystery that he comfortably bowled into the early 140 kph range. Even Jason Gillespie's fastest ball was a mere 1.5 kph faster, and the world thinks Dizzy is a speed demon quick enough to scare little children to painless noisy deaths.

But no, the world will not be convinced about Watson till he writes his name into the record books and saves Australia from dire straits. Save Australia from dire straits? You would sooner need blankets and industrial heaters in the Sahara desert. Don't bother waiting Watto, you're already a legend, and even if you take 1-fors and score 30s.