Category Uncategorized

Everybody’s talking about sledging these days. In recent times Dennis Lillee, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Sourav Ganguly have all commented on the issue. All of them have a point.Sledging has been happening in cricket for a long time. It has become a concern now because TV viewers and listeners can hear what players are saying via stump microphones. This has resulted in the recent past in some players getting disciplined – such as Glenn McGrath, Shahid Afridi and Darren Lehmann. Even I was incorrectly accused during the 2003 World Cup of wrongful sledging, although everyone knows I am not a particularly vociferous person on the field.A most amazing incident happened in grade (club) cricket in Australia in March, when the batsmen walked off after incessant sledging by the opposing fielders and bowlers.Many people say sledging is against the spirit of cricket. In my mind, not all sledging is bad. Most things in the world have both a negative and a positive side to them. That’s just the case with sledging.Negative sledging, I would say, falls into the category of Abuses and Insults; positive sledging consists of Challenges and Humour. There is, of course, a fine line between insult and humour, and it’s often a matter of perception.Abuses and Insults are against the spirit of the game. They usually begin when despite trying their hardest, players are not getting what they want. They then lose their composure, become desperate and resort to negative sledging by using foul and insulting language. They need to be reined in, and that responsibility falls first on the captain. The onus for determining when the limit has been crossed falls on the match referee.Challenges and Humour, on the other hand, are an affable part of the game. Basit Ali once told me that when he used to go into bat in the initial few matches of his career, Javed Miandad used to ask him to dare the fast bowlers by saying, “Let’s see if you can hit me.” This is like throwing a challenge to the opponent and is good gamesmanship. In boxing, we all know how Muhammad Ali is still admired worldwide for similar behaviour in the ring. Glaring and making unpleasant faces towards the opponents is all part of the aggressiveness in the field and is not unconstructive, as long as no bad words are exchanged.Qasim Umer indulged in some hilarious sledging against West Indies way back in the semi-final of the Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket in Melbourne in 1985, when he started to make faces similar to Malcolm Marshall and Winston Davis. He even held out his bat as if he was holding a gun. The World Cup of 1992 will always be remembered for Pakistan’s win in the final against England – and Javed Miandad jumping up and down against India after the consistent chattering of their wicketkeeper, Kiran More.These days when people talk of sledging Australia come immediately to mind. Let us, thus, examine sledging and nationality. The West Indians, considered the friendliest cricket team, never sledge. On the field they play aggressive cricket, talk among themselves and buck up each other, but they rarely get entangled in heated exchanges with their opponents. They rarely lose their composure – though they have done so in the past because of bad umpiring, which is nevertheless not reason enough.For Australia, on the other hand, sledging has been a part of their cricketing folklore – as epitomised by Yabba, a person sitting near the boundary at Sydney throwing encouragements, challenges and insults to players. Australian players on the field have now adopted the role of Yabba. As long as the modern-day Yabba does not use ugly language and is only sending out healthy challenges, it should be fine. In fact, it is good for the game, and adds to its competitiveness.The most popular sport on this planet is soccer. Nobody tries to ban sledging and body contact in this sport. In cricket, with the batsman separated by 22 yards, body contact is irrelevant and undesirable. But positive sledging increases the thrill of the game – just as it does in soccer.As a player, one needs to be mentally tough and able to adapt to the prevailing sports environment. And the ultimate weapon to counter sledging is one’s cricketing skill. VVS Laxman’s exquisite 281 against Australia at Kolkata in 2001 was one example of this, as was Shoaib Akhtar’s 5 for 25 at Brisbane in 2002. At the end of the day, it should all come down to the cricket.

The test match is over and finally we can walk away with something to be proud of. Well, a number of things. Top of the list is the opening partnership between Caroline and Arran, which showed application and steadiness. Purists might argue that by batting slowly we killed the game – but I would disagree.We have played three ODIs in which our batting has been weak; wickets have been lost carelessly and here was a test match that demanded something much more applied. Their performance not only set a new world record but affirmed that we are developing and thus heading in the right direction. It has been a trophy for us all and one that we can draw on in the next two ODIs. The world record having been set by such a young opening partnership also bodes well for the future.With losing so much of the 3rd day due to very heavy overnight rain, the dynamic of the game changed at the beginning of the fourth day. With one wicket down, the Indian side would need to bat out the day. As the day wore on, the game shaped up to be a much more specific contest – the Indians were going to try to reach our score and surpass it by the end of the day. They lost two key batters – Chopra and Jain – the latter being brilliantly caught out of her crease by Jane Cassar and a quick thinking Arran Thompson.This signalled the arrival of Raj, a very accomplished bat, who despite her slight figure can hit the ball as powerfully as anyone. But Dawn Holden bowled her, fourth ball. A sweet moment indeed. Hemalta, who went on to score a ton, was dropped early on and this perhaps allowed for the excitement and challenge of the last hour, which saw India coasting toward our target. A great catch from Caroline brought her demise and the beginning of something special. We knew that the challenge would be to keep India away from our score, but they had only to get 15 runs, with six wickets in hand.They lost five of those wickets over 10 runs as their tail was exposed and we took advantage of their nervousness. And with the last wicket came the end of time – they were three runs short if I remember rightly. It felt as though we had won. It was particularly good to see Laura Newton bowling so well (21-10-24-0). She is a star in the making. Lucknow has been a very generous host and we have been showered with gifts and invitations. Blazers have been made for each of us to commemorate the test and with each game there are trophies for every player. The residents of match venues are keen to show their hospitality, and there often is not the time to do all that they ask.Crowds at the games have been entertained by the ever youthful Clare Taylor, who manages to find fans wherever she goes. Schoolchildren and cricket fans clamour for autographs at every turn, and we are always shown the greatest respect. The players have been patient at some very testing times – not least the day before the test match as we waited at Delhi airport for over nine hours, having missed our flight. Not a single person complained; instead out came the cards, the books, the internet and people happily kept themselves entertained. One of this day’s highlights was Caroline’s performance – on her 21st birthday too – as paid the forfeit for losing at cards the night before. She had to dress in a bikini and sing happy birthday to herself in the middle of Delhi airport! Another trophy, we all felt.A few nomadic Barmy Army fans have supported and entertained us over the last week. It’s been good to have them around, enthusiastic and 100% supportive, they have rallied the crowds, deliberately standing in amongst the largest crowds of Indian supporters and chanting for England. They are celebrities in their own right.Tonight we fly to Bombay, for tomorrow’s practice match and ODI. This final week is as hectic as that which has gone before, but we look forward to it. Let’s hope that we continue finding things to celebrate!!

Rawalpindi struggled to 156 for six in their first innings against Lahore Whites on a curtailed opening day of the Quaid-i-Azam Cricket Trophy Grade I match at the LCCA Ground here on Saturday.The match started 90 minutes late as the pitch was wet due to wateringof the ground, which done two days ago. The morning dew also hamperedits drying out process.The right-arm fast-medium bowler Irfan Fazil exploited theconditionsefficiently to claim four wickets for 54 runs after Lahore Whitescaptain Naeem Ashraf elected to field.Rawalpindi’s skipper Naseer Ahmad played a steady head to stabilisethe innings with an unbeaten knock of 61. He has so far batted for 196minutes. His 120-ball innings includes nine boundaries.Naseer and Shahid Javed (29 with five fours) shared an invaluablepartnership of 83 for the fifth wicket in 112 minutes.

Renowned Glasgow Rangers blogger ‘Four Lads Had a Dream’ have given their reaction to some news that has now come out of Ibrox.

The Lowdown: Sydney Super Cup

As confirmed by the official website of the Teddy Bears, Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team have now accepted an invite to the Sydney Super Cup in Australia in November.

They will play Western Sydney Wanderers before facing their bitter rivals Celtic in the first ever Old Firm game to be played outside of Glasgow.

The Latest: Blogger reacts

Taking to Twitter, ‘Four Lads Had a Dream’ have given their reaction to the news, and it is safe to say that they were left far from happy:

“Will repeat again.

“Allowing ourselves to be part of this Sydney cup (which is being marketed as a homecoming tour with the Glasgow Derby) is absolutely nauseating.

“So out of touch with our support.

“Disgraceful decision which will end the trust of many figures in the boardroom.”

The Verdict: Not thought through

The decision to accept the invitation has clearly not been thought through much by the Light Blues board.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

The Cup has been advertised as a homecoming for Hoops manager and Aussie Ange Postecoglou, and so all of the focus and excitement will be on him and his team, rather than the Gers.

Nonetheless, it is also a long way to travel for a friendly tournament that does not really have much bearing on their season, and if anything increases the risk of injuries and fatigue as some players head to the World Cup, before the club anxiously await their return, hoping that they are unscathed.

In other news, find out who RFC’s three worst performers were against St. Johnstone here!

In early February the Somerset website carried an article about the changes that will be taking place to the scoreboards at the County Ground in Taunton this season.Chris Bass, who last season operated the electronic scoreboards has contacted the site and provided the following information regarding the changes.”The installation of electronics in both scoreboards before the start of the 2001 season has been generally considered a success, matched of course by the players’ performance on the field! Comments by members are always welcomed and the consensus has been to further improve the information coming from what has become known as the No.2 Board above the Executive Business Club.Traditionally and by virtue of where they sit, a sizeable proportion of spectators prefer the No.2 Board for information in preference to the Main Board at the Priory Bridge side of the ground. With this in mind, the following changes will greet spectators from the start of the 2002 season:1. The Moving Message Board will be re-located to above the No.2 Scoreboard. This facility will continue to be used to give the crowd virtually any information.
2. The No.2 Board will also carry the following additional items on a newly constructed adjoining panel: Overs Left and Runs to Win. During Limited Overs matches, the number of overs bowled by any respective bowlers will also be displayed, together with the relevant Duckworth/Lewis revised targets whenever applicable
3. Those viewing the Main Board will also see enlarged digits for total and wickets.
4. Spectators will enjoy the additional facility of lights on both scoreboards indicating which of the two batsmen is on strike at every stage of the game.As part of the new technology in 2001, the main board has the wiring capability to display the individual batsmens’ names, but it was considered unnecessary to make this upgrade at this stage with the advent of players’names being shown on the players’ backs during all matches in the forthcoming season.The neccesary work to upgrade the scoreboards will be carried out during the week beginning March 18th. All the new facilities will continue to be operated by Chris Bass from a single control point in the Media Centre.”Thanks Chris for putting us all in the picture regarding the scoreboard. I’m sure that everybody will appreciate the detail you have given in your update.

Whither Lara? © Getty Images

The speculation over whether Brian Lara will turn up to play in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) continues. Contrary to what Gaurav Seth, head of marketing at ICL, said earlier this week, the latest news is Lara is to arrive over the weekend.This time around Seth played it safe and chose not to confirm Lara’s arrival sometime late Friday. “Hopefully Lara will arrive over the weekend,” said Seth, unable to get a confirmed date because he hadn’t spoken with Himanshu Modi, the ICL chief who had rushed to London few days ago to have another meeting with the West Indian legend. “Lara had his own concerns but they’ve been sorted out now.” According to Seth, Modi is on his way back to India and soon things would be made clear.Lara, listed as captain of the Mumbai Champs, one of the six squads that complete the ICL league, was supposed to arrive last weekend to join his team-mates for practice at the Western Railways ground. The second part of the ICL phase starts now with the practice games that commence from tomorrow at five centres across India. The Champs will play the first of their three practice games against Kolkata Tigers from tomorrow, sans Lara.With the extended delay of his arrival, rumours about Lara opting to play both ICL and the BCCI’s Indian Premier League (IPL), which is scheduled to start in the summer of 2008, were adding sweat to ICL management. Seth said he was not bothered about the IPL now that Lara has agreed to the new terms.”He [Lara] had some concerns regarding the contract he had signed originally and wanted to renegotiate certain terms,” said Seth.It’s only natural that Lara will try to come on his own terms now that he knows he is the biggest player with the biggest brand value in the ICL. If he opted out, the pressure would be right on the sponsors.

Ricky Ponting’s Ashes-winning smile was stopped when Shane Warne told him he was retiring © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting was “shocked” and “saddened” when Shane Warne decided to retire, but he is stunned by talk of Glenn McGrath also walking away. In his first comments since Warne’s announcement, Ponting revealed he did not try to change his team-mate’s mind.”I was a bit shocked and a bit saddened like everybody else was – not that he made the decision, because he’d obviously thought long and hard about wanting to retire,” Ponting said. “But because of the fact I played with him for so long and he’s a really good friend of mine and I’ve learned a lot from him about the game.”Warne told Ponting he was stepping down after Sydney during the Ashes-winning celebrations at Perth. “Whenever you lose someone you’ve been close to for a long period of time it’s sad,” he said. “But he’s obviously made that decision on other things he wanted to do in his life so I didn’t at any stage ever try to talk him out of it.”Speculation is also high that McGrath will make a similar decision, but Ponting said he sat next to his team-mate on the plane to Melbourne on Friday. “He can’t believe some of the attention and some of the things that have been written in the paper, particularly today,” Ponting told reporters. “I certainly haven’t had the conversation with Glenn that I had with Shane the other night so that would to me indicate that he’s thinking about playing a bit longer yet.”

Scorecard
Western Australia ended the third day of their Pura Cup clash against Tasmania at Perth in a good position, but some good bowling gave the visitors an outside sniff of an improbably victory. They closed on 0 for 53 in pursuit of a target of 348.Tasmania’s innings had its share of drama. David Dawson was dropped by wicketkeeper Ryan Campbell when he had made 9 – he was 17 not out at stumps – and Michael DiVenuto (32 not out) caused a few flutters among his team-mates when he required lengthy treatment after being struck on the elbow by Ben Edmondson.The day had started well for Western Australia, even though Scott Kremerskothen delayed procedings with a spirited 66, and Tasmania were bowled out for 234, a first-innings deficit of 171. Rather than enforce the follow on, WA looked to press home their advantage by building an insurmountable lead.But that plan soon came off the rails as Scott Kremerskothen (3 for 22) ripped through their middle order to leave them teetering on 6 for 108, of which Chris Rogers made 73. Darren McNees (3 for 47) chipped in with late wickets as Western Australia were bowled out for 176.

Sourav Ganguly confirmed that India took the foot off the pedal halfway through the Kenyan innings. They won by 98 runs, but could’ve clinched the game a lot earlier. "We could have finished it earlier, but I wanted to give everybody a bowl in a match situation," said Ganguly in a press conference soon after the match. "Irfan [Pathan] and Ashish [Nehra] have been bowling well. Ajit [Agarkar] was coming back after a break and I wanted him to bowl his 10 overs."The fact that India did not bowl Kenya out was not the only blemish on their report card. Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh both failed to take the opportunity to spend some time out in the middle. "There’s a practice game on the 16th and that becomes important for them. We need to get them into form because they’re important players. When they score runs they win you games because they score at such a fast rate. I liked the way Viru applied himself, for whatever time he batted. He probably could have avoided that shot [the one that got him out] but we hope he fires in the practice match."Ganguly also rued the fact that he fell short of the three-figure mark yet again. "It’s unfortunate to miss two centuries in one week, but that’s the way it is one-day cricket. Sometimes you try to accelerate and get out, and I probably got a good ball today."Finally, when asked whether he thought India were ready for the big game against Pakistan, Ganguly nodded his vigourous assent.For Steve Tikolo, though, the post-match press conference provided another chance to underscore his grouse against the International Cricket Council for not giving Kenya enough opportunities to play international cricket. "We have not played any one-day internationals for nearly 18 months now and it showed today. If we had been playing without a break, we may not have let India get away with all those runs in the end overs."When asked if his team had taken any positives out of the match, Tikolo said that he was pleased with the way Maurice Ouma, the young debutant, played for his 49. He also said the match gave Brijal Patel, who has been out of form, a chance to get some valuable batting out in the middle.

All Today’s Yesterdays – October 3 down the yearsOctober 2 | October 41921
One of the greatest fast bowlers of all was born on this day. Ray Lindwall was a brilliant swing bowler and a shoo-in for any all-time-great Australian XI. As a child he would play in the street along which Bill O’Reilly walked home in the hope of catching the great man’s eye. He certainly managed that. But Lindwall was more than just a top-class bowler: the Wisden Almanack described him as “perhaps the man who established fast-bowling’s role in the modern game”. The leader of the Invincibles attack in 1948, he enjoyed a sodden Oval pitch in the last Test at The Oval – his 6 for 20 hurried England out for 52, still their lowest total in Ashes Tests in England. Remarkably, 43% of Lindwall’s 228 Test victims were out bowled. He died in Queensland in 1996.1862
Birth of the tragic Johnny Briggs, a brilliant slow left-armer who achieved the sort of penetration that modern English finger-spinners can only dream of. His 118 Test scalps came at the Waqar-esque strike rate of a wicket every 45.19 balls, and his 21 wickets against South Africa cost just 4.81 runs each. At Cape Town in 1888-89 he returned match figures of 33.3-16-28-15 (14 of the 15 were bowled) as South Africa’s tyros were skittled for 47 and 43 in only their country’s second Test. But in 1899 Briggs had an epileptic fit after being struck over the heart, and he ended up in an asylum where, so the story goes, he would imagine himself bowling down the ward and tell the nurses his bowling figures at the end of each day. He died in Cheshire in 1902.1996
South Africa’s biggest ODI victory. They trounced Kenya by 202 runs in the KCA Centenary Tournament in Nairobi. South Africa made 305 for 8 and then bowled out the hapless Kenyans inside 25.1 overs, with Allan Donald helping himself to career-best figures of 6 for 23.1952
Birth of a man who played a crucial role in New Zealand’s first-ever home series victory. Gary Troup played only 15 Tests, but three of them were during the memorable 1-0 win over West Indies in 1979-80. In a tense, truculent series Troup took 18 wickets at 20.61. It was historic for all concerned: New Zealand had waited 50 years for their maiden triumph, and West Indies would not lose another series until 1994-95.1995
Sri Lanka rubbed salt in Pakistan’s wounds at Rawalpindi. They had come from behind to win the Test series 2-1, and now repeated the dose in the one-dayers, clinching the series with a four-wicket win. Rain reduced it to a 38-over match, and Sri Lanka squeezed home with two balls to spare. Arjuna Ranatunga, who top-scored with a cool 42, was Man of the Match.1999
A forceful 84 from Herschelle Gibbs set South Africa up for yet another one-day tournament victory. They beat a Tendulkar-less India by 26 runs in the LG Cup final at Nairobi.Other birthdays
1891 William Ling (South Africa)
1905 Errol Hunte (West Indies)
1911 Sarobindu Banerjee (India)
1980 Sarah Collyer (England)