As always, the Test XI of 2009 will be a major talking point as the merits of those who made the side and those left out are debated.

Choosing a Test team of the year can be hazardous. So far no lives have been lost, though it was a close run thing last year after Sachin Tendulkar was omitted. No amount of sweet words could convince offended parties that selection had been based on 12 months and not an entire career. In hindsight the criteria may have become too cut and dried, allowing the inclusion of one-year wonders. Accordingly, an adjustment has been made.

Only those performing well in 2009 have been considered but thereafter heed has been taken of records. Alas that has meant the exclusion of Thilan Samaraweera, the most productive batsman of the year (1234 runs at 72.6) and a miracle worker. It’s not so long ago that he was shot and almost killed when terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan bus. As usual, though, the side has been selected to win cricket matches, not as a slap on the back.

More than ever it is necessary to look beyond the statistics. Averages have been distorted this year by the free-scoring series between Sri Lankan and India. Four of the five highest scorers of the campaign are Sri Lankan. The Indian top order averaged variously 90, 70, 87, 67, 67 and 92.

They cannot all play. Even to concentrate on them means forgetting about Ross Taylor, Graeme Smith, Younus Khan, Chris Gayle, Michael Clarke, Jacques Kallis and so forth. As it happens, none of them made the cut anyhow, but all deserved consideration. Anyhow, here goes!

1 Virender Sehwag
Impossible to omit provided he has a presentable season. His ability to take attacks apart and to sustain his domination sets him apart. Sehwag is a great batsman and among the most devastating openers the game has known. His defence is immaculate and mostly mothballed as he plays his full range of shots from the first over. Impudent but rarely imprudent, his madness conceals a shrewd cricketing brain.

2 Andrew Strauss
Pipped higher scorers like Gautam Gambhir and Tillakaratne Dilshan due to the part he played in recovering the Ashes. Simply, he was the most influential batsman in a tight series. Read more…

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A MAGNIFICENT sporting contest which produced a pulsating climax and edge-of-the-seat, nail-biting drama should be reason to celebrate and to be grateful for the joy that Test cricket provides.

There will be a hundred “what if?” questions asked, and understandably so given S A ’s proximity to a glorious victory, but blame should be avoided at all costs and those inclined towards post-match wisdom must remember that hindsight is the prerogative of the smug.

Those now tempted to question the wisdom and timing of Graeme Smith’s declaration on the fourth evening are profoundly missing the point. The extra runs which took the game away from England and made it “safe” allowed SA to remain on the attack for the entire day.

On two occasions the “extra” close catcher, which would not have been in place in a conventional field, resulted in a wicket, Smith’s own catch at the luxury position of leg gulley to remove Alistair Cook might not have been a possibility had the captain been concerned about saving runs and AB de Villiers might not have been able to make his spectacular grab at third slip to remove Jonathan Trott if England had been in the game.

But the captain did not only get the declaration right, he also managed to maintain an intensity and belief among the team which most teams would have abandoned when Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott batted for more than 43 overs to take England to within 35 overs of safety with seven wickets in hand.

The bowlers were rotated smartly and kept as fresh as possible and the move to bring Paul Harris back at the death for a single over, in which he took a wicket, and then to remove him from the attack was both inspired and brave. Even more inspiration came from Friedel de Wet who proved an old adage that the best people make the best cricketers because they appreciate everything the game has to offer them and take nothing for granted.

De Wet always had raw pace and talent but two back operations and a stuttering career persuaded him to seek an alternative life away from the game. He moved back home to Krugersdorp and started his own nursery business which he has continued to run Read more…

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Quiz question. What links these England Test wins? Lord’s 2000 (v West Indies), Kandy 2000-01, The Oval and Trent Bridge 2003, Johannesburg 2004-05, Edgbaston 2005, Mumbai 2005-06, Wellington 2007-08, The Oval 2009?

Answer: they all followed demoralising defeats.

So when England’s bowlers were given a lesson in ingenuity and chutzpah by AB de Villiers at Cape Town on Friday, you could almost guess what was coming next: South Africa all out for 119 – their lowest total in home one-day internationals – and England on the brink of winning a series that most observers, this one included, felt was another limited-overs accident waiting to happen.

You couldn’t make it up. And if you did, you’d be sacked for over-embellishment.
Consistency is a strange thing. It’s got so many syllables you imagine sportsmen nodding off when the captain uses it in his team-talk. Neither is it the sexiest concept in the sporting dictionary.

It’s also wonderfully understated. Why not just say: ‘We want to win every game’? But it has become the Holy Grail of this England cricket team – a reasonable, modest, unflashy goal for those embodiments of reason, modesty and non-flash, Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower.

The good news is England are aware of the problem. In the 1990s, their stirring victories were undoubtedly too seldom and almost always too late: at The Oval in 1993 and 1997, at Bridgetown in 1993-94, at Adelaide in 1994-95, and at Melbourne in 1998-99, the series could not be won.

Worse, all those games took place in series England went on to lose. The games mentioned in the first paragraph, by contrast, were all part of series England either drew after being behind or won. Progress comes in all shapes and sizes.

The journey, though, may only be beginning. After England’s win on Sunday, Strauss was keeping his size 11s on the ground. ‘The see-saw nature of this series so far suggests that if we expect to [win at Durban on Friday], we will probably come unstuck,’ he said. ‘So we have to Read more…

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Paul Collingwood is a quiet-spoken, thoughtful man, not prone to making big claims or overembellishing a situation and he cut straight to the point when asked to reflect on the tour of South Africa so far.

“It’s been a little bit of a rollercoaster ride, in terms of results and performances. It’s been an up-and-down tour.”

That it certainly has. England won the first T20 international - the scorecard says by one run on D/L but if it hadn’t rained they probably would have won more comfortably with SA needing 76 in seven overs at the close - and then were walloped out of sight in the second, with South Africa making 241.

Just as the press pack started preparing stories about the tour going off the rails, England produced one of their most accomplished and clinical displays at Centurion to take a 1-0 lead in the ODI series, then followed it by being pummelled at Newlands on Friday, conceding more than 350 runs and losing with eight overs unbowled.

Cue doom and gloom again, but two days later the same England bowling attack have just dismissed South Africa for 119 at Port Elizabeth, two runs fewer as a team than AB De Villiers made on his own on Friday. As I type, Trott and Strauss have taken England a quarter of the way to winning this game and going 2-1 up.

As journalists we like to deal in black and white. It is a justified criticism of the British press that England are painted as either the worst side in the world in the history of the game ever - or they are triumphant and magnificent and let’s have them round to the palace for OBEs and Read more…

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His first four appearances were so disappointing that in another, more successful side, he may have been forced to wait a very long time before being invited back for another go.

But this was the England team in 2001, not exactly a powerhouse of one-day international cricket, and sure enough when an experimental squad was unveiled to travel to Zimbabwe later that year Paul Collingwood of Durham found himself on the plane.

Deliverance came in the first match in Harare - a maiden wicket (thanks to a James Foster stumping) and an important innings of 36 in what was a tricky run-chase. The seed for further success was sown, and eight years on he has become the most capped player for England in one-day internationals.

Over the course of the decade, an exceptionally resourceful cricketer has emerged, one who has delighted coaches by pouring so much effort into training sessions. That hard work has frequently paid off with individual moments of brilliance at backward point, making him arguably the greatest fielder to represent England.

In the summer to end all summers, 2005, his catch to end the innings of Australia’s Matthew Hayden in a match at Bristol must be considered one of the best ever.

And on Sunday, he marked his 171st appearance with another stunner to send South Africa’s AB de Villiers on his way, proving again that his agility and flexibility is unrivalled in the England team.

Collingwood’s batting has had predictable peaks and troughs over the years, but his bowling has developed with the times, morphing from bog-standard medium-paced seam-up to a conjurer’s bag of tricks with slow cutters, faster bouncers and a bit of old-fashioned swing.

When, also in 2005, he followed up a century with a six-wicket haul in a single match against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge, the scale of the achievement was predictably tarnished Read more…

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Memo to Mickey Arthur and Graeme Smith: save your breath. If England were being captained on their tour of South Africa by, I dunno, Graeme Hick in one of his less assertive moods, the constant mind games – and I only narrowly avoided inverted commas – might be worth it. But Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower have come through a lot together in a short space of time. As Michael Vaughan once said, it’s all duck off a water’s back.

Journalists are sometimes accused of spinning a story: emphasising those aspects which present it in, well, the most presentable light. The players and coaches usually roll their eyes; sometimes they object; but very occasionally, when it suits them, they join in. And that is precisely what Arthur and Smith have been doing ever since England landed in South Africa – and even before they got there.

First there was the contrived brouhaha over Strauss’s so-called refusal to allow Smith a runner for cramp during the Champions Trophy. Smith blamed Strauss; Strauss passed the buck to the umpires; the truth was left dangling somewhere in the middle.

Then Arthur questioned the absence of Steve Harmison from the Test squad. OK, so he was answering a direct question, and I appreciated the honest answer he gave me. But the intended message was clear: you’ve made a big mistake.

Since then Arthur – an affable guy, as it happens – has joked about the lack of Englishmen in the England team, and expressed his mock-incredulity at the decision to give Adil Rashid but a single over in the second Twenty20 international at Centurion on Sunday. If you recall Smith’s baiting of Vaughan during the 2004-05 series, and Arthur’s reference to “Mother Cricket” at Headingley in 2008, when Vaughan claimed a catch at mid-off after berating AB de Villiers for claiming a catch at slip, then you will recognise this South African tactic for what it is: an old one.

But is it worth it? Andy Flower, who could hardly be more dignified if you slapped a barrister’s wig on him and asked him to speak Latin, pointedly used the word “modest” when he Read more…

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Tough and talented, South Africa have taken their inspiration from their captain to become the world’s best Test team

This tour is going to be especially fascinating for me because these are two teams close to my heart. Over the past year I have worked with South Africa as a consultant, a part-time role I took on before their Test series against Bangladesh in 2008. I’ll be working with them again this winter, for six or seven days before the one-dayers start on 20 November, and again for another stretch of 11 days around the first Test.

In the time I’ve spent with them, most recently at a six-day training camp ahead of the Champions Trophy, I’ve seen at first hand how and why they have become the No1-ranked team in Test cricket. For me, there are three key reasons for their success.

The first is that they have found the right captain. Graeme Smith has been around for some time, because he had only just turned 22 when he made captain. He has grown into such a strong character. It took him time to win the respect of the senior players in his side because he was so young, but he has earned their admiration by performing in the most difficult circumstances.

His hundred against England at Edgbaston last year was as good an innings as I’ve seen played in terms of how he shouldered responsibility for the side. He made 154 not out in the fourth innings to clinch the series. There was nothing flash about it, but it showed the sheer guts of the man. Graeme leads from the front. He’s not a technically gifted batsman, in fact there are times when he really struggles with his technique, but you won’t find anyone who is stronger than him mentally. Good technique can get a batsman out of trouble when he makes a mistake, but Smith relies more on his mental resilience to avoid erring in the first place. He has the self-discipline to stay away from playing in his weaker areas, and he makes sure he watches over Read more…

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South African skipper Graeme Smith and his boys have had an over two-month long winter break but any signs of rustiness were quickly banished as they got past a second-string West Indian side with ease last week.

“We are excited, we have prepared well, we are the best prepared we can be going into this tournament. Hopefully tomorrow we can put it all into play in the middle. That is our challenge,” Smith said ahead of the Champions Trophy opener against Sri Lanka.

The world’s No.1 team has been putting in a lot of work over the past two months and Smith would be keen to do away with the chokers tag once and for all. They are without a major trophy in their cabinet and during the last big event at home, the inaugural edition of the World T20, they were knocked out by India.

Some of them have shed kilos while the others have been indulging in other sports to stay fit. Among those who participated in a half-marathon are Smith, Mark Boucher and AB De Villiers. The three participated in the 21km run in South Coast to stay primed for Champions League during their winter break.

If Jacques Kallis is looking much leaner then it has something to do with the 8 kgs he lost in the run-up to the Champions Trophy. Coach Mickey Arthur too is giving his wards a run for their money having shed an amazing 10kg.

The team trainer has been around the country giving out training schedules to the players and also ensuring they don’t slack in their work ethic during the off-season. Of the Read more…

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Shahid Afridi has been guilty of blowing up his talent like a millionaire on a gambling spree. At times one wondered whether he had filed for bankruptcy. It now seems he has reformed.

It was not the maverick Pathan with a propensity to take risks that turned up against South Africa and Sri Lanka. Neither was it the heart-break kid whose indiscretion left his ardent fans frustrated.

Last week, Afridi didn’t throw it all away in a flash. With three wickets and 105 runs in the semifinal and final, Afridi delivered. Skipper Younus Khan was surprised that he took singles in the final. It was a performance that brackets him alongside the best. It begs the question if he is the best T20 player in the world? 

Yuvraj Singh, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Umar Gul, Lasith Malinga, AB de Villiers, Ajantha Mendis, Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen may take objection to Afridi’s elevation into the pantheon of T20 greats but they will find it difficult to build a strong case against him. Rameez Raja believes Afridi’s desire to… Read more…

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Before the semi-finals, South Africa had everything going for them. The batting had clicked, having scored 211, even though it was against the minnows. The spinners had managed to tighten India into submission. Wayne Parnell had one of the best bowling figures in the tournament and looked to get better with every outing. The batting looked solid and AB de Villiers was having a fantastic run with the bat.

They were unbeaten in the first two rounds of the ICC World T20. Nothing, absolutely nothing, seemed to be holding them back from steamrollering the opposition. Even a small total was being defended with missionary zeal.

South Africa had earned this reputation over the years. None would doubt that they richly deserved this reputation. Read more…

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