A game in which batsmen score at more than eight an over is great entertainment, sure, but great cricket? Not really

After that Wanderers game , I argued long and hard with those who thought it a great game of cricket. Nearly four years on, my views haven’t changed. In the days to come, many will speak of Rajkot as another classic. Some opportunists might even come out with commemorative DVDs, but nothing will change the facts. A game in which batsmen score at more than eight an over hardly constitutes an even tussle between bat and ball. Great entertainment, sure. Great cricket? Not really.

If you want to watch a real classic, watch how Pakistan chased down New Zealand’s total in the World Cup semi-final in 1992, or better still, go and watch footage of the greatest one-day match of all, Edgbaston 1999. Until there’s a tie in a World Cup final, that will remain the greatest cricket played in coloured clothes. The enormity of the occasion and what was at stake ensured as much.

There were two big differences between Rajkot and the Wanderers though. Back then, Mick Lewis and Nathan Bracken had a meltdown in the final stages, while Mark Boucher and Johan van der Wath produced the cameos that got South Africa over the line. At Rajkot, Thilina Kandamby and Angelo Mathews whittled the target down to 15 from 12 balls before lack of experience and basic technique played into Indian hands. And while the figures may suggest Lewis-style outings, both Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra were superb with the older ball, pinging in yorkers at will.

Built on solid Arjuna Ranatunga lines, Kandamby is no natural athlete, but only he can tell you what he was doing running to the bowler’s end with bat poised in mid-air. Both he and Mathews, who holed out to midwicket in the final over, were also unfortunate in that they found one of the few Indians who can actually field. He may be going on 37, but Sachin Tendulkar seldom makes the schoolboy errors that his more lithe, whippersnapper colleagues are periodically guilty of.

Virat Kohli was the biggest culprit in this game, putting down Upul Tharanga at point early in the innings. Geoffrey Boycott wasn’t in the commentary box, otherwise we’d most certainly have heard how his mum would have snaffled it while brandishing a stick of rhubarb, Read more…

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Have you even heard of that story about the King Frog whose hubris finally lead to his demise? It goes like - once upon a time there was a big fat frog who was under the impression that he was the biggest thing that God created ruling a good well with a large number of inhabitants, all smaller than him. At the same time he did not fail to gloat over that fact and made everyone always keep that in mind.

One day a junior member of the tribe had an accidental ride to the surface and while hopping around he happened to see a medium sized cow grazing close to the well. The junior who was living under a false impression could not believe what he witnessed and made a B -line back to the well and reported the matter to his beloved king claiming that he saw a living thing bigger than him. Disbelieving the junior the king blew himself up and inquired “Was he this size?” Then he just kept blowing himself on till he finally died of a heart attack.

That is a good lesson for anyone not to live by a myth.

A while ago the ICC had protruded the Lankan cricketers to be ranked the second best in the world Test rankings and we believed we were there in reality. However we first began to challenge the status quo when the Australians hinted that there should be a division among the Test rankings with the top four of Australia, England, South Africa and India slotted together in the big-league while Sri Lanka, Pakistan, New Zealand, West Indies and Bangladesh playing in a lower rung. This was one their solutions to the problem of the dwindling competitiveness among the Test playing countries. When this call first came Sri Lanka was at the number two slot and obviously we were rather perturbed.

The events that followed made us think more pragmatically. The ICC rankings are given on the current form of a country ranked on the results they yield. Ironically it is only a yardstick, Read more…

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ALLAN Border’s contribution to Australian cricket is almost impossible to measure.

Such is his nature that Allan Border does not notice let alone complain that the true worth of his service to Australian cricket is often unrecognised, unwritten and undiscussed.

So to this end it is hardly surprising that the 25th anniversary of his first appearance as his country’s 38th captain went unnoticed this week.

This is not acceptable. Attention should always be drawn to December 7, 1984 when Border succeeded his mate Kim Hughes as skipper against the West Indies in Adelaide.

It is a date of the utmost significance for it marks the beginning of what is best termed “the age of stability” in Australian cricket.

It is much too easy following the heady successes of the past 20 years under Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist to ignore, even forget, the confusion, controversy and tensions which so characterised Australian cricket in 1984.

Despite some initial misgivings and an anxious and sometimes grumpy first two years in office Border prospered to become a very fine captain and led Australia on a record 93 occasions over the next nine years and three months.

Aside from his enormous contributions as one of the greatest and most courageous batsmen of any era (11,174 runs at 50.56 with 27 hundreds and 63 fifties) his legacy was the provision of certainty, unity and a collective confidence at a time of great uncertainty — a bequest from which Australian cricket in general and Ponting and his men in particular continue to benefit.

Indeed, it is remarkable that Australia has had just four captains in 25 years and there is no doubt that the many successes of this period have been a direct consequence of the impressive stability achieved and maintained at just about every level of Australian cricket. There is no Read more…

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As Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid prepare to leave the stage, the young pretenders are waiting in the wings

Sachin Tendulkar was 17 when he lit up the Summer of Graham (Gooch) with a match-saving 119 not out at Old Trafford. It was his first Test century, in his ninth match. Nearly two-and-a-half years later, the 23-year-old Brian Charles Lara had the old-timers harking back to Sir Garfield Sobers as he stroked a magnificent 277 at the SCG. It was his fifth Test in the maroon cap. Half a decade later, Ricky Ponting was a year younger when he played his sixth Test. His maiden Test hundred (127) and a 268-run partnership with Matthew Elliott were pivotal in deciding the destination of the little urn.

Last week, two 19-year-olds from opposite sides of the world made brilliant debut hundreds on either side of the Tasman Sea. Adrian Barath’s effort was one of the few bright spots in an another depressing West Indian performance away from home, while Umar Akmal’s technique and poise couldn’t quite save Pakistan in a fascinating Test at Dunedin.

Both have been talked about for a while. Barath was considered special by no less than Lara himself, and those who watched the Champions League Twenty20 in October quickly discovered what the fuss was about. Even in a form of the game where the ugly mow over midwicket is the default option, it was noticeable how much time he had to play his strokes and how beautifully he executed them. The Hyderabad crowds that grew up watching stylists such as ML Jaisimha and Mohammad Azharuddin took to him in a big way, just as they did to the rest of the Trinidad & Tobago side.

Umar had also been cherry-picked from the Under-19 side. Long before he made his debut, those that followed domestic cricket in Pakistan were talking of how he was even better than Kamran, his older brother who also keeps wicket. Lest it be forgotten, Kamran made one of the great centuries of our age, taking Pakistan from 0 for 3 and 39 for 6 to victory against India Read more…

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Many Sri Lankan cricket fans would know the road of Sri Lanka cricket has been a rocky one, the inclusion into cricket’s mainstream in 1982 and winning the world cup in 1996. Sri lankan cricket is rich and full of folklore of cricketers past and the unconventional nature of the cricketers today which is true in the case of Dilshan, Mendis, Murali, Malinga and Jayasuriya to name a few. The present day cricketers are exciting one only beckons the question; can we again win the most illustrious trophy in the sport? - The World Cup 2011.

The team is blessed with unique and colorful players, which I know might be pushing for it, but it reminds me of the West Indies of old. They play their own brand of cricket that is both enjoyable to watch and is many a neutral’s favorite.

Our Captain Kumar Sangakkara is a workman’s cricketer; he strives for the best, day in and day out, and has excelled in everything he has done both on and off the field. One of his first tours was down in South Africa and he seemed at ease with his technique, even though he didn’t score much on that tour. He focused on his game and has gone from strength to strength. As a captain he is very clever and doesn’t give it away on a platter but keeps on fighting until the last run is scored or the last wicket is taken. It reminds us of another captain of such similar qualities that won us the trophy in ‘96 - Arjuna Ranatunga.

Dilshan and Jayasuriya, the latter, one of the saviors of the world cup in ‘96 and the man of the series in that tournament, blazed attacks all around the ground. it’s a well known fact that in his hey day the Indian bowling attack used to get smashed to all corners of the field and I am sure that the current bowling coach V.Prasad would be the first to agree that his career was shortened by a Jayasuriya assault. Sometimes I really wonder what sort of advice he would be giving to the current batch of bowlers how to execute a plan which he himself found it really hard to do. Some people say that his day has long gone and it’s time for him to pack his bags and bring someone else in but what a swan song it would be for Jayasuriya to lift up the cup once again and a real honor to one of the game’s greats. His present partner, Dilshan has been a revelation with the bat, at the start I thought he was more a flash in the pan sort of cricketer and his knocks were based on flukes but as time went on I realized there is actually a method to his mayhem and he has opened up the imagination of every cricket fan and player with his recent innovative shots. A right hand, left hand combination opening the batting and accumulating runs Read more…

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Sri Lanka have reason to celebrate. They are the second best cricket team in the world, and home to some of the most creative and original players in the modern game. As the game moves towards a depressing homogenization, thanks to globalization and access to the methods and formulae of rivals, it is the unusual that stands out, and Sri Lanka have the double joy of having their unusual players being successful as well.

Sri Lanka’s coaches are clearly a breed apart. It is difficult to see the likes of Mutthiah Muralitharan, Sanat Jayasuriya, Ajantha Mendis, Lasith Malinga and those uniquely gifted like them emerging from the coaching schools and national academies of other countries. Coaches try to mould wards in their own image or in the image of accepted textbook icons. When Mike Brearley wrote that a cricket team succeeds by the dint of differentiation, he meant that in a team of eleven, the bowlers, the batsmen, the wicketkeeper have distinctive roles, unlike say a team of rowers most of whom have identical roles.

But in Sri Lanka ‘differentiation’ takes on a new meaning – how different are their spinners from craftsmen from around the world!

In just two generations since Sri Lanka made their Test debut, they are No. 2 in the world – ahead of Australia, England, India and the West Indies. The victories over Pakistan and New Zealand were both authoritative and inevitable. The two boyhood friends, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumara Sangakkara, have led the recent sides well, continuing the ‘self-respect’ movement that originated with Arjuna Ranatunga when he held aloft the World Cup in 1996. Read more…

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The Weekly Five-fer recalls Pakistan’s heftiest Test wins on Sri Lankan soil.

1. Date: June, 2000
Venue: Galle International Stadium
Victory Margin: Innings and 163 runs

After Waqar Younis three-wicket burst and Abdul Razzaq’s hat-trick blasted Sri Lanka out for a paltry 181 - which could have been a lot worse were it not for a 115-run fifth-wicket stand between Mahela Jayawardene and Arjuna Ranatunga - Pakistan amassed 600 for eight as centurions Saeed Anwar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Wasim Akram made merry against an attack severely lacking in firepower.

Sri Lanka turned to four spinners and the would-be slow bowling of Ranatunga and Jayawardene before touring skipper Moin Khan ended the damage with a declaration well into the third day. 90 overs, another top-order flop from the hosts and a Waqar-Wasim blitz later Moin held the series accolade aloft as Pakistan exacted a punishing improvement on their five-wicket win earlier in the month. Read more…

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