Having played and coached in the professional English cricket system, it’s always a challenge to work in an associates’ system that is lacking in both funding and a professional outlet. After 3 years as Assistant Head Coach with the Dutch national team to successfully qualify for the 2007 ICC World Cup, I have seen there are many factors that can genuinely help develop cricket. And now, with 3 coaching visits under my belt to the US plus numerous conversations with officials and those involved with playing and coaching, I see far more clearly how the US can help itself.

1. Stop The Politics

In any walk of life people are out to make a name for themselves, But when it comes to developing a sport, a far bigger picture is important. More than making speeches, it’s useful for officials and those involved with the game to actually DO things to bring young players through. Initially, it may mean losing cricket matches at various levels whilst people learn how to win. You will often find managers and coaches of teams just wanting to get their own personal record as good as possible and not think about how they can bring talent through. The game is all about being fair, reasonable and player focused. It’s never about administrators and coaches records even though they like to think it is.

2. Develop Players Correctly

Get a development plan, stick to it and see it through. The only way any country can make a sport attractive is to develop those who already play first, so the national teams that represent that country actually perform well. No media wants to cover a ‘minority’ sport where its teams are not playing at the highest levels. Or worse still when they do, they are heavily beaten. It would be madness to imagine that others are attracted to a sport where there’s no success, outlet for success, nor the opportunity to take the game up further after a young age other than for recreation. If cricket in the US is merely for recreation, it’s competing with activities that take far less time out of a day.

3. Coach Cricket Professionally By Developing ‘Professional’ Coaches

It’s worrying to note that so few high level coaches (or any recognised level coaches) work in the US or are involved with cricket in the US. It simply means that talent lies wasted, Read more…

Administrator USA Andy Flower, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dale Steyn, Darren Gough, ICC, ODI, Shoaib Akthar

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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Almost un-noticed, Paul Harris has sneaked his way into the world’s top ten in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. Helped by his match figures of nine for 161 against Australia at Cape Town this March, he now sits pretty on 669 points – the highest-rated left-arm spinner in the world. He was even higher in May of this year – peaking at seventh place before the resurgence of Mohammad Asif and Shane Bond in the recent series in New Zealand. A veteran of only 24 Tests since his debut in January 2007, he has so far taken 71 wickets, so is still qualifying for a “full” rating.

South Africa has hardly been a hot-bed of spinning talent since their return to the international cricketing fold in 1991. In fact, over that period of time, just 15% of all the Test wickets taken by their bowlers have gone to spinners. In contrast, over the same period of time, spinners for the other Test playing nations have taken 34% of their total wickets – more than twice as many. This is partly due to the lack of high-quality spinners in South Africa, but also due to the exceptionally high standard of the pace-bowling in that country. Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Dale Steyn have all spent time at the top of the bowling tree in recent years, Makhaya Ntini reached number 2 and Jacques Kallis and Andre Nel both featured in the world’s top ten at various stages of their careers.

The pickings have been slimmer slow-bowling-wise. In fact, Harris is the first South African spinner to reach the top twenty – let alone the top ten – since their re-admission. Paul Adams and Nicky Boje both played more than forty Tests and took more than a hundred wickets each, but never made a big impact on the rankings. Adams peaked at 588 points and 23rd position while Boje managed 545 points and 22nd position. So – if Harris is unchallenged as the top achieving South African tweaker in recent years, if we push the boundaries back, how does he stack up historically with his fellow countrymen?

Six bowlers from the Rainbow Nation have topped the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers – the three mentioned above plus Peter Pollock, Aubrey Faulkner (who uniquely topped the batting Rankings too!) and Hugh Tayfield . Tayfield first achieved top spot after the 1955 Oval Test in which he took 8 wickets, and really made his name by bowling a record 137 dot balls in a row to the England batsmen in the Durban Test of January 1957. He ended Read more…

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It is often said that the Indian cricket public are not terribly interested in Tests. But a glance at the blogosphere suggests that they are thoroughly enjoying their team’s rise to No. 1 in the world rankings.

When a fellow English columnist (sorry, “ranting Pom”) recently scoffed at the table, suggesting that India were poor under pressure and didn’t deserve their lofty position, he was subjected to a ritual disembowelling online.

For myself, I tend to feel that India are every bit as deserving of the laurel wreath as South Africa or Australia. The problem is that we have become accustomed to the idea of a single champion team, because that is the way the game has been since the early 1970s.

In theory, the concept of three or four half-decent sides scrapping it out at the top of the table – a hung parliament, if you will – should make for greater drama than the monotony of totalitarian rule.

But that is to under-estimate our love of neatness in all things, especially sport. We like to know who the pillars of world cricket are, so that we can look for cracks in the edifice. There is no story as resonant as the fall of a dynasty (as Tiger Woods, a dynasty in his own right, has just discovered).

The ICC’s algorithm does a decent job of turning results into placings, as far as that goes. But the definition of a true champion side is that you don’t need to look at the table to know they are the world’s best.

The other issue with India is that they are a team without great bowlers (begging Harbhajan Singh’s pardon). Their batsmen do the attacking, crushing the life out of sides with Read more…

Administrator Indian Cricket Ajantha Mendis, Aussies, Australia, Bradman, Dale Steyn, Glenn McGrath, Harbhajan, Harbhajan Singh, ICC, Mitchell Johnson, Shane Warne, South Africa, Sreesanth, Sri Lanka, Virender Sehwag, West Indies, Zaheer Khan

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…

Administrator South Africa AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel, Blogs.CMDN.com, Champions Trophy, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dale Steyn, Edgbaston, England, Graeme Smith, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher, Mickey Arthur, Morne Morkel, South Africa

There are things New Zealand can do to beat South Africa’s Proteas other than pray for invasions by dogs or raindrops - although I note that last time I checked it was thunderstorms and lightning, very, very frightening over there.

Here’s a quick 10 to consider - feel free to chip away with your own…

* See if we can arrange to play somewhere other than Centurion. Too late for this of course but it would be nice as the Africans have beaten us there all three times we’ve played. Let’s at least pray we have packed our economy rates in our coffins as we’ve conceded 314 and 324 in front of the grassy embankments of the ground formerly known as SuperSport Park.

* Eradicate legside addict and compulsive puller Graeme ‘Le Muppet’ Smith early. Might be worth putting 5 bucks on him to be dismissed bowled too: he is 4th on the all-time list of most likely to get out in that fashion (27% of all his ODI dismissals).

* Not succumb to the skiddy pace of the man who looks like Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, Dale Steyn. We shouldn’t either - his only return against us in ODIs is 2/50 from 9 overs although he did snare both openers that day back in December 2007.

* Whoooooh big ol’ Jesse Ryder to make his debut against South Africa in one-dayers with an innings to remember, punctuated with limited running between the wickets, cheeky grins, crashing drives, Kluseneresque slogs, and a memorable bandanna.

* Put pressure on AB de Villers - he is the South Africans’ banker in terms of runs. He Read more…

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