Economics and politics dominated an auction that left a pair of veterans counting their blessings

If you’re Mohammad Kaif, a lottery ticket would be a smart move, while Damien Martyn could do worse than contemplate the tables at Bellagio or Caesar’s Palace. Neither man has played international cricket for more than three years, and Kaif’s performances in the inaugural Indian Premier League – he didn’t even make the Rajasthan Royals squad for the second season in South Africa – were as ordinary as Martyn’s brief flirtation with the nearly forgotten Indian Cricket League.

The Royals, captained and coached by Shane Warne, bought out Kaif’s $675,000 (£412,000) contract before the auction to free up the space that they then filled with the classy 38-year-old batsman who was once Warne’s brother in baggy-green arms. If that raised eyebrows, there was bemusement when Kings XI Punjab, who have appointed Kumar Sangakkara as captain in place of Yuvraj Singh, splashed out $250,000 for Kaif, whose batting is usually conspicuously devoid of the power and pizzazz associated with Twenty20 cricket.

Many of the headlines in England on Wednesday will focus on the lack of interest in Graeme Swann, but the Twitter-friendly off-spinner’s IPL tale is far from over. The auction represents only the most high-profile route into the league. There are other ways. Both the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings have injured players that they can replace before the action begins on 12 March. In Mumbai’s case, they will have only the $100,000 that they spent on Kyle Mills last season, but Chennai have a whopping $1.55 million to draw on, having seen Andrew Flintoff go under the surgeon’s knife yet again. Don’t be surprised to see Swann or Doug Bollinger, another who attracted no interest, fielding a few calls from agents over the coming days.

With the auction taking place in Mumbai, a city subjected to the worst terror attacks ever seen in India, there was little doubt that the story of the day was the shunning of the 11 Pakistan players on the auction list. When Richard Madley, who usually helps sell antiques and Read more…

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The hasty departure from Australia of English umpire Mark Benson has been portrayed in some quarters as yet another blow for the Umpire Decision Review System – a waffly title for what should be a simple concept.

Benson is said to have walked out of the Adelaide Test after complaining in private that the UDRS ‘just makes umpiring harder’. Throw in the comically bad application of the system at the start of the year, the reluctance of England and India to use it, and the disagreement over who should fund it, and cricket suddenly finds itself in familiar territory: a crisis.

And yet if the players and umpires are looking for someone – anyone! – to blame, they should start with themselves. The UDRS has been exploited and misused so appallingly, as well as blamed for everything from global warming to the credit crunch, you’d think unravelling the Duckworth/Lewis system without a calculator was a doddle by comparison.

The truth is, it couldn’t be simpler. A quick reminder: if a player thinks he’s been done an injustice and his side has one or both of its challenges per innings in hand, he can refer the decision to the TV umpire. And if the TV umpire sees clear evidence that the original decision was wrong, he can over-rule. Where, gentlemen, is the difficulty?

Problems have arisen not because – as romantics such as Dickie Bird believe – the on-field umpires have been stripped of their authority, but because both the players and the TV umpires have exceeded their brief. The ICC, in trying to deal with the kind of umpiring-induced bad blood that marred India’s tour of Australia in 2007-08, have made it clear all along that the UDRS is there to get rid of the howlers. And that is it.

If you believe howlers are a time-honoured and endearing part of the game, you will now be shaking your head. But if you believe cricket has a duty to its spectators and players to get as many decisions right with as little fuss as possible, you may think the eradication of Read more…

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Once the dust settles over this seven-match one-day series, only one question is likely to remain: How did the Australians pull this off? The visitors had lost four of their first XI even before the team travelled to India. Over the first four matches, they lost another four to various injuries.

They did win the first one-dayer by a close margin, but once India had steamrolled them in the next two, the battle between Dhoni’s men in home conditions and Ponting’s boys in disarray seemed extremely unequal.

And yet, at the end of the sixth one-dayer in Guwahati, they had taken a 4-2 series victory, after yet another commanding bowling performance and some composed batting in a tricky chase. Mitchell Johnson and Doug Bollinger ran through the Indian top-order, who recovered from 27 for five to post 170.

Shane Watson then ensured there were to be no slip-ups with a composed 49 that set up the chase nicely. At one point, they were reduced to 90 for three with captain Ricky Ponting back in the hut, but Michael Hussey and Cameron White ensured the series was sealed with 8.3 overs, and a game, to spare.

Early swing

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won his second toss of the series, but very soon he would have wished he hadn’t. Batting first, he admitted, was a risk as the ball was likely to do a bit early in the morning, adding that it was important to see off the first hour.

That didn’t happen, though. Virender Sehwag hit a six over point off the second ball of the match, but a couple of deliveries later, Mitchell Johnson got an in-swinger to sneak through bat and pad. Off the final ball of the same over, Gautam Gambhir played down the wrong line against a ball that pitched on middle and shaped wickedly away to send the off-stump cartwheeling.

Australia, knowing that a win would seal the series and their No 1 spot, had smelt blood. Johnson, who had looked out of sorts in the series, was back at his best and in Doug Bollinger, Read more…

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India’s young cricketers have come under fire for their lavish lifestyles, but hairstyles don’t get in the way of centuries

After the Thrilla in Manila, Muhammad Ali was to say: “Joe Frazier, I’ll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me.” The cricketers of India and Australia appear to operate on the same principle. India, such a disappointment at the Champions Trophy in South Africa, have rediscovered their spirit. Australia, with an injury list that makes Rafael Benítez’s woes at Liverpool look trivial, have shown the same fortitude that Frazier did on that long-ago night when he was reduced to fighting from memory.

After falling four runs short in Vadodara, India were markedly superior in both Nagpur and Delhi. When they then produced their best fielding and bowling display of the series – four run-outs included – to restrict Australia to 250 on a beautiful batting pitch in Mohali, it seemed as though the series tide was about to turn decisively their way.

They hadn’t reckoned, though, with the laidback New South Wales player who has the champagne surname. Some will point to the fact that Doug Bollinger resembles Chucky from Child’s Play, and he certainly haunted the Indians on a night when everything that could possibly go wrong did. Virender Sehwag cracked seven fours in a 19-ball 30 before lofting one to mid-off. It was the fourth time in the series he had got to double-figures, and not gone on to make a game-changing contribution. “He plays like he’s opening for the Nicky Oppenheimer XI against a visiting side,” said one former Mumbai pro, clearly ticked off by the insouciant approach. “It’s 20 minutes in the sun and then off for a glass of champagne.”

Sehwag’s series tally of 94 is a poor return for someone who appears to have the measure of every bowler he’s faced. But by bringing in Bollinger for the injured Brett Lee, Ricky Ponting took a clever step towards neutralising the Sehwag factor. If there’s one type of bowling that he doesn’t really relish, it’s left-arm seam-and-swing. Chaminda Vaas got him six times and Nathan Bracken, another absentee, on five occasions (from just 10 games). There were also failures against Ian Bradshaw and Syed Rasel. Bollinger is considerably quicker than those four, all of Read more…

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Here’s a fascinating statistic for those who swear by numbers.

In the 24 months leading into the World Twenty20 in September 2007 (where India emerged champions), India played 23 Test matches and 66 one-day internationals (see graphic). In the 25 months or so thereafter, right up to Wednesday night’s big win in Nagpur, India had played 22 Tests and 66 ODIs, an almost identical number.

The difference? The 17 Twenty20 International games India played, including 14 at the two Twenty20 World Cups, between September 2007 and October 2009. In a similar period before that, between September 2005 and August 2007, India played just one T20 game.

But even that difference in T20s is not much really, given that the World Cup games all happened over hectic fortnights. So why do we really get the impression that there’s suddenly too much cricket?

Logically, only because of club cricket: primarily the two seasons of the Indian Premier League, and now, the just-concluded Champions League, gave us 59 games for 2008 and (whew!) 82 for 2009.

Even if you go by pure numbers, 2009 saw much more cricket than any year preceding it. But that feeling of being swamped was probably heightened because of two reasons. First, there was a disconnect with the IPL this year because it was geographically distant from the Indian fan. Two, the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 failed to enthuse because of a triple whammy —local fans had trouble identifying or identifying with most foreign teams; the IPL teams that made the cut did badly; and most top India players were missing in action.

So against this backdrop, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting’s statement right before Read more…

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If the selectors want a team guaranteed to perform internationally, they need look no further than Katich and co, writes Will Swanton.

Just pick a NSW-only Test team and be done with it.

Pipe down, Victorians and assorted other non-Blues. NSW have proved themselves as the dominant provincial side in the world, let alone Australia, so the selectors might as well just flood the Test XI with Blues - 10 of them plus captain Ricky Ponting, who lives in Sydney anyway.

And before all those Victorians and assorted other non-Blues start moaning about NSW’s struggles in the Sheffield Shield, come for a meeting in the fair dinkum department - the only reason they don’t win the Shield every year is the unavailability of their premier players who are representing their country.

Cast ahead to the first Ashes Test against England next year. Australia lost the urn, NSW can win it back. A Blues-Only-Plus-Ricky-Ponting Test team isn’t remotely far-fetched.

Phillip Hughes, Phil Jaques, Simon Katich, Michael Clarke, Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz, Doug Bollinger and Stuart Clark. That’s a legitimate Test team. Every one of those players is already in possession of a baggy green cap. None of them could be considered bolters. Look through the list - every one of them has a realistic chance of making Ponting’s side. So why not all of them?

Of the Australian team that lost the Ashes, only Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle could feel aggrieved to be excluded. Johnson is the ICC Cricketer of the Year but even he admitted to being shocked after he misfired throughout most of the Ashes. He struggled against Read more…

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Overview

With the Champions Trophy out the way, many sides can now switch their focus to building toward the 2011 World Cup.

This series will give Australia and India the perfect opportunity to do just that.

Of course, there’s a trophy and bragging rights at stake so it’s unlikely that there will be too much experimenting for either side.

The hosts’ form in limited-overs competition has been extremely patchy in recent months. They struggled to stamp their authority against the West Indies in the Caribbean, were offered hit-and-miss cricket across the Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka and then flopped in the Champions Trophy in South Africa.

On paper they remain one of the strongest outfits in world cricket and the selectors have one of - if not - the biggest player pool to draw from, but unfortunately they just cannot get the combinations right. Rahul Dravid, Abhishek Nayar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Dinesh Karthik and Yusuf Pathan have all come and gone in recent tournaments.

The constant chopping and changing has not helped the core of the team and captain Mahendra Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma have all had one good game followed by a poor one. It’s about time they each string together a good run of form and with seven matches lined up, they won’t get a better opportunity to do so.

On the up side for India, Virender Sehwag, Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh have all recovered from injury and will strengthen the batting line-up considerably. Bowling-wise, despite Zaheer Khan’s absence through injury, Ashish Nehra, Sharma and Praveen Kumar will be favourites for the fast-bowling slots. Throw in spinners Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra and you’re met Read more…

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