Wasim Akram gives M D Crowe a verbal high-five: “I have bowled to both Tendulkar and Lara and I have found Lara more attacking. Tendulkar has a tighter technique, no doubt, but Lara can single-handedly win the game for his team…If you are asking me who the best batsman I have bowled to is, then it’s not Tendulkar and not Lara as well. It’s Martin Crowe… he was an amazing batsman.” Hogan, you rule - no wonder I had your Test run aggregate as my PIN number for a decade. Back in 1990, Crowe was forced to add a grille to his safety armoury for the first time in his career as he faced Waqar and Wasim on their bottle-cap infested patch. He did OK though, with the highlight being an epic 554-minute 108 at Lahore. Crowe has scored more runs than any other NZ batsman against Pakistan.

Coney and Chatfield in Dunedin, 1985: In one of the nation’s most thrilling Test matches, 278 was the target and the six-and-a-bit finest hours of Jeremy Coney were upon us. Self-confessed curmudgeon Ian David Stockley Smith departed and at 217/7 it was all but over, even before Cairns was KO’d by Wasim Akram to effectively make it 217/8. The recalled Bracewell B was back in the pavilion 11 runs later, and NZ still needed 50 to win with the most notorious batsman in NZ cricket history wandering meekly to the crease: E J Chatfield in the world’s baggiest vest. By tea, seven had been crossed off. In the final session, Coney was dropped on 97 from the first ball and the tone was set. As the Wisden Almanac described: “Chatfield showed such willingness to take the strike that in their unbroken, match-winning stand of 50 he had 84 balls to Coney’s 48. Coney reached his second Test century and Chatfield made his best Test score, his runs being almost outnumbered by his bruises.” Legends.

Thomson and Young mow down 324: This was a face-saving win for New Zealand having already lost the Test series. Blonde-maned horse-lover Shane Thomson joined grocer and wicketkeeper-cum-opener Bryan Young with NZ teetering at 4/133. Crucially, Mark Greatbatch and Andrew Jones were back in the dressing room. But the two ND team-mates set about forging one of the most memorable partnerships in NZ Test cricket history, hitting maiden tons, and leading the charge to a brilliant win. It also gave anorak wearers the country over a mouth-watering record: NZ’s highest-ever fourth-innings total to win a Test. (It is a travesty that the efforts of these two players in compiling this magnificent partnership have since been undermined by allegations against players of dubious repute. The Commission of Inquiry’s report here makes Read more…

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One just witnessed the words, Greatness and Dilshan, come together, in some other article on this website, during the just concluded SL / New Zealand ODI series and one decided to take the bull by its horns. TM Dilshan may be a good entertaining player. He may be the origin of the scoop. BUT he is NOT ‘great’ by any stretch of imagination.

When India visited the Kiwis in early 2009, Jesse Ryder was termed as a ‘genius’. One, who could rule the cricketing world. He was declared as one of the most talented guys going around on the circuit. Currently, he is mostly famous for his drunken ways. And his average of 15. The pressure on the media to create a buzz and hype around any success story is immense.

One of the most devalued terms in the sports world today is either ‘genius’ or ‘one of the best ever’. Easy to use, easier to discard.

Take Dilshan. All he has done in his life is flashing. On flat Sri Lankan pitches, that too!! A lot of people have done it on the England Cricket grounds and caught a few raised eyebrows and a few raunchy claps. A few have tried at Wimbeldon as well to be flooded with the the popular green towels. One poor soul tried to do it in Australia, where he met up with a ramapaging Andrew Symonds.The inherent weakness in flashing is that it’s supposed to last for a very short time.

Many words have been wasted in comparing him to Sehwag. To reach that pantheon, he has to score a few more runs against better opposition on more difficult pitches. Till then, one would rather want to place him alongside a K Srikanth more than a Sehwag. Actually K Srikanth can himself be called the pioneer of ‘carefree’ cricket. Even this comparison can be made Read more…

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The traditionalists’ reaction to Dan Vettori’s joining the New Zealand selection panel might have echoed a line from the terrific British crime movie Sexy Beast.

“No! No! No! No! No!,” roared Ben Kingsley’s portrayal of an unhinged London mobster at one tense moment.

After all, never before had a skipper been given a formal say in the makeup of his team for tours or home series.

But on closer inspection adding national coach Andy Moles to the reconstructed four-man panel could be more problematic than Vettori’s elevation.

Consider Moles first. One of the coach’s primary roles is as a sounding board, or confidant for the players.

Moles is an amiable man just completing his first year in the job.

His position also includes being a buffer between the players and selectors. If a player is out of form, down on his luck, has personal problems or simply wants to have a good old slap at the selectors, the coach is the first person he would turn to.

The ability to do that is now significantly diminished, simply because Moles Read more…

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