Chris Gayle’s nomination as West Indies captain for the coming tour Down Under is beyond comprehension. Far from standing firm, the West Indies Cricket Board has capitulated in the most craven manner. Never mind that their captain and senior players have let them down badly and repeatedly.

Never mind that many have been inactive, almost inert. Never mind that Gayle’s team was mauled in England or that a shadow side had unavoidably been sent to the Champions Trophy. Never mind that Gayle himself has seemed bent on destruction. Still the board accommodated the ringleader of the rebellion.

Gayle is a busted flush. Sympathisers say he cares about West Indian cricket. If so, he has a curious way of showing it. Appointed on a wing and a prayer by authorities desperate to stop the inexorable slide in West Indian cricket, the languid Jamaican has been a profound disappointment. If nothing else, his abject performance during last winter’s Test series in England ought to have cost him his job.

Given the honour of captaining the party and therefore following in the footsteps of Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Garfield Sobers and Clive Lloyd, the sunglassed opener promptly signed to play for the Kolkata Klowns (or whatever) in the IPL and arranged to join the team a week before the first Test. Eager to put even more plunder in his pocket, he lingered longer, played an extra match and arrived a couple of days before the series began. So much for leadership. So much for the tradition of West Indian cricket. So much for Test cricket.

Inevitably, West Indies were routed. By all accounts they barely put up a fight. Admittedly, it was cold in Durham but that hardly explains, let alone excuses, an abject display. If it was not the lowest point in Caribbean cricket, then it was mighty close. And Gayle was the leader. Mostly he stood at slip, smothered in sweaters, watching as his team was torn apart. Read more…

Administrator West Indies Blogs.CMDN.com, Caribbean cricket, Champions Trophy, Chris Gayle, Clive Lloyd, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Daren Ganga, England, IPL, Jamaican, NSW, Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Garfield Sobers, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, WICB

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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AS NSW and Victoria prepare to play in the Champions League first semi-final late tonight, the competition has become a major embarrassment for the billion-dollar Indian Premier League.

None of the teams from the much-hyped, mega-rich IPL have made the semi-finals of the inaugural Champions League, with the Cape Cobras, from Cape Town, and Trinidad and Tobago playing off in the second semi-final tomorrow night.

The IPL had three sides in the 12-team competition, which brought together the best domestic Twenty20 teams from the eight leading cricket nations, playing for $6.6million in prize-money. NSW and Victoria are already guaranteed $550,000 for making the semi-finals and one of the sides will make $1.4m for reaching the final, with $2.6m on offer for winning the tournament.

Prize-money is shared between the players and the state associations. State players who do not have Cricket Australia contracts will make about as much in a fortnight as they would for an entire domestic season - $120,000 - if they claim the title.

NSW and Australia veteran Stuart Clark claimed there was surprise among the Australians that IPL sides had not fared better.

“We expected them to be quite dominant, given we were playing in their conditions and given their IPL experience,” Clark told The Australian.

“The reality is they’ve been outplayed by other teams from around the world. It says what we’ve always believed, that Australian domestic cricket is strong and that’s why the Australian team is strong.”

The tournament was on course for a Victoria-NSW final until the Cape Cobras suffered an upset last-round loss to the Delhi Daredevils in a dead rubber. “It would have been nice if two Australian teams had made the final because it would have been a great showpiece for Australian cricket and how good domestic cricket is in our country,” Clark said.

“Once this game starts, it’s going to be a little bit weird because two Australian Read more…

Administrator Champions League T20 Allan Donald, Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cape Cobras, Cape Town, Champions League, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, IPL, NSW, Royal Challengers, semi-finals, Somerset, South Africa, Stuart Clark, Sussex, T20, Trinidad and Tobago, Victoria prepare

How is this for a turn-around? New South Wales were cruising to victory against Trinidad & Tobago in the Champions League this afternoon and then suddenly they ran into a force of nature called Kieron Pollard. Rarely can I have enjoyed watching an Australian team disintegrate so much as this one.

All NSW needed to do to win the game and reach the semi-finals with a match in hand was to go through the motions in the closing stages of their game in Hyderabad. Trinidad were 120 for six after 16 overs chasing 171 and needed more than two a ball.

The Aussies were probably already mentally working out what they would spend the $500,000 on that they would be guaranteed for reaching the semi-finals. Brett Lee had a new moisturiser to try. Phillip Hughes wanted to complete his Transformers collection. Moises Henriques was planning a small operation to get rid of that stray letter i that had slipped into his first name.

Henriques came on to bowl the seventeenth over, having earlier conceded six runs from two overs. And then this happened:

Wide/ Four/ Four/ Six/ Six/ Dot/ Six

Suddenly things were interesting. Pollard had cut the asking rate to 24 off three overs. But Brett Lee is Mr Economy and when the eighteenth over went for eight (five of them for Pollard), the game was still up in the air. Enter Henriques again with Pollard on strike and 16 needed.

It took him three balls.

In total, Pollard made 54 in 18 balls. Off Henriques he made 42 in nine balls. It was like watching a live-action Stick Cricket only without the comet trails.

It also kept Somerset in the competition, bizarrely. By my ropy maths, Somerset will reach the semi-finals if Trinidad and Tobago beat the Diamond Eagles on Sunday and if Somerset themselves beat New South Wales by 47 runs or more. It’s a tough ask, but it Read more…

Administrator Champions League T20 Blogs.CMDN.com, Champions League, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dot, Four, Henriques, Hyderabad, Kieron Pollard, New South Wales, NSW, Phillip Hughes, Six, Trinidad & Tobago, Wide

PHIL Jaques now has a different view of the world. A career-saving back operation has not only changed his life but his stature.

The opening batsman is several centimetres taller thanks to a prosthetic disc in the base of his spine.

Jaques laughs about his sudden elongation, but has not bothered to measure himself. He’s just delighted to stand up straight again and be able to move freely enough to play a proper cover drive without stabbing pain.

Off the field he can sit comfortably at dinner without the constant need to get up and walk around and his social life has also improved. Jaques can linger over a cup of coffee without fear that his back will seize up.

“I couldn’t sit down for very long. It (the injury) did get in the way,” Jaques told The Australian yesterday.

“I wasn’t able to sleep properly. I had to get up very early to get moving to play and in the end I couldn’t even play. I couldn’t stand up straight.”

A third operation in little more than six months last June, replacing his flattened disc instead of just trimming it, has made Jaques a new man in every sense.

It is reflected in his cricket with a spectacular start to the Sydney grade season, scoring 291 runs for Sutherland in his first three innings for just once out, including two centuries. His performance for a NSW second XI against Victoria at Bankstown over the past four days has Read more…

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