The third IPL auction - a more low-key affair than before given that many big names had already been bought and there was a cap of $750,000 - has concluded in Mumbai.

As predicted in The Times, Eoin Morgan was the only England player to find favour, picked up by the Bangalore Royal Challengers for $220,000. Middlesex, Morgan’s county, are resigned to barely seeing the left-handed batsman next season. They have given him their blessing to compete in the whole IPL, in return for which the county will receive 10 per cent of his sale price - about £13,500 in English money.

The IPL starts in mid-March and goes on until April 25. If Bangalore reach the final, Morgan will have to hotfoot it straight away from Mumbai to Guyana, where he will be expected to play for England in their opening World Twenty20 match against West Indies. That tournament concludes on May 16 and Middlesex may see their man for a couple of weeks before he will be required again by England in a one-day series against Australia.

He then goes back to Middlesex for August before having to turn out in blue yet again for a one-day series against Pakistan. Just as well he isn’t a Test cricketer - yet. And at least Middlesex will see more of Andrew Strauss, a useful enough replacement for Morgan, than they might usually do.

Here are the winners and losers from the rest of the auction:

Winners

* Kieron Pollard: the West Indies all-rounder, left, was a huge hit in India during the Champions League Twenty20 in October, particularly during the first of his two matches for Trinidad against New South Wales, when he scored a fifty at three runs a ball. He can bowl well too, and justifies the maximum bid of $750,000 that Mumbai Indians paid for him.

* Shane Bond: the New Zealand fast bowler also went for the maximum $750,000 to Kolkata Knight Riders. His reserve price of $100,000 was fairly low, but bidding was frenzied Read more…

Administrator IPL Andrew Strauss, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Blogs.CMDN.com, Champions Trophy, Cricket, Eoin Morgan, graeme swann, IPL, IPL III, Kemar Roach, Kieron Pollard, Middlesex, Shane Bond, Sohail Tanvir, Tyron Henderson, Wayne Parnell

As someone who played with Shane Bond in his first four tests eight years ago, I was delighted, and pleasantly surprised, by his return to the five-day game at Dunedin last week.

But his latest injury, which has put him out of the current test in Wellington and next week’s third match against Pakistan in Napier, leaves me wondering how long this comeback will last.

The strong suspicion is that his test days are numbered. My advice would be to turn his attention to the one-day game.

The quality of his bowling in Dunedin was no surprise. We’ve long known he has the ability to be among the very best, as a record of 87 wickets in 18 tests shows.

Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf, a terrific batsman who has seen the best of the modern game, puts him among the finest he’s played.

The aspect which did surprise me was his pace. He’s 34, has been through the wringer in terms of injuries, and yet he was still able to get the ball through at about 150km/h.

If you’re above 140km/h you’re lively; touch 150km/h and that puts you in a different league.

Bond’s performance in its own right was outstanding, but one point seemed to be missed by most commentators - his work created opportunities for the bowlers at the other end.

Take the eight wickets out of the equation for a moment.

If you watched the Pakistan batsmen, Bond’s presence and pace made them change their game plan.

When he was bowling they were all pretty keen to get to the other end.

They were noticeably more aggressive against the other bowlers, which in turn meant they took more liberties against Chris Martin, Iain O’Brien and Daniel Vettori, and that led to Read more…

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Why is it that a bloke who bowls barely 130km/h; doesn’t really do much with the ball; and plays for a team that at best is fourth in the world; is ranked the No 1 ODI bowler in the world?

Probably because Kyle Mills does the same sort of thing as did the previous No 1, Nuwan Kulasekara.

These two restore the values of basics in the ever-evolving game of cricket.

They hit immaculate line and length consistently. They don’t appear to over-complicate things with massive variation.

They prove that if you can get the ball in the right place often enough, you ask the batsman to take risks - something that even in today’s fast-scoring game they would rather avoid.

Mills has taken 159 wickets in 108 matches, a good return. His economy rate is not startling at 4.66 but still very good when you consider what it means if you extend his effort over 50 overs.

If you had five Kyle Mills, each bowling their 10 overs, then the average score by the opposition would be 233 - nowadays a score most teams would be quite happy chasing.

Mills’ record, however, looks really impressive when you see what he does on the subcontinent. In conditions that generally suit batting and which can be a seam bowler’s graveyard, his average is a super 19.34, his economy rate just 4.15.

All this has been achieved while generally operating in the opening and death overs when batsmen are looking to be aggressive. His record would be even more impressive if New Zealand had other bowlers more suited to the death.

It is Mills’ normal length that gives him this success. He is tall and can bowl into the Read more…

Administrator New Zealand Blogs.CMDN.com, Champions Trophy, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Daniel Vettori, Ewen Chatfield, Gavin Larsen, IPL, Kyle Mills, New Zealand, Nuwan Kulasekara, ODI, Ricky Ponting, Shane Bond

Cricket abounds with theories, some valid, several spurious. A common one in the latter category states that captains have little role to play in limited overs cricket. This edition of the Champions Trophy has shown why such belief is balderdash.

It could be argued that since neither Ricky Ponting nor Daniel Vettori had a tangible role to play in the final, the importance of a captain has been exaggerated. But that is mistaking a one-off performance for leadership, which is what captaincy in cricket is all about.

Ponting had got only a single before an unplayable delivery from Kyle Mills hit his pads right in front of the stumps, while Vettori, sadly, did not even take the field. But who would deny that but for their presence and captaincy over the past couple of weeks, neither Australia nor New Zealand would have reached this far.

The cricketing ethos of Australia and New Zealand are a study in contrast, and how the captains of these two sides shaped the progress of their respective sides in this tournament (and I dare say, right through the past year) makes for one of the more fascinating stories in the contemporary cricket.

Vettori, who took over from the phlegmatic Stephen Fleming, has been able to infuse an ambition that was hitherto unimaginable in New Zealand cricketers. Richard Hadlee, the unrelenting wicket-taker of the 80s, remains an oddity. Hadlee was brilliant, but also a loner, and once he was gone, New Zealand cricket floundered.

For the better part of the last two decades, the Kiwis have been the “jolly good blokes” of international cricket. They have played well, especially at home, but have never Read more…

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Never mind the England-Australia series – as the Champions Trophy begins in South Africa today, Stephen Brenkley highlights 11 players who can restore the fizz to 50-over cricket

1. Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka
The improbable star of the World Twenty20 in England this summer with a ferociously exciting blend of big shots. The so-called “Dilscoop”, a flick over his head off one knee, became all the rage. Being promoted to opener appears to have transformed his career and he should be a joy to watch.

2. Joe Denly, England
Perhaps too much should not be expected too soon. But why not? He has been kept waiting for international cricket until the selectors thought he was ready, so now is the time. In his five matches he has looked the part too, swashbuckling and undaunted. England may have found a player.

3. A B De Villiers, South Africa
Electrifying fielder and accomplished batsman who is always in the game. Born to be a professional sportsman - rugby and tennis vied for his attention - and at 25 is reaching his peak. Prominent in South Africa’s one-day dominance of Australia earlier this year and could be the star of this tournament. May have to be for South Africa to lose chokers’ tag.

4. Yuvraj Singh, India
Both wonderful to watch and extremely capable of needling opposition members. Read more…

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Johannesburg on Sunday didn’t quite seem like a place preparing to hold a wake for a format that is rumoured to be on death bed. Though the hoardings for the football World Cup next year far outnumber those of the Champions Trophy, excitement for the latter can be felt in the air.

There are several long-standing associates of the 50-over game congregated here with pleasant memories of their abstract friend. Among them are a few present-day greats for whom the one-day internationals brought colour to their lives, added zeroes to their bank balance and gave them the platform to be the stars they are today.

The Champions Trophy ‘09, which kicks off on Tuesday, happens to be the first global one-day tournament after the unprecedented T20 success. Interestingly, this vital event will be played at those venues that witnessed the two big highs of in-vogue diet version — T20 World Cup in 2007 and IPL 2 in 2008.

Looking at the star cast, glancing at the tight ‘15 days, 15 games’ script and in the background of the vigorous pushing and shoving on top of the ODI ranking podium, the Champions Trophy doesn’t seem like a dreaded countdown of one-day cricket’s demise but promises to be a timely dose of a life-saving drug to an ailing format.

There have been early indications that the men who have been responsible for keeping the original limited-over game healthy for about two decades will be on the case again. Old hands Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Ricky Ponting — the top three ODI run scorers — just last week played the knocks which showed that, like them, the 50-over format too Read more…

Administrator Champions Trophy Ashish Nehra, Australia, Champions Trophy, England, IPL 2, Johannesburg, Mohammad Asif, New Zealand, ODI, Pakistan, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Shane Bond, South Africa, Sri Lanka, T20, World Cup

It’s early season in South Africa so maybe this Champions Trophy will be won by bowlers.

That’s unlikely - but if it is the case then, with three bowlers, Daniel Vettori, Kyle Mills and Shane Bond, all within the top 10 ranked ODI performers, there’s plenty of reason for hope.

That may be false hope because you cannot win enough ODIs in succession if your top five batsmen are failing. The fact we have 30 world-class overs available and continue to slip in ODI rankings proves there are major problems in our batting.

So why do we boast a top five line-up with more than acceptable records and yet fail to win enough games?

Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor and Grant Elliott all boast averages above 35 with excellent strike rates. In fact they are numerically better or comparable to key players in the 2000 Champions Trophy winning team like Roger Twose, Stephen Fleming, Chris Harris and Craig MacMillan.

Then we have Jacob Oram in the top five ODI all-rounders list but here is when the statistics start to tell the true story.

Two of the most influential ODI players this country has had were Nathan Astle and Chris Cairns.

Their equivalents in the current team are Brendon McCullum and Oram, probably our most highly paid cricketers and thus meant to be world class performers. But they are far from it.

Astle averaged 35 at a 73 strike rate with 16 hundreds; McCullum is 28 at 88 and Read more…

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There has been some furious debate about the wretched performances of the New Zealand team in Sri Lanka this week - we really were dreadful with the bat against Sri Lanka and India. Flat. Woeful. Inept.

The usual “sack them all”, “bring the young blokes in”, “unprofessional”, “Moles is crap”, “overpaid”, “no ticker”, “Kane Williamson for president” calls have been made by observers this week, but the reality is that the best players are probably there.

However, we have now lost 7 of our last 8 ODIs to Australia, India and Sri Lanka so the side should not be beyond reproach. Given the top order batting on display this week, some confident swinging of the willow from Son of Rodney Redmond could have been a worthwhile inclusion for the looming Champions Trophy. I am a genuine Maccaphiliac so I would have Craig McMillan straight back in there if he could be swayed. The records of Michael Papps, Jamie How, Scott Styris and Peter Fulton are also within cooee of the players that are in the team at present.

Of course, the Trophy squad is already named and none of the blokes above is there. Of the limited options that are on the table, I think Gareth Hopkins, Mr Grittiness, is due a start. Jacob Oram continues to wrestle with some batting demons that he will surely shake sometime soon. Brendon McCullum’s had one ton and 15 half-centuries in his career but the average of 28.07 lags How, Chris Cairns and even Mathew Sinclair at the moment. He’d be back down the Read more…

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It was an old boys’ reunion even the most ardent New Zealand cricket follower would have struggled to envisage.

Shane Bond, Ian Butler and Daryl Tuffey probably had doubts as well over the intervening seasons, but in Tuesday night’s Tri-Series one-dayer against Sri Lanka they formed New Zealand’s three-pronged pace attack for the first time in more than seven years.

The trio last hunted as a pack at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados, in June 2002 – and it was a successful expedition as the West Indies were humbled by 202 runs in the first test to tee up a historic series win in the Caribbean.

Injuries then became a byword of their respective careers, particularly for Bond and Butler.

While Bond’s list of ailments resemble a medical almanac, Butler’s inoperable back problems were the root cause of his frustrations.

New Zealand had just beaten Australia in the inaugural Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match at Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium in December 2004 when Butler realised his pain was more than irritating.

He gritted through a couple of domestic games for Northern Districts while ‘drugged up’ before scans revealed a disc compression or in Butler’s words: “Everything that could have gone with my back did go wrong.”

Butler was warned his cricketing career was over, he disagreed and spent a couple of Read more…

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