All posts by csb10.top

Mark Boucher wanted Adam Gilchrist to extend his career by a year so the world’s top two Test wicketkeepers could have one final showdown on the field. Australia are hosting a three-Test series against South Africa next season before a return series in South Africa and Boucher said he was disappointed Gilchrist would not be part of it.Boucher will almost certainly reclaim the world Test wicketkeeping record from Gilchrist when he next plays a match and there will be no ongoing battle for the title as there was with Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan’s bowling mark. Boucher is only 31 and therefore has plenty of time to put a significant gap between his final tally and Gilchrist’s record of 416 dismissals.”I sent him a message to say how disappointed I was to hear that he was calling it a day because the last time I saw him I told him he’d better keep his incredible career going so that we could have one last showdown at the end of the year,” Boucher told the . “It was a big shock to hear he was going. But everyone knows how important his family is to him so I’m sure he made the right call. I’ll miss him a lot.”If I think of the great innovators of my time, guys who revolutionised the game and made people see it in a different way, I’d say Jonty Rhodes and Adam Gilchrist would be top of the pile. Jonty changed the way people thought of fielding and Gilly has set the bar so high for the next generation of keeper-batsmen that it’s almost unfair.”Boucher’s captain Graeme Smith said Gilchrist would always have his respect. “The way he made an effort to contact Boucher when he broke the world record was typical of him,” Smith said. “We were in Pakistan and Australia were in India. It just wasn’t a question of dialling a local number.

Mumbai face a quarter-final situation when they take on group leaders Saurashtra in their last Group stage match on Tuesday. While a loss will most likely eliminate them, an outright win will ensure a place in the semi-finals. If they draw, they will have to hope Delhi do worse than them. The two teams are currently tied in second place with 18 points each.Mumbai are cornered, but they have scripted successful escape acts in the past. Last season, they were without any points going into the fourth game, but won five in a row to lift the Ranji Trophy. “Been there, done that” is the fuel behind their confidence and Amol Muzumdar, the captain, is banking on it. “We have been in this situation before and everybody knows the importance of the game. We can do it.”But even Muzumdar admits the situation this year is precarious. The bowling has been severely depleted with injuries to Ajit Agarkar, Aavishkar Salvi and Rajesh Verma. Meanwhile, Ramesh Powar’s recent form has been a cause of worry. He has picked up just nine wickets from the last four games, after grabbing 15 in the first two. The inexperienced Murtuza Hussain leads the seam attack and Mumbai will hope that Powar, along with Nilesh Kulkarni, the replacement for Iqbal Abdulla, can raise their game when it matters the most.Muzumdar knows where the problem lies. “It has been an up and down season. Obviously the injuries have not helped. The replacements are very young; Murtuza is playing his third game, [Mondeep] Mangela has just played one. [Usman] Malvi has been around but he has been in and out. We have been struggling to get 20 wickets and that’s why we have not been able to finish games.”That has been the story of their season. In their opening game, Mumbai had Karnataka reeling with a 142-run lead, but Rahul Dravid imposed himself in the second innings with a double century. In the third game, against Delhi, they came back from an 85-run deficit to set a target of 387, but could only pick up three wickets as Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra put up an 188-run opening stand.And in the next match, they fell 15 runs short of Maharashtra’s 451 to give away the lead and three points. From a wobbly 197 for 6, they were steadied by a 185-run partnership between Powar (107) and Agarkar (95), but both fell in quick succession to leave Mumbai just short of the line.Mumbai picked up five points next time out, but it was only because Rajasthan chose to go for a win and lost three wickets in the last over. Again the bowlers had not done a great deal as Rajasthan lost five wickets in the second innings to run-outs. In their last outing, Hossain picked up a six-wicket haul to force Himachal Pradesh to follow on, but injury to Agarkar – who limped off after just 5.2 overs – and Powar’s indifferent form meant they couldn’t kill the contest and Himachal batted their way to a draw.The batting too has been a bit up and down. Abhishek Nayar and Sahil Kukreja, the opener, tapered off after a good start, Muzumdar has gone the other way – coming into form after an indifferent beginning, Ajinkya Rahane has been steady, but not spectacular while Rohit Sharma has been struggling for runs with just 150 from four games.Pravin Amre, who helped in Muzumdar’s revival by rectifying problems with his footwork and head position, has been working a lot on Sharma. “The change of format [from Twenty20 to ODIs to first-class] has been a reason for his loss of form. A few errors have crept in. We are working hard on his pick up and his down swing and he is improving rapidly. I am hoping he scores a big one in this game to set up things for us.”Hope is the operative word in the Mumbai camp – they hope Powar and Kulkarni will perform, they hope the batsmen will raise their games and they must be hoping Tamil Nadu can help their cause by upsetting Delhi – but they are also waiting to see how Saurashtra handle pressure. And that could be the real factor in this game.As Muzumdar put it, “The pressure is on them. They are leading the table. We just want to treat this game as a quarterfinal and we need to play good aggressive cricket. We know how to play that kind of cricket and we are focussed.”And a national selector said, “Mumbai have this knack of getting out of trouble, they will somehow make it.” Time will tell.

Steve Elworthy, the former South Africa fast bowler, has been appointed as the tournament director for 2009’s ICC World Twenty20, to be held in England and Wales.Elworthy, who oversaw the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa in September, will join the ECB in January 2008. “The 2007 event was a festival of world-class cricket which captured the imagination of the world,” he said. “My goal is to ensure that the 2009 event is even more successful.”David Collier, the ECB chief executive, welcomed Elworthy on board and said: “His experience of managing an ICC World Twenty20 tournament coupled with his international playing experience, commercial background and knowledge of our grounds in the UK provide the all-round skills required to run a world class event. He is the ideal candidate to lead the event in England and Wales in 2009.”Elworthy said he was looking forward to the challenge of running the event. “The opportunity to join the ECB and run the 2009 event during an amazing summer of cricket in England and Wales with the ICC World Twenty20 Tournament, ICC Centenary and the Ashes is an honour and a challenge which I am relishing.”Elworthy played four Tests and 39 ODIs for South Africa between 1998 and 2002 and had county stints with Lancashire and Nottinghamshire.

Bangladesh’s players’ association, the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB), has been given full membership of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association ( FICA).The CWAB was established in 2004 with a primary objective of promoting and protecting the general welfare of cricketers within the country, and it also engages in numerous projects for the benefit of the wider community.All first-class cricketers registered with the Bangladesh board are entitled to be members of CWAB. It currently has around 170 players on its books.”I am delighted to welcome CWAB as a member of FICA,” Tim May, FICA’s chief executive, said. “Bangladesh are young in International cricketing experience and have much to offer the world of cricket. FICA believe it is imperative that the players’ positions and concerns of all countries are represented with equal vigor to the ICC and the addition of CWAB to our membership obviously is a significant step to achieving this objective.”

The pitch at Westpac Park in Hamilton has come under a cloud and there are doubts over whether it will be ready for the Test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The first Test is less than a month away and the weather conditions have made it extremely tough for the pitch to be prepared.Heath Mills, the Players’ Association executive manager, told the that there were several concerns with regard to the pitch. “The feedback I’ve had from players is that they would be very surprised if Westpac Park was ready to host a Test in four weeks time.”However, John Reid, the New Zealand Cricket operations manager, told a spokesman of the board: “The pitch has been checked and cleared in Hamilton and no replacement will be needed.”The man in charge of the surface – Karl Johnson, the groundsman – wasn’t too optimistic about getting the pitch in top shape before the game. He said that the weather in Hamilton this summer has made preparation “extremely difficult”. Johnson had shipped up Waikari clay from Canterbury at the end of last season to replace the inconsistent Naike soil. He said that he had selected a strip for the Test and would begin rolling it once the warm-up game between Northern Districts and Sri Lanka was over.”But it has been bloody difficult,” Johnson said. “We’ve had to prove that the block has come through the winter and have had a warrant of fitness passed on it. Waikari always takes a couple of years to settle. It will get better with age and for this Test match we’re just looking to get a consistent quality to it. It’s not going to be startling and up around the nostrils, but it should be consistent.”The condition of the pitch was a talking point in the recent State Championship match between Northern Districts and Auckland. Mark O’Donnell, the Auckland coach, said, “By day three, there was enough variable bounce to cause problems. Those problems will be magnified in international cricket. Day three is too early for the sort of stuff we saw.”The pitch had also come under scrutiny during last season’s Test match between New Zealand and South Africa when a “crater” appeared on the wicket, and nearly forced Clive Lloyd, the match referee, to call off the match.

Simon Katich, Damien Martyn and Jamie Cox have all continued to hit the headlines at the Bellerive Oval but their teams have departed the venue without outright points after a thrilling finish to the Tasmania-Western Australia Pura Cup match in Hobart today. Set a victory target of 387 from a minimum seventy-one overs, the Warriors finished at 9/373 – a score which respectively left the teams an agonising fourteen runs and one wicket adrift away from claiming maximum points.After Cox had established the parameters for the exciting pursuit by declaring the Tigers’ second innings closed at 9/238 thirty minutes before lunch, Katich (152) and Martyn (90) joined to set the Western Australians firmly on course for success. Undeterred by the early departures of openers Mike Hussey (5) and Ryan Campbell (19), the two Test aspirants added 193 runs in a rollicking exhibition of strokeplay that spanned less than two hours.Promoted up the order to maintain the momentum, Brendon Julian (39) capitalised effectively on the Katich-Martyn alliance by launching himself into the production of several towering hits. But his dismissal to a fast, straight delivery from David Saker (5/98) and the earlier departure of Martyn – to a loose shot outside off stump that gave thirty-two year old debutant Mark Colegrave (1/76) his maiden first-class wicket – prompted a near-reversal of the situation. Upon Julian’s dismissal, the Warriors suffered a collapse that saw six wickets tumble for the addition of just seventy runs.After receiving a hammering, like most of his teammates, at the hands of Katich and Martyn, Saker was the man who led the Tasmanian fightback. All-rounder Scott Kremerskothen (3/64) also played his part well, a part made more difficult by both the placid nature of the pitch and the loss of key bowlers Gerard Denton and Shaun Young to injury.In a major setback for the Tigers, Denton did not even take the field during the afternoon as a legacy of experiencing pain in his back – an ailment, worryingly, that has also troubled him in seasons past. Young did manage to deliver three overs, but was belted for thirty-three runs and strained his groin in the process.Their presence might well have made the difference in the concluding stages. But Saker and Kremerskothen did not appear to need all that much assistance, removing Murray Goodwin (12) quickly, engineering the vital dismissal of Katich, and then opening the way for Andrew Dykes to make a brilliant contribution of his own by taking a superb running catch at deep cover to send Mark Walsh (13) back to the pavilion as well. Matthew Nicholson (9) and Brad Oldroyd (3) did not last long and, by the time that number eleven Gavin Swan (0*) came in, he and captain Tom Moody (22*) were faced with the task of scoring eighteen runs from fourteen balls if the Warriors were to win. Swan somehow survived three raucous lbw appeals and played and missed once and, suitably discouraged from handing his partner back the strike, Moody opted that the only prudent course available to him was the act of denying the Tasmanians victory instead.Earlier, Cox (87) fell on the so-called devil’s number for the second time in the match on the Tigers’ route to their closure. Young (48) then held the lower order together as it underwent the ordeal of surviving some accurate medium pace and spin bowling from the pairing of Moody (3/23) and Oldroyd (3/87).In the end, though, all that was left to show for the teams’ imagination and enterprise was a first innings result that fell in favour of the Tasmanians.

The BCCI is planning to reduce match fees for international cricketers once a contract system is introduced. According to The Times of India, Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s joint secretary, has said that the pay cut for both, Tests and one-dayers, would be Rs 65,000.”There is a likelihood that the match fees for Tests and one-day internationals would be cut down by around Rs 65,000,” said Shetty. “But this is not final. The suggestion is that cricketers making the playing 11 would get Rs Two lakh for a Test, compared to Rs 2.68 lakh they are getting now. For one-dayers the amount works out to Rs 1.60 lakh as compared to the Rs 2.35 lakh they are getting now.” He added that the board would most likely implement the team’s suggestion about giving reserve players half of what the playing 11 received.* * *In the same paper, Sourav Ganguly reacted with disbelief when he was told that VVS Laxman, who has averaged 74.75 since January 2003, grumbled about being perpetually on trial. “VVS on trial? You’ve got to be joking,” said Ganguly. “His is one of the first names to be put down on paper by the selectors. I don’t see any question marks against his name.”He touched on the debate about the openers, saying, “Today Yuvraj [Singh] is ready for Tests and I see no reason why he should not get a shot at the top of the order. Just imagine both Viru [Virender Sehwag] and Yuvi firing together! Gee, it gives me goosebumps!”* * *Laxman again, and he talks of the record Test score in The Indian Express. “I’ve my sights on 400,” he says, “but only when the team needs it. It should come when the team requires it the most.” Laxman’s best score in Tests (281) was also India’s highest score for three years, until Sehwag’s 309 earlier this year.He spoke about his evolving game and experiences. “My shot selection has improved,” he said. “It’s not that I am playing lesser shots. Only, they are more risk-free. Also, I am able to judge the wickets better.”* * *Most of the Indian players were unable to follow the football too closely because of the training camp, but they all had their favourites, according to The Indian Express. Zaheer Khan likes Zidane and Henry, and in the event of the French faltering, he’s got van Nistelrooy and David Beckham as well. Laxman doesn’t follow the game much anymore, but France find favour with him too. Rahul Dravid likes Ronaldo, Rohan Gavaskar thinks Italy or the Czech Republic could win, Mohammad Kaif prefers Portugal, and Lakshmipathy Balaji prefers sleep. Yuvraj, though, has a way of watching the games. “Train, sleep, watch matches and again sleep.”But no one bends it like Badani. His favourites are France and he thinks Beckham is overrated by the English press. “I am not an idiot, though,” says Hemang Badani, presumably speaking about his understanding of football.

An assured 140 not out from Mathew Sinclair put Central Districts in a commanding position on the first day of their sixth round State Championship match against Canterbury at Christchurch’s Village Green today.Central Districts was 267/4 at the close of the first day on a slow pitch with an even more lethargic outfield.Sinclair, the specialist converter of centuries into 150s and beyond, did it again today at QEII in front of the man who counts.Watching chairman of selectors Sir Richard Hadlee was noticeably impressed by the way Sinclair built his innings after coming in at 37/1 in the 12th over.Canterbury struggled to produce chances all day with Ryan Burson (2-52), who was not selected in Canterbury’s original XI, the only successful bowler in the morning session, trapping David Kelly (24) lbw on the crease.Kelly began with a couple of pulled boundaries, but the juicy outfield prevented several shots adding to the total of fours between the tenth and the 26th overs.Before the start Canterbury’s Stephen Cunis failed a fitness test on his injured thigh and Paul Wiseman was recalled. The former New Zealand off spinner was the day’s only successful bowler other than Cunis’ stand-in, Burson. Wiseman had promising newcomer Peter Ingram caught at slip for 35 shortly after lunch, which brought in Ben Smith, who scored 200 not out at New Plymouth when the sides last met in December, to join Sinclair, fresh from a score of 161 at Alexandra last week.By then Sinclair had deliberately and leisurely played himself in before reaching 50 off 97 balls and his twelfth career century in 180 deliveries.Characteristically, Sinclair’s smooth stroke play did not stop there.Since the right-hander scored his maiden century he has had innings of 166 not out against Auckland and 203 not out against Northern Districts in early 1999. He made 214 against the West Indies, 182 for the North Island and 102 for CD in 1999/00 then 100 not out against Zimbabwe President’s XI, 150 against South Africa, 204 not out for New Zealand against Pakistan as well as a score of 145 for CD last season.Sinclair’s recent 161 against Otago signalled the 26-year old’s readiness for England and the Test series. With today’s innings only twice has the Australian-born batsman been out between 100 and 150.Glen Sulzberger, his captain, told CricInfo: “When he gets in he just looks to keep going as much as he can. He was disappointed not to get 200 last week.”We dominated most of the last game against Canterbury,” he rued. Canterbury came back from conceding a double century to Smith to win when Aaron Redmond took four cheap wickets in CD’s second innings.Smith (41) departed to Burson in the 82nd over today, cutting late to Canterbury captain Gary Stead at gully.The score was then 222/3 and could have been more but for the outfield and Canterbury bowling some good lines in the middle of the innings.Sinclair and Sulzberger continued to stumps, quietly emphasising the CD advantage on a lethargic pitch that may take spin on the third and fourth days.”The pitch is starting to crack up a little, especially at one end,” said Sulzberger, rubbing his hands at the thought of bowling his off spin in the fourth innings. “Historically it doesn’t turn here,” he added, “but time will tell I suppose.”Canterbury, lacking hamstring-strain victim Warren Wisneski as well as their salvo of CLEAR Black Caps, struggled with the easterly wind all day. Quick bowlers Burson and Wade Cornelius bowled tight spells prior to lunch, but it may be the team’s spinners who decide the outcome of the match.Sinclair, the man who believes one hundred is never enough was reluctant to speak until the end of his innings.”See him on the third day,” joked a team mate. He might need to be taken seriously by Canterbury unless they can surprise him with the new ball tomorrow morning.

In an exclusive interview for the first edition of The Wisden Cricketer magazine, which goes on sale on Friday, September 19, Michael Vaughan has called for a restructuring of county cricket, in which the number of Championship games in a season would be cut by a half.”You only have to watch county cricket to see the enthusiasm levels drained out of players,” Vaughan told The Wisden Cricketer. “Jon Lewis, of Gloucestershire, said after the Headingley Test that he had played 21 out of 24 days – that simply can’t be right.”Vaughan has proposed that the number of first-class counties be reduced by two to 16, to be divided into two divisions of eight teams. Then, instead of the current home-and-away fixture pile-up, each side would then play the others in their division only once in the course of a season, leaving a two-week gap between matches.”I love the county game but the structure is not working and I feel sorry for the young guys coming into the England side,” Vaughan added. “As a step up it is massive. I made my Test debut at 25 and had played county cricket for seven years … but it still took 18 months to get used to Test cricket.”Vaughan’s comments will cause outrage among many county stalwarts, including the Worcestershire chairman, John Elliott, who recently accused Vaughan of biting the hand that fed him. But his sentiments have also been echoed in influential circles. Prior to the Oval Test, the former ECB chairman Lord MacLaurin called for the first-class structure to be limited to 12 teams, a proposal that found favour with the Cricket Reform Group, which includes the former England captains Mike Atherton and Bob Willis among their members.Martyn Ball, the chairman of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, however, was less enthusiastic. “Michael Vaughan is entitled to his opinion but I would question the grounds for his criticism,” he told The Wisden Cricketer as part of a major debate on the future of county cricket. “Steve Waugh has said in the past that county cricket is a strong environment and in all probability is the second-toughest domestic game in the world. Poor results [should be] the fault of the guys out on the field and not down to weaknesses of the club structure.”But England’s coach Duncan Fletcher, with whom the ECB are keen to secure a new deal, is no fan of the county structure. “When you lose, you should hurt for three weeks and really think about it,” he said after the Oval Test. “You should assess what happened and why. Instead, you’ve got the coach and the captain saying to you: ‘Forget about it because we’ve got another game today.'”Click here to subscribe to The Wisden Cricketer

After wrapping up the entire match in just 31.5 overs, Australia’s captain, Ricky Ponting, was in a feisty mood at the post-match press conference. Paul Coupar heard what both captains had to say:

Do you get anything out of this match?
Not as far as we’re concerned. We don’t get a whole lot out of that game. Hopefully the USA boys did get something out of it otherwise it’s a waste of time. I’ve been pretty strong in saying this before – I’m not convinced a Champions Trophy or a World Cup is the place for these sides to play. We’d like to see the game develop over there in the USA. Obviously it’s a huge market for cricket. But we want to be tested as players all the time and I don’t think we were tested too much day.But don’t the small sides need these games to learn from?
What they have to do first is to be a dominant team for a longer period of time in the group lower than this level. What we’ve seen in the last couple of World Cups and Champions Trophies is that different teams every time qualified. It’s whoever plays well in that one little qualifying tournament who comes up. If a team that dominates over a longer period of time comes up [into the World Cup or Champions Trophy] then you’ll know you’ve got a stronger side.What was your strategy today?
The whole idea of the game for us was to win the toss and send them in. Then bowl them out cheaply, go in and get the runs quickly to get our run-rate up above New Zealand’s – in case weather intervenes in our game with them later this week. We’ve achieved that, I think, so we’ve got what we could out of the game.USA captain, Richard Staple
What’s it like in your dressing room?
I just told them we have to keep our heads up high because we were playing against the best team in the world. It is the best attack in the world so we weren’t looking to go out and blast these guys about. And they didn’t give us anything to blast anyway.We learned from the way these guys play and that was our main objective. We didn’t realistically expect to beat these teams.When did you start to fear the worst?
Obviously the batting. We didn’t really get a start at all.And when are you back to the day job?
Next week.