ESPNcricinfo staff24-Aug-2015Amit Mishra kept things tight with his his loopy leg spin and drift, and bowled Dinesh Chandimal around his legs•AFPR Ashwin continued to trouble the batsmen with his variations and forced Lahiru Thirimanne to come forward, having him caught at silly point for 11. Sri Lanka were now 106 for 5•AFPIt was not just the spinners, Ishant Sharma chipped in too, with the wicket of Jehan Mubarak, who fell for a golden duck to expose the tail•AFPBut the day belonged to Ashwin, who dismissed Dhammika Prasad and Dimuth Karunaratne too, to register his 12th five-for in Tests and wrapped up a massive 278-run win for India•AFPIt was not the farewell Kumar Sangakkara would have asked for, but the series was level 1-1 and the Sri Lankan batsman bid goodbye to international cricket•Associated Press

England’s one-day team has been revived this season, but now they face the world champions while, behind the scenes, the best way forward for the domestic version is hammered out

George Dobell02-Sep-2015As Trevor Bayliss starts his daunting first assignment as England ODI coach – a series against the world champions – he may be encouraged by the knowledge that England are prioritising the format in their plans.Stung by a wretched World Cup campaign – wretched World Cup campaign – the ECB decided that something must be done.This was the World Cup for which they had prepared for years. The Ashes schedule had been moved and England had organised a pre-tournament diet of unrelenting limited-overs cricket that was designed to take them to Australia brimming with experience and confidence.Except it didn’t. They sacked their captain not long before the tournament, changed their tactics – and some selections – for the first game and never, for a moment, looked as if they would progress from the group stages. If you were being kind, you might describe it as awful.So they sacked two men who were deemed cautious – Paul Downton and Peter Moores – and replaced them with two who they saw as more in tune with modern cricket. Andrew Strauss was appointed with a remit to create the wider environment whereby the England team management had every resource and every chance of achieving success, while Bayliss was appointed to mould the team environment.While the appointment of Strauss, in that context might have been something of a surprise – he retains a reputation as a conservative – the appointment of Bayliss was less so. His record as a limited-overs coach is exceptional.He oversaw Sri Lanka’s progress to the World Cup final (in 2011), the Kolkata Knight Riders winning the IPL twice (in 2012 and 2014) and Sydney Sixers winning the Big Bash (in 2011-12) and the Champions League (2012). While many of those successes have come in T20, recent evidence would suggest that format has heavily influenced the 50-over game.But still the ECB felt that more had to be done. Strauss, who has turned out to be far less conservative than he looks, insisted that limited-overs cricket must no longer be seen as the poor relation to the Test game.To that end, the ECB have, over the last couple of days at Lord’s unveiled their proposals to the county chief executives and chairmen. And, at the heart of it, was an attempt to improve England’s ODI performances.Noting that the next two global ODI events – the Champions Trophy in 2017 and the World Cup in 2019 – are to be played in England in relatively early season, the ECB were hoping to persuade the counties to accept a system from next season where 50-over cricket was played earlier than it is currently – in early to mid-summer – on better pitches and in something approaching a block, although not without many ramifications across the domestic game.Trevor Bayliss is working with England’s one-day side for the first time•Getty ImagesHowever, the county structure is not for Bayliss to worry about. Australia are his immediate concern and the raw materials he has at his disposal are promising. England’s progress since the World Cup has been staggering. Under the guidance of Paul Farbrace, England impressed most observers with the bold cricket they exhibited in the ODI series against New Zealand and will no doubt be looking for more of the same. They will remain unflinchingly, uncompromisingly, unrecognisably (from the World Cup, at least) aggressive.England’s batting, even without the rested Joe Root, looks relatively strong. While there will surely be days when the aggressive approach backfires horribly, there is a depth to it – with the likes of David Willey and Adil Rashid coming in as low as No. 8 and No. 9 – that is reassuring. Moeen Ali returns and will be vying for a place in the top three, while James Taylor will also hope for a chance to show what he can do.It is the bowlers that still have questions to answer. One of England’s key failings at the World Cup was an inability to take wickets and, impressive though England were in the ODIs against New Zealand, that was an area that remains in need of improvement. There are places to be claimed, or England may well return to the experience of Stuart Broad before 2017.Eoin Morgan, the captain who often cut a beleaguered figure at the World Cup, admitted he had been pleasantly surprised by the pace of England’s improvement.”The development of the side in the one-day series against New Zealand was brilliant,” he said. “Even in the game the other day, we managed to continue the aggressive nature in which we played – both with ball and bat.”The team has transformed and it’s down to the players. Everybody has played their natural game, the way they have for their county. That’s been a credit to the culture that was created by Paul Farbrace at the start and has been continued throughout the Test series.”In the slightly longer term, the ECB are likely to further demonstrate their deeper commitment to limited-overs cricket by giving Morgan a central contract. While these are usually the preserve of Test players, Morgan’s importance to the white-ball side – and his decline in the red-ball game – are likely to result in him being viewed as an exceptional case.

South Africa’s top four batsmen have done better than any other overseas team in Tests in India

Shiva Jayaraman02-Nov-2015One of the reasons that South Africa have been among the best, if not the best, touring Test sides in India in the last 20 years – their win-loss ratio of 1.0 in Tests in India is matched only by Pakistan – is because of their top four batsmen. South Africa’s top order has averaged 45.72 in Tests in India, which is the best among overseas teams in the last-20 years.South Africa pull well ahead of other teams when it comes to just their top four: they have averaged 52.81 from 12 Tests. The closest any other team come to their record is Sri Lanka, whose top four have averaged 46.44. But an aspect where South Africa’s batsmen have left other teams miles behind is in the conversion of the starts: out of the 26 times the top-order batsmen have made a fifty, they have gone on to make a hundred on 14 instances. Their conversion rate of 53.8% is by far the best among any of the visitors.Visiting teams that have done well in India seem to have had their top-four pulling their weight with big scores. Pakistan who did well to draw their 2004-05 series in India, had four hundreds – two of them scores of 180-plus – and six fifties from their top four in three Tests. In contrast, Australia – not always a happy visiting side in India with a win-loss record of 4-13 – have had their top four convert only nine of their 39 fifties into hundreds – a much inferior conversion rate of 23.1%.South Africa’s top four have done better than other teams in getting the big hundreds too. As many as six of the 17 150-plus scores by the top-four batsmen of visiting teams have come from them. It is a factor that is likely to have contributed to South Africa’s good record in India, considering only two of these 17 scores – Matthew Hayden’s 203 in the 2001 Chennai Test and Alastair Cook’s 176 following-on in Ahmedabad in 2012 – have come in losses for the overseas sides.

The death of Tom Maynard in 2012 cast a shadow over Surrey but now a side full of young talent is looking forward to a Lord’s final. Captain Gareth Batty wants them to enjoy day

George Dobell18-Sep-2015It’s four years – almost to the day – since Surrey reached a Lord’s final.That time, too, they were assured of Championship promotion and had a team bursting with young talent that it was hoped would help club and country to success for years to come. It should have been a new dawn.Instead it was dusk. A few months later, Tom Maynard was killed in an accident that was to send shockwaves through county cricket and rip the heart out of Surrey’s resurgence.As well as losing Maynard, as popular as he was talented, they lost a distraught Rory Hamilton-Brown, the team’s captain, who drifted away from the club and then the sport, and their director of cricket, Chris Adams, and his assistant, Ian Salisbury. Several of the team, struggling for equilibrium in the months that followed, spoke of suffering from depression. The last thing they wanted to do was play cricket.It would be crass to suggest the club or the individuals have “got over” such a tragedy. The pain of those days will live with them forever. Many of those involved will never be the same.But they have found a way to live again. To progress. And now, four years after the club appeared to be on the brink of great things, they can once again peek into the future with cautious optimism.One man who lived through it all is Gareth Batty. As a senior player at the time of Maynard’s death in June 2012, it feel to Batty to shepherd his shocked and mourning colleagues through one of the darkest chapters in the club’s history. It was Batty, appointed in an interim capacity with the club in chaos, who captained the side the in the weeks and months that followed and Batty who will captain them again at Lord’s.

“You try to look forward. You understand that the grieving process isn’t quick and you don’t forget – you don’t want to forget – but you find a way to go on”

“There are a lot of direct comparisons with 2011,” Batty admits. “We were building a team around Rory, Tom, Jason Roy, Jade Dernbach and Steven Davies. We had a couple of older statesmen – the likes of me and Zander de Bruyn – and we were playing a brand of cricket that suited us. We’d go hard with the bat at the top of the order, had good players who could rebuild or kick on in the middle-order and we would play three or even four spinners at times. We were going very well.”Then disaster struck. And, ridiculous though it sounds, within four days, Surrey were playing again. Batty, signed as a spin bowler, suddenly found himself as captain, grief counsellor and public face of a side”It was the darkest place you could find yourself,” he says now. “And things like that they don’t… go away. They never go away. There was never any way that we as a club or as individuals were going to move on from that quickly. It’s changed all of us.”But you try to look forward. You understand that the grieving process isn’t quick and you don’t forget – you don’t want to forget – but you find a way to go on without looking back over your shoulder all the time.”I didn’t really think of myself as the captain. I was just doing the job as an interim. Either Rory was coming back or Graeme Smith was coming back.”It was about putting one foot in front of another at the time. It was horrible. Cricket was the last thing on our minds, but staying in Division One that season was an incredible feat.”I don’t think it would be right to focus on that now. We have to live in the here and now and these young players – this new generation – deserve the chance to enjoy their big day without us making it about what happened before. There will no attempt at Churchillian speeches from me. We’ll be trying to keep things as normal as possible before the game: we’ll play football – the young guys against the old – and we’ll try our best to win.”Those of us who were there back then, we’ll know. We’ll never forget. There is a bond between us. We’ve been through a lot. And yes, when there’s a quiet moment at the end, I’ll lift a glass in memory of Tom. But there’s a game to play first. Let’s think about that.”Batty is full of praise for the talent and the spirit of his team. It is not just the Currans or Kumar Sangakkara; he refers to Dernbach as “the most complete seamer in England in one-day cricket” and suggests the team have achieved “a rare commodity in cricket: they are genuinely pleased for one another when it is someone else’s turn to have a good day”.With Zafar Ansari almost certain to be ruled out of the UAE tour with his thumb injury, it is possible that eyes will turn to Batty. If England decided they want an experienced spinner for a one-off job, Batty would certainly not let them down. Shaun Udal made his Test debut at 36.”No, no,” Batty says. “That’s not going to happen and I’m not thinking about it. My time has gone and when it came, I didn’t get it right.”When pressed, however, he admits the selectors contacted him ahead of the Caribbean tour at the start of the year and suggests that now, a few weeks short of his 38th birthday, he is a better bowler than when he last played Test cricket more than a decade ago.Tom Maynard’s death in 2012 had a devastating impact on Surrey•Getty Images”Oh, yes, I’m absolutely better now,” he says. “And there’s no reason why I wouldn’t be, really. I’ve come across few spinners who really know their game, who understand their actions and their bodies, until they are about 30. As long as you stay fit – and at the start of this season I was as fit as I’ve ever been – there’s no reason you won’t improve.”We seem to keep expecting 25-year-olds to be brilliant. And that’s ridiculous. The modern world wants everything yesterday and, if we keep thinking like that, we’ll miss out on developing spinners.”But look, my focus is all on Surrey. I’m very satisfied playing for them. You hear talk from time to time, but I’m an old fellow now and I’ve been around the game a long time. I don’t take any notice until things are concrete. I don’t need to play for England again to feel satisfied.”He remains a strong supporter of Moeen Ali, a man he worked with at Worcester, and who Moeen acknowledges was a considerable help in his the early years of his professional career.”Mo always had a natural way of bowling,” Batty says. “And, yes, he picked my brain a bit. As far as I’m concerned he’s going from strength to strength. He is quite young in cricket terms and he works hard. I wouldn’t be surprised if he played for another 10 years and developed into a really wonderful bowler. You know what, I think he could go past Graeme Swann’s Test wicket total.”That is for the future. This is Batty’s fifth visit to Lord’s as a finalist – though once, in 2001, he was relegated to the role of 12th man – and he knows it may well be his last. He is out of contract this time next year and with Ansari and others breaking through, he knows his race is almost run.”When my time is up,” he says, “when Alec Stewart taps me on the shoulder, I’ll be happy to have a beer with him and look back on a wonderful life in cricket.”I’m very grateful to many people, not least Chris Adams and Ian Salisbury, who is a man I have a huge amount of respect for, who gave my career another lease of life by bringing me to Surrey. I’ve had a long, enjoyable career. It’s never been a chore. It’s never been hard to pull myself out of bed in the morning. And while that time was… it was a terrible, horrible experience, it sort of makes you realise how fortunate we are. I’ve been very lucky. And I’m going to enjoy every second of being back on the big stage at Lord’s.”

How can the BCCI fill the post of its president, following the death of Jagmohan Dalmiya in Kolkata on Sunday?

Nagraj Gollapudi20-Sep-2015Over the past few months, Jagmohan Dalmiya’s poor health had led to rumblings about whether he could continue as BCCI president for his third stint (including his interim period in 2013). As the 2015 BCCI elections drew close, there was talk among Dalmiya’s opponents about trying to find a way to have him relinquish the position. However, the process to displace him was not as straightforward as they would have wished and so Dalmiya was neither formall
y challenged nor forced to step down.

The way forward for the BCCI

What happens to the BCCI presidency?
The BCCI constitution says that if the president’s post is vacated mid-tenure, “the secretary shall within fifteen days convene a Special General Body Meeting to elect the president who shall be nominated by at least one Full Member from the zone which proposed the name of the president whose term was cut short prematurely. Such person who is so elected shall hold office till the next elections”. It would mean Anurag Thakur will run the BCCI’s affairs until he convenes the SGM to elect Jagmohan Dalmiya’s successor.
Can there be an election to decide the new president?
Yes. Since it is the East Zone’s turn to nominate the president until 2017, and at least one affiliate unit from the zone has to propose a nominee, there is a possibility of up to six candidates entering the fray. All six affiliates – Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam, Tripura and Kolkata’s National Cricket Club – had stuck together while proposing Dalmiya’s name in March this year. However, both the pro- and anti-Srinivasan lobbies will likely be at work trying to gain those votes.
Who are the front-runners to take over as president?
Two months ago, former ICC and BCCI chief Sharad Pawar had told his colleagues in the Mumbai Cricket Association that he intended to take over as BCCI chief in the AGM. The AGM has been postponed but Pawar remains a favourite. Rajiv Shukla, the former BCCI vice-president and current IPL chairman, is also eyeing the post. If Shukla, who had lost the BCCI treasurer’s election in March to Srinivasan loyalist Anirudh Chaudhry, does not generate support from the Srinivasan group, then Srinivasan may field one of his key aides – Chaudhry or joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary.

A senior Board member, speaking with the benefit of hindsight, now says it was “foolish” of the members to elect Dalmiya in March 2015 when they knew such a situation was likely to arise, due to his fading physical condition. Yet the reality was that there was no choice: Dalmiya emerged a consensus candidate because neither of the two rival groups in the BCCI – one headed by N Srinivasan and the other a broad group of his opponents – could force their man through.That rough equivalence of power remains today and is expected to trigger another round of jockeying for the top job. The anti-Srinivasan group now finds its unofficial and undeclared head in Anurag Thakur, who as board secretary holds the second-most powerful post. He latterly served as de facto head of the BCCI due to Dalmiya’s ailments but has been the subject of much grumbling in the board’s offices for his allegedly autocratic ways and unchecked power. Thakur’s critics believe that the situation could have negative consequences on the autonomy of the board in light of the Supreme Court instructions to the Lodha Panel to recommend changes about the BCCI’s constitution and manner of functioning.Replacing Dalmiya will not be easy for other reasons too. BCCI rules state that the six members of the East Zone will have the first say in picking the replacement considering it is their turn to elect the president till 2017. The pre-requisite for a presidential candidate is attendance of at least two AGMs and having been an office bearer (president, secretary, treasurer, joint secretary) or vice-president earlier.One of the most obvious potential candidates is Sharad Pawar, the Mumbai Cricket Association president, who is believed to have told his inner circle about his desire to lead the BCCI once again. But Pawar has decided to play the waiting game, not showing his hand, this modus operandi being the backbone of his longstanding success as a politician for more than half a century.There is also Rajiv Shukla, who has been trying hard to lobby support in the East. And then there’s the spectre of the invisible hand ruling the BCCI, that of the federal government – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Members believe Thakur, who is a senior BJP MP, will not upset the party leadership, where it is believed that Srinivasan has the backing of a top BJP politician.

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Nov-2015Alex Hales and Jason Roy compiled a century stand for England’s first wicket•Getty ImagesRoy quickly bounced back from his duck in the opening match of the series•Getty ImagesHales responded to his recent run of low scores with a composed knock•Getty ImagesRoy scored to all corners of the ground during his fifty, including some impressive reverse sweeps•Getty ImagesIt was terrific to see a good weekend crowd build up to watch the action•Getty ImagesAfter a disappointing series against Australia, Hales finally scored his maiden ODI hundred•Getty ImagesHis 109 was the bedrock of England’s impressive innings•Getty ImagesEoin Morgan arrived with a terrific platform in place•Getty ImagesGetty ImagesChris Woakes ended a run of six wicketless ODIs when he removed Iftikhar Ahmed•Getty ImagesWoakes and James Taylor combined to dismiss Shoaib Malik•Getty ImagesAzhar Ali made a dour 22 from 45 balls at the top of Pakistan’s order•Getty ImagesMohammad Rizwan was bowled for 17 by Adil Rashid•Getty ImagesMohammad Irfan was the last wicket to fall as England sealed a 95-run win•Getty Images

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Nov-2015South Africa slipped further when Varun Aaron breached Hashim Amla’s defence•Associated PressDean Elgar batted patiently to contribute 38 runs to South Africa’s total of 78 for 3 at lunch•Associated PressElgar, however, was undone by Ravindra Jadeja in the second ball after lunch, and it was down to AB de Villiers, playing his 100th Test, to carry South Africa’s innings forward•Associated PressDe Villiers waged a lone battle for the most part, but when he was smartly caught by Wriddhiman Saha off Jadeja South Africa fell to 177 for 7•Associated PressJadeja and Ashwin picked up eight wickets between them, as South Africa were soon bowled out for 214•Associated PressSouth Africa then had to toil hard on the field and matters were made worse when Imran Tahir dropped M Vijay. Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay remained solid as India went to stumps on 80 for 0.•Associated Press

He did not finish with the bag of wickets to show for his efforts, but West Indies’ left-arm spinner played a vital role in ensuring there was no way back for Sri Lanka

Nagraj Gollapudi in Bangalore20-Mar-2016Sulieman Benn is intimidating. At 6 foot 7 inches he ought to be. If you can stare Joel Garner in the eye, tower over Chris Gayle, you must be intimidating. That is Benn the beanpole.With that height, the life of a hostile, snarling fast bowler would not have been a bad fit. Instead, though, it has been a career forged through left-arm spin. For periods he can seem more innocuous than intimidating. But there are days he can hurt you. And he can do it quietly.Once in Adelaide, in 2009, having taken a 5-for in a Test match against Australia, and having bowled a marathon 53 overs, Benn was asked how he, thin as “rain drop”, manage to endure such long spells. “It is muscle, but it is hidden” Benn replied tongue-in-cheek with a soft chuckle.Benn showed that muscle on Sunday evening when he quietly dominated the Sri Lanka batsmen with accuracy, control and a little bit of spine. Samuel Badree did what he does so often: bowl in the first 10 overs, make use of the new ball, deceive the batsmen with his fast-ish deliveries and wrap up his four overs in a blink of an eye. A return of 4-0-12-3 was no doubt the match-winning spell.Yet Badree had finished his spell by the ninth over. Sri Lanka’s top and middle order might have disappointed, but Angelo Mathews was at the crease. He had arrived in the first over after the Powerplay and was trying to repair the early damage. More than Thisara Perera, West Indies would have wanted Mathews out of the way because he had the ability to right the wrongs of the earlier batsmen, all of whom, barring Tillakaratne Dilshan, did not have much to defend themselves with.Sensing the danger Darren Sammy brought back Benn, who had bowled a tight first over that went for a solitary run. That was the third over of the Sri Lanka innings which broke the early momentum built by Dilshan. Sri Lanka were 19 for 0 after two overs. Against Dilshan, Benn stuck to a line outside off stump and the batsman kept hitting to the cover fielder. Against Dinesh Chandimal, Benn fired in the fuller, faster ones, denying the batsman any space or runs.Against Mathews, too, Benn had a plan: attack the off stump, keep the length full, offer no width whatsoever. Mathews managed to collect just two runs off five balls. Benn stared Mathews down once again giving just one runs off five deliveries in his third over.Returning for his final over Benn was well aware that Mathews would go for his shots. Sammy spoke to his bowler to remind him about the plans again, but Benn was fully in control of himself. He carried on suffocating Mathews.Mathews is Sri Lanka’s best batsman. To keep him quiet with spin is one thing, to beat him is another. Benn did that exactly at the start of his final over when he pitched a delivery on a luring length at off stump which spun sharply to leave Mathews prodding at thin air. Benn then went back to firing in the darts, cramping the batsmen for room. Mathews had managed just five runs from the 13 deliveries he faced from Benn.”He bowled some real good yorkers,” Mathews said with a smile. “I just couldn’t get off strike and give it to Thisara. He was bowling really well. He was mixing up his pace. While we were lining up to hit him but he bowled some really good yorkers and got away with it.”Benn did not have a wicket to show for his discipline and dominance. He took his cap and walked towards short fine leg looking backward in the direction of Sammy, perhaps waiting for the acknowledgement. Sammy did not forget as he ran towards Benn and patted him on his back.With his height Benn is very difficult to read and he can extract the bounce off the pitch. And on a wicket where the ball was gripping the surface Benn was unbeatable. In West Indies’ first two matches of the tournament Benn has proved to be a good sidekick for Badree and helping ensure the absence of Sunil Narine is not being felt.In this match Benn bowled three of his four overs in the middle segment of the innings. But with West Indies next two matches – against South Africa and Afghanistan – being played in Nagpur, where spin has proved very difficult to score off, it may not be a bad idea to try him in the death overs were Narine was so indomitable.After hitting his whirlwind century against England, Chris Gayle had revealed it was Benn who asked him to entertain. This time it was Benn’s turn to be the entertainer, albeit in a quiet fashion.

The stats highlights from the game were mainly about Chris Gayle, as England were left powerless in the face of his 47-ball century

S Rajesh16-Mar-20161:50

Match Day – 180 difficult to defend in Mumbai

9 Wins for West Indies against England in T20Is, the most wins for them against any team in this format, and also the most losses for England against an opposition.2 Centuries for Chris Gayle in World T20 games, which makes him the first batsman to score more than one hundred in this tournament. He scored the first ever World T20 hundred, in Johannesburg in 2007.47 Balls for Chris Gayle’s century, the joint-third fastest in all T20Is, and the quickest in World T20 matches.86 Runs in fours and sixes in Gayle’s unbeaten 100 – he hit 11 sixes and five fours. His remaining 14 runs came in singles.98 Sixes for Gayle in T20Is, the most by any batsman in this format. During the course of this innings, he went past Brendon McCullum’s previous record of 91. In World T20s, Gayle has 60 sixes, which is almost twice as many as the next best: Yuvraj Singh has 31 sixes from 25 innings, compared to Gayle’s 60 from 23. His 11 sixes in this innings is the third best in any T20I innings, and the best in the World T20.Chris Gayle is two short of 100 sixes in T20Is•ESPNcricinfo Ltd208.33 Gayle’s strike rate in this innings, his third best among 15 fifty-plus scores in T20Is. His best is a 31-ball 77 (SR 248.38), while his lowest strike rate among these innings is 126 (50-ball unbeaten 63).49 Dot balls played by West Indies in their innings, compared to just 41 by England. England also took more singles (49 to 33) and twos (eight to two), but West Indies won it in boundaries, hitting 11 sixes (all by Gayle) and 16 fours, compared to nine and 12 by England.106 Strike rate for the rest of the West Indies batsmen – they scored 67 from 63 balls, while Gayle bludgeoned 100 from 48.730 Runs for Joe Root in 14 innings in all international matches in 2016, with three hundreds and three fifties. He has averaged 56.15 in these innings, at a strike rate of 81.74.8.50 Samuel Badree’s economy rate in this match: he went for 34 in four overs. Only twice has he had a poorer economy rate in his 23-match T20I career.572 Partnership runs between Gayle and Marlon Samuels in T20Is, the highest for West Indies.

Former South Africa rugby captain Francois Pienaar talks about his role on Cricket South Africa’s review panel

Interview by Firdose Moonda21-Apr-2016Why did you agree to be involved in the CSA review?
Passion. I love this country and I have been involved in cricket – I’ve played cricket at school, I played Nuffield Cricket, I was involved in the IPL marketing when it came here in 2009. As a panel, we all know things about high-performance and closing out games. I have been involved in a number of initiatives where we’ve put structures in place and they have borne fruit. This is just a privilege, to be honest.

“When you get to the final, it’s a 50-50 call and it’s the smart guys who work out the margins. It’s all about the margins”

How will you and your fellow panelists approach the review?
What we will try and learn is what the trends over the last ten years are. We will look at trends, selection, stats and come up with recommendations.What do you, specifically, hope to bring to the review?

A different thinking from not being in the sport, coming from outside the sport. I have been really privileged to get involved in high-performance teams that have won.Can you talk about some of the teams you were involved with and how they achieved what you call high-performance status?
In 1993, the Lions won 100% of their games. In 1994, we won 90%. As captain and coach of the Springbok rugby team, Kitch Christie and myself, we never lost. There was a certain culture of that side and a way of doing things. Our management team fulfilled high-performing roles in getting us to get a shot at the title. Even then, there are no guarantees. When you get to the final, it’s a 50-50 call and it’s the smart guys who work out the margins. It’s all about the margins.Then I went over to England and rugby was really amateur. I was a player-coach at Saracens, I needed to put those processes in place and, luckily, took the team to win their first ever cup. Those sort of things I am really proud of.A brand to admire: the All Blacks have won the last two World Cups•Getty Images Have you seen anything similar to that in cricket?
I had a magnificent session with the Aussies before the Ashes in the early 2000s. They asked me to do a session on margins and big games and how to close out games. I was sort of embarrassed. The best cricket team in the world by a long shot was asking me, but I found it so interesting. My payment there was that I got an insight into how they run their team. Steve Waugh as a captain and a leader – wow! I got so much from that.What makes a high-performance team?

Culture trumps strategy for breakfast. If you don’t have the right culture in any organisation, it’s very hard to be a high-performance team. The brand must be stronger than anything else. CEOs and coaches and captains come and go but you have to understand the culture and the core of why teams are high-performance teams, and you can’t tinker with that. As soon as you start tinkering with that, then you stand the risk of not remaining a high-performance team.Look at the All Blacks brand [New Zealand rugby], and how they nurture and love and embrace that brand. One of the nicest things for me was at the last World Cup when Graham Henry, who coached them when they won the World Cup in 2011, was coaching Argentina and New Zealand were playing against Argentina in the opening match at Wembley. I was there. My question would be what would happen in South Africa if a team of ours – cricket, rugby, soccer – if the coach who had won the World Cup in the previous outing is now coaching the opposition in the opening match. Would we invite him to lunch with the team the day before the game? I think not. They did that. The All Blacks invited Henry because he loves the guys, he is part of that brand, part of that passion, so why should they not invite him? They knew, if we are not smarter than him, if we don’t train hard, then we don’t deserve to win. It’s about the culture.

“The transfer of knowledge is something I am quite interested in discussing. Do we do that, and what are the reasons for us not doing it?”

Then afterwards, Sonny Bill Williams gave away his medal. Was it him or part of the culture? I would think it’s part of the culture. Same with Richie McCaw. Why did he not retire in the World Cup? Because if he did, it would have been about him and not about the team, and he knew it needed to be about the team. That’s my take. How do you create a winning culture?
Let’s go back to rugby. Every World Cup that has been won since 1987, the core of that winning national team came from the club side that dominated. So that side knew how to win. Like in 1995, the core of our team was from the Lions. If you infuse that culture with incredible players, they will enhance the way you do things.”We will look at trends, selection, stats and come up with recommendations”•IDI/Getty Images Are there other elements that go into creating a winning team?
Form is very important and so are combinations – they have to work very well – and then there is leadership. How do the leaders close a game down, how do they make decisions, and how do you work with other leaders in the team to do that?Rugby is a fairly simple game: it’s about how easy you release pressure, your exit strategy, and how you stay unpredictable on attack. For that to happen, there are certain elements that need to fall into place. But the overarching thing is, do you have the right culture, have the right guys in form, have the right combinations and the leaders? Can they execute? And by leaders it’s not only the captain, it’s the coaches, the management staff. If you can do that right, you will be competitive a lot of the time, and if you can bottle that so that when the next guy comes, you pass the baton – you can’t change that. Bottle it, understand it, love it. You’ll be on the right track.Is one of South Africa’s problems that they have not found a way of gaining or transferring that knowledge?
The transfer of knowledge is something I am quite interested in discussing. Do we do that, and what are the reasons for us not doing it? In rugby, we’ve never had that culture. We don’t have ex-coaches, for example, involved. We have got universities, schools – how can we bottle that, how can we work together? The transfer of knowledge and the sharing of ideas, we need to rekindle that.Will transformation form part of the review?

Everything is open for discussion and it should be. If you want to do a proper job, you should have the opportunity to ask questions about all elements that enhance high-performance.