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More than six years after making his debut, Wriddhiman Saha’s maiden Test century was an innings symbolic of the substance over style grafting that helped him earn his spot

Karthik Krishnaswamy in St Lucia 11-Aug-20162:51

Manjrekar: Ashwin, Saha show depth in Indian team

Nagpur, December 2015. In a match that will be remembered for the havoc the spinners caused, South Africa’s fast bowlers were hurting India with reverse swing. Morne Morkel had swung one in to bowl Ajinkya Rahane, and swung one away to nick off Virat Kohli.At 116 for 5, in walked Wriddhiman Saha. He got off the mark on the fourth ball he faced, edging Morkel wide of gully. Then Kagiso Rabada, playing only his third Test match, replaced Morkel and showed his precocious gifts included an ability to manipulate the old-ball. He curled three balls away from Saha, all on a good length, and beat him three times in a row. Saha’s bat was swishing at the ball, its angle far from perpendicular, and his front foot, skating rather than stepping forward, was catching up after the ball had passed.Saha would be beaten repeatedly by Rabada that afternoon, but at the end of it, aided partially by the fortune of missing rather than edging all those balls, he would become the only Indian batsman to play an innings lasting over 100 balls in the match. It wasn’t news to anyone that Saha could fight for his runs. He had done it many times before, whether it was at the same ground on a Test debut made in strange circumstances five years previously, or in Adelaide, Sydney, Galle or Colombo. But there had always seemed something homespun, something not wholly secure about his technique.He seemed to have, all at once, a short front-foot stride, a tendency to try and compensate by reaching for the ball, a dominant bottom hand that caused his bat to trace unusual arcs while driving, and a tendency to play across his front pad. And here he was, playing another innings of grit and smarts making up for an iffy technique. He was playing for a team that was beginning to play five specialist bowlers at every opportunity, as the wicketkeeper-batsman bridging a short top-order and a long lower-order. His wicketkeeping was often a joy to watch, but was his batting good enough to hold down a long-term place in a side packed with bowlers?On Monday afternoon Saha walked in with India 126 for 5 and R Ashwin at the other end. At the start of the series, Ashwin had been promoted to No. 6, one place above Saha in the batting order. It was a statement of confidence in Ashwin’s batting, but it could also be read as a statement of mistrust in Saha’s.None of that really mattered now. India were desperate for a partnership. Their scoring rate had dwindled considerably, but there was no quick-fix. Saha, at any rate, wasn’t looking for one. He got off the mark on the fifth ball he faced, and waited until his 33rd ball to score his next runs. In that early phase of his innings, Jason Holder – against whom he scored no runs off 22 balls – did not bowl outside off stump as he has mostly done through this series but on and around it, his line a constant but his length never predictable, making Saha play as much as possible.There was one iffy leave that could have resulted in a wicket another day – the ball came in to hit his front pad, and ball-tracking suggested it may have hit off stump – but Saha was otherwise secure, the most impressive feature of his play the lateness – and closeness to his body – of his defensive play, particularly against the odd ball that jumped at him.Early on the second day, Saha produced a superlative example of this against Shannon Gabriel. The ball reared uncomfortably at him, but he seemed to have a little extra moment to adjust, get on top of the bounce and drop his bottom hand upon impact. It rolled away harmlessly into the leg side.By now, he had gone past fifty, and was in tune with the pace – slower than day one – and bounce, still generous, of the pitch. By now, he was in the third distinct phase of his innings.The first two phases had come on the first afternoon, fetching him 12 runs in his first 71 balls and 34 off his next 51, a bulk of them against the second new ball. His last two scoring shots before stumps had been boundaries, a flick and a straight drive off successive Holder deliveries. Now, at the start of day two, Saha was retrenching; he scored only 10 runs off the first 42 balls of the day, and India only 21 in their first 13 overs. West Indies, as they had done ever since the second Test at Sabina Park, were bowling with control, with discipline.They had an ally in the slowest outfield in a series of slow outfields. Ashwin, who had scored 48.79% of his Test runs in boundaries before this match, had only hit four fours in 227 balls. He was batting on 83, and Saha on 56. At that point came the first drinks break of the day, and perhaps India decided then that Saha would shift gears.Off only the second ball he faced after drinks, Saha steered a wide, full ball from Alzarri Joseph, a ball he may have left alone before the break, to the point boundary. A couple of overs later, he slog-swept Roston Chase over midwicket. Chase had bowled – and been allowed to bowl, by India’s situation – with no one on the square boundary on the leg side for most of his 24 overs till that point. The partnership had taken India out of trouble and perhaps to parity, and this shot seemed to signal a shift in the balance of play.Saha has made a number of attacking hundreds in the Ranji Trophy, but he hadn’t, before this, had any real opportunity to showcase his range of shots in Test cricket. Now he had his chance. He became willing to whip balls off the stumps and into the leg side, even if it meant meeting them with a closed bat-face. One such whip, off Miguel Cummins, went over the fielder at square leg and ran away for four. Then came a pull, and a couple of drives through the off side, one along the ground, squarer off Gabriel, and the other in the air, straighter off Kraigg Brathwaite’s offspin.As Ashwin inched towards his hundred at the other end, Saha threatened to overtake him. At lunch, they were batting on 99 and 93 respectively.Ashwin got to the mark first, doing so for the fourth time in his career. Then it was Saha’s turn, and this was his first time. He drove Chase against the turn, ran two, and paused, kneeling by the pitch, to undo his helmet strap, before rising to take it all in. He was 31 years and 291 days old, playing the 14th Test match of a six-and-a-half-year career mostly spent as an understudy to a wicketkeeping great. He was here now, this was his moment.

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2016Mennie didn’t have to wait longer for his second as captain Faf du Plessis fell for 11•AFPRilee Rossouw started South Africa’s surge with a run-a-ball fifty, his eighth in ODIs•AFPJP Duminy returned to form and contributed 73 in a record 178-run, fourth-wicket stand•Associated PressAfter Duminy carved Mennie to backward point, Rossouw went on to strike 122, his third ODI century•Associated PressSouth Africa’s middle and lower order made handy contributions to lift the hosts to 327 for 8•Associated PressDavid Warner got Australia’s chase off to a flying start with a brisk fifty•Associated PressImran Tahir, though, struck with two wickets in three balls to reduce the visitors to 72 for 2•Associated PressAndile Phehulwayo had George Bailey bowled, but Warner kept the asking rate in check with regular boundaries•AFPWarner registered the highest score by an Australian against South Africa but was run-out for 173, with 40 still required off 19 balls•Associated PressSouth Africa had to wait for the third umpire to confirm their 5-0 whitewash of Australia. “We were just too good for them,” captain du Plessis said at the post-match presentation•AFP

Owais Shah discusses the challenge for England’s batsmen in India, and his new role coaching UAE

Tim Wigmore07-Nov-2016On the evening of March 17, 2006, ahead of the Mumbai Test, Owais Shah was fed up. He had enjoyed the summer of his life, scoring seven first-class centuries and 1700 runs, and, after injuries decimated England’s Ashes-winning side, was rewarded with a Test call-up for the tour to India. Somehow, though, Shah faced leaving India as he had arrived: without a Test cap.”I remember clearly going to bed the night before and thinking ‘that’s the series gone, I’m not going to get an opportunity’,” he says. But by the following morning, all had changed. Alastair Cook, who scored a debut hundred two weeks earlier in Nagpur, was violently throwing up and in no state to play. Finally, eight years after starring in England’s only Under-19 World Cup victory, here was Shah’s chance. “I saw it as a bit of a situation that was meant to be.”Two years earlier, frustrated that his precocity had yet to be converted into consistent excellence, Shah went to India to work with Mohammad Azharuddin.”He said always look to score off a ball,” Shah says. “Defending is your last option so as the ball is coming down you look to score runs off it, and if you can’t you block it. But always have that mindset and look to score runs. If your mindset looks to score runs then your body will get into really good positions, and from that position, if you realise it’s a good ball, then, defend it.”Walking out at No. 3 in Mumbai, Shah stayed true to Azharuddin’s advice. From his third ball, against Harbhajan Singh, he advanced down the pitch. “It wasn’t a statement of intent. It was just the way I played my cricket against spin bowling: always looking to dominate, always looking to score runs from the first ball I faced. My game was very set up for using my feet trying to hit straight.”By the end of the game he had made 88 and 38 to underpin England’s unlikely “Ring of Fire” victory. “I’ve always backed my ability to play spin, and just applied the basics – reading the spinners from the hand. I just backed my technique.”Even if Shah’s career fizzled out unsatisfactorily – “I just wish I’d got more opportunities after the Mumbai Test”- his tale affirms that it is possible for novice Test batsmen to thrive in India. That should be heartening for Ben Duckett, after two indifferent Tests in Bangladesh, and Haseeb Hameed, who could yet emulate Shah in debuting in India.”It will be very tough,” Shah says, though he believes that England can give India “a good fight” if their batting shows more resolve than in Bangladesh.

“We should make wickets that help spin bowling in England, there should be a bit of deterioration from day three as opposed to green seamers that finish in three days”

“You’re not going to blast the spinners out of the attack there. The batting unit need to use their feet and manoeuvre the ball and get more singles and twos – whoever does that best will be the better batting unit. If we try and blast their spinners, we can get undone. But at the same time if we just block, block, block that’s not the right way to go about it. If we get stuck and then play the big shot, that’s a problem. You need to be busy and not allow them to settle.”He urges Duckett and England’s flamboyant middle order to trust their instincts against spin, just as he did a decade ago. “They will play the game that’s got them to international cricket, they can’t just change. If someone wants to run down and use their feet let them – that’s probably what they’re comfortable doing. The same if they want to sweep or reverse sweep.”Of greater concern to Shah is England’s bowling. They do not just have to battle India, but a system at home that has stunted the development of spin bowling over recent years.”It’s not our spinners’ fault, because they haven’t bowled that much in the past five-six years in county cricket. They’ve bowled a lot more this year but prior to that not that much,” he says. “That’s perhaps where we’ll fall down.”We should make wickets that help spin bowling. There should be a bit of deterioration from day three as opposed to the green seamers that finish in three days. That’s not real first-class cricket. Batsmen are forgetting how to play for five or six hours: they’re having to play a lot more aggressively because they realise that sooner or later there’s a good ball around the corner. In Test cricket you’ve got to know how to put a five- or six-hour hundred together. If you haven’t practised it how are you going to know how to do it in a Test?”While England are attempting to thrive in India, Shah has a very different challenge on his mind: coaching the UAE. After helping out during their tour of Scotland last summer, Shah has just signed for a three-month stint as head coach, a plum job to land just after turning 38.”This is an opportunity I didn’t think I could turn down,” he says. “If everything is right and I feel like I’m making progress after three months, and the Emirates Cricket Board and, most importantly, the players are happy with me, then why not?”Shah has been impressed with the UAE’s talent, but also identified their first-class cricket as a major area to improve. “I’m trying to teach them a little bit more about the longer form of the game, because they play a lot of short form,” he says. “I think being able to play the longer form will help their short-form cricket, especially one-day internationals.”Shah will bring vast experience to helping UAE in his first major coaching role•PA PhotosA few months after the UAE introduced fully professional contracts, Shah will be charged with ensuring the team are not just professional in name only.”Now they’re required to turn up and train every day, and be consistent in that. It’s a new concept and will take some time to understand. Hopefully they can tap into my knowledge of being a professional cricketer: what’s required of you, and your life revolving around cricket; your behaviour, having the right amount of rest, what food you eat and things like that. It’s about making them understand that all your actions will have a knock-on effect on your cricket.”Shah intends to be “very much hands on” as a coach. “I’m quite happy to dive around, shown them how to catch, show them how to hit sixes or whatever,” he says. “These guys are international cricketers. It’s more about helping them on a mental level. I’m also trying to teach them about playing at the top level, when the bowlers are that much faster, and the batsmen are that much quicker on their feet – some technical stuff and also some tactical stuff.”And as a player who was not always managed sensitively – in particular, he was shunned by the Duncan Fletcher regime – Shah should be well placed to judge each player’s individual needs.”Every single player is different. Some players need more showing how things are done, and some need less showing and need to work things out themselves. It’s more of a man-management thing, coaching. A 22-year-old needs different kind of managing to a 34-year-old. Those two people are at different stages of their lives.”An early test for Shah and his new side will come at the start of December, when the UAE play three 50-over matches against England Lions. “It should be good fun,” he says. Until then, he will watch England’s current generation trying to make their mark on India with interest.

Sudhir Gautam, uber Tendulkar fan, is now rooting for a new sport

Susan Ninan16-Mar-2017Bathed in canary yellow, Sudhir Kumar Chaudhry, better known as Sudhir Gautam, leans forward, his kohl-lined eyes glued to the badminton match on the court below. A giant yellow flag rests beside him. As a smash lands wide, Sudhir jumps up. Grabbing his flag, he waves it fervently from side to side, blowing his conch shell. Spectators seated behind grimace, even attempt a meek protest. But Sudhir isn’t listening. After all, he’s only doing his job.For easily the most recognisable sports fan in the country, associated with its most venerated sportsman – Sachin Tendulkar – this is fresh turf. A familiar presence in the stands at every cricket match featuring the Indian team for over a decade and half now, home or away, Sudhir found himself, at the start of the year, in freezing indoor stadiums for the first time. A new sport and team have been added to his itinerary. Tendulkar has willed it so.In December last year, Tendulkar bought stakes in the Bengaluru Blasters franchise of the Premier Badminton League (PBL). During the first day of India’s Test against England in Mumbai that month, Sudhir was summoned to Bengaluru for a PBL commercial. It was the first time he had missed a day’s play in cricket in 16 years.And so, with a formidable record under his belt – as of early January, when ESPN spoke to him, he had watched 278 ODIs, 49 T20Is and 58 Tests, numbers similar to the playing CV of cricketer Yuvraj Singh – Sudhir made his “debut” in another sport, although Tendulkar remains the connection.”I’m supporting Sachin sir’s team [Bengaluru Blasters] though he is not in the stadium. I have ‘Tendulkar 10’ written on my back, though this is not Team India. I’m very happy that Sachin sir is encouraging sports other than cricket.”I have not asked him for anything till date, but whenever there’s a match outside India, I request him for a pass. He’s never said no. Somehow he arranges everything. He’s my God,” Sudhir says.His bare upper body painted to resemble a human form of the national tricolour, Sudhir was accorded special status by Tendulkar and offered passes for all India matches, no matter in which part of the world they were being played, and turned into a willing unofficial mascot.

“I said I wanted to continue to cheer for the team and carry his name on my body till I die”Sudhir Gautam about Tendulkar, after the 2011 World Cup

“When I first went to the stadium with ‘Tendulkar 10’ written on my back, he liked it. When Sachin sir asked me if I would like to watch more matches, I did not for once think about the graduation exam form that I had filled out. He asked me to appear for my exams first. I was adamant, though. I never expected that I’d watch all those matches.”

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Growing up, the closest Sudhir could get to his idol was a peeling poster in his tiny, dilapidated settlement in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Attempting the Tendulkar upper cut and straight drive, he would often end up being dismissed cheaply in college cricket matches. In 2002 he was picked for a state cricket tournament from his college. Around the same time a local journalist, aware of Sudhir’s fandom, suggested he cycle down to watch the India-West Indies one-day series. Sudhir agreed. The first ODI was to take place in Jamshedpur, 519km away from his home town. As luck would have it, when Sudhir got there for the match, he heard Tendulkar had suffered a hamstring injury and was ruled out of the series. “I was very disappointed,” he says, “That’s when I decided that in 2003 I will travel to Mumbai on my cycle again.”The following year, Sudhir, then 22, cycled for 16 days, from Muzaffarpur to Mumbai, roughly 2000km away, where he finally caught a glimpse of his idol outside a five-star hotel in the south of the city. He threw his cycle to the ground to distract the security personnel before jostling past gathered fans to touch Tendulkar’s feet. His life was never the same again.Not only was Sudhir invited home by Tendulkar and offered a match pass, but just when he was about to return to Muzaffarpur, content with his accomplishments, things took a different turn. After India lost the Wankhede ODI to Australia, Sudhir paid Tendulkar one last visit before heading home. “? [Would you like to watch more matches, Sudhir?],” Tendulkar politely inquired.Skipping his graduation exams, spurning any prospect of a full-time job and distancing himself from his family, Sudhir chose a life single-mindedly dedicated to cheering for Tendulkar and the Indian team across the world. Nearly 14 years later, he has no regrets. “I’ve left three jobs and haven’t completed my graduation till date. But I’m happy.”Gautam with Tendulkar and the 2011 World Cup trophy•Getty ImagesHis first job was that of a railway ticket collector in Hyderabad, following which he took up work at a dairy in Muzaffarpur. He left that job to travel abroad for an India match, digging into his last reserves – his provident fund – to acquire a passport.His travels have taken him across the country and the world, whether by cycle to Pakistan, or as far away as Australia and New Zealand for the 2015 World Cup. “I have friends everywhere, Dubai, Bangladesh or Australia, with whom I stay with during matches. In Pakistan, for instance, I know I’m always welcome at [the famous Pakistani cricket mascot] Cricket Chacha’s house.”Tendulkar not only offered Sudhir passes for the 2015 World Cup but also ensured that he had a comfortable stay. “Since it was my first time in Australia, Sachin sir booked a hotel room for me. If I happen to travel there again, I won’t need to stay in a hotel, because there are Indians everywhere and everyone likes Sachin sir, so I can stay with them,” he says.The high point came in 2011, when India’s won the 50-over World Cup on home soil. After the final, played in Mumbai, Tendulkar, who was making his last appearance in the tournament, asked Sudhir to join the team in the dressing room and then handed him the trophy. “That was an unforgettable moment for me.”Soon after the match, Sudhir poured his heart out to Tendulkar, telling him about the apprehensions he had about his future following his hero’s impending retirement. “I said I wanted to continue to cheer for the team and carry his name on my body till I die.” Tendulkar assured him of his support.When Tendulkar retired in November 2013, that foreboding was brought home by a billboard for a job-search website. Alongside Sudhir’s painted face, the words screamed: “Looking for a new job?” It was an inescapable truth.Today, Sudhir says, people often try to coax him to wear the name of a current playing member of the Indian cricket team, the popular opinion favouring Virat Kohli, over that of Tendulkar, on his body. He shuts them up with little trouble, he says. Last year, when invited to cheer for Virender Sehwag’s side, Gemini Arabians, at the Masters Champions League (MCL) in Dubai, it was suggested that he drop Tendulkar’s name and paint “MCL” in its place. “I asked them to book my return tickets instead,” Sudhir says. Realising that he wouldn’t budge, the team organisers abandoned their request and asked him to stay on.Back in the badminton arena, eyes cast earthwards, Sudhir patiently waits for the questions, hands resting on his knees. A gaggle of curious onlookers quickly gathers around us, mostly selfie-hunters. He obliges them with practised ease. He’s wiry and strikingly bald, save for a pigtail and a small patch of hair in the centre of his head that is trimmed to resemble the physical contours of the map of India and painted in the colours of the national flag. The insignia of the Bengaluru badminton franchise is painted across his chest in red and he sports his idol’s name on his back in sweeping, bold letters, along with the sacred jersey number: 10. Before this, Sudhir had never watched a badminton match.It took him a while to understand the game (which, in this tournament, is played with tweaked rules). “At first I just couldn’t understand what was happening,” he says. “I had no idea how the points system worked. I asked people why they were clapping. But after watching a few matches in Hyderabad, I started to get a clearer idea. Now I’ve begun liking it.”The water colours he uses to paint himself from head to waist for PBL matches can be applied and removed more quickly than the enamel paint he favours for cricket matches, because of its ability to weather longer hours and outdoor conditions. “I’ve been painting myself for 16 years now. Not once have I suffered from any skin infections or allergies,” he says, before explaining why he took to painting his body. “I wanted Sachin sir to notice me. I thought to myself, much like some people paint their cheeks in the colours of the national flag during a match to show support, why don’t I take it a step forward and paint my entire upper body?”

“He’s one of the most visible brands for sport in the country. People know him exclusively as a Tendulkar fan, so that creates a direct connection between him and the spectators”Prasad Mangipudi, executive director of Sportzlive

For his face, Sudhir usually uses water colours – 15ml bottles of orange, white and green, each of which lasts for close to eight matches. As he runs us through his regime with feverish detail, it’s difficult not to wonder what he looks like sans his second skin.”People, I think, know what I look like now unpainted,” he says alluding to his popularity, “My hair and look are distinct.” Enamel paint for his body, which he usually procures in half-litre batches for each series, takes close to six hours to apply, which often means having to give up sleep at night. “Lying down would mess up the paint. Whether I’m staying at a friend’s place or in a hotel room, I sit through the night after my body is painted before a match.”Sudhir is a compelling figure in the Indian sporting landscape, says Prasad Mangipudi, executive director of Sportzlive, which owns the rights to the PBL. “He’s one of the most visible brands for sport in the country. His distinct appearance makes for instant recall. People know him exclusively as a Tendulkar fan, so that creates a direct connection between him and the spectators. In the PBL matches that Tendulkar is not able to attend, it’s almost like Sudhir is cheering on his behalf. He waves the flag, the crowd too joins in and cheers, which in turn spurs players, so if you look at it he can bring about a change in the stadium atmosphere by his presence.”The idea behind the PBL commercial – which shows Sudhir painting himself ahead of a match and Tendulkar referring to him as his “greatest fan” – was to create a flutter and make it memorable, Mangipudi says. Sudhir’s presence in the stands has also set the organisers thinking about ways of enhancing the fan experience for future editions.”We are mulling the prospect of having a fan icon for each team,” Mangipudi says, “The idea is to engage fans to a greater extent, and we are looking into the possibility of running a contest to pick a fan who could maybe sit in the dugout with team members.”Sudhir is mindful of the identity he has carved for himself among sport fans in the country. Heartbroken after Tendulkar’s retirement and probably unwilling to be weighed down by the baggage of memories, he gave up riding his cycle to matches.Little else lights him up like seeing packed stands with cheering crowds. “I want more fans to show up. Today I’m there, but tomorrow I may not be around.”One of the few occasions when he looks up to make eye contact is when the topic of family is broached. “I don’t answer calls from my family.” He last paid a visit home after the Chennai Test in December 2016. “In case of an emergency, if someone in the family dies, I would have to leave a match and go, which I cannot. They know how involved I’m with the game.”Sudhir will turn 36 this year. Seemingly expecting the query, he dismisses the idea of marriage. “I have never thought about it and never will. As long as I’m breathing, I’ll support team India. Marriage will only distract me. That’s unacceptable.”

The world’s top Associate teams are eyeing a coveted prize – a place in the proposed new ODI league. Will Netherlands pip the rest to the post?

Tim Wigmore27-Feb-2017World cricket is on the brink of fundamental change. After years dreading new developments from the International Cricket Council, burned too many times by news of the World Cup contracting or inadequate funding, Associate nations now await developments from Dubai with rather more hope. For all the focus upon Afghanistan and Ireland, and their imminent Test status, almost as significant is what awaits the winner of the World Cricket League Championship, which concludes in December: inclusion in a new 13-team ODI league from 2019 to 2022, guaranteeing 36 ODIs over three years against the top 12 teams in the world, half at home and half away.To get a sense of how tantalising a prospect this is, consider that, beyond Afghanistan and Ireland, no Associates have played a single bilateral ODI against Test opposition since May 2014. Netherlands captain Peter Borren has played 12 ODIs against Test opposition over an 11-year career.Providing the league is indeed voted through by the ICC, it would be transformational for whichever nation is elevated; Papua New Guinea and Scotland also have reasonable hopes. Netherlands, who were aghast at being removed from the English county structure, along with Scotland, after 2013, had a risible three internationals, across all formats, in ten months from March 2016 to January this year. Scotland played 26 List A matches in the summer of 2003 but just six last summer. Papua New Guinea, remarkably, have not played a single game against a Full Member since 1975.

The 13th team in the new ODI league could reasonably expect to receive an extra US$10 million over three years. For countries that operate on no more than $2 million a year, this bounty would change everything

The comparative abundance of matches awaiting the winners of the World Cricket League Championship would bring huge challenges but also the opportunity for players to improve by playing regularly against the world’s best.”Initially we might find wins hard to come by. It would be a big step up,” reflects Borren. “The standard of our cricket would dramatically improve… I remember when we had a packed summer schedule in England’s limited-overs competitions. It was remarkable how playing as a group week in week out improved our game.” Malcolm Cannon, the chief executive of Cricket Scotland says that the early years for the 13th team would be trying, “but without this change, that [greater] competitiveness would never happen”.The fixtures would also improve the 13th team’s prospects of retaining their best players for longer. Preston Mommsen, Scotland’s highly regarded captain, retired last year, aged 29. “The decision would have definitely been harder,” he says. Playing in the 13-team ODI league “would have given structure to our seasons, and would have given added purpose. More days of cricket would have meant more opportunity to develop as players and build on wins or losses, rather than playing and waiting six months for the next fixture, as we do now.” All the training in the world only goes so far.Netherlands captain Peter Borren expects a tough baptism if his side become the 13th ODI team•ICCThe opportunity presented by the top-level fixtures could be life-changing. Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi being signed by the IPL is the latest indication that T20 leagues are becoming more receptive to leading Associate cricketers. For a player in the 13th team in the league, how much, say, might an ODI century against India be worth, come T20 auctions around the world?Yet for all the huge benefits to the Associate players in the 13th team, really the prize is altogether greater. Inclusion “would do wonders for Dutch cricket on many different levels,” Borren believes.Regular home matches against high-level opposition – based on the current ODI rankings, the 13th team could expect to host South Africa, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh, West Indies and Zimbabwe for three-match series over three summers – would be a signal of newfound cricket stature. While Papua New Guinea are already well supported by their government, for Scotland, and especially Netherlands, elevation to the ODI league could transform how their governments view cricket, and encourage them to unlock funding and open up greater investment in the sport in schools.

While a brave new world awaits the winner of the World Cricket League Championship, opportunities against Test opposition are likely to be as rare for the other seven teams as they are today – and finances almost as tight

High-profile matches at home would also help atract new fans and players. How can you sell a sport to a new audience when the national team barely plays? The league would provide “a real chance to market the game better in this country,” Borren says. “Imagine the possibilities when you have guaranteed fixtures against the top sides.”The financial benefits would also be huge. It is likely that the ICC will provide significant extra financial support to aid the new team, just as they did for Afghanistan and Ireland after their elevation to the 12-team ODI structure in 2015; the two receive a top-up of $1.7 million a year from the ICC as a result. But while Afghanistan and Ireland have only had a modest amount of extra fixtures against leading Test nations, all 13 teams in the ODI league would have a guaranteed package of matches to sell, and be responsible for selling the commercial rights to them. The 13th ODI team would be in a position to sell a three-year TV package of matches to broadcasters around the world, with the price of this package boosted by the fact that the games double as World Cup qualifiers. As Mommsen says, “Why would a company want to get behind us at the moment when we have nothing to sell them in terms of product – fixtures? That becomes a different story if we can guarantee a number of fixtures.”Former Scotland captain Preston Mommsen might not have left the game if ODI status for his team was a possibility at the time•Peter Della PennaAdd in money from TV deals, sponsorship and extra ICC cash, and the 13th team in the new ODI league could reasonably expect to receive an extra $10 million over three years. For countries that operate on no more than $2 million a year this bounty would change everything: they would no longer have to operate in such a straitjacket.How the proposed ODI league would work

Thirteen teams
Each team would play everyone else in a three-match ODI series, either home or away, over a three-year cycle – a total of 36 ODIs over three years
The top eight teams are likely to qualify automatically for the World Cup, with the remainder entering a qualifying tournament
At the end of the cycle, there would be a champion
Likely to be promotion and relegation between the World Cricket League Championship and main ODI league

The amount available to spend on winning new fans and grass-roots funding would be transformed. Vast sums, at least compared to those today, could be spent on playing and training facilities and coaching, as well as A-team and underage matches, helping players improve, and making it easier to nurture home-grown talent. And more money could be spent on professional contracts too, which, together with the enticing fixture list, would make cricket more attractive relative to other sports for multi-talented young athletes. In the case of the Netherlands or Scotland, it would also surely encourage more players with roots in the country to move there.Such possibilities, of course, bring great pressure: while a brave new world awaits the winner of the World Cricket League Championship, opportunities against Test opposition are likely to be as rare for the other seven teams as they are today, and finances almost as tight as now too.No one knows how cutthroat Associate cricket can be quite like Netherlands: after years established as Associate cricket’s third force, two defeats in January 2014 led to them losing their ODI status for four years and close to one-third of their funding. But if Netherlands can indeed win the World Cricket League Championship, their players will not merely secure a fixture list of the ilk they have always craved. They could also build a new foundation for the sport in the Netherlands, changing the game there forever. That is the real prize.

Wasim Jaffer, former Mumbai captain and current Vidarbha batsman, talks about his role as a mentor with Vidarbha who will play their first Ranji Trophy final from Friday

Nagraj Gollapudi27-Dec-2017Early in the morning session on the final day of the Ranji Trophy semi-final, Karnataka needed 18 runs to deny Vidarbha their maiden appearance in the final; Vidarbha needed two wickets. At the drinks break, Wasim Jaffer, one of the three professionals in the Vidarbha squad and the team’s senior-most player, spoke to the team in the huddle.”I still believed things could change,” Jaffer recounts. “I told them if they need to score 18 runs, we need to make sure they at least play 30-35 balls. They are not going to get those runs in four or five deliveries. And we need to bowl just two good balls, which is quite possible. Luckily for us, that is what happened. [Abhimanyu] Mithun played a bad shot and [S] Aravind was the last man caught. They [Vidarbha] have realised now that things can happen.”It was the second time in three days Jaffer had issued a stern but inspiring message to his team-mates. At the end of the second day, after Karnataka had taken the first-innings lead, the Vidarbha dressing room was a dejected unit. Players were quiet and sulking.”Our morale was down on the second evening after Karnataka had taken the lead,” Vidarbha allrounder Aditya Sarwate says. Sarwate was Vidarbha’s best batsman in their underwhelming first-innings total of 185, scoring 47 runs. Jaffer noticed that most of the Vidarbha players had started to mentally concede their dream run was coming to an end.

“They are all very good cricketers, but sometimes they lack the confidence and belief in themselves, some of them at least. And my job as a professional or mentor is to get them to play to their optimum.”

Jaffer, the man with most Ranji runs and with multiple Ranji titles, decided it was time to transform the sombre mood in the dressing room. “When Karnataka were ahead, I could see within the group few players had started to talk about our season might be over,” Jaffer tells ESPNcricinfo. “Negative thoughts were creeping in. I told them there were still 270 overs of cricket left in the final three days in the match. And if we could post about target of 250 in [bowler-friendly] conditions, anything could happen.”I told them it doesn’t matter even if we lose, as long as we show a good attitude and good approach. When Vidarbha plays Karnataka, Karnataka is expected to do well. Unless we put up a fight, it will be a tough three days. If we don’t fight and just give up now, it is going to be a big drag for the final three days as Karnataka would make us toil. If we show the right approach and attitude and put up a fight anything can happen.”According to Sarwate, Jaffer recounted the 2010 Ranji final between Mumbai and Karnataka in Mysore, where Ajit Agarkar led Mumbai’s fightback in a thrilling contest. “He stressed that belief should not be lost at any point in a match. He stressed that in a five-day game, what happens in the first innings is not that significant. He said Mumbai had never lost the belief in Mysore and won a crunch match in the end.”Jaffer’s inspiring speeches served the purpose. Vidarbha held their nerve and Rajneesh Gurbani’s seven-for in the second innings steered the side to their maiden Ranji Trophy final. “I was pumped up. The rest of the team was also inspired by his words. And we made an outstanding comeback,” Sarwate says.

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Wasim Jaffer and Ajit Agarkar have a chat•FotocorpAs a professional, it is Jaffer’s job to help the youngsters in the team become better players. When he decided to move out of Mumbai because he did not want to deny a capable young batsman a spot, he shortlisted Vidarbha as one of the few teams where he could head. He made the move to Vidarbha as a professional in the 2015-16 season and now wants to retire with the team. Jaffer finds immense satisfaction when he sees players taking note of his advice on transforming themselves.When Sarwate met Jaffer for the first time properly (at the start of the 2016 domestic season) he told the senior pro that he had started his career as a batsman before focusing on left-arm spin, which now is his primary trade. Jaffer saved that information.In Vidarbha’s fourth match of this season, against Bengal, the team’s coach Chandrakant Pandit was unsure of playing Sarwate. Jaffer was insistent that Pandit, his former Mumbai coach, play the 28-year-old allrounder. “He had played 10 to 11 matches before this season and picked 50-plus wickets, and he was not finding a place,” Jaffer says. “I convinced Chandu [Pandit] to play [Sarwate] against Bengal because I knew what he could bring to the table as an allrounder. He is a good left-arm spinner who can bat. Against good teams you need good players.”Sarwate scored 89 in the first innings and picked five wickets in the match. “You need to show players the right path, and if they pick the tips you share and become better players, that is what gives me satisfaction,” Jaffer adds.Jaffer had asked Sarwate to not take his batting for granted if he wanted to grow as a player, and the allrounder credits Jaffer for the technical adjustments in the pre-season this year. Sarwate would move in quickly to play the ball, and against an incoming delivery such a trigger movement was proving to be a problem. Jaffer asked him to move later in his trigger movements and that has helped Sarwate be more comfortable at the crease.Against Karnataka, Vidarbha’s top order, including Jaffer, had collapsed quickly. Sarwate followed Jaffer’s suggestions – he stayed calm, moved late against the ball that R Vinay Kumar and the seamers were swinging both ways. “I was watching the ball till the last moment and waited for the delivery which allowed me to stay focused.” Sarwate got 47, the highest in Vidarbha’s first innings and then scored a crucial half-century in the second innings.Sarwate says Jaffer is always looking to make people around him comfortable. Before Jaffer, S Badrinath had been a professional with Vidarbha and was more of an “introverted personality”. Jaffer, on the other hand, mingles with the rest of the players, cracks jokes and is open. According to Sarwate, Badrinath was a hard-working player, who focused on work ethics and discipline and then retreated to his room. Jaffer meanwhile is light in his disposition. “He is very calm and strong-minded regardless of the pressure. He sticks to his game plan and does not distract himself. I like that about him a lot,” Sarwate says.

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Aditya Sarwate raises his bat after reaching his century•PTI Jaffer did not have a good first season with Vidarbha, even though the team qualified for the quarter-finals. His disappointment was more personal: a failure to match the expectations he had set for himself. This season, he has got starts, but only one century. Jaffer reckons he could have easily scored “at least 200 to 300 runs more” than the 500 he currently has from 11 innings.But, as a professional, Jaffer’s job is not just to score runs. The Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) want him to mentor and guide the young players at all times and make them understand and learn things on the run.”They are all very good cricketers, but sometimes they lack the confidence and belief in themselves, some of them at least. And my job as a professional or mentor is to get them to play to their optimum.”Jaffer says there are three-four players from Vidarbha who are part of IPL teams, and three young cricketers who were recently part of the Under-19 Asia Cup squad. “Sometimes we need to push them to realise their potential. They are very down-to-earth and sometimes they don’t push themselves very hard, I feel. So that is our job – mine and Chandu’s to push them.”In the last league match, against Himachal Pradesh, played at home in Nagpur, Jaffer noticed Gurbani was struggling with his rhythm. “We won the toss and decided to bowl because it was a seamer-friendly wicket. I remember Gurbani started really badly – his body language and his approach was very lethargic. When you win the toss and bowl, you expect your fast bowlers to run in and make life difficult for the batsmen. The wicket was such where it shouldn’t be that easy. And he came in and bowled two very ordinary overs.”Jaffer, usually a phlegmatic guy on field, “ran down” to the bowler and asked him to “pull up his socks otherwise it won’t be good for him”. He made it a point to ask Gurbani to improve his body language as well, telling him not to put his head down when things were not going his way. “The bowler always has this advantage that he has a chance to come back. The batsman can be at his best of his powers but one bad ball and one lapse of concentration and his match is gone. That is what I told Gurbani: he could not make his captain look like a fool.”Gurbani made the corrections and bowled a tidy line for the rest of the match and even took six wickets in the first innings in the drawn game. Gurbani, the side’s best fast bowler this season, acknowledges Jaffer’s role in his success. “Many might think Wasim Jaffer’s role is to only help batsmen. Even I used to think that – what will I ask him for bowling tips,” Gurbani says.

“I had not played last year but Vidarbha still paid me all my dues, so it would be fair on me to return that favour this season”

Against Bengal, on a pitch supporting movement, Gurbani was swinging the ball both ways. Jaffer asked him to “hide” the ball. Prior to that, the youngster would hide the ball when he got it to reverse-swing. Jaffer, however, wanted him to create doubt in the batsman’s mind even with conventional swing. “He would tell me to subtly hide the ball while running in, hold the ball in the left hand and cover it, not show the seam position. I used to do the same to him in the nets and he faced trouble. It was one of the main tips he offered.”Gurbani has 31 wickets this season and credited Jaffer for at least a dozen of those. “I will give him credit for 12 wickets at least. He would ask me to bowl outswing, at times inswing, at times a bouncer. He has taught me when to bowl which delivery at the right time and that has only helped me grow as a bowler. He also sets fields for me, which, at times I would never think on my own. If there is a left-handed batsman who likes to cut, he would place two gullies and a slip when my plan would be to have just two slips and one gully. Considering he has seen many batsmen across teams, he understands their weak points, and that way helps me set up a plan.”Standing in the slips, Jaffer would watch the feet movement of the batsman and guide Gurbani. “Against Kerala, in the quarter-final, he asked once to bowl an inswinger and on another occasion an inswinger and then a bouncer, which fetched him easy wickets during the match,” Gurbani says. “The last ball of the semis, which I got [Aravind, caught behind], was actually due to Wasim . He asked me to keep the ball full and swing it away. Aravind was the last man and it was my first ball to him.”

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Wasim Jaffer taps his glove with Faiz Fazal after getting to 10,000 runs in Ranji Trophy•PTI Another player who has been heavily influenced by Jaffer’s guidance is Sanjay Ramaswamy, the second-best batsman for the side this season after his captain and opening partner Faiz Fazal. Ramaswamy is the fifth-highest run-maker this season with 735 runs, including three centuries. According to Jaffer, Ramaswamy was an “aloof” player, who would not mingle with the rest of the group. Technically, too, he was not sound, struggling with feet movement which was getting him into a “bad position.” Both Pandit and Jaffer spoke to him bluntly.”The way he was moving before the ball was bowled, he was getting himself into a very bad position. And he would not listen. He felt that is the only way he could play,” Jaffer recounts. Pandit and Jaffer spent “quite a few hours” with Ramaswamy at one practice session before this season and recorded a video to make some technical corrections. “His bat was opening a little bit too much, which was making the balls go to gully or point. I just told him to correct his grip, which would help him to play more in front of the wicket.”Jaffer points out after that practice session Ramaswamy realised his mistake. “Till then he was within his own bubble. He won’t go to anyone and speak about his game. I told him if he wants to play at the higher levels, he needs to keep his mind open. I told him greats like Sachin Tendulkar or Sunil Gavaskar achieved so much, but even now they are very keen to learn things. You need to have an open mind to become a better player. You just can’t shut out suggestions.”After that session Ramaswamy started opening up, and would approach Jaffer and Pandit and ask questions. “It makes it worthwhile to see him score runs against good teams.”Ramaswamy, Sarwate, Gurbani now know what belief can do. Pandit and Jaffer learned, practised, mastered the art of winning at all costs during their Mumbai years. Now they are passing some of those learnings to Vidarbha.On Friday, Jaffer will play his ninth Ranji final. On all eight previous occasions, all with Mumbai, Jaffer walked out with the winner’s medal. Delhi, their opponents in the deciding game, are no pushovers. They are as hungry and as desperate to clinch the title. Jaffer’s key message to his team-mates ahead of the final is to enjoy it, to savour the occasion of playing the final, a moment that so many cricketers have not experienced. “I want them to try and think like a winner because nobody really remembers the finalist. So we need to think about the winning the game and all of us need to just believe we can win and go out there thinking only that.”

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At the outset of this season Jaffer sent an e-mail to the VCA, telling the association’s bosses that he would like to play for Vidarbha again but did not want them to pay him the contract fee. Last year Jaffer was injured during the Ranji season, but the VCA still paid him the contract amount as a professional. Jaffer had worked hard to recuperate in time for the domestic ODIs, but the team management did not pick him.Jaffer says he was “irritated” that the selectors shunned him. But he did not take it negatively. He agrees he had a point to prove this year. “I had not played last year but they still paid me all my dues, so it would be fair on me to return that favour this season,” Jaffer says.Regardless of the result in the final, Jaffer has been a true professional: performing, inspiring, cajoling and leading Vidarbha’s players to the next level.

Five hot takes from the hot topic of the day

Andrew Miller19-Apr-2018Women join the big ticketTom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, last year described England women’s victory in the World Cup final at Lord’s as the most “disruptive” event in the board’s history, and he meant that in the fullest, most corporately backslapping sense of the word.The “disruption”, in the eyes of the ECB’s gleeful marketing men, was the sight of young families and children – boys and, especially, girls – flocking to what, to all intents and purposes, felt like a brand-new competition at the most storied venue in the game.The fact that these nascent fans were then presented with a finish for the ages, as Anya Shrubsole snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, was all the evidence they needed to invite the women’s game onto the big ticket for 2020. England’s women are the most successful, and malleable, asset that the board has at its disposal.Reductio ad absurdum?You know that the game has changed forever when the notion of upsetting “T20 traditionalists” is floated, even semi-seriously, as a reason for not embracing this radical new departure.But that in itself is a reminder of just how long T20 has been on the block – it’s been 15 years, almost to the month, since the original Twenty20 Cup was rolled out in 2003 (to hoots of derision, lest we forget).And it’s also a reminder of just how long English cricket has been out of sight, out of mind, to the very kids that the ECB are targeting their new competition towards.Alastair Cook, as an infamous recent survey suggested, is less well known to kids than the wrestler John Cena, and he has not scored a single one of his England record 12,028 Test runs on English free-to-air television.And the clear message, from the numerous attempts that the ECB has been making in recent times – particularly through the efforts of its out-going head of participation, Matt Dwyer – is that cricket is deemed too complicated for the uninitiated to get their heads around.So here comes a neat notion on the face of it – 100 balls per side, comprised of 15 six-ball overs and one 10-ball finale, as if codifying the bonus excitement of a Super Over into every match. And the team that scores the most wins. Simples.So simple, in fact, that you wonder whether it is really necessary to rip up the established fabric of T20 cricket. (Although, let’s not forget, English cricket was still committed to 55-overs-a-side in ODI cricket right up until 1995, when the rest of the world was faring very nicely on 50 – the ECB/TCCB has always been partial to a bit of perversity).Matt Dwyer, ECB director of participation and growth•Getty ImagesWindows of opportunityMost fundamentally, however, the loss of 20 balls per innings seems a fairly targeted attempt to ensure that each and every contest will fit very snugly into a three-hour timeframe.All T20 games, in theory, ought to be done and dusted in that time, but once you’ve factored in such elements as strategic time-outs, delays caused by wickets and lost balls, the natural lag that occurs in close finishes, overspill is inevitable.For Sky Sports, the primary broadcasters, it’s hard to imagine that this would be an issue on a specialist channel, but for the BBC – newly coaxed back to the table after two decades away from live TV – it might well have been fundamental.After all, a key aspect of the ECB juicing a remarkable GBP1.1 billion out of this latest five-year rights deal was the chance for the broadcasters to be treated as partners, with an integral say in the look and feel of the new competition, rather than clients.And for the BBC to commit to showing these matches in their prime-time slots from 6pm to 9pm – given the age-old issues they and their viewers encountered back in the day – the chance to factor in a guarantee that Mrs Brown’s Boys would begin on the dot of 9pm, as per the schedule, must have been very tempting indeed.Dang and BlastTo what extent is this proposal truly innovative, and to what extent is it a legacy of past decisions – or, more to the point, past indecision? For the ECB’s failure to capitalise on the revolutionary success of their original Twenty20 Cup has gnawed away at the USP to such an extent that, now, 15 years later, their existing competition, the Vitality Blast, is the third best T20 competition in the English season alone – behind the IPL and the Caribbean Premier League.And the Blast is not going away – one of the absurdities of the horse-trading that was required to make this new competition possible is that the full 18-county competition will continue to chug along in the background of the marquee competition.In every sense, this feels like a corporate solution to a very intractable problem.A whole new ball-game?And finally, it’s over to MCC, and their venerable Laws of Cricket.Law 17.1, pertaining to the length of an over, currently states: “The ball shall be bowled from each end alternately in overs of six balls.”That’s not to say this cannot change – cricket has been bowled in overs of four, five, six and, up until 1979-80 in Australia, eight deliveries in the past. But never before have there been two lengths in a single game. It’s just not cricket any more, is it?

Should Royal Challengers have bowled more pace in the Powerplay, and did the umpires fail to call a number of bouncers?

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Apr-20181:43

Coach’s Diary: RCB face death-bowling issues again

Who fared best on ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats

Smart Strike Rate (Strike Rate in brackets, min. 5 balls faced)
1. Sunil Narine 395.64 (263.15)
2. Mandeep Singh 277.57 (205.55)
3. AB de Villiers 242.95 (191.30)
4. Brendon McCullum 186.06 (159.25)
5. Nitish Rana 132.15 (136.00)
Smart Economy Rate (Economy Rate in brackets)
1. Andre Russell 1.63 (5.00)
2. Umesh Yadav 4.79 (6.75)
3. Mitchell Johnson 6.32 (7.50)
4. Sunil Narine 6.34 (7.50)
5. Piyush Chawla 6.77 (7.75)

Did Kohli miss a trick by feeding spin to Narine?
Sunil Narine’s reputation as an early-overs smasher is only growing by the day, and a large part of it has been built by his fearsome hitting ability while facing spin early on. While opening the batting in T20s, Narine averages 15.93 against pace and 36 against spin, and ESPNcricinfo’s control percentages show that he is in far more control (69%) against spin than against pace (51%).Control percentages matter little for a pinch-hitter like Narine, but his dismissal figures tell a story: in 36 innings, he has been dismissed 29 times by pace, while also finding it harder to get away, while spin has only got him six times in 18 innings. When he blitzed to what was then the fastest IPL fifty last year, 30 of his runs came off 10 Samuel Badree balls, and it took an Aniket Choudhary bouncer in the seventh over to dismiss him.ESPNcricinfo LtdToday’s innings was almost identical, as RCB fed him liberal doses of spin, with 30 of his runs coming against Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal. No long-offs for the offspinner, vacant acres in the deep midwicket region for the legspinner – most of it made little sense, especially for an opponent who has borne the brunt of his hitting not too long ago. Chris Woakes, who is not an express quick, got the same treatment bowling a combination of slower and wider ones, right in Narine’s hitting zone.When express pace finally came on in the sixth over in the form of Umesh Yadav, Narine backed away to a low full-toss, and inside-edged onto his stumps. By then, he had made 50 off 19, with an incredible Smart Strike Rate of 395.64.Five overs of spin in the PowerplayOnly once in IPL’s history have more overs of spin been bowled in the Powerplay, and the Knight Riders came in with a plan against the big-hitting quartet of Quinton de Kock, Brendon McCullum, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. Together, Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla went for 38 runs off their 5 overs, picking up de Kock’s wicket, a creditable return against a line-up of that ability. If not for Vinay Kumar’s expensive first over, their Powerplay would have been a greater success than ending up on 52 for 1.Bizarre non-no-ball calls
It is now well-known and widely documented that the relaid Eden Gardens wicket suits pace a lot more than spin. Since the beginning of last year’s IPL, pacers have taken a wicket every 20 balls when they have bowled short or back of a length, the third-best strike rate for those lengths after Feroz Shah Kotla and the Wankhede.Today, there were a number of occasions when the number of bouncers exceeded two per over, which went largely unnoticed by the on-field umpires Abhijit Deshmukh and C Shamsuddin, not least the caught-behind decision against Rinku Singh, both of whose feet were in the air when he edged a Chris Woakes bouncer – the third of the over, though none elicited a signal from the umpire – to the keeper.As per ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, 75 deliveries were pitched short or back of a length, for an abnormally high average of 4.68 balls per over of pace. They yielded three wickets in total, but more crucially kept the run-scoring in check, with 37 back-of-a-length balls going for just 5.35 runs an over.

The coach made a significant departure from his “character over cover drives” mantra, homing in on issues of batting technique

Daniel Brettig in Abu Dhabi20-Oct-2018For all the statistical measures of Australia’s batting decline, nothing has spoken as loudly as the philosophical shift in focus suggested by Australia’s coach Justin Langer at the conclusion of his first Test series in charge. Talking technique may not sound like a big deal for the head coach of the national team, but coming from Langer it was a marked departure from much of what he is known for.Over comfortably more than a decade, Langer has been synonymous with the phrase “character over cover drives”. So much so that it could easily be the title of one of his books. His achievements as a batsman and as a coach of Australia’s domestic sides have appeared to go hand in hand with a philosophy grounded in personal discipline and growth, as much if not more so than the MCC coaching manual.But since his appointment as the national coach in May, Langer has seemed to be wrestling with the loss of plenty of former certainties as the sheer complexity of his task has become clearer. In the aftermath of Australia’s 373-run hiding in Abu Dhabi to lose the UAE series to Pakistan, he made a significant departure from that “character over cover drives” mantra, homing in on issues of batting technique as the key to arresting Australia’s wretched recent history of collapses.In assessing how the touring team’s two first innings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi essentially cost them any chance of winning the series, Langer pointed out that in the concurrent Sheffield Shield round, a host of other batting collapses had also taken place, and recalled a conversation with the former professional golfer Lyndsay Stephen about mental skills being subservient to technical limitations.”If you look at this round of Sheffield Shield cricket, I know a number of the states have also had some big batting collapses as well,” Langer said in Abu Dhabi. “I’ve been in the State system for a long time and I’ve watched this and I think what I’m really intrigued about is you’re not allowed to use the word technique anymore.”Lyndsay Stephen, the golfer, I remember having dinner with him and everyone says it’s all mental, it’s all mental. It’s all about the mental side of the game and I thought that’s interesting, yeah that’s what everyone says. But Lyndsay Stephen told me, ‘I’d rather have a guy with a good technique who is a bit softer mentally, than a guy who is really mentally tough with a really bad technique’. This is in golf. I said ‘what do you mean?'”He said, ‘If you’ve got a good technique, you’ll hit most balls down the middle of the fairway and over time you’ll develop some confidence and you can learn concentration and that’s how you get mental toughness. If you’ve got a bad technique and you’re hitting the ball behind the trees or in the rough, it doesn’t matter how mentally tough you are, eventually you’re not going to be able to hitting it into the hole that often’.”Haris Sohail takes a catch at first slip to dismiss Shaun Marsh•Getty ImagesTurning his focus from golf to cricket, Langer indicated that it was now necessary for many Australia batsmen to look more closely at the technical underpinnings of their approach to batting, in a manner that would allow them to retain the skills that would keep them in the middle for long periods against a moving ball. In this, Langer essentially suggested that many players in the current system were playing for their state and country without the basic fundamentals that were once self-evident.”I was brought up in Australian cricket where we did a lot of bowling machine work and we did a lot of talk on technique,” he said. “Technique to me is about footwork patterns and playing forward when it’s full, and [playing] back when it’s back. So they’re just really basics of the game particularly in footwork patterns and you talk about the great Australian players [how] they moved their feet like boxers, every one of them. They had footwork patterns and then from there you have the skill of run-scoring. And it’s a really important thing.”The technique is really important and I think now there’s a lot of talk because of white-ball cricket that you just have wide stances and you just stand and deliver. Well that’s okay, but even in T20 cricket or one-day cricket and most certainly first-class cricket and Test cricket when the ball starts moving around, if you don’t move your feet, then you’re going to come unstuck. And that’s something we all have to do in Australian cricket. There wouldn’t be a state coach out there who would be saying it’s all rainbows and butterflies out there after this weekend’s cricket, because of the collapses.”In charting a path forward, Langer argued that all players needed to learn to become better problem-solvers, aware of the intricacies of their own methods and able to tinker with them whenever problems arose. “After day two, I was up until about midnight watching batting videos, looking at ways we can get better,” he said. “What I know about Test cricket, I’ve been through all this before in a sense as an individual player. You come in, it’s really hard, and the only way you work it out is by problem-solving, and working hard.”That was my formula as a player, and all the great players, the great players I’ve been lucky to play with, they’re just really good problem-solvers, they work it out, they work really hard, and they’re brilliant at concentration, so if I can take the lessons I learnt as a player into problem-solving of making the team better, then hopefully we’ll go okay.Aaron Finch gets forward to defend•Associated Press”There’s certainly some focus we have to have. As we see just this week. We’ve got to work out, we’ve got a Test match here, first-class cricket, some T20s coming up. Then there’re some one-dayers. So the schedule is what it is. But the great players are able to adapt and most of them have got a good batting technique and the skill of scoring runs, so we can’t sugarcoat it any longer. If I’m a young batsman in Australia, it’s a pretty exciting time. If you work really hard on your basic game and you learn how to make runs, then there will be a huge opportunities in the Australian cricket team.”Assessing the performances of Australia’s batsmen, Langer was warm in his praise of Aaron Finch, Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja in particular. We’re in a much different stage of Australian cricket history, aren’t we,” Langer said. “You guys have heard me say it before, it’s usually harder to get out of the side than it is to get into the side. It used to be a beautiful thing, if you were the hunter, it used to be a shocking thing when you were playing. If you were the hunted, well that’s sort of good, but you knew there were hunters coming at you all the time. There was always pressure.”And in this instance, I thought Finchy played pretty well, he did really well, and he’ll learn a lot from this series. I was really impressed with Finchy. I thought Marnus played particularly well in this innings. He had a brainfade in the first innings. You’ve never seen anything like it. Two in two days. I’ve seen some stuff on the cricket field, but I’ve never seen that ever.”And Marnus knows, so I’m not burning him, it was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in my life until what happened yesterday. I thought Marnus played well, and his leg-spin was a real revelation for us. As a young leg-spinner, there’s huge upside to that. Obviously Uzzy played really well, and he’ll have his knee operated on, hopefully sooner rather than later, so hopefully he’ll be right for the first Test match [against India in December].”When he reached Travis Head, one of three Australian debutants in Dubai, Langer returned to his technical theme, by noting how much he could see the young South Australian evolving in his first Test series. “What I liked about Travis Head is his development – he’s working hard on his game,” Langer said. “The way everyone used to say he can’t play spin, well he has worked hard on that. He played a cut shot today. I’m getting a bit technical here, but we’re talking batting here, which I love.”I love batting, that’s why it’s killing me at the moment. But he usually plays his cut shot from leg stump, today he played a beautiful cut shot, [like] Sir Donald Bradman, he got right across, he played that late cut for four. And obviously Shaun [Marsh] and Mitch [Marsh] haven’t had their best series, but we also know they’re good cricketers who have had a tough time. So there are opportunities for guys in the team, and there are opportunities for guys who are good blokes and make a lot of runs.”

He has had three terms in office, but a strong challenger has appeared, in the form of Ricky Skerritt

Andre Errol Baptiste07-Mar-2019A smile has returned to West Indies cricket. It has continued to grow through the Test series win over England and the draw in the one-day series, but it has nothing to do with one or the other.Instead it is the announcement that, come the end of March 2019, there is a strong opportunity and occasion for West Indies cricket to breathe again. Former West Indies team manager Ricky Skerritt has announced that he will be challenging the incumbent president of Cricket West Indies, Dave Cameron, for the presidency.Cameron has been unpopular all around the West Indies since his appointment on March 27, 2013, replacing Julien Hunte, before which he was a vice president of the board. He has been especially unpopular with several of the top regional players and former players, who have had their say on his three terms (of two years each).While there is not much, or enough, known about Skerritt as an administrator, there is a strong belief that anything is better than Cameron again. The latter has not helped himself with his utterances in the past, whether on television, radio, in print, or via social media, which many have either rightfully or otherwise described as arrogant or divisive.ALSO READ: Dave Cameron presidency has ‘damaged’ CWI – Ricky SkerrittIt is apparent that, unlike in the case of the previous challenger to Cameron, Joel Garner of Barbados, Skerritt’s run at the presidency is gaining traction, and with it, causing a serious ripple effect all around the Caribbean.Yet again, it appears that the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCBC) is supporting Skerritt, as too, it is reported, is the Leeward Islands board. For the TTCBC, despite the fallout from their support of Garner previously, it appears to be a case of having had enough. Indeed, the question is: why has it taken so long for the TTCBC to realise the need to challenge Cameron?Also, we all know of recent statements by Enoch Lewis, the CWI director of the Leeward Islands board, who openly challenged Cameron’s decision to appoint Richard Pybus as the new West Indies coach without the total approval of all CWI board members.Over the next few weeks we can expect the battle to intensify, with Cameron under pressure to hold off an angry West Indian public, who have seen the return of certain top players to the West Indies fold result in a change in attitude and performance. We can expect bitterness from Cameron’s team as they attempt to curtail the growing momentum of Skerritt. There is the strong possibility that more players will become available should Cameron no longer be president. In fact, there is talk that some players might come out of self-imposed retirement if that occurs. All of this adds up to a strong showing for Skerritt and his team, but sadly, it is not the people of the region who will vote. Were that the case, Cameron would probably lose by a record margin.However, we also need to know more about Skerritt – and Kishore Shallow, who is running as vice-president alongside him. More than just press releases and ten-point plans, we need to have a better understanding of both men and what they can deliver and how much we can trust them. For the people of the region, trust is critical in terms of support.ALSO READ: Ricky Skerritt announces challenge to Cameron CWI presidencyThe representatives of the six territorial boards – Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trindad and Tobago, Windward Islands, and Leeward Islands – will vote to decide on the CWI presidency. Each board has two votes.We have been told in a media release that Leeward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago will vote for Skerritt and Shallow. But Shallow is president of the St Vincent and Grenadines Cricket Association, which falls under the Windward Islands association, whose president is supposedly still Emmanuel Nanthan of Dominica, who is currently also the vice-president of CWI under Cameron. So there is a strong possibility that the Windward Islands’ votes could be divided between Shallow and Nanthan, thereby placing a lot of emphasis on Barbados (a noted Cameron stronghold) and Guyana (a certainty to vote for Cameron; they have also been struggling to hold elections for over six years and are being supported by the current executive of Cricket West Indies).Two votes each for Cameron from Barbados and Guyana, plus at least one vote from the Windward Islands, puts him on five votes. Similarly, two each for Skerritt from Leeward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago, plus one vote possible from Windward Islands, places him on five votes too. This means that Jamaica’s two votes are critical. The facts that Cameron is a Jamaican by birth, and that the elections were apparently suddenly shifted to Jamaica in March, assume relevance. Politically there are those that have suggested that the current opposition party in Jamaica strongly supports Cameron. Only time will tell whether the influence of the Caricom leaders on Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, will have any impact on which way the Jamaican association votes.So, just as the fate of West Indies in the upcoming World Cup may very well hinge on Chris Gayle, it appears that the fate of West Indies cricket administration too is in the hands of two Jamaicans.