Previously unpublished material reveals the anguish he felt about being made the man to blame for the decision to let the club’s long-serving West Indian stars go

David Hopps18-Jan-2017The civil war that beset Somerset cricket more than 30 years ago was all the more remarkable because of the unimposing, bespectacled figure at its centre. Peter Roebuck would not have immediately struck a casual observer as a man capable of going to war. An unconventional loner, gauche even with close friends, he did not meld easily with either the old-fashioned administrators in charge of the club or the imposing superstars, Ian Botham, Viv Richards and Joel Garner, who would eventually be expunged from a Somerset dressing room that had fallen on hard times.The conflict that took hold of the sleepy market town of Taunton throughout the summer of 1986 dominated the sports pages in a way that now is hard to imagine. Until now, it has only been possible to hazard a guess at Roebuck’s state of mind as he became the principal hate figure for rebel supporters who were campaigning against the county’s decision to release their great, long-serving West Indians, Richards and Garner and, as a consequence, accept the ensuing departure of Ian Botham in protest.Previously unpublished diaries, which were not made available to the authors of the excellent in 2015, have now revealed the full extent of Roebuck’s mental anguish. Condemned by his critics, increasingly reviled by Botham in a rift that would last a lifetime, and often left to flounder by Somerset’s archaic administration, he presents himself as an honourable man who made his choice and forever fretted over the consequences.”Lots of people are asking about my health,” he writes as Somerset’s warfare reaches its height. “I suspect they are waiting for a crack-up.” Somerset comfortably won the vote to let go of Richards and Garner at an emergency meeting at Shepton Mallet in November 1986, and Roebuck took the spoils, but his life would never be the same again. Even as victory approaches, he rails at English society as “mean, narrow and vindictive” and falls out of love with the country of his birth for the rest of a life that was to end in tragic circumstances 25 years later.

Condemned by his critics, reviled by Botham, and often left to flounder by Somerset’s archaic administration, he presents himself as an honourable man who made his choice and forever fretted over the consequences

By the time he wrote his autobiography, , in 2004, Roebuck was able to tell the Somerset story with relative calm. Not so in his diaries, typed out contemporaneously in obsessive detail, complete with scribbled adjustments. Three unseen chapters of a book called have been discovered and placed on the family website. “The truth can finally be told,” is how the family puts it.Roebuck was in his first season as Somerset captain, regarding himself as a more relaxed figure, at 30, than the intense batsman who had written the self-absorbed study of life on the county circuit, *, a few years earlier. That self-ease soon departed. In midsummer he was informed at an emergency meeting of the management and cricket committee that Martin Crowe had been approached by Essex. Crowe was fast becoming an international star and he had filled in handsomely for Richards during his absence on a West Indies tour. He had long been eyed as a future signing.Crowe, Roebuck writes, was “a man of brilliance rare in the game, a man of standards rare in the game”. Roebuck’s yearning to reshape a failing, ageing Somerset side has youth and work ethic at its core and encourages him to support the majority preference on the committee to sign Crowe and release Richards and Garner after many years of loyal service. One wonders how Botham will respond to Roebuck’s allegation in the diaries that Botham viewed Crowe at the time as little better than a good club player.In Somerset, Richards and Garner were far more than overseas players. They were part of their limited-overs folklore, as much a part of Somerset as scrumpy or skittles. As Roebuck, this cricketing aesthete, frets over the implications, he writes in his diary: “Echoes in my mind kept repeating that this Somerset team could never work, could never be worthwhile unless we abandoned the past and began to build a team around Crowe. Our chemistry was wrong. It hadn’t worked with Botham as captain, and it wasn’t working with Roebuck as captain. We’d lose Crowe to Essex.”Botham at the press conference announcing his decision to leave Somerset•Adrian Murrell/Getty ImagesA couple of weeks later, that course of action was confirmed. Sworn to secrecy until the end of the season by a Somerset management and cricket committee of 12, a body which Roebuck naively imagines is capable of confidentiality, he ludicrously seeks to maintain discretion in the height of summer in a dressing room awash with rumour. Out on the field, “smiles hid hatred”. In Roebuck’s version of events, all those responsible for the decision keep their heads down and often fail to tell him what is going on. Rebels soon force an emergency special meeting, and at the end of the season virtually everybody but him seems to disappear for a prolonged holiday – acts, in some cases, of breathtaking irresponsibility. He delays his return to Australia, where he spends the close season, to see the job through.”I was bound to be forsaken by friends,” he writes. “It was all right for them, they were amateurs, committee men, they could leave this club and this game at any moment. It was my living, much more was at stake.”A cerebral and unclubbable man, he is ill-equipped for the task – whether the art of appeasement or politics. Lost in his own thoughts, he reads cricket books, watches movies, takes long baths, and makes impromptu visits around the county in search of understanding. Some imagined friends desert him, some of them quite cruelly, and, for the first time, he is assailed by scurrilous rumours about his private life. Tabloid journalists descend upon Taunton, enquiring about his relationship with the young cricketers he houses on an annual basis. Fifteen years later, his belief in the educative value of corporal punishment was to lead to a guilty plea, to his instant regret, to three charges of common assault against South African teenagers.Roebuck’s insistence that he will not surrender to “moral blackmail” is one of the most revealing passages in these freshly discovered chapters. “These tactics, this moral blackmail, this offer not to tell lies if I will not tell facts, must not rush me into a hasty marriage with attendant car and nappies. Through my life so far, I’ve tried to be as independent, financially and personally, as possible… I fear love for its invasion of privacy though now, at last, I begin to think about it. For the present, I have two lives (in England and Australia), three careers (cricket, writing, teaching), and a variety of ways of keeping the world, though not friendship, at its distance. I don’t care a jot what anyone else does in private, so long as it does not hurt people. I want to help the young, something I’ve failed to do so far in my years at Somerset because I was too involved in my own game to care for anyone else.”

A cerebral and unclubbable man, Roebuck is ill-equipped for appeasement or politics. Lost in his own thoughts, he reads cricket books, watches movies, takes long baths, and makes impromptu visits around the county in search of understanding

The Roebuck family website goes as far as to suggest “a causal connection” between events at Somerset that fateful summer and the manner in which his life came to a tragic end many years later. You would have to be a believer in chaos theory to accept this conclusion without reservation.Another 25 years elapsed before Roebuck fell to his death from a Cape Town hotel window in 2011 while being questioned by police about an alleged sexual assault, which remains unproven. A police statement at the time said that Roebuck, by then a celebrated author and journalist, committed suicide, a version of events that was accepted by a closed inquest, before last month South Africa’s Director of Public Prosecutions responded to family lobbying and agreed to review the findings.In mental turmoil he might have been, but Roebuck required no passage of time to see the mid-1980s as a period when county cricket’s unwieldy amateur committees were no longer fit for purpose, unable to deal with the advent of the celebrity cricketer. It is no coincidence that the mid-’80s also saw county cricket’s other great conflict, as Yorkshire descended into internecine strife over the future of Geoffrey Boycott.”Somerset, a small county area with a small county cricket team is one of the battlegrounds upon which this battle is taking place. It is a battle between old-fashioned standards and celebration of stardom. It isn’t really a battle between management and worker at all. Botham is not a worker, cannot pretend to be a working class hero. In this battle the management and the workers are on the same side. “Roebuck bats in a benefit match for Botham in Finchley, London•Getty ImagesSomerset’s general committee is elderly white males to a man, and when Roebuck goes to an area committee meeting in the seaside town of Weston, where incidentally he finds warm support, he learns that a 26-strong committee has been extended to 27 just because somebody else asked to join. “We must change this old, male hegemony in charge of cricket,” he writes. “A game cannot, in 1986, be run by genial, sensible pensioners. It is frightening how much cricket depends on the tireless voluntary work of old men.”Much has been made over the years about the enmity that grew from this summer onwards between Roebuck and Botham, polar opposites in character and cricketing approach, But it is Roebuck’s fear of Richards’ volcanic temperament that stands out most in these unseen chapters, such as an exchange during a Championship match at Worcester, after Somerset’s intentions are known, a day that begins with Roebuck strolling by the banks of the Severn in search of rural bliss and soon becomes something altogether more tempestuous.”Viv asked to see me in private, so we went upstairs where we wouldn’t be disturbed. For the next 15 minutes he launched a tirade of abuse […] He said I was a sick boy, a terrible failure, an unstable character, someone who should never be put in charge of anything… He said I hadn’t yet seen his bad side and he’d unleash it upon me from now on. During this torrent, I sat quietly, not angry at all though a little startled.”Tensions with Botham are also laid bare. “Botham is trying to form the players into a gang behind him,” Roebuck writes. “He’s shown little interest in these young cricketers on previous occasions, but he is a formidable warrior… If he can’t win them over he’d certainly try to bully them into line.” He even explores likenesses between Botham and Percy Chapman, an Ashes-winning captain in 1926, who “fell into decline, drinking heavily and putting on weight, ravaging his body”. He questions Botham’s desire to be surrounded by like-minded “chums”, not stopping to reflect that he himself was also bent upon building a Somerset side in his own image.”I am not a loner,” he concludes, “rather my preferred pursuits (reading, writing, music) are solitary. I am private, it is true, and enjoy the companionship of my close friends much more than the conviviality of a loud, large group. As for splitting the team, the whole point of this struggle was that it had been split for years.”*09:58:13 GMT, January 19, 2017: The article originally said instead of

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.

Stats highlights from the fifth day’s play of the third Test between Australia and Pakistan at the SCG

Bharath Seervi07-Jan-20174 Consecutive whitewashes for Australia over Pakistan at home since 1999-00. That translated to 12 successive Test wins for Australia and a ninth series loss down under for Pakistan.6 At the SCG, Pakistan lost their sixth consecutive Test and recorded their worst losing streak in history, eclipsing the one in 1999-00 when they were beaten thrice by Australia and then twice by Sri Lanka.60.54 Combined average of the Pakistan bowlers – their second-worst display in a series of three or more Tests. They were unable to take 20 wickets in any of the Tests, with Australia declaring on them four times out of five innings.1.85 Pakistan’s win-loss ratio under Misbah-ul-Haq before these five consecutive losses; they had won 24 and lost 13. The ratio has now dropped down to 1.33 – 24 wins and 18 losses.4 Catches by Jackson Bird in this match, equaling the record for a substitute fielder in Test cricket. He took two in each innings, although none of them would be added to his career tally. In the eight Tests, he was actually in the XI, he has only two catches.9977 Younis Khan’s career tally after the Sydney Test. He was 36 short of becoming the first Pakistani batsman to 10,000 when he walked out to bat in the second innings but fell for 13.0 Five-wicket hauls in this series from either side. This is only the second series of three or more Tests with no-one taking a five-for, following New Zealand’s tour to Pakistan in 1964-65. The best figures in this series was Mitchell Starc’s 4 for 36.2009 Last time Australia won a series, of three or more matches, with none of their bowlers taking five wickets in an innings – in South Africa. Overall, this is their 14th series of three-plus matches with no five-fors.2 Man-of-the-Match awards for David Warner in successive Tests at SCG. He claimed the award in the last year’s New Year Test as well, against West Indies, for his unbeaten 122 off 103 balls. This is his sixth such award in Tests and since his debut in December 2011 only Steven Smith (7) and Rangana Herath (9) have been named Man of the Match more often.228 Wickets for Nathan Lyon in Tests. He is now the joint tenth-highest wicket-taker for Australia equaling Ray Lindwall. Among Australian spinners, only Shane Warne (708) and Richie Benaud (248) have more wickets.

Three promising newcomers in the USA side are hoping to help their team break its Division Three jinx

Peter Della Penna22-May-20173:21

USA cricket welcomes three new faces

Camilus Alexander
Perhaps the coolest cat prowling around the USA squad, 35-year-old legspin allrounder Alexander oozes confidence on and off the field.The Grenada native was a strong prospect for West Indies in his youth, having been part of the squad that went to the 2000 U-19 World Cup. His team-mates then included future Test players Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Lawson, Narsingh Deonarine and Brenton Parchment. However, Alexander struggled to find a regular place in the Windward Islands side once he graduated to senior level. His mentor Rawle Lewis was entrenched as the first choice legspinner, and offspinner Shane Shillingford was a frequent pick.”After a while I decided I wanted to try something new and have a different avenue,” Alexander said. He got a call one day from Clayton Lambert, the former West Indies opener who had migrated to the USA in the late 1990s and wound up playing for the country at the 2004 Champions Trophy, before later going on to coach the US team. Lambert, based in Atlanta, said one of the club teams in the strong local competition was interested in a bowler who could bat. At age 30, Alexander packed up and came to Atlanta, where Lambert, who works as a truck driver, helped him get a job in the same field. As if that wasn’t enough of a helping hand, Alexander also became roommates with Lambert for the first year he lived in Atlanta.”I came over and gave it a shot and it’s just gone on from there,” Alexander said. “I knew him from first-class cricket back in the Caribbean, so it wasn’t too hard to get along, and he helped me a lot. Coaching-wise, he gave me a lot of inspirational advice and how to go about playing different situations. He helped me in a lot of ways.”

“I’m looking to make a name for myself. Try to perform in the best way that I can, try to get at least two or three fifties and get at least 10 to 12 wickets”Camilus Alexander on his goals for the season

Alexander has been piling up runs after shifting to more of an emphasis on his batting than his bowling, which helped put him on the selection radar. He was the top scorer at the most recent selection camps in Houston. Along with Lambert, Alexander says Lewis and Darren Sammy, who captained him at Windwards for a brief period, were also helpful in developing his game.”[Sammy] was always an inspirational guy in the Windwards team so we learned a lot from him,” Alexander said. “He always told me, ‘Nothing comes easy. If you need to achieve something, you need to work hard at it’, and he really worked hard at his game and just moved from one level to the next really quick.”Alexander’s role in the USA squad is to shore up the middle order – a problem area for USA in the recent past – while also offering spin in the middle overs.”I’m looking to make a name for myself,” he said of the Division Three challenge. “Try to perform in the best way that I can, try to get at least two or three fifties and get at least 10 to 12 wickets. Doing that, the team will benefit and it will help the team to go on and win the cup, which is our ultimate goal.”Camilus Alexander credits his erstwhile captain Darren Sammy as a major inspiration•Peter Della PennaIbrahim Khaleel

Though he is new to the USA squad, Khaleel has a distinguished resumé built up over the course of a decade with Hyderabad in Indian first-class cricket. He played for the state, beginning at Under-13 level, working his way up through each junior squad before making his Ranji Trophy debut in 2002, under the captaincy of Venkatapathy Raju.Khaleel was arguably in his prime around 2008, when he took a chance on the rebel Indian Cricket League. He was named Player of the Series playing for ICL’s India XI against a World XI.”ICL changed me as a batsman, as a keeper, the way I approached the game, it just made me better,” he said. “The confidence that Steve Rixon [as coach] gave me was just unbelievable. The work ethic, the way he shows you the drills for wicketkeeping, the way he tells you how to bat, how to approach batting and keeping, it was just unbelievable. He took me to a different level. The confidence level I had was great but he made me a better keeper and a better batsman.”After the ICL folded, Khaleel took the BCCI up on its amnesty offer and came back to the Hyderabad fold, while also trying to find a place in the IPL. He signed a squad contract with Mumbai Indians but never made it into the starting XI, and by 2010 they had cut ties with him.

“ICL changed me as a batsman, as a keeper, the way I approached the game, it just made me better”Ibrahim Khaleel, who played domestic cricket in India, before moving to the US in his 30s

He was still a regular with Hyderabad over the next few years, though, and one of his biggest career highlights came in November 2011, when he set a world record with 14 dismissals (11 catches and three stumpings) in a first-class match against Assam.”I didn’t know it was a world record,” Khaleel said. “We just finished the game and I went back to my room. That’s when my phone starts ringing. ‘What’s going on? I know we won the game but why is everybody calling me?’ You just created a record. ‘What record?’ There was a guy who got 13 [dismissals] and you have 14 now.”In 2013, he married an American doctor, and the couple agreed he would continue to play in Hyderabad, spending the season in India before coming back to Beloit, Wisconsin, where she had established their home near her hospital job. After the 2014-15 season, though, the “commute” was wearing, and Khaleel says he made the decision to stop playing Ranji Trophy cricket for good at age 32.In the USA full-time, he initially played sporadic league cricket casually in Chicago, a two-hour drive from Beloit, a town of 36,000, just over the Wisconsin border from Illinois. But in 2016, ICC Americas organised a regional combine tryout in Chicago, and a fire that had been barely flickering grew strong once again with the prospect of representing USA. Khaleel already had a green card, thanks to his wife, and the Milwaukee, Wisconsin US Customs and Immigrations Services office fast-tracked his citizenship application. He got his passport a week out from the squad submission deadline to be eligible to play for USA at Division Three.Khaleel: “Everybody is a fantastic player in our team. When I look at them as a player, as a team-mate, to me the only thing I look at is how confident they are in their approach”•Peter Della Penna”My wife was like, ‘You know what, we decided that you don’t want to play cricket and you’re gonna chill. Now you’re gonna travel?'” Khaleel laughs. “I told her I’d do that but I always wanted to play for the country.”She’s one of the biggest reasons that I’m here, because she supported me a lot. She knew that I always wanted to play for the country, and when I had this opportunity, she helped me with all my stuff, getting the paperwork done for the citizenship and stuff, and then when I got selected, she was just very happy for me.”Even with worn knees and a sore back from 20 years’ worth of wicketkeeping through the Hyderabad system, Khaleel’s skills with bat and gloves are still undeniable. He was USA’s second-leading scorer – behind USA’s Jamaica Tallawahs allrounder Timroy Allen – on their warm-up tour in Potchefstroom ahead of landing in Uganda, and hopes some of his experience will rub off on his new team-mates.”My experience is all about confidence,” Khaleel said. “Everybody is a fantastic player in our team. When I look at them as a player, as a team-mate, to me the only thing I look at is how confident they are in their approach. The only thing I go and tell them is just back yourself.”

“My wife was like, ‘You know what, we decided that you don’t want to play cricket and you’re gonna chill. Now you’re gonna travel?'”Khaleel on his wife’s reaction to his decision to play for USA

Nosthush Kenjige
The two other USA debutants have more than two decades of first-class cricket between them. Kenjige on the other hand is neon green by comparison, in terms of his high-level cricket experience. But the 26-year-old left-arm spinner’s work ethic goes a long way towards helping bridge that gap.Born in Alabama, where his father worked as an agricultural researcher at Tuskegee University, he and his family moved back to India before he had turned one, to Chikmaglur, outside Bengaluru, where his father runs a coffee farm. Kenjige played university cricket in Bengaluru, as well as for Jawans Cricket Club in the city’s Sir Mirza Ismail Shield competition.The only one in his family with American citizenship (since he was born there), he decided to move back to the US in 2015, first to Virginia and then to New York, where he found work as a biomedical technician. He applied and was granted an invite to the New York Combine organised by ICC Americas in June 2016, where he impressed enough with his left-arm spin to be named in USA’s 30-man training squad ahead of Division Four at the end of July.Kenjige: “To just have stars and stripes on the chest, it’s a dream for anybody”•Peter Della PennaThough he holds a USA passport, a quirk in the ICC’s eligibility criteria for Associate teams below the WCL Championship meant that Kenjige had to fulfill 100 days of “community service” to become eligible. This can consist of playing in matches, coaching players, or undertaking other development activities. So desperate was Kenjige to play for USA that he would commute one to two hours – depending on traffic – from Manhattan to New Jersey after work, three days a week, and again on the weekends, to the CricMax complex in Old Bridge, the nearest indoor facility where he could train and coach.Officially, eight hours equals a day of credit for the ICC 100-day stipulation so if he made it by 6pm and stayed until 10pm, he could log a half-day on weeknights, and then put in two full days on the weekend. The owners gave him a set of keys to lock up if he was the last to leave. After starting his mission in August, Kenjige met the threshold in February, in plenty of time to be eligible for Division Three.”It’s just that I enjoyed cricket and I didn’t necessarily count it as commitments or service of any kind,” Kenjige says. “The fact that I was just enjoying the work that I was putting in every day, even though the commute was bad. I could have given a thousand reasons [to stop] but it was just the passion in me. I just loved to go to the place and get myself working at it and just get better every day. I think everybody in my position would have done it if they loved cricket.”

So desperate was Kenjige to play for USA that he would commute one to two hours from Manhattan to New Jersey after work, three days a week, and again on the weekends, to the CricMax complex in Old Bridge, the nearest indoor facility where he could train and coach

Kenjige took a brief period off work in January to train in South Africa with the Knights franchise before returning to New York. At the team’s selection camps in Houston this March and April, he finished as the leading wicket-taker. That achievement, and his phenomenal fielding – he is often stationed at backward point – made him a shoo-in for the tour to Uganda. He said it was “the happiest day of my life” when he got the selection call.Kenjige’s fanatical quest to give himself the best chance of being selected came at a price, though. Just before leaving for Uganda, he was fired from his job. He says he saw it coming, considering the amount of time he had taken off from work and to go to selection camps, but says without hesitation that he would do it all again.”It was always my dream to play for the US. It was a no-brainer. If they hadn’t asked me to leave, I would have left at some point, because this is where I’ve always wanted to be. Looking back at it 20-30 years from now, I don’t think I’m gonna regret it.”Any sportsperson for that matter, when we start playing cricket, you always dream of playing for the country. To just have stars and stripes on the chest, it’s a dream for anybody. You know that you’re playing for your country, you represent your country. It’s been a dream so I can’t ask for anything more.”

Their last two home series have ended 1-1, and the cricket has been competitive throughout

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Sep-2017Series are being left undecided
Bangladesh drew their last two home series 1-1 against Australia and England, but both times the schedule could not accommodate a decider. The justification, in the past, might have been that the series would be too one-sided but with their performance on a steady incline over the past couple of years, Bangladesh have proven they aren’t the minnows they once were, especially in their own conditions.The matches have been fought intensely
Two of the closest Tests of the past 12 months have been played in Bangladesh. In the first Test against England, in Chittagong, Bangladesh fell just 22 runs short of their target in the fourth innings. At no point in the Test did a team get too far ahead, with England getting a 45-run first-innings lead and then setting the hosts 286 to win.In the series against Australia, the first Test was again close, with Australia losing by 20 runs after late partnerships in their first innings and a David Warner century gave them a chance of a come-from-behind win. Even though the second Test was decided by seven wickets, it was close till the fourth morning, after which Nathan Lyon swung the game Australia’s way.Bangladesh fans during the home series against England•Getty ImagesThe crowds will come
Cricket is massively popular in Bangladesh, but Test-match crowds are smaller than ones for limited-over games. The series against Australia had an average attendance of 4,000. There were some days in Chittagong, though, that had the stadium around half-full, and the expectation is that with longer series and Bangladesh doing well in Tests, more people will come through the gates.

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.

How a return to Newlands was a big moment of redemption for two 60-something friends

Sidharth Monga in Cape Town03-Jan-2018Two men in their late 60s walk into Newlands Stadium early on Wednesday morning, and set up a camera and canvas. Envar Larney, a renowned impressionist painter, sets out to paint the stadium, Table Mountain included, over the next six-seven hours. Neil Frye, his friend and a producer, sets up his camera to film and photograph the process. This is a big moment of redemption for these two men.As a kid, Larney, of coloured descent, once came to Newlands and had to sit in the coloured section. He decided he was not going to come back again, and eventually exiled himself from the country. Frye, his white friend who moved to Cape Town from Port Elizabeth at a young age, exiled himself because he didn’t want to join the illegal war on Angola in 1975.Since then, Frye found it tough to settle down in another country because of the restrictions against South Africa, and came back to his home country in the 1980s. Larney has never become a South African again, but in the post-Apartheid era he has come again and again, and painted the stunning scenery of South Africa.His “through-the-magic-window” style is not that big on detail as it is on an abstract impression of what he sees over the course of the day. By the time he reaches the final stages of his work, Larney has added an abstract impression of the South African huddle, with the team having started training at 2.30pm.The two are discussing how nice it would be if it turned cloudy because he won’t add to the painting what doesn’t exist. That is something for a man whom reality hurt badly when he was little.Frye had to fight his own battles. He went to the first army training in 1971, but left nine months later. He came back two years later, fell in love with his best friend’s sister, who lived next door, but had to then split in 1975 because of the Angola war. Those were terrible times for South Africans: Larney, who studied arts at the University of Cape Town, had a choice: either face persecution or stop being a South African, and Frye was forced to come back despite marrying in England because it was just not easy for him to live in a new country.Frye remembers amusing stories, too, of white and coloured folk trying to be friends. Larney once happened to go to a whites-only job, and had the officers trying to remove him. Another friend of theirs, David Brown, another white person, then intervened: “You better watch out; this is the son of the Spanish ambassador. He does not speak a word of English, but if you say one thing to him, forget about your job.”Frye also remembers hiding under blankets in the back of the cars to enter coloured neighbourhoods to hang out with his friends. It wasn’t easy for the conscientious white folk either. “A lot of my friends here were on both sides of the colour lines,” Frye says. “Some of them were persecuted, like sleep deprivation for weeks, you could die of that. Because they refused to go to war.”As a kid Frye remembers he used to sit next to the coloured section at Newlands because their comments were funny compared to the “stiff-upper-lipped” white crowds. Larney, though, had to do without cricket in his home city, but he fell in love with cricket nonetheless. And now he is back to Newlands, his “holy grail”, on an invite from CSA, to paint it and put it up for exhibition on day one of the Test against India.That is a great moment for these friends. As sweet as the one Frye encountered and taped on video when England came here last. “The Barmy Army and the South African equivalent of that went at each other,” Frye says. “The Barmy Army sang ‘Moeeni, Moeeni Moeeni, Moeeni’, and the South Africans went ‘Hashim, Hashim, Hashim, Hashim.'”Here you have an English Barmy Army singing and praising a Muslim who is English, and the South Africans right next to them – and they are predominantly white – chanting for another Muslim who is South African. That to me was quite fantastic. It gives one hope. You realise that as human beings, what we really want to do is enjoy ourselves.”

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?

When England take the field in Christchurch, five months after first arriving in Australia for the Ashes, they will be looking to avoid a record 13th away Test without a win

Andrew McGlashan in Christchurch28-Mar-20182:12

Can England arrest their poor Test form?

When England take the field in Christchurch on Friday it will be 152 days since they arrived in Australia at the beginning of an overseas campaign which has stretched through a whole Southern Hemisphere summer and into autumn.The leaves on the trees along the River Avon and around Hagley Oval are turning a distinct red and though the recent days have been warm there is a seasonal change in the air. It says something about how late this Test is being played that on Sunday the clocks in New Zealand go back an hour, with the start time for the match being – sensibly – brought forward by half an hour to try and avoid issues with the light. However, if the evenings are cloudy playing hours could yet be cut. That won’t really be an issue for New Zealand, who only need a draw to take the series, but England may need to force the pace.Let’s not get carried away though. First they need to get into the contest, something they failed miserably at in Auckland – almost historically so when they were 23 for 8 and threatening the lowest Test total of all-time. It’s not that underserving teams haven’t been aided in their escapes before, but it really is a good thing that the two days of rain did not allow England to secure a draw. No get-out-jail-free card.”It was disappointing, and a bit embarrassing from our point of view as batsmen,” Dawid Malan admitted of the collapse. “We’d struggled a lot in the Ashes, and had come out here with high hopes to be able to score a lot of runs.”We are coming up against some really good bowlers from New Zealand, guys who have played a hell of a lot of cricket for their country and are really skilful. We just weren’t up to the task on the first day. Whether the ball did a little bit more than we thought, whether we didn’t play as well, didn’t move our feet… it was really poor.”I think in the second innings we went out there and showed a lot of fight – and that’s the fight we need to be showing in every single innings we play here.”Sure, they batted better on the final day but it could hardly get much worse. And even their attempts to save the game were pockmarked by major moments of carelessness: Mark Stoneman hooking to long leg the ball after reaching fifty, Jonny Bairstow pulling a long hop to midwicket and Ben Stokes slicing to point after four-and-a-half hours of diligence.Only head coach Trevor Bayliss has done the whole shebang since arriving in Australia – grabbing a couple of nights at home in Sydney along the way – and while the players involved in the one-day side have enjoy the significant highs of beating Australia and New Zealand, for the Test-only crew there has been nothing but disappointment. Do they have it in them to overturn their winless run overseas before it hits a record of 13 matches?”When you’re away this long, it might not be that you’re playing a hell of a lot, but from a mental point of view it does get quite tough being away,” Malan said. “It’s a lot of travelling, a lot of time in hotels, a lot of training days … that does drain you quite a bit. But we’re international cricketers – it’s our dream, what we all want to do, so it’s about finding a way to get through those periods.”England players have been keen to dress up the 4-0 Ashes loss by saying how they were ‘in’ all five matches for periods of time. But whether with bat or ball they couldn’t sustain it. Just three centuries and one five-wicket haul in that series speaks of the lack of match-defining performances. Whether you give any credence to attempts to soften the margin in Australia, it is certainly true to say they did not crash the way they did in Auckland.Moeen Ali’s place could come under pressure for the second Test•Getty ImagesWhen a side is struggling there is often, in hindsight, a moment where things bottom out. In one sense England’s last such marker was the 2013-14 Ashes whitewash, but a more direct comparison to what is happening now is Jamaica in 2009 when they were bowled out for 51 by Jerome Taylor and Sulieman Benn. That performance came on the back of the ugly end to Kevin Pietersen’s brief captaincy tenure and though there aren’t the same internal rifts this time (that can be left to Australia for now) it could be that 58 becomes viewed as a similar low point even if right now – on the back of five innings defeats in nine overseas Tests – a turnaround looks long odds against.Still, there was a similar feeling in 2009. England should have won the next game – denied by a final-wicket stand between Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards in the rearranged Antigua Test – and with a slightly more adventurous declaration in Trinidad could have squared the series. After the defeat at Sabina Park, Ian Bell was the fall guy and spent much of the rest of the tour shadow-boxing with security man Reg Dickason.There is every chance that a senior player will pay the price for last week’s debacle with Moeen Ali looking likely to be dropped for the first time in his career. He, more than anyone, has seen his Test form hit a low over the last six matches. A response is needed to something like 58 all out. It would not need to be terminal for Moeen, far from it. He need only needs to look at Bell to know that: he played more than half his Test career after that watershed moment in West Indies. England have been away so long the seasons are changing; it’s about time the team did as well.