Archive for October 23rd, 2007
India raises hackles of Aussies
India’s boisterous celebrations after winning the World Twenty20 title did not go down well with Australia, cricket’s best team.
Australia might have suffered the odd bloody nose, but for more than a decade it has been head and shoulders above the rest of the cricket world. Whenever it has lost, ruthless revenge has been exacted at the next meeting.
Australia also does not like anyone celebrating a cricketing victory other than itself. India would have done well to look at what happened to England.
In 2005, England’s cricket team finally beat Australia in an Ashes Test series for the first time since 1986. It was a narrow 2-1 victory and all of England celebrated, with tens of thousands turning out for a victory parade in Trafalgar Square. The team was hosted by then Prime Minister Tony Blair and each member of the England cricket team went on to be awarded an MBE by the Queen.
England’s cricketers lapped up the honours, the press interviews and the adulation. The Australians waited for the return tour and when England arrived Down Under last year, the Australians gave them a hiding for the ages. The hosts swept the Tests, completing the first 5-0 whitewash in an Ashes series since 1921. England was humiliated at every turn and at the end of the tour there was no doubt about who was boss.
And so the Australian cricket team arrived in India complaining about their hosts’ extravagant celebrations over the World Twenty20 win. All-rounder Andrew Symonds was most vocal in his disdain, dubiously stating that the Australians were humble when they celebrated their numerous victories. India’s celebrations, he said, triggered a burning desire to bring them down.
It was in that charged backdrop that a confident India and a determined Australia clashed in a seven-match ODI series that wrapped up last week. True to form, the Australians gave India a sound thrashing, winning 4-2 with one match rained out. And Symonds put his money where his mouth is and walked away with the man-of-the-series award after a superlative display that saw him score a century and three 50s in his six innings.
The crowd not only booed Symonds, who is black, but also subjected him to what the Australians called “monkey chants.” The first time it happened, at Vadodara during the fifth match, authorities seemed confused that the incident was being categorized as racist abuse, given that many Hindus consider monkeys to be sacred and a manifestation of the god Hanuman. The police commissioner even suggested that fans were praying.
A seething Symonds responded in the next match at Nagpur by smoking India’s bowlers for 107 runs off only 88 balls, a gem of an innings that helped Australia to its fourth win of the series. The crowd was at its most boorish in Mumbai during the final match, but by then the larger issue of cricketing supremacy was sealed with Australia pounding into submission those who aspire to the throne.
There is, however, still the anomaly of an Australian cricketer suffering racist abuse. There have been incidents of cricketers on tour of Australia copping racist abuse, as England’s Monty Panesar, Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan and any number of South African players could testify, but the Andrew Symonds affair is the first publicized instance of an Australian being on the receiving end.
One hopes that this does not mark the beginning of an unwelcome trend.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )We will not lose to Pakistan: RP Singh
Team India’s left-arm pace star RP Singh, who played a key role in the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, is now all set to take on Pakistan, at home. ‘RP’, who arrived in Lucknow on Sunday after the Australia home series, said: “We will not lose to Pakistan.” Then, he added: “Remember I said harenge nahin and not haraaenge.’”
On the Twenty20 World Cup, RP said the wicket he enjoyed taking the most was that of Pakistan wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal, whom he had clean bowled. “Although all the wickets are equally important for a bowler, the ball that took Akmal’s wicket was my best. I also enjoyed taking Hershelle Gibbs’ wicket,” he said.
As for his strategy against Pakistan, he said, “We will decide about that together. About my form I can say that since India last visited Pakistan (in early 2006), there has been an improvement in my pace, accuracy and fitness. As a bowler, my only aim in ODIs is to bowl the maximum number of dot balls. Wickets or no wickets do not bother me.”
On the recent Australia one-day series, which India lost 2-4, RP said: “Australia are a strong side in Test and one-day cricket. We did give them a very close fight.”
He said winning the Twenty20 World Cup was a moment to cherish. “I just accepted the challenge and stuck to a proper line and length and that paid off. I have been making good use of yorkers over the last one year and they have come in handy in the slog overs.”
Talking about the two captains he has played under— Rahul Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni—RP said: “While Rahul bhai is cool, Dhoni is young and does not feel tense. So each is good at his own level.”
About the overwhelming reception he received at home — a 100-car cavalcade accompanied him from the Amausi airport to his home in Gomti Nagar — RP said: “We felt great when Team India were given a warm reception in Mumbai after the Twenty20 World Cup but I must say that Lucknow has also welcomed me in a grand manner.”
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )ON THE BOUNDARY – One more insult to the people of the West Indies…by some people in the West Indies
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has named a new coach for the West Indies team and, as good or as brilliant as John Dyson may be, I do not agree with it. And I do not agree with it for one simple reason.
I believe, and no one can change my mind on this, that it is an insult, not only to West Indies cricket and not only to those West Indians who have played the game and who are involved in coaching but also, and more importantly, to the people of the West Indies.
Australia are the best in world, there can be no question about that and in their bid to be the best in the world, that may be why the Board, as those in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have done or are doing, have gone once again for an Australian coach.
The Board should remember, however, that after making their debut in Test cricket in 1928, the West Indies rose to be among the best in a short time. By the 1960s they were unofficial champions of the world, between 1976 and 1995 they were the best, officially and unofficially, in the world.
One of those teams, with the likes of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd, Alvin Kallicharran and Lawrence Rowe, Andy Roberts and Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft around, is arguably the greatest team in the history of the game.
Produced great players
Over the 79 years since the beginning, the West Indies have produced some of the greatest players in the world including Gary Sobers, Richards and Brian Lara, three batsmen, apart from George Headley who matched strides with Don Bradman, rated as the best of their time and among the best of all time, and in Sobers, the boy from Bay Street in Bridgetown, they possessed, undoubtedly, the greatest cricketers of all time.
On top of that, two West Indians, Frank Worrell and Lloyd, are rated among the greatest captains of all time. Along with that, six of the 15 cricketers who have been knighted for their great performances in the game are West Indians, and all that was before the coming of the Australians.
In other words, but for the early days when the English played their part, West Indies cricket developed under West Indian eyes and over the years, including the years of glory, including those 19 years when they were the best on the planet, it has been played the West Indies way.
West Indies cricket is good enough to find a coach from among those West Indians who have played the game and to go outside to find one is a waste of money – money that is so needed at the grassroot level of the game at that.
It is, however, more than that, and that is what hurts.
No faith in our people
The employment of a foreigner, an Australian, to coach the West Indies team, suggests, at least it does to me, that despite the achievements of West Indians with bat and ball and as captain, and even though a West Indian has been the president of the ICC, the Board has no faith in its own people, not to do a heart transplant, not to rid the world of a plague, but to coach a cricket team – their own cricket team.
That, to me, is telling the people of the West Indies that they are not good enough. That, to me, in the 21st century, is an insult to the people of the West Indies.
When I look at the coaches of Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand, that tells me something. That, to me, is one reason why some people in the world believe they are superior to West Indians; that, to me, is one reason why some West Indians may always feel inferior to some people in the world; and that, to me, is one reason why, as good as Dyson may be, as talented as the West Indian cricketers may be, it will take a long time for them to win again.
The West Indies Board has, once again, failed the people of the West Indies.
Way back in 1950, C. L. R. James, a great West Indian, was at Lord’s when the West Indies, under John Goddard and with champions like Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott, Sonny Ramadhin and Alfred Valentine, won their first match in England. And, after writing about the celebration, he told the story of over-hearing an Englishman saying to another Englishman, “Imagine, how great they are and yet it takes a white man to lead them.”
Things, it appears, have not changed, at least not, it seems, as far as the Board is concerned.
For the West Indies, victory in cricket is important and there is no question about it. The price, under a foreign coach, under an Australian, however, is too high.
Regardless of how good and how qualified he is, I wonder when the world will see a West Indian, a Pakistani, or an Indian as the coach of Australia, England, South Africa or New Zealand.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )What World Cup? — Vettori
THE New Zealand cricketers landed on Friday in a country gripped by a frenzy of anticipation ahead of the World Cup rugby final.Asked how he and his team felt about arriving in a country gripped by the excitement of a final which his own country’s team, the All Blacks, had been favoured to reach, captain Daniel Vettori said, a trifle abruptly: “Why, was there something going on?”
The rest of his answer was swallowed up in interference on the teleconference line.
On safer ground, talking about the forthcoming two-Test tour, which will also encompass three 50-over one-day internationals, and one Twenty20 international, Vettori said he was pretty happy with the way things had been set up.
The bespectacled left-arm spinner is on his “fourth or fifth” tour of SA, but it is his first as captain. He was installed as captain of the one-day and Test teams when long-serving predecessor Stephen Fleming decided to opt out of one-day cricket
The upshot is that Fleming is in the country with the team, but purely as a top-order batsman. He missed the Twenty20 world championship in SA but Vettori welcomed him back, saying his presence and experience would be important.
“I think the series, will be fought at the top of the order,” said Vettori, “and we are well equipped in that department.”
He was thrilled with arrangements to give the tourists two four-day, warm-up games against strong opposition in the guise of the SA A team.
“It’s important to get strong opposition in the warm-ups to know where you are,” he said.
Vettori was happy that his team covered all bases for a tour that is often seen as a bowler-friendly exercise.
“In Shane Bond and Chris Martin we have two great fast bowlers who have experienced conditions here. Chris, in particular, has had some pretty good results here.”
While two spinners have been included in the squad — the other is off-spinner Jeetan Patel — Vettori said this did not mean New Zealand would be basing its attack on spin.
He suggested his team would include just one for each of the two Tests at the seamer- friendly Wanderers and in Centurion, which is an equally happy hunting ground for the faster bowlers.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Rival cricket leagues do battle in India
NEW DELHI – India’s new-found fascination for Twenty20 cricket has turned into a tug-of-war as money, power and court battles overshadow the country’s most popular sport. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is determined to be the sole crusader of the lucrative crowd-pulling Twenty20 format in cricket-mad India despite its secretary Niranjan Shah earlier describing Twenty20 as a “waste of time.”
This apparent change of heart had nothing to do with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s young Team India winning the inaugural Twenty20 world championships in South Africa in September, an event Indian officials once strongly opposed.
It had everything to do with the unveiling in May of the unofficial multi-million-dollar so-called rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), bankrolled by the country’s largest media group, Zee Telefilms.A rattled BCCI banned cricketers signing up to the ICL from representing the country, forcing the rebel body to file an ongoing case challenging the BCCI’s monopoly over the sport.The BCCI also drew up its own three-million-dollar Indian Premier League (IPL) with the blessing of the International Cricket Council and supported by boards around the world.And so began a game of oneupmanship, lapped up greedily by the media and showing no signs of abating with no apparent concern for the effects it could have on players, their international commitments and the sport in India.The Zee-backed ICL presented India’s only World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev as its chief executive, while the BCCI’s IPL paraded the country’s other legend, Sunil Gavaskar, and popular commentator Ravi Shastri as members of its governing council.At the moment the IPL is seemingly winning the battle in terms of getting star players to sign up.It says it has on board Test captains Graeme Smith of South Africa, Daniel Vettori of New Zealand, Shoaib Malik of Pakistan and the entire Team India.The IPL also persuaded ICL’s main draw, Pakistani star batsman Mohammad Yousuf, to break his contract with the rebel league and sign up with the official body, prompting the ICL to serve legal papers on the player.The best the ICL has managed so far are retired international stars, headed by West Indian great Brian Lara and Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq, along with a slew of domestic has-beens.Both leagues — despite obvious deep pockets — have found it easier to sign up big names than finalise start dates and other details of the events they plan to stage.The only real concrete fact is that both leagues will feature Twenty20 matches between franchised teams made up of international players and young promising Indians.The ICL may begin in November and the BCCI is looking to start the IPL in April next year, although like much in this saga, nothing is certain.The beleaguered Asia Cup limited-overs tournament, already put off twice before and now scheduled to be held in Pakistan in April-May, faces an uncertain future if the IPL is held at the same time and there are concerns the players may end up playing too much cricket.Unsurprisingly, not everyone is impressed at the potential impact the leagues could have on cricket.“If the proto-typical young cricketer is happy signing up for IPL franchises and making his money there, is he going to bother playing five-day cricket?”, veteran columnist Ashok Malik said.Cricinfo, the game’s leading website, said: “Money could make Twenty20 the most lucrative form of cricket any aspiring cricketer wants to play.“So what that would do to cricket skills and talent pools for longer versions of the game is anyone’s guess.“Also, it could change the way we look at cricket. Teams based on regional affiliations will be replaced by teams based on commerce, players playing not for local pride but for top dollar.
“That’s how football has grown in the last 20 years — and not everyone’s happy with the shape it’s in today.”
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )SA to help boost Zim’s cricket
Zimbabwe is to take part in all three of South Africa’s domestic competitions this season as part of Cricket South Africa’s (CSA’s) attempts to help Zimbabwe become more competitive.
CSA’s general manager of cricket operations Brian Basson told Sapa on Monday that the existing schedule of fixtures would stand and matches against Zimbabwe would be slotted in.
“The first competition is the first class four-day competition, the Supersport Series. This is played on a home and away basis, but because Zimbabwe have come into the competition so late, they will only play a single round of matches,” said Basson. “We had to make sure that these matches would be meaningful for our teams, so they will earn points from the fixtures against Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe will not earn any points, but they need to play these games to support their application to the International Cricket Council (ICC) to return to Test cricket.
“All six matches against Zimbabwe will be played in Zimbabwe, starting on Thursday, when the Highveld Lions travel up to Harare. The next opening is on November 22, when the Eagles will play Zimbabwe,” he continued.
Basson said the other fixtures were still being worked out.
“As far as the one-day MTN competition and the Standard Bank Pro20 competitions are concerned, Zimbabwe will play home and away matches against all six franchises. Once again, the existing schedule will stand, with the fixtures against Zimbabwe worked in around them. Zimbabwe will compete on equal terms in these two competitions, earning points in the normal way, and could even win the competition.”
Details of the Zimbabwe fixtures will be released as soon as they have been finalised.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Ponting tips Indians to maintain their rage over a long and heated summer
IT WASN’T just Indian crowds who took a more confrontational attitude towards Australia this month. The Indian players themselves – led by paceman Shantha Sreesanth – gave no quarter in front of boisterous stadiums on home soil.
But as a string of visiting teams and players have discovered (most notably combative South African captain Graeme Smith), maintaining the hard line during a long summer tour can be a challenge. Yet Australian Test and one-day captain Ricky Ponting, back from a successful limited-overs tour of India, has forecast a similar battle when the Indians tour here from December.
“They made it pretty clear right at the start of the series they were going to fight fire with fire but for us we know that’s generally not the way they play their cricket,” Ponting said. “We’ve got a lot of cricket against them in the next few months so it will be interesting to see just how long that aggressive-natured cricket does last from them.”
The Indians arrive in Australia after a home series against Pakistan and have just one three-day match against Victoria to prepare for the Boxing Day Test. By the time January ends they will have played four Tests before the caravan rolls into a triangular one-day series with Sri Lanka. NSW leg spinner Stuart MacGill, desperate to fill Shane Warne’s large void this summer, echoed Ponting’s theme.
“If you believe in yourself and you’re convinced the way you’re playing is the right way to play then it doesn’t really matter how you carry yourself,” he said.
“It’s always a danger if you’re trying to become someone you’re not because you’ve got to concentrate on a whole lot of things out on the field, not just bowling. I try and keep it as simple as I can because bowling to [Sachin] Tendulkar is hard enough.”
The aggressive stance was harder away from home, MacGill noted. “It’s always easier when you’ve got a lot of support at home to ride your emotions,” he said. “They only need to look around and know they’ve got a billion countrymen supporting them. I think you’ll find it doesn’t work for them if they’re pretending.”
With headlines about the racist sledging of all-rounder Andrew Symonds dominating the Indian tour, Ponting appealed to Australian crowds to treat the Indians as “they would any other team”.
“I don’t think they should be treated any differently because of what’s happened over there,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned this whole racism stuff is completely unacceptable in any walk of life, let alone on a sporting field. I’m sure that at different times Sreesanth and a few of the guys will cop a hard time from the Australian fans. That will generally happen at some stage to most teams that tour here, but I just hope – I’ll keep my fingers crossed – there’s no racial stuff comes up at all through the summer.”
Ponting said he had not spoken with the Indian players about their crowds’ taunting of Symonds with monkey noises and gestures but said they should have been embarrassed by the incidents.
“I imagine they would be,” he said. “They should be. I would be in Australia.”
Ponting said Sreesanth, who clashed with Symonds several times during the tour, used some of the combative armoury of a fast bowler, and expected the fire and brimstone to continue should he lead the attack in Australia.
“He generally does have a bit more aggression about him, a bit more body language than some of their other players do,” Ponting said. “They’re fairly passive sort of people, Indians, and he’s probably one from left field.”
Ponting said leading the attack in Australia would be a challenge.
“I think that’s always been their greatest challenge when they come to Australia, bowling us out twice,” he said. “They’ll bring a couple of spinners. Harbhajan [Singh] and [Murali] Kartik have been bowling really well and [Anil] Kumble will be in their Test squad.”
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Arjuna Ranatunga reignites cricket race row
FORMER Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga has ignited the race debate by revealing he advised champion spinner Muthiah Muralidaran not to tour Australia this summer.
In the aftermath of a racially heated one-day series between Australia and India, Ranatunga — now a member of the Sri Lankan parliament — fears Muralidaran again will be taunted by aggressive Australian crowds in his team’s two Tests in Brisbane and Hobart.
Muralidaran, the man with the most controversial bowling action in world cricket, has had bananas thrown at him at the Gabba on previous tours and boycotted the 2004 Top End series because of potential trouble.
“I tell you very honestly, I told him I wish he wasn’t touring Australia because of the amount of trouble he has had,” Ranatunga said from Colombo yesterday.
“But he wants to go. It was up to him to decide that.
“My personal opinion was that he shouldn’t go. I think Murali is tough enough to go through that and take whatever he gets.”
His warning came as Australian captain Ricky Ponting returned from the sub-continent saying the Indian players should be embarrassed by the fans’ racist abuse and monkey gestures at all-rounder Andrew Symonds.
“They should be (embarrassed) because I would’ve been in Australia,” Ponting said.
He urged local fans to treat the Indian and Sri Lankan sides with respect when they toured here.
“I’d like to see the Australian fans and public treat the Indian team the same way they would any other team,” Ponting said.
“As far as I’m concerned, this whole racism stuff is completely unacceptable in any walk of life, let alone on a sporting field.”
Many commentators believe the Indian cricket team’s arrogant attitude towards Australia and the fiery over-the-top on-field confrontations often involving fast bowler Shanth Sreesanth helped ignite the Indian fans’ racist behaviour.
Ponting admitted he had been surprised by the Indians’ new in-your-face attitude, but questioned if they would maintain their cockiness in Australia.
“They made it pretty clear right at the start of the series they were going to fight fire with fire, so to speak,” Ponting said.
“But I think at the same time for us we know that’s not the way they generally play their cricket.
“We’ve got a lot of cricket against them over the next couple of months and it will be interesting to see how long a lot of that aggressive nature of cricket lasts.”
Muralidaran, who missed the just-completed home one-day series against England because of a bicep injury, will arrive with his teammates in Adelaide tomorrow.
He needs only nine scalps to break Shane Warne’s world record of 708 Test wickets, with the series opener beginning at the Gabba on November 8.
Ranatunga was captain of Sri Lanka when Muralidaran was infamously no-balled several times for throwing by controversial Australian umpire Darrell Hair at the MCG in 1995-96.
He has since endured repeated chants of “no-ball” by Australian crowds during his bowling delivery and was left incensed three years ago after Prime Minister John Howard publicly agreed he was a chucker.
While opinion of his rubber-wristed bowling action has divided the cricket world and has some claiming an asterix should be inked next to his name when he breaks Warne’s record, it is the racial abuse that has hurt the most.
“It’s not the entire crowds that we are hearing and behave like that,” Ranatunga said. “It’s very limited people. Most of the people know the game pretty well and understand it very well. He is a tough little fella. It will give him more motivation to break the record in front of them.”
Ponting said Symonds showed tremendous grace under a torrent of crowd abuse that lasted up until the last ball of Sunday’s final Twenty20 match against India.
However, he said none of the Indian players saw fit to apologise to Ponting for their fans’ extraordinary behaviour.
“I’m not sure if they did to Andrew, but they certainly didn’t with me,” Ponting said.
“It affected him (Symonds), but he didn’t want it to become such a huge issue.”
Cricket Australia is working with its state associations on ways of improving crowd behaviour this summer.
It hopes a new campaign, expected to be released within a fortnight, will hit the mark.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Ponting warns Aussie fans not to retaliate in race row
SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia cricket captain Ricky Ponting returned home from a tour of India marred by racial abuse with a warning to home fans not to retaliate when India visit in December.
Ponting said while some Indian players would likely be given a “hard time” by fans when they played Down Under, he hoped this would not include racial taunts such as those endured by Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds in India.
Symonds, the only black player on the team, was subjected to monkey gestures during the last game of a seven-match one-day series in Mumbai last Wednesday after earlier receiving similar abuse during the fourth game at Vadodara.
Ponting, whose team won the Indian one-day series 4-2 before losing a one-off Twenty20 match, urged Australian fans to treat the subcontinental team as they would any other touring side.
“I don’t think they should be treated any differently because of what’s happened over there,” he said.
“As far as I’m concerned, this whole racism stuff is completely unacceptable in any walk of life, let alone on a sporting field.”
Ponting said nobody from the Indian team had spoken to him about the taunts, adding that they should be embarrassed by the crowd’s attitude towards Symonds.
“I imagine they would be. They should be. I would be, in Australia,” he said.
Australian cricket crowds do not have a lily-white reputation, with racial slurs and chants directed at some of the South African team in previous years.
The Australian skipper singled out paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, who has been involved in on-field verbal clashes with Symonds, as one likely target.
“I’m sure that at different times Sreesanth and a few of the guys will cop a hard time from the Australian fans,” Ponting told reporters in Sydney.
“That will generally happen at some stage to most teams that tour here, but I just hope — I’ll keep my fingers crossed — there’s no racial stuff (that) comes up at all through the summer.”
Australia and India play four Tests and one Twenty20 game during the summer tour which begins in December in Melbourne.
Both will also take part in a triangular one-day series with Sri Lanka and there are fears that champion spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan could be baited by crowds as he seeks to break Australian Shane Warne’s wicket-taking record.
Muralitharan has endured a turbulent relationship with Australian crowds since he was no-balled for throwing in Melbourne in 1995 and refused to tour in 2004.
He now needs just nine wickets to break the recently retired Warne’s record.
But Warne said Muralitharan, who was welcomed as a champion when he returned to play in Australia in a tsunami appeal match in 2005, would be well received.
“Australian crowds are pretty good, I remember Jacques Kallis scored 100 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the crowd stood up and clapped him,” Warne told reporters.
“There’s a lot of good sportsmanship with the Australian public.”
Warne also backed his long-time understudy, Stuart MacGill, for inclusion in the Test team as selectors prepare to name the players for the first Test against Sri Lanka starting on November 8.
“He’s been around for a long time and deserves his chance,” Warne said.
Australia’s pace line-up is also not sewn up, with Ponting backing Mitchell Johnson after his performance in India where he topped the averages with 14 wickets at 18.57.
“He’s done everything right as far as putting his name up in front of the selectors,” Ponting said. “It’s going to be an interesting selection.”
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Indian Cricket League News 