All posts by csb10.top

Ian Blackwell has at last been given the recognition by the England selectors that Cider county followers have been expecting for sometime when he was named as the replacement for the injured Andrew Flintoff for the ICC Trophy this autumn.The former Derbyshire man who has become such a favourite with the fans at the County Ground arrived at Lord’s on the morning of the final to find the daily papers full of his picture and stories about his call up for international duty.Earlier in the season `Blackie’ had been one of twenty players who have been short listed for the Academy trip to Australia this season, and has been one of the success stories during a season when Somerset have struggled in all but the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy.At the turn of the year he resolved to improve his lifestyle. He changed his dietary habits, cut out alcohol and set off on a course of fitness training that has had the desired effects.He received a very warm welcome when he came to the wicket with the score on 159 for 3, and Somerset’s newest recruit to the England stable was quickly off the mark when he took an easy single off the first ball that he faced from Matthew Hoggard.Sadly after hitting a solitary boundary he was deprived of the chance to shine on the big stage at Lord’s when he was comprehensively bowled by Ryan Sidebottom for 12.No doubt the new England man will be disappointed by his performance out in the middle with the bat at Lord’s, but all Somerset fans will want to congratulate `Blackie’ on his selection and hope that he is as successful as the last left hander from the west country who was called up as a late replacement for international duty.Certainly his skipper Jamie Cox rates him very highly. He told me: "I am absolutely delighted for Blackie.He has the ability to hit the ball hard at any stage of the game, and he must be given the chance to show what he can do at international level."

Lack of preparation won’t be an excuse for Northern Districts when they open their State Championship campaign against Auckland at the Harry Barker Reserve in Gisborne on November 29.Four of the side’s front-line players, Scott Styris, Daryl Tuffey, James Marshall and Bruce Martin, have been playing club cricket in Sydney over the last six weeks.Marshall has scored 251 runs for the Eastern Suburbs club, including a 154, to average 50.20 after five matches. Tuffey has taken 12 wickets for the Sutherland club at an average of 20.08.All four players will return to New Zealand on Sunday or Monday after completing the round of games that is underway in Sydney at the moment.Their inclusion in teams in Sydney resulted from Scott Styris going to Gordon where former New Zealand coach Steve Rixon was associated last summer.ND coach Bruce Blair said the inclusion of four players this year was a strengthening of the on-going relationship between ND and New South Wales.After he and ND operations manager Pat Malcon visited Sydney to speak with senior NSW officials, they learned there had been acceptance of the ND players being involved. The New Zealand players, all of whom were good first-class players here, with Tuffey and Styris being international players, were bolstering the Sydney competition and it had been good for club players there to mix with the New Zealanders and to see them in action.Blair was keen to see the system applied again next year because it not only gave the players cricket at a time when not a lot was happening due to climate restrictions in New Zealand, but it also helped develop the players’ life skills.”They’ve done pretty well and James Marshall has hit his straps,” Blair said. “And Daryl has been very happy with the rhythm he has got and the way he’s been feeling. Scott has been bowling on very, very true wickets to good players who look to attack.”The Australian four will not be included in the ND side to play Auckland, in Auckland, on Monday and Tuesday.That will allow the selectors to have a look at three of four players who are on the fringe of the squad.The full ND squad will then meet back in Hamilton on Wednesday for a fitness testing session and squad work.The squad for the first part of the season will then get together in Hamilton for two days of practice before bussing to Gisborne on the Wednesday afternoon.For those players back in New Zealand there have been two rounds of Hawke Cup play over the last two weekends.Blair is looking forward to getting the team back together and looking forward to further develop the skills in the side.

Warwickshire rocked the Championship leaders back on their heels with a sensational 26-run win at The AMP Oval. After following on 182 runs behind yesterday, the visitors were indebted to skipper Mike Powell (95) and Jamie Troughton (94) for taking them to 350 in their second innings, leaving Surrey needing 169 to win. Shaun Pollock (four for 44), Neil Carter (two for 37) and Dougie Brown (two for 26) then reduced Surrey, first to 32 for four, and then despite a battling half century from captain Adam Hollioake, to 137 all out. It was Surrey’s first Championship defeat of the season.Leicestershire and Hampshire failed to take the opportunity to dent Surrey’s lead, as they could only manage a draw at Grace Road. Robin Smith (104) and John Francis (82) left Leicestershire needing 295 for victory, a target that they never chased seriously, closing on 72 for four.Sussex and Kent also drew, after a half-century from Amjad Khan extended the visitors’ victory target to 247 at Hove. In the end it was the hosts who pushed harder for victory, reducing Kent to 82 for five at the close. Robin Martin-Jenkins and Jason Lewry took two wickets each.Somerset had the better of their match against Yorkshire at Headingley, but could not force a win after they forced Division One’s bottom club to follow on. Ian Blackwell took four for 49 as Yorkshire were bowled out for 323 in their first innings, while Matt Bulbeck took four for 94. But the hosts managed to avoid the ignominy of an innings defeat, reaching 213 for five when the match ended with Darren Lehmann making 75.Middlesex have leap-frogged Essex to top the Second Division table after Essex went down to their second defeat in a row. Kabir Ali and Graham Batty took three wickets each as the hosts were bowled out for 257 at Southend, leaving Worcestershire needing just 82 runs for victory.Middlesex reached the 241 they needed for victory at Southgate after Mark Alleyne kept the match alive with a second-innings declaration. Aaron Laraman (82*) and Owais Shah (63) shared a fourth-wicket stand of 149 to give Middlesex see Middlesex to 241 for five and victory with three overs to spare.

Is Tendulkar a better batsman than Bradman? Was Garfield Sobers a superior all-rounder in comparison to Ian Botham? Or does Shoaib Akhtar generate more sheer pace than Imran Khan? Or Freddie Spofforth a bigger demon than Waqar?The above are questions that perplex young enthusiasts of the game all over the world. Unfortunately for them (and also for the game of cricket) the yardstick, which these youngsters choose as their reference of comparison, is the statistical analysis of these players.By the above I do not wish to run down or devalue the importance of statistics in the game of cricket. Indeed the study of facts and figures forms an integral part of the cricketing canvas. Probably no other sport in the world lays as much stress and importance on statistics as the game of cricket. The amount of time, research and printed space allotted to statistics by the world of cricket is immense, to the extent of being phenomenal. Indeed the grasp of cricketing records and their implications on performances and merits is of pivotal importance for any cricketing academy but the problem begins when an overdose of importance is attached to statistics alone and other factors are neglected.For me to write on such a topic is more difficult than most would imagine. Not only because I myself started in the field of cricket writing as a statistician but more so because my favourite cricketing scribes have been the great statistician of our times. I am sure that I am not the only one who has based the foundations of his academic cricketing interests on the statistics of the game. But after having remained a chronic addict of facts and figures for so long, I feel that there is a limit to where numbers can guide us in our cricketing queries.Can we really call Taslim Arif the best ever batsman ever produced by Pakistan just because he has an average of 62.62? Can we forget the daredevil cavalier style of Maqsood Ahmed who won the title of ‘MERRY MAX’ on the merit of his aggressive batting in England but never managed a Test century?Is it just for us to call Zaheer Abbas a better batsman than Hanif Mohammad only because ‘ZED’ has more Test runs to his credit? Was Bob Willis a greater bowler than Fred Trueman just because he overtook Fred in the tally of Test scalps?All these are questions whose answer can never be found in the record books.Cricket may well be a numerical analysts’ dream come true but even then it is primarily the domain of the romantists and idealists.The rhythm, which flowed from the bat of Majid Khan in the 1976-77 series against New Zealand; or the sting of Imran’s swing and patience of Hanif’s marathon innings against the West Indies in 1957-58 can never be measured quantitatively.The stature of W.G. Grace, the sting of Fred Spofforth, the bite of Wes Hall, the charm of Bradman and the mastery of Garry Sobers is for posterity to remember. Their impact can neither be measured numerically nor can their performances be compared with those of current cricketers.As with Einstein’s theory of relativity so with cricket; the correct impact can only be ascertained in an environment.Bradman playing against Shoaib Akhtar would face as much of handicap as Tendulkar’s facing S.F. Barnes. Even if Shahid Afridi hits six sixes in an over today, he would neither be better nor worse a cricketer than Sir Garfield Sobers. Even if the record books say that Border, Gavaskar, Steve Waugh, Javed Miandad and Graham Gooch have more runs to their credit than Bradman it certainly does not imply that the latter was not as great a cricketing giant as the others.Drawing parallels in any field of life is a tricky business but in cricket it becomes all the more arduous since here we tend to overestimate the potentials of cricketing records. Indeed records are a great asset but let us not forget the statistics. Let us give due respect to those who create new records but then let us not forget those who created the original records in a time when doing so was a much more difficult and much less profitable exercise.

With seven players unable to play last weekend, Manicaland withdrew from their Logan Cup fixture against Matabeleland. As no suitable replacements were available, the ZCU agreed to their request to have the fixture postponed. Players could have been drawn from the Mutare social leagues but it was considered an unsatisfactory solution for first-class cricket. The match will instead be played this weekend, starting on Friday 12 April.Whittall and Sims will be away in Namibia with Zimbabwe A – participating in an African ODI tournament – but into the side come Gary Brent, Alistair Campbell and Paul Strang. Unable to get a game for either Mashonaland team, Strang was given special dispensation to play. This will be Manicaland’s final game of the season with most players flying to Britain to take up club contracts shortly thereafter.It was announced yesterday that Manicaland’s Kevan Barbour has been selected to the ICC’s `emerging panel’ of ODI international umpires. He and Harare’s Ahmed Esat will be Zimbabwe’s representatives. Between them they will do all Zimbabwe’s home games and travel to other countries to officiate as neutrals. In a huge career move the 53-year-old Barbour will find himself exploded from the backwaters of Mutare to the eye of an often-unforgiving storm.Last week Hillcrest College – a private school near Penhalonga 16 kilometres north of Mutare – was the venue for a ZCU-sanctioned national Under-14s tournament. Accommodated and fed at the boys’ hostel, two teams from Mashonaland, one from Matabeleland and one from `Country Districts’ participated.Played in fine autumnal weather in front of a small band of vociferous parents, the games proved competitive without throwing up any obvious superstars of the future. What would have pleased the authorities was the quantity and quality of black players coming through. Ranging from `Prince’ – a scary left-arm quick who can bat too – to a young leg-spinner with good flight, the signs are good for Zimbabwe cricket circa 2008. And these black kids don’t play to lose.Mutare was stretched to find four experienced umpires for a mid-week tournament like this. Fortunately only one bad decision marred proceedings. A Matabeleland batsman was given out `hit the ball twice’ whilst using his bat a second time to protect his stumps. Such injustices are difficult to bear in festival cricket, but assume galactic proportions when delivered in front of national selectors.After losing an advice-shouting session with the confused umpires, the boy’s father, Grant Paterson (ex national batsman of the 80s), repaired to a distant shady tree to cool off. That the umpire happened to be a recent graduate from the CFX Academy came as no surprise – few players know the laws of the game. Academy supremo Dave Houghton should introduce a basic umpiring exam for participants – with a pass being essential for final graduation.Watching the recent annihilation of South Africa by Australia in the Test and one-day series, it was interesting to hear the views of modern Zimbabwean cricketers. Up to the late eighties most had a soft spot for their southern neighbours. The former Rhodesia used to participate in the Currie Cup and at one stage during the sixties had four players representing the Springboks.The Cronje era has changed things forever. South Africans are viewed as arrogant, unfriendly and deserving of every reversal. The fact that they avoided the whitewash was greeted with much sorrow.

Chris Adams has been given the all-clear following a ligament injury to his left knee.Adams was injured on the eve of Sussex’s B&H Quarter-Final against Warwickshire in May and underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament. He makes his return to first-class cricket in tomorrow’s Championship match against Yorkshire at Arundel.Commenting, Chris Adams said: “I’ve been out for five weeks and this is a big match to come back for. But I’ve always played well at Arundel and I’m really looking forward to the challenge of taking on Yorkshire.”I’ll be continuing where I left off in May and I’m determined to have a great season for Sussex and in doing so put myself in the frame for the Ashes and World Cup this winter.”The squad for the Yorkshire match is as follows:

MontgomerieGoodwinAdamsCotteyYardyAmbroseMartin-JenkinsPriorInnesDavisTaylorLewry

The President of the United Cricket Board, Percy Sonn, and Chief Executive Gerald Majola were both aware of the marijuana smoking incident involving six South African cricketers in Antigua last month shortly after it took place, even though news of the matter was concealed for a month, the Johannesburg newspaper “Business Day” charged on Wednesday.According to the paper, Majola admitted to being made aware of the affair the night after it happened, but Sonn refused to answer questions on the matter. “What’s this about, organised crime?” Business Day quotes him as saying: “Are you cross examining me? I am not answering any questions on this. I have answered enough questions.”Other South African officials in the Caribbean at the time, including World Cup 2003 Director Ali Bacher, UCB Vice-President Richard Harrison and Treasurer John Blair, have all said that they only became aware of the incident late last week.If Sonn and Majola knew about the incident and withheld knowledge of it from the UCB, they could be alleged to have subverted the UCB’s own disciplinary procedures. It may be argued that a matter as serious as drug-taking should not have been dealt with by the on-tour misconduct committee.To make matters worse for the UCB, Herschelle Gibbs, one of the six players to admit smoking marijuana, already had a suspended sentence amounting to a three-match ban and a R10,000 fine hanging over his head when the drug-smoking offence took place. To date, more than a month later, no disciplinary hearing has been convened by the UCB to consider whether the suspended sentence should be invoked.It is understood that there is serious disagreement within the UCB over the handling of the affair, which has rapidly snowballed from a disciplinary offence to what now appears to be a cover-up. The UCB executive committee is scheduled to meet this weekend, and the matter is certain to provoke lively debate.The affair, possibly the biggest drug scandal to have hit cricket, comes at a time when South African cricket can ill-afford adverse publicity following last year’s match-fixing scandal, which led to former captain Hansie Cronje being banned from the game for life and Gibbs, together with Henry Williams, being suspended from international competition for six months.

Head of injury prevention Darren Veness paid tribute to the dedication of the Somerset players after they all underwent rigorous fitness tests at the County Ground on Monday.He told me: “The boys all deserve a lot of credit for the hard work that they have put in during the winter months. Overall there have been some massive improvements. Everybody has done exceptionally well, and it’s impossible to single any one of the players out.”At the moment we are working hard on explosive training exercises, which is a vitally important part of the modern game, and we feel that we have got a head start.”We have got a squad who will give that bit extra, which makes all the difference and when they are in a competitive game situation they will push that bit harder.”Today the players have been at the County Ground working in the Centre of Excellence, whilst tomorrow they travel over to make use of the extensive facilities at Millfield School at Street.Next week there is another varied and challenging programme of activities for the players to follow.Darren concluded: “The first two weeks back in training Fitness Instructor Andy Hurry and myself have devised the programme which is essentially fitness-based. After that Kevin Shine and Mark Garaway will take over in the lead up to the first game on April 24th, when we want the players to be really up for it and ready to go.”

Thanks to an unbeaten 114 by stumper AV Deshpande, Vidarbha made a spirited189 for 2 in reply to Rajasthan’s first innings total of 380 at stumps onthe second day in their Central Zone Ranji trophy match at the VidharbaCricket Association cricket ground in Nagpur on Friday.After letting the Rajasthan tail wag considerably, Vidarbha got off to a solidstart with openers Deshpande and AS Manohar (30) adding 72 runs in 20overs. Manohar became the first casuality for Vidarbha when he was caughtby Krishnakumar off AM Dave. With only two runs added to the total the newbatsman SU Harbade departed with out opening his account, caught by SBhatia off Dave. But RS Paradkar joined Deshpande and batted out the finalsession of play to guide Vidharba to safety.Deshpande who took most of the strike has so far faced 190 balls for his114 which were studded with 16 boundary hits.Earlier resuming at the score of 287 for 7, Rajasthan total swelled to 351.The overnight batsmen Vineet Saxena (117) and RB Jalani (63) extended theireighth wicket partnership to 101 runs. Saxena was finally dismissed for acatch by Harbade off PV Gandhe. During a 464 minute stay at the crease,Saxena faced 328 balls and found the signboards 16 times.Jalani on the other hand reached his fifty and was the next to bedismissed, being trapped leg before to PV Gandhe. The Rajasthan inningsfinally came to an end in the 119th over of the innings when the lastbatsman AM Dave was caught by Harbade of Gandhe. Gandhe was the pick of theVidarbha bowlers with figures of 4 for 58.

From next season the West Indies cricket team will receive $100 000for each Test they win at home, instead of the $12 000 offered duringthe last three years.Additionally, they will earn $200 000 for a Test series win anincrease of $160 000.The deal will run from 2002 to 2004.Under the new $16.6 million three-year agreement between the WestIndies Cricket Board (WICB) and telecommunications giant Cable &Wireless, the team stands to benefit from $1.1 million annually inperformance incentives.A document, which outlines details of the sponsorship agreement, saidthe incentive scheme was designed to produce winning results.The main concern for Cable & Wireless remains the performance of theteam on and off the field, and Cable & Wireless made it very clear itwould not pay fees to the players on a non-performance related basis,it said.The team sponsorship has been made more performance-based, on and offthe field on the insistence of the sponsors.The upside of this, however, is that if the team perform, they willreceive more for the efforts.The WICB, however, reserves the right to adjust the performanceincentive scheme each year.West Indies have endured a very disappointing record in recentoverseas tours, but their performance at home remains satisfactory inspite of losing the current series against South Africa.Before this season, they won ten Tests against three defeats in 22Tests on home soil since 1997.From 2002 to 2004, the West Indies are scheduled to host two teams ineach season.Next year, India and New Zealand visit the Caribbean; Australia andSri Lanka follow the next season; and England and Bangladesh come in2004.