Gideon Haigh reviews Out of My Comfort Zone by Steve Waugh

Gideon Haigh23-Jan-2006

Michael Joseph, hb, 801pp, £20

Eight hundred and one pages; 300,000 words; 1.9 kg. In this statistically-minded age, it is the dimensions of Steve Waugh’s autobiography that first command attention. He has, again, swept the field. Bradman disposed of his life in 316 pages, Hobbs in 320, Allan Border in 270. And this after 10 tour diaries, an album of photographs, and three biographies. The man’s a machine.The hackneyed sportspeak of the title isn’t insignificant either. This is not a comfortable book to hold, let alone read. Most sport memoirs are slight, perfunctory and produced with little care. Waugh has the opposite problem. His stupendous effort in producing this book oozes from every page, almost every passage. He writes like he batted, seemingly in thrall to the idea that the man with the most pages wins. Unable to determine what is important, he has convinced himself that everything is.That’s a shame. There are hints here of genuine self-disclosure, of the drive that made him the cricketer he was, and of the frailties contained by his tight-wound personality. “For me,” he explains, “the hardest part about not doing well was that I began to think I was a failure not just as a player but as a person too.” He was, he admits, a bottler up of his emotions, even with brother Mark. At the peak of his twin’s travails in the match-fixing mess, Waugh recalls, they had a heart-to-heart that, in the great tradition of Aussie stoicism, wasn’t: “Before we parted, we had one of those moments where you know you should let your guard down and just do something. I’m sure we both sensed it – the notion that we should embrace and reassure each other it was going to be okay. But we didn’t.”Waugh is the voice of pragmatism when he wonders if he came back a better player after omission from the Australian side: “Sounds fantastic in theory, but most players who get dropped either don’t make it back or are no better prepared when they get their next chance.” But he is the voice of suggestibility when he enumerates his host of superstitions above and beyond the famous red rag – the alighting on him of a ladybird, for example, he took as a good omen.Captaincy was even lonelier than playing: “A captain can tell he’s skipper the moment he sits down to a team dinner at a restaurant and the chairs on either side are vacant for longer than they have been in the past.” He admits to the occasional “mild anxiety attack” at the coin toss. By the end of his career, his only confidante was his wife, to whom he “let all my pent-up emotions gush out and bawled like a baby” when he was retrenched as one-day skipper.Just when Waugh seems about to open up, however, he seeks the comfort of cliche (“An overwhelming sense of anticipation on top of the comforting knowledge that this was an Australian cricketer’s ultimate sporting adventure stirred me as we gathered at Sydney airport in readiness for my second Ashes tour”) and the safety of statistics (“I performed okay in our other matches, playing in all eight games and finishing fourth in the Australian batting aggregates”). His comfort zone is not merely small but well-fortified.Waugh is also prone to descriptions that are like literary slog-sweeps: batting on an awkward pitch is like “being a wildebeest crossing a swollen African creek bed, knowing that eventually a submerged crocodile will eventually sink its fangs into your flesh”; Michael Bevan was “a `pyjama Picasso’, creating masterpiece after masterpiece to the point that his genius became mundane when people were spoiled by his continued brilliance”; Gavin Robertson “once had the classic textbook technique but it somehow metamorphosed into a batting stance that resembled a badly constipated individual with a `headless chook’ approach”. The writer might have left his comfort zone, but did he have to try taking the reader with him?

Sri Lanka knew that touring India would be tough but not tough.

Charlie Austin28-Oct-2005

Sri Lanka will have to dig deep to overcome a Tendulkar-inspired India © Getty Images

Oh dear. Sri Lanka knew that touring India would be tough but not tough. Marvan Atapattu’s team arrived in Mumbai as the No. 2 team in the world. They had won seven of their previous eight completed encounters against India. They were self-assured, professional and united, apparently confident of extending their successful home form against an Indian team that has been plagued recently by internal strife. Two walloping defeats later they are in turmoil and left visibly shell-shocked after two inept performances. The tour may not yet lie in tatters, but Tom Moody’s honeymoon start as coach is definitely over.India, so obviously inspired by a rejuvenated Sachin Tendulkar, who has played with the electrifying freedom of his younger years, have surprised them with the ferocious intensity of their cricket. They seized control from the second over in Napgur when Farveez Maharoof was clobbered for 17 runs and they have not let go since. Their hands are now so tightly around the jugular that it will take serious guts and superlative performances to prevent a major shellacking.So what’s gone wrong? The bowlers and fielders have to share a healthy portion of the blame because their off-beat start in Nagpur allowed India to build up unstoppable momentum. Sri Lanka last toured India in 1997-98 and only a handful of the current players have experienced firsthand the cauldron atmosphere that makes India so tough at home. In Sri Lanka international cricket is largely played out in gentle surroundings in front of half-full stadiums. Playing in India, where the spectators match their nationalistic fervour with their vocal chords, is an entirely different proposition. Some of Sri Lanka’s younger brigade looked overawed during the opening game.But that is also understandable. Bowling against Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag on song can be an impossible task. If luck doesn’t run your way – and it didn’t during the first game as balls dropped agonisingly short of fielders and Tendulkar was given a fortuitous run out reprieve – then such destructive batsmen can simply become unstoppable. India gambled with a high-risk strategy and they cashed in big. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka were the first victims of Tendulkar’s second coming. After many frustrating months on the sidelines with his tennis elbow, India’s talisman has escaped from the creeping negativity that was curbing his game during the last two years. Instead he has returned to the natural aggressive flair of old that made him the most feared batsman on the planet. Tendulkar has galvanised India and left Sri Lanka in dire straits.Tendulkar’s brilliance has to be acknowledged and accepted. Yes, Moody will be bitterly disappointed by the lack of discipline shown by his bowlers. He will probably be appalled by the shoddiness of some of the fielding too. But he knows from firsthand experience just how hard it can be to face Tendulkar at full throttle. Far more worrisome from a Sri Lankan perspective has been their rudderless batting displays. In three innings (including the warm-up game in Mumbai last weekend) the top order has failed miserably. Today, in Mohali, they produced one of their most pathetic and meek displays in years, throwing away wickets with embarrassing and unacceptable sloppiness.The top order’s frailty is actually not a new concern. The truth is that despite their recent successes, Sri Lanka’s batting has been an area of acute concern. Indeed, the top order has collapsed against weak teams like West Indies and Bangladesh with alarming frequency during recent Test series’ – in four of their last six Test innings four wickets tumbled before 50 runs were added to the board. Both West Indies and Bangladesh, however, were never able to ram home their advantage and Sri Lanka escaped major embarrassment. Even during recent ODI wins against India during the Indian Oil Cup, Sri Lanka only triumphed after match-winning innings from Mahela Jayawardene following early collapses. This time India have not let their neighbours off the hook.The class of Sri Lanka’s top six is undisputed. But success in India demands that they can deliver consistently. Crucially, Sri Lanka’s own talisman, Sanath Jayasuriya, has failed thus far. His impact upon the Sri Lankan team is as great as Tendulkar’s on India and his first-over dismissal was a hammer blow in Mohali. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka would still have backed themselves to post big totals on good batting pitches. But soft dismissals have sent them into freefall and there can be no excuses for their current predicament.The bowlers can pull their games together and the fielding will surely tighten-up. But the big question is whether the batsmen can dig deep enough to pull themselves back from the brink. Does Sri Lanka’s top order have the heart for the fight and the necessary self-belief? Subconscious mental hang-ups about the team’s appalling record overseas, if they exist, need to be dust-binned fast. During the next week Moody will probably learn more about his players than during the previous three months in charge. Character is now the key.

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan meets Mohammad Ayazuddin, son of Mohammad Azharuddin

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan08-Sep-2006

‘He grasps the bat gently, stands slightly open chested and crinkles his face as the ball arrives. He’s looking to play straight but the last-moment flick of the wrists invariably takes the ball towards mid-on’ © Eenadu Telugu Daily
Ayaz is 14. Like many others his age he dreams of playing cricket for India. He practices hard, watches a lot of cricket on television and occasionally takes some tips from his father. He’s one of the most promising cricketers in the Hyderabad schools circuit and often the stand-out performer for HPS Begumpet, either with his skiddy offbreaks or elegant strokeplay.He likes standing in the slips, likes to gee up the bowlers, likes to have a word or two with the batsman. He’s tall and slender, willowy almost. His sports instructor admonishes him for not trimming his hair, his coach keeps pulling him up for not tucking in his T-shirt. On both occasions, Ayaz looks down, vigorously nods his head and mumbles some apology. He later explains that it’s the T-shirt’s fault, for being too velvety, and not his.As he comes on to bowl, the theme tune from , a recently released Bollywood hit, is blaring from a function close by; yet another flight is taking off from the adjacent airport. He appears to enjoy the setting. It’s an eight-step run up, a gentle pitter-patter, before hopping into his delivery stride. Sometimes he bowls them flat, sometimes he flights them but usually he spins them pretty sharp. In six overs, he’s run rings around the opposition – HPS Ramanthapur – and finishes with 3 for 6.In the lunch break he knocks a few balls near the boundary. He grasps the bat gently, stands slightly open chested and crinkles his face as the ball arrives. He’s looking to play straight but the last-moment flick of the wrists invariably takes the ball towards mid-on. A couple of balls are on his pads and, in a quite tender manoeuvre, he turns them away in front of square. On one occasion, with his eyes half closed, he even sticks his tongue out.To say that Mohammad Ayazuddin resembles his father – in walking, talking, batting, nodding and everything else – would be an understatement. His elder brother Asaduddin looks different and bats different. Ayaz was just seven when Mohammad Azharuddin played his final game. Did he watch old videos and pick up on-field mannerisms? “I’ve not seen many actually. Maybe it’s because he’s my best friend. Maybe it’s because I look up to him.” His other hero was Mark Waugh, who, like Azhar, made batting look like the easiest past-time that one could think of. “He also bowled some offspin so I thought I will be like him.”

‘Mark Waugh also bowled some offspin so I thought I will be like him’ © Eenadu Telugu Daily
It’s strange to think that Ayaz’s best friend is someone who he hardly saw. “He travelled a lot when he played and has his business trips even now but the thing is he’s always available. I can call him up anytime and tell him anything I want. He will always spend whatever time we want.” Does he speak to him about fitness and batting? “He’s told me not to go to the gym till I’m 18, says my body can’t take it. Sometimes he comments on my technique, but usually let’s me do it my way.”Being kids of a superstar – at one point India’s most successful captain – couldn’t have been easy. Ayaz and Asad were usually confined indoors. Asad talks about growing up: “We didn’t have too many close friends at anytime. We were picked up from school and went straight home. Then we studied a bit, watched some television. We didn’t mind it at all, just that it was different from most others.”There’s been a fair share of trauma as well. First their parents divorced, then, a few years later, their father was one of the central figures in the match-fixing scandal, arguably the biggest threat to the game in recent times. Sandwiched in between was Azhar’s second marriage, this time to a Bollywood actress. People close to them remember the turbulent period, when several of their friends began viewing them with a bit of suspicion.Asad is thankful that they were too young to understand what was going on. “We hadn’t begun to read the newspapers at that time so we were unaware of what was going on.” Ayaz, who rarely looks at you while talking, is more forceful: “I don’t want to know what happened. I have no interest in finding out.”Ayaz doesn’t get many with the bat but his school scamper home to an important win. Yet, even in a short cameo, he manages a few sweet flicks, filling everyone with a sense of nostalgia. At the end of the game, I ask him if he picked up the shot from his father. “I usually flick balls that are on middle or leg stump,” he says describing the stroke. ” flicks even if it’s on off, even if it’s way outside off. I don’t know how he does it.” I tell him he isn’t alone, that a whole generation of cricket lovers were awe-struck by that magical wave of the bat that took the ball from outside off to square leg. For the first time in our whole meeting, he smiles.

When Manoj Tiwary hits he hits, when he defends he defends. There are no half-measures, no lack of clarity, writes Sidharth Monga

Sidharth Monga in Mumbai05-Feb-2007

Manoj Tiwary: pockets bursting with confidence © Cricinfo Ltd

Manoj Tiwary hits Zaheer Khan, India’s strike bowler who tormented Bengal in the first innings, over mid-off for a mighty six, watches the ball thud against the boundary board and walks away towards square-leg. He then lets his bat rest against his thigh, unstraps his gloves, pulls his shirt sleeve up to form creases around the shoulder area, walks back towards the stumps, holds the bat pointing skywards and bends slightly along the knee.For a moment he reminds viewers of the audacious Kevin Pietersen just after he’s fearlessly swept Shane Warne out of the rough in front of square. When you ask him if it’s a coincidence, he lets out a shy smile and says, ” [I am a big fan of Pietersen’s]. I just love his aggression. And this [styling himself according to Pietersen] started the first time I saw him.” And somewhere there’s more than just a routine that’s Pietersen-esque; he has got a swagger to go along as well.When Tiwary hits he hits, when he defends he defends. Whatever he does, he seems to know what he’s doing. There are no half-measures, no lack of clarity. When his team is down, he attacks, usually picking out the best bowler. He’s aware of his technical limitations and makes no bones about it. He likes to score quickly, but doesn’t stick to the book. He’s not wary of taking the aerial route, yet there’s is no recklessness to his batting. He leaves a number of balls outside the off stump, has a plan as to when and what to hit.When he gets in, he scores big – his 94 today was the first time this season when he’d missed a century after crossing 50. And the three earlier times he’d gone on to at least 150. One must recognise the bucketfuls of confidence behind the boyish frame. “I am not scared of anything; I know I am good.” It shows even in his defensive shots, pushing a ball back to the bowler and, just as he’s been eye-balled, disdainfully walking away towards square leg, concentrating on pulling his shirt sleeve up. At the same time, he’s not one to shirk away from a sledge or two. “I enjoy it,” he says. “I enjoy that a bowler is making an extra
effort to get me out. And I always give it back when it gets verbal.”Tiwary couldn’t finish off the job today, falling to a rash stroke in a critical juncture. Until then, he’d gone after Zaheer, smashing 40 off 42 deliveries, clattering seven fours and a six. And while he was there, in partnership with Deep Dasgupta and Ganguly, even 472 looked achievable. But the nerves seem to take over as he closed in on a century. He tried too many shots, including a reverse-sweep off Ramesh Powar, before finally slashing at a wide one from Abhishek Nair. Dasgupta admitted it was an uncharacteristic phase. “This is his first half-century in the season and he has got 796 runs. Had this been his first century I would have agreed he was nervous.” Tiwary preferred to dead-bat the question. “I was not nervous, nor was I flustered that the runs were not coming. That’s my style of play, it sometimes doesn’t pay off.”

Sourav Ganguly believes that Tiwary is ‘one for the future for India’ © Cricinfo Ltd

Yet one musn’t forget what a memorable season it has been. Two innings stand out. His 151 against Karnataka in the semi-final at Eden Gardens followed a first-innings duck and was made under serious pressure after Bengal had let a first-innings advantage slip while chasing 307 on the last day. He’s also managed a double-century to bat Mumbai out of the league game at Kolkata, allowing Bengal, for the first time in their Ranji Trophy history, to inflict a follow-on on Mumbai.But will he be able to carry this confidence forward as smoothly as he did from age groups cricket to first-class cricket? Are we over-estimating him? Not if Sourav Ganguly is to be believed. “He is one for the future [for India],” Ganguly insisted while prasing Tiwary’s efforts in the final. He’s already earned the moniker “”. For, like Ganguly, Tiwary doesn’t back away from a fight, always has a trick up his sleeve, and has a special fondness for
the big-match environment. He’s captained Bengal to a Cooch Behar Trophy [Under-19] triumph this year, where he scored a fifty against Mumbai in the final, and a double-century in the semi-final. And the journey from age-groups cricket to first-class has been a smooth transition. “The purpose of batting everywhere is to make runs; bowlers are meant to be hit,” he says, “And I enjoy the challenge.”He’s become the highest run-getter for Bengal in a single Ranji season, overtaking Arun Lal’s record in 1993-94. Four more runs and he would have ended the season with an average of 100. Unintentionally, and at a more trivial level, he can claim comparisons with another great. He would prefer sticking to Pietersen though; Sir Don Bradman might not have lofted so many shots in the air in an entire season.

It’s been a traumatic few days in the land of the long white cloud. England are all too accustomed to under-estimating the threat posed by New Zealand, but rarely have they been ambushed quite like they have in the first two ODIs

Andrew Miller12-Feb-2008

	‘The statistics of England’s opening defeats at Wellington and Hamilton are stark enough on their own. Pathetic totals of 130 and 158, compiled at a tortuous pace and overhauled at nearly twice the rate; three run-outs in each game, including the captain twice in two balls’ © Getty Images

Does today’s debacle in Hamilton represent the true nadir of England’s one-day fortunes?
To listen to Paul Collingwood in the immediate aftermath of the humiliation was to suffer death by a thousand clichés, as he spoke of the “disappointment in the dressing-room” and the need for “plenty of talking”. But it was the hollowness in his eyes that told the truest story. All too often in the past, England have been rightly accused of not caring about one-day cricket. Under Collingwood, however, they care so deeply it’s tangible. It’s hard to know whether that makes their current predicament better or worse.Until Collingwood and Peter Moores joined forces last June, one-day cricket was the banished evil twin in the England set-up. Nobody liked it, nobody cared for it, and the numbingly awful results that the team scraped together – particularly overseas – were mitigated by the indifference with which they were compiled. In the last six months, however, with England’s Test performances on the slide following back-to-back defeats against India and Sri Lanka, England’s one-day successes have been an unfamiliar source of succour. In September, Collingwood’s men forged famous triumphs against both opponents to give the impression, at last, that they had the format licked.Oh what it is to have one’s assumptions pricked. The received wisdom in New Zealand and elsewhere was that this one-day series would be shamefully one-sided. So it is proving, but no-one imagined which side would be glowing red with embarrassment. The Kiwis were in disarray two weeks ago. Their best bowler, Shane Bond, had been banished for his connections with the Indian Cricket League. Their captain and a raft of established stars were missing in action. Two thumping defeats in the Twenty20s confirmed the impression of England’s superiority.And now this. The statistics of England’s opening defeats at Wellington and Hamilton are stark enough on their own. Pathetic totals of 130 and 158, compiled at a tortuous pace and overhauled at nearly twice the rate; three run-outs in each game, including the captain twice in two balls; and a solitary half-century in 22 visits to the crease.But the minutiae make equally desperate reading. New Zealand were electric in all aspects of their cricket, not least the wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum, whose stunning one-handed pluck to dismiss Ian Bell was the prelude to a scorching innings of 80 not out from 47 balls. Jesse Ryder – derided for his puppy fat, prickly reputation and a wealth of similar weight-related sins – matched him blow-for-blow in an onslaught that brought Colin Milburn firmly into the mind’s eye, and England’s surrender was signed and sealed when Ryan Sidebottom dropped a laughably simple return catch with 21 runs still required.

	It almost makes one hanker for the dog days of Duncan Fletcher, when indifference in coloured clothing seemed a price worth paying for their continued success at Test level

Maybe it would all have been different had the rain not intervened. When play was halted for two-and-a-half hours after 15 overs of the match, England were cruising on 85 for 2, with Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen dominating in their contrasting and – fleetingly – complimentary styles. But for the second match running, England’s shocking naivety completely derailed their ambitions. Pietersen walked across his stumps in a manner that is increasingly beginning to resemble a weakness, Collingwood belied his reputation as England’s most thoughtful one-day cricketer with a crass call to Jacob Oram’s tracer-bullet arm, and Owais Shah flapped loosely at an offcutter, all in the space of 14 balls.At 97 for 5 in the 19th over, it was time for a bit of nous to kick in. But England instead opted for assisted suicide, their frazzled thinking crystallised in the performance of Ravi Bopara, who must surely be replaced by Dimitri Mascarenhas for Friday’s third match in Auckland, both to save him from himself, and to save his team-mates from his running. Twelve months ago, Bopara was England’s shining beacon of hope at a dismal World Cup; now he’s a flickering tea-light of a cricketer. His self-confidence hasn’t recovered from a bruising debut Test series in Sri Lanka before Christmas, and the panic in his performance spilled over to his team-mates.It’s been a traumatic few days in the land of the long white cloud. England are all too accustomed to under-estimating the threat posed by New Zealand, but rarely have they been ambushed quite like this. It almost makes one hanker for the dog days of Duncan Fletcher, when indifference in coloured clothing seemed a price worth paying for their continued success at Test level. Right now, however, the team has mislaid every one of its saving graces.

A working man without ego or vanity, Harold Larwood, having beaten the Australians, went and joined them

Peter Roebuck05-Dec-2007

Harold Larwood: honest, modest, and the epitome of the properly raised working man© Getty Images
Harold Larwood is my favourite cricketer because he was honest, modest, and the epitome of the properly raised working man. Nothing of the celebrity could be found in him, no hint of glamour or touch of tinsel. Harold was a man without pretension or ego, a man sustained by pride in his performance, loyalty to the deserving, and the satisfaction to be taken from the contemplation of a job well done.He came into the England side as a fast bowler from the mines and left in blood-soaked boots with the Ashes reclaimed. He did the donkey work and the dirty work, and sat back dismissively as his country, or rather its patrician rulers, disowned him. Afterwards, after a long war, he went to Australia, where he was supposed to be hated but was actually understood and admired, and spent the rest of his life there, earning a living in a factory, avoiding the traps and the dazzle and the backslappers, and instead enjoying the simple things: home, family and happy memories.Larwood was born and raised in a mining community near Nottingham, a city of free thinkers from which, in the middle of the previous century, travelling teams of paid cricketers had emerged, professionals who earned their living by playing local teams wherever they went. Nottingham was also a city with a tradition of political radicalism and championing of the working man. Larwood had been born in the right place. He remained independent, believed skill and effort should be rewarded, and retained his beliefs till the last breath left his body.In some respects Larwood was also born at the right time. Don Bradman was running amok and England was crying out for bowlers. Nothing was worse than losing to those brazen chaps from down under. A cry went out across the land for men with heart and pace, and Larwood and Bill Voce, his mate and fellow miner, were listening.Unfortunately the pitches between the wars were dopier than a Woodstock hippy. For years Larwood and chums put their backs into their work and watched as modest batsmen met their most ferocious salvos with graceful strokes played on the front foot. It was an affront. Larwood’s teeth had been pulled before he had even stepped onto the field. Fast bowlers were turners of sods and hewers of wood, not takers of wickets.Larwood’s spirit rebelled. Between them, Bradman and docile pitches had made him feel tame, unable to do his job. He knew he had greatness in him, and the sort of pace that burns grass, but it remained within, an unexpressed desire. He yearned for a captain with the guts to play a hard game, a physical game, a leader willing to let him mount the sort of bombardment that alone could disturb his opponents. Arthur Carr served the purpose at Nottingham, and few visiting batsmen relished the prospect of playing at Trent Bridge when Harold and Bill were taking the new ball.

© The Cricketer
For England, though, Larwood was forced to pitch the ball up, aiming at the stumps and never the body. He took numerous floggings but the proud man refused to wilt and kept his thoughts to himself. At last England decided they could take no more and asked Douglas Jardine to take the team to Australia. Although he did not know it, Larwood had found the captain he wanted, a man of unyielding determination, ruthless and committed to victory.Jardine’s strategy, an unrelenting assault directed at the body of the genius, Bradman, allowed no room for error. Extreme pace, stamina and supreme control were required or the plan could not work. Everything depended on Larwood, and it was his finest hour, as he pounded the ball down over after eight-ball over. Defying heat and hard pitches, and driven by the desire to prove his worth and win the Ashes, he terrorised and eventually beat the ageing champions of the antipodes. Spectators howled and batsmen squealed but Jardine and Larwood held firm and, against formidable odds, the Ashes were regained. Not until Bradman was dismisssed for the last time in the series did Jardine allow his injured bowler to leave the field. It must have been a poignant sight, the defeated batsman and the hobbling paceman walking towards the pavilion at the SCG, neither man saying a word.Attempts were made to tarnish Larwood’s reputation with film taken of his action during that epic summer. But only a few deliveries looked ragged, possibly the result of weariness towards the end of a gruelling day. Nevertheless, he did not play for England again. Jardine did not last much longer either. Although they had scrupulously obeyed the rules of the game, they had ignored those existing mainly in the minds of the romantics. Neither man ever apologised.Larwood stayed in England, running a sweet shop in Blackpool till Jack Fingleton, an adversary in 1932-33, said he must come back to Australia where a warm welcome awaited. He worked alongside other `New Australians’ and retired in a suburb of Sydney, surrounded by his memories and proudly showing guests an ashtray given by Jardine after the Ashes had been recovered and bearing the inscription "From a grateful captain". He died in his 90s, a man undefeated.Peter Roebuck played for Somerset in the 1970s and 1980s. He writes for the Sydney Morning Herald among other publications.

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Colombo24-Jul-2008

	Thilan Samaraweera’s fourth century at the SSC was perhaps overshadowed by Mahela Jayawardene’s record-equalling ninth at the same venue © AFP

Sri Lanka’s batting revolves around Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene but today the performances by names on either end of the middle-order duo in the scorecard would have been most promising. Malinda Warnapura, in his first year in international cricket, scored his second Test century while Thilan Samaraweera, who spent some time out of the team, showed he could match his captain’s love for the SSC, scoring his fourth hundred at the ground.Warnapura got a duck in his debut innings last year but, in six innings since, he has managed two hundreds and two fifties. “After I got out for a duck in my first Test I worked really hard at improving my game,” he said. “To come to SSC and score a hundred is very satisfying. Getting a hundred at the SSC and against a side like India I rate it as the best for me.”Warnapura, the nephew of Sri Lanka’s first Test captain Bandula Warnapura, was a middle-order bat for school and club but made the adjustment to become a Test opener like his uncle. “In the morning we knew we had to get a big partnership together. We discussed it all the time. Batting with Mahela [Jayawardene] made it easy for me to get to my hundred,” Warnapura said. “He was talking to me all the time, especially when I was losing concentration. I am really happy that I had him on the other side. You don’t get a better partner than Mahela. This is the second time I have been in partnership with him. The first was in the West Indies [when Warnapura scored his maiden hundred]. This was a bigger partnership. I enjoyed batting with him.”Inconsistent performances cost Samaraweera his place after the tour to England in 2006. He played one of two Tests in Australia in November 2007 but cemented his place again with a fifty and a hundred during the West Indies trip earlier this year. Samaraweera previously had a risk-free approach but he’s worked on his game during his stint out of the team. “I’ve changed my game in the last 20 months or so after I worked with Chandika Hathurusingha, the A team coach,” Samaraweera said. “I changed my attitude and now I try to look for opprtunities to score runs. It helped me in Trinidad, where I scored a hundred in 180 balls or so.”I was out of the team for two years and I wanted to come back. I did a little bit of things technically and it’s worked out for me.”Samaraweera followed up his 125 in Port of Spain with another ton, his seventh hundred, and fourth at the SSC. “I love to bat here and this is my sixth first-class hundred on this ground for the year,” he said. “Days two and three are good for batting here. There is no pressure at all when batting at the SSC. Every time I go into a Test match on this ground I score a 50 or a 100. I think it is a lucky ground for me.”

Graeme Smith and his team – the Basil D’Oliveira Trophy firmly in hand – face a rather tough ask at The Oval

Mathew Varghese06-Aug-2008
Can Graeme Smith and his team conquer The Oval? © Getty Images
The days leading into this Test have seen an upheaval in England’s ranks, but Graeme Smith and his team – the Basil D’Oliveira Trophy firmly in hand – face a tough ask at The Oval, where they haven’t won in 12 previous attempts. Their streak of 12 Tests without a win at The Oval is a record for any team at any ground, and Kevin Pietersen, in his first Test as England captain, will aim to consign them to a 13th without success. If South Africa do win, however, and take the series 3-0 it will be England’s most emphatic loss at home since Australia drubbed them 4-1 in 2001.The Oval has been a nightmare for bowlers of late, as suggested by S Rajesh in the Numbers Game. A dead batting strip has led to three draws in the most recent Tests; last year, India amassed 664, with Anil Kumble scoring his maiden ton in his 118th Test.Teams have averaged 40.24 per wicket at The Oval since 2000, while the average for other English grounds in the same period has been 34.05. The last eight Tests at The Oval have produced 19 hundreds but only eight five-fors. The average for this series has been 40.52 per wicket, though South Africa’s average of 46.52 outstrips England’s 35.77. (Click here to see the batting averages at English grounds since 2000, and here for the results at The Oval since 2000.)England have won two of the last six Tests at The Oval – the other four were draws – while South Africa are the only team that have batted first and lost at the venue since 2000. Teams winning the toss have opted to bat six out of eight times; West Indies lost after bowling first in 2000.For England, Pietersen will be looking to improve on his two centuries in three matches at The Oval, besides avoiding the same fate that Michael Vaughan met in his first Test as captain: losing to South Africa by an innings and 92 runs. With Stuart Broad preferred over Ravi Bopara in the XI, Andrew Flintoff will bat at No. 6, and he will take confidence from his record at the venue. Ian Bell, who will play at No. 3 slot in Vaughan’s place, hasn’t fared too well, neither has Paul Collingwood.

England’s current batting line-up at The Oval

Player Innings Runs Average 100/50

Kevin Pietersen 6 410 68.33 2/1 Andrew Strauss 8 274 39.14 1/1 Andrew Flintoff 4 247 61.75 0/3 Alastair Cook 4 227 56.75 0/2 Ian Bell 7 218 36.33 0/3 Paul Collingwood 6 150 30.00 0/1 Steve Harmison has been included in England’s XI, replacing Ryan Sidebottom. He’s got the most wickets at The Oval among the current crop, with 18 in four Tests – his 4 for 33 hurtling South Africa towards defeat on their previous visit in 2003. Monty Panesar and Paul Harris average over 40 in the current series, and it’s unlikely they will improve on those figures, with spinners averaging 51.73 at the ground since 2003. Fast bowlers haven’t done too spectacularly either, conceding 39.57 runs per wicket.

England’s current bowling line-up at The Oval

Player Matches Wickets Average Strike-rate

Steve Harmison 4 18 24.38 43.6 James Anderson 3 13 34.23 51.7 Andrew Flintoff 3 9 30.55 56.0 Paul Collingwood 3 3 27.00 54.0 Monty Panesar 2 3 106.66 186.0 The top order has been successful in making use of easy conditions at The Oval, with the first three wickets averaging over 50 per stand. England’s batsmen have also worked well in tandem.

Partnerships for each wicket at The Oval since 2000 Wicket Average 100s/ 50s England average 100s/ 50s

First 60.92 4/9 58.28 2/5 Second 55.28 4/9 49.76 2/4 Third 51.72 4/5 48.46 2/2 Fourth 43.36 3/6 44.84 2/3 Fifth 48.26 4/4 48.58 2/2 Sixth 39.04 0/9 45.16 0/6 Seventh 23.42 0/1 16.00 0/0 Eighth 24.04 1/2 31.27 1/1 Ninth 25.33 0/3 30.54 0/3 Tenth 17.63 0/3 16.70 0/1

AB de Villiers’ contribution of 163 continued his brilliant series, which had been the intention when the coach Mickey Arthur declined to push him up to open

Brydon Coverdale in Cape Town21-Mar-2009
AB de Villiers made an entertaining 163 © Getty Images
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy rivalry if it means thebar gets set higher and higher. South Africa had two men who wanted tobat at No. 5 in this Test: Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers. de Villiers was given the nod, Prince was reluctantly forced into the unfamiliar role of opening. If it was a cunning plan by the SouthAfrican selectors to spark something special from their batsmen, itworked.Big hundreds to both players ensured a permanent smile on the face ofthe convenor of selectors Mike Procter as he sat in the stands atNewlands over the past couple of days. It also meant he breathed asigh of relief after Prince and de Villiers were involved in someheated exchanges as their domestic teams clashed on the weekend, afterthe batting order for this Test had been named.It raised questions over whether the Newlands dressing room would be ahappy place during this match. Despite the lingering frustration fromPrince, who said after making 150 that he would have preferred to batin his usual No. 5 spot, the team environment could be nothing butjoyous after they made 651.de Villiers’ contribution of 163 continued his brilliant series, whichhad been the intention when the coach Mickey Arthur declined to pushhim up to open. He often went in first during the early part of hiscareer but he has averaged 36.14 as a Test opener, compared to 49.84when he hasn’t opened.”Not at all, no,” de Villiers said when asked if the team had offeredhim the opening role again for this match. “Mickey said that I’m goingto stick in the middle order, that’s where I’ve been scoring my runsand I deserve to stay in the same spot, I don’t have to change.”Unfortunately for Ashwell he had to, the only spot left wasthe opening spot, but it paid off for him. I’m very, very happy forhim. But that’s how the team works. When you go out, you come [back]in wherever is best for the team. The team comes first.”It was probably for the best that neither Prince nor de Villierssignificantly outperformed the other. Not that de Villiers really hadanything to prove. He has been one of South Africa’s strongestperformers during the six Tests against Australia and he has scored600 runs at 75.00 during the home and away series. He saved his best,and most entertaining, for what will almost certainly be his lastinnings of the contests.For a brief moment it looked like de Villiers might achieve somethingthat has eluded batsmen in Test cricket for 132 years. When deVilliers slammed the first four balls of an Andrew McDonald over forsix, there was every possibility he might become the first man in Testhistory to hit six sixes in an over. By the middle of the over, thegoal was on his mind.”When I hit three [consecutive sixes], Albie [Morkel] came halfwaydown and said ‘listen, you’ve got to make a decision here, if you’regoing to go for six in a row’. So I said ‘geez, we’re playing Testcricket here Albs’. But then the fourth one went over and [I thought]let’s give it a go, why not. He bowled a good yorker for the fifth oneso it obviously wasn’t meant to be.”Prior to de Villiers, only Kapil Dev and Shahid Afridi had struck fourconsecutive sixes in a Test innings. The seven sixes that de Villiersfinished with was a South African Test record and the aggressivestreak has always been a feature of de Villiers’ game.But after play, he insisted his batting style had become less flashyover the past two years. It is true that de Villiers now has theability to grind out an innings. It’s a byproduct of maturity; deVilliers is still only 25 but is playing his 52nd Test – the samenumber that Don Bradman played in his 20-year career.In the early days, he was asked to open and sometimes to keep wicketsbut he has benefited from a clearly defined role in the past couple ofseasons. de Villiers doesn’t want his job to change – other than aneventual promotion to No. 4 – but he concedes that when Mark Bouchereventually hangs up his gloves there may be pressure for him to takeover behind the stumps.”Ideally I’d like to bat at four and not keep,” he said. “But if theteam wants me to take the gloves in a few years’ time … we’ll have anice chat when that happens. I can’t be the wicketkeeper if I reallywant to be a top world-class player, but we’ll see what happens in twoor three years’ time.”For now, he’s happy to be the No. 5. As the coach said, de Villiersdoesn’t have to change.

The only difference was the absence of a voluble crowd, especially on the Western Terrace. Otherwise, the first day of the second Test between India and England in Mohali, could have been a facsimile of the opening day at Headingley in August 2002.

S Aga19-Dec-2008

	The partnership between Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid on the first day was uncannily similar, even in terms of numbers, to Sanjay Bangar and Dravid’s on the opening day at Headingley in 2002 © AFP

The only difference was the absence of a voluble crowd, especially on the Western Terrace. Otherwise, this could have been a facsimile of the opening day at Headingley in August 2002. The passage of time has caused a few roles to change though. Gautam Gambhir, Indian cricket’s new Mr. Reliable led the way today, helped along by a man who showed fleeting signs of the player he once was. The partnership was uncannily similar, even in terms of numbers, and India will no doubt hope that the result too is repeated over the next four days.Back then, Rahul Dravid was the main man, in the midst of a five-year run of excellence that would cement his reputation as one of the greats of the modern game. His accomplice was three months older, and is these days still seen doing his duty for Railways in the Ranji Trophy. No one would ever say that Sanjay Bapusaheb Bangar belongs in the highest echelons of the Indian game, but the part he played in one of its greatest Test victories can never be underestimated.He opened that day and few expected him to put up more than token opposition against an attack of Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Caddick, Andrew Flintoff and Alex Tudor. He was on five when Virender Sehwag edged one to second slip, and Dravid walked out to yet another crisis situation.By the time they were parted 67.3 overs later, India had added 170. In bowler-friendly conditions, Sourav Ganguly’s gamble to bat first had reaped spectacular rewards. He and Sachin Tendulkar would flay a tiring attack in spectacular fashion the following evening, building on Dravid’s monumental 148 as India built up an unassailable position.Such was Dravid’s mastery of those conditions that it was impossible to ever imagine him in a Bangar-like role, eking out runs through sheer strength of will. On another day, Daryl Harper might have given him out leg before to Stuart Broad almost as soon as he arrived at the crease, and given his recent luck, it would have surprised no one if one of the several deliveries that seamed past the bat took a thin outside edge.They didn’t though, and slowly, the runs started to come. A magnificent pull off James Anderson was followed by a stunning on-drive off Flintoff, while Monty Panesar, the only player out there who was probably even lower on confidence, was twice driven through the covers with impeccable timing.A scorching clip through midwicket off Stuart Broad hinted at a more fluent afternoon, but the shutters were downed abruptly in the hour before tea.Having reached 39 from 87 balls, it took him another 64 deliveries to bring up his 50. Gambhir too was more subdued than usual, though Broad bowling way wide of his off stump didn’t exactly help the scoring rate. At Headingley, it took Dravid 220 balls to score his century. Here, Gambhir achieved the feat in an over less. Bangar’s contribution to the partnership had been 68.

	Back then [in 2002], Rahul Dravid was the main man, in the midst of a five-year run of excellence that would cement his reputation as one of the greats of the modern game. His accomplice was Sanjay Bangar, and the part he played in one of its greatest Test victories can never be underestimated.

At Mohali, by the time the partnership reached 170, Dravid had contributed 64. It wasn’t pretty, but it was just as effective.You certainly wouldn’t assess Gambhir’s innings the same way though. Some would point to those carves over gully as evidence of a reckless nature. Others will see them as the strokes of a man who knows he can do pretty much as he wants once he settles in. Already, there have been 16 partnerships over 50 with Sehwag [in just 34 innings] and all the signs are there that he could become a nuggety Justin Langer-like foil.But even as he basked in the limelight of a second successive century at Mohali, Gambhir didn’t forget his stolid ally. “We were 6 for 1 and the ball was doing a bit when he came out to bat,” he said. “The way he handled the seam bowling was fantastic.”It eventually took him and Dravid four balls less to accumulate 170 runs, and the grey skies prevented an examination against the second new ball. India though had much to feel satisfied about at the end of day one. After the helter-skelter run chase inspired by Sehwag, this was old-fashioned Test cricket, with two committed batsmen staving off a disciplined attack.The best sides don’t only play at one pace, and under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, they have shown that they’re not too proud to take small steps if bigger rewards await.