Old-ball graft and final-day burst highlight slingy seamer’s invaluable qualities

Cameron Ponsonby20-Mar-2022It’s good. It’s promising. All that learning stuff that Andrew Strauss spoke about before the tour? This is it, here. Saqib Mahmood has passed his GCSECBs.Four wickets on debut, with a fifth ruled out for overstepping: this was an excellent start for the Lancastrian quick who finished the second Test in Barbados with the best match figures of any fast bowler on a pitch that offered them next to no assistance.Mahmood looks like he could be the round peg for the round hole in England’s bowling attack. For years, the accusation against this team has been that their ten-deep bucket of identikit right-arm seamers created a bowling attack too one-size-fits-all to pose any sort of challenge away from home. They needed something different.Related

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Which is where Mahmood comes in. His abilities complement the needs of a set-up awash with opening bowlers adept on the green seamers of Edgbaston and Lord’s. Where others want the new ball, he’ll have the old. Where others swing the ball conventionally, he reverses it. Where others bowl quickish, he bowls fast. He is the family member whose favourite Celebration chocolate is a Bounty, hoovering up with joy what others avoid.”You want to be the guy the captain throws the ball to,” Mahmood said at the close on day four. “To break partnerships and take wickets. That’s the stuff I get satisfaction from. On green seamers, every seamer feels in the game but on ones like this, I really want to be a guy who can stand up and break a partnership.”Mahmood’s peak in this game arguably came in the moment that was taken away. His yorker – which clean-bowled Jermaine Blackwood – tailed in and beat the set batter for pace, only for it to be ruled out as Mahmood had overstepped.His average speed in this Test was only around 82mph/133kph, though he occasionally touched 88mph/141kph: not lightning fast, but his catapult-style action gives him the impression of a bowler who feels quicker than the numbers suggest. It was a delivery more reminiscent of Jasprit Bumrah than Jake Ball and should give England hope that they have a bowler who, rather than being dependent on conditions, is able to operate independently of them entirely.”I felt like criminal number one, the biggest criminal out here,” Mahmood reflected. “I was pretty gutted but tried not to let it affect me. Rooty spoke to me and said ‘you bowled great; don’t let it affect you’. Stokesy said he did the same for his first wicket. I was just concentrating on the task ahead more than anything. I’m glad we got him out because every run he scored made me feel horrible.”His burst on the final day – where he dismissed both Shamarh Brooks as well as half-wall, half-human Nkrumah Bonner – gave England hope in a situation that otherwise seemed desperate. The ball to Brooks may not have moved masses, but the one to Bonner did, with movement off the seam in conditions where all others had failed to break from the straight and narrow. The ability for a seamer to break through in unhelpful conditions is something that England have been screaming out for; on debut, Mahmood took the first step to answering the call.Mahmood struck in his first over on the final day•Getty ImagesThere might be an element of redemption in this debut for Mahmood as well. First called into a squad in 2019, he has been around the set up for much of the two years since. England know Mahmood well. For that reason, it would be fair to wonder whether the odd doubt ever entered his mind that perhaps England had seen what he had to offer and not liked it. This tour really did represent an ‘if not now, then when?’ moment for Mahmood.But if England didn’t see it before, they do now. “It was really impressive,” Root said, “[…] on a wicket like that, to seem so effective and to offer so much. He burst the game open for us [with] a brilliant spell. He created a lot of pressure and made things happen on a wicket where no seamer looked like they could. It’s a great sign for him and for us.”In the fourth innings, Mahmood bowled the most of any seamer, and more than Chris Woakes and Fisher combined. After the tea break, with seven wickets in a session needed for victory, Mahmood was the man Root turned to.Mahmood remains close with his former academy director at Lancashire, John Stanworth. Recalling watching him bowl for the first time at the tender age of 14, Stanworth said: “It was just, ‘wow, who’s this?’ You knew just straight away there was something to engage with.” Many of the England supporters watching Mahmood bowl with a red ball for the first time this week will have thought much the same thing.

The Under-19 World Cup hasn’t gone to plan for the England spin-bowling allrounder, but it hasn’t stopped him from dreaming big

Sreshth Shah04-Feb-2022During the 2017 Champions Trophy, the ICC had a ticket giveaway – for one lucky person and a family member – to watch the India vs Pakistan game. There were entries from all over the world. The winner was 13-year-old Fateh Singh, whose name had been entered by his father Gurj Landa. Cheering for India was an “unreal experience” for Fateh, and the day was capped with India defeating Pakistan rather convincingly in that group-stage fixture.Fast forward five years, and Fateh is in another ICC tournament. But everything about this one is different. The India blue from 2017 has been replaced by the England blue. He is in the middle, not in the stands. Most importantly, the allrounder has played a key role in his team’s first appearance in the final of an Under-19 World Cup in 24 years.Related

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It hasn’t been a smooth ride, though. The first challenge was after joining the Nottinghamshire academy as a left-arm seamer who had the potential to become an allrounder. Given his height, or lack thereof, Fateh was told quite early by coach Andrew Jackman that he might be better off trying out left-arm spin instead. The rise has been steep since.”It was tricky, but I adapted to the change,” Fateh tells ESPNcricinfo. “After that I watched videos of Yuvraj Singh, Daniel Vettori and Monty Panesar. When I bowl, my plan is to stay with my stock ball as long as possible. And if I get hit, then I adapt and change my course.”That obstacle, of transitioning from seamer to spinner, however, was just one of many for Fateh.In 2015, Fateh was diagnosed with alopecia universalis, an autoimmune disease that causes loss of body hair. One’s hair is part of one’s identity, more so for a Sikh, the community Fateh belongs to.Two years later, his mother had to move away from the family and shift to an assisted-living facility because of her own health complications, which still continue.

“Moeen is fearless, a natural ball-striker. He’s been through quite a bit in his career, so for him to get to the top and captaining England [in four T20Is] too is quite inspirational”

“It doesn’t affect your health physically, it just affects your hair,” Fateh said of his own condition. “Truth be told, I didn’t know how to deal with it. It was a new thing. As I got older, it got harder, but I started to accept me for who I am. So, regardless of what anyone says, this is me and I am okay with that.”It is something that has attracted attention, though. Fateh has learnt to live with it. “People put cricket and alopecia together and say ‘it is crazy how well you’ve done despite it’. But for me, it’s normal. It doesn’t bother me,” he says. “It is one of the first things people ask me about and I’m more than happy to answer questions regarding it because I know people are curious about it and I could inspire them.”But I just don’t like it that people turn sympathetic towards me. I just dislike when someone feels like they feel sorry for me.”Eventually, though, it’s what you do in the field that matters most. On that front, Fateh’s record is outstanding, from being a nine-year-old in the county’s Under-11 side, or his first Nottinghamshire century at 11, or being the club’s Under-13 captain.He was also a net bowler for England when India toured in 2018 for the Test series, and by the time the 2021 season was over, his 28 wickets for the Under-18s at an average of 11.57 resulted in call-ups to the county second XI and into the England Under-19 squad.”I was a net bowler during India vs England in 2018. And Moeen Ali was so approachable,” Fateh says. “And I was a stranger to Moeen, but he took out time outside training to give me advice, which I really appreciated.”I am a bit like Moeen, to be fair, and by far he is my favourite cricketer. He is fearless, a natural ball-striker. He’s been through quite a bit in his career, so for him to get to the top and captaining England [in four T20Is] too is quite inspirational.”Fateh Singh has played only two matches at the Under-19 World Cup, for just one wicket, and hasn’t batted at all•ICC via GettyThe World Cup, however, has been below-par for him so far. He has been a part of only two starting XIs even as his team has won five games in a row, and he hasn’t had a chance to show off his batting chops. At 3.15, he has been England’s most economical bowler, but the side has preferred Rehan Ahmed, the attacking legspinner, ahead of him. “In my last game, I bowled seven overs for only 12 runs. But did not get a wicket,” Fateh says. “I would have wanted to play more, but it’s a team game.”That, though, hasn’t stopped him from dreaming.”After the World Cup, I want to make the first team, which is a good challenge since Notts have a very strong side,” he says. “I have a two-year contract, so I hope to renew it. I don’t think too far ahead, want to stay in the present. But my white-ball skills are my strong suit right now.”To be the leading Test wicket-taker would be nice, but for me, a nice one would be to play in the IPL and be the leading wicket-taker in a season and take more [wickets] than anyone has done before.”I used to always watch Mumbai Indians. That’s when Sachin Tendulkar used to play. My family is from Punjab, so obviously I love Punjab Kings. But I’d watch any team play, like when Virat [Kohli] and AB [de Villiers] are batting together for RCB. I’d love to give the IPL a crack.”It’s ambitious, but it’s best to not bet against Fateh Singh. Fateh means “conquest”. The young man has done some of that already. And he is keen to live up to his name.

Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair bat for day-night first class games in future

Himanshu Agrawal05-Jun-2022The 2020-21 season was the first time that the Ranji Trophy had to be shelved because Covid-19 had intervened in the way of India’s premier first-class competition. Though it returned the following season, the BCCI decided to hold it in a truncated format. Teams played just three group games as opposed to the usual eight and needed at least two outright wins to make it to the quarter-finals.”That’s been a big challenge because it’s important for you to start with your A-game from the first match itself,” Bengal captain Abhimanyu Easwaran tells ESPNcricinfo. “With eight games, teams used to peak at the right time – you could say probably around the fifth game – and in about two or three outright wins, we were there [qualified for the next stage]. And qualification was also a little easier because the number of teams that would qualify from a group was more.”But senior Karnataka batter Karun Nair looked at the brighter picture despite the fact that teams would have to top their respective groups to qualify for the knockouts. Even then, Jharkhand had to face Nagaland in the pre-quarter-final since seven other group toppers performed better.Related

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“The format was nice in that the top team qualifies and gets to play the knockouts,” he said. “It does put pressure on teams, but we always look to win every game we play. So the amount of pressure on us is the same every time we go out there and play.”It was not just about the fewer group games. The two-month long IPL season was squeezed between the Ranji Trophy, split between the league stage and the knockouts. That, in turn, meant teams in good form would end up losing momentum, and most players without IPL contracts would find themselves with an unwanted break.Bengal, for instance, registered three consecutive victories on their way to making it to the quarters. They beat Baroda by four wickets in a successful chase of 349, defended 239 against Hyderabad, and triumphed over Chandigarh by 152 runs.”It has been challenging because we had the momentum. We had been playing really good cricket, and won three outright games,” Easwaran said. “But that’s there for every single team that has qualified. We are not too much worried about that.”Like six other Indian players without IPL contracts, Easwaran hopped across the border to participate in the Dhaka Premier League (DPL), Bangladesh’s List-A competition, to keep himself in touch with the game while most others competed in the IPL.”I was looking to play some good standard cricket, and playing with and against a lot of international cricketers,” Easwaran said of his short overseas trip. “It was a really good tournament, and I played a few club games in Calcutta [after that]. You can say that we would love to be a part of the IPL, but that is not in the individual’s hand.”While an entire IPL season thrown in between a first-class competition presented the challenge of switching between formats in a short span of time, there was also the question of player fatigue. Those part of the T20 tournament as well as their Ranji sides had to play three first-class fixtures in a row before moving over to the IPL, where teams were scheduled to play 14 group matches in what was a ten-team event unlike the eight it has been since 2014.For instance, Nair’s Karnataka team-mate Prasidh Krishna pulled out of the upcoming Ranji quarter-final against Uttar Pradesh citing workload management. Prasidh was picked in India’s squad of 17 for the upcoming fifth Test against England which starts July 1, with the national team set to depart in the second week of June.”You have to adjust to circumstances. We all are really happy for Prasidh getting selected for the Indian team,” Nair said. “It is the team management’s call to give him this break after a really long IPL.”But is a split Ranji competition a concept worth exploring in the future? England and Australia have been breaking their first-class tournaments with the shorter-format events completed in between, a concept in place for a number of years now.Historically, India has been hosting the Ranji final in February or March, when it gets darker in the evenings much earlier than in May or June. However, flip the coin and you notice that monsoon starts knocking on the door by this time of the year.”If we play in May or June, we won’t get too many venues to play in and you would have to do away with the home-and-away rules because I don’t think you can play in a place like Bengal in June,” Easwaran said.Suresh Raina tosses the pink ball to Ashok Dinda during the 2016-17 Duleep Trophy•AFP‘Day-night games in Ranji would be great’
With day-night Tests occasionally being hosted by some of the top nations – Australia have hosted at least one such fixture every home summer since 2015-16 – adapting to the pink ball and playing under floodlights become key.India has hosted only three day-night Tests so far, with the Ranji Trophy yet to stage any such match. Only the now-scrapped Duleep Trophy has had day-night first-class matches; 12 such games were split across 2016, 2017 and 2018.”It’s something that is going to be more incorporated in the coming years,” Nair said. “There is going to be more and more day-night Tests happening in India. I am sure we’ll also get day-night Ranji games.”Easwaran also looked forward to a couple of pink-ball matches every Ranji season, reasoning it would be good practice for someone selected for the national team, especially since day-night Tests might happen more frequently in the times to come.”BCCI can take a few steps to get in at least one or two pink-ball games because if somebody gets picked [for India], he will have a better exposure and a better experience to take forward,” he said. “One or two games in a year would be great if India consider playing a pink-ball Test every series.”I don’t think most guys have played with a pink ball in a day-night game. Conditions change, it is a different ball, and we are playing at a different time. You get to learn a lot.”

England wicketkeeper has been integral in run to Finals Day, and still keen to improve

Andrew Miller11-Jun-2022It didn’t take long for Amy Jones to offload the emotions of a long and gruelling winter, and get back to business for the 2022 season. England’s wicketkeeper is currently the leading run-scorer in the Charlotte Edwards Cup with 245 runs at 40.83, helping to hoist Central Sparks into Saturday’s semi-final showdown with South East Stars at Wantage Road.It can’t have been easy for any of England’s players to take stock of a mega tour of the Antipodes, encompassing a multi-format Ashes series and the heartache of defeat in the World Cup final in Christchurch. But Jones’ performances since her return to action are proof of her determination to get straight back onto the bandwagon, at what remains an exciting juncture for the women’s game.”It was a big winter, quite a rollercoaster,” Jones tells ESPNcricinfo. “At times I felt like I was ageing quite quickly! But it has been great to step away for a bit of a break, see friends and family, and then come back to an English summer feeling really refreshed, and looking forward to hopefully a normal season. It’s been good fun to get back with the Sparks. It’s nice to just get back with the girls and get stuck in.”Jones’ break may have been brief compared with the months of touring that preceded it, but it was an eventful one nonetheless, encompassing a whistlestop tour of Chamonix, Lake Como and Paris (“We had a few trips cancelled last year, so we made sure we rolled several trips into one”) and then, as if to underline that sense of new beginnings, the social event of the year – the long-delayed wedding of her England team-mates Nat Sciver and Katherine Brunt.Related

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“That was a really, really special day,” says Jones, who was maid of honour, and who had also been present in the team bubble in Derby in September 2020, when the team had laid on a replacement ceremony in the midst of the Covid lockdown. “I don’t think it could have gone better. It was all just really, really fun, and great to see those two celebrate their big day. It was a long, long time waiting but yeah, it didn’t disappoint. It was an incredible day.”Jones had the best seat in the house during Sciver’s other most notable moment of the year – albeit temporarily, as the pair shared a 43-run stand for the fourth wicket in the World Cup final, as England briefly kept alive their hopes of defending their title against the runaway favourites, Australia. In the end, they fell short by 71 runs, but not before Sciver had amassed an outstanding unbeaten 148 from 121 balls – to go along with the unbeaten 109 she had made against the same opponents in their tournament opener.”She was incredible, wasn’t she? To get a hundred in a final is a great achievement anyway, but two hundreds in the last two games against the best in the world in Australia, I think just shows the class that she is. It’s a shame she didn’t get the support in the final. But it was an incredible innings.”Thanks to that performance, England were able to surrender their title with pride – a prospect that hadn’t seemed quite so likely when they slumped to a trio of defeats against Australia, West Indies and South Africa in their opening games of the tournament. Each of the matches was a cliffhanger – defeats by 12 runs, seven runs and three wickets respectively – but it was a setback that tested the team’s mettle to the limit, and demanded that they make no further slip-ups. Jones is proud of the way the team responded to adversity.Nat Sciver and Amy Jones celebrate a wicket during England’s World Cup campaign•ICC via Getty Images”At one stage we were looking like we were definitely going home early,” she says. “But each of those losses went down to the last over, so they were quite draining games on the back of a big Ashes series as well.”So it was a lot to keep getting up for each game, and still keep confidence as high as possible within the group, so it was definitely a big achievement in the end to just make the final, to be honest. That isn’t the mindset we want as a team, but you’ve got to adapt to the different situations you find yourself in. and that one was particularly challenging.”But the way the team came together, and just really looked after each other as people, was a big factor in us turning it around, and getting the wins when we needed them, up until the final. As a group, we are quite proud of how we stuck together and managed to turn it around.”There is a sense, however, that the World Cup marks the end of an era. Anya Shrubsole, the hero of the 2017 final victory, has already retired, and Jones acknowledges that a refreshing of the team is inevitable in the lead-up to the next tournament in 2025 – especially now that the impact of the ECB’s new regional contracts is beginning to expand the pool of players whose professional standards are able to match those of the players they may eventually replace.”The 50-over World Cup comes around every four years, so it does feel a bit like an end of an era,” Jones says. “You’ve seen some retirements from different countries as well, but it’s great to be able to play a big part at regional level this year, and see just how far all the girls have come within the space of a year of their contracts. It’s great that that’s paying off, and hopefully we’ll see more and more contracts as the years go by.””All the contracted girls at the Sparks are just so passionate about this opportunity. A lot of them have trained for years, outside of working hours. And now they can finally put everything into their cricket and it’s great that we’re seeing really quick improvements as well, with lots of girls challenging for spaces higher up, which is great. That’s what every team needs, in terms of England, pressure for places and competition. I think it’s brilliant.”Jones is days shy of her 29th birthday, and with 135 international appearances across all three formats, she has long since stepped out of the long shadow of Sarah Taylor to become England’s premier wicketkeeper. But she knows she needs to stay on her toes in the prime of her career, not least with such a glut of talented spinners coming through the ranks to test her mettle when standing up to the stumps.At the age of 23, Sophie Ecclestone has already established herself as the No.1 spinner in the world, while the offspinner Charlie Dean, 21, was England’s break-out star at the World Cup. Then there’s Sarah Glenn, Jones’ Sparks’ team-mate, a hugely talented legspinning allrounder who, aged 22, is set to be a central figure in the England team for years to come too.”The good thing about those three is they are all so different,” Jones says. “Glenny and Soph are two very tall bowlers but Glenny’s very skiddy, while Soph can get some bounce, which makes it exciting for me. I see a lot of Glenny at Sparks but it’s important for me to keep keeping to them all to get to know their different variations.”I absolutely love having the gloves, and I’m always trying to improve,” Jones adds, while crediting Michael Bates, the former Hampshire and Somerset keeper, for keeping her on her toes. “Having Batesy around has been key to that really. We gel really well and if I have something that’s slightly off, he’ll know what it is.”That relationship is really important for me and I’m just going to keep trying to improve. The standard of wicketkeeping across the country is pretty good now. It’s great to see, throughout the regions and the Hundred, the girls doing so well.”

India’s defeat to South Africa raised some questions over their tactics. We attempt to answer them

Sidharth Monga31-Oct-20221:40

Open Mic: Was it right for India to pick Hooda over Axar?

Why did India change a winning combination?
In all their press conferences, India had suggested they were not looking to change their XI. Not because they are superstitious about a “winning combination”, but because the XI that won the first two matches covered the most bases that could be covered with this squad.Related

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Then why replace Axar Patel with Deepak Hooda against South Africa? In doing so, India lost the only left-hand batter in the top seven and a much better bowler than Hooda. However, India may have thought that if they needed a sixth bowler, a part-time offspinner might work better against South Africa’s left-hand heavy line-up. Against Pakistan at the MCG, a ground with similar short straight boundaries as Perth, Axar bowled just one over after being hit for 21 runs. Knowing that Hardik Pandya would almost certainly bowl four overs in Perth, India went with the part-time offspinner.However, the bigger reason seemed to be to strengthen the batting in difficult conditions. It can be argued in hindsight that Hooda’s batting did not make a difference, and that Axar could have bowled one of R Ashwin’s overs, which India didn’t trust Hooda with. The counter to that is that India eventually needed the deeper batting, with Hooda coming in as early as the eighth over.India’s next match is against Bangladesh, who have four left-hand batters in their top six. While it might be tempting to go back to the winning combination and more bowling depth, there is also reason to stick with Hooda if he is required for an over or two, and not more.Rohit Sharma was one of four top-order batters to fall to the pull or hook shot•Associated PressWhy bat first in Perth?
It’s a fair question, keeping in mind how India had paced their chase to beat Pakistan, and how South Africa eventually paced their chase successfully against India. However, Australian grounds don’t favour chasing sides as much as other venues do. At the Perth Stadium, the team batting first had won 15 and lost 11 matches before Sunday. The decision did not pay off, but you can see why India chose to bat first.Why keep playing the hook?
Four of India’s top six got out playing the pull or hook, but their shot selection can’t be faulted on an extremely fast and bouncy pitch against South Africa’s four-pronged pace attack. If they didn’t take the short ball on, they wouldn’t have been able to score much at all. South African batter Aiden Markram was even asked at the post-match press conference about India’s happy hookers. He said he saw nothing wrong in how they had batted.”Look, I think on a wicket like this, you’re going to end up playing more as a result of bad shots than on other wickets just because of the nature of the bounce,” Markram said. “It’s a tough shot to play when there’s extra bounce. But ultimately, if a team keeps bashing that length in T20 cricket, you as a batter also need to make a play. That’s probably the reasons that both teams took the short balls on tonight because if you don’t, you’re unfortunately not going to score at a rate that’s quick enough.”Why didn’t India bowl yorkers?
When Pakistan played at the same venue earlier in the day, Mohammad Wasim had bowled superb yorkers to get on a hat-trick and shatter any hopes of a late revival from Netherlands. India, however, kept bowling length or shorter, even though Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Shami have a strong yorker. That was probably because of the short straight boundaries, which meant the margin of error was small on the yorker, whereas if they hit the hard lengths, the bounce became their friend. Yorkers don’t usually get wickets either, which is what India were after. If David Miller had batted through the innings, South Africa were likely to win, which is what happened in the end.R Ashwin went for 13 runs in the 18th over•Associated PressWhy not hold Ashwin back for the last over?
The moment South Africa attacked Ashwin’s third over – the 14th of the chase – his final over was always going to be the one that they would target. Most captains delay the over that is likely to be targetted until the very end; the logic being if that bowler proves expensive, then the bowlers who are better suited to the death may not even finish their quotas.One reason Rohit Sharma gave for bowling Ashwin in the 18th over is that it gets messy when a spinner bowls the final over. There may be another reason he did not take the traditional route. In the India-Pakistan game, for example, Pakistan knew India would target left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz’s final over and so they bowled the others first. The big difference was that Pakistan had scored a bigger total and hoped Nawaz would have more runs to defend in the final over after the others bowled out. India had needed 48 off the last three overs against Pakistan, while South Africa needed only 25 off 18 balls against India. If India had bowled their fast bowlers earlier, South Africa could have played them out and chased down 11 or 12 in the last over.

With a penchant for sweeping and a love for the long-format, Mark Chapman is hoping to make the most of his time on tour with New Zealand A

Ashish Pant02-Sep-2022The last time New Zealand A fronted up against India A in a red-ball series, Mark Chapman was instrumental in helping his side take a huge first-innings lead in Christchurch. As the two teams face off again, this time in India, Chapman, at 28, is hoping to play more of a senior role and stake his claim for a Test spot.Brought up on a diet of white-ball cricket in Hong Kong, though, the longer format did not always come naturally to Chapman. Born to a New Zealand father and Chinese mother, he is one of the few cricketers to have played international cricket for two countries – Hong Kong and New Zealand. He made his T20I debut aged 20 and his ODI debut a year-and-a-half later, both for Hong Kong. In New Zealand, he had to learn the nuances of red-ball cricket on the fly. A sound technique and the ability to nudge the ball into gaps helped bed him into the Auckland set-up, and he has gone on to become one of their mainstays.”I do have strong ambitions in red-ball cricket. There is nothing more rewarding than scoring a hundred in a red-ball game or getting a first-class or Test win,” Chapman told ESPNcricinfo. “You can’t beat that feeling.”Growing up, most of the cricket that I played was white-ball and short-form, so that is where my experience sort of lay but as I began to play for Auckland a little bit more, we obviously played multi-day cricket – it’s something that I have had to learn on the go and something that I have really come to enjoy.”Chapman has played 35 first-class matches so far, in which he has 2287 runs at an average of 41.58, including 14 fifties and four centuries. Not shabby at all for someone who took to the longer game relatively late.”I have really come to appreciate the challenges of the red-ball game and really see it as the pinnacle of cricket in terms of mental application and mental test,” he said. “So, yeah, Test cricket is something that I would love to play.”Chapman’s style of play is a bit different from a lot of his New Zealand team-mates. Unlike those who look to play straight having grown up on bouncier surfaces, Chapman relies on the sweep a lot, which in a lot of ways is to do with him playing more in Asian and subcontinental conditions in his formative years.He hopes that his penchant for sweeping will help him on this tour of India, where New Zealand A are playing three red-ball and three white-ball games.

“I have really enjoyed trying to read the game and playing the situation that is in front of me. There is no better and more rewarding feeling than being there at the end and hitting the winning runs.”Mark Chapman

“I played in Asia growing up, and the sweep shot was something that I needed to use to be able to access boundaries and score some runs, particularly in slightly slower conditions,” Chapman said. “It’s been something that I have always had, and something I have worked hard on particularly for this tour, because in New Zealand, where the wickets are slightly better and don’t turn a lot, you may not necessarily use it.”Playing in my early days for Hong Kong, I was a little bit smaller, so I had to become pretty efficient in rotating the strike and that [sweeping] was, I guess, my way of keeping my strike rate up with the odd boundary.”Chapman made his international debut for New Zealand in a T20I against England in 2018, and got his first ODI for them later the same month. Since then, though, he has been part of just a handful of internationals and a Test call-up remains elusive, but Chapman insists he isn’t in a “desperate rush”.”This generation of New Zealand cricket has been really strong, and we’ve made a lot of World Cup finals and done well in the Test Championship. The competition for the places in the team has been really competitive,” he said. “I have just been chipping away at my game. For me, it is just about being a better cricketer every day regardless of the outcome and just enjoying my cricket as well, because it can be a long hard slog at times particularly when you are travelling a lot and not necessarily playing as much as you would like.”He’s had a good 2022. Chapman started off the year propelling Auckland to their second Ford Trophy title in three seasons. He was instrumental in helping New Zealand record their highest T20I total of 254 against Scotland in July, and then hit his second ODI century – seven years after scoring his first for Hong Kong – a couple of days later.”Obviously, ambitions are to really nail the [national] spot in a format or two – you love to be playing as much as you can,” he said. “Particularly in the more recent years, I have really enjoyed trying to read the game and playing the situation that is in front of me. There is no better and more rewarding feeling than being there at the end and hitting the winning runs.”If he can do just that in India, it could be a huge stepping stone in his path from the fringes towards a coveted Test spot.

India’s former chief selector talks about why the left-arm wristspinner has had recent success, and what his right-armer colleague needs to do to improve his bowling

Nagraj Gollapudi31-Jan-20232:02

Sunil Joshi: ‘If India are playing three spinners vs Australia, then Kuldeep Yadav should play’

In December, Kuldeep Yadav bagged the Player-of-the-Match award for his five-for in the only Test he played in the series in Bangladesh. He followed it up with match-winning spells in ODI series at home against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, and forced his way into the India squad for the first two Tests against Australia, starting in Nagpur next week. While Kuldeep has found his mojo again, his good friend and spin twin, Yuzvendra Chahal, seems to have lost his. Once a constant in the limited-overs bowling attacks, Chahal, who became India’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is on Sunday, has for a while now struggled with his bowling rhythm, technique and confidence, which has forced the team management to bench him often.Former India left-am spinner Sunil Joshi, who was part of the Indian selection panel between 2020 and 2022, has followed both Kuldeep and Chahal’s careers closely. In the following chat, Joshi breaks down their techniques, explains what makes them effective or not, and makes his pick for the World Cup squad.Recently in Bangladesh, Kuldeep Yadav was the Player of the Match in Chattogram. And he had impressive performances in ODIs against Sri Lanka and New Zealand. What is making him so effective?
A couple of things Kuldeep has really worked hard on. I have closely watched him since my time as coach at Uttar Pradesh, where he played a few games during the 2019-20 season after he was dropped from the Indian side.I saw Kuldeep closely in the [2020-21] England series, during the Chennai Test matches: his body was much more open-chested and his [right] hand was falling away from the point of target. Your non-bowling arm should follow towards the batsman, and your bowling hand should be as close as possible to the head. If you imagine a clock, your bowling arm should come from just before 12; if it comes from 1 o’clock, then the trajectory will be flatter. If your non-bowling arm is straight, automatically your bowling hand will get closer to the head. That is another adjustment Kuldeep has done.He has worked on the arm speed, which was a bit slower. You can now see the spring in his bowling run-up. He has ensured the run-up has become smoother, more consistent, the arm speed is good. His body is going towards the batsman in the follow-through, and the line of attack he is bowling [has got better]. There are more revolutions on the ball.A classic example [of all this coming together] is the wicket of Dasun Shanaka [in the Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram ODIs earlier this month] – the way he bowled him, that’s the line we’ve been discussing time and again with Kuldeep and he understood that’s what is required.He varies [how he uses] the crease as well. Earlier he was bowling close to the middle of the crease. Now he bowls wider, from the middle, and from close to the stumps as well. As a left-arm wristspinner, every time you bowl away from the crease, especially to a right-hander, if you don’t get the line right, it is going to be difficult. When you go close to the stumps, you end up bowling middle-and-leg. It’s a perfect angle where you can go close to the stumps and take the ball away from the left-hander. For bowling a right-hander, the perfect video, I would say, is [to watch] the Dasun Shanaka wicket in Thiruvananthapuram, where Kuldeep got him through the gap between bat and pad.Related

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Would you say he has become smarter and more consistent?
You have to give him credit. He’s really worked hard and understood what is required. And he has followed up with domestic matches. He played against New Zealand A [for India A in one Test and three ODIs]. He did well, he got wickets.The bigger talking point about Kuldeep’s increased consistency, which some former players have pointed out, is his delivery speed.
I always say that anything between 70 and 85kph is a good speed for spinners to bowl. The quicker you bowl through the air, the easier it is for a batsman to get into line. When the bowler becomes slower, when he varies [his speed], starts spinning, that’s where the batsman has to use his brain to come to the pitch of the ball, use his technique and time the ball.Kuldeep has really worked on his speed – I think it is now between 75kph and late 80s. He doesn’t bowl quicker than that. The more revolutions you put on the ball, automatically, after pitching, it will skid through.Former India head coach Ravi Shastri believes it’s Kuldeep’s work on his hip flexion and lower-body strength that has helped him impart revs like that. Do you agree?
That will happen only when he has worked on his delivery stride as well. That is why it’s much easier to transfer your body weight towards the target – when everything gets side-on, automatically you transfer your body weight [well] and your hip drive will become much better.Rhythm consists of three parts: run-up, delivery stride and follow-through. If one of these is missed, the bowler will be in an uncomfortable position. If you run too quick, everything, including the action, happens too quickly and the trajectory is flatter. If you run too slow, everything will be slow – there will be less revs on the ball and the batsman has enough time to go back or forward. If you don’t finish your follow-through, you end up bowling short. Kuldeep is short, so he cannot have a longer stride as a spinner, because automatically you collapse and are unable to transfer body weight towards the batter and derive the right speed from your hip drive. For a spinner, your delivery stride is your shoulder width – that’s an ideal length.”In whatever series he has played recently, Kuldeep’s dismissals are in the range of within the 30-yard circle. That is a great thing for a bowler because it shows you have been very consistent with your line and length”•Associated PressThat is what we can see in Kuldeep now: transfer of body weight, the hip drive, as Ravi has said, and of course, the arm speed, the front arm, and revolutions on the ball. Plus, he’s enjoying whatever subtle changes he has added into his bowling armoury and it is giving him results.What is the one area in which you want him to continue to improve?
Probably at times he can bowl round the stumps to the left-handers, because that is a blind spot [for the batter]. If Kuldeep comes round the stumps, the batsman may think that he’s going to take the ball away, but he doesn’t. If you saw yesterday [in the Hyderabad ODI against New Zealand], the way he got Henry Nicholls bowled, that’s a classic delivery. He also got Daryl Mitchell lbw. And Dasun Shanaka – fully stretched forward defence, through the gate, bowled.He is achieving this with consistent lengths. He is probably in a phase now where he can pick up wickets at any point of time and create pressure. In white-ball cricket you have to create pressure, you have to play on the batsman’s mind. Like, in Hyderabad, we saw Mitchell Santner getting Virat Kohli bowled – Virat could have played forward.In Test cricket, because of the quality that R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel bring to the table, Kuldeep is fourth in the queue. But he has shown that each time he gets called up, he can create an impact. He has been picked for the first two Tests at home against Australia in February. Do you think he will play a big role in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy?
I think so. One, because of his form – he’s been good in picking wickets. As a former cricketer, I look more closely at the way he is taking wickets: a spinner getting [the batter] out through the gate bowled, caught at slip, stumped getting to the pitch of the ball, miscuing the ball and getting caught at mid-off, mid-on. These are the areas of dismissal that a spinner would love to take.Looking at the Australian Test squad and the venues, where do you reckon Kuldeep will actually have an advantage?
If Ashwin is our first option, and if Jadeja is not available, then it should Kuldeep and Axar. If Jaddu is available and they are playing three spinners, Kuldeep should play. Don’t look at the venues or whether our spinners will do well or not at them. Look at the way Kuldeep has picked up wickets. In whatever series he has played recently, whether it is red- or white-ball, his dismissals are in the range of [being caught] within the 30-yard circle. That is a great thing for a bowler because it shows you have been very consistent with your line and length. If India have to win against Australia, Kuldeep will play a major part.

“I follow the three-T formula: technique, tactics and temperament. You have technique, but you also need to focus on temperamental and tactical parts. That is where you fox a batsman”

Let’s talk about Yuzvendra Chahal – has he become more predictable?
Over a period any bowler will go through that phase. Probably Chahal is in that phase. Someone like Chahal, who is not able to get game time in the middle, probably he should request the team management to go and play domestic cricket. Match time is very important for him to get back into form. That should be the ideal preparation for Chahal.In terms of technique, is there something he can work on?
He can really look to finish his follow-through, because at times he just pushes the ball [without imparting spin]. When you slow your arm, automatically there are less revolutions on the ball and it’s much easier for a batsman to pick him up. Why any spinner will get predictable is because the batsman will know that: “Okay, he’s doing only this [releasing the ball without spin], or probably he will go outside the off stump, so if I leave that ball, he will again come back into the stumps [line]” – which is the batsman’s strength.Chahal needs to focus more on his follow-through, hitting the right length, which is the fourth-stump line, putting more effort into his arm speed, and spinning the ball. Most important is spinning the ball. At times I have seen in the last few series, he really got hit because he was pushing the ball – the seam revolutions were flatter, there was no overspin. For any fingerspinner the wrist has to move over the top of the seam, and if it goes side ways, then the spinner will be undercutting the ball.Chahal is an attacking spinner. Somehow he lost his mojo…
He was an attacking spinner. Was.Everyone gets a little cushioning – okay, theek hai, I’ve done well now, let me relax a bit. Suddenly by the time you realise that, the pressure is on you.”Chahal can really look to finish his follow-through, because at times he just pushes the ball… there are less revolutions and it’s much easier for a batsman to pick him up”•BCCIWhen Chahal bowls the fourth-stump line, batters start attacking him.
Ideally, every ball should be on the fourth-stump line. Most of the googlies he bowls are from the middle stump. You can’t bowl a googly from the middle stump. Where did Anil [Kumble] bowl his googlies from? Fifth stump. That is where you drag a batsman to get through the bat-pad gap. You have seen how many times Virat Kohli get out to a legspinner in the last so many IPLs? Did he get out [to a googly] from a middle-stump line? No. Fifth-stump line.I follow the three-T formula: technique, tactics and temperament. You have a technique, you play for the country. But you also need to focus on temperamental and tactical parts. That is where you fox a batsman.Does Chahal need to work on his bowling speed?
More than the speed, he pushes the ball inside. You cannot [do that]. As a genuine spinner you have to get on the seam, the way Kuldeep has been rewarded. Would you pick Kuldeep and Chahal in your squad for the World Cup in India later this year?
We are talking about seven-eight months from now. Kuldeep is in a space where he is absolutely fine. He needs to be more consistent. He needs to be looking at the tactical part. He needs to know how he will approach each team and venue. The World Cup is in India but every venue has a different dimension, in terms of pitch, soil and climate. He has to prepare himself accordingly.Will you pick Kuldeep in your World Cup XV?
Of course.Both of them?
No. Given the options I have at this point in time, Jadeja will be in my squad. If he is not in good rhythm, you have a back-up in Axar. Then probably I would look at Washy [Washington Sundar] or Ravi Bishnoi, if I have to have one more legspinner, because Bishnoi is more consistent and has a quicker arm action and he’s a better fielder than Chahal.

The opener is in line for a Test debut in Perth next week after a prolific year with the bat

Andrew McGlashan25-Nov-2022So, is Tagenarine going to play the first Test against Australia?
It would be a huge surprise if he doesn’t, having made 119 against a strong Prime Minister’s XI attack in Canberra to continue a prolific year. He had made just 4 in his one outing against NSW/ACT XI last week, after missing the first innings because of illness. But on Thursday, he faced 293 balls before falling to the final delivery of the second day when he top-edged a pull against Joel Paris. The PM’s line-up included Test seamer Michael Neser as well as Mark Steketee, who has been in Australia squads. Todd Murphy, the young offspinner, and left-armer Ashton Agar bowled 41 overs between them, which is likely to be more spin than Chanderpaul will face in Perth, but should put him good stead for the challenge of Nathan Lyon. A vacancy for Kraigg Brathwaite’s partner has come up at the top of the order following the anti-doping ban handed to John Campbell.Related

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He’s 26, so not really young for a debutant…
He’s waited a little while for this opportunity, but he effectively lost two years of his career because of Covid and did not play a match from March 2020 until February 2022. Before that gap, he had shown glimpses of his potential with a maiden first-class hundred against Barbados in 2018, and then another against Windward Islands in 2019, which at a marathon 484 deliveries is his longest first-class innings to date in terms of balls faced. From early on, he had shown the ability to bat time, facing more than 150 deliveries in an innings three times in his first two seasons. However, it’s been this year where things have really taken off: in 2022, he has an average of 89.50 including four centuries.He and his dad played together, right?
Indeed they did, 11 times in first-class cricket. The first came in 2013 against Trinidad and Tobago [Tagenarine made 42 in the first innings, Shivnarine 108 in the second], and the last in 2018, which is when Tagenarine made his maiden first-class hundred.What has his route to the Test side been?
He played in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup in the UAE, where he made 293 runs. That team also featured Nicholas Pooran, Fabian Allen, Shimron Hetmyer and Brandon King. After that, he bided his time in first-class cricket before the Covid-enforced break. Earlier this year, he was rewarded for his impressive domestic form with a West Indies A call-up to face Bangladesh A where he made an unbeaten 109 in the second four-day match.Does he bat like his dad?
Make your own mind up…

Meet the Chanderpauls #PMXIvWI #AUSvWI pic.twitter.com/hSOJfFZSre

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 24, 2022

What Shivnarine said
“He’s been knocking at the door since before Covid… two-and-a-half years passed with no cricket behind, then he started to get some cricket back. He started the first-class season without many runs, then he came to Florida and did some work with me. When he got back, he got a couple of hundreds and now he’s got selected to come here. Knowing the attack Australia has – these guys are relentless – if he can come here and do well, it will be a start to his career.”I try to help him sometimes but he’s a little bent in his ways. He’ll seek me out for some help but then there’s a lot of times, like any kid, when you message him but he doesn’t message back. Unless he wants something! I’ll message [while] watching the game whenever he’s playing, I’ve seen what he’s doing, if he’s doing something he’s not supposed to be doing then I’ll message and say ‘this is what I’m seeing’ and he’ll not message back for two months after.”What Tagenarine said
“I try and be myself. I can’t be him, so I can only be myself. Fingers crossed… I’ll try to get some runs if I’m selected.”And here’s a fun fact
Tagenarine has a movie credit to his name. He was plucked to play Larry Gomes in the film about India’s famous World Cup triumph.”Being a part of was a great opportunity that I stumbled upon while playing four-day cricket in St Lucia in 2018,” Tagenarine told last year. “During a practice session a scout came to the ground and asked who wanted to try out for the film. To my surprise a few months later I received a call that I had been chosen to play the part of Larry Gomes.”Lastly, but most importantly, does he mark his guard with a bail?
“Sometimes,” Shivnarine said.

“I was trying to follow the way I bat in first-class cricket. I didn’t want to think this is a big Test match”

Mohammad Isam17-Dec-20220:55

Jaffer: Zakir showed great technique and temperament

A century on Test debut against India has capped a remarkable three weeks for Zakir Hasan. He displayed impressive strokeplay and sound temperament as he staved off India’s attack in Chattogram. He manipulated the field well, driving the ball effectively off the front foot while also being steady off the back foot.With his debut hundred, he moved ahead of the other openers in the reckoning. Once Tamim Iqbal returns from injury, the team management will have to choose between Zakir and Mahmudul Hasan Joy, who was the incumbent opener since November last year. Shanto will probably move back to No. 3 in that case. Meanwhile, Shadman Islam and Saif Hassan are now out of favour.Around late November, though, Zakir wasn’t even in the picture, despite being the highest run-getter in this season’s National Cricket League, Bangladesh’s premier first-class competition. Zakir only made it to the Bangladesh A side after Towhid Hridoy’s groin injury ruled him out of the first unofficial Test against India A.Related

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Zakir made a duck in the first innings but with the home side needing to survive the last five sessions of the four-day game, he responded with a ten-hour marathon. His 173, which included 16 fours and three sixes, steered Bangladesh to safety.It was a performance that forced the selectors to take notice of him. He had stood up against Navdeep Saini, Mukesh Kumar and Saurabh Kumar whose left-arm spin was vital to India A dismissing Bangladesh A for 112 in the first innings.”That innings provided me with a lot of confidence,” Zakir said at the end of the fourth day’s play in Chattogram. “I was trying to follow the same process of that innings. It was in the back of the mind that I must stick to the process when playing the innings. A big score leading into a national call-up is certainly a turning point.”Zakir then brought his Bangladesh A form into Test cricket. After having been watchful against seamers Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj on the third evening and fourth morning, he appeared more comfortable against India’s spin trio. He took Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel for three fours each and R Ashwin for five. He also showed he can build partnerships, which allowed Shanto bat fluently at the other end. However, after Shanto got out, he adopted a more conservative approach.Zakir Hasan scored a classy century on debut to drag the Chattogram Test into the fifth day•BCB”I was trying to follow the way I bat in first-class cricket,” Zakir said.” I didn’t want to think this is a big Test match. I tried to be as simple as possible. It was the same when I was in the nineties. I tried to follow the preparation and concentration when I bat in the nineties in first-class cricket. I was trying to follow it every ball.”It felt good reaching the hundred. I didn’t have much expectations. I wanted to bat long, since we are facing two days and a big total.”Zakir said that his vast domestic experience helped him deal with the pressures of Test cricket. Zakir’s first Test was his 70th first-class game – only Mohammad Mithun, Nazimuddin and Ariful Haque have played more first-class games in Bangladesh before playing Test cricket. Zakir isn’t a regular opener, but his experience of facing the new ball regularly at No.3 at Sylhet and South Zone helped him settle at the top.”I have usually batted at No 3 and 4,” Zakir said. “I haven’t opened the batting much. I usually face the new ball in first-class cricket. At times you get to bat after the first ball if you are at No 3, so you have to face the new ball. I was confident.”The Dukes ball swung for almost 80 overs in this season’s conditions. Kookaburra usually swings for less time so I think it was slightly easier for me. I think I held on to my temperament because I played so much first-class cricket. I have a number of big innings in that format. I think I knew my process about scoring runs quite well.”Zakir is only 24, but has already experienced several highs and lows. A strong start to his domestic career propelled him into the Bangladesh T20I side, but after a solitary appearance, he was sent back to the grind. Zakir rebuilt himself in the last two years, however, averaging 54.63 over six tournaments. His conversion rate is particularly impressive: he scored eight centuries and two fifties.Zakir, though, has a quiet presence in Bangladesh cricket. He hails from Sylhet, a region that is no longer known for its batting prowess. Fast bowlers Abu Jayed, Ebadot Hossain and Khaled Ahmed have recently broken into the national side from Sylhet. Zakir’s success, however, is a triumph for domestic cricket. He seized his chance and broke the door down.

A look back at 2022: how Stokes and Co redefined Test cricket, the continuing rise of the shortest format, and more

Sambit Bal02-Jan-2023Cricket’s reckoning didn’t arrive to drumbeats in 2022. It came innocuously, via an email. Trent Boult, the left-hand half of the most prolific fast-bowling duo in New Zealand’s history, had chosen to walk away from a national central contract to pursue a freelance career. It wouldn’t rule him out of playing in national colours – he did, in fact, go on the play in the T20 World Cup – but it would allow him to choose when not to.In choosing cash over country, Boult was hardly a trailblazer. Kerry Packer managed to lure almost the entire Australia team and many leading cricketers of the world away to his private league in the late 1970s; English, Australian and West Indian cricketers chose bans and risked ostracism by accepting money to tour South Africa in the apartheid years; South Africans have chosen the security of county contracts over their ambitions of representing their national team; and many Caribbean cricketers have prioritised club cricket in recent years.And yet, something was new. There were no howls of horror. No one called Boult a traitor. Of course it helped that despite having a high-performing cricket team, New Zealand cricket fans are not the effigy-burning type. There was no rancour to speak of. The cricket board made the announcement and released Boult’s statement. The chief executive spoke. There was acknowledgment and understanding of the circumstances, and in that quiet, if resigned, acceptance, it was easy to see how much cricket has changed on this subject.Related

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Is it already too late to sort out the balance of cricket's formats?

For all the glory and glitz, the life of elite sportspersons can be cruel and lonely. You close off most other options really early in order to have a chance at your sport. The chances of reaching the highest levels are miniscule, and even if you make it, success is dependent on the vagaries of form and injury, and in team sports like cricket, the whims of selectors. And after all that, your shelf life is short – 10 to 15 years for most, 20 for the truly exceptional. The honour of wearing the national cap is incomparable, but can we, in our right senses, grudge cricketers their pursuit of a better-paying future in league cricket?Soon after Boult made his choice, two of his team-mates followed in his footsteps: Jimmy Neesham too declined a contract, and Martin Guptill was released from his after he lost his place in the white-ball sides. They will not be the last.The future cannot be built on a T20 foundation alone
For a sport that charted its unique course by staying steadfastly true to its bilateral traditions for well over a century, cricket has been unsettled by the winds of change over the last 15 years, but a clearer path is now emerging. That T20, and by extension, leagues, franchise-based or otherwise, will carry cricket into the future is now undeniable. For over a decade, tensions rose over finding windows for T20 leagues in the bilateral calendar; over the next decade, that is likely to be flipped on its head: bilateral cricket will have to be squeezed into whatever windows are left vacant by leagues.T20 is still evolving, and contrary to the mindless slugfest it was originally imagined it would be, it is turning out to be a game full of intricate tactics and calculation. Tests remain the pinnacle for traditional cricket skills, but in demanding peak performance every ball, T20 challenges the mental and physical prowess of cricketers in an extreme way. In Tests, or even ODIs, there is space to breathe, play yourself in, work your way into a spell, pace your performance, to recoup and to recover. In T20, one blink can cost you a match.Franchise leagues thrive off players who have cut their teeth in competitive domestic and bilateral cricket. To ignore the latter for the former would be foolish•BCCIThat the format represents the zeitgeist hardly needs belabouring. It brings families to grounds, and it commands TV prime-time attention. Unsurprisingly, every cricket board envisions its own league as being a pot of gold, or at least sees it lighting a path to self-sufficiency.But to imagine a paradise built primarily on franchise T20 would be a lazy and self-defeating assumption, lacking both vision and comprehension about the game’s development. Cricket’s fundamentals are developed at the grassroots and skills are harnessed and sharpened, block by block, in competitive cricket through the age groups, in domestic cricket, on A tours and in international cricket. There are exceptions but players who come up through this grind are invariably more versatile, battle-hardened and better equipped to deal with varied conditions and different match situations.Franchise cricket reaps the benefits of what is sown at the grassroots and nurtured by the global ecosystem. The IPL, or any other successful league, will not have been what it is without the global talent pool, and a global talent pool wouldn’t have, and will not in future, emerge without a robust global system that feeds off bilateral cricket. To not grasp the dynamics of this essential interdependence would be an arrogant folly. Put in the language of business that cricket administrators are conversant with, all good businesspeople know how to take care of their supply chains.Cricket fans are blessed that their game scales across three formats, with different rhythms and textures that can cater to different kinds of fans and moods. Apart from the compelling fact that vast numbers of fans are still keen on watching it, bilateral cricket is also vital for the upkeep of many smaller boards. All leagues will never be equal, and besides the revenues distributed from ICC events, which will continue to be hugely popular, smaller boards will continue to depend heavily on bilateral tours (primarily those by India) to remain financially viable. Such tours must not be seen as charity but as a minimum requirement to keep the sport healthy. If cricket, already a small sport, shrinks, everyone suffers.Bilateral cricket: how much is too much?
That said, not everything feels right with bilateral cricket now. A lot of it feels too random, too scattered, without narrative or purpose. Matches these days blur into one another, leaving no time to savour wins or mope over losses. Instead of returning home triumphant from the T20 World Cup win, England stayed back in Australia to play an ODI series that started four days later. Just before the World Cup, Australia played T20Is against England and West Indies with a gap of just one day between the two series, requiring them to play two different bowling attacks; and through the course of the year, various Indian senior men’s teams played in 11 different countries, under seven different captains.