All posts by n8rngtd.top

From Kaushik Bhattacharya, UK

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013
Under-rated, despite his Test achievements•Getty ImagesGiven he’s the most celebrated cricketer India have had (with the exception of Tendulkar), it feels strange to say MS Dhoni is underrated. But I do think he’s not given due credit for his achievements as a Test match wicketkeeper-batsman.Partly, I think it’s his excellence as an ODI cricketer (second-highest batting average among all players with 4000-plus runs) that overshadows his achievements in the Test arena. Add to that, he looks somewhat ungainly (both as a wicketkeeper and a batsman), and for some unfathomable reason most people have the view that great Test match players need to be elegant or graceful. The recent Test thrashings meted out to his team in England and Australia have given fodder to his bashers to begin the “Oh, but he can’t play Test cricket” refrain.Ultimately, the things that matter are performance on the field, the numbers you rack up and the results you deliver. Let’s have a look at the stats. Starting off small-scale, there’s no doubt that Dhoni’s been India’s best Test wicketkeeper-batsmen ever (and he’s not finished yet). He has the most dismissals already and at a rate (dismissals per innings) higher than anyone else who’s played at least 10 games with only Dinesh Karthik coming close. Also (again for keepers who’ve played at least 10 Tests), his batting average is higher than his closest rival (Budhi Kunderan) by over four runs per innings. And he needs to play only 22 matches more to go past Kirmani as the most tenured Indian wicketkeeper.Going further afield, if you look at top wicketkeepers of all time, Dhoni ranks ninth in terms of overall dismissals and 14th if you look at dismissals per innings (for players who’ve kept in more than 30 Tests).Turning to batting, his average is the sixth-highest of all time (again for players who’ve kept in more than 30 Tests) and ahead of men like Alec Stewart and Brendon McCullum who’ve played as specialist batsmen at times.Plus, he’s captained the side in 37 of his 67 Tests and has a win-loss ratio that’s the best ever for an Indian captain and the eleventh-best for all captains (who’ve led their side in 35-plus Tests). This without a bowling attack half as good as that which any of the ten men above him had at their disposal. He didn’t even have Srinath and Kumble (unlike Ganguly, who had at least the latter for much of his reign) who are probably India’s best modern-day pace and spin bowlers respectively.So, give the man his due and stop branding him as only an ODI and T20 champion. He’s been good in Tests but needs better support from his team (especially the bowlers) to keep proving.P.S: For those who say he can’t score runs in pace-friendly conditions, he averages 39 in England and 31 in South Africa, though he’s been poor in Australia, averaging 19.

Plays of the day from third day’s play of the Colombo Test

Andrew Fidel Fernando and Mohammad Isam at the Premadasa18-Mar-2013Unintentional error of the dayOver the last three days, the sight of the ball reaching the boundary has had everyone at the edge of their seats with the ball regularly stopping short of the rope. When Tamim Iqbal drove Nuwan Kulasekara through mid-on, the ball stopped a few inches short. All Rangana Herath had to do was pick up the ball but, while doing so, his fingers touched the rope. It was sloppy of him, but he was honest enough to admit the mistake to the umpire.Obstruction of the dayTamim was not so lucky in the next over, however. He drove a ball straight past Shaminda Eranga, but it was too straight. The ball struck the stumps at the non-striker’s end, costing Tamim a few runs. Given the heavy outfield, one couldn’t be sure the ball would reach the boundary. Usually. the stumps are the only barrier between a straight drive and four runs but that was forgotten till this shot was played.DRS moment of the dayThe absence of the Decision Review System (DRS) during the series has so far been felt on only a few occasions. On the third morning however, it was sorely missed. Kumar Sangakkara jammed his bat into the ground and the ball had passed quite close. Naturally there was a loud appeal, and the umpire asked the third umpire for assistance. There confusion over whether the ball had bounced and taken the edge, or the sound was that of the bat hitting the ground. The camera angles were unconvincing, but the ball was very close to the bat and had changed direction after going past it. The decision went in favour of Bangladesh this time, but the ratification of universal DRS is growing louder after such incidents.Twinkle toes of the dayMohammad Ashraful was posted at long-on as Bangladesh worked dismiss Sri Lanka in their first innings. Shaminda Eranga lofted Mahmudullah for what would have been his first six of a 36-minute vigil, but Ashraful was there to intervene. He jumped and caught the ball, and turned around, nimbly skirted the boundary rope and just about managed to stay in. It wasn’t the greatest catch, but Bangladesh needed a bit of magic on a day when they were made to work very hard.Double strike of the dayWhen Bangladesh edged ahead towards the end of the day, Sri Lanka may wondered if they were letting the match slip away. They did what they have done over the last two years when looking for a saviour with the ball – they turned to Rangana Herath. The visitors were effectively 37 for 2 when Herath began his final spell but, with two terrific balls, Herath eased Sri Lanka’s worries. He spun one hard past the advancing Jahurul Islam who was stumped by Dinesh Chandimal, before dismissing Mahmudullah with a cracker that turned past the bat to hit the off-stump.

There are plenty of things to dislike about the IPL, but the cricket certainly isn’t one of them

Peter Miller, United Kingdom03-Apr-2013When Conrad wrote those immortal words in , his masterpiece deriding cultural imperialism and all its ills, he was without doubt predicting the arrival of T20 cricket, and more specifically the Indian Premier League. The IPL is like a crazy ex-girlfriend. You never want to see her again, but you still check her Facebook status when no one is looking.I don’t want to know the shirt sponsor of the Chennai Super Kings, but I do. I wish I had no idea how much Glenn Maxwell is earning, but it appears in my mind anyway. Like Alcatraz, there is no escape. You want to be able to tell people, “Oh, I never watch it, it isn’t proper cricket.” But to do so would be lying.As time goes by, I find myself more in tune with the cadence of Twenty20 cricket. While it doesn’t have the ebb and flow of Test cricket, it has moments of the most intense drama. That these periods of high tension are hidden amongst games between two teams where someone finishes third makes them all the more exciting when they do happen. While a Hashim Amla Test innings is finesse and beauty, a Chris Gayle innings is power and bravado. Both have their place, they are two sides of the same ceremonial IPL coin, which is also available to purchase via auction on the IPL site.So why am I embarrassed about watching the IPL? Why do I hide behind snobbish mockery? For the same reason I would not like to be seen reading a Dan Brown novel on the train – it does not fit in with the picture I have of myself. I like to think of myself as a cricket connoisseur. If you asked me about my favourite innings of all time, I would tell you it was Michael Atherton’s marathon 185 not out at Johannesburg in 1995 – a full 645 minutes and 492 balls of gritty determination.Where the IPL never fails to annoy is the way that those who promote and commentate on the event talk of it as the most important thing to happen in the field of sport. It is a hit and giggle tournament that is there to entertain. It is not an Ashes test, the Wimbledon final or the 100 metres at the Olympics. To give it the same hype as something that a sportsman has worked his entire life for is to patronise the viewer and demean the player.The thing about the IPL that I find hardest to stomach is the relentless commercialism of the event. If you stand still long enough at an IPL stadium you will have 14 different sponsors bedecking your shirt. There are sponsored sixes, sponsored catches, sponsored “moments of success”. The only thing that gets more screen time that Sachin Tendulkar is the car on the boundary that the players are competing for. If the sponsors believe that a newly made millionaire in his twenties is looking for a reliable family car they may be sadly mistaken.I long to live in a world where sport takes place in a vacuum, where commercial realities are a grubby necessity confined to other fields. This is a dream about as likely to come true as the one I regularly have involving Angelina Jolie, Emma Stone and a hot tub.So I will watch the IPL. I will make jokes about MS Dhoni and N Srinivasan’s relationship and about Tendulkar getting bowled. I will be made nauseous by the commercialism and the faux sincerity. But more than that, I will enjoy the all-too-rare moments of pure drama and try not to feel too superior. I might fail at the last bit.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line

Pakistan found a home away from home at The Oval but only Misbah-ul-Haq seemed to appreciate it

Andrew Fidel Fernando at The Oval07-Jun-2013Not long after Misbah-ul-Haq became captain of Pakistan, he spoke candidly of the challenge he had been saddled with. “It is bad for Pakistan cricket when people taunt us at home and abroad,” he said. “It is a mental torture to go through such things.”There was torture at The Oval for Misbah, as his team-mates abandoned him one after another, like an incompetent conga line, stumbling over every piece of furniture in the room. But there were no taunts from the Oval crowd – only adoration. As each new batsman drove their innings nose-first into the dirt, the zindabads did not abate, and cries of “Misbah, Misbah” grew louder.The ground is located in a part of town that is heavily settled by West Indians, and twenty nine years ago, they had packed it out during the Blackwash series. Today, maroon shirts only speckled the stands like bits of driftwood heaving in an ocean of green. The weather was cloudy and crisp, and there was no Karachi sea-breeze or Lahore dry heat, but a team that hasn’t played in their country in four years with a home-town reception, as they so often do in England. Among the Pakistan batsmen, only Misbah seemed to appreciate it.At times he would acknowledge their fervour. The Oval roared at every Pakistan single like a batsman had just blazed a hundred, or Saeed Ajmal had conjured a hat-trick – perhaps to make up for the cheers from Punjab or the Sindh, that this group of players may never hear. When there was a moment’s relent from the clatter of wickets, Misbah would look up into the stands from the non-striker’s end and breathe in the flags being flown around him. Only he can say how much the sight steeled his resolve, but how could it not? As a leader of nomads, he must find sustenance where he can get it, and today, Kennington was his oasis.”When you’re not playing at home you feel for it,” Misbah said after the match. “It’s always like that. You want to play at your own home grounds in front of your own crowds, but here, there was a big support for Pakistan wherever you looked in the ground. It looks like we were playing at home. It’s a great feeling to be playing in front of your own crowd.”There was emotion in those words, but when he takes the field, Misbah has no interest in the flamboyance that has so often titillated and frustrated a nation. Foremost a pragmatist, he rarely played a stroke that ill-fit the circumstance throughout his innings.Nasir Jamshed had perhaps set himself fifty for a target, and planned to counterattack thereafter, and two balls after reaching the milestone, he attempted to hit his first six and perished. Perhaps on another day, that stroke might have heralded a surge, but it was a high-risk strategy from Jamshed, who had looked untroubled for the last 50 balls of his innings, and did not need to throw away Pakistan’s recovery. Misbah continued to graft securely, hoping that each new arrival could stay and do the same, and it was only when it became absolutely necessary for him to hit out, that he changed his stance, and his approach. The same hankering for safety sees him maligned when he refuses to pursue a Test win, with Pakistan sitting on a series lead. It is often said there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity, but Misbah may never be one to approach it.The pitch did not warrant such a low-scorer, but although West Indies should have made short work of 170, Pakistan managed a bowling performance worthy of the love flowing from the stands. Perhaps at another venue, Kieron Pollard might never have been kept scoreless for his first 17 deliveries. Maybe Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels would not have been scuttled, just as they had begun to sail smoothly after early losses. In the field Pakistan drew from their fans, and gave them plenty too, when the attack began to show why it had come into the tournament so highly rated. But it so often happens in cricket, that the fight begins when the battle is almost lost. Every time Pakistan made a breakthrough late in the match, it seemed ten runs too late.Misbah should have made his first ODI hundred today. Instead he was left stranded on 96, when Mohammed Irfan fended the ball to Dwayne Bravo. After the game, he spoke of how special that first hundred is, and how the feeling stays with a batsman forever, but at the end of the innings, he affirmed Irfan for surviving so long with a pat on the back. It is not like he had really attempted the milestone anyway, turning down singles to throw his bat early in each over. When he left the field, he raised his bat to a standing ovation. Perhaps in their next match in Birmingham, others in the top order will add their own efforts to the labour of Misbah and his “home” crowd.

The Ashes are over, but dry your tears, there’s oodles of fantastic cricket to come

Andy Zaltzman26-Sep-2013Welcome back to the first Confectionery Stall of the 2013-14 international cricket season, a schedulers’ smorgasbord that will involve (in no particular order of importance to the future well-being and happiness of humanity):* The short-awaited Ashes rematch, which may (or may not):(a) reveal that England’s 3-0 win in the summer was a hideous injustice, in which a deflating team sneaked the key moments in an otherwise pedestrian exposition of its own decline, and in which the regenerating Australians deserved scoreline respectability, if not parity;(b) reveal that England’s 3-0 win in the summer was a hideous injustice, in which the clearly dominant home side could and should have won by more, had it been properly challenged by an even semi-competent opposition at the crucial moments of the series, and in which the Australians proved that, even at their best, they have become such strangers to victory that they would barely even nod politely at it if they walked past it in the street;(c) reveal nothing about England’s 3-0 win in the summer;(d) make the world appreciate the benefits of not having back-to-back Ashes series thrust upon it; and(e) involve Ian Bell being lifted to the heavens in a flaming chariot.* The long-awaited South Africa v India showdown, which may (or may not):(a) reveal the true strength of India’s new generation of batsmen;(b) reveal the true strength of South Africa’s world-leading team;(c) happen;(d) reveal quite how hideously scarred the future of international cricket is likely to be by infantile political squabbles; and(e) hideously scar international cricket by falling victim to an infantile political squabble.* A cavalcade of unforgettable ODIs that will be talked, written and sung about for as long as human beings can still be bothered to communicate with each other.* The announcement of a major Hollywood blockbuster based on the recent rain-besoggened ODI series between England and Australia that gave the English summer the tediously drawn-out anti-climax that, given the schedule, the administrators were clearly hoping for. Possible castings: Dame Judi Dench as Woman Having a Snooze in the Crowd; Sean Connery as Umpire Rob Bailey; former wrestler Hulk Hogan as ECB chairman Giles Clarke.* Pakistan playing a pleasing amount of Test cricket, for once.* Runs.* Wickets.* Catches.

Forthcoming tweaks to the ODI regulations include opening bowlers being allowed to ride in to bowl on horses

* Further tweaks to the ODI regulations, including: the use of a watermelon instead of a cricket ball for a new two-over Powerplay, to be taken at some point between the 24th and 26th overs of the innings; allowing opening bowlers to ride in to bowl on a horse; the use of professional Roy Orbison impersonators to sing “It’s Over” after each six balls; and each drinks break containing one bottle that has been laced with a psychotropic potion that makes the player think he is a cross between Lalit Modi and the BCCI, and start chasing himself around the outfield.* Graham Onions totting up his county championship statistics from the last two seasons, and muttering to himself: “Mmmm. I still don’t get it.”* Graham Onions buying a pair of stilts and a sombrero, tottering onto the outfield on Boxing Day morning at the MCG, and shouting: “Please can I have a game? I’m tall. And I’m Mexican. I’ve now done everything the selectors wanted.”* Further tweaks to the DRS, including: allowing TV umpires one “Rogue Call” overrule per innings, in which the standing umpire’s decision is overturned despite all the technology confirming it was correct (a formalisation of the system that has been trialled recently, with mixed results); the use of body-language experts to adjudicate on whether the batsman did or did not snick the ball to the wicketkeeper (or first slip, in some cases); and teams being given extra reviews if they ask nicely.* Azhar Ali hitting Dale Steyn for six sixes in an over in the first Test in Abu Dhabi in October.* Cricketers dawdling. Because they can get away with it. Umpires doing nothing about cricketers dawdling. Because they can get away with it. Administrators playing Solitaire on their computers, checking their emails, and looking out of the window at a pigeon.* Some magnificent things happening that no one had predicted.* The entire crowd at an international match in Australia consisting of recuperating fast bowlers in their early 20s.* Australia forging a new birth certificate for Ryan Harris in an effort to convince him that he is, in fact, only 22.* Ryan Harris becoming convinced that he is, in fact, only 22, and promptly breaking down with a major injury that requires 18 months out of the game.* Alastair Cook denying that his tactics were excessively cautious after England spend an entire day of the Adelaide Test hiding underneath some shields in the Ancient Roman tortoise formation.* Michael Clarke denying he was too reckless after declaring at 0-0 on the first morning in Brisbane, claiming: “We have to force a result.”All of the above will happen. Guaranteed. I look forward to Confectionery Stalling about it, and more, over the next few months. Particularly Azhar Ali’s six sixes. (I do realise that if that does now happen, questions will be asked. Quite aggressively.) (I also realise that that “if” is so big as to be visible from space with the naked eye.)Over the next few weeks in India, I will also be performing Cricket Versus the World, a stand-up comedy show in which I attempt to decide which one of Cricket and the World we would miss more in the event of Armageddon. I begin at the Canvas Laugh Factory in Mumbai on 3 October ¬¬¬- more details in my next blog, and on the @ZaltzCricket twitter feed. I will be doing blogs and video pieces during the tour, and excerpts from the gigs will be posted on ESPNricinfo.

Plays of the day for the third ODI between New Zealand and West Indies at Queenstown

Kanishkaa Balachandran01-Jan-2014The drop
Not by a fielder, but from one of several spectators wearing orange t-shirts looking to make $100,000 for catching the ball one-handed. Brendon McCullum slashed a short and wide ball over backward point and the sweeper near the boundary had given up. But one of the spectators gave it everything, willing to risk injury by throwing himself over the boundary hoarding. The acrobatics didn’t pay off as the ball comfortably evaded him, the momentum on the fall taking him inside the boundary. He wasn’t alone in his struggle though, as the spectators had a tough time getting their hands on the 25 sixes that came their way.The six
Corey Anderson sent 14 of them soaring over the rope, but the most significant was the slog that took him from 95 to 101. Anderson was within touching distance of Shahid Afridi’s world record for the fastest ODI century off 37 balls. He was on 95 off 35 when he took strike to Nikita Miller and there were no two ways about it – he had to slam it for six. Miller bowled it short and Anderson slammed it over long leg.The catch
There may have been several let-offs at the grass embankment, but within the boundary, Lendl Simmons set a good example. McCullum had raced to 33 when he gave Sunil Narine the charge but ended up miscuing it to the deep on the on side. The ball swirled between long-on and deep midwicket with Johnson Charles and Simmons converging. A false move would have led to a messy collision but Simmons was not only alert but managed to judge the steepler well, catching it on the fall.The swat
The bowlers varied their pace and lengths to Anderson, but to no avail. Dwayne Bravo dished out a slower ball in the 20th over, but it came out horribly wrong. The ball looped out of the back of the hand and reached Anderson as if in slow motion. Anderson waited, as if wielding an axe and swatted a flat six over wide long-off. It was one of the more audacious shots of the day.

An irreverent look in and around World T20 in Bangladesh. If you are looking for news, you have got lost in the right place.

Daniel Brettig18-Mar-2014Australia turn to Coach Roy
First Shane Warne ran his eye across Australia’s World Twenty20 spinners in Cape Town. Now their batsmen have arrived in Bangladesh aided by the advice of an unlikely yet somehow appropriate mentor for the bash and crash likely to ensue in Mirpur – Andrew Symonds. While commentating for local television during the T20 series against South Africa, Symonds was teed up by the coach Darren Lehmann to offer some advice to the middle-order batsmen and allrounders, spending plenty of time with James Faulkner, who shares Symonds’ knack for power and timing at the pointy end of matches.Symonds had previously been glimpsed handing a first baggy green cap to Alex Doolan before the first Test, and it was welcome to see him ushered into Australia’s team room after the regrettable circumstances of his premature exit from the team in 2009. Casting his eye back on the development of the World T20, Symonds observed Australia’s mediocre record in the tournament and offered a plausible explanation.”When I was playing T20s for Australia it was a bit of a day off really, where you could go out and express yourself but there was no pressure. Everyone had a bit of fun and enjoyed it,” he said. “Now, with the IPL, the commercial side of cricket is huge, so players are obviously very keen to become good at the game. We haven’t been very good at T20 cricket, it’s time to put that to rest, and this team is good enough to do that.”A Gayle of a time
During an Australian summer in which he hung out down under despite carrying a hamstring problem serious enough to keep him from playing for the West Indies across the Tasman in New Zealand, Chris Gayle seemed at times to be a little out of place. But there was no such problem in Dhaka when he regaled the world during a press conference that said two things – the World Twenty20 is Gayle’s oyster, and two years on from West Indies’ victory in Colmobo, Gangnam Style remains his dance move of choice.A few choice cuts from his opening chatter included the following.On Chris Gayle: “Worldwide people want to see Chris Gayle do well and entertain. That’s why they pay the money.”On bowling (and batting): “Talking about my spin bowling? I’m the best spinner in the world man. And you know what, I bat right-handed these days, done with batting left-handed.”On the Bangladeshi spin bowler Shohag Gazi: “Who’s that? The same guy I whacked for a six off his first delivery in Test cricket? He’s in the history books, I made him famous.”Gayle’s in the entertainment business, of that there can be no doubt.England’s Orangemen
If Stuart Broad’s England team are to make a swift exit from the tournament as is widely expected, they will at least have done so after winning the loud shirt contest. Seldom does a global sporting event go by without one team or another being coerced by a kit manufacturer into wearing the equivalent of the Emperor’s New Clothes, and this time it is England donning what has been dubbed “solar red” by its creators.Decked out for years in various shades of blue, the ECB began to deviate by experimenting with a red limited-overs kit in recent times, opening the way for a World T20 uniform that looks about as Dutch as Dennis Bergkamp. certainly saw the parallel, referring to “Stuart Broadkamp”, while ESPNcricinfo’s former UK Editor Andrew Miller noted on Twitter that James Tredwell now bears passing resemblance to “a bargain-basement Jaap Stam”. Broad will hope for a similar capacity to keep the scoring to a minimum.Dutch dramas
Speaking of men in orange, Netherlands certainly found a novel way to gain unwanted attention on the day of their opening match when the all-rounder Tim Gruijters contended that he had been “bullied” out of the squad under the veil of injury to make room for the late inclusion of Tom Cooper, freed up by South Australia’s failure to reach the Sheffield Shield final.Though the ICC ultimately concluded that the Dutch had followed the appropriate procedure for replacing Gruijters with Cooper, the notion of a batsman being ruled out of a tournament due to a bad back will draw knowing sniggers from a few quarters. Batting has always been a pursuit known to encourage back trouble, and while someone like Michael Clarke has had a high-profile struggle with a particularly severe form of the ailment, many others have carried various levels of discomfort or inflexibility across their careers.A snap request for all batsmen at the World T20 to undergo scans on their backs might have revealed that plenty of other supposedly fit participants are actually carrying issues of similar severity to Gruijters without any danger of being ruled unfit to play.Cricket fantasies
One way of adding notably to your interest in the WT20 is to join in our Cricket Fantasy tournament, due to begin with the main draw on March 21. The time between now and then offers a chance to shuffle your team until you feel sure of its points potential. The event format and array of competing nations offers plenty of room for inventive combinations, whether you think it will be David Warner putting his stamp on the event or Shahid Afridi whirling Pakistan to a second title. Take a look here.

A revamped T20 tournament rolls into town on Friday with a new name and schedule, a potential saviour for a county game struggling to attract attention and saddled with £90m of debt

Chris Stonor13-May-2014These are expectant times in English cricket. A revamped T20 tournament rolls into town on Friday with a new name and schedule, a potential saviour for a county game struggling to attract attention and saddled with £90m of debt. The importance of the NatWest Blast for the domestic game can hardly be overstated.It passed unnoticed that last year’s tournament was modestly successful as a sizzling summer helped boost attendances by 70 per cent, suggesting that more than a decade after it was first introduced T20 could still be the financial yellow brick road to county redemption.The 550,000 who attended are similar numbers to the successful Australian Big Bash, although as the BBL plays around one third of the games it can claim to have had the greater impact. It is vital that progress is maintained. It is football World Cup year, which does not help, but then the county game is always overshadowed by something.The ECB is making much of a switch predominantly to Friday nights,” Gordon Hollins, the ECB’s chief operating officer, believes: “T20 is a format which the public like and enjoy but supporters are crying out for a predictability of schedule. We must provide supporters with what they want – particularly the younger generation. If we don’t do this there won’t be a future game.”Nobody can say the new schedule has not been properly researched. Populus, the market research company, polled 25,000 people and discovered the cricketing public want a regular and similar time of viewing. Four focus groups then concluded Friday evenings were the best choice which is why 87 of the 126 T20 group stage games will be played on this day.”There has been a fantastic response from the counties to the Friday slot,” said Hollins. “The new format will remain until 2017. We must give it time to build and settle. We believe we can increase the attendance figures from last season. And we believe we can improve on this year by year.”So hopeful this new schedule will work, the ECB has increased its annual investment in the tournament by a further £1m, where two-thirds goes to the counties to help with local marketing and the remaining third to the Board for general promotion.Those counties that get their marketing right, achieve regular sell-outs and use the additional income to either pay off debt and strengthen their financial position will, alongside successful off-field commercial developments, become the most powerful of the county clubs.The gap between the haves and the have-nots could grow, but if that means more counties are put on a secure financial footing, and once again strengthen ties with their communities, then many will judge that a price worth paying.Advance ticket sales have been patchy, not helped by unsettled weather in the past fortnight. Unless and until grounds are regularly sold out even early-bird offers do not entirely persuade people to buy early – and Friday finishes after 10pm are not going to delight the traditional media. The success of this tournament is far from certain.

Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur is so excited by this regular Friday slot that he predicts an initial average crowd of 10,000, up from 6,500, and an additional £200,000 revenue.

The extended nature of the tournament has also made it harder to attract the most eye-catching overseas stars, although Yorkshire have acquired Aaron Finch and Hampshire pulled off a deal with Glenn Maxwell. With England players also absent, the counties will also have to make their own stars and supporters will have to prove they are responsive to such attempts.One club delighted with the new schedule is Yorkshire who presently groan under £24m debt. Mark Arthur, their chief executive, said: “Friday night is a superb idea. The ECB must be applauded.”Yorkshire already have proof that a Friday evening works. Last season, their T20 home game against Lancashire attracted a sell-out 17,000 crowd and made more money than all their home Championship games at Headingley.Arthur is so excited by this regular Friday slot that he predicts an initial average crowd of 10,000, up from 6,500, and an additional £200,000 revenue. In fact, he expects the club to earn over three times more from their seven home games than all eight Championship matches.”We want people to know that Friday nights are Headingley cricket nights, where we can attract and build a new audience. It may take time but I’m certain the counties can turn this new T20 Blast into a much needed lucrative tournament.”Familiar critics remain, now wedded to the view that Friday evening may create a booze-fest where the cricket is secondary and families will be put off from coming due to rowdy behaviour. The counties are aware of this possibility and state that they have planned accordingly.Sussex CEO, Zac Toumazi, says: “Counties measure their commercial success on the number of pints sold and the revenue generated. But we must not lose sight of the bigger picture. When a family attends with young kids and their first experience is of a threatening loutish environment that isn’t helping anybody as they are less likely to return. Clubs must take responsibility and find that balance.”Drink and food sales can contribute 30 per cent of match revenue. During their home match against Surrey, Sussex expect to sell 6,400 pints at £4 each. But they will only allow the sale of four pints at any one transaction, are increasing their stewarding, have an alcohol-free family area, and a zero tolerance policy towards drunkenness, promising to eject fans if necessary. Last season several spectators were banned.”We will not shirk our responsibility, especially when we’re known as a family club,” said Toumazi. “So long as the rowdiness is in control and people are not upsetting others, that’s fine, because T20 is all about having fun.”Essex are also sensitive to uncouth behaviour. They suffered pitch invasions and souvenir stealing of stumps and a Sky wicket mic in the early T20 years. With the Chelmsford crowd renowned for boos and hostile chants if the home side are not playing well – a strange phenomenon in county cricket – the club have gone one step further.Stadium Manager Graham Childs said: “We have opted for all seating and a reduced capacity, where alcohol outlets are sited well away from the pitch along with a specially trained ‘Steward Response Team’ for any disorder.”Yet, in Arthur’s view: “If you create the right environment people will treat it with respect. They can have a good time but without getting out of hand.”The public are to be welcomed by volunteers; stewards will wear Yorkshire club blazers; and flowers will adorn the ground. Segregation remains a key aspect of their plan. The White Rose Stand, for example, will have four distinct sections. 3,500 seats are allocated for ‘drink and be merry’; another for limited liquor intake and most importantly 2,200 seats are alcohol-free for families and teetotal Muslims.Meanwhile, the razzmatazz will include music concerts, summer anthems, pyrotechnics, dancers and red devils parachute displays. Middlesex are scheduled for a T20 double header at Lord’s next Saturday, great for TV, but physically demanding for the players.Nothing is certain. But the whole of English cricket, whether or not T20 is their thing, should be desperate for this tournament to succeed. If it fails, the damage could be considerable.

After bidding farewell to Test cricket in front of his home fans, Mahela Jayawardene will focus his energies on one final tilt at the 50-over World Cup

Andrew Fidel Fernando14-Jul-2014For so much of Mahela Jayawardene’s career, his cricket was ruled foremost by instinct. Where other batsmen would avoid playing the pull with a leg trap set, Jayawardene took the field on. Where other captains would formulate exhaustive plans and stand by them through duress, Jayawardene devised new strategies on his feet, with a finger to the pulse of the match, and a heart to innovate and attack. Unburdened by the captaincy late in his career, he also developed a candid streak, firing barbs at administrators and opposition when he felt he or his team had been wronged.But as his race takes the final corner, Jayawardene has given in to pragmatism. He has never been obsessed with the sport – the loss of his brother in his teenage years has always anchored him to perspective. But cricket has been his life, ever since he was scouted as a precocious talent, for Nalanda College. He walks away from his favourite format having coolly considered the present and the future, and having come to terms with his own limitations. Always the team man, he leaves before anyone thinks to show him the door.The knocks take longer to heal at 37. Injuries wipe Jayawardene out for entire tours, instead of two or three games, and pressure of year-round, high-intensity cricket begins to wear the mind as well. His fingers are always in some state of disrepair. Fielding is perhaps the only discipline where statistics across formats may justifiably be merged, and having taken 418 international catches – by far the highest for a non-wicketkeeper – his hands bear the toll of a life in the slips. His knees are not quite what they were either.Having hit over 11,000 Test runs and 33 hundreds, the one burning desire that casts a shadow on all else is also in another format. Jayawardene has won the World T20 now, top-scoring for his team in that campaign, but two World Cup final appearances have whet his appetite for cricket’s biggest limited-over prize.He has often said the 2015 campaign would be his finish line, but in recent months there have been inklings he might not quite get there. The big shots in ODIs have found fielders instead of the fence. He has been worked over and out-thought, even at home. Where Sri Lanka used to rely on all three senior batsmen, they have lately leant on Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan, who have protected a misfiring middle order with their own improving returns.But if Jayawardene is to play in the World Cup, he would be mortified to do so as a passenger. He knows one hundred and two fifties in his last 23 innings is a streak that is beneath his ability -though important innings have come on big occasions. An exit from the most taxing format frees Jayawardene up to refresh his focus on ODIs.Both he and his fans will also find it fitting he bids farewell to Tests on home soil. Beyond the Pakistan series, Sri Lanka have no home Tests on the schedule for 10 months at least. Among the most impressive figures Jayawardene has accrued – and ironically the numbers for which he attracts most flak – are his records at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground and at Galle. No batsman has scored more heavily in one ground than Jayawardene has at either venue, and he averages over 70 at both. SSC is a notorious featherbed, even if more than half of Jayawardene’s runs at the venue have come in result matches, but Galle is often as great a test of batting technique as Newlands or the WACA ground are.If fit and selected, Jayawardene will play two more Tests at Galle and one at the SSC. His final Test will be at the P Sara Oval – a ground he does not like as much, but which had been the scene of perhaps his finest innings, in 2006. Against an attack featuring Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn, Jayawardene hit the only century of the match, and was the backbone of Sri Lanka’s highest successful fourth-innings chase of 352.Beyond the cricket field, another calling has drawn him during the past seven months. Jayawardene did not just fly in and out of home, as many cricketers do for the births of their children; he had almost a month off in December, while his team played limited-overs series in the UAE. His “girls” were among the first people he thanked upon winning the World T20. After what will seem like a lifetime on the road, he will soon be theirs alone.Jayawardene has endured vast upheaval, on and off the field, in his seventeen years at the top level. In that time, he has rarely failed to give all of himself to his team and to the sport on the island. He has only so much cricket left in his veins. He will save what he can for the final stretch home.

The ball-by-ball structure of cricket gives its crowd noise a hypnotic rhythm, the stadium rising and falling with each major event, most minor events, and some non-events

Andy Zaltzman in Adelaide15-Feb-2015The ear-splitting Adelaide showdown between India and Pakistan gave the World Cup another stirring occasion, another largely one-sided match, and seven hours of ceaseless sonic pandemonium, encompassing as wide a variety of cricketing cheers as any sporting noise connoisseur could wish for. Cheer-spotting might not yet be as established a hobby as bird- or train-spotting, or as popular a pastime as, for example, stamp-collecting, internet surfing, jury service, marriage or snooker. It is, however, a recreational diversion that is bound to increase in popularity, owing to the increasing rarity of genuine thoroughbred sporting cheers in the wild – the aggressive predation of the new-fangled Contrived Stadium Atmosphere has reduced the population of genuine cheers, sometimes obliterating them completely from their natural stadium habitat, sometimes leaving a colony of cross-bred half-real half-contrived cheers.The Adelaide Oval pumped out a pulsing fanfare of 45,000 people’s support, providing a veritable Spotters’ Guide To The Cheer, from well before the start of play. On an occasion such as this one, the ball-by-ball structure of cricket gives its crowd noise a hypnotic rhythm, the stadium rising and falling with each major event, most minor events, and some non-events.This is far from an exhaustive list, but among those cheers prominently on display were the following (including suggestions for how those same cheers might be applied outside the realm of sport, for sport proves that everyday life would be enhanced by cheering moments of success or good fortune; and thanks to both sets of supporters for their indirect contribution to this invaluable piece of scientific research from a gloriously loud day of stadium-watching):The Won-The-Toss Cheer.
A relatively new addition to the catalogue, facilitated by broadcasters’ habit of turning to the toss-winning captain first. The fans of that team will then respond to their skipper being granted first interview with a caterwaul of thrilled anticipation. Winning a minor disagreement about which takeaway to order in from.The Resounding Four Cheer.
An echoing bark of joy and confidence, often requiring the cheerer’s baby or infant to be hoisted above the head with a facial expression combining excitement, fear, confusion and vertigo. And, in some cases, impending vomit. Finding a lost remote control.The Inside-Edged Four Cheer.
As above, but slightly smugger. Catapulting a tea-bag into a bin across a room from a distance of at least 15ft.The Fifty.
A mixture of praise, respect and congratulation. Spouse/friend/parent returns from shop with slightly better than expected baguette.The Fifty By A Superstar Team Icon.
There was a discernible difference between the noise that greeted Kohli’s half-century, compared with the noise that greeted Dhawan’s, as there was with Tendulkar’s milestones, although not to the same degree. A fascinating cheer that conveys the love and rewarded trust of the crowd, surrogate pride and the belief that all will ultimately be well. Encouraging elderly grandparent during a round of crazy golf.The First Opposition Wicket.
The closest cricket has to a goal (although anyone walking past the Adelaide Oval on Sunday might have been forgiving for thinking that there was a soccer game in progress, and that the final score was approximately 300-224) (which, by coincidence, is exactly how the cricket ended). An outbreak of triumphal release; often accompanied by wild arm flailing and mild headbanging. Successful marriage proposal.Key Opposition Wicket
A sustained eruption of noise, as belief in victory translates into certainty of victory, tinged with the anticipation of imminent gloating opportunities. May involve impromptu and unnecessary gyration or thrusting. Bride turns up at wedding.Also in evidence in Adelaide were (or seemed to be) cheers marking the following landmarks:
1. The first ball being delivered.
2. The first ball being hit.
3. A leg bye of no real importance.
4. Eight o-clock.
5. The arrival of a snack.
6. Life in general.
7. Cricket.

****

● Virat Kohli’s 107 off 126 balls was, in terms of strike rate, the slowest of the 22 centuries he has made in his prodigious ODI career, at 84 runs per 100 balls. It was an innings of controlled mastery for the most part, without ever reaching the glorious fluency he so often achieves, and was restricted by some fine bowling in its latter stages, and his and India’s threatened eruption never fully materialised. The facts that (a) he has scored 22 ODI centuries and (b) all of his previous hundreds had been scored at a strike rate of at least 90, highlight what a staggering limited-overs career Kohli has been compiling this decade. It also highlights have rapidly cricket has changed, that a century scored at the equivalent of five runs an over is almost sedate.● Four games, four first-innings scores of at least 300, four chases which never seriously threatened success. If you had put money on Zimbabwe having the narrowest defeat in the opening two days (a) congratulations, (b) that is a strange bet to place, in more than one way, and (c) stop lying.● CORRECTION: When Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq opined that “300 was very much chaseable,” he sadly omitted to append the words: “by a different team”.