Guest Spot

How do we devise a Test championship that satisfies everyone?

In the past, bilateral self-interest has worked against plans for a Test championship. The challenge for the ICC is to find a model that suits all concerned

Russell Degnan

27-Mar-2016

A Test championship? If there is a pub somewhere for retired ICC officials, then among its patrons will be told more than a few stories of the idea that got away. A dozen years ago, while Bangladesh flailed and Zimbabwe sank, a slew of international captains and now-retired greats came out in favour of an ICC plan for two (or more) divisions.

That plan never saw the light of day. In the interim there were not one but two attempts to implement a four-team knockout Test championship in England. Both were later cancelled in favour of the more lucrative Champions Trophy. Yet, so long as Test cricket fails to fulfill its potential, the idea of a Test championship will appear again, and so the ICC (at the urging of CEO David Richardson) is once again plotting a path towards a Test championship, and reform of bilateral structures.

The formation of world cricket's governing body itself, in 1909, was based around similar ideas: the Test triangular of 1912, and the creation of an ordered tour programme among the three members - England, Australia and South Africa. The two themes recur because they are central to the construction of international cricket. Interlinked and yet separate.

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Where Kohli is better than Tendulkar

In limited-overs cricket, Kohli always gives you the feeling that he can fix any situation, unlike Tendulkar - though the latter was a superior batsman

Pranay Sanklecha

22-Mar-2016

2:08

'No obvious weakness in Kohli's batting'

I have, of late, but wherefore I know not, been writing a few pieces for ESPNcricinfo. So I am, I suppose, becoming in some very small way a bit of a cricket writer. But I have a long way to go before I can call myself a member of the club. There are trials to endure, secret handshakes to learn, miles to go before I can lunch with Dobell and Kimber, speak lightly of Gideon and Harsha, before I can - oh, be still, my beating heart! - DM Derek Pringle.

Above all, there is one test, and it isn't for the faint-hearted.

If you ever want to spook a press box, ask if anyone in it has ever written a piece not completely adoring of Sachin Tendulkar. Faces turn suddenly pale, knuckles whiten with the strain. Grown men flinch, call hurriedly for double whiskies, down them as glasses shake in trembling hands.

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This one time when I played first-class cricket

Facing professional fast bowling, even if it's not extreme pace, can be a daunting and thrilling experience

Pranay Sanklecha

07-Mar-2016

Growing up, cricket mad, the professional game fascinated me. Not cricketers as people, I couldn't care less about what Sachin ate for breakfast (anyone else notice how his autobiography was all about food?) or who Ian Austin's favourite singer was. It was the cricket itself. Just how fast were the fast bowlers? Was it true that the spinners bowled as fast as supposed fast bowlers in amateur cricket? How hard did batsmen hit it?

Thanks to that British tendency, charming or infuriating depending on taste, of hallowing absurdity by calling it tradition, I had the chance to find out first hand. It was only one game, Oxford against Warwickshire, but it was first-class cricket, against real professional cricketers, Ian Bell, Dougie Brown, Ashley Giles, Mark Wagh, Neil Carter…

Even at this distance, I remember the nerves beforehand. I confusedly called my coach from school, John Spencer, who'd played for Sussex for a decade. I pretended I'd rung to speak to his son, a friend, but as soon as I could and with absolutely no subtlety I told him I'd been picked to play against Warwickshire the next day. I emailed my father. The morning of the match, I asked for a private chat with our coach. I don't remember the details, but the general panic is very clear. I wanted reassurance, but no one could give it to me. This was a world I'd romanticised for a decade, people I'd assigned special powers to, and now I'd have to confront them.

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The problem with the PSL

The format hardly makes for compelling cricket, and the fact that people expect the league to bring top-level cricket back to Pakistan is an unnecessary burden

Danyal Rasool

21-Feb-2016

To say Najam Sethi at the PCB has been a shade bullish about the Pakistan Super League's prospects would be an understatement. It is understandable, given the PSL was virtually entirely his idea, and it is a mark of his influence at the PCB that the league has come into existence at all. (The public support of Shaharyar Khan, the PCB's chairman, for the project was mystifyingly muted; was it indicative of his thoughts on the whole idea?)

Sethi's delight at the PSL getting underway was irrepressible. "The PSL will be the biggest thing that has hit Pakistan cricket," he said in an interview. He added that, five years down the line, if the PSL were held in Pakistan, it would be far more exciting than any FTP engagement could ever be. "The PSL will be more like the IPL than other leagues," he declared.

Although Sethi's bombastic build-up to the PSL and his eagerness to associate it with the IPL come off as rather transparently insecure, the league has whipped up excitement among Pakistan's cricket-starved fans in a way quite unlike anything else in recent memory. Hopes that the PSL will help bring back Pakistan's glory days, even bring international cricket back to the country, fly unchecked. The extent and variety of raw young Pakistani talent on display is marvelled at. The number of international stars present is pointed to as proof of the tournament's marketability. Anything less than utter and complete admiration of everything PSL risks coming off as churlish in the extreme.

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Why we need the spirit of cricket

In recent times it has almost come to be fashionable to deride the concept, but it is one worthy of upholding

Pranay Sanklecha

16-Feb-2016

I think it's worth defending the idea that animates the spirit of cricket. But I'm not going to judge whether the Keemo Paul incident signals the dawn of the apocalypse. Instead, I'm going to try to step back a little and explore why it matters that we retain the concept that is provoking the apocalyptic debates. But in order to do that, it's necessary to first sketch what that idea is, because it's often missed in controversies over specific incidents like the recent mankading.

It's actually pretty simple. The spirit of cricket, to my mind, expresses a very straightforward idea: winning isn't everything. And nor, pace Vince Lombardi, is it the only thing.

Now this is not to deny that winning is a value. Of course it is; indeed, in some sense playing to win is necessary for a game of cricket to exist at all. What I'm saying is rather that to believe in the spirit of cricket, to believe that cricket ought to be played according to it, is to believe that there are other values that matter, and that can sometimes outweigh the (genuine) value of winning.

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The Englishmen who spoke for voiceless South Africans

Remembering two Test cricketers who worked to undermine apartheid's evil effects

Mohamed Aslam Khota

07-Feb-2016

My English cricketing heroes include great Test players and insightful and thoughtful observers who campaigned against apartheid in my country.

In 1979 I watched David Gower compile a graceful double-hundred against India at Edgbaston, thrilling spectators with his style, grace, poise and elegant strokeplay. Another hero was Ian Botham, who was solid in his batting, intelligent in his bowling, and breathtaking in his fielding, especially close in. His epic walks for philanthropic causes make him extra special. Graham Gooch's arrival in South Africa with the rebel English XI in 1982 was devastating to a multitude of non-white fans, though watching him bat was a sight to behold.

Michael Atherton's marathon undefeated century in Johannesburg in 1995 ranks as one of the best defensive innings I watched. His writing and commentary these days are even more engaging. Then there was Michael Vaughan, who inherited a player-friendly set-up and a very good team at the right time. He led England to a fine series win against the fancied South African team in 2004-05, and his bold leadership and skilful man-management won them the Ashes.

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The day I played against KP

As Big Bash clubs gear up for their summer of slather and whack, a Melbourne journalist recalls his brush with fame at the start of last year's T20 season

Tom Morris

09-Dec-2015

One year ago I played against Kevin Pietersen.

I first found out I was playing against KP (I'll call him that from now because we're mates, although he doesn't know that) when it was announced that as a warm-up for his stint at Melbourne Stars last summer, he would play a game for Monash Tigers in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition. KP playing club cricket in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne: it's a ludicrous notion that came to fruition - I think via Cameron White, whose home club is Tigers.

I logged on to the league website and went to their drop-down menu to check the fixture for that weekend. "Monash Tigers vs St Kilda Cricket Club, Saturday December 13," it read. My heart skipped a beat.

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My TE and my Venkat long ago

Life is endlessly touched by the game when you're the child of a cricket-crazy parent

Niharika Mallimadugula

22-Nov-2015

I first heard of S Venkataraghavan, erstwhile India captain, much-feared in the many rungs of Tamil Nadu cricket, in the early 2000s.

My father and his friends had got together for another of their nights of revelry. These were "families-invited-too" parties, but the men all sat in one room, laughter and competing voices echoing into the night. The women sat in another, huddled close and talking in low tones. The children were left trying awkwardly to make conversation and perpetuate the friendships of the previous generation.

The men had all played various levels of cricket at different times in their lives. At some point, they were all in one team, playing first-division matches on weekends. This was in the "hey of their youth", as they often said. The nights of reunion were mostly a fair excuse to discuss and dissect domestic cricket and reminisce about their "playing days". Often the reminiscing consisted of laughing over goof-ups on the field and then addressing each other in shrill tones by nicknames - Dheena, Thenga, Mukka, Bondu, Naaikadi, Paapa - that defied sense to all but those who knew of the various embarrassing details that gave rise to them.

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Let's keep the ball talking

There's nothing quite as magical in cricket as moving the ball in the air at speed

Christian Drury

21-Nov-2015

My one sporting skill is the ability to make a cricket ball swing. I can't catch one very well, hit one very far or bowl one very fast. But sometimes I can steer one in the air, curve five and a half ounces of cork and leather and twine in an elegant arc. Sometimes I can't, of course. It's a fickle craft, one that eludes the mastery of even its finest practitioners, let alone the club player on a village green.

Part of the appeal of swing bowling, for the practitioner and the admirer, is the mystery. The direction of swing is usually determined by the bowler's action, and variation by the position of the ball and the wrist. But alignment doesn't always translate into movement. Conditions are usually thought to play a role, especially by players themselves. Humidity and cloud cover, two staples of an English summer, are believed to be particularly fecund. But often there can be a placebo effect - you, the bowler, think it ought to swing, so it does.

Attempts to explain the mechanics of swing often end up quite literally being rocket science. The language of aerodynamics, talk of turbulence and roughness, is quite different to the language employed by the ordinary player or fan to describe swing. The layperson speaks of shape, hoop, swerve. The cliché of "making the ball talk" is, in fact, a rich metaphor. You can imagine the bowler extorting movement out of the ball, the bad cop trying to extract what they can within legal means, or alternatively, trying to coax an ally into helping: protection and solidarity against the violence of the batsman.

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The (literal) art of cricket

CLR James was right when he said cricket holds a claim to being regarded as an art form

Andrew Hughes