Guest Spot
My evening on Bangladesh's most storied cricket pitch
A cricket journalist plays at the Mirpur Test ground and comes away with a renewed sense of what the game at the highest level involves
Mohammad Isam
10-Nov-2015
Looking down at the Shere Bangla National Stadium from the high press box at the northern end of the ground is quite the experience. The panoramic view can be mesmerising - and often distracting when you are rushed to write a news piece or a match report and the deadline is looming.
Those who have played at the ground remark on how the noise levels go really high when the home team is doing well - whether that's a Bangladeshi fielder fielding a ball cleanly or a home batsman hitting a match-winning six. Of course, one wouldn't expect a professional cricketer playing at the highest level to describe what it feels like playing in a particular stadium. It is just another aspect of his or her job. So a journalist keen to know has to use his imagination. Or, you know, actually experience playing there.
I had the opportunity to play at Bangladesh's most celebrated cricket venue a number of years ago, in a match in the second tier of Dhaka's first division league. The game, which was played on the easternmost wicket, decided which team would be relegated and which stayed safe. We won, and I'm happy to report I contributed to the cause.
Full postHow to prevent bottle-throwing in cricket stadiums
A clear-headed and incisive analysis of the problem and potential solutions
Sidin Vadukut
09-Nov-2015
It was with a very heavy heart indeed that I read reports of bottle-throwing at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack during the India-South Africa T20.
My heart was heavy for more than one reason. First of all, I was bitterly disappointed that this happened in Cuttack. Odisha is by far the most chilled-out state in India. It was in engineering college in Tiruchirapalli, aka Trichy, aka Groan, that I first came across people from this state. And what friendly, splendid, calm, composed people they are.
Let me illustrate with an example. Let us say that a devastating fire has broken out in the hostel.
Full postLet me tell you about Sachin, my son
An Indian-American dad gets all excited at the prospect of watching Tendulkar in the flesh
Amar Shah
05-Nov-2015
Dear Rohan,
You know, we almost named you after him. Your mom scoffed at my other recommendations, Gatsby and Anakin, but Sachin was a name that made her eyes twinkle.
Full postWhat's fandom about?
The relationship between fan and cricketer springs from hero worship and grows into something more fully formed
Andrew Hughes
30-Oct-2015
The retirement of Virender Sehwag produced, along with the usual statistical analysis and journalistic retrospectives, a torrent of tributes from cricket fans. We can all agree that Sehwag was a cricketer of significance, whose career will be remembered for many years to come. But for some fans, he was more than this; he was a childhood hero.
The process by which a cricketer becomes a hero is not an objective one, and has only a casual link with success or talent. It forms early in life, almost at random, perhaps when a particular shot, a crucial innings, a moment of chivalry, or a trivial coincidence like a shared birthplace catches the imagination of a young fan.
It's the beginning of that curious relationship between fan and cricketer. As a child, you follow your hero's deeds; you excuse their mistakes, sympathise with their misfortune, celebrate their successes and defend their reputation against anyone who suggests they've got a dodgy forward-defensive or a wayward googly.
Full postWhy cricket is the greatest of all games
No other sport compares in terms of the number of skills displayed, and the blend of subtlety, entertainment, sudden thrill and sustained intellectual interest on offer
Ian McDonald
29-Oct-2015
I have been looking at a great deal of cricket lately from across the world: Test cricket - the Ashes, India versus Sri Lanka - and ODIs and T20 cricket from all over. I am more than ever convinced that cricket is the greatest game that exists for the delight and fascination of mankind. I am also confirmed in my settled view that of all forms of this great game, Test cricket is by far the most interesting, satisfying and lastingly memorable.
When I was young I played a little cricket. Indeed, one of my most precious memories, a memory now nearly 70 years old, is of playing for my school 3rd XI on a rough pitch up near Mount St Benedict in Trinidad and taking five wickets in one eight-ball over with some slow, cunning legbreaks that did not turn - they were an early incarnation of the doosra. However, much to my regret, I never became a serious cricketer. I played tennis hard and grew to love the game. And tennis was certainly good to me, filling my life with much pleasure, excitement, challenge and reasonable achievement. It was a game that introduced me to many lifelong friends and taught me, I think, a few of life's important lessons.
And yet always, in my heart of hearts, I have thought that cricket is the greatest, the most splendid, game of all. If I had been given the choice by some benevolent God between winning Wimbledon and hitting a match-winning century at Lord's for West Indies I always knew which I would have chosen.
Full postWhen Ashes-winning England were derailed by Pakistan
Ten years ago, a buoyant England went to Pakistan hoping to establish an era of dominance. What followed was predictable defeat
Daniel Brigham
15-Oct-2015
When you're young, nobody tells you how you'll end up measuring your ageing process. It turns out that those conventional gauges - thickening wrinkles, thinning hair and letting out unfamiliar noises when bending over - aren't nearly as pronounced as the relentless nostalgic stomp of cultural and sporting anniversaries.
As life ambles before your eyes, there is nothing more devastating for your grasp on youth than the passing of anniversaries. In 2015 we've already ticked off 40 years since the release of Jaws, 30 years since Marty McFly went Back To The Future, and 20 years since Oasis brought out (What's The Story) Morning Glory? Next year England will be flooded with reminiscence and regret as 50 (fifty!) years of hurt are marked since they won the football World Cup.
Here's another one. As England evaporated under the heat of Shoaib Malik's double-hundred in Abu Dhabi, the mind swam back to another time when England's Ashes heroes were punctured by a tour against Pakistan.
Full postWhen Lara tamed Murali
West Indies in Sri Lanka 2001 will be remembered for Brian Lara's masterclass against one of the deadliest spinners in the world
Colin Benjamin
13-Oct-2015
A habit West Indies have developed, after terminally descending into decline starting in 1995, is sparking controversy. From Nelson Mandela's intervention before the 1998-99 tour of South Africa to the latest saga with head coach Phil Simmons before the current Sri Lanka tour, the cricket world has collectively groaned at every fresh West Indies crisis as it has come to light.
Prior to the Simmons affair, there was the captaincy change, with Denesh Ramdin being replaced by Jason Holder in spurious circumstances by the WICB's leaders. But enough about the litany of faux pas that is West Indies cricket; let us reminisce about Brian Lara in Sri Lanka in 2001.
Following Lara's "Mount Everest" series performance against Australia in 1999, he took a surprising break from cricket after the tour of New Zealand later that year. Over the next two years his batting succumbed to another uncharacteristic slump as a troubling eye problem (which led him to bat with shades on during the 2000 series in England) and many injuries, plummeted his average to a paltry 34.15 during this period.
Full postDoes the modern cricket fan get a good deal?
The cricket-watching experience varies in India, England and Australia, as do the fans' causes for complaint
Andrew Hughes
06-Oct-2015
To the administrator, the fan is just another drop in the revenue stream. To the player, the fan is a dutiful cheerleader, whose job is to make him feel appreciated, to boo his opponents and to buy his autobiography. To the journalist, the fan is an uninformed member of the great unwashed who frequently has the wrong opinion (such as, for example, enjoying T20) and who exists mainly to provide the kind of raucous, drunken stadium atmosphere best enjoyed from the other side of the press box window.
The sports pages are full of speculation about dressing-room gossip, groin-strain recovery times, selection pratfalls and tedious board meetings, but the cricket establishment doesn't seem all that interested in the opinions of the cricket fan.
Take the price of watching cricket. Ask Ravi Shastri or Colin Graves how much it costs to attend a Test match and they'll probably shrug like government ministers being quizzed about the price of bread. If your tickets are free, you're bound to be a little out of touch, but for those of us who have to pay to get in, price is a pressing matter. It's a subject of immediate relevance to fans all over the world, although our experiences vary widely, as a closer examination of the cost of watching cricket in India, England and Australia reveals.
Full postThe plight of the English spin bowler
As England wait on the fitness of Zafar Ansari ahead of the tour of the UAE, the Middlesex spinner, Ollie Rayner, explains why alternatives are thin on the ground
Ollie Rayner
22-Sep-2015
Without wishing to sound full of self-pity, it is not easy being an English spin bowler at this moment in time. All we ever hear is that the cupboard is bare, but the simple truth is that we don't play in conditions that help young spinners to develop.
The current schedule packs half the Championship matches in before the end of May, a notorious time in terms of the weather and certainly not a period in which you'll find bunsens being prepared.
All you can hope to do as a spinner is bowl as much as you can, keep it tight and earn the right to stay in the side for the drier months of the season. But then, just when you'd expect spin bowlers to come into their own in July and August, there's a big block of one-day cricket to disrupt your rhythm before the Championship comes to the crunch in September.
Full postAnother T20 bash, another T&T win
Business as usual? Yes, but this year's tournament had other stories too - not all of them positive
Colin Benjamin
28-Jul-2015
So the established order has been reaffirmed. A Caribbean T20 tournament is played and Trinidad & Tobago are victorious.
When the West Indies Cricket Board disbanded the traditional inter-island Caribbean T20 tournament after the January 2013 edition to form the Caribbean Premier League that year, the cricket-loving public of the twin-island republic were the most resistant to the change. Their understandable aversion was based on the historical domestic dominance of the "Red Force" in the format, which has seen them win four of six (T20) tournaments and represent the Caribbean well in the now discontinued Champions League.
The WICB mooted the noble idea of spreading Trinidad's talent around to the respective territories in order to make the CPL more competitive. In this year's edition each team except Jamaica Tallawahs had its fair share of T&T players - Guyana Amazon Warriors had Denesh Ramdin, Lendl Simmons and Sunil Narine; Barbados Tridents had Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Rayad Emrit, Navin Stewart, Imran Khan and Akeal Hosein; St Lucia Zouks had Shannon Gabriel; and St Kitts & Nevis Patriots had Evin Lewis and Nicholas Pooran.
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