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Nasser Hussain, the former England captain turned TV commentator, has criticised the appointment of Hugh Morris and Mike Gatting as the ECB’s new managing directors.In his Daily Mail column, Hussain accused the ECB of not searching “beyond their backyard” and of indulging in a jobs-for-the-boys approach.”As a member of the group put together under Ken Schofield’s chairmanship to look into English cricket, I feel a sense of huge disappointment,” Hussain wrote. “It smacks of jobs for the boys, of the ECB being desperate not to rock the boat nor bring in anyone who might question how they do things. They just want to retain the status quo.”It was not our brief to find the right people, merely to put down guidelines. But I saw this as a fantastic opportunity for our game to bring in new people with exciting ideas.”Maybe the right type of people did not apply, but were enough efforts made to find the right people? Did a head-hunter seek out the very best talent before reaching the conclusion that Morris and Gatting were the best way forward? I would like an explanation.

Hussain warned that England need someone who will do his job rather than be preoccupied with not losing it. He also said that Gatting and Morris were from a different generation to the current players and that the ECB would have better advised to go with someone younger.”Mark Ramprakash would have been ideal in this job,” he said. “I know that he still has ambitions to reach a hundred centuries and maybe even play for England again. But he is someone who knows all about the domestic and international games and the difficulty in bridging the gap between one and the other. He is also young enough to be in touch with how the game is evolving.”And Hussain concluded with a warning about another area covered by the Schofield Report. “One opportunity appears to have been wasted … will the next one, a chance to reinvigorate selection, go the same way?”

Maintaining appearances: Greg Chappell was the man out in themiddle with both captains for the toss. And when Sourav Ganguly’s turncame to have a chat, you’d never have guessed that the two men had beenresponsible for one of the most damaging schisms in the history of Indian sport.Those looking for any drama from the former coach and ex-captain weresorely disappointed.Any time banking: Yuvraj Singh’s dismissal was a huge blow to theKing’s XI Punjab’s hopes of a massive total. But for over a minute, no one couldeven figure out if Wriddhiman Saha had dislodged the bails in time. Thereplay from side-on was inconclusive, thanks largely to the logo of a bankthat kept twirling around the screen even as everyone tried to make out ifthe bail had come out of the groove. Talk about milking every last dollar.Son of Swampy: Sean Marsh was just four when his old man, Geoff[Swampy to his mates], made his highest one-day score. That was down theroad at Chandigarh’s Sector 16 Stadium, in a World Cup match against NewZealand. By the standards of that era, Marsh senior’s knock was a rapidone, and the son showed signs of replicating the feat before a fellowAussie, David Hussey, sent him on his way.Not quite champagne class: With wickets falling in a heap and noboundary for three overs, the crowd was getting restive even in the poshseats above the pavilion. Then, Ishant Sharma misfielded on the rope andthe drumbeats boomed out with renewed vigour. A group of men celebratedwith a spray. Not Dom Perignon, but a soft drink of a dark hue. Othersthat got soaked didn’t look too delighted.A better man?: Having reacted as though he’d been jilted by a loveron being denied an appeal against Debabrata Das, you wondered howSreesanth would react when a subsequent delivery was off-driven for four.With good grace, a word of appreciation and a handclap or two. There was anelement of theatrics when he dismissed him soon after, but it finallylooks like he’s ready to button his lip and let the ball do the talking.Middling it: No matter whether it’s a Test match, a club game in apark or the IPL, there are few finer sights than watching a quick bowlershatter the stumps. When Laxmi Ratan Shukla made room for an expansivedrive, it was VRV Singh’s turn to feel that adrenaline rush, with themiddle stump poleaxed, and the Kolkata Knight Riders down for the count.

The latest intake for South Africa’s High Performance Programme (HPP) includes a number of players with international experience as the selectors continue to assess the depth of talent available. The 23-man squad will attend the high performance centre in May and June before an Emerging Players tournament in Australia during July.JP Duminy, Johan Botha and Robin Peterson – who are in the current Test squad touring Bangladesh – will spend their off season with the HPP while ODI members Albie Morkel and Justin Ontong are also included. After the recent quota row that hit selection for the Bangladesh tour, coloured players are strongly represented.A number of players have been rewarded for impressive domestic seasons including quick bowlers Dillon du Preez and Lonwabo Tsotsobe and batsman Henry Davids. Vaughn van Jaarsveld, who turned his back on a Kolpak deal with Warwickshire, makes his first step towards a possible international career.Joubert Strydom, the convenor of selectors, said more players could be included on a short-term basis depending on their commitments with the national side.”We are extremely happy that these are the players we have earmarked as the next wave of players that should take South African cricket forward,” Strydom said. “Some of them have played for the country at the highest level already; hence, they have been identified to undergo the high performance training in order to ensure their wonderful talents are developed to the full.”Unfortunately, the busy schedule of the South African squad has ruled out some of the younger players currently playing for the Proteas. However, ad hoc invitations could be extended to other individuals where the camp’s content might warrant skill specific development.”Alongside the HPP there will also be a specialist spin camp, in Port Elizabeth, as Cricket South Africa tries to bolster one of the weakest areas of the game which will be led by the national spinners co-ordinator and selector, Shafiek Abrahams. At this camp wicketkeepers will also be invited as will a wider range of talented spinners outside the performance squad.”The HPP is designed to help the South Africa aspirants to take the step to become significant Test, ODI and Pro20 players. The HPP works closely with the franchises as we are all part of CSA integrated pipeline working together to help these players reach their full potential,” Vince Van der Bijl, the high performance general manager, said.Gerald Majola, the CEO of CSA, said South Africa’s recent successes show the value of the HPP: “A number of last year’s graduates from the HPP have made the jump from domestic professional cricket most successfully into international cricket,” he said. “The franchises are to be congratulated on helping to widen the pool from which the Proteas are selected by providing most capable replacements for established players who have retired or lost form.”The HPP has also made it possible to develop more variety into the South African set-up, and this was graphically illustrated in the recent successes against Pakistan, New Zealand and West Indies. We face a challenging season, touring India, England and Australia. The HPP squad and the programme itself will be there to provide meaningful backup in our bid to be the very best”.Squad Ahmed Amla, Gulam Bodi, Loots Bosman, Johan Botha, Henry Davids, Dillon du Preez, JP Duminy, Dean Elgar, Matthew Harris, Imraan Khan, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Ethy Mbhalati, Albie Morkel, Justin Ontong, Alviro Petersen, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Andrew Puttick, Blake Snijman, Thandi Tshabalala, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Vaughn van Jaarsveld.

It may have been the `golden age of cricket’ but Edwardian professionals were treated as a lesser breed, their lives often ending in alcoholism and suicide, as Robert Palmer reveals…

“Smith EJ £1 weekly during winter if willing to work (or 10% weekly if no employment found): £2 weekly during summer and farm out at Leamington if possible, or elsewhere, failing which on ground staff.”Such was a minute in the Warwickshire CCC records for August 23, 1907, referring to the famous ‘Tiger’ Smith, who later became the club coach until his retirement at the age of 77. The minute reads as a very inhuman entry – especially ‘farm out’ – and reflects the undignified haggling which went on to obtain players as cheaply as possible.In the early years of the 1900s, these players were known as ‘professors’, the term possibly originating from their role as coaches at universities. The players may have felt that the term conferred upon them some status, but it certainly did not fill their pockets.Although the players were at liberty to work in the winter, opportunities were not abundant and many relied solely on their wage from the county. At best, this provided a hand-to-mouth existence. Even Willie Quaife, who was probably the highest paid player at Warwickshire at that time, earned only around £125 per year. This sum compared to the pay of a railwayman or a clerk but these professions carried a job for life and a pension at the end of it. A cricketer was usually finished when he was 35.In those clays, there was a huge gap between the income of a working man and those of the upper classes. As the Englishwomen’s Domestic Magazine stated, “A well bred young woman’s trousseau in the early 1900s for lingerie alone was expected to cost £100”. In other words, roughly Jim ‘Tiger’ Smith’s wage. Furthermore players were expected to buy their own kit and to pay their own hotel bills and rail fares. `Tiger’ recalled that “the return fare Birmingham- London then was 9s 7d and you could get dinner, bed and breakfast at the Adelphi in Adam Street for 7s 6d. We had nothing to grumble at”.Admittedly clubs like Warwickshire were not well off. For example, in 1902 there was a bill for the new pavilion of £1,374 to find. The profit for that year was a slender £60. Possibly this was why the players were invited to a dinner in 1902 with the touring Australians on the understanding that they paid for their own drinks. Contrast this with the conditions of today’s cosseted cricketer, with his generous salary, perhaps an England contract, lucrative sponsorship, book deal and six-figure benefit cheque. A Geoffrey Boycott speaking engagement would bring in more than a professor’s annual salary.

Of course the lucky player might expect a Benefit after 10 or 11 years as a capped player. Smith in fact had two Benefits: in 1922, he received £700; and in 1954, he had a testimonial worth £698. This, however, was a rarity. And very often much of a player’s benefit went on paying off debts. The Warwickshire player Johnnie Shilton earned £700 from his Benefit, but he was an undischarged bankrupt and most of the funds were already spoken for by various debtors. The committee was forced to have a discussion about his position, “he being in prison for debt”. Shilton died three years later, aged 37.It has been claimed that Shilton was 42 when he died but, having been unable to gain employment at Warwickshire because he was born a Yorkshireman, he used the birth certificate of his cousin John, who was born in Coventry five years before Shilton.

Cricket, generally, was not a long-lived profession in those days. A further hazard was the weather, which could destroy a player’s one chance of putting by a nest egg for his old age, or perhaps of buying a small shop. A player called Syd Santall, who had taken more than 1,000 wickets for Warwickshire, had his benefit in the match against Yorkshire spoilt by rain and he received only £400, which would be worth about £8,000 today. Scant reward indeed.It was not altogether surprising, therefore, that many players ended their days in penury. This was often due to their own failings, among which an addiction to drink ranked high. The players could not afford much to spend on drink. It was their admirers who were the danger, and clubs made appeals to the public not to treat professionals to a tipple. The impecunious Shilton, who was known as Lord Warwick because he was often seen riding around in a hansom cab, said: “Drink, sir, why I could swim in drink. I wish they wouldn’t give me drink. I wish they would give me the money.” Another said he could have drowned in drink.It was not unknown for players to take to the field the worse for drink. Another Warwickshire player, Frank Foster, who was an amateur but strongly inclined against those of his status, recalled that he had hardly tumbled into bed at seven o’clock in the morning after a night’s carousing than two team mates came into his room, stripped him, put him in the bath and for an hour “pummelled and punched” him. They then ordered him a beef steak and a pint of beer for his breakfast. He recalled that he could hardly crawl to the wicket when play began. Even so, he managed to catch Wilfred Rhodes in the first over. On another occasion he remembers leaving the card table for the breakfast table.These anecdotes are not meant to malign old cricketers as a breed. On the whole they were fine, hard-working, steady types, which made it even worse that they should be treated the way they were. We have all heard Lord Hawke’s dictum “Pray God no professional player is ever allowed to captain England”. The magical gift of leadership was felt to reside only in those who had been to a decent public school.Patsy Hendren, the old Middlesex and England player, spoke about the professionals not only having separate dressing-rooms to the amateurs, but also separate gates to the playing area at Lord’s. In one match it happened that 10 amateurs were in the side together with a solitary professional, Hendren. As a concession he was invited to use the amateur’s gate, but with his quirky sense of humour he insisted on using his own gate in solitary splendour.It was much less humorous for the professors when inferior amateurs, such as public school teachers on their summer holidays, took their places, which often led to them losing badly needed match fees. Also galling was the rule at many clubs that professors were not allowed in the pavilion except at meal times or when they were specially called for.

A particular indignity was the extraneous duties that the players were required to carry out. For example, the professors were expected to umpire club and ground games or to bowl to club members in the nets for a couple of hours. This latter chore was greatly resented, as evidenced by the experience of Shilton. After bowling his heart out at a corpulent member for an hour, he was rewarded with tuppence, the price of half a pint of ale. Legend has it that he threw the money at the member’s feet and shouted, “You must bloody need this more than me”.On another occasion Shilton told a member, a parson wearing a gaudy Free Foresters cap, to “get back to your pulpit where you’ll be more bloody use”. One can imagine the response of the great Fred Trueman to being asked to bowl to plump members wearing multi-coloured hats. ‘Dick’ Lilley and Sam Hargreave, who were both senior Warwickshire professionals, paid £15 apiece in order to secure their release from having to bowl at the members.For all the penury and the indignities, life for the old professors was largely enjoyable; glorious days, in retrospect anyway, of endless sun with springy turf beneath their feet, performing legendary feats in front of adoring crowds. The reality once they hung their boots up was grim. Many could not cope with life after cricket. Then the hangers-on quickly melted away. Presents and souvenirs went to the pawn shops. Suicide was not uncommon: even the great Arthur Shrewsbury, unable to face a summer in which he would not play cricket, shot himself.I once assumed that all cricketers found some congenial benefactor when they retired, someone who provided pleasant work somehow connected with cricket. Unfortunately there were many professors in the early 1900s who had to fend for themselves in the brutish world of the Edwardian underclass. With no marketable skills, many were forced to take ill-paid jobs: if they were lucky, a coaching appointment at a public school; if they were less lucky, working as an unskilled labourer.How surprised the old professors would be if they could come back and see the grounds of today: the ample accommodation, with no separate dressing-rooms, nor gates for amateurs: no amateurs full stop: free and plentiful equipment; a physiotherapist to minister to aches and pains; the indoor schools, the parking spaces for the sponsored cars. The old-timers only had their bicycles to ride.This article first appeared in The Cricketer in September 2002

Haroon Lorgat, the former convenor of Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) selection committee, has been appointed the ICC’s next chief executive officer. Lorgat, 47, will take over from the current CEO, Malcolm Speed, following the ICC Annual Conference, scheduled to take place between June 29 and July 4.Lorgat’s appointment, comes days after Imtiaz Patel, another South African, turned down the ICC’s offer and follows a meeting he had with David Morgan, the ICC’s president-elect, in Pretoria on Wednesday.The appointment was approved by the ICC’s recruitment board, comprising Morgan, the ICC president, Ray Mali, the vice-president, Sharad Pawar and Creagh O’Connor, the chairman of Cricket Australia.Lorgat said he look forward to an “exciting and rewarding journey in a game I have truly loved from a very young age.”He takes over at a time when the game, and the ICC, face several difficult decisions. “I am under no illusion about the challenges that await me but those challenges are also opportunities and I cannot wait to start work at the highest level in such a great game.”Mali expressed his delight at Lorgat’s appointment. “I have worked alongside him for a decade in South African cricket and I have seen first-hand what a great team player he is and that is something that will serve both him and the game extremely well in the years to come.”Lorgat previously held several posts in cricket administration. He was chairman of Western Province Professional Cricket and a board member at Western Province Cricket Association.He also served as a finance committee member for the United Cricket Board of South Africa (1999-2004), was a member of the ICC’s World Cup finance committee (2000-2003), was a board director and treasurer of CSA (2003-2004) and a selector (2001-2003). In 2004, he was appointed as chairman of selectors for CSA, a position he held until 2007.

As the final session of a gripping Test match unfolded, Michael Vaughan allowed his thoughts to drift back to the last time England were in Kandy. Then, as now, a great escape had been in the offing, as England ground agonisingly towards sunset, the only thing that could spare them from their Muralitharan-induced fate. They managed it on that occasion, inching across the line with three wickets still in hand. This time they were not so fortunate, slumping to defeat with approximately 20 minutes of serviceable daylight still remaining.It was a gut-wrenching result for a side that had grabbed the ascendancy with five cheap wickets on the first morning of the match. But by the time an immobile Matthew Hoggard had his stumps detonated by a Lasith Malinga yorker, England had long since relinquished their superiority. “Gameplans, gameplans,” had been the mantra in the build-up to this Test, but regardless of the guts displayed by Ian Bell and Matt Prior in an uplifting 109-run stand for the seventh wicket, England’s naivety was their defining characteristic.Even Vaughan accepted that to be the case. “I can’t ask any more in terms of character and fight, just a little bit more expertise I guess,” he admitted after the match. This is Vaughan’s third visit to Sri Lanka, but never has he come here as part of such an inexperienced squad. In 2000-01, he was the rookie as Nasser Hussain’s generation achieved their defining result, and three years later, many of the same characters were still on show, particularly among the batsmen.This time, there are just three veterans in a squad of 16, which has meant a lot of learning-on-the-hoof out in the middle – particularly, and predictably, against Muralitharan. On England’s last visit, it was his newly acquired doosra that ultimately did for the visitors, but now – having reclaimed his world record from Shane Warne – he seems to have adopted some of Warne’s kidology as well. Like Warne and his mythical zooter, Murali’s deadliest weapon in this match turned out to be the offspinner that didn’t actually spin.England did astonishingly well to repel Murali for as long as they did. For 32 overs he toiled without reward, on a track that he had predicted – through decades of cricket on his home ground – would get slower and lower as the match progressed. England’s batsmen did as they had done four years earlier, and rocked onto the back foot to watch the slow snaking of the old ball right onto the middle of their bats.But the defining moment of the day came when Jayawardene called for the new ball. At a subconscious level, England’s incumbents, Bell and Prior, possibly believed they had done what Collingwood and Sidebottom managed in the first innings, and repelled the threat at least temporarily. Not a bit of it. Murali continued unchanged with a shiny, hard ball in his fingers, and within 14 deliveries he’d wrecked England’s hopes with both the big wickets. The doosra did for Prior and the offbreak for Bell, but neither ripped as they had been doing all day long. Instead they bounced and almost seamed, much in the manner that Anil Kumble has collected his tally of 578 wickets.”That’s why he’s a world-champion performer,” said Vaughan. “At six-down after lunch, we were realistically looking at losing mid-afternoon. But the way those guys played Murali, and the way they played the reversing ball, they showed a hell of a lot of character. We played him well for most of the day, but when you’ve got bowlers like him in your armoury it only takes a split second to change the game. That’s the mystery of the guy and it makes him so difficult to face.”For Bell, the failure to close out the game will have been particularly galling. The extent of his talent as a batsman is no longer in question. He is beginning to rack up runs against all opponents and in all conditions. But it is as if he has yet to receive the advice that Kumar Sangakkara spoke of after his massive performance in Sri Lanka’s second innings – the obligation to see your innings right through to the end. When Vaughan suggested that the turning point of the match had come with England’s failure to build on their start in the first innings, he might have had Bell’s dismissal for 83 at the forefront of his mind. He had played the seamers with such assurance that to hole out off Murali’s bowling seemed a dereliction of duty.Vaughan vowed that England would take this defeat on the chin and move on to Colombo with a positive intent. But the three-day turnaround is going to be an tough one. They are already facing up to the fact that Hoggard is a non-starter because of his back problems, and other problems exist in all facets of their game. Alastair Cook looks horribly out of sorts against the swinging left-arm delivery – a legacy of the working-over he received from Zaheer Khan in the summer – while Monty Panesar seemed palpably unsuited to the pace of this Kandy track. If Murali had to struggle so hard for his breakthroughs, it’s not exactly surprising.As the team boards their bus for Colombo, there’s more to ponder that just a spirit-sapping defeat.

Kenya’s ambitions to bridge the gap between themselves and the Full Member countries have been dealt a blow by the news that Roger Harper will not be renewing his contract as coach after the ICC World Twenty20.Harper took charge in January 2006 and has had considerable success in rebuilding a side that hardly played in the previous three years. In February this year Kenya won the World League Division One, a success which earned them a place in the ICC World Twenty20. The Kenyan side has also become far more disciplined in his time at the helm.Harper turned down an invitation to continue because of family commitments in the Caribbean.”Roger has been a truly marvellous ambassador for the game of cricket,” Samir Inamdar, Cricket Kenya’s chairman, told Cricinfo. “His steadying influence at a time when our cricket was in pieces has been an outstanding feature of his stay here. It has, I believe, succeeded in bringing our national team together into a cohesive and disciplined unit.”Kenya will look to fill the vacancy immediately after the tournament. Harper’s successor will be appointed for the period ending June 2009.

Scorecard
India Under-19s continued their good form with a seven-wicket win over South Africa, to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.India’s win was set up by their bowlers who restricted South Africa to less than 200 in both innings. Ravindra Jadeja, the left-arm spinner, took seven in the match including 5 for 32 in South Africa’s second innings.Bowling first, India put themselves in an excellent position after dismissing the hosts for a paltry 164. Only Riley Rossouw stood in their way with 83, and just two other batsmen reached double figures. Pradeep Sangwan took 3 for 37, while Harshad Khadiwale, Garikina Prasad and Jadeja bagged a couple each.Khadiwale then led India’s reply, putting on an unbeaten century stand with Abhinav Mukund at the close of the first day’s play. South Africa’s bowlers performed little better on the second, restricting India to a lead of 95. Khadiwale, Mukund and Virat Kohli, the captain, scored fifties for India, but the rest of the batsmen failed to drive home the advantage.South Africa’s top order then wiped clean the deficit, finishing day two on 116 for 1, leading by 21. However, India fought back on the final day to dismiss the hosts for 176, with Jadeja picking up five, leaving them a mere 82 to chase.India’s batsmen needed only 15.4 overs to complete an emphatic seven-wicket win. Tanmay Srivastava was unbeaten on 34, while Roy Adams picked up two wickets in his three overs.The second and final match of the series begins in Chatsworth on January 16.

Andrew Symonds says he will not tour Pakistan next year unless he is convinced the country has become more safe than in the days following the assassination of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Symonds said while Australia’s visit had not been cancelled, he would be prepared to pull out if selected.”I’m not interested in going into a situation that’s dangerous, where people are getting killed and hurt,” Symonds told the . “There’s no point in that, in my opinion. I’m giving it some serious thought.”At the end of the day, it’s a game of cricket. I take my cricket very seriously and I love playing for Australia but I’m not going to put myself in a situation where I can be harmed. There’s no need, not for a game of cricket.”Australia are scheduled to tour Pakistan in March and they are unlikely to make a decision on whether the trip will go ahead until a Cricket Australia security delegation assesses the conditions in February. Symonds said he would also be monitoring news reports and would speak to people who had spent time in Pakistan to learn more about the situation.”You personally choose whether you want to play for Australia,” Symonds said. “If you’re selected, you can choose to decline the offer of going on a tour or playing a game. Unless CA hear otherwise, they assume you’re playing. At some point a decision needs to be made. We don’t know if things can get worse [in Pakistan].”As it stands, we’re still going. It is not a place you want to be right now, but there is some water to go under the bridge. The assassination of someone that important is not ideal is it?”Symonds said news of Bhutto’s death had left the Australian dressing-room in silence after the third day of the Melbourne Test as the implications began to sink in. “There is obviously huge concern,” he said. “After stumps we watched the television report in the dressing-room and the entire room stopped to listen to it.”Mitchell Johnson said the players trusted in Cricket Australia to make the right choice on whether to tour. “Security are going over to see what it’s like,” Johnson said. “The trip is a long way away and no decisions are being made at the moment.”The 2002-03 Pakistan-Australia series was held in Sharjah and Sri Lanka but the Pakistan Cricket Board said they were not interested in relocating this season’s games. If the tour goes ahead three Tests are expected to be played between March 17 and April 6, to be followed by five ODIs.

The inquest into the death of former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer entered its seventh week with coroner Patrick Murphy summarising the statements of five more witnesses on Monday. Murphy had been unwell last week and unable to complete his summary.The inquest in Kingston, Jamaica, heard evidence from 57 witnesses and statements from seven other persons. The 11-member jury is expected to deliver its verdict within this week. In the event of the jury failing to agree, the court would accept a majority verdict.Woolmer died hours after he was found unconscious in his Jamaica hotel room on March 18, a day after Pakistan suffered a humiliating defeat to Ireland at the World Cup. Dr Ere Seshaiah, the government pathologist who conducted the post mortem, declared that Woolmer was murdered but three independent pathologists all concluded later that Woolmer died due to natural causes.