The case for Vishnu Vinod, Tanmay Agarwal, Basil Thampi, Mohammed Siraj, Ishank Jaggi and T Natarajan to be bought at the auction

Deivarayan Muthu19-Feb-20175:38

‘Teams will look to buy fast bowlers and allrounders’

Vishnu VinodA punchy opening batsman who can also keep wicket, Vinod shellacked 14 sixes – the most by any player – in the Inter-State Twenty20 2016-17. His hitting included four consecutive sixes off Goa left-arm spinner Sher Yadav in the arc between deep midwicket and long-on. The pick of the lot was the second, when he advanced down the pitch and hit the roof of the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.”Being aggressive with the bat comes naturally to me,” Vinod said after Kerala’s win against Goa. “Sticking with that approach has helped so far. I don’t intend to change that unless it becomes necessary … IPL is something I’ve been wanting to be a part of all this time. I just want to go out there and keep doing my best so that selectors can take notice of me.”Basil ThampiVinod’s Kerala team-mate Thampi consistently clocked speeds north of 140kph and hustled batsmen with pace and bounce in the Inter-State and Inter-Zonal T20s. He claimed eight wickets in five matches in the Inter-State T20s and had an economy of 6.22, including 3 for 19 against Goa.Thampi had also impressed in the VAP Memorial Trophy – the 50-over tournament conducted by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association – taking 11 scalps in five matches for Globe Trotters at an average of 14.91 and economy rate of 4.10.Tanmay AgarwalA product of Hyderabad age-group cricket, Agarwal, 21, was the highest run-scorer in the Inter-State T20s, with 250 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 162.33. Four batsmen topped 200 runs in the tournament, with only Agarwal having a strike rate in excess of 150.The opener is not just about power-hitting, though. He also showed good awareness by placing the ball into gaps. After his 49-ball 85 led Hyderabad to a 72-run victory over Tamil Nadu, his coach B Arun said: “He has played this kind of an innings before. He looks diminutive, but packs a punch in his strokes … Tanmay made use of the pace of the bowlers to play shots in areas such as fine leg. When you play such shots, it makes the bowler think.”T Natarajan bowled six yorkers in a Super Over against Tuti Patriots•TNPLIshank Jaggi“Better late than never,” Jaggi might have thought after he elbowed his way into the IPL player auction two days before the event, with a 30-ball 56 that inspired East Zone to the Inter-Zonal T20 title. East Zone won all four matches in the tournament, with Jaggi hitting three half-centuries, including a brutal 51-ball 90 against South Zone. The knock, studded with eleven fours and four sixes, helped East chase down 179.Jaggi is the leading run-getter in the history of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, with 1246 runs at an average of 34.61 and a strike of 120.03. The 28-year-old Jharkhand batsman also had a productive Ranji Trophy season, making 890 runs at 59.33 in the side’s run to the semi-final.T NatarajanOne of the major success stories of the inaugural season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), left-arm medium-pacer T Natarajan bowled six yorkers in a Super Over against Tuti Patriots, to choke his state captain Abhinav Mukund and Washington Sundar, who represented India in the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh last year.Natarajan went on to establish himself in Tamil Nadu’s first-class set-up. He was a vital part of Tamil Nadu’s bowling revival in the Ranji Trophy, collecting 24 wickets in eight matches. His ability to nail yorkers resurfaced in the Inter-State T20s when he bowled five in an over, at the death against Karnataka on T20 debut.Mohammed SirajA fast bowler with a strong action and a deceptive bouncer, Siraj played a starring role for Hyderabad in his first full season, as they reached the Ranji Trophy knockouts for the first time since 2011-12. His nine-wicket haul in the quarter-finals then nearly upset Mumbai. Siraj followed that with nine wickets in the Inter-State T20s and had an economy rate of 6.57. He has earned call-ups to the Rest of India and India A sides this season. Will he earn an IPL deal?

Two wins, six losses and a washout. With only five more matches to go for them, Royal Challengers Bangalore can lose another match and still make it to playoffs

S Rajesh29-Apr-2017Royal Challengers Bangalore have been going through a wretched run in IPL 2017, and are currently languishing at five points from nine games. Qualifying for the playoffs looks a distant dream, but mathematically they are not out of the race yet. If they win all remaining five games and finish with 15 points, they could still make it among the top four; in fact, they can afford another loss, finish on 13 points, and still make the playoffs.The advantage for the laggards this season is that two teams – Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians – have distanced themselves from the rest of the group, while a third – Sunrisers Hyderabad – has also performed better than the others. In such a scenario, the qualification mark for the fourth team could be much lower than is usually the case. If the top three teams keep winning, and the rest lose most of their remaining games, even 13 points could be enough for Royal Challengers to qualify.Here is just one example of how Royal Challengers could still make the playoffs: They win each of their remaining matches and go to 15 points Knight Riders, currently on 14 from nine, win three of the remaining five games to move to 20, while Mumbai Indians win three out of six to go to 18 Sunrisers Hyderabad take third spot with 17 points by winning three of their remaining five games Rising Pune Supergiant lose five of their remaining six games to finish on 10 Gujarat Lions and Delhi Daredevils win three of their remaining matches each, while Kings XI Punjab win twoIn such a scenario, the final points tally will be as follows:Knight Riders – 20, Mumbai Indians – 18, Sunrisers Hyderabad – 17, Royal Challengers – 15, Gujarat Lions – 12, Rising Pune, Kings XI and Daredevils – 10 each.That means Royal Challengers could still lose another one – they have a game each against the two top teams of the tournament – and yet potentially make it without even relying on net run rates. Given the way they have been playing so far, all of this looks quite far-fetched, but there is still plenty to play for, for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

With Rising Pune Supergiant needing only 33 from the last four overs, that too with eight wickets in hand, it took a special performance from Mumbai Indians’ end-overs bowlers to steal a one-run win

Arun Venugopal in Hyderabad22-May-2017For 16 overs, Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant had circled each other warily. Mumbai knew a target of 130 was below par, but Rising Pune were aware it was a tricky trek on a spongy surface. Like hardened snipers, they ensured every changing detail in a mercurial situation was documented and assessed. Even the direction of the wind was studied, but more on that later.After 15 overs, 47 runs stood between Rising Pune and a memorable maiden title. Their current and former captains – Steven Smith and MS Dhoni – know how to strip chases to their barest essentials, and provided a refresher class on how it’s done by collecting a six and a four off Krunal Pandya, the man responsible for Mumbai making 129 in the first place.Thirty-three runs required in four overs. Rising Pune were now favourites. Mumbai realised the time for sniping was over and reverted to a frontal assault.Jasprit Bumrah is only 23, but his consistency and inch-perfect finishing skills make him the obvious attack leader. Just ask England, who couldn’t score eight runs off the last over against him in Nagpur. There is no real mystery to him: everyone knew he was going to bowl two of the last four overs and whip up a combination of yorkers and slower balls. But because he is so good so often, merely knowing what he is going to do is only as effective as a full-throated scream a split-second before a speeding truck runs over you.The 17th over was like a highlights reel of his best deliveries. Bumrah started off with a full ball to Smith, but didn’t repeat it against MS Dhoni. Bumrah knew Dhoni could bring his whippy wrists into play against the full-length delivery, and that if he missed the yorker by even this much, Dhoni would smack it out of sight. Dhoni had, in fact, taken 17 runs off Bumrah in 10 balls, including two sixes, in the first Qualifier.On this night, though, Dhoni would last only one delivery against Bumrah. He bowled it on the shorter side of a good length and kept it close to off stump, to deny Dhoni swinging room. He attempted to punch it through point and edged to the keeper. Finding a bit of reverse swing, Bumrah then bowled length to Manoj Tiwary; three fast, inswinging deliveries, the last two being dots. Ladies and gentlemen, only three runs conceded in the over.Thirty required off three overs. Not an easy ask for Rising Pune, but you wouldn’t put it past Smith to gun it down. Rohit Sharma, Mumbai’s captain, knew he had to lean on Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson to sandwich Bumrah’s 19th. Johnson, though, had played only four games before this in IPL 2017, and Malinga had had an underwhelming tournament.With a genial smile plastered on a chubby face topping a chubbier body, Malinga, 33, looked more the friendly neighbourhood uncle than a scary death-overs merchant. Before this match, he had conceded at 11.07 per over at the death this season, and given the pace he had lost, his yorkers were now easier for batsmen to get under. This probably explained why he was no longer the first-choice death bowler for Mumbai. Malinga probably realised that he needed to work on a few things when he opted out of a couple of games mid-season.With seven required from four balls, Steven Smith sliced Mitchell Johnson straight to sweeper cover•BCCIOn Sunday night, Malinga mixed up length deliveries and slower balls and didn’t overdo the yorker in his first two overs. He sucker-punched Ajinkya Rahane with a slower one in his first over, but Krunal Pandya shelled an easy chance at short extra-cover. It wasn’t until his third over that Malinga went full-tilt at the yorker. One of them nearly took Smith’s leg stump with it.As much as Malinga’s spell of 3-0-14-0 should have pleased captain Rohit, he was sweating over whether to bowl him out in the 18th or save him for the last over. But the fact that Malinga had more games under his belt prompted Rohit to hand the last over to Johnson. While both Malinga and Johnson would bowl with the wind from the VVS Laxman pavillion end, Rohit was reluctant to have Malinga bowl the last over from that end. He felt Johnson would be a better fit with his slower balls and offcutters.”It was always a gamble between Malinga and Johnson to bowl that last over. Malinga has played quite a few games for us and he was in that rhythm so I thought better to go with him [in the 18th over]. Johnson, we knew that his slower balls, offcutters and taking the ball away from the right-handers will be difficult in the end and, again, hitting against the wind will be even more difficult, so that was the plan. You know, it worked. Sometimes when it doesn’t work it looks very bad.”Malinga had grown more comfortable with his yorkers and it showed. He sent down a fast, indipping yorker that sneaked between Smith’s legs. He almost nailed another yorker with his next ball, but Smith squared the ledgers by stepping deep in his crease, shortening the length a fraction, and flicking it wide of long leg. By going for only seven, though, Malinga had done his bit.”Malinga and Bumrah are probably the two best death bowlers we have seen in this tournament. They’ve done it again and again consistently,” Rohit said. “This year Malinga has probably not found his way so much, but we wanted Malinga to be in the fray and we knew somewhere down the line the experience will count.”The last three overs… of course they’ve been put in that situation many a time and they have done it not just for IPL teams but also for their countries. We can talk as much as we want. At the end of the day, it’s about going and implementing on the field. That’s what these three fast bowlers did”.Twenty three off two overs. The ball was now back with Bumrah, and he conceded only four off his first four balls. But Smith’s brilliance off the last two balls put the game in the balance – he went deep in his crease again, and an attempted yorker that was only a few inches off-length went sailing over long-off; then Smith worked a full-toss into the leg side to pick up two.Eleven required off the last over. It seemed like Mumbai had a dozen captains. Everyone was screaming at a fielder within earshot, asking him to move a little to the left or right or just reminding him to stay put. Rohit, meanwhile, was discussing fields with Johnson and Bumrah, but Malinga didn’t want to be left out of the conversation. He was all whirry hands and feet. The animation on his face was an amusing counterpoint to Johnson’s placidness. This was great theatre.The last shot Steven Smith played was timed sweetly, but straight to the fielder•BCCIUp to this point, one of Johnson’s biggest contributions had been mentoring the younger fast bowlers in the team. He wouldn’t have even been on the field had Mitchell McClenaghan, the fourth-highest wicket-taker of the tournament, been fit. Heck, Johnson wasn’t even sure of playing in this year’s IPL.On the surface, it may have seemed as if Mumbai had a thing for internationally retired and seemingly over-the-hill cricketers, but Johnson was a typically calculated pick, even if at a relatively steep INR 2 crore.He was the fourth-highest wicket-taker in the 2016-17 Big Bash League with 13 from nine matches and an economy rate of under six. At the death, he had gone at 6.60. What was not to love? Johnson had, moreover, played a starring role in Mumbai’s victorious 2013 campaign.But, after the fields were set and reset a million times, what did Johnson do? Bowl an offcutter slanting away from off stump, but Tiwary neatly shuffled across and scooped a four over square leg.Seven from five. Johnson saw Tiwary back away, looking to go over extra-cover, and followed him with another slower cutter. The mistimed shot was held at long-on.Johnson later said he was looking to make Smith hit towards the leg side, the bigger side of the ground. Did things go to plan, though? Yes and no. Seeing Johnson come around the wicket, Smith backed away and creamed a full ball sweetly, off the stumps, over the off side. Luckily for Johnson, it went straight to Ambati Rayudu at sweeper cover, the only fielder in the vicinity.”Fortunately I was able to deliver at pressure moments,” Johnson told the official broadcaster after the match. “It was well set up in the last couple of overs. We needed to get Smith off strike and get him out. He gave himself room. It was a good shot but not good enough at the end.”After Bumrah was hit for a six in the penultimate over, Johnson realised he had no other choice but to be deadly accurate with his plans. “I wasn’t thinking too much, just wanted to be clear with my plan: bowl full at the stumps and get the guys to hit leg side. [For] Smithy, off side isn’t his strength, fortunate the shot went to hand,” he said. “I told Bumrah that it helped me that [Smith] hit him for six off that second-last ball. I felt like I was more clear then. We got less runs, but we had to be spot on.”Rohit said the plan was to not give Smith too much pace to work with. “Johnson was bowling against the wind and we wanted him to hit into the wind and that was the plan,” he said. “But he came and bowled a nearly perfect yorker and he sliced it right to Rayudu. He was probably not expecting that catch to come to him. To take that catch under pressure was brilliant.”As for Johnson, 35, he isn’t saying goodbye to the IPL anytime soon. “Mumbai picked me and look what happened,” he said. “I’ll play a few T20 competitions around the world and hopefully get back in next year.”

Vinod Rai, the chairman of Indian cricket’s interim committee of administrators, evaluates the first 100 days of their tenure, and talks about working with the BCCI

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi11-May-2017You walked in as a nightwatchman and have survived 100 days.
Why do you say survived? I came in as a nightwatchman largely because I did not see a place for the COA over a long tenure. We have a very limited mandate. That mandate is the reforms the Supreme Court has asked us to implement.Could you tell us about the roles you identified for each of the members?
Vikram [Limaye, CEO and MD of IDFC Bank] is very good at finance-related issues. He is very good at comparing the various revenue and governance models that have recently been debated by the ICC board. Diana [Edulji, former India women’s captain] brings in a huge amount of experience from the players’ perspective. I find a lot of players gravitating towards her and giving her their inputs. No one knows the state associations as well as Ram [Guha, historian] does. Tell him any state association and he will rattle off statistics etc. The Supreme Court has brought together a bunch of very cohesive people with diverse experiences. As far as I am concerned, probably I can handle people better.Given your experience as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), what has this experience with the BCCI been like?
The BCCI has not really been a challenge. I was the CAG for only close to six years, but we have been trained to handle people and issues that are far more diverse and divergent in a large number of ways. But as the CAG, you call the shots. As a COA member, you don’t. Whatever you say can be contested by the BCCI office-bearers or state associations. So I don’t really have any power. I have to keep running back to the court. We have to work with the BCCI office-bearers because there is no way we can be effective if we don’t work with them.Has it been more or less complicated than dealing with taxation issues and governmental scams at a national level? Is there a common quality that has worked for you in both roles?
I understand people and where they come from. The BCCI is an institution. Any institution is an aggregation of people. You have to break it down to the people who run that institution. Handling the employees of the BCCI is not a problem, but the office-bearers bring to the table the strength of the institutions they represent. The constituencies of these office-bearers are very different. Basically you need to understand where they coming from and then try and analyse how they are looking at a particular issue.Has work on fulfilling your mandate started?
It has now. May 6 was the first time that the dialogue with the state associations started directly. We spent the larger part of February and March engaged in issues such as helping the IPL take off. Also, immediately upon taking charge, we had to deal with the ICC quarterly meetings in February. Then we were tied up with the residual issues from those meetings. The role of the COA and the office-bearers was also not clear. Only later in March, the court clarified, and since then we have been working together with the three office-bearers.In our meeting with the state associations we explained the entire reform process. I am fairly confident that, going forward, if I have two more dialogues with them, we would be able to narrow down the issues where they have differences of opinion with the Lodha Committee recommendations.Why did you feel that carrying out discussions with the state associations was important?
I wanted to brief them before the special general meeting (SGM), that if they were going to vote, they better know what they were going to vote for. I sincerely believed they did not know what they were voting for and that turned out to be true because of what the states said.Secondly, it was the first time I was meeting the state associations. So that was my opening gambit, to say to them, “Look, we need to be in conversation with each other.” They are all positively oriented, thinking people. The only thing is their thinking and their perspective was exceedingly narrow. They just did not know that there was an ICC governance model and a finance model. And the finance model, as far as we are concerned, is crumbs.I told them if the BCCI members had decided to withdraw from the ICC on the basis of the differences on the governance model, the COA will back them. But not on the finance model. You cannot put Indian cricket to risk.

“Some of these people think: ‘I know it much better and I am a visionary. What do the others know?'”

Most state associations were happy to talk with the COA, but they felt that the conversations should have happened earlier. They seem, in fact, more keen on individual interactions?
Yes, I am aware. One of the state associations was slightly combative, saying: why the COA did not brief them earlier? I informed them that when the BCCI decided on a date for the SGM in April, Rahul Johri [the BCCI CEO] had informed the office-bearers that I was travelling and [asked] whether the date could be rescheduled. The office-bearers’ prompt response was they could not and that I could join via video conference.Nonetheless we had already sent an 11-page letter to the ICC explaining the BCCI’s preliminary observations about the draft ICC constitution and finance model. About eight and half pages were dedicated to the new governance model. Rahul and his legal team had drafted that letter, but I made quite a few changes. We [bureaucrats] are good at writing letters and are file-pushers.Is it true that you have told the state associations to list the Lodha recommendations they believe are impractical and that you will then go jointly to the court and present those difficulties?
Each one of them [state associations] has a viewpoint and all of them have filed cases against the recommendations. I told them one fine day the court might wake up and throw every objection out and just say, “You don’t want to convene the AGM? Okay, [the new] constitution is adopted. Full stop.” Then they are stuck.I told them when they still had the time, why don’t they think, and then the COA will tell the court that out of the, say, 20 recommendations, 18 are adopted. The court might just accede or may not, but at least you will give the court the impression that by and large you have accepted the recommendations.Which are the recommendations that a majority of state associations are against?
Most are up against the one state, one vote; having three instead of five national selectors; and having an age cap of 70 for administrators.The tenure terms seem to be another point of disagreement. Office-bearers across the country feel a three-year term, then a cooling off period of three years, and a maximum of three terms allows neither the individual nor the organisation to benefit.
That is clearly not going to change. Ninety per cent are happy with it. They thought the tenure would be limited to just nine years, but it is nine years separately at the state [level] and nine at the BCCI.In a column in the Week magazine, you wrote: “Somewhere in the management of the game, the office-bearers appeared to have lost sight of the interest of cricket and began to pursue their own interpretation of what cricket should be.” What is their interpretation, according to you?
Unfortunately what happens is, if you are in an institution for very long, your thinking morphs into institutional thinking. If I had been at the CAG for ten to 15 years, I would have thought Vinod Rai is CAG and CAG is Vinod Rai. So, in some ways, the Lodha Committee was very right: any institution needs to move on. Fresh blood, fresh thinking must come.”We want to provide a structure to the BCCI. Issues likes what should be the accounting norms, what should be the powers of the BCCI president, secretary, treasurer. Where does the CEO fit in, and the apex council”•PTI You called the office-bearers’ “patriotism” to the game “unparalleled”. They opposed this reform till the Supreme Court ordered it, and even now their concern for the game compels them to fight on. Do you still remain optimistic?
Of course the COA is optimistic. We will get them [state associations] around. Recently we saw opposing forces within the BCCI coming together, asking to issue a notice to the ICC, saying BCCI’s will must prevail otherwise India will withdraw. That is what I called “patriotism”, as it comes from the vested interests of individuals.When the COA took over, it was told the one-off Test against Bangladesh and the series against Australia would not be allowed to take place. Why? Because if they [state associations] are not in a position, there will be no cricket. Some state associations said they will not give their venues for the IPL since they own the grounds. We had to overcome that.How did you?
There were different ways. We told them IPL gives them livelihood. Cricket in India is not a passion, it is a religion. How can you say IPL will not be played? The COA spoke to them individually.Would it be fair to say on the basis of your direct dealings with the BCCI, that it was or is made up of a leadership that did not take the opinions or the doubts of the wider organisation into consideration when taking critical decisions following the Lodha Committee report?
Yes, it happens because I [the office-bearer/administrator] have been in the job long enough to believe that what I think is good for the institution and so I don’t have to take others’ opinions at all. Some of these people think: “I know it much better and I am a visionary. What do the others know?”As a counter, what does the COA know?
I subscribe to that viewpoint: what does the COA know? The only thing the COA has done is a 360-degree evaluation of all viewpoints. We have independent thought process. With the diverse experience that we bring to bear, the COA is far more capable of objectively evaluating the interests of cricket in India than these people who have been in the job for a long time.On the ICC negotiations, the COA stand has been very clear: stop confronting, start talking. You feel India cannot all the time be selfish about its share of the ICC revenues proportionate to what it brings to the table. But why should the BCCI not be protective of what it believes it has a right on? It has to be 100% protective of what it believes is its right. I would not like to give an inch on it. There was a time when Cricket Australia and the ECB controlled cricket. Time came when the ICC headquarters moved out of London to Dubai. Time came when the BCCI was in a position to twist arms and get the 2014 model [the Big Three] in place. But within a year of the model being signed by everybody, there were murmurs and opposition came about.So you are not always in a position where you can ram things through. If you are in such a position, you can do it, but you can only do it very short-term.Take the ICC’s new finance model, wherein the BCCI has only been allotted US$293m. It has come about because of an attempt by the ICC to make the distribution of revenue more equitable. In the discussions that the COA had with eight member countries, we had worked out a model where the other countries would not be worse off and yet India would have gotten much of the share due to it. Unfortunately in our recent negotiations, we seemed to have been chasing the mirage of $570m. We need to be realistic. A collaborative effort will take us far. Confrontation will be short-lived.

“Why should the BCCI not be protective of what it believes it has a right on? It has to be 100% protective of what it believes is its right. I would not like to give an inch on it”

In the February 2016 SGM, the BCCI gave its president Shashank Manohar [the right] to negotiate and come back with a 25% reduction [from the BCCI’s share of the ICC’s revenues]. With experienced people like Manohar, Sharad Pawar, Anurag Thakur, Ajay Shirke sitting in that SGM, they took a decision to negotiate. They did not say the BCCI is above everybody else and we must have our preeminent position. On the contrary, in April [2017], the BCCI gave Amitabh Choudhary [board secretary] a mandate saying negotiate only for $570 million or nothing. This obviously was a very flawed strategy.Does the objective that Manohar has in mind sync with you?
Not really. Ours is a very narrow objective: we are concerned solely with the interest of the BCCI. He is looking at a macro picture, where it needs to be an equitable distribution among all boards. The BCCI is looking at the picture where, rather being one of the ten, we are now one of the 17 members at the ICC board.Clearly, you have busted the myth that the COA and ICC are on the same page.
That 11-page letter sent in March says it all. Secondly, the fact that we negotiated with eight Full Member countries and got them on to our side before the ICC board voted last month. My question to some of the critics is: why did the BCCI not revoke the Members’ Participation Agreement last February, when the position was exactly the same?Do you reckon this approach of yours to engage with the BCCI office-bearers is working?
I am convinced it is working. We will build consensus on all these issues going forward. Where do you go from here?
It is still a long haul, but that ends in October. I am very realistic, because I don’t see a place for the COA in the BCCI in the long term. We want to provide a structure to the BCCI. It does not have one right now. It is run by individual styles. It is personality-oriented. We will put a structure in place and ensure that there are systems that will make this structure work.Issues like, what should be the accounting norms, what should be the powers of the BCCI president, secretary, treasurer. Where does the CEO fit in, because the BCCI constitution does not have any place for a CEO. And finally the apex council – where it fits in. That is a rough outline of the structure I am talking about.There have been instances when the entire finance department of a state government went on strike and yet the budget was presented on schedule. No one is indispensable. Tomorrow when we finish our job, the BCCI will continue to run smoothly.A dozen former India players, including Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar have supported the view that India should participate in the Champions Trophy. Isn’t the players’ support a key aspect of reforms?
Recently I met Tendulkar when I was launching a book based on him. I took the opportunity to tell him: “My call upon on you is that you are an icon, a legend and Indian cricket has ridden on your shoulders for such a long time. People like you, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly, Kapil Dev must come forward and not only mentor players but also speak up for the cause of cricket.” I asked him if he really believed that India should not participate in the Champions Trophy, to which he said we should. I told him then to please speak up and say what a terrible loss it would be for cricket in India if we did not participate.You remain optimistic then?
Of course, I do. I am very optimistic. I feel fresh thinking needs to be introduced at the BCCI. This fresh thinking would be devoid of baggage.

As a fielder, Shadab Khan is a live wire; as a bowler, he has a googly to make you sit up straight

Osman Samiuddin29-Mar-2017Ravi Bopara patted the ball down towards point and set off for what he probably thought was a routine single. He knows the PSL as well as anybody. Last year he was Man of the Tournament, and as a bonus, he was initiated into off-field Pakistan, having to take over as captain of an unhappy Karachi side after Shoaib Malik abruptly resigned. He has played enough Pakistan sides too, so that, at the time of playing this shot, he would have been pretty assured in his estimation of what was likely to happen.He must have thought – reasonably so, let’s be honest – that the fielder at point, Pakistani, would run in to the ball at the wrong angle. And that he would be slower than a point fielder he might come across in other leagues (in the Big Bash, Bopara might not have attempted the single at all). Or that he would fumble the pick-up. And if he did do all that right, there was no way he’d hit the stumps. No way. And if he did, then the throw would not be bullet enough to beat him, a first-world batsman, fitter and quicker than most Pakistani batsmen the fielder would have thrown against. The best the fielder could hope for was that he might end up looking good, just with zilch outcome.Except that this fielder did everything right. Attacked the ball. Did so from the right angle. Kept his eye on the ball as he picked it up. Was moving as he did. Left arm came out to steady and take quick aim. Let go like a baseball pitcher. The throw was Ravi Shastri – tracer bullet – bouncing once before hitting the top of the stumps. This was slick, seriously dance-move slick. Bopara was a good foot short. How was he to know?In real time, and on first glance from the open-air press box in Sharjah, the reflex was to think it must have been one of Islamabad United’s foreign players. But who? Sam Billings was boundary-riding. Shane Watson was at first slip, and anyway he stopped moving like that last century, if he ever did. Brad Haddin was next to him, with the gloves on. Dwayne Smith would have covered that ground over the course of a year maybe, not milliseconds.Shadab runs out Ravi Bopara in the Islamabad United v Karachi Kings match of February 17•CricingifThen, the revelation on replay: Shadab Khan. Pakistani. For real?For the disbelievers, the entire sequence duplicated itself next ball. Babar Azam dabbed to point. In scurried Shadab, same pick-up, same speed, same slickness, except this time he missed. Good thing too, for had he hit, it would have torn a massive hole in the continuum of reality as we know it, because how many Pakistanis have ever pulled off two run-outs in two balls?This whole business – a little play of ultra-modern fielding by an athlete from cricket’s least modern fielding nation – it eventually turned out, was no accident. Shadab loves fielding. When he was first getting into cricket, in a house of older brothers, fielding was often all he got to do in organised games. And he loves it in spite of the fact that he grew up fielding on grounds that are deathtraps for athletes. He recalled in an interview to his PSL franchise, Islamabad United, the days he used to fling himself around on rough, non-manicured outfields, strewn with stones and pebbles, uncaring of what damage he inflicted on himself. So much so that Mohammad Nawaz, a club team-mate then, and an international one now, would tell him to hold back a little and not hurt himself. In Pakistani attitudes to fielding, Nawaz’s caution is the rule, not the exception.So fielding isn’t just a discipline for Shadab – that thing you to have to do to while away the time between the really important stuff in cricket; it is a habit, maybe even an act of faith, dutifully carried out and unquestioningly adhered to.Wicket No. 1: Chadwick Walton is done in by the googly•AFPIt helps that physically he looks like a stray from an academy set up for Arsenal midfielders who have accidentally fallen into cricket: small, wiry and lean, but quick, skilful and smart about the areas and spaces around him. It’s easy to get carried away, forgetting that not too long ago Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad in the circle were dragging Pakistan forward with them into a new fielding age. But in light of how drastically Pakistan’s fielding was exposed the longer the tour of Australia went on – forget the drops, balk at the weak arms, the lack of athleticism and endurance – it’s impossible to not get carried away.The rest of the package isn’t just an afterthought either. No country falls harder for the googly than Pakistan. Shadab’s, right now, is so fresh and new, it’s like being around a newborn: every time it appears, whatever it does, we coo and go gaga. Already it has its own highlights reel – and if you’re a member of the Akmal clan, the solemn advice is to look away now. Kamran, Umar and Babar Azam – the last not once but twice – each done by it at the PSL like they were Englishmen facing Abdul Qadir. The promising Fakhar Zaman, meanwhile, was leg-before to a legbreak, but that was a goal-line tap in. The googly the ball before, which Zaman was beaten by, was the weapon that had run through half the side and left the goalkeeper for dead. Chadwick Walton, Shadab’s first international wicket, has an undergrad degree in accounting and a recently completed Masters in sports science and marketing, but in this school for reading googlies, he failed.Pace has done for most of them, at least as much as the length and degree of turn (and he does get break, both ways). Imagine if Shahid Afridi had a proper, back-of-the-hand wrong’un that spun (and not just the one that went on with the angle), or if Qadir or Mushtaq Ahmed bowled theirs quicker – imagine but don’t be wedded to the image, because it’s not really that either. It is its own thing. So far, off a smallish sample, it doesn’t look like it is read easily from the hand, but that will change. It will not always be as new as it is now, especially because he bowls plenty of it – seven in his first four international overs, for example. But it is probably no bad thing in limited-overs cricket. Imran Tahir’s has never suffered from over-exposure.

If he can get his batting anywhere near Steve Smith’s level at little or no cost to his bowling, then forget Smith, we’re talking Garry Sobers, and so, basically, we’re talking impossible

Caution, though, because Shadab is so young and because the environment he is in is bursting with cautionary tales. Countless are the ways in which Pakistan cricket can corrode him. One would be to not know what he is. He counts Steve Smith as his role model, which is admirable and also confusing. Does Shadab want to be Smith as he is now, a modern giant of a batsman and all but forgotten legspinner? In which case: Shadab’s bowling already looks too developed for anyone to be forgetting it. And if he can get his batting anywhere near Smith’s level at little or no cost to his bowling, then forget Smith, we’re talking Garry Sobers, and so, basically, we’re talking impossible. For now, all that can be said is that he can bat.Or is he talking about the first Smith we saw – a legspinner who could maybe bat a little? And if so, does he understand that that Smith only survived and became this Smith because he had the good fortune to be Australian? Sure, Australia floundered with Smith for a while, but at least they were patient enough to not give up on him, and the environment was enabling enough for him to figure out what he really was. In Pakistan, Shadab can only draw upon unconvincing precedents. Such as Afridi having no idea what he was for an entire decade, and his career ending with plenty of electric moments but essentially unfulfilled. Or one and a half decades of Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez being so mouldable and adaptable, like putty, that they end up being… what really? Or Abdul Razzaq, a boy prodigy consigned now to a career lived brightest in memory, via YouTube? Being an allrounder is a fraught business in Pakistan, especially when the team is in such dire need of one.But all this is for another day; these headaches will come when they come. For the here and now, enjoy the scenes of a boy with the world opening itself up in front of him.

While the Duleep Trophy looks for relevance, ESPNcricinfo looks at some of the questions that deal with its context, whom it helps and why it is worth looking out for

Shashank Kishore06-Sep-20174:02

Runorder: Is the Duleep Trophy relevant anymore?

Do you know India’s domestic season begins on Thursday?You probably thought October, which was as per the BCCI domestic schedule released last week. But no. The calendar was tweaked to include the Duleep Trophy after the initial decision of shelving it because of a busy international season. So, instead of the Ranji Trophy opening the season on October 6, it would be the much-maligned Duleep Trophy, still struggling for relevance despite a rejig of the format – it has moved on from a zonal tournament to three sides – India Red, Blue and Green – that will be played over the next three weeks in Lucknow and Kanpur.Why was it brought back?Sourav Ganguly, the head of BCCI’s technical committee, intervened after the tournament was initially scrapped. In his letter to the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), Ganguly stated he was in the dark about the omission, and that the tournament was penciled in during the committee’s meeting in Kolkata last month. The CoA in turn cited “prestige” as they reinstated the tournament three days after it was originally scrapped for the season.Why might the tournament be irrelevant?With India’s top players, many of whom would have just returned from Sri Lanka on Thursday, set to be engaged in a limited-overs series against Australia starting September 17, the objective of continuing to trial with the pink ball isn’t well-served. In addition, New Zealand A’s tour of India for two four-day games and four one-day games from the third week of September could further deplete the tournament, given many of the players picked for the Duleep Trophy could be in contention to feature in the A matches to be played in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.Won’t the pink-ball experience help players?With the BCCI still far from convinced for a pink-ball Test, a prospect they were gung-ho about last year albeit under the old regime, it’s hard to understand what they would stand to gain. No home Tests or any of the away Tests India are set to play over the next 12 months will be played under lights.What about opportunities for players to impress and get picked for India A?It is possible that the selectors may not have an opportunity to look at all players, especially with the India A team likely to be picked in a week’s time, unless they decide to wait for the completion of the second game on September 16. Therefore, the incentive for players participating in the tournament to pitch for an India A spot is not a likely prospect.What is worth looking out for?The selectors have moved on from seniors like Yuvraj Singh, part of the limited-overs squad as recently as the tour of the West Indies in June, and Gautam Gambhir, who was part of India’s Test plans in 2016-17, without saying so. Suresh Raina, however, is in the mix despite being dropped since the T20s against England earlier this year. Amid reports of failing fitness tests prior to the Sri Lanka series, he has another opportunity to rejuvenate his international career.For others like Priyank Panchal, who was picked for the India A tour of South Africa but couldn’t travel because of dengue, this is an opportunity to strengthen his claim to be the next in line among reserve openers. Panchal, Ranji Trophy’s highest run-scorer in 2016-17, could tussle with Abhinav Mukund, who did his credentials no harm during the Test tour of Sri Lanka, for a spot if it comes down to the selectors looking for options outside of the three established openers in KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and M Vijay.This tournament will also mark a return for Vijay, who missed the Test series in Sri Lanka with a wrist injury. While he’s taken small steps towards a comeback by participating in the Tamil Nadu Premier League, this will be his first proper workout in day’s cricket. Therefore, this is at best, an opportunity for a group of individuals to achieve individual objectives with little to gain as outfits.

He has become adept at rescue acts but Temba Bavuma is still looking to solidify his place in South Africa’s Test side

Firdose Moonda29-Jul-20171:13

Bavuma unfazed by batting rescue acts

I’m Temba Bavuma. I’m short. I’ve been short my whole life – well except for that time in primary school when we were all about the same height and then everyone else grew – so I’ve kind of got used to it.I’m black. I’ve been black my whole life, and how different that life could have been. I was born a year before South Africa were readmitted to international cricket, at a time when society was starting to integrate. By the time I started school, I was able to attend two of the best – SACS, where Peter Kirsten used to go, and St David’s. When I was 11, the school magazine asked us to write a paragraph on where we saw ourselves in 15 years’ time. I wrote, “I see myself in fifteen years in my suit and shaking [then-president Thabo] Mbeki’s hand congratulating me for making the South African side.” I got there two years earlier than planned. I was 24 when I made my Test debut.I was not supposed to play in that match, against West Indies in Port Elizabeth, but Quinton de Kock rolled his ankle in the first Test and they needed someone to bat at No. 7. I scored 10. In the next Test, I scored 15. I didn’t know how soon it would be before I played again but I was taken on the next tour to Bangladesh, in June 2015, because AB de Villiers was on paternity leave. It rained so much that nobody even remembers that series but I do, because I scored my first fifty there. I knew it didn’t matter that much though, AB was back for the next series against India so I went back to being the reserve.I didn’t do much besides be glad I wasn’t playing in that series. The pitches were tough, the ball was turning and India were all over us. All our batsmen struggled so for the last Test, the selectors decided to give Stiaan van Zyl a break and asked me to open the batting. I am not an opening batsman.I was so nervous when I walked out with Dean Elgar at the Feroz Shah Kotla but I knew I had to try. I clipped my fifth ball through midwicket and, although I struggled a bit with my footwork, I even managed to find my drive. I was doing okay, even when they brought the spinners on, even when Dean nicked off, even when Hashim Amla was dropped. After tea, I had to face Ravi Jadeja and he found even more turn than the others. I couldn’t get forward and he beat my inside edge. I was bowled. I faced 55 balls in that innings and made 22.Some people were talking about it as though it was the best I’d played until the second knock when I spent almost two-and-half hours in the middle and faced 117 balls to make 34. I admitted that was the toughest innings of my life. It went against all my natural impulses because it wasn’t about scoring runs, it was about batting time and blocking things out – the ball and the banter. I didn’t know that the next 18 months would be just as tough, hell, maybe even tougher.

In these situations, I can’t think of myself. I have to consider what the team needs and how I can help get them there. I can’t play expansive strokes. I can’t take risks

I got to keep a place in the team for home series against England, which was extra special because it was played over the festive season. I was part of a Boxing Day Test in Durban and a New Year’s Test at my home ground, Newlands. I grew up less than 10km away from the stadium, in the township of Langa. It was basically a different world. In that match it seemed as though the two worlds became one.I scored a hundred. To date, my only hundred. My dad was in the stands when I did it. He had dreamed of this moment as much as me. The whole of Newlands was there, a Newlands crowd with people from Langa in it. They all clapped when I reached the milestone and many of them cried too. I knew I had done something special. I had given millions of people, black African people, hope. Afterwards Hashim, a man of so few words, explained the difficulties players of colour face because we continue to be doubted. Apartheid ended shortly after I was born; its legacy will take much longer to face.I got the sense people thought I belonged after that innings. I suppose a Test hundred will do that for you. I also knew I needed the runs because there was soon to be a selection struggle in the line-up. Over the course of the England series, JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis were both dropped. JP was brought back and I was sure Faf would be too.I had a break until August when we played New Zealand at home. Just before the series, we had a culture camp and were asked to rethink our goals, as individuals and as a team. Getting our Test ranking back up was one of the most important things on our agenda. We had slipped to No. 7. When we beat New Zealand, we moved up to No. 5. Then we headed to Australia.It was my first time there. The Australian media were very interested in my height. A few days before the Perth Test, I was up for a media day and all the questions were about how I had adapted my game because I’m short. They also asked me if I liked facing bouncers. I didn’t want to say too much, especially because the first Test was in Perth. I just told them the Wanderers, where I play my domestic cricket, is a lot like the WACA.When it was my turn to bat, we were 81 for 5. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood were raising steam from the Perth pitch. I scored 51. Quinton de Kock was with me. He bats much more freely and scores quicker. He made 84. Together, we dragged the team to 242. It wasn’t a great score but we trusted our attack, even after Dale Steyn went down. Australia scored 244 and then we batted them out of the game. We won and I played a small part in it.In Hobart, we bowled Australia out for 85 in some of the scariest conditions for batsmen. The ball was swinging and seaming and when it was my turn to bat, we were 76 for 4. Hashim was with me for a bit, then Quinny was with me and we rebuilt. I scored 74. I thought I was going to get a hundred that day but after four-and-a-half hours, I holed out to point. I was disappointed but we won the match and the series.I knew when I got home that I would have to concentrate on converting my starts and the Sri Lanka series should have been the one to do that. We were told it wouldn’t be easy, because we were going to prepare green tops, but I didn’t expect it to be that hard. I only got into double-figures once in five innings and my series ended with two ducks. Throughout that series, the talk was about who would be replaced by AB, who was coming back after his injury, and I suspected it would be me. At a function in late January, I told some journalists I would understand if I was dropped. But then AB decided to sit out of the New Zealand and England series and I had another chance.Temba Bavuma showed his impressive temperament•AFPIt was my first time in New Zealand. Dunedin was like Hobart weather-wise. We drew. When we got to Wellington, we made it look like the WACA, or the Wanderers. When it was my turn to bat, we were 94 for 6. Quinny was with me. We put on 160 runs together but neither of us scored a hundred. We won the match.Now, I am here, in England for the first time. There is a lot of expectation on our side. After winning three series in a row in Australia since readmission, we could win three in a row in England too. But we are underdogs. At Lord’s, we concede 458 and when it is my turn to bat we are 104 for 4. Theunis de Bruyn is with me. We fight hard, I make 59 and we finish on 361. We lose the match. It’s not a great feeling. But I know this team well enough to know they won’t take this lying down.We come back at Trent Bridge. We square the series. We get to The Oval. We concede 353 and when it is my turn to bat, we are 47 for 4. Quinny has been moved up to No. 4 and he has already been dismissed. Soon we are 61 for 7. Vernon Philander is in hospital and won’t be back today. Will we even get to 100?In these situations, I can’t think of myself. I have to consider what the team needs and how I can help get them there. I can’t play expansive strokes. I can’t take risks. I have to keep my defence tight. I can’t drive or pull as often as I want to. Sometimes I get a ball that just begs to be hit, like the one Ben Stokes pitched up, but mostly, I try to go with soft hands, to guide the ball into gaps. I ran one to third man, deliberately, but I can’t do that too often.I need to look after the tail, I need to stay with them. I have to refuse some runs. I can’t do what I did when I was on 40 and slashed at a Stuart Broad ball and was nearly caught. We might not have avoided the follow-on if Stokes had held on. I can only reach for those when they’re a bit wider like the one Jimmy Anderson bowled to me a little later. I was on 48 then and Morne Morkel got out. I almost didn’t get to fifty at all. But I did and that’ll do for now.I’m Temba Bavuma and I just need a little more time in the middle.

Darren Lehmann had few thoughts of an Australian victory at the start of the day and a sluggish MCG pitch did nothing to challenge that view

Daniel Brettig in Melbourne29-Dec-2017On the third night of the 2010 Melbourne Test, Shane Watson spoke frankly of losing the Ashes the night before the result was consummated by an England team doing Graeme Swann’s “sprinkler” dance. Typical of Watson’s honestly, it is also the exception that proves the rule – almost unheard of for an Australian team to stop discussing the prospect of winning a Test match until it has run deeply towards a conclusion.Famously, the 2006 Adelaide Test remained alive in the mind and words of Shane Warne, even as other teammates doubted the possibility. That eventual triumph came to symbolise Warne’s aggressive, indomitable attitude in the mind of his pupil Michael Clarke, and he was to lead his team to a somewhat lower profile victory over the odds at Barbados in 2012. Clarke, of course, took these kinds of things to extremes, no more so than when denying outright the possibility of his retirement right up until the moment he actually announced it, in Nottingham in 2015.Given these examples, it was truly jarring to hear Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann effectively rule out the possibility of a victory for the hosts over England in this match as early as the same third night that Watson had spoken. Lehmann’s pronouncement, accounting even for a token “never say never” homily, was uncharacteristically humble from the mentor of a team that until the day before was still open to the prospect of a 5-0 sweep of Joe Root’s Englishmen.”It’s tough to see any other scenario other than a draw or England win,” Lehmann said. “It’s going to take us a long time to get past them, to be perfectly honest. So really our job is to bat a lot of overs and do exactly what they’ve just done to us. You never say never, but we’re a long way behind in the game. For us it’s about batting as long as we possibly can and see where the game takes us.”At that point Australia were 164 runs behind with one wicket to take, and day four’s afternoon showers were as yet just a looming prognostication from the Bureau of Meteorology. It was a better scenario, for instance, than the one faced after two days at Port Elizabeth in 1997, when South Africa went to stumps ahead by 184 runs with 10 wickets in hand on a decidedly difficult strip for batting. But the tone of Lehmann’s message had more to do with the character of the MCG pitch than the actual gap between the sides. Quick play, whether it be fast scoring or the rapid fall of wickets, is not easily achieved without the outright assistance of the opposition. Attrition is all, and by that logic Lehmann did not see enough time left in the game.That attitude was certainly evident when the Australians batted after James Anderson’s first ball dismissal. England bowled tightly and gained reverse swing as early as the 10th over, but equally the hosts declined to give too much away in terms of unduly eager shot play. This was most evident in the approach of David Warner, who since the lunch break on Boxing Day has reverted to a far more measured, even defensive mode of batting, underlining a level of versatility that not even he thought he had in years gone by.As Mitchell Marsh described it: “The game scenario and the way he batted today was really important for us. Batting against the new ball in the first innings it was a really good time to bat and the way he batted was beautiful, it was a great hundred. Hopefully he can go out there with the same mentality tomorrow as he showed today and bat all day for us. He’s one of the best batsmen in the world so it was great to see him bat the way he did for the team.”Cameron Bancroft drags on against Chris Woakes•Getty ImagesMarsh, of course, had been part of the rush of wickets on the second morning that allowed Alastair Cook and England to dictate terms. Having left runs out in the middle during the first innings, it was all too apparent that neither Warner nor the captain Steven Smith were prepared to be as generous this time around, creating something of a Mexican stand-off with England’s bowlers in the 22.4 overs they were together before the rain arrived. A scoring rate of 1.67 per over was no-one’s idea of entertainment, even if it was possible to admire the challenge posed by Anderson in particular.”On a wicket like this the game just moves a lot slower,” Marsh said. “As a batsman you’ve got to be prepared to bat a long period of time and face a lot of balls to get your runs, because the ball is not coming on overly well and there’s a lot of fielders in front of you on a wicket like this. You’ve got to be prepared to bat for long periods of time.”I think there’s been three draws in Shield cricket here this year, hopefully there’s another one tomorrow. There’s not really much in it for anyone really unless you can get the ball reverse swinging a lot, and teams haven’t been able to do that either.”Australia, then, are no fans of this MCG surface, and given they have been unable to engineer a position from which to put England under pressure, are not exactly in the mood to let the tourists gain a consolation win due to the home side’s inattention or impatience. In that sense this match is not dissimilar to the high scoring encounter between Australia and India in 2014, when Smith elected not to give MS Dhoni’s team a realistic final day chase because he did not wish to be generous in a way that the pitch was not.

Australia have had remarkably few thoughts about winning this Test. Far more have been entertained by the thought of digging up the MCG pitch

Trevor Bayliss, England’s coach, said that while victory was a possibility for his side, it would have to be achieved by a very long and narrow road. “We’ve got to be very disciplined. There’s not a lot you can do on that type of wicket, you’ve got to bowl reasonably straight and good lengths and wait for a mistake,” he said. “Yes we can try a few things, but two very good batters.”If we can get the ball in the right areas and put pressure on, the odd ball stays a little bit low or holds up a bit, we’ve got to have the fielders in the right spot to take that chance. If we can get rid of those two guys early on tomorrow and put some pressure on the opposition late order batters, anything’s possible.”These are the optimistic views of a team that has also had to contend with the MCG’s stingy surface – there is little love for it on either side, even if Alastair Cook will always remember this match fondly. Complaints about the surface, and others like it around the world, are far from a partisan thing. “Look at it from a fan’s point of view,” Bayliss said. “You want a wicket with a bit more pace in it.”I think both teams, even from a batting point of view, have struggled to time the ball, not quite coming on even as batters would like. I’m sure the bowlers would like a little bit more pace in the wicket as well so things happen a little bit quicker. It makes things on the whole better cricket, batting and bowling-wise.”Australia, then, have had remarkably few thoughts about winning this Test. Far more have been entertained by the thought of digging up the MCG pitch and starting again. In that respect, they are far from alone.

Our correspondent takes the big leap, and makes it to a jury panel with Bishop, Moody and Co

Shashank Kishore05-Feb-2018January 20
It’s my last day in Tauranga for now. There’s been a lot of walking on the trip, so I decide to take a taxi to the grocery store to stock up on essentials, and it is an eventful ride. On finding out I’m here for the cricket, the driver calls a close friend, Dev Sangha, who runs a cricket academy. This excites me and two other journalists because we’ve been itching to have a bowl. Sangha calls us over the moment we tell him this.He is hospitable and offers us desi chai, but it’s 32 degrees and feels closer to 40. We’re guzzling cold water when his doorbell rings. It’s *Evan Gray, the former New Zealand spinner. We get chatting about cricket, life and all else until we realise it’s nearly toss time for the New Zealand-South Africa match. It’s an inconsequential game, as far as qualification goes, so we take our time and make our way in shortly after play begins.January 21
Travel day, and I’m going to Queenstown. I’d only heard of the beautiful airplane landing before, and the sight of the majestic mountains captivates me. The Indian team is on the same flight, and like me, a lot of the boys are equally fascinated. We chat about mobile-phone photography and Instagram. The distance from the airport to my guest house is supposed to be 3km, but my driver, a fluent Marathi-speaking Mumbaikar, takes me via a shortcut and gets me there in three minutes. The fare: $25. Rip off! I spend the rest of the evening exploring the city.January 22
I interview Australia’s Baxter Holt and England’s Ethan Bamber. By the time I head home it’s nearly 8pm. A fellow journalist on tour happens to know a friend who moved here from Pune. Any acquaintance in an unknown city instantly becomes a friend, as I discover. Arjun is an adventure freak and works for a zipline company. Much of the evening is spent planning adventure sport in Queenstown.Sometimes plane-watching is more fun than ball-watching•Shashank Kishore/ESPNcricinfo LtdJanuary 23
Australia are batting first in their quarter-final against England. The Indian team is training too, so I hop over to the nets. The Indian liaison officer happens to be a New Zealander, and he’s delighted at what’s happening. “No respectful Kiwi will support the Aussies, mate,” he tells me. Australia are bowled out for 127. I quickly head over to the press tent and have a template for my match report ready before strolling out again.On the grass banks, I meet the parents of England’s Dillon Pennington. He’s just picked up three wickets and both of them are disappointed to be flying out the next day and missing watching their son in the semi-final. They watch the next 30 minutes in horror as England collapse sensationally against Lloyd Pope. That also means I have to rush back to the press box and finish my report.January 24
Bungee-jumping day. Though I tried to think of every possible reason why I shouldn’t do it, I wake up feeling the itch to do it because I’m in the adventure-sport capital of the world. I originally book a 43-metre jump, only for my colleague to scoff at the idea because there’s a better jump from 134 metres. I change my booking and head to the jump site. I want to get it out of the way and not nervously wait to see others dilly-dally at jump point. I’m the first one in my batch of ten. Boom! It’s the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done.January 25
Pre-match day, so another set of interviews. Speaking to the Bangladesh players seems quite a challenge because of the language barrier. I get chatting with a member of their support staff, who hails from Sylhet. It’s a city I enjoyed visiting when I was there for the 2014 Women’s World T20. We chat about the Sylheti tea, the city, and its close proximity to India, all in fluent Hindi. Then I head over for a chat with India’s Shivam Mavi. Diplomacy, “process” and “doing my basics” isn’t his thing. I ask him if he’s ever hit someone on the head with a bouncer. “Yes, plenty of times. People used to run away. I had a lot of fun because they were scared of me,” he says.January 26
It’s taken me four days into the trip to admire the view Queenstown has to offer, particularly from the cricket ground. The Bangladesh-India quarter-final turns out to be a predictable game, and watching planes take off and land by the minute seems more fun.Lake Pukaki, on the way from Queenstown to Christchurch•Shashank Kishore/ESPNcricinfo LtdJanuary 27
Wake up to a glorious, sunny day and am lured into a six-hour drive to Christchurch at the cost of ditching my flight. My colleague hired a car on hearing the lakes on the drive out of Queenstown are some of the most pristine you’ll find in the southern hemisphere. He gets the car for a rental of just one dollar, because the owner is desperately looking for someone to drive the car to Christchurch. It’s a drive that is totally worth my contribution of 30 cents!January 28
IPL auction day, and I feel insignificant because the centre of the cricket world seems to be Bangalore. It doesn’t matter if the Indian team is training or not. I make my way to the team hotel to quickly chat with Shubman Gill, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Prithvi Shaw, whose combined value at the auction is close to a million dollars.In the evening, I finish my first Hindi-English interview with Pashto-speaking Afghanistan mystery spinner Mujeeb Zadran through Khaliq Dad, the team’s assistant coach. Mujeeb was on his way out to shop for Real Madrid merchandise when we stop him. The interview is a laugh riot.January 29
After the beauty and excitement of Queenstown, Christchurch seems sleepy. The Afghanistan-Australia semi-final is my first visit to the Hagley Oval. It’s unreal, in the middle of a botanical garden. As we make our way to the press box, we’re joined by a familiar visitor, who asks about Australia’s new-ball bowlers who didn’t play the tournament opener against India. Guess who? Rahul Dravid. He spends 15-20 minutes chatting with a bunch of us about the Australian team before he leaves.Engrossed in my writing, I’m nearly hit by one from Jack Edwards, who launches a shot on the bounce into the press tent. The ball deflects off my hand onto the laptop screen of another journalist. Thank god the screen didn’t crack and I got away without having to paying for damages.Evan Gray and Dev Sangha in Tauranga•Shashank Kishore/ESPNcricinfo LtdJanuary 30
It’s India-Pakistan and I’m stunned that there’s no hype surrounding this game. No flag-waving or the chaos that usually comes with the clash. On the field too, there’s nothing to suggest this is a match between the arch-rivals. Gill makes a sublime century and is congratulated by every member of the Pakistan team. In return, India bundle them out for a record low. We’re done and dusted much before the sun sets. After the writing, I head to a pub with a group of friends, only to hear familiar voices discussing cricket at the table next to us. It’s Danny Morrison, Tom Moody and Robert Key. On the other side, a bunch of students are talking in fluent Kannada. The Bengaluru connection gets us chatting. One of the guys is now a Christchurch resident. First question he asks: “How bad is the traffic now?”January 31
Travel day again for one last time on tour. It’s a long one too. I first hop on to a flight to Auckland, followed by a bus journey to Tauranga. On the way to the airport, my taxi driver, Andrew, laments how poorly New Zealand Cricket has marketed the tournament and how there’s no awareness because the matches aren’t on free-to-air stations. His understanding of the game and how journalists go about their work turns out to be the highlight of an otherwise long and sleepy day.February 1
I meet Devinder Singh Uppal, father of Australia Under-19 batsman Param Uppal, at a cafe in downtown Tauranga. It’s stormy and the weather is right for a hot cuppa. We chat about cricket, life in Sydney, Indian roots, Australia, and much else. Uppal is staying at a serviced apartment with parents of a few other players. “Ah, some parents it’s daunting to be around,” he says, referring to Steve Waugh, a player he grew up watching. Uppal speaks fluent Punjabi and doesn’t like me calling him “uncle”. “Call me by my name, mate.” It turns out to be a fun hour-long chat, and a very warm one too.England Under-19 player Dillon Pennington’s parents in Queenstown for the quarter-final against Australia•Shashank Kishore/ESPNcricinfo LtdFebruary 2
I’m part of the ICC panel, along with Ian Bishop, Tom Moody, Anjum Chopra and Jeff Crowe, to pick the Player of the Tournament and the Team of the tournament. The first debate lasts all of ten seconds. “It’s pretty clear isn’t it, lady and gentlemen,” Moody says. Shubman Gill it is. Anyone disagree? No. There you go.Now to the team. We go position-wise. Many names are thrown up. Bishop is so soft-spoken that I have to strain my ears to hear him despite sitting right next to him. But it’s a voice that makes you sit up and listen carefully. He has done his homework and his remarks about the cricketers he has seen are fascinating. I’m a little nervous amid a group of former internationals, but they don’t make me feel like an outsider, and value my views. It’s a great learning experience. We debate and discuss and come out of our 40-minute meeting with ten slots penciled in. The last one will be decided on match day.February 3
It’s the grand finale, which means it’s going to be a long night. Since it’s a day-night game, I sleep in till noon. The atmosphere is unlike anything I’ve seen before in the tournament. We could have been in Mohali and not Mount Maunganui. Nearly 4000 people are in and it feels full. India stroll home to lift the cup. We pack up and rush to the team hotel for interviews. The players take their own sweet time to arrive, but once they are there, the sleepy hotel lobby comes alive. All of them soak in the applause and oblige fans with interviews and selfies.The small group of travelling journalists sets up shop. We work until about 3am, when Rahul Dravid, Paras Mhambrey and Abhay Sharma walk in after dinner to realise we’re still there at the hotel. Abhay, the fielding coach, still has the energy to talk about the methods that worked for his team. “At this stage, it’s about the mindset and not technique,” he says. Dravid asks about our plans for the rest of the trip. It’s nearly 4am and we realise there’s plenty of writing to do. And just like that, the tour is over. Where did the month go?

From his recent form, you would think Steven Smith is at the top of his game. Against South Africa, though, his efficiency has fallen steadily

Daniel Brettig in Port Elizabeth12-Mar-2018Four innings and 225 AB de Villiers runs into this series, Australia finally managed to dismiss him by conventional means on the final day in Port Elizabeth. The only trouble for Steven Smith’s team was that the dipping, turning and bouncing Nathan Lyon offbreak, well pouched by Cameron Bancroft at short leg, arrived when South Africa needed just 20 more runs to win.De Villiers’ dominance, not just in terms of runs but also the swift manner in which they have been scored – at 75 runs per hundred balls he is almost 10 runs speedier than David Warner, Australia’s best – is giving Smith and his bowlers very little margin for error in the field, while also exacerbating the shortcomings witnessed thus far with the bat.Smith, the other truly outstanding batsman in this series, is struggling to keep up, as South Africa build an increasingly impressive record against him. Though Smith performed very well against South Africa on his first encounter with the team then captained by Graeme Smith in 2014, making 267 runs at an average of 67.25 and a strike rate near 60, his returns have decreased ever since, and he has yet to add to the century he made in his first innings against South Africa, at Centurion four years ago.In the 2016 home series, Smith fought long and hard in a losing cause, but in terms of big innings, he could do no better than 59. This time around, he has not even got that far, with a top score of 56, while a trend of slower innings has been maintained. From 58.35 runs per 100 balls in 2014, Smith’s strike rate dropped to 50.23 in 2016 and 47.97 in this series, corresponding broadly with the home captain Faf du Plessis’ hopes to keep his opposite number “quiet”.”Perhaps that it’s a bit harder to score. I’ve played a lot more now since 2014 and the more you play, the more people have plans to you to try to keep you quiet and those kind of things,” Smith said. “It’s just a part of batting, sometimes you have to work really hard for your runs and take a little bit longer, and some days you come out and things happen really quickly for you. It’s just a part of playing and adapting to whatever’s being thrown at you, and the surfaces make a big difference as well.”Speaking to SEN Radio, Smith added that he was convinced other players in the team would be able to step up. While none of the touring team have managed to make a century, all of David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh and Tim Paine have made scores to suggest they can cope with the prevailing conditions and opposition – an opponent now set to be weakened by the suspension of Kagiso Rabada for the remaining two matches.”I think we have got some quality players,” Smith said. “Even looking at someone at number six, Mitchell Marsh, played an exceptional innings in the first Test match and deserved a hundred there and played pretty well in the second innings here to get 40-odd. But I think we have got all bases covered, hopefully, some guys can step up and get the job done in the third Test match. It’s obviously the half-way mark now, one-all, and makes for an exciting second half of the series.”Having made the difficult decision to bat first on a pitch likely to help pacemen on the first day but set to take spin and offer some variable bounce later in the match, Smith seemed to be getting the ideal outcome as Warner and Bancroft rode their luck to put on 98 on the first morning. When Bancroft fell right on the stroke of lunch, the rest of the top six, Smith included, failed to take advantage, and then the middle order was swept away conclusively by Rabada.Getty Images”I think we actually weren’t too far away. We were probably 75 runs short in the first innings and 50-odd in the 2nd innings, another 100 or 125 runs and things could certainly be different,” Smith said. “But I was pleased with the first morning, that could have gone either way. I certainly could have bowled that first morning but opted to bat.”The way the batters applied themselves in that first session – unfortunately we lost Bangers (Bancroft) right on the break. But those guys applied themselves really well to be 1 for 100-odd at the break. Then I think when the ball started to reverse, the middle order obviously didn’t do their job. We lost wickets in clumps, Rabada bowled exceptionally well throughout the whole match. That was the part that let us down the most.”The contrast was to be witnessed on day two when Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla scrapped their way through several high quality spells of reverse swing by Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, meaning that when de Villiers came to the crease after tea, he was facing bowlers who had already bowled two or three spells. The accumulating fatigue was something he was able to take full advantage of with the help of an emboldened South African tail, pushing Australia into a corner from which they could not escape in what were now becoming harder conditions in which to bat.”It would have been nice at the start of that day – we spoke about trying to get those wickets quickly – and maybe them having a lead of 50 or 60-odd,” Smith said. “But 140 was a lot going into our batting innings. I’m still proud of the way the boys fought. At the end, it was nice to take a few wickets and nice to get AB out conventionally for the first time this series. Hopefully, we left a few scars on their top order.”We haven’t got a 100 so far in this series, so that’s not ideal. Mitchell Marsh probably deserved a 100 in the first Test to be fair,
but if we’re getting batters scoring big 100s, it certainly helps us out a hell of a lot. And unfortunately we haven’t been able to do that so far in this series. But we’ve got a good opportunity to turn it around in the next two Test matches.”One thing Smith said he would not be committing too much time to is the issue of losing wickets before breaks in play, something that occurred most ruinously in this match when Khawaja fell right before stumps on day three when he seemed the man most likely to guide the visitors to a defendable lead.”We will have a quick chat about it,” Smith said. “But I don’t like to think too much about those things. When you start thinking about breaks and thinking about getting out, I think it becomes worse sometimes. So guys being a bit smarter, but making sure we are just trying to build partnerships together to get the totals we need to win Test matches.”The matter of when Australians lose their wickets is, of course, less significant than how many runs have been scored before they lose them. For Smith, a fresh approach may be needed if he is to make the runs his team evidently still requires.