Australia’s batsmen say they are planning to dominate Monty Panesar from the outset of this year’s Ashes series. Panesar was one of the stars of England’s recent home Test series win over Pakistan, and is generating considerable interest ahead of the Ashes, with Australia’s cricketers singling him out in their pre-series talks.”He’s a terrific young bowler, a terrific young character and has an obvious passion for the game and he’ll add a real flavour and touch to this series,” Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist said. “Like any new spinner we haven’t seen before we’ll try to get on top of him before he gets on top of us but a lot of that will be dictated by the conditions and the match scenario.”Simon Katich, who is trying to bat his way back into the Australian Test team after being axed after the first Test against West Indies almost a year ago, rates Panesar highly. “I faced him last year on the Ashes tour and I was impressed,” Katich said at the Australian team camp. “Monty is a bowler who tries to give you a bit of air. He does try and turn it. He is bowling genuine wicket-taking balls and knocking good players over.”Panesar may have his critics as a batsman and an out-fielder, but he is highly rated by national team coach Duncan Fletcher. “As a finger spinner there is probably no one to match him in world cricket at the moment – his control is very, very good,” Fletcher said.Stuart MacGill, the Australian legspinner, believes Panesar’s guile and variety will add plenty to the England bowling attack, which was dominated by its reverse-swinging pace attack in the last series between the two teams. “I think the more variations in personality, approach and background that you can incorporate into your team set-up, the more able you are to deal with a variety of situations,” MacGill said last week. “Monty’s certainly got an approach that will help any team he’s in. He’ll definitely help the England side out just by being there. His approach is different to the other guys in the side and I think that’s very valuable.”
“The time has come for Australia to drop Matthew Hayden,” according to Michael Slater. Hayden, who hasn’t made a century since July 2004, still has the confidence of Ricky Ponting, but Slater, his former opening partner, said it was time for change with the Ashes at stake.”He’s struggled to make runs all series, as he did in 2001 in English conditions,” Slater said in the . “In truth, he has been out of form for 12 months.” What Slater did not add, however, was that the treatment he was recommending was the exact same fate that he himself suffered in 2001. Back then, he was dropped for the Oval Test to make way for Justin Langer, and never played for Australia again.After struggling in the past three Tests, Australia have received a boost with Glenn McGrath, who missed Trent Bridge with an elbow injury, declaring himself fit for the series-deciding fifth Test starting on September 8. “I’ve improved out of sight,” McGrath said in the . “Errol Alcott is again weaving his magic. If I don’t quite make the Essex match then I’ll definitely be right for The Oval.”Slater said he would promote Simon Katich to replace Hayden and draft in the allrounder Shane Watson, who is playing at Hampshire. “[Simon] has done the job in four-day cricket and in one-day matches and has the technique to cope well,” he said. “Watson gives Australia a fifth bowling option, something England have had all series.”In the past four Tests Hayden has managed only 180 runs with a top score of 36 and his lack of productivity has been a crucial factor in the side’s lack of success. However, Kim Hughes, the former Test captain, agreed with Ponting and said Hayden should be retained.”You’ve got to persevere in that instance,” Hughes said in The Australian. “You know Matthew has had a fantastic record. It’s not so much that he’s struggling to get started. He’s getting in. He’s doing the hard yards and then just getting out.”Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, told the Courier-Mail it was too early to speculate about the line-up. “It is a concern we are 2-1 down and we will have to pick the best team to give ourselves the best change of winning,” he said.Slater also suggested recalling Stuart MacGill to exploit England’s weakness against legspin, even if it meant dropping Shaun Tait, who took three wickets on debut at Nottingham. “Australia must do something to change things because right now they are staring down the barrel at losing the Ashes,” Slater said. “I believe we will lose unless the selectors make changes.”
Sachin Tendulkar has called Nasser Hussain a “great tactician” and followed it up by saying that Hussain was one of the best captains he had played against. Tendulkar, on holiday in England, told BBC Radio that the cricket world would miss Hussain.Tendulkar also said there was nothing wrong with Hussain’s tactics of asking Ashley Giles to bowl a negative line during England’s last tour of India. “Whatever he did was within the regulations of the game — there was no stage where he broke any laws. He was a great tactician,” said Tendulkar. “He was one of the best captains I’ve played against and a tough character. I’m sure people in England, and all over the world, are going to miss a character like him.”Tendulkar is the latest in a long a long line of cricketers to pay tribute to Hussain. “He was one of those guys that fancied being in very tough situations, similar to Steve Waugh,” said Allan Donald. “Hussain was a tough opponent who never backed down from a challenge.” Donald also expressed surprise at Hussain’s decision to retire. “I must say it’s a bit of a shock. I thought he was going to finish the series against New Zealand and West Indies and finish on a high at the end of the summer.”The way he batted at Lord’s was typical of Hussain at his very best, and I think he’s in really good form at the moment,” said Donald. “But everybody comes to that crossroad. I’ve been there and maybe I didn’t finish in such a great way for myself. But he probably wanted to be seen finishing on a high.”Jimmy Adams, the former West Indian captain and a master of the barnacle-on-rock school of batsmanship, also expressed surprise at Hussain’s decision to call it quits. “I think it’s strange he’s retiring seeing as he’s just scored a Test hundred,” he said. “There must be reasons outside cricket because his cricket looks to be pretty good at the minute. Only Nasser knows how he feels and it can’t have been an easy decision considering his recent form. But what better way to leave Test cricket?” There’s no disputing that.
The just released findings of the Review Committee set up by the PCB to investigate the performance of the Pakistan team at the World up has done an excellent job – of ingeniously shifting the onus of failure away from the Board. That indeed may have been their unwritten mandate, but can shifting of the blame absolve the Board of any responsibility?To be fair to the PCB, and to General Tauqir, the problems with Pakistan cricket pre-date the recent World Cup, and indeed the present cricket set-up. It is not a question of one match, tournament or a series. The origins of present troubles date back to the match-fixing allegations that surfaced in the early and mid-90s. These sharply divided the team between the whistle-blowers and the accused. The fissures were deepened by lingering rivalries over the captaincy issue along the already existing fault lines and have hung over the team ever since. This is, of course, only part of the problem. The main problem is structural.Pakistan cricket has alternated between spurts of achievement and periods of stagnation and sterile performance, when either the team was in transition when talent shrank and dried up, or it under-achieved despite its capability.To an extent, this has been the story of most other cricket teams as well, that is until recently. But world cricket has changed beyond recognition. And Pakistan unfortunately has not kept pace with it, and this is the other half of the story of what happened at the World Cup, which, I am afraid, the Review Committee has missed entirely.Increasing pressures and opportunities of competitive cricket, the introduction of neutral umpires which has levelled the playing field, and enormous money brought by television and sponsorships is forcing as well as enabling cricket administrators everywhere to organize and run cricket on scientific, efficient and modern lines to stay in the game. It has involved multiple challenges – imaginative organization of domestic cricket, academies and grounds, the appointment of coaches, managers, analysts and physios, training of umpires, and the appointment of selection committees etc. And above all, what is most important, it has helped the delineation and demarcation of everyone’s precise and autonomous role to ensure effective coordination and to avoid over-stepping and intrusion of authority.On a symbolic level it is like all those countless names that scroll by at the end of a movie whose role in the direction, screen play, special-effects, musical score etc significantly contributes to the success or failure of the show. This is not meant to be an extended metaphor, but I am presenting it simply by way of illustration, to make the point.So how can the Board evade responsibility for what happened at the World Cup?I have said before, I am not holding General Tauqir personally accountable, some of whose actions have been good, but certainly a major responsibility for the World Cup debacle and what is wrong with our cricket lies at the door steps of the PCB, its set up and method of operation. But as Imran Khan wrote in his article, there does not seem be an adequate acknowledgement or self awareness of what has happened and that does not inspire much confidence about the future.Our cricket team has been having problems of varying degree ever since the departure of Imran and Miandad. They were extraordinary sportsmen who provided exceptional leadership to the team both with their superior achievement as well as exemplary inspiration and motivation. The team had potential for similar under achievement and infighting then as now but these individuals managed to overcome or transcend these weaknesses.But times were different. Modern cricket has become fierce and brutal. The ways Australians have used the technology to study weaknesses of the opposing players and launch a relentless attack on them virtually strips them naked and demolishes their confidence. After grinding the opponents psychologically, the battle is half won. The opponents are defeated even before they come to battle. The Australians have turned the game into warfare. It is significant that they themselves are very fond of comparing their approach to a surgical operation, as it has become fashionable with them to use the word `clinical’ in describing their match-winning strategy, indeed a term that is now beginning to be parroted by lesser teams as well though not equally convincingly.In Australia we do not hear the coach, selectors and the chief executive or the head of their cricket board giving statements every day. While in Pakistan, everyone is busy contradicting each other and speaking authoritatively or deciding about issues falling in other people’s areas of responsibility. Aussie cricket is being run on professional lines by those who know the game through long and active association. And there is a certain stability, continuity and predictability. Coaches and selection committees, for instance, do not change every day.It is not like in Pakistan where cricket administrators have always been appointed, as I have said before, on the strength of their personal connections with the political leadership of the day. They have always claimed to have great personal passion for the game, which in some cases has indeed been true. But that is where their qualifications begin and end. We all love the game, but does it qualify us to run the game?Since this is a piece about the organizational aspects of the game, I have refrained from discussing individuals, whether players or administrators.I would conclude with a suggestion and here again I am not pointing any fingers of blame or responsibility. I think now that we have had an enquiry into the performance of the team, we need a similar assessment of the PCB itself, especially whether the way it is organized and being run, is it fit to meet the challenges of modern cricket?The roles of all the constituent units and institutions, specially the chief executive, selection committee, the coach, the manager as well as the method of team selection, have to be examined and reformed, where necessary, and the competence of individual officials has to be appraised, and changes made where desirable.There is no better person better qualified to head this task than Imran Khan.Ed: Touqir Hussain is former Ambassador of Pakistan to Japan
Finally, after much hemming and hawing the BCCI has formally withdrawnfrom the Super Challenge one-day series in Australia in September. Itwas hardly a surprise ever since the Board committed itself in May tothe Asian Test Championship on overlapping dates. Exactly why they hadto tarry until today to intimate their Australian counterparts is moreenigmatic. The curtain thus comes down on an episode which began inApril when India were proferred an invitation for a three match seriesincluding two indoor games at Melbourne’s Colonial Stadium.Having begun the tradition of indoor cricket in August 2000 againstSouth Africa, the ACB turned to India in the second year. With the twonations slugging out one of the great Test series in history earlierthis year for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, they were possibly keen tostoke the embers of that contest. A third match to be played at theGabba was to have broken fresh ground, being the first timeinternational cricket came to Brisbane outside the customary November-March period.Board Secretary Jaywant Lele confirmed having received the invite buthedged his bets on accepting. The cause for India’s ponderous reactionto the proposal became clear at the Asian Cricket Council meeting inLahore in May when the Board pulled a rabbit out of the hat byagreeing to take part in the Asian Test Championship. India was set toclash with Pakistan in Lahore from September 12-16, following whichthey would host Bangladesh in another one-off Test from September20-24.That should have really put a definite lid on the Super Challengeprospect but the ACB was given to believe that the BCCI was stillamenable to a change of heart. They were perhaps encouraged by thecontinued coyness of Indian officials who, as it turned out, could notget around the constraint of having committed their players to besimultaneously present in another location. No one can grudge theBoard’s preference for the Asian initiative over the Australian one.Cricketing ties between India and Pakistan have been suspended sinceMay 2000 which is already far longer than the patience of fans acrossthe Radcliffe line can endure.There is of course the minor hiccup of the Indian Government nothaving granted permission yet for their national team’s journey toLahore. Indeed when the ACC decision was announced in Lahore on May28, it had the effect of stirring a hornet’s nest in the form of theexcitable Union Minister for Sport, Uma Bharti.”The BCCI should not take the liberty of making such announcements. Toplay in Pakistan, the BCCI has to first give a written proposal to theSports Ministry which in turn would forward it to the Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA). The final decision rests with the MEA. No suchproposal of a tour of Pakistan in September has been received by theMinistry” reacted Ms.Bharti.In return, ACC Chairman Jagmohan Dalmiya brandished a letter from theSports Ministry which proposed the broad policy that ‘India willcontinue to play Pakistan in multilateral tournaments at regularvenues’ including those in either of the two countries. With bothparties still guardedly sizing each other up, there is the tantalisingprospect that, having had two birds in the bush, the Board couldconceivably end up with none in the hand.That would probably suit the Indian players down to the hilt. BoardPresident AC Muthiah’s fax statement to his ACB counterpart mentionsthat he took the decision after holding consultations with his playersand noting their concerns about a calendar chockful with engagements.Indeed, the team’s schedule over the next 13 months, comprising 22Tests and some 40 odd ODIs, is designed to make a stevedore faint.Perhaps it is just as well the Board has heeded that old maxim aboutgeese and golden eggs.
The season’s first Super Sunday did not disappoint with regard to providing a few sturdy talking points as West Ham made the short trip across London to face Arsenal at the Emirates.Admittedly goalmouth action was few and far between during the Hammers’ surprise 2-0 victory but the Premier League debut of Reece Oxford (just a sweet 16) and some truly terrifying goalkeeping (if you’re an Arsenal fan) meant that fans up and down the country will be debating exactly what went down at the Emirates Stadium.Buckle yourself in and enjoy our Three things we learned from Arsenal vs West Ham…
1. Pinning hopes on Petr Cech *may* have been a tad premature
So… it turns out that simply buying Petr Cech does not guarantee success after all.
With weeks of commenters suggesting that Cech was the missing piece of the jigsaw, destined to bring Premier League glory back to north London, that theory seems to have imploded rather spectacularly.
Of course, it will take Cech time to bed in. But this won’t quite be the fairytale combination Arsenal fans dreamed it may be.
2. Bilic’s West Ham could be a beautiful thing
Facing your first test as a Premier League gaffa at the Emirates isn’t an enviable position to be in, but Slaven Bilic passed with flying colours.
A compact and disciplined display from the Hammers rendered Arsenal’s kaleidoscope of attacking talents relatively redundant throughout the match. Including Reece Oxford from the off was a ballsy move, while Mauro Zárate and Sakho up top looked a dangerous combo.
Kudos too, to Bilic, for resting up most of his players going into this game. Only two first team players started for the Hammers in the Europa League midweek and, while they crashed out of the tournament, Bilic will be having the last laugh for sure.
3. The future’s bright for Reece Oxford
16 years old and straight in for your Premier League debut against Arsenal at the Emirates? We’re not sure we can think of too many more daunting experiences in the world of football.
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But fair play to West Ham’s youngest ever player, he came through this one with great credit. A lung-bursting run alongside Sakho saw the striker too selfish to feed Oxford in around the 20 minute mark, while throughout Oxford marshalled his back four very well against the tiki-taka threat posed by the likes of Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey.
The future’s bright indeed for Oxford but perhaps it’s for the best not too talk it up too early.
England fast bowler Steven Finn looks certain to miss the final Test against South Africa in Centurion after sustaining a side strain on the final day of the third Test in Johannesburg.Finn, rated by coach Trevor Bayliss as England’s “best bowler” in the first couple of Tests, underwent a scan on his left side on Sunday morning. While the results were not yet known, Bayliss feared Finn will miss the Test and quite possibly the limited-overs section of the tour.”I doubt very much whether he will be available for the next Test,” Bayliss said. “We will have to wait and see how bad it is and make a decision on the one-day and T20 games. At this stage, it looks like we will have to make a replacement heading into the last Test. It’s unfortunate, because I thought he bowled with good pace and bounce and was probably our most dangerous bowler in the first two Tests.”There was a more encouraging development for the team with the news that Stuart Broad had become the first England bowler to top the ICC Test bowling rankings since Steve Harmison in 2004. Broad started the third Test in third place, after his man-of-the-match performance in Johannesburg, has gone above R Ashwin and Dale Steyn.Before Harmison, Ian Botham was the last England bowler to top the bowling rankings. He reached No. 1 in 1980.
Andrew Leipus, India’s former physiotherapist, has said playing Twenty20 cricket will help improve players’ fitness as it is an intense game which requires them to practice harder. “It will be very challenging how they cope up with new demands,” Leipus, who was in Mumbai for a fitness camp for youngsters, told , a Mumbai-based tabloid. “There will be less recovery time and the demand for physical fitness will be more.”Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead a young Indian side to the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa next month.Leipus, who worked with the national side from 1999 to 2004, also stressed the importance of having good trainers at the domestic level. “You need qualified support staff,” he said. “There is a general notion here [in India] that former players can do everything. But it’s not so. You need to have good trainers. There are so many good trainers here but it is sad that the board turns a blind eye.”The reason why many players had recurring injuries, Leipus said, was because there was no trained person to assist them to recover completely from the injury. “There is no proper network and coordination. Injury issues should be rightly addressed at all levels. Even the players are so anxious to play because of the fear of losing their spot, sponsors, and many other things.”Leipus said the players found it difficult to cope when they moved from the domestic to the international level, and wanted the juniors to get as much knowledge of international standards from the national players as they could, to help them later on.
The school team of St John’s College in Johannesburg has been instructed to return home along with the South African national side mid-day through their tour of Sri Lanka because of the bomb blast in Colombo on Monday.The St John’s College team played a match in Colombo on Thursday, a day after South Africa cancelled its participation in a Sri Lankan tri-series following a bomb blast near their hotel that killed seven people and injured several others.”We wanted to finish our engagements here and then return home, but our Counsel advised us to return home at the earliest,” Richard Venter, the coach, was quoted as saying in , a Bangalore-based daily. “We had arrived here by Emirates; now because of the change in plans, we have to procure fresh tickets by Singapore Airlines and we are leaving for Johannesburg tonight.”The star batsman of the school side is a Sri Lanka-born player, and the team was keen to carry on playing, but they had no option but to leave once they were instructed to do so by their government. Gordon Templeton, the media manager of the South African cricket team, said he was unaware of the developments as regards the College team. “They aren’t affiliated to Cricket South Africa, and therefore have received no advisory from the apex body. Cricket South Africa has no control over the side.”Amid all the controversy surrounding South Africa’s decision to return home, the school side had played a match in Colombo. They had already been in Sri Lanka for 10 days and had another week of the tour left when the council ordered them to return home.
The Board of Directors of Easterns Titans have announced that it has resolved to release Jacques Rudolph to the Goodyear Eagles before the start of the 2005-06 domestic season.”The on-going negotiations regarding Jacques Rudolph and the possibility of him being released to the Eagles at the end of December 2005 have been somewhat protracted,” Brandon Foot, chairman of the Eastern Titans, was quoted in a media release as saying. “Jacques is a very special person in the Nashua Titans Cricket family. He is a home-grown youngster of whom we are very proud and with whom we have walked through times of difficulty and success. We wish Jacques everything of the best and sincerely hope that he returns to the Titans fold in the not too distant future.”Richard Pybus, the new coach of the Nashua Titans, recommended that Rudolph be released before the start of the season because he intended to coach the Titans in a very specific way and he did not think it would be in the team’s interest if his methods were imparted to a player who was joining a rival team. “It is felt that it will be in best interests of the Titans and Jacques Rudolph, if Jacques be allowed to start the season with the Eagles. We will be very sorry to lose Jacques, but we wish him well and hope that he soon regains his rightful place in the South African side,” he said. “In releasing Jacques, it will afford the Titans the opportunity to allow our top order batters to fight for positions without having to disrupt the team at Christmas when Jacques would be leaving us.”Tony Irish, the CEO of the SACA, who has negotiated on Rudolph’s behalf during the transfer said that it was a good decision to move before the season started. Rudolph said that he was looking forward to the upcoming season with the Eagles. “I’ve really enjoyed my cricket at the Titans and have been given lots of support there,” he said. My wife, Elna, and I are however looking forward to our new life in Bloemfontein and to my cricket with the Eagles.”The Northerns Cricket Union has elected two committees to represent Northerns Cricket and Titans Cricket at the amateur and professional levels respectively. The committees were elected during the annual general meeting on August 22.Titans Cricket Executive Committee: Jesse Chellan (President), Roy Coetser, Hero Ramogale, Gys Rautenbach, Vincent Sinovich, Amarlal SomaNortherns Cricket Executive Committee: Pietie Steffens (President), Dicks Tlou (Vice President), Wouter Burger, Afrika Dido, Billy Nkwinika, John Wright