The final was a big test considering the tournament and the crowd, and there wasn’t a doubt that Pakistan’s raucous fans would ensure their chants were heard

Nagraj Gollapudi at Lord's21-Jun-2009Cricket remains secondary in England except when it comes to The Ashes. In the years to come, though, the theory will be sternly tested. Cue the 2009 World Twenty20: the tournament went on for 16 days, spread over three venues across London and Nottingham, culminating in a final at Lord’s on Sunday attended by a sellout crowd. Surprisingly, even the old traditionalists, the MCC members who had ignored most of the event, decided to turn up in strong numbers today, flashing their bacon-and-eggs ties proudly.This was the first time two teams from the subcontinent clashed in the final of a big event at the world’s most famous ground. It was a big test given the tournament, and crowd, and having witnessed most of Pakistan’s games there was no doubt that their raucous supporters would make sure their chants of ‘Pakistan [long live Pakistan]” were heard as far as West Ham, Ilford and Southall if not Lahore, Karachi or Rawalpindi.Not sure if it was by coincidence or by design, the organisers decided to hold the final on the longest day of the year. England’s bright summer continued as Lord’s was basked in sunshine – cricket lovers didn’t need more motivation to turn up from early morning.Steve Elworthy, the tournament director, asked if he would have imagined the final to be such a raging success in the absence of India, said his team had promoted the event cleverly. “We went to Brick Lane on ‘Baisakhi [the harvest festival]’ and set up a tent to market the event to the Bangladesh fans. We tried to reach out as many areas with Asian ethnicity in England to educate the fans and attract them to the event.”Smart thinking, given the healthy crowds witnessed at The Oval and Trent Bridge.The English don’t warm up to sporting events like their arch-rivals Australia who, as South African cricket writer Neil Manthorp once said, would “turn out in thousands to witness even a cockroach race.” Football remains England’s No. 1 sport, followed by rugby and cricket. However, despite the threat from events like the Lions’ rugby tour, a Formula 1 race and the US Open golf, the World Twenty20 managed to garner some newsprint, in addition to the air time on radio and television.Even if the tickets were somewhat steep, priced at £50, £60 and £90, the fans did not mind spending the money. Apart from the final, some of the best games in the tournament were the warm-up clash between India and Pakistan at The Oval, the opening game between England and the Netherlands, attended by 1200 odd colourful Dutch fans dressed in traditional orange, the crunch India-England Super Eights game, and both the semi-finals.The most distinguishing feature about this tournament was the rich quality of cricket, a far cry from the hitting contest prevalent in both IPL seasons. Probably that prompted a member to say: “I’ve never been a fan of Twenty20 but this was something else.” There were thousands of more converts by the end of the event.A Sri Lankan family cancelled their barbecue to arrive for the final without any tickets. Little did they know to enter the home of cricket was as expensive as finding a seat at Centre Court on day one to watch Roger Federer. The cheapest bargain they found was £300 per ticket, a pound more than the price to watch Federer play tomorrow.

The most distinguishing feature about this tournament was the rich quality of cricket, a far cry from the hitting contest prevalent in both IPL seasons. Probably that prompted a member to say this: “I’ve never been a fan of Twenty20 but this was something else.” There were thousands of more converts by the end of the event.

Fans had booked ticket months in advance. “Ninety percent of the tickets for the final were booked six months ago,” Elworthy said. A Sri Lankan fan anticipated a final against India and had bought the ticket three months in advance. “I’m happy we are here but feel sad that India aren’t.”But if anyone was taking the mickey out of the India’s absence it was the boisterous Pakistan fans, who had invaded grounds in large numbers throughout the tournament. The Pakistani band ‘ age-old hit reverberated through the afternoon as Younis Khan’s men silenced Sri Lanka emphatically. “Dear India, you can hide your tears, you (are) pussycats. R (you are) no match for our ‘majestic lions'” read a banner in one of the stands. The banter was sporting and taken by the Indian fans in the right spirit. “I bought my ticket from an Indian,” was another poke at the former world champions.Twenty20 cricket’s biggest achievement has been to attract fans who had never ever seen or heard about the game. There were a bunch from Kosovo, supporting Pakistan even if they couldn’t tell Shahid Afridi from Umar Gul. Apparently a form of cricket is famous in Kosovo and is known as ‘guaxha’ (pronounced ‘goojah’).Would Lord’s witness the same sort of intense fervour once again in a month’s time when the second Test of the Ashes would be played here? “No, there will be nothing like that. As Australia run through our batting, the English fans will be drowning in tears,” said an ECB official.But today was all about celebrations and the chants like “” poured into the streets outside the Grace, North and East Gates outside Lord’s.

George Headley played only 22 Tests, but he racked up numbers that will remain among the best in Test cricket

S Rajesh09-May-2010It’s a pity George Headley played only 22 Test matches – his career was a clear example of quality over quantity. For a team that had just been given Test status -West Indies had played just three Tests before Headley’s debut and had struggled to make an impact – the arrival of this classy batsman gave a much-needed boost.The extent to which Headley changed West Indies’ cricketing fortunes can be gauged from the results: before he arrived on the scene, West Indies had lost all three Tests they had played, against England in 1928, by an innings. In his very first Test, in Barbados against the same opponents, he scored 21 and 176 to help West Indies to their first drawn match. The performance kickstarted a glorious career that had some incredible highs despite the shortage of matches: in his third Test he scored a hundred in each innings, a feat he repeated at Lord’s nine years later, becoming the first cricketer to score a century in each innings in a Test at that ground. Of the first 14 hundreds that were scored by West Indian batsmen, 10 belonged to Headley. He finished his Test career with 2190 runs in 22 Tests, but his best years were before the Second World War, when he scored 2135 runs in 19 Tests at an average of 66.71. During this period the entire West Indies team scored 8335 runs in these 19 games, which means Headley accounted for an incredible 25.61% of the runs scored by his team. The next-best batsman for West Indies before the War was opener Clifford Roach, who scored 952 runs in 32 innings. Talk of a one-man run machine.Headley was clearly the best batsman in his team, but his stats still compare favourably with the world’s best – not for nothing did he get the epithet of “Black Bradman”. Among batsmen who’ve scored at least 2000 runs in Tests, only Don Bradman and Graeme Pollock have a higher average. Had it not been for the three Tests he played after the War, Headley’s average would have been higher than Pollock’s too.Headley’s first-class stats are equally impressive, with an aggregate of almost 10,000 and an average touching 70. Only Don Bradman and the Indian opener Vijay Merchant finished their careers with a higher first-class average.

One of the aspects that was so impressive about Headley was the frequency with which he scored hundreds. In a career that lasted just 40 innings, he still managed 10 centuries, for an average of one every four innings, which was second only to – you guessed it – Bradman. The longest stretch Headley went without a hundred was eight innings, which happened twice. One of those was during the autumn of his career, when he was clearly a lesser force, while the other was between 1933 and 1935, when he scored two half-centuries – including a 93 – during those eight innings. (Click here for his innings-by-innings list.)That stat also indicates that Headley didn’t have a poor series through most of his career; only after the War did his numbers dip, when five innings fetched him only 55. In his first five series, the lowest his average went was 37.33, in Australia in 1930-31. In the other four series, his lowest average was 55.40. (Click here for his series-wise averages.)

The No. 3 position was Headley’s favourite; it was a slot he occupied in 75% of his Test innings, but he scored 94% of his career runs in those innings. All of his 10 centuries came from that slot – which means, quite remarkably, one in every 3.2 innings in that position was a hundred – as did four out of five fifties.Among batsmen who’ve scored at least 2000 runs from that slot, only Bradman, Ken Barrington and Wally Hammond have higher averages than Headley’s 71.17. They’re also the only ones to average more than 70 in that position, with the average of the next batsman in that list, Viv Richards, dropping to 61.54.

With West Indies depending so heavily on Headley to put up runs on the board, he had a huge role to play in three of the five Tests that the team won during his career. In the first Test that West Indies won, against England in Guyana in 1930, Headley scored 114 and 112; the next time they won, against Australia in Sydney in 1931, Headley contributed 105 and 30. (Bradman made 43 and 0 in the same game.) Headley’s highest score came in a win, too, when he scored an unbeaten 270 in Kingston, in a match England lost by an innings and 161 runs. Overall, Headley’s average in wins was 95.75, and had it not been for his final game, when he made 16 and 1 in a game against England, his winning average would have been 124.83.

Headley outscored Bradman in that Sydney Test mentioned above, but in the four other Tests in which the two played against each other, the Don was a clear winner. That was in the 1930-31 series in Australia, which the hosts won 4-1. While both batsmen scored two hundreds, Bradman made the bigger knocks – 223 and 152, to Headley’s 102 not out and 105, and finished with a series average that was twice that of Headley. Considering the strength of the rest of his team-mates, though, Headley deserves even more credit for racking up the kind of numbers he did.

More people are flocking to Australian domestic Twenty20 games than before and the board plans to cash in with an extravaganza that sounds a lot like the one in India

Brydon Coverdale21-Jan-2010A funny thing has been happening this month: people have been going to domestic cricket in Australia. A lot of people. Last week, 43,125 turned up to the MCG to watch Victoria beat Tasmania in a Big Bash match. This wasn’t the tournament final, you understand (that’s this Saturday at the Adelaide Oval); it was just a regular Twenty20 game between two states. Fewer fans showed up for day three of the Boxing Day Test this summer.By contrast, going to Sheffield Shield cricket at the MCG is like watching a school play at the Sydney Opera House – only family, friends, and a handful of curious onlookers bother showing up. A four-day game between the same sides at the same venue would be lucky to attract 1000 people a day, and you half expect the batsmen to be distracted by tumbleweeds rolling across the field.It’s not surprising that Cricket Australia is excited, for it is already planning a bigger Twenty20 tournament that will rewrite the way domestic cricket is played in Australia. For the 2011-12 season, Australia’s Twenty20 tournament will not feature teams like Western Australia and Queensland. Those sides will be Perth and Brisbane. The six state capitals will field teams and there will be two extra sides, likely to be based in non-capital-city growth areas like Geelong or the Gold Coast or Newcastle.A national draft is on the cards, meaning that a state icon like Brad Hodge, if he’s still playing, could line up for Sydney instead of his beloved Victoria. Foreign players will be in the mix as well, although whether teams could choose any more than the current limit of two is undecided.It all sounds suspiciously similar to another tournament that held a player auction this week, and while there are strong parallels the Bigger Bash, or whatever it’s ultimately called, will never rival the IPL. For starters, the teams won’t be privately owned in the beginning – the state cricket associations will run the city sides.Mike McKenna, the general manager of marketing at Cricket Australia, is in charge of a working group looking at how to structure the new competition. He said franchising of teams could be a possibility in the future, but for the time being the aim was simply to build a club-like following among fans, similar to that seen in the Australian Football League or the National Rugby League, with the teams funnelling into the existing Champions League.”The IPL has been one of the references,” McKenna told Cricinfo. “We’ve looked more at Australian sport for an example of what’s worked. There are plenty of good examples, we’ve got some fantastic professional sports leagues. We’ve got to get the foundations of the game right before we can even talk about private investment. Sport in Australia is not full of great successes in private investment.”The IPL, one of the things they have is an unbelievable amount of money. We’re never going to get that sort of money. It means we can’t splash around the way they do. One of the things we will focus on is the quality of cricket in our teams. From year to year, hopefully our teams will do well at the Champions League and prove that it’s a very good quality competition.”There’s an argument that the Big Bash is already a high-quality tournament. New South Wales won the inaugural Champions League and so far this year, Big Bash crowds are up 80% and the television viewing audience is up 15% on last summer. But Cricket Australia wants the eight teams so it can not only push into parts of Australia where cricket is a massive participant sport without an elite presence, but also to expose more players to the top level.

For the 2011-12 season, Australia’s Twenty20 tournament will not feature teams like Western Australia and Queensland. Those sides will be Perth and Brisbane. The six state capitals will field teams and there will be two extra sides, likely to be based in non-capital-city growth areas like Geelong or the Gold Coast or Newcastle

Of course, it’s not that simple. Many questions are yet to be answered. With more elite positions up for grabs, will young players focus on winning a Twenty20 spot with the Gold Coast Gold-Diggers, and the IPL deals that could follow, rather than on breaking into their state’s Sheffield Shield team? Cricket Australia’s party line is that the baggy green will remain the ultimate goal for emerging players, but that’s of little relevance if they have spent their junior years slogging sixes instead of building patient innings on difficult pitches.When can it be played? If foreign stars and Australia’s Test and ODI players are to take part, and Ricky Ponting believes that must happen for it to be a success, the options in peak holiday time are limited. Late January is a possibility but the scheduling raises another even more important question.Will the Sheffield Shield be cut back to make way? Money and pizzazz aside, that’s the question that could most shape the future of Australian cricket. Six teams play each other twice in the Sheffield Shield, which results in 10 first-class games a season and one of the most elite domestic competitions in the world. It’s where the baggy-green stars are born, and if 10 matches becomes nine or eight or seven, then Australia’s Test team cannot help but suffer.”There’s not actually a real problem at the moment,” McKenna said. “We’ve done some modelling around it and the modelling is based around the principle that we keep the same number of Shield games we’ve got now. We see it as the pathway to the Australian cricket team.”We’re not looking to tinker with that too much. The reality is the season, when it’s bookended by the Champions League at one end and the IPL at the other, and other sporting codes, that there’s only so much time to play. So our expansion at the moment is based on that principle. If it changes, we have to be very careful how we handle that from a talent-development point of view.”For now, the details remain sketchy. But fans of domestic cricket in Australia should prepare for a big shake-up.

Rahul Dravid has struggled to score runs in 2010 and needs a good series against New Zealand

Sriram Veera in Ahmedabad02-Nov-2010It’s definitely not a shove. Perhaps it’s a gentle tap on his shoulder. Only Rahul Dravid can tell. Is Dravid feeling the pressure from the youngsters? Or is it an illusion in our minds? In the seven games he has played in 2010, Dravid averages 34.60. It’s a dip from his high standards, of course, but is it cause for concern?Cricinfo’s Numbers Game recently traced his decline since 2007. Have a look; it isn’t pretty. It felt worse when he was hit by a Shahadat Hossain bouncer and put in a Dhaka hospital in January this year. Indian fans have this thing about bouncers and their legendary batsmen. At least the older generation does.They will tell you how Sunil Gavaskar was never hit on his head by a bouncer. They gasped and saw it as the end of their world when Gavaskar had his bat knocked out of his hand by a snorter from Malcolm Marshall in 1983. So when Dravid went down in Mirpur as if he were shot, for some it would have felt like a signpost of Dravid’s decline, and not just a misjudgement of bounce.In nine innings after that knock, Dravid has made one fifty, in the first Test against Australia. He has fallen to left-arm seamers a few times, chasing deliveries well outside the off stump. He has always looked to get on to that front foot; at times he has ended up chasing deliveries that could have been left alone. Some have said that his back leg remains rooted to the same spot now and it has meant that he has been stretching and playing well away from the body. Others have rubbished that as unnecessary fussing over technique and it’s foolish to think Dravid has suddenly developed chinks. Dravid himself hasn’t said anything on the issue.Today, he was as focussed as ever in his preparation ahead of the Test. He batted against throws from Gary Kirsten and also faced both spin and pace. When the flash bulbs and television cameras swung to Sachin Tendulkar as he walked in to the nets, Dravid took a break and relaxed by talking to the umpires. But it wasn’t long before he went in for an extra session and faced Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan. A couple of deliveries leaped past his outside edge and he jabbed and pushed out a couple others before the shots started to flow and the feet started to move.
His fans will hope that everything falls in place in the Tests against New Zealand and Dravid can get in a groove for the sterner test ahead in South Africa.There was another man who batted today alongside Dravid at the nets who might also feel a bit of the heat. Gautam Gambhir’s 2010 average is worse than Dravid’s – he averages 27 from 6 games. He has been afflicted with injuries and been in and out of the side. In his absence, M Vijay has performed admirably, so India is not without options. Gambhir’s greatest test will come in South Africa. There we will learn how he handles pace and bounce. It won’t hurt him if he prepares for it with a big innings or two against New Zealand. Will Dravid and Gambhir turn things around against New Zealand? We won’t have to wait long to find out.

With a three-year plan in place, a stable board, and renewed belief, the Lions have rebuilt from a shaky foundation to become one of the strongest sides on the South African domestic scene

Firdose Moonda18-Nov-2010His eyes darted around the room like a nervously excited puppy, unsure of where to look and whom to look at. His gaze rose and fell as person after person spoke to the man next to him. Occasionally, he would find someone looking directly at him and a timid smile would creep across his face. Finally, someone dared to talk directly to him and the shyness gave way to a hearty grin. That was the face that would come to characterise the Lions, re-born finally as the big cats they are.It belonged to Ethan O’Reilly, who, together with his captain Alviro Petersen who was fielding most of the questions, was attending the post-match press conference after the Lions beat Guyana in the Champions League Twenty20. He had taken four wickets in the match and it didn’t matter what he was asked, his answer was the same: “I’m just enjoying being here and playing in the tournament,” he said, almost on auto-pilot. It was clear that this man was in cricket heaven.It was the first time in almost three seasons that a player plying his trade at the Wanderers had looked that excited. Paradise is not a place the Lions have been to, too many times since winning the Standard Bank Pro20 at the end of the 2006-07 season. “We should really have kicked on from there,” Lions veteran Neil McKenzie said. “It was really disappointing the way things went after that.” McKenzie was captain at the time of that triumph and remained the Lions’ leader through two and half of their three summers of going to hell and back.They finished rock bottom in five out of nine competitions, went through three coaches (Shukri Conrad, Gordon Parsons and Jimmy Cook, who coached at the same time) and lost a number of key players such as Charl Langeveldt, Justin Ontong (both went to the back to the Cape Cobras), Garnett Kruger (Warriors) and Blake Snijman (Titans). It was a time of enormous transition for a union that was traditionally strong. With inexperienced players and a new coach, Dave Nosworthy, the foundation on which to rebuild was shaky.Luckily, the player exodus was plugged. “Players wanted to stay because Dave Nosworthy said that he had a three-year plan for us,” Jonathan Vandiar, a 20-year old batsman and one of the youngest members in the squad, said. “The first year was just to gel as team and in the the second year we could start thinking about competing with other teams.” Last season was that second year, when the Lions finished third in the first-class four-day competition, the SuperSport Series, and showed signs of repair. They shocked everyone by reaching the final of the Pro20 and qualifying for the Champions League Twenty20. “Playing in the Champions League gave us belief,” McKenzie said.And the belief was to set out and achieve the last goal in Nosworthy’s plan. “In the third year, we would try to win a trophy,” Vandiar explained. This is the third year and the Lions are in a good position to bring silverware back to Corlett Drive. They lie second on the SuperSport Series log, and are the only unbeaten team in the MTN40.”We knew that things wouldn’t happen overnight but nothing about our culture has changed. The team spirit was always strong,” Vandiar said. The Lions have painted themselves as a pride, playing as a group, and not individuals, which is why it’s tough to isolate individual performances for their recent successes. It could also be why, when McKenzie relinquished the captaincy mid-way through last season and Petersen (and stand-in Thami Tsolekile) took over, the transitions were smooth. “The captaincy doesn’t mean a lot to us, we just play as a team,” Vandiar said.McKenzie said he felt the time was right for him to start contributing in ways beyond selection meetings. “I still wanted to add value and I like to help the guys. They all know that they can come and chat to me about anything but I also wanted to spend more time concentrating on my own game and my family life.” Behind the scenes though, it seemed like boardroom politics may have had a hand in McKenzie stepping down.

It would be premature to suggest that the glory days of the 1980s Mean Machine are beckoning. But some level of pride has been restored to the once-revered union

The Gauteng Cricket Board (GCB), who are one of the affiliates that make up the Lions (the other is the North West Cricket) had incurred Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) wrath by accusing them of violating norms at the Wanderers during the Indian Premier League in April and May 2009. As a result, CSA stripped the Wanderers of international status. To get back its international fixtures, the GCB agreed to restructure its board to be more racially representative, as it was long seen as too white.The resulting battle was bloody and an interim board was elected and then members were removed from it. The numbers of black and white members fluctuated and CSA called a commission of inquiry into the GCB’s operations. Eventually an interim board with 50% black and 50% white representation was formed and a new chief executive officer, Cassim Docrat, was appointed. Under him, the union has stabilised.”When the team is in an environment that is healthy and stable and communication from a management perspective is good, it has a tremendous effect,” Docrat said. “The performance of the team has been exceptional and it’s translated off the field into a happier office as well.”The GCB has also made greater strides towards transformation, with both a captain and vice-captain of colour and players like Aaron Phangiso and Temba Bavuma making a name for themselves. “We often have five to six players of colour on the field and that makes a real statement,” Docrat said. He has imposed no lofty goals on the team but said that if they get to the final of the MTN40 it would be a “great achievement.”It would be premature to suggest that the glory days of the 1980s Mean Machine are beckoning. But some level of pride has been restored to the once-revered union. “It’s important to have a strong Gauteng,” said Gerald Majola at the Wanderers leg of the CSA road show just less than ten days ago. Slowly, the Lion is learning to roar again.

At the start of the Ashes tour Kevin Pietersen said he was “on fire” and at Adelaide he was true to his word

Andrew Miller at Adelaide05-Dec-2010And just like that, it was as if he’d never been away. Kevin Pietersen had waited 21 months and 39 first-class innings for the chance to charge through for that manic quick single, to punch the air with the self-satisfaction of old, and break a hoodoo that had hung over him almost since the day he lost the England captaincy back in January 2009. By the time a downpour came to Australia’s aid, he was striking the ball with presumptuous ease, playing like a man restored to the plinth from which he had toppled, and ready to make his favourite foes pay for the indignities he’d endured since he was last in such a position of dominance.At face value, it all looked so laughably predictable. After all the agonising and pontificating, the doubts and column inches, Pietersen did what everyone, deep down, believed was his destiny, and turned in a performance that might have been lifted from one of Ian Botham’s scripts from the 1980s. With the one hand it provided closure, as a grim chapter of KP’s career was officially put to bed, while at the same time he set about carving a fresh new set of wounds for Australia – a team whose biggest weakness, no matter what how great or vulnerable the players therein may be, comes when they are challenged eye to eye by a player they both respect and fear.The only oddity about Pietersen’s performance was its context. The last time we saw him lapping up the acclaim for a hundred, at Trinidad in March 2009, the cult of KP was the central theme of the innings, just as it had been for each of 15 previous centuries that he’d racked up in his career, starting – of course – with that bewildering feat of ego-mania that sealed the Ashes at The Oval in 2005.Here he was, back at the Adelaide Oval, the scene of a contest four years ago so brimful of hubris that it might have been his career in a microcosm. After his first-innings 158 and his triple-century stand with Paul Collingwood, Pietersen had memorably stated that he’d got the great Shane Warne mastered. Three days later, Warne bowled him behind his legs for 2, to set in motion the mother of all Ashes collapses.This time, however, he tempted no fate and sought no extra attention, other than the requisite celebration pose that is sure to adorn the back pages of the British newspapers. “It’s wonderful to get runs, and it’s wonderful to put the team in a position where we can win a Test match in Australia,” were his first words as he addressed the press afterwards, which wasn’t an especially extraordinary thing to say, but notable nonetheless for its humility. Here was just another England cricketer checking in for duty, and you could almost hear Andy Flower’s pencil going “tick” in the requisite box. Oh good, KP’s back to form. We’re one step closer to our goal.The question of whether Pietersen buys into that collective goal is one that has stalked his career from year dot, and has been a particular obsession for Australia ever since his lone ranger performance in the 2006-07 whitewash. At Perth, as the last rites of England’s miserable Ashes defence were being played out, Pietersen’s disdain was self-evident as he prodded singles from the first deliveries of four of the last six overs, and left his lower-order colleagues to be scythed down by Warne. He was most certainly a man apart in that series, a brooding presence whose personal excellence could do nothing to nothing to halt the juggernaut, and once the series was gone, his interest went with it. Of his tally of 490 runs, 408 came in those first three games.

The selection of Xavier Doherty, on account of Pietersen’s recent failings against left-arm spin, is already looking like one of the most futile attempts at man-to-man marking since Maradona took on the entire Belgian midfield in World Cup 86

It’s different now for Pietersen, because it has to be. His downturn in personal form happens to have coincided with an upsurge in England’s collective ambitions, and whether or not that was a coincidence at the outset, it has become a fact of his career that he has had to deal with. The world ceased to revolve around him at the very moment that he was sacked as captain for his insurrection against Peter Moores, and he’s spent a few months feeling giddy while getting used to a new gravitational pull. In the circumstances, who wouldn’t?All the same, John Buchanan and Warne still delight in trumpeting the notion that he is an “outcast” within the England squad, and while KP could only offer a perplexed “Who? No” to an enquiry on that subject from an Australian journalist, a more resounding endorsement of his new-found credentials came moments later, when he walked back into the visitors’ dressing room to a raucous whoop of “Here he is. Yeah!” from his cock-a-hoop team-mates.Pietersen may never be the easiest man to warm to in the England squad, but there’s little question how valued he is within the walls of the dressing-room – not least because of the menace his record brings to their collective presence on this tour. Like Botham and Andrew Flintoff before him, he is a lightning rod for the pressure that Australia seek to impose on their oldest enemy, precisely because they recognise him as the biggest threat to the status quo.Everything about Australia’s preparation for this series centred around Pietersen and his new-found “vulnerability”. At a pre-series press call in Brisbane, player after player obsessed about his talent and the need to keep him in his box, allowing the lesser lights in the line-up – Ian Bell in his only innings at the Gabba, and most especially, Alastair Cook – to sneak round the blind-side and swarm through the gaps. The selection of Xavier Doherty, on account of Pietersen’s recent failings against left-arm spin, is already looking like one of the most futile attempts at man-to-man marking since Maradona took on the entire Belgian midfield in World Cup 86.Kevin Pietersen scored all round the wicket•Hawk-EyeThe only reason Doherty ever looked likely to ensnare Pietersen was that he had been padded up in the dressing-room for 11 straight hours before Jonathan Trott finally deigned to end his 502-run stand with Cook and give England’s gun batsman a chance to get to the middle. “I found it more tiring waiting to bat the other day than batting today,” said Pietersen. “You could probably see by the way I started… I was trying to get to fifty in five balls. But it was brilliant to watch, it’s brilliant to see and long may it continue for all of our batters to be in nick, because we will win a lot of Test matches if our batters are in good nick like this.”Pietersen is, as he admitted, a man for the big occasion. The last time he played this well was at the World Twenty20 back in May, a contest in which he was named Man of the Tournament as England captured their maiden global title. But the success on that occasion came at a price, as the gains he’d made with his patient approach to Test cricket in Bangladesh were scattered in a cloud of delinquent slogging. It left him unready for a singularly tricky home campaign against Pakistan, and left him in a scramble to find his form for the Ashes.But find it he has, with a busman’s holiday to his place of birth, Natal, giving him a chance to work with his original mentor, Graham Ford, who has known his game since his earliest schooldays. While Pietersen would not divulge the exact nature of the work they had done, a major feature of his innings was the clarity of his leg-side play, with a huge proportion of his first fifty runs coming in a flood of flicks through wide mid-on. His game brain has been reprogrammed, and having “done his head in” with the number of starts he had squandered in the past 21 months, he was not going to let this opportunity pass by.”The key to what I’ve done is the little things that I’ve worked on,” he said. “When you are batting for that amount of time you find a pace where you go through the gears to fifth, then back down to third and if needs be drop back into first and then go back up. It’s something I’ve worked hard on and it’s what the team needs and that’s how we play it, we’re not looking at two or three sessions ahead, we looking at ten minutes, ten run partnerships, hours and keeping things simple.”What the team needs is what the team gets in this current England set-up. Even the outcast has bought into that.

Mahela Jayawardene on the defeat to Pakistan, chasing under lights at the Premadasa and Sri Lanka’s middle-order options

Mahela Jayawardene01-Mar-2011We always knew the game against Pakistan was going to be a good contest. It was going to be tough for the quick bowlers on that track, especially during the day when it was flat and not doing much. We weren’t disciplined enough in the execution of our plans in the first 10 to 15 overs. We gave away quite a few easy boundaries, so that is an area we will definitely address.Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq are two experienced players and they built the Pakistan innings after the loss of three wickets. They steadied the innings, didn’t take too many risks and set it up nicely for the big hitters down the order. But our spinners did well and the seamers came back strongly in the latter part of the innings, not allowing those big hitters to flourish.Where we lost it was with the bat. Losing those three wickets in quick time – Tillakaratne Dilshan, myself and Thilan Samaraweera for 8 – probably cost us. Shahid Afridi bowled really well during that middle period, taking four wickets, and that spell proved crucial. We tried to build the innings through Chamara Silva and Kumar Sangakkara, and the lower order had a good run, but we left it too late. With the required-rate creeping over 10, it was going to be tough but in the end we fell short by just 11 runs, so there were some positives we could take out from the game.Chasing under lights at the Premadasa is no longer that difficult. The floodlights were one of the reasons teams struggled to chase at night at the ground, as they couldn’t pick the ball on occasion. Since the revamp, with new lights and a re-laid track, things have certainly eased out. Earlier, teams used to have difficulty chasing even 220 but now the toss is not going to play a major factor unless the track deteriorates drastically. But, nevertheless, to chase under lights, once a team puts a score up on the board, there’s going to be pressure. That’s the only scenario to be worried about but the other elements are not a factor anymore.We’re only going to get batting-friendly pitches this tournament. The only way going forward will be to try and control the batsmen. To do that, you need to have attacking options in your armoury. The Australians are playing to their strengths, using pace as a means of attack. They might flourish in certain conditions, in others they might not. The important thing is to have bowlers who can pick up wickets, particularly when the tracks are flat and it’s easy to score 300. We’re hoping for Lasith Malinga to get back into his stride, with that we’ll have enough bowling options in the side to pick up wickets.With our batting, we’re trying to establish a rhythm. Chamara Silva missed out in the first game because he had a family bereavement a few days earlier, and we gave him a week off. He’s been a big part of the middle order and was part of the last World Cup, that experience is vital for us going forward. It’s good to have him back and score some runs against Pakistan. Angelo Mathews – when and how we’re going to use him in the batting line-up – is also going to be a key factor. Samaraweera brings solidity to our middle order. There is, of course, Chamara Kapugedera, and there’s the option of him coming in depending on whom we’re playing and what kind of tactics we use for different opposition. It’s a settled middle order – it hasn’t really had much opportunity because the top order has been getting a bulk of the runs. I do hope that when they get that opportunity, they’ll come to the party and have a good workout.Against Kenya, we just need to play to our strengths. We did that against Canada as well. That’ll be the main focus, rather than worry about anything else.

Baroda, a side in a rebuilding phase, roped in talented youngsters, and the seniors led from the front to take the team to the final. ESPNcricinfo looks at their journey thus far

Sriram Veera10-Jan-2011Round 1, v Orissa in Cuttack

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It was a disastrous start for Baroda. Basanth Mohanty grabbed a five-for to knock them over for 148 before Orissa snatched a 204-run lead. Faced with the prospect of a defeat, Ambati Rayudu led Baroda’s recovery with an explosive 200 that included 27 fours and three sixes. Baroda managed a draw and left the game with a point.Round 2, v Haryana in Rohtak

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Baroda roared back into the campaign with a commanding innings-win over Haryana. They chose to bowl , and Munaf Patal and Bhargav Bhatt, the left-arm spinner, shared seven wickets to bowl out Haryana for 127. Yusuf Pathan hit a blistering 195 from 138 deliveries, and Connor Williams hit a sedate 114 to propel Baroda to a 343-run lead. Bhatt, who went on to become the leading wicket-taking spinner in the tournament, picked up seven wickets in the second innings to bowl Baroda to a crushing win.Round 3, v Uttar Pradesh in Vadodara

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Baroda suffered a reverse in a closely-fought encounter with Uttar Pradesh. They chose to bowl and Yusuf and Munaf shared nine wickets to shoot out UP for 190 before Rayudu’s 91 gave them a 119-run lead. Yusuf picked another five-for in the second. Baroda were set a target of 176 but were routed by Sudeep Tyagi and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Baroda had reached 89 for 2 at one stage, and 131 for 5 soon, but collapsed to be bowled out for 143, the last four wickets falling without adding a run.Round 4, v Punjab in Vadodara

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Baroda bounced back by thumping Punjab by an innings and 55 runs. There was no centurion but nearly the entire top order contributed to push Baroda to 416. Punjab then collapsed twice, 243 in the first innings and 118 and in the second, as Bhatt yet again sparkled with a six-wicket match haul.Round 5, v Karnataka in Mysore
Karnataka 257 (Vohra 4-65) and 391 for 8 decl (Verma 80) drew with Baroda 169 (Joshi 4-31) and 151 for 3
ScorecardThey took just a solitary point against Karnataka, who bounced back after falling for 257 in the first innings. Baroda were without Yusuf and Sunil Joshi ensured Karnataka took an 88-run lead with a four-wicket haul. Karnataka then racked up 391 and Baroda played out 55 overs to draw the game.Round 6, v Himachal Pradesh in Vadodara
Baroda 350 (Pinal 132) beat Himachal Pradesh 119 (Bhatt 5-40) and 214 ( Yusuf 6-74) by an innings and 17 runs
ScorecardBaroda yet again came roaring back with an innings win. Bhatt was once more the ringleader as he took five wickets to roll out Himachal Pradesh for 119 in the first innings. Pinal Shah starred with a measured 132 as Baroda gained a 231-run lead before Yusuf snatched six wickets in a facile win.Quarter-final v Railways in Vadodara

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Railways surprised Baroda by sending Murali Karthik as an opener, and he top-scored with 57 but Munaf picked up four wickets to bowl out the visitors for 248. Kedar Devdhar, a young find of the season, starred with 122 as Baroda ran away to a 168-run lead. Prashant Awasthi led Railways’ recovery in the second innings with a hundred but could only set up a target of 199 runs. Baroda lost only three wickets and played out 60 overs to advance to the final four.Semi-final v Karnataka in Vadodara
Baroda 153 (Pinal 83, Joshi 6-58) and 44 for 3 beat Karnataka 107 (Vahora 5-34) and 88 (Bhatt 5-30, Swapnil 5-20) by seven wickets
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On an under-prepared track, Baroda beat Karnataka in a little over four sessions of play in a dramatic, and controversial, semi-final. Vahora grabbed a five-for after Baroda chose to bowl and bowled out Karnataka for 107 in 44.2 overs. Pinal played a captain’s knock to top-score with a priceless 83 as Baroda took a 46-run lead. Karnataka collapsed for 88 in the second innings in just 32.2 overs; the spinners Bhatt and Swapnil Singh picked five wickets apiece. Baroda rushed to a famous win in 12.1 overs to enter the final.

A dozen books that will give you an insight into the subcontinent when you visit for the cricket

Suresh Menon10-Mar-2011″A famous historian,” wrote CLR James in , “can write the history of England in the 19th century and never once mention the man who was the best-known Englishman of his time. I can no longer accept the system of values which could not find in his book a place for WG Grace.”By a happy coincidence India’s best known historian, Ramachandra Guha, is also its finest writer on cricket. And Sachin Tendulkar finds a mention in his authoritative .But let me start at the beginning. The brief from ESPNcricinfo’s editor was: what books would you recommend to cricket fans travelling to the subcontinent that will give them a feel for the region? That’s a very specific audience. Not one that’s necessarily looking for literary masterpieces – although some of the books in the list are just that – or profound philosophical conclusions. The choices would have to be contemporary rather than historic, concrete rather than abstract, and take in the countries as a whole rather than focus on specific areas.That would rule out a whole lot of my favourites: by Sunil Khilnani, by Guha, by Kiran Desai, , and of course , a fabulous journey of discovery both for Indians and foreigners. His which is a single volume bringing together his two books ( and ) of anecdotal history of the game in the country is the intelligent fan’s paean comparable to the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould’s homage to baseball, .VS Naipaul’s is remarkable for anticipating the new India, self-assured, one foot on the world stage but with the other still in the wings. It is his most compassionate book on the country, written before the economic liberalisation but with a sense of impending boom.Two of the best travel books on India are William Dalrymple’s , and Alexander Frater’s . Dalrymple’s travels and encounters in India are written about with a rare empathy, while Frater travelled from Kerala to Meghalaya following the monsoon and capturing the sounds and smells and sights with a sharp eye and limpid prose.In recent years three Indian writers have won the Booker Prize, and many have been shortlisted. Yet the contemporary novel that captures India best is Manu Joseph’s . It brings together the two Indias, the rich and the poor (not just financially, but psychologically, emotionally, and intellectually) and is both non-judgemental and subtly humorous.

Recommended

Alexander Frater’s •Henry Holt & Co (P)

by Ramachandra Guha
by VS Naipaul
by Alexander Frater
by William Dalrymple
by Mike Marqusee
by Manu Joseph
by Michael Ondatje
by Romesh Gunasekera
by Aravinda de Silva
by Shehan Karunatilaka
by Mark Trenowden
begins with a cricket match between scratch teams and ends with a one-day international between Sri Lanka and India, possibly the first time an ODI made its way in some detail into a work of fiction.The recent novel , by Shehan Karunatilaka, is the story of an alcoholic sports journalist who seeks out a former player he believes is the island’s greatest cricketer.Sri Lanka have had some erudite cricket captains and officials, but few who have put their experiences down in a book. Roshan Mahanama’s caused a minor controversy when it was released about a decade ago because of a story it contained of a politically incorrect response by Glenn McGrath to Sanath Jayasuriya. Let’s leave it at that. Aravinda de Silva’s autobiography includes the glory year of 1996, when he was the hero in the country’s World Cup triumph in the subcontinent.The most evocative books on Sri Lanka have been written by the Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje, who was born there. is a brilliant story of a beautiful country torn asunder by ethnic divisions; the large story is the background against which the individual stories play out, but you are aware of it all the time. Ondaatje returned to Sri Lanka to understand better his mixed Dutch, Tamil and Sinhalese roots. The result was the autobiographical , written with the sensitivity of a poet and a sense of mischief only the most gifted writers can bring to their works.Monica Ali is probably the best known writer from Bangladesh, but her is set in England. The books that capture her country best are probably , a travelogue by Anne Hamilton and by Mark Trenowden. I say “probably” because these are the only books in the list I haven’t read. They are recommended by friends. Still, I am intrigued by Trenowden’s description as a “full-time village cricketer”.The book that is the most inspiring and explains Bangladesh best is the story of micro-credit, written by the man who changed the lives of millions – the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. details how what began with a loan of $27 evolved into the Grameen Bank, a six-billion dollar enterprise.What does micro-credit have to do with cricket, a sport where, as the IPL has shown, players become millionaires in one afternoon’s hectic bidding? And why is a history of India important to our understanding of its most popular sport? James, with whom we started, provided the answer decades ago with a question of his own: What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?