The fact that England were able to keep the game ticking along with four key wickets said as much about Sri Lanka’s distracted mindset as it did about the improved intent of their pace attack

Andrew Miller at the Rose Bowl16-Jun-2011As grand unveilings go, the Rose Bowl’s first day as a Test venue was an unavoidably low-key occasion. Hampshire’s dismal morning weather did eventually give way to a pleasingly sunlit evening, the transition point of which was marked by a rainbow that seemed to emerge directly from the Gourmet Burger van on the concourse, but in between whiles just 38 overs out of 90 were possible. However, the fact that England were able to keep the game ticking along with four key wickets said as much about Sri Lanka’s distracted mindset as it did about the improved intent of their pace attack.Sri Lanka are not a happy outfit right now. That much could be surmised from the distracted performance of their reluctant captain, Kumar Sangakkara, whose flaccid waft outside off reduced his average in Tests in England to 25.06, and left him with one innings in which to avoid the worst series average of his 97-Test career. Neither he nor Mahela Jayawardene has managed so much as a half-century in the series to date, and given that between them they account for nearly 18,000 of Sri Lanka’s Test runs, that is a shortcoming that seems certain to cost them the series.”It comes as a bit of surprise because everybody at home would like to see Sanga and Mahela getting runs,” admitted Sri Lanka’s batting coach, Marvan Atapattu. “Sanga will be pretty unhappy seeing the replay of the shot he played, but I don’t think the captaincy [is playing on his mind]. It’s just that he made a decision when he gave up the captaincy, but now the country needs him to captain, and he’s one of those guys proud to lead his country any time it needs him.”However, today was not the day for heroics from either former captain. For two men as universally respected as Sangakkara and Jayawardene, it beggars belief that neither man has been capable of sustaining their leadership roles for longer than two years apiece. “This is a job that ages you very quickly,” said Sangakkara on the eve of the game, and his brief innings certainly gave the impression that his reflexes have slowed beyond repair, even though it is scarcely two months since he was cover-driving with aplomb in the World Cup final in Mumbai.In the interim, however, both he and Jayawardene have spent time at the IPL in India, a tournament as far removed from Test cricket in early-season England as any cricket contest could be. The two men were the last of the Sri Lankan squad to join the tour (at the apparent insistence of their own board who had struck a deal with the BCCI) and played one warm-up game in Derby after concluding their captaincy stints at Deccan and Kochi respectively. Though Sangakkara appeared to find form with an innings of 153 against Essex last week, Atapattu still believed that their late arrivals were to blame for their ongoing rustiness.”When you’re in England the first thing that should happen is the adjustment,” said Atapattu. “People coming from 50-over and then 20-over versions doesn’t really help. It takes a bit of time, and you’re in a country where your technique is going to be tested. It doesn’t happen overnight; you need some time. This is why players need to get to a place like England, play a few practice games, get runs and get into Test level – because that’s where you get the best of the bowlers.”In between the showers, the test that Sri Lanka faced today was arguably their toughest of the tour to date. Though Graeme Swann’s wiles have yet to be called into the attack, the return of Jimmy Anderson brought with it the lateral movement that had been missing from both England’s Lord’s performance and the final-day meltdown in Cardiff, an occasion when panic and adrenalin respectively played more of a part in Sri Lanka’s downfall than any excellence on England’s part.

When you’re in England the first thing that should happen is the adjustment. People coming from 50-over and then 20-over versions doesn’t really helpMarvan Atapattu on Sri Lanka’s series preparation

“It was impressive for Jimmy to come back in without any overs under his belt,” said his fellow seamer Chris Tremlett, after Anderson’s comeback for Lancashire against Worcestershire had been washed out prior to the Test. “Sixteen overs out of 40-odd is a hard job, and he hit his straps straightaway, so credit to him. It was great to have him back.”The hallmark of the new-model Anderson is his discipline in all situations. With more match fitness he might have torn Sri Lanka to shreds with his swing both ways on a juiced-up surface, just as he did against Pakistan in 2010, but rather than get carried away by the assistance on offer, he settled for containment first and foremost, seeping 24 runs in 16 overs, and relying on batsman error for both of his breakthroughs.The net result was a Sri Lankan innings that never found any momentum, neither in the first 12 overs when Tharanga Paranavitana and the debutant Larihu Thiramanne ground out 23 runs for the first wicket, nor in the final hour, when Thilan Samaraweera and Prasanna Jayawardene salvaged some pride by adding 42 runs for the fifth wicket at less than three an over.That alliance lifted the score to a palatable 81 for 4, but even on a stop-start day that prevented any sustained pressure from being exerted, it was clear that England had expected far greater rewards than they received. “We were a bit lacklustre with our lines and lengths,” admitted Tremlett. “But even though we’d have liked to get a couple more wickets today, we didn’t feel like we let them get away.”For Tremlett, who left Hampshire for Surrey in 2009 after a decade of service on the South Coast, the day was especially memorable in spite of the limited cricket. With his new club languishing in the Second Division this was his first chance to return to the county where his father Tim remains director of cricket, but the reception he received from the local crowd was as enthusiastic as you would hope for a player who has made such strides in recent months.”I like to think I offered a lot to the county and gave the fans some good viewing at times,” he said. “They gave me a nice reception and it was nice to see some familiar faces. Today was a great occasion for the Rose Bowl and for [the chairman] Rod Bransgrove, and though it’s obviously a shame we haven’t got a full day today, the fans were loud and seemed like they had a good day despite the rain. Me getting a couple of wickets will have made them happier.”As Tremlett spoke, a loud crashing of empty bottles being tipped into a recycling truck confirmed the impression that the party had pressed on in spite of all the setbacks. However, the mood in one section of the ground, the visiting dressing room, remains as black as the forecast for Friday’s resumption.

ESPNCricinfo presents Plays of the Day from the second day at Centurion

Firdose Moonda at Centurion16-Dec-2011The hero of the day
Jacques Kallis looked set for a stint in hospital after being hit on the side of his head by a Dilhara Fernando bouncer that kept low. Kallis ducked into the ball, which stuck him on the grill and after taking a few steps, crumpled to the ground in a heap. Sri Lanka’s fielders were immediately at his side, as was the South African medical team, who had to mop blood from his ear. As soon as Kallis stood up, he stumbled and Mahela Jayawardene caught him by the arm to save him from slipping. For a few moments, it seemed he might have a concussion. But Kallis shook it off, put his helmet back on and, with the cheers of over 10,000 fans around him, continued to bat.The edge of the day
Sri Lanka’s bowlers found the edge ten times during the day but only four of them resulted in wickets. The one that they may regret the most came at the start of the 65th over, when Ashwell Prince pushed at a Welegedara delivery outside off. The ball went past a vacant third slip at catchable height and the resulting boundary put South Africa in the lead.The after-thought of the day
Six overs before the new-ball was due, Dilhara Fernando was brought back on. He had a catch dropped by Thisara Perera at gully in his first over but continued to pepper the batsmen with a variety of short balls. In his fourth over, with the new-ball due, Fernando persisted with the short ball and was given the treatment by AB de Villiers twice. Mid-way through the over, Tillakaratne Dilshan seemed to remember that a new ball was available and called for it. Fernando started with a no-ball.The reaction of the day
Angelo Matthews was convinced he had AB de Villiers caught behind, the over after dismissing Ashwell Prince. After a vociferous appeal from Matthews and the slip cordon, was turned down by umpire Rod Tucker, Sri Lanka asked for review. A lengthy replay process followed, during which Hotspot was shown numerous times. A faint mark appeared but then disappeared, and with the doubt created, de Villiers was given a lifeline. Sri Lanka spent the wait watching the replays on the big screen, pointing and gesturing throughout and their disbelief when the decision was upheld was evident. Matthews continued to look at screen as he walked back to his mark. On completion of the over, he trudged off the field. The song of the day
A sure sign that the cricket is not exciting enough to hold the attention of a South African crowd is when they start singing. First, came the general la-la which accompanied the Mexican Wave, then a version of “Here we go [insert name of your choice],” and then the traditional “Ole, Ole.” But, the song that made the day was the old miner’s anthem, Shosholoza, which originated in neighbouring Zimbabwe. The Ndebele tune was sung by migrant miners on their way to work and referred to the movement of the train. Today it was sung as de Villiers appeared to close in on his hundred, before he was dismissed for 99.

Plays of the Day from the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Somerset in Hyderabad

Abhishek Purohit in Hyderabad25-Sep-2011The collective effort
Bowlers step aside, modern fielders hunt in packs too. But sometimes, even three of them aren’t enough to prevent an overthrow. In the third over of Somerset’s chase, Rajat Bhatia threw at the stumps from mid-on and missed but there was a packed off-side field to fall back on. The ball first beat the diving fielder at extra cover and then slipped between men at cover and point. It was finally pulled back in style, though, with a slide and a relay throw to round things off.The weak wave
A decent crowd had built up for the night game but with the Kolkata Knight
Riders finding scoring tough initially, the fans were kept relatively quiet.
The DJ tried his best to bring the crowd to life, exhorting them to start
the Mexican wave. The crowd reluctantly obliged, but after about
an attempt-and-a-half, the wave died quickly.The voice-giver
The crowd was brought to life a few overs later by Yusuf Pathan, who
decided to make Somerset pay for bringing on their fourth left-arm
spinner, Arul Suppiah. Coming on strike for the second delivery, Yusuf
gave the crowd its voice as he launched it over long-on. Each of the next three deliveries disappeared into a sea of delirium between long-on and deep midwicket. The lowest-priced ticket today was Rs 100, and it had already been worth it many times over for the fans.The recovery
With the Knight Riders reeling under the onslaught of Roelof van der
Merwe, Shakib Al Hasan induced a high mis-hit from Peter Trego that swirled
in the air over mid-on. Shakib settled under it but the ball was coming over his
shoulder and he grassed the catch, tumbling on to the ground. Instead of
fretting over the lost opportunity, however, he recovered quickly and,
while still on the ground, fired a direct hit at the striker’s end to
catch Trego short.

Australia inflicted their first whitewash on India since 1999 after the visitors’ batting caved in meekly in all four Tests against high-quality pace bowling

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan29-Jan-2012A gulf in class
After crushing defeats in the first three Tests, India were expected to put up a fight on a flat track in Adelaide. However, there was hardly a semblance of a comeback as India were handed another all-round lesson by the hosts. Only Michael Clarke’s decision to rest his bowlers and bat a second time spared India from their third consecutive innings defeat and their fifth such loss in six matches. Throughout the series, India’s famed batting line-up was undone by Australia’s pace bowlers and the experienced batsmen were all at sea against high-quality swing bowling. Although India’s bowlers failed to leave an impact, the abject failure was mainly due to the batting. On only one occasion (Sydney) did India pass 300 and were bowled out for sub-200 totals in four of their eight innings.Before the England series, India were on a high after drawing their first series in South Africa and winning the World Cup. Fatigue and a spate of injuries put paid to their plans in England and they were humbled 4-0. In the first and second Tests, India were in with a chance but let England back into the contest which ultimately decided the fate of the series. The story in Australia was similar. The lower-order partnerships for Australia contributed vital runs in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and took the target beyond the reach of India. After this defeat, the rest of the series was hardly a contest as the hosts bossed India with bat and ball. India did not cross 300 even once in eight innings in England and did so only once in Australia. For a team that boasted four players with more than 8000 Test runs, this was a damning stat. In England, India were abysmal in both the first and second innings, averaging 27.45 and 23.65 respectively. The story only got worse for them in Australia as they managed averages of only 22.65 and 23.52. The average difference (difference between batting averages of opposition and India) in England was 34.21 and only slightly lower in Australia (28.48). The Indian bowling also proved innocuous, picking up only 47 and 46 wickets in the two series while the opposition teams have picked up 20 Indian wickets in each of the Tests played.

Partnerships make the difference
The lack of partnerships in the top and middle order hurt India’s chances in the series. The highly successful opening combination of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir was a major flop. The pair has averaged only 15.16 in their last 12 innings and had a highest partnership of 26 in the four Tests. India’s troubles were compounded by the collective failure of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman. Tendulkar and Dravid were involved in one of only three century stands for India in the series while Laxman, one of the most consistent players against Australia, was in woeful form scoring just 155 runs in eight innings. Virat Kohli, India’s top scorer in the series with 300 runs, was the sole provider of resistance in the last two Tests.Australia led India comfortably on the partnership stats and managed four 200-plus stands. Clarke and Ricky Ponting were superb in Sydney and Adelaide and seized the initiative with massive stands of 288 and 386. Ponting, whose place was under threat before the series, roared back to form with two centuries while Clarke continued his excellent form with his fifth century in 12 matches as captain. Australia averaged more than twice as much as India for wickets 7-10. India’s lower-order batsmen on the other hand, were very ordinary and failed to put up a fight in any of the Tests. Australia’s only major batting worry was the form of Shaun Marsh who scored just 17 runs in the series with three ducks and his poor display is reflected in the stats for the second wicket (average 4.16).

Australian pace bowlers stamp authority
Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle, who topped the wicket-taking charts with 27 and 23 wickets respectively, stuck to superb lines throughout and were highly effective against the Indian top-order batsmen. Hilfenhaus had no success against Tendulkar (zero dismissals and 94 runs conceded) but had the better of Sehwag and Laxman, whom he dismissed three and two times respectively while conceding a total of 77 runs. Siddle, the Man of the Match in Adelaide, troubled Tendulkar and Kohli, dismissing them three times each. MS Dhoni’s technique was found wanting and he was dismissed cheaply three times by Hilfenhaus. Ryan Harris, who came back into the squad for the last two Tests, played a vital role and dismissed both Tendulkar and Dravid in Perth while conceding just nine runs off 48 balls to the former.

At the end of a series the Indian bowlers would like to forget in a hurry, Zaheer Khan was the stand-out performer. He was at his best against the left-handers and also troubled the right-handers especially Brad Haddin with the old ball. He got Haddin three times conceding just 16 runs and was also successful against Michael Hussey (44 runs and two dismissals) and David Warner (94 runs and two dismissals). Umesh Yadav showed glimpses of his potential in Melbourne and Perth but was off colour in Sydney and Adelaide. He, however, had the better of Marsh, who had a wretched series. The left-handed Marsh fell to Yadav three times while scoring just 13 runs. However, Australia’s leading scorers Ponting and Clarke, who both amassed 500-plus runs in the series, were never seriously troubled by any particular bowler.

Australia had given indications of building a quality pace attack even before the series started with strong displays against South Africa and New Zealand. However, in the four Tests against India, they surpassed everybody’s expectations. In a display characterised by accuracy and testing lines, the Australian pace bowlers, tormented India’s best batsmen regularly. They bowled to specific plans and fields and were successful on almost every occasion. It was not quite the same with the Indian bowlers. Zaheer and Yadav were impressive in patches but Ishant Sharma’s five wickets came at an average of 90.20. The scale of difference in performance is clearly reflected in the average and strike rate of the pace bowlers of both teams. Australia have an average of 20.45 and strike rate of 41.2 while the corresponding numbers for India are 45.08 and 70.7.Both R Ashwin and Nathan Lyon were struggling for impact through the series. Lyon, however, had the advantage of coming into bowl after the pace bowlers had made early inroads. Ashwin had his moments but was struggling to maintain consistent lines and lengths. Faced with low totals to defend and denied attacking fields, Ashwin could manage only nine wickets at an average of 62.77.

Indian batting on the slide?
India had stayed on top for years because of their powerful batting line-up. Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman had performed in matches at home and outside the subcontinent. Setting up good totals helped an otherwise modest bowling attack to create pressure and deliver wins. However, in their last three major away series in South Africa, England and Australia, the much-vaunted batting came apart. Tendulkar was brilliant in South Africa scoring two centuries including an stunning knock in Cape Town while withstanding a hostile spell by Dale Steyn. Dravid and Virender Sehwag meanwhile struggled while Laxman managed a solitary fifty in Durban.By the time the England tour came along, Dravid seemed to be the only one in form. He stood tall amidst the ruins and scored all three centuries registered by Indian batsmen in the series. Tendulkar and Laxman were below-par averaging 34.12 and 22.75. Sehwag, who only played the last two Tests, bagged a pair in Edgbaston and mustered just 41 runs. In Australia, even Dravid was woefully out of form and this meant that India’s middle order was under severe pressure often. Not a single batsman averaged over 40 and only Kohli showed the stomach for a fight (average 37.50) scoring India’s solitary century in the series.

Perth has seen a bat standing unaided in a crack on the pitch, aluminium bats, fans booing Ian Healy and has retained its idiosyncrasies over the years, making it the most talked-about Australian ground

Sidharth Monga in Perth11-Jan-2012The WACA might be the only ground in the world that has a big dispenser of free sunscreen for anybody, preferably everybody, to use. “Apply sunscreen before you go out in the sun,” a sign on one of the walls says, under which is a giant two-litre container of sunscreen neatly padlocked away.There are no automatic glass doors at the WACA that open when they sense someone near them. Last night, I got locked inside, and Graeme Wood, former Western Australia and Australia opener, and now the outgoing chief-executive officer of the WACA, had to come out himself with a key to unlock the gates and let me out.It is a ground where the advertising logo painted into the grass has to be further behind the stumps than at any other ground so that the wicketkeeper doesn’t end up standing on it. It has a pitch on which Geoff Marsh once stuck his bat inside a crack, and watched it stand there without any support. The photograph of that moment sits proudly in the museum. Grounds are often known by a signature wide-angle photograph. The WACA can be identified by its pitch.On one such cracked-up pitch, Curtly Ambrose took seven wickets for one run in a fearsome spell. Four years later, when he tried to slide his bat in, it got stuck in a crack and he was run out. Tony Greig once lost his key in one of the cracks while doing a pitch report. The Fremantle Doctor – the afternoon sea breeze in Western Australia – is famous in the rest of the cricketing world because of this ground. It is, however, the wind from the desert, of a drier variety, that has the most impact on the cricket. It is that wind that helps the ball swing. No amount of wind can take away the flies, though. The flies do not swarm around you, and are, in fact, not really visible; but the odd fly somehow finds a way to keep pestering you.The big scoreboard at the ground lists an all-time Western Australian XI. Rod Marsh is their wicketkeeper. Not Adam Gilchrist, who makes it to almost every all-time Test XI. Western Australia has given the world some of its most-eccentric characters. The current chief-executive Wood was nicknamed Kamikaze Kid in his playing days because of his manic running between the wickets. Once, after he scored a Test century against West Indies here, Wood, who had been getting criticism for his performances, flipped the Channel 9 commentators the bird.Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh, two of the greatest Western Australian cricketers, once betted against Australia even when they were playing in the match. Lillee threatened to kick Javed Miandad here. He batted with an aluminium bat here and, incredibly, expressed reluctance to change to a normal one even after the ball seemed to have gone out of shape with a crisp hit that somehow failed to make it to what was a ridiculously long straight boundary back then. The crowd booed as Lillee threw the metal bat away in disgust.The WACA: less concrete, more character•Getty ImagesPerth has given us crowds as parochial as its players have been colourful. The late eighties to mid-nineties wasn’t a good time for an Australia wicketkeeper to come to Perth. Ian Healy was booed when on Australia duty, Adam Gilchrist given a harsh welcome when he moved to Western Australia. The fans at Perth believed that spot belonged to Tim Zoehrer, a cult figure here, and considered by many to be the best keeper to fast bowling in Australia in his time.It is a struggle to retain the idiosyncrasies of the WACA. Trinity School, opposite the WACA, produced Zoehrer and Simon Katich. The practice pitches are situated between the WACA and the school. At the end of this cricket season, a road will be built that will cause the WACA to lose some of its practice pitches.It is a wonder that the WACA has escaped the corporatism of Cricket Australia. Unlike the SCG, the grass banks have stayed. The floodlight towers don’t look attractive but they do their job. It is here that I finally found a proper cricket hat – the “Greg Chappell one” they call it here – with no sponsor names on it. There is less concrete and more character. “It’s an aged stadium,” Wood says. “It’s hard to maintain. The ICC and Cricket Australia requirements to host international games are getting tougher and tougher to meet. You guys [journalists] are growing in number. For the World Cup [in 2015] we will have to have an additional facility. That’s an ongoing battle, certainly something that keeps us busy. The WACA is renowned worldwide. We hope to continue playing Test cricket here.”Much tougher than keeping the facilities up to scratch has been retaining the characteristics of the pitch. The soil that causes the kiss-off bounce is rare. It comes from the banks of the Harvey River in Waroona and is running out. The pitches in the early 2000s made the WACA look like an old wrestler trying to live off the stories of his badass days, sort of the way Scott Hall, or Razor Ramon, is now by featuring in a documentary about his life.For the WACA, though, things are slowly returning to the way they were. Cameron Sutherland, the pitch curator, has studied soil types, has researched videos of the bad old days of the WACA bounce and collated it with the soil types, and seems to have got a block that promises a lot. The one used during the last Ashes gave Australia reason enough to use four fast bowlers, a decision that was vindicated through a win. In November 2010, on a particularly hot day with a lot of desert wind, a crack in the pitch opened up wide enough for you to fit a hand in, and all hell broke loose in a second XIs game between Western Australia and New South Wales.The WACA is one of the most idiosyncratic and storied grounds in perhaps the most isolated city of the cricket world. The MCG and SCG lay claim to being the greatest Test venues, but the WACA is the most talked-about Australian ground, at least outside Australia. It is a slap in the face of homogeneity. As Bill Lawry would say, “It’s all happening at the WACA.” Long may it happen.

He had reasons to take a break and expect sympathy, but Australian batsman Peter Forrest chose to make an important career move and just get on with it

Daniel Brettig19-Mar-2012Were the emergence of Peter Forrest to be captured in a single moment, it would be difficult to ignore the first of two straight sixes he punched down the ground on his ODI debut. Lining up the slow left-arm of Ravindra Jadeja, Forrest sallied forth to a delivery inviting the drive and with one sweet swing carried over the sightscreen at Adelaide Oval. Not only a strike of compelling power and timing, it was also a statement of the confidence instilled since Forrest’s winter move from New South Wales to Queensland.Watching on television, Forrest’s former Blues team-mates found the shot particularly symbolic, for they doubted he would have played it while wearing the colours of his home state. As he reflected on an international baptism that has now bloomed to include a West Indies tour and a Test squad call-up, Forrest more or less agreed.”The hard thing I found in one-day cricket, particularly for NSW, was I was always encouraged to go out and play with freedom and all this sort of stuff, but the reality was that if I didn’t get any runs I’d get dropped straight away,” Forrest told ESPNcricinfo. “So it was hard to play with freedom when you know you’re going to be out next game if you stuff up. I played a little more conservatively because I knew I couldn’t really afford to take a risk. If I did and missed out then I’d be dropped. I found that quite hard.”I think when I first came in I wasn’t too worried about it. But I think when I figured out how things worked, that there were no second chances there, if you missed out two games in a row there was always another young kid who was going well who could replace you. So that’s probably why I played the way I did in NSW.”The fight for a permanent place in the NSW team was not a struggle Forrest ever seemed likely to win. So when Queensland approached him towards the end of last summer he was soon packing up himself and his fiancée Rachel in preparation for the move north. Once there, Forrest found a Queensland team growing in confidence under the steady hand of the new coach Darren Lehmann, and a selection panel willing to give him an extended run in the team. It helped also that the Gabba seemed a far less intimidating place to call home than it had been to visit with the Blues – the ground’s reputation as an aid to fast bowlers made Forrest’s handsome early-season scoring too attractive for John Inverarity’s selection panel to ignore.”I think before I signed my contract I’d only played twice at the Gabba and was averaging 12 or something,” Forrest said. “I’d heard all the NSW war stories about when they went up there and had to face Kasprowicz and Bichel and all those guys – the top-order bats hated going up there. So I was a little bit nervous, but I did have in the back of my mind that if I score runs there I can score runs anywhere. I felt that my technique was pretty good. I’m not scared of the Gabba anymore. I love playing there now, it’s a home ground and I know how to bat there now.”I think I’ve improved a fair bit. I always knew I could play the shorter forms of the game. I just needed probably some fine-tuning and someone to teach me about how to play in different situations. I had a few minor technical things fixed up, but it is more the confidence of knowing that my coach and the selectors and everyone back me and say ‘you’re going to play all the time’. Now I know I only have to worry about watching the ball and hitting it and playing.”There were times at NSW where I knew that regardless of how I went I was going to be out the next week, and from that point of view it was fairly frustrating.” He believes his improvement as a cricketer has come, “only through playing consistent first-class cricket.” Of Lehmann’s influence, Forrest says, “Boof’s been fantastic with not only me but a lot of the younger guys as well. I reckon you learn the most by playing against quality opposition. For me to do that this year is one of the key factors in why I’ve gone so well.”

“Boof’s been fantastic with not only me but a lot of the younger guys as well. I reckon you learn the most by playing against quality opposition. For me to do that this year is one of the key factors in why I’ve gone so well”Forrest on Lehmann’s influence

Forrest has taken his rise with good humour and perspective, demonstrating an evenness of temperament that has been forged through a good deal of adversity. Apart from the tough school of NSW, there have been plenty of other obstacles: an Australia A trip to India was hijacked by an inflamed appendix, forcing its removal on the subcontinent. Another overseas journey to play in England was cancelled before it started by the diagnosis of a foot stress fracture. But these setbacks look minor indeed next to the fact that Forrest lost both his mum and dad by the age of 23. Forrest was 18 and about to sit his high school exams when his mother Vanda succumbed to breast cancer. He was in mid-cricket season when dad Ian suffered a fatal heart attack.”It was only a week after dad passed away that I was off down in Tasmania playing a Shield game. Rach didn’t come down there and my manager didn’t go down, my aunty Janine was there but even still there were times when you’d sit around the hotel and be ‘I don’t want to be here’,” Forrest said. “I remember that game pretty clearly, Hughesy ran me out for a duck and then I got three caught down the leg side in the second innings, so I was thinking ‘this can’t get much worse’…”I know that I’m more in touch now and understand things a bit better after going through that. I realise that in professional sport you don’t make excuses and you just get on with it, whereas I was stuck in the middle when I played on after dad passed away, particularly. I didn’t want to play, that was the human side of me, but the professional sportsman was saying ‘you don’t make excuses, you go to training.’ But now [when] I look back I should’ve had the rest of that year off and just gone and got myself right. I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me or anything like that, there are people far worse off than me. It’s not a very nice experience but it has taught me a bit about life.”Others have helped Forrest in the years since: his childhood friends and fellow Australian representatives Steve O’Keefe and John Hastings, former NSW and Australia A batsman Corey Richards, who did not quite make it to the Australian dressing room, and who, at 36, had figured out why.Forrest sought Richards’ help towards the end of his time at the SCG, and by the time he moved to Brisbane had assessed and addressed numerous flaws. “I think I identified last year at NSW that I needed to work on my game, there were holes in my game that were getting exposed in first-class cricket,” Forrest said. “I didn’t know too much about his past other than I knew he was a talent at NSW and played for Australia A but hadn’t gone on to play for Australia. I thought he must know his stuff. I did a few sessions with him and he was really good and we clicked.Richards worked, “pretty closely” with him and Forrest says, “He’s very honest with his assessment of things, he says he had three major stuff-ups, [one] was spraying the coach and this and that, and he went through everything [in his own career], and I could learn from him as well. But I think he played very similarly to me as well.”In Queensland, Lehmann has been similarly enlightening for Forrest, building up confidence with decisions like that to hand him the captaincy of the Brisbane Heat in the Twenty20 Big Bash League, while also encouraging a balanced approach to the game’s peaks and troughs.”He’s been very good with me in that he’s kept it very simple, and he’s just backed me and filled me with confidence to play the way that I play,” Forrest said. “He’s taught me a few different things about the game, like how to play in certain situations that he’s taught all the other guys as well. We’re all on the same page. But I suppose it’s just more the confidence to go out and just play how I play, and if that doesn’t work out then so be it.Forrest celebrates after reaching his maiden one-day hundred, against Sri Lanka in Hobart•Getty ImagesLehmann, he says, “still treats cricket like a game. Although he realises it’s our livelihood he tries to keep it as simple as possible and keeps an even keel the whole time. When you have a good day you celebrate but you don’t go over the top, and on your bad days it’s not the end of the world.”More than most cricketers, Forrest knows the meaning behind such sentiments, having coped with far more than most 20-something Australian cricketers who have reached the national team. “It’s worked out all right,” he said. “I’ve gone through a few things but it’s no different to a whole heap of other people who’ve had different setbacks as well. I’m definitely not a sob story, I don’t want people to feel sorry for me, it’s working out nicely at the moment, but I know how quickly the game can change around. So I enjoy it while it lasts and hopefully it lasts for a long time.”The Caribbean is a long way from that lonely hotel room in Hobart, and the bold debut six was a long way from some of the more inhibited strokes Forrest once produced for NSW. For a long time, Forrest had a little too much time on his hands. Now he is blissfully busy. “It’s great. I’m loving every minute of it. I was talking to my family the other day and said I was very busy, but that’s exactly why I moved, so I would be busy. I’d much rather be doing this than stuck playing grade cricket like I was last year.”

Returning from his battle against cancer, the India allrounder is seeking fitness and redemption, aiming to get back ahead of the World Twenty20

Sharda Ugra07-Jul-2012Yuvraj Singh, having battled a rare germ-cell cancer called mediastinal seminoma for the last six months, is seeking fitness and redemption, and believes T20 will be an ideal format for him to explore his return to competitive cricket.The World Twenty20 has been marked down by many as the event that will signal his comeback, but on Friday, Yuvraj said he ideally wanted to be completely ready in time for two T20 internationals against New Zealand scheduled for Visakhapatnam on September 8 and Chennai on September 11.”It’s important for me to play a little bit of cricket before I play the T20 World Cup. I should be ready enough to play in those two games. I want to be ready 15-20 days in advance so I can push really hard in the T20 World Cup.”He said he thought he had a “95 to 100%” chance of making it back in time for the World Twenty20 and the bigger event happened to be a “realistic” target. “I’m not going to come back 90% fit or 80% fit. If I feel I am 100% fit then I am going to go into the field… I am recovering really well, getting a lot of strength, my cardio sessions have been good. [If I] keep doing those repetitions, I think my body will recover faster.”The post-cancer routines, he said, had not varied greatly. “There’s nothing different to it, it’s just that I have to build on everything altogether. So T20 would be a great start for me because you’re playing 20 overs. Then you play 50 overs. Once you have that feel of international cricket, you’ll be fine to play all other formats.” It is why he believed setting out for T20 would be an “ideal start” for him in international cricket.Yuvraj was speaking at his academy, the Yuvraj Singh Centre of Excellence, at the Pathways School near Gurgaon, Delhi, on Friday, the day before the launch of a cancer initiative called YouWeCan. It was here that he made his first public appearance after returning from chemotherapy in the US in April. The man in the room this week was significantly altered from the bald, slightly hesitant and almost unrecognisable figure who wore sunglasses indoors to deal with the glare of camera lights.The two months between then and now, Yuvraj said, had been spent recovering from his chemotherapy, taking a vacation with friends, and most recently his first nets session in six months. While he did make a brief appearance during the IPL in Pune, the return to nets at the NCA in Bangalore has given him energy, direction and optimism, he said.The transformation from being in a wheelchair during his final cycle of chemotherapy in Indianapolis and three months later walking into the NCA nets or sprinting, up to what he called 90% of capacity, was, he said, an experience hard to “explain in words”. Yuvraj called the NCA nets “stepping stones for me to come back”. He said he had been anxious when he went into the nets for the first time. “It was special for me, but I was a bit nervous, my feet weren’t moving great, but just moving, just being in the nets, was just a great feeling.”

He learnt to inject himself with a blood-thinner every day for three months in order to deal with the post-chemo blood clots, and to accept the effects of his treatment as necessary elements of a painful route to a recovery

According to his own assessment, Yuvraj thought of himself as about halfway ready then, admitting his recovery was “more of a mental battle”. For the better part, though, muscle memory had kicked in when he faced net bowling for the first time in six months. “As a cricketer your natural instincts are still the same. I was hitting the ball perfectly, I was catching the ball perfectly, I was bowling perfectly. It didn’t look like I’ve been out of sorts. It just looked like I need more time to spend on the field in the nets. It didn’t look like my bat is coming from somewhere else. Yes, my feet weren’t moving that great. I was struggling to go towards the ball, but my hand-eye coordination was the same.”At the moment, he is trying to spend a total of five to six hours – though not at a stretch – on conditioning work. One of the first shocks for his body to recover from was an initial reaction to the leather ball after three to four months spent in bed, struggling to walk or breathe like normal. “Yes, I was a bit scared of the leather ball. When I was watching the IPL – guys catching, somebody hitting the ball – I would get scared. My body was under a lot of shock, just getting over that shock is coming slowly.”Instincts and muscle memory can kick in quickly for any athlete, Yuvraj said, but anxiety would only go away over a period of time, “The leather ball hitting you… that feeling has to go away, because eventually you have to go to international cricket and play at the pace of 145-150kph, so you want to be as confident as ever when you go back. You have to get that routine in, you have to spend hours and hours. You have to spend extra time on your body.”He said that the cancer treatment had “completely broken” his body and dealing with the load of an exercise regime for the first two weeks and the muscular pain was hard. “My body hurts a lot, but after two weeks I’ve seen the results, it’s started to get better. A lot of strength has been gained. My body has not gone through a ligament tear or a hamstring pull. It will take its own time to come back.”Yuvraj was, he said, positive that the next two months would find him in far better physical condition. He said he felt comfortable batting, bowling, fielding and sprinting in short bursts. “If I can do five rounds [of a cricket ground] at a stretch, that means I am fit. At the moment I am not able to do do that. Cardio-vascularly my lung capacity has gone down after chemotherapy.”Yuvraj spent more than two months in Indianapolis, being treated at the IU Simon Cancer Center, where dealing with the after-effects of chemotherapy meant getting used to the loss of hair and appetite and “bad mood swings”. He learnt to inject himself with a blood-thinner every day for three months in order to deal with the post-chemo blood clots, and to accept the effects of his treatment as necessary elements of a painful route to a recovery.”You can’t keep the food inside, and it is the same for everyone who has chemotherapy. You smell the food but you can’t taste it… in four-five days your taste comes back. These are normal symptoms. It is important for people to understand that it is you who has to take the initiative for getting better.”The YouWeCan initiative was, he said, targeted at all kinds of cancers. “If we can work on detection and stigma, the percentage of people dying of cancer can come down. It can make a huge difference.”Cancer, he said, had made him a more grounded, organised and disciplined person. “I am trying to be more disciplined in my eating, in my sleeping times, in who I want to meet and who I don’t want to meet.”Am I more organised? My room is still dirty. I still throw my clothes.” He said he had begun to pray every day, “which earlier I used to struggle with”.The disease, he said, had made him appreciate the small things. He laughed about grabbing a bite to eat before talking to reporters, “I love every meal now. I just ate a samosa. I had struggled to breathe, so breathing fresh air is a great thing for me.”Yuvraj said he did not think of himself as someone who was going to give up on the demands of cricket. “I’m not a person who is going to say [enough]. I’m just going to live a normal life and I want to get back on the field, because I want to see how much my body can take. This phase has made me very strong and I am sure this strength will take me back on the field.”Yet, Yuvraj believed, the “motive” in his life had changed. “I am not going to be worried too much about my performances. I am just going to be happy that I am coming back on the field and play for India again.”Yes, I have to excel in Test cricket – if it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. One-day cricket or T20, I would just love to come back and play for India and I would just be happy, trust me. It’s a huge thing from where I was and where I am going to be.”

Super Kings had a mixed 2012, with more lows than highs, yet they almost won their third IPL title in a row

Nikita Bastian28-May-2012Where they finishedSecond. They were chasing a hat-trick of IPL titles on Sunday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, but came up against a determined Kolkata Knight Riders. It did not look as though they would even go that far after a shoddy showing in the league stage, but fortune put them in the playoffs and, in familiar territory, they almost made it count.Key player
Super Kings’ strengths have always been their batting and spin bowling. The fast-bowling cupboard has often looked bare. Yet, in 2010*, when the team was struggling, it was the arrival of Australia quick Doug Bollinger mid-way through the season that galvanised the team. Similarly, this season, just when it looked like their campaign was coming apart, another Australia fast bowler Ben Hilfenhaus arrived from the West Indies and quickly settled in to become an important cog in the Super Kings set-up.Hilfenhaus had missed the previous IPL with injury and, debuting this year, he faced a set-back in only his second game: Super Kings had all but won the match against Mumbai Indians, when Hilfenhaus produced two full tosses and a length ball for the final three deliveries, letting Dwayne Smith knock off the 14 runs his team needed. But Hilfenhaus wasn’t to be shaken. In the next game, against Rajasthan Royals, he produced figures of 4-1-8-2 (the ‘2’ being the wickets of Shane Watson and Rahul Dravid), and then destroyed Delhi Daredevils with a spell (3-0-14-3) that accounted for Virender Sehwag, David Warner and Naman Ojha.It took Hilfenhaus only nine games to take as many wickets as R Ashwin, who is arguably Super Kings’ most dependable bowler over the last three seasons. And those 14 wickets came at an average of 16.64 and economy rate of 6.85. In the final, Hilfenhaus cleaned up Knight Riders’ lynchpin Gautam Gambhir in the first over of the chase, beaten by a slower one, and then claimed the well-set Jacques Kallis in a tight finish. Much like against Mumbai Indians though, two full tosses at the very end cost his team.Flop buySuper Kings bought one player at the 2012 auction: Ravindra Jadeja. They had spent their full purse on him, making him the IPL’s newest two-million dollar man. Billed as an allrounder, he bowled more than two overs only six times in 18 games. In the second qualifier and the final, he neither batted nor bowled. And when he did get his chance to contribute in either department, he did nothing much of note. He finished with 191 runs and 12 wickets – of which 48 runs and five wickets came against Deccan Chargers. The Chargers game apart, the only game-changing hand he played was against Royal Challengers Bangalore: he managed to edge away the final delivery for four to third man, to seal Super Kings’ thrilling chase of 206.Highlights”We know how to win trophies,” Albie Morkel had said during the last stage of the league games, when it looked like Super Kings might not progress. “I think we need the luck element and we will be all right.” Fortune might have put them in the final four, but once there, they justified their place. In the eliminator against Mumbai Indians, they looked a completely different side to the one that bumbled through the league phase. The batting and bowling clicked together and, more crucially, Super Kings showed the tenacity they have come to be associated with in testing situations. They were 2 for 1, before Michael Hussey and S Badrinath rallied, and MS Dhoni and Bravo counterattacked to carry the side to 187, a total that proved way beyond the reach of a powerful Mumbai Indians line-up. That performance breathed new life into their season, and suddenly many rated them as favourites for the title once more.LowlightYes, nothing could hurt much more than losing the final, but it was another defeat that left Super Kings in a much worse position. The team is used to a last-minute scramble to make the playoffs, and up until this year’s match against Kings XI Punjab in Dharamsala, was used to coming out on top in such situations. But a batting failure meant they had only 120 to defend on the small Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association ground, with the rarefied atmosphere. If Super Kings hoped to pull off a heist, Adam Gilchrist, returning from a month-long injury layoff, squashed all such thoughts with an unbeaten 64 off 46. It looked, then, that Super Kings, the defending champions, had failed to make the IPL playoffs for the first time in five seasons.VerdictSuper Kings had a mixed 2012, with more lows than highs, yet they almost won their third IPL title in a row.In the league phase, they played arguably their worst cricket in five seasons. The batting, despite power-hitter-packed middle order, repeatedly failed to finish strongly. That meant, once again, Super Kings needed to win four of four to shore up their chances of progressing. And just when it looked like that is what they would do – they had beaten table-toppers Delhi Daredevils and Knight Riders in consecutive games – the Dharamsala flop happened.Yet, things fell into place. The three other results they were waiting on, amazingly, went their way, and Super Kings sneaked in as the fourth team. And suddenly, Super Kings were back in their champions avatar. After the high of the eliminator, against Daredevils in the second qualifier, they were ruthless. M Vijay produced that one game-changing innings he tends to play every season, and, with the runs flowing, a listless Daredevils quickly faded out of contention. In the final, but for the spirited Manvinder Bisla – or even despite him – Super Kings could have edged home. Still, after the sub-standard showing in the league stage, Super Kings will take second.The one area where Super Kings consistently outdid their opposition this season was fielding. If you look at their line-up, you’d probably say the only fielding liabilities are Shadab Jakati and Ashwin, and when you saw these two throwing themselves at the ball to stop a boundary (think Jakati in the final) and diving forward to claim a catch (think Ashwin’s catch to dismiss Shane Watson), you knew you were up against it in the field. Seeing as they make so few changes to their squad, it’s an element of their IPL season they’ll be hoping to carry into Champions League T20 this October.*10.40 GMT, May 29: The article had said 2012, this has been changed.

Mahela Jayawardene is in touch with his country’s troubled past but is also the face of a brighter future

Wright Thompson04-Oct-2012Three years ago, the Sri Lankan cricket team rode through the streets of Lahore, Pakistan, on the third day of a Test match. Captain Mahela Jayawardene, who is to his country what Derek Jeter is to the city of New York, rode near the back of the bus. The convoy, with a police escort, rolled through the streets outside the stadium. Mahela, known as MJ, took out his phone to call his wife, and that’s when they all heard what sounded like fireworks. Someone shouted, “They’re shooting at the bus!” They heard the bullets, marching down the side exposed to the terrorist gunmen, sounding like rain on a metal roof. Mahela dived for the floor, and the first 30 seconds of what happened next ended up on Christina Jayawardene’s voicemail. An RPG flew over the bus. A grenade rolled under it. It was a blur: policemen being shot in the street, dying on a Tuesday morning, bullets striking the tires, players screaming. When she played the message for Mahela’s oldest friend, tears flowed down her face as he listened.”I got hit,” her husband shouted, and she heard the fear in his voice. Next his friend and fellow star Kumar Sangakkara, also a cricket legend, got hit with shrapnel, too, then another and another. Six in all were wounded, only one by a bullet. Soon, the bus driver would heroically drive them to safety, and Mahela would call the president of Sri Lanka on a private number, flexing for the first time anyone could remember, telling the politician to get him and his boys home. But on the floor of the bus, wounded by shrapnel and bleeding, Mahela felt sure that he’d die outside a stadium, killed for the crime of being a cricket star in a part of the world where the games seem to matter way more than they should.

Three years later, today …

Sri Lanka are in the semi-finals of the World Twenty20, playing Pakistan again, this time in the safety of Colombo. The island is a strange and beautiful place, with dark restaurants serving enormous pepper crab, white-front colonial hotels glowing in the distance. The deep blue of the Indian Ocean is visible out of every window, and like the ocean, there is a shadow of violence that’s never far away.Locals bring it up it casually, not because they don’t want you to know about the past, but because it was so common for so long that it doesn’t really rise to the level of news. The stadium where the game will be played, someone said the other day, is named after a president assassinated during the long civil war. A late-night party was at a boutique hotel, which had been the home to an assassinated prime minister who was shot on the balcony. Earlier in the week, at a local television and radio studio, Shanaka Amarasinghe, the host of the nation’s most popular sports talk show, pointed at the multiple layers of security inside the compound. During the war, he explained, thugs attacked and burned the place, in response to criticism.Waiting on the show to begin, Amarasinghe brought up a play called “The History Boys.” He recited a quote that described the challenge in Sri Lanka today: History is not something that involves the recent past. “We have no perspective on what we’ve just done,” he said.The civil war ended three years ago, about two months after the bus attack in Pakistan. Military scholars gush over the brutal simplicity of the government’s endgame: basically, they killed everyone in the leadership of the LTTE, the rebel army, known around the world as the Tamil Tigers. History will judge their actions, Amarasinghe said. Whatever comes next is still being sorted out. A knife’s edge, that’s where the country is, somewhere between the war of the past and the peace of the future. That’s what people talk about in the uncertain present, and in the middle of this painful conversation, there is a cricket tournament. Sri Lanka are in the semi-finals, two wins away from its first world title since 1996.”Right now,” Amarasinghe said, “we need a hero.”

At the centre of many expectations

The day before the game, Mahela sat in the Cinnamon Grand hotel, drinking tea with his wife and some friends. When he laughed, his whole face lightened and his shoulders heaved up and down. He laughs with his whole body. Christina and Mahela look like a cute couple, if that makes sense, and he seems to smile more when she’s around. As he made small talk, she leaned over to his ear and asked if he wanted a mocha, trying to make even the smallest thing easier. She wore a trendy green dress and carried a big Louis Vuitton Neverfull. When they first started dating, his friends wondered why he gave her so much control, and if that was healthy, but now they understand.Everyone looked at Mahela, but nobody interrupted his tea. The lobby is the future Sri Lanka wants for itself: the peaceful gurgle of a fountain, the piano in the bar, the chandeliers reflecting off buffed floors. In the back, sleek restaurants open onto the terraced pool. Outside the coffee shop, Kumar Sangakkara walked through the tables and saw his friend.Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara could afford a drink during their gigantic partnership•Getty ImagesMahela and Kumar – MJ and Sanga – are two of the best cricketers in the world, millionaires and subcontinent celebrities. They are often mentioned in the same breath – Coca-Cola billboards all over Colombo show them together, enjoying a cold bottle – and it’s together they’ve known their greatest success. Mahela is one of only six players, including Sachin Tendulkar, to score 10,000 runs in both Tests and one-day internationals. Kumar, a former captain, is close to becoming the seventh. Together, they hold the record for the highest score by a partnership in Test match history, 624 against South Africa, batting for nearly two and a half days. They are as connected in the history books as they are in the imagination of their countrymen.They also couldn’t be more different. Mahela is quiet and earnest. Kumar is boisterous and sophisticated. When Mahela is taken by a friend to meet a reporter, he apologetically asks if he might finish tea first. When Kumar is led across the hotel bar by one fan to meet another, he grins and hams it up, rolling his eyes. Mahela, with his open smile, looks like someone you would trust with your taxes. Kumar, with his Hollywood curls, looks like someone you wouldn’t trust with your sister. They are old and dear friends who’ve been on a journey only they really understand, walking together onto hostile pitches around the world, hiding on the floor of a wounded and smoking bus. When fans see them together in the lobby, they recognize one first – MJ! – and then the other – My God, Sanga! – and, by the time they’ve processed their luck in a double sighting of Sri Lankan cricket royalty, they’re about too flustered to speak.Mahela checks his watch. There’s a bowlers meeting in 40 minutes, and as team captain, he needs to fine-tune their strategy. He sits down, leans in, and in a quiet and steady voice, tells the story of his life, and Kumar’s life, and everyone who has lived in Sri Lanka for the past three decades of death and division. When he tells it, it is oddly a story of hope.”I grew up with the war,” he says. “I’m 35 years old. From six, seven years old, I remember the war, the bombs going off, and all that. I literally grew up – so that’s my generation.”

The Lost Generation, found

They never knew a Sri Lanka without conflict.Mahela grew up hearing explosions in Colombo. “I have two, three school friends who caught a couple of bombs,” he says. “I have a friend who still has shrapnel inside his body. He has to carry a certificate whenever he travels, going through machines and all that.” People his age learned the smell of burned bodies on the roadside and the sight of bloated corpses bobbing in the river. In 1983, during the violent riots where Sinhalese attacked their Tamil neighbours, Kumar’s Sinhalese father moved three dozen or so Tamils into his home and hid them from the roving squads of killers, like something out of Anne Frank. The children played in the yard until Kumar’s father would rush them upstairs to hide, in silence. Kumar crouched as the killers went door to door. The easy-going, good-looking cricket star on television has that in his memory.In the midst of this terror, they tried to do the normal things: playing sports, chasing dreams. Mahela, even at a young age, was a prodigy. The adults looked at him and predicted great success, and while Kumar is known for working harder than anyone else on the team, Mahela is known as someone who never stumbled on the jagged rocks of expectation. “He’s from a very average family,” says his oldest friend Sanjeewa Jayawardene, known to everyone as Java. “He had a younger brother, who also played cricket.”The brother was named Dhishal, and when Dhishal was 16, during an otherwise normal day at school, he collapsed. Doctors diagnosed a tumour, and Mahela’s father sold almost everything they owned, borrowing to make up the difference. He found enough money to fly to London to the best hospital they could find. Dhishal survived the first operation, but when the cancer returned, and his dad sold the rest of their possessions, he didn’t survive the second. He died and the family returned home, broke and broken. “Mahela had his bat and the shoes,” Java says. “When he came back, they didn’t have anything. Not a TV, nothing.”Mahela didn’t play cricket for months, his bat and shoes in the closet. Finally his team-mates convinced him to come back against their biggest rival. Even rusty, he dominated, and from that moment on, his destiny was clear. He’d be the best batsman in his country. Success came quickly, and everything he made, he used to pay off his family’s hospital debts. His cricket success would always be tied to the loss of his brother, which he hates to talk about. When cricket media want to do documentaries, he bristles when they use photographs of Dhishal because he knows his parents will watch, and he knows the sight of his brother will make them cry. His new friends don’t know much about Dhishal, and his old ones know not to ask. But the memory is there, just one of many scars for a child of Sri Lanka’s civil war. In his hotel room, Java says in the lobby of the Cinnamon Grand, he always sets up a shrine. Two photographs, one of his wife, the other of his brother, happy and very much alive, which is how Dhishal is best remembered.Mahela takes that photograph everywhere he travels.

Leading

Kumar Sangakkara delivered a passionate Spirit of Cricket lecture•Matt BrightSeveral years ago, Mahela finished a high-profile Test match down the coast in Galle, against England, the former colonial overlords. Test matches are physically and mentally exhausting, more so for the captain. In American sports, the captain is a largely ceremonial title. In cricket, he makes every decision about on-field strategy. Mahela led Sri Lanka to a hard-fought draw in the Test match – and a victory in the overall series – scoring a 213, not out, which is like going for 55 points in a basketball game.The next morning, with Java shaking his head, Mahela said his local cricket club in Colombo had a game, and he thought he should show up and play. Imagine Tiger Woods winning the Masters, then humping it back for a low-profile pro-am. Java said Mahela even called the club and apologised that he’d be at the grounds only an hour and a half before the first ball instead of the customary two hours.In the execution of a fielding strategy he designed, he sprinted across the pitch after each over, putting himself in the most difficult position instead of delegating it, and his hunch paid off: in the closing overs of the match, a long ball came straight to him, and he caught it. Being a cricket captain, like being someone a nation can look up to, isn’t about grand pronouncements. It requires a series of small actions, repeated over and over, day after day.

Lessons about power

Java tells a story about his friend.This happened a few years back, a month after finishing a crushing second in the 2007 World Cup. It was during the war, when checkpoints regularly stopped traffic on the highways. Java and Mahela, the team captain, rode back late at night from a friend’s funeral. Java drove. It was dark and empty on the garrison road. The troops stopped them. It was dark, the soldiers focused and on edge, the cricket star was out of context. Java was exhausted and needed to get home. “Tell him who you are,” Java begged. “I won’t,” Mahela said.Java laughs now in the hotel lobby. “This guy asked for the ID,” he says, “so he gave him the ID. The ID doesn’t say ‘Mahela Jayawardene,’ it says ‘Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene.’ Even if you read it, it doesn’t click, unless you look for it, you know?”They waited on the soldiers to finish searching their car and then drove on to town. Java was annoyed and wanted to know why Mahela wouldn’t do something so simple that would speed up their day. “I may play cricket,” he said, “but let them do their job.”It’s just a little example, a random moment, but in Sri Lanka, where everyone uses whatever influence they can accumulate, it is significant. Last Sunday’s newspaper carried a typical full-page story about a top official’s son who allegedly pulled a gun on a general – a tour de force of dropped names and threats – and during a civil war, people learned lessons about power quickly and simply: if you don’t have it, get it; when you have it, use it. Mahela had power, and he wouldn’t spend it on his own convenience. In a time of war, that might make him naive. But in a nation trying to reinvent itself as place of peace, that makes him a star in the sky.

A healing

Mahela tells a story about himself, about Sri Lanka’s past and future, and what a cricket game can mean. Everyone knows how many people died when the tsunami hit Thailand in 2004, but not as many know that the same waves roared ashore in Sri Lanka, in both the south and the war-torn north. More than 30,000 people lost their lives. Many just disappeared, washed out to sea. The government and the rebels stopped fighting, and the cricket team, one of the only things each side could agree on, went north to carry aid. They found that rebel soldiers, who’d been fighting a guerilla war for decades, knew their results and their records. Like any other fans, they made suggestions about lineup changes, and offered opinions on who could bat best against offspinners. Mahela said that standing in a war-zone, hearing the people he knew as the enemy talking with such passion and ownership about the Sri Lankan cricket team, he left with the hope that they might one day feel that way about something else, and then something else, until a broken nation is whole again.

The possibilities and limitations

There are, of course, limits to what a cricket star can do, to what a team winning a game can accomplish, and if Sri Lanka’s World Cup victory in 1996 proves anything, it’s that cynicism and violence can squander any momentary wave of joy.But they can raise money and carry supplies to the north, and they can play hard and win. They can address small problems. They can show up at a club match after a five-day Test. They can battle the corruption and cynicism that could drag Sri Lanka back to its past, a circle of petty score-settling and division. They can accumulate power and try their best to use it for good.Kumar, who is really a brilliant speaker and writer, chose the most public forum possible. The Marylebone Cricket Club in London, the self-proclaimed guardians of the game, invited him to give the annual Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture. He was the first active cricketer to do so. A friend asked if he needed help. Kumar smiled and said no. He knew just what the moment required. He gave no quarter, standing before a room of cricket legends and a bank of cameras. Most headlines at home came from his unsparing and specific criticism against the corruption in Sri Lankan cricket. Sitting in the hotel lobby, Mahela laughs about the speech and the fallout that followed. “I knew it would be interesting knowing Kumar,” Mahela says, seeming even a little in awe of his articulate friend.Mahela has fought this battle, too, in his own way. In 2009, he resigned the captaincy, in part because he grew tired of fighting the backroom power plays. Sri Lanka’s own sports minister once described the cricket board as the third most corrupt organisation in the country, behind the schools and the police. Mahela didn’t need power that bad. Ten months ago, he returned to the job. His team needed him, and you can’t help but think that, at least in part, it’s because he knows what an important time this is. The end of his career is much closer than the beginning, and the new Sri Lanka will be made in the next few years, by people his age, the ones who inherited the war and saw it end.”You want to take that ownership,” Mahela says. “This is a great opportunity for our generation to try and bridge that gap and then help the next generation to heal by itself. Our generation has been through the war, so that emotionally, it’ll be tough for them, but for the next generation it’ll be much easier.”They can set an example. That’s what Kumar’s speech was, really: the example, and the lessons, of a generation. The story of Mahela, and Dhishal, and the Sinhalese who attacked their neighbours and the Tamils hiding in Kumar’s house, of the Sri Lankans who will cheer today, and of those who will play.Mahela Jayawardene with wife Christina after the horrors of Lahore ’09•AFPKumar talked about the riots. He wove his life through bombs, and the fear, and the hope, the arc following the history of cricket, and how it could provide the road map for a new country. The most emotional part, for him and for listeners, came when describing what happened after the assassination attempt in Pakistan. At a checkpoint a week later, a soldier asked if his injuries were healing. Kumar said everything felt good, and that he suffered only a few moments of gunfire, while soldiers are threatened by it daily. The soldier’s answer stuck with Kumar.”It is OK if I die,” he said, “Because it is my job and I am ready for it. But you are a hero and if you were to die it would be a great loss for our country.”

Beyond the myth

There’s a photograph you should look at during the match, especially when Mahela makes the long walk from the pavilion to the centre of the pitch, with a nation holding its breath. It’s the other side of soldiers calling cricketers heroes, and it’s much closer to the truth. The photograph was taken after the terrorist attack in Pakistan, when the players returned safely home, landing at the airport in Colombo. Officials showed up to greet them, and maybe end up on the news. Parents showed up for the younger players, wives and children for the older ones. Christina arrived without her usual calm and polish, rushing to wrap her arms around Mahela. The homecoming was a nationalist outpouring of love, relief and anger, a chance for cricket to again carry water for big ideas that have nothing to do with bowling a ball, or batting it. A photographer caught the couple walking away, and he seems exhausted, and she seems pale, and all around them, there is chaos. But look at the bottom of the picture. They are holding hands, fingers locked tight, a husband and a wife doing the best they can in a part of the world where the games seem to matter way more than they should.

Victory at Lord’s came despite another poor England catching display

Andrew McGlashan at Lord's02-Sep-2012This theme will sound a bit like a broken record, but England’s catching malaise shows little sign of abating. At Lord’s the focus was back on the slips, a problem area all summer, and the fact England secured victory to take an unassailable 2-1 lead was despite, not because of, their fielding.If that feels like a downbeat note on which to reflect on another solid victory – which is a sign of the strength of character in this one-day side – it never hurts to look at how a team can improve after a win. One thing is for sure, Andy Flower will not be rubbing out the dropped catches from his notebook that gets studiously filled during each match.It is difficult to pinpoint when England last went through such a sustained period of weakness in the catching department. The Ashes tour in 1994-95 springs to mind, which came to a head when ten chances were put down in Perth, leading to Graham Thorpe booting the ball away at first slip after he grassed one. In 2006 England suffered a bad Test at Lord’s against Sri Lanka when a hatful of chances went down and the visitors saved the game, but by the next match standards had improved. While there are obviously other failures in between, too, the current issues have become a trend.This season, at least since the third Test against West Indies when Ian Bell dropped two at slip, there has been a consistency about the inconsistency. And it is not just one player, either, unlike previous occasions when the likes of Kevin Pietersen or Matt Prior have gone through periods of missing plenty. James Anderson, Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss missed them in the Test series, while Craig Kieswetter had an awful ODI in Southampton and at Lord’s it was James Tredwell’s turn to let two escape his grasp.The first, inevitably off Hashim Amla’s outside edge, flew at an awkward shoulder-height to Tredwell at second slip and he could not decide whether to go with his hands up or down. Still, it should have been swallowed. The second came when Tredwell was stood at a lone first slip and Graeme Smith edged the same bowler, Steven Finn. Kieswetter committed to the dive and his out-stretched left glove distracted Tredwell, who never got near catching it. It was credit to Tredwell that did not let the misses affect his bowling, where he responded with a beautifully controlled 3 for 35.However, the fact that Tredwell and Jonathan Trott were England’s two slips highlights the issues they are having. It is not that they are poor slippers – it bemuses many that Trott is not there more often and Tredwell does it for Kent – but there has been a huge amount of chopping and changing in recent months. That is unavoidable to a degree – players retire, others get injured, while Test and ODI teams are not the same – but like any role in sport players have to be able to settle in a position.Cook, who has fielded slip in Tests albeit with mixed results, and Anderson are not there to quick bowlers in ODIs (although Anderson stood there to the spinners at Lord’s). Fielding in the slips, while a very individual skill, also requires a sixth sense built up over time over who will go for what, especially between the keeper and first slip. Healy-Taylor, Gilchrist-Warne, Strauss-Prior (mostly) and Smith-Boucher are just a few contemporary examples of long-term associations.

In ODIs, Cook likes to field at mid-off to chat to his bowlers but first slip is ideal for a captain. Can he make himself safe in that position? It might also help him judge the use of DRS”

In terms of England’s catching as a whole they have not replaced Paul Collingwood, who spent his career at backward point in ODIs and third slip in Tests, or second when the likes of Andrew Flintoff or Graeme Swann were bowling. It was a natural stagger, everyone knew where they would be.Crucially, too, the first slip remained almost constant, certainly in Tests, whether it be Marcus Trescothick (who had to avoid Geraint Jones’ keenness to dive more than once) or Strauss. Now that will come into focus again in the Tests with Strauss departing with a record number of England catches. In ODIs, Cook likes to field at mid-off to chat to his bowlers but first slip is ideal for a captain. Can Cook make himself safe in that position? It might also help him judge the use of DRS; as in the second match at West End, where they wasted one on JP Duminy, here there was a silly review against Amla, who was then given not out to one that was taking leg stump.However, amid another reminder of how England’s fielding has lost its edge it should be mentioned how well Kieswetter responded under pressure, making five dismissals. It was a tough game for him in Southampton and he played a hand in Smith’s reprieve here, but soon set about evening the ledger. He held a sharp catch above his head off Smith’s top edge then became the first England wicketkeeper to complete three stumpings in an ODI.Two were comfortable but he was quick to spot AB de Villiers’ toe on the line, although he blotted his copy book when he chased a shot from Robin Peterson and produced a poor throw to Anderson at the stumps. It was not a wicketkeeping error, but just another little moment to add to a lengthy list from the team season. Peterson later showed that South Africa are far from infallible when he dropped Bell at mid-on to put a seal on a disappointing show from the visitors who, this time, could not make England pay for their mistakes. But that does not mean the problems can be ignored.