All posts by csb10.top

The light-hearted nature of Twenty20 cricket was on display in Melbourne today as state players tried to smash balls across the Yarra River to launch the expanded domestic program. It was a spectacular failure – all six hitters failed to clear the water – but Cricket Australia hopes the 13 matches beginning on Monday are more of a success.Each state will play two home and two away games – twice as many as last year – before the final on January 13. Newcastle and Toowoomba will host matches and New South Wales will try to draw big crowds by including the rugby league star Andrew Johns in their team.”We saw him bat in the nets the other day,” the New South Wales opener Ed Cowan said. “It is an interesting prospect to see what Shaun Tait serves up for him because Bracks [Nathan Bracken] was bowling off about two or three steps and he was squealing when he was copping it in the thigh-pad.”Such stunts will do nothing to appease the Twenty20 detractors but the players insist they will take the contest seriously. South Australia’s Mark Cleary said his team, which has made a miserable start to 2006-07, would be looking to regain form in the shorter version. “It’s hit and giggle,” he said. “A win’s a win, so if we come out and get a couple of wins it might set us up for some momentum going into the Pura Cup and the Ford Ranger Cup.”Travis Birt, the Tasmania batsman, said it was unfair to label Twenty20 as simply an excuse to slog. “If you look at the really good players they play natural cricket strokes and seem to do well,” Birt said. “Obviously the Pura Cup is what everyone wants to win, or the Ford Ranger Cup, but it’s a trophy that’s still out there so teams really want to win it.”Twenty20 rules include two runs for no-balls with a free hit from the next delivery, a maximum of 90 seconds for a new batsman to take guard after a wicket, and penalties for teams that fail to bowl their 20 overs in their allotted 80 minutes. The first round of matches on January 1 has Queensland hosting Tasmania, Victoria travelling to South Australia and Western Australia playing at home to New South Wales.Tasmania squad Michael Di Venuto, Tim Paine (wk), Dane Anderson, Travis Birt, George Bailey, Michael Dighton, Daniel Marsh (capt), Matthew Wade, Luke Butterworth, Xavier Doherty, Brendan Drew, Damien Wright.New South Wales squad Ed Cowan, Phil Jaques, Simon Katich (capt), Brad Haddin (wk), Dominic Thornely, Daniel Christian, David Warner, Aaron O’Brien, Tim Lang, Nathan Hauritz, Nathan Bracken, Scott Coyte.Victoria squad Michael Klinger, Jon Moss, Brad Hodge, Cameron White (capt), David Hussey, Rob Quiney, Aiden Blizzard, Andrew McDonald, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Shane Harwood, Gerard Denton, Darren Pattinson.

Shaun Pollock has said any team could fancy their chances at the ICC World Twenty20, because of the quick-paced nature of the game.”It’s too fast,” Pollock told the . “It’s a bit of a sprint. If one-day cricket is an 800-metre race, then Twenty20 is 100 metres.”If you get off to a bad start you can lose the game regardless of who you are playing.”The South African team have been called ‘chokers’ in the past, due to their inability to succeed in the World Cup for the 50-over format. However, Pollock indicated that the possibility was less in Twenty20. “I don’t think there’s really time to choke, everything happens so quickly,” Pollock said. After a infamous rain-rule denied them a final berth at the 1992 World Cup, South Africa have stumbled ever since in the World Cup, having twice missed out against Australia – a thrilling tie in 1999 and a lop-sided contest earlier this year in the West Indies.Pollock was also the captain of the team that had a disastrous tournament at home in the 2003 World Cup, which they exited in the first stage. Many critics felt the commitments to organisers and sponsors distracted the players then, something Pollock said has been avoided this time around. “We are very focused on making sure all our commitments are out of the way.”South Africa wrapped all their media and sponsorship obligations in Johannesburg before they left for a training centre in Potchefstroom, where they are undergoing preparations for five days in the lead-up to the tournament. Australia, winners of the 2003 World Cup, also trained in the same centre ahead of their victorious campaign.”We can go off to Potch and prepare for the tournament for five days leading up, where we just focus wholly and solely on cricket,” Pollock said before the team left. “Hopefully that bears fruit in the time to come. Being the host nation, there are always more commitments, so to get them out of the way and be able to concentrate on cricket is what we’ve learnt from last time.”Pollock also said that he would like to move up the batting order as he felt that four overs of bowling would not be enough for him to feel involved in the game. “It would be nice to be put up the order and be able to express yourself,” he said. “That’s the one bonus. If you were only a bowler in this form of the game it would be pretty depressing.”He also expressed his views on the omission of Jacques Kallis from the team. “It’s obviously a big call by the selectors,” Pollock said. “He has voiced some disappointment and you can understand that. “Kallis has been South Africa’s batting mainstay over the years and was the team’s top run-getter at the World Cup earlier this year. “Usually he’s the first or second name put down on a piece of paper when you’re selecting the side, so he would have been very surprised by the fact he wasn’t included,” Pollock said. “Being a home event, he would have loved to play in front of his own home crowd, so that would have added to the disappointment. The big plus from the way he has reacted is that it answers the question about what the guys think of a Twenty20 tournament.”Pollock said Kallis’ displeasure at not being selected was an indication of the team’s eagerness to perform well at the tournament. “If Jacques, after all the cricket he has played and all he has achieved, is disappointed about not being part of it, then you realise it is going to be a special event. We’re going to be really trying hard to try to win it.”

Glenn McGrath has warned those writing him off ahead of this years Ashes and aims to reclaim a spot among the top three ranks in the Australian team.McGrath opted out of Australia’s tours to South Africa and Bangladesh so that he could stay with his wife Jane, who is battling cancer. “Whenever people have written me off, I have always proved them wrong,” McGrath told . “People can say what they want but all it means is I’ll be proving them wrong again.”I can’t see why some people are singling me out. I’ve been working on a number of things I believe will make me an even better bowler come the start of the Ashes. I don’t say things just for the effect. I say things because I believe them. I’m the best person to judge how I’m going and I’m back in training and have never felt better.”I’m really in the same position as every other player because the Ashes will be our first series after a long break. If anything, I’m ahead of some of the other guys because they are now resting. I’ve been back working hard for a couple of months and feel very fresh. Binger [Brett Lee] and Huss [Michael Hussey] have had great years, so I expect to slide down the rankings. One of my goals is to make it back into the top three.”McGrath felt that the Champions Trophy would be good preparation for the Ashes. “We have the ICC Champions Trophy and I can’t think of a better way to get back into the game than through one-day cricket. In some respects, it will be harder for the batsmen going into the Ashes with just some one-day cricket under their belts.”

Hosts South Africa have named a 30-man provisional squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship to be held in September. The squad will be trimmed down to 15 and sent to the ICC as per its regulations.Graeme Smith returns as captain of the team after missing the trip to Ireland due to injury while Jacques Kallis, who stood in as captain during Smith’s absence, will serve as his deputy.There has been no surprise omissions with prolific hard-hitting batsmen such as Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher, Johan van der Wath and Justin Kemp, who captained an Africa XI against Asia XI, being named in the squad. Gulam Bodi and Neil McKenzie are are selected on strength of domestic Pro20 matches.According to Steve Elworthy, tournament director, “the results and individual performances of the various players were taken into account by the selectors and they have put together a competitive, exciting squad that will add to the hype already created around the tournament.”All 30 provisional squad members have contributed to their teams’ results on the international and domestic fronts.”Squad: Graeme Smith (capt), Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla, Loots Bosman, Gulam Bodi, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher, AB De Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Paul Harris, Justin Kemp, Charl Langeveldt, Neil McKenzie, Albie Morkel, Mornè Morkel, Andrè Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Justin Ontong, Alviro Petersen, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Shaun Pollock, Dale Steyn, Roger Telemachus, Alfonso Thomas, Thandi Tshabalala, Johan van der Wath, Mornè van Wyk

South Africa’s Mark Boucher-led run riot against Zimbabwe at Potchefstroom yesterday has left Graeme Smith, a spectator in the crowd, very impressed. Smith has been out of action since injuring his ankle in July, but looked forward to returning to captain an aggressive South Africa in next month’s Champions Trophy in India.”It’s fantastic to see how the guys played,” Smith told the website SuperSport.com after South Africa racked up 418 for five, their second total in excess of 400 this year. “It was nice to see them push themselves. In years gone by we would have been happy with 320, but we need to take ourselves to new levels. We’re looking to be more aggressive up front in the conditions we’re going to be playing in when we get to the ICC Champions Trophy in India next month. Hitting out at the death is not as easy there as it is in South Africa.”As for his rehabilitation from the ankle injury, Smith was positive that not being hurried back into the game was the correct approach. “We’ve decided to take things a little slower and not risk the ankle,” he said. “Rather than pushing it here and maybe setting myself back for a couple of days, I’d rather be 100% for India. I’ve started batting again and running around, which feels good after sitting on my backside for six weeks.””Obviously the injury was very frustrating, but it was also a blessing in disguise,” he added. “It gave me the chance to get into a good space, a good frame of mind. More than anything else, it’s the mental side of captaincy that causes strain.Add that to your own batting, especially if you’re batting up front, and you can see how important it is to be fresh. It’s a big year, and my brain needs to be ready for it.”Boucher, whose 68-ball unbeaten 147 was the second fastest hundred in one-day history, was just glad to reach the three-figure mark for the first time. “I’ve been striking the ball a lot better than in the past, and it’s a matter of just getting the runs behind your name,” he told reporters. “Hopefully, I can build on this.”Boucher also made light of the six times he was dropped by Zimbabwe’s fielders: “It was one of those days where whatever you swing at hits the middle of the bat and whatever is in the air and goes to hand goes down. The boys in the dressing room said I used up all my luck for the season.”

On the plan when he walked out to bat this morning
It was to get as much of a lead as possible. It was a bonus that Gillespie batted so long – three or four hours was fantastic. It would have been nice to set them 250-plus but history shows that it’ll be tough to chase on the last day here, and hopefully that’ll come true tomorrow for us.On whether the target of 229 is enough
I think so. We always want more. I think it’s about 200 that they need now, and it’ll be a great day of Test cricket tomorrow, which is what it’s all about. We’ve had plans when it comes to our bowling and hopefully they’ll come off tomorrow. We’ve got a great spin bowler in our ranks as well, and they’re going to have to bat very well.On whether he rated this innings better than the two centuries in Sri Lanka last March, and on what changes he had made to his technique for the subcontinent
It’s up there with my best hundreds in the sense that you had two world-class spinners bowling on the fourth day. It’s always satisfying as a batsman to test your skills against the best. Not much has changed [technique-wise]. We’ve played a lot of one-day cricket in India and Sri Lanka and all the batsmen over the last four or five years have had a chance to play on these pitches. That’s definitely helped us.On whether the pitch was less conducive to bounce when compared to the opening day
Yeah, but it varied a lot out of the footmarks. The centre of the pitch was playing well, but the natural variation out of the footmarks is getting all the wickets. If we can get a couple of early wickets tomorrow and throw the ball to Shane Warne, hopefully he can do well.On who out of Harbhajan and Kumble was more difficult to face
For the right-hander there were the left-arm bowlers’ footmarks for him [Harbhajan]. He doesn’t give you many scoring opportunities and you had to be patient out there.On whether Warne’s world record had been a source of solace on a rough day yesterday
It’s great that he broke the record but we were a long way behind on the first-innings score. I think it was a great fightback by us. We’d shown in Sri Lanka that we could come from behind, and we’ve done it again.On whether reverse-swing will be a factor tomorrow
It always happens over here when the shine goes off the ball after four or five overs.On the fielding lapses made by Australia earlier in the game
We had chances which were put down, but only a couple that you could say were easy. There were a lot of half-chances and we usually pride ourselves on taking those.On whether his Sydney experience of 1993-94 has had any influence on his batting in crunch situations
I don’t think Sydney has had an influence. I think it’s more about getting to know your game and being around international cricket for a long time. Look at someone like Michael Clarke who’s played one-day cricket for two years now, and been comfortable coming into Test cricket. The amount of cricket we play and the touring we do in different conditions helps you a lot.On whether he and Gillespie both being dismissed in the same over prevented a bigger total being scored
It’s disappointing, for sure. You have no trouble for almost four hours, and then ten minutes before tea, you lose two in four balls. But it’s part of the game.

The chief executive of the ICC, Malcolm Speed, has spoken of his decision to make public Darrell Hair’s email, in which the umpire offered to resign under the condition of receiving $500,000.Speed, who flew to London last week to tackle the ball tampering crisis first hand, spoke of his consternation at Hair’s letter and how he was “shocked and disappointed” at receiving it.”It took a while for the full ramifications [of the email] to sink in,” Speed told Sky Sports. “We held a number of meetings, and I obtained the best legal advice available. I was told that if there were potential issues between ICC and PCB, I’m legally obliged to display them. The other advice was to tear it up, delete the emails and lie about it. I wasn’t prepared to do that.”Yesterday’s dramatic revelations at Lord’s were the latest in what has been a dark and depressing week for cricket. However, Speed insisted that in no way did he, or the ICC, ever consider lying about receiving Hair’s email, or the contents contained within.”[Lying about it] is fine until someone on TV or radio asks me the question. There might be court cases, someone might write a book, somehow the copy might come into the public and I wasn’t prepared to lie about it. We’re in an immensely difficult position.”Speed also emphatically denied the cynical view that he used the email as a “window of opportunity.””Not for one minute. What I always wanted to do is follow the process and have the hearing,” he said. “If the charges are sustained, that’s fine. If it’s overturned, that’s fine. It’s impractical to achieve the solution which Darrell wanted; somehow I’d have to find $500,000, conspire to keep it secret, mislead the public and lie. Why would we want to do that? It just wouldn’t work.”When asked about Hair and Billy Doctrove’s decision to abandon the match, when Pakistan failed to take to the field, Speed was equally adamant that umpires have full authority where on-field decisions are concerned.”The umpires are in control, that’s been the case for 300 years and I’d want that to continue. I can’t judge the on-field situation, or overturn their decision that the match was forfeited. If it’s their decision to forfeit the match, then it’s forfeited. They didn’t believe it was appropriate to overturn their decision – and I can’t force them to do it.”Despite the dramatic events of the past week, Speed was confident in the ICC’s ability to handle sensitive situations, adding that the game is “in robust health”.”We deal with [these situations] as well as we can. I prefer to look at it in another aspect…the news has been on the front pages, not the back. But the game is in robust health. We had the Ashes series last year, and for this winter’s Ashes sponsors are seeking to buy the rights and the broadcasters are buying rights. The game is in great health. We need to put it behind us and get on with the business of cricket.”Earlier today, Speed confirmed the hearing for Inzamam-ul-Haq’s alleged ball tampering would take place in the last week of September.

The abandonment of the Chennai match thanks to rain, after a strong South African win in the first one-dayer, and India’s emphatic response in the second, has only served to keep this series on an even keel longer, setting up the fourth ODI at Kolkata deliciously. Whoever wins here knowsthey are guaranteed not to lose the series, and that brings its own pressure on both teams not to lose.The talk in the series has been tough to read from both camps, as no clear trend has emerged, no team has seized the initiative, as was the case when India drove down Sri Lanka into submission. Graeme Smith has relentlessly talked his team up, and occasionally taken a dig at the Indians. Smith didn’t reveal much about the composition of his side for the match and said that South Africa “have 15 to choose from for the game”. Rahul Dravid has been understated as ever, and any statements from the Indian camp will come through bat, ball, or result in the Kolkata match.D is for destructiveMahendra Dhoni, the latest maurauder to hit world cricket, and probably the cleanest striker of a cricket ball – with reference to an ability to clear the ropes – after the two Andrews – Flintoff and Symonds, has a had a quiet series. Of course, that is merely a question of two matches, buthe is the sort of cricketer who can’t help but leave an impression. Smith’s suggestion that India were “hiding” Dhoni is misguided at best, and mischievous at worst. Either way, it’s only a matter of time before India chart out a bigger batting role in a game for Dhoni. That time might well come in Kolkata.The crowd factorThe Eden Gardens pitch is not up and down, and is usually just a good batting pitch on the slower side; there is no exaggerated swing to worry about; no sudden influx of dew. What is a huge factor, though, is the crowd. The most vociferous set of partisan fans normally pack India’s biggest stadium, and this time there will be an added edge. There was a serious chance that widespread protests could take place in the light of Sourav Ganguly’s exclusion from the ODI team, but his inclusion in the Test squad should go a long way in assuaging fans in the eastern city. Or so one hopes, for this is one crowd that could just as easily turn on the team and boo if they failed to do well.Pollock’s hungerShaun Pollock has not had the greatest time of it in the recent past, but he still remains the bowler most likely to bowl you an accurate spell, after Glenn McGrath. And in this series, on pitches that have not really helped him, he seems to be rediscovering a bit of pace and extra bounce that once made him such a potent force. He has never been part of a South African team that has won a series in India, and recently made that point. “Every player wants to achieve as much as possible in his career and that’s why I really would like a victory here,” he said. “We lost the previous series in India 3-2 after a couple of tight matches. Two matches remain in the series and hopefully I can make an impact. I would like to play a role in winning at least one, because then we can’t lose the series and we would have achieved something not donehere before.”Spin fundaWhile Dravid seems to have got a better handle on how to use the two extra Powerplays that captains are saddled with these days, you’d have to say the Supersub rule is posing a more tricky problem. In day-night matches, where gripping the ball can become extremely difficult for bowlers in the second innings, the toss has been a vital factor. And sometimes to cover for this, a spinner has lost out, with an extra batsman being retained. But with Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik on song, India have to find a way to get them both on the park.

Australia’s Brett Lee has emerged from Shoaib Akhtar’s shadow as the undisputed fastest bowler in the world and the fastest recorded bowler in modern times.On the first day of the second test in South Africa, Lee was recorded bowling at 157.4 kph (97.8 mph) and 157.3 kph. Previous to this Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan held the mantle as the `World’s Fastest Bowler’ due to his 157.2 kph, recorded on the 9th of June 2001 against Australia.The two express pacemen have provided an interesting tussle for the `World’s Fastest’ tag since Lee’s emergence in December of 1999. In that series, the two went head to head with Lee bowling at 154.8 kph on the 23rd of January 2000 and recording the fastest ball of the summer compared to Shoaib’s 154.7 kph timed during the second final at the MCG.On the 29th of March 2000, Shoaib bowled the then fastest ball of modern times, recording 156 kph in Sharjah against South Africa. Just two weeks later on the 14th of April 2000 in South Africa, Lee wrested the title from Shoaib by default when he stopped the gun at the same speed of 156 kph, not once but twice.These speeds were to stand until the 9th of June 2001 when Shoaib bowled a 157.2 kph (97.7 mph) howitzer to Adam Gilchrist in England to become the `World’s Fastest’ and subsequently broke down. Coincidently, this was Brett Lee’s return match from a major elbow operation. He bowled sub 140 kph but has been getting faster ever since.Lee’s quickest ball of the Ashes series was 152.4 kph followed by 154.5 kph in the third Test verses New Zealand and his sharpest ball of the recent Australian summer was 154.6 kph.Brett Lee’s new mark of 157.4 kph stamps him as the new `Fastest Bowler In The World`. It is the fastest ball of modern times, just 3 kph less than Jeff Thomson’s world record. Not since December 1975 has anybody recorded bowling so fast in match conditions. On that one day in Perth, Jeff Thomson had recorded release speeds on 200/400 frames per second photosonic cameras of 159.49 kph and 160.45 kph (99.7 mph).The blonde Sydneysider has also emerged as the front runner in the race to break cricket’s version of the four-minute mile, the 100 mph (160.9 kph) mark.Over the past four months three new 150 kph+ contenders have emerged to join Lee and Shoaib. Nantie Hayward of South Africa has recorded 154.4 kph, Makaya Ntini of South Africa notched up 151.4 kph and New Zealand’s Shane Bond was timed at 151.2 kph.Peter Robinson adds:-Brett Lee may have been clocked at 157.4 kph at Newlands on Friday, butAustralian wicketkeeper and vice-captain Adam Gilchrist wasn’t all thatconvinced that he had just taken the fastest delivery recorded since theintroduction of speed-measuring devices.”I didn’t think it was all that quick, I’ve got to be honest” said Gilchristat Newlands on Friday evening. “Those radars …I hope I’m not stealinganyone’s thunder by making this public, but sometimes take the ball and youthink, Gee, that was really quick and you look around and it’s 145. Andother times you look up and there’s a high figure up there and you don’tthink it was that quick.”So with all due respect to the sponsors of the speedg un, I’m not 100percent sure how accurate it is.”

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s captain in the shorter versions of the game, hopes the authorities will check the sequence of events rather than go by what television footage in the Harbhajan Singh-Sreesanth controversy.Comparing the row to the one between footballers Zinedine Zidane and Marco Matterazi at the last World Cup final, Dhoni felt that the act of provocation needed to be checked too.Harbhajan was temporarily suspended from the Mumbai Indians side for allegedly hitting Sreesanth after the match between Mumbai and Kings XI Punjab in Mohali on Friday. His hearing, today, is based on additional footage of the incident from one of the host broadcaster’s 21 cameras at the match. In the World Cup final, Zidane was sent off the field for head-butting Matterazi after the latter allegedly provoked him with personal remarks.”What Zidane did was wrong, but Materazzi also was not completely in the right,” Dhoni wrote in his column for the . “Harbhajan is a very aggressive cricketer who plays hard and is there for his team-mates whenever they need him. Even Sreesanth has seen this supportive side of Harbhajan in the Indian dressing room. Sreesanth is also a very aggressive cricketer who likes to express his highs and lows very passionately on the cricket field. Off the field, you will not meet a more soft-spoken guy than Sree.”Dhoni was happy to know the two players had sorted things out between themselves and said the incident was unlikely to have any effect on the Indian dressing room.”The incident … was unfortunate because I know both of them, and they are not bad guys at all. Everybody is passing judgment based on what is reported in the newspapers, and I am too far from the scene to actually comment on it.”