Two of Kenya’s leading lights from the last World Cup, Collins Obuya and Kennedy Otieno, have already begun their build-up to the next tournament by working with a pair of Australian coaching legends in Adelaide.Legspinner Obuya, one of the stars of the 2003 tournament when Kenya reached the semi-finals, has just completed five weeks under the watchful eyes of Shane Warne’s mentor, Terry Jenner. Meanwhile Obuya’s brother, Otieno, currently playing club cricket in Victoria, has spent the past week working with former Australia `keeping great Rodney Marsh, who previously headed up Australia and England’s academies.Obuya’s work with Jenner was arranged by ICC High Performance Manager (HPM) Richard Done and was an attempt to help him rediscover form and confidence. That confidence was sky-high in 2003 when his 13 World Cup wickets made him the talk of the cricketing world and earned him a contract with English county Warwickshire. Since then, however, it has been shattered by knee and appendix problems and a resultant lack of rhythm, something Jenner could see straight away when he began work with Obuya.”When he arrived it was hard to believe he had ever bowled a legbreak because he had replaced it with pace and he was bowling much quicker than he had in 2003,” said Jenner. “I even nicknamed him Courtney because he was all arms and legs, just like Courtney Walsh used to be, and he was also bowling at a similar pace.”Obuya confirmed: “I was really struggling with my legspin and was having difficulty bowling it so we broke it down and started from the very beginning. We spent the first two weeks learning about leg-spin and the basics of the art. We dealt with how to cock the wrist, how to deliver the ball, which fingers to use and when, and use of the left arm, all of which I did not really know.”The acid question is, of course, whether the intensive one-to-one coaching has helped the player. Jenner is sure it has. “We can’t make him a world-beater in five weeks but what we have done is to show him what works and how it works,” he said. “There’s no doubt he has made good progress although we are on a hiding to nothing because people will remember the success he had two or three years ago and base what they see now on that. He is a good lad and I get the sense he is on the right track again.”
Otieno’s work with Marsh came about after he headed to Australia to play club cricket with Frankston, located outside Melbourne – like Obuya’s spell in Adelaide, something that was organised by Done.”I was keen to play in Australia as I was looking for a challenge – I wanted that,” said Otieno, Kenya’s regular opening batsman in addition to his skills behind the stumps. “Like everyone else I wanted to find out why it is that Australia is so successful and the chance to play some competitive cricket was the perfect opportunity for me to do just that. Richard [Done] and [Kenya Cricket Association Chairman] Samir Inamdar suggested I did some work with Rodney Marsh for a week and it was too good a chance to miss.”Marsh, currently working as a consultant for the South Australia Cricket Association ahead of starting a role in charge of the ICC’s Global Cricket Academy in 2006, takes up the story. “I was approached by Richard and agreed to do some work with Kennedy, running him through sets of drills as I would with any other `keeper,” he said. “I got the feeling from talking to him that he has never had anyone really sit down and talk to him about `keeping. He has just put the gloves on and got on with it.”What we did was go right back to basics, looking at footwork, glovework and keeping the head still. Once he understands that then he can coach himself. We have worked on him giving with the ball, moving his hands, his feet and his hips and he has done pretty well. He has got natural ability to keep wicket and to strike the ball and it is up to us to help make sure he gets the most out of himself.”And do the players feel they have benefited from their experiences?”I have learnt so much that will help towards my future,” said Obuya. “Now I know so many aspects of my game and I only wish I had met TJ two years ago as he could have helped ensure I did not have my recent problems. My goal now is to continue with the good habits I have learnt here and to train hard.”Otieno added: “It has definitely been a good experience, well worth a try and I have got much more out of it than I expected. Playing here in a competitive environment on different pitches than I am used and also being coached by Rodney Marsh has left me feeling I have made big progress and this has given my World Cup preparations a kick-start.”Done explained why the work done by Otieno and Obuya should prove massively beneficial to their development as cricketers. “Good quality coaches with a Test background like TJ and Rod are not readily available in Kenya or any of the ICC High Performance Program countries,” he said. “They can offer players like Collins and Kennedy additional insights and assist them in what is required to do well at the highest level and hopefully that is what has happened in this instance.”Part of the funding for Collins Obuya’s trip to Australia and the coaching he received came from sponsorship by Petroleum and Industrial Services Ltd (PIS), Kenya’s leading firm in the supply, installation and maintenance of petroleum equipment.
Zimbabweans 206 and 193 for 8 (Williams 53*, Morkel 5-47) lead Combined Easterns/Northerns XI 275 by 124 runs ScorecardOnly a combination of poor weather and dogged batting from Sean Williams took this match into a fourth day as the Zimbabweans ended the third day of their tour match against the Easterns/Northerns XI at Willowmoore Park in Benoni facing probable defeat.Play did not start until midway through the afternoon session, and even then only 21.1 overs were bowled before bad light came to the Zimbabweans rescue. In that time they took their total from an overnight 138 for 6 to 193 for 8, a lead of 124, thanks to Williams’s unbeaten 53.Much depended on Tatenda Taibu, but he had added just two to his overnight 21 in almost an hour when he became Morne Morkel’s fifth victim of the innings. Prosper Utseya hung around to give Williams support, but in the over before the premature finish he fell to slow left-armer Paul Harris for 9.
The Cricket Reform Group (CRG), the self-appointed body headed by Michael Atherton and Bob Willis, last night published its manifesto for the future of the game in England. Entitled Making English Cricket Great – For Everyone, the document is a detailed top-to-bottom shake-up of the club and county structure.Many of the CRG’s proposals have been aired in public in recent months. In essence the document calls for a reduction in the amount of first-class cricket, a cull in the number of professional players from 450 to 276, a strengthening of links between clubs and counties, and an increase in the number of centrally contracted players from 12 to 24.One of the most controversial ideas doing the rounds – the scrapping of several existing first-class counties – was notable by its absence. The CRG would achieve the reduction in the number of players by limiting each county to a squad of 14, and the reduction in the amount of first-class games would enable most players to turn out for club sides on six or seven weekends.The County Championship would also be radically changed, with a six-team premier division underpinned by two regional divisions. The Twenty20 Cup would continue, but limited-overs devotees would be offered two midweek competitions – a knockout and a league.The CRG also recommends ending the influence of the First Class Forum on the ECB’s management board. “We passionately believe that a more streamlined management board must be given full control of the running of the game,” the document says. “The financial monopoly of the first-class counties must be challenged in order that the England team and the grassroots of the game, especially, receive greater financial support.”A delegation from the CRG met David Morgan, the ECB chairman, his deputy Mike Soper and John Carr, the board’s director of cricket operations, last week, and the ECB will consider the group’s suggestions before making any formal reply.County chairmen were sent a copy of the report last night.
The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) is to discuss India’s withdrawal fromthe Asian Test Championship when it meets in Sharjah next month.The ACC meeting slated for Feb 13 will discuss imposing penalties onthe pattern of the International Cricket Council, but their immediateimplementation appears unlikely.India had refused to play Pakistan in Lahore for a match of thechampionship last year and later withdrew from the event. Theirdecision led to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) suffering heavyfinancial losses.The meeting, to be chaired by ACC president, Lt. Gen Tauqir Zia, whoalso heads the PCB, will also decide on setting up a permanentsecretariat. The UAE, Malaysia and Nepal are the three venues inconsideration.The development programme from April 2002 to March 2003 will also beconsidered for approval.The ACC moot will be preceded by a meeting of the Asian CricketFoundation (ACF) on Feb 12. The agenda of the meeting which is to bechaired by Jagmohan Dalmiya has not been circulated yet.Besides the four chief executives of the cricket boards of Pakistan,India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Abdul Rehman Bukhatir of theCricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) will also be in attendance.
National Cricket Academy were unstoppable on the second day of their MRF-Buchi Babu tournament title clash with Oil and Gas National Corporation at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai today. Mohd. Kaif had little difficulty in completing his hundred in the morning as the NCA boys closed their first innings at 449. The NCA bowlers then knocked over ONGC for just 154. Indeed that figure would have been even more modest but for an entertaining 74 from No.8 Sandeep Sharma which rescued the oilmen from an embarrassing 76/8. NCA, preferring not to enforce the follow on, lost the wicket of SS Das in the only over they negotiated in their second knock before bad light stopped play.In the fourth over of the day, before a single run had been added to the overnight score of 360/6, Amit Bhandari got rid of Romesh Powar who top edged a pull behind the wicket which Virender Shewag, running to his left from slip, safely collected. Kaif played some lovely strokes off a wayward Sandeep Sharma and duly reached three figures off his 182nd delivery, by pulling a shortish delivery to the fence at square leg. His concentration seemed to flag a little after the landmark was posted, twice going down on one knee for cross batted heaves that failed to make contact. Rakesh Dhruve, who’d contributed precisely 2 out of a partnership of 47 with Kaif, hoisted Rahul Sanghvi high and straight down Mohd. Saif’s throat at mid on. Kaif fell soon after for 123 (212 balls, 15 fours, 1 six), a fierce horizontal thrust on bended knee going like a bullet to Gagan Khoda at mid wicket who almost had his hands dislocated.A most entertaining cameo from Mrityunjay Tripathy followed, the No. 11 making 28 of the 32 run last wicket stand with Rakesh Patel, including a lofted hit over long on, and five searing boundaries. Sanghvi who’d borne the brunt of Tripathy’s assault knocked out the batsman’s middle stump as the batsman made room to cut a fullish length delivery. The innings ended in the 118th over and Tripathy was nicely warmed up for the mayhem that now unfolded. The UP seamer sent back Radheshyam Gupte in the penultimate over before lunch. The batsman looked to deflect it to third man but Shiv Sunder Das scooped up the low chance at second slip. The umpires had to confer before serving marching orders.Soon after the interval, skipper Khoda drove loosely outside the off stump to present wicket keeper Rohit Jhalani with a straightforward offering. Virender Shewag, of short stocky build and wearing a pair of distinctively faded pads, began well, displaying felicity square of the wicket on the off side. But he played a pretentious drive which failed to connect and looked back to see his off stump clean out of the ground. That made it three out of three for Tripathy, a wiry chap, not really tough looking like fast bowlers of yore but able to generate surprising pace with a smooth action.Dhruve spilt a sitter at gully to let off Gautam Vadhera but he made no mistake when it happened again in Sodhi’s first over. Sodhi was bowling a probing line around off stump which drew the next two batsmen, Rizwan Shamshad and Mithun Minhas, into edges behind the wicket as ONGC dipped to 60/6. Rakesh Patel, having switched to the pavilion end, removed Saif just before tea at the same score and from the first ball after the break, Sanghvi was leg before to Tripathy.Then began the rearguard action by the two Sandeeps, Sharma and Dogra. Punjab all rounder Sharma who made a lusty 98 on his Ranji Trophy debut coming in at No. 10 and who frequently plays the role of pinch hitter for his state was in a combative mood. His 74 came off just 89 balls, including 12 boundaries and a pulled six off Dhruve. Just after reaching his half century, he singled out the same bowler for more punishment in a purple patch that produced three successive boundaries. Sodhi took a brilliant tumbling catch at mid on to finally nix the 78-run stand at 154. Four runs later Powar ended the innings with his first wicket. Tripathy (4/50), Sodhi (3/26) and Patel (2/27) all were in their elements.Despite a humongous lead of 289, NCA chose to give their bowlers some respite by declining the follow on option. SS Das edged Bhandari to stand-in keeper Shamshad off the third ball of the NCA reply and then had the mortification of seeing the players come off for bad light at the end of the over although the light was no better or worse. There were 11 overs left to be bowled when stumps were drawn at 5.00 pm and the match as a contest is decidedly buried.
Newcastle United extended their unbeaten run to nine matches as they beat Southampton 2-1 away from home on Thursday.
The Magpies struggled in the early stages of the game as Armando Broja missed a big chance and Che Adams smashed the underside of the bar either side of the opening goal from Stuart Armstrong.
Eddie Howe’s side rallied, though, and found their equaliser through Chris Wood as he nodded in a sublime cross from Jonjo Shelvey.
January signing Bruno Guimaraes scored the winner in the second half as he brilliantly flicked the ball into the roof of the net with the back of his foot after a smart header across the box from Dan Burn.
Out of his depth
Along with securing the three points for the Magpies, Bruno’s goal bailed out a poor performance at right-back from Emil Krafth.
Ian Wright previously criticised the defender as being “out of his depth” at Premier League level and that is exactly what he looked like in this display as he left a lot to be desired at both ends of the pitch at St. Mary’s.
Defensively, he was weak for Newcastle. As per SofaScore, he lost a whopping 80% of his duels (8/10) and was dribbled past as many times as he completed tackles – twice.
This shows that he struggled badly with Southampton’s physicality and was unable to dominate his man throughout the match as the Saints looked to take advantage of his weakness at full-back.
Thankfully, for him, his teammates’ strong performance – and Southampton’s finishing at times – meant that his poor defending did not cost them the result in the end.
On the ball, he failed to impress. As per SofaScore, the £37k-per-week dud only completed 18 passes in 89 minutes at a success rate of 64%.
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He also failed with all of his attempted crosses and dribbles as he ended the game without a key pass to his name. This shows that he offered no threat in the Saints half as he did not provide any quality in possession.
In the end, though, he was not needed in the final third because of Bruno’s brilliance. However, Krafth’s disappointing showing would have cost the Magpies on another day if they were not so clinical with their own chances and Southampton were better in front of goal themselves, so he will be counting himself lucky for now.
Bruno bailed him out this time but that will not always be the case…
AND in other news, Sold for £90k, now worth 6900% more: NUFC had a shocker over “unstoppable” 6ft machine…
The batsman Callum Ferguson has been drafted into South Australia’s Ford Ranger Cup squad for their day-nighter with New South Wales in Adelaide on Wednesday. He replaces injured fast bowler Shaun Tait, whose absence will be a blow to the struggling Redbacks who are yet to earn a point.Tait, who may have been on Test duty anyway, will now definitely not play because of his troublesome elbow which also forced him to drop out of Australia’s 13 against Sri Lanka. He will also miss the Pura Cup match following cortisone injections which could rule him out of both Tests against Sri Lanka.Ferguson joins a Redbacks squad which has lost their first two matches, but their opponents haven’t fared too well either. The Blues have lost two of three, with the third abandoned to the rain.The visitors maintain the same 12-player squad who lost to Tasmania on Sunday despite Brad Haddin’s century. It’s Doug Bollinger’s second trip to Adelaide in two weeks following his appearance for the Chairman’s XI draw in the first warm-up match for the touring Sri Lankans.South Australia squad Daniel Harris, Matt Elliott, Mark Cosgrove, Nathan Adcock (capt), Darren Lehmann, Graham Manou (wk), Andy Delmont, Ryan Harris, Jason Gillespie, Callum Ferguson, Mark Cleary, Dan Cullen.New South Wales squad Grant Lambert, Ed Cowan, Brad Haddin (wk), Dominic Thornely, Simon Katich (capt), Peter Forrest, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Nicholson, Mark Cameron, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Bracken, Stephen O’Keefe.
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.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Player Association (WIPA) have agreed to a proposal brokered by the ICC and Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA) which could signal the end of the ongoing dispute between the two parties.A joint statement from the WICB and the WIPA said that they “welcomed the agreement reached by the ICC and the FICA on resolving the dispute between the WICB and the WIPA.”The dispute, which saw players such as Brian Lara and Chris Gayle pull out of a tour to Sri Lanka, has hampered the national team for more than a year. While this latest agreement appears to show that progress is being made, it is uncertain exactly what the nature of the agreement is.The statement continued: “The agreement has brought to an end the long-running contractual dispute and paves the way for the resumption of negotiations between both parties.”The negotiations will now centre on concluding the memorandum of understanding, contracts for retained players including player remuneration and match and tour contracts for players contracted outside of the retained players and the signing of the collective labour agreement.”The progress that has been made has seen compromises from both sides and this agreement now provides an excellent foundation on which to build strong relations between WICB and WIPA as we head towards the cricket World Cup in the Caribbean [in 2007].”
Jacob Oram has injured a bone in his back and will be unable to play for the immediate future, New Zealand Cricket revealed on Wednesday. Oram, the Central Districts allrounder, had a scan on Tuesday which showed he had damaged the bone, but he will need to undergo further tests to determine the exact nature of the injury. There are fears that he has a stress fracture and, if so, this would rule him out of facing Australia when they visit in February and March. He could also miss the two Tests against Sri Lanka in April.”The extent of the injury is yet to be determined,” said a statement from NZC, “but will become clearer in a few days after he has a CT scan.”Oram, 26, is an influential member of New Zealand’s team: he has 35 Test wickets to his name, and averages more than 40 with the bat.His team-mate, the left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori, could undergo tests on injured back if the pain does not subside. Vettori missed Wednesday’s final charity match against the World XI at Hamilton after leaving the field in pain during the second match.