All posts by daniel

By Vithushan Ehantharajah (@Vitu_E)

Congratulations to Pakistan for a very well executed series win over England. A lot is made about Pakistan’s new-found unity and fellowship in the absence of disruptive egos, but it’s important we, as cricket fans, pay homage to the abundance of talent in the Islamic state.

It’s not your typical conveyor belt – it’s a rickety old thing that has needed replacing for a while now. People have come in and had a look at it; its jagged cogs still turning – if you can call it turning – as black smoke seeps out from its antiquated engine.

Many have tried reinforcing the sides to stop things falling off. Some, foolishly, have tried to get in and amongst the inner mechanism, thinking they could effectively refurbish it all from the inside out (the severed fingers should have been a warning). Others merely stood by, oiling it every now and again, occasionally glancing at the “Nose applicator” wondering if they should turn it down to 4 inches, just because it was closer than the “common sense” dial.

If this was a real factory it would have been shut down and burnt to the ground years ago – mainly because of all the severed limbs and, you know, production of humans stuff.

Pakistan’s first win in Dubai was a result of their bamboozlement of England, twice, and a patient display with the bat. Their second was evidence of something we haven’t seen of a Pakistan side in a long, long time – grit.

England were ahead on points, winning three of the four rounds. Pakistan batted first and scored under 500 in two innings – England were more than half way there after just one, but at no point during the fourth innings did Pakistan think they couldn’t win. You could see it in Mohammed Hafeez’s eyes as he took the new ball, once he brushed his hair to one side. England’s middle order imploded, but it was Misbah Ul-Haq who applied the pressure in the right places, and at the right time.

Rotating Ajmal, Rehman and the floppy-haired Hafeez is one thing, but his “blanking” of Junaid Khan worked a treat. Khan is a talented bowler and he struggled to find his length in the first innings (his 4.12 was the highest economy rate of the match), but it would have been easy for Misbah to throw him the ball for the sake of it. 

Misbah may not be the most flamboyant of characters, but he is capable of injecting a bit of flamboyancy into his captaincy at the right time. Completely ignoring one of your opening bowlers, when defending 144 – albeit on that Abu Dhabi pitch - is flamboyant. As is using the word flamboyant three times in one paragraph.

Pakistan may choose to recall Cheema in place of Khan, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Mohsin Khan and Misbah decide to let a winning side be.

England are fighting for more than pride as they return to Dubai for the third and final Test. As India have shown, there is a difference between being the best team in the world, and being the number one ranked team in the world. Luckily, it’s only their batting that needs to be addressed – specifically Eoin Morgan.

Sure, Pietersen and Bell look all at sea, while Strauss looks uglier than an out of form Graeme Smith in drag, but Morgan seems to be battling with some serious demons. For England’s best player of spin, it’s harrowing to see him flounder on the back-foot, anchored down by his own self-doubt. The issue for the Irishman is that he’s too unorthodox to recoil and rely on his technique to get him out of trouble, especially when his footwork is so laboured.

While Bopara should (but probably won’t) come in to replace Morgan, the Irishman may be saved from the chop should Bell not recover from a stomach bug. Otherwise, it’s as you were, with the form of the revitalised Monty Panesar now giving England more variety in an ever-impressing bowling unit.

Pakistan want to win 3-0 and cement their place – on Twitter, at least - as the best side in Asia. England want to win a Test away from home to show they’re not India in disguise.

One thing is for sure, there is still a lot to play for in this Third test! Other than the series itself, of course...

*Join us on Test Match Sofa from 5.45am GMT on Friday for live ball-by-ball coverage of the third Test between Pakistan and England in Dubai.

The desert dust is beginning to settle on an extraordinary test match in Dubai. For England fans, the excruciating agony of reliving Kevin Pieterson’s brainless buffoonery may provoke sudden ululations and rending of clothing, but it should not obscure a truly astounding achievement by Misbah ul Haq’s Pakistan team.

A lot of column inches have been, and will continue to be consumed by fruitless analysis of how England’s hitherto in form top order contrived to subside so spectacularly. Indeed not since the 1st world war have they found themselves 7 wickets down for under 95 in both innings of a test match. And this on a good wicket.

But brain freezes happen. Good sides collapse. Australia succumbed for 118 on the first day of the Ashes in 1997 but recovered sufficiently to inflict X rated GBH on England thereafter.

The far more remarkable feature of the “Drubbing of Dubai” was the consistent discipline and ruthless efficiency with which the hosts performed throughout the three days. Only Umar Gul and Adnan Akmal were dismissed playing attacking shots and it took a series of jaffas from Anderson, Swann and Broad in particular along with the intervention of the now sectionable Billy Bowden to dispense with the rest.

In the field the bowlers bowled tight lines and searching lengths (except when Gul briefly and successfully experimented with leg side filth as a cunning ruse for dislodging Strauss and Cook in the 2nd innings). Ajmal quite rightly took the plaudits for his ten-fer, but Cheema, Gul, Hafeez and particularly Rehman never let up. Of course England should have displayed far more patience. At Brisbane in 2010 it was much the same on that first day. This time, the adrenalin, the chatter in the build up, the frequent media references to their number one status all contributed to an uncharacteristic posturing at the crease which contrasted hugely with their opponents flinty, and undemonstrative approach. But all that notwithstanding it still took a fabulous all round effort from Pakistan to win the match so decisively.

This Pakistan side contains just two players who played in England only 18 months ago. Most of the team are over 30 and are led by a man whose own attritional approach to batting and captaining is as far removed from prevailing current trends in international cricket as it’s possible to get. But it is surely Misbah together with the recently modified selection panel, who should take the greatest credit for fashioning this brutal victory.

Much may be made of England’s deficiencies on the sub continent, but it was not usually with the bat that they so spectacularly failed. It was their repeated inability to take wickets that proved their downfall in the 2000s. Yet Misbah and his team have bowled England out twice for under 200.

The fact of Pakistan’s achievement may also indicate the strong likelihood of its repetition. After all, Pakistani cricket was out on its feet 18 months ago. Five years of power struggles, corruption, terrorist attacks, public sulks, life bans, life bans being overturned, seven captains and virtual pariah status not to mention its alarming proximity to a war zone should have been enough to ensure on pitch failure at the very least for the rootless and nomadic players. But instead they give the strong impression of having developed, in double quick time, a cohesive, skillful, and ultra-disciplined outfit. It took 11 years from the MacLaurin report, hundreds of millions of pounds, numerous coaches and imported expertise as well as root and branch restructuring for England to achieve the same.

And this is why the rest of the cricketing world needs to watch out. While India with its huge investment via the IPL and TV rights not to mention billion inhabitants, roll over and die with tireless regularity, Pakistan’s players display a steely resolve born of pride and the determination to resurrect a nation’s respect.

While Chris Gayle argues with his board, while Sri Lanka invests in a revolving door for their head coaches and while the BCCI does the opposite with its ageing and under-performing star batsmen, Pakistan of all teams have dispensed with in-fighting and arbitrary selection. They have finally coalesced behind a shared and noble goal.

And when a team is motivated not by money, or ego or statistical boasts but instead is pursuing a higher purpose it can achieve great things. England, and the rest of the world had better watch out.

The spot fixing trial has culminated in guilty verdicts for Mohammed Asif and Salman Butt, so now begins the hand-wringing and post-mortems.

It is always dangerous in the immediate aftermath of such a sensational trial to reach hasty conclusions and intone earnestly on what lies ahead, but that hasn’t stopped a plethora of pundits from giving their immediate reactions.

 For some the trial has “proved” that Pakistani cricket is corrupt to its very core. Kamran Akmal and Wahab Riaz have been reported as now coming under scrutiny as a result of evidence given at the trial. The Sydney test between Australia and Pakistan is being cited as an example that not just spot fixing but even more seriously (if that’s possible), match fixing has been endemic in games involving Pakistan for some time.

For others the trial is a success for the processes of law and will strengthen not just cricket but every sport’s drive to eradicate the pernicious influence of fixers from the game. They support jail terms for the convicted cricketers believing that this will act as a deterrent to future would-be transgressors.

And for many pundits the focus has already moved on to how we police the game in future. The often opined solution appears to be for cricketers, past and present, to act as the eyes and ears of the authorities and report any suspicious activity like some kind of vast, intra-cricketing Neighbourhood Watch Scheme.

But absent from these reactions seems to be any kind of realistic or even internally coherent analysis of what the trial has exposed.

Ever since we launched Test Match Sofa in July 2009 I have been fortunate enough to meet numerous cricketers both past and present. Barely a conversation has been completed without an “off the record” nudge nudge wink wink about the prevalence of spot fixing.  I have been regaled with tales by a reliable source who was active in the ICL of exactly how bookmakers entrapped players – it seems to have involved parties, the ready availability of women who are not the players’ wives or girlfriends and substantial quantities of alcohol. Once sucked in they are ripe for blackmail, unsurprisingly.

When I’ve asked players if they were willing to discuss their views on air or on the written record they quite understandably clam up. The fear of reprisals for whistleblowing  is tangible, and the notion that players who have families to protect should put their heads above the parapet and do the ICC’s dirty work for them is not just risible, it’s irresponsible. Indeed, when you consider the deterrent effect of a jail term in the UK, be mindful of the greater deterrent effect of having your family threatened by people who operate within the same moral guidelines as the Cosa Nostra.

Whilst I am initially drawn to the suggestion floated by Angus Porter, Chief Executive of the Professional Cricketers Association, of an amnesty for all cricketers from prosecution if they come clean about any approaches they’ve had from would be match fixers, I can’t see how it addresses the fear of the illegal bookies themselves.

As for the notion that this is a Pakistani problem alone, whoever believes that should go and talk to the cricketers (remember the ones? The guys who should now be the eyes and ears of the ICC), off the record inevitably, and you will hear speculation about players from every test playing (and in some cases non test playing) country in the world. It is true that Pakistani players are paid badly relative to their other international counterparts. It is also true that match fixers will be able to incentivise poorly paid players more easily than wealthy ones to do their bidding, initially at least. But now consider how many 1^st class and limited overs matches are played across the world and bet on through illegal bookmakers. And note how poorly paid these non-international cricketers are from Barbados to Chelmsford to Columbo and Brisbane. If poorly paid internationals are willing to risk their careers AND the relative glory of competing at the highest level, why wouldn’t equally poorly paid county cricketers do the same?

At the very core of this whole issue is the unregulated market in gambling. As long as gambling is illegal it will come under the same pressures as alcohol did in prohibition America and recreational drugs do across the world now. Organised crime seizes on unregulated markets and perverts them.

So just as dodgy hooch in the 30s and toxically adulterated heroine today floods the markets, so does the corrosive influence of illegal bookmakers on the sporting contests we all want to watch.

We have an international problem fuelled by illegal bookmakers who coerce young men through blackmail and sizeable quantities of cash to act contrary to the very principles of sport. Perhaps we could start with regulating the bookmakers and legalising gambling across the cricket playing world. I have no idea how you persuade the Indian legislature to bring in such a radical reform, but I never said the answer was easy, and I sure as hell know that charging cricketers with policing their game in the teeth of highly effective organised crime syndicates is absolutely no kind of solution at all.

The Champions League, currently taking place in Bengaluru and Chennai, is not the sort of tournament that would ordinarily attract my rapt attention. It is brash, sparsely attended, accompanied by frantic and partisan TV commentary and is so lopsidedly in favour of the Indian IPL franchises as to make a mockery of the notion of a level playing field.

Furthermore it has been almost completely ignored by the British print media who seem to have boycotted it on principle. But, against all the odds, it has produced some of the most startling and entertaining cricket ever seen in the shortest format of the game. And until yesterday’s astounding and successful last ball run chase by Bangalore in possibly the greatest T20 match ever played, almost all the excitement has been generated by non-Indian teams.

First there was Trinidad & Tobago who, having qualified for the main event with ease from a mundane group, contrived to lose two matches they seemed certain to win despite on one occasion scoring only 98 runs. Were it not for the normally brilliant Darren Ganga’s brain freeze when he allowed a single off the last ball that turned inconceivably into two against Mumbai, it would be they instead of India’s golden boys, going through to the semis. Packed with anonymous spinners such as Badree and Narine, supported by anonymous all rounders like Kevon Cooper and led by the West Indian Brearley, their performances indicate that the Caribbean may finally emerge from its 15 year slump to challenge at international level once more.

The Aussies too have had their moments. Warner’s 135* off 69 balls was up there with the very best T20 innings of all time. Shaun Tait’s 5-32 in a losing cause against RCB along with Harris’ ton in the same game were cruelly (but spectacularly) overshadowed by the madness of the finale.

An almost impossible to credit seven games have been decided off the last ball with a further two going to the penultimate ball. And of course the Saffers have choked when in sight of victory; which is always fun.

But amidst all the insanity, one team’s achievements deserve to be praised to the heavens. For, whatever happens to Somerset in their outrageously re-scheduled semi-final in Chennai against Mumbai, they have confounded the tournament’s in built bias against them.

They resemble an Amish exchange student who, taken to the end of year party by his truculent and unwilling host, ends up shagging the prom queen.

You may recall that they were required to qualify in the first place. After all, who would think that a team from England (World T20 champions and no.1 test side) would be worthy of a place in the main draw? These qualifiers clashed with two meaningless T20 fixtures against WI so Buttler and Kieswetter were unavailable. In addition, Kieron Pollard, the gazillion dollar man, was required by Mumbai and so unavailable for Somerset.

They were then placed in a group with Auckland and Kolkata from which they weren’t expected to progress. But, in a thrilling last ball finish they knocked out the Kiwis and trounced a KKR side featuring Kallis, Brett Lee, Shakib al Hasan, Yousuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschate.

Remember that Somerset play in an 18 team domestic league in which talent is necessarily diluted unlike Australian sides. County teams are far from prosperous. Even the ones with test grounds couldn’t dream of a wages bill even a fifth the size of their IPL counterparts. And Somerset do not have a test ground. Shorn of their best players through illness (Tresco) and unavailability, they have relied on unsung young British talent (Snell, Waller, Compton, Gregory, Suppiah, Dibble – “who?” I hear you cry), buttressed by aging foreign journeymen (Van Der Merwe, Thomas, Murali Kartik) and only lately supplemented by Kieswetter and Buttler. They have lost only once in five completed fixtures, the best win/loss ratio of any side in the tournament.

And now, in a final desperate bid to be rid of them, despite finishing top of their group they must now travel to Chennai to play in unfamiliar surroundings against Mumbai so that RC Bangalore can benefit from a home tie they do not deserve. Yup, both IPL teams get to stay where they are despite finishing second in their group. The winners, NSW and Somerset, must move to accommodate this blatant attempt at securing a home winner.

Ordinarily such a transparently gerrymandered tournament would not deserve our attention. But what is unfolding in India right now is nothing less than the sporting equivalent of Revenge of The Nerds crossed with the Battle of Isandlwana. Ultimately it will probably end up OK for the Indian superpowers. Bangalore’s batsmen are finding their feet and Somerset will surely wobble in sight of the finishing line. But for a day or two at least, let’s revel in the triumph of the irritant.

If you would like to avoid hearing Ian Chappell ascribe moral degeneracy to English batsmen’s use of the sweep shot, join us live for audio ball by ball coverage of the semi-final between Somerset and Mumbai on Saturday 8th October starting at 325pm..

Is it just me or is the current mega-series between the two greatest sides ever to have walked the earth in 2011 the most under-hyped contest of all time? Listening to my radio of a morning I hear hours of tedious triumphalism over the success of a British man in the 2 mile open course swimming championships, am assailed by the minutiae of Tour de France point scoring systems, and know far more than I ever wanted to about Northern Irish golfers and their cigar preferences.

Yet we stand on the brink of a moment that could determine not just the number one side in test cricket, but the entire socio-economic future of the planet. I would go further but I’m not sure there is further to go.

For at Trent Bridge tomorrow, India, with its billions of pounds and 21st century stellar stars that put the likes of Beckham and Rooney in the shade (to say nothing of Rebecca Adlington, Rory McThingy, and that quirky boy on the bike), face an England team of all the talents but lacking a single individual genius (unless we count KP, which we might but for the sake of this argument let’s not).

It is a clash of cultures; the austere and recently impoverished English nation against the up and coming brashness of 21st century globalism. And England have adopted an almost post war East European approach to their game. Gone are the flamboyant mavericks, such as Botham, Gower and Flintoff. In their stead come uniquely fit and well prepared identikit athletes. Bowlers share their wickets around. Different batsmen excel as the need arises (excepting Eoin Morgan of course), and no one gives so much as a sideways glance at a flaming sambucca or coquettish barmaid. Attention to detail and remorseless professionalism are the watchwords of this England outfit.

Railed against them are a team of all the talents (apart from leg spin bowling but if Harbhajan gets dropped even that may change); individuals whose deeds resound across the cricketing firmament. With their enormous wealth and massive fanbase, the Indian team bestrides the world more dominantly than Real Madrid, Manchester United or Barcelona. And the fanaticism of their followers eclipses anything the former champion sides, West Indies or Australia could bring to the party.

India’s dominance has been a recent phenomenon. The rapid decline of Australia left a vacuum at the top of world cricket which India almost inhabited by default. Barely have they played outside the subcontinent in the last 4 years, and when they did visit South Africa they left with a creditable but hardly history determining 1-1 draw. For India truly to supplant those two great sides of the last 30 years, they must surely win this series against England.

But after losing so horrendously at Lord’s, there is the very real danger that this team will never bear comparison with the greats. A loss at Trent Bridge and it could be time to usher in a whole new era with England, bizarre as it may seem, peering down from the summit. Indeed, not only could it statistically send England to the number one spot, it could result in the break up of one of the truly great batting line ups and herald a period of rebuilding for the current champions.
The Indians have a good record at Trent Bridge. Tendulkar and Dravid prosper there, and with scores generally tending to be lower than at any other English ground, you may suppose the side with the stronger batting would come out on top. But England will have a rejuvenated Broad in their ranks to support Anderson who averages a measly 15 at TB. In addition, Tremlett looks a doubt which may force the England management to call up Bresnan, a bowler for whom Trent Bridge was tailor made.

India are likely to be without the matchless Zaheer Khan and so could well call up Sreesanth, a bowler of endless eccentricity and capriciousness but entirely devoid of reliability. Coupled with his tessellating be-bangledment and random locks, he resembles a latter day Boy George. And say what you like about Boy George but no one was going to pick him for a must win test match.

But it is still only a test series, is it not? Well, not. If England win, it could just herald an era of self-perpetuating success based on the age old, but always ignored in England, principles of team work. We may at last become less fixated with individuals and begin to appreciate the power of the collective. We may loose our chains and finally unite in a post-capitalist doctrine of strength through unity.

Meanwhile India will experience for the first time what it is to lose the glory they have spent so long working towards. The BCCI will come under the spotlight. There will be demands to find talent across the country and not just among the relatively well to do. A revolution could spring up that will cleanse Indian cricket and send them, in four years or so, hurtling back to the summit of the world game from where they could remain dominant for years to come.

Or it could be a draw and I’ll have to re-write all this on the eve of the 3rd test. Either way, be assured that what will take place at Trent Bridge over the next five days is more than just a cricket match. It’s akin to that moment in Terminator 2 when Arnie is sent back in time to destroy the chip which launched the robot revolution. It will decide the future of the cricket world; the only world I, and any right minded people inhabit. It is destiny.