Following the fallout from the Sydney test, I’ve reading all the opinions, facts, threats and allegations before wanting to give my own. There is more to unfold from this story you feel and to give a knee-jerk reaction would have been wrong. No one seems to be thinking about the long-term effects “Bollyline” will have.

Then I came across Jonathan Agnew’s article on the BBC website and it is the one closest to the mark. Whilst I do like Aggers’s radio commentary I often find his match reports full of benign platitudes. This was a pleasant surprise.

He quite rightly lays blame at the feet of both sets of players. He is, I think, excessively vindictive towards Australia, and I don’t agree that it solely stems from their side but there is a large dollop of truth thrown in with what he says about Australian cricket. Read the rest of this entry »

The SCG Test 2007 will be remembered for many reasons. Some moments of magic and at the end of five enthralling days, one over of madness which ultimately cost India the draw they deserved.

The innings of Laxman and Tendulkar will live long in the memory. Likewise the centuries of Symonds, Hayden and Hussey. Bowlers fought hard to keep pace on a pitch which remained favourable to batting throughout, but those who stuck to their task got their rewards.

Unfortunately though, and they are becoming ever recurrent themes within cricket debating circles, umpires mistakes and player behaviour are the main topics of conversation following the test.

Steve Bucknor made two painfully poor calls against India, and the Australians are (yet again) being accused of sharp practice, and trying to influence the umpires decisions. The message boards and forums are inevitably awash with aggrieved Indian supporters.

Every cricketer knows that some days the decisions go your way and some days they don’t. Players are quick to point this out when decisions are in their favour, and those that go against live longer in the memory.

It is a truism that over 5 days, if a team has the desire and skill to match the opposition then 2 decisions should not decide an entire test match. I for one am becoming sick of supporters from all nations blaming umpiring decisions. Subsequent effigy burning, suggestions of racism and calls for the boycotting of some ICC elected umpires just takes to the game to levels of mass depravity which soils the name of cricket.

I am personally against excessive use of technology for many reasons. It undermines the men out in the middle, who it has been shown get the large majority of very tough decisions spot on. Also in an era where tests struggle to go to the fifth day very often, having every decision scrutinised would slow it down, but also paradoxically shorten games, as batsman find they get many decisions given against them, where previously they would have been given the benefit of the doubt. The batsman’s union will be up in arms when they see their averages dropping rapidly.

Unfortunately I think the game has reached a stage where idealism and sentimentality have to be laid to one side, and the door opened to technology, but only if everyone is 100% agreed with it’s reliability. If it is the only means that a touch of graciousness in victory and defeat can be restored then so be it.

As for sharp practice and honesty - that left sport when money arrived and winning became all important. India should be more aware of their effects than any other nation.

Australia do push the limits of laws to the limits, despite their holier-than-thou interview spiel, but every professional team in the world does at one point or another. If your the best side in the world, and your steamrolling all before you, people are just more likely to feel a heightened sense of aggrievment.

Evolution is a basic necessity for long term success. In any walk of life, gentle introspection and reinvention are the keys to longevity. One trick ponies fall lame and and those who burn instantly bright are prone to burning out. True pioneers become legends.

Whilst Sachin Tendulkar’s batting is based on the simplest of principles - balance, economy of movement, and a freakishly mathmatical eye - it is his hunger to take his greatness to unparalleled heights in service of his country and his billion disciples which sets him apart. Last year was his on-field nadir. Many others would have allowed the light to fizzle out, but anyone who doubted the little master’s hunger could have only stood humbled and in awe as Tendulkar reached his 39th test hundred, and reached for the Sydney skies above as though it was his first. An appreciative crowd, regardless of allegiance rose in deepest appreciation for this phlegmatic and altruistic cricketer.

The essence of any sporting great cannot be understood unless the journey to greatness is qualified. Sachin was marked for greatness, but talent alone doesn’t fulfill destiny. It is not just the statistics which make Tendulkar the legend.

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When Pakistan resume their fourth innings on 108/1 on Thursday morning, they need the small matter of another 349 further runs to claim a record breaking victory against South Africa in Lahore

If anyone can achieve this it’s the mercurial Pakistan cricket team. Unbelievaly fantastic on some days to painfully awful on others, they have the ability to score at the required 3.8 runs per over.

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Another afternoon glancing down the county scores, and the eye almost passes over another Mark Ramprakash 100. 196 against Lancashire almost doesn’t register such is its recent familiarity.

England fast bowler Bob Willis has today claimed that players like Ramprakash and Graeme Hick (along with Kolpak and ‘naturalised’ players) are ‘clogging’ up county cricket and the progression of young English talent, as they are never going to play for England again.

Whilst I cannot fail to begrudgingly agree with Willis on the Kolpak issue, the suggestion that servants to the English game, especially of the county circuit is nothing short of an insult to the system itself, especially when every county would chew your arm off to have the services of these two players such is their form with the bat.

And why shouldn’t Ramprakash be considered for England this winter and onto the 2009 attempt to reclaim the Ashes.

He has topped the runs and the averages for the past two seasons, and whilst he may not have have succeeded the first time around in test cricket, who is to say that given a second chance Ramprakash would fail again. As long as his form continues, he is worthy of a place. Even Owais Shah the heir apparent to the England batting line-up would be unable to argue with Ramprakash’s recent record.

If Ramprakash had been offered the same patience and help that many current England players have been afforded, the story could have been very different. Instead he was inducted into a paranoid and selfish England dressing room aged 21, and left to fend for himself. Team spirit was unheard of back then.

An ideal comparison is Ian Bell, not just as a comparison of style but the parallels of their infuriating mix of mental intensity and frailty. In Ramprakash it was identified as his weakness and he was dropped, selected and re-picked relentlessly, which can have only damaged his psyche further. Bell however has been given an extended run and backing from the entire England set-up even when he had a miserable Ashes in 2005. It now looks as though England are beginning to reap the rewards for their faith.

With Strauss so painfully out of form, and Flintoff injured why not give a man deserving of a second chance, a run in the side with a view to the next Ashes. If he has a bad winter we know it was not to be. If he plays a major part in reclaiming the Ashes his talent will have been at least partially fulfilled.

Hayden criticises the tournament length, Lara admits his team is poor but Flintoff just lets out a hearty belch!

When I think of the in-form teams at this year’s World Cup I glance at the England squad list & can only see a couple of team players in that whole list. NZ’s Jacob Oram was prepared to amputate part of a broken finger to play the tournament & I would hazard I guess that little ol’ Muddy Panesar would forgo his quarter century birthday for his abortive English team to make the semi-finals. Another is Paul Collingwood, probably one of my favourite players outside of The Long White Cloud, who seems to be the only adhesive in a team of over hyped, toffee nosed, public schooled w*****s.

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Where did it all go wrong? 2005 was supposed to herald a new dawn in English cricket, an end to all those painful years when to be an English fan one required a fetish for self harm. They weren’t nicknamed the Barmy Army without good reason.

Yet if you believe some quarters of the media we are presently having dinner at the Restaurant at the end of the cricketing universe. Knee jerk reactions are inevitable just as they were after the end of the football world cup. Surely there can’t be many who haven’t uttered the words ’sack the coach, sack the captain’.

Matthew Hoggard is one of those who believes there isn’t much wrong with the hierarchy and went as far as to suggest that Duncan Fletcher was the best coach in the world. Quite frankly what does that say about the players then, if the best coach in the world can only drag them on their bellies to victories over associate nations and Bangladesh. Read the rest of this entry »

It is the eve of the opening weekend of the English domestic cricket season, and everyone is tingling at the prospect of scoring their first run or taking their first wicket. Many clubs are only involved in warm up games at this stage, and according to the Kent skipper, Rob Key, we should all hence forth be aware that standard cricket rules do not apply for such games.

Key was snapped by a freelance photographer in Kent’s warm up game against Notts this week, liberally applying a piece of sandpaper to the ball in an attempt to get the ball to reverse swing. Key said:

“My conscience is clear. I won’t be going out and scratching the ball the way I have in this game in a first-class match but these games are used for practice and are a good opportunity to see where people are… Maybe I’ve been a bit naive but it didn’t really occur to me that this might develop into a match-fixing scandal.”

No Bob it just didn’t occur to you that you might get caught at a low key, pre-season friendly, where there would be little media coverage, and now your chubby rosy cheeks have been left redder than normal. Read the rest of this entry »

Firstly I was genuinely saddened by Bob Woolmers death. As one commentator said he was the ‘Real Mr Cricket’. To take on the role as Pakistan coach was brave, but to work within an administration that is so shambolic and take the team forwards was a phenominal achievement; but I also think he would be the first to realise that he hadn’t got everything correct. He also came across as what is traditionally known as a ‘Bloody nice bloke’.

As we all wait for the dust and media speculation over his death to settle, it has started to become akin to an Agatha Christie novel. I am just waiting for the press to announce that some little old biddy with NHS specs and a blue rinse has taken over the investigation.If there is indeed ‘foul play’ involved it really is a job for Miss Marple or Poirot.

You can picture the scene. Miss Marple, the classic English spinstress is out in the West Indies holidaying in the Carribean for the Cricket World cup with her nephew Montague. They are staying in the same hotel as the Pakistan team and get to know Mr Woolmer very well over afternoon Tea one day.

It then transpires they are staying in the room next to the Pakistan Coach. In the room on the other side is curious Frenchman named Monsieur Hercule Poirot - who is in the Carribean because his flight was diverted from New York on it’s way to Paris. He is only in the hotel for one night.

The morning after the Pakistan v Ireland game they hear the maid scream and both rush in to see what is wrong. They are of course first on the scene. There is blood and vomit around Mr Woolmer. His death is ‘Suspicious’.

The circumstances & the evidence:

-During World Crickets showpiece tournament the coach of one of the worlds most fanatical cricketing nations is found dead.

-There have been recent ball tampering and drug allegations. They have just crashed out of the tournament to a country which doesn’t play the game on mass.

-He is the former coach of a team that was shamed with match fixing scandals and is rumoured to be about to expose all those involved.

Choked on Cricket….take it away Agatha….