Tag Futebol

The spans a cricketing year, several decades, and many ideas

Sharda Ugra26-Jun-2016In the distant past, before the World Wide Web, and indeed ESPNcricinfo, the yellow-brick seemed like a distant object available only to a particular kind of cricket journalist and/or enthusiast in India. It was treated as the ultimate statistical and historical resource, hard to get hold of and enormously expensive. Its Cricketers of the Year were originally required to pass through an England summer to get noticed. It was much too posh for many of us rookies.An Indian version of the annual, , was launched by the publishers of the in 1946-47, its saffron cover as defiantly distinctive as ‘s buttercup yellow. It was meticulously put together by a series of senior editors of the ‘s sports department, where I worked for more than six years. It was a very big deal to have your match reports or series summaries on its pages. Writing up a “Cricketer of the Year” profile was quite the ultimate piece of cheese. After 58 years in publication, ‘s final edition appeared in 2004. A year later the – with a green cover – shut down after eight editions.So the arrival of a in 2012 spoke of, if not anything else, a determination to prove that compendiums of this kind have both a life and afterlife. The is now the little blue book, meant to reflect the Indian cricket team’s colours. Though to quibble it is less the navy blue of India Test blazer and more the light blue of the limited-overs uniforms. A fair reflection of the T20 age, you could say.The 2016 edition is well produced and painstakingly put together. There lingers around it, though, a certain mystery about its audience. Will the new Indian cricket fan turn the many into retro collector’s items to show off 25 years later? (Don’t laugh at retro – who thought vinyl would return, or for that matter, hand-wound watches?) Or will only obsessive collectors of cricket memorabilia seek out these diligent annual compendiums?

The real gems emerge from the pages of history, and full marks to those who picked the pieces for this edition

Never mind, the 2016 edition gets stuck into the here and now. First up, if you are one of those who prefers reading off paper rather than screens, and have been given the book as a gift, be nice and say thank you. There is heaps to read, and it lends itself to dipping in and out in your own time, picking whatever interests you.An emphasis on India-centric cricket and a due bow to the Cricketers of the Year – R Ashwin, R Vinay Kumar, Younis Khan, Dhammika Prasad, Mashrafe Mortaza and Joe Root – is bookended by much that is unexpected and whimsical.Now that the internet has set cricket records and statistics loose into the ether, books like must expand from being mere documents of record to recorders of, and mirrors to, the zeitgeist. Along with recognising the achievements of the cricketers above, this edition also introduces a “Beyond the Boundary” honour – handed out to Justice Mukul Mudgal for his work in busting the IPL 2013 corruption scandal. Mudgal exposed severe fractures in the BCCI’s handling of the situation, leading to the Lodha Committee recommendations, which aim to turn the BCCI’s governance structures upside down.BloomsburyA good portion of the book focuses on writing that tries to deconstruct the main happenings of the year for the reader in a digestible, lucid form. Much of modern cricket writing, as reflected in the Comment section, covers a vast range of topics and theories. The definition of greatness, the philosophical underpinnings of every sport’s code, the demands made on the Indian fast bowler, how teams can be built, and so on. It is only here, though, that you will also be told of the connection between actor Sivaji Ganesan and cricket, through Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah.The real gems emerge from the pages of history, and full marks to those who picked the pieces for this edition. There is DB Deodhar’s account of the politics around the last few seasons of the Pentangular, titled “Cliques and caucuses”. And Vijay Merchant’s clear-eyed analysis, “How Gavaskar differs from me”. Were millennials to read these, they would understand how bold these old dudes really were.Past the essays, I came across, by pure accident, one of the smaller yet quite moving parts of this . Three sheets from the very end, in what might be perhaps the smallest readable type size, there is a listing. One after the other, with no numbers, just line upon line, the names of every Indian Test cricketer there ever has been, till October 2015, each separated from the next by a dot. From Amar Singh to Naman Ojha. The names fill one page and three lines of the second, and the first thing that strikes you is: is that all? Fitting onto an 8″ x 5″ page and a bit? All our heroes, all our villains, our charmers, our scallywags, record-holders and record-breakers, men of mystery and men of dazzle, men who were invisible and those who were larger than life. The entire history of this game in the country, told through names tightly packed onto a page and a little more.This is obviously part of a running roster of record, updated every year, but it was the first time I’ve seen it printed in this way. Seeing them on a digital screen couldn’t, I think, produce such a response. Want to get Indian cricket fans to respond to history? Someone should put the names up on a carefully designed poster every year and see if they can sell it. I’ll buy one for sure. traverses both a cricketing year, several decades and many ideas. As far as answering the fundamental philosophical questions – Who am I? Why am I here? – is concerned, the future will handle them. The future only happens tomorrow anyway.Wisden India Almanack 2016
Edited by Suresh Menon
Bloomsbury India
802 pages, Rs 999

India’s Plan A in this World Cup had worked flawlessly over seven matches. When they came up against the toughest opponents in the World Cup, however, they were left scrambling for a back-up plan

Sharda Ugra at the SCG26-Mar-2015At one point during his innings, MS Dhoni would have looked at the scoreboard: Australia 328 for 7, India needing 121 in 48 balls. Far too many given at the end, far too many gone at the beginning, those damned Australians in their faces all over again. As if this black Sydney night, with its cool breeze, waving tricolours and general noise, was part of the forgettable tri-series gone by and not where he really found himself – in the World Cup semi-final, after almost six weeks in which Dhoni’s team produced cricket of an astonishing efficiency not known of Indian teams before them to find their way into the final four.This World Cup performance was not a prototype of the India team or Indian cricket, at large. This preternatural form of play at one point actually turned worrisome, with the fear that the Indian team would trip when they absolutely could not afford to. On Thursday night, the Indian team didn’t trip, they ran into the one wall that they knew they couldn’t leap over or smash through, the one team they had failed to beat all through the southern summer.What could not be quelled and overcome on Thursday, was the quality of Australia’s play and India’s own limitations, which turned up at the SCG in ultra-HD and surround sound at a time when they could not afford it.In 2011, India’s World Cup campaign had stuttered and stumbled with their bowlers held together on duct tape and optimism, but when it came to the three knock-out games where they had to, as the Americans say, “Bring it”, they did so.In 2015, India brought it all the way to the semi-finals and were then found out. A multi-nation, multi-venue, sprawling event like the World Cup can cover some holes, but it is a camouflage that is spread too thin. Against Australia, India ran up against opponents who were nothing like they had faced earlier in the World Cup: a side with range and depth in their batting all the way to hitters at No. 8, express left-arm pace and a personal back-of-hand knowledge of conditions. In the group stage, it was only South Africa who could have given the Indians a stern lesson in objectivity, but India batted first in Melbourne and were swept away by a plus-300 target and a wall of Indian sound ringing down from the stands.India’s World Cup had been based on two set patterns of play which went awry today. When batting first, one of their top three going on all the way to the end and blasting off in the last 15 or 12 overs. When bowling first, wickets in the first 15 overs and turning the pressure on a twitchy middle-order.Before the semi-final, the average score of any side batting first against India read 78 for 3. Australia got to 105 for 1 in 20, on the back of Steven Smith’s innings against a line-up he must believe he can face, maybe not blindfolded, but, at least, in the dark.Had India dismissed the second opener and the rest of the middle-order of any other team, the way they did Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Finch and Michael Clarke within 51 runs in eight overs today, a total of 300 would have been a stretch. There lies the difference between “any other team” and the lot who will be competing for the World Cup on Sunday. Clarke’s departure marked the arrival of Australia’s late-order blunt instruments and their force became too much for the Indian seamers to absorb: 70 off the last six overs, 40 off the last three, including 27 off 9 balls from Mitchell Johnson.India’s bowlers failed to absorb the blows of Australia’s blunt, late-order charge•Getty Images”We got a bit of reverse-swing going so I felt our bowlers could have done slightly better,” Dhoni said. He believed the bowlers were slightly too full in their length – “We were slightly more up than where we should have been” – because of the nature of the pitch and then said, “We could have done something better, but it doesn’t really matter now.”Yorkers, maybe, or a few bouncers, as three of the seven Australian wickets did fall to the short ball. An idea to be considered in theory but, against Faulkner and Johnson, the chances of it working are thin. At a time when the batsmen are fresh, the seamers pushed to their very edges, the best executed plans get tossed out of the window because of improvisation, big bats and too few men in the deep.Depending on what could have been when Maxwell had started out on his 360 degrees of exploration, 328 looked respectable. Besides the first thought was, “At least it wasn’t the score from the 2003 final.” In a World Cup group game, going for the 328 would have been a lark; in a semi-final, it is an albatross that could bring down not just the mariner but his entire fleet.Dhoni later said he knew that any target of over 300 required working to a plan. India went in with the intention of chasing that down because, like he said, “The good thing is our batting line-up, they know how to chase 300.” It is a pleasant belief in relatively low-intensity bilaterals. In a World Cup knock-out, 300 becomes a slippery slope. The highest India have ever chased in a World Cup is 288 against Zimbabwe and their highest chase outside Asia remains 325 in the 2002 Natwest Trophy final. To imagine that India could do this when they are a batsman short was not merely optimistic but delusional. In this World Cup, India’s designated “allrounder”, Ravindra Jadeja, has been one string short in his bow.In order to pull this chase off, they would need their batsmen to work in clockwork unison, like they had done at the start of the tournament. To bat like they had, at first tilt, against Pakistan and South Africa. What turned up instead was an out-of tune orchestra. Dhoni himself confessed that once India had lost three wickets inside the first 20 overs, the pattern of the chase had slipped out of the side’s control.”Once we were three down, it was difficult. Then we have to try to build a partnership and when you do that the run-rate goes up.” The dream scenario at the start of what Dhoni himself called a “gettable” total was to keep wickets till the 30th over and then make a run for it like a T20 match.India didn’t even get to the point of having a good-enough go, because the men at the top got caught up in the rush of the moment and were trying to out-muscle Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. It brought Dhoni in by the 23rd over; maybe pushing himself up the order, like he did in Mumbai 2011, could have given him the batting position he required to be lord and master from behind the wheel.India’s World Cup had featured until now one successful Plan A that had worked seamlessly throughout seven matches. They got their tightest two games early on in the tournament, and worked their way virtually on happy auto-pilot through the smaller nations in the group. Succcessful coin tosses, dropped catches, an opposition who could go from fierce to feeble when the pressure was cranked up a notch, worked in their favour. Perhaps a Plan B wasn’t really needed at that time. Except when Plan A goes to the cleaners very suddenly and some crisis management is needed. Like it did on Thursday night.Four years ago, India had snatched Australia’s World Cup from them by taking maximum advantage of their own home conditions. Four years later, Australia did the same – on their own territory. Touche.India’s 2015 World Cup is over, they are world champions no more and Dhoni stripped the moment of any mawkish emotion of having surrendered the World Cup. “Well, it’s something that doesn’t really belong to anyone,” he said. “We definitely took it from someone, so somebody took it from us. It’s as simple as that. You know, the best team takes it for four years and then everybody gets their own plans ready, depending on the conditions, and they challenge the one that has the Cup.”That should put the entire jingoistic and frankly charmless “#won’tgiveitback” drama, that the Indian team have been involved in and their devoted fans have bought into, over the last few months, into proper perspective. Thank you, captain.

With Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has become the most experienced Test cricketer in the world, and West Indies will need his knowledge and ability to save the first Test

Andrew McGlashan in Dunedin05-Dec-2013Shivnarine Chanderpaul has taken on one of the many records Sachin Tendulkar has left behind in retirement: he is now the longest-serving, active Test cricketer.His debut came on March 17, 1994 against England, in his homeland Guyana, as part of a West Indies side that were still top of the tree. The batting including Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, Richie Richardson and Desmond Haynes; the bowling was usually Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Kenny and Winston Benjamin.Times are very different now. There was a familiarity with the score when he strode in at University Oval – 70 for 3 is about average, these days, for Chanderpaul’s arrival at the crease. He just goes about his business as he has done for nearly 20 years.With a pull off Neil Wagner, he became the seventh Test batsman, and second West Indian after Lara, to pass 11,000 runs. There was a handshake with Denesh Ramdin and a gentle raise of the bat to the dressing room, before he returned to the crease (side on, of course) to resume trying to haul West Indies out of another hole.”His record speaks for himself. He’s a world-class player and has been for a number of years,” Tim Southee said. “Obviously he has a different stance and technique to what you’re used to. It’s not a traditional technique and set-up and it takes a little bit to adjust to. Hopefully we can grab him tomorrow some stage. We know you’ve got to fight hard for his wicket, he doesn’t give it away, and it’s going to take something special to get him out.”Thankfully, from West Indies’ point of view, Chanderpaul was not the only one to show some gumption. In the second innings, Kirk Edwards bounced back from his first-innings duck with a determined half-century and Darren Bravo, who had played nicely first time around before a loose drive on 40, glided to the close on an unbeaten 72.Chanderpaul is a man of few words, but the younger West Indies batsmen believe they can benefit by just watching. “For the short time I’ve played, he’s a professional guy. He just comes out and does his stuff every day,” Edwards said. “For a young guy, he’s more someone you have to watch and learn. He doesn’t talk much. But just watching him do his stuff is something you can learn from. His consistency is great. We as young players have to learn.”Still, though, if West Indies have any chance of putting pressure on New Zealand over the next two days it will come down to one man, and that’s Shiv.

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the third day in Port-of-Spain where West Indies suffered a late collapse

Daniel Brettig in Port-of-Spain17-Apr-2012Delay of the dayA lot can happen in 20 minutes of a Test match – a hat-trick, an injury, a flurry of runs. But nothing happened for the first 20 minutes of the second day’s play due to a power outage that robbed the ground and the world of television pictures from Queen’s Park Oval. Accounts varied as to why the delay had taken place, but there can be fewer more infuriating sights for spectators than a cricket ground bathed in sunshine but left unoccupied for reasons unclear. However the match officials have indicated that any further power outages or loss of television pictures across the match will not cause play to be stopped.Part-timer of the dayMichael Hussey’s list of Test wickets entering this match included Dwayne Bravo. After the West Indies had made a bright if belated start to the third day, Hussey added his brother Darren Bravo to his tally. On a low, awkward surface Hussey’s slow mediums made for useful change-up from spin and speed, and Michael Clarke handed him the ball with some expectation of a wicket. Pitching between wicket and wicket and moving the ball back ever so slightly, he pinned Bravo lbw, the umpire Marais Erasmus raising his finger once in answer to the appeal and again when Bravo’s DRS referral was unable to save him.Counter-attack of the dayLunch arrived with the hosts making decent inroads towards Australia’s 311, but at a cautious pace. Shivnarine Chanderpaul used James Pattinson’s introduction soon after the resumption to raise the rate significantly, cuffing no fewer than three boundaries while also being aided in his pursuit of runs by a pair of no-balls. Pattinson had taken an early wicket on the second evening but struggled notably for rhythm all day on the third, and ended it off the field with what appeared to be a back complaint.Spell of the dayThe new ball has offered extra bounce and purchase for both spinners and pacemen throughout the match, and after Michael Beer took the first new ball on day two, it was only seven overs into the use of the second when Nathan Lyon was called upon. Unlucky earlier in the day when he had drawn Chanderpaul’s edge only for it to hit Matthew Wade’s ‘keeping pad and elude Clarke at slip, Lyon struck first ball in the evening session, luring Narsingh Deonarine down the wicket with a looping off break. Next over Chanderpaul was pinned lbw for 94 when a century beckoned, and he disposed of Darren Sammy and Shane Shillingford in his following two overs to have a crucial four in four.

India lacked clarity in their thought process, and the Jayawardenes – Mahela and Prasanna – took full toll

Cricinfo staff18-Nov-2009The picture became pretty much clear in the first 10 overs of the day, when MS Dhoni got Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra into the act. The idea may have been good but not the execution: neither bowler hustled, challenged, teased or troubled the batsman, and the captain didn’t back them with attacking fields. The only beneficiaries were the Sri Lankans, who built on the momentum established on the second day by Tillakaratne Dilshan.The spinners’ reluctance to go for the kill only exposed India’s plans to wait for the second new ball. This defensive move, in turn, laid bare India’s muddled thought process: should they attack, should they defend? Answers were not forthcoming on the day because no one from the Indian team turned up at the media conference.It wasn’t just the spinners. Even when the second new ball was taken, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma failed to get optimum swing compared to their less experienced counterparts Chanaka Welegedara and Dammika Prasad. Though Zaheer remained the day’s most consistent bowler, he failed to dominate the batsmen. He did rattle Thilan Samaraweera in the morning in a five-ball burst of probing fast bowling that eventually led to the batsman losing his composure, and his wicket, in the next over from Ishant, but he found it difficult to sustain that pressure for the rest of the day. And that proved costly for India.More importantly, what was missing was the clarity in their thought process. It was hard to understand why Dhoni persisted with a deep point for Harbhajan who, whenever he strayed outside off, was cut fine or steered past the empty third man pocket. At the opposite end Amit Mishra tried hard to bowl into the rough to force the batsman to commit the error. But the Jayawardenes – Mahela and Prasanna – remained patient, having seemingly decoded Dhoni’s plans. “They were trying to not give us a bigger lead,” Jayawardene said.The Lankans were only too happy to play the waiting job. “You can lose wickets in that manner if you played too many shots but it was important we didn’t do that,” Jayawardene said. “We waited for the loose ball and waited for the opportunity.”The effect was a calculated assault: pre-lunch they made 100 runs off 26.2 overs at a run-rate of 3.82, losing the only two wickets in the day; in the second session, the Jayawardenes scored 108 in 23.4 overs at 4.62; in the final session, when the Indians bowled consistently outside leg stump from round the wicket to staunch their progress, the Lankans still managed to keep the rate at a feasible three runs per over. “We were a bit too slow towards the end,” Jayawardene conceded, “but the important thing was not to lose too many wickets … and if we have ample time we can build on the lead.”Another trick Dhoni missed was setting the daring 8-1 off-side field and giving his fast bowlers free rein, as he had done successfully in equally demanding circumstances in last year’s Nagpur Test against Australia.In that game, India looked set for a massive first-innings total but were undone by the unassuming Jason Krejza. In response Australia were hurtling towards the Indian score at more than four runs an over when Dhoni adopted the 8-1 field, raised eyebrows but turned the game in India’s favour. Today it might have been the heat, or the placid nature of the pitch, or even his exhausted fast bowlers, that prevented Dhoni from repeating that strategy.If India were indeed trying to take wickets, though, why not suffocate the batsman first by setting a close ring of fielders? Blaming the slow pitch would be a lame excuse – with attacking lines and consistent lengths Sri Lanka might have had a stiffer task at hand instead of sitting pretty on a sizeable 165-run lead.Jayawardene understood the overall strategy. “They had to be careful not to give us a bigger lead…you can attack and give away too many runs but at the same time create opportunities,” he explained.The match is still open, though. Jayawardene was confident about Sri Lanka’s prospects of notching their maiden Test triumph on Indian soil if they stick to their plans, but wary of the possibilities. “Things can happen on a fourth- or fifth-day wicket. Teams under pressure can create opportunities as well. We are on top at the moment but if we suddenly lose wickets it could be a different ball game.”

Team owner says Malik’s contract was until February 14 but he wanted to leave early

Mohammad Isam26-Jan-2024Shoaib Malik has left the BPL abruptly after playing just three games for his team Fortune Barishal.In a conversation with Sports 24, the Fortune Barishal owner, Mizanur Rahman, said that Malik’s contract was “till February 14”, by when the team would have played nine of their 12 league games. “He left after the third game, and told me that he wants to come back on February 6. We have [next] three games in Sylhet, so I told him that it won’t work for us,” Mizanur said in that chat. “I think he went to meet his family in Dubai.”Mizanur, however, denied having said this to the channel. “We haven’t spoken to anyone in the media,” he said in a video message on the franchise’s Facebook page. “Shoaib Malik is a good player. He gave his 100% to our team. He tried his level best. We haven’t complained about him to anyone. Let us not talk about it and make it a big deal. We have lost two matches, so we should concentrate on the next matches.”