The tri-series is Yuvraj Singh’s first chance to steer the focus back to his cricket, away from the fitness issues, away from Page 3

Siddarth Ravindran in Dambulla09-Aug-2010At his best in limited-overs matches, Yuvraj Singh gives Indian fans and the dressing room a feeling of assurance few others can, and that is the reason he is integral to the country’s dreams of a World Cup victory at home.A case in point is India’s ill-fated campaign to defend their World Twenty20 crown in 2009. Having entered the tournament as one of the hot favourites, with the country’s love affair with the newest format burgeoning, India were staring at a humiliating early elimination during the second Super Eights game against England at Lord’s. The top-order was floundering to a bouncer barrage and after the youngsters, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma, fell cheaply, Gautam Gambhir and Ravindra Jadeja poked and plodded at one-day pace. With the asking rate touching double-digits and the title defence in tatters, Yuvraj walked out in the 11th over and gloriously lofted his first ball for a huge six, the first of the innings. There was another nonchalant hit for six more before a brilliant, quicksilver stumping from James Foster ended his 14-minute stay. India went on to lose but for those 14 minutes, irrespective of the odds, fans believed victory was possible.That is where Yuvraj towers over the gaggle of youngsters with whom he is now jostling for a middle-order berth. He has always been a man for the big occasion, whether it was the dazzling 84 in his first one-day innings after a top-order collapse against Steve Waugh’s Australians, the star-making turn in the NatWest series final in 2002 or the jaw-dropping 70 off 30 balls in a take-no-prisoners semi-final against Australia in the inaugural World Twenty20.There hasn’t been any addition to that highlights reel in 2010. A spate of injuries, a ballooning waistline, indifferent form and those never-too-far-away questions about his attitude culminated in his axing from the one-day side for the Asia Cup. That was meant to chasten a man who had perhaps taken for granted a spot in the ODI middle order after eight years of being a guaranteed starter. And it left Yuvraj in the peculiar situation of being in the Test side and out of the one-day team.Ahead of the Test series against Sri Lanka, he spoke of the tough training his father put him through as part of a bid to regain full fitness. It seemed to have paid off as Yuvraj, more streamlined than the butt-of-all-jokes who turned up in the IPL, started with a flawless century in the tour game against Sri Lanka Board President’s XI and followed it up with a brisk 52 under pressure in the first Test.It started to unravel again when flu forced him to miss the second Test. Raina grabbed his chance to make a debut hundred that ensured the match was a draw and elbow out Yuvraj, bringing an end to his first extended run as a Test starter in a decade of trying. And, to make things worse, he responded to taunts from visibly drunk fans provoking a flurry of unflattering headlines which reinforced the impression of Yuvraj the brat.The tri-series is his first chance to steer the focus back to his cricket, away from the fitness issues, away from Page 3. It is his first chance to remind us of the man whom MS Dhoni calls “the main strength of our middle order”. It is his first chance to add to that highlight reel.As the most experienced player in the line-up, Yuvraj remains the proven performer India need in a middle order in which several players still have the learner’s wheels. It’s a middle order that looks particularly shaky if there is an injury to Dhoni, who has managed to so far steer clear of fitness troubles despite playing the triple role of wicketkeeper, key batsman and captain. It’s a trick Yuvraj will love to learn after an injury-filled year.

For a sport that has a bad history with opening ceremonies, nothing could have been more welcome than the sheer enthusiasm and passion with which Bangladesh had put together its show

Sidharth Monga at the Bangabandhu Stadium17-Feb-2011Those who were not at the Bangabandhu National Stadium will never know just how successful and moving the opening ceremony of the 2011 World Cup was. Those who saw it on TV would have cringed at Sonu Nigam crooning an English inspirational song, Bryan Adams of all people being the top draw, recordings of Shankar-Ehsan-Loy’s unremarkable theme song playing on loop, and the politicians inducing yawns with their speeches.Those who were here, though, saw, heard and felt the heartbeat of Bangladesh cricket. What happened inside the stadium, sold out by 25,000 people welcoming the World Cup with open arms, was only a minor part of it. There were 25,000 other fans – and this is a conservative estimate, mind you – outside the stadium, with no hope or intention of getting in, partying away to their own rhythm of vuvuzelas, carrying Bangladesh flags about 50 feet in length, celebrating the World Cup.The reception for the World Cup on the streets of Dhaka was the closest cricket can get to a football World Cup. There was no giant screen outside for them, the music could hardly be heard there, there was obviously no alcohol to keep them going, but they danced and made merry, choreographing their own moves. There was not an inch of space in about a kilometre’s radius of the Bangabandhu Stadium. Nigam, Adams, Mustafa Kamal (the BCB chief) might as well have not turned up. The crowd either side of the stadium wall couldn’t care less.There were journalists at the ceremony who have covered cricket World Cups, Olympics, Asian Games, even football World Cups, and they swore they have never seen anything like this before. For a sport that has a bad history with opening ceremonies, nothing could have been more welcome. It didn’t need the Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina to declare the World Cup open. The World Cup was open when at 2am last night, thousands were dancing on the streets, signing the best-wishes bat, and tens of cars went round and round the Bangabandhu Stadium. And when similar scenes were taking place at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, which didn’t even have anything to do with the opening ceremony.And to say that the 50-over format is supposed to be dying. Not in the subcontinent, not in Bangladesh by a long shot. However, like with the good old ODIs, the opening ceremony had its middle overs. Nigam followed up his Celine Dion act from the recently held Filmfare Awards back home in India with a self-composed song titled , which showed that his great voice needs to be rescued, from himself. The politicians took about half an hour of valuable time, and were on the verge of inviting a streaker. The crowd mimicked and made fun of one of them, another speaker gave two different figures for Bangladesh’s population in half a minute, and ICC chief Sharad Pawar tried to speak Bangla but no one could make out a word of what he said.In the bigger picture, though, all those were minor irritants. There were some very nice touches to the ceremony. Local artists performing before the main function started was one such; getting popular, almost legendary singers, Mumtaz, Sabina Yasmin and Runa Laila, to share the stage was another, as was the crowd going crazy at the first sound of Bollywood music in an overstretched celebration of India.Then there was the laser show involving the towering 24-storey Bangladesh Development Bank Building . On a long white curtain, a cricket pitch was projected. From the top floor, men tied on harnesses came down. Two batsmen, bowler, keeper, slip, umpire, cover, midwicket were all there. One man was pulled up suggesting a bowler running in to bowl. The ball was a laser pointer. In one over of “aerial cricket”, they showed a forward-defensive, an lbw appeal, a scrambled single and overthrows, a play-and-a-miss, and a boundary.The best, and the most unforgettable, moment was when all the captains were brought in on cycle rickshaws. One captain on each rickshaw, with a young boy sitting beside him, waving to the crowd, and the crowd responding generously. They came out alphabetically, Australia first, with one exception – Bangladesh were saved for the last, and more importantly Shakib Al Hasan for the very last. Few present at the Bangabandhu Stadium will ever forget the applause that Shakib walked out to.Put the applause for the other 13 captains together – and they were not stingy with any of them – but it paled in comparison. That noise was enough to know what the World Cup meant to the country. In that moment, the traffic jams, the poor singing, the long speeches didn’t matter. Over to Shakib’s team now to make sure the party goes on deep into the tournament. The people deserve it.

The story of Railways’ journey from the bottom of Group A to the quarter-finals

Abhishek Purohit20-Dec-2010Railways are the New Zealand of the Ranji Trophy. Hamstrung by a lack of resources, working with a wafer-thin player base, they continue to give the bigger teams a scare or two, year after year, before their lack of depth prevents them from closing out games. And as is so often the case with sides sitting on the margins, luck seems to desert them at crucial junctures.Midway through this year’s tournament, it appeared that they would have to once again remain satisfied with punching above their weight. Three points from the first four games did not reveal how close Railways had come to winning two of those matches. They were 21 without loss chasing 176 against Assam when bad light intervened midway through the first session on the final day, and the match had to be called off. It was also the day when veteran Railways offspinner Kulamani Parida retired after being called for a suspect action again. The sadness was compounded in the Railways’ camp.They then had defending champions Mumbai tottering at 237 for 8 chasing 252, but let Rohit Sharma get away with it, dropping numerous chances. “The Mumbai loss hurt the most, we were so close,” Abhay Sharma, the Railways coach, told ESPNcricinfo. Languishing at the bottom of a tough group with three matches to go, thoughts of the Plate League must have certainly cropped up. “We were not thinking about relegation at all, we had worked so hard that we knew we would bounce back,” Abhay said, revealing the confidence in a side that was forced to, and took, some tough decisions.Yere Goud and TP Singh, bulwarks of the Railways batting for so long, made way for younger players. “We wanted to avoid a situation where people took their positions for granted,” said Sanjay Bangar, who took over the captaincy after Murali Kartik opted to concentrate on his bowling. Anureet Singh, the 22-year old Kolkata Knight Riders seamer, was forming a productive new-ball partnership with JP Yadav, the former India allrounder back after his ICL stint. It reduced Bangar’s workload, who usually opens the bowling. The evolving core of the side had balance, with the experience of Kartik, Bangar and Yadav, along with the youth of Anureet, wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat and opener Faiz Fazal. “It was a calculated move to bring in young blood, I really appreciate what the selectors have done,” Abhay said. “We had too much experience before, somewhere we had to think about the future. The youngsters are motivated with the chances they are getting; it is a very happy dressing room.”The happiness showed in the performances. Rawat and debutant left-arm spinner Nileshkumar Chauhan added a priceless 90 for the last wicket against Saurashtra to boost the total to 415. Yadav’s six wickets restricted Saurashtra to 338. Railways had doubled their tally to six points. Only the base camp had been reached, though, and the climb was yet to begin.Next up were Delhi, who had shifted base from the Feroz Shah Kotla to the more responsive surface at the Roshanara Club, a move that gave both teams a chance. However, when Sumit Narwal’s seven wickets in the second innings gave Delhi a target of 136, Railways’ season almost seemed over. “We knew Delhi would give us a sporting track. We had the ammunition that could put them under pressure,” Abhay said. And they did, Yadav and Anureet picking up seven wickets between them as Delhi slid to an ignominious 22-run defeat. That an injured Kartik bowled only over in the game shows how this Railways side is now no longer dependent on one or two players.

“As a side, we never give up. Many of our players are those who could not make it to state teams. They value what they have and look to give back to the organisation. In fact, many of our senior players have offers from state teams to play as professionals, especially from the lesser teams like Andhra and Assam, but for us, Railways comes first.”

Teetering on the brink of relegation barely two games ago, Railways had given themselves an outside chance of qualifying for the knockouts. An outright win was needed against Bengal though. The charge was led by the younger brigade. Prashant Awasthi and Dhiran Salvi, both of whom had made their debuts this season, made half-centuries as Railways surged to a 144-run lead. Yadav finished off Bengal to go top of the wicket-taking list with 30 victims. “He is one player who always does something if the ball is in his hands. He moves it really well, and never lets you down. Frankly, he performed even better than we expected,” Abhay said. “They talk about horses for courses, we’ve got two horses, Yadav and Bangar, who are for courses.”Bangar credits the turnaround to the hard way a Railways player comes up. “As a side, we never give up. Many of our players are those who could not make it to state teams. They value what they have and look to give back to the organisation. In fact, many of our senior players have offers from state teams to play as professionals, especially from the lesser teams like Andhra and Assam, but for us, Railways comes first.”After the rollercoaster ride the season has been, Railways are not looking ahead of the quarter-final against Baroda. “We are full of confidence now, but the most important part will be implementation,” Abhay said.Bangar has both feet firmly on the ground. “Baroda are a very strong team. They have Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan, experienced players in Connor Williams and Rakesh Solanki, Ambati Rayudu is also there. They’ll be playing at home, but the conditions will suit our type of bowling as well, especially mine and JP’s. We don’t want to be showered with applause just for making the knockouts. We want to go further.”

S Badrinath and Yusuf Pathan had a golden opportunity to cement their spots in the ODI side in the series against West Indies. Sadly, both have failed so far

Sriram Veera in Antigua15-Jun-2011It’s easy to like Yusuf Pathan. It’s easy to grow to like S Badrinath. Yusuf can thrill you with his big hits; he appeals with his primal spirit and gives you instant gratification. Badrinath, with his years of hard toil in domestic cricket, can make you sympathetic to his cause. However, both are guilty of throwing away the great opportunity presented to them in the ongoing ODI series in the West Indies. Especially Badrinath, who is yet to prove that he belongs on the international stage.It wasn’t that long ago when Dale Steyn made Badrinath look out of his depth in a Test in India. Here, in the West Indies, Andre Russell, nowhere close to Steyn in class or pace, made Badrinath hop and jump awkwardly on a docile pitch. Badrinath is not a very wristy player; his strokeplay is all arms. Under pressure, those hands start gripping the bat tighter, the arms start stabbing, and the ball doesn’t seem to move off the turf. It looks like a struggle, it feels like a struggle and perhaps, it is a struggle.He arrived here on the back of a very good domestic season and an impressive showing in the IPL. This series was supposed to be his carpe diem opportunity. Instead, it’s turning into a nightmare. He was given a chance to bat at No. 4, ahead of both Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma – except in the rain-shortened second ODI – but has averaged just 13.33 in four games so far, with a high score of 17. His critics are having a field day: ‘oh he is just a domestic batsman and is a misfit. He can’t rotate the strike if the bowling is accurate and he will eventually be eaten up by the pressure,’ is their line of thought.It’s not that Badrinath is not mentally tough: if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have survived the years of rejection and continued reaping runs in domestic cricket to the extent that the selectors were almost forced to pick him. The real question though, and one he has so failed to answer is whether he is international class? This is the same Badrinath who handled the short balls well in South Africa during the second season of the IPL; constantly side stepping to upper cut them. Those deliveries had more pace and bounce than the ones he faced in Antigua. But the pressure of playing international cricket is vastly different from the IPL and it does strange things. Badrinath is a very intense man and by his own admission feels he has to learn to go easy on himself . He has one more game before the Test series to get it right. Will he be able to produce a knock of real substance?Yusuf, too, is mentally a tough nut. Everyone knows his weakness against pacy bouncers. Batsmen with this problem tend to start expecting it off every ball. They are likely to hang on the back foot or hop and get caught out by the full deliveries. Yusuf isn’t one of them; even as he would deal awkwardly with the short deliveries, he has rarely let a full delivery in his arc go unpunished. However, his career is threatening to spin out of control after his showing in this series so far. He has lasted only 17 deliveries in his three knocks. He gave a tame return catch in the first, lapped to short midwicket in the second and was brilliantly pouched by Lendl Simmons, and threw his wicket in the third, slugging to long-off. Each time, he stood there almost in disbelief at what he had done.Again, like Badrinath, each game had presented Yusuf with a great opportunity. There were lots of overs left, there was no pressure from the run-rate, and he could have played himself in. He didn’t. Was it adrenalin kicking in to counterattack and impose himself or were they shots played under pressure? Was it overconfidence or nerves? The former can be easier to correct; the latter indicates vulnerability and is difficult to overcome. Only Yusuf knows the truth.When the biggies return, both Yusuf and Badrinath will rarely get chances like this. Five ODIs on featherbeds against a team struggling to paper its cracks and compete. Five chances to resuscitate your career and cement your spot. Now both have just one final shot at redemption. They will have to take it. Else, there might not be a second chance. Especially for Badrinath. Yusuf, with his brutal knocks against South Africa in South Africa not long ago coupled with his bowling, is likely to get more chances in the future. If Badrinath fails on Thursday, this could be the last time he plays in coloured clothes. Even his Test chances might be in jeopardy. The stakes are that high.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium

Nitin Sundar22-Apr-2011The reunion
It was biggest talking point after the auctions. Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds in one team. Both of them tried hard to diffuse the build-up, but no one looked away. The first moment came in the fourth ball of Chennai’s chase, when Symonds leapt in the covers to stop a Michael Hussey cover drive. Harbhajan ran across and patted his mate on the back. In the fifth over, Harbhajan foxed Suresh Raina with a lovely piece of flight and pouched the return catch. It was now Symonds’ turn to show his appreciation and he did so with a hug. Later in the evening, they were seen sharing ideas on the field, and this time Sachin Tendulkar wasn’t required to pull them apart. The hatchet had truly been buried in Sydney.The bluff
It was the moment that turned the match, and it came about through a clever piece of bowling. Chennai were coasting along when Lasith Malinga returned for his second spell. Everyone expected a barrage of yorkers, and the first ball was duly destined for the toes. S Badrinath somehow played it away for a single and handed over to Michael Hussey. Clearly, he was expecting another yorker next ball and chose to crouch low and back in the crease in anticipation. Malinga, however, hoodwinked Hussey by sending down a bouncer that took off from a length. Hussey was caught off-guard, and ended up going down on a knee and taking his eyes off it as he played an ungainly pull. Kieron Pollard scooped it inches from the ground, and Mumbai found a way back into the game.The slip and the lap
Doug Bollinger’s second spell was a series of incisive short balls and wide yorkers that Mumbai struggled to lay bat on. One ball, however, slipped out of Bollinger’s fingers, possibly because of the dewy atmosphere. Rohit Sharma was already shuffling across in anticipation of a wide yorker and must have been shocked to see a waist-high beamer hurtling straight at him. Rohit did not panic, though, and calmly lapped it straight back over MS Dhoni’s head and all the way for the most interesting six of the day.The elbow
You might watch the whole IPL and not see an innings more orthodox than Badrinath’s unbeaten 71. There wasn’t a single ugly shot on display, and he got his runs through precise footwork and an array of textbook strokes. The charm of his innings was epitomised by the six he hit off Rohit in the ninth over of the chase. It was a classically flighted offbreak on off stump. Badrinath shot out of the crease at the exact moment when the bowler was past the point of no return, got to the pitch and swung it in one sublime arc, all the way over long-off. The backlift was not extravagant, and the follow-through ended with the leading elbow held high for an extra moment. It was the 210th six of IPL 2011, and among the most beautiful.The clunk
Suresh Raina turned the third ball of Harbhajan’s spell off the pads and took off for a typically cheeky single. Harbhajan, not known for his fleet-footedness in the field, sped away after it and Raina realised he had to scramble. Harbhajan picked up, swivelled and fired a throw at the non-striker’s end even as Raina dived in. The throw missed the stumps, but clunked Raina hard on the helmet. Don’t expect Raina to exchange the helmet for a cap when the spinners come on.The triple-jumper
Mumbai were electric on the field from start to finish, barring one moment of comedy from Munaf Patel. Badrinath got one on the pads in the eighth over, and glanced it along towards fine leg. The ball was travelling much faster than Munaf at fine leg initially anticipated, and he realised he had to move fast to his right to cut it off. Instead of sprinting and diving, Munaf loped across languidly before trying to reach the ball with a series of laboured long steps. He lurched over like someone trying the triple-jump for the first time, and tried to stop the ball with the boot. The ball, however, easily slipped through for four.

He was South Africa’s next big thing a decade ago before he fell off the radar and went off to play county cricket. Now Jacques Rudolph is back and is being talked up as one for the future again

Firdose Moonda28-Apr-2011Eden Gardens is probably the equivalent of Mecca for South African cricketers: the hallowed ground where they were welcomed back into international cricket after the apartheid years. Most regard playing at the iconic venue to be a dream come true. Jacques Rudolph is no different.Rudolph was one of the lucky ones who was able to bring up a personal milestone, a half-century, in the Test he played there, his 18th. While Rudolph was toiling hard for 61, his wife, Elna, who had made the trip with him to the subcontinent, was working at Mother Teresa’s hospice. Elna had finished a medical degree and was doing her internship at the time. She has since completed a Masters in Sexual Health and has a Higher Diploma in HIV/AIDS, her area of specialty.”My wife gives me a lot of perspective about what’s happening in the real world, so I don’t get disillusioned by what’s happening in the sporting world,” Rudolph said.Grounding is something every sportsman needs, but Rudolph, who had a dramatic first stint in international cricket, perhaps realises the importance of the occasional dose of reality better than most. He was a confident and settled batsman, with exceptional technique and strokeplay, and by the time of that Kolkata Test had racked up 1000 Test runs at an average of 43.81. The false start he had to his career in Australia in the 2001-02 season, when then South Africa board president Percy Sonn intercepted his debut and inserted Justin Ontong into the starting XI ahead of Rudolph, seemed to be behind him.Then it all changed. In 17 Tests after that, Rudolph scored just one century. Hs average dipped below 30, he looked out of all sorts of things: depth, character, self-belief. It was the result of a head-on collision between becoming a national cricketer too early and not being nurtured properly once the fast-forward button had been pushed.”In hindsight there was always the danger of getting picked for South Africa at a young age,” Rudolph said. “You don’t really know your game that well, you haven’t really been exposed to pressure.”It’s a fair point that youth thrust into greatness may be overwhelmed. The shaky ground on which the young Rudolph, then 21, was introduced onto the international stage laid a rickety platform for his ultimate slide.Politics and South African sport have never been separated, and their relationship had one of its messiest spats down under during that tour. Some will argue that Sonn interfered in a merit selection, others will say that it was necessary to right historical wrongs, but few will disagree that it affected the careers of both players concerned. Rudolph and Ontong both stumbled through international cricket after that; ironically Rudolph found his feet better than Ontong, though he was not able to stand on them for any sustained period. “It made me a little insecure as a cricketer and as a person,” Rudolph said.He began to second-guess his own ability, and during his worst patch, a series in the West Indies, where in three matches he had scores of 0, 24, 8 and 7 not out, “didn’t enjoy cricket at all”.After being dropped from the national team in August 2006, he signed a Kolpak deal with Yorkshire, packed up his life in South Africa and left. “I was looking for stability in my career,” he said.It was a difficult and controversial decision to make but Rudolph was vindicated almost immediately. “In my first game, which was at The Oval, I scored one of my better hundreds, against Surrey, and that took a lot of the pressure off.” He scored two more centuries in his first month and settled into his new home and his quiet life without much fuss.In the company of Younis Khan and Michael Vaughan, and with Geoffrey Boycott watching from the stands, Rudolph resolved to discover his own game. He found the environment “professional but laidback”, the opposite to what he was used to in South Africa where things sometimes get too intense, too – Afrikaans for “prepared”.Rudolph found himself easing into a schedule where the sheer of volume of cricket helped him mature. “I was able to cement my game, and my personality for that matter. I learnt that your preparation shouldn’t change whether you are in good form or bad form. That’s the success of someone like a Jacques Kallis or Hashim Amla. They always do the same thing. As a young player, if you go through bad form, you start hitting a thousand more balls a week. That’s not necessarily the right answer.”

“As a young player, if you go through bad form, you start hitting a thousand more balls a week. That’s not necessarily the right answer”

Along with fine-tuning his art as a batsman in the longer version of the game, Rudolph also excelled in the shorter formats. “I feel people have had this perception that I’m only a Test player. My stats [average] in one-day cricket is 47-48, which tells me I can play the white-ball game.”While he was collecting runs, he was also racking up awards: he won the Players’ Player of the Year and Fans’ Player of the Year in 2008, and Players’ Player again in 2010.Another year at Yorkshire and Rudolph would have qualified to play for England, but Elna had business interests in South Africa and “going back and forth all the time was not worth our while”, Rudolph said. “She wanted to start her own practice as well.” At the beginning of the 2010 season, Rudolph returned to the Titans and was immediately named their captain.What was striking about him was how much had changed in the interim. Confidence oozed where once was a broken man. Notable also was how much hadn’t: the open, friendly, giving personality was the same. The runs flowed, in the SuperSport Series, where he topped the run charts with 954 runs in 10 matches; in the MTN40, where his 383 runs were scored at a strike-rate of over 100; and in the Pro20, where he was the second highest run-scorer. He recently captained South Africa A to an unofficial Test series win over Bangladesh and is currently captaining them in the one-day series.There are signs that he is ripe for a national recall, perhaps even as the next ODI captain. “I’m 29. I’m at the top of my career, I feel. There’s still potential to become better, but I’d like to think I’m at a stage where I know my game very well. If needed for the South Africa team in future, I’ll definitely try to put my hand up.”Rudolph the run machine is back, and so is Rudolph the realist. He has already started thinking about what he will do when his cricket-playing days are over. He co-owns a farm just outside Kimberley with Boeta Dippenaar, where they breed roan antelope, sable and buffalo. The pair have someone running the farm for them, and although Rudolph thinks he won’t be directly involved there for a while, he has set it up to prepare for “one of a sportman’s biggest insecurities: the day I finish the game, what am I going to do?”At the rate he is going, that day is a trip or two back to Eden Gardens away.

In the last two-and-a-half years the India captain has played almost non-stop, and the sure weight of work is finally showing in his performances

Nagraj Gollapudi at Edgbaston09-Aug-2011There are management gurus and researchers waiting to map MS Dhoni’s brain so they can understand how India’s most successful captain’s mind works – how he manages to synchronise his thoughts into ideas and then into deeds. One of India’s leading business schools wants to use the research as part of a neuromanagement course they plan to introduce. They might also try and find out, for research purposes, just how tired that brain is after the rigours and grind it has gone through since Dhoni became the leader of the Indian cricket team in all forms.From 2009 till date Dhoni has played more top-level cricket (see sidebar) than any other cricketer, if you put the IPL and Champions League Twenty20 in that bracket. He has played 24 Tests, 61 ODIs, 16 Twenty20 internationals and 49 matches for Chennai Super Kings over three IPLs and a Champions League Twenty20. His closest contender in terms of workload is Kumar Sangakkara, who stepped down as Sri Lanka captain after the World Cup, and has logged 20 Tests, 61 ODIs, 24 Twenty20 internationals and 40 IPL games since 2009. Matt Prior might have played more international cricket than those two players – 33 Tests, 35 ODIs and five T20 internationals – but does not have the rigours of marquee Twenty20 tournaments to worry about.If you further dissect Dhoni’s schedule you wonder how the man has been able to continue walking, let alone squat, heave bats, keep a smile on his face while leading India to the No.1 position in Tests, lift gongs like the World Cup, the IPL title (twice) and the Champions League Twenty20.

Dhoni’s packed schedule

• 2009: Five ODIs + one T20 in Sri Lanka; full New Zealand tour (two T20s, five ODIs and three Tests, of which Dhoni played two); IPL in South Africa. World Twenty20 in England; Five ODIs in the West Indies. After a two-month break, three-match Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka; Champions Trophy in South Africa; seven ODIs at home against Australia; home series against Sri Lanka (three Tests, two T20s and five ODIs)

• 2010: Tri-series + one Test in Bangladesh; home series against South Africa (two Tests, three ODIs); IPL, with Chennai winning; World Twenty20 in the Caribbean; Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup, back in Sri Lanka for three Tests followed by a tri-series including New Zealand; Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa (which Chennai won); two home Tests against Australia; three-Test home series against New Zealand; full tour of South Africa (three Tests, a Twenty20 and five ODIs)

• 2011: World Cup (nine matches); IPL (16 matches); three-Test series in the Caribbean; two Tests and counting in England

Dhoni has the onerous task of leading four teams, which include so many players from different places, in three different formats, in addition to carrying out his wicketkeeping duties. A captain, a man-manager, a strategist, a wicketkeeper, a brand ambassador, a husband, a friend, an idol; Dhoni has to play all those roles convincingly, and at times, all at one go. Now you know the reason behind his increasing grey-hair count.The trend is set to continue. India’s schedule for the 12 months from May 2011 contains 125 days of work: 17 Tests, 36 ODIs and four Twenty20 internationals. In contrast, England play 12 Tests, 20 ODIs and eight Twenty20 internationals. With the BCCI reluctant to bench their most-marketable brand, Dhoni could either hope for a miracle or will be forced to call it quits in one of the formats.It does not take an analyst to tell you that quantity can impact quality. This year, Dhoni has played in 21 international matches across all formats, and scored 472 runs with a top score of 91 not out, achieved in the World Cup final. In England so far his scores in the Tests read 28, 16, 5 and 0. In the tour match in Northampton he made just two runs before walking back in the face of taunts such as “Dhoni, what was that”, having edged a half-hearted stroke to the wicketkeeper. Those figures seem ridiculous for someone who was once an impact player.But India need Dhoni to stand strong and govern the lower order, which has been pathetic in comparison to England’s. Dhoni feels the problem is more mental than technical. Men like Paddy Upton, India’s mental conditioning coach during the years Gary Kirsten was coach, are confident about Dhoni’s ability to bounce back.”His workload is unbelievable and the level of performance he has delivered despite that is unbelievable” Upton says. “Dhoni is a warrior. Warriors don’t complain. I certainly know there were times where he was fatigued but he soldiered on. He accepted what his responsibility was and also he probably realised the impact on other people. Dhoni would drop dead before he said he couldn’t go on anymore.”It is easy to see that Dhoni is a bit distracted by the pressures of the ever-increasing-never-ending-workload. You can see him fluffing easy picks behind the wicket, which has also had an impact on the slip fielders. “I would imagine it is,” Upton said about Dhoni being affected by the multiple roles he needs to perform efficiently. “But by the same token he will deliver. If anybody else had gone through what he has gone through their slump would have started a long time earlier and lasted a lot longer.”As for the mind-mapping gurus, they can only guess the vastness of the project they aim to undertake.

The Don Argus report into Australian cricket documents in detail the areas of improvement for the national team – and a lot of them concern the basics of the game

Daniel Brettig19-Aug-2011Australia’s cricket team has become a prized example of mismanagement, non-performance, inadequate succession planning, poor team culture, and a glaring lack of accountability. Its pathway from club cricket to the first-class arena has become muddled, beset by a wrongheaded incentive structure, a poor format and a similar waft of the unaccountable.So says Don Argus’ report into the sharply declining performance of the nation’s cricketers and their support network, in a document every bit as ugly and confronting as the Ashes loss that hurried its commission. While the recommendations of the Argus review panel were dramatic and immediate, the detail of the report is so damning as to make them look reserved.The most galling passages concern the reasons for the poor performance of the Australian team, and the failure of a seemingly bountiful, well-paid side and support staff to adequately address even the most basic of issues since a succession of retirements pushed the XI into a new phase.Australia’s captain Michael Clarke said on his entry to the leadership that Australia’s basics had to improve. The review quantifies exactly how much, pointing out the national team had shown an inability to adhere to many of the most basics tenets of the game.”The evidence from the Ashes and other recent series is that our basic cricket skills are lacking in key areas, in particular: For batting; batting for long periods; batting against the moving ball; our approach to playing spin; general batting technique in some instances,” it read. “For bowling; building pressure; bowling to an agreed plan; spin bowling and captaincy of spin bowling; swing bowling, including generating reverse swing. For fielding; overall fielding, especially catching; General athleticism; this has extra significance as in the panel’s view fielding standards reflect the attitude and professionalism of the team.”For our overall approach; Building batting and bowling partnerships; General game sense/match awareness and cricket expertise, including the ability to problem-solve during the course of a match.”Ironically for a team that has had a baseball-based fielding coach for numerous years in Mike Young, the review suggested that greater measures of fielding needed to be taken for this aspect of the game served as both a reliable way to improve results but also a strong barometer for the team’s wellness.”For catching and fielding specifically, the panel recommends introducing explicit measurement of catching and fielding efficiency for all first-class and international players and teams,” the review said. “These should also feed in to player rankings/performance incentives.”One simple measure would be catches taken as a percentage of chances created. Chances could be weighted by difficulty if required. The same could be done for run-outs. Measures of this nature have been standard practice in baseball and other sports for decades and should become standard in Australian cricket.”In addition to the many problems of skill, the panel also highlighted inconsistencies in selection and the failure to consistently promote or demote players on the basis of performance. Simon Katich alluded to this problem during his furious response to being dropped from CA’s list of contracted players, a decision that defied fairness and most logic.”It is critical that superior performance is rewarded at all levels,” the report said. “Players must earn their positions in the time-honoured way of making runs, taking wickets and showing that they are ready to play at the next level. At the same time, potential cannot be overlooked: there must be room for some intuition in selections. Players must be held accountable when they are not performing. This has been an issue in recent years.”For Clarke, the greatest problem he has been charged with confronting is the building of a much improved team culture, which promoted greater trust and leadership by example. As a way of measuring this, Clarke and his deputy Shane Watson will be pushed to foster more frank “adult conversations” while undergoing a process of mentoring themselves.”Another theme to emerge from the interviews was the lack of a strong culture in the current Australian team,” the review said. “There was also negative commentary about the broader culture in Australian cricket. The attitudes reported are quite different to those needed to be successful at elite level. Remedying these issues is clearly critical, and requires immediate and concerted effort.”The team’s leaders need to be made aware of the situation and their roles in creating it. A 360-degree feedback process is needed, followed by “adult conversations” with each individual spelling out how they are perceived and, where necessary, agreeing required changes to behaviour as part of an overall development plan (skills, physiology and psychology).”Senior players including the captain and vice-captain should receive mentoring by an external professional at least every 6 months and at least for the first 2 years of their tenure. The captain should also actively seek and use the counsel of his vice-captain, which is an important role and should be more clearly defined.Armed with this awareness, senior players and staff must lead by example. They must perform strongly on the field but also role model the desired behaviours and enlist the other opinion-shapers in the group to do the same. They must also increase the level of trust and honesty within the group.”The term “adult conversation” was used several times in the report, and again by Argus while discussing its release. The message was as clear as the report itself – time for the Australian cricket team to grow up.

No single encounter highlights the extent of Mumbai’s psychological stranglehold over Tamil Nadu better than the Ranji semi-final of the 1999-2000 season

Nitin Sundar09-Jan-2012When Tamil Nadu walk into Wankhede Stadium for their Ranji Trophy semi-final match against Mumbai, they will be weighed low by the burden of history. If there is one side Tamil Nadu would rather not face in the Ranji Trophy – especially in a knockout fixture – it would have to be Mumbai. Twenty-two times, these two sides have clashed in India’s premier first-class tournament. Tamil Nadu have come out on top just twice, whereas Mumbai have won on 13 occasions. Additionally, Mumbai have taken the first-innings lead in five of the seven games that ended in draws. Counting those leads as wins, the head-to-head record stands at a whopping 18-4 in Mumbai’s favour. To say that Tamil Nadu are the underdogs in this particular battle is to grossly understate a fact.Such an overwhelmingly one-sided record cannot be explained by ability, since Tamil Nadu are otherwise among the more consistent first-class sides. Their troubles against Mumbai are clearly mental in nature, as evidenced by the recent knock-out history between the two. After their previous title win in 1987-88, Tamil Nadu have fallen at the final hurdle four times. On two of those occasions, Mumbai were their bugbears. Take away the pressure of a knockout game, and Tamil Nadu’s record begins to look better; for instance, the last two head-to-heads between these sides were in the group stage and Tamil Nadu got the decisive first-innings lead both times.No single encounter highlights the extent of Mumbai’s psychological stranglehold over Tamil Nadu better than the semi-final of the 1999-2000 season, also played at Wankhede. After being asked to bat, Tamil Nadu bossed Mumbai’s bowlers thanks to big centuries from Hemang Badani and Robin Singh. The pair’s free-scoring helped Tamil Nadu race past 400 in only 91 overs – the sort of situation that forces bowling units to throw in the towel. Not Mumbai, though. Ajit Agarkar sliced through the lower order to push Tamil Nadu from 403 for 4 to 485, still a strong position in a knockout game.Once Tamil Nadu removed Wasim Jaffer and Jatin Paranjpe cheaply, Mumbai needed to summon every ounce of their [defiant] mindset to get the first-innings lead. It helped that they had one Sachin Tendulkar, who went on to play the Ranji innings of his life. Mumbai were still 36 shy of Tamil Nadu’s score when they lost their eighth wicket. Nos. 10 and 11 did not add a single run, but hung around to assist Tendulkar who made a masterly, unbeaten 233 to push Mumbai ahead. Their first-innings lead was worth only five runs, but it was enough to break Tamil Nadu’s spirit. The visitors crumbled to 171 in the second innings and Mumbai marched past the target for the loss of just two wickets. Tendulkar would go on to rate the win as the finest moment of his Ranji career.Tamil Nadu have one survivor from that heartbreak – Jayaraman Gokulakrishnan, who was their first-change fast bowler in that match, is now the team’s bowling coach. He remembers the game quite vividly, especially Tendulkar’s masterclass, but he also rues Tendulkar’s early drop that cost Tamil Nadu the game, in hindsight.”Very clearly, Sachin’s knock was the difference in that game,” Gokulakrishnan told ESPNcricinfo. “He has himself gone on to say it was one of his best innings. But that missed opportunity [the fielder was J Madanagopal] cost us dearly.”It was disheartening to fall behind after the fantastic knocks from Badani and Robin. After reaching 400-odd for four, at one point we thought that’s it – we have qualified. But we completely lost momentum to lose the last six wickets cheaply, and that worked in Mumbai’s favour.”One thing different about Mumbai is the self-belief they have. Having won the Ranji Trophy so many times, they don’t give up in any situation. I remember the entire TN team thought the game was over once Tendulkar got them the lead.”Prod Gokulakrishnan further and he recalls another nugget. “I distinctly remember that the match was originally supposed to be played a few days earlier. But Tendulkar was in London where he was playing an ICC game, and requested that it be shifted so that he could play. It was a great experience for us to play against him, but it was equally striking that he was so keen to participate in that match.”Gokulakrishnan will be cautioning his wards against repeating the errors from 12 years back, if Tamil Nadu are to overcome their hoodoo against their most feared opponents. It isn’t over until the last ball is bowled, especially in a Ranji knockout game against Mumbai.

For Brad Haddin, Shaun Marsh and the Australian selectors, the imminent resumption of the Sheffield Shield is welcome news

Daniel Brettig at Adelaide Oval27-Jan-2012As the curtain is drawn on Australia’s Test match obliteration of India, the only collective more relieved to see the end of it than the visitors from the subcontinent will be that of the Australian selectors. The end of the Tests also means the final of the concurrent Twenty20 Big Bash League, and the return of Sheffield Shield cricket that can provide a far more reliable arena for the assessment of players on the fringes of the national team.For a period of more than a month, the home selection panel has had no relevant cricket to draw players from, nor a like competition into which to demote incumbents. The lack of Sheffield Shield matches being played across the series has left John Inverarity, Michael Clarke, Mickey Arthur, Rod Marsh and Andy Bichel in a peculiar bind, unable to consider changes to address any problems that spring up over the course of four Tests.It is not a difficulty the selectors had avoided mulling over earlier in the piece, and Inverarity acknowledged his panel’s difficulty in the week before Boxing Day. “Yes it is of concern, of course it is of concern,” he said. “We’re faced with the prospect of including a new player should there be injury or loss of form, a new player for the Test match in Adelaide, which begins about January 24, and that new player would not have played first-class cricket for six or seven weeks. That is a concern, but that is the situation and that is what we’ve got to cope with. For the preparation of a Test team the current situation is not ideal, but that’s the way it is.”Even the most comprehensive series results could be achieved without strong contributions from each member of the XI, or the 14 as the team performance manager Pat Howard would prefer to call them, and this one too has not passed without difficulty. An otherwise even team performance has been unbalanced somewhat by the meagre contributions of Shaun Marsh and Brad Haddin. Both have held vital positions in the team, but have relied on others to keep the surge towards victory from slackening.Marsh has had his poverty of runs covered by the rich scoring of other members of the top six, particularly the mighty efforts of Clarke, Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey. So well have they played that Marsh’s 17 runs in six innings from the pivotal No. 3 spot has been a source of untold torment for the batsmen but only passing worry for his team. Similarly, Haddin’s slim returns with the bat and less than assured showings with the gloves have been less critical for the abundance of strong displays around him. Any dropped chances have drawn fewer apprehensive glances for the fact that India’s remarkably compliant batsmen would invariably offer up another soon after.Stability is a quality that Inverarity and the rest have wanted to imbue, following a 2011 in which many names were tried and tested against the panel’s expectations of performance and character. While the bowlers can expect to be rotated regularly, and have been, the batsmen and wicketkeeper carry positions that most selection panels are loath to change-up easily, as evidenced by the extended runs given to the likes of Ponting and Hussey in recent times. Marsh and Haddin are considered part of the team’s core: Haddin is formally recognised as the vice-captain, while Marsh is entrusted with a position habitually occupied by a team’s most complete batsman. They may remain a part of Australia’s planning for the tour of West Indies, but require a chance to regain touch and rhythm before booking a spot on the plane.Over the next few days, the selectors will decide upon the squad for the triangular ODI series that follows the Tests and two Twenty20 matches. Neither Haddin, nor Marsh, should be included in that squad, instead they should be directed towards representing their states in the Shield competition. Whether or not Haddin and Marsh need the remainder of the domestic fixtures – four first-class matches per state – can be dictated by how much form they can regather, and it is customary for the ODI squad to be refreshed at the halfway point of the competition.Their absence would allow room for the inclusion of other players the selectors need to get a better look at, the Victorian gloveman Matthew Wade in particular, and also provide a suitable reminder to Marsh and Haddin that their continued time in the Test team will be dictated by their ability to find an avenue to better performance. In Haddin’s case matters are complicated by the battered index finger of Tim Paine, long considered his ideal replacement. Paine’s future is far from certain as he recovers from bone-graft surgery, meaning Wade’s claims should be more closely examined.Marsh’s battles across this series have demonstrated the drawbacks of an injury-interrupted preparation, but also his longstanding struggle to find a more consistent return of strong performances. He has fielded well, never better than a sharp chance to his left to claim VVS Laxman near stumps on day four, indicating that his batting troubles are as much mental as hand-eye related. With Western Australia he would need to make runs in a range of conditions, as the Warriors venture to Brisbane and Hobart in addition to two matches at home in Perth.By the time the West Indies tour begins, Marsh would have had the opportunity to right his ship with long innings under the gaze of the selectors, rather than a series of cameos in 50-over matches under the glare of television. Should the rut get deeper, the selectors have a month of Shield games from which to draw another name, whether it be Usman Khawaja, Shane Watson, or some other. It is a luxury they have not enjoyed at the heart of the summer.