Forty summers ago a Cape Coloured South African playing for England unwittingly threw MCC into crisis over a tour to the apartheid republic

Rob Steen12-Sep-2008″I come down on the side of honesty, a good honest piece of bungling by good honest men.”Thus did Ted Dexter, sometime England captain and one-time prospective Tory MP,characterise the most important selection meeting in sporting history. More recently,in the Sunday Telegraph, the political columnist Kevin Myers delivered much the sameverdict, except that he described the original omission of Basil D’Oliveira from the MCCparty to tour South Africa in the winter of 1968-69 as “cretinous”. In 2003 Observer SportMonthly named it among its “Ten Worst Sporting Decisions”. But were they all too generous?D’Oliveira, the Cape Coloured South African allrounder playing for Worcestershire, was summoned as a replacement for Tom Cartwright three weeks later, whereupon John Vorster, South Africa’s Prime Minister, denounced the party as “the team of the Anti-Apartheid Movement” and MCC cancelled the tour, fuelling the sports boycott that ultimately did much to bring down a despicable regime. Not for nothing would Nelson Mandela convey his heartfelt thanks to ‘Dolly’.It is amazing no film producer has brought this classic political espionage thriller to the screen. It had everything: a battle to beat seemingly insurmountable odds, race, class, Empire and Third World, spies and bribes. The problem is that the jigsaw lies incomplete. For all the decades of denial, the question still demands answering: was D’Oliveira’s initial non-selection politically motivated? Indeed, could the same be said of his demotion to 12th man for the Lord’s Test against Australia two months earlier?Fundamentally the issue was all about power and white supremacy. Cricket was still a game dominated by the white elite. England, Australia and South Africa, the founders of the original Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909, had enjoyed double voting rights until 1958 and the first two would retain their hegemony until India’s improbable 1983 World Cup triumph paved the way for the game’s biggest constituency to assert itself. When the newly formed republic left the Commonwealth in 1961, it continued, with the support of England and the Australasians, towave away any protests by India, Pakistan and West Indies, none ofwhom had ever played South Africa.The growth of the anti-apartheid movement was in keepingwith the climate of the times: free expression, the rejection ofdeference and privilege, dissent going on anarchy. In Octoberthe American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos would hoisttheir Black Power salutes on the Olympic podium in Mexico City.That fateful meeting at Lord’s was on the evening andthrough the night of August 27. There were at least 10 men in thecommittee room: the four Test selectors – Doug Insole (chairmansince 1965), Alec Bedser, Don Kenyon and Peter May – the tourmanager Les Ames, the captain Colin Cowdrey, Billy Griffith andDonald Carr, respectively MCC secretary and assistant secretary,the club president Arthur Gilligan, and the treasurer and allroundomnipotent Gubby Allen, who objected to D’Oliveira on purely cricketing grounds. Only Kenyon,the former Worcestershire captain, could be considered not a member of the establishment. Only three -Bedser, Carr and Insole – are alive now, all over 80.Some, if not all, were privy to the fact that five months earlier Vorster had informed Lord Cobham,England’s senior Viscount, that there would be no tour should D’Oliveira be chosen (their meeting did notbecome public knowledge until the following year). Cobham, who had been Governor of New Zealand,captain of Worcestershire and, like his father and grandfather, MCC president, had been targetedby Arthur Coy, the South African Cricket Association official assigned to persuade MCC not to pickD’Oliveira and hence ensure the tour went ahead.Cobham had considerable business interests in South Africa. In Coy’s words he would “do almostanything to see that the tour is on”. After meeting Vorster he relayed the information by indirect means,keeping it on a need-to-know basis. Had he simply written to Griffith, the secretary would have beenobliged to pass the news on to the club, whose official position, encouraged by Harold Wilson’s Labourgovernment, was that no interference in selection would be tolerated. The tour would almost certainlyhave been called off then and there.”Far more is known about the cabinet meetings of Harold Wilson, or the activities of the secret servicein Moscow, or the details of the Poseidon nuclear missile programme, than what the England selectorssaid and did that night,” reckoned D’Oliveira’s biographer, the political columnist Peter Oborne, who alsocontends that there was “at least one spy” in the room, “feeding information straight back to the SouthAfrican Cricket Association, whence it was instantly passed on to Vorster”. A private letter sent by Coy toVorster a week after the party was chosen promised the “inside story” of the MCC meetings and statedthat D’Oliveira was still a candidate. But the minutes are reported, curiously, to have disappeared.Reviewing Oborne’s book for The Observer in 2004, the Labourminister Peter Hain noted that the “disappearance” of theminutes from that selection meeting would be “both afrustration and a catalyst to the conspiracy theorists. I’m rarelyinclined to join that number but Oborne is persuasive. He contendsthat Vorster used ‘secret pressure, bribery and blackmail’ to preventD’Oliveira being chosen. Which surprises no one. But he adds thatthe MCC, advised by the former Conservative prime minister, SirAlec Douglas-Home, ‘helped to make Vorster’s life as easy as it could’.”Hain, of course, arriving in the UK as a teenager in 1966 as hisliberal parents fled South Africa, formed the “Stop The 70 Tour”campaign that kept Ali Bacher’s tourists from these shores. “Mostanti-apartheid activists didn’t care about sport,” Hain told TWC. “ByAugust 1968 I was 18 and a rank-and-file activist. I’d already seenD’Oliveira bat for England at Lord’s and The Oval: his story touchedme very closely. So when he was excluded I was outraged. All I wasaware of was John Arlott writing an article in The Guardian for whichthe headline read something like ‘Nobody will believe D’Oliveirawas omitted for cricketing reasons’. Everyone knew there was more toit.” When Arlott told the BBC that he would not commentate on thescheduled 1970 tour the most unpleasant letter of condemnation hereceived came from Peter May.Peter Hain, the active anti-apartheid campaigner•Hulton ArchiveIt is via Arlott that D’Oliveira, denied opportunity in hishomeland because of the colour of his skin, entered in the first place.In 1959 a series of pleading letters to him began a chain of eventsthat resulted in a contract with the Central Lancashire League clubMiddleton for 1960, the year of the Sharpeville massacre. Friendsclubbed together to pay the airfares for Basil, his wife Naomi andtheir newborn son Damian. When he was signed by Worcestershirein 1964, he gave the club a false birth date, late by three years, tohelp persuade them he was worth a gamble. He found a fast friend inTom Graveney. Two years later he played for England. In another two,the storm was falling about his ears through no fault of his excepthis talent.The political dilemma/scandal was blowing in the wind at Lord’s inJune. Nine days before the second Test there he had made an unbeaten87 as England crumbled to Australia at Old Trafford. No other homebatsman reached 50. The previous year he had made his maiden Testton against India, represented the Rest of the World XI in Barbadosduring celebrations for the island’s independence and been namedone of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year. In fact, he had missed onlyone Test since his debut two years previously. Five changes might havebeen a justified reaction to the Manchester debacle. That D’Oliveira was one of them, relegated to 12th man, made no sense except as apolitical expedient, cushioning later shock.Insole, challenged last year on this, denied it robustly, adding:”There was never at any stage any objective in the selectors’minds other than that of picking the best team to beat Australia.”D’Oliveira, though, had suspected the chop. At the eve-of-Test dinner,he subsequently revealed, “a top cricket official told me the only waythe tour could be saved would be if I announced I was unavailablefor England but would like to play for South Africa. I was staggeredand angrily said, ‘Either you respect me as an England player oryou don’t.’ The next day an eminent cricket writer put the sameproposition to me.” D’Oliveira was too discreet to name names, evenin an autobiography published in 1980, but the official was Griffith,the cricket writer EW Swanton, long-time ally of Cowdrey.On cricketing grounds only hindsight justifies D’Oliveira’sdropping on the morning of the match: his replacement, BarryKnight, took 3 for 16 as Australia were bundled out for 78, their worstAshes total for 30 years; and but for rain, the rubber would, in alllikelihood, have been squared. Wary that England had been fatallycautious in Manchester, Cowdrey had wanted a seamer like Knightfor Lord’s, not a swinger like D’Oliveira. In Manchester, Cowdreywould write, the latter – deployed, unusually, as first change – had”bowled tidily but without the thrust to keep the pressure on”.The backlash was strong. The “cynics”, noted Cowdrey, “refused tobelieve that D’Oliveira’s exit was not some sort of fascist plot”. Perhapsthey felt that to have him playing in front of Coy and Co, who wereat Lord’s, would have sent a provocative message when conciliationwas so plainly the aim of the game? Or was it simply punishment forD’Oliveira’s spurning the advances of Griffith and Swanton?Cowdrey, for all his antipathy towards apartheid, had had little hesitation in accepting the captaincy for South Africa, albeitonly after requesting assurances that there would be no politicalinterference in selection. Yet he would later write: “Whatever wemight think about apartheid, at least it seems to work in theircountry; it is none of our business.” His role and influence shouldnot be underestimated. When Vorster decreed that his tour party, bythen including D’Oliveira, was not welcome, he wanted to hop on aplane to the republic and talk the PM round. “I had been at the heartof things throughout,” he wrote, “and could answer every question.”Two years later, when the projected visit by South Africa met thesame fate, he told the Daily Mail: “I cannot reconcile an isolationpolicy and boycott with the Christian ethic.”Getty ImagesIn his autobiography Cowdrey related a chat with his friendDouglas-Home, lately MCC president, on the final day of the OldTrafford Test, when he took the opportunity to introduce the formerPM to D’Oliveira. Sir Alec had just returned from meeting Vorsterin South Africa. According to Cowdrey, Douglas-Home “believed themoral issue was not Britain’s to enter into. He was certain that to breakoff cricket relations with South Africa would have no effect on herattitude to apartheid, however long we refused to play against them.”In the Caribbean earlier in 1968, D’Oliveira had struggled with onlyone half-century in the five-Test rubber and lacked penetration orcontrol with the ball. He had also displeased many in authority,Cowdrey among them, with his fondness for alcoholic consolation. Butif the selectors fancied they had an excuse for not picking him in theparty for South Africa, it went in the final Ashes Test.In July letters had been sent to 30 tour candidates, asking whetherthey would be available: he did not get one. Back on the countycircuit he had struggled for runs. Aware that he had damaged his cause, he felt guilty as well as miserable. It was his bowling thatjerked attention back to his cricket when, during the fourth Test, hehad match figures of 11 for 68 against Hampshire. Put on stand-byfor The Oval, he duly reported for duty on the eve of the match afterCartwright and then Knight phoned in sick. When Roger Prideauxpulled out with pleurisy, fate’s fiendish plot was complete.D’Oliveira survived a number of early chances, including a glaringmuff by the keeper Barry Jarman on 31 – the most important missin cricket history, as Swanton dubbed it – then went on to make acentury. May said in his autobiography that good fortune should notmask the reality and D’Oliveira must not tour. But Cowdrey confidedhis fears: “They can’t leave Basil out of the team, not now” – even ifthat contradicts his subsequent assertion at the selection meetingthat he did not warrant a place.Enter Geoffrey Howard. As Stephen Chalke relates in his 2001biography of Howard, At the Heart of English Cricket, the Surreysecretary’s office phone rang shortly after D’Oliveira was out.”The caller was on the line from Prime Minister Vorster’s officein Pretoria. A fellow called Teeni Oosthuizen. He was a director ofRothmans, based in South Africa, and had been trying to contactGriffith, the MCC secretary. ‘I can’t get hold of him, so will you takea message to the selectors. Tell them that, if today’s centurion ispicked, the tour will be off.'”Innings of his life: D’Oliveira during his 158 at The Oval in 1968•Getty ImagesOosthuizen had delivered another message from Pretoria earlierthat summer, directly to D’Oliveira, a key chapter that would notbe revealed until September. Oosthuizen had offered D’Oliveira ahandsomely paid coaching job back in the republic if he declaredhimself unavailable and he went on courting him until late Augustbut D’Oliveira had declined. As he told the Sunday Mirror nearly 30years later, he wanted “to prove that I could bat and that people fromthe black and coloured community, whatever you like to call it, knowhow to conduct themselves”.Asked in 2001 to respond to Howard’s recollections, Insole replied:”No way I’m saying Geoffrey didn’t tell me of Pretoria’s telephonewarning. What I do remember is opening a very long meeting bysaying, ‘Gentlemen, forget South Africa. Let’s just choose the bestMCC cricket team to go overseas, Australia, anywhere … ‘”The tour selection meeting took place on the final evening of theTest. Three evenings earlier Cowdrey had found D’Oliveira alone inthe dressing room and taken the opportunity for a quiet word. “Canwe get away with it without getting too involved in politics?” he hadwondered. D’Oliveira, he decided, “had clearly thought it all out …even down to the kind of social functions he would attend”. Thereply was riddled with guilt: “Look, I know I have put you all on the spot … but the whole situation isbeyond me. I’m in the hands ofpeople I trust.” But was he?When the tour partyannouncement reached theWorcester dressing room thenext day, Graveney was disgusted.Seeing the shock and dismay onhis team-mate’s face, he usheredhim into the physio’s room,where D’Oliveira wept. “I was likea zombie,” D’Oliveira wrote inhis autobiography. “The stomachhad been kicked out of me. Iremember thinking, ‘You just can’t beat the white South Africans.'”Kindly as ever, he has never believed that Cowdrey did not backhis selection.”I would say the original decision was made on the basis ofcricketing ability but it all looked so awful,” conceded Carr recently toTWC. “I think I believed, or was talked into believing, that it was all oncricketing grounds. There had been so much chatter about it. I thinkthere were people high up in the cricketing hierarchy in England whowere talking a lot about it and knew what the possibilities could be.”There was another twist to the tale, though. On September 16Cartwright was advised by Bill Tucker, the orthopaedic surgeonin London who had worked on Denis Compton’s knee, that hecould risk his shoulder but any aggravation could mean never bowlingagain. Back at Lord’s, in conflab with Griffith, Carr and Insole, he wastorn every which way. He went with his heart. According to StephenChalke’s biography of him, The Flame Still Burns, he had seen “a littlenews item” in the Daily Express, which reported that, when the squadwas announced, members of South Africa’s ruling National Partystood and cheered in parliament. “When I read that, I went cold,” hesaid. “And I started to wonder whether I wanted to be part of it.”Cartwright “knew immediately I’d done the right thing, eventhough it created a lot of upset”. Not that it stopped Cowdrey havingone last go. The tour skipper’s 4.05pm phone call from Lord’s greetedCartwright as he came through his front door, though the captain’sautobiography forgets to mention it.”Colin said, ‘Will you agree at least to start the tour? When youget out there, if things go wrong, there are people out there who arecoaching, like Don Wilson, who we could bring in.’ Basil certainlywasn’t mentioned. Nobody had suggested to me that, if I droppedout, Basil would be the one who took my place.” The answer was stillno. Ten minutes later, avowed Cowdrey, a decision was made on hisreplacement: Cartwright out, D’Oliveira in.The intention, said Cowdrey, had been to let the SACA have a listof the official reserves, D’Oliveira among them, “but now it was toolate”. Curiouser and curiouser: 19 days had passed since the originalparty announcement. Did the absence of the list stem from fear ofthe response? Had it, indeed, allowed Vorster to hide his hand?By any standards the switch from Cartwright to D’Oliveira was aleap and a half. Substituting a batsman who bowled a bit for a bowlerwho batted a bit (Cartwright’s days as a potent allrounder had longpassed) made little sense – unless one interprets the decision as anattempt to curry public favour and/or correct the error of August28. Back then D’Oliveira’s exclusion had been explained away on theground that he offered little as a bowler.”I think some people [at theoriginal selection meeting] puta lot of onus on Dolly’s poorishtour of the Caribbean, maybeunfairly,” Carr recalled to TWC.”Cartwright was a perfectly goodchoice as a bowler-cum-batsman.Then he pulled out and we hadthe toing and froing with SouthAfrica in the meantime, and wedecided that Dolly was the bestbet, but it all looked so fearful.Dolly wasn’t anything like asgood a bowler as the chap he wasreplacing but a miles better batsman. Once it had been decided topick him I think people accepted the position, though some fearedwhat the result might be. I felt it had not been very well handled.”If Cartwright was an active participant in the affair, Barry Knightwas innocently passive. He told TWC recently he was not surprisedto be called up for the Lord’s Test. “They picked me quite oftenthere. I did well there. I knew the slope, bowled on it for years – for theRAF, Combined Services, Essex, Leicestershire.” He had been surprised,though, at D’Oliveira’s demotion at Lord’s, “especially after that knockat Old Trafford. He was a terrific batter who bowled a bit. He kept ittight with those gentle outswingers but you never worried about himas a bowler. I never thought he was all that dangerous, and certainlynot a first-change” – which is how Cowdrey used him at Old Trafford,almost as if trying to set him up to fail. Knight’s unavailability for thefifth Test was pure mischance. He had rolled an ankle at Leyton.Was the circuit abuzz with D’Oliveira talk all summer? “Not in theearly part but as soon as he got that 158 at The Oval it was,” Knightrecalls. “God, we thought, that might cause problems. How could theyleave him out after that?” Had he been fit, he was confident he wouldhave been picked for South Africa himself. “I think they assumed Iwasn’t. I certainly don’t remember any phone calls inquiring about myhealth.” Yet, like D’Oliveira, he was not among the 30 recipients of thatMCC availability letter in July. “They probably never bothered to sendthem to the likes of me and Dolly because we were pros. They knewwe’d go anywhere. Pros like us never said no.”While still officially a state secret, rumours about Vorster’scommuniqué had reached the dressing rooms. “We’d heard, certainlyby then, that he’d said the team wouldn’t be welcome there if Dollywas included,” Knight recalls. “We thought the MCC didn’t have theguts to pick him. When the party was first announced, I thought,’They’re as weak as gnat’s piss. They’re kow-towing to Vorster.’ Thepros were revulsed. It was always them and us. We thought GubbyAllen was a snob, a bit up himself. And Basil was one of us.”Hence the widespread delight around the circuit as he progressed tothat Oval hundred. “Pleased? Oh God, yes. For Basil and because he wasmaking it difficult for them at Lord’s. You thought, ‘That’s got ’em!'”Of the three alive now who were ‘got’ then, Carr was askedrecently about those supposedly missing minutes. “I probably wrotethem,” he said. “I certainly don’t know about them being missing.”Yet no one outside that Lord’s committee room that night has everseen them. Forty years on the mystery remains.

There was only one thing the team needed from Clarke on the fourth day – a match-saving century – and unless there is a shocking collapse late on Sunday he has delivered

Ali Cook01-Nov-2008

Michael Clarke is at his most watchable when he is flashing drives and lofting the ball, but it is an innings like this one at Delhi that confirms his status as Australia’s next captain. There was only one thing the team needed from Clarke on the fourth day – a match-saving century – and unless there is a shocking collapse late on Sunday he has delivered. He is now so confident he thinks Australia might even be able to steal a win.At times he was lucky, solid, nervous and gritty, but Clarke avoided all the obstacles to register his eighth Test century at a crucial moment. When he finally reached three figures with a cut for two off Virender Sehwag, Clarke swayed his bat in relief. It had been a taxing day that had started in uncertainty and ended in fulfillment.Four years ago Clarke arrived in a flurry of stunning shots and the cricket world was amazed by the sparkles during his 151 on debut. Since then he has journeyed in and out of the side, become vice-captain and assumed responsibility not only for his own performances, but for the welfare of his team-mates.Occasional rashness remains in his batting and his bright start in the second innings in Bangalore last month ended on 6 when he aimed a firm drive and found cover. Since then he has been more attuned to resisting extravagant urges – although he was fortunate not to be punished for three mistakes on Saturday – and was the most settled of Australia’s batsmen in registering 69 to reduce the huge losing margin in Mohali.A week late in Delhi and Clarke did what his more experienced team-mates could not by getting a century. Dropped by Ishant Sharma before adding to his overnight 21, he battled with his defence, escaped the strike with nudges and occasionally went down the pitch to lift the spinners. Not until he entered the 90s, a stage where he has faltered a couple of times, did the old feelings return.He top-edged a sweep off Sehwag on 90 and had started to leave for the dressing room when VVS Laxman dropped it. Four runs later he attempted a similar shot and was relieved to see Amit Mishra’s miss at deep midwicket. “I was very lucky today, especially in the 90s,” Clarke said. “Without doubt, it certainly helped.”After being dismissed for 112 trying to hit Mishra for six over long-on, Clarke watched as Australia scraped to 577, 36 behind India’s first innings. “All the boys played well,” Clarke said. “We knew with 600 on the board we would have to bat well to put us in a position to win. For me, personally, it’s very rewarding.”By the end of the day, when the visitors had removed Sehwag and the nightwatchman Ishant, Clarke was so pleased with the recovery he was looking at an unlikely, series-levelling victory. “I think we can bowl them out tomorrow,” he said. “India won’t set us a target, they showed that by sending out a nightwatchman tonight.”He dreamed of a repeat of the 2006-07 Adelaide Test when Australia upended England on the final day to win by six wickets. “I hope so,” he said. “We’ve seen this evening what India’s thoughts are, sending a nightwatchman out. They are pretty defensive.”Australia will certainly be the one team out there trying to win the game. We will try and take a couple of wickets early and whatever we have to chase with the bat, we can get those. We will be attacking.” Having thoughtfully got his team into position, Clarke will be ready to return to his youthful ways if the bowlers follow his plan.

The women have played eight World Cups so far and Cricinfo asked former and current players what their lasting memories from each tournaments was

06-Mar-2009

.1978, India
Megan Lear
This was my first World Cup with the England side since the previous time I played for Young England, and my first time in India. The most memorable part of this tournament was playing in front of crowds of 40,000 plus.When we left our hotel, we would be followed for autographs.India is certainly a country of many experiences, and on one occasion we had handed our cricket whites in to the hotel laundry and on a journey by coach to the practice ground we saw them all being washed in the local river and laid out to dry on the rocks!The hospitality was fantastic under very difficult circumstances for their association, which was only a few years old.My best personal cricket memory was of a warm-up at Eden Gardens when I scored 96 not out and hit two sixes and two fours off last over. When I came in to the pavilion it was as if I had won the FA Cup – everybody leant over to try to pat me on the back.

Sidharth Monga rates the performances of New Zealand’s players in the Tests against India

Sidharth Monga08-Apr-2009Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder could form the core of New Zealand’s middle-order for years to come•Associated Press8.5
Jesse Ryder
Revelation of the series for New Zealand. The compact technique, the cool head, the wide array of strokes heralded a new Test star on the horizon. Former New Zealand players who saw him bat reckoned he should go on to score at least 15 centuries. He scored two in the first two Tests, coming in at 40 for 3 and 23 for 3. The second was a double. Was perfect at gully and, at times, third slip.8
Chris Martin
Was the spirit that kept New Zealand high. Ran in over after over against the most experienced batting line-up. Made a successful comeback from injury and overcame the selectors’ reported reluctance to field him. Repaid captain Daniel Vettori’s faith by ending as the second-highest wicket-taker in the series.6.5
Ross Taylor
Flashy, rode his luck, but had 322 runs at 64.4 and two centuries to show by the end of the series. If he tightens up his aggression at the start of his innings, he and Ryder can form the core of a solid middle-order for years to come. Was the most impressive slip fielder on view too.6
Brendon McCullum
Very impressive behind the stumps, and did his bit with the bat too. Made sure New Zealand didn’t lose the first Test by an innings. Kept India on the field for long enough with an aggressive century in Napier. His catch of Rahul Dravid in Wellington, moving down the leg even as he shaped to paddle, was spectacular.Iain O’Brien
Didn’t have the results to show for it – nine wickets at 50.22 – but has the makings of an ideal first-change bowler for New Zealand. Hits the seam hard, and could have done with more seam movement from the pitch. His batting improved a lot as he scored 61 runs and helped avert an innings defeat in Hamilton along with McCullum. Had totalled 61 in his previous 14 Tests.5
Daniel Vettori
Big disappointment as a spinner, to the extent that he was more useful as a batsman. Scored a century in Hamilton, from 60 for 6, without taking undue risks. Will irk him that he couldn’t do more in Napier when New Zealand were the only team who could win with two days to go. Led the side fairly well, though.Jeetan Patel
Was the surprise package from New Zealand. Unlucky to have missed out in Wellington, where the pitch was expected to assist the fast bowlers more. Bowled really well in Napier, drifting the ball, getting it to turn too, and dismissing well-set batsmen – Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir twice.4.5
James Franklin
Came into the side as a specialist No. 6 batsman, riding on a successful domestic season with the bat. Didn’t contribute much in the first Test, scored 52 in a total of 619 in the second, failed again in the first innings in Wellington, and scored 49 in the second after the series was lost. Was a much better bowler with swing in the air in Wellington, and generally deserved better series figures than 1 for 290.4
Daniel Flynn
Showed his grit in the second innings in Hamilton, and also in trying desperately to get fit in time for the second Test. But scored only 12 runs in three other innings, and got out edging outside off too frequently for a No. 3 batsman.3
Martin Guptill
Showed flashes of brilliant strokeplay, but also showed his inexperience in the longer format of the game. Had already shown his preference for the front-foot play rather unsubtly, and Zaheer Khan kept troubling him with the short ball. But Guptill is not a stickler, and is one of the better top-order batsmen around in New Zealand.2
Tim McIntosh and Jamie How
On evidence from this series, didn’t look good enough for a Test top order. McIntosh got into trouble too often, didn’t use his height as he didn’t bend his knee, and barring one ordinary decision, contributed to his own demise with limp shots outside off.How got just one match and 11 balls, and didn’t do much to help his average of 22.Collectively, the top three, though still inexperienced, gave New Zealand their biggest headache with starts of 40 for 3, 75 for 3, 23 for 3, 80 for 3, and 84 for 3.Kyle Mills and Tim Southee
Neither of them showed signs of having recovered from the beating they got in the one-day series. Mills’ problems with no-balls continued, Southee continued to struggle for swing. Between them they gave away 271 runs for three wickets in one match apiece as Martin struggled for support from the other end.

Most captains in the second edition of the IPL have quickly agreed on one thing: if you are well set as a batsman, whatever you do, do not get out to a spinner

Victor Brown02-May-2009Rules of thumb usually take time to evolve, but most captains in the second edition of the IPL have quickly agreed on one thing: if you are well set as a batsman, whatever you do, do not get out to a spinner. The thinking is that the next man in, invariably needing to maintain a run-rate of eight or nine an over, will struggle more with his timing against the slower bowlers than the quicker ones. It has become a rule of thumb for a good reason. Just ask Delhi Daredevils.Tonight at the Wanderers they were going very nicely, thank you, on 127 for 3 after 15.4 overs and needed a further 37 off 26 balls with David Warner and Dinesh Karthik both entrenched. Teams win Twenty20 matches more often than not from such positions, but MS Dhoni, the Chennai Super Kings captain, knew what he was doing. And what he was doing was bowling his spinners.Warner, who was beginning to flag after earlier hitting Albie Morkel for 15 in four balls, had a huge swing at the slow left-armer Shadab Jakati, missed, and was smartly stumped by Dhoni for a 40-ball 51. Still, a target of 37 off four overs was gettable. Except now Dhoni brought back Muttiah Muralitharan in place of L Balaji. Mithun Manhas, presumably knowing who he would rather have faced, failed to score off his first three balls then heaved at his fourth and was bowled. The over cost a single: 36 needed off three.Jakati continued. Karthik reached fifty by lifting him over long-off, where S Badrinath should have been flush up against the boundary, but then slogged Jakati’s next ball to a jubilant Murali at deep midwicket. Three balls later Pradeep Sangwan was bowled by Jakati aiming a mow. In 14 deliveries against the spinners, Delhi had lost 4 for 6. The rest was a formality.When county cricketers worked out about two years into the Twenty20 Cup that spin bowlers were the not-especially-secret weapons of the 20-over game, the feeling was that their potency was based on their ability to take the pace off the ball. Now they are being used to make incoming batsmen feel claustrophobic by challenging them to work the ones and twos and biff the boundaries from the word go. Bowlers who wouldn’t get a look-in in first-class cricket are suddenly being asked to do a job.Batsmen, by contrast, have to strike an increasingly fine line between keeping up with the asking rate and not losing the wicket that could bring the house down – as happened tonight. “Any new batsman is going to find it difficult with Murali in the attack,” said Gautam Gambhir, Delhi’s stand-in captain. “The over he bowled which cost one run was the turning-point in the game.”But that downplayed the role of Jakati. Dhoni felt Chennai were chasing the game until his left-arm spinner came on to bowl, and praised him because he “mixes his pace well and isn’t afraid to flight the ball. The wickets here are quite worn because it’s the end of the season, so the spinners are getting more purchase as games progress. Also, batsmen feel they should be going after the slow bowlers from the start. Spinners have a big role to play in this year’s IPL.”Delhi, still joint-top of the table with Deccan Chargers, who also lost today, learned that lesson the hard way today. Expect Daniel Vettori to return to the side any time soon.

After pushing the lead past 500 in the final session it was pleasing to see that Andrew Strauss wanted to declare

Andrew Miller at Lord's18-Jul-2009As dusk began to fall and the evening clouds closed around the pavilion, Andrew Strauss cut an animated figure on the balcony. With a lead of 521, his team’s advantage was formidable to say the least, but having made one massive captaincy call in the morning by declining to enforce the follow-on, Strauss seemed set to trump it with a cunningly timed declaration. His plan was to unleash a half-hour new-ball burst in intensely atmospheric conditions, and see how a demoralised Australia responded. Having themselves floundered to 20 for 2 in seven overs before tea on the fourth day at Cardiff last week, England knew only too well the pressures that can follow a long hot day in the field.In the end his best-laid plans were undermined by rain, but nevertheless, Strauss’s intent was a welcome indication of ruthlessness, for if there is one area in which he has struggled since assuming the captaincy at the start of the year, it has involved that thorny question of the fourth innings. Twice in three Tests on their recent tour of the Caribbean, England came agonisingly close to bowling out West Indies and squaring a series that they eventually lost 1-0 – first in Antigua, where a solitary wicket remained unclaimed after a day-and-a-half of hard graft, and then at the last ditch in Trinidad, when they picked up eight wickets in 62.4 overs to leave the region on tenterhooks, but could not achieve two more breakthroughs in the last 20 balls of the series.”With declarations it’s just as much about the opportunity for putting pressure on,” said England’s wicketkeeper, Matt Prior, whose sparky 61 had given his captain the confidence to contemplate such a move. “Six overs at the end of the day is a great opportunity for putting pressure on, because no opening bat wants to walk out after fielding all day and having to put his pads on. I think that comes into it as much as a [specific] score a lot of the time.”The Saturday of the Lord’s Test, usually an event in itself, was a peculiarly stage-setting affair. Everything about the approach of both sides revolved around the fourth-innings tussle that lies ahead, and the speed and certainty with which England motored through that final session, having been held in check during a cat-and-mouse afternoon, indicated that, mentally, Australia were already steeling themselves for the rearguard, having briefly believed, at 147 for 3 with a becalmed Kevin Pietersen at the crease, that they could still somehow keep themselves in contention.”Famous last words,” countered Prior when asked if England were in a no-lose situation, which reflected the odd times into which Test cricket has moved. In December last year, in the space of a week, both England and Australia were involved in spectacular fourth-innings heists, and both ended up on the wrong end of historic beatings. At Chennai, in a match that Strauss had graced with centuries in each innings, Sachin Tendulkar sashayed in to produce arguably the finest of his 42 Test centuries, an unbeaten 103 as India romped past a target of 387. And then in Perth six days later, AB de Villiers built on Graeme Smith’s agenda-setting century, as South Africa shocked the Aussies by chasing 414.”This is a funny game, and everyone’s seen and played enough cricket to know that [certain victory] is never the case,” said Prior. “However, we are in a very, very good position. We’ve played great cricket for three days and deserve to be in the position we are in, and we are certainly going to be putting a lot of pressure on the Aussies for the next two days. You talk about putting your foot on someone’s throat and not letting go, and we’ve done that very well. They threw punches like any Australian team does, but we managed to cushion those blows and come back even harder, and that’s a credit to the England dressing-room.”

There was a huge amount of discussion tonight and this morning, but I think the decision was only made about three seconds before it was announcedMatt Prior on the talk about the follow-on

Everyone, however, will be casting a glance to the heavens over the next six sessions, and perhaps uniquely among the world’s 100 Test venues, it will be England, not Australia, who find themselves praying for rain. The drainage at Lord’s is of such spectacular quality that even the heaviest deluges, as occurred against India in 2007, are slurped away so quickly that play can resume after minutes, but more importantly, the ball only talks when the clouds are closed around the ground.As James Anderson put it after his four-wicket haul on Friday, England’s intention to enforce the follow-on depended on whether the sun was “cracking the flags” or not, and as the last wicket fell with Australia 210 runs adrift, Strauss dashed back into the pavilion, but his opening partner, Alastair Cook, did not. “There was a huge amount of discussion tonight and this morning,” said Prior, “but I think the decision was only made about three seconds before it was announced.”I think it was the right decision as it happened, because today was a great day for batting,” added Prior. “The sun shone most of the day, the wicket played well and we put ourselves in a good position. At Lord’s, the overheads, they all come into play, and we wanted to leave the decision open this morning. There was nothing set in stone.”Equally, there may be nothing set in stone tomorrow. If the sun is shining brightly when the five-minute bell is rung, England would be within their rights to carry on batting, keep Australia guessing, and wait for the heavens to roll into place. If that seems unnecessarily cautious, then a quick glance at the recent record at Lord’s would be prudent. Aside from a supine victory over a West Indies side that didn’t want to be here, England have not forced a positive result since the visit of Bangladesh in 2005. Six consecutive draws have been racked up in the interim, including the most recent, and the most traumatic, against South Africa in 2008 when Smith, Neil McKenzie and Hashim Amla patted their way through 167 of the most placid conditions imaginable.”I wasn’t involved in that match against South Africa, but by all accounts they played brilliantly and teams are allowed to do that,” said Prior. “If the Aussies play brilliantly and bat for two days, then hats off [to them]. All we can control is how we perform and feel as a unit, but it’s an Ashes series, and things are slightly different. When you’re 500 runs behind, there’s a lot of scoreboard pressure involved which makes things tricky as well.””But the worst thing we can do is be complacent,” he added. “I think there’s no place for that in international sport, let alone in an Ashes series. We’ve seen funnier things have happened and that’s something we will guard against, but in the first innings we bowled them out for 215, it’s the same wicket, and we’re very confident we can do it again. We’re in a great position, and though it’s what you do with it those positions that count, we’ve certainly got the firepower and the skill in the changing-room to make it count.”

From loneliness to legspinners, injuries to influences, Sachin Tendulkar opens up as he rarely does

Cricinfo staff13-Nov-2009Twenty years, can you recount some of the poignant moments, or highlights?
The first and most important moment I’d like to remember right now would be the day I wore my India cap first. It was a dream which had come true, so I was on cloud nine. It was an absolutely fabulous feeling. After that there have been many but the most important one was that. Because growing up as a child the dream was to play for India, and nothing was bigger than that for me, and it continues the same way for me today. I think I’m very fortunate to be living that dream, and 20 years is a long time so there have been many special moments. To actually start counting them would be tough, but I’d definitely say the first day, walking with the playing XI, playing a Test in Pakistan was probably the greatest feeling. The journey began there, and whatever I did after that was a mere reflection of my contribution towards the nation’s cause.What do you remember of the first tour apart from the cricket?
A couple of times we went out shopping, and then obviously interacting with the media because we were not going out much – hardly once or twice in 40-45 days – it’s a long time to be in the hotel. We used to have this “Sunday Club”, and the media also joined the entire team and we were dressed differently. I was with a moustache, and it was a bit hard to believe for a 16-year-old to have a thick moustache and lipstick and that kind of thing, so it was party time and that’s something which I remember because there were so many pictures taken, and every now and then you see them. Other than that I felt the tour was tough and we played some terrific cricket. Over the four Tests it was a drawn series, and I felt that there was no dull moment in the entire series. Lahore was the flattest track where nothing much happened off the wicket, but otherwise the remaining three surfaces we played on had a bit of life, bounce, pace and the cricket was also entertaining.How have you managed to change with the times? How difficult was it to do that?
Since 1989 plenty of things have changed in the game; that includes the introduction of the third umpire, the hot spot and various things, the introduction of Twenty20. The most noticeable change I feel is because of Twenty20. We’ve seen plenty of innovative shots, which are occasionally used in Test cricket. In one-day cricket batsmen are backing themselves to try something new, also occasionally in Test cricket. So in a one-day match the average score has definitely gone from 210 to now 265-270 as a par score. To make 265 on a decent surface is not a great score as such.Also, in Tests you see more results now. There was a phase where you used to hear that Test matches are getting boring because there are no results, but I don’t think that is the case now. There are results in virtually every match, and that is probably because it is played more aggressively and batsmen are willing to take more chances. With time I have also changed, and everyone sitting in this room, we’ve all changed for the better. And I’ve tried to make myself a better cricketer. There is always room for improvement, and I’ve always believed that whenever I go out and practise, there has to be a purpose. The process continues, it’s never-ending because every day there is a fresh challenge and you need to be on your toes. You’ve got to be moving forward, and that is what I’ve tried to do.

Tendulkar on match-fixing

It was a dark phase, I don’t want to reiterate that on this occasion. But I heard something that was fascinating, the series we played against Australia immediately after that (in 2001) – it was the three-Test-match series and five ODIs – and both series were decided in the final half hour of their duration. Both these series were instrumental in bringing back the crowds to the stadiums, and I thought we as a team really performed well in that series and that started a new chapter, something I was looking for, to close the previous chapter and it’s better that we keep it closed.

How do you stay on your toes for 20 years?
It was definitely a lot of hard work and there are certain things that all sportsmen have to follow: dedication, discipline, your focus on the game, your priorities in life. All those factors are extremely important, and for me I felt I was very lucky to have a family like [I do]. My brother always guided me, my father always supported me, my mother always fed me well. There’s this combination of inner forces contributing in different directions. Mother doesn’t understand much about cricket, but she prays for my success and India’s success, so all these things are important. Long discussions with my brother on cricket and then support from the other brother and my sister – I represent all of them when I go out to the middle, but then there are those difficult moments which I feel are challenging, and [I wonder] what should I be doing in these moments, and that is what I share with my wife, my entire family, and that is one reason I’ve been able to last for such a long time. I cannot fail to thank the people of India for all the affection and love, the support. Whatever I do, whatever level I perform, you need people around you to share your happiness with them and I’ve got more than a billion people to share that with, so that means a lot to me. Because of all these things you are inspired to go out and do something special for all the people.Has it been hard to stay humble over the years?
Well I’ve not made any effort to stay humble, it’s just my upbringing. In the early stage of my career when I hadn’t played for India, I was just playing school cricket, I was still scoring a lot of runs but nobody got carried away in my family over success. It’s quite easy for a 12- or 13-year-old boy to get carried away when he sees his picture printed in the newspaper, because it’s something special, but that is where I felt my family made sure my feet were on the ground. We always celebrated by distributing sweets, it wasn’t very fancy, and that was where it stopped. Everyone was happy and enjoyed that moment, but the next day was what happens in the next game, and how do you get better in the next game, and that process has continued. That’s something which has kept me grounded, and needless to say, just watching my father – my father didn’t teach me – but just looking at him and watching him closely I picked up a lot of things, and the most important thing he told me was: “It’s your nature which is going to stay permanently with you, the rest will come and go.”David Boon tells a story about you asking him for advice on facing West Indies. Can you elaborate on that?
David Boon… When I was in Australia in 1991, I hadn’t played many West Indian fast bowlers. The only time I had played a West Indian was when we played county cricket against Derbyshire (in 1990) when Ian Bishop was there, and I played one exhibition game in Canada against West Indies. But other than that in an international match I hadn’t played a West Indian. In Australia we were playing a triangular series where West Indies joined us and they had some terrific players, world-class fast bowlers. I’d watched Boon quite closely, and I thought I should be picking up things from the top players in the world and I wanted to get as much information as possible and become a better cricketer. I thought it was a good chance to speak to him, and get to know how to face certain bowlers on Australian tracks.Sunil Gavaskar has been one of the people Tendulkar has looked to for advice•Getty ImagesWho has been the biggest influence on you as a player?
I think it’s my brother Ajit, with whom I discuss a lot of cricket and he knows my batting possibly better than any other person in the world, and he understands my mindset as well, so I talk a lot with him. Then there are the other players from India. Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, they travel with us whenever we’re out there playing, it’s good to have them there to share an opinion or get their views on how we are playing as a team and an individual. That has helped over the years, and there have been so many other senior players who have been coaches, so all those guys have been helpful. As far as help and guidance is concerned, there hasn’t been an instance where a senior player has said I’m not interested or I’ve not been watching you and don’t want to share any opinions. They’ve always been helpful and shared their ideas, which has played an important role.Regarding practising with purpose, one of the more celebrated instances was having legspinners bowl at you into the rough from round the wicket before you faced Warne in 1998.
In 1998 I prepared differently, we were practising in Chennai and before that I practised in Mumbai. All my Ranji Trophy colleagues, I used to ask them to bowl round the wicket into the rough, because that was something which I hadn’t faced for a long time. In spite of having been around for almost nine years at that stage, I hadn’t played any legspinner that would bowl round the wicket in the rough, so I made all the bowlers do that. Then when we went to Chennai, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan bowled to me. He gave wonderful practice. So all those sessions really helped and the purpose behind that was just to get used to those angles and the areas, and identify which are the areas from which I can attack and which are the areas I need to defend.Between Warne and Murali, who did you consider the most dangerous and why?
I’m of the opinion that if someone goes past 500-600 wickets, how do you differentiate? Both guys are special, both are match-winners and both are world champions. I would not like to pick one, I believe in respecting an individual’s strengths, and the way they both have motivated youngsters in various parts of the world is just incredible. I would just sit back and applaud them.

I requested both Azhar (the captain) and Ajit Wadekar (coach) to “just give me one opportunity. I’m very confident as in the first 15 overs I can play some big shots. I feel I’ll be able to deliver. And if I fail I’ll never ever come to you again”. caption: How Tendulkar got to open the innings in one-dayers. He blasted a 49-ball 83 in his first try

If they were both bowling at either end, who would you rather not face?
I think I would probably go and sit in the dressing room [].Tell us about the time you were hit by Waqar [Younis] ]in 1989.
I still remember that incident. Ajit had come to watch me for the first time. I could see him sitting in front of the dressing room. India were in a fragile position in the second innings at 39 for 4 with a day and half still left when I got hit on the nose. Even before that I had been hit on the nose in school cricket on bad practice wickets, an experience that had got rid of the fear. So when I was hit by Waqar, that got me more competitive and I decided not to move from the middle and I would continue to fight.In 1989, before you played Pakistan, there was speculation you might be picked to face the West Indies, did you think at that time that you were ready?
I remember the late Raj Singh Dungarpur was the chairman of selectors at that time, and we were playing Ranji Trophy semi-finals against Delhi in Mumbai and he walked up to me and said, “I know there has been talk and there’ve been articles in the papers that you may go to West Indies, but I want to tell you that you won’t be going because we still feel that it’s too early and it’s important for you to prepare for your SSC exams.” So I did that. Before that also I’d known him for quite some time. So his guidance and encouragement meant a lot to me, and what he said was: “There’ll be Irani Trophy, I’m sure you will be a part of it, and go out there and enjoy yourself, give your case, and good things will happen.”What was different about batting at international level or did you just find that this was too easy?
Nothing is easy and you have to work hard for it. I’m a person who hates taking anything for granted, I want to prepare to the best of my ability. I was always confident about my ability. I wanted to go out and express myself to the best of my ability, and if the pre-match preparation was good then I was in a position to go out and deliver, and that is something I focussed on. Even today I do that. There may be innings where you don’t do well, that’s fine, but as long as you have given 100%, that is what matters to me. That is something which has been happening right from my school days.I realised early that I could hit every ball, in school cricket and to a certain extent in Ranji Trophy, I would go out and attack, but after going to Pakistan and New Zealand, England, Australia, those first few series and also South Africa, it taught me a lot. It taught me to be more selective, taught me to build an innings, and also taught me to respect bowlers. I think to respect a bowler when he’s bowling very well is a wise thing to do, which I learned, and it’s something which happens with age and experience. You need to have that exposure, and I felt that the first few tours really helped me.”Yes you feel bad because I’ve done well but the team hasn’t well. So you are not excited and you cannot share that wonderful moment with people because you’ve lost the game”•Getty ImagesHow have you separated your cricket from everything that happens around you?
I don’t know, cricket lives in my heart and whenever I’m on a cricket field I enjoy it, and somewhere there’s still a 16-year-old hidden inside who wants to go out and express himself, so I do that and it comes naturally and I don’t make any special effort to show enthusiasm. It’s been my life and I enjoy every moment, I enjoy challenges, it’s a package deal, ups and downs, wonderful moments and there are disappointments, so all that makes you a stronger person and you learn to deal with various things in life.Do you feeling lonely when you do well and the team still loses?
I have never been asked this question before. But, actually, yes you feel bad because I’ve done well but the team hasn’t well. But I play for the team and it is not about individuals. You got to win as a team. So you are not excited and you cannot share that wonderful moment with people because you’ve lost the game. It is a difficult thing. But on the brighter side when you have one billion people to share your joy there is no better than that. But when that doesn’t happen you look forward to the next game, and try and make sure that you perform better as a team and do something special which can make all of us smile.What would you rank as your most memorable innings?
There are a few innings where I’ve really done well and where the team has won. In that respect the 2003 World Cup game against Pakistan was the biggest match of my life.Going back to the earlier part of my career, the second Test, at Faislabad, I scored only 58 or 59. But in the previous Test I had got out early and I had actually questioned myself whether I belonged here. I felt out of place, tense, and didn’t know what was happening and it wasn’t a great experience. In the second Test I went out and decided that come what may I’m going to be there. I had already spoken to a lot of players, and they had told me: “Just be there for 15-20 minutes, things would start getting better.” So I decided I was not going to get worried about runs, and at what rate I was going to score them. That particular innings was the turning point of my life because after that I felt I do belong here. It is just a matter of tackling the first few minutes, of judging the pace, bounce, spin. I was new to Test cricket and something like that needed to happen to make me feel good and make me believe that I belonged here.Could you share with us some of your memories from childhood?
My childhood was spent in Sahitya Sahwas colony in Bandra East. Every moment with my friends was special. Cricket started for me there, I broke a lot of glass panes of neighbouring houses, but all the seniors appreciated the competition on display. It was a good atmosphere and the passion for cricket started there.My actual cricket started when I was 11. My brother spotted the spark in me and then he took me to [Ramakant] Achrekar sir. Those three to four years under him were really important for my development. He would hide behind trees to see our games, and then point out the errors later on. We would have fun but it was guarded. Tell us about the first century of your life.
I was unbeaten on 96 overnight and couldn’t sleep. We [Sharadashram English] were playing against Don Bosco, and I was impatient to get to my first ever century. Another reason for my impatience was I had invited Achrekar sir to dinner at my home, but he said the day I score a century he would come. Next morning my father took me to pay obeisance at a Ganpati temple. I scored the century in the very first over. The first thing I told Achrekar sir on going back to the change room was he now had no way out but to come to my house.Does the relentless media introspection suffocate you?

This is the way I’ve known my life from the age of 14. That is when I started playing my first-class cricket when I was part of Mumbai Ranji Trophy team. But I’m comfortable with it. I don’t do anything differently, I just do whatever I’m comfortable with. People have appreciated me for what I’m so I don’t make any special effort to change. I believe every individual should respect the other in whatever you say or do and you have to think twice. I’m not aggressive off the field because I need to conserve it for the play on the field.One of the highs of Tendulkar’s captaincy, the Sahara Cup in 1997•AFPWhat is the secret behind your success as a cricketer?
Plenty of hours on the field, not as many hours in the gym! It is a combination of long practice sessions, workouts and playing as many matches – practice and live – as possible. One important thing my coach Ramakant Achrekar introduced me to was the concept of match temperament. The reason my brother [Ajit Tendulkar] took me to him [Achrekar] was solely because he made all his students play as many practice matches as possible. I would attend my school in the morning, go to the ground in the afternoon and bat at No. 4 in a practice match. That gave me the confidence to go out in the middle and perform in a match and also taught me how to read various situations in a match. Because every afternoon the conditions were different situation, different theme, and I had to bat differently. So all those factors were extremely important in making me the cricketer that I am today, and however much I thank him [Achrekar] it is not enough.Was opening for the first time a big step?
In 1994 we were playing in Auckland. I was the vice-captain then and just before the ODI I got to know that [Navjot Singh] Sidhu was not fit as he had woken up with a stiff neck. I requested both Azhar [Mohammad Azharuddin] and Ajit Wadekar [captain and coach] to “just give me one opportunity. I’m very confident as in the first 15 overs I can play some big shots. I feel I’ll be able to deliver. And if I fail I’ll never ever come to you again”. They both agreed graciously, and I was able to go out and perform. It helped me as a cricketer because you go out and face the new ball and at the same time you are looking at putting the ball away. Those days the first over one would look to leave as many balls as possible and not lose wickets early on and then gradually accelerate. But things started changing around that time with [Mark] Greatbach in 1992 World Cup and then [Sanath] Jayasuriya in 1996 to play big shots in the first 15 overs and I did the same once I started opening. To do that you had to move in quickly and get in the right position. Overall that decision helped my game because in ODIs I was facing the new ball and batting No. 4 in Test cricket. Overall I was enjoying the balance.Are you satisfied with your two captaincy stints?
It was a great honour to captain the country. There were some wonderful moments. The very first Test itself was memorable, in Delhi. Then we won the Titan Cup in India against the two toughest opponents – Australia and South Africa. Then, in Toronto, when we beat Pakistan in the Sahara Cup. There were many occasions where we came close to winning, but just couldn’t cross the final hurdle. It was an experience full of highs and lows.

Lots of rain, lots of entertainment, lots of noise

Sanjeev Datadin04-May-2010The game
I’m a big cricket fan and love live cricket. I’m also a box-holder at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. This match promised a good old-fashioned rivalry between England and West Indies. Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard were in good nick after the IPL, as were Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan.Team supported
West Indies. I’ve been a fan since my father took me to see India v West Indies at Bourda, Georgetown in 1983.Key performer
Morgan played an excellent innings. So did Gayle and Luke Wright. But because of the rain delays, the DJ turned out to be the key performer of the day.One thing I’d have changed
To have no rain. England were a bit hard done by, and the crowd was robbed of some entertainment. It would have been interesting to watch a West Indies batting line-up of Gayle, Pollard, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo chase 192.Face-off I relished
Gayle v Sidebottom. Given all the talk about left-arm quicks against Gayle, I was interested to see how the contest with Sidebottom would pan out. Gayle took him for 15 in the first over. To be fair, the first boundary was off the edge, but as a spectator shouted out immediately after that boundary, “He paid for the whole bat… edge included.”Shot of the day
Craig Kieswetter smacked Ravi Rampaul over long-off to scatter the cheerleaders right below where I was sitting. But the shot of the day was Chanderpaul’s switch hit for six off Graeme Swann. The noise that followed was deafening.Player watch
Darren Sammy was cheered every time he touched the ball, no doubt because of his heroics against Ireland. It helped that he took two wickets when England were on the charge. Since it was Guyana, hometown boy Chanderpaul was inundated with advice and comments every time he came to field below where I was sitting.Crowd meter
The stadium was packed. It was so loud, you could not hear your own phone ring, much less anyone you were trying to speak to. Horns, beach shells, whistles, thunder sticks, tassa drums and the steel pans contributed to the noise. Then, of course, there was the typical Guyana crowd, shouting all sorts of advice and remarks to the players. It was loudest when the umpires came out to inspect the conditions after a prolonged rain delay and approaching darkness; there was definitely no shortage of encouragement to bring the players back out to continue the game.The spectators stayed through the heavy and prolonged downpour. The Providence is a semi-open stadium and many patrons were simply standing, or dancing, in the rain.It was amazing to hear what sounded like every spectator screaming “wiiddde” every time and English bowler bowled a wide.A new discovery
In our box the very unusual (at least in these parts) drink of scotch and tonic became the order of the day. I think I might stay with this one for a while.Entertainment
Plenty. There was chutney, soca, reggae, dancehall, and even some 80s hits. The live artists were average and sounded as if they were screaming into the microphone at times. There were cheerleaders perched on stages around the ground, tassa drummers, and colourfully costumed assortments of characters carrying a kind of horn, who provided their own brand of loud entertainment during any slight break in an over.Banner of the day
There were no banners up around the ground; a consequence of the stadium being sanitised in the name of ambush marketing. There was a t-shirt with a picture of Kieron Pollard smacking the ball, with the caption, “Polly what a cracker!”Marks out of 10
8. Plenty of rain, but also plenty of music, dancing, unusual drinks and great atmosphere.

New Zealand believed that if they stuck to their task long enough, the Indian batsmen would eventually crack

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Nov-2010″Cricket is a funny game. If you compete with a team for long enough, something cracks,” Mark Greatbatch said on the eve of the Test. “That’s the challenge for us – to compete with India for a long period of time. Into the fourth day, fifth day, if we are still with them, they are human; they make mistakes like anyone else.” India got a taste of that spirit today, and New Zealand got those mistakes they were hunting.India had strolled to 383 for 4, without any alarms, when Sachin Tendulkar fell. It’s tempting to add, ‘against the run of play’ to that sentence. Were India, Sachin Tendulkar in particular, and a touch too cautious? The bowling was steady, but by no means disciplined enough to be suffocating. Jeetan Patel was a touch short at times, and offered width on a few occasions as well. You felt for Daniel Vettori at that point, and wondered whether India were going to pile up an obscenely big total. Just yesterday, Rahul Dravid recovered from a very slow start to push India to a good position. So the fact that they were batting slowly didn’t seem like end of the world. The reason for the mini-collapse was, as Greatbatch said, they made mistakes.Three of them came in the first session. Sachin Tendulkar went down the track, but the mind seemed elsewhere: It was a weak push. If you are an ardent fan, you might say the ball stopped. If you are from Patel’s family, you might say it dipped on Tendulkar. It didn’t look like it did either. It was just a push-drive gone awry.The second mistake came just before the lunch break, when Laxman played outside the line to a regular offbreak. Most times, simple things done well and consistently bring results in sport. It was just an off break; it didn’t jump, it didn’t skid alarmingly, it didn’t turn too much, and it didn’t keep low. Laxman just pushed outside the line.The third was a mistake that wasn’t entirely surprising. Suresh Raina likes to play on the up; he reaches forward and knives through the line. This wasn’t the pitch for such extravagance. That particular delivery, from Kane Williamson, stopped, and Raina ended up punching lamely to short extra cover.There was a fourth mistake too, from MS Dhoni, but he can perhaps be excused. Dhoni was shivering with fever during the lunch break and needed blankets to protect himself. “It was good to see him to go out to bat,” Harbhajan Singh said. “It was a good sign from a captain; [if] he had wanted, he could have not gone out to bat. It was nice of him to bat and he also kept. He is feeling much better now.”Harbhajan ensured India’s mistakes won’t prove too costly by taking them to 489 with his highest Test score. Advantage India? Harbhajan was very wary. “It’s very slow. There is no bounce, no turn and it’s hard for the bowlers. We need a special effort to beat them.”With Jesse and Vettori yet to come, we can’t relax at any stage. We have to work really hard on this wicket. We need to bowl to our fields and work to our plans.”Not that New Zealand are too upbeat. It was just about survival at this moment. Patel knew New Zealand have to bat long and hard. What did he make out of the pitch? “It’s starting to keep a little bit lower now,” Patel said. “Tim McIntosh was off a short-of-length ball. That’s Test cricket in the subcontinent. You expect the ball to go up and down, so we have to deal with it.”India’s bowler says it’s going to be very hard to take wickets. New Zealand’s bowler says it won’t be easy to bat on. Neither team appears to be playing mind games. Only time will tell what will happen in this Test. See you tomorrow.

The South African spinner on his favourite opponents, celebratory drinks, fielding in front of Bay 13, and what hotel rooms need to improve them

Interview by Robert Houwing10-Jun-2010Who’s the nicest man in cricket?
Shaun Pollock and Jonty Rhodes.What’s your biggest personal rivalry in cricket?

Sachin Tendulkar. In my mind, he is the complete player. We have had a few tussles in the past.If you weren’t a cricketer, what would you be?

I think I would be in advertising… or have my own TV show about sport.Toughest opponent?

Toss-up between Sachin and Ricky Ponting.What do hotel rooms need to make them more enjoyable?
They should all come standard with a Playstation 3, a Wii and an Xbox 360 with at least 100 games to choose from.Do you like to do the tourist thing when on tour?
I love touring. These days you don’t get much time to be a tourist, but I enjoy London and Sydney.Which ground has the most hostile crowds?

The MCG’s Bay 13. It’s a great experience fielding at fine leg there.And the most amusing crowds?
Headingley – the Western Terrace kept me entertained for a while.Which tour do you most look forward to?
It used to be Australia, but now I’m looking forward to West Indies.What drink is the best one to celebrate victory with?

I’m not too fussy, but if I had a choice, then Jack Daniel’s.How would you have got Bradman out?

I would have to study footage. Judging by his stats, I might have had a hard time.How often do your friends ask you for free tickets to matches?
Every Test. It’s amazing how many new friends you have before a Test. I save my tickets for the real ones.How do you normally celebrate a Test win?

Normally we have a fines meeting where [Mark] Boucher is the chairman. Then find some place willing to host the team for a few drinks.Does your family like cricket?
My mum is the biggest fan of the game. My wife was fairly clueless when she met me but now she understands it.Team you most enjoy beating?
Australia would be first and England a close second.Any sports you aren’t very good at?

Hockey. I played for about a month and got bored.How do you relax away from cricket?

With my wife and friends. I enjoy the sea and the bush.What’s the best sledge you’ve heard?

A few good ones recently but not sure I can repeat them in a “family” magazine. Best left on the field.