They lit up their country’s first match at the home of cricket, against MCC, with blaring music, echoing chants and vibrant outfits

Peter Della Penna at Lord's12-Jul-2017When Afghanistan joined Ireland as the 11th and 12th teams to receive Full Member status last month at the ICC annual conference in London, the most commonly used phrase to characterise proceedings was that a glass ceiling had been broken. The old, traditional corridors of ICC boardrooms had welcomed new blood; the motion approved on the backdrop of one of cricket’s great symbols of tradition, Lord’s.For the Afghanistan administrators, breaking that glass ceiling on June 22 had been a very delicate process. Tuesday, though, was for the Afghanistan fans, and they left no doubt about the state of that glass ceiling, stampeding their way through the Lord’s turnstiles to make sure it was reduced to itty bitty granules.”We don’t ever get this for other games,” one of the Lord’s stewards said through a cacophony of Afghan fan excitement building at 9am, two hours before the start of play, on Wellington Place outside the North Gate. “This is brilliant, though I doubt the neighbours living in NW8 will be too thrilled with all the noise.”Noise. The theme of the day. Fans singing, music blasting, chants echoing. Every bit of it pure and loud. And so were the outfits. The richest, most vibrant shades of red and green: printed on shirts, painted on faces, rippling on flags in the wind. It was a sensory assault.”This means everything to Afghanistan,” Massom Shirzad, a father of two, now living in Birmingham, said. Shirzad has been living in the UK for more than 15 years and today was the first time his two Birmingham-born daughters, Nabeela and Saima, 11 and eight, were getting the chance to see the heroes of their ancestral home for the first time. They had left at 6am for the drive down and along with two cousins were five of the first group of fans that began gathering from 8:30am outside the entrance gates.The story was repeated throughout the day. Members of the Afghan diaspora living in Coventry, Manchester, Wales, Germany, France, Norway and beyond. Almost every single one interviewed had never seen Afghanistan play in person, and had never been to Lord’s. In a pocket of the Compton Stand sat a hoard of 100 men clad in blue polo shirts with “BIRMINGHAM” printed in white block letters on the back and “AFG” in black, red and green on the front.”We support Afghans, we support cricket,” Jan Shinwari, originally from Kabul but now based in Birmingham, said. He helped organise the two coaches chartered to drive everyone in this particular fan group down from the West Midlands, beginning 7:45am. “This is a new game in Afghanistan after only 13 or 14 years because of the war in Afghanistan. We want to show peace to the world and that we can do anything.”Peace. A recurring theme throughout the last decade of Afghanistan’s cricket journey. During the early years of Afghanistan’s pathway to Test status and a day at Lord’s, Hamid Hassan used to cross the rope onto the battlefield, his face painted like Rambo. He was Afghanistan’s most photogenic warrior, a warrior of peace. Each stump uprooted, every bail dislodged with one of his heat-seeking yorkers was another strategic victory to thwart the stereotype of Taliban terror.”They are our peace ambassadors,” Qudratullah Ibrahimkhil, another member of Shinwari’s traveling band, who grew up in Maidan Wardak province before migrating to Birmingham, said. “Recently they got the Full Membership and every Afghan is very proud because in Afghanistan for the last four decades there has been war, conflicts and everything. The Afghan national cricket team brings happiness, optimism to people in Afghanistan and around the world.”They unite Afghans in Afghanistan and around the world. In here, the atmosphere is amazing. There are people who have come from all over the world. They have come here to support their team. We are very proud of our national heroes for their remarkable achievements and accomplishments in a very short period of time. With very limited resources, they have achieved so much and made history.”History. Today was not just for Afghan fans, but for the genuine cricket lover who has seen his fair share of cricket over the years and has an appreciation for what Afghanistan has acquired in status and skill.”Listen to that, this is what it’s all about isn’t it?” shouted 69-year-old Bob Blake over the roar of the crowd from his seat in the Mound Stand after the fall of the fourth MCC wicket. A Trinidad native, Blake came to London in his teens before settling in Luton. He has been coming to Lord’s for nearly 50 years, ever since his beloved West Indies, led by Clive Lloyd, claimed their first World Cup at Lord’s in 1975.They might not be on par with Lloyd’s feared pace quartet, but Afghanistan’s pace attack has been the envy of the Associate world and left-armer Shapoor Zadran bared his teeth with the new ball for Brendon McCullum and Misbah-ul-Haq to see.”I’m very impressed with the opening bowler, Shapoor,” Blake said. “It’s great to see Afghanistan today. They’re a Full Test Member. I’ve never seen them live but they look pretty useful. I was aware they were a decent team over the years especially in one-day cricket. You can’t take them lightly. If Ireland got Test status and Ireland’s a good team, they’re a better team than Ireland.”It was only last month that Afghanistan had drawn an ODI series in their maiden tour of the Caribbean thanks to Rashid Khan’s destructive seven-wicket haul in the first game. It was a match that further dented the West Indies dwindling reputation and Blake said he hasn’t decided if he wants to buy tickets to see the West Indies when they tour the UK later in the summer. The old calypso magic may have faded but remnants of it were evident in the Afghanistan side that was on the park in front of him.”There are definitely similarities because the West Indian supporters really were noisy as well,” Blake said. “We would back our boys to the hilt. We loved it when something went right so it’s very very similar really. The enthusiasm is virtually the same.”They’re noisy, they’re enthusiastic. They obviously love their players. They’re behind them all the way and they’re showing it. The atmosphere is pretty terrific really, especially at Lord’s you’re not accustomed to this atmosphere. It’s more of an Edgbaston atmosphere here today. This is not a Lord’s atmosphere, which is great. Lord’s is too quiet.”Atmosphere. It was one-of-a-kind for Lord’s on Tuesday, in part because, as Blake said, it was the antithesis of a typical Lord’s crowd. Compared to the measured responses emoted by England fans during the Test match over the weekend, Tuesday was symbolised by the raw spontaneity from the Afghanistan fans.”I think it’s exciting because we’re getting to see the Afghan team play,” British-Afghan Sadaf Nader, 31, from Richmond, said. “I mean it’s a pretty standard answer, but is exciting.”Nader’s husband Jawed, 34, was taken aback not just by the size of the crowd, which hovered near 8000, but by the off-the-wall antics of fans from their vantage point in the Edrich Stand.”It’s also overwhelming to see so many Afghan youths here,” Jawed said. “I’ve seen Afghans at our own gatherings, but not in this number. It is such a big number and they’re really enjoying themselves… and breaking all the MCC rules!””Breaking every rule!” chimed in Sadaf.The slippery slope began well before the start of play at the entrance gates. Afghan fans are renowned for their flag-waving enthusiasm and perhaps uninitiated to the Lord’s protocol, scores showed up with flags in tow, fashionably draped around their necks. The Lord’s stewards who greeted them at the North Gate repeatedly asked: “Is this a scarf or a flag? Because flags are not allowed inside Lord’s.” Every streetwise Afghan duly assured: “Scarf! Scarf!” in reply. Initially they were shy about stretching out their “scarves” but they couldn’t help themselves once Shapoor starting taking wickets, unabashedly heaving the tri-colour flag with merry abandon.The ubiquitous flag infringements were relatively minor compared with what was to come in the 25th over of MCC’s innings. When Dawlat Zadran pinged Shiv Chanderpaul on the left arm off the first ball of the over, a lengthy delay ensued as the batsman pondered whether to retire hurt. The fans were beginning to grow somewhat restless after having sat through a 105-minute rain delay following the 18th over.In an attempt to placate his growing legion of worshippers, Rashid walked over to the railing of the Mound Stand to sign autographs and pose for selfies. Within 30 seconds an overly exuberant supporter leapt over the fence to hug Rashid. A dozen more imitators followed as the under-manned stewards were overwhelmed. Afghanistan’s fans have a long-held reputation for storming the field after a landmark win, but charging the pitch for this mid-match show of affection may have been a first for them.”It’s just a good thing they had their clothes on,” quipped Sadaf Nader.When one fire was put out, another started as a couple of fans jumped the Tavern Stand railing. One headed for fine leg where Gulbadin Naib was casually standing, while the other made haste with a flag-turned superman cape towards a crowd of seven players gathered near Dawlat Zadran’s run-up mark. When one steward finally caught up, the fan hid behind statuesque captain Asghar Stanikzai, shuffling back and forth in an absurdly impromptu game of hide and seek that had the fans – then Asghar and Dawlat – cackling with uncontrollable laughter.By the time Chanderpaul walked off five minutes later to be replaced by Samit Patel, order had been restored. As has been the case at other events where there is a large Afghanistan turnout at odds with established etiquette, Afghanistan team manager Hamkar Shiraha got a hold of a microphone and diplomatically gave an announcement in Pashto over the Lord’s tannoy. The gist of it, according to the Naders, was that the fans need to show they are good and respectful cricket fans by obeying the MCC rules, which drew thunderous applause. As ever, Hamkar ended his speech on a positive note, rallying the fans by shouting, “Afghanistan Zindabad!”The rain could hardly dampen the mood of the day, but if there was one blemish it had to be those who were absent from the squad to take part in the day’s festivities. Nawroz Mangal got the red-carpet treatment in January at the Desert T20 Final. Mangal received a fitting send-off for his services to Afghanistan cricket, but the real star of that day was Mohammad Shahzad, who became the first player to score two T20I fifties in a day. Countless fans at Lord’s were pining for Shahzad, disappointed he could not entertain them with some holding signs pleading with the ICC to “forgive” him for testing positive earlier this year for performance-enhancing drugs.Jan Shinwari (front) helped organise more 100 fans to come down together from Birmingham•Peter Della PennaThe other forgotten soul was Hamid Hassan. Rashid may be the box-office drawcard of the moment but for those who were around to see Afghanistan first surface on the ICC’s major tournament stage, Hamid was the original Afghanistan rock star. Hamid floated through the team hotel, training sessions, warm-ups and fiery 145kph reverse-swing bowling spells like a Greek god. But now it’s as if those spells held a Prometheus trait. Injuries continue to ravage his body.Chants of “Shah-POOR! “Rah-SHEED!” and “Nah-BEE!” were heard ringing around the Lord’s stands early and often throughout Afghanistan’s time in the field, but there were no such shouts for “Hah-MEED!” It’s a cruel fate that someone who played such an instrumental role in Afghanistan’s early fortunes has not been able to reap the adulation and rewards of his peers on days like this. Not only was Hamid not in uniform at Lord’s, but it’s unknown when or if the 30-year-old will ever suit up again.Still, there was far too much to be joyous about. Who would have predicted after decades of war and devastation at home that there would come a day when peace and salvation would be ever-present in the happy and carefree smiles of the thousands of Afghanistan faithful who made their way to northwest London. Following a lengthy nomadic existence, they have worked to establish their roots once again. The seeds planted through a bat-and-ball sport over the last decade had sprouted up and were on full view on Tuesday at the Home of Cricket.”It’s a proud moment,” Jawed said. “Afghanistan is often associated with all the bad superlatives, like the poorest, worst corruption, worst in opium production, but to see Afghanistan being one of the best in sports, that is unique and good.”It’s an extraordinary positive story about Afghanistan. When we have victories it unites the nation as a whole and that’s very good. I hope that we have more sportsmen like Rashid Khan, like Mohammad Nabi at international level so that they also are inspirations for youngsters back in the country.”

It was not always easy, but a worthy role model and the belated discovery of a cricket club helped keep a childhood passion alive and kicking

Amod Sugiyama01-Jul-2017I never thought a day would come when I would shed a tear while reading a cricket book. Especially when the book was a gloriously funny memoir, Emma John’s .Was it because the protagonist of the memoir was Mike Atherton, her idol growing up, and my favourite person in the cricket world? But while I admire Atherton and eagerly wait for his column every Thursday, I don’t love him the way many Indian fans love Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli.I cried because the book reminded me of my childhood.I was ten years old in August 2005, visiting my relatives in India, when I caught a glimpse of the most memorable Test series ever played. I don’t know if it was Andrew Flintoff’s heroic performances or Kevin Pietersen’s ridiculous hairstyle that made me fall in love with the game, but I became interested right away. Disney villains like Jafar and Maleficent were quickly replaced by Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden in my head. It took almost ten more years for me to learn to respect these two modern cricketing greats.I do not remember much about my previous visits to India before 2005 but my dad tells me now that during a train journey, I was struck by the sight of kids playing cricket everywhere – even on the railway tracks. All I remember from that journey is seeing people throw used paper cups from the train windows. Had I joined them, I might have been a better ball thrower now.My friends say cricket is in my blood. Sure, having an Indian father made it easier to get into the game, but the same didn’t happen to my younger brother. I wanted to know why a blond, slightly overweight Australian man who was apparently bowling much slower than his team-mates was troubling the English batsmen. My brother did not. No, cricket didn’t choose me, I chose cricket.The author learning the game in India as a kid•Sarang UrdhwaresheMy dad bought me a DVD boxset of the 2005 Ashes for my birthday that year and I watched it again and again. Browsing through old cricket scorecards on Cricinfo became a daily activity. I learnt that Test cricket could be both wonderfully exciting (Edgbaston 2005) and incredibly boring (Colombo 1997). I loved listening to my dad’s old cricket anecdotes too, stories of the West Indian greats and Sunil Gavaskar, who was his idol.The epic series of 2005 had made me an England fan and I spent many Saturday afternoons revisiting their previous tours in the last two decades on Cricinfo. It turned out they were not exactly world-beaters in the ’90s. Going through all the scorecards, one man caught my attention. He was the captain of the team for five years in that period and it seemed like he was anchoring many innings, only to find out he lacked partners who could stick it out with him. “Dad, why did Atherton only average 38? Tendulkar averages 57, right?” I asked him one day. “Well, he was an opener. And it was a bloody tough job in the ’90s,” was his answer.I came across the scorecard of the 1995 Johannesburg Test, which Atherton saved by batting for more than ten hours. “How can a man bat for that long knowing his team cannot win,” I wondered. Atherton had been part of the commentary team for the Ashes that year. I could not believe the man with a kind, gentle voice was capable of such a heroic performance. I was also obsessed with Tolkien and at that time and my favourite character was Faramir. Thinking back now, maybe I found some similarities between the young captain of Gondor and Atherton: both were students of history and loved literature. And both could be incredibly brave when they needed to be.Next gen: Kosuke (left) and Naoki Okamoto•Alan MargerisonBut even though I was growing up a cricket fan, my engagement with the game was limited to following professional games on the internet and playing the occasional game in the park while visiting relatives in India until I turned 18. Born and raised in the small town of Takamatsu in Kagawa, Japan, I had no access to playing the game. (This is the excuse I use when I have to explain why I am such a bad cricketer!)Luckily my college prefecture had a club, so I was finally able to play the sport. Shiga Cricket Club (we rebranded the club as Shiga Kyoto Cricket Club this year) was a beacon for cricket-loving expats living in Japan for work or education. When I joined the club five years ago, I was the only Japanese in the team, and all we did was get together on Sundays and have a hit among ourselves in various parks in the area.Now we are playing matches regularly with other teams in this area. There are four university cricket teams and one high school team in our area, though we are still the only adult team around here. Despite all the difficulties – there is no cricket ground in Kyoto, so we play most of the games on a rock-hard baseball ground with matting wicket – cricket is growing here.Our club boasts the best wicketkeeper in the region in Ashley Canning. I owe him for all the stumpings he has got me with my rubbish left-arm spin. But it’s best to leave him alone when he gets out since he will be looking for ways to smash his bat or gloves on something. He’ll be okay five minutes later.Alan Margerison, a Yorkshireman who pretends to be an Aussie, has a good defensive technique, so it’s a shame that we only play 20-over games. He bowls handy offspin too.Indranil Mukherjee (Indi) is not only a good batsman and a true team player but also our team’s fashion guru. Unfortunately, he is pretty busy with his postdoc these days and cannot join us every time. We need you more, Indi!A Shiga match on a baseball pitch•Ashley CanningRemesh Palakkad joined us at the end of the last season and is quickly becoming a central figure in the team. He is a genuine allrounder and our quickest bowler at the moment. I ask him every time whether he wants to take the new ball and he always says no and bowls the second over. We cricketers are superstitious people, aren’t we?Our newest Japanese player, Ikuo Ogita, watched a little cricket footage on CNN years ago and that was how he got interested in the game. He finally started playing this year after finding us on Facebook.However, the two biggest shining lights of our club are a pair of Japanese brothers, Naoki (11) and Kosuke (14) Okamoto, Alan’s family friends. The first time they watched cricket was a Big Bash game on TV during a holiday in Australia. The game looked familiar to them. What form of baseball was this? After a few games in the park while on holiday, they started to practise with a rubber ball. Soon, the temptation of hitting the hard ball became too strong for them and they started to come with Alan to our games. A Japanese version of the Chappell brothers in the making!Emma’s book is a coming-of-age story of a slightly awkward teenager. In chapters three and four, she writes how she tried to be an “evangelist” and introduce cricket to her friends only to find out they “tolerated [her love for cricket] and gently ignored” it. I know how you felt, Emma! I tried too, here in the land ruled by baseball. Some friends and teachers were nice enough to ask me the latest India scores. “How did India go last night, Amod?” “Not good. Lost to Australia again,” was my usual reply while I thought, “Bloody hell, I don’t even support India.”It was tough being the only cricket fan in school. I tried to explain cricket to my school friends many times but to no avail. I now think that the only similarity between cricket and baseball is that you use a bat to hit the ball. They are completely different sports. My friends all thought cricket is a much easier sport to play because there is no foul ball and you can hit the ball to 360 degrees. That is probably true but in cricket, you are judged by your whole innings rather than “one hit”.I sometimes wonder if I’ll get the chance to meet Atherton. “Hi, Athers! Pleasure meeting you. I know you have no idea but you had a big influence on one Japanese teenager growing up. By the way, why on earth did you declare when Graeme Hick was 98 not out in Sydney?”Want to be featured on Inbox? Send your articles to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line.

In other news, Faisalabad end their season with just one point, Salman Butt’s hopes of an international recall diminish, and Fawad Alam’s patchy form continues

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Nov-20171:22

Highlights – Umar Akmal’s blistering century for United Bank

Group stage concludesIn April this year, Misbah-ul-Haq featured in grade 2 cricket for his native Faisalabad side and helped them regain first-class status. A nine-wicket victory against Multan promoted Faisalabad to grade one, allowing them to return to the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan’s premier
first-class tournament. They had been out of it since being relegated at the end of the 2014-15 season.Their time in the top tier, however, has been disastrous, with the side losing six out of seven games, the final game being abandoned due to fog that has gripped much of the country.And so Faisalabad, now led by the offspinner Saeed Ajmal, finished rooted to the bottom of Pool A, managing just one point. SNGPL remained unbeaten, winning six matches, while SSGC, Lahore Blues and WAPDA qualified for the super eight round.From Pool B, UBL, HBL, KRL and Lahore Whites went through to the next stage with FATA ending up bottom, losing five games and winning one. Pakistan Television, a department side that qualified for this year’s tournament, also lost five out of six games, finishing just ahead of FATA. The next round will kick off next month and the final will be played on December 16.Feast or famine for Umar AkmalUmar Akmal’s troubles of late have garnered significant media attention, the 27-year old losing his central contract and being ordered to return to domestic cricket and prove himself all over again. His Quaid-e-Azam Trophy season with United Bank (UBL) didn’t begin happily either, with scores of 47, 6, 11 and 12 in his first four innings.So when he was dismissed by Habib Bank bowler and fellow former international Umar Gul for a first-ball duck, it appeared he was
continuing his downward spiral of the last few months. However, he stormed back in the second innings to play one of the innings of the season so far, smashing 116 off 144 balls in a reminder of the quality he can offer to any line-up he adorns. It helped his side amass 309 in the second innings and defeat Habib Bank by 142 runs. It may prove nothing, however; people have waxed lyrical about his talent for ages anyway. But if he can add consistency and discipline to the mix, he could plot a route back to the international team for the fresh start he clearly believes he deserves.Salman Butt strugglesSalman Butt had pinned his hopes of returning to the international side on this year’s first-class performances, but that call-up now seems a distant prospect. After a couple of stellar seasons, runs have dried up for the former Pakistan captain. He has only managed 264 at 20.30 this season – a performance that fell far short of the standards he would have set himself.During the season, he came under the spotlight after he raised a question about sportsmanship following a close finish in which his side lost by four runs due to No. 11 batsman Mohammad Irfan being mankaded. It invited, given his past background, considerable derision. His national selection almost became a reality earlier this year before Pakistan’s tour of the West Indies, but plans had to be shelved in the wake of the PSL spot-fixing saga.Fawad watchAfter a half-century last week, Fawad Alam stuttered again with the bat in what has been an inconsistent season for the SSGC captain. The slow pace of the game – only 15 wickets fell over the four days – meant he only got to bat once. He couldn’t capitalise on the opportunity, and was out for 6. However, having qualified as the second-placed side from Pool A, Fawad should get the opportunity to showcase his class in the knockouts, and thereby continue to plug away at the ever-receding prospect of an international recall.

The beauty of James Vince’s batting masks a consistent failure to convert starts into finishes, a flaw that would not be tolerated in a less attractive player

Jarrod Kimber at Sydney04-Jan-2018’He looks so good’, ‘look how much time he has’, “he’s pretty’, ‘he looks the part’, “he has the game for this level’, ‘that shot is gorgeous’, ‘just sublime”. They don’t just say this about James Vince; they coo orgasmically. Nothing makes cricket fans happier than a pretty batsman with time. Vince has all the time in the world and is more beautiful than a summer field.What Vince doesn’t have is Test Match runs. Not many of them anyway, he’s produced more middle-aged groans than runs. It took Vince 12 Test innings to pass fifty. In 19 innings, he’s only passed that mark twice. He’s never reached 100.He’s averaging 22 in his career and 28 in this Ashes, despite scoring his two fifties. Dan Weston, owner of Sports Analytics Advantage, had him down for a predicted average of 24. Weston also said on Twitter: “Is there a better example of biased ‘eye tests’ from selectors -> horror selection decision in any sport around the world than James Vince?”The reason for Weston’s tweet is that there is almost nothing in Vince’s numbers that suggest he deserves another go in Tests, especially on a tour, especially on a hard tour, especially on a hard tour batting at No.3.Last season, playing for Hampshire, he averaged 35 with the bat. The only two seasons in his career in which he averaged over 40 (2013 & 2014) were in Division Two. He’s also never made more than two hundreds in a Championship season in Division One. Vince averages 31 in the top flight, where he makes a hundred once every 16 innings, and 50 in the second tier.If he crabbed across the crease like Simon Katich or had a homespun technique like James Taylor, he wouldn’t have been picked for his country on these numbers. He’d be a grizzled pro hiking out a few runs before moving into another career. But factor in Vince’s grace, and you somehow end up with a Test player.Vince is in his ninth year as a professional; he’s 26, this is his second spell in the Test team, he’s played ODIs and T20Is for his country, and also been an overseas pro in the BBL and PSL. He’s not some ingenue who’s drifted into Tests too soon. He’s a professional athlete who is still picked on aesthetics not statistics.This morning he was discussed on almost every commentary service available. At first, it was his poor record this series, then it was how good he had looked. As Mike Selvey said on Twitter: “Truly, I’ve heard enough about Vince’s pretty cover drive. It’s a Test match not effing Canterbury week.”James Vince walks off after edging Pat Cummins behind•Getty Images***A few years back David Gower gave an interview to ESPNcricinfo. Few batsmen have ever looked better when they were in than he, and yet that meant he was cursed every time he got out. “When people came to me and said, “You are not trying”, I said, “Honestly, I am”.” He also went on to point out, “The first man who is disappointed when you get out for none is you. The man just after that, who is equally disappointed, is the bloke who has paid to come and watch.”There’s no doubt that batsmen who look pretty and get out receive a higher level of criticism than a battling batsman. We believe that a batsman who looks like he is struggling must be, and one who isn’t rushed, isn’t. But VVS Laxman didn’t average more than Steve Waugh.When judging batsmen, we often go to how pretty they are. Victor Trumper wouldn’t be remembered if he batted like Andrew Jones – his skill for changing the game and batting on sticky wickets was important, but the thing that really stood for people with his grace. We are human; we like pretty things.The job of a batsman is not to be pretty; it’s to score runs. While having the ability to have more time (which has been scientifically tested) and the skill to play pretty shots is important, it’s not all about batting. They are just the two most obvious traits. Concentration, hand-eye co-ordination, reflexes, footwork, patience, bravery, fitness, technique, composure, training habits, desire, discipline and game awareness. No one batsmen is great at all of them, they all rely on different skills to get their job done. Some play ugly like they aren’t in, and end up with high averages. Others walk in like they own the pitch, ground and everyone in it, and never make a run.It would be irresponsible to judge a player purely on numbers; those numbers need context, history and research to ensure you get to the right answer. But you win Tests with runs, so to pick a player almost entirely on appearances, while choosing to ignore years of evidence that he doesn’t make many runs, is an incredible gamble. And England have made it twice with Vince.None of this is Vince’s fault; he’s trying hard, figuring it out, trying to survive. When he nicks off to second slip over and over again, it is Vince who first feels frustrated. The game isn’t as easy for him as he makes it look. If it were, he’d make more runs.***He’s upright, stylish, loves to drive, seems to enjoy faster bowling more than dibbly dobbers, and doesn’t at all look out of place in Test Cricket. That’s how Michael Vaughan was described at the start of his career. And when he was picked to play for England he was averaging 33.91 in first-class cricket.When people talk about James Vince, they often compare him to Vaughan.In US sports this is known as anchoring, it’s a behavioural heuristic that allows our brains to make a quick comparison. In cricket, you see it all the time, the tall skinny white bowlers who are compared to Glenn McGrath even when their skill set is entirely different. Our brain makes all those shortcuts, and that makes it easier for us to explain them. The problem comes from how often we are wrong, because as with most short cuts, they tend to end up in a hedge. There are no new McGraths.James Vince is not the new Michael Vaughan.Vaughan was picked with a dire record because England were trying to find batsmen to help them while they were in arguably their worst ever period. In the end, for all his success in Tests, Vaughan only averaged five more in that format than in all first-class cricket. Like many players, Vaughan’s best period with the bat came between the ages of 27 and 33, a period of time in which his overall first-class average was 44.7. When he was older and younger it was 33.To think that because Vince is also upright, graceful and has a bad first-class average, he will also come good in Tests is optimistic. Batsmen don’t usually make more runs in Tests than in first-class cricket; some young batsmen do, as they are picked on potential, some older players do, as they are picked when they are in career-best form. But on average, your first-class career gives a pretty good indication of what you will do in Tests.Vince’s career consists of him not making a lot of runs and struggling when he steps up in class. Seeing as he has not yet hit the golden part of his batting age just yet, it is possible that he will come good. Instead of elegant failures, we’ll see a pro run-scorer come to the fore. It’s also possible that, if he keeps getting chances, he’ll make a breathless hundred. But based on what he has done in his career so far, the chances of him being a consistent run-scorer in Tests is kinda low. For now there will be more pretty starts and brainfarts.James Vince plays one of his trademark drives•Getty Images***Wherever you stand on the Mitchell Starc “ball of the century” debate, it’s an unplayable ball, and Vince’s role was never going to be more than slain victim. But that is not the kind of ball that Vince has struggled with at Test level. The kind of ball that gets Vince out is the kind of ball that most players smash for four.”Vince was right to attack the ball which dismissed him. Against seamer deliveries within 10cm of the one which got Vince, batsmen in our database average 72.40, scoring at 5.43rpo.” This is what CricViz tweeted about the ball that dismissed Vince today. It was short and wide, a Test player would expect to smash it away for four. Many other times, Vince has been dismissed from full and wide balls; again, the kind Test players feast on.Perhaps Vince chases the four balls more viciously than other players, since his debut no one has scored more than 350 runs in Tests with a higher percentage of boundaries. In all, a third of his runs are from boundaries. Vince isn’t even a quick scorer, so he’s either not scoring, or trying to hit a boundary. That gives Test bowlers a long time to look at you. And makes it a riskier shot when you do go for broke.There is also a thought that Vince gets himself out. Perhaps today he did, perhaps he did in the first Test at the Gabba, when he looked set for his first Test ton only to run himself out for 83. But mostly, it seems teams have good plans for him.Vince is only in his third series, but to judge by the data available so far, it is clear that bowling attacks during his debut home summer in 2016 hung the ball out wide and waited for him to nick off. Here in Australia, the bowlers have kept the ball just outside off stump, back of a length, and waited for him to nick off. The real problem for Vince is the conscience; teams work him out, then they get him out. Teams have worked out he doesn’t have patience or concentration, and over time they can work on those flaws, knowing that he’ll eventually make a mistake.All of this makes him pretty, but dull, if you’re an English fan. An unfortunate pretty hate machine.***At The Oval this year, Vince made his way out to the middle when Hampshire lost their first two wickets for 71. It was a flat wicket, and Surrey had both Currans and Mark Footitt bowling. From the start, Vince looked as if he was batting on rails. As if each boundary was part of a movie script, with a storyboard, special effects, choreographer, and make-up team to make it look perfect.Vince had time, he looked pretty, and runs gushed from his bat all day. The Oval crowd made all the sorts of noises you hear when Vince is making runs. As he does in this mood, he had the illusion of permanence, like watching a Jaguar at 100 miles an hour and forgetting about all the times you’ve seen it broken down. He cruised towards a century in a shade over two hours.Just after his hundred, Tom Curran bowled one outside off stump and Vince nicked off*. It was only Vince’s seventh hundred in Division One cricket, it should have been a moment of success, but instead it looked like a continuation of his habitual flaw; he doesn’t fail to start, he fails to go on. Three other players would score more runs in the match, and you could argue he was more naturally talented than all of them.But that would be a useless argument, based on perception and subjective theories. The aim of the game is not to be the most naturally talented, to be the most effortless, or have the most time; the aim of the game is to make the most runs. Vince hasn’t done that in first-class cricket. He isn’t doing it in Tests.***Today James Vince hit, even for him, one of the most beautiful cover drives you’ll see in cricket. The shot made everyone who saw it make weird uncomfortable sounds; it stayed with you for overs, like a kiss from a lover, you automatically sigh when it enters your memory, which it does a lot. It was one of those shots you want tattooed on your arm, to play just once, one that you can’t even master in that surreal over-the-top dream. Oh, it was quite a shot.Today James Vince made 25.*2300 GMT – This paragraph was updated to correct Vince’s mode of dismissal

The 21-year-old quick has been fast-tracked into the national set-up, vindicating his decision to let go of AFL ambitions and pursue his cricketing dreams instead

Shashank Kishore in Bengaluru24-Aug-2018In 2012, a 15-year old Jhye Richardson fancied a career in the Australian Football League (AFL). Growing up in Perth, he wanted to play for the Fremantle Dockers. He took steps towards his first goal when he was picked for East Fremantle, a development squad of the Dockers that plays in the Western Australia competition, below the national level. But cricket caught his attention before he could take the next step.He didn’t live too far from the WACA, and the generous dose of cricket stories he listened to helped him make his mind up to trade football boots for cricket spikes. It wasn’t surprising that he chose to become a fast bowler. Six years on, it’s a decision he’s thankful for, having already played four ODIs and seven T20Is for the national team. Now, he’s on Australia A’s tour of India, trying to strengthen his case for becoming an all-format regular.”I didn’t watch a lot of cricket when I was younger, but the things that stood out were stories of Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee bowling bouncers at WACA,” Richardson says. “As a fast bowler, when you hear stories of how those guys hit sightscreens one-bounce, that’s just ridiculous. It’s awesome; I wish I could have been there to see that.”The one bowler he did see from close quarters was Mitchell Johnson, whose ‘Summer of 2013’ was as close as it got to what Richardson missed watching. Johnson, who was with the Perth Scorchers, took a special interest in Richardson after watching him bowl in a couple of net sessions. He took time out to chat with the rookie and even had good words to write in a newspaper column.”He played so much international cricket and had such a good name behind himself, so to hear good things from someone like him automatically gives you the confidence,” Richardson says. “I’d like to think I have a relatively good relationship with him now, just being able to learn off him at Scorchers, he’s been amazing. Just having him around the group, he’s a jokester, always good to have. He’s an awesome guy. Reading his thoughts on me then did make me feel good inside.”Johnson’s praise was particularly encouraging because all Richardson kept hearing when he switched to cricket was why he wasn’t cut out to be a fast bowler. At 178 cm and 72 kg, many said he didn’t have a typical “fast bowler’s frame”. Richardson didn’t let the naysayers dissuade him, but is honest enough to admit he is “a little surprised” at his fast-tracking.

“I know one thing that Justin Langer has brought in already is ensuring that you need to do what the team needs for this ball, this situation. He often says, ‘Your next ball is the most important thing in your life.’ That’s what me and the other guys are concentrating on.”Jhye Richardson

Richardson is a product of the Fremantle Club in Perth, which has produced a number of Australia players, most recently the Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell. It’s a club he is emotionally attached to.”That’s a great club, I mean we have so many Australian representatives go through that club,” he says. “We’ve got the Marsh brothers, guys like Ashton Turner, and every time I get to play club cricket, it’s awesome. Often those guys have played there. The environment is obviously a little more relaxed than national cricket, so you can take a step back, take a breath and have casual conversations that you may not normally get to do in the national squad.”I think that’s probably the main factor, of why I guess why I’ve probably exceeded people’s expectations and my expectations coming up, because I think it has been so fast-tracked. So just being able to learn off those guys from such an early age has helped.”Richardson’s maiden international tour to South Africa earlier this year was overshadowed by the ball-tampering fiasco. Then, in England, Australia were whitewashed in the ODIs – experiences that could scar even seasoned cricketers. For Richardson, though, these were life lessons he accepted and dealt with calmly.”I played football when I was much younger and before cricket,” he says. “The thing I learnt from football from an early age is being around the team environment, learning not to be selfish around the team, learning to put the team first, and what the team needs. Learning that from a young age has definitely helped me to really engage within the team.”This is Richardson’s first tour of India, and in the first one-dayer that his team got to play in, he singed India A’s top order with three wickets in a searing new-ball burst. He says it was all down to the lessons he’s picked up by chatting with senior players and watching his own team-mates prepare.”For me, it’s about being adaptable,” he says. “I know I’ve fallen into the trap in the last few years of trying to blow the batsmen into the water. You can’t just bowl fast and get away with it, you’ve to be really on the spot. For me moving forward, especially over the last few years, especially after getting the national call-up, that has been a major learning experience for me. If the wickets are going to be slow and low, that’s the way to get the pressure on.”A lot of the other guys I speak to to often say patience is the key in India. Wickets aren’t probably good for pace bowlers, so I think it’s about just not getting over-greedy and then staying patient with the bowling, hitting the top of off as much as you can and putting pressure on the batsmen.”Richardson knows how important this tour is if he wants to earn a national call-up for the tour of the UAE against Pakistan in October, but he’s determined to not get ahead of himself. “There’s a lot of hype on this tour about how important it is. If guys get carried away thinking about the future, then we’re not going to perform in the present,” he says.”For now in this group, we’ve talked about trying to stay as level-headed as possible and not thinking to the future. I know one thing that Justin Langer has brought in already [as the Australia coach] is ensuring that you need to do what the team needs for this ball, this situation. He often says, ‘Your next ball is the most important thing in your life.’ That’s what me and the other guys are concentrating on.”

A deep dive into numbers from the last 30 years or so will reveal that Dale Steyn is not merely great, but is actually among the finest half-dozen quicks to ever have played the game

Andrew Fidel Fernando18-Jul-2018 • Updated on 31-Aug-2021Just how good is Dale Steyn? Outstanding, right? Almost everyone will agree he is an all-time great. But as he stands on the verge of breaking the record for South Africa’s most Test wickets, requiring one more dismissal to go clear of Shaun Pollock, the numbers suggest he has been even better than he is in most people’s estimation. It may be that Steyn is not merely great, but is actually among the finest half-dozen quicks to ever have played the game.We will eventually measure Steyn’s record in relation to the best quicks through cricket’s modern history, but before that let’s look at how he compares to his 21st-century peers. Among fast bowlers who have taken over 200 wickets since 2000, Steyn’s average of 22.42 is third-best, behind those of Glenn McGrath and Vernon Philander. While McGrath was experiencing a late-career harvest (his overall numbers are slightly worse), Philander is buoyed by spectacular numbers while playing at home – he has been nowhere near as effective as Steyn outside South Africa, and his returns in Asia have been particularly modest relative to his exploits elsewhere.Where Steyn is a clear leader, however, is in strike rate; no one else on the list gets close to his 41.6. He is also the second-highest wicket-taker for this period, with 421 scalps. Only James Anderson has been more successful, but Anderson’s average (27.23) and strike rate (56.2), are not in Steyn’s league. This is no real surprise – although Anderson has been a supremely skillful bowler, Steyn could do pretty much everything Anderson could do, but at 10kph faster.How Steyn stacks up against other fast bowlers of his era•Ishita Mazumder/ESPNcricinfo LtdAmong Steyn’s clearest claims to greatness have been his performances in Asia, where quicks generally encounter the least helpful surfaces. He has 92 wickets in the continent, well clear of Anderson, who is the next-most-successful non-Asian seamer this century with 59 wickets. Among quicks to have played at least 20 Tests in Asia since 2000, though, Steyn’s numbers compare favourably even with those of Asian fast bowlers. His numbers are virtually indistinguishable from those of Shoaib Akhtar, with other wonderful Asian quicks – the likes of Chaminda Vaas and Zaheer Khan – sitting way back.The best Test fast bowlers in Asia since 2000•Ishita Mazumder/ESPNcricinfo LtdWe have now established that Steyn is the most penetrative and versatile quick of the last 15 years, but let’s now look a little further back and bring the great ’90s bowlers into the frame. To do a meaningful comparison across eras, though, we must account for varying conditions and trends. Although bowler-friendly tracks have made a roaring comeback over the past few years, much of Steyn’s career was played in an infamously batting-friendly period. So instead of merely stacking up these players’ averages and strike rates against each other, let’s look at how much better each bowler was than his peers, by calculating the difference between each bowler’s numbers and the mean bowling numbers in his career span (that is, the mean bowling stats from between the bowler’s first and last Test).From among a group of eight truly outstanding quicks, Steyn has the best average differential, though he is neck-and-neck with McGrath.

Where Steyn sets himself apart from McGrath, however, is via that incredible strike rate. Only Waqar Younis had a better strike rate differential than Steyn, but then Waqar was more expensive as well.How much better is Steyn over others in his era?•Ishita Mazumder/ESPNcricinfo LtdWhere Steyn’s versatility – owing probably to his mastery of reverse-swing – really become clear is when his figures in Asia are compared to those of the best visiting quicks through cricket’s history. His raw average and strike rate in Asia is staggering enough, but throw the differential numbers in – that is, compare Steyn’s stats to the mean for his era, while doing the same for the other non-Asian greats – he comes out ahead of the pack in terms of average.How Steyn’s numbers in Asia stack up against the rest•ESPNcricinfo LtdOn strike rate, Steyn and Wes Hall are well clear of the rest. Effectively, Steyn’s wickets in Asia have come an astounding 28 balls closer together than they have for the average bowler in his era.ESPNcricinfo’s jury panel recently voted in McGrath as the right-arm quick in our Test team of the last 25 years, but given the above numbers, I would replace McGrath with Steyn, owing not only to Steyn’s prowess on the toughest continent for quicks, but also because of the value he adds via his strike rate. A full fifth of McGrath’s wickets had also come against minnows, by which of course I mean England 1994 through 2003.Even Malcolm Marshall, whose record in Asia is what clinches him the “greatest fast bowler ever” tag, for many, was not quite as statistically dominant as Steyn has been there.Is Steyn the greatest-ever non-Asian quick bowler in Asia?•Ishita Mazumder/ESPNcricinfo LtdBy now, it is clear that numbers-wise, Steyn has a strong claim to being the finest fast bowler of the last 30 years – in a fairly crowded field. He is also almost certainly the best non-Asian quick in Asian conditions. Among bowlers of any ilk with more than 200 wickets, from any era, Steyn’s career strike rate of 41.6 is the best. If you are a captain in need of quick wickets, with minimal release of pressure, there is no better player to call on from your great-bowler rolodex than Steyn; he is the most aggressive great bowler there has been.

Finally, one more figure that puts Steyn in the league of the most sublime quicks to ever bear down on batsmen: his record in victories. Aside from the first few years of his career, in which Australia dominated, South Africa have arguably been the best Test team in the world for a good portion of Steyn’s career. In that time, no bowler has been more crucial to his team’s success. In fact, few quicks have ever been as impactful for any team as Steyn. Of bowlers that played in the last 100 years, only Richard Hadlee and Imran Khan have better averages in victories (minimum: 100 wickets in wins). Steyn has more wickets in wins than the other top 15 bowlers (by average). It pretty much goes without saying by this stage that Steyn’s rocking strike rate is the best.

With all these numbers considered and put into historical context, Steyn’s career comes out looking even more monstrous than perhaps he has got credit for. How many bowlers in history can claim to have dominated matches in Galle (in 2014), as well as at the Wanderers? There is stiff competition for the pace-bowling spots in an all-time XI, but having been the clear leader during his playing period, and having put up spectacular numbers despite playing in one of the most batting-friendly eras in history, he deserves to be part of any all-time XI conversation.Stats updated till July 18, 2018

The Test readiness of England’s rookies is perhaps secondary to the sense of purpose that their inclusions project

Andrew Miller at Lord's08-Aug-20181:47

Pope gets the nod for England, but who’ll miss out?

The kids are alright, you know. For the fourth time in 2018 alone, and for the fifth time since the selection of Haseeb Hameed on the last tour of India in November 2016, England have plumped for youth over experience, excitement over stability, the bold approach over the same old narrative with interchangeably seasoned campaigners.At the age of 20 years and 219 days, Surrey’s Ollie Pope will bat at No.4 for England in the Lord’s Test – a position that effectively leaves him man-marking one of the game’s all-time great batsmen in India’s captain, Virat Kohli, the scorer of 200 formidable runs in last week’s Edgbaston Test.With just 15 first-class matches under his belt, Pope slots into England’s Test history as their third-youngest specialist batsman behind Denis Compton (19 years and 83 days) and Hameed (19 years and 269 days), and does so in the wake of his Surrey team-mate and fellow 20-year old, Sam Curran, being named as Man of the Match for a precocious allround display in the first Test.Throw into the mix the bloodings of Mason Crane (20 years and 320 days) at Sydney in January, and Dom Bess (20 years and 306 days) for the Pakistan Tests in May and June, and is clear that the only thing being fast-tracked more quickly than young English talent is a sense of revolution from the new national selector, Ed Smith, who whiled away his time during England’s nets session by patrolling the Nursery Ground outfield with phone glued to ear and with shades and rolled-up shirtsleeves transmitting a stockbroker’s air of urgency.What could possibly go wrong? Well, everything and nothing, in the opinion of England’s captain, Joe Root (who was himself a grizzled 22-year-old when he made his own Test bow at Nagpur in 2012-13). Before this sudden baby boom, England had chosen just 19 under-21s in their first 140 years of Test history – most recently Steven Finn as a last-minute replacement on the tour of Bangladesh in 2010. But with the team’s current Test record perhaps as erratic as it has been in a generation, there is arguably a perverse prudence to such an abrupt change of strategy.”If you’re old enough, you’re good enough,” Root said. “A lot of the selections of late have been quite bold, we’re not shy of being a little bit brave and doing things slightly differently. It’s worked out for us so far.””I think when you give exciting young talents responsibility, they tend to surprise you,” he added. “We’ve seen that so far. The challenge for them moving forward is to try and sustain that and not put too much pressure on themselves and too much expectation on them to deliver on a really consistent basis.”Ollie Pope and Sam Curran warm up ahead of training•Getty ImagesThe issue of youth and renewal is one that cuts to the core of everything in English cricket at present. The question of whether the likes of Pope and Curran are truly ready for the step-up in class is perhaps secondary to the sense of purpose that their inclusions project.Much as was the case with Adil Rashid’s recall at Edgbaston (and maybe, if you want to extrapolate even further, the ongoing mayhem that is The Hundred), the noses that get put out of joint by the ECB’s sudden predilection for thinking outside the box are less important than those outside the game’s usual confines who get wind of this disruption to the status quo, and poke their noses in for a first sniff of the action.Certainly Root was at pains to make it clear that the door is not closed to county performers who earn their recognition through the more traditional formula of runs and wickets over time. But, tellingly, he also seemed less interested in immediate dividends, even with a series as important as a five-Test rubber against India on the line. The long game is what really matters as England attempt to reboot their red-ball fortunes.”I think we’ve got to be really realistic that these guys are exciting young players and they will do some very good stuff,” said Root. “It might not all happen straight away and we have to be a little bit patient with that.” Join us for the ride, in other words, and invest in these guy’s stories. Whatever transpires, it is unlikely to be dull.Even India’s captain seemed rather engaged by Pope’s tale. “We want to try and knock him over as early as possible, but on a larger front, I am happy for him,” Kohli said. “As a cricketer I understand how important it is. I will tell him to enjoy the occasion, and not get too many runs!”The prospect of Pope having his credentials scrutinised by the best batsman in the world may be daunting, but it is not as if England’s rookies are being thrown into the fray without a serious support network behind them. In Alastair Cook, James Anderson and Stuart Broad – not to mention Root himself, whose 6000 Test runs are still only the start of what he could achieve – this team’s senior pros are among the most senior ever to have played the game.”We’ve got some very good experienced players around them so they can learn and mould their games at the highest level,” said Root. “For young guys coming in, that’s exciting for this team, and for people around it, seeing a young man in Sam performing how he did last week with a real bright future, it’s exciting for English cricket. That should fill a lot of other lads around the country with a huge amount of confidence.”And if the beauty of Test cricket lies in its narrative, then what could be more beautiful than these kids-turned-veterans, looking back in 15 years’ time on the priceless nuggets of wisdom that they received first-hand in their earliest outings? It may be wildly out of kilter with everything that English cricket has preached about Test cricket in the course of its first 990-odd engagements. But since the turn of the year, there’s been a turning of the page. And are you not entertained already?

‘To be honest, I believe in [the yo-yo test]. I was disappointed in a way as to why I could not clear the test, so I worked towards it and cleared it’

Shashank Kishore in Bengaluru23-Aug-2018In July, when India were playing an ODI series in England, Ambati Rayudu was enjoying his time in the Yorkshire sun. Only a month prior to that, he had been withdrawn from the ODI squad because of “fitness concerns”, which he later confirmed was a failed yo-yo test.Rayudu, though, wasn’t sulking at the axe, even if an international comeback after two years had just been put on hold. He enjoyed a week-long trip to England, mentoring a bunch of age-group cricketers, handpicked by his IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, on an exchange programme. Incidentally, it was in England that Rayudu had first stormed his way into the national reckoning in 2002, with a 177 in a one-dayer against England’s Under-19s.Now he finds himself back in the fray again, after passing the yo-yo test. Less than 24 hours after being drafted into the India A side, Rayudu weathered a probing burst of fast bowling from Billy Stanlake and Jhye Richardson to make a fighting unbeaten half-century. In the bigger scheme of things, it gives the national selectors another option as they search for a consistent middle order batsman with the 2019 World Cup just 10 months away.”I was disappointed with myself that I could not clear the test [before the England tour],” he said on Thursday. “[I have] nothing against the test at all as everybody has to be there at a certain fitness level, to play for India. To be honest, I believe in it. I was disappointed in a way as to why I could not clear the test, so I worked towards it and cleared it.”After he returned from the coaching stint in the UK, it was business as usual at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. At a time when many of the fringe players were locked up in a tussle against South Africa A, Rayudu was immersed in his own routines.Every morning, barring the one weekly day off, he was at the gym for cardio, followed by strength and conditioning sessions. Those were followed by two hour-long batting stints with a small lunch break in between. The evenings were spent in recovery. This routine helped him regain “lost fitness” and set himself up for the yo-yo test again.When the teams for the quadrangular series were announced, Rayudu wasn’t included among the 30 players across the two Indian squads, because he hadn’t yet taken the yo-yo test. Earlier this week, Rayudu completed his test, met the parameters prescribed by the team management, and made the India A squad.The IPL, where he was the highest run-getter in a victorious campaign for CSK (602 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 149.75), seemed a distant memory, but Rayudu showed no traces of rust or a dip in form when he returned to action on Thursday.He was his calm self, absorbing pressure, trying to play on the patience of the bowling unit, before cashing in once the spinners were introduced. The end result – a carefully crafted half-century in a winning chase – pleased him, even though he showed no outward elation afterwards.Rayudu has been unlucky in the past too with fitness issues. In 2015 he had to return from Zimbabwe, where he was part of a second-string India ODI side, because of a quadriceps injury. In the two innings on the tour, he had made 42 not out and an unbeaten century. He lost a year after that in recovery, and when he was eventually declared match-fit he couldn’t quite regain his place.These episodes, Rayudu said, taught him valuable lessons in channeling his frustration. He also underlined how important it was to be in a good headspace and accept injuries to deal with them better. Asked about the frustration of not being termed “yo-yo fit” despite being “match fit in the IPL”, Rayudu was forthright.”Fitness is definitely important for cricket. Obviously one has to be absolutely fit to play,” he said. I am happy that there is a certain kind of a benchmark and a bar. It is just that everybody has to respect it and move forward. For me, it is just keeping things simple. I missed a year due to an injury. This year, I could not clear the test for the last series, so I am actually happy to be back to play for India A.”Rayudu is a man of few words. The anger he can sometimes show on the field can, at times, come as a shock if you’re used to his polite off-field persona. He smiles more than he talks.From being touted as one for the future in 2002 to playing in an Under-19 World Cup in 2004 to disappearing into the rebel ICL and then returning to the mainstream, Rayudu’s career has been one of promise not entirely fulfilled. He has seen many of his Under-19 contemporaries – Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik to name a few – bypass him for the India cap. After his return from the ICL, he switched from Hyderabad to Baroda and Vidarbha before returning home again.As he readies himself for another audition ahead of next year’s World Cup, there are bound to be sterner tests. But Rayudu isn’t perturbed. “In a country of billion people, if you are able to represent your country, you will be happy, it is always a matter of pride. I am happy that I am now in the scheme of things. I am just waiting for another opportunity.”

With a strong core of experienced players – Bates, Devine, Satterthwaite, Kasperek – New Zealand will be keen to make amends for their collapse in the 2016 World T20 semi-final

Vishal Dikshit08-Nov-2018

Squad list

Amy Satterthwaite (capt), Suzie Bates, Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Sophie Devine, Kate Ebrahim, Maddy Green, Holly Huddleston, Hayley Jensen, Leigh Kasperek, Amelia Kerr, Katey Martin, Lea Tahuhu, Jess Watkin, Anna Peterson, Hannah Rowe

World T20 pedigree

One of the stronger and consistent teams in women’s cricket, New Zealand had a stellar run in the 2016 World T20 until they fumbled in the semi-final. Apart from pushing aside Sri Lanka and Ireland in their opening two matches, they thrashed Australia by six wickets (how often does Meg Lanning get out for a golden duck?) and then bowled South Africa out for 99. In the semi-final too, they were on their way to chase down 144 against West Indies but the eventual champions struck timely blows to end New Zealand’s campaign.They still have the same personnel who starred in their run to the knockouts – Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and Leigh Kasperek albeit under a different captain this time. Bates stepped down just two months before the World T20 and handed the reins to experienced allrounder Amy Satterthwaite. If Bates can perform even better than how she has been with the bat in recent times – centuries for Hampshire, Player-of-the-Match performance in the IPL exhibition match – then oppositions will have to find new ways to restrict her. She will, however, need more support from the middle order if New Zealand wish to go all the way.Leigh Kasperek (holding the trophy) poses for a selfie with her team-mates•IDI/Getty Images

Recent T20I form

After the last World T20, they won twice against Pakistan and even beat Australia 2-1 in Australia (2017) and whitewashed West Indies 4-0 at home earlier this year.Their recent form will be a slight worry though. They won only two of five matches in a T20I tri-series against South Africa and England in June, and were handed a seven-wicket thrashing in the final. A big positive in that series included their record score of 216 in the opener, but the main contribution came from Bates’ 66-ball 124.In their most recent series, away from home, Australia blanked them 3-0. Batting first, New Zealand could not defend their totals in any of the three matches. Going into the World T20, they will hope their spinners Leigh Kasperek and Amelia Kerr fare much better on the slower pitches in the Caribbean.Amy Satterthwaite pulls stylishly•Getty Images

The captain and coach

“Branch”, as she is known for her height, Amy Satterthwaite is one of the more experienced players in the squad. Having begun her international career in 2007, the middle-order batsman has made six ODI centuries and strikes at nearly 95 in T20Is. She also has a knack of scoring big in big matches – her maiden international century was against Australia, and she scored 103 and 85 in successive matches against England in the 2013 World Cup.She was left out of the squad for the World T20 in 2014 but returned with impressive performances and has now played in the WBBL as well as the Kia Super League in England. She also became the first woman to score four consecutive ODI centuries, only the second player in international cricket after Kumar Sangakkara.Earlier a medium-pacer, she switched to bowling offspin and even holds the best T20I figures (among the major nations) of 6 for 17.Haidee Tiffen, also one of the finest allrounders of her time, has been with New Zealand for three-and-a-half years now. Also a former captain and an impressive athlete when she played, she focusses on all those aspects as a coach and mentor for several of the young women in the squad. She also acted as the assistant coach of Auckland Hearts and the New Zealand side before taking over full time from Hamish Barton. Having won the 2000 World Cup and led her side to the final of the 2009 edition, she will be eager to achieve similar success as a coach this time, and in a different format.The male cricketer to come closest to Amelia Kerr’s 232 not out and five-for in an ODI is Alvin Kallicharran, who made 206 and took six wickets in a List A game in England in 1984•Getty Images

Best players

The top run-scorer in women’s T20Is, New Zealand’s second-highest wicket-taker in the format, and the player with most catches by a non-wicketkeeper for her country – Suzie Bates. Opening the batting with the explosive Sophie Devine, Bates will be the most crucial player for New Zealand, playing the anchor role with the bat, picking up wickets with the ball and defusing crunch situations when they arise. This year, apart from her form in international cricket, she chipped in with vital performances for the Southern Vipers in the Kia Super League.As much as frontline spinners Kasperek and Kerr are expected to exploit the conditions in the coming weeks, New Zealand will need some solidity in the middle order too, and they will look to Katey Martin for that. Their captain also named Martin as one of the key players for the tournament, after they arrived in Guyana last week. Apart from wicketkeeping gloves, Martin brings with her the experience of 140 international matches having made her debut in 2003. She has scored four T20I fifties this year, was the Player of the T20I Series against West Indies at home earlier this year, and put on a record 124 with Satterthwaite in the second T20I of the same series – then the highest for New Zealand.

Where will they finish

Given they are in Group B with India, Australia, Pakistan and Ireland, New Zealand will have to reach the knockouts at the expense of India or Australia. Considering Australia’s pedigree, the tournament’s opening game between India and New Zealand could well decide who takes the first-mover advantage out of the two. While they have made it to the knockouts consistently in the past, it’s the extra push towards the final they have lacked and need to overcome.

Cricket in Meghalaya faces a multitude of hurdles. but hope for the future is embodied in the motley crew that makes up the state’s first-ever Ranji Trophy squad

Saurabh Somani20-Nov-2018If a Meghalaya player has a particularly bad outing during this Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season, you might find him teetering nervously on the edge of a cliff, about to jump off. No, literally, you might.This will not be a “leave this world behind” leap, though. It’ll be a bungee jump. Sponsored by captain Jason Lamare. Because Lamare runs an adventure-sports business in Shillong, and bungee jumping is next on the expansion agenda. And when asked if he’d let any players do it, he laughs and tells ESPNcricinfo, “Definitely. It will be a punishment – if you don’t bowl well or bat well, you’re going to jump!”This propensity to laugh is infectious and heart-warming, and it runs across the team. It’s in evidence during their training sessions, when they are on the field, when they are attending an official dinner, or when they are engaging in an impromptu game of foot-volleyball because Cyclone Gaja has stopped play in Puducherry, the venue of Meghalaya’s second Ranji Trophy match.Before the Vijay Hazare Trophy that marked Meghalaya’s entry into senior-level cricket, the team bonded by trekking up Shillong Peak in the rain. During the tournament, whose Plate Group was played across three cities in Gujarat, they watched “all the movies that released that month together” – according to Puneet Bisht, the senior-most professional.The north-east has for long been looked at as football country in cricket-crazy India. It might have stayed that way had the Lodha Committee recommendations not mandated the BCCI to include all of its states in the cricket fold. Nearly all of the cricket in Meghalaya is concentrated in the capital city of Shillong, which has a grand total of ground. But in this cricketing outpost, there might still be hope for a cricketing future.There’s the captain himself, who at 35 is one of the oldest members in the team. He played for Assam before the Meghalaya Cricket Association was formed, and this, he thought, had ended his cricket career prematurely. So did his cousin Mark Ingty, who is 42. Ingty made his first-class debut in January 2002, when fellow fast bowlers Lakhan Singh and Dippu Sangma were in kindergarten. Fun fact: the combined ages of Lakhan and Dippu fall short of Ingty’s.The BCCI has provided support staff for the team, which is a boon because it’s brought them an experienced hand as head coach, in Sanath Kumar. Like each of the other eight new teams, Meghalaya have signed up professionals too, the trio of Bisht, Yogesh Nagar and Gurinder Singh bringing skill, nous and years of experience on the domestic treadmill with them.But while necessary when the team is in its toddler phase, the professional coaches and players are peripheral to the cricketing story of the team. Sure, it’s the professionals who have done the heavy lifting for Meghalaya so far – as they have for every team in the Plate Group. But for those teams right now, the journey is far more significant than the results.Fast bowlers Chengkam Sangma (left) and Dippu Sangma travelled hundreds of kilometres to make it to the Meghalaya team•Saurabh Somani/ESPNcricinfoDippu and Chengkam Sangma’s journey to the senior team was an arduous trek, literally. Chengkam stays in Tura, home to the Garo indigenous group. It’s 323 kilometres of mountainous terrain from Shillong. For Dippu, Tura is the closest “big town” – he lives a further 100-plus kilometres away, in Baghmara.”There’s not much scope for jobs,” Chengkam says, and Dippu nods his assent. An advertisement in local papers for trials for the state team brought them together. There was one initial round of trial in Tura. Both attended, both were selected to go further, and they arrived in Shillong. Both did well once again, and found themselves part of the state team.Chengkam is one of seven siblings, Dippu counts himself among six. Both grew up on tennis-ball cricket, and neither had bowled with a leather ball until three years ago. “I found it heavy,” Dippu says of his first experience with a proper cricket ball. “I couldn’t control the swing also, and while batting, I couldn’t play the swinging ball well.”Chengkam had a similar experience, and neither had access to any coaching that would guide them. They’re now bowling at one level below international cricket, having made an unimaginable journey not just in miles but in learning the game too.”Our village is a bit backward, so there isn’t any big business. I would have done some small business if it wasn’t for cricket,” Chengkam says. His family wasn’t supportive of his foray into the game until recently. Now that he’s representing the state, they’ve relented. Other players might see dollar signs when the IPL comes calling, or in glitzy ad shoots once they make it as international cricketers. Here, the earnings as a journeyman domestic cricketer are gold dust, and a more lucrative career option than any other available.”I was studying before this, I just did my graduation. My college is not very good,” Dippu offers with disarming honesty. “If it wasn’t for cricket, I would have looked for a job, maybe in the police.”They speak Hindi with a lilting twang, but despite an obvious communication gap, there is little difficulty in making themselves understood, especially when they are asked if cricket was the best option for them. “Yes,” comes one emphatic answer. “Definitely,” comes the other.Wanlambok Nongkhlaw will go back to being a traffic policeman after the cricket season•Wanlambok NongkhlawIf any of the Meghalaya team were to break traffic rules while zipping around Shillong, they might cop a fine from Wanlambok Nongkhlaw, a traffic policeman who also happens to be the only left-arm seamer in the Ranji squad.Nongkhlaw was stationed in Shillong, and was active in the local leagues for the Meghalaya Police (MLP) team. Four MLP players were called for trials, and only Nongkhlaw made it to the state team. Once the season is done, though, Nongkhlaw will return to his job – though he might perhaps let a minor infraction or two pass if he spots a team-mate riding down the street without a helmet. “A little bit you can let go,” he says, eyes twinkling.”I have not turned from a policemen to a cricketer, I’ve turned from a cricketer into a policeman,” Nongkhlaw says. “I’ve been playing cricket since childhood, and then in 2008 I got a job with the police and I was posted with the traffic police.”There are signs that a cricketing culture could take root in Meghalaya, but plenty of work remains to be done.”The first challenge is getting enough players,” coach Sanath says. “The other thing is enough place to practice. All cricket used to take place in just one ground in Shillong. Now suddenly you have the men’s team, Under-23, Under-19, women’s team, women’s age-group teams… and with just three or four pitches, everybody has to practice. They are used to unexpected rains too. So for their weather, they definitely need a very good indoor practice facility, which they don’t have yet.”Funding is an aspect Sanath stresses on. It’s needed to build more practice facilities, to send the team for matches outside the state to accelerate their learning, and to maintain and spread the game in Meghalaya.”I feel people in the north-east love sports,” Sanath says. “And they are naturally very agile and athletic. It’s just that they haven’t been given an opportunity to get into the game yet.”Lamare concurs. “We have kids who play and we have youth interested. There is a cricket academy which has 300 students now. It might take a few years, but it is going to pick up,” he says. “Once the youth in all the north-eastern states realise there is potential in cricket, there is a career. You don’t have to work now, you can actually play cricket and earn – so interest will develop.”Meghalaya captain Jason Lamare is leading them on the field, but his first love is adventure sports•Saurabh Somani/ESPNcricinfoDespite that, Lamare almost didn’t want to come back to cricket, preferring to mess about with scuba diving, ziplining, rock climbing and the like. Father Peter, a coach at the Shillong Academy, and Ingty – who has missed the first two rounds through injury – brought him around. “My dad and Mark Ingty convinced me to play,” Lamare says. “His (Ingty’s) mother and my father are brother and sister, so we’ve literally grown up playing cricket. We are very close. He’s feeling really lousy he’s not here. We miss him.”Adventure sports is, in a way, Lamare’s first love. His company, Pioneer Adventure Tours, has been in operation from 2012 and has had visits fro Shikhar Dhawan, Unmukt Chand and the actor Kalki Koechlin, among others.When Meghalaya became an Affiliate member of the BCCI in 2008, Lamare could not play for Assam any more. And at 25, he couldn’t play for Meghalaya either, since they didn’t have a senior team.”That winter I went to Goa to become a certified scuba-diving instructor,” he says. “I worked there for two seasons till 2011. Then in 2012 I started my adventure business. Adventure has always been a part of me, so that move was always going to happen. It just happened a bit earlier because my cricket career halted in 2008. I thought that since my business is stable now, I can keep it aside for two months. January 2 is the last game, and on 4th it’s back to work!”Standing around on a cricket field for 90 overs must be dull for Lamare after that. “Definitely,” he laughs. “When things don’t go your way in the game, though, you think, ‘Man I wish I was back home diving or cliff-jumping or something.'”Meghalaya are one of the few north-east teams for whom “home” games are actually at home – and not in a borrowed stadium in a different state. For Lamare, one thing is certain as soon as they have a stretch of games at home. “As soon as we’re in Shillong, the team is immediately going,” he says. Going, that is, for adventure sports with him.When they do go, whether they’re ziplining or rappelling or camping by the riverside – it will merely be an extension of life as they’ve known it these past few months. It’s been an adventure.