Rain in Wales - Day One at Cardiff

Following a positively Saharan spring it was no surprise to dyed in the wool cricket supporters that the first day of the international summer dawned rainy and cool. It even rained in Cambridge, a city where grassland and concrete has long been indistinguishable, so Cardiff had no chance.

There was a time when a morning of rain would have put paid to play for the day, but drainage systems and attitudes have changed since the 1980 Centenary Test and the constant fretting of Dickie Bird, so although play didn’t start until mid-afternoon there was still time for forty-eight overs and for the game to start to take shape.

In truth, though, foreshortened days are seldom entirely satisfactory, and today was no exception, the game being finely poised when stumps were drawn. Both sides played some good cricket, England bowling pretty consistently and beating the bat without getting the nicks that they were looking for, while the Sri Lankans batted with intelligence and application to overcome the conditions and make a solid start. Tharanga Paranavitana in particular showed good judgment in leaving the ball alone while Tillakaratne Dilshan successfully reined in his more aggressive instincts before falling to an ill-judged cut. His observation at the end of the day that he had batted within himself but would still go 100% at anything that was there for him brought to mind the words of an erstwhile batting partner of mine who observed that that was fine, it was just the judgment of what was there that was concerning him, but he showed admirable restraint.

Kumar Sangakkara’s indifferent record in England was maintained with the lightest feather through to Prior. His head shaking lead to the dismissal being described as controversial, but the evidence supported the decision of the third umpire and was reward for a fine spell from Anderson. Paranavitana and Mahela Jayawardene survived fairly comfortably to stumps, so the first session on Friday will be crucial. Sri Lanka’s batting lacks depth with Prasanna Jayawardene, fine keeper though he is, probably too high at six and Samaraweera, for all of his career average of over fifty, averages just 4.25 in England. If England can knock over a couple of wickets in the first hour then they will be in the box seat, but if Sri Lanka can survive until lunch with only one wicket down they will feel that they are in the box seat. Bring it on.

Bring it on!

Ah, the English summer. There are few times that John Major’s idealised vision of the English village, featuring warm beer and people cycling to church bears any resemblance to reality, but on the eve of the first test of summer it is hard not to be misty eyed at the thought of the resumption of test cricket. Either that or the pollen count is rather high.  

England’s startling success in the Ashes seems a long time ago now, the preserve of DVD box sets and faithfully clutched copies of Wisden, but it is less than five months since the sprinkler dance was performed in Sydney. Such is the whirligig of modern international cricket that much one day water has passed beneath the bridge since then, but the fact remains that this is a fine side who will take some beating. The Andrews Strauss and Flower have fostered an enviable atmosphere within the camp that will have survived the travails of the latter part of the winter and the fast bowling resources, in particular, are enviable. Stuart Law, the new Sri Lankan coach, was quoted this week as saying that he considered England to be the best test side in the world and, while it may be a little premature to make that statement, it would be foolish to laugh the idea out of court. England’s improvement since the debacle of 51 all out in Jamaica has been startling, but this summer will be a test of where they truly stand in test cricket’s pecking order.

One thing that can be guaranteed is that they won’t be underestimating Sri Lanka. By keeping faith with members of the Ashes squad they have, in spite of the line of questioning adopted by the increasingly deranged Gary Richardson on Radio 5, shown admirable continuity. As Geoff Miller pointed out, it’s meant to be difficult to get into an international side. Eoin Morgan’s knock at Derby will have soothed the nerves as well: one suspects that he was the selectors’ preferred option for number six, but had he failed and Ravi Bopara scored well, as he has done for Essex in recent weeks, then it would have been a difficult decision. The injury to Tim Bresnan has also smoothed the way for the return of Stuart Broad with, presumably, Steven Finn missing out.

Sri Lanka have a less settled feel to them. Dilshan, Sangakkara and Jayawardene are all world class performers at the top of the order but their newly Murali-less bowling, for all of their second innings heroics against the Lions, looks pretty toothless and the premature departure of Nuwan Pradeep hasn’t helped their cause. It remains to be seen what the fall out of the post-World Cup shenanigans will be since the top players immediately hightailed it to the IPL, but they are going to have to pull together and work hard if they are going to enjoy their summer. The freakishly dry weather may create conditions that suit them better than those endured by Pakistan last year, but it is still hard to see them bowling England out twice.

So, having correctly predicted the outcome of the Ashes series and the World Cup it’s time for me to make myself a hostage to fortune once again. England to win 2-0.

Fenner's Fantasia

What little talk there was in the build up to the game between Cambridge MCCU and Surrey was, not unreasonably, about the return to action of Kevin Pietersen, but the MCCU have played some decent cricket this season and the decision of the Surrey coaching staff to field a virtual second eleven to support him looked flawed from day one.

At this point I should express an interest, since I’ve been going to Fenner’s on a regular basis for over twenty years, in which time I’ve seen Mike Atherton, John Crawley, Steve James and Ed Smith shine for the light blues and plenty of highly talented opposition players make hay against a generally friendly bowling attack. As a consequence, the two hours that I watched last night and the regular updates on cricinfo that I’ve been following for three days have, I suspect, more resonance for me than for many cricket fans, but this was a fabulous performance by the MCCU.

After reducing Surrey to 234-9 on the first day, the usual trend would have been for the MCCU to fold for around 200, with a bravura performance from the county to following the second innings. This, however, didn’t happen. First of all Ansari (who had previously bowled superbly for his 5-33) and Ackland put on a hundred for the first wicket in quick time, Craig Park steadied the middle order and then Paul Best, recently captain of England under 19s and with an appearance for Warwickshire under his belt this season, played the innings of his life. His 150 from just 181 balls featured some audacious strokeplay and a remarkable 129 run partnership for the ninth wicket with the composed Josh Poysden. In all, the MCCU’s last four wickets added 243. Heady times.

The start of the Surrey innings was remarkable. Gary Wilson survived a confident appeal for caught behind first ball and was dismissed two balls later, and Matthew Spriegel, having confidently dispatched his first ball for four, fell to a high looking LBW decision to the last ball of the first over. Whatever Kevin Pietersen had in mind for his comeback, I suspect that coming in at 4-2 didn’t feature very highly.

Pietersen looked in good touch, helped by some rather sloppy feeling which required me to climb over a bench to retrieve the ball, but this morning the impressive Rob Woolley, the MCCU captain, brought his innings to a close and the rest slipped away, leaving the MCCU just four to win which they duly achieved from the third ball of the innings.

Yes, I know that this was basically Surrey 2^nd XI, but the fact is that they were spanked by a good looking MCCU side, who will rightly be celebrating tonight. It will be interesting to see what kind of side Surrey pick next time they play Cambridge.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2011/engine/current/match/492084.html

A Tale of Three Captains

The decision of England’s selectors to split the captaincy three ways has met with mixed responses. To some it is a bizarre dilution of responsibility, while to others it is a pragmatic solution to the current circumstances.

In a perfect world, one suspects, any international side would look to have one captain for all forms of the game, although Andrew Strauss has spoken recently of the strain of captaining England in both tests and ODIs. England, however, are not in that perfect world at the moment and, given the position that we are in the international cycle, now seems the perfect opportunity to experiment.

England’s test side are currently in good shape, moving up the rankings and fresh from a hammering of Australia. Andrew Strauss’ leadership and his relationship with Andy Flower are central to that success and he can reasonably be expected to carry on until the 2013 Ashes before handing over the resins. However, he doesn’t want to play ODIs anymore and has never featured in England’s Twenty20 plans, so clearly if he is to remain as test captain then the captaincy would have to be split since it would be daft to change the test captain simply in order to provide consistency with the ODI and Twenty20 sides.

It would seem that Geoff Miller et al are keen to use the ODI side as a proving ground to look at promising young players and to provide valuable international experience. Such a side requires an experienced international cricketer to lead it and Alastair Cook, long identified as Strauss’ successor at the helm of the test side, seems a reasonable choice. There has been plenty of comment surrounding Cook’s suitability as an ODI player, but his limited overs form in county cricket has been good over the last couple of years and we should also bear in mind that opener was one of the positions that England most struggled with at the World Cup. He provides a natural replacement for Strauss at the top of the order, albeit probably more at home in English conditions than those that might be found in the sub-continent.

Cook, however, doesn’t play any part in England’s Twenty20 plans and so a third captain is required. For all of Paul Collingwood’s rather surprising protestations, the time is right to look forward and, again, Stuart Broad seems a reasonably logical choice. He is guaranteed his place in the side and has an opportunity to grow into the role as England look to develop a new generation of international cricketers. It will be interesting to see how he fares, but he is respected by his team mates and seems to have plenty of innovative ideas. It may also serve to make him grow up a bit, although that remains to be seen.

The decision, therefore, is not a bizarre one by any means, rather it is a sensible solution to the current international environment, while also including an element of succession planning. Rather than carping we should be wishing Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad well.

The Summer Ahead

An exciting summer of cricket beckons for England with the visits of Sri Lanka and India to these shores. The Ashes triumph seems a long time ago, its memory tarnished by the one day series and World Cup performances that followed, but England are now a formidable proposition in test cricket and will be looking to build on their spectacular successes in the winter.

They have the benefit of a settled side and an established coaching team. With most of the side now back on county duty after a well earned rest we can start to turn our attention to Cardiff on 26 May. It seems likely that the selectors have only a handful of decisions to make: the top three are settled, Matt Prior will keep wicket and bat at number seven and Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann seem assured of their places, fitness permitting. The middle order presents one or two challenges but, that apart, the only decision seems to be the identity of the third seamer.

An obvious gap has been created in the middle order with the retirement of Paul Collingwood, but Kevin Pietersen’s hernia and Ian Bell’s development will also pose questions, if only about the order. Pietersen may well benefit from a move to number five, the position from which he made such a stellar start to his test career, with Bell’s new found maturity being given its head at number four.

The gap, then, exists at number six, and the selectors have a range of options. Last summer they went for Eoin Morgan but his performance in, admittedly, bowler friendly conditions was patchy and his decision to play in the IPL significantly restricts his opportunities to impress the selectors in the build up to the tests. Ravi Bopara, who turned down the IPL in order to concentrate on trying to get a test spot, started the season poorly but is starting to hit his stride and, of course, offers the bowling option that Collingwood also provided. Outside these two the selectors will also be looking seriously at James Hildreth, who has also endured a pretty mediocre start to the season but performed well as captain of the Lions in the winter and possibly James Taylor, another who enjoyed his winter in the Caribbean and who has started the season pretty well. What the selectors should definitely do is resist the temptation to include Varun Chopra. He has certainly been impressive in scoring two double hundreds but his career so far has been patchy and he will need to prove himself over a longer period if he is to be seriously considered for a test place. He is also an opening batsman: players such as Nick Knight and Ian Ward have suffered in the past from being picked out of position and it makes more sense in this instance to go for an established middle order batsman. If it were down to me I would go for Bopara, but the suspicion lurks that the selectors will want to have another look at Morgan.

The man in possession of the role of third seamer is Chris Tremlett and natural justice dictates that he should keep his place after his superb performances in Australia. He will be pushed hard by a whole host of quicks, though, for Tim Bresnan also bowled magnificently in Melbourne and Sydney, Steven Finn looks considerably better for having had a rest, Graeme Onions has returned from injury impressively for Durham, Chris Woakes is in fine form for Warwickshire and Jade Dernbach will have been encouraged by his call-up to England’s World Cup squad and will feel that he has a chance if he can put together a consistent run of form. It is an area of enviable depth for England at the moment and they will need it against the impressive batting line-ups that they will face this summer.

Fixing?

Match fixing is everywhere, it seems. In the aftermath of the World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan there were plenty of people quick to cry foul over the number of dropped catches, particularly of Sachin Tendulkar, in the India innings. Hashan Tillakaratne’s allegations about match fixing in Sri Lankan cricket and the aftermath of last summer’s spot fixing scandal suggest that the game is mired in corruption.

There seems little doubt that there are incidents where certain outcomes are fixed to the benefit of gamblers due to a combination of greed and coercion. The evidence against Amir, Asif and Butt was damning and the details of Tillakaratne’s allegations will be fascinating, but that doesn’t mean that every surprising action or every moment of incompetence is automatically corrupt.

Those seeking to gain a financial advantage from foxing aspects of cricket matches are looking for a guaranteed return that is not subject to outside interference, which is why deliberate no balls, especially when they are as blatant as that which Amir delivered at Lord’s, are such an attractive proposition. It is worth bearing in mind that Hansie Cronje was rewarded at Centurion in 2000 not for determining the result but for ensuring that there was one after three days of heavy rain. It didn’t matter to those who stood to gain whether it was England or South Africa who won since that was beyond their control.

This brings us back to the dropped catches in the World Cup semi-final. Those crying foul have not been able to provide a credible reason for those dropped catches being of any great use to a corrupt gambler. It seems unthinkable, for example, that the catches were dropped in order to help Sachin Tendulkar to make a half century since there are so many other imponderables that could hamper the bet, such as him dragging a wide delivery onto his stumps or being out leg before (as so nearly happened). It seems far more likely that the catches were dropped due to the pressure of the occasion and poor basic technique, an area in which Pakistan have considerable previous.

There is little doubt that there is still considerable corruption in the game, but we don’t help ourselves by seeing it at every turn. It is only a short step from having a healthy level of skepticism to being a conspiracy theory nutjob, after all.