Twitter erupts as MS Dhoni scores his second fastest fifty in the IPL

Chennai Super Kings’ captain Dhoni was at his marauding best on Monday as he guided Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to 211/4 against Delhi Daredevils (DD). CSK, playing at their new home ground in Pune, were given the upper hand thanks to a 40-ball 70 from opener Shane Watson. Dhoni, though, came in and gave his

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Cricket fraternity wishes Rohit Sharma on his 31st birthday

Indian opening batsman in the limited overs format, Rohit Sharma, celebrated his 31st birthday on Monday. On the special occasion, wishes poured in for him from the cricketing fraternity. From teammates to the former cricketers, a lot of people made the occasion special for ‘Hitman’ with their heartfelt messages on micro-blogging site Twitter. Here are

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Twitter Reactions: Ajinkya Rahane fails to rescue RR as SRH continue winning run

Sunrisers Hyderabad cruised to their third win on the trot in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 as they beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 11 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday. RR lost Rahul Tripathi early on but Sanju Samson and Ajinkya Rahane stitched a fifty partnership. However, the men in

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IPL 2018: Scientific astrologer predicts the winner

The Indian Premier League is entering the half-stage and not surprisingly the fans and cricket pundits are busy with the permutation and combination over who would progress and who would lose out the place of playoffs. As of now, Chennai Super Kings is sitting at the top of the points table, having managed five wins

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Fans going gaga for this beautiful IPL girl! Do know who is she

The cameramen are busy spotting the reactions of one girl during the matches of Chennai Super Kings in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). She is pretty animated after almost every delivery and it goes without saying that she is supporting the most favourite side to win the tournament. Her reactions have created mayhem on

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IPL 2018: Chennai Super Kings’ inform-pacer Deepak Chahar out for two weeks

After losing to the Mumbai Indians on Saturday, the Chennai Super Kings have been dealt with another blow as their fast bowler Deepak Chahar has picked up an injury. Chahar, who has played all seven games for the MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings side, has taken six wickets so far in the season at an

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9 Facts about IPL anchor Paloma Rao that you need to know

A Chennai-based music VJ, RJ and actress Paloma Rao is hosting the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season 11. This is not her first cricketing assignment as she hosted the Tamil Nadu Premier League in 2016, 2017 and ICC Champions Trophy 2017 for Star Sports Tamil. Paloma, who began her career as a theatre artist

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Sarah Taylor, Alexandra Hartley unite to troll RCB wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock

The 11th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) is almost at its halfway stage but the buzz hasn’t dropped a bit. The social media is also full of wit and sarcasm with fans, cricketers and celebs expressing their opinions on various matters during the IPL matches. Recently, England women cricketers, Sarah Taylor and Alexandra Hartley

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WATCH: Prithvi Shaw hits Dhoni-esque helicopter shot off Mitchell Johnson

18-year-old Prithvi Shaw was the star in his own unique way despite Shreyas Iyer’s blitzkrieg of a captain’s knock that propelled Delhi Daredevils to the highest total in the IPL 2018 and an eventual 55-run victory against Kolkata Knight Riders. The highlight of Shaw’s 62-runs innings was, of course, that helicopter shot which he hit

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Twitter Reactions: SRH defends another low score to break KXIP’s winning streak

Sunrisers Hyderabad managed to defend yet another below-par total in the ongoing IPL on Thursday. This has almost become a trend with the Hyderabad franchise, who managed to restrict Kings XI Punjab – known as one of the stronger batting sides of the tournament – to just 106. The SRH bowling unit once again put

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Daniele Wyatt in awe of MS Dhoni’s new hairstyle

MS Dhoni has been an iconic personality in the history of Indian cricket. The 36-year old wicketkeeper-batsman is currently leading the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 and has done so with sheer authority. Dhoni is also known for his haircuts ever since he started playing for the Indian cricket

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Suresh Raina posts a picture of the “New BFFs in town”

Daughters of Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni, Gracia and Ziva, have become new Best Friends Forever (BFF) in the course of the ongoing 11th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL). On Thursday, Raina took to Twitter to post a picture where the kids could be seen watching something eagerly on their electronic devices. The left-handed

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PSL anchor Zainab Abbas praises MS Dhoni; gets trolled by Pakistan fans

Not just cricketers but people from all over the world heaped praise for MS Dhoni after the former India captain scored a blistering 70 not out off 34 balls to guide Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to a thrilling five-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 match on

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Possible New Tournament on the Horizon and its Causing Controversy

The story, suggestion, idea and now controversial plan has been circulating the press for the past couple of days with England’s director Andrew Strauss wanting to produce a new tournament, 100-ball competition. Perhaps with the World Cup in mind which comes about in May 2019, the host might have the right idea to boost the game’s appeal by reaching new audiences and fans.

What is 100-ball Cricket?

The idea proposed was specifically aimed at the summer holiday crowd, this being mothers and children. The England and Wales Cricket Board were hoping to bring this new format inside of their new 8 team city-based tournament.

Strauss has made it clear that he wishes to bring the game out and appeal to those that aren’t encouraged by the traditional game.

He hopes the idea in its most basic form will allow people to understand cricket better. It would certainly find a huge appeal with online casino sites and advertising given the quick nature of the games idea, which suits live betting formats you can bet on during a game.

The idea would see innings consist of the traditional 6-ball overs and with that a final 10-ball over. This, in turn, would make the game 20 balls shorter than what you would see in a standard Twenty20 match.

The selected venues for this competition that lasts 5-weeks are Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, London, Nottingham, Manchester and Southampton.

The 100-ball competition would be running conjunction with the existing T20 Blast which would go unaffected should the proposed changes see the light of day.

The T20 has been a huge success for the ECB and it is because of this they feel that the 100-ball would work as well.

Former England bowler Chris Tremlett isn’t going to be one endorsing this competition stating that the T20 works fine enough and thusly “why try to get funky”.  But there are those in support.

England’s Joe Root Backs 100-ball Gamble

Root agreed that the change or at least the idea would strike a whole new audience, insisting that the more people and especially the kids that they can get into sports the better.

With T20 and other areas of cricket seemingly working well enough on their own, Root does state that this 100-ball proposal must not be measured against other formats, it has to be natural to gather a new audience.

The key fear that it does have a bigger appeal, when T20 games go on beyond 4 hours, this is not something young players would want or handle. Alastair Cook even added that this would be another new and exciting step for cricket. He highlighted that if social media was around in 2003 when the T20 began we would be looking at the same type of arguments and look how that turned out.

So what do you think? Is it something to hedge your bets on or are you fully confident that the steps the ECB are taking fully with the interest of the sport and not their own pockets? You can leave a comment in the box below and tell us what you think or if you have some ideas.

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Twitter Reactions: MS Dhoni leads Chennai Super Kings to thrilling win over Royal Challengers Bangalore

The packed house at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium were thrilled to bits in the southern derby of the reason. The Royal Challengers Bangalore hosted the Chennai Super Kings in the marquee clash that created a lot of buzz prior to its commencement. And now that the game is done and dusted, it is still set

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Twitter brutally troll Rohit Sharma for another ‘horrible’ performance in IPL 2018

In all the IPL fixtures so far, barring 94 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in a winning effort, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma hasn’t crossed the 20-run mark. He made 15 runs against Chennai Super Kings in the opening encounter, 11 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, 18 against Delhi Daredevils, zero against Rajasthan Royals and only posted 2

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IPL 2018: Gautam Gambhir steps down as Delhi Daredevils captain; Shreyas Iyer to lead

Following a poor start to the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), Gautam Gambhir stepped down from Delhi Daredevils (DD) captaincy. Shreyas Iyer will lead the side for the rest of the tournament. “It was absolutely my decision,” said Gambhir at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday. “I haven’t contributed enough. So I owe that responsibility considering

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A Millionaire’s Story

It was Sir Neville Cardus, who saw plenty of them both, who likened Arthur Mailey’s bowling to that of a millionaire and, in doing so, contrasted him with Clarrie Grimmett who, by way of comparison, he described as a miser. That is probably a little harsh on Grimmett, who did after all perfect the flipper, but on the basis that the great scribe’s primary purpose in making his observation was to describe Mailey, then he summed him up very well indeed.

Born in Sydney on 3 January 1886 Mailey’s upbringing could not have been further from that of a millionaire. His large family lived in some poverty and life was a struggle. Neither of Mailey’s parents were at all interested in cricket, and it was therefore despite family influence that his love of the game developed. That passion, and another for drawing and sketching, did not go down well at Mailey’s school and he left at the earliest opportunity.

The first job Mailey had was as a seam presser. He was soon sacked for daydreaming, about his hero Victor Trumper. There followed a succession of unskilled jobs before, at 16, he got the job that made all the difference to his future cricket. The job, as a glass blower at a local factory, required Mailey to spend long hours spinning a four feet pipe which held the molten glass, and the blowing itself did much to develop and enhance his lung capacity and stamina. The job was also, for the times, comparatively well paid and he was able to pay for an art class. One of his publications suggests he was dismissed from that as well, his crime being to spend his time sketching his fellow students (to compound the sin not always flatteringly) rather than do as he was instructed.

Mailey also took every available opportunity to bowl, and the leg breaks he could always bowl were eventually supplemented by the googly, the delivery that caused a sensation when Bernard Bosanquet first unleashed it in Test cricket in the 1903/04 Ashes series. Mailey was no overnight sensation, playing in the lower grades of cricket for some years before, the googly mastered, he made the step up to Grade A.

In his charming autobiography, 10 for 66 and all that, Mailey dwells at some length on his first senior match, for Redfern against Trumper’s Paddington. The great batsman clinically despatched the best leg break Mailey could muster to the off side fence, but a perfectly flighted googly then beat his bat as he advanced down the wicket and Trumper was stumped by yards. There was no celebration for Mailey. He famously wrote I felt like a boy who had killed a dove.

Now noticed Mailey was chosen to play for New South Wales against Western Australia (still more than 30 years away from being considered strong enough to enter the Sheffield Shield) and considerable success brought an invitation to tour North America between June and August 1913, and then New Zealand in February and March of 1914.

Some writers have suggested that before the Great War Mailey was not quite so extravagant and unpredictable as he was afterwards. Perhaps on the way up, and until he became entirely confident of his future in the game, he was rather more careful. Another factor may have been a glimpse of the fleeting nature of life. The Mailey family made a huge sacrifice to the war to end all wars. One brother died at Ypres, and another eventually died from the wounds inflicted when he lost an arm at Passchendaele.

There is footage of Mailey bowling on Youtube. He had a short run up to the wicket and, bringing his bowling hand out from right behind his back, bowled with a high arm. He was certainly nowhere near the pace of a ‘Tiger’ O’Reilly or a Doug Wright, and was always willing to toss the ball high in the air. His main weapon was the well disguised googly. Above all Mailey spun the ball as much as he could. When asked once how fast he bowled Harold Larwood replied never quite fast enough, and one is left suspecting Mailey would produce a similar answer if asked about how much turn he achieved. A decent grip on the ball was important to Mailey and he wasn’t averse to using resin if he could get away with it, and could often be seen shaking hands with ‘keeper Bert Oldfield, who generally put a sticky substance called bird lime on his gloves.

Concentrating on spinning the ball might invite the occasional full toss and long hop in any bowler, but Mailey was always happy to buy a wicket and would often deliberately provide the batsman with encouragement. One quote frequently attributed to him is sometimes I am attacked by waves of accuracy; and I don’t trust them.

By the time international cricket started again after the war Mailey was already almost 35, a mature man who by that time was employed by the local water company dealing with troublesome meters. It was a job he was able to leave behind by 1921. In 1919/20 he took ten wickets for New South Wales against, effectively, the best of the rest of Australia and in his first outing against the following season’s England side he snared seven more victims. As a result he was picked for the first Test. He tells a story of being sat on a tram spending some time plucking up the courage to open his newspaper to check the cricket news. Eventually he did so, and in conversation with a fellow passenger enquired as to his companions view on the team he had been relieved to see his name in; Bloody lousy, I don’t know why the ‘ell they picked Mailey, was the response he reported.

I scrambled through my first Test without doing much harm, was Mailey’s own verdict on his international debut. Australia overwhelmed the old enemy by 377 runs on their way to convincing victories in all five Tests. With 3-95 and 3-105 to his name Mailey was clearly underplaying his own contribution to the victory, especially as his victims were Johnny Douglas and Wilfred Rhodes twice, as well as Frank Woolley and Jack Hearne.

It was no surprise that Mailey kept his place for the second Test, nor that England surrendered that one by an innings and 91. What is a surprise is that Mailey not only did not take a single wicket but did not even bowl a single over. Warwick Armstrong shared the spinning duties with Herbie Collins, and even part timers Nip Pellew and Roy Park got an over each.

Armstrong and Mailey did not always see eye to eye, and perhaps there was some disagreement behind that decision although there may have been an injury problem, Mailey having been said to be doubtful before the match started. If there was any friction however it soon blew over as Mailey was still in the side for the third Test and he had plenty of work then. The match was a high scoring one and, by getting a first innings lead even if they did eventually succumb by 119 runs, England were at least competitive at times. Mailey’s figures were 32.1-3-160-5 and 29.2-3-142-5. There is an interesting contrast with those of fellow wrist spinner Armstrong; 23-10-29-1 and 16-1-41-0.

The fourth Test saw Mailey return what were to remain his best Test figures, 9-121, with only Patsy Hendren, one of his favoured subjects for caricatures, escaping his net. In the first innings he had taken 4-115. There were a further seven wickets in the final Test. Mailey had bowled in eight innings in the series and had conceded over a hundred runs in all but two them, and in those two he came close, conceding 89 and 95.

The only account of the tour was written by one of the England players, Percy Fender, a fellow wrist spinner and, like Mailey, not a man to bowl to contain. His starting point on Mailey was to write that he was a very difficult person to describe. He added that our batsmen seemed able to get out off Mailey just as easily, whether he bowled a good length or a bad one. The examples he cited were both from the third Test, AC ‘Jack’ Russell being bowled by a full toss, and Jack Hobbs being caught and bowled hitting a long hop straight back at Mailey. Ultimately however he was happy to praise his opponent and concluded that Mailey bowled extraordinarily well at times and his 9-121 was worthy of all praise.

The 1920/21 series is famous for the start of the reign of terror of Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald. In truth McDonald’s contribution to the series was modest. He would really flex his muscles in the return series in England. Gregory topped the Australian averages for the series with 23 wickets at 24.17, but Mailey’s bag was much larger, 36 wickets at 26.27, and that, effectively, in four Tests. It would be almost sixty years, in a six Test series, before Rodney Hogg exceeded that tally in an Ashes series.

At the end of the series Mailey left his job with the Water Board and, in his own words, never had to work again. His weekly wage checking the meters was £3.37. On that basis payment of £25 per match for the Tests was decent compensation. Selection for the 1921 trip to England meant further financial rewards for bowling but, more importantly, Mailey secured a contract with a newspaper to draw cartoons. The fee for that alone was £20 per week, and his financial future was secure.

The 1921 series was a mixed bag for Mailey. He played in only three of the five Tests and took 12 wickets at 33.16. A disagreement with Armstrong early in the tour may have contributed to his non-selection for the first and fourth Tests. The Australian skipper had strong views about the tourists’ itinerary and more particularly the time allowed his men to prepare for the Tests. He clashed with, in particular, Mailey, Edgar Mayne and Jack Ryder over this issue, all three taking a rather more relaxed view. Mayne and Ryder did not play in any of the Tests.

On the tour as a whole Mailey took 134 wickets at 19.36. Only McDonald beat his haul of wickets, and then only just, but McDonald, Gregory and Armstrong all had a better average for the tour. Mailey’s personal highlight came immediately after the final Test when the Australians played Gloucestershire at Cheltenham. The tourists won by an innings, not an unusual occurrence that summer (they did so on twelve occasions), and on a rain affected wicket Mailey, in the home side’s second innings, took that 10-66. Mailey always kept a copy of the 1922 Wisden in his car, and would ask his passengers to check whether he had taken Walter Hammond’s wicket during the 1921 summer, leading them eventually to the Cheltenham scorecard.

The next Ashes series took place in 1924/25 and Mailey was still Australia’s first choice spinner. He bowled almost two thousand deliveries in Australia’s 4-1 victory, and took 24 wickets at 41.62. He was Australia’as leading wicket taker, but also their most expensive bowler. Former skipper Monty Noble believed Mailey was called upon to do far too much work, but added, he still keeps a fine length, and is full of tricks, resourceful and has a good cricket mentality.

The 1926 tour of England proved to be Mailey’s last as a player. The Australian side that toured under Herbie Collins was rather different to Armstrong’s side. Gregory was still around, but he was not quite the bowler he had been and was a lone spearhead, sharing the new ball in the Tests with either Grimmett or Charlie Macartney (slow left arm). England, after four draws, recorded a famous victory at the Oval to regain the Ashes for the first time since 1912.

In figures the series was comfortably the worst of Mailey’s career. He took only 14 wickets in the five Tests, and paid 42.28 runs each for them. He went into the fifth Test with just five wickets at 65.20 in the previous four. The series undecided this Test was timeless so winning the toss was crucial for England, yet long before the close they were all out for 280. Of Mailey’s bowling Noble wrote that he surmounted all obstacles, destroyed the defences and annihilated the foe …… he has many wonderful records to his credit; this accomplishment of taking 6-138 eclipsed them all.

Noble’s description of Mailey was he is a heady, crafty bowler, full of guile, whose innocent yet deliberately bowled full toss and long-hopper is a snare and potent danger to the unwary. One of those full tosses castled the great Hobbs who, after realising what he had done, did all that he could in the circumstances and smiled broadly. ‘The Master’ had been had. England’s skipper in 1924/25, Arthur Gilligan, confirmed Noble’s view;  That Mailey ever bowls a full toss except on purpose I, for one, refuse to believe.

The Australian reply started badly, but the lower order eked out a lead of 22. The decisive passage of play came when England began their second innings. Gregory bowled a couple of overs before giving way to Mailey. His first delivery to Hobbs seems to have been rather like Shane Warne’s ball of the century save that his big spinning leg break went just past the off stump. The next delivery was a googly, pitched on off stump and went straight past Hobbs’ pads and struck him plumb in front. The game’s greatest umpire of the inter war period, and perhaps of all time, Frank Chester, started to raise his finger. He just managed to abort the signal on realising no Australian had appealed, and Hobbs survived to fight another day as England closed on 49-0. In the final analysis Mailey and wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield’s silence was probably to blame for their side’s defeat.

It rained hard in London overnight and the next day Hobbs and Sutcliffe produced the finest performances of even their stellar careers when, on a desperately difficult wicket, they extended their partnership to 172 before Hobbs was bowled by Gregory for exactly 100. England won convincingly in the end, but had Mailey or Oldfield asked the question on that second evening then the result might have been very different.

Back home in the new domestic season Mailey was nearly 41 when New South Wales played Victoria at the Melbourne Cricket Ground over Christmas of 1926. On Christmas Eve the visitors batted first and were all out for a disappointing 221 by the close. There was no time to start the Victorian innings so that did not begin for two days, and then lasted two days as the home team racked up 1,107 all out, still the highest total in the history of the game. Mailey’s figures were 64-0-362-4. They aren’t the worst figures ever recorded, but no bowler has ever conceded more runs in a single innings.

Inevitably Mailey extracted what humour he could from his experience, and had two particular stories he was fond of recounting. The first one came after he had announced the figures, when he would add the proviso that four catches had gone down from his bowling. When, as they usually did, the recipient of the stories enquired as to who was responsible, Mailey would give a knowing look and announce that he didn’t wish to embarrass the culprit, but that the gentleman concerned was sat in the pavilion wearing a black hat. He would also relate the story of an elderly female who, on his returning to the pavilion at the end of the Victorian innings, smiled at him and reassured him that if nothing else at least he had ‘six appeal’.

After he retired from cricket in 1930 Mailey made a good living from writing and from his art. He is best known for the cartoons that were the focal point of 13 separate and highly collectable publications that appeared between 1920 and 1953, but his drawings appeared in other places as well, not least in the two books he wrote. 10 for 66 and All That has already been mentioned, but there was also a single tour book, And Then Came Larwood, Mailey’s account of the Bodyline tour. There was a rush of books released in the aftermath of what remains the most controversial series of Test matches ever played. Mailey’s is notable not just for the cartoons, but for the balanced analysis it provided.

Although it was the cartoons that provided the regular income Mailey was, for his own pleasure, wont to disappear in his car, take his art materials with him and paint landscapes. One of the well known stories about him is that having done so on one of his trips to England, and having had the opportunity to show one of his water colours to the Queen Consort, Mary of Teck, Her Royal Highness commented on the unusual appearance of the sun. Mailey responded with the observation that as the painting was done in England, he had had to paint the sun from memory.

In January of 1956, thirty years after his final Test, a benefit match for Mailey and his former teammate Johnny Taylor was played at the SCG between teams styled as Ian Johnson’s XI and Ray Lindwall’s XI. The match also served as a Test trial for the selectors for the 1956 Ashes party. For the older spectators the coupling of the names of Taylor and Mailey would have brought back memories of Mailey’s greatest day with the bat, at the same ground in the first Test of the 1924/25 series.

Mailey was a good enough batsman to pass 50 three times in his First Class career, but whilst a Test average of 11.10 confirms he was not a complete rabbit, it certainly places him in the tailender category. In that first Test Australia won the toss and batted. They made, in a timeless Test, an adequate but not match winning 450. Mailey made 21 of a last wicket partnership with Bert Oldfield of 62. As the match progressed the Australians took a first innings lead of 152 and were 325-9 when Mailey joined Taylor. They added another 127 before Taylor was dismissed leaving Mailey unbeaten on 46. The 189 added in both innings whilst Mailey was at the crease were not quite decisive, but England made a much better fist of their second innings, totalling 411, and leaving the winning margin as 193, so for once Mailey’s contribution with the bat was important.

After Mailey in turn retired from his journalistic activities, and the travelling consequently ceased, he became the proprietor of a general store. That his innate humour never left him is demonstrated in another famous Mailey tale. The store had a butchery section, over which a sign was put up saying “Used to bowl tripe, used to write tripe, and now he sells tripe”

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Sachin Tendulkar turns 45: Wishes pour in for ‘God of Cricket’ on birthday

Sachin Tendulkar celebrated his 45th birthday on Tuesday. On this occasion, social media was flooded with birthday wishes to the cricketer from across the globe. Millions of his fans tweeted their wishes to the batting maestro and in no time, #HappyBirthdaySachin became the top trend on the micro-blogging site. Apart from his fans, cricketers, former

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WATCH: Prithvi Shaw gets emotional on-field after dropping David Miller’s catch

Prithvi Shaw, who made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut for Delhi Daredevils (DD) on Monday, got a bit emotional on-field after he dropped a catch of a Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) batsman David Miller. The 19-year-old Shaw, who led India to lift the ICC U-19 World Cup earlier this year, dropped the catch of

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Twitter Reactions: Chennai Super Kings seal last-ball thriller from Sunrisers Hyderabad

Chennai Super Kings survived a late assault from Sunrisers Hyderabad to seal a thrilling four-run win in an IPL match on Sunday. Chasing a target of 183, SRH managed 178/6 in their allotted 20 overs as CSK climbed to the top of the points tally. The SRH came close to winning the match, thanks largely

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IPL 2018: Actress Parvatii Nair has a special message for AB de Villiers

Royal Challenger Banglore’s star batsman AB De Villiers hit top gear, obliging the crowd that kept chanting his name, as his unbeaten 90 off 39 balls negated Delhi Daredevils’ gains made at the midpoint and sealed a six-wicket win in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. Daredevils got

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Hardik Pandya and Urvashi Rautela had eyes & ears only for each other at a recent party

Bollywood and Cricket is a corridor of relationships and in Bollywood, the relationships don’t go for a long. Mumbai Indian’s hard-hitting all-rounder Hardik Pandya who was in the news for his dating rumours with actress Elli Avram is now once again in the discussions for his close relationship with former Miss India and bold actress

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KXIP’s opener KL Rahul trolls his old IPL team RCB after win against KKR

Kings XI Punjab franchise is enjoying the flying start in the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They have registered four wins in five games so far. Their performances have been marked by some fine displays with the bat and one of the stars that has stood out is opening batsman KL Rahul,

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AB de Villiers reveals the reason behind “Genius” on his bat

AB de Villiers is the life and soul of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s party. It took just one particularly devastating innings from Mr 360 to breathe life into their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 campaign. Till ABD took the Delhi Daredevils bowling attack by the scruff of the neck on Saturday, his team was floundering at

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Twitter Reactions: KL Rahul, Chris Gayle star as Kings XI Punjab thrashed Kolkata Knight Riders by 9 wickets in Kolkata

KL Rahul and Chris Gayle scored half-centuries at the Eden Gardens as Kings XI Punjab outclassed Kolkata Knight Riders by nine wickets in a rain-hit IPL encounter on Saturday. While KKR scored a competitive 191 for 7 in 20 overs, KXIP had a revised target of 125 in 13 overs after rain halted play. Gayle

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IPL 2018: A young girl’s love message for MS Dhoni during LIVE match goes viral

It has been more than a year now that MS Dhoni has stepped down from the captaincy of the Indian cricket team in the limited overs format. However, the way he is leading the Chennai Super Kings in the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is impeccable. The yellow army has returned to

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Twitter Reactions: Shane Watson slams 3rd IPL century; first for Chennai Super Kings

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) posted a huge total of 204 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) after being put to bat in Pune. Shane Watson anchored the CSK innings as he recorded his third IPL century and first of this season. He smashed 106 off 57 after being dropped in the first over. He hit 9 fours

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England must end over-reliance on Anderson and Broad

Source: Gooshi2000 via Twitter

England have to address a worrying trend in their overseas form – their over-reliance on James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Anderson was the Three Lions’ one shining light in the Ashes, maintaining his levels of excellence as his teammates crumbled around him. Broad was off colour in Australia, but rounded back into form in New Zealand with two solid outings.

Both bowlers have been outstanding servants for English cricket, with their partnership worth almost 1000 wickets between them in Test matches. Anderson has been outstanding in recent years, even as he approaches the age of 36. He will surely break Glenn McGrath’s record of 563 Test wickets – the highest mark by a pace bowler in the history of the game. With the way cricket is developing across the world, Anderson’s milestone may never be beaten.

Broad had a poor year by his high standards in 2017, but found somewhere near his best in New Zealand, although it was not enough to drive England to victory in the second Test. Fortunately, both players are in good health and will continue for at least until the Ashes next year, where England will need them at full throttle, with Joe Root’s men currently backed in the latest cricket betting at 13/8 to regain the urn. However, looking further forward, the Three Lions have issues replacing the duo.

Chris Woakes has shown promise in home conditions and has performed well across the world in one-day internationals, with the 29-year-old currently ranked seventh in the ICC rankings. Woakes has an average of 24.28 with the ball in England, taking 42 wickets in 11 matches. However, his issues have come when travelling abroad, struggling immensely in South Africa, India and Australia. The Warwickshire man’s best outing overseas came in Adelaide in the day/night Test when he took figures of 4/36 in Australia’s second innings. It was no surprise that it came in advantageous conditions for seam bowling.

Source: DanielZarkx via Twitter

Woakes is not the only bowler to have had major issues. Mark Wood has struggled for fitness and has not been overly effective when he has been in the line-up. Tom Curran and Craig Overton are raw prospects and may take time to develop in the Test match stage, although they did not pull up any trees in Australia with their performances. Steven Finn and Toby Roland-Jones have proven quality, but are not far behind Broad in age, while they also have had problems remaining fit.

England’s troubles were highlighted by the fact that in the seven Tests of their winter tour, Anderson and Broad took 47 wickets at an average of 29.80. The rest of the attack took 34 wickets at a price of 72.85 runs. The lack of a quality spinner has hurt matters, with Moeen Ali enduring a miserable tour down under; so much so that he was replaced by Jack Leach. Leach could be the one to ease the pressure on Broad and Anderson. He showed promise on his debut in Christchurch, and at the age of 26 he could be responsible for the future of England’s attack overseas, especially in the sub-continent.

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Simrrann Sabarwal has a special birthday wish for Kings XI Punjab opener KL Rahul

Kings XI Punjab’s talismanic opener, KL Rahul, celebrated his 26th birthday on Wednesday alongside his teammates and coaching staff. Despite getting off to a great start in his international career, KL lost his place in the Indian team as an opener with the resurgence of Shikhar Dhawan across all formats. Nevertheless, Rahul at his prime

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IPL broadcasters commits a blunder while showing the replay of Umesh Yadav’s dismissal

Cricket has now evolved to be the most popular sports in the world and technology plays an important role in it. The advancement in technology over the years has made the sport even more interesting. If you remember, it was a sheer brilliance of the cameraman and technology that caught the Australian cricketers like Cameron

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Hardik Pandya’s ‘cute’ apology to Ishan Kishan is winning the internet

Hardik Pandya issued a heartfelt apology to his Mumbai Indians (MI) team-mate Ishan Kishan after a throw by him hit the young keeper-batsman in the eye during the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Tuesday. Kishan was taken off the field after a long throw from Pandya hit him flush on the eye and

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Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh and others wish KL Rahul on his birthday

Today is Indian cricketer KL Rahul’s 26th Birthday and his friends and teammates Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya, Virender Sehwag and others wishe him the best of luck in a unique way on social media platforms. Rahul is an elegant, tall right-hand batsman and a part-time wicketkeeper. He is the epitome of an all-rounder,

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Checkout The Salaries Of Cheerleaders In IPL

Indian Premier League is considered to be one of the best cricket leagues all over the world. Excitement is on a high note during all the matches being played with a period of two months. Every year each IPL team recruits cheerleaders to make sure that the cricket lovers present at the stadium is enjoying

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England women cricketers Kate Cross, Alexandra Hartley shower praises on ‘legend’ MS Dhoni

Though Kings XI Punjab defeated Chennai Super Kings by four runs at Mohali on Sunday to end southern outfit’s winning run in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), it was MS Dhoni who stole everyone’s attention with his extraordinary innings. Put in to bat, KXIP wasted their solid start but managed to post a challenging

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9-86 And All That

Years ago I met a former teammate of Sarfraz Nawaz, who described him as a man with many faults. The Pakistani pace bowler could be aggressive, contrary and defiant. In his playing career he was often quick to anger, and was certainly difficult to captain. But even my informant made the comments he did with a smile on his face, and for a cricket fan in the 1970s and 1980s it was difficult not to like the tall and handsome fast medium swing bowler who clearly did not want for either courage or self-confidence. He was after all the man who in 1975 at Northampton, when Jeff Thomson let him have a short one, proceeded to inform the fearsome Australian that there was a vacant plot for him in a local cemetery. Sarfraz hung in there to score 26 and 31 and, when it was his turn to bowl, unleashed a bouncer that saw the back of Thommo for just four.

Sarfraz’ reputation now is as the man who introduced the dark art of reverse swing to the game, something which confirms that whatever faults he had as a player he was nobody’s fool. As a bowler he had a unique approach to the wicket, carrying himself at near enough bolt upright. No one ever tried to coach that out of him, and as a youngster he was called ‘steel spine’.

In the late 1960s Pakistan’s pace bowling stocks were, to put it kindly, moderate. They blooded Salim Altaf in England in 1967, and he went on to play 21 Tests without ever really breaking through, a career haul of 46 wickets at 37.17 being testament to that. Also in England in 1967 was Niaz Ahmed, but his career was to consist of just two matches. In the first Test of the return series in 1968/69 Asif Masood made his debut. Living proof that statistics don’t always tell the truth Asif, whose unorthodox action was brilliantly likened by John Arlott to Groucho Marx chasing a pretty waitress, took 38 wickets at 41.16 in his 16 Tests. He was a much better bowler than those numbers suggest.

Two of Pakistan’s best batsman, Majid Khan and Asif Iqbal, took turns with the new ball in that 1968/69 series without conspicuous success. Prior to back problems causing him to concentrate on his batting Asif had been a useful seamer, but Majid was never anything other than a part time bowler. Despite that when, for the third Test, the 20 year old Sarfraz was handed a debut after taking 14 wickets in five First Class matches at a relatively ordinary 33.79, the new ball still went to Majid. In a game cut short by the crowd riot that led to a hurried flight home for the Englishmen Sarfraz took 0-78.

An unremarkable performance on a docile pitch did not however matter much for Sarfraz as his lucky break had come earlier on the tour when a member of the England party, the Northamptonshire opening batsman Roger Prideaux, had been impressed by what he saw of the young Pakistani in the nets. Prideaux was sufficiently keen to see more to extract an invitation from his county for a year’s trial. It must have been a rude awakening for Sarfraz. He spoke no English and whilst his fellow Pakistani, Mushtaq Mohammad, was also at the club he was with the first team. Nonetheless Sarfraz must have knuckled down as he had an excellent season with the seconds, and in the game against the touring West Indians, when he could play for the first team, he picked up five wickets.

In 1970, his first year of availability for Championship matches, Sarfraz took 63 wickets at 29.22 and was described in Wisden as having a useful season. In 1971 however he had a miserable time. His domestic season was successful enough as he earned a place in the party that toured England in the first half of the 1971 summer. In the event however injury restricted his availability, and he only started three matches in which he took 2-219. It was little better back at Northampton for the second half of the season and 10 wickets at 37.70 in six matches were not enough to earn him another contract. There was also controversy about the cause of his troubles. For Sarfraz it was a back problem, although the Pakistani management indicated that expert reports suggested the issues were psychological rather than physical.

Without a county contract in 1972 Sarfraz joined Nelson in the Lancashire League. He had a fine all round summer, much improving the fortunes of a club that had spent a number of years in the League’s lower reaches. The club were happy to have him back in 1973, after a winter in which he had become a Test player once more, but Nelson slipped back that year. Sarfraz’ bowling was rather less effective, although he scored plenty of runs and did enough to cause Northamptonshire to conclude that perhaps they had made a mistake by letting him go, and he was invited back to the county in 1974.

In between his two stints in Lancashire Sarfraz had toured Australia. Pakistan had left him out for the first Test, which they lost by an innings and plenty. With Sarfraz taking his first Test wickets in the second Test the losing margin was 92 runs and whilst the Australians completed a clean sweep at the SCG the Pakistanis had only themselves to blame for their defeat as they failed to reach a fourth innings target of 159. Sarfraz had taken 4-53 and 4-56 and along with Salim earned the respect of Ian Chappell who wrote that they; made the ball swing, bounce and cut off the wicket and maintained an excellent line and length. Still not the finished article however Sarfraz disappointed in the three matches that followed in New Zealand and, on returning to Pakistan, took 1-156 in two Tests against England. In the second of those Sarfraz did at least have the consolation of having almost certainly saved the game for Pakistan. Coming in at 129-8 on the final day he kept out the English spinners for more than an hour and a half despite a clutch of close in fielders. With his powerful shoulders Sarfraz was always a good bet for a few quick runs, but his unbeaten 33 on this occasion showed he could defend as well.

For most of 1974 Sarfraz was engaged with the Pakistan tourists, although for his county he achieved much more in just five matches than he had in 1971 in six. For Pakistan he played a significant part in a performance that saw all three Tests drawn and he might, had rain allowed the final day of the first match to start, have played a match winning role in a famous victory. First his 53 in Pakistan’s first innings helped them to a lead of 102, and then he took seven wickets as England closed the penultimate day with 44 still needed and four wickets to fall with only Keith Fletcher of the recognised batsmen left. The second match was again spoiled by rain and the third by a low slow batsman’s wicket at the Oval. So frustrated did Sarfraz become that at one point in the England innings he bowled a beamer at Tony Greig necessitating a swift intervention by umpire ‘Dicky’ Bird.

In 1975 Sarfraz again missed part of the county season, this time because of the first World Cup. He still managed to be one of only two bowlers in the country to take more than 100 wickets in a batsman’s year. He was scarcely less effective in the long hot summer of 1976, and in September of that year helped Northants to their first piece of silverware, the Gillette Cup. He was to remain with the county until 1982. His powers were certainly on the wane by then, but it was the attraction of the alternative of Kapil Dev that swayed the committee in favour of the Indian all-rounder. As on the last occasion Northants had rejected him Sarfraz signed for Nelson. To the annoyance of the club he didn’t turn up in Lancashire in 1983, a gig that former Surrey and England batsman Graham Roope was happy to take up in his place.

International scheduling was such that after their 1974 series in England Pakistan had just two Tests in the next two years, and then 11 in six months. At the start of that run in 1976/77 Sarfraz appeared for the first time with Imran Khan, and the pair took 27 wickets between them in three Tests against New Zealand. In Australia the first of three Tests was drawn and then, in Sarfraz’ absence through injury, the second was lost by 348 runs. Fit again for the third Test at the scene of their near success four years earlier Pakistan, thanks to Imran’s first great bowling performance (12-165), shared the series. Sarfraz chipped in with three good wickets in each innings to make a full contribution to Pakistan’s first win on Australian soil.

In 1977/78 Pakistan hosted England for three Tests. Sarfraz showed his unpredictable side, leaving Pakistan for England after the first Test because he was dissatisfied with his terms and conditions. It is to be assumed the Board must have accepted he had a point because a couple of weeks later he was back and in the side for the third Test. In a return series in England in the summer of 1978 Sarfraz again missed the second Test. This time he had pulled up lame in the first after just six overs. What followed next was a home series against India. Sarfraz took 17 wickets at 25.00 and was a major contributor to Pakistan’s two victories in a three match series.

In March of 1979 Pakistan played two Tests in Australia. This was towards the end of the World Series Cricket schism, but Australia were still without their Packer players and had just been on the wrong end of a 5-1 Ashes thrashing. Pakistan on the other hand, motivated no doubt in large part by a desire not to risk defeat by India, were picking their WSC men who, by now, included Sarfraz. The atmosphere in the Test was not going to be the best from the moment the Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal likened the Australian side to a bunch of schoolboys.

Pakistan won the first of the two Tests, thanks almost entirely to Sarfraz. Graham Yallop won the toss and asked Pakistan to bat. They were reduced to 122-7 before Sarfraz hung around long enough to score 35 out of the 74 added for the last three wickets. Later, with Australia on 305-3 chasing a victory target of 382 Sarfraz took the new ball, cut down his run and produced a devastating spell of swing bowling of 7-1 to end up with career best figures of 9-86, the first nine wicket innings haul for a Pakistan bowler and indeed at that time the best figures by a pace bowler in Test history. Other than Kim Hughes, who holed out trying to force the pace, no Pakistan fielder was involved in any of the dismissals.

The second Test in the series was an ill-tempered one and again Sarfraz was in the thick of things, albeit this time for very different reasons. In Pakistan’s second innings, after they appeared to be dead and buried, Asif produced a superb innings and what looked like being an Australian fourth innings target of little more than a hundred suddenly started to stretch and became 236. At that point pace bowler Alan Hurst decided to ‘mankad’ Pakistan’s number eleven, Sikander Bakht. Australia got the runs easily enough, but when the opening partnership reached 87 and Alan Hilditch picked up the ball to return it to Pakistan it was Sarfraz who immediately appealed, and Hilditch became only the second man in Test history to be dismissed handled the ball.

A six Test tour of India was next on Pakistan’s itinerary, but Sarfraz wasn’t selected. Skipper Asif Iqbal, whose last series it was to prove, told the selectors that if they chose Sarfraz they would have to choose a different captain. The series was lost 2-0 and for the visit of Australia that followed Pakistan had a new captain, Javed Miandad, so Sarfraz played, albeit with no success. He scored just 22 runs in the three Tests and took only two wickets.

In November 1980 Pakistan’s guests were West Indies. In the first Test Sarfraz, by putting on 168 for the seventh wicket with Imran, helped his side to a draw, but he was an unhappy man, declaring the pitch had been doctored to help Pakistan’s spinners. He proceeded to flounce off to London for, he said, treatment on a groin strain. Another reason for his departure was, apparently, his disappointment with Javed’s captaincy. He was back and playing again in the final Test of the series but despite bowling economically he picked up just a single wicket.

In Australia in 1981/82 Sarfraz renewed his acquaintance with the MCG and his bowling helped Pakistan to a consolation victory. Sarfraz’ most memorable contribution to the first two Tests was his top score of 26 in the first innings at the WACA which helped his side from 26-8 to the comparative respectability of 62 all out.

Unsurprisingly Sarfraz was one of the senior players who refused to play on under Javed’s captaincy in the 1981/82 series against Sri Lanka and he only returned to the fold for the northern hemisphere summer of 1982 when, for the first time, Imran was skipper. The series was won 2-1 by England, but Sarfraz played a role in the Pakistan win at Lord’s. Unfortunately however he was not fit enough to play in either of his side’s defeats in the other two Tests.

Back home in Pakistan in 1982/83 Sarfraz’ injury prevented him from playing any part in the 3-0 drubbing of Australia, but he was back to play in all six Tests against India. Left to their own devices the selectors would not have picked him, but Imran wanted him and eventually persuaded the Board President to overrule the selectors. Imran’s 40 wicket haul at a little over 13 runs apiece was the major reason for the home side’s 3-0 victory but, with 19 wickets, Sarfraz supported his captain well and fully justified the lengths Imran went to in order to get him in the side.

It was Imran’s turn to be injured when the Pakistan side to visit India in 1983/84 was chosen. Acting skipper Zaheer Abbas was no more of a Sarfraz enthusiast than Javed, and he didn’t try to dissuade the selectors from leaving Sarfraz out of the side. The method adopted was somewhat underhand. Sarfraz was never keen on nets or training, and became even less inclined as he got older. Those that knew him let him get on with it, as they understood he got into shape from bowling, but the Board decided all candidates for the tour had to pass a fitness Test. Sarfraz failed of course and, having talked of retirement before, most observers thought that at 33 years of age the Sarfraz show was over particularly when, after expressing his views about the selectors in the media, he was handed a six month ban.

The ban left Sarfraz unable to play in the five Test series in Australia that followed the trip to India or the three home Tests against England that rounded off Pakistan’s season. The problem the selectors had however was that as Imran remained unable to bowl their reserve pace bowling stocks, just about manageable in India, were woefully inadequate in Australia. The ban was therefore lifted and Sarfraz travelled to Pakistan half way through the tour and played in the final three Tests with some limited success. He did rather better against England and indeed in his final Test was to get as close as he ever got to a First Class century, scoring 90. It was an important innings too as he played the leading role in a 161 partnership with a lame Zaheer that would have paved the way for a Pakistan victory, had their middle order not thrown away a wonderful position in the fourth innings. In the end the lower middle order, so Sarfraz again, had to shut up shop to get the draw.

After his retirement Sarfraz did not mellow. In the 1987 World Cup Pakistan lost in the semi-final to Australia. An unimpressed Sarfraz suggested that the Pakistani players had accepted money to lose the game. Skipper Imran dismissed the reports following which Sarfraz became more specific, alleging a conspiracy between Javed Miandad and Abdur Rahman Bukhatir, the man largely responsible for the game taking off in Sharjah. Javed the batsman had held the Pakistan innings together and, following an injury to Salim Yousuf, had kept wicket capably through most of the Australian innings. Both Javed and Bukhatir sued Sarfraz for libel damages in Pakistan, and Bukhatir also did in the UAE. Neither case was ever resolved, Javed eventually calming down and losing interest in the case in Pakistan, and Sarfraz giving the UAE a swerve.

An expressed desire to keep the game clean later prompted Sarfraz to accuse Asif Iqbal of ‘irregularities’ in relation to the Indian tour of 1979/80, as well as succeeding generations of underperforming in the Texaco Trophy in 1992 and during a tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe in 1994/95. It was Sarfraz who made a sworn statement in Lahore to Mr Justice Qayyum in 1998 and suggested Dean Jones was forced to retire because of his involvement with match fixing. In 2007 Sarfraz was one of those who was quick to suggest that the tragic death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was the responsibility of organised criminals from the world of gambling. As Sarfraz’ many critics were keen to point out he himself was a keen follower of the sport of kings, and no stranger to gambling emporia.

In 1993 Sarfraz crossed swords with the English criminal courts twice. In February of 1993 he appeared before Marylebone Magistrates Court and was fined £100 and disqualified from driving for 15 months for a drink/driving offence. At the time he was on bail for a much more serious offence. A dancer had accused Sarfraz of falsely imprisoning her and stealing money from her the previous year. It was October of 1993 before Sarfraz knew his fate on that one. His alleged victim failed to appear at the Old Bailey in order to tell her story and the charges against him were dismissed. It is one of the weaknesses of the English Criminal Justice system that such allegations, so easy to make and so difficult for an accused to throw off, should result in a Defendant being named before he or she is tried.

As Sarfraz left the Old Bailey without a stain on his character the false imprisonment charge is only of indirect relevance to his other appearance before a UK court at this time. That relevance is that his defence was publicly funded through legal aid, Sarfraz being in receipt of income support of just over £40 a week at the time. Despite that he was still able, during the fourteen months following 26 August 1992, to pursue a libel claim in the High Court, a hugely expensive legal forum and a type of claim for which legal aid is not and never has been available.

The background to the litigation arose out of the 1992 season, one of the more eventful English cricketing summers and by the end of which England had lost a five match Test series to Pakistan 2-1 The English batting suffered a number of collapses against spells of fast bowling from Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram that saw the old ball swinging prodigiously, and there was a groundswell of popular opinion that believed the Pakistanis, by interfering with the ball, were guilty of cheating.

In an article in the Daily Mirror Alan Lamb, who had played in a couple of the Tests and all the ODIs of the summer, wrote an article that accused the Pakistanis of deliberately damaging the ball. He concluded the article by explaining what was done and adding; it was an old trick first shown to me a dozen years ago by my old Northamptonshire teammate Sarfraz Nawaz. He was a genuine swing bowler, but he learnt the trick to help him bowl on the concrete hard surfaces in Pakistan.

The article was a damning indictment of the then current Pakistan side, but although Wasim and Waqar, through a solicitor, issued a statement on the subject, it was Sarfraz who, having decided he had been labelled a cheat, issued a libel writ. It would seem to be a reasonable assumption that some other individual or organisation was responsible for Sarfraz’s legal fees as it seems inconceivable that any legal team would have dealt with such a case on a pro bono basis, and the now commonplace ‘no win no fee’ agreement was not then permitted in England. Today, with a requirement for a libel Claimant to prove serious harm to his reputation, rather than simply some harm, the action wouldn’t have got off the ground, but in 1992 it actually made it to trial where, part way through, Sarfraz threw in the towel.

After the aborted trial, in the way that any self-respecting competitor would, Sarfraz claimed victory on the basis that Lamb had acknowledged in evidence that he had never accused Sarfraz of cheating in any match the pair had played together. The court record of course showed a different winner, but that seems not to have worried Sarfraz. A quarter of a century on and the mysteries of reverse swing are better understood, and despite recent events in South Africa few suggest now that Wasim, Waqar or indeed Sarfraz before them were ever “guilty” of anything more heinous than occasionally pushing their luck.

Outside cricket Sarfraz, with the help of his third wife, was to forge a career in politics. He had married first in 1970, to a sister of Test batsmen Saeed and Younis Ahmed, a fact that does not get any sort of mention in Younis’ autobiography so, as a brother in law, he was presumably something of a disappointment. Sarfraz’ second marriage, to a lady doctor from Karachi, took place in December 1976. In turn that marriage ended and then in 1982, whilst she was in London receiving treatment for cancer, Sarfraz met and married Rani Mukhtar, a well-known actress. With her support Sarfraz became an MP in the Punjab Provincial Assembly in 1985, joining the socialist Pakistan Peoples Party in 1988, and later transferring his allegiance to the more centrist Muttahida Quami Movement.

Sarfraz still finds it impossible to live a quiet life. Now 69 he was reported in October 2017 as being involved in two court cases against cricket administrators in Pakistan and of complaining about threats he had received. He cannot be blamed for taking them seriously. Back in the late 1980s he was attacked by a gang outside his Lahore home that left him unconscious and with injuries that necessitated a 15 day stay in hospital. Despite that disincentive to ruffle feathers Sarfraz has been quoted as saying I can’t sit back and let these people ruin the careers of deserving youth. I am fighting a noble cause and I will take them to every available forum.

It seems unlikely that just because the passing years have diminished his ability to bowl bouncers at his opponents that Sarfraz Nawaz intends to go anywhere quietly, and I suspect that one of my favourite Pakistani cricketers has a headline or two to make yet. I wish him well.

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IPL 2018: I am used to playing with the injuries, says MS Dhoni

The game between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings turned out to be a thriller with the home side edging out by four runs despite an MS Dhoni special that scared to take away the game from their hands. Chris Gayle struck a 33-ball 63 on his debut for KXIP as they finished with

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VIDEO: Yuvraj Singh express his deep friendship with MS Dhoni on the field

During a T20 match between Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab in the ongoing IPL, Yuvraj Singh showed that no love has been lost between him and MS Dhoni. The beautiful incident happened when CSK skipper MS Dhoni was lying on the ground, seeking medical assistance. The wicketkeeper-batsman was receiving a massage when KXIP’s

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Twitter reactions: MS Dhoni’s masterclass goes in vain; KXIP wins a thriller against CSK

Kings XI Punjab beat Chennai Super Kings by 4 runs in yet another nail-biter match in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2018). Chasing a mammoth total of 198, CSK kept losing wickets at regular intervals, but in the end captain, MS Dhoni stood tall to make sure it did not become a one-sided match. However,

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Twitter reactions: Rajasthan Royals stun Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru run fest

Sanju Samson destroyed Royal Challengers Bangalore’s designs – in their designer greens to reaffirm their commitment to the environment – with an onslaught that left them scampering for cover as Rajasthan Royals secured a 19-run win in the 11th match of the ongoing IPL. RR were put in to bat on a slightly green but

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10 Interesting facts about Mayank Markande

Mayank Markande is one of the hottest topics of discussion in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The young spinner from Punjab, who was picked by the defending champions Mumbai Indians during the players’ auction, has impressed one and all with his outstanding display of leg-spin in the tournament so far. After

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Twitter Reactions: Jason Roy’s heroics worsen MI’s losing streak

Jason Roy’s unbeaten 91 helped Delhi Daredevils (DD) beat Mumbai Indians (MI) by 7 wickets in a thriller at the Wankhede stadium on Saturday. With this victory, DD has opened their account in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) while MI succumbed to their third consecutive defeat. After put in to bat first, MI posted

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5 interesting facts about the new IPL anchor Erin Holland

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is up and running as the teams are eyeing outright victories over their respective opponents now. Star Sports, the official broadcaster of the tournament in India have roped in a lot of former cricketing legends to analyse the game. Mayanti Langer has been hosting the pre and post match shows

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IPL 2018: KKR’s Kamlesh Nagarkoti ruled out of the tournament with a foot injury

In an unfortunate turn of events, Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Kamlesh Nagarkoti has been ruled out of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). A foot injury has forced the Under-19 World Cup star out of the tournament and Karnataka pacer Prasidh Krishna has been called in as his replacement. The 18-year-old Nagarkoti was bought by

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MS Dhoni finally reveals the person with whom he shares his secrets

Wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni is one of the most popular cricketers in the world. Fans all over the world love him for his skills on and off the field. Whatever he says or does, it is bound to make headlines. And that’s what happened recently when Dhoni shared a secret with his fans who were present

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Brett Lee removes his coat during a Live show and IPL anchor Mayanti Langer couldn’t stop smiling

Mayanti Langer is one of the most popular sports anchors in India and she trends on social media almost every day because this year Star Sports India have got the broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL), and Mayanti is a popular face of Star Sports channel. Mayanti has always been a hot topic

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Australia’s Travails Change Very Little about World Cup

You must look at the context of each heavy defeat in cricket, and in the case of Australia there is a lot of context, but the drubbing handed out by South Africa in the fourth Test in Johannesburg was historical. In terms of the 492 runs, it was the fourth biggest margin of defeat in Test cricket history, coming after England beat Australia 1929 (675 runs), Australia beat England 1934 (562) and Australia beat South Africa 1911. As you can see by the dates, those sorts of margins simply do not happen in modern Test cricket.

Of course, it may have been a completely different story had Steve Smith and David Warner not been banned. But, to what extent will the shadow of the cheating scandal impact those Aussie players not involved with any wrong-doing? According to the bookmakers however, there will not be huge impact on Australia’s medium-term success. Looking beyond to the 2019 World Cup (30^th May -15^th July), the betting markets did not shift significantly due to the events of the last couple of weeks.

Australia remain second-favourites with most bookies for World Cup

You can see below how they reacted to the cheating scandal and Australia’s collapse in Johannesburg when putting out odds for the 2019 World Cup outright winner:

Team	Bet365 (23rd March)	Bet365 (4th April)	Ladbrokes (23rd March)	Ladbrokes (4th April)	Sportingbet(23rd March)	Sportingbet (4th April)
England	3/1	No change	3/1	11/4 (England shorten)	11/4	No change
Australia	10/3	No change	4/1	9/2 (Australia rise)	4/1	No change
India	9/2	No change	7/2	No change	9/2	4/1 (India shorten)
South Africa	5/1	No change	5/1	No change	9/2	5/1 (SA rise)

As you can see, there has been very little impact on the odds. The most noticeable change is probably South Africa’s odds increasing despite that massive victory over Australia this week. However, the main takeaway is that two out of three bookmakers have kept Australia’s odds the same and one (Ladbrokes) has only raised the odds slightly.

 

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

 

Smith and Bancroft accept bans, will return in 2019

What should we read into this? Well, we know that Smith, Warner (both one-year bans) and Cameron Bancroft (nine months) will be back in time for the World Cup, with both Smith and Bancroft stating they would not contest the length of the bans. But the question begs: even if they are welcomed back into the Australian line up – what will their frame of mind be? Will there be enough time to get ready for a World Cup just two months after serving a one-year ban?

 

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

 

There is also the departure of head coach Darren Lehmann. Put simply, Australian cricket is in a state of flux, so why are bookmakers confident enough to keep them as second-favourites for the World Cup? Of course, a year is a long time in cricket. So, if you are thinking about having a punt you can get your Cricket betting tips at Aussiefreebet.com.au  to stay in the loop with the markets. However, for the moment it would be advisable to stay away from Australia at those odds, at least until we see the makeup of the Australia side contesting the World Cup.

Could other sides benefit from a humbled Australia? There are no real winners when it comes to scandals like this in cricket, but you get the feeling the fans will still be vocal about this when the World Cup comes around. It’s going to take something special for Australia to silence those critics. Could England, India and the rest capitalise?

 

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Bollywood actress Sonal Chauhan congratulates CSK and MS Dhoni on thrilling win over KKR

The thrilling encounter between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders at the Chepauk Stadium on Tuesday was not just a delight for the fans who had to wait for two years to witness the Yellow Brigade in action, but also Bollywood actress Sonal Chauhan enjoyed the exhilarating encounter at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Taking

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IPL 2018: Ish Sodhi replaces injured Zahir Khan for Rajasthan Royals

New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi has been signed by the Rajasthan Royals as a replacement for injured Afghanistan bowler Zahir Khan in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018. Sodhi was picked from the Registered Available Player Pool (RAPP) list and this will be his first outing in the IPL. He has played 15 Tests, 22

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Twitter Reactions: Sam Billings leads CSK’s herculean run chase at Chepauk

It was a happy homecoming for the Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk. The returning franchise hosted the Kolkata Knight Riders in their first home game of the season. The Men in Yellow played at the iconic venue in Chennai after two years. Hence, the build up and the buzz around the game was immense.

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Faf du Plessis not yet ready to play as he has slight strain: CSK batting coach Michael Hussey

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis is not yet fit to play against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai on Tuesday. Du Plessis has a slight side strain and a small fracture in a finger and is expected to be ready for the game against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali on April 15, Chennai Super

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A study in impact – batting part one, with a final word on Trumper

For a couple of years I spent a great deal of time on something I called Match Impact. This was basically a method of assessing player performance by taking the win probability of a Test team at any given point in a match, then assessing the impact of the various events like a batting partnership or wicket by comparing the win probability before and after the event. Then I apportioned the credit for these events between the various players involved, i.e. batsmen, bowlers and fielders, before totalling the various credits for individual players. The idea was to come up with a single player career rating which took into account everything the player does, batting, bowling and fielding; in this way we could compare batsmen, bowlers, wicket-keepers etc. on a level playing field, as it were.

Not with a bang

Regardless of the relative success or otherwise of that exercise, the fact remains that when we compare players we tend to do it using their main discipline – Kallis is typically compared to Tendulkar only on his batting, Botham is compared to Lillee only on his bowling, and so forth. So, despite this being the antithesis of what I was trying to achieve with match impact I decided out of general interest to do the same, i.e. compare batsmen solely on their batting, but from a match impact point of view rather than traditional batting average.

Average (not average)

The match impact rating that I proposed previously is expressed as a percentage per Test, e.g. Garry Sobers’ match impact per Test might be worth say 21%, whereas Dennis Lillee might be worth 19%, but those figures don’t really mean much to anyone else but me as there’s no real frame of reference. So what I decided to do was to a) separate out the impact solely based on each player’s batting, then b) extrapolate that to a value which is equivalent to the range of Test batting averages, with the intent being to provide a rating scale with which those who follow cricket would be familiar.

I assumed that the obvious basis to scale from is Don Bradman. As was seen with my full impact exercise Bradman is the highest rated pure batsman (no adjustment for opponent) and as a result will have the highest impact from batting only, so we can use his batting impact rating and Test batting average to scale from. In order to scale the others I had to run Bradman’s batting impact separation first and this gave me a figure of 22.06% – that is the equivalent impact average figure which is equated to Bradman’s batting average of 99.94. In this way, once I ran each player’s batting impact I could then scale it to an equivalent batting average scale by comparing it to Bradman and baseing it on a 99.94 batting average.

A Game of Two Halves

Even though I’ve built up a large database of Test cricket events this stuff still takes a long time, so I’ve decided to split the work in two, the first half cutting off at Greg Chappell (based on CricketArchive player number, rather than by debut or retirement date), so just before Sunil Gavaskar. Once I’ve completed the second half I can do a full comparison, then repeat the exercise for bowling and fielding.

Using a batting impact of 22.06% as equivalent to a batting average of 99.94 (which is near as dammit 100), this gives us an equivalent batting average of 50 as equating to a match impact of around 11%, which if we weren’t converting to an equivalent average would be our magic number. I don’t even know for sure if the relationship is completely linear, though I don’t see why it wouldn’t be and certainly looking at the various equivalent averages it does appear to be pretty close to being linear. What match impact also does is to remove any era variations, as the win probability already takes that into account.

The First 400

I’ll first present the equivalent batting averages chronologically, split into three groups which roughly equate to pre-WW1, between the wars and post-WWII to about 1980 (or Chappell).

Remember these aren’t actually batting averages – they’re not era-adjusted batting averages, they’re not opposition-adjusted averages, they’re not any kind of batting average; they’re a match impact average percentage which has been scaled to resemble a batting average for ease of comparison.

Looking at the first 400 players in the first part of this study, below are featured some of the greatest batsmen of the Golden Age, with equivalent impact average, batting average and impact percentage shown:-

Player group 1-400

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Imp%	Player
37.47	32.29	8.27	WG Grace (Eng)
37.83	35.47	8.35	Arthur Shrewsbury (Eng)
45.30	35.57	10.00	Andrew Stoddart (Eng)
53.78	48.79	11.87	Stanley Jackson (Eng)
47.16	39.22	10.41	Clem Hill (Aus)
53.82	39.05	11.88	Victor Trumper (Aus)

What we can see here is that, despite playing in almost the same number of Tests and having virtually the same Test batting average, Trumper had significantly more impact through his batting in Tests than did his compatriot Clem Hill. In fact, Trumper’s impact average is slightly higher than Jackson, whose batting average was almost ten runs higher than Trumper’s but who played in only about half the number of Tests. Grace’s heyday really pre-dated Test cricket but he still had as much impact as did his own nominee for top batsman, Arthur Shrewsbury.

Player group 1-400 (cont.)

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Imp%	Player
65.96	56.95	14.56	Jack Hobbs (Eng)
52.01	40.78	11.48	Herby Taylor (SA)
62.11	60.73	13.71	Herbert Sutcliffe (Eng)

As with Hill and Trumper, we can see that Hobbs, despite a lower average than his partner Sutcliffe, has a significantly higher equivalent impact average, in fact the highest to date. South Africa’s Herby Taylor, who was good enough to average 50 in Tests with the great Sydney Barnes in the opposing attack, also fares pretty well by this measure and is much closer to Sutcliffe on impact than traditional batting average, the difference being halved when looking at equivalent impact – Taylor was described by ‘Jim’ Swanton as follows: “His method was so sound that he remained a beautiful player when nearer fifty than forty.” Clearly he had some impact, too.

The Second 400

Player group 401-800

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Imp%	Player
55.36	58.46	12.22	Wally Hammond (Eng)
99.94	99.94	22.06	Don Bradman (Aus)
68.00	60.83	15.01	George Headley (WI)

Into the next group of 400 now, and I doubt that anyone needs an introduction to the three batsmen listed above. Bradman naturally shows as having the same for equivalent impact as his batting average, as his numbers are being used as the basis for our scaling, with other players showing higher or lower than their actual batting average based on their impact as compared to Bradman’s. Hammond shows as being further behind Headley based on impact than on purely batting average, with Headley achieving the highest level of impact batting so far (after Bradman, of course). Hammond though makes up a lot in total match impact due to his bowling, as well as in fielding. Martin Chandler pointed out in his feature on Hammond A Complex Man that had he not returned to Test cricket after the war Hammond would have retired with a Test average of 61.45 and would thus have been ranked second only to Bradman. Similarly, ignoring also the impact from those post-war Tests, Hammond’s equivalent impact average would be about 7% higher.

Player group 401-800 (cont)

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Imp%	Player
54.50	53.82	12.03	Dudley Nourse (SA)
60.84	56.67	13.43	Len Hutton (Eng)
50.92	46.49	11.24	Arthur Morris (Aus)
43.76	40.10	9.66	Bert Sutcliffe (NZ)

Hutton shows a very high impact average, and we can see that the ‘minnows’ were well-represented by the other Sutcliffe, New Zealander Bert. Arthur Morris was Barry Richards’ opening partner in Don Bradman’s dream XI and we can see why.

The Third 400

Player group 801-1200

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Imp%	Player
53.73	56.59	11.86	Clyde Walcott (WI)
56.04	58.62	12.37	Everton Weekes (WI)
55.59	48.42	12.27	Neil Harvey (Aus)
47.12	49.49	10.40	Frank Worrell (WI)

On to the third group of the first part of the study, players 801-1200. I’m not surprised to see Neil Harvey rewarded here, he had a number of high impact innings which may not be fairly reflected by his traditional batting average. Everton Weekes rates as having the highest impact average of the three Ws; I don’t have a problem with that either, as I’ve always considered Weekes to be the finest batsman of the three – as Jim Laker wrote He has the killer instinct…he murders the bowling.

Player group 801-1200 (cont.)

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Imp%	Player
51.96	46.77	10.38	Peter May (Eng)
52.37	43.99	11.56	Hanif Mohammad (Pak)
55.90	57.78	12.34	Garry Sobers (WI)

Glad to see the batting of Hanif and Peter May recognised (Hanif significantly so) and though Sobers’ equivalent impact average is lower than his batting average, the best all-round player ever still ranks highly on batting impact alone.

Player group 801-1200 (cont.)

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Imp%	Player
46.48	44.07	10.26	Colin Cowdrey (Eng)
54.95	58.67	12.13	Ken Barrington (Eng)
49.11	47.89	10.84	Ted Dexter (Eng)

I had thought Dexter would take more of an upward hike based on his batting, but he does rank much higher when his bowling and fielding impact are also taken into account. Cowdrey inches closer to Barrington on this measure, though still some way behind.

Player group 801-1200 (cont.)

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Imp%	Player
53.96	47.53	11.91	Rohan Kanhai (WI)
50.65	45.07	11.18	Conrad Hunte (WI)
45.76	43.11	10.10	Basil Butcher (WI)

Kanhai and Hunte in particular rate as high-impact batsmen in this impressive group of West Indian batsmen.

The fourth group – Player 1201 Through Greg Chappell

Player group 1200-1364

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Imp%	Player
63.11	60.97	13.93	Graeme Pollock (SA)
49.61	43.46	10.95	Ian Redpath (Aus)
51.47	47.73	11.36	Geoff Boycott (Eng)

Pollock has the highest impact rating since George Headley – note that his compatriot Barry Richards rates at an astronomical 78.96, albeit over just four Tests and, though he has been highly rated by many expert witnesses, it’s unlikely he would have been able to maintain that level over a significant number of Tests. Sir Geoffrey, deaspite his somewhat dogmatic approach, rates well from an impact perspective. I saw Ian Redpath bat at Headingley during the 1968 Ashes in what was my first taste of Test cricket, thankfully he treated the crowd to a fine 92, which was just as well as Cowper had crawled to just 15 by lunch.

Player group 1201-1364 (cont.)

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Imp%	Player
52.46	44.64	11.58	Glenn Turner (NZ)
55.77	53.86	12.31	Greg Chappell (Aus)

The final two batsmen featured this time around, Chappell still rates higher than Turner, but the gap is much smaller as regards impact than when considering batting average, where the difference is close to ten runs.

How the pre-Gavaskar group rank

Having now rated all of the first 1200 or so (well, 1364) players based on batting impact equivalent average, below is the top ten ranking list so far:-

EquivAvg	ActAvg	Player
99.94	99.94	Bradman
68.00	60.83	Headley
65.96	56.95	Hobbs
63.11	60.97	Pollock
62.11	60.73	Sutcliffe
60.84	56.67	Hutton
56.04	58.62	Weekes
55.90	57.78	Sobers
55.77	53.86	GS Chappell
55.59	48.42	Harvey

Even though we’re only halfway through, it’s amazing to see that Bradman still has such a large lead over the rest based on actual batting impact. If we were to rank the same group of 1200+ players by batting average, then we can see from the above that Hobbs has moved up the rankings significantly, as have Hutton and, particularly, Harvey.

Looking at the players ranked by highest run differential between equivalent average and batting average (DeltaR):-

DeltaR	Player
+14.77	Trumper
+11.23	Herby Taylor
+9.32	Nari Contractor
+9.31	‘Dave’ Nourse
+9.01	Hobbs

Nari Contractor’s is one of the sadder stories in cricket, as his career was cut short by a bouncer from Charlie Griffith, requiring emergency surgery and long periods of recuperation. Contractor was good enough to score 438 runs against an Australian side which the previous winter had seen off Peter May’s England 4-0, and it seems that his batting impact has not been fairly represented by his batting average. Trumper’s impact equivalent average is some way higher than his batting average, in fact the highest increase in terms of runs of all of the players looked at in this first part of the study. If we rank on delta runs as a percentage the gap is similarly large:-

%DeltaR	Player
+38.2%	Trumper
+33.2%	Roy Dias
+31.2%	‘Dave’ Nourse
+29.5%	Contractor
+27.5%	Herby Taylor

Roy Dias was ‘a joy to watch at the crease’, though he did not begin his Test career until age 30 upon Sri Lanka’s election to Test status. It would be nice to think that I’ve unearthed a method of ranking stylish batsmen more highly, however it’s more likely that those who thrilled us also had significant impact as compared to how their batting average rates them, when compared to their peers.

As far as those who have an equivalent impact average which is lower than their actual batting average, most of those are shown above:-

DeltaR	Player
-5.07	Umrigar
-3.65	McGlew
-3.10	Hammond
-2.86	Walcott
-2.58	Weekes

A final word on Trumper

Victor Trumper was nominated in Number One by Simon Wilde as being the champion batsman for ten years at the beginning of the 20th century. From the above rankings it is clear that Trumper has benefitted from this study more than any of the cricketers assessed so far.

There are times when an early and tragic demise will result in a kind of ‘halo effect’ regarding the person who was plucked from us too soon, and though Trumper was no Archie Jackson, he had played some of his best cricket just three or four years before his death – the fact that he died from Bright’s Disease, from which I myself suffered as a child, has had no impact on my opinion of him.

It seems in Trumper’s case that all of the accolades afforded his batting were warranted – I am delighted to propose a rating system which sets him closer to his true place among the great pantheon of batting greats.

Next time we’ll look at the second group of batsmen, from Gavaskar-onwards.

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