Monty Panesar’s career has declined since his memorable India tour in 2012 as Essex’s decision to omit him against Glamorgan for bad timekeeping further testifies

David Hopps01-Jun-2014Shortly before Christmas, England could still bask in the belief that they still possessed two world-class spinners. Now they must wonder if they have any at all. Not only has Graeme Swann retired, but Monty Panesar’s behaviour is becoming increasingly unreliable.In a list of minor misdemeanours, being dropped for poor timekeeping, as Panesar has been by Essex for their Championship match against Glamorgan at Chelmsford, would hardly rank a mention were it not for the fact that it fits a disturbing pattern that threatens to end Panesar’s England career.Swann retired abruptly, his spirit sapped by the pain of a reconstructed elbow and the recognition that he had lost the pace and dip that had made him one of the finest offspinners in England’s history. Panesar’s time should have come, but for the past year he has done nothing to warrant selection.If Paul Downton, the managing director of England Cricket, deemed Kevin Pietersen distracted in Australia, heaven knows what he has made of Panesar’s behaviour in that time. Celebrated as a wide-eyed 12-year-old when his international career began, he now seems to have advanced into a state of persistent adolescence.Panesar failed to attend a team meeting on Sunday morning after initially being named in the side and that was enough for Paul Grayson, Essex’s head coach, to omit him. Essex issued a curt statement confirming that “Monty Panesar has been disciplined by the club after breaching team rules for timekeeping”, that he had been dropped against Glamorgan as a result and would be available in the NatWest Blast on June 6 against Surrey.Essex are seeking to play down the matter, but such decisions are not taken on a whim. They draw their energy from a player’s general state of mind, from the support or otherwise of his team mates, and from the need eventually to make a point. Essex should be strong promotion contenders and that they feel that challenge, temporarily at least, is better served by reminding Panesar of his responsibilities signifies that his attitude has left much to be desired.This has not lost Panesar a place in the Test series against Sri Lanka, merely confirmed it. England’s intention to field four pace bowlers and place spin solely in the hands of an allrounder – most likely Moeen Ali or Samit Patel, with Adil Rashid as an outsider – has been well signalled. Panesar was assumed to have a negligible chance even before this latest peccadillo. But all it would have taken was a heatwave or a rush of bountiful form to force the England selectors to reconsider, if not now later in the summer.Instead, in a season where Panesar might have established himself as England’s premier spin bowler, and at the very least provided stability for a few years while a desperate search continued for a long-term replacement, his attitude has been such that Essex have seen fit on at least one occasion to warn him about his body language. Sussex, who had also come to tire of his dressing room mood swings, would know the symptoms only too well.One of the most beloved England cricketers of his age, at 32, is losing his appeal. He has recently been photographed on the field wearing spectacles – and very earnest they make him look, too – but it is himself he needs to look at. Cricket, it seems, no longer puts a smile on his face. A general disenchantment seems to run deep.As Tom Craddock, Essex’s young legspinner, took to the field at Chelmsford in his place, Panesar needed to reflect on the mess of the past year.When his infamous early-morning escapade in Brighton last summer led to him urinating from on high on a nightclub bouncer, and Sussex’s patience snapped, it was Essex who gave him a home and, by doing so, enabled him to bowl enough overs to win a place on England’s Ashes tour. He played twice, without distinction, winning his 50th Test in Melbourne, a half century which it is not inconceivable will become his last.Umpires talk in mystified fashion at some of his on-field behaviour such as his bizarre swing of his foot in his follow-through last season at Worcestershire’s Ross Whiteley, or the need to tell him to calm down when Billy Godleman, a former Essex player now with Derbyshire, was widely subjected to a rough reception.It is all desperately sad. Back in November 2012, Panesar and Swann shared 19 wickets in ideal spin bowling conditions in the Mumbai Test. “England’s dust devils, called them. It was one of the greatest spin bowling displays in Test history: Swann, artful and brimming with imagination; Panesar, zealous, disciplined, slightly vulnerable.There was talk that England might even play two spinners at home, such was the attraction of a combination thought to be at its peak. Then, in a flash, Swann was gone. Panesar’s passing looks as if it could be more problematic. Since that tour, he has rarely commanded the respect that seemed to be his by rights.India return to England later this summer and for Panesar there remains the chance to impress once more against the country of his antecedents. Perhaps the dust devils have already been carried away on the wind. If that proves to be the case, Panesar has only himself to blame.Downton was right when he used the word “distracted”. He just used it about the wrong man.

Cricket’s premier historian comes out with another collection of essays that sound uncannily prescient about the way the game is headed

Alan Gardner19-Apr-2014Who watches the watchmen? When cricket’s modern-day guardians are so often asleep or, worse, attending to the lining of their own pockets, it is vital that journalists such as Gideon Haigh do. is the latest collection of essays by Haigh, with rigorous analysis of the game’s power structures at its dark heart, although there is still room for discussion of the channel outside off in portraits of current and recently departed greats, whose exploits most of us lazily prefer to spend our time watching.Haigh is one of the world’s foremost cricket historians, although verges on archaeology in parts. Few anticipated the aggressive kangaroo bounce achieved by Darren Lehmann’s Australia during the most recent Ashes contest and Haigh’s inquisitorial probing of the state of the game in his homeland during the preceding two years is no less valid, or interesting, for the glut that appears to have succeeded the famine. (Whether it really is a glut or not will probably be worth another book.)An era ended with the retirements of Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey and Haigh sketches both against the setting sun with a typically precise eye for detail and phrase-making. Writing about Ponting in late 2011, before a successful series against India prolonged his stay, Haigh draws a comparison between the struggles of this former Australia captain and the prosperity of another, Steve Waugh, whose “late-career technique was an Alamo of ornery defiance”. Hussey, meanwhile, was “the bullion in the vaults of the Australian team, the additional layer of capital to draw on in an emergency”.While Hussey got out twice playing the pull on debut, he only did so once more in his 79-Test career; his final dismissal saw him, for the first time, run out attempting a single. Of the numerous ways in which Hussey’s value to the Australia team could be measured, the fact he built 97 partnerships of 50 or more with 23 different team-mates is particularly resonant. These observations are typical of Haigh’s insight. Reference to Ponting’s practical habit of starting an innings with a familiar “Nice loud calls, mate” to his partner is another.This first third of the book, which also features some homework for and a lengthy piece on Kerry Packer’s legacy, gives way to less easily romanticised subject matter: broadly, Australian cricket and global administration. These two sections make up the bulk of the book, and although some of Haigh’s subject matter has been overtaken by events, the analysis is thorough.”Unhappy Anniversary”, a piece written for the in January 2012, eerily foreshadows the episode that unfolded two years later, when the BCCI-ECB-CA position paper on restructuring the ICC, in particular its financial model, was leaked. “That quite a lot of international cricket doesn’t make money is now held against it,” Haigh wrote. “The strong resent having to subsidise the weak. The strong resent having to do much at all except become stronger.” The strong have now given themselves a mandate to do so.An in-depth history of the ICC written for around the same time, “Fear and Loathing in Dubai”, is also reproduced in full. The final line, suggesting that “the Woolf review may be a straw that breaks this camel’s back” is also remarkably prescient, given the governance path the ICC is now set to take.The game and its affairs have rarely been in a greater state of flux, from the scandals of the IPL (cricket’s “vertiginous candy mountain”) to the “cockamamie cluster-f***” that is Australia’s domestic schedule. The rapid passage of time in some cases serves to demonstrate the acuity of Haigh’s vision, from the machinations at the ICC to his suggestion that Michael Clarke would do well to remove himself from the Australian Test team’s selection process, which has also come to pass. Other pieces are less buffeted by the winds of change, and an extensive article on the game in Papua New Guinea is a timeless treat.While plenty of can now serve as archive material, Haigh is no dry historian, sequestered in his library, depositing ink on to parchment. He writes for numerous publications and perhaps the only reason to pass on the book is that his current thoughts are even more easily accessible. In these uncertain times, Haigh remains a sure thing.Uncertain Corridors: Writings on Modern Cricket
Gideon Haigh
Simon and Schuster
336 pages

India seem to be mulling playing five specialist batsmen and giving Stuart Binny a Test debut at Trent Bridge, going by how much action he has seen in the tour matches and in the nets

Sidharth Monga in Nottingham06-Jul-2014India’s preparation for the start of this England tour reached its final stage when they returned to the field three days before the Trent Bridge Test. Having played two – albeit low intensity – three-day tour games, India took a two-day break from cricket activity, and made their first visit to Trent Bridge on Sunday. This is when they like to pick up intensity; they trained for close to four hours with almost all of their 18 players getting a bowl or a hit, and there might have been a hint that they are considering playing an extra bowler.India don’t usually like to bat MS Dhoni at No. 6 when away from home, and it can be hazardous to read too much into what happens at the nets, but it seems they haven’t ruled out the possibility of giving Stuart Binny a debut at the expense of Rohit Sharma.After the basic warm-up drills and a short game of football, the first-choice seamers – Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma – were sent to face the bowling machine while the batsmen came out to bat in the main nets – where Binny bowled for a longish duration – in what appeared to be their batting order. Shikhar Dhawan and M Vijay first, followed by Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli. Rohit, meanwhile, didn’t begin padding up and worked with the strength and conditioning coach instead. Ajinkya Rahane moved into the main nets as Pujara went to face throwdowns.Kohli’s exit brought MS Dhoni into the main nets, which usually might not mean anything, except that everything else followed a certain symmetry. Ravindra Jadeja batted in the main nets next, followed by Binny. Until then 11 players had been part of the main action, and 10 of them were definite starters for the first Test. Binny can’t be ruled out as the 11th.Rohit and Gautam Gambhir did get to bat, but by the time they came into the main nets the main bowlers had either finished or were at the end of their spells. It seemed to be a continuation from the second tour game, played against Derbyshire last week. Binny bowled nine and six overs in the two innings there, and batted at No. 7 in the first innings for a quick and unbeaten 81. Rohit didn’t bat in the first innings, and India only batted 18 overs after he came out in the second.The indication from the team is that they are keeping their options open. The team’s concern is that they have struggled to take 20 wickets, which they want to address. If the pitch retains its straw-like colour, and looks to be good for batting, there is a good chance they might take that risk. If the weather remains dry and they see possibility for more spin, R Ashwin stands an outside chance too, because as batsmen Binny and Ashwin are on same plane.Binny is a military-medium bowler who is at his most effective in conditions that assist seam bowling, like he was when taking six wickets in an ODI on a damp pitch against Bangladesh. Trent Bridge is arguably the most bowler-friendly Test venue in England today. He, or more precisely a seaming allrounder, was a demand made by the team management keeping the conditions in mind. They had been desperate to get Irfan Pathan fit, but he had hardly played any first-class cricket over the last season.If India do go in with five bowlers, it will be an extraordinary move. Dhoni has never batted at No. 6 outside Asia. The last time India played five bowlers was against Australia at home, in 2012-13, and you’ll struggle to find instances of India playing with five batsmen outside the subcontinent. Considering how bold and unprecedented a move it might be, it will need due thought and care, which is what – eventually – all the activity over the last week might turn out to be. One thing is for sure, though: India are considering the idea, and five bowlers remains a possibility.

Afghanistan have shown they can win even without their stars. Now Netherlands, Ireland and Nepal need to emulate them

Peter Della Penna27-Jul-2014The 2015 World Cup is less than seven months away, but Afghanistan’s drawn four-match ODI series with Zimbabwe will go a long way towards filling the build-up with positive anticipation that Associate teams will not be content just to show up and collect medals for participation. Like Ireland, Scotland and UAE, who will be there representing the Associate cause along with them, Afghanistan are desperate to prove they belong with the big boys of the Test world, and this week’s results have demonstrated emphatically that they merit inclusion not just for the 2015 World Cup but for ICC events beyond.In years past, the premier Associates like Canada and Kenya were able to come up with once-in-a-generation match-winners like John Davison or Steve Tikolo to serve as the backbone of their squad. The inability to develop a supporting cast to bridge the gap into the next generation of talent has been exposed, with both countries falling back into mediocrity.The ability to generate squad depth is perhaps the most significant hurdle for any Associate squad. When a star player is struck down by injury or suffers a loss of form, Associate teams do not have the luxuries of like-for-like replacements, which can reasonably be expected of Full Member structures. The 2012 World T20 champions, West Indies, were able to advance to the 2014 semi-finals without the services of Kieron Pollard, and a possible return to the final was thwarted by rain in their showdown with Sri Lanka.Sabermetrics analysts in American sports have identified and attached a value to players beyond traditional stats by formulating the WAR or WARP category, short for Wins Above Replacement Player. The stat measures a star player’s total impact over the course of a season by attributing a number of wins that a player’s team would theoretically lose if he was replaced by an average player. In baseball in 2013, reigning American League MVP Miguel Cabrera had a WAR rating of 7.5 for the Detroit Tigers, who won their division with a 93-69 record. If you subtract Cabrera and the seven wins he represents, the Tigers would have finished 86-76, six games behind the Cleveland Indians for the division title and five games behind the Texas Rangers for the final wildcard playoff spot. Similarly, National League MVP Andrew McCutcheon of the Pittsburgh Pirates had a WAR rating of 7.9 on a team that won a wildcard playoff berth in 2013 with a record of 94-68. If McCutcheon disappeared from the team, the Pirates were projected to finish 86-76 on the season, tied with Washington Nationals for the final playoff spot instead of clinching it outright.Cricket, though it has a rich statistical history, has yet to formulate its own version of WAR, but a theoretically crude interpretation of WAR is more acutely applicable at Associate level when players are missing. Prior to the World T20, Ireland went on a tour of the Caribbean where they played in the Nagico Super50 domestic tournament. Ed Joyce was rested and Paul Stirling, a player with multiple ODI centuries against Pakistan to his name, was injured in training before the first match. Reliable allrounder John Mooney also went home after the first match against Guyana with a stress-related illness.Ireland struggled badly without Stirling in the first two games, losing by 114 runs to Guyana and by six wickets to Jamaica, who chased 162 with 21 overs to spare. Upon Stirling’s return for the third match, Ireland defeated Windward Islands by 64 runs. His impact was evident in a number of ways: he may have only scored 11, but by being reinserted into the opening role, Stirling allowed Niall O’Brien to move down to No. 3 and provide a buffer for the middle order. O’Brien top-scored on the day with 44.In addition to being one of Ireland’s better fielders and someone who can save runs inside the circle, Stirling also provided an enhanced spin option, returning figures of 7-2-13-1. His presence arguably influenced the success of lead spinner George Dockrell. In two matches without Stirling, Dockrell returned combined figures of 0 for 64 in ten overs. With Stirling applying pressure from the opposite end, Dockrell had figures of 7-1-14-3 in the win over Windward Islands. Also worth mentioning are the two run-outs that occurred from pressure built off each other’s restrictive bowling as Windward Islands collapsed for 115 in 35 overs.Six days after the win over Windward Islands, Ireland notched a three-wicket win in a T20 tour match against Trinidad & Tobago A, where Stirling scored 70 off 38 balls. Replace Ireland’s best batsman with the eighth-best batsman, the next cab off the rank, and more than likely Ireland lose, as they did to Guyana and Jamaica. Extending this argument, Joyce returned to the squad for the two T20Is and lone ODI against West Indies, enhancing the team’s strength and depth. Ireland won the first T20 by six wickets, with Man-of-the-Match Joyce scoring 40 not out, before narrowly losing the second T20 by 11 runs on a difficult batting pitch.Just three weeks earlier a team without Stirling and Joyce was losing heavily to regional teams, but with them they were capable of knocking over a West Indies side that included Dwayne Smith, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine and Darren Sammy. Ireland’s overall depth is very strong, and it’s hard to find a weak link in a starting XI that includes Kevin O’Brien, William Porterfield and other county pros like Tim Murtagh and Gary Wilson. However, Stirling’s WAR rating would arguably turn up higher because of the overall impact he has on the squad with his batting, bowling and fielding.The impact felt by the presence, or lack thereof, of star players applies to several other current Associate teams. Nepal star Paras Khadka was laid low by a back injury at the ICC World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand. He missed one game and struggled through the rest of the tournament as Nepal lost all four of their group matches to Scotland, Hong Kong, UAE and Canada. Fast forward to the World T20 in Bangladesh and a healthy Khadka inspired the team to wins over Hong Kong and Afghanistan, not to mention turning in a top score of 41 in a losing effort against Bangladesh.Netherlands have also experienced this to varying degrees in recent times. Without Tom Cooper, they finished seventh at the World Cup Qualifier and lost ODI status. With Cooper, at the World T20 they produced a record chase against Ireland to advance into the main draw. It was not just Cooper striking 45 off 15 balls that aided them. His overall presence gave freedom to Stephan Myburgh to swing away at the top of the order without any fear of two out turning into all out in the space of a few overs.Although Netherlands subsequently suffered a humiliating defeat to Sri Lanka when they were bowled out for 39, history will show by the end of the tournament how special Sri Lanka were when they were eventually crowned T20 world champions. Sri Lanka’s run to the title included another famous bowling display when they knocked over New Zealand for just 60. On that same day, Netherlands beat England by 45 runs. So a team that finished behind Namibia a few months earlier without Cooper was now beating Ireland and England with him.The ability to develop squad depth is the biggest obstacle to overcoming the profound impact of losing a player with a high WAR rating. Afghanistan’s pair of ODI victories in Zimbabwe signals that they have begun producing more players who can fill the void when big names aren’t in the starting XI. Among those absentees are Hamid Hassan and Mohammad Shahzad, although at this point Afghanistan should no longer entertain “what ifs” about Hassan due to his chronic ailments.Shahzad’s absence was not felt as badly as might have been feared due to this improved depth. Four players – Samiullah Shenwari, Mohammad Nabi, Javed Ahmadi and Shafiqullah – produced half-centuries for Afghanistan during the ODI series, while 17-year-old Usman Ghani scored Afghanistan’s first ODI century against a Full Member. In their victory over Bangladesh in the Asia Cup, Afghanistan also got an important half-century from Asghar Stanikzai. The run-scoring load is being shared.On the bowling side, Afghanistan have now shown that Hassan’s presence should be considered a bonus instead of a prerequisite for victory. An attack spearheaded by the 135kph-plus pace of Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran and Aftab Alam was capable of slaying Zimbabwe not once but twice. Add in the spin of Nabi, Shenwari, and the emerging Sharafuddin Ashraf and it becomes hard to find a weak link in their attack. Hassan’s WAR rating would arguably be lower because the drop-off between Hassan and Alam is not as severe as the replacements offered by the absences of the likes of Stirling, Khadka and Cooper.Without Paul Stirling, Ireland struggled against regional Caribbean sides•ICCThe major drawback for any Associate playing in the World Cup is their lack of exposure to Full Member opportunities. Ireland are currently in the midst of hosting Sri Lanka A, while Scotland will host New Zealand A for three games in August. Ireland and Scotland then square off for three ODIs at Malahide in September, with nothing else before the start of the World Cup. Meanwhile UAE have been totally starved of fixtures since the end of the Asian Cricket Council Premier League on May 7. Due to a lack of competitive preparation, they will have the biggest mountain to climb in order to be ready for their first match of the World Cup in New Zealand on February 19 against Zimbabwe.The competitive standard of Associate cricket has perhaps never been stronger. Two teams that do not hold ODI status – Netherlands and Nepal – registered headline-grabbing victories at the World T20 over England and Afghanistan respectively. Hong Kong also managed to humble Bangladesh with a two-wicket win at the same event. Ireland’s World Cup giant-killing exploits have continued in the form of more wins against Full Members – West Indies and Zimbabwe – in 2014.Afghanistan’s 100-run victory over Zimbabwe on July 24 showed that their dramatic two-wicket win two days earlier was no fluke and piles on more evidence that not just Afghanistan but many other Associates deserve increased opportunities against Full Members. They’ll just have to wait until February in Australia and New Zealand to remind administrators of it.

Leaving behind a cushy life to go on a tour of the cricket world has so far been a journey of self-discovery and learning

Subash Jayaraman11-Oct-2014It has been nearly three months since my wife Kathleen and I boarded a flight out of Newark International Airport in New Jersey headed for Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago – the first leg of a cricket journey around the world that is to culminate at the final of the 2015 World Cup in Melbourne, Australia. The objective: 255 days on the road through 12 countries, following as much cricket as we can.This was a dream trip many years in the making for me as a cricket fan. As such, the decision to leave our cushy lives of comfort and guaranteed salaries to explore the cricket world and come back to start anew wasn’t that hard to make. After all, it is cricket we are talking about.Though I swear by cricket, I actually didn’t step inside a cricket stadium to watch an international match until 2007. Growing up in India, cricket was always around me, but I never had the means to actually be at a match. I watched it on TV, read about it in newspapers and magazines, played it in the streets, backyards and terraces, on patches of land and in riverbeds, in hostel corridors and in living rooms, but the fan in me wasn’t complete till I watched it in the flesh in Antigua during the 2007 World Cup. And then, I caught the bug.Since then, I have travelled to Jamaica, Trinidad, England, Bangladesh, India and Australia to watch cricket – sometimes as a fan and other times as a media person. As Kathleen and I took more and more one- and two-week long cricket trips, the idea of a long one around the world began to germinate. We took inspiration from an Australian couple who were backpacking through North America for six months while taking in cricket in the Caribbean.

Fans went out of their way to help us find accommodation, buy us a few pints, help us with travel and food

As soon as we returned to our home in USA after watching a Test in Trinidad in 2012, we looked up the Future Tours Programme and decided that the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand was an obvious final destination of our trip. We worked backwards to come up with an itinerary that took us through almost every Test-playing nation, and set off on July 15, 2014. Since we derived our inspiration in Trinidad, it was logical to begin our trip there.We have met former and current Test cricketers, legends, commentators, famous writers and journalists, who have all enriched the trip in more ways than we could have imagined. More than that, it has been the fans – some friends and some strangers – who went out of their way to help us find accommodation, buy us a few pints, help us with travel and food – who have made this trip possible and thoroughly memorable.We had the privilege of speaking to Colin Croft about his career and the great West Indian side he was part of, while sitting in the stands of the Queen’s Park Oval, the venue of his best bowling figures. We have been within touching of Sir Garfield Sobers at the Kensington Oval. We paid our respects at the final resting places of Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Clyde Walcott. We had the joy of bowling in the Wanderers Cricket Club nets, the oldest club in Barbados. We were given a guided tour of a cricket museum by Malcolm Marshall’s son. We sat among the who’s who of Indian and English cricket journalists covering the Tests in England. We shared a lunch table with Kapil Dev and Wasim Akram. We rode tubes and elevators with some of the best known voices in the game. We were interviewed on the BBC. We had a feature written about us in an Indian newspaper. We ate dinner in a castle in Ireland that was formerly the summer home of Ranjitsinhji during his last years. We walked into the home of one of the great names in Indian cricket and spent hours talking cricket. We got a private tour of the only cricket museum in India. Many of these instances are each worthy of a piece of its own, and I shall revisit some of them in these pages at a later time.Bowling at the Wanderers Cricket Club nets in Barbados•Subash JayaramanMany people have asked us: Why make this trip at all? What are our plans once the trip is over? What is it all for?Well, it is part fun, part self-discovery, and part experimentation. We were leading lives of comfort and security, where we seemed to be almost on autopilot. Putting our regular lives on hold for nine months to see whether we – a cricket addict and a “cricket widow” – could come out the other side is certainly one aspect of it. It is also an opportunity for Kathleen to explore the cricket world, its culture, customs and traditions to better understand the sport her husband is so hopelessly addicted to.We do not know just yet what we will do when the trip is over. We moved out of the apartment we lived in for years and gave away nearly all of our possessions. In effect, we have forced ourselves to start afresh. The future is wide open and filled with limitless possibilities.We are currently winding down the (southern) Indian leg of the trip and are headed to the UAE to watch the Pakistan-Australia Tests. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India (the north), South Africa, Zimbabwe, Australia and New Zealand await. About 160 days of travel and cricket are still ahead of us, and based on our experiences so far, they promise to be one hell of a ride. Most of all, we look forward to meeting the people who are bound to keep making this trip unforgettable. As we have learned in our time on the road so far, the cricket world is full of friends; only, we haven’t met them all yet.

The smallest of the World Cup grounds, the Saxton Oval packs a pretty punch

Peter Watson04-Nov-2014While Nelson is one of the newest international venues, it was one of the first places where cricket was played in New Zealand, in 1844. Its selection as a World Cup venue might have surprised some outsiders, but it has been on New Zealand Cricket’s radar for some time and fits with the general move away from the big, hard-to-fill concrete stadiums to purpose-built boutique grounds where people can get closer to the action. Nelson’s excellent climate, popularity as a summer holiday destination, central location and good air links have also counted in its favour.The venue
It may be the smallest of the World Cup venues, but Saxton Oval is among the most beautiful. Nestled between the hills and the sea in sunny Nelson, the picturesque oval, with its grass embankments and white picket fence, has quickly become a hit with spectators and players alike since its opening in 2010.Situated just 15 minutes from the central city in a spacious sports park, it offers good parking, quality outdoor practice wickets and modern facilities, including an award-winning $3.8m pavilion shaped like an oval cylinder to reflect the cricket ground and the nearby athletics track it sits between.As with many new grounds, the pitch and its surrounds have taken time to settle, but remedial work has produced a surface with consistent bounce and good pace and carry.The venue got a big thumbs up after its ODI debut in January 2014, when New Zealand beat West Indies by 58 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method after rain cut short the match, which attracted a boisterous, sellout crowd of 4500.The ground capacity is likely to be increased to around 6000 with temporary stands for the three World Cup pool fixtures, the first of which sees West Indies return to play Ireland on February 16. This is followed by Zimbabwe taking on UAE three days later and the Bangladesh-Scotland clash on March 5.Before that, New Zealand will play Sri Lanka on January 20 as part of their seven-match one-day series, which should be a good dress rehearsal for everyone, and the chance to iron out any last-minute hitches.Ground page | FixturesMajor players
Mark Douglas | Tony Blain | Jock Edwards | Bev CongdonHome team
Nelson is a minor association that plays for the Hawke Cup and is one of five regions that make up Central Districts, which competes at the first-class level. The golden age of Nelson cricket was from 1958 to 1965, when it reigned supreme in the Hawke Cup and several players went on to represent New Zealand. It also held the cup from 1978 to 1982.

Brendon McCullum batted the only way he knows, giving full expression to his attacking instincts, and it came off like it often has in 2014

Andrew Fidel Fernando at Hagley Oval26-Dec-2014Freeze the action just after Tharindu Kaushal lets rip with the 20th ball of his Test career. Rip is the right word too, not tweak. Bouncing in with high knees, wrist bent, flapping around, Kaushal is like a marionette. When he lets go of the ball, the wrist whips around the other way, imparting more work on the ball than his fingers. An offspinner with a leggie’s method. “Shades of Murali,” his domestic team-mates have said about him.That 20th ball was to Brendon McCullum, whose form has not dipped a fraction since he slammed a hundred off 78 balls, then progressed to 202 off 188, against Pakistan, late last month. In fact, he is even better today. This is not Sharjah, with its pitch like brushed granite. This is a surface with greenery so thick, undiscovered species were living in it 40 hours before the toss.Still, having hit just one run from his first ten balls like a spring loading up, McCullum had begun to uncoil violently. Soon, his own wrists were whipping at warp speed, a flash of willow in their wake, and the ball whistling through backward point for his first boundary.He is on 57 off 52 when Kaushal bounces in for this delivery. As soon as the spinner releases the ball giving it plenty of air and rip, Kaushal’s legs stiffen, and his hands begin to move towards his head. He has become tense because at the other end, McCullum has begun to dance. Crouched low – a packet of power – he is slinking out to get to the pitch of the delivery.Both players are making an act of surrender. Kaushal is throwing the ball up, knowing that it is exactly the kind of length a batsman like McCullum relishes, yet also knowing that with risk comes potential reward. If he puts as much work on it as he can, the ball can dip, then pitch and grip. He is giving himself up to the whims of the air and the clay. It was his first high-profile match, but watching him do this over and over, even after he had been taken for over 100 runs, you feel this is what he has done all his life. Surrendering to the unknown is the only way he knows to play.McCullum, perhaps, can sympathise. The delivery Kaushal has released could be another ball of the century in the making. If McCullum stays at the crease, he retains a lot more control. He can play the ball off the pitch, and has longer to measure the flight and the turn. The last Sri Lanka spinner he ran down to, made him look a fool, in the World T20. But today, he still dances.There is a split second, when the ball is hanging in mid-air, when both players’ eyes must have lit up. Kaushal is so anxious to see McCullum advancing, the excitement makes his limbs rigid. He knows the batsman has raised the stakes. McCullum, seeing the ball tossed up again, is emboldened, knowing he now has a greater chance of reaching the ball as it pitches.No one who has seen the scorecard is in any doubt as to who wins this battle. McCullum goes through with that whirring swing, and sends the ball high over long-on, where a man in the crowd shells the catch. But in the middle, there Kaushal is, with his hands near his scalp; a bowler who has just been defeated in the most emphatic way the sport allows, acting like it was so nearly a triumph for him. All through the day, on a pitch too green to allow big turn, he kept chasing the triumphs, while his team-mates chased leather. He eventually got McCullum, who finally failed to reach the pitch of one, but should have had James Neesham and BJ Watling too, had his team-mates not dropped those chances. His day’s figures were 1 for 159 from 22 overs.Tharindu Kaushal would have had better figures than 1 for 159 had his team-mates taken their catches•AFPBut if McCullum and Kaushal were in the same dressing room this evening, perhaps the older man would have some words, born from experience, for the debutant. It wasn’t so long ago when McCullum was frustrating, not titillating, his nation, with a blunt refusal to trade in a little aggression for a bit of sense. Before the start of 2014, McCullum averaged less than 35 in the previous three years.So prevalent was the opinion that McCullum was a wasted talent, that when outgoing coach John Wright implored his players to abandon the “that’s how I play” defence and take on more responsibility, those comments were interpreted as a barb aimed, to significant extent, at McCullum. In New Zealand’s most recent Test series against Sri Lanka, later that same year, McCullum’s second-innings swipe to send the ball aerially to deep midwicket, tilted an even Test towards the opposition, and sparked the collapse that led to his team losing inside three days.Now, McCullum is the first New Zealand batsman to hit more than 1000 Test runs in a year. He is the man who denied India with his nation’s first triple ton, and the man who sunk Pakistan, when all of Australia’s much-hyped talents had failed in the UAE, and the cricketer who turned the city’s air electric for a day.Maybe he would tell Kaushal that there will be more days when he will go at plenty an over. That there could be more days when he concedes 82 runs in boundaries. But most of all, he would tell him to keep playing the only way he knows how. To stay true to himself, and to keep up those acts of surrender. Because one day, maybe for Kaushal too, “that’s how I play” will not be an excuse, but an emphatic testimony of triumph, won hard through the difficult days.

Their bowlers have had immense success by slowly strangling oppositions at home, but pitches in the World Cup are not conducive for that tactic

Andrew Fidel Fernando02-Mar-2015At times on those steamy floodlit nights at the Premadasa Stadium, the pitch appears to be laced with poison when Sri Lanka are defending a score. Teams often begin well against the hosts; openers cracking boundaries, required rate heading south. But Sri Lanka bide their time. They are in collusion with the clay.Eventually, there will come a time, they know, when the toxins in the surface begin to seep through the batsmen’s shoes. Their legs grow heavy. Hands become less sure. Their eyes fail to read the spin, and before long, poison has spread to the entire opposition dressing room. Batsmen arrive at the crease already corrupted. They play part-time spin like the bowler is lobbing grenades. Fielders surrounding them are in a frenzy. The require rate shoots up again. The chase is derailed.Perhaps Sri Lanka had sought to bring this South Asian slow death to the World Cup when they stacked their squad with four spin-bowling options. But as they have lost a series to New Zealand and bled runs through the opening stages of the World Cup, they have seen that squeezing does not work in this part of the world. Drop-in pitches are not spiked with poison.They have seen, but have they learned? Sri Lanka fielded four frontline bowlers, but have since returned to a formula that proved untenable in the previous series. In January, Sri Lanka persisted with only three frontline options, and hoped to get 20 overs out of their allrounders and part-timers. Match after match, it was now the opposition biding their time, conserving wickets early to exploit Sri Lanka’s lack of bowling depth towards the end.England’s innings against Sri Lanka observed a familiar script. After 35 overs, England were 161 for 4. Then Joe Root and Jos Buttler began to charge, reverse-scooping quicks for six, and slamming near-yorkers over the deep cover fence, and 148 was reaped from the last 90 balls. Amid the mayhem was a 25-run over from Thisara Perera. When Suranga Lakmal was taken out of attack for bowling two dangerous full tosses, Sri Lanka appeared to be coming undone. On the players’ faces were writ the same frustrations they had known in places like Kolkata, during that Rohit Sharma rampage, or in Dunedin as Grant Elliott and Luke Ronchi amassed the biggest sixth-wicket stand in ODIs.Bowling has long been Sri Lanka’s stronger suit in world events. The five recent runs to the final had seen a wonderfully varied and menacing attack at the core of the campaign. Lasith Malinga’s precision had not wavered between the 2007 World Cup and 2014 World T20. Muttiah Muralitharan threatened during the middle of the innings. Nuwan Kulasekara had brought inswing and consistency, and in more recent years, Rangana Herath has turned matches on his own.But when the attack has floundered at the top end of this tournament, Sri Lanka have thinned the bowling stocks instead of bolstering them. In his ICC column, Murali himself has found it strange. “One thing is clear after Sri Lanka’s great run-chase against England in Wellington: the make-up of the side needs a re-think,” he said. “The bowling is very obviously proving a big weakness and a major headache for captain Angelo Mathews, especially in the closing overs of an innings.””The attack failing to restrict the opposition means having seven specialist batsmen is a waste of a spot. The need is to be positive and back six specialist batsmen to do the job”Murali advocates for Kulasekara’s re-inclusion, but Sri Lanka also have young tearaway Dushmantha Chameera in the wings, should Kulasekara’s past form continue to elude him. Also awaiting his first World Cup match is Sachithra Senanayake. If Sri Lanka secure their place in the quarter-final, they will be tempted to play both frontline spinners in Sydney. The injury to Herath’s finger may give Senanayake an opportunity at the SCG on Sunday, against Australia.Four of Sri Lanka’s top five batsmen have hit hundreds in the tournament. The opening combination that had so long been the team’s bane, has struck up two hundred-stands on the trot. The top order has hit 644 runs for two wickets in the past two matches without even calling on Mahela Jayawardene, who may move to no. 5 to balance the XI further.Sri Lanka have spoken of needing several bowlers to peak if they are to rattle the more favoured sides in the knockouts. The batsmen are buying the bowlers some time. The team might do well to retool the combination to suit the tracks they are presently playing on.

Listen up, children. Also: full swinging deliveries still work

Andy Zaltzman24-Feb-2015Getting yourself run out when you are your team’s (and planet’s) best batsman is a bad idea
There is a wise old saying, which some scholars believe dates back to Ancient Egyptian times, others credit to the early Incas, and a few consider to be the inviolable word of Zeus, dictated directly from the summit of Mount Olympus shortly after the beginning of time. And that saying is: “If you are the best batsman in the world, don’t keep running yourself out.”AB de Villiers came into this World Cup averaging 97 in overs 0 to 40 of ODIs. Thus far, he has been brilliantly caught on the boundary for 25 against Zimbabwe in the 21st over, and brilliantly run out from nearish the boundary for 30 against India, in the 23rd over. That first-40-overs average has dropped to a trifling 89. De Villiers has been so good for so long that it is not unreasonable to say that although India won by a vast margin, had the South African batting genius been very slightly faster or slightly more sensible, he would have won the game.It was de Villiers’ 17th run-out in 181 ODIs, constituting 11.7% of his 145 dismissals. His run-out in Dhaka (though not his error on that occasion) was the decisive moment in South Africa’s 2011 quarter-final defeat. Other top-six ODI batsmen during the span of his career have been run out in 7.1% of their dismissals. He, and South Africa, need to ensure that their prime asset is not tossed away like an unwanted Christmas kazoo.300 is still a good score
I have been to five matches at this World Cup so far. It has been a privilege to be at each one. I have seen some exhilarating crowds and some excellent cricket. And some not excellent cricket. But I have not seen a good game. I have seen the teams batting first score 342, 307, 267, 304 and 303; and their opponents respond with 231, 224, 162, 160 and 184, of which the first two scores were misleadingly high after a cosmetic late rally. In none of the matches did the chasing team come close even to establishing a platform from which to challenge, let alone reach a point where victory was a viable possibility. Average margin of victory: 112 runs.It is too early to draw significant conclusions from this sample of games. The clear favourites have batted first in four of the games; West Indies v Pakistan had no clear favourite, until Pakistan started fielding. Apart from Ireland’s comfortable pursuit of 305 to beat West Indies, no team chasing a reasonable score has had it easy. Zimbabwe had to battle to 286 to overcome UAE, and Sri Lanka were rocked before overhauling Afghanistan’s 232. But even with 21st-century superbats and the current fielding restrictions, 300 is a daunting target. Especially if you begin by slipping to 1 for 4. That definitely does not help.Bowling quite fast, swinging balls at the stumps is a good idea
Was Moeen Ali undone by the unsettling bouncer Tim Southee bowled to him with the first ball of the seventh over in Wellington, or did he simply miss a perfect full inswinger that bent into his off stump two balls later? Either way, if Southee had not bowled him the bouncer, the inswinger would probably have bowled Moeen out anyway. Whether the Moeen bouncer had any impact on Bell’s dismissal, which had already happened, or on the wickets of Taylor, Buttler, Woakes, Broad and Finn over an hour later, we may never know. But the point is: all seven Southee wickets were taken with full-length balls. In the immortal words of the International Society for Stating the Sporting Obvious, “High class bowling at decent pace aimed at the stumps and swinging with precision is, in general, difficult to play.”(Substat: Prior to Wellington, Southee had bowled batsmen out, on average, once every 32 overs in ODIs. Against England, he hit the stumps four times in 28 balls.)Great players always make you pay for letting them off the hook
Kumar Sangakkara could have been run out on 0, and should have been run out on 3. He then mercilessly punished Afghanistan for their errors, and put their bowlers to the sword. For one ball, which he smashed over cover. Three balls later, Hamid Hassan bowled him out. He made Afghanistan pay. But not very much. Loose change only.This tournament is too long
Narratives have been established. Weaknesses have been probed and exposed, strengths confirmed or revealed. The tournament should be accelerating towards its decisive moments. There are three weeks until the first quarter final.Hamid Hassan: needs to work on his dismount•Getty ImagesThis tournament is not long enough
England could do with another month or so to finalise their batting line-up. Pakistan could do with an extra six to eight months to sharpen up their fielding.Hamid Hassan is a better bowler than he is a gymnast
Hamid’s bowling was magnificent. His cartwheel was also magnificent. If judged as an expression of sporting joy and competitive theatricality. If judged as pure gymnastics, it would have had the judges spluttering their cocoa into their scorecards. It was considerably less than the full Nadia Comaneci. Not enough fast bowlers do cartwheels. Or wear headbands. Or have face paint on. Or bowl Sangakkara out.There is, after all, a substitute for consistency
Gary Ballance, summoned to the England top order for this World Cup, to the surprise of many, is an outstanding batsman. He can wave printouts detailing his stellar record in his brief Test career, and his striking numbers in both first-class and List-A one-day cricket, to prove it. He has done little of substance in ODIs thus far, but one would expect that to change with time. Whether that time should be during this World Cup, in this England team, is open to question.Dejettisoned back into the team ahead of the more vigorous, less accumulative striking power of Alex Hales, or the all-round usefulness of Ravi Bopara (and having been preferred in the squad to the untested potential of the likes of Jason Roy and James Vince), Ballance was chosen to provide top-order consistency. That he has provided. Arguably to a fault. He has been out for 10 in all three innings – the first batsman ever to be out for 10 three times in an ODI tournament or series. Ballance has brought unprecedented reliability to the unsettled England top order. Could Hales have offered the same? Probably not.

Plays of the Day from the Group A match between New Zealand and Bangladesh in Hamilton

Andrew McGlashan and Devashish Fuloria13-Mar-2015The fieldBrendon McCullum has been employing Test match fields throughout the tournament and today was no different. Two slips were a norm but at times, the number went up to four. However, it was not just about placing everyone for the edge. When Mahmudullah, the first right-hander in the line-up, walked in the third over, two short midwickets were in place. Mahmudullah knew what the ploy was, still he ended up pushing the inswinging Trent Boult delivery in the air towards those two men. Fortunately for him, he couldn’t have placed it better, the ball just out of reach of a diving Martin Guptill.The diveCould Brendon McCullum be Superman? He certainly did a good impression as he chased down a ball heading to the boundary, then flung himself with incredible hang-time to try and flick it back. As he thudded into the ground there were gasps; he pounded into the grass and was a little ginger as he got up. Every run is vital in a one-dayer, but some one-dayers are more vital than others. Next week’s in Wellington is more important than this match. Would it have been worth serious damage? And, in the end, it was still a boundary.The missGiven the high standards New Zealand set on the field, it was surprising to see them drop a few catches. Corey Anderson missed one at second slip, Guptill would have perhaps plucked on another day the one he missed at midwicket or the other one later in the innings had his anticipation been correct, but the one that stood out was McCulllum. As Shakib Al Hasan struck Corey Anderson flat and hard, the ball, as viewed from the press-box, right behind McCullum, seemed to be stuck on the bat for a moment before taking off. It was possibly the angle of the bat when it made contact. McCullum was confused too and reacted too late even though the ball wasn’t too far from his left shoulder. Injury averted, chance missed.The shotThere have been plenty of sixes at the World Cup, but not many off Daniel Vettori. When Mahmadullah, on 77, slog-swept over deep square-leg, it was just the third six Vettori had conceded in the tournament. Not that Vettori’s figures suffered too badly – although 42 was the most he had gone for in six matches – but Mahmadullah’s shot was another example of calculation and composure that has typified Bangladesh’s batting in the last two matches.The firstThe Bangladesh camp hinted strongly they would open the bowling with spin and they did not disappoint. Shakib, the stand-in captain, took the first over then Taijul Islam, brought into the side for fellow spinner Arafat Sunny, took the second. It made it the first time in ODI history that two left-arm spinners had opened the bowling.The failureKane Williamson has been under the weather in the days before this match and he’ll have felt pretty sick when he cut his second ball to point, giving Shakib his second wicket in four balls and leaving New Zealand 33 for 2. It ended a remarkable run of scoring in ODIs for him – this was the first innings since December 26, 2013 where he had not made double figures, during which time he has made 1360 runs at 64.76. But if he has saved a few for the quarter-final, the whole of New Zealand will be delighted.