The ICC’s new general manager of cricket may not have as impressive a playing resume as his predecessor, Dave Richardson, but if his work with Cricket Australia is anything to go by, he’s the right man for the job

Brydon Coverdale02-Aug-2012Twenty-odd years ago, a trio of young Victorian cricketers – Damien Fleming, Ian Harvey and Geoff Allardice – moved in together in a share-house in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Richmond.Immediately, they had a problem.The house had three bedrooms. One was enormous and had an en suite, one was medium-sized and perfectly comfortable, and one, in Fleming’s words, was “a dog box that you could swing a cat in and it’d be hitting its head”.Negotiations were required.”Straightaway me and Harvey want the biggest room,” Fleming says. “Joffa [Allardice], the analytical one, sums up the situation and decides that yes, he’s a one-in-three chance of getting the big room, but he’s also a one-in-three chance of getting the little dog box. So what does the methodical, play-the-percentage, process-minded individual do? He puts his hand up and takes the middle room, because he can’t lose then.”For me, that just showed what Joffa is like. He played the percentages well, and for his ability to take both arguments, thoroughly research all the options and make a pretty cool and clinical decision, there have been no better in my time than Joffa.”Two decades later the stakes have risen for Allardice but he will take the same analytical, balanced approach into his new role as the ICC’s general manager, cricket. It is a position that his predecessor, Dave Richardson, handled so well that he was in May named the organisation’s new chief executive officer.Like Richardson, Allardice is a former cricketer. Unlike Richardson, he did not reach international level. A batsman who piled up runs for Melbourne University in club cricket, Allardice played 18 matches for Victoria in the early 1990s. He was not an extravagant strokeplayer but could dig in for a fight.Whatever he did, it impressed his long-time Melbourne University team-mate James Sutherland. They played school against each other and made their first-grade debut together in 1985-86, and later Allardice was captain of the club at the same time that Sutherland was the playing coach. By the early 2000s, Sutherland had become Cricket Australia’s chief executive and he brought in Allardice, who had a chemical engineering degree, as umpires’ manager.”It was probably a little bit of a left-field one at the time, to recruit a sales engineer into a job as umpiring manager,” Sutherland said. “I got some pretty quizzical looks from the umpires, as you can imagine, when I did that. But it took very little time for him to be understood and appreciated by the umpires. He has taken on more responsibilities since then and has grown to where he is now.”Allardice expanded from supervising Australia’s umpires to become CA’s cricket operations general manager, a wide-ranging role that has required him to take charge of scheduling the summer’s various competitions, undertake pre-tour visits ahead of Australia’s overseas trips and work on negotiations with the player association, among other things.”There’s no one in Australian cricket who knows more about the technical aspects of the game in terms of playing conditions and codes of conduct and all of those things,” Sutherland says. “To be honest, I can’t think of anyone in the world that is – given what he has done at Cricket Australia over the last few years – better equipped to do this job that he’s just been appointed [to do].”What he has achieved is added some real intellectual rigour to the way we go about our cricket operations. I guess more than ever before it’s not just playing cricket but it’s also running a business, and they’re inextricably intertwined. In all of the programming aspects he’s a genuine strategic thinker but at the same time balancing that with the operational responsibilities that he ultimately has.”

“To be honest, I can’t think of anyone in the world that is better equipped to do this job that he’s just been appointed to”James Sutherland on Geoff Allardice

Tony Dodemaide, the chief executive of Cricket Victoria, is another former state team-mate of Allardice who has also dealt with him in administration circles. Allardice’s dealings with the state associations covered a range of fields, from scheduling to player movements to the standards at first-class venues, and Dodemaide said he was professional in his approach to issues that weren’t always straightforward.”He’s a good people person,” Dodemaide says. “His ability to strike up a rapport and have a conversation and perhaps address an issue which might be a bit tricky but [to] always come across as being very genuine – I think that will stand him in good stead for the big job that he’s got now, because he’s obviously dealing in a situation where there’s a lot of cultural differences and perhaps political differences.”I think if you asked around Australia, he’s consistently won the confidence of people around Australian cricket, and I’m sure he’ll do the same in his ICC role. You wouldn’t last ten years [in the CA job] if you didn’t work well with people. If you asked around the states he was very well respected and could always be relied upon to get back to you and have a reasonable answer, or work through an issue with good reason.”Not all negotiations are simple. Since moving further into the cricket operations side of his role, Allardice has had plenty to do with the Australian Cricketers’ Association and its chief executive, Paul Marsh, on issues ranging from Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) talks to player safety and security and pre-tour visits to other countries. Despite often finding themselves on opposite sides of the debate, Marsh says he respects Allardice as a cricket administrator.”Geoff and I haven’t always seen eye to eye on issues but that’s no different to anyone else [at Cricket Australia],” Marsh says. “When we’ve had difficult issues to deal with and challenging times, we’ve always got through the issues. I’d certainly like to think that we’ve worked well together over the years. I certainly respect him and wish him well for the new job.”I think that it’s a good thing for the players that he comes from a country with a player association that is well established and he understands that relationship, understands the importance and value of working with the players rather than against them. And as a former player himself I think he has a good understanding of that.”And while an international career eluded Allardice during his playing days, he now has the chance to have a real influence on the future of the game at a global level.”I’m not surprised to see where he is today because he’s always been a diligent worker and a well-thought-out individual with a real passion for the game,” Fleming says. “People with those attributes are exactly the type of people you want involved in the game and running it at the top level.”If it was Fleming and Harvey running the ICC, it would be rock-paper-scissors around the boardroom tables, just as it was to claim bedroom real estate two decades ago. For the record, Harvey got stuck with the dog box.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the day from the 3rd ODI in Pallekele

Andrew Fernando in Pallekele06-Nov-2012The confusion
The time umpires spend looking at balls has been reduced dramatically by the ‘new ball from each end’ rule that keeps the ball visible, but Ian Gould still had to study his closely before the 27th over of New Zealand’s innings. The ball that remains at his end hadn’t been returned to him at the end of the previous over, and Jeevan Mendis was about to bowl the next over with the same ball before the other umpire took the ball off him and rolled it to Gould at square leg. Gould wasn’t convinced that it was his ball though. He stared at it suspiciously, like a man wondering if he had worn someone else’s shoes home after a boozy dinner party, and reluctantly pocketed it.The words
Tim Southee has a reputation for sometimes saying too much to batsmen, especially when they are batting well against him, but on this occasion he said just enough. He had been hit for two fours in his first over when he bowled a short ball that Upul Tharanga wore on the helmet as he was ducking. Southee extended his follow through and unleashed a volley of expletives at Tharanga, point blank, before bowling another short ball next delivery. Perhaps goaded by Southee to play a shot, Tharanga hooked, but half-heartedly, and sent the ball directly to Jacob Oram at fine leg.The bowler killer
Two return chances had gone down earlier in the day, but Trent Boult might not put Tillakaratne Dilshan’s straight drive in the 22nd over in the same category, despite the fact that it was hit straight at him. Dilshan bludgeoned it so hard, Boult’s reflex to duck underneath it was probably a good one, and he wasn’t even tempted to put a hand up in the hope it would stick.The shacklebreaker
Sri Lanka’s opening bowlers had not allowed New Zealand a boundary in the first seven overs of their innings, and they needed a fielder’s help to break the shackles. Brendon McCullum defended Lasith Malinga on the off side and took off for a single, but Thisara Perera running in from cover thought he had a chance of running McCullum out and let rip with an overarm throw. The ball missed the stumps, hit McCullum’s bat and flew over both the men backing up, and on to the ropes. It doesn’t officially count as a boundary, but it came out of the middle, and anyway, who’s splitting hairs?The drops
If the same fielder drops two catches in the same over, the bowler would be justified in letting rip with a few words or a stare, but that is a bit difficult for a bowler when the fielder is himself. BJ Watling and Ross Taylor both offered straightforward return chances to Angelo Mathews in his second over, but he spilt both in his follow through. He can’t be too disappointed though, as he trapped McCullum in front in between the missed catches.The injustice
Given McCullum collected four free runs when a throw ricocheted off his bat, Mathews will have felt hard done by when he was hit by a throw while scampering a single and had only a sore thumb to show for it. He needed the physio’s spray to keep batting, and couldn’t even lift his bat with just his right hand, when he was celebrating his fifty.

Excessive caution has hurt India several times in recent memory but in the morning session it reached new heights of absurdity

Sidharth Monga16-Dec-2012There must be something about the Nagpur air that makes you not want to be desperate. Four years ago, during this ground’s debut Test, Australia were in a similar position to India’s here. It was the last Test of a series Australia had fallen behind in, they had conceded a first-innings lead of 86, but just before tea on the fourth day they came back with three quick wickets, those of VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar.India were effectively 252 for 6. One more desperate burst and Australia could have been chasing around 320 in a little over three sessions. That would have set up a great finale to the series, right? Wrong. Australia wouldn’t even try it. They came back from tea, and bowled many overs with Cameron White, Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke. That corrected the over-rate all right, but India laughed their way to a series win.At least that was surprising. Australia’s captain then, Ricky Ponting, was the man, we were told, that hated losing more than any other man who played cricket at that time. The most desperate part of what happened in the first session of day four in the Nagpur Test four years later was that it was not surprising. It is just what India are used to doing under MS Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher.On numerous occasions under the leadership of this combination, India have been too shy to be desperate. This side can go to any length to avoid risks. They can call off a chase in a Test they have no chance of losing; they can start off a new session with Suresh Raina when Ishant Sharma has just given them a lifeline in the match; they can know they need to keep a team down to 121 to go further in a T20 tournament and yet attempt merely to win and then even brag about it. However, in a home series, trailing 2-1, you would have thought they would shed some of the “coolness”. You had another think coming.By the time the fourth day began, time had become almost as important an element as runs and wickets. And on a slow, lifeless pitch, it was always going to be difficult to run through batsmen intent on defence. And it was obvious that with the series lead in hand, England would be intent on defence both with the bat and the ball. It was India’s obligation to make all the running. Forget an overnight declaration with a notional deficit of 33 runs to give them the time to bowl England out, India meandered for 62 precious minutes for just 29 runs, which is even slower than the normal funereal pace on this pitch.

“Everybody in the world knew England would be glad to give away one run an over for however long India were content with it. Except for the India think-tank”

It would have been understandable had they come out to bat with quick runs in mind, without bothering if they lost wickets in the process. To everyone’s shock, though, R Ashwin began the day turning down singles, which he had been doing in Kolkata too before hitting boundaries when the field came up towards the end of the over. Back then, though, England were going after wickets. Only the naïve would expect them to bring the field up in this situation.Brace up for this. Hold on to your armchairs, for you might fall off them: India did expect just the same from England. “The same as the last game,” Ashwin said of refusing singles. “Looking for the last two balls for the fielders to come in. They had a different strategy [this time]. They didn’t bring the fielders up. After two overs we decided to take the singles.”Everybody in the whole wide world knew England would be glad to give away one run an over for however long India were content with it. Except for the India think-tank, that is. It took them 18 minutes, 3.5 overs wasted for just three runs and a message from the dressing room to realise that this was not working.Moreover, it was not as if the last two wickets could have hit James Anderson and Monty Panesar around at five an over. Ashwin acknowledged as much. “You don’t have the best of ability at nine, ten, eleven,” he said. “You can’t expect someone to smack Anderson over the top for a six on this pitch. All this game the average has been 70 and 80 runs a session. Basically looking to take the singles. We have three-run, four-run overs too. We were just looking to eat into the lead. What best we could muster we did muster. Putting it into a larger scenario, we needed to even the game. We just about did it.”Ashwin is right. The average runs per session until then had been around 70. So what does a side pushing for a win do in that case? Do something innovative to move the game and risk losing the series 3-1 or go at a rate of 58 per session? India did the latter.England were clearly happy with the proceedings. At one point, Jonathan Trott didn’t even try to run Ashwin out when the latter had run half way up the pitch before being sent back by Pragyan Ojha. When Panesar did get Ojha out, England were almost disappointed. Now they were one wicket closer to batting again.Those 62 minutes might not even matter in the end. The pitch is just too dead. Or India might still win through some capitulation or some miracle. Regardless, that first part of the day remains a mystery and a reminder that India were hoping to win as opposed to wanting it. Then again, it goes well with a cricketing system that has been hoping for the last 18 months that things will be all right as opposed to wanting to make them all right.

There are several openings for bowlers in the Test line-up, but none of the contenders have presented a strong case during the Irani Cup

Siddhartha Talya in Mumbai08-Feb-2013Rest of India are now favourites to take home the Irani Cup but with their players on the selectors’ radar – in the last first-class game of the domestic season – just ahead of the major Test series against Australia, individual goals have assumed a greater prominence. There is a competition for places in India’s Test side, and the bowling department seems an open field.Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav are injured and doubtful starters, Ishant Sharma looked a likely retention despite taking just seven wickets at 75 last year and he may or may not have a renewed fitness concern. In the spin department, Pragyan Ojha and R Ashwin were outperformed, comprehensively, by Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann in the recent Test series. To be fair to selectors, there haven’t been bowlers crying out to be picked for the Tests on the strength of their performance alone in the Ranji season gone by.The Irani Cup, too, has failed to provide any convincing answers thus far to concerns over the state of India’s bowling options ahead of a major Test series. At the outset, it didn’t help that Rest of India left out Bengal seamer Shami Ahmed from their XI. Shami made it to the Indian limited-overs team on the strength of his success in the Ranji Trophy, and there was much anticipation over how he would follow up in a five-day fixture just ahead of a Test series.Those who bowled for Rest of India have not offered much encouragement. Sreesanth’s selection is prompted more by hope than recent results, and Abhimanyu Mithun was preferred over more successful competitors from the Ranji season. On a Wankhede track that has a significant shade of green with moisture underneath, the seamers were hardly been able to move the ball. Sreesanth and Mithun averaged around 129-130kmph, looked promising only in their early spells but offered several scoring opportunities thereafter, and rarely beat the bat. Ankeet Chavan at No.8, for instance, received freebies on leg stump and comfortably dispatched those that landed on middle and off on a length.All seamers, Ishwar Pandey included, took their time to complete their overs and played their part in slowing down the over-rate considerably by overstepping – there have been 22 no-balls in this game so far. In Rest of India’s case, it wasn’t a surprise, with the seamers landing their foot over the line by a massive margin during the warm-ups ahead of play.If the seamers’ lack of urgency and discipline were not enough, the spinners presented their own reasons for concern. Harbhajan Singh’s inclusion in the squad is in itself an indictment of a dearth of spin options on the domestic circuit and though he picked up three wickets, he was a beneficiary of an umpiring error and a poor shot from Rohit Sharma who didn’t help his own case for selection. Pragyan Ojha was dominated by Sachin Tendulkar, and while that’s no shame the questions over his effectiveness on an unresponsive track remained, as there was no turn, or perhaps not as much spin imparted on the ball as has been his problem. Of his two victims, Dhawal Kulkarni negotiated him assuredly before a needless attempt to clear mid-off with Tendulkar at the other end gifted Ojha a wicket – an unlikely possibility against an Australian batsman.India’s national selectors, who meet on Sunday, will be deliberating over an attack without a fast-bowling core, spinners having shown no signs of improvement since the England series, and very limited options on the table, none of them an-out-an-out case for selection owing to merit. Rest of India bowlers could get a second chance if their side aim for an outright victory, but there’s no certainty about that either.

The second day of the Centurion Test was made memorable by one of the most spectacular debut performances by a bowler in a while. Here are the stats highlights

S Rajesh23-Feb-2013 Kyle Abbott’s 7 for 29 are the second-best figures on Test debut by a South African bowler, next only to Lance Klusener, who happens to be his coach at Dolphins. Klusener took 8 for 64 against India in Kolkata in 1996, but that was in India’s second innings, which makes Abbott’s figures the best by a South African bowler in his debut innings. Overall, eight bowlers have taken eight wickets in an innings on debut. The last bowler to take seven or more wickets in an innings on debut was Australia’s Jason Krejza, but he had decidedly lesser impact on the game than Abbott has had so far. Krejza toiled more than 43 overs in taking 8 for 215 in Nagpur in 2008 as India plundered 441 in their first innings and won the match by 172 runs. It’s highly unlikely that the result in Centurion will be anything other than a comprehensive victory for South Africa. For Pakistan’s batting line-up, on the other hand, this has been a largely forgettable series. After lasting just 29.1 overs in the first innings in Johannesburg, they were bundled out in 46.4 overs here, and have now been bowled out for less than 200 three times in five innings. Their series average of 19.49 runs per wicket so far is their sixth-lowest in a series of three of more Tests. Pakistan’s top-order batting has been in complete shambles in the series so far, with the average partnerships for the first and third wickets being less than 13 runs per wicket (12 for the first wicket, and 11.20 for the third). The aggregate of 72 runs for the opening wicket is their fourth-lowest in a series in which the openers have batted together at least six times. The aggregate of 56 for the third wicket is the third-lowest, with a five innings cut-off (though Pakistan have one more opportunity to ensure that the third-wicket tally looks more respectable by the end of the series). For several Pakistan batsmen this series has been an almighty struggle, but none has fared as badly as Mohammad Hafeez, their opener. His scores in the series read thus: 6, 2, 17, 0, 18, 0 – 43 runs at an average of 7.16. His aggregate of 43 runs is the lowest for a Pakistan opener who has batted at least five times in a series. For all teams with the same cut-off, this is the tenth-lowest. The one Pakistan player who enhanced his reputation today was Rahat Ali, who became only the fourth bowler from the country, after Mushtaq Ahmed, Waqar Younis and Saeed Ajmal, to take six wickets in an innings in a Test in South Africa. One of Rahat Ali’s victims was AB de Villiers, but not before de Villiers had scored his third Test hundred in 18 innings against Pakistan. De Villiers had also scored a hundred in the first Test in Johannesburg, making this only the third instance of him getting two hundreds in a series.

From Ryon S

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013
There is always hope•Associated PressI am a West Indian.I have grown up with stories of some of the best men to ever play the game of cricket, embellishments doing no justice to the real thing. I have heard and read of the famous victories and series of years gone by. I have spent many an hour online reliving some of those moments through streaming video.I have watched Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose make the best batsmen in the world look like schoolboys. I have seen Brian Lara make fielding captains chew their nails down to nothing. I have seen Shivnarine Chanderpaul frustrate bowlers into the ground.I have also been through contract disputes. I have suffered through several humiliating losses to lower-ranked teams. I have been witness to some of the most spectacular batting collapses in cricketing history from undefeatable positions.But I am still, a West Indian.And I am not one to live in the past. Yet its legacy, especially that of recent times, forces me to jump for joy at any victory, even if it is one with the series long decided. One match matters little to the opposition, but it means the world to be. Such is the life of one who wishes for the glory days once again. I am drowning and snatching at straws, some might say.But what reason is there for any other reaction? There has never been a time in recent memory when the players and the board agree on anything. It goes back to the old Cable and Wireless days and the relationship has hardly been satisfactory. The current state is as such, with Chris Gayle’s future seemingly heading towards freelance T20 work. I fear that he might not be the last such player from the region with such an outlook. Jerome Taylor may yet go in that direction. Yet the team, my team, seems to be playing good cricket, at least more consistently than years gone by.The Indian ODI series may be over, but there were flashes and patches of brilliance, as always. Players caught the imagination and good performances were there to behold. Andre Russell’s blistering 92, Darren Bravo’s shift from first into fourth gear, Anthony Martin’s accurate bowling and livewire fielding. There may be a lot of complaints about Darren Sammy as captain, but the fact is that the team has played good basic cricket with him at the head and there has been some success recently.I must be crazy to say that. Two lost ODI series and a less-than-spectacular exit from the World Cup is hardly what anyone would call success. They make the interspersed victories almost null and void. Still, if the straw is there, I will hang onto it. Because for the first time in what seems like forever, there are a lot of positives in the way this team goes about things.The team is, apart from a few players, very inexperienced. But the potential is present. Very few will deny that Devendra Bishoo is one of the most promising players to have made his debut this season. Or that Ravi Rampaul and Lendl Simmons’ re-entry into the international game finds them in better form both physically and mentally. Even Marlon Samuels and Carlton Baugh seem to be getting better with time spent in the middle. And for the first time in ages, there actually seems to be competition for a spot in the team. This is a necessary thing for any team aspiring to be at the top of the rankings. Only those with the best form, and the best potential, should be selected.But that potential must also be realised in order to build a strong team. It is not built on constant bickering between the WIPA and the WICB. They are two halves of the same whole, and until they realise this, West Indies cricket suffers. And so do the fans. Cricket has always been huge in the region, but the fighting, the contract disputes, the second-string teams, the persistence with out-of-form players…it must end. Then, perhaps, I will consider paying a sky-high price to watch the team, my team, at the Queen’s Park Oval. And perhaps I will not be alone in my consideration.I am a West Indian. And I am not alone.I grew up on stories of legends. I observed, in my lifetime, the downfall. I look to the future now. For the time being at least, the future of West Indies cricket is shining brightly. But for that future to come to pass, someone, anyone must first fix the present.

The reality is that in the current environment access to players, especially marquee players like Tendulkar, is becoming increasingly limited

Gaurav Kalra25-Feb-2013In all my years of having known and worked with Harsha Bhogle, I haven’t really disagreed much with him on much. But I do have a bone to pick with him over one line from his piece from this morning (albeit a small bone): “Meanwhile there has been a flood of Tendulkar interviews – more, I suspect, because there was the offer of a trip to Germany for the interviewers rather than any major issues that needed airing”.Since I was among the three interviewers on the trip, its only fair I set the record straight. I can only speak for myself here but I really don’t have any fascination for a two-day trip to Germany. Having travelled the world both professionally and personally, the allure of going half-way across the planet to a small German town (believe me, Herzogenaurach is not the Swiss Alps!) is hardly an attraction.So why did I go on this sponsored trip by Adidas? The reality is that in the current environment access to players, especially marquee players like Tendulkar, is becoming increasingly limited. Any working cricket journalist will confirm that convincing players to do interviews is extremely hard these days. So when we were made an offer to do this interview in Germany, I felt there was editorial merit in doing so. Had they said this interview was available in their office here in Delhi, I would have done it there! So the “offer of a trip” wasn’t a temptation in the least!I also respectfully disagree with Harsha that there weren’t “any major issues that needed airing” with Tendulkar. In the course of my 20-minute interview (that was the time allotted to me by the minders) I went over what I consider valid issues around Tendulkar. His reasons for not travelling to Sri Lanka, his view on his ODI playing future, his take on whether Test cricket is facing a crisis in India, how important he considers the upcoming season especially with England and Australia arriving, his thoughts on the pressure of the Tendulkar second name on his cricket-crazy son etc.According to me there were all relevant issues and had I been offered more time, I would have attempted to delve deeper into these issues and asked more. This anyway is a matter of opinion about what is relevant and what isn’t. How Tendulkar chose to answer the questions of course is his prerogative, and as Harsha knows Tendulkar can be extremely reserved while speaking publicly. I did the best I could to get him to reflect on ‘major issues’ and some of what he has said in the interview has been reported widely, including on this website. If I am not mistaken, it was the top story for a few hours too.Apologies for this long comment on just one line in a column that deals with an entirely different subject, but I am only doing so to clear my position. I was surprised to read the column as it assumed that the reason for the interview was the ‘offer of a trip to Germany’. That is simply not true.Finally, Sachin agreed to do three interviews in Germany- with Sai Mahapatra of ESPN, with me for CNN-IBN and with Pradeep Magazine for Hindustan Times- in the current media environment, given the number of publications and TV channels around, Harsha would agree that doesn’t qualify as a ‘flood’!Look forward to disagreeing with Harsha again soon!

Here’s a radical idea – how about getting the best 22 to face off on the weekend before the final?

Kshitij Mohta18-Apr-2013Have you ever imagined having an IPL all-star game? This could be done on the weekend before the knockouts begin, on the lines of the NBA all-star game concept. Saturday could feature individual competitions between the best batsmen, bowlers and fielders. Sunday could be a full T20 game between the best 22 players in the regular season.First up on Saturday, a six-hitting competition between the eight or ten batsmen who have hit the longest sixes in the tournament so far. The likes of Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Shane Watson could face an over each, either from a bowling machine or a bowler of their choice from their own IPL team. (Why would a bowler agree!) Another variation could be an initial round with 10 batsmen and then a second round with the top four. The batman who hits the longest six wins.For the top ten bowlers, the long forgotten bowl-out could be the best competition. The bowl-out was used in the 2007 World T20 to break a tie between India and Pakistan in the league stage. The challenge here could be to hit the stumps the most number of times in a single over, with the top four qualifying to a penalty shoot-out style final. To make it more exciting, just one stump could be used instead of three. Sunil Narine would have to decide which of his variations to trust; Lasith Malinga would probably stick to the Yorker.Finally, for the fielders, I fondly remember a TV show named ‘Cricket with the K’ on Indian television around 15 years ago. There was a drill in which fielders would try to get the maximum number of direct hits in a fixed amount of time while running around and picking up balls from different spots on the ground. The competition could feature one fielder from each IPL team – a few Australians would surely feature on that list.Come Sunday, you could have the best 22 players in the IPL going head-to-head. Finding a basis to split the teams would be difficult, since there really isn’t any clear-cut regional split. The important part would be selecting the best 22 players and 2 best captains to lead those teams. Some of the IPL sides already look like World XIs; these two teams would be the best of the best.As a fan, I would definitely look forward to such a weekend. It could be a win-win on all fronts – new challenges for the players, strong ratings for sponsors, innovation for the game and fresh excitement for fans.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line

Mumbai Indians still have a better head-to-head record against Chennai Super Kings, but once again on the big occasion, they came second

Abhishek Purohit21-May-2013Yet another IPL playoff match. Yet another win for Chennai Super Kings, their eighth in 11 such games. Yet another defeat for Mumbai Indians, their fourth in five such games, including their third in three to Super Kings. Since the IPL final of 2010, Mumbai Indians had won six of the eight times they had met Super Kings before tonight. Only one of those meetings had been a playoff match, the eliminator in 2012. And Mumbai Indians had lost that. They still have a better head-to-head record against Super Kings, but when it comes to the big occasion, they always come second. This collection of superstars just falls apart under pressure.Bat first, bat big and let five specialist bowlers squeeze the opposition. This had been Mumbai Indians’ mantra this season. They’d won the toss, batted and won their first seven home games this way. Somewhere down the line the time was going to come when their bowlers would not have the cushion of a big total and their batsmen would have to come good under the demands of a chase in a crunch match. Through the league stage, there were signs Mumbai Indians would likely struggle in that case, especially away from home.They narrowly failed to chase 157 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bangalore. Then they managed 92 to Rajasthan Royals’ 179 in Jaipur. They did get home against Kolkata Knight Riders’ 159 in Kolkata, but needed Harbhajan Singh to hit a six with nine needed off four. Pune Warriors could not test them with just 112, but some signs were again visible in Mumbai Indians’ last home match, against Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 178. The asking-rate had nearly touched 16 at the death when Kieron Pollard hit eight sixes in no time. That does not happen every day, and in their next match, Mumbai Indians crumbled to 133 in pursuit of Kings XI Punjab’s 183 in Dharamsala.Rohit Sharma was visibly disappointed at losing the toss and having to bowl. A month ago on the same ground, his bowlers had made a mess of defending 161, bowling full tosses and poor lines for Virender Sehwag and Mahela Jayawardene to finish things with three overs to spare.There wasn’t even the cushion of 161 today, they had to start blank. Blank and clueless was how they appeared against Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina’s onslaught. This is a staggering thing to say in Twenty20, a format where bowlers don’t have to do much to get wickets, but at no point during 20 overs did Mumbai Indians threaten to strike.First ball from Mitchell Johnson was a full toss on the pads and was taken for an easy four. Mumbai Indians went on to bowl a ridiculous amount of full tosses at the death and most of them were taken for boundaries. Munaf Patel had hardly played this season, came into a playoff match, and bowled too often into the pads. When even Suresh Raina does not expect a short ball from you and is prepared for the full one, you know you are getting too predictable. Not once did Lasith Malinga try the bouncer. He didn’t even try short of a good length. Pragyan Ojha was likely to find it difficult against two left-handers in such touch, and he did. The fifth bowler was one area Mumbai Indians have had issues with during the season, and Pollard leaked runs again. Had Harbhajan Singh not slowed it down a tad during the middle, MS Dhoni would not have felt his side’s total was 10 runs short.Dwayne Smith’s manic hitting put Mumbai Indians slightly ahead after eight overs. He was crashing almost everything for boundaries and another two or three such overs could well have closed the door on Super Kings. With Smith, though, there are only two gears, first and fifth, and he usually does not shift them during an innings. Probably such a tall chase required at least one batsman to play in the way he did. Probably with men such as Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu and Pollard to follow, Smith was right in not being too selective with his shots.Not often does a batsman make 68 off 28 in a Twenty20 and end up on the losing side. Which is why Mumbai Indians’ capitulation, so swift and decisive, was disappointing. None of the four batsmen after Smith lasted even 20 deliveries each. Rohit and Karthik are among the leading run-getters this season but struggled to score even during their short stays on the big night. And the tail showed it is a really long tail with Harbhajan in at No 7.Once more, the multiple champions proved too good for the pretentious challengers. You can pack your side with all the superstars you want. Both Super Kings and Mumbai Indians have done so. That is where the similarity ends. As long as Mumbai Indians keep crumbling under pressure in crunch matches, that is all they will be taken for. A collection of superstars. They have another chance on Friday in the second qualifier to earn some respect as a team. Meanwhile, Super Kings will be waiting for their fifth final in six seasons.

S Badrinath isn’t too affected by the lack of batting opportunities in the IPL as long as his team, Chennai Super Kings, is winning matches

Amol Karhadkar02-May-2013Balance is S Badrinath’s forte on and off the field. When it comes to the topic of him hardly getting a knock for table-toppers Chennai Super Kings in the sixth edition of the IPL, that balance comes to the fore.”To be honest, it is definitely not easy. To not be able to bat every game [while] playing as a batsman is something that’s really not enjoyable,” Badrinath said a day after Super Kings beat Pune Warriors. “I think I’ve got used to it a little bit, even though I would love to get more knocks and contribute with the bat.””Fortunately, we have a strong batting line-up. We have some of the best Twenty20 batsmen in our line-up, so with the flexibility that we have in our batting order, whenever we get off to a good start, I know it’s difficult for me to get a look-in. And I would always put the team’s priority over my personal aspirations.”Badrinath, along with captain MS Dhoni and IPL’s highest run-getter, Suresh Raina, has been a constant in virtually every Super Kings game. While Raina has batted in 87 innings in 91 matches and Dhoni has played 77 innings in 88 matches, Badrinath has played 64 innings in 87 matches.The difference is prominent when Badrinath’s statistics are compared to players with the most IPL appearances. With 87 matches, Badrinath shares the fourth spot along with Virat Kohli, behind Raina (91 games), Dhoni and Rohit Sharma (88 each). None of these batsmen, except Badrinath, have played less than 75 innings.At the end of IPL 2011, Badrinath had had a bat in 50 of the 62 matches he played. Last year saw him get nine knocks in 15 appearances while this year he has taken guard in just five of Super Kings’ 10 games so far.These numbers have a lot to do with his role at Super Kings as well. Badrinath has been utilised primarily as a rescue man, someone who walks in whenever Super Kings lose a couple of early wickets.”Whenever the openers get going, it gets difficult [for me] to get a bat,” he said. “During IPL 2009, in South Africa, Matthew Hayden was in such stupendous form that once he got his eye in, he was finishing games for us. That made it difficult for me to get a bat consistently.”Similarly, Michael Hussey has been in such great form this year that he has been playing the sheet anchor and the aggressor’s roles to perfection. And with Dhoni being phenomenal with the bat, I don’t mind not contributing in terms of runs to the team’s victory.”Against Warriors, he came in to bat after the openers had been dismissed early and his crucial 75-run stand with Raina set up a platform for Dhoni to finish the innings on a high note. Badrinath realises that, more often than not, he will end up being the silent contributor to the cause of the team. With the Super Kings outfit “remaining almost unchanged through the six seasons”, players know their roles, with little room for confusion, he adds.”T20 is a format where the top three batsmen invariably get the big scores,” he said. “But even without big numbers, players can make significant contributions. I would rather see Super Kings at the top of the table, instead of batting in every match.”Badrinath, who made his debut against South Africa in 2010, was recalled to the national side for the Test series against New Zealand last year. However, he was dropped without being given an opportunity.A prolific run-scorer at the domestic level, he entered IPL 2013 on the back of a mediocre season (by his standards), scoring 347 runs in six games at an average of 49.57. The IPL, thus, is the last opportunity this season for him to prove that he is still in form. But the 32-year-old isn’t too concerned about it.”Playing for Super Kings and playing for Tamil Nadu are two different things,” he said. “And even though I have been able to get limited opportunities with the bat so far, the IPL isn’t over yet.”As for the Ranji season, it’s true I haven’t had a [typical] Badrinath season, but the fact that I missed two games due to injury can’t be ignored. Besides, I don’t understand the double standards that are applied. Why are those who have scored just about as many runs as me without missing a match considered to have had a very good season and why am I told otherwise? Why is it that for Badrinath, a good season means getting a thousand runs and for others, even 500 runs are exceptional?”