All posts by csb10.top

Jason Gillespie is wearing the unusual tag of Australia’s fast bowling ironman in South Africa as he tries to cement his place in one-day international cricket.Gillespie has humped the reputation of an injury-plagued bowler through his stop-start career, admitting he was once a “crazy trainer” who did not understand the best way to manage his body.But Gillespie is now a more streetwise player and the 26-year-old is the only bowler to have played in every match on the South African tour, which continues today with the sixth one-day clash in Port Elizabeth.Gillespie is the most successful bowler in the series with 12 wickets, helping him establish a spot in the Australian team after his luckless run of just 34 one-day matches in six seasons.”Nowadays I train a lot smarter. I used to come in and bowl in the nets for a couple of hours everyday and I used to go running every morning for half an hour and put added stress on my body that I didn’t need,” Gillespie said.”I don’t bowl as much in the nets now and I tend to look after myself a bit more. I don’t go running as much.”The hardest thing was changing my way of thinking because you always think you have to train harder and harder and sometimes it’s training smarter that gets you results.”Now I’m spending a bit more time in the pool and more time relaxing and that’s helped me.”But Gillespie won’t declare himself over the annoying run of injuries, preparing to stick to a “one-game-at-a-time” theory as the new-look Australians prepare for next February’s World Cup defence.He has become a central plank of the Australian attack in South Africa, giving up a passable 4.60 runs per over while showing good control with the new ball.If he maintains that progress, Gillespie and Glenn McGrath will be the pace spearheads when the World Cup begins next February in South Africa, where Gillespie boasts a quirky record.He has played more one-day internationals in South Africa than Australia – 13 compared to just eight in his homeland – typifying his annoying run with injuries.”I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself because, if you do that, things can go wrong,” Gillespie said.”But it just seems to be going really well at the moment.”I’ve always believed I was good enough but it was a matter of getting on the park and staying on the park.”I’ve never doubted that I could succeed. I’ve had to work pretty hard to get where I am and think about the game a lot more.”Despite his returns on tour, Gillespie could be rested in one of the final two matches after Australia wrapped up the series in Durban last Wednesday night.Selectors indicated they could rest key players once the series was won, enabling young talent like Tasmanian all-rounder Shane Watson to continue his introduction to international cricket.

England’s Sarah Tayor, the youngest player in the history of women’s cricket to score 1,000 one-day runs, has said she learnt much from team-mate Claire Taylor, ranked the No. 1 batsman in the new ICC rankings for women’s one-day cricket.”Personally the one thing I really learnt from her is to bat in gears. She is one of these players that writes messages on her arms to get her through an innings and she always used to write ‘gears’ on her arm,” said Sarah, 19. “At first I was a bit naïve to and I went out and played how I wanted and hoped it would pay off.”Learning from Claire and Charlotte Edwards, people who I always wanted to play with when I was younger as they are your idols, I understood what gears was, so you start in off in first gear and work your way through. She has been a tremendous help and always give me a few words of advice.”Sarah admitted making the No. 4 spot in the new ICC rankings, launched in Mumbai on Thursday, was a surprise. “It was only from an interview in a match this summer where somebody asked about the ICC rankings and somebody said that I would be involved in it that I had an idea that I would be anywhere close,” she said. “I had no idea I was going to be in the top five – I thought I would be somewhere near the bottom.”I was really shocked when I turned on the computer this morning. I will be checking it more often now. The competition is there now and if you know somebody is higher you want to try and beat them.”Sarah also hoped to reach the top spot at some point. “I just hope to continue the way I am playing and more records will be broken,” she said.England will train in Bangalore in November in preparation for the ICC Women’s World Cup in March. “If we can prove to people how hard we work and what a team we are, to say we are World Cup winners in Australia – that would be fantastic as well,” said Sarah.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has rejected the retirement letters of the ‘rebel’ players who have joined the Indian Cricket League (ICL), maintaining that they violated their contracts by not giving prior notice.”We are not accepting their retirement letters,” Gazi Ashraf, chairman of the BCB’s cricket operations committee, told the Dhaka-based . “They didn’t mention when would their retirements be effective from.”It was also totally unacceptable the way they talked with the media and hence they breached the code of conduct. The cricket operations committee will table their recommendations to the emergency meeting and they will ultimately take the decision. And definitely everything will be decided in line with the ICC’s decision about unauthorised competition last March.”The BCB officials met with their legal experts yesterday to make the guideline for the meeting. Ashraf said that the BCB would welcome the players back if they approached the board. “Still our door is open for them but time and tide wait for none in this world,” he said. “It’s true we will miss their international experience but we have players in the pipeline. And I request everybody to look at their recent performance.”According to Hossain, the BCB’s mistake was it followed the previous regime’s players’ contract document where there were ” a number of loopholes”. He said the BCB would update it and aim to improve the financial benefits for players in domestic competitions.The Dhaka Warriors, the ICL’s newest franchise, comprises Habibul Bashar, the former national captain, recent internationals Aftab Ahmed, Alok Kapali, Shahriar Nafees, Farhad Reza, Dhiman Ghosh, Mosharraf Hossain, Mohammad Rafique, Tapash Baisya, Manjural Islam and Mohammad Sharif, reserve wicketkeeper Golam Mabud, and Mahbubul Karim, part of the Bangladesh Academy team currently touring Sri Lanka.Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh coach, said the exodus had been expected and that it will be impossible to get the players back. “We can’t afford to lose that many players on a regular basis,” Siddons told AFP. “We’ll replace these guys with young players but my biggest concern is the ICL will come knocking again next year. The guys who were going are gone and the guys who are staying can get on with the job.”Naimur Rahman, Bangladesh’s first Test captain and current national selector and president of the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB), condemned the players’ move to the ICL. “We have little resources and few players,” he said. “We can’t think like other countries in this regard.”Aminul Islam, a former Bangladesh captain who is also a member of the CWAB, labeled the attitude of the ‘rebels’ as ‘unprofessional and childish’. “I saw no reason for them to retire,” he said. “If they gave specific grounds for resignation, then I would have no problem with it. Their steps will be harmful because it showed the wrong way for the future generations. I wouldn’t call them blackmailers, but definitely it was a childish and unprofessional decision.”One of them said that the coach [Jamie Siddons] misbehaved with him. Most of us have heard worse things but never came out in public,” said Islam. “Another said that he wasn’t assured of his spot in the team but he has been in the team for the past year. Only one’s performance can assure him a place in a national team.”

John Dyson, the West Indies coach, is optimistic of Chris Gayle’s chances of playing the third and final Test against Australia at Kensington Oval starting on Thursday. Gayle, the team’s captain, has been out of action since the third one-dayer against Sri Lanka in April, missing the Indian Premier League and the first two Tests against Australia with a groin injury.Dyson said he was happy with Gayle’s rehabilitation in the nets and didn’t rule out the possibility of risking him even if not fully fit. “He’s been in the nets,” Dyson told . “Even during the rehabilitation phase of the injury, he’s been in the nets and has been hitting the ball very well in the nets. It’s not ideal, but that’s the way it is, and we’ll make sure he gets some extra good practice next week.”He might have to put up with a little bit of discomfort, and we’ll get the opinion from the medical team. If they say ‘look, we don’t think it will be damaged and he is able to play’, it’s worth the risk then.”Dyson is hoping for a sporting pitch in Barbados, unlike the surface prepared for the second Test in Antigua. There were 1341 runs scored for the loss of 28 wickets at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, where the match ended in a draw despite Australia declaring twice.Resistance from Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul helped West Indies bat out the final day and end on 266 for 5, chasing a challenging 372 to square the series after losing the first Test. Barbados will be hosting its first Test since 2005 and Dyson hoped the pitch would give the fast bowlers some assistance.”I hope for a good cricket wicket,” Dyson said. “My definition of a good cricket wicket is that for a Test match on the first day, if you are a genuinely quick bowler and you’re prepared to try hard, you’ll get some assistance. That will flatten out for days two and three and be a good batting wicket. On day four, it might start to spin and on day five, who knows, it might spin a lot. It might help the medium-pacers if it cracks a bit.”Reflecting on the drawn Test, the first between the two sides since 1995, Dyson said it was always going to be difficult to produce a result compared to the surface used in Jamaica, where Australia won by 95 runs. “I thought the Jamaica wicket was actually pretty good, it was a little slower than I thought it might be,” he said. “The one in Antigua, there was just nothing in it for the pace bowlers. I was surprised by that.”Dyson drew positives from the second Test and backed the efforts of his side in the field in the second innings, especially after some dropped catches and misfields in the first. “I was happy with the result of the second Test,” he said. “I thought we played some good cricket.”I think players like Shiv [Shivnarine Chanderpaul] and Sars [Ramnaresh Sarwan] and [Dwayne] Bravo batted well, and Xavier Marshall as well.They all put in good performances with the bat. The bowlers worked hard on an unresponsive wicket and we lifted our fielding in the second innings so they were some good things happening in the Tests.”

The ICC has taken the first significant step towards resolving the contentious issue of unauthorised cricket – including the status of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) – by setting up a high-powered committee to study its legal aspects. It has also discussed the issue of global agreements to prevent cricketers from appearing in such games, Cricinfo has learnt.The committee, which was formalised during the ICC’s annual meeting in Dubai last week, includes Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, Norman Arendse, the Cricket South Africa president, Shashank Manohar, the BCCI’s president-elect, Lalit Modi, a vice-president of the BCCI [and the IPL’s chairman and commissioner] and David Becker, the ICC’s senior counsel – business and commercial.The committee was set up after officials were made aware the ICL may explore the possibility of coming under the governing body’s umbrella as “a kind of authorised unofficial cricket” under a specific rule that deals with exhibition matches and other games of a similar nature. It is understood that preliminary discussions took place in Bangalore during a meeting of key ICC board members on April 18, before the inaugural IPL game.When asked about the committee and its objectives, an ICC spokesperson said, “The purpose of the group is to ensure that whatever conclusion is reached is in the best interests of the game.”The issue of the ICL and its status came into focus on the sidelines of the ICC annual meeting last week when officials from India, England, Australia and South Africa met for a discussion on the proposed Twenty20 Champions League.While India, Australia and South Africa are clear that players associated with the ICL cannot take part in the league, England will have to take a tough call on the issue as around 25 ICL players are currently playing for 15 English counties. Officially, the ECB does not support any involvement with unofficial cricket but, in this situation, has to operate within the stringent trade laws in England.The ICC, meanwhile, has also sent a letter to the ICL seeking details of its correspondence with the BCCI on the issue of their status in the game. An ICL official told Cricinfo the letter was received last week and added the league is yet to send its response. Himanshu Mody, the ICL’s business head, confirmed the development to Cricinfo but declined to comment on it. When asked about the letter, the ICC spokesperson said, “Dialogue and correspondence on the subject is ongoing.”According to ICL officials, they had first written to the BCCI in April 2007 informing them about their plans to hold a city-based Twenty20 league. “But they reacted harshly to the issue,” an official said.The BCCI is very clear it would not budge on the ICL. “We had received two or three letters from the ICL, but we made our position very clear early that they cannot be recognised,” a BCCI official said. The BCCI has barred all official contact with players associated with ICL and expects all other members of the ICC to align with them on the issue.The ICL has already organised three Twenty20 tournaments and a 50-over competition but its status was placed on the international cricket stage this April by Malcolm Speed, the former ICC CEO, who said the governing body had received a letter from the league seeking clarity on their existence. Speed, who was since told to go on “paid leave” by the ICC before his successor Haroon Lorgat took charge last week, had also said that the issue was being handled by the ICC’s lawyers.Later, Dave Richardson, who took over from Speed on an interim basis, said the ICC would go by the BCCI’s policy towards ICL. “The ICL is a domestic event that takes place in India so our rules prescribe that any decision as to whether an event be regarded as official or not must be made by the country that event is played in,” Richardson had said.

Bangladesh in their first real test of the tour, and under trying batting conditions, was comfortably beaten by South Africa `A’ in a limited overs match at the Soweto Oval today.Confirming the decision to field first the early South Africa batsmen struggled to make real headway. Andrew Hall (21) and Loots Bosman(18) were never in total control as they tried to come to terms with a pitch that gave a lot of lift but did not allow the ball to come onto the bat.A hard working 102 run partnership between Ashwell Prince and Martin van Jaarsveld (50) setup the foundation for the latter part of the South African innings.Neil Mckenzie, showing that he is close to his form of old, adapted to the conditions quickly. Driving through the covers at will, and pulling easily through mid wicket he raced to his 50 in 40 balls. This seemed to inspire Prince and together they put on a quick 87 run partnership before Prince was caught at deep square leg for his highest one-day score of 87. His innings should give him another tick in the selectors book.Mckenzie, nearing the end of the innings, was caught on the deep cover point boundary, splicing a lofted drive. His 77 off 55 balls and 66 minutes one of the better innings seen at Soweto for a while.For Bangladesh, the opening bowler, Tapash Baisya, was by far the most impressive taking 4/49 in his 10 overs. Off spinner Alok Kapali, initially restricting the runs, should also have a successful tour while Khaled Mahmud may find the going difficult bowling in South Africa.Set to make 280 for the win the Bangladesh batsmen were never at ease against the pace attack of the South Africans. Playing away from the body and not getting into line soon had them in trouble.David Terbrugge with his away swingers and the extra lift always had the batsmen in trouble. Al Sahariar tried to pull a short ball and was caught for one. Habibul Bashar became Terbrugge’s second victim when he sparred outside the off and was caught at third slip without scoring.Hanna Sarkar and Tushar Imran looked a lot more comfortable once the fast bowlers were replaced putting on 48 before Imran was adjudged caught behind after flicking to the on side for 26. The batsman was unhappy with the decision and showed the umpire his arm while walking off. Television replays showed that he might have gloved it to the keeper.A similar dismissal was that of Hanna Sarkar who waited long enough for the keeper to tell him he had held the catch. The television replay showed the catch being taken low on the leg side. A good innings had come to an end for 37 including four boundaries.Alok Kapali batting with Sanwar Hossain put on a 61 run partnership for the fifth wicket before Terbrugge came back into the attack. Kapali caught for 38, and Khaled Mashud lasting three balls caught at slip without scoring.A patient controlled innings from Sanwar Hossain came to an end in the 45th over when trying to sweep Robin Peterson he miss-timed and top edged for Thami Tsolekile, behind the wickets, to take his fifth catch of the innings.A late flurry from Khaled Mahmud saw Bangladesh reaching 207/8 in the 50 overs. Mahmud was particular severe on Andre Nel who with some theatrical bowling actions did not do his international aspirations any good. They surely did nothing to intimidate Khaled Mahmud whom at the end of the day ended on 49 not out, including six boundaries and one six sending Nel well over the long leg rope.Monde Zondeki, for his first major outing, can be very happy with his performance. Bowling very short and very quick in his first three overs, going for 21 runs, he adjusted well and ended up with 3/38 in his 10 over spell.

Sri Lanka’s performance against South Africa in a vital clash that decided the series should certainly have their coach worried. The attention to doing the basics right was clearly missing and on this display, their World Cup chances cannot be taken seriously.Too many times in this summer we’ve seen the bowlers not being able to bowl a line, never mind a length as well. Without Vaas, the rest have a club cricket look about them and need to mature considerably to become consistent. Sanath had his hands full trying to place a field almost every delivery! The fielding was mediocre to say the least with half chances not being taken at vital stages of the match. Losing is one thing, but the manner in which it happened is very disconcerting.From a batting point of view, the Sri Lankans only look dangerous if they get off to a start enabling players like Aravinda to then come in and build on it. The tail is just too fragile to cope if early wickets are lost. It almost seems like a catch 22 position for the top order; play shots to set a total, but don’t get out because you will not have enough batting at the back of the innings. This is no way to have play against a strong team with loads of bowling options available.While I think that the young fast men like the Fernando’s and Nissanka have loads of potential and in time will be of great value, potential alone never won a match in any sport. Dav Whatmore needs to spend hours and hours with these young men, making sure he gets their muscle memory in place very quickly. It probably should have been done before the tour even started!Pressure is the name of the game at the coal-face of international cricket and the Kimberley match was right up there when it came to producing the goods and the wheels came off. The ability to do the job when required under tough circumstances is not something that can be acquired overnight. It can take a few seasons and even then it is still never easy. This team is still in the process of putting that in place. Only a select few can do the job and there are not enough of them.The fifth and last match in Bloemfontein should see the Proteas rest key players and thereby allow some younger talent to experience the thrill of playing at the top level. The pressure will lessen and should the Sri Lankans lose, it will do their confidence no good in the light of their World Cup campaign.

Jacques Rudolph continues to terrorise opposition bowlers in the Transco Lancashire League with another hundred. Rudolph is now the Lancashire League’s leading run scorer with 881 runs from 14 innings. The current Lowerhouse professional has scored 675 runs in his last 6 innings, including a club record of four successive centuries.Rudolph has now overtaken the great West Indian Everton Weekes, who hit three centuries in a row in 1951 and more recently Burnley’s Geoff Foley who achieved the feat in 2000. Rudolph hit 126 with eight fours and seven sixes.Not to be outdone his fellow South Africans continued their form with Pierre Joubert scoring 98, Martin van Jaarsveld 93 not out, Andre Seymore 83, Andrew Hall 67 and Con de Lange 48. Paul Adams with four off the bat was the exception.Of the bowlers Hall took 3/31, Van Jaarsveld 3/33 and De Lange 2/38. Joubert with 0/20 and Adams with 0/81 could not take any wickets.Tour matches being played in England has meant that most of the South Africans playing County cricket have earned a rest. For those that did grace the fields three hundreds and a five wicket haul resulted.Sven Koenig scored his fourth century of the first class season, a 113, in a drawn match for Middlesex against Essex. He followed that up with five in the second innings. Koenig is now the leading scorer for Middlesex with 846 runs at an average of 60.42.Mark Davis scored 111, his first century of the season for Sussex, in an innings win against Somerset. He also returned bowling figures of 2/20 and 2/88.The third hundred came from Nottinghamshire’s Kevin Pietersen. He scored his first century of the season, when scoring 103 not out against Derbyshire. Nicky Boje was not in the same form with the bat, getting a duck, but did manage figures of 4/45 and 5/66 with the ball. Greg Smith scored three and took 1/46 and 0/20.In the same match Andrew Gait scored his third and fourth half century of the season with a 76 and 53 for Derby.In one of the tour matches Neil Johnson scored a 45 against the Indians. He also took 1/45 in a shortened Indian innings.None of the other South Africans playing county cricket were in action this week.

Otago Cricket’s batting stocks will be boosted this season by the appearance of former Pakistan Test player Mohammad Wasim.The 25-year-old will arrive in Dunedin in early-October and will play club cricket before being available for all of the State Otago Volts’ matches this summer.Wasim scored a Test century as a 19-year-old on debut against New Zealand in Lahore during the 1996/97 Black Caps’ tour, becoming the fourth Pakistani player to register a century in his first Test. Having been bowled for a duck by Simon Doull in the first innings, Wasim held the middle-order together in the second innings but couldn’t prevent a Kiwi victory, the first by a New Zealand team in Pakistan since 1969/70.Wasim’s second Test century was a massive 192 against Zimbabwe in Harare in 1997/98.In total he played 18 Tests between 1996/97 and 1999/00, scoring 783 runs at an average of 30.11, he has played 25 One-Day Internationals, harvesting 543 runs at 23.60 and is also a useful part-time wicket-keeper.His 4,624 first-class runs, in 98 games, have come at an average of 31.24, including 12 centuries. Wasim is also an occasional right-arm leg-spinner.Described as stylish, if a little slow in the early stages of his innings, Wasim will provide much-needed stability to Otago’s batting, an area where the Volts have struggled in recent seasons.

Somerset’s new mascot `Stumpy’ was the hero of the day at the County Ground on Sunday when he stepped into repair a damaged water pipe.Ground safety officer Peter Robinson told me: "During the afternoon we discovered that we had a serious leak in one of the pipes in the Ondaatje Pavilion and it was in danger of causing major damage to the hospitality boxes. `Stumpy’ was circulating and meeting the crowd nearby at the time, and after hearing about the problem came to our rescue by repairing the leak."`Robbo’ continued: "Lucky for us ‘Stumpy’ had his dragon toolkit with him and after he had sorted out our problem he put his pads back on and went out to meet his fans again. It’s really quite amazing what a dragon can do. `Stumpy’ might not have brought good luck to the players on the field on Sunday, but it was certainly lucky for us that he was around when he was!"`Stumpy’ will be at the ground this coming Sunday, July 7th, when during the tea interval his many fans will have the chance to bowl at him!