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Also: highest first-class scores in each position, and the lowest and highest chronological shirt numbers in the same Test team

Steven Lynch15-Dec-2015What was the greatest difference between the lowest and highest chronological shirt numbers in the same Test team? My hunch is that it would involve Brian Close… asked Phil Ribbons from England

You’re not too far out, as Brian Close comes in third and fourth on this particular list. He was England’s 344th Test player, and played in 1976 when Mike Selvey (No. 466) made his Test debut at Old Trafford, a difference of 122; Mike Brearley (465) had made his debut in the first Test, at Trent Bridge. However, Close is beaten by another long-lasting Yorkshireman. Wilfred Rhodes was England’s 121st Test player when he made his debut in 1899. And there was a difference of 133 between him and Les Townsend (No. 254) in the third Test of the 1929-30 series in Georgetown. Bill Voce (253) had made his debut in the first Test, in Bridgetown. Rhodes was 52 at the time – the oldest Test player of all – but still played in all four matches of that series, England’s first in the Caribbean. The biggest difference for a side other than England – 98 – happened earlier this year, when Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies Test player No. 204) played alongside the debutant Shai Hope (302) against England in Bridgetown.No one scored a hundred in the India-South Africa series until Ajinkya Rahane made two in the fourth Test. Has there ever been a series with no centuries at all? asked Bilal Ahluwalia from India

There has never been a series of four or more Tests which did not feature at least one century: indeed the recent series between India and South Africa provided only the fourth instance of as few as two hundreds in a four-Test rubber. The fewest in a five-Test series is three centuries, which has happened nine times; there were also only three in the six-match India-Pakistan battle in 1979-80. There have been six three-Test series without an individual hundred, most recently when New Zealand visited India in 1995-96. It also happened in the Ashes of 1882-83 and 1888 – when Bobby Abel’s 70 was the highest score of the three Tests – and in the series between India and New Zealand in 1969-70, Pakistan and West Indies in 1986-87, and Pakistan and Zimbabwe in 1993-94.Was R Ashwin’s 31 wickets against South Africa the most by an Indian bowler in a four-Test series? asked Dr Bhatia from India

Yes, Ashwin’s 31 wickets in the recent series against South Africa was a new record for India in a four-Test series, breaking the record held by… Ashwin himself, with 29 against Australia in 2012-13. Anil Kumble took 27 in the four-match series against Australia in 2004-05. India’s record for any series is 35, by legspinner Bhagwath Chandrasekhar in five Tests at home to England in 1972-73. Vinoo Mankad (against England in 1951-52) and Subhash Gupte (against New Zealand in 1955-56) both took 34 wickets in a series, while Kapil Dev claimed 32 in six Tests against Pakistan in 1979-80. But arguably the most meritorious performance of all came from Harbhajan Singh, with 32 wickets in just three Tests against Australia in 2000-01. Bishan Bedi also took 31 wickets in the five Tests in Australia in 1977-78, the Indian record for an away series.Victor Trumper once smashed 293 batting unusually low, at No. 9 in a first-class match•PA PhotosWho has hit the most sixes in Tests and ODIs? asked Brian Hall from England

The Test record could well be about to change hands: during New Zealand’s Test against Sri Lanka that finished yesterday in Dunedin, Brendon McCullum hit his 100th six, to equal Adam Gilchrist’s record. Chris Gayle might yet become the third batsman to hit a century of sixes – he currently has 98. Jacques Kallis finished his career with 97, while Virender Sehwag clouted 91. The next current player is Misbah-ul-Haq, with 67. For the full list, click here. The leading six-hitter in one-day internationals is Shahid Afridi with 351, comfortably ahead of Sanath Jayasuriya (270), Gayle (238), Sachin Tendulkar (195), and McCullum and Sourav Ganguly (both 190). The leaders in T20 internationals are McCullum (91) and Gayle (87), well clear of Shane Watson (69) and David Warner (66). If you combine all three forms of international cricket, then Afridi leads the way with a grand total of 465 sixes, ahead of Gayle (423) and McCullum (378), with Jayasuriya fourth on 352.How many batsmen have scored two centuries in the same match for India? asked Venkat Raghav from India

Ajinkya Rahane’s double of 127 and 100 not out in the recent fourth Test against South Africa in Delhi made him only the fifth Indian to have scored twin centuries in a Test. The first to do it was Vijay Hazare, with 116 and 145 against Australia in Adelaide in 1947-48, in a match India still lost by an innings (Don Bradman scored 201, and Lindsay Hassett 198 not out). Sunil Gavaskar achieved the feat three times – 124 and 220 against West Indies in Port-of-Spain in his debut series of 1970-71, 111 and 137 against Pakistan in Karachi in November 1978, then 107 and 182 not out six weeks later against West Indies in Calcutta. Rahul Dravid did it twice, with 190 and 103 not out against New Zealand in Hamilton in 1998-99, and 110 and 135 against Pakistan in Kolkata in 2004-05. And finally Virat Kohli, in his first match as captain, scored 115 and 141 against Australia in Adelaide in December 2014.Following on from the recent question about triple-centuries from Nos. 6 and 7, what are the highest first-class scores from the other batting positions? asked Jeremy Hall from New Zealand

The highest by an opener is Hanif Mohammad’s 499 for Karachi against Bahawalpur in Karachi in 1958-59, while the best by someone down at No. 2 on the scorecard is Bill Ponsford’s 437 for Victoria against Queensland in Melbourne in 1927-28. Brian Lara’s 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994 – the overall first-class record – is the best from No. 3. The unsung Aftab Baloch, who made just two Test appearances for Pakistan, has the highest from No. 4 – 428 for Sind against Baluchistan in Karachi in 1973-74. Bill Ponsford pops up again at No. 5, with 429 for Victoria against Tasmania in Melbourne in 1927-28. Nos 6 and 7 were covered in the earlier answer, but the best from No. 8 is 268, by Cecil Maxwell – his only century of an otherwise unremarkable career – for Sir Julien Cahn’s XI against Leicestershire at West Bridgford in 1935. The highest from No. 9 is 293 by the great Victor Trumper, going in artificially low for an Australian XI against Canterbury in Christchurch on a private tour of New Zealand in 1913-14. The last two are more authentic: John Chapman made 165 from No. 10 for Derbyshire against Warwickshire at Blackwell in 1910, while last man Peter Smith, an occasional England legspinner, hammered 163 from No. 11 for Essex against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1947.Send in your questions using our feedback form.

From resolving conflict of interest to stemming corruption to helping women’s cricket, ESPNcricinfo looks into how the BCCI has tackled the problems facing it

Arun Venugopal and Nagraj Gollapudi03-Dec-2015

Conflict of Interest guidelines

Proposal: “The board would frame regulations with regards to conflict of interest of administrators, players and their staff. That would be done within a month’s time.”Action taken: Manohar’s three-page document, listing the various conflicts that administrators (both BCCI and state associations), players and employees (board and state associations), was sent out in October. Concern, confusion, criticism followed in clipped tones and whispers but after the BCCI AGM on November 9, Manohar declared all the proposals were accepted unanimously. On November 21, conflict of interest guidelines were published on the board’s website.Response: At the AGM, Manohar had revealed that former national selector Roger Binny had to vacate his position owing to the perception of conflict concerning his son Stuart, who is part of the Indian squad. Another former selector and Indian legspinner Narendra Hirwani stepped down as chairman of the Madhya Pradesh selection panel as he did not want to hurt the future of his son Mihir, who plays for the state.

Appointment of ombudsman

Proposal (made at the AGM): “The board would appoint an ombudsman who would be independent of this board and who would look into the complaints as with regards to conflict of interest of the administrators, players or the staff.”Action taken: Former chief justice of Madras and Delhi High Court AP Shah was appointed as the first ombudsman of the BCCI. Shah was vested with independent powers with Manohar making clear that the ombudsman’s decision would be binding when it came to conflict of interest issues concerning administrators, players and employees.Response: The Kolkata-based National Cricket Club, one of the 30 members of the BCCI, has approached the ombudsman asking his intervention to remove the club’s longstanding secretary and director KP Kajaria, who has been alleged of not holding elections for many decades.

Tackling corruption

Proposal: “The board would lay down the norms and would make programmes to educate players. We would like to meet the government officials to see and work out if we can get certain investigative agency, because the board people do not have any investigative powers and therefore our hands are tied.”Action taken: The BCCI has approached the Maharashtra government to set up an Intelligence Gathering Unit (IGU), which will see the board and Maharashtra Police working together. The IGU, based out of Mumbai, will work in coordination with BCCI to share information with the security agencies of other states on cases relating to corruption. This is the first instance of BCCI tying up with a security agency of a state to counter corruption in the game.Response: None so far

Independent audit of accounts of State associations

Proposal: “We would build a system by which the accounts of the affiliated units would be audited by an independent auditor appointed by the board. The board would also be empowered to take action in case the board finds that the money which has been given to the state association is not being properly utilised.”Action taken: The BCCI appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to look into how funds granted to the state associations were being utilised. The board also engaged Deloitte as part of its ‘Project Transformation’ to strengthen its governance structure and improve financial processes.Response: While there have been no reports of an independent examination of accounts of state associations yet, it is understood that a couple of state units were not sanctioned funds from the board following discrepancies in their financial records.

BCCI constitution and balance sheet to be made public online

Proposal: “There is another grievance that the board is not transparent. I feel that this problem could be sorted out by putting on the website of the board the constitution of the board, all the rules of the board, any expenditure made by the board over and above an amount of [Rs] 25 lakhs (approx. US$ 38,000), so that people are aware on what activities the board spends their money.”Action taken: In his first act as president three days after taking charge, Manohar made the BCCI constitution available online. More recently, the board’s annual report for 2014-15 and payments of more than Rs 25 lakh have been published on the BCCI website.Response: Although there is no tangible outcome as a result of this measure yet, there is direct access to these documents; the links to the reports have been displayed prominently on the homepage of the BCCI site

Reinvigorating the NCA

Proposal: “The board would also look into starting of National Cricket Academy (NCA) again, whose activities are not up to the mark as on date. And we would see to it that NCA functions round the year so that cricketing talent is developed in this country.”Action taken: The board appointed Dilip Vengsarkar as the chairman recently after Brijesh Patel had to reportedly step down owing to the conflict-of-interest guidelines introduced by Manohar.Response: Vengsarkar said he hadn’t yet formulated a plan of action, but that he would present his vision to the NCA board during this week.

Women’s cricket

Proposal: “The board would also like to develop women’s cricket and we would enter into contracts with women cricketers as we enter into contracts with men’s team. That would promote the game and more and more women players would love to play this game.”Action taken: Women cricketers were formally handed out contracts at the BCCI’s AGM. They will be contracted under two categories – A and B – and will be paid Rs 15 lakh and Rs 10 lakh each.Response: The introduction of contracts has been welcomed by women cricketers. “I think it’s a very positive move from the BCCI,” India women’s team captain Mithali Raj told ESPNcricinfo. “Because they were not financially secure, a lot of girls have left the sport to take up some other job. That will not happen now with contracts in place.”

Twists, turns, mishaps and jailbreaks. It’s all par for the course with the Pakistan batting line-up

Alagappan Muthu in Mirpur29-Feb-20162:15

‘Mature players take you out of problems’ – Waqar

Imagine you are on a tour bus. It is hijacked by a clown. One who’s fond of running into as much trouble as possible. Flooring it with a speed bump five yards away. Swinging the wheel this way and that on a simple, straight stretch of road. Attempting to drift because he had seen the night before and it seemed super cool.The whole damn thing is about to keel over. You are on edge. You don’t know what is going to happen. You can’t even figure out how it has come to such dire straits. To think you could have just sat at home and watched Pakistan play UAE in the Asia Cup.Don’t worry. The experience wouldn’t have been much different.Twists, turns, mishaps and jailbreaks. They seem so ingrained in a Pakistan game, as if their innings gets hijacked by a mad clown. Just ask Waqar Younis, their coach. He’d had a word with the openers Sharjeel Khan and Mohammad Hafeez before they had gone out to chase 130. “Yes I did tell [our plans] to the openers, but they came back very quickly.”See. Things have this habit of going haywire. Take the fact that in a Twenty20 game – where you have only 120 balls to bowl – they stopped 72 of them yielding any runs. The remaining 48 provided UAE with 129.

Waqar wary of top-order issues

Pakistan coach Waqar Younis was happy to have “opened the account” in the Asia Cup, but said there were still some kinks to a iron out.
“There are problems. The top-order hasn’t scored runs again. The conditions are such that scoring runs against the new ball is difficult. Credit must be given to the UAE team for fighting hard. Then again, our experienced Umar Akmal and Malik played matured innings and got us home.”
Moving on to issues with the bowling, he said, “We did have a poor middle overs. That’s also one thing we have to really talk about and make sure we do not give away easy runs. At the end overs, it’s going to happen. The ball is going to fly all over the place but, especially in the middle overs, we have to be a bit more thoughtful.”
And finally a word on the misfiring Khurram Manzoor, and his selection for the Asia Cup and World T20. “It is too early to give an answer about it. We haven’t thought about what to do going forward.”

Still that’s not the worst total to be chasing. It’s a required run rate of 6.5. Speed bump. Sharjeel given lbw, although it did seem a dicey call on height. Speed bump. Khurram Manzoor, a rather left-field selection in this squad and later on for the World T20 as well, was caught behind. Speed bump. Hafeez gives catching practice to cover. Amjad Javed, the bowler on all three occasions, wore a smile that should put him on the cast list of a toothpaste commercial. Clearly the clown was making someone happy, at least.So Pakistan’s bus was out of control at 17 for 3 and at this point they needed Keanu Reeves, as you do when buses go out of control or when machines try to take over the world.That’s pretty hefty work for one man in the real world, so Shoaib Malik asked Umar Akmal for a little help.Like Reeves’ character in deduced the bad guy had a live feed of the bus and used that vital bit of knowledge to save lives, Malik and Akmal figured out something equally hard to spot in order to save their team. They actually had time to settle in, maybe as much as they would have had in a Test match.”We decided to forget about the run-rate,” Malik revealed at the presentation ceremony. He was 0 off 7, having been beaten on the outside and inside edge off back-to-back deliveries. He was given a half-volley in the sixth over which was converted into his first boundary of the night. The next one came as he capitalised on a short ball and the third was a pick off the legs.Bad balls still needed to be put away, but for all that efficiency Malik was still 19 off 23. He drifted to 23 off 30 and even after hitting his first six of the innings, he was travelling well under run-a-ball. He could afford to. Pakistan needed him to.If Malik had been chilled out, Akmal was absolutely frozen: 13 off 23. He had smashed eventual PSL finalists Quetta Gladiators for 54 runs for the same amount of balls three weeks ago. Pakistan had spoken about misreading conditions in Mirpur after their 83 all out against India. The Asia Cup featured the finest from the subcontinent and the pitches were a little spicy. It was not a domestic T20 tournament played on featherbeds. Shahid Afridi had spoken about the need for senior batsmen to show the way.Akmal, although only 25, was playing his 200th game for Pakistan. Normally such a resume would demand the most exalted tags. Yet Akmal is still seen as a player whose temperament often betrays his talent. He has a tendency to shove good sense aside and go for glory, often at the worst possible time. Tonight was different. Tonight, his first hit to the boundary was off his 26th ball and he lugged 24 of his 50 runs in ones and twos.”The maturity [both batsmen] showed was very clear,” Waqar said. “They took their time. When you lose wickets like this in a cluster in the first few overs, it always creates pressure. I think they absorbed the pressure very well. The run-rate which was at six and a half had gone up to nine and a half, but we always knew they were capable of getting the target when the time comes. It was a little scary in the beginning, but as I said, they played really well.”By the time Malik reached a strike rate of 100, in the 16th over on 41, he should have been out on the very next ball. Instead, a catch was dropped at deep square leg. The mad clown was thwarted.Malik struck his next two balls for four and six to cruise to his fifty. He and Akmal set the world record for the fourth-wicket partnership in T20Is – an unbeaten 114 in 93 balls and Pakistan had won on the occasion of their 100th T20I.End scene.

Having conceded 248 the last time they played Royal Challengers Bangalore in their backyard, Gujarat Lions will need a new bowling plan to counter their two best batsmen

Alagappan Muthu23-May-2016How does one stop Virat Kohli? That question has pretty much become rhetorical in 2016. Opposition bowlers are calling him a legend. Opposition captains opt to field at the toss to prevent him from going to his happy place. A simple land that offers a bat to play with and a target to chase down. Cricket experts can’t predict the heights he will reach, and Kohli himself has felt unstoppable, judging from the many times he has said, “I could hit every ball for four or six” in this IPL.How does one stop AB de Villiers? That question has pretty much been rhetorical since 2008. He has melded hockey, golf and cricket to become the most feared 360-degree batsman in modern times, though his rate of success skyrocketed only after he acquired the late defensive shot in April that year. Until then, he had seven centuries in 142 innings across formats. Since he played “the late defensive shot for the first time in my life” against India in the Ahmedabad Test, de Villiers has added five times as many centuries (38) in twice the number of innings (294).Kohli and de Villiers are the kind of batsmen that do everything in their power to help their team win. They run like those cartoon villains with their backsides on fire. And above all, they are incredibly assured at the crease. So the best way to topple them is through deception.Gujarat Lions have a couple of options to do that. One, they’d want Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni to find movement through the air because there certainly won’t be much off the pitch. They have to camp on a line outside off stump and tempt the drive. But they can’t be too full. Praveen and Dhawal have to find that in-between length where the batsman’s front foot can’t reach the pitch and therefore the hands have to push at the ball and away from the body. Assuming they get some swing from there, nicks could fly.Two, they’d like Dwayne Bravo to get his groove back, because if there ever was a delivery that could sucker punch a batsman in form, it’s his big-dipper slower ball. Kohli and de Villiers may be able to read the offcut out of the hand, but that delivery’s threat is not in its lack of pace, but in the sudden change in trajectory.You may spot the variation early and wait in your stance to clobber it over cow corner. But just as the ball nears you, it dips under the bat swing and you are in no position to counter it. And lately Bravo has been better at disguising his trump card. There have been occasions when he would pack an entire over with slower balls so the batsman could set up for it. Now he is a bit more liberal in using his top pace, especially with the yorkers. That makes the big dipper even harder to spot. David Miller and Glenn Maxwell fell victim to this plan when Bravo collected his best IPL figures of 4 for 22 last month.Kohli and de Villiers get their power from a strong base. If they are thrown off balance, at least they won’t be able to time the ball. Only, Bravo and Lions have struggled to do that on both previous occasions this season. Bravo has leaked 89 runs in seven overs without taking a wicket.This highlights a third, and perhaps the greatest issue, playing against Royal Challengers. Once they get on a roll, they are mighty hard. They made 211 for 3 in a 15-over match the last time they were in Bangalore; only 17 of those runs were on the board after three overs. Chris Gayle went six, six, four in the next over and the carnage was absolute. At one point, there were nine consecutive scoring shots – in sixes. At no point have they been stretched to find the boundaries. Kohli, especially, has rattled bowlers into doing the one thing they hate – run up to the bowling crease hoping for the end to come – simply by trusting his game and playing to a plan.Lions have to do the same, and do it better. They were mauled for 248 for 3 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium two weeks ago. With a trophy in their debut season on the line, they have to try and shave about 50-60 runs off that total.They may have to set a limit for each over, maybe even each ball they bowl. They have to cramp Gayle for room. The spinners should back themselves to beat Kohli and de Villiers in flight – although chinaman bowler Shivil Kaushik does not yet have the control and might be dropped – and they have to bring Shane Watson in early because he has only had to face an average of nine balls per innings in IPL 2016.That may yet mean their batsmen have to make, or chase 200. But that could well be the easier part of their job.

After decades of making a hash of it, England finally has a representative at the high table of career runs

Tom Booth31-May-2016It’s not before time. For an English cricket observer, it’s hard to remember a more agonising wait for an approaching milestone. Anderson’s 400th wicket surely wasn’t this bad. Perhaps Ramprakash’s 100th first-class century, back in 2008.We can argue all day about the significance of the milestone. How much more valuable are 10,000 Test runs than 9,980? But a milestone it is, and an important one, for it finally gives England the undisputed aggregate leviathan needed for its fans to hold their heads up in international company. For nearly 20 years we’ve had to make excuses for our players’ absences while the big beasts of overseas piled on the runs in an era when it was apparently easier to score buckets of runs than ever before.It was not always this way. Until the early ’80s, England had been one of the world’s leading exporters of record-breaking batsmen. Jack Hobbs, Wally Hammond and Colin Cowdrey formed a succession of record career run-scorers that went unbroken even by Bradman for 30 years. England provided Andy Sandham, Test cricket’s first triple-centurion, and, before Sobers’ 365 in 1957, the Test high score had been in the hands of an England player for 52 of the previous 54 years. Nor do England players of that vintage disgrace themselves in the averages column.Despite this rich history, in casual conversations about greatest ever batsmen, England players rarely feature. Part of this is doubtless because most of England’s best batsmen played before matches were regularly televised, and so most contemporary fans haven’t seen them in action. With the notable exception of Bradman, average, too, is often considered secondary to aggregate in such discussions, as it requires more work to assess comparatively. What is the minimum cut-off number of matches or innings? Are results against certain teams or in certain conditions to be excluded? Names like Ken Barrington and Herbert Sutcliffe have long since disappeared into the mists that shroud our collective consciousness, supplanted by fresher and flashier memories of Laras and Pontings.The last of the dynasty was arguably Geoffrey Boycott, who was the final England batsman to hold the aggregate run record. Later England batsmen would exceed Boycott’s run total, but the 10,000 run club established by Gavaskar remained closed to England players thereafter. Meanwhile multiple players from India, Australia, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, and one from South Africa, earned admittance from 1990 onwards. England batsmen came to occupy a sort of second tier in the aggregate stakes, despite England playing more matches, and having more money at its disposal, than almost anyone else.The reasons for this are doubtless tied up in the collapse of English cricket from the late 1980s onwards. Politics, an unhelpful supporting system, a revolving-door selection policy, and simple bad luck, conspired to prevent many promising England players ever having the careers it had once looked like they might. Had Michael Atherton’s back not betrayed him, might he have made 10,000 runs? David Gower, perhaps, had he not been thrown overboard in 1992? The names of Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick are intoned in such a way as to strike fear in the hearts of promising young cricketers. But, while England were hardly the only team to face these issues, they were the only major team to make such a hash of it.Even after Nasser Hussain and Duncan Fletcher famously stopped the rot at the end of the 1990s, the names of batsmen who impressed early in their careers but, for whatever reason, could not establish themselves firmly towards the top of the world table litter the history of England’s progress: Marcus Trescothick; Michael Vaughan; Andrew Strauss. There is still time for Ian Bell to join Cook on 10,000 runs, although it looks like he might have been jettisoned too soon to make a realistic assault on the summit.Some might mutter darkly about the curtailed career of Kevin Pietersen, but he was in some ways lucky to return to the team in 2012 and, with the exception of one massive innings, has not particularly distinguished himself in first-class cricket in recent years. In any case, he is in good company on the tally of might-have-beens. One might equally speculate about the lost years of Boycott in the 1970s. Whatever the reasons, they didn’t get the runs.One often overlooked factor is that England players are often older by the time they start their careers. Among the 10,000-club players, the oldest on debut was Border, at 23, and only he, Dravid and Sangakkara had celebrated their 22nd birthday before making their first appearance. Cook, starting at 21, therefore had an inbuilt advantage.So luck played its part. But so did sheer bloody-minded determination. Cook stands as an anachronism of sorts, one of the last old-school Test batsmen, a grinder in an age of blast and bash. What team could such a player turn out for but England? It’s fitting that, when England cricket finally produces a statistical icon, it’s a player so utterly typical of their batting style in recent years. In some ways, that makes the achievement all the sweeter.Will others reach 10,000 runs? Perhaps, but, as they say, it’s runs on the board that count. Congratulations, Captain Cook. May these be the first ten thousand of many.Want to be featured on Inbox? Send your articles to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line.

Plays of the day from the fourth ODI between England and Pakistan

Andrew McGlashan at Headingley01-Sep-2016The steepler
A batsman hits the ball in the air towards Ben Stokes at their peril – just ask Adam Voges. He twice showed his calmness under the pressure of a catch during the early stages of this match. For the first chance he had to turn, run and take the ball over his shoulder, but while the second chance to come his way was technically easier – he was already on the boundary at deep square when Sami Aslam top edged – it went so far in the air that Stokes almost had too much time to ponder it. When he did hold on, he gave a little pat of his chest as if to indicate the heart had been racing.The shackle breaker
With Sharjeel Khan having gone early there was a Test-match feel to how Pakistan built their innings with Aslam and Azhar Ali together. It was like being transported back to the second day at Edgbaston. Aslam couldn’t kick on, but Azhar was at least able to put a little pressure back on the bowlers when he struck the first six of his innings – flicking Liam Plunkett over square leg – and in the next over he added another when he slog-swept Adil Rashid over the ropes.The beamer
A curious aspect of Moeen Ali’s bowling this season has been the almost match-by-match occurrence of a huge, head-high, beamer which flies directly to the keeper. His aim was even more off in this match when, in his fourth over, he sent one over both Azhar’s head and that of Jonny Bairstow behind the stumps. Then the free hit on offer was swung to deep square-leg where Stokes took a catch to out-do his first two. It didn’t count, but saved three runs.The yorkers
It’s unfair to call Chris Jordan a one-trick pony, but he appears far more certain of himself as a bowler at the end of an innings. His four-over spell to close out the innings, albeit with Pakistan already seven down, was outstanding – and especially the final two overs of it. He produced a textbook display of yorkers, getting at least seven almost spot-on, to ensure Pakistan – mainly Imad Wasim – could only score freely at one end.The plead
Mohammad Irfan had removed England’s openers, despite being warned for running on the pitch, and set about making life tough for Eoin Morgan. He beat him with a short ball, which brought a huge appeal for a glove behind only for Marias Erasmus to signal wide, then next delivery there was an even bigger shout for caught behind – Irfan ended up appealing on his knees. Pakistan reviewed, although Sarfraz Ahmed wasn’t actually sure, and the replays showed it had brushed Morgan’s back pocket. A very fine umpiring decision.The drives
It has been a stop-start season for Stokes due to injury and when he has got to the crease his stays have not been long – but he has not looked out of form. With England under some pressure, having just lost Morgan to be 72 for 4, he unfurled a brace of the most sweetly struck drives you could wish to see. He barely moved an inch after each of the shots off Hasan Ali, holding his pose briefly for the cameras. No one in this power-packed England line-up hits the ball more crisply.

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2016PAKISTAN’S DECADE-WISE RESULTS128 Tests won by Pakistan, out of 399. At the same stage in their Test history, four teams had more wins – Australia (176), England (160), West Indies (146), and South Africa (144). India had 87 and New Zealand 80.57 Away Tests won by Pakistan. In terms of win-loss ratio, Pakistan’s 0.678 (57W, 84L) is fourth, after those of Australia (1.203), England (0.877) and South Africa (0.825). (Away Tests excludes those played in neutral venues.) However, their ratio is by far the best among Asian teams.AWAY RECORDS OF TOP THREE ASIAN TEAMS——PAKISTAN CAPTAINS WITH MOST WINS2.33 The win-loss ratio for Javed Miandad, the best among Pakistan captains who have led in 15 or more Tests. The next best is Mushtaq Mohammad, with an 8-4 record in 19 Tests.13 Pakistan captains, out of 14 who led in at least 10 Tests, with at least as many Test wins as losses. The only exception was Intikhab Alam – one win, five losses in 17 Tests.11 Away Test wins under Misbah-ul-Haq’s captaincy, the most for any Pakistan captain. Saleem Malik and Wasim Akram are next with six wins each, followed by Imran Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis (five each).——PAKISTAN’S RECORD BY OPPOSITIONPakistan have won more Tests than they have lost against all opposition teams except South Africa, Australia and England.——PAKISTAN’S PACE GEMS3 Pakistan fast bowlers who have taken 350-plus Test wickets at averages of less than 24. Overall, only ten fast bowlers have achieved this feat, and no other country has more than two such bowlers.60 Percentage of Pakistan’s wickets that have been taken by pace bowlers; they have averaged 30.47 runs per wicket, compared to 33.20 for the spinners.——BEST AND WORST SEQUENCES24 Most Test wins for Pakistan in any sequence of 50 successive Tests; their best win-loss record in this sequence was 24-12, in the period between 1990 and 1998. Their most defeats in a 50-Test sequence is 23, in the 2004-2010 period.6 Pakistan’s longest sequence of successive Test wins, between May 2001 and February 2002; they won against England (1), Bangladesh (3) and West Indies (2). Their longest sequence of defeats is 5, between November 1999 and March 2000.16 Pakistan’s longest sequence of consecutive Tests without defeat, between November 1986 and April 1988. They won 4 and drew 12 during this period.——MOST MAN-OF-THE-MATCH AWARDSOnly two players have won more Man-of-the-Match awards than Akram – Jacques Kallis (23) and Muttiah Muralitharan (19). Shane Warne has also won 17.In away Tests for Pakistan, Akram has won 12, while the next best is 6, by Imran and Younis Khan.MOST MAN-OF-THE-SERIES AWARDSOnly two players have won more Man-of-the-Series awards than Imran – Muralitharan (11) and Kallis (9). Hadlee and Warne also have 8 each.

A problem of this magnitude stretches beyond the players immediately concerned. Right now, Australia’s batting is driving down the value of the game in this country.

Daniel Brettig15-Nov-20164:30

Chappell: Australia have dug themselves into a hole since Argus review

On Saturday, a mate took his girlfriend out for birthday brunch at the same time David Warner and Joe Burns walked to the middle in Hobart. By the time they returned home, Australia had been bowled out for 85.On Tuesday, two former Australian Test players checked the scores to see the team were still two wickets down on the fourth morning before heading into work meetings. By the time the pair broke for lunch, the Test match was over.These are but two examples of how far the batting cancer in Australia’s Test team has spread. A collapse of 10 for 83 in the third Test of the series in Sri Lanka was noticed by some, being the third defeat in a row. But those of 10 for 86, 10 for 85 and 8 for 32 so far against South Africa are disturbing the rhythm of Australian life at a time when vast swathes of the community expect to be sitting down to watch the cricket. It is, quite literally, beyond a joke.A problem of this magnitude stretches beyond the players immediately concerned to affect the rest of the team, the support staff, coaches, selectors, management, the Cricket Australia board and the sporting public at large. Right now, Australia’s batting is driving down the value of the game in this country – a rude shock to those administrators who have at times made the team’s performance subservient to the “bigger picture” of growing the game.There was nothing particularly unusual about the way Australia’s batsmen folded at Bellerive Oval. A poor choice of shot by Usman Khawaja ended a partnership with Steven Smith, the new man Adam Voges was placed under immediate pressure, and once he was out the rest fell apart like a slow-cooked lamb leg off the bone.The only salient differences from other days were the fact that the short ball did as much damage as deliveries probing a length around off stump, as South Africa’s pacemen recognised the best way to utilise the indentations left in the Hobart pitch by their spells on day one when the surface was still fresh. Voges and Callum Ferguson both fell when trying to leave shortish deliveries, while Peter Nevill was out fending at a Kagiso Rabada throat ball, in a dismissal that could have been from any number of West Indian victories in the 1980s.It is beyond doubt that the South Africa seam and swing attack has been of the highest quality, as demonstrated by the present career averages of Vernon Philander (21.67), Kyle Abbott (21.83) and Rabada (22.75). But it is equally true that when other highly skilled pace ensembles have charged in at Australian batsmen in the past, whether it be the West Indians, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, or Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, they have found the baggy greens harder to shift.That’s what Smith referred to in an impassioned address after the match. “I need players who are willing to get into the contest and get into the battle and pride in playing for Australia and pride in the baggy green – that’s what I need,” he said. “At the moment it’s not good enough. I’m quite tired of saying it, to be honest with you. It’s happened five Tests in a row now, for an Australian cricket team that’s humiliating.”Something that has clouded Australia’s batsmen over the past five matches is a state of conflict between the philosophy that informs their approach and the match scenario in which they find themselves. Notions of driving the game forward, being proactive and entertaining are second nature to the team and the coach Darren Lehmann, but as one former player has put it, “you have to earn the right to play that way”.Intriguingly, there was little identification among some members of the team for the way JP Duminy and Dean Elgar dug in on day three of the Perth Test. They did not score at a rate deemed attractive to the public, but did as much as anyone, in their understated way, to decide the outcome of the series.Yet the overwhelming body of evidence now before everyone connected to Australian cricket is that this team is not good enough to attack at all costs, as much as they would like to do so. Basics, and stubborn application, must be rediscovered. “We’re only driving a game if we’re in a position, to be perfectly honest and we haven’t been for a while now,” Lehmann said. “We’ve got to stay in long enough to create those chances and put pressure on the opposition and we haven’t been able to do that.”South Africa have been driving the game barring day one of the Perth game and we had an opportunity there and we didn’t take it. That’s probably happened in the past few Test matches – even in Sri Lanka we had a couple of opportunities to grab the game and didn’t. It’s about these young guys getting better about grabbing the game and taking it from there.”Unquestionably, Australian cricket must refocus on the defensive basics of batting, and also on ensuring players are as focused, prepared and energised as possible when the time comes to pull on the national team kit. South Africa’s cricketers did something similar earlier this year, following an 18-month lull that followed the 2015 World Cup won by Australia at home. What they have now achieved is a strength in depth that Smith, Lehmann and the selectors can only dream about, without anything like the same budgets.After play, the Australians met with the chief executive James Sutherland, the team performance chief Pat Howard, and a quintet of former playing luminaries in Mark Taylor, Shane Warne, Ian Healy, Michael Slater and Tom Moody. That too, provided a reminder of how far this batting cancer has spread, for continued problems will affect the jobs of the administrators and also the salaries of the commentators – a new round of broadcast deals is to be decided over the next year. Chronic batting troubles could reduce the money available to the game.A third example of how Hobart’s events are spiralling ever outwards could be found on the boundary’s edge at Bellerive an hour or so after the final wicket fell. A man had picked up his primary school-aged grandson from school to take him to see the cricket, but there was none to see. Instead they were left to wander around an empty stadium, as South Africa’s winning players caroused in the middle of the ground.

Delray Rawlins had already been capped by Bermuda at 15 but has now set his sights on a career with England – and he made an immediate impression

Nikhil Kalro in Mumbai31-Jan-2017England’s cricket system has long benefited from an influx of overseas talent, players with roots in South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, Zimbabwe and even West Indies. Few, however, have emerged from Britain’s Overseas Territories.Bermuda, 3400 miles from the UK, was colonised in 1610, but had not produced a cricketer to make a mark with England (although David Hemp, who had a long county career with Glamorgan, was born on the island). Delray Rawlins, a lanky, sinewy 19-year-old allrounder, may be about to change that. “I had a dream that I wanted to play for England,” Rawlins said.Two months ago, Rawlins was turning out for Bermuda in World Cricket League Division Four. On Monday, he struck a match-winning hundred on his Under-19 debut for England.His journey began, aged nine, with Warwick Workmen’s junior program in Bermuda. Not long after, Rawlins was part of the Under-11 squad, a level at which cricket was played with plastic balls. “It was immediately noticed at training that Delray was special and he never played one match in the Under-11 age group,” Bermuda assistant coach and performance analyst Lorenzo Tucker said of Rawlins’ early progress. “He was moved to the Under-14 group, which played structured cricket. He played against boys five years older than he was. He hasn’t looked back since.”Rawlins continued to play at a level higher than his age. At 15, he had been capped for Bermuda, as well as claiming figures of 5 for 51 on his Under-19 debut. Initially selected as a bowler, he developed into a genuine allrounder, capable of batting in the top six in limited-overs cricket.Such was his reputation as a youngster that he was offered a scholarship at St Bede’s School in Eastbourne, East Sussex. After two years with Sussex’s 2nd XI while completing his education, Rawlins was recently offered his first contract.”At the age of 14, I came over and managed to get through the academy ranks and get a contract,” Rawlins said. “It was quite daunting, I wanted to further myself and see how far I can go.”Rawlins’ residency in England – St Bede’s is a boarding school – meant that he was able to complete the four-year qualification period that made him eligible for selection (the relationship between Bermuda and the UK meant he was already a British passport holder). Bermuda’s status as an ICC Associate Member allowed him to continue to play for his home country before switching allegiance to England.For now, Rawlins retains his eligibility to continue representing Bermuda – although that will change if he plays for England’s U-19s at an ICC event, or wins his first full cap.Rawlins was 15 when he took 5 for 51 on debut for Bermuda U-19s in 2013•Peter Della PennaDespite the incredible success in his early years, Rawlins was left staring at a fork in the road – continue playing for Bermuda, plausibly the best in the land but with scarce opportunity, or try his luck in a country with an abundance of resources, as well as a highly competitive first-class structure. If he hadn’t decided to make himself available for England, he would have likely have been part of the ICC Americas squad for the West Indies’ Regional Super 50 competition, rather than with the Under-19s in Mumbai.What for some may have been a gamble, for Rawlins was an investment in himself. “I want to commit my future to England, I want to be an England cricketer, hopefully play in the senior team. It wasn’t a tough decision. My parents were supportive and that was massive for me,” Rawlins said.A discernible factor in Rawlins’ belligerent debut hundred was his power. He clubbed five sixes at the Wankhede Stadium, with one even clearing the second tier, and was the only player from either side to come close to displaying the brute force that modern-day limited-overs cricket necessitates. “With youth players, we’re not going to be at the [modern hitting] level yet,” England captain Matthew Fisher said during the pre-series press conference. “We’re not as strong, we’re not going to hit it as far. We can’t think we can do that straight away, that’s playing with your ego.” It wasn’t ego that Rawlins exhibited, just talent.The arrival of several Kolpak signings in county cricket has caused a great stir in recent weeks but there have always been various routes into the English game for those born overseas. In Rawlins’ case, Bermuda’s loss looks like being England’s gain.

Two years ago a car crash put in doubt whether he would walk again, but against the odds, he has made it back to the West Indies team

Peter Della Penna07-Apr-2017Three months into 2017, Nicholas Pooran is a cricketer in demand. Eleven days after being snapped up by Mumbai Indians in the IPL auction, he is suiting up for Islamabad United in the PSL playoffs against Karachi Kings. A week after that he is walking out to bat in a bright yellow outfit for City Kaitak in the Hong Kong T20 Blitz.Pooran spent a month at the end of 2016 playing for Khulna Titans in the Bangladesh Premier League. That came two months after he made his West Indies debut, against Pakistan in the UAE.On paper, these T20 appearances would seem to be natural progressions for someone who first rose to prominence on the international scene in February 2014. Before Carlos Brathwaite was designated as the man whose name would be remembered, it was Pooran who was on the tip of West Indian tongues, earmarked as one for the future when he took on an Australia Under-19 bowling attack in Dubai – one that had attempted to turn the rest of the West Indies Under-19 batting card into binary code on the way to making the score 70 for 8 – and struck a marvellous 143.However, T20 riches were the furthest thing from Pooran’s mind two years ago as he lay in a hospital bed in Couva, Trinidad, wondering if he’d even walk again, let alone play cricket.

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January 6, 2015. Trinidad & Tobago’s training session at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain has just let out. There is a buzz around newcomer Pooran, the 19-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman who has been serving as an understudy to Denesh Ramdin. With Ramdin touring South Africa as part of the West Indies squad, it means there may be more opportunities for Pooran to build on his superlative performance a year earlier at the Under-19 World Cup in the UAE.

Before Carlos Brathwaite was designated as the man whose name would be remembered, it was Pooran who was on the tip of West Indian tongues

But fate has decided that his season is about to end before it even begins, and possibly his career too.”I was coming back home from training, driving,” Pooran recalls. “I was close to home and a car was overtaking another car, so I pulled away. I hit a sand heap and then I came back onto the road and another vehicle hit me.”I was knocked out and then I couldn’t remember what happened. I just woke up at the accident and I was like, ‘How did this happen?’ I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that this happened. I was taken in an ambulance, couldn’t move my legs.”My left patellar tendon had ruptured and I had a fractured right ankle. I couldn’t straighten my leg,” Pooran says, pointing to the scars. “At first, I didn’t really know what happened. I wasn’t too sure. People kept telling me, ‘Move your toes, move your toes!’ I knew I couldn’t move my knee, so I knew something’s definitely wrong.”The first thing I asked the doctors was if I could play cricket again,” he says, letting out a long sigh, before staring straight ahead into no man’s land. “At first they weren’t too sure until they did the surgery. The doctors did what they had to do and did a perfect surgery, Dr Ali and his staff. They did a wonderful surgery. Everything, thank God, everything came back to normal.”Following his exploits at Under-19 level, Pooran had been slated for great things•ICCHe had two surgeries, in fact. The first was less than 24 hours after the accident, to repair the left patellar tendon. The second, on his right leg to repair the ankle fracture, had to wait another week, till after the swelling from the injury subsided. The surgeries, though, were a minor detail in the process to figure out the answer to the question Pooran had put to his doctors.”It was up to therapy now to determine if I would play cricket again.”

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The first day of therapy was only a few weeks after Trinidad & Tobago had won the Nagico Super50, defeating Guyana in the final. For the first four months, only the smallest gains were made, because Pooran was in a wheelchair the majority of the time. The surgery on both legs forced recovery to move at a snail’s pace.”I tried to sleep as long as possible,” Pooran says, admitting it was hard not to be depressed at times. “If I sleep late, the day will be short. Basically I’d get up and watch TV, read some books, play on my phone. There wasn’t much I could do. When I started therapy, I went every day, so then my day would be therapy, then back home.”Therapy is tough, therapy is boring. Every single day I’d just wake up and think, ‘Ugh, therapy again?’ Sometimes I’d think, ‘When will I start to walk again properly? When will I run properly?'”

“The first thing I asked the doctors was if I could play cricket again. At first they weren’t too sure”

It took Pooran until July, six months after the accident, before he could walk without assistance. He started therapy with 90-minute sessions three times a week, but by this stage it had grown to two hours a day, six days a week. Large chunks of time were often spent attempting to do the most mundane tasks.”Cricket was what he had going for him and what he’s been working on his whole life, and he felt that was the end of everything,” says Dr Oba Gulston, the Barbados Tridents physiotherapist, formerly with Trinidad & Tobago, when recounting Pooran’s rehab transformation.”It took a while. We did a lot of work with him, gave him some time, just kept encouraging him and helping him to believe. We celebrated every landmark, every achievement, because often times when you’ve been very high-functional, you don’t look at starting to walk as a big deal, going up steps for the first time, the first time he was able to do a squat again with assistance – the fact that we had the range of motion in the knees to do it was a big thing because he didn’t have that initially.”By August 2015, Pooran began jogging again, and in September he had his first net session. His rehab had been ramped up to four hours a day. At the turn of the year his physical-therapy workload was near pedal to the metal: eight hours daily, spread across three sessions, split between wicketkeeping coach David Williams in the morning, Dr Gulston in the middle of the day, and rounded off by a training session at Queen’s Park Oval.Dr Gulston was there to push him physically, but often pushing him in spirit was Kieron Pollard. The allrounder was going through an injury ordeal of his own after damaging his right knee while playing for Cape Cobras in South Africa’s domestic Ram Slam T20. It caused him to miss West Indies’ ride to the 2016 World T20 title and the early part of IPL 2016.Pollard was a constant supportive presence during Pooran’s long months of rehab•WICBPollard had already gone through a prior ordeal with a knee injury that forced him to sit out six months from 2013 into 2014. With that experience under his belt, Pollard served as a rehab mentor to Pooran. When Gulston wasn’t working with both of them in person, the three kept in constant contact over WhatsApp.”Polly would share some of his experiences and he would challenge [Pooran],” Gulston said. “They would make bets about doing different things and running different times. If Nicholas did certain exercises, Pollard would ask, ‘What did you do today?’ and I would have to take videos of it and send it to the group so Pollard, who was at the IPL, would see Nicholas doing stuff. Sometimes there would be a hundred messages popping up on the group, and it would just be the two of them going back and forth.”As positive as the bond he forged with Pollard was, Pooran faced a different set of hurdles with the Trindad & Tobago Cricket Board. His doctors felt the best way for him to truly recover full range of motion, speed and match fitness was to play, though he was still not 100%. The TTCB wouldn’t select him until he received full medical clearance. A stalemate ensued.Pooran says he aired his thoughts to T&T assistant coach Kelvin Williams. He trusted Williams, who had coached him coming up through Under-19 cricket. A mutual decision was then made for Pooran to leave the Trinidad & Tobago set-up, and instead he sought opportunities in club cricket with Queen’s Park CC. He found a key ally in then West Indies coach Phil Simmons.

“Therapy is tough, therapy is boring. Every single day I’d just wake up and think, ‘Ugh, therapy again?'”

“He met me for the first time and he asked me why I couldn’t make this team,” Pooran says of a crucial encounter with Simmons. “I explained to him [what had happened with the TTCB]. So he was there and he told me in front of Kelvin Williams, ‘Hey Pooran, this is what I want from you. Everything that has happened, it’s gone. Leave it. I want you to focus on CPL, not focusing on batting or keeping. Focus on getting fit and ready for CPL.'”

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At the CPL draft that February, Pollard’s Barbados Tridents took Pooran in the fourth round for US$90,000 – the same price Andre Russell fetched from Jamaica Tallawahs. It put Pooran in the top ten most expensive local players in the CPL, lofty status for someone whose last formal match at island level was in December 2014, and who was still rehabbing his way back from catastrophic leg injuries.”I think Pollard was the one who made that decision,” Pooran said. “It was a big call, especially being the captain of Barbados Tridents. He showed faith in me. He’s a person who believed in me and that was a big risk for him to take, to convince the CPL owners to buy me. I had some pressure heading into CPL. It was always in the back of my head, ‘What if I don’t do good?'”By the time Pooran’s first match with Tridents came around, it had been more than 18 months since his last first-class match. Fate determined that it would come against Trinbago Knight Riders at Queen’s Park Oval. He was so eager to prove he was fit again that a bit of anxiety almost weighed him down. “Before I went into that field, I asked God and Jesus to give me strength and courage,” he said.Entering at 95 for 4 in the 15th over chasing a target of 171, Pooran was scratchy in his first few deliveries, and was involved in a run-out with David Wiese, but before long he had found his timing. He locked onto Kevon Cooper in the 18th, stroking him for six, four, six off the first half of the over to bring the equation down to 37 off 15 before he ran himself out to finish with 33 off 12 balls.Pooran: “I had some pressure heading into CPL. It was always in the back of my head, ‘What if I don’t do good?'”•CPL/SportsfileThough the Knight Riders management is not tied to the TTCB, the venue provided extra fuel for Pooran that night, and for the rest of the season. “I wanted to show the cricket board that ‘Hey, I hope you can see now because I can play,'” Pooran said. “I guess this could answer all the questions now.”

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Pooran finished with 217 runs in eight innings at 27.12 for Tridents in 2016, including 81 off 39 balls in a Man-of-the-Match effort against St Lucia Zouks. Only AB de Villiers and Shoaib Malik scored more runs for Tridents, while Pooran’s 18 sixes in the league stage put him fourth on that list, behind only Chris Gayle, Chris Lynn and Johnson Charles.Pollard said that knowing what Pooran had gone through made him an inspiration for his team-mates. “I think he has been a revelation,” Pollard said during the Tridents tour of Florida to end the 2016 CPL season. “Coming back from what he actually came back from, struggling and not being able to get into the Trinidad & Tobago team in 50-overs or four-day cricket. He played an entire season for Queen’s Park. I thought there he did well. So he was looking forward to this tournament and he has shown what he can do.”This is T20 cricket, so you don’t expect a guy like that who bats and takes risks to be consistent. When he comes off, he wins games for you, and that’s exactly what he did for us in a couple games. It could only go up from there for him. It’s good to see that another youngster is coming out of hardship.”

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. Maybe getting into the accident was a blessing in disguise. I appreciate life more now”

More than the runs, Pooran said he was most proud of being able to keep wicket throughout the season. He was steadfast in his determination that the leg injuries would not limit his workload behind the stumps. Thin and wiry before his injuries, all the work in the gym during his rehab has made his legs into tree trunks and enhanced his batting strength. To further prove he is healthy not just to bat but to keep wicket, Pooran doesn’t wear a brace in the field on his surgically repaired left knee.”I want people to say, ‘Hey, Pooran had this major injury, major accident, we thought he would never keep again, never play again.’ I just want to be that person – people can say, look to him as a motivation, because obviously it was a really bad accident, and if I can come back from it, anyone can come back from anything.”On the back of his CPL performances, Pooran was picked for West Indies for the first time when they travelled to the UAE to play Pakistan last September. He finished the series with a modest 25 runs in three matches, as West Indies lost heavily in a 3-0 T20I series sweep. Not that the numbers mattered much to Pooran: simply being able to take the field for West Indies, at age 20, mind you, less than two years after waking up in a hospital bed fearing he’d never play again, was reward enough.”After all I went through, to get back where I am is a wonderful feeling,” he said, when describing the moment he received the news he had been selected. “I wanted to play for the West Indies by 21. So that was a big goal for me and a big achievement.”I really doubted it, especially getting back to full fitness. I really doubted it but I never give up on my dreams. Every day I keep working harder and harder. God makes everything possible, so all thanks and praise goes to him.”A great source of pride for Pooran was how he was able to go back to wicketkeeping after the leg injuries•WICB Media Photo/Philip SpoonerPooran’s 2016 season with Tridents under coach Robin Singh made an impression on the former India international, and the Singh-Pollard connection contributed to him being taken in the IPL auction by Mumbai Indians in February. Pooran also followed Singh to play for finalists City Kaitak in the Hong Kong T20 Blitz. During his time in Hong Kong, he was retained by Tridents in the 2017 CPL Draft.”I believe that everything happens for a reason,” Pooran says, his 18-month comeback journey from injury complete. “Maybe getting into the accident was a blessing in disguise. I appreciate life more now. I appreciate the life that I have and the talent that I have. I was blessed.”What I learned is that every single opportunity you get, you have to grab it. When I was down and out, all I was waiting for was an opportunity again. Every opportunity I get now, I want to take it with both hands now. I want to give my best, give 100% every time I enter that cricket field now, whether I have a bat or whenever I keep. There’s not one day I’ll go onto a cricket field and I’ll try to do less than I could. I finally got this opportunity after a year and a half and this time I’m not letting go.”