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They are now the Ireland of the second-rung Associate teams, and a lot of their progress has had to do with the man at the helm of their administration

Robert Forsaith16-Apr-2011″The Associate members could be a hell of a lot worse off.”This glass-half-full view is a refreshing change from all the recent expressions of regret, rancour and outrage over the ICC’s decision to trim the next World Cup to just the 10 Full Members.Bill Leane took up the post of Cricket Papua New Guinea (PNG) chief executive in May 2009, and has lifted cricket in PNG, both domestically and internationally. Leane, who describes himself as a realist, says that without the global rights and India doing well, and the TV income coming into the game, the Associate members could be in more of a pickle than they are. “Some of that money flows through to us.”It would be easy to accuse him of simply kowtowing to the ICC but he’s more visionary than that. One-day cricket has traditionally been the bread and butter of the minnows, but Leane is leading the charge to change the programme. Having witnessed Twenty20’s potential while working with the Australian Cricketers’ Association, he believes it is the way forward for the ICC’s Associate and Affiliate Members.”At the ICC AGM two years ago, PNG moved a motion with unanimous support from the 104 countries to increase the Twenty20 programme,” he says. “My dream is to see us follow suit with the world game and have a 32-country Twenty20 World Cup. Twenty20 cricket will be the vehicle for us to grow in the future.”The 2012 World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka will be a more global event than its 50-over equivalent in 2015. The 10 Full Members will be joined by six Associates, plucked from a 16-team qualifier event in the UAE next year. Qualification would be an almighty success for a nation with humble beginnings, but it’s certainly not out of the question for PNG.PNG was admitted to the ICC in 1973 and, discounting the two Test-playing nations to the south, has always been the undoubted powerhouse of Oceania. Cricket was added to the South Pacific Games (the region’s premier sporting event) in 1979 and PNG has won every gold medal contested in the discipline. They were notably dominant in the 2007 competition, walloping a total of 527 for 7 against New Caledonia. It remains the highest total in an international one-day match.More far-reaching international triumphs have proven hard to come by, though. Fixtures have traditionally been rare, although PNG competed gamely at the 1982 ICC Trophy, defeating Bangladesh in the third-place playoff. The talent and passion has always been there, it was just underdeveloped and underfunded.”For a long period of time, PNG’s cricketers have all come out of one village of 20,000 – Hanuabada, a fishing village in Port Moresby,” Leane says. “There have been some difficult circumstances over the years. I know in 2002 the Under-19 team went to the World Cup in New Zealand and arrived without equipment and uniforms.”Things have changed in the last couple of years, though. To suggest Leane’s arrival has been a fillip for Cricket PNG would be an understatement. It started with the successful headhunting of the former Australia fast bowler Andy Bichel as Cricket PNG’s director of coaching. Bichel’s management skills and cricket nous have helped trigger a sharp ascent up the ICC’s rankings. The Barramundis, as they are colloquially known, earned promotion to the World Cricket League (WCL) Division 2 with a second-place finish in the Division 3 tournament in January this year.

“Each year we bring in six to eight former Test cricketers and mix them with our best local talent in a televised event, the ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ Legends T20 Bash, and that’s starting to gain a lot of momentum. We’re also starting to get local government support”Bill Leane, Cricket PNG’s chief executive, on initiatives that have led to the development of cricket in the country

PNG then qualified for the ICC’s High Performance Programme with a sterling performance at the six-team Division 2 tournament in Dubai which ended this week. They needed a top-four finish, and ended up third on the points table, with two more victories than fourth-placed Hong Kong. The week included wins over former High Performance members Bermuda and Uganda. The latter was a dramatic one-run triumph, where PNG restricted their opponents to 185 for 9 when they were earlier 106 for 3 in the 26th over. This team has heart.The on-field success has been made possible due to some impressive off-field development and business acumen. In 2010 PNG ranked first among the ICC’s Associates and Affiliates in administration growth. Cricket PNG was well-recognised at the 2010 ICC Development Awards, taking the gongs for “best junior cricket initiative” and “best cricket promotion and marketing programme”.From being centred on Port Moresby, Cricket PNG now has a regional structure, with 10 regions around the country. “Each year we bring in six to eight former Test cricketers and mix them with our best local talent in a televised event, the ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ Legends T20 Bash, and that’s starting to gain a lot of momentum. We’re also starting to get local government support.”Commercial support is where Cricket PNG stands above its competitors. PNG was the only team at the recent WCL tournament to feature a sponsor’s logo on their playing kit. In official correspondence the side is known as the Hebou Barramundis. Roughly US$1.6 million has been raised from a series of non-conflicting sponsorships.The national airline, and Bichel’s links with Queensland Cricket have helped the team access the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, while Cricket PNG’s own patch, Amini Park, was recently overhauled. The nation’s first turf wickets were installed, and two cricket fields were converted into a five-ground facility.Amini Park is the centre of a diverse range of battles for Leane. Port Moresby regularly rates a mention in the Economist‘s rankings of the world’s worst cities to live in, with plenty of crime and many other social problems. Leane describes how it took about six months to clear the ground of about 50 squatters, some living as close as 20 metres from the Cricket PNG office.”What keeps you grounded is the fact you’re working in a sport with such great people,” Leane says. Some of those people just achieved extraordinary success in Dubai. The rewards will be mostly financial – more than US$350,000 of extra funding per year over the next two years – but there will also be recognition, not only for the side, but also for individual players.Raymond Haoda, one of PNG’s prized assets, arguably should have already received more acknowledgment than he has. In 2010, the young right-arm quick became the first player from a non-Test playing country to take the most wickets at an Under-19 World Cup.Australian state sides might be interested in drafting in Jack Vare, the PNG keeper•ICC/Cricket EuropePNG is bursting with raw talent, like Haoda, according to Greg Campbell, the former Australia bowler and uncle of Ricky Ponting. Campbell is PNG’s national operations manager and was head coach for the most recent WCL tournament, with Bichel presently biding his time as the Chennai Super Kings’ bowling coach in the IPL.”Our wicketkeeper, Jack Vare, was with the ACT Comets this season, and there have been a few little rumours that some of the [state] sides might be looking at him,” Campbell said. “Lega Siaka just missed out on the squad for Dubai, but he’s only 17 and has heaps of ability. We trained at the MCG before coming to Dubai, and a few of the Bushrangers came and had a look. They were already asking a few questions about him, but there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge; he has to be a bit more mature.”Australia’s domestic competition is the geographically sensible pathway for PNG cricketers, but once the youngsters play a fixture for the national side, they are classed as international players. Campbell is optimistic Cricket Australia will tweak the rule.For now, Campbell’s focus will be on the World Twenty20 global qualifier in the UAE. To reach that event, PNG must first win a regional tournament they are hosting in July, but a boilover is unthinkable after the side’s efforts in Dubai. The homecoming will be significant for the players. Most are locals and none are strangers to the land of the unexpected. It will be a great chance for Cricket PNG to advance its corporate cause, and it could well be the side’s first step in becoming cricket’s next Ireland.

When he made his impressive debut earlier this month, Brian Vitori looked like he came out of nowhere. His has been quite the journey, though

Firdose Moonda23-Aug-2011Twelve months ago Alan Butcher, the Zimbabwe national coach, was not sure who Brian Vitori was. And he could be forgiven for it. The left-arm seamer had, by any standards, had an ordinary domestic season, adequate but not explosive enough for Butcher to take notice.In nine first-class matches Vitori took 25 wickets at an average of 37.16. It put him tenth on the overall bowling rankings, behind the likes of Tendai Chatara and Keegan Meth, both of whom had claimed over 50 wickets in the season. Vitori’s List A record was slightly more authoritative, with nine wickets in five matches at an average of 19.55, and he finished third on the bowling charts.Still, it was hardly a sign that a few months later Vitori would break the world record for the most wickets taken by a bowler in his first two ODIs – which was just what he did, with 10 scalps from his first two matches, the icing on the cake of an international debut that began with five wickets in his first Test. In those first three outings it looked as though Vitori had arrived custom-made for international cricket. It hasn’t been all that straightforward, though”I started playing street cricket when I was eight, at primary school. And when I went to high school I just continued playing the game,” Vitori told ESPNcricinfo, but added that it probably wasn’t his first-choice sport. “I actually used to play rugby as well – I was a prop. And basketball. I was a big boy then, but I’ve lost a lot of weight now.”Cricket only became attractive when he was picked for the school’s first XI, and at the age of 15 for his provincial side, Masvingo. His first tournament was a three-match outing in the 2005-06 Faithwear Clothing 50-over competition, where he bowled 15 overs, took three wickets and conceded 36 runs. Economical but not hugely memorable.It was only when Zimbabwe started to emerge out of economic meltdown in 2009, and Vitori travelled with the national Under-19 team to Namibia, that a career in the game became a viable option. “From then on I really enjoyed playing, knowing that if you do well, you can tour, you can see places, and I started taking it seriously.”The coming of the franchise system coincided with Vitori’s new-found resoluteness, and he was contracted to the Southern Rocks, though he only played for their second XI until last season. While plugging away, he caught the attention of Allan Donald, who was coaching rival team the Mountaineers. Donald saw Vitori practise on his own in the nets and was impressed with his discipline and accuracy. “I wondered why he wasn’t playing in the first team,” Donald said.It was only when Monte Lynch, the former England and Surrey player, arrived and took a special interest in Vitori’s development that he started playing against people who would eventually be his national team-mates. Vitori started blossoming under the challenges and enjoyed being tested against the strongest talent in the country.Who did that list include?”Vusi [Sibanda] is a good player. He is really one guy who you know that once he is in he will play his shots, and it will be difficult to get back into the game,” Vitori said. “You have to be on the money from ball one, otherwise he will get on top of you. The same with Hamilton [Masakadza].” Both Sibanda and Masakadza have matured since they were rushed into the international game during the player walkout of 2004 and have performed well in the recent series against Bangladesh. For Vitori it was an important step in his growth to to have played against them.

“I want to play as much international cricket as possible against as many teams as possible, because they all have good batsmen. You can really see where you are as a player because they will test you and that’s how you mature”

Lynch recommended that Vitori be included in a national training camp where 32 players trained under Butcher’s watch in May this year before a squad was selected to play A sides from Australia and South Africa.When Butcher saw him it was obvious he would have to include him in the squad. “I knew we had found someone special, who could be good for Zimbabwe cricket going forward,” Butcher said. Vitori was managed carefully in the series, playing only one limited-overs match, against South Africa A, but both four-day matches against Australia A. He took five wickets in the first and two in the second, both of which Zimbabwe XI lost.He was one of the finds of the tour and made an impression on the visiting teams. Vincent Barnes, former South Africa bowling coach, now in charge of the High Performance Programme, who travelled with the A team, said Vitori struck a chord with Jacques Rudolph, who captained South Africa A. “He bowled to Jacques in the nets and Jacques said he was one of the better bowlers he faced. He was difficult to get away.” For Vitori, Rudolph was as much of a challenge. He named him as of one the batsmen he had to work hard to bowl to.The A series have been cited as one of the reasons for Zimbabwe’s recent good showing, because of the role they played in their preparation, and Vitori agreed the warm-ups helped. “We got to play against guys who really can turn things around, like David Warner, Callum Ferguson, Jacques Rudolph and Vaughn van Jaarsveld. They are good players – they really get in your face and test you,” he said.Then came Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe’s first taste of Test cricket in 71 months.Vitori was talked up as the secret weapon and hidden from Bangladesh in the warm-up game and the nets, and when they did get their first look at him, it was as though he petrified them. Even though he had seldom bowled to left-handers – and Bangladesh had four in the top six – Vitori found a way of moving the ball away from them with his unusual angle. And instead of moving the ball across the right-hander, he moved it in to them.The fun continued from the Test match into the one-day series, where, with Zimbabwe bowling first, Vitori was the chief reason they chased totals below 200.Just as it was starting to look all too easy for him, circumstances changed and Zimbabwe were made to defend in the third match. Vitori only got one wicket, but he bowled economically. He was able to show that he was not a one-trick pony and could be threatening in defence as well. “It was really about tying them down,” he said. “I wasn’t nervous, but there was a bit of pressure on me. I had to make sure I bowled dots or not give them a boundary.”His final over in that game was the 47th, with Bangladesh needing 31 runs off four overs with five wickets in hand. Mushfiqur Rahim, on 78, was in sublime touch. Vitori took a wicket with his last ball, becoming the catalyst of a collapse. “I really had to back myself to bowl the one over to give us a chance to get a wicket. It worked for us because the wicket got us back into the game.”Vitori is the first bowler to take 10 wickets in his first two ODIs•Zimbabwe CricketA shin niggle kept him out of last two ODIs in the series, but he should be fit by the time Pakistan visit for a full series. He expects to meet a sterner challenge and is looking forward to countering it.”I wouldn’t say international cricket is easy. You will always get tested as you play players in different situations. Each day is different and you have to do what’s [right for] the situation. There will be pressure. I’ve only played three games and I was really under pressure in the third.”With a dream introduction to the game, Vitori is on the cusp of a summer either of great achievement or slipping back to anonymity. He feels the only way to continue to succeed is by getting as much experience as he can.”I want to play as much international cricket as possible against as many teams as possible, because they all have good batsmen,” he said. “Bangladesh have Tamim [Iqbal], Australia have [Ricky] Ponting and David Warner, Sri Lanka have [Tillakaratne] Dilshan, South Africa have got Graeme Smith and [Hashim] Amla. You can really see where you are as a player because they will test you, and that’s how you mature.”In some ways it’s comforting to know that Vitori wasn’t found nestled in a cabbage patch on the outskirts of Masvingo, kitted out for an international career, because it means he understands the value of experience. He doesn’t see his journey as a relative unknown a year ago to the most talked-about player in Zimbabwe today as the culmination of something. He sees it as the beginning, which means he is planning to do much more in future.

Stats highlights from India’s convincing 50-run win in their first match of the Asia Cup

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan13-Mar-2012

• Kohli scored his tenth century in ODIs in just his 83rd match. It is also his second consecutive century against Sri Lanka after the match-winning 133 in India’s final league match in the tri-series in Australia. Kohli now has three centuries in matches in Mirpur, including one in the opening match of the 2011 World Cup against Bangladesh. Among batsmen with 3000-plus ODI runs, Kohli’s average of 48.42 is behind only those of Michael Bevan, MS Dhoni, AB de Villiers and Michael Hussey.
• Gambhir also scored his tenth ODI century and his first since his century against New Zealand in December 2010. Gambhir has been dismissed four times in the 90s including twice in consecutive matches in the recently concluded tri-series in Australia. The century was also Gambhir’s third in Mirpur and fifth against Sri Lanka. Only Sachin Tendulkar, Saeed Anwar and Adam Gilchrist have more centuries against Sri Lanka.
• Kohli and Gambhir added another century stand to their already impressive partnership record. Their partnership aggregate of 873 runs against Sri Lanka is now only 255 runs behind the all-time leading aggregate by a pair against Sri Lanka (Tendulkar-Sourav Ganguly with 1128 runs). The century stand for the second wicket is also India’s 70th for that wicket in ODIs. Only Australia have more second-wicket century stands (77) than India.
• The 205-run stand between Kohli and Gambhir was their third double-century partnership in ODIs. They now move level top with Tendulkar and Ganguly on the list of batting pairs with the most double-century stands in ODIs. It is the seventh 200-plus stand for India against Sri Lanka and the second for this pair against Sri Lanka.
• Sachin Tendulkar has now gone for more than one year in ODIs (12 ODIs) without a century. His last century came against South Africa in the World Cup game in Nagpur. In his last eight innings in ODIs, he has scored just 149 runs at 18.62. Overall (Tests and ODIs combined), his longest century-less streak was in 2007 (34 innings). Since last year, he has now gone 33 innings without a century.
• The 78-run stand between Dhoni and Suresh Raina was scored at a run-rate of 10.88. This partnership run-rate is the third-highest for India in ODIs against Sri Lanka for a fifty-plus partnership. The highest is 13.09 in the century stand between Kohli and Raina in the stunning chase in Hobart.
• India made their 68th 300-plus score in ODIs, the most by any team. However, their win-loss ratio of 4.58 in these matches is far behind that of the leader (Australia with 15.00). It is also their 15th 300-plus score against Sri Lanka and moves them level with Pakistan on the list of teams with the most such scores against a particular opponent. (Pakistan have 15 300-plus scores against India).
• The win is India’s 71st in ODIs against Sri Lanka. Only Australia (85 wins against New Zealand) and Pakistan (75 wins against Sri Lanka) have more wins against a particular team.
• Sangakkara’s half-century takes his tally of fifty-plus scores against India to 19. Only Sanath Jayasuriya, with 21 fifty-plus scores, is above Sangakkara on the list of batsmen with most such scores against India.
• Mahela Jayawardene’s strike rate of 132.20 is his third-highest for a fifty-plus score and his highest for such a score in ODIs against India.
• Mirpur has hosted 31 ODIs since the beginning of 2010. Harare and Dambulla are next, having hosted 14 matches each in the same period.

Cricket Without Boundaries is a UK initiative that takes cricket, and a message of AIDS awareness, to an entire continent

Firdose Moonda15-May-2012Ed Williams, Andy Hobbs and Chris Kangis spent seven months in as many African countries, taught over 3000 children to play cricket, and trained 175 others to become coaches. They carried kit from Kenya to Namibia, via Tanzania and Zambia, on a two-day train journey. They stayed everywhere from seedy hotels to the home of a one-legged British Defence attaché. They played football on a beach in Malawi, taught in schools in Zimbabwe, became better acquainted with the terrain of Africa than most people who live on the continent, and then had an experience that would become Williams’ most treasured memory.In a slum in one of Kenya’s industrial towns, Thika, they met a group of young girls in the final stages of AIDS. One of them, Eva, was too frail to get out of bed and rarely played with the other children. The day Williams met her, she was able to join in, and not only did she take part in the match, Eva also hit the winning runs. “That image has been on the homepage of my phone for the last six years,” Williams says.Travelling into the heart of Africa had been in Williams’ plans since he was 15 years old. “I wanted to do a Cairo to Cape Town trip ever since I watched former Monty Python Michael Palin do it in his television show.”Playing cricket and teaching others to play it was also part of his plans. “My passion for cricket comes from a lifetime of playing it and later coaching it,” Williams, who describes himself as a pretty average schoolboy cricketer who went on to play village cricket in Sussex and eventually for a University team, says. “I love the way in which cricket forces teams to work together in more subtle and personally interactive ways than say rugby.”In Hobbs, Williams met someone whose plans seemed similar to his own. The pair played for the same University of Nottingham team, and both played league cricket. Together they discussed growing the game, having a positive social impact, and seeking out an adventure. Africa was the ideal place to do all three.They found work in Zimbabwe, coaching cricket and teaching at two schools, but something did not feel quite right. “It was fun but a very private school, and we were not exactly making a difference,” Williams said. It was while playing football in a local village game on the shores of Malawi that they made up their minds to focus on those with lesser opportunities.Noble as that intention was, it would take an inordinate amount of planning to make it a reality. Both had professions to get back to in the United Kingdom. Williams was a barrister, and Hobbs worked for the ECB in Berkshire. Kangis, a corporate lawyer friend of theirs, turned out to be keen on their idea.It was during that phase that they discovered how unavoidable the problem of HIV/AIDS was. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most infected region in the world, with an estimated 22.9 million people carrying the virus – nearly equal to the population of Mozambique. The three decided that AIDS awareness was going to have to be part of their message.Williams and Kangis had to quit their jobs to go on the first trip, in 2006, a sacrifice they decided was worth it. They called their mission Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB) and in a symbolic gesture, set off from Lord’s. It would be a journey Williams calls the biggest adventure of his life and “probably one of the things I am most proud of”.

“My favourite country was Uganda. It was like Sussex but with no one cutting the lawns, and lots more banana trees. They are mighty impressive at cricket too, with a really strong development angle, particularly with girls”Ed Williams, co-founder of Cricket Without Boundaries

Egypt and South Africa would be among the seven countries they visited. They donated equipment, which CWB had flown out to them at various stages of their trip, in four countries, Egypt, Uganda, Kenya and Namibia. “In addition to bags of kit, we carried the rest of our stuff in a backpack. So we had lots of long bus journeys with far too much stuff,” Williams remembers.He recalls using means of transport they would normally have avoided as too precarious, and staying in some “pretty awful” places. But what far outweighs all of that is the thought of what they achieved. “We genuinely did what we set out to do,” Williams says.”My favourite country was Uganda. It was like Sussex but with no one cutting the lawns, and lots more banana trees. Perhaps it was because English was their main language, but I fell in love with the place and the people. They are mighty impressive at cricket too, with a really strong development angle, particularly with girls.” Uganda has proved Williams right recently, with impressive showings in events such as the World T20 qualifiers and World Cricket League tournaments.In their short time in Africa, the three men built what they consider the platform for a legacy. Although real life summoned them once they reached the United Kingdom, they did not want to let CWB disappear. The organisation expanded to become a full-fledged charity.CWB goes on four visits to Africa a year, taking volunteers along. People interested in making the trip are interviewed (for five years some of these interviews took place at The Oval, but they had to move to the BBC World Service headquarters this year because of costs) and have to fund their own trips. First-time volunteers raise £750 to cover the cost of the project, and also pay for their flights. Returning volunteers pay £500 but only travel for a week. The money is used for equipment, transport and accommodation on the tour.Each mission consists of at least eight people, who spend two weeks on tour. Once in a country, the plan is two-fold. Cricket coaching – the group includes an ECB Level 3 tutor – is done in co-ordination with the country’s cricket association, and if possible the national team, such as in Rwanda. Along with teaching children how to play the game, CWB also trains adults to become coaches, a qualification that is endorsed by the ICC. The hope is that the coaches will be able to continue growing cricket in the country once CWB leaves.”Our core is to use cricket as an enabler,” Dave Terrace, a CWB volunteer, says. In addition, the sport facilitates the campaign for AIDS awareness. “We teach the ABC: Abstain, Be faithful, use a Condom. There are also other messages like knowing your status and inclusiveness [boys and girls playing together] that we use,” Terrace says.Cricket Without Boundaries with kids in Rwanda•Cricket without BoundariesCWB are aware that most of the countries they visit will never play cricket at the highest level, but they are content simply spreading the game and waiting for success. “The goal is to have at least one national team player in each of our partner countries to have been through a CWB programme as a coach or player,” Terrace says. So far, CWB has coached 35,000 children on the continent and trained 2000 coaches.Williams, Hobbs and Kangis still oversee the activities of CWB and lend a hand in between. For Williams, the best reward has already been bestowed upon them. A year after they returned from their African adventure, the British High Commission visited Thika. They found a few children playing cricket, including one who Williams had hoped would still be there.”They sent me a picture of a smiling, much chubbier little girl who was Eva,” Williams said. “I am not sure if she is still alive but we understood she got anti-retrovirals shortly after playing cricket with us on that day. We like to think we helped her get better in some small way by giving her the incentive to get out of bed and come and play.”

For some teams the Champions League T20 will be a case of blink-and-you-miss-it but, as expected, those sides needing to qualifying were not about to start moaning

Firdose Moonda07-Oct-2012Cricket has found a lot of ways to make itself shorter. The bowl-out, the super-over, the seven-over match if it rains in a 20-over one and now the three-day tournament.Between Tuesday and Thursday, six teams will play six matches at two different venues on South Africa’s Highveld. At the end, nobody wins anything. Two of them will earn the right to play in the Champions League T20, a tournament so obviously skewed in favour of the three shareholding countries that its actual name as a competition for champions is questionable. It’s more of a tournament for some champions, some runners-up and some IPL mid-tablers – who do not have to go through the same qualification stage winners of other countries’ competitions do.Rather like Zimbabwe’s participation at the World Twenty20, some domestic 20-over trophy-holders will have made their last appearance in the tournament before others even arrive in South Africa. Such is the nature of an event that guarantees some teams a place but requires others to qualify for it.Luckily for the organisers, the people who should take issue with the format of the tournament do not seem to have too much of a problem with it. There was not one complaint to be heard from any of the four teams who addressed the media on Sunday. Sialkot Stallions and Uva Next were absent – they will have their arrival press conferences on Monday – but are unlikely to raise any fuss either.After all, Sialkot are the first Pakistan side to take part in the CLT20 and Uva Next are making their debut, hoping to fare better than Wayamba and Ruhuna before them. Yorkshire and Hampshire have not played in the tournament before and could be enjoying the novelty of the occasion while Auckland and Trinidad and Tobago have been here before and seem happy enough to be back.Not that they actually can say any different, of course. They already get the short end of the stick by having to qualify while the shareholders’ teams go straight through and moaning may see them end up with nothing at all. The cynic would think the teams are just toeing the line but anyone who spends time with them will be able to see the genuine interest and excitement at the chance to compete in a tournament that many of them as see as only one shade away from international cricket.”We are tremendously excited to be here. We know there are challenges, but they are nice challenges,” Paul Strang, the coach of Auckland, said. For the New Zealanders, there are eyes to catch – national and IPL selectors and even if they only have two matches in which to do that, they’ll take it.Instead of mull over the unfairness, both Auckland and T&T know what they have to do. The former is determined to get it right, after failing last year. “We’ve understood that that’s how it is, that’s how it’s been set up. And we’ve been living with that fact for the last nine months,” Gareth Hopkins, the Auckland captain, said. The latter have done it before and coach David Williams sees no reason why they cannot do it again. “We’re in good stead, we’ve played a lot of T20 cricket in the lead up to this,” he said.And, in keeping with the theme of avoiding controversy, Williams also flat-batted questions about T&T’s last-minute issues which nearly led to them not arriving. “We’re not aware of anything, as far as we are concerned, we’re all in South Africa,” he said.

For many of us this is potentially the highest standard we will reachJimmy Adams is eager to sample the big stage

The English sides have a different sense of the realities of qualifying. None of the counties will have the chance to play in the tournament next year after the ECB decided that their teams will not participate in the 2013 CLT20 because of too much of an overlap with their season. Knowing that this could be one of their only chances to shine in this tournament is spurring both on.”That’s a shame for us. We’re here and we’re going to try and make the most of it,” Dimitri Mascarenhas, the Hampshire captain said. “You never know when these things are going to come around again so we want to give ourselves a huge chance to do well.”Despite Mascarenhas’ enthusiasm for the tournament, he was also the only person who hinted that the current format could have consequences for the future of the tournament. He said the issue of qualifying could be “one of the reasons the ECB has decided we won’t be in it next year.”Other boards may agree, although the opportunities may outweigh the disadvantages as Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie explained. “You just have to ask any of our players, they are very excited to play in a tournament like this,” he said. “In an ideal world, it would be fantastic to have English county sides involved and we’d love to be in a position to play CLT20 again, although at this stage, it looks like it’s unlikely.”For many the chance to play against cricketers from other countries and to have television cameras beaming that image all over the world is a dream come true. “For many of us this is potentially the highest standard we will reach,” Jimmy Adams, Hampshire’s opening batsman, said. “It’s a chance to test yourself against the best and trying to push your career.”The real gains can probably only come in the tournament proper, where the likes of Kieron Pollard and Davy Jacobs earned themselves IPL deals and caught the attention of their national selectors. But the only way for some teams to get into the tournament is to qualify. Even though popular sentiment is that they should have already done that by winning their home competition, these teams don’t seem to mind a bit of extra work to get there.

My first-class average is 63.35. I have travelled a lot with the Indian team. When openers fail, I am not picked; when middle order fails, I am still not picked. I wonder if I am good enough for this beast called Test cricket

Sidharth Monga14-Dec-2012Hello. My name is Ajinkya Rahane. I made my first-class debut as an opener in September 2007, in the Mohammad Nissar Trophy, which used to be played between Ranji champions and Quaid-e-Azam champions. I scored 143 in that match. In the coming season, Wasim Jaffer was dropped from the Test side, and he came back to Mumbai as an opener. So I moved down to No. 3. I might have scored a duck in my first first-class innings as a No. 3, but I ended that domestic season with an average of 56.50.Since then, if you take out one disappointing tour of the West Indies, with the India A side, I have never averaged below 56.85 in any first-class season. My overall first-class average is 63.35, and only 37.34 in List A. Accordingly, I was picked for the side that the touring Australians played against before the Tests in 2010-11. I was only 22 then. I scored a century in that first-class game, but lost out to Cheteshwar Pujara as replacement for Sourav Ganguly, who, too, had been scoring heavily in domestic cricket.I went back to Ranji and kept scoring runs, batting anywhere in the top three. I thought that gave me a better chance of making it to the Test side, because I could now play both as an opener and in the middle order. I was prepared to wait. After all we had three greats in the middle order and two settled openers. Then I saw the openers take rest. I saw the replacements fail. I saw the original openers come back and fail. My chance, though, came in ODIs, despite my averages in domestic cricket suggesting my stronger suit was not the limited-overs game.I was not one to complain. I made the most of my ODI debut, which came thanks to a glut of injuries to first-choice players. I made decent runs in that ODI series. Some even said I was one of the few bright spots on a tour of England where we lost practically everything. Now the middle order was failing too. I knew my chance in Tests couldn’t be that far away. Pujara was injured, Suresh Raina had failed. For the home Tests against West Indies that season, India went back to Virat Kohli. He is a serious batsman, and I didn’t see anything wrong in giving him more chances.Then came the tour of Australia, and I and my team-mate from Mumbai, Rohit Sharma, were both on that plane. He was a back-up middle-order batsman, I could fit in anywhere in the order should the need arise. We had both travelled a bit with the squad without getting our debuts. He too had a much better first-class average than List A, but had been persisted with only in limited-overs cricket.Still we were excited to come to Australia. It soon turned sour. Throughout the tour we saw the openers and the middle order fail with remarkable consistency – except for Kohli – but we never got our chance. Sometimes, especially a day before the Test, we would go to a corner in the nets, and give each other throwdowns. I can’t reveal here what the team’s reasons for persisting with failing batsmen were, but I read in some newspapers and websites that the selectors were wondering just the same. The captain and coach, though, reportedly said they were waiting for the selectors to make the tough calls.Anyway, the tour got over, I came back to India, and scored a hundred in IPL, which surprisingly made far more people ask why I was not being picked. I wished I had known earlier that it was so easy. Either side of that IPL, two of the greatest Indian batsmen ever – Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman – retired.Two places opened. Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane in, right? Wrong. Rohit was dropped for his poor run in the one-day game, which, at least statistically, is not his preferred format. Me, I lost out to Raina, who was now getting a third bite at the cherry. He failed again. The other place went to Pujara, who had recovered from his injury. He duly claimed it.Still, there were eight home Tests remaining. Raina had failed, and I was expecting a debut against England in Ahmedabad. Enter Yuvraj Singh, who had recovered from his illness and had scored a double-century in Duleep Trophy. As soon as he was named in the squad, I was sure I won’t play the first Test. He is a left-arm spinner too, and they say Kevin Pietersen is suspect against them.Now a new season began with me not knowing where and for whom I will be playing. One day I am playing for India A against the touring Englishmen, the next I am playing Ranji Trophy for Mumbai, and in the next week I am carrying drinks for India. The Indian batting meanwhile keeps failing after the aberration in Ahmedabad. Calls for change are big as India trail 2-1. Now even Yuvraj has failed and has been dropped.Surely now I will play in Nagpur? I had another think coming. Ravindra Jadeja has scored two triple-centuries in Ranji Trophy, which I can’t do because I don’t even know when I will be released to play Ranji and when I will be asked to be the 12th man. Jadeja bowls left-arm spin too. I am confused, though. When openers fail, I am not picked; when middle order fails, I am still not picked. I wonder if I am good enough for this beast called Test cricket.Okay, I think, triple-centuries are not a joke. Let’s see how Jadeja does. As a bowler he is steady, but India have three other specialist spinners in the side. On day two, Indian batting fails again. They are 71 for 4. Now that’s a debut, I think. But enter the captain at No. 6. Oh well.

Some things the cricketing planet has learnt from the two Tests in Antigua, and other events of the past week or so

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013

1. The 2007 World Cup has not finished with cricket yet. It was, on many levels, perhaps the most disappointing sporting tournament since some very hungry lions ate all the Christians on day one of a scheduled 4-week festival of gladiator eating during the later stages of the Roman empire. The idiotic scenes at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium proved that it retains the capacity to disappoint even two years after it spluttered into its barely merited place in some extremely unimpressed history books.Building a cricket stadium without a useable cricket pitch anywhere in it, despite prior warnings not to build a cricket stadium there, displayed a similar level of crass-headed ineptitude as opening a restaurant and then shooting anyone who asked to see the menu, or constructing the world’s most advanced chemistry lab and staffing it with ill crocodiles.2. Confidence is everything. This was proved by:(a) England’s openers. In Jamaica, neither Andrew Strauss nor Alastair Cook showed many discernible signs of ever having held a bat or strapped on pads. However, suffused with inner belief after batting through an entire Test Match at the Sir Viv Stadium, they attacked the game at the ARG with purpose. When you see Strauss spank an off-drive for four early in his innings, you know that one of three things has happened: 1. You are watching a recording from 2004 or 2005; 2. You have taken a blow to the head and need to seek medical assistance; or 3. He is in prime form. Fortunately for England, it was the last of these.(b) Allen Stanford. If you have the bare-faced balls to pitch up at Lord’s in a helicopter, you can get away with anything. For a while. Even if it’s not your helicopter.3. Andrew Strauss reads The Confectionery Stall. The skipper quite clearly marched to the crease with a print-out of this pre-match statistical bleat about England’s failure to score big hundreds wedged inside his jockstrap. He kept it there until he had 169 to his name. Point proved, he then wrung it out and mailed it back to Confectionery Stall head-quarters with a little note saying: “Satisfied? When did you last score a Test 150?” To which the Confectionery Stall will respond: “Never. Yet. But also I have never chucked it away straight after reaching my century in a Test match. So, let’s call it one-all.”

4. Playing cricket against West Indies is like the Soviet Empire – not as terrifying as it used to be. England have faced 184 overs of spin in two Tests this series. That is, according to the Great Omniscient Lord Statsguru, only 48 fewer overs of tweaky stuff than they received from the West Indies during the entire decade of the 1980s. And bear in mind that many of those overs were bowled either to allow the bloodstains on the batting crease to dry out, or to prolong the England innings to give Greenidge and Haynes more of a rest before having to bat again.5. The location of all Test matches should henceforth be kept secret until two days before the start of play. The ARG, usually the spiritual home of the run-glut, gave cricket a good game with a thrilling conclusion at less than 48 hours’ notice. The Sir Viv Stadium embarrassed a sport, a nation and a cricketing great after a nine-month gestation period in which, far from giving birth to a beautiful bouncing Test wicket, it pulled a bag of sand from under its shirt and said, “Sorry, I was never really pregnant. Someone should have looked at the six-month scan. It was quite clearly just a bag of sand.”Furthermore, the wicket for the Karachi Test produced an almost entirely pointless match, 100 runs per wicket until Sri Lanka got bored on the last afternoon and tried to lose the game for a laugh. It was almost as if some shady conspiracy was at work to discredit Test cricket and remind cricket fans quite how tedious a five-day game on a meaninglessly dull pitch can be – while Virender Sehwag was blasting his first three balls into the stratosphere in a Twenty20 international. Very suspicious. No-notice Test matches will put an end to such subterfuge.6. There is a clause in the England team’s central contracts that allows all brains to be disengaged within 20 minutes of the close of play. This is the only logical explanation for the ritualistic sending in Jimmy Anderson as night watchman on day three. It was an entirely thoughtless decision, if one can indeed describe as a “decision” something cannot possibly have been done with even a semblance of a decision-making process.England, in a position of zero vulnerability, had no need to protect themselves. However, they evidently thought that they would be better safe than safe. Even having taken this ludicrously conservative step, to send in Anderson illustrated a total lack of cranial activity in the dressing room.If they wanted to protect the front-line batsmen, why not send in Swann or Broad, decent batters and clean hitters with the capacity to attack, or even Harmison, who can give the ball a merry clubbing when the stars are in the correct alignment and who has a sound enough defence to take good stab at blocking out three overs from a partially-interested bowling attack? Anderson’s long but unproductive time at the crease, with a less-than-melodious Cook at the other end, meant that the real batsmen then batted in too much of a hurry.It might seem a relatively insignificant matter, but it is probable that it cost England the game. In all, it betrayed a team severely lacking confidence in its own ability with bat and ball, and equally severely lacking in flexibility of thought. I know it’s only a game and I’m 34 with better things to worry about and children to feed, but it really annoyed me.

7. The cricket world knows that it still doesn’t know whether it is worth England’s while persevering with Steve Harmison. He bowled well enough through his sickness in Antigua, without showing conclusively whether he is (a) still a potential thoroughbred, (b) an occasional horse-for-a-specifically-bouncy-course, or (c) ripe for retirement to the ECB’s fast bowling stud farm at Old Trafford, to be bred with a special egg containing Harold Larwood’s DNA.Harmison now possesses a frankly Mohammed-Sami-esque set of statistics dating back two-and-a-half years. From his breakthrough second innings 4-33 against South Africa at The Oval in 2003, to his 11-76 against Pakistan at an alarmingly springy Old Trafford in 2006, he took 146 wickets at 25. Since then, he has pocketed just 47 scalps in 18 Tests at an average of 46, albeit that he has occasionally chipped in with some useful runs. So which Harmison will emerge in Barbados? The bone-jarring destroyer, or the new Derek Pringle?England urgently need a strike bowler – in their past eight full Tests, they have twice comfortably failed to defend sizeable fourth innings targets, and twice failed to bowl themselves to victory on the back of a vast first innings lead. (Since the end of the 2005 Ashes, 50 bowlers in world cricket have taken 30 or more Test wickets. Of these, only one of the 26 with the best strike-rates is English – Sidebottom, at 17th.) They also urgently need to decide whether that strike bowler will ever again be Harmison.

At a time when Indians are lamenting the weak running and the lack of frequency in rotating the strike, the importance of Kapil’s phenomenal ability in these two facets of batting cannot be forgotten

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013

This is one of the more difficult essays we have attempted. So much has been said and written about Kapil Dev that the reader might well skip this piece, saying, ‘oh we have heard and read it all before’. But we are going to discuss a couple of facets of Kapil Dev’s wondrous abilities that have not received adequate attention. So bear with us, while we unfold the story and we hope it is worth your time.Whenever Kapil is mentioned, Indians usually recall two images. One is that of Kapil sprinting back many yards, that summer evening at Lords, to take the most important catch in India’s cricket history. The other is that of Kapil, 1000 watt smile, holding aloft the World Cup and his endearingly inept attempt to open and spray the champagne. If you prod some more, other images will follow, of this great spell of bowling or that fantastic innings or those four sixes in an over from Eddie Hemmings and so on. This story hopes to jog other memories of Kapil in readers’ minds.The two facets of Kapil’s genius (the only time we will use the word in this essay) we will discuss here pertain to batting. The first of these is the ability to rotate the strike. Kapil, in this aspect of batting, was not simply marvelous but on a pedestal of his own. Kapil, to many readers, will conjure up images of big hits for six or booming drives for fours. This is not illusory because Kapil had an awesome strike rate of 95.1 in ODIs, which meant he certainly biffed them a long way. But hidden or lost behind such imagery is the Kapil who hardly took a minute to settle down and before you knew it had already pushed along with a single here and a couple there, with not a sniff of violence. Why was Kapil so uncannily good at this? Quite simply because he had an innate sense of timing and a god-given gift for placement. Rarely would he push the ball straight to the fielder. It was always a few yards to the left, right or short of the fielder. He was able to do this because he was technically sound and never was this more evident than when he drove the ball. This ability of his to rotate strike was there for all of us to see in both Test cricket and ODIs. Was he really that good? Do the figures support our fulsome praise? You bet they do!In ODIs Kapil faced 3979 balls to score 3783 runs for that strike rate of 95.1. Of these hit 291 balls for fours and 67 for sixes. If you remove these 358 deliveries he dispatched for fours and sixes, you will find he scored the remaining 2217 runs of 3621 balls. In other words, he ticked along at a strike rate of 61.2 even of those balls which had not gone for a four or a six. Such rotating strike rate ensured there were fewer dot balls; the score board kept moving and he turned over the strike regularly to his partner. In fact, he was peerless at this facet of the game and we say this after studying similar statistics for the other three allrounders of his time: Ian Botham, Imran Khan and Richard Hadlee; the best one-day batsmen and finishers of his time: Dean Jones, Javed Miandad and Viv Richards; and the best finishers of modern times: Michael Bevan, MichaelHussey, and MS Dhoni. Just for a lark, we also compared Kapil’s rotating strike rate with Adam Gilchrist and Virender Sehwag, and it betters both. The nearest to Kapil in this respect are Hussey, Bevan and Dhoni who are accustomed to batting at the death and finish well. Interested readers could perhaps extend this by comparing the rotating strike rates of great batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and others and in case anyone exceeds 61.2, we will be very interested!The other facet of Kapil’s batting acumen that has somehow escaped attention has been his running between wickets, a feature of the game best appreciated sitting at the ground than watching on TV. The two of us have had the pleasure of watching Kapil Dev’s Test hundreds in Chennai against Australia and West Indies. Kapil always had so much time even for the sharpest single that we cannot recall him having to do anything desperate. Alive and alert to the single, he would simply lope across with a big grin on his face. What was particularly laudable was he did that in a team where only Azhar had acquired the reputation of being a sprinter between the ends. Kapil would make the laid back Dilip Vengsarkar and Sandeep Patil run with him, both for his shots as well as theirs. Kapil would twirl his bat at the end of the run; Vengarsarkar would lean on his bat to catch his breath. And yet Kapil’s judgement of a run was so good that one cannot recall a run out. Judging a run was something innate; something completely natural to him. How good was he? In a word, sensational. In 184 Test innings Kapil was not run out even once. It is a track record that obviously cannot be bettered! We would like to go out on a limb and state he would have been involved in very few run outs of his partners too. In ODIs, Kapil was run out ten times in 221 innings. On this parameter he is behind Gilchrist, Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee and Richards but ahead of the other batsmen we have compared him with.Kapil was ahead of his time. He added so much more value to his superb hitting through his running between wickets and rotating the strike. His strike rate of 95.1 of course stands the test of time – with only the likes of Shahid Afridi, Sehwag and Gilchrist ahead of him. His rotating strike rate is superior to all even today. At a time when Indians are lamenting the weak running and the lack of frequency in rotating the strike, the importance of Kapil’s phenomenal ability in these two facets of batting cannot be forgotten.We end with this precious nugget: Kapil Dev never missed a Test because of injury or fitness reasons in a career that spanned 131 tests spread over 16 years. It is another facet of his career – this amazing fitness for a fast bowler – where he towers over his contemporaries as well as present-day pace bowlers. We leave you with some ODI figures to mull over.

Yorkshire have a new man at the helm and he is quickly confronting the challenges of hosting international cricket, but knows the club also has to help itself

David Hopps at Headingley24-May-2013Yorkshire’s new chief executive, Mark Arthur, less than a month into the job, has dared to voice the fears of cricket in the north of England by warning the ECB that they must resist all temptation to maximise revenue by concentrating all their most prestigious international cricket in the south-east for short-term economic gain.Arthur also dared to suggest that the growing number of international grounds had reached “unsustainable” levels. There are 10 international grounds in England and Wales while Somerset have been granted approval to achieve the specifications necessary to become an eleventh.It can safely be assumed that the opinions of his chairman, Colin Graves, recently elected as vice chairman of the ECB, are in sync. It might also be that any Somerset application would come under fierce examination from northern counties down the line.”Eleven international grounds is unsustainable in my opinion,” Arthur said. “There is a finite amount of international cricket and to spread it amongst 11 international grounds and expect all those 11 grounds to be at the same level as top international grounds around the world – it doesn’t work does it?”What are we all after? A sustainable game of cricket at club, county and international level. We all have to work together for that balance.”Arthur, a former chief executive at Nottinghamshire and at Nottingham Forest, insisted that a geographical balance should also be part of the ECB’s assessment of how to allocate matches, so ensuring that cricket remained a truly national game to the long-term benefit of the game as a whole and the England team.”One of the best things that happened to football was the reconstruction of Wembley because England took their games around the country,” he said. “For a period of time, people were able to watch England from various parts of the country.”One of the unique factors of cricket in England is that it does get taken around the country. It is important to understand that not everybody has the spending power of people in the south-east. I think that has to be factored in by the [ECB] when they are allocating matches. There is a finite amount of money that you can charge in the provinces.”The north of England has endured two years of discouraging weather as well as suffering the brunt of the UK’s economic downturn. There are fears of gulf streams moving south and revenue streams moving with them. The difficulty of fostering a commitment to cricket in this period should not be under-estimated. At times, it has been hellish.Yorkshire went wild for their two homegrown Headingley debutants, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow on Friday, but sadly it was only the Yorkshire weather. The morning drive to Headingley was a story of overturned lorries and fallen trees as heavy rain was joined by howling winds. Shortly before 4pm, the umpires abandoned play.Better weather is forecast over the Bank Holiday weekend, and Root and Bairstow can still hope to be acclaimed in glorious sunshine, but after the washout of the one-day international against West Indies last summer, these are nervous times for international cricket in the north of England.Durham, the only international ground more northerly than Headingley, have relinquished two matches because they feared they had over-bid and the risk of heavy losses was too great.The ECB’s latest strategic plan, announced last week, guarantees there will be no regional shift to the south, but that guarantee largely, if not entirely, covers matches already awarded.”The policy of the Board is to promote the game by staging international cricket on a broad geographical base,” it states. “The game appreciates that a number of venues have found it difficult to remain competitive in staging Test cricket. The Board will seek to ensure sustainability at venues by reviewing and communicating policy regarding Major Matches through 2019, increasing the differentiation between Test and ODI status.”Arthur is convinced that the one-nation approach must remain part of English cricket’s DNA. “There could be a discord if you played all your top matches in the south. That would damage interest in the England team.”As more and more money comes from TV, the reliance on income through the turnstiles becomes less and less important, so, de facto, the responsibility becomes to provide the wallpaper so it looks good for those people paying most of the money.”Arthur recognises that Yorkshire, who with Lancashire are responsible for almost 25% of recreational cricket in the country, have to improve their performance.”Trent Bridge has proved that people always want tickets for an event they can’t get a ticket for,” he said. “We need to start selling out. We have to grow our base of cricket supporters who want to come to Headingley. We have to improve the capacity of the ground. We have to improve the environment of the ground. The spectator experience when they first arrive at the gate is absolutely vital.”There is also a belated recognition within Yorkshire cricket that there is a disconnect between the county and many of those who profess to love it yet have also gradually become distanced from it.This winter, Arthur will embark upon the biggest commitment to reconnect with the grassroots ever seen in Yorkshire cricket, making himself available to clubs and leagues four days a week throughout the off-season. Yorkshire’s hierarchy will also visit Trent Bridge shortly to see how Nottinghamshire connect with communities.If English cricket is still debating where Test cricket should be played, the results of a major survey suggests that the effort is worthwhile.English cricket has received a vote of confidence in its policy of promoting Test cricket as the pinnacle of the game with the results of a fan survey which suggests that a majority of young supporters still share their view.More than 90,000 members of Twelfth Man, the ECB-approved fan community, were invited to state their preferred form of the game. Strikingly, although barely 3% bothered to respond, 61% of the under-25 age group favoured Test cricket with only 25% opting for Twenty20, so challenging assumptions that the shortest form of the game was connecting most successfully with young fans.The survey contrasts markedly with attitudes elsewhere in the world, notably India, where Test matches are increasingly submerged below an emphasis on one-day games, and will persuade the ECB that their commitment to Test cricket remains valid.Certainly, the conclusion has to be that Test cricket is still the preferred option for younger fans in England – or that any younger fans who can be bothered to complete an ECB survey are bound to have the patience to prefer the longer form of the game.

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