Also: the most runs and wickets after 30 Tests, and when England’s batting and bowling record-holders played together

Steven Lynch28-Jul-2015Was the 501 partnership between Alviro Petersen and Ashwell Price the other day the highest in which neither man reached 300? asked Terry Farmer from England

Alviro Petersen and Ashwell Prince put on 501 for Lancashire’s third wicket against Glamorgan in Colwyn Bay, only the 13th stand of 500 or more in first-class history. And you’re right: it was the first one in which neither batsman reached 300 – Petersen was out for 286 and Prince for 261, both career-bests. The previous-highest stand without a triple-century is the next one down, the 494 of Marshall Ayub (289) and Mehrab Hossain (218) for Bangladesh’s Central Zone against East Zone in Bogra in 2012-13.Have Australia ever beaten England by more runs than they did at Lord’s? asked Kelvin Hardie from Australia

Australia have had two bigger victories over England by runs – but one of them was also at the Home of Cricket, when Don Bradman’s Invincibles sailed to victory by 409 runs at Lord’s in 1948. Bradman also had a hand in England’s biggest runs defeat, scoring 244 – and putting on 451 with Bill Ponsford, who made 266 – at The Oval in 1934, when Australia ended up winning by 562 runs. England also lost by 425 runs to West Indies at Old Trafford in 1976. But England can take some comfort in that the biggest victory by runs in all Test cricket was by them, in an Ashes Test in 1928-29. At Brisbane, in the match in which Bradman made his debut, England won by the little matter of 675 runs.Was Steven Smith’s 273 runs in the Test at Lord’s the most by a visiting batsman? asked Nikila Trikha from India

Steven Smith’s scintillating double of 215 and 58 in the second Test at Lord’s did give him the record for a visiting batsman at Lord’s, which was previously Graeme Smith’s 259 (in one innings) for South Africa against England in 2003. Next comes India’s Vinoo Mankad, who made 256 runs in 1952 – he scored 72 and 184, and in between took 5 for 196 in 73 overs! Don Bradman made 255 runs (254 and 1) for Australia in 1930. Graham Gooch still holds the overall Lord’s record with 456 runs (333 and 123), for England against India there in 1990 (this is the Test record for any ground). In third place at Lord’s is England’s Jonathan Trott, with 262 runs (226 and 36 not out) against Bangladesh in 2010.In elite company: Steven Smith sits behind Don Bradman and Everton Weekes for the most runs after 30 Tests•Getty ImagesEarlier this season I watched James Harris take 9 for 34 at Lord’s. Were these the best figures for Middlesex there? asked Matt Ballard from England

James Harris’ 9 for 34 against Durham earlier this season in May were the second-best figures in any County Championship match at Lord’s, after the former England captain Gubby Allen’s 10 for 40 against Lancashire there in 1929. That was a remarkable performance – “a truly exhilarating exhibition of fast bowling” according to the Times – not least because Allen, an amateur, arrived late for the match: he took the field at ten to twelve on the first day, as he’d been working in the morning. There have been at least 13 better analyses in other first-class matches at Lord’s, all but one (in 1906) from the 19th century. There have been six better analyses than Harris’ for Middlesex: Allen still leads the way, then come Albert Trott (10 for 42 v Somerset at Taunton in 1900), Richard Johnson (10 for 45 at Derby in 1994), George Burton (10 for 59 v Surrey at The Oval in 1888), the amateur VE Walker (10 for 104 v Lancashire at Old Trafford in 1865) and Jack Hearne (9 for 32 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 1891). Harris just elbowed out his team-mate Steven Finn, who took 9 for 37 at Worcester in 2010.How many batsmen had more runs after 30 Tests than Steven Smith’s 2926? asked Steve Austin from Australia

Only two batsmen have made more runs in their first 30 Tests than Steven Smith. Top of the list, almost inevitably, is Don Bradman – after his 30th Test the Don had scored 3969 runs at 92.30. In second place, but over 1000 runs behind, is the West Indian Everton Weekes: he made 2938 at 61.21 in his first 30 Tests. Smith comes next, with 2926 at 58.52, ahead of Neil Harvey (2924 at 60.92), Kevin Pietersen (2898 at 52.69), and Brian Lara (2869 at 58.55). The most wickets after 30 Tests is 169, by Waqar Younis – although England’s Sydney Barnes took 189, in a career of just 27 matches.Currently Alastair Cook and James Anderson are England’s leading Test run-scorer and wicket-taker respectively. When was the last time the two English record-holders played together? asked Simon Dowland from England

Alastair Cook passed Graham Gooch’s old record of 8900 Test runs for England during the second Test against New Zealand at Headingley in May, about six weeks after James Anderson eased past Ian Botham’s 383 wickets during the first Test against West Indies in Antigua. Gooch and Botham played a fair bit together, but never while both held these particular records: it wasn’t till towards the end of his career, which lasted till 1994-95, that Gooch passed Geoff Boycott (8114) and David Gower (8231). There were some near-misses during the 1980s – Botham didn’t pass Bob Willis (325) until three years after Boycott’s final Test, then Gower didn’t overhaul Boycott until Botham had finished. And it turns out, rather surprisingly, that England’s top run-scorer and wicket-taker hadn’t played together for more than a century before 2015: the last time was in South Africa in 1913-14, when Jack Hobbs appeared alongside Sydney Barnes. Both of them had claimed their respective records – Hobbs from his Surrey team-mate Tom Hayward, and Barnes from Johnny Briggs – during the Triangular Tournament in England in 1912.

A look back at 1988, which is up there in the ranks of England cricket’s most shambolic periods

Alan Gardner26-Sep-2015What is your favourite memory of England dysfunctionality from the late 1980s until the turn of the century? Defeat at home to New Zealand in 1999, sending them bottom of the Test rankings, perhaps. The 1994-95 Ashes tour, on which even the physio got injured and the one-day series final was contested by Australia and Australia A, was pretty painful. It is hard to look beyond the summer of 1989, when England lost 4-0 and used 29 different players against “the worst team ever to leave Australia”.A front runner – if that is not an oxymoron – would have to be the season that Neil Robinson documents in . Although less referenced these days, perhaps because it featured another heavy defeat to a predictably dominant West Indies rather than the old Ashes enemy, perhaps because the hokey-cokey selection issues were to be surpassed the following year, 1988 offered up some vintage material and deserves its spot in the crowded annals of an era of incompetence.It was, as the book’s subtitle explains, “The year of four England cricket captains”. Not to mention 23 players over five Tests against West Indies, plus another five – including four debutants – in the one-off match against Sri Lanka that followed. In all, 34 players were selected in England’s Test and ODI squads and 31 of them were capped. Playing for the national team was a lottery with very few winners.Mike Coward is critical of the TCCB’s decision to appoint Gooch as captain for the Oval Test•Sydney Morning HeraldThese were the good old bad old days, when an appreciation of black comedy was what got England fans through. The ‘s Mike Selvey always seemed to be ready with a quip – Monte Lynch’s inclusion in the Texaco Trophy squad prompted “a theory that it was lunch Gatting wanted” – but Robinson, the MCC librarian, plays a fairly straight bat in his retelling, using interviews with most of the key actors as well as a wealth of contemporaneous reporting to reconstruct the narrative.To be fair to Peter May and his selection panel, they were not done many favours by the players. Under Mike Gatting, England had won the Ashes in Australia in 1986-87 – Martin Johnson’s gag that the only three things wrong with the team were “they can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t field” proving premature – but then lost at home to Pakistan. The following winter included a World Cup on the subcontinent as well as tours to Pakistan and New Zealand but England would not be able to call on Ian Botham, who was playing Sheffield Shield cricket with Queensland, or David Gower, who settled instead on “a trip to Africa, a skiing holiday in Europe and a visit to the Winter Olympics in Calgary”. Graham Gooch, with a young family to consider, only made himself available for the first half of the programme.Monte Lynch is run out for a duck in a Texaco Trophy match at Edgbaston•PA PhotosEngland did manage to reach the 1987 World Cup final but lost one and drew six Tests on their travels; from the Boxing Day Test of 1986, their winless run eventually extended to August 1988, encompassing 18 matches. Such poor form, not to mention controversies including the Shakoor Rana affair, all contributed to the pressure on Gatting ahead of the first West Indies Test.Although England managed a draw at a suspiciously lifeless Trent Bridge, ending a run of ten consecutive defeats to West Indies, Gatting was about to be bombed out regardless. He was undone by another staple of the times, a tabloid sex scandal. With Botham injured, the England captain was a prime target for the red-top press and Gatting’s alleged activities with a barmaid called Louise Shipman at the Rothley Court Hotel gave the selectors their excuse.Robinson actually goes to the length of tracking down Shipman and exposes the anatomy of a tabloid fit-up – for that was exactly what it was, given how Shipman’s “testimony” was misrepresented. It was five years before Shane Warne arrived in England to leave an instant mark on the Ashes but Gatting was never more a victim of spin than here.Amberley PublishingThereafter came the brief reign of John Emburey and the even briefer captaincy of Chris Cowdrey. An encouraging start in the second Test, at Lord’s, where West Indies slipped to 54 for 5, ultimately ended in another defeat, and by the time the teams convened at Old Trafford, the correspondent of the had settled for England winning the over-rate battle. Cowdrey, appointed by his godfather, “Uncle Peter”, took over for Headingley – with Emburey dropped altogether – but injury ruled him out of the final Test, at The Oval. Cowdrey had been told he would lead the team on their next tour, to India; he ended up never playing for England again.Gooch was next in the firing line, though an injury sustained in the field meant England ended the series being led by their fifth captain, Derek Pringle. For all involved it was, as Robinson writes, a period in which “young hopefuls would find themselves loaded into the breach as the selectors aimed a series of long shots towards the seemingly bulletproof West Indies”. Humiliation was complete when BBC viewers were denied seeing the winning runs in England’s only Test success, against Sri Lanka, because Australian soap was still being broadcast. Long shit summer might have been more apt.Long Shot Summer
by Neil Robinson
Amberley Publishing
224 pages, £14.99

While Ishant Sharma cannot be absolved of all blame in the Delhi Ranji squad selection fiasco, the majority of it undoubtedly lies with the chaotic state association

Sidharth Monga24-Sep-2015A day after the laughable exclusion of Ishant Sharma from the Delhi team, more unfortunate aspects of Indian cricket have emerged. The Delhi selectors left him out of the side because “he didn’t answer their phone nor responded to our text”, but the larger forces at play here are Delhi’s shambolic cricket administration and also the tug-of-war between India’s fast bowlers, wanting to rest a little when they are off international duty, and their state associations wanting to show them their place.Talk to those in the know in Delhi cricket, and it is common knowledge that Ishant wanted to sit out of the first two matches. Except that he hadn’t officially informed them. That hurts egos, and instead of giving out rest as the reason for not picking Ishant in the squad for the first match the Delhi selectors blamed Ishant, who is part of the pre-season camp in Bangalore. The egos have perhaps been satisfied: Ishant has informed the Delhi authorities he will be available for the team’s second match.The games, though, are not over. Delhi have gone ahead and named him in the squad for the first match too. Vinay Lamba, the chairman of selectors, says they would love for Ishant to play in the first game too. Their intriguing press release – “Ishant Sharma has confirmed his availability for the second Ranji Trophy match but we are including him in the team right now” – is a classic case of putting the ball in the opponent’s court. The bowler is now seen to be asking for rest when he can play all the international cricket and all the IPL.Lamba says he called Ishant, who says he didn’t receive any calls. The truth is somewhere in between. International cricketers get hundreds of calls from unknown numbers. They generally don’t answer calls from numbers they don’t know. There was no text, Ishant says, though Lamba says there was. These are not signs of a state team trying to pick its best XV to win as many matches as possible. For that team would have tried to get in touch with Ishant long ago, and not on the eve of the selection meeting. That team would have got one of the officials whose number Ishant would have saved on his phone to call the player. They could have asked the captain Gautam Gambhir to call him. The unwritten code generally to deal with star players in Indian domestic cricket is that the captain gets in touch with him, and asks him what matches he wants to play. None of that has happened with Ishant.In the past, too, India’s captain MS Dhoni and former bowling coach Joe Dawes have both complained about state sides’ unwillingness to let India fast bowlers rest. “We have got a couple of youngsters that say when they ask [state associations] not to bowl at training, they are told they have got bad attitude and that they are lazy when they are actually trying to manage their bodies,” Dawes had told ESPNcricinfo.Such complaints about attitude would have sounded a little less rich coming from a side other than Delhi, a side that has only to gain from Ishant’s game while Ishant has little to gain. The money is loose change for him, the administration is a shambles, and facilities are non-existent when compared with international cricket, but Ishant is still playing. He has asked for rest for just one match.It doesn’t completely absolve Ishant, though. He should have informed the selectors if he wanted to rest. However, when asked by ESPNcricinfo if he hadn’t informed them earlier, Ishant asked the question that has been around for a while: who is running the Delhi team? Which faction should Ishant have informed? Who will be coaching Delhi? What was the assurance that Vinay Lamba, Hari Gidwani and Rahul Sanghvi were going to finally be the selectors after three different preliminary squads had been named by three different factions? How does a player keep tab of all these machinations while also putting in long hours at the pre-season camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore? Seam position one second, sports committee next?Seriously, though, Ishant must learn his lesson. For all that cricket has changed, for all the shift towards performance over perception, if ever you need to stage a comeback into international cricket, you need to do it through performances for your state association. Ishant might be in the form of his life right now, but in a leaner period he will need these state bosses. Such is life in Indian cricket. A perfect solution in Ishant’s case, and many others, would have been – and Dawes advocated that – a Pat Howard-like performance manager of Indian cricket, who would have officially made the communication of the need for resting Ishant to Delhi. Just like how Cricket Australia made sure Kings XI Punjab knew exactly how many deliveries Mitchell Johnson could bowl in which training session in the IPL.Except, in Delhi’s case, whom do you tell?

He hasn’t fit the usual Pakistani archetypes, but when he leaves he will have set a distinct example for those coming after to aspire to

Ahmer Naqvi13-Oct-2015During the recent domestic T20 tournament, two fellow journalists were trying to track down Younis Khan for an interview. They found him at the end or start of a game, and he asked them to “come over to my hotel room later tonight”. As he sped past them, they realised he hadn’t mentioned the room number, or indeed the hotel. They asked a few others for Younis’ phone number and pretty soon ended up with about 16 different numbers for him. All of them were switched off.The next day, they ran into Younis, who asked them where they had been. They told him about the room number problem and then the 16 phone numbers, which made him laugh and repeat a famous Bollywood dialogue, “” (You know what they say: capturing the don isn’t just difficult – it’s impossible.)The charming anecdote captures some important things about the player – his sense of humour, his frankness, his tendency to go incognito. What I like most is that the film reference made me think of characters – those larger-than-life creations of masala movies that are such a big part of South Asian culture.I have often felt that the collapse of the popular film industry has been a major cause for the superstardom of Pakistani cricketers. They have filled a void of sorts in the popular imagination.The Pakistan cricket team has had its fair share of absolutely mad characters, but Younis is the maddest, or most to have emerged with a great reputation as well as superb statistics. Indeed, he is now the greatest run scorer in Pakistani history, and yet I still can’t help but feel that he can be better “imagined” in both Pakistan’s and cricket’s popular narrative.

What has made him extremely Pakistani is his desire, his obsession, to prove a point. Like Imran Khan seeing red after being hit for a boundary, or Javed Miandad aping the keeper, Younis has always had that desire to compete to the end

The word has negative connotations (describing someone who is melodramatic), but to paint him as such is not at all my intention. My use of it here is to celebrate the barely believable, twisting and turning career of a marvellous player. After all, Younis has spent all this time playing the long con.The character I pictured when thinking about him in a reference was Keyser Soze from – the guy no one expected to be there at the end; the guy everyone underestimated.Younis began his career amid the dying embers of the #Mighty90sSide, which was fighting its demons and court cases as much as it was its opponents. He came of age in the Bob Woolmer era, where with Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq he formed the mighty triumvirate that was Pakistan’s middle order. Even there, his feats were often overshadowed, largely because the other two had been archetypal in a way he never had been – Inzamam was the unknown youngster who had arrived from nowhere to grab the world by surprise, a typical Pakistani cricket myth. Yousuf had his moments in his golden run in 2006, where he played into the English myth about the classy subcontinental batsman who was an aesthetically pleasing run glut.Record- and stereotype breaker: Younis is not a player who fits the many clichés and stereotypes of Pakistan cricket•AFPYounis’ story was always more bizarre. Around about the time of his golden run as a Test batsman, Pakistan did not play Tests for a year, and he was then kicked out of the side months after leading the country to a world title, in 2009. The annus horribilis that was 2010 laid waste to many careers in Pakistan’s batting stocks, and an entire generation of players that were meant to finally come of age were instead out of the team. The fixing scandal meant that an old-timer was brought back to lead a team of fresh-faced youngsters. The only other old face was that of Younis, whose spat with the board meant that he had been absent from the horror tours of Australia and England that had caused all these changes.Yet once again, Younis was in the shadows, as the era came to be defined largely by Afridi v Misbah debates. That debate didn’t apply in Tests, but even when Misbah’s team showed how formidable it could be, the plaudits went largely to the captain and the bowlers. Younis wasn’t seen as a leading act, let alone a superstar.But now that he is at the top, now that he has the numbers irrefutably in his favour, we realise that playing out someone else’s story was never an option for Younis Khan – he was always going to be the basis for his own myth.So what will his myth be?For me, the parts of Younis’ career that are most intriguing are the ones that subvert certain narratives about Pakistani cricket and reinforce others. He wasn’t blessed with abundant talent; he lacks a penchant for spectacular match-winning feats; he hasn’t been prone to being lazy and unprofessional when things aren’t going his way. And yet, what has made him extremely Pakistani is his desire, his obsession, to prove a point. Like Imran Khan seeing red after being hit for a boundary, or Javed Miandad aping the keeper, Younis has always had that desire to compete to the end.For most of his career, Younis has been sidelined because there haven’t been any clichés or narratives that fit him. But whenever he leaves, he will do so as an example, an ideal that others will aspire to. It’s a legacy that few others can manage.

Reactions from the cricket world to the death of BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2015

The ICC extends its deepest condolences upon the passing away of BCCI President and former ICC President Jagmohan Dalmiya

— ICC (@ICC) September 20, 2015

Heartfelt condolences on the passing away of Shri Jagmohan Dalmiya #PresidentMukherjee

— President of India (@RashtrapatiBhvn) September 20, 2015

My thoughts are with the family of Shri Jagmohan Dalmiya in this hour of grief. May Shri Dalmiya's soul rest in peace.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 20, 2015

Heartfelt condolences to the family & friends of Jagmohan Dalmiya. Had met him in June. little did I realise that it would be the last (1/3)

— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 20, 2015

Will always cherish his encouragement & support over the years. Worked hard for the game of cricket & excelled as an administrator (2/3)

— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 20, 2015

Was touched by his efforts to make my penultimate Test at Eden Gardens very special. RIP Jagmohan Dalmiya. (3/3)

— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 20, 2015

The greatest sports administrator of India has passed away,an era ends. A personal loss to me & Indian cricket. @BCCI #RIPDalmiyaJi

— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) September 20, 2015

Saddened by Mr. Dalmiya's death. Immense contribution to Indian and world cricket. A huge loss. Always a players man! Condolences to family!

— Anil Kumble (@anilkumble1074) September 20, 2015

Dalmiya Ji's contribution 2 Indian cricket was immense.He was an astute administrator&a visionary.His demise is a huge loss 2 Indian cricket

— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) September 20, 2015

Respect to Mr Dalmiya for his contribution in Cricket.May his soul Rest in Peace.Strength and warmth to his loved ones !

— Mahendra Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni) September 21, 2015

JDalmiya was shrewd Crkt administrator & by far the best player-BCCI President!His concern fr Indn Crkt was https://t.co/84WYHMItmL Jaggu Da!

— Bishan Bedi (@BishanBedi) September 20, 2015

The first person to realise the real potential of Indian Cricket is no more. RIP Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya.

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) September 20, 2015

Really saddened by the news of Jagmohan Dalmiya passing away. An administrator with a cricketing heart, RIP Jagguda.

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) September 20, 2015

The best compliment an administrator can get is for players to say he was a player's man. Jagmohan Dalmiya got that.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 20, 2015

My condolences go out to the family and friends of Mr.Jagmohan Dalmiya.A fine administrator he https://t.co/Co5WqGlBti sir.

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) September 20, 2015

#Rip Dalmiya sir. My heartfelt condolences to the family.

— Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) September 20, 2015

Very sad to hear about the death of mr jagmohan dalmiya! a true gentleman and a great administrator may his soul rest in peace

— yuvraj singh (@YUVSTRONG12) September 20, 2015

Big loss for India cricket. Mr. Dalmiya always showed the way. Rest in Peace sir#RIP

— Suresh Raina (@ImRaina) September 20, 2015

Saddened to hear the news about Dalmiya Ji's demise. Heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) September 21, 2015

Deepest condolences to the Dalmiya Family. Dalmiya Saab's contribution to the Indian Cricket and @BCCI will always be cherished. #RIP

— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) September 20, 2015

Very very sad to hear the news of shri Jagmohan Dalmiya sir.big lose to all of us cricketers & @BCCI!!Salute to you for ur services!RIP sir

— Harbhajan Singh (@harbhajan_singh) September 20, 2015

RIP Jagmohan Dalmiya sir.Your contribution to cricket will always be remembered. Heartfelt condolences .

— ajinkyarahane88 (@ajinkyarahane88) September 21, 2015

Sad to know about demise of Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya…heartfelt condolences to his family and friends

— zaheer khan (@ImZaheer) September 20, 2015

Sad to hear about the passing away of Jagmohan Dalmiya ji. It is his vision that has brought Indian cricket to its glory. May he RIP.

— R P Singh (@RpSingh99) September 20, 2015

Saddened with the news of Dalmiya sir's demise. May your soul rest in peace. My condolences to his family! @BCCI

— Pragyan Ojha (@pragyanojha) September 20, 2015

Saddened with the news of Dalmia Sir's demise. A great loss to Bengal and Indian cricket. May your soul rest in peace.

— Ashoke Dinda (@dindaashoke) September 20, 2015

Extremely saddened to hear about Sh. Jagmohan Dalmiya Ji's passing on. @BCCI has lost one of its administrative greats. #RIPSir

— Anirudh Chaudhry (@AnirudhChaudhry) September 20, 2015

Dalmiya encouraged players to take up administration Had very good time with him in the 90's as part of TNCA Astute administrator

— TA Sekar (@ta_sekar) September 20, 2015

Heartfelt condolences to Dalmiya Ji's family. Dalmiya Sir's contribution to @BCCI will always be remembered.

— Ishant Sharma (@ImIshant) September 21, 2015

“He was a very interesting man. He was extremely resolute, resilient and determined. He was very political and used the power of India to take leadership positions in cricket. While India’s concerns were always first and foremost, he saw the bigger picture of world cricket. He was an early leader in creating and marketing the enormous value of cricket TV rights in India and sought to commercialise them for the benefit of the other countries.”
“I remember today my long innings with Jagmohan Dalmiya from when we worked together to lay the solid foundations of Indian cricket and built it into a global powerhouse. Jaggu’s passion, energy and dedication was instrumental. He was an able cricket administrator and I, along with millions of cricket lovers around the world, salute his commitment and dedication to the game.”
“With the passing away of Jagmohan Dalmiya, Bangladesh cricket has lost a true friend and a genuine well-wisher. We are forever grateful for the assistance and warmth received from Mr Dalmiya in taking cricket forward in Bangladesh. It is also apt to say that Bangladesh’s elevation to Test status in many ways was a result of his farsightedness and whole-hearted support. World cricket will sorely miss his dynamism, leadership and vision.”
“Mr Dalmiya was a highly respected and powerful figure in the international game and played a key role in the BCCI’s growth including India hosting the 1987 and 1996 ICC Cricket World Cups. His tenure also coincided with Australia and India forging closer links on and off the field including the establishment of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which has since seen highly competitive and memorable Test series between the two countries.
“Mr. Dalmiya will never be forgotten in South African cricket circles for being instrumental in welcoming us back into the international cricket fold and for extending in 1991 that historic invitation to the United Cricket Board to make possible the Proteas first ever tour abroad to India. always felt good around Mr Dalmiya and I will never forget his warm words during my own difficult times. He was a special person and South Africans have much to be grateful to him for the strong relationship he cultivated between the two countries.”
“Mr Dalmiya was widely appreciated for his dedication to the game and the respect with which he always treated the players and his fellow administrators from around the world. It was under his watch as ICC President that the game first took the globalisation seriously with the launch of the ICC Knock-Out tournament (now known as the ICC Champions Trophy), the revenue from which was reinvested into cricket development around the world. On behalf of the ICC, I extend my condolences to all those associated with Mr Dalmiya.”
“I first met him in the early nineties when he and Inderjit Bindra, another veteran cricket administrator, decided to take on the Government of India and defend the BCCI’s right to telecast its own cricket matches and support the game of cricket with the revenues generated by Television Broadcasting rights. Having economically empowered the BCCI with the TV money, Dalmiya realized the power of the ‘eyeballs’. India alone accounted for more than seventy five per cent of the TV audiences. Dalmiya became the President of the ICC and India’s influence in the world of cricket has never looked back. The game of cricket has lost a great administrator who shifted the Home of cricket to India. I have lost a personal friend.”
“I am saddened with the passing of Mr Dalmiya. He was a visionary cricket administrator who dedicated his life to cricket. Cricket flourished in India during his tenures as the BCCI President, while global cricket got stronger when he was the ICC President. Cricket has lost one of its most loyal, committed and dedicated servants.”
“I will miss his ready laugh. It was under Mr. Dalmiya’s leadership that the ICC who then had only a few thousand dollars in their kitty went on to have the millions today which are disbursed to the rest of the cricketing world. His statesmanship also helped ease many a prickly situation in international cricket and Indian cricket in particular. May his soul rest in peace.”
“We have lost a friend, a gentleman and one of cricket’s favorite sons. He was not just a friend of West Indies cricket, but world cricket. He loved the game and gave his all for the good of the sport.Mr. Dalmiya was a visionary and had a huge impact on the game as one of the most respected and admired administrators in its history.”

They lost the chance to bargain with the board on equal footing in the matter of World Cup earnings, but they cannot ignore the need for a proactive players association

Tristan Holme19-Nov-2015When Zimbabwe’s national players refused to turn up for training in August 2013 and announced that they were forming a union, their main goal was to get the money that Zimbabwe Cricket owed them. Over the years it had come to be expected that match fees would be paid several months late, but when monthly salaries stopped arriving, the players decided enough was enough. Higher match fees were also among their stated demands, but at that stage the idea that their collective heft might be able to secure a lasting future for cricketers in Zimbabwe was almost an afterthought.In March 2014, however, the process towards that idea was set in motion when ZPCA representative Eliah Zvimba presented ZC with a Memorandum of Understanding and Collective Bargaining Agreement, which drew on agreements in place between other player bodies and their boards. Zimbabwe’s cricketers had been dictated to for almost a decade, but the MoU was designed to balance the scales of power. Not surprisingly, ZC was in no hurry to sign.A Bulawayo labour lawyer, Zvimba had caught the eye of the players when he managed to extract payments towards medical bills from a reluctant ZC on behalf of a Matebeleland player who had been involved in a car accident. When I met him in Harare in May last year, Zvimba said that repeated attempts to get a meaningful response from ZC on the MoU had been fruitless, and claimed that he was largely being treated with contempt. He produced a text conversation in which a ZC human resources manager responded to his query over certain player payments with nothing more than a series of emoticons.Over the course of the year his frustrations continued, although a ZC spokesman denies that there was a reluctance on the board’s part, saying the MoU was “undergoing our due process”.Yet as the World Cup drew near, time was running out for the governing body. ZC needed the players to sign participation agreements for the tournament, but the players, who were being advised by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), first wanted a commitment to the MoU as well as US$2m from ZC’s World Cup earnings. As ZC dragged out the discussions, the players knew that they had a World Cup-sized bargaining chip.Prosper Utseya (left) a surprise pick for the World Cup was blamed for Zvimba’s exit from the players association•Getty ImagesThe stand-off was summed up by Ian Smith, FICA’s chief operating officer, in an email to the ZPCA executive, which Prosper Utseya included in his infamous racism letter. “My take on the current state of ZC,” Smith wrote on January 2, “is that, as far as they’re concerned, as long as they send a team to the World Cup and get their ICC payment, the rest can go to hell – that is tomorrow’s problem and that includes how the professional game will be funded for the next few years. ZPCA’s leverage only exists in your ability to determine whether a team goes to the World Cup… This is a crucial juncture in the history of cricket in Zimbabwe and how it proceeds is largely in your hands.”This was not news to the players, but Smith had good reason for impressing the importance of the situation upon them: Utseya, in his capacity as the ZPCA committee’s vice secretary, had informed Smith that the association intended to release Zvimba because of a lack of communication around funds that FICA had been supplying. FICA for their part had clearly come to respect Zvimba, inviting him to their annual general meeting in Australia to discuss the ZPCA’s potential FICA membership, and agreeing to pay $1500 per month towards the ZPCA’s office expenses. Yet the latter gesture became the bone of contention around which the entire project fell apart. Utseya says that the players were unaware of the payments until some time in December, and two other ZPCA committee members back his claim up.Zvimba points out that the five players on the executive were the only signatories on the association’s bank account, that a Harare office was indeed set up, and that invoices for expenses were sent to FICA as proof. Furthermore, he claims that his relationship with some of the players on the ZPCA executive broke down when they demanded that their wives be employed by the association.Nevertheless Zvimba’s contract was not renewed when it expired at the end of 2014. According to the ZPCA’s own constitution, the decision ought to have been voted on by the entire membership, but it wasn’t put to a vote until after Zvimba’s contract had already expired and those picked for the World Cup had signed up to ZC’s terms, which promised $650,000 to be shared among the World Cup squad, rather than $2m for the wider player pool. Tony Irish, FICA’s executive chairman, is in no doubt about why that happened, saying that the work put in by FICA and Zvimba “was undermined by a very small group of players who got rid of Zvimba and did a separate deal with ZC to enrich themselves at the expense of the wider player group”.If Zimbabwe players choose to tour countries that other teams won’t, they need an organisation behind them that will look after their interests•AFPThe spotlight falls on Utseya, who had been banned from bowling offspin in October 2014 when he was found to average 51 degrees of flexion, and only cleared to bowl legspin in December, but was nevertheless picked in the World Cup squad in early January. In a report in the , a colleague accused Utseya of orchestrating Zvimba’s dismissal in return for a place in that squad, a charge Utseya denies. “My selection was criticised, but when I look at it, none of the spinners performed in Bangladesh [in late 2014], and I did better than the other spinners against Canada,” he told the earlier this year. “No one can tell me that I didn’t deserve to go to the World Cup, because it was based on statistics.”Yet what is undeniably true is that without a representative, talk of the MoU and a $2m share of the World Cup earnings fell away, and after eleventh-hour discussions as they waited to board their flight at Harare airport, the 15 World Cup squad members agreed on a formula for how they would split the $650,000 pie amongst themselves. In turn, FICA withdrew its support because, Irish says, “it believed that little could be achieved in an environment where players were divisive and not prepared to stand together for the greater good of the overall current player system and for its future generation of players”.Masakadza, the ZPCA’s president, insists that FICA “didn’t listen to our side of the story – they heard Eliah’s side of the story and took that as gospel truth”. But aside from Utseya’s emails to Smith, the players don’t appear to have gone to great lengths to present their point of view. Irish says that he emailed Masakadza after things went sour in January, but is yet to receive a reply.With Zimbabwe increasingly travelling to parts of the subcontinent where other teams are not willing to venture due to security threats, a functioning players association seems like a crucial decision-making body.While Zimbabwe’s national players are reasonably well paid, the majority of their franchise counterparts do not earn enough to maintain the sort of professional lifestyle required of players aspiring to international cricket. For Zimbabwe to move forward, that needs to change so that the level of franchise cricket can rise accordingly. But it won’t happen unless the players formulate a coherent plan and stand together as one.

Being trained to put the hard yards in and be match aware at all times from a young age has helped the young Guyanese bowler excel under crunch moments

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur13-Feb-2016Like the rest of his West Indies Under-19 teammates, Keemo Paul listens to Hall of Fame for motivation before a game. They will all do so, again, on Sunday morning, ahead of their Under-19 World Cup final against India in Mirpur.”One particular video that we see as a team is a song called Hall of Fame by will.i.am. It is just a motivational song. It teaches you that if you train and work hard, you will be sitting in the hall of fame,” he said.While the song is their heartbeat, Shimron Hetmyer, the captain, said Paul, his deputy, was the last person to need external motivation at crunch moments. While the pressure of the occasion could get to a few players, Hetmyer is sure his deputy’s confidence and tactfulness will be vital.”Keemo Paul is probably one of the smartest bowlers we have here,” Hetmyer said. “He could probably bowl at any time for me – open if possible, in the middle or in the end. He is not really the death bowler for me but I think he handles pressure better than most of the players in this team, if not all. Pressure doesn’t get to him that much. He can play his natural game, as you saw against England. He stood out in that pressure game for us. He handles pressure as good as anyone I know.”Against England in their first group stage match, Paul took the key wicket of Sam Curran, who was batting on 39. West Indies later slipped to 103 for 5 in the 23rd over when his counter-attacking 58-ball 65 nearly won West Indies the game. Against Zimbabwe, he kept things tight before he effected the Mankad that took West Indies to the quarter-final. In the first of their knockout clash, he dismissed the dangerous Hasan Mohsin. Then when the chase was getting tight, his unbeaten 16-ball 24 hastened the victory.In the semi-final against Bangladesh, he got injured while trying to save a boundary at third man, but returned to bowl in the last five overs. He first bounced out Mehedi Hasan Miraz before bursting through Mohammad Saifuddin next ball. “I think it was very big over in the game. I think I had a clear mind and executing the basics,” Paul explained. “He [Miraz] was batting really well. I think he was settled. My plan was to bowl good length balls. He was going deep in his crease so I just decided to pop a short one. I caught him half yard. It was a very important wicket,” he said.Both set batsmen were removed and he added a third wicket of big-hitter Saeed Sarkar in his next over. Bangladesh could have scored 240 but they were cut down to 226. The difference was huge in the context of the game.So how does Paul, at the age of 17, handle pressure moments?”I think it is just knowing the game from an early age, and being around a lot of experienced people. You just gain as much intelligence from them and use it in the game,” he said. “You just have to know how to manage the pressure, just know how to be confident. Learn from it. You have to take in some things. Just stay focused and do what you are doing. In pressure situation, I just clear my mind. It motivates me. I always want to win and do well in the game. Pressure situation motivates me.”West Indies manager Dwain Gill believes Paul is the “brain” in the team and has a way to get everyone together in the dressing-room and in the middle. “He is our vice-captain, and it is because he is our most intelligent cricketer,” Gill said. “Off the field he is the one who brings the players together. He is the brain in the team, and everyone relates to him.”Paul is from Guyana where he “looks up to Shiv Chanderpaul”. He comes from the Essequibo Islands where he belongs to a logging community called . Paul said that Chanderpaul guides him, and owes much of his cricketing acumen to the West Indies legend.”I played with Shiv. I get a lot of advice and intelligence and guidance from him,” he gused. “I am very good friends with his son too, we are both Under-19 cricketers.”Paul didn’t show signs of pressure even if he was feeling it. Sunday is another chance for him to execute his plans in his ice-cool manner.

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Feb-2016Mohammad Amir picked up from where he left off against India, finding early swing to knock off Muhammad Kaleem’s off stump•Associated PressUAE were reeling at 12 for 3, but Shaiman Anwar almost single-handedly dragged his team to a competitive total, stroking 46 off 42 balls•Getty ImagesUAE swung wildly in search of runs after Anwar’s dismissal, but were greeted by quick wickets. Amir returned at the death to bowl Muhammad Usman out•Getty ImagesIt meant he ended with match figures of 4-1-6-2, the second-most economical spell in T20Is•Associated PressPakistan needed just 130 for victory, but they suffered early setbacks in the chase, with the captain Amjad Javed striking thrice•Getty ImagesThose blows seemed to tilt the contest UAE’s way, with Pakistan struggling at 17 for 3•Getty ImagesUmar Akmal, though, played a calm ahead, hitting a vital half-century to put his team back on track•Getty ImagesShoaib Malik, too, found form with a 49-ball 63, as the pair’s unbroken 114-run partnership eventually took Pakistan home with eight balls to spare•Getty Images

Plays of the day from the game between Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants in Rajkot

Nikhil Kalro14-Apr-2016When Jadeja bowed to DhoniThere aren’t too many secrets between Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni on the field. They’ve been team-mates for over seven years now and Dhoni knows only too well how Jadeja rushes through his overs in limited-overs cricket. So after Steven Smith holed out to deep cover in the 17th over, Jadeja tried to take his opportunity, but Dhoni did not let him. Jadeja hurried in, Dhoni pulled out of the delivery. Jadeja tried again next ball, and was even quicker, but Dhoni had not even taken his stance. He finally bowled, but on Dhoni’s terms. Bhatia’s lucky break When Dhoni is at the striker’s end in the slog overs, the non-striker is expected to keep him there. Off the second ball of the final over, Dhoni hit to long-off and returned for the second run. Rajat Bhatia, his partner, was not interested but Dhoni powered through regardless. Bhatia finally went but had no chance until a poor throw at the bowler’s end reprieved him. Luckily for Dhoni, Bhatia rose to the challenge and they completed a brace of twos that left the latter panting. RP’s banana swing Despite standing outside his crease, Aaron Finch had shimmied down to RP Singh’s first delivery, a nippy inswinger that caught the batsman off guard. The ball swerved in after angling across the right-hander from over the wicket and struck Finch on the pad with no shot offered. A big appeal ensued but Finch had been hit too high. Or was he? No one was sure, but the umpire was convinced the ball wouldn’t have hit the stumps. When Bravo foxed Pietersen Like with Mustafizur Rahman’s offcutters, the batsmen know what’s coming from Dwayne Bravo. His slow, dipping cutters have been mighty effective in recent times. After Glenn Maxwell and David Miller in the previous game, it was Kevin Pietersen’s turn today. In the 14th over, Bravo brought out four of those deliveries in succession. The last of those slower ones flummoxed Pietersen, as he brought his bat down late only to drag on to his stumps, bringing a switch in Supergiants’ momentum.

The biggest story behind New Zealand’s success has been how well they have read the conditions, and how well they have selected their XIs, and coach Mike Hesson has played a key role in it

Sidharth Monga in Mohali21-Mar-2016The curator in Nagpur, Mike Hesson, the New Zealand coach, said, had advised the side that the pitch for their match against India was “hard and fast” and was going to have “lots of bounce”. Hesson and Kane Williamson’s response was to leave out Tim Southee and Trent Boult, and go in with three spinners. New Zealand scored just 126, but their spinners took nine Indian wickets for just 44 runs on a raging turner. “I didn’t see the groundsman after the match, no,” Hesson said in Mohali, where New Zealand will play Pakistan on Tuesday.New Zealand now have a foot in the semi-finals, and the biggest story behind their success has been how well they have read the conditions, and how well they have selected their XIs. Hesson is believed to be a significant factor in tactical decisions.Apart from leaving out Southee and Boult in the first match, New Zealand made a last-minute change in Dharamsala, bringing in future Man-of-the-Match Mitchell McClenaghan in place of Nathan McCullum, who had given their defence against India a great start with Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket in the first over. Dharamsala then turned out to be a pitch where seamers banging in cutters in the middle of the pitch proved near impossible to hit. That just happens to be McClenaghan’s length. It becomes all the more incredible because they didn’t even take a look at that pitch until a couple of hours ahead of the match because of the rain on the day before it.There is an Indian ad campaign of soft drink Sprite, which says, [“Don’t go by what is shown to you, use your own brain.”] The New Zealand players who play a lot of IPL must have relayed the mantra to Hesson.”We look at a lot of footage and stats, and talk to a lot of people, but then ultimately you look at the surface and make your own assessment what you expect it to be,” Hesson said. “Thankfully, we have a lot of players who have played IPL. So we gather all the information we can, and pick up a team that suits the condition as well as the opposition.”It is one thing to pick an XI, but they have to respond well too. In Nagpur, Mitchell Santner saw Ravindra Jadeja bowl fast and flat and draw a lot of turn. He did the same, and took four wickets. In Dharamsala, McClenaghan knew in the second over of the match, which Shane Watson bowled, what lengths to bowl. He spoke to Southee and Boult and McCullum, after the second over, and figured he had to bowl cutters halfway down the pitch.The other aspect of this decision-making is to manage those who have been left out. Players of the stature of Southee and Boult. McCullum after an analysis of 3-0-15-2. “We are lucky to have a good group of people who are focussed on what the team needs,” Hesson said. “Although there is no doubt there is a little bit of disappointment, but players understand that we are doing this to pick the best team. It’s not that we like players more or less than others, we just are matter of fact about it. As I said we are lucky to have good people who understand that, and they could well get an opportunity throughout the tournament. If they do, the others players left out have to be equally supportive.”The batting has been equally selfless. Ross Taylor has been batting out of position, at No. 5, a move Hesson explained. “Our middle order has probably lacked a bit of power in the past, and we think here we need a bit more power at the top,” he said. “Colin Munro and Corey [Anderson] provide that, and also provide a good left-right combination. Also we feel as the ball slows up we need a bit more experience through the middle. To have Ross, Grant [Elliott] and Luke Ronchi come out at key times in the game, that’s where we think we need that experience.”From squad selection to team selection to execution by those XIs, everything has worked perfectly for New Zealand, but Hesson said they were not thinking of the knockouts yet. That might just be akin to what the Nagpur groundsman told Hesson.