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Aussies face selection headache
Flintoff becomes a selector!
India just did not plan well enough
Who will wear the crown of thorns?
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Indian hockey players for Pak Super League
Ramesh in sight of title
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Aussies face selection headache
Manchester, August 10 Just as they were facing up to the prospect of another match without champion fast bowler Glenn McGrath, who missed England’s thrilling two-run, 1-1 levelling, second Test win at Edgbaston, Australia then saw Brett Lee taken to hospital Monday with a knee infection. Even if Lee, whose gutsy 43 not out took the tourists to the brink of a dramatic win in Birmingham, as captain Ricky Ponting expects, recovers in time, the issue of how to replace their spearhead remains to be resolved. At Edgbaston, Australia tried to solve the problem of how to cope without McGrath — who took his 500th Test wicket in Australia’s 239-run first Test win at Lord’s last month — by bringing in the experienced Michael Kasprowicz. But a laudable last-man effort with the bat that so nearly saw Australia home on Sunday could not disguise returns of three for 80 in 15 overs and three wicketless overs for 29. Shane Warne, who is now just one wicket away from becoming the first bowler to take 600 wickets in Tests, was once again forced to carry a big burden and the leg-spinner responded magnificently with figures of 10 for 162. Australia called up the uncapped Stuart Clark, a bowler in the McGrath mould, from English county Middlesex into their squad on Tuesday as cover. But already within their tour party is the fiery Shaun Tait, also yet to make his Test debut, whose extra pace can make him a difficult proposition on what looks being a bouncy Old Trafford pitch. And Australia also have leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, whose record of 160 wickets in 33 Tests at 28.81 shows how unlucky he has been to be regarded merely as Warne’s understudy. “I think Brett has a pretty good chance. It will be unlikely he does not play. The wicket is pretty dry and it will turn later on,” Ponting told reporters here yesterday. “But I think the ball will reverse swing and that comes into Tait’s favour.” “We have got to have a long hard think about where our best make-up for this game is and if Glenn does not come up for this game as well, there are a lot of things we have to consider.” But whoever is in Australia’s attack, the tourists will still be looking for a better top-order performance. At Edgbaston, Australia were bowled out for 308 in the first innings and collapsed to 175 for eight in the second. Former Australian captain Ian Chappell said the match had highlighted weaknesses in a side acclaimed by some as the greatest in Test history. “Crunch time will be when Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne move on,” Chappell told the Melbourne Herald-Sun. “Without McGrath in the second Test, Australia were not able to have any control and England just went berserk.” He added: “The batting has let them down. They are a very good team with two great bowlers.” The most visible sign of Australia’s batting problems has been the form of opener Matthew Hayden, who extended his run without a hundred to 14 Tests at Edgbaston and suffered the first golden duck of his Test career. “This is the first time for a while they have come up against a really good attack,” Chappell said. “Hayden is so used to smashing the ball around, he has not made the adjustment.” But England too have had their fair share of batting problems and, after two Tests, no batsman on either side has made a century. “That is fairly unusual at this stage of a series,” Ponting said. “Our guys have got off to good starts and then got out. I have done it twice in the series already. “We have just got to be hungrier and look to bat for long periods of time. Maybe we have all got a bit carried away.” But for England, the form of captain and number three Michael Vaughan and number four Ian Bell remains a major concern. Neither man has made a significant score in four innings and there is a limit to the number of times the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, who returns to his Old Trafford home ground for his 50th Test following a barnstorming effort at Edgbaston, can keep mounting rescue missions. England, trying for their first Ashes series win in nine campaigns, very nearly lost a match they had dominated at Edgbaston, an outcome that home spinner Ashley Giles said would have seen them “strung up”. Now the intriguing question is which team will derive most confidence from the closest win in Ashes history.
— AFP |
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Flintoff becomes a selector!
Manchester, August 10 ‘’We will probably leave it until the last minute to see which way we go,’’ Vaughan told reporters on the eve of the game against Australia. ‘’We want to have a good long chat with Freddie. It is his home ground, he knows the conditions. Over the last year or so, we have not played that much here.” ‘’We want to look at the options, normal swing, reverse swing, bounce, all the areas you cover at any game of cricket. We will just have a good chat this afternoon.’’ The pitch was expected to be hard and fast while offering spin later in the game. England could consider bringing in uncapped seamer Chris Tremlett for Matthew
Hoggard. Hoggard had recently failed to swing the ball, taking five wickets at 32.60 in the first two Tests. Lancashire allrounder
Flintoff, described by Vaughan as a ‘’pivotal player’’, scored two half centuries at Edgbaston as well as taking seven wickets to win the man of the match award. Vaughan said he was not worrying about whether Brett Lee or Glenn McGrath, both injury doubts, would play for Australia. ‘’We cannot control that,’’ he said. Nor was he sure which side held the upper hand after
Edgbaston. ‘’I always think momentum is great, but it can be difficult to deal with. Everyone said Australia had the momentum going to Edgbaston (after winning the first Test by 239 runs), but we dominated the first three days of the game.
— Reuters |
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India just did not plan well enough
India could be the worst fielding side in world cricket at present. They allowed extra runs in the field during the final of the tri-series against Sri Lanka and when it came to themselves, lost a few while running between the wickets. Add up all those and you have the difference between winning and losing.
There were those two regulation chances in the slips which were dropped off Sanath Jayasuriya. It was the surest way to invite disaster. Virender Sehwag has let go a few in the field in this tournament and I am not sure if Rahul Dravid’s presence in the slips could have counted. He is one of the best slips fieldsman and you do not catch over hundred scalps in that position without being special. But he needed to man his players from the midwicket and it took him out of the cordon. In a way, it was ironic that a bit of smart fielding ejected Jayasuriya from the middle. India must count themselves lucky for Jayasuriya had set himself up for an innings of 150 or 160 runs. He was in a groove and was bisecting the field with his customary precision. Along with Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, Jayasuriya was one of the three seniormost cricketers who mattered for Sri Lanka in the night. These three are of timeless quality, the rocks who have braved the onslaught of faster, fitter and stronger one-day cricket from one decade to another. India should have been alert to these formidable men. Instead, we had a Virender Sehwag who wanted to take on Chaminda Vaas, the number one ranked bowler in one-day cricket in the world. Sehwag needed to make a difference between a Lokhuttege and a Vaas. He had the Sri Lankan attack on their knees. Another 10 overs at the crease and he would have been the toast of India. In the end, what did he achieve? Just a glimmer of hope when he could have had the entire nation basking in the glory of his light. India just did not plan well enough. If you give 4 or 5 wickets to the duo of Vaas and Murali, that is a blow in the guts. India needed to target and create more Lokhutteges among the Sri Lankans. The best way to do it was in the middle overs for Vaas and Murali would have given nothing away in the final count. Dravid and Yuvraj had a good partnership but I would have preferred Irfan Pathan ahead of Mohammad Kaif in that critical juncture. You cannot be happy with the post-mortem after somebody has died. A report is no substitute for an opportunity lost in the field. Not that Sri Lanka do not deserve censure. I feel they were off to a real bad start. The promotion of Lokhuttege made no sense. The hosts had more experienced pinch-hitters like Chaminda Vaas, Upul Chandana, Tilakratne Dilshan, Farvez Mahroof and yet opted for a rookie on a stage as special as a final. Mahela Jayawardene was sensible and Russel Arnold is back to where he belongs, but again they made a hash of things in the final overs. They also went with a bad mix in the final. To my eyes, there were only three proper bowlers in Sri Lanka team: Chaminda Vaas,
Muttiah Muralitharan and Farvez Mahroof. The rest were all fill-in bowlers. The best and the barest combination in one-day cricket is at least four frontline bowlers. I would have never dropped Nuwan Zoysa from the line-up. He is a tough cookie and always brings wickets upfront. When Sehwag was skinning the likes of Mahroof and Lokhutteges to the bones, Zoysa was being missed badly. Somehow I remain sceptical about the five frontline bowlers theory. Do we have an example in world cricket where five specialist bowlers have mattered in the one-day context? Even Australia restrict themselves to four quality bowlers. India looked for thoroughbreds when multi-dimensional cricketers are the call of one-day cricket. The likes of Arnold and Dilshan, Brad Hogg and Ashley Giles, Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi are able to don different hats in the fluid world of one-day cricket quickly. Remember: single-dimensional talents are easy to mark and sometimes a solitary arrow is enough to bring them down to earth. But if you are a chameleon, you can sneak in and move ahead with the furtiveness required in one-day cricket. One keeps hearing that this Indian team needs more time to turn around the corner. They will surely not be able to do so if the legs and spirits are as tardy as that of the present lot. — PTI |
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Who will wear the crown of thorns?
Mumbai, August 10 With incumbent Rahul Dravid not able to return triumphant from Sri Lanka, there is already a clamour for giving the most important job in Indian sport back to his predecessor Sourav Ganguly whose success percentage at the helm has been well-chronicled. Dravid replaced Ganguly as captain after the left-hander’s poor run with the bat against Pakistan in the last home series and his run-in with cricket officialdom resulted in him being banned for six ODIs which later got reduced to four. The Bengal stylist returned to top-level cricket after serving out his sentence with a half century against hosts and eventual champions Sri Lanka to put to rest the talk that he was past his best, at least for the time being. And now with Dravid’s lack of success in the tri-series where the team managed to beat only a second-string West Indies squad twice out of five matches it played, Ganguly’s case for a recall seems to have gathered strength. Sources in the BCCI said coach Greg Chappell would not attend the meeting to pick the captain. But Chappell would take part in the discussions the next day with the captain when the selectors meet here to choose the rest of the squad for the tri-series and two-Test series in Zimbabwe, they said. Cricket captaincy has for the most part been a crown of thorns for the wearer in India, with the incumbent almost always forced to continuously keep a watch over his shoulders. Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev were involved in a game of musical chairs in the early to mid-80s with the former, after replacing World Cup winning skipper Kapil at the helm in 1984, openly declaring his intention to relinquish the post even before India embarked on the triumphant visit to Australia for the World Championship of cricket in 1985. Ganguly’s first stint, since taking over the reins from Sachin Tendulkar who quit the hot seat on his own in 1999, in contrast, has been quite smooth as he led from the front, supported younger players to the hilt and also got splendid support from the seniors. He went on to become India’s most successful Test captain, led the squad to the World Cup final in 2003 after having guided it to the shared title in the ICC Champions Trophy a year earlier. But his loss of form with the bat, coupled with a spate of injuries that made him miss a few Tests and ODIs as well as repeated run-ins with ICC have put a question mark over his ability to continue as the captain.
— PTI |
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Indian hockey players for Pak Super League
Lahore, August 10 Announcing the details of the tournament yesterday, PHF Secretary Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan said six teams — one from each province — would take part in the inaugural Super League which would be played under lights from September 8 to 18 at the Hockey Club of Pakistan in Karachi. Meanwhile, Brigadier Khan lashed out at the Sohail and Waseem and accused the former of adopting “double-standard”. “In an interview, Sohail claimed he had great respect for the green shirt and the country but he preferred to play in the Netherlands,” he said. He said quality players from India would add sheen to the event. “India have confirmed that they are sending their top players,” he said. Each of the participating teams — Sindh Qalandars, Baloch Lions, Frontier Falcons, Shan-e-Punjab, Capital Dynamos and Northern Cavaliers — would have one Indian in their ranks, according to the PHF official. Earlier this year, a number of Pakistani players, including Sohail Abbas, were seen in action in the inaugural Premier Hockey League organised by the Indian Hockey Federation. Brigadier Khan also dismissed reports that European players had turned down the invitation to play in the Super League owing to security apprehension.
— UNI |
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Jackson, Shaheen corner glory
Helsinki, August 10 The 22-year-old declared afterwards that he would like to become the heir to the greatest athlete in the event’s history Ed Moses, who was on hand to greet him, but another Moses of the biblical variety would have been better employed earlier. The heavens opened and produced such a deluge that the championships were halted for almost two hours. Appropriately enough, it was at the water jump on the last lap of the 3,000m steeplechase where Qatar’s Saif Saaeed Shaheen made his decisive break from his former Kenyan compatriot Ezekiel Kemboi to easily retain his title. While Jackson announced himself as the new kid on the block, two years after being disqualified in the first round of the last championships, two champions lost their crowns. Defending 400 metres hurdles champion Felix Sanchez pulled up clutching his right hamstring in the final, but there was no doubt that the 27-year-old will be back. Having gone against doctor’s advice to race here — he had a broken bone in his right foot — the Olympic champion did well to even get to the final. However, Maria Mutola’s fourth place in the 800m final may have signified the end of the road for the three-time world champion, who now had just the Commonwealth Games crown to defend after losing her Olympic title last year. The 32-year-old Mozambiquean saw her world title go to the 25-year-old Cuban Yulia Catalayud, who in two successive Olympic finals had not been in the same class as her beaten rival. For Jackson, though, it was a case of at last coming of age, though, at 22 and only three years out of high school, it seemed a bit premature. “I am now a great athlete. Last year, I had a lot of technical problems, but they had been resolved,” said Jackson, who always competes in a headband inscribed ‘Richard Jackson RIP’, in honour of the uncle who inspired him to take up the event. However, there was only one target now for Jackson. “I want to be like Edwin Moses. Tonight was the first time I had ever met him. That is the man I want to be,” said the American. For Shaheen, victory was some consolation for having missed out on the Olympics last year, when the Kenyan National Olympic Committee forbade him to race with the Africans, still raging over his switch of allegiance to Qatar. “I regard it as a consolation prize (the world title) because I knew coming here that I was missing something and that was the Olympic title,” said the 22-year-old world record holder. However, despite the Kenyans being beaten into second and third place, there was no bitterness from silver
medalist and Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi. “I regard Shaheen as my good friend and that Qatar and not Kenya won the gold medal while we won silver and bronze,” said Kemboi, who also took silver in the 2003 championships.
— AFP |
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Ramesh in sight of title
New Delhi, August 10 Ramesh put a spoke in Valay Parikh’s winning steak to log nine points out of a possible 10, with three more rounds to go, in the tournament played in Swiss format. International Master P.D.S. Girinath, third seed B.S. Sivanandan, Asian junior champion S. Arun Prasad and B.T. Muralikrishna tied for the joint second position with eight points each. Parikh and M.R. Lalith Babu, overnight in joint second place, lost their matches to be in the third position at 7.5 points along with six others, IMs Lanka Ravi, P. Konguvel and R.R. laxman, D. Harika, M.S. Thej Kumar and Diwakar Prasad Singh. Twelve-year-old Lalit Babu of Andhra Pradesh lost to experienced Girinath while second seed Deepan Chakravarthy worsened his position after a draw with Himanshu Sharma. Woman Grandmaster Nisha Mohota suffered a defeat to get stuck on seven points. |
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