All posts by h716a5.icu

Plays of the Day from the quarterfinal between India and Australia in Ahmedabad

Brydon Coverdale and Nagraj Gollapudi at Motera24-Mar-2011The shot of the day
At his best, Ricky Ponting makes batting look as easy as breathing. Unfortunately for Australia, his best has not often been seen in the past year. But when Ponting advanced down the pitch and lifted Yuvraj Singh over cover for six, it appeared as simple as playing a forward defence. Ponting played some fine shots in his innings, but that stroke, which took him to 72, was the “wow” moment.The non-appeal
R Ashwin was so certain that he had Cameron White caught behind in the 38th over that he didn’t even bother appealing, clapping as he walked down the wicket to congratulate MS Dhoni on the catch. There was just one problem. White wasn’t going anywhere, and the umpire Marais Erasmus hadn’t raised his finger. A review was inevitable, but the replays showed Erasmus was spot on – the ball had lobbed up off White’s forearm as he tried to sweep, and had not touched his gloves as the bowler thought.Munaf redux
When Brad Haddin flung hands, shoulders, bat and bloody murder straight towards Munaf Patel in his second over, the man called Munna would have seen his life – or at least the World Cup – flash in front of his eyes. When Kevin Pietersen had lashed one at him in Bangalore, Munaf had flung up his hands to stop the ball, landed on his derriere, and seen the ball pop up tamely for the easiest of return catches. In Ahmedabad, Haddin’s retort had been so fierce, that the ball burst through his palms and screamed all the way to the boundary.The Warne moment
Sachin Tendulkar brought the full house to its feet by coming on to bowl the 30 over. Having bowled a full toss on his second ball, Tendulkar might have given the Aussies a false sense of comfort. His next delivery was a perfect slow leg break, straight out of Shane Warne’s book. The flight was perfect, luring Ponting to come out, but then it dipped and then it turned square, leaving Ponting, the Indians and the 45,000 fans gasping.The DRS moment
India got their DRS reviews muddled not once but twice. Egged on by Munaf, Dhoni asked for a review when Brad Haddin was hit on the left thigh. Even the naked eye could tell that the ball, even if it had pitched on middle, was travelling over the stumps. Replays confirmed that and the Indians returned to business abashed. The second review was used unsuccessfully for the Ashwin-White appeal. Once strident opponents of the DRS, the Indians were in a rush to use it today, and eventually Ricky Ponting escaped a certain lbw shout when on 91.Catch controversy of the day
Ricky Ponting. India. A catch that fell short. It had all the combustible ingredients required for an A-grade blow-up. When Gautam Gambhir clipped a Shane Watson delivery to square leg and Ponting dived forward in an attempt to get his fingers under the ball. It wasn’t immediately clear whether a clean catch had been taken. But lest there be any flashbacks to Sydney, Ponting didn’t appear to claim the catch this time, and let the umpires decide what to do. They went upstairs for help and the TV official saw a replay that clearly showed the ball bouncing short of Ponting’s hands. The crowd was unhappy with the Australia captain, but he seemed to have done nothing wrong, uncertain if he had grasped the ball cleanly or not.Harikari of the day
Two overs, four balls, three run-out chances. India needed 94 with six still standing, Ricky Ponting, who could hit a bulls eye wearing a pirate’s patch a year ago, squandered the first juicy chance. Yuvraj Singh tapped Mitchell Johnson to the leg side, straight towards Ponting at midwicket. Yuvraj was disinclined to sprint, but his partner Gautam Gambhir was already out off the blocks. He was turned away by Yuvraj, was left stranded out of the crease, but Ponting who failed to pick up the ball cleanly, and when he did, his throw missed by inches.Two balls later there was more. Yuvraj played all over a fastish David Hussey delivery, and the ball rolled towards the unmanned leg side. Gambhir screamed for a single. Yuvraj, disinterested initially, started and stopped. Gambhir twisted and turned. But Brad Haddin, who had rushed to collect the ball threw to the wrong end. Gambhir, who was left stranded for the second time, walked back to safety. Amazingly the duo had another absolutely identical brain fade off the very next delivery. Gambhir was left stranded and fuming, and this time the Aussies made sure they were not going to let the Indian pair escape. Gambhir walked off shaking his head in disgust and mouthing abuse that would have horrified a few million parents watching with offspring for company.

The weather wasn’t too hot, nor was the bowling, but the Sri Lankan batsmen gave the fans something to shout about

Adam Shoesmith16-May-2011Choice of game
It was an easy decision to go to this one. Never before did I have such a short journey to make to a cricket match: a 20-minute bus journey to see a world-class international team for a mere £10. It makes the £70 that Lord’s are charging for next month’s Test look positively astronomical in comparison. After Strauss helped himself to a century on day one, I predicted a dominant Sri Lanka would rack up the runs.Team supported
With no great loyalty to either side, I was looking for a good day’s play. Early on, Dilshan had a half-hearted appeal against him and at that point I was certainly hoping he would stay in so I could see more of him in action. However, by the time tea ticked around I was desperate to see Middlesex take a wicket that didn’t involve the word “retired”.Key performer
How could it be anyone other than Dilshan? He was still probably jet-lagged, and a swirling, biting wind across the pitch could have made life difficult for Sri Lanka’s new captain, but he thrived on a flat track against a listless, impotent Middlesex attack to kickstart his campaign on English soil with a century. His acceleration in the morning to take himself to 69 by lunch, while Paranavithana was down the other end on half that score, was the most impressive aspect of the performance.One thing you’d have changed about the day
The weather. It was a day of thick woolly jumpers all round. A cold wind, with heavy cloud and spitting rain, was only partially interrupted by the briefest rays of sunshine. Not much problem if you are playing, but very chilly for stationary spectators. Jumpers in the merchandise tent sold out before lunch.The interplay you enjoyed
Unfortunately this game was not much of a contest. Middlesex were just unable to apply any consistent pressure. This was to be expected as they played many of their 2nd XI bowlers, but it meant the most gentle and sedate of introductions to English conditions that the tourists could have hoped for, and little for the crowd to get stuck into.Wow moment
A period in the morning session where Dilshan clearly thought he was still batting for Royal Challengers Bangalore, taking 14 runs from Tom Smith’s first over of the day.Shot of the day
From that expensive over, the big shot of the day was a smashed six straight by Dilshan, over the bowler’s head, over the sightscreen, out of the ground, and into a nearby residential front garden. It took a few minutes to fetch that one back.Player watch
I sat by the players’ balcony, and there was a steady buzz throughout the day as an army of Sri Lankan fans had taken advantage of the small, intimate ground, plus the relaxed nature of their heroes, to get as many autographs and photos as possible. The Middlesex players did not have much to cheer; the most animated that young bowler Gurjit Sandhu, fielding near me, got was when motioning to the balcony for liquid refreshment. He must have been tired from having to fetch the ball from the boundary so often.Crowd meter
The large turnout of Sri Lankan fans helped boost not only numbers, but to create a bit of a buzz around the ground. I am sad to report that yet again the anti-fun police sprung immediately into action when a Sri Lankan fan dared to wave his small flag around in support. I simply do not understand why flags are banned from matches at some grounds in this country. This was a warm-up match, played in front of just a few hundred people, it wasn’t televised… was he really doing any “harm” with his flag? It was a highlight, though, when after remonstrations with stewards, the flag owner offered the witty riposte: “So, will you also be confiscating that Sri Lankan flag flying above the pavilion too, then?”Entertainment
Good selection of food on offer from the Indian stall, including those favourite staples – and . Braver folk than I sank cold beers and ice-cream on what was an unseasonally cold day in Uxbridge. I think cups of tea were the day’s number one seller.County v Twenty20
Following the World Cup and a recent diet of two matches daily of sugary IPL, this certainly looked like a return to the more patient long form of the game. Overcast conditions, the red Duke ball, and a 90% male crowd with scoring books in hand certainly gave this illusion off the pitch. On it, however, clearly no one had told the Sri Lankans, who cantered along at over five runs an over. Their innings would not have looked out of place in a 50-over game.Overall
Seven on 10. A great, inexpensive day out for a cricket fan of any denomination, seeing two world-class players make fine centuries, even though there was nothing by way of competition or contest between the two sides. You were out of luck if you were hoping to see any wickets.

The Australia allrounder’s account of how he overcame injury to become integral to his side gives you the story, but the telling is not spectacular

Daniel Brettig23-Oct-2011Had Shane Watson maintained faith in the advice of Cricket Australia’s medical staff, he might easily have been invalided out of the game by now, forever to be regarded as a subject of ridicule. Stricken by recurring injuries at the age of 26, seemingly the result of a body that could not adapt to the demands of bowling, Watson reached the limit of his endurance four years ago. A hamstring had twinged yet again at the wrong moment, this time during the 2007 World Twenty20. Watson was told by CA’s exasperated medical minds “there’s nothing more we can do for you”. That exasperation was shared by the Australian public, some of whom had taken to using his name as a byword for flakiness.This advice sent Watson spinning at first, but ultimately whirred him towards Victor Popov, a physiotherapist of world renown with fundamentals drawn from life with the Australian Olympic team and also the relentless world of European cycling. With Popov’s help, Watson reshaped his attitudes and retuned his body, to the point that he is among the most durable and indispensable members of the Australian team. He also commands far more respect as a cricketer and a leader than anyone might have thought possible in 2007. Watson’s is a story rich with meaning, and one of the many lessons to be drawn from his journey is that the vague or the second-best should never be accepted.Given that, it is sad to relate that Watson’s autobiography is a clunky piece of work. The story is there, and so are plenty of frank observations; admirable, too, is Watson’s motivation for writing, which was to encourage others to seek out additional medical opinions when sport or life seem to have presented an insurmountable obstacle. Yet the manner of the telling leaves much to be desired. The book’s pleasures are those of the potboiler, not the well-constructed work. Having released at more or less the height of his powers, Watson can be expected to pen another tome once his career ends. It is to be hoped that the lessons of his cricket and his body will be applied to any subsequent depictions of his life.Having begun with the aforementioned medical advice in 2007, Watson and Thomson cast back to the start. These scenes are perhaps the most affecting ones featured in the pages, showing Watson dealing with stress fractures for the first time when only 13, and living a young life devoted almost utterly to cricket. Take this passage on Watson as a teenager: “I never went to parties in high school because I always had cricket the next day, and I never used to smoke pot like everyone else. I loved playing cricket and I wasn’t interested in anything that might interfere with that. As for girls, when I was at school I suppose I was always a bit of a nerd in a way. We weren’t that well-off and I never had all the new fashions. Also, whatever my dad wore, I thought was cool. I guess I was an under-achiever on the social side.”The very next paragraph deals with Watson’s early motivation in cricket, and can perhaps explain a number of his decisions, both cricketing and commercial, down the years. Fame was always in his sights: “I wanted to do something so that people knew I existed. I was going to make a name for myself in whatever way I possibly could, and the obvious way was through cricket.”Stress fractures and social ineptitude subsided enough for Watson to grow into a promising young allrounder, and he attended the Cricket Academy alongside Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Hauritz. It was there that Rod Marsh lauded Watson’s batting technique and, with Queensland in the midst of its most prodigious success, helped engineer his temporary move south to a grateful Tasmania.A first-class debut encounter with the spurned Bulls is recounted vividly, where the senior batsman Stuart Law went out of his way to make the young Watson uncomfortable about moving states. Here Watson relays one of his most important lessons, about the need to build strong relationships within a team: “Even if you’re a brilliant player, if nobody likes being around you, as soon as there’s an opportunity, you’re gone.” Having absorbed many of Law’s barbs, Watson asked him in a subsequent Sheffield Shield match why he made 56 not out on Test debut then never played again, and pushed the point that he may not have been popular among team-mates. Law lost his composure, and soon after, his wicket.

“I never went to parties in high school because I always had cricket the next day, and I never used to smoke pot like everyone else. I loved playing cricket and I wasn’t interested in anything that might interfere with that. As for girls, when I was at school I suppose I was always a bit of a nerd in a way. We weren’t that well-off and I never had all the new fashions”Watson looks back at his growing-up years

The passages that detail Watson’s rejuvenation as a physical specimen with Popov, and also as a batsman with the help of Greg Chappell in 2008-09, are instructive. His thoughts on the demise of Andrew Symonds – a rival but also a state team-mate – are clear. The 2006 boot camp engineered by John Buchanan is recounted in detail; Watson enjoying a ringside seat as the coach and his most wayward pupil, Shane Warne, were grouped together.But there are also swathes of the contradictory and the grating. Watson’s recollections of the 2008 Nagpur Test against India, when Ricky Ponting let his tactical thinking be damagingly clouded by the matter of over rates, centre on the poor health of Michael Clarke and Brett Lee. There is no mention that Ponting did not call on either Watson or Mitchell Johnson until India had wriggled clear of a parlous position, only a frustrated jab at the media. It is not the only time Watson trains his sights on those who cover the game.Recurring through the pages are a series of “drinks breaks”, brief passages on various topics. Some, like a comparison between county and Shield cricket, are useful, some are rote (Australian and international pitches get a fairly humdrum run-through), and some leave a nastier taste. Watson has always spoken generously and fairly in public, but he offers plenty of criticism of the media, generally suggesting that their observations and stories are too harsh, too critical. All this feels a little forced, especially when many of Watson’s own opinions elsewhere are as bold and sugarless as anything found in the daily press.Last summer’s Ashes offer the best example. Watson describes Australian cricket being “at an all-time low” following the “disaster” of a home defeat to England. Looking at team selections for the series, Watson reckons the bowlers were “absolutely shitting themselves” each time they took the field, for fear of being dropped for one poor performance, while the batsmen were unaccountably cloistered. He also lashes out at the CA decision-makers, who ignored David Saker’s skill as a bowling coach to the point that he was employed by England. “It’s been very frustrating over the last couple of years to see some of our best coaches not coaching where they should be,” Watson laments.Watson’s general tone is one of frankness and honesty, if a little self-justification, yet the book’s is that of the cash-grab. There are views within publishing in Australia that quality does not sell and that populist, lowest-common-denominator fare will do better with a public perceived to be losing interest in anything that delves too far beyond the shiny surface. A better book may have been crafted over a longer time-span, employed a co-writer with a greater background in cricket, and found a voice more authoritative than that found at times within these pages. But it would also have been more expensive to write, edit, print and publish, and may not have been ready precisely in time for the outset of the Australian summer. Still, Watson’s own contributions are measurably fuller and better than those in many cricket biographies in the past – the same books he mentions reading in vast quantities as a youth.Ultimately the player that comes through in these pages is a man who has learned much about himself and his body, and who has remained honest and transparent in his opinions throughout his time in cricket. The great pity of is that the lessons that have taken its subject from an injury-speckled beginning to a successful and pivotal present place in Australian cricket have not been applied quite so rigorously to his story. There is a great book to be written about Shane Watson, but this is not it.Watto
Shane Watson with Jimmy Thomson
Allen and Unwin
A$35

A back injury, technical problems and a tendency to have big batting peaks and troughs have all contributed to his Test troubles

Daniel Brettig at the Adelaide Oval24-Jan-2012A handful of months ago in Sri Lanka, Shaun Marsh reminded Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke how to bat in a Test match. Calm, judgement, awareness of the off stump, leaving the ball with intent, forcing the bowler to drift straighter in search of wickets, and concentration maintained over a period of hours. Neither Ponting nor Clarke were entirely in command of their games at the time, but Marsh showed them precisely how to do it. His 141 on debut in Kandy was the consummate top order innings, an 81 in his second match in Colombo not far behind. No-one watching from the dressing room or the stands was in any doubt that Australia had found their new No. 3.Yet here was Marsh in Adelaide, pondering an uncertain future in the players’ viewing area as Ponting and Clarke showed him exactly how well they had learned from his example. Marsh had lasted 12 balls for 3, his stay ended when he brought his defensive blade across straight delivery from R Ashwin that went on to flick the off stump. Since returning to the team after a back injury, Marsh has tallied 17 runs in five innings. Among top six Test batsmen to have played at least as many innings in a series, only the teenaged Ken Rutherford’s West Indian nightmare of 1985 has been worse. With Shane Watson in the wings, there can now be no guarantee that Marsh will be given the chance to venture to the Caribbean himself. In batting terms, he has a migraine that cannot seem to be shaken.As Noel Gallagher found himself asking in song after Oasis receded from their peak, Marsh had to ponder the question: where did it all go wrong? Injury had something to do with it, certainly. A back complaint hobbled him when set in the first innings of the incomprehensible Cape Town Test against South Africa, and kept him out of the team until the start of the India series in Melbourne, near enough to two months later. He was kept around the squad as much as possible, in line with the team performance manager Pat Howard’s emphasis on the value of proximity and communication, and proved his fitness for Boxing Day by coshing an unbeaten 99 for the Perth Scorchers in the Twenty20 Big Bash League.While the injury was inconvenient, it could not have ruined Marsh’s game so comprehensively as it has appeared during the India Tests. Marsh, it must be said, is used to the rhythms of rehabilitation, having fought a succession of back and hamstring problems dating back to his earliest stints in the Australian limited-overs team. Each time he has resumed and done well enough to keep himself in the selectors’ thoughts, while in three summers preceding the winter of 2011 he had compiled enough Sheffield Shield runs to make the Test squad for Sri Lanka. The back complaint did not help Marsh, but its obstacles were not insurmountable.

Among top six Test batsmen to have played at least five innings in a series, only the teenaged Ken Rutherford’s West Indian nightmare of 1985 has been worse than Marsh’s 17 runs

Technique can also be ruled out as the sole source of Marsh’s troubles. His run of dismissals has not resembled that of Phillip Hughes against New Zealand, the monotony being more to do with the slim nature of his scores than the manner of his exits. In Melbourne Marsh was caught at point and bowled off an inside edge, in Sydney he edged a delivery zipping away from him, in Perth he edged one angling across, and Adelaide had him bowled between bat and pad by Ashwin’s straight-break. If anything there has been a trace of the tentative about Marsh’s approach, a fact acknowledged by Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur. But a man once described by a team-mate as “technically the best player in the country” should have more than enough motor resources to keep out an Indian attack more modest than menacing.The best clues as to why Marsh has proven so unable to match the standards he had set in his first series can arguably be found in his own personal history. Since the start of his time in the first-class game, Marsh has invariably followed feast with famine, or famine with feast. He had gone seven innings with a highest score of 46 before he made a Sheffield Shield 119 against New South Wales that so impressed Steve Waugh. It was another 12 innings, with a highest of 47, before he added a second century. So it has gone for most of Marsh’s career since, in a pattern common to many Western Australian batsmen of recent vintage. Marcus North, Adam Voges, Luke Ronchi and Liam Davis, contemporaries all, have uncannily similar knacks for extremes, though they span a broad gamut of character and batting style. Not surprisingly, trophies have eluded them.Another element to the Marsh conundrum is the self-imposed pressure of scoring runs at home. A century at the height of summer can carry far more perceived weight than a finer one constructed on foreign shores when the nation’s minds are occupied by other things. Marsh was watched by his father Geoff in Sri Lanka, but few others. In Australia he has found himself being questioned by a great deal more pairs of eyes, on surfaces that have punished a moment’s hesitation against the new ball. There have been other talented batsmen to freeze under this spotlight, Michael Bevan, Greg Blewett and North among them.Clarke and Ponting also dealt with poor scores and the selectors’ wrath during home Tests. Both lost their place (Ponting in 1996 and 1998, Clarke in 2005), and emerged much the stronger for it. They were granted recalls after returning to domestic ranks and clattering plenty of runs, an option open to the selectors if they choose to omit Marsh from the triangular limited-overs series squad that follows two Twenty20 matches in Sydney and Melbourne. Either way, Marsh’s place in the Test team is now well and truly out of his hands, and it would take a very generous selection panel indeed to allow him the chance to seek another overseas feast in Barbados, Trinidad and Guyana.

A T20 friendly between an International XI and Asia XI in Toronto’s Rogers Centre was hit by poor organisation. The saving grace, though, was that the loyal fans were just happy to be there

Faraz Sarwat15-May-2012For what may be the first time ever in a Twenty20 match, international cricketers actually got to sit in a genuine, bona fide, baseball dugout. Toronto’s impressive Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome), home of Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays, on Saturday hosted what was to be a match between an International XI and an Asia XI. Both teams looked good on paper, with the Asia XI apart from having Sanath Jayasuriya, Tamim Iqbal and Nasir Hossain, also slated to have the bulk of the Pakistan team: Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Akmal and Hammad Azam, not to mention the inventor of the doosra himself – Saqlain Mushtaq.Lining up against them was to be a Brian Lara led team that included the likes of Jacob Oram, Tim Southee, Kyle Mills, Stuart MacGill and a trio of wicketkeepers: Mark Boucher, Brendan Taylor and Canada’s own Ashish Bagai.Word had been out for a few days prior to the match, that there were issues surrounding the participation of Pakistan’s players, but it was only on the eve of the match that organisers formally announced that the Pakistanis would not be coming because of NOC issues. Tamim was also quietly removed from the players’ roster without official explanation. The press conference went on with the organisers putting on a brave face despite the setback, while players practiced behind them looking tired but enjoying being in the Rogers Centre. After spending countless hours flying Auckland-Sydney-Abu Dhabi-Toronto, New Zealand’s Tim Southee was irritated to learn that there was a direct flight from Auckland to Vancouver, and then a short one to Toronto. MacGill and Grant Flower expressed disappointment at not having the Pakistanis playing and with the roof of the Rogers Centre closed on a warm and sunny day, the mood seemed sombre.Match Day and with the news of the Pakistan stars’ absence more widely known, many in the crowd seemed subdued going into the great stadium. Toronto is one of the world’s great cosmopolitan cities and fans showed up wearing jerseys of players from West Indies, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa you name it – even Canada. When Canada’s Rizwan Cheema was told there were a few fans wearing jerseys with his name, he said “there were more than a few – there were like, ten or twelve” prompting Cricket Canada president Ravin Moorthy to kid Cheema about how he knew that.Once into the stadium anticipation grew, but it was hard not to feel for the fans wearing Afridi jerseys and clutching Pakistani flags. The mood during the match was going to depend a lot on them.With the Pakistanis out, the Canadian duo of Bagai and Cheema were shifted to the Asia XI and were joined by Canadian team-mates, Jimmy Hansra, Ruvindu Gunasekera and Hiral Patel, whose aggressive World Cup half-century against Australia would not have escaped the notice of the bigger names in the International XI.Toss time, and Jayasuriya came out with Boucher instead of Lara. Lara was said to have arrived in Toronto the previous evening but nobody seemed to know where he was. Boucher won the toss for him, and decided to bat when word came down that Lara was being replaced in the line-up with yet another Canadian player, Cecil Parvez. At this point, no one would have blamed the crowd if they expressed their displeasure with a chorus of boos, but instead a remarkable thing happened – when the umpire standing at what would be 2nd base called play, the crowd enthusiastically cheered the first ball and groaned when Devon Smith patted it back to the bowler Chanaka Welegedara. This crowd was here to enjoy a Twenty20 match and it didn’t matter too much who was playing.A few overs in, Lara was finally spotted in the players’ dugout in his street clothes. Misplaced chants of “Pakistan Zindabad” were now replaced with “Lara, Lara”. The great man appeared unmoved.Meanwhile, the game continued and every boundary, every stop, every catch, every quick ball (those courtesy of Tino Best) were vociferously cheered. The boo-birds only came out once, when Hossain let a catch drop a couple of feet in front of him. The loudest and most sustained cheer of the match came when Saqlain, the only Pakistan player on show, was given the ball. Jacob Oram who had struck two big sixes off Jayasuriya in the previous over, attempted a third off Saqlain that went high but was expertly caught by Hossain within an inch of the boundary rope – the crowd went wild, for Saqlain’s wicket, Hossain’s redemptive catch and Oram’s whirlwind innings.With the Asia XI now dominated by Canadian players, Cheema found himself in a partnership with Patel and both struck powerful shots off MacGill, Oram, Mills and Best. A half-tracker from Oram was duly smashed by Cheema for the biggest six of the game.The Asia XI, unfancied in this match and chasing a target of 165, won the game with an over to spare, in no small part because of the efforts of the Canadian players and a vintage assault from Jayasuriya who hit a six and seven fours in his innings of 41.An estimated crowd of 12,000 looked small in the massive Rogers Centre, but they had a great time and once again this match showed the potential of cricket in Canada – as a destination for foreign teams, but also for more games involving Canada itself. Fans do appreciate the game here and are starting to learn who the players are on the Canadian team, something that can only further fuel the growth of cricket in Canada and get a few more people wearing Cheema jerseys.

Ahead of Stuart Broad’s 50th Test appearance, and 100th first-class game, he reflects on his career to date

Interview by George Dobell16-Aug-20122005: The beginning
I had an offer from Durham University and a contract offer from Leicestershire. I took the contract home to my mum and we decided I should approach my cricket career as someone else might an apprenticeship in another profession, such as plumbing. University was a real temptation, but the decision worked well, and a year or so later I was playing for England.2006: England ODI debut
I had only played six List A games before my ODI debut, so the selectors took a bit of a gamble on me. But there are two ways to learn, aren’t there? You can spend years learning your trade in the county game, or you can be thrown in at the deep end. I feel very fortunate that they did that with me. It was an intense experience, but I learned quickly and feel it was hugely beneficial for me. I’m 26 now and most bowlers peak between 28 and 32.2007: Being hit for six sixes in an over by Yuvraj Singh
It was a learning experience. I’d had a good summer but, it turned out, I didn’t have the variations required for that level of international cricket. When you’re growing up, you’re taught to bowl six balls in the same spot, but after that I learned pretty quickly that you have to mix it up. It was all part of the learning curve. The other thing was, at least that over didn’t cost us anything. We were already out of the competition and it was a dead game.2008: Leaving Leicestershire for Nottinghamshire
I developed through the system at Leicestershire and consider myself very fortunate to have done so. They were fantastic for me. A bigger, richer club wouldn’t have put me in the first team so soon but at Grace Road I had lots of opportunity. But, at the time, I wasn’t in the Test side and the view was that I needed to be playing Division One cricket. There’s a huge gap between the two divisions now. Nottinghamshire have been brilliant. Mick Newell is an amazing coach and man manager, the facilities are excellent, and it’s a big club playing in the top division. I’ve not looked back.2009: Man of the Match at The Oval as England beat Australia to reclaim the Ashes
That changed my life. I was only 23 and it had been a tough summer, but that spell turned it around. It was a special time. And the celebrations after the series were even more special. We became celebrities after that series. It was the biggest series I had played to date and, at the time, it was probably my career highlight.2011: Hat-trick against India at Trent Bridge
That’s what I see as my career highlight. It annoys me when people say India were rubbish in that series. It makes me think that they know nothing about cricket. India were a very strong side and, until then, they had us under real pressure. We were under the pump in that game. We had been bowled out cheaply in the first innings and they passed us with only four wickets down. But then I was able to put my hand up in a big game on my home ground and we bowled them out in about an hour. India were a good side, but we were fantastic in that series.Current workload
I’m not one to complain about playing cricket. We’re very lucky, aren’t we? I love playing cricket, and when you think about those people who have to get up on a cold morning and go to work on a building site, you realise pretty quickly no one wants to hear us moaning. It’s true that we’re away from home a lot, but a million people would swap positions with us in an instant. And you’re a long time retired.Yes, I play all three formats and yes I’d like to play IPL, but the priority is playing for England. It is with most guys. When you look back on your career, it is the memories you make playing for your country that are most special.The England set-up is very well managed now, too. Andrew Flintoff just played until he broke. That doesn’t happen anymore. Every ball we deliver, in the nets or in the middle, is monitored, and we are told when we need a break. We’re very well looked after.Bowling speeds this summer
I don’t think the speed guns should be trusted. We don’t really see the figures from those as players, anyway, but the way I understand it, the speeds have been down for the South Africa bowlers too. There’s no way Dale Steyn is bowling at 79mph, I promise you. We use Hawk-Eye data2012: South Africa at Lord’s
This Test against South Africa is huge. We have a good record at Lord’s and we are very excited by the challenge. It is a must-win game and we are up against one of the best sides we’ve played. It’s a huge challenge but one I absolutely believe we can overcome.Stuart Broad was speaking at West Bridgfordians CC. The club is one of three who have won the chance to take on the NatWest Legends in a one-off match to help boost their fundraising efforts. To find out more about the NatWest Locals vs Legends T20 Series and for more details about all three matches, visit natwest.com/cricket

Twenty20 rankings change very quickly, but for a few days Ireland were above Australia which did not go down well for the men in green and gold

David Hopps in Colombo18-Sep-2012Ireland’s cricketers have never been slow to see the funny side of life, but the one about them being higher than Australia in the ICC Twenty20 rankings is perhaps a dangerous example of taking a gag too far. The way the Australian batsmen were thudding sixes against the roof of the clubhouse at Colts Cricket Club, scaring the crows and showering the tables with rust, they cannot produce the sort of victory to force a change of subject soon enough.”I haven’t read a lot about it… I heard that we went above them for a while,” said William Porterfield, Ireland’s captain, successfully keeping a straight face as if rankings were the last thing on his mind. Australia, as it happens, are now ranked ninth to Ireland’s tenth, but when you have a proud history like Australia’s that is not the sort of overtaking you boast about.The rankings, outside the Great Brown Land, have become a bit of a lark, so much so that as one Australian observer pointed out, it is easily forgotten that they actually reached the final in Barbados two years ago before losing to England. They also came within nine runs of England in a warm-up on Monday, and England (equally dubiously in some eyes) are ranked No. 1.But the statistic has fun-poking potential and, since arriving in Sri Lanka, Australian players have become practiced at staring blankly into the mid-distance whenever the topic is raised, as if they were being asked a very dull question about differential calculus.”The rankings mean absolutely nothing once the tournament starts,” said George Bailey, Australia’s T20 captain. “I don’t know how the rankings work but we obviously haven’t been as consistent as we would have liked. I can’t believe that teams will be taking it easy against us based on where we are ranked. Particularly in a World Cup, rankings go out of the window. You don’t start at 0 for 100 if you are ranked higher.”Bailey is an easy-going, laconic sort of guy but he would need the generous nature of his namesake in Frank Capra’s not to yearn for the sort of dismissive, bullying display against Ireland in Wednesday’s opening match at the Premadasa Stadium which will bring all this conversation to a stop.If David Warner and Shane Watson cut loose at the top of the order that is what he may get, but Mike Hussey apart, Australia’s middle order has to up its game. Cameron White, the man Bailey replaced as captain, has barely made a run since his recall; Glenn Maxwell, who wants to be the x-factor, has talked a good game and now must play one; and the captain himself, praised as an inclusive and quick-witted leader, would love to prove that he has international batting credentials. Two young quicks, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, and the oldest spinner in town, Brad Hogg, will be relied upon for penetration with the ball.Bailey is the unsung Australian captain, in charge of a format that his country is still struggling to accept. A far more famous Tasmanian batsman and captain, Ricky Ponting, voiced suspicions from the outset and things have changed slowly since. Australia remains, in essence, a conservative country where traditions matter.”My personal view is that it has taken a little while for Australia to take Twenty20 seriously,” said Bailey. “For many years we picked teams with a lot of guys who hadn’t played a lot of international cricket and we changed that team a lot and we changed guys’ roles. Like any format if you can give guys a run then you start to get more consistent performances. That has been a big focus of ours. I think we are starting to get there.”I guess the players understand that at times it is not the truest test of your skill. But if you look at the success of our Big Bash competition last year I have no doubt players are now cottoning on to how to best play T20 cricket and hopefully we will soon begin to see the results.”This was a more considered assessment than that volunteered by one Australian holidaymaker in Colombo who the previous evening, after professing that he did not even know the tournament was taking place, gathered together enough knowledge to tell ESPNcricinfo: “We don’t give a hoot for T20.””I’m not sure he spoke for everyone,” said Bailey. “I think Australians are pretty competitive and if there is a tournament on the line they like to be winning it. He is probably throwing that out there because we have not been winning them. I bet if we win he’ll be pretty proud of it. At the end of the day Australia has one trophy that is not in its cabinet and that is Twenty20 World Cup and that is something we would like to rectify.”I’m pretty confident. The last couple of weeks I think have been great for this team to spend some time together. Once you understand how the guys around you are going to play you have that real structure in your head and you’ve got a real sense of what the team’s going to do. It feels like the team really grows a leg.”Ireland will rely on Craig McDermott, the former Australian quick who is acting as a bowling consultant in this series, to give them an edge. “I’m a gun for hire now and I have worked very hard with these boys and we need a win,” McDermott said. “I do think we have got a very good chance. Australia would be nervous about losing to Ireland.”When you work with a side like Australia or England there are more staff and it’s all laid on for the players. But the way Ireland have prepared for this tournament, with the funding they have, they have done a great job and I am looking forward to them putting Australia under pressure.”Ireland only have one T20 victory to their credit against a full-member side but their World Cup wins over 50 overs against England last year in Bangalore or Pakistan in Jamaica will persuade them that anything is possible. Nothing excites them more than the prospect of a spot of giant-killing and Australia, whatever the rankings might tell you, are as big as it gets. No wonder Australia’s coach, Micky Arthur, says he will only rest if and when this match is safely negotiated.

Shakib Al Hasan began the day by becoming Bangladesh’s highest wicket-taker in Tests; he ended it by missing a century by three runs

Mohammad Isam in Khulna24-Nov-2012Shakib Al Hasan was out to a rash shot off what was eventually the last ball of the fourth day in Khulna. He had made 97, and walked back admonishing himself and not his luck. His sizeable contribution, however, had prevented Bangladesh from being finished off inside four days. From 82 for 5, Shakib saved his team from embarrassment, at least for another day, and before that effort with the bat, he had become Bangladesh’s highest wicket-taker in Tests, with 102 wickets.Shakib wasn’t able to speak to reporters after the day’s play because he had reportedly injured his right shin and needed a scan. A man of few words, it is unlikely Shakib would have been able to convey what he felt after breaking Mohammad Rafique’s record of 100 Test wickets, and after missing his third century.Not long after he had completed his 52nd over, Shakib was needed in the middle once again, because of what transpired in the first 45 minutes of Bangladesh’s innings. The standout aspect of Shakib’s innings was how he did not get flustered by the happenings around him. After watching senior batsman Shahriar Nafees and his captain Mushfiqur Rahim fall to terrible shots, Shakib began a 144-run association with Nasir Hossain.As the day wore on, however, and Shakib neared his hundred, he may have got more anxious. Hossain said later that his partner had been eager to reach his century. If Shakib hadn’t fallen when he did, there may have been an extra over before stumps were called. Shakib had, it seemed, given himself little time to reach his milestone.He had been patiently rebuilding Bangladesh’s innings, and then moved from 72 to 86 with two straight hits, a four and a six, and a clipped four to fine leg, all off Sunil Narine. After moving into the nineties with a streaky boundary off Fidel Edwards, Shakib played six more deliveries before giving it away to Veerasammy Permaul. He reacted with hurt rather than the sheer anger when he fell for 89 in Mirpur. It was the third time he’d been dismissed in the 90s, to go with an unbeaten 96.”Shakib Al Hasan became what he is by playing like this,” Hossain said. “There’s a lot to learn from Shakib, and I don’t think anyone else is able to give such services to Bangladesh. I think Shakib is mentally very strong.”When Shakib hit [Sunil] Narine in that over, I understood he was willing to complete the hundred today. Before that over I had told him to just pick the singles and reach the hundred. A lot of things work in your mind when you reach that stage.”Despite the dismissal for 97 or because of it, it is Shakib’s bowling that stood out on the day, as he completed a milestone he had been waiting for, for 11 months. By dismissing Permaul, Shakib went past left-arm spinner Rafique, who led Bangladesh’s attack between 2000 and 2008, as his country’s top wicket-taker. Shakib took over the mantle of leader immediately after Rafique’s retirement and has been similarly over-bowled. Yet he has ensured the quality of his batting has not been compromised.He had been struggling with the ball during this series, so when he got his first wicket in his 49th over, there was a lot of relief. Only Shakib could have waited so long for his wicket, and he began the fourth day with new vigor and a lot of flight. Two balls later, he had Sammy caught at slip, his 100th wicket, and in his next over he had Permaul caught at short cover. Narine’s wicket gave Shakib figures of 4 for 37 from 14 overs in the morning session.”I didn’t think of celebrating 100 wickets. I was just relieved that I finally started getting wickets today,” Shakib said. “I was forcing myself to bowl better today.”The responsibilities Shakib performs for Bangladesh can be a drain on physical and mental strength. The size of his workload also poses an injury risk. Shakib, however, will have to carry on.

From Tim Wigmore, United Kingdom

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013
Ashish Bagai was one of the best wicketkeepers in the World Cup, and Canada’s best batsman as well•Getty Images
Imrul Kayes
While Tamim fired only briefly, his less obtrusive opening partner was the nearest Bangladesh had to a reliable batsman this tournament. Kayes provided the backbone for their successful chases over England and Netherlands, winning the Man-of-the-Match award in both games.Ed Joyce
His long-awaited return to Ireland colours was a disappointment in many ways – how Joyce will rue his soft dismissal against Bangladesh. But his 84 against West Indies, which begun with consecutive boundaries, was a testament to his class: he is surely the most aesthetically pleasing batsman any of the Associate nations possess.Collins Obuya
He is remembered for his sharp-turning leg-spin in the 2003 World Cup, when he took 5-24 in the victory against Sri Lanka. Obuya’s bowling has since subsided, but he has reinvented himself as a top-order batsman of genuine quality, as 243 tournament runs illustrates. It was a great shame he ended 98* against Australia, after he had handled Tait, Lee and Johnson with the calm of a Test player.Niall O’Brien
O’Brien will be extremely frustrated reflecting on this World Cup: he made starts in every innings but only once past 50. O’Brien’s relish for a challenge was illustrated by hitting Morne Morkel for six over long-on, one of the shots of the tournament, and an average in excess of 40 shows the quality of this most industrious of cricketers.Ashish Bagai (wicketkeeper)
Bagai was one of the best wicketkeepers on display in this World Cup, keeping with poise to seam and spin alike. And with the bat he was easily Canada’s best player, taking them to victory over Kenya and scoring an elegant 84 at almost a-run-a-ball against New Zealand.Ryan ten Doeschate
ten Doeschate came into the tournament with a reputation as the best Associate player in the world, and, with a century of both brawn and finesse against England, he quickly went about justifying it. Though runs proved harder to score thereafter, he chipped in with a half-century in difficult circumstances against Bangladesh, before ending the tournament with another magnificent hundred. His wicket-to-wicket bowling also troubled England.Kevin O’Brien
Critics will say he only played one innings of note, but what an innings. O’Brien 113 against England – including 45 off 15 balls during the batting powerplay – will be remembered for decades. As a display of brutal, calculated hitting it is hard to beat – and an IPL contract could be the ultimate reward.Shafiul Islam
Belying his ODI average of under 6, and three ducks in five innings this tournament, Shafiul proceeded to smash Swann and Anderson down the ground en route to raiding England for a match-winning 24*. His pace, movement and accuracy earned him 4/21 to clinch a narrow win over Ireland. But, like his team, Shafiul was hopelessly inconsistent, leaking 124 runs from 14 overs in Bangladesh’s three defeats.George Dockrell
When was there last an 18-year-old spinner with Dockrell’s control and big-match temperament? In the intense pressure of the opening game in partisan Dhaka, Dockrell’s wonderful 10 overs, in which he returned 2-23, ought to have secured Ireland victory. Thereafter, he only continued to impress, with the only shame that his skipper didn’t trust him to bowl to Kieran Pollard. What odds him representing England in 2015?Ray Price
The man with the most theatrical expressions in world cricket illustrated his guile and skill with some admirable performances, notably 2-21 of eight overs against Pakistan, and was equally effective opening the bowling or bowling in the middle overs. Nine wickets at less than 19 deserved better support from his disappointing compatriots.Harvir Baidwan
Canada’s bustling seamer was impressive throughout, making up for a lack of express pace with nagging consistency and a touch of movement. He will be rightly proud of his haul of 13 scalps, which included Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson and Younis Khan.

Every club is trying its best to stay afloat, selling real estate, hosting concerts, borrowing heavily, but is the model sustainable?

Chris Stonor16-Apr-2013County cricket is experiencing a commercial transformation unparalleled in its 123-year Championship history. Encouraged and supported by the ECB, clubs are shifting from an outdated and withering six-month business model into a 365-day dynamic enterprise fit for the 21st century. But can all 18 survive this enormous financial shake-up and reach the promised land intact? The redevelopment of Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl, now owned by the Eastleigh Borough Council, is expected to pump in £50m extra annual revenue into the local economy•Getty ImagesCounty cricket is at a pivotal stage in its evolution. While the sheer determination, will and desire to keep “the 18” solvent is impressive to observe, rumours persist of some counties being close to bankruptcy. No one who values the rich and varied tapestry of English cricket would want any county club to fold without one hell of a fight. But there is no escaping it. These are challenging times for our professional clubs.Somewhat perversely, the euphoria around the 2005 Ashes success was the catalyst. It was in the afterglow of that triumph that the ECB’s financial adviser Deloitte Touche suggested that English cricket could be entering a golden era with large rewards to be reaped. But with many clubs housed in dilapidated and crumbling buildings, it was time for a major makeover.The Test match grounds (TMGs) were the first to respond. The ECB warned that unless they modernised, their status as active international venues could come under threat. Others on the periphery of international cricket, like the ambitious Hampshire, were busy transforming their ground into a magnificent sports stadium. The competition was on. Some counties borrowed heavily from banks and councils, who were throwing money around like confetti. Then the 2008 banking crisis hit.Two years later Deloitte Touche delivered a follow-up report. This one was markedly different in tone and message, warning the ECB that some TMGs were “facing financial difficulties and maybe even insolvency”. Their report stated that debt levels amongst the TMGs stood at £91m and this would only increase with interest payments alone costing £36m up to 2015. These were disturbing figures for a group whose combined profit, excluding the MCC, between 2006 and 2009 was just £2m.Non-TMGs like Kent were also feeling the pinch, needing to sell the family silver to raise sufficient funds for their St Lawrence redevelopment. A highly valued painting here (£600,000), adjoining land there (£4m plus) – but it still wasn’t enough. Unfortunate commercial decisions, along with rising players’ wages, began crippling the club. In March, Kent reported a £628,054 operating loss for 2012, amounting to a £2,544,042 deficit since the 2008 accounts – a huge sum for a non-TMG.The first to react were local councils. John Gilbey, leader of the Canterbury City Council, tells AOC: “County cricket is not self-sustainable. It requires initial investment to become an all-year business. Our bottom line is, do you want county cricket in Kent, and if so, do you want it based in Canterbury? The financial decision is about the impact a county club has on the local community; the income and jobs gained or lost; and the well-being it can offer to local residents.” The decision involved a £5.5m loan in two tranches. “If we had not done this, the club would have got into severe financial straits.”Meanwhile Hampshire, steered by the flamboyant Rod Bransgrove, was in even greater financial strife. By 2009, the Irish bank aligned to the club had stopped all lending facilities. Enter Keith House, leader of the Eastleigh Borough Council. “Nobody would lend, so Hampshire came to us,” he explains. “We concluded the project was excellent for the community and would make a sound return for the council. So we stepped in. Without our intervention, Hampshire might have fallen into financial difficulty.”Eastleigh Borough Council bought the Ageas Bowl for £6.5m in January 2012. The council rent it back to Hampshire at an annual £420,000. They also took on the £32m investment required to build the 175-bedroom, four-star Hilton hotel and 18-hole golf course. Altogether, this amounts to £38.5m of taxpayers’ money – an extraordinary amount for a medium-sized borough council. The hotel includes a luxurious health spa and gym, a gourmet restaurant for 150 diners, and a 6500 square-foot ballroom. Work started last autumn and will take 18 months to complete. The venue will create 500 new jobs and £50m extra annual revenue for the local economy. The overall Ageas Bowl development costs £48m in total.Economic distress for our established clubs is not unusual. In 2000, Hampshire were insolvent to the tune of £1.2m until Bransgrove bailed them out, while in 2003, Yorkshire were saved from certain bankruptcy by their chairman, Colin Graves: “The club was 48 hours away from going bust,” he says. “I stepped in by personally underwriting the £10m owed to the bank along with any future loans. I sorted out their finances, got the Leeds City Council, university and others involved.” But why? Graves, who has a £50m personal fortune from creating the supermarket chain Costcutter, laughs: “I must have been an idiot. But I’m passionate about the club and didn’t want to see it fold.”There’s more. In 2012, Glamorgan only escaped administration after refinancing their debts and attracting a new £1.3m investment from a private consortium, the £13.4m owed to creditors via the SWALEC’s development having proved difficult to manage.Other clubs were more fortunate. During 2010-11, Sussex used a £12m legacy to redevelop their ground debt-free. Nottinghamshire spent just £8.2m transforming Trent Bridge – the money coming from an East Midlands Development Agency grant (£2.5m), as well as loans from three local councils (£3.7m), and the club’s own reserves (£2m). Described as “creative, bold and hugely successful”, this partnership won two prestigious accolades during 2009, including the Outstanding Public Private Partnership Award at the MJ Local Government Achievement Awards in London.The Oval and Lord’s, meanwhile, were already high-class venues, but this didn’t stop the MCC planning an astonishing £400m “Vision for Lord’s” facelift before pulling the plug at the last moment. This led to former PM, Sir John Major, resigning from the club’s committee.The cavalry finally arrived this February when the ECB announced each county would be eligible for a £1m payment to help them with their metamorphosis. It was described as a “very soft loan” by ECB’s managing director of the professional game, Gordon Hollins: “I don’t believe any county would see this particular loan with anything other than glee. The all-important condition is that each submits a business plan which is validated by the ECB board and leads towards a delivery of sustainable first-class cricket.”There are five strategic priorities of the First Class Counties Transformation Programme being coordinated by the ECB:To create a customer-centric business
Operational and organisational excellence
First-class facilities for spectators, sponsors and the media
Working with and alongside the local community
A clear and consistent fixture schedule
Hollins adds: “We believe £1m can make a significant difference and offers a real opportunity for counties to become a robust future force.”Immediately, Yorkshire used half the money to pay off part of their loan to Leeds City Council, while Kent handed a large amount to Canterbury City Council. “It was a very pleasant and unexpected surprise,” recalls.

****

While there are 18 unique counties, the blueprint for their transformation carries many similarities. Great emphasis has been placed on improving ground facilities. Apart from increased seating capacity and better terracing, changes include revamped or new pavilions, buildings, executive boxes and hospitality suites, which can lead to all-year revenue streams from conferences, exhibitions and weddings, to banqueting, hospitality days and general events.At the sharp end: Q&A with Gordon Hollins, the ECB’s managing director for the professional game

Why choose the sum £1m for each county?
The ECB looked at their finances and believed it was appropriate and gives a real opportunity for counties to become more robust.
There is some confusion over whether this money is a loan or a “memorandum of understanding”.
This is a very soft loan with a probable grant conversion by 2015 via performance-related fee payments etc. It is not a gift but serious financial support to help counties improve their business.
The business plans – what are they like?
Of the 13 received to date, all are different and unique. Where they have been light on any of our five strategic points, we’ve asked the county to improve it.
Somerset are using their £1m to become a “Category B” ODI ground, yet Glamorgan and Gloucestershire lie in the same area. Many believe there are already too many international grounds.
Having a ground that is validated to host international matches is different to staging them. It doesn’t mean they automatically receive games. If we could have 18 “Category A” cricket grounds – fantastic! In Somerset’s case, the club has compiled a robust business plan. We encourage better facilities so long as the county can achieve this in a sustainable way.
Given the present financial problems, does the ECB require 18 counties? Why not 16 or 14?
I am asked this question at least once a week. There is an easy answer. We need as many first-class counties as are good and strong. If we have 24, so be it. We get stuck with discussions on reduction. I want to focus on how to make the present 18 better and more robust, where each one punches their weight.
Are there any counties close to the financial abyss?
There are some who face big economic challenges right now. It’s tough out there. I meet all the counties at least three times a year to discuss their individual challenges and issues. I am confident the £1m will help each one become stronger.
What does the landscape look like five years from now?
Stronger counties and a vibrant domestic game, where both the ECB and clubs work closely together to achieve this aim.

Some counties are building retail centres or hotels on their ground in order to garner important monies either through rental or one-off amounts. Kent, for example, has a new tenant – Sainsbury’s Local. Opening a year ago, the outlet has created 25 local jobs. In a similar move Lancashire formed a partnership with Tesco in 2009, with the chain pledging £21m towards the ground’s redevelopment after one of their supermarkets was included in the planning, leading to a bitter legal dispute with a local property developer which the club eventually won.Then there’s Worcestershire, gaining £1m from Premier Inn for the use of a section of land – the company is investing £7.5m in a 120-room hotel and restaurant, with the building work having begun last September. While further north at Durham, planning permission has been given for a £10m, 150-bedroom Hilton hotel. The county are raising up to £8.5m, so the hotel can be owned and run by the club under Hilton management. Construction should start this autumn.Further areas of potential revenue are ground naming rights. Until recently Surrey held the record – a five-year contract with Kia Motors worth around £3.5m – believed to be the largest county cricket commercial deal in history. But in late February, Lancashire smashed this after announcing a ten-year agreement with Emirates Airlines for a stunning £10m. In one move “Emirates Old Trafford” wiped out a major part of their debt, while the airline increased its presence in cricket after signing a previous six-year stadium naming deal with Durham in 2010.Music concerts are becoming another favoured track. Lancashire is the Harvey Goldsmith of county cricket. Their first act was Simply Red in 1995, and other performers since include Oasis, Coldplay, Muse, Take That, David Bowie and Lady Gaga. Two summer concerts are held each year, played to a present capacity of 50,000.Other clubs are hoping now to emulate their success. Non-TMGs, in particular, are viewing this option as a way of generating extra revenue. When Elton John played at Sussex in 2006 and 2011, the club accrued over £100,000. The venture was risk-averse as the promoter, Marshall Arts, covered all losses/profits while the club made money from the ground rental and peripheral areas like food and drink. Elton, a big cricket fan himself, has turned out to be a fruitful money driver for other counties too.But it’s a fickle business. Kent’s disastrous £200,000 loss in June 2009 came after promoting the Sugababes and James Morrison themselves – theirs is a chilling lesson in just how precarious the market is.Northamptonshire CEO, David Smith, however, is not deterred. He hails from the leisure industry. The club recently signed a five-year deal with a local promoter where losses or profits will be shared. The first act signed is Madness for September 22, and Smith is upbeat. “We believe this venture will bring in significant revenue for the club. Already, 4000 tickets for Madness were sold in the first three weeks of sale. We have a standing capacity of 18,000, so we hope for a minimum of 10,000 ticket sales. If successful, we could earn a substantial six-figure sum.”Smith also accepts the risks. “The lower it is, the less money. Therefore, it’s about balancing that risk by choosing the right performer.” He has already turned down a number of acts and is presently talking to Lionel Richie’s management. Smith adds: “There are a large number of chimney pots within an hour’s drive. We shall give it a go.”

****

The biggest challenge counties face is how to manage their debts. Borrowing is the easy part – paying the money back with interest is another matter entirely.Back in the middle of the last decade when UK property prices were soaring, one obvious step was to use surplus land to build residential homes, with the money gained from selling such land to a property developer diminishing a sizeable chunk of the loans. Warwickshire seized on this opportunity, as CEO Colin Povey explains: “We went into partnership with property developer MCD and a parcel of land around the perimeter of the Wyatt Stand was chosen.”Initially, 79 town houses were to be built – based on an innovative design used in Holland and Germany – with underground parking and first-level gardens. With 22 homes presently under construction, they should be complete by the summer with some already pre-sold. Sensibly, given the uncertainty now facing the property market, the development is staggered. “MCD have until 2020 to complete the whole project,” Povey says. “There are plans to create some retail, like a restaurant and coffee shops – also a possible hotel along with further car parking. The money gained will help towards paying off our debts.”Another on this path is Gloucestershire. Their £10m refurbishment of Nevil Road relies heavily on the money accrued from building a seven-storey, 147-apartment block on the Ashley Down Road side of their ground. But this sparked protests from ward councillors and local residents, and to the club’s horror, planning permission was denied in January 2012. Some architectural changes were necessary before approval could finally be granted four months later.Given the uncertain economic times, one strong theme is emerging – greater cooperation between the counties. PCA chief executive Angus Porter explains: “We must encourage clubs to work together under one commercial umbrella. At present, we have 18 fiercely independent, separate businesses. That can’t be right.”Porter believes ticketing for all counties should be executed by one company. Through basic economies of scale, whether it be buying drinks or toilet rolls for all, this would reduce expenditure. “County CEOs must show a spirit of cooperation,” he says.Sussex chief executive Zac Toumazi agrees: “We should not compete anywhere else but on the pitch. Consolidation is now the key, so we have to trust each other and work together. We know what the product is. We all hold a view on this. But it’s the bits around the outside. So let us be creative, cooperate and learn from each other. It’s all up for grabs.”

****

Another theme is the need for counties to engage more with their local areas. In this case, Nottinghamshire are the pioneers. The club’s head of community sport, Tracey Francis, explains: “By interacting with our local community, we are attracting a new and larger audience to cricket, more sponsors and advertisers, while increasing our hospitality and conference business – it’s a win-win for us.””At Sussex,” adds Toumazi, “I want to encourage every player and staff member to engage with the community, whether it is assisting with the various Sussex Cricket Board projects or through direct interaction with the people. We are the ambassadors of the club, so we must connect more with them and publicise what we do.”Hollins is in agreement: “County grounds must have a relevance within their community. This has slipped in recent years.” And Gilbey adds: “We applaud the initiatives from the ECB to encourage counties to get more involved. This was a primary reason why we kept Kent afloat, as it stretched beyond cricket.”As for the future, even after the ECB £18m financial aid, there are some who still envisage turbulent times ahead. Graves, recently confirmed as the ECB’s deputy chairman, is one of them: “I believe several clubs could still go into administration. Some are struggling to keep their heads above water. Further money and assistance is required.”Supermarket chain Tesco has partnered with Lancashire•Getty ImagesPorter adds: “While we are fighting for all our members, if a couple of clubs do go under, it’s not the end of the world. Sixteen is a good number and benefits the design of strong competitions.”But while there will be tough challenges ahead, there is a growing optimism that county cricket is through the worst, that through this enforced transformation “the 18” will emerge in one piece to become more robust. “Clubs will be under the cosh for some time,” admits Toumazi, “and I don’t see a magic formula that will fix the debt. This is a tricky period for many but I’m optimistic we’ll get through it intact.”Povey, who has to pay an annual seven-figure sum to creditors, smiles wryly. “Warwickshire has as much debt as anyone but this doesn’t keep me awake at night. I feel comfortable with our deficit. We’ll bring it down. Meanwhile, the club is not prepared to compromise investment in core cricket. If we want an available top player we’ll approach him. Cost-cutting is not in our book.”As county cricket has a business model where profit is not necessary and break-even is the primary goal, a couple of successful new revenue streams may be sufficient. Povey comments: “We’ll be generating an annual £2.5m from non-match activities soon, which is more than our present ECB £1.8m monies.”The vision of some grounds is striking. Down at Hampshire, councilman House sees a garlanded future: “We are positioning the Ageas Bowl to become one of the world’s top leisure and sports venues. Only 6% of the hotel trade will be for cricket. The majority is for conferencing and the local cruise-liner and airport markets. We aim to promote a wide range of activities throughout the year where cricket plays an important but part role.”The outcome for those who support English cricket could well be wondrous, with greatly improved grounds providing a shot in the arm to the cricket-watching public, and a boost to the wider communities they serve. Many county hierarchies should be applauded for their determination to reach the promised land, while the ECB must be praised for their ongoing support and encouragement. The financial dramas for some may continue as county cricket intrepidly moves through this evolutionary off-the-field period. But its successful conclusion could well be worth all the pain and effort.