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After their World Cup misadventure, Kenya remains an object lesson for other Associates of just how easily things can go wrong

Martin Williamson21-Mar-2011World Cup performanceCollins Obuya’s innings against Australia was the only silver lining in what was a very forgettable Kenyan World Cup campaign•Getty ImagesKenya travelled to the World Cup with the lowest expectations of the five Associates after a fairly dismal build-up in which they had shown only glimpses of the form which led them to the 2003 semi-finals and made them, for a time, the leading Associate country. Realistically, their aims were to try to beat Canada, the other Associate in their group, and possibly give Zimbabwe a good contest. They failed in both, losing to Canada by five wickets (two late wickets gave the result a more even slant than the reality) and Zimbabwe by a whopping 161 runs. The four games against Full Members were all woefully one-sided. By the end, all too familiar stories had started to circulate about rows between various player factions and the coach. The only professional – financial at least – Associate side was again behaving in a thoroughly unprofessional way and sadly the whole edifice could fall apart on their return home.HighsThere were no real highs to speak of, although at least against Australia the Kenyan batting offered a little fight even if they were never close to pulling off an upset. For a brief period Collins Obuya (98*) and Tanmay Mishra (72) allowed them to dream, but you felt the Australians had quite a bit in reserve in case the Kenyans began to threaten. And that was about as good as it got.LowsPlenty of them to choose from, but their opening match against New Zealand, a side with painful memories of the subcontinent following recent dismal tours, set the tone for the rest of Kenya’s World Cup. Jimmy Kamande won the toss, batted, and Kenya were blown away for 69 – their worst total in a World Cup – in 23.5 overs. New Zealand’s openers knocked off the runs in eight overs and it was downhill from there. What was supposed to be a grand farewell for the veteran Steve Tikolo turned out – as predicted in the team preview – to be the dampest of squibs – 44 runs in five innings. Off the field he was, not for the first time, cited as being involved in the disagreements with the coach. He deserved a more dignified farewell after all he had achieved but this was one – some might say two – World Cups too far.StrengthsThe glimmers of hope that there are come from the youngsters in the squad, even if Mishra was the only one to convert promise into achievement. A year ago Kenya’s selectors toyed with dumping the old guard and throwing the kids in at the deep end. In the event, they decided against that, but on the showing in these six games, they could hardly have done any worse.WeaknessesWhere to start. The batsmen lacked application and technique, the bowlers provided far too many loose deliveries to ever be able to peg back even more moderate opponents. The old guard failed to deliver, and the youngsters simply lacked the experience to cope, and as a unit they never appeared to realise or accept what is needed to play cricket at this level. If Eldine Baptiste stands aside as coach then he will not be the first to have tried and failed to turn around a Kenyan side that too often gives the impression it believes it is the finished article.

“What was supposed to be a grand farewell for the veteran Steve Tikolo turned out to be the dampest of squibs – 44 runs in five innings”

ProspectsIt is hard to see where Kenyan cricket goes from here and the decline which set in seven years ago risks becoming terminal. Since beating Canada in the opening match of the 2007 World Cup, Kenya have lost 14 successive 50-over matches in major tournaments (World Cups and the ICC World Cricket League Division One).What the World Cup underlined is that keeping a group of players on full-time contracts with a decent coach is a waste of time if they are not given good opposition to play on a regular basis. Cricket Kenya finds it impossible to attract anything other than other Associates and a few Indian state sides, as well as the occasional series against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. It’s simply not enough for the younger players to learn and improve. In that regard Kenya is no different from other Associates, but they feel the effects far more.The board is trying. There are attempts to establish a domestic structure which will at least give a decent standard of cricket for the leading players, and the school structure is slowly beginning to bear fruit, but what is happening now is largely a result of a decade of neglect.Kenya have slipped from the No. 1 Associate in 2003 to probably not even being in the top five now. Aside from Netherlands, Ireland and Canada, they are also trailing in the wake of Scotland and Afghanistan, and there is nothing to suggest they are likely to arrest the decline any time soon.What is needed is a complete clear-out. It is also time for Cricket Kenya to look at whether it can maintain a professional side which has achieved so little.Kenya remains an object lesson for other Associates of just how easily things can go wrong. However much money the ICC pumps in, success is not guaranteed, especially without the right level of exposure to good opposition, a strong grass-roots structure and players all pulling in the same direction.

India’s opposition has given them all possible indicators as to how turnarounds, while difficult, are neither impossible nor complicated

Sharda Ugra at The Oval18-Aug-2011On a tour when much has rained down on India – bad planning, injuries, woeful form – the English summer skies finally opened up too. Play was washed out after lunch, probably in protest against the visitors’ poor first session on the opening day of the Oval Test. It brought a halt to the one-sided proceedings after England’s openers had motored along to 75 for no loss and set in motion more questions about where the Indian team was headed.At the moment, in real terms, down the hatch. If this series has brought anything for Indian cricket, it would have to be the awareness that their golden age is slipping away faster than they imagined it would. To be in England when this is happening is fortuitous: India’s opposition has given them indicators as to how turnarounds, while difficult, are neither impossible nor complicated. They may just take a while.Ask Peter Moores, who coached England at their most tumultuous four years ago. Taking over from Duncan Fletcher, he headed straight into a commotion that looked like it belonged to an airport novel. Moores is widely regarded as the man who re-established the link between the first-class game and the England team, re-opening doors for James Anderson and Graeme Swann, introducing Ryan Sidebottom into the elite set-up and also hiring key members of his support staff: Andy Flower as batting coach, Ottis Gibson as bowling coach and Richard Halsall as fielding coach. Of the three, Gibson has left England to coach West Indies but Flower is now the alpha male of the support staff, with Halsall one of his deputies.On the outside, however, Moores’ 18 months with England looked like one dramatic turn of events after another: in the summer of 2007, India won their first series in England after 21 years, Michael Vaughan quit as captain in the middle of a series a year later and a theatrical bust-up with new captain Kevin Pietersen followed at the end of 2008 which resulted in both Moores and Pietersen being removed from their jobs.Moores today coaches Lancashire, who are currently heading the County Championship table and are in line to win their first title since 1950 (when it was shared with Surrey), and he watches the England team with great satisfaction. He believes the links between the first-class game and the England set-up have played their own part in the rise to the No. 1 position.”We see players come in from first-class cricket and do well straight away. Matthew Prior is one person who came up, we’ve seen Jonathan Trott come through, Eoin Morgan… I think you see many more players come into the England side and be successful. That’s quite a big credit to county cricket.”The high standard was best reflected, he believed, in the opinion of the overseas pros in county cricket, “We’ve asked them [the overseas players] what they think of the standard and they say, it’s strong, it’s competitive. I think you need strong links between the two because the players at first-class level need to know what’s expected of them if they go up to international cricket. I think those links have got stronger, and I think they need to stay stronger if England are going to remain the force in world cricket.”Along with the first-class feeder line he said elite teams needed good structures around them, “I don’t think it’s come by a fluke, there’s been a lot of hard work behind the scenes and of course Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss have done a fantastic job to manage the side. In order to become successful, you need a good support structure and a lot of good support staff around you. You need good players and you need depth. What England have got now is not just good players within the team but they have also got depth outside.”From this position, England, he believes, wants to “leave a legacy and become one of the teams of this era. We’ve seen the West Indies do that, we’ve seen Australia do that, we’ve seen India dominate over the past couple of years. I think we’ll see that England want to try and do that, to stay at No. 1. To do that, that needs a lot of hard work. The only way it will ever happen is if there’s a drive and hunger within the set-up to do it. And it sounds like it is.”India’s challenges, Moores says, lie not in any shortage of talent but in how it is identified and handled. India’s big question was finding replacements for its high-quality Test batsmen. “Which batsmen are going to replace the quality of the likes of Tendulkar, Laxman, Dravid and their maturity as Test match players?” Moores says, “No one has done it yet, come from being a good one-day player into a good Test match player. So can the likes of Raina, or someone like that, fill the boots of some of those obviously outstanding Test match players? That is going to be the challenge for India over the coming time. India are always going to have a big pool to select from – they have got to make sure they select the right players.”The one England batsman Moores believes can become the best ‘crossover’ player from ODI to the Test format is Eoin Morgan. “Morgan is one person who has made his mark in ODI cricket, and has now established himself as a Test match player. If he comes through and ends up being a very good Test match player, he’d be the one who actually does it. The normal route is to become a good first-class player and then you adapt that game to the one-day game.”The lure of the shorter formats, Moores said, was powerful and “for every nation that wants to be strong in both formats, you have to try and make sure you create good opportunities for people to be successful for both formats. And that the incentives for Test match cricket remain strong enough for people to want to do the work to become a very good Test match player.”It is where India must look ahead, not merely four months down the road when they tour Australia but perhaps four years down the line, when they return to England.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the day of the third ODI between New Zealand and Zimbabwe, in Napier

Andrew Fernando09-Feb-2012The innovation
When Martin Guptill deposited Elton Chigumbura into the straight stand Brendon Taylor sent mid-off back to the boundary and brought fine leg in. Without missing a beat, Guptill shaped to play the over-the-shoulder scoop next ball, but was surprised by a delivery shorter than he expected. He went through with the shot, turning it into a part-pull, part-shovel, part-evasive manoeuvre and collected four for his troubles.The drop – 1
Zimbabwe have been atrocious in the field for virtually the entire tour, and they began the third one-dayer in similar fashion. The New Zealand openers were threatening to attack early, when Brian Vitori banged one in and induced a top edge from Rob Nicol. Going backwards from square leg, Tino Mawoyo ran a tad too far, and in his attempts to lean back and take the catch with his fingers pointed upwards, he managed only to get a wrist to it and down it went.The drop – 2
Brendon McCullum was destroyer-in-chief during the final overs, but he too had a let-off, long before the boundaries began to flow from his blade. In an attempt to reach fifty with a six, McCullum mistimed a straight hit off Vitori and offered a simple running catch to Regis Chakabva at long-off. This too was predictably shelled and McCullum added 60 more runs at a strike rate of 189.The tangle
For the third time in the series, Martin Guptill bossed the Zimbabwe bowlers, before finding a way to get out with a hundred beckoning. Napier provided the most bizarre dismissal of the lot, when he was stumped down the leg side off a Ray Price wide. With the ball spinning past his thigh pad, Guptill glanced back and stepped out of his crease having decided Tatenda Taibu had not collected the ball. No sooner than he had done so, he saw Taibu did in fact have the ball, but the keeper was struggling to collect it properly himself. Knotting himself up in an attempt to get back, Guptill almost did the splits and hit the ground. Taibu eventually took off the bails, leaving Guptill frustrated and a tad embarrassed.The full tosses
Vitori may have been unlucky, with two chances going down off his bowling, but he only had himself to blame for some hapless death bowling. In the 45th of the innings, he bowled three successive thigh-high full tosses to Nathan McCullum who sent them all sailing over the fence. Having also had a previous ball in the over dispatched for four, Vitori’s eighth over disappeared for 26.The foot race
With Zimbabwe seemingly not attempting the target of 373, there was little need to take quick singles at 14 for no loss after five overs. Tino Mawoyo, though, hadn’t got the memo at the non-striker’s end. When Stuart Matsikenyeri defended one down to his feet, Tom Latham was swooping in from a close midwicket but Mawoyo chose to test the fielder’s speed and called his partner through for a run. Despite an almighty dive, Mawoyo came up a metre short, as Latham proved there are white men who can win a sprint.

When it comes to the atmosphere, the Kotla is far better than the Sawai Man Singh Stadium

Madhav Narayan21-May-2012Choice Of game
I’m not a resident of Rajasthan, but since I had literally nothing to do, I decided to take a trip to Jaipur – to get away from the Delhi heat. Well, let’s just say I got lucky. I had tickets to Rajasthan Royals’ game against Mumbai Indians. I didn’t feel like going (having been to five games already), but since it was the last league game of the IPL 2012, I decided not to skip it.Team supported

Born and raised in New Delhi, my loyalties lie naturally with Delhi Daredevils. So going for this non-Daredevils game, I didn’t have a clue who to support. The result of this game was inconsequential – Mumbai Indians had already secured a spot in the playoffs and Royals had missed out on the race after they lost to Deccan Chargers a few days earlier.I had enjoyed watching Royals play in Delhi, and on television, and liked how they played all their games with diligence and humility. I am also fond of their strong batting line-up (Rahul Dravid, Ajinkya Rahane, Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Owais Shah, Ashok Menaria). So I went to this match hoping Royals would win, and Dravid, whose prospects of playing next year are slim, would finish on a good note.Key performer
Dwayne Smith. He usually doesn’t open, and his highest score in seven innings for Mumbai Indians before this match was 24. But Sunday was different. He made 87 off 58 balls, scoring 58 of the runs in boundaries. It was great to watch him work his magic live and these kinds of things have made the IPL fun to watch in stadiums.Shot of the day
Smith swept Ajit Chandila for two consecutive sixes that went long – 92 and 103 metres. The first one was blasted over midwicket without any fuss and the second was powered over the long-on boundary. Even though the majority of the spectators in the stadium supported Royals, they seemed to switch sides each time Tendulkar or Smith cracked a boundary.Entertainment
The DJ at the stadium did his best to entertain the crowd with the latest numbers and the IPL trumpet. Be it English or Hindi, the ’60s or ’90s, the crowd greeted each tune with excitement. There were also the team songs of Royals and Mumbai Indians, and of course the IPL theme song which echoed during the strategic timeouts. However, local rules state that music can’t be played at such public venues after 10pm. By the time the Mumbai Indians innings started, the DJ’s job was done and the crowd went quiet.Close encounter
Sachin Tendulkar fielded below my seat for the majority of the Royals’ innings, and his stature was acknowledged widely with fans screaming “SACCCCHIIIIIIIINNNNN” and waving towards him each time he turned his head even by a degree. He responded to their greetings, by turning back, and smiling and waving at the spectators, making their day.Nothing like home
I have been fortunate to watch five of Daredevils’ eight home games this season. Watching a game at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium does not, by any standards, match up to the Kotla. The lights, the atmosphere, the music, the crowd, the flags, the enthusiastic MC, the crazy DJ, the loudspeakers, the catchy chants, the homely stadium, all bring the Kotla to life. And I saw none of that in Jaipur yesterday.Crowd meter
Surprisingly low. The weather was good and it was a relaxed Sunday evening. I expected the crowd to make a lot of noise and see off Royals’ team with loads of enthusiasm. Those expectations weren’t met.Overall
The game became one-sided the moment Mumbai Indians got Dravid, Rahane, Watson and Binny. I expected Royals to take the total past 170, but their slow batting didn’t allow that. The game had its highlights, though – Smith’s 87, his 13 boundaries, Dhawal Kulkarni’s bowling and the Tendulkar-Smith partnership.Marks out of 10
Seven. I deduct one for the slow, and almost boring, batting. Another, for the relatively dull atmosphere. And one more since I didn’t get the exciting finish I wanted in the final game of the league stage.

Andy Flower discusses the Kevin Pietersen affair and the way forward for England

David Hopps in Pallekele02-Oct-2012Andy Flower, in his role as England coach, has not given an interview to the English cricket media for months as the Kevin Pietersen affair has raged around him. In the aftermath of England’s ejection from World Twenty20 at the Super Eights stage, and with a truce between the ECB and Pietersen sensed to be hours away, he finally broke his silence.Flower measures his words as carefully as anybody who has ever been involved in English cricket in the modern era. Nothing is glib, every answer is carefully considered. The media respect him but few could claim a warm relationship. All, though, would recognise the integrity that lies at his core.English cricket’s long-running sore has at times shaken Flower and at times infuriated him as it has undermined the team ethic, and the desire for maximum efficiency, that he prizes so dearly.If, at weaker moments, it has made him question the sanity of carrying on, Flower is no quitter. It has strengthened his resolve in his belief that while egotism and individualism are necessary elements of top-level sport, they must always ultimately benefit the collective.His reluctance to be interviewed during a stand-off that he regards as “unprecedented” in English cricket has been frustrating for the media, yet it probably arises from the best of characteristics: from a recognition that he cannot dissemble, or at least chooses not to do, and that the political and personal battles raging around him, have held sway and limited his freedom to speak out. Legal opinion has also been increasingly to the fore, amid been reports that Pietersen could sue if he is not awarded a central contract.The debate over Pietersen’s stand-off with the ECB has polarised opinion in English cricket to a manner not seen since the mid-1980s when Geoffrey Boycott went to war with Yorkshire. “You’re either for or against me,” Boycott would say and, although Pietersen has not said as much, the implication has been there among his fans and his critics. When England collapsed against Sri Lanka, Piers Morgan, the KP-supporting ex-tabloid editor turned chat show host, came close to celebrating the fact on Twitter.Flower is a man who speaks his mind clearly and, on this occasion, we have decided to present the opinions of the England coach unadorned by interpretation or background, of which there has been ample.How much have you missed Pietersen as a player?
We definitely missed him there is no doubt about that. He would have helped our batting side enormously.How much did his absence affect the team in other ways?
We tried to restrict that and our guys have been really good at concentrating on what we do so I think the group has been excellent.And you?
I have had to do a bit of both obviously, as it has been an ongoing issue, but I have been very focused on trying to get the most out of our guys at this tournament and trying to do well in this tournament.Did you sense the issues are close to resolution?
Yes, I think so… then at least the formal, legal side of things that has been ongoing for weeks will be behind us.Will it be a relief when it is finished?
Absolutely. We always want to draw lines under situations such as that.On a personal level, you didn’t come into coaching to get into situations like this. Has there been any time when you have thought ‘I can’t be bothered with it anymore’?
Look, part of the job, part of reason why Hugh Morris [managing director of England cricket] employs me, is that you have to be able to deal with whatever situations come my way. You can’t whinge about it. That is part of the job and you get on and do it.It is unusual though, isn’t it? Hasn’t there been a time when you just think about walking away?
It is unprecedented. Look, it hasn’t been a great couple of months but Hugh Morris is a good man and the board has been very supportive and clear in their thinking and I appreciate their support and their experience and their wisdom.Do you think Kevin is a good man in many ways?
I think we all have good and bad in us, all of us.Is the Test squad for India set in stone? Could it be tinkered with?
Let’s get the legal stuff out of the way first.Is it as simple as drawing a line?
It is not as simple as drawing a line. But if we can get the formal stuff out of the way we can move on with thinking about the day-to-day team stuff.Will things ever be the same again do you think?
I always think that is dangerous to try to recapture what you have had in the past. Things are always in a state of flux and you move on and learn from the experiences you have had. You evolve. That is the healthiest way you go about it. We don’t try to recapture the past. We try to move on and be stronger and better and wiser than before.Has this affected your ability to do your job to coach the team in three formats during the time this has been going on?
I have been fully focused on my job as coach and part of my job as coach was to try to get some sort of resolution to that situation as well.Having one of your best players on the outside of the group, with all the problems that entails, must be an awkward situation. Is that a situation you are keen to avoid in all games going forward?
I think we are quite used to having players either recently retired or just outside the group… some injured players are outside the group at any given time, sometimes commentating on the game and giving interviews.Andrew Strauss used to say that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. What have you taken from this episode that will make you a better man manager in the future?
The tournament has just finished. I don’t really want to get into that. Maybe when I have finished my career.

He may not be part of South Africa’s plans anymore but the Lions batsman remains an integral part of the country’s domestic scene

Firdose Moonda22-Oct-2012If you go down to the Wanderers on any day in the South African summer you’ll find one player staying back after the usual training sessions and team meetings: Neil McKenzie.You might find him gathering the equipment after the Lions squad has left the nets, or arranging the sweets the way he likes them best in the dressing room, or going into the office to say hello to the people who have worked there for as many years as McKenzie has been alive. “Like Eddie, who rolls the wickets, and Phil, who does the outfield – both of them were here when my dad was playing,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “You just need to look around. This is a nice place to be.”The Wanderers was McKenzie’s playground when he was a young boy. He and his brother Gavin played on the grass banks and in later years shared drinks with the Pollock brothers while their fathers were out in the middle. Three decades later, it is still his home. Apart from a small stint at Northerns in Centurion, which he refers to as a “holiday”, McKenzie has played all his domestic cricket in South Africa for Gauteng.He is a local legend and still one of the Lions’ most reliable run scorers. He was second on last season’s first-class batting charts and has already scored two fifties this season, one of which was instrumental in the Lions’ opening victory in the Champions League Twenty20 and proof that McKenzie has still got it, no matter what the format.The administrators at Corlett Drive always knew McKenzie had it. Weeks after he finished school, he was contracted by Gauteng, along with Zander de Bruyn and David Terbrugge, and seemed destined to follow his father’s lead. He had expectations to fulfil, and McKenzie said he had nothing but support from his family.”My dad tried to give us the opportunity to play as many sports as possible. His only stipulation was that we had to play a team sport while we were growing up. There was no real pressure from his side in terms of what we wanted to do after that, but he did say I had to try and get a degree behind me. Being a cricketer, he knew how the sports industry is and how everything can be taken away from you in an instant. I’m glad he pushed me in that direction.”While playing, McKenzie applied for a degree in commerce at the University of Johannesburg, although cricket remained a priority. For five seasons, he racked up the runs before being picked in the national one-day squad. He remembered batting in the middle order with Hansie Cronje in that time. But it was in the longer form of the game that McKenzie made his name.He became a regular member of South Africa’s Test side, playing 41 matches between July 2000 and March 2004. He scored only two hundreds in that time, against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, both made before February 2001. In the latter stages of the first part of his Test career, he became better known for his odd superstitions, which included strapping his bat to the ceiling, stipulating a seating arrangement for his team-mates in the dressing room, and making sure all the toilet seats were down when he went in to bat.McKenzie now has an explanation for his unusual behaviour. “Us cricketers, we can be funny people. We try and control the uncontrollable. In the game, things can be unpredictable so I tried to make them predictable. I think that’s why I did it.”After going 33 matches without reaching three figures, he was dropped from the national side. McKenzie returned home to the Wanderers and was asked to captain them in the new franchise system. “Obviously I still wanted to play for South Africa but I also had me a different focus because of that,” he said. “We had a lot of young players that had come through our ranks, and we wanted to develop them. So I worked on that.”His personal life also changed when he married South Africa’s original Wonderbra girl, Kerry McGregor, in 2007, and the couple became the Posh and Becks of the cricket scene. With love came sensational form. Two seasons of averaging around 50 in the first-class scene spelt McKenzie’s Test comeback as Graeme Smith’s opening partner.He lasted 14 months in the role, played 17 matches, averaged 47.11 and scored three hundreds, including one at Lord’s during South Africa’s first series win in England since readmission. “That was the best time in my cricketing life in terms of results,” he said. “We won in England and Australia, and the team vibe was amazing.”It was nice to be part of the side when they started making such good progress. If you look at them now, there have been only one or two personnel changes from that time. That is the key to a winning side and to creating a legacy.”But when South Africa could not continue upward after they defeated Australia Down Under in 2008-09, McKenzie was the one to take the fall. In their home series against Australia the same season, South Africa lost 2-1. McKenzie was one of the worst performers; he scored 102 runs in four innings, with a top score of 36, and by then had gone ten matches without a century. He was dropped and, by his own admission, his international career was over.He was disappointed but not angry. “I don’t think too many guys get a second chance but I got a second chance. Everyone wants to do more, so of course, I would like to have got a lot more runs, I would like to have been in the side more than I was, but I am not bitter about anything. That’s the thing about sportsmen. Because we are so highly driven, we get bitter when things don’t go our way. I would like to have played more but I’m happy to have done what I did.”

McKenzie’s weirdest superstition

“I always liked to get into bed in the same way every night – same side, everything neat – that’s how my day ended. I used to room with Lance Klusener and he would always play a trick on me during that routine. I’d get in and be ready to switch off and he would flick my ankle. Then I would have to start all over again. He used it quite a few times and it would really irritate me. When I saw him here a few weeks ago, we laughed about that and I told him that now I jump into bed as quickly as I can.”

McKenzie has continued to lead the Lions’ batting line-up and decided to extend his career by spending time in England during the South African winter. Hampshire, where old friend and former team-mate Nic Pothas was stationed, became his second home.McGregor and their two children, Luke and Riley, went with him and the family began living across two countries. “It’s a different challenge. I think it’s easier when you are on your own [where if you have] a one-bedroom apartment with no garden, you’re fine. But when you’ve got the kids that I’ve got, you need wide open spaces,” he said. “But I have loved every minute of the playing side of things on different wickets in England.”They have spent three years travelling back and forth, and McKenzie thinks he has one more left. “When my knee was giving me some problems a couple of years ago, I thought if I get to 37, I’ll stop. I will be 37 next month but I think I’ll do another year overseas and then finish my career here with the Lions. It’s about choosing the right time. As long as I am making runs and contributing, that’s fine. But the main thing is that I am not keeping guys out who should be playing. I still want to do well for Geoffrey Toyana, the Lions and my team-mates.”Toyana, who played with McKenzie and now coaches him, has lauded his senior role. “He is a sounding board for me and for the captain,” Toyana said. Alviro Petersen, Lions captain, has also praised McKenzie’s dedication to the squad.McKenzie remains a team man but bizarre habits don’t dictate his dressing-room ethic anymore. “There are times that I keep my rituals the same but the OCD has toned down since I’ve had kids,” he said. “There is not as much time and I am too exhausted to be checking on things like the toilet seats. Thank goodness.”He also offers advice to some of the younger batsmen like Quinton de Kock. “I don’t mentor, I just offer advice,” McKenzie clarified. It may be an indication of what McKenzie’s life after playing cricket could be like. He said coaching is an option, especially because he has “always liked the nuances of batting”. Finishing the degree he began studying for 15 years ago is another possibility. “I am three half-subjects away but I stopped so long ago I hope the university can still find my records.”

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the first day of the second Test in Mumbai

George Dobell in Mumbai23-Nov-2012Milestone of the day

Virender Sehwag’s selection rendered him the 54th man – and the ninth Indian – to reach 100 Test caps. That an opening batsmen could have a strike-rate above 80 for such a long career would have seemed incredible 30 years ago; that he can do so while averaging more than 50 underlines Sehwag’s remarkable success and impact upon the game. He features five times in the top-ten list of the fastest Test double-centuries (in terms of balls received), twice in the top three of the fastest triple-centuries and only two men have struck more sixes and seven men more fours in their Test careers. He must be judged a great batsman by any standards.Gamble of the day

Both teams took significant gambles with their team selection. India went into the game with three specialist spinners and just one seamer, suggesting they would have opened the bowling with a spinner had they lost the toss, while England selected Stuart Broad despite him missing training due to illness the day before the game. India’s tactics were in marked contrast to the words of their captain the day before the game. MS Dhoni has said India were “looking at a 2-2 combination” as “you don’t know whether you would bat or bowl first. Harbhajan Singh will have to wait for his chance as Ashwin and Ojha are bowling well.” Gamble indeed.Ball of the day

Perhaps he is not the force he was in the past, but it was Sachin Tendulkar’s misfortune to be on the receiving end of an excellent ball from Monty Panesar. Delivered from round the wicket, drifting towards leg stump, but then pitching and turning sharply, it clipped the top of off as a groping Tendulkar was bowled for the fourth time in his last five Test innings. You have to go back to 2002, when he was bowled five times in six innings, to find a comparable period in his career. The harsh may criticise him for playing slightly across the line, but perhaps the concern should be more that, for the second innings in succession, he mis-read the flight. Maybe it is a sign of age; maybe it is a sign of low confidence but, in his last six Tests and nine innings, Tendulkar is now averaging just 16.11 with a highest score of 27. The silence that greeted his dismissal amply expressed the disappointment and, perhaps, the concern of his home crowd.Drop of the day

Cheteshwar Pujara was on 60 when he was drawn forward by Panesar and, beaten by the turn, edged to second slip. James Anderson, who is rarely seen in the slips these days after some uncharacteristic mistakes in recent months, dived to his left but could only parry the ball down to third man. It was a tough chance and perhaps suggests that Anderson was slightly out of position: it appeared the ball may also have evaded Jonathan Trott at first slip. It was a tough chance but, bearing in mind that England had failed to dismiss Pujara in either innings in Ahmedabad and that he has only offered the toughest of chances to date in this series, it was the sort of moment that could define a relatively low-scoring game.Near miss of the day

It looked as if Pujara had fallen just short of a second Test century in as many matches when he pulled a delivery from Graeme Swann only to see the ball bounce off the foot of Alastair Cook at short-leg and into the hands of midwicket. But replays suggested the ball had hit the ground as it hit Cook’s foot so Pujara was reprieved and Swann, who thought he had just taken his 200th Test wicket, was forced to wait a little longer.Ominous moment of the day

England would have been understandably delighted at reducing India to 119 for 5 on the first day. But they could be forgiven for wrestling with some unsettling thoughts even as they did so. As early as the first delivery of the 41st over, a delivery from Panesar exploded off the surface, caught the shoulder of Pujara’s bat and looped towards point. The ball dropped safely to ground but, bearing in mind England’s record against spin bowling and the anticipated deterioration of the pitch, and it might have been a moment that also caused some anxiety for the tourists.

If it’s England that’s getting its intestines removed, it’ll probably be followed by a Test victory

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013From today, cricket will be on England’s sporting back burner. The London Olympics, understandably, has wound Britain into a frenzy of wild excitement, and/or complaintative grumpery, and/or a sudden and unquenchable interest in the finer points of canoeing, equestrian dressage, and the timeless national hobby of watching people carry a small bit of fire quite slowly. It is a British tradition as old as Britain itself. There must be one spectacularly giant witch to burn at the opening ceremony tonight.Perhaps it is fortunate that England has an Olympics to distract it from a Test match hammering so comprehensive it could have passed itself off as an underfunded inner-city school. Last year, England brutalised the then-world-number-one-ranked Indians. At The Oval, the boot was not only on the other foot, but it was triumphantly stomping on their throat like a vengeful rhinoceros. “Too close to call” had been many people’s pre-match prediction. It was as if Nadal and Federer had met at the Wimbledon final in 2008, with the world on the edge of its collective seat to see the two greatest tennis players in the universe, and Nadal had beaten Federer by knocking him spark out with an anvil to the head.Andrew Strauss and his team can thus attempt to recover from their surgical disembowelment at The Oval away from the glare of press and public. The Test series moves to Headingley next week, before returning to the hauntingly sport-starved city of London for the final climactic showdown. Or last rites. Delete according to whether you think England (a) will be able to respond to this poor start as they have responded to most other poor starts recently, or (b) have been so utterly tonked that they will forget that they had taken 20 wickets in 22 of their previous 28 Tests, and remember only that, either side of those 28 Tests, they have suffered successive cloutings-by-an-innings at the hands of Graeme Smith’s rampant Proteas. (By my reckoning, this is only the fifth time that England have suffered successive innings defeats against a team in their Test history ‒ previously, v Australia in 1897-98, 1946-47 and 2002-03; and v India in 1992-93.)It was one of South Africa’s finest Test wins, four days of almost perfect cricket against very good opposition on a tediously snoozy pitch that gave minimal assistance to either bowlers or, just as importantly, spectators. If an Ancient Roman fortune teller (and let us assume there is one amongst England’s numerous backroom staff) had tried to read the future from the entrails of England’s Oval disembowelment, he is unlikely to have come up with anything particularly positive. He might have prodded around in the still-warm guts and made vague prognostications of an improvement with the ball, but that would be merely a statistical inevitability. Wouldn’t it? As 19th-century cricket pundit Oscar Wilde once said: “To concede 600-plus for 2 once may be regarded as a misfortune. To do so twice looks like carelessness. Do join me in the tea interval when my special guests will be WG Grace, William Gladstone, Jack The Ripper and Nick Knight.” (Nick Knight is immortal. He has been alive since before the last Ice Age.)The fortune teller might also try to cheer everyone up by poking at an intestine and pointing out that England have had at recent a tendency to start series sluggishly. They were poor in Cardiff in 2009, in Centurion in 2009-10, and in the first innings in Brisbane in 2010-11. They were crunched by ten wickets in Dubai last winter, and were well beaten in Galle. But they only lost one of those five series, won the second Test in four of them, and played three-quarters of a good match against Pakistan in the other before being power-skittled for 72. Perhaps they should start drinking their coffee before the first Test of series, not the second.South Africa, on the other hand, have tended to misfire after a potent start. They contrived to draw series with India (twice) and Australia after being one Test ahead by conceding second Test defeats, and they allowed a victory-starved Sri Lanka to equalise the series last winter, before rectifying that situation in the third Test. Smith’s team have often looked a side on the verge of cricketing greatness, but have not yet achieved it.The next three weeks will prove whether or not they have laid aside those vulnerabilities. The evidence of The Oval suggests that they have. But then, the evidence of their annihilation of Dhoni’s Indians in the first Test in December 2010 suggested that as well, and they proceeded to lose the next Test.They have in their ranks the three highest-averaging batsmen of the decade, and the greatest bowler to have entered the Test arena this millennium, supported by a man who has made the best start to a bowling Test career since the 19th century, and another proven Test paceman. What is puzzling about this South African side is not how good they were at The Oval, but how adequate their series results have been over the last few years.There are crumbs of comfort that England will be edgily forking around their plates between now and Headingley. But whether they can reconstitute those crumbs into an edible cake, against a team that seems to be finally realising the full extent of its talents, after a total and utter battering, will be the greatest challenge Strauss’ outstanding team has faced, and one that will define their status in the history of the game.● If one shot has exemplified the failings of English batsmanship since I started following cricket, it has been the sweep, and its rogue dysfunctional cousin the reverse sweep. From Botham’s final, very brief, innings as captain at Lord’s in 1981, via Gatting’s World-Cup-losing plink in 1987-88, to Pietersen’s flap-steer at Hauritz in Cardiff in 2009, and assorted ineptly executed swishes in the UAE last winter, the sweep has been the shot that has had England fans weeping into their sandwiches more often than any other.Last Sunday, England were in deep trouble, but the shine had worn off the new ball and the pitch was still showing all the life and vigour of an extremely hungover Galapagos tortoise after Charles Darwin threw a massive party to celebrate working out how evolution works. Andrew Strauss, becalmed by the insistent probery of the South African bowlers and the tension of his team’s predicament, then chose what he instantly realised was the wrong moment to attempt the accursed horizontal-batted gamblethwack off Imran Tahir. On Monday, Matt Prior, batting with class and purpose, with the new ball minutes away and with his considerable eye very much in, and the old ball spinning out of the rough but from an easily negotiable round-the-wicket angle, followed his captain’s example.The remarkable thing is that both men got away with it. They both missed, both looked rueful, and both looked as if they were telling themselves not to do that again. Both men, however, did do that again. Seconds later. Both were unwilling to take the hint they had given themselves that sweeping was (a) unnecessary in the circumstances (b) tricky at the best of times, and (c) about as sensible as performing DIY dentistry on your own kitchen table using a second-hand pneumatic drill. Both men top-edged, both were out, and both hung their experienced heads in self-flagellatory recrimination. Ooops.● Both Strauss and Prior received merited criticism for the shots that brought about their downfall and confirmed England’s fate. Pietersen was also criticised, albeit in a slightly odd way. He was criticised for playing stupid shots that he didn’t get out to, and then criticised for getting out playing a sensible shot, badly. Such is life for Kevin Pietersen. He has always been technically flawed and played a calculating high-risk game. As a batsman, he is vulnerable and magnificent, powerful and fragile. He is the only natural aggressor in England’s top 6. He will always be slammed for being too aggressive. When the risks do not pay off, or the calculations are awry. He is Kevin Pietersen, splitter of opinion, sporting fascination.

Looking on as the world’s greatest legspinner strutted his stuff was quite the education for a lesser-accomplished member of the breed

Steven Lynch02-May-2013Almost unnoticed among the customary mountain of emails a couple of weeks ago was one quietly announcing the winner of the Cricket Society’s Book of the Year, a long-standing literary award now co-organised by MCC. The latest victor was Gideon Haigh, the incisive Australian writer familiar to readers of ESPNcricinfo, for his book On Warne, more of an analysis of the great legspinner than a biography.As luck would have it I’d just finished reading it, and agreed with the learned panel’s decision. A review of the latest Wisden, on David Blackburn’s Spectator blog, included the line: “Gideon Haigh’s appreciation of Ricky Ponting contains sentences that leave you silent and content, as if admiring a view.” And On Warne is the same – it’s full of acute observations that had me paraphrasing Oscar Wilde: “I wish I’d written that.”You could pluck an example from every other page, so here are just a couple: “bowling Shivnarine Chanderpaul in Sydney in November 1996, the ball bouncing out of the rough like a zombie rising from the grave”, or of that brief but businesslike approach to bowl, “He did not switch on – Warne was always ‘on’. No, he switched the rest of the game off.”And Haigh is just about the only current cricket writer who could get away with: “Warne actually used to put me in mind of Edward Ashburnham in Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier: charmingly shallow, good-natured, weak-willed, and ‘positively revolted at the thought that she [his wife] should know the sort of thing that he did’.” I wish I’d written that (or even known about it).It’s a thought-provoking book, unlike your average cricket life-in-print with its “I went up to Trent Bridge and was lucky enough to score a century.” With Haigh you get incisive analysis, like this on late-era Warne, after shoulder and finger surgery meant the big-ripping legbreaks were more of an effort than they were before: “Warne took his reputation as the bowler who had spun the ball as far as probably anyone in history, and turned it on its head, making himself into perhaps history’s most skilful bowler of deliveries that either went straight on or turned just a little.”Almost inevitably I found myself trying to recapture my own Warne memories. Not really the televised ones, although some of them are priceless: does everyone remember where they were for the Gatting ball? I was watching the TV in the Wisden office and, being a decidedly sub-Warne legspinner myself, was interested to see the first ball from this new member of the union. First reaction: slight disappointment, as it seemed to be slipping down leg – yes, I’ve had a few of those! And then. Ah. Don’t think I’ve ever done that – if I turn one that far my team-mates usually mutter about it having hit a stone. And it’s clipped the top of off stump – so this was what all the fuss was about.But actual on-the-ground memories? Well, I was in Sydney for the New Year match in 1994 when Warne took 12 South African wickets but still lost. And again four years later when he bamboozled 11 more South Africans, and this time won – that haul included his 300th in Tests, when he threaded one through Jacques Kallis to the accompaniment of thunder and lightning as a storm approached.Still, there’s something about being right behind a legspinner’s arm that allows you to start to unravel the mysteries. With binoculars propped up, you can see the shoulder dipping, the wrist coming over differently, and maybe even the ball spinning this way or that. Sadly, as I discovered, that doesn’t mean you’ll actually be able do it yourself – it helps if you’re the greatest bowler of them all to start with.So, watching Warne: I’ve got two strong memories of this sort of close scrutiny. The first was back in 2000, when I was despatched down the M4 to report on Hampshire’s visit to Taunton. I’ve got one vivid flashback of that day – and it’s not the left-handed Piran Holloway’s workmanlike century for Somerset (sorry Piran, I had to look it up). No, the recollections are all of Warne, who had a long afternoon spell for which I had the perfect vantage point.

In September 2007, I made a pilgrimage to the Rose Bowl. As I was walking in, I realised the man behind me – and his son, who was about eight – had come for the same reason: ‘You’re going to see Warnie,’ said dad. ‘This is his last home game’

Here’s what Sunday Telegraph readers were regaled with the following day:

“Hampshire’s bowling looked gentle – with one exception. Warne was low-key before lunch, but was still the most dangerous bowler on show and finished with four wickets. The Taunton press box, with its over-the-right-shoulder view, is an ideal spot to watch him trot out his variations. One ripped legbreak darted back in and nearly stranded Holloway, while others looped up invitingly outside off, before snaking back in and turning out to be not quite as driveable as they looked.”

There were many more Warne sightings, but it was a while before I had quite such a good view again. In 2005 I was fortunate to be Wisden’s man at the match for the Ashes Test at Edgbaston. When I found my allotted seat in the press box, opposite the pavilion, I was quietly pleased to discover it was right behind the bowler’s arm (I once had a seat somewhere where the window pillar neatly obscured both sets of stumps, and another in the old box at The Oval from which no grass was actually visible). What I didn’t realise, of course, was that I was about to witness one of the greatest of all Test matches.It was undoubtedly the most continuously absorbing Test I’ve ever been at – every other one has had the odd quiet period, when it was safe to go for a chat or a wander around the ground. At this one you didn’t even want to nip to the loo in case you missed anything.And one major reason for that was Warne: he bowled nearly 50 overs in that match, all from my end. Each ball was an examination: Andrew Strauss was bowled in each innings, in the second by one that zipped across him, past a pad thrust towards cover, to crash into the stumps. It was Warne’s second ball of the innings – and his 100th wicket in Tests in England.Warne troubled every batsman in that game, finished with ten wickets and, if that wasn’t enough, helped scare England rigid on the last day by scoring 42 as Australia inched to within three runs of victory. But his bowling was an education in itself.A couple of years later, in September 2007, I made a pilgrimage to the Rose Bowl. As I was walking in, I realised the man behind me – and his son, who was about eight – had come for the same reason: “You’re going to see Warnie,” said dad. “This is his last home game.” The great man took a couple of late wickets, although Hampshire eventually lost. It was actually his last home match (there was one soggy final first-class appearance, a draw up in Yorkshire). I hope the little boy remembers it.We didn’t really know then, of course, that there was a PS to come, in the glitzy form of high-profile T20 appearances for Rajasthan Royals and Melbourne Stars. Cherish him while you can – even in fun-size four-over chunks.

The Zimbabwe captain, like the team, had an awful tour of West Indies but as put in the hard yards since returning and gained reward for efforts

Firdose Moonda in Harare17-Apr-2013Brendan Taylor brought up his fifty without much fuss. While the small crowd cheered with gusto, including one who shouted, ‘That’s it captain!’, he simply shook Malcolm Waller’s hand sternly.He celebrated his century far more boisterously. A leap in the air, a punch, an all-round acknowledgement of the crowd, a raise of the bat – all the classical things that if done with the mute button on would tell the viewer three-figures had been brought up.The job had not been done but some part of the reputation restoration had. Taylor was one of the batsmen who returned from West Indies with what was being talked about as a tattered technique. Much else about Zimbabwean cricket was also torn apart.In the weeks between the Caribbean tour and the current series, their internal strife has caused more shredding than anything Shane Shillingford did. Taylor has been at the heart of it. As the captain, he had to motivate a group that did not know when they would be paid and pacify increasingly tetchy administrators. He was, for some parts of it, nothing more than a go-between.He was also dealing with his own sub-standard showings in West Indies. As the leader, he felt he had let the team down. Personally, he knew he had let himself down. So when he battled through on his home turf, survived a chance and pulled the team to a position of some security, he had every reason to feel relieved and proud enough to show it.”That celebration was due to the poor performance we had in West Indies,” he admitted afterwards. “To fail in every game was very hard to swallow so today was very rewarding for me. I’ve prepared well, I’ve worked hard and it was nice to see it pay off.”While some batsmen in the modern age talk about preparation as something they do on a yoga mat with their legs crossed and their heads in a good space, Taylor sticks to the more orthodox methods. When he returned from West Indies, the only way he thought he could get better was by practising.Every day after training he spent an extra hour and a half in the nets with batting coach Grant Flower, who was not part of the touring party in the Caribbean. “I just hit countless balls and kept it as simple as possible. I concentrated on things like keeping my head still. I feel if I prepare well and hit a high volume of balls, then I will feel relaxed. Not having Grant in the West Indies wasn’t ideal because I work closely with him.”He must also have worked on his feet because he moved them an unusual amount. Taylor is known for not being a dancer but he was confident in bringing out the moves against both seam and spin.While the improvements in his technique were noticeable, the extent to which he stretched himself mentally was the hallmark of the innings. He came in at 22 for 2 with the ball seaming and swinging. His first 10 runs took 34 balls and the next 10, 36. His century came up in 200 deliveries. He had to be defensive for periods and could only attack for an isolated shot or two, not for any length of time.That made it the least fluent of his three centuries but “probably my most patient innings.” He admitted that it was “hard work,” and “lots of concentration was required but it was all worth it.” Only for a short while after tea, while Waller and Taylor together, did he find things eased up a little. “The fielders quietened down a bit which helped us because generally they are quite noisy and they don’t give you a sniff. It was good to grind them down.”Having survived the first ten overs of the second new ball with six wickets still in hand, Taylor is hopeful he can continue in the same fashion with the rest of the line-up. “We know they’ve got good spinners but we’ve still got some depth. It seems like they are running out of ideas as well.”Bangladesh’s coach Shane Jurgensen is still eyeing removing Zimbabwe out for under 300, but seemed disappointed enough with the number of chances they put down, for the hosts to spot a weakness they can pounce on. Taylor knows there is still much that must be done before any prolonged faith in the country’s cricket will be obtained. But he knows there is an opportunity to do so. He took part of his chance today and will want the other members of the squad to take the rest over the next four days.