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After a magical win, Zimbabwe will disappear from the international stage for at least five months and won’t play a Test for double that time. So what next?

Firdose Moonda17-Sep-2013It’s a confusing time for cricket in Zimbabwe. The southern hemisphere summer is only just beginning but the international cricket season is already over.For the next few months, the moments of brilliance in Saturday’s win over Pakistan will be recounted at braais, over beers, and in boardrooms. The buzz created could bloom into a mini-boom for cricket in the country. But a glance at the calendar shows a blank. And it raises an important question: what now for the game in Zimbabwe?After demonstrating that they are capable of tussling with top teams, Zimbabwe will disappear from the international stage for at least five months, and won’t play a Test for double that time. They’re not hiding their disappointment over the lack of game time. One senior player said it will leave them feeling “as though we always have to start again”, while Andy Waller admitted it is not ideal for his plans as the team’s coach.”You can forget what it feels like to win,” he said. “It’s hard for the guys because we believe we can compete against sides. We’ll just have to work hard in the nets and get better for when we play again.”Zimbabwe’s next assignment will be the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh and their next Test series is only due next July against South Africa. The long layover is because the two-Test, three-ODI and two-T20 rubber, due to take place against Sri Lanka in October, is set to be postponed. Zimbabwean fans are so disappointed they have started an online petition to bring Sri Lanka to the country. But that is financially out of the question.That sounds like more of the same repeated rhetoric about Zimbabwe’s lack of funds, but the truth is that it would be difficult for any board to host four series in a season. Zimbabwe have already had visits from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, and even though the India ODIs brought in revenue, the losses incurred through the other series and the debt in the country makes another tour unviable.In 2011, the MD of Zimbabwe Cricket then, Ozias Bvute, told ESPNcricinfo that the board lost around US$700,000 a series, which means they have already lost somewhere around $1.5 million this season. ZC is also $18 million in debt, which makes going further into the red irresponsible.Already, non-payment has so angered the players that they have gone on to form a union – the first of its kind in a decade – and threatened strikes through the Pakistan series. Their ultimatums were met and ZC came up with a way to pay outstanding salaries from July and August, and some match fees, but that came at the expense of paying staff.The groundsmen, the administrative workers and even the coaches are still awaiting pay for the two months mentioned. Another series would only worsen that situation and to ask for it to be held, knowing it would deprive people of the money they depend on to pay their bills, would be cruel. This is where real life and sport bump heads, because supporters believe it is equally unjust to keep Zimbabwe off the international stage.Given the difficulty of hosting more international cricket, Zimbabwe can only hope to get invited by other countries and to work on their domestic game.Currently there are no fixtures available for the 2013-14 local season, which has raised concerns about whether it will go ahead. Zimbabwe have to play domestic cricket to maintain Full-Member status and the talk is that it will be played from November. But planning and organisation will have to wait – the franchises have not been allocated budgets, so they cannot contract coaches or players yet.

Zimbabwe need cash to host teams but can’t attract the necessary sponsors. As a result, they can’t offer the players competitive-enough contracts

When it eventually gets underway, the domestic season is expected to take the regular format of three competitions – first-class, 50-over and T20 – and be contested by five teams.This is where many feel Zimbabwe get it wrong. While the franchise system has increased both the reach and competitiveness of the domestic game, having five outfits has been deemed unsustainable. It means five venues that need to be maintained, and associated travel costs. Popular opinion is that only four are feasible, an idea that may be based on the way Zimbabwe’s domestic cricket was organised before the franchise system, with four regions competing.If that system were reintroduced, it would most likely mean Southern Rocks have to go. They are the newest and weakest of the teams, although they are getting better. They won three first-class matches last season, an improvement on their first summer, where they lost all their first-class and List A matches and won only one T20 fixture.Results aside, Southern Rocks was where Brian Vitori and Richmond Mutumbami were discovered, which makes it difficult to write them off. ZC is also faced with the tricky question of how they can continue to engage areas where the game has failed to reach in the past, such as Masvingo, and whether it is possible to finance development properly.Sponsors have been difficult to secure, as illustrated by the 20-over competition: it was backed by MetBank, still ZC’s major creditor, when it was started in 2007, and then Stanbic Bank for three seasons until last summer. It grew to the extent that it could compare with other 20-over leagues around the world. It attracted foreign players, mostly from the UK, such as Phil Mustard and Peter Trego, and also the likes of Chris Harris, Lou Vincent, Lance Klusener and Andrew Hall. It even managed to entice Chris Gayle – he was embroiled in a dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board at the time and agreed to play in Zimbabwe for a minimal fee in order to get match practice. The window he broke at the Harare Sports Club is still broken.Then Stanbic pulled out of most of its sports sponsorships in southern Africa and the Zimbabwean T20 competition was one casualty. Last season, unable to find a backer, the tournament was a low-profile event. The international element and, by implication, the glamour factor, was missing.While that is a sign of the difficulty in marketing cricket in Zimbabwe, it enabled the best local players to come to the fore. Sikandar Raza Butt, who made his Test debut against Pakistan, was the tournament’s top run-scorer, and Shingi Masakadza, who has been one of Zimbabwe’s most improved and impressive players, was the leading wicket-taker.The international players are regulars on the franchise scene. That helps keep the standard of the competition fairly high and ensures that the new talent unearthed is tested against the best in the country. Mutumbami is a case in point. He was the highest run-scorer in last season’s Logan Cup and the standout wicketkeeper of the tournament, which earned him his Test call-up.Andy Waller: “We’ll just have to work hard in the nets and get better for when we play again”•AFPIt also means the internationals, who might have learned new skills in competitions elsewhere, can pass on their wisdom. Some Zimbabwean players spend time at clubs overseas and come back having learned from others. This year, Sean Williams will play in the ongoing Dhaka Premier League and others are looking to follow suit.Where Zimbabwean fans become nervous is when their players go abroad and don’t come back. Kyle Jarvis played in New Zealand’s domestic league and considered moving there before retiring from international cricket and signing with Lancashire. He has since defended his decision by tweeting, “You all need to understand what is really going in ZC”, and “Givin the same opportunity, anyone else in the team would have left… and they still will.”But that is not entirely true. Sean Ervine committed to Hampshire and there are worries his brother Craig, who plays club cricket in Ireland, will go the same way. But Brendan Taylor turned down a similar offer because he “just wants to play international cricket”. He is fortunate to have the means to do so without relying overly on ZC to make a living.Keegan Meth, who missed out on the Pakistan series because he was getting married in Canada, aims to be back for the domestic summer provided the monetary situation is stable. Graeme Cremer opted out of the Pakistan matches too but has remained in Zimbabwe and will play cricket again once he is assured of being paid. Chris Mpofu is no longer on a central contract because he spent the last five months recovering from a stress fracture but he has hung around and aims to play this summer.Even at the lower levels, there’s a lot happening. Zimbabwe’s Under-19 team will play in a quadrangular in India against the hosts, South Africa and Australia. And the academy continues to run at Harare Sports Club, with or without equipment. On the final morning of the Test against Pakistan, children ranging from 9 to 12 were seen bowling in an organised session. Here was the future of Zimbabwe cricket and it looked healthy.What’s worrying is that it’s also stuck in a vicious cycle. Zimbabwe need cash to host teams but can’t attract the necessary sponsors. As a result, they can’t offer the players competitive-enough contracts. So the players go overseas, where the experience they gain could help Zimbabwe, but only if they return.Some want the ICC to step in but the body does not fund anyone’s bilateral series and Zimbabwe should not be an exception. There is talk the ICC may advance the grant it is due to give Zimbabwe or assist them with some of the fees from the 2014 World Twenty20, but what Zimbabwe really need is a better investment plan. That applies not just to cricket but to the whole country.What keeps them going is an endless supply of optimism. Waller, who left a comfortable job at a school in the UK to coach back home, believes the depth in Zimbabwe cricket is heartening. “We had 27 members in our training squad and any one of them can make the national side. There are some good players out there, and for me that’s exciting.” He will spend the next few months working with them so that by February, “we will be playing better cricket”.Taylor agrees that Zimbabwe can only improve. “Just because we’re not playing doesn’t mean we can’t get better. We can go to the nets and keep learning,” he said. “We’re professional cricketers and we need to live professional lifestyles.”Not that easy to do when the set-up barely allows for it.

Stats highlights from the 2nd round of the Ranji Trophy 2013/14

Shiva Jayaraman10-Nov-2013 Sehwag’s poor run, Venugopal Rao’s first hundred in six seasons, Akshar takes maiden five-for

Virender Sehwag scored 1 and 15 in the two opportunities he got in this match; he has now gone 13 first-class innings without hitting a half-century. Venugopal Rao hit his first hundred in six first-class seasons, in Gujarat’s first innings. In five first-class seasons before this one, Venugopal had scored 939 runs from 24 matches at an average of 24.71, including five fifties. This was Venugopal’s first century for Gujarat. Playing for Gujarat in the last season, Venugopal had scored 110 runs from nine innings at an average of 12.22. Sumit Narwal took 6 for 71 in Gujarat’s first innings – this was his sixth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Akshar Patel took 6 for 55 in Delhi’s first innings. This was his first five-wicket haul in his first-class career in only his second match. Mithun Manhas also hit a century, the 23rd hundred of his first-class career.

Samson’s productive run

Sanju Samson followed up his double-century against Assam in the first round with another hundred against Andhra Pradesh in Kannur. This was his fourth hundred in first-class cricket and his second against Andhra in three innings. Samson followed it up with another half-century in Kerala’s second innings. Samson’s score in his last five innings read – 122, 51, 211, 115, 51*. Samson now averages 54.14 in first-class cricket in 16 innings.

Jaffer hits yet another hundred, Rajwinder takes maiden five-for

Wasim Jaffer hit his 33rd hundred in the Ranji Trophy and the 49th of first-class career, in the first innings against Punjab. Jaffer leads the list of batsmen with most centuries in the Ranji. Ajay Sharma (31) and Amol Muzumdar (28) are next in the list. Vishal Dabholkar, thrust into the role of lead spinner for Mumbai, took his first five-for and his first ten-for to wreck Punjab .

Aparajith completes 1000 runs, Badrinath hits third Ranji double-century

B Aparajith completed 1000 runs in first-class cricket in Tamil Nadu’s second round Ranji Trophy match against Madhya Pradesh. Needing just eight runs to reach the landmark before the match, he hit his fourth century in seven innings and the fifth of his career. He now averages 61.66 in first-class from 24 innings. S Badrinath hit his third double-hundred in the Ranji Trophy and the 30th century of his first-class career. He fell two runs short of his highest first-class score of 250, which he scored against Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy in 2009.

Dinda takes 200 first-class scalps, Aniket’s maiden first-class five-for

Sourabh Chouhan’s wicket in Bengal’s match against Rajasthan was Ashok Dinda’s 200th wicket in first-class cricket. Dinda has taken 203 wickets at an average of 30.64 and a strike rate of 59.3 in 58 first-class matches. Rajasthan’s Aniket Choudhary took 5 for 93 in Bengal’s first innings at Jaipur – his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. These were also his best bowling figures in a match.

Gokul completes 1000 first-class runs, Sibsankar hits his maiden hundred

Gokul Sharma’s 161 batting at No. 7 in the first innings against Hyderabad was Assam’s highest individual score at No. 7 in first-class cricket and his third century in first-class cricket. Assam’s Sibsankar Roy also hit a hundred in the first innings; his maiden first-class hundred from 19 matches.

Raina and Tanmay hit hundreds

Suresh Raina bettered his chances of travelling to South Africa as India’s reserve middle-order batsmen with a century in UP’s first innings. This was his 13th first-class hundred. Tanmay Srivatsava also hit a century in UP’s second innings, which was his eighth in first-class cricket.

Keenan Vaz’s first half-century, Jakati’s five-for after a while

Goa wicketkeeper Keenan Vaz hit 99 in Goa’s first innings, which was his first fifty in first-class cricket in five games. He added another fifty to the tally in this match with a half-century in the second innings also. Vaz had scored 67 runs from six innings before this match. Shadab Jakati took a five-wicket haul for Goa in Jammu and Kashmir’s first innings. This was his eighth first-class five-for and his first since November 2010 in 18 innings.

Mayank hits 90 on debut, Nadeem’s highest first-class score

Mayank Agarwal hit 90 on his debut in first-class cricket, for Karnataka. Jharkhand captain Shahbaz Nadeem’s 85 in their first innings was the fourth half-century and the highest score of his first-class career.

Jaydev and Anureet both take their fifth five-for

Jaydev Unadkat and Anureet Singh both took their fifth five-wicket hauls in this match. Unadkat has now taken 91 first-class wickets from 32 matches at an average of 33.37. Anureet has taken 78 wickets from 23 first-class matches at an average of 29.65.

Jayant Yadav takes his first five-for, Wagh’s best bowling figures in a match

Jayant Yadav’s bowling figures of 5 for 77 in Vidarbha’s first innings were his best in first-class career and his first five-wicket haul. Jayant’s figures of 6 for 84 for the match were also his best in first-class cricket. Shrikant Wagh took 7 for 109 in the match, which was his best figures in a match in first-class cricket. This included a five-wicket haul – his third in first-class cricket.

Sri Lanka’s Test captain Angelo Mathews talks about his evolution as a batsman, the lessons he has learnt as a leader, and his goals for his team

Interview by Andrew Fidel Fernando19-Jan-2014As a captain and batsman, you rarely seem fazed by the match situation. Where does that come from?

It’s coming [from] within myself, I think. I don’t really blow out my emotions. I just try to absorb it and I try not to be too harsh or rude to the players on the ground because after all, we all make mistakes. We must appreciate all the hard work the players do, so I keep all the emotions to myself.As a batsman it has been coming to me since the age of 16, I suppose. I used to captain the Under-15s, Under-17s and Under-19s, so I’ve got this thing in my head saying that when I’m batting, especially, I should carry on till the end. I should not give my wicket away, because I’m a sort of a player who can always catch up. I don’t really mind taking a few balls to get set.Because I’m batting at No. 5 or 6 it means I have to finish up games more often than not. It’s not easy. You can’t say I’m not under pressure. There’s a lot of pressure when I go to bat, and a bit of nervousness. There are butterflies in your tummy but it’s just that I actually don’t blow away my emotions.Would you say that you’ve got more self-belief than the average cricketer?
No. Most of the players do believe in themselves. I’m one of those. I believe in my ability. I’m not into personal goals. I want my team to win all the games, so I do whatever it takes for the team to win.How do you think becoming a captain at 25 has affected your game?
I think it has affected it in a good way. I’ve taken more responsibility, I think. I mean, I used to be a very free-flowing scorer, and sometimes as a captain I tend to take a lot of responsibility and reduce the risk. Whereas when I first came in, even in a Test, I used to just jump out of the crease and slog a few sometimes. I think I’ve improved quite a bit in that way.You’ve got a lot to focus on with the captaincy and your own batting. How do you see yourself as a bowler in the future?
I think it’s all about managing yourself. I’ve been hit by a few [batsmen] in the past. That has nothing to do with my bowling. If I’m fit I try to bowl as much as I can. The schedules we have now, we hardly have any time to rest and have a few days off. You need to manage yourself, and you might have to reduce a bit more bowling and training, and you might have to do a bit more gym work. So I’m doing everything possible to keep myself fit.Mahela Jayawardene has said that the biggest priority as captain is ensuring you contribute as a player. Is that something you agree with?
Yes, definitely. As a captain you’re not only going there to handle the team in the middle, you play a major role in performing as well, have a bit more authority within the team. I agree with that. You need to perform as a captain and try and stamp your authority on the team. You have more respect when you perform.What goals do you have for your career?
I just want to be as consistent as I can. I don’t have huge goals in mind but I want to be the best allrounder in the world. I’m working hard trying to get there, but I still have a long way to go. I’ve gotten into a routine where I feel I’m giving myself the best chance to perform well in the middle.In the past you’ve spoken of a difficulty in converting fifties into hundreds. After your 157 not out in Abu Dhabi, do you feel you’ve resolved that?
You need to concentrate really hard. Sometimes when you bat with the tail you have to play shots. If you get set with another batsman, you can go for some runs. But you need a lot of concentration for that and I think I’m working really hard on that. That’s the secret for a batsman. I mean, when you saw Mahela in this series, in the first Test he failed and I thought his comeback was brilliant. All of us can learn something from that. The guy is so mentally tough. He’s a tough character and the way he went about things was amazing.What are the characteristics of a good leader?
Self-belief, having confidence in the team, killer instinct, and also not giving up. Those are the things that you need to have as a player and as a captain, because we all know how hard Test cricket is. You need to fight your way through all the time. You get those phases where you feel like you can’t handle it. But you need to hang in there. You need to fight it out and ultimately you’ll be the winner.

“I just want to be as consistent as I can. I don’t have huge goals in mind but I want to be the best allrounder in the world”

You’ve shown those fighting qualities, in ODIs especially. Where does that come from?
I believe in myself. I try to fight all the time. Especially when the pressure is on, you need to keep fighting. We as players sometimes just give up. Being able to fight is one of the things that’s in me.What do you think are your strengths as a captain?
As a captain you need to listen to people. I don’t think you can handle each player in the same way. To help players you need to understand what they say and try to get the best out of them the way you want.Are there leaders you admire, and if so, why?
I was just a little kid when Arjuna Ranatunga was captain and I used to watch him on TV and he used to stand with authority. He used to be a great leader. He is one of the best leaders that Sri Lanka has ever produced. Also Mahela and Sangakkara, the way they handle stuff. When it comes to player management they are pretty brilliant.What have been some of the biggest lessons for you in your 11 months as captain?
Again, it’s to do with player management. With players, you can’t put your foot down and say, “You should do this. You should do that.” As a captain you need to be able to listen to them. You need to be able to talk them through whatever they want to talk, and try and get the best for the team.Mahela and Sanga are great resources to have in the team. How have you used them?
I get a lot of advice from the seniors, Dilshan, Mahela, Sanga, and when it comes to bowling, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara and Rangana Herath also give their opinions. But when it comes to decision-making, it’s me and the coach. It doesn’t really matter if they’re seniors or juniors. You should be able to get their ideas as well. There will be instances where a junior comes to you and says something very important and you need to be able to listen.You took charge at a time of upheaval around the team, and there was a contracts crisis before you played your first Test as captain. Did that affect the way you looked at the job?
No, not really. When it comes to the players, when they pass that white line, when they get out onto the field, we just want to win. It doesn’t really matter what happens outside.Sri Lankan captains haven’t had long life spans recently. Is this a job that you’d like to do for a long time?
I haven’t planned anything as such. I’m just enjoying my stint currently. The future is totally up to the selectors. I have no personal targets when it comes to captaining. I just want to do my best for the country and have the team win all the time.”When it comes to player management Mahela and Sanga are pretty brilliant”•AFPWhat are some aspects of Sri Lanka’s team culture that you feel are vital and want to protect?
We enjoy each other’s success, and that has been the biggest part in our cricket. The culture is so different to other countries. We help each other out. The bowlers help the batsmen, the batsmen help the bowlers. So we all work for one target and it’s about winning. We help everyone all the time and we drag everyone with us.In what ways do you mean the culture is different from other countries?
I really haven’t been part of other teams, but in most teams there might be instances where they go for individual goals, individual targets, whereas our team is all about winning. It’s all about the team. Team comes first before any individual and that has always been our policy. That’s the best thing that I like about my team.Sri Lanka’s international schedule has come under huge threat from the domestic T20 leagues in the past few years. How can Sri Lanka deal with those challenges?
As players we can’t decide on anything. It’s totally up to the cricket board and the tour organising committee. We’ve signed the contracts and we are obliged to our contracts. Whatever the board decides, we have to do it, and as players it doesn’t worry us at all because we want to play for the country and when we go out there it doesn’t really matter if it’s some other big tournament.Others in the team have spoken out about not having enough Tests.
Yes. Test cricket is the ultimate form of cricket and we’d like more of them in our calendar. We’ve got a few coming this year as well, and we hope that we’ll be winning more Tests.The selectors are grooming a leadership unit, with Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne being looked at as future leaders. How has splitting the captaincy affected the way you lead in ODIs and Tests?
I haven’t even thought of it because when it was announced that I was the Test and ODI skipper I said to myself, “You’ve been given a great responsibility and you have to live up to your expectations.” So I’m not really looking at captaining all three formats or just one format or whatever because the selectors decided what’s best for me and I’ve got to go with that. But I exchange ideas with Chandimal and Thirimanne. They are two great players and they think about it in a positive way and also have a lot of ideas.What are the major challenges for the team in the coming years?
There are so many tours coming up and I think we would like to be in the top three in Tests and ODIs. We’ve got to work really hard towards getting there. It’s not easy because all the teams are quite even and you have to have that slight mental edge to win against all opponents. All the tours are tough and it’s going to take a lot out of us if we have to keep winning.

After two and a half years in the job, John Inverarity has stood down as Australia’s chairman of selectors. ESPNcricinfo presents a selection of his winning decisions, and some of those that didn’t work out.

Brydon Coverdale02-May-2014

HITS

Chris Rogers
For many years, it seemed that Rogers was destined to become a one-Test player, his only appearance filling in for an injured Matthew Hayden against India in 2008. But the departures of Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey left Australia in need of batting experience for last year’s Ashes tour and Inverarity called on Rogers, who at 35 would not have been considered by some selection panels, despite possessing nearly 20,000 first-class runs. A steady top-order influence, Rogers became the leading run scorer from either team across all 10 Ashes Tests in 2013-14 and added a fourth Test century to his tally in Port Elizabeth.David Warner
It is easy to forget that Warner was yet to make his Test debut when Inverarity’s panel first convened back in 2011. The first team they picked was for the Gabba Test against New Zealand and the absence of several key men due to injury meant there was no easing in to the job. Warner, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc debuted and all eyes were particularly on Warner, who had played only 11 first-class games and had to prove he was more than a Twenty20 basher. In his second Test he carried his bat for a patient 123 that narrowly failed to deliver victory in Hobart, and a rollicking 180 followed against India at the WACA. Inverarity will depart with Warner at the peak of his Test powers, having made five tons and averaging 71.06 in the 2013-14 summer, and with Rogers and Warner a strong, established opening pair.George Bailey
Bailey the Test player may not have been such a success, although he contributed to the 5-0 Ashes clean-sweep, but Bailey the short-form batsman has been one of the triumphs of Inverarity’s tenure. Impressed by Bailey’s cricketing brain and his leadership with Tasmania, Inverarity installed him as the T20 captain in early 2012, before he had played for his country in any format. A place in the one-day side followed and it was there that Bailey proved himself a match-winning middle-order striker, comfortably topping Australia’s ODI run tally during the Inverarity era with 1647 at 53.12. The success of the T20 team under Bailey has been varied, although they were always likely to struggle in the past two World T20s in spinning conditions in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.Bringing Brad Haddin back for last year’s Ashes Tests proved a wise move•Getty ImagesMitchell Johnson, the comeback
Admittedly, this was due more to circumstance than the panel’s judgment, but the selectors still had to write Johnson’s name down in their 2013-14 Ashes squad and trust that his past struggles were behind him. Not picked for the tour of England, Johnson impressed the selectors with his pace in the one-day series in India that bisected the two Ashes battles and when they had to pick a Test side minus the injured Starc, Pattinson and Jackson Bird, they turned to Johnson. The rest – as well as a few England careers – is history.Brad Haddin, the comeback
Unlike Johnson’s return, the re-emergence of Haddin as a key Ashes player purely down to selectorial shrewdness. Having dumped an out-of-form Haddin for the younger Matthew Wade in 2012, Inverarity’s panel could have been expected to put a line through Haddin’s name and look solely to the future. But as they showed with Rogers, and with men like Brad Hogg and Brad Hodge in the T20 side, they were prepared to ignore age and focus on form and experience when the big moments arrived. At 35, Haddin was reinstalled ahead of the struggling Wade for the Ashes tour and made vice-captain, and while solid in England it was in the home series that he really thrived, rescuing Australia in nearly every Test with the bat. Only Warner scored more runs in the home Ashes.

MISSES

John Hastings
The Perth Test of 2012-13 will be remembered mostly for Ricky Ponting’s retirement, but it was also a low point for the Inverarity panel. The heavy workload imposed on Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus in Adelaide a few days earlier meant the controversial rotation policy, or as Inverarity called it, “informed player management”, was brought into effect. At least, that was how it first appeared. Only later did it emerge that Siddle and Hilfenhaus were less than 100% fit, but whatever the reason, the choice of Hastings as a replacement seemed odd when men like Jackson Bird and Ben Cutting were also performing well in the Sheffield Shield. Hastings posed little threat to the South Africans and finished his one Test with 1 for 153.John Hastings had little impact in his one Test appearance•Getty ImagesRob Quiney
In the absence of an injured Watson, Quiney was put in at No.3 for the first two Tests against South Africa in that same 2012-13 series for scores of 9, 0 and 0. But it was not just the failures of Quiney that caused consternation among fans, it was the feeling that he had been thrown to the wolves to protect Phillip Hughes, who was brought in for the following series against a friendlier Sri Lankan attack. “We did feel that throwing [Hughes] into a Test against the world No.1 with their attack was probably not the ideal set of circumstances for him,” Inverarity said when he announced Hughes was to play Sri Lanka.Xavier Doherty
Andrew Hilditch’s selection panel had discovered during the 2010-11 Ashes that Doherty was a limited-overs bowler who would struggle for impact in Tests, but that did not stop Inverarity and his colleagues picking Doherty for last year’s Test tour of India. The selectors said that Doherty’s one-day form had played a part in his selection, and not surprisingly when he was included in the side he looked a containing bowler rather than a wicket taker. The decision to include Doherty and Glenn Maxwell, who was promoted before he was really Test-ready, and to drop Nathan Lyon was made when Inverarity was the selector on duty. Lyon returned later in the series and took nine wickets in the Delhi Test.Ashton Agar
Another spinner who was thrust into Test cricket at the expense of the accomplished incumbent Lyon was Agar. And while he captured the imagination of the Australian public on debut with his 98 batting at No.11, and with his youthful exuberance, Agar was not yet a Test spinner and was dropped after two matches, by which time Australia were 2-0 down.Brad Hogg
It was worth a shot. Inverarity and his panel should be congratulated for their bravery in picking older veterans like Hogg and Hodge, men who are now T20 specialists, in the search for a World T20 title. But ultimately the inclusion of 40-plus-year-old Hogg for the tournaments in Sri Lanka in 2012 and Bangladesh in 2014 made no difference. Despite his teenage-like enthusiasm and BBL success, Hogg managed 2 for 186 across the two tournaments, while costing 7.75 an over, and one of the most adventurous selections in Australia’s recent history must be judged as a failure.

A younger, inexperienced Ireland will have to tackle the target placed on them for being the top-ranked nation in the warm-up stage of the World T20

Andrew McGlashan16-Mar-2014

Overview

With success and standing comes expectation. Ireland are now used to that, but it does not mean the pressure is any less each time a world event comes. They are the top-ranked nation in the qualifying section of the World T20, sitting above their Full Member counterparts of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. It certainly will not have gone unnoticed that the team above them in eighth position in the current rankings is England.And that could yet be a match-up that occurs at the World T20: if Ireland progress from Group B they will be alongside England in the second phase of the tournament. First, though, there is the cut and thrust of the next week to get through. William Porterfield, the captain, gave an interesting perspective of the competition to join the top eight teams, saying that the sides that progress could well be at advantage given the competitive cricket they will have played.While Ireland are rightly lauded for the progress being made, conversely it also has to be said that failure to qualify will have to be viewed as a significant setback.There is a more youthful look about Ireland’s squad compared to the previous global event, the 2012 World T20 in Sri Lanka. Gone are Boyd Rankin (now with England) and Trent Johnston (retired) so the bowling, in particular, includes some inexperienced names. Seam bowlers Stuart Thompson and Craig Young, along with spinners Andy McBrine and James Shannon are those tasked with filling the large shoes.It means the onus will be on Ireland’s batting. That is where the bulk of the professional experience sits, from the captain Porterfield and his opening partner Paul Stirling, to Ed Joyce, the O’Brien brothers and Gary Wilson.

Key player

Paul Stirling gives the ball a hefty thump and, as Porterfield picked out earlier this week, offers a valuable option with his offspin in conditions that should favour the slow bowlers. While there remains a place for deftness in T20, sheer power is what intimidates oppositions and Stirling, if he can hold himself together, can dominate a bowling attack.Given the aforementioned absence of some senior figures from the bowling attack, George Dockrell‘s four overs could well shape an innings for Ireland. Still just 21, he is now one of the more experienced campaigners with the ball.

Surprise package

Twenty-year-old Andy McBrine is uncapped at international level but made his first-class debut against Scotland last year. In Ireland’s warm-up match against Nepal he took 2 for 22 from his four overs and could yet be a partner for Dockrell.

Weakness

After Tim Murtagh and Max Sorensen, the pace bowling is a little thin with the changing of the guard, so if Ireland’s slower bowlers do not prove to be as effective as hoped they could struggle for a Plan B.

World T20 history

Their best result came in the 2009 tournament stages in England when they beat Bangladesh to move into the second stage. They came close to a repeat in 2010 when rain denied them a winnable chase against England in Guyana, but last time in 2012 they did not really get out of the starting blocks following an opening defeat against Australia before rain forced an abandonment at the half-way stage against West Indies.

Recent form

Their results in the build-up to the World T20 have been mixed. They lost two of their three matches in the Nagico Super 50 tournament in Trinidad, shared the T20 series against West Indies 1-1 on turgid Sabina Park pitches, lost the following ODI, then were beaten by Hong Kong in Sharjah before, perhaps more significantly, beating Nepal in Fatullah once they had reached Bangladesh before losing to the hosts.

Our correspondent takes in tea at Lord’s, fish and chips at Headingley, and a heady Sri Lankan series win

Andrew Fidel Fernando26-Jun-2014June 10
Arrive at Heathrow after a long flight. Acquiring a visa for the UK was such a drawn-out ordeal, I was almost expecting to be waterboarded at the airport. The reality is far more pleasant. The border-control officer – probably of Indian descent – asks me what I’m here for.”I’m covering the cricket over the next couple of weeks,” I say.Her eyes light up.”Oh, brilliant! I’ve got tickets for one of the matches. But aren’t the games a few weeks away? The team hasn’t arrived yet, I don’t think.””No, I’m here for the Test that starts on Thursday.”She looks down at my passport for the first time. The words “Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka” are emblazoned on the front.”Oh,” she says.The smile disappears. She stamps the page. 

”Enjoy your stay.”June 11
Stroll down Abbey Road of Beatles fame, in St John’s Wood, where Lord’s is. I approach pedestrian crossing, and a group of European teenagers are taking pictures, recreating album cover.There are five of them. They each take a photo so every combination of four can be photographed, frozen mid-stride, evenly spaced, and in single file. A blue BMW pulls out of a nearby driveway and waits for them to finish posing. 

You would expect him to have tooted the horn, but the man behind the wheel is way beyond that. His face is a picture of long-standing, inconsolable defeat. When our eyes meet, I feel like I know his story.Years ago, he bought a house near Abbey Road, thinking, “Oh that’s nice. I’ll have something to tell people if I’m ever stuck for conversation at a party.” Two weeks after moving in, the streams of tourists, seeking out the painted lines for the same reason, began to grate.In the years since, he has stopped at the crossing a million times. He has spent more of his life watching French teenagers pretending to cross the road than he has spent with his children.This is his life now. He is the broken man in the background of ten thousand hackneyed Facebook posts. None of the “likes” are for him.June 12
Lord’s. The ground is full. The bell tolls and play begins with a reverent hubbub. I take a walk around the stands, as patrons sip wine and pour Earl Grey out of steel flasks. I answer a phone call and am immediately approached by three stewards, insisting phone calls are not allowed. A man in a bacon-and-egg tie yells at me: “Sit down, or get out of the stand!”But the press box is excellent, the local journalists are friendly, and the afternoon tea is varied and delicious. A proper Lord’s experience.

We drive past beautiful old churches and sun-bathed fields on the way to Headingley stadium. When we get there, two stewards, both locals, trip over themselves to give me directions

June 13
The “Unity Team”, a squad of 14 Under-19 players from all parts of Sri Lanka, is at the ground. Last November, they played a tournament back home in support of post-war reconciliation, and the boys who have come to the UK have been picked from each of the schools and provinces represented in that tournament. They are from Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Seenigama and Badulla; and two are from Colombo’s St Peter’s college, among others.Vinoshan, a fast bowler from Mullaitivu, whom I have met before, gives me a rundown.”We beat the Trinity College combined team first. That was a good game. We had to bowl really well. But then we played Eton College 1st XI yesterday, and they were rubbish. It was barely even a decent match.”I can’t stop laughing for five minutes. Here is an 18-year-old from the most embattled place in Sri Lanka’s modern history – a town devastated by shelling, bombs and firefights, with shops and schools still wearing bullet holes – arrogantly bagging some of the most privileged kids on the planet. Four years ago, most of Vinoshan’s friends were in an internally displaced camp. Almost everyone in his village has lost a family member to the war.”We smashed them,” he says.I hope I meet him again.June 15
Heading back to my hotel at Seven Sisters late in the evening, I hear Elton John’s “Sacrifice” over the tube station’s PA. I walk a little further and realise it’s actually a busker, on a keyboard, dressed in a shiny Elton jacket and round pink-tinted glasses, doing a pitch-perfect cover.There are about six people standing around watching. Surely he can earn more at a bar or something, I think. I look into the case laid out in front of him. There is at least £50 in there.June 16
The mood in the press box is impossibly tense during the final over. We’re all supposed to be impartial, but how can we call ourselves cricket lovers if a finish like that doesn’t get our hearts pumping? Nuwan Pradeep is given out on the penultimate ball, and a cry of jubilation goes up around me. The journalists who cheered immediately realise what they have done, and regain their businesslike mien at lightning speed. 

I kind of wish they didn’t feel they had to. We’re professionals but we’re also fans. Press boxes are often sterile enough already. A little unbridled passion keeps us tethered to the game.June 17
A day at the ESPNcricinfo Hammersmith offices, followed by a beer with my colleagues by the Thames. We swap touring stories. “There aren’t that many days in the year that are this beautiful, so we may as well enjoy it,” Andrew “Gnasher” McGlashan says.
The conversation snakes towards county cricket in the 1990s. Gnasher remembers almost everything that happened in domestic cricket that decade. He gives a blow-by-blow of Aravinda de Silva’s epic 1995 season with Kent. 

There was a time in my life when I thought myself an ardent cricket fan. Then I met people like Gnasher.They’re coming to take you away: men in white coats lend flavour to the second day at Headingley•Getty ImagesJune 18
The first I ever heard of Yorkshire was on my radio, at the age of about 11, when Monty Python’s “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch came on air. Since then I accumulated what is probably the stereotypical picture of Yorkshire: a cold place populated by no-nonsense, outspoken people. 

That was until a few months ago, when I read Bill Bryson’s . His view of Yorkshire was dramatically different to anything I had read before. Bryson fell in love with the gentle, soothing beauty of the dales, and felt the county’s inhabitants were as friendly and giving as those anywhere in the world.We drive past beautiful old churches and sun-bathed fields on the way to Headingley stadium. When we get there, two stewards, both locals, trip over themselves to give me directions on how to get on the field. 

”Ya go down th’steps ere and left out th’door, then straigh’ through to th’vomitory,” one says.”Or y’could take th’lift if ya prefer,” the other offers. “Ah can take you, if y’like.”All through the week, “Yaarkshire” could not have been kinder. Bryson was right.June 19
The series sponsor, Investec, has generously set up a tab at a local bar for journalists to watch the England v Uruguay football match. Speak to Lawrence Booth, a long-time Manchester City fan who fell out of love with the England football team some time ago.”But I’d rather see them playing exciting football and losing than what they used to be like,” he says.The room is hushed by Luis Suarez’ second goal. “Come on ref! That was miles off side,” one patron bellows. A while later, the same man sees a replay and pipes up. “Oh no! It was off an England head. Oh god.”June 20

Realise the hotel we have been booked into is in the middle of Leeds’ small but noisy gay bar district. Wander into one of these establishments that evening to find a group of people standing around watching two other people eat, like it is the most riveting thing they have seen in their lives. We ask what’s going on but no explanation is given. We exit quickly, thoroughly perplexed.June 21
Jarrod Kimber has a hot tip about an American-style barbeque restaurant in town, so we decide to try it. We put away ludicrous amounts of meat and bourbon. George Dobell uses any excuse to turn the conversation towards how great Moeen Ali is, but the evening’s ramblings wind up, as always, at the ironic focal point of this “new era” of English cricket: Kevin Pietersen.June 22
The Cricket Writers Club puts on a meal for the travelling Sri Lankan journalists at a fish and chips establishment in Headingley. It’s difficult to be impressed by seafood when you come from Sri Lanka, but even the visiting food snobs are impressed by what’s on offer. The restaurant doesn’t do waiters or wine lists, or even menus. Just outstanding fish and chips.June 24
Angelo Mathews is standing outside the press conference room as Alastair Cook gets a grilling, following the series loss. Mathews is going through all the congratulatory messages on his phone, smiling like a madman when he sees a message he likes.Someone tells him Suarez has bitten an opposition player. 

”Again?” Mathews says in Sinhala. “What is wrong with that guy?”As the Sri Lanka team and support staff pile out of their dressing room and into the team bus, they are all grinning from ear to ear. It’s a parade of exposed teeth. Leeds might be seeing a lot more of their teeth tonight, before the team departs for home tomorrow.

Plays of the day from the seventh ODI between Sri Lanka and England in Colombo

Alan Gardner and Andrew Fidel Fernando16-Dec-2014The headwear
When Fawad Alam bowled with his cap on backwards during the recent series between Pakistan and Australia, it caused a bit of a stir. Joe Root is not quite as part-time as Alam but, when called upon to chip in with a few overs here, he promptly came in off a few steps and delivered the ball with his head still covered, peak pointing down the wicket. He then took his cap off and gave it to the umpire but not before a few comparisons with Geoffrey Boycott had been made. Proof, if any were needed, that cricket can be a strange game.The premature arm-raise
Chris Woakes returned to bowl during the batting Powerplay and targeted Dinesh Chandimal with a familiar short-pitched attack. A wild hack resulted in a top edge that went soaring in the direction of third man and Woakes immediately threw his hands up in celebration. He might have hesitated had he realised who the fielder running in was, though. Harry Gurney is not the man you would pick to catch for your life and on this occasion he didn’t even get close, there was no attempt at a dive and the ball then spun past him anyway, nearly going for four. Woakes’ hands dropped to his sides and on the replay he could be seen exclaiming: “Harry!”The good bad impressions
When you have hit 13,158 runs in each other’s company, across formats, perhaps it is inevitable that bad habits are shared, along with the good times. Batting for the final time in ODIs at home, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara fell mimicking mistakes more often seen at the opposite end of their bromance. Jayawardene had batted imperiously for his 28, but sent a leg-side half-tracker down the gullet of fine leg. Sangakkara had collected his 33 with typical care, but in his efforts to gently manoeuvre the field, chipped an offspinner straight to short midwicket.The compensatory celebrations
Colombo had wanted to see Sangakkara and Jayawardene rack up some milestones with the bat, but as neither managed to get past the thirties, it fell to the other senior batsman, Tillakaratne Dilshan, to give the full house its fill. He was most emphatic when celebrating his ton. Completing the two that took him to triple-figures, Dilshan dropped his bat by the wicketkeeper, his helmet at short third man, leapt, punched the air, and blew two kisses to the same stand that houses the dressing room. He was more reserved, but no less joyful when celebrating his wickets, embarking on a skip around one side of the pitch after his second scalp.Colombo gets its wish
Sangakkara has been involved in more ODI dismissals – 480 – than any other wicketkeeper in history. Jayawardene is by a huge margin the most prolific catch-taker (among non-wicketkeepers) in 50-over cricket, having successfully pouched 215 off the blade. But never before have the two combined on any scorecard. When Angelo Mathews tossed Jayawardene the ball with one England wicket remaining, the 25,000-strong crowd began baying for their perfect finish. Almost by their force of will, it came together. James Tredwell walked past a turning offspinner in Jayawardene’s second over, and Sangakkara whipped off the bails, as the stadium erupted, and the team broke out in big grins.

Back in the day, there was a certain audacity and spark to the Australian triangular; now, though, cricket seems to have outgrown the genre

Sidharth Monga15-Jan-2015There is this honest moment during the extended version of – the concert film during whose interviews Pink Floyd basically bully the interviewer most of the time – when Nick Mason goes, “We mark a sort of era. We’re in danger of becoming a relic of the past. And for some people we represent their childhood: 1967, Underground London, the free concert in Hyde Park…” You can imagine, at some point during the 2000s, when life and sport moved on to T20 and other things, the ODI triangular – or World Series Cricket as it was called in Australia – said: “I am becoming a relic of the past. For some I represent their childhoods of the ’90s and ’80s: best-of-three – sometimes five – finals, catches taken behind the sightscreen, the best jerseys…”The triangular series in Australia for years broke the rules, or convention at least. They dressed Pakistan in blue. They used to play ODIs between Tests at times. In 1991-92, India played a Test, then came five triangular matches, then two Tests, then the rest of the triangular, and then two more Tests. All the while West Indies remained in Australia. Hrishikesh Kanitkar once leaned against the fence and pulled the ball out of the crowd to take what then constituted a legal catch. For two years they had best-of-five finals. In 1980-81 they had teams playing each other five times before playing best-of-five finals. No wonder Greg Chappell asked for an underarm delivery.The triangular series in Australia was all the more awesome in the ’80s: West Indies used to show up every other year. They went there seven times for ODIs tournaments in the ’80s. A cigarette company used to sponsor the triangular, and fans could be seen smoking in the open.There was a certain brashness, audacity, to the triangular. One year they put together a group of players who couldn’t make it to the Australia 1st XI and introduced them as the fourth team because Zimbabwe were not expected to draw crowds. Guess who made it to the final? Australia and Australia A. The finals back then were not even ODIs but List A games – which Australia said and proved were more competitive and financially attractive than ODIs.The coverage of the triangular series was innovative. From the khhraaasssh sound the amped-up stump mics broadcast when someone got bowled to the initial stages of day-night cricket with white balls, to those weather walls that Tony Greig used to carry to the pitch report, to Dawdles the Duck, who accompanied batsmen who failed to score on their walk back. Even the peddling of the overpriced memorabilia seemed bearable. I was a kid. For a long time I didn’t realise the Bush in “Bush Great Catches” was Bush TV. Or that Benson & Hedges was a cigarette brand.The cricket wasn’t without innovation either – remember Adam Dale, who used to bowl nine or 10 overs at one go at the top of the innings? The critics of the Australian triangular, though, will say it was all too gimmicky, like a band relying too much on the instruments. To which the triangular’s response always was, like Roger Waters’ in to the contention that they relied too much on instruments: “It’s like, you give a man a Les Paul guitar and he becomes Eric Clapton, and of course that’s not true. And if you give a man an amplifier and a synthesiser, he doesn’t become, you know, whoever; he doesn’t become us.”And so we kept waking up early – in India’s case – to see what the new innovation was going to be this season, what new jerseys the triangular would come up with, and we enjoyed the cricket. Asif Mujtaba tying a match where 17 were required in one over, Sachin Tendulkar tying one with the ball where India defended 126, Michael Bevan’s last-ball four off Roger Harper, Dion Nash’s aerial hit landing on the overlapping rope and New Zealand losing by one run.Slowly cricket outgrew the Australian triangular. For a long time, the non-Australia matches remained a problem for the broadcasters. T20 came in. Demands made of the players became more specialised. There is an increasingly disturbing notion now in Australia – at least among those who make decisions in this regard – that the public is not interested in anything that doesn’t involve Australia. Apart from ABC, few news channels bother with world news. Big news loses out in prominence to the premiere of a Hollywood movie that features an Australian actor. James Brayshaw, for example, a Channel Nine commentator through the Test series, knew nothing about the Indian team. It’s apparent the public doesn’t like his commentary, but those who are making decisions don’t seem to see it.So even if there might have been some life in the relic, the triangular era was duly ended. Except once in a while, when the broadcasting money from India’s visits revived the triangular. India and Sri Lanka played the last triangular here, three years before now, and four years after the previous triangular, which also involved India. Even in 2011-12, Channel Nine was not too keen to telecast the India-Sri Lanka matches. Some of them were shown on Gem, a free-to-air channel.For one last time, perhaps – since there is unconfirmed news that India will next travel Australia for a seven-ODI bilateral – the triangular has come back, featuring Australia, England and India. There is no best-of-three final, though. And the teams face each other only twice each. And it is just a warm-up to the World Cup. More than the Floyd reunion for Live 8 at Hyde Park.

He does things his own way and so far Neil D’Costa has an impressive record in helping future stars get a leg up

Sharda Ugra23-Mar-2015When the second semi-final of the ICC World Cup 2015 gets underway at the SCG on the afternoon of March 26, in a south-west corner of Sydney, one man will boast of an involvement among the XIs on both sides. Neil D’Costa, one of the more maverick coaches working in Australia, has been associated with two players in the Australian XI and spent three years in the home state of one of the Indians.D’Costa, 44, was involved in the formative years turning Mitchell Starc from wicketkeeper to fast bowler and working and managing Michael Clarke from a very young age until the two parted ways a few years ago. He spent three years as head coach of the Vidarbha Cricket Association residential academy in Nagpur from 2008 to 2011 and watched a young raw tearaway called Umesh Yadav find his feet. There is a good chance all three will feature in the semi-final and D’Costa said watching players he had worked with develop and get to the highest level of the game was about satisfaction and pleasure: “You have pride that you helped that person get there.”There is a fourth character in this story, whose presence, or rather absence will also be a part of the semi-final story, and with whom D’Costa had very close links. The semi-final will be the last international match to be held at the SCG in the season that began with the awful on-field accident that led to the death of Phillip Hughes. D’Costa was Hughes’ mentor and guardian when he moved to Sydney. “Emotionally Philip and I were more alike. I was the person Philip saw to for his health and welfare, he didn’t have mum and dad, they were 800ks away.”The idea of life without Philip has been baffling: “Straight, honest answer I still forget he’s gone. I still forget and when I get reminded of it, it feels like a shock. I still can’t believe I am never going to see him again, I can’t get my head around it.”D’Costa describes himself as a “life coach, who uses cricket as a vehicle” and describes his job as being about “developing a human being’s motivation at being good at what he does. Everyone’s story is different.” Name the young players whose early years featured passing through D’Costa’s coaching regimen – Clarke, Hughes, Starc and later as an England pro Nick Compton among others – and D’Costa asks with a straight face, “is it a coincidence I am involved?”

D’Costas’ ambition is to flood the New South Wales team with the best players from his region and gives himself seven years to get there

Of all the stories, it is Mitchell Starc’s that contains in itself, a touch of whimsy. When head coach at Western Suburbs CC, D’Costa wandered over to see what was happening at ‘green shield’ (under-16) trials. He watched a gawky, self-conscious, spindly teenager throw the ball, hard, flat, fierce with an arm so powerful that he startled him. When he took the boy aside and asked him to have a bowl, he replied, “I’m a keeper I don’t bowl.” D’Costa replied, “humour me, bowl the ball.” At first sighting from a rudimentary run-up and action, D’Costa saw that his hunch was spot on. “We put Mitchell into a high performance programme, grabbed a bucket of balls and showed him how bowl first off one step.” Starc was asked to empty out four buckets bowling off one step and “go home.” A week later two steps, “and the week after that three.” Then the run up and it was from there D’Costa says that, Starc and his bowling had been “manufactured from scratch”. Once when D’costa found Starc “mucking around” during training, he sat the younger man down and said, “Do you realise you could play for Australia? Not like them”, he said, pointing to other players killing time joshing about. Left-arm whippy, quick, athletic Starc got picked for state sides and moved up the ranks. In Sydney on Thursday, he will be Australia’s key strike bowler in the semi-final.The Michael Clarke story starts when the Australian captain was seven or eight and put in charge of D’Costa by Clarke’s father who had bought a sports centre in Liverpool, NSW where D’Costa, a regular in Sydney grade cricket, trained; “you could see even at that age, he was better than most, he had a bit of pizzaz about him.”During his stint with Vidarbha, D’Costa said while he did not coach Umesh with this bowling as there were specialised bowling coaches to do so, the two men have had important conversations. Umesh was told about the responsibilities of being a professional, understanding what a professional psyche was all about, about looking after his body. The two men met the last time the Indians came into Sydney for a lengthy interval: D’Costa met with Umesh again and says, “I am so happy to see him doing well.” He has worked with Ross Taylor briefly, conducted a few sessions with VVS Laxman and England batsman Nick Compton, whose ghosts he set free by starting with a simple exercise: remove the pads, face tennis balls and play freely like you did when you were five.D’Costa is now head coach/coaching director of the Campbelltown Camden Districts Club and the Ghosts Cricket Academy. The Ghosts just happen to be the collective nickname for all local sports teams, based on a local legend about the disappearance of a farmer, Fred Fischer, and, four months later, a sighting first of Fischer’s “ghost” and shortly after, his body. Every team that plays out of Campbelltown are called the Ghosts.Campbelltown is a 48km train and cab ride south-west of Sydney, where on a Monday afternoon, boys around the ages of 8-12 had turned up on time and headed to their indoor nets with the head coach’s messages written on the walls. As they learn the finer points of full-blooded and check drives, time out in between is spent air-batting showing off a shot named “the Virat Kohli” – pick the ball from outside off stump and flick it away for a four.Despite his regular success as a development coach of young players, D’Costa works outside the ‘elite pathway’ in which the rest of official Australian cricket operates. The son of Anglo-Indian parents who moved to Australia in the 60s, he says there are times when he wonders about his identity: in Australia, growing up, he was thought of as an Indian boy. When he travels to India, he is considered Australian and the absurdity of it makes him laugh.He says boldly his ambition is to flood the New South Wales team with the best players from his region and gives himself seven years to get there. He is proud of the cream of his under-15s and under-17s at Campbelltown and where they stand in terms of talent from other parts in both bowling and batting. He speaks with as much affection he did about Hughes, Clarke and Starc about a cricketer named Jordan Gauci, of Maltese origin and brimming with promise.D’Costa is known to be a rocker of boats, has been called a “veteran coach” – ready for pipe and slippers at age 25 – and is hardly acknowledged by the Australian cricket establishment as that coach with a rare “eye.” He remains confident that, as his players keep coming through (and they will) they will be all the proof needed if not the recognition of his knowledge, experience and abilities.After all, look at what happened to three boys with whom he crossed paths not so long ago. They will turn up as key protagonists in a tight, tense match, adding another chapter in the one of the biggest rivalries known to world cricket in what will be their biggest 50-over game in years.

In an otherwise strong campaign, India will be wary of the fact that their openers have struggled to come out firing and are time and again being bailed out by others down the order

Sharda Ugra at Eden Park14-Mar-20153:32

‘Gained a lot out of this game’ – Dhoni

On Saturday, Eden Park turned into New Delhi or Mohali, with an IPL match being played well into the night. The ground was not quite full, but the noise was the unmistakable sound of Indian fans at high volume backed by bangra pop and Bollywood.A fortnight ago though, the perfect storm had broken over Eden Park when New Zealand took on Australia and windowpanes had shattered around the neighbourhood. Saturday night was not half bad either, with 30,000 Indian expats in the house as India chased down their highest World Cup score in beating Zimbabwe by six wickets.The partnership between Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni gift-wrapped the final leg of India’s seamless progress in what is the their best ever performance at a World Cup going into the knockouts. The game ended with sounds, lights and dazzle; Dhoni and Raina opened up shoulders and stances, cleared their front legs and tried to reach all parts of the ground.Naturally, a Dhoni six had to end it. He and Raina had put up 196 runs in 26 overs, coming together in the 23rd over and first pushing, then racing through the game. Raina’s first World Cup century was marked by scratchiness at the start, a dropped catch in the middle, and a shepherding through the testy parts by Dhoni, who must play at such a sober pace that he is virtually last man on the bridge at No. 6.Dhoni described his frequent conversation with Raina afterwards; “I just have to ask him to go from fifth gear to third gear as there was not really any batsmen after us.”Over the last 10 years, it should surprise no one that it is these two, ax man and flaky stylist, who have formed India’s most prolific ODI partnership in terms of runs.Besides the game against Ireland, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have added just 104 runs together from five innings, with a highest stand of 35•ICCThey have scored 3480 runs together at 62.14, with nine century stands. This was a tighter World Cup game than the other slightly hairy chase India had against West Indies, with Dhoni coming in the 18th over with 105 to get. Here, he walked in during the 23rd, marshaling India’s chase as usual, ending with eight balls to spare. It is the closest India have gone to the very end of a match in this tournament and once again, they came out on the winning side.Dhoni was satisfied: “It couldn’t have been better. If you’re playing the last game of the league stage, and if you get an easy win, you don’t get a lot out of that game. What was good was the spinners were put under pressure, and also we lost quick wickets initially, and that actually put our middle and lower middle order under pressure, so we gained a lot out of it.”Now to the pointy stuff. After teams get repeatedly get clobbered, their captains are asked about ‘positives’ they may have extricated from the debris. When teams get to where are India are at this World Cup, with a smooth factory-line efficiency, the general tone of the, (thank you, KP) “mood hoovers” is ‘negatives’, ‘worries’, and ‘areas of improvement’. While Dhoni was content about the spinners being pushed with the slog overs costing India 80 off the last 10, there is another slightly dodgy issue, which is central to the Indian top order turning up fully switched on at the business end of the event.Over the next two weeks, the attacks India are about to face, all things going well, will not comprise the combined strengths of UAE and Ireland. They will pose more questions than Zimbabwe’s effort and energy did today. India’s opening stand at the World Cup so far, has been far from steady or confidence-inducing. Outside an opening partnership of 174 against Ireland – India’s highest opening stand in the World Cup – in five innings, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have managed just 104 runs with a highest stand of 35.In this World Cup, the Dhawan-Rohit partnership has been a minimum of a modicum. Other than Ireland, together they have traveled without conviction. They have neither blitzed the first 10 overs and thrown the opposition’s bowling into disarray, nor been able to play clatter along into the mid-innings and give any free-hitters following them a good tilt in the last 15 overs.India have never started panicking after a wicket because they know that someone or the other down the order will step up•Getty ImagesThe top-order combination which, in the averages taken over a ten-year period (minimum of 1000 runs), has done the best and remains a part of the current team, is in fact Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane with 1106 runs at 69.12. In terms of pure average, Dhoni and Gambhir head the list with 1270 runs at 74.7. India may have done themselves no favours by not tinkering or fidegeting around with options in the lighter games. They may yet still win the thing, but the openers’ numbers remain unpleasant.Dhoni had a somewhat mystifying answer to this dilemma, saying that in many cases when India were chasing, the opposition had “not scored too many runs” and therefore the openers “can’t score the same number of runs.” He did try to clarify though that it was India’s start that had been important. That start has been as follows: 34, 9, 29, 11, 174, 11. Exclude that Ireland game, and all the importance the start appears to contain is that Dhawan and Rohit simply turned up together.The defence for Rohit, whose World Cups scores are 15, 0, 57*, 7, 64 and 16, was stout.”I feel Rohit has batted really well so far. He looks quite calm and composed, and at the same time he’s playing the shots really well,” Dhoni said. “That’s something that’s a key factor. It’s not always about the runs. We have seen batsmen who are playing really well but they have not scored runs, and all of a sudden you see a game where they score really big and they come back. So it’s not really being out of form. What’s important is to spend time in the middle, and I think Rohit has done enough of that.”The group stages are now done with, and India find themselves once again in the middle, where the white light of the knockouts will be training on them with greater intensity than they have over the last month. India’s World Cup will now start over, and the openers have a chance to wipe a fairly grubby slate clean.