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In between ICC events and India series’, Australia provide Zimbabwe Cricket with a rare chance to boost its coffers; that’s what it is looking to do during the upcoming tri-series, but it’s not that straightforward

Firdose Moonda in Harare07-Aug-2014Among the myriad myths attached to Zimbabwe, those that concern money stand out most.In the 1800s, explorers who came across the Great Zimbabwe ruins believed they had found the city of Ophir, home to King Soloman’s Mines. Only the absence of gold would have told them they had not. More than two hundred years later, wheelbarrows filled with cash could create the impression of wealth. In reality all they could buy was a loaf of bread. Similarly cricket in Zimbabwe operates under various states of illusions about its financial viability, which will be in the spotlight over the next month as it hosts South Africa and Australia.Less than two weeks ago, there were fears Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) was headed for monetary meltdown. Again. Peter Chingoka’s stepping down as chairman after a more than two-decade reign, the culling of a domestic franchise and the restructuring of some parts of the administration all aroused suspicions of a looming financial crisis.The casual observer would know nothing of those concerns because at first glance nothing seems amiss at Harare Sports Club. The outfield is a lush green, as though it had been kissed with summer rainfall for months. The last cloudburst in Zimbabwe’s capital was experienced in May, which tells you how much work the groundstaff has been doing.Just beyond the boundary, a trench is being dug in which a fibre-optic cable will be planted in the next 24 hours, providing Harare Sports Club with a high-speed connection to the outside world. The clubhouse itself is having a small refurbishment on one side while its restaurant, these days called the Centurion, will have a relaunch party in a week’s time. One of Zimbabwe’s most prominent musicians, Oliver Mtukudzi, an artist who does not come cheaply, is the headline act for the event.All this is in fact a mirage through which a struggling ZC may be able to portray that not much is wrong. Harare Sports Club and the Centurion are not ZC entities but the administration is looking to use them to boost its own image and, possibly, its coffers over the next month.ZC will charge spectators the usual US$1 or US$2 if they want to occupy a seat anywhere in the ground for the Test but are considering hiking up entry fees for the tri-series which will also include Australia. Tickets for those ODIS which usually cost US$5 could be put up to US$7.All the gate-takings belong to ZC, including those for the Centurion, which the establishment has always handed over. However, insiders have indicated management could resist the US$7 fee because it considers it unreasonable and does not want to be used by ZC in an attempt to boost revenue. The Centurion has threatened to close its doors if ZC does not relent and allow fans in for the usual US$5 fee. ZC may get around that by erecting a temporary stand in front of the pub, effectively blocking patrons from seeing the match but allowing more spectators in to do the same.All this may seem like a big fuss over very little because crowd figures are generally low, but that may not be the case this time. The Test kicks off as school holidays begin and will be played over a weekend and two public holidays, which should attract many spectators. Similarly, the tri-series will take place with children on vacation, and both South Africa and Australia are expected to be major draw-cards. Add to that that Zimbabwe will not host cricket for another year and you can see why ZC wants to cash in while the opportunity presents itself.According to a proposed FTP, of which ESPNcricinfo has a copy, after this tour Zimbabweans will only see more international cricket next July, when they are scheduled to play India for three ODIs and a T20, and New Zealand for the same number of matches. The India visit will be the next money-making exercise for ZC at home and will likely tide the board over for a few months, as it did when India visited for five ODIs last year.Before that, ZC will receive money from next year’s World Cup, which is expected to provide the cushion for it to finance the game for a while. But in between ICC events and India visits, ZC’s only other opportunity to make money, like most cricket countries, is when Australia or England tour. Because the latter have political reasons for not being able to visit Zimbabwe, Australia is their only other cash cow, with South Africa being a break-even tour. Now that the cow is turning up, albeit only to play in a fifty-over tri-series which will last little over two weeks, ZC wants to milk it for all it is worth while it has the chance.

Plays of the day from the fifth ODI in Ranchi

Andrew Fidel Fernando16-Nov-2014The mix upBoth Ambati Rayudu and Virat Kohli have been involved in run-outs stemming from miscommunication this series, and together they contrived perhaps the worst mix up of the series, when both batsmen had looked set to make big scores. Kohli bottom-edged a ball from Shaminda Eranga in the 28th over, and though it seemed headed toward third man, Dinesh Chandimal made a good diving stop from behind the stumps. Rayudu had already committed to the run though, and had sped almost to the strikers’ crease before realising that a stationary Kohli had not responded to his call. He turned and sprinted in the other direction, but Eranga had collected the throw and taken the bails off long before he made his ground. Kohli was apologetic as Rayudu trudged back to the dressing room.The superman diveHaving scored 139 not out and removed both openers, Angelo Mathews was taking India on almost on his own, but there was more to come. He had made a misfield in the early overs, but his hands were safe when there was more on the line. Robin Uthappa had just begun to warm to his work when he failed to control a flick off Ajantha Mendis in the 34th over. The ball was some distance from Mathews at short midwicket, and dipping low in its trajectory, but Mathews flung himself forward and to his right, intercepting the ball ten centimeters from the turf while completely horizontal.The pushKohli’s on-side game was typically strong on Sunday, but it was a stroke through the off side that confirmed he was in century-making touch. Eranga sent a length ball down to him just outside off stump in the 12th over, and as the ball did not deserve punishment, Kohli merely slinked close to it and pushed firmly to the left of cover. The timing was so good, and the placement so perfect, it was clear the shot would bring four before it had even beaten the infield.The death stareHaving already expressed contrition when he ran Rayudu out, Kohli went through a wide range of human emotions as Sri Lanka began to exert pressure through the middle overs. He had been visibly disappointed at Kedar Jadav’s dismissal, and though he experienced joy when he completed his 21st ton in the 43rd over, he was irate in the 44th. Stuart Binny charged Mendis first ball, and was stumped comfortably. If Binny had turned his eyes towards his captain on the way back, he would have been met with a glare as harsh as any India player has worn in the series.The impersonationIf it is a close finish for India, generally MS Dhoni is at the crease, to oversee the approach, then deliver the final shellacking. In Dhoni’s absence though, Kohli provided a near stroke-perfect imitation. When Ajantha Mendis pitched one full in the penultimate over, Kohli cleared his front leg, whipped his wrists through the shot and sent the ball high over the long on fence, as he completed the helicopter-follow through to boot. Three balls later, Kohli launched Mendis over long-on again, closing out the chase in Dhoni style. The detail that rounded off that finish did not escape Kohli either: “Playing in MS’ hometown that was a perfect finish for us,” he said at the presentation. The only thing that would have made the impersonation more precise, was if he had taken the game into the final over, and perhaps struck the sixes off Shaminda Eranga, as Dhoni did in the Caribbean last year.

For the fans, an India-Pakistan match isn’t just a game of cricket, but a communal life experience. It’s a memory they will either loathe or cherish for the rest of their lives

Jarrod Kimber in Adelaide15-Feb-2015Blue, with a streak of green. It is unmistakable.Everywhere you look, the colours of the country are on show. The longer you look, you start noticing the green dots amid the blue ocean. Green and blue is on everyone, everywhere.The entire ground is dressed in colours. One man wears an Indian flag court jester hat, a traditional Indian vest over an Indian cricket shirt. One young Pakistani seems to be wearing two Pakistan shirts. A mother straightens the Indian shirt of a little girl in her sling. There is a group of fans who have come from Zimbabwe, they wear a shirt of their own design, part India, part Zimbabwe. An older woman wears a fashionable green skirt, which is the exact same colour of the Pakistan 99 World Cup kit.One man claims to have not worn his India shirt in 30 years. This despite the fact that he does not even look 30, and that coloured shirts weren’t really available then.Sports fans love a uniform. Sports fans love to belong. This isn’t about sport. This is about identity. This isn’t about sport, or citizenship or even nationality. This is about culture. The India or Pakistan on the chest is a statement of who they are. What they are. Their colour. Them.”The spirit of this game”, according to Karl Telfer of the Kaurna Clan “unites us”.It has united them right here in Adelaide. People have come from Singapore, Mumbai, Denver, Lahore, London, San Francisco, Melbourne, Sydney, Florida, Dallas, Michigan and Mombasa. Not for the glory of cricket, but for the glory of India and Pakistan.The crowd is made up of dental practitioners, accountants, CEOs, CTOs and engineers. Some have paid over six-hundred dollars just to come over from Sydney. One man tells me, “Oh, thousands, I couldn’t even add it all up, and I’m only seeing this one game”.This one game.”I’ve come from Dallas”, says one woman. Are you going to another game? “No, just this one”. Her husband then tells her she is going to another game. There are no other games.India and Pakistan fans in raptures ahead of the game. Only one group will still be smiling eight hours later•ICCThere are two types of fans here, and they are often sitting together. A smart dressed man in a turban and smart casual light blue shirt sits next to his mate who is dressed in a Pakistan shirt. The Pakistani fan proudly tells me that he came all the way from Singapore for this game, and that if Pakistan weren’t playing India, he wouldn’t have bothered making the trip. His friend in the smart shirt is from Mumbai, and he would have come regardless. Mr Mumbai is a cricket fan, Mr Singapore is an India-Pakistan fan.There is a difference. Aman has flown in from Melbourne. Recently, he took his mother to see India play Australia in Tests. She was bored and showed no interest. He tells me that she is loving today. She doesn’t know about the hashtags of #realfinal, or #wewontgiveitback.She doesn’t know about Mohit Sharma’s late call-up or why Umar Akmal is keeping . She doesn’t know any of the players. She doesn’t need to. For her – for many, in fact – this isn’t about the players. After the game, she won’t be starting Facebook memes about Suresh Raina or RTing funny photos of Pakistanis. She will just be happy or sad.Many in the crowd are like this. They cheer a ball that Dhawan has played horribly, because it gets a run. The quality of a Pakistani wicket doesn’t change the sound made by the fans.There are children here as well. Prams are carried up the stairs to seats high up in the stands. The children are too young to understand where they are, or what they are watching. A two-year-old clutches at his father with his hand over his face. He will hardly see a ball. He wouldn’t understand even if he did. Every Pakistani cheer startles him. Every Indian cheer terrifies him. In years to come, his dad will proudly tell him, “You were there”. The memory will be implanted if it has to be.The new generation isn’t like the last. The younger people don’t have the same level of animosity. They want their team to win. They want it passionately. Loudly. But half of the crowd seems to have at least one friend from the rival-colour clan. A Facebook friend, or a real friend. They study with them. They work with them. They live together. They marry each other.”Of course the initial jingoism of these games has worn off on me by now”, Alokpi says. “And given how distant I feel from all the players on the Indian team, I’m not really sure I’d be able to muster enough enthusiasm to even root for India all the way in this World Cup. But put me in a room full of Indian fans watching the game and suddenly you might find me eyes bulging and yelling ecstatically, completely caught in a total frenzy.”When the national anthems are played, almost all the younger people stand for both anthems. Only a few of the older ones sit when it isn’t their anthem. The younger fans film both anthems on their smart phones. These are middle, mostly middle class. It is a different kind of fan. A different kind of fanaticism. They dance like crazy just like the old fans, but they also post to Facebook that they are dancing like crazy. They want to be part of it, they want people to know they are part of it.Away from the ground, on online forums like Reddit and Quora, people are still part of it.Adelaide Oval was shrouded in blue at the start of Pakistan’s innings•Getty Images”You can only know how deeply a single match affected the nation by being a part of it” ashi31 says. “As a muslim nation, the Pakistan cricket and prayers go hand in hand. By the sixth and seventh wicket most of us were busy praying for a miracle rather than paying attention to the match.”NiX_Nabilz writes, “When Yuvraj Singh was bowled first ball by Wahab at Mohali, you would not believe that not fire crackers, but bullets were fired in the air just like a territory has been conquered, just like a battle has been won.””Our mom came and handed over the tea to my brother as usual,” Vinesh Thota writes. “And then our god Sachin was bowled at 93 by Abdul Razzaq. He threw that tea cup out of the window and shouted I will never have tea in my life.””People who like sport remember their lives better than those who don’t,” Dan Harris explains in his piece about losing his wife and gaining the Ashes, in the magazine.Pakistan-India games are moments in people’s lives they remember forever. Chachachoudhary watched them on a 16-inch TV at a Saras milk parlour. Shriman_Ripley prayed not just for an Indian victory, but for the Indian victory that would inspire his uncle to buy him a samosa. Justarslan celebrated a victory with naan and haleem. Others had family picnics, walked out on job interviews, saw it in a basement, were the only Pakistani surrounded by 70 Indians, sat in a bar, went back home. There is also Kamalfan, who watched it in room 214 with his mate Viki. “I didn’t know he won’t be there for the next India Pak game.”A game of cricket, a communal life experience. The country remembers it, the culture remembers it, and even those who don’t know how it started feel it all.”It’s about the history, I don’t real know what actually happened, but the history is there,” a 17-year-old girl says. She tells her friend that her plan is to scream until she loses her voice. She wears her colours. She screams. She will remember this.The Indian fans raise two fists in unison as the last catch is taken. Behind the stands, many mothers stand holding sleeping children, rocking prams, and one bench has a woman stroking her two kids asleep. She cranes her neck back to look through the entrance to the main stand as the people in blue scream.This is her memory. One day it will be her kid’s memories as well. This is a cricket match. This is a moment in millions of blue and green lives. This game.

For 30 minutes, everything else took a backseat, as the world watched in awe and fear, a fired-up Pakistan fast bowler mercilessly bullying an Australian batsman

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Adelaide20-Mar-2015″Are you holding a bat?”When Shane Watson stalks in from the slips to lean in and spit those words at Wahab Riaz, does he know? Does he have any bloody idea, what he is really doing to Wahab, and 90 minutes later, to himself?Australia had, at one stage, spoken in team meetings about easing off Kevin Pietersen verbally. “It fires him up,” was Brett Lee’s reasoning. They had not had this meeting about Wahab. When Mitchell Starc beats his edge with an outswinging yorker in the 39th over, the bowler slithers forward. He tells the batsman: “It’s the white thing, you have to hit it.” Wahab, already cranky at another middle-order meltdown from his team-mates, follows Starc down the pitch. He seethes at the bowler, complains to the umpires.’Wahab one of the best in the world’

Misbah-ul-Haq on Wahab’s spell
“Nobody in this world is very good against a bowler who is bowling 150kph and with this sort of deceptive pace and bounce. Today he’s shown his class again. At one stage we were pretty much in the game, and the way he was bowling, that catch could have made a big difference, but this the way it is.”
On Wahab’s World Cup
“He was a different bowler in the World Cup. You could rate him at the moment one of the best bowlers in the world – the kind of pace he’s generating and the way he’s bowling. I think still, to become Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, he needs a lot of experience and especially the kind of yorkers and reverse swing they really bowled. But I think he’s a much improved bowler, and he could just be a leading bowler for Pakistan.”

Next over, James Faulkner throws Wahab a stare. Brad Haddin, running close to the stumps to collect a return throw, sticks his own verbal shiv in Wahab’s side. Watson’s sledge is only one of many, but it’s Watson’s sledge Wahab remembers. Before the end of the night, Watson would know best of all, this is not a man worth ruffling; that Wahab’s blood boils when you turn up the heat.Eighteen overs and an innings break later, it is Wahab with the white thing in his hands. Third ball, he rushes David Warner into an uppercut, which settles in the palms of third man Rahat Ali. Tenth ball, Michael Clarke arches his creaking back and fends the white thing to Sohaib Maqsood at short leg.The first ball to Watson would have flattened the batsman’s grille. He dips beneath it with only a little discomfort, but for Wahab, ducking is tantamount to submission. He gets in Watson’s face, claps him sarcastically. The next ball is 150kph, Watson dare not play.Wahab Riaz smelled blood and did not stop•Getty ImagesThe next over is even more intense. Wahab is an inferno. The white thing is a meteor. Watson goes through series of evasive full-body spasms. His back and limbs are aping the shape of half the alphabet, but his mouth can form no words now. In the stands, 35,516 people all smell leather, voices hoarse, fidgeting, pumping fists from the edge of their seats. In the slips, Haris Sohail’s face contorts at the climax of each delivery, sometimes with glee, other times with desperation. On occasion his eyes are filled with fear. Is he afraid for Watson?Steven Smith, who is bending space-time to appear in a parallel universe from his partner, routinely takes a single early in the overs that follow and coolly observes the combat from the best vantage point in the world. Does he feel the heat pouring off Wahab? Is he enjoying the view?All through the match, the cricket had not failed to be interesting. This spell is transcendental. Of the tens of thousands in the ground, there is only one protagonist, and one victim, but the cricket so good, all are drawn in. Wahab’s anger is felt as keenly as Watson’s timidity. So bent is Wahab on embarrassing Watson, he taunts him after every ball.In one over, he does it so many times, it’s as if Wahab rides a conveyor belt from the bowling crease into Watson’s personal space. In the crowd, nothing of their exchange is heard, but its details are intimately understood. The Adelaide Oval playing surface covers acres of land. The stands themselves are vast and high. But in those moments, it’s as if the whole stadium exists in the burning space between these two men.Shane Watson experienced an onslaught like no other•Getty Images”When I was batting Watson just came up to me and said, ‘Are you holding a bat?’ And that was going through my mind,” Wahab later said. “I let him know that even he is having the bat, but he couldn’t touch the ball. I know that nowadays, he’s not good on the short ball. It was a plan of myself that we discussed in the team meeting.”Eventually, Watson is defeated. Having ducked, arched and hopped, he is eventually humiliated into playing a hook shot off the first ball of Wahab’s fifth over. Australian crowds so often scream insults at foreign fielders lining up high catches, but in the seconds this top-edged ball hung in the air, the wind’s rustling through the trees at the Cathedral End was heard in perfect silence. When Rahat spilt the simple chance, 35,000 yelped – more in relief than frustration. A sheepish Watson is avoiding gazes at the non-striker’s end. A disbelieving Wahab is keeled over, mid pitch.In the limp finish, an hour later, Australia cruise to the semi-final with six wickets in hand and 97 balls remaining. On the scoreboard, Wahab’s figures read 9-0-54-2. Watson has 64 not out from 66. Few will remember in years to come, the ins and outs; that Pakistan had been bowled out for 213.But few will forget the theatre, and the unbridled, oscillating emotion of this spell. Tattooed into their nerves will be the night a fast bowler filled a stadium with his fury; the half-hour their collective pulses raced in sync with a batsman’s heart.

Plus, World Cup half-centuries for two countries, and a jackpot on County Championship debut

Steven Lynch21-Apr-2015Galle won a match the other day despite being bowled out for 31 in their first innings. Was this the lowest total by a side which went on to win a first-class match? asked Norton de Silva from Sri Lanka
Galle won their Premier League relegation playoff against the Air Force earlier this month despite being bowled out for 31 on the first morning in Panagoda. Galle – whose side included eight first-class debutants – made 295 second time round, then the Air Force, set only 112 to win, were shot down for 107. Galle’s first-innings total equalled the 31 made by Gloucestershire in the first innings of a County Championship match in Bristol in 1924: after demolishing Middlesex for 74 they scored 294 in their second innings – Wally Hammond 174 not out – then bowled Middlesex out again for 190, to win by 61 runs. There were two other low first-innings totals in the early 19th century: the Gentlemen won after being bowled out for 31 by the Players at Lord’s in 1848, while in Brighton in 1827, “England” beat Sussex despite being rolled over for 27 in their first innings. (This refers to the first innings of a match, not either side’s first one.) The lowest in a Test match is England’s 45 against Australia in Sydney in 1886-87.After the opening Test in Antigua, Gary Ballance has more hundreds than fifties – four to three. Who’s the leader in this regard? asked James Price from England
Matthew Hayden scored 30 Test centuries, but only 29 fifties: none of the nine men above him on the Test hundreds list can match this. But below him on the list, someone did even better: almost inevitably, it’s Don Bradman, who scored 29 Test centuries but only 13 fifties (in 80 innings; Hayden had 184). Michael Clarke has so far scored 28 Test hundreds but 27 fifties, while Mohammad Azharuddin had 22 hundreds and 21 half-centuries. Michael Vaughan managed 18 of both.Who’s the only player to score half-centuries in the World Cup both for and against the same country? asked Sunit Kumar from the UAE
The answer to this neat little conundrum is Kepler Wessels, who scored 76 for Australia against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge on his World Cup debut in 1983, then nine years later made 81 not out as South Africa, making their own World Cup debut, beat Australia in Sydney. The only others to play for two different countries in the World Cup are Anderson Cummins (West Indies and Canada), and Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan for England and Ireland.Kepler Wessels (right): one man, two countries, World Cup half-centuries for both•Getty ImagesIs it true that Faoud Bacchus, who played in the World Cup final for West Indies, also played in the ICC Trophy for USA? asked Debapriya Chakraborty from India
Faoud Bacchus played 29 one-day internationals for West Indies, the last of them at Lord’s in the famous 1983 World Cup final, which India won. He had been part of the squad that won the tournament in 1979, but didn’t play a match that year. Bacchus, an elegant right-hand batsman from Guyana, is best remembered in Tests for a monumental 250 against India in Kanpur in 1978-79; this was his only century in 19 appearances, all of them, unusually, on different grounds. He was part of the “rebel” West Indies team that toured South Africa in 1983-84, and later played domestic cricket there. Later, he moved to the USA, and played for their national team too: he captained them in the ICC Trophy in Malaysia in 1996-97 – scoring 100 not out against Gibraltar – and was a member of the side that finished sixth in the 2001 tournament, in Canada. He had an impressive array of initials: I once heard a rumour that he had about a dozen forenames, but had settled on four (Sheik Faoud Ahamul Fasiel) to keep things simple. It would be nice to know if that’s true!Who played his only County Championship match in the game that clinched his side’s first title for 28 years? asked Martin Wombourne from England
The man with this peculiar record is Irish seamer Mark Patterson, who made his debut for Surrey against Nottinghamshire at The Oval in September 1999. He took three early wickets, finishing with 3 for 25 as Nottinghamshire were bowled out for 115: Surrey went on to win inside two days, to secure their first title since 1971. He didn’t play in the remaining two matches of that season, and left the staff at the end of the year. He had played one previous first-class game for Surrey, against South Africa A in 1996, taking 6 for 80 – including Herschelle Gibbs, Lance Klusener and Meyrick Pringle – in the first innings. Patterson represented Ireland in the ICC Trophy in 1996-97 and 2001, and later played for Bedfordshire.I recently heard a rumour that Don Bradman’s first first-class innings abroad was against an invitational XI in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on the way to England. Is this true? asked Don Henadeera from Sri Lanka
Well, it wasn’t a first-class match, but Don Bradman’s first game outside Australia did indeed come in Sri Lanka, when the boat taking the Australian team to England stopped off there in April 1930. Bradman made 40 as the Australians collected 233 in their match at the Colombo Cricket Club against Ceylon, who replied with 52 for 1. Something similar happened in 1948: Bradman made 20 that time in another one-day game at the CCC. The Don actually never played first-class cricket anywhere other than Australia and Britain, although he did go on a minor tour of North America in 1932.

ESPNcricinfo staff10-May-2015..And Mumbai Indians’ fielders were helping his cause with a few dropped catches•BCCIIt took a fantastic diving catch from Lendl Simmons to dismiss Gayle in the third over•BCCIFrom then on, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli put on 215 runs, the highest for any wicket in Twenty20 history•PTI De Villiers flayed the bowlers to all parts of the park with some classical cricket shots•BCCISlowly, more than just Sarfaraz Khan’s family started cheering for de Villiers as the ‘Mumbai-Mumbai’ chants turned to ‘AB-AB’•BCCIThe duo powered Royal Challengers to 235 for 1, the highest team total yet this season, and left Rohit Sharma and Mumbai’s team management with a lot to ponder over•BCCIA brilliant throw from Kohli and some quick glove work from Dinesh Karthik resulted in the run-out of Parthiv Patel•PTI Despite the fall of Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard tried to give some life to the chase with his 24-ball 49 but got out miscuing a S Aravind delivery to Mitchell Starc at sweeper cover•BCCISimmons managed to remain unbeaten on 68 off 53 balls but had little support from the other end as Royal Challengers ran away with a 39-run win•PTI

In the absence of James Anderson and with the attack being blunted it was England’s allrounder who brought the urn within reach

George Dobell at Trent Bridge07-Aug-2015It is a painful coincidence that, just as England should be – barring a miracle – clinching the Investec Ashes on Saturday, the Premier League football season will be starting once more.That brief window in the year, between football seasons, Olympic games, European and World Championships, will shut and the breath of oxygen cricket enjoys will be cut off once more. Just as the English game has something to celebrate and relish, it will go back to existing in its own little bubble. However much it has to shout about, it will not be heard above the din created by football.With so little cricket – and no live cricket – on free to air TV, it will prove desperately hard for the ECB to fulfil one of the aims of its recent planning strategy. Earlier this year, it emerged that the ECB identified the need for the game to create “folk heroes” to help it regain relevance and popularity with the mass market.That is a shame for, as England celebrate their success, they can also look forward with excitement. For while the 2013 Ashes was won by a team at the end of its life cycle, this success comes with a team at the start of one. A team that is committed to playing attractive cricket, engaging with the public and helping make the sport relevant again.And, while there are several exciting, young players in this side – Joe Root, at 24, stands out – there is an obvious potential “folk hero” in Ben Stokes.Stokes is, give or take, the cricketer that just about every young player wants to be when they first start to play the game. He bats with belligerence, he bowls with pace and his fielding is so good, you wonder if he could catch Lord Lucan.He has character, too. In an age when many sportsmen appear – in front of the media, at least – homogenised and sterile, Stokes remains just a little bit, and in the very best way, untamed. Any Australian who thought he might be intimidated by trash talk or bouncers was soon put right when Stokes, in his second Test, scored a maiden century in Perth when all about him fell away.

Stokes bowled beautifully, swinging the ball a prodigious distance, while also showing admirable control, stamina and pace

“We did see that,” Stokes said with a chuckle, when asked about Steven Smith’s pre-series comment about England “not getting close” to Australia. “But hopefully we’re going to win the Ashes tomorrow.” His unspoken message was simple: talk is cheap.He has, at times, seemed a bit daft. There was the incident where he punched a locker in Barbados, the time he was sent home from a Lions tour for embracing the nightlife a little too enthusiastically, and a couple of times when bowlers have provoked him into some unwise strokes.So he has needed to grow up, but not change. For it is Stokes’ fearlessness that renders him special. It is his love for the heat of battle and his desire to be involved when others might go missing.England have had many cautious, percentage cricketers. They have had many players who put the ball in good areas, bat with patience and field tidily. And that is just fine. They are useful skills.But Stokes is priceless. And he is the other sort. He is the sort that will disregard caution, relish the fight and, on his day, turn games in a session with bat or ball. And if it goes spectacularly wrong sometimes – and it will – it is a price worth paying as he will unsettle opponents and, given exposure, inspire another generation of supporters to the game in much the manner that Ian Botham once did. It would be folly to try and change him. England have a gem. It would be wretched if the schedule or the media or the expectation changed him.He appears to relish responsibility. Since he was promoted to the No. 6 position, at the start of the summer, he has averaged 41.40 (despite just five runs in his last three innings) with one match-defining century (against New Zealand) and three other half-centuries. His strike rate of 77.52 might have been deemed decent in limited-overs cricket not so long ago; now it helps demoralise opposition in Tests and speed games away from them. In the months before that, after the end of the Ashes in Australia and when he batted at No. 7 or lower, he averaged just 8.66.Similarly, here, he rose to the challenge with the ball. With James Anderson absent and both Mark Wood and Steven Finn lacking rhythm, England needed Stokes to deliver. By the time he was thrown the ball, the Australia opening pair had posted 50 and the attack, with Moeen Ali again struggling, was starting to look thin. The absence of Anderson was, for the first time in the game, starting to hurt.But Stokes bowled beautifully. Swinging the ball a prodigious distance, he also showed admirable control – conceding just over two an over despite an attacking field of four slips and a gully – impressive stamina – his first spell last for 11 overs – and decent pace, as he reached 89.9 mph at his peak. At one stage, he claimed three wickets in 13 balls – three of Australia’s top four – and two balls later, took a sharp, low catch at short cover-point to account for Smith.While his stock ball is an inswinger that evokes faint memories of Imran Khan – such a delivery accounted for Peter Nevill, leaving one that swung sharply to trap him in front of middle – he also has the ability, on a good day, to move the ball away from the right-hander, thereby creating confusion and uncertainty in the batsman’s mind.It is probably relevant, though, that four of his victims were left-handers. While two, Shaun Marsh and Chris Rogers, were drawn into playing at balls leaving them, Mitchell Johnson was simply unfortunate to receive a straight one that demanded a stroke and swung late enough to take the edge.Ben Stokes finally made the breakthrough after an 113-run opening stand•Getty ImagesPerhaps Stokes’ strength, and the extra pace that provides, earned the wicket of David Warner. Attempting a short-arm pull, he seemed hurried and could only manage a top edge.His figures do not flatter him. While his bowling average in the series was nudging 100 before this Test, he has suffered more than most from dropped chances this summer – Ian Bell has now dropped four catches off Stokes in the slips – and bowled some selfless spells in tough conditions in the Caribbean so Anderson and Broad could be spared. This haul might be regarded as overdue reward for his work. He already has only one fewer five-wicket haul in Test cricket than Andrew Flintoff.”I’ve always been able to swing the ball,” Stokes said. “But I’ve never had the chance to bowl for England when the conditions are so in favour of swing. I play my cricket at Durham, where the ball swings, so I felt comfortable. It was good to get a bit more responsibility, really.”It was fitting that he should provide such a performance in the match that seals the Ashes, too. England’s balance – their ability to bat down to No. 8 and field a five-man attack – might well be seen as the difference between the team. Stokes has played a huge role in providing that.Good allrounders change everything. It was Flintoff’s period of excellence that helped Michael Vaughan lead England to the Ashes in 2005. And it was Botham’s excellence that helped cement Mike Brearley’s reputation as one of the great captains. Alastair Cook now has a player that balances his side and can excel in all disciplines. He has a game-changer.If England could only find a way to get Stokes on to more TV screens, he could make a difference far beyond defining the result of matches.

For many Indians across North America, the three-match All-Star series has turned into a chance for a pilgrimage – partly to watch legendary cricketers playing but mostly to see one man

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan 08-Nov-2015For Rahul Shrivatsav, a 38-year-old catering director in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the events of February 28 and March 1, 2003, are etched in his head. He was holidaying in Florida, celebrating his first wedding anniversary, but his mind was fixated on spending the night in a local Pakistani restaurant, to watch India play Pakistan in the World Cup.”I tried everything I could to convince my wife that I had to watch Sachin play that game,” he says, “but she said, ‘No, our anniversary is more important.'”Twelve-and-a-half years later Shrivatsav’s wife, Sarah, surprised him by booking a ticket for the first All-Star game in Citi Field in New York – an event that required him to take a one-and-a-half hour flight one way.”You have been feeling bad about 2003 for all these years,” she told him. “If you don’t go now, you will feel bad forever.”When Shrivatsav arrived at Citi Field on Saturday and caught a glimpse of Tendulkar gearing up – the first time he had seen Tendulkar in the flesh since 2001 – he broke down.”I didn’t even realise I was crying initially,” he says. “But then I thought, it would actually be a shock if I didn’t cry.”‘He is moving on from his father’s death by doing what he does best. Why can’t I do the same? Why can’t I too put my mother’s death behind and make her proud’ – Rahul Shrivatsav•Rahul ShrivatsavShrivatsav moved out of India in 1997, first to Australia then to the US. From the time he moved out, he is certain he has seen “almost every ball that Sachin faced in international cricket on TV or online” – mostly live but occasionally recorded “because sometimes one has to work also.”Over the last few years Shrivatsav has maintained a daily log on Facebook and Snapchat – “I want to document how I feel at different points of my day: when I run, when I cook, when I travel.” There is an update every hour or so – “sometimes more sometimes less” – and when he revisits the log every few days he finds most of his updates have a reference to Tendulkar.”If I ever write my memoir,” he says, “it will actually be Sachin’s memoir.”***For many Indians across North America, the three-match All-Star series has turned into a chance for a pilgrimage – partly to watch legendary cricketers playing but mostly to see one man. A group of engineers from Toronto, another group of graduate students from State College in Pennsylvania, an IT consultant from Connecticut, an assistant professor from North Carolina: all undertaking journeys (in cars or flights) to be in Citi Field, for Sachin.For some, who moved to the US in the 1990s, Tendulkar was first a gaping absence. The internet was at its infancy and unless you invested in a satellite dish of your own, it was close to impossible to watch international cricket live. Every trip to India was a chance to hoard VHS tapes (on which relatives had recorded international games, especially ones with Tendulkar’s dazzling knocks) and, later, Video CDs. Graduate students ravaged college libraries for Indian newspapers and magazines; some caught scores on BBC’s radio service; others called home during important games – with extra money they had saved up through the month – to find out if Tendulkar was still batting, how he was batting and why nobody was lending support.

If they were all not there applauding every little thing I did I would not have got even one-tenth the satisfaction and happiness that I have got in my lifeSachin Tendulkar on his fans

Sometime in the early 2000s the internet provided them a new lease of life. But not without its own challenges: connections were unreliable, streams were hard to find and a number of games weren’t telecast live. For graduate students, their best bet was to make a trip to their computer labs (mostly late at night) and take in the action in low volume. College work took a backseat. Sleep patterns went for a toss. And often, after a three-match or five-match series, the body was jet-lagged for a few days. Social life? What’s that?All through these years – studying in small towns in the US, shivering through icy winters, acclimating oneself with the accent, the food and limited (and often nonexistent) public transport – there was one unchanging factor: they had watched Tendulkar batting when they had lived in India; they were watching Tendulkar batting when living in the US. They had gone nuts watching his cover drive when back home – holding the follow-through for that millisecond longer, as if posing for the cameras, then nodding his head. They were watching the same cover drive – same tock, same pose, same nod – when living abroad. Life was variable; Tendulkar was constant.***Rohan Shirwaiker (right), an assistant professor in North Carolina State University, lost sleep watching Sachin and Amit Goda (left) has a friend who has a friend who taught Sachin how to tie a tie•Siddartha VaidyanathanRohan Shirwaiker, a 32-year-old assistant professor in North Carolina State University, drove ten hours to get to Citi Field on Saturday for his first sighting of Tendulkar in ten years. A few minutes before the game, he was “terribly nervous”, still coming to terms with the fact that he is within touching distance of “him”.Over the last ten years Shirwaiker estimates that he has slept on fewer nights than he has not. “It’s Sachin, man,” he says with a blush. “You have to stay up. In the mornings, my students tell me, ‘Sir, we fell asleep but we knew you would tell us about all that happened.'”On March 30, 2011, Shirwaiker was scheduled to attend a job interview in Florida. “I requested them if I could postpone it because India were playing Pakistan in the World Cup semi-final in Mohali on the same day. They said no. So I cancelled my flight and booked another one a few hours later, so that I could see as much of the game as possible. I couldn’t see the whole match but Sachin’s innings, I saw.”Does he think he played a small part in India’s win by delaying his flight? He blushes again but quickly adds, “One of my wife’s relatives once took a restroom break when Tendulkar reached a hundred. So from then on, every time Sachin was in the 90s we used to request that relative to take a restroom break.”Shirwaiker was at the game with his friend, Amit Goda, a 32-year-old chemical engineer based in New Jersey. They are part of a Whatsapp group that discusses cricket “but before he retired, mostly Sachin”. Goda has a friend whose friend apparently taught Tendulkar to tie a tie. This may sound like a useless bit of information but in the Tendulkar universe this is an essential tidbit: everybody has a friend (or a friend’s friend or a friend’s friend’s friend) who has a connection with Tendulkar. Usually, the farther you get from the man, the more interesting is the yarn.***Ankur Jhaveri (right) and Ayush Gupta (left) at the Cricket All-Stars game in New York•Siddartha VaidyanathanTendulkar has friends who moved to the US in the 1990s. He kept in touch with some of them – “many of them have become big doctors and big businessmen now,” he told ESPNcricinfo – and is aware of the lengths they have gone to watch him bat over the years. “My friends would invariably tell me, ‘We sat in a big group and watched you bat.'” Some would fly to watch him live. Some others would send a kind word via email.Tendulkar may be playing cricket in the US for the first time but he has always known that the expatriate population has been tracking him like a hawk. “Their support has given me the strength to go out there and perform,” he says. “If they were all not there applauding every little thing I did I would not have got even one-tenth the satisfaction and happiness that I have got in my life. All the good moments have been multiplied many-fold thanks to them. The reason to come here is to get them to come to stadiums and to watch us play.”

They had gone nuts watching his cover drive when back home. They were watching the same cover drive when living abroad. Life was variable; Tendulkar was constant.

And turn up they did. Mayank Jhaveri, a 23-year-old IT consultant, flew in from Connecticut. His cousin, Ankur Jhaveri, an engineer, drove from Toronto. Ankur’s friend Ayush Gupta, another engineer, says he might have thought twice about coming if Tendulkar wasn’t there but “there was no question once he was here. No question.”Back in 1997 Shrivatsav, the catering director from Ann Arbor, lost his mother. He also lost his passion for cricket and entered a downward spiral. He still watched Tendulkar batting but the rest of the time, he was “moping around, grieving, lost”. Then came the World Cup in 1999, a time when Tendulkar had to fly back home owing to the death of his father.”And then he came back and played that game against Kenya,” says Shrivatsav, his eyes enlarged. “Now that was a huge turning point in my life. I told myself, ‘Look at Sachin. He is moving on from his father’s death by doing what he does best. Why can’t I do the same? Why can’t I too put my mother’s death behind and make her proud.”The moment when Tendulkar looked up the skies in Bristol, after completing his century against Kenya, was a moment that Shrivatsav says he can never forget. “Every time I see that image or that match, I burst into tears. It was a great moment, I tell you. A great, great moment.”

A controversial start followed by repeated batting meltdowns meant even a lion-hearted performance from Mohammad Amir wasn’t enough to save Chittagong Vikings some skin

Mohammad Isam08-Dec-2015 Tournament overview
What ultimately cost Chittagong Vikings were the four defeats in a row after they won their first game against the Sylhet Super Stars. Two of those losses were at their home ground, after which they beat Sylhet again. But at no stage did they look like a team in contention.Much depended on Tamim Iqbal right from the outset, and remained that way till the end. Whenever Tamim made runs at the top, Chittagong looked a threat. His partnership with Tillakaratne Dilshan – they put together three fifty plus stands and a century stand that resulted in a 10-wicket win – was one of the highlights of their campaign. While the flagbearers stood up, the likes of Anamul Haque, Asif Ahmed, Ziaur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed couldn’t perform up to the level expected of the local players. If that was bad enough, worse was how the Akmal brothers – Umar and Kamran – Saeed Ajmal and Elton Chigumbura fared.Tamim was left disappointed after they lost to Dhaka Dynamites on Tuesday by 45 runs, and repeated a phrase he used earlier in the competition: “We can buy players, but not performances.” This has been the theme of Chittagong right from the start, where they lost to Rangpur Riders despite ruling much of the game. They won the next game on the back of a needless controversy and then went on to lose to Comilla Victorians, Dhaka Dynamites, Barisal Bulls and Rangpur in consecutive matches. There seemed to be very little that they could have done other than hope that Tamim scores and Mohammad Amir get them out of tough situations with the ball, which he did to an extent.Their fielding too was poor at times, something that cost Asif his place in the team. Naeem Islam did a job with the bat and occasionally with the ball but it was never enough.High point
Chittagong were at the receiving end of one of the worst controversies in the BPL, when the Sylhet franchise sent Ravi Bopara and Josh Cobb to play without naming them in the playing XI at the toss. The fiasco took over an hour to solve and it got uglier as Tamim later alleged that one of the Sylhet owners abused him during the stand-off. But to his credit, Tamim played a handy knock and Chittagong held on to clinch a thriller.Low point
Their most uninspiring performance was when they were bowled out for 92 against Dhaka Dynamites. The collapse started when Tamim was wrongfully given out caught down the leg side, a blow from which they could not recover. Naeem played the sort of anchor role, 29 off 38, that had no place in a T20.Top of the class
Mohammad Amir was always going to be a much-talked about acquisition considering the BPL was to be his first tournament out of Pakistan since being allowed to play cricket after a five-year spot-fixing ban. His performance for Chittagong – 14 wickets at an average of 12.64 from nine games – has given the PCB reason enough to get him to play for Pakistan A and perhaps the senior side shortly. His most memorable wickets were be the yorker to Misbah-ul-Haq in the first match and the late outswinger that took Shahid Afridi’s off-bail and the ball slamming into the sightscreen.Under-par performer
Anamul Haque was Chittagong’s first draft pick back in October. But his 114 runs in the eight innings hardly paid back the faith shown in him by the franchise owners and the team management. He started off with scores of 36 and 39 not out in the first three games but made scores of 1, 12, 14, 0 and 9 in the remainder of the tournament. There was concern before the tournament about his adaptability, and he did little to change that perception.Tip for 2016
Apart from Tamim Iqbal and Shafiul Islam, none of Chittagong’s local players did well in the tournament. Their collection of overseas players should also have been a bit more about performers and less about reputations. Despite the early exit, the franchise owners DBL Group are said to be interested to build this team next season and beyond, while Tamim too has said that he wants to play for this team. A better approach to team selection would be paramount.

Stats highlights from the fourth ODI between Australia and India in Canberra where the hosts stretched their undefeated home streak to 19 matches on the trot

Bharath Seervi20-Jan-201619 Consecutive ODIs without defeat for Australia at home – 18 wins and a no-result. They last lost to South Africa in November 2014 at the WACA. West Indies had a run of 18 home games without defeat from 1986 to 1990 and Sri Lanka 17 from 1996 to 1998.1 Australian bowler with a five-for when the opposition made more than 300 before Kane Richardson. Nathan Bracken had taken 5 for 67 at the Wanderers when South Africa chased 434 in 2005-06. Richardson’s 5 for 68 in this match are his best figures in ODIs and it is also the first time a bowler has taken a five-for at the Manuka Oval in eight ODIs.671 Runs scored in the match, the third-highest ever for an ODI in Australia. The top spot in this list also came recently, when the hosts and Sri Lanka tallied 688 runs in 2015. This is the 13th instance when both teams have made 300-plus totals in an ODI in Australia. Six of them have come in the last two years, and three in this series. India’s total of 323 is the fourth-highest by a team batting second in ODIs in Australia.162 Innings Virat Kohli has taken to score 25 ODI centuries making him the fastest to the mark and by some distance too. The old record was held by Sachin Tendulkar – 234 innings in 1998. Three other batsmen have at least 25 centuries in ODIs: Ricky Ponting (279 innings), Sanath Jayasuriya (373) and Kumar Sangakkara (378). This was Kohli’s fifth century against Australia in ODIs, the third-most by a batsman after Tendulkar (nine) and Desmond Haynes (six). With this century, Kohli now has nine centuries across all formats in Australia – five in Tests and four in ODIs. He equals Jack Hobbs and David Gower’s record for most centuries by visiting a batsman in Australia.2 Australia batsmen who have scored 2000 ODI runs in fewer innings than Aaron Finch’s 54 – David Boon (52) and Matthew Hayden (53). Greg Chappell and George Bailey also got to the mark in 54 innings. Steven Smith completed his 2000th ODI run in this match too, playing his 55th innings. Finch scored his seventh ODI century in this match. Among Australia openers, only four have scored more.187 Runs added by Finch and David Warner for the first wicket – Australia’s second-highest opening stand in ODIs against India, after the 212-run partnership between Boon and Geoff Marsh in Jaipur, in 1986.212 Partnership for the second wicket between Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan, the third-highest for any wicket against Australia in Australia; the second, third and fourth on the list have all been by Indian pairs. It was also the second-highest partnership in a chase that ended in defeat. The highest, also by India, is 223 between Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja in Colombo (RPS) in 1997. Sri Lanka won that game by two runs. Kohli has now been involved in eight double-century stands, the most by any player going past Ponting and Upul Tharanga, who have seven each.131.33 Australia’s average opening stand at the Manuka Oval in Canberra from three innings. Warner and Finch, who put on 187 today, had added 118 against South Africa in 2014-15 while Finch and Watson combined for 89 runs against West Indies in 2012-13. In 13 innings at this venue, visiting teams’ opening partnerships have averaged 33.84, with three fifties including the 65 runs put on by Rohit and Dhawan in this match.0 Dismissals in 90s for Warner in his international career, before his 93 in this innings. He has got to the 90s 21 times in his international career prior to today’s match, and converted them into centuries on 20 occasions – 16 in Tests and four in ODIs. He was 90 not out once in a T20I against Sri Lanka at the SCG in January 2013.16 Wickets lost in the match after the 35th over – the most that have fallen after this cut-off in ODIs since 2002. Both the teams lost their second wicket on 37.3; while Australia managed to score 128 runs at 10.10 sine then, India were could add only 46 runs for their last eight wickets.74 Balls taken by India to reach 100 in this ODI – second-fastest by any team against Australia since 2002. The fastest came in 68 balls by New Zealand at the Gabba in February 2009, a 22-over ODI interrupted by rain.72 Innings taken by Dhawan to complete 3000 ODI runs – fewest by an India batsman beating Kohli, who did it in 75 innings. Only Hashim Amla (57 innings) and Viv Richards (69 innings) have been faster, while Gordon Greenidge and Gary Kirsten also took 72 innings. Dhawan is also the second-quickest to nine ODI centuries in terms of innings; only Amla (52 innings) has scored as many in fewer innings. Click here for the list of fastest batsmen to 3000 ODI runs.77 Runs conceded by Ishant Sharma in the match – most by an India bowler in an ODI in Australia, beating Debasis Mohanty’s 76 runs against Pakistan in Hobart in January 2000. Ishant’s 4 for 77 is the third-most expensive four-wicket haul in ODIs. Richardson’s 5 for 68 in the second innings is the joint-fourth expensive five-wicket haul in ODIs.2 Times, including India in this match, a team has been bowled out in an ODI after losing their second wicket at a score of 250 or more. India were the team on the receiving end in the other instance as well: against South Africa in the 2011 World Cup. They were 267 for 2 in Nagpur and collapsed to 296 all out. India lost their last eight wickets for 46 runs in last 12 overs in this ODI, which is the fourth-lowest aggregate by those wickets in an ODI for India.3 Instances of a team failing to chase a target despite having two centuries in the innings, including this match. And India have been involved in all of them. Azharuddin and Jadeja’s tons went in vain against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 1997 while Zimbabwe’s Stuart Carlisle and Sean Ervine felt the sting against India in Adelaide in 2003-04.