This week, we’re looking back at the World Series in all its avatars

Mohammad Isam25-May-2020First, some music
Packer’s marketing mantra was to package cricket as entertainment. Like every TV show in the 1970s, World Series Cricket had an opening theme. In the second season, the promotional song, “C’mon Aussie C’mon”, went on to top the Australian music charts. While this song accompanied broadcasts of subsequent WSC games and Test matches in coming years, the intro for Channel 9’s cricket broadcasts, a tune originally known as “New Horizons”, composed by Brian Bennett, went through several iterations.The rebels
If you’re looking for the origins of World Series Cricket, go all the way back to December 2, 1977 when the revolution began with the first Supertest. Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Wayne Daniel blew away the WSC Australians, and the West Indians won by three wickets inside three days. Here, meanwhile, you can watch some classic Barry Richards pulls and drives from the 1978-79 SuperTest final, a day-night game with coloured clothing and balls.The bad blood of the 1980s
Much of the world has watched Trevor Chappell rolling the ball underarm towards Brian McKechnie with New Zealand needing six to tie off the delivery, but check out the build-up and reactions. Greg Chappell shows him how to do it, Rod Marsh shakes his head in disbelief, McKechnie throws away his bat, and New Zealand captain Geoff Howarth confronts the umpires. Richie Benaud sums it up, calling it “one of the worst things” he has ever seen.Dennis Lillee and Kim Hughes both played for Western Australia, but they never really got along. Here, the two of them get into an on-field disagreement during a WSC match against New Zealand. And as much as Lillee’s bowling was about pace and swing and accuracy, it was also about theatre, which usually came to the fore when he bowled to Viv Richards: watch some of their confrontations here, including a little shoulder bump.The decade ended as it began – with controversy. In an extraordinary presentation ceremony after a match with on the scorecard, captains Imran Khan and Viv Richards both went after the umpires.But there were great cricketing moments in those 1980s triangulars too. Rare batting feats such as Lance Cairns hitting six sixes against Australia, Allan Lamb winning a match for England when they needed 18 off the last over, and Viv Richards slamming an unbeaten 60 off 40 balls in the rain-shortened third final of the 1989-90 WSC.Pakistan and West Indies played out one of the best games of the decade at the Gabba during the 1981-82 season, when the No. 11, Joel Garner, struck the winning runs in another rain-affected game. A couple of seasons later, Garner bowled a thrilling last over, this game ending in a tie after Jeff Dujon ran out the Australian non-striker off the last ball. And if the Australia-South Africa semi-final from the 1999 World Cup produced arguably the greatest finish in ODI history, how about this one, from the 1980-81 season, when Australia needed three off the last ball to beat New Zealand?Muttiah Muralitharan and Arjuna Ranatunga argue with umpire Ross Emerson after the no-ball incident•PA Images via Getty ImagesThe edge-of-the-seat 1990s
From the sublime to the slapstick, there were so many different types of finishes in the World Series tournaments in the 1990s. The decade began with New Zealand’s Chris Pringle keeping Bruce Reid on strike throughout the final over, defending two runs. He was lucky to get away with a leg-side delivery that could, and maybe should, have been called a wide, but Pringle forced several swings-and-misses before Reid was run out attempting a bye off the last ball.India pulled off a tie against West Indies in a low-scoring game at the WACA in 1991, when Sachin Tendulkar picked up the final wicket with nine overs to spare. There was an even more improbable tie the following year, when Steve Waugh bowled a full toss with Pakistan needing seven to win off the last ball, with Asif Mujtaba on strike.Then came the 1996 classic that became known as the “Michael Bevan Match” after he hit Roger Harper for an ice-cool straight four off the last ball to complete the first of his many chasing masterclasses.In 1997-98 came another last-ball finish: Dion Nash on strike against Shaun Pollock with New Zealand needing three to win a high-scoring epic. What happened next? Well, watch it here.And no account of triangular tournaments in Australia can be complete without the England-Sri Lanka game in Adelaide in January 1999. You’ll remember Arjuna Ranatunga coming close to pulling his team out of the match after umpire Ross Emerson called Muttiah Muralitharan for chucking, but the match itself was a nail-biter, with Sri Lanka eventually winning by one wicket, thanks to a brilliant hundred from a young Mahela Jayawardene, who when he began the innings, had an ODI average of 15.21. During Sri Lanka’s chase, the stump mic picked up Alec Stewart going after Ranatunga for his “behaviour” earlier in the game, but the commentators would have none of it. They backed the Sri Lanka captain fully, with Ian Chappell noting that he had “a touch of John McEnroe” about him.What We’re Watching here

Unfancied Leicestershire clinched one of the closest title races there has ever been

Paul Edwards23-Jul-2020June 24, 1996
September 22, 1996
In 1996 Leicestershire began their County Championship programme away at Derby. Let us assume the match was not an all-ticket affair. And although this was still the era when the and the covered every first-class game, let us also hazard the view that the press box was not crammed. Heavy rain fell on the first day and play was abandoned, so the journalists, whether local or national, could repair to one of the city’s many fine pubs. The second morning was equally dreich but Derbyshire’s skipper, Kim Barnett put on an extra sweater and made an unbeaten 200. So bleak were the conditions and so isolated Leicestershire’s successes that James Whitaker’s players gathered in a huddle at the fall of each wicket.Visiting supporters probably regarded their attendance on such deliciously grim days as a demonstration of devotion: “My County Wet or Dry”. Yet Whitaker later replied with a century and the left-arm seamer Alan Mullally took half a dozen cheap wickets in the home side’s second innings to set up a six-wicket victory. By the season’s end Leicestershire would be champions for only the second time in their history and Derbyshire would be runners-up, their best position in 60 years. This took place only 24 summers ago.ALSO READ: Shepherd, Majid and Glamorgan leave Gloucestershire second bestWhitaker’s team stuck with the huddle. “It was windy and cold, and we were a bit disconnected, as you can be when it’s windy and the fielders are spread out,” the skipper recalled. “After a long partnership a wicket fell, and we all came together in a huddle, part out of coldness, part out of a feeling of ‘Bloody hell, we’ve got a wicket.’ Then we got another one quickly so we decided to do it again. And the more we did it, the more we found we were enjoying it.”Nobody predicted Leicestershire’s triumph in 1996 apart from Whitaker. They had finished seventh the previous year and were 40/1 outsiders when the season began. Apart from Phil Simmons, their overseas signing, the team was hardly stacked with stars. Yet their unity of purpose was sufficient to defeat a Derbyshire team that included six Test cricketers and they were to go through the 17-match season losing only to Surrey and defeating ten teams, most of whom were far better financed than the Grace Road club.Members of successful sides almost always cite collective spirit as a factor in their triumphs. Has there ever been a successful team – in any sport – whose members did not encourage each other yet still managed to win trophies? What was different at Grace Road in 1996 was that a team of mostly young, ambitious cricketers came together with relatively little expected of them while expecting much of themselves. Moreover, Whitaker and Jack Birkenshaw, the captain and coach, were prepared to try fresh approaches. “It was in that age when a lot of county cricketers seemed to be doing just enough to hang on,” Whitaker said. “We wanted to do something different from that. We decided right from the start that we’d get back to the basics of why we were all professional cricketers – and that was to enjoy it.”Birkenshaw suggested that Leicestershire’s players would savour away matches a little more if they arrived at lunchtime on the day prior to the game and had a net at the venue where they were to spend the next four days. This was possible now that teams were no longer playing two three-day games each week. The result was that five of Leicestershire’s victories were achieved on the road and they came within one wicket of defeating Glamorgan at Swansea in August. However, Neil Kendrick and Colin Metson survived the final eight balls of the game and when Hampshire’s last pair, James Bovill and Simon Renshaw, blocked out the last six overs a fortnight later at Grace Road, Leicestershire’s players were entitled to believe this might not be their summer of jubilee.

We were like the closest family you could imagine. It’s the best team environment I’ve ever known. Every morning we leapt out of bed and galloped in to workPaul Nixon

Other counties remained in contention until summer’s last knockings. Six teams led the table in the last two months and Derbyshire looked likely champions when they won four successive games in August. A battle-hardened Essex side were favourites on September 1, only for Richard Kettleborough’s single Championship century to transform their match at Headingley. By contrast, Leicestershire found their very best form in the final month of the season, winning their last four matches, including a couple of two-day hammerings of Somerset and Durham. And maybe Whitaker’s players had “seen” it all coming. The Leicestershire skipper had introduced visualisation skills to his players and the 22-year-old Darren Maddy described their effects: “We’d think about how we wanted the day to go, what sort of effect we wanted to have on the opposition. It was all about self-belief and relaxation.”Supporters of other counties and many neutrals took the view that it was largely about Simmons. The West Indian’s 1186 runs and 33 catches at slip were valuable enough but he also took 56 wickets with his seam bowling. That made him a perfect new-ball partner for David Millns in a summer when Mullally played all six Tests. But arguments about Simmons’ dominance could go only so far. Six of Leicestershire’s victories were achieved by an innings and the Trinidadian played a supporting role in the successive midsummer annihilations of Yorkshire and Essex.In the first of these games Vince Wells and Whitaker both made double-hundreds as the visitors piled up 681 for 7 declared, which remains the highest total ever made against Yorkshire. Then Gordon Parsons – “Roaring Gordon” to his later opponents in Minor Counties cricket – took four wickets in the home side’s first innings and Millns chipped in with another four in their second. As ever there were Leicestershire huddles. “We were squeezing up as close as possible just to warm up,” Simmons said. But it was a sad ending to first-class cricket at Park Avenue, Bradford. The ground was once a Tyke stronghold with an imperial pavilion but by 1996 the only intimidation was provided by razor wire on the perimeter wall.A fortnight later Leicestershire’s players returned to Grace Road, where the problem was getting people in rather than keeping them out. Undaunted by the absence of acclamation found at Welford Road or Filbert Street, Millns and Parsons took four wickets apiece as an Essex side that included Graham Gooch and Stuart Law were put out for 163 on the first day. Wells, who was in the best nick of his career, then notched 197 and put on 187 with Millns, who made his maiden hundred before taking six wickets when Essex batted again. He thus became only the fourth Leicestershire player to make a century and take ten wickets in the same match. It was that sort of summer for players and supporters at Grace Road. Almost every match brought some delights. “We were like the closest family you could imagine,” said Paul Nixon, for whom effervescent enthusiasm is a default position. “It’s the best team environment I’ve ever known. Every morning we leapt out of bed and galloped in to work.”Phil Simmons led the way with 1186 runs in the season for Leicestershire•Allsport/Getty ImagesThe Grace Road cavalry were no doubt particularly keen to leave their stables on the first morning of the season’s final game. They knew that Surrey needed maximum batting points to have a chance of pipping them and that even that possibility would be removed if they took care of business against Middlesex. Whitaker’s bowlers began that task by dismissing the visitors for 190 on the first day and a Simmons century built a formidable lead on the second. But at tea on the following afternoon, matters were taken out of Leicestershire’s hands in the pleasantest way possible when Surrey forfeited their first innings against Worcestershire. “Leicestershire clinched the second Championship in their history over a pot of tea and ham sandwiches on the penultimate day of the season,” reported ‘s delighted correspondent Chris Goddard.Something like 3000 spectators gathered beneath the players’ balcony on that famous afternoon. To cap off a football summer that had featured Shearer, Skinner and Baddiel, Nixon led a conga of supporters onto the outfield singing “Cricket’s coming home”. Then more or less everyone got drunk. Next morning Millns sweated off his hangover by taking four of the last five wickets to complete an innings victory.September 21 was the latest date on which the title had ever been won. So much was clear. Making sense of what had happened was trickier, although there was no doubt about Leicestershire’s collective endeavour: four batsmen had scored over a thousand runs and eight had made centuries in Championship matches. Seven bowlers had taken at least 24 wickets each, including the frequently overlooked spinners, Matthew Brimson and Adrian Pierson. Stability was also important: the champions had called on only 13 players in the entire season. Other reasons, perhaps the most important ones, could not be quantified. They included self-belief, enthusiasm and the energy that fills any cricket dressing room when a team is doing well.And yet still people were unsure what to say about it all. As so often, Martin Johnson captured the mood: “When the County Championship went to Grace Road, it was greeted with the kind of embarrassed silence associated with a rag and bone man’s horse winning the Derby. In fact, if they ever built a ring road next to Leicestershire’s ground they would have to call it the Charisma By-Pass.” Of course, you needed to be a former cricket correspondent of the to write such things. Match from the Day

Some players are getting key match practice as franchises keep keen eye on form

Varun Shetty20-Aug-2020Eighteen IPL players have already taken the field in Trinidad in the first two days of the CPL, which is good news for the IPL franchises. They have had little flexibility in terms of getting their players ready for a high-intensity tournament like the IPL because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and will probably rate match practice higher than under a month’s worth of nets. Here’s a look at the IPL players and franchises who might most benefit from the CPL.Who are the key players getting games in CPL?If you are Chennai Super Kings, you’re already thrilled because Mitchell Santner has got runs and bowled a tight spell, Dwayne Bravo has sealed a nervy chase with the bat and Imran Tahir is in the wickets. In fact, there are few players who have shown up so far who wouldn’t be first-choice overseas picks for their IPL teams. Sunil Narine (Kolkata Knight Riders), Kieron Pollard (Mumbai Indians), Andre Russell (KKR), Nicholas Pooran (Kings XI Punjab) and Rashid Khan (Sunrisers Hyderabad) are all core players for their respective teams.Even players like Oshane Thomas (Rajasthan Royals), Keemo Paul (Delhi Capitals), Mohammad Nabi (Sunrisers), Shimron Hetmyer (Capitals) and Mujeeb ur Rahman (Kings XI), who may not normally play all games in a season, could end up playing crucial roles in the beginning of the IPL. This could be the result of teams building strategies around the various isolation norms for players who will arrive later than others. All of them will have game time during the CPL.Which franchises will be affected most?The roadblocks for player preparation is primarily around two issues right now: first, the South African players may only arrive in the UAE in September, at least a week after most franchises get there. Second, the England-Australia series is scheduled to end only three days before the IPL begins, so players coming from there will not be immediately available in the IPL because of the quarantine protocols in place.The teams that will be most affected by these are the Royal Challengers Bangalore (AB de Villiers, Chris Morris, Dale Steyn, Josh Philippe, Aaron Finch, Kane Richardson and maybe Moeen Ali), the Royals (Steven Smith, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes), Sunrisers (David Warner, Jonny Bairstow and Mitchell Marsh) and the Super Kings (Faf du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi). The Royal Challengers and the Royals will have the biggest problems in terms of core structure, and between them they only have one representative in the CPL – Thomas (Royals).On the other hand, there are IPL teams benefitting from their players participating in the CPL: the Super Kings have three key names getting games in Trinidad and the Sunrisers also have Rashid and Nabi playing the CPL, and would have had Fabian Allen too if he hadn’t missed a flight to miss the tournament. Alongside the Kolkata Knight Riders, who will probably have Narine and Russell match-fit before the IPL, these two teams will probably benefit the most. Kings XI will also be encouraged with bowlers Mujeeb and Sheldon Cottrell getting game time.An IPL for overseas spinners?Eight IPL-tied spinners have played in the CPL so far. Given that matches are going to be restricted to two venues in Trinidad, the pitches and conditions could soon favour the spinners as the tournament progresses. It is too early to say that the IPL might go the same way but historically, pitches in the UAE too have assisted slow bowling. Bowlers like Nabi, Sandeep Lamichhane (Capitals) and Chris Green (KKR) could well make cases for themselves to be picked regularly through the upcoming IPL, either alongside or in place of Indian bowlers who have not played since March.

That Mumbai are the best team at the death in a fickle format in a competitive league is down to these three – controlled – power-hitters

Sidharth Monga09-Nov-2020You watch it live, you watch the replays, and you see T Natarajan missed his length. And it happens, right? The yorker is a difficult delivery to execute, and if you err, you err on the fuller side because low full tosses are still hard to hit. It is just that Kieron Pollard can, you know, hit these low full tosses.Except that Natarajan didn’t miss his length. The definition of a yorker keeps changing over time, if you look at the pitch maps that the broadcasters show. Till not long ago, anything from the stumps to two metres down the wicket was considered a yorker. Perhaps they realised this year that a ball arriving at the base of stumps is a full toss, so they moved the yorker zone further away from the stumps to the 1m-to-3m zone. The popping crease is 1.22 metres from the stumps, so a ball landing on the popping crease and just beyond is still a yorker nailed.Natarajan nailed two of those to Pollard only to be hit for boundaries. What you saw in live time was a low full toss, but it wasn’t a yorker only because Pollard used his reach – no walking or charging – and all his timing and power, honed over hours and hours of range-hitting.Then there is Hardik Pandya, whom you can shut down with a perfectly nailed yorker but without any margin for error. You go wrong either side by six inches, and he hits you for a six. Hardik has turned six-hitting into an art form where he hardly ever over-hits or mis-hits. If he doesn’t get the right ball to hit, it doesn’t faze him. He knows bowlers are going to make a mistake. Kagiso Rabada nailed two yorkers for a dot and a single, but he only had to err slightly with two other balls to be hit for sixes. On one occasion he missed the yorker, on the other, the hard length.The only way to bowl to them perhaps is to bowl quick and hard lengths, and then mix it up with perfect yorkers, but the world doesn’t have enough bowlers who can execute this flawlessly. Both Pollard and Hardik have shown that the moment you err even a little from that hard length, or are not quick enough with that hard length, boundaries across the world are not big enough. It is scary that they hit sixes while batting within themselves. The result? Hardik has hit a six every six balls to go with a four every 11 in IPL 2020. Pollard’s six-hitting has been just as frequent, but he is even better with the fours, hitting one every ten balls. Despite having played fewer than half the deliveries that Ishan Kishan has, Hardik is challenging him for the most sixes hit this tournament. That all three belong to one team tells you why the Mumbai Indians have been so dominant.Kieron Pollard – power unlimited•BCCIYou would have thought their opponents in the final, the Delhi Capitals’ Rabada and Anrich Nortje, would have just the right ammunition – pace, bounce, hard lengths – but they have bowled 20 balls to these two for 33 runs and no wicket, including a six every five balls. This is classic Pollard and Hardik: the two bowlers seemingly most suited to bowling to them have bowled 11 dots out of 20, but have conceded four sixes as well. Even the slightest error has been punished.Then there is the wildcard, Krunal Pandya. Take Mumbai’s previous match against the Capitals for example. Krunal was promoted ahead of Hardik because the Capitals still had one over of left-arm spin from Axar Patel left. He and Kishan – both left-hand batsmen – against Axar would make it a bad match-up for the Capitals. They were happy to play out Daniel Sams and wait for Patel. The Capitals didn’t trust Patel in this situation, and so used up two overs from Rabada and Nortje instead. Having forced the Capitals to use their death bowlers earlier than they would have liked, Krunal had done his job. He was free to hit the two main bowlers now: if he got runs, it was a bonus; if he got out, he had got Hardik an over from either Patel or Marcus Stoinis to face at the death. In another game, when Krunal wasn’t required to tactically disrupt match-ups, he came out and smacked 20 off four balls in the last over.While it is no surprise that Mumbai are the best team at the death, a knock-on effect of this is the freedom with which Suryakumar Yadav and Kishan can play. They know that if they have one slow over in the middle, or if they get out trying to dominate the opposition, they have the luxury of these three batsmen coming in in the last ten. Yadav’s intent and execution has been way better than that of Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey and Shubhman Gill to name a few, but he can afford to fail because of Pollard and the Pandya brothers; others don’t have that luxury. Yadav acknowledged as much after Mumbai beat the Capitals in the Qualifier 1.Between the three of them, Pollard and the Pandya brothers provide enough power and chaos in the last ten overs to make planning for them a struggle for any opposition. Two of them are efficient and ruthless power-hitters. All three of them are seemingly selfless, unconcerned about averages and unfazed by dot balls. The two power-hitters have varying styles of hitting, which means the bowler has to adjust vastly to hold his own.Even if Mumbai happen to have an off day in the final – which can happen – their team construction, especially Nos. 5, 6 and 7, holds truest to the spirit of T20 cricket. A defeat in a final will not change that, or the fact that because of this power-hitting they are the most dominant side in a fickle format in a competitive league.

Hazlewood needed only 25 balls to pick up a five-for

Gaurav Sundararaman19-Dec-2020ESPNcricinfo Ltd 36 India’s lowest ever score in Test history. The previous lowest was 42 against England way back in 1974. That was also in the third innings of the match but India were following on.1 The very first instance in all of Test cricket that all 11 batsmen, and extras, couldn’t cross single-figures in an innings. The highest scorer was Mayank Agarwal, who made 9. In the only other instance when all 11 batsmen made single-digit scores – South Africa against England at Edgbaston in 1924 – extras contributed 11 to the total of 30. 19 Lowest score for India at the loss of six wickets in Tests. Their previous was 25 . There have only been seven lower scores at the loss of the sixth wicket in Test history across all teams. 25 Deliveries taken by Josh Hazlewood to complete his five-wicket haul.The fastest five-for from the start of a bowling spell in a Test is 19 balls, set by Australia’s Ernie Toshack against India in Brisbane in 1947-48, and equalled by Stuart Broad for England against Australia at Trent Bridge in 2015.8 – Runs conceded by Hazlewood. Only twice has an Australian bowler conceded fewer runs in an innings in which he has taken five for more wickets. 1.6 Third most-economical five-wicket haul for Australia in Tests and the best since 1947 when Toshak took 5 for 2. 31 Matches for Pat Cummins to take 150 Test wickets, the joint Second-fastest for Australia. He shares this feat with Dennis Lillee, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill. Clarrie Grimett was the quickest though getting to 150 Test wickets in 28 Tests. 19 Innings for Agarwal to reach 1000 Test runs. He is the third-quickest from India to this feat. Vinod Kambli and Cheteshwar Pujara are the two players who achieved it quicker in 14 and 18 innings respectively. 1 Loss for India when Virat Kohli has won the toss. Under these conditions, previously, he had played 25 matches and won 21 with four draws.8 This was the eighth win for Australia in day-night Tests. They are yet to lose one of these.

The Tamil Nadu finisher was picked by Punjab Kings for INR 5.25 crore at the 2021 IPL auction

Deivarayan Muthu19-Feb-2021After snapping up a certain Shahrukh Khan for INR 5.25 crore, the Punjab Kings’ co-owner Preity Zinta turned to the Kolkata Knight Riders table, where Aryan, Shah Rukh Khan’s son was sitting, and quipped: “We got Shahrukh!”Zinta then said at a media conference that she has been getting a lot of messages asking who this Shahrukh Khan is.While you may have been wondering the same, Shahrukh’s team-mates always knew that he was going to go big this auction. After stepping out of quarantine to prepare for the forthcoming 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy, Shahrukh and his Tamil Nadu team-mates were following the auction in their team bus in Indore. In the video posted by his captain Dinesh Karthik on Twitter, you can hear a voice in the background: “!” (Hang on brother, your bid will go up to 4 crore).

Turn up the volume and listen to the team's happiness for our bright #IPLAuction pic.twitter.com/wkDfFbqGGP

— DK (@DineshKarthik) February 18, 2021