Somerset’s Andy Hurry is a notable exception in the modern game: an amateur at the helm of a top county side

Siddarth Ravindran30-Oct-2011Top-level coaching in sport is increasingly the preserve of the former player. Many of the most sought-after coaches in international cricket, such as Gary Kirsten, Andy Flower and John Wright, had illustrious playing careers. Even on the county scene, almost every head coach has loads of first-class playing experience.One of the exceptions is the man at the helm of Somerset, Andy Hurry, an amateur cricketer with no first-class games under his belt. A stint with the Combined Services team during his time as a Royal Marine in the ’90s is the highest level of cricket Hurry played. That hasn’t stopped him from transforming Somerset from also-rans to perennial title contenders during his six seasons in charge. Nor has it prevented him from aspiring to coach international teams.”First of all, having played international cricket would be a huge help to any coach of an international team,” Hurry says. “I also accept that I haven’t played cricket at that level. While it may take a coach [with playing experience] six years to achieve that, it may take me 16 years. I am happy to accept that.”That perseverance and ability to look long-term have been in evidence during his time with Somerset. “When I left the Marines in 1999, I couldn’t find myself a job anywhere,” he recounts. “So I went down to Somerset county cricket club, knocked on the door and asked if there are any jobs going working with the young kids at the grassroot level. They said there weren’t any opportunities, so I went back a week later and said I’ll work for free, and they said, ‘Oh yeah, you can come round and work for free.'”Hurry initially worked with schools cricket, and egged on by some encouraging words from Dermot Reeve, then Somerset’s head coach (“You’ve got to stick at this. I watched you coach, there’s something about you”), progressed to guiding the Under-11s. By 2001 he was in charge of the U-16s, a side that contained players like James Hildreth, now a pillar of the Somerset senior team.The next step came as a result of Hurry’s background as a physical-training instructor in the Marines. A chance meeting with Reeve’s successor, Kevin Shine, resulted in Hurry being involved in some pre-season fitness training with the players. That led to a job as fitness instructor with the county, and soon after, Hurry landed the post of performance analyst, a position he held for three years and which he counts as among the most significant phases in his development as a coach.”For three years I followed every single ball of first-class cricket. I had come from an environment where I had no idea what first-class cricket was about, and over the next three years I got to know the players, watch the game ball by ball, understand what was going on, understand what professional cricket was all about, and during that time I did my Level 3 and my Level 4 ECB coaching qualifications.”He was made coach of the second team in 2005 but left to work with the UAE side, a one-year spell that didn’t work out well. In 2006, Somerset first-team coach, Mark Garaway, applied for the England assistant coach post, and Hurry returned to the county to fill the vacancy.”I feel that those years that I worked with the first-team players helped me get that position, because they trusted me, they knew what I was about. I was all about discipline and structure. I was the round peg that fit into the round hole for that team at that time.”

“I went down to Somerset county cricket club, knocked on the door and asked if there are any jobs going working with the young kids at the grassroot level. They said there weren’t any opportunities, so I went back a week later and said I’ll work for free, and they said, ‘Oh yeah, you can come round and work for free'”

Despite that, his time as head coach began with one of the most wretched seasons in Somerset’s history – finishing bottom of the second division and faring poorly in all the limited-overs competitions. A total revamp was needed, and Hurry set about the task by bringing in Australian Test opener Justin Langer as captain to provide a strong example on and off the field. Also, the experienced Marcus Trescothick was available again after finishing his England career.”We changed the whole culture of the club,” Hurry says. “It was all about fitness, it was all about lifestyle, it was all about personal discipline, it was all about working hard on your skills. We came in as a management group and senior players and drove this vision forward.” It worked wonders: Somerset won the second division title in 2007, and narrowly missed out on becoming county champions in three of the next four years.The time Hurry spent in the Marines has helped him revitalise Somerset. “It gave me one realisation – that everybody is expendable, in life and death in that situation. In professional sport you are only good and wanted while you are performing.”Second thing, organisation and structure. People want to be led. If you organise them and you put a good structure together, they know exactly what they are doing; they follow. And the most important thing that came out of it was being honest. We got to tell players the truth and be 100% honest, so that then they can trust you.”Trust is a theme he stresses on often, whether it is when dealing with players, the board or his coaching staff. Another favourite topic is vision. “You got to know where you are looking to go. If you are climbing Mount Everest, that journey to get to Mount Everest starts two-three years out, with the planning, preparation, planning where your stops are along the climb.”While Hurry’s vision for Somerset is for them to become one of the best teams in global cricket, his career goal is to get into international coaching. “In the short term I’m looking to try and get on international tours, in assistant coach roles, to understand how international cricket operates.”One of his charges, Craig Kieswetter, is among those who think a lack of international playing experience won’t hold Hurry back. “From whenever he took over as coach, the club has been doing remarkably well and the club is developing,” Kieswetter says. “It’s not necessarily about how much cricket you played, it’s about the message he tries to get across to the players, and he’s doing fantastically well in that area.”Can Hurry make the step up? Though former players are the overwhelming majority among coaches in sport, Hurry will be encouraged by some high-profile exceptions – Graham Henry has just led the All Blacks to World Cup glory, and Andre Villas-Boas is now in charge of Chelsea football club after becoming the youngest manager to win a European competition earlier this year. In cricket, Hurry’s role model will perhaps be John Buchanan, who despite having played only a handful of first-class games oversaw a period when Australia dominated the game like few teams in the past have.Like Buchanan with Australia, Hurry says his best chance would be with a team with a settled core. “Potentially someone like me could work with a very experienced team but could struggle with a very inexperienced team, where the team needs more mental help and talk about experience of dealing with pressure at the Test level,” he says. “I wouldn’t be a good fit for that. If it was a more experienced team, it would be easier for any coach to come in, but that’s maybe the angle I might have to come in at.”

The furores artfully drummed up to hawk this book might obscure that it’s a cracking read. More’s the pity

Saad Shafqat08-Oct-2011The first thing you realise when you read Shoaib Akhtar’s autobiography is that much of the media reaction to it is a distraction from the book’s true merits. Yes, he has admitted to ball-tampering, delivered questionable opinions on Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, and blasted some of the high priests of Pakistan cricket. But he has also said a great deal that is more interesting, more important, and evidently more heartfelt.As a device to enhance your pleasure of the game, this book delivers. Perhaps the most absorbing, at times even riveting, parts of it are the first four chapters, which detail Shoaib’s ordeals before he became a celebrity. He was born into modest circumstances, a sickly child who at one point nearly died of whooping cough. The family struggled with money and would sometimes go hungry.Despite the financial constraints, his parents worked hard to instill upright values in the children and ensure them an education. Shoaib tells us he was an ace student, and also a natural prankster. As a result, he was frequently in trouble. The pattern of conflicts that marked his international career was set early on.Cricket did not become a focus until his teenage years, when Shoaib’s passion for bowling fast was unleashed. Before that, he played informal street games, including , and ran a lot – everywhere, aimlessly – because it made him feel free. Once he discovered cricket, he was drawn to role models, finding instant inspiration in Imran Khan’s dynamic and towering figure. At the Pindi Club he saw his idols Imran, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis practise under lights. That was when he made a personal vow to don the Pakistan colours.All through the book Shoaib confronts his bad-boy image head-on, but his reflections are unlikely to sway anyone. He admits having little patience for rules and regulations, resents being preached to, and hates restrictions of any kind. He complains about never having had a proper mentor, but more likely it would not have been possible for even the most well-meaning mentor to get through to him.His self-indulgent nature comes across loudly, as we are told of his love for money, girls, and even his own company. Speed, above everything, is his true love, and garners a long chapter by itself. All this underscores his ability to polarise. Shoaib’s supporters will find him refreshingly honest; his detractors will deride him for confirming their worst assumptions.When we come to the chapters covering his international career, it is disappointing to see a lack of serious introspection. All his great spells are glossed over, leaving the connoisseur unfulfilled. You keep expecting to be placed inside the fast bowler’s head as he psycho-analyses the batsman, adjusts the field, and contemplates his wicket-taking plans, but it never happens. Shoaib could have entertained his readers with a ringside view of these intricacies; it feels like a golden opportunity lost. Also slightly disappointing are the book’s occasional typos and misspellings. The persistent insertion of a hyphen between “T” and “20” is especially grating.Nevertheless the overall package is a highly enjoyable one. Co-author Anshu Dogra has polished the material into a coherent and flowing narrative, yet still allowed Shoaib’s first-person voice to be heard clearly. Urdu and Punjabi phrases are interspersed here and there, conveying the thought precisely and to the understanding reader’s great amusement.Anecdotes, often the choicest part of a memoir, are peppered throughout. There are accounts of Shoaib in college as he drives a motorbike through the principal’s office, gets suspended for playing cricket in front of the girls’ building, and convinces a to serve him free meals because one day Shoaib will be a famous cricketer.Shoaib tells us about the anxiety of appearing for domestic cricket trials in Lahore, and the joy of catching the eye of Zaheer Abbas. We learn how, just before breaking into Test cricket, he spent an emotionally wrenching period in Karachi rooming with his buddy Saqlain Mushtaq when they were struggling cricketers and the city was in turmoil.The book’s tone is sometimes conversational, sometimes argumentative, with seamless transitions into languid storytelling one minute, breathless rhetoric the next. In this, the narrator sounds every bit the Shoaib Akhtar we know from his public persona.Every now and then there is also some touching human moment – getting tongue-tied when an attractive Irish girl starts a conversation in a bar, buying his first car, looking up an old benefactor after becoming a star, revisiting old haunts in his hometown of Rawalpindi.Naturally there is a good deal of score-settling as well, some of which – including targeted jabs at the likes of Wasim Akram, Javed Miandad, and Tendulkar – has been the subject of recent news cycles. Among all these, I found the description of Shoaib’s administrative duel with former PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf particularly valuable. The drama is vividly sketched over several pages as Shoaib struggles and eventually succeeds in getting his PCB-enforced ban reversed by pulling political strings. His account provides sharp insight into Pakistan cricket’s backroom ploys and validates a great deal of drawing-room chatter.All said and done, you have to commend the man for a job well done. The very appearance of his book is a feat in itself: written output from Pakistan’s cricketers has been sparse. Shoaib may have carried an image of carefree indiscipline for most of his career, but he has certainly demonstrated he has the discipline to produce a book with impact. In this he has outdone several other famous cricketing names from Pakistan.Controversially Yours
Shoaib Akhtar
Harper Collins, 2011
Rs 499, 272pp

This summer, under the tutelage of Craig McDermott, Peter Siddle has managed to approximate something of the complete fast bowler

Daniel Brettig at Adelaide Oval26-Jan-2012For much of his career, the depictions of Peter Siddle tended to focus on what he didn’t have. He wasn’t the quickest, nor the tallest, wasn’t the biggest swinger of the ball, and certainly wasn’t the most cerebral bowler for Australia. He wasn’t considered the fittest fast man going around, either. Siddle had plenty of heart of course, and plenty of aggression. But it was easier to define him by what was missing rather than by what was there. To borrow the words of Jack Dyer, the revered Australian Rules footballer and coach, Siddle was “a good, ordinary player”.This summer, all such categorisations have become obsolete. Under the tutelage of Craig McDermott, Siddle has managed to approximate something of the complete fast bowler. He is moving the ball at high pace, bowling an intelligent and unrelenting line and length, spicing it up with the odd bouncer, and never allowing a natural enmity for batsmen to cloud his judgement of the best ball to deliver. Moreover, Siddle has proven himself to be remarkably fit and durable, slogging through nine Test matches in succession with no perceptible drop in speed or vigour.On day three in Adelaide, he sliced through India’s batting with a combination of all the aforementioned attributes, and his efforts were even more meritorious for the fact that he did it on the flattest pitch of the summer. Thanks to Siddle’s nipping out of Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir, the tourists lurched to 4 for 87 by the time Nathan Lyon was asked to probe for a wicket with his off spin, and were destined for a haplessly inadequate first innings no matter how well Virat Kohli played. The best bowler does not always reap the most outstanding analysis but this time Siddle did, and he deserved every one of his five wickets.They have not always been plucked so easily. Siddle earned his Test cap in India in 2008, called into Ricky Ponting’s team due to the elbow injury that was to shorten Stuart Clark’s career. He marked his first day as an international cricketer by cracking Gautam Gambhir on the helmet with the first new ball then having Sachin Tendulkar taken at slip with the second. They were two rare moments of ascendance for Australia in the series, which was lost 2-0 to be the formal start of a slide from No. 1 in the world to the mediocrity of mid-table.Then, Siddle’s energy and spirit impressed Ponting, who also delighted by the fact they both shared a love of the same AFL club, North Melbourne – a not insignificant point of common ground in the world of a cricket team on tour. Ponting would come to rely on his fellow Kangaroos supporter over the following year, as Siddle bowled long spells as the steadier counterpoint to the enigmatic Mitchell Johnson, while the likes of Clark and Brett Lee faded out of Test match contention due to injury. He was wholehearted in defeat against South Africa at home, and dangerous in victory over the same team away, before bowling serviceably in England during an Ashes series that the tourists let slip from their fingers.

Siddle has proven himself to be remarkably fit and durable, slogging through nine Test matches in succession with no perceptible drop in speed or vigour

His improvement was stalled by a back ailment that held Siddle out of Test cricket for most of 2010. He spent part of his time on the way towards a recall in training with another AFL club, Carlton, in an experience that provided him with a greater appreciation of the fitness required at the top end of sporting competition. He won his place back in time for the Ashes, and on the first day of the series brought the Gabba to its feet with a hat-trick. It was about as jubilant as Australia were able to get all last summer. But as the enforcer “Sid Vicious”, Siddle’s own role seemed to grow increasingly pigeonholed. In Perth he barely bowled a delivery in the batsmen’s half of the pitch, and took only one wicket out of a match in which Johnson and Ryan Harris made merry. He bowled well at the MCG in a cause that had already been lost by the batsmen, but by the end of the summer he had been found, alongside Ben Hilfenhaus, to be short of the standard required.Ponting and Troy Cooley, McDermott’s predecessor, appeared to think that Siddle was not capable of much more subtlety than he had already produced, but in the off-season he was encouraged to try for something more ambitious. In line with the rest of Australia’s attack, Siddle was urged to bowl fuller in search of swing, and was aided in this by adopting a wider grip down the seam of the ball. His initial adherence to what might be termed the McDermott method was not altogether convincing, and he effectively bowled himself out of the Test team with a poor display in the warm-up match at the start of the Sri Lanka tour. While Ryan Harris, Johnson and Trent Copeland occupied the pace spots in Galle and Kandy, Siddle spent even more time with McDermott, and gradually found the rhythm and swing that was previously beyond him.An injury to Harris offered a path back, and it was telling that Siddle’s first Test wicket on his return to the team in Colombo was a left-hand opening batsman, bowled between bat and pad by a full delivery that straightened through the air – precisely the kind of dismissal that had been missing from Siddle’s Test repertoire. Though he experienced some growing pains in his new method in South Africa, with the support of Michael Clarke’s adroit captaincy Siddle continued to build towards the peak that he reached against New Zealand and India. His Adelaide wickets were emblematic of the new bowler he is: Sehwag bunting a full delivery back for a return catch, Tendulkar probing at a ball aimed inches outside off stump and moving subtly away to edge to slip, and Gambhir fencing a brutish bouncer to gully.Later Siddle helped fire out the tail, and held up the ball in acknowledgement of an appreciative Australia Day crowd. There is admiration among the masses as well as the dressing-room for his knockabout persona and unstinting effort. As a character, he fits the everyman description that Dyer had coined years ago, but his bowling has now transcended it. No longer will Siddle be defined by what he cannot do, unless it is to say that in 2012 – so far, at least – he can do nothing wrong.

Stats highlights from a high-scoring thriller in the first final of the CB Series in Brisbane

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan04-Mar-2012Warner’s score is the highest by an Australia batsman against Sri Lanka, surpassing Adam Gilchrist’s 154 in 1999. It is also the sixth-highest score by an Australia batsman in ODIs. Warner’s effort also becomes the highest individual score in ODIs in Brisbane, going past David Gower’s 158 against New Zealand in 1983. His knock is even more remarkable considering that in his six previous innings, Warner only managed an aggregate of 155 runs. In the finals of the tri-series, only Mark Waugh (173) has managed a higher score than Warner. During his innings, Warner faced 157 deliveries, which is eighth on the list of most balls faced by an Australia batsman in an ODI.Sri Lanka became the first team to score over 300 in the second innings in ODIs in Brisbane. Their total of 306 is the highest second-innings team score in a final in Australia, surpassing West Indies’ 299 in 2001, and is also the seventh 300-plus score in finals played in Australia.The match aggregate of 627 runs is the second-highest in a final in Australia and the sixth-highest overall in ODIs played in Australia. Sri Lanka were nearly down and out at 144 for 6, but fought back brilliantly and almost pulled off a win. The last six batsmen put on 178 runs, which is a record for Sri Lanka in ODIs. They surpassed the previous best of 176, scored during their chase of 334 against West Indies in Sharjah in 1995. On that occasion, Sri Lanka went on to lose by an even lower margin: four runs. The 104-run stand between Nuwan Kulasekara and Upul Tharanga is the highest seventh-wicket stand for Sri Lanka against Australia, surpassing the previous best of 90 between Roshan Mahanama and Upul Chandana in 1999. The partnership run-rate of 9.04 is the highest ever for a century stand for Sri Lanka in ODIs against Australia and the third-highest overall for the seventh wicket in ODIs. The century stand is also the highest partnership for the seventh wicket in the tri-series finals in Australia, going past the 102-run partnership between Ajit Agarkar and Hemang Badani in 2004.Kulasekara’s 73 is the highest score by a Sri Lankan batsman at No.8, going past Kumar Dharmasena’s 69 against South Africa in 1997. Kulasekara’s strike-rate of 169.76 during his innings of 73 is the highest ever for a Sri Lanka batsman against Australia for a fifty-plus score. It is also the second-highest strike-rate for a fifty-plus score in ODIs in Brisbane, after Martin Guptill’s 64 off 34 balls in 2009. On a surface that has traditionally favoured fast bowling, the spinners comfortably outperformed the pace bowlers. While the spinners conceded 150 runs at an economy-rate of 4.50 and picked up five wickets, pace bowlers conceded 469 runs at an economy rate of 7.17 while picking up 11 wickets. It is also the third time in ODIs that Australia’s pace bowlers have conceded more than seven runs an over (minimum 20 overs bowled in innings). Australia’s score of 321 is their sixth-highest in a tournament final and the fifth-highest in a final at home. It is also their second-highest total in a final against Sri Lanka after the 368 in Sydney in 2006. Australia, who scored over 300 for the 61st time in the first innings, have the joint-best win-loss ratio (14.00) with Pakistan for teams that have scored 300 or more at least 20 times. David Hussey’s 4 for 43 is his second-best bowling performance in ODIs. It is also the fifth-best bowling performance by an Australia spinner in ODIs against Sri Lanka and the best ever by an Australia spinner in Brisbane.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day for the fifth ODI between West Indies and Australia

Brydon Coverdale25-Mar-2012The dribble
If Australia’s former prime minister John Howard was watching this match, he could take comfort from a delivery sent down by Ben Hilfenhaus. Footage of Howard awkwardly rolling his arm over and thudding the ball into the ground a few inches from his feet has been a staple of Australian TV comedy shows for years. Now he knows it can even happen to professionals. Hilfenhaus appeared to be trying to send Adrian Barath a slower ball when he ran in and thumped the ball into the turf just in front of him. It bounced six or seven times and dribbled off the side of the pitch.The collision
It was impossible not to think of the sickening crash between Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie in Kandy in 1999 when Matthew Wade raced back and collided with the fine-leg Hilfenhaus in an attempt to catch Carlton Baugh. Hilfenhaus steadied with one knee on the ground and took the catch, while Wade careened into him and copped a knee to the midriff. Wade immediately collapsed on the ground and appeared to be in serious pain, but after a few minutes he regained his composure and resumed his place behind the stumps.The save
It is not uncommon these days for fielders to toss the ball back into play as they fall over the boundary, but even so Andre Russell’s effort in this match was something to behold. Shane Watson slogged the ball to long-on and it seemed destined to clear the rope when Russell leapt high into the air and clasped the ball cleanly in one hand, then lobbed it back into play as his momentum carried him over the boundary. It was the height and athleticism that made Russell’s effort stand out, and while he didn’t take the catch, he turned a six into a two.The promotion
Australia lost their third wicket less than two overs into the batting Powerplay and a surprise was in store as Watson sent Brett Lee to the crease as a pinch-hitter. Lee was fresh from a half-century in the previous game but it’s rare that a pinch-hitting promotion truly works, and while he managed to score a couple of boundaries he was soon out for 12 from 10 balls, and normal service was resumed as Michael Hussey came to the crease.

Low-key start to high-profile series with well-practiced Pakistan holding a slender advantage

Kanishkaa Balachandran in Colombo31-May-2012Till recently, Pakistan’s full tour of Sri Lanka for a series of two Twenty20s, five ODIs and three Tests existed only in the ICC’s Future Tours Programme. The schedule was formally approved by the PCB a month ago and whatever build-up that existed was lost in the frenzy of the IPL. Despite its perfect positioning – the IPL is over, those from the two sides in question are free of other commitments and Sri Lanka is the venue for the World Twenty20 – the pre-series hype that usually accompanies a contest between two high-profile teams as Sri Lanka and Pakistan is missing.One reason could be the fact that the tour gets underway in far-flung Hambantota, the country’s newest cricketing venue; at the cricket board office in Colombo, though, there is little or no activity at the ticket counter.For Pakistan, international cricket’s nomads, it’s another series away from home. Deprived of IPL activity, the lead-up to this tour for them consisted of a two-week camp in Lahore under hot conditions sure to test them in Sri Lanka. Fans showed up in thousands to watch a series of practice games between the best limited-overs players in the country. Nothing can substitute international action at home, but this is the best their fans can get.Only a select number of Sri Lankan players, on the other hand, have had the benefit of rigorous Twenty20 match practice. Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Lasith Malinga have been particularly busy in the IPL, while the others have been keeping busy training at home. Dinesh Chandimal, who failed to get a game with Rajasthan Royals, was released midway to join a training camp at home. A few more weeks in the dugout could have been detrimental to the fledgling star’s development. Fitness is paramount in June’s punishing cricketing conditions and it’s an area both teams will have to address.The series begins with Twenty20s in Hambantota, which from Pakistan’s perspective will be more than just a preparation for the World Twenty20. The series marks the start of a fresh experiment with the captaincy, to see if Mohammad Hafeez has it in him to emulate Younis Khan’s achievement in the 2009 World Twenty20. The sudden change in leadership may appear surprising but isn’t seismic. A phased change of guard was a necessity given that Misbah-ul-Haq is 38. His own dogged batting style and experience created a sense of stability rarely seen in various Pakistan teams over the last 20 years. He may be the antithesis to some of his mercurial predecessors but his popularity has survived the initial doubts – as reinforced by the popular Twitter hashtag ‘TeamMisbah.’When teams are on a high, one issue that is sometimes ignored – with often catastrophic effects – is succession planning. Misbah wisely decided to step down as T20 captain, though he still harbours intentions of playing the format. His dropping altogether from the T20 squad would have stung him and his followers but his successor is cut from roughly the same cloth. The erudite Hafeez, known to his team-mates as Professor, has been Pakistan’s most improved cricketer over the last two years. Given the respect he may have earned in that period, captaincy seemed inevitable. Like Misbah, he too has suffered being a discard, only to rediscover his game and skills when given another chance. Pakistan’s immediate success in the format, at least, depends on how fast they embrace this change.Sri Lanka are not making drastic changes yet, sticking to the same group that performed creditably in Australia though they limped out exhausted in the Asia Cup. A potential banana peel for the hosts in preparation for the World Twenty20 is the lack of match practice in this format as a unit. They’re playing after a six-month layoff, with only three games planned in the lead-up to September. The planned Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) will serve as a warm-up but Jayawardene is confident the games are sufficient practice.What Jayawardene could do with is better support. Sangakkara endured a tepid IPL by his standards and Tillakaratne Dilshan wasn’t good enough to command a regular spot in the XI (10 games) unlike Jayawardene (16). The trio firing in unison will be key to trumping the best spin attack in the world. England managed to negate the group of Saeed Ajmal, Hafeez and Afridi with such consummate ease in the one-dayers in UAE that it surprised everyone, including themselves. Sri Lanka may not be as spin-heavy, but the emergence of seam-bowling allrounders in Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews gives Jayawardene more options.The limited-overs contests aside, what would give Sri Lanka greater satisfaction is success in the Tests. The fallout of Muttiah Muralitharan’s retirement remains – they have won just one Test since. Instances of fast bowlers breaking down have increased the burden on their lone quality spinner, Rangana Herath. They now have to rectify those problems against the toughest subcontinent opponents. When Pakistan last visited in 2009, two incredible collapses gave Sri Lanka the series after just two games. The foundations appear less shaky for Pakistan this time, as demonstrated in their 3-0 whitewash of England, achieved through patience at the crease and unrelenting pressure provided by a varied spin attack.Current form gives Pakistan the edge but Sri Lanka can swing it their way if their batsmen make an early statement.

The Plays of the Day from the second day of the second Test between West Indies and New Zealand in Jamaica

Subash Jayaraman in Jamaica04-Aug-2012The Finn Effect
In the 26th over of the West Indies innings, Doug Bracewell bowled a delivery to Shivnarine Chanderpaul that slid down the leg side. Chanderpaul seemed to be attempting a glide down to fine leg but the ball took the thigh pad and rolled to the boundary. Everyone was surprised to see umpire Paul Reiffel signaling a dead ball. Given the drama surrounding Steve Finn at Headingley, everyone quickly looked towards the stumps at the non-striker’s end to see whether Bracewell had knocked off the bails in his delivery stride. He didn’t. It was just a strange call from the umpire, because he reckoned the batsman wasn’t offering a shot.The Tavaré Effect
It was an uncharacteristically sedate innings from Chris Gayle. In his comeback innings at Antigua, he biffed Chris Martin for four consecutive boundaries in the first six deliveries he faced. He had to work a bit harder today, but in his 55-ball innings he ended with a strike rate of only 14.54, drawing comparisons with a dour former England opening batsman. Chris ‘Tavaré’ Henry Gayle?The shot
Darren Sammy had claims to that when he smacked a length delivery off Trent Boult so straight, that he nearly injured the umpire Marais Erasmus. When Samuels neared his century with only the No.11 for company, he unfurled a few audacious shots and Tim Southee bore the brunt of it. It included a loft over the sightscreen, and another one over long-off but the slap shot over cover to get to his first Test century at home stood out as the shot of the day.The near miss
Tim Southee was in the middle of a very good spell without much luck. He had earlier induced an edge off Gayle which was dropped by Ross Taylor at slip. He later had Marlon Samuels edge towards second slip, where Brendon McCullum dived to his right to try and pluck it with his right hand. He quickly suggested that he wasn’t sure if the catch was clean. Upon review, the ball had bounced. Such was Southee’s luck on a day when he had bowled good enough to pick up a five-wicket haul.The welcome distraction
Cricket may not be a part of the Olympics, but for a brief moment, the Olympics was part of the cricket. During a stoppage in play, the Women’s 100m heats were shown in the big screen. As the camera skimmed past the contestants, Jamaica’s very own and reigning Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce was shown. The Sabina Park crowd roared in approval. There will also be a “strategic drinks break” on Sunday to show the Men’s 100m final from London on the big screen.The dodgy ball-tracker
In the 54th over, a full, swinging delivery from Southee hit Darren Sammy low on the front foot, but the umpire Reiffel turned down the LBW appeal. Even as he was in his follow through, Southee made the “T” signal and Taylor followed up instantaneously. The video replay made those who were watching to believe it would have gone on to hit the leg stump, but the ball-tracking system showed it to be hitting bang on middle stump. Either Reiffel completely flubbed it or the ball tracker did. The consensus in the press box is it was the latter.The sightscreen
It’s quite common in grounds around the world having someone walk right behind the bowler’s arm at the wrong time, or a faulty sightscreen not turning from sponsor ads, causing a stoppage in play. Samuels wasn’t too bothered. He didn’t notice the background hadn’t turned white and yet continued to face the bowler.

He may not be bowling anymore but Shane Bond has plenty of skills and knowledge to impart in the nets

Andrew Alderson29-Oct-2012Tomorrow’s Twenty20 international against Sri Lanka marks the playing debut in Shane Bond’s tenure as the New Zealand men’s bowling coach. Little else is likely to be gleaned from the one-off match, but in bowling parlance at least, Bond can place his marker and begin his run-up towards improving New Zealand’s performances.His appointment follows an interview process, a mad rush to get qualified to level-three coaching standard, and a stint with the New Zealand women’s team at the World Twenty20 where they exited in the semi-finals.Bond comes with the pedigree of being New Zealand’s finest fast bowler since Sir Richard Hadlee, with 87 Test wickets at 22.09. His average sits behind post-World War II paceman Jack Cowie (21.53) and ahead of Hadlee (22.29) among those who have bowled more than 2000 deliveries.Bond has worked extensively with New Zealand’s developing talent, particularly at Central Districts, where he has dealt with the likes of Adam Milne (a player on the cusp of more regular national selection), Ben Wheeler and Bevan Small. In addition, he has helped remodel former New Zealand player Hamish Bennett’s action.Bond may have recently been working through coaching theory but he has a wealth of practical experience in wicket-taking, injury recovery and courage. He has the respect of former team-mates still in the squad, and those of a new generation who have borne witness to his performances in the last decade on television. Many of those efforts are the best thing New Zealand fans have seen with a ball, post-Hadlee. Yet Bond is aware exceptional players rarely make exceptional coaches. He acknowledges the work ahead.”I understood what it took to reach a relatively successful standard, yet I appreciate I would have done some things differently. Hopefully I can pass that on as a coach. I know there are guys in the team I played with, so that presents a challenge, being in a different role, but it’s a problem I’m prepared to deal with.”Since I’ve finished playing I’ve realised I still love cricket. I’m a huge watcher and enjoy the analytical side of the game. It seems a natural progression to coach at the elite level because it’s where I had the most fun in the game. In my time away from the New Zealand environment I’ve had a variety of coaching experiences. I’m lucky to have worked with the CD [Central Districts] development squad for a couple of years and alongside top coaches like [former Canterbury and now New Zealand assistant] Bob Carter and [new Canterbury coach] Gary Stead. Being given the opportunity to coach the country’s top women has been a key part of that.”[At CD] I helped with development work by planning trainings to give them purpose. Sometimes at training we don’t maintain the level of accuracy we need. I looked at building programmes where, for instance, someone will bowl eight high-intensity overs in the nets, incorporating skills into their routine. It’s also about including specialists where required – former New Zealand physio Bryan Stronach did a lot of the fitness programme.”You always need a process where people are challenged. Even though I’ve got a pretty good Test record, I didn’t start until late. Sometimes you never know who will succeed until you push. As much as you don’t like it sometimes as a player, it is necessary to take people out of their comfort zone.”Bond’s desire to progress from player to coach has never been in doubt. His ambition is outlined in the final chapter of his 2010 biography . It is entitled “A Better Way” and addresses his solutions to the problems of New Zealand cricket.Toil was the key theme. Bond wrote: “We consistently produce really talented players, but we underachieve because we do not have the same tough work ethic that some other countries have.”International cricket comes down to hard work and a good skill base. But instead of focusing on those core assets, we too often become sidetracked by cricket’s peripheral issues, like dressing-room etiquette and harmony.It might be a surprise to learn that some of the best teams in the world don’t have dressing rooms where everyone is best mates. Some teams seem to thrive despite appearing to be pretty fractious.”The answer is not to get back to basics, to try to recapture what we once had, but to get our talented youngsters working a hell of a lot harder and to keep up with the best in terms of coaching and innovation.”Bond cites Mark Richardson and Daniel Vettori as New Zealand’s best playing examples in recent memory.In Bond’s biography, Vettori noted his long time team-mate was the best strike weapon he had at his disposal as captain. He said Bond also brought out the best in others around him. “He’s one of those rare guys that makes people better just by being on the same field as him. He’s a huge loss.”Now New Zealand has to hope Bond’s return is equally a huge gain, even if he is only in the pavilion and at the nets, rather than on the field.

England didn’t bowl that much better than at Headingley but they enjoy the rub of the green that eluded them in the second Test

George Dobell at Lord's16-Aug-2012Had the figure of Father Time, the familiar weather vane that has presided over Lord’s for more than 80 years, been replaced by an image of a switch-hitting Kevin Pietersen, the presence of England’s missing player could hardly have loomed more obviously in advance of this game.Whatever the rights and wrongs of dropping the man of the match from the previous Test, it was a brave decision. But it would be simplistic to state that England’s best day in the field in this series to date owes anything to Pietersen’s absence. It is not until England bat that any judgement can be made about the cost of his omission.Perhaps, for those who are so inclined to find them, there were one or two signs of a renewed spirit within the England side. While they have long made a point of running to congratulate each other with a pat or a handshake after a good stop in the field, on the first day of this game they took such behaviour to a new level. At one stage Matt Prior, the wicketkeeper, ran all the way to cover to pat Ian Bell after a diving stop; at another James Anderson, the bowler, wandered over to mid on to congratulate Stuart Broad. Whether such episodes are the manifestation of improved team spirit or an attempt to convince sceptical on-lookers remains to be seen. But, at a vital stage of a vital game, it may just be relevant that England produced their best bowling of the series.But the main difference between the first day of this game and much of the rest of the series was simply fortune. England did not bowl so much better than they had at Leeds but, for the first time, enjoyed some luck. And, ultimately, it is on results, not performances, that players and teams are judged. Just as a good batsman can nick a ball early in his innings and be on his way, so a lesser one can miss by a foot, but go on to register a century. Sometimes blind luck plays more of a rule than we care to admit.

South Africa are tough to finish off, though. From 54 for 4 shortly before lunch, they recovered to add 208 more runs for the loss of only three more wickets in the rest of the day.

Certainly several of South Africa’s top order will reflect with regret at the large part they played in their own dismissals. Hashim Amla received a good ball but will reflect that he could have allowed Steven Finn to park his car in the gap he left between his bat and pad, Jaques Rudolph played across the turning ball and JP Duminy had to unleash his go-go Gadget arms to reach across to the ball that dismissed him. The truth is that South Africa, having batted with such application and discipline in the first two Tests of the series, showed uncharacteristic frailty.But England’s biggest stroke of fortune came in two controversial umpiring decisions. To dismiss one top-order batsman caught down the leg side might be considered fortunate, but to dismiss two in the innings – Alviro Peterson and Jacques Kallis – was extraordinary. Both might have legitimate gripes about the decision to give them out, too, with replays suggesting that the glove that the ball brushed was off the bat at the time. While sympathy for Peterson might be tempered in the knowledge that he failed to take advantage of the Decision Review System (DRS) – another stroke of luck for England – the decision of third umpire, Rod Tucker, to overrule on the scantest of evidence to adjudge Kallis out was hard to fathom. Those who distrust the DRS will feel they have more ammunition for their case, though this was surely a case of human, rather than DRS, error.While England later claimed they would have bowled anyway, losing the toss might also have been considered a significant stroke of fortune. It allowed their bowlers use of the pitch in the narrow window when it provided some assistance and, after South Africa opted to bat in bright sunlight, the weather changed markedly and the ball began to swing. At Lord’s such atmospheric conditions always play a disproportionately large role and, on a pitch that is expected to improve, Graeme Smith may come to regret his decision to bat.”We bowled beautifully in the first session,” Finn said afterwards. “We made use of the conditions but, as the day went on, the sun came out, the ball got softer and the wicket didn’t do as much. But we stuck to our guns really well and we are very happy with where we are.”We’re a little bit ahead of the game. The wicket was tacky in the morning so the ball nipped around, but it didn’t do much later on. As the days go on and sun bakes the wicket, there may be some help for Graeme Swann, but it’s a good cricket wicket.”Obviously wickets caught down the leg side are always a little bit fortunate. We deserved some luck like that and we did have a leg gully and we had plans for each batsmen and bowled well to our fields.”South Africa are tough to finish off, though. The loss of Mark Boucher may well have strengthened them as a batting unit and, from a position of 54 for 4 shortly before lunch, they recovered to add 208 more runs for the loss of only three more wickets in the rest of the day. Duminy, the beneficiary of Boucher’s misfortune, was the one man to register a half-century and helped add 72 with Vernon Philander for the seventh-wicket. It has left the game tilted only slightly in England’s favour.

Over the past year, Peter has emerged as a leader of Australia’s Test bowling attack. This transformation is all the more remarkable for its modest beginnings in Sri Lanka, when he was dropped from the team

Daniel Brettig15-Oct-2012P Sara Oval, Colombo, August 2011. Australia are getting used to a new captain in Michael Clarke, Trent Copeland is making a snappy first impression as a miserly medium-pacer, and Peter Siddle is steadily bowling himself out of the Test team.To those watching from the boundary, Siddle’s struggles against a Sri Lanka Board XI are obvious. His length and line are far too variable, his pace inconsistent, his swing and seam non-existent. The travelling press corps is writing him out of contention for the first Test in Galle.Nearby, Australia’s recently hired bowling coach, Craig McDermott, is working out how to rouse Siddle from his slumber. Having made a notable start to his Test career against India in 2008 and offered numerous punchy bowling displays in subsequent series against South Africa and England, Siddle is now trending down. He seems trapped in a pattern of banging the ball in short, delivering stone-age bouncer barrages, and taking fewer wickets with each match.After the Sri Lanka Board XI innings concludes early on the second morning, McDermott decides now is the moment to warn Siddle of the mediocrity that lies at the end of the path he is treading. “I asked him what he thought about the previous day’s play. He acknowledged he was all over the shop but thought he’d come back better with the second new ball – something I had to disagree with.”I said, ‘We’ve got to improve this, we’ve got to get the skill levels up to be playing Test cricket on this tour, get your fitness levels up and skills levels before you’re ready for Test cricket.’ He took that on board and I told him I had some overs to get through with James Pattinson after the game and it was up to him whether he joined us and got stuck in in order to get back to where he needed to be to be a strike force for Australia.””Another thing I said was ‘you’ve got to see the pattern here, where you’ve played all three formats of the game, now you’re out of two and you’re struggling with a few things from a Test point of view, so this is a time to take the bit between your teeth and work on them’. He copped all that on the chin and said ‘let’s get stuck in’.”Reflecting on that conversation a little more than a year later, Siddle agrees his methods had become stilted and predictable for international batsmen. “I’d got to the point where the consistency of taking wickets and having strong performances for the side had probably tapered off a little bit from the start,” he said. “I think that can happen if you stick to the same things all the time. The opposition get accustomed to it and start working out ways to bat against you. I had to work on a few different options and a few different strings to keep the batters thinking and keep the pressure on them.”McDermott’s frank words to Siddle proved accurate, for the tour selectors preferred the steadiness of Copeland over the next two Tests. But McDermott also offered the promise of redemption. He pointed out that Australia lacked a true spearhead, a reliable strike bowler capable of running in and getting the wickets most required, while keeping the pressure on. Siddle’s pace, stamina and aggression made him capable of taking this role, provided he could learn to add greater precision and wicket-taking nous.”We really didn’t have a leader of our bowling attack,” McDermott said. “We had various bowlers in and out of the team. Mitchell Johnson, at that time, in Sri Lanka was really just hanging on with his bowling, so we didn’t really have a leader. Part of my discussion with Sidds was, ‘I do think you can be the leader of our pace attack.’ He has the pace, he has the aggression, and a lot of the young guys like James Pattinson and Pat Cummins look up to him. So he had to go away and do that work, and that started in Sri Lanka.”It was bloody hot. He didn’t play a lot of cricket. He and Patto spent a lot of time in the nets, a lot of time bowling to guys who weren’t playing, and working on those four or five things we wanted.”The plan set out for Siddle’s rejuvenation involved a push for greater fitness, a handful of technical tweaks to enable him to get the ball swinging, and, perhaps most importantly, a change in his mentality. Like many Australian fast bowlers raised in the era of Glenn McGrath, Siddle was fearful of being driven and bowled back of a length accordingly. McDermott and Clarke worked to reassure Siddle – and others – that to draw a batsman into a drive was to be seen as a victory, not a defeat, with fields set to ensure no bowler was exposed if the ball struck the middle of the bat instead of the edge.”To his credit, for the next few weeks until we got through to the third Test when he was re-selected, he worked his tail off in the nets,” McDermott said. “As a bowler it is easy to start fuller and bring it back, rather than bowl short and push yourself up. We had to get his mindset right to be bowling full, get him to be able to understand that we’re going to set the field for this, which we did with all the bowlers as that series started.”[Bowling short] it’s all a phobia about being driven, but if you’re bowling the right line, it’s a different kettle of fish from the batsman’s point of view. You’ve also got the backing of your captain, and Clarkey was right behind all of it. We worked on [Siddle’s] grip, tried to get his arm path down a little bit because he was bowling right over the perpendicular. Encouraging him to bowl with a little more round-arm action – it feels low to them at first but it only brings you down five or six degrees, which is just enough. And then getting him to finish his action off.

“We started off getting him bowling to about sixth stump and as full as possible – it gets your arm path down slightly, meaning he has to finish his action off correctly to follow through, stay long on the ball with his fingers, which helps his fingers behind the ball and stand the seam up properly”McDermott on tweaking Siddle’s bowling

“We started off getting him bowling to about sixth stump and as full as possible – the idea being it gets your arm path down slightly, meaning he has to finish his action off correctly to follow through, stay long on the ball with his fingers, which helps his fingers behind the ball and stand the seam up properly, hence he was able to swing the ball.”Siddle and McDermott were, in a sense, finishing what they had started some time ago. First working together in Brisbane in the lead-up to the first Ashes Test of the 2010-11 season, McDermott had encouraged Siddle to consider a fuller length. Siddle had tried it on the first day of the series, and had, in the final session, ripped out Alastair Cook, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad with successive, swinging deliveries for a rollicking hat-trick. But somewhere along the line those lessons had been forgotten.This time, with Siddle’s Test place in the balance, he had little choice but to listen more thoroughly, and as time went on, he developed a liking for his new-found skill. Swinging the ball consistently for the first time in his life, Siddle began to develop greater confidence in his ability to put the ball where he wanted to, and to bowl for wickets where once he might have settled for containment.”The hard work I put in with Billy McDermott was changing the way I went about getting wickets and the way I went about bowling,” Siddle said. “It was a big change-up with my line and length and all that type of thing. I’d always worked at trying to get swing. There was always a little bit there, but it was pretty inconsistent, so it was about consistently getting that ball to swing all the time and when I wanted it to.”It worked well with the line-up we had last summer – Ben Hilfenhaus, at one end, bowls big overs and can maintain the pressure. It gave myself and James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Ryan Harris the opportunity to attack a little bit at the other end. That’s something I benefited from. I was feeling fit and strong, and the swing as well helped the impact I could have.”So well did it work in fact, that Siddle ended last summer as the heartbeat of Australia’s bowling attack, when at its beginning he had been all but surplus to requirements. His efforts against New Zealand and India were memorable, where he curled the ball away from the batsmen consistently and spiced up this movement with sustained pace and aggression. These were the sorts of wholehearted spells that resonate with Australian crowds, and no five-wicket haul was greeted with more admiration last summer than Siddle’s at Adelaide Oval, when he answered Indian jibes about the grass on earlier pitches by demonstrating his capacity for extracting life from the flattest and most subcontinental pitch of the season.By the end of 2011-12, Siddle was tired, and a back stress injury in the Caribbean confirmed the strain of his efforts in ten consecutive Test matches. That injury precluded him from pushing to regain his limited-overs place via a T20 stint in England, but Siddle now believes that the rest and lack of off-season travel have done him good. As far as improvement is concerned, he is intent on getting fitter than ever, so at 27, he can shoulder the workload likely to come his way against South Africa and Sri Lanka.”My downfall’s always been I’ve been a little bit heavy or could just be fitter, so those are the main things I’ve worked on this time. I’m a lot lighter now, feeling a lot fitter and a lot stronger at the crease. Those are things I’ve worked on, combined with the improvements that I changed with Billy with the swing and my length, can just generate longer spells and a lot more consistent high-end pace, which is what Pup needs from me in the way we’ve been playing.”To that end, Siddle dropped meat from his diet earlier this year. His girlfriend had always been a vegetarian, so the change has also helped around the dinner table at home in Melbourne.”That was just a personal change, more for convenience at the start, but I enjoy it,” he said. “I’ve dropped about 5kg since the change. It’s put me in a better place, I think, with my fitness.It was in the first Test of the 2010-11 Ashes, in Brisbane, that Siddle first tasted success by bowling a fuller length•Getty Images”That’s one big thing I’ve changed, and everything else has gone well, the workload stuff and everything. As an older player you understand your workloads and how much you need to bowl and what you need to do to be up and ready to go.”This summer Siddle will face far greater expectations than those with which he travelled to Sri Lanka. McDermott is no longer Australia’s bowling coach but the two remain in contact. Having cajoled Siddle to greater and smarter efforts a little more than a year ago, McDermott now hopes his pupil can go on to better his own tally of 291 Test wickets. Given how limited Siddle’s prospects had seemed at P Sara Oval, this would be a lofty achievement.”I’ve said to him if he stays on the park he can easily get 300 Test wickets,” McDermott said. “If he continues the same work ethic, the same things he’s been working on, it’s certainly a goal within his reach. That’s a long way out ahead of him, and injuries always have a say, but he made massive strides last year.”