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Far from a towering, inspiring, regal presence, Angelo Mathews just stood and watched as England steamrolled his side once again

Jarrod Kimber at Chester-le-Street28-May-2016At Headingley, Angelo Mathews won the toss and bowled. He walked out on the ground in front of his team, between the flag holders, and there was something regal about him. It stood out. It might have been the memory of the last time, it might have been his posture, or his focus, but he looked like a leader.This is a man who plays his best cricket in big game situations, or when his team needs it the most. A man so proud he went out on a field in a shirt on which he had corrected the spelling of his own name. A man who through the era of Kumar and Mahela, still found ways to steal the show.Mathews has just looked taller than his team-mates, he has stood out from the beginning.

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Mathews’ captaincy on this tour hasn’t been incredible. Nick Knight isn’t rushing to his side to get a lesson on modern cricket tactics like he did with Brendon McCullum. Shane Warne is not using Mathews as a blunt instrument to beat Alastair Cook’s captaincy with. And his captaincy in general isn’t what the cricket hipsters are talking about. While MS Dhoni, McCullum and Michael Clarke’s captaincies have become cricket fetish items, Mathews just does his thing.Fielders are put in places, often not grouped too close together. Bowlers are brought on at fairly appropriate, and yet very predictable times. Five minutes to lunch he says, “hey Rangana, fancy an over?” In the funky captaincy era, it is a Donny Osmond record.Mathews doesn’t try to make things happen, he waits for things to happen. On a good day it makes him look like a calm leader who knows when to pounce. On a bad day it makes him look like a man who refuses to leave his car until the storm passes, oblivious to the fact the road is now a lake.If his batting and captaincy were in the schoolyard together, the batting would mock the captaincy for being boring all lunchtime.When Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow started out their innings at Headingley on day two, Mathews greeted them with two slips. He might as well have delivered them cheese and an appropriate brandy.He took that to a new level when Moeen Ali batted with Steve Finn at Chester-le-Street. Modern captains are well known to like the everyone-on-the-boundary fielding move when a batsman bats with the tail. But that tactic comes with certain rules. The main one being that at the end of the over, balls five and six, you bring the field in so the next over can start with the tailender on strike. If that stupid tactic is to work, you have to execute all of it, not just the first part.Mathews took the only part of the bad tactic that made sense, and threw it away. If that tactic is what makes cricket fans head butt a wall, he set fire to the wall.Sure his fielders had let him down, and he was already daydreaming about how his batsmen were about to let him down. But it was the lack of fight, the lack of vision, and at times, the lack of actual movement that was so shocking.

Mathews is one of the best cricketers Sri Lanka has ever produced but, with England nine down, he reduced himself to the guy who relayed the ball from keeper to bowler

Mathews was at cover for most of it. It isn’t a short cover, it’s in the ring, but he has decided to stop moving at all. For whole overs he takes less than 20 paces. He doesn’t walk in with the bowler, he adopts the catching stance, despite the fact he might be the world’s deepest catching cover. When a ball is dropped at the feet of the batsman, he jogs over, but he manages to make the jog slower than a walk, like he’s on an invisible treadmill.Another ball dribbles out to him with all the ferocity of a basket of kittens, and yet he still manages to fumble – it’s a fielding yawn. Only when the ball is smashed at him do his natural athleticism and cricket senses switch back on and suddenly he is saving a boundary. Had that not occurred, he could have been replaced by a waxwork dummy and the game would have gone the exact same direction.Like a pot plant in a crack den, the Test was still technically alive when England were nearing the end of their innings, but Sri Lanka refused to acknowledge that fact. Mathews had all but stopped moving. The field placements were from 20 minutes earlier. The bowling plans were non-existent. The innings could have gone on for decades to come. People would have visited the ground to see the never-ending sporting spectacle and marvel at its stillness.Luckily England, who were frolicking along towards 500, decided that round-number totals are actually meaningless psychological missteps and, instead of pushing their way to the last few runs, they just put the Sri Lankans out of their misery. When the batting team is too bored to grind you into the dirt or reach their round-number declaration targets, something has gone horribly wrong.When Sri Lanka batted, it kept going wrong. If time was standing still when they bowled, when they batted their batsmen were fast-forwarded into dismissals at breakneck pace. It is usually those times, when Mathews is at his best.

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Mathews doesn’t look sure. He doesn’t look right. His drive is a waft that connected. His forward defence is barely forward and unsuccessful as a defence. Then he pushes again. This time there is an edge, and it was time for him to simply walk off. First he looks at the pitch, as if the answers are there. Then he looks back down the track.There is an unwritten, and not very trustworthy, rule that when a batsmen is given out caught behind, and they didn’t hit it, they review straight away. Those who don’t are hoping technology is in bad form.Mathews didn’t review straight away, he didn’t even review just after that. He reviewed after walking down the wicket and having a chat with the non-striker. He reviewed so late that the third umpire could have given him out purely on hunch and no one would have blamed him.Instead he used the technology, and Mathews used a review. In both situations he made a mistake, but that happens. What is worth was that in both situations he was unsure. He wasn’t leading. He hasn’t led at all. Not with bat, not with his two overs on day one, not in the field.The only time he looks like the Angelo Mathews who won at Headingley last tour was when he sprung into life to take a hanging one-hander at slip. That was muscle memory; when his brain has been needed, he has been asleep.

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A team without its two best-performing bowlers is going to struggle. A team without its two best batsmen is going to struggle. They need their best player, their captain, to do something. Anything. Not stand around waiting for pity declarations, not pathetic wafts, and not half-hearted DRS mistakes.This is a player who can pull victory from defeat, who has held Sri Lanka up for draws. Given them their most honourable defeats. And instead of inspiring, he’s insipid.This is a leaking team, they need leadership, if not through strategy, then from actions, if not actions, then from intent, if not from intent, then from Mathews picking up every single player and putting them on his back and fighting England on his own. He has achieved with athleticism, skill and intelligence some amazing things on the cricket field. This is one of the best cricketers Sri Lanka has ever produced but, for a while here, he reduced himself to the guy who relayed the ball from the keeper to the bowler while England were nine wickets down.He was standing out because he was the only man within 50 metres of the batsmen. There he stood, not regal and tall, but tired and broken.

The story of Shivil Kaushik’s first IPL season, unorthodox action and all, has generated plenty of attention

Deivarayan Muthu05-Jun-2016Shivil Kaushik who? Not many had seen the scrawny left-arm wristspinner before he made his IPL debut for Gujarat Lions this season. Mystery spinner, they said. He had not played a single domestic game when he was snapped up by Lions. He still hasn’t.First ball in that first IPL game, he stopped in his run-up, twisted his body alarmingly, and sent the ball out from the back of the hand, head tilted skywards. “Exactly like Paul Adams, the frog in the blender,” exclaimed former Zimbabwe fast bowler Pommie Mbangwa on TV commentary. Adams, the former South Africa spinner, himself tweeted: “Remind you of someone! Wow #Kaushik!” Social media was alive with cautions about his action: “Don’t try this at home, school, or anywhere.”Kaushik impressed in his debut season, as did Lions. He claimed six wickets in seven matches at an economy rate of 8.34. Lions topped the points table in the league stage before losing the first Qualifier and the Eliminator.Now back home in Bangalore, he describes it as a great season. His apartment is about 500 metres away from his college, St Joseph’s, on Richmond Road. His father, Arun Sharma, who works at a telecom company, is a cricket fan. His mother, Sandhya, teaches at Army Public School.”I wasn’t inspired by Paul Adams or anyone,” Kaushik says. “This is the action given to me by God. It came naturally to me, but later on, when I was 14 or 15, I watched videos of Paul Adams and I thought, ‘If he can play for the country, why can’t I?’ I never wanted to change the action. I knew if I click with this action, I can make it big.””I was eager to talk to Imran Tahir. He was kind enough to show me his flippers”•BCCIHas seemingly turning his body inside out every ball resulted in injury? Kaushik says no. “My body does not undergo stress or anything like that. It is the perception of people because such actions are rare.”Former Tamil Nadu and Chennai Super Kings allrounder Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, who was part of the coaching staff of Hubli Tigers, Kaushik’s team in the Karnataka Premier League, says Kaushik’s understanding of his body is key.”It comes naturally to him and his body is used to it for many years,” Vidyut says. “He knows what works for him and that is his strength.”Vidyut thinks Kaushik can be “hot property” in T20 if he adds some variations. “Obviously the awkwardness makes it tough for the opposition,” he says. “His wrist speed is also fast, and he mostly bowls back of a length without much width, which is difficult to hit in T20s. Except Steven Smith, AB [de Villiers] and Virat [Kohli], not many hit him in the IPL.”At the KPL, he can always be difficult to pick and play, but at the IPL he has to keep adding to his game. I am confident he will continue to find ways to become consistent and better.”Kaushik agrees that it is crucial he expand his range to excel at the big stage. “You may be successful at the higher level in a couple of years but afterwards you will have to try to beat the batsman in every possible way,” he says.”My body does not undergo stress or anything like that. It is the perception of people because such actions are rare”•BCCIHe is working on the flipper, and had a short stint with South Africa and Delhi Daredevils legspinner Imran Tahir, following Daredevils’ win over Lions in Rajkot.”I was eager to talk to him [Tahir] because he has been great for South Africa,” Kaushik says. “He has six variations of the flipper. So after the match, Mayank Agarwal [Delhi Daredevils batsman], my friend who plays for Karnataka, asked if he could share some words with me. He was kind enough to show me the flippers.”I feel the flipper is the toughest delivery for a wristspinner and I am working on it. I practise it at the KSCA IDBI spin foundation.”Raghuram Bhat, who has played for India, helps me with variations. He is teaching me how to hold the fingers differently to grip the ball. If you grip the ball differently, it will also be a good variation. Holding the grip closer and also wider are things I am working on.”

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Kaushik’s journey began when he beat about 3000 participants to win the Spin Stars Contest in Karnataka for bowlers aged between ten and 19 early last year. He won Rs 1 lakh, but the bigger prize was being a part of a camp supervised by former India legspinners Anil Kumble and Bhagwath Chandrasekhar.Kumble was impressed by Kaushik and took him to Mumbai Indians for trials, where he bowled four overs for about 13 runs and took four wickets. An IPL contract did not materialise, though, because his name did not turn up at the auction. He did, however, get a chance to interact with Sachin Tendulkar, who advised him to bowl the cross-seam quicker ball, a delivery he developed later, to keep batsmen guessing.Kaushik was then picked up by Hubli Tigers in the 2015 KPL, which was televised. He says that playing in front of noisy local crowds served as a “step up” to the IPL.His unusual action caught the eye of IPL scouts and he soon trialled with Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rising Pune Supergiants, Delhi Daredevils and Gujarat Lions.Kaushik says he nervously followed this year’s auction on TV in February, hoping to be picked – which he was, for Rs 10 lakh (approximately US$15,000) when the first batch of uncapped spinners went under the hammer.His former team-mate at Jawahars Club in Malleshwaram, KC Cariappa was signed by Kings XI Punjab for Rs 80 lakh ($120,000). Cariappa had been the first to make it to the IPL via the KPL when Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for Rs 2.4 crore ($400,000) in 2015, which was 24 times his base price.Kaushik finished with six wickets in seven games with a best of 3 for 20 in this year’s IPL•BCCI”At that time Cari used to bowl medium pace,” Kaushik says. “He and me joined Jawahars in 2011. Prashant sir, the curator at KSCA, spotted me bowling somewhere and told me to join Jawahars.”Batsmen used to struggle to pick Cari, even our batsmen at the nets. They did not pick me much too,” he laughs.Kaushik says he was twitchy ahead of his IPL debut, against Supergiants. “I was very nervous. I could not even feel the ball. The stadium was jam-packed and shouting ‘Dhoni, Dhoni, Dhoni.'”His nerves eased when he beat Ajinkya Rahane first ball with one that skidded off the deck. In his second over, he had Steven Smith dragging a sweep back onto the stumps – only for it to be called a no-ball by umpire Chris Gaffaney for overstepping.Kaushik was tonked for six next ball and looked shattered, but he came back strong in his next match, against Kings XI, where took the wickets of M Vijay, Shaun Marsh and Glenn Maxwell.Kaushik then experienced the cruel nature of T20 when after bowling two decent overs he was swatted for 30 runs in an over by Virat Kohli at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. He finished that match with figures of 3-0-50-0.”These are things that happen in cricket,” Kaushik says. “You will have to move on. If you hold on, it will affect your future performances. A calm sea does not make a good sailor. It is important to learn from the experience. Coach [Brad] Hodge, Heath Streak and [Suresh] Raina all gave me confidence to do well.”He bounced back against Sunrisers Hyderabad, taking 2 for 22 in four overs, although in a losing cause. He recalls tricking Yuvraj Singh into slicing a lofted stroke to long-off with a tossed-up ball, a wicket he refers to as a “special one”.”Our team motto was to entertain, execute and enjoy. I did that, we all did that,” he says.

With Heath Streak already having left his mark on their quick bowlers, Bangladesh expect Courtney Walsh’s experience and wisdom to catapult them to the next level

Mohammad Isam01-Sep-2016The timing of Courtney Walsh’s appointment as the Bangladesh bowling coach is near-perfect. One of the greatest fast bowlers of the modern era will now be in charge of a pace-bowling unit that has just started to get taken seriously.Walsh is on a three-year contract up to the 2019 World Cup, and much of the experience from his long playing career and a level 3 coaching degree will be used to sharpen Bangladesh’s pace attack in ODIs and T20s, and retooling the Test attack.Fast bowling in Bangladesh used to be a novelty act for a long time with Mashrafe Mortaza the only shining light for more than a decade. Given the pitches, spinners quite naturally ruled the overs and wickets columns. It gradually changed with the emergence of bowlers like Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain and Shafiul Islam, but until 2015, it was always spin.At the insistence of Mashrafe, Bangladesh’s limited-overs captain, and head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, there has been an influx of pace bowlers with varied skills, who have been used cleverly over the last two years. Mashrafe banks on his experience to move the ball, while Rubel and Taskin Ahmed offer pace and a bit of swing.Al-Amin Hossain has used his legcutters well in ODIs, while Mustafizur Rahman has become a sensation with cutters and slower balls.Heath Streak, the former Zimbabwe captain, whom Walsh succeeds, did a fine job for two years with these pace bowlers. Among the things he did well was to monitor and maintain the workload of theinjury-prone pace bowlers. It meant that their bowling actions needed to be consistent. Streak’s vigilance and with the confidence placed in the pacers by Mashrafe and Hathurusingha, were factors behind the match-turning spells produced by the quicks during the 2015 World Cup and the home series against Pakistan, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe.Mashrafe said Walsh’s addition at this stage was a big boost to the pace bowlers, especially for the Test attack, which has lacked the bite to bowl sides out twice. He added that Walsh’s superb record could perhaps inspire a Bangladeshi fast bowler to emulate him in the Test arena.”If we can learn a bit from his vast experience, it would be very helpful for us,” Mashrafe said. “Pace bowling has a major role in a team taking 20 wickets in a Test match, so I feel that our boys can learn from him how to go about it. His passion, the way he handled situation, these are key things that we can all take from him.”We don’t have bowlers like Dale Steyn in our team. Our bowling attack needs to do well for a number of years, and not just now. We need a bowler who would take 300 Test wickets, so for that one has to perform for a sustained period. There must be ways how that can happen, and I think we learn that from him [Walsh].”Mashrafe said it would be important to see how much the Bangladesh pacers pick up from Walsh during his three-year stay, a key takeaway being the methods he employed to stay fit through most of his 17-year international career.”One of the reasons why I admired him was his endurance,” Mashrafe said. “His run-up was so smooth that they said even the umpire couldn’t hear him running in. There was always a smile on his face. He was a great character. I think we can learn from him how to stay fit.”If everyone wants to learn from him eagerly, then they can get a lot out of a coach, because they are always trying to help you.”Taskin, who is preparing to go to Brisbane to have his bowling action reassessed on September 8, said he wanted to learn how to generate extra bounce from a good length, which was Walsh’s forte in his heyday.”I first want to learn how to gain extra bounce from a good length, which he did so well. I will try to understand the technical side of it, though I don’t have the strength like someone from the Caribbean.”I will also try to learn how he remained fit and without injury for so long in his career, and also he bowled those long spells in Test cricket.”Taskin’s father always talked to him about Walsh and Curtly Ambrose. Taskin watched them on TV and YouTube and met Walsh in 2014 but didn’t have a long conversation. “But now I have him as coach,” he said. “It is quite thrilling.”While Taskin heard about Walsh from his dad, Mashrafe says he has always idolised him. He is excited about spending time with the West Indies legend in the dressing room, and wants to pick up new tricks that may help him at this stage of his international career.”I am excited that I can meet my idol in cricket,” he said. “I consider it a big deal to be in the same dressing room as him. I have always liked him, especially because he was so different than the other fast bowlers in his era. He would always smile in the field. And it was not just as a bowler but also as a character.”At this stage of my career, I would be keen to learn something new that would make things slightly easier for me.”Never before has a bowling coach garnered so much interest in Bangladesh. But Walsh is the highest-profile coach this country has ever seen, and rightfully, there will be a lot expected from him for the next three years.

Liam Dawson earned his Test selection largely on the strength of his impressive net-bowling in white-ball cricket. But he indicated on debut that he is made of the right stuff

George Dobell in Chennai17-Dec-20162:13

Trott: England’s best spinner is not even on this tour

It tells you much about how spin bowlers are selected these days that England’s trio contributed 272 runs between them in the first innings in Chennai.Maybe, if there were a standout specialist spinner vying for selection, things would be different. Or maybe there is one in Jack Leach and England have just come to the conclusion that their spinners, like their wicketkeepers, need to be able to bat. The likes of Peter Such or John Childs might well find it hard to make a living from the game if they were entering it now.But whatever the drawbacks of the situation – and there is no denying that the difference in quality of spin bowling has been a defining feature of this series – the fact is that England were dug out of a hole in Chennai by their spinning allrounders.Liam Dawson might be the apogee of this type of selection. He has never taken 30 first-class wickets in a season, he has only taken three five-wicket hauls in his career, and only one of them has been in the last four seasons. Even he admitted that playing a Test on this tour “hadn’t crossed his mind” a few weeks ago.Yet here, with England’s first innings faltering, he batted with class and composure to ensure his new teammates retained a foothold in a match that seemed to be slipping from them.England were 300 for 6 when he came to the crease. Shortly afterwards they were 321 for 7 and in danger of subsiding to the sort of inadequate total that would leave them on the back foot for the rest of the match. Anything less than 400, maybe even 450, fell into that category.He endured an uncertain start. He was struck on the helmet by his second delivery, a super bouncer from Ishant Sharma that followed him as he attempted to lean out of the way, and took nine balls to get off the mark.But, if the nerves were growing, they didn’t show. He left the ball as well as anyone, defended the spinners better than several more experienced colleagues – he seemed to pick Ravi Ashwin’s carom ball and Amit Mishra’s googly, for a start – and put away the loose delivery efficiently and with a style more than a little reminiscent of Joe Root. It was unhurried, unflustered and exactly what his team required. With Adil Rashid also playing with impressive discipline, England added 146 runs for their last three wickets. It might prove to be the difference between a draw and a defeat.We probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Dawson has spent a fair part of his career playing as a specialist batsman. In 2008, aged just 18, he made his maiden first-class century against a strong Nottinghamshire attack containing Graeme Swann, while in 2011, a season in which he took only three first-class wickets, he opened the batting for Hampshire and scored over 900 first-class runs.Liam Dawson made the highest score by an England No. 8 on debut•AFPFor a while it seemed his spin-bowling days were over. His progress had been blocked, in part, by Danny Briggs (a specialist left-arm spinner), who developed through the Hampshire system at much the same time and was first choice for a few seasons, and the signing of Imran Tahir as an overseas player in his early years. With Mason Crane, a highly-rated legspinner, then coming through as well, he was allowed to go out on loan to Essex in the middle of 2015.The spell worked wonders for him. He opened the batting in his second match and scored 99 as well as claiming a few important wickets to both regain his confidence and show to Hampshire that he was in the form to warrant another run in their side. Within a few weeks, he had scored 140 against the county champions, Yorkshire, and taken a five-for against Somerset. Essex were keen to lure him back on a permanent deal but he stuck with Hampshire.Just as importantly, he enjoyed such a good List A season – at one stage he contributed four half-centuries in five innings and claimed 6 for 47 against Sussex – that he squeezed Briggs out of the side and, as a consequence, out of the club. Keen not to see his own England ambitions fade, Briggs (who has represented England eight times in limited-overs cricket) moved to Sussex for the prospect of more regular first-team cricket in all formats. It left Dawson, for the first time in his career, his club’s first-choice spinner.”He always wanted to bowl more,” Giles White, the Hampshire director of cricket, recalls. “And he has had to wait a while to become our first choice.”We do tend to use him in a defensive role, but he gets good revs on the ball – in the tests they do at Loughborough he is right up there with the biggest spinners – and nice dip. If you’re looking for an allround package, he is an excellent choice.”Fortune was to smile on him again a few months later. With Zafar Ansari (whom he also replaced on this tour) sustaining an injury, Dawson was, somewhat surprisingly, called-up to replace him in the Performance Squad at the end of 2015 and, in the nets, impressed the England team management (as much with his power hitting as his bowling) to such an extent that he was included in the World T20 squad in India.It was an intriguing selection. He had slipped down the pecking order to such an extent at Hampshire the previous summer that he batted only once in their T20 campaign (he scored 3) and did not take a wicket. But while he did not play in India, he again impressed with his attitude and his package of skills.It is, on the face of it, an extraordinary thing that a man can win Test selection for England based – in part, at least – on his net bowling with a white ball. But we know we are not in a rich age of English spinners and we know that, perhaps Leach apart, there are few specialists who could claim they would have changed the complexion of this series. We know there are no Graeme Swann or Monty Panesar figures available these days. The selection of Dawson – and Moeen, about whom many of the same things could be said but who really is the best off-spinner in England – is not without some logic.Why? Well, the team management concluded Dawson was not likely to suffer stage-fright of the type that afflicted Simon Kerrigan. They concluded that, even if he wasn’t able to rip through a line-up – and, to be fair, he beat the bat in his only over of day two – he could help build pressure which could, perhaps, lead to wickets for other bowlers. They concluded that, if a half-chance comes his way, he is more likely than others of accepting it and, they concluded that, if he came into bat with the game in the balance, he could tilt it England’s way. He went some way to proving them right on Saturday.It is not Dawson’s fault that the system has failed to the extent where England hardly produces spin bowlers. It is not Dawson’s fault that he may be a better batsman than bowler and that he will, on day three (and probably day four) find himself bowling in different conditions and against a different quality of player than that to which he is accustomed. He acquitted himself well on day two and you can be sure he will not let England down on day three. No-one could reasonably ask for more.

Five times in the past 12 months, the usually unflappable Pakistan captain has been dismissed playing careless shots

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jan-2017At 42, Misbah-ul-haq, Pakistan’s Test captain, has to constantly face questions about when he will retire. In the past 12 months, a period in which he has scored 561 runs in 11 Tests at an average of 31.16, his critics have been armed with a series of seeming lapses of concentration that have led to ugly dismissals. This is how ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentators recorded those moments of madness.Misbah c Bird b Lyon 18 – 3rd Test v Australia, Sydney, January 2017
Lyon to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, oh no. Misbah, what have you done, again? He always wanted to tee off against the spin of Lyon. Flat delivery with a bit of drift, it doesn’t stop Misbah. He goes down on one knee and aims for a heave over midwicket, in typical Misbah style. Like he did against Moeen in the England summer, he mistimes one. Hangs in the air for a while. Bird circles around the catch but settles underneath and completes an easy catch.Misbah c Maddinson b Lyon 0 – 2nd Test v Australia, Melbourne, December 2016Lyon to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, what is Misbah up to? This is poor Test-match batting. Premeditation. Big-time premeditation. Sweeping everything. And the bounce for Lyon does him in. He sweeps this from outside off but is nowhere close to it, leaving himself prone to the bounce. The top edge is gobbled up at short fine leg.Misbah c Boult b Southee 13 – 1st Test v New Zealand, Christchurch, November 2016Southee to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, what a rush of blood from Misbah! Six runs off the previous two balls and Southee gives him the bouncer from over the wicket, Misbah responds with the hook and gets a top edge. Boult is waiting on the long-leg boundary to catch the Pakistan captain. Pakistan 93 for 4, effectively 26 for 4A top-edged sweep ended Misbah’s stay on the final day in Melbourne, when Pakistan were looking to save the Test•Getty ImagesMisbah c Bishoo b Chase 4 – 3rd Test v West Indies, Sharjah, October 2016Chase to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, they’re committing hara-kiri or what? This was a long hop and Misbah has pulled it to the lone man at deep backward square leg. It was short and sitting up for him to pull it wherever he pleased, Misbah rocked back and found the hands of Bishoo, who moved low to his right to complete the catch. Misbah can’t believe what he’s just done. Chase can’t believe his luck. He has a wry smile on his face. What is happening in Sharjah?Misbah c Hales b Ali 0 – 1st Test v England, Lord’s, July 2016Ali to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, Misbah attacks, slogged into the leg side… and Hales takes a brilliant catch running along the deep midwicket boundary! HUGE wicket for England and a little bit of revenge for Moeen, who tossed it up in the knowledge he had a man out there, encouraged Misbah to go after him and gets his reward. Lord’s erupts!

Each of the IPL’s ten highest totals came from sides batting first, and eventually proved match-winning by varying margins

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Mar-201710. “Papa, you are not scoring runs”226 for 6, Kings XI Punjab v Chennai Super Kings, Qualifier 2, IPL 2014Result – Kings XI won by 24 runsKings XI edged out Super Kings in a knock-out game which is now associated with Suresh Raina’s 25-ball 87 in a chase of 227. Earlier, however, Virender Sehwag had played one of the IPL’s most destructive knocks, slamming 122 off just 58 balls, before going on to reveal how his son kept telling him “Papa, you are not scoring runs” through his lean patch that season. Sehwag’s reply to his son? “There is still time”.9. Gayle fails; the other two do the business227 for 4, Royal Challengers Bangalorev Sunrisers Hyderabad, IPL 2016Result – Royal Challengers won by 45 runsAB de Villiers, after a Man-of-the-Match performance of 82 off 42, talked about how he was “scratchy, even in the nets”. His 157-run stand with Kohli was followed up with a late blitz by Sarfaraz Khan to take them to 227. Khan’s innings included a 28-run assault on Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 19th over. Alas, when things really mattered in the final between the two sides, the bowler had the last laugh.8. A Miller-Maxwell special that set a new IPL record231 for 4, Kings XIv Super Kings, IPL 2014Result – Kings XI won by 44 runsAfter a steady start took them to just 69 from the first 10 overs, Glenn Maxwell and David Miller came together to put up an IPL record of 162 runs off the last ten overs, including 78 from the last five. The eventual margin is flattering for Super Kings, considering they were never in the game at any point during their chase.Virender Sehwag and David Warner added 146 in just 70 balls•AFP7. Green track? No problem231 for 4, Delhi Daredevilsv Kings XI, IPL 2011Result – Daredevils won by 29 runsSehwag and David Warner put on a show for the Feroz Shah Kotla crowd, on a green deck with enough assistance in it for the bowlers. It was a dream batting combination that proved how destructive it could be on its day. Both ended up with 77 runs, and their innings were almost overshadowed by Shaun Marsh’s spirited 95, which meant his side were in with a shout for the better part of the chase.6. When Churchy went to town232 for 2, Kings XIv Royal Challengers, Dharamsala, IPL 2011Result – Kings XI won by 111 runsThere was lightning and thunder in Dharamsala before this game, but the fireworks came from the bats of Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh. The former rolled back the years and put on a display of clean hitting, which his partner described as a “privilege to watch from the other end”. Gilchrist duly followed it up with a breathtaking catch to send Gayle off and derail the Royal Challengers chase, which folded up all too soon.5. Yet another Kohli-ABD show235 for 1, Royal Challengers Bangalorev Mumbai Indians, Mumbai, IPL 2015Result – Royal Challengers won by 39 runsFor a change, The Wankhede Stadium was the theatre as Kohli and de Villiers went hell for leather against a hapless Mumbai Indians attack. Special treatment was reserved for youngsters, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, whose combined figures read 7-0-103-0. At that time, their 215-run stand was the highest in T20 history, only to be broken by the same duo a year later.Michael Hussey’s 116 kick started Chennai Super Kings’ era of dominance in the IPL•BCCI4. Mr Cricket kick starts Super Kings’ IPL dominance240 for 5, Chennai Super Kingsv Kings XI Punjab, Mohali, IPL 2008Result – Super Kings won by 33 runsThe IPL was just one game old and Brendon McCullum had just put up a performance for the ages on the opening night. Michael Hussey, more steady accumulator than T20 destructor, struck a 54-ball 116 to fulfil his captain’s goal of “putting runs on the board and pressure on Yuvraj”. In the process, he went one-up on brother David, who had ribbed him about his higher auction price. Mr Cricket 116, Bomber 0.3. Vijay announces himself on the big stage246 for 5, Chennai Super Kingsv Rajasthan Royals, IPL 2010Result – Super Kings won by 23 runsAn in-form M Vijay plundered 127 memorable runs on a track tailor-made for batting dominance. Just when things seemed like they could get no worse for Royals, he joined hands with Albie Morkel to smash 155 from the final ten overs. If there was any slim chance of Royals chasing the total down, debutant Doug Bollinger’s dream spell of 4-0-15-2 snuffed it out.2. Yet another Kohli-ABD show : Part II248 for 3, Royal Challengers Bangalorev Gujarat Lions, Bengaluru, IPL 2016Result – Royal Challengers won by 144 runsRemember the game when Kohli and de Villiers broke the IPL partnership record? This is the time when they outdid themselves, and became the first pair ever to own two partnerships of over 200 in this format. Fast bowlers, conventional legspinners, a mystery spinner – they all tried, to no avail. Royal Challengers’ bowlers joined the party, as they inflicted one of IPL’s heaviest defeats.1. When the Universe Boss hit stratospheric heights263 for 5, Royal Challengersv Pune Warriors, IPL 2013Result – Royal Challengers won by 130 runsGayle’s record-breaking assault was incredible even by his standards, as he went about cranking up gears as the innings progressed. One hit into the Bengaluru skies followed another, and by the end of it, Royal Challengers had put up T20’s highest-ever score. He even bowled an over for fun, picked up two wickets, and did a Gangnam to toast a fine day at the office. Life truly was a beach that evening for the Universe Boss.

Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, the first Afghanistan players in the IPL, talk about life with Sunrisers Hyderabad, being role models, and travelling the world for cricket

Interview by Arun Venugopal12-Apr-20175:03

‘We are good examples for Afghan cricketers’

After both of you were picked up in the IPL auction, who was the first to give the other a treat?
Nabi: () I think when we were selected for IPL, it was early morning six o’ clock [in Zimbabwe, where Afghanistan were playing]. I went to Rashid’s room to congratulate him for being picked up for Rs 4 crore [approximately US$615,000]. He was in shock. He was like, is it a dream or what? I said it was a part of cricket, part of life.Didn’t your Afghanistan team-mates ask you for a party?
Rashid: Actually, they didn’t. We were busy for the last three months; there was continuous cricket. So we didn’t get enough time to celebrate, to throw such parties. Hopefully after the IPL, we will have some.Since you were constantly on the road, did you have a sense of how people back home reacted?
Nabi: Everyone in Afghanistan was waiting for the IPL auction. When we were selected for Sunrisers Hyderabad, everyone was calling and messaging, especially people from our cricket board – the chairman, the CEO. There were calls and messages from family and friends to congratulate us, and tell us that it was a wonderful achievement for us as well as the country.Who was the first person from the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise to congratulate you?
Nabi: I think Tom Moody, the coach, congratulated me on Twitter on behalf of the Sunrisers family. He was the first.Rashid, do you remember your first day with the franchise when you got here? What was the welcome like?
Rashid: When I landed here in the night of the first of April, they came to the airport and took me to the hotel. It was a nice gathering here in the hotel and they gave me a good welcome. It was a good night and I really enjoyed it.

“He always motivates and supports the youngsters who come into the team. He gives us time and supports us to play good cricket. I really enjoy playing with him”Rashid on Nabi

What have your interactions with the rest of the Sunrisers team been like? Have you made new friends?
Nabi: All team-mates are very good and very supportive. It is like a good family. Starting from the players – the big names like [David] Warner, Yuvraj [Singh], [Shikhar] Dhawan and [Kane] Williamson – and the support staff, everyone is very good and keen to talk to you. Nabi, when Rashid took his first IPL wicket against Royal Challengers Bangalore the other night, the cameras were on you. We saw that your arms were aloft and you looked absolutely delighted.
Nabi: It was a very good feeling to see an Afghan playing in the IPL for the first time. He would have been under a little bit of pressure as well, because it was a huge crowd and it was a good opposition. When he got his first wicket, I don’t know what happened to me. I started celebrating. It is a good start for his tournament and for his career.Nabi tweeted saying he was flooded with happiness when you were picked in the auction. Is he like an older brother to you in the team, Rashid?
Rashid: Yeah, exactly. I have been with him in the national side for the last one and half years, and he has supported me from that time. He always motivates and supports the youngsters who come into the team. He gives us time and supports us to play good cricket. He has supported me through my career and I really enjoy playing with him and spending some time with him. So it is great for me to have Nabi in the IPL as well.Nabi, Rashid looks like a calm fellow, but does he have a mischievous streak?
Nabi: No. Right from the time he came into the team, he has been very quiet. He is a really nice guy as well and not that much naughty at all. All the time he is just focused on his cricket. Off the cricket field, he is just a silent guy.Rashid, tell us something about Nabi that the wider world doesn’t know about – some sort of an inside secret.
Rashid: I think there is nothing secretive about him, nothing that people don’t know. What you see is what he is. I don’t think there is anything he hides from his people.What are your first memories of meeting Nabi? Do you have recollections of watching him play before you met?
Rashid: I met him when we were in the academy and he came there. We had already watched him in the T20 World Cup. The innings which I really love is the one he played against Australia in Sharjah. I have great memories of him from that innings. When I met him, it was again a wonderful day because he is like a star in Afghanistan.Nabi does a Starman impression of his own, after the win over West Indies in the World T20 last year•IDI/Getty ImagesNabi, did Rashid tell you that he was a big fan of yours?
Nabi: Ah, yeah. The coach said he was a good talent and a promising youngster. When he was bowling to me, I could see that he was very quick through the air but the line and length was not in the correct area. I just told him, you have good talent and you must work hard and get into the national side very soon. After a few months, he was selected in the Under-19 team.Did you also tell him that his action was similar to Shahid Afridi’s?
Nabi: () Yeah, when he gets a wicket, he goes like Shahid Afridi [in unleashing the Starman celebration].Have you ever had a chat with Afridi, Rashid?
Rashid: I actually had a chat with Afridi while I was playing in the BPL.Actually, it is just my own style [of celebration], you know. He celebrates with two hands and I celebrate with one hand, so it is a little bit different. Yeah, I like him and grew up watching his bowling and that of Anil Kumble. Both were good legspinners and were quick through the air, so I was always watching their videos and learning from them.Who were your heroes growing up, Nabi?
Nabi: Many heroes, . Kevin Pietersen is my idol, and then MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.What’s the story behind your Twitter handle, Nabi? There is a 007 in there. Are you a James Bond fan?
Nabi: Ah, no, I was looking for 07 but 007 popped up as an option. That’s why I picked it.But, you are a big fan of Aamir Khan, aren’t you?
Nabi: Yeah, Aamir Khan is good.Do you guys do anything together when you have some downtime?
Nabi: When we are not training at the nets or swimming, we are resting in our rooms. Otherwise we are with our families.

“When he was bowling to me, I could see that he was very quick through the air but the line and length was not in the correct area. I just told him, you have good talent and you must work hard and get into the national side very soon”Nabi on Rashid

Speaking of family, your wife said some time ago that she wasn’t very impressed with you being away for long periods of time. Now that you are also going to play in the CPL, you will be away for longer. How is she taking it?
Nabi: Ah, the wives of all the players are unhappy that we are away all the time, playing cricket! Also, my kid is going to school, so the family can’t travel with me. That’s why it’s a little bit of a problem. It’s a busy year for me this time. From here I go straight to the West Indies for three ODIs and three T20s. After that we will be back home for a month before going to Lord’s for a match in July. After that I have a little bit of time at home before the CPL starts. You also have home games in Greater Noida [outside New Delhi]. How are you coping with all the travel?
Rashid: We have been busy for the last two years with continuous cricket. We played in the UAE and we went to Zimbabwe for five ODIs, and then came here and spent one month [in Greater Noida for Afghanistan’s “home” matches] and now the IPL. So it has been quite a long journey for us. But, you know, too much travel is difficult only in the beginning. Once we got used to it, we became more relaxed, and now we are actually enjoying it.The Afghanistan practice session usually features many intense football games. Who is the best player in the team?
Nabi: Football isn’t allowed in our warm-up sessions any longer; it has been banned. Some players picked up injuries, so we didn’t want to take the risk.Have you ever played [the national sport of Afghanistan which resembles polo, but with ball replaced by the carcass of a goat]?
Nabi: Not so far. It is a very tough game. You have to be a good rider and have a good pick-up as well.If you guys could play football for a club side, which one would you pick?
Rashid: I think I will pick up… I forgot the name.Nabi: [I will pick] Barcelona.Rashid: [I will go with] Real Madrid.So you will go up against each other?
Rashid and Nabi: Yeah, yeah. ()If a Hindi film were to be remade with both of you in it, which film will you pick and which parts will you play?
Rashid: I will choose .Nabi: Yeah, is the best.And Nabi will play Aamir Khan?
Rashid and Nabi: Yeah.Looking out for No. 1: Rashid picks up a wicket in his first over on IPL debut•BCCISo Rashid, you get to play the nephew who gets beaten up and chided by Aamir Khan throughout the movie?
Rashid: Yeah, exactly. ()I am going to put you on the spot here, Rashid. Both Nabi and Hamid Hassan have developed a lovely new hairline. Whose hair transplant do you think worked better?
() Rashid: I think… both are nice.Okay, Nabi is sitting right next to you, so you have to be diplomatic.
Rashid: No, no, I think both are looking good with that.Is that a cue for everybody in the team that is losing hair to go the Nabi or Hassan way?
Rashid: Exactly, it is a good message for all. Once you lose your hair, you have a good example to follow. ()Nabi, tell us how popular Rashid is with the girls back in Afghanistan.
Nabi: I think he isn’t popular. He is studying now. He is a star hero only from the last one year. Nabi, you seem to be enjoying playing snooker with the Sunrisers team. You seem to have done well.
Nabi: Not that well, but it’s a team game. There were three teams playing against each other. But I was looking good. ()Rashid: He can play well.

“You know, too much travel is difficult only in the beginning. Once we got used to it, we became more relaxed, and now we are actually enjoying it”Rashid

Do you think you are a better player, Rashid?
Rashid: No, I don’t think I am good. I can only hit the white ball.Which other game do you like play?
Rashid: I love playing badminton and also football.Do either of you cook? Who is the better cook?
Nabi: No, but I barbecue sometimes.Of the places you have travelled to, which ones do you like best?
Rashid: I have visited Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and all those places, but I love Scotland. I think when we were in Scotland, it was the Ramzan month and we were fasting every day. So we were unable to go outside and enjoy things. We were in the room all the time.Nabi: It is good, yeah. Dubai is best.On a more serious note, how big an influence do you think you are on the kids growing up in Afghanistan?
Nabi: It is a big lesson for the youngsters back home in Afghanistan. We are both good examples to them that Afghanistan have good talent as well, and if there is no violence in Afghanistan, everyone will come up.Rashid, you tweeted a video a few months ago of you joining a group of fans for a game of street cricket in Afghanistan. What is it like to be appreciated at such a young age, as you are?
Rashid: When we were travelling for a match, I saw on the way that kids were playing with the tennis ball. I told the driver to stop so that I could enjoy a game of cricket with them. When I went there, it led to many great moments and they really enjoyed the game with us.Being a youngster, it is always good to perform. It is a great message to all the youngsters back in Afghanistan that if you work hard and believe yourself, you can reach wherever you want to. So it’s a good example for all those youngsters who have just started playing cricket. They should believe in themselves, and not think that it is Afghanistan and nobody is watching me. If you play well and work hard, you can achieve everywhere.Have both of you learnt the Sunrisers team song?
Nabi: It is very difficult.Rashid: When we won the match, they were singing [the team song] in the dressing room. But, we didn’t understand, so we were just shouting with them. ()

Amid tumult, Dimuth Karunaratne has been Sri Lanka’s lynchpin; he is the team’s leading Test scorer this year, and fifth in the world

Osman Samiuddin28-Sep-2017A nothing day the scorecard will tell you. Not even close to three runs an over. No hundreds. Two boundaries in the entire morning session where cricket’s bloodlust is such that two sixes off one ball will not satiate it, and not many more over the rest of the day. Where was the intent? The aggression? What is 227 for 4 at the end of a day on which you won the toss and chose to bat? What is this – win the toss and bat draw? It’s nothing.If you’re Sri Lanka right now, having been thumped at home by India in a way you’ve never been thumped at home before, lost a Test at home to Bangladesh, lost an ODI series at home to Zimbabwe, nearly lost a Test at home to Zimbabwe, been through six captains since you last changed your clothes, had the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit suddenly stick its head out and take note of you, lost a coach, dropped more catches than the world has dropped bombs on itself – I could go on because we haven’t even got to the comparing-them-to-Pakistan yet – then a day of play on which nothing happens is day to cling on to for dear life.Right now nothing is great. No, nothing is outstanding.Over the years Pakistan have, justifiably, got sympathy for playing at this home away from home, but don’t discount the ways in which it has helped them. Cloistered away here in a once-new, now-slightly-jaded cricketing outpost, with nobody watching, relatively limited distractions, away from the heat and rage of their own public, they have done what they didn’t always get the chance to do in Pakistan: head down, get on with their game.Sri Lanka have been here often enough to probably be aware of the benefits but they’ve never come here in quite the state of distress as they have this time, so desperately needing some quiet time away from it all. A series in the middle of nowhere, playing to no one, with nothing obviously on the line (apart from whatever is on the line in any professional sporting contest) – this is something they could get used to. Australia-India is playing, as are England-West Indies so, hello, if you’re even reading this you must be some kind of tragic. And in case you hadn’t noticed, Ben Stokes made the . Nobody’s watching.Dimuth Karunaratne didn’t mind all this nobody and nothingness. Without meaning to make it sound like a slight, it is the kind of batsman that he is, perfect, in fact, for a day like this. No shot of his will lodge itself in your head. To no passage of play in which he is prominent, will you say, yes, this, this the day, this was its soundtrack. The only time you might have noticed him was when he got out and that too because one, he never looked like getting out and two, because it was one of those comedy run-outs cricket can never get enough of.What did he do? He batted. He didn’t get out. He ran well after lunch because the outfield was thick and boundaries weren’t coming. He scored some good runs, runs which held Sri Lanka in place. Because, for a while in that morning session, when a couple of wickets were given away, Pakistan could still have been India and all of us in Sri Lanka, looking as if the opponent had merely to bowl for Sri Lanka to roll over. Instead, his runs give them a fair shot of going past at least five of their six totals against India (reminder: 291, 245, 183, 386, 135 and 181).Nobody should care too much about this functionality and minimalism because the bottom line is that in this mess of a year for Sri Lanka, he is comfortably his country’s leading Test scorer and fifth in the world.”We just needed to bat for longer periods of time,” he said later, as if that isn’t the most difficult and unnatural thing for many modern batsmen to do. “When we played against India, we were not able to get big totals. That was the difference. It doesn’t matter if we take time, we can capitalise later on.”Despite top-scoring in that series, Karunaratne sought out his old St Joseph’s school coach Harsha de Silva, just to be completely right ahead of this series. “He has been with me since I played Under-15,” he said.”He knows me well and when he was in Colombo I asked him to do a session with me. He just wanted to check how I was going and after the session he said that there was nothing technical I had to adjust, but perhaps the mindset. He said if you want to score more, be positive. I tried to be positive today and it helped me to score some decent runs in the first innings.”The first innings, unusually, is an issue – he is an opener who averages higher in the second innings than he does in the first, and by a margin that you can’t help but notice (28.25 to 44.10). It is in the mind more than anywhere else.”Everyone was asking me the same thing when I came down. I wasn’t too worried about technique but was just trying to adjust my mindset. I wanted to play my natural game in the first innings. When I play in the second innings I don’t think whether the wicket is turning or whatever, but just try to bat positive. That’s what I tried to do here.”In the end, that 93 enabled Dinesh Chandimal’s unbeaten 60 and it enabled, perhaps even more significantly, Niroshan Dickwella’s little half-hour burst at the end which may have turned a nothing day into a definitively good one.

Greg Chappell recalls the events of the Centenary Test, played 40 years ago at the MCG

Daniel Brettig26-Dec-2017Greg Chappell never worked harder for runs in Australia. Day one of the Centenary Test, the 40th anniversary of which is being marked at the MCG this week, was heavy with cloud overhead, moisture underfoot, and a sense of the occasion’s uniqueness in every player’s mind.If there had been any sense of routine about a match tacked on to the end of the Australian season to mark 100 years since the very first Test in 1877, it was soon washed away by the presence of so many of the game’s greatest Australian and English combatants, all of whom rubbed shoulders with the teams led by Chappell and Tony Greig at the Hilton Hotel (now the Pullman) a few hundred metres up the hill from the MCG.”I think both teams turned up thinking it was just going to be another Test match, maybe a little ho-hum because it was a one-off thing,” Chappell recalled. “But once we arrived in Melbourne it was pretty obvious that it was actually quite a historic moment and there was a lot of gravitas around the game.”Seeing some of the old players arriving in Melbourne and going to functions before the Test match, hearing speeches from Sir Donald Bradman and others, and meeting some of these names that I grew up reading about or listening to on the radio was quite amazing. By the time the Test match started, we were aware that it was something a little bit special.Rick McCosker is tended to by a doctor after he was hit in the face•Getty Images”It was the first real promotion of a Test match that I’d been involved in. My first Test in Perth was pretty special to Perth, there was a build-up to that in the media, but this one was very different to a normal Test match, no doubt about that.”The clang of a specially minted coin on the surface suggested this was going to be a fair pitch for both sides, and Chappell admits he had considered batting first. But once Greig called correctly and sent the Australians in, it was soon apparent that the day would be one for bowlers. “The game probably came about 36 hours too soon for the pitch,” Chappell said. “From memory it was a bit cloudy around the lead-up to the game and he [curator Bill Watt] might have just got his timing out a little bit.”Australian worries about the surface were to be compounded when Rick McCosker misjudged a short ball from Bob Willis and was struck an awful blow to the jaw, made doubly maddening when the ball then dropped onto the stumps. McCosker’s re-emergence later in the match, to add a critical 54 runs with the wicketkeeper, Rod Marsh, was to become part of its legend.”It was a double blow, insult to injury, because not only did he get hit but his wicket was broken as well, so he was out and knocked out,” Chappell said. “It was a pretty gruesome-looking sight when he came in, but mind you, it wasn’t a pretty sight when he went out to bat in the second innings with the head swathed in bandages and totally distorted by the bruising and swelling.”I’m sure the Englishmen would’ve been very surprised when they saw him walk out to bat. I never considered asking him to bat. He came and told me he wanted to. I wasn’t convinced it was a great idea, but he was firmly of the conviction that he was capable, that he should do it, and as the game turned out, we were grateful that he did.”Greg Chappell runs past Derek Randall, who led England’s chase with a spectacular 174, to field the ball•Getty ImagesBatting No. 4 behind Gary Cosier, Chappell slogged through six minutes short of four hours for 40, as a crowd of more than 61,000 spectators kept atypically quiet. Greig rotated his seamers handily, and when the swift left-arm spin of Derek Underwood was introduced, he gave away barely one run an over.”Greigy kept the seamers going for a long time,” Chappell said, “but in those conditions, with a little bit of moisture in the pitch, Underwood was as dangerous as anyone, very hard to score from. I never had to work harder for runs in Australia.”A final Australian total of 138 seemed paltry, but the response of Dennis Lillee and Max Walker was to deliver an unexpected first-innings lead. From there, the pitch dried and flattened out, bringing about a very different second act in the drama and a surface of the sort of quality Chappell never saw again in Melbourne.”Melbourne was always a very different wicket from anywhere else,” Chappell said. “By day three and four of a Shield game, you knew you didn’t play back to anything, no matter how short it was. You had to try to get forward to it, because they’d tend to stay down a bit and crack a bit, so the ball would deviate off the surface, but it was always a very firm surface.”By the time I came back to the MCG, it was a dustbowl, there was very little grass on the square, the titular groundsman really had no experience. Ian Johnson as secretary of the MCC wanted to have control of the preparation of the wickets and it just went from bad to worse. I played every year until 1984 and never saw another decent wicket in that time. It was disappointing because as your showcase ground, we could’ve been scoring 300s in one-day cricket but we were only getting low 200s because the wicket was just such hard work.”Both the change in the pitch and the arrival of more limited-overs games came about following the two years Chappell and others spent with Kerry Packer’s breakaway World Series Cricket. Though much has been written and said about clandestine meetings around the Centenary Test and even the sight of Austin Robertson handing out sign-on cheques to players in the dressing room in the guise of “theatre tickets”, Chappell was not yet sure whether the concept would get off the ground.”I’d had an initial approach but I’d told them I wasn’t interested in talking about it until they were much further down the track and all the players they wanted to talk to had been spoken to,” Chappell said. “I really wasn’t consciously aware of it at all. I wasn’t convinced at that stage that it would even happen. From my point of view it was so far back of mind it was out of my mind.”Much like the impression created by that damp first-day pitch would be overturned before the Centenary Test had played out, Chappell’s expectations of World Series Cricket were to be utterly confounded.

Mark Stoneman, James Vince and Dawid Malan took the first step to justifying their much questioned Ashes selections

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Nov-2017