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Allrounder could miss entire series after failing to recover from hamstring injury

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Nov-2021Shakib Al Hasan has been ruled out of Bangladesh’s first Test against Pakistan in Chattogram, which begins on Friday. It was, however, an inevitable decision from the BCB’s medical team after Shakib apparently failed to recover from the hamstring injury he sustained during the T20 World Cup.Bangladesh’s chief selector Minhajul Abedin said that Shakib might take longer to recover, which could mean that he is entirely out of the Test series against Pakistan.Related

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“Shakib’s hamstring injury hasn’t improved,” Abedin said. “Shakib needs further rehabilitation. Our physiotherapist is constantly taking care of him. We understood that he wouldn’t be available for the first Test. We are also not sure of his availability for the second Test. The physio will let us know soon. We haven’t called up a replacement since we picked the 16-man squad knowing Shakib’s condition.”Shakib missed the last two matches of Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup campaign, as well as the three T20Is in the series against Pakistan. Bangladesh have grown accustomed to playing Tests without Shakib even after his return from suspension this year. Shakib appeared in only one Test in the World Test Championship, against West Indies in February, a game in which he got injured midway. Shakib also played against Zimbabwe in the Harare Test in July.Bangladesh are already without Tamim Iqbal in this Test series due to a second thumb fracture after he had seemingly recovered from the first one. Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam are also out with injuries for the Chattogram Test. Taskin hurt his hand during the third T20I against Pakistan while Shoriful sustained a back injury during the second game.Bangladesh’s Test series against Pakistan is their first in the new WTC cycle. They are also scheduled to play against Sri Lanka and India at home next year, apart from tours to South Africa, West Indies and New Zealand to round off their WTC schedule.

Regional Retainers designed to bridge financial gap in season disrupted by Covid-19

Valkerie Baynes19-May-2020Up to 24 domestic women’s cricketers will receive retainer payments from June 1 as the ECB tries to ease some of the financial hardship of their season being disrupted by the Covid-19 lockdown.The ECB was due to award full-time contracts to 40 domestic players this year under a plan to transform women’s and girls’ cricket, with those players involved in a 50-over competition between eight new regional teams in September. Clare Connor, the ECB’s managing director of women’s cricket, said it was still the intention to award those contracts in 2020, but that the regional retainers were designed to support players financially in the meantime.”The momentum behind the women’s game has been staggering in the last few years and it is still firmly our ambition to build on that,” Connor said on Tuesday. “As we emerge from this pandemic, we believe even more strongly that cricket will be a sport that throws its arms around everyone – truly inclusive, diverse and a sport for modern Britain to be proud of.ALSO READ: Hundred delay a knock for women’s game – Katie Levick“This was due to be the most exciting year in the game’s history for our leading domestic players. A number of them would have been hoping to sign a full-time contract with one of our eight Regions this summer. While we still intend to award those full-time contracts in 2020, we want to try to support our players as much as we can until that point, hence the introduction of these Retainers to provide an interim solution.”As the effects of COVID-19 on the rest of the summer and beyond become more apparent, we will continue to support our players to the best of our ability, and we promise them that our drive for a more gender-balanced sport remains vitally important.”ECB Women’s Cricket Regions•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Earlier this month, Connor said that while the domestic competition had not been removed from this year’s schedule, “we have to plan for it not to happen as much as we have to plan for it to happen”. Meanwhile, the decision to postpone the inaugural Hundred competition until 2021 left a host of women’s players facing the prospect of not playing – or earning an income from the sport – this season.The eight regions will recruit players to the retainer scheme and, in turn, the players will take part in strength and conditioning programmes, online education on topics including anti-corruption and anti-doping, and devote time to activities and appearances aimed at supporting the game.

Their resignation came hours before the Mumbai Cricket Association ad-hoc committee meeting on Friday that was to decide their fate

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Mar-2019In a bizarre move on Friday, Mumbai’s entire five-man selection panel resigned hours before the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) ad-hoc committee meeting on Friday that was to decide their fate. Chairman Ajit Agarkar and his colleagues Nilesh Kulkarni, Sunil More and Ravi Thakkar emailed their resignations to the ad-hoc committee and the MCA CEO CS Naik on Friday afternoon. The resignations came after the conclusion of Mumbai’s domestic season even though there had been moves to end their stint mid-season.Creating further chaos, the former Mumbai pair of Amol Muzumdar and Sahil Kukreja, two of the four members on the Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) that picked the selection panel, are understood to have tendered their resignations on the same day. The MCA, however, has not made any public statement yet on whether it has accepted the resignations.It is understood that Agarkar told the MCA that he did not wish to continue next season as he wanted to focus on personal commitments. The CIC is scheduled to meet on March 19 to decide on the next step.Although the resignations appear to be a sudden development, the pressure on Agarkar’s selection panel had been simmering for months. It eventually boiled over at a Special General Meeting (SGM) of the MCA in February, where some of the members – the clubs – passed a resolution directing the CIC to remove the selectors. The members said that they had “lost confidence” in Agarkar’s panel, who they accused of not watching enough club games.The CIC, which is headed by former Mumbai and India fast bowler Raju Kulkarni, overruled the resolution “unanimously”, saying the selectors’ commitment was beyond question.This was an unprecedented situation. On one hand, the MCA members were now calling for the selectors to be removed; on the other, the CIC, set up by their own managing committee, was against questioning their commitment. In a bind, the four-member ad-hoc committee, comprising Naik, MCA secretary Unmesh Khanwilkar, Shah Alam, Naveen Shetty and Ganesh Iyer, is believed to have taken legal advice before Friday’s meeting. It is understood the ad-hoc committee conveyed to the selectors they couldn’t set aside the SGM resolution.It is understood the selection committee has not been popular with the MCA members. Parsee Gymkhana vice-president and secretary Khodadad S Yazdegardi sought the removal of selectors through an SGM back in July 2018, but didn’t succeed. The matter also died down as Mumbai began the season by winning the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The move against the selectors regained momentum when Mumbai failed to make the quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy this season, which led to the meeting in February where the resolution to sack them was passed. Mumbai, however, bowed out of the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with a win against UP in the last Super League game on Tuesday, which wasn’t enough to ensure them a berth in the final.

Steven Smith also spoke about the importance of keeping Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins together when the Ashes were up for grabs

Daniel Brettig in Sydney08-Jan-20181:45

Lyon’s run-out at the Gabba changed series – Smith

Cameron Bancroft will be pitted against Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and perhaps Dale Steyn in South Africa during the looming Test series in March, if the Australia captain Steven Smith’s words are anything to go by.Despite struggling over the course of his first Ashes series, notably showing evidence of technical trouble in the region of his off stump, Bancroft is highly regarded by the Australian team set-up after spending six weeks in camp. This is partly for his high work ethic and eagerness to improve, and also for an off-beat personality summed up when he had Smith in stitches when describing his pre-series altercation with Jonny Bairstow in the aftermath of the Gabba Test.Given all these attributes, the 25-year-old Bancroft has won Smith’s support ahead of the selectors’ discussions about who should travel to South Africa. As if to remind them of the player discarded to make room for Bancroft, the Queensland opener Matt Renshaw is set to play in England’s 50-over warm-up match before the ODI series, but Smith gave no indication of wanting to change back to another opening partner for David Warner.”He’s worked hard and he probably hasn’t scored as many runs as he would have liked throughout this series,” Smith said. “But he’s a good young player, he’s a great character and he’s got a terrific work ethic. The more he plays, he’s going to continue to improve and get better. If the selectors keep the faith – I hope they do – it will only be good for him and good for the group.”Smith had plenty of praise for his team after wrapping up a 4-0 series victory over England to regain the Ashes, and pinpointed Nathan Lyon’s direct hit to run out James Vince on the first day of the series in Brisbane as pivotal to the overall outcome. “The moment that changed the whole series was Nathan Lyon and the run out [of James Vince] at the Gabba,” Smith said. “That was such a huge moment in the series. Those sort of plays can change the series. I certainly think that was a series-changing moment.”I think all the bowlers did an exceptional job. Lyon got a lot of rewards throughout the series and bowled exceptionally well. I was looking yesterday when we were out on the field it came up with all the wickets this series the bowlers had got, each one of them had over 20. It showed the guys have bowled together as a group, bowled in partnerships and for one another and helped us take the 80 wickets that we needed to win the four Test matches. Nathan’s been exceptional with that as well. His consistency has been outstanding.”Pat Cummins was hostile after lunch•Getty Images

As for the ability of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins to remain fit for the matches that mattered at the front end of the series, Smith spoke warmly about how the team’s support and medical staff had mapped out plans to have the “big three” pacemen at their best. “They’ve done it so well throughout this series. It’s been nice to have those three guys playing together,” he said.”So much went in to ensure those guys were right for this series. A lot of credit has to be given to the support staff, medical staff and all of that for getting it all right and coming together the way it did. It’s nice to have those options available. All those guys bowl a little bit different to each other but all bowl really good pace. In Australia that works really well, it’s been great.”Having started the Ashes by laughing alongside Bancroft, Smith had also generated plenty of mirth by how he reacted to Shaun Marsh’s spontaneous decision to try to hug his brother Mitchell Marsh upon completing a hundred rather than finish a second run. The resulting near-run out made Smith briefly apoplectic, but he could laugh about it in the afterglow of the Sydney victory, while also acknowledging how much the Marsh brothers had contributed to the scoreline.”Looking back, it was quite funny,” Smith said. “When I’m watching or when I’m playing I’m sort of always in the moment. Watching the ball not going to the fence and seeing them start to hug in the middle just seemed a little bit bizarre. I just wanted them to get back in their ground and not get run out. Shaun came in the rooms after and I said ‘what happened there?’. He goes ‘I just wanted to hug him, I didn’t care about anything else, I just wanted to hug him’. It was a strange moment but a pretty special moment for the two brothers.””Everyone has had a role to play and had some impact on this series. You see the two Marsh boys…Shaun throughout the whole series and Mitch in the last three Test matches … have been magnificent. All the guys have had an impact in the series and that’s what has been so special about it. It hasn’t just been one or two guys stepping up and doing the job. You can’t really win an Ashes series when that’s the case, so it’s been good that so many different people have stood up at different times to help us win the series.”As for the future, Smith has previously stated his goal of winning the Ashes away from home, something no Australian team has done since 2001. He was unsure of whether or not the current team should be favoured to win next time around, but did indicate that he felt keeping a young team together over time would help all of its members to gain in strength and confidence.”A lot can change between now and then. That’s still a long time away. But this team has been magnificent this series, the cricket we’ve played has been great,” Smith said. “I think the more we play together the more we’re going to get better as a group. We’ve just got to keep getting better and improving as a team. England in 2019 is a long way away but it is a real challenge for us as well and a bucket list for mine to win an Ashes series in England.”I think it’s different obviously to playing with a Kookaburra here. It can move around consistently at times. I think everyone is vulnerable to a moving ball. It’s about just trying to find a way to have a solid defence and a game plan that can work in those conditions. Over the next couple of years guys are going to continue to develop and get that game plan in place.””It’s a tough tour, going to England, it’s a great place to play and a difficult place for any team travelling. England play incredibly well at home. I don’t know who would be favourites. But I now do look forward to going over there in 2019.”

The Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing of the review petition filed by the BCCI in August challenging the July 18 order that approved the recommendations of the Lodha Committee

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Oct-2016The Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing of the review petition filed by the BCCI in August challenging the July 18 order that approved the recommendations of the Lodha Committee. The court was to consider the review petition on Tuesday, but a two-judge bench comprising TS Thakur, the Chief Justice of India, and Justice SA Bobde, decided to defer their decision. The bench is likely to hear the matter in two weeks behind closed doors.In the review plea, BCCI had called the court order “unreasoned”. It also accused Chief Justice Thakur, who was part of the two-judge bench that passed the July 18 order, of having a “prejudiced” approach and said he should “recuse” himself.On Monday, a three-judge bench of the court had reserved its order on the status report filed by the Lodha Committee asking for the removal of all the BCCI office-bearers (president, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer under the board’s existing constitution).During the course of Monday’s two-hour hearing, BCCI legal counsel Kapil Sibal told the court that his client needed at least three more months to implement the reforms suggested by the Lodha Committee. Sibal also told the court that the Lodha Committee had crossed the lines of its terms as some of its actions suggested.”It is as if the Lodha Committee wants to run cricket and that is not the purpose of its formation by this court… The committee is going beyond the judgment,” Sibal was quoted as saying by . “These are our administrative issues.”Ever since the Lodha Committee released its recommendations on January 4, the BCCI has maintained that it will not adopt some of the reforms. The BCCI then dared the court by defaulting on the first deadline of September 30, set by the Lodha Committee for the board and the state association to fulfill the first set of timelines.At the October 1 SGM, and then at an emergency meeting held last Saturday, the BCCI reiterated that it could not implement the recommendations unconditionally as ordered by the court unless it gained a two-thirds majority among the 30 state associations. The BCCI has said it is totally against some of the recommendations: one-state-one-vote, which it contends would rob votes for members that belong to states that have more than one team; having an age cap of 70 for administrators; and a cooling-off period of three years between each of the three terms allowed for an administrator.On Monday, Sibal told the court that the one-state-one-vote was a “remedy” far worse than the “disease”.”One State One Vote will lead to greater corruption,” Sibal said, according to . “You have taken away the votes of some of our founding members… those who have been deeply involved in cricket from the 1930s and given it to some States which have no infrastructure to conduct cricket. You have taken away a Bombay vote and given it to Arunachal. If you distribute votes according to territory, let’s say Nagaland where nobody is willing to spend for cricket, it will not work.”I have only one request… allow cricket to expand according to its own principles… Again, I repeat, I personally feel that the remedy will be worse than the disease… this the future will show.”

Angelo Mathews has hailed man-of-the-match Milinda Siriwardana as a “great find” following Sri Lanka’s 72-run victory over West Indies which sealed a 2-0 whitewash

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Colombo26-Oct-2015Angelo Mathews has hailed man-of-the-match Milinda Siriwardana as a “great find” following Sri Lanka’s 72-run victory over West Indies which sealed a 2-0 whitewash.”Milinda is a great find for us – he has contributed with bat, ball and on the field,” Mathews said. “He’s been a brilliant player in past couple of months in ODIs, and coming into Test arena showed no nerves at all. He was just cruising through with his batting. His bowling also came in handy, we needed someone who can bowl a few. He is more than a part-timer.”Siriwardana top-scored in a low-scoring match, striking 68 from 111 balls in the first innings, and 42 off 60 in the second. His left-arm spin was also instrumental to the win, as he took two wickets in the first innings, and three in the second to finish with a match haul of 5 for 51. Each of his victims had batted in West Indies’ top seven.Good outings in his debut T20 and ODI series in July against Pakistan had helped put Siriwardana in the Test team. He will now be considered for longer stints in all three formats.Siriwardana’s inclusion had allowed Mathews to go through the series without having to bowl himself – which allowed him to continue recovering from an ankle complaint. Having claimed two wickets in the Galle Test as well, Siriwardana has seven Test scalps at an average below 18. He has 136 first-class wickets at 30.16.”We needed someone batting in the middle order to roll his arm and Milinda has improved dramatically in the past few months with his bowling,” Mathews said. “He’s worked really hard with Piyal Wijetunga, the spin-bowling coach. The effort he put in at the nets is unbelievable. He deserves what he got today. He’s had a brilliant match and I hope he will go from strength to strength.”Siriwardana was largely chosen for his batting, although, he maintains that he would like to progress in both disciplines. He had scored 1 on debut in Galle, but said he did not allow that to dent his belief in his batting.”Batsmen do fail sometimes – that’s a normal thing,” Siriwardana said. “I didn’t think of my debut as a special game – it was just one match. I had a lot of confidence coming into this match, thanks to the practice sessions.”He had earlier set himself firmly on the path to a Test debut by hitting 1144 runs at 67.29 in the 2015 Premier League Tournament. “Earlier maybe I was considered a limited-overs player,” Siriwardana said. “But in the recent domestic season, I made a few technical adjustments and showed I could do well in the longer format as well.”I had more runs than anyone else this season. I think I got the perfect opportunity at the right time. A player should get that chance when he’s scoring runs, so I got that. I’m not disappointed I didn’t play internationals earlier.”Siriwardana also broke a key partnership in West Indies’ innings, when he had Shai Hope stumped. Hope and Darren Bravo had put on 60 together, and moved West Indies to 80 for 1 in pursuit of 244. Mathews, though, said he was not overly worried by the stand.”From the very first day the pitch had started turning, so we knew that the conditions were only getting worse,” Mathews said. “We didn’t start too well today and bowled badly, but came back into the game after Milinda got a couple of wickets. (Rangana) Herath’s two wickets in one over – dismissing Bravo and Denesh Ramdin – was crucial.”

Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin will both fly home from Delhi on Saturday morning while their team-mates attempt to fight their way back into the fourth Test

Brydon Coverdale22-Mar-2013Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin will both fly home from Delhi on Saturday morning while their team-mates attempt to fight their way back into the fourth Test. Clarke will have scans on his back in Sydney after being ruled out of the Test before play on the first morning at the Feroz Shah Kotla, while Haddin has been released from the squad after arriving in India halfway through the tour as cover for the injured Matthew Wade, who missed the Mohali Test but was fit for Delhi.Australia’s medical staff wants to monitor Clarke’s back problem, which has troubled him since he was 17, and his participation for Pune Warriors in the IPL must be in doubt given Australia’s busy winter schedule with the Champions Trophy and an Ashes tour. Clarke’s absence allowed Shane Watson to become Australia’s 44th Test captain and while Clarke was not seen on the team balcony during the day, the batsman Steven Smith said he was still active around the group.”He was given until the last point to prove his fitness,” Smith said. “Shane was given a little heads-up to say ‘prepare mentally and get yourself ready, just in case I don’t come up’. He in the end was in a bit too much pain to get into this match and there’s a lot of big series coming up and he wants to get his body right and prepare well for them. They told us this morning.”He [Clarke] was grabbing a few guys’ gloves and giving them to the boys to run out. He was trying to do his part in the sheds like he always does. It’s disappointing not to have him out there in this game.”Australia certainly missed Clarke’s batting in the first innings as their top order collapsed to 129 for 6 in challenging but far from unplayable conditions. Smith was one of only two Australians to survive for 100 deliveries – the other was the No. 9 Peter Siddle – and he said the pitch was likely to be much harder to bat on as the match wore on.”That’s probably not the day-one wicket that I’m used to playing on,” Smith said. “It’s broken up a fair bit to start up with. It’s going to get tougher and tougher to bat throughout this match and 231 at the end of the day is not a bad day I don’t think. Hopefully we can grind out another 50 or so tomorrow and I think that will be quite competitive as a first-innings score on that wicket.”

Fast bowler Ishant Sharma has been ruled out the IPL after undergoing an ankle surgery earlier this month, which is likely to keep him out of action for at least six months

Nagraj Gollapudi26-Mar-2012Fast bowler Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the IPL after undergoing an ankle surgery earlier this month, which is likely to keep him out of action for at least six months. Deccan Chargers, Ishant’s IPL franchise, confirmed the development, saying they would now be seeking permission from the IPL for a replacement player.Ishant had been delaying the surgery for nearly a year, but finally decided to take the plunge after he returned from Australia in January, where he had played the Test-leg of the tour. Though he impressed in patches, Ishant remained inconsistent and only managed five wickets at an average of 90.20 in the four-Test series.It is understood that he had considered delaying the surgery post this IPL season, but that would have ruled him out of the home series against England, starting in November. Ishant is likely to plan his rehabilitation so that he can make a return during the home series against New Zealand, also later in the year.”The wound is likely to heal in three months’ time and he is solely focussing on that,” a source close to Ishant told ESPNcricinfo.Last year, Ishant’s India team-mate Virender Sehwag was in a similar scenario with a shoulder injury but he chose to delay his surgery. After the World Cup, he played through pain at the start of the IPL but withdrew midway through the tournament. He was ruled out of the West Indies tour and missed the start of the Test series in England.Edited by Kanishkaa Balachandran

A significant performance from Sammy would go a long way in increasing West Indies’ standing

Sidharth Monga in Dhaka03-Mar-2011Darren Sammy’s Twitter page has been quiet of late. There is no flamboyance of old. He is not talking, social-networking rather, of the honey from the comb, of slippery balls, of fine legs. To be fair to Sammy, those were the days before the West Indies captaincy happened to him. Things have changed since then. His last sign of flair was on January 10 when he tweeted: “Nurses needed@ the Sir viv stadium, windwards team will be in labor,contractions from 4pm. STARS WILL BE BORN.” And this is a tamer version of the old Sammy.It is fair to say that captaincy has mellowed down the tweeter in Sammy. It is a sign of the responsibility that captaincy of a group of islands with a proud cricketing history brings. Sammy also knows that captaincy brings with itself another responsibility: that of individual performance to be able to command the respect of a disparate team, to justify his selection as a player first. While he has successfully established a measure of control on his tweeting, the same can’t be emphatically said on the performance front.In ODIs, Sammy last took a wicket against a Test-playing nation in February 2010. As captain, he averages 75.33 with the ball and 8.5 with the bat. Then again, he is not the kind of cricketer that will be done justice to by numbers alone. Sammy the cricketer is the exact opposite of Sammy the tweeter. No one expects him to set the world on fire with either his batting or bowling. What stood out before Sammy became the captain was that he was the hard-working kind, the sensible head in a team that has now earned a reputation of not always playing sensible cricket, of not always fighting till the bitter end.Darren Sammy doesn’t have the flair, but he has the passion•AFP

Sammy didn’t have the flair, but he had passion. Then again, the first question when he was named captain was, how far passion and hard work alone would carry him. Especially when bits-and-pieces players like him don’t quite have the comfort of match-winning brilliance to fall back on. The rope is usually shorter for such players. The cold fact right now remains that Sammy bats too low for a non-threatening medium-pacer as himself to be termed an allrounder. Questions will be asked when he is the captain of the side too. In fact questions are being asked.Sammy’s response is full of the positivity that perhaps was a factor when he was named captain. “As a captain, you’d want to perform,” Sammy said on the eve of the crucial match against Bangladesh in Mirpur. “For me I always feel like I am only one great performance away. I have the right mindset to lead the team, and the team is responding, and I am aware of my own personal form. The kind of person I am, the kind of mentality I have, I am only one performance away from being at my best. That’s how I see it.”To make matters worse, West Indies have lost Dwayne Bravo to injury. Sammy says they have been using the loss of Bravo as their inspiration. It should also come as an opportunity for Sammy to push himself slightly higher up in the order, and also bowl more overs and look to take wickets with the ball. West Indies have never been ranked so low going into a World Cup, in terms of ICC ratings and expectations. The opponents generally still fear one of those Chris Gayle days, but not much else, especially with Bravo out of the equation. A significant performance from Sammy would go a long way in disproving that notion. He could tweet about it then.

Tuesday’s game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore was a template of how, finally, the Indian cricket fan’s experience could match up to the best.

George Binoy at the Chinnaswamy Stadium16-Mar-2010Spectators in India, for too long, have had to tolerate sub-standard conditions•Getty Images

A smooth entry: “Quite long queues, don’t wait too long [to leave for the stadium]” warned a colleague already at the Chinnaswamy. Entering a stadium in India can be an unforgettably unpleasant experience because of aforementioned queues, bottleneck entry points and the slow processing of tickets and security checks by officious policemen.The security was tight today but unobtrusive – spectators got in quickly, past the impressive electronic turnstiles, were frisked smoothly and reached their seats without constantly thinking it would have been easier to watch the game on television. All along the way there were enough volunteers to help with directions and in easing the rush.Don’t bring your own, we’ll give you some: The list of items spectators are forbidden to bring with them is long and all encompassing. You wouldn’t get in with a large flag, or something to create a din with. But the organisers were handing it all out. ‘Cheer kits’, Royal Challenger flags, inflatable noisemakers and more. The props were everywhere and the fans used them. The result was a sea of waving flags and an awful din.F&B: The last time around, even expensive seats at IPL games witnessed an unseemly rush for food, a shortage of water and fights at the wine and beer counters. There’s no liquor on sale this time but plenty of food and beverages – even pizzas delivered to your seat, fairly warm and tempting – and, crucially, lots of free bottled water. That may seem trivial to cricket fans elsewhere but a huge step up from the regular in-stadia food and drink in India.Play the funky music : A clever compere knows how to work the crowd, and picks the right moments to rouse them. Today’s DJ had his moments. In the ninth over Anil Kumble stopped two powerful drives from Ravi Bopara off his own bowling. The second one hurt him and he walked away, calling for the physio to come and attend to his hand. The compere urged the crowd to get behind their captain, beginning the chant of “Jumbo, Jumbo”. It caught on quickly and soon “R-C-B, R-C-B” became the rallying call as Punjab’s openers forged a threatening partnership.He then played his music – theme songs for both Bangalore and Punjab – and repeatedly urged the crowd to cheer whenever the cricket stopped: in between balls, between overs, during time-outs. It was incessant and an assault on the senses of the more sedate cricket fan who’d also want to pay attention to field placements, bowling changes and other minutiae. But if the proof of the pudding is in the eating, there was dancing in the aisles, on chairs, and on some walls too.The local connection: Pick your players with care. Bangalore have made a concerted effort to build domestic talent within their team. They bought Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa, Karnataka players who were Mumbai Indians in 2008, and when they batted today, the crowd responded magnificently.Admittedly they didn’t have much to cheer for while Punjab were stacking up 203, but there was a terrific atmosphere when Pandey began to tee off. The noise built to a crescendo when Uthappa, at No. 3, overtook Kallis during a game-changing half-century. He felt it too. “It’s a great feeling when you get that sort of backing in front of your home crowd,” Uthappa said. “I feel very much an integral part of the side now [after shifting from Mumbai].”It’s not just television: The IPL’s big bucks come from selling television rights. Ticket sales make up only a tiny percentage of the revenue. However, to achieve their goal of building a fan base for each of franchises, and filling stadiums, the organisers would do well to follow Bangalore’s example. Kolkata already had a faithful following. Not all of the others do.Location, location, location: The modern trend of building stadiums in the middle of nowhere, as in Nagpur and Hyderabad, has its advantages but the Chinnaswamy’s location in the heart of Bangalore puts it right at the top of the pile. Where else in India can you come out of a cricket ground and, within a five-minute walk, be in the city centre? Where else, indeed, is the weather pleasant enough to walk around the square mile of pubs and restaurants?The complaints: It’d also be nice if none of the seats were broken, especially if the ticket costs Rs. 2750.