Merv Hughes was a selector until two months ago, but even he was caught off guard by Michael Beer’s call-up for this week’s Perth Test

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Dec-2010Merv Hughes was a selector until two months ago, but even he was caught off guard by Michael Beer’s call-up for this week’s Perth Test. The inclusion of the left-arm spinner Beer, who played the first of his five first-class games in October, was a major surprise given the delicate state of the series, which England leads 1-0.”I must admit I was a little bit blown away by it,” Hughes told the . “Having been in the selection system for the last five years you know the process that they watch the games and obviously he’s impressed the selectors at the games he’s played this year. I actually didn’t hear the team. Someone said a left-armer from WA had been picked, I actually thought it might have been Aaron Heal.”The chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch, said of the decision that having a left-arm orthodox spinner would be a good option for Australia in the future. The first one they tried, Xavier Doherty, was axed after two Tests, and Steve O’Keefe, who played in the Australia A match against England in November was surprisingly overlooked.”Three weeks ago when he wasn’t picked for the Australian A team they couldn’t have been thinking about him then because they played [Steve] Smith and O’Keefe in that game,” Hughes said. “Michael Beer’s a huge surprise. I would have thought there would have been a couple of players in front of him, but I haven’t seen games this year.”Beer moved to Western Australia from Melbourne during the 2010 off-season and Hughes said during his time as a selector he had not seen him play. However, despite being surprised by the call-up, Hughes said he had no reason to think Beer would not be up to the task if he plays at the WACA.”Since Adelaide everyone’s been crying out for change and when they make a change everyone sits back and asks why,” Hughes said. “We can’t cry out for change then question why it’s been done. Give the kid a chance, I hope he goes really well. I’m surprised but I’m also excited for him.”

New Glamorgan captain Alviro Petersen has held talks with unhappy batsman Tom Maynard over his future

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jan-2011New Glamorgan captain Alviro Petersen has held talks with unhappy batsman Tom Maynard over his future.Maynard handed in his notice to leave Glamorgan after his father, former England batsman Matthew, controversially left his position as director of cricket last November.Matthew Maynard resigned after Colin Metson was appointed head of coaching and Petersen to the club’s captaincy. But after meeting Tom Maynard to discuss the situation, Petersen said: “It’s been a positive discussion.”Petersen, the South Africa opening batsman, took over from Jamie Dalrymple, who promptly followed Maynard through the exit door, as did president Peter Walker in a tumultuous period for the club. Petersen told BBC Sport Wales: “Tom came to my hotel and we sat down for an hour-and-a-half, two-hours and really talked about it. I obviously saw another side of Tom, who is very boyish and really wants to play cricket and hopefully play for England one day.”I assured Tom that I will never stand in his way of playing for England or staying at the club. It’s really up to him. He must make that decision and whether Tom stays here or moves on, I can assure you that Glamorgan cricket will still live on.”It’s been a positive discussion. We really sat down and spoke about it – different issues – and we all know that he’s a very good player and he’s got a lot of potential, but I think it’s important that he must make that decision. I don’t want to make any decisions for him. What I can say is that I will do my bit in leading Glamorgan and Tom must decide if he wants to be part of that.”Glamorgan chief executive, Alan Hamer, has suggested that they will allow the 21-year-old Maynard to find another county, but has made it clear that they would expect compensation for the player. Tom Maynard signed a three-year contract that is set to run until 2013 before his father quit, saying his position was “untenable”.

Several leading players have added their voices to the debate over the involvement of Associate nations in future World Cups

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Feb-2011Several leading players have added their voices to the debate over the involvement of Associate nations in future World Cups, with England offspinner Graeme Swann asking: “Why would you want to take the world out of the World Cup?”Under current ICC proposals the Associate nations could be excluded from future World Cups from 2015, when the tournament could be reduced to just 10 teams, but Swann and a number of other cricketers from Test-playing nations interviewed by disagree with the move. “Yes, of course the emerging nations should stay in it,” added Swann. “Shocks can happen.”While a bloated World Cup schedule and a preponderance of one-sided, uneven games in the early stages of the world tournament have drawn criticism in the past, it appears that the players themselves would not like to see the so-called ‘minnows’ excluded.”There’s no reason why you can’t have those teams in the competition,” added Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait. “To play against the best players and sides in the world is massive and I wouldn’t want to take that away from anyone.”AB de Villiers added that he saw value in the smaller nations’ involvement in major tournaments. “It makes it more colourful and it’s good for the growth of the game,” he said. “Playing on the subcontinent levels things out and they can be harder than the best teams because their bowlers are slower and it makes it tough for batsmen.”Brendon McCullum was not unequivocal in his backing of Associate involvement in the World Cup, but did highlight the potential for smaller nations to inflict embarrassing defeats. “It’s great from their perspective that they’re there,” he said. “Does it diminish the value of the tournament? I’m not entirely sure. They’re in at this stage, so we should respect that. It’s a little bit scary actually. All you think about is playing the knockouts, winning the big games. But to be part of the big moments you’ve got to overcome the banana-skin games.”Indian batsman Suresh Raina added that he believed it was only fair that the Associates play in the World Cup as they don’t take part in big international series and need some way to learn and improve, and veteran Kenya batsman Steve Tikolo strongly echoed his sentiments.”The World Cup offers us the chance to test ourselves against the Test nations which we rarely do nowadays,” said Tikolo, who was part of Kenyan teams that beat West Indies at the 1996 event and reached the Semi Finals in 2003. “If we can do well, then we can really push our case to have more games against the bigger teams. They’re the matches that everyone will judge us by.”The ICC have indicated that they are yet to make a final decision on qualification procedures for the 2015 World Cup and have made the seemingly placatory move of announcing plans to expand the World Twenty20 to 16 teams. “How the 10 members are to be determined is still to be decided,” insisted Dave Richardson, the ICC’s general manager for cricket. “It could be the full members only but it could be not.”

JP Duminy orchestrated a fightback which hauled South Africa to a challenging total before India’s batsmen, barring Virat Kohli, folded on a sluggish Port Elizabeth pitch

The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran21-Jan-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Virat Kohli batted fluently but kept running out of partners•AFP

JP Duminy orchestrated a South African fightback to level the series after India had seemed set for a maiden series win in the country. The hosts had collapsed to 118 for 5 through a combination of some headless-chicken running and constricting bowling from India’s part-time spinners. But Duminy’s responsible knock hauled South Africa to a challenging total before India’s batsmen, barring Virat Kohli, folded on a sluggish Port Elizabeth pitch.On a blustery day, Hashim Amla returned to his awesome run-scoring form. He took his time initially assessing the pitch in the early overs, but soon unfurled his full range of strokes to pick up plenty of boundaries. Zaheer Khan was punched past backward point and later pulled to midwicket, Munaf Patel was crunched past mid-off while Ashish Nehra was caressed past extra cover. A slash to third man off Yuvraj Singh brought Amla his 12th half-century, during which he broke Zaheer Abbas’ 28-year record for the fastest man to make 2000 ODI runs.Graeme Smith rarely found the middle of the bat or his timing and finally miscued an attempted swat to mid-off. Morne van Wyk, a surprise pick in South Africa’s World Cup squad who was playing his first one-dayer in more than three years, proved a more solid partner to Amla. Yuvraj Singh and the other part-timers were getting the ball to turn, though it was slow spin, but one of those deliveries moved enough to take the outside edge of van Wyk’s bat to fly to first slip.South Africa were 106 for 2, but India edged ahead when a mistimed pull from Amla trickled towards short fine leg, just outside the inner circle – Amla went for a suicidal second run and it ended in suicide, as he was caught well short.The worries increased for South Africa when Yuvraj prised out another big wicket in the next over, that of AB de Villiers, adjudged caught-behind though it was unclear whether he edged the ball, but he can’t complain much as he was stumped as well off that delivery. The misery continued when Faf du Plessis, who made such a composed half-century on debut on Tuesday, perished to some senseless running.Duminy and Johan Botha then set about ensuring South Africa built a competitive score. Duminy cut out the Hollywood shots and nudged the ball around for singles, while Botha hit a series of leg-side boundaries, the pick of which was an effortless flick off Zaheer. Yuvraj ended that stand at 70, getting his third wicket with a tossed-up delivery that beat Botha’s sweep.Eyebrows were raised when left-arm spinner Robin Peterson was picked ahead of highly rated legspinner Imran Tahir, but he responded with an important 31, which ended with him sacrificing his wicket to save Duminy.Duminy, meanwhile, had brought up his fourth half-century in five innings with a gorgeous off-drive, and eased South Africa’s concerns over the performance of their lower-middle order. With four wickets still remaining heading into the batting Powerplay, Duminy helped plunder 45 runs off the final five overs and India’s batsmen had a challenge ahead of them.The Indian chase got off to a dreadful start as Rohit Sharma’s batting woes continued, chasing and missing the first two deliveries from Lonwabo Tsotsobe, being carving the third to backward point. The other opener Parthiv Patel, who has had only one net session to adapt to South African conditions after flying in as a replacement for Sachin Tendulkar, was in far better touch but in the 10th over he was lbw missing a full delivery from Tsotsobe.Kohli was the bright spot of the day for India, playing one of his finest international innings. He started with a couple of classy extra cover drives and was rarely troubled on a track where most found shot-making difficult. He was a touch tied down against the quicks , but opened out against the amiable left-arm spin of Peterson. Kohli hammered Peterson for 32 runs off 21 deliveries, including two effortless sixes over long-off.While Kohli was crafting a stunning innings which will further his case for a starting spot in the World Cup, the rest of the middle order stuttered. Yuvraj fell to an outstanding diving catch from Smith after top-edging a paddle-sweep, Suresh Raina hung around for a while without really convincing , before missing an arm-ball from Peterson. India’s hopes evaporated when MS Dhoni was dismissed after scratching around for eight balls, and lower-order game-changer Yusuf Pathan lasted all off three balls.At 128 for 6, even with Kohli unbeaten on 76, the game was up for India. The climax was drawn out by a 50-minute rain interruption ,after which there was eight balls of play before the showers returned and South Africa were declared winners on the D/L method.The series-levelling victory sets up a decider in Centurion on Sunday, though that match could be affected by rain.

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.

Graeme Swann has said slow bowlers who don’t attempt to give the ball a rip should be cast out of English cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Apr-2011Graeme Swann has said slow bowlers who don’t attempt to give the ball a rip should be cast out of English cricket. As a devotee of the hard spun off-break, Swann has grown to become perhaps the most accomplished finger spinner in the world, and had no time for ‘rollers’ who trotted up to the wicket and landed the ball with accuracy but no fizz.”They should be banished from the first-class game. It winds me up, if you are a spinner, spin the ball,” Swann told . “I have never, ever seen the point of bowling without trying to spin the ball. It’s been my bugbear that I have seen some young spinners come up who have got lovely control and land it nicely but don’t try to turn it. I really like watching the ball fizzing down. That’s why I always like watching Shane Warne bowl, [Muttiah] Muralitharan bowl, these guys who really try and spin it, these are the guys I really try to emulate.”Trying to spin the ball and actually turning it can be two quite different things, as hard pitches will often preclude a finger spinner from extracting much life. It is for this reason Swann rates his spell to Michael Clarke at the MCG during the fourth Ashes Test as the best of his career.”That’s the best I bowled for England, I hardly bowled a bad ball,” he said. “It wasn’t turning at all but I still managed to get a lot of drift and maintain pressure for the seamers at the other end. I regard that as my finest performance with the ball.”My role turned into very much a holding role, allowing the seamers to build up pressure at the other end. All I did was try and bowl dot balls. I thought aside from the Perth game [second Test] I was able to do that so I was very happy.”Ahead of Swann is a home series against India, the world’s No. 1 Test nation, and he had little hesitation picking out Sachin Tendulkar as an opponent of interest.”You make challenges within your own head. I always look at the team sheet beforehand and target the batsmen I want to get out and it’s always the best player, it gives me personal satisfaction getting the best players out,” he said.”Sachin Tendulkar is the best player the game has had in my lifetime so it’s always a pleasure to play against him. But hopefully I won’t get to bowl to him too much this year because that would mean Jimmy Anderson is doing his job at the top of the order.”

West Indies Under-19s took Australia Under-19s last six wickets in their second innings for 41 runs and managed to win the three-day game in Dubai by four wickets

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Apr-2011
ScorecardWest Indies Under-19s took Australia Under-19s last six wickets in their second innings for 41 runs and managed to win the three-day game in Dubai by four wickets. At 187 for 4, Australia looked like they had done enough to earn a draw, but seamer Derone Davis and spinner Kavem Hodge rant through the middle order and tail to set up a 153-run chase.Kraigg Brathwaite and Akeem Saunders took West Indies to 105 for 1, and though five quick wickets fell after that, their side got home. Legspinner Ashton Agar, who didn’t bowl in the first innings, caused the flutter in the chase, and finished with 4 for 59.Before Australia’s late collapse half-centuries from Nick Stevens and Cameron Bancroft had taken them to a seemingly safe position. The win means West Indies have emerged victors in both the fifty-over match series, which they won 2-1, and the one-off Youth Test.

Steven Finn’s performance in the Lions match at Derby has been the story of his season – feeling like he’s bowling well without getting the rewards to show for it

Andrew McGlashan21-May-2011Steven Finn’s performance in the Lions match at Derby has been the story of his season – feeling like he’s bowling well without getting the rewards to show for it. He went wicketless in the first innings, but claimed two important scalps in the second to help the Lions begin the process of chipping away at the Sri Lankans after an opening stand of 200.With Tim Bresnan suffering a torn calf there is a pace-bowling vacancy in the England squad which will be announced on Monday, although the chosen player is unlikely to play in Cardiff ahead of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett.Finn has fallen down the pecking order since being dropped after the third Ashes Test and Ajmal Shahzad, who has taken three wickets in the Lions match, is at the head of the queue. Finn, though, believes he has made significant strides since Australia and is far more comfortable with his own game.”The figures don’t suggest that I bowled particularly well, but this is probably the best I’ve felt this season,” he said. “This season I’ve felt a lot better than before, and a marked improvement on where I was in Australia.””I’ve been steady and consistent but haven’t quite had the eye-catching performances. But I feel far better about my cricket, and in far better place than I did when I was in Australia.”However, Finn understands that there is now huge competition for England’s fast-bowling places. He is ready to deal with the disappointment of not being in the line-up at the start of the season, but has set his sights on proving his worth.”There are guys who performed very well in Australia and people who’ve done very well in domestic cricket this season and have been taking wickets,” he said. “I’m open to criticism, and I didn’t bowl as well as I should or could have done in Australia. To come back on to home soil and have a chance to put that right has been great. I’ve always got something to prove to people that I’m good enough to get into any given Test squad.”Finn’s two wickets of Tillakaratne Dilshan, who made a 110-ball 117, and Kumar Sangakkara meant the Lions were able to regain their grip on the match during the afternoon session. Overall, though, it was a much-improved display from the visitors and with Thilan Samarweera still at the crease they’ll hope to extend the lead beyond 200 on the final day.”We applied ourselves a lot better today,” Stuart Law, Sri Lanka’s coach, said. “I think we learnt from the first innings. These are very different conditions from where the boys have come from. The ball has swung, there has been a bit of pace and bounce in the pitch and the England guys have bowled very well.”While Dilshan played the most entertaining innings, the role of Tharanga Paranavitana was equally important and Law believes he can play a vital role in the Test series. “He’s only played a few games of Test cricket but he’s really impressed,” he said. “He got a hundred against India last year and can certainly play. He’s the perfect foil for Dilshan who just plays his game while he digs in and did that beautifully today.”

Kolkata Knight Riders had their Champions League debut all but booked when they began the last over with 21 to defend

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga22-May-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
James Franklin followed up his two wickets with a match-winning 45•Associated Press

Kolkata Knight Riders had their Champions League debut all but booked when they began the last over with 21 to defend. Three edged boundaries off L Balaji and two missed yorkers later, James Franklin and Ambati Rayudu had seen Mumbai Indians to a highly unlikely win, breaking their three-match losing streak. The win set up a repeat clash between the two teams in the eliminator, an equivalent of a quarter-final.In all the chaos of the last over, which stunned the full house at Eden Gardens, Chennai Super Kings emerged the biggest gainers. Had Kolkata won the game, which they should have despite all those edges, Chennai would have finished third, and would have had to win two games in order to make the final. Now they need win only one of the two.Mumbai gained too: they needed to finish the chase off in 5.1 overs to make it to the top two, but by beating Kolkata they could have ensured a psychological advantage in their eliminator. For the best part of their 19 overs of batting, Mumbai scarcely looked like a team that could do so. Iqbal Abdulla removed T Suman in the second over, the pinch-hitter Harbhajan Singh managed 30 off 29, and Rajat Bhatia’s leg-rollers broke the batting order’s back with thee wickets in three overs.At 96 for 4 in the 13th over, it seemed too much was left for Kieron Pollard and Franklin. Pollard lived up to that expectation, but Franklin kept the fight up mostly with well-placed couples. A six and a four in between meant Mumbai were not completely out of it even when Balaji ripped Pollard’s leg stump out with 40 required off 15.If this was robbery in broad floodlights, Kolkata weren’t the most vigilant victims either. As much as the edged boundaries in the last over, Kolkata will also look back at little moments towards the end that proved to be decisive. Balaji bowled a wide with one ball left in the 18th over, and Ambati Rayudu lofted the compensation delivery over extra cover for a six. It wouldn’t be Rayudu’s last six of the night.The last ball of the 19th over hit Rayudu in the pad and rolled towards the keeper. The batsmen had all but stolen a leg-bye when wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami went for a direct hit, and conceded an overthrow. That kept Franklin – 28 off 18 now – on strike for the last over. L Balaji went for a wide yorker first ball, and a thick edge off the low full toss went between the keeper and the short third man. A slower bouncer followed, and the tope edge cleared the keeper again. Thirteen off four now looked so much more gettable.Balaji went back to the wide-yorker plan, and Franklin smacked the next low full toss past extra cover for four. Under pressure and in the face of some ill luck, Balaji was just not landing them right. The next ball was a low, wide full toss again, and another thick edge beat third man to make it five of two. The next low full toss found extra cover, and brought Kolkata some relief. However, just then Balaji chose to bowl the worst delivery of the over – a high full toss on the pads – and Rayudu helped himself to his second, and decisive, six.The stunned Eden gardens crowd could scarcely believe what they were seeing after they had cheered their team all night to what looked like a comfortable win. Most of it was thanks to Jacques Kallis who batted solidly at first and rapaciously towards the end. Along the way he was helped by breezy 30s from Manoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan, but it was Kallis who provided the innings the final impetus with 19 off the last five balls he faced. It was fitting then that the man who minimised the damage with the wickets of Kallis and Yusuf was none other than Franklin.

Gloucestershire leapfrogged hosts Surrey to move into County Championship promotion contention after achieving a determined four-wicket win at The Oval

21-Jun-2011
Scorecard
Gloucestershire leapfrogged hosts Surrey to move into County Championship promotion contention after achieving a determined four-wicket win at The Oval.Having taken Surrey’s five remaining second-innings wickets for 16 runs in the space of 41 balls during the opening session of day three, the West Country visitors recovered from a batting slump of their own to eventually land a 21-point victory with a day to spare.Gloucestershire’s undoubted heroes of the day were middle-order batsman Alex Gidman and muscular paceman Ian Saxelby, who bent his back to deserve career-best figures of 6 for 69 and a personal best match return of 11 for 142. Saxelby started the Surrey rout 16 overs into the day by removing Gareth Batty for 23. Dropped behind in the previous over after nicking a back-foot force, Batty went without addition when edging an airy drive to wicketkeeper Richard Coughtrie.After adding only 14 to his overnight score of 61 in just over an hour the vigil of Mark Ramprakash was brought to an abrupt end by a good delivery from Jonathan Lewis that jagged in off the seam and kept low to snare the right-hander leg before.Saxelby then helped run through the tail by having Yasir Arafat caught low down at slip and Tim Linley caught at the wicket, while last man Jade Dernbach holed out to long-on against Lewis to leave Gloucestershire a victory target of 160.The visitors looked comfortable in reaching 33 without loss soon after lunch, but the loss of five wickets for 21 runs in the space on nine overs left Gloucestershire with plenty to do. Hamish Marshall and Kane Williamson fell in consecutive deliveries from Yasir Arafat and although Chris Taylor survived the hat-trick ball he was soon walking back after edging a leg-side waft to the keeper against the same bowler.Gloucestershire appeared in trouble when Linley chipped in with the wickets of Chris Dent, superbly caught one-handed at third slip by Tom Maynard, and then Will Gidman caught behind after following an away-swinger, to make it 54 for 5. However, Alex Gidman found a willing ally in Coughtrie and together the sixth-wicket partners added 67 inside 18 overs to break the back of their run chase.Coughtrie finally had his off stump trimmed by Linley after scoring 10 in 72 minutes, but Gidman marched on to reach a 77-ball half-century and ultimately see the job through. An upright, well-organised right-hander who came into this game with an excellent championship average against Surrey of 64.23, Gidman maintained his form with an unbeaten 76. He watched from the other end as Ed Young clattered successive fours against Linley to clinch the win.Arafat, with season’s best figures of 3 for 49, was the pick of Surrey’s all-seam attack but why Brown Caps skipper Hamilton-Brown steadfastly refused to introduce experienced off-spinner Gareth Batty, even though the match situation seemingly demanded a change in tactics and pace, remained a mystery.