Six quick singles – a rose amongst thorns

After a run-filled November, December has been a return to the “bad old days” of domestic cricket – inclement weather, cavalier batting and totals that would raise the wrath of club coaches. Colin Munro continued his dominance in Kingsland but Otago’s Dr Jekyll won out over Mr Hyde. Northern Districts’ James Marshall showed loyalty is a virtue, but his female contemporary Nicola Browne took the early honours, setting a new benchmark in the women’s game.

Northern Districts 200 (G Andrew 3/46, R McCone 4/48; 73.5 overs) and 410/5 decl. (J Yovich 128, J Marshall 61, D Mitchell 73, BJ Watling 68*, C Anderson 69*; 122.0 overs) drew with Canterbury 186 (G Andrew 89, B Arnel 3/48, G Aldridge 5/45; 45.3 overs) and 112/2 (P Fulton 68*; 33.5 overs) at Seddon Park, Hamilton

Auckland 196 (C Munro 59, I Butler 5/57; 51.2 overs) and 274 (C Munro 118, I Butler 4/61; 56.4 overs) lost to Otago 253 (A Redmond 98, H Rutherford 70, D Bartlett 5/53; 97.0 overs) and 223/7 (N McCullum 77, C Martin 3/62, M McClenaghan 3/48; 60.3 overs) by 3 wickets at Eden Park Outer Oval, Auckland

T20 legends - that never were... (Part 2: bowlers)

With the top six selected and the base for huge totals built, it’s time to look at a quintet of bowlers who could defend any total or destroy the mojo of even the most confident of batting line-ups. Given the size of T20 squads, I’ve added a handful of other players  - the old boys might need a rest!

To recap, the top six batsmen: Roy Fredericks, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Dean Jones, Sir Viv Richards, Mark Waugh and Clive Lloyd (Captain).

7. Wasim Akram (Pakistan)
Matches: 356. Bowling - Wickets: 502, Average: 23.52, Economy Rate: 3.89, Strike Rate: 36.2
Batting - Runs: 3717, Average: 16.52, Strike Rate: 88.33 (all ODI statistics)
With Waqar, Wasim wrecked the confidence of batsmen the world over. One of the greatest left arm quicks of all time, Wasim could swing it both ways, change his pace before it was called a ‘change-up’ and bowl one of the most lethal yorkers in the game. With bat in hand, he wandered between disinterested and sublime, but on his day could change the outcome of any match.

8. Kapil Dev (India)
Matches: 255. Bowling - Wickets: 253, Average: 27.45, Economy Rate: 3.71, Strike Rate: 44.2
Batting - Runs: 3783, Average: 23.79, Strike Rate: 95.07
Kapil broke the mould as an Indian fast bowler - a career of nightmares. He had marvellous control, was as accurate as Scrooge counting his millions and could swing the ball in any conditions. He backed it up with unbridled batting power and a relentless confidence. Eddie Hemmings can vouch for that - Kapil smashed him for four consecutive sixes in a test at Lord’s to avoid the follow-on when India were nine down.

9. Curtly Ambrose (West Indies)
Matches: 176, Wickets: 225, Average: 24.12, Economy Rate: 3.48, Strike Rate: 41.5
A silent assassin, a rare trait in a true quick, Curtly was nothing short of lethal. At 6ft. 7in. and delivering the ball from almost 10ft., Ambrose could get the ball to rise freakishly off a length. He had express pace, was unerringly accurate and seemingly had the ball on a string. He let his bowling do the talking and it could really chatter – ask Dean Jones; he bore the full force after asking Ambrose to remove his trademark wristbands during a WSC match.

10. Dennis Lillee (Australia)
Matches: 63, Wickets: 103, Average: 20.82, Economy Rate: 3.58, Strike Rate: 34.8
The inspiration for another great bowler, Sir Richard Hadlee, Lillee could do it all. Even after remodelling his action, Lillee’s effectiveness was never questioned. When he returned from a back injury that would have ended most careers, he had added to his battery and was seen as the bowler aspiring cricketers should model themselves on. In today’s T20 where bowlers need the ability to bowl six different deliveries an over, he’d need to pick and choose which of his options he should bowl such was his arsenal.

11. Derek Underwood (England)
Matches: 26, Wickets: 32, Average: 22.93, Economy Rate: 3.44, Strike Rate: 39.9
All I know of ‘Deadly’ is what I’ve read and been told. I once questioned England’s ability to produce truly world-class spinners and was told in no uncertain terms I should do my research! Underwood was deadly accurate, as miserly as a pensioner living on an estate, and bowled at a sharp pace for a spinner. In today’s game his ability to change his pace with such well-honed control would make him a handful on any surface.

12th man: Wasim Raja (Pakistan)
Matches: 54. Batting - Runs: 782, Average: 22.34, Strike Rate: 66.95
Bowling - Wickets: 21, Average: 32.71, Economy Rate: 3.97, Strike Rate: 49.3
Wasim was one of the most natural cricketers I have seen, and from all I have read he would have been a mainstay in the Pakistan side had it not been for politics. As it was, he was a batsman who could destroy any attack with nonchalance and was equally proficient against Windies pace or Indian spin. Legend has it that in his late teens he would face his contemporary, Imran Khan, in the nets without batting pads. His underrated leg spin often broke partnerships and he patrolled the covers like a tiger stalking his prey. Only the good die young – in Wasim’s case, truer words were never spoken.

Wider squad:
Lance Klusener (South Africa)
‘Zulu’ possessed unrivalled, if unorthodox, batting power – good runs at a very quick clip. As a fast-medium bowler he was handy through the middle with the ability to surprise batsmen with unexpected bursts of genuine pace.

Sir Ian Botham (England)
Sir Ian would have got a lot of wickets with his slow bouncer and his ability to produce a breakthrough when it was most needed. With bat in hand, and when in the mood, no boundary rope would have been a journey too far.

Malcolm Marshall (West Indies)
The thinking man’s fast bowler, Marshall’s arsenal was extensive – all delivered at break neck speed and without an obvious change in his action. He would have run riot in the modern game. His premature passing robbed future generations of a fantastic fast bowling mentor.

Carl Hooper (West Indies)
As laid back as the King of T20, Chris Gayle, Hooper’s footwork to the spinners and ability to play every shot in the book was only rivalled by Mark Waugh. His gentle off spinners would provide captains with another option, rounded out by his immense ability in the field.

Imran Khan (Pakistan)
One of the few all-rounders in world cricket who could have played as either a batsman or a bowler, Khan sits near of the top of the game’s greats. He took Pakistan, a side languishing as an also-ran, all the way to 1992 World Cup victory before signing off as a national hero.

Andy Flower (Zimbabwe)
A world-class batsman who often bore the weight of a nation on his shoulders, the diminutive Zimbabwean ran Kaluwitharana close for the gloves in my starting eleven. He lacked brute strength as a batsman but more than compensated with precision and pure natural talent.

Lance Cairns (New Zealand)
Lance was a legendary figure in New Zealand for his enormous hits with a shoulderless bat, Excalibur. He struck at over 100 and in one memorable innings at the MCG smashed six huge sixes, some with one hand, against a barrage of Aussie quicks. His wrong-footed bowling action and large inswingers would have made him a handful in T20.

Joel Garner (West Indies)
The 6ft. 8in. Barbadian could seemingly bowl yorkers at will, and at a fierce pace. Coupled with an ability to make the ball rare up at a batsman’s throat off a good length, Big Bird would have been an asset to his captain in any era. 

Coach: Martin Crowe (New Zealand)
A close run thing to make the playing squad, Crowe was a hands down choice for the coaching role. Cast your mind back to the 1992 World Cup when he lead an aging NZ side, ironically tagged ‘The Young Guns’, to the brink of a semi-final win before a young Inzamam ul-Haq stole the game away. He innovated with an off spinner opening the bowling and an opening batsman walking at the bowlers and crashing it from ball one. If you need more evidence, Google – Cricket Max; the T20 format owes a lot to a Kiwi visionary.

Besides having the opportunity to research some fantastic players, the best part of developing this side? I’m in the enviable position that my team will never take to the field, and hence I’ll never be thrown under the roller as a convenient scapegoat!

A seaming wicket in 2012?

It may not be a new cricket season but it's a new year; time for resolutions, changes and phoenix-like risings from the ashes (or the Ashes?). The face of our great game continued to evolve throughout 2011 but much of it was more akin to that performed by a plastic surgeon than the leisurely seasonal growth cricket has become accustomed to in years past.

As something of a traditionalist, I may not look upon such changes fondly, but there is little doubt the previous few years will be reflected upon as the current protagonists begin to age. Whether that reflection is tinged with joy or disdain will only be realised in the fullness of time; many of the decisions of today may not bear fruit, or poison the orchard, so to speak, until the next generation of cricketers don the whites - though in fact, the only thing white remaining may be the colour of the ball....

Writing a blog isn’t overly natural for me, but musings about the relative merits of the 1980’s/1990’s Windies sides and Steve Waugh’s all conquering Australians, whether T20 is ruining modern cricket, or if the BCCI is in fact holding the cricketing world to ransom, are far better shared and discussed in an open forum than trying to argue both sides in my head. So, in essence, that’s what this is all about; that, and not using my wife as a sounding board for discussions on The Don and Dr. Grace. I have no illusions of conquering the world of cricketing journalism or topping KP for followers on Twitter, but finding a medium to air my views, and reading the views of others, as opposed to the dissenting voices in my head, has merit.

A little of myself then, if only to provide context to my mutterings. Tendulkar, Dravid, even Ponting are slightly outscoring me in years, but in talent, we are poles apart. At one time, I knew which end of a bat to hold, but I haven’t picked one up in anger in 13 years -  the season I was coaxed into playing six or seven years ago brought about little more than a whimper. Most of my cricketing memories are more of those I played with and against than any personal achievement, though I will always treasure the two international scalps I took; they were cricket internationals, I was not! My son isn’t yet old enough to wield the willow with any ferocity, and whilst I would love to see him spending his summers toiling away in the middle, I have no wish to live vicariously through him – he’ll make his own choices when he’s ready.  

I live in possibly the greatest country on earth, New Zealand, and whilst I have followed the varying fortunes of New Zealand cricket (not the Black Caps – we’re not a franchise) relentlessly since the 1980s, my idols were not Sir Paddles (or King Dick as Chris Kuggeleijn so eloquently put it) or Hogan. My developing years were spent in an era dominated by the mighty West Indies, and I looked and listened for any snippet of Marshall, Richards, Haynes, Lara et al., and it is that fantastic troupe of players, and their contemporaries, who shaped my enthusiasm for the game, nay religion, of cricket. I imagine that many youths of that period throughout the cricketing world were similarly uplifted by the express pace of a quartet of quicks and the sheer brutality of the belligerent Windies batsmen. If not, they missed out on a treat most of us will likely never see again. In a slightly different way, Wasim Raja, a Pakistani cricketer ahead of his time who would have taken T20 by storm, added to that love and understanding of the game. The year I worked with him in Caterham, Surrey, nearly two decades ago was one of the very best of my short life – I learnt things that neither coaching nor personal experience could ever teach me. His sad passing was a loss not only for cricket, but all who had ever met him – may he rest in peace.  

As you may have guessed, I am, to coin a phrase, a cricketing tragic. I have a large collection of cricketing tomes, signed photographs, shirts and bats, though with a young son and another on the way, the vast majority currently sit boxed in a storage facility awaiting a summer when the bride allows me a man cave or the kids fly the coup; I think the latter is more likely! It would be amiss of me not to mention a growing collection of Wisdens – the bible of cricket, and one of the most addictive pieces of collective writing I have ever read. I can settle into a test played at any time (at least I will be able to when I have them all – see the earlier comment about kids) through my little yellow books and relive some of the matches that shaped our great game.  

There’s really not a lot else of me that has any significance to this blog, but there are a few underlying reasons why I chose this year to start writing:

• One of my younger mates decided to write a travel blog, and it’s fantastic – cheers Becks 
• There are only so many sycophantic commentators (or cheerleaders, depending on your viewpoint) I can listen to without wanting to throw something at the screen; I think I’m better to write my thoughts down – it’s cheaper and hopefully more therapeutic 
• Cricket continues to be run by money and marketing men with little appreciation or understanding of our game – if you think otherwise, have a read about the man-of-the-match from the 2^nd test between Australia and New Zealand in Hobart (Google: an Australian’s lament) 
• I pass comment on a lot of other pieces of writing and blogs, all about cricket. I figured I should try sitting on the other side  
• Cricket is in a state of flux, which while disturbing, makes for compelling reading and writing, hopefully….  
• T20 continues to dominate most countries and the marketing dollars that go with that – is that the best thing for cricket’s future?

I’m not sure how regular my musings will be, but I will try and put pen to paper once a week. Next time, I might even get onto a serious cricket topic…… 

Thanks for reading; it’s good for the ego!