Is Martin Crowe all there?

Martin Crowe is getting fit with a view to a first class comeback apparently. Either the story is inaccurate, or the guy has lost it. He compares himself to Adam Parore (40) and Mark Richardson (39). He's 49. His stature in New Zealand cricket is such that you couldn't rule out the chance of him getting a first class game, but a successful second career is simply not going to happen. You have to ask who benefits from any speculation about a comeback other than Mr M Crowe, and if he does play 3 more first class matches to reach his target of 250, the only beneficiary again will be Mr M Crowe....

Different styles

Basic instructions to young cricketers include using only three words for deciding whether to run -'yes', 'no' and 'wait'. Earlier this sesason we met a number 9 batsman (who scored 75 against us, about which there should be some Law) whose calls included 'easy' for no or wait and for 'yes' he called 'twotwotwotwotwo'. Yesterday against a West Indian side we met an umpire who instead of 'play', which he seemed to think needed to be called at the beginning of each over, called 'let's get it on!'. Brilliant !
Incidentally has anyone else wondered why Puma or Craig Kieswetter think that a photograph in an advert apparently showing him pouring tea down himself will sell bats ( particularly Kieswetter himself) ?

Backing your verbal-sparring mates

As a skipper it's always tricky to keep players (a) from doing something that will mean an umpire reporting them, and (b) saying things that create unnecessary animosity with the opposition. When I say unnecessary, I'm working on the assumption that anything said on the field should be said with the intention of increasing your chances of winning. If it doesn't increase your chances of winning why say it?

I've failed on both counts this season so far with a player reported for questioning a caught behind when he was convinced it came off his elbow, opposition spectators complaining to me about the loud swearing coming from the Steyning changing room after a dismissal, and unnecessary animosity created by comments made to the batsmen while we're fielding. But I don't think the captain has any chance at all of stopping these type of things, because they're all done in the spur of the moment....there's no chance for the captain to do anything apart from stop it escalating.

It has got me thinking about how players back, or don't back, their team mates when it comes to heated verbal exchanges. In Duncan Fletcher's book he talks about his concerns about Chris Read in terms of being combative with the opposition, and mentions the example of Paul Collingwood's verbal assault on Shane Warne from slip in the 2006/07 Ashes, where Read remained silent throughout rather than chirping support for his mate. Fletcher saw this as a weakness in Read but elsewhere in his book, Fletcher explains that different approaches are needed for different batsmen and Collingwood's verbal assault was probably ill-advised as Warne is the type of player who is spurred on by sledging.

Last Saturday we were very much on the back foot as Bognor Regis coasted to a 7 wicket win. Our (Aussie - not really relevant but just thought I'd mention it!) keeper shouted out encouragement and after a few dot balls shouted that they couldn't afford too many dot balls as there was under 10 overs left. I glanced at the scoreboard from next to him at slip and could see there were 11 overs to go but didn't correct him. A couple more dot balls and he repeated the comment, only for the batsman to turn around and correct him.

The reply from our keeper was something like "Don't you ****ing talk to me you ****. **** off and concentrate on your own ****ing game". There definitely would have been more said, but I stepped in as soon as I could. My gut feel was that the comments made it less likely we'd win as the batsman would knuckle down to ensure he was there right to the end rather than potentially play a loose shot as victory was close.

The question is, should you back your verbal-sparring mates even when you don't agree with their comments? Fletcher would seem to suggest you should, and I'm sure our keeper would argue that we had nothing to lose and his comments could have induced an adrenaline-filled false stroke. But it's still something that I feel incredibly uncomfortable with....perhaps I need to field somewhere other than slip so that I can't hear it all!

Indian deaths over cricket...

You'd be amazed how many stories emerge from India about a murder or assault off the back of a disputed cricket decision or match....here's the latest.

Sri Lankan cricket history

Interesting background to the Sri Lanka Tests, explaining how they made their move to Test status nearly 30 years ago....

Sri Lanka will offer a stiff test...won't they?

Irrespective of their win against Middlesex, I've always thought that Sri Lanka will be a good test for England this summer. If the weather stays good the ball is unlikely to be swinging around corners, so England's seamers won't find life as easy as last summer against Pakistan. The ball will be doing less and they will find the Sri Lankan batsmen a little bit more if a test than Pakistan - I noticed yesterday King Cricket described Pakistan's batsmen as the "players who don't bowl" after their defeat to Pakistan! To me Sri Lanka's batting line up looks superior to England's on paper.

Interesting to see that Adam Rossington struggled. He was only 18 two weeks ago but rumour has it he's a top talent, so initial single-figure scores in first class cricket might make it a good time to make a bet on him playing for England!

Number of teams in the World Cup

It's always going to be a talking point....the number of teams that get to play at the World Cup. I'd encourage you to scroll down to the comments on this article and read the exchange between the author and "Russ". I found it pretty interesting.....and I started to wonder if my view that 10 teams was the right number, but the bottom 2 or 4 should play in the qualifiers for the right to reach the final 10, was right for the future growth of the game.

What are your views?

Still no sign of him

Anybody else notice how quiet it's been from a certain part of Yorkshire since my burble on 26 March ?

New fashion trends

You wait 50 years to see someone bat with their box outside their trousers held on by elastic straps and then you see half a team doing it, some with and some without external thigh pads. The most noticeable box on display was black.
And we still lost!

Abject Middlesex

I got to watch the Sussex v Middlesex match at Hove today and Middlesex really were terrible. The wicket wasn't fantastic but they really did give their wickets away in ways that a club team would have felt embarrassed about. David Malan chipping it straight to short cover and Neil Dexter clipping the ball straight to deep square leg were perhaps the two worst, and only Berg emerged with any credit at all.

The game was over at the half way point really, but Middlesex weren't great in the field either with Joyce and Luke Wright making the chase look absurdly easy....which it was!

I find it hard to believe that Middlesex could play worse than that, but a good day to be a Sussex supporter...

Buying wickets - a lost art?

Is buying wickets a skill that's dying out of the game? It certainly feels like that to me. Years ago the standard club cricket game was to get 250+ and declare, and then toss the ball up to ensure that a result was inevitable, taking wickets as the batting side pushed for victory. Time and time again, we won fielding second with the opposition 10 or 20 short.

These days I'm not sure a young player would know the term "buying wickets". I don't think it's about denying the opposition batting points - it's more about not risking a loss. How disappointing! For me declaration cricket is all about the tactics required to force a result but somehow that seems to be a declining part of the game.

There is a reason I've turned to this topic - our game yesterday! We won the toss and fielded, which of course means that you can't complain when the opposition doesn't let you into the game. But their tactics made a draw inevitable. Didn't they want to win? Having been in a decent position we lost 2 wickets in a few balls and two of us were at the crease on 0. One hit over the top and suddenly I was faced with deep square, deep mid-wicket, long on and long off. Not surprisingly the rate went up and up, but the field remained the same even with 10 an over needed.

It made a draw inevitable, and all we could do was play for the bonus point that came with 160, 180 and 200. But for our opposition Billingshurst it meant they had little chance of winning, even bringing back their opening medium pace bowler, rather than bowl spin from both ends. They took a wicket in the final over as we pushed for 180, but the game was over as a spectacle with 15 overs to go. They could have won the game had they been willing to risk losing it - hopefully they'll continue those tactics throughout the season when they're playing everyone else too!

Pakistan to self-destruct again?

If reports are right that Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis can't see eye to eye then Pakistan cricket is in for another self-induced implosion.

The role of the coach and captain is really interesting...one that Duncan Fletcher, the new Indian coach, talks about in his book, Behind The Shades. He was absolutely clear that the main man is the captain, and the coach is there to support him and take as much pressure off him as possible. That's probably one of the reasons he got the Indian job - MS Dhoni is the main man there and when Greg Chappell tried dictatorial tactics it was a failure.

Can Waqar Younis work with his captains rather than dictate to them? Time will tell...

Michael Clarke moves house

Yes, apparently Michael Clarke moving is big news in Australia. It comes with accompanying photos so perhaps he sold the rights to covering his house move! He's made a good start to being Aussie captain wherever he's living....

You know you're getting old when...

...England have 3 captains. And 2 of them look like they should still be wearing shorts and going to school....

Cricket headline generator

I love this cricket headline generator....rings absurdly true sadly!

Please can we have our ball back?

It seems that Obama bin Laden bribed kids playing cricket so that they didn't come into his compound to get their ball back. Playing cricket must have become quite lucrative round there....

Just in case you missed it....

You can access the audio to commentator Edward Bevan getting hit by a ball hit by Peter Trego that's come through a glass window in front of him!

Bat maintenance

Having actually spent some money on a bat for the first time I can remember (rather than my traditional tight attitude) I'm actually having to do some bat maintenance. Takes ages when you have as much tape on your bat as I did, and you have to know to take the face off by pulling it across the face rather than down it. Found that out pretty quickly. Fingers crossed that the bat isn't ruined, but at least now it has a little bit of oil on it rather than disintegrating in my hands due to total dryness. Definitely ruined my hands though which are now blistered from the sanding as I used my thumb as the block. You live and learn!

A good toss to lose

Someone in the pub last night pointed out the closeness of the results in this years Middlesex v Surrey Match ( win for the good guys by an innings and 52 runs) to the result in the same match last year ( innings and 44 runs).
The other point is that of the 2010 match Wisden says " Hamilton - Brown must have questioned his decision to bat ". I don't suppose he was overjoyed this year about his decision to field. Sometimes you just can win!

All's well in Dartmouth

You may recall that prior to a weeks visit I was very concerned that there appeared to be no cricket club there. Happy to report, however, a very happy picture. 8ish pubs have each got a team and they play in a Sunday 20/20 league on the local rec. with a game in the morning and one in the afternoon so that's 4 teams drinking together between and after games and clearly a lot of fun and practice sessions during mid week. It's also nice to see a pitch marking machine being walked along the street and a (very old - DF 405) bat used as a door stop in the best pub in town. I can also report that there's a shop where you can buy an MCC tie with no questions asked ! Doesn't the chief burbler's dad live nearby?

Alviro Petersen makes poor start

You may remember that over the off-season I was critical of the way that the Glamorgan heirarchy were managing the County, as they pushed out Jamie Dalrymple and gave Matthew Maynard no option but to resign, after a season in which they were very close to securing promotion. Of course the 4 day game is not where the money comes from and Glamorgan's lack of limited overs success was given as the reason for the turmoil.

A season that looked like it would probably end in promotion before all the changes has now started badly, and more so as the management's choice of Alviro Petersen looks questionable at this early stage. First he made comments on Twitter about his struggles, and then seems to have responded negatively to the criticism of his comments on the Reverse Sweep.

It will be interesting to see if this is a blip or the start of a management-instigated decline at Glamorgan.

Batting with a runner

I don't remember having to use a runner before but that's what happened on Saturday and it was a bit of a surreal experience sitting on my bat handle at point as my runner and batting partner decided to do the old yes, no, sorry routine with my wicket at stake! Fortunately start, stop, start, stop, start resulted in one run successfully taken and I was able to resume my innings although I soon snicked off to first slip unfortunately.

A strained right quad meant that I was able to bowl and stand at slip but understandably there were question marks from the opposition after I'd needed the runner to bat. But the only thing I couldn't do was sprint, so fingers crossed, I'll be able to carry on playing as normal but perhaps have to deal in boundaries when batting! We got the win we needed to start the season though.

Thank goodness for the IPL

No, I never thought I'd say that either...we talk about World Cups being too long, but the IPL seems to be never-ending. But with the Royal Wedding taking over everything on Friday, it was a relief to know that I could turn to ITV4 and watch a bit of the IPL.

It seems there is a cricketing/royal wedding connection though, albeit a tenuous one. Apparently the bride's sister Pippa is going out with Alex Loudon, the early-retired England one-cap wonder. Perhaps the Middleton's will be on the sideline for Old Etonian Cricketer Cup matches? This year OMTs find ourselves in the other side of the Cricketer Cup draw to Eton and Eton will do well to go far with Cranleigh in the first round, then probably Stowe, Radley and then regular finalists Tonbridge all to overcome if they're to reach the final.

Youngest County player ever

It may only be a University game but this is still pretty special - 27 days into his 16th year Barney Gibson has become the youngest County cricketer ever, breaking a record that has stood for 144 years, by playing for Yorkshire against Durham University.

Fletcher and the Indian coaching job

While the World Cup was on I read Behind the Shades- the autobiography of the new Indian coach Duncan Fletcher. A few things stood out. The first was the fact that Fletcher can't agree to disagree....he holds grudges and the whole book is an exercise in score-settling. The second is that he holds Gary Kirsten in extremely high regard and they clearly have a good relationship (the book was written before Kirsten got the India job). The third is that he makes it clear the (negative) impact the England job had on his family. And the fourth is that he's ambitious and the book demonstrates that he's been successful in all his coaching roles and wants to continue to challenge himself.

The second point means that Kirsten would have put in a good word for him in relation to the Indian coaching role (once Fletcher said he was interested) and Kirsten's word would have been taken very seriously as following the World Cup win, he is now revered for life in India. The third about the impact on his family may have been a problem for him, but the fourth point - his ambitious nature - meant that he would never let his family stop him from taking the top (and toughest) coaching job in cricket, and as they understand him presumably they wouldn't want to stop him either.

But it's the first point that makes me worry for him. Indian cricket is full of politics and back-stabbing - right now there will be a group of people who wanted someone else to be coach who will be undermining him. And there will be numerous leaks of information, something that he mentions time and time again riles him, so unless he changes his attitude he's going to have only himself to speak to for fear of a leak. How he deals with the administrative challenges of the Indian coaching role will determine how successful he is...