Reverse Swing

Glamorgan are playing Ireland tomorrow in the C and G. The Welsh haven’t had the greatest of starts to the season. Ireland, with the aid of Saqlain and Shahid Afridi beat unbeaten Gloucester today at Bristol.

The Irish are currently 3.35 on Betfair to win the game tomorrow.

joueur de cricket

Originally uploaded by indianbiologeek.

A French gloss on an Indian passion.

Either there’s no stumps or he’s a long way out of his crease.

These early season April pitches often provide movement for the seam bowlers who can find themselves among the wickets. Although it’s worth saying that you have to have the skill to put it on the right spot. So far this season a few ex-England bowlers have been mentioned by the press as possible England picks following good figures in April matches:

Andy Caddick – match figures of 9-65 for Somerset against Worcestershire

Jonathan Lewis – match figures 10-75 Gloucs against Somerset

Ryan Sidebottom 7-119 for Notts against MCC

Jonathan Lewis is the most recent of the above names to play for England, but it’s unlikely that any of these will feature in the team that faces Sri Lanka at Lords. In a way the story of the seamer forcing his way into the England reckoning on the back of good April figures is as seasonal as the pitches.

Indian left-armer Zaheer Khan also did pretty well at Worcester taking 10-140 in the match on his debut.

Thanks to Nagu for prompting this post with his comment.

It looks like Michael Vaughan will not have recovered from his knee injury in time to lead England against Sri Lanka in the first test. Besides, when coming back from injury he needs to establish his own form and fitness, and this is best done at county level. A fit Vaughan would be the first-choice captain of Duncan Fletcher and most England supporters, but the fact that remains is that Vaughan is not fit, and, at this moment, it’s difficult to say exactly when he will return.

The England selectors have the choice of going for a match by match appointment or appointing someone for the Sri Lankan series. Without actually saying it, Trescothick has virtually ruled himself out as a captain, either on a temporary or permanent basis. The choice therefore is between Strauss and Flintoff, who both had experience of captaining England in India.

Flintoff did a first-rate job in India, where he led the team to a great victory in the third test to square the series. But there’s a concern about over-burdening him, when its seven months away from the first Ashes test, with two test series and the ICC trophy scheduled before then. It’s possible that some of his bowling load against Sri Lanka could be taken on by Collingwood, where early-season conditions will benefit the Durham players’s medium pace.

I’d prefer to go for Strauss and I’d make it an appontment for the whole of the Sri Lankan series. This would give:

• Flintoff the chance to concentrate on his batting and bowling;
• Vaughan to make a complete recovery from his knee injury;
• Strauss to develop as captain: if Vaughan’s knee continues to trouble him then England will need a long-term replacement for the man who skippered them to victory in the Ashes.

There’s a poll in the right-hand margin if you want to have a vote.

Cricket always has this way of surprising you, these quick shifts in the game where it suddenly changes, and something unexpected happens.

Somerset bowled out Worcester for 161 giving them a lead of 245 on the first innings with Caddick picking up 5 -40. Looking at the scores on Cricinfo, it doesn’t even cross your mind that Somerset will do anything other than enforce the follow-on. But they don’t, and suddenly they find themselves 10 for 2.

And Worcester, while not exactly back in the game, must be encouraged about taking a couple of early wickets, including Trescothick’s, and they are certainly feeling better than they did yesterday, when they won the toss and inserted Somerset and were taken for 405, and also feeling better than an hour ago when they were bowled out and facing the follow-on.

It’s difficult to know why Matthew Wood didn’t make them follow-on – maybe Caddick and Johnson were tired, maybe there was a change in the weather conditions. It’s this kind of speculation about a captain’s decisions that adds another layer of interest to the game.

cricket

Originally uploaded by stoneroberts.

Good to see that street cricket is alive and well in England. The matting is an unusual touch. Perhaps somone has finally found a use for all of those carpet off-cuts.

The good news for Somerset fans is that Brad Hogg highly rates Dan Cullen and expects him to make the World Cup sqaud as well as appearing in the test team.

“It is good that Dan has got a crack and he has a little taste of international cricket. He is probably going to be our main spinner once Warne and MacGill go in the Test arena and hopefully he can play a big part in the one-dayers as well from now on.”

At the end of the ODI series against Bangladesh Dan Cullen will be flying to England to join his fellow Australian, Cameron White in the Somerset team.

Hogg unfazed by Cullen threat

This is a video clip of Hayden c Collingwood b Harmison in the England v Australia 2005 ODI series, where Collingwood one-handed clutches it from the sky.

Excellent article in the Cricinfo magazine where Dileep Premachandran talks to Michael Holding about fast bowling. And yes, he does blame the current shortage of fast bowlers on the amount of cricket that’s being played.

Fast bowling then and now: what is the fundamental difference?

I wouldn’t say that there’s a difference, but there certainly aren’t as many fast bowlers in the game today. That’s because of the amount of cricket being played. That isn’t conducive to fast bowlers staying in the game, and staying fit. The ones that are there now have all had to take their breaks and come back after various types of injuries.

One of the greatest fast bowlers of all time also talks about biomechanics, training, WSC and the shortage of West Indies paceman today.

It really is a must read.

‘You can bowl fast within the laws’

Javed Miandad is the latest to join the burn-out debate: Is there too much international cricket or isn’t there?

“All these complaints about too much cricket nowadays is rubbish. In our days we yearned for more matches,” Miandad told Reuters.

Great player Miandad but you should always be wary of statements that are prefixed by the words “in our days.” It’s a weary way of justifying the opinion that follows, and was used by Fred Trueman on the radio ad nauseum.
In the debate ex-players Miandad and Gavaskar have come out with stop whingeing, just get on with it, while Trescothick and Ponting have claimed that too much international cricket is being played, while Brett Lee says he’s been running on fumes with the petrol all gone.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Speed, the ICC Chief Executive says:

“Players have to realise it is a two-way street. They cannot, on the one hand, complain of playing too much and then turn round and head off for a lucrative spell of English county cricket when there is a break in the schedule.”

In Pakistan, Shahid Afridi has retired from test cricket to concentrate on the one-day game and to spend more time with his family.

I’m with Ponting and Trescothick on this one. The problem of burn-out on the players has been exacerbated by

• games played out of the traditional season eg the recent ODI series India v England
• too many ODIs – these slip out of the memory very quickly and it’s rare you get a classic
• fewer games in-between test matches where key players could be rested and other members of the squad would play
• matches scheduled more closely together

Miandad dismisses player burnout concerns