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Abbamania
Yesterday at 07:00:44 PM by kban1
Abbamania
Twelve years ago, Abdul Qadir, still good enough to turn out for Pakistan, spent a summer playing club cricket in Melbourne. The few who saw him remember it like it was yesterday
Christian Ryan
February 8, 2010
On a sticky Peshawar afternoon in 1998, Mark Taylor clipped a Test triple-hundred while Pakistan's spinners tossed and chased and collected one wicket for 327 runs. Next morning Abdul Qadir, who was not any more a Pakistani Test spinner, and hadn't been for eight years, found himself in a car bound for Princes Park in one of Melbourne's lovelier suburbs.
Carlton was playing Footscray that day.
Carlton was Abdul Qadir's new club.
Driving the car was Carlton's vice-president, Craig Cook, who was relating the contents of an email his legspinning son Calum had sent - something about a Footscray batting wiz named "Larko".
"Tell Abba," the email went, "that Larko only picks wrong'uns from off the track, not out of the hand."
Qadir stared out the windscreen. The car pulled up at the oval.
"Hey Abdul," roared Ian Wrigglesworth, Carlton's captain. "Listen. Larko can't pick a wrong'un. You set it up, do whatever you want."
Qadir nodded and said nothing. Not until many minutes later, as they were walking out to field, did he ask politely: "When does this Larko come in?"
Larko was Rohan Larkin, an ex-state batsman, and he stepped out that day at No. 4.
Qadir watched him approach, stuck a fielder at close gully. And bowled. Wrong'un. Larkin, failing to pick it, went to square cut. The ball smacked the bat's edge and whistled through first slip's hands for two.
"Great," Larkin thought, "I'm off the mark and I've seen his wrong'un. I'll be right from here."
Qadir's second ball was faster; wicketkeeper Micky Butera rocked back instinctively on his heels. It was also wider. "Very close to the edge of the pitch," says Larkin. It was too wide to make mayhem, so wide that the umpire cleared his throat and gave a preliminary twitch of his arms. Larkin flung his own arms high, his bat even higher - "to allow the ball to travel through harmlessly".
Instead the ball dipped - swooped, more like - as if by remote control. It landed, veered headlong in the wrong direction, then hit middle stump, like Shane Warne dumbfounding Mike Gatting all over again. In reverse.
"Abdul spun this wrong'un one and a half feet," gasps Butera. "Sounds ridiculous when you say it."
"I would play that ball the same way a hundred times out of a hundred," believes Larkin.
"There was an element of luck in the Warne ball," Cook points out. "Whereas Abdul's was absolutely contrived."
The only person not surprised was the contriver himself. Deep down, Qadir knew that by rights he should have been in Peshawar that Saturday, playing for his country not a suburb. His Carlton team-mates knew that he knew it. He did not need to say so; though sometimes he said it anyway. There was and remained only one wonder of Pakistani spin.
But Qadir was 43. His face was unwrinkled. Brown eyes still danced with mischief. But selectors of Test teams have no love for 43-year-olds.
That was why he wasn't in Peshawar. It does not explain how he came to be playing park cricket in Melbourne.
****
IT HAPPENED, like many of the best ideas, after a long and jolly lunch. The Carlton Cricket and Football Social Club was the setting. Big Jack Elliott, football club president and one-time prime ministerial aspirant, glared at the cricket club vice-president and barked: "Why can't you bastards win like us?"
"Well," said Craig Cook, "we've lost a little bit of flair. We really need a big-name player."
Big Jack barked again. "You get the player and we'll pay for it."
Cook, a legspin fanatic, thought of Qadir. He phoned an old pal, Javed Zaman Khan, cousin of Imran. An evening net tryout was arranged and Cook's ticket to Lahore booked. "We took Abdul down to the Lahore Gymkhana Club nets, where he bowled for an hour. And he looked beautiful. We signed him up on the spot."
Forty thousand dollars Carlton paid him. They put him up in a flat in Brunswick, not far from the practice nets. Larkin was one of eight men from Footscray he fooled that Saturday. At spectator-less playing fields all over Melbourne, the ranks of the befuddled grew: at Windy Hill, at Arden Street, at Ringwood's Jubilee Park.
Arms bucked and swayed and his tongue kept licking his fingers when Qadir skipped in and bowled. The passing of decades had taken a few spikes out of his flipper, which now slid more than it spat. But the miracles of his legbreak remained two-fold: the sheer stupendous size of the spin, and the way he could vary it at will. Wrong'uns, meanwhile, arrived in threes.
"Three types," Butera confirms. There was a lightning wrong'un, a mid-paced wrong'un lobbed up from wide of the stumps, and a slow wrong'un. "It looked like a lollipop," Butera says of this last invention, "and the batsman would think, here's an opportunity to come down and score. But it would drop incredibly late, and as soon as the batsman got there he'd realise he didn't have as much time as he thought he had." The lollipop wrong'un left more batsmen licked than any of Qadir's other variations, helping Butera rewrite the Victorian Cricket Association record books for most catches and stumpings in a season.
"Best time of my life. Abdul put me on the map," he says. That is not just rosy-glassed affection talking. Nine days after the Larkin ball Butera, previously unheralded, made his state 2nd XI debut.
Mid-January came; an encounter with the competition's in-form batsman beckoned. Geelong's Jason Bakker, tall and lumbering and toe-tied against even the gentlest spin bowling, had heard all about Qadir's variations. His coach Ken Davis tried to replicate them, hurling balls down, floating them up, while Bakker watched Ken's hand in the hope of reading what might happen. After a week of this it was time to face the real thing in a match. And it felt, to Bakker, as if he were still in the practice nets.
With eyes wide open he'd stare at Qadir's wrist. He left balls he was supposed to leave. He defended others comfortably. If he could get to the pitch of the ball, he'd drive. When it was wider, he'd cut, but softly, never forcing anything. Bakker had heard batsmen more debonair than him talk about being in "the zone", and for the first time he really understood it. "This sounds incredibly vain but I felt like I didn't play a false stroke."
They paused for drinks. Captain Wrigglesworth despaired. He trotted up to his star bowler. "Listen. This bloke's picking your wrong'un."
And just like that Qadir stopped bowling it. No flipper or flotilla of multi-speeded googlies. The magic act was over. Every ball was a legbreak, landing on or slightly outside off stump. Every ball twisted harmlessly away. This went on for an hour. It was a scorching afternoon, a flat deck. Bakker cruised past 50. "I'd broken him." And something else had happened too - "I was getting more confident, more relaxed, less vigilant."
So when another one wafted down, as ho-hum as all the others, Bakker took one stride forward and shouldered arms, intent on letting the thing whirr past, and then just as it was about to bounce, inches from his nose, he noticed that this particular delivery was actually a touch wider, and the seam looked different, and by then it was too late to do anything other than think, "Shit I hope it misses", which it didn't. It knocked back middle stump.
Eleven years on, Bakker's head is still shaking. "An hour - he was prepared to wait an hour. There was I falsely thinking I had broken him, when all that time he was working up a trap for me. I mean, my God, the mentality of the man, the mindset."
Later Qadir would boast, "I saw it in his eyes" - saw that microscopic let-up in the batsman's vigilance, which was what he had been waiting for all along.
****
HE LIVED for Saturdays, his new team-mates sensed. In his inner-city flat he was on his own. The club vice-president drove him to matches, to training. Most nights he ate at the vice-president's house. "Abdul had never cooked a meal in his life," Cook explains. "Never made a cup of tea in his life. So if he wasn't eating at our place I'd organise the Pakistani community to bring food in. And he got a bit lonely, so I'd have to go around and see him."
He would clap opposition batsmen's fine strokes. He would tell people what a pleasure it was to meet them. "No, no," he politely informed his captain one gusty Saturday, "I will bowl downwind." Another Saturday, batting against a fast bowler and a spinner, he insisted that his team-mates jump the fence to alternately ferry out and fetch his helmet at the end of every over.
He did not swear. When Qadir was around, Butera used to soften his own language. "But I don't think the rest of the boys did."
He did not lairise, throw high-fives or drink beer. "I wouldn't have thought he made a friend while he was here," says Wrigglesworth. "I don't know what he did from Monday to Friday and I wouldn't have thought many people do. As soon as the game finished on a Saturday he was pretty much off. I don't think he sang the team song once."
The song, in fairness, was seldom aired, for Carlton kept losing despite Qadir's wickets. By the eve of the season's final match at Northcote Park he had 66 - only seven shy of the post-war record set by Richmond quick Graeme Paterson in 1965-66. Qadir thought about that record often. "He never," Cook reflects, "reckoned he should have been left out of the Test side. So when he came over here it wasn't a holiday. He was wanting to show what he could do."
On his last weekend in Melbourne he was handed the new ball, not for the first time that summer. And for the umpteenth time, from midday till sundown, he bowled and bowled and bowled. His preoccupation with the record and those seven elusive wickets had become something close to an obsession. Nobody except Wrigglesworth and the Carlton committee men realised this - until, that is, the fall of Northcote's ninth wicket, Qadir's sixth, at which point he bounced into the team huddle and shrieked: "One more!"
"If he had just shut his gob," says Wrigglesworth, "no one else would have known. Instead the boys were all going: 'Hey, hang on a minute!'"
One more, alas, did not come easily. Northcote's last-wicket pair looked untroubled. Runs flowed. Wrigglesworth thought about taking Qadir off. Wrigglesworth couldn't take him off. "By this stage," he says, "I was a puppet of the president and the committee. And they wanted to see Abdul get this record."
Qadir kept going. He ran through all his variations. The partnership kept swelling - to 95 by the tea break. Forty-six overs Qadir had bowled unchanged.
"Should I take him off now?"
Permission was granted. Five balls later the wicket fell.
The Ryder Medal he won as the competition's best player still hangs on his wall in Lahore. His 492 overs in a season might never be surpassed. Seventy-two wickets at 15.87 in the era of covered pitches at the age of 43 is a feat carved in club cricket legend. It could have been 73, the record should have been his, he told the Age's gossip columnist the day before he flew home; if only the captain had listened, if only the captain had bowled him a bit more.
"Oh, Abdul," sighed Wrigglesworth when he saw the paper next morning. "Where's this come from?"
****
WHEN Jason Bakker remembers the day that he did not play a false stroke and was deceived by the most mysterious ball he ever faced, he thinks of the heat. At tea-time he galloped upstairs to the Kardinia Park dining room and began gulping down water. "I was tucking into rockmelon and watermelon and whatever else I could find." That's when he glanced out the window and saw that Qadir, who had bowled through the entire afternoon session without a rest, was still on the oval.
Qadir was out there with Craig Whitehand, known to all at Geelong Cricket Club as "Douggie", the guy who fronted up every Saturday in his whites and his spikes to drag off the pitch covers and carry out drinks and take care of the equipment. As Qadir was walking off, Douggie had stopped him at the players' gate and asked, how do you bowl a wrong'un. Now the two of them were standing on the grass, metres apart. A couple of balls lay between them. Qadir would wave his arms and talk a bit. Then he'd bowl a few. Then Douggie would bowl a few. After a while Qadir would wander across and say something. Then Douggie would bowl a few more.
Bakker went back to his watermelon and forgot what he'd seen. Twenty minutes went by before he thought about strapping the pads back on. "As I was coming down the stairs," Bakker recalls, "I looked out on the ground. And the two of them were still there. Abdul had given his whole break on a hot day to this guy from Geelong who he knew nothing about."
At Geelong training the next week Douggie was gleefully flighting wrong'uns. A few short years later he was picked for Australia's team of intellectually disabled cricketers. He has since represented his country in South Africa and England, this stranger who had never bowled a wrong'un until the day he met Abdul Qadir and asked how it was done.
Christian Ryan is a writer based in Melbourne. He is the author of Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the Bad Old Days of Australian Cricket, published in March 2009
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Twelve years ago, Abdul Qadir, still good enough to turn out for Pakistan, spent a summer playing club cricket in Melbourne. The few who saw him remember it like it was yesterday
Christian Ryan
February 8, 2010
On a sticky Peshawar afternoon in 1998, Mark Taylor clipped a Test triple-hundred while Pakistan's spinners tossed and chased and collected one wicket for 327 runs. Next morning Abdul Qadir, who was not any more a Pakistani Test spinner, and hadn't been for eight years, found himself in a car bound for Princes Park in one of Melbourne's lovelier suburbs.
Carlton was playing Footscray that day.
Carlton was Abdul Qadir's new club.
Driving the car was Carlton's vice-president, Craig Cook, who was relating the contents of an email his legspinning son Calum had sent - something about a Footscray batting wiz named "Larko".
"Tell Abba," the email went, "that Larko only picks wrong'uns from off the track, not out of the hand."
Qadir stared out the windscreen. The car pulled up at the oval.
"Hey Abdul," roared Ian Wrigglesworth, Carlton's captain. "Listen. Larko can't pick a wrong'un. You set it up, do whatever you want."
Qadir nodded and said nothing. Not until many minutes later, as they were walking out to field, did he ask politely: "When does this Larko come in?"
Larko was Rohan Larkin, an ex-state batsman, and he stepped out that day at No. 4.
Qadir watched him approach, stuck a fielder at close gully. And bowled. Wrong'un. Larkin, failing to pick it, went to square cut. The ball smacked the bat's edge and whistled through first slip's hands for two.
"Great," Larkin thought, "I'm off the mark and I've seen his wrong'un. I'll be right from here."
Qadir's second ball was faster; wicketkeeper Micky Butera rocked back instinctively on his heels. It was also wider. "Very close to the edge of the pitch," says Larkin. It was too wide to make mayhem, so wide that the umpire cleared his throat and gave a preliminary twitch of his arms. Larkin flung his own arms high, his bat even higher - "to allow the ball to travel through harmlessly".
Instead the ball dipped - swooped, more like - as if by remote control. It landed, veered headlong in the wrong direction, then hit middle stump, like Shane Warne dumbfounding Mike Gatting all over again. In reverse.
"Abdul spun this wrong'un one and a half feet," gasps Butera. "Sounds ridiculous when you say it."
"I would play that ball the same way a hundred times out of a hundred," believes Larkin.
"There was an element of luck in the Warne ball," Cook points out. "Whereas Abdul's was absolutely contrived."
The only person not surprised was the contriver himself. Deep down, Qadir knew that by rights he should have been in Peshawar that Saturday, playing for his country not a suburb. His Carlton team-mates knew that he knew it. He did not need to say so; though sometimes he said it anyway. There was and remained only one wonder of Pakistani spin.
But Qadir was 43. His face was unwrinkled. Brown eyes still danced with mischief. But selectors of Test teams have no love for 43-year-olds.
That was why he wasn't in Peshawar. It does not explain how he came to be playing park cricket in Melbourne.
****
IT HAPPENED, like many of the best ideas, after a long and jolly lunch. The Carlton Cricket and Football Social Club was the setting. Big Jack Elliott, football club president and one-time prime ministerial aspirant, glared at the cricket club vice-president and barked: "Why can't you bastards win like us?"
"Well," said Craig Cook, "we've lost a little bit of flair. We really need a big-name player."
Big Jack barked again. "You get the player and we'll pay for it."
Cook, a legspin fanatic, thought of Qadir. He phoned an old pal, Javed Zaman Khan, cousin of Imran. An evening net tryout was arranged and Cook's ticket to Lahore booked. "We took Abdul down to the Lahore Gymkhana Club nets, where he bowled for an hour. And he looked beautiful. We signed him up on the spot."
Forty thousand dollars Carlton paid him. They put him up in a flat in Brunswick, not far from the practice nets. Larkin was one of eight men from Footscray he fooled that Saturday. At spectator-less playing fields all over Melbourne, the ranks of the befuddled grew: at Windy Hill, at Arden Street, at Ringwood's Jubilee Park.
Arms bucked and swayed and his tongue kept licking his fingers when Qadir skipped in and bowled. The passing of decades had taken a few spikes out of his flipper, which now slid more than it spat. But the miracles of his legbreak remained two-fold: the sheer stupendous size of the spin, and the way he could vary it at will. Wrong'uns, meanwhile, arrived in threes.
"Three types," Butera confirms. There was a lightning wrong'un, a mid-paced wrong'un lobbed up from wide of the stumps, and a slow wrong'un. "It looked like a lollipop," Butera says of this last invention, "and the batsman would think, here's an opportunity to come down and score. But it would drop incredibly late, and as soon as the batsman got there he'd realise he didn't have as much time as he thought he had." The lollipop wrong'un left more batsmen licked than any of Qadir's other variations, helping Butera rewrite the Victorian Cricket Association record books for most catches and stumpings in a season.
"Best time of my life. Abdul put me on the map," he says. That is not just rosy-glassed affection talking. Nine days after the Larkin ball Butera, previously unheralded, made his state 2nd XI debut.
Mid-January came; an encounter with the competition's in-form batsman beckoned. Geelong's Jason Bakker, tall and lumbering and toe-tied against even the gentlest spin bowling, had heard all about Qadir's variations. His coach Ken Davis tried to replicate them, hurling balls down, floating them up, while Bakker watched Ken's hand in the hope of reading what might happen. After a week of this it was time to face the real thing in a match. And it felt, to Bakker, as if he were still in the practice nets.
With eyes wide open he'd stare at Qadir's wrist. He left balls he was supposed to leave. He defended others comfortably. If he could get to the pitch of the ball, he'd drive. When it was wider, he'd cut, but softly, never forcing anything. Bakker had heard batsmen more debonair than him talk about being in "the zone", and for the first time he really understood it. "This sounds incredibly vain but I felt like I didn't play a false stroke."
They paused for drinks. Captain Wrigglesworth despaired. He trotted up to his star bowler. "Listen. This bloke's picking your wrong'un."
And just like that Qadir stopped bowling it. No flipper or flotilla of multi-speeded googlies. The magic act was over. Every ball was a legbreak, landing on or slightly outside off stump. Every ball twisted harmlessly away. This went on for an hour. It was a scorching afternoon, a flat deck. Bakker cruised past 50. "I'd broken him." And something else had happened too - "I was getting more confident, more relaxed, less vigilant."
So when another one wafted down, as ho-hum as all the others, Bakker took one stride forward and shouldered arms, intent on letting the thing whirr past, and then just as it was about to bounce, inches from his nose, he noticed that this particular delivery was actually a touch wider, and the seam looked different, and by then it was too late to do anything other than think, "Shit I hope it misses", which it didn't. It knocked back middle stump.
Eleven years on, Bakker's head is still shaking. "An hour - he was prepared to wait an hour. There was I falsely thinking I had broken him, when all that time he was working up a trap for me. I mean, my God, the mentality of the man, the mindset."
Later Qadir would boast, "I saw it in his eyes" - saw that microscopic let-up in the batsman's vigilance, which was what he had been waiting for all along.
****
HE LIVED for Saturdays, his new team-mates sensed. In his inner-city flat he was on his own. The club vice-president drove him to matches, to training. Most nights he ate at the vice-president's house. "Abdul had never cooked a meal in his life," Cook explains. "Never made a cup of tea in his life. So if he wasn't eating at our place I'd organise the Pakistani community to bring food in. And he got a bit lonely, so I'd have to go around and see him."
He would clap opposition batsmen's fine strokes. He would tell people what a pleasure it was to meet them. "No, no," he politely informed his captain one gusty Saturday, "I will bowl downwind." Another Saturday, batting against a fast bowler and a spinner, he insisted that his team-mates jump the fence to alternately ferry out and fetch his helmet at the end of every over.
He did not swear. When Qadir was around, Butera used to soften his own language. "But I don't think the rest of the boys did."
He did not lairise, throw high-fives or drink beer. "I wouldn't have thought he made a friend while he was here," says Wrigglesworth. "I don't know what he did from Monday to Friday and I wouldn't have thought many people do. As soon as the game finished on a Saturday he was pretty much off. I don't think he sang the team song once."
The song, in fairness, was seldom aired, for Carlton kept losing despite Qadir's wickets. By the eve of the season's final match at Northcote Park he had 66 - only seven shy of the post-war record set by Richmond quick Graeme Paterson in 1965-66. Qadir thought about that record often. "He never," Cook reflects, "reckoned he should have been left out of the Test side. So when he came over here it wasn't a holiday. He was wanting to show what he could do."
On his last weekend in Melbourne he was handed the new ball, not for the first time that summer. And for the umpteenth time, from midday till sundown, he bowled and bowled and bowled. His preoccupation with the record and those seven elusive wickets had become something close to an obsession. Nobody except Wrigglesworth and the Carlton committee men realised this - until, that is, the fall of Northcote's ninth wicket, Qadir's sixth, at which point he bounced into the team huddle and shrieked: "One more!"
"If he had just shut his gob," says Wrigglesworth, "no one else would have known. Instead the boys were all going: 'Hey, hang on a minute!'"
One more, alas, did not come easily. Northcote's last-wicket pair looked untroubled. Runs flowed. Wrigglesworth thought about taking Qadir off. Wrigglesworth couldn't take him off. "By this stage," he says, "I was a puppet of the president and the committee. And they wanted to see Abdul get this record."
Qadir kept going. He ran through all his variations. The partnership kept swelling - to 95 by the tea break. Forty-six overs Qadir had bowled unchanged.
"Should I take him off now?"
Permission was granted. Five balls later the wicket fell.
The Ryder Medal he won as the competition's best player still hangs on his wall in Lahore. His 492 overs in a season might never be surpassed. Seventy-two wickets at 15.87 in the era of covered pitches at the age of 43 is a feat carved in club cricket legend. It could have been 73, the record should have been his, he told the Age's gossip columnist the day before he flew home; if only the captain had listened, if only the captain had bowled him a bit more.
"Oh, Abdul," sighed Wrigglesworth when he saw the paper next morning. "Where's this come from?"
****
WHEN Jason Bakker remembers the day that he did not play a false stroke and was deceived by the most mysterious ball he ever faced, he thinks of the heat. At tea-time he galloped upstairs to the Kardinia Park dining room and began gulping down water. "I was tucking into rockmelon and watermelon and whatever else I could find." That's when he glanced out the window and saw that Qadir, who had bowled through the entire afternoon session without a rest, was still on the oval.
Qadir was out there with Craig Whitehand, known to all at Geelong Cricket Club as "Douggie", the guy who fronted up every Saturday in his whites and his spikes to drag off the pitch covers and carry out drinks and take care of the equipment. As Qadir was walking off, Douggie had stopped him at the players' gate and asked, how do you bowl a wrong'un. Now the two of them were standing on the grass, metres apart. A couple of balls lay between them. Qadir would wave his arms and talk a bit. Then he'd bowl a few. Then Douggie would bowl a few. After a while Qadir would wander across and say something. Then Douggie would bowl a few more.
Bakker went back to his watermelon and forgot what he'd seen. Twenty minutes went by before he thought about strapping the pads back on. "As I was coming down the stairs," Bakker recalls, "I looked out on the ground. And the two of them were still there. Abdul had given his whole break on a hot day to this guy from Geelong who he knew nothing about."
At Geelong training the next week Douggie was gleefully flighting wrong'uns. A few short years later he was picked for Australia's team of intellectually disabled cricketers. He has since represented his country in South Africa and England, this stranger who had never bowled a wrong'un until the day he met Abdul Qadir and asked how it was done.
Christian Ryan is a writer based in Melbourne. He is the author of Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the Bad Old Days of Australian Cricket, published in March 2009
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Twenty20 a vision of cricket's future
February 07, 2010, 07:48:48 PM by dextrous
What are these?BESIEGED one-day cricket copped another hammering last night.
Despite dodgy weather in Melbourne, the biggest crowd of the season piled into the MCG to watch Australian clash with Pakistan in a one-off Twenty20 match.
More than 60,000 turned up, dwarfing one-day crowds around the country this summer.
Little more than half that number are expected for tomorrow's one-day game at the MCG to watch the West Indies in the first of a five-match one-day series.
Last night's crowd beat the 59,206 who turned up on Boxing Day for the beginning of the first Test against Pakistan.
But the biggest threat to one-day international crowds this summer has been the vibrant and ever-growing state-based Big Bash.
With greater promotion and the addition of international stars, including popular West Indian captain Chris Gayle playing for Western Australia, there was a surge in support.
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So much so that 43,125 turned up at the MCG to watch Victoria play Tasmania in a Big Bash match in mid-January.
It is the third-biggest crowd of the summer and will remain so if Sunday's one-dayer against the West Indies does not beat it.
The biggest one-day crowd so far this summer is 30,000 in Sydney for a match against Pakistan.
NSW Big Bash crowds were almost as good for matches at the Olympic Stadium, with 29,000 turning up to the first match and 26,000 the second, although serious questions have been asked about the number of free or heavily discounted tickets handed out.
In Adelaide and Perth Big Bash crowds comfortably beat those for one-day internationals.
At the WACA Ground, Big Bash crowds were 15,000-17,000 while one-day crowds for the two matches against Pakistan were on and just under 14,000.
Adelaide, where capacity has been severely reduced with a major redevelopment of the western stands, almost 18,000 packed in to watch the Big Bash final against Victoria compared to 15,000 for the iconic Australia Day one-day match, against Pakistan.
Brisbane was also a close-run thing, attracting less than 20,000 for the match against Pakistan, the worst one-day crowd for an Australian game in ages. The Gabba's best Big Bash crowd was almost 18,000
For most of the past decade one-day and Twenty20 matches involving Australia at the Gabba have attracted well over 30,000, with a ground record of almost 40,000 against South Africa four years ago.
One-day crowds in Melbourne have fallen significantly in recent years. There hasn't been an 80,000-plus one-day crowd at the MCG for 10 years, although 78,625 turned up for a match against England three years ago.
But over the past two seasons Twenty20 internationals have completely usurped one-day games.
In 2008 a Twenty20 world record 84,041 saw Australia play India and last season more than 62,000 watched South Africa play Australia.
However, none of five one-day matches at the MCG over the past two seasons have attracted 50,000.
Despite this Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has flat-batted any suggestion that Australia will play more Twenty20 international cricket. Currently there are 10 one-day matches and three Twenty20 internationals each season.
"We're certainly very aware of the popularity of Twenty20 and we'll see that tonight," Sutherland said before last night's match.
"From our perspective we don't want to expand on the number of Twenty20 internationals at this stage.
"We're very comfortable with that number. We feel that we strike the right balance between Twenty20s and one-day games.
"There is an opportunity to create a window for the Big Bash (with Australian players) but that's probably a couple of years away.
"The principle that we have to come back to is that with these domestic Twenty20 competitions, international cricket must come first. International cricket is the pinnacle of our sport."
Sutherland was unable to say precisely why one-day crowds were falling.
"There is a lot of good cricket on offer," he said. "Test-match crowds are increasing. I certainly wouldn't be signing any death knells of one-day cricket. I thought it was a pretty good crowd in Sydney, 30,000-plus
"Crowds are just one indicator of popularity.
"There's nothing in our review of ratings and discussions with Channel Nine to suggest there's any sort of declining interest in the one-day game."
Nine's head of sport Steve Crawley is delighted with the ratings for one-day cricket.
"I was surprised at how healthy they were," he said.
"This year they've performed well given what we had. Then you look at the calendar and you've got the Ashes, India and South Africa coming (over the next three years)."
Nine's ratings of between 1 million and 1.5 million per match are equal to NRL finals, if not the Grand Final or State of Origin.
Likewise, Fox Sports ratings for the Big Bash have gone through the roof and now stand beside numbers for their big AFL and NRL games.
While pay television comes off a much lower base than free-to-air television, Big Bash ratings are up 30 per cent and are regularly well over 300,000.
Director of Fox Sports Channels Soames Treffry is equally delighted
"We took a punt on it to try and grow it," he said of the Big Bash, claiming the addition of high-profile overseas imports created greater interest and awareness.
"I'm excited about what it does for state cricket."
Cricket Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide has a simple suggestion to improve the Big Bash: play more of it.
Dodemaide was intimately involved in the development of Twenty20 cricket during his time as head of cricket at the Marylebone Cricket Club a decade ago and was desperate for it to be introduced when he returned to Australia as chief executive of the WACA. Thanks to Dodemaide, on January 12, 2005 Australia's first Twenty20 game was played at the WACA Ground between the Western Australia and Victoria. It drew a sell-out crowd of 20,700.
"Whatever the question is, the answer is Twenty20," Dodemaide, a former Australian all-rounder, said at the time. He maintains that view.
"The cricket industry has been locked into this business model where the international programming has been underpinning all of our business and what we can put back into the sport.
"We're now being faced with a situation where that might change. We might have something with eight teams which is similar to an A-League or a Super 14s rugby, something where we can control the programming and it can be a very serious business where tens of thousands of people are coming along and television rights are worth something significant."
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Despite dodgy weather in Melbourne, the biggest crowd of the season piled into the MCG to watch Australian clash with Pakistan in a one-off Twenty20 match.
More than 60,000 turned up, dwarfing one-day crowds around the country this summer.
Little more than half that number are expected for tomorrow's one-day game at the MCG to watch the West Indies in the first of a five-match one-day series.
Last night's crowd beat the 59,206 who turned up on Boxing Day for the beginning of the first Test against Pakistan.
But the biggest threat to one-day international crowds this summer has been the vibrant and ever-growing state-based Big Bash.
With greater promotion and the addition of international stars, including popular West Indian captain Chris Gayle playing for Western Australia, there was a surge in support.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Related CoverageOne-day game running on empty
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The Australian, 6 days ago
.End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
So much so that 43,125 turned up at the MCG to watch Victoria play Tasmania in a Big Bash match in mid-January.
It is the third-biggest crowd of the summer and will remain so if Sunday's one-dayer against the West Indies does not beat it.
The biggest one-day crowd so far this summer is 30,000 in Sydney for a match against Pakistan.
NSW Big Bash crowds were almost as good for matches at the Olympic Stadium, with 29,000 turning up to the first match and 26,000 the second, although serious questions have been asked about the number of free or heavily discounted tickets handed out.
In Adelaide and Perth Big Bash crowds comfortably beat those for one-day internationals.
At the WACA Ground, Big Bash crowds were 15,000-17,000 while one-day crowds for the two matches against Pakistan were on and just under 14,000.
Adelaide, where capacity has been severely reduced with a major redevelopment of the western stands, almost 18,000 packed in to watch the Big Bash final against Victoria compared to 15,000 for the iconic Australia Day one-day match, against Pakistan.
Brisbane was also a close-run thing, attracting less than 20,000 for the match against Pakistan, the worst one-day crowd for an Australian game in ages. The Gabba's best Big Bash crowd was almost 18,000
For most of the past decade one-day and Twenty20 matches involving Australia at the Gabba have attracted well over 30,000, with a ground record of almost 40,000 against South Africa four years ago.
One-day crowds in Melbourne have fallen significantly in recent years. There hasn't been an 80,000-plus one-day crowd at the MCG for 10 years, although 78,625 turned up for a match against England three years ago.
But over the past two seasons Twenty20 internationals have completely usurped one-day games.
In 2008 a Twenty20 world record 84,041 saw Australia play India and last season more than 62,000 watched South Africa play Australia.
However, none of five one-day matches at the MCG over the past two seasons have attracted 50,000.
Despite this Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has flat-batted any suggestion that Australia will play more Twenty20 international cricket. Currently there are 10 one-day matches and three Twenty20 internationals each season.
"We're certainly very aware of the popularity of Twenty20 and we'll see that tonight," Sutherland said before last night's match.
"From our perspective we don't want to expand on the number of Twenty20 internationals at this stage.
"We're very comfortable with that number. We feel that we strike the right balance between Twenty20s and one-day games.
"There is an opportunity to create a window for the Big Bash (with Australian players) but that's probably a couple of years away.
"The principle that we have to come back to is that with these domestic Twenty20 competitions, international cricket must come first. International cricket is the pinnacle of our sport."
Sutherland was unable to say precisely why one-day crowds were falling.
"There is a lot of good cricket on offer," he said. "Test-match crowds are increasing. I certainly wouldn't be signing any death knells of one-day cricket. I thought it was a pretty good crowd in Sydney, 30,000-plus
"Crowds are just one indicator of popularity.
"There's nothing in our review of ratings and discussions with Channel Nine to suggest there's any sort of declining interest in the one-day game."
Nine's head of sport Steve Crawley is delighted with the ratings for one-day cricket.
"I was surprised at how healthy they were," he said.
"This year they've performed well given what we had. Then you look at the calendar and you've got the Ashes, India and South Africa coming (over the next three years)."
Nine's ratings of between 1 million and 1.5 million per match are equal to NRL finals, if not the Grand Final or State of Origin.
Likewise, Fox Sports ratings for the Big Bash have gone through the roof and now stand beside numbers for their big AFL and NRL games.
While pay television comes off a much lower base than free-to-air television, Big Bash ratings are up 30 per cent and are regularly well over 300,000.
Director of Fox Sports Channels Soames Treffry is equally delighted
"We took a punt on it to try and grow it," he said of the Big Bash, claiming the addition of high-profile overseas imports created greater interest and awareness.
"I'm excited about what it does for state cricket."
Cricket Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide has a simple suggestion to improve the Big Bash: play more of it.
Dodemaide was intimately involved in the development of Twenty20 cricket during his time as head of cricket at the Marylebone Cricket Club a decade ago and was desperate for it to be introduced when he returned to Australia as chief executive of the WACA. Thanks to Dodemaide, on January 12, 2005 Australia's first Twenty20 game was played at the WACA Ground between the Western Australia and Victoria. It drew a sell-out crowd of 20,700.
"Whatever the question is, the answer is Twenty20," Dodemaide, a former Australian all-rounder, said at the time. He maintains that view.
"The cricket industry has been locked into this business model where the international programming has been underpinning all of our business and what we can put back into the sport.
"We're now being faced with a situation where that might change. We might have something with eight teams which is similar to an A-League or a Super 14s rugby, something where we can control the programming and it can be a very serious business where tens of thousands of people are coming along and television rights are worth something significant."
Botswana’s cricket initiative named the best in the region
February 07, 2010, 07:38:50 PM by dextrous
by Kagiso Madibana07.02.2010 9:10:26 P
The International Cricket Council (ICC)’s Africa Cricket Association recently named Botswana the Best Junior Cricket Initiative in Southern Africa for the year 2009.
Botswana was chosen as a winner of the award amongst 3 other African countries that had successfully taken cricket under their wing.
According to a letter written by the Regional Development Manager of Africa Cricket Association (ACA), Cassim Suliman, The ICC-Africa Development Programme announced its regional winners for the 2009 Annual Awards on the 25th of January.
Namibia stole the show as it won three awards for the overall regional competition. Namibia is expected to receive the awards for Best overall Cricket Development Programme, and Best Spirit of Cricket Initiative while Namibian Wynand won the Best Volunteer of the Year award.
Another country to walk away with three awards was Uganda, one for Best Overall Cricket Promotion and Marketing, lifetime service award to one of their own, Abram Kitumba Lutaya and for Photo of the year.
Mozambique is also to receive an award for the Best women’s cricket initiative programme.
Botswana’s developmental team has now added 5 more teams, and 300 more school kids under its programme that has been running for more than three years. Three of the newly enrolled schools are from Ramotswa.
The developmental programme now has a total of 65 schools and 4100 students in total.
New school, Lesetlhana Primary, a school based in Ramotswa, has registered more than 80 students in the cricket initiation programme, while St Barnard Primary School, also in Ramotswa, registered about 60 of its students. Another product of Ramotswa, Ketshwerebothata Primary School enrolled 70 of its students in the programme.
Rankoa Primary School of Sekwane signed 60 of its students into the programme. Lastly, another newcomer, Maboane Primary School from Letlhakeng also brought in another batch of 30 students.
Girish Ramakrishna, the CEO of Botswana Cricket since the 1st of February, said that the process of developing is still on-going despite the minor setbacks they are expecting to face sometime in the near future.
“We do not have ample space for big competitions, we have only one field in Gaborone, which will make it difficult in future to plan for major leagues. Right now, it’s fine because everyone is practising at their home grounds, but we will face a problem of congestion,” said Ramakrishna.
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The International Cricket Council (ICC)’s Africa Cricket Association recently named Botswana the Best Junior Cricket Initiative in Southern Africa for the year 2009.
Botswana was chosen as a winner of the award amongst 3 other African countries that had successfully taken cricket under their wing.
According to a letter written by the Regional Development Manager of Africa Cricket Association (ACA), Cassim Suliman, The ICC-Africa Development Programme announced its regional winners for the 2009 Annual Awards on the 25th of January.
Namibia stole the show as it won three awards for the overall regional competition. Namibia is expected to receive the awards for Best overall Cricket Development Programme, and Best Spirit of Cricket Initiative while Namibian Wynand won the Best Volunteer of the Year award.
Another country to walk away with three awards was Uganda, one for Best Overall Cricket Promotion and Marketing, lifetime service award to one of their own, Abram Kitumba Lutaya and for Photo of the year.
Mozambique is also to receive an award for the Best women’s cricket initiative programme.
Botswana’s developmental team has now added 5 more teams, and 300 more school kids under its programme that has been running for more than three years. Three of the newly enrolled schools are from Ramotswa.
The developmental programme now has a total of 65 schools and 4100 students in total.
New school, Lesetlhana Primary, a school based in Ramotswa, has registered more than 80 students in the cricket initiation programme, while St Barnard Primary School, also in Ramotswa, registered about 60 of its students. Another product of Ramotswa, Ketshwerebothata Primary School enrolled 70 of its students in the programme.
Rankoa Primary School of Sekwane signed 60 of its students into the programme. Lastly, another newcomer, Maboane Primary School from Letlhakeng also brought in another batch of 30 students.
Girish Ramakrishna, the CEO of Botswana Cricket since the 1st of February, said that the process of developing is still on-going despite the minor setbacks they are expecting to face sometime in the near future.
“We do not have ample space for big competitions, we have only one field in Gaborone, which will make it difficult in future to plan for major leagues. Right now, it’s fine because everyone is practising at their home grounds, but we will face a problem of congestion,” said Ramakrishna.
The dirty b***h is backing the village idiot
February 07, 2010, 05:15:23 PM by poondu
Azhar backs Shah Rukh on Pak players' IPL participation
Backing Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan on the Pakistani players' participation in the Indian Premier League, cricketer-turned-politician Mohammad Azharuddin said the Twenty20 event should feature the world's best players irrespective of their nationality.
"I feel all the good players from different countries should participate in such a big tournament," Azharuddin told PTI.
"Politics and sports are two different things. Players should be left alone. All the good players should be taken in the IPL, not just the Pakistan players," added the former Indian captain, who was stuck in his hotel for an entire day due to the snowstorm in Washington.
The former batsman said having the best players would only enhance the popularity of the tournament.
Azharuddin was in Washington to attend the prestigious National Prayer Breakfast meeting, which was addressed by US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which was attended by people from all over the world.
"The function was good. It brings people from different countries together. Got an opportunity to meet lot of people," Azharuddin said.
"At the end of the day we are all human beings. There is no difference. We are all same," he added.
Azharuddin, who is a Congress MP, was the only Indian leader to attend the prestigious meeting being held in Washington for more than five decades now.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Azhar-backs-Shah-Rukh-on-Pak-players-IPL-participation/H1-Article1-506243.aspx
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Backing Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan on the Pakistani players' participation in the Indian Premier League, cricketer-turned-politician Mohammad Azharuddin said the Twenty20 event should feature the world's best players irrespective of their nationality.
"I feel all the good players from different countries should participate in such a big tournament," Azharuddin told PTI.
"Politics and sports are two different things. Players should be left alone. All the good players should be taken in the IPL, not just the Pakistan players," added the former Indian captain, who was stuck in his hotel for an entire day due to the snowstorm in Washington.
The former batsman said having the best players would only enhance the popularity of the tournament.
Azharuddin was in Washington to attend the prestigious National Prayer Breakfast meeting, which was addressed by US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which was attended by people from all over the world.
"The function was good. It brings people from different countries together. Got an opportunity to meet lot of people," Azharuddin said.
"At the end of the day we are all human beings. There is no difference. We are all same," he added.
Azharuddin, who is a Congress MP, was the only Indian leader to attend the prestigious meeting being held in Washington for more than five decades now.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Azhar-backs-Shah-Rukh-on-Pak-players-IPL-participation/H1-Article1-506243.aspx
Ganguly to play in the Vijay Hazare Trophy
February 07, 2010, 01:15:25 PM by Blwe_torch
Ganguly to play in Vijay Hazare Trophy
Kolkata: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly will be seen in action in the East Zone Vijay Hazare Trophy cricket championship to be held at Cuttack later this month.
All-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla will lead the 15member Bengal squad, which will start its campaign by taking on Tripura on February 10.
Former India cricketers Roger Binny and Russi Jijiboy will accompany the team as coach and manager, respectively.
Team: Laxmi Ratan Shukla (capt), Manoj Tiwari (v-capt), Sourav Ganguly, Sreevatsa Goswami, Subhamoy Das, Ranadeb Bose, Ashok Dinda, Saurav Sarkar, Abhisek Jhunjhunwala, Iresh Saxena, Sudip Chatterjee, Arnab Nundy, Sami Ahmed, Soumya Pakrashi, Sayan Sekhar Mondal.
Source: PTI
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Kolkata: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly will be seen in action in the East Zone Vijay Hazare Trophy cricket championship to be held at Cuttack later this month.
All-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla will lead the 15member Bengal squad, which will start its campaign by taking on Tripura on February 10.
Former India cricketers Roger Binny and Russi Jijiboy will accompany the team as coach and manager, respectively.
Team: Laxmi Ratan Shukla (capt), Manoj Tiwari (v-capt), Sourav Ganguly, Sreevatsa Goswami, Subhamoy Das, Ranadeb Bose, Ashok Dinda, Saurav Sarkar, Abhisek Jhunjhunwala, Iresh Saxena, Sudip Chatterjee, Arnab Nundy, Sami Ahmed, Soumya Pakrashi, Sayan Sekhar Mondal.
Source: PTI
[CPMODE] Saha injures Rohit to get India Cap [CPMODE]
February 07, 2010, 12:07:11 AM by cricinfo
Stroke of luck for Saha
- Instead of Rohit Sharma, Bengal ’keeper makes debut
Calcutta: Where ironies go, it can’t get bigger than this: Set for his Test debut, Rohit Sharma collided with Wriddhiman Saha and it’s the 25-year-old from Bengal who got his maiden cap!
One can’t recall a ‘cover’, too, being rendered hors de combat in the hour before a Test, but Saha surely isn’t complaining.
Not that you can hold it against him.
Clearly, a most bizarre situation confronted Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Jamtha, on Saturday morning, when both V.V.S. Laxman and his ‘cover’, Rohit, became unavailable for Test No.1 against South Africa.
With no specialist batsman in the reserves, Dhoni and coach Gary Kirsten had no choice but to include Saha, the second wicket-keeper, in the XI.
Saha’s debut, incidentally, came at the same venue where Sourav Ganguly had played his final Test, 15 months ago.
It’s Kirsten who gave Saha the greatest news of his life, “around five minutes” before the toss.
“Rohit collided with me, during the warm-up session, and he’d looked bad... I was throwing some balls to (Amit) Mishra when Gary came up to me and said that I would be playing... Dhoni spoke to me after the toss... Everything happened so fast,” Saha told The Telegraph, when contacted on returning to the Pride Hotel in Nagpur.
Who presented him the India cap?
“Sachin Tendulkar... At that moment, it definitely felt great... Till then, I’d been quite normal... Sachin also gave the cap to the other debutant, (Subramaniam) Badrinath... Having got this chance, I’m looking to contribute to the team’s effort... Team jate bhalo korte pare...
“Today, I’m thankful to so many for their encouragement over the years... My parents (Prasanta, Maitrayee) and dada (Anirban)... My coach for long, Jayanta Bhowmick... It’s a long list,” Saha responded.
Actually, not that Dhoni has anything against Saha, but his worst fears came true at much the wrong time.
For, it was on the eve of the Test, that he’d told a well-wisher: “Please talk of anything, but injuries ki baat nahin karen...”
The Krishnamachari Srikkanth-headed selection committee needs to hold a review. Most important, it shouldn’t pick anybody who hasn’t ‘proved’ that he’s match-fit.
Laxman wasn’t anywhere close to that when the selectors chose the XV, on January 2-8. Well, it wasn’t very many years ago that even somebody of Sourav’s standing had to ‘prove’ his fitness.
He did so with a hundred in the Duleep Trophy.
Speaking exclusively from Nagpur, Srikkanth said: “We were faced with such a strange situation... What happened was very unfortunate and Rohit’s injury has only confirmed that anything may occur... We’ll now have to look at a logical way of avoiding a repeat...”
Srikkanth didn’t commit himself on whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India would be requested by his committee to sanction the selection of XVI players for a home series as well.
That’s a possibility, though.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100207/jsp/sports/story_12075658.jsp
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- Instead of Rohit Sharma, Bengal ’keeper makes debut
Calcutta: Where ironies go, it can’t get bigger than this: Set for his Test debut, Rohit Sharma collided with Wriddhiman Saha and it’s the 25-year-old from Bengal who got his maiden cap!
One can’t recall a ‘cover’, too, being rendered hors de combat in the hour before a Test, but Saha surely isn’t complaining.
Not that you can hold it against him.
Clearly, a most bizarre situation confronted Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Jamtha, on Saturday morning, when both V.V.S. Laxman and his ‘cover’, Rohit, became unavailable for Test No.1 against South Africa.
With no specialist batsman in the reserves, Dhoni and coach Gary Kirsten had no choice but to include Saha, the second wicket-keeper, in the XI.
Saha’s debut, incidentally, came at the same venue where Sourav Ganguly had played his final Test, 15 months ago.
It’s Kirsten who gave Saha the greatest news of his life, “around five minutes” before the toss.
“Rohit collided with me, during the warm-up session, and he’d looked bad... I was throwing some balls to (Amit) Mishra when Gary came up to me and said that I would be playing... Dhoni spoke to me after the toss... Everything happened so fast,” Saha told The Telegraph, when contacted on returning to the Pride Hotel in Nagpur.
Who presented him the India cap?
“Sachin Tendulkar... At that moment, it definitely felt great... Till then, I’d been quite normal... Sachin also gave the cap to the other debutant, (Subramaniam) Badrinath... Having got this chance, I’m looking to contribute to the team’s effort... Team jate bhalo korte pare...
“Today, I’m thankful to so many for their encouragement over the years... My parents (Prasanta, Maitrayee) and dada (Anirban)... My coach for long, Jayanta Bhowmick... It’s a long list,” Saha responded.
Actually, not that Dhoni has anything against Saha, but his worst fears came true at much the wrong time.
For, it was on the eve of the Test, that he’d told a well-wisher: “Please talk of anything, but injuries ki baat nahin karen...”
The Krishnamachari Srikkanth-headed selection committee needs to hold a review. Most important, it shouldn’t pick anybody who hasn’t ‘proved’ that he’s match-fit.
Laxman wasn’t anywhere close to that when the selectors chose the XV, on January 2-8. Well, it wasn’t very many years ago that even somebody of Sourav’s standing had to ‘prove’ his fitness.
He did so with a hundred in the Duleep Trophy.
Speaking exclusively from Nagpur, Srikkanth said: “We were faced with such a strange situation... What happened was very unfortunate and Rohit’s injury has only confirmed that anything may occur... We’ll now have to look at a logical way of avoiding a repeat...”
Srikkanth didn’t commit himself on whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India would be requested by his committee to sanction the selection of XVI players for a home series as well.
That’s a possibility, though.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100207/jsp/sports/story_12075658.jsp
Ind vs SA - Fight for the world test crown - 1st Test Nagpur
February 06, 2010, 03:36:10 AM by winningnow
SA win toss.. batting
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Can someone PM me a reliable link for India vs SA?
February 05, 2010, 08:45:00 PM by Cover Point
Just do it baby 
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Badri - between diapers and training pants
February 05, 2010, 02:52:05 PM by ஓஓஓஓஓ
http://www.cricinfo.com/indvrsa2010/content/current/story/447119.html
Badri battles the nerves and nicks
A day before his expected India Test debut, S Badrinath was put through his paces at the nets. N Hunter witnessed the nerves and nudges, the anxiety and anticipation.
It's palpable, almost visible. The heavy breathing, the inhaling and exhaling. S Badrinath is restless, nervous on the eve of what should be his Test debut. At 29, it's a long-awaited moment; a domestic giant, with 6187 runs and counting, he's played the waiting game for the past two years. Each time the Test door opened, it shut as quickly.
Now the door is ajar once again and Badri's there. He's not alone; he looks around and sees the competition - Rohit Sharma to one side, long-time friend Murali Vijay to the other. Vijay is skipping to ward off tension. Rohit sits, disinterested, shades turned upside down on the back of his head. Badri, almost a different generation, sits down. Then he stands up, does a spot of vigorous shadow practice.
The final net session is on, Harbhajan Singh is hitting audacious strokes. Badri waits, strapped into his pads and with his helmet on. The minutes tick by. He kills time, adjusting and readjusting the protective gear. The gloves go on, then come off. He taps the front of the helmet, hits the pads with his bat, stretches forward and back. Harbhajan hits a straight drive, says "last few". Badri nods, right foot in front, ready to get off the blocks.
Finally he's out there, taking guard, leg stump. First up, Amit Mishra: A nicely flighted delivery, the perfect legbreak. Badri moves forward a bit, is beaten by the turn. Not the best start to his last nets before what should be his India debut.
Then follows a rigorous examination by pace bowling. Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Abhimanyu Mithun (the leading wicket-taker this Ranji Trophy season). Mishra and Pragyan Ojha add subtlety to the mix. Badri searches for his groove, the bat starts making the right noises. He's still a little uncertain, though, and the noise is hollow, edgy. Zaheer is nagging at him with accurate inswingers, Ishant is finding a sharp length that consistently kicks the ball over the off stump.
The 15 minutes are over. Zaheer pitches it on the seam, the ball rears up. Badri is unsettled, moves inside the line, turns his hips and jumps. He winces in pain as Zaheer smiles. Harbhajan, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag share a joke and there's laughter all round. The nerves come rushing back. "Over," Badri says, seeming slightly embarrassed, and walks out of the nets, rubbing his injured thigh.
A few minutes later, passing Zaheer, Badri makes a shy remark: "I like that". Then he walks up to Sachin Tendulkar. The Master is cheerful. He nods, shakes his head, gestures with his hands, keeping the smile on all the time, making suggestions, obviously trying to calm the newcomer's nerves.
When he walks away, Badri stays put. Well, not really; he's in one place but in constant motion. Hands on hips. Hands behind hips, fists clenched. Hands crossed in front of his chest. He tries to speak to Gary Kirsten, tries to get his attention. The head coach, busy with throw-downs to Vijay, tells him to move away.
Eric Simons, the bowling consultant, is ready to give Badri some throwdowns. The confidence has evidently returned; he starts middling the ball. Simons chips in with a few instructions. He points to the advantage of playing with the full bat face open and straight in line, instead of playing away from the body.
The problem isn't sorted, though, and another expert eye picks it up. Kirsten turns his attention to the new boy. He passes on his instructions - play the ball with the head in line with the ball and the torso forward, not away from the ball - and takes over the throwdowns. Kirsten is relentless, firing in volleys and shorts balls with the tennis racket at Andy Roddick pace. Badri ducks, weaves, moving forward and back. Test cricket beckons.
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Badri battles the nerves and nicks
A day before his expected India Test debut, S Badrinath was put through his paces at the nets. N Hunter witnessed the nerves and nudges, the anxiety and anticipation.
It's palpable, almost visible. The heavy breathing, the inhaling and exhaling. S Badrinath is restless, nervous on the eve of what should be his Test debut. At 29, it's a long-awaited moment; a domestic giant, with 6187 runs and counting, he's played the waiting game for the past two years. Each time the Test door opened, it shut as quickly.
Now the door is ajar once again and Badri's there. He's not alone; he looks around and sees the competition - Rohit Sharma to one side, long-time friend Murali Vijay to the other. Vijay is skipping to ward off tension. Rohit sits, disinterested, shades turned upside down on the back of his head. Badri, almost a different generation, sits down. Then he stands up, does a spot of vigorous shadow practice.
The final net session is on, Harbhajan Singh is hitting audacious strokes. Badri waits, strapped into his pads and with his helmet on. The minutes tick by. He kills time, adjusting and readjusting the protective gear. The gloves go on, then come off. He taps the front of the helmet, hits the pads with his bat, stretches forward and back. Harbhajan hits a straight drive, says "last few". Badri nods, right foot in front, ready to get off the blocks.
Finally he's out there, taking guard, leg stump. First up, Amit Mishra: A nicely flighted delivery, the perfect legbreak. Badri moves forward a bit, is beaten by the turn. Not the best start to his last nets before what should be his India debut.
Then follows a rigorous examination by pace bowling. Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Abhimanyu Mithun (the leading wicket-taker this Ranji Trophy season). Mishra and Pragyan Ojha add subtlety to the mix. Badri searches for his groove, the bat starts making the right noises. He's still a little uncertain, though, and the noise is hollow, edgy. Zaheer is nagging at him with accurate inswingers, Ishant is finding a sharp length that consistently kicks the ball over the off stump.
The 15 minutes are over. Zaheer pitches it on the seam, the ball rears up. Badri is unsettled, moves inside the line, turns his hips and jumps. He winces in pain as Zaheer smiles. Harbhajan, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag share a joke and there's laughter all round. The nerves come rushing back. "Over," Badri says, seeming slightly embarrassed, and walks out of the nets, rubbing his injured thigh.
A few minutes later, passing Zaheer, Badri makes a shy remark: "I like that". Then he walks up to Sachin Tendulkar. The Master is cheerful. He nods, shakes his head, gestures with his hands, keeping the smile on all the time, making suggestions, obviously trying to calm the newcomer's nerves.
When he walks away, Badri stays put. Well, not really; he's in one place but in constant motion. Hands on hips. Hands behind hips, fists clenched. Hands crossed in front of his chest. He tries to speak to Gary Kirsten, tries to get his attention. The head coach, busy with throw-downs to Vijay, tells him to move away.
Eric Simons, the bowling consultant, is ready to give Badri some throwdowns. The confidence has evidently returned; he starts middling the ball. Simons chips in with a few instructions. He points to the advantage of playing with the full bat face open and straight in line, instead of playing away from the body.
The problem isn't sorted, though, and another expert eye picks it up. Kirsten turns his attention to the new boy. He passes on his instructions - play the ball with the head in line with the ball and the torso forward, not away from the ball - and takes over the throwdowns. Kirsten is relentless, firing in volleys and shorts balls with the tennis racket at Andy Roddick pace. Badri ducks, weaves, moving forward and back. Test cricket beckons.
Poll
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a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport2/hi/cricket/womens_cricket/8343672.stm" target="_blank"Windies women stun England in ODI/abr /b5 November 2009, 12:19 am/bbr /br /br /br /Windies women stun England in ODIbr /br /First one-day international, St Kitts:West Indies 235-6 (50 ovs) beat England 195 (47.4 ovs) by 40 runsbr /br /Match scorecardbr /br /img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46671000/jpg/_46671674_char_226.jpg" alt="" /br /br /Edwards' side play their second one-day international on Thursdaybr /br /England's women were outplayed with bat and ball as West Indies secured a shock 40-run victory in the first of three one-day international...div a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9jsFXVTus2E:9lhXThRopyw:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9jsFXVTus2E:9lhXThRopyw:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9jsFXVTus2E:9lhXThRopyw:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=9jsFXVTus2E:9lhXThRopyw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9jsFXVTus2E:9lhXThRopyw:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9jsFXVTus2E:9lhXThRopyw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=9jsFXVTus2E:9lhXThRopyw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9jsFXVTus2E:9lhXThRopyw:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cricketvoice/~4/9jsFXVTus2E" height="1" width="1"/
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a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport2/hi/cricket/counties/glamorgan/8342993.stm" target="_blank"Glamorgan penalty is carried over/abr /b4 November 2009, 4:11 pm/bbr /br /br /br /Glamorgan penalty is carried overbr /br /img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45717000/jpg/_45717436_glamorgan_cover1_huw2904.jpg" alt="" /br /br /The Swalec Stadium had £3m of improvements during the winterbr /br /Glamorgan will start next season's revamped 40-over league with a two-point penalty, it has been confirmed.The county were punished for a poor Swalec Stadium pitch in their Friends Provident Trophy defeat by Essex. br /br /The England and Wales Cricke...div a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=Fy_kXv0bTLs:oDtx9YILUmI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=Fy_kXv0bTLs:oDtx9YILUmI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=Fy_kXv0bTLs:oDtx9YILUmI:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=Fy_kXv0bTLs:oDtx9YILUmI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=Fy_kXv0bTLs:oDtx9YILUmI:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=Fy_kXv0bTLs:oDtx9YILUmI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=Fy_kXv0bTLs:oDtx9YILUmI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=Fy_kXv0bTLs:oDtx9YILUmI:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cricketvoice/~4/Fy_kXv0bTLs" height="1" width="1"/
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a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport2/hi/cricket/counties/hampshire/8342467.stm" target="_blank"Jones starts Hants comeback bid/abr /b4 November 2009, 2:40 pm/bbr /br /br /br /Jones starts Hants comeback bidbr /br /img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46156000/jpg/_46156298_simon_jones_get.jpg" alt="" /br /br /Jones was released by Worcestershire in July 2009br /br /New Hampshire signing Simon Jones has refused to set a domestic comeback date for his new county.The England bowler started a rehab programme this week after missing the 2009 season with a knee injury. br /br /Jones has undergone five operations on his knee and suffered two ...div a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=BhpIaZgGyME:ReF9ZHadT2M:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=BhpIaZgGyME:ReF9ZHadT2M:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=BhpIaZgGyME:ReF9ZHadT2M:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=BhpIaZgGyME:ReF9ZHadT2M:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=BhpIaZgGyME:ReF9ZHadT2M:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=BhpIaZgGyME:ReF9ZHadT2M:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=BhpIaZgGyME:ReF9ZHadT2M:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=BhpIaZgGyME:ReF9ZHadT2M:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cricketvoice/~4/BhpIaZgGyME" height="1" width="1"/
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a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/south_asia/8342024.stm" target="_blank"India tries to defuse cricket row/abr /b4 November 2009, 11:19 am/bbr /br /br /br /India tries to defuse cricket rowbr /br /img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46665000/jpg/_46665519_chidambaram_getty226.jpg" alt="" /br /br /Mr Chidambaram said he had raised the issue with the defence ministerbr /br /An apology from the armed forces for withdrawing from a cricket tournament in Indian-controlled Kashmir should be accepted, the home minister says.P Chidambaram said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should fix fresh dates for the matches. br /br /Off...div a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=jmL5RMnBHVc:zliz3wOEqGU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=jmL5RMnBHVc:zliz3wOEqGU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=jmL5RMnBHVc:zliz3wOEqGU:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=jmL5RMnBHVc:zliz3wOEqGU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=jmL5RMnBHVc:zliz3wOEqGU:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=jmL5RMnBHVc:zliz3wOEqGU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=jmL5RMnBHVc:zliz3wOEqGU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=jmL5RMnBHVc:zliz3wOEqGU:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cricketvoice/~4/jmL5RMnBHVc" height="1" width="1"/
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a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport2/hi/cricket/8338389.stm" target="_blank"Pakistan make short work of Kiwis/abr /b3 November 2009, 6:37 pm/bbr /br /br /br /Pakistan make short work of Kiwisbr /br /First one-day international, Abu Dhabi (Sheikh Zahed Stadium): Pakistan 287-9 beat New Zealand 149 by 138 runsbr /br /Match scorecardbr /br /img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46663000/jpg/_46663080_gul226i.jpg" alt="" /br /br /Gul's two wickets got the ball rolling for Pakistanbr /br /Explosive batting from Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal helped Pakistan establish a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand.Playing at their adop...div a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=qbYYLnog3Lk:BWgVJVmWZ34:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=qbYYLnog3Lk:BWgVJVmWZ34:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=qbYYLnog3Lk:BWgVJVmWZ34:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=qbYYLnog3Lk:BWgVJVmWZ34:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=qbYYLnog3Lk:BWgVJVmWZ34:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=qbYYLnog3Lk:BWgVJVmWZ34:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=qbYYLnog3Lk:BWgVJVmWZ34:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=qbYYLnog3Lk:BWgVJVmWZ34:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cricketvoice/~4/qbYYLnog3Lk" height="1" width="1"/
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a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport2/hi/cricket/8341206.stm" target="_blank"Ireland aiming to join ICC elite/abr /b3 November 2009, 5:53 pm/bbr /br /br /br /Ireland aiming to join ICC elitebr /br /img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46663000/jpg/_46663014_deutrom_226.jpg" alt="" /br /br /Warren Deutrom says Ireland face a lot of workbr /br /Ireland have revealed plans to apply to become full members of the International Cricket Council.If successful, they would be the 11th full member nation and the first to step up from associate status since Bangladesh in 2000. br /br /It could eventually pave the way for Ireland to play at Test mat...div a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=HJyfQlWCLGA:_qmFD0mD0Vs:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=HJyfQlWCLGA:_qmFD0mD0Vs:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=HJyfQlWCLGA:_qmFD0mD0Vs:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=HJyfQlWCLGA:_qmFD0mD0Vs:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=HJyfQlWCLGA:_qmFD0mD0Vs:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=HJyfQlWCLGA:_qmFD0mD0Vs:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=HJyfQlWCLGA:_qmFD0mD0Vs:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=HJyfQlWCLGA:_qmFD0mD0Vs:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cricketvoice/~4/HJyfQlWCLGA" height="1" width="1"/
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a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/worldservice/programmes/2009/11/091102_chiinese_cricket.shtml" target="_blank"Chinese women make cricket debut/abr /b3 November 2009, 4:22 pm/bbr /br /China are set to field a women's team at the Asian Gamesbr /br /bSource:/b a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport2/hi/cricket/default.stm" target="_blank"BBC Sport | Cricket | World Edition/abr /br /div a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=JWotuVB5ywI:5P9o3r1FlWM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=JWotuVB5ywI:5P9o3r1FlWM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=JWotuVB5ywI:5P9o3r1FlWM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=JWotuVB5ywI:5P9o3r1FlWM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=JWotuVB5ywI:5P9o3r1FlWM:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=JWotuVB5ywI:5P9o3r1FlWM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=JWotuVB5ywI:5P9o3r1FlWM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=JWotuVB5ywI:5P9o3r1FlWM:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cricketvoice/~4/JWotuVB5ywI" height="1" width="1"/
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a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport2/hi/cricket/england/8340720.stm" target="_blank"England take look at Kieswetter/abr /b3 November 2009, 4:13 pm/bbr /br /br /br /England take look at Kieswetterbr /br /img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46661000/jpg/_46661994_craig_282.jpg" alt="" /br /br /Kieswetter has impressed with bat and gloves for Somersetbr /br /Somerset wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter has been called into the England performance programme despite not being qualified for his adopted country.Kieswetter was born in South Africa and represented them at youth level, but joined Somerset in 2006 and has been touted as a poten...div a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9NPUosDivXo:t-P19dmd6TY:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9NPUosDivXo:t-P19dmd6TY:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9NPUosDivXo:t-P19dmd6TY:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=9NPUosDivXo:t-P19dmd6TY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9NPUosDivXo:t-P19dmd6TY:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9NPUosDivXo:t-P19dmd6TY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=9NPUosDivXo:t-P19dmd6TY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9NPUosDivXo:t-P19dmd6TY:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cricketvoice/~4/9NPUosDivXo" height="1" width="1"/
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a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport2/hi/cricket/counties/yorkshire/8340405.stm" target="_blank"Vaughan questions Hoggard's exit/abr /b3 November 2009, 4:04 pm/bbr /br /br /br /Vaughan questions Hoggard's exitbr /br /img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46532000/jpg/_46532714_hoggy_gettycredit226.jpg" alt="" /br /br /Leicestershire and Essex are both chasing Matthew Hoggard's signaturebr /br /Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes Yorkshire should have done more to keep hold of Matthew Hoggard.The fast bowler controversially left Headingley at the end of the season after failing to agree a new deal - and has been linked ...div a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9YJMPaHdtAw:54YkxkVROhM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9YJMPaHdtAw:54YkxkVROhM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9YJMPaHdtAw:54YkxkVROhM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=9YJMPaHdtAw:54YkxkVROhM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9YJMPaHdtAw:54YkxkVROhM:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9YJMPaHdtAw:54YkxkVROhM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=9YJMPaHdtAw:54YkxkVROhM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=9YJMPaHdtAw:54YkxkVROhM:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cricketvoice/~4/9YJMPaHdtAw" height="1" width="1"/
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a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport2/hi/cricket/other_international/australia/8340327.stm" target="_blank"Injured Siddle out of one-dayers/abr /b3 November 2009, 1:33 pm/bbr /br /br /br /Injured Siddle out of one-dayersbr /br /img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46660000/jpg/_46660606_siddle226getty.jpg" alt="" /br /br /Siddle is being taken home as a precaution, insist the Australian campbr /br /Australia's Peter Siddle will miss the last three games of the one-day series against India with a side injury.Paceman Siddle will be sent home after being injured in the series-levelling 24-run win on Monday, in which he bowled just f...div a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=y5zvJ7zx6b4:LpBWXqIckaM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=y5zvJ7zx6b4:LpBWXqIckaM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=y5zvJ7zx6b4:LpBWXqIckaM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=y5zvJ7zx6b4:LpBWXqIckaM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=y5zvJ7zx6b4:LpBWXqIckaM:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=y5zvJ7zx6b4:LpBWXqIckaM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?i=y5zvJ7zx6b4:LpBWXqIckaM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?a=y5zvJ7zx6b4:LpBWXqIckaM:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/cricketvoice?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cricketvoice/~4/y5zvJ7zx6b4" height="1" width="1"/
