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While the BCB has done well to try and instil high levels of discipline in the team of late, penalising Tamim for his comments on condition of the playing field in a BPL game would amount to no more than censorship

Mohammad Isam02-Jan-2018The BCB’s hardline on disciplinary matters has the dual effect of pleasing many cricket fans but also making some players uncomfortable about expressing themselves.Cases in point: Sabbir Rahman’s punishment, and Tamim Iqbal’s proposed fine. There is hardly a fan in Bangladesh who feels that the sanctions imposed on Sabbir is anything other than what he deserves. But the proposal to penalise Tamim for his comments on the condition of the playing field in Mirpur during a BPL match is the BCB enforcing a severe form of censorship.After Comilla Victorians and Rangpur Riders struggled to get past 100 in their game on December 2, Tamim had heavily criticised the pitch and wondered whether the curator could have worked harder on it. He also made a passing mention of the outfield, but seemed mainly frustrated by how Mirpur couldn’t produce a better T20 pitch.He said: “It is a horrible, horrible, horrible wicket. We had ten days off, but the curator could not prepare a good wicket. The crowd does not come to see a 90-95 wicket.”Later, at the press conference, Tamim spoke in a similar tone, adding that the outfield didn’t look green enough. This, of course, is the same outfield that the ICC tagged “poor” after the Dhaka Test in August, resulting in the BCB incurring two demerit points. The Mirpur outfield and drainage system has long been lauded for its consistency, except this past year when massive redevelopment work – and delays in the same – have got in the way.On January 1, board president Nazmul Hassan said that Tamim’s comments on the outfield and curator Gamini Silva were what got him into trouble, not his criticism of the pitch. “Tamim, like anyone else, can talk about the pitch, but why did he speak about the outfield?” Hassan said. “What was wrong with the outfield? Why did he talk about the curator? We have already incurred two demerit points for the outfield after the Australia Test. There won’t be any matches in Dhaka if it reaches four demerit points. A captain can’t speak in this way, he has to be more responsible.”Hassan said that Tamim’s comments were “dangerous” to Bangladesh cricket, given two more demerit points could leave the BCB without Mirpur as an accredited venue. For his part, Hassan doesn’t flinch when it comes to telling the media regularly of the team’s plans for the 2019 World Cup, which players should be chosen in the squad, and how senior players like Tamim and Mushfiqur Rahim should behave. By the BCB’s high disciplinary standards, all of this doesn’t quite add up.But Hassan had an example to offer: “Players wore masks while playing in Delhi [in the India-Sri Lanka series last month]. But all the [Indian] players returned to the field as soon as their captain [Virat] Kohli made a gesture with his hand. None of them complained about the conditions that day.”So why would our well-known player, our vice-captain, talk about the outfield and pitch, that too in the media? Can he change anything saying these things? If he had told us, we could have helped him.”It is hard not to appreciate Hassan’s push towards a disciplined team after Mustafa Kamal, his predecessor in the BCB, proved to be a lenient leader. Hassan broke through in 2014 by suspending Shakib Al Hasan for six months on disciplinary grounds – though the penalty was later reduced. Hassan oversaw the BPL tribunal that ended up punishing Mohammad Ashraful, the former Bangladesh captain, for corruption in the T20 league. Pacer Al-Amin Hossain was sent back home from the 2015 World Cup after breaking the team curfew in Brisbane, while the BCB has also been severe on Sabbir in the past.But the BCB’s – proposed – stance on Tamim has the feel of some board directors taking his criticisms personally. If sanctions are brought against him, it could end up diluting the board’s steady progress in bringing discipline to Bangladesh cricket.

The career of England’s leading run-scorer epitomises an era in which English cricket has been divorced from popular culture, and the ECB are now paying the price

Andrew Miller30-Apr-2018Alastair Cook entered the assembly hall at Rusthall Primary School through a guard of honour of plastic bats. He watched, on the school projector, a brief re-run of his winter’s undoubted highlight, that Ashes-best 244 not out at Melbourne. And then, after a lively Kwik cricket session in the playground, he was presented with a cake to commemorate his achievement in passing 12,000 Test runs.It all added up to a nice, low-key but upbeat, opportunity for England’s former captain and record Test run-scorer to re-enter the limelight of another English cricket season.But he did so against a backdrop of clanking and whirring from the machine of which he has been such an integral cog for the past 12 years and 154 Tests – and to judge by its most recent permutations, that machine appears to have rendered Cook’s particular skill-set nigh on obsolete.”The Hundred” is the format that the ECB believe is going to appeal to their elusive next generation – 100 balls per innings, in which to biff as many runs as possible, with the whole match done and dusted in the space of two and a half hours.”I’ll have a hack!” Cook joked. “Everyone laughs when I say that I’ve got a T20 hundred. It’s deeply unfair.”But Cook knows, just as most of cricket’s existing fans know, that this new format is not about him, or even them. The sort of 14-hour epic that Cook compiled in Abu Dhabi three winters ago counts for little in the current climate, not to mention the 94 occasions in 279 Test innings in which he has used up 100 or more deliveries without any assistance from his team-mates.Admittedly, in his most recent series, in New Zealand last month, Cook veered rather closer to the zeitgeist, being dismissed four times in the space of 65 balls, en route to a career-low series average of 5.75.But it’s hard to imagine that either those highs or those lows will have made the blindest jot of difference to the gaggles of kids staring up at him from the assembly-hall floor with a mixture of awe and bewilderment.”Do you think they knew who you were?” asked one of the journalists afterwards.”They’d been told well!” Cook replied, not even for a split-second protesting the bitter implications of that question.For English sport cannot have produced many more anonymous titans than Alastair Cook – a man whose international career began the very winter after English cricket’s great farewell to relevance in the 2005 Ashes, and which could yet come to an end before the summer of 2020, when the sport’s reboot – including a partial return to free-to-air television – will come to fruition.

Not a single one of the 12693 deliveries that Cook has faced in his record 82 consecutive home Test appearances has been shown on terrestrial television

And in between those two dates, not a single one of the 12693 deliveries that Cook has faced in his record 82 consecutive home Test appearances – dating back to his home debut against Sri Lanka at Lord’s in May 2006 – has been shown on terrestrial television. Regardless of his at-times superhuman feats of longevity, he’s become an inadvertent advert for a sport that has been allowed to drift away from popular culture.Does it bother Cook that his efforts have gone unnoticed by so many for so long? “Not with my batting!” he joked. “But people are aware of that and they do need to get it more accessible, and that is the next stage. The financial state of English cricket is far healthier now than it was on terrestrial television, but one thing that’s different now is that people don’t watch games, even football, they watch 10-minute highlights of it on their phone the next morning, and that is one thing cricket has to consider.”That abundance of choice is a challenge for all sports administrators, but it feels particularly acute for cricket – a sport which fewer than three in five children currently name among their top-ten favourite activities. And among the many shocking revelations that jolted the ECB into its brave new world of panic-revolution, the realisation that Cook was less well known among kids than the wrestler John Cena was perhaps the most visceral.In fact, when the kids of Rusthall Primary were asked, during their assembly, to name some other famous cricketers, the three answers they came up with were: Joe Root (thank God), Andrew Flintoff (who retired from Test cricket in 2009, before most of those present had been born) and “my daddy!” … which was cute, but seriously, would Messi, Neymar or even Lizzy Yarnold have elicited such a blank reaction?To be clear: Cook’s lack of a public profile is a symptom, not the cause. For the most part his anonymity has served him well – both as a batsman out in the middle, where his precise role has been to draw the heat and leave the attention-grabbing to other more flamboyant colleagues, and off the field too. He’s avoided social media throughout his career and, unencumbered by fame, takes pleasure in being able to return to his family farm between tours, most recently of course to help out with the lambing season.But despite his diplomatic response to “The Hundred” initiative – (“I did read the email briefly … it’s intriguing, it’s interesting”) – Cook would be entitled to feel ever so slightly cheesed off at the speed with which everything he’s held dear throughout a career of intense dedication is being allowed to slide from prominence.Let’s not forget, it wasn’t so long ago that the ECB (under different management, admittedly) were touting Cook’s unquestionable decency as the gold standard for their sport. Of course, this manifested itself in another cack-handed PR shambles, with Cook forced to live down Giles Clarke’s cloying accolade that he and his family were the “right sort of people”, as well as face down the very personal vitriol that came his way when Kevin Pietersen’s excommunication was allowed to be dressed up as the captain’s personal decision.Alastair Cook plays cricket with schoolkids during a Chance to Shine / Yorkshire Tea event•Getty ImagesBut the mistakes that were made four years ago – in particular, that preference for “ethic and philosophy” over engagement and activity – feel as though they are now being rectified through a wild lurch down an alternative path, one which has placed participation at the absolute heart of everything the board is now setting out to achieve.To be fair, most of that work can only be considered a good thing. Take this very school visit, for instance, with Cook appearing as an ambassador for Chance to Shine during the launch of the 2018 Yorkshire Tea Cricket Week. Chance to Shine has been undertaking vital community projects for 13 years now, reintroducing cricket to millions of children in the country’s state schools, and last summer it was joined by the launch of the ECB’s All Stars Cricket initiative, which for £40 offers five- to eight-year-olds weekly introductory sessions during the summer months, and their own backpack’s worth of kit, including bat, ball and named shirt.All of which is worthy in the extreme. The concern, however, is that in the course of their detailed market research, the ECB have lost any confidence that cricket is a game worth promoting in its own right. Hence the birth of The Hundred, a rather transparent attempt to cultivate those delicate shoots of engagement, and nurture them using a form of the game that has been stripped of any scary detail.It’s a “simple” format, was the somewhat clunky explanation from Andrew Strauss, England’s director of cricket, designed to appeal to “mums and kids”. And last week, Eoin Morgan, the one-day captain, went even further than that, claiming that the point of the product is to “upset people that already come to a game”.That, however, is looking like the easy part of the deal. With two years to go, the biggest challenge for the ECB will be ensuring that their new customers are suitably enthralled by the fare that’s placed before them. Which partially explains the board’s peculiar jockeying for position throughout a pretty dismal winter – Tom Harrison’s insistence that the game is in “good shape” in spite of a 4-0 Ashes drubbing; the desperate desire to rehabilitate Ben Stokes “on the field” after his Bristol misdemeanours, and the paranoia about the players’ off-field behaviour in Australia.But where all that leaves Cook’s ambassadorial duties, beyond the paleontological fascination of being a living relic, is a determinedly moot point. At a time when the sport is crying out for role models, he offers everything you could hope for in a hero … except for everything that the ECB are trying to sell through their new whizz-bang format.And as a consequence, he’s not holding his breath for a new generation of Alastair Cooks to come rushing into the game. “I doubt that,” he said. “There’s a bit of thing at the moment about white-ball skills, and it’s going to be very hard to talk kids into – why would you at this precise moment in time, put yourself through the stresses and strains of a five-day game, when there’s the three-hour crash-bang-wallop… there’s more incentive for that.”He’s not the type to grumble – not publicly at least. But, at this late stage of his career, Cook is entitled to begin to wonder. What on earth is going to become of his legacy?

Pakistan are a far less experienced side than the one which drew 2-2 in England in 2016

Osman Samiuddin at Lord's23-May-2018Two years ago when Pakistan arrived at Lord’s for their first Test, they did so with considerable confidence. It was a settled and experienced side, had spent a month warming up in England and a month before that in an intense boot camp.The current side is not lacking in confidence, and there is promise in the side. But it is nowhere near as grooved. Several things need to happen for them to beat England.The corePakistan’s likeliest XI on Thursday will have four members from the XI that won at Lord’s in 2016. And it is this core quartet that most needs to stand up.Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq will have to break out of their respective ruts – this tour’s for Azhar, the last year’s and more for Shafiq.Mohammad Amir looked both fragile and threatening in Malahide where Pakistan would prefer only the latter from Thursday. Mickey Arthur says big occasions bring the best out of Amir and with its combination of emotion and memory, few compare to the bigness of a Lord’s Test for Amir.Sarfraz Ahmed needs runs. He has seven 50s in his last 32 Test innings, averaging 32.41, and no century in over three years. He needs to be the Sarfraz he was before that, averaging over 45 especially as he’s now batting at six.Exploit English uncertaintyEngland’s recent Test form and general air of transition means they can’t be considered overwhelming favourites. And though they haven’t actually lost a home series in four years, they have lost at least one Test in seven of their last eight home series. These are very much two mid-table sides.No wonder Sarfraz sounded unusually bullish about capitalizing on the uncertainty. “Yes, if you see England’s last four months they are not good for them. They lost the Ashes in Australia and did not have good time in New Zealand so as a team they do not have good time.”As captain I see England, at the moment, being less confident as a team so as a team we will try to take advantage.”Faheem Ashraf couldn’t quite convert into a century on Test debut•Sportsfile/Getty Images5+5Here’s a fact to help digest what a boon it is for Pakistan to have not one but two (fledgling) allrounders in their XI. The last time they were able to have such luxury – of playing an attack of four pace bowlers and a spinner – was in Kandy, in 2006.An easing of the burden is what Pakistan’s pace attack and Yasir Shah have both needed over the last couple of years, so it’s difficult to overstate the longer-term importance of Shadab Khan and Faheem Ashraf.At Lord’s, they allow Pakistan the flexibility: five specialist batsmen and a five-man attack. Shadab’s leggies (nobody needs reminding about Pakistani leggies and English batsmen) could play a key role. Ashraf could do likewise by giving relief to the likes of Amir and Mohammad Abbas while chipping in with the occasional wicket. Either could come off with a game-breaking innings. Turn one of these ‘coulds’ into reality and we have a game on our hands.Catches win…Not matches necessarily but dropping them sure as hell lessens the chances of winning one. Pakistan were poor in Malahide, spilling at least four catches. And they usually start poorly in England.And they are figuring out a new slip cordon, having lost the safe hands of MisYou. The slip cordon, as it stands, will be Haris Sohail at first, Shafiq at second, Azhar at third and Babar Azam at gully, with Shadab also available to come in if needed.But Sarfraz must set the tone. The two drops against Ireland have extended an iffy run behind the stumps and as Sarfraz knows first-hand, foreign wicketkeepers generally take time to adjust at Lord’s: he dropped a sitter off Amir here in 2016.Break this trendPakistan haven’t drawn a Test outside Asia since January 2011, at the start of the Misbah era. Not a single Test. They’ve drawn just two outside Asia in the last decade. Ok, so drawing a Test is not beating England but with that record and the general inexperience in the side, it might not be the worst result.

If it has to compete with leagues like the NFL, NBA and Premier League football, it needs to expand in India and abroad

Tim Wigmore28-Jun-2018Compared to other major global sports, cricket has always been unusual in club matches being so peripheral to internationals. Even for many ardent cricket fans in India a generation ago, to go to domestic matches was somehow seen as a little eccentric; those matches were seldom on TV. The IPL changed all that; for many, it turned domestic cricket from an irrelevant addendum to the international game to the main event.From the opening day of its first auction, when $42 million was spent signing 78 players for a seven-week tournament, the IPL was derided as an unsustainable bubble. These players, after all, were being signed by franchises who did not exist a few months ago, and had not yet got a single fan into their grounds.Even as the IPL soared, many believed it might be commercially unstable and, because no tradition had been built up, as susceptible to changing tastes as the Tamagotchi virtual pet toy. (In the late 1990s, the Tamagotchi went from selling 15 devices per second in the US and Canada alone to having millions of units worldwide unsold and unwanted within a few years.)The IPL long ago proved that it is altogether more durable than the Tamagotchi. While there is evidence that T20 leagues worldwide are over-hyped – so far most leagues and franchises have routinely lost money – the IPL has stood out as an exception.Last September, Star Sports spent $2.55 billion on five years of exclusive broadcasting and digital rights for the IPL – a five-times increase on the annual value of the previous deal, which prompted great buoyancy in the league. Commercially, according to a Star TV report, the 11th IPL season was the most successful yet: total TV viewership grew 15% compared with the 2017 season, and total viewership across TV and digital combined rose 29%. This year, for the first time, some IPL regular season matches rated higher than the average for an Indian bilateral T20.The season also marked a maturation of the IPL and its wider acceptance as a sporting league. Star Sports marketed the competition as “cricket, not cricketainment”, according to a broadcasting insider. This shift is beneficial on a commercial level too: those who are drawn to just the tamasha may watch the start and end of the competition – and, indeed, the start and end of games – but those who will reliably watch over after over, night after night, need to relish the actual cricket too.ESPNcricinfo LtdFor many franchises, 2018 was the inflexion point: the year when, because of the new rights deal, they went from being volatile businesses to reliable money-making enterprises. It was also the year when franchises stopped paying the BCCI a fixed franchise fee (although they have to now pay 20% of their revenue to the board). “In ten years the IPL has done what we wouldn’t have imagined on day one, season one,” says Amrit Thomas, chairman of Royal Challengers Bangalore.A cricket giant, a global mouse
Yet, seen through the prism of other major sports leagues, what stands out is not how big the IPL is – but how small. In a nation of 1.3 billion, the IPL only comprises eight teams, playing a total of 60 matches. In England, a country of 55 million, Premier League football – to which IPL owners often compare the league – has 20 teams playing a total of 380 games. And while the IPL’s new TV deal was remarkable on a cost-per-game basis – the deal is worth four times as much as each NBA game and two-thirds as much as each Premier League game – it remains puny in absolute terms. The NFL, the world’s most lucrative league, generates $7.3 billion in broadcasting revenue per year – 14 times as much as the IPL.Compared to the other leading leagues it aspires to, the IPL is far smaller in duration, number of teams, number of matches and total commercial value. The league is much younger – and so, potentially, with much growth to come – than the others, but the vast difference in figures is illuminating. Indeed, it generates less in broadcasting rights than Brazil’s Serie A football league, which is never mentioned as a global heavyweight.So what can it do?The IPL’s current structure – eight sides playing each other twice before the play-offs – is established until the 2022 season, when the current broadcasting contract ends. But when the new deal commences, there are likely to be changes.”I would be surprised if there were not more teams, but also hopefully a clearer slot in the international calendar,” says Manoj Badale, the lead owner of the Rajasthan Royals.The most likely outcome is that the number of teams will increase from eight to ten, and the number of games will rise from 60 to 74 – mirroring the format used in 2011, the only year to feature ten sides. But this change is only deemed favourable if it is accompanied by a ten-day increase in the length of the competition, which would mean there would not need to be any double-headers played during the working week. In 2011, the tournament suffered because of a spate of midweek double-headers – the earlier match would begin in the afternoon, played out in front of underwhelming crowds and mediocre TV viewing numbers.If the number of teams increase in the IPL, then the space in the calendar will also have to expand to avoid too many mid-week afternoon games, which do poorly in terms of viewership•AFPIn the medium-term, ten teams are widely viewed as the optimum number: a way of growing the league while maintaining the quality of the competition, the competitive balance, and not diluting the sheer sense of event that an IPL match still represents. The IPL’s challenge, Thomas believes, is how to grow while remaining true to its identity as a short and snappy tournament.”You will need to think about: do we really need IPL brand expansion and, if so, what should it be? Do you really want to elongate the tournament? There would be fatigue related to players and let’s not forget it’s really demanding.”Should the IPL indeed expand, it invites the question of where those sides would be. The most likely cities to have a team are Pune and Ahmedabad. More ambitiously, to increase the IPL’s geographical spread and penetration, Lucknow, Kanpur, Kochi and perhaps even Guwahati could be considered as potential venues for new franchises.A Women’s IPL
In the years ahead, the IPL is poised to move from being one league to several. “It is critical that the IPL develop the game at all levels within India – not just for the lucky few that get to play,” says Badale.The women’s exhibition match in Mumbai this year, before an IPL play-off game, was essentially a down payment on creating a Women’s IPL. Here, the template is obvious: the Women’s Big Bash (WBBL), which has the same teams as the men’s tournament, has been a remarkable success since its launch in 2015. While the WBBL was initially played largely alongside the men’s BBL, it now has its own block, meaning it will finish just as the men’s tournament begins, and so extend the Big Bash’s hold over the Australian sporting summer. This is likely to be the form that the Women’s IPL eventually takes, with the competition taking place before the start of the men’s edition. Several franchises say they have already suggested such a women’s league to the BCCI.There are, however, two main obstacles. The first is the feeling that, unlike in men’s international cricket, there is a huge amount of untapped opportunity to monetise and popularise Indian women’s internationals, and that it makes sense to pursue this approach before investing in an IPL. The second concern, which Mithali Raj has also highlighted, is that the current depth of Indian domestic talent is not sufficient to sustain eight high-quality sides.While a Women’s IPL could, in theory, begin with fewer teams, this would give the franchises who were granted teams a significant long-term commercial advantage over those who were not, and risk putting off some fans whose franchises were not represented. Creating completely new teams, meanwhile, would miss out on the obvious marketing synergies between men’s and women’s teams for the same franchises.ESPNcricinfo LtdSo it seems likelier that the Women’s IPL, when it does begin, will include the same teams as in the men’s tournament. The tournament could well begin with each side playing everyone else only once in the group stage, rather than twice, which would reduce commercial risks and allow franchises to gauge what worked before expanding. Initially allowing each team five overseas players, rather than four, is one device that could safeguard quality in the early years.The consensus among insiders is that the Women’s IPL will be launched at some point between 2020 and 2023. Yet if India are successful – and widely followed – in this year’s Women’s World T20 then the history of Indian cricket suggests that it could be sooner.Many different IPLs
“I’m trying to extend the IPL and team brands rather than looking for the same teams playing because there will always be challenges with player availability,” Thomas says.For IPL teams, attempts to expand their brands begin locally. Bangalore are “thinking about running a first division team under the RCB umbrella in the local leagues,” Thomas reveals: effectively, RCB would own and run a local club side. This could bring benefits both from a branding perspective and also a sporting one. Such a team – effectively a feeder team – would allow RCB to place its young players and coaches, thereby gaining greater involvement in their development. As Perth Scorchers have shown, the importance of continuity in T20 is such that their effectively 12-month-a-year team has consistently outperformed two-month-a-year teams who spend the same amount on players.Given that IPL teams generally pay Indian players far more than their traditional domestic teams, it seems inevitable that franchises will attempt to exert greater control over their fitness and skill development during the IPL off-season. Greater use of coaches and scouts could also marry sporting needs with commercial benefits.”We are thinking about how our coaching staff could not just be with us for the season but actually run selection trials, run our scouting and coaching clinics as a part of taking the brand into different markets,” Thomas explains. “We want to take that into thinking about how we can combine scouting with coaching clinics with selection trials and use that as a brand-building activity and expansion into other markets.”It is a vision of a virtuous circle, in which sporting and commercial demands are not competing but mutually reinforcing.In the international calendar, there remains a block from mid-September to early October, which the Champions League occupied until it was culled after 2014. The idea of a reincarnation is popular with other T20 leagues around the globe, who stand to benefit from the IPL’s reflected glory.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”It would be great to see the rebirth of the Champions League to allow a broader set of international players to show their skills in front of Indian crowds on Indian wickets,” says Badale.Such an idea would become more feasible if global attempts to manage the number of T20 leagues each player was allowed to play in a year were successful, as this would limit the number of players who were eligible for multiple sides (which previously undermined the Champions League). Any reintroduction would also need to be accompanied by concerted attempts to grow the brand of the non-Indian teams, previously a huge handicap, which meant viewing figures for matches not involving Indian sides were often dire.The prospect of a mini-IPL in the September window has also long been rumoured. Though the concept has appeal, whether it could be implemented in a way that would both ensure that the quality of players matched that in the main IPL, and did not dilute the value of the main IPL is a concern.An alternative mooted by a senior broadcasting source is for the September block to be used for an IPL B-League. Such a competition could feature six teams, based in areas that don’t have an IPL side, and be a way of growing the league’s overall reach within India. One suggestion is for the top two sides in the B-League winning promotion to the following edition of the IPL itself, if it was indeed expanded to ten sides. In between the B-League and the IPL, promoted teams would be able to enter the player auction for overseas players. Yet there is scant appetite among IPL owners for a system of promotion and relegation to be introduced, because relegation could have dire consequences for teams’ commercial value.”You lose out if you relegate that team and the players along with that team,” Thomas says.But while the idea is still in the exploratory stage, it is conceivable that there could effectively be a two-tier IPL introduced, with the current eight teams retaining their berths and six new teams entering the B-League every year. The top two would enter the IPL and subsequently return to the B-League however they performed, where they could win promotion once again.Badale is enthusiastic about a variant of the idea, for a youth league. Such a league would showcase the best young talent, and could be played before the auction. Teams could either be based in the same cities as their IPL sides, or paired with cities without IPL teams, in a similar way to how Major League Baseball teams are paired with Minor League sides. Such an approach would be in keeping with one of the IPL’s main objectives in its current broadcasting deal – to penetrate deeper within India and allow franchises more opportunity to grow their brands outside their home cities. Were the idea pursued though, it could create scheduling pressures with existing Indian domestic cricket.The IPL could also attempt to monetise old talent. Thomas suggests a short annual Legends league. As well as games within their own and neighbouring cities, matches could be taken abroad, following the model of European football clubs. While previous legends matches in cricket have been underwhelming, an IPL Legends League could take matches both to new cities within India and to new markets with large expat populations, including Canada, Singapore, the UK and the USA.A revived Champions League T20 or a two-tier IPL – which would be a more workable proposition?•Getty ImagesNew frontiers
The world over, domestic leagues are attempting to grow their fan base beyond their borders. The NFL has been playing in London since 2007, and it is widely expected that a franchise will be based there from 2021. The NBA has played regular season games in London since 2011 and in Mexico City since 2014. La Liga schedules an at lunchtime every year – so the time difference suits Asia perfectly – and supports playing league matches abroad too.Most instructive is the example of the Premier League, the most successful and lucrative league in the world beyond its borders. While it does not play league games overseas, its clubs were the first to recognise the commercial potential of Asia and other markets: Manchester United began pre-season trips to Asia in 1995, but Real Madrid only in 2003. The Premier League also benefited from shrewd marketing strategies, like emphasising exposure in foreign markets over short-term profit maximising, often giving countries the Premier League for a low price on free-to-air TV to grow interest.Such strategies suggest possible templates for how the IPL could become more lucrative abroad. There are already signs the IPL is becoming more relevant to cricket fans abroad. In the UK, average viewing figures since Sky Sports started broadcasting it in 2015 have risen by 40%; there was a 23% viewing increase from 2017-18 alone.To increase its overseas footprint, more marketing events abroad – like that in New York before last season, where over 1000 attended an event featuring Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh – are a certainty. RCB are even exploring the possibility of buying and branding local club sides in other countries, citing the Netherlands, South Africa and the USA as potential nations. More ambitiously, Kolkata Knight Riders already own franchises in the Caribbean Premier League and did in the now-defunct Global T20 League in South Africa. Other franchises suggest, however, that doing more with their existing IPL brands is a greater priority than partnering foreign T20 sides, questioning whether interest in overseas sides within India would justify their investment.Other ideas are being mooted, including taking fan parks abroad – one insider suggests the UAE, UK, Malaysia, Singapore and even Germany (because of the large Indian and Afghan expat populations) as potential destinations. Pre-season or exhibition matches could be a way of franchises growing their foreign fan bases; so could occasional regular season matches – like the season opener. When the IPL has been played abroad – in 2009 and then 2014 – it has been because of the clash with national elections in India; for the same reason, some games may well be played abroad in 2019 too.But the long-term attraction of playing regular season IPL matches abroad is limited both by the brevity of the season and financial realities. The Premier League has seen a reduction in the value of its new domestic broadcasting rights – crystallising its thinking that its main area for growth now lies in foreign markets. Yet as India’s population and economy grow, insiders believe that the best chance for the IPL’s greatest potential for further enrichment lies in cultivating new Indian fans.Thomas explains: “Our first focus will be India, in terms of whatever we do, how does it benefit RCB in India first? Once we consolidate RCB in India, build our world view and what we call our replicable model, that’s when we will think about expansion.”The development of IPL fan parks is a small illustration of how the league is trying to grow in rural India. This year there were a total of 36 fan parks – big screens in local parks or cricket grounds – all in cities that don’t host IPL teams, with average crowds estimated at 8000. Another indication of the IPL’s ambitions to grow was the broadcast in six different languages. Even seemingly cosmetic changes can make a huge difference to audiences: if league matches start at 7pm – rather than 8pm, as this season – it would increase the average viewership by 10-15%, according to the senior broadcasting source.As attempts heighten to grow the IPL’s brand both abroad and especially within India, the revolution will continue. “I don’t think successful formats and successful businesses ever settle down,” Badale observes. “The IPL should be continuously innovating, and continuously developing.”So for all the dizzying changes of the IPL’s first decade, the coming years promise to bring shifts just as seismic.

If India have decided that KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal will be their three openers in Australia, it’s prudent to pick all three in their last Test before the tour. But who sits out?

Alagappan Muthu08-Oct-2018Even as the presentation was in full flow, on only the third day in Rajkot, Mayank Agarwal was out in the nets, taking throwdowns. The 27-year-old pushed his weight back in line with a short ball and crunched it in the direction of cover. The sound of bat on ball was astonishing and for a moment you wondered if he wished he could have played it wearing whites instead of training gear.The second and final Test of the series against West Indies starts on Friday and it is quite possible that Agarwal will get what he wants. At this point, India appear to be committed to the openers they’ve chosen in this squad. Only last week the captain Virat Kohli said: “We will give these guys enough space and chances to feel comfortable at that position. We want them to be comfortable about what they are doing.”And while all three are immensely talented, only one has been properly tested at the highest level, which isn’t ideal, especially for a team just about a month out from a tour of Australia.The advantage – if that’s even the right word – is that conditions there shouldn’t be tough to bat in. Statistically, it has been the best place to bat in over the last five years and the average patnership for the first wicket is north of 40. But if India have decided to continue with Agarwal, KL Rahul and Prithvi Shaw as their openers, they need all three to get as much game time as possible. And there is only one Test between now and the first one in Adelaide. That Test is in Hyderabad, where all three could very well make the XI.Agarwal is uncapped but with his weight of runs over the last year or so – he made over 1000 in first-class cricket in November 2017 alone – he deserves a game. India too need to see what they can get out of him at Test-match level.Shaw became the youngest Indian to make a century on debut in Rajkot and his back-foot play suggests he might enjoy batting on pitches with pace and bounce. But one innings does not a player make, so India will need more information on their 18-year old upstart.Rahul, by contrast, fell in the first over, continuing a sequence where he’s been bowled or lbw in eight successive international innings. He’s received some brutish deliveries in this stretch and while Shannon Gabriel’s in Rajkot may not have been on the same level as, say, Sam Curran’s at The Oval, it did seam in off a length, which meant the batsman had less chance of picking it, not least because it was delivered at over 140 kph.Early on in England, Rahul kept falling into this trap possibly because he was preoccupied with the threat of the outswinger. Now it seems as if he’s being caught in the crease, slow to move his feet. All of this usually happens at the start of his innings – a time when most batsmen are vulnerable but Rahul is especially so. He has been dismissed before his 25th delivery in 23 of his 49 Test innings. And if that stat has got into his head, it can do far more damage than any technical issue.It seems worthwhile to note that his best innings in England – 149 at The Oval – came when he simply reacted to the ball, and his best innings in Test cricket so far – 90 against Australia on an up-and-down Bengaluru pitch last year – was the result of simple focus and quick footwork. Back then, he didn’t seem like a batsman who was putting pressure on himself because he believed he was in form, and made he made nine fifties in one 11-innings stretch. He probably lacks that confidence right now, and only time in the middle can bring him that.So who goes out then? Ajinkya Rahane? He’s going through a lull himself and needs to get out of it before India have to travel again. Cheteshwar Pujara? He will no doubt be vital when they travel abroad, but he looked like India’s most competent batsman next to Kohli in England and he reiterated that form in Rajkot, where he made 86 off only 130 balls. India can trust that his form won’t fade.What about Kohli? It won’t be the worst decision; he sleepwalked to his 24th Test century at the SCA stadium and unless he fancies a 25th by the end of the week, he could very well take a break. Or could it be one of the bowlers? Having only four options to turn to in the dry Hyderabad heat doesn’t really sound helpful. The team management has a difficult decision to make and we’ll get to know all about it on the day before the Test, when India have promised to announce their XII.

An action similar to India’s pace spearhead is opening a number of doors for young Mahesh Kumar

Shashank Kishore in Bengaluru27-Mar-2019He gently leans forward, walks briskly for ten steps, and then takes off like an airplane, generating momentum with every step towards the crease. Then the upper body contorts leftward, both arms swinging parallel to each other, and he finishes off with a whippy flourish.At the other end of the nets at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Colin de Grandhomme carts the waist-high full toss into the stands.The bowler gestures to suggest he intended to bowl a yorker. Ashish Nehra, the coach, pats him on the back and he goes back to the top of his run-up.The bowler is 22-year-old Mahesh Kumar, a net bowler summoned by Royal Challengers Bangalore to try and get the batsmen used to Jasprit Bumrah.All the while, the real Bumrah has been watching intently from the Mumbai Indians nets, where he’s chatting with Virat Kohli, and has a quiet chuckle as he sees the uncanny resemblance – Mahesh’s action is like Bumrah’s.

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Next ball, Mahesh bowls a half-volley. De Grandhomme straight drives.Mahesh is clearly fixated on the yorker but can’t quite get it right. On his fifth attempt, he finally manages to sneak a slower one underneath Shimron Hetmyer’s swinging blade. He is looking out towards Bumrah, who eventually acknowledges him with a thumbs up.There are no words exchanged, although Mahesh would love to walk up and chat.The session draws to a close and Nehra calls him to the dressing room. Unaware of what has transpired, the security guards run behind the boy to stop him, but he is eventually permitted to enter. Minutes later, he walks down the stairs with a signed pair of boots from Nehra, an autograph from Kohli, and a ‘well bowled’ from AB de Villiers. He’s been called in to bowl in the nets for all of RCB’s home games.”My four-hour up-and-down journey from Doddaballapura (a small town on the outskirts of Bengaluru) is worth it,” he says. Mahesh has already been nicknamed ‘Junior Bumrah’ in the RCB camp. In his Under-19 days, he was on the fringes of the Karnataka squad. But Mahesh hasn’t yet quite made the grade at any serious level. He still has one year to make the state Under-23 squad, but is on the lookout for a club in Bengaluru’s first-division league.Mahesh is an engineering graduate, who wants to devote time to the game now, having completed his “father’s dream” of getting a degree. His calling, he feels, is cricket and he draws inspiration from the likes of Varun Chakravarthy, KC Cariappa and others, who have found stardom through net bowling. His popularity has risen so much that his own college has now invited him as the chief guest. Reason: ‘Junior Bumrah’. A chance meeting with the original yorker specialist and an Instagram story that went viral.The meeting was on the eve of India’s second T20I against Australia last month. After that, he spent an hour bowling to the visiting team. Troy Cooley, Australia’s bowling coach, was startled by the similarity, and is reported to have offered the youngster a chance to trial at his club in Melbourne.”I’m happy bowling to teams in the nets here, and hope I can get noticed and get a chance,” Mahesh says.Getting noticed certainly won’t be a problem. And every fairytale IPL story need not end with a fat pay cheque. Sometimes, it’s just about small gestures – like signed boots, an autographed jersey, and a selfie.

He looked a man every inch in command of the side. When under pressure, he promoted himself and secured a magical win

Vishal Dikshit in Mumbai11-Apr-20193:39

‘I’ve a lot of cricket left in me’ – Kieron Pollard

As soon as Alzarri Joseph and Rahul Chahar completed the second run to clinch a thrilling last-ball win against Kings XI Punjab, the Mumbai Indians players ran out on the field in two batches: one sprinted down the stairs from the dressing room and the other erupted in the dugout. Kieron Pollard, who turned the tables on Kings XI, was in neither of them.Pollard was still padded up and under his helmet after his stunning 83 off 31 balls, studded with ten sixes, and was next to the dugout just beyond the boundary. Once Joseph hit the winning runs, Pollard jumped with joy, then gradually walked out on the field, took his helmet off, stood in the middle and pointed his thumbs towards his name at the back of his jersey. He was expressionless, but reminded the crowd who he was and what he could do.Pollard had unleashed an astonishing assault en route to his highest IPL score when things were looking down for Mumbai. Not just for the win and his clean hitting, Pollard would always cherish this match because it was his first IPL outing as captain. The man he was filling in for
Rohit Sharma – was missing his first IPL game since 2008, with a muscle spasm in his right leg.Pollard was a hands-on captain on Wednesday night. He was constantly chatting with his bowlers by fielding inside the 30-yard circle, was changing fields to keep the batsmen thinking, and looked like a man in command. Pollard has had T20 captaincy experience in the past. He started leading in the Caribbean Premier League in 2013 and took Barbados Tridents to the final in 2015. In between, he also led in the Champions League T20 and later in the CSA T20 Challenge, South Africa’s domestic competition. Before his captaincy debut in the IPL, he had captained in 68 T20s and won 31 of them.On Wednesday, he could have easily let Ishan Kishan bat at No. 4 again, but Pollard promoted himself to that position in the eighth over when the asking rate was over 11. It was a mark of a captain stepping up under pressure in the absence of the side’s biggest star. Since 2015, Pollard has come out to bat in the middle overs (7-15) 154 times in T20s and has averaged 36.30. He later said having a good batting track obviously helped.Kieron Pollard rocks back to punch one down the ground•BCCI”Obviously we needed a good wicket,” Pollard said at the post-match press conference. “It’s good that we knew what we had to go and chase. The guys went about it pretty well, we got a good start, 50-odd for 1 in the Powerplay. It was a matter of trying to keep that calm head and try to finish the game. Again, well done to the boys, it was a very good batting track. Some people complain about tracks [being] good for batting, but I think this one was brilliant and the guys showed their mettle.”Combined with the flatness of the pitch and the short boundaries at the Wankhede stadium, Pollard ended up facing four full tosses that helped him smash sixes down the ground and towards his favoured midwicket area. After Kishan got out at the end of the 12th over, Mumbai still needed 104 runs off 48 balls, with six wickets in hand. What was Pollard’s game plan?”When I saw that we needed 94 (104) off 48, I thought when you break it down that’s just two big overs and we got that two big overs,” he explained. “We had a couple of bowlers that we had to target and it worked well for us.”And Pollard targeted two bowlers: Kings XI’s best of the season, R Ashwin, and Sam Curran. With his mighty hits that ignored the lengths of the balls, and with his long arms that helped him reach out for the wider deliveries from Curran, Pollard smashed them for 44 off 12 balls, including as many as six sixes. Was it the best he had batted?”You can say yes, you can say no,” he said. “For me what’s more important is that we won the game and I was able to stay calm a bit under pressure. Obviously, I didn’t finish off the game which I actually wanted to do, but that’s why it’s a team sport. The guys really rallied, I think Alzarri kept a calm head at the back end as well. He got a couple of overs in the game after that splendid spell [in the previous match] and then keeping that calm head in the end was good.”The Pandyas pile onto Kieron Pollard after Mumbai seal a last-ball win•BCCIPollard had walked into the press conference with his son wearing the Mumbai Indians jersey. It was probably his way of showing who were the closest to him and stuck with him last year when he wasn’t in the best of the forms, and that there were things to be valued outside the game too.For CPL 2018, Pollard was traded to St Lucia Stars, for whom he scored his maiden T20 hundred. But when he came to play the IPL, his bat couldn’t fetch the runs he wanted and was even dropped for a few matches. In eight innings, he had managed just 133 runs with a strike rate of 133. His place in the side was being questioned.”2018 is gone and obviously when you’re losing, people tend to have all sorts of opinions on you,” Pollard said. “People who have not played the game and people who have even played the game tend to have opinions, you can’t stop people from that. I’m a cricketer, I’m 31 years of age, and I have a lot of cricket left in me. I think the people who’re close to me back me and that’s most important.”It didn’t work last year, last year is gone. You have life, every day you’re going to get up in the morning, the sun rises in the east and is going to set in the west. There’re better things other than winning, and losing, and scoring runs. There’s family, and there’re things to live for. They [Mumbai] showed faith in me, they retained me for this season and they started with me as well. So it’s just a matter of me coming out, enjoying my cricket once again and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

And was England’s 67 at Leeds their lowest total in an Ashes Test?

Steven Lynch27-Aug-2019I’m still trying to make sense of that last day at Headingley – and wondered how many teams have won a Test after being dismissed for less than 100 in their first innings? asked William Johnson from England

Following that amazing performance at the weekend, there have now been 16 all-out totals of under 100 that were still enough to win a Test (ignoring the declarations and forfeitures in the match between South Africa and England in Centurion in 1999-2000). England had warmed up by doing the same just a month previously, beating Ireland after being skittled for 85 on the first morning at Lord’s. Only three of these totals – all more than 130 years ago – were lower than England’s 67 at Headingley. In the first Test in Sydney in 1886-87, England won despite being shot out for 45 in the first innings (they made 184 in the second; Australia were out for 119 and 97). Australia won at Lord’s in 1888 despite being rolled for 60 in their first innings (a record 27 wickets tumbled on the second day), while at The Oval in 1882, in the match that spawned the Ashes, Australia won after being shot out for 63 in their second innings.Was England’s 67 at Leeds their lowest total in an Ashes Test? asked Ibrahim Kamara from Sierra Leone

England’s catastrophic collapse to 67 all out at Headingley last week was their lowest in an Ashes Test for 71 years – they were bundled out for 52 by Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller at The Oval in 1948, on the first day of Don Bradman’s final Test match.In all, England have had 11 smaller totals than last week’s 67. Seven of the others were against Australia, including their lowest of all – 45 in Sydney in 1886-87, in a match they went on to win by 13 runs.Joe Denly was the only Englishman to reach double figures at Leeds. Was this a record? asked Michael Horton from England

England have had five previous innings in which only one batsman reached double figures, the most recent being against West Indies in Kingston in 2008-09, when Andrew Flintoff (24) made nearly half a miserable total of 51. There has only been one completed Test innings which contained 11 single-figure scores: when South Africa were skittled for 30 by England at Edgbaston in 1924, the highest score was 7, by their captain Herbie Taylor.Denly’s effort did set one record, though: 12 is the lowest score to be the highest of a completed England innings. The previous lowest came during a total of 99 against Australia in Sydney in 1901-02, when both Willie Quaife and Gilbert Jessop made 15. That was equalled against South Africa at Lord’s in 1998, when Nasser Hussain also made 15 of England’s 110 – an innings which, remarkably, contained six double-figure scores.Joe Denly’s tortured 12 was the highest individual score – and the only double-digit one – in England’s first innings at Headingley•Getty ImagesWas Don Bradman the oldest to score a hundred in an Ashes Test? asked Ian Hugo from Nigeria

Don Bradman was about a month short of his 40th birthday when he scored his 19th and last Ashes century – an unbeaten 173 – as Australia reached 404 for 3 to win
on the final day at Headingley in 1948.Seven players have scored Ashes hundreds when older than Bradman; all were over 40 except Graham Gooch, who was nine days short when he made 120 for England at Trent Bridge in 1993. The oldest of all was Jack Hobbs, who made five Ashes centuries when over 42, including 142 in Melbourne in 1928-29 when he was 46. The others were Patsy Hendren (aged 45 in 1934), Warren Bardsley (43 in 1926), Warwick Armstrong (three in 1920-21, when 41), Geoff Boycott (40 in 1981) and Charles Macartney (three in 1926, aged 40).Bradman was only 20 when he made his first Test century, 112 against England in Melbourne in 1928-29. Only four others have reached three figures in the Ashes at a younger age: Archie Jackson (19, also in 1928-29), Neil Harvey (19 in 1948), Doug Walters (19 in 1965-66, and another a fortnight later after turning 20), and Denis Compton (20 in 1938).Australia had seven left-handed batsman at Headingley. Was this a record? asked T Krishna Reddy from India

Australia’s seven left-handers in last week’s third Test at Headingley equalled the national record: they also fielded seven against Sri Lanka in Sydney in 2012-13 (David Warner, Ed Cowan, Phillip Hughes, Mike Hussey, Matthew Wade, Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc), and in three successive Tests in 2016-17 – Warner, Wade, Starc, Usman Khawaja, Matt Renshaw, Nic Maddinson and Josh Hazlewood against South Africa in Adelaide, then against Pakistan in Brisbane and in Melbourne.The overall record is eight left-handers in the same Test side, which was achieved by West Indies in two Tests during 2000 – against Pakistan in Georgetown in May, and against England at The Oval in August – and by England against Australia in Sydney in 2013-14.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

With the Ashes snub behind him, Maxwell wants to enjoy being part of the T20I outfit in the run up to next year’s World Cup

Daniel Brettig29-Oct-2019Glenn Maxwell was, though briefly, an occupant of the Australian dressing room during the Ashes. On day three of the pivotal Old Trafford bout, Maxwell and his Lancashire team-mate James Faulkner made their way into the rooms and on to the balcony to watch some of Australia’s first innings bowling at England, which helped set up the victory to retain the urn.How did Maxwell feel, sitting and watching the team he may well have been a part of if granted an opportunity during the 12 months Steven Smith and David Warner were banned? “Weird,” Maxwell told ESPNcricinfo. “I was at the Test. Myself and James Faulkner were sitting there watching the boys go about it, might’ve been day three, before we had a game on.”The boys finally looked up and waved to us up there. That was pretty weird, that was weird. We tried to give them as much support as we could while we were over there [in England], Jimmy and I were calling up the boys whenever they were around and trying to stay connected and making sure they knew they had our support as much as possible.”

I haven’t even sought out clarity or anything about Test stuff. I’m not overly too worried about it because I know I’m probably not next in line, so what’s the point in thinking about it right now?Maxwell isn’t thinking about Test selection

What’s striking about Maxwell is that, despite all the misadventures of the preceding year, he has tried very much to avoid looking upon his peripheral view of the Ashes as anything other than a great ringside seat to the action. Carrying any lingering resentment about opportunities missed or selectors not smiling on him at the times he preferred is not something Maxwell thinks will be helpful to his chances of succeeding in any format this summer. Going out there with something to prove does not work for him.”With whatever team they picked, we just had to give them as much support as possible. I didn’t want to feel salty or anything like that,” Maxwell said. “I just wanted to move on and concentrate on what I need to. You can’t play cricket bitter, it detracts from yourself and makes you stop concentrating on what you need to do. I couldn’t be happier with the guys they picked, they all played so hard and it was so good to watch, even on TV. I loved watching it and they did such a great job bringing home the Ashes.”Getty ImagesWhen the Australians celebrated wildly in Manchester at the end of the Test, Maxwell was having an early night to prepare to train for a Division Two county match beginning two days later, also at Old Trafford. Lancashire secured an innings victory comfortably enough, but Maxwell’s steep task ahead to return to Test calculations was underlined by how his innings was as brief as possible. He was bowled for a duck by Ravi Rampaul, and he averaged just 19.20 in four games for the county. A middling start to the Sheffield Shield for Victoria has left him well back in the queue.”I haven’t even sought out clarity or anything about Test stuff,” he said. “I’m not overly too worried about it because I know I’m probably not next in line, so what’s the point in thinking about it right now? I’ve got to be making big hundreds, big scores. And until I even start making some of them there’s no real point in me asking. If you average 30 for the season, there’s no point in asking ‘when am I going to play Test cricket for Australia’.”I know I’ve got to go out there and make a bunch of runs somewhere, so hopefully I get an opportunity after these T20s and the four-day stuff before the Big Bash and who knows. At the end of the season, I might be on top of the run-scoring list and then I might be able to have those conversations. But I know there’s still a fair bit of work to do for me to get back in that Test side. It’s not something I’m losing sleep over at the moment.”

I didn’t want to feel salty. I just wanted to move on and concentrate on what I need to. You can’t play cricket bitter, it detracts from yourself and makes you stop concentrating on what you need to do.Maxwell on the Ashes snub

Instead, Maxwell has T20 as his focus, namely Australia’s 12 months to prepare for hosting and ideally winning a first global tournament in the short format. Maxwell believes the past week has felt very much like the beginning of a fresh campaign, with much greater direction than ever before. He reckons that the corner was actually turned some time ago – a theory backed up by Australia’s’ improving results since the 2016 World Cup in India.”For the last 18 months to two years I feel like we’ve probably turned a corner and results have massively improved,” Maxwell said. “I think that’s reflected in the way we’ve actually started looking at T20 cricket. We’ve starting looking at ‘alright, let’s start, instead of picking our one-day side and turning it straight into our T20 side, let’s pick more specialists for this’, which is I think giving guys specialist roles as well, not just roll out the same batting line up or whatever.”Now we’ve actually got specialist roles for T20, which is nice, and I think with that change and mindset, results have changed a little bit for us. I think especially guys nutting out their roles and knowing where they fit into the side is a massive thing. Even simple things like fielding positions and where you run to in the field in between overs. When you get that right, it can all just look like clockwork and everyone knows what they’re doing.””All of a sudden, you’ve just got extra time up your sleeve, [captain Aaron] Finchy can relax a little bit at the back end, know guys are in the right spot and not have to stress about anything. The more you play with these guys and the more you’re moulding around each other, it can just become a little simpler for each other.”Getty ImagesAs a close friend of Finch for many years, Maxwell has watched his state and national team-mate wrestle with numerous battles up close – from his removal as T20I captain in 2016 to a run of poor batting returns early this year that brought calls for his replacement as ODI leader. “He probably had an interesting lead-in to the ODI World Cup where there was a lot of heat coming from back home,” Maxwell said. “He responded as only Finchy does, by peeling off hundreds, and smacking bowling attacks all over the place.”He came out and did really well for us in the World Cup and led really well. That helped him so much to be able to get through that, perform, well, come home, score 180 for Victoria in the Marsh Cup and he’s just getting better with age. He’s found I think the right level of peace and everything seems to be clicking at the right time for him now and hopefully that leads to more exciting results for him and Australia, because an up and about Aaron Finch going well is pretty scary for any opposition.”And as a far more central participant in Australia’s T20I side, Maxwell has a piece of advice for a team that includes no fewer than six squad members with either formal leadership roles in the team or a wealth of past captaincy experiences – let Finch run the team his way. “You’ve got to be careful I think, especially with this format, you don’t want to have too many voices coming at the captain,” he said. “Because there’s so little time as well, you don’t want three or four guys going to him at different times with different ideas. You’ve got to let him have his time to think, talk to the bowler and leave them to it. If he comes to you at a break or at a wicket, you answer him, give him honest whatever, let him deal with it, but only if he asks you.”You’re there to help him if he’s ever stuck, but you know he’s probably getting a couple of voices from somewhere else as well. I’m generally fielding on the fence for most of that, so you don’t really want to come out of nowhere when you know he’s probably had a couple of other guys already come to him. It’s about giving him that space.”

At 19, he already has speed to burn. He just needs to keep injury at bay

Firdose Moonda20-Nov-2019Gerald Coetzee has always wanted to meet Dale Steyn but he never expected it to happen with the two at either end of the cricket pitch. On Coetzee’s Mzansi Super League debut, with his team in trouble at 103 for 6 in the 14th over chasing 184, he found himself facing none other than his hero.”It was, um… scary. , scary,” Coetzee said five days later. By then, life had moved on. He had already played another MSL match, and suffered an injury that could prove decisive in what is shaping up to be a breakthrough summer for him.Coetzee turned 19 on October 2 and the following week made his first-class debut, at franchise level, bypassing the second-tier provincial system entirely. By the end of the month he had bowled more overs than anyone else in the franchise four-day cup and was third on the wicket-takers’ list. He had also, through a chance encounter, managed to secure an MSL deal, which he thought he had no chance of getting when he wasn’t considered in the draft in September.”I had no expectations because I knew I hadn’t been picked up,” Coetzee said. “But then I was playing a four-day game against the Lions in Kimberley, and after the match their batting coach Justin [Sammons] and Rassie [van der Dussen] asked me if they could speak to me. They told me they thought I bowled really well and that Eathan Bosch was injured and asked if I would like to join them for the MSL.””Ever since I was young, I have always been quicker than the other kids my age. I have studied my action and people point things out and say, ‘That’s why you are quick,’ but I don’t see that”•ICC/Getty ImagesIt was a no-brainer, of course, but Coetzee thought he would be used in the nets, at best. Following Jozi Stars’ losses in their first two matches, where they conceded over 160 both times, head coach Donovan Miller summoned Coetzee after breakfast last Thursday. “He told me I was going to play against the Blitz. I couldn’t believe it. It was one of the most exciting things to have happened in my cricket career.”On his tournament debut, which was also only the fifth T20 match Coetzee had played in, he announced himself at first change with quick, aggressive bowling. He bounced out the opposition openers, one of whom happened to be Quinton de Kock. And of course, he has faced Steyn.After being beaten by that first, “scary” delivery that shaped away outside off, Coetzee top-edged a pull and managed a single. His four runs in the match came in vain and the Jozi Stars were beaten, but he shone brightly. Although he is already being spoken about by those in the know, his performance in a televised match at a time when South Africa is looking for talent like his allowed him to enter the mainstream cricket conversation. Not that the man himself knows it yet. “If people are talking about me, then I guess it’s cool,” he said.Yes, people are talking about the kid who became the first in four decades from his school, St Andrews in Bloemfontein, to earn national colours. Coetzee represented the South African Under-19 side in mid-2017. He was just 16 at the time, played in five matches against West Indies, then three against England in a triangular series also involving Namibia, and four games in the 2018 U-19 World Cup. In the last of those, his 5 for 32 against New Zealand caught the eye but his progress was somewhat stymied when he suffered an ankle injury that required surgery. He only made his comeback almost 18 months later, when South Africa’s U-19 team played Pakistan in a home series this June.South Africa lost that series 0-7, raising alarms about the quality of their player pipeline. Coetzee played down those worries, calling it “just one of those series”. He also promised that he and everyone else involved have been working on their skills ahead of next year’s U-19 World Cup, which will be played at home. South Africa will aim to make amends for their recent form in that tournament.Coetzee gets his motor working against Kenya in last year’s U-19 World Cup•Getty ImagesCoetzee for his part has made tweaks to his action that modify his release point and will hopefully reduce the risk of injury to his back. “There was a problem with my loading arm in that it was behind my head when I was releasing the ball,” he said. “I thought it’s better to fix that now than in a few years’ time, when it becomes a problem. It involved a lot of repetition and drills and spending every day in the nets but I did it.”Former first-class bowler Dillon du Preez, who works with the Free State Academy, helped Coetzee with the technical side of the game, and Coetzee also spent time with Allan Donald, who joined the Knights for a month of pre-season build-up and gave advice on how to analyse batsmen. “He has such a good cricket brain and shared things like how to figure a batsman out from his stance,” Coetzee said. “He is just a legend.”Others in that superstar category for Coetzee are Pat Cummins and Steyn, who he admires for their speed – which he too possesses. Coetzee bowled deliveries above 145kph in the MSL. He said pace is one thing he has never had a problem generating. “It’s a god-given talent, I can’t take much credit for that. Ever since I was young, I have always been quicker than the other kids my age. I have studied my action and people point things out and say, ‘That’s why you are quick,’ but I don’t see that.”Bowling that fast comes with its risks, though, mostly injury, and Coetzee has already had to deal with a few. Apart from the ankle injury, which came early in his career, he is currently nursing the hamstring niggle that came five balls into his second MSL match. At the time of this interview, he was not sure how serious the strain was or how long he might be sidelined for, but he was eager to get back into action for the Jozi Stars. “The team allowed me to play with freedom and no pressure. I didn’t even feel like I needed to make a point,” he said.As South African cricket comes to grips with a spate of recent departures, including those of Kyle Abbott and Morne Morkel, who have gone Kolpak, and the Test retirement of Steyn, the hunt is on for someone to step up. Coetzee has all the ingredients to be that person. He even said so himself. “My goal is to be the best in the world. So whether it’s this year, next year or in five years’ time, I want to represent my country.”