I quite like Twenty20, and this year’s IPL is an incredible event.But I just can’t quite bring myself to care who wins

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013

Global cricket continues to pound its own never-ending treadmill with the urgent ferocity of a marathon runner who has remembered mid-race that he was supposed to be at his own wedding, but is on course for a personal best which he is unwilling to sacrifice. The IPL has added further congestion, while proving that, contrary to scientific expectation, the best way to solve the problem of players complaining about an overloaded calendar was not to reduce the amount of cricket, but add to more and cover it with solid gold.With so much of the world’s cricketing focus on the IPL, it has been easy to forget that the first Test of the English summer is just two weeks away – which is an entirely ridiculous sentence to be able to commit to cyberpaper on the 23rd of April. As the great cricket scribe EW Swanton once wrote: “An Englishman should never start a Test match when he can still catch frostbite by sneaking into Lord’s at the dead of night and playing nude cricket on the square. This Gubby and I learned by bitter experience on a moonlit evening early last May.”The English domestic season is already in full swing – if ‘swing’ is the correct terminology for something that lurches spasmodically from one form of cricket to the next, like a drunk polygamist trying to cuddle the right wife.I realise that the expanded programme of international cricket is necessary to fund the expanded programme of international cricket, but the current structure of the England team’s summer is designed to minimise spectator anticipation – Tests begin before the season, its characters and its form lines have properly started to take shape, without the curtain-raising, rivalry-establishing pre-fight sparring of a one-day series. The matches are then squeezed together into frantic back-to-back bowler-punishing wodges, with an ODI series tagged on as an elongated afterthought, dragging along through September to end the summer on a probably damp and quickly-forgotten squib. (By comparison, when Jimi Hendrix played the Woodstock festival, he was on after Herbert The Singing Labrador, not before. Otherwise, Herbert would have struggled, however good his barked rendition of Blue Moon.)Nevertheless, the fact that this is an Ashes summer creates regular twitches of excitement, especially following the tumultuous winter England have endured, and the fact that it will be an almost entirely new Australian team for the first time in 20 years.It is more than possible in these days of global media coverage to become overwhelmed with the sheer volume of cricket. I admit that, as an English neutral, I have had serious motivation problems psyching myself up for the IPL. (It hasn’t helped that Lalit Modi’s jamboree has also coincided with some distractingly intrusive building work in my house – what was once my kitchen currently looks as if Devon Malcolm has spent two hours bowling to himself in it. Debris and destruction everywhere.)In an effort to engage myself emotionally with the IPL, I have tried to artificially create a personal link to some of the teams. I jumped a motorcycle over eight London buses in an effort to make myself feel like a Daredevil. I held a mobile phone and put my fingers into an electrical socket to convince myself I was a Charger. I jumped on Sir Ian Botham’s back and made him give me a piggy back, but still I felt little like a Knight Rider. I paraglided into Buckingham Palace and invited the Queen to wrestle me, but had I become a true Royal Challenger? Alas, no.Next, I tried hypnosis, to convince my subconscious self that my father had been a Chennai Super Kings fan when he was a boy, and his father before him, and his father before him, because a schoolfriend of his once had trials for their youth team, but still I could not forcibly affiliate myself to the team.I even tried auctioning my support, but none of the franchises sent so much as a financial director to the auction in my living room. Unwanted and unbought − I felt like a cross between a canoe made of salt and Samit Patel.Even the much-hyped (in the British press at least) ‘head-to-head’ duel between Pietersen and Flintoff failed to spark my interest. In the end it amounted to the Lancastrian Leviathan scoring six runs off four balls by the Hampshire Hulk – not quite Hector versus Achilles for the 21st century.

So I consulted a sports-watching psychologist. “What’s wrong with me?” I asked. “I love cricket. The IPL is the spangliest cricket tournament in the world. But I don’t really care about it.” The shrink gave me a thorough physical and mental examination (although his methods – a mixture of prodding and growling – I considered to be somewhat Victorian). He bowled me across his surgery a couple of times, put some bails on the bridge of my nose, then noted my reaction to an ink blot which looked like Yuvraj Singh hoicking one over midwicket.He put on his diagnosis hat, tucked his chin into his chest, and put on his most serious available face. “Mr Zaltzman. It’s bad news I’m afraid. You’ve come down with an uncharacteristic case of cricketing apathy.” “Oh no,” I screamed. “It’s like the 2007 World Cup all over again. Be straight with me, doc − how long have I got?”He grasped my shoulders. “Calm down, big horse,” he soothed. “Yours is an increasingly common problem. Watching cricket on television has become a never-ending grind. If you don’t look after yourself and manage your schedule properly, your enthusiasm for cricket in general could wane. You will find yourself drifting off at key moments of matches, and soon you will want to spend more time with your family. It’s a slippery slope.”I gulped a gulp of fear and realisation. “I can’t risk that – not with the Ashes so soon. You’re right, doc. I’m going to have to give the IPL a miss. Sure, I’ll check the scores, but I already cram far too much sport into my life. I cannot risk adding what is essentially a new sport without jeopardising my marriage or having my children try to put me up for adoption.”The psychologist squeezed my cheeks. “Good boy,” he said. “Now go home, put the kettle on, take a passing interest in the IPL, and save yourself for the Tests.”I suppose the problem is that, fundamentally, I quite like Twenty20. I find it sometimes entertaining if largely unengaging. Test cricket grabbed my six-year-old soul in 1981 and has never let go. Twenty20 has been a seismic phenomenon in cricket, and this year’s tournament – an Indian league featuring players from all corners of the world playing with and against each other in South Africa – is an incredible event that joyously must have old apartheid honcho Hendrik Verwoerd spitting fifty different kinds of feathers in his well-deserved grave. But I just can’t quite bring myself to care who wins. Does that make me a bad cricket fan?

The Jo’burg Test was crazy twisted, but how to fill up those empty Test stadiums?

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013As the Johannesburg Test slalomed in a spectacular way towards its baggy-green denouement, the TV cameras pick out a placard in the crowd which posed the question: Is Test cricket dead? Perhaps on the reverse side, there was a range of multiple-choice answers, ranging from: (a) yes, it died the moment Australia won at The Oval in 1882; through (d) no, but it has been taken hostage by some angry-looking goons wearing IPL replica shirts and they do not seem especially keen on negotiating a civilised resolution to the stand-off; to (g) who cares, Mozart is dead too and his tunes are still damned catchy.The cameras then resumed their more important regular task of zooming in annoyingly close as the ball is bowled to ensure that the viewer cannot fully see what happened until replays are shown, several of which have also been zoomed in to the point of perspective-obliterating meaninglessness, all the while prompting the watching cricket fan to ponder from the comfort of his or her sofa: Why is that, as televisions become bigger and bigger and better and better, TV cricket seems intent on showing a smaller and smaller part of the action?I digress. Anyway, the evidence of the contest being played out in front of the placard suggests that the correct response was: “Is Test cricket dead? Is the Pope an aubergine?”This was close to the perfect Test match, a game of constantly shifting momentum which contained more twists and turns than an ice-skating snake’s high-risk Olympic final routine.
Innings of 30 or 40 were valuable, partnerships of 50 felt match-changing, every session saw the balance of the game wobbling from one side to the other like a drunken tightrope walker on a windy day.On the evidence of the game, if not the crowd at the ground, Test cricket clearly is not dead. It might be in a nursing home, but, frequently, its faculties seem as sharp as ever. Admittedly, it does wish more people would come to visit it. And it is not entirely sure that it can trust all of its family members, some of whom seem to be scrabbling over its inheritance before it has even made its will.Nevertheless, it was a little sad to see the final day this all-time classic match played to a stadium so sparsely populated that you wanted to give it a cuddle and tell it to keep its chin up. What can cricket do to attract fans to Test matches, without using military threats, or paying people twice their daily wage to attend?I have met almost no cricket fans who do not claim Test cricket is their favourite form of the game (although I don’t get out of my house very much, so that is not the most scientific of opinion polls). There is clearly a healthy passive following for Test cricket, but in a world swamped by infinite competing distractions, coercing people to physically place themselves in a stadium for some or all of a five-day contest is a Herculean task. Given that cricket has still not worked out how to adequately police bad light and somnolent over-rates, I think even Hercules himself, the celebrity former 12-time Greek Labourer Of The Year, might balk at taking on the task of refilling its empty stadiums.Australia showed remarkable skill and resolve, amidst outbreaks of their now trademark carelessness, to recover from their Newlands Nightmare, aided by Patrick Cummins making one of the most striking Test debuts of recent years (more of which in the next Multistat blog, later in the week). I cannot remember exactly what I was doing when I was his age, but I am fairly confident that it was not taking 6 for 79 on my Test debut and calmly slapping the winning runs in one of the most tense finishes in cricket history.However, just as Australia tossed away a winning position in Cape Town, so at the Wanderers South Africa flung their superiority out of the window like an unwanted motorway banana skin.The Proteas’ World Cup bid was fatally undermined by a middle-order megabloop that exposed a tail longer that the one Kate Middleton was so desperately trying to hide under the train of her wedding dress. They lost in Johannesburg for the same reason, flunking in the first innings from 241 for 4 to 266 all out, and then in the second from 237 for 3 to 339 all out. This followed their first-innings Cape Town calamity when they alchemised 49 for 1 into 96 all out, before being decisively out-calamatised by Australia’s brilliant counter-calamity.In this series, the South Africans’ sixth to 10th wickets totalled a startlingly useless 138 runs in 15 partnerships ‒ 9.2 runs per wicket, the Proteas’ rubbishest lower-order series performance since 1907, and their fourth cruddiest of all time.Since readmission, the lower middle-order had been one of South Africa’s great advantages over their rivals. Not anymore. Since 2006, South Africa’s Nos. 8 to 11 have collectively averaged 15.8, placing them sixth of the 10 Test nations, with no hundreds (all other teams have at least one, except Zimbabwe, who have only played three Tests), and just seven fifties in 55 Tests ‒ and three of those were by Boucher after a nightwatchman had bumped him down to No. 7.From 2000 to 2005, South Africa’s lower order averaged a world-leading 20.3, with three hundreds and 16 fifties in 67 Tests. From 1992 to 1999, their 8 to 11 were way ahead of the field, averaging 19.8, with four centuries (as many as the rest of the world put together) and 19 half-centuries in 66 matches.This new-fangled lower-order brittleness is one of the reasons that Smith’s team have let slip a one-Test lead in three series out of their last five, and, having seemingly scaled the peak of world cricket by winning in Australia late in 2008, have won just one rubber (in West Indies) since the start of 2009. Their team is still speckled with world-class players, but it has an Achilles heel visible from space (with a powerful telescope and access to Statsguru).All in all, Cape Town and Johannesburg have provided the cricket-watching world with two unforgettable Tests, albeit that the memories most people will be not forgetting will be of a TV screen rather than a cricket ground. It has been a compelling start to the series, which is now perfectly set up for the remaining zero Tests.EXTRAS● This was the 13th successive Test between Australia and South Africa to end in a positive result. There has been one draw between them in 20 Tests over seven series this millennium, and the lowest overall scoring rate in any of those series has been 3.40. Cricket is showbiz nowadays. And there is a saying in showbiz: “Always leave them wanting more.” Cricket has done that. A third Test would be greedy. A fourth ‒ the height of indulgence. A fifth, and you might as well wake up Lenin and tell him he won the Cold War.● Perhaps the 21st-century cricket lover should simply be thankful that at least these series happen twice every three or four years nowadays. In 91 years from their first meeting in 1902 to the resumption of southern-hemisphere hostilities after Apartheid, the Australians set their baggy-green feet on the veldt in just seven Test tours, with the South Africans heading over to Baggy Greenland just four times (they also made up a wet and one-sided corner of the 1912 triangular series in England). If there are legitimate complaints these days about cricketing overkill, it could equally be said that our cricketing forefathers were guilty of underkill.

New Zealand have form and confidence on their side as well as the spin options that could yet prove crucial in this tournament

George Dobell at Edgbaston11-Jun-2013It speaks volumes for the resilience and versatility of New Zealand cricket that, despite all the challenges and setbacks they face, they continue to produce teams that compete and surprise.It should never be overlooked that New Zealand is a country with a population of around 4.5 million in which cricket is very much a second sport to rugby. That they continue to produce players such as Mitchell McClenaghan, the latest in a batch of impressive seam bowlers, and a team that can take on nations blessed with vastly greater populations is remarkable. While other international teams have huge pools of players, New Zealand somehow continue to develop talent from a country with a population smaller than some of the cities of their rivals.That having been said, the last few years have not been the easiest. New Zealand have slipped to eighth in the Test and T20 rankings and seventh in ODIs. Before their thoroughly deserved ODI series victory over England and a somewhat nervy win over Sri Lanka in their first outing in this competition, they were seen as outsiders for this tournament.But that may be changing and, unusually, they might be considered favourites in some quarters for their game against Australia at Edgbaston on Wednesday (although not by the bookies). Australia are ranked No. 2 in the ODI s but, without their injured captain Michael Clarke and clearly in the midst of a transitional period, they do appear ripe for the plucking.If New Zealand do prevail, it will all but confirm their qualification to the semi-final stage. Bearing in mind the balance of their side and the benefits they will have taken from having had longer than the other sides in the competition to acclimatise to the conditions, they look dangerous opponents.If they are to progress to the latter stages of this event, it seems likely that their spin bowlers will play a key role. While most onlookers felt that seam and swing would hold the key to this event, the somewhat surprising character of the pitches has led to a reappraisal of that view.The pitches at Cardiff and Edgbaston, in particular, have been unusually dry. Spinners have played a huge role not just in containing batsmen, but in dismissing them and, as the event progresses and the pitches are re-used, they should wear more and make spin ever more important.New Zealand are better placed than some sides to cope with that. While the record of their batsmen against spin remains modest – they played Graeme Swann poorly in the Test at Headingley – their current side does contain three men capable of exploiting the conditions with the ball.Daniel Vettori may not be the spin bowler he once was. All those overs, all those injuries and all those years have taken their toll on him. But he is experienced, he is reliable, he is calm and he can bat. His presence would still be a major boost. Indeed, if Vettori plays, there is a possibility New Zealand will deliver up to 30 overs of spin in the game, with Nathan McCullum and Kane Williamson also likely to contribute.

“We’re one game into the tournament and we know that spinners are playing a big part, so it’s something we can adapt to”Tim Southee

“If you look at the tournament before it started,” Tim Southee said, “you tend to think that, in England, it might nip around and the seamers might be the main wicket-takers. But those surfaces have been pretty dry and with them tending to play two games on each wicket, then in the second game obviously the spinners are going to come into play even more.”The wicket in Cardiff was dry and the spinners played a massive role. I haven’t had a look at the wicket at Edgbaston yet, but certainly we weren’t expecting spin to play such a major part. But I guess now we’re one game into the tournament and we know that spinners are playing a big part, so it’s something we can adapt to.”Vettori is not certain to be fit for Wednesday’s game. He will undergo a fitness test on the morning of the game before any decision is taken. Grant Elliott has already been ruled out due to a tight calf muscle.There was no hubris from Southee, who has arguably been the pick of New Zealand’s seamers throughout the tour, as he looked ahead to Wednesday’s game. He understands that Australia are smarting from defeat against England and knows they will be aching to put in a much-improved performance. He knows they have a point to prove.But he also knows they are a team in transition, still coming to terms with the loss of great players who dominated for so long.”It’s been a while since we’ve played them but we tend to lift a little bit more when we play against the Aussies,” Southee said. “It’s still pretty evenly poised between us. They’ve got a good side and they’re coming off a loss and with a point to prove. They’ll be hungry to turn the tournament around and grow some momentum.”They were so dominant for so long, but those players all retired at the same time, so it left a massive gap and I guess they’re still trying to fill it. You have to understand that the players that left were exceptional and you’re not going to replace them overnight.”But they’ve still got some great players. Look at Shane Watson and David Warner: on their day they can tear a side apart. And they have bowlers like Clint McKay, who has a great one day record. They’ve shown that they aren’t a poor side, but they’ll be disappointed in the results they’ve produced of late.”

Plays of the day from the fourth day of the second Test between New Zealand and England in Wellington

Andrew McGlashan in Wellington17-Mar-2013Grimace of the dayEngland’s quick bowlers showed the strain on the fourth morning, none more so than James Anderson who had needed treatment the previous day for a stiff back. He did not take much part in the warm-ups before play and, straight after his first delivery, showed his discomfort as he walked back to the mark. His movement started to look a little better the more he bowled and the wicket of Peter Fulton improved his mood – for a short time.Fumble of the dayWhen a batsman is on a pair it is important to keep him sweating as long as possible. For Ross Taylor it was even worse. He was on a king pair. He safely negotiated his first ball, but that first run of the match would still have been playing on his mind. It wouldn’t have escaped Anderson’s notice, either, so when Taylor defended a delivery solidly towards mid-on, it was no surprise that the fast bowler was far from amused by Kevin Pietersen’s rather limp attempt to get behind the ball which bobbled under him and allowed Taylor to open his account.Shot of the dayMonty Panesar was causing some problems from the footmarks, getting the occasional delivery to turn and bounce. Kane Williamson, though, played him confidently by getting well forward to defend and thrust his pad at ones pitching outside leg stump. Neither did he miss the chance to score. When Panesar dragged one a touch short Williamson waited a fraction longer and whipped it through midwicket at the top of the bounce. Classy.False hope of the dayThe rain held off until lunch and, very kindly, was clearing just as the interval was ending. Play was due to resume at 1.30pm but, as so often, during that period when the ground was ready and everyone was waiting the clouds built up again behind the pavilion. Then, right on cue, just as the umpires Rod Tucker and Asad Rauf emerged onto the field the rain started to fall again and the players headed back into the dressing rooms. It happened again, shortly after tea, when the stumps were back in. It was one of those days.

The Plays of the Day from the IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab, in Kolkata

Siddarth Ravindran26-Apr-2013The fortune
One of the common sights this season has been stumps dramatically flying out of the ground, even when the ball has only made slight impact. At Eden Gardens though, at a crucial juncture in the game, not only did the stumps remain firmly lodged in, but even the bails didn’t come off. An over after Jacques Kallis was dismissed during Knight Riders’ chase, Piyush Chawla bowled a flighted, full delivery to Eoin Morgan. The batsman attempted one of his unique starfish sweeps and missed the ball, which went on to brush leg stump. The leg bail shifted a touch but not enough to fall over, and Morgan survived to take his team within two runs of victory.The drop
Hardly a match goes by in the IPL without a sitter being put down. Today was no different. In the second over of the chase, Manvinder Bisla chipped a ball towards Mandeep Singh at cover. It wasn’t a powerful shot, or one that required Mandeep to dive or move much to either side. It came to Mandeep around head height and should have been easily taken. Instead, Mandeep jumped as he tried to clasp it and it went through his hands. Bisla was on 1 at the time and went on to make 51.The self-help
Azhar Mahmood was the bowler to be denied a wicket by that Mandeep drop. He responded in the best possible fashion, getting the opposition captain and in-form batsman Gautam Gambhir bowled with an inswinging delivery, making sure he didn’t need the help of any of his team-mates for the dismissal. It provided much-needed relief for Mahmood, whose comeback game after a spell on the bench had started with a scratchy seven-ball 2 that extended his horror run with the bat.The duck
Yusuf Pathan was one of the players Knight Riders built their franchise around when the teams were shuffled in 2011. He has struggled to live up to that top billing ever since, and today was no different. He doesn’t bowl much these days, and his main contribution in the field was messing up a regulation stop to concede a boundary. To top off a game to forget, he fell first ball, nicking Mahmood behind after a half-hearted poke.

Test cricket’s basement battle is not the most high-profile series this year, but it could produce some significant cricket

Jake Rassack17-Apr-2013This will sound odd given this is a year containing two Ashes tours, an ICC tournament and numerous other series. But Zimbabwe v Bangladesh has to be one of my most anticipated tours of the year. Why? Because, these two minnows stand at a major crossroads. The importance of this series for both teams is immense.This is a chance for Bangladesh to take advantage of their new-found confidence and good form, and claim a rare away-series victory. If they win both matches they can get themselves closer to that positive win-loss ratio that they hold in limited-overs matches against Zimbabwe, and finally prove that they’re not the worst Test team and they do deserve their spot. For Zimbabwe this is a chance to prove that their return to the Test arena – which hasn’t gone too well since their comeback victory over Bangladesh in 2011 – wasn’t a mistake.Now on to the series itself. It started off with the Zimbabwe players threatening to go on strike over their winter contracts. This has now been averted, but did bring about some more unwanted news for Zimbabwean cricket with Craig Ervine not signing a contract and, for the time being at least, ending his time with the Zimbabwean national team. He will be joining his brother Sean, himself a former Test cricketer, in English county cricket. Zimbabwe would do well to look into the reasoning behind these two promising players doing this, with a view to correct the problem so that they don’t lose more cricketers to county cricket or another nation’s domestic set-up in the future. Perhaps a look at what the likes of Ireland and such do in terms of contracted players and county cricket could provide some help?Bangladesh’s major problem coming into this series is one of lack of pace. Especially since Mashrafe Mortaza, their premier pace bowler, is still out through injury. They will be bolstered in their batting with the return of Shakib Al Hasan; That, and Bangladesh’s strong batting performances against Sri Lanka recently, should cause Zimbabwe concern over their own ability to get 20 wickets. So we could be seeing some high scores this series.Perhaps this series will also provide Zimbabwe with enough matches to get themselves back in the rankings, finally populating the table with the 10 Full Member teams that should be there (ignoring my belief that Ireland should be given a chance in Tests).This has all the precursors of going down as a pivotal series for both teams in terms of their history, and the rivalry between these two cricketing nations. We can only hope that the cricket on offer is of good quality.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line

Stats highlights from a frenetic opening day of the Ashes

S Rajesh10-Jul-2013Coming into this Test, if the two sides had taken a look at the stats at Trent Bridge over the last ten years, they’d have known that run-scoring would be difficult in the first Investec Ashes Test: since 2003, the average runs per wicket here (excluding extras) was 26.84 before today’s play. With a six-Test cut-off, only Sabina Park, Jamaica, has a lower average. On the first day of the Ashes Test, though, the average runs per wicket was even lower – 20.71 – as 14 batsmen were dismissed on a frenetic day of cricket; despite the loss of so many wickets, the runs were still scored at an impressive 3.63 per over.First of all, the toss. Alastair Cook did the right thing, given that England have won their last three Tests after choosing to bat first here – against Pakistan (2010), Australia (2005) and South Africa (2003). On this occasion, though, England’s batsmen didn’t back that decision with a solid display: for the fifth time in six Tests in 2013, none of their top four batsmen got a half-century in the first innings. As it turned out, there were no half-centuries at all from any of the 17 batsmen who batted today. England finished with 215, their lowest first-innings total in a home Test after winning the toss and batting first since the Ashes Test at Headingley in 2009, when they were bundled out for 102.That also meant the Trent Bridge jinx for England’s top order continued. None of their current top-order batsmen average 40 here, and after today’s performances most of the numbers only went down further. Jonathan Trott had never scored more than 38 in his six previous innings here and, while he improved on that by ten runs, he still missed out on a half-century. His captain Alastair Cook did worse, scoring 13 to take his aggregate from 12 Test innings at this ground to 208, at an average of 18.90. Together, Cook and Trott have scored 378 runs at this ground from 17 innings, at a combined average of 22.23.The Australia bowler who caused the most damage was Peter Siddle, whose 5 for 50 was his second five-for in only six Tests in England. It’s the only overseas country where he has more than one five-for. In fact, Siddle’s strike rate in England, of 42.1 balls per wicket, is the third-best for any overseas bowler who has taken 25 or more wickets in England; only Glenn McGrath and Mohammad Amir have done better. One of Siddle’s victims was Kevin Pietersen, who fell to him for the fifth time in 171 balls in Test cricket. Pietersen’s only scored 88 off those 171 balls, which gives him an average of 17.60 against Siddle – there’s no question about who’s winning that battle, though Pietersen will have opportunities in this series to redress the balance.England were dismissed cheaply, but they weren’t done for the day. Their current fast bowlers all have excellent records at Trent Bridge and, despite the absence of Stuart Broad, the new-ball duo of James Anderson and Steven Finn made Australia’s batsmen sweat in the last session. Anderson demonstrated his mastery over swing, and over Australia’s captain, dismissing him for the seventh time in Tests, at the total cost of only 153 runs – an average of 21.85, which is almost as emphatic as Siddle’s domination of Pietersen. Anderson thus joins Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn as the bowlers who’ve dismissed Clarke most often in Tests.With Ed Cowan playing an expansive shot and getting out first ball before Clarke’s dismissal, it meant Australia’s No.3 and No.4 batsmen were both out without scoring, a phenomenon that’s only happened 13 times in their Test history. The last time Australia suffered such a fate was in 2008, against South Africa in Perth, while the last time England inflicted this misery upon Australia was way back in December 1936. Of these 13 instances, only twice have Australia recovered from the setback to win the Test, and neither of those was against England. As omens go, that’s not an encouraging sign for Australian supporters.

It’s a tough life in the arid region of Matabeleland where Heath Streak runs his ranch, but it can also be idyllic and happy

Liam Brickhill06-Aug-2013″Heath’s not here,” explains Nadine Streak when we arrive at the Streak residence in the Turk Mine area 60km north of Bulawayo. “They caught a poacher this morning, so he’s had to go down to sort that out.” Poaching, we are told, has been a problem for a while on the ranch.From up here, though, the surrounding wilderness looks pristine and peaceful. Set atop a small hill strewn with stone , the Streak residence offers a clear view over several miles of scrubby savannah. Nadine, Heath’s wife, offers hot tea to take the chill off the morning and fresh homemade biscuits as we wait in an open-air thatched beneath the Streak house, that host tourists and other guests.The most recent visitors were the Indian cricket team, who spent a day at the ranch in between their matches in Bulawayo. “I told [Jayadev] Unadkat: ‘Before you’ve finished your career, this boy right here is going to bowl you out,'” says Streak with a grin, pointing at his son Harry. The boy is a certainly a chip off the old block, steaming in off his long run as he plays backyard cricket with Nel, Price’s sons and a friend from school. Suresh Raina made a gift of an India shirt and a pair of sunglasses on his visit, and Harry has barely removed either for the last three days, sleeping in the shirt. Cricket, it appears, is in the blood.It’s an idyllic, happy scene – a vision of what has been and what is to come – but one that we must leave if we are to complete the 450km journey back to Harare before nightfall. As we drive back out along the bumpy dirt road towards the main highway, we catch a glimpse of a duiker watching us intensely from beneath the shade of a thorny acacia. A small, deer-like animal, it is a bundle of nervous energy, all twitching wet nose, wide worried eyes and oscillating ears. In arid Matabeleland, life, both human and animal, finds a way to survive.

Saddled at 24 with the job of turning Northants’ fortunes around, Alex Wakely has done quite nicely, thank you

Vithushan Ehantharajah24-Sep-2013In November 2012, after Northamptonshire came off one of their worst ever seasons with four wins in 38 matches across three competitions, Alex Wakely was put in charge of the county’s white-ball cricket, as well as being appointed vice-captain to Stephen Peters in the county championship. It was quite a challenge, at 24, for Wakely to reinvigorate one of English cricket’s least-heralded counties.Less than a year later, Northants have lifted the Friends Life t20 trophy at Edgbaston and made a strong showing in the YB40, missing out on the semi-finals on run rate. Promotion to the first division of the LV= County Championship, which is well within range as Northants enter their final match at Worcester, would complete quite a season for a young captain who seems to possess the golden touch.Captaincy changes people. Certain characters use the responsibility to accentuate their traits, wittingly, as they look to impose their persona onto their team-mates and into their cricket. For others, it’s a role they were born to fulfil, and it gives them that extra sense of purpose that spurs them on. All men are created equal; it’s just that some prefer setting fields for the rest.Such a turnaround in fortunes paints the picture of a ruthless revolutionary who rose above mediocrity, driven by a bloody-minded desire to repent for last season’s woes. Maybe even an exceptional young talent who was sick of turning up and playing under floodlights with only a gaggle looking on and sought change through a cull of personnel and a return to home-grown players and values.Walking around the County Ground, you are no longer struggling for people to share their opinions on Wakely’s success – quite a change from last season, where some fans, as he puts it, “didn’t want to know us”. Few talk of revolutionary fervour. What they perceive is a nice guy with a meticulous sense of planning and a sincere desire for improvement.”He’s a good lad” say the faithful. Many preach of how they foretold that Northants had a leader in the making. Others struggle to conceal their surprise at his success. But at no point did they doubt his ability or his sincerity.At just 15, he made his debut in the Northants 2nd XI and was given the chance to hone his skills against toughened cricketers passing him by on their way out of the game – players who enjoyed nothing more than to crush the dreams of a precocious upstart from Bedford School. It is an institution with great cricketing pedigree: Alastair Cook, four years Wakely’s senior, is an Old Bedfordian.”He just took the piss,” recalls Wakely, fondly. “Watching him at school, that’s when I realised I wanted to become a professional cricketer. I used to look at him and just wrack my brains about how I could become as good as him.”Cookie had the record for most career runs for Bedford’s 1st XI. When he left, he said to me, ‘Go and break them – it’s your turn now.’ And I just thought, ‘Oh yeah, easy as that then!'”The honour of surpassing Cook’s haul was left to a 17-year-old, James Kettleborough, who is also on the books at Northants. While Wakely could not mimic Cook’s outrageous run haul, he did tread a similar path. Like Cook in 2004, he captained the England Under-19s to the World Cup in 2008. But that’s when the trail went cold.In 2009, he experienced unthinkable personal tragedy, the death of two close friends, both from the same village and both to leukaemia, as well as losing his cousin and beloved granddad Eric.”It’s only really now that I look back on it that I realise how much it affected me,” he said. “For two seasons I wasn’t focusing on my cricket and just in a sad place. Eric did everything with me; he took me to games and was as invested in my cricket as I was. When I lost him, I was inconsolable, but then I’d try and dismiss it and just say to myself that I had to be stronger. But I couldn’t.”Hearing Wakely, at 24, talk about “making up time” is harrowing. There remains a slight desperation in his voice. “I’ve played a lot of cricket without having the success that I would have wanted. I feel like there was a stage before it all where people kept telling me I had the talent to go on to the highest level. But I’m aware that I’m nowhere near that.”Before this season, his eight years at Northampton had amounted to a handful of standout moments, a pocketful of compliments and a sackful of “if onlys” that were starting to weigh him down. He openly admits to a mental block that has seen him pass 50 on 23 occasions, yet only reach three figures twice in first-class cricket.Still, he has flourished with the added pressure of captaincy, scoring 366 runs in the YB40 and 293 in the FLt20, including an unbeaten 59 in the final, which set up a crushing 102-run win over Surrey.”I can’t tell you how much I love captaincy,” he gleams. Sure, who doesn’t love telling people what to do.”Nah, it’s not really like that,” he replies. “I’m not the type to shout and bollock people. I think that’s a bit of a cop-out sometimes. Anyone can get angry – it’s about thinking about who you have around you and how they respond to your actions.

Hearing Wakely, at 24, talk about “making up time” is harrowing. There remains a slight desperation in his voice. “I’ve played a lot of cricket without having the success that I would have wanted

“I’ve known these guys for a while and they know the kind of person I am. For example, I’m very OCD about my kit. Everything has to be a certain way with me and I can’t do anything without being ridiculously organised. I have the same approach with my captaincy.”For example, I can’t take to the field without knowing that David Willey knows exactly what situation I’m going to bowl him in, to what field, and to which batsmen, before he’s even put his kit on. He needs to know the script off by heart.”Witnessing Wakely’s passion for captaincy first-hand, you begin to understand why players, both young and old, have bought into his approach so wholeheartedly. He encourages discussion and expressiveness, even championing the aggressiveness of David Willey – “I hope he never changes” – and the use of the dressing room as an open forum before and after games.
It is a brave move, considering this is a dressing room that harboured former Northants captains Andrew Hall and David Sales, as well as the Australian Cameron White, reputed to be one of the finest tacticians of the last decade. Rather than fall victim to his pride, Wakely would often seek their advice, while also being brave enough to stick to his guns. They respected him more for it.His admiration for the trio at this disposal is clear, but when talk turns to White, you can just make out a glint in his eye.”Seriously, how isn’t he, at least, playing T20s for Australia? It’s crazy. I don’t think I can speak highly enough about Cam. I owe him a lot, especially for his time off the field. I would also use him as a focal point for anything I did because he’s got such a great wealth of knowledge. I’ve never met anyone who can control a game, even when he’s batting. He controls the game so well. I can’t quite do justice to just how much of an impact he had on the club, both as a cricketer and as a bloke off the field. We would have him back in a heartbeat.”Like White, Wakely is no fan of the limelight; his lot is truly the success of the team. But his personality has been imprinted onto the Northants limited-overs side, whether he likes it or not, and he will have to remember how to take those compliments as well as he used to. Heaven knows there will be much more to come.

The England bowler* looks at some of the great moments of his career: from being promoted to the Pudsey Congs 1st XI to his Test hat-trick and Ashes battles

Ed Kemp08-Oct-2013The step up
3rd XI to 1st XI | Pudsey Congs CC, 1994
A big moment for me was being taken from the 3rd XI and being put into the 1st XI by Phil Carrick. I was 17 when he made that decision and within two years I was playing for Yorkshire. That was a massive point in my life. Phil Carrick came into my club, Pudsey Congs, and set me on the road for Yorkshire. He saw something in me. That year we had a young overseas professional called VVS Laxman, and [Carrick] said, you two will play Test cricket against each other, and we both laughed at him, but he was right, we did play Tests against each other. Unfortunately he passed away before it came into fruition, but if it hadn’t been for Phil Carrick I don’t think I’d be here talking to you now.The breakthrough
4 for 39 | Yorkshire v Surrey, Benson & Hedges Cup, quarter-final, Headingley, 2000
It’s not talked about often but a performance against Surrey in the quarter-final of the Benson & Hedges Cup at Headingley did a lot to get me noticed. It rained a lot and I managed to get four wickets – Butcher, Brown, Thorpe and Hollioake – and everybody started talking about me playing for England. So that was a big moment in that respect. It put me on people’s radar.The first scalp
3 for 79, 3 for 93 | England v Pakistan, second Test, Old Trafford, 2001
I was fairly quick to fifty wickets. I wasn’t the fastest of all time but I think I was in the top ten or something, so yeah it wasn’t too bad a start to Test cricket. My first wicket at Old Trafford, it wasn’t hitting the second set, but I think the umpire wanted to get off for tea. That was a big moment – Younis Khan, not too shabby.The tour success
7 for 63, 1 for 142 | New Zealand v England, first Test, Christchurch, 2002
On one of my first tours in New Zealand I managed to pick up seven in Christchurch. That was an interesting Test match – Andrew Flintoff scored his debut ton, Nasser Hussain scored a hundred and then Nathan Astle scored the fastest ever double-hundred and kept smacking Caddy [Andrew Caddick] out of the park. I got him out to win the game, I remember that, with a slower ball that he edged behind to the keeper. It was a fantastic Test match for all the right reasons – drop-in pitch, hard work to get runs in the first innings, and then a run fest in the second innings. It was good fun.The hat-trick
1 for 34, 4 for 35 | West Indies v England, third Test, Barbados, 2004
Yeah, I couldn’t forget Barbados. I was the tenth Englishman to get a hat-trick. To follow in those footsteps, with people like Goughie [Darren Gough] and Corky [Dominic Cork] as well, was nice. My last ball in that hat-trick was a wrong ball actually. I got Sarwan’s wicket with an outswinger that got the edge and was caught at gully, then I got Chanderpaul lbw and then Ryan Hinds came in, who was another left-hander. I thought I’d bowl him another inswinger and try to get him the same way, but it went across him and got caught at slip! It was a ball that I messed up, but thankfully I messed it up well.The wall
64* | Yorkshire v Lancashire, County Championship, Headingley, 2005
Another highlight was my 89 not out against Glamorgan, but the big one, batting-wise, was my 64 not out, which saved the game against Lancashire. It’s always nice to score runs. Against Glamorgan, I just didn’t want to bowl, it was always going to be a boring old draw anyway, so the longer we batted, the less we had to bowl. Getting 89 was great, it was my first fifty and I hooked Simon Jones – that’s always nice. But batting for two and a half hours against Lancashire to save the game for Yorkshire, that was brilliant. Every batter thinks they can bowl, but when you bat down at the low end of the order you either run out of partners or have a rush of blood to the head. It’s nice when you get the opportunity to have a bat, a long bat, and then you can see how much work the batters don’t really do and how it’s a piece of piss.The start
1 for 40, 2 for 56 | England v Australia, first Test, Lord’s, 2005
The first game of any series is really important and I managed to pick up the first wicket of Matthew Hayden in that series and it went on from there really. He scared the heebie-jeebies out of me because he was a bully – once he got in you couldn’t bowl at him. Luckily he was out of form, I put it in the right area and we had some great fields; take nothing away from Michael Vaughan and Duncan Fletcher – they had done their homework, their research and they put the fielders in the right place. Getting Langer out was always nice as well. At the time I thought he was mouthy, but then I played with him at the Hong Kong sixes and he was fine, so it’s just your perception of the people you play against rather than the person themselves.The cover drive
10, 8* | England v Australia, fourth Test, Trent Bridge, 2005
Helping Gilo [Ashley Giles] score 12 to win the fourth Test match at Trent Bridge was good fun. I was s***ing myself before I went out and I couldn’t watch the game. I knew there was going to be a twist, and I was hiding in the changing rooms not watching. But as soon as you cross that white line, it’s calm. You think, “We need 12, we can edge them.” So I was quite relaxed when I got to the crease, but then Gilo said, “Brett Lee’s bowling f***ing quick inswinging yorkers and bouncers and Shane Warne’s turning it miles. Good luck!” But when it’s in your hands, in your control, and your destiny’s at your feet, it’s much easier to cope with than watching.Hoggard celebrates England’s three-wicket win over Australia at Trent Bridge, 2005•Getty ImagesThe motorbike
6 for 57, 1 for 29 | India v England, first Test, Nagpur, 2006
I got a six-for in India and I was awarded the Man of the Match, so I rode around on a motorbike. It started off a trend; I was the first person to do it. I don’t remember too much about it. I remember I got Sehwag out with a ball that nipped back – it was supposed to be an outswinger. It must have hit a worm, I can’t remember if he left it or not. It was just one of those things where you get into a rhythm and everything seems to go right for you. I think it’s days and circumstances, bowling is about rhythm, sometimes you will bowl fantastically well and not get a reward and other times, you’ll bowl averagely and pick up six. It’s very much a consistency game; if you are consistent you are going to get a reward at some point.The magnificent seven
5 for 144, 7 for 61 | South Africa v England, fourth Test, Johannesburg, 2005
Taking 12 wickets in the game in Johannesburg to help England secure a series victory over there was pretty special. I have bowled better than that, the first innings I bowled like a shower of s***. It’s one of those grounds where you can turn up and it seams all over the shop. I played a couple of times there for Free State and always bowled badly. In the first innings I thought I bowled badly again, but I got 5 for 144 in about 50 overs [35]. It was one of those voodoo grounds, everyone’s got one, and you think, “Well I won’t do well there.” But then in the second innings everything seemed to go right, and when Jacques Kallis edged his first ball behind to first slip, I thought it might be one of my days.* The strapline to the piece originally referred to Hoggard as an allrounder. This has since been changed