All posts by csb10.top

My previous article on pitch invasions was mainly on incursions during the NatWest Series in England. As this is a very serious subject I feel it needs to be discussed in a wider perspective and dealt with in a positive and practical manner. Ground invasions coupled with various types hooliganism by spectators are an international phenomenon, which apart from cricket jeopardise other sports activities too.Soccer matches are perhaps the biggest venues of hooliganism. There have been many incidents where some players and referees were trapped in a stampede and mauled to the point of death. There are common instances of `outside the ground’ rowdyism too when fans from one country go abroad.In cricket, at least so far, it is fortunate we have not experienced such a mad frenzy leading to serious injuries or death in any of the matches.The standard of spectators’ discipline in Asia being much lower than other countries the strikes, protests and agitations are a regular feature of daily life. The law-enforcing agencies are powerful, well trained and better equipped to deal with bitter situations than their European counterparts.I was surprised that in England, there is no law to control mob violence on a cricket field. According to a news item, the England Cricket Board (ECB) is `pursuing the line of trying to get legislation to make it an offence to run on to the pitch’. After the new legislation is drafted, it will need various parliamentary approvals before it can take effect. According to an ECB spokesman, the legislation is likely to be in place before the summer season next year.Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh already have their procedures in place. The stadiums are in full control of the Cricket Boards or affiliated bodies while the civil administration joins in to help the organisers in the maintenance of law and order during international matches or whenever required.There are no special rules to deal with pitch invasion. The laws governing mob violence, causing disturbance, creating lawlessness or other problems of this nature are applied judiciously to deal with the situation. Sometimes, rather novel steps are taken that may make English cricket administrators shudder to even think about!

During the last Asian Test Cricket Championship, a crucial match between India and Pakistan at Eden Gardens, a violent crowd disturbance erupted. Repeated requests by the organisers had no salutary effects on the unruly spectators. Play was stopped for a while and the teams called back to the dressing rooms. Then, with the help of security forces, the administration cleared the stadium of a massive crowd of around 100,000 people. Play was resumed with no spectators at all and the match completed with Pakistan emerging victorious. This is what we call, the control of a situation `Asian style’.In Asia too, there were no fears of ground invasion till the mid-70s and the fences used to be only 3-ft high. But in the 1978-79 season, when Pakistan – India cricket relations were restored after a lapse of 17 years and India visited Pakistan, the fences were raised to 8-ft. Huge crowds were expected since the two teams had not faced each other for so many years. With unprecedented enthusiasm among the fans, the chances of untoward incidents were there. The raising of fences was thus a step in the right direction, one that has worked magnificently till today, relieving the organisers of big headaches.With the erection of high fences the problem of ground invasion has been solved but still a few high-spirited daredevils jump over the fence to be promptly hauled up by the stewards. Local cricket fans being somewhat entertainment starved, come to enjoy cricket matches fully prepared. They carry flags, banners, crackers, drums, horns and radios to express their enthusiasm. Taking their pleasure away by subjecting them to unnecessary restrictions may amount to buying trouble.Chandigarh (India) has solved the problem in a very novel manner. In one of the most modern cricket stadiums, built under the personal supervision of IS Bindra, former President of BCCI, there are no high fences. To prevent ground invasion they have dug a 6-ft deep trench (moat) all around except the authorized places of entry. The method allows the fans a clear view of the game and at the same time prevents them running on.In the final analysis, I feel Asian methods of crowd control are practical, acceptable and easy to implement. The power available to the ground authorities and civil administration to control the situation is also legitimate.Even the new habit of hurling fruit or other missiles onto the ground or aimed at a fielder has now been curtailed by not allowing them to bring such items in. One still sees the odd young cricket fan somehow evade all these measures, and run on to pat his hero on the back, chased by a policeman. Laughter erupts when he, for being sprightlier, eventually manages to evade the constable.

The United Cricket Board of South Africa has been placed in an extremely difficult position regarding the staging of the third Castle Lager/MTN Test match at SuperSport Park, Centurion, from tomorrow.”We were informed this morning by the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, that the Indian team will not take the field if Mike Denness is acting as Match Referee,” said UCBSA Chief Executive Officer Gerald Majola.South African cricket and the South African public in general cannot afford the cancellation of this Test match. Although the crisis has not been of our making, we have received reports of protests at South African embassies in India and our country has been caught up in this issue. The South African Government, through Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour, has instructed the UCBSA to take whatever action is necessary to ensure that the Test match goes ahead.In view of these issues, the UCBSA has asked Mike Denness to stand down asMatch Referee in the interests of cricket.However, Mr Denness indicated that he was a properly appointed ICC Match Referee who was in South Africa to act as such and he could not step down from that position.United Cricket Board Chief Executive Officer Gerald Majola telephoned ICC CEO Malcolm Speed to inform him that the UCBSA had no alternative but to ask Mr Denness to recuse himself and, facing his refusal to do so, had indicated that the UCBSA was unable to allow him access to the Match Referee’s position at the ground for the Test Match.Under the circumstances, South African Denis Lindsay, who serves on the ICC Match Referees Panel, has agreed to be available to stand in as Match Referee and the BCCI has agreed to him replacing Mr Denness.”We sincerely regret that the matter has come to this, however we are pleased to announce that the third Castle Lager / MTN Test match will go ahead as planned. We are certain it will be a thrilling contest and we hope the South African public will give their full support to their team as they go all out to play for their country,” concluded Mr Majola.

With just two overs play possible in which the vsitors made 5-0 Surrey andSussex will resume their NatWest fourth-round match at The Oval tomorrow.

ScorecardSamit Patel played a sizeable part as Notts’ run went on•Getty Images

Nottinghamshire’s resurgence continued as a fourth win in five lifted them to third in the Division One table, climbing above Durham and Warwickshire and with ambitions still fixed on overtaking Middlesex to finish the season as runners-up.The result extends the county’s sequence in all formats to 11 wins in 12 completed matches on the eve of a home quarter-final in the Royal London One-Day Cup in which they will seek to avenge last season’s semi-final defeat against Durham, when they were blown away by a Ben Stokes whirlwind at Chester-le-Street.There is no Stokes this time — rested along with Mark Wood after the exertions of the Ashes Test series — and the momentum is with the Trent Bridge side, who have flourished in all formats since former England head coach Peter Moores joined the coaching staff at the end of June.This is their 12th win in all competitions since director of cricket Mick Newell invited Moores to make the short daily commute from his home near Loughborough to impart some of the knowledge and experience that England felt they could manage without.As captain Chris Read explained, it was an opportunity too good to pass up.”I think Mick summed it up at the time when he said we needed some fresh ideas and fresh impetus,” Read said.”Things were not going well. We lost by an innings to Yorkshire at Headingley and to our rivals Derby in the Twenty 20, which were real lows for us.”We were pretty much out of the Twenty20 and in the four-day competition we were in the relegation places. From our point of view as players, and I expect from the coaching staff’s point of view, we had hit a kind of rock bottom. We were not performing anywhere near what we should do.”Having a coach of Peter’s experience five miles down the road sat twiddling his thumbs, it was an obvious thing to approach him and ask to help out.”It is important to understand that he was not brought in as director of cricket or head coach, but just to assist, to see how we were doing, to be an extra pair of hands, a different set of ears and to help make our preparation as good as it can be.”He has had a big influence but it would be hard for someone of his pedigree not to, bringing such a wealth of coaching experience to the dressing room. The way he has worked one to one with players has been magnificent and I know our top order batsmen have benefited greatly from that.”Read stressed, however, that in his view the arrival of Moores has not been the only factor behind Nottinghamshire’s change in fortunes.”We took some tactical decisions regarding the pitches we play on here,” he said. “We wanted to play on pitches that were good for batting and had some pace for the bowlers and I think we’ve had that over the last few weeks.”I should mention the other backroom staff and the work ethic of the players, which has improved greatly since we realised we were not up to scratch.”The win over Warwickshire perhaps reflected that. Having failed to make any inroads on the third afternoon after enforcing the follow-on, it took only 14 deliveries on the third morning for the first breakthrough to be made and thereafter there was never a period in which Warwickshire were allowed to settle.Ian Westwood got a thin bottom edge to a ball from Jake Ball that Chris Read took comfortably, Laurie Evans never looked comfortable and, having escaped unscathed from two Chinese cuts off Harry Gurney, he followed a delivery from Ball that should have gone past him harmlessly down the leg side and gave Read another catch, taking him to 998 dismissals in first-class matches.By lunch, Brett Hutton had accounted for Jonathan Trott, leg before trying to whip the ball away on the leg side, and Sam Hain, who chipped a catch to Luke Wood at short mid-wicket.William Porterfield made a worthy captain’s effort at leading the resistance, batting for more than four hours for his 61, but after Samit Patel had trapped Tim Ambrose leg before, the Irishman was out in agonising fashion, the ball squeezing under his bat and rolling into the stumps.There was always a threat that rain would rescue Warwickshire but it never materialised as anything heavier than drizzle. The light was poor enough for the floodlights to be required and Read was obliged to keep his quicker bowlers out of the picture in order to keep the contest going.Yet in the end the combination of Patel’s left-arm spin and Steven Mullaney’s off-cutters, aided by the luxury of being able to crowd the batsmen with close fielders with runs conceded not a concern, was enough to complete the job.Keith Barker and Rikki Clarke brought their experience to bear in holding Nottinghamshire up but once Barker had been caught superbly at short leg by Riki Wessels, Clarke had no one able to stay with him. Jeetan Patel, not a man to block, scored 28 from 22 balls before slicing a wide ball to point before Samit Patel claimed the last two wickets for figures of four for 23 from 22.1 overs, wrapping up victory at 5.20pm with 12.5 overs to spare.

Match facts

August 20-24, 2015
Start time 1000 local (0430 GMT)4:07

Agarkar: Pujara should replace Rohit if Vijay is fit

Big Picture

The hashtags are out, and it wouldn’t take too long for #SangaSignsOff to take over the online world much as his batting did the real one. The sheer weight of runs, his remarkable consistency and a never-ending thirst to get better deserves a bright and shiny spotlight. But let us not forget there is a Test match to win. A Test series to win. And if anything, Kumar Sangakkara himself will prefer to retire as a match-winner, holding the trophy aloft.The signs towards that are strong. The P Sara Oval is a result-oriented venue – only four of the 18 matches played have been drawn – and Sri Lanka have won eight of them, including their last match here at the ground when they bundled Pakistan out for 138 in the first innings. If number nine happens, it might well be the most famous one of them all.Not many players enjoy as much of a surge as Sangakkara has had in the final few years of his career. In 2014, at the age of 36, he scored the most runs he has ever made in a calendar year. In 2015, he scored his 11th double-century. Talk about retiring on a high. Sri Lanka will no doubt miss the comfort of having one of Test cricket’s best sauntering in at No. 3. But the essence behind his success has been hard work and a desire to always keep up with international cricket, whether by changing his batting grip, or by facing millions of balls in the nets. That can be replicated by the willing.The Indians, though, will want to sharpen their party-pooper skills. A lot. Their credibility against spin has been brought to question. Reasons range far and wide. Overeager against Moeen Ali and Nathan Lyon. Afraid against Rangana Herath. Unprepared as a result of domestic pitches becoming far less inclined to turn. But since immediate change is required, lest India careen to a seventh successive overseas Test series without a win, the onus is on the touring batsmen themselves.Perhaps also on the Indian team management regarding the decision to bench a batsman to stick to their five-bowler plan. Stuart Binny, the seam-bowling allrounder, has been added to the Test squad and talks of his inclusion appear strong. He is a decent option in the lower-middle order, and a steady bowler when Virat Kohli needs things kept quiet. However, India will want to make sure that the match doesn’t hinge on the batting exploits of a No. 7 but rather from one or two of the top order.

Form guide

(last five matches, most recent first)

Sri Lanka: WLWLL
India: LDDDL
One last time: Kumar Sangakkara will be hoping to sign out of cricket in style•AFP

In the spotlight

At a time when India are scrambling for batting solidity, M Vijay slotting back in at the top of the order can be a game-changer. He has shown his hunger for runs -1082 runs in 12 matches since January 2014 – and he has faced 2340 balls in that time, the most by an Indian. His judgment outside the off stump has been a striking feature of his success, and he is one of those nimble-footed players, who move late and are capable of dominating spin.Sri Lanka have had their issues with the opening combination as well recently. Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva have shown more than enough ability to be persisted with, but they will want to put in a better performance considering the occasion. No Sri Lankan will want to be remembered as a failure in a match that carries such significance.

Team news

Shikhar Dhawan’s injury has taken a form batsman away from India. But luckily for them, M Vijay, appears to have recovered quite nicely. He netted well yesterday and could well reclaim his opening slot in Colombo. Besides that, there might be a chance Binny gets a look-in, perhaps at the cost of Harbhajan Singh. Then there is the Rohit Sharma v Cheteshwar Pujara debate.India (probable) 1 M Vijay, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Rohit Sharma/ Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 R Ashwin, 8 Harbhajan Singh/ Stuart Binny, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Varun AaronFast bowler Nuwan Pradeep has a hamstring problem and could be forced out of the XI. The Sri Lankan team has back ups in the form of Dushmantha Chameera, who has been called as the country’s quickest, and left-arm seamer Vishwa Fernando.Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Kaushal Silva, 3 Lahiru Thirimanne, 4 Kumar Sangakkara, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Jehan Mubarak, 7 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 8 Dhammika Prasad, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Tharindu Kaushal, 11 Dushmantha Chameera/ Vishwa Fernando

Pitch and conditions

The P Sara Oval is traditionally the most seamer-friendly of all the pitches in Sri Lanka. Oddly enough, teams still have preferred batting first and that has more often than not backfired. In addition to the captains at the toss, an eye needs to be kept on the weather. Showers are forecast on all five days of the Test.

Stats and trivia

• India have come from 0-1 down to win a Test series only twice – against Australia in 2001 and against England in 1972
• If Kumar Sangakkara scores a century, he will become the 34th cricketer to finish his career with a century in his final Test. The last one to do so, Jacques Kallis, was playing against India as well

ScorecardStafanie Taylor cuts during her unbeaten 98•WICB Media/Randy Brooks of Brooks LaTouche Photo

West Indies women’s captain Stafanie Taylor overwhelmed Pakistan women with a powerful all-round performance, making an unbeaten 98 and then taking 3 for 26 in ten overs to secure a 109-run victory for her team in St. Lucia.Pakistan had made a promising start after choosing to bowl and had West Indies at 57 for 3 in 10.1 overs. Taylor then put on 130 runs with Merrisa Aguilleira, who was run out for 68. Kyshona Knight’s 45 off 40 balls added the finishing touches as West Indies powered to 281 for 5. Taylor, on 90, had faced the last four balls of the innings but could manage to score only two off each delivery, finishing two runs short of a century.Pakistan’s chase of a challenging target barely got off the ground. Javeria Khan played a sole hand, making an unbeaten 73 at No. 3, but no one else got past 20. Taylor cut through the middle order, taking three successive wickets to reduce Pakistan from 93 for 3 to 125 for 6. They were eventually restricted to 172 for 9 in 50 overs.

Clever as New Zealand’s fans have been in lampooning questions about the size of the MCG with the tag #MCGsobig, it is difficult to find anyone who does not think the ground’s vast dimensions will make a difference to the World Cup final on Sunday.But it is not merely size that will be foreign to a New Zealand side that has not played in Australia, let alone the MCG, since 2011. Issues such as the relative elusiveness of new-ball swing, a pitch of varying character and an opponent familiar with all such vagaries will provide an obstacle in much the same way as Australia were blindsided at times by Eden Park.Certainly India’s captain MS Dhoni had little hesitation in pointing to the differences drawn out by playing the game in Melbourne and Australia when he was asked broadly about favouritism for the tournament decider.”One of the biggest things that the New Zealand team will have to deal with is the size of the field,” Dhoni said. “In New Zealand you can get away with quite a few mis-timed shots. Generally what we have seen in New Zealand, you get very good wickets.”But when you come to Australia, you get a bit of reverse swing, and at the same time you may get wickets where it’s slightly two-paced, especially if you talk about the MCG. How to take risks will be something that’s very crucial.”Australia have that advantage of knowing the wickets well, and having three fast bowlers in their armoury because that will certainly help them. But overall we have seen New Zealand is one side that’s a very competitive side. All the ICC tournaments, they do really well.”Australia’s Aaron Finch is exceedingly familiar with the MCG, and also with its difficulties. While Finch has enjoyed success there, notably his century against England on the tournament’s opening day, he can also remember the daunting first sight of those distant boundaries.”First time I played there I had no idea – I felt like I couldn’t hit it to the boundary,” Finch said. “The MCG is a huge ground, obviously, and it is a place that can be quite intimidating at times.”It’s a place where the ball doesn’t swing a hell of a lot – you might get five or six overs out of a swinging ball. And we’ve had a lot of success there as an Australian team over a long time, so we’re very confident.”Asked about Brendon McCullum’s fearsome hitting across the tournament, Finch’s response could be summed up as one along the lines of: “I’d like to see him try that in Melbourne.””He’s a player who takes the game on and tries to set the tone for his team,” Finch said. “Whether it comes off or it doesn’t, he does set a tone for them and gives them a lot of belief. But it is a huge ground, the MCG, and I don’t think they’ve played there for a long time, so it will be interesting to see how they go.”One team to battle with the ground’s dimensions recently was England. Having concocted a strategy designed to limit Australia’s six-hitting, namely the use of shorter lengths and slower balls to encourage hits to the more distant square boundaries, Eoin Morgan’s team set poor fields. This allowed Australia to strike 38 fours on the way to 342 for 9, even if Finch’s three sixes were the only blows to clear the rope.The #MCGsobig tag was still going strong on Friday evening without McCullum’s help, but it remains to be seen whether New Zealand’s gumption can overcome the hard experience of cricket’s most celebrated colosseum.

World Cup-holders Australia have broadened the field from which future generations of the national team may be chosen by adding a Cricket Australia XI to the 50-over Matador Cup for next summer.As first flagged by the CA team performance manager Pat Howard last October, a squad of 15 fringe talents will be pulled together once the six states have chosen their teams for the tournament, which will again be played at the outset of the season.It will not be the first time the limited-overs competition has been expanded, having featured the Canberra Comets in the late 1990s and even a New Zealand team in earlier years. The team will be mentored by the National Cricket Centre head coach Troy Cooley, with assistance from Graeme Hick.CA’s desire to allow more opportunities for emerging players to take part in first-class competition has been heightened in recent years by the displays of the National Performance Squad, which performed strongly in Top End limited overs fixtures last winter, including one defeat of Australia A.The allrounder Sean Abbott emerged from that squad and made his international debuts in Twenty20 and ODI matches during the matches against Pakistan in the UAE in October. Howard said CA was eager to usher through more talents by finding out how they coped with strong competition from state sides.”We know we’ve got the talent and we want to be able to expose these players to more high-pressure game time to help the states and to help the overall national cause,” Howard said. “We’re really excited about these player pathway initiatives. We want to keep rejuvenating our players and create the competition for places to improve performance.”We will assess how the extra Matador Cup team goes after two seasons, with a key measure for us seeing the best young talent coming through our system and progressing into state teams and the Sheffield Shield.”Other progressive measures to be unveiled next summer include the expansion of the second XI competition so all states play six four-day matches across the season, up from four apiece in 2014-15.Junior players will also be fast-tracked via a new system of talent identification, whereby the best players at the national Under-16 carnival will form a representative team that faces the states in the national Under-17s championship. Likewise, the best of the Under-17s will then be drawn into a new team at the Under-19s tournament.

West Indies’ fighting performance in the first Test has convinced Australia’s coach Tim Nielsen that his opponents are on the way up the world rankings. Currently placed at No. 8, West Indies battled with Australia over the opening four days in Jamaica before folding in the 95-run loss.”They could definitely be up in the middle rungs and fighting for a top three or four spot with the quality of player and the natural talent they’ve got in their team,” Nielsen told the Sydney Morning Herald. “We kept saying the whole way through the game that our challenge was not to have fits and spurts, but to do it as well as we possibly can for five days. I think that was the difference in the end.”Nielsen warned West Indies more was needed than relying on natural ability. “Test cricket is definitely about talent … but in the end it is the ability to execute your skills and reproduce them over and over again,” he said. “That’s probably the difference in the two sides at the moment. If the Windies can do that, they’ll definitely jump up the ladder.”The below-par performances of Mitchell Johnson and Stuart MacGill in the first Test did not concern Nielsen. MacGill picked up four wickets for the game while Johnson was out-bowled by Stuart Clark and Brett Lee.”While Mitch didn’t get the figures as such, I wasn’t too worried about his performance,” Nielsen said. Nielsen believed MacGill improved as the game wore on, despite his inability to make any middle-order breakthroughs on the final day.”He probably rolled in and out of his rhythm a little bit in this game,” Nielsen told AAP. “He probably didn’t have a real consistent patch where he bowled as he’d like for a session.”But I thought there were some pretty pleasing signs at the end where he was able to rip the ball past the bat a few more times. Considering he hasn’t played a hell of a lot of cricket, I expect him to get better and better as the series goes on.” MacGill will have another chance in the second Test in Antigua from Friday.

At a routine press conference before India’s ICC Champions Trophy final against Sri Lanka, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly confirmed that veteran medium-pacer Javagal Srinath would make a comeback in all forms of the game.Srinath had recently retired from Test cricket and was subsequently ignored by the selectors for the one-dayers.”He didn’t want to play Test cricket. I thought we needed him in both versions of the game. We all feel that he’s still good enough,” said Ganguly.The Indian captain went on to add, “We were really disappointed that he backed out in England where we needed him the most. But that is in the past.”Praising Srinath’s contribution to Indian cricket, which has yielded 508 wickets in Test and one-dayers, Ganguly noted, “He’s been a true performer for India. I’ve always told him that we needed him to play Test cricket and I believe he’s done fantastically well for Leicestershire.”It must be remembered that Ganguly has repeatedly asked for Srinath’s return, only to be denied. This time, however, there has been a change of heart. “He said he’s going to play Tests again. He’s told Brijesh (Patel) and he’s told us that he’ll play again,” Ganguly said.Only recently, the chairman of the selection committee, former Karnataka and India cricketer Brijesh Patel, had said that he would try to persuade Srinath to change his mind and return to both Test and one-day cricket.Ganguly acknowledged Patel’s role in making Srinath reconsider his earlier decision, saying with a chuckle, “Probably a change in the selection committee has helped in Srinath’s coming back.”Srinath arrives in Colombo, from England on Saturday afternoon and his first assignment will be the Champions Trophy final where he replaces Ashish Nehra who injured his bowling hand when he attempted a run out off his bowling against South Africa. The Delhi medium-pacer split the webbing between his index and middle fingers and required five stitches.”Srinath is coming in this afternoon and is very much in contention for the final,” said Ganguly.