All posts by n8rngtd.top

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the final one-day international in Dubai

George Dobell20-Nov-2015Shot of the dayThere is footage of Viv Richards during his innings of 189 not out against England at Old Trafford in 1984 – sometimes referenced as the greatest ODI innings – where he steps outside off stump and whips a perfectly respectable ball at least a yard outside off stump through square leg for four. While it would be pushing it to claim Jos Buttler is in that class as a batsman – not many have been – there were moments in his extraordinary century which evoked memories of Richards. One stroke, in particular, brought back memories of that century at Old Trafford: stepping across his stumps, Buttler somehow flicked a full ball from the distinctly swift Mohammad Irfan through square leg with a power and timing that grew gasps from the crowd. There were many impressive moments during this innings, but this was a shot that to all but a few would have been all but impossible.Near miss of the dayJason Roy had scored just seven when, drawn into pushing away from his body at a delivery Anwar Ali, he saw a thick inside edge pass perilously close to his off stump and away to the fine leg boundary. Roy went on to register his maiden international century and set the platform for Buttler’s outstanding blitz at the end of the innings. It so nearly didn’t happen.Catch of the dayEngland were growing just a little nervous. Pakistan were up with the rate and, despite the fall of wickets, their batsmen just kept coming. But then Alex Hales, who had earlier made a horrible hash of a catching opportunity from Hafeez on 26, pulled off an outstanding effort to dismiss Shoaib Malik and the chase fizzled away. Malik had thrashed a full toss from Reece Topley towards the midwicket boundary, but Hales, rushing in, threw himself forward and clung on to the ball inches from the ground in an admirably committed move. Even in a game stuffed with outstanding moments, it was an exceptional effort.Run out of the dayIf Pakistan were to have any hope of overhauling their monumental target, it was always likely that one of their top order was going to have to make a substantial contribution. But while several made a decent start, none of them were able to go on and mirror the scores made by Roy or Buttler. While it was understandable that batsmen would fail taking chances – the required run-rate gave them little other option – the dismissal of Hafeez was far more frustrating. After three damaging run-outs in Sharjah, Hafeez fell the same way here after pushing a ball into the off side and setting off for a sharp single. Babar Azam had other thoughts, however, and while he stood in his crease, watching the ball, Hafeez tried desperately – and in vain – to regain his ground.Change of the dayIt didn’t take long for Pakistan to benefit from the recall of Ahmed Shehzad. Fielding at backward point, he pulled off a couple of outstanding stops to frustrate England’s openers. But it was his presence at the top of the order that allowed Pakistan to look a far more coherent batting line-up. It allowed Azam to move into the middle order, where he looked far more comfortable and, for the first time this series, gave a hint of a Pakistan side that could improve the side’s ODI fortunes in the months and years ahead.

A new film brings the country’s Maasai cricketers into the media spotlight again

Alan Gardner15-Nov-2015″If it weren’t for cricket, could we have this meeting here? You play the game, you get education, because of this cricket.” These words are spoken by a village elder towards the end of the film . It may seem a touch saccharine, a heart-warming Hollywood resolution to an independent documentary about the transformative power of sport, but it should be noted that the lines are delivered unscripted in Maasai amid discussions about a profound cultural change within the community. Cricket, once again, beyond a boundary.The story of the Maasai Cricket Warriors has been told periodically over recent years, ever since word began to spread of a group of men playing the game while wearing tribal dress in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley. shifts the focus slightly, presenting the development of the team and their journey to play in the Last Man Stands World Championship at Lord’s, alongside more serious issues of gender inequality and the transmission of HIV/AIDS among the Maasai.A lack of kit and facilities, having to walk two hours to the ground – these are everyday problems for the likes of Sonyanga, the team’s captain, and his brother Chris. There are more significant battles that need fighting. It is principally the matter of female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that involves circumcising girls as young as eight or nine, that the Maasai Cricket Warriors have taken a stance against, leading to the summit with the elders that provides the film’s coda.The Maasai Warriors are trying to bring essential progress to their community through cricket•AFPIn cricket’s traditional centres, the game has a reputation for conservatism, an image of stuffed suits and privilege – CLR James’ “old school tie” – not to mention scandal. But this is a progressive, even revolutionary tale. The young men from different villages who formed a team when a South African named Aliya Bauer decided to teach mini-cricket while working on a research project north of Mount Kenya have grown into powerful advocates for change.The implications of FGM, or “the cut”, include early marriage and pregnancy, depriving girls of an opportunity for schooling, as well as increased risk of contracting HIV. Sonyanga and his team-mates have used cricket as a tool to promote greater equality between Maasai men and women. As Ngumba John Njuguna, headmaster at Il Polei school, says, the “cricket warriors are… the next elders”, and that is a reason for hope.There are hopes and dreams of a recognisably sporting variety on display, too. Chris, the team’s allrounder, says he “didn’t sleep that night” when he heard he was going to the UK. The players embark on extra training – largely consisting of push-ups, laps of the playing field, and dropping a number of high catches – and prepare for the worldwide media attention that inevitably accompanies a team that bats and bowls with naked torsos and headdresses rather than helmets. Sonyanga and Daniel, a fan of “chin music”, discuss technique for bowling the “perfume delivery”, one that makes the opposing batsman “smell the leather”.Several of them, says Bauer, had “never ever gone beyond the outskirts of Nanyuki, forget about Nairobi” but the trip to England was character-building as well as eye-opening, and their experiences in the 2013 Last Man Stands competition – which included some notable triumphs and the odd disastrous run-out – helped give Sonyanga and his team-mates the courage to speak up about issues outside of sport once they returned home. As the Maasai saying goes, “The eye that leaves the village sees further.”Warrior FilmsThe global cricket village can also consider itself a little better informed. is directed by former ECB video jockey Barney Douglas and has had support from James Anderson, who gets an executive-producer credit and also briefly features; the film is now on general release in the UK and continues a recent trend for thought-provoking cricket documentaries that explore the game’s place in the modern world, from to .The Maasai Cricket Warriors, with their wide-smiling, long-limbed enthusiasm for the game and taboo-busting gender agenda, deserve an extended moment in the spotlight. This is a beautifully shot, genuinely moving story, with a soulful soundtrack and some superb animation. It is another compelling configuration of cricket’s capacity to cross borders and boundaries. As Chris puts it: “It is now time to prove that we are the great hero, the lion in the desert, and they say the lion has just woken up.”Warriors

Directed by Barney Douglas
Heavy Soul Films
85 mins, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jan-2016Zimbabwe won the toss, opted to bat and got off to a fantastic start thanks to Vusi Sibanda’s 44 off 33 balls•AFPShakib Al Hasan showed his value once again as his 3 for 30 helped stall Zimbabwe in the middle overs•AFPBut Malcolm Waller provided the final flourish and his 23-ball 49, with four sixes, took the total to an above-par 187 for 6•AFPSabbir Rahman performed well at No. 3 again, striking a half-century to lead a fairly brisk start to the chase•AFPBut Sikandar Raza struck twice in his two overs to help Zimbabwe take control in the middle overs•AFPBangladesh could not handle a mounting run-rate and a limited supply of boundaries led to a whole lot of wickets. They eventually finished on 156 for 6, and lost by 31 runs•AFP

Yet another defeat to Australia Women in the knockout stage of the World T20 is a sign that England Women need to look beyond a set pool of players and develop talent through the system

Vithushan Ehantharajah 30-Mar-20161:49

‘Our fielders did a great job’ – Lanning

“It’s like déjà vu, all over again.”Yogi Berra may probably not have paid too much attention to the England Women’s cricket team. But his words from the 1960s aptly describe the loop the team has existed in for far too long.The familiarity of the situation – defeat in a global tournament against Australia Women – almost has a comforting feel to it. This is the third time England have fallen to their Ashes foes in the World T20. The previous two defeats have come in the final. Whisper it, but this loss might be no bad thing.For now, the bitter taste will linger. Three times in the tournament England pushed matches to the brink when they looked home and hosed. The first two times were seen as triumphs of will. Mark Robinson, their coach, knows what tight wins do to teams. How it unites them and gives them that experience of getting over the line in pressure situations. Sarah Taylor said that winning matches in that situation – off the last ball (against West Indies) or with little left in the shed (against India) – is the best feeling in the world. Against Australia, England pushed too far and sent the match and themselves over the edge.Make no mistake, there has been enough to encourage on this tour. The acquisition of Robinson – one of the best coaches to be within sniping distance of this team -has given the players a new lease of life. With him have come ideas and most of the players are buying into these ideas.Six sixes were hit by England batsmen in the tournament: no great feat, on the face of it. But when you consider some of the tricky pitches they have played on and the fact that Tammy Beaumont hit four of them, they carry a lot more weight. Beaumont, in particular, has relished the opportunity to be the explosive option at the top of the order. Her form is as much a feather in Robinson’s cap as it is a nod to questionable management before him that meant Beaumont played no international cricket in 2015.And, from that perspective, Beaumont’s story is as much a warning as it is a triumph. Robinson saw something in the nets that he could exploit. But Beaumont has spent most of her playing career in the nets. When she was dropped in 2014, she spent the following winter in the nets, focusing on hitting down the ground and working to make the most of her power. But it took a poor Ashes summer last year and a brand new coach for her to get back in the XI. She was almost always in the squad, but never in the XI.It’s not too hard to predict an England XI and get it spot on. In the last two years, there have been no new T20I caps handed out. They can argue that they’ve had a settled side. They can also argue that they have given players their opportunities very early – Beaumont debuted at 18, Tash Farrant at 17 – and so their inclusions over this period won’t have registered.Against Australia, England pushed too far and sent the match and themselves over the edge•IDI/Getty ImagesBut if you at home can predict an England XI, then so can the opposition. When Lydia Greenway came to the crease, Australia captain Meg Lanning had cut off almost all her scoring shots. Knowing Greenway’s propensity to hit across the line in search for boundaries, Lanning stationed fielders out at midwicket, both in and out of the ring.You wonder how much time Greenway has left. Of those in this World T20 squad, her position is perhaps the most unsafe. Her last T20I half-century came in August 2013. The ODI record has her back, but even two half-centuries in 12 innings is not a strong defence.On the other side of the spectrum is Sarah Taylor. She has fits and starts but Taylor is too good for fits and starts. She needs purples patches as far as the eye can see. She’s a scorer of great runs but she needs to be a great run-scorer. Heather Knight, too, needs to rediscover what it is that made her such a rock in the middle order. She’s done a job with the ball but failing to score double-figures in four knocks is poor.It’s all well and good bellowing for change, but who are the alternates? And the answer is… well… we don’t really know. Because away from Kate Cross, Fran Wilson and Lauren Winfield, there are but a handful of players in the wings. The player pool, as Robinson has stated, is not competitive enough.But at the moment, it looks like England are contractually obliged not to look beyond their centrally contracted. And until they are brave enough – or even allowed – to do so, it is unlikely that things will change.It is hoped the Women’s Super League will change that. Exposing more players below the Loughborough cartel to high-intensity cricket will allow the cream to rise. Players like top-order batsman Sophie Luff (Somerset) and Alex Hartley, a left-arm spinner from Middlesex, will get the chance to show a wider audience just how worthy they are.Robinson highlighted January 2017 as the point in time in which he feels he will have seen each England player – from the first XI to the wonderkids – in enough match situations to determine whether they fit in to his plans. He is not a man who will sit on his hands and simply watch repeats of a sub-par show.This defeat should be a line in the sand. English cricket needs to move on.

Sri Lanka have been so poor, they might have mistaken for harbingers of Test cricket’s doom. But the maligned sport just keeps grinding along

Jarrod Kimber at Chester-le-Street29-May-2016″Jerusalem” was playing over the loud speakers. The Burnopfield Cricket Club juniors were holding St George and Investec flags, with one solitary Sri Lankan flag thrown in, and curiously, no Welsh flag. As the umpires came onto the field, “Jerusalem” was muted to announce their arrival.It was a moment of cynical nationalism overlapping with officious traditionalism. It was Test cricket.On the field Jimmy Anderson yawned. His team was about to beat a team that had defeated them in the series before, but they had already kind of beaten them. The match was going through the motions, and not quickly. Sri Lanka had picked the most irrelevant time to bat at their best. And the ground settled in for a dull, inevitable crawl.The Test was seemingly so boring that Michael Vaughan could escape it on day two to watch a second-tier football game. He did it in a helicopter, and when you need a helicopter to escape, something has gone horribly wrong. Even James Taylor, a cricket nerd, was tweeting, “Doesn’t get much better!! England Vs Wales at Twickenham”. As for the official EnglandCricket Twitter account, it was wishing Chris Jordan all the best in his game.That game was a long way from the flying buttresses of County Durham, it was nearer the Neo-Dravidian structures of Bangalore.Despite the angst about Test cricket at Chester-le-Street, the third-day crowd were enthused by what they saw•Getty ImagesThere, people weren’t bored, they weren’t allowed to be. There wasn’t time for yawns; instead every spare moment was jammed with a commercially crafted catchphrase, a Spanish horn blast or women in skimpy outfits dancing at the marvellous male athleticism before them.The contrast was quite startling. When Cricket Australia asked, years ago, that their match-day programmes stopped using the word “cricket”, and people non-ironically started using the term “cricketainment” instead, it seemed like a 1984 construct. Now, even Ravi Ashwin doesn’t consider the T20 format to be cricket. And Mark Wahlberg owns a CPL team.In Bangalore, every shot of the crowd seems to have someone screaming in delight. In Chester-le-Street, there are people reading the paper. In Bangalore the seats are jammed with bodies. In Chester-le-Street, there is a part of the ground that no one ever sits in. In Bangalore, the cricket is shown to hundreds of millions of fans. In Chester-le-Street you’d have been lucky to have one million fans watching today’s play globally.That is why Chris Tremlett tweeted on day one, “Doesn’t look like there are too many people in the ground at Durham. Is test cricket slowly dying?” He isn’t the only one. Sky had a chat about it, and on social media it was an oft-said thing.Of course, it has been an oft-said thing from pretty much the moment Test cricket was born. It is cricket’s most consistent meme.No one in England had time for a game that went five days in the 1800s, they said. Other countries weren’t strong enough to compete with England, they said. Only the Ashes truly mattered, they said. Batting-friendly tracks would kill interest, they said. ODIs would kill the techniques required. ODIs would kill all the others. T20 was the devil, they said. They said, they say.Lahiru Thirimanne’s attempts to emulate Adam Gilchrist ended with a beauty from Moeen Ali•Getty ImagesBut in Durham, in the freezing cold, in a pretty empty stadium that might never get another game, with a Test team struggling to bat against a bigger, stronger and richer opponent, was cricket dying?If this is Test cricket on its most dying day, then it’s actually doing better than someone on their deathbed should be. A team that were so bad yesterday they were the living personification of the death, suddenly were good enough to outscore their entire series runs so far in one day. The crowd – so poor that Durham might not get another Test – was fairly full and quite engaged. People watched, listened, and read to follow the game. Even the weather was, well, for this part of the world, almost summer-like.It doesn’t mean the ICC shouldn’t do more. Their pathetic Test Cricket Fund, US$1.25 million a year (less than a Chris Gayle Maximum contract) is silly in a billion-dollar industry. Day-night Tests could double the value of the game overnight, yet so little money has been spent to forward the concept and make the balls last, or be safe. And Test cricket is so poorly marketed and advertised in so many countries, you’d be mistaken for thinking it’s illegal.And has this series been a good advertisement for Test cricket? Sri Lanka have been so poor at times they’ve made batting look like an unconquerable quest, their fielding has ranged from spectacular to spectacularly bad, and their tactics are incomprehensible, both to outsiders and often to themselves. Of course, Sri Lanka have been like that in T20 and ODI cricket of late too.And as bad as yesterday was – and it was bad – they were just as bad, if not worse, in January 2014 against Pakistan in Sharjah. And yet, six months later, they had won for the first time in England in more than a decade, after two Tests that went to the last ball and the second-last ball respectively. Did that exciting series win prove Test cricket was living, and this dull loss prove it is dying? Is it that easy? Could one Test series – the 2005 Ashes maybe, or India against Australia in 2000-01 – save cricket, and one more disaster, such as the 1912 Tri-series kill it forever?Sunrisers Hyderabad celebrate after winning the IPL: people loved it, people hated it, people watched it•AFPCan a sport that has close to a million people watching on TV over five (four, or maybe three) days actually die in a market where broadcasters are desperate for sporting content to fill their subscription channels? Can it really die while so many who love it are still around to say that it is dying?None of this really mattered when Lahiru Thirimanne was batting with the tail and trying to turn himself into a Gilchrist-esque slogger. Nor when Moeen Ali slid one past Angelo Mathews and Jonny Bairstow stood sullen behind the stumps, looking at where he fumbled the ball.Nothing mattered when Milinda Siriwardana effortlessly pushed a ball through the covers with such timing the ball must have been part of an inside job to get to the boundary. Or when Mathews, making up for one of his worst days ever, batted stoically until he was deceived by a ball so subtle he barely knew he was being grifted by Jimmy Anderson. What about that Kaushal Silva boundary? Or that over between Mendis and Anderson? Not to mention a bizarre no-ball when there were three men behind square.There wasn’t a sight such as Virat Kohli charging and slamming the Fizz through the covers. No 117-metre sixes were hit off Shane Watson. No one eased their way to a two-run-a-ball half-century. And at no stage was the ball bouncing off the furniture. There wasn’t even the hope of a Sachin Baby miracle.Both existed, both made people happy, sad, and frustrated all at the same time. Both did what sport, and cricket does. Made us talk, made us yell, made us question, made us forget our worries, and invent new irrelevant ones.In Bangalore, a franchise made up of a Sydney captain and Bangladesh’s greatest bowler beat a franchise with some of the most expensive batsmen of all time. People loved it, people hated it, people watched it.In Durham, a side that might have been mistaken for harbingers of their own sport’s doom, played their best cricket in a near no-hope situation and entertained a crowd who had really come to see their team win in a form of cricket they may not see live for a very long time to come. People loved it, people hated it, people watched it.At the end of the day in Durham, the players walked off – not with a conclusion, not with a winner’s cheque, not covered in champagne – but with the knowledge they will have to come back tomorrow and go through the motions again. One fighting to win the series, the other fighting to survive it.Test cricket fights and survives as well. It has done for 139 years and counting.

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Oct-2016They tightened their hold on the match with five strikes in the first session•Associated PressRangana Herath, expectedly, was among the wickets as Zimbabwe were left tottering at 139 for 6•AFPBut the visitors ran into a determined Peter Moor•AFPHe struck three sixes in a counterattacking 79 off 84•AFPAt the other end, captain Graeme Cremer was equally determined. He settled in for a patient knock to frustrate Sri Lanka•Associated PressCremer eventually got to a maiden Test century, helping his team avoid the follow-on. They were dismissed for 373, before Sri Lanka’s openers batted out three overs to finish 169 ahead•Associated Press

Trying to restore his reputation after being dismantled by Evin Lewis in Lauderhill, Stuart Binny was in pursuit of a century but, perhaps symbolically, fell just short

Arun Venugopal in Greater Noida12-Sep-2016For a few hours on Monday, Stuart Binny was trending on Twitter for the first time in weeks; since Lauderhill to be precise, where his 32-run over spawned memes that swiftly descended from harmless ribbing to crass personal attack.On Monday, before he went out to bat in the Duleep Trophy final, India’s selectors had deemed Binny surplus to the team’s requirements for the New Zealand Tests. The Twitterati found fresh ammo; parody-page admins and meme-makers were talking shop again.It’s difficult to pinpoint when Binny was inducted into such a love-to-hate social media club that already includes alter egos of Ishant Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Ashish Nehra, but this is what we know: Binny had spent all but three days of cricket in the Caribbean plying beverages to his team-mates, and now he isn’t even entrusted with that responsibility. While reputations often remain intact – or even enhanced, in some cases – when you remain on the bench, Binny’s was smashed, literally, by Evin Lewis in that over in Florida in the only international he played on the tour.In Greater Noida, Binny walked in with India Red on 67 for 4, trailing India Blue’s first-innings score by over 600 runs. He looked as trim and sharp as he has been all year, possibly secure in the knowledge that he wouldn’t be trolled for his fitness anymore.The first ball Binny faced would have been an eminently watchable gag had his reaction been captured on a tight close-up: he strode forward to a length delivery which whooshed past him and towards the wicketkeeper’s throat. The previous one had stopped on Gurkeerat Singh and kept low, as he nearly played it on to the stumps.India Blue captain Gautam Gambhir had engaged a pace-spin combination. Binny’s default response was to stride forward and present bat and pad in a parallel line and then hope for the best. The edge was found, often, but he wouldn’t be dismissed. Binny had ambled to 9 off 35 balls when Gambhir traded the pace-spin gambit with an-all spin attack – Ravindra Jadeja, Parvez Rasool and Karn Sharma shared the bowling duties for the next 46 overs.It didn’t immediately mitigate Binny’s struggle, but he received a handy let off in the 37th over when Karn struck him plumb in front but the lbw appeal was turned down. After working out that he was handling spin about as convincingly as a clown would a ballet recital, Binny cheated his way out of trouble by charging out of the crease. Often, the exercise would result in a meek bunt or a nick that would slither away harmlessly. Binny was giving the feline community a severe complex, as India Blue’s bowlers and fielders yelled and yelped for several lbws and near-catches that never materialised.Feeding off a relatively more assured Gurkeerat, Binny changed his plans. He tried the sweep for starters, then graduated to launching his own variant of the helicopter shot. One whippety thunk off Rasool sailed over the long-on boundary to bring up his fifty. Some inside-out biffs and a few sheepish smiles exchanged with bowlers grudging their luck indicated he was having fun, but he would nearly ruin the theatre with atrocious brain-fades. Binny’s failed attempts at the switch hit only served to scare the close-in fielders.He had spoken of how India coach Anil Kumble had sowed ambitions of a Test century in him, but watching him run up a sequence of ugly hoicks and indiscreet prods made you wonder if he wanted one badly enough – he hasn’t made a hundred in first-class cricket for more than two years.In the end, ironically enough, he was trapped lbw, playing a defensive stroke on 98. For more than 10 seconds, he stood cross-legged at the crease with head bowed in a mixture of self-recrimination and disappointment, before slowly walking away. Even the trolls wouldn’t have minded a happy ending.

While there is a degree of excitement and nervous energy going around, nothing over the top awaits local boys Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja in what is a region with a rich cricketing history

Alagappan Muthu in Rajkot09-Nov-2016There is a distinct calm in Rajkot. The new stadium is a fair distance outside the city, on the highway to Jamnagar. A grand structure in the middle of nowhere; remote enough that as the players practise in the nets, over the wall behind them, a herd of buffaloes shuffle about, slowly, contentedly, peacefully. Virat Kohli punch off drives off throwdowns from Anil Kumble on one side. From the other, a big old moo sounds.There has been a smattering of people at the ground every day since the Indian team has been in town. Kids mostly, phones shooting out of pockets faster than guns did in the old westerns.”Century ?” Arvind Pujara chuckles, and says, “Why should he stop there?” when asked how much he’d like Cheteshwar to score a ton on his home ground in its first Test. It will be the first time the father will watch his son bat live.There is another player for whom this would be special. The portraits of him in the stadium make careful note of the twirl in his moustache. The Rajputana twirl. Ravindra Jadeja has already displayed the “sword celebration” at Lord’s, the home of cricket. Plenty will be wishing to see him do so again, at the home of his cricket.He learnt the game in Jamnagar, a few kilometres down the road, becoming a fine addition to the town’s heritage of left-arm spin. One of their residents, Vinoo Mankad, helped India to their first Test win. Jadeja would be expected to follow suit and win Rajkot’s first Test too.Considering the city’s history, it’s almost disarming to see how quiet things are. A few people were at the airport when India arrived. A few at the ground to catch a glimpse of the men they’ve only seen on TV or on paper. Life simply goes on. Perhaps the people have already been spoilt. They have two entire tournaments named after men with roots in Saurashtra. The Ranji Trophy – for Ranjitsinhji who also gave cricket the leg glance. And the Duleep Trophy – for his nephew Duleepsinhji. Their domestic team has been active since the 1950s and were the runners-up last season. This is just five little days of international cricket.There is nervous energy among the administrators though. The Saurashtra Cricket Association president Niranjan Shah has made a few trips out to the middle, to check on the pitch, and then other proceedings. On Wednesday, he would have completed the “ultimate” achievement. He has invited the state’s chief minister to watch the game. Arrangements have been made to felicitate Test players from the region – all the way back to Salim Durani, the great allrounder of the ’60s and ’70s – and also those like Sitanshu Kotak and Jaydev Shah, who have been part of over 100 domestic games.The Pujara family has been in Rajkot for 50 years. Cheteshwar grew up in the heart of the city. With his father having worked for the railways, living quarters came with the job and there was a ground close-by as well. Every morning he would wake up at six and get some training in until nine, when school started. He wouldn’t even change out of his uniform before heading off to play some more, his father in tow. Both of them began thinking about cricket seriously when Cheteshwar was seven-eight years old.Jadeja’s path was harsh. He trained at Cricket Bungalow, an academy in Jamnagar, where making mistakes would earn a beating. He had to dive around on hard, abrasive surfaces. He was taught flight by avoiding the head of a boy who would stand on the middle of the pitch. Outrageous things happen here. That a Test match has finally come along is no real biggie.

Cricket is building links across the racial divide in rural South Africa

Luke Alfred09-Jan-2017Since 1989, a tournament with a difference has been taking place in the arid upper reaches of the rural Eastern Cape in South Africa. Bankrolled by a local enthusiast, Mthetheleli Ngumbela, the Ngumbela Cricket Tournament traditionally starts on the December 16 public holiday and meanders sluggishly across the Christmas break and amiably into the New Year.As a result of the tournament’s distended format, the final, played last Sunday between Fear Not and Qhumanashe – roughly translated from the Xhosa as “the team on the hill” – is much anticipated. Folk discussed the tournament’s likely winners across the New Year and 5000 people packed into Ngumbela Park, just outside of Healdtown, to see who would capture local bragging rights.His work done, Ngumbela himself kicked back with understandable pride and accomplishment – not bad for someone who started off life selling peaches and mealies (corn) out of the boot of a ’49 Plymouth coupe in the distant township of Langa.Outwardly calm, Ngumbela was anything but uninterested when he watched Sunday’s match. He played for Fear Not as a young man, taking his place in the middle order as a left-hand batsman against such local teams as Jackhammer and Lamyeni Hard Cash. He used to bring coiled hessian mats (at 400 rand a pop) back from the Cape in the boot of his trusty Plymouth and, as a swaggering entrepreneur, was always on hand to dip into his pocket for balls and equipment.

Ngumbela kicked back with understandable pride and accomplishment – not bad for someone who started off life selling peaches and mealies out of the boot of a ’49 Plymouth coupe in Langa

“In 1976 there were riots in Langa [in the Western Cape] and I was frightened away,” he said. “I came back and opened butchery and vegetable shops in Idutywa, closer to home, where it was safer.”Returning home from Idutywa for his Christmas break in the late 1980s, Ngumbela found widespread rural misery and lack of purpose. No cricket was being played. “The men were drinking – I didn’t like that,” he told me. “Often we used to play over the holidays and now there was need for something better. We wanted a proper tournament.”Ngumbela’s tournament has prospered partly because Healdtown (pronounced Hilltown, approximately 120km north-west of East London) is in the middle of a particularly fertile South African cricket crescent. Mfuneko Ngam, the fast bowler, was born in neighbouring Middledrift, and now teaches at Cricket South Africa’s Fort Hare Academy in nearby Alice. Makhaya Ntini was once a shepherd on distant hills and went to school at Dale in King William’s Town, not far away. Luminaries like George Langa, Zimasa Mbatani, Sam Nontshinga and Dan Qeqe, all played and prospered in the vicinity, while members of the Majola dynasty, Eric and Khaya, grew up in the region before hotfooting it to the towns and townships, like any self-respecting young men of the age would.Over the years the tournament has undergone certain refinements. It is now bigger, for a start, bringing together teams from both the Alice and Healdtown district leagues. Facilities are better (Ngumbela has laid tens of concrete pitches across the region at his own expense), and prize money is vastly improved. Fear Not, Sunday’s winners, pocketed R25,000 for their Christmas-period troubles, while the men from the hills received R18,000. Ngumbela Park is now garlanded with swanky coloured seats. There’s a little pavilion and a sponsored electronic scoreboard. A casual observer might look at the comparative splendour amid the rural poverty and think that cricket has finally arrived.Ngumbela Park’s brand-new stand•Greg HayesExcept that it hasn’t, because there’s a tragic apartheid backlog to almost everything in these hills. Greg Hayes, a consultant to CSA and a man who works hand in hand with Ngam, has no quibble with either the available talent or the commitment of Fort Hare University. He finds that issues outside of cricket often hold the flowering back. While CSA is addressing some of these problems through the development of a junior academy and life-skills workshops at Fort Hare, it sometimes feels like a perpetual walk down the corridor of uncertainty. “How do you teach a kid who comes to the academy to build an innings and occupy the crease when he has an empty stomach?” Hayes asks. “Scratch the surface and you realise these kids are coming from one-parent families or no families at all. No wonder self-esteem is an issue.”Despite the harsh realities of the apartheid legacy, cricket is changing. Two years ago a group of black and white veterans got together to discuss the building of bridges. As a result the winners of the Ngumbela tournament were pitted against the winners of that year’s Pineapple Week tournament, started 112 years ago in and around Port Alfred on the coast. The first such match was played in September 2015 in Cuylerville; the second took place at Ngumbela Park last year. The older cricket-loving men in the region are thrilled.Such festival fixtures inadvertently echo what took place in the 1880s in the area. , a recently published book by Andre Odendaal, Krish Reddy, Christopher Merrett and Jonty Winch, tells of a famous fixture between Champion CC from King William’s Town and Alberts CC, both winners of their respective racially defined leagues. The match was given added cachet because Champion CC players and their followers remembered that some of the Alberts CC players had ancestors who played significant roles in the wars of colonial dispossession. The stage was set for an epic battle. Alas, say the authors, it was not to be. Champion were unable to force home the advantage after a first-innings lead. The game fizzled out, the draw hastened by the advent of bad light.That match was historically significant because it represented the opening of a cricket window, with games across the colour divide. As the Cape Colony in the 1890s became more jingoistic and racially intolerant, so this window closed. By the time of the Boer War, such games were distant memories. Thanks to the endeavours of Ngumbela and those who arrange the Pineapple Week, however, things they are a-changin’ down in the Eastern Cape. It’s about time.

A stunning 43-ball 97 from Rishabh Pant caught the attention of some big names from Indian cricket on Twitter

ESPNcricinfo staff04-May-2017

One of the best Innings I have seen in the IPL & that includes all 10 seasons. @RishabPant777 pic.twitter.com/SGv3YuXwJ5

— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) May 4, 2017

Love batsman with tremendous belief in themselves which is backed by a special ability for ball hitting.Extra Special today frm Rishabh Pant

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) May 4, 2017

@RishabPant777 you Beauty what a talent this young man @DelhiDaredevils vs @TheGujaratLions

— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) May 4, 2017

Doesn't get much better #Pant #DDvGL #IPL

— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket) May 4, 2017

Love watching @RishabPant777 what a talent

— Jos Buttler (@josbuttler) May 4, 2017

At one stage, the Delhi Daredevils innings seemed like a six-hitting contest between Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson. The two put on 143 runs in 10.3 overs.

Rishabh pant,Sanju Samson …tonite wow..keep an eye on them teams …they are special..

— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) May 4, 2017

The exuberance of youth yet the calmness of veterans. What a partnership guys, Sanju Samson & @RishabPant777
Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/4GU3pHXAyA

— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) May 4, 2017

Brilliant innings from two talented young batsmen #sanjusamson & @RishabPant777 Loved their positivity,skill and fearless approach #IPL

— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) May 4, 2017

While Samson fell for 61, Pant nearly became the youngest centurion in the IPL.

Deserved a hundred @RishabPant777 fearless knock. Well played #III

— Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) May 4, 2017

@RishabPant777 take a bow, Deserved a ! Special special talent!!!!

— Sam Billings (@sambillings) May 4, 2017

The future star of Indian cricket batted wearing 777 no: shirt for @DelhiDaredevils.Well batted @RishabPant777 #DDvGL.Sad to miss a 100 @IPL

— Anjum Chopra (@chopraanjum) May 4, 2017

Take a bow little pant unbelievable power hitting just age of 20@RishabPant777 @DelhiDaredevils #ipl #littlebrother

— Rahul Sharma (@ImRahulSharma3) May 4, 2017

Rishab Pant

— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) May 4, 2017

I have seen the future of Indian batting. And it's on TV right now! #Pant #Samson #DDvGL #IPL

— Hemant (@hemantbuch) May 4, 2017

The successful chase meant Gujarat Lions were out of contention for a playoff spot, the first time a team featuring Suresh Raina had failed to make it past the league phase.

Moment of the game was @ImRaina consoling @RishabPant777. That's what it's all abt! Well played Pant. #IPL

— Venky Mysore (@VenkyMysore) May 4, 2017

Do you agree?

Strike when the iron is hot. Play a youngster when he's in Red Hot Form. I'd pick Pant for the Champions Trophy. Will you? #IPL

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) May 4, 2017