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Josh Hazlewood has been called up for the game in Sydney and Spencer Johnson will join in Canberra

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Feb-2024Xavier Bartlett, who starred on international debut at the MCG, will be rested for Sunday’s second ODI against West Indies but is expected to return in Canberra for the third game.Travis Head has been released from the ODI and T20I squads for the rest of the matches while Josh Hazlewood has been added for the second ODI in Sydney.The management of Bartlett, who claimed 4 for 17 in Melbourne, is understood to be part of a plan to be careful with his workloads amid three ODIs in five days after his back injury last year, and without any one-day or Shield cricket this season.Related

• Smith, Cummins, Starc return for New Zealand T20Is, Marsh to captain

• Short ruled out of final ODI with McDermott called up

• Australia, West Indies look to grow depth with eye on 2027

• Bartlett four-for, Green's all-round effort give Australia 1-0 lead

• Bartlett makes a massive impact on 'almost not real' debut

“I was injured at the start of this year and didn’t have a chance to play any domestic cricket, which was a frustrating time,” he said after his Player-of-the-Match display. “But you can kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel and you’ve just got to keep trying to work hard because these days don’t happen very often in the game of cricket.”Left-arm quick Spencer Johnson will join the squad as cover for the third ODI in Canberra on Tuesday.Hazlewood was among Australia’s all-format quicks initially rested for the ODI series following the Test summer but was included for the T20Is.No replacement for Head has been named, which opens the door for Jake Fraser-McGurk to make his ODI debut at the SCG. Head fell in the first over of Australia’s chase in Melbourne when he edged Matthew Forde for 4, following his king pair in the Gabba Test. He is expected to be part of the T20I squad for the tour of New Zealand.

Messi and Alba missed two mandatory training sessions for the MLS All-Star team, with some MLS players surprised by their absence

• Messi, Alba have missed both training sessions
• Participation for both in All-Star activities are in doubt
• Carles Gil and Diego Luna among those surprised

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• Getty Images Sport
  

  WHAT HAPPENED?

  AUSTIN, Texas – The MLS All-Stars took the training ground at Austin FC's impressive St. David’s Performance Center on Monday, and 28 of the 30 selections were accounted for – ranging from San Diego's Mexico star Hirving 'Chucky' Lozano to the Vancouver Whitecaps' Brian White.

  Yet, two absentees were glaring as Inter Miami's Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba were not present. It was more of the same Tuesday, as again the former Barcelona stars were again no-shows. It's a development some other MLS All-Stars acknowledged was a bit surprising.

  "I know they are on obviously on the roster, and I don't know if they are coming in today or tomorrow, but, yeah, hopefully they can come like everyone here," New England Revolution All-Star Carles Gil said. "It's just two training days, so this is difficult to have a chemistry."

  Real Salt Lake and USMNT star Diego Luna echoed those sentiments.

  "Am I surprised? Maybe a little bit because they were on the roster, but they've got their own individual things going on," Luna explained.

  Still, Gil and Luna remained optmistic despite the no-shows of the two Miami stars.

  "The only cool thing is they get here tomorrow and we can play together and have fun," Luna said.

  Gil added, "In the end, here you have the best of the best. Everyone has the quality, and everyone has the quality, and in the end is football."

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Despite Luna's comments, there has been no official confirmation at to when, or if, Messi and Alba are arriving. There has been uncertainty as to whether either will participate in any All-Star event this week, as alluded to by MLS head coach Nico Estevez Monday.

  “That’s a question for his club. I just coach and use the players I’m given. I hope so – I’m very optimistic and I hope he can be there," he said.

  It is unclear whether or not Messi or Alba will face discipline for missing Media Day or the two training sessions that have been considered mandatory in the past. One report has mentioned Messi is expected to arrive Wednesday. According to MLS rules, unless there is a medical reason, Messi and Alba need to play to avoid being suspended for Inter Miami's match against FC Cincinnati this Saturday.

  Still, if Messi and Alba are available to play, other All-Stars believe it will be fairly straightforward to integrate with the two Miami stars.

  "We're not developing very much chemistry in two days, to be fair. I mean, it takes, it takes months and months, if not years, to develop, like, really good chemistry with the guys," Austin FC All-Star Brad Stuver said with a smile. "But right now, it's just, we're really enjoying on guys that are here. We know that those guys, like they'll be here at some point. But right now, we're just enjoying the group that we have, like bantering, like it's good to have guys that you're normally competing against."

  Orlando City SC star Marco Pašalić added, "For me, it's this no problem. For some reasons, they're not here. I don't know why, but it's up to them. Like we train here, we have fun, so tomorrow we play together, and it's OK."

• DID YOU KNOW?

  Messi was also selected to the 2024 All-Star game but missed it due to the injury he sustained in the Copa America final. If he plays, it will be his first appearance as an MLS All-Star.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR MLS ALL-STARS?

  The Skills Competition, which features Alba as one of the headliners, kicks off Tuesday night before the main event takes place Wednesday at Q2 Stadium.

Schutt will become just the sixth Australian woman to reach 200 internationals across formats

AAP02-Feb-2024Megan Schutt never thought she’d play one game for Australia, let alone 200.But she is revelling at the prospect of achieving the milestone when Australia host South Africa on Saturday in the opening fixture of the three-match one-day series at her beloved home ground, the Adelaide Oval.”It makes you feel a bit old, to be honest,” Schutt, the 31-year-old quick, told reporters on Friday. “Game one, I didn’t even expect to play that in my lifetime. So to get to 200 is pretty darn cool and having it at Adelaide Oval is fate in itself and extremely special.”Schutt is just the sixth Australian woman to reach 200 internationals across formats.”I love the game,” she said. “It’s a stupid game and there’s so much more failure than success but I just love it. I love the people that are involved in it, and it’s a game that keeps evolving as well. I keep striving to be better. Being a fast bowler in a batter’s game is quite tough but I kind of like the challenge.”The most rewarding part is being a bowler and having played that much cricket, there’s not many players around that have played as much cricket as I have. I guess not being an express pace bowler helps me, but [reaching 200 games] as a bowler is probably a special achievement.”Schutt, who made her international debut in an ODI in December 2012, said she would continue playing “as long as my body holds out and as long as Cricket Australia want me”.”Admittedly, it’s a bit harder to get out of bed in the mornings,” she said. “But I’ll keep pushing hard in the gym, doing what I can, and if I keep getting a contract, I will keep playing.”Schutt, who has taken 260 wickets in her 87 ODIs, 108 T20Is and four Test matches, nominated Australia’s 2020 World Cup T20 triumph as her career highlight.”I mean, 86,000 people at the MCG; I was super-sceptical that we were going to get 20,000,” she said. “That was a real life-changing moment for me and something I’ll always remember. If I had to bank one moment in my life, it’s probably that.”

Cricinfo sizes up the stats of the heavyweights in the Super Series one-dayers, and looks at some interesting individual match-ups

S Rajesh03-Oct-2005

With 2313 one-day caps, 48,945 runs and 1856 wickets among them, the Rest of the World squad clearly comes out on top, on the experience count, against the Australians, for whom the corresponding numbers are 1226, 26,506, and 705. More worryingly for Ricky Ponting and his team, the world’s best outdo the Australians in head-to-head stats, and by some distance as well. The tables below examine the records of batsmen and bowlers versus the players they’ll be up against over the next five days (all numbers since September 2001), and the numbers offer a telling story.The batsmen
Batting is clearly Australia’s stronger suit, but even here Ponting and his mates are outdone by Jacques Kallis and co. As the table here indicates, Rest of the World have three players in their squad who average 50 or more against McGrath, Lee, Bracken, Symonds, Watson and Clarke, the bowlers who will constitute the Australian attack in the series. Kallis and Kumar Sangakkara have outstanding averages and strikes rates against these bowlers, while Shahid Afridi hasn’t done badly either. The one batsman whose numbers are far below his career stats is Virender Sehwag – three of his four dismissals came in the 12 balls he faced from Nathan Bracken when the Australians came to India in 2003-04.

* Includes McGrath, Lee, Bracken, Watson, Symonds and ClarkeMike Hussey leads the way for Australia against the bowlers who will make up the World XI attack, and while he was extremely impressive in England, he will need to maintain that consistency over a significant period of time. Ponting himself has fine stats against these bowlers, but two other big names – Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist – have plenty to prove. Andrew Symonds is the surprise packet, with a superb average and strike rate.

*Includes Shoaib, Pollock, Ntini, Flintoff, Muralitharan, Vettori, Afridi, Kallis, Sehwag, and GayleThe bowlers
While Rest of the World might edge it with the bat, they are clearly dominant with the ball. Four of their bowlers have an economy rate of less than 70 against Australia’s top-order batsmen, while Flintoff’s is marginally over 70. And if anyone questioned Daniel Vettori’s inclusion in the squad, the stats below should emphatically answer those doubts – Vettori’s economy rate of 66 runs per 100 balls is better than Muttiah Muralitharan’s and Shaun Pollock’s against the Australians. These numbers are obviously coloured by the fact that all the above-mentioned names are the leading bowlers in their sides, and the batsmen have the luxury of playing them off and attacking the weaker bowlers. With all of them bowling for the same team, the Australians will have no such luxury.The surprise packet here is Shahid Afridi, who goes at only 4.1 runs per over. Shoaib Akhtar is, as you’d expect, more expensive, but he makes up with his wicket-taking ability, as is indicated by an average of 27 and a wicket every 33 balls. If John Wright and the rest of think-tank go by these stats, then Makhaya Ntini is the bowler who’ll most likely be left out of the side.

* Includes Gilchrist, Katich, Ponting, Martyn, Clarke, Symonds, Watson, HusseyIt’s difficult to look beyond Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath as wicket-taking options for Australia. Even McGrath’s numbers aren’t so impressive against the Rest of the World’s specialist batsmen. Shane Watson is a certainty in the line-up, but his batting and bowling stats suggest that the opposition batsmen and bowlers will be queuing up to have a go at him. With the bat, he averages 10; with the ball, he is the only one whose average economy rate are both more than 100.

* Includes Sehwag, Gayle, Afridi, Lara, Dravid, Kallis, Pietersen, Flintoff, Sangakkara,The battles within the war
Afridi against just any bowler is likely to be a thrill-a-minute occasion, and he’ll fancy his chances against this Australian attack, who he picks off at the rate of 163 runs per 100 balls. And for a batsman who takes so many chances, an average touching 32 is perfectly acceptable too.

Here are a few other interesting spots: the most effective spin option against Ponting and Martyn isn’t Muralitharan, or Vettori – it’s Afridi, who has nailed both these batsmen four times, and very cheaply too. Compelling stats that suggest Afridi should be a shoo-in for all three games.

If Afridi has Ponting’s number, then Clarke, it seems, knows exactly how to get Dravid’s wicket: in 41 balls, Dravid has fallen to him three times. Which is still a lot better, though, than the show Sehwag has put forward against Bracken. And of course, there’s that Ashes rivalry waiting to resume – Flintoff had Gilchrist’s number right through the summer. Can Gilchrist reverse that stranglehold on home soil?

A moving homage to Clyde Walcott, one of the legends of the game

Vaneisa Baksh27-Aug-2006

“I can never do more for cricket than cricket has done for me,” he said, wrapping up an interview. “I can never put back what was given to me.”Within this acknowledgement of perpetual indebtedness lay an equally powerful statement: that Clyde Leopold Walcott would never give up trying to repay it. Who else would weigh his cricket life on such an untenable scale?Who could look at his contribution and say more was expected?Sir Clyde Walcott was more than a legend in his time; he was one of the three men who reconfigured West Indies history by defining an era that has come to be known as the age of the three Ws.West Indians, shaped by the molding hands of slavery, indentureship and colonialism, had liberated their spirits through an abiding individualism. Their cricket had thrown up outstanding and gifted players, men who stood out as sharply as silhouettes before the ascending full moon. Individuals whose talents summoned superlatives and overshadowed the team were the stuff of West Indian lore.That is, until the three Ws — Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott — three Barbadians who coalesced into one majestic unit in the public imagination. For the first time in its richly individualistic history, West Indies cricket came to know the power of three. It was a superb blend of the similarities borne by their environment and the differences in their personalities and styles.Frank Worrell was the debonair diplomat, charismatic captain and astute tactician. Smooth, sleek, spirited and smart, he answered all the calls for a new West Indian leader. When he died in his early forties, the cricket world was immeasurably saddened. So young, so much was yet anticipated of this stellar being. The grief was as much for what had gone as for what was to come.Everton Weekes was rated the best batsman of the trio. Coming from a social background that threw needless obstacles in his way, his trajectory was not as steep and he was deeply conscious that scoring hundreds would not guarantee him a place on a West Indies team renowned for its predilection for favouring political and social considerations in its selection process. He would have to score five consecutive centuries to secure his position. Although cricketers revere him, he was the last of the three to be knighted, and his considerable expertise and talent has not been utilized and embraced within the sphere of West Indies cricket as it should have been.Walcott was the danger man. Powerfully built, standing at 6ft. 2ins. he was a mighty hitter with aggressive instincts that rendered bowlers impotent by the sheer force of his drive. Having learnt at Harrison College that he could double his chances of playing if he expanded his skills, he became a wicketkeeper. Though his height complicated this he was good enough to serve in this capacity for the West Indies though it later injured his back.It was fortuitous because although he made his debut for Barbados at 16 – and just after World War II he set a record stand of 574 (his highest, 314*) for the fourth wicket with Worrell against Trinidad in 1946 – he did not score well in his first international encounter with the MCC, and it was his safe gloves that kept him on the side until he and his bat reconciled.It was a grand reconciliation when the team toured India in 1948-49. Walcott kept wicket, but scored two centuries. On the famous 1950 tour of England, he and Weekes scored seven centuries each, with Walcott’s 168 at Lord’s ensuring the first West Indian Test victory in England. Later, in 1955, he set a record by scoring a century in each innings in two of the Tests against Australia.The three Ws kept abreast of each other, such was their synergy. Twice they all scored centuries in the same Test match. Against India at Sabina Park in 1953, Worrell made 237, Walcott, 118 and Weekes 109. The following year in Port-of-Spain, this time against England, Weekes made 206, Worrell, 167 and Walcott, 124.Soon afterwards, Walcott went to British Guiana to work on one of the sugar estates developing cricket. He coached, organised clubs and competitions, and helped improve and create facilities. He described his Guyana sojourn from 1954 to 1970 as “one of the most satisfying periods” of his life. From it emerged players like Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher, Lance Gibbs, Joe Solomon and Roy Fredericks. He eventually captained the Guyana team, and even led them to victory against Barbados in 1963. By the time he left, he had been President of the Guyana Cricket Board of Control for two years. Two years later, he would become senior vice-president of the Barbados Cricket Association before assuming the presidency of the West Indies Cricket Board of Control from 1988 to 1993.In this role, he sat at the ICC, and from 1993 to 1997, he became its first non-English chairman. He had also managed the West Indies team for seven tours from 1969 to 1987, including the first two World Cups in England and the third in India and Pakistan.If he felt that he had not contributed as immensely to cricket as it had to him, others disagreed. In 1966, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his contribution to cricket in Barbados, Guyana and the West Indies. In 1970, he received the Golden Arrow of Achievement Award for his contribution to Guyana’s cricket. In 1991, he was presented with the Gold Crown of Merit for his contribution to cricket and cricket administration in the Caribbean and in 1993 he was awarded a knighthood for his contribution to the game globally.In 1958, he published his autobiography, , and ended by acknowledging that the game will continue changing and improving, and that there will always be critics and confusions.”Perhaps,” he concluded, “when Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes, and myself are crusty old men, cricket authority will still be discussing the lbw law, the size of the stumps, the number of fielders on the leg-side…”And, no doubt, we shall shake our heads, complaining that ‘it’s not as good as it used to be.’ But you know, we will probably be wrong.”Worrell went too early, and Weekes is still going strong. Walcott left us at eighty. Went from the youngster defying his parents’ desire to make him a dentist to a life of cricket that segued into coaching and administration.He’d seen it all, lived it fully and more than repaid his imagined debt. We remain perpetually indebted for the gift of his cricket, the gift of his life.

Though West Indies hold a 52-38 overall advantage in Tests, England have won ten of the last 12

S Rajesh17-May-2007

West Indies still hold a 52-38 advantage in Tests against England, but since 2000 they’ve seen their lead whittled away quite alarmingly: in the last 12 Tests between the two teams, England have won ten, while two have been drawn. West Indies’ last victory was in June 2000, when they thrashed England by
by an innings and 93 runs at Edgbaston. (Click here for a summary of all England-West Indies Test series.)England will go into the series as favourites, and they won’t mind beginning the series at Lord’s either. The venue used to be an unlucky one for them: they lost 11 Tests and won four from 1984 to 1999, but the tide has turned in the new decade – they’ve won eight of their last 14 Tests here. (Click here for England’s results in all Lord’s Tests.) Lord’s has been a good venue for them against West Indies too – there was a period from 1963 to 1991 when England didn’t win a single Test against them at Lord’s, but since then they’ve won three in a row, including the last time in 2004 by a whopping 210 runs.Thanks to their pre-eminence in the decades gone by, though, West Indies hold most of the records in Tests between the two teams: the six top run-scorers and the seven top wicket-takers are all West Indians. Garry Sobers leads the run-getters’ chart with an aggregate of 3214 at an average of over 60, while Curtly Ambrose is on top of the bowlers’ ladder with 164 wickets at 18.79. (In fact Ambrose is the only non-Australian bowler to take more than 150 wickets against a specific opposition team; three Australians – Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Dennis Lillee – have achieved it, all against England.)Fortunately for England, the current crop of West Indians won’t evoke such fear. Ramnaresh Sarwan leads a team whose credentials aren’t exactly top-drawer – to start with, he himself hasn’t flourished in English conditions, averaging only 35.83 in 14 Test innings in England. The two other regulars in the West Indian batting line-up who have experience of playing in England before are Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle, and both have done much better, though: Chanderpaul averages 58.54 in 14 Test innings in England, but less than 35 against them at home; similarly, Gayle averages 44 in England, and only 26 against them in the West Indies.Gayle’s opening partner, Daren Ganga, hasn’t played a Test in England yet, but their combination at the top of the order has been pretty successful: they are the second-most successful opening pair for West Indies, in terms of partnership runs in Tests. They’ve put together 1627 runs at an average of 42.81, and are second only to the Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes combination, which scored 6482 runs in Tests at an average of 47.31.England’s players are coming off a poor World Cup and a 5-0 drubbing in the Ashes, but they can heart from their recent domination of West Indies. Like England, Andrew Flintoff, their talismanic figure, has been in awful form too, but if his past record is anything to go by, he too should relish the opportunity to face West Indies – Flintoff averages 51.25 with the bat and 24.69 with the ball against them.The two other fast bowlers in the England attack will have fond memories of playing against West Indies too – Steve Harmison had a wretched Ashes series, but he’s back in form, as is evident from his 27 wickets in four first-class matches this season, and West Indies better beware: in eight Tests against them, Harmison has nabbed 40 wickets at 21.10 apiece, almost ten runs better than his career average. Matthew Hoggard hasn’t done badly either, his 29 wickets against West Indies coming at an average of 29.89. Among the three experienced West Indian batsmen batsmen, only Gayle has a good overall record against Harmison, Hoggard and Flinoff.

The West Indian pace attack pale in comparison. Among the frontline fast bowlers, Corey Collymore and Fidel Edwards are the only ones to have played Tests against England, and both have struggled: Collymore has managed nine wickets in seven Tests at an average of 63, while Edwards’s 13 wickets have come at more than 50 apiece. A bigger threat might be Dwayne Bravo, whose 16 wickets in four Tests have come at an impressive average of 26.

We’ve seen plenty of pendulum swings over the last three days but that’s only because when you expect a team to take the bull by the horns, they wave the red rag instead.

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Delhi24-Nov-2007

Several years from now, when memories fade and mainly highlights packages remain, this match will probably be recounted as a classic. In terms of gripping the spectator it could, by the end, sit alongside the 1999 Chennai classic. Just when there was talk about India v Pakistan lacking the usual spice, we have a potential humdinger.What is different, though, is the nature of the contest. Several factors go into making a Test match exciting and the one big reason why this game has been allowed to veer into thrilling territory is this: both sides have given up the advantage far too often, far too easily.The pitch hasn’t thrown up a single demon – its lethargic nature continues to confound. The bowling attacks have been hardworking but not menacing enough to merit scores of 231, 276 and 212 for 5. The pendulum has swung wildly over the last three days but that’s only because a team positioned to take the bull by the horns waves the red rag instead.India’s batting approach this morning summed it up. They began the day three runs behind Pakistan and soon saw their position firm up. VVS Laxman swished his wrists, batting with no sign of discomfort, and Anil Kumble provided support. They overcame the early threat, saw the overcast conditions clear, and got themselves into a solid position. Shoaib Akhtar’s grunts were getting louder, Sohail Tanvir was trying slower balls, Danish Kaneria was regularly looking up to the heavens, and Shoaib Malik spent time between overs chewing his finger-nails. Only one team was ahead and it had the chance to drive home that advantage.

That was precisely when India dropped the baton. It’s difficult to fault anyone at this point – Kumble got a fine legbreak that kicked from a length – but what happened after was recklessness. The last year has shown India’s tailenders can be relied on – Laxman and Zaheer
Khan added 70 at the Wanderers, Laxman and Sreesanth added 52 at Durban, and the tail played a big part in drawing the Lord’s Test in June.Today’s effort, though, was tragic-comic in comparison. Harbhajan Singh moved across and left his leg stump exposed and Zaheer slashed wildly at a ball after depositing Kaneria for a six. Laxman faced just six balls after Kumble fell and Munaf didn’t last longer than one.Somewhere along the line one must wonder if Laxman is a misfit at No. 6. Unlike Misbah-ul-Haq, he isn’t an improviser, unlike Andrew Symonds he isn’t a big hitter, and, unlike Chamara Silva, isn’t a hare between wickets. Neither does he farm the strike. He seems to belong to Steve Waugh’s trust-your-partner school of tail-end batting and doesn’t seem to
change his game according to who is at the other end. It would be harsh to blame him here, especially after playing a potentially match-winning knock, but India need to ponder this question. Is he being kept for too late? Can Sourav Ganguly, a more aggressive batsman who’s left-handedness can work well with the right-handed tail, work better there?Pakistan played their part later in the day, letting slip the advantage provided by a solid opening stand, but India were to have the last word. It’s 161 for 5, Pakistan effectively 116 ahead, and India have their chance to pick up their sixth wicket. Misbah has
been foxed by a Kumble faster one, poking tentatively to short leg, offering India a chance to wrap it all up.But sorry. India can’t be bad hosts. Wasim Jaffer muffs up the catch, sees the ball rebound off his chest and muffs it up again. It’s not the first time India’s close-in fielding has let them down recently and is unlikely to be the last. It set up an exciting Test for the neutral but squandered a golden position for India.

Andrew Symonds has got all the breaks and, although they haven’t, West Indies have every right to complain

Tony Cozier13-Jun-2008

Rod Stewart would have had something entirely different in mind when writing the lyrics to one of his several hits but they are equally applicable to cricket, especially in the present series. The chorus line went:

“Some guys have all the luck
Some guys have all the pain
Some guys get all the breaks
Some guys do nothing but complain”.

From the second day of the first Test at Sabina Park to the first day of the third at Kensington Oval yesterday, Andrew Symonds has been the guy with all the luck, the West Indies bowlers those with all the pain. The dreadlocked Australian has got all the breaks and, although they haven’t, West Indies have every right to complain. Three times, the umpires have been involved. Occasionally, fielders have given him the chance. And so it was again yesterday. Symonds has always been good enough to take advantage and to change the course of an innings that was in danger of imploding.In the first innings at Sabina, Australia had slid from the first-day security of 301 for 4 to 372 for 7 at lunch. First ball on resumption, Fidel Edwards bent a late inswinger into Symonds’ pads and only umpire Russell Tiffin could not detect that the ball was zeroing in on middle and leg stumps. Symonds was on 18 at the time. He proceeded to carry Australia to 431, unbeaten on 70 when the last wicket fell.In the second innings in Antigua, unconvinced umpire Mark Benson ruled him not out on his leg-side catch off the glove to Denesh Ramdin off Dwayne Bravo when still in single figures. He finished unbeaten on 43.On Thursday, Chris Gayle’s catch off Simon Katich’s swirling top-edged hook off Edwards left Australia lurching at 111 for 5 in the fifth over after lunch. As Symonds entered the arena, arms swinging in preparation for battle, West Indies might have had troubling memories of recent escapes. Their fears were quickly realised.He was on seven when he cut fiercely at Bravo. The bounce from a sprightlier surface than Sabina and the graveyard in Antigua sent the ball flying off the top edge and through the right hand of the flying Xavier Marshall at second slip.From the start, West Indies had identified Symonds’ weakness as an uncontrolled glide off his hip. To exploit it, Chris Gayle posted a fielder at leg-slip. Bravo soon sprung the trap, inducing a deflection from the glove, just as he had done in Antigua. The outcome was the same, Benson again failing to be convinced of the claim for Denesh Ramdin’s catch. Symonds was on 14, Australia 133 for 5.One reprieve was as crucial as the other. On previous evidence, West Indies would have known what would follow. Symonds, undeterred by the booing of the few West Indians scattered among the hundreds of touring Australian supporters, took control in a partnership of 87 with Brad Haddin that shifted the direction of the innings.Eventually, Symonds drove loosely at the persevering Bravo and Sewnarine Chattergoon pouched the catch at extra cover. The damage was not as major as it might have been but it made the difference between the end of play total and an all-out 170 or so.
Yes, some guys have all the luck and others have all the pain.

Twenty20 is guaranteed its place in this money-obsessed age, but cricket can ill-afford to have Test cricket, the purest form, on the back burner

Mike King 14-Oct-2008

Twenty20 cricket, with its huge financial enticement, is coming to the West Indies in a few weeks’ time.The date is set for November 1 and the location for the drives and pulls is Antigua. But who are going to be the real stars for this blockbuster cricket match which is offering a prize purse of US$20 million? What is this Stanford 20/20 winner-take-all bonanza really about?There can be no player development in a three-hour exhibition match. This is really about entertainment, enlarging the bank balance of a few players and promoting the image of the sponsor.Sir Allen Stanford, the imposing Texan billionaire with a truckload of spare cash to invest in cricket, thinks the shorter format, and not the Test version, will help popularise and increase revenues for the game. He believes Twenty20 can generate revenue through television in a way that will allow cricketers to be rewarded as well as other professionals.He has got one thing right. Cricket needs more people coming through the turnstiles and Twenty20 has brought out the fans in droves.However, Sir Allen, first and foremost, is a businessman whose priority is promoting himself and his companies. The traditionalists among us know fully well that Test cricket is still the greatest form of the game, and the plan should be to make it more attractive to the public through having more sporting pitches and evenly-matched teams.The truth is, some Test cricket is boring and lacking in genuine quality. We can bite the bullet and introduce innovations such as day-night Tests. There is nothing new in the concept of floodlit Tests – Kerry Packer tried them out with limited success during his World Series Cricket revolution – but could it bring another dimension to the game where it seems only the Ashes series is still afforded five matches?At the end of the day, though, the game needs quality and bonafide stars more so than experiments.Twenty20 is guaranteed its place in this money-obsessed age, but cricket can ill-afford to have Test cricket, the purest form, on the back burner.Whether we refer to them as the Stanford Superstars or the West Indies, if they win next month’s millionaire stakes, all we will have when the script is written is a cast of cricketers with deep pockets and large egos but still short in quality and still ranked eighth in the world. No amount of millions will change that overnight.

Picking cricket’s 100 all-time greats might be an excruciating business, but it is also a lot of fun

Stephen Fay08-Aug-2009Christopher Martin-Jenkins’ introduction to the latest list of the top 100 cricketers is apologetic. He names all 129 candidates he has left out and observes that being a selector is an invitation to be ridiculed, a bit like being a politician or going out to face Dennis Lillee (ranked 19th) on a drying pitch in Melbourne in 1977. On the contrary. Cricket’s list-makers are blessed because they give us a game to play when it is raining and on winter nights when it seems as if summer will never come.Each selection is accompanied by a 500-word essay and these are best when CMJ injects a personal note, as with Maurice Tate. (The author’s PE teacher came into the school dormitory after bedtime to speak in hushed tones about the great man after he died.)The list gives us a snapshot of the rise and fall of the historical reputations of cricketers, and the good news is that five of CMJ’s top 15 have played in the 21st century. Sachin Tendulkar and Muttiah Muralitharan are still active. The other three were members of the great Australian steamroller – Shane Warne, highest placed at No. 4, Adam Gilchrist (10) and Glenn McGrath (13).Compare that with the similar list compiled in 1998 by CMJ’s predecessor as cricket correspondent of the , John
Woodcock, who elected only two active players into the top 15 – Warne, even then, at No. 13, and Ian Botham, still a vivid memory, at No. 9. Sir Ian drops to 18 in CMJ’s book, the same position he occupies in a list drawn up in 2006 by the Australian sportswriter Geoff Armstrong, and well down from No. 6 in the 1999 effort by Nick Brownlee.Woodcock, aka the Sage of Longparish, was particularly sageist in his selection of a 19th-century stalwart, Alfred Mynn, as high as fourth, along with Hambledon cricketers such as Billy Beldham and John Small. CMJ’s earliest entries are Australian fast
bowlers: the Demon Spofforth and CTB Turner. Within his 100 are 24 Australians, 33 English players and 15 West Indians. A third of his selections captained their country.The Sage is the only one of the four selectors to place WG Grace above Don Bradman at No.1. I long for the list that finally tests to destruction the assumption of Grace’s superiority over, say, Arthur Shrewsbury. Grace averaged 32.29 in Tests compared with 35.47 for Shrewsbury. But are not Jack Hobbs (CMJ’s No. 5) and Wally Hammond (8) better cricketers than Grace? And why, apart from the lingering power of the Victorian publicity machine, does CB Fry appear in these lists at all (80 for CMJ, 54 for the Sage and 45 for Brownlee; though Armstrong ignores him)?Only two of CMJ’s top 10 are bowlers, but his list reflects a fascination with fast bowlers, particularly when they come in pairs. We have Walsh (92) and Ambrose (51), Statham (89) and Trueman (22), Holding (85) and Marshall (11), Waqar (36) and
Wasim (34), Lindwall (31) and Miller (16). No Lillee and Thomson, however, because CMJ has no room for Thommo. No Thommo. No Alan Davidson or Mike Procter, or Joel Garner and Andy Roberts. Christopher, how could you?He confesses that he has had to leave out his own favourites, Tom Graveney, Derek Randall and Lindsay Hassett. But what the hell. It’s only a game.The Top 100 Cricketers of All Time
by Christopher Martin-Jenkins
Corinthian Books, hb, 304pp, £14.99