At a time when the country’s very existence is at stake, a few hardy souls are making a pitch for Associate membership of the ICC

Osman Samiuddin13-May-2022You have probably not heard of Wayne Zschech. He’s the opening bat for Ukraine, and there’s a good chance you did not know that Ukraine had a cricket team. They do, more on which in a bit.Zschech is originally from Australia but he has been in Ukraine since 1993, when he first visited that country as a a 17-year-old. It was supposed to be for a year but he never left. He’s an opening bat by trade (and a vice-president of the Ukraine Cricket Federation) but a church pastor by calling. He is also a field leader for Operation Mobilisation, a global Christian missionary organisation, and has been to-ing and fro-ing from the front lines of the Russian invasion, arranging food, shelter and safe passage for refugees. His social media timelines are cluttered with daily updates from the relief work he’s leading. He lives with his family in Kaharlyk, about 80km south of Kyiv, in a church that is doubling as a refugee shelter.Zschech and team-mate Yuri Zagruskiy (also a UCF vice-president) will almost certainly not play in what Ukraine hope will be their next assignment, the annual Mediterranean Cricket League (MCL; brand ambassadors, Simon Katich and Brad Hogg) in July in Zagreb. Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country.Related

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Ukraine itself may not be able to participate in that tournament. Other than Zschech and Zagruskiy, the men’s national team is made up of expats from the Asian subcontinent who either work or study in Ukraine. Most of them are now back in their home countries. For the tournament, they would need to gather for a training camp in neutral territory, somewhere like Dubai, before flying out to Croatia.On the fringes of the cricket world, teams like Ukraine are on the outside looking in, and getting in to play is the hardest bit. Participation will depend on whether they can find funds for it.Ukraine is not an ICC member. It is a country in which some people happen to play cricket, but is not yet a cricket-playing country. Later in July, though, the UCF’s application for Associate membership will come up in front of the ICC board. Kobus Olivier, the UCF CEO, is pretty clear it is now or never: miss out on membership, wipe out whatever tiny inroads the game has made in Ukraine.The fatalism is cricket, but then, in very few circumstances will it resonate as it does now for Ukraine. The continuing Russian invasion renders existential dread about cricket somewhat insignificant but in recent times only Afghanistan, in the early years of this century, has been at war while being close to ICC membership.An Indian student at the Lviv train station on March 9, after being evacuated from Sumy in north-east Ukraine•Getty ImagesOlivier was a decent club cricketer in South Africa and he has been a better coach since (he was coached by Bob Woolmer at school and then opened with him in club cricket). A well-travelled one too, having worked in South Africa, Scotland, Netherlands, Kenya, Dubai, and now Ukraine. More than anything, though, he is an indefatigable rallier. If he were part of a school parents’ WhatsApp group, he’d be that one very active contributor (there’s always one), unendingly eager, an energetic forwarder, and indisputably the one who keeps the group’s purpose alive and makes it so that things get done. In short, he is the kind of person you might throw into a place like Ukraine and say, “Build it, and see what happens.”Olivier did not lay that first brick. He arrived in Ukraine in June 2018, by which time cricket had already broken out in a mildly organised manner, played mostly by students and professionals from the subcontinent. The UCF, in fact, was set up as long ago as 2000. But it’s fair to say that Olivier has set that organising body towards a deeper purpose, with a visible endpoint in acquiring Associate membership.When he arrived in Ukraine, for a school teaching job, there was no junior development programme in the country – an essential box to tick for ICC membership. Frustrated initially by the rigidly structured ways in which English was taught, he introduced cricket as a way of learning the language. That led to cricket becoming an official part of the physical education programme in a ring of private schools. Olivier estimates that around 2000 children – all native Ukrainians – have come through that programme over three years; that is, 2000 kids who had no idea of what cricket was are now familiar with a sport that is inherently difficult to become familiar with.This, Olivier says – without intending any disrespect, he stresses – is what many development types are unable to get right. Getting the game into schools in countries with no cricketing culture is critical, not setting up out-of-school academies (to be fair, it’s also probably not as easy to do that as it has been in Ukraine). Olivier thinks that in five to eight years we could see a national team made up entirely of Ukrainians. That feels optimistic, especially at this point in Ukraine’s history, one that is so fraught that looking that far ahead for anything is ill advised. But it is totally on-brand for Olivier.He is now in Zagreb, having tried to stay in Kyiv for as long as he could when the invasion began. He’s not sure whether he’ll ever go back but that’s not to say he’s done rallying. No sir.A game in the Ukraine Premier League, 2019•Ukraine Cricket FederationAs well as continuing to lobby for Ukraine’s membership he enlisted the aid of the Croatia Cricket Federation, which has been an ICC member since 2001. There are 13,000 Ukrainian refugees in Zagreb, the vast majority of whom are women and children. This to Olivier is an opportunity. There must be, he has figured, six to seven thousand children. So, naturally he has put wheels in motion to get cricket on to the curriculum in schools being launched in Poland and Croatia for these children. He’s hopeful that coaches from both countries can be used to ensure that, even in exile, the junior programme for Ukrainian children is not massively disrupted.In June he’s hoping to hold the Ukraine Freedom Cup in Zagreb, co-hosted with the Croatia Cricket Federation. It’s a single-day event but will feature two teams of Ukrainian refugee children, and teams from Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia and Serbia, playing mini-cricket matches with a soft ball. The equipment will be provided by Shyam Bhatia, a millionaire businessman based in Dubai whose love for the game is well known in that region. Bhatia runs a renowned private cricket museum in Dubai and is also, lately, an official patron of the UCF.If it sounds to you like all this could make for a great documentary you’re too late. Stefan Enslin, an award-winning South African film producer, has beaten you to it. A film crew has been following Olivier around in Zagreb.

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The Russian invasion began early on the morning of February 24. Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine and less than 50km from the Russian border, was one of the first cities attacked. It is where Faisal Kassim spent five days in a bunker once the invasion began. There were 200 other students from Kharkiv National Medical University there with him. They had access to two toilets and no heating. One of his batchmates, Naveen Shekharappa G, was killed in shelling when he went out on a grocery run one morning – the only known Indian casualty of the war. The Indian students were left there, Kassim says, to fend for themselves with no assistance from the Indian embassy.Eventually they organised themselves into groups of 50-60 apiece and struggled their way onto trains to Lviv, east to west across Ukraine, a fraught journey that took 23 hours. They arranged themselves so that there would always be more females than males in any one group, because it was more difficult for adult males to get out of Ukraine than for women. And for a number of foreigners of colour, there was racism to contend with in trying to get out – a racism that is implicit in Kassim’s account (as well as what Olivier has heard from others).Faisal Kassim (in vest) is a fast bowler for the Ukraine national side, but now back in India, he doesn’t know if they will play in the Mediterranean Cricket League, their next assignment, in Croatia this summer•Ukraine Cricket FederationFrom Lviv they took a car to the border with Poland, where they waited six hours before they were allowed through. It was, Kassim says with magnificent understatement, a worrying time.Meanwhile, at 4.50am that first morning, also in Kharkiv, Binil Zachariah George heard what he sounded like crackers at a birthday party but what he were missiles. The first, ominous wails of war. He could see missiles raining down a little distance away from his apartment window and he said he used the word “rain” deliberately, to show that it was entirely indiscriminate in where and whom the missiles fell upon. It took him and his family 15 minutes to pack up and leave their lives behind, then run ten minutes to the nearest train station. They were trying to get out of the city, but instead, with trains not operating, the station became their shelter for the next 11 days.Like most people there, Zack (as he is known) and his wife, with baby daughter in tow, had grabbed a bit of food from the fridge and some clothes as they fled their apartment. After a couple of days the shelter ran out of food. So the station’s security guards broke into a nearby McDonald’s and brought back supplies of bread and cheese. Zack’s wife is Ukrainian. Her family home in Izium (about 100km south-east of Kharkiv) was destroyed; more distressingly, they have not heard from her parents. They have been sent images of the destruction and death from the bombing around that area.Kassim is a fast bowler for the Ukraine national side and Zack is part of the board’s cricket committee, head of their media and communication. Both are now safe and out of Ukraine, Kassim back in Kerala, Zack in Warsaw – he didn’t want to return to India because his family didn’t have passports for international travel, and he thought going to India as refugees would have been difficult, if not impossible.As much as these are first-hand accounts of war, there is underlying context about how cricket now spreads around the world. These days cricket goes where the subcontinental migrant/refugee/expat takes it with them, a piece of home, some emotional luggage, whether that be to Germany, UAE, Oman, Norway, Hong Kong or any country where cricket is now a formal, recognised sport.Ukraine are cautiously optimistic about their application for ICC Associate membership. The usual site visit that is required in such cases will likely be waived in this instance•Ukraine Cricket FederationAnd largely this unintended evangelism – a by-product really – goes unsung and unacknowledged. Very often, in countries where these people end up playing for national sides, it is derided and seen as harmful, as if their playing cricket in and for a country they are not necessarily citizens of is a stain on them and on cricket. This is a central tension in Associate-world cricket: expat player bad, home-grown good. It’s far too reductive in a world where identity has never been more fluid or transient and a passport a wholly inadequate means to define or capture it. Using that kind of binary to understand anything is misplaced.As just one example, take the UAE. Nobody says it out loud but it’s undeniable they’re second-class citizens in cricket’s development stakes. The likes of Nepal or Papua New Guinea are considered more authentic because they play with home-grown players. UAE? A shortcut team, relying on a bunch of migrants who happen to be working in the country but can’t ever become its citizens and have no organic connection to the land. They’re viewed with the same disdain shown for mercenaries.This attitude ignores the origins of the game in the UAE; that it was actually a handful of Emiratis who studied in the subcontinent, fell in love with the game, and brought it back with them, and that five decades later cricket is, arguably, a bigger part of the country than it has ever been. Expat players sure, local involvement minimal, but world-class infrastructure, cricket’s HQ, a captive (expat) population as fans but also as a pool of talent to draw from; it takes a peculiar kind of snobbery to look down on that, but entirely at one with a game that has grown as feebly and reluctantly as cricket has.So, it would be great if Ukrainians took to the game. But it’s genuinely worth celebrating the contributions of Kassim and Zack, who make time for the game the lives they must lead, not being fortunate enough to call cricket their one and only profession – in other words, when cricket the life they lead.A few days before he began organising a passage for his fellow students out of Ukraine, Kassim was arranging pre-season indoor nets for national team players who were in Kharkiv. He’s in the fourth year of his degree, so it’s not like there was much time for anything that is not medicine. Still, every day after 4pm, he made sure they all practised at least for an hour. Back in Kerala, he’s playing in local tennis-ball tournaments. He’s also organising online study for his fellow students, and for practical learning he spends time in hospitals in, what he calls, observation. There’s no sense of regret when he says that a few years ago he represented Kerala Under-16s in the Vijay Merchant Trophy. Or that he has played locally with the likes of Basil Thampi, Sachin Baby and Sanju Samson. There’s little sense of the loss of a career that could have been. He’s really hoping to just play in the MCL and that Ukraine then gains Associate membership.Zack, his family, and scores of others spent days on end in a train station that turned into a bomb shelter after the shelling of Kharkiv began•Binil George ZachariahZack, one of the people behind that membership application, is now looking for a job in Warsaw. He’s an engineer who studied in Ukraine and stayed on, working for an education group, and since November 2020 also with UCF. He has run out of his savings and is thankful for the good grace of his friends. While at the shelter, he maintained the UCF’s website, handling social media and communication to do with the ICC application, missiles still raining down, food still scarce, a daughter to look after. Until as recently as a few days ago, with nothing of his own future certain, he was drafting a letter to the ICC to try and secure the UCF’s future. Doing, he said, what little he can do.

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It’s difficult to say for certain but there does seem some (very) cautious optimism about the UCF’s application. The ICC’s Europe office has guided them through the process, to make sure everything is in place. The junior programmes are an important part of the jigsaw and if Olivier gets his way, those look set to continue even in wartime and in exile.There are three grounds, including one in Kaharlyk that is the result of Zschech’s persistence. He had written to the town’s mayor years ago asking for a field to play cricket. For ages he received no response until, around 2010, the same mayor got back to him and asked if he was still interested. He was and by May 2014, Kaharlyk was ready to launch the cricket season on a shiny new artificial wicket in a brand new ground. In another important step, Ukraine’s ministry of youth and sport has also officially recognised the UCF as the organising body for cricket in the country.The ICC’s membership committee will receive the application ahead of the AGM in July and discuss it at the conference, after which the board will make a decision. Usually an application for membership would require a site visit from either the ICC’s regional office or Dubai HQ, but that will not happen this time. There is a provision to accept membership without it.It’ll be a momentous day should Ukraine be allowed into this members’ club, and due acknowledgment of the work of the likes of Zschech, Olivier, Kassim, Zack and many, many others. It will also be a sobering one because that is when the work really begins, and, as has been the case since that February morning earlier this year, it happens to come at a time when the existence of Ukraine is at its most contested.

Moeen’s promotion reaps rich rewards as SA suffer a left-right knockout

Matt Roller27-Jul-2022It has been a slow summer for Jos Buttler and England in white-ball cricket but on Wednesday night in Bristol, everything seemed to click into gear.This was the first of 13 T20 internationals in the build-up to October’s World Cup in Australia, while most of those involved will also play at least eight games in the Hundred. “There’s a clear path for us now,” Buttler said. “There’s no more ODI cricket in between so we see this as the start of our lead-in proper to the World Cup.”Asked to bat first by David Miller, they racked up 234 for 6, their second-highest T20I total of all time; they hit 20 sixes in all, their most in an innings and only two short of the record. They were clinical with the ball and in the field despite a scare from Tristan Stubbs, closing out a 41-run win to start a series with victory for the first time in their four attempts at home this summer.Jonny Bairstow’s return to the middle order after he was rested for the India series meant a glimpse at something approaching England’s first-choice batting line-up, albeit with the lingering question of where Ben Stokes might slot in. It was a similar formulation to the one they used in last year’s World Cup, but with Sam Curran replacing Eoin Morgan – a change which gave them an extra bowling option without losing much batting.England doubled down on their decision to bat Bairstow at No. 4, and it worked. His 90 off 53 balls included eight sixes and was his first half-century in the role since his initial shift back down into the middle order some 18 months ago (also against South Africa). The move came about as a result of Buttler’s transformation into a world-class opening batter and Dawid Malan’s form at No. 3 rendering him undroppable, but also due to Bairstow’s prowess against spin in the middle overs.It backfired at the World Cup, when he struggled to find any kind of rhythm on slowish pitches with vast boundaries: he managed only 47 runs off 42 balls in the tournament, and moved up to open in the semi-final when Jason Roy was injured. But Buttler was unshaken, backing Bairstow’s ability against spin. On the night, he clobbered 51 off 27 balls against South Africa’s slow bowlers, including 29 off 11 against Tabraiz Shamsi (albeit six of those came via one of several howlers from South Africa’s fielders).South Africa picked a team featuring only five frontline bowlers and were punished for it. England targeted Shamsi mercilessly: Malan worked out that he would bowl into the pitch in an attempt to protect the short straight boundaries and clobbered his first ball over the short leg-side boundary for six. Shamsi leaked 49 runs in his three overs – his fourth was offloaded to Stubbs, whose part-time offbreaks cost 20.Buttler also showed more flexibility than he had in the series against India. Moeen Ali, used as a floating spin-hitter throughout the World Cup last year, had been left at No. 6 throughout that series but was promoted above Liam Livingstone in Bristol, ostensibly to target the slower bowlers and ensure a left-right combination, with one boundary significantly shorter than the other.Related

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“It was for the left-right [combination],” Moeen explained. “But it wasn’t just the short side – bowlers’ plans change. Me and Livi play in the Hundred together and we did the same there. It’s a really good wicket and it’s a nice-sized ground for someone like myself who isn’t a massive hitter of the ball.”In fact, he faced only five balls from the spinners, but cashed in against Andile Phehlukwayo: he was constantly a step ahead of him, working out his plans from the angle of attack and the way the field was set. Moeen hit the six balls he faced from him for six, four, one, six, six and six as he looted the fastest half-century in England’s T20 history, off 16 balls. His partnership with Bairstow was worth 106 in 35 balls – the second-fastest century stand ever and the fastest by a full-member nation.Both moves – the decision to keep Bairstow at No. 4, and to promote Moeen to No. 5 – stemmed from the same school of strategic thinking. At times, England have been inflexible with their T20 batting orders, which have resembled a hierarchy of their best batters in order; this was a shift towards a more modern deployment, using players in specific roles to target specific bowlers and phases. Buttler had hinted at it before the India series, saying England’s batting order would be “dependent on what the game needs, trying to match people up best against the opposition” but this was the first clear on-field evidence.Of course, conditions were starkly different to those that England will encounter in Australia later this year: Bristol’s straight and square boundaries barely measure 70 metres, a snip compared to those Down Under, and pitches at ICC events have tended to offer more for bowlers than this flat surface did.But this remained an intriguing night for England’s evolution as a T20 side under Buttler. If they can repeat the trick in Cardiff and Southampton on Thursday and Sunday, they will go their separate ways for the Hundred with a renewed confidence that they can impose themselves on the biggest stage later this year.

He batted slow, trusted his defence and played another sublime innings when no one else could get to even 20

Andrew Fidel Fernando17-Jul-2022Babar Azam is the top-ranked ODI batter, 77 rankings points ahead of the next guy (Imam-ul-Haq). He is also the top-ranked T20I batter but is ahead of the second by a slimmer margin (Mohammad Rizwan is 24 points back).In Tests, though, the format that matters, the purists’ format, the thing that gets you into Wisden, he’s ranked a paltry fourth. Above him Joe Root (obviously), Steven Smith (partially riding on past glories), and Marnus Labuschagne (originally a discounted Steven Smith who has now proved more popular in the market since the rumours that the original has declined in quality).Related

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We’re comparing him to the best now. Is the Big Four, now the Big Five? Root, Smith, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, and…. Babar? We have to be comparing, right? This is sport. You cannot exist in a universe all on your own. No player is an island. Forget that the others on that list are four to five years older than him, which in cricketing years, is at least one generation removed, maybe more. They are setting the standard. The over-arching narrative is there. We must make Babar fit into it.Must we though? Do we have to play this game? Is the cricket world really the kind of even place where star batters from teams such as England, Australia and India, and to a lesser degree New Zealand, can fairly be compared to Babar? We don’t have to drag capitalism into it, but you know if we did, that analysis would not land in Babar’s favour.In this innings in Galle, Babar hit 119 runs. Sri Lanka series are not high-octane, or high-prestige, and they won’t get you into the big global lists. Even at home, they’ll move the needle less, you’d think, than series against the Big Three, or even South Africa.Babar, though, is there. Playing another sublime innings, on what is already a big-turning pitch. He plays (late, and under his chin) for the straighter one from Prabath Jayasuriya, which has duped his team-mates and brought lbw dismissals. He bats slow, trusting his defence, when plenty of great batters have hit out at this venue, reasoning that a good ball will inevitably get them out so why not make runs before it does.Babar Azam thanks the Almighty after reaching his seventh Test ton•AFP/Getty ImagesBut this is Babar we are talking about, and the good balls that get the best out are still not too good for him, so he is in his own space, playing as he thinks he should, and likely constructing an innings only he is capable of. In the last two weeks, we’ve had Smith and Labuschagne on this surface too. They produced innings of varying quality – Labuschagne progressing to a hundred on a flatter Galle track than the one on display now, though only after being let off early on.They never looked like they trusted their game like Babar.And rarely will the best batters around the world have their team-mates abandon them as happily as Babar’s did. Babar faced 244 balls in this innings. The next best was Yasir Shah who batted out 56 balls. Divide Babar’s 119 by six, and he’d still be the top scorer for his side. There are lone vigils, and then there’s dragging the bodyweight of your entire top order like vegetables in a gunny bag to the market vendor you need to sell it to, and that was basically Babar.He was on 28 when the seventh wicket went down. Then 38 for the eighth; 55 when the ninth fell. Then, farming roughly 72% of the strike, he more than doubled his score, on a pitch that no one else in his team could get to even 20. Though he was never in a rush through the course of this innings, he occasionally ventured the kinds of salvos that let you know, that if he wanted to, he could. Three successive fours off Kasun Rajitha towards the end of the second session, for example, one drilled down the ground, another crashed over midwicket, the third whipped over square leg.In the long view of this career, this innings might not be part of the central folklore. But a batter hitting 82 runs in the company of Nos. 9, 10 and 11, is not un-spectacular. It’s futile to pretend we won’t compare him with the others, because of course we will. But across formats, across pitch conditions, oppositions, match situations, perhaps we seed the thought there is something special happening here that is happening nowhere else.

Where did India go wrong in testing conditions in Adelaide? And can they completely change their approach with the same set of batters?

Sidharth Monga10-Nov-20222:52

Dravid: ‘We should have been able to get 180-185 on that wicket’

It is to be expected that there will now be plenty of ridicule around the new approach India had promised when Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid took over. Most of it will be opportunistic, though there are those who have genuinely been asking the question since the first match of this T20 World Cup. Either way, any such criticism without acknowledging the conditions this World Cup is being played in will be hollow.Let’s first of all look at how India have played this World Cup. They came to Perth early, played a warm-up match in Brisbane, saw the ball hooping around in Melbourne, and decided that these were not conditions where they needed to risk being bowled out for 120 in pursuit of 200. They chose to set a base, and then go big in the last ten overs, which has been the trend in the whole tournament.Related

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Dravid praised this approach, saying it was part of his batters’ adaptability, and trusted them to change their ways should they come across a pitch that calls for a score of 200.That brings us to the pitch in the semi-final against England. The trends in Adelaide have been clear: in day matches there this tournament, batting first has been great because the pitch keeps getting slower and slower, but in both the night matches before today, Bangladesh and Afghanistan gave India and Australia, respectively, a scare when chasing. Australia were desperate to secure a big win but Glenn Maxwell revealed their helplessness against the conditions, saying they just couldn’t force the pace when batting first but then the ball skidded on nicely when they bowled.In light of that, India’s first curious decision was to look to bat first should they win the toss; they got what they wanted, as Rohit Sharma said at the toss, though England won the right to decide and promptly put them in. This was a damp pitch with a strip of grass just outside off at one end running along the length of the pitch. That dampness was likely to dry out soon. Dravid was asked at the post-match press conference if they looked at those two night matches at the venue before deciding they would want to bat first.

“At that 15-over mark, we felt we were probably 15-20 short… In the end, it looked like we were a lot shorter than even 15-20. [But] I think we should have been able to get to 180-185 on that wicket”India head coach Rahul Dravid

“Yeah, honestly we looked at those things,” Dravid said. “Also runs on the board was something in a semi-final. We had been batting well. We were one of those teams that were, even in these conditions, scoring 180, 180-plus. I think we had done it two or three times in this tournament. So we were playing well.”However, the way India got to those scores of 180 is not sustainable. An early wicket – which of course you cannot control – followed by a slow rebuild by Virat Kohli, leaving Suryakumar Yadav to do the heavy lifting. In his defence, Kohli’s numbers at the death are great, but he risks leaving himself too much to do the way he bats.Also, those scores of 180 came against Netherlands and Zimbabwe, not quite England who – contrary to what the doomsayers feared, when looking at the used pitch put out for this game – are arguably the best at playing on a slow surface. They have a world-class legspinner in Adil Rashid, an offspinning allrounder in Moeen Ali and a legspin-offspin allrounder in Liam Livingstone. And India are among the worst when conditions are tacky because their top three can be shut out by spinners.”When the game started, the boys were saying it was a little bit tacky, it was a little bit slower,” Dravid said. “Having said that, they [England] bowled really well. I thought they were really good up-front. They hit really good lengths, didn’t really let us get away. At that 15-over mark, we felt we were probably 15-20 short, and we really had a good last five overs.In the earlier games, Suryakumar did a lot of heavy lifting. England dismissed him for 14•Getty Images”I think Hardik [Pandya] was absolutely brilliant, and that’s exactly… In the end, it looked like we were a lot shorter than even 15-20. [But] I think we should have been able to get to 180-185 on that wicket.”That adaptability Dravid spoke of throughout the tournament probably went missing a little, but it is not entirely accurate to say India didn’t have the intent. Barring Kohli, who seems to have the role of batting through the innings and looking to score playing orthodox cricket, batters did try to hit out. Rohit looked scratchy because he tried to get away when the pitch was at its most difficult. There were nine boundary attempts in his 28-ball innings, he also tried to unsettle Rashid by sweeping him, but he just couldn’t quite get the timing right on a slow surface. Hardik tried to take Rashid on as soon as he walked out, but whenever he tried to hit, he ended up edging to short third.That is not to take away from England’s bowling, though. They had the variety and quality in their bowling to make sure batters had to take risks to hit boundaries. Rashid, especially, bowled beautifully after being attacked first up. Livingstone, called upon to bowl instead of Moeen because of two right-hand batters in the middle, gave the ball rip, found turn and also bowled accurately.India probably missed a trick in not promoting left-hand batter Rishabh Pant after playing him ahead of Dinesh Karthik precisely because they didn’t want Rashid to have a big say.England wrapped up the game with four overs to spare•AFP/Getty ImagesTo say, as Rohit did at the post-match presentation, that the bowlers didn’t turn up is barking up the wrong tree. When you are defending a small total, you have to attack with your lengths, which is what the bowlers did. There was no swing on offer, and England got the opportunity to attack them, which they did with aplomb.In the end, after a whole year of working hard to change the mindset of the batters – and Rohit was at the forefront of it, taking risks while KL Rahul and Kohli took their time – the team management will be frustrated their exit came playing cricket that pundits are calling “timid”.This is a question only they can answer: in the pursuit of results – a tight win against Pakistan which was no vindication of conservative batting, a defeat against South Africa, a scare from Bangladesh, two facile wins against Netherlands and Zimbabwe – did they lose sight of the process? Did they fall back into the bad old ways where the default was to take the conservative option in thinking a score on board will bring pressure in a knockout match? Rahul didn’t once try to hit out of a lean patch. Kohli didn’t attack spin. Did they try enough to fight the conditions?The larger question perhaps is, can they completely change their approach with the same set of batters? Dravid said it was too soon and disrespectful to think of the future of some of the senior players in the immediate aftermath of this defeat, but whenever he, Rohit and selectors sit down to review this tournament, that question will stare them right in the eye.

There is also an extended IPL window from March to May in the ICC’s new men’s FTP for 2023-27

Sidharth Monga17-Aug-2022India, runners-up in the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) that ended in 2021, have a relatively tough draw in the third and fourth WTC cycles, according to the ICC’s new Future Tours Programme for men that runs from 2023 to 2027.In the third WTC cycle, India play away series in South Africa, Australia and the West Indies; and in the 2025-2027 cycle, they will tour New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka as part of the WTC. With most teams being strong at home, away Tests become crucial for WTC points. Two out of three of India’s away opponents in the next two cycles have traditionally been strong at home, although India have won their previous two series in Australia.India’s home opponents in the 2023-25 cycle are Bangladesh, England and New Zealand; and in the 2025-2027 WTC cycle it is Australia, South Africa and West Indies.Related

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India are set to play a total of 141 bilateral international matches in the 2023-27 FTP, behind only Bangladesh (150), West Indies (147) and England (142). India will play 61 bilateral T20Is – the second most after West Indies; 42 bilateral ODIs – the second fewest ahead of South Africa; and 38 Tests – the third most after England and Australia.Having last played a five-Test series against Australia in 1991-92, India will go back to playing five Tests against them, making the Border-Gavaskar Trophy one of three marquee Test series along with The Ashes and India-England contests. India will tour Australia and England once each for five-Test series, and host them as well. The limited-overs matches between these teams – whether home or away – will be played during separate tours.The first five-Test Border-Gavaskar series will take place during the 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle, when India tour Australia in the summer of 2024-25. Australia then tour India during the 2025-2027 World Test Championship cycle for five Tests in January-February 2027. India’s five-Test series against England are at home in early 2024 and away in 2025. There are no bilateral series between India and Pakistan scheduled in the FTP.India will also play eight five-match T20I series in the new FTP, which puts them among the busiest T20 international teams in the world. They also have an extended IPL window, during which very little international cricket has been scheduled, in April and May every year between 2023 and 2027.India’s emphasis on T20Is comes at the cost of bilateral ODIs. India will not be playing any bilateral ODI series longer than three matches in the 2023-27 FTP cycle.

Starring Dean Elgar, Virat Kohli, Jonny Bairstow and an England team playing a fierce and fun brand of the game

Mark Nicholas30-Dec-2022As the New Year of 2022 broke in South Africa, one champion team and an opponent up for the fight were locked in the most enthralling three-match battle. To briefly set the scene, we must return to 1991 and the end of South Africa’s two decades of isolation. India were the first to invite the South Africans through their door, and across three memorable one-day matches Mohammad Azharuddin and Clive Rice led their players on a groundbreaking mission of friendship and goodwill.It was to be the only international cricket Rice ever played. A generation of exceptional talent was lost to the apartheid policy pursued by the South African government of the day. Rice was a ferocious cricketer who could do many things but melting hearts was not often among them. His meeting with Mother Teresa made for one of cricket’s most remarkable and endearing images.Soon after, India travelled to South Africa for a series of Test and one-day matches, cementing a relationship that remains strong to this day. In 2009, when the IPL could not be staged in India because of the general elections, South Africa opened their doors to the most glamorous cricket event on earth.Related

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Go, Jonny go. And just keep going

Give and take off the field, nip and tuck on it – these two great countries, whose inherent problems had not been so dissimilar, could not get enough of each other. Late in 2021, Covid-19 lingered rotten in the air but India honoured their commitment to an old friend, albeit under strict pandemic regulations. The first Test of three was delayed until Boxing Day, when the players stepped out in Centurion to an empty stadium but hugely enthusiastic television audiences both at home and away.India won it, not quite at a canter but with something to spare. Virat Kohli led his men with a demonic eye and an overwhelming passion; Dean Elgar with inner steel and outward calm. There seemed to be only one winner. Not so. Not at all.Fire and spice: Jansen and Bumrah’s contest brought the sparks•AFP via Getty ImagesAt the Wanderers, Elgar played the innings of his life to see his team over the line in the gutsiest of fourth-innings chases. It was the first time that India had lost at the Bullring. The pitch had spite within but the South Africa captain took the blows and jabbed back like a man born to that, or any other, ring. Alongside him, and close to serene in pursuit of 240, were Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma, each of whom reaped the seed sown by the fire and craft in an attack led magnificently by Kagiso Rabada and enhanced by the new kid in town, Marco Jansen. Young, gifted and willing, the quietly spoken Jansen mixed it with Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah to bring an edge that South Africans enjoyed almost as much as the victory.So to Cape Town and the denouement: the first of the three best Test matches I have seen this year, and one that squeaks past the seven-wicket win in Johannesburg for its sealing of the series against the odds. Kohli had missed the second Test with a back spasm but returned for what – and you would never have picked it – was to be his last match as captain of India. Far from in his best form for a long while, he batted as if his life depended upon his time at the crease, and he inspired a very different India from the one that freewheeled at Centurion. It was as if the players were reeling from defeat in the second Test, and to recover, reached for their deepest, most competitive instinct. This had been on view at Lord’s the previous summer, when Kohli and Co tore into England’s spirit and grabbed victory from the spectre of defeat. In Cape Town, they could not quite muster such effect but they tried their damnedest.Looking back now, it feels as if South Africa’s win was preordained by an external force. Even as Pant took the sword to Rabada’s band of bowlers in a thrilling second-innings hundred, the South Africans kept their shape.In short, it goes like this: India won the toss, batted obdurately against good bowling for 223, which South Africa almost matched. India batted again – the Pant show – but finished short of 200, which left the homesters 212 to win. No problem… for the same fellows who guided the team home at the Wanderers. Result: another seven-wicket win for South Africa, which wrapped up a 2-1 series triumph.In Cape Town, Kohli struggled to score against the South Africa bowling attack, falling first to Rabada, then Ngidi•AFP/Getty ImagesLet’s do the people. Kohli faced 201 balls for 79 runs in the first innings. His pride collected most of those, along with his desire to see India consistently win abroad. Kohli is not often shackled, never drawn, but here he was tamed, as much by his own determination as by the tricky pitch and superb bowling. Rabada had him eventually and three others too. The tall, slim and slippery quick Jansen had three of his own. There was press-box talk of South Africa’s finest and where KG sat among them; the talk of Jansen brought comparisons in two parts, with Glenn McGrath and Bruce Reid. Those are high bars.Bumrah then claimed five local scalps, three of which were in the top four of the batting list. Mohammed Shami hustled around him, a cricketer blessed with the smarts. There has not been one like Bumrah, though Jeff Thomson had a short-step approach, long levers and a whiplash release too. Imagine one at either end on a bouncy pitch.Kohli then batted 143 balls for 29 and Pant 139 balls for his unbeaten hundred. That was it, really, along with 28 extras. The match was ongoingly tense, the teams understandably less matey than their administrators, the head-to-heads raw. Rabada and Jansen took seven more between them and Lungi Ngidi three, which included Kohli. He picks up wickets that matter, does that Ngidi. Each session had its sound and vision locked in: it was cricket for the strong of heart and mind.Bumrah and Shami threw themselves at the SA order; Shardul Thakur tucked in behind them; Kohli exhorted; Pant encouraged; Ajinkya Rahane advised. Markram sweetly timed four boundaries in his 22-ball 16; Elgar just three in his 96-ball 30. Such is cricket, a game for all men and women.KP was the one what done it. Petersen made scores of 72 and 82, to go with 62 and 28 in Johannesburg. There is a beauty in his play that derives from grace in movement and minimal exertion in strokeplay. He appears first at the crease as a shrinking violet but blossoms as a rose, a man armed with thorns to remind the careless of his power. Small in stature, narrow of shoulder and gait, he is David over Goliath. Help came again from Bavuma, who has worked long hours on his forward play to the extent that, once troubled in his footwork by the full-pitched ball, he is now able to take advantage. Bavuma, a man at once both humbled and haunted by the single Test match hundred he made in 2016 and that he has not been able to improve upon, played tight and hard in this series. More hundreds will surely come.There was a squabble on the second-last afternoon, when India got stroppy about Hawk-Eye’s interpretation of an lbw shout by R Ashwin and then fired some shrapnel at the TV coverage in general. These matches are draining affairs and as India felt their grip slip, so their minds searched for reasons outside of the cruel bubble in which they had lived for so long. The overarching spirit of the series was good, the respect between the players evident. India remain the game’s greatest asset.The Indian team’s frustrations boiled over into the stump-mic incident•Gallo Images/Getty ImagesThe 111 required on the last day came easily enough; the eight wickets in hand providing a soft cushion as, increasingly, India looked spent. Kohli was generous in summary and quick to recognise that the batters had been below par. South Africa’s unbridled joy in beating such a strong opponent was no more celebrated than it should have been. It is a proud land, especially so when sport is the stake. After Centurion, little hope was given by even the keenest supporters. At the end of Cape Town, a new expectation was born.On the subject of expectation, we now sail across oceans to England; to Ben Stokes, Brendon McCullum and to Jonny Bairstow. On the afternoon of 14th June, I was at home in front of the telly. Sky were showing highlights of the day’s play during the tea break. Much had happened since, for various reasons, I had checked out of Nottingham the night before. Not least, New Zealand bowled out for 284, which left England 299 to win in 72 overs. Thirty-six for one at lunch and 139 for 4 at tea left it seeming unlikely, but a mug of Yorkshire Gold and chicken sandwich to hand, I settled into the sofa.Sixteen overs later it was all over. The match, that is; the sandwich remained untouched by its wide-eyed maker. Bairstow flayed the most disciplined attack in the world. He hooked and cut and drove and thrashed any ball, everywhere. He went to a hundred in 77 of them, just two measly deliveries short of England’s fastest ever – if only he had known that Gilbert Jessop needed just 76 balls at The Oval back in 1902! At the other end, his captain looked on in astonishment. They hugged at the end, Bairstow one of the boys at last.I remember that afternoon for the innings, of course, and for the texts that pinged in on top of one another. “Are you watching?” “Can you believe this?” “What’s the fastest hundred ever?” (McCullum – 54 balls against Australia, seven years ago in Christchurch.) “This really is a New England.” “What a difference a captain makes!” “Have you ever seen a more brilliant innings?” “Told you, JB should never have been left out.” “They won’t mess Bairstow around anymore now!” “If only we’d played like this in Australia” “…Or the West Indies.” “Are Stokes’ England the real deal?”Jonny Bairstow embodied England’s new Test approach at Trent Bridge•AFP/Getty ImagesYes is the answer. Not that Trent Bridge conclusively proved as much by itself, just that consistent messaging from the moment the new captain and coach took over has been backed up by the amazing results – talk the talk, walk the walk. Trent Bridge was an assault on the senses. A match fought with mind every bit as much as muscle. Five hundred and fifty-three (after Stokes had put New Zealand in to bat) played 539 on the first-innings tally. That’s more often than not a dead end. But England’s score had come in under 129 overs, and thus, time remained in the match for the bowlers to chip away at third innings wickets, and for Bairstow. In all he blazed 14 fours and seven sixes. “It was do or die,” said JB, “So you’ve got to do.”England won six of seven home Tests this past summer and based the template on bowling first, scoring quickly and knocking off whatever was required. The bowlers were encouraged to search for wickets rather than to bowl “dry”; everyone else was encouraged to break free of whatever constrained them. The fear of failure was banished: a wasted emotion. There was to be no recrimination in this adventure, only fun. It went better than even the Stokes-McCullum axis might have hoped.But Rawalpindi was something else again. Rawalpindi was perhaps England’s greatest Test match win ever. In the modern era, there is ridiculous Headingley 1981; Karachi in the dark, 2000; Edgbaston’s chewed fingernails in 2005; dazzling Mumbai in 2012. There were some good’uns in the 1950s and 1960s, of course there are. There is the Golden Age. But Rawalpindi in 2022, well…To understand and appreciate we must go back to Rawalpindi in early March, when Pakistan and Australia slugged it out for five days, during which time a total of 14 wickets fell: four belonging to the hosts and ten to the visitors. Some pitch, huh? A bowler’s graveyard. Nine months later, England’s players turned the accepted reality of playing on that pitch into something almost fictional of their own.Stokes cemented his reputation as a talismanic player, and now captain, for England in the course of the Rawalpindi Test•Matthew Lewis/Getty ImagesFor a start, Stokes picked a couple of T20 ball-strikers and bit-part spinners. Then he won the toss and chose to bat. But you have to hear what happened next! England attacked 64% of the balls they faced – a T20 attack-dog rate – and left only 13 balls alone. By amassing 506 for 4 they broke the record score for the opening day of a Test. In the two innings they scorched the turf and peppered the stands for a total of 921 runs in 136.5 overs – about four and half sessions of play. That leaves a lot of time to take wickets, like ten and a half sessions.Except it doesn’t, because bad light almost always intervenes after 75-80 overs each day. For all the glory of the batters, England’s bowlers had found ways to take 20 wickets in every one of their victories since Stokes took the reins. Rawalpindi, the graveyard, was to be no exception. Will Jacks – heard of him? – claimed six in the first innings; Ollie Robinson and Jimmy Anderson four each in the second. Stokes rotated his bowlers like the ringmaster brings out his acts. Neither the opponent nor the audience were allowed to settle. Fielders were positioned in funny places, boundaries were left unprotected, bouncers were bowled to bodyline fields, spinners looped to tease with the field up and the space behind them vacant. The mind of the viewer boggled and rejoiced. Stokes declared England’s second innings with a lead of 342 at tea on the fourth day. That’s four sessions in which to get 343 on the flattest deck in the hemispheres. With minutes to go Jack Leach trapped Naseem Shah lbw. Got ‘im! Pakistan all out 268.”A win for the ages,” wrote Michael Atherton in the of London. No kidding.Remember, the match might not have started, so unsure were England about raising 11 fit men. A virus shook them about and led Stokes to tour the rooms at the hotel, urging guys like Leach from their sick bed. See, it’s all fiction. Except it isn’t. It was all conceived by the best captain you will ever see, leading a team full of optimism and ambition.Stokes can change Test match cricket, not necessarily for all those who simply want to copy him, but by opening the eyes of the world to what is possible. Malcolm Marshall used to say “Don’t worry about the pitch, just find a way to play well on it.” Stokes has that short sentence set deep in his philosophies, which are further enhanced by his license to thrill. The accepted ways have been discarded for the adventurous ways. He will lose and he will win some more. From here, the next fascination will centre around the adaptability of the players when the novelty wears off and the chips are down. But he doesn’t care about that. He cares that we care and that tickets sell and that cricket is a part of the national conversation and that cricket delights young people and old people in equal measure. He has stripped the game back to its origins: a ball, a bat and some fun. It is enough.More in our look back at 2022

They are far from perfect, but have put together a solid body of work over the past few seasons

Himanshu Agrawal15-Feb-2023Bengal have a shot at Ranji Trophy glory nearly 34 years after they last won it, and have in their ranks two players – Manoj Tiwary and Anustup Majumdar – who might be getting a shot at the biggest prize in Indian domestic cricket for the last time.For a while now, the two have been the team’s go-to men, not just as senior players but also as friends and mentors to the younger players trying to make a name for themselves. Among them, Abhimanyu Easwaran is a star in the line-up, and is even at the doorstep of the national team. There is a core of regular first-XI players. While others, like Sudip Kumar Gharami, Karan Lal, Abishek Porel, Kazi Saifi and Koushik Ghosh are working their way up. All playing their part in a period of transition for the team.”I just want someone to grab that [second] opening slot and support Abhimanyu,” Tiwary, the Bengal captain, told ESPNcricinfo ahead of the final against Saurashtra starting Thursday. “But, despite that, I believe that the reserve players in Bengal are good enough to be a part of the XI.”

Anustup Majumdar is ‘the backbone of the side’

Bengal have tried as many as six opening pairs this season with Abhimanyu, after returning from India A duty, the only constant. Majumdar, as he did during their inspired run to the final in 2019-20, has been the glue that has held the batting together. He’s the team’s crisis man who has made “tough runs” time and again, like he did in the semi-final last week, in making 120 and 80 to oust defending champions Madhya Pradesh.”People don’t talk about Anustup, what a hero he is,” Arun Lal, former coach and member of the last Ranji-winning side, said. “He is the backbone of the side. I get worried when he gets out.”Arun Lal on Anustup Majumdar: “I get worried when he gets out”•Cricket Association of BengalArun’s worries stem from the fact that the younger batters have often failed to make the most of their opportunities. But there’s hope. Gharami, who debuted during the 2019-20 final, averages nearly 43 in first-class cricket across 28 innings with four hundreds. Three of those have come this season, including one in the semi-final.”Sudip will be a sensation,” Arun said. “He is young and hungry, and will be a big name in the next ten years.”Tiwary as also optimistic about Abishek Porel, the wicketkeeper, who has become a regular member of the side following the departure of Wriddhiman Saha and Shreevats Goswami to Tripura and Mizoram respectively. Last year, Abishek was part of India’s Under-19 World Cup-winning squad. While the transition to first-class cricket hasn’t been the smoothest for him, there has been plenty of promise with both bat and gloves.”Abishek is a very aggressive player,” Tiwary said. “And look at some of his catches this season; they show the hard work he has put in.”

Fast bowlers are making the difference for Bengal

Since Ashok Dinda’s departure following a tiff with the coaching staff in 2019-20, Bengal have relied on a youngish pace attack to carry them forward. And each of them, Mukesh Kumar, Ishan Porel and Akash Deep, have delivered stunning returns, with plenty of support from spin-bowling allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed.Related

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Across the last three Ranji seasons, the 258 wickets the Bengal quicks have picked up is the best for any team. This Ranji season, the 348 for 4 Himachal Pradesh scored against them in a drawn game is the most they have conceded in an innings. Uttarakhand’s 272, in another draw, is the second highest.These performances have resulted in a national call-up for Mukesh, while Akash Deep and Ishan Porel have been knocking on the doors of India A. Shahbaz, meanwhile, made his India debut in the shorter formats late last year.”Currently they are the best bowling side in the country by far,” Arun Lal said. “There’s no respite [against them]. Akash has been a revelation: he won’t bowl every ball at 140kph, but his line and length stands out.”This season, Akash Deep has picked up 37 wickets at 20, including three five-wicket innings hauls and a ten-wicket match haul. That consists of a 4 for 62 in the quarter-final, and 5 for 42 in the semi-final. Mukesh has pocketed 18 wickets in only four games, while Ishan Porel, too, has had his moments, beginning with a five-for against Uttar Pradesh.Akash Deep has picked up 37 wickets this season, including three five-wicket innings hauls and a ten-wicket match haul•Cricket Association of BengalShahbaz’s contribution hasn’t been limited to just the ball. While his 20 wickets have cost only 27.80 apiece, he has scored 339 runs at 48, including 81 in the quarter-final. Since the 2019-20 season, Shahbaz is one of only two players to have scored at least 1000 runs and taken 50 wickets in the Ranji Trophy.”We’ve got a champion in Shahbaz,” Arun Lal said. “He provides solid depth from No. 6 or 7. The era has changed. Now you need an allrounder to get you a hundred. That is where the difference really arrives.”In a further positive for Bengal, the oldest of the quartet of bowlers are Mukesh and Shahbaz, both 29. Safe to say then that Bengal’s bowling is in great hands at least in the medium term.

‘Everybody will have to chase Bengal cricket’

Two months back, Tiwary had hinted that this season could be his last. With Abhimanyu away on national duty, he accepted captaincy again and has nurtured a young group of players, placing a lot of emphasis on team spirit and camaraderie, which hasn’t been Bengal’s strongest suit in the past. Having spent considerable time with them in a high-performance environment, Tiwary liked what he’s seen and was optimistic of the future.”The youngsters have established themselves,” he said. “The pace bowlers have been so good that with all due respect to Dinda, I haven’t really missed him as captain. Obviously Wriddhi was experienced and consistent, but Abishek has shown promise Today’s youngsters represent India A quite often, and also get to play in the IPL. hat has helped them develop outstanding work ethic. Those things give you dividends.”Come Thursday, all of them will take the field with one common dream: to recreate there magic of 1989-90. Even if that doesn’t happen, Arun Lal suggested that it was only a matter of time. “In the next five years, this mature group of younger players will help Bengal win the Ranji at least twice,” he predicted. “Everybody will have to chase Bengal cricket.”