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Who showed us he was as decent a mountaineer as he was a batsman

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013Greetings, Confectionery Stallers, to the first Confectionery Stall of the post-Strauss era. I have been on holiday in France for the last week and a half. Coverage of the England captain’s resignation after a distinguished and predominantly successful reign was bafflingly minimal in the French media (particularly given that it is a nation which seems to have designed the shape of its bread explicitly to facilitate games of breakfast cricket) (and not forgetting that France are reigning Olympic silver medallists at cricket, dating back to the Paris Games of 1900) (although most French people under the age of 112 modestly tend not to bang on about it too much) (it is also fair to say that England’s Strauss have emerged from his resignation with rather more dignity that France’s ex-IMF boss Strauss-Kahn did from his).The year 2012 has been strangely and unexpectedly turbulent for the England team. The first three years of the Strauss-Flower regime brought increasing and carefully managed stability and success in the Test arena, culminating in a record-shattering 2011 of phenomenal dominance. This year, like a dessert trolley laden with battered rodents after a Michelin-starred meal, has brought five defeats out of six in their two major series of the year, sub-soap-opera squabblageddon with their most influential batsman, and now the exit of the captain who had helped power the England juggernaut along that impressive upward curve.The juggernaut reached the end of that curve, crashed into a roof it had not seen coming, and started rolling back down what has now become a downward curve. At least they are not plummeting down a downward cliff, and the vehicle retains most of the engine that had driven it upwards in the first place, but new skipper Cook will be anxious to crank the handbrake on as quickly as possible. His team is not in meltdown, but he is certainly holding a much runnier ice cream than he would have been a year ago. With a giant elephant in the room. Or at least, a giant elephant in the Surrey dressing room.Perhaps the team had their celebratory New Year’s Eve energy shakes spiked with a particularly jaunty consignment of rogue absinthe. Perhaps the coach and captain had signed a pact with the Devil to ensure success, and had not seen the three-year break clause in the small print ‒ and Dr FlowStrauss began to suffer the consequences as soon as they set foot in the UAE in January. Perhaps it was merely a result of the team having made the grave error of having too many players peaking from late 2010 to summer 2011, rather than spreading out their purple patches more wisely to cover a longer period of time. Something for the ECB backroom science wonks to apply their abacuses, test tubes, and wind tunnels to, perhaps.Given that Strauss was not (yet) under serious pressure for his place as captain or opening batsman, it is not right to say that he jumped before he was pushed. Instead, he departed with a controlled abseil before the jump-or-push issue came to a head. He departs into the history books with the goodwill and gratitude of the entire English cricketing public, but after three years of moderate, if seldom disastrous, run-scoring. His failures have been increasingly characterised by a repeated failure to convert good starts into substantial scores, and minimal contributions in major series – since the 2009 Ashes, he has been a significant factor with the bat only in the 2010-11 Ashes and against West Indies this summer (he made more than one 50 in only three of his final ten series dating back to the 2009-10 tour of South Africa, one of which was by virtue of taking a pair of 80s off a less-than Krakatoan Bangladesh attack at Lord’s in 2010).Statistically, he was inconsistent for most of his Test batting career, but his peaks included some of England’s most important and best innings of recent years. He hit centuries at crucial moments of three Ashes series, scored three hundreds in South Africa to aid one of England’s best away series victories, and two magnificent hundreds in defeat in the Chennai Test of 2008-09.Graeme “The Hit Man” Smith has thus seen off three England captains in his three Test tours as South Africa’s skipper. He is young enough to be back in 2017 – perhaps to curtail Kevin Pietersen’s second stint as England captain? No. No, even an entire crate of rogue absinthe forced down the gullets of the ECB could make that happen. Not even if it’s from the same crate that made them appoint him in the 2008. But Cook’s journey as captain will be made significantly easier if everyone involved can reach an agreement that whatever Pietersen wrote and meant in those text messages was not personal insults or tactical double-crossing, but cryptic crossword clues, coded recipes for boerewors, or mistranslated haikus about the art of basket-weaving.Some stats
Whilst in France, I had hoped to become the first person to compose an article devoted entirely to Test cricket statistics that had been written entirely on a campsite in Brittany. Sadly, baguettes and batting averages did not co-exist harmoniously. Croissants and cricket were not compatible. And the internet wasn’t working. And my wife and kids wanted to aller à la piscine rather than parler avec Monsieur Statsguru. Not unreasonably. However, I can now tell you that:● The Lord’s Test was the first Test match since March 2001, and just the 18th of all time, in which the openers of both sides had all been out for less than 25 in both innings.● England’s first wicket has fallen in single figures in 13 of their 30 innings since the 2010-11 Ashes. They have reached 50 for 0 in only five of those 30 stands. Cook and Strauss ended up averaging 40 per partnership. Strauss and Trescothick averaged 52 together. When Strauss opened with Trescothick, he averaged 47. When he opened with Cook, he has averaged 37. Is this because he played with Trescothick when at his peak as a batsman, or because the more aggressive Trescothick suited him better as a partner? Or a bit of both? Or neither?● This was only the second series of three or more Tests since 1986 in which England’s openers have passed 50 only once.

Independent body will be tasked with making recommendations in time for 2023 summer

Cameron Ponsonby14-Mar-2022

Andrew Strauss and Joe Root chat before the start of the Antigua Test•Getty Images

The ECB is set to launch a high-performance review into English cricket with the ambition of making the England men’s team “the best in the world in all formats”, according to Interim managing director Andrew Strauss.Speaking in Barbados where the second Test is due to start on Wednesday, Strauss laid out the plans for the review, for which recommendations are due to be published in September with a view to potentially restructuring the English season from 2023. He also confirmed that England hope to have a new head coach in place for the first Test of the summer, against New Zealand at Lord’s in June.Addressing the Test team’s so-called “reset”, Strauss said: “The perception so far is that it’s all about red-ball cricket and that it’s all about the domestic game. But the way we’re approaching it, and I believe the only way you can approach these things is to start at the beginning, which is what is the scale of our ambition for the game in this country?”And I believe we’re looking very strongly at being the best in the world in all formats. I think the knock-on effects, right the way through the game if the shop window is functioning well, are enormous, so as a game we need to get alignment behind that ambition.Related

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“If you take a longer-term perspective on these things you have to say, ‘How can the two teams run concurrently alongside each other?’ and ‘How do we best support our white- and red-ball specialists to allow that to happen?'”The review will be led by an independent body that is yet to be chosen and who will undertake the first two stages of the review before their recommendations are presented to the ECB board and the county chairs.”We need to look at how the game is evolving,” Strauss said. “All of us know that the rise of white-ball and T20 cricket has been hugely dynamic and happened very quickly. So we need to understand how that affects our game and on the one hand how can we leverage that and on the other how do we protect the relevance and importance of the game in our country. And then we need to do a lot of independent analysis on getting information from the game on what’s working well and what’s not working well currently. So a very big consultation piece needs to be done.”We want recommendations to be signed off in time for the 2023 domestic season so that really means by the end of September this year ideally. You could stretch it a bit but these projects can get very broad and you can get stuck. So it’s important to focus on people’s minds. If we’re going to do it we’ve got to do it for 2023.”The review is just one of many significant developments expected at the ECB over the coming months, with a number of senior management positions only filled in an interim capacity. As well as the head coach vacancy, applications opened on Monday for the full-time men’s team managing director role (which Strauss is currently performing).It has also been reported that England will revert to having a full-time selector, separate from the head coach, as was the case before Chris Silverwood’s job specification was expanded last year.Asked whether he considered himself a candidate to return to the managing director position full time, having held a similar position between 2015 and 2018, Strauss was non-committal.”I haven’t considered that really,” he said. “I’ve got unique personal circumstances that makes doing that role difficult and quite frankly there’s always value in getting a new perspective and new views. Nothing ever stays the same or goes backwards. I’m certain there’s going to be some good candidates for this role.”The ambition is certainly to have the Test coach in place by that first Test of the summer. With recruitments there are all sorts of moving pieces, including notice periods. I don’t think we can categorically say that, but it’s the ambition.On the question of splitting the head coach role between red ball and white ball, he said: “Ultimately, that will be the new director of cricket’s decision to make. My perspective is that it’s time to go down that route. We have unique schedules in this country. It is very hard to plan, prepare, play and review for one coach doing all formats. There are opportunities for us to make some performance gains in that respect. But again, that’ll be up to the new director of cricket.”England produced a battling performance in Antigua•Gareth Copley/Getty Images

On the field, England came away from Antigua with a creditable draw. But the failure of their seamers to take a wicket with the new ball across the Test match, with Chris Woakes and Craig Overton proving particularly expensive in the first innings, led some observers to bemoan the decision to leave James Anderson and Stuart Broad at home – a decision that had already provoked severe backlash from England’s fans.”I think the reaction was entirely predictable,” Strauss said. “You don’t do these things worried about what the reaction is, you do it because you think it’s the right thing to do. I think it’s great to see [Matt] Fisher and [Saqib] Mahmood as part of the England set up.”I think we’re learning about them all the time and they’re getting more and more comfortable in this group. And as we said right at the start it’s forced some of our senior players to have slightly different roles.”It’s early days but the feedback I’m getting from the dressing room is that they’re accepting the challenge as a group of not having those senior players involved and I thought in terms of attitude, the willingness to do the hard graft, the spirit and togetherness were there to see. We didn’t get the result we wanted in Antigua but there were a lot of positives coming out of it.”

The format may have changed, but once again, a poor bowling display has already left the Indian batsmen with plenty to do

Abhishek Purohit in Auckland06-Feb-20140:00

Crowe: Surprised Jadeja was considered over Ashwin

Ishant Sharma protested vehemently to the contrary, but by the end of the first day’s play it seemed clear that India had suffered a post-lunch dip in intensity that gave New Zealand the early running. Having reduced New Zealand to 30 for 3 after winning the toss under overcast skies, India watched on as Kane Williamson and Brendon McCullum first stabilised the innings and then gave it momentum.Asked whether India’s intensity had dipped after lunch, Ishant’s reply was emphatic – though unconvincing. “I don’t think so. You can see that we did not let their run-rate get high at any point,” he said. “It was always under control. Even as the wicket got flat and the ball got old, we kept bowling in the right areas. What is in our hand is that when the wicket goes flat, you have to be patient and see how to create pressure.”Williamson and McCullum put up 221 in 51 overs, a scoring-rate close to four-and-a-half an over. Most of those runs came after lunch, when both Williamson and Ishant said the pitch eased out. India probably think allowing two opposition batsmen to score at that rate on a flattening surface is acceptable.The visitors also put down some catches, including that of Williamson’s on 32. They kept bowling short and conceded boundaries to cuts, pulls and hooks, both top-edged and middled. All their three fast bowlers were down on their normal pace for most of the day. Their spinner, who was picked to keep a check on the run-rate, went for 81 runs in 20 overs. Their fielding suffered as well. Singles became doubles as the players ambled after strokes, expecting the ball to roll into the boundary. If all this does not point to a dip in intensity, nothing does.To say that India let the momentum slip away is an understatement. It was wrenched away from them by two batsmen in flow, and the disappointing part was, India went too flat too soon in face of that fightback. Yes, the pitch eased out considerably after lunch. And at the toss, it was indeed a no-brainer to bowl, given the green below and grey above. But unless New Zealand have bowled on the pitch as well, the verdict on exactly how much bite it has lost, has to wait.MS Dhoni had said his fast bowlers would have to run in as hard in their fourth spell as they did in their first in these conditions. But Zaheer Khan, the long-time leader of the attack, was found wanting even in his first spell. Zaheer’s speed was in the early-to-mid 120s at the start, and no matter how canny or experienced a bowler you are, you cannot hope to worry teams consistently with that pace.India’s quicks surprisingly persisted with the shorter ball, which the New Zealand batsmen happily kept dispatching for boundaries•Getty ImagesMaybe it would have all been completely different had Peter Fulton’s catch been held off the first ball Zaheer bowled, or if few of his deliveries that beat the bat had taken the edge. That wasn’t to be, though.Unusually for Zaheer, he seemed unable to make a comeback. He’s turned games so often for India after a luckless or even ordinary start. There wasn’t reverse swing to be had on this thick outfield, but even allowing for that, Zaheer’s lack of penetration was too glaring. He sent down 23 expensive overs in the day. What India wouldn’t have given for just 15 sharp ones.Mohammed Shami was unlucky to not break through at the start after roughing up the openers with some lifters. But he overdid the short ball, as did the other two quick bowlers. Those poor deliveries were asking to be hit, and New Zealand duly obliged, picking them for boundaries.Ishant did not think India were too liberal with the bouncer. “I think we bowled in pretty good areas. They played good shots. We bowled enough bouncers and they kept on playing the pull over the top of the keeper and the slip cordon. You can’t control all this.” New Zealand took ten boundaries off pulls or hooks. Six of those were off the middle of the bat, four were top edges, and they also cut five short and wide ones for fours.For once, you could sympathise with MS Dhoni for slowly removing a slip here, a gully there, and putting an extra man on the boundary. He tried to attack for as long as he could, but with the bowlers leaking so many runs, his hands were tied.Even Ravindra Jadeja, who Dhoni relies so much on for containment, began with successive poor deliveries down the leg side. Jadeja’s strength is his line but that was astray right from the start. He had a worse economy-rate than two of the fast bowlers.India cannot even say that they were undercooked, as they often are, going into this game. Three of these four bowlers had been part of the one-dayers. Zaheer had a decent, albeit lone, workout in the warm-up match. The format may have changed, but India’s bowlers have left the batsmen with the catch-up role to play yet again.

If the short-term role goes well, there is a possibility Malinga could return for other assignments

Andrew Fidel Fernando26-Jan-2022Lasith Malinga will be the Sri Lanka men’s team’s bowling strategy coach during their five-T20I tour of Australia.According to an SLC release, Malinga will “support Sri Lanka’s bowlers” and provide “tactical insight and technical expertise to help the on-field execution of strategic plans”, which essentially means that he will function more like a consultant, than a bona-fide bowling coach.”We have some very talented young bowlers and I am very excited about the opportunity to share my experience and knowledge to help them develop,” Malinga said, following his appointment.Related

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Malinga has previous experience with such a role. In 2018, he was the Mumbai Indians bowling mentor, before he returned in 2019 as a player. In Sri Lanka, he is reputed for his unconventional approach to bowling, and his strategic thinking – attributes that are believed to have helped him become one of the island’s greatest limited-overs players.For now, this appointment is described as a short-term role, but if it goes well, there is a possibility Malinga could return for other assignments.Meanwhile, Rumesh Ratnayake will continue as Sri Lanka’s interim coach for the Australia tour, with SLC yet to appoint a permanent successor to Mickey Arthur.Earlier on Wednesday, SLC had also named a squad of 20 for the T20I series in Australia. Opener Danushka Gunathilaka was recalled for the first time since being suspended for breaching Covid-19 protocol on the tour of England last year, and Kusal Mendis, who was suspended alongside Gunathilaka, was also picked. There was no room, however, for Niroshan Dickwella, the other player whose one-year suspension was lifted earlier this month.The series will be played from February 11 to 20 in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.

Rangers’ pursuit of a European midfielder who could replace Todd Cantwell has been dismissed by a reliable journalist. The Scottish giants are now a few games into their 2024/25 season, picking up their first win in the league over the weekend as they beat Motherwell 2-1 at Hampden Park.

Philippe Clement’s side have been very busy this summer, as they have made eight new additions, but as speculation mounts over a player like Todd Cantwell, the club could still be looking for fresh faces in what remains of the transfer window.

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ByDan Emery Aug 13, 2024 Cantwell expected to leave Rangers

Cantwell has been at Rangers since January of last year, when he joined the club from Championship side Norwich City. The 26-year-old has gone on to feature heavily for the Scottish side since arriving, playing 64 times in all competitions.

During that time, he has scored 14 goals and chipped in with 12 assists, scoring five goals and recording four assists in the Scottish Premiership last season. However, his future now looks away from Rangers, as earlier in this window Clement confirmed that the midfielder had asked to leave the club.

Since then, Cantwell has been training with the club’s B team, as interest has emerged from Turkey, in particular Trabzonspor. However, a bid has yet to arrive, but with his future looking away from Ibrox, Rangers will be looking at potential replacements.

Rangers move for Gustavo Puerta is now unlikely

It was reported earlier this week that Rangers had made an offer to Bayer Leverkusen to sign midfielder Gustavo Puerta. The report stated that they faced competition from Brondby as well as Belgian side Anderlecht, but those reports have now been dismissed.

According to Football Scotland’s Mark Hendry, Rangers have not made any contact with Leverkusen to sign Puerta. The 21-year-old was on the club’s radar during the January transfer window, when Clement was looking to bolster his midfield options.

But according to this latest update, Puerta is not on the club’s radar now, and Rangers haven’t been in touch with the German side since their initial interest. The Gers’ interest now seems to have faded, with reports in Denmark stating that other teams are moving ahead for the midfielder.

Puerta joined Leverkusen in the January transfer window last year and has gone on to play 10 times for the German club, with all those appearances coming last season.

Apps

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Stats as per Transfermarkt

The midfielder played seven times in the Bundesliga and three times in the Europa League, totalling 229 minutes of football. The 21-year-old signed a five-and-a-half-year contract when he joined the Bundesliga side in 2023, which means his contract still has four years left to run, and it is a contract that sees him earn a reported £4,000-a-week.

Puerta has shown great versatility in his short career, as the 21-year-old is able to operate as a central midfielder, both in attacking and defending roles, and he has also been known to play out wide when needed.

Kohli reiterates that he will remain with the team as a player “until my retirement from the game of cricket”

Nagraj Gollapudi19-Sep-2021Virat Kohli will step down as Royal Challengers Bangalore captain at the end of the IPL 2021 season. The news was made public on Sunday evening, while the Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians game in Dubai was in progress, by the franchise, and came three days after Kohli had announced that he would be giving up the captaincy of India’s T20I team at the end of the World Cup in October-November.Kohli, who will turn 33 during the World Cup, became the regular captain at Royal Challengers in 2013; he has been a part of the franchise as a player since the inception of the IPL in 2008.His 132 matches as captain in the IPL is only behind MS Dhoni’s record of 196, and while he has never won the tournament, his best season as a batter was in 2016 when he not only grabbed the orange cap for the most runs but also helped the team reach the final, where they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad. That was the solitary final for Royal Challengers under Kohli, but they did make the playoffs in 2015 and 2020 too.

Virat Kohli to step down from RCB captaincy after #IPL2021

“This will be my last IPL as captain of RCB. I’ll continue to be an RCB player till I play my last IPL game. I thank all the RCB fans for believing in me and supporting me.”: Virat Kohli#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers pic.twitter.com/QSIdCT8QQM

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) September 19, 2021