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One burned with the desire to win and excel at Test cricket, the other has been the epitome of poor leadership, compounded by bad luck

Ian Chappell30-Jan-2022This is a tale of two cricket captains; one very good at his job and the other a failure.The successful captain is Virat Kohli of India. When Kohli took over after the successful reign of MS Dhoni, there was one major concern: would his boundless enthusiasm cloud his judgement as leader?There’s no doubt Kohli was an exception as captain; he didn’t curb his enthusiasm but he was still able to lead the Indian team to a higher level. With the capable assistance of vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, he lifted India to overseas success like no other captain had done.Related

• Why Broad needs to replace Root as Test captain

• Ricky Ponting: Virat Kohli was passionate about continuing as India's Test match captain

• Kohli: 'You don't need to be a captain to be a leader'

• India's results are a tribute to Kohli's captaincy (2018)

• Under Kohli, India are always looking to win (2020)

His two personal major overseas successes were Australia in 2018-19 and England in 2021. At home his side was virtually unbeatable, with only a loss apiece to Australia and England in 31 Tests.Kohli took the legacy of Sourav Ganguly and Dhoni and substantially built on it in seven years at the helm. His biggest disappointment as captain was the recent series loss to South Africa after India led the away series 1-0, though he didn’t captain in the middle Test of that series, in Cape Town.One of Kohli’s great achievements was instilling in his team a craving for Test cricket. Despite his all-encompassing success, Kohli’s major aim was to achieve victory in the Test arena and this is where his passion really shone.There is no doubt that Kohli drove his men hard but it’s also apparent they enjoyed competing and wanted success. Kohli has a number of individual achievements in his resumé, none bigger than the development of Rishabh Pant as a wicketkeeper and batter. Kohli tended to get his way when it came to selection and some of his decisions in this area were a little questionable but there’s no doubting his support of Pant was a master stroke.Performance is another factor in ranking a captain and in his Tests as captain, Kohli averaged a masterly 54. He also has to be commended for resigning at a time of his choosing.Former great Australian allrounder Keith Miller best summed up retirement when he explained: “I wanted to finish while people were asking why did you, rather than why didn’t you?” Kohli got it right, though he didn’t go out having achieved his final ambition.The captaincy failure, despite having led his country more times than any other captain, is Joe Root. It doesn’t matter what Root or any other English devotee tells you, Root is a fine batter but a poor captain.He was never going to be a successful leader. Though England under him have a reasonably presentable record at home, Root has lacked imagination as a captain, quickly run out of ideas, and showed little “gut feel” for the game. Too often his choice of bowlers to begin a session caused head-scratching, but the real killer were his tactics: they often made no sense.There is a distinct feeling that Root listened to far too many off-field advisers. A good captain has to take charge and this was an area where Root failed dismally. There’s no doubt his last tour was badly hampered by player injuries and he was poorly treated by fate. Nevertheless ten Tests for eight losses and two unflattering draws is a fair summation of Root’s leadership in Australia. It was poor captaincy accompanied by bad luck.To suggest that the answer to the leadership void is Stuart Broad lacks understanding of cricket captaincy. Apart from Broad’s advanced (cricket) age and articulate off-field responses, he’s a negative influence – particularly with field placings – and would be a poor choice as captain.In press conferences Root kept saying, “We are going to learn from our mistakes and take the positives out of this match.” This raised the question of precisely when they were going to learn. England kept making the same mistakes under Root and rarely learned. Although it will be a difficult task, if England want to improve, they first have to find a new and capable captain.

Sri Lanka’s opening batsmen failed to provide starts in three innings and their new-ball bowlers could not prevent Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir from rapidly building a platform

Jamie Alter in Galle04-Aug-2008

Sri Lanka’s 170-run defeat in Galle has opened up the series and also exposed areas of concern for the home side. Their opening batsmen failed to provide starts in three innings and their new-ball bowlers could not prevent Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir from rapidly building a platform. After the match, their captain Mahela Jayawardene raised both issues so the leadership is aware of the problems, though solutions are a different ball game.Faced with a target of 307, it was imperative that Sri Lanka started their case confidently. However, they slipped to 10 for 3 and never got back on track as the middle order, whose four hundreds in Colombo had hidden lack of a strong opening partnership, finally crumbled.Michael Vandort and Malinda Warnapura added 7, 4 and 4 in three innings, with Vandort failing all three times. Warnapura got a hundred in Colombo and 66 in the first innings in Galle to continue a strong season but, against India, Vandort’s vulnerability was exposed. His uncertain footwork and his hard-handed stabs in both Tests against the moving ball resulted in several edges to the slip cordon.An old-fashioned accumulator, Vandort has been consistent in the last six months. He has an average of 39.70 and four Test hundreds, including two against England, home and away. England found it tough to dislodge Vandort after he got he settled and his staunch resistance at the top provided a base for the middle-order. At the SSC, in December, Vandort had to steady the innings after two early wickets and he added 227 for the third wicket with Jayawardene. He was also involved in decent starts with Warnapura in the West Indies earlier this year.”It’s important we get a good start in any run chase,” Jayawardene said. He backed Vandort after the Galle defeat, stressing the need for him to “hang in there for a while” and Sri Lanka are unlikely to change their combination. The only foreseeable replacements, Upul Tharanga and Mahela Udawatte, managed 33 runs between them in the practice match ahead of the first Test. Tharanga lost form after a prolific 2006 and was dropped from the team after poor performances against England while Udawatte is considered a one-day specialist. The P Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo, the venue for the series decider, is believed to offer assistance to the fast bowlers and India’s new-ball attack, Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan, will once again test Vandort and Warnapura.The lack of a fast new-ball operator is another worry for Sri Lanka for morning sessions at the PSS are often crucial. Sri Lanka were reduced to 86 for 5 by Makhaya Ntini in 2006 with Dale Steyn taking five in an innings. It was one of the rare occasions when pace dominated a Test in Colombo.In the first two Tests, Sri Lanka missed a bowler like Lasith Malinga, who’s able to deliver at 140kph in these conditions. Instead India’s openers had to counter an ageing Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Kulasekera, whose lack of pace and breach was evident. The pair averaged between 120 and 125kph in Colombo and bowled only 30 overs in a Test dominated by the spinners.For Kulasekera, 20 overs in two innings at the SSC yielded one wicket – a needless shot from a gung-ho Virender Sehwag – and cost 67 runs. Vaas bowled ten overs in the first Test and took 0 for 50, his pace often dipping as low as 110kph. He did take two crucial wickets in the second innings of the second Test but Sehwag’s was a loose shot and Sachin Tendulkar’s waft outside the off stump was a reward for perseverance rather than incision.Jayawardene suggested his team might consider “a quick bowler” like Ishant for the decider, someone who “creates a bit of bounce on these kinds of wickets.” The ineffectiveness of Vaas and Kulasekara in Colombo had prompted the selectors to call up Dammika Prasad, who took 4 for 58 in the tour game. Prasad produced swing and lift to dismiss Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman in that match and on current form he appears the best option to partner Vaas. However, a source hinted that left-arm fast bowler Thilan Thushara, who played in West Indies in April this year, may be preferred over Prasad.”You have a bad run in one game and you just can’t point fingers and say this is bad,” said Jayawardene. “If you keep chopping and changing, it is going to be a problem for us as well in the long run.” Sri Lanka have mastered their home conditions and can be counted on to bounce back hard. However, they are weakest at the top and run the risk of conceding the early initiative to India.

AB de Villiers’ contribution of 163 continued his brilliant series, which had been the intention when the coach Mickey Arthur declined to push him up to open

Brydon Coverdale in Cape Town21-Mar-2009

There’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy rivalry if it means the
bar gets set higher and higher. South Africa had two men who wanted to
bat at No. 5 in this Test: Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers. de Villiers was given the nod, Prince was reluctantly forced into the unfamiliar role of opening. If it was a cunning plan by the South
African selectors to spark something special from their batsmen, it
worked.Big hundreds to both players ensured a permanent smile on the face of
the convenor of selectors Mike Procter as he sat in the stands at
Newlands over the past couple of days. It also meant he breathed a
sigh of relief after Prince and de Villiers were involved in some
heated exchanges as their domestic teams clashed on the weekend, after
the batting order for this Test had been named.It raised questions over whether the Newlands dressing room would be a
happy place during this match. Despite the lingering frustration from
Prince, who said after making 150 that he would have preferred to bat
in his usual No. 5 spot, the team environment could be nothing but
joyous after they made 651.de Villiers’ contribution of 163 continued his brilliant series, which
had been the intention when the coach Mickey Arthur declined to push
him up to open. He often went in first during the early part of his
career but he has averaged 36.14 as a Test opener, compared to 49.84
when he hasn’t opened.”Not at all, no,” de Villiers said when asked if the team had offered
him the opening role again for this match. “Mickey said that I’m going
to stick in the middle order, that’s where I’ve been scoring my runs
and I deserve to stay in the same spot, I don’t have to change.”Unfortunately for Ashwell he had to, the only spot left was
the opening spot, but it paid off for him. I’m very, very happy for
him. But that’s how the team works. When you go out, you come [back]
in wherever is best for the team. The team comes first.”It was probably for the best that neither Prince nor de Villiers
significantly outperformed the other. Not that de Villiers really had
anything to prove. He has been one of South Africa’s strongest
performers during the six Tests against Australia and he has scored
600 runs at 75.00 during the home and away series. He saved his best,
and most entertaining, for what will almost certainly be his last
innings of the contests.For a brief moment it looked like de Villiers might achieve something
that has eluded batsmen in Test cricket for 132 years. When de
Villiers slammed the first four balls of an Andrew McDonald over for
six, there was every possibility he might become the first man in Test
history to hit six sixes in an over. By the middle of the over, the
goal was on his mind.”When I hit three [consecutive sixes], Albie [Morkel] came halfway
down and said ‘listen, you’ve got to make a decision here, if you’re
going to go for six in a row’. So I said ‘geez, we’re playing Test
cricket here Albs’. But then the fourth one went over and [I thought]
let’s give it a go, why not. He bowled a good yorker for the fifth one
so it obviously wasn’t meant to be.”Prior to de Villiers, only Kapil Dev and Shahid Afridi had struck four
consecutive sixes in a Test innings. The seven sixes that de Villiers
finished with was a South African Test record and the aggressive
streak has always been a feature of de Villiers’ game.But after play, he insisted his batting style had become less flashy
over the past two years. It is true that de Villiers now has the
ability to grind out an innings. It’s a byproduct of maturity; de
Villiers is still only 25 but is playing his 52nd Test – the same
number that Don Bradman played in his 20-year career.In the early days, he was asked to open and sometimes to keep wickets
but he has benefited from a clearly defined role in the past couple of
seasons. de Villiers doesn’t want his job to change – other than an
eventual promotion to No. 4 – but he concedes that when Mark Boucher
eventually hangs up his gloves there may be pressure for him to take
over behind the stumps.”Ideally I’d like to bat at four and not keep,” he said. “But if the
team wants me to take the gloves in a few years’ time … we’ll have a
nice chat when that happens. I can’t be the wicketkeeper if I really
want to be a top world-class player, but we’ll see what happens in two
or three years’ time.”For now, he’s happy to be the No. 5. As the coach said, de Villiers
doesn’t have to change.

Australia’s ribcage-targeting spearhead may say he’s “casual and laidback”, but he’s also looking to put the fear of god into the opposition

Andrew Miller23-Jun-2009If his cricketing career had not worked out, Mitchell Johnson would almost certainly be in the Australian Army right now. As it is, his national service is of an entirely different, and vastly more public, variety. While many of the mates with whom he grew up in Townsville, Queensland, have gone on to serve with the coalition forces in Iraq, Johnson’s own tour of duty begins on the battlefields of South Wales in little over a fortnight’s time.There’s little question he is ready for the scrap. Johnson was once memorably described by his mentor, Dennis Lillee, as a “once in a generation” bowler – an unhelpful accolade for a player who was destined to reach his prime at precisely the moment that two men who truly earned that tag, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, passed theirs. But posterity may yet prove that Lillee was spot on in his judgment, for Johnson has overcome an uncertain start to his international career to rise with dizzying haste through the ranks.In the 2008-09 season just gone, he added raw pace to his natural left-arm swing, and impeccable control to a bubbly aggression, and with 60 wickets in 12 Tests became quite possibly the most complete fast bowler in the world. Factor in a batting average of 85.00 during Australia’s brilliant series victory in South Africa in March, comprising a maiden Test century and an unbeaten 96, and we’re looking at a man who has the tools to decide the Ashes.It’s not bad for a kid who fell into a professional career somewhat by accident. “I had an opportunity to go down to a fast-bowling clinic [in Queensland] where Dennis [Lillee] found me,” Johnson recalled. “I went down there for the day and there was really a fair bit of luck in it, to be honest. If I hadn’t gone to that camp I probably would have been in the army.”I’ve had friends that have gone over to Iraq and all that, and have been shot at, and a friend who is a tank driver who’s been over as well. They get in the action. It’s pretty scary. But I’m quite proud of where I am, and I wouldn’t give it up for the world. Speaking to my friends, they love what they do as well, so I feel grateful to them for looking after us. They do an excellent job.”So too does Johnson in a very different way. Any Englishman who believes that the Ashes are headed home this summer may wish to open up YouTube and dig out some precautionary footage. Johnson’s recent roll of honour includes a spectacular spell of 8 for 61 in defeat against South Africa in Perth, and a fearsome performance in a seismic victory in Durban three months later, when he broke Graeme Smith’s hand for the second time in three Tests, before bouncing through South Africa’s middle order in a spell that induced nothing short of panic.”I love being intimidating, that’s what being a fast bowler is all about,” Johnson said. “It’s probably taken a while for it to come out of me, but when I started to play for Australia it was a different situation, with different guys around the team. I just remember first coming in, it was quite daunting – with McGrath, Ponting, Langer and Warne, you wonder if you belong in the side. But now I’m feeling a lot more comfortable and more confident with how I play the game. It’s definitely come out in the last few months.

“Over the last few months I’ve noticed that ball into the ribs, they don’t really like it, so we always talk about getting a nice one right at the top of the badge”

“You aim to intimidate the guy at the other end, and that was definitely my plan in South Africa. I really wanted to get up their batsmen and let them know we were here and seriously trying to win the match and the series. That’s something I’m definitely going to take into my game more often. I’m not verbal or in your face in the way that some guys are, I just try to let my bowling do the talking, with maybe a few short ones. You want to stamp your authority as quickly as you can.”He’s done just that of late – so firmly, in fact, that for the first time in a long time there is little lamenting for Australia’s greats of yesteryear. Instead there’s an excited surge forward to find out what the young bucks can do. “I think that win in South Africa was very important,” Johnson said. “We went into the tour with a win in the last Test [in Australia], with a lot of confidence and a lot of fresh players. It was a pretty big win for us on their soil, against probably the unofficial No. 1 team, so we were stoked about it.”We had been going through that patch where people were comparing us and saying that Australia’s fast-bowling stocks weren’t there any more. Personally I didn’t take any of that on board. I pushed that to one side, and just wanted to be myself. I think that’s what the younger guys have done as well. A lot of the bowlers are quite similar in age – myself, [Peter] Siddle and [Ben] Hilfenhaus, we get on well off the field, and we get on with the older guys as well. We can talk among ourselves and be confident with each other.”I’ve enjoyed my cricket and the guys I’ve been playing with in the last 12 months or so. We’ve had our transition and a lot of the older guys are gone now, but I haven’t put a lot of pressure on myself in this leader-of-the-attack business. I’ve enjoyed the challenge of it all, but I just do my hard work off the field and try to lead by example. It’s great having Stuart [Clark] and Brett [Lee] with their experience, so I’m not going to change anything.”Clark, however, is unlikely to make the starting XI in Cardiff, and Lee – for all the faith the selectors have invested in him – is struggling to prove he’s still the bowler he once was. The contemptuous treatment meted out on him by Chris Gayle in Australia’s short-lived Twenty20 campaign did little to enhance his menacing credentials, and increasingly it seems likely that his long-held enforcer’s role will have to pass to his younger team-mate.When asked if he was now quicker than Lee, Johnson demurred, clearly mindful of his team-mate’s wounded pride. But whereas for Lee, speed is everything – “I’m a pure fast bowler”, he declared at Hove on Monday – Johnson’s game is every bit as much about subtlety. In particular, he has mastered an ability to vary the height of his arm in delivery, to capitalise on the swing when the going is good, but also to sling the ball, Malinga-style, into the ribs, when pace off the pitch is the only weapon available.”I’ve been working on swinging the ball, getting that swing back into the right-handers, but if the swing’s not there, I generally try to hit the deck hard, ” he said. “I guess being a left-hander, over the last few months I’ve noticed that ball into the ribs, they don’t really like it, so we always talk about getting a nice one right at the top of the badge. I don’t know if I want to give out too much information, but it’s something I have been working on, and it has taken a bit of time to work on. It’s not something that just happens in games.’I haven’t put a lot of pressure on myself in this leader-of-the-attack business’•Getty Images”It depends on what the ball is doing. If it’s swinging or if it reverses, my arm is taller, as it was when I first started out. In Queensland I used to swing it a lot, but when I started bowling first-change for Australia, I lost my swing and got a bit confused, and started slinging the ball and hitting the deck hard. That’s when my arm height changed, but I’ve worked with Troy Cooley and Dennis Lillee, and it’s still a work in progress.”Cooley’s influence will be especially galling for England. He was, of course, the man credited with the creation of England’s Ashes “Fab Four” in 2005 – and one of the few men who ever worked out what made Steve Harmison tick. His relationship with Johnson sounds, if anything, even cosier than the alliance he formed with Harmison, Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones four years ago.”I’ve known Troy since I was 17, and I’m 27 now, so we’ve had a lot to do with each other,” Johnson said. “He knows all the players individually and personally, and that helps with being able to talk to him about your bowling. He’ll let you do what you need to do in a training session, but then give you the space to figure it out for yourself. But you can go up and talk to him, and if you don’t figure it out, he’ll tell you.”Cooley will doubtless have one or two hints to throw in about bowling to England’s big-name players as well, and already Johnson’s duel with Kevin Pietersen is shaping up as one of the highlights of the summer. “Is he vulnerable? I think there’s definitely going to be a lot of pressure on him, so we’re looking to get him as cheaply as we can. It’s an Ashes series, so I don’t think we need to say anything about Pietersen. The less we give him the better.”With his languid confidence, it’s easy to forget that Johnson has yet to play in an Ashes series, having been 12th man throughout the 2006-07 triumph. “I’m pretty casual and laid-back,” he said. “I pretty much smile on the field and try to enjoy my cricket. From a bowler’s point of view, I’m just focused on that first over, especially the first ball, it’s pretty important to be on the money or get that bounce, or whatever it is. You want to set the tone early, that’s for sure.”

Indian team management’s newest instructions to its cricketers is breeding ground for lewd jokes, opportunity, sledging, and also social study

24-Sep-2009″I would just like to say that this is the sort of forward thinking the game needs. I am assuming the directive is not for sex to take place within the team and that partners are allowed to be involved. If the ICC want to make this tournament more exciting, then fly in the wives and girlfriends, or other parties, to improve the standard of cricket… I wish Gary was our coach.”
“I don’t think we ever had anything about our sexual habits written down in a dossier, and I am pretty sure we won’t get an advisory on that ever.”
“There is no doubt that sex increases your performance, provided it does not disturb players’ sleep and has no negative influence.”
“Is that in the team’s vision statement? Hmmm. That is some vision. I really don’t know what to say… you’ve caught me slightly off guard. Oh, I’m still blushing.”
“Both [Gary] Kirsten and [Paddy] Upton should be given honorary posts in the BCCI for their services. Like everyone, the players also need to have a normal life when they are touring with the team and sex is very much a part.”
“Oh, I don’t know about all this. I’ve been away from home for four months. I have forgotten how to do the stuff.”
“In our culture, we abstain from discussing our sex lives openly, which is why this has created a stir. But once you are in the ring, these things don’t matter.”
“Not all the cricketers are single, and WAGs don’t always travel on tour. Attitudes to sex are becoming more liberal, but it remains highly unlikely an adulterous cricketer could placate his seething bride by claiming ‘the coach told me to do it!'”
Telegraph”This is a completely new thing to me. I have never come across a theory like this. However, the times have changed now.”
“A good performance in an indoor sport can lead to a fantastic performance in an outdoor sport.”

Yuvraj talks about how the Kohlis and Sharmas are repeating the mistakes he made, the one person who totally understands him, and switching between formats of the game

Interview by Sharda Ugra22-Sep-2010The Yuvraj Singh of today is very different to the electric fielder at point. What happened to him?

It is a series of things – too many injuries, from a knee to a shoulder, wrist to broken fingers. Once you’re injured and come back, you can’t be the same person. Firstly, you are not 21 years old. At 29 your body needs a lot of time to recover. Earlier I wasn’t playing so much cricket, only one-day cricket mostly, and the body was young. I’m not saying I’m 37 years old now, but when I feel my body is 100% to stand at point, I will go and stand at point. In the last series I was standing there. I want to and I’m getting there.Sachin tells me, “If you stand at point, the team will save 15-20 runs. You just need to watch your videos of the last couple of years.” I watch my videos sometimes and I surprise myself. I’m thinking, “Is that me?” When I speak to Jonty Rhodes, he tells me, “It gives me goosebumps to see you fielding.” A guy like Jonty Rhodes is telling . So I think about it. But if I am not able to dive properly or move to the ball quickly, I will not stand at point. When my body is 100%, I will definitely come back to point. I still haven’t given up.What was your first reaction when you heard the news about the spot-fixing controversy?

It was a surprise. I didn’t know what spot-fixing was. Then I read it and some people explained it to me. I was very surprised. It is sad for the game. The England-Pakistan series was going so well, everyone was so excited about it and suddenly this thing comes up. Controversy always spoils the game.It has been sad for the game and for Pakistan cricket. They had just won a Test match. The other problem is that the moment someone is accused, everyone else starts getting accused too. [After the spot-fixing controversy broke] They are saying something was wrong in the IPL or the India-Sri Lanka 414 game was fixed. That’s not done. If you have evidence, please show the evidence. You can’t be printing stories just to create hype, saying that match was fixed, this match was fixed.Cricketers meet hundreds of people socially, at events, parties. Have any “approaches” ever been made to you?
These things happen. You know what kind of people are around, what they are trying to do – and I’m not just saying bookies or guys like that. When you meet people, I believe you have to present a kind of body language that says, “Do not mess with me or even think of saying anything strange to me.” You meet a lot of people who will try and give you advice or want you to get into bad stuff or who ask you to go and meet people you don’t know or aren’t interested in knowing at all.For me, my body language is such that nobody has the guts to even come and talk to me about things like this, ever. You present yourself like that, like nobody can come and touch you. If you can do that then nobody can point a finger on you. I have always been like that and I have never been vulnerable in this case.You’re now one of the older guys in the team after 10 years in international cricket. What has the last decade been like? Are you disappointed or satisfied with what you’ve done since 2000?
When I started my career, I felt that that was when the game was changing in India. When we were newcomers, we watched the seniors and their very different approach from what we did in first-class cricket. The attitude to playing was changing. The game too started to move at a faster pace: 230 to 240 was a winning target when I first began playing, then teams started to chase 260s and 270s.As a young kid starting out, it wasn’t physically that tough. The body was young, you just went and fell anywhere – on the ground, in the dressing room, on the road. It didn’t matter. You just got up, brushed yourself off and were on the go again. Mentally it was harder starting out. After a big performance against Australia and South Africa, suddenly I was in the limelight, and then suddenly you are out of runs in the next few tournaments and you didn’t know how to come back. You didn’t know what to do. It was a struggle.

“I see youngsters like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma who are talented and flamboyant. I tell them not to make the mistakes I made”

The days have passed, the years have passed, and mentally I’ve become stronger. Physically I have had a lot of injuries in these last few years, so it has been an up-and-down stage, you could say. I’m happy with my one-day career but I could have done better in my Test cricket.Now when you see the newcomers, do you see yourself at the age of 20 again?

I see a lot of guys making the same mistakes.What mistakes?
By mistakes I mean you come into the team, you have some success and you think, “Yeah, I can do the same things on the field all the time,” which is not possible. Then after playing for India, you think, “I can do whatever I want,” which is also not possible. It’s just immaturity. No experience, so you make mistakes and hopefully you learn something from them, and from the older players.I see a lot of youngsters like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who are very talented and flamboyant. As a senior I tell them not to make the same mistakes I made, and try to guide them to a better tomorrow. When I began playing, you could say the game was changing, the distractions were beginning. Now the distractions are too much and my advice to the younger guys is mostly not to be distracted by what is happening outside and to concentrate on the game.Do they listen?
They don’t listen, especially Rohit and Virat. [Suresh] Raina still listens a little bit, but Rohit and Virat always argue with me. I don’t blame the youngsters for not listening, because a lot of times Sachin or Sourav or Kumble said something to me and I said “What do they know?”. But it’s just your age… boys mature very late. That’s what I’ve learned from my life. As a senior, I think it’s our duty to help the junior guys, like [Ravindra] Jadeja and Praveen Kumar. I think it’s our duty to help them as their career progresses. Hopefully they’ll listen, if not to me, to other players.When you say distractions, you mean partying, money, celebrity?

It’s everything. When you are playing for the country, you start having a status. Then you want a big house. Then you want a nice car. You become famous, people start liking you, there is media hype around you. More than the positives, which these may sound like, there a lot of negatives. You start concentrating on other things, going out with your friends, saying “I’ll practise tomorrow.” At that moment it’s important that there is someone to guide you and tell you, “No, your cricket is more important and everything here is because of your cricket. So practise five to eight hours, and after that do whatever you want to.” You need to have a balance.”If there were 50% of distractions in cricket 10 years ago, today they are at 100%”•PA PhotosAs one of the bad-boy generation in the Indian team, did you have a guide?
I feel our bad-boy generation has always been overplayed. Most of the bad boys are actually good boys. I took advice from seniors, like Vikram Rathore: he was someone who really helped me in my career in terms of making the transition from playing domestic cricket to international cricket. Then two guys I played with, Sandeep Sharma and Amit Sharma, who played club cricket for ONGC and first-class cricket for Punjab – they always gave me good guidance. But at that time I think nobody took me seriously.Why was that?
They probably thought, “Oh, he’s a kid.” My body language was such that everyone may have felt I thought too much of myself. So nobody thought to come and tell me that I should do this or that. I was just growing up. It was a new world for me. It was not that I would not acknowledge people, but they may have felt that I would not listen.Do you fear for the younger generation then?

I do actually fear for them. If there were 50% of distractions in cricket 10 years ago, today they are at 100%. Any youngster can fall out anywhere. Especially since the IPL, a lot of youngsters, particularly in first-class cricket, focus on the IPL, which is a very bad thing. The players feel that they are not good enough in international cricket and they can survive in the IPL. You can’t blame them, because the IPL gives them an opportunity to play with the best players, gives them money and gives them a sense of well-being with their family – things a normal man wants.But they need to realise that they need to push towards playing for the country. They need to be thinking of playing for the country, not because they may or may not eventually make it but because wanting to play for India is important in terms of pushing the level of their cricket, improving their cricket. I don’t think the improvement of a cricketer’s game can come by playing only for the IPL. You need to play all forms of cricket.In bad times, is there one place or one person that you return to, to sort things out? What did you do, for example, when you got dropped after a long time?
This was very different from when I got dropped the first time. Then I was young, I didn’t know anything. I came, kept playing my game, got dropped. That happens to all young players. Everyone is not Tendulkar, who knows how to play the game properly. It’s the same thing with young guys in our team. They play, they get dropped, they come back, because they are good players.

“A lot of youngsters focus on the IPL, which is a very bad thing. The players feel that they are not good enough in international cricket and they can survive in the IPL. But they need to realise that they need to push towards playing for the country”

But now last year was mentally very hard because it’s very difficult to come back after an injury, then again get injured and come back and play and then get injured and come back again and again. What I normally do is that I don’t show that I am disturbed. I never show it, I only show it to my mother. I come home and argue or scream at my mom because she understands me totally. She has seen me grow up. I have friends who I talk to, who keep me grounded. But mostly I talk to myself and tell myself that I have to be mentally very strong.Now that you play in three forms, is it harder to switch into improvising in Twenty20s or to building the big innings in Tests?

Actually, after playing Twenty20 if I suddenly have to shift, I find it tougher to shift to one-day cricket than Test cricket. Earlier 50 overs would look like too few overs, and now after Twenty20, 50 overs looks like you have so much of time. It’s a limited-overs format, but for me that is tougher to switch to than Test cricket. For me, switching from 20 to 50 overs, mentally you have to shift very quickly. The 50-over gameplans require much more thinking than Twenty20, where you are going bang bang.Test cricket is very different. It has changed and maybe at a faster pace, but a cricketer knows what is needed. Preparation is of a different kind. The ball changes. You want to leave a lot of balls outside the off stump. You’re trying to get set, you know that.At the start of a season, do you set goals for yourself? The next six months are going to be big for Indian cricket, so what’s the plan?

I have stopped having goals. If you have many goals and you don’t reach your goals, it is very upsetting, so I just think of keeping it simple, working hard and going and playing the game. But I know there are going to be very important series for Indian cricket. I will just try my best to be in my fittest form. Not because the team wants me to or I want to but because it is the need of the situation. I have to give it my best shot because the World Cup is coming around. The last year has been pretty much down and it is time to really push the pedal and hit peak performance very soon.Read part one of the interview here

Oh to be in Colombo, smelling the flowers, watching the birds soar past the Premadasa and hanging out at the Blue Leopard (or is that the Blue Elephant?)

Sharda Ugra18-Nov-2010To cricket audiences, India’s heaving grounds are like rock concert venues in size, scale, volume and headbanging enthusiasm. Colombo will always be South Asian cricket’s lounge bar, with live, non-stop .A city with four Test venues in under a 4km radius, three still staging international matches, could actually stage a World Cup on its own. If the ICC had its way, sweeping smaller nations aside like they were jacket fluff, maybe that’s what World Cup 2035 will actually look like: six nations, one city. Colombo won’t stage that in protest. It’s just not that uncharitable.It stretches along the ocean like a beachside layabout who always finds the shade and catches the breeze, even though all around temperatures climb. Colombo’s is a sticky heat. The sun sears right into the eyeballs, the glare off the sea so strong it could crack sunglasses. Why, some hotels think nothing of crimson chicken curry at the breakfast buffet, with only string hoppers on the side as a measure of panic-attack prevention.Yet, in itself, little daunts Colombo and its cricket. My first visit to Colombo took place at a time when no one wanted to go. Or least a particular type of cricketer didn’t. In 1996, you expected the West Bank on an island, with checkpoints and soldiers behind the gossamer security of sandbags. And so it was. Three weeks before the 1996 World Cup, Colombo had suffered the worst bombing of the Lankan civil war, so what else could it have been? A normal working day in the business district turned into a death zone when Tamil Tigers armed with RPGs and automatic rifles and a truck carrying 440 pounds of explosives killed more than 90 people.The Aussies and West Indians refused to tour, the Lankans were distraught. An India-Pakistan team turned up to play a “friendly” match to show support, Zimbabwe were game anyway, and so Colombo had to be visited.Three weeks after the bombing, the glass panes of its Lighthouse Clock Tower, 130 years old, were still broken and blackened but its clock showed the right time. The Central Bank and hotels in the “Fort” area were bruised but people were striding through metal detectors, traffic was wheeling and vendors had their stuff spread out in corridors of colonial import. Morning walkers would turn up at the Galle Face Green before the sun went into high beam. They strode along the stone wall shoring up the coast, inspected another part of the ravaged business district being patched up inch by inch, and then tightened their chins, turned around and walked home.Headlines were everywhere, dispatches wrote themselves.araliyas.When the city catches a visitor’s attention away from its bad news, Colombo can make it all go away. Like Mahela coming in to bat when the scoreboard is dreadful.It is a city made for cricket. It has languor, vitality and makes room for all types. The fussy mod-con lovers will find spiffy environments, something trendy to take home and a few cool nightclubs. Journalists just want info (and beer). Whispers abounded in the press box about the Blue Leopard (or was it the Blue Elephant?) nightclub where so-and-so was spotted playing the swain at 2am., the cry rises, at which point Murali turns some flailing batsman’s defence into custard and cricket pulls back eyes, heart and mind.Moving towards the SSC is about smelling the flowers, enjoying long auto rides through crescents, past lakes and in neighbourhoods whose simple single-digit pin codes actually contain an aristocratic order. Colombo 7 is the highest form of address and then the rest work their way down and up to numbers that don’t really matter.The Premadasa is closer to Colombo’s more muscular parts. Crows would think nothing of flying from its rooftop or light towers to the harbour, factories, fishery offices and the old Welikada prison. A day-nighter there can be an audio-visual experience. Sometimes during an innings break the final of the day rings free across a blood-red sunset sky that fills with birds purposefully heading home, disdainful of the crowds beneath them. The toughness of most Premadasa run-chases melts into an immaterial fact. It’s a kind of magic. Freddie would have burst into song.Graham Thorpe goes native in Sri Lanka•Tom Shaw/Getty ImagesLike Sri Lankan cricket, Colombo lies between old boy and new age. The most celebrated cricketers in the city move around unhindered (and feel sorry that no Indian counterpart can do so in his own hometown), and yet the same fans know how to make themselves heard deafeningly, constantly. Sri Lanka have produced the most cultured of batsmen and the most unorthodox of bowlers. Among the most beatific-looking of its captains was also its most unrelenting.In 2002, India, the team all about its tomorrows, came to Colombo and the ICC Champions Trophy in the ODI form of their lives. The NatWest Trophy had been snatched away from Nasser Hussain’s disbelieving stare, a final had been won without a world-class choke. So what if India were sponsored, as Mikey Holding said with a chortle on TV, by a desert. (Sahara, geddit?)They came with the most peculiar of combinations: Sachin Tendulkar at 4, Rahul Dravid keeping wicket, Javagal Srinath hauled over from England by his captain, told to cease all argument as his tickets were waiting at a check-in counter. They came with this opener who took to Colombo like Percy Abeyasekara did to showboating. No one had chased more than 246 at the Premadasa, and when England docked 270, this fellow creamed it with over 10 overs to spare. His captain’s first words to the press were an order: “Everybody, clap for Veeru”.Play would usually finish at around 10pm and the bar at the Taj Samudra was packed every night. Viv Richards could be found, surrounded by the worshipful and the voluptuous. Or Andrew Caddick, nursing a glum drink on a barstool next to Rudi Koertzen, almost unrecognisable in civvies and kindly leaving Caddick alone. It was the first ICC event with its security rules of photos outside dressing rooms and who knew what.The Indians would pile in, shake hands, and hang around, all of ’em. They had a special corner but stayed within greeting distance. Some stood around the dance floor, some went up to talk to other cricket folk. Some folk sat cross-legged on a high ledge near the windows, guzzling what could only be lime sodas. Some would win brownie points with cricket reporters by patiently chatting to visiting editors. Neither was slurring heard nor did fistfights break out. There was loud laughter, music, dance, cigarette smoke and ice clinking in glasses. And rumours about the Blue Elephant. The players would begin leaving after midnight but the gossip didn’t stop till hours after.Only Colombo could bring it all together and keep it jumping – this old-fashioned informality in a modern professional game.

Stats highlights of West Indies’ 40-run win against Pakistan in Providence

S Rajesh16-May-2011Saeed Ajmal had match figures of 11 for 111, which are the second-best in a losing cause for Pakistan•AFP

• The victory is West Indies’ first in 18 Tests, since they beat England by an innings and 23 runs in Kingston in February 2009. In 17 Tests during this period, West Indies lost eight and drew nine.Meanwhile, Pakistan’s win-loss since 2007 isn’t much better: 5-15 in 30 Tests, with ten draws. The defeat also means Pakistan’s record of never having won a Test series in the West Indies will stay on a little longer.
• The highest score in the match for West Indies was Lendl Simmons’ 49, which makes it only the fourth time since 2000 that a team has won a Test without a single half-century by any of their batsmen. It’s the second such win for West Indies during this period – they’d beaten Zimbabwe by 35 runs in March 2000 when their highest scorer had been Shivanarine Chanderpaul with 49. The previous such instance was New Zealand’s four-wicket win against India in Hamilton in December 2002, when no batsman from either team touched 40.
• Saeed Ajmal’s match figures of 11 for 111 are the second-best figures by a Pakistan bowler in a losing cause, only a run behind Wasim Akram’s 11 for 110 against the same opponents in Antigua in 2000; in fact, it’s almost exactly 11 years since Akram’s feat. Akram also features three times in the top four such performances for Pakistan. The best figures in a defeat remain Javagal Srinath’s 13 for 132 against Pakistan in Kolkata in February 1999.
• The match average of 17.90 runs per wicket is the third-lowest in Tests in the West Indies since the beginning of 2000. The lowest is 15.32, in that Test between West Indies and Zimbabwe in Port of Spain in 2000.
• Darren Sammy’s match figures of 7 for 45 are his second-best in Tests, after his 8 for 98 against England at Old Trafford in 2007. In 12 Tests so far, Sammy has taken 36 wickets at an impressive average of 26.25. Ravi Rampaul’s 7 for 75 are easily his best match figures; in fact, in his previous five Tests he had taken four wickets, and had gone wicketless in his previous two matches.
• After being reduced to 2 for 3 in their fourth-innings run-chase, Pakistan fought back valiantly with an 81-run stand for the fourth wicket, which is only the third time they’ve managed a fifty-plus stand for the fourth after being three down for less than ten.
• In conditions in which most bowlers enjoyed themselves, Pakistan’s premier strike bowler Umar Gul had a poor game, finishing wicketless for only the third time in 35 Tests.
  

In a soaring day’s work, Stuart Broad scattered the cream of India’s batting and propelled England’s bid to become the No.1 Test team in the world

Andrew Miller at Lord's 23-Jul-2011″It’s not rocket science, gentlemen. You have to bowl the ball at the top of off stump.” It was Matthew Hayden who uttered this memorable put-down at Melbourne during the 2006-07 Ashes whitewash, on a day when England’s bowlers had been humiliated on the field and off it. First came a match-settling 279-run stand between Hayden and Andrew Symonds, then came the theft of their exhaustive but useless bowling plans. In every respect, England had lost the plot.Right now, England’s collective fortunes could not be further removed from that nadir, but for Stuart Broad the past few weeks have been a personal quest to rediscover a plot of his own. Lo and behold, as Hayden could have told him, it turns out it had been pinned to the top of that off stump all along.In a soaring day’s work, Broad replicated almost perfectly the unstoppable momentum he developed in the two most eye-catching spells of his career, at The Oval in 2009 and at Durban four months later, as he scattered the cream of India’s batting and propelled England’s bid to become the No.1 Test team in the world.”I think it was quite obvious I bowled a fuller length today,” said Broad at the close of play. “I thought about getting a cover in, still keeping three slips and getting rid of the gully which allowed me to bowl that fuller length without the thought of getting hit for four. I think that worked, getting the batsmen driving, and that length can still hit the stumps on a pretty slow Lord’s wicket. I’ll obviously look to do that in the future as well.”Going into this, his 38th Test, it’s doubtful whether Broad’s stock had ever been lower, and most pundits – this one included – would have preferred to give him a spell on the sidelines. It wasn’t simply that his form was in a visible funk, with his eight wickets against Sri Lanka coming at a slack average of 48.75 and an economy rate pushing four an over. It was also the pressing claims of the fit-again Tim Bresnan, a bowler whose stump-threatening approach had reaped such rewards at the sharp end of the Ashes, after Broad himself had flown home with a stomach tear.On the first day of this Test, as Broad’s fortunes bottomed out with a first-ball duck, Bresnan served notice of his Test readiness with an heroic performance for Yorkshire in the Roses match at Headingley – first he drove like the clappers up the M1 to help transform a scoreline of 45 for 8 to 239 all out, then he claimed 4 for 50 in 24 second-innings overs to give his team a ghost of an improbable sniff of victory. Broad had no choice but to up his own game in response, because England have a wealth of options at present, and there’s no room for living on reputations.Instead, he responded with such an impressive performance, it simply beggars belief that Broad does not try to reap his rewards in such a manner more often. He was fast and he was straight, as he shaped the ball through the air in both directions with an imperceptible cantilevering of the seam. He challenged the base of the stumps and the splice of the bat in equal measure, thanks to variable bounce generated by a strong wrist position and the full use of his 6’6” height. And he channelled his aggression like a mongrel with a bone, clinging to his line and length so tenaciously that a succession of batsmen were made to know that their first false stroke would be their last.The openers Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund made the mistake of blinking first and were both drawn into loose drives of the “you miss, I hit” variety. Next came the end of Sachin Tendulkar’s century quest, thanks to a gem on off stump that kissed the edge and skimmed low to second slip. And incredibly, Broad should have claimed all five of India’s world-beating top-order in the space of 47 balls, when VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid were each dropped in the space of a single over.Though that gross aberration allowed India a vital opportunity to regroup, Broad’s intensity did not waver as seven runs were squeezed out of his next eight overs. And when, at last, the new ball had been taken and Praveen Kumar was taking the long handle to his colleagues, only then did Broad slip his length back to the middle of the pitch, and bludgeon Kumar from the crease with a delivery that lived up to his reputation for possessing “the best bouncer in world cricket”.That was one of two unfortunate utterances from England’s otherwise pitch-perfect bowling coach, David Saker – a man whose marshalling of the recent Ashes strategy has bought him a stature that rivals that of Troy Cooley after the 2005 triumph. However, Saker’s desire to puff up a bowler whom he recognises as a kindred spirit backfired spectacularly down in Southampton last month, when he unwisely referred to Broad as his “enforcer”. Both Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss were swift to distance their man from such a label, and almost immediately, Broad reminded himself of the delights of a full length with a timely five-wicket haul for Nottinghamshire in the County Championship.It is simplistic to say that Broad should always bowl in this manner, because like Andrew Flintoff before him, there is a great deal to be said for a player who can operate in tandem with another member of the attack, and build the pressure that earns wickets at the other end of the pitch. After all, the best and most under-rated spell of Broad’s early career came in a crunch contest at Napier back in March 2008, when he banged out a brutal mid-pitch length to set up Ryan Sidebottom for a series-seizing seven-wicket haul with his left-arm swing.Similarly, Broad’s defensive attributes went unnoticed during England’s great escape in Brisbane during the Ashes, when he alone found the means to prevent Mike Hussey and Brad Haddin from crushing their opponents’ will during their first-innings triple-century stand. It was unglamorous in the extreme, and hardly represents a blip on the scorecard, but as all bowlers know, the days of hard yakka are always going to outweigh those fleeting moments of glory.”As a player you get asked to do different roles within the side,” said Broad. “Within the changing room, everyone has always known I’m best when I pitch the ball up and get a little bit of movement. But when that moment comes when a bowler is needed to rough a batsman up or get two men out on the hook and try to unsettle someone, then the ball gets thrown to me because my bouncer is pretty good and it’s got a decent yard [of pace] in it.”All the same, in an improbable echo of Kevin Pietersen’s penchant for the big occasion, Broad’s three finest England spells have now come in a must-win Ashes decider, a vastly significant overseas victory, and now, potentially, a memorable win against the leading Test team in the world. Given those returns, maybe he’ll now see the full length as the first course of action, rather than the length of last resort. He’s an England captain after all. He needs to know his own mind first and foremost.

Eleven players who stood out in the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League

Mohammad Isam01-Mar-2012Ahmed Shehzad
12 matches, 486 runs, average 48.60, one 100, four 50s
A figure of $50,000 seemed a little too much next to Ahmed Shehzad’s name when Barisal Burners picked him. But 486 runs later, it seems like a steal given what several more expensive players have done.Shehzad slammed four fifties in the league stage but his contributions were telling and crucial after Chris Gayle left. He struck 60 in the next innings and followed it up with important contributions. In the semi-final, Shehzad was on fire, hitting 113 off just 49 balls. When he got out in the final, it was half the game won for the Dhaka Gladiators.Chris Gayle
5 matches, 288 runs, average 96.00, two 100s
India, Australia and Zimbabwe had seen what the Twenty20 version of Chris Gayle was like, so it was Bangladesh’s turn to duck and weave in the stands.A poor opening ceremony followed by a very low turnout greeted the BPL but Gayle rescued the whole situation with a stunning show of six-hitting seldom seen in this part of the world.That 44-ball 101 was followed by two innings of equal brutality but not length. He followed those up with another century, his second in four matches, a 61-ball 116 with 11 sixes.He left Dhaka limping on an unbeaten 30 after pulling his hamstring; Gayle’s exits from Dhaka haven’t always been rosy.Brad Hodge
12 matches, 346 runs, average 43.25, three 50s
A player into semi-retirement often takes the backseat and lets the youngsters run the show but Brad Hodge took charge.Having taken over the captaincy from Shahriar Nafees midway through the tournament, the former Australia batsman scored plenty and scored them quickly. Barisal Burners played with a weakened middle order as Shehzad, Hodge and Mustard had to do the bulk of the scoring after Gayle’s departure.More than his three fifties (one of which was the vital one against Chittagong in the return leg), Hodge’s most telling contributions were the three century partnerships he was involved in.Shakib Al Hasan
11 matches, 280 runs, average 40.00, 1 50, 15 wickets, economy-rate 7.11
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that Shakib Al Hasan is the most professional cricketer in Bangladesh.And this tournament has been yet another opportunity for him to further his captaincy ambitions. With the Khulna Royal Bengals reaching the last four, Shakib did a good job handling a multi-national team but it was the weight of his performance that won him the Man-of-the-Tournament car.Before his fighting half-century in the semi-final which ended in his side losing the game to Dhaka Gladiators, Shakib’s final over against Sylhet showed why every coach says the same thing about him, that he can walk into any team in the world.Mushfiqur Rahim
11 matches, 234 runs, average 39.00, 1 50
The national captain was in charge of Duronto Rajshahi, a team that had enough talent to become champions. They, however, made a poor start, especially by dropping too many catches.Mushfiqur regrouped his troops and let the bigger names like Abdul Razzaq and Marlon Samuels play their own game.The younger lot responded and when the wins started to come, Mushfiqur started to score too. His half-century in the semi-final looked good enough for a Man-of-the-Match award but Rajshahi ran into a rampant Barisal and Shehzad did the damage.Mohammad Ashraful
12 matches, 258 runs, average 28.66, 1 50
Mohammad Ashraful has been heavily criticised for his form with the national team in recent times but he did have some happy moments during the BPL.He wore the pink cap for much of the three weeks for taking the most number of catches and danced almost each time he took one in the latter stages. He batted well in patches, and even got to a fifty. At least in this tournament, he wasn’t totally inconsistent.He ended BPL as the second-highest run-getter among the Bangladesh players after Shakib, an achievement of sorts for a batsman who hasn’t done anything of note of late.Mohammad Sami picked up the BPL’s only five-for and hat-trick•BPL T20Azhar Mahmood
11 matches, 298 runs, average 33.11, 2 50s, 9 wickets, economy-rate 8.29
One of the pivotal players in the Dhaka Gladiators’ march to the trophy was Azhar Mahmood, who brought the weight of his 19-year experience spanning ten teams across the world to the Gladiators dressing-room.Mahmood batted at No 3 and stabilised a line-up that had too many attacking options. He struck two half-centuries and scored at a fair clip. He picked up nine wickets but was a tad expensive at times.Elias Sunny
12 matches, 17 wickets, average 14.88, economy-rate 6.71
Regarded as one of the most valued domestic cricketers, Elias Sunny did himself a huge favour by performing impressively.The wickets didn’t come on days when Mosharraf Hossain, the other left-arm spinner, dominated the bowling. He bowled a good spell once in a while but was persisted with, especially due to his batting ability when the team had to choose between him and Mosharraf.Eventually he had better figures than Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal in the semi-final, though remained wicketless in the final. Despite that, he is the joint highest wicket-taker alongside the next man and won the best local player award in the BPL.Mohammad Sami
11 matches, 17 wickets, average 15.76, economy-rate 6.51
The last time he played for Pakistan was two years ago, so when he bowled with pace and bagged wickets wickets for Gazi Tank Cricketers in the Dhaka Premier League, people sat up and took notice.He was rewarded a place in the Duronto Rajshahi squad. After some wicketless games and much coaxing from Razzaq, Sami burst into action with a hat-trick, the tournament’s first and only.He also had the tournament’s only five-wicket haul, a brilliant 5 for 6 against Dhaka in the last league game of the BPL.Mashrafe Mortaza
11 matches, 10 wickets, average 27.40, economy-rate 6.85
Finishing the tournament unscathed was Mashrafe Mortaza’s biggest challenge when Dhaka Gladiators belatedly picked him for only $45,000 at the auction after his home side Khulna didn’t go for him. He had to prove himself by playing. Ending the tournament as the captain of the title-winners will be of special significance for Mashrafe.He was also in the news for reporting to his franchise an approach from a fellow cricketer regarding potential spot-fixing and a committee was subsequently formed to look into the matter.Enamul Haque
9 matches, 13 wickets, average 14.46, economy-rate 6.26
Enamul Haque, a left-arm spinner, needed this tournament as a springboard for future national selection. And he used it quite well.With 13 wickets, some match-winning ones, in nine games for the Chittagong Kings, Enamul might find himself back in the Bangladesh fold sometime this year.In the race of the left-arm spinners, Enamul is leading but with so many of them around, he has to keep doing well to hold on to his place.