In the last league
match of IPL 2018, that solid defence stroke on 18.5 may be a talking
point. CSK required 23 off 12 – and they
had the most unconventional batting line-up yesterday. Suresh Raina not exactly middling the ball,
tore Andrew Tye for 22 runs and the last ball, played a forward defence ! ~
then Mohit Sharma tried bouncer, only to see it vanishing into the crowds at
long leg – MS Dhoni as emotionless as ever !!! .. ..
Cricinfo
reports of a Q in a recent promotional event, MS Dhoni was asked: "[Erwin]
Rommel, the legendary German general, said no plan survives contact. How do you
relate that to cricket?" "After the first ball is bowled, it's only
chaos," Dhoni replied. "What you are trying to do is you're trying to
manage the chaos. It's not like a script that happens. My coach Stephen Fleming
often comes and does that. He says 'mate, Lungi [Ngidi] can bowl the first
over, then somebody else second' and so on. Yes, I know who are the bowlers and
they will bowl at some point of time. But it does not work like that. It's
about adaptability." T20 cricket is
all about managing chaos.
Former
England batsman James Taylor has shown an unflattering light on sharing a
dressing room with Kevin Pietersen, saying he has "no respect" for
England's fifth all-time leading run scorer, calling him
"embarrassing". Pietersen has long been one of the most divisive
figures in England cricket, his undoubted talent and ability often clouded by
personality conflicts that have been dotted throughout his career. However,
back 2012, Taylor, who stands just 170cm tall, recalls how the 193cm Pietersen
took immediate issue with diminutive batsman being around the England team.
Down under the commemorations to celebrate the 150th
anniversary of the 1868 Aboriginal team
that toured the UK continue, with Australia Post releasing a special stamp to mark the event. The stamp
is the latest in a series of events to honour the milestone tour, with men's
and women's Aboriginal XI squads to travel to England in June to mark the
anniversary of the first international tour by an Australian team in any sport.
The First Cricket Tour: 150 Years stamp released on May 1 features 10 Aboriginal members of the original
1868 playing squad, as well as captain Charles Lawrence, an English
professional who coached and mentored the Aboriginal players, and team manager
W Shepherd. The stamp design, by Phil Ellett of Creative Ethos, incorporates
player portraits from one of the few remaining photos of the Aboriginal XI
taken while on tour in 1868, from the collection of the National Library of
Australia.
Cricket Australia
has announced the squads, schedule, community activities and uniform for an
historic tour of the UK for the nation’s best Indigenous players including a
match against the MCC. Women’s and men’s
squads will tour the UK for the first two weeks of June, with both to play
under the banner of the ‘2018 Aboriginal XI.’ The event will commemorate 150
years since an Aboriginal cricket team became the first sporting team from
Australia to tour internationally. The
Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), Exeter is lending Aboriginal artefacts, newly
identified from the 1868 cricket tour to the UK, for display at Lord’s
throughout the 2018 season.
Speaking on the
squads, Cricket Australia National Talent Manager Greg Chappell said: “We have
assembled two strong squads for this tour that include four players who
currently or have previously represented Australia – Christian, Gardner, D’Arcy
Short and Scott Boland - and a further six players on WBBL, BBL or State
contracts last season. To recall some history, in 1868, a cricket team composed
of Australian Aborigines toured England between May and October of that year,
thus becoming the first organised group of Australian sportspeople to travel
overseas. It would be another ten years before an Australian cricket team
classed as representative would leave the country.
The concept of an
Aboriginal cricket team can be traced to cattle stations in the Western
District of Victoria, where, in the mid-1860s, European pastoralists introduced
Aboriginal station hands to the sport. An Aboriginal XI was created with the
assistance of Tom Wills—captain of the Victoria cricket team and founder of
Australian rules football—who acted as the side's captain-coach in the lead-up
to and during an 1866–67 tour of Victoria and New South Wales. Several members
of this team joined what would become the Aboriginal XI that toured England
under the captaincy of Englishman Charles Lawrence. International sporting
contact was rare in this era. Previously, only three cricket teams had
travelled abroad, all English: to the United States and Canada in 1859, and to
Australia in 1861–62 and 1863–64.
Australian
all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner has been named captain of the women’s 2018
Aboriginal XI that will compete in an historic tour of the United Kingdom. Gardner,
who is one of Australia’s most promising young cricketers having already played
26 matches for her country, will lead a squad of 13. The squad is a relatively
inexperienced one, with Gardner the only member with international experience. “I
think all the girls are really excited to (represent their culture), she said. It
will be the second time Gardner captains an Indigenous XI, as she was tasked
with leading the inaugural women’s Indigenous team which toured India in 2016. The
team will play four matches, with a marquee match against Surrey to be played
at The Kia Oval, one of the venues where the 1868 team played.
Both the female and
male squads will also wear uniforms designed for them by Aunty Fiona Clarke,
who is the great-great grand-daughter of Grongarrong (Mosquito), one of the
stars of the 1868 team. The design is based off the commemorative artwork
titled ‘Walkabout Wickets’ which tells the story of the 1866 Boxing Day match
and the 1868 tour.
Back
home, BCCI members and the CoA are once
again at loggerheads, this time over the latter's decision to pick Kevin
Pietersen as the speaker for the Pataudi Memorial Lecture, to be held in
Bengaluru next month. After
acting BCCI secretary Amitabh Chaudhary questioned the SC-appointed Committee
of Administrators’ decision to pick Kumar Sangakkara as the choice to speak in
this year’s Pataudi Memorial Lecture, CoA chief Vinod Rai had said that the
Board should look at Chaudhary’s suggestions of getting a former India player
(who played alongside Pataudi) if Sangakkara wasn’t available for the lecture.
But now the CoA has gone ahead and picked Kevin Pietersen for the occasion
after Sangakkara made his unavailability known and Chaudhary is not happy at the
turn of events.
In another mail to
Rai, in possession with CricketNext, the secretary has written: “The expression
of happiness on it (General Manager Saba Karim’s mail that Kevin Pietersen has
agreed to address the lecture) had left me wondering whether the Memorial
Lecture was indeed MAK Pataudi Memorial Lecture or Sir Len Hutton Lecture or
for that matter Sir Frank Woolley lecture. Board
members feel that former Indian cricketers who played alongside the man
famously called Tiger Pataudi would bring more value to the occasion and feel
someone among Nari Contractor, Chandu Borde, Erapalli Prasanna and Abbas Ali
Baig should be invited as the speaker.
GM cricket
operation Saba Karim had sent the mail to the CoA and the BCCI members asking
them for the suggestion as the lecture is set to be held on June 12 in
Bengaluru before the Afghanistan Test. The names of the speakers suggested by
Saba were Sourav Ganguly, Kumar Sangakara, Kevin Peterson and Nasser Hussain.The
topics were: A) Peace and sustainability through Cricket - Relevent since
Afghanistan is a wonderful story. B) Behaviour and conduct of international
players in the modern age - Players perspective. C) Cricket as an Olympic Sport
- Way forward.
Diana Edulji was
the one who suggested Sangakkara’s name and Rai seconded it and asked Saba to
speak to the former Sri Lanka cricketer. The Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Memorial
Lecture was started by the BCCI on February 6, 2013. The inaugural lecture was
delivered by Sunil Gavaskar in 2013. But what remains etched in everyone’s
memory is the beautiful fun-filled lecture from Farokh Engineer in Mar 2017.
So on
a day when there is no IPL ~ you have a lot on Cricket to read
!!
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
21st May
2018.
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