Stats highlights from a day dominated by Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq

S Rajesh21-Oct-20163156 Runs that Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq have put on together, the most by any Pakistan pair in Test cricket. They went past the earlier record of 3137, between Mohammad Yousuf and Younis. Misbah and Younis average 73.39 per completed partnership, compared to 78.42 for Yousuf-Younis.15 century stands between Misbah and Younis, easily the most for Pakistan. Behind them are Inzamam-Yousuf and Miandad-Mudassar with 10 each.82.36 The average partnership between Misbah and Younis in the last three years. Among the 27 pairs who have put on at least 750 runs in this period, their average is the highest. The only players to outscore Misbah and Younis in this period are Australia’s Chris Rogers and David Warner – 1898 runs in 37 innings, compared to 1812 in 24.119.71 The average Misbah-Younis stand in Tests in the UAE – in 17 tries they have scored 1676 runs, with eight century partnerships.13 Test hundreds for Younis, the most by any batsman after turning 35; Rahul Dravid, Graham Gooch and Sachin Tendulkar all have 12. Younis averages 60.36 in 56 Test innings since turning 35; before this cut-off, he averaged 51.69 from 138 innings.4055 Test runs for Misbah after the age of 35; only two batsmen have scored more – Gooch (4563) and Tendulkar (4139).5.88 Innings per Test century for Younis; among the 41 batsmen who have scored 20 or more tons, only Don Bradman has a better conversion rate – he made a hundred every 2.76 innings.39 Fifty-plus scores as Test captain for Misbah, which has put him joint fifth in the all-time list. It has taken him 83 innings to get there whereas the man he came level with, Stephen Fleming, needed 135. Only Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and Clive Lloyd have made more 50-plus scores as captain.988 Misbah’s Test aggregate in 14 innings in Abu Dhabi, at an average of 109.77. Twelve more runs would make him the fifth Pakistan batsman to score 1000-plus Test runs at a venue, after Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Yousuf and Younis. Miandad achieved this at three venues – Lahore, Karachi and Faisalabad.

Somerset’s cricketers have done all they can to win the County Championship for the first time. Now all they can do is wait

Paul Edwards at Taunton23-Sep-2016Prospero is right. Our revels now are ended. Well, not quite, of course. They concluded here at Taunton on the third evening of this match with a skied catch, a retirement and much hurrahing in harvest. But, as the mowers trim the County Ground’s deserted square, cricket continues at half a dozen other venues around England, and at three of them matters of great moment are to be decided.All Somerset’s players and supporters can do is sit in their many pavilions and wait upon the Lord’s judgement. Perhaps that is not an inappropriate occupation in this church-towered town, to where, in 1798, Coleridge walked 11 miles from Nether Stowey to conduct services at Mary St. Chapel. There will be prayers today, too.And this evening the season will be done with. Both Championship and relegation will be decided and writers will be left to produce reviews of it all. Before long the players will depart for golf, for holidays with their families and for deserved rest.For over five months they have delighted and intrigued us. And perhaps it is only as the season closes that we fully appreciate the level of skill on show. Consider Jack Leach, for example: he is able to bowl a cricket ball so that it lands as often as not on a particular spot some 20 yards distant; not only that but the ball will be spinning away sharply from the batsman and looping with overspin so that the batsman may be deluded into thinking that it will land nearer to him than it eventually does.Or there is a batsman, James Hildreth, shall we say, who can hit a ball travelling at 80mph precisely between two fielders with, among many other arts, a turn of the wrists and a transference of weight. What complexity of brain, nerve and sinew is needed to do that? Only when you reflect on these skills is their full stature revealed; in the high days of summer they can be taken for granted or remarked upon only when absent.Something like this was noticed by the great essayist William Hazlitt in his classic 1821 essay :”Coming forward and seating himself on the ground in his white dress and tightened turban, the chief of the Indian Jugglers begins with tossing up two brass balls, which is what any of us could do, and concludes with keeping up four at the same time, which is what none of us could do to save our lives, nor if we were to take our whole lives to do it in. Is it then a trifling power we see at work, or is it not something next to miraculous?”

For over five months they have delighted and intrigued us. And perhaps it is only as the season closes that we fully appreciate the level of skill on show

And county players do these things for over five months of the summer in a wide variety of conditions against opponents whose skills are quite the equal of their own. Their efforts make up a pageant which bewitches their teams’ many supporters and causes them to follow their results even when living very far away.And to most county cricketers and supporters it is the Championship which matters most of all. As I am writing this the Stragglers Café below me is filled with Somerset supporters, all of them hoping against reason that nobody wins the game they are watching. You cannot move for wyverns on chests or anxious looks on faces. In 2012 the former Somerset committee member, Roy Harris, died but asked his grandson to promise that he would be present if his beloved county won the Championship. Yesterday the gentleman turned up at the latter stages of the match wearing his grandfather’s Somerset blazer. He had travelled from Iceland – the country, not the frozen-food joint.And this is the competition of which we must have less? This piece is being written by someone who has enjoyed T20 games and been amazed by the inventive skills on show. Yet also by someone who understood precisely what Stephen Chalke meant when he entitled his history of the County Championship .It is easy to be seduced by enmity or to assume that those who run the ECB are double-dyed malefactors with the game’s worst interests filling their evil minds. They are not like that. But they have done nothing for their case by failing to ask the current supporters of county clubs what they think of their ideas. Our masters look a little rude. For it is a curious plan which is predicated more on speculation as to who might attend cricket matches than the evidence of those who actually do. I’m not sure I would trust a doctor who told me my heart was not terribly important.Advertising boards are being removed from the County Ground. An area has already been roped off for later in the afternoon when players will either be consoled by the media or begin a celebration which will last until All Souls’ Day. But wherever the title ends up, cricket grounds are settling quietly into autumn and winter. Business will continue, of course. There will be conferences and Christmas parties. Press boxes will be filled with discussions of sales figures and exam papers; the members’ suites will be given over to wedding receptions and retirement do’s.Then spring will come, freezing cold as likely as not, but the players will still begin their outdoor practice in England. They will be back with their gripes and their groin strains, their-odd warm-ups and their lovable clichés, their absurd level of skill which they will offer us from April to September. Miranda was right, too. O brave new world that has such creatures in’t. And so we wait in this Tyrolean chalet of a press box at Taunton. Before us is perhaps the most-mentioned range of hills in county cricket. On the outfield Somerset’s cricketers are playing football with their children. Perhaps they cannot bear to watch the television. To our left is the full glory of St James’s and its churchyard, and behind us are the tree-thronged humps of the Blackdowns. Throughout the town people are talking about two sessions, chuck-ups and when Middlesex might pull out. It is no good saying that it will be easy to leave all this for another season but we are tougher than we think; and complex in ways beyond our imaginings.But then, you see, Prospero was correct in another respect, too. We are such stuff as dreams are made on.

Chris Donaldson, New Zealand’s strength and conditioning coach, talks about his Olympic career and working in cricket

Arun Venugopal22-Oct-2016When Chris Donaldson speaks, words bolt out of his mouth. He doesn’t so much speak as sprint through syllables. Quite like how he did on the track as an Olympic athlete.He was once called the “fastest man in New Zealand” and holds the national record in the 200m. He took part in two Olympics, Atlanta and Sydney, set his personal best in 100m at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, and at 32 became the oldest athlete to clinch the New Zealand 100m title.In Sydney in 2000, a 25-year-old Donaldson was at the prime of his career when he suffered an Achilles injury that required surgery. He still has a deep scar on his calf from it. “I kept going but it wasn’t the same after that,” he says.But the many injuries he faced through his athletics career brought him to his current job, in cricket, as New Zealand’s strength and conditioning coach.”[The injuries] really helped me understand athletes from both sides – from being an athlete as well as dealing with the athletes now,” Donaldson says.”And, the mental side of training – you know what it takes. You also know what it feels like to train. You experience doing all the things that go with the sprinting, so it was really a good learning experience for me. I had some great mentors.”In a season when New Zealand have toured Zimbabwe, South Africa, now India, and then head home to face Pakistan, Australia, Bangladesh and South Africa, the work Donaldson puts in with the players is crucial.”We really load them and then they taper off effectively when they are playing,” he says. “They are reliving [the conditions] now which we have created there. And we come over early sometimes to try and cope with the heat [in India].”Donaldson explains the process behind rehabilitating Corey Anderson, who played his first international game in the Dharamsala ODI earlier this month after being sidelined with a back injury for more than six months.Donaldson (right) runs the 200m race at the 1998 Commonwealth Games•Getty Images”This started four-five months ago and he has worked incredibly hard. He has worked in conjunction with the high performance group [staff]. There has been overall work in progress and building him. He has really been brilliant to come back to this level.”Donaldson’s theories involve invoking the Usain Bolt example of applying force as quickly as possible in the shortest possible time. It’s all about movement, he says.”Sprinting and running and all that stuff is about movement and efficiency of how you generate a lot of force and go forward. It is also about being able to handle that [the speed at which you apply force at the ground]. If you can apply [the force] you have to be able to handle that.”He believes it’s the force that breaks cricketers, which is why they need to manage the body, make it resilient and adaptable to cope with the workload.”Cricket is now full noise, all year around. There are amazing athletes in all the teams. You can’t control [how] the ball bounces and all that, but athleticism and training, you can control that.”He is not a big data person, he says, but tries to marry it with instinct when it comes to calibrating workloads for different cricketers. “I can actually show them, ‘Look, you started from here, now you are here. You are stronger, you are faster. You were here when we did speed test and now you are here.’ Just the basic stuff in understanding this is why we train, this is what the training will help in and that’s the outcome we have had. If you don’t understand or don’t have goals or reasons to do it then it becomes really tiring.”It was his athletics coach, Brent Ward, who got Donaldson interested in training sportspersons. Before coming to cricket, Donaldson had worked as a strength and conditioning consultant with the New Zealand Winter Olympic team and Otago Rowing and found the experiences enjoyable and fulfilling.”I had some wonderful people that helped me significantly in my life, working hard behind the scenes,” Donaldson says. “You realise I have been lucky enough since I have become strength and conditioning [coach]. You can see why coaches do it. It’s such a satisfying feeling to see [other] players and athletes do well.”Donaldson chats with coach Mike Hesson ahead of an ODI in Wellington, 2015•Getty ImagesBorn in Auckland, Donaldson grew up in Dunedin, and knows Mike Hesson, the Blackcaps coach, right from the days when Hesson was working with Otago Cricket. “Mike Hesson was the coach, and he was very kind to ask if I wanted to help out a bit [with Otago Cricket] and it developed from there.” In July 2011, Donaldson signed with the national side in a full-time role.He says the friendships he shares with the coaching staff – Hesson and bowling coach Shane Jurgensen – and physio Tommy Simsek have helped create a comfortable working environment.”I think it’s an open and honest kind of conversation that we had and we are trying to help each other. We are genuinely really good friends and we enjoy each other’s company. We just try to keep each other up to date.”While Donaldson had a normal New Zealand childhood playing many sports, he had an “interesting lifestyle” back at home. His father, Roger, is a film director with many successful ventures, like the Kevin Costner-Gene Hackman starrer and to his credit.”I grew up in New Zealand and Dad spent a lot of time in the US for his work. Dad still lives there. It’s just a job that happens to be well-known with regards to the movies that he makes.”Donaldson credits the “New Zealand system” that makes it easy to access different sporting facilities at school. Sprinting, though, was a passion aroused by the Olympic dream. “That was sort of my goal and then it just happened to be that I found it in sprinting.”Asked if he ever shows footage of himself or other elite athletes to motivate the New Zealand players, he laughs. “No, no, I think they seen enough. They love sports, all sports. They loved the Olympics recently and followed the New Zealand athletes. It’s better I am in the background.”

Aakash Chopra breaks down some of the technical talking points from Chepauk

Aakash Chopra18-Dec-2016Parthiv and the right length
The toughest thing to figure out for a fast bowler while bowling to Parthiv Patel is the right length. His stature allows him to go on the back foot quickly and, while he doesn’t get close to the ball when it is full, he is adept at playing on the up on the front foot. In addition to that, he is comfortable opening the face of the bat to get singles. The ideal length is to make him drive but the lack of lateral movement off the pitch makes it a difficult to go fuller often. The seamer’s pitch-map to Parthiv suggests that England’s bowlers tried too many things without sticking to any one method for long enough.Rahul and the impact of the IPL
KL Rahul’s young Test career can be divided in two halves — before and after the IPL. There has been a visible change in his approach after his successful season with RCB in 2016. Before, his strike rate in Tests was 47 but post-IPL it has shot up to 62 runs per hundred balls. The average number of balls he takes for a boundary stroke has also come down to 12 from 18. He started the second day in Chennai with two lofted shots against Liam Dawson and went on to reverse sweep Moeen Ali. While the world has moved back to more orthodox Test openers (David Warner is the only aberration), Rahul is taking a different path. In Tests, the technical aspect of batting overshadows the mental side of it but Rahul is highlighting the role mindset plays in the course you take. He hasn’t made any technical changes to bat more fluently–it’s just the mindset that has changed in last six months.Rashid fits a season into a tour (almost)
The criticism of England’s spinners has been about their accuracy, which imperative for penetration. While Indian pitches are spin-ready, the conditions still demand a spinner pound the same area ball after ball, over after over. Adil Rashid is England’s most successful bowler in this series but his economy rate suggests that he hasn’t been able to build enough pressure. Rashid has bowled 274.3 overs on England’s Asian tour, spread over nine weeks – almost as many as the 293.2 he sent down for Yorkshire in the county season (although his involvement was limited by England call-ups). Bowling at the highest level demands takes a lot out of your body and, perhaps in part due to his increased white-ball role, it seems Rashid isn’t used to this kind of workload.Ben Stokes removed Cheteshwar Pujara but only bowled seven overs on the third day•Associated PressCook’s problem of plenty
Ben Stokes didn’t bowl a single over in the first session. He bowled four in the second session and picked up a wicket in those 24 balls. After tea, he bowled three more overs before disappearing until the end of play. Right through this series, Alastair Cook hasn’t utilised his resources well. Having lots of options puts you in an enviable position but that can also cloud your decision-making with regards to using them judiciously.Rahul v Spin
Most good players against spin are either very nimble on the feet or use the sweep shot well. Rarely do you see players who are quick to go down the pitch and also are equally comfortable in employing the sweep shot, and Rahul is from that rare breed. In fact, there are very few Indian batsmen who prefer the sweep to tackle spin, let alone playing the reverse-sweep. He is not just eager to dance down the pitch but also has a fair amount of control on all variations of the sweep shot. Rahul’s overriding thought while facing spinners is to look for scoring opportunities, even if that meant taking a few risks.

Aakash Chopra examines the techniques of India’s centurions and praises Chris Woakes’ use of the crease in his analytical observations from the third day of the Rajkot Test

Aakash Chopra11-Nov-20161:09

Compton: Gut feeling was that Pujara lbw was out

Done in by the shine?Gautam Gambhir has changed his stance to avoid falling over and, while he has been getting runs, he has also been dismissed leg before twice in three Test innings since his return. The way he got out today was slightly strange because his new stance does not allow his front foot to fall across much. Strange things happen at the start of a new day and this was one of those things. But was it also a case of trusting the shine? The ball had started reversing in the 11th over and Gambhir had seen it from close quarters the previous evening. Perhaps that led him to assume that the ball would go away in the air, because the shiny side of the ball was towards the left-hander’s off side.Gautam Gambhir fell over and was trapped lbw, despite an open stance that was intended to avoid that outcome•Associated PressNimble-footed PujaraMooen Ali has bowled about 5 kph quicker than R Ashwin in this Test. In addition to the pace, he bowls a lot flatter. It is difficult to use your feet against him but Cheteshwar Pujara did so exceptionally well right from the beginning. He went down the pitch off the last ball of the 28th over and hit a boundary through midwicket. That caused Moeen to drop short in the first ball of his next over and Pujara helped himself to a boundary off the back foot.Bouncers bother PujaraDespite his tight defensive technique, Pujara was troubled by the bouncer on a number of occasions. While it is indeed tough to play bouncers on slow, low Indian pitches, Pujara’s problems against Chris Woakes had little to do with that. He has a slightly wide stance, which is followed by a forward stride in his trigger movement. His front foot points down the ground, but his leg still falls across slightly. The length of Pujara’s front-foot stride makes it difficult for him to rock back, and the across-movement leads to his upper body closing, leaving him with no option but to take the body blow if the ball tails back in.Cheteshwar Pujara’s wide stance and slight across movement make it tougher for him to handle bouncers•Associated PressWoakes uses the creaseIf the pitch is not offering much to fast bowlers, they have to do more in the air, and that is where using the crease to create angles comes in handy. Woakes was the pick of England’s bowlers and used the crease optimally. He went wide of the crease, both to bowl bouncers tailing back into the right-handed batsmen and to bowl full balls outside off that went away. To vary it up, he went close to the stumps and tried the same things, minus the bouncers. Vijay played him extremely well.Balance and patience underlie Vijay’s successBalance is Vijay’s biggest strength, because he does not have exaggerated foot movement, thereby keeping his limbs compact. Usually, players who do not move much tend to reach out with their hands, and that gets them in trouble. But Vijay know exactly where his off stump is and also has the patience to allow the ball to come to him. Once he leaves a lot of balls alone, bowlers are forced to bowl closer to him and that is how he thrives. But, for someone who can clear the ropes at will, Vijay displayed extraordinary patience to defend a lot of balls.

In what was possibly a direct shoot-out with Parthiv Patel for the India Test wicketkeeper’s spot, Wriddhiman Saha recovered after making a duck in the first innings in typically understated fashion

Arun Venugopal in Mumbai23-Jan-2017Wriddhiman Saha doesn’t get angry, but his family would rather he did. He is on Whatsapp, but send him a text longer than three lines and you will have lost his attention. Saha doesn’t wear hipster beards and endorse the most happening products. Nor is he colourfully coarse and earthy, like a Virender Sehwag or Praveen Kumar. Saha is the bank clerk you see at the Esplanade metro station or the salesman sipping under the Gariahat flyover. He is the ultimate everyman.Saha’s career has been about waiting. He has to wait for MS Dhoni’s retirement to find a permanent place in the Test side. Once there, you think he is in for good with his credentials as the best specialist wicketkeeper in the country and a solid lower-middle-order batsman.He is injured, but his captain and coach still back him as the team’s first-choice wicket-keeper. But his replacement, Parthiv Patel, has notched up a bunch of impressive performances. Now it is more a “happy headache” for the team rather than a straightforward choice.Saha once again has to wait, this time for his injured hamstring to heal.After two months of no first-class cricket, Saha comes back to what is probably a straight shoot-out with Parthiv for the Test wicketkeeper’s spot. The immediate stakes are five home Test matches against Bangladesh and Australia. Saha scores a duck in Rest of India’s first innings and puts a catch down in Gujarat’s second innings. The chairman of selectors, MSK Prasad, is at the Brabourne Stadium to watch the game. His colleague, Sarandeep Singh, is doubling up as Saha’s coach at Rest of India.With Parthiv managing only 11 and 32 – he is also a victim of bad luck after being wrongly given out caught at short leg in Gujarat’s second innings – Saha probably has one innings to break the tie. He comes out with his team on 63 for 4, needing 379 to win, and keeps hitting the ball in the air to smash an unbeaten 123. You expect him to play down the pressure of competing with Parthiv, and he does. But there is no fist-clenching, vein-bulging celebration after the hundred.There is no statement to make.”Even during my stint with Bengal, at no point do I feel that I will play for India if I do well,” he said at the end of the fourth day’s play in Mumbai. “I keep playing freely. He [Parthiv] is also trying his best, I am also trying. Whoever is selected, will play. It’s not like I have to perform today and prove a point.”Wriddhiman Saha is open to experimentation behind the stumps too•WICB Media Photo/Athelstan BellamyWhen he was asked if he was now the undisputed first-choice wicketkeeper, there was more candour in his delightful Bengali-inflected Hindi: “I don’t know. I just do my job and [leave it for those who are supposed to decide to decide].”On the surface, Saha may seem all vanilla, but there is no monotone to his cricketing smarts. He said his decision to counterattack was as calculated as it was pre-meditated. Saha stood well out of his crease to deny what he called the “five-feet advantage” to the bowlers. “In the first-innings we had seen that our wickets had been lost with the moving ball,” he said. “Even I got out that way. I told others in my team that I will attack initially. That worked and the bowlers started bowling shorter, which reduces the chances of being leg before or bowled.”Hitting along the ground was difficult here when compared to clearing the field, which was safer – if you time the ball, it’s surely a four. Before coming here, I played two-three practice matches during Bengal’s preparation for the T20 league. That helped me as well.”When I was playing my shots, Pujara told me to keep going because we needed runs. Had we played normally, we might not have got these many runs. [It also helped that Pujara was batting at the other end].”With his keeping, too, Saha is anything but “authentic”, and is open to experimentation. Saha now takes a step forward with his left foot that gives him momentum before settling into a final position. “I keep making minor changes [this way or that way],” he said.”Whatever I am comfortable with, I stick to it. Jyaada authentic or aise hi karna hai waise hi nahin [I don’t stick to authentic or set practices].”Saha spent nearly a month at the NCA in Bangalore on rehabilitation.Most of his time there was spent on doing strengthening exercises and running even as he kept close tabs on his India colleagues’ on-field performances. Wasn’t there ever a sense of frustration at missing out?Saha smiled and said staying calm was never an issue with him. “I never get angry or frustrated. Even if you ask my family members they would say it’s a problem that I don’t get angry.”All the while, though, Saha kept in touch with his team-mates, and where else but on Whatsapp. A journalist playfully asks him if he can be added to the group, and Saha earnestly replies that he has to ask the media manager’s permission. “We do have a WhatsApp group, [it is there everywhere now],” he said. “So we do keep chatting. I was keeping in touch with the team. But generally I try and stay away from things like Whatsapp. I don’t even read any message that’s longer than three-four lines.”

Is Baz the victim of cyber-bullying by fellow cricketers? Find out in our Twitter round-up

Alex Bowden20-Jan-2017We know you’ve all spent many years pondering Rob Key’s position on snow.Finally, let the truth be revealed!

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And, to put that into context…

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So, should you ever happen across Rob at a winter wedding, don’t air kiss him and then ask him if he fancies a dance outside.This column heartily endorses all of his selections, incidentally. Especially number four.As well as providing insight into cricketers’ positions on meteorological phenomena, Twitter can also give us a glimpse of the lifestyle of a professional athlete.The key to being a top-level cricketer is to train hard.

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He doesn’t state it explicitly, but Kieron really showed The Big Wedge who was boss during that day’s session.In contrast, the key to being a retired top-level cricketer is to relax hard.

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Tough times.It’s also important to find new interests.

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Cricketer food?

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No, not that. Try again.

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Yes, that’s cricketer food. Quite subtle as these tweets go, but there’s no mistaking that restaurant.But time away from the game is only fun when it’s not enforced by the governing body. No cricketer welcomes a suspension.However, it seems that one of their main gripes is simply that it’s an unimaginative form of punishment.

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There isn’t enough multi-tasking in those suggestions for our tastes. Perhaps they could have taken inspiration from their coach.

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Finally, it’s in-flight selfie time – but we’ll leave you with a question.Are they in a helicopter?

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Atif Mashal, the chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board, talks about his plans for cricket in the country during his tenure

Interview by Peter Della Penna28-Apr-20173:01

‘Cricket is a tool for peace-building’

What made you want to leave working in Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani’s office to come into cricket administration?
I worked with the government for two and a half years, but my love for cricket and interest in cricket made me come into this field. I applied for the position because cricket is my hobby and I was thinking how to support cricket in Afghanistan. Cricket is not only a game in Afghanistan. It is a tool for peace-building and unity. We are a post-war country. After four decades of war, we really need something to unite our people, to use it as a peace tool. So that’s why it was very, very important for me.You say it is a passion. How did you first develop a love for cricket?

When I was a refugee in Pakistan, I was in grade seven and we would play cricket in our primary school. We had a small ground. I was always skipping my classes to play cricket with the tennis ball. Then we moved to Peshawar and I was playing there with a tennis ball. That was my hobby, always skipping classes and going to a cricket ground. I was not that good bowling or batting, but from my early childhood I was very involved with cricket and always loved the game. At that time we didn’t have TVs, so we were listening to radios when there was a match with Pakistan and someone – India or Australia.What is the No. 1 objective you want to accomplish as chairman?
It’s a few things, not just one thing. First, I want to develop our administration. Our team is performing very well but we need to balance it with administration in our board.Second, I will be providing more technical support for our national team, because they are on a very good stage, [targeting] Full Membership. So in this stage my main focus is how to maintain the sustainability of our team. It’s an important thing. Being a good team is one thing but keeping the sustainability of a good team is a tough job and I am committed to keeping my team sustainable in this stage and improving it more.Third, we will be investing in our infrastructure. We have submitted a US$10 million budget to the government, and hopefully they help us in that, to build five stadiums and five national academies in five regions. By this we can develop our domestic cricket, which is the backbone of our future.

“No one targets players. Our government supports them and provides a safe haven for them, but even the people fighting the government won’t target the players”

Finally, I want to introduce cricket to all Afghan provinces. In some provinces, we don’t have that much cricket so I will be working on that.Female cricket is another objective that I have. In our country, there are traditional and religious issues, so we will be very careful of that as well, but in the meantime we will be focusing on this team. The First Lady of the country is much interested to support this area and I will be doing my best to make her help us in this regard.As great as Afghanistan cricket has been on the field, it has been exclusively tied to men’s and U-19 cricket. At the games Afghanistan has played in the UAE, they draw 6000 fans or more, but almost every single one is a male spectator. I know you mentioned there are cultural reasons but what can be done to help change the mindset, among men and women, to encourage women to not only pick up a bat and play but to be spectators too?
First, we have to start from schools. I have discussed with ICC as well – our plan is to introduce female cricket first to schools, because in schools we have infrastructure, we have small grounds and we can spend more money to build infrastructure. That’s a very safe area for females. In a traditional and religious society, males and females cannot play together, so we have to think about separate infrastructure for females. We already have interested females in Herat, Kunduz, Kabul, already playing cricket but with limited access. We don’t have infrastructure. So that is why I [want] to pave the way and provide more facilities for females.About the fans and support, we have our female MPs, they are very supportive. They are always with us in big events. In Kabul we have the Shpageeza tournament. You can see hundreds of women coming there and watching cricket, enjoying and giving support to the teams, but again, we need more facilities and more infrastructure – separate ones, because it’s a stage-by-stage thing, and I will not go radical. I will be taking steps gradually, but I am very committed to this area.”Cricket is not only a game in Afghanistan. It is a tool for peace-building and unity”•Afghanistan Cricket BoardHow much money do you want to invest in women’s cricket?
In Herat we have already planned $1 million to invest in a ground. In Kunduz we will spend $500,000 and in the centre we will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide them facilities, equipment, give them some tours and training.Just to clarify for people who may not be as familiar with the cultural nuances, you’re saying you need to build separate grounds and facilities for men and women because men and women cannot access or share the same facilities even if they are using them on different days? So then won’t you essentially have to raise twice the funds, because instead of having one facility used by both teams, you have to build two separate ones?
It’s not in every aspect. We may need a separate academy, not a giant academy. We may have a separate practice ground but we may use the [same] general ground for big matches. So in some aspects we need separate infrastructure, like academies, small grounds, gyms. [Women] will be using the Kabul ground, they will be using Herat specifically for them, but sometimes males may use it. I am thinking about practice infrastructure like academy, gym, swimming pool; these should be separate.For the $10 million proposal submitted to the government – where do you forecast the bulk of that money being spent?
Mainly on infrastructure. We will build five stadiums. Some will be newly built, like in Herat for females, and some we will develop. In five national academies, they’ll be equipped with PitchVision and other modern technical equipment. Plus some equipment for the ACB main office.The budget is coming from the government. Alokazay, our main sponsor, will be spending money on our Kabul ground. We are planning to expand the Kabul ground. The government is very supportive to give us more ground close to the Kabul stadium. So we’ll be developing it to a capacity of 20,000, and 2000 will be a separate stand for females, with separate facilities. Alokozay is very supportive of Afghanistan cricket. They have always supported the ACB and we are happy to have them on our side.

“I will not allow any political figure on any level to be involved in the cricket board or to have influence on the cricket board”

How does the issue of player safety within Afghanistan – Shapoor Zadran was allegedly targeted in a shooting in January and the father of Mohammad Nabi was kidnapped and held for ransom in 2013 – affect your development plans in terms of building infrastructure if Afghanistan can’t play at home or host international cricket?
Cricket is the only game. All parties love it. I don’t see any enemies for our players. No one will target them.In Nabi’s case, it was an economic crime. His father is a famous man and they have a big business. It had nothing to do with cricket. In the case of Shapoor, our investigation showed he was not the target. I was very serious asking the government to investigate it. If it was an attack, I want security for my players, and they proved it was not a real attack. It was about his friends, and it was incidental that he happened to be there.The security situation is completely different for players. No one targets them. Our government supports them and provides a safe haven for them, but even the people fighting the government won’t target the players.We had a match in Khost province, a border province. There were 80,000 people who came to the game and everything finished without security, so it means no one is targeting cricketers. The only thing that is safe is cricket.Our players live in very remote areas. Nawroz Mangal lives in a very remote area of Khost, in the mountains, and in that part the government is not in control, but I haven’t heard any complaints. So I assure you that Afghanistan is a safe place for cricket. We can assure all international players that if they are coming for a game, they will be secure. In Shpageeza tournament we had guest players from Zimbabwe, Pakistan, and this time we will have from other countries as well, so it shows that we don’t have a security problem, especially for cricket.”Female cricket is another objective that I have […] Our plan is to introduce female cricket first to schools”•Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty ImagesYou own Kabul Eagles, which is one of the first-class franchises in the domestic league. How long have you been doing that for and what can you take from that experience that will help you in your role on the Afghanistan board?
Kabul Eagles, that was my hobby. I bought that team and fortunately they reached the semi-final in their first year, and last year they won the cup. It’s not the only thing that gives me experience in cricket. I was very closely involved with ACB and I was helping them when I was in the [presidential] palace. I knew the politics of cricket in Afghanistan. I was in the picture of all involved parties. I personally know the players from the last two years, and I know the administrative staff, so I know the positive and negative points of the cricket board, the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. So this will help me to fix things.Kenya is frequently used as an example of what can go wrong on and off the field after reaching a comparatively high level for an Associate. So what needs to be fixed and cleaned up to improve administratively to avoid the same fate?
Our team is much [better] than our administration.We don’t have management information system assistance. We will introduce human resources MIS and some other administrative steps will be taken. We need some technical people in our development department, because infrastructure is the main thing for me. When I leave ACB after three years, I want to have a great legacy for Afghanistan in stadiums, grounds and academies. These are the areas I will be focusing on because I want to balance administration with team performance.First, we have to keep the sustainability and strength of our administration.We will keep working and focusing on the strengths of our players and providing them opportunities to focus on their strengths.

“I really believe in the talent of our players. We have very good youngsters. Our domestic cricket is amazing”

We will keep cricket away from political involvement. Any time there is politics in cricket, the status of cricket [meets its] demise. I will not allow any political figure on any level to be involved in the cricket board or to have influence on the cricket board. We will select players on a merit basis, not based on relations or support they have in the government. We will keep going as per our strategy, not as per the political demands of the country. We will make sure the cricket board is independent, out of politics, and a merit-based institution. These things will sustain our cricket.Where do you hope to see Afghanistan cricket in three years’ time at the scheduled end of your term?
I want to see Afghanistan as a Full Member, a Test cricket nation, and No. 5 in the rankings. I want to see Afghanistan having international-standard stadiums, grounds and academies. The talent I see in our boys, I am pretty sure that we will acquire the [ranking] but it is up to the administration how they can support ACB to have infrastructure.I really believe in the talent of our players. We have very good youngsters. Our domestic cricket is amazing. You can see new names in no time that will be joining our national team, our U-19s. These are assets that we naturally have, and I will be doing my best to provide infrastructure, equipment and technical support to players.I will be very happy to see Afghanistan getting Full Membership and Test status, and to see we are hosting other Full Member countries and we are playing cricket with them, because cricket in countries like Afghanistan, which is a post-war country, is a very good tool for unity and for peace-building.

The CoA has not been adamant in its discussions with other boards over the new ICC constitution, but the BCCI will be represented at the ICC meetings by its secretary, who is part of the old order

Nagraj Gollapudi23-Apr-2017Will the BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhury adopt the conciliatory approach established by the Committee of Administrators when he represents the Indian board at this week’s round of ICC meetings? Or will Choudhury, a loyalist of former BCCI president N Srinivasan, be confrontational like previous Indian administrators have been?The new ICC constitution – the focal point of next week’s meetings – was approved in principle in February but the BCCI, represented then by CoA member Vikram Limaye, was one of two boards to vote against it.Limaye had criticised the governance structure reforms, and in particular the proposed financial model because the BCCI’s share of ICC revenue is considerably reduced. The objections have since been spelt out in detail and sent to the ICC. To a large extent, the fate of the new ICC constitution will depend on how the BCCI approaches this meeting.Over the last two months, the heads of several boards have travelled to India to meet the CoA to try and ensure the BCCI isn’t hostile at the April meetings. Though CoA members, Vinod Rai and Limaye, and BCCI CEO Rahul Johri have expressed reservations to the draft constitution, they said they would try and resolve the issues amicably. Their conciliatory approach is in sharp contrast to that of past BCCI office-bearers, a difference that hasn’t been lost on other Full Member boards. They came across as a set of officials without “agenda or baggage,” said one visitor.Contrary to public perception of not being strong, however, the CoA and Johri have bargained hard and not compromised the BCCI’s interests.”The rest of the ICC Board could have easily said you can object but we will get the reforms done,” one official said. The fact that board heads travelled to India for meetings suggested, as one member director said, that the “importance of India” remains. And every visitor was given the message that, “if India lose something it is bad for everybody.” They were also told the BCCI would like to resolve the issues beforehand rather than take it to a vote during the meetings.This week, however, Choudhury will be attending the ICC meetings as the BCCI representative, a decision taken by the Supreme Court of India. And the relationship between the CoA and the board’s office bearers has been difficult because of the issue of the implementation of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations.Though both parties have started communicating better, tensions are unavoidable: the office bearers insist the BCCI should be run according to the old order in which they have the power and authority. They have refused to abide by the Supreme Court order that approved the Lodha Committee recommendations; the CoA has been tasked with supervising the BCCI while those recommendations are implemented.All three BCCI office bearers – Choudhury, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and president CK Khanna – have submitted affidavits in court saying they will adhere to the order and work under CoA supervision. But in reality they say they are empowered by and answerable to the state associations, who want to take a divergent path to the CoA.Before Choudhury left for Dubai on Friday, the CoA sought a meeting with him to ascertain what stance he would take during negotiations with ICC directors. Choudhury is understood to have said that he would either ask the ICC board to defer the decision on the new constitution, or oppose it if it went to a vote. When the CoA said that a “rigid mandate” would run into difficulties, Choudhury said he would speak to other boards.”If they go for an extreme position they will be outvoted,” one ICC director said. “Why would the other countries agree to defer any decision to June? They – other Full Members – would instead think this is their best chance to get whatever they can.”A top official of another board, who has been in touch with the CoA and Johri, said Choudhury could not afford to stall matters. The official said that most members on the ICC Board were united in pushing for the new constitution to get approved. “What this gentleman (Choudhury) might want to do is use the delaying tactic. I don’t believe anybody will want that to be case. You cannot go into June and still not know. It needs to be decided in April.”The CoA and Johri have tried to gain support at the ICC through engagement and subtle tactic, not through coercion. Will Choudhury play ball?

After missing most of the first half of 2017 due to a serious knee injury, the classy Smriti Mandhana made a sensational comeback in India’s World Cup opener

Annesha Ghosh25-Jun-2017If there was anything noticeably different to the Smriti Mandhana on Saturday in Derby from the Mandhana who had first toured England in 2014, it was only the contact lenses.In the brief history of televised women’s matches, it was the first time that Mandhana had come in to bat without her glasses. Even though their absence may have robbed her of some of the trademark sincerity that her facial expression under the helmet has come to bear, the glint in her eyes never shone more fiercely than it did at India’s 2017 Women’s World Cup opener against England, as she smashed a match-winning 72-ball 90 to set up India’s 35-run win.It was not only Mandhana’s World Cup debut but also her official comeback innings after a five-month injury layoff. A ruptured anterior cruciate ligament sustained during the second edition of the WBBL on January 15 had ended her WBBL stint prematurely. However, by her own admission, what was more disappointing was to miss out on the Women’s World Cup Qualifier in February and the Quadrangular series victory in South Africa last month.With the injury having almost jeopardized her participation in the World Cup, Mandhana made a point in her Player-of-the-Match acceptance speech to reiterate her gratefulness to her coach, Anant Tambwekar, and to the medical team at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. She had spent the greater part of the last five months at the NCA, recovering under physiotherapist Yogesh Parmar and trainers Anand Date and Rajinikanth.”The last four and a half months have been tough for me and I am really thankful to the NCA, Anant sir, Yogesh sir, whoever made it possible for me to play this match,” Mandhana said. “Those were really tough four and a half, five months, but if we do well at the World Cup, it’s going to pay off.”Stumbling into Mandhana during her rehabilitation at the NCA in late March would be the then India Women’s head coach Purnima Rau, who was attending a coaches’ training programme at the academy, under the Representative (Level 2) courses jointly organised by the BCCI and Cricket Australia. Upon finding Mandhana in the training arena, Rau would watch her go through the brisk-walking and running sessions as she tried to regain fitness step by step.”There was a steely resolve in her eyes,” Rau recounts. “Though she was going through the rehab, that look was always there. It was something very powerful, you know, that hunger to break through the bleak phase… you could see it.”Rau’s words resonated well with the single-minded irreverence that Mandhana, the No. 38-ranked batsman in Women’s ODIs dished out to the No. 4-ranked bowler, Katherine Brunt. The first ball Mandhana faced, a short ball angled into her hips, was swatted for a one-bounce four behind square.Mandhana played a near carbon-copy pull off Brunt to the midwicket boundary on the second ball of the fourth over before three caressed back-foot drives to the off-side rope ended a 16-run frame. It was a reprise of the back-foot dominance Mandhana displayed against the Australian medium pace duo of Ellyse Perry and Holly Ferling during her maiden ODI century in Hobart last year.The treatment Mandhana meted out to Natalie Sciver was no different. Replacing Brunt to bowl the sixth over, Sciver repeated the same mistake as Brunt by going short with her first ball to Mandhana, who rocked onto the back foot to greet her with a pulled six over midwicket, and a smile down the pitch. Three balls later, Mandhana was merciless to a fractionally short delivery, scything it over the leg side for one more boundary.Mandhana was ruthless to Nat Sciver’s first delivery, pumping a pull over midwicket for six•Getty ImagesMandhana would consign the other medium-pacers – England vice-captain Anya Shrubsole and Jenny Gunn – to a similar fate. The shot that Mandhana played to bring up a 45-ball half-century, a lofted drive off Gunn over extra cover, was all grace and little menace.In an interview to ESPNcricinfo ahead of the World Cup, India captain Mithali Raj had said Mandhana’s reintegration into the top order may not be easy, owing to the consistency shown at the top by fellow youngsters Deepti Sharma and Mona Meshram.However, given that Mandhana had “scored a lot of runs in England in 2014”, Raj hoped the now 20-year-old “will be among the runs in the World Cup”. It is this faith in Mandhana’s experience and efficacy in overseas conditions that may have led Raj to pick her in the tournament opener, alongside both Deepti and Meshram.When asked about Mandhana finding fluency on her comeback innings, Shantha Rangaswamy, the former chairperson of the BCCI women’s selection committee, did not express much incredulity.”If you assess the caliber of this girl, this knock doesn’t come as a surprise,” Rangaswamy said. “She is one of the most focused youngsters in the side, and has been so all through; else she wouldn’t have been able to rise through the ranks so easily. She has worked hard to get past that injury – both mentally and physically.”Rau echoed Rangaswamy in her assessment that there is a depth in Mandhana’s head-space that she can plumb at will. It is almost as if Mandhana can summon something “very powerful, very mystical” from the recesses of her mind to negate any physical pain, any sort of defeat.”As a coach, one of the first things I had noticed in Smriti is her aggression,” Rau said. “It is not the usual full-of-animation kind of aggression, but a quiet and latent one. When she puts her mind to something, she’ll want to give it all, come what may. No matter what the situation – low, high, pain, no pain – under all circumstances, she’ll give her 100%. She may stutter, she may fall, but she’ll keep going against all odds.”Rau had seen Mandhana from close quarters when she had injured her shoulder in the third T20I against Australia at the SCG last year, prior to the three-match ODI series. Mandhana was forced to sit out the first ODI in Canberra, but took less than a week to recover and made it back into the starting XI for that second ODI in Hobart where she notched her maiden ODI century.”The resilience she showed in that Hobart hundred is not something you get to see every day, or from everyone,” Rau said. “Her ability to zone-out pain is incredible. [It] speaks volumes about her character and not just her talent.”In that ODI in Hobart, she had forged a 150-run second-wicket stand with Raj, plundering 11 fours during her 109-ball 102. Against England on Saturday, she put on 144 for the opening wicket with Punam Raut, bashing as many fours and two sixes during her 72-ball knock.Outside of missing a ton by just 10 runs, the only other blemish for Mandhana on the day came when she limped off the field in the 16th over of England’s innings with a left leg injury. Mandhana had put in a sliding stop on the square leg boundary in an effort to prevent a four by Sciver and it initially appeared that she may have reinjured the same left knee that kept her out for most of the year. Mandhana said afterward it was not the knee but rather a slight hamstring strain and was hopeful of being fit for India’s next match on Thursday against West Indies.Perhaps the hunger for making it back to the XI that kept her going through the layoff spurred her on to a comeback of this kind. That it was in England, where an 18-year-old Mandhana had announced herself on the world stage with a half-century on Test debut plus a fifty in her first ODI on foreign soil, was particularly fitting.”There is something very deep about this girl, something very strong,” Rau says. “There’s a measure of quality tinged to her batting and her career… a degree of class. Wherever she finishes, at the end of the road, that quality tinge will be there.”