Lizelle Lee’s return could revitalise their batting ahead of bigger challenges

Firdose Moonda05-Mar-2022″Take the point and let’s go.”That was Marizanne Kapp’s message to her team-mates after South Africa beat Bangladesh by 32 runs in their World Cup opener.The final wicket of Fariha Trisna was Kapp’s first of the match. But her celebrations were minimal, to the point of being mildly annoyed. She stood with hands on her knees, with exhaustion writ on her face. She had the expression of someone who knew this performance did not go according to plan.They came into the World Cup on the back of five consecutive series wins, but South Africa were rusty and just managed to drag themselves past 200 on a slow surface. For more than a while, it appeared as if they were unlikely to defend their score.Coach Hilton Moreeng put some of it down to “nerves,” but also acknowledged South Africa were “sloppy” and that it wont be good enough against better teams. Sune Luus, meanwhile, wanted them to get bigger scores.Ayabonga Khaka celebrates her 100th ODI wicket•ICC via GettyUnlike New Zealand, West Indies or Australia, South Africa didn’t have a centurion in their innings. Since their arrival in New Zealand, they have looked rusty. They lost both their warm-ups and failed to cross 250 in their first game. No one managed to top Kapp’s 42.Tazmin Brits has made 21 runs in three innings on tour, No.3 Lara Goodall has scored 41 and No. 5 Mignon du Preez has made 36. Without Lizelle Lee, who arrived late following the birth of her first child, the batting has stumbled.Moreeng knows they are capable of better. “It’s not a concern, more a frustration because we know what the players who find themselves in these positions are capable of,” he said. “The players in this position are capable of a lot more. They also know that.”Lee should be back to take her place at the top of the order for South Africa’s next match against Pakistan. Moreeng, for one, doesn’t believe she is short on practice “She has been training, even when she was at home with her family,” he said. “And knowing the player that she is, she will want to jump straight into it.”But South Africa will expect more from the likes of Goodall and du Preez to back up what Luus believes is a “great bowling attack.” Despite periods where they seemed to drift away, with the new-ball pair lacking bite, South Africa pulled themselves back thanks to Ayabonga Khaka’s consistency.Khaka took 4 for 32, including her 100th in the format. She was able to execute in conditions Moreeng believed suited Bangladesh’s style of play more. “Ayabonga has been one of the unsung heroes of this attack,” he said.”She has been one of those very consistent cricketers, she is quite economical and has worked extremely hard around her game and how to improve. She is a very good student of the game, she assesses conditions really well, as well as opposition. Maybe that’s what gives her the edge.”South Africa move to the Bay Oval for their next match against Pakistan on March 11. It’s a venue where run-scoring may be a little quicker, but they have work to do in other departments too.They were lethargic in the field, and dropped two catches, while Bangladesh were energetic and kept the pressure on. For a side on their World Cup debut, there appeared few signs of nerves in the Bangladesh camp.Eventually, South Africa still managed to get out of jail courtesy Kapp. “The important thing was to make sure we get the job done on the day,” Moreeng said. ” As we go along in the World Cup, we will start improving and everyone will start seeing what they are capable of.”

Playing against a team they have often put on a pedestal, the hosts’ use of spin was baffling, yielding little reward

Danyal Rasool12-Mar-2022If there is one thing you know about Pakistan cricket, it is that just about everyone in a position of influence respects Australian cricket. The Prime Minister wants to copy their domestic structure. The chairman wants to reproduce their pitches. And of course, their , which, when the chairman says it, can mean almost anything you want it to mean.And the captain called them the “best side in the world”. Which may be technically true, but you just know Babar Azam didn’t spend any time looking at the ICC rankings website before uttering those words. He was instead speaking what is imprinted on the psyche of Pakistan cricket supporters: a collective belief in Australian supremacy.There is merit to most of those points, of course, but idolising a cricket structure to that distinctly odd level of worship is perhaps less than ideal when you have to play the side you have placed on that pedestal. And when, two sessions into a Test match that was still nip and tuck, Pakistan walked out onto the field alongside Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith, it felt inescapably like Pakistan didn’t just revere Australia, they also feared them.Related

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The game – a Test match, remember – was just 54 overs old. The last 13 overs – ten of which were bowled by seamers – had allowed just 16 runs, and Pakistan had begun to wrest back some of the control they had ceded to a brisk start by Australia’s openers. The destination of the first day’s spoils felt very much like it was yet to be determined in what should have been an absorbing final session.Rather, as it turned out, Australia didn’t have to fight for those spoils so much as they watched them handed over meekly on a golden platter. Gone, completely, were Shaheen Afridi and Faheem Ashraf who had asphyxiated the visitors before tea. Absent too was Hasan Ali, at a time when the aging ball should have given him the greatest opportunity to go searching for reverse swing.Instead, a small pocket of fans watched bemused as Babar let Sajid Khan, the most expensive bowler on the day, bowl alongside Nauman Ali, who had been about as incisive as a newborn’s teeth. Even Azhar Ali and Babar himself would come on to bowl as Pakistan locked their quicker bowlers out of the game in wait for the second new ball. On just five occasions have Pakistan bowled more spin inside the first 80 overs of a Test in Pakistan.Mohammad Rizwan, who emerged for the post-match presser, perhaps for no other reason than because he might have drawn the shortest straw, explained that Pakistan had been worried about Australia’s brisk scoring rate.”They won the toss, which was quite important,” he said. “They have capitalised on winning the toss and batting first. They scored runs with the new ball. The pitch was dry. They capitalised on that by putting on 100 runs in the first session. We had to dry the runs. This is not negativity.”A lot of teams employ this tactic, and I thought our bowlers came back very well. You should play according to the way the situation demands. Their run rate was very good because they played well in the first session, and we had to dry the runs.”

“The pitch is similarly slow [to Rawalpindi]. But I think it will offer turn and will produce a result because it will offer help to spinners”Mohammad Rizwan defended his bowlers after the first day’s play

There was merit to that, though Afridi and Faheem had pulled things back fairly well in the hour before tea. It had been a stiflingly hot day, and Babar’s desire to keep his attack fresh for the new ball was evident. However, having the extra seamer in Ashraf, an option they did not have in Rawalpindi, meant the pace bowlers were never in serious danger of being overworked. But with Australia up against them and the memory of that belligerent first session fresh in their mind, Pakistan reverted immediately to what came naturally against Australia: timorous self-preservation.Rizwan defended the bowlers, but insisted Test cricket sometimes called for flexibility in approach. “Test cricket is such where sometimes, they’ll have the ascendancy and other times us. We tried, but sometimes you don’t get any assistance from the pitch no matter what you do,” he said.”Our bowlers tried really hard. Shaheen Afridi tried to go short to the batters but he wasn’t getting anything. The situation doesn’t always go your way. The pitch is similarly slow [to Rawalpindi]. But I think it will offer turn and I think it will produce a result because it will offer help to the spinners.”Unless there is a remarkable inversion of history, that result – should it come – is most likely an Australian win. In 17 games where Australia have posted in excess of 350 while batting first against Pakistan, they have triumphed in 12 without ever losing one. At 251 for 3, it will take a brilliant first session from Pakistan to keep that first-innings total under check. A session that requires a bit more bravery and – with any luck – a lot less respect.

On Tuesday night, Livingstone hit the longest six of IPL 2022 so far, of 117 metres

Nagraj Gollapudi04-May-2022Punjab Kings’ captain Mayank Agarwal couldn’t believe what he had just seen. His expression, eyes popping, was not very different from that of most others at DY Patil Stadium on Tuesday evening when Liam Livingstone tonked the longest six of IPL 2022 so far: a 117-metre monster.It was a 134.7kph length delivery from Mohammed Shami, and Livingstone sent it sailing so high into the night sky that it seemed like the ball had gone over the stadium roof behind the deep square-leg boundary.Livingstone wore a “what the …” expression after the hit, which changed to a laugh almost immediately. Shami went from a wry smile to a chuckle as he walked back to his mark.Graeme Smith, on air, called it a “monster”, “one of the biggest” he had ever seen. Talking on ESPNcricnfo’s T20 Time Out afterwards, Aakash Chopra said the hit should be awarded eight runs.

You know what a block shot is?
No, absolutely not! I told you this all along: there is no time for blocks in T20 cricket.The Rabada-Livingstone exchange

Livingstone hits sixes for a living; fans and bowlers talk about them for long afterwards. That is why Kings bought the England allrounder for INR 11.5 crore (US$ 1.533 million approx.) at the February auction, their most expensive buy this time. Livingstone has shown why he is worthy of the price: apart from being among the top-ten scorers this IPL [till May 3], he is only behind Shikhar Dhawan in the run tally for Kings, going at an average of over 32 and a strike rate of 186.62.The strike rate of 300 in his unbeaten ten-ball 30 against Titans was the fifth-highest so far this season for an innings of 25 runs or more. Livingstone has 23 sixes so far in the tournament, only behind Jos Buttler’s 36. He has also hit 21 fours, giving him a boundary every 3.6 balls – that is the highest for any batter with a cut-off of 150 balls faced.Livingstone is so ruthless that he has no mercy for bowlers even in training. As Kagiso Rabada, team-mate at Kings, revealed in a short but entertaining chat with Livingstone on iplt20.com after the win against Titans. Rabada himself has suffered at Livingstone’s hands, being smashed for three consecutive sixes at the T20 World Cup 2021 in Sharjah. The first of those, measured at 112 metres, was the longest six of the World Cup.Rabada: Talk us through that six.
Livingstone: Yeah, it’s nice to get one off the middle actually. I think it might have been as big as the one that I hit you for in Sharjah.Rabada: Yeah, but I also got him out. [Dwaine Pretorius actually got Livingstone’s wicket on that occasion.]
Livingstone: But, no, it was nice. It’s been a while since I got one properly out of the scooter.Rabada: You know what a block shot is?
Livingstone: No, absolutely not! I told you this all along: there is no time for blocks in T20 cricket.Rabada: There we go. I’ve seen it in the nets. First two balls he faces, he tries to smash them. Other day in the nets, I don’t know who was bowling to him, he faces the first two balls, (and) he says: “that’s ten off two”.

She is the most capped player in women’s cricket. She has the most runs. And the most 50-plus scores too

Sampath Bandarupalli08-Jun-202210,868 Runs scored by Mithali Raj across all three formats in international cricket, the most by any woman. She also holds the record for the most 50-plus scores (93) in women’s internationals.

Curiously, they didn’t lose a single match to teams that didn’t make the playoffs but lost each time to the ones that did

Hemant Brar28-May-2022Where they finished

Lucknow Super Giants were tied with Rajasthan Royals on 18 points at the end of the league stage, but their inferior net run rate meant they finished third, and had to play the Eliminator, which they lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore.Season in a nutshell
For a side making its first appearance in the IPL, qualifying for the playoffs was an excellent result. At the auction, they had packed their squad with allrounders and, therefore, were never short of bowling options in any situation. However, their batting largely revolved around captain KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock and Deepak Hooda, and at times, they seemed to be missing a proper middle-order enforcer. But it could also be argued that they failed to utilise Evin Lewis and Marcus Stoinis properly.Super Giants had a lopsided record when it came to winning. When batting first, they won seven out of eight games, but they were successful only twice in seven chases. Similarly, against the teams that didn’t make it to the playoffs, they won nine out of nine games. Against those who did, they lost all six.Questionable move
Rahul’s lack of intent with the bat in the Eliminator. Despite possessing extra gears, he dragged along for 79 off 58 balls when his side was chasing 208. Eventually, Super Giants fell short by 14, and Rahul’s knock only added more fuel to his critics, who have long held that he should look to bat quicker and not necessarily longer.4:18

Bishop: Mohsin has been very good across different phases in the IPL

Find of the season
Mohsin Khan emerged as one of the most impressive Indian seamers – capped or uncapped – in the tournament. His height, the left-arm angle, the hard lengths, and seam movement made it difficult for batters to score off him. He bowled the heavy ball as well as the slower ones and picked up 14 wickets from nine games. His economy of 5.96 was second only to Sunil Narine’s 5.57 (among those who bowled at least ten overs in the tournament).Notable mentions
Hooda had his most successful IPL season to date, notching up 451 runs at an average of 32.21 and a strike rate of 136.66. He batted everywhere from No. 3 to No. 6 but never looked out of position. Avesh Khan continued his good form with the ball. Despite missing two games with a niggle, he finished as the leading wicket-taker for Super Giants with 18 strikes at an economy of 8.72.

Less than a year after Australia won it for the first time, we’re all set for another edition of the tournament. We’ve put together some FAQs for you

Himanshu Agrawal15-Oct-2022So, another T20 tournament, eh?
Yes, but this is the big one. Sure, the BBL-IPL-PSL-CPL-BPL-Hundred (we must be forgetting a couple) are big deals too (some bigger than others, admittedly), and soon there will be at least two more – the SAT20 and the ILT20 – to add to the list. Don’t forget the Asia Cup as well. But this is the cup that counts for more than all the others.Okay, I’m hooked – tell me more …
It’s the eighth edition of the T20 World Cup. The first one was back in 2007 in South Africa, and it was India’s victory there that gave birth to today’s franchise cricket phenomenon. A few players from that tournament – Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Shakib Al Hasan and Sean Williams – are part of this one too, 15 years later. India haven’t got their hands on the trophy since 2007, and it’s been passed on from Pakistan (2009) to England (2010), West Indies (2012 and 2016), Sri Lanka (2014), and now the current champions Australia (2021).Has the T20 World Cup been held in Australia before?
No, the ODI World Cup has been held in Australia in 1992 and 2015, but this is the first time they are hosting the T20 World Cup. It was supposed to be held there in 2020, but then the Covid-19 pandemic happened. So it’s happening two years later and Australia have the chance to defend their title at home.Dates and venue details, please?
It starts on October 16 in Geelong in the state of Victoria, with the final in Melbourne on November 13. The other host cities are Hobart, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide – the who’s who of Australian venues.Okay, what’s the format?
It’s the same as last year. The meaty part of the T20 World Cup is called the Super 12, comprising 12 teams – like it says on the tin. Eight of the 12 have qualified directly for this round – Australia, England, New Zealand and Afghanistan in Group 1; and Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and South Africa in Group 2. The Super 12 stage begins on October 22, with last year’s finalists Australia and New Zealand squaring off in Sydney.That’s eight of the Super 12 spoken for, what about the other four?
Before the Super 12 begins, there’s a first round that starts on October 16 and runs until the 21st. Netherlands, Sri Lanka, UAE and Namibia comprise Group A of round one, while Ireland, West Indies, Scotland and Zimbabwe form Group B. The top two teams from each group progress to the Super 12 stage.Last year’s finalists kick off the Super 12 stage on October 22•ICC via GettyThere was one last year? Aren’t World Cups usually played a few years apart?
A fair question. The T20 World Cup has been happening every two years since 2010, but then there was a five year gap after the 2016 tournament …Why?!
The ICC gave it a miss in 2018 because the calendar was just too crowded with bilateral cricket. There was a thought of conducting it in South Africa that year, but the government had banned Cricket South Africa from hosting any major events for not meeting transformation targets.Okay, go on …
There was an ODI World Cup in 2019, and so the plan was to stage the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia and the 2021 Champions Trophy in India. But then the Champions Trophy was scrapped and replaced by another T20 World Cup – so there were T20 World Cups scheduled back to back for 2020 and 2021. But then the pandemic ensured the 2020 edition didn’t happen, and because India wanted to keep their 2021 T20 World Cup (which ended up happening in the UAE), Australia’s tournament moved to 2022.So Australia’s reign as T20 champs could be the shortest?
Umm, this has happened before. Pakistan won the 2009 T20 World Cup in England, and England won the 2010 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. So Pakistan’s joy was pretty short-lived. Again, it was held in consecutive years because of some issues around the Champions Trophy … but shall we get back to the present?The MCG is the arena for the match between India and Pakistan on October 23•Darrian Traynor/Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesOkay, regale us with some tales of the past World Cups …
Let’s start with Chris Gayle and the first match of the first T20 World Cup. He gave the tournament the perfect start by smashing the first hundred in T20 internationals. And then Yuvraj Singh went 6,6,6,6,6,6 in one over from Stuart Broad in Durban 2007. Nine years later, Carlos Brathwaite went 6, 6, 6, 6 in the final over of the 2016 T20 World Cup final, to leave Ben Stokes and England shellshocked. There’s lots more … but shall we talk about the big one?You mean India …
… versus Pakistan, yes. They are playing each other on October 23 in what should be a full house – more than 90,000 fans – at the MCG. It will be quite the spectacle. It’s the opening game of their campaigns, just like last year. Back then, it was Pakistan who ended decades of pain by beating India for the first time in any World Cup, and pushed them towards a group-stage exit from the tournament.So, what’s new at this World Cup?
There are some rules. This is the first tournament that will implement the new playing conditions that came into effect on October 1 this year. The most significant among them is that teams will be slapped with a fielding penalty if they are slow with their over rate.

A group of young, exciting top-order batters are working with new coach Jonathan Trott at the Asia Cup

Shashank Kishore26-Aug-2022Afghanistan’s strength has always been their spin attack led by Rashid Khan, but now the focus is shifting towards building a strong batting line-up under the guidance of new coach Jonathan Trott.Trott comes with tremendous pedigree as a former England batter, and he’s also got coaching experience with England’s Under-19 and Lions teams. As he settles into the Afghanistan job, Trott will have to adjust to the fact that coaches don’t always get to see a player perform at domestic level before they make the step up to international cricket.Related

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Afghanistan begin their Asia cup campaign against Sri Lanka on Saturday and they come into the tournament with a solid build-up behind them, having played five T20Is against Ireland in Belfast earlier this month. Though Afghanistan lost that series – Trott’s first as coach – 3-2, there were plenty of encouraging performances to build on, especially in the batting department. Prior to the Ireland tour, they had swept a series 3-0 in Zimbabwe.Afghanistan arrived in the UAE a week ago and had a camp in Abu Dhabi before shifting base to Dubai. They are in the tougher group and know that a slip-up against Sri Lanka or Bangladesh could mean an early exit from the Asia Cup. And while spin will continue to be their primary strength, it is the batting that could make or break Afghanistan’s campaign.Najibullah Zadran, their vice-captain, knows a thing or two about developing as a T20 batter. When he broke through in 2012, he was known to be technically correct, a player who puts a price on his wicket. But the Najibullah of 2022 is different, at least going by his recent record and the net sessions Afghanistan have had.Najibullah Zadran has evolved from a solid batter to an explosive finisher•Getty ImagesNajibullah and the rest of Afghanistan’s batting group worked on range hitting as much as developing a tighter defence. There’s been greater focus on footwork, picking lengths and developing different options for similar deliveries.Najibullah knows he carries significant responsibility in the batting line-up after his success in Ireland, where he showed off his ability to bat aggressively and set up big totals. In the third T20I, he made an 18-ball 42, having come into bat in the 14th over. In the fourth game, he made 50 off 24 balls after beginning his innings in the fourth over. Along with Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Najibullah is crucial to a young batting line-up looking to carve an identity amid the superstars in the team.”We’ve been talking to Jonathan a lot,” Najibullah said. “He brings plenty of experience, having played for England for so many years. He has been helping us cope with pressure and different situations and talking to us about having different mindsets for different situations. We’ll need it as we prepare for this tournament.”The main focus is on our batting department, especially the top order. We’ve got big hitters in the lower order who can cash in, in the death overs. In our bowling, we’ve got one of the best spin line-ups and a couple of good seam bowlers. But yes, primarily top-order batting is our big focus area.”

“He has been helping us cope with pressure and different situations and talking to us about having different mindsets for different situations.”Najibullah on head coach Trott

Najibullah believes Afghanistan’s top order has taken giant strides towards being more consistent. The experience of playing Rashid and the mystery spin of Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the nets has helped them develop plans to counter tough challenges.”Rashid is world-class, we all know that,” Najibullah said. “He has so many variations, he varies his pace, lengths and line. We’ve been playing with each other for six-seven years, so we’re used to him. The more you play him, it gives you an advantage straightaway.”There isn’t much to say about our spin department. But even in the fast bowling, we have a couple of youngsters – Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq. We’ve mainly been talking of controlling pressure in big moments. Trott has been talking to the boys on these aspects. So overall, we’re a good team and we are looking forward to doing well.”

Allrounder pleased with his own progress as a batter and with the new players coming through

Deivarayan Muthu20-Jan-20231:37

Santner on the challenges of bowling to Gill

In the absence of Jimmy Neesham, who is currently with Pretoria Capitals for the SA20, and Colin de Grandhomme, who has retired from international cricket altogether to become a free agent, New Zealand have turned to their spin-bowling allrounders for depth. Both Michael Bracewell and Mitchell Santner fired with the bat in the first ODI in Hyderabad, countering an early collapse with a 162-run partnership for the seventh wicket. They got together when New Zealand were 131 for 6 in a chase of 350 and helped take their side to within two sixes of levelling India’s score.Bracewell’s big-hitting was so clean that it has attracted the attention of IPL insiders as well. As for Santner, he has improved his own power, which has been on display in Hyderabad, Karachi and Queenstown over the past month. Smashing more sixes in the nets – he repeatedly pumped his team-mates over the straight boundary in Raipur – and batting up the order for Northern Districts in the Super Smash have helped Santner add more muscle to his game.LIVE in the UK and USA

You can watch the second ODI between India and New Zealand LIVE on ESPN Player in the UK and on ESPN+ in the USA.

“At No. 7 or 8, you come in from ball one and have to hit,” Santner said at the pre-match press conference. “You want to prepare to play and train for your role and that’s what I do. In the nets, [I] try to hit some sixes.”I guess being an allrounder you need to be able to chip in with both, and I guess in the last year or so, getting more opportunity to bat has helped. It can be quite challenging at times if you are down the bottom with three-four overs left, but getting more of an opportunity for ND (Northern Districts) has been helpful as well. I guess if I can chip in with some runs at the end, it’s good for the team.”Santner is also prepared to work his way into an innings and be a bit more calculative, which he did during in the early stages on Wednesday. “The other night when you have more time to bat, you can get into your innings a little bit. I guess with that role you can come in with 15 overs left or come in with two overs left. So, you have to be able to do both.”Mitchell Santner scored 57 off 45 deliveries in Hyderabad•Associated PressSantner and Bracewell are giving New Zealand more options with the ball. Both can operate in the powerplay as well as in the middle overs. If Ish Sodhi recovers sufficiently from an ankle injury sustained during the third ODI in Karachi, the legspinner could potentially replace one of the quicks to form a three-man spin attack on what might be spin-friendly pitch in Raipur. Outside of the current squad, New Zealand have left-arm fingerspinner Rachin Ravindra and left-arm wristspinner Michael Rippon on the fringes. They seem well stocked to deal with a World Cup in India.”Yeah, it’s a nice thing to have – the depth of three spinners in the squad is very handy,” Santner said. “We don’t know what the wicket is going to play like, but if it does spin, then we have options and if it doesn’t, we’ve got Beast [Bracewell] who can bat extremely well and obviously the other night…Having the two allrounders as fingerspinners adds depth to both bowling and batting.”With Tim Southee resting ahead of the home Tests against England and Trent Boult having handed back his national contract to become a freelancer, New Zealand are using this tour to identify their second line of quicks and tick a few other boxes. At the same time, they are focussed on winning the next two ODIs to clinch the series.Related

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“Having a World Cup and being able to play a series is pretty important, but we know it’s extremely hard to win here [in India],” Santner said. “That is what we want to do – we want to be able to win this series and the T20 series and then we want to look at some combinations going forward and see what the wickets do. We know come World Cup time, the wickets could be flat, like we saw in the first ODI, so I guess that is in the back of the mind but at the forefront, it’s try to win the series.”The conditions in Raipur could be an unknown quantity – Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium is set to host its first international match on Saturday – but the size of the ground gives spinners a chance. At the Rajiv Gandhi stadium, Santner and Bracewell had to be careful about bowling too full because the straight boundaries were rather small. Here, they won’t have to be so fussy.”Nobody really knows what it’s going to be like tomorrow,” Santner said. “I guess you try and weigh up whether the dew is really going to be much of a factor second innings versus obviously put runs on the board. But I guess we have to turn up tomorrow and see what the wicket looks like. It [The pitch] was under cover today, and the nets was pretty good. Probably a bit more bounce in Hyderabad and let’s hope it spins.”If it does spin, Santner, Bracewell and perhaps Sodhi will be looking to hush India’s batting superstars and a sellout Raipur crowd.

A look back at 2022: how Stokes and Co redefined Test cricket, the continuing rise of the shortest format, and more

Sambit Bal02-Jan-2023Cricket’s reckoning didn’t arrive to drumbeats in 2022. It came innocuously, via an email. Trent Boult, the left-hand half of the most prolific fast-bowling duo in New Zealand’s history, had chosen to walk away from a national central contract to pursue a freelance career. It wouldn’t rule him out of playing in national colours – he did, in fact, go on the play in the T20 World Cup – but it would allow him to choose when not to.In choosing cash over country, Boult was hardly a trailblazer. Kerry Packer managed to lure almost the entire Australia team and many leading cricketers of the world away to his private league in the late 1970s; English, Australian and West Indian cricketers chose bans and risked ostracism by accepting money to tour South Africa in the apartheid years; South Africans have chosen the security of county contracts over their ambitions of representing their national team; and many Caribbean cricketers have prioritised club cricket in recent years.And yet, something was new. There were no howls of horror. No one called Boult a traitor. Of course it helped that despite having a high-performing cricket team, New Zealand cricket fans are not the effigy-burning type. There was no rancour to speak of. The cricket board made the announcement and released Boult’s statement. The chief executive spoke. There was acknowledgment and understanding of the circumstances, and in that quiet, if resigned, acceptance, it was easy to see how much cricket has changed on this subject.Related

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• Is it already too late to sort out the balance of cricket's formats?

For all the glory and glitz, the life of elite sportspersons can be cruel and lonely. You close off most other options really early in order to have a chance at your sport. The chances of reaching the highest levels are miniscule, and even if you make it, success is dependent on the vagaries of form and injury, and in team sports like cricket, the whims of selectors. And after all that, your shelf life is short – 10 to 15 years for most, 20 for the truly exceptional. The honour of wearing the national cap is incomparable, but can we, in our right senses, grudge cricketers their pursuit of a better-paying future in league cricket?Soon after Boult made his choice, two of his team-mates followed in his footsteps: Jimmy Neesham too declined a contract, and Martin Guptill was released from his after he lost his place in the white-ball sides. They will not be the last.The future cannot be built on a T20 foundation alone
For a sport that charted its unique course by staying steadfastly true to its bilateral traditions for well over a century, cricket has been unsettled by the winds of change over the last 15 years, but a clearer path is now emerging. That T20, and by extension, leagues, franchise-based or otherwise, will carry cricket into the future is now undeniable. For over a decade, tensions rose over finding windows for T20 leagues in the bilateral calendar; over the next decade, that is likely to be flipped on its head: bilateral cricket will have to be squeezed into whatever windows are left vacant by leagues.T20 is still evolving, and contrary to the mindless slugfest it was originally imagined it would be, it is turning out to be a game full of intricate tactics and calculation. Tests remain the pinnacle for traditional cricket skills, but in demanding peak performance every ball, T20 challenges the mental and physical prowess of cricketers in an extreme way. In Tests, or even ODIs, there is space to breathe, play yourself in, work your way into a spell, pace your performance, to recoup and to recover. In T20, one blink can cost you a match.Franchise leagues thrive off players who have cut their teeth in competitive domestic and bilateral cricket. To ignore the latter for the former would be foolish•BCCIThat the format represents the zeitgeist hardly needs belabouring. It brings families to grounds, and it commands TV prime-time attention. Unsurprisingly, every cricket board envisions its own league as being a pot of gold, or at least sees it lighting a path to self-sufficiency.But to imagine a paradise built primarily on franchise T20 would be a lazy and self-defeating assumption, lacking both vision and comprehension about the game’s development. Cricket’s fundamentals are developed at the grassroots and skills are harnessed and sharpened, block by block, in competitive cricket through the age groups, in domestic cricket, on A tours and in international cricket. There are exceptions but players who come up through this grind are invariably more versatile, battle-hardened and better equipped to deal with varied conditions and different match situations.Franchise cricket reaps the benefits of what is sown at the grassroots and nurtured by the global ecosystem. The IPL, or any other successful league, will not have been what it is without the global talent pool, and a global talent pool wouldn’t have, and will not in future, emerge without a robust global system that feeds off bilateral cricket. To not grasp the dynamics of this essential interdependence would be an arrogant folly. Put in the language of business that cricket administrators are conversant with, all good businesspeople know how to take care of their supply chains.Cricket fans are blessed that their game scales across three formats, with different rhythms and textures that can cater to different kinds of fans and moods. Apart from the compelling fact that vast numbers of fans are still keen on watching it, bilateral cricket is also vital for the upkeep of many smaller boards. All leagues will never be equal, and besides the revenues distributed from ICC events, which will continue to be hugely popular, smaller boards will continue to depend heavily on bilateral tours (primarily those by India) to remain financially viable. Such tours must not be seen as charity but as a minimum requirement to keep the sport healthy. If cricket, already a small sport, shrinks, everyone suffers.Bilateral cricket: how much is too much?
That said, not everything feels right with bilateral cricket now. A lot of it feels too random, too scattered, without narrative or purpose. Matches these days blur into one another, leaving no time to savour wins or mope over losses. Instead of returning home triumphant from the T20 World Cup win, England stayed back in Australia to play an ODI series that started four days later. Just before the World Cup, Australia played T20Is against England and West Indies with a gap of just one day between the two series, requiring them to play two different bowling attacks; and through the course of the year, various Indian senior men’s teams played in 11 different countries, under seven different captains.