Despite succumbing to spin against England, Darren Sammy says West Indies are capable of keeping India at bay

Dileep Premachandran in Chennai19-Mar-2011When he came for his media briefing on Saturday afternoon, Darren Sammy wasn’t sure that West Indies were assured of a place in the last eight. South Africa had done their bit with the bat, but he didn’t know Bangladesh would subside so meekly to guarantee his team a quarter-final berth.It’s been a strange sort of tournament for West Indies, with three consecutive wins against the lesser sides sandwiched by losses to South Africa and England. But having avoided the potential banana skins, they will be dangerous opponents for anyone.”Our first objective when we came here was to qualify for the knockout stage,” said Sammy. “No matter what happens in the other game, we’ll focus on India.”Had they not lost their composure and four wickets for three runs on Thursday night, West Indies would have headed into Sunday’s game with a chance of topping their group. That collapse made some question Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s exclusion, though 70 runs from three innings at a dismal strike rate is hardly a ringing endorsement for his inclusion.”We’ll meet tonight and identify our best combination,” said Sammy. “We all respect what Shiv has done for the team in the past. He’s one of our most experienced players.”The tournament has yet to see a monumental effort from Chris Gayle, and Sammy suggested it was a good sign that the team was no longer dependent on him. “Before, when Chris got out, we used to crumble,” he said. “That’s not the case with the present crop. When Chris got out early against South Africa, we still made 220-odd. In the last game, young [Devendra] Bishoo and [Andre] Russell stepped up. I think it’s a good thing that we’ve had contributions from different individuals.”It’s a good sign, says Darren Sammy, that contributions have been made by several individuals, like Devendra Bishoo in the last game•Associated Press

What West Indies haven’t done, however, is beat a top side in nearly two years. “Winning is a habit,” said Sammy. “We’re aware that we’ve come close recently. It’s the key moments in games that we’ve let slip. But we have been creating opportunities to win.”Against India, many eyes will be on the pitch. The same strip was used in the warm-up game against New Zealand. India batted first, piled up a mammoth total and won by a street. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a tent over a wicket,” he said. “But I think it’s similar to the one used in our match against England. Both teams should have scored more runs then, but it did turn a lot more in the second innings.”Sammy has lost all five tosses in this competition. “Hopefully I’ll win one and we can bat first,” he said with a smile – West Indies might need that reversal of coin-fortune with India almost certain to play two offspinners against a line-up full of left-handers.Graeme Swann and the unheralded James Tredwell produced combined figures of 7-84 in the West Indies’ previous game, but Sammy was confident he had the personnel to keep India at bay. “I wouldn’t say we have a problem [against spin],” he said. “We will have a different strategy for India. We have both power players and guys who can rotate the strike.”For Ottis Gibson, who left his post as England’s bowling coach to try and engineer a change in West Indies’ fortunes, the challenge is to ensure that mistakes are not repeated. “We’ve had to ask youngsters to learn at the international level, which is very tough,” he said, speaking to ESPNCricinfo the day after the England game. “We have to make sure we don’t make the kind of mistakes we made last night.”With time, we’ll get back to winning matches. After the England game, I told them: ‘We didn’t get beaten. We gave the game away’. Everything we set out to do, we did. Chris [Gayle] went out and played the way he can. We then had Sammy coming in and give us even more impetus. We were way ahead of the rate. All we had to do was bat through. We didn’t apply enough thought.”West Indies haven’t played India at the World Cup since 1996, when Sachin Tendulkar’s 70 – he was dropped a couple of times – gave India a fairly comfortable five-wicket win in Gwalior. Richie Richardson, here as team manager, top scored for West Indies that day. He, Gibson and Sammy will hope that this team – with its big players yet to hit their stride – can at least emulate that side, which qualified as an afterthought and then came within a Shane Warne-spell of the final.

Persistent rain in Bangalore didn’t allow any play in the game between the two struggling sides, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Apr-2011
Scorecard

Persistent rain in Bangalore didn’t allow any play in the game between the two struggling sides, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals. They have now both played five games each, and after the shared points Rajasthan have five and Bangalore three, leaving both of them a lot of catching up to do.

Trinidad and Tobago wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin is hopeful that his strong showing on the domestic circuit will earn him a recall to the national side

ESPNcricinfo staff18-May-2011Trinidad and Tobago wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin is hopeful that his strong showing on the domestic circuit will earn him a recall to the national side.”I have been working hard over the last couple of months,” Ramdin told the . “The selectors said that I haven’t been getting runs but so far I scored runs in the middle and I am just waiting for a call.”Ramdin was the third-highest run scorer for T&T in the Regional four-day competition, making 460 runs, at an average of 41.81 with one century from eight games. He was also the leading wicketkeeper in the competition with 27 dismissals.”Any player [who gets dropped] will want to go out there and look to prove himself. I went out there and did it with the gloves. I tried to score 500-600 runs; I fell short by a bit. I think the break was good for me. I came back home and I did a lot of fitness work.”Ramdin, who has played 42 Tests, 81 ODIs and 22 Twenty20 games for West Indies, last featured for them during the home series against South Africa in May-June 2010. He had a disappointing run in that series making 34 runs from five ODIs and 63 runs in three Tests. Ramdin lost his place to Carlton Baugh for West Indies’ tour of Sri Lanka later that year and was also cut from the West Indies’ central contract list. This prompted the T&T board to arrange for Ramdin to work with former West Indies batsman Gordon Greenidge.Ramdin said he had viewed his batting footage from when he was in form and was working on a few things that had helped him. “I am missing it a bit [playing for the West Indies], but I am just waiting and using my time wisely and when I get the opportunity, hopefully, I can play for the next seven or eight years straight.”Ramdin received support from T&T Cricket Board president Azim Bassarath who questioned the wicketkeeper’s exclusion from the national squad despite his strong showing on the domestic circuit. “What more must Denesh Ramdin do to attract the attention of the regional selectors?
What more must a cricketer do to show he is able, fit, ready and in form?” Bassarath said during the press launch of the TTCB Premiership Twenty20 Cricket Festival at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain.

Four of Surrey’s top order hit half-centuries before rookie pace bowler Matthew Dunn had Derbyshire reeling on the third day

31-May-2011
ScorecardFour of Surrey’s top order hit half-centuries before rookie pace bowler Matthew Dunn had Derbyshire reeling on the third day of the County Championship Division Two match at the County Ground.After Rory Hamilton-Brown, Zander de Bruyn, Mark Davies and Tom Maynard took advantage of poor bowling to limit Derbyshire to a first innings lead of 42, Dunn marked his Championship debut by removing both openers.The 19-year-old, who was only drafted in after Jade Dernbach was called up by England, reduced the hosts to 14 for 2 and Tim Linley then struck twice in a dramatic last hour. At the close, Derbyshire were 35 for 4, only 77 runs ahead, to give Surrey a chance of forcing victory despite the loss of the second day to rain.Derbyshire had started day three well placed and Luke Sutton declared immediately they secured maximum batting points for the second game running. But his bowlers did not perform and Surrey’s task of reaching the follow-on target of 251 was helped by the home side conceding 28 runs in no-balls.Derbyshire improved to take the last six wickets for 25 in 10 overs after tea but Dunn and Linley then put Surrey in the driving seat. Linley struck twice in the morning to finish with a career-best haul of six for 81 before Sutton declared one run short of his half-century.Derbyshire needed early wickets to put pressure on the visitors but they served up too many balls that Hamilton-Brown and Jason Roy could dispatch to the boundary. The bowlers were also guilty of over-stepping far too often although ironically it was off a no-ball from Tony Palladino that Brown’s straight drive was deflected onto the stumps to run Roy out for 31 out of 63 in the ninth over.Greg Smith showed there was something in the pitch when he got a delivery to take off to have Mark Ramprakash superbly caught by Martin Guptill diving full length at gully for 5 – but Derbyshire could not maintain a consistent line or length.Hamilton-Brown plundered 14 fours in his run-a-ball 69 before he carved Palladino to point where Wayne Madsen took the catch at the second attempt and de Bruyn found the ropes 10 times in his half-century. Steffan Jones nipped one back to bowl him for 53 but Davies and Maynard took Surrey to a third batting point with a fifth-wicket stand of 123 in 25 overs.Davies drove Chesney Hughes’s slow-left arm spin to cover on 78 to start a collapse but Dunn and Linley put Surrey on top. Dunn sent back Madsen and Guptill in successive overs and Linley struck another big blow when he ripped out first innings century maker Chesney Hughes’ middle stump before dismissing nightwatchman Palladino in the penultimate over.

Kumar Sangakkara has made an extraordinary, scathing attack on the “partisan cronies” at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) who have blighted the sport in his country, and who led him to resign the captaincy after only two years in charge

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jul-2011Kumar Sangakkara has made an extraordinary, scathing attack on the “partisan cronies” at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) who have blighted the sport in his country and who led him to resign the captaincy after only two years in charge, following the World Cup final in April. Sangakkara was delivering the MCC Spirit of Cricket Lecture at Lord’s on Monday.In an hour-long speech that earned him a standing ovation, Sangakkara charted the unique history of cricket in his country, and called on SLC to root out its corrupt practices and recognise the huge role the sport now needs to play in promoting reconciliation at the end of a 30-year civil war.Sangakkara pinpointed the country’s most powerful moment of national unity – the World Cup final victory over Australia in 1996 – as the moment the sport’s administration changed “from a volunteer-led organisation run by well-meaning men of integrity into a multimillion-dollar organisation that has been in turmoil ever since”.His speech could fetch him serious repercussions but the board’s only response so far has been to state that it is unable to comment given that the team is currently on tour in England.Sri Lanka’s ongoing tour of England has been dogged by controversy ever since Sanath Jayasuriya, now an MP with the ruling UPFA party, was recalled at the age of 41 to play in the one-off Twenty20 and the first ODI at The Oval, despite having been out of the side for nearly two years. Without mentioning names, Sangakkara voiced his concern at the direction the sport in his country is now heading.”Players from within the team itself became involved in power games within the board,” he said. “Officials elected to power in this way in turn manipulated player loyalty to achieve their own ends. At times board politics would spill over into the team causing rift, ill feeling and distrust.”Accountability and transparency in administration and credibility of conduct were lost in a mad power struggle that would leave Sri Lankan cricket with no consistent and clear administration. Presidents and elected executive committees would come and go; government-picked interim committees would be appointed and dissolved.”Last week, Sri Lanka’s sports ministry dissolved SLC’s interim committee, following allegations of financial mismanagement that left the co-hosts of the recent World Cup with a US$ 69 million bill. That announcement followed the ICC meeting in Hong Kong, at which a directive was issued, stating that cricket boards had to be free of political interference by June 2013, or face the prospect of sanctions.”After 1996 the cricket board has been controlled and administered by a handful of well-meaning individuals either personally or by proxy, rotated in and out, depending on appointment or election,” Sangakkara said. “Unfortunately to consolidate and perpetuate their power, they opened the door of the administration to partisan cronies that would lead to corruption and wanton waste of cricket board finances and resources.”It was and still is confusing. Accusations of vote buying and rigging, player interference due to lobbying from each side and even violence at the AGMs, including the brandishing of weapons and ugly fist fights, have characterised cricket board elections for as long as I can remember.”We have to aspire to better administration. The administration needs to adopt the same values enshrined by the team over the years: integrity, transparency, commitment and discipline.”Unless the administration is capable of becoming more professional, forward-thinking and transparent then we risk alienating the common man. Indeed, this is already happening. Loyal fans are becoming increasingly disillusioned. This is very dangerous because it is not the administrators or players that sustain the game – it is the cricket-loving public. It is their passion that powers cricket and if they turn their backs on cricket then the whole system will come crashing down.”Crucially for the future of Sri Lanka, that public consists of supporters from both sides of the bloody civil war that was finally concluded last year. However, as has been seen by the numerous Tamil protestors who have made their presence known during the current Test and ODI series, there is a danger that the current state of the sport will breed disenchantment rather than foster unity.”Cricket played a crucial role during the dark days of Sri Lanka’s civil war, a period of enormous suffering for all communities,” Sangakkara said. “But the conduct and performance of the team will have even greater importance as we enter a crucial period of reconciliation and recovery, an exciting period where all Sri Lankans aspire to peace and unity.”It is also an exciting period for cricket where the reintegration of isolated communities in the north and east opens up new talent pools. The Spirit of Cricket can and should remain a guiding force for good within society, providing entertain and fun, but also a shining example to all of how we all should approach our lives.”Listen to the full address at www.lords.org

Morne Morkel is working on his wicket-taking ability and says he and Dale Steyn are still South Africa’s strike bowlers even though Imran Tahir will now make the team

Firdose Moonda18-Jul-2011Morne Morkel, the South Africa fast bowler, does not have to extend himself too much to take a catch on a cricket field. Usually, all that’s required is a casual raising of the arm, clasping of the air above it and a dash of judgement for the cherry to be in hand.On Monday morning, at the Alexandra Oval in Johannesburg, the single-handed pouch was on display, even though Morkel did his best not to show off his superior skills. He was playing against a group of seven-year-old primary school children from one of South Africa’s poorest townships, as part of his 67 minutes of community work for Nelson Mandela Day.One of the young batsmen hit a ball that looked destined to be a straight six, if not for Morkel standing in its way. He wasn’t part of the particular passage of play, and was making his way across the field to get ready for his turn when instinct took over. The arm popped up, the fingers reached and the ball settled. Morkel saw the hope disappear from the little boy’s eyes and playfully juggled the ball before letting it wobble out of his hands onto the ground. Australia and Sri Lanka’s batsmen can expect no such favours from him, or the rest of the South African attack, later this year.After almost two months away from the game, Morkel is about to start his pre-season training and on top of the list of things he wants to work on is his wicket-taking ability. With Dale Steyn as his new ball partner, and a reputation as one of the most fearsome extractors of bounce in the world, it would seem little has to be done in that department; but Morkel believes that fine-tuning the most important part of his game will be key in the coming season, despite the fact that South Africa should have more options in the wicket-taking department than before.”My main trade is taking wickets; that’s what I’m there to do, and I have to make sure I can do that well,” Morkel told ESPNcricinfo. “Although it’s going to be nice to have a guy like Imran Tahir in the mix, my job is to take wickets and I can’t hide behind him.”Tahir, the Pakistan-born legspinner, has become the flavour of the year in South Africa since becoming eligible to play for the country in January. He was immediately added to the ODI squad for a series against India but only made his debut at the World Cup against West Indies. He finished the tournament as South Africa’s second-highest wicket-taker with 14 scalps at an average of 10.71 and is expected to be a certainty in the squad across all three formats, although he is yet to play in a Test match. Tahir’s four-day statistics are impressive and he topped last season’s SuperSport Series bowling charts with 42 wickets, despite only playing in five of Dolphins’ nine fixtures.South Africa have not had an attacking spinner since Paul Adams and Tahir’s inclusion looks set to take the pressure off the quicks. Although Morkel recognises Tahir’s ability as a wicket-taker, he doesn’t want it to dampen his own aggressive nature. “Myself and Dale [Steyn] are the strike bowlers so we mustn’t pass the buck.”Morkel hopes he is not the only one that doesn’t back down in Tahir’s presence and that some of the country’s other spinners challenge Tahir for his place in the national side. “I really hope Paul Harris and the other guys will fight back,” he said. Harris was the man in possession of the spinner’s spot in Tests till the end of last season but did not get a national contract this year. The likes of Robin Peterson and Roelof van der Merwe will be in contention for the limited-overs sides. “There will be a lot of competition in the coming season,” Morkel said.While the Test squad is settled, the same cannot be said about the limited-overs sides. “Nobody will be secure in their spot. It’s almost going to be like being back at school and having to go to trials.” While South Africa’s second-tier bowlers were not particularly impressive on their recent A tour to Zimbabwe, and struggled to make early dents into the batting line-ups they faced, there are some candidates for the national team. “Guys like Vernon Philander and Rusty Theron are really knocking on the door,” Morkel said.Both Philander and Theron have proved they are comfortable opening the bowling in limited-overs cricket and could challenge Lonwabo Tsotsobe for his place. They could also fit into what Morkel calls the “second wave of attack” that South Africa want to apply in ODIs. “Lopsy has done well with the new ball so when I come in later on I form part of the next line of attack. I’m very comfortable operating in that position and I think some of those other guys would be too.”

ESPNcricinfo’s preview of the first Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle

The Preview by Brydon Coverdale30-Aug-2011

Match facts

Australia need runs from Michael Clarke, not just confident leadership•AFP

August 31-September 4, Galle
Start time 10:00 (04:30 GMT, 14:30 EST)

Big Picture

And so, the real challenge begins. Sri Lanka have won the Twenty20s and Australia took the ODI series, but those results will be quickly forgotten when this three-Test battle begins. In the one-day format, it was a meeting of the top two teams in the world, according to the ICC’s rankings, but in the Tests it is No. 4 v No. 5, and neither team is content to sit in the middle of the pack. There are major personnel changes in both camps from the short format to the five-day game, and yet some lessons learnt over the past couple of weeks could have significance in the Tests.Importantly, the Australians have now had a good look at Ajantha Mendis, whose mysteries they slowly began to understand over the course of the series. By the end of the ODIs, Australia’s batsmen had worked out ways to cope with him, even if not all were reading his variations. However, handling Mendis over five days is a different proposition, especially on a pitch expected to turn from the first day. Watching the ball out of his hand and carefully trying to detect his subtle changes, over and over again, for every delivery in a long spell, requires supreme concentration. The Australians will find it draining. Even under normal circumstances, they can struggle against quality spin, and there will be times over the course of this match when they’ll face tweakers from both ends with men around the bat. Michael Clarke doesn’t mind using his feet, but how his colleagues handle the pressure will be key to Australia’s chances.The one-day series also revealed a significant difference in the captaincy of the two sides. Clarke has been Australia’s full-time leader for less than six months, but already he has shown himself to be an intuitive, adventurous and aggressive captain, and it’s impossible to quantify what effect that will have on Australia’s performance over the coming months. By comparison, Tillakaratne Dilshan was at times slow to react to the changing game, and seemed to lack the natural leadership of Clarke. Dilshan is also relatively new to the role and if he leads from the front with a pile of runs, he’ll have done his job, but it’s hard to avoid the feeling that Sri Lankan would have been a more formidable foe under Kumar Sangakkara.But the cold, hard facts are that both teams have struggled in Test cricket over the past couple of years. Back in 2008, Australia started the year as the top-ranked Test team in the world, on 141 points, while Sri Lanka were third on 109. Not much has changed for Sri Lanka, who are now fourth on 108. But Australia have plummeted to fifth, on 100 points.Sri Lanka have won only one of their past 12 Tests, while Australia have won one of their past eight, and this is their first Test series since the disastrous Ashes campaign at home that led to the Argus review. Given that the Australians haven’t played a Test in Sri Lanka in seven years, the hosts, with their spin-heavy attack on dry pitches, deserve to go into the series as slight favourites.

Form guide

(Most recent first)
Sri Lanka DDLDD
Australia LLWLD

In the spotlight

Sri Lanka’s middle order was a major concern in the one-day series, but Australia will find it much tougher to get through a Test line-up featuring Thilan Samaraweera. Just getting rid of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene doesn’t mean the hard work is done. The obdurate Samaraweera will add some starch to Sri Lanka’s batting order, although despite his reputation and experience, he hasn’t brought out his best against Australia in the past. He’s played five Tests against them but averages only 31.22 with a top score of 70. But in Sri Lankan conditions, where he averages 76.12 over the past four years, the Australians will underestimate him at their peril.Australia will have two bowling debutants in Trent Copeland and Nathan Lyon, plus a fresh face in Usman Khawaja at No. 6, and they are entering the era of a new opening pair, but despite those sub-plots the focus will really be on Michael Clarke in his first Test series as captain. Clarke has impressed with his thoughtful leadership in the one-day team since taking over from Ricky Ponting, but it’s not his management that’s the issue. Clarke needs Test runs. He had a miserable Ashes campaign and in his past nine Tests he has averaged 21.58 without scoring a century. A strong series with the bat would ease the pressure on him. On the plus side he is a fine player of spin, which will help him in the Sri Lankan conditions, and he is coming off a century in the tour game.

Team news

Sri Lanka cut Seekuge Prasanna, Shaminda Eranga and Dhammika Prasad from the original 16-man squad on match eve. Lahiru Thirimanne’s century in the tour match against the Australians might interest the selectors, while the other batting changes from the one-day team are the additions of Samaraweera and the wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene to the middle order. The big question is how many spinners to play. Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath should have the front-running. But do they play an extra spinner and rely on Angelo Mathews as the second seamer? One man who won’t be in the Sri Lankan XI is Lasith Malinga, who has ruled out a return to Test cricket despite the numerous entreaties he has received from the board and its selectors. Malinga’s knees have not improved in their condition since he announced his retirement from Tests in mid-year, and he would only consider a return in the highly unlikely event of visible improvement.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), 2 Tharanga Paranavitana / Lahiru Thirimanne, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Suranga Lakmal, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Ajantha Mendis, 11 Chanaka Welegedara.Given how their fast bowlers performed in the tour match, Australia will stick with one spinner – the debutant Nathan Lyon. The New South Wales seamer Trent Copeland, deservedly, will make his Test debut as well, forming a three-man pace attack with Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris. The other major selection debate has been regarding who would man the No. 6 spot. Usman Khawaja’s hundred in the tour match has secured him the place ahead of Shaun Marsh. It is also the first Test in the post-Simon Katich era, so Phillip Hughes will be keen to justify his selection.Australia: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Phillip Hughes, 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Usman Khawaja, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Ryan Harris, 10 Trent Copeland, 11 Nathan Lyon.

Pitch and conditions

The absence of any great pace threat means the Galle pitch is likely to take spin from the start, a state of affairs confirmed by the Australians’ first visit to the ground on Monday. They were able to digest the sight of a bone-dry surface with very little grass coverage, and those attributes will only be heightened as the Test goes on.

Stats and trivia

• The last time Ricky Ponting played a Test series not as captain – against India in 2003-04 – he made two double-centuries and averaged 100.85
• Ponting is the only member of Australia’s squad to have played a Test in Sri Lanka, while five of Sri Lanka’s players remain from the most recent tour in 2004
• Kumar Sangakkara needs 113 runs to move into 15th place on the list of all-time leading Test run scorers. As it stands, he’s the only man in the top 20 to have played less than 100 Tests

Quotes

“Things have changed since our disappointing Ashes series. For anyone who played last summer that’s still in our minds. But the reality is we’ve wiped the slate clean to some extent”
“It’s totally different to one dayers when it comes to the Test cricket and a different team. We have a very solid batting line-up, in the last three or four years, No. 1 to No. 6 we’ve batted really well. I have confidence with my batting line-up”