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‘WHEN YOU’RE DINING WITH A DEMON, YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE A LONG SPOON’
How to win at Twenty20 by the men who know Graham Gooch World Twenty20 Cricket and politics The Barmy Army Robert Key 06
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JUNE 2010 £3.95
REVIEW ICC WORLD TWENTY20
The third ICC World T20 in four years was another feast of cricket – and even England came to the party. SPIN was there England may have finally found a T20 line up that works.
It’s been a long time since England have threatened in a global tournament. Yes, they reached the final of the 2004 Champions Trophy on home turf, but they went in to the World Twenty20 as the only one of the major, Test-playing nations not to have won a major limited-overs competition. But they impressed in the Caribbean. While Kevin Pietersen may have been the star, with match-winning knocks against Pakistan and South Africa in the Super 8s, there were also excellent performances from 28 SPIN JUNE 2010
the likes of Tim Bresnan, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy and the immensely exciting Eoin Morgan. Their fielding was also highly impressive, with the likes of Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad pulling off excellent catches. Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb, let’s not forget, had never played international T20 cricket when they became the 16th opening partnership that England had tried. But it seemed to work, the clean-hitting South African-raised pair providing a thrilling change for England supporters, as England proved to be the most aggressive
side in the tournament in the first six overs of their innings. Yardy, abruptly recalled after three years, also justified the selectors faith in him with his mid-innings left-arm darts: he took 2/19 off four against Pakistan, 2/31 against South Africa and 0/21 v Sri Lanka, reliably applying the brakes.
Substance over style
We are continuing to see an emergence of T20 specialists, who are not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing, but highly effective. Yardy was arguably the pick of England’s
PICTURES: PA PHOTOS. STORY: GEORGE DOBELL, GEMMA WRIGHT
Strength to strength
Main picture: Kevin Pietersen returned to form big-time, despite taking time out to fly home during the tournament. Below: Coming in at No 5, Eoin Morgan continued to be a relevation with his assured mix of touch shots and big hitting. Foot of page: Australia, finally a serious T20 side.
bowlers, yet he bowls flat and fast, with little interest in flight and turn. Shaun Tait has a slingy, unorthodox action, but has intimidated batsmen with his 90mph-plus pace. Elsewhere, Cameron White has bludgeoned his way to success, smashing 85 runs from 49 balls in Australia’s win over Sri Lanka, while the more pleasing Michael Clarke has been all but irrelevant.
Lessons had been learned after the disastrous 2007 World Cup
One word summed up the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean: greed. New stadiums were built – quite unnecessarily – in the mistaken understanding that they would be overflowing with spectators. Ticket prices were absurdly high while the ICC’s ban on musical instruments or any item that could
be in any way interpreted as conflicting with the official sponsors’ products managed to alienate local supporters. The event was far too long and matches were, in many instances, played to empty grounds. The carnival atmosphere for which Caribbean cricket is known was painfully lacking. The 2010 experience has been quite different. Ticket prices have been much lower – as little as £5 – while horns and drums have been welcomed, helping create a much noisier and generally more enjoyable Caribbean experience. Nearly every match has been relevant and, with the Super 8s played in excellent venues, the West Indies have shown that they really do know how to host such events. As Colin Croft told SPIN, comparing the 2007 and 2010 experiences. “The two are like chalk and cheese. In 2007, there were so many restrictions that even the West Indians couldn’t enjoy it. You couldn’t take water in,
forget about everything else, water you couldn’t take into the park. In 2010, the emphasis is to bring stuff: they had the ‘bring it’ slogan and that meant that anything could be included. I think everybody has been having a good time. It’s been so much better than 2007 by a long way.”
You can’t escape Indian influence
India hardly made any impression on the park. Yet their influence was everywhere. So dominant is their voice in world cricket that games in the Caribbean were scheduled around the Indian TV audience. As Mumbai is eight-and-a-half hours ahead of Bridgetown, that meant games starting as early as 9.30am, which hardly encouraged local people – with jobs and schools to think about – to attend. In an ideal world, the games would have been floodlit, evening affairs. It’s all very well having a party stand, but who JUNE 2010
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PREVIEW T20
KENT
CHAMPIONS 2007 FINALISTS 2008 SEMI-FINALISTS 2009
‘Keeping to Arafat and Mahmood has been an eye-opener. English bowlers are more traditional…’ 40 SPIN JUNE 2010 2009
maybe not exceptional, but generally we’re a decent agile team. DS In our side and a lot of sides, everybody can bat, bowl and is a good fielder. You’ve not got worries of trying to get your best fielders in certain positions or in the batting order because everyone can strike the ball and work it around. If you look at our side over the last three or four years there’s not many changes, where if you look at other sides there’s a lot, so we’ve had time together as a unit. When I arrived in 2005 our priority was to get better at one-day cricket. It took us about a year. SPIN So, for Kent it’s been a lot different to Middlesex (who beat Kent in 2008 final) whose side has chopped and changed? DS Yes, where were Middlesex last year? [A: Bottom of the South Group]. We’re probably the most consistent Twenty20 side, it was the same at Leicestershire: it took us time to get into it. We got to Finals day in 2003 but it took us a couple of years to get it all right by the time we came back and won it (in 2004). SPIN Rob Key says he always likes to have at least six genuine bowling option in case someone is getting hit: how will that work? GJ You have to be a bit more structured with the bowling. The openers will have one or two overs and I’ll come up to the stumps to [medium-fast] Simon Cook to put the pressure on and then at the back end we’ll have Azhar Mahmood, who is brilliant at bowling at the death. Bowling-wise this year is where we’ll have to be a bit smarter and find some people to take on bigger roles and the spinners will be important. SPIN Ryan McLaren’s departure has left a big hole… GJ Yes, him and Justin Kemp. That’s what we’ve tried to hammer into the guys pre-season that there’s positions up for grabs in all forms of cricket, primarily in the shorter forms. JT Yes, but Darren probably hasn’t had the plaudits he deserves in Twenty20 cricket. He can clear the
PICTURES: PA PHOTOS
SPIN Kent have been consistently the best Twenty20 side over the last three seasons: what have the key ingredients been? Geraint Jones For us it’s having flexibility within the team but also stability in who we pick. We can adapt to different situations. We generally have a floating batting line-up and it depends on the situation who goes in, so if Rob Key and Joe Denly get through the first six well then Martin van Jaarsveld will go in to carry that on. But if two spinners are on they sometimes throw me up there because I’ve bluffed them that I’m quite good at playing spin. We’re all sat on the bench, ready to go out and bat at any time: we can adapt and in Twenty20 that’s massive because it can change in a matter of overs. We’ve never really had strict plans. It’s always been a bit of, ‘Lets see the situation and go from there’. On the other hand we’ve had good power hitters; Darren Stevens was Twenty20 player of the year last year, Azhar (Mahmood), (Justin) Kemp. There’s been a real good blend. Darren Stevens It all depends on what start we get. If we get off to a flier we’ll just keep going and going. Geraint will go in ahead of me. My role is generally that, if a wicket falls after nine overs then I go in. But we all prepare to bat in any situation because you could go in anywhere. James Tredwell We’ve had decent starts at the top of the innings and then you need a balance of strikers, nudgers, nurdlers and quick runners. They need to be flexible to the conditions and the situation. We’ve had strike bowlers like Yasir Arafat (2007 and 2008) or Wayne Parnell (2009) who’ve taken wickets throughout the innings and I’ve bowled spin. Our fielding has been good,
Left and above: Darren Stevens was the PCA’s Twenty20 MVP in 2009. Right: Rob Key after captaining Kent to the title in 2007 and (top) after losing the 2008 final
ropes, bowls pretty well and is a gun fielder. He can come to the fore a bit more. DS Really disappointed Kempy has not come back, everybody around the place is. Obviously there was issues with his visa, but that’s massive for us, because he was a massive influence in the changing-room. On tough days he was brilliant and on good days he was even harder on everybody. The big aura he had will be missed. I had a good Twenty20 year last year. I had so much freedom because I had Justin Kemp coming in behind me. JT It looks like we’ll be going in with a spin variety this year [with Sri Lankan leg-spinner Malinga Bandara as their overseas player, alongside Tredwell’s off-spin] so that’s another angle for us in Twenty20.
SPIN How has the game changed for spinners? JT Up until the last two years you wouldn’t have worried about the reverse sweep because it would have been a deflection whereas now people are whacking it for four or six. Even in longer games now. Eoin Morgan took me apart at Canterbury last year in the 50-over game. He swept both ways and you blocked that off by adapting the field. But in doing that you had to bring your mid-on up [because of the fielding restrictions] and then he went to hit you over mid-on – so where do you go then?! Some days you’ve just got to say, ‘Well played’. But you try and make batsmen do something they are less comfortable doing. It’s very rare that a guy is comfortable with
both sweeps and hitting down the ground. You have to try and make them come out of their comfort zone. SPIN It’s not as if your results have dipped much, but having won in 2007 and then been finalists in 2008 and semifinalists in 2009, can you put your finger on any differences? GJ Last year we just didn’t get things right in the semi-final against Somerset. Looking at the pitch we probably didn’t get team selection right or our plans. For me, that was the most frustrating thing and were never in that game, whereas that Middlesex game (the 2008 final) we probably should have won it. Kempy always used to say that. But you hear JUNE 2009
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Foreign legion PREVIEW T20 PLAYERS TO WATCH
With each county allowed two overseas players, this year’s t20 is bringing more more big-name internationals to England than any time since the ’70s. SPIN sifts the all-star contenders LANCASHIRE LIGHTNING T20 batting average 17.80. Strike rate 99.58. If you’d only ever seen the introspective nurdler in action in Test matches, you might have concluded that Chanderpaul was the very last man one might sign for a Twenty20 campaign. And indeed, the jury is out on whether he can he cut it in the shortest form. An even-time 78 helped Durham win their first-ever trophy – the FP Trophy at Lord’s in 2007; then again, an even-time 48 helped them crash out of the T20 semis in 2008. A strike rate of 100 cuts little ice in T20, but Chanderpaul is a clever and improvisational batter as well as an obdurate one. He arrives at Old Trafford in mid-July, as Simon Katich departs, so should play the last group games and, maybe, the knockout stages.
19 | Ross Taylor (26)
DURHAM DYNAMOS Batting average 32.50, Strike Rate 151.59 Bowling Average 33.62 Economy Rate 8.96 Taylor has been one of the hottest properties in Twenty20 in the past few seasons and it is a sign of Durham’s ambition and wealth that they have added Taylor to Albie Morkel to give them the artillery to take apart any attack. Taylor is a mould-breaker too, being only the second player of Samoan origin to play for New Zealand. Taylor bats three for Central Districts, four for New Zealand, but floats from three to six for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Taylor has had a lean year so far 48 SPIN JUNE 2010
by his standards though and Durham will be hoping it’s the quiet before the storm.
18 | Dwayne Smith (27)
SUSSEX SHARKS. Batting average 19.46 Strike rate 132.31 Bowling average 23.13 Economy rate 7.76. If Smith was unfamiliar to county fans last season he will start this one with star billing and big expectations after his 59 off 26 fired Sussex to the title last season. Bighitting heroics appeared his destiny, after he made a 93-ball ton on his Test debut in 2003, but he has not scored one since and has often thrown his wicket away with mindless swipes. Smith has never prospered for the Windies, averaging 24 in Tests and 16 in ODIs and remains one of those middle-order T20 players that you wouldn’t put your mortgage on. Adam Gilchrist does not seem to be a fan and despite Smith starring in Deccan Chargers’ 2009 IPL campaign, Gilchrist mostly left him on the sidelines in 2010. But Sussex like to think they have nurtured him and he provides a useful medium pace option (as a four-wicket maiden v Notts last year showed, emphatically) and is their fastest fielder. He had made such an impact that when he couldn’t come back as a Kolpak because of his work permit, they signed him as one an overseas player.
17 | David Hussey (32).
NOTTS OUTLAWS. Batting average 30.79 Strike rate 137.71 Bowling average 26.29 Economy 7.28 Master Cricket gets annoyed as being seen only as one of the world’s best T20 batsmen, but the upside is that Kolkata paid $625,000 for him, almost double what his brother and Ricky Ponting got. Hussey jr is not always pretty, with his dominant bottom hand, but there is a remorseless Australian efficiency about the way he churns out runs in all forms of the game. He was knocking on the door almost as long as his brother, two years his senior, before the Australian selectors answered. Hussey has still not been elevated to the Test team, despite a first class average of 55. T20 is his greatest strength and he has been a key part of a Victoria side that have won four out of five titles in Australia’s domestic Twenty20. Only Albie Morkel has played more T20 matches than Hussey’s 106.
16 | Herschelle Gibbs (36)
YORKSHIRE CARNEGIE Batting average 25.15 Strike rate 121.82 For such an explosive hitter, with 248 one-day internationals (and 21 centuries) under his belt Gibbs’ T20 record is surprisingly underwhelming. But who wouldn’t want to
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PICTURES: PA PHOTOS
20 | Shivnarine Chanderpaul (35)
Taylor: shouldn’t suffer second season syndrome
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House of cards
IINSIDE STORY IPL ALLEGATIONS
A
year ago at IPL 2 in South Africa, a top Indian journalist pulled me to one side and told me that he believed at least half of the IPL teams were owned by Lalit Modi’s close friends or family. He said it would be a cracking story to write and that he was scared to publish it but would be only too happy to furnish me anonymously with the facts. He joked that the IPL should be renamed the Modi Cricket League and that he would be surprised if a 54 SPIN JUNE 2009
financial scandal surrounding team ownership didn’t break loose in the not too distant future. At the time, I did not follow the details of what he was alleging. His story was both fantastic and complicated, a jumble of unfamiliar names. Indian families are large and it struck me that, when it came to it would be hard to prove conclusively exactly who was a good friend of who. Even if one suspected that all was not well, it would take a massive forensic investigation to prove any wrongdoing. And, at any rate, at that point, Lalit Modi was the king of the cricket world.
But it turns out that my press-box acquaintance was not the only one who smelt a rat. Now, the allegations have been made on a more public stage and Modi is suspended from duties as IPL commissioner, while he is investigated over tax irregularities, corruption within the sale and ownership of the IPL franchises and even widespread match-fixing at the tournament he devised and promoted. Belatedly, he has also been accused of attempting to destroy world cricket by trying to lure county sides, including Yorkshire and Warwickshire, to reach over
IPL boss Lalit Modi faces a fight for his future as allegations of match-fixing and corruption land at his door. SPIN traces the latest threat to international cricket and, on page 58, looks at the story of the police investigation into spot-fixing in last year’s NatWest Pro40 in England
the heads of the ECB and the BCCI and set up an IPL-funded league in England. Sources suggest over 4500 of Modi’s transactions are being investigated by tax officials. It is quite a charge sheet.
T
he IPL pie is so huge and tasty that everyone wants a piece of it. It was valued, prior to the Modi suspension, as a $4 billion brand. Indian business, politics and cricket are intricately linked and all three collided during IPL 3 when a hullabaloo broke about the bidding process and ownership of one
of the two new franchises, due to join the league next year. Modi was purportedly unsatisfied that the Kochi-based franchise was one of the two successful bids – the other is from Pune – as he had allegedly planned that an Ahmedabad-based team would be accepted. The Ahmedabad bid was assembled by a syndicate of Gujurathi businessmen from Mumbai with whom Modi is reportedly close. The size of the Kochi bid had come as a surprise to Modi. Trying to expose political interference in the Kochi syndicate, Modi was critical of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi
Tharoor in his tweets. Modi disclosed the ownership structure of Rendezvous Sports World, which coughed up $333.33 million to bag the Kochi franchise. In return the franchise threatened to sue Modi for disclosing confidential ownership details. A spat ensued on Twitter between Modi and MP Shashi Tharoor and, admitting a conflict of interest between his political position and his involvement in the franchise, Tharoor resigned from his political post. But it seems Modi had messed with the wrong man. Tharoor is held in high esteem as a man of honesty and integrity in JUNE 2009
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MASTERCLASS FOR ANY YOUNG LADS OUTTHERE…
2&# 22',% "-!2-0 WITH GARY PALMER
PICTURES: PA PHOTOS
PLAYING THROUGH THE LEG SIDE I HAVE TALKED A LOT IN THESE columns, about the importance of playing straight: to my mind, being able to hit in the ‘V’ is the foundation of a sound batting technique, whether you are by inclination a defensive or attacking player. This month, we’re going to move on to playing through the leg-side, off the back-foot. The principles of playing off the back foot on middle and leg stump line are very similar to the front foot. Again the secret is to open up your stance and avoid getting too sideways. I cannot stress this enough: wrongly applied, that old idea that cricket is a sideways game will damage your technique; if you stand too sideways at the crease, you will be prevented from bringing the full blade of your bat, clean and straight, through the ball; you will end up playing around your front-foot and become a candidate for lbws or, at best, hard-tocontrol shots played using half your bat. To play back-foot defence, drives and leg glances on the leg side well, you need to make sure that you always go back and across, getting deep into the crease. On middle and leg stump line it is very 72 SPIN JUNE 2010
important that you open your body position slightly so that you get good access to the ball with the full face of the bat. To get into the more open body position, you need to dip the head and shoulder forward and push off the front foot to help you get back and across in to the crease. As you go back the shoulder opens, allowing you to present your head towards the ball. The back foot should land slightly turned in, pointing towards cover. The body will then open and the front leg will open out giving you good access to the ball. As the shoulder opens, the bat will align automatically towards first slip thus being aligned to the target area, allowing the bat to swing in a straight line to the target area with the full blade of the bat. The more open body position will give you a full range of areas to score on the leg side while minimising the risks of getting out. It is also a great position to be in to hook and pull and duck the bouncer without turning your head and taking your eye off the ball. Players who get too sideways to balls on the middle and leg stump line end up
swinging the bat across their body in a golf swing fashion while presenting half the blade at the ball. This is a high risk way of batting and it also minimises your scoring options on the leg side. Generally from this overly sideways position you can only play the ball towards square leg and fine leg. Fast bowlers will exploit batters who get too sideways on by bowling short balls and bouncers. As the batter is so sideways there is a blind spot in the area of the left ear (for right-handed batters) when the ball is short and this means that some players will turn their head and take their eye off the ball, making them vulnerable to the short-pitched delivery. This all happens because the player is closed off and the hands and bat are hidden behind their body – meaning it takes longer to get the bat to the ball. When a player is closed off it is particularly difficult to play the ball that swings or nips in to you. PLAYING OFF THE BACK FOOT FROM OFF STUMP The back foot should only land parallel when the line of delivery is on or outside the line of
in practice
Hitting into the leg-side Off-stump line
O Always go back and across in
the crease. O Maintain sideways body position O Leading shoulder points back up the wicket. O Back foot parallel to the crease. O Front leg in line with back leg.
Middle-and-leg stump line
O Always go back and across in
the crease.
O More open body position. O Leading shoulder opens
slightly O Back foot turned in slightly. O Front leg opens out slightly to leg side
the off stump. This will give the player a more side-on position and if the ball swings away or moves away off the seam the batter is in a good position to adjust and swing the bat through the line of the ball towards the off side with the full blade. Peter Willey came back from an England tour of the West Indies in the 1980s with a very very open batting stance similar to the one we now see Shiv Chanderpaul using. This was because he was peppered with bouncers from four of the fastest bowlers in the world. He had worked out that being more open give him a better chance of survival and scoring runs than being too sideways. Very few batters that stand and play from a very sideways position to deliveries on middle and leg stump line have much success against fast bowlers who are bowling short and at the body.
Gary Palmer has coached a roster of county and international players and helped young players from outside the system to win pro contracts. For info on courses and one-to-one coaching: www.ccmacademy.co.uk APRIL JUNE 2010
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