From the Editor

The Wanderers feels imposing, ceremonial and stifling; and the SuperSport Park informal and welcoming

25-Feb-2013

Yesterday was the day for a personal record. For the first time, I watched two cricket matches at separate cricket grounds on the same day, and I was not meant to be at either. Truth be told, I caught only a few overs of the Sri Lanka-New Zealand game at The Wanderers before leaving for the Edwardian Sports Complex, where India and Australia were practising, then watched Owais Shah club those sixes on TV. At six pm, dinner plans would have been the logical choice, but I knew I'd rather be elsewhere.

I was contemplating dialing a cab when I had a stroke of luck. A young South African journalist who had been assigned the Wanderers game was driving down to Centurion to watch the South African chase. I gratefully hitched a ride.

Centurion is around 40 kilometres from Johannesburg, and the drive takes 30-40 minutes. The highway is dotted with office buildings that belong to leading South African companies that have been moving away from Johannesburg's expensive, and increasingly decrepit, central business district. Locals say that it is easier to get to Centurion from many parts of Johannesburg than it is to the Wanderers, which is at one end of the city.

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Which way should one-day cricket go?

I'd start with not reducing overs, but matches. What one-day cricket lacks the most at the moment is meaning and context. That's the subject for a bigger piece

Sambit Bal

25-Feb-2013

Most interesting. We are currently running a poll seeking your opinion on the future of one-day cricket, and on last count, more than 62% of you think it should be left as it is.

The other options were:

It should be fixed at 40 overs a side 40 overs and two innings And played less frequently

The ECB has decided where it stands and scrapped the 50-over game at the domestic level. The English have traditionally been the forerunners for change, however, only 18% of you seem to favour the 40-over format which the board has adopted.

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Let's talk about Aravinda

He finished with an average of 42.97 from 93 Tests. It felt right. De Silva was a good batsman who played some great innings. He could have scored more runs, but he played too many strokes for his own good

Sambit Bal

25-Feb-2013

This message landed in my Facebook message box: "How good are u as an editor I wonder? Why don't u ponder how really good the likes of Laxman and Sehwag are?"

I wouldn't say I am surprised by the feedback to my previous post. But a bit disappointed, yes, because the point I was trying to make seems to have been largely missed.

My intent was not to put Thilan Samaraweera, or Sri Lanka batsmen, down. I was trying to use Samaraweera to illustrate the devaluation of batting averages in the 21st century. I pointed out how reality has caught up with Mike Hussey too. Perhaps a lot of you have responded to the headline, which read: "How good is Samaraweera?" With hindsight, we could perhaps have used "The truth about batting averages".

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How good is Samaraweera?

Thilan Samaraweera has taken his batting average to over 50, the magic number that used to confer greatness on Test batsmen, but is he a great?

Sambit Bal

25-Feb-2013

With his second successive hundred against New Zealand, Thilan Samaraweera has taken his batting average to over 50, the magic number that used to confer greatness on Test batsmen. He now stands 29th on the all-time averages list, and if the list is restricted to batsmen with a minimum of 50 Tests, he jumps to 18.

Samaraweera, of course, deserves his success. In March this year he was hit by a bullet when terrorists attacked the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore, and he feared he would never play cricket again. He had just hit two back-to-back double-hundreds then. You can argue that his returns have been halved now. But as S Rajesh tells us, Samaraweera has had a cracking couple of years, averaging over 76 in his last 15 Tests.

Still, how good is he? We perhaps don't know yet. He averages 31.22 against Australia, 24.66 against South Africa, 28.87 against England. In Australia he averages 22.66, in England 4.25, and in India 10.50. He has played 30 of his 54 Tests at home, and averages nearly 60 in them. Seven of his 11 hundreds have come at home, and his career average has been massively boosted by his five Tests in Pakistan, in which he scored 633 runs at 90.42 with three hundreds. His other hundred came in the West Indies.

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Ponting's was the innings that mattered

Marcus North was Man of the Match for his second hundred of the series, and even Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann nearly scored as many but, for me, Ricky Ponting's was the innings of the match

Sambit Bal

25-Feb-2013

Marcus North was Man of the Match for his second hundred of the series, Michael Clarke scored more runs than him, and even Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann nearly scored as many but, for me, Ricky Ponting's was the innings of the match - and, arguably, even the innings of the series.

Rightly, batsmen are judged not merely by the number of runs they produce but the quality of those runs. It was clear from the merry romp of England's ninth-wicket pair that batsmen can do plenty of things once the pressure has lifted. With nothing to lose, and nothing to fear, Broad and Swann were able to flay the same bowlers who terrorised their top-order colleagues for two successive days. Ponting, though, switched on his act when the match was still open.

When a Test side gets bowled out for about a hundred runs on the first day, it is natural to assume that the conditions are tilted heavily towards the bowlers. Australia entered the match with a history of weakness against swing bowling. It cost them the series in 2005 and the Test at Lord's this summer, and when the ball swung for one session at Edgbaston they lost seven wickets for 77. In most cases, bowling your opponents out for 102 in the first innings is good enough win a Test, but only if your own batsmen don't perform as badly.

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If I ever have a conversation with Warne...

I'd ask him whether he ever used the knowledge that Hooper's eyes widened and his stare grew a bit harder if he wanted to step down to the spinner

Sambit Bal

25-Feb-2013

As some of you promptly pointed out, I forgot to mention Gautam Gambhir in my post on batsmen who use their feet against spinners. Hell, Gambhir even jumps down the pitch against the quick bowlers, and that takes some nerve. He was India's best batsman on their last Test tour of Sri Lanka, where some of his more illustrious colleagues struggled to decode Ajantha Mendis. Virender Sehwag's double-century in Galle was the innings of the series, but Gambhir was the most consistent and secure Indian batsman on tour.

For sheer viewing pleasure, though, I'd still go for Michael Clarke. Gambhir is quick out of crease, but he is more jerky, and he moves around a bit too much; sometimes he gives himself away by moving out too early. Clarke is more fluid and graceful and he keeps the bowlers guessing.

Traditionally, Indian batsmen have always used their feet against the spinners, as have the Australians. Good players of spin bowling don't merely hit booming shots after having come down pitch, but often knock the ball around for singles. Sunil Gavaskar, who had the surest footwork, did it all the time, as did Ravi Shastri. Gavaskar never swept. And he rarely lofted the ball.

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The joy of twinkling Clarke

I can't take my eyes off him, when he is batting against spinners. There is something about batsmen who use their feet, and the contest between a courageous spinner and a courageous batsman

Sambit Bal

25-Feb-2013

I like watching Michael Clarke bat. He is not quite the stylist in the mould of Mark Waugh and Damien Martyn, the two recent pleasure givers from Australia. His batting is not as much about touch as it is about quick hands. In that, in there is a bit of Steve Waugh in him.

But I can't take my eyes off him, when he is batting against spinners. There is something about batsmen who use their feet, and the contest between a courageous spinner and a courageous batsman is one of the great joys of cricket. It's a battle of wits as well as of skills.

Usually, cricket's central action, the act of bat meeting the ball, or the ball beating the bat, lasts only a moment. The rest is all build up. Watching the bowler galloping can be a sight, but rarely does a run-up reveal anything. But when you see a batsman spring to his feet, it heightens anticipation: you know something is about to happen. Apart from a ball hit in the air in the direction of a fielder, nowhere is the drama as drawn out. That an aggressive stroke is not inevitable only enriches the experience.

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Embracing the new Cricinfo

We've been listening to your feedback on our new site design and are working on your recommendations

Sambit Bal

25-Feb-2013

Let me enter the guilty plea at the beginning. I could offer up a dozen excuses why this page hasn't had a new entry for a couple of months, but that would be a waste of space. All I can offer is a promise to be more regular.

It's been nearly three weeks since Cricinfo's new look was launched. Your feedback continues to pour in, and it is gratifying to us that it does. Most of you have liked what you have experienced, and many have offered constructive criticism about the things you haven't liked. Some of you who have absolutely hated it have let us know in the most certain manner possible. But even the angriest feedback has been reassuring: a reflection of what Cricinfo means to you, and how much you care.

We have been listening. Not just listening, but acting on several of your suggestions.

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Golden oldies in the IPL, and Page 2

Some recommended reading on ESPNcricinfo over the past week

Sambit Bal

25-Feb-2013

Sorry for the absence last week. I have no excuses, apart from the lame one that last Monday was very busy. So to make up, let me begin with one from the previous week.

Most of you will have noticed Osman Samiuddin's return. It was business as usual the moment he got back from his honeymoon (which, incidentally, Thai anti-government protesters chose to make memorable by coming out on to the streets to engage the army) and he was called on write about the ICC's decision to remove Pakistan from the list of World Cup hosts. This he did with familiar clarity and reason:

In such darkness, sadness is understandable, even desirable if it brings introspection, but there should be no place for anger

It's been mostly IPL last week, and though the cricket has been mostly tepid so far, the spicier pitches in South Africa have ensured that batsmen have had to fall back on traditional skills. Not surprisingly, the top performers have all been familiar names, and it gave Peter Roebuck cause to rejoice:

the first few matches of this year's IPL have reminded all and sundry that cricket is just a game played with a bat and a ball, that good cricketers will find a way, that determined and skilful players will adapt, that the leading lights in 10-day cricket are likely to prosper in 10-over cricket as well.

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Harbhajan and Symonds are now team-mates

Introducing ESPNcricinfo's Page 2, a space where entertainment is the sole objective

Sambit Bal

25-Feb-2013

I don't know how owners of large department stores that make you wind your way past things that they want you to see feel about doing so, but I feel a bit sheepish about luring you in with this headline. Though it does not lie, Harbhajan and Symonds are only bit players in this piece: the main agenda is something else.

Now that I have secured your attention, allow me to lead you on to a brand new section on Cricinfo. Unlike department stores, I won't guarantee satisfaction, but I have a hunch it will bring a smile to your face.

You have two choices. You can click on this link to check out the section right away and then come back read this if you need to. Or you can read on and explore later.

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