Matches (18)

T20 World Cup (6)

CE Cup (3)

Vitality Blast (9)

RESULT • 15th Match, Group D • T20 World Cup • T20I • Dallas

124/9

BAN

(19/20 ov, T:125) 125/8

Bangladesh won by 2 wickets (with 6 balls remaining)

Schedule Table Report Series

RESULT • 14th Match, Group C • T20 World Cup • T20I • Providence

AFG

159/6

(15.2/20 ov, T:160) 75

Afghanistan won by 84 runs

Schedule Table Report Series

Jarrod Kimber

Growing up with Ricky

My emotional development as an adult seemed to run parallel with Ricky Ponting's career, as he was the cricketer who took me from my teens into my 30s

Jarrod Kimber

25-Feb-2013

My emotional development as an adult seemed to run parallel with Ricky Ponting's career, as he was the cricketer who took me from my teens into my 30s. When he started playing in the sickly green of Tasmania, I was just a dorky teenager; when he walked off the WACA for the last time, I was holding my newborn son in my arms.

Ponting was, for better or worse, the player of my generation. The player who was always there as a young kid or an old bloke. The one whose game I knew as well as the Marge v the Monorail episode of the Simpsons, or the Epping Train line I grew up on. I obsessed over Ponting's batting like you do when you're a teenager. I told my friends he would became a great No. 3 for Australia. I tried to bat like him. I supported him when he played against Australia for Australia A. He was Tricky Ricky to my friends and me, and we all waited impatiently for him to become a great.

Most Australians guys of my age wanted to be Steve Waugh. Yet most of them were more like Ponting. Quick to anger, slow to mature, unforgiving, prickly, uncomplicated, aggressive and honest.

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Abul Hasan in 'The Perfect Ten'

Sometimes life can suck. Your car won't start, your mum has cancer, Imran Tahir loses his length, children starve to death, you can't find the remote ...

Jarrod Kimber

25-Feb-2013

THIS IS A CONFIDENTIAL REPORT ‐ FOR SLC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ONLY

Sometimes life can suck. Your car won't start, your mum has cancer, Imran Tahir loses his length, children starve to death, you can't find the remote, the dark and disgusting ills of the world eat away at what is left of your miserable soul, and sometimes Jesse Ryder fails against Canterbury.

But then something happens that makes all the bad things just disappear. That something is Abul Hasan.

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The Official World Test Cricket Day Programme

A dollar a day can barely get you a cup of coffee, or an issue of Swamp Thing, but for a Pakistan cricket fan looking to travel to India, it is also largely useless

Jarrod Kimber

25-Feb-2013

Community service announcement:

"A dollar a day can barely get you a cup of coffee, or an issue of Swamp Thing, but for a Pakistan cricket fan looking to travel to India, it is also largely useless. But if you are an Indian, and you want a Pakistan cricket fan to see the cricket, you can sponsor them for a visa. And if you're a Pakistan cricket fan that is sponsored for a visa by an Indian, you should buy them a coffee, or two Ayn Rand books."

Monty Panesar was not included in this column.

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England begin on amateurish note

Four men are hired to save a rich rancher's wife in Mexico. The rancher picks four people with particular skills to form the ultimate team

Jarrod Kimber

25-Feb-2013

Four men are hired to save a rich rancher's wife in Mexico. The rancher picks four people with particular skills to form the ultimate team. The film is called The Professionals. Andy Flower is probably a fan of this film, and not just because of Woody Strobe and Lee Marvin, but because it fits his ethos.

England got to the top of the world by being more professional than every other team in the world. Their selections were impeccable. Everyone did their job. They made each other better. Strangled with the ball, dulled with the bat, took all chances. Preparation was key. They believed they could win. And they won a bunch of series on the way to No. 1.

Then things fell apart in the UAE. Saeed Ajmal does that to people, but England seemed to play like every Pakistani was Ajmal. In Sri Lanka they had Ajmal flashbacks, before ending up 1-1. At home against the West Indies they did what they needed to do and nothing more. Then South Africa turned up. And they did what England had been doing for a while: made no mistakes.

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Cowan's joyful loneliness

You make the hundred. You go crazy. The crowd roar. You celebrate with your batting partner. You acknowledge your family, team-mates and the crowd

Jarrod Kimber

25-Feb-2013

You make the hundred. You go crazy. The crowd roar. You celebrate with your batting partner. You acknowledge your family, team-mates and the crowd. The celebration is then replayed with the commentator explaining what it means. Usually that is it.

We've seen it so many times that sometimes we don't even pay that much attention. If it's someone's first, you might watch just to see how they react. What sort of person are they. Did they kiss their badge? or the turf? Did they squeal uncontrollably? Were they almost crying. How did the non-striker react to it all? Then you go back to half-watching the cricket like you always do.

But Channel 9 caught something else on Ed Cowan.

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Cricket News Hurl: Vulnerable Dossier Edition

Strengths: Only comes out once a week. Only the third edition, so still not that annoying. Has a lot of cricket news in it

Jarrod Kimber

25-Feb-2013

Strengths: Only comes out once a week. Only the third edition, so still not that annoying. Has a lot of cricket news in it. Is written in a folksy sardonic way that makes it feel like you're sitting on an uncomfortable barstool next to someone you don't hate.

Vulnerability: Not enough Jesse Ryder mentions. Bad body odour. Tenuous links between stories. A basic lack of education or intelligence. Enough already with the pop-culture references. Could be easily dismissed by anyone reading on a phone.

Jesse Ryder is still burning down New Zealand. Even though some over-enthusiastic administracrat fined him 750 bucks for showing dissent in his last barnstorming game, that couldn't stop the Ryder. He used the rage of that unnecessary fine to thump 90 off 57 and win another game for Wellington.

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The South Africa night parade

In Japan they have a particular set of monsters called Yokai. These monsters can be anything from a small boy who carries tofu to a demon hag

Jarrod Kimber

25-Feb-2013

In Japan they have a particular set of monsters called Yokai. These monsters can be anything from a small boy who carries tofu to a demon hag who stabs and eats pregnant women. Once upon a time in Kyoto, all the Yokai walked around the outskirts of the town in a menacing way. They called it the Demons' night parade.

It upset the locals.

The South African touring squad has not yet menacingly walked anywhere. They have arrived late due to the Champions League, have played in only one warm-up match on the un-Gabba like SCG and were largely uninspiring in that game.

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A lifestyle cricket news column

Jesse Ryder was back last week. I wrote about it. I was excited. So was Jesse. In his first match back he shook Central Districts down for not one, but two hundreds.

Jarrod Kimber

25-Feb-2013

Jesse Ryder was back last week. I wrote about it.

I was excited.

So was Jesse.

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Cricket coverage needs more voices, not less

My grandpa's massive old wooden radio was handed down to me in 1989. It seemed bigger than I was. It only worked on AM stations

Jarrod Kimber

25-Feb-2013

My grandpa's massive old wooden radio was handed down to me in 1989. It seemed bigger than I was. It only worked on AM stations. And it sometimes changed the station on its own. The year I received it was perfectly timed, as during that Australian winter I listened the Ashes. In 1989 I was allowed to watch the first hour before being sent to bed. In 1993, I was allowed up until lunch. My parents probably thought that I'd fall asleep listening to the radio. I rarely did, but on the odd occasions I did, any wicket or cracking shot would wake me up.

It wasn't just the cricket I liked; it was that it was different to ABC Grandstand. Different voices and outlooks than I was used to. It seemed more like an English play than a cricket commentary to my nine-year-old ears. The morning after I'd quote Christopher Martin-Jenkins to my dad. Something about CMJ just spoke to me, and for years he was my favourite commentator. CMJ was alien to me, but in the very best kind of way. At nine, I was already searching for new people and voices.