Nigel Howard was a surprise choice to lead an under-strength England overseas in 1951-52. His Test career started and ended with that ordinary tour to India

Steven Lynch11-May-2015The roll-call of England captains is an evocative list. Almost an A-Z: Atherton, Brearley, Cowdrey, Dexter, Edrich, Flintoff, Graveney, Hutton, Illingworth … With a Hammond and a May and a Strauss thrown in. Since the Second World War, it’s been an unbroken list of the biggest names in English cricket.Well, almost unbroken. England’s captain in India in 1951-52, was ND Howard. Who was he?In fact, Nigel Howard had taken over at Lancashire in 1949, when he was only 23, still their youngest full-time captain. He led them to a share of the Championship in 1950, and had enjoyed four reasonable seasons with the bat – over 900 runs each year since becoming a regular in 1948, with 1174 in 1950. For the time, it was solid but unspectacular: nothing really to suggest that here was a Test player in the making… except for one important thing. Howard was an amateur, and England’s captains (and most of the county captains too) came from the unpaid ranks back then. England hadn’t been led by a paid professional since the days of privately raised teams in the 19th century.During the home summer of 1951, England had been led by Freddie Brown, who had proved a popular captain in Australia the previous winter, despite losing heavily. But Brown was over 40, and didn’t fancy a winter in India: he stood down from the captaincy. I’d always imagined that Howard must have been MCC’s third or fourth choice to lead that winter tour – but actually the committee minutes reveal he was the first one asked, in June 1951.These were different times. It wasn’t only Brown who wasn’t too keen on playing in India: of the XI that won the final Test at The Oval in 1951, to clinch a 3-1 victory over South Africa, only four went on the tour, none of them established players. Howard’s Lancashire team-mate, the offspinner Roy Tattersall, had nine previous caps, including all five games that summer, but the other three – the young Hampshire allrounder Derek Shackleton and the Yorkshire pair of opener Frank Lowson and wicketkeeper Don Brennan – had only two caps each. There was no Hutton, no Compton, no May, no Evans, no Bailey, no Bedser, no Laker …

“He didn’t like India, and he never really felt well. He was as fit as a flea really, but I’m sure he thought he was going to pick up some awful plague”Tour manager Geoffrey Howard on Nigel Howard

It all seems rather peculiar now, but the fact was that England had long felt they didn’t need a full-strength team to subdue anyone who wasn’t Australia. It might have been true before the war, when only South Africa had given regular trouble, but the times were a-changing. In 1947-48, West Indies had seen off an experimental side – captained by 45-year-old Gubby Allen – and showed that was no fluke by winning a joyous series in England in 1950. Even New Zealand, who would not lower England’s colours until 1977-78, showed they were no longer pushovers by drawing all four Tests in the summer of 1949. Those were only three-day games – only Australia were deemed worthy of the full five – but that was changed the following year.That left India, who had been playing Tests since 1932, but still hadn’t won one. However, more regular international exposure had begun to harden them into a useful team, featuring batsmen like the two Vijays – stylish opener Merchant and prolific captain Hazare. At home, they would be difficult to beat, and any inferiority complex that might have existed before had been buried, chiefly by the combative allrounders Lala Amarnath and Vinoo Mankad.And so Howard was up against it. A successful series might have secured him the England captaincy at home as well, and there was an Australian visit looming in 1953. But India had the better of the first Test, in Delhi: only a superb rearguard from the Glamorgan left-hander Allan Watkins saved their blushes. He resisted for nine hours for 137 not out, and put on 158 with Donald Carr, the vice-captain.That innings of Carr, another amateur, posed a few problems for the management. Tom Graveney, the side’s best batsman, had missed the first Test, but had to return for the second, in Bombay (where he would score 175). Who would make way for him? Watkins grabbed the nettle, and suggested the captain – who’d made just 13 and 9 in Delhi – should step down. But, as Carr said, “It became clear that he was not going to let himself be left out.” Instead it was Carr, who’d just made 76 on debut, who was dropped. “I suppose it was inevitable really,” he admitted, “and I’ve sometimes wondered what I would have done in similar circumstances.” There’s not much doubt who Graveney himself would have left out: Howard was, he said, “a very ordinary cricketer – and that’s putting it kindly”. Carr was somewhat more generous: “I found Nigel a very nice fellow, and he had a good record as captain of Lancashire.”Denis Compton was at London’s St Pancras Station to see off members of the 1951-52 tour party to India•PA PhotosThe second and third Tests were drawn, but Howard continued to struggle – 20 in Bombay, 23 and 20 not out in Calcutta. He only made a run in the fourth Test in Kanpur, but it didn’t matter much: England’s spinners outbowled India’s, and the match was won. Victory was set up by Howard’s Lancastrian colleagues Tattersall and slow left-armer Malcolm Hilton, who shared 17 wickets.Ironically, Howard did now stand down – he had contracted pleurisy, and had to return home. It fell to Carr to captain England for the only time in the final Test in Madras – and it was a historic game, as India finally broke their duck and squared the series, in a match that had an unscheduled rest day when news came through late on the first afternoon that King George VI had died. Vinoo Mankad did the damage with 8 for 55 in the first innings (and four more in the second), then centuries from Pankaj Roy and Polly Umrigar set up a big lead. It was probably England’s lack of quick bowling that cost them: both Roy and Umrigar would struggle against the fiery young Fred Trueman in England later in 1952. But that’s not to detract from India’s win. The Times admitted: “Over the whole series England seemed rather lucky to have shared the honours.”Carr remembered: “The Indians were very polite to us after the match and said the reason we had lost was because we were so upset by the news of the King’s death.”The tour manager was Geoffrey Howard (no relation). He recalled his captain in Stephen Chalke’s fine 2001 memoir At the Heart of English Cricket: “He was very young, and his upbringing had been so materialistic. In a way, he’d had things too easy in his life. He’d got where he had because of his father.”He didn’t like India, and he never really felt well. He was as fit as a flea really, but I’m sure he thought he was going to pick up some awful plague. He was so apprehensive about his health – and the strange thing was that he died at the age of only 54.” That was in 1979, not long after he’d retired from the family textile business to the Isle of Man.Howard played on for Lancashire until 1954, but never did captain England again. It was Len Hutton, a professional, who would take on (and beat) the Australians in 1953. Still, MCC remained keen on the idea of amateur captains, even after the distinction between Gentlemen and Players was officially abolished in 1962. But they never took India – or anyone else – quite so lightly again.

He has made his comeback to the Bangladesh Test team as a bowler who is by trade a batsman, but hasn’t yet made his mark in either

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur08-May-2015Shuvagata Hom would like to forget the third day’s play of the Dhaka Test. He moved late to a Wahab Riaz delivery outside off-stump, resulting in a golden duck. Two catches went past his diving left hand at gully. He did hold on to a dolly and took a wicket with a long-hop, but you could see that he was feeling the pinch. When he came on to bowl late in Pakistan’s second innings, Shuvagata looked weary, and rather reluctantly accepted a short leg and a slip from captain Mushfiqur. Misbah-ul-Haq reversed him for a boundary soon after.The tame dismissal coupled with his insipid bowling, his international performance so far, and his overall role in the Bangladesh team, particularly in the two Tests against Pakistan, would make the fourth day of the Dhaka Test a make-or-break innings for him. Shakib Al Hasan, who was at the other end when Shuvagata was dismissed within the first 4.2 overs of the third morning, said that he should support the top and middle-order batsmen when he goes to bat at No 8, but added that it wasn’t an easy position to bat in.”It is a difficult situation to bat but this is a big opportunity for him (Shuvagata),” Shakib said. “Things would have been different if Shahadat wasn’t injured. [Jubair Hossain] Likhon too was injured just before the game, so may be that affected the team selection. I think we were unfortunate with the injuries and the catches taken off no-balls.”Of course it is possible to make a contribution. Why wouldn’t it be? If he has a recognized batsman at the other end, he can put together a substantial partnership. Bangladeshi batsmen have scored 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s at No 7 and 8 in the past. Since he is a specialist batsman, he can bat with the tail-ender. There is chance to contribute, but it is not easy.”A bad day can be forgiven and forgotten, so too a bad Test series. A player doing ordinarily in his first six Tests can be largely ignored. He can be a slow starter. But the issue with Shuvagata in this Bangladesh Test team is his specific role. In his second coming as an international cricketer, Shuvagata was picked for the two-match Test series against West Indies last August as an allrounder who was required to bowl a lot of overs since Shakib was serving the BCB ban and Sohag Gazi had his action reported and returned home.In the preceding season, 2013-14, Shuvagata averaged 38 with the bat and picked up 21 wickets. Among allrounders who had taken a minimum of ten wickets and scored at least 300 runs in the domestic first-class competitions, Shuvagata was the third highest wicket-taker and fourth highest scorer. A specialist batsman who can bowl a bit but he effectively replaced Sohag Gazi, the specialist offspinner who could bat a bit. Try working that one out.He featured in the Zimbabwe series for nearly the same reason but wasn’t asked to bowl in the first Test. He scored just one half-century and took just four wickets in the series. When he was picked for the Pakistan Tests, the chief selector Faruque Ahmed explained that they wanted to pick players from the previous Test Bangladesh had played to have some consistency and continuation in the team. So far, that hasn’t worked out well.A lot of questions have been raised with Jubair Hossain not being picked ahead of him in Khulna and Bangladesh not opting for Abul Hasan in his place when they knew the wicket would assist pace bowlers. Whether his role was a negative one is certainly up for debate, but his job description of being a part allrounder evidently fits the plan of the captain Mushfiqur and coach Chandika Hathurusingha.What adds to the confusion is his first stint as an international cricketer. Shuvagata was picked for the ODI series against Zimbabwe in 2011 as a specialist batsman after having averaged 61.26 in ten first-class matches with three hundreds and six fifties since his first-class debut in 2010. He looked like a confident player but couldn’t get past the thirties in the four ODIs. He was sent to the scrapheap.A further look back into Shuvagata’s career perplexes you even more. He spent the first few years of his domestic club cricket career as a medium-pacer. Only when he joined the National Cricket Academy did he suddenly change tact and transform himself into a stump-to-stump offspinner. He is a loyal cricketer too helping his first club, Cricket Coaching School, get promoted to the Dhaka First Division Cricket League (second tier in the Dhaka league system) from the Second Division in 2005-06.He helped them stay afloat in the first division despite the team being in the relegation zone in the 2006-07 season. The following season, 2007-08, his runs helped them earn promotion to the Dhaka Premier League (the top tier of the Dhaka league system) and despite big monetary offers, he stuck with them for two more seasons.No Bangladesh cricketer, especially in the last ten years, has been with a single club for too long and neither has one made it to the senior side as a batsman first, been dropped and then got picked for his bowling skills. There’s something about Shuvagata, that only the Bangladesh team management and selectors have seen so far. Saturday could be the day that everyone else does too.

Mumbai Indians did not have much to defend, but against a Sunrisers Hyderabad line-up whose middle order struggles to find the big shots, it was more than enough

Amol Karhadkar at the Wankhede Stadium25-Apr-2015Soon after the customary handshakes at the end of the match between both the teams, Mumbai Indians started a lap of honour at the Wankhede Stadium. Not for having won their first home game of the season, but to acknowledge 17,000 school kids who had turned up to celebrate their owners’ ‘Education for All’ initiative and had literally turned the stadium into a sea of blue.At the same time, a dejected orange army was climbing on to what appears to be a never-ending staircase to the Wankhede dressing room. Not that Sunrisers Hyderabad have been in great touch during the season, but they still entered the game as favourites, mainly due to Mumbai’s mediocre offerings so far.Once Sunrisers did a Mumbai in terms of team selection and inexplicable strategy with the bat, it became even easier for the hosts to double their victory count for the season comfortably.Both teams have struggled to find the correct balance as the tournament approaches its midway mark. It reflects in the fact that Mumbai and Sunrisers have hardly ever retained the same team for successive outings. In fact, both these sides have used the most number of players so far this season. At the end of match 24, Chennai Super Kings have used just 11 players in six games. Sunrisers and Mumbai, on the other hand, have used 18 and 19.Even on Saturday, both teams made two changes to their elevens. While Mumbai bolstered their bowling line-up, bringing in R Vinay Kumar and J Suchith, Sunrisers roped in Trent Boult and Hanuma Vihari. It meant Sunrisers were not just a batsman thin, but they also missed a big hitter in the middle and lower order.Sunrisers continued to persist with two of their best batsmen at the top, but as always, carried the risk of struggling in the middle overs if both David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan perished early. That is precisely what happened on Saturday. Despite the quickfire start to the moderate chase of 158 by their openers, once both Dhawan and Warner were dismissed in the last two Powerplay overs, Sunrisers had to make do with a middle order that appeared far from aggressive.If KL Rahul’s place in an IPL XI is hard to justify, Vihari’s inclusion in the side meant Sunrisers’ batting unit had two batsmen who not only struggle for the big shots, but also find it difficult to rotate strike. That put additional pressure on Naman Ojha and Ravi Bopara. Neither of them could show off their hitting prowess against a disciplined Mumbai attack, and a very achievable target became gargantuan and ungettable in no time.The fact that Sunrirsers could manage just five fours and a six in the last 14 overs of their innings summed up the dire straits their batting order appears to be in. The players’ inability to hit boundaries made an otherwise struggling bowling unit pick up their richest haul of the season.It resulted in spectators at the Wankhede, who had been roasted in the first half of the early game, making do with cheering wickets rather than sixes. With the home team being on the right side of a result for a change, they didn’t mind at all.

He started out as a natural talent who lost his way. Now, able to marry venom and control, Steven Finn finally feels back to his best

George Dobell at Edgbaston30-Jul-2015Just over a year ago, Steven Finn sat in the dressing room at Edgbaston and wept. The pace and rhythm were gone. The England place, too. There were no guarantees that any of them would be back.At the time, Finn had been reduced to bowling first change for Middlesex. It wasn’t that he minded; it was that he didn’t understand what had gone wrong. He didn’t understand why the game that had once come so easily had suddenly become so hard. He didn’t understand why all his hard work was getting him nowhere.But as he sits in the same pavilion, he may reflect that the experience has been the making of him. He may reflect that, where once he was a talented kid, he is now an experienced professional. He may reflect that the whole experience, painful though it was, was a necessary process that helped him develop from something raw into something quite special. He’s not a brute hurling a ball now; he’s a fast bowler.And yes, he is fast. Finn has bowled faster than anyone – including Mitchell Johnson – in this Test. His speed, in both innings, has gone above 90mph, with a first-innings high above 93mph. With his height, that presents an uncomfortable challenge for a batsman. Even a batsman as good as Steven Smith, rated No. 1 in the world, who Finn has dismissed twice in this match.Just as importantly, he has gained swing. While the Finn that first represented England swung the occasional ball, the version that has come back into the side appears to have control and regular away shape. The wicket of Mitchell Marsh – bowled by a full delivery – even seemed to tail in just a fraction. It has made him a far more complete package as a bowler.And, most importantly, he has hit the seam and maintained a good length. His spell of 8-1-25-4 either side of tea, in which he dismissed Smith and Michael Clarke, squared up by one that left him slightly off the seam, may well have settled this game. His obvious happiness afterwards – “it feels pretty darn good,” he said in what might have been considered a pretty good Hugh Grant impression – was understandable. There have been some dark days on the journey.In the beginning, fast bowling came easily to Finn. While his school friends were doing their GCSEs, he was making his first-class debut. For a 16-year-old to play professional sport is impressive enough; for a fast bowler to do so is remarkable.Six years later, he was celebrating becoming the youngest man to claim 50 Test wickets for England. He hadn’t had to think about the game; it all came naturally.

Like fixing an engine, Finn was forced to understand how each part of his action worked and how to gain the best from it

But then came the obstacles. His propensity to leak four runs an over made him something of a liability in a four-man attack who prided themselves on attrition and control. Then, after his habit of knocking the stumps in his delivery stride became more than an irritation in 2012, the attempts to alter his action and approach started.The results were, initially at least, wretched. The run-up was shortened, then lengthened again. The pace dropped – Finn continues to deny this, but the statistics brook no argument – the control disappeared and a man who once looked natural and confident then appeared deliberate and diffident.He played his last Test at Trent Bridge in 2013 – he bowled especially poorly in the Lord’s nets ahead of the second Test of that series and was dropped – and, by the time England reached Australia later that year, looked a shell of the bowler he had once been.The image of him alone in the nets at the SCG, bowling delivery after delivery in agonisingly arrhythmic fashion, growing slower the more effort he applied, was one of the sadder sights of the tour. By the time Ashley Giles sent him home suggesting he was “not selectable” – a phrase that had been used throughout the tour by the coaching staff away from the microphones – it was a kindness. He needed a break.What he gained, in reality, was time and space and support. Back at Middlesex, in a more benevolent environment without some of the “banter” that was not always helpful in the England dressing room, Finn worked for hour after hour with the club’s bowling coach, Richard Johnson.There was, for a long time, little sign of improvement. But perhaps at Finchley Cricket Club, where Finn started bowling off two paces, then built it up off three, then four and more, perhaps at Lord’s in May, when Jonathan Trott said Finn was back to his best, or perhaps at Merchant Taylor’s School earlier this month, when Finn and Johnson both came to the same conclusion, Finn started to bowl with the venom of old and the control of new. And, just as importantly, he started to believe in himself again.The process of rebuilding that action will prove priceless. Like fixing an engine, he was forced to understand how each part of his action worked and how to gain the best from it. He was forced – prepared might be a better word; plenty wouldn’t have bothered – to confront technical lapses that his natural talent had, for a while, allowed him to ignore. He was prepared to do the hard work to come again.”Trying to improve hindered me for a while,” he said recently. “But overall it’s been a beneficial experience. I came home and reassessed where I was. I feel good now. I feel I can do myself justice.”That may prove just as well for England. There seems a very strong chance that James Anderson will miss at least the Trent Bridge Test, providing a peek into England’s future. Anderson will surely prove irreplaceable but, at least if Finn is fit and firing, the future does not look quite so worrying.It is not a unique story. The likes of Anderson, Matt Prior and Ian Bell were also selected young only to then struggle and benefit from a spell back in the county game. Gary Ballance will surely prove the same.Bearing in mind the occurrences of players struggling in the England environment, it does provoke reflection on the ECB’s belief in the academy at Loughborough. While millions are spent on a centre that appears to produce little – there are several examples of players who feel their career was detrimentally affected by its coaches – the ECB is drawing up plans to cut the County Championship schedule by 25%. To do so risks weakening the foundations of everything good in the English game.Finn, himself, credits the endless support of Johnson and, to be fair, the ECB’s Kevin Shine. “I’m indebted to those guys,” he said. “They put in hours and hours of early mornings with me bowling through to a mitt, or to a stump and watching and giving feedback. I’m very grateful to the way those guys have given their time so selflessly to me after the last 18 months.”Steven Finn found an irresistible rhythm to rip through Australia’s top order•Getty ImagesBut he also credited a refreshed atmosphere in the England dressing room. More comfortable in the less intense environment, Finn is not thinking so much at the runs he must avoid conceding as the wickets he wants to take. It is a subtle difference, perhaps, but it has helped him relax and produce the cricket that he had shown for Middlesex this summer.”I’m enjoying playing cricket at the moment,” he said. “I used to put myself under a huge amount of pressure. But now we just want to play with smiles on our faces.”We’re playing with a can-do attitude. Before, we were playing some very attritional cricket because it suited the players that we had. Now we’re trying to be a team of people who can showcase our talent. It seems to be working.”It was not as if he had things all his own way. His first over was hit for 14, mainly by David Warner, and he was quickly whipped out of the attack and brought back at the other end.It proved a masterstroke by Alastair Cook. Two ball later Smith, perhaps trying to pile the pressure on to a bowler who has sometimes been suspected of cracking when he is targeted, top edged an attempted pull. Shortly after tea, Finn was on a hat-trick and Australia were the ones under pressure. He had been tested and he had come through.”There have been dark times along the way,” he said. “But it makes those good times all the more satisfying.”Indeed, it will. And, in the long-term, his hard work and increased understanding of his art will serve him and England well.

Besides the two headliners, Shan Masood staked claim for long tenancy at the top, Azhar Ali was a calming influence, but Pakistan might want a bit more from their pacers

Umar Farooq08-Jul-2015

10

Yasir ShahEasily, the best performer of the series. For Yasir, the series was nothing less than a dream as he reeled off 24 wickets in three Tests and went onto complete 50 wickets in only nine Tests, fastest by any Pakistan bowler. Yasir’s 7 for 76 in the second innings in Galle was the best by an overseas bowler in Sri Lanka, surpassing his own idol Shane Warne.

9.5

Younis KhanHe might have been below par in the first two Tests, including his 100th, but he stepped up in the decider, inspiring Pakistan to their first Test series win in Sri Lanka since 2006. Younis smashed several records on his way to an unbeaten 171 off 271 balls, after Pakistan were reduced to 13 for 2 in pursuit of 377. Younis’ epic effort was the best by a Pakistan batsman in a fourth innings and the fifth best overall in a chase.

9

Shan MasoodMasood, who had been carrying drinks since 2013 would have continued doing the same had Mohammad Hafeez been available in Pallekele. Though the replacement opener failed in the first innings, he grabbed the opportunity in the second dig. Masood made 125 off 233 balls, his maiden century, despite his troubles against the short ball, and was at the forefront of a remarkable Pakistan turnaround alongside Younis.

9

Sarfraz AhmedHe was a symbol of consistency this tour. Pakistan endured collapses in Galle and Pallekele but Sarfraz propped them up with his busy batting. Sarfraz ended with 204 runs in four innings at 68 and effected 14 dismissals behind the stumps.

8

Azhar AliThe nucleus of a resurgent team, Azhar asserted his case further and finished as the second-highest run-getter for Pakistan after Younis Khan with 208 runs at 41.60, including a half-century and century. His ability to hold the innings together even under pressure makes him the lynchpin of the batting line-up.

7

Zulfiqar BabarAn accurate left-arm spinner, Babar brings a lot of stability to the bowling attack, more so in sub-continental conditions. He kept things tight at one end, while Yasir chipped away at the other. Babar was left out of the third Test for a seamer and finished with six wickets at 36.50. He also pitched in with a counter-attacking 56 in Galle, his first half-century in Tests.

7

Wahab RiazThe driving force of Pakistan but he suffered a hairline fracture on his bowling hand in the second Test in Colombo and was forced to return home. Pakistan’s primary strike bowler tested Sri Lanka with bouncers but leaked some runs. He accounted for five wickets at 27.80.Sarfraz Ahmed was consistent with both the bat and the big gloves, scoring 204 runs and effecting 14 dismissals•Ishara S.Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

6

Misbah ul HaqPut the seal on Pakistan’s epic series win with a six over long-on and brought up 4000 Test runs. He struck 59 in the Pallekele and ended with 114 runs overall at 28.50. Misbah was also a calming influence in a series that saw striking highs and lows.

5

Asad ShafiqA century on an away tour is decent for any young batsman. Shafiq scored a solid 131, which rallied Pakistan to a ten-wicket win in Galle. Consistency is an area of concern but he is a key investment for the future. Overall, he had returns of 175 at 43.75.

5

Imran KhanDespite being troubled by fitness issues, Imran stepped up with a strong performance in the decider. He picked up his maiden five-wicket haul, which laid the foundation for Pakistan’s turnaround. He struggled with the old ball but prised out five wickets with the second new ball to wrap up Sri Lanka’s tail single handedly.

3

Rahat AliHaving recovered from a hamstring issue, Rahat made an unexpected comeback. Produced some extra bounce and movement with the new ball. He could not control the old ball, though, and finished with returns of five wickets at 31.20

2.5

Mohammad HafeezHafeez’s career graph has always been a lop-sided one. He scored a double-century against Bangladesh in Khulna but struggled to come to terms with the zip and seam movement in Sri Lanka, despite playing 12 years of international cricket. His bowling action was called suspect, prompting another test, forcing him to miss the final Test in Pallekele.

2

Ahmed ShehzadShehzad had some starts but threw them away like he often does. He managed only 143 runs at 28.60 and fell behind in the top-order tussle. Despite playing more than ten Tests and making three centuries, Shehzad has struggled to nail down a permanent spot in the XI. He may have scored one fifty but lacked stability.

2

Junaid KhanCall him unlucky or ineffective after injury, Junaid was the only weak link in an otherwise formidable attack. He showed sparks of brilliance in Galle with the old ball but did not have enough wickets to show for. Junaid was eventually dropped for the deciding Test in Pallekele. Having taken 50 wickets against Sri Lanka, he is ordinarily prolific against them but never looked convincing this series. He could muster only one wicket at 180 in two matches.

1

Ehsan AdilA decent seamer, who could move the ball around a bit, but Adil was not threatening. He managed only a solitary wicket in 31 overs across both innings in Pallekele.

The fast bowling son of a labourer whose “spark” has been noticed by the likes of Rahul Dravid, Nathu Singh will get his chance on a bigger stage against the touring South Africans in a week’s time

Sidharth Monga in Jaipur23-Oct-2015The day the court appointed an ad hoc committee to run Rajasthan cricket, its convenor, Amrit Mathur, received a call from Rahul Dravid. The gist of the conversation was: “this boy” is good, please keep an eye out for him.After the end of the first match, against Delhi, their coach Vijay Dahiya, who joined only from the second match onwards, called Mathur. He had been told about “this boy” by Gautam Gambhir. The gist of this conversation: “we were talking, Gautam mentioned this boy and said that after a long time he has seen new India material, please make sure he is not ruined by over-bowling.”Chairman of national selectors Sandeep Patil happened to watch this boy. Rajinder Hans, another national selector appointed by the court to make sure the Rajasthan Ranji team was selected fairly, obviously saw this boy. And now, this boy, Nathu Singh, son of a labourer in a wire factory, is going to play for the Board President’s XI against the touring South Africans based on “the spark” Patil and team have seen. He has played only three first-class matches.Sometimes a name can evoke the person. Nathu is almost like you know him. Short, endearing. Not quite the immortal “” from the Hindi movie . His pronunciation is different. It’s Naa-thu. The thu is softer too. Until three years ago he used to bowl with a soft ball in the [neighbourhood]. Then a told him he should try a cricket ball because he was too fast for everybody.The first thing you notice about Nathu is the tattoo on his arm. “Mom dad,” it says. His mother and father gambled it all for him. When he took the advice to actually start playing with the cricket ball, he needed to play at an academy. He went to Surana Academy, where the fees was Rs 10,000 for the year. The father had no savings to spare, but he told Nathu: “Whatever I have I will put in. Let’s see for two months how you go.”

A sign of how sick cricket at grassroots levels is in India is that Nathu couldn’t find a place in the Jaipur district side, and had to play for Sikkar, hardly known for its cricket

Two months later the coaches at the academy and Nathu’s [mother’s brother] suggested he be given time because they saw that “spark”. The academy subsidised the fee looking at his family background, and by the end of that year he was in the Rajasthan Under-19 side. The MRF Pace Academy happened too, where he impressed Glenn McGrath. Boots and spikes? “I used to arrange from the seniors,” Nathu says. “Deepak [Chahar] and Aniket [Choudhury] helped me a lot.” Two years ago, when Nathu drew his first match fee, he gave it all to his parents. He still does.A sign of how sick cricket at grassroots levels is in India is that he couldn’t find a place in the Jaipur district side, and had to go and play for Sikkar, hardly known for its cricket. The rest of the machinery, though, has been remarkable in fast-tracking him into playing against a quality opposition.The word around is that he has pace, but more than pace his speciality is that he bowls quick when he bowls at a length. Every coach has told him that. The explanation is this: when you strive to bowl fast, when the pace is not natural but through extra effort, you tend to drag the ball down. Nathu doesn’t need to. “The coaches have also told me I am god-gifted,” Nathu says. “There is no need to work on me.”Time to watch him then. There is a Munaf Patel-like lumber to his walk and his batting. He is lbw first ball against Maharashtra. He looks a mug. His turn to bowl against Maharashtra comes after the new-ball bowlers, Chahar and Choudhury, have had a go. They are 21 for 1 when Nathu begins to meticulously mark his run-up to begin the ninth over of the innings. Four steps from the crease, toe next to the heel, and he marks a line there. Then a long leap to scratch another mark, audibly enough for those outside the fence. Then he goes to the top of his mark.Nathu walks four steps, then skips – not as extravagantly as Junaid Khan or Mohit Sharma – and then takes 10 brisk but comfortable steps into his delivery stride. The leap is high, the action is easy and smooth, and then he puts a big effort into the ball. There is pace. It repeatedly thuds into the gloves of wicketkeeper Dishant Yagnik. He looks front-on – he calls himself an inswing bowler – and it will need closer analysis to see if he looks over his front arm just before letting the ball go. This puts stress on the back, but also puts action on the ball. Bhuvneshwar Kumar does that.In a week’s time, Nathu Singh will have the chance to meet his hero, Dale Steyn, who always has time for young fast bowlers•Associated PressAs of now, though, despite being green, the Sawai Mansingh Stadium has not provided any lateral movement to the quicks on either side. Nathu gets late-cut for three consecutive boundaries by Maharashtra captain Rohit Motwani. He is not bowling his speciality: quick length balls. Probably because this is not quite a seaming surface and you have to hit the deck hard. He creates an opportunity with the other batsman Harshad Khadiwale, but sees a catch dropped. That has for long been the fate of the other India player from Rajasthan, Pankaj Singh. Ordinary slip catching has been the bane of Rajasthan quicks.Nathu bowls four wicketless overs before lunch and goes for four fours. He comes back after lunch and bowls a six-over spell that lasts until the afternoon drinks. Easy there, captain. Remember what Dahiya said. But then again, Chahar is off the field with an injury, and Nathu has had his man, Motwani. Motwani tries to back-cut again, but this time Nathu has bowled the quick length ball, which bounces to take the edge.It will be harsh to draw verdicts on his general accuracy or ability to work batsmen out based on just one day’s play, but the spark that everybody has seen is there. There is pace, natural pace, pace even at the end of the day when bowling his 18th over with a 70-over-old ball. Yet another cricketer from India has come up despite, and not because of, the system. The way people have rallied around him is heart-warming. In a week’s time in Mumbai he will meet another good Samaritan, his hero, Dale Steyn, who is never stingy with time or advice for young fast bowlers.The spark has somehow been given the fuel. It is up to him now to burn bright.

The visitors had been wary of the Mohali pitch well before the match even began and that played as much or a greater part in the unravelling

Firdose Moonda in Mohali07-Nov-2015Test cricket does not have the bloodlust of boxing, the contact of rugby and American football or the speed of soccer but it is the most demanding sport around. Players are expected to be at it for six hours a day for five days in succession. Admittedly not all of them are involved all of the time but even just being present for that period take its toll. And that’s not even the hardest part.At its core, Test cricket is a mental game and South Africa were reminded of just how much of a role the mind plays in Mohali. Take nothing away from India’s spinners – especially R Ashwin – but they were not solely responsible for the South Africa’s downfall. Neither was the surface although it was tricky for both sides to bat on. Perhaps the purists have a point when they lament the demise of proper temperament and technique as a result of the glut of limited-overs cricket.Both sets of batsmen seemed to be scrambling too early and too much and South Africa’s squirming began even before the match did. Three days out, Faf du Plessis was disturbingly negative about the surface and what his team expected from it. “The worst,” he said, implying a raging turner, dry, spider-webbed with cracks, unplayable. That one of their senior batsmen was talking this way should have raised alarm bells about South Africa’s state of mind. In the end, du Plessis was done by straight deliveries in both innings. Expecting “the worst”, it seems, can cloud the vision too.South Africa’s other bankers were also out of touch. Hashim Amla is going through a lean run that he can’t seem to break out of – some of it is caused by footwork issues, some by “brainfreezes,” as he put it when discussing getting out in bizarre ways – and AB de Villiers’ first-innings 63 needed some support.If South Africa are to succeed on this tour, at least one of du Plessis, Amla or de Villiers have to come good every innings and if only one of them does, it has to be very good, especially if JP Duminy is not around. The rest of the line-up feed off them. If Dean Elgar, Stiaan van Zyl and Dane Vilas see their seniors baffled, they are unlikely to believe they won’t be. It may not be as simple as that and there are instances of young batsmen stealing the show (think Duminy in Melbourne) but generally, on away tours, one of the big batsmen has go big and in this case, that applies to their temperament too.Some of South Africa’s other players were less alarmist. Dale Steyn spoke about, “the first three days being pretty chilled and then it just speeds up on day four and five,” Dean Elgar suggested something similar about the difficulties of batting later in the match and Simon Harmer looked forward to finally enjoying a more spinner-friendly surface compared to what he is used to back home.They were all right. The game was played in fast-forward from the get-go: 12 wickets fell on the first day, 10 on the second and 18 on the third, so batting was never easy for either side. Thirty-four of the 40 that fell were to spinners, the fourth-highest number of wickets taken by spinners in any match, but not to spin.This was a pitch that demanded concentration and careful thought. The batsmen had to be patient but they also could not get too pinned down or they were likely to make a mistake. Strike rotation was perhaps the most important basic discipline that needed to be applied and South Africa abandoned it as the match went on. They scored just 37 singles in their second innings, compared to India’s 68.The frustration of seeing out dot balls and hoping for boundaries may have led to the errors Amla spoke about. The reality of the unknown may also have contributed its share but South Africa are likely to be harsh on themselves when they assess how they handled foreign conditions with the bat.When they do, they can consider themselves flattered by India’s insistence on preparing this kind of pitch. It tells them India are wary of engaging in a contest where bat and ball are equals, just as South Africa themselves have been in the past when confronted with a team they feared may be stronger than them.In 2010, when India were ranked No.1 and visited South Africa, the first Test was played on a Centurion green mamba that would not have been out of place a little further north in a Waterberg Reserve. The seamers were snipers though the match went to the fifth day due to rain.India may remember that when South Africa tried it again, in the Test that followed in Durban, the plan backfired. India also had seamers who could speak parseltongue and they were able to find their way back into the series. Virat Kohli’s men might do well to treat that as a cautionary tale but, given the gulf they might see between the quality of their spinners and South Africa’s, the pitches are likely to remain the same.Already, they are promising to push home advantage even more. On Saturday, the reported that the Feroz Shah Kotla is expected to be spinner-friendly for the upcoming Ranji Trophy match and quoted a DDCA official saying, “We will have to prepare it according to what the Indian team and the BCCI wants.”It may serve South Africa best if they did not read that.

The Wanderers has a history of producing result-orientated Test cricket and for England there is the tantalising prospect of being able to secure a series victory

Andrew McGlashan10-Jan-2016After their short break following the second Test in Cape Town, England’s players will return to the day job on Monday as they begin preparations for the third Test at the Wanderers with the chance at a second series victory in South Africa since readmission.They will need to spend the three days ahead of the series resumption adjusting to the new challenges posed by cricket on the Highveld, where the thinner atmosphere allows the ball to travel further and faster, while also pushing the physical endurance of the players – especially the bowlers – in the middle.England, who arrived on Sunday, landed into a region in the midst of a drought. Temperatures had soared to record highs on Friday in Johannesburg (38 degrees) and Pretoria (42.5 degrees). After the bowlers’ toil in Newlands – although from England’s point of view some of that was self-inflicted with fielding errors – they will hope that the hot weather does not mean the Wanderers surface loses the characteristics which make it a result-orientated venue.Although perhaps of limited value, the evidence of the two first-class matches played at the ground in the Sunfoil Series this season – both within the last month – suggests that an even contest between bat and ball should still be on offer. Both games have been victories for the side batting first, the highest team total in eight innings has been 316 for 8 and seamers have taken 61 of the 72 wickets to fall.The Wanderers has not staged a Test for more than two years, when India were the visitors, and although it was a draw it was an epic contest where South Africa finished on 450 for 7 having been set 458. Results are the norm at the ground; before that 2013 match the previous drawn encounter against New Zealand in 2000 with three days ruined by rain. The last draw without significant weather intervention was in 1997.England’s Test matches at the Wanderers have produced some famous moments: Michael Atherton’s unbeaten 185 in 1995 when he and Jack Russell achieved one of the game’s great escapes, being 2 for 4 inside three overs in 1999 against a rampant Allan Donald and in 2005 when Matthew Hoggard and Marcus Trescothick combined to earn England one of their finest overseas victories.The most recent meeting between the teams in Johannesburg was a slightly more prosaic affair as South Africa surged to an innings-and-74-run series-levelling victory in 2010. England arrived following the Christmas-New Year period where, like this time, they had achieved victory in Durban and drawn in Cape Town, although the Newlands encounter on that occasion was an emotionally-fraught nine-wicket down survival.Having also saved the first Test of that 2009-10 series by the skin of their teeth at Centurion, England looked drained during the final encounter and could not cope with Dale Steyn – who is battling to be fit for this Test – and Morne Morkel on the opening day. The pair shared eight wickets in the first innings and 14 across the match as only Paul Collingwood with a second-innings 71 passed fifty. If the series is 1-1 after the Wanderers this time it will set up a terrific conclusion at Centurion, but England will not want to take it that far.

With Ryan Harris and Mitchell Johnson retired and Mitchell Starc out injured, Australia’s fast-bowling depth is set to be seriously tested over the next few months

Brydon Coverdale01-Dec-20151:50

Coverdale: Selectors like Coulter-Nile’s pace

A year ago, you might have worried about the depth of Australia’s batting talent. Or of their spin-bowling options. But pace? That has been the least of their concerns. Still is, according to the national selector Rod Marsh, who announced Australia’s latest Test squad on Tuesday. Marsh said that Australia’s “depth chart” – those were his words – showed “20 fast bowlers that we rate a chance of playing” internationals in one of the three formats.We might soon find out whether Australia’s pace-bowling depth is really as impressive as those numbers suggest, or whether it more resembles Paul Keating’s withering description of Peter Costello: all tip and no iceberg. Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris have retired. Mitchell Starc is injured, as are a number of replacement candidates. Josh Hazlewood’s workload worries the team management, and Peter Siddle’s back is troubling him.So, how far down into Australia’s domestic scene does the quality of fast bowling really penetrate? It is a question worth considering, given that the selectors have chosen in the squad for the first Test against West Indies a man who has not played a single Sheffield Shield game this summer due to injury and suspension. Nathan Coulter-Nile has no recent red-ball form, yet he was the man all the selectors thought of when Starc was ruled out.As well as James Pattinson retaining his place in the squad, the other man to receive a call was Victoria fast bowler Scott Boland, who has been placed on standby in case either Siddle or Hazlewood struggles to recover after Adelaide. Marsh noted that it was unlikely Hazlewood would be able to sustain himself through six Tests this summer, with a New Zealand tour to follow, so Coulter-Nile and Boland both have realistic chances of playing Test cricket soon.”We don’t think anyone is unlucky with this selection,” Marsh said. Translation: despite the “depth chart”, no other fast bowlers were close. These selectors want speed; Marsh said that a properly quick bowler was needed in the absence of Johnson and Starc. Jackson Bird and Chadd Sayers suffer from the perception that they are not quick enough, even though Bird was Man of the Match in his second Test, three years ago.Jackson Bird is the highest wicket-taker in the Sheffield Shield this season and has an enviable first-class record in Hobart, but his lack of pace has counted against him under the current selection regime•Getty ImagesBird is also the leading wicket taker this Shield season with 18 at 24.77, and he knows the Bellerive Oval surface intimately: he has taken 71 first-class wickets there at 19.81. That he was not picked for Hobart against West Indies suggests he is unlikely to add to his three Test caps, at least in the near future. Then again, Bird hasn’t bashed the door down; his five-wicket haul in the most recent Shield round was his first in 18 months.So, who else is there? The Western Australia left-armer Jason Behrendorff would have come under serious consideration had he been fit, but he is struggling with a back injury. Pat Cummins also faces a long lay-off due to stress fractures of the back. James Faulkner has a toe injury that is also causing him knee problems.Andrew Fekete was part of Australia’s squad for the cancelled Test tour of Bangladesh, but has since been dropped by Tasmania and has 12 wickets at 40.83 this Shield season. Ben Hilfenhaus’ pace is down and Tasmania have sent him back to Futures League and grade cricket. Gurinder Sandhu, who made his ODI debut earlier this year, has little recent red-ball form to recommend him.In fact, let’s run through the list of highest Sheffield Shield wicket takers over the past two years, excluding spinners. Top of the heap is James Hopes, the 37-year-old Queensland medium-pacer whose canniness has earned him 72 wickets at 19.51 in that time. Next is Fekete. Then Michael Hogan, who plays for Western Australia as an overseas player because he has used his British passport to play county cricket as a local.Next is Doug Bollinger, with 50 wickets at 22.52. He is 34 and his last Test was five years ago. Would he be up to a recall? Then comes Behrendorff and the South Australian Joe Mennie, who has 47 wickets at 34.17, and is second to Bird this season. Then it’s Boland, Sean Abbott, Bird, Sayers and Tasmania’s Sam Rainbird, who has 40 wickets at 29.15. Two other names of note are Joel Paris, another WA left-armer who swings the ball, and Billy Stanlake, the tall Queenslander. Marsh made mention of both as men for the future, if not the present.”Joel Paris is an interesting one, he’s played his first ever four-day game against Victoria this week and from all reports bowled quite nicely,” he said. “He’s one that we’ll be keeping our eye on for sure, because he’s very tall and he swings the ball and he had a brilliant junior career. Billy Stanlake is another one, from Brisbane. We’ve got two youngsters who I think, going forward, will be very good fast bowlers for Australia.”In the end, the selectors went for Coulter-Nile due to a “gut feeling” among the panel. “We like him as a bowler,” Marsh said. Some fans have had a gutful of such selection hunches, but do any of those other names jump out as demanding selection? In whatever direction the selectors went, a leap of faith was required. What is certain is that Australia’s fast-bowling depth is about to be seriously tested.

A long journey, queues and ticketing troubles could not take away from the great show that Afghanistan and Scotland put on in Nagpur

Srinath Sripath13-Mar-2016Choice of game
As someone who has been following the Associate cricket scene fairly closely since the 1999 World Cup, I have always wanted to watch the likes of Scotland, Ireland and Afghanistan play live. Once it was decided that Zimbabwe v Afghanistan would be a direct knockout, last-minute arrangements were made to make the 800-odd km train trip from Mumbai.Team(s) supported
Afghanistan and Scotland. Every time Afghanistan take the field, the mind goes back to Taj Malik and . Their form in the run-up to this fixture and their defeat of Zimbabwe in Sharjah earlier this year meant their victory would not be seen as any kind of upset.Scotland – John Blain, George Salmond, Gavin Hamilton. Those are the kinds of names that pop up in the head when I think of them. It was, therefore, astounding that they have never won a World Cup game in any form since they made their debut in 1999.Key performer
While Samiullah Shenwari and Mohammad Nabi played vital roles in the Afghanistan win, Mohammad Shahzad’s early blitz set the pace for the game. Though sparse, the Afghanistan fans were out in vociferous support, chanting “Shahzad, Shahzad”, as he sent one ball after another for boundaries across the wagon wheel.One thing you’d have changed about the match
The ticketing. Fans were forced to go to the old VCA stadium in Civil Lines, a good 20 km from the actual venue. The comic relief, in all this, was on a notice board announcing ticket collections. It seems ticket collection was to be at the Jamtha stadium, and a last-minute shift meant a plain, white paper was plastered over the word ‘Jamtha’. Simple, brutal and convenient.
Moreover, there were no separate entry queues at the ground for the day’s fixtures, and plenty of Afghanistan fans waited from as early as 6am to beat the line.Face-off you relished
Samiullah Shenwari bowling to Malcolm Waller and Richard Mutumbami. Shenwari seems every bit the hard-working cricketer, not willing to give an inch to the opposition while batting, bowling or fielding. While he was hard on himself for dishing out balls down leg, he produced a few perfect deliveries any legspinner would have been proud of – flight, dip and sharp turn to beat the bat. One of these was to Waller in his second over, and when he came back for his third over, he hit the off stump with an almost identical delivery. First the feint, then the knockout punch.Wow moment
Right before the Zimbabwe innings began, wicketkeeper Shahzad and Noor Ali Zadran, who was fielding at first slip, had a lengthy argument about where the third man fielder should stand. In the end, they both decided that one of them should go to the crease to decide this once and for all. Shahzad, clearly the less athletic and orthodox of the two, sent Noor Ali to the crease. With Sibanda waiting to take strike, Noor Ali shadow-batted a cut to third man, and asked Gulbadin Naib to move to his left. As he walked back, the two had a hearty laugh. Not quite the autopilot settings that the likes of India and South Africa have, yet thoroughly enjoyable.Close encounter
Among the players and officials at the venue, Inzamam-ul-Haq got the loudest cheers when Afghanistan were warming up. A section of Indian fans somehow elicited a wave from the shy Inzibhai. A grinning Makhaya Ntini on the big screen came a close second.Shot of the day
Despite its brevity, it’s impossible to pick out one shot from Shahzad’s innings. An entire over from Tendai Chatara had one improbable shot after another – a front-foot pull to a short ball, then a blistering square cut, followed by a cheeky hook over short fine leg. You could play these in your head over and over again, and still run out of adjectives to describe them.Crowd meter
Earlier in the day, I ran into a number of Afghanistan fans, decked in their traditional , waiting for their tickets at the old VCA stadium. A majority of them were students, who had made the 700 km trip from Pune, while some others had come from as far as Kandahar and Herat. “,” (By the grace of Allah, we shall win today) was the common sentiment. These fans were a tireless cheering squad that picked out three of their biggest stars – first “Shahzad, Shahzad”, followed by “Nabi, Nabi” and “Hassan, Hassan”, as the players took Zimbabwe apart.Entertainment
The running between the wickets from the Zimbabwe and Hong Kong batsmen provided the most entertainment. Samiullah Shenwari, ever the livewire, took a shy at the stumps casually towards the end of the Zimbabwe innings. Donald Tiripano’s bat was inside the crease, but not grounded. It was yet another comic run-out from Zimbabwe, in what has been a dreadful series for them.Overall
Afghanistan were clinical, and it always felt like they were on fourth gear, from start to finish. Their fans from far and wide made it an atmosphere worth savoring. Associate sides get the wrong end of the stick far too often, and it was a joy to see them get past Zimbabwe. Likewise, a few Scottish fans by the South stand were there to witness their side’s first-ever triumph at this level. The perfect evening for them, despite the rain trying its best to deny them a deserving, account-opening victory.Marks out of 10
7. I almost missed the match due to the ticketing system. With no separate queue for this game, we had to stand in the same, long queue as that for India games. An understanding VCA official saved our day, just in time, to ensure we had the tickets before the game started.The new VCA stadium, the venue for the games, is a top-class facility and the experience in general was better than what you have at packed India games. You could roam around almost anywhere without being asked a thousand questions, and it was a chance to sneak around to some of the other stands and boxes to get a different view of the game.