Super game, too bad about the result. Thomas who?

Kunal Shah11-Oct-2009Choice of game
This game was a no-brainer. My first opportunity in 20 years to watch one at a stadium, the first match in Hyderabad in more than a year, a game involving the IPL 2009 champions, the ability to buy tickets online or at a location close by – what more could one ask for?Team supported
Deccan. Somerset have a few proven stars like Justin Langer and Marcus Trescothick, but the Chargers have the likes of Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, VVS Laxman, RP Singh, Chaminda Vaas and Fidel Edwards. Somerset had their work cut out for them.Key performer
The Chargers got to 150-plus run mainly due to a good innings from VVS, who was in great touch. His strokes down the ground were just awesome. RP Singh started off with two wickets to make it interesting.One thing I’d have changed about the match
Twenty20s are all about excitement, and this game was no different – a great crowd, good batting, good bowling, some very good fielding, and a nailbiting last ball finish. It would have been perfect if the home team had won.Face-off I relished
Trescothick had scored a couple of boundaries in the first over and looked to be in great touch. In comes RP. Trescothick was raring to go, but RP kept him on a leash for the first four balls. Trescothick looked frustrated. The fifth ball was a bit wide and he cut it for a nice boundary. The last ball was a bit short, Trescothick got a thick edge, the ball ballooned in the air, and Gilchrist did the rest.Wow moment
Six balls, five runs and three wickets was the equation. After three balls, the big scoreboard read W 0 W. Scott Styris had almost managed to snatch the game away. But at the end of the over, it read W 0 W 4 0 4. Alphonso Thomas was the hero with 30 runs and a couple of wickets.Player watch
RP got a lot of love from the crowd, especially after his two quick wickets.At one point a paper airplane glided nicely from up in the stands to the long-off boundary near Venugopal Rao. The crowd tried to interact with him, but Venu coolly picked up the airplane and threw it out of the playing area.It was interesting to see Harmeet Singh come out to bat for the last ball of the innings with no pads on!Shot of the day
It was the beginning of over number three. Gilchrist, on two off two, was being outplayed by VVS (13 off 10). Gilchrist played a couple of lofted drives for boundaries. The stadium announcer got the crowd going with “We want sixer” chants, and Gilly obliged by swinging it over the midwicket boundary for the first six of the match. He caught up with VVS, with 16 runs in the over.Crowd meter
The near-capacity crowd – 30,000-plus – was with the home team all the way. Every time the PA suggested the Mexican wave, the crowd obliged. The chants of “Deccan – Chargers” were deafening. Surprisingly there were not a lot of banners, possibly because of security concerns. Somerset got a good dose of what it takes to play international cricket in noisy, pro-home-team stadiums in India.Fancy-dress index
Surprisingly, very few people had Deccan Chargers ensembles on, or had their faces painted like in international games. There were a lot of Indian flags, though.Entertainment
Probably the weakest link. The cheerleaders were almost non-existent, mainly because they did not have any allegiance to the teams. Neither they nor the PA announcers could engage the crowd between overs and wickets.The fireworks for wickets and sixes reminded me of home runs in baseball.IPL v Champions League?
Since the IPL has more international players, the crowd relates to the teams better. Matches between neutral teams don’t hold all that much interest, since the spectators cannot relate to the players. Thomas was the hero, but who knows anything about him?Marks out of 10
I would give it 8, primarily due to non-cricketing factors at the stadium. It was an excellent cliffhanger, with the momentum moving both ways. The crowd was live, the cricket was good, there were some good hits, and some excellent catches. Three-hundred-plus runs, 18 wickets, eight sixes and 33 fours in 40 overs says it all.

Stuart Board’s unusual action during the Super Eights match against South Africa needs clarification by match officials, Graeme Smith feels

George Binoy at Trent Bridge11-Jun-2009There have been several out of the ordinary moments during the World Twenty20 matches at Trent Bridge, the highlights being Angelo Mathews’ alertness in the field while going over the boundary and Tillakaratne Dilshan’s audacious scoop over the wicketkeeper’s head. While those innovations were widely celebrated, Stuart Board’s unusual action during the Super Eights match against South Africa was more controversial.As Broad approached his delivery stride during the 17th over, he pointed towards his side as if to indicate a fielder was out of position, but carried on with his bowling action without disrupting his own rhythm. AB de Villiers worked the ball behind square for a single so Broad’s antics didn’t bear fruit. It might have been more of a talking point if the ball had brought him a wicket. Broad had done it before as well, during the one-day series at home against West Indies.When asked whether Broad’s pointing was against the spirit of the game, Paul Collingwood defended his bowler and said he was not going to ask Broad to stop doing it. “The game is moving on. People are coming up with different techniques with the bat, different fielding techniques,” Collingwood said. “We saw what happened the other day with the Sri Lankan fielder, jumping outside the boundary and knocking it back in. We’re seeing things audiences have not seen before. As long as it’s within the spirit … people are going to find different ways to unsettle batsmen.”Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, also played down the issue but said that it “needs clarity”. “We saw that from the dug-out and discussed it, but don’t know what the rule stipulates,” Smith said. The umpires and match referee will discuss that, whether it’s in the spirit of the game. It’s a tough one. Bowlers are trying to find different angles to get an edge. It needs clarifying.”Jacques Kallis also said it was better to “leave it up to the guys in charge to sort it out”. “We haven’t been told it’s wrong but until there’s clarity who knows?” England’s next game is against India at Lord’s on Sunday. Keep a close eye on Broad’s run-up if you missed it today.

Daniel Vettori’s parents remember his Test debut and the days before it

Brydon Coverdale25-Mar-2010Robyn Vettori still remembers the day her son, just turned 18, stepped out onto the Basin Reserve for his Test debut. She was nervous; Daniel wasn’t. Or at least, it didn’t show. He’d become an adult 10 days earlier, had just enrolled in a health sciences course at university with the hope of becoming a pharmacist, and all of a sudden was playing cricket for his country.Thirteen years later, Robyn and Renzo Vettori will be there once again to watch their boy become only the second New Zealander to play 100 Tests. Except that he’s not a boy any more. He’s the captain of his country, a loving husband and father to one-year-old James. He’s also one of the most accomplished players in the world.”I can still remember him walking out for his first Test and I had two cups of tea in my hands and they were shaking as he walked across the ground,” Robyn says. “And I can remember thinking, ‘He always looks so relaxed when he walks out there.’ He’ll probably be the same again.”For him, inside it will feel like a great achievement but he always keeps it pretty close to his chest. We’ll reminisce a bit that, goodness me, he walked out there as an 18-year-old and now he’s a man, he’s a father. But he’ll come home and James will be running around and it will all just be normal.”It will help that the milestone is arriving in Hamilton. Robyn, a nurse, and Renzo, who works for a dairy company, live only a ten-minute drive from Seddon Park, the venue of Daniel’s debut for Northern Districts when he was 17. Hamilton is a small city and they will both be there, along with other family and friends, for the big day on Saturday.The fame, money and travel involved in elite cricket these days makes it easy to forget that international players are just normal people, from normal families. Parents are always proud of their offspring and the Vettoris are no different; their walls bear photos of weddings and grandchildren, and Renzo has kept scrapbooks of his son’s sporting journey.There are 10 books, with photographs and articles dating back to the time when a 15-year-old Daniel, who was also a talented soccer player, fractured his vertebrae when the bus carrying his football team crashed. Then there’s the back page that screams “But he’s only 18!” when he was first named in the New Zealand team.Renzo nearly ran off the road when he picked up his car-phone back in 1997 and was told to pack for Wellington to watch his son in the Test team. It was a remarkable achievement, especially given that it was only three years earlier that Daniel had taken up spin, after toiling as a frustrated medium-pacer in the school team.But Daniel Vettori had always shown natural sporting ability. It’s not really surprising, given that his mother’s side of the family boasts rugby league legend Ken Stirling and Olympic swimmer Glenda Stirling, while on Renzo’s side Daniel is a cousin of the former All Blacks fly-half David Hill and first-class cricketer Joseph Hill.Soccer and cricket were the two sports that Daniel starred in as a child – he took up cricket as a seven-year-old when the family lived in Sydney – and his competitive nature was on display from an early age. Robyn remembers the day her 11-year-old son was supposed to head to Auckland to play in an Under-14 representative soccer team, only for the bus driver to forget him.”He was most distraught and I thought, ‘Hmm, this is a bit strange,’ but I probably realise now there was this absolute competitiveness there. Contained, but competitive and a quiet confidence in himself.”It was that same nature that drove the young Vettori to head off to play for representative teams during his school holidays most summers, meaning he usually missed the family trips to the beach. Not that he didn’t want to be with his parents, brother Nicholas and sister Kimberly; he is a loyal family man.Robyn and Renzo Vettori with the news of their son’s 1997 Test debut•Brydon CoverdaleHe was close to his grandparents; Renzo’s father was a concrete worker who moved out from the Italian village of Roncone in the Dolomites when Renzo was six. When Daniel hit the big time, his grandparents loved it. “It was nuts. They suddenly became cricket experts,” Renzo says. “It was the last thing they knew, or thought they knew.”Watching their son play is still a nerve-wracking experience for Renzo and Robyn, especially since he has become captain. But when he comes home to visit – Daniel now lives in Auckland with wife Mary and baby James – the conversation usually veers away from the game.”There’s not much cricket talk when he comes home. It’s anything but, really,” Renzo says. “You might ask him a few questions about this or that but it’s not an interrogation, it’s just anything else but cricket.””I think he needs that,” Robyn says of Daniel’s escape from cricket when he’s around his family. “He’s not exactly captaining a winning team all the time so he needs that getaway from it, to become a dad and husband.”Come Saturday, he’ll still be dad, husband, son, brother. He’ll also be the second New Zealander to reach 100 Tests, and no doubt his parents will be more nervous than he is.

Hashim Amla is a key representative of South Africa’s modern-day diversity

Andrew McGlashan at Centurion19-Dec-2009The topic of transformation has been a central theme to this Test with Makhaya Ntini notching up his 100th appearance, but he is not the only member of South Africa’s team to represent the modern-day diversity of the side. Hashim Amla, like Ntini, broke new ground when he became the first player of Indian descent to represent his country, and now – like Ntini – he has evolved into a pivotal figure within the team.He is a convergence of two batting styles. The Indian in him is easy to see when he plays through the leg side – as he did to reach his hundred with a wristy whip through midwicket – and when he opens the face through the covers. The South African element comes through a determination never to yield, and a resistance to anything too flamboyant.That cultural blend proved the perfect mix for South Africa as they attempted to prevent a full-blown collapse after England made significant early inroads. “There’s no joke about it, we were under massive pressure,” Amla said. “If we had a lost a few more quick wickets the total would have been considerably less.”Amla’s first opportunity in the Test side came too soon, like a number of his contemporaries whose chances came for reasons beyond pure cricket. But unlike some who have drifted off the scene – such as Thami Tsolekile, the wicketkeeper who made his debut in the same series against India in 2004, and whom England faced at Port Elizabeth in their opening Test five years ago – Amla’s second coming as an international cricketer has taken him to new heights.In 2004-05, England classed him as a walking wicket and the statistics backed up that assessment as Amla played only two of the five Tests and averaged nine. Even in 2008, when he toured England and batted at No.3, they weren’t convinced about his technique. During the recent one-day series, when he replaced the injured Jacques Kallis, they targeting him with a short-pitched attack and more of the same was expected in the Tests. However, the slowness of the Centurion wicket has precluded such a ploy, and that has suited Amla down to the ground.Nevertheless, Amla still needed a partner to steer South Africa from their unstable 46 for 4 – a precarious lead of 108 – and in AB de Villiers he found the ideal ally. While Amla calmly worked the gaps, de Villiers carried the fight back to an England attack that was sensing its chance for a kill.There was clear intent from de Villiers not to let Graeme Swann settle into another probing spell of offspin. From his third ball against Swann (and ninth of his innings) de Villiers skipped down the pitch and deposited him into the stands over long-on. Swann was brave enough to toss the next one up as well, but de Villiers was happy to defend. He had made his point.The partnership between Amla and de Villiers was the latest momentum shift of a fluctuating match and it could prove the decisive one. When de Villiers departed to Stuart Broad, driving a fraction early at a slower ball, the lead was a far more comfortable 227 on a surface that, while not proving unplayable by any means, was difficult to score quickly on.”I expected a lot more up-and-down bounce,” Amla said. “Once the ball got old it didn’t seem to react as much and we expected a little more. I think it probably played the best out of the four days, because when the ball got old, there wasn’t as much variable bounce, but let’s hope tomorrow has the most variable bounce.”Mark Boucher played a typically forthright innings, but he was able to bat in such a positive manner because of the hard yards put in by de Villiers and Amla. “There was a bit of pressure but fortunately myself and AB got a partnership going and it set the platform for Boucher to come in and take the score up,” Amla said.The ball that finally removed Amla, a true shooter from James Anderson, will have sent shockwaves through the England dressing room, and Amla was happy to take one for the team. “Although I may have been extremely disappointed to get out there were a few guys in our changing room who said ‘sorry Hash, but it’s good news’. We’ve got to hope that the wicket is a bit more up-and-down so it makes it a little easier for us.”South Africa have always had their noses in front during the game, but now they are a couple of lengths clear. And after the day that Amla has enjoyed, wouldn’t it be fitting if the final chapter of this match belonged to Ntini.

The PCB stands to make a profit of over $2 million from the ongoing series against Australia, being staged in England as a “home” series

Osman Samiuddin16-Jul-2010The PCB stands to make a profit of over US$ 2 million from the ongoing series against Australia, being staged in England as a ‘home’ series. The relative financial success of the series, which takes in two Twenty20s and two Tests, could pave the way for future home series being played in the country.Following the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in March last year no international cricket is likely in Pakistan in the near future. That prospect has compelled the board to examine a number of ways in which they can schedule what would be home series.Last year they played a three-Test series against New Zealand in New Zealand as a home series, having earlier staged three ODIs and two T20s in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The Middle East remains the other viable option, Pakistan having played Australia in a limited-overs series in April last year. They are also due to ‘host’ South Africa for a full tour in October-November.Though geographically the region has its advantages, the PCB remains concerned about the economic viability of Abu Dhabi and Dubai; the series against Australia last year wasn’t thought to be financially successful. The New Zealand experiment was also financially a dud.Such hits, admits Wasim Bari, PCB’s chief operating officer, will have to be taken in the broader interests of Pakistan’s progression. “What are our priorities first? Sometimes you have to invest a little and the most important thing is that Pakistan is playing and is moving forward,” he told Cricinfo. “If the choice is to play or not, what is the choice? You play of course.”In England’s robust cricket infrastructure – and a large, committed base of British fans of Pakistani origin – a natural home away from home always existed. But when the series were inked in last year, PCB officials privately feared that it would be, monetarily, a tough option, especially as they would be hosting – and thus bearing the travelling and accommodation expenses – for the visiting team, in this case Australia.Those fears have proved unfounded as an official familiar with the numbers of the series confirms. “At the end of the Australia tour, the PCB will be better off by approximately £1.5 million,” the official told Cricinfo. “England is a very feasible option in that sense and is better as a revenue-generating venue and sponsor option than other neutral venues.”Part of the revenue for the PCB has come from the MCC, who have sponsored the entire series as a non-profit venture in a bid to push their ‘Spirit of Cricket’ message and help Pakistan. The revenue from gate receipts will go to the stadiums themselves, in this case Lord’s, Headingley and Edgbaston; had it been a traditional home series in Pakistan, the PCB would have received a share and left the rest to the local authority. And attendances in a country where ticket prices are high have so far been good.”MCC will keep all ticket revenues from the match but, of course, has paid for the right to host the game,” Keith Bradshaw, the MCC chief executive, told Cricinfo. “[Ticket sales have been] encouraging. Having marketed the match heavily over a number of months, MCC has pre-sold over 43,000 tickets for the first four days of this Lord’s Test match.Attendances are higher than this figure, however, as this does not take account of the number of MCC members who watch the game – likely to be a few thousand on each day. Attendances at the two MCC Spirit of Cricket Twenty20 matches at Edgbaston were very healthy, around 25,000 over the two days.”The PCB will not benefit from in-stadia advertising as it would’ve done for an actual home series, where they would’ve received the entire amount, but the series comes under their five-year broadcast deal for home assignments with Ten Sports (as will all their home series that move to neutral venues), so in principle that revenue is the board’s.Instead of being a content producer this time, however, the network is merely selling content on. Sky, who have territorial rights in the UK, were given broadcast rights for the UK in return for them producing the series. Ten Sports, meanwhile, continues to sell the series worldwide, to Fox Sports in Australia for example and Supersport in Africa.The venue, said an official familiar with the details of Pakistan’s broadcast deal, works out well for the network as well. “As a broadcaster, staging the game in the UK works pretty well for Ten Sports on the Tests (they become prime time in Pakistan), but it didn’t work so well on the Twenty20s which happened too late in the day for a Pakistani advertising market,” the official told Cricinfo.One of the T20is also clashed with one semi-final of the football World Cup, so the delay in Ten broadcasting the semi-final meant lost ad revenue. Ultimately, Pakistan’s security situation has not been as problematic for its broadcast deal as it could’ve been, “as long as the games are moved to good time zones, so that moving cricket to New Zealand or Malaysia would be a disadvantage.”It is no surprise then that the prospect of more “home” Tests for Pakistan in England is an appealing one. “The MCC would welcome Pakistan to play neutral matches at Lord’s in the future with open arms,” says Bradshaw. “It would be a matter of negotiation between the PCB and the ECB as to whether England would host Pakistan home matches / series in the years to come. The Club would always seek to bid for major international cricket fixtures and so would most likely do so should Pakistan return to England in the coming years.”

It is now impossible to see the West Indies recovering the spirit and confidence needed to challenge these South Africans in the remaining two ODIs and three Tests

Tony Cozier30-May-2010As West Indies head coach, the latest in the wheel from which eight have spun off in the past 14 years, Ottis Gibson is more intimately involved with the players on a day to day basis than anyone else.In the post for three months, he would have already come to appreciate the depressingly candid points made during a panel discussion in Barbados last week by West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief executive Ernest Hilaire on the state of our cricket and the attitude of those who represent it on the field. No doubt he had heard about them from others even before his appointment that, as Hilaire put it, “the whole notion of being a West Indian and for what they are playing has no meaning at all” to the players and that money and “instant gratification is all that matters”.Perhaps he was challenged to prove Hilaire wrong on his warning to fans to prepare for at least three more years of embarrassment, but he has certainly not been encouraged by the results so far. Prior to Friday’s third ODI against South Africa in Dominica, Gibson said that the team had not “thought through well enough”.He used as an example Dwayne Bravo’s dismissal in the defeat in the second match in Antigua. The allrounder batted superbly for 70 yet Gibson regarded his loss as the turning point in the game. “Bravo got out to the last ball of an over that had conceded 13 runs and it was the last ball of a bowler’s (Dale Steyn) spell,” he noted. “Those little things we need to get better at.”There was no improvement in Friday’s match. If anything, it was worse.It was a spirited effort to limit South Africa to 224, securing the last five wickets for 18, the last seven for 71. Against determined, mentally tough opponents strong in bowling, the target was not straight-forward but certainly within range. This is where the relevance of Gibson’s pre-match comment became clear. “Talent-wise we’re not far behind South Africa, thinking-wise, we’re showing that we’re very far behind,” he had said.Suddenly, as West Indies responded, wickets were falling to unnecessary shots, not least the two most crucial. Captain Chris Gayle launched one ball for six, slashed wildly at the next and edged to slip. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, seduced by the absence of slips, aimed to steer the energised Jacques Kallis to third man only to deflect to the keeper.When the revved-up Steyn, generating more than 90 mph every ball, despatched Bravo to a bouncer that stirred memories of the heyday of West Indies fast bowling and Kieron Pollard and Darren Sammy followed, 118 for 7 meant certain defeat.Or so Jerome Taylor, Sulieman Benn and Ravi Rampaul conceded. Another 106 were required but 20.2 overs remained. The required run-rate was still just five runs an over. Denesh Ramdin was still in. Anything can happen in this game, as Sammy had demonstrated with his stunning 20-ball 50 in Antigua in the second match and as the West Indies had shown in similar situations in the past.In the first round of the first World Cup in 1975, they were 203 for 9 against Pakistan, with wicketkeeper Deryck Murray batting and Andy Roberts, then a genuine rabbit, as the last man. With another 64 to win, Murray and Roberts never gave up, as the current tailenders did on Friday, calmly seeing them home with two balls to spare.Even if that was too far back for the modern players to remember, the final of the 2004 Champions Trophy at The Oval in London should still be fresh enough in their minds for them to appreciate that no cause is ever completely lost. At 147 for 8 with the light fast closing in, the West Indies required another 71 to beat England and claim their first trophy since the 1979 World Cup. Another 16.2 overs remained and Courtney Browne (a wicketkeeper again) and Ian Bradshaw with level-headed common sense and without a six, and even an attempt at one, gathered the runs with seven balls to spare without the mindless running of Taylor or the slogging that Benn and Rampaul indulged in at Windsor Park on Friday.Taylor should be a key component of this team, especially in the absence of Fidel Edwards but, at present, he seems either injured or uninterested or both. His bowling is well short of his best and he has been slack in the field. There was no reason for him to push the ball to mid-on and chase for the run that he didn’t make. The selectors must soon make a decision on his place.Benn might argue that he has already put in his effort. He had dismissed two key batsmen, Hashim Amla and Kallis, in his ten overs and run out another, AB deVilliers, with a direct hit from the deep. But he is in the team as a professional cricketer, expected to contribute in every department. Too often, not least with his batting and fielding, he sells himself and his team short. His wild swings on Friday spoke of his conviction that the match was already lost, not that, even in such a predicament, it would still be won.It is now impossible to see the West Indies recovering the spirit and confidence needed to challenge these South Africans in the remaining two ODIs and three Tests. Just as Sammy’s blitz temporarily lifted them and the rejoicing supporters at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in the second match, so did the defeat, and the manner of it, at Windsor Park three days later deepen the despair and give credence to Hilaire’s dire forecast. But, as with Murray and Roberts in 1975 and Browne and Bradshaw in 2004, there must always be a sliver of hope.

Darren Bravo showcased his incredible talent before failing to make a match-winning contribution. His half-brother, Dwayne, sparkled before a game-ending knee injury

Sharda Ugra at the Feroz Shah Kotla24-Feb-2011It could have been the stirring tale of the Brothers Bravo, but what followed the glimmering light of a few hours of West Indian batting turned into a growing, somewhat familiar gloom. The first 90 minutes of West Indies’ World Cup began with all the promise of the team having turned a corner after 18 miserable months. By the end of the game, South Africa may well have believed they produced proof that their opponents were merely going around in circles.To see the West Indian batting, their far stronger suit, go into meltdown at the Feroz Shah Kotla, was to be at the heart of the team’s story. Every flaw that dogged them in the recent past was on show. Every reason why they lost games they could have won was played out yet again. Those 12 straight defeats to South Africa could make men of all manner numb.They had their chances; the first half of the game was littered with them. West Indies had wanted to bat anyway. A century partnership for the second wicket meant they could absorb a blow to their solar plexus, Chris Gayle’s third-ball dismissal. A mid-innings strangle by the South African spin allsorts left their two most experienced batsmen together with half the innings to play. When the last 15 overs were nearing, the man they call Mr Fireworks had found his turbo gear. As the anxiety grew, West Indies still had their biggest hitter waiting. Opportunities were being set up over and over again. And yet and yet…But first, the glimmering light. The game today marked the unveiling of a beauteous left-hander to an international audience. He is said to be a clone of the great West Indian entertainer, and match-winner, who left this team four years ago. But clone is too derogatory a word, used for something created in a laboratory from a test tube. Not for a batsman who reminds us why we watch the game, and how, if we can distance ourseslves from the grim business of victories and defeats, cricket becomes unadulterated enjoyment. On a grey, grim Kotla day, dotted with empty seats and outbreaks of occasional noise, Darren Bravo decided to be radiance on two legs.If there is anything about Darren Bravo that is reminiscent of Brian Lara, it is his instinctive urge to create a gorgeous shot. If not with the massive back-lift of his first cousin, certainly with the signature flourish of the follow-through. Bravo Jr came into the game when there was enough reason for him to be circumspect: 2 for 1 with Gayle gone. He survived a referral at the end of the Johan Botha over, and by the time Dale Steyn pounded in with metaphorical smoke emanating from his boots Darren Bravo needed very little time. Or rather, he seemed to have a lot of it.Bravo flicked Steyn to square leg with the style of a cavalier whipping some fluff off his hip, then discarded Kallis’ medium pace with minimal regard over the infield, past fielders leaping like salmon. He then had enough time to sit back, contemplate and choose the most contemptuous option – a swivel pull off a short ball. Eighteen off 11 balls from Kallis was enough to send a message about what the cavalryman made of South Africa’s general. A one-handed six off Imran Tahir didn’t end up the way it should have, in the context of the match, but it will make many at the Kotla today grin for months. Devon Smith was happy to be Bravo Jr’s shadow, quick with the singles, generous with the running, eager to keep centre stage clean and polished.Over on their dressing-room square of the wicket, the West Indians must have been pleased with the pace of the innings and the notion that their brightest star was about to shoot over the next stage of his career. That was where the South Africans pulled out their Orientalist avatar, one spinner after another. Botha to turn it, Petersen to restrain it and Tahir to leap in and steal a few in flight. It began with Botha getting Bravo, who played for some turn and then dolefully called for a review, trapped between hoping and sulking. Once he was gone, the shadow almost predictably followed in his shadow: Smith out to a return catch and wild celebrations from Tahir. Three wickets fell for seven runs but still there was Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Darren Sammy, the captain, waiting.The waste of that platform was a sign that if the younger man had been unable to convert a start into something more substantial, then the older men were unable to switch on in time. Dwayne Bravo’s innings was the alter ego to his half-brother’s in style. His purpose was determined and his sixes were tailored for the handsome 10,000 crowd gathered on a working day. Forty off a partnership of 58 even despite grappling with spin, meant that he knew just where and how he was going. Sadly Chanderpaul didn’t. Bravo’s clumsy run-out, however, was the first of many more errors. Chanderpaul was just hitting his ODI stride before he tried a drive in the sky too many. Pollard took too long to arrive and was gone too soon. The Powerplay was wasted, the last four wickets fell for 13 runs only and 222 was as shambolic as it looked. South Africa had bowled as well as they could have, with their three spinners on show, but the West Indian batsmen did not compete as fiercely as they should have.Bravo Jr has seen the world’s spotlight from a very close distance today and understood that the gap between appearance and impact is the mere matter of fifty runs more here or there. Or an extra half hour played or not. It is easy to calculate in hindsight but very hard to do in real time. Bravo Sr, his knee wrenched during one of his bustling bowling spells and a scan due tomorrow, must lament at where he and his team find themselves in this World Cup.

Gibbs’ autobiography tells all – and leaves us with the impression that none of it is to be taken seriously

Telford Vice20-Nov-2010The face of Herschelle Gibbs, the man who infamously claimed he had never read a book, gleams unsettlingly from the cover of the one that bears his name.His bristly lips slither around his teeth, which are gnashed into a foreboding grin. Iridescent white haloes trace spooky circles around the pupils of his eyes. The hard edge of his shaven head lurks fuzzy, out there somewhere. If this man banged on your door at some dark hour, you would give him whatever he wanted and plead with him not to hurt you.Books shouldn’t be judged by their covers, but it seems safe to do so in this case. For too long, people have given Gibbs too much of what he’s wanted: too much to drink, too much sex, too many nudges and winks, too many chances, too many long hops. In return he has given them too much of his dark side and not enough by which to remember him well. For years he would cut sixes over point as casually as if he were twisting the cap off a bottle of beer. But just as easily he would blip catches softly, softly into the hands of mid-off. We giggle at his ongoing – unwitting? – parody of the rock-star lifestyle, and gag at his trashiness. He has won matches that looked lost. He has taken money to be dismissed for less than 20.And now this, , as told to Steve Smith, a respected journalist who has captured Gibbs’ voice authentically. It is the voice of a man who is on his way to being a geriatric delinquent.Those who count themselves among cricket’s more genteel aficionados should start their interaction with this book on page 125. The preceding six chapters will shatter their image of the game they think they know. Then again, perhaps they shouldn’t skip those pages: they need educating.Chapter three – “The good times” – is a litany of vice. Alcohol is abused so wantonly that readers might feel sorry for the demon drink itself. Women are nothing more than conquests awaiting conquest.Chapter six, entitled “The controversies”, ends thus: “Right. I think that’s enough (scandal) for one book. Coming up next is a highlights reel that has more to do with bat and ball than having a ball…”But there is value amid the muck. Gibbs’ redemption may yet come from being unafraid to lay bare the car crash of his life for the rest of us to rubberneck at.Young cricketers, particularly those who achieve beyond their years, sometimes grow into adults trapped in a web of adolescence. However much excess might befall them and however much success they might achieve, their worlds are somehow small and sad. Gibbs made his first-class debut at 16, and in some ways he isn’t a moment older. He doesn’t seem to have learnt much from the tribulations that have befallen him over the years.He describes Hansie Cronje, who in a few grubby deals (that we know of) destroyed his reputation forever, as “a man I will always admire” and “the best captain I ever played under”. Even after spending time in rehab, Gibbs writes that he “didn’t, and still don’t, believe that I am an alcoholic”. He doesn’t regret “calling those particular Pakistani fans a bunch of animals” at Centurion in 2007.Also disturbing is the impression Gibbs gives that nothing he has experienced – neither match-fixing, sexual debauchery, alcoholism, nor that particular flavour of racism in which people are equated with animals – need be taken seriously.But the honesty with which he tackles some of South African cricket’s biggest issues is to be applauded. He dumps the Proteas’ propensity to choke at the door of a conservative, tentative approach. He decides that the South African team is indeed divided by a clique of senior players. There is nothing to be read here that the cricket press hasn’t covered before, but to have it confirmed from within is a refreshing change from the overly defensive pose players usually strike in the face of criticism.It is doubtful whether Gibbs knows anything about subtlety, including how to spell it. But he does know how to be exciting, and he loves to entertain. On that score, then, is undiluted, uncut 100 per cent proof Herschelle. It should come with all sorts of warnings, including: reading this book could impair your ability to be drowsy for nights on end.To the Point: The No-Holds-Barred Autobiography
by Herschelle Gibbs with Steve Smith
Random House Struik
272pp, R200