Haseeb Hameed in picture perfect off drive
CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND – NOVEMBER 18: Jeet Raval of New Zealand bats during day two of the First Test between New Zealand and Pakistan at Hagley Oval on November 18, 2016 in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo by Martin Hunter/Getty Images)
Filed under child of empire, performance, player selections
Catherine MacGregor, from The Australian 5 November 2016, “Cricket’s Victor Trumper master of his field, just like Gideon Haigh”
Stroke of Genius is the title of Gideon Haigh’s latest work. It is an apt title, referring as it does to an image of batting perfection. The work is an extended rumination on probably the most famous photographic image of any cricketer in the rich iconography and mythology of the game. The stroke, commonly referred to as ‘‘jumping out’’, shows Australian legend Victor Trumper at the Oval in 1905, poised at the height of his extravagant backswing, front foot airborne, just prior to executing his shot. There is no ball. There are no fielders, no stumps, nor umpires. There is simply a lithe, handsome man, frozen for eternity in a study of physical perfection, which Leonardo da Vinci would have been proud to contrive. The figure evokes a bygone era. Yet, there is also an element of permanence that only timeless genius confers on physical prowess.
Rangana Herath and his team celebrate a wicket, Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka, 2nd Test, Harare, 4th day, November 9, 2016 ©AFP
ALSO SEE Herath joins Murali and Steyn in An Unique Little Crow’s Nest in Cricket” = https://cricketique.live/2016/11/09/herath-joins-murali-and-steyn-in-an-unique-little-crows-nest-in-cricket/
The coronial inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes has raised questions around the culture of sledging in cricket. Hughes died in November 2014, two days after being struck by a ball in the back of the head while batting for South Australia in a Sheffield Shield game against NSW at the SCG. Although NSW Coroner Michael Barnes found no one was to blame, he took aim at what he said was an unhealthy culture of sledging by cricketers, who he urged to “reflect upon whether the practice … is worthy of its participants. An outsider is left to wonder why such a beautiful game would need such an ugly underside,” Mr Barnes said.
Phil Hughes poses for a portrait during a Cricket Australia player camp. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images Continue reading
Jim Maxwell, in The Weekend Australian 29 October 2016, where the title is “The Pain of Losing My Mate Roebers,”... with emphasis added by the Editor, Thuppahi,
I have lost count of how many times I have cleared my throat and welcomed people to a Test match, but that morning at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg I struggled. It was the most difficult broadcast of my life. I can turn on a microphone and talk for hours when the covers are on and the rain is falling, but this was a situation I had never encountered.
I’d lost one of my best friends. Colleague and commentator Peter Roebuck was gone. He’d jumped out the window of our Cape Town hotel a few days before. Jumped just moments after I had left his room.
I was doing OK, but it was a battle. I tried to shut out emotion and concentrate on the job at hand. He’d have scoffed at me for being so maudlin. I got on with the show.
Ever the internationalist, he disliked nationalism and cheerleading. He was judgmental and decisive in making a point. He took up Australian citizenship. I remember asking what it was like being an Australian. He said: “Being Australian is sitting up the front of the taxi cab, never taking the back seat.” He saw Australia as a country that was striving, vibrant and challenging. Continue reading
Bernard Whimpress, courtesy of The Footy Almanac, 14 October 2016, where the title is “Quiet man of cricket: a tribute to Johnny Gleeson”
Another good man leaves us.
Remember the days when Australian Test cricketers carried an air of mystique. When they weren’t thrust upon us. When they went about their business with quiet dignity. When bowlers obviously had plans to dismiss top-line batsmen on the other side and didn’t blather on about ‘targeting’ them. When there was a little more grace in the game.
Pic from ESPNcricinfo
George Dobell, in ESPNcricinfo, 20 October 2016, where the title is “Moeen Ali survives five lbw reviews in extraordinary day”
Kumar 
Frane Selak
Andrew Fidel Fernando, courtesy of THE CRICKET MONTHLY, where the title is “Left-arm lovable”
It was perfect that Rangana Herath‘s parents bought the family their first television shortly before Aravinda de Silva‘s 1984 debut, because soon de Silva was Herath’s favourite player. “When Aravinda is smashing sixes and fours,” Herath remembers, “who doesn’t want to watch?”
With his son in Galle, 2014 © AFP
When no friends were around, older brother Deepthi was cajoled into games. “Aiyo I could never get away from him,” Deepthi says. “He was always wanting to play. I had to learn batting left-handed even, so that I wasn’t breaking windows when I hit to the leg side. He batted left-handed from the small days, so he was always whacking balls into the trees. If I couldn’t play, he’d hang a ball in a sock from the mango tree, and hit it by himself. He had more than enough shots.”
Tom Farman
This recently unearthed British Council documentary provides a snapshot of English cricket over 60 years ago. Narrated by Sir Ralph Richardson and the great BBC commentator John Arlott, it shows beautiful footage of Test cricket and the theatre surrounding it, as well as the more humble cricket on the village green. There is some splendid slow-motion footage of the Lord’s Test of 1948, featuring such legends of the game as Sir Don Bradman, Sir Len Hutton, Denis Compton and Keith Miller.
Denis Compton hits the winning stroke as England beat Australia and win the Ashes at the Oval, London, 19th August 1953 
Bradman in actionThe Pathe documentary footage is also very strong on the crowd, the sense of occasion of a Lord’s Test that remains every bit as much of a national event today as it did in Sir Don’s last Ashes tour of England. It is a world away from Hot Spot, DRS and Snicko (and probably none the worse for that) but this video provides a glimpse of how cricket might have loked in 1948
The Moment of Knghthood