Category Archives: confrontations on field

August 6, 2019 · 3:09 pm

Edgbaston Roller-coaster in Errol’s Binoculars

Errol Fernando to Gavin, 5 August 2019

For 3 long days I kept wearing out my chairs and couldn’t take my eyes off the match. Constant changes of fortune, ebb and flow, but with the game equally poised. Then on the fourth day the Aussie batsmen, empowered by Smith, broke away and demolished the English bowlers. Moeen Ali looked incapable of dismissing the local kindergarten second eleven.

On the final day the English batsmen, as a sympathetic gesture, felt obliged to emulate their bowlers by batting like the local kindergarten second eleven.

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Filed under backyard cricket, confrontations on field, cricket and life, cricketing icons, English cricket, spinning art

August 2, 2019 · 2:48 am

A Rescue Act Aged 41! Facing Lillee and Thomson

Simon Barnes in The Cricket Monthly, June 2016, where the title is “Call in Colin” … At 41, Cowdrey gamely took on Lillee and Thomson, because how could he not?

“Good morning, my name’s Cowdrey.” Words of Colin Cowdrey to Jeff Thomson in December 1974, spoken while Thomson was back at the top of his run “wanting to kill somebody”. It was a moment that mixed courtesy with a hint of gamesmanship in one of cricket’s more bizarre confrontations.

And a good morning to you Sir!

Cowdrey’s participation in that Ashes series was a classic example of futile heroism, and as such a thing of joy that echoes down the ages long after more elevated passages of sport have been forgotten. “We need a futile sacrifice at this stage,” said Peter Cook in a famous sketch from Beyond the Fringe. “It will raise the whole tone of the war.” Continue reading →

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Filed under Australian cricket, confrontations on field, cricket and life, cricketing icons, English cricket, memorable moments, performance, player selections, tower of strength, unusual people

August 2, 2019 · 2:21 am

Selectors in Crisis!! … December 1974: if Thomson does not get You, Lillee will!

Who we gonna call? England’s tour think tank, Alan Smith and Alec and Eric Bedser (from left), on the plane to Adelaide after the Perth Test Patrick Eagar / © Getty Images

THEIR SOLUTION: 41 yer-old Colin Cowdrey !!! …. http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1008601/call-in-colin

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Filed under Australian cricket, child of empire, confrontations on field, cricket and life, English cricket

June 4, 2019 · 8:27 am

Even-Stevens between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka?

Ankur Dhawan, in ESPNcricnfo, 3 June 2019, where the title is “Can improving Afghanistan exploit Sri Lanka’s vulnerabilities?”

Bookmakers are offering near-equal odds on the Sri Lanka-Afghanistan contest in Cardiff, and although there was no way of calling this four years ago, when Sri Lanka were contenders until being blown away by South Africa in Sydney, things are a little different now, especially after their walloping at New Zealand’s hands last week. And don’t forget what happened last year, when Afghanistan knocked Sri Lanka out of the Asia Cup.

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Filed under Angelo Mathews, confrontations on field, cricket and life, Lasith Malinga, performance, Sri Lanka Cricket, unusual statistics, World Cup 2019

April 30, 2019 · 3:29 am

Full Monty: Jarrod Kimber reveals the Australian Species of Cricket

Jarrod Kimber, in CRICKET MONTHLY, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, April 2019, entitled “The ugly Australian: the evolution of a cricket species” …. How did Australian cricket come to be synonymous with hostility, gamesmanship and verbal abuse? A year on from Sandpapergate, we explore a thorny subject

He warms the cockles of Boof’s heart, Dave does © Getty Images

Something hit me in the chest, hard. Knocking me a step back. Why was this guy purposefully bumping into me? It wasn’t a normal under-14 game. This was a special event. The crowd was full of not just parents but senior players from the club. The one umpiring was a thickset middle-order batsman from the 1sts named Darren; most called him Dazza.

Mid-pitch I looked around to see if anyone had seen the bowler charge through, but no one had. So I went on batting until I ended up at Dazza’s end. He whispered: “If he does that again, hit him with the bat.” It would never have crossed my mind to do that. I grew up in a tough league where everyone played hard, aggressive cricket. But I was 13 and having fun. Cricket was the thing I loved the most, and as much as I wanted to win, it was still just a game.

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Filed under Australian cricket, confrontations on field, cricket and life, patriotic excess, performance, sportsmanship, unusual people

March 31, 2019 · 2:40 pm

When Sri Lanka had to ‘mankad’ Buttler and Co.

Rex Clementine, in Sunday Island, 31 March 2019, where the title runs “Marvan on ‘Mankading’ Buttler in 2014”

There are certain places visiting teams would hate play overseas. As for Sri Lankans, they avoid Wanderes in Johannesburg like the plague as it always seams around there. So is Edgbaston in Birmingham where the seam bowlers come into the equation all the time. Sri Lanka have played at Edgbaston on five times but won only once. That win came in 2014 in a bitterly contested ODI. These days teams tend to make most of the scheduling and invariably the hosts would want to play the final game of a series at a venue that favours them, just in case if that happens to be a decider. So was the case in 2014. The five match ODI series was squared 2-2. Sri Lanka won a low scoring thriller with Lahiru Thirimanne and Mahela Jayawardene posting half-centuries to wrap up the series 3-2. Rather than celebrating a famous series win, the cricketing world was busy discussing the ‘Mankading’ of Josh Buttler. Some ex-England players found fault with the Sri Lankans.

Sachithra Senanayake gestures to the umpire after ‘mankading’ Jos Buttler.

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Filed under Atapattu, confrontations on field, English cricket, fair play, performance, politics and cricket, Rex Clementine, sportsmanship, Sri Lanka Cricket, unusual people

December 5, 2018 · 1:57 pm

How will Australia and India Face-Off?

Sidarth Monga in ESPNcricinfo, 5 December 2018 where the title is “Is this the tour when Australia-India “rivalry” grows up?”

Australia the country and the cricket team have held a special place in the minds of Indians of a certain age. That certain age happens to be roughly that of the people playing in this team. We grew up watching Australia dominate world cricket. Everything about Australian cricket – the glitz, the hard hits, the bounce on the pitches, the sunburnt venues, the zinc cream, the commentary, even the advertisements – was loved in India. People barely remember the 1987 World Cup, but 1992 they do in photographic detail. Kids wanted to be like Australia, play like them, win like them, look like them.

Virat Kohli and David Warner exchange words Getty Images

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Filed under confrontations on field, cricket and life, cricket in India, cricketing icons, Dhoni, Indian cricket, patriotic excess, performance, Sidharth Monga, sportsmanship, tower of strength

October 22, 2018 · 4:45 pm

Reflections on Sri Lanka’s Topsy-Turvy Journey in Cricket — Mark Nicholas

Mark Nicholas in ESPNcricinfo, 22 October 2018, where the title runs “Sri Lanka’s cricket legacy is glorious, but what does the future hold?”

The first two Sri Lankan cricketers to catch this observer’s eye were Roy Dias and Duleep Mendis. Dias, slim and elegant at the crease, played the game in beautifully straight lines and had a hand in important moments during Sri Lanka’s early days at the top table, most especially against Pakistan and India. Mendis was a bull of a fellow on first look but the most genial of cricketers, whose explosive strokeplay at Lord’s in 1984 won him many a heart. It was for the Indians, however, that he reserved his very best cricket, making hundreds in both innings of the 1982 Madras Test and then leading his country to a famous series win in 1985 with a match-saving hundred in the final Test at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy. It is close to impossible to describe how much this meant to his people. It was more than a victory for cricketers; it was a victory for character and for relevance – a precursor to the days when Arjuna Ranatunga would bow before no one in the pursuit of his country’s place in the world order.

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Filed under Aravinda de Silva, Australian cricket, confrontations on field, cricket and life, cricket governance, cricketer politicians, cricketing icons, Mahela Jayawardene, performance, player selections, Rangana Herath, Sangakkara, unusual people

October 9, 2018 · 5:03 pm

England have taken a Leaf from Sri Lanka’s Ranatunga Book

Tanya Aldred in The Spin,8 October 2018 where the title is “How Sri Lanka’s magical 1996 cocktail paved the way for Morgan’s men”

Echoes of Arjuna Ranatunga’s World Cup-winning blueprint – potent spinners, pinch-hitting openers, bucket loads of confidence – can be seen in the England ODI side today

As England and Sri Lanka prepare for the five-match one-day series starting on Wednesday in Dambulla, a warm-up of sorts for the World Cup now less than eight months away, it feels the right time to stumble backwards 22 years, to one of cricket’s greatest stories.

On 17 March 1996, in the sultry atmosphere of Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka’s captain, lifted the World Cup high into the air. No one could quite believe it. Sri Lanka, the baby brother of the Asian block, the international whipping boys, had popped out of the hat, brandishing a party popper, a grin and a new kick-ass way of playing the game.

Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga celebrates with his team after winning the Cricket World Cup final against Australia in Lahore in 1996. Photograph: John Parkin/Getty Images

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Filed under Australian cricket, confrontations on field, cricket and life, cricket tamashas, cricketing icons, English cricket, murali, sanath jayasuriya, Sangakkara, Sri Lanka Cricket, unusual people

October 1, 2018 · 4:19 am

A Muckraking Essay from Krishnamurthy about Hathurusingha

N Krishnamurthy in Cricket Age, 30 September 2018, with this title : “Exclusive! Is Sri Lanka Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha No More A Buddhist?”

Ever since his arrival in Sri Lanka as national Team head coach, Chandika Hathurusingha has become the most powerful and manipulative at the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC). Especially, after the shameful departure of Thilanga Sumathipala led administration on May 31st, he has extended his control over several other non cricketing expects [sic] as well, like in which airlines Sri Lanka team should travel!