Category Archives: foul tactics

July 22, 2013 · 3:59 am

Angelow: Streaking NUDE at Lords

Martin Williamson, in ESPNcricinfo,

FREAKER 2- PA PHOTOS from PA Photos

The current Test, being played under cloudless skies and with temperatures nudging 90°F, is the hottest Ashes match at Lord’s in almost four decades. While 1976 set 20th century temperature and drought records, the previous summer had been almost as warm. Although snow fell days before the start of the World Cup in early June 1975, thereafter the country basked in weeks of sun. The nation shed its clothes and basked. Some shed a few too many. The World Cup replaced a planned tour by South Africa and left the second half of the summer empty, so it was filled with a four-Test Ashes series. England had been thrashed the previous winter but the public wanted to see the Australians and the next series was not scheduled until 1977, so the move made commercial sense. Continue reading →

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July 21, 2013 · 3:58 am

Aleem Dar—Three Howlers and OUT he should be

Aleem Dar—Three Howlers and OUT he should be

Michael Roberts

Aleem-Dar 22There is a striking moment in Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger when the criminal mastermind tells James Bond that once is coincidence, twice is happenchance and thrice is war ending in the dungeon. Well! On this comparison umpire Aleem Dar should be consigned to the umpiring dungeons or refuse bin. He has the distinction of committing the same type of horrendous umpiring error not once, not twice, but THRICE!

When a batsman nicks or plays a ball to one of the slips most human beings can perceive the splice of the process so to speak. But not Dar… Not once, not twice, but THRICE. I have a vivid mental image of all three moments. Continue reading →

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Filed under Ashes Tests, Australian cricket, confrontations on field, cricket and life, DRS, fair play, foul tactics, Mahela Jayawardene, performance, politics and cricket, sportsmanship, television commentary

August 16, 2012 · 2:33 am

Warne and Pietersen situations compared

Peter Lalor, in The Australian, 16 August 2012, where the title is “How Warne avoided dressing room chaos which has claimed Pietersen”

IRONIES abound in the Kevin Pietersen soap opera.While the first of them is that a South African in exile has caused such chaos in the middle of a Test series against his home country, this story has more layers than the Inghams – and more feathers. Not the least of the ironies is the interjection from Pietersen’s pal, Shane Warne. The pair became good friends at Hampshire and shared a hairdresser during the 2005 Ashes series. Warne might see some parallels in his mate’s situation.The Australian champion leg-spinner had personal troubles with texting, a fact celebrated in the song What an SMS I’m In from Eddie Perfect’s show Shane Warne: The Musical. Continue reading →

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February 2, 2012 · 2:02 am

Incursions and Excursions in and around Sri Lankan Cricket

BOOK EVENT at Premadasa Stadium in 2011 – courtesy of http://www.islandcricket.lk/columns/michael_roberts/155590201/incursions-and-excursions-in-and-around-sri-lankan-cricket

This presentation of my book Incursions and Excursions in and around Sri Lankan Cricket occurred at the R. Premadasa Stadium last year, during the World Cup 2011 squad’s practice session. It was deliberately timed before the quarter-finals of the World Cup because this author holds that the plaudits that should be extended to the cricketers remain valid, irrespective of the joys or sorrows attending the outcome of one game.

This gesture marks my appreciation of the achievements secured by the various Sri Lankan squads in recent years and, most significantly, the measured and calm manner in which they responded to the terrorist attack in Lahore on March 3, 2009, an event that is reviewed as Chapter VI in this book.

The book is available at Vijitha Yapa bookshops and at www.vijithayapa.com

                                                                                                                                                                     Pics by Eranga Jayawardena

 

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January 29, 2012 · 8:26 am

Sacking of Marsh ‘just not cricket’

Sa’adi Thawfeeq, in The Nation

From Davenall Whatmore to Trevor Bayliss, Sri Lanka had a great run of success in international cricket for 16 years when they won an ICC Cricket World Cup, reached three ICC World Cup finals and was ranked No. 2 in both Test and One-Day Internationals. Now all that is about to change with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) unceremoniously sacking former Australia cricketer and coach Geoff Marsh just four months into his two-year contract. The manner in which Marsh was shown the door by the newly-elected SLC officials was “just not cricket” if one is to use cricket parlance. The action of SLC has more or less closed the door for any future coaches from Australia and around the world undertaking any future assignments in Sri Lanka.

After struggling without a proper coach for two successive series’ the interim committee headed by Upali Dharmadasa decided that Marsh was the right man to take Sri Lanka cricket forward and signed him on a two-year contract. Little was Marsh to know what was to be in store for him after handling just the two series’ against Pakistan and South Africa. The very same individuals who thought so highly of Marsh as coach suddenly did a U-turn to sack him after just two series, hardly giving him an opportunity to find his feet and prove his credentials as coach. For the record Marsh was a member of Australia’s World Cup winning side of 1987 and coach of the Australian side when they won the World Cup in 1999. He was a highly respected coach in Australia and around the world and his sudden sacking has not only shocked the entire cricket world at large, but brought upon SLC the wrath of past cricketers both locally and internationally. It is not just the results obtained in the series that goes to make a good coach but how much of input he brings to the team. In that aspect Marsh had according to some senior players not been lacking at all. Continue reading →

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January 28, 2012 · 3:34 pm

Lampooning Indian Cricketers as Asylum-Seekers

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Filed under cricket and life, cricket in India, fair play, farewell game, foul tactics, performance, politics and cricket, Test rankings, unusual people, welfare through sport

December 21, 2011 · 1:38 am

ICC told that corruption extends beyond the field

Michael Atherton, courtesy of The Times and The Weekend Australian 17-18 december 2011

GIVEN the scandals that have enveloped the game since the veil was lifted on the activities of several players during the 1990s, it is only natural that when the word “corruption” is uttered, attention falls on the cricketers themselves. Transparency International, an organisation committed to challenging corruption worldwide, made an important contribution to clearing up some of those misconceptions this week.

Cricket is not the kind of playing field that TI normally steps on to, but it was encouraged to do so partly by the wide-ranging nature of the consultation over the ICC’s governance review that closed last week. TI released a number of recommendations for the ICC to consider before the publication of the review, the most important of which was to remind people that on-field corruption is just a small part – albeit the most damaging part – of the temptations that envelop the game as a whole. Continue reading →

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October 5, 2011 · 12:59 pm

Drugs for Lankan Sportsmen: Mendis and White under the gun

Saroj Pathirana, BBC Sinhala Service

The sports minister in Sri Lanka has said he will launch an investigation into allegations that the ministry’s own medical unit provided banned substances to some of the country’s sports personnel. Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told the BBC Sinhala Service that he was sacking the head of the unit, Dr Geethanjana Mendis, and replacing the whole team with sports medical experts. “We have received numerous serious complaints from sports personnel and sports associations that individuals at the unit provided banned substances,” said Aluthgamage. “The unit also does not have any sports medical specialist. Under these circumstances, mainly due to the recent doping incidents, we need to strengthen the unit to conduct a wider anti-doping programme island-wide.” Continue reading →

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September 18, 2011 · 12:35 pm

That underarm moment in World Cricket History …. so Un-Iconic

 1 February 1981: “Richie Benaud said this the most disgraceful thing he had seen on a cricket field. On February 1, 1981, New Zealand were playing Australia in the third of the best-of-five finals of the World Series in Melbourne. 15 were needed off the final over, to be bowled by Trevor Chappell, younger brother of Ian and Greg. It came down to seven off the last ball with Brian McKechnie on strike. Captain Greg instructed Trevor to roll the ball along the ground. Underarm bowling was still legal, even if unethical, and Chappell’s unsporting act was roundly criticised. After the incident, underarm bowling was banned.” — http://www.sharegoodstuffs.com/2011/09/crickets-most-iconic-moments.htmhttp://

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September 16, 2011 · 3:02 pm

Two Iconic Moments in Sri Lankan Cricket History

Courtesy of http://www.sharegoodstuffs.com/2011/09/crickets-most-iconic-moments.html

 When the scoreboard at Pietermaritzburg Oval read 5 runs in total with 4 wickets down, for Bangladesa  after Chaminda Vaas took a hat-trick and then another wicket in the first over. 

                                                                                                          

 Arjuna Ranatunga reprimands the umpire Ross Emerson during the infamous  contretemps at Adelaide Oval on 23 January 1999 after Eemrson –in what is now known to be a pre-planned move — no-balled Muralitharan for chucking the ball.

For clarification of the events leading up to this incident and a ‘post-mortem’ See Michael Roberts, “Saving Murali: Action On-field and Off-field, 1995-2005, in Roberts, Incursions and Excursions in and around Sri Lankan Cricket, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 20011, pp. 111-38 … ISBN 978-955-53198-0-5

Also see articles by Rohit Brijnath, Peter Roebuck, Bernard Whimpress, Glucka Wijesuriya and Michael Roberts in Roberts, Essaying Cricket. Sri Lanka and Beyond, Colombo:  Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2006 ….  ISBN 955-1266-25-0 (pbk) and 955-1266-26-9 (hbk) …………………… where some other striking photographs can be viewed.

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