There are many things that go into making a great team: a good opening pair, potent strike bowlers, a wicketkeeper who can bat, a captain whoinspires from behind and leads from the front. But the most importantfacet of a winning team, the one that is indispensable, is a culturalone: a burning desire to win.This Indian team, which aspires to greatness, does not have enough ofthat desire. These are not unduly unkind words for a team that wasthwarted by worthy opponents: the evidence was there to see atdifferent points during the Test.Consider the third day’s play. India made 129 runs in 60 overs betweenlunch and close of play. And in the afternoon session alone, they made59 runs in 29 overs. This from a team, mind you, that was on top inthe Test, that had only to drive home the advantage. And althoughPakistan’s bowlers, especially Abdul Razzaq and Danish Kaneria, bowledwell in that post-lunch session, it was not of such a class that theIndians couldn’t handle it. Sachin Tendulkar, who has evisceratedbetter attacks than this, batted as if Geoff Boycott and not VivRichards was his hero. Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman alldawdled, as if they had to play out time to save the Test. Indiashould have ended that day with 100 more than they did. Those runswould have made the difference.Then, consider the fifth day’s play. Pakistan began the day with theirtop six batsmen out, just 53 ahead, and you’d imagine that the gamewould be over, at the latest, by an hour into the afternoon session.Instead, Pakistan added 239 more. Kamran Akmal and Abdul Razzaq battedwonderfully, but the Indians never looked like getting them out. Theydid not have a man capable of running through the tail. Or rather,they did have the men, but those men didn’t do the job.Being a fast-bowling strike bowler doesn’t just mean that you run inwith the new ball and make it swing and seam and get early wickets. Italso means that when there is no help from the conditions, you run inand bend your back and use your brain and, with the sheer fire in yourbelly, burn the opposition. Wasim Akram, the West Indian quartet, AllanDonald, they could all do that. do that? Strike thatfirst word; they do that, time and again.India once looked to Zaheer to play that role, but he blows hot, blowscold, and sometimes doesn’t blow at all. He was outstanding with thenew ball on the first morning of this game, and woeful on the lastmorning. You can’t blame a guy who gives it his all, but Zaheer didn’teven bowl accurately, and his line and length was wayward. Ditto IrfanPathan, who was far slower than his usual self. Had he picked up aninjury during the Test? Perhaps. He had done so Chennai againstAustralia as well, a few months ago, and India had struggled to getthe lower order out then as well. Such familiar themes should not bereprised, and the team management must be blamed if they are. Thesemen are capable of much more, and they did not deliver. The questionmust be asked: “Why?”Virender Sehwag, in fact, told reporters after the third day’s playthat it was team strategy to “play out time”, and to not bother aboutthe pace of run-scoring. Such a safety-first strategy befits teamsthat struggle to compete, as India did for a few decades. It isunseemly now, for a team aspiring to be top of the heap. There areplayers in this team who epitomise the attitude that the entire sideneeds to get: Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid. (Kumble didn’t breakthrough either on the fifth morning, but at least he tried his hardeston a pitch that offered him little.) But the entire team must imbibethat attitude, and the change has to come from the top.If not, a change has to come the top.
Harbhajan Singh will undergo surgery on his injured right index finger on Friday (Dec 19). Harbhajan, along with the Indian team physiotherapist Andrew Leipus, flew to Melbourne to see Dr Greg Hoy, a finger specialist, who advised an immediate operation.Harbhajan sustained the injury during the one-day in Dhaka earlier this year. He had opted to avoid an operation and continue playing with the injury. Since then he has not had a great time with the ball, and had to drop out of the Adelaide Test.The team management hope that he will be ready to play again during the tour of Pakistan in late February next year – but that will depend entirely on his recovery and rehabilitation after the operation.
Nashua WP selectors have announced a squad of twelve players for Friday’s Standard Bank Cup final against KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. KwaZulu-Natal have gone with a 15 man squad.
NASHUA WESTERN PROVINCE Vs KWAZULU-NATALSTANDARD BANK CUP FINAL in DURBAN8 February 20021)Graeme Smith2)Lloyd Ferreira3)Neil Johnson (Capt)4)Ashwell Prince5)Andrew Puttick6)Jonathan Trott7)Thami Tsolekile (Wk)8)Alan Dawson9)Claude Henderson10Roger Telemachus11)Quentin Friend12)Renier MunnikCricket Managers: Vincent Barnes; Eric SimonsThe KwaZulu-Natal squad is as follows:The team will be chosen from the following squad:1. Doug Watson2. Gulam Bodi3. Ahmed Amla4. Dale Benkenstein (Capt)5. Ashraf Mall6. Jon Kent7. Duncan Brown8. Errol Stewart (Wk)9. Nixon McLean10. Andrew Tweedie11. Lucky Dladla12. Kyle Bender13. Ross Veenstra14. Gary Gilder15. Jon Bastow
With the first two days of the East Zone Cooch Behar under-19 Trophy matchbetween Bengal and Orissa at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta being washed outdue to rain, the encounter petered out into a draw on the final day onSunday.Play started only at 12.10 on the third and final day. Put into bat, Bengalscored 130 for 4 off 49.2 overs in their first innings. Openers AmitavaChakrabarthy (10) and Arindam Das (5) departed early,Subhamoy Das (30) and Ayan Nandi (27 not out) put on 39 runs for the thirdwicket in 7.1 overs when Bengal lost two quick wickets. Then Ayan andAvishek Jhunjhunwala (32 not out) added 56 runs in an unbroken fifth wicketstand in 19.2 overs.Play was suspended at 3.55 pm and officially called off at 4.20 pm. Sincenot even the first innings was completed, the teams shared threepoints each.
Celtic have told Vasilis Barkas that he is free to line up a transfer this summer, according to Football Insider.
The lowdown
The Hoops paid £4.5m to sign the Greece international from AEK Athens ahead of the 2020/21 season, when Neil Lennon was still the manager at Parkhead. It’s the highest fee that Celtic have paid for a goalkeeper in their history.
The Greek stopper has made just 24 appearances for the club, conceding 23 goals and helping them to keep 11 clean sheets. His involvement this season has been minimal, with just one Premiership appearance to his name, the 3-1 win over St Johnstone on Boxing Day.
The latest
In a report published on Saturday morning, Football Insider claimed that Celtic are ‘willing’ to let Barkas leave in the summer transfer window.
As per a club source, they have even urged the £1.35m-rated ‘keeper to find a new club.
The verdict
Even from the early stages of his Celtic career, Barkas was – in the words of Hoops podcaster John McGinley – getting ‘slaughtered’ by pundits.
It’s worth noting that he would have been out the door already, had mooted January moves to Sheffield United and IFK Goteburg not collapsed.
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With the 27-year-old behind both Joe Hart and Scott Bain in the Parkead pecking order, and costing Celtic £9,000 per week (£468,000 per year), it’s probably in the best interests of all parties that he moves on in the summer.
In other news, Alex McLeish reacts to a big update on one Celtic player
Adeel Raja, the Netherlands’ offspinner, has been banned for two years after failing a random drugs test during a domestic match in September.Raja, who has played six ODIs and nine first-class games for Netherlands and was in their World Cup squad earlier this year, tested positive for finasteride, a substance banned as it can be used as a masking agent.Although it is unclear why the player used the substance, finasteride can be used innocently to combat hair loss.The Dutch board decided to suspend the second year of the ban for a further two years, meaning that he will miss the entire 2008 season. Cricket Europe reported that Raja had previously successfully applied for dispensation to use the drug but that he had not renewed the application.Raja, 27, is believed to be lodging an appeal against the ban.
The ICC has appointed Darrell Hair to stand as an official umpire in the triangular one-day series in Mombasa involving Kenya, Scotland and Canada which starts next week. He will also officiate in the World Cricket League which follows in Nairobi.In November, Percy Sonn, the ICC president, announced that Hair would “not be appointed to international matches involving ICC Full Members”. He added: “The board has discussed this matter with great sincerity and gave lots of attention to it and they’ve come to the conclusion that they’ve lost confidence in Mr Hair.”The announcement came from Cricket Kenya and a spokesman from the ICC told Cricinfo that there would be no formal media release until Sunday. The ICC added that this news did not represent an about-turn in policy from the board, insisting that Hair is still banned from officiating in any matches involving Full Member sides.The Kenyan authorities said the other on-field umpires were Ian Gould (Eng) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nepal) while the match referee would be Javagal Srinath.Send us your thoughts
Abdul Razzaq, Pakistan’s experienced allrounder, faces a race against time to be fit and available for the first Test against India from January 13, after being hospitalised with a severe chest infection in Lahore. Razzaq, who has played 37 Tests and 201 One-day Internationals, was taken to hospital after running high fever and severe coughing bouts which were diagnosed to be due to a chest infection.”Doctors say that the recovery process is going to be slow because the infection is severe and will take time to be eliminated. I am feeling very weak at the moment and really don’t know when I will be able to resume full training and playing cricket again,” Razzaq said on Wednesday.Razzaq has been a key member of the Pakistan Test and one-day squads for the last two years and recently also missed the Test series against England due to an elbow injury, the cause of which was found to be a damaged tissue in his hand.He recovered in time to play in all five One-day Internationals against the England side. “I am very disappointed because I am looking forward to the Indian series and the training camp also starts from January 6. I don’t know if I would be able to join the camp or how long it will take for me to make a complete recovery,” he said.Razzaq said he was hoping to be fit for the first Test in Lahore but would act only on doctors advice. Another allrounder Shoaib Malik has also undergone surgery on his heels five days back to remove painful corns, which caused him a lot of problems during the series against England. Malik who opened against England has however been told by his doctors he can resume training in a week’s time.
Cricinfo adds: According to reports in several newspapers as well as private television channels, Razzaq has been diagnosed with typhoid. said Razzaq had gone to hospital two days before being checked in, when he was discharged after a medical check-up. When he went again, on Wednesday, doctors revealed he had typhoid.
Scorecard Ramesh Powar, the offspinner, dismantled the South Zone batting line-up with a seven-wicket haul, his best first-class figures, on the opening day of the star-packed Duleep Trophy game at Hyderabad. West Zone ended the day on 71 for 3, with Dheeraj Jadhav unbeaten on 30, as Anil Kumble gave South an opening with a double strike late in the day.Powar has had a great time in the league phase of the Ranji Trophy, finishing fifth on the wicket-taking charts, and his four-wicket burst against North Zone in the last game helped his side fight back. After the top three South batsmen were dismissed by the faster bowlers, Powar got his first wicket, that of Rahul Dravid, as early as the 14th over. He struck at regular intervals from then on and bowled a marathon 22.5 overs when he snapped up the rest of the batsmen. Powar had burst on to the scene in the Irani Trophy game of the 2003-04 season and had hinted at how Sachin Tendulkar’s advice helped him immensely. It was a similar day today with Tendulkar captaining and Powar striking it big.Venugopal Rao and Lakshmipathy Balaji lent the innings some respectability with 30s and Kumble chipped in with a solid 28. With Kumble getting two early wickets this evening, the spin bowlers may have a major say in the result of this one. Tomorrow promises to be another exciting day with the prospect of Tendulkar walking out to bat first thing in the morning.
Otago’s batsmen were given a thorough working out by the New Zealand Academy Selection at Lincoln Green yesterday, before the match ended as a draw with Otago 159 runs behind the Academy Selection with only two wickets in hand.The day had been affected by heavy rain just after noon and nearly three hours of play were lost. Otago were 63 for 2 when the rain began, Craig Cumming and Robert Lawson attempting to rebuild momentum after opener Mohammad Wasim and Chris Gaffeney were dismissed when there were only 28 runs on the board.The Academy Selection’s bowling options were disrupted when Richard Sherlock, bowling first change, suffered a twisted ankle when bowling the first ball of his second over. Lawson, after showing some of his attacking skills, was bowled by Michael Mason for 36.Cumming proved the key batsman for Otago, as he was last summer, and he had a fine contest with Shane Bond, the New Zealand fast bowler who is using the series as a build-up for his return to international play. Cumming showed his patience, taking 134 balls over his half-century and was on 59 when he was dismissed, caught behind by Griggs from Neil Broom’s bowling.It then became a battle of survival for the Otago side and they eventually made it home on what was a chilly day. Mark Richardson added to the dramatics of the day by claiming a wicket, trapping Warren McSkimming leg before wicket, an appeal that umpire Doug Cowie was unable to deny.New Zealand Academy Selection 349-9 dec (J Ryder 97, M Richardson 75, R Taylor 52, P Fulton 43, B Scott 3-67, W McSkimming 3-85) met Otago 190-8 (C Cumming 59, R Lawson 36, G Hopkins 34, N Broom 2-29, M Mason 2-52).