My main area of interest has been Sports and Arts. And in years gone by I have collected few articles. Apart from renting, borrowing, buying books, magazines & journals, I was blessed with some great resources.

My my major source of information was libraries, which i religiously attended.

These are the libraries I visited in Mumbai

British Council Library,

Australian Council Library

Max Muller Bhavan

American Library

Alliance De France

Although most material from my collection has been destroyed by white ants. As i found out that it is never easy to take care of paper material in humid condition.

It gives great pleasure to share few of them. A collage of articles on analysis including a phenomena called Andrew Symonds!.

This article” Little old ladies show why small is big in cricket!.

 is from <The Australian> newspaper,  dated April1, 1999 Thursday.

It was during Australia tour of West Indies in 1999, the best Test series  of modern generation. In a 4 match series, West Indies were 0-2 down, after they were humiliated for 51 and defeated by a mountainous 312 in the first 2 Tests.

Then atBridgetown, everything changed…as Mike Coward of <The Australian> wrote ” West Indies did not defeat Australia, it was Lara who overcame Australia by one wicket in a match of such emotional intensity that in the end watchers were as wrung-out as the protagonists.”

He further adds “Men and women who would never cry in public cried openly. Young and old filed on the the scared site that is the Kensington Oval. Some lay prostrate on the pitch and kissed the turf Lara had trodden. Others genuflected in front of the West Indies room and hoped they may get a sighting of the prince of Trinidad and Tobago”.

Mr Coward ends his article with “ Indeed in its own way, it was a performance fit to be ranked with any of the great solos given by Ali, Pele and Jordan during their phenomenal career”

I watched and covered this game, and was moved by Lara’s batting.

They say, Sir Donald Bradman played in a very similar way, but apart from few clips I have not seen Sir Don in full innings.

Hence for me there is no batsmen in past or present who played in such manner. Brian Lara had taken the art of batting to another level. There is none who perfected the vertical, horizontal bat(such high back-lift) so effectively & successfully!.

This article   Radio controlled was published on 18th May 1999.  Hansie Cronje former deceased South African captain and Allan Donald were ear- pieced with their former deceased coach Bob Woolmer. It was one way radio communication that was immediately interrupted and disallowed by match referee Talat Ali.

Its been more than 13years since this thought was conceived. Now, in today’s “techno-savy world”  should this technology be permitted in cricket?.

Perhaps an initial experiment at domestic level, especially in T20 format should make us understand its value to the game, players, officials and even broadcasters!.

This is a original scorecard from Oct 11, 1992, Round 2 of an under-19 Brisbane grade tournament. Gold Coast v/s South Brisbane played at Boundary St 2

Gold coast 585

Andrew “Roy” Symonds opened the batting with Matthew Mott(now  coach/mentor at Glamorgan, played for Queensland between 1994-95 till 1998)

Interestingly Andrew’s  adopted father Ken nick named him “Roy” after Roy Race a character from British comic strip’s mythical football team called Melchester Rovers.

On request this scorecard was send to me by Warwick Glaves from Gold Coast. Many thanks to him, as i am able to share this wonderful cricketer’s past achievement.

For the record Gold coast scored 585 -3 of 50 overs!.

Roy Symonds 220  “retired out (99 balls, 27 fours, 14 sixes), and Matthew Mott retired out for 212 (117 balls, 20 fours, 14 sixes) as they put 446 runs for 1st wkt before both retired in the 37th over!.

In reply South Brisbane scored 158-4 of 50 overs.

Cricket loses future stars to AFL cash

Few years(1999) before this article I Remember reading Rod Marsh’s article as an guest columnist<Fine-tuning> for The Observer, UK Then he was Australian under-19 coach which was on a tour to UK. He mentioned that Australia will have a problem around 2008, especially in their batting department, and gave a example of Brad Green whose talent knew no bound and cricket lost this prodigy to AFL.

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In my previous post on T20 I had mentioned opening batsmen score maximum No. of 50+ scores for their team. Here in this analysis have gone further to find contribution made by the top 4 batsmen(including opening pair) in terms of runs scored and balls faced. Its never easy for batsmen to aclimatise themselves to various format as one can observe steep fall in runs scored in this format. Although T20 has benefited players (Batsmen, bowlers and fielders) in promoting themselves to other formats, but as a unit they no team has been dominating effectively for even small period of time. In below table one can clearly see the % of balls faced while scoring those runs by TOP4 batsmen. This figure was far less and much closer to % runs scored. In Australia case its very apparent. In 2009, their top4 batsmen consumed 71% of balls while scoring 62% of team’s score, however now its risen to 83.22%!!.  

Progressive stats are updated at end of Pak -SL T20 series (June 2012)

Another major reason for team’s inability to score big in last 2 years(since 2010)… 

* There were 190 players making their debut in this format (including 68players from associate members)

*  These debutants had a very little impact as a batsmen. Only 2 batsmen made 50s on their debut.

 * There were 43 various captains(11 for associate members) leading their side in this format

* Bowling wise, 8 of them picked three or more wickets on their debut

 Above points only suggest that if there is constant change in numbers of personal in a team,l (players and captains) then it disturbs team dynamic and thinking, leading to constant change of strategy and tactics(trying to accommodate different players), which has very less effect on win factor. Although individually players have been performing brilliantly, and most got promoted to ODIs & Test matches, but as a unit all teams have suffered..Cricket being an individual game with team being its frame does not apply in this format, not yet!.

[local /wp-content/uploads/2011/11/umpire-DRS.flv nolink] With Decision Review "Software" technology, magic eye can be of great help for on-field umpires.  

Can there be unlimited DRS ?. …and if so, will it be time consuming for officials!

If one wants to improve the game,  than criteria should be to maximise technology. 

Let the 3rd Umpire with reserve umpire do more work, viz take calls on wrong decision made by on-field umpires, and ask them to revert. 

And at the same time, take away DRS appeal from players. They cannot decide whether they are out or not. 

Today, all broadcasters are well equipped to the standard requirement in taking care of DRS technology. It takes less than 20 seconds to replay the previous ball bowled, from which one can make out whether it was right or wrong decision. The criteria for fielding side is to appeal, than its upto umpires(all of them) to decide on the decision. 

I am certain there is a constant feed on various required angle for 3rd /reserve umpires in the box, from which they can find 

1- no balls bowled 

2- low catches 

3- rope catches/fieldings

4- run outs 

and many close actions.

I certain if this takes place, we would have zero error. 

And as far as on-field umpire getting slack, than points should be given on number and type of errors made by them, which should be their performance evaluation. The lesser the errors(difficult ones), the better umpires.  

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Lack of preparation led to England’s loss in ODI series in India.  World Cup 2011 was a good example for them to prepare for this series. Below are some relevant patterns.

Lord’s. A Complete Analysis

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India were let down by their batsmen!

Lord’s Batting Partnerships for India

Lord’s Batting Partnerships for England

India’s Batting partnership since 2004

(Consistent at top, neverthless tapers towards the end)