Kevin Pietersen’s elevation to the England captaincy and his immediate success in the ODIs against South Africa has brought a rush of adulatory comment. I can’t help but feel that there’s more than a touch of desperation amongst the ranks of England supporters - hope against hope that this is the true Messiah destined to lead England to the promised land of an Ashes victory next year and beyond. (I don’t think my biblical analogy is quite correct; Moses got the job for the Israelites but, perhaps significantly, God denied him entry).

Anyway, it should be obvious to everyone, even passionate poms, that it’s very early days for Pietersen to be the anointed saviour. Cricinfo were on to this smartly with an article about how other novice captains came out of the starting blocks. In short form here’s how they stacked up:-

WG Grace, 1888
It shouldn’t really be a surprise that The Doctor enjoyed immediate success as captain - he would have found anything less utterly intolerable. Even you, Kevin, can’t match the doctor in the arrogance stakes. Although, a couple more wins and you might come close.

Ray Illingworth, 1969

Being a true Yorkshireman, Illingworth always did things his own way, and his methods proved extremely successful. It wasn’t until his 20th Test as captain, against India in 1971, that Illingworth tasted a defeat. Is Pietersen in the same mold? Not a Yorkshireman to start with.

Clive Lloyd, 1974
Being made captain can have one of two impacts on a player: they can either use the extra responsibility to drive their own form, or it becomes a burden and their contributions suffer. For Clive Lloyd it was the former when he was named captain for the 1974-75 tour of India. You may well be similar, Kevin, but it’s test cricket which will apply the acid, not ODIs.

Mike Brearley, 1977
Regarded as one of England’s finest leaders. Out of your league, Kevin, but you are a better batsman.

Hansie Cronje, 1994
It was a career forever tarnished by how it finished, but Cronje took South Africa to a new level for much of his captaincy tenure. So watch your company off the field, Kevin.

Brian Lara, 1997
Great players don’t always make great captains, as Lara’s final record shows, but the early days of his leadership offered hope. Take note Kevin.

Ricky Ponting, 2002 (ODIs), 2004 (Tests)
Not many players are fortunate enough to take over the captaincy mantle with one of the finest sides of all time at their disposal. And you are certainly one of the unfortunate ones, Kevin.

But being on-song is great and applies as much to teams as individuals.  The striker in a footy team smashes the ball against the cross bar, and as it rebounds; the mid fielders are following up in eager anticipation.  And before you can say ‘Beckham deserves a better wife’, they have slotted the rebound.  When a team is on a losing streak a forward may similarly hit the crossbar but the follow-up players don’t quite have the vigour in their step and don’t seize the opportunity to score the goal.  Despondency is the inevitable companion of poor form. The one feeds off the other to provide a downward spiral of performance.

Some put this down to Mister Luck and that fine stallion he rides but we need to recognise that there is something indeterminate which has a tendency to ride on the back of skill, perseverance and enthusiasm, to their detriment.

So how do we explain the dramatic turn around in South African fortunes?  They have always been a naturally strong one-day team.  Good, and sometimes great fielding, an array of hard-hitting strokemakers, from Gibbs to Boucher.  Plus solid, steady bowlers, who are also good enough to take wickets.  After winning the Test series they should have strode onto the one-day field with confidence and a steely resolve to bury the poor old English.

But, of course, sport throws up these opportunities for turnarounds, reversing all the pundits’ expectations, otherwise it wouldn’t be sport. And if we ever find the holy grail of a sure-fire formula for form, we would certainly enhance performance but at the expense of sport itself.

There are quite a few things happening at the moment so rather than getting too hot under the collar over any one topic, I thought that I might just take some pot shots at a few.

Symonds is surely not the full bag of lollies.  I like to go off for a fish as much as the next man but my job actually comes first (unfortunately for my father who has to find someone else to help launch the boat on these occasions).  I see that it did not take long for the IPL to offer words of comfort and a place to play should Symonds fall out completely with Cricket Australia.  I guess we should expect nothing more from a guy who names Mathew Hayden as his best mate.  No doubt getting paid huge amounts of  money to play 20/20 is a good cure for insanity as it has done wonders for Lou “I hate Myself” Vincent’s mental state.  Pity it wasn’t around when Greg Chappell needed it.

How can England possibly be second in the ODI rankings? What a ridiculous system that allows them to leap up to that position on the basis of one series win over a SA side that has totally lost the plot.  In the real world they rank about 6^th.

Graeme Hick has finally retired.  Contrary to my friend Warrick’s attitude towards him I really think he deserves a large amount of sympathy.  Hick debuted at first class level in 1983 and was made to wait until May 1991 for his first test outing.  He was Wisden player of the year in 1987 and had made 57 first class hundreds prior to that point.  There are players who cope well with having a long first class career before entering the test arena (Mark Greatbatch springs to mind) but Hick was obviously not one of them.  It is a real shame that he didn’t get the same apprenticeship as Tendulkar or M D Crowe and one wonders if he ever regretted not taking the option of playing for NZ a few years earlier. 

NZ Cricket is about to choose a new coach.  I really miss the days when we could stay competitive for more than 3/5ths of a test match.  Maybe a change of coach will help but with endless supplies of short form cricket and only the odd 2 test series in store, he certainly has his work cut out for him. 

One of the subtleties of cricket, lacking in most other sports, is the concept of the ‘over’ - 6 balls bowled at each end alternately. It seems obvious enough, yet this simple device is one of the defining elements in the game.

The ‘over’ ensures turnaround every 3 minutes or so, and challenges the batsman to adjust accordingly. It has also contributed to cricket’s rich history by creating famous partnerships; ‘bowlers hunt in pairs’ the saying goes. My memory only goes back to the 1940s but in 70 years the list of famous pairings is extensive.

The tall, bouncy Miller and the stocky, out-swinging Lindwall dominated the Australian pace attack post war. Brian Statham’s nagging accuracy was the perfect foil for Frank Tyson’s ferocious pace in the 1950s. Add Fred Trueman to that mix and you have one of the best England attacks ever.

Of course, spin twins also emerged. I remember the West Indian leg and off-break pair of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine - Ramadhin bowled with his sleeves down to hide his wrist action. The left arm, right arm combination of Lock and Laker was devastating in English conditions.

New Zealand had its share of formidable partnerships, Chatfield - Hadlee come to mind and in the 1960s pacemen Dick Motz and Bruce Taylor. I had the privilege of playing club cricket with Bruce Taylor for Wellington Collegians. Bruce and I shared the new ball for a season or two - probably the most successful period in my career, thanks to Bruce.

Bruce was more than a handful for most club batsmen, so the usual tactic was to defend against him and take runs off me at the other end. Being just another into the wind trundler, I was sometimes carted to all corners but I was also accurate enough to take advantage of the pressure on the batsman to score off me. Over-adventurous shots often gifted me wickets.

So I gathered a bagful of scalps with Bruce dominating downwind. When Bruce departed, so did much of my success. But what was driven home to me during  that happy period was this:- no matter how highly a bowler may rate personal success, give a thought to the contribution being made at the other end.

The first is that the 50 over game allows mediocrity to flourish temporarily; the other is that an ex-South African (Pietersen) captaining England against his home country has garnered a deep seated revenge that he has executed with aplomb as captain.  The story goes that he left South African cricket because of the quota system.  He’s given the quota sytem a big one - fingered salute.

Pietersen doesn’t come across as the typically astute captain in the Jardine or Brearley mould.  Maybe I’m grossly misjudging him.  But he walks around in his hoody, has relationships with pop stars and is the glamour boy with an aggressive swagger.  He doesn’t come across as your classic university graduate, but oozes natural talent..

But cricket isn’t necessarily about the refined world of intellectual endeavour.  Jardine was the hook-nose, crafty, crabby, steely eyed strategist who curtailed the Bradman phenomena with bodyline.  However he wasn’t noted for his great natural ease at the game.

Mike Brealey similarly became famous as the cricket captain with a classics and moral university degree, rather than a major impact with the bat (especially with a Test average of only 22.88).  He was instrumental in the classic Botham ashes 1980-81, being the captain who orchestrated Botham’s awesome turnaround.

It is premature to say that Pietersen is the English Messiah (they need one since Beckham’s playing soccer in America, Lady Di is dead and I can’t think of anyone else).  In leadership terms he has made a remarkable start - however the tests will expose his true depth of character and strategic competency.  But a 4 - nil reversal against a bloody strong South African means he must have done something to buoy up the boys.

Can a captain have such a dramatic impact?  It happens only occasionally.  English cricket may have a leader of messianic qualities.   We all await the next congregation of St Pietersen.

In a speech at a function marking the centenary of the birth of Sir Donald Bradman, Australian captain Ricki Ponting touched on one of the central questions facing international cricket at the moment­­­: the impact on the longer game of the fast and furious crowd-pleaser Twenty20.

Ponting thinks that the new brat on the block is here to stay and, perhaps more surprisingly, he said that Twenty20 cricket will inevitably join the Olympic Games. But Ponting’s central concern, which must be shared by all who care about the game overall, is the allure to top players of Twenty20’s glittering money mountains, particularly in India.

Just as mountaineers galore are drawn to the lofty peaks of the Himalayas, so the world’s finest cricketers may seek to climb the lucrative slopes of India’s Premier League and in the process desert the less rewarding plains and playing fields of test cricket and even ODIs.

Ponting doesn’t wring his hands about the success of the newcomer, or plead with players to turn their backs on the almighty dollar, rather, he puts forward what I think is an eminently sensible suggestion.

He wants cricket’s badly congested international schedule radically overhauled and a place found for Twenty20 which would not force players to make a choice between the long and super-short game. Ponting the pragmatist knows full well that if a player has to choose between playing for his country for a few thousand dollars and receiving match fees from a Twenty20 tournament which would set him up for life - well, where’s the choice really?

The reconstituting of the international schedule should be given urgency. To continue the mountain analogy, these are very new geological formations; the tectonic plates are on the move and seismic forces are building, so let’s act before the edifice of international cricket gets hit with a size eight quake.

With India controlling 80% of the world’s cricket revenue, bargaining with the Moguls will be crucial. Twenty20 requires a place in the sun on the international cricket schedule but its fixtures also need to be drawn up so that players can take part in all forms of the game without conflict.

Ok, what kind of conjuring trick will achieve this? I don’t know and neither, I suspect, does Ponting. A large dose of Solomon’s wisdom at the negotiating table would help along with an even larger dose of integrity stemming from a respect for the game in all its forms.

I feel another metaphor coming on: two is company and three a crowd? Certainly the marriage of test cricket with ODIs has been a reasonably happy one but now it’s a ménage à trois. The new lover is very young and attractive in a brash kind of way. But he’ll buy the test-ODI home and chattels lock, stock and barrel if you piss him off.

Why do we have them?  Printing companies make truck-loads of money printing this stuff.  What purpose do they serve apart from making bad umbrellas and even worse sun hats when the clouds depart?

So let’s just think it through for a moment.  The batsmen has just scored a four.  Whether it’s a streaky nick through slips, or a clip through mid wicket with Gower/Laxman like timing, - it is a four.  There may be a ooooooohhhhhhh from the crowd for the dodgy snick, or a ripple and increasingly vigorous applause for the sweetly struck boundary.  But suddenly the crowd is seized with an epileptic-like compulsion to provide a lesson in arithmetic comprehension. 3+1=4, an equation falling short of Einsteinian proportions.

Why not have posters illustrating the action in the middle? And the marketers or sponsors could add some sophistication to the signs on display.

For example  when there’s a dropped catch:

The fielder couldn’t even catch a cold. or, Get a bucket- and put it on your head.

The batsment playing and missing?

What’s the bat for? or, bowl him a grand piano and see if he can hit that.

The great cricket shot:

Bradman’s smiling in his grave.

I’m sure there is a poet who would use less ink and be more profound.

There could be, say, 10 slogans which sponsors could associate themselves with. We could even have competitions for the best instant response to the situation on the field.  I’m sure some gems would come up.  We could even have texts flashed up on the big screens.

It’s a classic case of cricket marketers assuming that spectators need something to do between balls.  I know that music blurts out at every conceivable pause in play (and because I love music I don’t mind it as long as it’s classic rock).  But music has a huge and rich archive and even when I hear ABBA or Michael Jackson it’s more interesting than 4 or 6.

Jack’s story of catching John Morrison reminded me of on of my own sporting experiences with someone who played the game at a slightly higher level than I did.

When I was in the 4th form (year 9) at Papanui High School the head cricket coach, a North Canterbury representative batsman/wicketkeeper named Peter Williams (not the ex-commentator), invited Tony Blain to come and coach us.  Tony was on the cusp of the Central Districts side at that time and turned out to be a really nice guy.  After showing us the finer points of batting and keeping he was invited to have a bat himself in the nets.

Everyone was obviously dead keen to have a bowl at a first class cricketer, so about 20 bowlers lined up to fire a few down at Tony while none of the other net batsmen were going to get a look in.

Tony settled in pretty quickly and was pelting everyone around, on most occasions clearing the batting net which did not have a covered top.  It was my turn to bowl and I trundled up and sent down what turned out to be a much better ball than either of us expected.  At the begging of its trajectory the ball looked likely to be a half volley on about the line of off stump.  Tony took a big stride forward and flashed the blade in the direction of mid-off.  Just before reaching the crease, the ball swung in, dipped underneath the bat and hit the leg stump, knocking it into the back of the net.  I was never particularly shy about letting people know when I got somebody out (even in the nets) in those days and anybody within a kilometre of the school would have heard me! Tony was very gracious and congratulated me with a “good ball” as he threw it back to me.  As far as school was concerned it was certainly my greatest cricketing moment and it made me a school celebrity for a brief period.

Some years later I met Tony again at a party that Derek Stirling (another good guy) was holding for the Wellington and Central District cricket teams.  I reminded Tony of the occasion and he said he remembered coaching at Papanui High School but not having a bat himself.  This was a great disappointment to me because that glorious delivery was one of the highlights of my rather inglorious cricket career.

For those of you who are not familiar with Tony Blain here is his Cricinfo profile

Without a doubt the cricketmystery blog team is formidable.  Thomas Perry and Peter really add beef to the line up.  Enjoy! 

Peter’s introductory blog follows - and his own blog space will be up shortly.

Once upon a time ….  

I was delivered into this world some 38 days prior to Don Bradman’s final test innings and have followed cricket for as long as I can remember - from playing the game during my school days to joining a semi-serious social club in recent years.

Mind you I have never been particularly good at cricket. At a pinch I would say that my bowling was probably my best feature and although I once took 7-9 (if I remember correctly) in a school match I was pretty ordinary most of the time. It is, however, to my eternal regret that I never worked on my batting and so I was prone to the odd golden duck, but I am in good company here as the great “Don” once scored one at test level. More lately I have played for the Tawa Turtles, a team of mature players who enjoy the camaraderie of the game and who like to travel the world as part of the “Golden Oldies” cricket movement.

I first played with them back in 1994 during the tournament which was held in Birmingham that year and in my first bat for the side I was run out without facing a ball. Contrast that with my most recent innings, 14 unbeaten runs, all in singles, in a rained-off match in Taupo some three or four years ago. (I feel bound to point out that I scored 14 more runs than Bradman did in his last major innings). Officially I have not retired but the chances of making a come-back are diminishing by the year.

My love affair with cricket though extends far beyond playing it. Over time I have become very interested in the statistical side of the game. This interest began in earnest more than 40 years ago and started with me keeping details on all the New Zealand test players. Gradually I extended my records to include all test playing countries. I have reluctantly come to terms with the fact that One Day Internationals are here to stay but I am unable to show any enthusiasm for Twenty20. I was a bit late to appreciate the advantages of using a computer and so my original records were all hand written. However, I came to realize that computers do not bite and now I would not be without one. Keeping records is also a lot easier these days for cricket statisticians with the advent of some marvelous websites, including Cricinfo, which provide a service that even the most ardent cricket follower has to be impressed with.

In the future I would like to share with you any thoughts I may have on any cricket issues. This will include discussing the merits of a particular batter or bowler, or fielder for that matter, who has achieved some record worthy of mentioning. From time to time I will compare a player with another or one team with another, perhaps from a different era, and I might even comment on matters of a controversial nature although I do not intend to get too involved in the politics. The odd book review may even appear, in fact anything that I feel inclined to write about on the subject of cricket. Wherever possible I will embellish my blogs with facts and figures for that is where my real interest lies and I trust yours does as well.

I am currently working on a name for my blog and a suitable photo or caricature to head it. “Peter’s Perambulations” or “Marriott’s Meanderings” are probably a bit over the top and I want a photo that will flatter me and not scare the children.

Until next time.

Peter Marriott

In my last column I speculated on the reasons for the Graeme Smith-led Proteas transforming from a dissension racked side of 6 months ago to the unified and triumphant unit they are today.

Well, that’s before their reversal of form in the first two ODI’s. Arguments over players being ‘quota’ selections as opposed to those selected purely on merit threatened to tear the side apart.  One player, who was dismissed as a quota selection when he first rose to test ranks, seems symbolic of the evolution of South African cricket from its isolation during the apartheid era to its multi racial nature today. No, not Makaya Ntini - not even a black.

Non-drinking, devout Muslim Hashim Amla represents a new departure in South African cricket. He’s the first of Indian descent to represent his country at the highest level and is tipped as a future replacement for Graeme Smith. He’s already had international captaincy experience: he successfully led his country’s under 19 side in 2002.

His elevation to test cricket in 2004 was dogged by early failures and criticism of his technique. His 149 against New Zealand at Capetown didn’t silence his critics but did set him on the ladder of success which now sees him one of the first picks in the Proteas’ test batting line up. In this year’s tour of England he scored the most runs (663) at the best average (73.66) on the first class segment of the tour. His test average for the tour was 45.83. The bespectacled Amla, who sports a magnificent, flowing beard which contrasts sharply with his shaven head, comes from a small town 40 kms north of Durban on South Africa’s east coast. His father and sister are both doctors and Hashim is a scholarship winner. He may have another first: the longest whiskers on display at Lords sing W.G. Grace.

It’s not only his elegant stroke making which have brought Hashim fame. His devotion to the Muslim faith has led him to mount campaigns to remove all alcohol-promoting logos from merchandise and playing gear. He objected to the advert for Castle Lager beer on the South African team kit and has been allowed to wear a shirt without the logo of a brand of Brewery, one of South African cricket’s biggest sponsors. I’m not sure that NZ cricket administration would be as forbearing as their South African counterparts.

Amla could not escape the western paranoia about Islam. He took a superb catch in a test against Sri Lanka in 2006. Australian test cricketer turned commentator Dean Jones mockingly remarked ‘…the terrorist has got another wicket…’. In a subsequent apology to Amla, Jones claimed he thought he was off air. The irony behind this ‘excuse’ did not escape Amla but he responded with dignity:-

‘The teaching of Islam is that if anyone tries to apologise, you forgive them. We all have some inward prejudices that we need to address, whether they be of colour, race or religion.’