Milind Rege describes the culture of the near-invincible Mumbai team he played for in the 1960s and 70s, and the players that shaped it

Milind Rege09-Nov-2017 were dominated by numerous stalwarts, and the players built a legacy of winning at all costs.Dilip Sardesai was a tough nut. He would tell you what he felt. That was in contrast to someone like Ajit Wadekar, who would cajole you, put his arm around you, be nice to you, and yet be firm. In my first outstation match, which was in Solapur against Maharashtra, Sardesai was my first room partner. Can you believe it? I used to carry Sardesai’s photograph in my pocket because I adored his batting. And here I was, rooming with him. Sardesai, I was told later, had actually asked for it.On the eve of the match, Sardesai told me plainly: “Milind, you will get only one opportunity in the Mumbai team. If you fail, you will not be called back gain. That is Mumbai’s cricket.”He told me how, when he was making his debut, Polly Umrigar had told him almost the same thing – seize the opportunity. Sardesai told me they were all there to protect me, but if I failed, I’d be on my own. That was a stern message for a young man who has just started to play for Mumbai.Sardesai did not mean anything wrong. He protected me. When you played with or against these seniors, you knew they were watching you and you always wanted to prove you were worthy. I remember Sunil’s [Gavaskar] room partner was Baloo Gupte. They would put their arms around us, talk and teach cricket, even though on the ground they were tough. Even on the field they would rebuke you. The educative part of cricket came on the ground: you made a mistake, you were told on the ground itself.To play for Mumbai, you had to earn your cap and fight to retain it. Vijay Merchant, Madhav Mantri, Umrigar and Manohar Hardikar – These men sat on the selection panel that picked me. These were not mere selectors, these were giants of Mumbai cricket. They were all disciplinarians, and great captains of Mumbai. One failure and you were out, so you valued every innings. This ethos was followed at every level of the game, especially in the intensely competitive club cricket, one of the legacies of Mumbai cricket.Take the example of Sunil. His first match for Mumbai was against Rest of India in the 1967 Irani Cup. He got 5 and 0 at Brabourne stadium. He did not get a look in for the next few years till he returned to the Bombay dressing room in the 1969-70 season. He got a duck in his first match, against Mysore. In his second match – the final – he scored a century against Rajasthan. Teams did not change in those times. Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were the same for several years.The selectors picked the 14-member squad, while the captain picked the team without any intervention. That was a progressive idea that helped Mumbai prosper. Men like Mantri were stern captains. He had passed on the legacy to Umrigar, before Wadekar came in as the captain. We had all seen Wadekar making his debut at Brabourne stadium form the A block of the North Stand, and within three or four years he was our captain at Mumbai.Madhav Mantri (center) leads the ACC team on a goodwill visit to Pakistan•SD Rege/ACC LtdWadekar’s great strength was his ability to adapt. He never lost his cool on the ground and was always protective of the juniors. In college, we had Ashok Mankad as our captain. We had seen him score a century against Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy final in 1965. It was too good to be true. These captains are the men who made us what we ended up to be.The biggest thing for us youngsters was hero worship when we started playing cricket. When I made my debut before I turned 18, I found myself in the Mumbai dressing room full of giants: [Bapu] Nadkarni, Hardikar, [Sharad] Diwadkar, [Ramakant] Desai, [Baloo] Gupte, Sardesai, Wadekar and Ashok Mankad. They not only took us under their wings and taught us things about the game, but these men treated us youngsters us like friends. That was the culture of Mumbai cricket.The other strength of Mumbai cricket was that everybody was happy with each other’s success. You hardly got opportunities to bat at times with the batting line-up being deep. We also played matches across three days back then – so we just had 210 overs in a match as opposed to 360 overs across four days, which started in 2003.

One failure and you were out, so you valued every innings. Take the example of Sunil. His first match for Mumbai was against Rest of India in the 1967 Irani Cup. He got 5 and 0 at Brabourne stadium. He did not get a look in for the next few years till he returned to the Bombay dressing room in the 1969-70 season.

What was important for Mumbai was a win. None of us had ever known what a loss was. The confidence level was so high as a result of playing against the best in the various tournaments that Mumbai hosted. Times Shield, Police Shield, Purshottam Shield, Kanga League and Talim Shields were tournaments, some of which featured not just the best from Mumbai but the very best from the country. These tournaments would be played across all the famous across the city and witnessed by huge crowds.All the five tournaments were extremely competitive. Why was Mumbai such a dominant force? Because seven to eight Mumbai players were part of the Indian team. And all these players also played against us on the local circuit. In my first year at Tatas (1968) in the Times Shield, I bowled to an Associated Cement Company (ACC) team comprising Umrigar, Nadkarni, Sardesai, Vijay Bhosale and Inderjitsingh. The State Bank of India team included Wadekar, Ramnath Parkar, Madhu Gupte, GR Viswanath, Hanumant Singh and Budhi Kunderan. I was only 18. What more could I ask for?The first time I bowled to Vijay Manjrekar was in the Police Shield final between Bombay Universities and Shivaji Park Gymkhana. Manjrekar was one of the best batsmen and it was a dream come true. I bowled him. It was a turner, the pitch. I delivered a floater, which drifted and Manjrekar’s off bail was disturbed. Hardikar was the captain of Shivaji Park. That was how we turned the selectors’ gaze.Vijay Manjrekar bats•PA PhotosCorporate cricket was very famous. ACC, Tatas, SBI were the big teams, followed by Mafatlal. The corporates provided tremendous security for cricketers because there was not any money in cricket. I got five rupees a day in my first match. That is 15 rupees per match if you played in Mumbai, and 25 rupees for the away matches.Sunil, Sudhir Naik, Sharad Hazare and myself would take a taxi on the first morning of the home match and the ride, to-and-fro, would cost us about ten rupees. If we played at Brabourne, five rupees would go as tip for the stewards, and another five would be spent on a bottle of Golden Eagle beer which was shared by a bunch of us. By the end of a home match, we were left with no money.One other significant factor of Mumbai cricket then was the teeming crowds. A derby between Dadar Union and Shivaji Park Gymkhana would be seen by at least 10,000 people, most of who would have turned up an hour before the match began.The players themselves did not take their places for granted. A Mumbai player has always passed on the legacy to his younger colleagues in the dressing more than any other team. Once you put the Mumbai Lion on your head, you are suddenly transformed. A Mumbai player is quietly arrogant. His confidence level is always high. There is an ingrained emotion inside him that he must give his best. If Mumbai has not won the Championship, it has not done well, which means the player has not done well.One thing a Mumbai selector has done across decades is to never accepted secondary cricket. Having been a selector myself for three decades, I can vouch for that. A few years ago, Sunil and I were watching a local tournament at CCI. Shreyas Iyer threw his wicket away. Later I told Shreyas, “Look, Mr Gavaskar has not come to see Shreyas Iyer, a Mumbai No. 3, chuck his wicket. We don’t want to waste our times on people throwing their wicket away.”A Mumbai cricketer is willing to grind. That has been the legacy. Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Wadekar, Sardesai, Sandeep Patil, Ravi Shastri, the Manjrekars and the Mankads – they never threw their wickets away. And that applies even to Mumbai bowlers. Even though Mumbai has not boasted of too many of its bowlers playing for India, how many teams have scored outright victories against Mumbai? Mumbai has scored more outright victories than any other opponent. Paddy Shivalkar, Abdul Ismail, Rege, Rakesh Tandon, Nilesh Kulkarni, Sairaj Bahutule, Ramesh Powar – they never gave away anything away
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That is why we are called . That word only means one who never gives up, one who is stubborn, one who challenges the opposition, one who is gutsy.

The highest wicket-taker of 2017 so far is the fastest Pakistan bowler to 50 ODI scalps

Bharath Seervi18-Oct-2017Pakistan’s new bowling recruit Hasan Ali has had a roaring start to his ODI career. He has raced to 50 wickets in just 24 ODIs to become the quickest Pakistani to get there. He eclipsed the previous record held by Waqar Younis (27 matches).In ODI history, only three others – Ajantha Mendis (19 matches), Ajit Agarkar and Mitchell McClenaghan (both 23) – have got to the landmark in fewer games than Hasan, who achieved the milestone in the same number of games as Dennis Lillee.Hasan, who made his debut against Ireland in August last year, had just 11 wickets after eight ODIs at 31.18 till the end of the 2016. This year, he’s picked up 40 wickets in just 16 matches at 17.77. This has made him the highest wicket-taker in 2017.No other bowler has picked up more wickets than Hasan since his debut. His average this year is the fifth-best among all fast bowlers who have picked up 40 or more wickets in a calendar year.ESPNcricinfo LtdHe picked up his third ODI five-for during the third match against Sri Lanka. That made him one of only nine bowlers to take three or more five-wicket hauls in a year. The last Pakistan fast bowler to do so was Azhar Mahmood, in 1999. That Hasan has three or more wickets in nine of his 16 ODIs indicates his consistency; he’s been wicketless just once. He picked five consecutive three-wicket hauls, a streak that started at the Champions Trophy.

Hasan Ali’s ODI career

Year Mat Wkts BBI Ave Eco SR 5WI2016 8 11 4/60 31.18 5.30 35.20 02017 16 40 5/34 17.77 5.13 20.70 3Hasan has been Pakistan’s highest wicket-taker in five of last six series/tournaments, across England, Australia, West Indies and UAE. He was awarded the Player of the Series at the Champions Trophy, where he picked 13 wickets in Pakistan’s victorious campaign. The only series among the last six where Hasan wasn’t the highest wicket-taker was the three ODIs against West Indies in UAE last year. There, he was the most economical bowler of the series.Hasan’s shown great ability to be a wicket-taker in the middle overs. This year, he has 23 wickets between overs 11-40, at an average of 18.08 and economy of 4.35. He’s the highest wicket-taker in middle overs among fast bowlers this year and second only to Rashid Khan (24 wickets) among all bowlers.His percentage of dot balls (59.51) and average (18.08) are also the best among all fast bowlers who have delivered overs 40 overs this year. His economy in that phase is also the second-best among all fast bowlers who have bowled over 40 overs.

MOST WICKETS by fast bowlers IN MIDDLE OVERS (11TH TO 40TH) IN ODIS IN 2017

Bowler Inns Balls Econ Wkt Ave Dot%Hasan Ali 16 573 4.34 23 18.07 59.51LE Plunkett 17 691 5.08 20 29.30 53.11HH Pandya 21 770 5.63 20 36.15 49.74D Pretorius 9 380 4.61 13 22.46 55.78Gulbadin Naib 11 330 4.51 11 22.63 59.39CH Morris 14 402 4.88 11 29.72 55.72K Rabada 17 354 4.96 11 26.63 55.64AS Joseph 11 289 6.14 11 26.90 49.48

Hasan Ali in different phases of innings in ODIs

Phase Wkts Ave Eco Dot%First 10 overs 5 34.2 5.89 56.3211th to 40th overs 29 20.89 4.55 57.82Last 10 overs 17 16.29 6.78 42.04Hasan has been successful against both right and left-handers. He has picked 31 wickets of right-handed batsmen at average of 18.80 and 20 wickets of left-handed batsmen at 23.55. His economy has been nearly the same – 5.15 and 5.23 respectively.

Have you even heard of John Davison’s 17-wicket haul against USA in 2004?

Peter Della Penna03-Jun-20184:16

Former Canada captain John Davison looks back to 2004, when he took 17 wickets against the USA in the ICC Intercontinental Cup

Fourteen years ago in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, suburb of Cooper City, one of cricket’s most extraordinary individual performances in the game’s oldest international rivalry took place.On Memorial Day weekend 2004, Canada captain John Davison top-scored with 84 in Canada’s first innings before almost singlehandedly wiping out one of USA’s best ever batting line-ups twice in a 104-run win in the first year of the ICC Intercontinental Cup. He also finished with 17 wickets, the biggest match haul in first-class cricket since England offspinner Jim Laker took 19 in the 1956 Ashes Test at Old Trafford.”He basically was a one-man team,” says Lauderhill Mayor Richard J Kaplan, looking back. “The Canadians are a good team but he made that team so much better, far stronger than the USA team. If it wasn’t for him, the USA team would’ve won.”The lead-in began a few months earlier, at the ICC Six Nations Challenge in the UAE. Canada arrived on the back of a World Cup campaign where they beat Bangladesh handsomely and ran Kenya down to the wire, before being wiped out for 36 by Sri Lanka in what remains the second-lowest completed score in the history of ODI cricket.Then, in spite of Davison’s 66-ball century, they lost to West Indies, and subsequently to South Africa and New Zealand in lopsided fashion. Still, they finished above winless Full Member Bangladesh to avoid the wooden spoon, commendable for an Associate nation playing in their first World Cup since 1979.USA had never been to a World Cup, but with the recent addition of ex-West Indies opener Clayton Lambert, they were a formidable outfit. Under the coaching guidance of former captain Faoud Bacchus – himself another former West Indies batsman, who moved to Florida after being shunned at home for his participation in a rebel tour to South Africa – USA won the ICC Six Nations Challenge to clinch a spot in the 2004 Champions Trophy.In their showdown against Canada in Dubai, Canada were bundled out for 126 (Davison was absent), before USA wicketkeeper Mark Johnson bashed 67 off 51 balls to clinch victory with 26 overs to spare.”We had a whole lot of good cricket at that time that both teams were playing,” said Johnson, a Jamaican who had moved to south Florida via New York in 1989. “For me that was probably one of the better times of playing with the USA team in terms of success. It was fierce playing against them. Going onto the field there was always something to prove.”We were gelling at that time. They were more established than us because they were World Cup players. We hadn’t gotten to the World Cup but we were playing good cricket.”Prior to USA’s stunning performance in the UAE, there had been a growing movement among a group of Florida politicians and businessman to put together a plan to bid for 2007 World Cup games to be played in the region. A part of that was a proposal for a new cricket stadium in Lauderhill. Once USA had legitimised itself on the field as a top Associate, with the possibility of potentially playing in the World Cup if they claimed one of five berths available for Associates at the 2005 ICC Trophy, those plans were kicked into gear.”At the time, we were still trying to get the attention of [USACA president Gladstone] Dainty and trying to get the bid for the World Cup and the stadium built, all at the same time,” recalls one of Mayor Kaplan’s staffers, Leslie Tropepe. “We were trying to show we could do events and we could do cricket. So we offered to sponsor the games and produce the games on behalf of USACA.”South Florida was home to a thriving cricket scene and less than a year earlier, a turf wicket had been put in place at the sprawling at Brian Piccolo Park. Named after one of Fort Lauderdale’s most famous local heroes who went on to play for the NFL’s Chicago Bears before tragically dying of testicular cancer at age 26 (as recounted in the Hollywood film , in which Piccolo is portrayed by James Caan), the park has six softball fields, two baseball fields, three soccer pitches, basketball and tennis courts, and a velodrome.It was a popular location to attract crowds. As part of the efforts to “make our bid for hosting World Cup games more legitimate”, according to Kaplan, the city of Lauderhill paid to fly Sir Everton Weekes up from Barbados for the match. He and fellow West Indies legend Lance Gibbs, a longtime local resident of Miami, came to the middle of the pitch to “bless the wicket” ahead of the first international to be played at the ground.John Davison talks spin with USA players•Peter Della PennaVery little was actually known about how the wicket would behave, but Davison was licking his lips at the toss. “I remember being pretty excited by the look of the wicket,” he says. “It looked like a clay court in tennis and I knew it was going to turn.”Davison won the toss and chose to bat on day one, when it was 89°F (31.6°C) but the 91% humidity made it feel far more oppressive – even for someone who came up through the Australian system, as Davison had. Midway through the opening session, he retired ill on 26. Not long after, he was doubled over in the Canada bench area.”I remember him throwing up,” said Canada batsman and former captain Zubin Surkari, who also played with Davison at Toronto CC. “With the heat, he wouldn’t have eaten anything for awhile. He was dry-heaving and puking up some fluids and bile. It couldn’t have been too comfortable.”Canada soon found themselves in trouble. Surkari replaced Davison and lasted just 11 balls before he was caught behind off legspinner Nasir “Charlie” Javed. Promptly, Ian Billcliff and Ashish Bagai too fell cheaply to Javed and left-arm spinner Zamin Amin to make it 69 for 4.Javed gained significant assistance in the opening session. “It was doing a whole lot of stuff,” USA wicketkeeper Johnson said. “Keeping wicket to Charlie, I got hit in the face. It wasn’t just that it was turning, it was bouncing. The ball was popping up from right under your bat, right under your eyes. There were a lot of close catches, but we also dropped a lot of those catches close in.”Nicholas de Groot and Hani Dhillon steadied things before de Groot fell to medium-pacer Donovan Blake on the stroke of lunch, at 106 for 5. Having rested, Davison felt okay enough to come back out in the second session. He was also fuelled a bit by an unintentional jibe: he was used to having people call him “Davidson”, but the ground announcer at Brian Piccolo Park kept introducing him as “David Johnson”.With a clear head, Davison knuckled down and forged an 88-run stand with Dhillon. Lambert’s part-time offies eventually claimed Dhillon, opening up the tail for Javed, who ran through it. Davison was ninth out, run out, and Canada finished on 221 at tea, but any hopes USA had of driving home an advantage before close of play quickly evaporated.”Our opening bowler got hit for 8 or 10 off the first over of the match, and I said, ‘That’s it, I’m on at that end,'” says Davison. “I just locked myself in for the game that end. Sunil Dhaniram bowled at the other end, left-arm orthodox, bowled really economically and built pressure. So I benefited from that in terms of my wicket haul.”Johnson was out leg-before for a golden duck to Ashish Patel’s medium pace early in USA’s reply, but it was Davison who claimed six wickets in the 34 overs before the close of play. After Johnson, not a single wicket fell bowled or lbw. Taking a page out of USA’s field settings for Javed in the first innings, Canada crowded USA with close-in catchers.”If you have a bowler of his quality, who has unlimited overs on a pitch like that, with his knowledge and experience, never mind five wickets, you’re looking at six or seven,” Surkari said. “I don’t think anyone expected eight or nine in an innings, but on a day like that, anyone with that ability could pull it off. He was an underrated spinner.”In 45 first-class matches in the Sheffield Shield for Victoria and South Australia, Davison had only taken five twice. He claimed two more wickets the next morning to finish with 8 for 61 in the first innings, but even with a night’s rest he was still suffering physically from dehydration in the heat.”As the match wore on, I started to cramp up pretty badly,” Davison said. “Whenever I turned around and got down to appeal for lbw, the cramping would get me. I’d hit the ground and it was hard to stand back up.”Instead of opening Canada’s second innings, he opted for a bit of rest. He didn’t get much, though, because Canada were soon 45 for 5, and he needed to come in at No. 7. Davison lasted just eight balls before USA captain Richard Staple nabbed him with more part-time spin.Dhaniram, who had a long first-class career with Guyana before he migrated to Canada, entered at the fall of Davison’s wicket and produced a vital 65 not out, before Javed, Lambert and medium-pacer Howard Johnson worked their way through the tail at the other end. USA were set a target of 231.Leon Romero fell midway through the final session, caught behind off left-arm spinner Zahid Hussain, and Staple was out in the next over, to Davison. Forty-year-old Johnson reprised his excellent form from the win a few months earlier in Dubai, in a valuable stand with 24-year-old future USA captain Steve Massiah.Davison during his record-breaking hundred against West Indies in the 2003 World Cup•Getty Images”When Steve and myself were batting, we figured we’d take it as it comes because it got easier as we went along,” Johnson says. “Leave alone most of the balls and take whatever was in your half to score, as opposed to the first innings, when we wanted to just hit and score and the false strokes lost our wickets.”USA ended the day on 87 for 2, their confidence high. Word started to get around for fans to show up on Sunday, the final day of the match, on Memorial Day weekend. About 500 turned up, big by USA standards, though Tropepe says she was confused by the hype among the locals.”Everyone was trying to explain to me, because I was the new girl. They were saying, ‘This is a big deal, Leslie. This is going in the record books. This is history!'” says Tropepe, an Italian-American who was attending her very first cricket match, in her role as Mayor Kaplan’s director of public relations and cultural affairs.”For perspective, I come from the championship days of UM [University of Miami],”she says. “The 1991 championship was my freshman year. I graduated with Warren Sapp and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. So understand that when I hear, ‘Things are gonna be great.’ But they were excited to see USA v Canada in Florida, to see their guys at home.”Johnson came back out to bat on day three but only added four to his overnight score before he fell to Davison, bowled in what he says were controversial circumstances. “It was a slog sweep, trying to hit to midwicket. I think the ball came off the wicketkeeper’s pads onto the stumps. I walked. They said I was bowled, but something didn’t seem right, but you couldn’t do anything. I guess in the spirit of the game you just walk, but in retrospect, I think I should have stood my ground.”Johnson’s wicket triggered a collapse. The match didn’t make it to lunch. Davison took 9 for 76, and USA were all out for 126. Johnson was the only one of Davison’s 17 wickets out bowled. The rest were all caught, the majority of them taken by close-in fielders. It remains the second-best haul in an international first-class match.”I don’t think anybody knew the significance of it, no,” Surkari says. “I knew about Laker, I remember watching clips of him, but I didn’t know it was going in the same first-class statistical records, and I don’t think anyone thought anything of it.”I think it probably gets overlooked because everyone always thinks about [Davison’s] [World Cup] hundred. It was on television against the West Indies. Everyone forgets that he’s got the best first-class record in a match since Laker. Those who were there [in Florida] would remember it fondly.”The two teams went on divergent paths after the match. Canada went on to qualify for their second straight World Cup a year later, at the ICC Trophy in Ireland. USA were throttled by New Zealand and Australia in their two Champions Trophy matches later that summer in England, and then finished tenth out of 12 at the following year’s ICC Trophy to fall well short of reaching the World Cup. The first of three ICC suspensions for poor governance came before 2005 was over.The proposal to play World Cup games in Florida also fell through, though approval was later granted to build a scaled back version of the originally planned $70m cricket stadium at the Central Broward Regional Park. It hosted its first T20 international in 2010, between Sri Lanka and New Zealand. After more visits by West Indies, India and now the CPL, Kaplan copyrighted Lauderhill as the “Cricket Capital of USA”.”In the long run, considering what happened with the 2007 World Cup games [in terms of the financial loss], they probably did us a favour,” he says. “We could’ve lost a lot of money.”Leslie Tropepe is now Leslie Johnson. She met USA wicketkeeper Johnson on the first day of the 2004 game, where she was organising the squad’s transportation to Brian Piccolo Park. Five years later, they were married. So for Johnson, the game is much more memorable than for Davison’s 17 wickets. He still smiles when thinking about his old sparring partner from Canada.”I always liked him, even though he was a cocky son of a gun,” Johnson says, laughing. “He did so much for Canada cricket. He took it to a level which was good.”Davison continued to play for Canada for another seven years, retiring after the 2011 World Cup and going back to Australia, where he has since become a spin-bowling coach in the national set-up. He remembers his days with Canada fondly, and though he will always be known best for his World Cup hundred against West Indies, the Intercontinental Cup win against USA is a very fond memory.”It was probably one of the funnest games I’ve played in terms of an individual performance,” he says. “To have that sort of impact on a game was great.”

India immigrants Ibrahim Khaleel, Sunny Sohal, Saurabh Netravalkar and Jaskaran Malhotra have bucked the odds to be drafted in CPL franchises for the first time this year

Peter Della Penna06-Jun-2018When Ibrahim Khaleel, Sunny Sohal, Saurabh Netravalkar and Jaskaran Malhotra left India to come to the USA, the chances of any of them playing T20 franchise cricket again were minuscule. But all four have now bucked the odds to be drafted in Caribbean Premier League franchises for the first time, joining fellow USA team-mates and CPL veterans Steven Taylor and Elmore Hutchinson for the 2018 tournament.”It was a pleasant surprise for me,” Netravalkar told ESPNcricinfo during the ongoing USA Cricket Combines taking place at various regional sides this spring. “I had no idea that people were considering me but that’s a great personal boost for me saying that yes I do belong to this level and I can excel there.”When I went into the [West Indies’ domestic 50-over] tournament I was just looking to stick to my strengths. The captain and coach supported me and gave me a good fixed role. That gave me a boost of confidence and I implemented it well. Now we have a few months to work on them before we play again, things like bowling in the slog overs, crunch situations and breaking partnerships.”Netravalkar had been India’s junior cricketer of the year in 2010 after being the leading wicket-taker for the team in the Under-19 World Cup. But when the IPL was transforming the pay packets of cricketers in India and around the world, Netravalkar opted to focus on studies, eventually leaving to New York to pursue a graduate degree at Cornell University.However, his cricket career was relaunched in earnest through the west coast club cricket scene after moving to California to take up a job with Oracle in the Silicon Valley. Thanks in part to revised ICC eligibility guidelines that lowered the threshold from four years to three for players to debut for their adopted country, Netravalkar was fast-tracked into the USA squad for the Cricket West Indies Regional Super50 tournament this January and February.After impressing in the Regional Super50 with incredible consistency – in all but one of his eight matches he had an economy rate under 5 – to claim a joint team-best 13 wickets, Guyana Amazon Warriors scooped him with their mandatory ICC Americas pick. As exciting as the news was for him, it created a pickle with his primary job at Oracle.Netravalkar had initially made himself unavailable for the CPL draft after having exhausted most of his paid time to play in the Super50. The remaining vacation time he had intended to use for USA’s remaining commitments scheduled for the second half of 2018: the ICC Americas T20 World Cup Qualifier and WCL Division Three.USA Cricket issued a press release 24 hours after the draft saying Netravalkar was unavailable and a replacement would be announced in due course. But with the help of USA coach Pubudu Dassanayake and Project USA ICC administrator Wade Edwards, Netravalkar was able to come to an arrangement with his bosses at Oracle that will allow him to be available for the CPL and USA.Ibrahim Khaleel cuts a boundary behind point•Peter Della Penna”Coach and Wade supported a lot,” Netravalkar said.”They said it will be a great opportunity for you because it will be a great learning curve for me if I go there. It will help me be in the groove and get my game one level up again, which will be beneficial for US cricket. I explained to my work that it’s kind of a national duty. They understood that it’s a good personal opportunity and finally they agreed to support me so I’m really grateful for that.”The support for the other three Indian immigrants from USA Cricket has been just as well received on their road back to playing in front of full houses on TV. Sohal had a promising season for Deccan Chargers in 2011, scoring 249 runs, but Parthiv Patel’s arrival the following year effectively ended his IPL career before he opted to move to the Washington, D.C. where he earned a quick reputation in club cricket as a heavy scorer in private T20 tournaments. He had a poor start for USA, bagging ducks in his first two innings in Antigua before finishing with two half-centuries to earn selection from Barbados Tridents.Malhotra never made it past Himachal Pradesh’s age-group teams before migrating to the USA in the middle of this decade. He wound up marrying an Indian-American from New York before the couple moved to Texas so he could pursue more serious cricket playing and coaching opportunities there. The commitment paid off when he led USA in scoring at the Super50 with 277 runs and was picked by St Lucia Stars.Khaleel was earlier part of the Indian Cricket League and after the league folded, the BCCI’s amnesty policy opened the door for him to latch on to Mumbai Indians wider squad without ever taking the field. By the end of the 2015 Ranji season for Hyderabad, he was married to an Indian-American and migrated to Wisconsin.Once Khaleel got his USA citizenship in April 2017, he was immediately picked in the squad for WCL Division Three in Uganda. Despite the team’s failure to gain promotion on the pathway towards 2019 World Cup qualification, Khaleel was the team’s leading scorer and by the end of the summer he had been named USA captain after Steven Taylor left to focus on professional opportunities in Jamaica. He made an immediate mark with his leadership, helping USA break a 26-year drought against Canada to win back the Auty Cup.He was subsequently selected by St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and he followed that up by becoming one of three USA-based players to get picked up in the Global T20 Canada draft, going to Montreal Tigers. Three years after he thought his career was over, a whole new chapter is just beginning for Khaleel.”I feel like the hard work I did in India is paying off now,” Khaleel said. “It’s better late than never so I’m really happy to be getting these opportunities to play. I’m just really happy and looking forward to the tournament.”

He’s only 21, and he’s only just starting his career, but his searing pace has made some of the world’s best sit up and take notice

Sreshth Shah in Kolkata05-Nov-2018Oshane Thomas has a habit. The habit of turning heads with his fierce pace. It has already hooked Chris Gayle, who picked him for Jamaica Tallawahs when he was 19, and Tom Moody, who has signed him up for his BPL team Rangpur Riders. On Sunday, it made a big impression on India’s stand-in T20I captain Rohit Sharma, who was stunned by a 147kph inswinger.On a sticky Kolkata evening, India seemed assured of victory, set a target of just 110. But on an Eden Gardens pitch where dew made the ball skid on much more than usual, Thomas cleaned up India’s openers. He forced Rohit to inside-edge to the keeper before flattening the middle stump of Shikhar Dhawan, his bunny on this tour, as he left a gap between bat and pad while looking to drive one that swung back into him.Dinesh Karthik and Krunal Pandya repaired the early damage, but Thomas had done enough to earn Rohit’s praise. “Oshane is a really exciting talent without doubt,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation. “He’s got good height, plus that jump he takes, if he bowls in the right areas, it won’t be easy for any batsman in the world to counter that. He’s really talented, and he also has the advantage of height which gives him the extra edge. I wish him the best in the future.”At 21, Thomas is the youngest fast bowler in the West Indies squad. He has had a very short career so far. But within that time, he has shown plenty of promise. He got into the West Indies team after finishing CPL 2018 as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker among fast bowlers, and second-highest overall behind the legspinner Fawad Ahmed.More than just the number of wickets he’s taken, it’s the quality of batsmen he has rattled. In last year’s CPL, he bowled Gayle – who had moved to St Kitts and Nevis Patriots – with a 150kph yorker. And on this tour he has continually troubled India’s top three. How many other bowlers in world cricket can stake that claim?Thomas has dismissed Dhawan, bowled each time, three times on this tour. Twice in the ODI series he inside-edged him while playing with an angled bat, misjudging the pace off the surface.Virat Kohli rarely plays an false shot. And yet, in the fifth ODI in Thiruvananthapuram, Kohli sparred uncertainly at a nasty lifter from Thomas and edged to first slip, where Jason Holder failed to hold on to the chance. A few overs later, Rohit edged one that left him off the pitch, into Shai Hope’s gloves, only for the umpire’s signal of no-ball to halt Thomas’ celebrations.Kohli and Rohit would eventually settle down and eventually steer India to a breezy nine-wicket win. Had Holder held on, and had Thomas not overstepped, things might have been rather different.Oshane Thomas in his followthrough•AFPOn his ODI debut in Guwahati, Thomas clocked 147kph, 147kph, 140kph, 149kph, 147kph and 147kph in his first over. That speed comes from his run-up, which accelerates gradually as he approaches the crease, and a big jump just before his delivery stride. That jump, coupled with his height, gives him bounce to go with his pace, and this combination can unsettle any batsman, particularly early on while still coming to grips with the pace of the surface.Thomas knows pace isn’t enough. In a recent conversation with , he spoke of the importance of guile to go with it.”Bowling the short ball is the easiest to do for a fast bowler,” Thomas said. “But I don’t use my bumper to scare batsmen, I only use it to get batsmen out.”It’s a distinction fast bowlers often forget when adrenaline takes over in an international game, but Thomas has shown he’s a thinking cricketer. When he yorked Shai Hope with what was arguably the ball of CPL 2018 to send his stumps cartwheeling, Moody gushed in the commentary box at what he was seeing in front of him. It was no surprise that Moody snapped Thomas up for his BPL franchise a few weeks later.Carlos Brathwaite, West Indies’ T20I captain, says Thomas has the potential to emulate the West Indies greats of the past.”We’ve had a few chats with him, and he’s in the best place he could be,” Brathwaite told . “He understands the opportunities he has, he has to continue to get fitter and stronger. The world is at his feet, it’s for West Indies to help him become another Joel Garner or Michael Holding.”Those are huge names to live up to. At Eden Gardens, where Thomas was scaring India’s top order with his new-ball spell, some viewers were reminded of another legend, Malcolm Marshall, whose 19th death anniversary happened to fall on Sunday.Thomas has only just begun his career, and it’s clearly too early to burden him with such comparisons, but if he keeps learning and adding to his repertoire, West Indies will have quite a bowler in their midst.

The India captain was reprieved on 44 and couldn’t find the boundary regularly, but he still overcame them to tick off the landmark

Varun Shetty in Visakhapatnam24-Oct-2018The crowd had been aware of what was coming for some time when Virat Kohli tapped Marlon Samuels through cover to get to 9,999 runs. So their immediate silence seemed like a protest when MS Dhoni picked up a single off the next ball to retain strike for the following over. The wait wouldn’t last much longer though. Two balls later, Kohli was fed with a full ball on middle, which he drove to long-on. That single took him to 10,000 runs in his 205th innings – 54 innings faster than Sachin Tendulkar.Kohli celebrated the milestone with a trademark celebration. The crowd on its feet, a quick glance to the sky, a kiss on the wedding ring and a limited-edition humble grin at Dhoni as he acknowledged the dressing room.Kohli rarely has trouble in ODI cricket. In Visakhapatnam, his lowest score in five innings is 65. If there’s a place you’d bet on him to get 81 without fuss to reach 10,000 runs, this would be one of the top venues.As he went about that task in the second ODI against West Indies, however, Kohli didn’t always look the batsman that he is: an unrelenting, marauding, proactive run machine. Before India had made it to the first drinks break, they’d lost two wickets and Kohli had already taken two water breaks. It was the natural consequence of electing to bat in an afternoon game, and even good friend Visakhapatnam didn’t spare him with a harsh welcome at 34 degrees celsius and 66% humidity. Was it a good decision?It went on through the innings. The clouds emerged from behind the Kambalakonda mountain and the temperature dropped, but the number of visits from the waterboy only increased. Umpire Ian Gould is probably used to disposing errant substitutes, but on a day he had already dealt with a stamp from Ashley Nurse’s plus-sized boot, he didn’t have the patience to be subtle with 12th man KL Rahul. So, Rahul stopped showing up. But the drinks didn’t. By the time India got into the final ten overs, long after Kohli had become the fastest man to 10,000 runs, the reserves were running out every over. This isn’t normal for a Kohli innings. Were the legs tiring?Comparing Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar, at the 10,000-run mark in ODIs•ESPNcricinfo LtdUsually Kohli is the most celebrated player in the middle during an ODI in India.But, here, the crowd was more raucous when Ambati Rayudu arrived, in line with the local trespasser who had managed to sneak in at the pre-match press conference on Tuesday and pose a question in Telugu about what it would mean for Rayudu to play in front of this crowd. It was a tough crowd nonetheless, because as soon as Rayudu fell, they didn’t wait ten seconds before screaming for MS Dhoni to get to the crease. But they would come along.At many points, Kohli seemed exhausted. Having reverted to his preferred anchor role, Kohli had done well to overcome the early loss of the openers and take India into the 23rd over, when he attempted an uncharacteristic loose strike against debutant left-arm quick Obed McCoy. It was a wristy flap well in front of his body, the kind of shot that is usually a signal that a batsman’s waning fitness is affecting his decision-making. It should have been taken at mid-off but Jason Holder dropped it. Was his mind shot?From there, he went nearly ten overs with only one boundary as he looked to tighten up, before producing a glorious drive with the turn between two extra-cover fielders in the 32nd over. That seemed like a switching point for Kohli to push on. But, once again, he would hit only one boundary for nearly ten overs. Was the 10,000th run about as far as he could go?Kohli eventually got to his 37th ODI hundred, and with his 30th at No. 3, he followed beating a Tendulkar record by beating one of Ricky Ponting’s. By now Dhoni and Rishabh Pant were both gone and India were only just past 250. Was an acceleration even possible?In the 47th over, Kohli was nearly run-out looking to steal a second off an overthrow. He doesn’t usually have to dive from four yards out. He had to this time, and it took some time to get off the floor. It happened again in the 50th over, and this time Kohli took even longer to get up.When he did, he had emphatically become the most celebrated player in the middle. The crowd had come along. The legs hadn’t burnt out. The mind was there, and so was the acceleration. Even on unusual days, Kohli makes everything work. It’s just how it goes.

Varun Shetty explores the uniquely symbiotic relationship between the IPL’s most popular franchise and its intensely passionate fans

Varun Shetty in Chennai22-Mar-2019″Dhoni… Dhoni, Dhoni! Dhoni!” a man shrieks. He isn’t visible when the video begins, and is likely somewhere behind the backpedalling cameraperson, in the MCC enclosure’s vicinity. This is the part of the stadium where people would have first spotted MS Dhoni walking out from behind the sightscreen, two bats in his right hand, and a helmet tucked under his left wrist. Walking out with him is a man, also carrying two bats, who is assisting him. Four bats in two right hands, moving steadily away from our shrieker.By now, Dhoni’s on the field, and everyone has seen him. That’s nearly 12,000 people at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, gathered to watch Chennai Super Kings .You know the rest. Everyone’s seen it. THAT video.

Whistle parakkum paaru! #ThalaParaak #WhistlePodu #Yellovepic.twitter.com/6EeMkYT0QY

— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) March 17, 2019

There probably isn’t a ground in India where Dhoni wouldn’t be welcomed with such fervour. It’s happened consistently for over a decade for India’s most successful captain, whose cult status preceded his more rational hairstyles. The carefree cannon in the middle order, the Joginder Sharma evangelist, the master chaser, one of the greatest ODI players ever, and the captain who sealed a World Cup with a six. At each of these checkpoints, Dhoni had India standing up and applauding.Even in a phase of his career where mortality is being thrust onto him, in a year many expect to be his last in India’s blue, he can still walk into stadiums across the country and set them alight.What was different on Thursday, then?For one, the inimitable Super Kings whistle. More significantly: how long the welcome lasted, for nearly a minute-and-a-half, whistles and all, almost as if it were his last game there.Dhoni and the Super Kings have only played one match in the city in the last three years.

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Last year, returning for the first time after serving a two-year suspension, Super Kings took an open-top bus to their first training session. It’s not common for IPL teams to have bus parades. Logistically, it is hard to put together. There’s also a tiny chance it could backfire. When Chelsea paraded their 2014-15 English Premier League title, they were widely mocked for the “tens of fans” that showed up.But it would almost have been a betrayal if Super Kings hadn’t put it together. And just as much of a betrayal if no one showed up. Sriram, the president of Whistle Podu Army, Super Kings’ official fan club, remembers the day.”No one was aware of the open bus journey,” he says. “But when the bus started from the hotel, the roads were jammed. And there was an open practice session. They announced [that] in the evening and within an hour, before the team came, all the stands got filled.”This time the craziness has increased. One hour before, the stands were filled and it was jam-packed for a practice match. That’s the craziness of our fans.”Progressively bigger crowds watched the practice sessions in the days following the bus parade, hitting 10,000 by the eve of Super Kings’ first home game. The video of Dhoni walking into the ground to raucous cheering earlier this week was perhaps the first official documentation on social media, but filling out the stands is routine for Super Kings training sessions. You can count on it.”Yeah!” says Chockalingam “Chocka” S with a laugh. Chocka’s agency, OPN, handles Super Kings’ social media. “In a way, we know. Because they just love the team. We know they will come. We are in touch with the fans and we know for sure.”There’s a good basis for that assumption, but much more than just crazy love had showed up to that bus parade. To some fans, like Sriram, there was more to it.MS Dhoni leads yet another team talk•BCCIWhistle Podu Army is a registered entity under the Society of Registrars, and was founded in January 2016, shortly after Super Kings were suspended. The fans had begun a Save CSK campaign outside the stadium to protest the suspension. They wanted their team back, but the only way to credibly get the BCCI’s attention was to file a petition as a registered entity.”We went to Mumbai, Saravanan [Hari, a prominent fan visible at most Super Kings matches, yellow face-paint and all] and a few core fans, and submitted the petition to Rajiv Shukla [the then chairman of the IPL governing council]. They said they will look into it, but unfortunately we were still suspended,” Sriram says.It’s not a battle they were ever going to win, but there was genuine belief among the fans that they could help their beloved team out against strong legal arguments. It says something of their dedication – some would say naivete – that a small group would gather numbers online and offline with the trust that they could turn corruption charges around. It began with 14 officially registered members.Having opened up registrations this year, they expect that number to grow. When ESPNcricinfo first contacted Sriram, his team was putting together 600 welcome packages for new members.These are paying members with official membership, a small portion of the cumulative 782,000 fans the Whistle Podu Army has across the three major social media platforms.Some of them were at that parade, but were wary ahead of the first game. Super Kings chased down 203 against Kolkata Knight Riders, a blockbuster return for a blockbuster team, but the drama surrounding them hadn’t ended.In the days leading up to the match, local political groups had called for an IPL boycott in Chennai until the long-standing Cauvery water dispute with neighbouring state Karnataka was resolved. During the match, shoes were flung at Ravindra Jadeja and Faf du Plessis, from a section of the crowd where political flags were visible. Police intervention was necessary. Sriram knew something was brewing.”We had waited two years for the moment. And we also won the opening match against KKR. Usually there would be a festive kind of atmosphere, but due to these incidents we didn’t do anything,” he says. “We just calmly went to the match and watched it. The next day when we heard the matches were shifted to Pune, many fans were heartbroken.”The city’s police commissioner had advised that it wouldn’t be safe to host matches in Chennai. Less than 24 hours after one of the biggest events in the franchise’s history, the fairytale had to be airlifted.”The thing they protested was fine,” Sriram says, “but protesting against the match for water was the thing which we didn’t feel good about. We couldn’t do anything. We had to accept it. It was a very bad feeling.”Then came the Whistle Podu Express.Fans capture the moment as the IPL returned to the MA Chidambaram Stadium after two years•PTI Whistle Podu is now ubiquitous, possibly the biggest branding win in the history of Indian sport. But when the bricks were being laid for it, Chocka and his small team at OPN were taking on something they had no idea about.India Cements won the bid for the Chennai franchise in 2008, and someone who had worked closely with Chocka recommended his agency as communication partners. He was at a school reunion when he found out.”It was the 99th or 100th year [of the school], and there was a big festival. Suddenly we were being called for this. They wanted to meet for lunch. I said, ‘boss, can it wait?’ without knowing what it was, how big it was going to be… and my friend said, ‘boss you don’t know what you’re getting into. It could be your biggest client. You come and meet.'”With those words, Chocka was pulled in to meet Rakesh Singh and R Srinivasan, executives at India Cements, who gave him a two-day deadline to come up with a strategy. Chocka’s strategic partner Bala Manian, he says, wasn’t at the meeting, and couldn’t believe he’d gone out for lunch and come back with a mysterious burden. The IPL was barely in the public sphere then, a big experimental bet in itself. This was in OPN’s favour when they presented to 30 people two days later – at the time the biggest audience the agency had ever had.”We felt the fans should take ownership, feel like they are in it from day one. It immediately synched with the management there. They didn’t know anything about us and they were just listening, but I think this is what caught their attention,” Chocka says. “The team should belong to the fans. Those days we didn’t know if we were doing the right thing.”Any agency in the beginning, when they work on a sports brand, the first thing on their mind is do something like Nike, or like Adidas. We consciously stepped away from that.”They were brought on board the next day. A bigger agency might have had several big clients and in hindsight, Chocka thinks this forced prioritisation is one of the biggest reasons for their success.

But there is another setback approaching. CSK currently has only two Tamil Nadu players on their roster and a core, including Dhoni, that might not be around for more than a couple of years. A big change in personnel is inevitable, and with it could come a strain on the existing fan dynamics.

Another reason was knowing the audience. That was how the whistle came about.”Whistle Podu came with one insight,” Chocka recalls. “We realised when India and Pakistan are playing, you don’t have to tell the Indian fan that you’ve to cheer for India. So our communication was never: cheer for Chennai Super Kings. It was always about how to cheer. We knew you will cheer for CSK, but here is a way to cheer.”So the whistle was a natural thing because we are all Rajinikanth fans here, most of us. First day, first show of any Rajinikanth movie, you only hear whistles; you can’t hear any dialogue. So we took it from there. We never thought it would catch on.”A decade on, you can see why Chocka would think that. In the lead-up to the 2009 edition of the IPL, Super Kings put out a 35-second clip, simply titled “Whistle Podu”, which asked fans to send in their efforts at the thumb-and-forefinger whistle. The video peaks at 480p and features some extremely awkward cricketers; Suresh Raina starts it off with passable Tamil diction, and at the end, the baby-faced Parthiv Patel seems to be saying “weasel podu”.But it worked. Eleven days later came the iconic full anthem, with crowdsourced pelvic thrusts, which endures to this day. The first version didn’t feature Dhoni himself, but crept in through posters. The video has had several re-releases since.Last year, OPN felt there were expectations after such a long break. They briefly thought of making a new anthem, but were stopped by the captain.”Dhoni was very clear: why should we change the anthem? Our anthem is Whistle Podu. It should not change. That’s the way he is. He likes consistency not just in the field, but in other things also,” Chocka says. So a slight rehash was produced instead, which had Dhoni playing an angsty lead role. Chocka says that according to Facebook, it was the most-watched video during the IPL season.The whistle idea, and Whistle Podu in particular, became the defining piece of Super Kings fan culture. It set a precedent for letting the fans lead the direction of whatever the franchise did off the field. It established a relationship that survived everything, including a corruption scandal. Matches moving out of the city was hardly a problem.CSK fans prepare to get on board the •TNCA/CSKSuper Kings’ second home game of 2018 was scheduled for April 20, ten days after their win over Knight Riders. The game was moved to Pune, and fans approached the management, asking them if they could help with tickets. They were told a plan was in the works.”We thought it would be two coaches or three coaches reserved for the fans,” Sriram says. “But then they said the entire train is for fans, and it was an unbelievable moment. We didn’t expect that sort of effort from the management. And not just once, they took us twice.”It was another impressive feat in a franchise-fan relationship that has grown so strong that anything seems possible, at both ends.Durgesh Haridas, who works at a production house in the city, watched three games in Pune last year. Having grown up watching formats more aligned with the idea of the “knowledgeable Chennai crowd,” and moments like Virender Sehwag’s triple-century against South Africa, Durgesh felt little discomfort switching to being a “standalone loyal fan”.”Being part of the Chennai crowd, we were genuinely a little conservative,” he says. “We weren’t used to all this fervour and a festive atmosphere during the game. During the mid-break, there were games for fans; for most people, it seemed off. My dad attended a game with me and he thought it was a little unnecessary.”But it worked for Durgesh, and many like him. Super Kings gave a new dimension to an old, precious stadium experience. And a new definition for home.”Only in the first few years there did we have players from Tamil Nadu who featured in the eleven or in the fifteen. Despite that, the way people accepted people like Dhoni and Raina as their own, even [Matthew] Hayden – there was something that the management and the team did to make people so much more connected to this team,” Durgesh says. “It literally felt like they were representing us. That is what made me feel like this is my team.” He barely misses a game, even when the tickets grow expensive.Super Kings haven’t had a squeaky clean timeline since their inception, but with every apparent setback, there seems to be a corresponding spurt in the fervour of their supporters. Knight Riders, who have the largest digital fanbase, also had a little taste of this phenomenon early on, albeit their setbacks weren’t quite so extreme.”It’s big for a fan to weather defeat,” says Joy Bhattacharjya, Knight Riders’ team director for the first seven seasons. “Because when you’ve gone through that, a victory becomes sweeter and then you’re a fan for life. So in my book, while it is a tragedy in many ways, the two years that Chennai was out has made the franchise even sweeter for the fans because they know what it’s all about if you don’t have it. And I think the hardcore Kolkata fan had also had that. Because he had so much defeat early, he appreciates what this team stands for him. “From a social media perspective, Chocka and his team have never been micromanaged by the management. This is vital. In hindsight, a bureaucratic, metric-based approach might not have worked for Chennai Super Kings. Most of OPN’s work was reactive, especially when there was no cricket for two years. While the fans were kept interested offline with the Tamil Nadu Premier League, where stars like Dhoni and Raina themselves briefly made appearances, it took a little more effort on the web.”We made [the fans] the heroes of everything,” Chocka said. “We tweeted them, RTed them, quoted them, reacted to them, which for them was a big joy. They couldn’t believe it – there’s an official handle interacting with them. And we go with the emotions.”Last year when everybody called us the Daddy’s Army and Indian Pension League, we actually went with the flow. We never took ourselves seriously and that entire credit goes to the management and franchise, because they never interfered. They completely gave us the freedom to talk, to chat, to do whatever we think is right.”The CSK dugout celebrates the team’s win in their final league match of the season•BCCIThat approach naturally aligns with the many pop-culture connections the fans have made. Starting at last year’s auction, most players have been given colloquial nicknames, the kind of love that is normally reserved for film stars.”Dhoni… just one word is enough to describe him. . He is the leader. He’s everything for us,” says Sriram. “He’s not the adopted son anymore, he’s the son of our city. Every time he goes to an airport, people think he is coming to Chennai. That’s the love they have for him. They always want him to be here in Chennai. That’s the craziness they have for him.”But there is another setback approaching. CSK currently has only two Tamil Nadu players on their roster and a core, including Dhoni, that might not be around for more than a couple of years. A big change in personnel is inevitable, and with it could come a strain on the existing fan dynamics. When asked about Dhoni moving on, Sriram pauses before answering.”There is Raina. Initially during 2008 there was not a star called Dhoni. He won the 2007 [T20] World Cup and he was pretty new to the set-up. But we got him and then all the records happened and all the records were shattered. So it’s not about the player, it’s about CSK bringing out that talent and showcasing to the world. It will happen continuously. And even if Dhoni retires, I’m sure he’ll be part of the support team. So we are anyway glued to Chennai and we will support them.”If they’re worried, there is precedent, again, in Knight Riders, who over the course of their middling performances during the first three seasons had magnified their fan base’s anger by axing Sourav Ganguly first from captaincy and then from the squad altogether.”The big actual breakthrough if you see for KKR was in 2012, when Sourav played for Pune [Warriors] against KKR in Kolkata,” Bhattacharjya says. “It was a crazy match. I think there were 75,000 people in the stands, 50,000 in Pune blue, 25,000 in KKR purple. But what happened after that was once that match ended, and KKR won and went on to win the title, that whole divide in the city about support or not support – you know, that this is the team that got rid of Sourav – that completely turned around after that match.”The messages are there. The team will go on. The game will go on. New stars will be born. Winning makes everything okay. It’s the stuff you hear when something’s about to end.We might well be entering the final stretch of IPL’s biggest legacy. The attendances at training sessions might fall a little. The fans might have to consider whether they will retire Dhoni’s title, , like some clubs retire jersey numbers. Some redistribution of love will have to take place, and some coming to terms. Emerging fans will have to be protected from newly minted cynics, who will be the first set of IPL fans to begin their sentences with “back in the day”.It happens to all teams. Even at the franchise where everything just… sort of falls into place, some truths will persist. But on the evidence of everything Super Kings have done, so will the whistles.

Having finished last in all previous seasons, Lahore Qalandars have pinned their hopes on local captain Mohammad Hafeez and overseas recruit AB de Villiers for a change in fortunes

Umar Farooq13-Feb-2019HistoryDespite the talent at their disposal and the excellent support they enjoy from their fans, Lahore Qalandars have failed to crack the Pakistan Super League code so far, with disappointing results through the three seasons. They have finished last each time, having lost 18 of their 29 matches in the competition.Lahore have a history of stacking their side with big names, but they have usually fallen short of expectations. Luck, somehow, hasn’t always gone their way either. In the first season, they had Chris Gayle, but it backfired as the opener reached Dubai with an injury. He went on to play five games, but averaged only 20.60. He was offloaded next season. The same season, Qalandars also had to deal with Yasir Shah’s suspension after the legspinner tested positive for a banned substance, besides losing Mustafizur Rahman to injury.Then, even before the second season began, they lost Shaun Tait, Dwayne Bravo and Anton Devcich to injuries. More recently, their hottest pick, Chris Lynn, dislocated his shoulder in the Big Bash League only days before the start of the third season. That left them heavily dependent on captain Brendon McCullum, who went two seasons without a fifty, scoring his runs at an underwhelming strike rate of 114. This year, they have appointed Mohammad Hafeez as their skipper.Team overviewKnown to buy big, the Qalandars made a successful play this year for AB de Villiers, arguably the hottest pick of the season. They have also gone back to a local captain in Hafeez, after Azhar Ali led them in the inaugural season, followed by McCullum in the next two seasons. Batting, their biggest problem, looks safe this time, with the likes of Fakhar Zaman, de Villiers and Hafeez the big names, and Devcich providing support. Allrounders Carlos Brathwaite and Corey Anderson should provide some depth too.StrengthsWith McCullum in charge, the Qalandars struggled with identification and optimum utilisation of local talent, an area that should be well covered this season under Hafeez. The top order looks in good shape, as does the bowling department, led by emerging Pakistan star Shaheen Shah Afridi. They have also picked up Nepal legspinner Sandeep Lamichhanne, who might bowl in tandem with Yasir Shah at some stage, making for a fascinating prospect.WeaknessesThey have a set of great players on paper: local captain, specialist T20 bowlers, power-hitters, anchors, all you need to form a solid T20 side. But they know from lessons learnt over three seasons that tournaments are not won on paper. They need them clicking as a cohesive unit for a change in fortunes, and that might require a bit of work.AB de Villiers goes for an unorthodox shot•Getty ImagesKey foreign playerAll eyes will naturally be on de Villiers. Retired from international cricket, de Villiers remains a destructive force, exemplified by his strong performances in the BPL recently, where he struck a 50-ball hundred, averaged in excess of 60 and scored his 247 runs at a strike rate close to 170. His presence will be a massive boost for some of the youngsters in the squad as well.Under-the-radar local playerHaris Rauf, just 23 with no first-class experience, will be unleashed in the PSL for the first time. A product of the Qalandars’ player development programme, the right-arm quick was discovered in Gujranwala by Aaqib Javed. He was given a contract and taken in by the franchise for further development. He was trained exclusively by Aaqib in Lahore after that, before being sent to Australia last year to feature in competitive cricket with Hawkesbury Cricket Club.He made a T20 debut against Hobart Hurricanes in Abu Dhabi last year and picked up one for 23 in the Qalandars’ defeat of South African side Titans in the final of that tournament.SquadLocal: Mohammad Hafeez (capt), Fakhar Zaman, Yasir Shah, Rahat Ali, Agha Salman, Sohail Akhtar, Hassan Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Imran, Maaz Khan, Gauhar Ali, Aizaz Cheema, Haris Rauf, Saad Ali.Overseas: AB de Villiers (South Africa), Carlos Brathwaite (West Indies), Corey Anderson (New Zealand), Sandeep Lamichhanne (Nepal), Anton Devcich (New Zealand), Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe). Hardus Viljoen and David Wiese (both South Africa) as cover for de Villiers, Anderson and Brathwaite.Coaching staff: Aaqib Javed (head coach), Mansoor Rana (batting coach), Carl Crowe (bowling coach), Adrian Birrell (fielding coach), John Gloster (physiotherapist).

While Finch’s men will hope their new retro kits bring with them renewed fortune, go ahead and vote for your favourite Australian ODI kit

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jan-2019
And here are the three most popular nominations from our readers.

A thrilling final brought the curtains down on the Women’s T20 Challenge, which served as a stage for India’s youngsters and big international names alke

Annesha Ghosh in Jaipur12-May-2019A leaping punch of excitementWhen New Zealand’s Lea Tahuhu sported a sling at the post-match presentation, it amused Harmanpreet Kaur, captain of Supernovas and the Player of the Final. “I was like, , how did she dislocate her shoulder? Slide batsmen [Neither of the two batsmen slid into the crease while taking a run],” Harmanpreet exclaimed after her team had clinched the title.Tahuhu, in fact, had to head to the hospital after the game, even as some of her team-mates shared groupfies on social media, because of a freak accident.Tahuhu was at the non-striker’s end when 19-year-old Radha Yadav drove New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr for the winning four. Tahuhu leaped to celebrate the win but the punch in the air that followed was so powerful, it left her clutching her right shoulder.”You can imagine how much this league means to the foreign players,” Harmanpreet said after the match, referring to Tahuhu’s excited response. “For the longest time, they’ve been asking us, ‘When would such a tournament get off the ground in India?'”Getty ImagesCricket as its own best advertisementHarmanpreet, who plays in the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia and the Kia Super League in England, besides captaining an in-transition India T20I side, would know how deep the impact of a contest like Saturday’s could be. A well-earned win in a low-scoring, high-quality final-ball thriller, before a 13,000-plus crowd that waited in long, serpentine queues outside the stadium and then packed into six of the eight stands open to the public, is a rarity in domestic T20s .Unlike the WBBL final in January, that had meticulous marketing at its heart to attract a sell-out 5,368-strong crowd in Sydney’s Drommoyne Oval, the Women’s T20 Challenge, a four-match, six-day-long exhibition tournament in Jaipur, had minimal signage outside the stadium premises. Yet, the final brought women’s cricket in India its biggest advertisement.BCCITwo comebacks, and a statementTwo quality comebacks lay at the heart of the final. Called in to deliver only her second over in three matches, Tahuhu removed Hayley Matthews with her second ball, and the uncapped, 15-year-old Shafali Verma in the second over – both deliveries as incisive as they were quick.Mithali Raj’s Velocity needed something special to recover from 57 for 5 and it was India’s out-of-favour wicketkeeper Sushma Verma who stepped in. Quietly collecting singles, and stealing the odd boundary in between, the wicketkeeper-batsman made an unflashy 32-ball 40. Eighteen-year-old Kerr, the record-holder for the highest women’s ODI score, joined Verma at No. 7 and put on a 71-run stand.The true significance of the stand rang beyond the 122-run target it helped set. Two nights ago, Velocity ensured a spot in the final via a “calculated”, conservative run-chase that ended in defeat for the side. Veda Krishnamurthy, one of the set batsmen in that chase, defended the side’s decision to play for the net-run-rate, suggesting any other approach would have exposed their “inexperienced” middle order to a “pressure situation”. Neither Verma nor Kerr batted on Thursday; in the final, they showed exactly why they should have.Jemimah the soothsayer, Jahanara the swingerMeanwhile, Jemimah Rodrigues won over Twitter on Saturday when, in a response to a tweet asking whether the teenaged batsman was “seeing” anyone, she said: “After this match? I’m definitely seeing a bright future for Women’s Cricket!”She was in equally good form on the field too. With opener Priya Punia, Rodrigues, batting at No. 3, steered Supernovas to 53 for 1 in ten overs in their chase of 122. Punia, a newcomer in the India T20I side, outscored Rodrigues, the highest run-getter in the tournament, with an enterprising 31-ball 29. But with both falling off successive balls – thanks to wristspinners Kerr and Devika Vaidya – Harmanpreet had to build a partnership from scratch.But on came Jahanara Alam. In June last year, with bat in hand, Jahanara had denied India their seventh Asia Cup title, clinching a last-ball win off Harmanpreet’s bowling. On Saturday, she came on to deliver a swing-bowling masterclass. Jahanara’s game-turning 2 for 21 uprooted the off stumps of England’s Natalie Sciver and New Zealand’s Sophie Devine, two of the biggest match-winners on any T20I team sheet.BCCIWhat’s pressure to Harmanpreet?Supernovas’ asking rate (9.66) at the time was more than twice their scoring rate, and with half her side dismissed, the onus fell on Harmanpreet. Such is Harmanpreet’s big-match temperament, though, that the scenario – 58 runs required off 36 balls – fed the kind of pressure that so often fuels her game. The unbeaten 41 in the final of the 2017 World Cup qualifier that clinched a last-over win against South Africa, the incredible 171 not out in the 2017 World Cup semifinal against Australia, or the 103 in the 2018 World T20 opener against New Zealand – all examples of classic Harmanpreet innings in high-voltage fixtures.In the tournament opener, against Trailblazers, Harmanpreet’s unbeaten 46 had been in vain, with the side falling two runs short of a chase of 141. On Saturday, she propelled a 51-run stand with No. 7 Tahuhu, to which the latter contributed only 2 off eight balls. And then, with seven needed off five balls, Kerr showed why she’s regarded so highly in world cricket today. last overTwo balls into the last over, Kerr had the Supernovas captain lofting straight to Matthews at deep cover, and the fielder dived forward to take it. This past week, catching under lights had left fielding frailties of all three teams exposed and, by that parameter, Matthews’ effort could have ended as one of the more memorable highlights of the night for the spectators. That was until Radha had her say.A sequence of three twos from Radha brought the equation down to a run required off the final ball. And the teenager, whom Harmanpreet called a “superstar” at the post-match presentation, closed out the game with a four, underscoring the confidence of the current crop of India youngsters.