CSA tight lipped on speculations of Kirsten becoming coach

Cricket South Africa [ Images ] (CSA) is tight lipped about the speculation that former India [ Images ] coach Gary Kirsten has emerged as the frontrunner for the position of new Proteas coach.

Dismissing talks that Kirsten, who lead India to victory in the World Cup on home ground, was the obvious choice, CSA said it had received "strong applications" from South Africa and abroad.

Former Pakistani coach Richard Pybus is considered to be a strong contender after Kirsten, while former New Zealand [ Images ] captain Stephen Fleming [ Images ] and former Australian all-rounder and Sri Lanka [ Images ] coach Tom Moody are also believed to be the other applicants.

CSA on Monday started interviewing potential candidates to replace Corrie van Zyl, who returned to his position at the CSA High Performance Centre after the recent World Cup in the Indian subcontinent.

Van Zyl, player representative Boeta Dippenaar, selection convenor Andrew Hudson and CSA chief executive Gerald Majola comprised the panel which put candidates through tough questioning before they also undergo psychometric tests.

The panel will make its recommendations to the CSA board after interviewing the candidates for the job.

CSA also still has to select a new captain for South Africa as Graeme Smith [ Images ] stepped down from the post after the world Cup, where the team was crushed in the quarterfinals against New Zealand.

Meanwhile, asked about Gary Kirsten's chances of succeeding the outgoing South African coach (Corrie Van Zyl), Johann Botha said, "I think honestly Gary has had a good time with the Indian team. If he takes over everone will be happy."

I hope we will do better in West Indies this time: Dravid

Former captain Rahul Dravid is hopeful about the Indian cricket team improving upon its 2006 performance in the upcoming tour of the West Indies.

During the 2006 West Indies tour, the Indian team created history under Dravid's captaincy when they won a Test series in the Caribbean for the first time in 35 years.

"We won the series there last time around but I hope we will do better this time," he said on the sidelines of a promotional event.

"If the West Indies play their full strength side, they will be a tough team to beat. But it will be interesting to see if they have their full side."

Dravid became only the second Indian skipper, after Ajit Wadekar, to have won a Test series in the West Indies when he led India to a 1-0 victory in a four-match rubber in 2006.

Will India play on Edgbaston's 'terror pitch'?

The recce committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), currently in England, has raised the issue of Edgbaston wicket, termed as a terror pitch by the English media after a recent match between Warwickshire and Worcestershire sent a few batsmen to the hospital.


The two-member team, comprising Ratnakar Shetty and Suru Naik, have held discussions with John Carr, cricket operations manager of the England and Wales Cricket Board, and the officials of the Warwickshire County Cricket Club. Shetty and Naik even spoke to venue's chief groundsman Chris Woods.

The ECB officials, it is reliably learnt, have allayed BCCI fears over the pitch stating that these are early days in the English cricket season. Besides, Carr told the board officials that the ECB would take special care in the preparation of the pitch for the Test match against India. Edgbaston will host India from August 10 to 14. It will be the third of the four Tests, India are scheduled to play in England this summer.

It is learnt that venue groundsman strove hard to impress upon the Indian officials stating that strip for the Test would be different from the one used for the recent match. Woods, who has been taking care of Edgbaston pitch for the last 20 years, is believed to have told the recce committee that the wicket for the recent was at one corner.

Colin Povey, the chief executive of Warwickshire county, told the board officials that the recent incident was because of the renovation that the county has undertaken. He assured the Indian side that there will be five four-day games at the venue before the India Test. He further said that three of those county matches will be televised.

Infatuated Aussies bought copies of Sachin's bat: Hayden

Bat-obsessed" Australian cricketers were so infatuated with Sachin Tendulkar's 1998 blade which gave Shane Warne nightmares that they bought the copies of the willow to produce its versions Down Under, former opener Matthew Hayden has revealed.

In his autobiography 'Standing My Ground', Hayden writes that Australians "have massive love affairs with their bats" and a special version of Tendulkar's 1998 blade was manufactured at a Brisbane factory.

"In 1998, the Australian team that was crucified in India by Sachin Tendulkar became so infatuated with the little master that at least eight of them brought back copies of his famous Vampire bat, and Brisbane firm Gabba Sporting Products even produced a special version of it," Hayden, who retired from international cricket in 2009, wrote.

PCB to get $400,000 for every World Cup match it won't host

"Tendulkar's extremely heavy bats were way too heavy for me. In fact, they may have even been too heavy for Tendulkar too. For a time during his career he suffered from an acute case of tennis elbow, and it was widely thought his heavy bats were partially to blame," he said.

Hayden also revealed his team-mates' obsession with their blades, calling Ricky Ponting a "bat sabotager" always trying to test others' willows while Mike Hussey "always travels with a set of scales to get the weight of his bat right".

The broad-shouldered opener, who scored 8625 runs from 103 Tests, claimed that he has "never been a bat aficionado" but ended up using the unconventional Mongoose bat while playing for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.

"I have never seen a brand catch fire like that. Indians are not known for embracing left-field experiments. The Mongoose caused enormous interest among my teammates. Everyone picked it up and played with it and were all eyes when I trained with it in the nets.

"Our Chennai captain MS Dhoni was mortified when he first set his eyes on that Mongoose. 'Are you going to use that?' he asked me, and when I told him I didn't know, he said, 'I'll give you any bat in my bag not to use it.' When I first pulled it out for a game in IPL I could sense the knives sharpening.

"When I was approached by the Mongoose firm while commentating in England in the 2009 Ashes series, I was open to the idea of using a differently shaped bat. I must admit I felt a bit anxious, because if I failed, the brand could go down with me. I've always thought Twenty20 cricket was about entertainment, and that there was room for experiment in many areas of cricket gear, bats included."

India at the World Cup

Recalling the acrimonious 'Monkeygate' row between the Indians and Australians during the Sydney Test in January 2008, Hayden said he "overheard spinner Harbhajan Singh calling Symo (Andrew Symonds) 'Monkey'."

"Symo was taunted by chants of 'Monkey' throughout the 2007 tour of India, and the 'Monkeygate' affair had a lasting effect on him. Harbhajan was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for using abusive language (after an appeal by BCCI which was heard by ICC Appeals' Commissioner John Hansen).

"Hansen later admitted that if he had known about Harbhajan's other misdemeanours - including a suspended one-Test ban - he may have considered a more severe penalty. The verdict was a sobering jolt to us all. The whole affair was very regrettable and remains a weighty chapter in the development of both countries," Hayden wrote.

"India is the most important cricket market on planet, and the truth of the situation was that both countries understood that anything that would adversely affect their relationship was unacceptable, from a business point of view," he said about the row that had threatened to snowball into a major crisis.

Hayden had no inhibition in terming India the centre of world cricket, its manifestation, according to him, being the cash-rich Indian Premier League.

"An inescapable fact about world cricket: Australia cannot thrive without India, but India does not need us to the same degree. The IPL is the future and the master of Twenty20 cricket. There may be other leagues, but I believe the IPL will always be superior.''

Top 10 World Cup upsets

"The IPL was hastily organised as a response to the rebel Indian Cricket League, but from the start its plans were shamelessly ambitious. Marquee players, massive sponsorships, the world's top players lured by more money than they had ever dreamed of ... Cricket would never be the same," he wrote.

Hayden was, however, puzzled on why he and Ricky Ponting were bought at lesser amount of money than a Cameron White in the first IPL auction.

"I went for USD 3,50,000 and Ricky went for USD 4,00,000 ... it was certainly under the odds when you consider Cameron White went for USD 5,000,000, and other players who'd done far less went for a lot more," he said.

Hayden was all praise for Lalit Modi for making the tournament a brand though he steered clear of controversies surrounding the sacking of the former IPL chairman just after the third season.

"The shocking postscript to the tournament was the suspension of the man who was the face and force of the IPL: Lalit Modi.''

"I know nothing of these activities (charges against Modi). But what I can say is that he had incredible drive. He reminded me of Kerry Packer - he was brave enough to see that the game had to be ushered into a new era, and bold enough to do it," he wrote.

He claimed that screening live of IPL games in Indian theatres was mainly due to Sachin Tendulkar.

"He (Tendulkar) bought the first ticket which was later auctioned off and raised several thousand dollars for charity," Hayden wrote.

World Cup: Teams that could spring a surprise

David getting the better of Goliath always makes for interesting news and the World Cup has seen its share of surprise, shock and sensational results. With the format of the game being what it is, the lesser light always fancy their chances against the more experienced or seemingly better-equipped teams.

The list of upset results is long: Sri Lanka beating India in 1979; Zimbabwe beating Australia in 1983; Zimbabwe beating England in 1992; Kenya beating West Indies in 1996; Bangladesh beating Pakistan in 1999; Canada beating Bangladesh in 2003; Kenya beating Sri Lanka in 2003; Kenya beating Bangladesh in 2003; Kenya beating Zimbabwe in 2003; Ireland beating Pakistan in 2007; Ireland beating Bangladesh in 2007.

India at the World Cup

In all these cases an associate member has got the better of a Test nation but there have been other major upsets too: India getting the better of West Indies (twice) and England in 1983; Sri Lanka defeating New Zealand in 1983; Zimbabwe shocking South Africa in 1999; Bangladesh surprising South Africa in 2007 and Bangladesh stunning India in 2007.

On form, record and rankings Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka (from group A) and India, South Africa, England and West Indies (from group B) should make it from the two pools and qualify for the quarterfinals. The three other teams in group A are Zimbabwe, Kenya and Canada while Bangladesh, Ireland

and Netherlands are in group B.

Interestingly enough Netherlands apart all these teams figure prominently in the list of upset results. Only two World Cup competitions - in 1975 and 1987 - have not been marked by major surprise results.

The six outsiders then will be the teams to watch and even if Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are Test nations it will constitute a major surprise if one of them gets the better of the fancied sides in the group. Such a result, besides having an overall influence on the group could also see one of the major teams being knocked out at the preliminary stage.

Top 10 World Cup upsets

In 2007 Bangladesh shocking India and Ireland stunning Pakistan meant that the two sub continental heavyweights were eliminated in the first round itself.

In 1999 when Zimbabwe scored a sensational win over in-form South Africa, it had a major effect on the latter's campaign. South Africa's elimination in the semifinal could be backdated to losing this match. Bangladesh stunning Pakistan on the other hand had no real bearing on subsequent events as Pakistan continued to top the group and were first in the Super Six starting table.

Kenya of course, had a whale of a time in 2003. Placed along with Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh and New Zealand in group B they were given little chance of making the Super Six. But victories over Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and a walk over from New Zealand who refused to travel to Nairobi citing security fears saw the East African nation finish second in the group and second in the Super Six starting table.

This proved to be a major advantage for another surprise win over Zimbabwe - their first over that country in 15 meetings - saw them take defeats at the hands of India and Australia in their stride and qualify for the semifinals - the only time an associate member has made it so far in the World Cup. That however remained the extent of their fairy tale run for they went down to India.

Ireland's shock win over Pakistan in 2007 knocked the latter out at the preliminary stage. But the Irishman proved this was no fluke for in the Super Eight they got the better of Bangladesh who a week earlier had stunned South Africa.

World Cup 2011

This gives credence to the view that in limited overs cricket it is simply a case who plays better on a given day, who holds their nerves better and David getting the better of Goliath is always a possibility. That is the beauty and the unpredictable nature of the game. So look out for the six outsiders in the tournament - and the fancied teams would do well not to take them lightly.

Sachin can play two to four more World Cups: Dhoni

"There is a perception that this is Sachin's last World Cup. We think he can play two to four more," Dhoni told reporters.

Don't feel pressure, just enjoy cricket: Gilly to Team India

Dhoni was here to inaugurate the T-20 Jharkhand Premier League (JPL) beginning Friday.

"It is not right to put pressure on Sachin... All team members should perform well to ease pressure from one player," he said.

World Cup cartoons

Asked about the Indian preparation for the coming World Cup, Dhoni said: "Fielding is one department which needs to be improved."

DEAN JONES URGES CRICKET AUSTRALIA TO APPOINT STEVE WAUGH AS TEAM COACH

Dean Jones urges Cricket Australia to appoint Steve Waugh as team coach

The former Australian cricketer, Dean Jones has said that the national team needs the services of former Australia’s middle-order veteran batsman Steve Waugh as its coach to come out of the recent plunging form.

"It's time for Steve Waugh to coach the team and to get Cricket Australia to start employing blokes who have played a bit of international cricket,” said Jones.

Jones urged Cricket Australia’s top management to give the serious coaching job to the candidates who have an experience of playing Test cricket, indirectly criticizing Tim Nielsen’s credentials who never played international cricket though he has a vast experience of first class cricket having played 101 matches for South Australia.

“If they (the team coaches) have never played for Australia, they (the players) get away with it,” said the former top-order batsman of Australia. "All the coaches around Australia have never played for Australia. You have to get tertiary education to be a coach now, but you can't get that qualification if you're too busy being the best (players) in the world," Jones continued his scathing remarks.

The 45-year-old Steve Waugh, who evolved from a raw 20-year-old talented all-rounder into a player who eliminated risk away from his game, played 168 Test matches for Australia compiling 10,927 runs at an average of 51.06. He led the Aussies in 15 of their record 16 consecutive Test victories. He was also the captain of Australia side that lifted the World Cup trophy for the first time in 1999.

Australia faced a humiliating 1-3 crushing at the hands of England in the recently concluded Ashes series losing the urn for the second consecutive time and what was more devastating was that all the three losses the Aussies faced were innings defeat.

The 49-year-old former batsman, who had played 52 Tests for Australia, lashed the shot selection and temperament of a few Aussie batsmen but again held the head coach responsible for such silly mistakes.

"…guys getting out in the last over of the day, all this silly stuff like flashing outside the off stump.”

Jones, however, said that the Ashes defeat at the hands of England was not end of the world for the side as it is part of game.

"Occasionally you've got to look at it and say, 'you're not good enough, lads',” he said. “I don't think we've hit rock bottom yet."