The Aussie selectors’ decision to continue with Michael Clarke hardly came as a surprise, despite all the debate and speculation surrounding the same. After all, Clarke is no Mark Taylor to retain his place by the virtue of his captaincy alone, and many of the Clarke-critics had thought that this was the best opportunity to groom a new guy in the role. Unfortunately for them, it did not happen.
Consistency and continuity:
Like has always been the case, the Australian selectors have always been an epitome of continuity. There have been many examples in the past as well, starting from the times of Mark Taylor, and even after Ricky Ponting became the first ever Australian captains in more than half a century to lose two Ashes. The captain did not get the sack, and that was probably because the selectors had faith in the guy.
In fact, this is a trait that runs in the Aussies. Why the players, even the selectors were spared after some shocking selections throughout the previous edition of the Ashes. It was almost a given that the selectors would be given a boot after the Ashes fiasco, but they were persisted with and the side was soon on their winning ways again.
The same logic seems to have been applied to the Clarke, the captain of the T20 game.
Future captaincy prospect?
The other reason why I can think of the continuation of Clarke as a captain is because one gets the sense that he will also take on the responsibility of the role from Ricky Ponting in the other formats of the game once Ponting is done with the game.
Now, personally I think that if Clarke were to be chucked out of the T20I format without being afforded the rightful opportunities, this could end up inflicting some confidence issues on him when he takes on the bigger role of leading the side in Tests and ODIs. And given the way things are, there do not seem too many others in the Australian camp that could take up the role of the captaincy in the other two formats of the game.
But what about back problems?
That is the one point that can be rationally brought into the conversation. Clarke’s career hasn’t been injury free and his back has given him enough trouble to last a lifetime. He has almost quit bowling as regularly as he did earlier, and the question that seems to be worrying some of the experts is that the excessive load of T20 cricket, both, as the captain and a batsman, could make life miserable for the talented batsman. And if Clarke does decide to play in the IPL, things could become even more tough for someone with the back issues.
On a notice?
All said and done, the two T20Is against Pakistan, to be played in England, will be a litmus test for Clarke. Another couple of failures could make him susceptible to a lot of blame again and that could well make it difficult to sustain him as the captain of the side.
Why was he not given the captaincy?
Ever since they bowed out of the first round of the ICC World T20 tournament in England, the Aussies haven’t been playing too much T20. That is, if you discount the two abandoned T20Is against England at Manchester later, in the same year.
Now, after that long hiatus, Australia will take on Pakistan in a one-off T20I and the difference between the line-ups from the World T20 of 2009 and this game, is as much as chalk and cheese. And the biggest of them all is the fact that Ricky Ponting has decided to call it a day from this cheese-burger format of the game, and allow the reigns to fall in the lap of Michael Clarke.
The change was almost assured after the Aussies bowed out of the World T20 early, for the second time in running. Clearly, the side wasn’t respecting the format as much as they should have and the results were there for everyone to see. And with Ponting having a rather rough time of it with the bat and as a captain, one could be assured that something had to give. And in a deed which reeked of a trade-off that Ponting had with the selectors to prolong his career in the other two formats, he decided to hang his T20 Kookabura bat.
However, I am still surprised by Ponting’s successor in this format. While there is no doubting the talent of Michael Clarke in the sport, there are other issues that Cricket Australia needed to ponder over, and cater to.
For one, there is an issue of Clarke’s recurring back illnesses which has kept him out of a few games in the previous years. Of course, Cricket Australia has a reasonable rotation plan in place, but when one is the leader of the side, the breaks are quite few and far between. Especially, given that Clarke has been tipped to succeed Ponting in both the other, and the more important, formats. This would mean that in around one year or so, when Ponting walks his way into the sunset, Clarke would take on the mantle of leading the side in even the Tests and the fifty over format.
So, how will Clarke be able to manage the three sides and a persistent back trouble then?
Then again, there is as much a case for White as there is against Clarke from taking over. There is every evidence that White is a natural leader, which can be gauged from the fact that he has led almost every side that he has been a part of. Right from the Under-19 days, to getting the role for his first class Victorian side, he has been in the thick of things. And it is not only the fact that he is the captain, he has one of the most amazing T20 records in Australia’s domestic T20 tournament – the KFC Big Bash T20.
Ever since the inception of the T20 tournament, there have been five editions of the same played, and the Victorian Bushrangers have been a part of the finals in all of them. What’s more fabulous is that the side has triumphed in four out of those five finals; White being the captain for all five!
Probably, and so reminiscent of the manner the Australians have been testing their bench strength, one could see White and Clarke shuffle around the captaincy as well. Probably, the selectors are only getting Clarke ready for the main job later. Probably, Clarke does have his sights on an IPL slot sometime down the line...as a captain!
Lee was missed by NSW Blues and crashed out
It was almost inconceivable at the start of the tournament. But, unless Lalit Modi comes up with a wildcard concept for the defending champions of the Champions League T20 tournament, they will not be participating in the second edition of the tournament, having already bowed out of KFC Big Bash T20 with only two points in four games out of a possible five matches.
The NSW Blues campaign had begun on a positive note and was almost akin to their performance in the Champions League T20, when they crushed Tasmania by 31 runs in the first game. The win was built around a similar batting prowess of their two openers in Phil Hughes and Dave Warner – both of whom smashed quick-fire half centuries – and captain Moises Henriques’ knock of 37 in the end.
The Tasmanian reply had begun well, what with 44 added for the first wicket off only 20 balls. However, once the first wicket fell, the rest of them capitulated to almost next to nothing to hand the Blues a winning start to their competition.
And it was not as if they were in a lot of trouble in their second game either. The Blues had batted first again against Victorian Bushrangers, and piled up another 178, but against the previous Champions League T20 qualifiers, the target fell short. Victoria had Brad Hodge, Matthew Wade and David Hussey gelling well to guide the Bushrangers to a narrow win with two balls to spare.
It was only in their third game that their wheels began to come apart, as the Western Australian Warriors absolutely bagged them with an imposing score of 198/1 in the 20 overs. This was built around the first century of the tournament by Shaun Marsh and his first wicket stand of 168 with Wes Robinson. Almost playing like they had given up even before the chase had begun, the Blues saw only two of their players getting into double figures and capitulating to 71 all out!
At the start of the Blues’ fourth game, South Australia were leading the points table with eight points from four games, who were followed by Victoria and Western Australia with four from four, while Tasmania had two from four. Both, New South Wales Blues and Queensland had two points from three games, and it was evident that this match between NSW and Queensland was a virtual quarter-final. The side winning the game would go up to four from four matches and tie with Victoria and WA for the second spot, whereas the losing team would be out of the tournament.
As it turned out, the game was reduced to a nine-over a side match due to rain and inclement weather. The Queensland innings began with an early wicket of James Hopes, but Andrew Symonds spanked a 38 off only 21 balls and combined well with Chris Simpson who took the game away with 14-ball 34. In the nine overs, Queensland had got to 110.
Any hopes that NSW would be able to make a match out of it evaporated in the first eight balls of the game, when they lost Phil Hughes, Dave Warner and overseas recruit Dwayne Smith all in the space of those many deliveries! Daniel Vettori then celebrated his first game in the Big Bash with a two over spell that cost only seven runs and that effectively broke the back for the Blues; 56/7 in nine overs.
Incidentally, this last game was watched by almost 30,000 fans, which was a record for domestic T20 cricket in Australia.
Victoria and Queensland then won their respective final games to get through to the Preliminary Finals, whereas South Australia is already through to the final and will face the winner of the Bushrangers and Queensland. South Australia, which has the likes of Shahid Afridi, Kieron Pollard and Shaun Tait in their side have already qualified for the Champions League T20.
On the 28th of december the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash will set to rock Australia and the world with quality competition.
You may have seen them in the CLT20...
VB Bushrangers
RTA SpeedBlitz Blues
Along with more teams:
XXXX Gold Queensland Bulls
PKF Tasmanian Tigers
Retravision Warriors
West End Redbacks
Dates:
Starts 28th of December 2009
Final played on 23rd January 2009
Watch at T20cricket.Asia soon for an Official Schedule for the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash!
- December 23, 2009
- article by admin
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Will Ganguly rise from the KKR ashes?
It is quite evident by the way things are shaping that the Kolkata Knight Riders team are gunning to be much more than only the glam team that they have been portrayed to be so far. With the off-the-field performances from Kolkata Knight Riders speaking louder than those on it, the side managed to ‘out-perform’ themselves in the second season by finishing at the bottom of the table.
However, if one were to look for signs this early before the tournament, then the Knight Riders seem serious enough to get their results back on track. John Buchanan was shown the door – as was his entourage – immediately after the debacle despite having a contract for a much longer tenure and another Aussie, Dav Whatmore was hired after a rather long and a winding hiring process. One almost sense that the manner in which both the coaches had been hired, it could be used as a case study in one of those Human Resources Management lectures in those MBA-schools in India!
Whatmore could not be a more different choice than Buchanan. Unlike his predecessor, Whatmore has had a rich experience of coaching in the sub-continent, and probably understands the culture and the psyche of the players as well as anyone else. He was the coach of the 1996 World Cup winning Sri Lankan side and also of the Bangladeshi side in the 2007 edition of the same. And had it not been for his inability to keep shut about an impending selection to the Indian team, he would have, in all probabilities, coached the most followed side of the cricketing world as well. He was head of the National Cricket Academy in India before accepting this offer.
This was followed by the selection of Sourav Ganguly as the captain of the side. Now, while the critics may paint this move as retrograde, a reasonably high-pressure tournament like this will need someone who could take the game by the scuff of its neck and bring back the results. And from those around, and despite the odd snigger about his fitness issues, Ganguly looks to be the best man for the job. Not only this, but Ganguly has also expressed his desire to play county cricket in the T20 competition, and if the rumour-mills are to be believed, he could be in line to sign a deal with Essex for the tournament!
Apart from the announcement of the coach and the captain, the Kolkata Knight Riders have begun to slowly get in the domestic players who could bolster their Indian bench strength. Probably, the realisation seems to have finally dawned upon the management, that given the high ratio of Indian to foreign players allowed in the playing eleven, it would make sense to get in the quality fringe Indian cricketers into the side as well. Instead of only targeting the big foreign names! As a result of this, ICL-returns, Rohan Gavaskar and Eklak Ahmid have been signed up by KKR and in all probabilities, there could be many more being pruned.
What would also work as an excellent news for the team management is that Brad Hodge has announced his retirement from international cricket. Despite Hodge’s slow start to the second season of the IPL, he took off reasonably well, and given his humongous experience, he should be a handy asset through the entire duration of the tournament.
To me, it does look like things are falling in place for the Kolkata Knight Riders and they could be one of the teams to look out for.
NSW Blues routs Victoria, enters finals
The New South Wales convincingly beat Victorian Bushrangers in the first semi-final of the Champions League T20 tournament. And so convincing was their performance that it would have definitely put some kind of a fear in the minds of the other finalist – one of Trinidad and Tobago or Cape Cobras.
To begin with, the biggest victory for the Read the rest of this entry...
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- September 17, 2009
- article by JM
- 0 comments
Ricky to Retire from T20I
Ricky Ponting has announced his retirement from international Twenty20 cricket. However, he will continue to lead the Australian side in the ODIs and Test matches. He has also said that he will continue playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.
Ponting has taken this decision to prolong his test match and ODI career, and has seemed to gone in a direction opposite to what most cricketers have been going; that is, to retire from the longer format to concentrate on the T20Is and get the riches in.
The decision was conveyed to the chief selector, coach and the current vice-captain, Michael Clarke, who will now take over the reigns of the T20I side. Clarke had captained the T20I side in Ponting’s absence, and currently is also leading the Aussie team in the ODIs as Ponting is back in Australia, resting. However, a formal decision in that regard has not been taken given that the Aussies next play another T20I in February next year only.
Recently, Australia had lost their Ashes series to England, and Ponting had expressed his desire to come back to England and win a test series here. However, the next series in the country will only be in 2013, which makes it difficult for the dream to become reality.
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Cool Ricky Ponting Wallpaper
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T20Cricket.Asia hopes you enjoy this Ricky Ponting wallpaper. He was born December 19, 1974, he has represented the Australian cricket team in in One Day International, Twenty20 International and Test matches. He is also a Tasmanian Tiger in Australian Domestic cricket. He has by far proven that he is a legend of the game regardless of this years Ashes loss. Well done Ricky - keep playing T20! Read more on his Ponting's retirement of T20I.
- September 7, 2009
- article by JM
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The in-form Shane Watson sought to give Australia a solid start
A narrow escape is the best way one can describe the result for England. Rain spoiled the Australian party and a chance to go one up in the T20Is, as England stuttered to 4/2 in reply to the tourists’ 145 in the twenty overs on a track that had enough bounce and swing in it to cause multiple problems for the batsmen.
That the track was all juiced up was evident from the fact that England won the toss and immediately inserted Australia in. Shane Watson struggled to retain his form from the test matches, but Dave Warner went on a rampage in the Power-Play. Three wickets did fall for 54, as the centurion from the Scotland game, Dave Hussey was dismissed for a duck as well.
However, that set the platform for Cameron White’s blitzkrieg which saw him get to a 36-ball 55 and justified his place in the side. For long, White has been in the side without having performed to his potential that had seen him crack the fastest century, but this inning of his would hold him in good stead for the rest of the series.
Australia got to 145 in the twenty overs, and then had the English on the mats by getting rid of debutant Joe Denly off his first ball, and then having the woefully out of form Ravi Bopara edge one to the slips which was almost at the thirty yard circle mark!
Rain prevented further play and the two teams go into the second T20 at Manchester with a 0-0 scoreline.
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