Off Stump

I'm no fan of David Warner's but for once, I'm firmly and squarely on his side . Sportspersons are probably treated the most unfairly by public opinion (and often the media) whenever they are involved in pay disputes. "Oh, look these millionaires are complaining about not getting paid enough" seems to be the gist of the general reactions. I find this attitude inexplicable at best and grossly hypocritical if I'm feeling less charitable. Like the rest of us, all athletes have the right to fight for what they think they should be paid. That is the fundamental part. In addition (and unlike many of the rest of us), most sportspersons operate in the knowledge that they only have a short period available as a performer, and therefore only a short period to maximise earnings. Most people that I know would behave exactly the same as Warner and his colleagues are doing. So why all the hue and cry?

While not quite being an extraterrestrial computer , bowlers around the world will want to claim that Steve Smith is not quite human the way he's gone about his run scoring in the last four years since he made his comeback to the Australian Test side. Over 48 matches (and 88 innings) he has averaged 64.85 with 19 hundreds and another 18 fifty plus scores. And (unlike some modern "greats") he's scored these runs everywhere he's played as an away (incl UAE) average of 58.22 and hundreds in every country except the UAE show. Along the way he has become the fastest to 5000 runs among his contemporaries (unless Pujara or du Plessis achieve the possible but highly unlikely feats of scoring 1259/2642 runs in their next 18/36 innings respectively). He's also got comfortably the second highest average ever of batsmen with more than 5000 runs, ahead of the likes of Sobers, Hobbs, and Hammond. And as captain, he's miles ahead of anyone (bar Bradman of course) wh

My abiding memory of Jimmy Adams is as a cagey and defensive batsman and captain. But then it's possible that anyone who had to preside over a declining side, the departures of Ambrose and Walsh, and the regular absences of Lara and Hooper, would be defensive. The bat and the captaincy are long gone but the caginess is not it would seem . Despite this, he did manage to over achieve as a batsman at least with a 40+ Test batting average and one higher than his first class average. If he can replicate that overachievement as an administrator, then he would have done world cricket a real service.

That was a surprise. Not even the most one-eyed of Australia's supporters would have expected them to make this sort of start to the series. A win (after 4502 days as Steven Smith reminded everyone a few times) would have sufficed. A 333 run win on a surface that was bouncing and turning from day one probably felt (and still feels) like three or four Santa Clauses come at once in a golden sledge. And while the two Steves will get most of the plaudits deservedly, Mitchell Starc with his 91 runs in quick time (in both innings) and the double wicket over of Pujara and Kohli played an equal part in turning the match (especially in the first half of it). If Pujara and Kohli had stuck around for a bit longer and India got to 200 in their first innings, an Australian collapse to double digits in the second innings was not out of the question. Funny the way scoreboard pressure works on modern day cricketers, even in Test match cricket. Australia will be further heartened by the fact

I've written before about not just doing longish posts here but never actually lived up to it. So here's an attempt to actually start a new series and (very cheesily) I'm calling it quick singles. A single thought about any aspect of the game, the players, or administrators. To kick us off is a player I never warmed up to really though I've always admired his fighting spirit as a batter and his attitude as England captain. In a world not governed by stardom, Strauss (and not Cook) would have held the record for captaining England most often in Test cricket. And now that he's at the helm (so to speak) of English cricket in a different capacity, he's been a really progressive thinker. Whether it's the emphasis on white ball cricket (and the results are there to see) or being much more forthright about what the best decisions are for the team (eg Buttler captaining in Bangladesh), Strauss has pulled no punches. This latest call to let different groups

The last leg of India's marathon home Test season kicks off in a couple of days, with Kohli and his men a good chance of going into fourth place on the list of consecutive matches without defeat . But while it is tempting to write off Steven Smith's team (like many are doing), the current 8-0 scoreline for the season masks how hard the Indians have had to fight at times. Expect no less from the Australians. Notwithstanding the fact that they got clobbered in Sri Lanka and have lost their last 9 matches in Asia (and 8 out of their last 10 in India), they will fight hard. And Kumble clearly realises this , one of the many reasons why he's the best choice for the Indian team in its current stage of evolution. My India vs. England preview wasn't the most accurate as pre-series callouts, and especially in terms of the best players (Broad and Rahane were mostly injured!!). Here's hoping this one works out better. Thoughts on the factors/players that will make the dif

Growing up (from a cricket watching perspective) in the 1990s, I am terribly unused to Test cricket being the format in which the Indian team is most successful and looking like potential world-beaters. Still early days, but this is exactly the way things seem headed currently for Kohli and his men. Since Jan 2015 (when Kohli took over as full time captain), India's record reads: P 21, W 14, L 1, D 6. The absurd W/L ratio will of course not last and many critics will point to the fact that most of the victories have come at home. Teams can however only overcome the opposition they are faced with and so far India have ticked off the overseas boxes they have been faced with (in Sri Lanka and the West Indies). And at home they have been utterly dominant, destroying everyone they've met. But most hearteningly, it's the way they have battled back from adversity that builds the most promise for the future. Too often in even the recent past (let alone the 1990s), Indian teams

Not going to have the time to do an in-depth preview of what looks to be a fascinating series so here are some (not very organised) thoughts, primarily from an Indian perspective - England are not going to be anywhere near the underdogs that they are being made out to be by the likes of George Dobell and Sourav Ganguly . They have the best record against India (home and away) in recent years for a very good reason and will pose a stiff challenge. The absence of two arguably first choice batters now in KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma will be a big factor in England's favour and make the batting line-ups much more evenly matched. That said, this Indian side does bat deeper (especially in home conditions) than a lot of recent India sides. India have a history of doing poorly against unfancied spinners at home. Shaun Udal, Nicky Boje, Michael Clarke for heaven's sake! I wouldn't be writing Moeen Ali and co off at all. The contest between Kohli and Root will be interesting to

After Virat Kohli's stupendously successful start as India captain (admittedly in a different format), the cries for Dhoni to be replaced as captain for the shorter formats will undoubtedly renew again. And while Kohli might be ready to take over, I think India still have a lot to gain from Dhoni the batsman and captain at the Champions Trophy in England next year. Aside from the fact that we are not exactly rolling in good new limited overs keeper-batsmen and couldn't therefore find an adequate replacement at short notice, Dhoni has looked fitter and fresher since he gave up Test cricket. He has also, in a distinct departure from the recent past, looked keen to get stuck into situations tactically and work out ways to win with newer players. The Zimbabwe tour was a pretty light weight test but it definitely started there and its carried on into the current series against New Zealand. Most hearteningly, he has not been stubborn about his own waning skills as a batsman and

Little that's happened in the cricketing world recently has given me as much pleasure as Pakistan's ascent to the #1 ranking in Tests . Though it finally happened in slightly farcical circumstances with the outfield fiasco in Port-of-Spain, it couldn't have come at a better time for the country, and more importantly Misbah-ul-Haq deserved it for the sterling job he's done in the last five years. Sportspersons are constantly challenged in having to live out of hotel rooms and away from friends and family for long periods of time. And for this Pakistan team, the burden has been manifold given the inability to play even their own domestic T20 league at home, let alone international cricket. Not for a month, or a year but for nearly seven years now. That needs a huge degree of mental toughness especially for the younger players, not to say adjusting to non-home conditions. Coupled with that toughness, the other quality that this team has displayed unlike some of their pr