Welcome back, Confectionery Stallers, just in time for the official Confectionery Stall preview of the end of the 2011 Indian tour of England

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013Welcome back, Confectionery Stallers, just in time for the official Confectionery Stall preview of the end of the 2011 Indian tour of England. The final match in a damply curious ODI series will bring the curtain of mercy down on one of the most unsuccessful tours ever to fail to grace these shores. It might be a good game, it might not be, and either side could win it and/or lose it. Duckworth-Lewis, in fine form after their spectacular win at Lord’s, cannot be ruled out. No one will mind very much either way, I imagine. The schedule of the English international summer is specifically designed to maximise the chances of a prolonged anti-climax, and the weather has chirped in this year to assist the achieving of this oddly conceived goal.On then to the official Confectionery Stall review of the 2011 Indian tour of England.At the start of the summer, there had been rich anticipation for a titanic showdown between two of Test cricket’s leading forces. Titanic showdowns, however, as early-20th-century maritime historians will vociferously testify, can end with something that was widely lauded as indestructible and magnificent sinking rapidly and disastrously. The good ship India rammed repeatedly into Iceberg England, and the rest is now statistically alarming history that will be sifted over by curious students in decades to come. (If there are any curious students of Test cricket in decades to come.)Back in April, as India briefly celebrated their iconic triumph in Mumbai before looking at their fixture schedules and thinking that they had better get some kip whilst they had the chance, and England recuperated from their Ashes megavictory and their barking-mad World Cup campaign, some mesmerising contests loomed – Zaheer against England’s batting machine; Sehwag against England’s demon swing attack; Tendulkar versus Statistical History.The first flickered tantalisingly on the first day at Lord’s before Zaheer’s not overwhelmingly well-honed body rebelled. The second began (a) too late, as injury ruled out the Evel Knievel Of Opening The Batting from the first two Tests, and (b) too early, as he rushed back with insufficient preparation to face brilliant, in-form swing bowlers in swingy conditions. I am sure even Albert Einstein after a prolonged break from science needed to ease himself back into things with some basic physics – a couple of frames of snooker, at least, or juggling some tomatoes – before launching into the serious quantum stuff. The third saw Statistical History fighting a brave rearguard against the Little Master (whilst taking its eye off the majestic Dravid, allowing him to put on one of the finest displays of batsmanship in a losing cause and become only the second player after Bradman to twice score three centuries in a series in England).India were underprepared, knackered and unlucky, but their response to their misfortunes is unlikely to have the world’s poets wielding their quills in excitement, ready to poet out some stirring tales of steadfast heroism in the face of adversity.Consequently, as a contest it has been strange and unsatisfying, like eating a plate of high-quality filet steak lathered in a once-delicious lemon mousse that had been left out of the fridge for a couple of weeks. For England, the Test series was unremittingly glorious. Players reached or maintained peaks that a year ago had seemed inconceivable. They were ruthless, dazzling, thrilling. Those are three adjectives that have not always been applicable to English cricket over the last 30 years. They have slap-hammered their opponents for seven innings victories in 14 Tests over 12 months – one more than England managed in 211 Tests over 20 years in the 1980s and 1990s. England have averaged 59 runs per wicket with the bat in 2011 – the best year ever for England batting, and the best by any team that has played more than six Tests in a year. Their pace bowlers have collectively averaged 24 this year – the second-best such figure by England since 1979, behind 2000, when Gough, Caddick, Cork and White eviscerated the hapless West Indians.England had an almost supernaturally stellar Test summer, to follow a similarly successful winter, and ascended to the official top of the Test rankings with ease. Reaching summits is often considered tricky in mountaineering circles (I am reliably informed). England scaled the ICC Rankings Peak in the the manner of Hillary and Tensing unicycling the last few hundred metres up Mount Everest whilst juggling apples and singing Viking drinking songs.It is hard to know exactly how good this England team is currently and can become in the future – they have had a happy knack of playing opponents who are in transition, meltdown or need of a holiday, and have exploited weakness, misfortune and fatigue with merciless power and precision. A winter in various parts of Asia will give further evidence, and next summer’s annoyingly brief showdown with South Africa could prove to be the crucial exhibit.EXTRASLancashire clinched a staggering triumph in the County Championship, with two bone-jangling late victories in their final two matches. Last time Lancashire won the championship outright, in 1934, it heralded a 19-year spell in which Britain fought a World War, saw a king abdicate, and presided over the collapse of its empire, and in which, more importantly, England failed to win the Ashes. So whilst this extraordinary and long-overdue triumph will be rightly celebrated across Lancashire, the rest of the country and the government may be understandably more muted in its response.When I was a cricket-obsessed boy, I patiently endured a four-year period from 1986 to 1989 when my country won three Tests out of 40. Fortunately, two of those wins were in one Ashes series, so the late ‘80s seldom get the credit they deserve as the absolute nadir of English cricket history. It was often said at the time that county cricket was not producing Test-quality cricketers. This was not entirely true. It was producing them, but they were mostly playing for England’s opponents. County cricket is still producing Test-quality cricketers, and England’s opponents, too busy to allow their players be properly schooled in English conditions, as they once were, are suffering the consequences, trying to learn on the hoof in the Test arena, like schoolchildren trying to cram in some desperate post-last-minute revision after a crucial exam has already started.Following the trial of a pink ball in a County Championship game, the ICC has announced that in the forthcoming Sheffield Shield season in Australia, umpires’ index fingers will be painted fluorescent green, and topped with a flashing light. “We want to make the moment of dismissal a more spectator-friendly experience,” explained the secretary of the ICC Tinkering Around Committee. A further proposal under consideration is forcing batsmen’s helmets to be coated in a bronze casing, to ensure that a bowler clonking a batsman on the noggin with a bouncer makes the metal clang loud and amusing enough to prevent the crowd drifting off and thinking about gardening.Apologies for my lengthy absence, which was caused by a range of factors: (1) spending a month telling jokes at the Edinburgh Festival; (2) taking my wife and children on holiday to compensate for spending a month away from home at the Edinburgh Festival; (3) trying to explain the difference between cricket and football to my two-year-old son; (4) Statsguru asking me for some time apart to think about where our relationship is going; and (5) a rest and recuperation period advised by my doctor to help adjust psychologically to the fact that England are now officially the universe’s leading Test Match cricket team, a state of affairs for which cricket supporters in my age bracket in this country have not been adequately conditioned. In fact, medical staff at cricket grounds have reported cricket fans complaining of a range of previously unimaginable ailments, including disbelief, delirium, smugness, an unshakeable suspicion that it is all an elaborate trick, terror that England’s ascent to the summit of the world’s greatest sport is an unarguable sign of impending apocalypse (it is all in The Book Of Revelations, if you read it backwards in John Arlott’s accent), and in several cases “feeling disconcertingly Australian”.

M Vijay’s gritty 57 is just another sign of his remarkable transformation from a flashy batsman to a controlled, solid run-getter

Sharda Ugra23-Mar-2013On a day when summer temperatures hit Delhi with a vengeance, Kotla’s parched earth of a pitch did its best impersonation of a prima donna throwing a fit. Eleven wickets fell obligingly and sledging filled the air.David Warner had a go at MS Dhoni, Aleem Dar ticked off Warner and asked stand-in Australian captain Shane Watson to rein in his men, James Pattinson had a go at M Vijay, and Vijay had a right go at those asking him questions after stumps.For all of Cheteshwar Pujara’s appetite for the big scores, MS Dhoni’s Test-changing double century in Chennai and Shikhar Dhawan’s jaw-dropping Test debut, it is Vijay who has scored more runs than any batsman on either team.He began the series with scores of 10 and 6 in Chennai before leaping ahead of the queue with a run that reads: 167, 153, 26 and 57. He is the only batsman to score two centuries in the series (or “tournament”, as he calls it) and has opened the innings for India with total composure and patience, every time India have batted second on pre-fab pitches made to aid the Indian spinners.Top scorer in the Indian first innings in Delhi so far, Vijay was asked what had led to a tangible transformation in his batting. The question ended thus: “What have you done to make yourself go from someone who had a tendency to throw away his wicket to someone who is prepared to grind his way out for the team?” It is a question Vijay has been asked for two Tests in a row and he has talked about being shaken by his second innings dismissal in Chennai and batting for his life in Hyderabad. It is a question he will be asked by every new interviewer over the next few months because the change has been extraordinary.In Kotla, he responded with a bark and bite that belonged to the pitch rather than the press conference room: “I think I have to approach you after the meeting, you have told me everything.” Charming. And unfortunate, because it is this metamorphosis from a flashy shot-maker to a solid determined frontman that has marked Vijay’s growth and progress in the series.Before leaving the room he did rattle off, “It has been a good tournament for me, personally I am really enjoying at the moment. I just want to contribute to my team as much as I can.” Vijay’s contribution towards the Indian batting in the series has been enormous. It was a fact reflected yet again in the middle on Saturday, when his 108-run partnership with makeshift opener Cheteshwar Pujara was the meat and potatoes of the Indian response to Australia’s first innings of 261. Vijay’s 57 was an innings created from the sweat and muscle required of openers when faced with a track that makes bowlers burst into song.The Australian seamers turned up in chorus. They had found existence of life that they recognised this morning at the Kotla and Vijay survived severe interrogation with the new ball.Mitchell Johnson, who was wayward but produced gems that keep batsmen honest, was his strictest examiner. Of the 19 he scored off 46 balls from Johnson, three edges fell short and flew to the third man. The fourth boundary was clipped to fine leg at the first whiff of the ball tailing down leg.Vijay’s innings was an ideal example of not only trying to play the ball on its merit but wiping away the memory of the previous ball when either found pushing at air or producing an edge that fell short. He got behind the ball and, until his dismissal, kept body and bat away from the short stuff duly ducking and swaying. His short backlift worked for him as he got down on balls that kept low and when a bowler of Pattinson’s pace got a few to climb, he was able to play comfortably on the bounce.Run-making at the Kotla, he said, was hard. “It is very difficult to find the gaps. The wicket is getting slow, it is tough to judge the speed of the delivery. I could have stayed a little longer but got out at the wrong time, I guess.”He did play a shot, though, that belonged to a picture book. It came early in the innings against Pattinson and the new ball. To one swinging in, it was as if Vijay had flipped the ball over, like a cook does an omelette. Who knows what hands and what wrists caused it to fly adeptly in the vacant space available near the midwicket fielder.The rest of the attractive parts of Vijay’s batting, his screamer shots, were left in the dressing room. Only when Nathan Lyon turned up did he look slightly hungry for some post-lunch show-stoppers. Off his fourth ball from Lyon, he stepped out and produced the ‘voila!’ moment that had the Sunday crowd screaming as he played against the spin, over the in-field to the mid-off fence.Vijay had crossed his 50 just before tea, having battled the wicket and the bowling. But Kotla was not about to give him any handouts in appreciation. Three overs into the final session, a ball from Peter Siddle hit a crack and shot towards his face. He stuck his gloves in the way to prevent himself from being beaned.It is only the second day of the Test which he knew “could go either way.” India will bat last and Vijay spoke manfully about chasing “whatever target they set.” If he does produce an innings made of steel like the 57 on Saturday, he will once again be asked about his transformation. There’s no hiding away from it or sledging at it.

Plays of the day from the IPL game between Rajasthan Royals and Pune Warriors in Jaipur

Siddhartha Talya05-May-2013The misdirection
Rajasthan Royals were sloppy in the field, and also with the ball. Three bowlers began their spells with wides down the leg side – Shane Watson, Stuart Binny and Kevon Cooper, who bettered everyone with five wides.The catch
Mitchell Marsh smashed Cooper flat over his head, only to be caught, by his own captain Aaron Finch behind the long-off boundary. The ball seemed to be heading into the crowd before Finch intercepted it, taking it in front of his face with his coach Allan Donald pulling himself back as the ball approached before applauding the effort.The dismissal
Sanju Samson has already made an impression with the bat this IPL; today he showed some skill with the gloves. Robin Uthappa, having scored his second straight half-century, was looking dangerous as the death overs approached but his stay was cut short by a laser throw from Samson. When Uthappa tried to sneak a leg-bye from the non-striker’s end, Samson quickly took off the big glove, and took out middle stump with a perfect throw which caught Uthappa well short.The drive

It’s been a while since Rahul Dravid retired from international cricket but he offered a glimpse of what everyone’s been missing, with a classy half-century. The shot that stood out was a cover-drive, inside-out off Angelo Mathews in the 10th over, that he played through extra cover. It also brought up 2000 runs for him in the IPL.

Vernon Philander stresses the importance of working on your skills, but he’s not a big fan of being called the new McGrath

Interview by Jack Wilson17-Aug-2013The start of your Test career was immense. You took 50 wickets in your first seven matches – the second-fastest ever. That’s some record, isn’t it?
It came down to the hard work prior to that. In the end the hard work pays off. You go through a lot in the years leading up to playing for your country. If you put it in, you get your rewards. Success isn’t guaranteed. Put in the hard yards and that’s what comes.Is that the secret – hard work?
Yes, hard work pays off. You have to spend time getting your skills up to standard. Hard work makes me appreciate things I achieve a lot more. The more and more I achieve the better it makes me feel. I want to keep making things happen, going forward too.Are you someone who’s into their stats?
I’m not into stats, no.So if I asked you how many Test wickets you’d taken, would you know?
I just take each game at a time. I play each time to try and take the team across the line – that’s what I’m worried about.What’s the strangest game you’ve ever played in?
We bowled New Zealand out for 45 on the first day of a Test, which was crazy, but my debut – the win over Australia – was the most bizarre. To bowl them out for 47 in the second innings and then knock off the runs was a good game to be a part of.Last year Allan Donald said the bowling attack – with you in it – was the best ever. How did that make you feel?
(Laughs) It was great to hear that, especially coming from him. As far as we’re concerned, as a bowling unit we just try and take 20 wickets a game. The more we do it, the more people may rave about us. Getting teams out is our job and we take pride in doing so.You’ve been dubbed “the new Glenn McGrath” by some. That’s high praise.
I’ve heard some people say that, but I’m not too concerned what people call me. I just focus on my game, and as long as I go out and produce the goods, I’m happy. Personally I don’t like it but it’s not a bad compliment.If you could go back in time and bowl at one batsman from the past, who would it be?
Jeez, that’s tough. I’d say my school mates. A few were highly rated at school level and for me it’s important to be humble and remember where you came from.Who’s the messiest player in the South Africa dressing room?
The boys are generally pretty good. The bowlers – me, Dale Steyn and Morne [Morkel] – tend to unpack all our kit. It’s not untidy, though. It’s all together.And the funniest?
Morne Morkel tells lots of old-time stories and jokes, I’ll give it to him.Who hits the ball the furthest?
There are a few strikers in that team, huh? I’d say, from the Test side, it’s AB [de Villiers]. He can hit it pretty clean and pretty far.If I gave you a ball and you had six balls to bowl at one stump, how many times would you hit?
Probably none! (Laughs) Seriously, well, it depends on the conditions. I’ve got to back myself. I’d say I’d hit it two out of six times.How do you spend your time away from cricket?
I’ll be on the golf course most of the time. That’s where I like to go. The golf course or a wildlife park.What’s your handicap?
I play off a horrible five.Where’s the best place to play cricket in the world?
There’s only one place, isn’t there? Cape Town. There’s no better setting than that. Although I enjoy it wherever I go. It’s always a different experience playing against different players and seeing people from different cultures. It’s special to travel the world.What’s the first piece of advice you’d give to a young fast bowler?
I’d say to the young guns out there: try and enhance your skills to a level in which you understand them. Once you understand your action and once you understand what you are trying to do with the ball, you can showcase it to the world. Go out there and put in the hard yards.Favourite shot?
Pull shot.Does cricket ever pop up in your dreams?
No, not really, although I had one prior to my debut.

Plays of the day from the Group B match between South Africa and Pakistan

George Dobell and Jarrod Kimber at Edgbaston10-Jun-2013Drop of the day
Hashim Amla had scored 7 when he cut a short delivery well outside off stump from Mohammad Irfan to Umar Amin at point. Unable to get on top of the bounce, the ball flew hard just to the left of Amin. While it was not an easy chance, it was the sort that has to be accepted at this level, particularly in a position such as point, where so many of the world’s best fielders operate. But Amin parried the ball away in the manner of a goalkeeper and Amla went on to score 81. The next highest score in the innings was just 31. As England learned last summer, if you drop Amla, you tend to drop the game.Run out of the day
To lose one player to a run out might be considered unfortunate, as Oscar Wilde so almost said, but to lose six in two games? That suggests a lack of calm, composure and experience from South Africa. It might always suggest an incorrect choice of footwear. Certainly that was the impression when AB de Villiers, over committed to backing-up after JP Duminy whipped one into the leg side, slid over as he attempted to turn and was left stranded as Misbah-ul-Haq ran with the ball to dislodge the bails. Not only was de Villiers culpable of attempting a run that was never there, but will probably reflect that he would have been better off wearing spikes to avoid slipping.Fall of the day
A quick single on the leg side from de Villiers was turned into YouTube gold when Irfan decided he could save it. He tried the slide and turn move, perfected by many modern cricketers. What he actually did was attack the earth’s crust with his hip, and performed a flop and kick that ended with the ball further away from him and the entire stadium shaking with laughter, and from the aftershock.Self harm of the day
The Pakistan batsmen were having enough trouble with Ryan McLaren and Chris Morris; they really didn’t need to turn on each other. That might have been what Jamshed was thinking as Shoaib Malik smashed him in the back with a drive off the bowling of Aaron Phangiso. Jamshed, clearly in some pain, shook the blow off after a second or two, but perhaps it was Malik who had more cause to be upset. It was pretty much the only stroke he middled in his torturous innings (he made eight from 29 balls) and he scored no runs from it.

Rob Moody’s obsession with recording matches in Australia and collecting archive footage has led to him becoming a folk hero to cricket lovers across the world

Russell Jackson06-Dec-2013At the start I’ll assume that the reason you are reading this is that you’re a cricket fan and you have an internet connection. Therefore it’s also not a stretch to assume that if you don’t know a man named Rob Moody by his full name, you probably know him by his Youtube moniker, Robelinda2.I couldn’t name every member of the ICC board from memory but I know who Rob Moody is, and among cricket fans that puts me in the majority. Moody is a kind of cricket historian, an archivist, a DIY publisher, a superfan and a superfreak. By any measurement he’s one of the unsung heroes of the game.The Melbourne-based cricket lover draws upon thousands and thousands of hours of lovingly recorded cricket footage to edit and publish Youtube clips of fantastic and forgotten moments of cricket history; thousands of videos with millions of views.Certain reoccurring themes tend to permeate the Moody oeuvre and give a small indication of his likes and dislikes as a connoisseur of the game. His obsession with Inzamam-ul-Haq’s travails has resulted in works like “72 funniest Inzamam Ul Haq LBW’s” and “23 funniest Inzamam run outs”. One of his most-watched clips, 2,096,051 views and counting, is of a viciously rearing David Saker bouncer to the head of South Australia’s Jeff Vaughan on a lively Bellerive wicket. That moment was broadcast on a long forgotten Australian cable channel and didn’t even rate a mention in , which his sister would record.Moody’s cricket video archive has been both helped and hindered by the emergence of decidedly more sophisticated recording technologies than were available when his hobby started. His first digital recorder, purchased in 2004, cost A$4000 (approximately US$3600). It only had a 10GB hard drive, and at that point the cost of blank discs to transfer his recordings to was prohibitively expensive (up to $10 each).”Then the problem came that they were too cheap and they were rubbish, “he says. Fortunately he was in the habit of backing up his digital conversions, as hundreds of the newer, cheaper discs proved to be of such poor quality they didn’t last even a decade. Ironically enough, the VHS tapes he stopped using in early 2004 have proven indestructible and still play at the same quality even 30 years after the initial recording. By contrast he says he throws out 500 DVDs per year that have simply stopped working. “It’s a massive effort to keep everything from just fading away, because the technology is unreliable. Even with hard drives they just die, he laments.”Moody played club cricket as an opening batsman for five years in the ’90s before finger injuries started to endanger his burgeoning career gigging in various bands around Melbourne. Now he teaches guitar.So far his biggest hurdle in maintaining his Youtube channel has not been the stiff arm of authority but moderating long and unwieldy comment threads that veer into bizarre and legally problematic tangents. “Every day there is close to a thousand comments to go through. Heaps of them are abuse and threats,” he says. He’s remarkably calm about this imposition, which he calls “par for the course”.”In that first year it definitely was pretty insane. I actually couldn’t believe the absolute torrent of abuse and pretty crazy threats.” He received abusive messages by email and phone, and to his horror, one unhappy viewer even showed up at his work to issue a threat. “He can’t have been much over 18 and he ended up happy to speak to me. That was kind of weird,” Moody says with remarkably good humour.Contrary to my own impressions, he says the worst of the threats came not from Indian fans of Sachin Tendulkar, who Moody often jokes over and ribs, but his own countrymen. “Initially there were a lot of angry Aussies, believe it or not.”

Moody has footage of virtually every game played in Australia for the last 30 years. They’ve been transferred onto CDs that are stored in around 25 folders in his home. Each folder contains 1000 discs

That the Robelinda2 channel still exists is down to caution, and good luck. Moody says the key to its survival is tending towards older material when making new uploads. He has a precise and nuanced understanding of the various rights holders of more recent footage, and is keenly aware of what he is and isn’t likely to get away with.Youtube’s copyright detection system is automated, so Moody’s reputation amongst fans would count for nothing if he transgressed. The threat of three strikes and the complete termination of his channel remains, and such an eventuality would take with it his entire archive of material. Friends of Moody’s have not been as lucky, and he says thousands of videos that didn’t breach any of the site’s regulations have been lost as collateral damage.”When it goes I’m certainly not going to put it up again, because it would be way too much work to do it all over again,” he says with a shrug of resignation. Moody is pragmatic about the right of cricket boards and broadcasters to enforce copyright regulations and focuses more of his energies on the content he provide to fellow fans.Right now his children are too young to understand their dad’s remarkable hobby, but when he mentions that his wife had “always known” about the obsession, he says it with a hearty laugh, as if it could be construed as a dark secret to some.When asked about his flair for editing compilation videos, it’s surprising to learn that most of them were made long before he converted to digital formats. At a young age he took note of the way Channel Nine’s highlight packages were edited and used his own homespun production techniques to create similar reels for himself. Much of what Moody has uploaded was created not on modern digital editing software, but through a laborious manual process, using two VCRs. It also pays to bear in mind that he never foresaw a time or technology that would allow for the end product to be viewed on any screen other than the one in his own living room.Moody says these self-created highlights packages include every half-century and century televised in Australia in the time he has been recording games. He estimates that he owns every commercially produced VHS cricket video ever released in England and Australia, including obscure subscription-only titles like , which were advertised in cricket magazines in the ’80s and ’90s. The latter cost around $100 per video, an almost laughable sum in hindsight, but many yielded gems he never would have seen otherwise.Moody says some of those titles now sell in online auctions for four-figure sums. For instance, not even Cricket South Africa has copies of a collection of rare videos he has from the South African rebel tours, which remain a lost world of cricket history. He says that copies have sold on eBay for up to $4000, and he has even fielded requests from players who featured in the games to provide them with footage from the tours. Want to see Sylvester Clarke hit Peter Kirsten with a bouncer in 1983-84? Thanks to Moody, you now can.Moody says he throws out 500 DVDs per year that have simply stopped working•Rob MoodyMoody still talks with a boyish enthusiasm of the days when rain delays in Australian internationals saw Channel Nine delve into its archives to show some old gold. He bemoans the current trend in which Nine will “return to normal programming, which of course means an Elvis movie we’ve all seen a million times. I don’t understand how that is normal programming.”Moody’s views on the game are trenchant and often surprising. His decision to record the ever-expanding schedule of T20 games in a lower-quality format than he uses for Tests and one-day cricket is as much a philosophical one as to do with practicalities. He says the newest format is “mildly entertaining when it’s on but there’s obviously a different vibe about it… I certainly don’t dislike it to any great extent but it’s clearly an inferior type of cricket.”Unusually for a Melbournian with such a famous interest in sport, Moody calls himself a “massive footy hater” and takes no interest in any other sport (“and thank god, because I don’t have any time”). His early interest in cricket was kindled by the sight of Australia’s mid-’80s one-day international clashes against West Indies. The passion in his voice is clear when he enters any discussion about West Indies cricket, and he retains a deep knowledge of their golden era.There are few gaps in his collection other than some games from Australia’s 1994 tour of South Africa, but he is always on the look-out for overseas tour footage from before the advent of Australian cable TV in the mid-1990s. He also makes the valid point that between the 1991 and 1999 Indian tours of Australia, the only ways for fans like him to fully appreciate the talents of Sachin Tendulkar was through those early wonder years of Australian cable TV.Moody is philosophically opposed to claiming advertising revenue from his videos, adding that he dislikes watching advertisements on videos uploaded by other users, and so would feel hypocritical putting them on his own. “It just seems really dodgy,” he says. “It would also be extra hassles with legal matters.”With the sheer volume of video footage in his collection, Moody doesn’t have a lot of room for cricket books but says he owns a hundred or so. He narrows his focus on historical tomes and particularly enjoys the work of Christian Ryan, Gideon Haigh (“clearly the best”), Mike Atherton and Mike Coward. He laughs heartily recalling an incident where he sat in a Melbourne cinema watching Max Walker deal admirably with heckling from a series of fellow patrons on account of the former Australian fast bowler’s literary output.One room of Moody’s house dedicated to both music and his cricket DVDs, and – this would be familiar to collectors everywhere – the overflow ends up in “the other room”. Soon enough his children will outgrow their shared bedroom and claim the space.For fans like me, Moody’s videos have filled the gaps on half-remembered events and resulted in remarkable journeys down digital rabbit holes, sometimes for hours on end. They are full of greatness, happiness, badness and madness, and his enthusiasm for the game is infectious. I don’t doubt that his willingness to share his collection has encouraged others to adopt some of his passion and selflessness and upload their own forgotten gems. For that we should all be thankful.Brushing aside the suggestion that he is a kind of folk hero in the world of cricket, Moody says, “It’s just a Youtube channel. It’s one amongst millions. I don’t think it’s as big a deal as people think.”On that point alone, he couldn’t be more wrong.

Just 20 years and 14 ODIs old, Quinton de Kock gave the Johannesburg faithful 135 reasons to roar and cheer for one of their own

Firdose Moonda at the Wanderers05-Dec-20130:00

‘Indian bowlers bowled short instead of going fuller’ – de Kock

Quinton de Kock held his own against the best ODI team in the world with utmost maturity•Associated PressThe Wanderers roar. It has the bass that comes out of a hollow drum when someone – and there is always someone who can’t resist – lets out a long, lonely “helloooooo” deep into it. It has the volume of the speakers being fitted into cars the size of jelly tots, which somehow accommodate amplifiers three times that size. It boils over with emotion.Today, the roar was expected to be one of anger – towards the Indian players because the South African public holds the BCCI responsible for shortening what would have been the headline tour of the summer. Instead, it was resonant with joy. For Quinton de Kock.From the moment the 20-year old walked out to sing the national anthem, people were cheering for him. He is the only member of South Africa’s ODI XI born in this city, and to see him represent it on the biggest stage is a source of great pride for the Johannesburg faithful. As de Kock stood alongside his team-mates, he looked only a little taller than the child whose hand he was holding, and his expression was as innocent. Clothed in a delicate pink, he seemed as harmless as candyfloss. How deceiving some looks can be.It took three balls for de Kock to dispel all thoughts of tameness when he stepped out to clip Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s first delivery, a half-volley, through midwicket. Four balls later, de Kock punctured the gap in the covers, and India’s attack knew they were up against a man with a good eye and a powerful arm, not a boy.Hashim Amla probably went to de Kock at the end of that over and told him to take it easy, as is the job of the senior partner, but it seemed as though de Kock wasn’t going to listen. He flashed and missed as much as he pushed and connected.He seemed to understand the weaknesses of India’s bowlers quickly – the struggle to find the right length on an unfamiliar pitch, and a tendency to bowl half-volleys and full tosses – and he knew he could exploit them. Every time he did, that roar grew louder.Of course, de Kock got lucky on a few occasions. Aggressive batsmen often get those breaks. Against India’s best bowler on the day, Mohammad Shami, he inside edged and was fortunate the ball did not go on to his stumps.De Kock held his own even against the spinners. R Ashwin pitched too short, and de Kock’s movement on to the back foot to pull was instinctive. He brought up his 50 off Ashwin, and the noise levels at the Wanderers rose to meet the overhanging thunder.He raised his bat: first to the changing room, and then to every section of the crowd. To call the cheers a mixture of clapping and chanting would be doing the fans a disservice. They composed a chorus for him.They would have expected a little more exuberance from their local lad a little later on. But despite having scored his first international ton in a home ODI, de Kock was restrained in his celebrations. He had saved himself for the bowling. He spotted holes in areas India thought they had covered, and widened them. He drove wide of cover, swept high enough to clear short fine leg, and with Amla gave South Africa their first opening century stand in 68 ODIs – a span of three years.De Kock watched Amla play the ball onto his own stumps and Jacques Kallis offer a tame catch. It was up to him to ensure South Africa did not waste their start. De Kock showed how solid he could be off the first free-hit he was offered. He assumed the position of a lamp – a firm, broad base and a wide ambit for a shade – and swung hard. The ball disappeared into the sunset and landed on the other side of long-on.De Kock had moved within one scoring shot of a century, and the anticipation was heaving. This crowd demanded instant gratification and wanted to see his hundred off the very next ball. They abandoned the slow clap in favour of one long cheer and it died quickly in obvious disappointment when he only got a single to move to 99.AB de Villiers handed de Kock the strike immediately. Again, the cheers began and again, the quick silence ensued when de Kock played a defensive prod. Then, he tucked the ball to square leg and ran the single that produced the loudest roar of the day.If de Kock remembers one thing about his hundred, it will be that sound. It filled the stadium as though it would suffocate it. It rose higher and higher, attempting to lift him off the ground by the sheer power of noise. He remained grounded.There was no boisterous punch in the air, or dramatic levitation. As the roar grew with impatience, Kock neatly put his bat down, fiddled with his helmet to remove it and then greeted his home crowd.It was only the 35th over and he would have remembered his captain talking about the need for one player to bat through. He would have known the person to do that was him. So he carried on, giving the crowd more and more reasons to roar. He teed off again against Ravindra Jadeja, went inside-out against Ashwin and blasted Virat Kohli over long-on.By the time he handed Kohli a return catch, de Kock had done what he needed to. The way AB de Villiers and JP Duminy used that platform to launch a withering assault – scoring 105 off 46 balls with the freedom of escaped prisoners – gave de Kock’s innings more value.That’s why part of every roar heard on the night belonged to de Kock. Yes, some of it was reserved for the BCCI, and some of it was for de Villiers and Duminy, but most of it was for the youngest player on the park, who lit up a tour that had been marred by administrators’ squabbles.It wasn’t the roar of the usual Wanderers crowd saluting a South African achievement. It was the roar of a community welcoming its favourite son, now all grown up with so much more to achieve.

As Irfan Pathan makes yet another comeback to cricket after an injury break, he knows that fitness is key to how his career progresses

Kanishkaa Balachandran27-Dec-2013If one has to think of a contemporary Indian cricketer slipping off the radar due to injuries and frequent breakdowns, Irfan Pathan would immediately come to mind. After missing Baroda’s first five games of this season’s Ranji Trophy due to a rib injury, he made an understated comeback against Services, albeit as a batsman. The trend continued in the following game against Saurashtra, in Rajkot, but Irfan insists that his return is a phased one and that he will resume bowling soon.Baroda have one remaining game in the league stage but are not assured of a place in the quarter-finals. Qualification to the knockouts will be beneficial for Irfan, for he needs as much four-day cricket as possible to prove his durability in the longer formats as an allrounder. Though his comeback as a batsman has been far from electrifying, with scores of 22, 37 and a first-ball duck, Irfan is bullish he will start contributing with the ball again and regain that swing and zip that defined him as a bowler. He is taking it step by step in the nets and hopes to gradually increase his run-up.”I have started bowling in the nets, but not with full intensity. I am on a quarter to half run-up now. But I need to keep bowling in the half run-up for a few sessions now. Once I get to a full run-up, I will start bowling in the games,” Irfan said in Rajkot, after celebrating Baroda’s win over Saurashtra. “The preparation has been less but, the good thing is that I’ve started playing. I’m happy to be part of the team that won two games outright. Overall it helps your morale as well.”Though he didn’t make a meaty contribution to the victory, Irfan was his chirpy self through the game, happy to soak in his team’s commanding position. His presence was enough to draw several young fans, who made the trip to Khanderi on the outskirts of the city, waiting patiently for autographs, jostling for space by the side of the pavilion and near the team bus, hoping he would oblige. He didn’t get flustered when some teased him for getting out after making a start. Most were happy to see him back, in whichever form, and the attention around him was evident moments after his team seized victory late on the final day. During intervals in the game, he mixed around with the team staff as well, singing a Hindi film song from yesteryear. In short, he was enjoying himself.Irfan’s last appearance for India was in the World Twenty20 in 2012. Staying injury-free for long periods has been his biggest challenge and he is aware that cultivating his fitness would have to take precedence over skills if he is to make an India comeback. Which explains why he isn’t being rushed back as a bowler.”I am out of the team because of my injuries, not because of my performances,” he said. “I got a five-for in Sri Lanka [before the World T20] as well. I just want to bowl the way I did last year. My aim is to stay fit and keep taking wickets in domestic cricket. Once I do that, I’m pretty sure I will be where I belong.”Irfan hasn’t had the fortune of lasting an entire domestic season for a while now. He picked up a hamstring injury in the 2012-13 season and could only play one Ranji game. A comeback in the IPL led to a national recall for the Champions Trophy earlier this year, where he only got to play in the warm-ups. He suffered another hamstring pull which ruled him out of the West Indies tri-series and as the domestic season neared, he hurt his rib just before the one-dayers against the touring West Indies A side.He admits that the rehab period was frustrating, but said the positivity of the people around him helped him cope with every breakdown. He credited the National Cricket Academy and its rehab programme in helping him regain fitness. Last year, when he was recalled for the tour of Sri Lanka, he took the NCA staff out to dinner as a token of appreciation.”It’s a test of character and patience as well,” Irfan said, recalling the tough days. “It has tested my patience several times. When you’re in the rehab center, working out for only one hour, you end up spending a lot of time with yourself, watching the game, sometimes doing nothing.”It can be very frustrating when you’re forcefully kept out of the game. But, I’m a Pathan and Pathan’s are fighters. I just need to get fit. Other things will take care of themselves. I expect to get better match by match.”As a batsman, Irfan has been shunted around the batting order, sometimes used as a pinch-hitting opener. That has often led to confusion over his precise role in the side, but Irfan says it doesn’t bother him.”It doesn’t matter to me anymore. I learn from experience. Even when I got out yesterday [first ball] the first thing I did was to go to the nets. When these things happen at the start of the season, you don’t relax. You work on it.”I think I’m good at handling the short ball so I can bat up the order as well. I only need to work on playing the bigger shots, and I have worked on my wrist position as well when it comes to my batting. I am always ready to bat at any position, you can ask my captains.”For the moment, though, fitness is paramount, as Irfan reiterated. “Once I manage to stay fit, my performance is going to be double, be it runs or wickets.”

While Jacques Kallis has a reputation of being aloof, of late there have been instances that showed glimpses of his other side

Firdose Moonda30-Dec-2013Jacques Kallis had been an international cricketer for as many years as it takes others to go from birth to school leavers and reach the age where they get a drivers’ licence and vote in the national election. After 18 years, it’s no wonder he is pre-programmed to do certain things.Taking a catch at slip is one of them, signing autographs is another. The latter was on display at a recent fan interaction. I was waiting to do an interview with Kallis and watched from the sidelines as supporters interacted with the legend. All of them were a blend of nerves and excitement. He remained cool and composed.He signed a selection of memorabilia, he smiled for photographs, but he maintained distance. He rarely made eye contact and he did not engage in small talk. Most were so overawed to be in his presence that they shuffled past quickly, the way tourists do at a popular monument.Once there was no one left, I stepped into the spot the supporters had occupied, notebook and pen in hand. Absentmindedly, Kallis picked up my pen and began to sign my book.As was his routine, just after marking the first stroke, he looked up. When he realised I was not there for his signature, he stopped mid-way and gave me a sheepish grin. “Sorry, I’ve been doing this all day. I’m just on auto-pilot. Did you need something?”The interview did not last long. Kallis’ answers were concise but informative, so I learnt more from watching than I did from talking. What surprised me was that Kallis remained true to his reputation of being aloof, even though he had come out of his shell in recent years.Since early 2012, four incidents stand out for the different facets of Kallis they revealed: from his generosity to his strong views, his humanity and his love of home. This is the Kallis I think I know.

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January 2012.South Africa were hosting a one-day series against Sri Lanka. The second match was in East London. At practice the day before, once everyone had left, Kallis remained behind. He was soon at the centre of a circle of six school boys.They were the recipients of scholarships from his foundation and were meeting him for the first time. Naturally there were overwhelmed. Because of him, they were being educated at a leading school, Selborne College, something they would otherwise not be able to afford. Kallis hoped it would give them the best chance of either playing cricket professionally or receiving a good enough grounding to prosper in other areas. He was obviously interested in how they were getting on.Even though it was one of the hottest days of the year, like any initial meeting, the ice still needed breaking. Kallis, being the oldest, had to do it. He had planned a question and answer session, and a net practice, but they needed prompted. “Okay, so you can ask me anything,” he said. “Or is everyone too shy?”Eventually, the questions rolled in, some about cricket, others about life. Kallis opened up, revealing things few journalists get to hear. He spoke about the quickest bowler he faced and the best spinner, why he thought sledging should still exist in the game, the thrills of the IPL and the changing nature of cricket. He left them with advice Mark Boucher confirmed two days ago neither he nor Kallis ever took themselves: “Stay away from the girls. Only cricket, and academics.”For the first time since I started covering cricket in 2007, Kallis became a human being to me. I saw his softer side and the joy he got from making a difference.

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March 2012.On a drizzly evening in Dunedin, after three days of the first Test between South Africa and New Zealand, Kallis was the man tasked with addressing the media. It was not a job he enjoyed, but because he was one of two centurions on the day, with the other being the captain, he had no choice.The questions were routine. South Africa were comfortably ahead with a lead of 233 runs and seven wickers in hand and there wasn’t too much to talk about, barring one thing which Kallis actually wanted to discuss.In the penultimate over of the day, he convinced Jacques Rudolph, who eventually also went on to score a hundred, to review being given out lbw off Doug Bracewell and was proved correct because the ball had pitched outside leg stump. On being asked what prompted him to persuade Rudolph to use the technology, Kallis launched into a lengthy monologue about the DRS as a whole and made the startling claim that the overwhelming majority of players did not trust the predictive path.He spoke with conviction and confidence to make plain his doubts about the DRS. “How accurate it is, I don’t know… We are getting that right to a degree but I am not convinced how accurate it really is. I don’t think there are any guys that are 100% sure that the thing is as accurate as they want to make it out to be. They keep saying it, but I’m not so sure and I think 99% of cricketers will say that.”Kallis’ speech was met with a stunned silence. Even those who had covered his career from its beginnings agreed that it was the strongest sentiment Kallis had expressed. He was known as a man who just got on with things but that day he showed he also thought deeply about them, could be bothered by them and was willing to say so.

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July 2012.Mark Boucher suffered a horrific eye injury in South Africa’s first practice match on their tour of England. Because Boucher had planned to retire after the final match of the series, it seemed his career was over.Word filtered through that he had spent the night in a lot of pain and was awaiting surgery. Kallis had been at his side through most of it; he did not arrive with the rest of team at the ground on the second day and did not bat, because he was with Boucher.Midway through the day, Graeme Smith called an impromptu press conference to issue Boucher’s retirement statement. Kallis was with him.I was standing directly opposite Kallis. As Smith read from a piece of paper, his voice shaking as much as the hand that held it, I looked at Kallis. He had his hands behind his back and he was focused on a point on the horizon. His eyes had glazed over but if there were tears hidden in them, he was not going to let them spill. He looked as though he was trying to be strong but he was obviously hurting.Few would have thought they’d see weakness and Kallis side by side, but there they were. I felt for him then. At the same time, I was proud of his devotion. With a friend like him, who could go wrong?

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October 2013.Kallis had not been in the public eye for at least six months. After the IPL, he withdrew himself from the Champions Trophy squad on the eve on its announcement, for personal reasons. He wanted to get away from the game.Shortly before South Africa’s tour of the UAE, he recommitted to South Africa’s one-day squad. It seemed his career, although in its latter stages, had some time left, especially after he spoke before the first Test in Abu Dhabi.Kallis took the podium looking refreshed. He explained it as being the result of a much-needed break, calling it the “best thing I could have done”, and filling us in on how he had spent his time. He had played a lot of golf, including the Dunhill Links Championship, he had gone to braais, he had spent time at home with his friends. In other words, he did all the things someone who is not an international sportsmen does and he enjoyed it.Home has different meanings and holds different importance for various people. Some want to escape it, in search of adventure. Others crave home, because they enjoy its comforts. With all the time Kallis spent on the road, all the Christmases and birthdays missed, all the normal-people things he never got to do, he fell into the latter category.When he spoke of his life in Cape Town then, even though he had only just left it, he seemed to miss it. We should have known then life outside of cricket was calling Kallis.He answered the call on Christmas eve. Kallis called Boucher to say he’d made his decision to retire and Boucher was not surprised. He knew as soon as Kallis began questioning his enthusiasm, the time was right.

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No one saw or heard from Kallis throughout his final Test, because he asked for privacy. His guard was back up. He seemed the single-focused person he was always painted as. But the last two years, especially, have shown there is much more to him.Kallis’ reservation, Boucher explained, is a product of his childhood. Losing his mother at a young age is what Boucher said made Kallis’ early years “not exactly perfect or like other children’s, especially mine”. Kallis formed close bonds with his father and sister. The former passed away ten years ago, so it was up to Kallis to give the latter away at her wedding last week.Moments like that are what those who know Kallis say he lives for. Now that he has retired from Test cricket, he will be able to enjoy many more of them. And he deserves exactly that.

UAE are making a return to a world-level tournament after 18 years, with a semi-professional squad that has punched above its weight

Mohammad Isam11-Mar-2014The six Associate nations participating in the World T20 typify a variety that is unique to international cricket. They offer a range of histories, from the qualification tournament last November to their own personal back stories, providing considerable interest in the first phase of the tournament, which starts on March 16.Ireland and Afghanistan are likely to give Full Members Zimbabwe and Bangladesh a tough challenge in the first round. Netherlands will look to revive the spirit of 2009, when they stunned England in the tournament opener. Nepal and Hong Kong are making their first appearance on the big stage, and UAE are returning to a world-level tournament after 18 years, with a curious group of semi-professionals.Khurram Khan is an airline steward who moonlights as the UAE captain. His team-mate Vikrant Shetty recognises himself as an amateur cricketer; the rest of his time is spent working as a media planner in an advertising company.”You can’t take cricket seriously as a career in the UAE at the moment,” Khurram said. “We all have different full-time jobs and we play in our spare time. Qualifying for the World Cup is a huge achievement for a team which is not professional. But the times are changing and there are lots of young players coming into the game who can take up cricket as a career.”Shetty is on annual leave at the moment, though his employers have let him take additional time off as a special case.”It actually feels good because most of the times I am arranging PR conferences for our clients while now I am actually in a press conference where I am getting questioned,” he said. “So it’s an interesting thing for me. I am not sure which team [those in the UAE] will be supporting because there are many immigrants who are working in the office, but hope they support UAE and that we make a mark.”Cricket in the UAE has grown steadily with qualification to the Under-19 World Cup, the World T20, as well as the 2015 World Cup – their first since 1996 – and prompted the Emirates Cricket Board to offer central contracts to the players. Their coach, Aaqib Javed, who deserves credit for managing his players effectively, was confident the decision will help change thinking in the UAE.”We have 25 to 30 players in the pool,” Aaqib said. “Khurram is working in Emirates Airlines. We have two players who are working at the manager level. Few are doing different jobs. We have already chalked out a plan in cricket. After getting ODI status and qualifying for 2015 World Cup, we are about to offer them a central contract. It will definitely help them get more time for cricket.”Aaqib praised Khurram for being the most hard-working cricketer in the team – one who turns up for training even after long stints at work. “He [Khurram] is one guy who has set high standards. He is 42, and he is the most consistent run-getter.”A perfect role model for others because when he takes flights from Dubai to America, it takes 14-15 hours,” Aaqib said. “He only has few hours to rest and he comes to the practice.”We are unique because we only practice at night. Now we are introducing tough training sessions, of international level.”Aaqib spent almost a decade playing cricket for Pakistan before joining the team as support staff. It was the challenge of working with an Associate nation and building a talent pool to compete at the highest level that prompted him to take over the reins at UAE.”They were in very ordinary physical condition,” he said. “I was shocked on the first day. They work ten hours in the offices and in the evening they come for practice. They are already mentally and physically tired.”I talked to them, convinced them – if you work hard, it will help you in your daily routine. I think it definitely was a positive response from the players. We have achieved a lot in two years. There is a lot of room to improve.”After Aaqib took over, UAE won one first-class game (and drew three), eight out of 13 T20 matches, and 11 out of 19 one-day games.”I think they are better by 50% in every aspect,” he said. “Mentally they believe in themselves. They have played some good cricket. Apart from playing in the UAE, they have qualified for the 2015 World Cup. They are semi-pro. The next step is to make them professionals. It won’t be easy but we will get there.”The preliminary phase will itself be a tough hurdle for Aaqib and Khurram’s UAE, with Ireland and Zimbabwe also vying for the only spot in the main tournament. But for a band of men for whom cricket is a secondary occupation, their simple presence in the tournament is cause for celebration.