Latest news with #VivRichards
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
The Art of Batting by Jarrod Kimber: The Ins and Outs of Cricket's greatest batsmen
The Art Of Batting by Jarrod Kimber (Bloomsbury Sport £20, 288pp) Did you know that manure changed cricket? Before the late 19th century, muck spreading was done by hand, meaning little chunks of the stuff would lurk on the pitch. If a ball hit one it would bounce unpredictably, thereby confusing the batsman. Once dung began to be liquefied and spread by machine, pitches became more reliable. This is the detail in which cricket revels. Football is simple: you have to kick the ball into their net more times than they kick it into yours. Cricket is complex and so those who play the game often exhibit a certain kind of… let's call it 'intensity'. Jarrod Kimber's book provides ample evidence of just how strange cricketers can be. John Wright of New Zealand was so happy with one innings that he glued his gloves to the bat handle, so he could replicate his grip precisely the next time he played. Meanwhile India 's Ranji (Colonel H.H. Shri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji, Jam Sahib of Nawanagar to you) was so scared of the ball as a youngster that his coach tied his right leg to the ground. Chance can play a part – Viv Richards developed his legendary love of hitting to the leg side because the off side of his school ground bordered land owned by someone who wouldn't throw the ball back. But you need to have natural talent in the first place. Experiments conducted indoors have shown that, unlike amateurs, professional batters can still hit the ball even when the lights are turned out. Very few of the so-called 'rules' of batting seem to apply universally. The greatest of all time, Don Bradman, had eyesight rated as 'poor' when he was in the army. You're always told to get your foot to the pitch of the ball, but Kevin Pietersen says he never bothered about that. And Kimber himself admits that on first seeing Steve Smith, 'I compared his chances of success to those of a dead donkey.' The Aussie now appears in sixth place on the list of all-time greats that concludes the book. David 'Bumble' Lloyd, as he discussed facing fast bowling, said: 'The thrill of the game is I know I can get hurt.' In 1953 New Zealand's Bert Sutcliffe was hit by a bouncer and had to visit hospital. On his return he carried on batting, and 'went through so many bandages that they had to try towels to stop the bleeding'. Mark Butcher remembers England's 1998 tour of the West Indies – local fans would line the road making cut-throat signals. His team-mate Alec Stewart 'played forward to a ball that almost displaced his nipple'. You'll need to be a confirmed cricket fan to enjoy (or even understand) this book. You can't make the arguments Kimber is looking to make without using statistics, but it does lead to a prose style that's more clubbing Matthew Hayden than elegant David Gower. That said, a good statistic is always a winner. I love the fact that the record for highest percentage of a side's runs in a completed Test innings happened in the first innings ever, in 1877, when Charles Bannerman scored 165 of Australia's 245 runs.
Express Tribune
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Express Tribune
HBL PSL environment is great: Sir Viv Richards
Sir Viv Richards, the master blaster West Indian batter of the past, acknowledged the status of Indian Premier League (IPL) as the biggest in the world but said he is most comfortable in the HBL Pakistan Super League due to its great environment. The 73-year-old, known for his aggressive batting before the Twenty20 invention, has been working as mentor and great inspiration for Quetta Gladiators franchise in the Pakistan Super League since its inception. Viv said there is no doubt IPL is the biggest. "I have spent most of the time in the PSL but I acknowledge that the IPL is the biggest. There are so many leagues and a lot of Pakistan players themselves go and play these leagues," Viv told in an exclusive interview. "There are top players from around the world in the IPL and together with the local talent they come up with high quality cricket. " The former West Indian captain played 121 Tests and 187 one-day internationals and was part of his team's first two ODI World Cup wins in 1975. In the days when batting was not as hard hitting as it is now, Viv had a strike rate of 90.20 in ODIs. He visualises how he would have played in the current times, with batters needed to hit it out from the word go. "I think I would have been too powerful with a modern bat and would have found this format very tempting. I used to love dominating the bowling and this format would have suited my style." Viv admitted the white-ball formats are more inclined towards batters. "Yes, white-ball cricket, ODIs or T20I cricket are so tilted towards the batters and with two balls in ODIs bowlers are at a disadvantage. But the crowd comes to watch batters and shots going out of the ground. Viv said he loved to be in the Quetta Gladiators dug out. "Ten years ago I first met the owner and the family and the support staff and found it a comfortable place. Ten years later, it is as exciting and as comfortable as on day one. "The PSL has been a comfortable league for me. The environment is great and we have seen the good times and bad times together." Viv said Quetta was gaining momentum with each match. "They are trying their best to compete. The most important thing for us is to concentrate on what we are capable of. " Viv said the ultimate goal is to win the title. "The last few years we have been down in terms of our competitive nature and that's what we want to regain. As long as we compete and compete well, that to me is the evidence that you need to hope to win and see ourselves in the final and win the title."
The Guardian
02-04-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Intriguing and deep list of overseas stars head for County Championship
Those of us lucky enough to watch county cricket in the 1980s, with a packet of Salt'n'Shake in one hand and an autograph book in the other, could tick off Viv Richards at Somerset, Malcolm Marshall at Hampshire, Michael Holding at Derbyshire (imagine!) and Courtney Walsh at Gloucestershire in only a couple of games. And that was just for starters. The growth of franchise cricket means that players at the peak of their powers will rarely now sign on the dotted line to spend their entire summer in northern climes perfecting their red-ball skills. But the appeal remains, like a sudden blast of Madonna's Into the Groove from a passing car as you wait for the lights to change. The 2025 County Championship overseas roster is an intriguing one. Choose your games carefully and you have a chance to watch some of the world's best do battle against each other and the indignities of the British weather. There is a mix of faces flying in, from those who have made county grounds their second homes, such as Kemar Roach at the Oval, the perpetually nomadic, such as Shan Masood, now on to his third county with Leicestershire, and exciting new talents such as the left-handed Australian opening batter Caleb Jewell, setting up shop at Derby's County Ground, beckoned by the promises of Mickey Arthur. Middlesex made the marquee signing of the winter, unveiling New Zealand's Kane Williamson, who will arrive at the club in mid-May before their first Blast game and will remain until the end of September, barring his time with London Spirit. Other second-division imports include Sri Lanka's Asitha Fernando, who lands at Sophia Gardens on the back of doing so well against England last year, and Marcus Harris, who will wear the red rose for the entire summer, legwork done during previous stints with Leicestershire and Gloucestershire. The leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, Jos Buttler's chess opponent of choice during Indian Premier League lulls, returns to Northamptonshire to inspect the new broom being whisked about by the incoming head coach, Darren Lehmann. There will be two Australian Camerons at Bristol – the new red-ball captain Bancroft, who will be available for the entire summer, barring the first game, and Green, who plays courtesy of a mysterious benefactor – in the words of a club spokesperson, 'Probably not Arron Banks.' Green will thunder his boots into the ground between games three to seven, starting with the away game against Adam Hollioake's Kent. Gloucestershire have also signed the versatile Australian all-rounder Beau Webster, who can switch from swing to off-spin with the flick of a wrist. He'll play mostly in the Blast, but will be available for the Championship fixtures against Yorkshire and Glamorgan in June. Anderson Phillip was one of the few bright sparks in Lancashire's dismal 2024 county season, collecting 15 wickets in three matches as relegation loomed large. He's back again this year, this time for the full summer, with the possibility of bowling alongside his namesake Jimmy, who has been ruled out of the first block of games with an injury to his right calf. 'Last year was a good experience,' Phillip says. 'The opportunity presented itself and I grabbed it with both hands. It was a difficult season for the guys but I admired the way they went about it. And I'm excited to share a dressing room with Jimmy Anderson. 'I've had many chats with our coaches back in the West Indies – most of our legends played a lot of cricket in England. It is something that is looked back on fondly. Playing in England helped West Indian cricket a lot. Red-ball cricket develops your cricketing skills. Once you play red ball it becomes easier to play white ball.' His countryman Jayden Seales, who was a revelation at Hove in the first part of last season (38 wickets in seven games) has re-signed for Sussex – though this time as a Division One player. Meanwhile Kemar Roach is welcomed back to south London for the fifth successive season – he'll play only the first four games but is a key and much-loved part of Surrey's Championship-winning side. A familiar face in Mohammad Abbas returns, though this time in the unfamiliar colours of Nottinghamshire, after 180 wickets at 19 across four summers in Southampton. He is due to play six games and arrives in May to replace the Victorian seamer Fergus O'Neill. Nottinghamshire have also signed the exciting South African wicketkeeper-batter Kyle Verreynne, who averages more than 50 in first-class cricket. The New Zealand captain, Tom Latham, was due in Birmingham but will miss the start of Warwickshire's season after breaking a hand in training for domestic club Canterbury. Up in the north-east, Durham, already blessed by David Bedingham's services (Division One's highest scorer last year) have persuaded over the exciting Australian seamer Brendan Doggett until the end of May. Somerset are smug after buttoning up Matt Henry for the first seven games, the New Zealander Jacob Duffy goes to New Road in the quest to keep Worcestershire in Division One, while Nathan Smith gets the possibly easier job of helping Surrey to secure their fourth title in a row. Dean Elgar will bat and bat and Simon Harmer will bowl and bowl for Essex. Also in the shop window are the once overseas but now locally qualified Dan Worrall, who may be snapped up by Brendon McCullum before the summer is out, and Zafar Gohar, who hotfoots it over from Bristol to Lord's. It's not a bad roll call. And if you judge the Championship by the players who choose to play in it, there's life in the old dog yet. The South Asian Cricket Academy is one of English cricket's biggest success stories of the past five years. Set up to fix the disparity between the number of south Asian cricketers playing recreational cricket and those making it in the professional game, it has guided a number of young players through an unfamiliar and sometimes unfriendly system. Seven Saca graduates go into the Championship season with county contracts. The most written about is Yorkshire's Jafer Chohan, a leg-spinner who sparked England's interest and played in the Big Bash. The fast bowler Zaman Akhter, who like Chohan was part of the Lions setup last winter, is at Gloucestershire; while Kashif Ali, Saca's first graduate in 2022, who spent his winter working on his batting in Pakistani first-class cricket, and the pace bowler Yadvinder Singh, coming back from a stress fracture, are with Worcestershire. The all-rounder Zain ul-Hassan is at Glamorgan, the batter Zen Malik signed a two-year deal with Warwickshire in November, and Andy Umeed is almost part of the furniture at Somerset. With a number of other young men trialling around the counties, including Arafat Bhuiyan (formerly of Kent) at Surrey, and the fast bowlers Chinmay Mullapudi at Bristol and Hassan Mughal at Old Trafford, and on the back of a pre-season tour of Abu Dhabi, the co-founder Tom Brown is looking forward to 'our biggest summer yet'. Saca have 50 days of cricket against county second XIs and a game against a team from Mumbai. 'We're in a really good place right now.' Since opening its doors in 2022, Saca has had more than 500 applicants. As its funding has increased – it gets £135,000 from the England and Wales Cricket Board, plus sponsorship and partnerships – it has been able to expand and has 60 players on the books. But the aim has always been obsolescence – ideally by 2028. 'The south Asian element can't exist for ever, or you become relied upon and counties feel they don't need to worry about doing the work for these players,' Brown says. 'But we may continue in some other form because what we're doing works at producing pro cricketers.' What that form takes is open for discussion, possibly a programme aimed at a different community or one to fill the gap for players over 18 now the universities are no longer funded by the ECB and the MCC younger cricketers and unicorns no longer exist. 'If that's not rectified,' Brown says, 'we are officially the only over-18s programme.' Watch this space. I love Vinted … I don't really spend money in main shops any more, I find myself looking at the clothes, feeling the material and thinking, I could get this cheaper and better on Vinted! There is so much greenwashing around, this is a win-win' – England's Maia Bouchier on the joy of second-hand clothes. 29 March 2010: There was a full moon hovering over the County Championship season opener between Middlesex and Durham. Yes, it wasn't the most traditional start to the new campaign, with floodlights and a pink ball in use at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Durham's bowlers wasted no time in wrapping up a comprehensive 311-run victory. The champions resumed on day four needing three more wickets and mopped up the tail in 45 minutes. Simon Burnton and Tanya Aldred tee up the new county season with their team-by-team Championship guide. Charlotte Edwards has been named as the new England women's head coach, nine years after she played her last international match. Raf Nicholson explains why the ECB has hit on a winner. In an interview with Taha Hashim, the Surrey wicketkeeper Ben Foakes talks about the mental toll of his stop-start Test career, the freedom of moving on and his T20 ambitions. Taha has also been busy chatting to Surrey's Dom Sibley. Derbyshire's Pat Brown tells Ali Martin about his rise to prominence with a fiendish knuckleball in 2019 and how he is hoping to revive his fortunes after injury struggles. And after years of strife, Yorkshire start the county season with a new coach, a strong squad and a burning desire to prove the critics wrong, writes Tanya. … by writing to To subscribe to The Spin, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
