Sunday 29 May 2011

The Curious Case of Adrian Shankar

On the face of it, a hardly unusual story cropped up on the pages of Cricinfo this week - English county releases batsman. Lord knows this is a regular occurence and some players, despite their best efforts, fall at the hurdle of cricket at a professional level. However, in many ways, the story of Adrian Shankar is not only uncommon, it is downright strange.

Worcestershire signed Shankar on a two-year deal in early May. His pedigree seemed impressive; Bedford School (previous alumni - Alistair Cook) & Cambridge Blue; Previous 1st and 2nd XI experience at Lancashire and Middlesex. He had also had a productive winter in Sri Lanka, off the back of which Worcestershire saw fit to offer him a contract (a process no doubt hastened by the injury to skipper and opening batsman Daryl Mitchell).

Except, all was not as it seemed. Shankar was bowled for a duck at Lords on debut, then made 10* against Durham a week later before retiring hurt. Suspicion was further aroused by his claims of his Sri Lankan trip, which turned out to be vastly inflated by the man himself - apparently the standard of league he was participating in was much below county standard. Doubts were also raised about his true age; His Lancashire profile suggested he was 26 - Cricinfo 29. As George Dobell of the website said in a follow-up article on Friday, 'it appears Shankar talked his way into a county contract with a mixture of bluff and bravado'.

Some things about Shankar are true - he did indeed score a Varsity hundred in 2002, although according to his Cambridge coach the bowling was 'of very poor standard'. When Shankar signed for Lancashire, comments attributed to his coach about Shankar being 'one of the finest young players he'd ever seen' were completely untrue. No-one at either Worcesteshire or Lancashire appeared to do any due diligence on Shankar before signing him, beyond taking his passport and looking at him in a couple of net sessions, which is staggering.

Shankar spent several seasons in the Surrey Championship playing for my club, Spencer. Although I never met him personally, opinions of him appeared to be mixed, and he tellingly never scored so much as a half-century (to the best of my research) in the premier division of the Surrey Championship while at the club. Isn't this the most obvious indication of all, for most counties, that the player was not up to standard?

Worcestershire have now called in the local Constabulary to investigate. Whether a prosecution will be bought is an open question, but there is no doubting it is an embarrassing episode for Steve Rhodes's side and county cricket in general, at a time when the domestic game has been attracting positive headlines for its renewed confidence in young cricketers.

Monday 23 May 2011

IPL 2011: A very mixed bag

As the interminable group stage of this year’s IPL has finally drawn to a close, now seems an appropriate time to reflect on 75 (yes – 75 – far too bloody many) matches that, more than ever, seem to fall in either of two categories – ferociously exciting (about 1/3) or pretty soporific (the rest).

This year saw two new teams added to the mix – Kochi and Pune. Pune were bloody awful, and that’s all that needs to be said; Yuvraj Singh is not a leader of men. Kochi were inconsistent but showed enough to justify their place in the competition and some of their signings (RP Singh, Parthiv Patel) really paid off.

The early running was made by Mumbai, who lost only once in their first six matches. Sachin Tendulkar led the way with the Orange cap and Lasith Malinga took an astonishing 5/13 in their opening match against Delhi, setting him on the way to the Purple Cap (most wickets), a lead he has not relinquished for the entire tournament. He is currently on 27 wickets – his nearest challenger, Amit Mishra of the eliminated Deccan Chargers, has 19. After that good start, however, last year’s beaten finalists fell away, losing three of their last four. Significantly, however, their thrilling last ball win over Chennai on Sunday means they carry momentum into the first play-off, where they face the same opponents.

Chennai were the most consistent side of the group stage, losing twice in the second half of the season and powered by a strong unit of players – the wiley off-breaks of R Ashwin; Michael Hussey (brilliant signing) at the top of the order; Miserly Doug ‘The Rug’ Bollinger and explosive MS Dhoni. Collectively they have shown last year’s Championship victory was no fluke and their place in the top 4 is merited.

Bangalore looked all at sea for the first three weeks of competition, collecting only one win from their first five. Then Chris Gayle turned up and all hell broke loose – Straight off the plane at Eden Gardens, he slammed 102 from 55 balls and followed it up a week later with 107 from 49 balls against Kings XI. He is now the tournament’s leading run scorer despite playing 5 matches less than everyone else – he has been extraordinary and it is tough not to put RCB’s top spot finish down to his introduction alone.

The big let-down of 2011 were Delhi Daredevils, who staked the house on skipper Virender Sehwag clubbing them into the play-offs. Once he injured his shoulder at the halfway stage, they lacked direction and the overseas recruits of David Warner, Morne Morkel and Colin Ingram sparkled rarely. Irfan Pathan, an obscenely pricey $1.9m purchase at the pre-season auction, did little to justify the hefty pricetag and neither did Umesh Yadav. Deccan Chargers’ race for a play-off spot was put to bed after a 4-match losing streak in the third quarter of the tournament; Shane Warne bowed out with Rajasthan Royals, hampered as they were by financial restraints, lacking consistency although they did beat Mumbai. Kings XI, for whom the hitherto-unknown all-rounder Paul Valthathy made plenty of headlines scoring two hundreds, won four of their last five but still came up short. Jacques Kallis and Gautham Gambhir were the lynchpins of an ultimately satisfactory campaign for Kolkata that sees them take on Mumbai in the first play-off round.

IPL 2011 was too long and unwieldy, with too many uncompetitive matches. With restrictions on the amount of overseas stars allowed to play, and two new teams brought in, the level of competent native players is exposed and they are spread too thinly between the teams – On this evidence, they should go back to a 10-team competition. As with previous IPL tournaments, the fielding has also often been shoddy. And it needs to be shorter – much, much shorter!

Prediction: Bangalore to choke in the group stage, Chennai to face Mumbai in a repeat of last year’s final – but this time the ‘Indians’ will come out on top.

Heroes: Chris Gayle, Paul Valthathy, Lasith Malinga, Shaun Marsh, Adam Gilchrist

Villains: Dan Christian, Sreesanth, Ryan Harris, Lasith Malinga (retire from test cricket? You mug)

Friday 20 May 2011

On Warney's retirement

An era ended today with the retirement of the legend that is Shane Warne. There is literally nothing left to say about the man. Over the years, it's all been said, written and translated into interpretive dance so rather than go over well worn ground, the Tasty Morkels team are off out on a celebratory Warney night.

There will be beer.
There will be barbecued meat.
There will be a teeth-whitening session.
And botox.
And more beer.
Our receding hairlines will get the attention they have long deserved.
We will try to cop off with an actress of whose films we can maybe name one. Two at the outside.
There will be prank phone calls to Mike Gatting in the early hours.
And the morning after, we'll be taking diuretic pills to try and shift the pounds that we'll inevitably have gained as a result of it all.



His legend leaves plenty of room for scope, but before we embark on our mission, in this clip, three minutes in, you will see his real ball of the century. Hugh Jackman losing his middle stump:



"Don't rub 'em. Count 'em"

Sunday 8 May 2011

37

Number of runs hit by Chris Gayle off one IPL over.
It's not just that he did it, but that he did it with the ease of someone just practising his short game at the driving range. Chris Gayle now owns cricket.