NEW DELHI - Former Australia cricket coach, John Buchanan has accused the Indian media of taking his comments on former and current Indian cricketers out of context.
He also said that he bore no malice towards anyone.
In his just released book ‘The Future of Cricket: The Rise of Twenty20′, Buchanan has taken a swipe at Sunil Gavaskar, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Mark Ramprakash, Shoaib Akhtar, Kevin Pietersen and Vijay Mallya.
“People would have to read the entire book to understand its meaning,” he said.
While talking of the IPL franchisee meet in Goa before the second season of the T-20 league, Buchanan refers to an incident where his suggestion of allowing more international players to play in the IPL was referred to the IPL technical committee, which is headed by Gavaskar.
To this, Buchanan writes, “What this means is that any ideas that affect the way T20 might be played are referred to a committee chaired by a person who is blinkered by bias and tradition.”(ANI)
Brian, I hesitate to ask this,' I said, 'and I do so with all due respect. But, Brian, ask it I must. Brian, taking into account your run of low scores against England in this series and form of late that is possibly below the standards you expect of yourself… [by this time I was choking back the tears]... Brian, are you at all concerned that your great talent may be... on the wane?'
Three days later, West Indies declared their first innings closed at 751 for five. Lara was not out 400, the highest Test score ever made. He had batted for 778 minutes, faced 582 balls, hit 43 fours and four sixes and it was all my fault.
More memories? I won’t mention the first time I met Brian, when we were team-mates in a charity match as Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire in the early Nineties, when he got a duck and I scored 50, because that would be showing off. Get in.
And I certainly won't mention the time a Scottish colleague of mine, himself an occasional left-hander, attempted to demonstrate a flaw he had spotted in Lara's technique by moving back and across and promptly passing out blind drunk at The Pelican Bar, Port-of-Spain.
When discussing the claims of batsmen such as WG Grace, Don Bradman, George Headley and Jack Hobbs, Graeme Pollock, Viv Richards, Javed Miandad and others to the title of the greatest batsman of all time, the rivalry between Lara and Sachin Tendulkar for the best of recent times always crops up.
At the obvious risk of upsetting about a billion Indians, my own view, for what it is worth, is that while Tendulkar is and has been, indisputably, a truly great batsman, Lara played more truly great innings, when they really mattered, and I was privileged to watch my idea of the best of them all, in the third Test of the 1999 series against Australia at Kensington Oval, Barbados.
When West Indies were bowled out for 51 in the first innings of the first Test in Trinidad, Lara took most of the blame and when, the night before the start of the second Test in Jamaica, he was spotted in Kingston’s loudest nightclub, many commentators took great delight in pointing out it was called The Asylum.
Even after his double-hundred there had helped win the match and draw the four-match series 1-1, a proportion of the Barbados crowd booed when, on the penultimate evening of the third Test, Lara failed to appear as scheduled and a nightwatchman walked out instead.
Twenty-four hours later however, they were all cheering and cheering a match-winning innings kissed by genius, 153 not out.
That day Lara was too good for Australia and possibly too good for words. And to me, despite that early-morning phone call, that just about sums him up
Australian cricket team captain Ricky Ponting looks on the fourth day of the fourth and final test cricket match between India and Australia in Nagpur. (AP Photo/Gautam Singh)
Australia's batting is all that stands between India and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after a farcical fourth day of the final cricket test in Nagpur.
The Australians are 0-13 chasing a highly unlikely 382 for victory today.
The target might have been far smaller had captain Ricky Ponting risked a ban for slow over rates by persisting with his pace bowlers after tea yesterday to support debutant spinner Jason Krejza.
Seemingly more worried about a ban than the second most prestigious trophy available to Australia in tests after the Ashes, Ponting used Cameron White, Mike Hussey and Michael Clarke for 12 overs that gave up 47 easy runs to Mahendra Dhoni (55) and Harbhajan Singh (52).
"I don't think for one second that Ricky hasn't pressed for the win," coach Tim Nielsen said in the captain's defence.
"It's easy to sit up in the commentary box or anywhere in the ground and poke fire at the captain because of the decisions he's making out there.
"At the end of the day he's got the responsibility to bowl the overs he has to bowl, there's no way India can come here tomorrow and bowl 20 overs because they feel we're going well - there's a responsibility for both teams, all teams to make sure they bowl the 90 overs required in the spirit of the game."
Krejza, in particular, deserved a better fate after conjuring two wonderful deliveries to claim his ninth and 10th wickets of a memorable match.
His match haul of 12-358 stands as the equal third best test debut of alltime, but also the second most runs conceded by a bowler in a test.
With the high profile Indian Premier League taking place in India right now, interest in local cricket matches opposite weak sides like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have been of little interest. It is certainly disheartening. But our team never gave up. In the past few weeks, Pakistan has played on home-ground with Bangladesh and before that Zimbabwe and our young players like Salman Butt, Umar Gul, as well as veterans Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan as well as cappy Shoaib Malik have won every single game.
In other words, we won 11 straight one-day international games in a row and in the process, the young guns of Pakistani cricket set a record.
We followed up this triumph by playing a Twenty20 game with Bangladesh and again thrashed them.
With major players like Abdul Razzaq, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shabbir Ahmed among countless others out of the team - they now form Lahore Badshahs under the wing of Indian Cricket League - it must've been difficult for our players
to win every single match and that too at a time when most people are tuned to IPL matches that have Bollywood stars and international players pitched together.
ZFor having the heart to play their best and not giving in to pressure, we at Instep salute these young stars. And here's why the Pakistan cricket team are Instep's hotsteppers of the week!
With the high profile Indian Premier League taking place in India right now, interest in local cricket matches opposite weak sides like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have been of little interest. It is certainly disheartening. But our team never gave up. In the past few weeks, Pakistan has played on home-ground with Bangladesh and before that Zimbabwe and our young players like Salman Butt, Umar Gul, as well as veterans Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan as well as cappy Shoaib Malik have won every single game.
In other words, we won 11 straight one-day international games in a row and in the process, the young guns of Pakistani cricket set a record.
We followed up this triumph by playing a Twenty20 game with Bangladesh and again thrashed them.
With major players like Abdul Razzaq, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shabbir Ahmed among countless others out of the team - they now form Lahore Badshahs under the wing of Indian Cricket League - it must've been difficult for our players to win every single match and that too at a time when most people are tuned to IPL matches that have Bollywood stars and international players pitched together.
For having the heart to play their best and not giving in to pressure, we at Instep salute these young stars. And here's why the Pakistan cricket team are Instep's hotsteppers of the week!
In a brilliant display of teamwork, commitment, and maturity, the Indian cricket team beat Australia 2-0 in the best of three finals to lift the Commonwealth Bank triseries in Australia. The second final in particular was an absolute humdinger and the manner in which youngsters responded in the pressure cooker situation was nothing short of remarkable. This is definitely the Indian team’s most notable achievement in the 50 over format in years and should prove to be a fantastic springboard for more success over the next couple of years.
All round performance gives India vital victory:
It is true that the Indian victory at the SCG and at the Gabba was set up by the little champion Sachin Tendulkar, but it is heartening to see that several individuals contributed over the two matches. From Rohit Sharma’s patient 50 that helped India chase down 240 in the final to Harbhajan’s crucial blows in the middle overs to Praveen Kumar’s spectacular 4 for 46 in the second final, both the finals had enough instances of Indian players stepping up during crucial moments. What was so remarkable about the matches is the fact that not one Australian player barring James Hopes was able to lift their game in either of the games. Vindication of selection policy:
India’s success in the triseries is not just a vindication of MS Dhoni’s captaincy skills but is also a shot in the arm for the selection committee that has been trumpeting the need to promote rookies at the expense of experienced warhorses. There has been a lot of criticism of the policy that has led to the introduction of several youngsters at one time rather than in phases. But, to the credit of the selection committee it has to be said that they gave the captain the team he wanted.
Fantastic climax to a long tour:
With this victory, an eventful Australian tour that will go down in history not for the runs scored but for the insults traded finally come to an end in a moment of triumph for Indian cricket. This victory will also hopefully give the Indian and Australian medias enough things to write about without having to resort to articles about the childish behaviour of the two sides. But mostly, I am hoping that this is not another false dawn for Indian cricket, and that this team can start putting together good performances consistently and is more than just a mere collection of several stars as has been the case for many years.
