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A play about the life and untimely death of Colin Milburn conveys the highs and the lows of a unique cricketer

David Hopps11-Nov-2016Colin Milburn was about as far removed from the identikit picture of the perfect international cricketer as it was possible to be. So overweight that he could have starred in – Morgan Spurlock’s exposé of the fast-food industry. Dishevelled, disorganised and gradually drinking himself to death, it was astonishing even in the 1960s that England ever turned to him. These days, even at county level, he would not get a look in.But that was much of Milburn’s charm. For all his 18 stone (“and the rest” according to some of those who tried to change his ways at Northamptonshire), he was light on his feet, possessed of rapid reflexes and destructive of shot. The ball could disappear many a mile off a Milburn bat. Add his perpetual image of cheery bonhomie, his love for a joke and a night out, and he was an extraordinary antidote to the seriousness that pervaded English cricket half-a-century ago. For all the notion of the Swinging Sixties, in English cricket only the fat man was swinging.An average of 46.71 in nine Tests tells of Milburn’s talent. But the barbs were already out about his fitness when he lost an eye, and damaged the other, in a car crash in 1968. Northants had just beaten the West Indies tourists and Milburn was in celebratory mood. He lost control of the car, heading back to the Abington pub by the Northants ground for some more beers, and crashed through the windscreen. The Road Safety bill had been introduced in 1966, the breathalyser a year later; seat belts became compulsory in 1983. It was a tragedy of its time, not carrying the mantle of shame that it would today.Milburn’s gloriously unlikely career, and the extent of the mental-health issues that welled up after his accident, are explored in , a one-man play written by Dougie Blaxland (aka James Graham-Brown, the former Kent cricketer), which is about halfway through its tour of the county grounds. It has been produced in association with the Professional Cricketers’ Association to promote mental health and well-being. In a desperately unhappy turn of fate, Alan Hodgson, Milburn’s former county team-mate, flatmate for a decade, and a primary source for much of the material, died a few days before the premiere.The strong implication is that Milburn’s seeds of self-destruction were sown even before his car accident, and the fact that this is a one-man performance adds to his sense of isolation. “The more you are hurt, the more you smile,” was actually the cricketing advice of his father, Jack Milburn, a Durham local-league slugger, about how to take a blow from a fast bowler, but it neatly widens out into Milburn’s message for life as he learns from childhood to tell a succession of fat jokes against himself.Remaining dates

November 11 – Durham (Riverside Emirates)

12 – Burnopfield CC

14 – Essex (County Ground, Chelmsford)

15 – Kent (Spitfire Ground, Canterbury)

16 – Sussex (1st Central County Ground, Hove)

17 – Surrey (Kia Oval)

18 – Middlesex (Lord’s)

19 – Teddington CC

21 – Hampshire (Ageas Bowl)

22 – Leicestershire (Fischer County Ground, Leicester)

23 – Nottinghamshire (Trent Bridge Inn, Nottingham)

24 – Northamptonshire (County Ground, Northampton)

25 – West Hallam CC

Only cricket sustains him. A long-standing engagement eventually falters because he prefers to be out with the lads. He cannot hold down a job in the off season. Whenever he seems down, his mates do what men did – still do – and take him to the pub to cheer him up.Milburn’s accident hastened a decline that perhaps was inevitable, although his mother, Bertha, felt that effectively his life was ended on that night. With his left eye lost – his leading eye, unlike in the case of the Nawab of Pataudi, whose example Milburn hoped he could emulate – and his right eye badly scarred, his prospects of a comeback were minimal, but his bedside manner was so defiant the hospital report that year suggested that it was he who was lifting the nurses.Ill-advisedly, Northants allowed him one last heave in 1974 – their version, perhaps, of caring for his welfare – and predictably he did not succeed, save for an hour at Guildford against Surrey in light so bright that “the sun lit up the sky like a meteor”, one of the most moving passages of the play. But then the clouds rolled in and they never departed.”I tell them every fat joke I know… I am ‘Comedy Ollie’, the joker, but it never occurs to you that one day you might run out of jokes.”The play is set in the bar of the North Briton pub in Newton Aycliffe on the last night of his life. It is one last performance for “Comedy Ollie”, a traipse through the highs and lows, the tales, the songs and the bonhomie that characterised his life. Feedback from those former Northants team-mates who have seen it has been highly positive: it connects with the Ollie they knew well. Even now, there is a reluctance to accept that there was too much unhappiness, and to some degree the play respects this. Nevertheless, as Milburn reminisces, there is little sense in Dan Gaisford’s performance of the alcoholic exhaustion that had set in. His moment of death is delicately skipped around: not so much as a sound effect.Inevitably this is theatre at its most rudimentary. There is no set, apart from a table, chair and a large glass of gin and coke. Milburn’s girth is symbolised by a bit of extra padding around Gaisford’s middle, and he is not an overweight man. But by no stretch of the imagination is this austere theatre: there is much laughter to be had. I don’t know if the baby balloon joke was Milburn’s, but it should have been.When I was eight, I would pretend to be Ollie Milburn in a knockaround cricket match on a patch of village green. Overweight at the time as I was, it doubtless had its psychological benefits. The role duly chosen, the intent was to try to hit the ball many a mile, a feat occasionally achieved alongside the tumble of many wickets. “Can you be Boycott instead,” my mate Bob pleaded one day. “We’ve only got one tennis ball left.”Late in his life, in the mid-1980s, I joined Milburn as an emergency fill-in for an hour’s county cricket commentary at Scarborough on a premium telephone service. He was hungover, shambolic and had little to say. This being Scarborough, I was probably hungover too, and had even less to offer. People were expected to phone in and pay about 30p a minute. There was surely nobody on the line. It was probably his last job and it paid his bar bill. His decline was all too apparent. succeeds in capturing Milburn’s uniqueness – not an overused word in this case – conveying something of his life at his highest and lowest moments. It left me hankering for something even more ambitious; in its exploration of the sadness behind the famous sporting figure there were reminders of . Being about football and Brian Clough, that had a successful theatre run. Cricket, by contrast, must take what it can get but all involved in this production, the PCA included, have delivered not only an entertaining night’s theatre but a story that needed to be told.When The Eye Has Gone is part of the PCA’s commitment to mental-health and well-being issues, notably the Mind Matters series, which warns about addictive behaviour through alcohol, substances or gambling and educates about the warning signs of anxiety and depression.

Queensland wicketkeeper Chris Hartley on his record dismissals, the frustration of remaining on the sidelines, and the dangers of fast-tracking young players too soon

Brydon Coverdale08-Feb-2017Since December 19, 2003, Australia’s selectors have chosen ten different wicketkeepers to represent the country in Test, one-day international or T20 cricket: Adam Gilchrist, Brad Haddin, Matthew Wade, Peter Nevill, Tim Paine, Graham Manou, Luke Ronchi, Ben Dunk, Peter Handscomb and Cameron Bancroft.During the same period, eight men have been picked to keep wickets in first-class matches for Australia A, the kind of selection that tells a gloveman he is not far off a baggy green: Haddin, Wade, Paine, Nevill, Ronchi, Bancroft, Sam Whiteman and, going back to the week of December 19, 2003 itself, Wade Seccombe.Why is that date of relevance? Because that is when Chris Hartley, then a 21-year-old understudy to Seccombe in the Queensland squad, made his debut for his state. And it was some sort of an entrance: while Seccombe was in Hobart playing against the touring Indians for Australia A, Hartley scored 103 on his first-class debut at the Gabba. More importantly by Hartley’s reckoning, Queensland won the match.For most of the 13 years since, Hartley has been a fixture of the Queensland team and has been regarded by good judges as one of the best – perhaps at times best – gloveman in the country. Last week, he surpassed Darren Berry’s Sheffield Shield record of 546 wicketkeeping dismissals, which he described as “a very proud personal achievement”.Another remarkable feat is approaching: this week against New South Wales, Hartley will play his 100th consecutive Shield game. Only two other players in history have managed 100 consecutive Shield games, both Tasmanians: opener Jamie Cox, who played 106 in a row from 1994 to 2004, and allrounder Shaun Young who played 104 straight from 1991 to 2001.”I didn’t realise that, but I’ll take a lot of pride in that as well,” Hartley says. “Wicketkeeping is a very physical part of the game, so your physical preparation needs to match that. I’ve taken that very seriously over my career.”It is natural that these feats bring Hartley immense pride. But they are also achievements that have been possible only because higher honours have never been his, in much the same way that Cox never played for Australia and Young gained a baggy green only in exceptional circumstances. Notably, every one of Hartley’s 129 first-class matches and 562 dismissals have been for Queensland.Hartley now holds the Shield record for the most keeping dismissals in a career•Getty ImagesA gloveman could accept not playing a Test – there is only one spot in the team, and always six state keepers competing for it – but never even getting a first-class game for Australia A? That, Hartley admits, has hurt a little. The only time he has ever been called up for Australia A was back in 2005, for three one-day games in Pakistan when Haddin was injured mid-tour.”That’s been an area of frustration for me,” Hartley says. “I was fortunate that I played some one-day games with Australia A very early on. Brad Haddin was injured on a tour of Pakistan and I was given an opportunity on the back of only a few games at first-class level. Certainly selectors were looking at potential there.”What’s been frustrating is that I know that clearly I’ve improved as a cricketer since then, for a long period of time now, and I feel like at some stage through the journey there would’ve been a chance to show at that level again where those improvements were. The feedback I always got over the course of that time was that the selectors … knew what I was capable of and it was about putting performances on the board.”I feel like I’ve consistently been doing that. It is an area of frustration not to be given more chances to represent there, but any time you go out for your state anyway you’re still only one step off playing for your country. Any time I got frustrated I just redirected that back into my training and preparation and making sure I could find a way to play my best cricket for Queensland.”And that he has done with exceptional skill and consistency. A quick look at his stats would mark Hartley down as not a good enough batsman for the next level. A first-class batting average of 33? Forget about it. Such is the superficial view. But that number is skewed by early seasons of lower output. It took Hartley five more summers before he added another hundred to his century on debut.Instead, consider the list of batting averages among wicketkeepers since the start of the 2013-14 season, with a ten-game minimum: Nevill (53.18), Hartley (42.88), Wade (38.61), Whiteman (36.52), Alex Carey (26.82), Paine (22.84), Tim Ludeman (22.25). Make no mistake, Hartley can bat, and is viewed by Shield bowlers around the country as one of the hardest batsmen to dismiss. As an opener in the 2014 Matador Cup, he was third on the tournament run tally.”To me, the best measure of any player is whether they’re contributing to a side winning games”•Getty Images”You hope that your performances do all your talking for you, and that’s where some frustration has come in, because I think certainly in the last three or four years at least, my performances have spoken loudly, particularly in terms of what I can do with the bat,” Hartley says. “People also need to understand that you do different roles for different teams.”In my formative years with the Bulls I probably wasn’t relied on with the bat as much, because of the strong top order that we had. Quite a few times an innings might have been trying to get a few quick runs leading into a declaration, and not getting as many opportunities to have a long innings. Current form is what’s most important and that’s what I’m really focused on.”And if we’re talking current form, then Hartley has all of his contemporaries covered. In the Shield last week, he scored an unbeaten 102 as captain to lead Queensland to a win over Tasmania; this season he has 374 runs at 74.80, more runs and a better average than any other keeper (leaving out Josh Inglis, whose 40 and 49 not on debut for Western Australia last week left him averaging 89).Yet Wade is the incumbent Test wicketkeeper, Nevill the man he replaced, and Whiteman the Australia A gloveman of last year. So where does a 34-year-old Hartley sit in the pecking order? Your guess is as good as his, but he has not given up hope.”I still believe that you pick a cricket team based on the best players,” he says. “Yes, other factors come into it and certainly the selectors will always have an eye to the future. But I think the best teams are the ones that have the best players in them, in terms of form and performances on the board.”While I’m still in the position of not having played a Test match, it will still be a goal of mine to achieve that. I think I’ve got the performances on the board, I think I’ve got the game to play at Test level. I think the wicketkeeping position in the last 12 months has been looked at closely, so if ever there’s a time to be putting some performances on the board, right now is a pretty good time.””I think the [Test] wicketkeeping position in the last 12 months has been looked at closely, so if ever there’s a time to be putting some performances on the board, right now is a pretty good time”•Getty ImagesHe thought 2009 was a pretty good time, too, and that he had a reasonable chance of being the reserve gloveman behind Haddin on that year’s Ashes tour. Instead, the job went to Graham Manou. Undeterred, Hartley signed to play Lancashire League cricket that year in order to be ready and nearby just in case, and when Haddin and Manou were both recovering from injuries in the lead-up to the fifth Test, Hartley got called on to keep in a two-day game against the England Lions.”To be able to watch the preparation of players like Ricky Ponting – even only being there for 48 hours, I learnt a hell of a lot in that space,” Hartley says.But time moves on: both Haddin and Manou are retired, yet still Hartley finds himself somewhere in the middle of the national wicketkeeping queue. Who does he rate highest for pure glovework among current Australian keepers?”Purely on glovework, I think Peter Nevill is the best keeper in Australia,” Hartley says. “He’s clearly done a lot of hard work on his game, because he’s very, very efficient. His basic wicketkeeping technique is very, very sound. That’s why he makes very few errors. He’s a very accomplished gloveman, and I think he’s still at the top of the tree.”I think one to keep an eye on is Alex Carey from South Australia. He hasn’t played a lot of cricket at this level just yet, and it’s not just the fact that he’s taken quite a few dismissals this year – I’ve kept an eye on the way he’s gone about it. He moves well, he’s got some very good basics. That’s key for any cricketer, but certainly for wicketkeepers: if you don’t have your basics in order, when you’re under pressure or fatigued that gets found out.”And pressure is something that Hartley would like to see return to domestic cricket. Pressure to perform, pressure to win. When he first joined the Queensland squad, he was told by Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds that team performance was all that mattered. If you focused on the team and on contributing to a win, individual results would naturally follow.Among Australian keepers, Hartley rates Peter Nevill (keeping) as the best, and Alex Carey (batting) as one to watch out for•Getty ImagesThirteen years later, the landscape has changed somewhat. The Matador Cup now features a Cricket Australia XI, designed to expose young players to the elite level even if they are not good enough to make their state squad. Yet because this team is not expected to win, individual performances become the focus. This, Hartley believes, is a concern.”One thing you want to do when you’re developing players is find a way to get them contributing to the team,” he says. “If you’ve got 11 players going out there and basically having a net or trying to put their own name up in lights, that starts to go away from the fabric of the great state teams and Australian teams of the past, that are very team-focused.”And the Sheffield Shield? Winning seems now to matter less than producing players who will go on to represent Australia.”Where players these days feel it might have changed is that the producing of Australian players and the focus of that development side of it has maybe overtaken the competition side of it,” Hartley says. “To me, the best measure of any player, whether they’re young or old, whether they’ve played a lot of games or not many games, is whether they’re performing and contributing to a side winning games.”The Australian side, every time they walk out on the park, should be trying to win games of cricket. So who are the players who are actually going to help win that game of cricket? They’re the ones that should be getting picked. That’s how it was when I first started. That’s how I learnt the game. That’s always been a very successful way for the Australian team to operate. What you want is to try and mirror that at the level below with state cricket. To me, state cricket and international cricket is all about winning.”Instead, it seems at times that the Sheffield Shield has simply become an extension of the pathways system. Greg Chappell, a national selector as well as national talent manager, last week referred to a “pick and stretch policy we have with our young players, to keep exposing them to more challenges at the highest level possible, to help them develop their skills.””For wicketkeepers, if you don’t have your basics in order, when you’re under pressure or fatigued that gets found out”•Getty ImagesThere are times when this even seems to extend to the national side. When fast bowler Billy Stanlake was picked in the ODI squad, selector Trevor Hohns said that “now is the right time to give him a chance to stretch himself”. Of Hilton Cartwright, handed a baggy green in Sydney, Hohns last week said: “He was another young player who we took the opportunity to introduce into the team environment, hoping that down the track, that will spur him on to want to get back there again.”While Hartley understands the balancing act required of selectors to consider the future as well as the present, he believes that development belongs at levels below state and international cricket. The pathways system, he says, has changed since he came through Queensland’s under-age sides and the Academy. As Hartley recalls, his pathway still led to a door that needed bashing down even to earn a game for Queensland.”One of the best things that happened to me at the start of my career was, right at the end of that Under-19 phase. I was stuck behind Wade Seccombe in the state squad, and had to do at least a two-year apprenticeship behind him,” Hartley says. “I was desperate to play for my state as some of my contemporaries were doing – Nathan Hauritz and Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson – but I had to keep waiting.”One thing that did do for me was it taught me about never taking an opportunity for granted and then when you do get a chance, holding on to that opportunity and making it count. I think perhaps that’s somewhere the game has changed a little bit. We want to give our young players a lot of opportunities to expose them, but we don’t want to give them too much, because we need them to be hungry and we need them to be motivated to push to that next level.”The absolute pointy end of the pyramid is playing for your country. That’s it. That’s where you’ve got to be picking your best XI. That’s where it’s got to be about winning matches and about competition. To me, all the development and the exposure and all of those things happen along the way, in the pathways system.”There really are a lot of opportunities for young guys these days. The way you get those best performances out of people is to make them hungry, and I think if you give them too much too soon and too often, players perhaps get comfortable and they’re not quite as resilient.”And resilience, as anyone who has listened to Steven Smith speak at almost any press conference in the past six months, is what Australia crave right now. Talent is a given, but only resilience will help Australia avoid repeats of the humiliation they suffered in Sri Lanka last year, or at home to South Africa earlier this summer.So maybe in this week of recognising Hartley’s remarkable on-field achievements, Australian cricket should also heed his sensible words. For how many of the new generation will remain as hungry as Chris Hartley in another 13 years?

Chris Woakes might not have his name in bright lights like some of his country’s superstars, but his true value may be realized as England pursues its maiden global ODI trophy without him

George Dobell02-Jun-2017Like a safety harness or parachute, there are some things you appreciate more in their absence. So it may prove with Chris Woakes. While he rarely gains the headlines of Ben Stokes or Joe Root, he has developed into a valuable – if slightly unsung – player in this England ODI side.The plan in this ICC Champions Trophy was for him to take the new ball and bowl at the death, perhaps the two most difficult requirements for bowlers in modern ODI cricket. While he is still learning his trade in both departments, his pace, skill and calm head under pressure render him a valuable player. Replacing him is far from easy.It’s not just the bowling either. Coming in at No. 8, Woakes offers reassuring stability in the lower middle-order. His unbeaten 95 against Sri Lanka 12 months ago was the highest score by a No. 8 in the history of ODI cricket. He did something similar when England subsided to 124 for 6 in Antigua in March by striking an unbeaten 68 to help his side to a four-wicket win. His absence increases pressure just a little on those above him. It’s as if their safety net has been removed and for a team encouraged to play fearless, aggressive cricket, that could be relevant.England have a few replacement options as seamers. While it looks as if they will resist the temptation of returning to Stuart Broad, whose role in the Test team renders him more valuable than ever, it means the strongest contenders are Steven Finn, Tom Curran and Toby Roland-Jones. Curran is uncapped at international level and Roland-Jones has one cap after making his debut on May 29 against South Africa. It means that Finn, who has already played 69 ODIs and was the third fastest England bowler to 100 ODI wickets, could be the most likely one to gain.Curran can probably count himself unfortunate if that is the case. He was seen as the next in line by the selectors a week or so ago. But when they were looking to change the side for the final ODI against South Africa, they noted that he had bowled heavily for Surrey in the preceding days and decided to opt for Roland-Jones instead. Reece Topley would have been an option, too, had he played a little more cricket since he returned from a shoulder injury sustained in January.It may well be that David Willey is the primary beneficiary of Woakes’ injury. If England are looking to replace Woakes’ all-round package, rather than just his bowling, it may well be that they draft Willey into the starting XI in the hope that he can show some of the batting ability that seen him hit two List A centuries and another in T20 cricket at domestic level.However, there has not been much sign of that form in Willey’s international career to date. His top score in ODI cricket, where he comes in much lower down the order, is just 26 and though there is a limited sample size to judge him as an international batsman, an ODI batting average of 15.75 and strike-rate of 69.61 compare poorly to Woakes’ 25.00 and 86.86 respectively.Willey may have a point to prove with the ball too. There have been times when, armed with a new ball and generating swing, he has looked a dangerous bowler in ODIs. At his best, he might be just the man to take those key early wickets than can shape games. But for that to be the case, he has to make the ball swing and in the limited evidence seen in this tournament to date – and in Willey’s performance in the ODI against South Africa at Lord’s – it seems unlikely to do so. Otherwise on these surfaces and at his pace, he could be in for some long afternoons.On the plus side though, Willey’s left-arm variation might be an asset. At present, the England pace attack appears to be an assembly line of right-arm seamers, with one replacing another.There have been mutterings from some – mainly on social media – that the injuries to Woakes and Stokes may have been partially attributable to their experience in the IPL. There’s no evidence to support that view, though. Injuries are part and parcel of a seamer’s life and both men may have been used more heavily had they remained in county cricket. It was noticeable in the press conference after Friday’s match between Australia and New Zealand that some journalists thought the rustiness of the Australian seamers might have been due to their absence from the IPL. Sometimes it seems team management cannot win whatever they do.England did receive some better injury news on Friday. They believe Root’s apparent calf injury in the victory over Bangladesh was nothing more than cramp and insist he is not a fitness concern going into the match against New Zealand on Tuesday.They won’t have Woakes, though. And that is a significant blow to their hopes of lifting a first global ODI trophy.

As India’s expanded backroom, with specialist coaches, takes charge for the Sri Lanka tour, we look at five instances when international cricketers benefitted from such coaching

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jul-2017Steve O’Keefe bowled Australia to a famous win over India in Pune after a session with Sridharan Sriram•Associated PressSridharan Sriram’s role in Steven O’Keefe’s match-winning spell, 2017A month before their tour of India, Australia appointed former India allrounder Sridharan Sriram as their spin bowling consultant for the Test series. Sriram had been with Australia’s A teams before, during which time he had worked with Steven O’Keefe. After bowling a few overs before lunch on day two of the first Test in Pune, O’Keefe told Sriram that he needed to have a bowl with him in the centre. What happened next is history, as O’Keefe ended with match figures of 12 for 70, bundling India out on home turf in three days. As expected, he singled out Sriram for praise, calling him “a big influence, who knows how to bowl in these conditions”.Sanjay Bangar’s influence on the Indian cricket team, 2017Bangar has been credited by India’s batsmen and bowlers alike during his stint with the team. First, Umesh Yadav thanked him for assistance with his run-up, saying, “Sanjay told me that you were running faster to get that extra pace, affecting my line and length. He told me to enjoy your running so you would have better control”. More recently, Virat Kohli spoke about specialised throwdowns from Bangar and Raghu, the team’s throwdown specialist, at speeds of 145-150 kph. Ahead of the Champions Trophy final against Pakistan, Kohli said, “the preparations we have got are exactly like a match scenario, and a lot of credit goes to them. On a personal level, I can say that it’s because of these two that the last two years I have had whatever improvements in my batting”Saqlain Mushtaq’s coaching came in for high praise from Moeen Ali, following the latter’s maiden Test 10-wicket haul•AFPMoeen Ali dedicates his Lord’s ten-for to Saqlain Mushtaq, 2017After picking up his first ten-for in Test cricket, Moeen dedicated it to Saqlain, who was part of England’s coaching set-up in 2016. “I learnt a lot [in the winter] speaking to Saqi. It made things a lot clearer for myself and I’d like to dedicate this to him”, he said after doing the 2000 runs – 100 wickets double in the same match.Mark Ramprakash gets a thumbs-up from Joe Root, 2016Root came out of a rare lean patch by smashing a career-best 254 against Pakistan last year. After the game, he admitted to being “really wound up”, frustrated by a series of single-digit scores, and thanked Ramprakash, England’s batting coach. Ramprakash had asked him if he was “mentally in the right place to play Test cricket at the minute”, after coming to a conclusion that Root’s game looked in “good order”. Root said that the comment first hurt him, then made him think about it, and ended up boosting his confidence.Michael di Venuto’s advice draws Steven Smith’s praiseDi Venuto’s fabled line – “Smudge, you’re not out of form, you’re just out of runs” – was cited by Smith as among the biggest reasons for his extended purple patch between 2014 and 2015. Smith went on to hammer nearly 1500 runs in the next 12 Tests at a remarkable average of 77.84. Speaking to later, di Venuto admitted that it was a “bluff from my playing days when I wasn’t scoring anything but feeling alright in the nets”. With Smith’s preparations on point, di Venuto elaborated that “part of the thing with that comment is to stop the player from worrying about my hands, my head, my feet, other things about my batting, other than just going out there, backing your skills, watching the balls and making good decisions.”

The spin of the coin seems to have a particularly big effect on the way Test matches pan out at this venue. Here are the stats to demonstrate it

Bharath Seervi25-Jul-201717-6 – Sri Lanka’s win-loss record in Galle, in 29 Tests. Their win-loss ratio of 2.83 is their second-best at any home venue. Their scoring rate of 3.28 is their best at any home venue.9 – Number of wins for Sri Lanka in Galle since 2010, in 14 matches – they’ve lost three and drawn two. At all their other home venues in this period, they have won only seven game in 22 Tests. They have won each of their last four Galle Tests.

Venue Mts Won Lost Draw W/L ratioGalle 14 9 3 2 3.00All other home venues 22 7 7 8 1.0011-1 Sri Lanka’s win-loss record in Galle after winning the toss. They have won the toss 16 times and the only defeat came against Pakistan way back in 2000. They have a 6-5 record after losing the toss. They had elected to bat first in 15 of the 16 Tests after winning the toss. After losing the toss, only four times were they asked to bat first and they lost only one of those Tests.12-3 Win-loss record of teams batting first in last 10 years in Galle, in 18 Tests. In 24 of the 29 Galle Tests teams have elected to bat first and only five of those resulted in a defeat. Incidentally, four of those defeats were for the visiting teams.3-1 India’s win-loss record in Galle. Their only win here was in 2008. They have lost all the three Tests they’ve lost the toss in; in that solitary win, they had won the toss.99 The highest successful chase in Galle. Thirteen times a target of more than 100 has been set in Galle and 11 of those chases resulted in defeat.5 Man-of-the-Match awards for Rangana Herath in Galle, in 16 Tests. In 65 Tests outside Galle, he has only five such awards. He has 93 wickets in Galle, the most at any venue. If he takes seven more wickets here, he will become only the second bowler after Muttiah Muralitharan to take over 100 Test wickets at a single venue.62.45 Dinesh Chandimal’s average in Galle. In 14 innings here, he has scored 687 runs with three centuries. Both his top scores have come in Galle – 162 not out against India, and 151 against West Indies. Sri Lanka will miss his services this time around as he is ruled out due to pneumonia.

Rohit Sharma now has three ODI double centuries. If the reactions to his superlative knock are anything to go by, a triple hundred is not out of his reach.

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Dec-2017

Way to go my friend. Always a joy to watch you bat @ImRo45 pic.twitter.com/wAhZr5t0ZB

— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) December 13, 2017

What an innings Hitman , quite unreal. Many congratulations on the 3rd ODI double. 3 alone out of a total 7 ODI double hundred's. Take a bow @ImRo45 pic.twitter.com/RzZKzoEwnt

— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) December 13, 2017

The man of double hundreds @ImRo45 You beauty ! World class brothaman

— yuvraj singh (@YUVSTRONG12) December 13, 2017

Wah Rohit Wah ! 35 balls for the second hundred. So proud of you Rohit Sharma ! pic.twitter.com/EPWGZ2qcaG

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) December 13, 2017

Not one, not two but three double centuries in ODI cricket. You made batting look easy and simple in this innings, @ImRo45. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Keep them coming always.#IndvsSri #BCCI pic.twitter.com/yrb2chCK8U

— Suresh Raina (@ImRaina) December 13, 2017

Absolutely unbelievable batting by @ImRo45 …take a bow skipper..

— parthiv patel (@parthiv9) December 13, 2017

Wow @ImRo45 ! What a serious knock. #INDvSL

— Martin Guptill (@Martyguptill) December 13, 2017

@ImRo45 wow weeeeee!!!

— Mitchell McClenaghan (@Mitch_Savage) December 13, 2017

Only man to score three 200s in ODI. Can easily be the first man to score a 300. No one hits the ball cleaner… #RohitSharma #IndvSL

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) December 13, 2017

Does not need any of the modern innovative shots to get these double hundreds , Rohit Sharma. Devastating yet so classical. #INDvSL #RohitSharma

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) December 13, 2017

@ImRo45 .slaughter,slaughter,slaughter.Three double hundreds an Amazing achievement. I am sure in the near future he will be the first one to get 300 agree or disagree

— VINOD KAMBLI (@vinodkambli349) December 13, 2017

Ten men have coached Bangladesh over the last two decades

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jun-2018Steve Rhodes, the former England wicketkeeper, is Graphic: Steve Rhodes is all set to become Bangladesh’s 11th coach in the past two decades•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

West Indies haven’t won an ODI series since August 2014. Can they end their barren run against a resurgent Bangladesh side?

Mohammad Isam in Dhaka08-Dec-2018The two teams playing in the last ODI series of 2018 have much left to do, even if it is just three matches. For Bangladesh, it will be an opportunity to finish another strong calendar year in this format, particularly since their resurrection in 2015. Their opponents in the three-match ODI series starting on Sunday are West Indies who are looking for a break from their 50-over woes of the last five years, which forced them to play the World Cup qualifier this year.Bangladesh’s win percentage of 64.71 is the third-best by any team this year, behind England and India. It is nearly as good as their resurgent 2015 when they won 72.22% of their matches and were behind only Australia’s 78.95%.The only two blemishes this year for Bangladesh, according to their ODI captain Mashrafe Mortaza, have been the two losses in finals: against Sri Lanka in the January tri-series at home and the Asia Cup final against India.”We have a high win percentage this year barring the two tournament finals,” Mashrafe said on the eve of the series-opener in Dhaka. “It would have been ideal to win the Asia Cup final. We would like to finish the year well, especially given the challenges early next year. We have more chances to win when all departments click together, especially our batting. A lot depends on how this wicket behaves; if it helps the batsmen, it will be challenging for the bowlers. Judging the wicket would be important.”The progress Bangladesh have made as an ODI side is apparent when you compare their current numbers with how they did between 2010 and 2014. During that period, they were among the bottom five teams in terms of win-loss ratio (0.59) and win percentage (36.14%). Since the start of 2015, they have been among the top five in both counts: 1.29 and 53.45%.Compared to Bangladesh, West Indies’ form has run in the opposite direction, with their win percentage going from 40.40 in the 2010-2014 period to 27.27 since the start of 2015. They haven’t won an ODI series since since August 25, 2014, when they beat Bangladesh at home.Rovman Powell, West Indies’ stand-in captain, believes he has seen signs of progress during their ODI series in India where they won one and tied another match in the five-match series.”It is true that we haven’t won an ODI series in a long time,” Powell said. “The guys are upbeat and raring to go. No better opportunity to change it [than] in Bangladesh. We have played some lovely cricket in India but we didn’t get the results that we wanted. A few series before the World Cup, it will be good to get the series win under our belt. It will give us confidence going into the World Cup also.”Perhaps West Indies need to take a leaf or two out of Bangladesh’s formula of greater stability by trusting a core group of senior players, while at the same time giving some of the younger players sustained opportunities to succeed and fail, so that at some point they become consistent performers. Bangladesh haven’t been entirely lucky finding those young players, but Mustafizur Rahman, Mehidy Hasan and, to some extent, Soumya Sarkar have been success stories in the last four years.For starters, West Indies must ask more of their senior batsmen like Marlon Samuels, Kieran Powell and the returning Darren Bravo to give them good starts and ensure younger players like Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope can bat around them.Bangladesh, meanwhile, will hope that their five senior players continue to lead in their individual areas, and let the likes of Mustafizur, Mehidy and Soumya thrive with an open mind.

The team relies on using their batsmen and spinners to win Test matches, and that trend seeps into domestic cricket as well. How can a seamer improve in this scenario?

Mohammad Isam02-Nov-2018Bangladesh have picked four pace bowlers for the first Test against Zimbabwe. Mustafizur Rahman is the leader of the attack while Abu Jayed was their best seamer in their last Test series; Shafiul Islam has been around for eight years. The uncapped Khaled Ahmed is fresh off a first-class ten-wicket haul.But during the pre-match press conference, captain Mahmudullah said he might pick only one pace bowler in the XI. In that case, the three who would sit out will also miss the NCL’s last round, meaning they would out of first-class cricket at least till mid-February.In a culture where winning at home overrules everything, playing on slow and low pitches which rapidly break up as the game progresses suits Bangladesh. They want quick runs from No 1 to 7, and then two or three spinners to dismantle batting line-ups. They have done this to Australia, England and Zimbabwe in the last four years. Offered similar conditions in Colombo last year, Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka too to win their 100th Test.However, this gameplan is having a poor effect on their pace bowlers. They don’t get much of a chase in domestic cricket either, whether it is the four-day or one-day format.On Thursday, head coach Steve Rhodes indicated that Bangladesh should address its lack of Test success away from home, pointing out how the batsmen struggle against fast bowling, and their own seamers have difficulty maintaining long spells even in helpful conditions.Bowling coach Courtney Walsh believes that to help the pace bowlers do better overseas, they must first be given a fair go.”It is an area of concern but if you look at it, we haven’t played a lot of Tests this year,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I doubt if any bowler has played all those Test matches, maybe with the exception of Fizz. So there’s no continuity. There are different conditions and you need couple of Tests to get yourself to season in. As I keep saying, they need to play more.Courtney Walsh chats with Bangladesh seamers Kamrul Islam, Subashis Roy and Taskin Ahmed•AFP”What is happening in the NCL will definitely help their growth in Test cricket. They get a chance to bowl in the NCL. Some of the guys are not accustomed to bowling long spells. It is obviously an area of concern because I would like to have Test match bowlers that we can work with.”Robiul Islam was Bangladesh’s last pace bowler to deliver a match-winning performance. He was Player of the Series against Zimbabwe in 2013 but faded away quickly due to lack of fitness. Some say that the success got to his head while others point towards the team management’s lack of patience with a precocious talent. Not many in Bangladesh can move the ball like Robiul.Since 2015, considered a good period in Bangladesh cricket, they have had the worst pace attack in the world: a combined average of 53.8 and strike-rate of 90.71. During the same period, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Pakistan average in the mid-30s while South Africa, India, Australia and England are in the top four.Bangladesh have played two out of their four Tests in 2018 at home, so the quicks haven’t had that much of a workout. They average 33.7 while the other teams (barring Zimbabwe and Afghanistan) altogether average of 24.84. Of course, it is the strike-rate that hurts them the most, and at 69.21, having played one Test in Antigua where the West Indies fast bowlers ran riot, it has been another disappointing year.It is a different story in ODIs. Mashrafe Mortaza, Mustafizur and Rubel Hossain have helped win many 50-over games since 2015, and they have continued that trend this year too. Among teams that have played at least 10 ODIs in 2018, Bangladesh have the fourth-best strike-rate and average. Their good work has lifted morale in the dressing room giving Mashrafe the confidence that they can do well in the World Cup next May.Mashrafe Mortaza finds something interesting to look at•AFPWalsh says this has a lot to do with the consistency with which they bowl, and the consistency with which they have been picked. In 2014, Mashrafe made it a mandate to use three pacers even in home ODIs, and that has helped develop a strong attack.”I think they are bowling more consistently,” Walsh said. “They have been working very, very hard. They are also consistently playing together. They have developed that understanding which you can only get by playing in the middle. I give credit to the bowlers for the work they have put in but they have to go to the middle and perform.”I am happy and satisfied but there are still areas to improve in, especially with the World Cup in mind. We are doing okay but I still think we can do a lot better. For Bangladesh to have the lowest strike-rate and average, it speaks volumes of the guys.”But there is one problem. Bangladesh haven’t really looked beyond Mashrafe, Mustafizur and Rubel.Jayed and Abu Hider are seen as the next best options currently, but neither has enough international games. Mohammad Saifuddin offered a bit of variety against Zimbabwe last month but his control is still not considered up to the mark. Taskin Ahmed has been in poor form and has injury concerns. Al-Amin Hossain hasn’t really been pulled into representative sides recently. Robiul has been out of the scene for four years.There have been murmurs among Bangladesh’s team management that their pace bowlers are more interested in short-form success and less interested about what happens in Test cricket.After losing 2-0 in South Africa in 2017, Mushfiqur Rahim blasted his seamers for their lack of consistency, which made sure they couldn’t exploit helpful pitches. Singling them out like that probably wouldn’t make them change, but it is learnt that Walsh has been very hands-on in their development and Mashrafe has repeatedly said how big a help the legendary West Indies quick has been.Bangladesh know that fast bowling is important. Placing emphasis on it is how they’ve become a force in one-day cricket. So can they not do the same in Tests? Can they not break away from the spin-it-to-win-it plan and give their up-and-coming seamers some care and attention?One day, perhaps.

You’ve come to the right place if you’re a clueless extraterrestrial wondering, ‘Eyepeeyell, whut?’

Alagappan Muthu22-Mar-2019 – and the occupant steps out. Seven feet tall. Oval head. Long, spindly arms. Typical Hollywood alien – except for the bit where they freak out when the IPL ad plays on TV.Icome Inpeace: What the florg was that?!Al: Uhhh…Icome: That noise. It’s so…Al: Awesome?Al: You don’t like the IPL horn?!Icome: What’s Eyepeeyell?Icome: So who’s gonna win this year?Al: Um, not sure. The IPL is the most competitive T20 league in the world. So predicting a winner is like figuring out if there’s life in outer sp… oh.. uh.. wrong analogy. But I can tell you what to look forward to.Icome: Sure. Why not.Al: Well, you obviously know the World Cup is like 18 days after the IPL.Icome: Obviously.Al: That means everyone will have kid gloves on. Australia and England have already set a date for their players to return – May 1. Imagine what that will do to a franchise like Rajasthan Royals. One day they’ll have Steven Smith, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer in their XI. The next, they all go . And these are all first-choice picks. Heavyweight picks. Without them the team actually looks… well, let’s put it this way, they might not even have four overseas players to put on the park. There’s only Oshane Thomas, Liam Livingstone and Ashton Turner, and that’s assuming Australia don’t pick him for the World Cup.Icome: Whoa…Al’s mind voice: I just made an alien go whoa.(Norm)Al: So, unlike most IPL seasons, where teams can afford slow starts – Mumbai Indians are famous for it – this time they may pay extra attention to winning the early matches so their path to the playoffs is a little easier. ‘Cause everyone will announce their World Cup XVs in April and they’ll probably want to recall their players from the IPL to begin their own preparations.Icome: Will anyone leave their players behind?Al: New Zealand. They said so last November but you wouldn’t blame them if they changed their minds. The IPL is a two-month-long tournament with teams playing one night, travelling the next, and playing again almost immediately. Even India are wary about what might happen to their best ODI assets, with the captain Virat Kohli repeatedly saying they’ll have to be careful about keeping themselves fresh and also not picking up bad habits.Icome: Bad habits?Al: Kinda like playing a big shot too early. Or experimenting too much while bowling. All that stuff.Icome: Ah.Andre Russell loses his grip while pulling one away•BCCIAl: All that might mean players on the fringes of various national teams, and those who’ve retired from international cricket altogether, could hold the key later in the season.Chennai Super Kings’ XI, for example, might look something like: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Sam Billings, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Ravindra Jadeja, 10 Harbhajan Singh/Karn Sharma 11 Mohit SharmaAnd that’s pretty baller. Delhi Capitals too. Check it out: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Colin Ingram, 6 Sherfane Rutherford, 8 Axar Patel/Amit Mishra, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Sandeep Lamichhane, 11 Keemo Paul/Ishant Sharma/ Harshal PatelKings XI Punjab, meanwhile, stand to lose Chris Gayle, David Miller and Mujeeb Ur Rahman – three potential match-winners, leaving them with: 1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 KL Rahul (wk), 3 Nicholas Pooran, 4 Karun Nair, 5 Mandeep Singh, 6 Moises Henriques, 7 R Ashwin (capt), 8 M Ashwin, 9 Ankit Rajpoot, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Hardus Viljoen.ESPNcricinfo LtdFormer champions Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders have no such worries. Their strongest XI barely changes and even when Quinton de Kock leaves, Rohit Sharma has back-up options as good as Ishan Kishan. So yeah, that might be where this IPL is won. And it’s gonna be pretty close again. Like last time (which we predicted).Icome: What makes you say that?Al: There isn’t one team that is, like, way overpowered. Mumbai look like they have the strongest squad but they had that last season too and didn’t make it to the playoffs. KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant were the two top-scorers in 2018 but their teams – Kings XI and Delhi – didn’t make the last four.Bowling-heavy outfits – like KKR – are always a good bet, though. And they’re likely to have Sunil Narine and Andre Russell – possibly the two greatest T20 players of all time – through the season.Icome: Anything else?Al: Ohh! Oh, there’s a big push for young, unknown players! Like Prayas Ray Barman. He’s 16. Bowls legspin. Wrote his class 12 exams last week. Now, just like that, he’s gonna go to work for Royal Challengers Bangalore… and get paid INR 1.5 crore!Ditto for Simran Singh. Eighteen. Faced less than 50 balls in T20s. Kings XI bought him for INR 4.8 crore. Rasikh Salam. Fast bowler from J&K that nobody knew about but Mumbai got on him board for INR 20 lakh. All indications of the amount of scouting that goes on in the off-season ’cause every team wants a surprise weapon. Someone to shock the opposition with. Kinda like Jasprit Bumrah all those years ago.These guys’ll be working with the best of the best too. Zaheer Khan and Mahela Jayawardene will be in Mumbai. Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly in Delhi. Mike Hesson – the coach who helped New Zealand make the World Cup final for the first time – at Kings XI.Icome: Cool, cool, cool.Al: And one last thing. Well two last things. Steven Smith and David Warner. They kinda florged up a while back, got banned from playing and everything, but now they’re back in the spotlight. Like the biggest spotlight. Australia themselves will be keen to see how those two shape up against top-quality bowling and the off-field scrutiny.Icome: So who do you like?Al: Umm, the holders. CSK, who returned from a two-year suspension last year to win the whole tournament. It was bizarre. They’d always be like 30 for 5 and then someone’d come and rescue them. They weren’t so much playing cricket as trolling haters.And there’s RCB, who’ve had the two best batsmen of this era for years but no trophy to show for it. They’re always a popular team, though. There have been so many games where they’d be in Kolkata or Mumbai or Delhi and the crowd would be screaming Kohli’s name or AB de Villiers’.Icome: Are you drooling?Al: Wha– No!Al: Hey, come on, it wasn’t that funny. You really think I was interested in the florgin’ IPL?! I was stalling for time! Now, take me to your leader!