Tail Enders Are Front Runners

Well, since the teams over the world resumed cricketing ties after a couple of months went off without any cricketing action, owing to the cancellation of the ICC champions trophy that was to be held in Pakistan, the game of cricket has somewhat changed with respect to tests. This is what as a cricket enthusiast I felt. It has been the tail end batsmen, who have been walking away with the honors of the game, after the known batsmen were found to make a mess of their batting. This was the thing that was observed since the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2008 that was held in India-needless to be said.

In the first test at Bangalore, it was tail enders in Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan who held the scoreboard ticking, by scoring 54 and 57* respectively, after Australia put up 460 runs on the board. In the third test which was drawn, it was Craig White who scored 43 despite coming in at no 8. Coming to the first test between India and England, it was Matt Prior, a no 8 batsmen who scored an unbeaten 53 that halped England take a first innings lead, and for India, Harbhajan Singh's 40 aided in India's mammoth run chase. Then, in the first test between West Indies and New Zealand, it was Jerome Taylor for Windies who scored 106 to help them close in on New Zealand's 365 by ending at 340.

The way the Bangladeshi batsman Mushfiqur Rahim posed problems for Sri Lanka in the second innings is still afresh in the minds of the cricketing buffs. Until Rahim was there on the crease, Bangladesh had every chance of making history in the game of test cricket. And Rahim being a no 8 batsman is a delight. In the second test at Chittagong, it was another tail ender in Mushrafe Mortaza who displayed his delight with the bat by scoring 63. And, at last we have the recent South Africa-Australia series, where it was the work of tail enders who have seen their team through when everyone had called it as "all over".

Jason Kreza's 30* & 32 in the first test, that was followed by Dayle Steyn's 76 in the second test- which involved a 185 run partnership that saw South Africa register their first ever test victory on the Australian soil. And in the third, all credit should go to the Australian tail ender Mitchell Johnson who scored a handy 64 with another tail ender Nathan Hauritz who scored 40. This laid the foundation to Australia's victory in the third test. In the very same match, Albie Morkel scored 40 for South Africa, and the match ended with South African tail enders Dale Steyn and Ntini scoring 28, which is a rather good score as far as their batting caliber is concerned. So, it would not be wrong if the tail enders be considered as front runners, who in addition to bowling (which is why they are ther in the team) could also bat.

Captaincy- A Batsman's Right?

The last night's decision by the ECB to appoint Andrew Strauss as the captain for the upcoming series against the West Indies raised some questions as to whether captaincy is the job of the batsmen and rarely do bowlers are offered the job?This not only being the case regarding England team. But, a little bit of glance would reveal that if not for the New Zealand team, every other cricketing nation has elected a batsman as its skipper. The reason regarding the same is yet to be disclosed. Does anyone out thre know the funda of a batsman-captain relationship? If so, please tell me.

For, it has not been able for me to know as to what makes the selectors go in for batsmen when it come to selecting a captain for its side. For a team India, the present captain in M S Dhoni bats in addition to keeping wickets. And before Dhoni, it was handled by batsmen like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Mohd Azharuddin. Very rarely has there been a captain who is a bowler rather than a batsman. The rare exception being that of Anil Kumble, who was made India's test captain at the fag end of his cricketing career. Neither was Javagal Srinath nor Venkatesh Prasad were given the job despite being at the top of the bowling in their playing days.

And, for the West Indies, after Courtney Walsh retired after the 1999 world cup, the captains have been Jimmy Adams, Carl Hooper, Brian Lara and Chris Gayle off late. For Australia, fellow legends- Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were never offerred the job whatsoever. The predecessors for Ponting have been batsmen in Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Allan Border, with Adam Gilchrist & Ian Healy doing the job in their absense. For Pakistan, the last five captains have been Shoaib mailk (present), Inzamam Ul Haq, Moin Khan, Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram. In this case, the two of them being bowlers.

For Sri Lanka, match winners in Mutiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vass were never ever offerred the job. Its been Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Attapattu, Mahela Jayawardane who took over the team's responsibility after another batsman Arjuna Ranatunga called it a day. The last bowler to captain England was, I guess was Dominic Cork, with no idea as to how long he continued. Then, it was Alec Stewart, Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and now Andrew Strauss. At present the only bowler who is found captaining his side is Daniel Vettori, who took over from fellow batsmen Stephen Fleming, Adam Parore and Lee Germon (1996).

Last but not the least we have South Africa, who have elected a batsmen in Greame Smith, after Pollock failed to move to the super sixes of the ICC world cup in 2003. Before that it was Hansie Cronje, who was precedeed by Kepler Wessels and Peter Kirsten. Never mind that the aforementioned players have done justice to their role, but, miking bowlers take on their side would surely persuade youngsters to take up the job of bowling, which is ever diminishing day to day, with ICC bringing new rules every now and then to make batsmen's life easy.