What do the auction pools look like, what is the sort of money being spent, and much more

S Sudarshanan11-Feb-2023One more player auction!
Yes. The appetiser the main event needed, right? Last month, we had bids to identify the owners of the five teams. Now, we will know the squads.Ok, tell me more – when, where?
The auction will be held on Monday, February 13, from 2.30pm IST. It will be held at the Jio World Convention Centre at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai. The tournament, comprising 22 matches, will be played between March 4 and March 26 across the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.Related

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What is at stake? How many players will be bought, or sold?
A maximum of 90 slots – the squads can have between 15 and 18 players – are up for grabs. Each team can have up to six overseas players, so there could be up to 30 non-Indian players who get teams. Nineteen players from Associate teams have also been shortlisted.Are players from Associate nations likely to find buyers?
It is not mandatory for teams to pick an Associate player but there’s an incentive for picking one. Teams can field four overseas players in their XIs, as is the case in the IPL, but they have the option of including a fifth overseas player provided she is from an Associate nation.Okay, so what sort of money are we talking about?
For the inaugural season, the auction purse with each franchise is INR 12 crore (US$ 1.46 million approx.). International players had the option of choosing their base prices at INR 30 lakh (US$ 36,000 approx.) or INR 40 lakh (US$ 48,000 approx.) or INR 50 lakh (US$ 60,000 approx.), while uncapped players had their base prices at INR 10 lakh (US$ 12,000 approx.) and INR 20 lakh (US$ 24,000 approx.).Tell me more about the 449 players who are a part of the auction.
Of those, 269 are from India, and 179 are overseas players, including 19 from Associate teams. There are a total of 202 capped players, and 227 uncapped players, with the 19 Associate players not part of those lists.In terms of countries, 29 are from Australia, 31 from England, 23 from the West Indies, 19 from New Zealand, 17 from South Africa, 15 from Sri Lanka, 11 from Zimbabwe, nine each from Bangladesh and Thailand, six from Ireland, four from the UAE, two each from the Netherlands and Scotland, and one each from USA and Hong Kong.2:24

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How many players are in the top bracket, in terms of the base price?
A total of 24 players, including ten Indians, have the highest base price.The Indians are Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Pooja Vastrakar, Richa Ghosh, Sneh Rana and Meghna Singh. The overseas players in this bracket include Ashleigh Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen and Darcie Brown from Australia; Sophie Ecclestone, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt and Katherine Sciver-Brunt from England; Sophie Devine from New Zealand; South Africa’s Sinalo Jafta; West Indies’ Deandra Dottin; and Loryn Phiri of Zimbabwe.In the next category, INR 40 lakh, there are 30 players, including eight from India.Who could be the big buys?
The first set includes Devine, Ecclestone, Gardner, Harmanpreet, Mandhana, Hayley Matthews and Perry, with only Matthews at a base price of INR 40 lakh. That could see fierce bidding as teams would want to snap up the multi-faceted players, who could offer them a leadership option, too. Lanning, Healy, Deepti and Kapp, among others, will come up in later sets, which could see teams perhaps go slow at the start.Any surprises in the auction list?
Jafta and Phiri are in the top bracket, while more established names from South Africa, like Marizanne Kapp, Shabnim Ismail and Mignon du Preez have their base price at INR 40 lakh, and those from Zimbabwe, like captain Mary-Anne Musonda or allrounder Precious Marange, have their price set at INR 30 lakh.Interestingly, South Africa allrounder Dane van Niekerk has listed herself at INR 30 lakh, while Lizelle Lee, who retired from internationals last year, has a base price of INR 40 lakh. And Chloe Tryon is in the INR 30 lakh category. Australia’s Grace Harris has asked for INR 30 lakh while her sister Laura Harris, who is uncapped, could be a steal at INR 10 lakh.9:43

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Are all the Indian Under-19 world champions in the mix?
All of them, including the reserves.But only ten from the other teams are in contention: England’s Grace Scrivens, New Zealand’s Fran Jonas, Ireland’s Amy Hunter, Bangladesh’s Shorna Akter, Sri Lanka’s Vishmi Gunaratne, Zimbabwe’s Kelis Ndhlovu, West Indies’ Jannillea Glasgow, and Theertha Satish, Mahika Gaur and Vaishnave Mahesh from the UAE. Apart from Scrivens and Akter, everyone else has represented their respective countries at international level.Who are the youngest and the oldest players in the auction?
Latika Kumari, aged 41, is the oldest player in the auction with Zimbabwe’s Marange close on the heels at 40. Kumari played six T20Is for India between 2009 and 2014, including the T20 World Cups in those two years. She last played for India in 2015 and represented Delhi in the domestic circuit.On the other side of the spectrum are three 15-year olds, the joint-youngest in the auction. Fast bowler Shabnam MD and left-arm spinner Sonam Yadav, both of whom were part of the victorious India Under-19 side, and Andhra left-arm spinner Vinny Suzan all have a base price of INR 10 lakh.What about uncapped Indians who are prominent players in the domestic circuit?
Disha Kasat, who captained Vidarbha to the semi-finals of the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy earlier this season and also topped the run-chart, is listed at INR 10 lakh, while Rajasthan’s Jasia Akhter, who had the highest strike rate (138.57) among the top ten run-scorers in the competition, is at INR 20 lakh. Sarla Devi is the only one in the auction pool from Jammu and Kashmir, while the more experienced, hard-hitting allrounder Rubia Syed doesn’t figure.Left-arm spinners Sonal Kalal from Rajasthan and Sahana Pawar from Karnataka, both among the top five wicket-takers in the domestic tournament, are in the pruned list at a base price of INR 20 lakh and INR 10 lakh respectively.*1135 GMT, February 12: The story was updated after 40 more players were added to the auction list

It is both ironic and galling that they have lagged behind in both the physical and mental aspects of playing T20 cricket

Sambit Bal17-Nov-2022This is the age of breathlessness. No time to pause, reflect, mope, savour, rejoice or repair. You move on. The T20 World Cup already feels distant in the rear-view mirror. No grand homecoming and parade for the champions: like the uber professionals they are, England have gathered their tools and are out to entertain again, and at the time of writing, Jos Buttler, the victorious captain, is out in the middle, trying to raise England from 66 for 4 in the first ODI against Australia. Across the Tasman, India and New Zealand, two other teams that could have been in the final, are about to play another bilateral series.You could say it’s just as well. When life around is a blur, why should sport be any different? You lose one, redemption lies around the bend.Related

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But does it really? Ask the players. Or ask the fans who care. Even in these times of hyper-transience, sporting memories are built around big events, and World Cups matter, though they are more frequent these days. If anything, that makes heartbreaks come around faster, and where is that sort of emotion felt more palpably than in India, where over a billion hearts beat in expectation when a World Cup comes around?It can be argued that the quality of a team should not be judged on World Cup performances alone, and more so when they are of the T20 variety, where luck and a number of imponderables play bigger roles than in the longer formats. But now that a week has passed since they exited the tournament, the truth about India’s campaign is apparent in cold light: they were a flawed team, putting in a series of flawed performances, and they needed a bit of luck to make it to the semi-final.6:14

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The match against Pakistan was sealed with a couple of outrageous strokes and a slice of fortune. And who knows how far Litton Das could have gone had the game against Bangladesh not been interrupted by rain? The top order failed against every bowling attack that had teeth, and all their scores of over 170 came against weaker bowling attacks.The absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja forced a rejig of India’s game plan, and their choice of spinners came down to batting ability, which meant benching the attacking option. Their batting line-up became exclusively right-handers once they settled on Dinesh Karthik as the finisher. It now seems quite likely that a few members of that team might have played their last T20s for India, which points not to a team at its peak but one put together for the tournament and to work around compulsions. It was inevitable, irrespective of the outcome in the tournament, that starting afresh would be imperative.In that sense, this bilateral assignment in New Zealand is more than fulfilling an obligation. It’s an opportunity to break free. That India have been playing an outdated form of the T20 game is self-evident and this observation has been articulated on several occasions. Since their failure to make it to the semi-finals in 2021, the team under Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma has made a conscious effort towards making more attacking starts with their batting.The top order, led by Rohit, has come out swinging more vigorously. We have seen Virat Kohli charge and slog his first few balls and make noticeable attempts to hit spinners over the top. This approach resulted in a dramatic jump in India’s powerplay scoring rate in the period between the two World Cups, during which time they went from being laggards on that table to the top of it. This is the game they were expected to carry to the World Cup.

Punishment for the county must be weighed against further hits to inclusion and diversity

David Hopps01-Apr-2023Once a war approaches its end, it is instructional to remind yourself of the point of the peace. In the case of Yorkshire cricket, that should be blindingly obvious: to create an environment in which talented cricketers have equal opportunity to succeed in a culture free from prejudice and discrimination, and in which all spectators can feel a true sense of belonging. An outcome about which everyone – or at least everyone who really cares – can take pride.Now judgment has been passed on Yorkshire’s racism scandal, focus must be upon achieving such an aim. This should not be about a thirst for further punishment, or yet more trashing of reputations. Nor should it be about the further vilification of Azeem Rafiq or the parading of holier-than-thou responses towards those he has accused. And those who think it’s all about Michael Vaughan have clearly surrendered long ago to the cult of celebrity. Although with charges against him unproven, there is no justification to prolong his absence from the BBC.The ECB chair, Richard Thompson, has already set the direction of travel, pleading that if cricket is to find lasting benefit from this, it must be “a time of reconciliation”, a chance “to collectively learn and heal the wounds”. Many still remain aggrieved. But Yorkshire cricket must never visit here again.Related

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Such aspirations are not exactly groundbreaking. They were all enshrined in the Equality Act of 2010, a hotchpotch of laws brought together in a single act by the last Labour Government: protection against discrimination not just because of race, but religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, age, disability, marriage or civil partnership and pregnancy. An Act intended to underpin the basic tenets of a fair and equal society.Presumably Yorkshire were otherwise occupied at the time.Presumably much of English cricket was, too, because one of the reasons Rafiq’s allegations struck a chord was because English cricket felt guilty by association.But Yorkshire has a right to a wider context. As the media digested the guilty verdicts handed down by the ECB’s cricket disciplinary committee, Yunus Lunat, a Leeds-based lawyer with a particular expertise in discrimination in sport, underlined on BBC Look North that this is not a Yorkshire cricket problem, or even a cricket problem, this is a society problem. To deny that is to retreat into an act of supreme self-delusion.It is not to engage in “whataboutery”, or to dismiss Yorkshire’s failings as inconsequential, but merely to search for a sense of perspective, to reflect that the ECB cricket disciplinary committee announced its verdict at the end of a month in which the Metropolitan Police, the nation’s fire brigades and Welsh Rugby have been dubbed hotbeds of racism, homophobia and misogyny. Or to point to the vile racism openly on show during anti-immigration protests fanned by far-right groups last month in South Yorkshire, and captured by the News Agents podcast. There are countless other examples. All of them deeply disturbing.As culture wars play out across Britain, it is also instructional to reflect that Yorkshire admitted to institutional racism before the Department of Culture, Media and Sport Committee a year or so before the Home Secretary dismissed the phrase as “politically charged” and “not helpful”, appearing to blame the phrase itself rather than blame people’s inability – or refusal – to understand what it means.

Opportunity for disadvantaged and minority-ethnic kids is not best served by heavy fines that at best might cause cuts in development budgets and at worst tip Yorkshire into bankruptcy

In cricket, though, there is now cause to hope that the world has changed. From all this, Yorkshire cricket must move forward, owning its shame and committed to a more enlightened future. And here’s the thing: it already is. Those who value Yorkshire primarily as a convenient symbol of bigotry might be reluctant to concede as much, or chide that they have heard it all before, and indeed they have, but a recently-constituted and more progressive board has been driving change across the county even though trust is low, opinions are entrenched, feelings run high, and the county (not for the first time) is on the verge of bankruptcy.A joint statement from the interim chair, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, and chief executive Stephen Vaughan, made the right noises, saying: “As a club we needed to accept and take accountability for the cultural issues which allowed racist and discriminatory behaviour to go unchallenged. We are making great progress in our ambition to become a more inclusive and welcoming club for all.”But this is not just noises off while the scenery collapses all around them from a county that pled guilty on four amended charges – essentially, failing to address and act upon allegations of racist and discriminatory language. Matters had to come to a head for Yorkshire to recognise their wider responsibilities, but the facts bear out that they have embarked upon a new direction.Central to Yorkshire’s ambition has been their serious attempts to transform a previously narrow performance pathway that had favoured children of monied and well-connected white parents – a charge that it has long been established can be levelled not just against Yorkshire but, to varying degrees, every county club in the land.To increase access from lower income households, match fees have been removed, free kit has been provided, winter coaching has been free of charge and there has been a hardship fund for those worthy of further support.Potential bias in selection has been addressed by abolishing private one-to-one coaching from staff involved with age-group pathways – a recognition that parents who pay for such coaching expect results from those who can influence team selection. Selection committees have been established. It would be naïve, though, to imagine a perfect world. Already there are grumblings of parental pressure and potential conflicts of interest. Junior selection in sport is a perpetual minefield wherever the power lies.Nevertheless, these and other changes have brought a 60% increase in participants from minority-ethnic or poorer backgrounds in the age-group performance pathways. Poorer kids, too, because the issues of race and class are intertwined.Under the heading “Cricket is a Game for Me”, Yorkshire’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion plan, modelled on the ECB’s “Inspiring Generations” strategy, is being implemented with conviction. Inclusivity is also increasingly at the heart of the spectator experience.So much, so boring, some social media sabre-rattlers will be thinking. What’s our next campaign? As Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart indicated on a recent The Rest is Politics podcast, the coming generation might have a stronger moral conscience than many who passed before, but by their own admission they have less appetite for civic contributions. But only by tens of thousands of hours active commitment by hundreds of people does change occur. After the dislocation must come the vision and after the vision must come the dedication.Lord Patel failed to get everyone pulling in the same direction at Yorkshire•Getty ImagesWhat still seems to be lacking in Yorkshire’s approach – and what has been lacking on all sides since the Rafiq affair began – is a recognition of the importance of education in building deep and long-lasting trust in a multi-racial environment. Lord Patel did not go in for education – despite promising upon his emergency appointment to “take people on a journey”, he summarily sacked 16 people, a decision that eroded trust and divided the county. It did not just go against natural justice, or cost the club millions in legal fees, but erroneously concluded that the problem was in the individual, rather than the culture.It is worth remembering that as much as Yorkshire can, and must, use its influence to be a general force for good, its primary function is that of a professional sports club – to find and develop elite players and to run a successful and profitable business.What Yorkshire also need therefore is a social contract for all players who appear in their age group sides and beyond, an appreciation of the cultural and sporting codes of behaviour that underpin the right to a non-discriminatory environment, but also which makes clear their own responsibilities in a talent-driven sporting environment. A new code of White Rose values that goes beyond the traditional image of playing hard and telling it straight.There will never be a better chance for minority-ethnic communities to abandon their pessimism and trust that the opportunities are for real, to play an active part in a club from which they have largely regarded themselves as excluded. Not to do so would deny Rafiq a valuable legacy and a victory – because victory it has been – of lasting substance.While Yorkshire wrestle with the many social and ethnic challenges that (apart from a brief period earlier this century) have been beyond them, to punish a county that has now embraced change would seem to be entirely counterproductive.By announcing their verdict, but delaying their sentence, the ECB’s disciplinary committee appears to recognise that. They may be in a quandary, but opportunity for disadvantaged and minority-ethnic kids is not best served by heavy fines that at best might cause cuts in development budgets and at worst tip Yorkshire into bankruptcy. By showing evidence of progress to the disciplinary committee, as they now must because the process will drag on for a while yet, they will have reason to appeal for clemency.Not everyone will be placated. If not fines, they say, then points deductions. The ECB will fear reputational damage if they are seen to be lenient and considering that they recently deducted 10 points from Durham for an oversized bat precedent is hardly in Yorkshire’s favour.But even this – a more likely option – has little purpose nearly seven years after Rafiq first complained formally about racism, and then was eventually released for the second time at the end of that season. It would be a brutal response to a young Yorkshire side that is entirely unconnected with the racism allegations. In the meantime, they must begin a second successive season not knowing what points deductions they may face, but their consolation is that with every week that passes the extent of that punishment may lessen.It is time to embrace the positives. The success over the past three years of the African-Caribbean Engagement programme, tirelessly headed by Ebony Rainford-Brent, has become the template on what can be achieved to champion diversity in sport. ACE began in South London but it has expanded into Birmingham and Bristol, and has ambitions, among others, to gain a foothold in Leeds, too. Make that happen.According to figures from , the charity has already touched 10,000 pupils in their schools’ programme and provided 44 players for county age-group sides. As Lawrence Booth, editor of , asked: “If a charity can produce them from scratch in next to no time what on earth has the game’s governing body been up to?”ACE has enjoyed substantial financial backing, not least from Sport England and the ECB, as well as attracting individual donations. Yorkshire are a long way from building the credibility to receive such support. Building their own membership and attracting sponsors is battle enough. Their expansion of coaching is already a heavy drain on their finances.But the success of ACE is a reminder that for the ECB to debilitate Yorkshire financially at precisely the time they are striving to change for the better would be one more terrible miscalculation in a saga that has been full of them.

Alan Gardner is joined by Andrew Miller and Vithushan Ehantharajah to reflect on England’s Test squad announcement, and Jofra Archer’s injury woes

ESPNcricinfo staff17-May-2023England’s squad announcement for the Ireland Test contained all manner of subplots… among them, the omission of Ben Foakes in favour of the returning Jonny Bairstow, and the desperate news of Jofra Archer’s latest injury setback. Alan Gardner, Andrew Miller and Vithushan Ehantharajah digest the implications, both short- and long-term. There’s also a snippet from our new women’s cricket segment, as Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda reflect on the retirement of the mighty Katherine Sciver-Brunt.

Fifteen freakish numbers from Virat Kohli’s 15-year international career

Sampath Bandarupalli18-Aug-2023

More than 500 kilometres between wickets

In his 15-year-long international career, Virat Kohli has run roughly 277km between wickets for his non-boundary scoring shots. He’s also covered some 233km for his partners’ runs when he’s been at the crease, taking the tally to approximately 510km. Only once has Kohli run an all-run four to date, during an ODI in 2013 against Zimbabwe.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

An average of 518

Kohli’s success with the bat in T20 World Cups is well documented. He was Player of the Tournament in both 2014 and 2016, and his record in chases is particularly outstanding. India have won nine of the ten matches during which he has batted in chases, and he’s remained unbeaten on eight occasions.Kohli averages 270.5 in those ten chases, which is nearly twice the average of the next best, Marcus Stoinis (146), among batters to have played a minimum of five innings. Kohli’s average shoots up to 518 in successful chases, close to five times that of the second-best, Cameron White (104).

Helmet off at 46 venues

Kohli has played at 83 venues in his international career so far, and has scored hundreds in 46 of them. Adelaide Oval is the standout venue for Kohli; it has witnessed five of his 76 tons. Only one player has had a hundred on more grounds than Kohli – Sachin Tendulkar, unsurprisingly, at 53 venues.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

A perfect start to World Cups

Kohli made a dream start to his World Cup career with an unbeaten century against Bangladesh in Dhaka in the opening match of the 2011 edition. A year later, he scored a fifty on his T20 World Cup debut against Afghanistan, to become the first player to complete the double of a hundred on Men’s ODI World Cup debut and a fifty on Men’s T20 World Cup debut. Aaron Finch matched this double, with a fifty in the 2014 T20 World Cup and a century on the opening day of the 2015 ODI World Cup.

Excelling in oppositions’ backyards

Kohli has scored a century in all nine countries where he has played ODI cricket, and in seven of the eight countries in Test cricket, with Bangladesh the only exception. He has scored both Test and ODI hundreds in six countries against the home team – Australia, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa and West Indies. Only two players have had both Test and ODI tons against the host nation in as many or more countries as Kohli – seven by Sachin Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara.

Nearly 1000 runs in ten innings

In 2018, between February and October, Kohli scored nearly 1000 runs in a span of ten ODI innings. Kohli amassed 995 runs between his 197th and 206th ODI innings at an average of 142.14, with five hundreds and three fifties. It is the best 10-innings ODI streak for any batter. He surpassed by 138 runs the previous record held by David Warner for scoring 857 runs between October 2016 and June 2017.

The allrounder has been instrumental in Netherlands getting to the tournament. He might easily have been there for New Zealand instead

Firdose Moonda24-Aug-2023The path of a professional sportsperson can rely as much on talent and luck as on preparation and planning, and Logan van Beek is a fan of the latter. Early in his New Zealand domestic career for Canterbury, he wrote down some goals. “Play in the 2015 World Cup” was one.It was more of a dream than an actual destination because by the beginning of 2015, van Beek had only played 15 List A matches over four years. He averaged 9.00 with the bat and 40.00 with the ball. If those numbers were the other way around, he would have been a shoo-in for the squad, but as they stood, he was nowhere near it and he knew it.”I was living with Tom Latham and Matt Henry at the time, and they both got picked in that squad and I didn’t get picked,” van Beek said in Harare, the day before Netherlands played Sri Lanka in the World Cup Qualifier final. “I wasn’t even close at the time, but it’s still pretty tough when you’ve got two of your close mates playing in a World Cup that you want to be playing in. Still, it was amazing to watch them.”Related

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New Zealand enjoyed a stellar run at the tournament. They won all eight of the matches they played at home, including a group stage match against eventual champions Australia, and quarter- and semi-final victories over West Indies and South Africa respectively. (Who can ever forget the South Africa match?) But Henry only made two appearances and Latham none, and so van Beek didn’t really need to feel too far behind.”The next goal was to play the 2019 World Cup,” he said. “I was going to be in my prime then [at 28], so if I could achieve that, that would be amazing.”In the four years between the World Cups, van Beek added over 30 List A caps to his name, including making his international debut – but not for the country you may think.Early days: van Beek bowls in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup, in a game against Canada•Martin Hunter/Getty ImagesThough born in Canterbury, van Beek has mixed heritage and has always identified as “very much a West Indian and a Kiwi”. The West Indian half comes courtesy his maternal grandfather, Sammy Guillen, who moved from Trinidad and Tobago to New Zealand in the mid-1950s. Guillen played Test cricket for West Indies and New Zealand, and the majority of his matches for either team were against the other. Guillen was a big influence on van Beek, who ultimately chose cricket over basketball because of him.”I was very close to my grandfather. He was my idol. I looked up to him and I just wanted to be like him,” van Beek said. “He sang, he danced, he was the biggest character in our family, and so cricket was always going to be what I was going to play.”But it wasn’t West Indies who secured van Beek’s services between those two World Cups.”I also had this Dutch passport in my drawer somewhere,” he said.His grandfather on his father’s side moved to New Zealand from Holland, and though he died when van Beek was five, his origins meant the boy had a document that would prove crucial in the development of his career.In 2017, van Beek played for Netherlands in series against Zimbabwe and the UAE. He returned to New Zealand later that year to play domestic cricket in the southern-hemisphere summer and in 2018 was picked for New Zealand A in a series against Pakistan A.Switching from playing for an Associate member to a Full Member carries no qualification time, so van Beek could easily go from playing for Netherlands to doing so for New Zealand if he got selected, but his numbers did not improve quickly enough. His batting average rose to 17.27 in the time between the World Cups and he took 41 wickets at 28.43, but he still missed the squad while his friends, Latham and Henry, both made it and played in a final that remains among the best 50-over matches of all time.Van Beek and his house-mate Tom Latham were on opposing sides during a New Zealand-Netherlands T20I in Napier in 2022•Kerry Marshall/Getty Images”I was there, watching from the stands, and it was the most unbelievable game that I’ve ever experienced,” van Beek said. “I was so proud of them, but I was also very jealous because I wanted to be there.”So it was back to the notepad and pen. “Going into this year, I wrote another goal, of making the 2023 World Cup, and I felt like I was getting close, chipping away…”Van Beek played first-class and List A cricket for New Zealand against India and Australia in the 2022-23 season, but he only had two scores in double figures and his 14 wickets in six matches came at an average just under 30. That’s when reality hit. “I am not quite in the picture,” he admitted. “The quality of players we have in New Zealand is immense. The way that Kyle Jamieson came into the picture, the way Matt Henry is still bowling, and with Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson and Scott Kuggeleijn – all these guys – it’s a tough team to get into.”But it wasn’t the only team van Beek could play for. While struggling to make the New Zealand side, he was included in the Dutch team. He played white-ball formats for Netherlands, including at last year’s T20 World Cup, where the team reached the Super 12s, but it still didn’t take him closer to his ultimate aim. “It was a great experience but the 50-over World Cup is the pinnacle of cricket, in my opinion,” he said.There was a pathway for Netherlands to get there. They were the only Associate team included in the 13-team World Cup Super League, which gave them a shot at automatic qualification. But they were never really in the race to make it on the basis of points-table standings, with only three wins from their 24 ODIs. Van Beek played in 15 of those games and felt first-hand their chance to make the World Cup slip away.By this point he had learnt to deal with disappointment by focusing on other aspects of life. “My relationships with my wife, with my parents, with my brothers and sisters and with my friends, they are my No. 1 and then cricket comes after that,” he said. “It’s about doing everything I can possibly do to make sure that I’m fit and healthy, my relationships are super solid, and I’m improving as a cricketer. And then from that point, it’s almost: just let go.””The one thing I’ve been working on for my whole career is to be the finisher, the one who wins the game, who shakes the hands and pulls the stumps out and walks off”: Van Beek after the win against West Indies in the World Cup Qualifier earlier this year•Johan Rynners/ICC/Getty ImagesFrom the bottom of the table, the Dutch looked down and out, but in losing, they learned. Unlike other Associate teams, they had regular fixtures against Full Members, including World Cup holders England. They were humbled but they honed their skills. By the time the campaign to qualify for the World Cup arrived, though they were without their entire frontline attack, who all had county-cricket commitments, Netherlands felt as ready as they could be and van Beek was quietly hopeful. “I was thinking, ‘Okay, this is going to be tough to qualify for the World Cup. But you know, we’re here, we’ve got a chance.'”It helped that they had toured Zimbabwe earlier in the year and taken the first ODI off them then. It helped also that Teja Nidamanuru scored a century in that win; no Dutch batter had made one since Wesley Barresi’s hundred against Kenya in 2014. On good batting tracks in the Qualifiers, big scores would be important and Netherlands saw that as early as their first game, against Zimbabwe again. Though they made 315, they had no hundreds in their innings and Zimbabwe chased the score down with more than nine overs to spare. Van Beek was right: getting to the World Cup would be difficult.Wins over USA and Nepal were to be expected but it was only when Netherlands defied the rankings by tying a high-scoring clash with West Indies at 374 and then winning the Super Over – that talk of reaching the World Cup became credible. Van Beek was the main protagonist against West Indies. He scored 28 off 14 balls to level the scores, slammed a four or six off every ball in a 30-run Super Over, and then defended the target with the ball.It was the perfect game for him. “The one thing I’ve been working on for my whole career is to be the finisher, the one who wins the game, who shakes the hands and pulls the stumps out and walks off. I’ve been in that situation many times where I’ve fallen short,” he said.After a chat over dinner with Jade Dernbach, a team-mate from Derbyshire, van Beek realised that was something he needed to get used to. “He [Dernbach] said, ‘Look, if you want to be a finisher, you know that you’re going to fail a lot. And you’ve got to be able to take the failure just as well as the wins.’ And so that is the mindset I’ve got,” van Beek said. “If I think I’m gonna do well in every last over, then I’m delusional. But if I go into those moments and be realistic and just stick to my process, and give myself the best chance, every third or fourth time I might do it.””As soon as you think that you need to be in a certain spot at a certain time [in your career], more often than not, you will be disappointed”•Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/Associated PressIn the World Cup Qualifiers, he did it twice in four games. Sort of. After the remarkable win over West Indies, Netherlands still needed to beat Scotland, and surpass their net run rate, to finish in the top two. That meant chasing 278 inside 44 overs. While Bas de Leede’s hundred kept Netherlands in the hunt, he let van Beek hit the winning run. “It was kind of nice that Bas gave me the opportunity to do that so I could tick another game off the list that I finished,” van Beek said.Finally, after eight years of wishing himself at the World Cup, van Beek has got himself there – if not quite in the way he had imagined. “The first thought that I had walking off the field was that I wrote down that goal of playing the 2023 World Cup and I probably didn’t get right which team I was going to play with,” he said. “You never know how your career is going to play out. As soon as you think that you need to be in a certain spot at a certain time, more often than not, you will be disappointed. Maybe I had to wait to have a Super Over and for my career to take a different turn.”Maybe that also explains van Beek’s mantra: “Get knocked down seven, get up eight”, which he hopes will be the title of his autobiography at some point. “I know I’m just going to keep picking myself back up and keep turning up. That’s the way I play and that’s how I’m going to keep playing,” he said. “I cannot wait to tick this goal off, of playing the World Cup. I cannot wait to get on the plane to India and just go out there and play and have no expectations and enjoy the battle.”Van Beek is not the only one taking that carpe diem attitude into the tournament; it’s the mindset of the squad as a whole. The Dutch don’t like the word “Associate” and don’t use it in their environment. They simply call themselves the Netherlands cricket team and they want to be seen in the same way as every other team at the tournament. “It’s a ten-team competition and we’ve earned the right to be there, so we should be treated just the same as any other team,” van Beek said. “We should have the respect of those other teams that are there. If they take us lightly, then they might cop the same thing as West Indies.”That’s a threat that no team will take lightly. West Indies are two-time holders of the World Cup, and for the first time in the tournament’s history, they will not be participants. Van Beek, who is part West Indian, had a big say in that. New Zealand are among the teams he will take on at this World Cup, and perhaps he is writing another goal down as you read this.

Trusting the process is all well and good but the ability to deliver when good batters are attacking is what separates fast-bowling greats from the herd

Ian Chappell31-Dec-2023As Australia captain Pat Cummins cleverly dissected the Pakistan batting line-up to bring his team a tough victory in the second Test, I thought: what does it take to amass Test victims – lots of them?I liken Cummins to the great former Australia fast bowler Dennis Lillee in both inspirational qualities and heart size. Lillee wanted to get batters out, to have their number. He says, “Fast bowling is a mental job as well as a physical one.”At the top of his mark, Lillee envisioned the ball flying through to keeper Rod Marsh, who’d take the delivery at head height standing back. That’s what Lillee means when he talks about the mental side of fast bowling.The spectacular delivery that Cummins produced to bowl Pakistan’s Babar Azam – dismissing the opposition’s best batter once again – reminded me of Lillee’s greatness.Related

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At the Oval in 1972 a firmly entrenched England wicketkeeper Alan Knott was displaying exceptional grit and determination. When England’s ninth second-innings wicket fell for 356, we gathered to congratulate bowler Ashley Mallett. Lillee was having none of it and bellowed, “We can’t let these ba*****s score any more runs.”At that stage England led by 241. Lillee then bowled the obstinate Knott for a well-compiled 63, leaving Australia to chase 242 for a famous victory. He didn’t bowl Knott with pure pace – the delivery was nowhere near his fastest. Nor did he beat the bat with movement – the pitch by then was devoid of any green tinge. Lillee bowled Knott with sheer will power. He wanted the batter out.Like Lillee, Cummins wanted Babar out.It’s terrific to bowl a top-class batter, but you also have to rely on the fielders taking catches. A good slip fielder’s job is to catch the standard ones and occasionally add a blinder to his resumé . An excellent slip fielder should pouch around 90% of the catches that come his way.Pakistan were never noted for their slip catching. I recall saying on commentary, “Inzamam-ul-Haq isn’t at first slip because he’s their best catcher.” That applies to current Pakistan first-slip fielder Abdullah Shafique too, who has grassed eminently catchable chances in both Tests.

With the great improvement in modern bats it’s not so much how you bowl – Test bowlers are skilful – but how you perform when a good batter is attacking. That’s when the best bowlers come to the fore.

Then there is slip placement. If you are fortunate to have an excellent keeper, like Marsh, who had the widest range, both left and right, of any gloveman I saw standing back, then the slips can cover a lot of territory. That isn’t the case in Australia with Pakistan or many other international teams.At one point in their career the excellent Pakistan pace duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis had claimed 60% of their Test and ODI wickets bowled or lbw. That’s an outrageously high figure and suggests the two fast bowlers knew not to trust their own fielders.With the great improvement in modern bats, it’s not so much how you bowl – Test bowlers are skilful – but how you perform when a good batter is attacking. That’s when the best bowlers come to the fore.It’s also when you need every bit of the mental fortitude that Lillee speaks about and Cummins exudes.Occasionally I hear: “Adhere to the process and don’t worry too much about the actual consequences.”Well, in Pakistan’s case they beat the edge of the bat regularly at the MCG but also seemingly with resignation. And catches kept going down – chances that should have been taken and could have been crucial to the end result, because Pakistan had Australia four down and were back in contention.Wickets are important. Just ask Cummins.One of Lillee’s great traits was that a batter had to overcome his enormous skill first, which was no easy feat. However, if he achieved that difficult task, he still had to outlast his iron will, which took a monumental effort.On those hot, demanding days, give me a Lillee- or a Cummins-style character who cares only about not giving in and taking wickets rather than how the process feels.That’s why great fast bowlers like Lillee and Cummins are a captain’s dream and a batter’s nightmare.