The Shorter Wisden 2013

by John Wisden

  KNCB signed the most lucrative sponsorship deal in their history, with the Dutch bank ABN AMRO, who are keen to expand their horizons in the Indian subcontinent. The four-year arrangement involves the Netherlands making more trips to Asia, which began with the first invitation in 16 years to the Hong Kong Sixes (where a strong Netherlands team beat England).

  An award of $1.5m over three years from the ICC’s new Targeted Assistance Performance Programme is intended to provide more tournaments, expand development initiatives, and support the national side as they build towards the 2015 World Cup. Unfortunately, there was no mention of women’s and girls’ cricket, an area of great concern in the Netherlands. The national team finished seventh in the 2011 World Cup Qualifier in Bangladesh – losing their one-day international status – and were relegated to Division Three of the ECB’s County Championship after losing a play-off to Ireland A.

  WORLD CRICKET IN 2012

  Superb South Africa

  SIMON WILDE

  South Africa were indisputably the team of the year. Unbeaten in every bilateral series across all three formats, they were the only team not to lose a single Test. It was testimony to their talent, tenacity and organisation, and only another poor performance at a major tournament – they lost all their Super Eight games at the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka – removed any gloss.

  The South Africans found most satisfaction in the Test arena, under the leadership of the evergreen Graeme Smith, winning five and drawing five. It was the more impressive for playing only one game at home, beating Sri Lanka in January to clinch a series that had begun in late 2011. On the road for much of the time thereafter, they claimed victories in New Zealand (1–0), England (2–0) and Australia (1–0). By winning in England, they displaced their opponents as the No. 1 Test team, finally regaining a position they had held for four months in 2009; by winning in Australia, they avoided the defeat that would have ceded the top ranking to their hosts. In short, Smith’s team had won two away series which doubled up as showdowns for the world Test title.

  To succeed in England and Australia within the space of a few months was a rare feat. The South Africans themselves had managed it four years earlier, and so had the great West Indies sides of 1984 and 1988. Yet their deeds could be placed in a more immediate context, too: the only other teams to win Test series away from home in 2012 were Australia, in the West Indies; West Indies themselves, in Bangladesh; and – unexpectedly – England in India, a result that ended a 28-year drought. Few doubted that South Africa merited the No. 1 position: by the end of 2012, they had extended their record to one series defeat out of 21, dating back to 2006. To crown a memorable year, Smith recorded two notable personal milestones, scoring a century in his 100th Test, and beating Allan Border’s record of 93 Tests as captain.

  South Africa did have to dig themselves out of a couple of holes. At Brisbane in November, they allowed Australia to recover from 40 for three to make 565 for five. Then, at Adelaide, the Australians tore their bowling to shreds to reach a stratospheric 482 for five at stumps on the first day. Left more than four sessions to score 430, or bat out time, South Africa looked beaten at 77 for four going into the final day, but the debutant Faf du Plessis played one of the great match-saving innings, finishing unbeaten on 110 after almost eight hours. Well supported by A. B. de Villiers (33 in four hours) and Jacques Kallis (46 in two and a half), du Plessis was instrumental in his side losing only three wickets on the final day. (This was one of only two Tests in 2012 which were drawn without interference from the weather; the other came at Nagpur between India and England, on a pitch more devoid of life than the average corpse.) South Africa took the deciding Test in Perth by 309 runs to clinch the series, although even there the final margin masked the trouble they had been in on the first day, at 75 for six.

  South Africa’s series with England also produced some dramatic cricket, though there was no doubt which was the stronger team. It was just a shame that neither series was longer than three matches. Even so, both served as excellent adverts for Test cricket.

  The key to South Africa’s on-field success was the settled nature of the team (off it, however, Gerald Majola, the chief executive of Cricket South Africa, was sacked after being found guilty of misconduct). They called on only 17 players in Tests, of whom six played in all ten matches, and another three missed only one. Smith, Kallis and – either side of the England tour – de Villiers all scored heavily, while Hashim Amla, already acknowledged as a batsman of class and culture, took his game to another level, making almost 2,000 runs in all formats, including a national Test record 311 not out at The Oval. Of these, a record 1,712 came away from home.

  The pace attack – led by Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander – was the most potent in the world, and leg-spinner Imran Tahir had his moments, before failing spectacularly in Australia and losing his place. A measure of their bowling was that South Africa dismissed Sri Lanka for 43 in a one-day international at Paarl and, in the New Year Test at Cape Town in 2013, bundled New Zealand out for 45.

  The only disruptive blow was the loss of veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Mark Boucher to a freak injury at the start of the England tour. De Villiers was pressed into service as a replacement and, although he performed capably, his batting suffered. To lessen the strain, he handed the Twenty20 captaincy to du Plessis for a series against New Zealand in December; de Villiers later withdrew as a player, citing exhaustion.

  Managing the workloads of the top players became something of a fad. Australia’s anxiety over the inability of their seamers to stay fit led them to pull Mitchell Starc out of the Melbourne Test, only days after he had bowled them to victory over Sri Lanka at Hobart. This ultra-cautious approach – itself a function, perhaps, of a well-stocked fast-bowling cupboard – did not extend to batsmen: Michael Clarke, the captain, played at Melbourne with a hamstring strain, and scored another century to crown a sublime 12 months during which he, like Amla, had never played better.

  Clarke became the first to score four Test double-centuries in a year, the first of which he had converted into an unbeaten 329, against India on his home ground at Sydney. And, at Melbourne, he claimed an Australian record for runs in a calendar year (the previous holder, Ricky Ponting, had retired three weeks earlier). Of Clarke’s tally of 1,595, he made 1,407 in Australia, a record for one country in one year. Despite the juggling of bowling personnel, Australia won seven Tests in 2012, more than any other side.

  The most radical response to the fixture list was adopted by England, who in November announced they were embarking on a “step-change” in the schedules of players and coaches. Andy Flower was to remain overall team director, but the day-to-day running of the 50-over and Twenty20 teams would be handled by Ashley Giles, who had coached Warwickshire to the 2012 Championship and was already an England selector. The move, mainly aimed at keeping Flower fresh, motivated, and in the job, was also a response to a troubled year, in which England had failed to build on their rise to the top of the Test rankings in 2011, and followed the retirement of Andrew Strauss, one of England’s most successful Test captains, after the defeat by South Africa. Sport can be unsentimental, and there was no time – and little need – to mourn Strauss’s departure, as the team rallied under Alastair Cook to record their first series win in India since 1984-85. Soon after, South Africa announced they were also dividing up the coaching duties, with Russell Domingo, Gary Kirsten’s assistant, taking over the Twenty20 side.

  England’s bowling attack remained strong, but the batting, which had touched rare heights in 2011, was often unconvincing. Strauss’s decline was one issue; another was the turmoil generated by Kevin Pietersen, whose gripes with the management included scheduling and time off to play in the IPL. His temporary exile hurt England’s defence of the World Twenty20 title but, even though he didn’t appear in the one-day side after February, they won 12 of their 14 completed matches, and remained No. 1 in the rankings until the end of the year. Pietersen was less
consistent than Amla or Clarke, but scored three breathtaking Test hundreds, in Colombo, Leeds and Mumbai.

  Others also suffered disruption from internal disputes, none more so than New Zealand. Ross Taylor quit as captain after being invited to stay on only as head of the Test side; Mike Hesson, appointed coach in succession to John Wright – who himself had resigned, citing differences with director of cricket John Buchanan – had proposed the one-day and Twenty20 teams be passed over to Brendon McCullum. Results had been poor for much of the year, but the timing of the suggested change was odd: Taylor had just masterminded a series-squaring Test victory over Sri Lanka in Colombo, where his double of 142 and 74 was among the finest by a New Zealand captain. The board later apologised to Taylor for his treatment, but he opted out of the end-of-year tour of South Africa. To make matters worse, Jesse Ryder didn’t play at all after February, for personal and disciplinary reasons.

  Mahela Jayawardene ended his second spell as Sri Lanka’s captain after his country’s tour of Australia in January 2013, keeping a promise that he would stay only for 12 months. Then, within days, he said he had lost all confidence in Sri Lanka Cricket, after a confidential request – that the players’ guarantee fee from the World Twenty20 staged in Sri Lanka be shared with the support staff and groundsmen – was made public. SLC, whose financial husbandry has often infuriated their players, would not accede to the proposal.

  India also experienced turbulence in the wake of whitewashes in England and Australia. Mohinder Amarnath revealed that the selection panel of which he had formerly been a member had recommended the removal of M. S. Dhoni as captain during the tour of Australia, only for the proposal to be blocked by the Indian board president, N. Srinivasan – who is also owner of the Chennai IPL franchise, which is captained by Dhoni. Amarnath renewed calls for Dhoni to step down during the home defeat by England. There was no halting the transition in the ranks, though: Rahul Dravid and V. V. S. Laxman both retired, and Sachin Tendulkar quit one-day internationals. Virat Kohli carried the flag for the next generation, scoring eight international centuries, more than anyone.

  In the West Indies, Ramnaresh Sarwan successfully sued the board over comments about his fitness, and was awarded $US161,000 in damages, though he was picked for the one-day tour of Australia early in 2013. There was a more conciliatory resolution to Chris Gayle’s long-running dispute. Gayle, who had earned fortunes playing in the IPL and other domestic Twenty20 tournaments, returned to West Indies colours for the first time in more than a year after a peace brokered at prime-ministerial level. Crowds flocked to witness his first international appearances in the Caribbean for two years and, on his Test return, he scored 150 and 64 not out against New Zealand in the first Test played at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua since the embarrassing 2008-09 abandonment against England.

  Gayle’s comeback helped provide his team with the self-belief to win the World Twenty20 in September, secured in fairytale fashion after they had come within one run of elimination during the Super Eights against New Zealand. Gayle was Man of the Match in the semi-final against Australia, but the triumph was a fine collective effort under Darren Sammy. Gayle did little in a final against Sri Lanka that ebbed and flowed in a way many thought impossible of a 20-over game. Instead, the hero was the hugely improved Marlon Samuels, who hit half his 78 from 56 balls in just 11 deliveries from Lasith Malinga, a notoriously difficult bowler to face. It was Sri Lanka’s fourth defeat in a major final since their World Cup triumph of 1996.

  Pakistan began the year strongly, with a 3–0 whitewash of England in the United Arab Emirates, but there was little chance to build on that outstanding result: because of the security situation at home, they played only one more Test series in 2012, losing 1–0 in Sri Lanka. Plans for Bangladesh to visit were twice scrapped, amid suspicions the tour had only ever been mooted as a quid pro quo for Pakistan backing the nomination of Mustafa Kamal, president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, for the role of ICC vice-president. But, much to Pakistan’s delight, an International XI travelled to Karachi in October to play two Twenty20 games. As a second home, the UAE was not ideal for Australia’s visit in August: the 50-over matches started at 6pm to avoid the worst of the heat – and even then, the thermometer hovered around 36°C. Pakistan also resumed bilateral relations with India after a four-year hiatus, tying a Twenty20 series that started on Christmas Day, before winning the 50-over matches 2–1.

  For the second year running, Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal finished as the leading wicket-taker in all internationals, claiming 95, after picking up 89 in 2011. Next, with 84, came another off-spinner, Graeme Swann of England, who had topped the list in 2010. But one of the features of the year was the rise of orthodox left-arm spin. Rangana Herath of Sri Lanka was the leading Test bowler, with 60 wickets (one more than Swann), including seven five-fors, three more than the next best, fellow slow-left armer Monty Panesar of England. Two others of the breed, Pakistan’s Abdur Rehman and India’s Pragyan Ojha, also had good years. In all, left-arm spinners claimed 172 Test wickets at a combined average of 27, seven fewer than any other type of bowling; their haul of 15% of available wickets was their highest for 25 years. Spin held less sway in one-day internationals, where the use of two balls per innings may have had an effect, but it remained a potent weapon in the Twenty20 format.

  Bangladesh and Zimbabwe both felt the impact of the ICC’s decision to revise the frequency with which they met the major teams. Across all formats, Zimbabwe featured in just eight matches (and lost the lot), and Bangladesh in 20 – tallies as low as in any year since Zimbabwe entered the Test ranks in 1992, and Bangladesh in 2000. It was also revealed that the Zimbabwean board had debts of $US18m. Bangladesh at least showed spirit at home to West Indies: after conceding 527 in the First Test at Dhaka, they lost by only 77 runs; and in the Second, the debutant Abul Hasan made the highest score (113) by a Test No. 10 for 128 years. One of the West Indies bowlers, Tino Best, had himself set an unlikely record five months earlier, with an exuberant 95 – the highest by a Test No. 11 – against England at Edgbaston. Bangladesh’s other consolation was to take the one-day series against West Indies 3–2 to move above New Zealand in the rankings.

  It was not necessary to be a close follower of the careers of Gayle and Pietersen to grasp that the shadow cast by the 20-over format was growing. Although no window was formally declared for the IPL, most international teams preferred to clear their diaries rather than risk upsetting – or even losing – their talent. During the eight weeks of the tournament, six Tests were staged in Sri Lanka, the West Indies and England, but the one-day and Twenty20 international formats went into total shutdown. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka both launched new domestic Twenty20 events, and Pakistan unveiled plans to follow suit in March 2013, only to postpone them. International cricket’s primacy was being paid lip-service only.

  ICC WORLD TWENTY20, 2012-13

  REVIEW BY DAVID HOPPS

  1. West Indies 2. Sri Lanka 3= Australia and Pakistan

  When the World Twenty20 drew to a close in Colombo, with the monsoon rains kindly delaying their arrival, even those most resistant to the charms of cricket’s shortest format struggled to deny it had done the game a huge service. For around 20 years, West Indies cricket had seemed in permanent decline. Yet here they were, triumphant in maroon and gold, dancing on the outfield at the Premadasa Stadium, winners once more.

  Tipped by many from the outset as potential victors, they had revealed their credentials only in fits and starts. Indeed, had Australia taken three more balls to chase down Ireland’s total in the group stages, West Indies would have fallen at the first hurdle on net run-rate. And, during an extraordinary final, they needed to recover a game against the hosts Sri Lanka that had seemed beyond them – a result forged largely by one man, Marlon Samuels, his career at last flowering.

  West Indies’ uncertainty made their achievement all the more appealing, while the unfailing decency and optimism of their captain, Darren Sammy, we
re all the more striking for rising above his own limitations. Sammy, a St Lucian, personified their slogan of “One Team, One People, One Goal”, and his unbeaten 26 off 15 balls in the final – to follow Samuels’s 78 off 56 – dragged West Indies out of inertia and towards what proved a match-winning total of 137 for six.

  As they confirmed their status as many neutrals’ favourite, there came persuasive evidence that Twenty20 was a game that a new wave of cricketers and fans could embrace throughout the Caribbean. This encouraged the belief that their victory was not just a brief interlude in a story of decline, but the start of a genuine renaissance. In the London Olympics back in August, the medal-winning sprinters Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake had proclaimed themselves Jamaicans, but were quick to stress they were also representatives of the wider West Indian community. Having reasserted a Caribbean identity, whose existence many in cricket had grown to doubt, Bolt and Blake also revealed themselves as lovers of the game. Publicity as good as that does not come along often.

  Two months later, Chris Gayle – another high-profile Jamaican – frolicked round the outfield with Sammy and the World Twenty20 trophy, and offered up one last rendition of the Gangnam Style dance that, in cricket circles at least, he had made his own. He, too, could now claim to represent not just Jamaica but also a region that sport had again insisted was more connected than politicians and activists would have you believe. There was even a Blake to Gayle’s Bolt, another Jamaican understudy in the form of Samuels – a player of stature in 2012, first in the Test matches of a miserable English spring, now in the tropical heat and Twenty20 of Sri Lanka.