cricket.rickeyre.com

“Lagaan”, the 2001 Bollywood film that climaxes with a game of cricket, makes its first appearance on Australian free-to-air television tonight. Nominated for the US academy of arts and science’s best foreign film award of 2001, “Lagaan” is on SBS tonight (Sunday July 31) from 8.30pm. (It finishes just after midnight, and that’s not through being drawn out by copious amounts of ads like the other channels!)

With Justice Albie Sachs due to hand down his decision on the appeal against Saurav Ganguly’s suspension later today, I thought it might be interesting to revisit his recent interview on BBC World’s Hardtalk program.

While he doesn’t discuss the Ganguly case or even cricket at all in the interview with the BBC’s Steven Sackur, it does provide an interesting insight into the man whose day job is as a Justice of the South African Constitutional Court.

Also interesting to hear that, as a member of the ANC, he was for a time denied entry to the United States on the basis that he was a terrorist. The US Government has been making a mess of the war on terror for decades.

Here is the link to the Hardtalk page on the Albie Sachs interview, which includes a link to the 25 minute dialup quality real-video program.

The Cricket Association of Bengal has amended its constitution to allow Jagmohan Dalmiya to serve a third term as its president. A special general meeting of the CAB voted this week to remove the clause in its constitution limiting an association president to holding a maximum of two terms in the post. This will allow Dalmiya to continue as CAB President beyond July this year, which is also the month when his term as president of the ICC expires. Joint Secretary of the CAB, Debdas Bannerjee, stated, “We are not denying the fact that we changed the constitution for Mr Dalmiya. The CAB needs him. He is the man who can mobilise funds for us.” Last week, Dalmiya was named to the newlycreated position of Chairman of the Asian Cricket Foundation (ACF).

- CricInfo365, 7.4.00

No surprises Wednesday night at Eden Gardens, except that there was an election at all. Jagmohan Dalmiya, the man with more hats than a bald hydra, has been re-elected president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).

Having had the CAB constitution re-written for his benefit in 2000, Dalmiya’s unopposed re-election has been a formality, until now. Dinesh Bajpai, former Director-General of the Bengal state police, threw his hat into the ring a couple of weeks ago.

With 121 votes available, Bajpai claimed 13. JD received 106. And a special mention to the representative of Salkia Friends who did not turn up.

Amitava Banerjee (97 votes) and Saradindu Pal (86), two of Dalmiya’s mates, were elected Joint Secretaries, with anti-JD operative Samar Pal scoring 35. There was a buzz in the days before the election as Saradindu Pal was quoted in the press and saying he had been involved in match-fixing. According to JD, however, “The system is such that matches cannot be fixed.”

Bajpai complained prior to the election that he had not received a list of the voters in the election, despite asking for one. A bit like the Iraqi general assembly election in reverse, really. Whereas in Iraq the voters were not given the names of many of the candidates they were voting for, in Bengal the opposition candidate was denied access to the electoral roll! Which makes campaigning rather difficult.

Press Trust of India reported that “rejecting Vajpai’s demand, Dalmiya said going by the rules, the list could not be sent to him. He said that the list had been put up on the notice board of the CAB and Vajpai was ‘always at liberty to come to the Club House and have a look’.”

I’m bemused. How can an sports administrative body, responsible for millions of participants, even keep the contact details of its affiliate members secret, let alone have a rule that candidates for its elections has trouble finding out who they are?

Reports on the election outcome from Press Trust of India, Indo-Asian News Service, Indian Express, and from Kolkata newspapers the Telegraph and the Statesman.

In the wake of JD’s re-election, Prem Panicker has given a personal overview of Dalmiya’s legacy in his blog, Sightscreen, which I have today added to my blogroll.

Three items on the web for your edification:

• Button It, Hoggy! - BBC Online’s Robbo suggests ways for England to beat Australia
• “I got to play George and then I went to the cricket” - John Howard as told to Louise Evans, The Australian
• Aussie cricket fan apologises for gloating spree - The Bladder.

The first progress results are in for the Ashes and More Tipping Competition, following the wins by Australia at Lord’s on Sunday, and Sri Lanka at Kandy on Tuesday. Geoff and Stu are our two entrants with a 100% record at this stage. (Those of us who don’t have a perfect score chose a draw in either or both Tests. No one selected either England or the West Indies to win.)

The next Test match coming up is the Second Test between England and Australia commencing at Edgbaston on Thursday August 4. Selections for this match will close at 1.10pm BST on August 4, the scheduled end of the lunch break. If you haven’t made a selection for that game you may do so until that time. If you have already made a selection you can change it up until that time.

Also coming up is, provided it goes ahead, the First Test between Zimbabwe and New Zealand at Harare commencing Sunday August 7. Exact closing time for selections will be announced closer to the actual date, but it will again be at the conclusion of the lunch break on Day One.

If you aren’t in the competition yet, you can still join if you are game enough to play catch-up. See my initial posting under the Tipping Comp section of this blog for further details on how to join.

For those people who want to follow the updates on the tipping competition, feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed:
http://cricket.rickeyre.com/blog/category/this-site/tipping-comp/feed/

It took just 10.1 overs on Sunday once play actually began. Like so many Australian victories over the past decade, a game that was neck-and-neck through the first innings ended up a decisive victory. Two bowlers with a combined age of 70 and a combined career haul of 1097 Test wickets finished off England, as they have done so many times before.

Pietermartizberg’s very own Kevin Pietersen can be pleased with his Test debut for his new country of residence, and currently boasts a batting average of 121.00.

Seeing as only ten overs were bowled on Day Four, I am only awarding one point in my players of the day voting, which will go towards my Player of the Ashes award, the name of which I shall announce within the next 24 hours 1 point to Glenn McGrath, who claimed four points for the match.

I’ll link to just a few of the Australian viewpoints on the victory: Chloe Saltau for the Sydney Morning Herald, former England B captain PW Roebuck for the same Australian rag, and Gideon Haigh, in Tuesday’s Guardian, invokes not just the names of Sun Tzu and M Scott Peck, but Spencer Johnson’s book “Who Moved My Cheese?”.

BBC Online has a good summary of reaction from both sides of the fence (although Jon Pierik writes for Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, not the SMH).

For blog coverage of the final day’s play, I direct you to the Corridor of Uncertainty, Ubersportingpundit (despite Scott seeing just as much live TV of Day Four as I did, ie, none), Nick Whittock’s Ashes, and indeed the ABC’s Jim Maxwell.

Finally, Tuesday’s Guardian also has the viewpoint of celebrity columnist Wheelie bin Giles. He begins:

One Test has been lost against Australia and already we are reading that we are “a bunch of drips”.

Can someone shut that lid properly so that the bin doesn’t fill up with water?

John Howard at the presidential lectern in the White House with George W Bush. John Howard at the Pentagon with Donald Rumsfeld. John Howard being praised by Rupert Murdoch at a black tie dinner. John Howard with Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. John Howard visiting Aussie blast victims in a London hospital. John Howard chatting with John Major in the member’s pavillion at Lord’s. John Howard with headphones and mike in the CCCP (Central Cricket Commentary Position) live to air on the Beeb.

Never more than this week has the Australian prime minister reminded me so much of Woody Allen in “Zelig”.

Or maybe Forrest Gump.

It was such an amazing coincidence for the England and Wales Cricket Board to stage a Lord’s Ashes Test in the very same week that JWH should be checking in with the boss in Washington and with the brethren in Mother England. Just another opportunity for the Walter Mitty of Australian politics to act out his fantasy as Bob Menzies’ long lost love child.

For once, at least some of the British media had advance warning. Marina Hyde’s piece is a tad inaccurate in places (President Lagos of Chile completed his state visit to Australia a week before her article was published), but the drift is there.

Saturday afternoon, tea-time, and time for the inevitable - John Howard hits the air waves on Test Match Special. (At least they had the good sense not to put him on while play was in progress.) For fifteen minutes a fawning Jon Agnew, ever the post-Johnners tory, talked terrorism with JWH, talked Zimbabwe with JWH, and even talked cricket.

We heard of the one and only time he saw Bradman bat, we heard of the merry late night DVD screenings of Steve Waugh’s 2003 SCG hundred, we were told that Glenn McGrath is, along with Dennis Lillee and Ray Lindwall, one of Australia’s three great fast bowlers. (Run that speed gun past me again.)

Howard told us that Ian Chappell was one of Australia’s finest captains. An interviewer with more research and more chutzpah could have asked if he thought the same of Chappelli’s efforts in opposition to the government’s refugee policies.

Fifteen minutes are up, the players are back on the field, and the interview is mercifully over. But let’s bump into Merv Hughes and have a cackle at the back of the commentary box while CMJ is trying to describe the start of the next session.

There’s no transcript of the interview online yet, I expect the Prime Ministerial website will have one shortly.

Before sifting through the Sunday papers, this from the Lords.org website posted on Friday:

‘Daily Mail’ apologises to ticket staff at Lord’s

The ‘Daily Mail’ today (Friday 22nd July) contains the following apology to MCC’s Ticket Office staff: “On May 24, ‘Sports Agenda’ by Charles Sale reported claims by ticket touts that their supply line for Test tickets included the MCC ticket office at Lord’s. We wish to emphasise that there is no truth in their claims and sincerely apologise to the MCC ticket office staff that our story did not make this clear.”

MCC has accepted this apology and will therefore withdraw the case that it put, earlier this week, to the Press Complaints Commission.

Moving right along from the Mail on Sunday, the Sunday Telegraph gives us columns from Scyld Berry, Mike Atherton, Ian Chappell, and the riveting Andrew Strauss’ Test Diary.

The Independent on Sunday gives us items from Nick Townsend, Stephen Brenkley, Stephen Fay and Mark Butcher (who compares the Test match to Coldplay’s performance at Glastonbury), while Steve Bloomfield and Andrew Johnson report on the ticket touts, and not in the same manner as did the Daily Mail.

The Sunday Mirror gives us “The Alec Stewart Interview” and a hagiography of Shane Warne in which the word “bonkers” refers to a state of mental health and not participants in one of his nights out.

The Observer gives us Kevin Mitchell, Vic Marks, Will Buckley, Mike Brearley and Geoff Lawson, plus a collaborative effort by eight writers (unbylined on the website) depicting what it was like to be a Lord’s on Thursday.

The Sunday Times: Simon Wilde, Lawrence Booth, Ivo Tennant, David Gower, Andrew Longmore, John Stern, Steve Waugh, and Justin Langer, who begins with a quote from John Buchanan’s favourite author, Sun Tzu.

My question du jour involves Le tour: Can Australia wrap up the First Test before Lance begins his final pedal up the Champs-Elysees?

Australian free-to-air broadcasters SBS juggling cricket coverage with their pre-existing committment to the Tour de France - something Murdoch operatives have been gloating about as jointly owned Fairfax-Packer pay TV channel Fox Sports has complete ball-by-ball coverage to itself. On the other hand, it has the Sky Sports commentators all to itself…

Before doing the Day Three Paper Rout in my next message, my 3-2-1 for Saturday’s play: 3, Shane Warne; 2, Kevin Pietersen; 1, Simon Katich.

Live coverage of the Corbeil-Essonnes to Paris pedal on Letour.fr from 1340 CET. His Lanceness should be wheeling under L’Arc shortly after 1700 CET.

There’s probably nothing that gives me more pleasure in following cricket these days than charting the rise and rise of Michael Clarke. Friday, he breathed life into an Australian side that had been struggling to get on top of the First Test, and then looked set to add a debut Ashes century at Lord’s to his CV.

Then came one shot too reckless, and he chopped a Matthew Hoggard delivery into his stumps. Clarke was gone for 91 from just 106 deliveries. Although Clarke’s departure started an Australian collapse - 4/22 in the last eight-and-a-bit overs of the day - he and Damien Martyn had put their team 290 runs in front of England. That should be enough to win this Test.

It’s a wonderfully versatile word, “should”, isn’t it?

Friday was also a defining moment in the international career of Kevin Pietersen. As well as top scoring for England in his first Test innings, 58 out of 155, his long-term place in the team became more secure with the news from Guildford that Graham Thorpe was retiring from international cricket.

My partner is having a baby in the next couple of weeks and I have decided that I want to concentrate on my family life.

GPT putting as gracious a face as possible onto the fact that the selectors had, just a few days earlier, given him the shaft.

There’s another English name we should remember from Friday’s play in the First Test - especially in case we don’t happen to hear much from him again. Somerset batsman James Hildreth took the catch that removed Ricky Ponting in Australia’s second innings. It’s always been a bugbear of mine… why aren’t stats on substitute fielder catches consistently kept in Test cricket?

My 3-2-1 for Friday: 3 pts, Michael Clarke; 2 pts, Damien Martyn; 1 pt (despite his dropsy in the field) Kevin Pietersen.

I’m going to put all these 3-2-1’s together towards my own player of the series title. (Name to be decided but I should have one ready by tomorrow. “Compton-Miller” is a hard act to follow.)

That Day Two stumps score: Australia 190 all out and 279 for 7, England 155.