November 2001 – Rick Eyre on Cricket

10. He played for Young England in 1989.

9. His nicknames (according to “The Cricketers’ Who’s Who”) are Benny and Barfo.

8. He is Gloucestershire’s only player on the Test leg of the Indian tour.

7. It took eight years at Gloucestershire before Ball was awarded his county cap.

6. The reason the England selectors selected him yesterday for the tour of India is that they wanted to replace Robert Croft with a “like-for-like replacement”. Yes, they wanted a bowler just like Robert Croft…

5. Or maybe it was because they both have two middle names – Martyn Charles John Ball and Robert Damien Bale Croft (and that reminds me to give a special cheerio to Philip Clive Roderick Tufnell)

4. In the 2001 English first-class season he scored 379 runs at a batting average of 29.15, with a top score of his three half-centuries of 68. (Now maybe this is the “like-for-like replacement” of Croft they were talking about.)

3. In his 14-year first-class career for Gloucestershire, Ball has taken 291 wickets for a career bowling average of 37.01

2. He was equal-46th leading wicket-taker in the 2001 English first-class season, with 34 wickets.

And the Number One thing you didn’t know about Martyn Ball is:

1. He exists!

Originally published on rec.sport.cricket following the news that Martyn Ball had been included in the England squad for their 2001-02 Test tour of India.

[This article was originally published on the defunct Cricketwoman website in 2001. – RE]

The New Zealand White Ferns tour of India set down for late November and December has been cancelled due to security concerns.

The decision to call the tour off was announced on November 1 by New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden, who said in a press release that it was an “extremely difficult decision” to reach, but that “the level of risk which exists here [in touring India] is unacceptable.”

Snedden went on to say that, unlike security arrangements promised by the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) for the English men’s tour of India, which begins in a fortnight, the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) would be unable to organise special security arrangements. Snedden added that the WCAI is an organisation which has a voluntary administration and few resources.

Snedden said that the players had not been consulted about the cancellation of the tour. “This is a team of amateur players. It did not seem right to me for New Zealand Cricket to place any degree of responsibility on the players to make the decision.”

CricInfo reports that New Zealand captain Emily Drumm felt “gutted” when she learned of the tour’s cancellation, but had no problems with the decision made by NZC CEO Snedden.

WCAI secretary Anuradha Dutt was reported by CricInfo as expressing regret upon receiving notification of the NZC’s decision. Disagreeing with Snedden’s viewpoint, Dutt said “I can’t really imagine the New Zealand women being in any real danger in India.”

“They’d be much safer here than in many western countries,” Dutt said. “But it’s their psychological perception that matters, and I can’t really make a decision for them.”

New Zealand were to have played three tour matches, five one-day internationals and one Test between November 29 and December 21. The first five matches on the tour would have been played at Delhi and neighbouring Faridabad, before moving north to Chandigarh – approximately 200km from the Pakistani border and 700km from Afghanistan – for one match on December 6. The remaining matches on tour were set for Lucknow, Calcutta and Jamshedpur, in the north-east of India.

The White Ferns, who were unable to secure a replacement international series, will now have to wait until their three-ODI tour of Australia in February for their next international experience. India are scheduled to receive the England team in February before visiting South Africa.

Further information:
NZC press release

CricInfo report on Anuradha Dutt’s reaction

Month: November 2001

Top ten things you didn’t know about Martyn Ball

New Zealand women’s tour of India cancelled