Book Release Announcement: Brave New Pitch by Samir Chopra

Dear BCCI'ers and fellow cricket fans, as some of you might know, I'd been working on my book on cricket for a while. I'm happy to report the book, Brave New Pitch: The Evolution of Modern Cricket has finally been released by HarperCollins India.

It is now available at Amazon (for US readers), and at Flipkart (for Indian readers). An e-book version should be out very soon and I'm also trying to figure out what its availability in the UK and Australian markets will be. What is the book about? Well, I think the blurb on the back does a decent job of telling us, but I'll be happy to provide more detail for anyone interested:

Cricket as we know it may soon be no more. Thanks to Twenty20, technology, media, and the sheer financial power of Indian cricket, the gentleman’s game is on the brink of radical changes. Nation-based cups might give way to T20 professional leagues; umpires might be replaced by technology; and professional franchises, not national boards, might call the shots. Could cricket go the way of professional football? Will Test cricket survive in an entertainment-driven field? Will television rights deals determine the nature of the game? This upheaval has been accompanied by conflict between the old guard England and Australia and the new boss, India. If the spirit of cricket is to survive these changes, it requires the balancing of economic, political and sporting imperatives. The game must find a way to remain a financially solvent global sport that caters to the changing tastes of its fans and players by creatively using new media and limited-overs cricket. In ‘Brave New Pitch’, Samir Chopra takes a hard look at cricket’s tumultuous present, and considers what could and should lie ahead.

Perhaps the best way for me to describe the book is that it is a fan's reactions to all the changes in the game. The effects of Twenty20 are interesting and important in many ways, not least because it forces us to think about many existing realities of the game and how they could work differently. Cricket could be headed for interestingly different times, ones that could see a new world of cricket if its possibilities are fully realized. This book is my attempt to try and see what that might look like and what the various forces affecting its forms are.

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Before the West Indies won the World Twenty20

Australia won the Women's World Twenty20

This was the first time that England and Australia Women had met in a world cup final for 24 years, and it had all the portents of a battle royal. Australia had derived a boost of self-belief from their recent dramatic win in the last over against New Zealand; England had a rigid plan proven by many victories. After winning the toss, England women’s strategy of putting the opposition in to bat first and then chasing with their best six batters backfired when Australia’s opening pair made 47 without loss in the power play. 

Lanning picked up the line of the England pace and spin attack early, and she and Healy found gaps in the field to score seven boundaries in the first six overs. Lanning was finally out for 25, giving a return catch to Holly Colbin who flighted a beautiful delivery. Healy was finally bowled by Hazell for 26. England had not encountered such a clever and precise onslaught of hitting so early on in the innings in previous matches.

England obviously looked nervous and shell-shocked in their fielding as a result. This was particularly evident in the fourteenth over when the evidence was beginning to mount incontrovertibly that this was going to be a big target to chase. Australia were 92 for 2, and in control, as England started to bowl slow lobs that Australia hit easily away. In one over , player -of- the- match- Cameron hit a powerful six to midwicket, then a scoop shot over the wicketkeeper’s head, and finally holed out on 45 at long off, caught by Gunn off Colvin.

England finally managed to slow them down, but the damage had been done. Australia Women finished on 142 for 4 off their 20 overs.

England needed to start urgently in their reply and Edwards hit the first ball for four, but the powerplay turned out to be a quiet affair with mainly dot balls and the occasional boundary. They lost Laura Marsh who finally popped a ball back to be caught and bowled by Hunter for 8. The England powerplay finished at 34 for 1 after six overs.

Edwards was just getting set when she lofted a ball from Sthalekar to Perry at mid-on for a restrained 28. Sarah Taylor, the ranked number one World Women’s batter, used her skill to get down the pitch. 

However, she attacked down the wrong line to chase an outswinger, giving wicketkeeper Fields a catch. By the end of the tenth over, the top three England batters had gone with the score on 61 for 3.

Although Australia had fewer spinners than England, the ball began to turn more for them as the evening drew on. Greenway tried to force the rate but was caught by Perry at midwicket from the left arm spin of Jonassen for only 4. England were not able to penetrate the field in the fifteenth over and Danielle Wyatt was dismissed off the bowling of Jonassen from a splendid catch completed by Blackwell close to the ground.

England thus needed 42 off the last four overs. Brunt tried to hit out but was also bowled by the spin of Jonassen.

Jenny Gunn brought England back into the game with some quick hitting, but was caught at fine leg off Hunter by Jonassen who had been brought up into the ring.

16 were needed from the last over, the highest off any in the England innings. A single; then a high no ball yielding three runs; and an extra ball which produced a dropped catch and a run; then a two; then another two. This left 7 required off the last two balls or six for a tie. Colvin sacrificed her wicket by trying to run for a second in a desperate run to get Hazell back on strike. From the remaining ball, with a six required, only a single could be scored.

Though England lost this match, they still hold the 50-overs championship title and will defend it next year in India.

In conclusion, this was a tremendous celebration of what women can do on a cricket field. The ICC expects a million females to be playing the game by 2015. Already 8 out of the top 10 teams are now on professional contracts, and the ICC has a target of 100 international matches to be played across the globe in the next four years. 

By Stuart Larner

Stuart is a chartered psychologist, and was mental health expert for XL for Men magazine. He writes plays, poems, and stories. http://stuartlarner.blogspot.com/. He is a cricket enthusiast in North Yorkshire, UK. His latest ebook “Guile and Spin” is available on Amazon  It was reviewed on BCC! here

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Breaking Bond

Shane Bond’s book Looking Back is out and the ex Kiwi pacer has taken his chance to explain a lot of things and better express some of his concerns (again) during his start-stop career in it.

When I read the headline on Cricinfo, I thought here he goes, whining again about being a victim of politics and probably even being scared silly by bomb-blasts in Bangalore while putting up in Kolkata but then I remembered how tough it was for him to even turn up to play the game he loved. A lot of things broke over Shane Bond’s career. It was his back most of the time, sometimes it was an ankle here, a shin bone there. But the guy kept coming back. Despite mending jobs which seemed straight out of gore film sequences, like a Frankenstein he came back to play with nuts and screws and what not in his body, keeping it all together.

Bond was one of the handful active international cricketers to join the ICL while the rest waited for developments before joining the gold rush. He clarifies that he joined the ICL after getting an ‘iron-clad assurance’ from the NZC that he could play both international cricket and ICL T20; that nothing in his contract prevented him from doing so. What else did he expect the NZC to tell him when he was such an important player for them? The fact that the board got away as long as long as he paid dearly is another thing that angered him. Moreover, how can you trust a board to defend its players and its actions when it can’t say no to a player with the availability record of Bond? He does not mention what he would have done had the board said no. That would’ve set the record straight.

The shit he found himself in after that, including accusations he did not want to play for the country pained Bond. He steered clear of taking any legal action because ‘there were talks’ that indicated NZC and his teammates would suffer. That part is quite believable I must admit and I hope the book throws a lot more light on these talks instead of just hinting at something vague. He maintains though that he does not regret playing in the ICL. It did give him more than the financial security he needed during his 18 months outside the NZ national team, which incidentally would have been akin to the period of a lengthy recovery gone bad for him.

He also says that despite being a top Black Cap, he hadn’t played enough to sustain him for long after his career ended. Well, good on you Shane, hope your book sales are great!

Crownish also blogs at the fckingblog

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A cricket connection.

...the bonding that the game affords to a bunch of men condemned to be sporting exiles in their new home in the US. Hans does not appear to be obsessed about international cricket scores; he is concerned mainly, with playing the game, partly to assuage the loneliness of the jilted lover, partly to reconnect with his Dutch childhood, and partly, to re-establish the kind of physical connection that a great game can build with us.

Here you go for Samir Chopra's review on Joseph O'Neil's Netherland.

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