Telford Vice's Blog, page 386

Big cricket back in the township

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Big cricket will return to the township next summer when England’s second string, the Lions, tour SA.

The tour will start on January 5 with a three-day match against a SA Invitation XI at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto Oval.

The Lions’ next stop is Paarl, where they will take on SA A over four days at Boland Park – which is in a historically coloured neighbourhood – from January 11.

On February 2, SA A play the England Lions in Mamelodi in the fourth...

Graveyard shift for IPL

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Among the last street signs visitors to Sharjah Cricket Stadium see before they pass through the main gate to an arena that creaks with faded glory is a stark pointer that reads: “Graveyard”.

Sharjah is where the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) starts today with a game between the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Organisers will hope the match is not another step in a funeral procession for a tournament that once seemed destin...

Why South Africans can’t but do stand the IPL

GO Cricket – http://www.gocricket.com/Why-South-Africans-cant-but-do-stand-the-IPL/Telford-Vice/columnshow/33783037.cms

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

South Africans will not watch the Indian Premier League (IPL) even though it is about to take over at least one of their cable television channels. They will not care which team wins. They have no clue who the defending champions are, and they could not tell you why, for instance, Chennai are a better bet to go all the way this year than, say, Hydera...

IPL primed for SA’s dollared dozen

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

The investment in SA players in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL), which starts in the United Arab Emirates tomorrow, is worth more than R100-million.

Dale Steyn and David Miller, who will each earn the equivalent of R22 071 000 from Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab respectively, head the SA money list. Marchant de Lange is at the other end of that scale with his Mumbai Indians pay packet of R523 560.

Nine other South Africans – AB de Villiers,...

Crunching cricket numbers is Samson’s passion

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Ask Andrew Samson how many left-arm fast bowlers have taken a wicket with their right bootlaces untied after tea on a Thursday in a first-class match played between the 27th and 83rd parallels, and he will sigh, stifle a roll of his eyes, and say with apparently effortless calm:

“Twelve, excluding the bloke who was called for chucking in the Outer Hebrides. Actually, he did it with the fourth ball of the last over of a second session that was lengthened be...

Why the old guard don’t like Domingo

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Russell Domingo spent many strong words at a press conference on Monday explaining why he had done what he had done at the World T20 in Bangladesh, where SA fell at the first hurdle in the knockout stages for the 11th time in 15 global tournaments.

Domingo also expressed his “disappointment” over “unfair” criticism, wondered whether one of the critics of his tactics, Kepler Wessels, was “trying to get a job” and said of those who doubted that SA were impro...

Leading Edge: Du Plessis coming home is progress

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

When Graeme Smith lost a World Cup, he went to Ireland. When Faf du Plessis lost a World Cup, he came home to tell us how and why.

To leave those two statements hanging like green bottles on the wall would be a disservice on several fronts.

Smith was roundly criticised for his no-show on the SA squad’s return from the 2011 World Cup. Cricket SA (CSA), too, copped flak for allowing him to do abdicate his responsibility.

When Smith did come home – having succe...

Members End: Strange bedfellows and Srini

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Members End is surprised that so many people have taken Fikile Mbalula’s decree of a 60% black quota in SA’s teams so seriously. This is the blowhard who told us that “whatever the retired judge recommends I will implement” when he launched the Nicholson investigation into Cricket SA’s (CSA) bonus scandal. Mbalula did no such thing and the supposedly restructured CSA bears little resemblance to what Nicholson recommended. Then Mbalula announced, to great...

Adams still bamboozling after all these years

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Paul Adams used to bamboozle batsmen as a bowler. Now, as a coach, he seems to be confusing them again – even someone as experienced as Andre Odendaal, the chief executive of the WP Cricket Association.

“We have a five-year strategy for Paul, but he’s going to quickly for that,” Odendaal said about Adams having guided the Cape Cobras to four trophies, or shares of trophies, in the six competitions his team have contested in his first two seasons as a head c...

Big three’s hostile takeover nears completion

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

The big three’s hostile takeover of international cricket moved a step closer to completion at the International Cricket Council (ICC) board meeting that ended in Dubai yesterday.

In February, India, England and Australia demanded and were granted in principle the lion’s share of the power and money in the world game by the ICC’s small seven, less equal full members.

The board “authorised the drawing up of the necessary constitutional amendments which will b...