Telford Vice's Blog, page 387

Srini survives despite court order

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Administrators who thought a court order would rid the game, at least temporarily, of Narayanaswami Srinivasan would have been disappointed that he attended an International Cricket Council board meeting in Dubai yesterday.

On March 28, India’s Supreme Court forced Srinivasan to step aside as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) pending the outcome of an investigation into illegal betting and spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League...

Steyn bats No. 11 in exclusive club

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Dale Steyn has joined an exclusive club by being named “Leading Cricketer in the World” for last year in the 2014 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, which was published yesterday.

Jacques Kallis, who earned the same award for his exploits in 2007, is the only other South African to be honoured in this way.

Steyn is the 11th winner of the award, which was inaugurated in the Almanack in 2004. The first recipient was Australian Ricky Ponting. India’s Viren...

Busy off-season looms for SA players

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

SA’s season has ended but that does not mean the players are taking a break until the national squad regroups to tour Sri Lanka in July.

A dozen players – among them 10 of the 15 who returned on Monday from the World T20 in Bangladesh – are signed up to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which starts in the United Arab Emirates next Wednesday.

Coaching staffs in the IPL will feature several South Africans, while the county scene is rife with prominent...

Domingo comes out swinging in defence of T20 tactics

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Russell Domingo has come out swinging as hard in defence of SA’s T20 tactics as AB de Villiers does at the crease.

Stung by criticism from former players turned television pundits – notably Kepler Wessels, HD Ackerman, Mark Boucher and Daryll Cullinan – before and after SA’s six-wicket loss to India in the semi-finals of the World T20 in Dhaka on Friday, Domingo took on his detractors yesterday.

“It is disappointing that guys who have been in this situation...

Leading Edge: Roots of modern malaise are in the past

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Maybe the moment of our growing up was Lance Klusener and Allan Donald being caught with their pants down in their Y-front shirts on that awful day at Edgbaston in 1999.

Perhaps it was the slap of the Springboks being good enough to beat the rest of the world twice.

Or was it that not even wheeling out Nelson Mandela to secure the World Cup made mediocrities like Bafana win when they had no right to do so?

Whatever. The fact is South Africans have grown wear...

SA’s WT20 crash no joke, but also no choke

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Unlike SA’s other failures in tournaments, their inability to advance past the semi-finals at the World T20 in Bangladesh was a problem of tactics rather than temperament.

India were the better team in Dhaka on Friday and won by six wickets with five balls to spare. Damn straight – no implosions or explosions were involved, and there is no need for the tortured introspection that has accompanied SA’s previous stumbles. They tried, and tried hard. They lost...

Members End: Wandering Warne, Aussie anguish, mumbling Malinga, Titans titter

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

The Indian press, never shy to climb a mountain when they could just as easily step over a molehill, got themselves into a hot fuss over Shane Warne’s impromptu appearance at SA’s net practice in Dhaka on Wednesday ahead of Friday’s semi-final. “Shane Warne comes to SA’s rescue,” was one headline as representative as it was hopelessly overblown. Closer to the probable truth is that Warne, bored of his luxury hotel, felt like turning his arm over.

Besides,...

Still life with potplant

GO Cricket – http://www.gocricket.com/Still-life-with-potplant/Telford-Vice/columnshow/33296534.cms

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

When is a backward step a sign of progress? When South Africa lose a knockout match at an ICC tournament and there is no evidence of the sky falling.

We know. We have checked. Several times: the sky remains where it was when India won the World T20 semi-final in Dhaka on Friday.

The game was, before and after everything, a cricket match and nothing more. For South African...

Plenty for Du Plessis, Domingo to think about

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Faf du Plessis and Russell Domingo will have had more than 60 hours to think about what went wrong in their World T20 campaign by the time they ease their tired bodies off a plane at OR Tambo International this morning.

That’s how long their journey home will take following SA’s six-wicket loss to India in the semi-finals in Dhaka on Friday.

But crossing time zones and the equator and being marooned in the sensory deprivation of airport lounges will not make...

SA beaten but not disgraced

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg *

They came, they saw, and they were beaten. But they were not disgraced and they did not choke. Instead, SA went down fighting in their World T20 semi-final against India in Dhaka last night.

SA did themselves the favour of putting up a challenging total of 172/4. Never in the 69 T20s they had played before yesterday had a team chased down more than 165 to beat them. That alone means India deserved to win, which they did by six wickets with five balls rema...