SPINNO 1

FOR CRICKET

How great was THAT?Bumper ICC World T20 souvenir review

THE ASHESANDREW FLINTOFF MIKE HUSSEY NASSER HUSSAIN PHILLIP HUGHES MIKE BREARLEY RAVI BOPARA ASHLEY GILES MATTHEW HOGGARD

AUGUST 2009 £3.95

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SPIN

WORLD CRICKET MONTHLY

FULL HAWKEYE

FIRED SERIES GUIDE

+ GARY PRATT SIMON KATICH SACHIN TENDULKAR

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LEADING EDGE

12 SPIN AUGUST 2009

21.06.2009 LESSONTwenty20 is not all about batsmen, after all. It’s, now, all about bowlers. It’s been a journey: when T20 started, it was assumed bowlers should don crash helmets. T20 would be no fun for them. And it wasn’t – if they stuck to the line-and-length disciplines of four-day cricket. But seamers have got wiser and better – and those, like Lasith Malinga, Wayne Parnell and Umar Gul – who can land the ball on a yorker length at 85-90mph six balls out of six are now the key players. T20 is being played on a new level, with batters and bowlers constantly raising the bar. Don’t take it from SPIN, take it from Duncan Fletcher, not a man widely known as Mr Party: “Forget the old-fashioned types,” urged the ex-England coach at the end of the tournament. “Twenty20 can enrich cricket beyond all our expectations.”

16.06.2009 YOUTUBE CLIP

The last time someone did an England cricket song it was, er, us,

for the 2007 World Cup. A ramshackle affair (the song, as well as

the tournament) that drew – no kidding – 40,000 downloads. Now,

Phil Tufnell has churned out “We are Andy’s Army”, a punky

version of Rolf Harris’ Two Little Boys, sponsored by Marmite

and featuring a rap bit that will make you hide in the same place

behind the sofa as you do when watching Cricket AM. All

proceeds go to cricketforchange.org.uk for their work promoting

cricket to youngsters in inner-cities. So hats off.

12.06.2009 STATEMENTSir Lanka and Pakistan lining up together for the national anthems during their group game – then making it all the way to the ICC World T20 final. Back in March, the teams had been ambushed by gunmen on their way to a Test in Lahore. In the midst of a smoothly-run and exciting World T20 tournament, it would be easy for English fans to forget what these teams had been through and how both cricket and everyday life in general is under threat in some parts of the world. For the teams to put the chilling events behind them and carry on playing – and at such a world-beating level – represented an inspirational effort.

07.06.2009 LEAP FORWARDAdil Rashid had big boots to fill at the ICC World T20 – those of Freddie Flintoff, in fact, for whom he was a last-minute replacement. In the shock defeat to Holland, he turned the ball a lot, pitched it short and went for nine an over. Before the next game, spin coach Mushtaq Ahmed apparently told him the T20 secret: pitch it long and straight and only turn it a bit, like Ajantha Mendis. He went for six an over. Instantly (and successfully) changing his tactics and looking pretty nerveless throughout, the 21-year-old Rashid was one of the few high points for England in the T20, a showing that, to many observers, has put him ahead of Monty Panesar in the race for an Ashes place.

this month’s biggest…

21.06.2009 BENCH WARMER

GRAHAM NAPIERSo England finally, boldly, managed to select the six-hitting champion for a Twenty20 tournament, possibly in place of his Essex colleague Alastair Cook. Well done. But Napier was the only one of the 15-man squad not to actually get a game. Not so well done. He was forced to watch as England, repeatedly, turned decent starts into abject plods, for want of some middle-order hitters. Against West Indies, they went nine overs without a boundary. Nine overs! In Twenty20! Still England are, at least, like a snail embarking on a round-the-world trip, moving in the right direction.

13.06.2009 GOOD NEWS

Unable to play at home, thanks to ongoing security concerns, Pakistan dipped a toe in the neutral venue of the UaE in April, playing a five-match ODI series against Australia. Now, they’re looking to play a Test series v Australia in 2010 – and both Old Trafford and Edgbaston have put their hands up as potential hosts. Traditionally the ECB is nervous of neutral Tests diluting their core product – in this case, England’s less-then-mouthwatering 2010 Test series with Bangladesh and West Indies (again!). But the big counties, no longer guaranteed a Test, need to raise money; the ECB could do Pakistan a good deed and even, maybe, make some cash from the TV deal; and, as the World T20 showed, Pakistan fans will

turn out in huge and raucous numbers. Australia will

already be in the country for a

series of five ODIs with

England, so playing Tests with Pakistan here would be a

no-brainer for all

concerned, and good for

the world game. Surely?

04.06.2009 BAD NEWSANDREW SYMONDS’ FALLOnly last issue we were lamenting Roy being left out of the Ashes squad. Yet Symonds proved his critics right again, as he was sent home before the start of the ICC World T20, after being spotted boozing at 11.30 in the morning (he was watching a big rugby league game from Oz at the time; lots of Aussies were having booze for breakfast too that day. Plus ça change.) Facts and rumours suggested a love of the sauce had got out of hand; he’d played too much cricket and lost interest; he’d just lost $1m in an investment deal... Soon, Symonds, 34, lost his central contract too and was apparently considering retirement from Test cricket, if not from his $1.35m a year gig at the IPL. We don’t want the game full of Yes men and mummy’s boys: let’s hope Symo’s pals can do whatever it takes to get him out of the ’Spoons and and back on the park, enjoying his cricket.

17.06.2009 FINAL REMINDERSteve Harmison took 5/39 in a ferocious display on a dead pitch against Warwickshire, reopening a case that many had thought, finally, closed. “On flat, slow wickets, you have to do something different and my variation is being aggressive and bowling bouncers,” quoth Tinker, possibly channelling Larwood, after removing four Test batters and hitting three Bears batters on the head and body too. Was it too late for an England return? The perception was that Andys Flower and Strauss had wearied of Harmy after another lacklustre winter. Maybe they need to consider that, in games played within a three-hour drive of his house, he’s a completely different proposition...

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COMETH THE HOUR

Andrew Flintoff has played just eight Tests since the last Ashes. But he’s ready to inspire England again – and says victory this summer would be his greatest achievement yet

ASHES 09 |FLINTOFF

INTERVIEW SAM PILGER

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Since the glories of the 2005 Ashes, England have played 22 Test matches with Andrew Flintoff in the side – and won only three of them. But this is one case where the statistics,

surely, do not tell the whole truth. For Flintoff is England’s talisman, the man who balances the team, at once England’s most economical bowler and their best chance of taking a wicket; a larger than life personality who takes the fight to the opposition; the man the Aussies fear the most.

Since the open-top bus parade, the Downing Street partying and the MBE, it has been, to put it discretely, a mixed four years for Freddie. He has presided over England’s first Ashes whitewash since 1921, missed a total of 24 Tests with injury, and been stripped of the vice-captaincy of the one-day side after falling off a pedalo.

All recent English cricket history revolves around that 2005 Ashes win. It was a team effort but Flintoff was the inspiration: on the Saturday afternoon of the second Test at Edgbaston, with England 1-0 down, Flintoff single-handedly turned the series, flaying Brett Lee onto the roof to set up the run chase then bowling a perfect over that ended with the removal of Ricky Ponting; he hit a century in the fourth Test win and in the fifth, when England needed it most, bowled an 18-over spell either side of lunch on the fourth day.

Since then: anti-climax and frustration. After his first three ankle operations Flintoff – eager to get back amongst it – rushed back to the side too soon. Throwing himself, underprepared into the doomed 2006 Ashes campaign and then, after another operation, into the 2007 ICC World T20, proved counter-productive.

Last year’s comeback from his fourth ankle operation was measured and successful, certainly with the ball where he is bowling possibly faster and with even more control than ever, regularly passing 90mph. Flintoff has not hit a Test century since that 2005 series – he averages just 29 in games since then, not really England No 6 form – but both Flintoff and the cricket public seem convinced that it is only a matter of time before that part of his game, too, clicks back into place.

Injury has repeatedly kept Flintoff from the Aussies over the years. That 2005 series saw his much-delayed Ashes debut. Now, having picked up a knee injury at the IPL in April – which kept him out of England’s series with West Indies and the ICC World Twenty20 – Flintoff is once again on the verge of coming virtually straight back from an operation into the biggest challenge

56 SPIN AUGUST 2009

W hen Mike Hussey was accumulating an almost Bradmanesque average of 86.33 on his way to winning 19 of his first 20

Tests, including a record-equalling run of 16 consecutive Tests wins and an Ashes whitewash, he always knew this was cricketing Utopia destined not to last.

And so it proved last year when Hussey’s spectacular and unprecedented emergence into Test cricket came to abrupt end. So far, on the eve of the Ashes, he hasn’t managed to recapture the magic.

Since last November, for the first time in his Test career, Hussey has looked strangely fallible, his struggles out in the middle mirroring Australia’s own loss of invincibility. In the last eight Tests he has only twice reached fifty as he amassed just 322 runs at a rather more modest average of just 23.00.

“You have to cop it on the chin really,” says Hussey. “I have had a really good run for a few years now, and you have to expect there is a time when things don’t go your way and that is happening now… I have been under a lot of pressure, and you wouldn’t be human if self-doubt didn’t creep in, and it did.

“I have had plenty of dry spells in my career before, but this is the first in Test cricket. Once you miss out a couple of times then you start trying harder, and I can get in to trouble if I try too hard.

“I have even been bowled in the nets by Merv [Hughes],” he laughs. “We joke about that, he just lobs them up and I seem to find a way to nick them, but John Buchanan used to get me out in the nets too. I find a way to get out to most people!”

So how does Hussey, the fastest man to reach 1000 Test runs, hope to combat this

slump? “I just keep going back to basics, the things that made me score runs in the past, the way I prepare, I do the same things, I don’t want to complicate things. You just have to have trust in your game, and clear out the junk out in your mind.”

The Australian captain Ricky Ponting has a more simple solution: rest. “Lately Huss has been holding on for dear life because he has played so much cricket,” Ponting recently told me. “He didn’t get a break during the Australian summer, so it is crucial he missed the Pakistan one-day series [in April] and got some rest and feels fresh again. Maybe he stopped enjoying cricket, so he needs to love it again, and hopefully he will be back to his best in England.”

Hussey has recently admitted to feeling mentally “washed” and being in the unenviable position of facing Dale Steyn while not feeling at his absolute best on the recent tour of South Africa. By missing Australia’s one-day games against Pakistan in the UaE and skipping a return to the Indian Premier League to spend time with his family in Western Australia instead, a refreshed Hussey hopes to start scoring runs again.

Does he feel he has a lot more left in the tank? “ At this stage, yes, I do, but the truth is the schedule is so daunting at the moment. I don’t know how any player can get through it. That could harm the longevity of players’ careers with the pressure on families.

“But I don’t have any plans to retire any time soon… In cricket years I feel 28. That’s what I tell everyone. I feel like I’ve just got over the inexperienced level in international cricket, and I am just coming to terms with Test cricket.”

Despite Hussey still being a relative newcomer to the Test scene he is now Australia’s second oldest player at 34. He is their fourth most capped player after

Ponting, vice-captain Michael Clarke and Simon Katich, and expected to play a major role in the middle order as the Australian squad evolves from the Warne-McGrath-Gilchrist era in to today’s younger and more inexperienced collection of players.

In the last nine months this transition has seen Australia fall to their biggest series loss for 20 years, 2-0 in India, their first home series defeat in 16 years, 2-1 to South Africa, but they rallied with an encouraging series win in South Africa earlier this year.

“We are in a rebuilding phase because we have lost so many champions in the last few years. We are developing a new team and a new culture, while trying to hold on to the old culture.

“Now we have to work harder for our wins… we don’t have the same swagger as before, there is no way we can have that as we aren’t demoralising teams in three days which used to happen, but we can develop that over time and get it back.

“During Steve Waugh’s reign as Test captain he had just eight new players, but so far Ricky has had around 25 new guys, which is phenomenal, so that just shows how much change is happening.

“I feel really excited to be part of this new era, it gives me a chance to stamp my mark on the game. The challenge on me is to step up in this new era… Before I was surrounded by absolute legends of the game, but now with the younger guys there is more pressure on me, but I can’t let that get to me. It is a huge goal of mine to be part of this side and to start winning Tests consistently again.

“I am optimistic as we have a great first-class system full of players desperate to prove themselves at Test level. Peter Siddle is such an exciting prospect, he has a great work ethic; Mitchell Johnson has put a

Mr Cricketwe’ve been expecting you…Finally, at 34, Mike Hussey plays his first Ashes in England. He talks to SPIN about belated recognition, Australia’s rebuilding... and staying up all night watching the cricket

ASHES 09 |MIKE HUSSEY

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INTERVIEW SAM PILGER

38 SPIN AUGUST 2009

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ASHES 09 |NASSER

NasserHussainWhat did you learn from your two Ashes series as captain that you could pass on to Andrew Strauss?You have to take Australia on. They like to see sides take a backward step and play negative cricket. At times they've been like bullies, really. If you take a backward step, they stand all over you. If you play positive attacking cricket, as England did in 2005, they'll be surprised. Also, you need to be a very tight unit: in 2005 England were definitely a unit. No-one backed down. When Simon Jones threw that ball at Hayden at Edgbaston and Hayden went at him, I saw 11 England cricketers ready to go after Hayden. Against Australia you have to be 11: if one of you is being sledged or having a hard time, he needs his team-mates around him.

Have England given us any cause to think they are that kind of attacking side?At the start of the West Indies tour England were slightly defensive. But now that Strauss and Flower have developed a relationship and Flower is the permanent team director they’ll be much more of a unit and much more positive in their thought processes. I think Strauss will be attacking. They played some good positive cricket against the West Indies in the home series in May: I know it was ‘only’ the West Indies but the way England played at Durham, the way Anderson bowled... I think that was tough enough for any side really.

With the two sides supposedly so closely matched, will the roles of the two captains be especially vital?They’re two key people. The Australians will always go after the England captain. Strauss has been batting brilliantly, so if he can keep batting like that

and leading the way by example of getting runs, that will go a long way to establishing himself as an authority in the series. Ponting for me is the key man in the series. He’s had a quiet time of late and it’s about how much he wants to

avenge the 2005 series. If he has a good series with the bat – as he did in the last

series when he had his game face on and Australia won 5-0 – I think he'll

go a long way towards Australia winning. If Ponting has a quiet series, I think England have a great chance.

The captaincy battle

THE EX-ENGLAND SKIPPER, NOW THE BEST COMMENTATOR ON SKY SPORTS, PROVIDES HIS EXCLUSIVE GUIDE TO THE FACTORS THAT COULD DECIDE THE ASHES

England haven’t beaten a higher-ranked team for three years. What reason do we have to believe they can get 20 wickets against Australia, the world’s No 1 side?Well, it’s a good question. Statistically, there’s no reason to say that England are favourites. You’re talking about a side that had lost their last three series before beating the West Indies at the start of the summer. They’ve gone down to No 5 in the ICC Test table; the Australians are No 1... But, with a fit Flintoff and the progress of Anderson and Broad, Onions coming in and Sidebottom on the sidelines... in English

conditions, there’s a good chance of England doing well.

They just weren’t ruthless enough in those series they lost: they could have – maybe should have – beaten South Africa last summer, if they had been ruthless at Lord’s and Edgbaston when they had great opportunities; they had opportunities to win in Chennai and in the West Indies. They just weren’t ruthless enough. They didn't keep the opposition down when they had them down. England played a lot of good cricket in those defeats: they need to learn to be ruthless and finish sides off when they make those opportunities.

Stopping the wonder boyAussie opener Phil Hughes seems unstoppable – but he has a very distinct style, making room to hit on the off-side. What can England do to stop him?He’s got Bradmanesque figures, so he’s obviously doing something right. We all have technical failings, every single batsman in world cricket. You just have to bowl a specific area to him: bowl straight, don’t bowl wide; come round the wicket, tuck him up and try and get him bowled.

He is the form batsman of world cricket at the moment. The plans against him are pretty obvious. But we’ve always had plans against Australian batsmen – that’s what was good about 2005, the percentage of deliveries bowled to the plan. In the past, England have put two or three deliveries an over in the planned areas. But in 2005 it was four or five with that seam attack, so you’re targeting a player's weak areas on a more regular basis which always buys you wickets in the end.

So you recommend a similar tactic to the way Andrew Flintoff came round the wicket to Adam Gilchrist in 2005?Yeah – but that was the plan against Gilchrist for us ever since he came into the side. Previously England attacks could only do it two out of six balls, then the third ball would be wide and Gilchrist would whack it for four. Your bowling attack not only has to have a plan – they have to be able to put the ball in that place four or five balls out of six.

That’s what cricket’s about: the reason you win games is that bowlers can put plans into operation. That’s what happened in 2005 and that’s why, with McGrath and Warne, Australia were so successful: they could not only work out batsmen’s weaknesses but deliver at the highest pressure of a Test match.

Are England right not be tempted by the

Class of ’05 like Michael Vaughan and Steve Harmison? I don’t think Geoff Miller

has shut the door on anyone. But – crikey – you can't argue with Ravi Bopara being in the starting XI:

he and Pietersen have been

England’s best batsmen over the last two

months. I’ve not

seen a better batsman than Bopara in all forms of cricket. He’s just playing beautifully. Graham Onions? Well, you only find out when you play against Australia. He’s bowled well for England [and] Durham and he deserves his chance. The door’s not closed on Harmison – or on Ian Bell. People have forgotten about him but he’s a fine cricketer. Vaughan needs a few more runs and that’s the best way back into the side. If England go 2-0 down and Vaughan's getting some runs for Yorkshire then he's got a chance too.

Being ruthless

ENGLAND’S LINE-UP

‘The plans against Hughes are pretty obvious. But can England put the plans into operation?’

82 SPIN AUGUST 2009

Bravo – his all-round T20 game honed by playing with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL – takes four Indian wickets to reduce the champs to 153/7. But well into the last hour West Indies still need 74 runs from 48 balls, with the Indian-dominated crowd sensing another easy win. But then the tension grows and the uproar subsides as Bravo and Lendl Simmons turn ones into twos and pressure the Indian fielders; a straight six off an Ishant Sharma slower ball for Bravo, a reverse-swept

four off Harby by Chanderpaul... soon the Indian crowd are headed for the car parks and bus stops; it’s down to eight off two overs and Bravo settles it with a six over extra cover off Zaheer Khan.

DAY ! "JUNE #$%Umar Gul takes five wickets for six runs against New Zealand at the Oval. The Black Caps think they are struggling at 72/4 from 12 overs. Then Gul comes on mid-innings and skittles them with the best figures in international T20 history.

Gul has help: his first scalp, Scott Styris, falls to a brilliant, running-back-to-the boundary catch from Shahid Afridi. The catch – and Afridi’s look-at-me celebration in front of the fans – is possibly the moment of the tournament. Twice Gul takes two wickets with consecutive balls. The Kiwis are blown away for 99. Pakistan pass them with 41 balls to spare.

Even so, skipper Younus Khan reveals afterwards that he has given up looking cheerful. “People misunderstand my smile,” he says, his face now Bob Willis-esque. “They think I am not committed enough playing for my country because I’m always laughing even when we lose. But this is life. You must go forward and leave what has already happened behind you.”

Gul’s figures are scarcely credible. Here, at the spiritual home of Umpire Darrell Hair, the Black Caps suggest, in fact, they are not credible at all. Vettori asks the umps to look at the ball during the innings and raises the matter with the match referee afterwards.

Colly is skittled by Jacques Kallis in the Super8 game v South Africa. Below: Umar Gul picks up Peter McGlashan on his way to world record figures of 5/6, v New Zealand at The Oval.Opposite: Man of the match Ryan Sidebottom silences the Indian fans, as England put India out of the Super8s

DAY BY DAY ICC WORLD TWENTY20

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DAY BY DAY ICC WORLD TWENTY20

INTERVIEW GEORGE DOBELL

INTERVIEW SACHIN TENDULKAR

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It’s not easy being Sachin Tendulkar. As if the expectation of a billion cricket-mad Indians isn’t enough, he seems to bring out the crazed fan inside many of his compatriots. When SPIN meets Sachin in London, his manager, a fellow with more mobile phones than a Vodafone store, tells me that normal life is almost impossible. “He went to buy a pair of shoes the other day,” he says. “He was only in the shop 15 minutes, but word got around and by the time he tried to leave, there were about 4,000 people in the street trying to catch a glimpse of him. We had to call the police.”

Such incidents are far from unusual. If Sachin wants to watch a film, he has to arrange a private screening. If he wants to drive his car – Ferrari gave him one of their finest – he has to go out in the early hours of the morning. And if he does grant an interview, it tends to be very brief. As a result, he spends quite some time at his home in London.

But today is different. With Sachin in England to promote the launch of a new Tendulkar Opus – a luxury, outsize collectors’ items of an autobiography that will weigh 30kg and sell for several thousand pounds – SPIN have been invited to accompany Sachin to a coaching session and then conduct a full length interview. It is a remarkable experience. Seeing at first hand the passion that he arouses – particularly among those of Indian origin – is eye-opening: waiters’ hands shake as they serve him; middle-aged businessmen giggle like star-struck schoolgirls and newspaper reporters ask questions so cringingly sycophantic that it makes the man himself squirm with unease.

This November sees the 20th anniversary of the 16-year-old Tendulkar’s Test debut. He has now hit more Test (42) and one-day international centuries (43) than anyone, helping to make up a mind-boggling total of 29,000 international runs. That the prodigy’s rise coincided with India’s new and increasingly voracious passion for limited-overs cricket has accorded him a status that is less celebrity and closer, as we see this morning, to that of some kind of icon.

But when SPIN and Tendulkar are finally alone, he speaks with great humility. In one of his longest interviews for several years – possibly since SPIN’s own sit-down with him in Mumbai in 2005, in fact – Tendulkar tells of the importance of last winter’s Chennai Test

Being Sachin TendulkarHis highs, his lows, his future: the world’s greatest batsman gives an insight into his world, in a rare full-length interview.

INTERVIEW SACHIN TENDULKAR

AUGUST 2009 SPIN 31