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Perhaps the most pleasing on the eye for long time MCC members out of the recent crop of Sri Lankan players, Mahela Jayawardene represents a fast dying, much loved period in cricketing history. Amongst Jayasuriya’s onslaughts, Dilshan’s outrageous scoops, Mathews’ physics defying fielding and Mendis’ mystery balls (lets not even touch upon Murali and Malinga), we find a man for whom the cover drive and clean slip catches are king and queen. Bringing up the name Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene raises sceptical looks in some circles (and worried glances towards alcoholic drinks stocks in others). Debate will continue about the integrity of Jayawardene’s stats. Some claim he is a flat track bully, who feeds off of bowlers on the dead or dying wickets of the sub-continent, whilst others will suggest that he will be looked upon as a cricketing great after he retires.

Whatever the point of view, one undisputable fact is that the man from Colombo possesses one of the most thoughtful, precise and increasingly endangered techniques in the game. Inch perfect footwork, a solid forward defensive, patience, timing and above all elegance oozing from every stroke of the blade are what Jayawardene should hopefully be remembered for when he eventually calls time on his career. Jayawardene is perhaps one of the few remaining old guard, whose technique could adorn the pages of any coaching manual. Sadly in a world where powerplays and advertising deals are fast overtaking the straight drive in importance, Jayawardene’s kind will find it increasingly difficult to find a home. In this day and age, 8000 people will not turn up to watch a batting line up full of players such as Jayawardene, Misbah, Nash and Katich. Cricket has been introduced to the fast food generation, and it must learn to adapt or wallow in mediocrity.

The consequences of this? More emphasis on being able to score runs in unusual places, and to hit it out of the park at least once an over. A bigger demand for players with the power of Pollard or Yuvraj, with the daring-do of Dilshan, or with the all-round capabilities of Afridi. The marginalisation of technically correct accumulators such as Jayawardene and Kallis will soon follow. What use is it having a batsman who times the ball through the covers for 4 every other over if you can have two guys who can mow it over cow corner twice an over?

Jayawardene is not exactly a stranger to big hitting, though. In my opinion he played the perfect one day innings against New Zealand in the World Cup semi-final in 2007. Coming in at 67-2 in the 14th over, Jayawardene took ten balls to get off the mark with a single. What followed was a steady accumulation of singles and well judged twos. His first boundary came up in the 31st over, with his second following in the 38th. A third boundary and some more excellent running brought Jayawardene 50 in the 41st over off of 76 balls. What followed was a masterclass in innings acceleration, as first Patel, then Oram and Franklin were dispatched to all parts of the ground in a near faultless display of counter-attacking. His next 50 came off just 28 balls, including six fours and two sixes. The finale came with Jayawardene taking 11 runs from the four balls he faced of Bond’s 50th over to finish on 115 not out from 109 balls and ultimately carry Sri Lanka into the final.

Add to this he is a very fine, safe slip catcher, and his partnerships with Vaas and Muralitharan have played a huge part in Sri Lanka’s rise over the last 6 years. He also captained the side admirably to a 1-1 draw in England in 2006 (his first series as captain), follwed by a 5-0 whitewash of the same opponents in the One Day series. Traditional, almost ‘cliched’ batting has taken some major blows in recent times with the retirements of Fleming, Vaughan, Lara and Inzamam. Let’s hope that when Jayawardene bows out of test cricket, we are saying goodbye only to an excellent technician, and not to the last of his kind.

Every team enjoys success at some point or another in their history (bar the Arizona Cardinals), and some are better than others at achieving success be it down to personel, determination or sheer luck. The Proteas can count two of those facets amongst their armoury but the third appears to alude them on any stage involving the dreaded phrase ‘knock-out’. A quick scan of the squad to take on the rest of the world on home soil in the up and coming Champions Trophy highlights a strong presence of fine cricketers. In Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe, South Africa possess spin twins to rival the magic of Murali and Mendis in the limited overs game. Though neither has the awe of Murali or the mystery of Mendis, both off-spinners have the enviable ability to prize out batsmen. If on the rare occasion this doesn’t occur, their accuracy and changes of pace, flight mean that opposing batsmen often have to take uneccessary risks later on in the innings to boost a dwindling run-rate.

Elsewhere the bowling looks equally as dangerous - Dale Steyn has pace and attitude. He is more than capable of sending back some of the world’s finest in the opening overs with agressive pitched up swing bowling and an attacking field to match. At the other end is the emerging left armer Wayne Parnell. At the tender age of 19, he already possesses a demon yorker to stifle an end of innings counter attack, and can also keep it tight on off-stump during the opening overs. To back this up Graeme Smith can call upon Jacques Kallis, Albie Morkel and JP Duminy to reinforce the four main attackers.

The batting’s not bad either. Smith and Kallis offer brutal, technically correct hitting at the top, with Gibbs floating around to take a game away if he gets his eye in. de Villiers acts as the rock in the middle order who can both destroy and rebuild with ease. Duminy provides another safety net as well as some late order hitting at 5. To finish an innings off in style, South Africa have probably the finest lower-middle order in Morkel, Boucher and van der Merwe. Though he is past his best, Boucher can still thrive at the highest level on his day and van der Merwe can match the best in the world in terms of six hitting. Morkel needs no introduction.

So why are South Africa perhaps not most people’s favourites to lift the trophy? Possibly because on paper they look the most complete unit, and New Zealand rugby fans will be well aware that this does not automatically give you the cup. Barring Australia in the last 12 years, the team tagged ‘favouites’ have often been betted on with caution, mainly due to the unpredictability of cricket, and the fact that a star can appear from nowhere and win the game against the odds. History plays an unfortunate part, too - Shaun Pollock crossed Messrs Duckworth and Lewis off his christmas card list (Boucher crossed out Pollock too) after the nightmare of 2003 on home turf as clear cut favourites. Further back in time you’ll find a haunted Klusener and a man by the name of Donald who never enjoyed having a bat in his hand, although running was usually his forte. Fast forward to the semi-final of the World 20/20 this year and an inspired Shahid Afridi, and you’ll quickly understand why a bet on South Africa should be approached with extreme caution.

So how do teams get past the world number 1 and overwhelming favourites? Apart from arranging a semi-final meeting, weaknesses can be found in the Protea juggernaut. Firstly, take the attack to Steyn. Steyn feeds off batsmen staying back in their crease instinctively due to his raw speed and swing. Even stepping out of the crease by a foot can turn those nasty away swingers into low full bungers, and if you can overcome him mentally, Steyn will begin to lose his composure. Rotating the strike on the spinners prevents them from getting any pressure to build. Also, if you can take the risk and hit one of them out of the attack, you can force Smith out of the comfort of his bowling plans, and he may be forced to alter the bowling lineup so that it could become easier to score later on in the innings off a less accomplished bowler.

To conquer the batting lineup, Gibbs needs to be either starved of the strike or gotten early. A subtle change of pace can turn Gibbs’ favourite smear over extra cover into a simple catch by the man on the edge of the inner circle. Keeping him at the non-striker’s end can also force him into a rash shot. Smith enjoys anything on his legs. He also likes it either full on off stump or around chest height so that he can punch it into the leg side. It would be better to send the ball around the nose and search for either a top edge or a bit of glove. The best way to stifle South Africa’s powerful lower order is to take them out of their comfort zone. Though he is extremely talented, Duminy can become bogged down if the bowling is tight, and can end up chewing up overs scratching around for singles rather than increasing the rate. Morkel, Boucher and van der Merwe enjoy entering the fray with around 6 overs to go so as to hit out at will. Getting them in early will force them to play a game that is not natural to them.

As you can see, it is obvious like any other team South Africa possess strengths and weaknesses in the One Day arena in both batting and bowling. To expose these weaknesses, opposing teams must be proactive in their approach - sitting back and expecting something to happen will play into the Proteas’ hands. Instead, captains must take risks and capitalise on even the smallest of opportunities, as historically it is clear that the South African machine can de-rail thanks to a tiny wobble. In their quests for glory, Australia, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will also thank the ICC for making South Africa the hosts, too.

The list of great players to have never played a test match is an esteemed one. Be it international conflict, apartheid or simply very bad luck, numerous cricketers have been unable to showcase their obvious talent on the biggest stage of all. One of these players is Stephen Ogonji Tikolo, certainly the best player amongst the associate nations, and even at the age of 38, still a formidable force in the world of cricket. The reward to Kenya of full One-Day status in 1996 has provided Tikolo with a deserved chance to take on the very best with both bat and ball, and has regularly held his own. A resilient innings in a losing cause against Sri Lanka at Kandy in 1996 was a case in point. After Sri Lanka had racked up a then world record 398 from their fifty overs thanks to a majestic 145 from Aravinda de Silva, Tikolo proved to be head and shoulders above his fellow countrymen in what was a losing cause even before the Kenyans came out to bat. As the other Kenyan batsmen succumbed to the might of Vaas and Murali, Tikolo blazed eight 4s and four maximums in a 95 ball 96 to provide Kenya with some respectability as they finished on 254-7.

Though he never struck a century against the top nations, Tikolo provided defiant knock after defiant knock, often unbeaten, and you suspect that if there had been more consistency amongst the other Kenyan batsmen, then Tikolo may well have reached that elusive century more than once. An example of this was an innings of 68* against Pollock, Nel, Ntini and Kallis at Benoni in 2001. This innings is put into sharper context when the next highest score was 24 in the Kenyan innings, and was infact the highest score of the entire match, with Gary Kirsten’s 17 off 18 balls being the only innings to surpass Tikolo’s on strike rate.

3230 ODI runs, a first class average of 50.45, and a highest first class score of 220 is respectable for any player of any nation, and his two innings against Canada recently in a four day match highlight the fact that Tikolo is still at the top of his game. A score of 158, with the next highest score being 36 in the first innings, and 169 in the second innings show the sheer class of the man. Holding a strike rate of over 80 in both innings is just as impressive, too. But it’s not just the batting that sets Tikolo apart from the rest of the associate players. Tikolo can count Jayawardene, Laxman, Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis, Gayle, Dravid and Yousuf amongst his international victims with his right-arm off spinners, and was probably the most successful captain of Kenya. In one of the greatest underdog stories in cricket, Tikolo lead Kenya to the semi-final of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, defeating Canada, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka before being knocked out one step from a final with Australia by India.

This achievement was the highest point of Kenya’s and Tikolo’s One-Day history, as afterwards results worsened, and opportunities to play the best teams in the world declined. However, Tikolo was selected to represent Africa against Asia in a series in 2007. He renounced the captaincy of Kenya soon after, and declared in April of this year that he would be retiring from cricket at the end of 2009.

Very few Associate players even come close to Tikolo in terms of achievement, success and class. Davison and Johnston stand out from the others, but Tikolo is long into the distance. A king amongst amateurs in the Associates, surely a great alongside other greats in the full International arena.

It is not often that a player born for 20/20 is able to make a solid yet promising start to a test career. Jesse Ryder comes to mind, as does JP Duminy, but the list effectively stops there. It appears, however that the 22 year old allrounder Angelo Mathews, who was vital in Sri Lanka reaching the final of the 20/20 World Cup in England earlier this year will join this list. When drafting the ideal 20/20 player, Mathews pretty much fits the bill - a powerful hitter of the ball who is also quick between the wickets and can rotate the strike, an effective medium pace bowler, and a live wire in the field (remember THAT boundary stop?). Therefore, it is even more fulfilling to see a player be able to transfer these skills into the test arena at a dangerous time when players are starting to chose between the longest and shortest formats as a career choice.

So far, Mathews has played just the three tests against Pakistan in his home country. As an allrounder coming in to bat anywhere between 6 and 8, his figures stand up to scrutiny so far. In five innings, Mathews hit 191 runs at an average of nearly 48, with a highest score of 64* and scoring no lower than 27. Notably, his highest score came in a gritty 3 hour vigil with his captain to save the third test match. His bowling so far has been perhaps less noticable, as he was employed as a second or third change bowler to hold one end whilst the spinners worked away at the other, and to give the strike bowlers a breather. However, he does hold respectability with his bowling, having picked up 4 wickets in the series at an average of 34.5. You suspect, however, that as his status increases within the team, Sangakkara will be more likely to throw Mathews the ball earlier on in an innings.

New Zealand at home will be another ideal series for Mathews to continue finding his feet and his role within the team. If he bowls well, then there are wickets to be had, but if he strays, then the likes of Taylor, Ryder and Guptill will punish him. Likewise he will face his sternest test whilst batting against possibly the world’s most thoughtful yet dangerous bowler, Dan Vettori. However, he can find runs against the likes of Tuffey and Butler if he focuses. With a prominent part to play in Sri Lanka’s Champions Trophy squad, Mathews is certainly making waves in all forms of the game.

The plan to hold a Sunday League next season where a match consists of two innings of 20 overs per side has thankfully been scrapped. Having also consigned the ‘P20′ to the scrap heap, the ECB, after pressure from the counties, the national side and probably a few human rights lawyers have realised the importance of one day matches in the cricketing world. It was announced that a 50 overs per side league would replace the Friend’s Provident Trophy and the Pro40 so as to align the domestic structure fully with that of the International calendar. These matches will take place on Sundays during April, May, August and September as they sandwich the expanded 20/20 during June and July.

My personal preference would have been for a 40 over competition rather than a fifty over one. Therefore, matches could start early afternoon rather than mid morning, and the Pro40 tends to attract the larger crowds than the current 50 over tournament. However, the ECB have made their decision, and have made the shrewd move of inviting the Dutch to compete alongside the 18 counties plus Ireland and Scotland. There will be 3 conferences with seven teams in each. My guess is that the top two from each conference plus the two best third placed teams will enter the quarter finals. The semi finals and final at least will be competed in September, which raises concerns over both attendances and weather.

Overall though, the ECB have succeeded in two large respects. Firstly, they have refrained from sending 20/20 into overkill, whilst providing a welcome change in format length. Provided the new Sunday League can be marketed properly, then Clarke and chums are onto a winner. Something I’ve not said for quite a while.

On July 18, 2008, the ECB unveiled an audacious plan to bring together many of the world’s best players into a single 20/20 tournament. This tournament would showcase both proven and up-and-coming talent, mixed with a carnival like atmosphere, and watched by capacity crowds around the country. It’s fair to say that originality is not a virtue many of the ECB board members are blessed with.

On the other side of the world a few months previously, the aforementioned concoction of glitz and glamour (with the occasional bit of cricket thrown in for good measure), had already come to the boil. The BCCI had confirmed themselves as the richest, most powerful board in the world, and a legend of the game had lead a team that the term ‘underdog’ had been invented for to the first title of the IPL. Lalit Modi’s brainchild had captured the hearts of a billion people, baying for endless twenty20 action spawned from a shock victory at the inaugural World Cup.

Where it all began

It is, however, easy to forget the origins of the ‘hit and giggle’ form of cricket, with its boundary side hot-tubs and brash 80s corn whenever a wicket or boundary occurred. I am, of course referring to the (English) summer of 2003. Hampshire played Sussex at the Rose Bowl in front of the Sky Sports cameras. Elsewhere around the country, eight other teams took part in what was at the time (and is still viewed by many as) a jokey form of cricket, with fairly large audiences watching plenty of fours, sixes and wickets - all in an enjoyable evening. A number of group games lead to a quarter-final, and on to finals day, where the winner celebrated with a trophy and champagne, then turned their attention the next day back to the pinnicle of the County season - the County Championship.

It is here that I must pay credit to the ECB. For many years, the English domestic season meandered without much change, save for the occasional addition or removal of 5 overs to the Sunday League. Gate receipts were relatively low accross the board, with the site of a pensioner sat on their own with a blanket and a thermos flask the staple for most photographers. The domestic setup was in no way a viable business option, with the Counties’ primary function being to supply the National team with classical stroke makers and line and length bowlers. The ECB made cricket cool. They made cricket accessible to children and families. They created a form, though much maligned by the purists, that allowed cricket to evolve. It quickly moved to the international stage as an evening where the international players could relax after a gruelling test series and have a laugh - the first 20/20 match between New Zealand and Australia involved a brief return of the beige kits for the Kiwis. Large crowds turned up to see the test stars play with a bit of innovation, and life had been breathed back into cricket, due in no small part to the ECB.

A case of laxidasical authority

It was here that they made the fatal error of taking a back-seat, content with the twenty20 cup at home and believing that things wouldn’t change. Things did appear to be heading this way - until the World Twenty20 in South Africa. India, who sent almost a second string team and decided to give Tendulkar and Ganguly a rest, beat Pakistan in the final and the rest is for all to see. The Indian public, so fanatical about the 50-over game, suddenly became aware of a new form of limited overs cricket that took even less time to complete. It was Zee Television and then the BCCI that flicked the switch the ECB should have pressed all those years ago. Now Modi has the cricketing world at his feet. Players are literally millionaires. Others have been banned from international cricket for life (though there is now confusion over this). All because of a form of cricket the ECB dreamt up to get more people into county grounds on a Friday evening in June and July.  

From here on in, the ECB have made a complete hash of every attempt at catch-up. Firstly, the fling with Allen Stanford, a helicopter, a large perspex box and the USA fraud investigation team. Now more commonly known as the Stanford debacle rather than the Stanford 20/20 for 20, that week in Antigua in November 2008, along with the events preceding this ill-fated trip, will go down in infamy. The sight of Chief Executive David Collier fawning over the box of US Dollars (legal tender or not) will haunt me to my grave. The only satisfying moment of the entire saga was Andre Fletcher, the young uncapped Grenadian, crying with joy as the English players wondered guiltily back to the pavilion.

Secondly, the whole idea of the ‘English Premier League’, though conceived before Sir Allen presided over desperate English players in his lair/ ground, has been the crowning punch in the face for Giles Clarke and chums. As original as ‘The Alexander Cipher’, the ‘EPL’ has spiralled from the heady heights of ‘IPL rival’ to laughing stock of the nation, thanks to the sub-prime market (I can’t stand ‘current economic climate’ or ‘credit crunch’), and Stanford’s fall from grace. A change of name to ‘P20′ still hasn’t masked the fact that the ECB’s latest invention is nothing more than the doomed Pro40 in half the time with a couple more overseas players.

Wrong move

This, I feel, is their biggest mistake so far - scrapping the Pro40. Many would rightly argue that it is a defunct format that is not played at international level. If the counties are supposed to feed the national team, then why are they playing a useless format? Though this is the sort of ruthlessness you would want to see from a board that is in control of all things cricket in this country, the fact that they are taking away a relatively large crowd puller makes it a wrong move. Replacing it with a 20/20 tournament, whilst still keeping the original 20/20 setup as well is going for overkill. People will soon become bored of 20/20, especially if it is on every other night from June to September. Attendences will drop, and the making of the board could be their undoing. Rather than being reactive - an all too common occurrence lately - the ECB must become streetwise and produce a brand of 20/20 that sets it apart from the IPL, not look like a cheap imitation.

The cliched ‘cash cow’ of 20/20 began its long and ponderous walk (ad infinitum?), shepherded by its owner, six years ago. Since that time, the BCCI have bound the cow to a pole by its legs, roasted it on a fire and sold its flesh to every corner of the globe. The inventors of the shortest format must grab their share of the spoils, before they are consigned to the past, forgotten by all.