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Andrew McGlashan charts the progress of former Under-19 World Cup captains

Andrew McGlashan04-Feb-2006The Under-19 World Cup is billed as a breeding ground for future international stars … but how many of them actually make it to the top? Andrew McGlashan casts an eye over six former captains who made good impressions during their time in charge1998Owais Shah – England

Then
Held the trophy aloft when England beat New Zealand in the final at
Centurion Park, guiding his side home with a mature half-century. That knock was Shah’s only half-century of the tournament, but he led the side impressively. With two seasons for Middlesex already under his belt he was expected to move swiftly through the ranks and into the full side.Now
Still on the fringes of the national side after a brief period in the one-day squad from 2001-2003. Consistent form for Middlesex has kept him in the frame and he would have been a likely stand-by for Michael Vaughan, on the tour of Pakistan, if he hadn’t been recovering from injury at the time. Selected for the England A tour of West Indies and if he has a successful run in the Caribbean, a Test career is still there for the taking.Jarrod Englefield – New ZealandThen
Although New Zealand made the final, Englefield never really set the World Cup alight. He often struggled to force the pace, although his one half-century was a vital 54 in the Super League stage against
Sri Lanka. He was overshadowed by the more flamboyant batting of the Marshall brothers – James and Hamish – and was let down by his bowlers in the final after they had posted a competitive 241.Now
Has enjoyed a moderate career with Canterbury and Central Districts, with occasional appearances for New Zealand A, but has yet to fulfill his potential. In the early stages of this season he was averaging 31, similar to his first-class career average of 34, figures which suggest missed opportunities. His one-day average of 24 even more disappointing and, although he is only 26, the chances of full honours with New Zealand have, in all probability, passed him by.2000Mohammad Kaif – IndiaThen
A story of another captain not really firing with the bat as Kaif averaged 34 from eight matches. But he led a strong Indian side, including Yuvraj Singh, Reetinder Sodhi and Ajay Ratra, to the title. This was Kaif’s second U-19 World Cup and despite the modest returns in this tournament his ability was clear.Now
Kaif is the player who has suffered most with regards to the on/off nature of Sourav Ganguly’s international future. He has regularly been shunted in and out of the side, and up and down the batting order. Admittedly he hasn’t always helped himself with some loose dismissals during his short Test career, but the tantalising glimpses of his strokeplay suggest that, if he can get his mindset right, a long and fruitful career lies ahead. He is already a regular in the one-day squad, where he is developing into a key finisher.Malintha Gajanayake – Sri Lanka
Then
There was a suggestion that Gajanayake was selected for the captaincy because he went to the right school and was a safe choice. His results with the bat suggested he wasn’t quite up to the task, making 85 runs in five innings. However, he guided Sri Lanka to the final, before they succumbed to the classy Indian side.Now
Has managed to play 60 first-class matches, despite his average not passing the low twenties. However, the introduction of Twenty20 in Sri Lanka has allowed him to reinvent himself somewhat, as he played a useful role in Chilaw Marians’ tournament success last year, resulting in him taking part in the International 20:20 Club Championship at Leicester in September. Has never threatened an international career, though, and won’t in the future.2002
Cameron White – Australia
Then
White could not really have done more to aid Australia’s victorious campaign – save perhaps taking a few more wickets: a tally of two did not do justice to his legspin. However, with the bat he was phenomenal, scoring 423 runs, the most in the tournament, with an average of 70 and strike rate of 97, including a destructive 156 against
Scotland. He added an important 64 against West Indies in the semi-final and was lauded for his mature style of captaincy.Now
A blond legspinner, who captains Victoria and is breaking into the Australian one-day side. You can see where this is going? White is a very different player to Shane Warne, but has benefited from coming through the ranks with Warne by his side. He was thrust into the captaincy for Victoria in 2003-04, and the inexperienced skipper was left with a young side when a group of senior players left in a rush. A few opportunities in the Australian one-day squad have come his way, mainly as the Supersub, but it won’t be long until he is a regular pick. Has signed with Somerset for 2006, where he will be able to work further on his allround game.Hashim Amla – South AfricaThen
The development of Amla was watched from the early days with great interest around South Africa, because of what his success would mean to the national team. He led them to the final, but never quite made the scores his numerous starts indicated he would. A rapid half-century in the opening match against Bangladesh and a run-a-ball 62 against India in the semi-final, to set up the clash with arch rivals Australia, were the personal highlights.Now
He was found out by the England pace attack during the 2004-05 series and now finds himself in domestic cricket trying to force his way back through weight of runs. He has never had a problem racking up scores for the Dolphins (formerly Kwa-Zulu Natal), as an average of 47 testifies. He was handed his international chance as South Africa looked to rebuild their side and fulfil their quota requirements. However, some serious technical issues were exposed. At least, at 22, he has plenty of time to iron out the problems and start again.

Less than three years since he made his international debut, Mohammad Asif is a seasoned master of the crafts of guile and deception that separate the good from the merely fast

Osman Samiuddin11-Aug-2007

A thin line separates supreme self-belief from tasteless arrogance. Sport blurs it evermore and it is readily transgressed. Almost the entire Australian team has taken up residence near this line, making regular sorties on either side. In years gone, the West Indians were original tenants. Success only makes the line less important, but it remains.Mohammad Asif is a new resident. Five or six years is all he will give to cricket, he states. At Port Elizabeth early this year, Barry Richards watched Asif run up for another spell and coolly predicted, “This, folks, is a 400-Test wickets man right here.” The shortest amount of time it took any of the 10 bowlers who have reached 400 wickets to do so is about nine years. “So what’s the problem? At my current rate I can do it in that time.”It is no new skin. A school friend was once promised, while watching Pakistan play at Sydney on TV that he, Asif, would play at the ground for Pakistan. He went one better and debuted there.In only his fourth first-class game in 2001, he bowled alongside Shoaib Akhtar, and though awestruck enough to not ask for tips, he wasn’t intimidated. “I was bowling and had a longer run-up then. Our over-rate was slow, so Shoaib says, ‘Hurry up, bowl quickly.’ I worried and bowled one over quickly, but he said that’s still too slow, get quicker. He was coming from such a long run-up, he thought he could save time by getting to cut my run. Eventually I said, ‘Shoaib , bowl yourself. I can’t do this.'”Then there is the recent, more celebrated, encounter with the late Bob Woolmer. It goes like this. Asif makes a tight, wicketless Test debut, until Adam Gilchrist appears. Asif is dropped for the ODIs. Fatherly Woolmer tells new charge not to get dispirited. Work hard, keep the chin up. Young charge responds, “Bob, this is my place. Nobody can take it. I am going away for a bit, but I will be back soon to reclaim what is mine.” Then adds that he was picked for the wrong Test: “Had they picked me for Perth, I would’ve done something.”He is not the freakshow that is Andre Nel, nor the shrinking violet that is Irfan Pathan. He chats up batsmen like a helpless flirt. “I ask what type of shot is that, to drive – just engage them in normal conversation.” He grins and says it works well.You decide, then, what side of the line he is on. Take into account what Woolmer said once: “He is humble and confident; very determined, hates to lose, and backs himself.” Certainly he has in himself, in his abilities, absolutely no doubt. Take into account, too, that he is young, and youth gets leeway. But, most of all, consider that nobody who has seen him doubts that he is the most promising pace bowler in the world today. If everyone knows it, why wouldn’t he?***

The craft has decreed that Asif is the antichrist of pace, the anti-pace superstar. Since 1976 Pakistan has obsessed over pace. When boys hit puberty, they grow whiskers and pimples, the balls drop, so too the voice, and they extend run-ups, add a leap, a glare, and a yard or three of pace. They want to break stumps, hit heads, shatter toes, crack bones, and knock the wind out of you. Even those without genuine pace strut around pretending otherwise. Of each new speedster, the first question asked is of his pace. Always there is a rural legend, some villager who can’t count the steps in his run-up, doesn’t have shoes, doesn’t know what a cricket ball looks like, but scares the bejesus out of batsmen.This to Asif is death a million times over. It boils his blood, makes his skin crawl. An innocent question – about whether his optimum speed fell after injury – induces this magnificent rant: “See, you are asking that question. Pace is nothing. All I’m concerned about is how batsmen get out. I don’t want to scare or hit him. Who gets out by being hit on the head? I want him out, I don’t care how it happens. Legbreak, offbreak, fast, slow ball, I don’t care.”People say my pace is slow and are not happy. People are not happy with God either, so why listen to them? People have this thinking, that we need pace. Basically this is my opinion: our batsmen are scared of pace. Older players were scared of fast bowlers, so they think only they can get wickets.”He argues, correctly, that Wasim Akram wasn’t about pace, but maybe not so correctly that Waqar Younis of the late nineties (era rather than mph) was better than the rapid, afro-ed original. Unsurprisingly those upright beanpoles Glenn McGrath, Shaun Pollock, and Richard Hadlee are used to prop up the case against pace.***Asif’s bowling soul is that of the craftsman. It is this craft, the chiselling away at men’s techniques, the chipping of their resolve, deceptions in line, length, seam, that holds him, that he cannot stop thinking about. Dismissals are built, nurtured over time, over by over, session by session, with nip n’ tuck, then put away, zealously guarded in his head until the next encounter.At Colombo last year, in his breakthrough series, he enacted upon Kumar Sangakkara the seamer’s three-card: go across, make him leave, go across, make him leave, bring it in, watch him exit, bowled offering no shot. When recalled, he corrects it. “Not three balls but three overs I worked on him. I got him so on one line that when I brought one in, he had no option.” VVS Laxman was twice bowled by offcutters in Karachi last year, a gap between bat and pad Asif had been eyeing from the previous Test.Details matter. He plans spells a day in advance, strategies even before. He is already preparing for tasty challenges against South Africa, India and Australia. He has decided he their batsmen, what they do in situations, how they react. The game has to be upped.He has odd takes on batting. Rahul Dravid is good to bowl at, “because you can settle into a rhythm against him”. Virender Sehwag is too unpredictable, yet Kevin Pietersen, who Asif so memorably mastered, is ideal because “he rushes, attacks too much too soon. It becomes easier for me.”

He plays patience: I have it, do you? He’ll bowl over after over of one swing, before suddenly changing tack, for surprise. Jacques Kallis annoyed him because he has his bubble. “He said he wouldn’t play a shot against me, even though I kept telling him to.” Kallis waited it out, just, but it was a mighty running battle. Patience is not a Pakistani bowling virtue, though admittedly, they haven’t often needed it.There is occasional trickery but, like a magician, the secrecy of his craft – or what secrecy there can be in this age of super slo-mo – is paramount. English commentators picked up a cute sleight of Asif’s bowling hand: nearing his delivery stride, he shows the batsman one side of the ball before apparently flipping it around with his ring finger as the arm goes over. Maybe.”Tim Boon [the Leicestershire coach] spotted it in a match. The ball was reversing and the batsman was picking it from its shine at the start of my run. One ball which he left came in and bowled him. The shine was on the outside at the start but it came in. Boon asked how it was done. We had a bet on about dismissing him with the old ball. If it was with the new ball, I would’ve gotten him out within three balls.” So how you do it? “I can’t show people.” It’s not unique, as Andy Roberts and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan have apparently practised it, but it’s special.He attended the MRF Pace Academy in 2005 for 10 days, and though it wasn’t much use, he says Dennis Lillee offered him one golden nugget, “which if anyone applies to their bowling will benefit them greatly”. Naturally he doesn’t say what it is, on, off, or around the record.***All that is Asif comes essentially from Sheikhupura, an hour’s drive on a good day from Lahore. It isn’t as nondescript as it might first sound, though neither is it as royally blessed as it once was. Alexander visited, and the Mughal emperor Jahangir used to hunt there. It was his town, initially called Jahangirupura. The current name comes from the nickname Sheikhu baba that Jahangir’s father Akbar gave him. Mughal traces are plenty. Waris Shah, who gave the world , was born here, as was Guru Nanak Devji.More famous are the town’s fast men, though they jarred fashion rather than followed it. Aaqib Javed provided unrewarded intelligence in a time of pace, bluster, and reverse. And until form heartlessly deserted him, Rana had less speed but a heftier bag of tricks and greater spirit than most.Asif, born nearby in Machipur, is of this bent. Cricket happened on the Sheikhupura roads near the school with a tape ball, and the famed Gymkhana Club was where he began learning the craft, under the tutelage of first-class cricketer and hearty leggie “Cuptaan” [Mohammad] Haroon.

“He instilled many traits,” says Asif. “Using the crease, angles, the seam – he got that into me early. As captain he kept four slips on cement pitches. That’s great for the confidence of any bowler. He taught me a lot about the brains behind bowling.”
The club was, he remembers, intensely competitive, brimming with age-group- and full internationals: among the likes of Aaqib, Rana, and Kashif Raza, Asif “got competitive” and tried to break through. “The competition was such that in big games big players sat out. When we had a chance, we bowled our hearts out because we wouldn’t get another easily.”Here emerged the base of the easy, loose, non-strenuous, eminently repeatable action. It’s been touched since, but lightly. He points out that since his success, talk of the front arm falling and some such has been absent. The stamina he remembers always having, energy forever conserved in spells. Colombo’s overbearing humidity couldn’t prevent a 12-over mid-afternoon spell (“only I know how bad I felt after”). In South Africa 12 seemed the minimum spell, and in ODIs 10 on the trot happens often.His first-class debut duly came in October 2000 against Peshawar, his fortune being that Sheikhupura was then a first-class team. Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) employed him the following season, where Mohammad Wasim and Ali Naqvi took him in. Prominence arrived with a six-wicket haul the next season, and thenceforth he grew. KRL reached the 2002-03 Quaid-e-Azam final with Asif’s 28 wickets. Victims and plaudits came readily, among them Rashid Latif early on, impressed with Asif’s accuracy and seam.The radar still defines him, though not so much in ODIs presently. Still it’s worth noting that he sent down the first Twenty20 international maiden. Only three others have done likewise, none taking two wickets in the over as he did.It is no trick, he says. Take what you can from the heavens and mix with sweat and blood. As with Akram and Imran Khan, nets are a serious business. “When I practise, my aim is that batsmen shouldn’t go back or forward. Between front and back foot is the length I want.”Aaqib et al drool about the wrist position and the seam, how it comes out wobbly, thus disguising itself, yet uncannily always lands straight. “Swing, batsmen can pick, but seam is not so easy to spot. Some is god-gifted, but basically I work damn hard in nets.”In 2004 he broke through big. Sheikhupura was no longer first-class, so he moved to Sialkot via Quetta. In the midst of a 28-wicket burst in five games in October and November that year, he was called for a fast bowling camp. Woolmer, overseeing, concluded: “He swung the ball a lot and bowled good players out. He looked comfortably the best.”Mohammad Yousuf told Asif first of his selection for Australia. Could you believe it? “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

The story since is more familiar, though there are unheard tidbits. He maintains firmly his satisfaction with a flat debut: “I batted two hours on that pitch, so what chance did I have? Yet people said I was a Fokker.”There was hard work at home thereafter, where, he insists, he didn’t change anything: “What change? Everything was fine. I took nearly 100 wickets in all matches. My comeback wasn’t magic, just hard work.”He surfaced again nationally in a side match against England in November 2005, taking 10 wickets and prompting Michael Vaughan to wish him luck for the Test. He wasn’t picked for the entire series, but the rivalry with KP began with that game.”When he came, Strauss was batting. Pietersen asked what I was doing. Strauss said outswing, so obviously I brought it in and trapped him plumb.” He says it as might a fox. Over the next year much the same happened to other batsmen globally, so often that he judges all the spells of his last seven Tests equally memorable.There is a blot, one that will require many years like the one past to wipe away. He won’t talk about the drugs that should have seen him out of the game for a while. He was distraught then, barely audible on the phone, and he’s still not quite so firm when saying “No questions”. He mutters something about humility and how the fever of celebrity that once afflicted him is gone. An uneasy footnote it makes, though it reveals much about how he is viewed that he elicited much more sympathy than Shoaib did.
He launches briskly into a soliloquy about the domestic game, before revealing that people doubted his talent early on. No pace, too skinny, what would he do? “People kept telling me from the start, I can’t be a cricketer, can’t be a bowler. The more people say this, the harder I try to prove them wrong.”Did the experience dent him? Difficult to say, but few doubts hover over him now. Greatness, in fact, is expected. He has to prove everyone right, which may be harder than proving them all wrong.

The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket

Steven Lynch26-Jun-2006The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:

Has there been a third-generation Test cricketer? I mean, Mr X was a Test player, his son Mr XX was too, and his son Mr XXX was as well? asked Paddy Ponnada from India
There are two of them – perhaps not surprisingly, both recent players. The first was England’s Dean Headley, who in 1997 followed his father Ron and grandfather George (who both played for West Indies) into Test cricket. In May 2005 Pakistan’s Bazid Khan joined this very exclusive club, when he made his Test debut against West Indies at Bridgetown. Bazid’s father is Majid Khan, who played 63 Tests for Pakistan, and his grandfather was Jahangir Khan, who played for India in pre-Partition days.Can you confirm that the stand between Chris Read and Andrew Harris for Nottinghamshire against Durham a few weeks ago is a world record for the ninth wicket in limited-overs cricket? Incidentally Harris batted for the whole of the partnership with a runner! asked Richard Lane from England
Yes, that stand of 155 at Trent Bridge – Read made 135 and Harris 34 – was indeed a ninth-wicket record for senior one-day cricket (or “List A”, as statisticians call limited-overs matches between first-class teams). It wasn’t quite enough: Durham still beat Nottinghamshire by 28 runs. The previous record was 130, by Chris Schofield and Gregor Maiden for Lancashire against the India A tourists at Blackpool in 2003.Who has scored the most runs in all World Cup matches so far? asked Dhaval Brahmbhatt from the United States
Five men have so far scored more than 1000 runs solely in World Cup matches. Mark Waugh made 1004 runs, Viv Richards 1013, Aravinda de Silva 1064, and Javed Miandad – the only man to play in six different tournaments – 1083. But way clear at the top of the list is Sachin Tendulkar, who has so far scored 1732 runs in the World Cup, at the healthy average of 59.72, with four centuries. Ricky Ponting, who currently has 998 runs, and Brian Lara (956) are likely to sail past four figures during next year’s World Cup. For a full list of the highest runscorers in the World Cup, click here.Playing for Leicestershire against Surrey recently Claude Henderson had bowling figures of 54.2-5-235-3. Is this the most expensive set of figures in county cricket? asked David Musgrave from England
Claude Henderson’s 3 for 235 in that match at The Oval were indeed the most expensive set of bowling figures in the history of the County Championship. Henderson shaded the previous record-holder, Charlie Parker – another slow left-armer – by four runs: he took 6 for 231 for Gloucestershire against Somerset at Bristol in 1923.In a recent Cricinfo XI column there was a reference to New Zealand’s first Test in 1929-30, against England. A stronger England XI was apparently also playing a Test in Barbados at the same time. Is this the only instance of a country playing two Tests simultaneously? asked Nick Hunt from Australia
Yes, that was the only time one country has been engaged in two separate Test matches at the same time. Both England’s opponents were new to Test cricket – West Indies had played only three Tests (and lost them all by an innings) in 1928, and New Zealand hadn’t played any at all – so MCC, who organised England’s tours then, probably felt that such an arrangement was feasible, even though several first-choice selections weren’t picked for either tour. The team for New Zealand, led by Sussex’s Harold Gilligan, left first, while the other set of tourists, captained by The Honourable Freddie Gough-Calthorpe of Warwickshire, left shortly afterwards for the West Indies. The first Test at Christchurch (which England won) started on January 10, 1930, and the first one at Bridgetown (drawn) began the next day. The third Test at Georgetown started on the same day as the fourth Test at Auckland. England won the series in New Zealand 1-0, and drew 1-1 in the Caribbean. Plans to play the final Test in the West Indies out to a finish, at Kingston, were scuppered by rain and the need for the England team to catch their boat home – the match was left drawn after nine days.During last year’s famous Ashes series, England used the same eleven players for all five matches. Is this the only time that a team has used an unchanged team for a five-Test series? asked Mohammed Ifticardeen from Sri Lanka
Well, first of all England didn’t quite maintain the same eleven players throughout last year’s momentous Ashes series – Simon Jones missed the final Test at The Oval with an ankle injury, and Paul Collingwood played instead. If Jones had played it would have been only the fourth time that a team had gone unchanged through a five-match series. England did it in Australia in 1884-85, South Africa did it at home against England in 1905-06, then there was a long gap until 1990-91, when the same 11 West Indians played in all five Tests at home against Australia.

Clarke’s 245-run fourth-wicket partnership with Hussey shut Sri Lanka out before Symonds landed to a home-ground welcome and showed his strength

Peter English at the Gabba09-Nov-2007

In all the analysis about Australia’s new components at the top and bottom, a small group of significant contributors were forgotten. The stomach of the side is growing into a unit that is strong enough to digest any standard of bowling and Sri Lanka have been processed without delivering a ball at Adam Gilchrist.Entering the match, the tourists were unconcerned about the quality of their fast bowlers, but now they have serious troubles with both disciplines after taking only four wickets in five sessions and losing two wickets before stumps. Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke inflicted more run-scoring misery on the visitors, whose decision to bowl first grew worse by the hour, and Andrew Symonds breezed to an unbeaten 53 after arriving at the comfort of 4 for 461.It was a comprehensive performance from a body that has only formed over the past year. The Hussey-Clarke-Symonds order was used in the third Test of the Ashes series and it will be a crucial and entertaining combination as the team evolves.Hussey provides the composure and his appetite is the same for every occasion, an essential characteristic for a player who can walk out with the team in danger or comfort. He was called late on day one with Australia 2 for 183 and his efficiency steered them to a formidable total. Next to Clarke and Symonds, Hussey is a mouse, but his record is immense – his average before the match was more than his two team-mates combined – and he left with his sixth century in 17 games.Dilhara Fernando’s dismissal of Hussey was the only one Sri Lanka achieved on the second day, but it was not enough to justify his billing as the team’s best fast-bowling option. The strange decision to let Lasith Malinga sit in the stands was compounded during Fernando’s lacklustre displays in which he looked short of work after resting from the second tour game. The Sri Lankans were trumpeting Fernando as a world-class speedster before the Test, but he was unable to maintain his line, unlike Chaminda Vaas and Farveez Maharoof.

Sri Lanka quickly turned defensive this morning as they tried to limit the ground stolen by the home team on a pitch that promised collapses and delivered a run spree. Muttiah Muralitharan operated with six men on the legside for long periods, delivering from over and around the wicket, but it could not prevent Hussey and Clarke from escaping.Off-side rings to the fast bowlers were pierced without concern and Muralitharan was not allowed to settle. Hussey would work him from the crease and Clarke would be alert for an attack, like the one shortly before lunch when he charged consecutive deliveries and launched them straight for a six and a four. Hussey’s brilliance is in his compilation; Clarke stirs with his attacking unpredictability.Luckily for Australia, Clarke has learned the times to run and jog. He faced almost 100 balls before allowing his arms to unfurl when Maharoof was attacked with a series of slashes in the lead-up to his half-century. Clarke accelerated and eased back throughout the rest of his innings – calming down following a streaky post-lunch period was important – and collected his second century in four Tests at the Gabba.Clarke’s 245-run fourth-wicket partnership with Hussey shut Sri Lanka out before Symonds landed to a home-ground welcome and showed his strength. Relief for the visitors came only with Ricky Ponting’s declaration at 551. By then the Sri Lankans had experienced the three complementary prongs of a middle order on the move. In Hobart they might encounter Gilchrist as well.