All posts by h716a5.icu

Free of the media frenzy that surrounds the men’s contests, the rivalry between the women’s teams has largely been defined by camaraderie

Shashank Kishore30-Jul-2022Baby Fatima’s moment of cross-border fame was one of the more memorable images from the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand earlier this year. The infant daughter of Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof surrounded by the Indian players in the post-match afterglow spoke of the love, laughter and respect shared by the two sets of players. It was a defining image of the India-Pakistan rivalry in women’s cricket.Don’t let people from the outside tell you it’s war; the relationship between the players is cordial. Pakistan allrounder Nida Dar put it succinctly when she said, ” (The contest has its place, our friendship has its place too.)”It helps that the pressure and the win-at-all-costs mentality – which isn’t entirely absent – isn’t magnified as much by the media as it is when the men’s teams face off.The latest round of the rivalry will take place on Sunday, when the two teams meet in a crucial Group A fixture of the Commonwealth Games at Edgbaston. India and Pakistan are both coming off losses in their opening matches to Australia and Barbados respectively. That is enough pressure to contend with.Yet, what the players do know is, irrespective of how their current form may be, they are one performance away from becoming a star.Ask Nain Abidi, Pakistan’s first centurion in a women’s ODI and a member of the Asian Games gold-medal-winning team at Guangzhou in 2010. She has twice been part of teams that have beaten India at T20 World Cups. Both games were thrillers that had her chewing fingernails.In Galle in 2012, Pakistan beat India by one run, recording their first-ever win in the tournament’s history. It was also the first time any Pakistan side, men’s or women’s, had beaten India at a World Cup. Then in Delhi in 2016, in front of 7000 screaming fans and pouring rain, Pakistan clung on by a two-run margin via the DLS method.”No matter how you train your mind to think this is just another game, it’s impossible not to get sucked into the hype,” Abidi tells ESPNcricinfo. “Forget what people think. Your own family members can sometimes put pressure on you. I remember before that Delhi game, so many family members called to wish me luck.”After we won the match, the PCB announced a reward for us. The departments we used to play for announced bonuses. News channels were knocking on our doors. It was surreal, to the extent that it made us wonder if we’d actually won a World Cup. That is how big a win over India is. It can make you instant stars.”Abidi is far away from the hype now, having last played for Pakistan, incidentally against India, at the Asia Cup in 2018. Since becoming a parent, Abidi has lived in the USA, but she will unfailingly tune in at 6am on Sunday to watch the rivals play.For all the camaraderie off the field, the rivalry on it is often intense•ICC via Getty ImagesVR Vanitha, the former India batter, remembers that Delhi game for its intensity and hype, but also speaks warmly of the atmosphere and camaraderie between the players.”I remember being very bombastic in my belief that this is just another game and how my mind has been trained to think that way,” she says. “But that day, the moment I reached the stadium and took my earphones off, I was like ‘whoa, what is happening here?’ The hype, the energy, everything was so different. It hit you instantly.”The loss may have bitter to swallow for India, but two days later, both teams were special invitees for a charity event that ended with a fashion show where the players walked the ramp. The moment word spread that the Pakistan women’s team would be in attendance, they were given front-row seats. It was so different to 2013, where they had to stay within the stadium’s premises in Cuttack for security reasons during the 50-over World Cup.”The next day at the breakfast table, we sat and ate together,” Vanitha remembers. “You wouldn’t have believed they were the same side we lost to the previous day. We hardly spoke cricket. But as we parted, we wished each other for the rest of the campaign. I can’t remember any instance of there being any animosity. Yes, there was friendly banter, but it was always cordial.”At Derby during the 2017 World Cup, fast bowler Kainat Imtiaz sat motionless, soaking in every bit of advice she got from her idol Jhulan Goswami. In 2006, Imtiaz was a ball-girl during the Asia Cup in Karachi, where she watched Goswami bowl and became inspired to become a fast bowler.”I can say I have been able to motivate one girl in this world to play cricket, that too from Pakistan – that was a big thing for me,” Goswami said afterwards.When Harmanpreet Kaur left the 2019 edition of the Women’s BBL, her replacement Dar, who became the first Pakistan player to feature in the tournament, didn’t waste time seeking valuable suggestions and tips from her Punjabi friend “on the other side of the border”.Yet for all the friendly interactions off the field, the players are fierce rivals on it. You just needed to see Dar’s reaction upon getting Harmanpreet’s wicket at the World Cup earlier this year to understand it.This is, in essence, is how the biggest rivalry in cricket plays out between the women’s teams. The players are aware of the geopolitics of the region, which evokes jingoism on either side from time to time, but are determined not to let it bother them. And while India and Pakistan may not play each other in bilateral series, every occasion that pits them against each other only adds a new layer of warmth and camaraderie off the field, even as the on-field intensity simmers.Sunday will bring another chapter of this fierce yet friendly rivalry. The significance of the contest is unlikely to be lost on either side. A win could be the springboard to pitch for a historic medal, a loss could well mean an early exit from the Commonwealth Games.

Covid-19, and the surfeit of cricket, has led to India fielding a record number of players. We have the details here

ESPNcricinfo stats team, Mathew Varghese, Illustration by Kshiraja K10-Aug-2022Forty-eight players turned out for the India men’s team in 2021. In 2022, so far, the number is 39. India have made the most of their strength in depth in the Covid-19 era, with 54 players finding a place in their first XIs across 74 international matches since the start of 2021. And there have been a fair few captains too. Who has played the most, and which format has seen the most players used? This cool graphic tells you.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

A recent incident tells of the need for education in this area

Sidharth Monga23-Jan-2023Stump mics do cricketers a great disservice. A cricket field is no ordinary workplace. All kinds of ugly talk that would earn someone the sack in an ordinary workplace is glorified in cricket. To let viewers listen in and also judge the players for what they say is mixed messaging. As it stands, the stump mic serves no purpose other than providing voyeuristic entertainment. If it was meant to be informative, commentators wouldn’t speak over it. If it is meant purely for cricket, it would be turned down after the shot is played and you have judged how sweet the connection is.That said, without incriminating anyone or virtue-signalling, we can use a recent incident to educate and sensitise ourselves. During the second Test between India and Bangladesh last month, an India player – let’s not guess who, because the person was not visible on camera – called his team-mate a “”, presumably because the latter had misfielded. are a caste-oppressed community of people who made or mended , temporary roofs. This was the only job they were allowed to do because of their caste, which was assigned to them by the accident of birth. However, the word has in recent years become a pejorative for someone who tries hard to be flamboyant. Looking blingy and flashy has been a form of expression and assertion by historically oppressed castes when they manage to earn enough money, but upper castes have looked down on such transformations, assigning the caste name to anything that is “cringe”.Related

Daren Sammy to Sunrisers Hyderabad team-mates: You called me 'kalu', what did you mean?

Players, officials take a knee in Black Lives Matter gesture before first Test

Cricket Australia confirms India players were racially abused, but ejected fans cleared

Rahane opens up on racism from Sydney crowd: 'Told umpires we won't play till they take action'

Even today, in the local trains of Mumbai, on the streets, in the maidans, even in the supposedly subversive world of rap songs, people, mainly of privileged castes, use “” as a derogatory term for anything or anyone cringeworthy. For example, to someone who prefers the aesthetic of Instagram Reels, TikTok is full of . Or if people see in a local train a man with a streak of blond hair and a colourful shirt, they might call him a .Because the term is so pervasively, casually and commonly used, and now goes beyond just caste, one could probably give this young cricketer the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes people from some states can pick up on popular terms from another part of the country without knowing how the word was derived. Still, if Black rappers use the n-word, it doesn’t become okay for others to use it.It is possible this player doesn’t know the ugly history of the word, but him probably not intending harm doesn’t mean harm is not done. Serious harm of perpetuating prejudice is done.He is hardly alone. During the Covid-19 lockdown, when players started to interview each other on Instagram, Yuvraj Singh, in a chat with Rohit Sharma, referred to Yuzvendra Chahal as a for his “cringe” TikTok videos, to the sound of laughter from Rohit. Again, are a community who, by accident of birth, were and are restricted to cleaning drains and toilets.When the matter blew up, Yuvraj responded with a non-apology, saying he was “misunderstood, which was unwarranted”. He expressed regret “if” he had “unintentionally” hurt someone’s feelings.Again, this is not to suggest Yuvraj is a monster, but he clearly didn’t have any counsel at the time telling him how what was a harmless comment to him hurts a whole community. As is in Bombay, is used as a slur commonly in north India. If a child doesn’t bathe all day, it is pretty normal for their mother to tell them not to be a . Google the term and you will find Bollywood stars using it self-deprecatingly to describe times when they are “shabbily dressed”.Instead of learning something from their abuse of these words, acknowledging historical and current caste oppression, and truly apologising for their ignorance, or worse, bigotry, people often double down and take offence at “misinterpretation” of what they said. These are members of a cricket team that took the knee to support the “Black Lives Matter” movement.They protested in Australia at being racially abused themselves by people in the stands. Imagine the spectators in that instance turning around and saying they were misunderstood, and Cricket Australia doing nothing. In fact, the hurt the Indian players felt at that alleged racial abuse should enable them to empathise with those at the receiving end of caste discrimination back home. Many of them experienced unimaginable hardships in their childhood; in an ideal world, they would be the first ones to empathise.Whenever there is a debate about caste in Indian cricket, a majority of fans of the sport are angered at the mere suggestion there might be discrimination based on caste. They like to imagine the sport is untouched by what goes on in society at large. Of course at the top level there is very little discrimination, because who doesn’t value an elite performer?This is where the caste system is more insidious than racism based on skin colour. It is not easy to look at the faces of players in India’s national team and say it is not representative, though in its history India has fielded less than a handful of players from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who form about a fourth of India’s population. Only OBC (Other Backward Castes) players make it to the national team on a regular basis.

The description of some white South African players’ childhoods is not too different to those of Indians growing up ignorant of a more deeply entrenched system of discrimination that has endured for hundreds more years than apartheid

Scheduled Castes are the most caste-oppressed people of India. Scheduled Tribes are among those who have inhabited India the longest, preceding the Indus Valley civilisation and the Aryan invasion. They retain their distinct culture and live in separation from other communities, are geographically isolated and socio-economically disadvantaged. Both groups are protected under the constitution of the country.Young Indians are kept away from being educated about caste. When they grow up to be privileged adults, they keep themselves and their offspring shielded from this inconvenient topic.I have spoken to quite a few white South African cricketers who were kids during apartheid. They say they were never informed of what was going on in the country. Whether it is just an attempt to be on the right side of history now that apartheid is unequivocally accepted as an evil system, the description of these white players’ childhoods is not too different to those of Indians growing up ignorant of a more deeply entrenched system of discrimination that has endured for hundreds more years than apartheid. This is not to compare the horrors – apartheid was shorter but actually written in the law – but the “ignorance” of the beneficiaries of the two systems.To say that there is no player of a caste-oppressed background who has been denied opportunities at the highest level is disingenuous because the villages and small towns that Indian cricketers increasingly come from don’t even allow people of these backgrounds to use playgrounds; being able to afford all the facilities and equipment required to become an elite cricketer is a whole different leap altogether.If even at the top, players – officially representing India – can use casteist slurs and not even feel apologetic about it, can you imagine what the attitude of the caste-privileged system is towards caste-oppressed communities? Slurs do not endure if there is no deeper prejudice.Make no mistake, it is a caste-privileged system. I have spoken to a few people in the BCCI to find out if a caste-oppressed person has ever made it to a position of power in the board. Nobody remembers clearly. If such a person had indeed made it and it was such a non-event that it is not remembered, it would be the equivalent of India appointing a Muslim man or a tribal woman or a Dalit man as the president of the country, as they have done in recent years, and not shouting about it from the rooftops.A state official told me there was a time when a couple of officials from the so-called lower castes rose to positions of power in their state association. A superstar cricketer, he said, was quoted in the papers the next day saying something to the effect of: “Now will we have to be controlled by [washermen] and [cobblers]?”The BCCI does a great – sometimes underappreciated – job of conducting the number of matches it does, the academies it sets up, and the systems it has set in place, but it is dipping its feet in a talent pool too shallow for a vast country. There is much more to be done. Educating its players about the ugly history of these seemingly harmless putdowns will be just a start.

Opener adamant that his game can come good for the Ashes after latest lean spell

Vithushan Ehantharajah24-Mar-2023It was in the aftermath of England’s one-run defeat in the second Test against New Zealand in February that Brendon McCullum sat with the travelling press pack to once again back Zak Crawley.The 25-year-old opener had struggled in that fortnight, returning just 58 runs from four innings at an average of 14.50. Off the back of a Pakistan series that began with scores of 122 and 50 in the first of those three Tests, the questions around his place in an otherwise barnstorming XI were a redux of those that were had after a tough 2022 summer.The answers were the same as well, with McCullum unequivocally stating Crawley was his man: talk of high ceilings and a knack of putting opposition attacks under pressure. There was, however, one important piece of advice from the head coach: “You have to suck up the low scores. But the thing he can’t do is tweak and alter things too much because then you are trying to catch form.”McCullum went on: “That is the challenge for Zak and we have had those conversations. He is fully on board and he has to trust in the game he has. His attacking game is much stronger than his defensive game, so he needs to start from a position from attack rather than looking to defend and, if he does that, who knows what he can achieve. We will find out, I guess.”Fast forward almost exactly a month, on the last Friday in March at a wet Spitfire Ground in Canterbury, it seems Crawley is taking that advice. The first ball of the 2023 season, which contains the huge carrot of an Ashes series, is still two weeks away from being sent down. But the Kent batter is in defiant move to prove his coach and his captain, Ben Stokes, right. And in turn, his doubters wrong.”It gets talked about like it’s very easy, opening the batting, which makes me smile,” Crawley said on Friday morning. “I take it in my stride and try to score runs every time I go out to bat.”Most notably, when asked about his defensive technique and whether that needed honing before Australia come to town, armed with a new and potentially improved batch of red Dukes balls, he was keen to set something straight.Crawley’s 77 at Sydney was one of England’s batting highlights of a grim Ashes in 2021-22•Getty Images”I have got a good defensive technique,” Crawley said. “When you are playing against the best sides in the world it might look like it’s not. It’s not something I need to work on. It’s something I need to keep backing. The same as my aggressive game.”There are two things to take from that. The first is that he is probably right. In terms of Crawley’s defences being literally breached, he’s been bowled nine times out of 60 innings, or 15 percent, with the same number of lbws. His main downfall – not that McCullum and Stokes regard batters getting out in that term – has been caught, behind or otherwise, which makes up 40 of those dismissals.The second is that Crawley has never seemed more determined to do things his own way. Already 33 caps into his Test career this period since the beginning of last summer – averaging 25.86 in 12 Tests – has seen him develop a hardness as the struggler in an otherwise successful batting line-up.”It’s nice when people back you and think you’re a good player,” he replied, when McCullum’s words from Wellington were relayed back to him. “I’ve had a lot of support from a lot of people about my game but, most importantly, you’ve got to back yourself or it’s not going to work.”I certainly do. It hasn’t gone perfectly the last year but I’ve had some good knocks. I’ve got two hundreds last year [against West Indies in March and Pakistan in December]. I was in the top 10 run-scorers. But that probably wasn’t portrayed in how I was spoken about in the press. But there’s ups and downs in anyone’s career, and especially opening the batting, and I back myself and keep batting every time.”What talk there has been of replacements has come almost entirely from outside the camp. The looming return of Jonny Bairstow poses various different scenarios, such as Harry Brook taking his stellar form to the top of the order or even the wildcard choice of Ben Stokes assuming the role. And yet, while the numbers don’t suggest it, Crawley continues to be heralded as the totem of a side who are breaking records, winning the battle for eyes and on a run of 10 victories from 12 matches.There does, though, have to be a solution to this lean trot. And even amid the fighting talk, Crawley admits that, perhaps, his issues have come from doubling-down too far – not so much losing his sense of self, but almost trying to adhere to a caricature of what he is about when he is at his best: a domineering shotmaker.Related

Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Brook centuries in record-breaking romp

Bazball belief to white-ball ambitions: Crawley determined to be an entertainer

Here's why England are like Mean Girls the movie

Next stop the Ashes, as England learn to love Test cricket again

“I feel like I’ve made the mistake of taking it too far at times and so have some of the other batsman,” he said. “The thing that England are doing so well batting-wise, in terms of Brook at the moment and Joe [Root], they’re very smart about it, how aggressive they are.”But they’re not seeing the work that they do between those periods of aggression, where they’re seeing out good spells. That doesn’t get talked about, but that’s where the balance is key and that’s where you feel your best.”Everyone concentrates on their own game, I concentrate on my own game. We all chat cricket but I’m not going to score any runs trying to bat like Harry Brook or trying to bat like Joe Root. The only way I’m going to score runs is to bat how I’ve done at my best throughout my career, and that’s what I try and do.”As for the Ashes, Crawley wants to resume the spot as opener that, so far, has been cordoned off for him. He knows runs for Kent will be required to secure it outright if he is to make it to “the pinnacle” of playing in “the biggest rivalry in Test cricket”. He had a healthy taste of it in 2021-22, being drafted in for the last three Tests with a highlight of 77 in the second innings at Sydney – the only one of the five matches England did not lose. That experience showed him just how big a deal it is.”I certainly felt in in the Ashes Down Under, there was a lot more hype around it and it was just bigger and there seemed to be more media,” he said. “I got more nervous for it, it almost felt like my debut again, so I suppose that answers it, there is just a bigger hype around it and rightly so.”More media and bigger hype means greater scrutiny, something he is evidently ready to meet head-on. Even at the age of 25, with time to come again in the future, we are entering into a make-or-break summer for England and this iteration of Crawley. For a person regarded as something of a gentle giant, his demeanour right now is of a cricketer who is sick of the barbs and more motivated than ever to get it right.

England allrounder has time and again stood up in adverse situations and it is a role she won’t relinquish in a hurry

Vithushan Ehantharajah17-Jul-2023Five were needed off the last ball for an England win to take this hell-raising Women’s Ashes series to a Tuesday night decider in Taunton. Four for a Super Over to prolong the anxiety of those who want peace but can’t get enough of all this. Anything less and Australia keep the Ashes they have held for the last eight years. And as the rest of the world thought through those scenarios, Nat Sciver-Brunt took herself to one side for some alone time.She went down on her haunches, her bat briefly moonlighting as a screen to obscure her face for a moment of privacy in front of the live cameras and the 12,380 at the Ageas Bowl. It had served its primary purpose for the previous 98 deliveries, with 110 runs and counting. Runs which had brought England to the precipice in a fifth successive nerve-shredding climax of the series. Now she had to catch her breath and her thoughts. She’d been here before. Perhaps too many times.Related

Onus on Australia to take Women's Ashes to the next level

Alyssa Healy: Drawn Ashes a 'reset moment' for Australia

Nat Sciver-Brunt riding wave of emotion in hard-fought Ashes series

Australia overcome sensational Sciver-Brunt to retain Ashes

Alana King refuses to be dethroned as Australia reassert Ashes dominance

Certainly too many times with this eventuality. She arose to face up to Jess Jonassen, heaving one last heave to the leg side as the left-arm spinner landed one just outside off stump. The ball started high but finished low far too soon, bouncing a couple of feet in front of Annabel Sutherland running in from wide long-on. Sutherland gathered and threw into Jonassen, who broke the bails for the sake of it to confirm Australian victory by three runs.By then, Sciver-Brunt was bent over, her bat now a crutch to keep her upright. The weight of England’s hopes were manageable. Not being able to get them over the line a familiar punch in the gut.Nat Sciver-Brunt played another valiant knock but was unable to get her side over the line•Getty ImagesSciver-Brunt now has the most centuries by a woman in lost ODIs (three), all of them unbeaten, all of them against Australia. The previous one came in the 2022 50-over World Cup final; the allrounder finishing 148 not out in pursuit of an unlikely 357 that only she thought was gettable. Australia won that by a comfortable 71 runs, which makes this one so much worse. “She’s pretty good at getting hundreds in a losing chase, unfortunately,” said Heather Knight out of weary sympathy.Knight had seen England home in the first ODI last Wednesday and admitted being an observer on this occasion was “horrific”. The captain was one of the three dismissed by incoming legspinner Alana King, and thought the worst when Amy Jones was dismissed to leave England six down with 82 needed 71 deliveries. But what control Knight hated ceding as the game tilted Australia’s way with every delivery not struck to the fence was made easier by the fact that, as she put it, “the best person to be out there was Nat Sciver-Brunt.”No doubt about that. Facing their record ODI chase of 283 – kept down by Sciver-Brunt’s 10 overs for 44 – just a few days after topping their previous best in Bristol, her entry at No. 4 would always define England’s fortunes. It came in the 18th over, passing Knight who was on her way back.The allrounder was as she ever is; hovering around a run-a-ball throughout; fifty brought up in 53 deliveries, three figures coming 40 later. Calculated devastation with cold blood and the hot hand.Did she need to be there all on her own by the end? A familiar question with a familiar answer. No.Sophia Dunkley was out of sorts up top, and both Alice Capsey and Danni Wyatt fell cheaply. Jones offered support for 57 runs for the sixth wicket only to reverse tamely to short third. Sarah Glenn remained defiant through to the end but 22 off 35 spoke of an inability to pitch in beyond trying to get Sciver-Brunt on strike.With 13 needed from the final four deliveries, Sciver-Brunt swept Jonassen around the corner for the last of her 10 boundaries. A brace of twos followed, leading to that one final delivery. And as she was down on her haunches, catching her breath, taking a moment to herself, some of the thoughts of those around her veered from the Ashes and to what might be a potential moment of glorious catharsis.On this very ground over a year ago, Sciver-Brunt came close to another hail mary effort. Playing for Trent Rockets against Southern Brave, she struck three consecutive sixes in the final over before only managing a single to lose by two runs. Just as it was then, Glenn was the non-striker. Tahlia McGrath was the bowler on the end of those blows, now merely observing in the field.What followed was a raw, revealing insight into exhausting and emotional vulnerability of Sciver-Brunt. The toll of 2022’s cricket up to that point (September), had begun to consume her. The pressure she put on herself was more than she could handle. All this came out in what began as a cheery “hard luck” post-match interview on the BBC. A week later, she would pull out of the limited-overs series against India to focus on her mental health, eventually returning to international duty at the end of the year. She would reprise her role as vice-captain at the start of 2023.”I was actually part of the BBC crew that interviewed her afterwards,” said Knight. “I could tell she wasn’t quite herself and wasn’t quite right. To do that on the day she did and the way she was feeling was quite remarkable. It was a great move by her to take a break and probably made it a lot easier for a lot of people to be quite open in our dressing room.”It was kind of written in the stars that she was going to do it today. Just unfortunately a bit too much to do. But great character by her to get us anywhere near close and to rally the tail in another unbelievably entertaining game of cricket.”Sarah Glenn and Nat Sciver-Brunt added 76 runs for the eighth wicket, but it wasn’t enough•Getty ImagesBy all accounts, she is back to herself and better at voicing how she is feeling and what she needs and wants. As such, the focus, for now, can be on worries from the outside about how one of English cricket’s genuine world-class exponents might not finish with the wins and accolades her talents deserve. That a player capable of winning matches on the biggest stage is consistently reduced to covering the gap between her team and a generationally transcendent Australian side. Michelangelo did not paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel just to cover the cracks, but Sciver-Brunt’s done it three times now.The past few weeks do offer encouragement. Though the Ashes are gone, victory in Taunton will mean England have won both white-ball series against a team that, up until two weeks ago, had forgotten what it was like to lose. With all the talk of talent gaps being closed, perhaps the most important progression has been in belief. A team 6-0 down brought it back to 6-6, and this could have been so different for a boundary saved or scored in the deliveries not involving Sciver-Brunt. The hosts have shown incredible strength of character and resilience – both pages out of Sciver-Brunt’s book.Yet, we all know that no matter how many others choose to stand up going forward, Sciver-Brunt will always see it as her responsibility to be the one to do the unthinkable. That she has those three hundreds in vain against England’s biggest rivals is not simply misfortune. She is not staggering into these improbable situations after a few wrong turns. She is seeking them out. Even if someone else emerges capable of carrying that burden, it is not something she will relinquish in a hurry. It is in every fibre of her being.It is why she is the most box-office cricketer around. It is why Mumbai Indians forked out £320,000 (INR 3.2 crore) for her in the inaugural WPL, and won. And it is why, even after another bitter disappointment, we know the next time England need someone to pull them from the brink, Nat Sciver-Brunt will be the first on the scene. Whether she can win it or not, however, will still depend on those around her.