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West Ham United could pounce on Bologna defender Arthur Theate, according to Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport (via Sport Witness). 

The lowdown

Bologna brought in Theate from homeland club KV Oostende last summer on an initial loan with an obligation to buy.

The 22-year-old Belgian, who’s been capped twice by his country, played 31 Serie A matches in his first season at the club.

A report from The Evening Standard has already revealed that David Moyes wants to buy ‘at least one’ new centre-back during the summer transfer window.

The latest

The report states that Theate ‘could be sacrificed’ if manager Sinisa Mihajlovic opts to play with four at the back next season.

He would be made available for a fee of around €10million, the equivalent of £8.5million.

David Moyes and West Ham ‘like’ the Belgian and they could be in position to take advantage.

The verdict

What attributes does Theate offer as a centre-back?

Well, he makes a high number of progressive passes, ranking in the 74th percentile in Europe, and his 2.64 interceptions per 90 minutes (85th percentile) suggest he reads the game well too.

But perhaps his standout asset is his ball carrying, with Theate in the 85th percentile for progressive carries and as high as the 94th for dribbles completed.

In terms of a stylistic profile, he’s a close match for Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly.

Talent scout Jacek Kulig has hailed him as ‘one of Serie A’s biggest revelations’ and suggested in December that he could be worth up to €18million (£15.3million). West Ham could end up signing him for nearly half what some would consider his true worth.

Theate, then, looks like a potential bargain that would help to address one of Moyes’ transfer priorities.

In other news, David Moyes has stepped up this transfer pursuit.

Rangers ended their 2021/22 campaign on a high as the Glasgow giants won the Scottish Cup with a 2-0 win at Hampden.

Gio van Bronckhorst’s men were left disappointed in both the Premiership and the Europa League as they finished runners-up in both competitions and were able to head into the summer with a trophy by lifting the SFA Cup.

It was a tense match against Hearts as incoming Gers centre-back John Souttar kept the Light Blues at bay throughout regular time.

The game then went to extra time and burst into life as Ryan Jack scored a sensational goal from the edge of the box, before Scott Wright made it 2-0.

Jack, who turns 31 next season, was restricted to nine games in the Premiership as he struggled with injuries throughout the campaign and Rangers may start to think about life after the Scotland international.

Dream Jack heir

Van Bronckhorst can find the dream heir to the 30-year-old in a deal to sign Aberdeen central midfielder Lewis Ferguson this summer.

Former Gers striker Kenny Miller recently claimed that the gem is someone the club should be looking to sign. He said: “In terms of players Rangers could go for in Scotland after (John) Souttar – (Ellis) Simms and (Lewis) Ferguson would potentially be the two for me because they’re at a really good age.”

The Dons man, who was dubbed a “real leader” by former Premiership player Mark Wilson, was valued at £10m by his manager Jim Goodwin earlier this year, whilst calling him a “big influence”, and his statistics in the top-flight make it easy to see why. 

These impressive stats in the Premiership illustrate the quality he would be able to bring to Rangers if they sign him this summer.

The Gers signed Jack from Aberdeen in 2017 and they can now secure his heir in a deal to sign another central midfielder from the Dons.

In the 2020/21 campaign, the Light Blues gem averaged an excellent SofaScore rating of 7.14 as he won 56% of his duels in the division. This shows that both players are capable of delivering consistently impressive displays in the middle of the park and can hold their own in physical contests.

However, Ferguson can replace Jack and add something different to the position – a goalscoring threat. His 11 strikes in the top-flight dwarf the Rangers man’s goal tally in the last five league seasons combined.

This means that he can be an upgrade on the Scotland international and be the long-term replacement for him, with plenty of years left for the Aberdeen man to give at the age of 22.

AND in other news, Imagine him & Weston: Rangers can form deadly future duo in deal for highly-rated teen…

Liverpool midfielder Fabinho is expected to win his battle to be fit for the Champions League final, The Daily Mirror’s David Maddock reports. 

The lowdown

Fabinho was forced off half an hour into Liverpool’s 2-1 Premier League victory over Aston Villa on Tuesday night with an apparent hamstring injury.

It’s since been confirmed that the 28-year-old will miss Saturday’s FA Cup final against Chelsea, as well as the Reds’ remaining league games against Southampton and Wolves.

That means that the no. 3 faces a race to be fit for the meeting with Real Madrid in Paris at the end of the month.

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The latest

Maddock, northern football correspondent for the paper, shared the ‘big news’ on Fabinho on Thursday evening.

The Brazilian ‘should be fit for the Champions League final’, he wrote, news which has now been confirmed by Jurgen Klopp himself.

The verdict

This would be a significant boost for Klopp and Liverpool. Fabinho is typically one of the first names on the team-sheet, starting 26 of the 30 Premier League games for which he’s been available.

What’s more, Klopp has previously hailed him as ‘the best’ defensive midfielder on the planet.

And with Fabinho on the pitch, Liverpool are outscoring the opposition by an average of 1.7 goals per 90 minutes.

Injury played a part last time Liverpool faced Real Madrid in the UCL showpiece, with top goalscorer Mohamed Salah forced off in the first half, and they won’t want it to be a factor this time around.

In other news, there’s been a ‘major development’ in the Aurelien Tchouameni race. 

He’s a destructive force in T20 cricket but hasn’t yet translated that ability into ODIs – how can India get the best out of him?

Shashank Kishore in Dubai22-Sep-2018With the World Cup less than a year away, the Asia Cup was an opportunity for India to answer a few important white-ball questions. Three matches into the tournament, the most glaring questions center around KL Rahul.Rahul came to the UAE on the back of an interesting white-ball summer. His T20 form was imperious. Fourteen IPL innings brought him 659 runs – all of them as an opener – at an average of 54.91 and a strike rate of 158.41. He made a 36-ball 70 in his only innings in Ireland, and followed that up with an unbeaten 54-ball 101 at No. 3 in the first T20I against England in Manchester.Given that run of 20-over scores, Rahul might have expected a run in the ODI side too. But after scoring 9 not out – he came in towards the end of a successful chase – and 0 in the first two ODIs against England, he was left out of the series decider. And now, in the Asia Cup, he has sat out of India’s three matches so far – this despite an extra middle-order slot becoming available with the selectors resting Virat Kohli.This in-today, out-tomorrow sequence is fairly typical of Rahul’s ODI career. Since his debut in 2016, Rahul has only played in 12 out of India’s 47 ODIs. And since last year’s tour of Sri Lanka, when the team management first tried him in the middle order, he has only featured in six out of 28 ODIs.The team management gave Rahul an extended red-ball run in England, despite his averaging 14.12 in the first four Test matches. With the series lost, there were plenty of voices calling for the inclusion of Prithvi Shaw, but Rahul kept his place for the fifth Test at The Oval and scored a morale-boosting hundred on the final day of the tour.Rahul has never quite enjoyed the same kind of run in the side in ODIs. His longest uninterrupted sequence so far is four matches, in Sri Lanka last year, when he was given a chance in the middle order after Ajinkya Rahane had claimed the back-up opener’s role by scoring 306 runs at 67.20 in five matches in the West Indies.Rahul only got to bat three times in those four matches, and each time he batted in a different position – No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5. He didn’t really grab the chance, scoring 4, 17 and 7, and struggled to read the mystery spin of Akila Dananjaya, who dismissed him in all three innings.While the situation – not having a long run of matches or a settled slot in the batting order – isn’t ideal, it’s the reality for anyone looking to break into India’s middle order. There’s just too much competition.Ambati Rayudu, who is far from a regular in the side, averages 50.39 after 33 ODI innings. He came back into the ODI side after an IPL season as good as Rahul’s. He top-scored for Chennai Super Kings – 602 in 16 innings at an average of 43.00 and a strike rate of 149.75 – while showing a lot more adaptability – opening, batting in the middle order, and even finishing innings.There’s Kedar Jadhav, who has come close to nailing the No. 6 spot with his innovative batting and invaluable part-time spin. There’s Dinesh Karthik, who averages 53.80 since his ODI comeback last year. There’s Manish Pandey, who can’t break into the XI despite smashing 366 runs without being dismissed in a Quadrangular tournament where he batted against Australia A, South Africa A and India A.Outside the squad there is Shreyas Iyer, who’s made two fifties in five ODI innings, and has just scored a List A hundred for Mumbai in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. And there’s still Rahane, who made 148 in Mumbai’s previous match.Given all the other options India have, batsman simply have to grab every opportunity. And while his opportunities have been scattered and seldom in one batting slot, Rahul hasn’t yet grabbed them: after scoring 100*, 33 and 63* in his debut series against Zimbabwe, he has a highest score of 17 in eight ODI innings.AFPBut while some of the other middle-order contenders may have made better use of their opportunities, Rahul is perhaps more lavishly gifted than all of them, and capable of batting at a jaw-dropping tempo in white-ball cricket. He’s only shown it in T20 so far – in his most recent IPL season, and while scoring international hundreds against West Indies and England – but he’s surely capable of translating that ability into 50-overs cricket too.The difficulty for Rahul is that a slot at the top of the order, which is where he’s batted all his life, is probably out of bounds, with Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan firmly established as one of the great opening pairs in ODI history. Virat Kohli, one of the all-time-great No. 3s, follows them to the crease. Rahul’s opportunities are only likely to come at Nos. 4 or 5, positions that demand a certain amount of flexibility from batsmen, who from one match to another could be called on to maintain momentum, rebuild, change gears gradually, or explode upon arrival.Does Rahul have the game yet to adapt? Does he still need to learn the more workmanlike aspects of middle-order batting, which the likes of Rayudu and Karthik are adept at? Can he tone down the impulsiveness that sometimes consumes him before the bowler gets him? Will making these changes take away from the very qualities that make him such a dangerous batsman?There is possibly one solution, a case for India to look at Rahul as a No. 3 batsman and have Kohli bat at No. 4. This might not need Rahul to temper his flamboyance too much, at least on flat surfaces where he can trust his eye – such pitches are quite likely to be the norm at the World Cup next year. This could allow India to retain a formidable top three, in theory, with Kohli controlling the second half of the innings, and MS Dhoni perhaps gaining a little more freedom to go after the bowling and bat like he did in the IPL this year.It would mean a change of role for Kohli, but not a massive one. And his record at No. 4 is more than impressive. In 37 innings there, he has made 1744 runs – with seven hundreds and eight fifties – at an average of 58.13 and a strike rate of 90.40, which isn’t too far off his record at No. 3, where he averages 61.48 and strikes at 93.23.To adopt this plan, however, the team management would need to weigh up Rahul’s explosive potential, with the inherent risk of early dismissals that comes with his natural style, against the middle-order methods of Rayudu or Karthik, who have fewer frills but perhaps a little more know-how in adapting to different situations.

Change in personnel at the top means there’s lot to be optimistic about, but the cricketing fraternity at large needs to steps in to prevent Zimbabwe from going Kenya’s way

Tristan Holme10-Nov-2016As Zimbabwe shimmied towards their latest defeat in the second Test against Sri Lanka, thoughts turned to that age-old question: what are the ingredients for an effective turnaround for Zimbabwe cricket?A lot has changed over the last 15 months. A new board and a new chairman have taken charge. The backroom staff at the national level have all changed, and there is a new head coach now in Heath Streak. Tatenda Taibu has taken over as the new convenor of selectors, and has the responsibility of setting up a new structure below the national team.There are some promising new players coming through. What’s more, Streak has infused positivity into a group of players that had for some time seen survival as their only goal.Further evolution is in the pipeline. Last season’s Logan Cup, the country’s first-class competition, comprised just six rounds, with the national players missing most of them. Although the fixtures of the upcoming season are awaited, the number of matches are expected to double. The four first-class provinces that will contest the Logan Cup will also be supplemented by five Associate provinces who will make up a feeder league.One might look at all this and wonder what else is to be done to improve a Test team that has now failed to take 20 wickets in a match in eight games, and has conceded more than 500 runs in the first innings of its last five Tests.An obvious answer is to entice players who have left – such as Brendan Taylor, Kyle Jarvis and Solomon Mire – back into the fold, but that may not happen in the short term. A less obvious one is to provide better support for the players they’ve got. Streak pointed out that, as a coaching unit, the resources at Zimbabwe’s disposal in an increasingly technological age are miles behind even those of Bangladesh, and said he would be asking Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) for backing in this regard.Further questions arise. Is it possible for Zimbabwe to move forward whilst ZC remain saddled with an asphyxiating debt that, in truth, calls into question the viability of its domestic plans? One also wonders whether anything can really improve until there is a turnaround in the country’s economy, and its political landscape stabilises.In short, there are numerous problems to tackle, but there are some good men doing their best to come up with solutions. The question then is what could happen in the global game that would assist Zimbabwe?Coach Heath Streak feels the gap between Zimbabwe’s domestic structure and international cricket is massive•AFPA decade ago, with accusations of corruption swirling around ZC, many observers wanted them to be expelled from the ICC. When that did not happen, the rest of the world quietly forgot about Zimbabwe. India have been consistent visitors over the past six years – “all-weather friends”, in the local parlance – essentially providing the income for ZC to remain a going concern. New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh have all done their bit, but their tours cost ZC more money than they make. Everyone else has largely given up on Zimbabwe, and the disintegration of the Future Tours Programme has allowed other countries to ignore them.Since returning to Test cricket in August 2011, Zimbabwe have played just six away Tests, three of them in a single series in Bangladesh. Without more international games, especially Tests, Zimbabwe is unlikely to get far even if they reform themselves in every possible way.”We have too many long periods without international cricket, and unfortunately the gap between our domestic cricket and international cricket is massive,” Streak said. “Our next scheduled Test series is in June next year. If you’re a specialist Test player like Tino Mawoyo, your next Test is in eight months’ time, and his only cricket in the meantime will be domestic cricket. You can’t expect to go from that to facing Rangana Herath. But I’m telling the players we can’t just expect people to want to come and play us. We’ve got to earn the right.”The next few years will be crucial for the game here, and Zimbabwe’s future is likely to be tied to what happens at the ICC. If nothing comes of attempts to add context and structure to bilateral cricket, and Zimbabwe fail to qualify for the 2019 World Cup, then it’s difficult not to see former coach Dav Whatmore’s prophecy coming to pass and Zimbabwe going Kenya’s way. But if the ICC’s Members can agree on a new format for bilateral cricket, there is reason to be hopeful.The two-tier system discussed by the ICC in September would have solved the lack of cricket, but ZC opposed it. “I mean that was like doing this,” said a former Zimbabwe international this week, cocking his right hand into the shape of a gun before pretending to blow his brains out through the roof of his head. In July, ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani said the opposition to the proposal was because, “whatever restructuring of international cricket is done must be aimed at ensuring that it improves cricket, and our belief is that you can only improve when you play against the best.”Zimbabwe Cricket, headed by Tavengwa Mukuhlani, haven’t accepted ICC’s two-Tier proposal•IDI/Getty ImagesThe fact that only one of Zimbabwe’s Test opponents since August 2011 have been ranked in the top four at the time that the two teams played – South Africa visited for one Test in 2014 – confirms they are not playing against the best as things stand. “We have to earn the right to step up, and the only way you’re going to do that is by playing regularly,” said Streak. “I’m very keen for us to play even non-official Tests against Ireland and Afghanistan, because you’re going to be better off for it than playing Mountaineers versus Tuskers.”By opposing the two-tier system, ZC have effectively gambled on the ICC Members agreeing on a better proposal soon. The ICC is not known for moving quickly with small decisions, let alone big ones. Should it all come together, though, there are other changes on the horizon that would benefit Zimbabwe.An ODI league would bring quantity quality, guaranteeing games against everyone and even encouraging England to resume ties. The new structures look set to make all of these fixtures financially viable, rather than adding to ZC’s debt burden.Furthermore, if India come on board with the DRS and the ICC secure a global sponsor for the system, it would become readily available in Zimbabwe. The last two series have shown how badly it is needed.And if ZC can pool their television rights with other boards, they should secure more money that could result in their games being broadcast to a wider audience. Their last two series have been aired in just a handful of countries, and Zimbabweans have been vulnerable to the whims of the state broadcaster, ZBC.There is much to be hopeful about then, but the stakes are high. The ICC’s drive to change bilateral cricket was largely borne out of a desire for context in games among middle-ranking nations. But failure to transform the landscape could easily see its most embattled Full Member go quietly into the night.

A long-time friend remembers the demon bowler off the field

David Frith28-Sep-2015It was the first of many stomach-churning moments I’ve witnessed at Test matches. Frank Tyson, England’s No. 7 batsman, completely lost a bouncer from Australia’s master fast bowler Ray Lindwall and was cracked squarely on the back of the skull. Down he went. Head protection for batsmen was unknown in 1954-55. Tyson was wearing only his England cap, and as he lay lifeless on the Sydney turf, many of us thought he might well be dead. It was a long time before he was helped to his feet by the St John’s Ambulance men and walked slowly and unsteadily to that lovely old SCG pavilion. It seemed that this might be the end for the poor chap who had taken 1 for 160 in the previous Test, in Brisbane.But as we all know, the “Typhoon” came roaring back to take ten wickets in that match to draw England level after the thrashing they’d endured at the Gabba. Frank’s memory of being flattened was so fissured that he was to write later that he was batting at the Hill end, whereas he had been on strike at the Paddington end. I can still picture Godfrey Evans, next man in, grinning nervously as his stubby legs carried him to the middle.Of that colourful and outstanding Ashes series of ’54-55, the next chapter is fairly well known. Tyson terrified the Australians again in Melbourne on a dodgy surface that had been secretly and illegally watered overnight after two days’ play: 7 for 27 for the Typhoon, and England were not only ahead but now looked invincible.

When we all drove up the winding road through the McPherson Range for a picnic it was usually Frank who drove, and his heavy foot on the brake pedal left the wives in the back ready to parachute out by the time we’d reached the valley

The Ashes had been retained by the time the Poms came back to Sydney for the final Test, which didn’t begin until the fourth morning, so persistent had been the rainfall. Even then, when Australia were asked to follow-on on the final day there seemed just time for England to wrap it up. Tyson bowled off a very short run – and still knocked Keith Miller’s bat out of his hands.The match was drawn, and afterwards (no presentation ceremonies) this teenager hovered around the SCG pavilion, catching sight of Tyson wandering round the dressing room in just a towel and resembling Henry Cooper. Just look at those shoulders. So that was where the power and speed came from. No wonder. For Tyson was no smooth rhythm bowler. It was brute force that gave him his speed and lift. An hour later I saw him emerge, fully and elegantly dressed, and I composed for myself a fantasy: I stood on the pathway exactly 22 yards from him and tried to imagine what he looked like to the poor, doomed Aussie batsmen. The effect was rather spoilt when Frank beamed a pleasant smile.Some decades later, my wife and I found ourselves living part-time on Queensland’s Gold Coast, and enjoying close friendships with Frank and Ursula Tyson (as well as Bill and Judy Johnston). These were idyllic times, when the old battles were revisited, long-hidden facts revealed, triumphs and setbacks re-examined, flaws in the modern game lamented. Frank was vulnerable when it came to one glass of something, and could become quite noisy. But he was always interesting, a man widely read and with broad interests. One evening as the four of us dined in Surfers Paradise, he and I decided to speak French for a while. He was fairly fluent. I was not, and he enjoyed his little verbal triumph.Clockwise from left: David Frith, Ursula Tyson, Debbie Frith and Frank Tyson in Australia•David FrithWhen we all drove up the winding road through the McPherson Range for a picnic it was usually Frank who drove, and his heavy foot on the brake pedal left the wives in the back ready to parachute out by the time we’d reached the valley. Poor Frank certainly suffered in after years for his express-bowling efforts. The left ankle was damaged beyond repair. But the mind remained sharp, and not so long ago he took up painting. His panorama of Trent Bridge hangs in my library.I suppose the peak moment of our friendship came when he was coaching the Gold Coast Dolphins in Queensland. One evening just the two of us remained in the nets, so I put on the pads, and it was 1954 again. Which meant that I trembled slightly, for was this not the fastest bowler of all time? Yes, he was now past 60. But I, a long-ago Sydney first-grader, wasn’t exactly in my prime either. I treated his medium-pacers with respect. And after a dozen or so deliveries I found that my pal was getting frustrated – not at his own limitations but at my feeble response to his offerings. What he didn’t appreciate was that I have an unusually vivid imagination, and I was still seeing the mighty tearaway of ’54-55. I couldn’t get past that. I was ever ready to duck, but you can’t duck gentle half-volleys.It was a revelation to both of us, I guess. We went off for a beer. Soon we were discussing the possibility of a book on his 1954-55 triumph. came out in 2004, and Frank inscribed it “To David – As John Arlott would have written: ‘Something to read on the train.’ Thanks for your assistance. Frank Tyson – Surfers January 22nd 2005”.Of all the illustrations in the book the most beguiling is of Frank with his hero Harold Larwood, a photo taken in the latter’s lounge room in Sydney. Here sit England’s fastest two bowlers of all time, Ashes winners in Australia both of them, and eventually Australian citizens. Is there a moral there somewhere?

Netherlands had a roller-coaster ride in the World T20. Their coach looks back on their incredible wins, losses, late-night bonding, and pizza intake

As told to Firdose Moonda15-Apr-2014Sport produces a spectrum of emotions: joy, hope, expectation, disappointment, anxiety, embarrassment. In a global competition, those feelings are distilled to their most intense. Cricket’s Associates only experience this on rare occasions. The 2014 World T20 gave Netherlands the opportunity to immerse themselves in the big time. Their coach, Anton Roux, called it “by far the best tournament that I have been involved in”. This is his team’s journey seen through his eyes.The preparation
We kicked off the tour in Dubai and I began with a presentation that asked: When you think of Dutch cricket what springs to mind? For me, it is two things: the colour orange and the victory against England.My message was that at the end of this World T20, if you ask people what they think about Dutch cricket, they must think about something new. I wanted us to create something extra special that people could remember us by.The first game
This was a revenge match for us because we didn’t do too well against UAE in the qualifiers in New Zealand earlier in the year. The pressure in those qualifiers is almost bigger than a World Cup, because there is a lot of funding riding on those games, and doing badly there really affected us.We did not qualify for the 2015 World Cup and we lost ODI status, so we wanted to do much better in Bangladesh. We based the bulk of our preparation around getting ready for the first game. We played five games in Dubai, three under lights, to prepare for the UAE match. We beat them convincingly, as we had planned.Defeat against Zimbabwe
When Associates play Full Members, I feel one of the ways to put up a good show is in the field. We really did ourselves proud in that department. Peter Borren was outstanding in the way he managed the players, and Tom Cooper played a more responsible role with the bat, but we still thought we were about 15 runs short.Before the tournament we had worked on putting together 12 key performance indicators and we worked out that if we could win 45% to 50% of those and push the game as far as possible, anything could happen. Pressure is a wonderful thing. That’s what we did with this game. We dragged it out.Last-ball defeats are always tough to take. You feel like you should have won. It’s so easy to reflect and find that extra run or extra ball. But from a coaching and spectators point of view, I thought that game was a really good showing on the world stage.I don’t have team chats after the game, because either we are celebrating a good win, or there are a lot of emotions involved if we’ve lost, but I felt it important for me to say something to the team after that game. It’s easy to feel down and out when you lose close games. I was very happy by how close we took it and I wanted to remind the guys there was another game left. It was a clear, simple message of forgetting that match as soon as possible and refocusing.

“All the people from the embassy had never watched a game of cricket before. Our guys told them they should never watch another game again because they’d just seen the greatest chase in T20 history”

Getting ready for Ireland
In tournaments like these, I don’t get much sleep because I do a lot of preparatory work. I was up until about 4am or 5am, going through footage and game plans ahead of our team discussion in the morning. Sometimes the video analyst and I would order coffee or tea from room service while we worked, and when it was delivered and the waiter saw we were watching cricket, he would join us. So there we were, three people watching cricket clips in the early hours of the morning.I got up at 6:30 and wrote a personal note to each player, trying to motivate them as much as I could. It contained some personal stuff and some stuff about what they had achieved in the past. It was about getting the guys to believe that they could win.To Peter Borren, I wrote, “Keep going and do whatever you’ve has been doing so far,” and then I added, “PS: You are opening the batting.”The big game
Up until the 13th over in the field, we’d played good cricket but then we conceded heavily. After the Irish innings, the boys went straight into the change room. I took a bit longer because I felt a bit aggrieved by the way we had gone about our business. It reminded me of a game against Kenya in New Zealand earlier in the year, where nothing we tried went our way. I had to gather my thoughts and slowly made my way into the change room.Once I got there, the team song was on, pumping, and the boys were getting ready to go. Stephan Myburgh said, “We’ve come here to qualify”, so I knew he was going to go for it from ball one.The one thing we said was that we would go hard for the first six overs and see where we were and reassess. When we broke the world record for most runs in a Powerplay, I knew we were on track to cause a big upset.If we had to play that game here in Holland in front of 20 people and their dogs, I don’t think it would have been possible. But that was a sellout crowd of 15,000 and the DJ booth was pumping. I got the 13th man, Vivian Kingma, next to me and we wrote down on a white board how many balls left and the runs we needed.There are two shots I remember: Ben Cooper’s six off Kevin O’Brien, and Wesley Barresi’s to finish the game. I think that ball is still travelling. Everyone was so caught up in the moment that no one measured the distance of that last six. That was a monster.At Pizza Hut, chowing down on some carbs•Anton RouxAfter this game, we got into our huddle and sang the team song as loud as we could. The walls were reverberating. Our sponsor sponsored us some time in the bar, and quite a few of the Dutch supporters came back to the hotel. All the people that were there from the embassy had never watched a game of cricket in their lives before. Our guys told them they should never watch another game again because they’d just seen the greatest chase in T20 history.Heading to the Super 10s
We were on one of the first flights out of Sylhet to Chittagong, so our focus had to switch quite quickly. I had a good individual chat with each player and I wanted to find out what they wanted to achieve. We came up with team goals as well, and a blueprint of how we wanted to play.Facing teams like Sri Lanka and South Africa was not only daunting but a good challenge to see where we are on the world stage. I also have New Zealand as my outside favourites to win the 2015 World Cup – they are an extremely good limited-overs side – so potentially we had three winners in our pool. That was amazing. Take nothing away from England, but we didn’t see them as big a threat.We also knew we were not only playing for ourselves but for our brothers in the Associate world, and we wanted to do them proud as well.When we were based in Chittagong for the warm-up phase we had a group of net bowlers who bowled to us all the time, and when we left I gave them all Dutch shirts. When we came back, they came to bowl at us in those shirts. We thought that was quite cool. And we heard they were wearing their Dutch shirts when they were bowling to South Africa and New Zealand as well.Thirty-nine all out
At hurricane speed everything was moving in. It was important to bring ourselves down from that high to a level where we knew we had to compete again. The only thing I was focused on was to bring the boys to a place where they had to refocus their minds.We knew that in Sri Lanka we were up against some of the best T20 players in the world. It’s not as though we went into the game with lights in our eyes, but it didn’t go well. Myburgh went after a short ball and had it gone two or three metres either way, it could have been six and it could have been a different game. But that wicket triggered a few quick wickets and Sri Lanka were ruthless.When we were bowled out for 39 we were extremely embarrassed. I didn’t have to say much because the writing was on the scoreboard.After that game there was a lot of response from back home. It was harsh stuff. But one of my mates tweeted me saying, there are not many teams who have broken two world records in the space of 48 hours. That was pretty funny and I used that as the stepping stone of my chat.

“I put the guys in pairs and said they had to buy each other a gift to remember the World T20. Myburgh bought Borren a very nice pen and told him he should use it to rewrite Dutch cricket history”

I took the players separately to the top of the grandstands and we had a good look at the ground from up there. I told them: we’ve taken Dutch cricket to a very high level and we can feel proud of ourselves already, and that what happened against Sri Lanka was a one-off thing. It was up to us to pick ourselves up.The game South Africa didn’t win
It got to a stage where everyone was sitting on the side of the field and we thought we were going to win. I don’t know if the moment was too big for us. But that game, South Africa did not win. We lost it. That was the hard thing to take.To lose that game the way we did was heartbreaking. It’s all about who handles the pressure a little bit better. South Africa have been in those situations a lot more than we have on the world stage, and they came out trumps. If we played the game again and we were in the same position, nine times out of ten we would win.New Zealand
Borren knew them quite well and had been working up towards the game just as much as I had for the South Africa game. I allowed him a little more rope for this game and allowed him to go about things the way he wanted to. We showed we had earned the right to be in the Super 10s. We were searching for the win and Peter kept saying: if we keep going, it’s only a matter of time. We could also sense from the crowd that we were becoming a favourite. Everyone was building up the expectation and wanted us to get a victory.Building up to England
South Africa had just beaten England and we staying in the same hotel as the South African team. The night before they left for the semi-final, Faf du Plessis and I had a few drinks in his room and we called in all the boys. We were sharing stories. Timm van der Gugten was sitting next to Dale Steyn. Guys were asking ten million questions to David Miller. Hashim Amla was amazing in the way he interacted with our guys. It was wonderful not only to talk cricket but also talk life.The day before the England game, I gave the whole squad time off. That night, I ordered 30 pizzas from Pizza Hut and set up a big screen in the team room. We watched the DVD of our chase against Ireland. It was so good to relive the moments. It got us energised and motivated for the next day.”We were not only playing for ourselves but for our brothers in the Associate world, and we wanted to do them proud as well”•Anton RouxEngland : a sense of accomplishment
Before the match, I was asked whether I thought England would have one foot on the plane and I said I didn’t care how they felt. I didn’t care if they were uninterested or not. I cared about getting a victory on the world stage for us.Beating them the way we did was very special. The two wins, in 2009 and now in 2014, were very different. In 2009, it was a shock and surprise, but the way we were playing in this tournament, it was only a matter of time. It was a sense of accomplishment for us.Seeing the look on their faces afterwards gave us a lot of satisfaction. We celebrated in typical Dutch style and sang the team song. Some guys’ voices were a bit croaky the next morning.We were whisked off quickly again. Some guys were going back to the countries of their birth, some on holiday, so we all said goodbye in Dhaka. I left feeling proud of every person in that team. It shows that hard work and belief does pay off.The best moments
One of our reserves, Tom Heggelman, had the responsibility of recording as much footage of us as he could with his goPro, and our analyst, Frank, is going to put that into a little movie for us. I’m sure those images will live with us for a long time. I’m grateful I gave him the opportunity to record footage, because TV footage doesn’t always give you the sense of being in the team.One day I put the guys in pairs and said each had to buy the other a gift to remember the World T20 by, and when they exchanged presents, they had to explain what they chose and why. There was a bit of thought that went into the gifts and speeches. Some guys even did Powerpoint presentations, with a bit of music. Myburgh bought Borren a very nice pen and told him he should use it to rewrite Dutch cricket history.Maybe next time we can come back with two wins. A lot of it goes down to funding. This team is a family and they want to stick together for as long as possible. We’re not done yet.

From Ward Parry, United Kingdom Regardless of how our fragile, underperforming batsmen fare, I think what has been so perfectly illustrated in the opening day’s play of the fourth Test match is the importance of bowlers who can bowl at pace

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013Ward Parry, United Kingdom
Regardless of how our fragile, underperforming batsmen fare, I think what has been so perfectly illustrated in the opening day’s play of the fourth Test match is the importance of bowlers who can bowl at pace. Duncan Fletcher was all too aware of it and it is why he spent so long building a team that would fulfil that need. Don’t get me wrong, I like Sidebottom. The team requires a workman, Hoggard did it, now it’s Sidey’s turn, and he has the added effect of being a lefty – and fundamentally he’s good.The problem is when you have an opening pair of similar bowlers, who don’t bowl consistently express deliveries, on flat tracks you will inevitably struggle. We have seen, with the exception of the first innings South Africa played, how a mediocre batting side can flourish against fairly timid bowling. It’s all about time, time to see the ball, time to play the ball, and time to make runs. There exists an intensity to pace bowling, one which disrupts this comfort zone that batsmen can afford to play in.Had Harmison being working in tandem with Freddie at Edgbaston, with Jimmy supporting, I can assure you Vaughan would still have been skippering the side. Why oh why? Harmison has to spearhead the attack. Ok, he’s prone to lapses in form, confidence and rhythm. Never has a player been under so much constant scrutiny. Why? Because he is so good. I don’t think there is a player out there who would argue with the fact that when his rhythm and form are there he is the best bowler in the world – and by some distance.He is a towering man, who bowls at mid 90s with accuracy and bounce – we’ve seen it before, and we saw it today. I’m happy to take the periods of mediocrity for the devastation of today. However, I think the second (or third, I lose count) coming of Harmison may actually be the real deal. He thrives under the umbrella of a pack bowler rather than the individual on whose shoulders the attack lies. Vaughan was unfortunate to lose, Freddie, Jones, and Tres – ripping the heart of the team from his grasp. But pertinently it left Harmy with the sole responsibility of carrying the attack. He’s back where he belongs and I for one have missed him.

High-quality batting, real fast bowling, clever legspin, collapses and recoveries plus a few howlers for good measure made for an enthralling encounter

Osman Samiuddin in Colombo26-Feb-2011At last, a big game to match the occasion. The World Cup has needed this and the 50-overs game has needed it as well. This was ODI cricket at its most infectious, when you feel it inside you, when you can’t help but respond to its many rhythms and nuances, shift around as it shifts it gears, when each one of the 100 overs of the day is of meaning and consequence.There was atmosphere at the R Premadasa from the off, music and noise for once. Pakistan’s openers came out at Sri Lanka’s bowlers and a game was on our hands. Soon there was comedy, in Mohammad Hafeez’s run-out, when men lose their wits utterly to the occasion itself.There was then intelligence and wisdom in the partnership of Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq. For those who lack an appreciation of subtlety, the middle overs are hell. But how beautifully the pair manipulated angles and found space, a dink here, a deflection there, and how hard they ran. With barely any boundaries, the pair put on a 108-run stand at near enough a run a ball and the pace never felt as if it was slacking. In all they ran 65 singles and ten twos, true descendants of Asif Iqbal and Javed Miandad. Simultaneously there was the very physical appreciation of Sri Lankans in the field. Inside the circle they zipped around, like flying fish, hungry.There was individual genius. In the build-up to this game, Pakistan spoke of Muttiah Muralitharan as if he wasn’t Muttiah Muralitharan. He’s too old, we play him well enough, he doesn’t take wickets against us as he used to. All of this is essentially correct. Pakistan have learnt to play Muralitharan well but he still turned the entire nature of their innings, with his bowling at the death. It was mesmerising stuff, a reminder of his quite immense brain, against a bright young talent, and a batsman set and in real form. Basically it was defence, but beautiful and actually a form of attack.The evening was lit up by those skills that, in the hands of limited overs, these days can often feel like the cricket equivalent of Didier Deschamps, football’s most (in)famous water-carrier: called on for the dirty, unglamorous chores. Two passages of action were outstanding. The first was Shoaib Akhtar, who even at this stage in his career, is capable of recreating the heat every now and again of his early years. As a spectacle, pinging back Mahela Jayawardene’s middle stump was difficult to better and it probably turned the game.In the next over, Shahid Afridi’s delicious undoing of Thilan Samaraweera effectively sealed matters. Pace at one end and leg-spin at the other: it is not an unusual combination any more but the richness of its choreography and the vast possibilities it contains has always been brought out best by Pakistan.Later, we saw how men and collectives can fall apart. Pakistan do it often but there’s always a strange calmness about how it happens. To the eye, it doesn’t feel like anything is breaking down. No one is running about shouting or screaming, there are smiles and expressionless faces and bemused smiles. Yet easy catches are dropped, run-outs missed, misfields, wides and no-balls bowled, poor decisions made and so on.Chamara Silva came close to pulling off the most cunning heist so that there was always punch and counter punch, so that for every wicket that fell late on, a boundary was the response, cricket in perfect balance as it should be. Of course the result sets the rest of the tournament up just right. Co-hosts and favourites beaten by dark horses is a story that sells and sells.Suddenly you look at the schedule and repercussions are discussed. The tournament has meaning. Pakistan will pop up on to a lot of people’s radars and they will be talked about because this is a serious result, achieved with an unbalanced side that finds it difficult to finish off games.

The tournament’s organisation has been chaotic so far, but the performances were beautiful

Neil Manthorp12-Mar-2007The final hour before the festivities began was like watching a particularly slow fielder on the third man boundary moving awkwardly towards a high, swirling catch. The ball was in the air, the clock was ticking, and you just knew he didn’t have a chance. He couldn’t. It just wasn’t going to happen.Large parts of the enormous stage used during the opening ceremony were still being constructed with an hour to go and some of the organisers were starting to panic. You knew that because they were awake, unlike many of the construction workers at Sabina Park on the other side of the island or at the Kensington Oval in Barbados where completing their shiny new stadiums really is becoming a genuine irritation to the sleeping patterns of the work force.The traffic queues getting into Trewlany’s multi-purpose Greenfields Stadium were long and very slow moving; it was a hot and steamy afternoon and the traffic officers did their best but weren’t helped by the endless stream of screaming VIP vehicles jumping the queue.Stadium and event staff had been well briefed to maintain the traditions of inflexibility and stubbornness first started by the gatemen at Lord’s over a century ago and patrons wishing to view the ceremony only just missed out on a full, rubber-gloved body search. And woe betide anyone wishing to sit in an alternative seat to the one numbered on their ticket, no matter how many empty seats there were in the vicinity.Then, finally, it started. With a marching brass band! It wasn’t immediately obvious to those of us in the stadium whether that bit was televised to the rest of the world, but it was incongruous, to say the least, in the land which gave the world Bob Marley.The speeches were short and to the point, well scripted and well delivered. Then the real show began. And what a show it was.Perhaps my enjoyment was made so complete by the presence of a colleague next to me who experienced previously unimagined levels of excitement at seeing Buju Banton sing live for the first time. And the reception that greeted Sean Paul (who, for the uninitiated, sings a form of reggae called ‘Dancehall’, I think) was greater than that which greeted Brian Lara when he swore the players oath on behalf of all 16 competing nations.The entertainment had been billed as a voyage through Jamaica’s history and culture in the form of music and dance, and that is exactly what it was•Clive Rose/Getty ImagesThe entertainment had been billed as a voyage through Jamaica’s history and culture in the form of music and dance, and that is exactly what it was. The running commentary from my friend added joyfully to the occasion and it is actually possible, remarkably, that I learnt something. I certainly learned that I am now a fan of a singer called ‘Half Pint’ although he wasn’t nearly as good as South Africa’s Lucky Dube who was as brilliant as ever, but then I am biased.’Soca’ is not, I now know, a game played between two teams of 11 involving a ball, but a dance form that requires extraordinary strength and energy. As does ‘ska’. The dancers on stilts were hilarious, and the parade of the teams worked a treat with the dulcet and familiar tones of Tony Cozier providing the introductions. Spirits rose and rose, as the did the enthusiasm of volume of the crowd. Suddenly it didn’t seem important that you had to pay over US$2 for a cup of water and it certainly didn’t matter that the stage was still being bolted together moments before the performance.The organising committee, apparently, had to make use of three local companies and eight generators to provide the power to light a stadium with no floodlights and for that alone they deserve enormous credit. Jamaica and its citizens deserve credit. It may not have happened this way, but it would appear that the Caribbean’s cricket playing islands asked themselves what it was that bound them together, apart from cricket. The answer, of course, is music and dance. So they pretty much stuck to that. And it worked. Gloriously.The fielder lurched, took a step or two in the wrong direction, over compensated and nearly tripped, but he was steady for the final, critical second with the entire match at stake and the world watching, and the ball landed as safely as a joey returning to its mother’s pouch. And the crowd rose as one, raising their arms and roaring their approval.As opening ceremonies go, it really was bloody good. Bring on the games.