A world record for Warne

The wicket of Marcus Trescothick on the fifth and final day of Oval Test was something special for Shane Warne since it gave him a world record.

Trescothick’s was Wicket # 168 for Warne against England in his 31st Test, which put him ahead of countryman Dennis Lillee in the list of bowlers capturing most wickets against a particular country. Lillee had taken 167 wickets in 29 Tests - also against England. Warne, at the end of series, has taken 172 wickets in 31 Tests.

Earlier in this series, Warne had achieved the world record of taking most wickets in a country other than his own. Already the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, Warne is also the only bowler to have taken 100-plus wickets against three different countries with 172 wickets against England, 103 against New Zealand and 101 against South Africa. One wonders how many more records will Warne end up with, whenever he decides to retire from the game!

The following table lists the leading wicket-takers against a particular country in Test cricket:

Bowler     For   Wkts   Vs     Tests   Ave   Best  5 10
SK Warne    Aus  172  England    31   22.30  8-71  10 4
DK Lillee   Aus  167  England    29   21.00  7-89  11 4
CEL Ambrose WI   164  England    34   18.79  8-45   8 2
IT Botham   Eng  148  Australia  36   27.66  6-78   9 2
CA Walsh    WI   145  England    36   25.40  6-74   5 1
H Trumble   Aus  141  England    31   20.89  8-65   9 3
CA Walsh    WI   135  Australia  38   28.68  6-54   4 0

Series of Flintoff’s all-round brilliance

England have regained the Ashes for the first time since 1986-87. If one were to choose a single English player who made the biggest impact on the series, it can not be one other than Freddie Flintoff.

Making his first appearance in the Ashes contests, Flintoff gave one of the best all-round performance in a series in the history of the Test cricket. That it was after a gap of more than 30 years a player scored 400 runs with the bat and at the same time captured 20 wickets with the balls speaks volumes of Flintoff’s awesome talent.

Flintoff is only the second English all-rounder and seventh in Test cricket annals to achieve the grand double of 400-plus runs and 20-plus wickets in a series. Tony Greig is the only other Englishman in this very short list. Greig, incidentally, was also the last player to have done so before Flintoff. West Indian Gary Sobers remains alone in performing this feat twice.

Allrounder   For   Vs   Season Mts Runs  Ave  Wkts  Ave
G Giffen    Aus*  Eng  1894-95  5  475  52.78  34  24.12
GA Faulkner SA *  Eng  1909-10  5  545  60.56  29  21.90
JM Gregory  Aus*  Eng  1920-21  5  442  73.66  23  24.17
KR Miller   Aus   WI * 1954-55  5  439  73.17  20  32.05
GStA Sobers WI *  Ind  1961-62  5  424  70.66  23  20.57
GStA Sobers WI    Eng* 1966     5  722 103.14  20  27.25
AW Greig    Eng   WI * 1973-74  5  430  47.78  24  22.63
A Flintoff  Eng*  Aus  2005     5  402  40.20  24  27.29

* Series venue

Australia follow-on after 17 years

On the third day of the fourth Test in Nottingham, England brought an end to Australia's long-lasting streak of not facing a follow-on.

The last team to enforce follow-on on Australia was Pakistan under Javed Miandad at Karachi in September 1988. Australia went on to lose that Test by an innings margin.

Since then, Australia have played a record 190 Tests in almost 17 years without suffering the ignominy of following-on even once.

The following table gives details of longest streaks of Tests a side has gone between following-on.South Africa's instance is inclusive of the 22 years between 1970 and 1992 when they played no Test cricket.

Tests Country            Sequence                Period 
                                               (Yrs-Months)
190 Australia   v Pak,Faisalabad,Sep 1988 to   16-11
                v Eng,Manchester,Aug 2005
75 India        v NZ,Dunedin,Feb 1990 to       11- 1
                v Aus,Mumbai WS,March 2001
72 South Africa v Aus,Durban,Jan 1967 to       32-11
                v Eng,Port Elizabeth, Dec 1999
69 Pakistan     v Aus,Brisbane,Nov 1983 to      9- 5
                v WI,Port-of-Spain,Apr 1993 
68 England      v Aus,Sydney,Feb 1898 to       22-10
                v Aus,Sydney,Dec 1920
63 West Indies  v Eng, Bridgetown, Apr 1992 to  7- 8
                v NZ, Hamilton,Dec 1999

Gilchrist becomes leading run-scoring wicket-keeper in Test cricket

Australia’s Adam Gilchrist became the leading run-scorer wicket-keeper in the history of Test cricket during the just concluded Manchester Test against England. Gilchrist ended the Test with a tally of 4,572 runs to go ahead of England’s Alec Stewart’s run-aggregate of 4,540 runs in 82 Tests (although Stewart played in 133 Tests, he kept wickets in 82 Tests only).

Interestingly Gilchrist needed 11 Tests and 42 innings fewer than Stewart to surpass his aggregate. Gilchrist now holds the records of scoring maximum runs, hitting most hundreds. Gilchrist’s batting average is also the highest for any wicket-keeper who has aggregated more than 500 runs in a career. Zimbabwean Andy Flower is the only other wicket-keeper to end up with 10 or more hundreds and a batting average of 50-plus.

The accompanying table lists the leading run scoring wicket-keepers in Test cricket:

Runs  Keeper        For  Tests Ave    100s 50s
4572  AC Gilchrist  Aus   71   53.79   15  20
4540  AJ Stewart    Eng   82   34.92    6  23
4404  A Flower      Zim   55   53.71   12  23
4389  APE Knott     Eng   95   32.75    5  30
4356  IA Healy      Aus  119   27.40    4  22
3633  RW Marsh      Aus   96   26.52    3  16
3146  PJL Dujon     WI    79   31.46    5  16
3007  MV Boucher    SA    84   30.68    4  18
2759  SMH Kirmani   Ind   88   27.05    2  12
2611  FM Engineer   Ind   46   31.08    2  16
2581  Moin Khan     Pak   66   28.68    4  14
2577  RD Jacobs     WI    65   28.32    3  14
2479  AC Parore     NZ    67   26.95    2  11
2439  TG Evans      Eng   91   20.50    2   8
2387  LEG Ames      Eng   44   43.40    8   7
2336  JHB Waite     SA    49   30.34    4  16
2300  KC S'kkara    SL    35   41.82    6   7
2010  Imtiaz Ahmed  Pak   38   30.45    3  11

Most sixes hit against Australia in a Test series

The five sixes hit in England’s second innings of Manchester Test took their series aggregate of sixes to 26 (four sixes were hit in the first Test at Lord’s,16 in the second Test at Birmingham and six in the third Test at Manchester).

This is now the most number of sixes hit by any side against Australia in a Test series. The previous record was of 23 sixes hit by South Africa in four match series in 1966-67.

The following table lists the most sixes hit against Australia in a Test series:

6s For           Season    Venue       Tests
26 England       2005      England       3#
23 South Africa  1966-67   South Africa  5
22 South Africa  1969-70   South Africa  4 
22 India         1997-98   India         3 
22 West Indies   2002-03   West Indies   4
21 New Zealand   1999-00   New Zealand   3

# still continuing

A world record for Muralitharan

The wicket of India's Irfan Pathan in the opening match of Indian Oil Cup tri-series helped Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan register a new world record.

Pathan's wicket was the 368th wicket for Muralitharan in one-day internationals. He also has taken 549 wickets in Tests to register a combined aggregate of 917 wickets in international cricket.

With the wicket of debutant Venugopal Rao he extended his tally to 918, the highest combined aggregate for any bowler in international cricket -- toppling Pakistan's Wasim Akram from the apex position.

The following table lists the leading wicket-takers in all forms of international cricket -- Tests, ODIs and Twenty20:

Total Bowler           For Tests  ODIs Twenty20 
918   M Muralitharan   SL   549   369    - 
916   Wasim Akram      Pak  414   502    - 
880   Shane Warne      Aus  589   291    - 
836   Glenn McGrath    Aus  508   323    5 
789   Waqar Younis     Pak  373   416    - 
784   Anil Kumble      Ind  461   323    - 
746   Courtney Walsh   WI   519   227    - 

Note: The performances in Tsunami relief match between a World XI and Asian XI have not been taken into account.

Nehra or Agarkar ?

The Indian team for tri-series in Sri Lanka has been announced.The five wise-men of Indian cricket have preferred Ashish Nehra over Ajit Agarkar for the Tri-Series in Sri Lanka, however a look at the performance of these two players since 2003 World Cup portrays a different picture altogether.

This is how two players have performed since 2003 World Cup:

Bowler   Mts Wkts  Ave.  Best  4W  SR     RpO  W/M
Agarkar  25   40  23.53  6-42  2  28.00  5.04  1.60
Nehra    21   29  34.52  4-72  1  37.31  5.55  1.38

Agarkar is the second most successful Indian bowler in this period after Irfan Pathan, who has taken 47 wickets after playing in four matches more than Agarkar. Agarkar’s average is the best among the regular bowlers (who have taken at least 5 wickets in this period) and so is his strike rate. Agarkar’s economy rate, though not as impressive as one would like, is the best among the Indian pacers (who have played at least 5 matches). Also Agarkar’s 6 for 42 against Australia in VB Series match is the best performance by an Indian bowler in this period. And he is the only Indian pacer to take two four-wicket hauls (Sachin Tendulkar also has two four-fers with his mixed kind of stuff).

Clearly if any pacer deserves to be there in Sri Lanka, it has to be Agarkar. But selection committee had different opinion and that is what matters most!

BCCI puts byte into scoring

The cricket scoring in Indian domestic matches is ready for a radical change from the coming season. Noting the proceedings of the game by putting dots, crosses, circles etc. in the notebooks is soon going to be a thing of past. The notebooks that scorers will now carry will be the computer kind, and the mouse will replace their blue, black, red and green pens and pencils. The Association will be providing the laptops to BCCI panel scorers. This system of computer scoring will be started in all the domestic matches in 2005-06 season. BCCI also intends to link and upload all match information on its website, which is set to be launched soon.

The scoring in cricket matches has gradually progressed to its modern sophisticated pattern wherein all the latest technology is put to immense use. Since the modest beginning by William Davies (Circa 1832) Cricket's first scorer. Cricketing world has produced some outstanding, innovative scorers around the world. In India, under the banner of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Scorers of India (ACSSI) has produced some outstanding Scorers as well as Statisticians to meet the challenges.

Keeping in sync with modern-day cricket, a two-day workshop on computer scoring was conducted on July 9 and 10 in Bangalore. A total of 42 scorers of the 75 BCCI panel scorers selected by their cricket associations attended the workshop where the finer techniques of the scoring software were taught to the scorers. The software Scorite is prepared by Stump Vision, which is run by Dinesh Kumble – brother of Indian cricketer Anil Kumble. The profession version of Scorite is an improvement on the old version and contains the Wagon-Wheel of the individual batsman as well as the Bowler versus Batsman information.

The two-days workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Greg Chappell, the former Australian Test cricketer and present coach of the Indian team. In his inaugural speech he mentioned that he learnt to maintain his own score at a very early age and continued the same in his Test career. Mr.Brijesh Patel the Test cricketer, host and Hon. Secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association complimented the scorers for the minute details in balls, minutes etc while scoring. The computer will assist further and will be very useful in the development of the game, especially for the Under-14 and Under-16 level, where the details are difficult to obtain. Theo Braganza, Convener and Hon. Secretary of the ACSSI mentioned that this would solve many problems in India like language, colour pens used for a particular ball, symbols, tallying and finally would produce far more details that one can imagine. In the closing ceremony Test cricket Anil Kumble presented the Anandji Dossa Award to the scorers who stood first in the 1997 and 2004 BCCI examinations, P.Jayapal from Bangalore and Nilesh Deshpande from Nagpur respectively. In his speech he mentioned that very few cricketers maintain their scores, he too learnt to keep scores at an early age. He advised the scorers that on a bad performance when the cricketer is returning to the pavilion it is very frustrating to hear his score being announced to the press and requested to wait till the cricketer is in the pavilion or keep the announcements low.

Before the computer workshop, BCCI also held Examination for Scorers at Kolkata from June 27th to July 1st and at Kanpur from July 3rd to 7th.These 5-days courses included the basic duties of the scorers, the Laws of cricket pertaining to scoring, scoring the box and linear method,calculations for scorers and statisticians, the Duckworth-Lewis method for rain interrupted matches, filling the BCCI score sheets, elementary computer scoring and a practice session in scoring from an actual match. This was followed by the practice test from an actual match and a written test. Scorers from the East, Central and North zones attended including those who did not clear the BCCI Examination held at Ahmedabad in 2004 from Saurashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Hyderabad, Vidarbha cricket associations. The faculties were: Dinar Gupte (Course Director) from Baroda, Blessington Thomas from Hyderabad, P.Jayapal from Bangalore, Ramesh Parab, Vivek Gupte and Theo Braganza (Convener) from Mumbai. Thirty-five scorers attended at Kolkata and 41 at Kanpur. The passing percentage was 80% and those successful will be added to the 75 BCCI panel scorers after the results are declared by the BCCI.

Rakesh Sanghi - well-known scorer from PCA - who attended the workshop at Banglaore, welcomed Board’s initiative, but was of the view that associations should bear the cost of the software. He wondered how many scorers could afford to spend around Rs. 6,000 for 30 match sheets, when the match fee is not very attractive.

Blessington Thomas, one of the faculties, was of the view that it would have been better had this workshop been conducted during the Refreshers Course at Ahmedabad (earlier this year), so that by this time scorers would have gained some knowledge about the Software and would have benefited immensely.He also showed concern about the lack of quality scorers in North, Central and the Eastern parts of the country wherein we have language, accent problems.

All said and done, no one is denying the fact that this is a step in right direction. These courses and workshop are definitely will be a new boost to scorers and will assist in forming an additional panel of scorers and assist in the network for the BCCI and their site to upload scoresheets immediately after the match, which will be accessible to the media, statisticians throughout the world.

Statisticians stumped by new rules

The International Cricket Council seems to have developed the knack of inviting the wrath of cricket statisticians. In recent times, every single decision it has taken -- having an impact on cricket statistics -- has not gone well with the custodians of cricket statistics and records.

ICC's latest ruling that allows a player to be replaced with a substitute during the course of a match has made statisticians wonder if there is any end to this nuisance.

Read more
http://snipurl.com/fy6v

A world record and a near-miss for Hussey

In the third match of NatWest Series, Australia’s Mike Hussey got a world record on his name. Hussey was dismissed after making a well compiled 84 (off 83 balls) in this game helping Australia in putting up a decent total. Interestingly it was for the first time that Hussey got out in his career of seven ODIs. Having made his debut against India at Perth in February 2004, Hussey’s scores in one-day internationals have been: 17*, 32*, 65*, 0*,31* and 84. His innings of 65* and 0* were punctuated by a ‘did not bat’ against New Zealand.

Hussey now holds the world record of aggregating most runs from ODI debut before first dismissal. The previous record was held by another Australian Michael Clarke, who aggregated 208 runs before his first dismissal in ODIs.

Hussey,in fact, just missed another world record. Had he gone not out in the match against England, he would have equalled the all-time ODI record of playing most consecutive innings from debut without being dismissed.

The ODI record in this category is held Pakistan’s Iftikhar Anjum, who played six consecutive innings without being dismissed once. In fact Anjum is yet to be dismissed in his ODI career of 12 matches, which consists of six ‘did not bat’ entries.

Hussey,however, now joins five other players who were dismissed for the first time in their career (since debut) after playing FIVE innings. They are West Indians Patrick Patterson and Ian Bishop, England’s Jack Russell,Australia’s Michael Kaprowicz and Bangladesh’s Manjural Islam.

Another high for Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen played a scintillating innings of 91 in the Bristol one-dayer to give Australia their fourth consecutive loss of the tour. Pietersen has now aggregated 649 runs in 10 innings of 13 ODIs at an average of 162.25. Both his aggregate and average are the highest for any player in ODI history after playing exactly 10 innings.
By an odd coincidence the previous record in this category was on the name of Allan Lamb – another South Africa born Englishman. The following table lists the highest run-aggregates after 10 innings in ODIs:

Runs Player        For Mts Inns Ave Hs 100 50
649 KP Pietersen Eng 13 10 162.25 116 3 3
577 AJ Lamb        Eng 10 10 72.13 118 2 2
554 RL Diad        SL 10 10 55.40 121 2 3
525 DL Amiss Eng 10 10 52.50 137 3 0
498 KC Wessels SA 10 10 55.33 90 0 6
494 PN Kirsten SA 10 10 70.57 90 0 5
456 Majid Khan Pak 10 10 45.60 109 1 4
455 NS Sidhu Ind 12 10 45.50 88 0 5
455 Yousuf Youhana Pak 11 10 56.88 100 1 4

Masters of making a comeback

Pakistan seem to have developed a habit of making a comeback in the series after losing the opening Test. In three series of the last four they have played, Pakistan have managed to level the series after suffering huge defeat in the first Tests. Interestingly on all of the three occasions Inzamam-ul-Haq lead from the front,scoring a century on each occasion which settled the issue.

Following are the instances of Pakistan making a comeback in the series to level/win the series after being one-down in the series.

Season  Opp  Venue Tests  Score    Captain
1954     Eng  Eng    4    1-1  AH Kardar
1976-77  Aus  Aus    3    1-1  Mushtaq Mohammad
1994-95  Zim  Zim    3    2-1  Salim Malik
1996-97  NZ   Pak    2    1-1  Saeed Anwar
2001     Eng  Eng    2    1-1  Waqar Younis
2004-05  SL   Pak    2    1-1  Inzamam-ul-Haq
2004-05  Ind  Ind    3    1-1  Inzamam-ul-Haq
2005     WI   WI     2    1-1  Inzamam-ul-Haq

King of LOST matches

Pakistan beat West Indies by 136 runs in Kingston Test to level the series 1-1. The defeat gave Brian Lara an entirely unwanted record on his name. Lara has now appeared in 54 LOST matches for West Indies. With this he joined England's Alec Stewart to share the record of appearing in maximum number of LOST matches. However Lara's defeat-percentage of 46 is much higher than Stewart's 41. Among the contemporary batsmen only fellow countryman S.Chanderpaul (39), New Zealander Stephen Fleming (35) and Sachin Tendulkar (35) are the ones, who can 'challenge' Lara's place on top in this table. Given team's wretched form, it seems highly unlikely that Lara would be toppled from the top in the near future.

Lara has now amassed 4654 runs in matches lost by West Indies; no other player has even managed 3000. Lara is also the only batsman with a dozen Test hundreds in defeats; in fact, no other player has more than eight. Among the top ten run-getters in defeats, Lara's average is also the highest. What more can a batsman do for his side ? Bat from both ends ?

Maximum runs in defeats

Batsman           For  Tests Runs   Ave   100  50
Brian Lara        WI    54   4654  43.09   12  21
Alec Stewart      Eng   54   2993  29.93    -  23
Allan Border      Aus   46   2771  33.39    5  13
Andy Flower       Zim   34   2713  43.06    7  15
David Gower       Eng   42   2581  32.26    4  15
Sachin Tendulkar  Ind   35   2558  36.54    8   9
S Chanderpaul     WI    39   2532  35.17    3  16
Graham Gooch      Eng   42   2423  28.85    3  16
Steve Waugh       Aus   36   2380  37.78    5   9
Mike Atherton     Eng   44   2319  26.35    1  15
Sunil Gavaskar    Ind   34   2314  35.06    6  12

More records for Lara

Even as Brian Lara got out for a duck in the second innings of Kingston Test, his first innings heroics was enough to accord him a world record. Lara has now aggregated 6,006 runs in HOME matches- highest aggregate for any batsman in Test cricket. Lara surpassed England's Graham Gooch's tally of 5,917 runs. Interestingly Lara moved ahead of Gooch in 13 Tests and 29 innings fewer than him.

Leading run-scorers in HOME Test matches:

Runs Batsman   For Tests Inns  Ave. Hs  100s

6006  BC Lara     WI 61  102  61.91 400* 16
5917  GA Gooch    Eng   74  131  46.23  333  15
5743  AR Border   Aus   86  145  45.94  205  13
5710  SR Waugh    Aus   89  140  47.58  170  15
5067  SM Gavaskar Ind   65  108  50.17  236* 16

During West Indies' first innings of Kingston Test Lara also completed his 1,000 runs in the Test matches played at this ground. His aggregate at this ground at the end of first innings reads as 1,075 runs in 17 innings at an average of 67.18.
Lara has now aggregated 1,000 runs on three different grounds. Others are - St.John's (1,632 runs) and Bridgetown (1,339 runs). Lara thus became only the fifth batsman after Australia's Greg Chappell,Allan Border and Steve Waugh and Pakistan's Javed Miandad to aggregate 1,000 runs at THREE different grounds. It is worth mentioning here that Lara has aggregated 986 runs at Port-of-Spain and is all set to soon become the first batsman ever to aggregate 1,000 runs at FOUR grounds.
The 153 in the Kingston Test was the 17th score of 150-plus or more for Brian Lara. He is now just one short of equalling Don Bradman's world record tally of 18.

Most 150s in Test cricket
18 Don Bradman Aus
17 Brian Lara WI
15 Sachin Tendulkar Ind
14 Steve Waugh Aus
12 Sunil Gavaskar Ind

Statistical Annual

Like a large number of fellow statisticians I have often been pained at the absence of a statistical annual, which could give a clear view of the domestic cricket in India season after season. It is very easy to tell who has scored maximum runs in English County Cricket. Pick the latest Wisden or go to Cricinfo record section and you have the answer in seconds. But nowhere you will get the answer as to who has scored the maximum runs in Indian first class cricket or for that matter who has effected most dismissals behind the stumps. Wisden does not have separate statistical section for Indian first-class cricket and Cricinfo’s record section on Indian domestic cricket is a farce. That Cricinfo carries a list of batsmen with highest run-aggregate in Ranji Trophy updated only upto 1998-99 season is a shame in itself.

It is not that there is no cricket annual being published in India. There are two of them. BCCI publishes their own statistical annuals, but what is the purpose behind publishing it, only they can tell. A bulky volume, containing more pages than the Wisden Almanack and almost one and a half time bigger in height, it does not cost a single penny. The Board makes it available free of cost. But the sad part is, it is not made available in the open market, so it is beyond the reach of any cricket-lover. One can get a copy only if he has his links in the BCCI office or state associations [who get two copies each]. It would have made much sense if this annual was made available in the open market after putting a price-tag on it, but then you can not expect these things from BCCI.

Hindu group must be praised for publishing Indian Cricket Annual year after year at an unbelievable low price. Very rich on contents part, this annual offers very little on statistical front. Moreover the editorial staff is not even ready to listen to suggestions for improvement. The scorecards do not carry the essential information like second innings batting order, fall of wicket details, information about debutants etc. The different statistical section normally runs in to dozen of pages, but not always covering all parts of the game. For example, batting records will cover the minute details of every batsmen who has scored 500 or more runs in a Ranji season, but one will not find the best allround performances in a match.

The only Indian annual worthy of being called a statistical annual that I have seen is ACSSI [Association of Cricket Scorers & Statisticians of India] Statistical Annual. The annual compiled and edited by Mohandas Menon carried almost everything one could wish for. But the Association has had its own problems and could not publish any annual since 1990-91.

A consistent cajoling from me has however succeeded in the revival of the annual. I have taken the responsibility of compiling and editing the 2004-05 edition and if everything goes according to the plans, the annual will become a regular feature. Hopefully we will have the feats in domestic cricket properly recognized and suitably penned down.

Anyone, who is interested in contributing in this annual, may contact me at annual2005@gmail.com. All contributions will be properly acknowledged and the contributor will get a complimentary copy [I will personally make sure it is done]. But please send only the original research and the stuff not readily available elsewhere.

Longest losing streak for West Indies

West Indies, by losing the third ODI against Pakistan at Gros Islet, recorded their worst sequence of losses in one-day internationals. This was their ninth loss at a trot, which ‘bettered’ their previous record of eight consecutive defeats in 1999-00 season – all under Brian Lara’s captaincy. The accompanying table lists all instances of five or more consecutive defeats for West Indies.

Mts From       To              Captain
9 v Pak 01-02-2005  v Pak 22-05-2005 BC Lara (1)
                                     S Chanderpaul (8)
8 v Pak 14-10-1999  v NZ  11-01-2000 BC Lara
5 v Eng 19-05-1988  v Pak 18-10-1988 IVA Richards
5 v Pak 14-10-1989  v Aus 21-10-1989 IVA Richards (3)
                                     CG Greenidge (2)
5 v Pak 09-11-1990  v Aus 09-03-1991 DL Haynes (3)
                                     IVA Richards (2)
5 v Aus 13-03-1991  v Eng 27-05-1991 IVA Richards
5 v SL 20-10-1995   v Aus 01-01-1996 RB Richardson (4)
                                     CA Walsh (1)
5 v SA 27-01-1999   v SA  07-02-1999 BC Lara (2)
                                     CL Hooper (3)
5 v Pak 23-04-2000  v Zim 16-07-2000 JC Adams #
5 v SA 02-05-2001   v SA  12-05-2001 CL Hooper

# excludes one rain abandoned match

Meet the new Indian coach

Probably world’s best coach technically. The 56-year old Australian has a flair for the big occasion. He scored a century in his first and final Tests, scored centuries in both innings of his debut Test as captain and in between established a reputation as one of the finest thinkers of the modern game.

Failed in 2000 for talking more about his pay-cheque than his vision for Indian cricket. Since travelled to MRF Pace Academy and National Cricket Academy and interacted with coaches and players. Was shortlisted by West Indies too but yet again money proved to be an impediment. Changed South Australia’s fortunes. Once suggested that Sachin should open in Tests.He has also written a brilliant book on coaching, 'Greg Chappell on Coaching: The Making of Champions.'

Sourav Ganguly, Indian skipper, had approached Chappell to try and iron out deficiencies in his technique against quick bowlers and the rising ball just before India's last tour of Australia.

Chappell seemed to have special liking for India as his five scores in Test cricket read as : 204,36,52,76 & 0.

His best performance in ODIs also came against India – 5 for 15 at Sydney in 1980-81

Chappell in Facts & Figures
Full name Gregory Stephen ChappellBorn August 7, 1948, Unley, Adelaide, South Australia
Age 56 years Major teams Australia, Queensland, Somerset, South Australia
Type : Right-hand middle order batsman & Right-arm medium pace / leg-break bowler
First-class debut : South Australia v Victoria at Adelaide,1966-67
Last first-class match: Queensland v Western Australia at Perth, 1983-84
Test debut: v England at Perth, 1970-71
Last Test: v Pakistan at Sydney, 1983-84
ODI debut: v England at Melbourne, 1970-71
Last ODI: v Sri Lanka at Colombo (SSC), 1982-83

Career highlights:
-Scored a century in his very first Test innings (108 v England at Perth,1970-71).
-Scored a century in his last Test innings (182 v Pakistan at Sydney, 1983-84).
-Remains the only player to score Test centuries in both innings on captaincy debut (123 & 109* v West Indies at Brisbane in 1975-76).
-Beat West Indies 5-1 in his debut series as a captain
-Led Australia to 8 series wins in his captaincy as against 3 losses.
-Was the top scorer 13 times in an all-out innings. Only Allan Border performed this feat on more occasions (15) as an Australian captain (after playing 68 innings more).
-Wisden Cricketer of the year 1973
-In the year 2002 he was inducted into the prestigious Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.
...and the last one
-He was infamously involved in the underarm bowling incident in the New Zealand-Australia One-day International on February 1, 1981. Greg Chappell, the captain, ordered his brother, Trevor Chappell, to bowl with an underarm motion, thus ensuring the Australian team would win the match and avoid a tie.

Frindall takes on the ICC

Bill Frindall, world's most respected cricket statistician, is not taking the Tsunami relief fund match in to his records. He is not going to include the Super Series Test and ODIs scheduled to be played between World XI and Australian XI either. And he has the reasons to defy ICC's dictat.

Infact ICC's decision of granting official status to Tsunami relief fund match had not gone well with the statisticians the world over. Most of the statisticians are against this ruling if the views expressed by the members of Association of Cricket Statisticians (England) on the internet forum mean anything.

However the ACS could not take any hard stand against ICC's decision - for the reasons better known to itself. Also some renowned statisticians did not take long to accept ICC's ruling despite being fully aware that it defies all logic and common-sense. May be some commercial reasons were also responsible for this. Those, who fell in the line with ICC, expressed the view that being the governing body ICC is free to do whatever it thinks is right.

Yours truly is totally against this view. Even if you buy this arguement, then how come these statisticians flouted ICC's ruling over first-class status to matches played in South Africa by rebellion sides. Wasn't ICC the governing body then? Clearly there is something more than what meets the eyes.

Frindall, as he has always done, didn't mince a word while criticising ICC for its ineptitude. Playfair Cricket Annual is the best selling cricket annual in the world and in its 2005 edition, Frindall, as the editor, has not included the Tsunami relief match alongwith the rain abandoned NatWest match between West Indies and New Zealand last year. The NatWest match was a strange case as ICC flouted its own rulebook in deciding when a match actually commences.

This is what Frindall wrote in his editorial for the Playfair-"That they (ICC) are proposing to confuse matters further by giving Test match status to a ‘super test’ between Australia and the Rest later this year beggars belief. For a decade after the 1970 England v Rest of the World series ‘Wisden’s records bore a grumbling appendix of those five games – and that rubber at least had the excuse of replacing a series cancelled for political reasons. Logic dictates that ‘international’ records should be exactly that – ‘contests between nations’. Perhaps a compromise would be to segregate matches involving conglomerate teams in to a separate Super Test compartment. For the same reason, the recent Tsunami Appeal game between Asian and World XI in Melbourne should not be included in the annals of Limited-Overs Internationals – and is excluded from records in this publication. Exceptionally admirable though it was in conception, the game was little more than an exhibition thrash. While enjoying the occasion hugely, none of the participants, and there were rather too many, seemed to care a hoot about the result. Another piece of gross meddling produced the crass decision to regard the toss as the start of a match. This is contrary to Law 16, which clearly states that the umpire’s call of play heralds the start."

Charlie Watt, Australia's renowned statistician, has also taken the stand on similar lines. These two have made it clear that they are not going to include such matches in their matches at any cost. ICC is feeling the heat, it is clear from the fact that ICC issued a media release clarifying its position.Earlier it was not even bothered to reply when several statisticians approached it.

This issue is not over yet. You will hear and read a lot on this subject in the progress to the Super Series matches. Keep looking at this place for the updates.

A Test of records & milestones

The St.John's Test was a statistician's delight as a plethora of records were established on the fifth and final day. Some of them are:

West Indies’ total of 747 is the seventh highest in Test cricket and HIGHEST against South Arica. The previous highest total against South Africa was 654 for 5 by England at Durban in 1938-39.

The combined aggregate of both sides’ first innings in St.John’s Test was 1335 runs [South Africa (588-6d) and West Indies (747)]. Only once before a higher combined aggregate has been recorded in Test cricket history. In the Colombo (RPS) Test in 1997-98, the combined aggregate of first innings of Indian and Sri Lankan teams was 1489 [India (537-8d) and Sri Lanka (952-6d)].

A total of 1462 runs were scored in the match at the loss of 17 wickets @ 86.00 runs per wicket, which is the fifth highest in all Test cricket.

South Africa’s total is the highest first innings total by a side successfully overhauled by the opponent in the second innings of the match. The previous highest such total posted was 537 for 8 declared by India against Sri Lanka in 1997-98 as Sri Lanka went on to score world record 952 for 6 declared.

Eight hundreds were scored in the Test– four from each side. In fact at least one hundred was scored on every day during the Test - two on each of the first three days and one on fourth and fifth days. The eight hundreds is now a new world record of most hundreds in a single Test. The previous record was of seven hundreds made on three separate occasions.

All eleven South African players bowled in West Indies innings during the St. John’s Test with wicket-keeper Mark Boucher ending with the best bowling average for South Africa in the match. Boucher became first South African and only the ninth wicketkeeper in Test history to take a wicket.

A total of 17 centuries were scored in the series – 9 for West Indies and 8 for South Africa. This is the joint third highest number of centuries scored in a Test series.

Gayle breaks new ground

Chris Gayle rewrote the record books on the fourth day at the Antigua Recreation Ground in St. John’s. The lanky West Indian opener became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score a triple-century against South Africa. Before Gayle, the record of playing highest individual innings against South Africa was held by Australia’s Don Bradman with an unbeaten 299 at Adelaide in 1931-32.

A total of 20 triple centuries have now been scored in Test cricket by 18 batsmen. The country-wise break-up : 6 for Australia,5 each for England and West Indies,2 for Pakistan and one each for Sri Lanka and India. Don Bradman and Brian Lara are the only batsmen to have done so twice.

Seven triple tons have been scored in the Caribbeans followed by England (6), Pakistan (3), Australia (2),New Zealand (1) and Sri Lanka (1), St. John’s is now at level with Leeds as the ground where most triple centuries (3) have been scored.Bridgetown and Kingston have seen two triple centuries apiece.

Highest scores against each country
Against    Score Batsman        For  Venue       Season
Australia  364  L Hutton        Eng  The Oval    1938
England    400* BC Lara         WI   St.John’s   2003-04
S.Africa   317  CH Gayle        WI   St.John’s   2004-05
W.Indies   337  Hanif Mohammad  Pak  Bridgetown  1957-58
N.Zealand  336* WR Hammond      Eng  Auckland    1932-33
India      340  ST Jayasuriya   SL   Colombo RP  1997-98
Pakistan   365* GStA Sobers     WI   Kingston    1957-58
Sri Lanka  299  MD Crowe        NZ   Wellington  1990-91
Zimbabwe   380  ML Hayden       Aus  Perth       2003-04
Bangladesh 261* RR Sarwan       WI   Kingston    2004