For the team who have suffered so many disappointments, Faf du Plessis and evergreen talents can make up for the past If you are looking for Faf du Plessis, try the kitchen. Or the friendly neighbourhood atelier, gastronome’s grotto, or tattoo shop. Or follow the roar of his vintage motorcycle. He also spends a fair bit of time at the crease.In Derby on South Africa’s 2012 England tour, while the world was obsessed with the pronunciation and nuance of what, exactly, Kevin Pietersen had called Andrew Strauss in a text message, Du Plessis was deep in the concrete of the grandstand in a chef’s tunic and intently focused on helping a Masterchef champion prepare a meal for the squad. Related:...
Kusal Perera’s and Oshada Fernando’s last-wicket stand of 78 to beat South Africa last weekend was one of the finest spectacles the game has produced in recent yearsLast Saturday in Christchurch, Martin Guptill thrashed a century for New Zealand in a one-day game against Bangladesh; in Dubai, Shahid Afridi finished off Multan Sultans’ Twenty20 match against Islamabad United with back-to-back sixes; and in Chittagong a young kid called Jamie Smith made a run-a-ball hundred for England Under-19s in a Test against Bangladesh. Cricket’s always on, somewhere or other, one format or another, bat hitting ball like the background tick-tock of a wall clock, something you only really notice when you look at it, catch a fraction of the match in...
Ball-tampering in Cape Town led to sacking of captain Steve Smith and two other players and a softening of macho cultureTo some, scratching a cricket ball would be innocuous rather than infamous. But when the Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft did it during a Test match in Cape Town, the cricket world lit up. At the height of a viciously tempered series he used bright yellow sandpaper to rough up the leather in an attempt to aid his bowlers. Ball-tampering is a fact of cricket, but no international player had been caught so blatantly, using a foreign object smuggled on to the field. This time the offence was caught in lush high-definition by South African television. Related: Steve Smith's media re-emergence...
Fifty years ago a seemingly unignorable knock from ‘Dolly’ fell by the wayside – but had consequences for apartheidThere have been many strange decisions by England cricket selectors over the years. Only one of them changed the world. And it happened exactly 50 years ago. Related: A first win in England: India and the elephant will never forget | Simon Burnton Continue reading...
Cricket Australia has come down hard on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft but ‘tampergate’ will not end hereThe harder you step in mess, the more it spreads. Last Saturday Cricket Australia found a flaming bag of the stuff on its doorstep and, just like the headteacher in the high school movie, decided the best way to put it out was to stamp right down on it. CA has banned Steve Smith and David Warner from all state and international cricket for a year, Cameron Bancroft for nine months, and ordered all three to do 100 hours of community service. Smith will not be eligible for any kind of leadership role in the Australian team for another two years,...