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The Fast Bowlers� Union (Part One)

by Satish Sekar

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A Lost Art:
They are not renowned as shrinking violets – the fearsome Australian fast-bowler Jeff Thomson was never shy in letting a batsman know what he thought of them. And they were renowned for not distinguishing themselves in the field. Former Pakistan captain and all-rounder Imran Khan recently delivered the MCC’s Colin Cowdrey Spirit of Cricket Lecture at Lord’s.

He recounted his tale from his youth when he broke into the Pakistan team. He was being smacked around and that included a fielder refusing to stop the ball even if it went within five yards. He decided to approach his captain during the interval and ask him to tell the player to field a bit better. Both were senior players – the miscreant a fast-bowler. Khan was told off. The player had to conserve his energy.

Those days are gone and Khan laments the loss of the art – questioning if there are genuine fast-bowlers now. He cut his teeth against the great West Indies quartets. He believes that there was nothing unfair about the West Indies’ tactics. He’s right, but the restriction on bouncers has ruined the game. It was introduced to combat allegedly boring cricket and slow over-rates. “It didn’t stop them finishing the game in three days,” Khan said.

Eradicating Apartheid from Football? (Part One)

by Aboobaker �Boebie� Williams

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Sporting Icons:

South Africa had a golden opportunity to tackle the legacy of apartheid through football. Did the recent World Cup miss the chance to eradicate it from South African football? Linn Washington Jr. wrote an article ‘The Ugly Underside of World Cup Soccer Mania’ about two forgotten souls in the history of South African football. In Soweto, less than seven miles from the carefully crafted glitter of South Africa’s state-of-the-art Soccer City Stadium, that was shown off to the watch world during the World Cup, two legendary South African football players told fascinating, but often fearsome stories that powerful people want suppressed.

Two days before the World Cup final, which was deservedly won by Spain, ‘Smiley’ Moosa and Nkosi Molala spoke at a community centre in Soweto. They discussed their lives under apartheid and that ugly era’s lingering legacy on South African society. Moosa and Molala both made their marks on South African football in the 1970s.

Under apartheid’s rigid racial categories Moosa carried the classification of Indian while Molala was African – designations barring these talented players from South Africa’s then whites-only national team.

Moosa holds the distinction of being the first non-white ever to play for an all-white soccer club in South Africa. His skills and light skin-colour earned him that short-lived elevation, later snatched back by the restrictions of apartheid. Continuing discriminatory practices caused Moosa to file a lawsuit against horse-racing authorities. He now works as an announcer on that sport.

Eradicating Apartheid from Football (Part Two)

by Aboobaker �Boebie� Williams

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Unity?

Many people, inside and outside South Africa viewed the World Cup as an opportunity to create lasting interracial unity in the post-apartheid era. Did it achieve that lofty aim? Some like Tapuwa Moore, the activist and the coach of the Forum for the Empowerment of Women football team, are sceptical. “If this unity can stop discrimination, then soccer will be beneficial,” she said.

Hassen Lorgat, moderator of the panel and organiser of the Khulumani series, delivered the ‘Football, Sport’ presentation by reminding those in attendance that people used all kinds of weapons to battle against apartheid. “Some people fought with rocks and guns,” he said. “Some fought with music and poetry. Some fought with football.”

In his youth Lorgat was a respected footballer. He never got the opportunity to demonstrate his talents to a global audience due to apartheid. People inside and outside of South Africa supported sports boycotts as a method to pressure that nation to end apartheid. It had an effect as the racist state, starved of top level sport relied on rebel tours, especially in cricket and rugby.

Eradicating Apartheid from Football (Part Three)

by Aboobaker �Boebie� Williams

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The Politics of Football:
Politics in football is an issue troubling many South Africans. The racial composition of the Bafana Bafana team was questioned. There was only one white player: Matthew Booth, two coloured players at a time, and the rest of the players were black. The majority of the non-black population questioned the omission of twenty-seven year-old Elrio van Heerden, who currently plays for Sivasspor in the Turkish premier league from the South African squad.

According to reports in the newspapers van Heerden was injured and therefore left out the squad. I spoke with him and he said he was not injured before the squad was announced. Pitso Mosimane: Bafana Bafana assistant coach, who has now succeeded Carlos Alberto Parreira as national team coach, phoned van Heerden prior to the announcement of the squad and questioned his fitness.

Nevertheless, van Heerden categorically stated that he was fit and raring to go and performing well in the Turkish league. Why did Mosimane not contact van Heerden's coach to enquire about the fitness of his player. Van Heerden also mentioned that Parreira knew his capabilities and his two goal performance in the 2008 African Cup of Nations in Ghana. Van Heerden could not understand why he was not selected. Only Mosimane can answer why van Heerden was not selected.

Hail The Greatest

by Derek Miller

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Empower-Sport Magazine congratulates the greatest bowler in the history of cricket on his retirement from Tests. Muttiah Muralitharan announced that he would retire from cricket after the first Test Match against India at Galle. Pragyan Ojha earned himself a small slice of history as he edged the 38-year-old spin-genius to be caught by Mahela Jayawardene as India slumped to 338 all out and defeat by a massive ten wicket margin – the second time Sri Lanka had inflicted that indignity on the Indians.

Muralitharan is the only bowler in the history of Test cricket to reach the incredible plateau of 800 victims. His nearest challenger is Australian great Shane Warne – a full 92 wickets behind. Both teams paid a deserved tribute to the greatest bowler ever, giving him an honour guard on each day of the Test. He entered the fray to fire-crackers blaring, but no vuvuselas. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse also attended to pay tribute to the exceptional Muralitharan.

He achieved his exceptional tally in 12 Tests less than Warne and had no need to buy wickets. They cost him 22.72 runs per wicket, a very impressive average. The most successful fast bowler on the all-time list Glenn McGrath played 122 Tests – eleven less than Muralitharan. He is an astonishing 237 wickets behind Murali.

Disgraceful:

The controversy over Muralitharan’s bowling action is shameful. He was called for throwing by some umpires. He is double-jointed and his action was studied to death by the International Cricket Council and passed fair. Despite that umpires continued to no-ball him.

Former Indian captain Bishan Bedi is one of his most strident critics, claiming it is impossible to bowl his famous doosra without bending the arm. We disagree. He is the greatest bowler of all time and should be acknowledged as that.

He has left the option open to continue playing the shorter formats with the 50-overs per side World Cu just months away. In 337 one-day internationals Muralitharan has an incredible 515 wickets. His closest rival Pakistani all-rounder Wasim Akram retired with 502 from 356 matches. No active player is within a hundred wickets of the spin-genius. He is undoubtedly the greatest bowler ever.

Redressing A Wrong (Part Two)

by Satish Sekar

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The Great Hope:
Last year Cricket Australia organised a tour of England for indigenous cricketers. It was supported by the famous charity the Lord’s Taverners, building on a commitment to Aboriginal cricket that was developing with Cricket Australia.

The tourists were captained by Daniel Christian, who would make history within a few months. Despite being born in New South Wales Christian plays for South Australia. On February 23rd 2010 Christian became the 44th Australian to win a t20 cap for his country. He was also the first player with Aboriginal heritage since Jason Gillespie to represent his country in any format of the game – the first indigenous t20 international for Australia.

Christian has played three matches for Australia so far, He played his third and so far last match for Australia against New Zealand a few days after his début. However, the right-handed all-rounder was included in Australia’s squad for the recent World Cup in the West Indies and also the Spirit of Cricket matches against Pakistan at Edgbaston earlier this month. Read More...

Disappointed! (Part One)

by Aboobaker �Boebie� Williams

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Reflection:
The World Cup is over. South Africans are happy about the tournament if not the results of the Bafana Bafana, although we are proud of the team. South Africa beat France but failed to qualify for the last 16 at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. ‘Kenako’ is an African expression that means: ‘Now is the time.’ South Africa had a plan – a good one – that began over a decade ago with an African-born coach (there were only two at Africa’s World Cup), Carlos Queiroz.

The plan was to learn modern methods on the job, training the next generation of local coaches on the job by giving them experience. I was one of those coaches, but football is an impatient business on and off the field. There were some who thought that they were ready to lead the national team then and did their best to undermine Queiroz. He did comparatively well at the African Cup of Nations in spite of it and was sacked.[1] It happened again under Carlos Alberto Parreira.[2]

A good plan was wasted and we became the first host nation to fail to make it out of the group stage. We were a bit unlucky, but that is no excuse. It is time for the South African Football Association (SAFA) to sit back and ponder over their inefficient football development programmes and their lingering hangovers that remain from the birth of the Rainbow nation and our taste for miracles. We always pray for a miracle to happen and save our inadequacies.

Redressing A Wrong (Part One)

by Satish Sekar

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Experience:

Ricky Ponting’s Australian side didn’t shine in the one-day or t20 series, but they inflicted a Test Match defeat on Pakistan inside of four days. The nature of that loss pushed his opposite number into a hurried announcement that is still reverberating through cricket.

The second Spirit of Cricket Test Match, sponsored by the MCC at Yorkshire’s Headingley Carnegie Stadium starts this morning, but it will take place without Shahid Afridi. The Pakistani captain called time on his Test career after the defeat at Lord’s. He has chosen to concentrate on limited overs cricket, especially t20.

Vice-captain Salman Butt has taken over as skipper and looks to youth as the future of Pakistani cricket. Nevertheless, former skippers Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf may be drafted in for forthcoming series against England.

Former Australian captain Steve Waugh predicted the chaos. “You just don’t know who their captain will be to start with – who’s in the line-up,” Waugh told us. “Is Shoaib Akhtar playing? Is Afridi the captain? I don’t know. I don’t know any of those questions.”

His comments previewing the series seem prophetic now and Australia will draw comfort from Afridi’s decision and the timing of it, but yet again Australia will take the field without a representative of their Aboriginal communities.

The Spirit of Cricket (Part One)

by Satish Sekar

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Concept:
Former England legend the late Colin Cowdrey had ideas on how cricket should be played – it was not for shrinking violets. It should be played hard, but fair. Umpires should b respected; players should put their all in trying to win, but lines of fairness should not and must not be crossed. His ideas developed into an initiative that was adopted by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) – the Spirit of Cricket.

It was supported and enhanced by another former England great, Ted Dexter, but what is is? Outgoing MCC President John Barclay explains. “I know there are loads of rows, but the spirit of the game is to play hard, to play fair,” says Barclay. “No-one’s saying that it should be a soft little game at all.”

Barclays wants to make players and supporters alike aware of the nature of that spirit, which he thinks is really worth drumming home to the country. “You won’t win all the time,” he told us exclusively. “There will still be moments of controversy. Nobody’s suggesting that there won’t be. There’ll still be moments when perhaps the umpires aren’t respected as they should, or the players don’t respect each other quite as they should. There will be, but within this I think it’s a really worthwhile thing to have a crack at.”

Spirit of Cricket (Part Two)

by Satish Sekar

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Technology:

Former Pakistan captain – the first cricketer from his country to lift the World Cup – turned politician delivered the tenth Colin Cowdrey Spirit of Cricket Lecture tonight. Khan supports the Spirit of Cricket and feels that technology is a good thing that should be used more. His call has echoes in other sports too.

Khan recounted controversies of the past, which led to him calling for neutral umpires. Pakistan could not win a series in India and India could not win in Pakistan. It was a battle that he won. The situation threatened to turn ugly especially in a series in India where Pakistani players appealed a lot and became enraged. Khan had to act as buffer between the umpires and his team-mates. Indian great Sunil Gavaskar saved the match and series, but it was far from fair.

But it wasn’t limited to those series. West Indian legend Sir Viv Richards was the best batsman that Khan bowled to He came in with his side in trouble. Everybody knew that this was the key to the Test Match and series, but that included the umpires. Khan produced an unusual delivery – one even the bowler wasn’t prepared for. “It was missing leg stump and it was missing off stump,” said Khan, “but it was hitting middle.”

Forgotten Pioneer

by Satish Sekar

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Multi-talented:

Jack Marsh could have been the first Aboriginal cricketer to represent Australia. Former captain Warren Bardsley was convinced that racism was the reason Marsh never wore the famous saggy green-cap of his country. Marsh played just six times for New South Wales in the first decade of the twentieth century, but he was not the first Aboriginal cricketer to play state cricket in Australia. That honour belongs to Queensland’s Albert (Alec) Henry.

Details are patchy about Henry’s life, but it is clear that he was a very talented sportsman that excelled at athletics, rugby union and cricket. Five years younger than Marsh, Henry nevertheless became the first Aboriginal cricketer to play for his state. Henry only played for Queensland seven times, but his début in the 1901-02 season marked an important turning point in Australian sport.

Opportunities were limited as Queensland was not part of the Sheffield Shield Competition at that time. Henry lived on the Deebing Creek Reserve near Ipswich – Jagera territory, but disputes with local authorities took a heavy toll.

World Cup Legacy � Africa�s Tournament

by Satish Sekar

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The Netherlands and Spain will play in the World Cup Final tomorrow evening in Africa’s World Cup. Both teams earned the right to be there on merit, but one team – Africa’s last was denied a fair chance. Part of the legacy of this World Cup should be that what happened to Ghana never happens again, but there are legacies off the pitch too.
Zambian legend Kalusha Bwalya welcomes the unity that the World Cup has brought to the continent. “I think Africans want to unite, but also you have to think that it is basically a South African World Cup, where the things that are happening are happening in the country,” he told us exclusively. “I think the other perspective is that we are Africans and we should unite and support South Africa in its quest to host this tournament.”

And that has happened in ways that benefited neighbouring countries too. “The kind of interest that is being generated, when all the countries near South Africa can feel part of it because there will be a lot more visitors coming – in Zambia, or Zimbabwe or Lesotho, in Namibia, Botswana providing you have the best facilities – so it is a chance that you would not get,” said Bwalya. “Even Brasil has to come to Zambia and train there and see the Victoria Falls. That would not have happened if it wasn’t for the World Cup.”
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Redemption

by Satish Sekar

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Setting the Record Straight:

After their acrimonious tour of Australia the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) punished seven players for infighting. Then captain Younus Khan and vice-captain Mohammad Yousuf were banned indefinitely. Shoaib Malik and Rana ul-Naved were banned for a year and fined while Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and his brother Umar were fined and their conduct monitored for six months.

Despite assurances that his career was not over, a hurt Yousuf promptly retired from international cricket. Khan was determined to clear his name and successfully appealed against the indefinite ban imposed on him by the PCB. Yousuf – lacking match practice – is believed to be getting ready for his return to Test cricket. Despite winning his appeal Khan was dropped for the current tour and continues to play for Surrey.

The Record Breaker (Part Seven)

by Satish Sekar

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Inspiration:

Jack Marsh never wore the baggy green cap of Australia. He should have. The bias of umpire Bob Crockett in particular and state selector Monty Noble ensured that Marsh was excluded. He was labelled a thrower due to his bowling action, despite proving another umpire, William Curran, wrong spectacularly by wearing a splint and getting the doctor that fitted it to confirm that it made throwing impossible.

Like his cricketing achievements, Marsh’s athletic achievements were also largely ignored during his lifetime. Nearly ninety years after the Aboriginal athlete was murdered his records were rediscovered. He had equalled John Owen’s world record in 1894, but it wasn’t even acknowledged as an Australian best until 1902.

By then Marsh had given up on athletics temporarily and excelled at cricket for New South Wales briefly, before ending his career in top level sport on the track in 1906 in a race against aspiring sprinter Arthur Postle. But Marsh was not the first Aboriginal speed king. That distinction belongs to Charles Samuels, who was born in 1864, whose people had sporting talent. Read More...

Withdrawal of Privilege and Descent:

by Satish Sekar

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The Record Breaker (Part Six)

Withdrawal of Privilege and Descent:

The end of Aboriginal phenomenon Jack Marsh’s sporting career corresponded with the loss of his privileges. As a great sport star Marsh was allowed to mix with white people and live with them. His was a privileged existence for an Aborigine, especially around the turn of the twentieth century, but it was only on offer while his talent and ability lasted.

Marsh had come from humble origins and through his sporting prowess he had enjoyed over a decade of perks. After being retired from cricket through lack of opportunity in 1905, he joined Alexander’s Hippodrome Sideshow, earning a living by trading on his sporting fame. It couldn’t last.

The work soon dried up and Marsh’s final decade are sketchy on detail. Rejected by a white society that tolerated him while his sports skills were at their peak, Marsh was just another Aborigine then with no rights. He reacted badly as other Aboriginal athletes had before and since. His decline was steep and rapid. Alcohol played a major part – resentment too.

The journalist Philip Derriman quotes lawyer, sports historian and authority on Marsh, Max Bonnell[1]: “Jack’s sporting career was over. And as soon as it ended, the privileges that he had been allowed for more than 10 years were immediately withdrawn. He had no job, no income, no lodgings and, worst of all, no respect. As a runner and cricketer, Jack had been permitted to live among white men, almost like a white man, and his talents were admired and appreciated. As an ex-sportsman, he was just another Aboriginal.”[2] Read More...


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