Pressure on SA as Champions Trophy cricket rolls
JOHANNESBURG — The pressure will be on South Africa and off Sri Lanka when they clash at Centurion Park on Tuesday in the opening 2009 ICC Champions Trophy fixture.
South Africa need the cup to confirm what the world rankings have been saying for some time – that they are a class act when it comes to one-day international cricket.
But playing hosts in a sporting event is a double-edged sword with victories galvanising a nation and defeats having the opposite effect, especially in a country like South Africa where expectations are invariably sky high.
The least expected of the Graeme Smith-led Proteas is that they qualify for the October 5 final and many South Africans would dream that bitter rivals Australia provide the opposition and are conquered.
While Sri Lanka are good enough to win the 14-day mini-World Cup, it is defending champions Australia, South Africa and India who are most commonly mentioned as potential winners of the two-million-dollar top prize.
Supreme spinner Muttiah Muralitharan needs no introduction and fast medium-pacer Nuwan Kulasekara sat atop the world bowling rankings last week with his famous team-mate sixth.
However, batting could be the Sri Lankan Achilles heel with senior figure Mahela Jayawardene conceding they have been “patchy and inconsistent” in that department at ODI level.
Even minus injured Herschelle Gibbs, the Proteas boast a formidable array of run-getters with Smith, veteran Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy in the vanguard.
Add the pace and swing of Dale Steyn, Wayne Parnell and Kallis and the spin of Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe, who captured four wickets in a warm-up win over the West Indies, and there are solid foundations for optimism.
Pessimists will raise the word that makes Smith see red – chokers – and also express alarm that the team is going into the second biggest ODI tournament after the World Cup without a competitive fixture since April.
The ‘chokers’ tag emanates from reaching eight ICC semi-finals and winning just one – by 92 runs against Sri Lanka in the inaugural Champions Trophy 11 years ago.
Inspired by the batting of late skipper Hansie Cronje and a five-wicket Kallis haul, South Africa lifted the trophy with a comfortable victory over West Indies in Bangladesh.
Since then they have departed at the semi-finals stage three times and failed to get even that far once – five years ago in England they came off second best against the men from the Caribbean in a group decider.
“We have had a good break and the squad is feeling fresh and ready to go. I think freshness may be an important factor in a tournament involving a lot of cricket in a short time,” is the Smith retort to fears of rustiness.
Opposite number Kumar Sangakkara agrees: “Every team in South Africa is a professional unit and whether they have played recently or not won’t matter because you are always in training and up to the challenge of playing.”
Source : Google News – AFP
First 10-15 overs will be decisive in Champions Trophy: Malik
Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik believes that the first 10-15 overs of an innings would prove decisive for the teams in the Champions Trophy starting in South Africa from September 22.
Malik told newsmen in Lahore, where he is training for the tournament, that in South Africa the nature of the pitches was such that the first 10-15 overs would set the tone for the match.
“The pitches at the Wanderers and Centurion, where the matches are going to be held, usually help the pace bowlers seam the ball around and there is extra bounce also,” Malik explained.
“So basically it boils down to the fact how a team copes with the first 10 to 15 overs. After that it is a process of cementing your position in the match,” he said.
Malik, who was replaced by Younis Khan as the captain of the side, said Pakistan had a very strong and balanced outfit for the tournament.
“We don’t need to worry at all. We have quality players in every department and If we can cope with the first 10 to 15 overs properly, there is no reason we cannot go all the way,” he said.
South Africa name 20-member squad for ICC Champions Trophy
DURBAN: Hosts South Africa named a provisional squad of 20 players for the ICC Champions Trophy tournament to be held from September 22 t0 October 5.
Cricket South Africa selection committee convenor Mike Proctor said the squad would be trimmed to the final 15 prior to the start of the tournament.
The squad comprises 15 players who participated in the Twenty20 World Cup in England, apart from Hashim Amla, Charl Langeveldt, Makhaya Ntini, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Vaughn van Jaarsveld.
“It is a very good squad and it will be quite difficult to reduce it to the final 15,” said Procter.
“The news on Graeme Smith’s elbow surgery is extremely positive at this stage while Lonwabo Tsotsobe has made a good recovery from the knee surgery he had earlier in the year. We will be able to monitor his form as well as that of Vaughn van Jaarsveld on the Emerging Tour of Australia later this month.
“Hashim Amla, Herschelle Gibbs and Wayne Parnell are all playing county cricket at present but will return home in good time to prepare for the tournament,” he said.
Squad: Graeme Smith (c), Johan Botha (vc), Yusuf Abdulla, Hashim Amla, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Charl Langeveldt, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robbie Peterson, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Roelof van der Merwe, and Vaughn van Jaarsveld.
ICC to re-brand Champions Trophy
Aware that the Champions Trophy is gradually losing its relevance, the ICC on Monday said it had plans to “rejuvenate and re-brand” the tournament which features the top-eight one-day teams.
Several former cricketers have ridiculed the biennial event with Australian spin legend Shane Warne calling it a “joke”.
Other cricketers argue that the tournament is no longer necessary after the advent of Twenty20 cricket and the Indian Premier League and feel it crams the already crowded calendar.
However, ICC President David Morgan said the game’s governing body had no plans of scrapping it.
“We have no plans to scrap the Champions Trophy but we do have plans to rejuvenate and re-brand the event,” Morgan told PTI.
“When it is played in Johannesburg and Pretoria in October, it would be a top-eight event and I believe it would be hugely successful,” he added.
Morgan said restricting the event to just two neighbouring cities in South Africa would benefit it and would also save the players from tiresome travelling.
“It’s an important top-eight event over a short period of time in a single city environment. Johannesburg and Pretoria are two different cities but playing ground Wanderers and Centurion are quite close. For the players, it’s compact, travel is minimum,” he said.
Matches were taken away from Pakistan after a series of terror attacks in the country, including the one on the Sri Lankan cricket team, which left six of the visiting players injured.
Morgan also ruled out organising Pakistan’s share of matches at a neutral venue, an idea floated by the Pakistan Cricket Board, making it clear that the games would be shared by the remaining three co-hosts.
“The ICC Commercial Board has decided that all the matches scheduled originally in Pakistan would be hosted by other co-hosts, that is Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India,” he said.
Asked what the ICC would do in case of prolonged legal battle with the PCB, Morgan said, “Well, I can’t discuss that at this stage.”
Pakistan is also not too happy with the draft Future Tours Programme (FTP) and has accused India and Australia of sidelining it by not scheduling any bilateral series.
But Morgan said there was no such intent on BCCI’s part and the Indian Board was tied down by certain restrictions.
“BCCI clearly has some restrictions on it in playing bilateral tours in Pakistan. What I’m concerned about is that a cricketing nation, as powerful as Pakistan, should not be isolated”, he said.
“I firmly believe the ICC should do everything possible that FTP puts Pakistan in its rightful place as a powerful and influential cricketing nations,” Morgan assured.
Morgan said international cricket is incomplete without Pakistan.
“We cannot ignore the fact that Pakistan has produced world’s some of the most talented and attractive players over the last 20 years and it’s inconceivable that international cricket could prosper without Pakistan playing its full part,” he said.
Asked when he expected teams to agree to tour Pakistan, where security has been a perennial concern, the 71-year-old administrator said, “Not in the foreseeable future.”
“There has to be a significant change in Pakistan for the ICC and the visiting cricketing nations to be convinced that Pakistan is the place to play cricket.
