Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim gave his verdict on the current batch of goalkeepers at Old Trafford amid sustained interest in Argentine star Emiliano Martinez. The Red Devils recently approached Aston Villa with a proposal to secure Martinez on loan, but the inquiry was swiftly turned down by the Midlands outfit.

United are looking for a new No.1 Andre Onana on shaky grounds Amorim addressed Martinez pursuit Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Andre Onana has made several crucial mistakes since he joined United, which has forced the club hierarchy to dip into the market once again in search of a new No.1. Moreover, the Cameroonian picked up an injury in July, which further led Amorim to knock on Villa's door with the hope of securing Martinez. However, the former Inter shotstopper has been working his way back to fitness, and his presence will be a welcome boost as preparations for the new campaign ramp up.     

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When asked if a new keeper will be added to the roster in the summer, Amorim said: "We are always looking to improve the team. And we have some characteristics that we would like to have. But again, it depends on the market. It depends on the sales. We'll see. But I'm really happy. And I think even when you talk about Andre, you can see the goalkeepers. Even Tom (Heaton) is learner, he's a different goalkeeper. Altay (Bayindir) did really well, and Onana is going to be better like the other guys that are getting better this year."  

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Apart from scouring the market for a keeper, they are also keen to sign a striker. And one key name currently linked with a move to Old Trafford is RB Leipzig forward Benjamin Sesko. The officials are reportedly deep in negotiations and believe they are in a strong position to agree terms for the highly rated striker. The club hope to finalise this signing before offloading members of their so-called “bomb squad”, which includes Jadon Sancho, Antony, and Tyrell Malacia.   

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Getty/GOALWHAT NEXT FOR MANCHESTER UNITED?

The pressure is on the club’s hierarchy to deliver the players Amorim is seeking before the September 1 deadline. Whether or not they manage to land targets like Sesko or bolster the goalkeeping department further, the next few weeks will be crucial in determining how competitive United will be in the months ahead.  

A look at all-time great batsmen who spent time on Skid Row

Dileep Premachandran07-Sep-2005

In a sense, Matthew Hayden’s descent from overpowering run-machine to unsure mortal has mirrored Australian cricket’s decline this summer. His travails have dominated every debate about the slippery slide that the Australians have been on since Glenn McGrath turned an ankle before play commenced at Edgbaston, and when you look at the figures, it’s not hard to see why.Before the blip that has now become a deep rut, Hayden was the most intimidating batsman to have faced up to a new ball, muscling his way to 20 centuries and 15 fifties in his first 55 Tests. Since then, a fallow run that dates back to the tour of India last October, he has eked out just 842 runs at 30.07 in 16 Tests, with just five half-centuries.It wouldn’t be strictly accurate to say that he’s been in wretched form either – 20 of the 30 innings have seen him cross 20, but not once has he gone beyond 70. More worryingly for Australia, the aura has slipped, and the Big Bad Wolf who terrified the Little Red Riding Hoods with the new ball has metamorphosed into a careworn and hesitant lamb, easy prey for a relentless English pace attack.Is there a way back for Hayden? We looked at a few examples of all-time great batsmen who spent time on Skid Row. A few of them came back stronger and better, while the others found that there was no rage left to fight the dying light.
The return of the Prince
It’s hard not to feel a sense of wonder when you realise that Brian Lara averaged over 60 until his 33rd Test, despite keeping his faith in a cavalier game that always kept the bowlers interested. Unlike some of his more dour contemporaries, every Lara epic was also an aesthetic masterpiece, but by 1997, both he and West Indian cricket had lurched from near-invincibility to whipping-boy status.In a 15-Test spell that included a humiliating 5-0 whitewash at South African hands, Lara managed just 921 runs at 35.42. Like Hayden, he got starts, passing 20 in 16 of the 27 innings he played. This story, though, had a happy ending, and the renaissance was marked by a sublime 213 against Australia at Sabina Park, an effort surpassed only by the incandescent brilliance of the unbeaten 153 that he conjured up at Bridgetown a week later.The great hustler fades away
Though well into his 30s, Javed Miandad’s hunger for runs, consistency, bloody-mindedness and tactical nous had played an immense role in Pakistan’s World Cup triumph a few months earlier. His pugnacity and skill with the bat had frustrated a generation of English players, and when he started the 1992 tour with a superb unconquered 153 at Edgbaston, many an English supporter would have feared that one of the modern-day masters would exit the stage in a blaze of glory.

It never happened. In the 11 Tests that he played subsequently prior to his retirement in 1993-94, Miandad aggregated just 578 runs at 32.11, crossing 50 only four times. He faded away, instead of burning out, despite the fact that the volatile temperament remained to the bitter end.Tubby’s Torment
When Hayden made his debut as a solid strokemaker with a limited repertoire over a decade ago, Mark Taylor was the senior opener, the man who had instigated the annexing of the Ashes in 1989 with a torrent of runs. By 1995, he was also captaining the best team in the world, a side that had finally beaten the West Indies after two decades of trying.Taylor’s personal hell began soon after, and in 13 Tests from December 1995, he scratched out only 562 runs at 25.54. If he hadn’t been such an exceptional leader, the axe would surely have severed neck muscles weakened from rueful shakes of the head after each dismissal. But like Lara’s story, this too was about redemption, and in June 1997, he chiselled out a gritty 129 as Australia saved some face in a nine-wicket loss at Edgbaston. By the time he retired 18 months later, Taylor had also equalled Sir Donald Bradman’s record score by an Australian (334), a mark that stood till Hayden blew past at Perth in 2003-04.The Colonel’s long march into the sunset
In his 16 previous Tests, Dilip Vengsarkar – nicknamed the Colonel supposedly because of the manner in which his strokeplay resembled CK Nayadu’s – had effortlessly plundered 1631 runs, and eight centuries, at a mind-boggling average of 101.94. For an 18-month stretch starting with the tour of England in 1986 – his centuries on difficult pitches at Lord’s and Headingley are compulsory viewing for those seeking guidance on how to cope with seaming conditions – Vengsarkar was among the world’s premier batsmen, equally at ease against pace and spin.He made two centuries against the mighty West Indies in 1987-88, retiring hurt after a tenacious effort at Kolkata. But in the 18 Tests that he was to play thereafter, he aggregated a dismal 612 runs, with only five half-centuries – a wan shadow of the imperious batsman who had conquered all-comers in his mid-80s pomp.The Little Master’s two-year drought

Sunil Gavaskar’s fallow run didn’t quite reach 10 Tests, but he garnered plenty of headlines along the way, the most prominent being during the Melbourne Test of 1980-81, when his disappointment at the curtailment of a first innings of substance against a Dennis Lillee-inspired Australia nearly led to a shambolic walkout.Since making his debut in the Caribbean in 1970-71, Gavaskar had rarely known failure, piling on the runs in all conditions, against all opposition. By the start of the new decade, he had 23 centuries, but in 17 subsequent innings, he could manage only 445 runs, with the 70 at the MCG being the weightiest contribution. Cheer was restored just before Christmas 1981, when he nurdled 172 against Keith Fletcher’s Englishmen at Bangalore.Pesky primate off his back, the greatest opener of the modern era went on to finish with over 10,000 runs and 34 centuries, a tally matched only by the peerless Sachin Tendulkar.

A look back to ten of the closest finishes between cricket’s oldest rivals, England and Australia

Will Luke11-Aug-2005

Bob Willis’s staggering 8 for 43 is often overshadowed by Ian Botham’s performance, in the famous Headingley ’81 Test © Getty Images

Sixth Test, 1997, The Oval
“Too late to rescue the Ashes, but not too late to rescue their self-respect,” said Wisden of the sixth and final Test in the 1997 series. Despite winning the first Test, convincingly, England were overwhelmed by the Antipodeans in the remainder of the series; the Ashes were lost and so, it appeared, were England. The recall of Phil Tufnell proved inspired. He decimated a batting lineup which had been so fiercely dominant throughout the series, taking 11 wickets in the match. Set just 124 runs to win, Tufnell and Caddick tore into Australia, to at last defy Australia by 19 runs, and momentarily restore English cricket’s wobbling status.
Third Test, 1981, Headingley
Headingley, 1981; the biggest pinch in Ashes history. On the fourth day, following on, England creaked to 135 for 7 and Ladbrokes, famously, offered odds of 500-1 against them. They hadn’t, however, wagered on Ian Botham and Bob Willis producing runs and wickets as though their lives depended on it. Willis’s 8 for 43 was the most staggering performance of his life, as he matched Botham’s nation-binding efforts a few hours previously. Australia only needed 130 to win, yet fell short by just 18 runs to square the series. The similarities between this and Edgbaston last Sunday are obvious yet spine-tingling in their resonance.First Test, 1886-87, Sydney
In 1887, only five years after it all began, one of the first classic Ashes matches took place in Sydney. Put into bat by Percy “Greatheart” McDonnell, England were devastated by Charles Turner’s fast-medium off-breaks. Indeed, Turner’s nickname, “The Terror,” was perfectly apt for this match as he bowled England out for just 45, which remains England’s lowest Test score. They faired slightly better in the second innings but, even despite the last three wickets extending England’s lead to 111, Australia were firm favourites going into day three. Billy Barnes had other ideas, though, taking 6 for 28 from 46 overs, of which, astonishingly, 29 were maidens. Ably supported by Surrey’s George Lohmann, playing in only his fourth Test, England scraped home by 13 runs.

A brilliant century on debut for Archie Jackson wasn’t enough for Australia in 1929 © Cricinfo Ltd.
Fourth Test, 1928-29, Adelaide
England had already won the Ashes come the fourth Test in the 1928-29 series. Yet, as Wisden commented, “they did not exhibit any lack of keenness.” Wally Hammond was instrumental, striking a hundred in each innings and taking his run aggregate to 851 runs in four matches. Australia were indebted to Archie Jackson, who struck the ball sweetly to score a hundred on debut. His innings was, as described by Wisden, “in point of style and beauty of execution and strokeplay, the best innings played against the Englishmen during the whole tour.” Brilliant though Jackson was, Australia stumbled in their second innings. At the start of seventh day of the match, 89 runs were required and the Don was still at the crease. But his wicket, a cruel run-out, signalled the end for Australia and England crept home by 12 runs.Fourth Test, 1998-99, Melbourne
Widely pilloried before the fourth Test of the 1998-99 series, England responded with heart and never let Australia get too far away. England’s talisman of the 1990s, Darren Gough, restricted Australia’s run-machines to a relatively modest 340 in their first innings. Yet, despite Alec Stewart’s second bolshy half-century in the match, Australia’s target of 175 was seemingly none too tricky. Dean Headley – wicketless in the first innings – bowled with a demonic possession to take 6 for 60, to banish all suggestions of a 5-0 Ashes whitewash. The catalyst of Headley’s inspirational spell was Mark Ramprakash’s catch to dismiss Langer, who was well set on 30 – a spectacular diving effort from a vicious pull shot. Headley scented an unlikely upset and, cheered on by a particularly barmy Barmy Army, bowled with pace and hostility to produce a mini-spell of four for four in 13 balls. The last three Australian batsmen only lasted three balls, two falling to Gough whose tribal-dance celebrations demonstrated the importance of a rare victory on Australian soil, by just 12 runs.

Jack Blackham’s 74 wasn’t enough to defy England a famous victory in 1894 © ACB
First Test, 1894-95, Sydney
One of the strangest Ashes turnabouts of all time occurred in 1894 at the SCG. Choosing to bat, Australia compiled a mammoth score of 586, with Syd Gregory making a career-best 201. The captain, Jack Blackham at No. 10, who was playing in his final Test, also hit a career-best 74 and together with Gregory hit a record ninth-wicket partnership of 154 in just an hour-and-a-quarter. England’s first-innings reply was feeble, but they followed on to place unanticipated pressure on Australia in the fourth innings, as overnight rain turned the pitch into a quagmire. On the fifth evening, Australia only required a further 64 runs to win. Indeed, several of England’s players had thought the match lost and relaxed accordingly, including Bobby Peel. Stoddard was having none of this defeatist talk, and ordered Peel under a cold shower. It had the desired effect: he ran through Australia’s batting on the sixth day, taking 6 for 67, to carry England through to a brilliant victory by just 10 runs.Third Test, 1884-85, Sydney
With England leading the 1884-85 series 2-0, Australia needed a convincing performance in the third to claw back their chances of a series victory. They managed it, albeit in nail-biting fashion. Choosing to bat first, Australia came unstuck at the hands of Wilfred Flowers who took five wickets in their first innings, dismissing them for just 181. England fared even worse in reply, however, with Flowers top-scoring with 24. Set 214 to win, England were unlucky with the weather – a hailstorm had enlivened the pitch, and Fred “The Demon” Spofforth ran riot, taking 6 for 60, including the key wicket of Arthur Shrewsbury. With just seven runs needed for England to win, brilliance was needed – and Edwin Evans provided it with a remarkable catch at point, to dismiss England’s allrounder Flowers and win the game for Australia by six runsOnly Test, 1882, The Oval
The one that fuelled the Ashes. In the only Test of 1882, England’s infamous loss to Australia gave birth to the Ashes itself. Fred “The Demon” Spofforth’s 14 wickets cut a swathe through England’s batting in both innings. They only required 85 to win, in a low-scoring classic, but fell short by seven runs. Such was the game’s drama and intensity that one spectator died of heart failure, and another bit through his umbrella handle. We know the feeling.

Hugh Trumble’s deadly off-spin was the catalyst for Australia in their four-run victory in 1902 © The Cricketer International
Fourth Test, 1902, Manchester
A blistering 104 from Victor Trumper, and deadly bowling from Hugh Trumble were the catalysts for one of Australia’s most famous victories over England, in 1902 at Old Trafford. Trumper’s remarkable hundred came before lunch, in 115 minutes, as Australia compiled 299. They were restricted by brilliant bowling from Bill Lockwood, who was delayed from bowling due to slippery footholes, who ended with 6 for 48. England fell 37 runs short in their first innings, but another inspired spell by Lockwood, who took 5 for 28, caused Australia to collapse to 86 all out, setting England a target of 124. Steady wickets fell to both Trumble and Saunders and, with eight runs needed and the last pair at the wicket, a sudden downpour brought play to a dramatic pause. After the delay, Fred Tate poked Saunders for four. Four more for victory. Saunders bowled a faster ball, to outfox Tate’s defence, and Australia were victors by just four runs.Second Test, 2005, Edgbaston
In a match which will surely be known as “Flintoff’s Test,” once the dust settles on this year’s Ashes, England had everything to gain, and everything to lose. Their grease-lightning innings on the first day – 407 all out – was nearly matched by Australia, who fell 99 runs short. The success was short-lived, however, as Shane Warne reminded everyone of his enduring brilliance, skittling England’s top-order with six wickets. Everyone, that is, but Flintoff. His thrilling 73 was, by 50 runs, England’s highest score – and the manner in which it was attained, with muscular sixes and scythed fours, brought a partisan crowd alive. And by taking eight of Australia’s second-innings wickets, on only day three, England waltzed into their dressing-room confident and expectant of victory. Day four produced an impossibly exciting finale, as Australia’s tail-enders seized the initiative and edged ever closer to their target. With three runs still needed, Steve Harmison bounced Mike Kasprowicz, found the glove, and the much-maligned keeper, Geraint Jones, took the most important catch of his life.

Deb K Das reviews the performance of the USA at the Under-19 World Cup

Deb K Das21-Feb-2006Team USA’s long march to the Under-19 World Cup ended on a clear afternoon in Sri Lanka, almost six months ago to the day when its improbable journey began in Ontario.As it was, only Nepal and USA among the non-Test nations made it to the semi-finals of either of the two championships – the World Cup and the Plate – which are being played in Sri Lanka. For Nepal, this was their third appearance in the U-19 Trophy, and they became the only non-Test nation to make it into the finals of a 2006 U-19 tournament with a nail-biting semi-final Plate win over South Africa. Then they went one better – winning the Plate Championship in another sensational and nail-biting finish over New Zealand.USA can take some solace in knowing they have acquitted themselves with courage and style. In the Plate semis, New Zealand won by applying basic strategy to a USA team which was beginning to recover its bearings as the tournament progressed. In past matches, the USA had often been undone through massive scores by one or two batsmen which put the game out of reach before USA even got a chance to bat. This time, it was New Zealand’s skipper doing the honours with an unbeaten century, taking New Zealand to 290 for 7 in spite of some determined bowling by USA vice-captain Abhemanyu Rajp who restricted the rest of the NZ batting. In reply, although the USA opening pair stirred a few memories of past glory days, the rest of the batting order simply failed to live up to their past accomplishments and were dismissed in under 40 overs for one of USA’s lowest totals of the tournament.Coming after the previous day’s sensational victory over Namibia, where USA had reversed the outcome of their warm-up game in which Namibia had decisively defeated the USA, the semi-final loss was something of a bitter pill for USA to swallow. Perhaps it was asking too much of a first-time team in a World Cup to summon up the adrenalin to win two back-to-back matches against highly competitive teams which were playing with considerable verve. Namibia played as if it had something to prove, and New Zealand was out to salvage its status with its Test-playing peers. Caught in the crossfire of these aspirations, USA’s focus wavered just enough to deny them a double victory. They were, after all, newcomers to such contests of gladiatorial will.Just how far the USA U-19 team have travelled in the past year can be seen by looking back to the uncertain and murky days before the Americas U-19 Tournament in Toronto.Over a year ago, few US cricketers thought that the USA was in any position to come up with 11 youngsters who could play competitive cricket with their peers in the Americas, let alone the rest of the world. USACA had tested the waters, and decided that it was beyond its means to conduct the kind of national program which would produce competitive teams in the youth categories. In fact, in its 40 years of history, its attention had been focused on the cricket-playing immigrants who made up the bulk of its membership.What changed things in 2005 was the unexpected discovery that there were, in fact, enough young cricketers in the USA to make up a four-zone national U-19 tournament, which was inaugurated in 2005. Apparently, dedicated parents had been keeping cricket alive among their children by including them in their leagues, or sending them back “home” to play cricket with their peers – and even though though this represented a very small percentage of the kids who deserted cricket in favour of American sports like baseball and basketball, the sheer size of the USA ensured that the numbers were sufficient to produce quality teams at the U-19 level.The reactions to the discovery were rather mixed. There were those who complained that the USACA was simply ducking the issue – it was relying on this unexpected pool of homegrown talent to drive a program it had paid scant attention to. Still others wondered if these first-generation children of immigrants were being misdirected by their cricket-playing elders – whether they were being isolated from mainstream America by being forced to play cricket, when they might be better off assimilating into American social life. And there were those who considered the entire U-19 USA program a band-aid -that only a comprehensive program aimed at US schools and mainstream youth would really serve the needs of US cricket, and anything less was a futile gesture.What a difference a few months can make. There is no longer any question about the undoubted talent displayed by Team USA. It was the first US team ever to manage a clean 4-0 sweep in an ICC tournament. It was first to qualify for a World Cup tournament. Even in losing, The USA posted better performances than any first-time team in a World Cup. They also made the semi-finals of an ICC tournament (the Plate Championship) in their very first appearance on the international stage. And all this from a team that had been written off as unlikely to amount to much. Those naysayers were silenced, and hopefully will stay that way.It may now be all over bar the shouting, but the important questions now need to be faced. What is to happen to the stellar US Under-19 team, half of whom have probably played in their last youth tournament – is there any plan in the works to ensure this talent does not go to waste? Will the USACA recognize the importance of youth cricket, and out in place the programs it has been paying lip service to, for the past few years? Will Major League Cricket (MLC) step in with its own youth programs, which it says it is ready to implement in 2006? US cricketers are waiting for the next move, which should not be long in coming.

The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket

Steven Lynch13-Aug-2007The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:

Both India and England fielded unchanged sides thorugh the three-Test series, the first time this has happened in cricket history © Getty Images
I have noticed that both England and India were unchanged during the current series. Is this some kind of a record? asked Arun Batra from Canada
Both England and India used the same 11 players throughout this summer’s three-Test series, the first time this has happened in Test history. There are 18 previous instances of one team going unchanged through a three-Test rubber, but never both sides in the same one. There are also two instances of it happening in a four-Test series, and three in a five-Test rubber: for the full list, click here.Who has bowled the most deliveries in Tests and ODIs without taking a wicket? asked Mandeep Basi from Canada
In Tests the bowler who delivered the most fruitless balls was the Lancashire and England allrounder Len Hopwood, who sent down 462 in his two Tests against Australia in 1934 without managing a wicket. In second place, rather surprisingly, is the West Indian batting legend George Headley (398 balls in 22 Tests). In ODIs the leader (if that’s the right word) is the Sri Lankan Athula Samarasekera, who delivered 338 balls without taking a wicket.Someone told me that in the last Under-19 World Cup final, one of the teams was 9 for 6 before lunch! Is this true? asked Karn Sohal
It is true – and what’s more the team batting first had already been out! The match was played in Colombo in February 2006, and India must have fancied their chances of dethroning the defending champions Pakistan after bowling them out for 109. Pakistan’s innings lasted only 41.1 of the scheduled 50 overs, leaving some time before the scheduled dinner break (it was a day/night game). But India subsided to 9 for 6, at which point the players took their break. India regrouped afterwards – but not enough, being bowled out for 71.A long time ago my father told me that an Australian player once bowled two consecutive overs against England. My friend doesn’t believe this. Is it true? And are there any other instances of a bowler bowling two consecutive overs? asked Aaron Liong from Australia
The incident you’re talking about happened during the fourth Test of the 1921 Ashes series, at Old Trafford. The England captain Lionel Tennyson tried to declare late on the second day of the scheduled three-day match – but the first day had been washed out, and Australia’s captain Warwick Armstrong pointed out a complicated rule in force at the time, which prevented a declaration in a two-day game (which the match had become) unless the side batting second had at least 100 minutes to bat that evening. Around 25 minutes were lost while the captains and umpires debated the issue, and when the England innings eventually resumed Armstrong bowled the first over, having also delivered the last one before the attempted closure. Armstrong never divulged whether he had done this deliberately, although his biographer Gideon Haigh suspects that he liked people to think that it was. The only other documented instance of this happening in a Test occurred against England at Wellington in 1950-51, when the New Zealand legspinner Alex Moir bowled the last over before tea on the fourth day and the first one afterwards.

Michael Vaughan: eighth on the list of England’s centurions © Getty Images
I noticed Michael Vaughan scored his 17th Test century against India. How many English batsmen have scored more than Yorkshire’s old horse?asked Brendan from Australia
Only seven batsmen have scored more Test centuries for England than Michael Vaughan’s 17, as this list shows. Geoff Boycott, Colin Cowdrey and Wally Hammond lead the way with 22, ahead of Ken Barrington and Graham Gooch (both 20), Len Hutton (19), and David Gower (18).I recently received Peter Roebuck’s book Great Innings for my birthday. In it there’s a quote that he attributes to SF Barnes, talking about Jack Hobbs: “Sometimes I’d just plug them down and hope he had a fit or something.” Given how little first-class cricket Barnes played (and that his only full county seasons predated Hobbs’s career), I find this doubtful. Did Barnes and Hobbs ever play on opposing sides in a first-class match? asked George Miller
Well, you’re right in one respect – as far as I can see, those two greats Jack Hobbs and Sydney Barnes were never on opposite sides in the same first-class match. But the quote (which I can’t trace) may well still be accurate: Hobbs and Barnes did face each other at least once, in a wartime match between Saltaire and Idle in the Yorkshire League’s Priestley Cup in July 1917. Leslie Duckworth was there, and recalls in his Barnes biography Master Bowler: “It provided a battle of skill and wits between the greatest bowler and one of the greatest batsmen of all time. Hobbs had the best of it on this occasion, and for years I carried an impression that he more than once hit Barnes out of the ground on to the roofs of adjoining houses and once through a bedroom window.” Elsewhere he mentions what may have been the same match: “I saw a great deal of Barnes in action against some of the finest batsmen in the land, including a wonderful day when Jack Hobbs hit 132, with 20 fours – 117 before the first wicket fell – and Barnes’s face got blacker and blacker.” In another part of the book Duckworth writes that “Barnes always used to say that Hobbs was the greatest batsman he ever bowled against”.

The IPL franchisees are paying big money for the privilege of owning teams, but they’re not going to be seeing any returns for five years at least. A look at the economics of the league

Ashok Malik11-Feb-2008

Franchise owners like Vijay Mallya will be looking at using the cricket property to promote their other businesses, and as a publicity vehicle © AFP
In the mid-1990s, in the first flush of economic liberalisation, the government of India opened up the telecom business. From a state monopoly, private players were now invited to bid for the right to provide basic and mobile telephony in specified circles.Fantastic figures were quoted. New telecom companies emerged out of thin air. Some were owned by well-known business houses, others by supposed friends of the telecom minister. Everybody was giddy with excitement, but sitting prettiest was the government. It had been promised huge licence fees – and had, essentially, made its millions without lifting a finger.For the winners of the tendering process, life was less simple. The questions began to roll in thick and fast. Would private telephony be an upper-end service or a mass market one? Would some consumers pay lots of money to make a call, or would charging lots of consumers a fraction be a better business model? How many cell phones would Indians buy, how often, and what prices?A decade and a bit down the line, the big boys of telecom have become valuable and profitable. Companies and licences have been re-sold; consolidation has sifted the serious players from the dilettante investors. Telecom is one of the key drivers of the Indian economy.In 1995, however, it was the great unknown. That’s exactly what the Indian Premier League is today. Many suspect that a domestic Twenty20 league, with all the attendant razzmatazz, will ultimately come out successful. Yet nobody is betting on specific numbers, on time-frames and on modalities.The ones with the least to lose are the gentlemen at the BCCI. Legally, the IPL is a sub-committee of the BCCI, and it has already guaranteed itself close to $1.75 billion in television rights and franchise sales figures. The title sponsorship for the inaugural IPL tournament, and the commission from the player auctions – each of the eight franchise teams can “buy” up to four foreign cricketers through IPL – will earn it more. Of course, two-thirds (64 per cent, to be precise) of the central rights money – television and title sponsorship, for example – will have to be shared with the franchisees/clubs. Even so, by the simple expedient of sanctioning a new product, Twenty20 cricket, the BCCI/IPL has earned the cheapest billion in Indian history. Like the telecom ministry in 1995, it is laughing its way to the bank.Twenty20 (tele)-vision
Is anybody else laughing? Not quite. The franchisees are alternating between grinning and grimacing. The media-rights winner, WSG/Sony Entertainment Television, is frowning. Why? Simply because, however you look at it, for the next three to five years IPL commitments seem unlikely to make money.Consider the television deal. WSG has promised IPL about $350 million for the first five years and a little over $550 million for the following five years. As such, in the first year WSG is committed to paying IPL $70 million (or, at Rs 40 to a dollar, Rs 280 crore). How much can Sony recover from advertisers? Let’s go by industry benchmarks. ESPN Star Sports holds the telecast rights for the current Indian tour of Australia. According to a company executive, for four Test matches, one Twenty20 game and 14 one-day internationals – involving a three-team league and at least two finals – ESPN Star Sports has earned some $ 81 million in ad revenue. About $19 million has come from the Test series, and $62 million from the limited-overs segment.Do note that the current season is cricket’s equivalent of a blockbuster. A star-studded Indian team is playing the world’s best Test side and the two World Cup finalists. ESPN Star Sports wouldn’t have earned so much if India had been playing Bangladesh and West Indies.Industry insiders say Sony’s initial rate card for IPL matches is offering advertisers a 30-second spot for about $16,500. There are 60 such spots in a Twenty20 game, and in its first season IPL will see 59 games. That means Sony is looking at just under $60 million from ad revenues.$16,500 per spot is, it must be pointed out, a top-of-the-line rate – the sort advertisers pay for an India-Pakistan tournament final or an India-Australia Twenty20 face-off. For IPL, Sony will almost certainly have to negotiate cheaper bulk deals. One sportscaster executive points out that in the first season Sony should be happy with even about $37.5 million. The chief of a sports management company is more optimistic: “The prime-time exposure, the overall excitement around Twenty20 in general and IPL in particular, the predictability of continued viewer interest, all add up to a substantial value package for advertisers.” That aside, he argues IPL will “expand cricket’s core consumer group: attract younger audiences, more female consumers”. The bigger conflict could be four or five years away. the franchisees could be pouring in money but not recovering a modicum, and be getting tired of being treated as second-class citizens in cricket’s universe. A question could well be asked: “Why should our IPL clubs play second fiddle, in terms of scheduling and branding, to international cricket? We’re putting in good money; the cricket boards owe us something, surely?”That could be right. The first season of IPL is likely to be more extravaganza than pure sport, whatever that may mean in cricket’s hedonistic age. Shows by movie actors (maybe Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chawla performing mid-field just before their Kolkata team comes out to bat); fashion shows in between innings; a draw of lots that has lucky ticket-holders invited to the pitch, and perhaps to a party with the teams later on – the possibilities are limitless.Franchise fix
How do the eight franchisees see the balance sheet for the first year? From Reliance industries, which forked out $11 million for the Mumbai franchise, to Red Chillies (Shahrukh Khan) in Kolkata ($7.5 million), the eight clubs will pay the BCCI a hefty fee for year one. Further, bidders estimate that another $12.5 million will have to be spent on buying players and running and building up the team.Where will the earnings come from? Sixty-four per cent of the media and central rights earnings will be equally divided among the eight teams. In the case of the WSG/Sony deal with IPL, this comes to 64 per cent of $70 million – or about $5.5 million per team. The title sponsorship will bring more to the kitty.Ticket sales, says a franchise executive, could bring in $1.5 to $2 million. Individual clubs will be able to do city-specific deals for team sponsorship and sell a designated slice of in-stadia advertising that could together earn them about another $1.75 million.There could also be some earnings from corporate hospitality services: selling prime seats and boxes to upper-end audiences, throwing in drinks and dinner and a meeting with the players/entertainers.Merchandising and licensing are other options. Would people buy Red Chillies-Kolkata Tigers T-shirts or eat at Reliance Mumbai Warriors restaurants? Again, one top sports agent is very optimistic: “Licensing seems to have reached an inflexion point in India. And with the degree of passion that cricket and the teams can generate, we believe that licensing can be a substantial revenue stream.”Nevertheless, one former cricket administrator who has been offered the CEO’s job at one of the franchises says that teams should expect to lose in the region of $30 to $37 million over the first five years.”By the end of the third year, some of the franchises could also be budgeting for a new stadium. For the first year, IPL teams will be renting stadia from their state or city cricket associations. “To deliver a quality product to audiences, from family picnic spots near the playing area to food courts and clean toilets,” says a franchise executive, “we will need absolute control of the stadium.”How easy will this be? At some point, would it be worth building a new stadium as part of a multi-event entertainment centre, with conference facilities, restaurants, shopping malls and movie theatres thrown in? The Reliance Industries special economic zone in Mumbai is planned as virtually a new city. GMR, the Delhi franchisee, is redeveloping Delhi’s airport and has plans for ten hotels and entertainment zones in the environs. Could a spiffy Twenty20 cricket stadium make the cut?Land prices vary from city to city, but building a new cricket facility in India costs about $45 million, says a BCCI official. At least some of the franchisees will have to factor in that cost.Show me the money
In Delhi, speculation has already begun as to whether a senior Union minister’s son will be signed on as one of the local franchise’s four “junior cricketers”. The speculation, it must be emphasised, has little to do with the young man’s talent. It is about the political leverage it could give the corporate house backing the franchise. In the end, this may only be idle gossip in a cynical city. Yet it does explain that the motivations of the franchise owners could be very different from those of conventional businessmen – and from the expectations of cricket fans, who might wonder why so much is being invested in an untried format.There are, essentially, three reasons for the bidders to put in the sort of money they are going to have to: to make a sports team a profitable business; to use the cricket property to promote other businesses and as a publicity vehicle; to build the brand and enhance its valuation and then sell. “The individual team owner’s perspective on expenses would vary depending on the weightage given to each objective,” a sports management firm’s CEO points out.

Cricketers such as Shane Warne will fetch top dollar – and the IPL will earn a commission on every such transaction © Brand Rapport
For instance, Vijay Mallya (United Breweries, the Bangalore franchise holder) is clearly looking at the second template. From making Kingfisher Airlines the official carrier of the Bangalore team, to using Kingfisher swimsuit calendar models and his racehorses as magnets to draw crowds to an evening’s Twenty20 entertainment where Kingfisher will be the beverage of choice, there is much he can do.At least two of the smaller franchisees, one in the east and one in the north, are already talking of enhancing valuation and selling the franchise at a healthy profit. Resale is permitted after three years. In fact, an international media investor is said to be the “valuation brain” supporting three of the smaller franchises, even if the official owners are marquee names.ICC versus IPL?
At the height of the Harbhajan Singh-Andrew Symonds controversy, a senior BCCI official said, “In five years we won’t need them [the ICC]. IPL will possibly have bigger valuations than ICC.” Was it an off-the-cuff remark or was there method in that moment of madness? To put the query another way: will IPL expand the cricket economy or will it cannibalise the current market, eat into the revenues of conventional ODIs and – heresy – Test cricket? Industry observers discount these fears but few are willing to entirely dismiss them.Even so, one potential problem that IPL bigwigs are content to sweep under the carpet is of how India’s Twenty20 league can fit into the existing ICC calendar. This year, the IPL will be played starting mid-April, the off season in India. Yet it will clash almost directly with Australia’s tours of Pakistan and the West Indies, and New Zealand’s series in England.Already the buzz is that senior cricketers in Australia would rather play the IPL, and make maybe half a million dollars for a few weeks of work, than travel to troubled Pakistan or even play a series at neutral venues. New Zealand lost Shane Bond to the rebel Indian Cricket League; the bigger, wealthier IPL could have top international cricketers rethinking their priorities, particularly towards the end of their careers. A short, lucrative stint with the IPL may seem a better idea than the usual Test/ODI grind.The bigger conflict could be four or five years away. By then the IPL franchisees could be doing one of two things. First, they could be running profitable cricket ventures that could be making money or simply be subsidised by the publicity budget of the larger business house that owns the franchise. Alternatively, the franchisees could be pouring in money but not recovering a modicum, and be getting tired of being treated as second-class citizens in cricket’s universe. A question could well be asked: “Why should our IPL clubs play second fiddle, in terms of scheduling and branding, to international cricket? We’re putting in good money; the cricket boards owe us something, surely?”Mature sports markets have faced this dilemma. English football, where the national squad is far less than the sum of the Premier League teams, is a case in point. Only this January, the FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, exclaimed, “Look at the big clubs in the Premier League … it is not the English or British game that is represented. The clubs are international XIs … But this does not serve football. To serve football, you must never forget the national team.” The men who run Manchester United and Arsenal will probably disagree. So will investors who have bought equity in these clubs. In five years or so, a little after the 2011 ICC World Cup is played in the subcontinent, Indian cricket and the BCCI, IPL and its franchises, may have to confront similar conundrums.

Zimbabwe may have half-decent batting, but overall they will clearly be outclassed at the highest level. By Martin Williamson

Martin Williamson05-Sep-2007

Despite Ray Mali’s rather far-fetched claims that Zimbabwe could be the No. 1 ODI side in the world within three years, the reality that all bar the ICC president seem to realise is that the gulf between a young and experienced side and the other Full Member countries remains vast. Despite seemingly creditable performances against South Africa in three ODIs last month, the side is lacking almost any international-class players – with the exception of its prodigal son Tatenda Taibu – and while those thrown in at the deep end are keen, they are woefully inexperienced and, in several cases, technically flawed.At the World Cup last March Zimbabwe were out of their depth, and the draw this time has not done them any favours. They face England, who have five seasons of Twenty20 experience, and Australia, who remain awesome whatever the format. Only a madman would even consider waging a bet on either match producing an upset.Home truths

There was an inaugural Twenty20 tournament in Zimbabwe last season but it took place over three days and attracted almost no domestic coverage. Even the Zimbabwe board only issued basic details, but judging by standards in the Faithwear Cup, the one-day tournament which preceded it, the quality was unlikely to have been much to shout about.Strengths

Their batting and fielding should not embarrass Zimbabwe. On paper they possess a strong top- and middle order, with Taibu, who will need to bat even higher than No. 4 in the shorter format, and Brendan Taylor particularly suited to the demands of Twenty20. Some of the other mainline batsmen will need to contribute more than the 20s or 30s they seem content with now, however.Weaknesses

Inexperience against top-class sides is the biggest issue, with recent drubbings by A teams from India and South Africa fresh in the mind. The tail is long, and there isn’t a bowler who appears likely to be able to contain Australia or England ‘s big hitters. Of the batsmen, Vusi Sibanda, who entered the World Cup with a burgeoning reputation, has repeatedly underperformed since and is in need of runs.

Players to watch

Tatenda Taibu Back after almost two years of self-imposed exile following a well-publicised spat with the Zimbabwe board, Taibu’s appetite appears undiminished if performances in the A-team series and the ODIs against South Africa are anything to go by. His improvisation and attacking intent – he had a strike-rate of 100 against South Africa last month – put him head and shoulders above his team-mates. He promised so much when he impressed in the Caribbean in 2006, but the captaincy, thrust on him at the age of 21, soon after Taibu quit, has had a detrimental effect on his form and confidence. But Taibu is back and there were signs against South Africa that Utseya might be on the mend. If he is, his nagging offspin is perfectly suited to Twenty20.Dark horse

Sean Williams The former Under-19 captain has been out of the frame of late with a serious back injury, but is fit again after treatment in South Africa. A powerful batsman and useful slow left-armer, he has the ability to be one of the cornerstones of the side for the next decade, although doubts continue as to where his future lies.Ian Chappell’s take
Zimbabwe shouldn’t have been competing at the highest level of international cricket for some years now, and for a number of reasons – all related to the cruel dictatorship of Robert Mugabe.

Yet again, they will be cannon fodder, this time for the Australian and English line-ups. However the return of the talented and competitive Taibu means that at least their opponents will have to work a bit harder for the inevitable victory. Sibanda, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Hamilton Masakadza and Elton Chigumbura all have talent with the bat, but they are not consistent at this level to be a support to Taibu or a major concern for their strong opposing attacks.Batting first, they are unlikely to set a challenging total and they are likely to be chasing targets that are way beyond their means. Zimbabwe have many players who can bowl and are handy with the bat, but quantity is not a suitable replacement for quality when you’re up against top-class opposition. Utseya, their consistent offspinner and captain, has a formidable task ahead of him, in trying to contain two strong batting line-ups, never mind dismissing them cheaply.Zimbabwe cricket would have been better served if they had built up their playing strength and confidence at a lower level in the last few years. It does talented young cricketers no good to be constantly thrashed by opponents who are well above their class. It’s sad to see how far the once-proud Zimbabwe cricket team have slipped since they qualified for the Super Six stage in the 1999 World Cup. This time they will fail to qualify for the final eight stage, and till they unearth a satisfactory political solution to their problems, their cricket is unlikely to make much headway. Rating: 4/10

Ken Borland reviews the Standard Bank Pro20 season

Ken Borland26-Apr-2008
Ethy Mbhalati’s method of hitting the deck hard and getting steepling bounce made him the second-most successful bowler in the competition, behind the Cobras’ Charl Langeveldt © Cricinfo Ltd.
The Dolphins and Titans capped another successful Standard Bank Pro20 season at Kingsmead last night and the competition continues to set the benchmark for domestic cricket.Despite being shoved to the fag-end of the season, the Pro20 still managed to capture the imagination of South African cricket fans like no other and the Titans emerged as the winners, making sure they did not waste the services of their returning international stars. The men from the coast were the surprise packages of the tournament and, although the Dolphins often won “ugly”, their combination of superb bowling and gritty batting almost took them all the way.Being scheduled for April could have been awkward for the Pro20, but the success of the format allowed it to overcome the absence of the South African stars until the knockout rounds, cold weather in the evenings and the competing attractions of the Super 14 rugby and even the Indian Premier League, which has borrowed many of the ideas used in the local Pro20 competition. But the fact that Friday night’s final was played in front of a full house in Durban and there were close-to-capacity crowds at the semi-finals at Kingsmead and Newlands augurs well for the continued success of the Pro20.Batsmen, however, did not enjoy the same amount of success in this year’s competition as in previous seasons. Bowlers, having tasted remorseless punishment in the first four seasons of Pro20, enjoyed a much better campaign as the batsmen’s crown slipped somewhat. After four seasons of steady growth in the average total – 143 in the first season in 2003-04, followed by 148, 152 and then up to 165 last season – the average score plummeted to 134 in 2008.It would seem the bowlers have really stepped up their skills, although only the first two competitions were staged so late in the season, bringing into play worn out pitches and more movement due to cooler climatic conditions.The Cape Cobras dominated the round-robin stage with an unbeaten run of five wins and one no result but, perhaps distracted by the controversy surrounding their decision not to call up Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher, they suffered defeat for the first time in the semi-finals when the Titans beat them in Cape Town.The Titans batsmen were unusually flaky in this season’s Pro20, but the one area the northern Gautengers excelled in, in a competition dominated by the ball, was bowling. There was no better balanced attack in the competition: if Ethy Mbhalati struck more often than not with the new ball, Albie Morkel gave nothing away with his seamers,and the spinners took control as well. Left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe was undoubtedly the find of the competition, bringing a no-fear approach to both bowling and batting. Mbhalati’s method of hitting the deck hard and getting steepling bounce made him the second-most successful bowler in the competition, behind the Cobras’ Charl Langeveldt, whose phenomenal season highlighted what a loss he will be if he heads for northern climes. The pair took the first two hat-tricks in the competition’s history, just two days apart.Garnett Kruger was the other outstanding fast bowler in the competition, but the Highveld Lions wasted his superb efforts, winning just one of their six matches. Loots Bosman was once again the leading batsman, although the Eagles lost out to the Dolphins at the semi-final stage.KwaZulu-Natal, the province hit hardest by defections to the Indian Cricket League, had a largely young, inexperienced side as a result. But they had some aces in the deck in the form of left-arm seamer Yusuf Abdullah, skilful seamer Johann Louw and tenacious batsman Pierre de Bruyn. And, of course, not forgetting Daryn Smit, who had his hands full supplying vital lower-order runs, keeping wicket and being one of the most successful spinners in the competition.Apart from amping up the sportainment aspects of the competition with pimped up transport for mascot Hardy, installing bigger dunk tanks and DJ booths and introducing dancers for the first time in all domestic matches, Standard Bank also added another unique feature to their highly successful sponsorship. Marketing the competition on social digital media platforms was added as the Pro20 enjoyed a formidable presence in cyberspace, with Facebook, standardbank.mobi. MXit and Twitter added to the chain of sponsorship levers.With Jonty Rhodes’ live blogs proving almost as popular as the wonderfully cheap ticket prices, the Pro20 is the one domestic competition that is certainly not limping along. Even older generation traditionalists must surely now approve as the initial shock has worn off.

What does a specialist spinner have to do these days to get a fair chance in the West Indies side?

Fazeer Mohammed04-Apr-2008

Hopefully the water cart attendants at the Queen’s Park Oval were sensible enough not to place any napkins near the drinking glasses when they were first called into action yesterday. Things are bad enough for West Indies without the further setback of players being hospitalised for cuts from wet paper.It felt like the vengeance of Moko had descended upon us, obliterating almost any semblance of good fortune, producing fundamental errors from fairly decent cricketers, questionable decisions by selectors and even poorer judgment from one of the umpires. It’s probably just as well that hardly anyone had turned up to watch the first hour of this second Test, in itself a telling reflection of the inescapable reality that the traditional form of the game is barely surviving around here, to the extent that even some of the diehards’ appetite for the standard fare has waned considerably.We’ve seen some action-packed opening exchanges of Test matches at the Oval over the years (the late Roy Fredericks would not have had happy memories here, being bowled first ball by India’s Abid Ali in 1971 and second ball by another Indian, Madan Lal, in 1976) but the drama had actually started unfolding long before the start of play when the selectors chose to omit both specialist spinners from the home side’s final XI.No doubt they would have been influenced by a pitch with a healthy tinge of green, in stark contrast to the lifeless brown track in Guyana last week. Still, in omitting both specialists, Sulieman Benn and Amit Jaggernauth, and preferring to rely on Chris Gayle to turn his arm over slowly every now and then (or maybe longer, you never know), the utter disregard by key personnel in the Caribbean game for the art of spin bowling is now confirmed.Even if you argue that Jaggernauth’s ten wickets last weekend at Guaracara Park were against some of the jokiest Barbadian batting ever seen, even if the general consensus that Benn’s three wickets in the second innings at Providence were only because the Sri Lankans were taking more than a few chances in the quest for quick runs, surely it makes sense to have the option of a frontline spinner on a pitch hosting a Test match for the first time ever, the square having been re-laid a few months after the last Test on this famous venue three years ago (Brian Lara 196, Makhaya Ntini 13 wickets… remember?).Given this considerable element of the unknown in such a vital aspect of the game, you would have thought that the benefit of local knowledge was essential. Yet there was former Test opener and long-time Queen’s Park coach and official Bryan Davis informing schizophrenic radio interviewer Justin Dookhi at the water-break that no-one in the West Indies team set-up felt it necessary to seek his opinion on the playing surface. Maybe others were consulted. At least you hope so.Still, you have to ask, what does a specialist spinner have to do these days to get a fair chance in the West Indies side – migrate to a country with a higher quality of domestic cricket, take wickets and then hope that the selectors back home are noticing? Maybe then the contention will be that they need to succeed in home conditions to really judge them. So we should shift the Australian domestic competition to our part of the world, play the spinners, and then pick them if they perform.Parochial sentiment surrounding Jaggernauth (40 wickets so far this season) notwithstanding, it should be noted that this sentiment also covers Benn, a player set to join the lengthening list of practitioners of flight and guile who have come to associate a career as a West Indies Test cricketer as a succession of one-match spurts spread over several years. Well, at least he, like Rangy Nanan, got a game.Hardly anyone seemed to be on their game in that weird first hour yesterday.Only a loss of concentration could be explained for Billy Bowden not giving Michael Vandort lbw to the second ball of the match from Daren Powell. Despite the comments coming from the Constantine Stand, the New Zealander is not a thief, nor is he completely incompetent, although the preoccupation with showmanship, amusing at the best of the times, are infuriating when seen in the context of the occasional critical error.

Then we had Dwayne Bravo putting down a sitter at third slip off Jerome Taylor to let Malinda Warnapura off the hook and Powell failing to snare a sharp caught-and-bowled chance presented by Vandort. That’s three catches floored already by the usually flawless (certainly in the field) allrounder, while there weren’t too many around feeling sorry for Powell, especially after he suffered yet another delusion of batting grandeur at the end of the first Test.In that context, it was probably expected that Sri Lanka would have raced away to 60 without loss by the water-break, thanks to a succession of loose deliveries that facilitated the crashing of 12 boundaries by the two left-handers.At least Fidel Edwards justified his recall immediately with two wickets in the hour before lunch. A third scalp for the Barbadian pacer before the heavens opened up in the early afternoon may have made further amends.Still, it’s only the start of a Test match, and therefore way too early before the Oval doubles vendors alter their policy of serving West Indies cricketers the delicacy on plastic instead of moistened brown paper.

Stats highlights from South Africa’s historic run-chase against Australia in Perth

S Rajesh21-Dec-2008

The last quarter of 2008 continues to be an excellent one for fourth-innings run-chases: New Zealand started the trend, chasing 317 against Bangladesh in Chittagong exactly two months ago; India raised the bar even further with an outstanding chase of 387 against England in Chennai last week; but South Africa did something even more incredible in Perth today, coasting to 414 to inflict a six-wicket defeat upon Australia and bring up the second-highest successful run-chase in Test cricket. It also means three of the top five such chases have come in the last five-and-a-half years, and two of them in the last ten days.As was pointed out in last week’s Numbers Game column, successful fourth-innings chases have been far more common in the 2000s than in previous decades, and this becomes the 32nd 200-plus chase in these nine years. No wonder, then, that the fourth-innings runs-per-wicket figure in this decade is 29.21, higher than it had been in any decade since 1950. AB de Villiers’ match-winning 108 was the 46th fourth-innings century during this period; add 242 fifties to it, and you’ll get a good idea of how good this decade has been for batsmen in the last innings.The pitch in Perth stayed pretty good throughout the five days, which isn’t so unusual these days either. The Chennai track had a mean look to it but wasn’t particularly spiteful on the final day, which was one of the reasons why India’s fourth-innings total was the highest of the match, as was the case in Perth. Till October 2008, this had only been achieved 17 times in the entire history of Test cricket. In the last two months, however, three more instances have already been added, with New Zealand, India and South Africa all getting the highest total of the game in successful run-chases. South Africa have successfully chased 200-plus targets seven times since 2000, the most by any team during this period.What’s also incredible is the apparent ease with which most of the highest run-chases have been achieved – in four of the top five such cases, teams have won losing fewer than five wickets: Don Bradman’s Invincibles chased 404 for the loss of only three wickets at Headingley in 1948, while India lost only four in chasing 406 and 387.More numbers

• Graeme Smith’s century yesterday was his third in the fourth innings of a match, and all of them have led to wins. Most batsmen struggle in the last innings of Tests, but Smith seems to relish the challenge, averaging 56.40 in 26 fourth innings. His last five such innings have been 85, 62, 3*, 154* and 108. Among batsmen who have scored at least 1000 fourth-innings runs, Smith’s average puts him in third place in the all-time list, behind two legendary openers, Geoffrey Boycott and Sunil Gavaskar.
  

  Best fourth-innings averages in Tests (Qual: 1000 runs)

  Batsman	Innings	Runs	Average	100s/ 50s
  Geoff Boycott	34	1234	58.76	3/ 7
  Sunil Gavaskar	33	1398	58.25	4/ 8
  Graeme Smith	26	1128	56.40	3/ 6
  Ricky Ponting	35	1187	53.95	4/ 3
  Gordon Greenidge	38	1383	53.19	3/ 6

  Limiting the results to just wins in fourth innings, Smith’s stocks go up even higher – with 844 runs from 15 innings, his average is an incredible 84.40, next only to Ricky Ponting’s 92.77 (with a cut-off of 500 runs). They are the only two to score three hundreds in fourth-innings wins.

• Among the three century partnerships in South Africa’s run-chase was the 124-run stand between AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis, who are fast developing one of the most prolific batting pairs for them. In 16 partnerships, the pair has put together 1275 runs, including six century stands, for an average of 85. Their last five partnerships read 112, 5, 256, 124, and 124. Among South African pairs who’ve added at least 1000, de Villiers and Kallis are in second place, next only to Gary Kirsten and Graeme Smith, who averaged 100.36 in 11 innings.
• Of the six South Africans who batted, five of them topped 50, with Neil McKenzie being the only one to miss out. It was only the third instance of five South African batsmen topping 50 in an innings in Australia, but in both previous occasions, the team had been bowled out.
• It was Australia’s second successive defeat in Perth, after their 72-run loss to India earlier this year. Only once earlier have they lost consecutive Tests here – 1984 and 1985, when West Indies and New Zealand beat the home team convincingly. (Click here for their entire result list in Perth.)