Print Wrap: Daily dose of headlines

Every morning Cricketnirvana brings you a roundup of headlines from the leading national dailies across the cricketing nations. Here's what some of the newspapers are talking about…

Strauss urges England to keep eye on ball

Ahead of their tour of South Africa, England skipper Andrew Strauss tells his team to capitalise on their Ashes victory momentum rather than getting carried away, writes an England daily, The Independent…

Andrew Strauss has demanded his England side view their Ashes triumph as only a stepping stone to become the world's best team.

England arrived in South Africa yesterday for their two-and-a-half month tour with the long-term goal of replacing Graeme Smith's side at the top of the rankings. 

The last time they reclaimed the Ashes in 2005 they followed it up with a 2-0 Test series defeat in Pakistan the following winter. Strauss is determined to ensure a similar scenario is avoided against South Africa and insists England's players realise challenging times lie ahead. "We've talked a lot about how winning the Ashes is not the end of the road, it's almost the starting point for us to improve," he said. 

"We'd be lying if we didn't want to be the No 1 side in the world, but if you look at how the ranking system works it will take a number of years of solid progression from where we are at the moment and consistency is crucial. 

"The perception of the post-2005 period is that we took our eye off the ball quite badly. I'm not comfortable with that myself. I remember that Pakistan tour and how hard we worked at it. We had a number of very crucial injuries which didn't help. 

"If you look at our performances over the last 12 months we're far from the genuine article and where we want to be. No one in the squad truly believes we've made it, we've got a long way to go. I want to see our players hungry and committed." 

England begin their tour with a match against the Diamond Eagles in Bloemfontein on Friday before two Twenty20 internationals and a five match 50-over series. The Tests do not begin until 16 December when England face South Africa over four matches without the powers of Andrew Flintoff, who retired from the five-day game after the Ashes….

Michael Vaughan: ‘The Ashes should have the best umpires even if they are Australian’

Another English newspaper, The Times talks about the part of former captain Michael Vaughan’s book in which he expresses his views on the importance of inculcating mental and physical toughness into the young cricketers and the need of appointing the best umpires in the Ashes series…

The building industry has been hit harder than most by the recession, but it could have been a lot worse without Sky TV’s cricket commentary boxes. The old ones used to be just about big enough to house Fred Trueman and his pipe. Nowadays the number of annexes and extensions being knocked up to accommodate former England captains would make the Wembley stadium project look like a semi on a Barratt estate. 

Michael Vaughan might shortly join the club, which would be a welcome addition. Cricket has, as we all know, been hugely enriched by the proliferation of newspaper columns by players, offering fascinating insights into who’s just bought a new iPod or what they had for breakfast yesterday, but when you have the word “former” on your cricketer CV you can finally say something worth saying. 

Like most batsmen, Vaughan rarely left the dressing room without a personal pep talk — “c’mon now, play straight, don’t risk any rash shots” — but this had nothing to do with preparing to face McGrath or Muralitharan. It was, when he was captain, a reminder not to spill any beans at the press conference. 

Now he’s retired, however, Vaughan can speak his mind. If his new book is anything to go by, he will be both articulate and thought-provoking. He has, he says, “a lot of fingers in a lot of pies”, and is taking his time before deciding which route to take. “I enjoy giving my opinion on the game,” he says, “and now I’m no longer playing I can actually say it how I feel it. So yes, the media is one of those possibilities.” 

One of the things that most concerns Vaughan is how to get to grips with an England side who perform like a malfunctioning cuckoo clock — popping out roughly every four years to stick it to the Aussies, but otherwise falling off its perch with barely a croak when trying to build a team capable of winning all over the world, over a few years, in all forms of the game. 

“Unlike Australia, we’ve never had a winning team over an era,” says Vaughan. “The Ashes is something of an obsession, and it’s hard not for it to be when you see what goes on when it’s in England. It’s just phenomenal. But are we happy just to beat the Aussies occasionally or do we want to be the best in the world over a long period? Because if we do, our game needs to change. When we succeed, we do so despite the system, not because of it.” 

One of Vaughan’s current roles is with the ECB, working with promising teenagers to try to change attitudes as well as skills. “There’s obviously too much cricket being played,” he says, “but there is a cultural problem in English cricket as well.” By which he means players are too soft. 

“These lads [I’m working with] are 16 to 18-year-olds and the accent is all about mental toughness. We’ve got this SAS guy, Floyd Woodrow, working with them, and the training he puts them through is like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s a 44-day operation — I joined in for four of them and was totally knackered — and they’re up at 6am, not finishing till 9pm. It’s all highly pressurised and designed to test character. 

“I played in an era where the best players have been able to get away with things and dictate terms but on this course you learn that it doesn’t matter who you are, if you don’t do it, you’re out. These are 16-year-old kids facing 85mph bouncers from a bowling machine, finding out how to cope. The plan is to send them back to their counties with the kind of mindset geared towards producing a new generation of tough cricketers, mentally and physically, which would be great for our game.” 

Vaughan doesn’t appear to be a huge fan of Ray Illingworth, judging by the passage in the book describing him as a curmudgeon bearing “a grudge against anyone who doesn’t come from Pudsey”, but the one opinion they share is that league cricket, especially up north, is a better breeding ground for toughening up a player than county cricket. 

Vaughan learnt a lot from the leagues and even more from the Australian equivalent, grade cricket. “When I first witnessed the Aussie system, how their Test players would regularly go off to train with their club guys, I thought, ‘My God, how much is their standard being raised by picking the brains of the Gilchrists and the Husseys?’ Getting Test match advice and taking it into their Saturday League matches. 

“I remember seeing dressing rooms full of charts and diagrams about fielding drills, and motivational stuff, and thinking how in many ways it was more professional than a county dressing room. If we sent every young player out to pro in the leagues they’d have to stand on their own two feet and perform, because they’d be expected to be the star turn. They’d have to take the pressure of that and sink or swim.” 

As for the current England set-up, Vaughan thinks that at least they have the right combination at the top in Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower. “The captain-coach relationship is crucial, which is why I felt, given their frosty relationship, that the Peter Moores-Kevin Pietersen liaison was doomed from the start. 

“But Strauss and Flower are on the same wavelength. Strauss got the captaincy at the right time and I think Flower can be just as exceptional as I thought Duncan Fletcher was. I loved the way he didn’t get too excited when we won the Ashes. He doesn’t throw himself in front of the cameras and I like what I hear about what he’s doing behind the scenes. 

“They also have the benefit of a new generation, with the chance to mould a team now the likes of myself, Flintoff, Harmison, Hoggard, Giles and Trescothick are not around. It’s a shame Harmy and Hoggy never got the chance to go out on their own terms, as I don’t think we’ll see either of them again. Harmy is still mentioned, but I don’t think they should go down that route even in an emergency. Better to give a new kid a go. We should move on” 

In other areas, Vaughan is not so sure we should be moving on, preferring less technology in decision-making — “there’s no place for guestimate gadgets like Hawkeye” — and the appointment of the best umpires whatever their nationality. He would even have an Australian standing in an Ashes series. “Simon Taufel has been the best there is for a long time now and I don’t think the England players would have a problem with him officiating in an Ashes Test. All you want is for the majority of the decisions to be correct and he gets most of them right….” 

Match-winning innings prompts Blewett to call for return of Hughes

The Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian daily reports former Aussie opener Greg Blewett’s call to include Phillip Hughes in the Australian Test squad, owing to his good performance at the domestic level…

FORMER Australian opener Greg Blewett has called for the immediate return of Phillip Hughes to the Test side after the Ashes discard began his summer of redemption with a match-winning half-century for NSW in the Ford Ranger Cup against Western Australia at North Sydney Oval yesterday.

With Test opener Simon Katich dropping himself so far down the order that he didn't get a bat, Hughes made an unbeaten 72 as Phil Jaques re-entered the Test debate with a half-century of his own.

Chasing 179 after paceman Burt Cockley ran roughshod with 4-39 off 8.1 overs, the Blues romped home with nearly 15 overs to spare.

Blewett, the 46-Test opener and now a television analyst, told the Herald: ''The selectors have said they don't see Shane Watson as a long-term Test opener and I don't think Watto sees himself that way, either.

''I'd think Watto and Marcus North will be against each other for the number six spot, with Simon Katich opening with another specialist. I'd go straight back to Hughes.

''Jaques would do a great job, he looked fantastic today, but Hughes … just looks like he's meant to be batting, that he's meant to be out in the middle scoring runs. He just controlled that chase today. He scored quite slowly but it didn't seem to faze him. He looks to me like a man for all occasions.''

Hughes, a renowned dasher who kept himself in check while taking 110 balls to compose his 72, was infamously dropped after two Ashes Tests but has a massive opportunity tomorrow when the Blues and WA start their Sheffield Shield match at the SCG. More big scores will make his case undeniable. Otherwise, Jaques could pounce.

''They were probably a bit premature to get rid of Hughes in England,'' Blewett said. ''I think the selectors might have even said they were a bit tough on him, that they just needed to make some sort of change to switch the momentum of the series.
''I'm sure that would have been explained to him. I want to see him playing as much as possible for Australia because the guy is a gun….''


Stage set for Sachin special

Indian newspaper, DNA expects a special innings from Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar in the fourth ODI in Mohali…
Sachin Tendulkar, who has been in focus for all of two decades of an illustrious career, will go into the fourth match of the one-day series against Australia with a familiar burden of expectations... 

The Little Master has fond recent memories of the venue, having surpassed Brian Lara's Test record of runs here last year, also against the Aussies. However, reaching a new landmark of 17,000 ODI runs, which he is just 47 away from, may not be as important as his role in the outing because of the possible absence of two experienced top-order batsmen.

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are doubtful after sustaining injuries in the third match at Delhi, resulting in an SOS call to Dinesh Karthik. Sehwag suffered a foot injury off a Peter Siddle yorker, while Gambhir got hurt on the neck while fielding at short-leg.

Tendulkar, who had scores of 14 and four in the first two matches, was shaping well when he was run out for 32 in the third match. It eventually took a Herculean effort from Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni to overcome a challenging 230-run target on an unfriendly pitch, but the Indian team would not like to be in a situation similar to the 53-3 as in the last match.

Though this series has been marred by a number of injuries -- Brett Lee being ruled out may be the most important one thus far -- the matches have managed to carry a lot of intensity. The bench strengths of the two sides are bound to be tested through the seven matches, and considering that they are two of the top sides in this version, it is just as well that it is a real test of depth.

Seeing the crowds at the stadiums so far, the threat of an overkill of India-Australia cricket does not seem a likelihood in the immediate future, at least in the shorter versions. Though Mohali failed to draw in crowds when Tendulkar became the highest run-getter in Tests, things are likely to be different here for an ODI on Monday, a public holiday for Guru Purab (Guru Nanak's birthday).
There is also the possibility of a run feast on the home turf of BCCI's grounds and pitches committee chairman Daljit Singh, despite the possibility of lateral movement in the colder environs.

Singh avers that not only will the pitch play true but the outfield will also be fast owing to a change in grass recently. "The pitch will have a good bounce and carry. The team batting first should be able to make a score in excess of 300 if they bat well. The ball will also travel fast in the outfield. I would say the crowds can expect to see 550 runs being scored on this ground," he said.
The batting form of Dhoni and Yuvraj would be giving the Indians confidence for this match, but more importantly also that of the reasonably better performance by the seamers in recent matches….