The Reverse Sweep

Shane Warne gets burnt, Harbhajan Singh gets robbed: Conspiracy or coincidence?

At first when we heard that Shane Warne had burnt his hand we just thought that he had either overdone the self-tan or had an accident with one of Elizabeth Hurley's hot wax treatments.

We didn't for one minute believe the official explanation that Warne had hurt himself cooking as by the looks of him he clearly doesn't eat. But nothing too sinister appeared to be afoot.

Then we heard that Harbhajan Singh had been robbed. On the same day.

The two events are either completely unconnected or there is a malicious and uncontrollable perpetrator with an almighty grudge against former (sorry Harbhajan) international spin bowlers.

Rumours that Anil Kumble, Muttiah Muralitharan and rather amusingly Xavier Doherty have been put under police protection could not be substantiated at the time of going to press.

Where next?

Shane Warne comes out

Farewell and a tribute (of sorts) to Shane Warne

Seven reasons why the Poms love Shane Warne

India have found some bowlers

Cricket zeroes: Channel 9's Commentary Team

Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes 

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep 

Mahendra Singh Dhoni - A born leader

 
History is littered with examples of abysmal leaders: Edward II and Henry VI were catastrophically bad English Kings, Gordon Brown a dismal Prime Minister, and in cricket Ian Botham was a particularly poor England captain. 

MS Dhoni is an entirely different case. Put simply, the Indian captain is a born leader.

Many thought him a brash and unlikely captain when he replaced Anil Kumble as skipper across all formats, but they have been proved comprehensively wrong.

Leadership has matured Dhoni. His own performances have been generally of a high standard, and the positive impact he has had on his troops is obvious. For one, India have developed a resilience that was hitherto non-existent.

He had already captained India to the inaugural World T20 crown in South Africa in 2007 and since then led them to the number one ranking in Test cricket; he even captained Chennai Super Kings to the IPL crown in 2010.

But have no doubt, trying to lead India to the World Cup in their own country was his biggest task yet.

Every move, word or action he has made over the last six weeks has been scrutinised by a critical Indian press and one billion fervent supporters.

Promoting himself above Yuvraj Singh in the batting order in yesterday's final was an extremely bold move. The game was in the balance and Yuvraj had been the Player of the Tournament - already winning four man of the match awards. Dhoni's own form with the bat had been scratchy.

But good leaders take responsibility. And that is exactly what Dhoni did. He played himself in and then launched into his trademark flamboyant strokeplay. In the end, it was fairly routine for India and the six that finished the game was clearly a tremendous release for Dhoni.

Bruce Springsteen was born to run, Dhoni is emphatically born to lead.

Where next?

Cricket Heroes: Mahendra Singh Dhoni

An XI of unlikely World Cup heroes and a not so heroic 12th man

The renaissance of Yuvraj Singh

Read all our 2011 World Cup posts here

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

The best Indian test XI of the last 30 years

To celebrate the start of the IPL, here is my Indian test XI from the 30 years I have spent watching cricket. 

 

1. Sunil Gavaskar – India’s pre-eminent batsman before Tendulkar who faced down the legendary West Indian pace attack in the 70s and 80s and took 13 centuries from them at a superlative 65.45.

 

  

2. Virender Sehwag – The most devastating test batsmen ever along with Viv Richards. Sehwag is not a mere mortal, he is a God.

3. Rahul Dravid – The Wall tends to get runs when India needs them most and his technique is impeccable.

4. Sachin Tendulkar – Approaching 100 international test centuries and the leading run scorer in tests and ODI. No other words are necessary.

5. V.V.S Laxman – I could have gone for Vengsarker, Azharuddin or Ganguly, but seeing Laxman bat is like watching poetry in motion.

6. Mahendra Singh Dhoni – A good wicketkeeper and an excellent batsman who already averages around 40 in tests.  

7. Kapil Dev (Captain) – The man who led India to victory in the 1983 World Cup and one of the four great all-rounders of the 80s along with Imran, Botham and Hadlee.

8. Anil Kumble – Over 600 test wickets and a man that performed in all countries and upon all surfaces. India’s leading matchwinner with the ball.  

9. Javagal Srinath – Where Kapil trod, Srinath followed and he was a wonderful leader of the Indian attack

10. Zaheer Khan – Other than the incomparable Wasim Akram, Zaheer has to be the best left arm quick I have seen in 30 years of test cricket.

11. Bishan Bedi – I could have gone for Harbhajan but as a small boy I remember being transfixed by the wily Bedi.