The Reverse Sweep

Who are cricket's likely future greats?

In a piece on Cricinfo just five months before his death, Peter Roebuck asked Who are cricket's future greats? 

Roebuck concurs that cricket has seen its fair share of great players since the emergence of the formidable West Indies side of the late seventies. He goes on to name  half a dozen current batsmen deserving of the great tag: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Jacques Kallis, Kumar Sangakkara and Ricky Ponting, before adding the caveat that all are within a few years of retirement.

When it comes to bowlers, Roebuck argues that only Dale Steyn is worthy of a place in the pantheon of bowling greats. This is hard to contradict as those closest to Steyn like James Anderson, Graeme Swann and Zaheer Khan would seem to fall into the ‘very good’ rather than ‘great’ category.

We’d concur with Roebuck that of the current crop of batsmen, Hashim Amla seems the most likely candidate to attain greatness in the coming years. His Test career took a while to get into top gear, but his sublime style and appetite for runs has grown and he averages over 70 since the start of 2010. Judging by his recent hundreds against Australia in Cape Town and Johannesburg the best is yet to come.

The past week has thrown up two more fledgling candidates, albeit two at the outset of their careers but whose promise seems unlimited.

A lot of people are getting very excited about Australia’s new fast bowling discovery Patrick Cummins. Even as thoughtful, respected and usually restrained observer like Christopher Martin-Jenkins writes in today’s Times that Cummins is a gem in the mould of Dennis Lillee and Glenn McGrath.

New Australian coach Mickey Arthur also sees comparisons with Steyn and it has to be said that it is hard to recall a more impressive entry into Test cricket than the one made by Cummins in Johannesburg. His six-wicket haul almost single-handedly brought Australia back into the game and more than that it was the manner in which he bowled that marked him as something special. The fact he is only 18, and with just a handful of first-class matches under his belt is mind-boggling. Australia would appear to have found the basis from which to rebuild.

Another to provoke comparison with a recent great is the 22 year old West Indian batsman Darren Bravo, who with back to back centuries in the current series with India has the same batting average and just one run less than Brian Lara at the same stage of his career.

Bravo has reputedly based his batting on Lara and there is no mistaking the panache, style and manner of his fellow Trinidadian at the crease. Of the many promising players that have emerged in the Caribbean such as fellow batsman Kirk Edwards, speedster Kemar Roach and spinner Devendra Bishoo, Bravo stands at the head of the pack. A West Indian resurgence could be in the offing at last.

There are other promising young players – Virat Kohli to name but one, but the positive impression left by Cummins and Bravo in the last week means that they will be the ones to watch most closely over the next few years.

Where next?

Virat Kohli - The (Little) Master's Apprentice

Dale Steyn's formidable statistics

Cricket Heroes: Hashim Amla

The contrarian erudite genius of Peter Roebuck

Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes 

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Gideon Haigh speaks about Peter Roebuck

The excellent One Hand One Bounce weekly cricket podcast on the equally superb World Cricket Watch is always worth a listen and this week’s edition is even more so given that it stars the distinguished cricket writer Gideon Haigh.

As we wrote in our eulogy to Peter Roebuck yesterday, Roebuck and Haigh are in our opinion two of the three best cricket writers in the world today along with former England skipper Mike Atherton. In his tribute to Roebuck in the Times yesterday (which can also be read in The Australian), Atherton wrote how Haigh credited Roebuck as a pioneer in how cricket is written about today compared to previous generations:

"I don't think anyone in cricket writing had a voice like Peter's when he arrived on the scene in the early 1980s. You only have to contrast the way we wrote about cricket in the 1970s to the way we write about it now - Peter has been responsible for a lot of those developments."

So World Cricket Watch have pulled off quite a coup in getting Haigh on as a guest this week. He speaks very candidly about the life of Roebuck and his impact as one of the finest writers in the game. It’s truly fascinating and insightful stuff and definitely mandatory listening for any cricket fan.

Click on the link here to hear what Haigh had to say about Roebuck.

Where next?

Gideon Haigh eulogises Test cricket and compares it to The Pixies

The contrarian erudite genius of Peter Roebuck

Douglas Jardine, Gideon Haigh and The Daily Telegraph

Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

The contrarian erudite genius of Peter Roebuck

In death as in life, Peter Roebuck will probably best be remembered for a handful of controversial incidents.

He was a decent enough cricketer to have amassed 17,558 first-class runs at 37 with 33 hundreds and he was perhaps a tad unfortunate not to have played Test cricket - especially given the selection merry-go-round that existed in England in the 1980s.

But Roebuck's playing career was overshadowed by his central role as Somerset captain in the sacking of Viv Richards and Joel Garner and the subsequent acrimonious departure of Ian Botham.

The manner of his death means that there is a risk that the quality of Roebuck's writing will be forgotten in favour of speculation and scandalous rumour.

That would be a second tragedy, as irrespective of the circumstances that prompted him to leap to his death, Roebuck was a fine cricket writer and one of the best of his generation alongside the likes of Michael Atherton and Gideon Haigh.

As well as being an erudite, absorbing and engaging writer, what made Roebuck really stand out was that he wasn't afraid to take the contrary and sometimes controversial view. Even if one didn't always agree with him, his opinion was always strongly argued and endearingly composed.

In what is a fairly banal world, Roebuck's provocative views were like a breath of fresh air. Whether it was his incisive, illuminating and heartfelt observations on Zimbabwe or calling for the Ricky Ponting's head in 2008, Roebuck didn't do fence-sitting, which made his pieces all the more compulsive reading.

Roebuck was a splendid contrarian and a maverick genius with the pen  - the world of cricket writing is much worse for his departure.

Where next?

1st Test: South Africa v Australia - Australia marks out of 10

Gideon Haigh eulogises Test cricket and compares it to The Pixies

Cricket Heroes: Graham Dilley R.I.P

10 reasons why Ian Botham may have worn sunglasses at the premiere of 'From the Ashes'

Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes 

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

Cricket XIs: Cricketing Criminals

 
Whilst not quite plunging to the depths of its Football cousin, Cricket has had its fair share of miscreants, scoundrels, cheats and downright rotters over the years. Here’s an XI of Cricket Criminals:

1. Mark Vermeulen – Assaulting a spectator, Arson: The former Zimbabwe batsman seems to be a couple of pennies short of a sixpence and in 2006, he really lost the plot. First, after being heckled during a Lancashire league match he reacted in a Cantonaesque fashion by first throwing the ball and then a metal boundary marker at a spectator. After being banned for a year he headed back home and promptly burned down Zimbabwe's cricket academy before twice demanding an audience with President Mugabe by banging on the gates of his presidential palace.

2. Navjot Sidhu – Culpable homicide: In December 2006, Sidhu – the veteran of 51 Tests for India - was found guilty and sentenced to a three-year prison term for culpable homicide. This followed a road rage incident in 1988, which left a 65-year old man dead from injuries inflicted by Sidhu. After an appeal, the Supreme Court stayed his conviction and sentence allowing Sidhu to contest and win the Amritsar parliamentary seat in February 2007. Politics seems an apt place for characters like Sidhu.

3. Peter Roebuck – Assault: The former Somerset captain was convicted at Taunton Crown Court in 2001 of assaulting three young South African cricketers he had offered to coach at his home in Devon. He had warned them beforehand that he would use corporal punishment if they failed to obey his "house rules", and subsequently caned all three boys on their buttocks at different times for “misbehaviour”. Roebuck escaped with a suspended jail sentence and destroyed reputation, admitting to the court that “obviously I misjudged the mood…” Quite. Roebuck scurried off to Australia where he is now a respected and brilliant cricket journalist.

4. Hansie Cronje, Mohammad Azharuddin, Saleem Malik, Salman Butt – Corruption, Match-fixing, Spot-fixing: Take your pick from this vile quartet of former international captains who all chose money and greed above their countries; corrupting younger team members and plunging cricket into crisis in the bargain. It’s a shame that the number 11 in our XI didn’t save a bullet each for this disgraced foursome although given Cronje’s demise in a plane crash we could save two bullets for Butt. Just to make sure. 

5. Jacob Martin – Alleged People Trafficking: Martin, who played 10 ODIs for India between 1999 and 2001, was arrested at the end of April 2011 after evidence that he had been involved in a human trafficking incident in 2003. It is alleged that Martin formed a bogus team as cover for trafficking a young boy into the United Kingdom. It seems there may be a silver lining though for Martin, as reports have recently confirmed that he has made Tihar Jail’s 1st XI.

6. King Henry VIII– Cricket: Whether Henry VIII (who surely could have an all-rounder in the mould of W.G Grace) should be considered a criminal depends on your viewpoint of history. But he did criminalise the entire game of cricket at the height of the Reformation in 1536 when he ordered the youth of the realm to practice archery instead of "frivolous" activities "such as cricket-a-wicket". It is not known whether Anne Boleyn’s execution in the same year had anything to do with her playing surreptitious games of cricket with her ladies-in-waiting and the King’s Privy Council. 

7. Edward Pooley – Gambling, Match-fixing: Pooley would have been England’s wicket-keeper in the inaugural Test in Melbourne in 1877. Instead he got himself into a spot of bother after taking a wager on one of MCC’s tour matches in New Zealand, which resulted in a violent disagreement and a court appearance. This meant he literally missed the boat to Australia. Unsurprisingly, Pooley was never selected again and died in poverty in 1907.

8. Chris Lewis – Cocaine Trafficking: The former England all-rounder was jailed for 13 years in 2009 after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine into Britain. Lewis hid the drug in liquid form in tins of fruit and vegetable juice stashed in his kit bag. He always was a bit of a lemon,  not exactly renowned for his intelligence during a career that promised much but delivered little. Perhaps the best example of Lewis’s lack of faculty came when he decided to shave his head on a tour of the West Indies, and was dubbed ‘The Pratt without a Hat’ after being forced off the field with sunstroke.

9. Montague Druitt – Alleged serial killer, Jack the Ripper suspect: Druitt could well be the most notorious cricket criminal of them all. He was found drowned in the River Thames at the age of 31 in 1888. A keen all-rounder, he represented Winchester College, and the Morden Cricket Club of Blackheath amongst others. But Druitt may have led a sinister double-life with many Jack the Ripper experts concluding that Druitt was the man responsible for the infamous Whitechapel murders.

10. Terry Jenner – White collar robbery: The rehabilitated cricket criminal. A leg-spinner who played nine Tests for Australia in the 1970s, Jenner’s life nosedived after retiring and by 1988 he had lost his liberty after being caught stealing from his employer to repay gambling debts. Released after 18 months of his six-and-a-half-year term, Jenner hooked up with a young blond Victorian leg-spinner and the rest is history.

11. Leslie Hylton – Murder: He may not be a household name, but Hylton – a fast bowler who played six Tests for the West Indies in the 1930s - is the only Test cricketer to have been executed - for murdering his adulterous wife. It doesn’t appear to have been a case of a miscarriage of justice either as Hylton’s defence that he had meant to shoot himself but missed fell apart when it was revealed that his wife’s body had just the seven bullets in it.

Where next?

An XI of cricketers that died young

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

10 reasons why Ian Botham may have worn sunglasses at the premiere of 'From the Ashes'

Cricket Zeroes: Chris Lewis and Salman Butt

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