Graeme Swann retires from cricket

Graeme Swann, the England off spinner, has retired from all international cricket and first-class cricket with immediate effect.

Swann, 34, will not play in the final two Tests of the Ashes tour and will finish his career with 255 wickets at 29.96 from his 60 Tests. However, on a disappointing tour of Australia in which England have gone down 3-0 after the first three Tests, Swann has been one of the senior players who has failed to have an impact and has managed only seven wickets at 80.

 

Swann's decision means Monty Panesar is likely to take the role of lead spinner for the remaining two Tests, but the broader question of who will be England's long-term Test spinner remains unclear. Swann himself nominated the Durham legspinner Scott Borthwick as a potential replacement who could add to the all-round "x-factor" that Ben Stokes had already brought to the team on this tour.

Swann noted that the success of Stokes, who scored England's first century of the Ashes series in their defeat at the WACA, was indicative of the way the senior men had failed to stand up on this trip. It was a very different scenario in England earlier this year, when Swann was the leading wicket taker from either side with 26 victims, and at the time it appeared that he may still have some chance of surpassing Derek Underwood to become England's leading Test spinner of all time.

England have not threatened to do that on this tour and Swann has had a miserable time on the pitch. There has been a concerted Australian plan, which has obviously been extraordinarily effective, to target Swann, who has been such a vital component in England's recent success. He has never been hit for six so often since beginning his Test career five years ago. Moreover the Australian bowlers have neutered him as a batsman. Swann has always been the most gifted driver of a cricket ball. He has had nothing to drive in Australia. Instead he has been constantly peppered by Ryan Harris and Mitchell Johnson.

However, Swann will finish 42 wickets short of Underwood's tally of 297, leaving him sixth overall on England's all-time wicket tally behind Ian Botham, James Anderson, Bob Willis, Fred Trueman and Underwood. That was a significant achievement given that Swann did not make his Test debut until the age of 29, but his consistency meant that he missed only six of the 66 Tests that England had played since then.

Since his debut in December 2008, Swann was Test cricket's leading wicket taker from any country, his 255 victims well ahead of Anderson (232), Stuart Broad (207) and Dale Steyn (205), who were the next best in that period. He was Man of the Match on six occasions, most recently for his 10-wicket haul against New Zealand at Headingley in May. Swann told his England team-mates of his decision on Sunday morning in Melbourne.

Swann’s brilliance stemmed from the amount of revolutions he was able to impart on the ball with his flexible fingers and a double whirl of his bowling arm, the highest among finger spinners who did not have pronounced kinks in their actions. When you get a sphere with a seam rotating that quickly, it begins to have quirky flight paths. Swann spun the ball sharply but good batsmen were undone more by the variations to his flight, dip and drift, which made up for his lack of a doosra.

Swann retires having been an integral part of three Ashes-winning teams, an England side which was ranked the best Test team in the world at one point, and another which won the World T20 tournament in 2010. Apart from his Test appearances, Swann will depart with 104 wickets from 79 one-day internationals and 51 wickets from 39 Twenty20 internationals. He also paid tribute to his two county sides, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire.

Paul Farbrace Named New Sri Lanka Head Coach

Paul Farbrace, the former Sri Lanka assistant coach, has been appointed the new Sri Lanka coach on a two-year contract, starting on January 1.

 

The Executive Committee of SLC arrived at this decision after engagement with the committee appointed to nominate the most suitable candidate for SLC. The committee was headed by Mr. Ranjith Fernando (Chairman Cricket Committee) which also comprised Mohan De Silva (Vice President), Nishantha Ranatunga (Secretary), Nuski Mohamed (Treasurer), Sanath Jayasuriya (Chairman National Selection Committee), Ashley De Silva (CEO) and Jerome Jayaratne (Head of Coaching). The final decision  was made after much deliberation as a selection of Sri Lankan candidates showed commendable credentials as applicants to this post.

Farbrace, who will shortly finish his tenure with Yorkshire's second XI, had been one of the original 11 applicants for the job, before withdrawing, then renewing his interest in the role. He takes the job ahead of current assistant coach Marvan Atapattu and Sussex club coach Mark Davis, who had been the other shortlisted candidates.

Farbrace was assistant coach under Trevor Bayliss from 2007 to 2009, a period in which Sri Lanka rose to No. 2 in the Test rankings and progressed to a World Twenty20 final. He had left the job in order to become Kent's director of cricket, but said he had a "strong affinity for Sri Lanka" at the time of his application for the job.

He was wounded along with seven Sri Lankan players in March 2009 when a dozen gunmen opened fire on their bus in Lahore, Pakistan. He left his post four months after the attack, in which he was struck by a piece of shrapnel in his right arm, and became Kent's director of cricket. He later moved to Yorkshire, stating that he wanted to rediscover his joy in developing young players.

His first assignment will be at the Asia Cup in Bangladesh in February. He will then coach the team at the next World Twenty20, which is also due to be held in Bangladesh in March-April. The current coach, Graham Ford is expected complete the ongoing series of three Tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 games against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

Farbrace joined Yorkshire as part of a coaching shake-up which saw Jason Gillespie take over as first-team coach in 2010. His return to Headingley will be relatively swift: Sri Lanka face England in the opening Test series of the summer next June.

Good luck for the new Sri Lankan head coach Paul Farbrace.

Waqar Younis and Adam Gilchrist: ICC Hall of Fame 2013

   Waqar Younis Maitla is a former Pakistani right-arm fast bowler in cricket and widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. As of 2012, he holds the record for the youngest Pakistani Test captain and the third youngest Test captain in history (22 years 15 days).  He played 87 Tests and 262 One Day International (ODI) matches for Pakistan during his international cricket career from 1989 to 2003.
Waqar was named among the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1992 for his sporting achievements. He is also the only bowler to have taken 5 wickets in an innings in 3 consecutive One Day International matches. In terms of deliveries bowled, he has taken the fastest 50, 300, 350 and 400 wickets in One Day International matches and the fastest 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 wickets in Test matches.

Although primarily a fast bowler, Waqar scored 1010 Test match runs during his career. As of September 2005, he was the only non-batsman to achieve a thousand runs without scoring a fifty. Waqar holds the record for the best strike rate for any bowler with over 350 Test wickets.

International Cricket Council on 9 December 2013 announced that they had inducted Waqar in the prestigious ICC Hall of Fame. Waqar become the 70th male members of the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He will joins Camp patriot Hanif Mohammad as well as his former teammates Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram.

  Adam Craig Gilchrist, nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is a former Australian cricketer who has captained Kings XI Punjab and Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national team through his aggressive batting. He is considered to be one of the greatest wicket-keeper–batsmen in the history of the game. He holds the world record for the most dismissals by a wicket keeper in One Day International (ODI) cricket and the most by an Australian in Test cricket. His strike rate is amongst the highest in the history of both ODI and Test cricket; his century against England at Perth in December 2006 is the second-fastest century in all Test cricket. He is the only player to have hit 100 sixes in Test cricket. His 17 Test and 16 ODI centuries are the most by a wicket-keeper. He holds the unique record of scoring at least 50 runs in successive World Cup finals (in 1999, 2003 and 2007) and is one of only three players to have won three titles.

Gilchrist was one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 2002, and Australia's One-day International Player of the Year in 2003 and 2004. He was awarded the Allan Border Medal in 2003,[213] and was the only Australian cricketer who was a current player at the time to have been named in "Richie Benaud's Greatest XI" in 2004. He was selected in the ICC World XI for the charity series against the ACC Asian XI, 2004–05, was voted as "World's Scariest Batsman" in a poll of international bowlers, and was named as wicket-keeper and opening batsman in Australia's "greatest ever ODI team." In a poll of over ten thousand people hosted in 2007 by Cricinfo, he was voted the ninth greatest all-rounder of the last one hundred years. A panel of prominent cricket writers selected him in Australia's all-time best XI for Cricinfo. Gilchrist has not only left his mark on Australian cricket but the whole cricketing world.

In 2010, Gilchrist was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to cricket and the community. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2012. On 9-December-2013, ICC announced that they had inducted Gilchrist in the prestigious ICC Hall of Fame.

Michael Clarke Gets Top ICC Honours

Australia captain Michael Clarke was today announced as the winner of the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year and was also named as the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year.

                       

The show is hosted by former Australia captain Ricky Ponting who won the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy in 2006 and 2007, ICC Test Cricketer of the Year in 2006 and was appointed captain of ICC's ODI Team of the Year in 2007, 2008 and 2010.

Clarke was earlier named in the ICC Test and ODI Teams of the Year in Mumbai on 3 December. In the same event, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was revealed as the LG People’s Choice award winner.

Clarke has been joined on the winners’ list by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, who was named ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year, and India’s Cheteshwar Pujara, who claimed his first-ever ICC award after being named the ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year.

Also joining Pujara on the winners list for the first time are New Zealand captain Suzie Bates, who won the ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year award, Pakistan fast bowler Umar Gul, whose five for six against South Africa won him the ICC T20I Performance of the Year award, Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien, who won the Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year award, and Richard Kettleborough of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires, who won the David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year.

England’s Sarah Taylor clinched the ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year award for the second year in a row, while Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardena won his second ICC Spirit of Cricket award, this time for walking without waiting for an umpire’s decision when batting on 91 against New Zealand in Galle in November 2012.

In total there are 11 individual awards, as well as the two ICC Teams of the Year – for Tests and ODIs.

The full list of winners is:

ICC Cricketer of the Year (Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy) – Michael Clarke (Australia)

ICC Test Cricketer of the Year – Michael Clarke (Australia)

ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year – Suzie Bates (New Zealand)  
       
ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year – Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year – Cheteshwar Pujara (India)

ICC Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year – Kevin O’Brien (Ireland)

ICC Twenty20 International Performance of the Year – Umar Gul (Pakistan)

ICC T20I Women’s Cricketer of the Year – Sarah Taylor (England)

ICC Spirit of Cricket Award – Mahela Jayawardena (Sri Lanka)

ICC Umpire of the Year (winning the David Shepherd Trophy) – Richard Kettleborough

LG People’s Choice – MS Dhoni

ICC Test Team of the Year is as follows (in batting order):

Alastair Cook (Eng - Captain),.Cheteshwar Pujara (Ind), Hashim Amla (SA), Michael Clarke (Aus), Michael Hussey (Aus), AB de Villiers (SA), MS Dhoni (Ind – wicketkeeper), Graeme Swann (Eng), Dale Steyn (SA), James Anderson (Eng), Vernon Philander (SA), 12th Man – Ravichandran Ashwin (Ind)

ICC ODI Team of the Year is as follows (in batting order):

Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Shikhar Dhawan (Ind), Hashim Amla (SA), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), AB de Villiers (SA), MS Dhoni (Ind, wicketkeeper/captain), Ravindra Jadeja (Ind), Saeed Ajmal (Pak), Mitchell Starc (Aus), James Anderson (Eng), Lasith Malinga (SL), 12th Man – Mitchell McClenaghan (NZ)

 

100 Games for Ashes Captains: Alastair Cook and Michael Clarke

 Australia captain Michael Clarke has lauded England counterpart Alastair Cook ahead of the pair's 100th Test appearance for their respective nations. The first player to manage 100 Tests was fellow Englishman Colin Cowdrey in 1968 and the next Geoff Boycott in 1981. Clarke and Cook will be 57th and 58th on the table.

History says he will have the rare and unfortunate duty of handing back the Ashes, something that only David Gower (1989) and Andrew Flintoff (2007) have been forced to do amongst England captains during the past 30 years.

The 32-year-old Clarke made his debut in India in 2004, late in Australia's prime period in modern cricket, and has scored 7,940 runs at an average of 52.58. This leaves Clarke with the third highest average amongst any of Australia's leading run scorers. Only the incomparable Don Bradman (99.94) and Greg Chappell (53.86) have averaged more. Clarke is also a reasonable Test away from 8000 runs, needing 60 to become the sixth Australian to manage the feat. If he scores his 27th hundred Clarke will go past Mark Waugh to become Australia's fifth highest run scorer. In another nice piece of synergy the last Australian to make 8000 runs, Ricky Ponting, did it in his 100th Test. Like Clarke, Ponting scored a century in his 99th Test and the current skipper may be heartened to hear that his former captain made a hundred in each innings of his 100th Test, 120 and 143 not out against South Africa during 2005-06.

Cook, who will turn 29 later this month, made his debut in India in 2006 and has scored 7,883 runs at an average of 47.20, the kind of return that his deputy believes already puts him on the path to greatness. It is that resilience with is the hallmark of Cook's career. He is a limited player technically yet has scored more centuries that any other Englishman, 25. Should he get to another in Perth, and manage 117 or more, it will give him 8000 Test runs. Only Graham Gooch, Alec Stewart, David Gower and Geoff Boycott have achieved the feat before him for England but Kevin Pietersen needs just 12 runs to join the club.

Will it be the Michael Clarke’s first ever Ashes win or Alastair Cook’s first win in the Ashes 2013?

 

Nelson Mandela: "He is now at Peace"

 Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo in Umtatu, then a part of South Africa's Cape Province. Given the forename Rolihlahla, a Xhosa term colloquially meaning "troublemaker", in later years he became known by his clan name, Madiba. His patrilineal great-grandfather, Ngubengcuka, was ruler of the Thembu people in the Transkeian Territories of South Africa's modern Eastern Cape Province. One of this king's sons, named Mandela, became Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela  was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary who was imprisoned and then became a politician and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the first black South African to hold the office, and the first elected in a fully representative election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as the President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1991 to 1997. Internationally, Mandela was the Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999.

Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. An international campaign lobbied for his release, which was granted in 1990 amid escalating civil strife. Mandela published his autobiography and opened negotiations with President F.W. de Klerk to abolish apartheid and establish multiracial elections in 1994, in which he led the ANC to victory. As South Africa's first black president Mandela formed a Government of National Unity in an attempt to defuse racial tension. He also promulgated a new constitution and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. Continuing the former government's liberal economic policy, his administration introduced measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty, and expand healthcare services. Internationally, he acted as mediator between Libya and the United Kingdom in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, and oversaw military intervention in Lesotho. He declined to run for a second term, and was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela subsequently became an elder statesman, focusing on charitable work in combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Although Mandela was a controversial figure for much of his life, he became widely popular during the last two decades following his release. Despite a minority of critics who continued to denounce him as a communist and/or terrorist, he nevertheless gained international acclaim for his activism, having received more than 250 honours, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Soviet Order of Lenin and the Bharat Ratna. He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, or as Tata ("Father"); he is often described as "the father of the nation". Mandela retired from public life in 2004 with the half-joking directive, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you,” and had largely stepped out of the spotlight, spending much of his time with family in his childhood village.

His health had been fragile in recent years. He had spent almost three months in a hospital in Pretoria after being admitted in June for a recurring lung infection. Nelson Mandela has been thought of a super-human person, revered by many – and during recent weeks and months he's been preparing his nation and the world for his eventual passing. NBC News Special Correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault shares her memories of Nelson Mandela.

He was released on September 1 and officials had said only that he was responding to treatment until a flurry of activity outside his Johannesburg home Thursday evening, followed by the official announcement of his death. Mandela died following a long illness on 5 December 2013, aged 95, at his home in Johannesburg.

Cook and Dhoni named ICC Test and ODI captains of the year

The ICC Test Team of the Year is an honour awarded each year by the International Cricket Council. It recognizes the top players from around the world. The team does not actually compete, but exists solely as an honorary entity.

Test team: Alastair Cook (Eng, captain), Cheteshwar Pujara (Ind), Hashim Amla (SA), Michael Clarke (Aus), Michael Hussey (Aus), AB de Villiers (SA), MS Dhoni (Ind), Graeme Swann (Eng)Dale Steyn (SA), James Anderson (Eng), Vernon Philander (SA). 12th Man: Ravichandran Ashwin (Ind)

England captain Alastair Cook has received a welcome boost ahead of this week's Ashes clash against Australia after he was named skipper of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) test team of the year. Alastair Cook making his third consecutive year for the ICC test XI. This year Cook not just a player in the team, he named the test captain for the year 2013. Dale Steyn Make his sixth time for the world test XI and level with Kumar Sangakkara for the most selected player. AB de Villiers making his 5^th appearance for the team. Hashim Amla, MS Dhoni , Graeme Swann and James Anderson named for their 3^rd year for the test XI. Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey and Vernon Philander make to the for the second time. Young Indian stars Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin makes their fist appearance for the test team.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who led India to the Champions Trophy victory in June, was named captain of ICC's one-day international team. Dhoni, who found place in the 50-over side for the sixth successive year, also won the ICC's people's choice award ahead of Cook, Australia's Michael Clarke, Virat Kohli of India and South Africa's AB de Viliers.

South African captain AB de Villiers makes his third time for the ODI team. Three Sri Lankan’s Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Lasith Malinga making their third time for the ICC ODI XI. Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal makes his second appearance for the team. It is a big year for more young players. So ICC named six young players for the team. Shikhar Dhawan, Hashim Amla, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Starc, James Anderson and Mitchell McClenaghan make their first appearance for the team.

ODI team: Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Shikhar Dhawan (Ind) Hashim Amla (SA), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), AB de Villiers (SA), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain), Ravindra Jadeja (Ind), Saeed Ajmal (Pak), Mitchell Starc (Aus), James Anderson (Eng), Lasith Malinga (SL). 12th Man: Mitchell McClenaghan (NZ).