From the Editor

From the Editor http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/ en Copyright 2012 Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:06:50 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Remembering Roebuck

Roebuck held no allegiance when writing © PA Photos
I don’t precisely recall when and where I met Peter Roebuck first; it feels like I always knew him. It must have been in the English summer of 2001, or perhaps 2002. I am certain he was wearing a straw hat, and was struck by his physicality: large and strong hands, sharp nose, enquiring eyes, and hair protruding out of his ears. But the strongest, most lasting impression was left by his manner of delivering sweeping snap judgements. “I think the best cricket writing now comes out of India.” He said this out of the blue, without a preamble, and without bothering to qualify it. And this continued through my ten-year association with him, in emails, in conversation, and even in his columns. Of course, he was not always right. The last time I met him in person was in Sri Lanka during the last World Cup. He spoke animatedly about a young Sri Lankan journalist he had just met, and tried to persuade me to hire him as a writer. The young man in question walked up to us a few minutes later. He turned out to be a photographer. “How many times have we been told not to rush in to a judgement,” Roebuck said upon instant reflection. But nothing dissuaded him from making them. And often he was spot-on. His judgements were based not merely on the keenest understanding of the game but on a wider understanding of society, history and human behaviour, and his ability to connect the dots. Like all good writers, he was observant, sensitive, and deeply affected by the world outside, even as he grappled with his own complexities. Few drew better portraits of cricketers as human beings because few had the combination of his talents: having been a player himself, he had the ability to view the inner lives of cricketers from the outside. He grasped their torment, and had the gift with words with which to articulate it. At the top of his game, his writing was both profound and poignant. His writing, in a sense, was like Brian Lara’s batsmanship: it had beauty and depth, it reflected his moods, and while it could be inconsistent, it attained incomparable heights. Even his poorer pieces contained priceless gems. Among the cricket people I have known, he cared more than most about the game, and he worried incessantly about its future. He saw his writing as not merely a vocation but as an obligation to the game. To this effect, he became a missionary and avenger. In his latter years his concerns grew wider. He was deeply affected by the political situation in Zimbabwe, where he had a home, and he sometimes began exceeding his brief in his cricket writings. When Firdose Moonda, our South Africa correspondent, travelled to Zimbabwe to cover the country’s return to Test cricket, I sought Roebuck’s advice on stories she could pursue. For the next two weeks he wrote me almost daily, suggesting ideas, pointing me towards reports and other writings on Zimbabwe. Very few of these were cricket-related. ]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/11/remembering_roebuck.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/11/remembering_roebuck.php Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:06:50 +0000 Record crowd for record Test

The serpentine queues outside Lord's © Getty Images
Lord’s, the grandest of cricket grounds as far as the richness of heritage and history go, had a new chapter added to its pages today. Never has a Monday morning at the ground been so busy, so urgent and so alive. Not even the prospect of a first Ashes victory in 75 years brought so many people to the ground in 2009. Today’s full house beat that record by over 4000, but there is no account of those who had to return disappointed. I certainly haven’t seen a longer queue at a cricket ground, or anywhere for that matter, than today. It began right outside the St John’s Wood tube station, about half a kilometre from Lord’s, and snaked all around the stadium. And incredibly there were two of those. I was in Granada in the south of Spain last month where they sell a limited number of tickets for the magnificent Alhambra Palace. Though the ticket counter opened at 8.30 am I had been advised to go early; I reached there at 6 am, bleary and cold, and was astounded to find 15 people ahead of me. By all accounts, there were over a thousand outside Lord’s at that hour. Sam Collins, one half of the Chucks who do a delightful video diary for us, met the man who was first in one of the queues - he had reached there at 2 am.]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/07/record_crowd_for_record_test.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/07/record_crowd_for_record_test.php India in England 2011 Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:24:16 +0000 Talking legspin with TJ

To fully appreciate Jenner, you had to hear him talk legspin © Zimbabwe Cricket
If you like cricket, you had to like Terry Jenner. And if you love legspin you had to absolutely adore him. No one spoke more eloquently, knowledgeably, and passionately about legspin than him. I met him properly only once, but even years later, I can picturise him vividly. We met in the lobby behind the press box at the Adelaide Oval in 2003. That morning he had been in the nets with Shane Warne, preparing to make his comeback to international cricket after serving his one-year ban for taking diuretics. I had asked him for five minutes; he gave me close to an hour, during which I might have asked him no more than five questions. I did ask him, though, about the difference between Stuart MacGill and Warne. MacGill had benefitted from Warne’s absence and used the period profitably, claiming 43 wickets in eight Tests at 25.11, with a strike rate of 45.9. But of course he had made no impression on the touring Indians, nor was he expected to. During a meet-the-press event before the Test, MacGill, while giving fulsome praise to Warne, had questioned, only half in jest, his claims to mystery balls. “Stuart is right,” Jenner said. “There is only so much spin you can generate, and there are only so many balls you can bowl.” Then he counted them: the legbreak, the topspinner, the backspinner, the flipper and the googly. The difference between Warne and Macgill, he said, wasn’t the number of different balls they possessed or how much they spun the ball. It was in how the ball arrived at the batsman. ]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/05/talking_legspin_with_tj.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/05/talking_legspin_with_tj.php Terry Jenner Tue, 31 May 2011 15:45:16 +0000 A forgotten anniversary

Ten years ago, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid constructed a partnership that would change Indian cricket © AFP
While the senses are riveted on the World Cup, a landmark day in Indian cricket has gone unheralded, unacknowledged even. Ten years ago, on March 14, the foundation for the golden age of Indian Test cricket was laid by two remarkable men. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid looked defeat in the eye and refused to blink. Faced with a follow-on and an opposition which had won 16 Tests in a row, they batted on and on and on till hope and spirit drained off the Australians. For the record, they batted out the day, put on 376 runs for the 5th wicket, and the next day, which is ten years to the day today, Harbhajan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar spun out Australia for 212 to secure the improbablest of wins. This would remain the defining moment of Laxman’s career, but the feat would have been less significant had it just remained a freak event. But not only was this match and series turning, it also changed the course of Indian cricket. The momentum carried India to a win at Chennai, the confidence derived from beating the one of greatest-ever Test teams carried them on a journey that ended with them becoming the No. 1 Test team in the world. ]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/03/a_forgotten_anniversary.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/03/a_forgotten_anniversary.php Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:41:48 +0000 The joys of watching cricket on HD

The ad-free HD broadcast made the World Cup's most joyous day even more enjoyable © Getty Images
Ireland and Kevin O’Brien provided the World Cup its most joyous day yet, and while I would have loved to be at the ground, I had the next best viewing option available. My HD (high-definition) set-top box had arrived the day before, and what a joy it was to watch the crystal-clear pictures on wide screen – and, would you believe it, without a single ad. As the match went on – and even though there were periods during England’s innings when it was a one-way street, the clean feed kept me engaged – it became apparent how much of the game the India television viewer misses out on. You watched batsmen walk off the pitch after being dismissed. Alex Cusack went stoically, betraying no emotion. O’Brien went to a hero’s ovation, but you could see the mixed emotions as he acknowledged the cheers; he had played the innings of his life but the job wasn’t over yet, and indeed it could go all wrong from there. You also saw captains setting the field; batting partners having a chat; there were a few more graphics; and you heard commentators discuss a wicket after it has just fallen and, on other occasions, you heard them making small talk. And often, between the overs, the camera just lingered on the stands, going into the viewing balconies, and sometimes hanging idly over the field. Cricket is a contemplative game with lots of pauses, and it was nice for a change to feel those pauses as a television viewer. A few weeks ago, we devoted an entire Timeout show to the awfulness of the television experience for the Indian fan. The coverage of the World Cup so far has been far better – less ads, better commentary - but given the cost of rights, and that the cable industry isn’t the most transparent, it is unrealistic to expect the kind of broadcast available in England or Australia. The takeaway from the discussion was that, at the very least, the consumer needed to be given another option, and that option given, he should be prepared to pay. That option is available during the World Cup. The HD feed is more expensive to produce and uplink, but DTH operators can make this worthwhile by paying for this feed, and then it’s down to the subscriber to embrace the concept. If you are a cricket fan, it is worth every rupee. ]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/03/the_joys_of_watching_cricket_o.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/03/the_joys_of_watching_cricket_o.php Broadcasting Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:45:35 +0000 Introducing ESPNcricinfo's iPhone app

© ESPNcricinfo
Forgive me if this sounds a bit gushing, but as a long-time sucker for Apple’s temptations, I have been waiting for this one with childlike anticipation. And now that it is on my phone, I can say, hand on heart, that ESPNcricinfo’s iPhone app is a thing of beauty. And before anyone accuses me of being an Apple evangelist, let me add that this app is also available on the Android platform. Shrinking a huge site like ours to fit a mobile device was a challenge. “It’s a bit like building a scale model of a luxury car,” says Anil Nair, our director of Wireless Services. “The only difference is, you need to be able to drive it.” Anil and his team have done quite a job of it. We have had a fairly handy mobile-optimised site for a couple of years now, but I have always preferred to use the full site, even on my phone, which can be a struggle at lower bandwidths. I can happily switch over to the iPhone app now: it gives richness and depth at a good speed. Like all good iPhone apps, ours is simple and intuitive. The home screen offers quick access to news, scores and results, and to our lead writers. And the full menu offers a lot more, including video and audio, the full magazine section, and records. I was curious about how they’d fit cricket records tables, which often run into several columns, on a phone screen. They have found a simple solution: the columns are stacked up vertically, as against the traditional across-the-page display.]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/02/introducing_espncricinfos_ipho.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2011/02/introducing_espncricinfos_ipho.php Cricinfo Mon, 14 Feb 2011 04:13:50 +0000 Evolving Tendulkar remains India's best

Sachin Tendulkar continues to improve his game 21 years after he made his debut © Getty Images
The way things have panned out in this Test it would seem nothing has changed. Another stirring hundred from Sachin Tendulkar is likely to be, barring a washout tomorrow, in a hopelessly losing cause. And once again, the personal landmark of India’s favourite son will ease the pain of the failure of the team. Tendulkar’s 50th hundred will make it to the front pages tomorrow while the story of impending defeat will remain in the back pages. Of course many things have changed. India are no longer a one-man team. Whatever they have achieved in this decade, including reaching the No. 1 status in the ICC rankings, a feat unimaginable when Tendulkar started playing, is because they have had an outstanding bunch of players. But that he should, after 21 years, still be India’s finest batsman in conditions that challenged all India batsmen, is almost as incredible as him getting to 50 Test hundreds. In my memory it was John Wright who first spoke about 100 hundreds for Tendulkar. And he did it casually during a post-interview chat in February 2002. “It’s down to him how he wants to bat, how much he wants to push the envelope,” Wright, then India’s coach, said. “I have told him he should go for 100 hundreds.” It seemed almost fanciful then. Tendulkar’s tally was 59 at that point, 28 in Tests and 31 in ODIs, and he was nearly 30. But nothing about Wright was ever fanciful; he must have known.]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/12/evolving_tendulkar_remains_ind.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/12/evolving_tendulkar_remains_ind.php Sachin Tendulkar Sun, 19 Dec 2010 20:30:38 +0000 The bigger picture

Our Video and Audio homepage © ESPNcricinfo Ltd
I am sure you haven’t failed to notice the steady increase in video content on the site. While it hasn’t changed our faith in the invincibility and timelessness of the written word, we are also committed to exploiting the inclusiveness of our medium and present to our readers any additional options for consuming our content. Ian Chappell is still doing the same match analysis for us from the Ashes, but it’s now on video; which makes it a richer experience. But of course, video brings huge challenges. To start with it costs much more and is far more time-consuming. And then, on a professional level, it brings challenges in terms of skill. In addition to writing his daily pieces, Andrew Miller, our UK editor, has taken it upon himself to record Chappell, who has been wonderfully patient and accommodating as always, and upload the raw file, which can consume an hour, or even more. And recently we sent off senior editor Sharda Urga, who joined us earlier this year after more than 20 years in print, to interview Kapil Dev on video, and she came back wiser. I’ll let her relate her experiences:

“For print, you do some homework, scribble down a series of questions, check if you have new batteries and tapes [it's what the pre-digital generation does] at your command, test them for 30 seconds and then go and wait where you are supposed to. Hopefully the star turns up, is in a good mood, talks for ages and tells you his deepest secrets. “After transcription, you arrange the questions in whichever order makes them [and you] look intelligent. Often you can even reinvent the question so that it suits the answer. [Sometimes the fast bowler really doesn't want to offer an existential answer about his soul, and talks about his soles instead.] “Television is a different biscuit altogether. No, actually, it's a different grain. What it involves is inches and angles that exist outside the print journalist’s concerns and questions. It involves audio-visual machines. More gadgetry! Each of which had better be right or the alternative reality includes cantankerous cameramen and peeved producers. Is the lighting right or are lights needed? [They are two different things]. How about the sound? Would someone leaping into a swimming pool 20 feet away ruin the track? “All you must do is keep quiet (until someone says, “rolling”) and focus. Make sure the questions are in correct sequence, no leaping back and forth with various topics. Club them together logically (print people don't do logic or sequence, but the video business doesn't care). This is so that they can be edited quickly, cut correctly, uploaded/ broadcast seamlessly. “Speak in prose. No um-ming, er-ing, ah-ing. No matter how smart your rejoinder or supplementary question may be, no interrupting the subject. Never. He/she must first finish the answer and full-stop it before you are permitted to open your mouth. Abandon your ego and get used to doing "noddies". Which is to sit in front of the camera after the interviewee has left and nod your head. It's to fill in the visual gaps. To help the guy who will be cutting the interview. Oh, and please don't ask dumb questions.”

And you thought journos thought they knew everything. ]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/11/the_bigger_picture.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/11/the_bigger_picture.php Cricinfo Sat, 27 Nov 2010 12:58:19 +0000 Beyond boundaries

The Bangalore travel homepage © ESPNcricinfo Ltd
At ESPNcricinfo we are always trying to expand our range. We are fortunate that the canvas and the tapestry of cricket often allow us to venture out of our crease without feeling silly. That said, though, a travel section on a cricket site isn’t as radical as it might seem: in fact, having got the section up and running, we’re wondering what took us so long. All sports are shaped by their environment. There is a reason why cricket has struggled to find a base outside the Commonwealth nations. Within cricket, different countries, regions and states provide the game with its varied hues and textures. Not only do the Indians play their cricket in a distinctly different style and manner from the West Indians, Mumbai cricketers play the game differently from those in Delhi, just as cricketers in Yorkshire are different from those in Lancashire. To fully understand and appreciate cricket, you need to understand the places it’s played in. And as cricket’s biggest tournament travels to the World Cup, we have built a section that will allow you to explore the host countries before the World Cup begins. This isn’t merely a travel site about where to stay and what to eat and see. Those essentials are all there, but we’ve also made an attempt to find the cricket pulse of each city, explore its cricket heritage, and share cricket experiences. ]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/11/beyond_boundaries.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/11/beyond_boundaries.php Cricinfo Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:06:29 +0000 The best of the best

Now the quibbling can begin: Glichrist over Knott? © Associated Press
I am yet to meet a cricket fan who doesn’t fancy himself as a selector. This of course makes the job of professional selectors among the most hazardous in the business. Everyone thinks they could have done a better job than you and, no matter what team you pick, there would be a billion people disagreeing. But picking all-time XIs is always fun because it allows you to enter the realms of fantasy with nothing material at stake. So we stand accused of having indulged ourselves for over 15 months in picking all-time XIs of each major Test-playing country and then capping it off with a World XI. Judging from your whole-hearted participation, though, it’s clear that we haven’t been the only ones enjoying ourselves. ]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/10/the_best_of_the_best.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/10/the_best_of_the_best.php Legends Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:07:09 +0000 New Facebook functionality for ESPNcricinfo We implemented the now-ubiquitous "thumbs up" like button from Facebook at their F8 launch earlier this year and it's been tremendously successful, with thousands of you liking and recommending stories, players, countries, teams and series each day. This was good, but we felt there was a lot of scope for improvement and an opportunity to offer personalisation. If you actively decide that you like a particular player, or your favourite team, then we feel that's a strong enough indication to us that you're interested in hearing more about that person or country. So now, if you've already liked a certain individual on ESPNcricinfo.com, you'll receive any related stories which are published on the site - straight to your Facebook wall. It includes a summary of the story and a link, so you can go straight to it or share it with your friends.

For example, you could like England, MS Dhoni and Kevin Pietersen and perhaps The Ashes. When an England story is published, you'll be pinged on Facebook. If Pietersen cracks a ton, you'll be first to hear. And when Ricky Ponting decides to bat on an unseasonal greentop at the 'Gabba next month, the Ashes will be fed straight to you without you lifting a finger. We hope you enjoy it.]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/10/new_facebook_functionality_for.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/10/new_facebook_functionality_for.php Cricinfo Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:37:38 +0000 Spirit now and spirit then Suraj Randiv’s crime in denying Virender Sehwag a hundred, here’s a little story narrated with glee by Bishen Singh Bedi during his memorial lecture for the late Dilip Sardesai in Mumbai. Neither Bedi nor Sardesai quite distinguished themselves as athletes and the only person more terrified than Sardesai when a catch went up in air anywhere near him was the bowler. Sardesai usually lounged about in the mid-on area, and on Australian grounds this could often be a real ordeal because the ball took that longer to reach the boundary and the chase had to be maintained. The straight boundaries at Adelaide were the worst. They are still the longest, but these days the rope is a few metres in. Those days, you had to chase the ball right down the picket fences. Once after an Australian batsman had driven the ball past mid-on, Sardesai pursued the ball for such an eternity that the batsmen had time to turn for the fifth run. And then, with a flourish and agility his team-mates had never suspected of him, he dived forward to push the ball to the fence to restrict the batsmen to four. The story raised the biggest laugh that evening. ]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/08/spirit_now_and_spirit_then.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/08/spirit_now_and_spirit_then.php Sat, 21 Aug 2010 09:02:14 +0000 Out of proportion

Once Virender Sehwag accepted Suraj Randiv's apology, that should have been the end of that © Getty Images
I wonder if I am desperately out of sync with this but I am quite bemused by the colour Suraj Randiv’s century-denying no-ball to Virender Sehwag has acquired. Having been persuaded out for dinner with the family, I missed the last half hour of the match and caught Sehwag’s six on a shop window around which a crowd had gathered. The crowd rejoiced as Sehwag raised his bat and I walked on. It was only after logging on at home that I realised Sehwag had been stranded on 99. When I watched the replay it felt schoolboyishly petty. The overstepping looked deliberate and, coming after the four byes conceded three balls previously, it seemed the Sri Lankans had a design to deny Sehwag a well-earned hundred. Overall, it felt mean-spirited. It was immediately apparent that there would be a few headlines about it next day. But even making allowances for the media’s ability to exaggerate, there’s a touch of ridiculousness about the way the matter has played out. The forthright manner in which Sehwag expressed his disappointment was characteristic of him; you expected him to move on quickly. And when it turned out that Randiv had come over to say sorry, the matter should have ended there. Instead, it took a turn for the ridiculous. Whispers emerged about the complicity of Kumar Sangakkara in the crime – after all, the four byes had slipped through his gloves – and the Sri Lanka captain was forced to protest his innocence. Some newspapers devoted a whole page to the incident, summoning the ICC and MCC for explanations. There was even a reference to Monkeygate somewhere in there. The most bizarre play, though, came from the Sri Lankan cricket board. It apologised for the breach of spirit and, more, it announced an enquiry into the incident. Little fazes Sehwag but it’s not unreasonable to assume that even he might find this a bit embarrassing. Centuries matter, but cricketers move on swiftly after the missed ones.]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/08/out_of_proportion.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/08/out_of_proportion.php Cricket concerns Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:25:50 +0000 A new look for Cricinfo blogs

The all new Cricinfo blogs home-page © Cricinfo

You are reading this on a page different from the one you’re used to seeing for a Cricinfo blog. I must admit it took us longer to get here - the blogs section was feeling, in a visual sense, more and more disconnected with the other parts of the site - than we bargained for, but it’s been a busy few months for the design and production teams. Since the redesign of Cricinfo, they have relaunched a Formula One site and delivered a World Cup one for Soccernet, while continuing to polish Cricinfo. The real purpose of a redesign, of course, goes beyond the cosmetic. Not only does the blogs section now look better integrated with the rest of the site, we also believe it is more reader-friendly. The page headers are cleaner and sharper, the text-display panel wider, and the type better spaced. The navigation has been shortened to make it look less cluttered, and all blogs are available via a couple of dropdown menus and on the page footer. ]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/06/a_new_look_for_cricinfo_blogs.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/06/a_new_look_for_cricinfo_blogs.php Cricinfo Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:04:54 +0000 Football, the occasional mistress

Torn between Lionel Messi and a thrilling fifth day of Test? © Bongarts Cricket is an enduring romance for me, but once every four years, when the World Cup comes around, I submit to the illicit pleasures of football. Club football has rarely held any appeal for me; I might occasionally catch a game with the kids and be touched by a burst of individual brilliance, but I can't get myself to feel anything for a club, just as I can't, despite trying, feel any kinship towards the IPL teams. Mumbai is my home, but I couldn't bring myself to feel a trace of pain when Mumbai Indians were losing to Chennai Super Kings in the IPL final. I root for them in the Ranji Trophy, but must I care for a team brought together by Mukesh Ambani's money? Of course, being a sports fan is about appreciating the skills of the players and the thrill of a contest. But even more than that, it's about being able or unable to relate to something. I relate to Roger Federer, as I did to John McEnroe. I relate to Lionel Messi, too, but through him I find it impossible to relate to Barcelona the way I would with Argentina. Sitting thousands of miles away, feeling a bit errant about ditching Test cricket, which was on television as the same time, I felt far more deeply for the South African football team, a side I had never watched before, than I have ever done for an IPL team. I switched to the game while another South African team were battling away in my chosen sport. Jacques Kallis had been dismissed in Port of Spain, the ball was gripping and turning, and Ashwell Prince had just danced down the pitch to play an airy drive. And though I kept coming back to the Test, I couldn't keep my eyes off the South African men in the yellow jerseys for too long. Even at the risk of disloyalty, it was the better story. Rank underdogs -- they are only at the World Cup because they are the hosts -- but lifted by the will of the nation, they filled the opening match with spirit and emotion. Katlego Mphela, after pulling away from the defender and dodging the goalkeeper in a sensational burst, hit the woodwork in the 90th minute. I have my favourite teams at the World Cup; now I just have to support one more.]]> http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/06/football_the_occasional_mistre_1.php http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/fromeditor/archives/2010/06/football_the_occasional_mistre_1.php Cricket and Football Sat, 12 Jun 2010 05:25:12 +0000