Tabla de contenidos para 2022-23 en Universal’s Summer Cricket Guide

The line of West Indian batting geniuses since 1930 is central in cricket’s wonderful, enduring storyline. From their Test infancy, almost every West Indian side for the next 75 years, until the retirement of Brian Lara in 2006, included at least one champion. But life after Brian became blurred before fading altogether. With due respect to more recent trio Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, they each had their moments without fully blossoming and becoming true icons like George Headley and co. The current West Indian team led by Kraigg Brathwaite underwhelms. The captain is a grafter, as is young Trinidadian wicketkeeper/batsman Joshua da Silva. There are one or two dashers in the middle-order and two excellent allrounders in Jermaine Blackwood and Jason Holder. In the Caribbean they can…

CAPTAIN AARON FINCH Opening batsman. Club: Geelong. Test debut: 2018-19, ODI debut 2012-13, T20 debut 2010-12. Tests: 5, ODIs: 140, T20s: 92. Has made 19 white-ball centuries. Has captained Australia in 49 ODIs (26 wins & 23 losses) and 65 T20s (35 wins, 27 losses, 1 tie, 2 no results). A long-time knee injury settled enough for him to lead Australia’s two white-ball teams to Sri Lanka in June. Remains among the cleanest hitting, most audacious openers in the world game, as shown by his career-best 172 in a T20 against Zimbabwe at Harare in 2018. Is a white-ball specialist now, his only recent Victorian matches coming at Marsh Cup level in autumn 2022. Is now in his twilight years, the Twenty20 World Cup likely to be his last multi-nationed…

While Australia finished with its worst loss in history to Sri Lanka, the lessons learnt are numerous, says captain Pat Cummins. Cummins believes the players will be able to better adapt to upcoming conditions in India when the first of the four Test series is played from February. ‘Half our batting line-up and half our bowling line-up hasn’t played a lot over here on the subcontinent,’ he said after the final Test in Sri Lanka. ‘The experience on these two vastly different… we got a lot of lessons out of it to take to India next year.’ Cummins said a second morning collapse in the second Test at Galle in early July was directly responsible for Australia’s demise. Having won the first day, ending at 5-298 at stumps, they then…

KERR EARNS FIRST CONTRACT Kurtis Patterson is again captaining NSW in 2022-23 with the retirement of veteran wicketkeeper Peter Nevill. The tall left-hander is among an elite group to have tallied 5000 first-class runs, including a century on debut as an 18-year-old. A broken finger interrupted his season last summer. The last of his two Tests was in 2019. Hayden Kerr, one of the revelations of the 2021-22 season, is vying for an all-round spot after four Shield and three Marsh Cup games in his breakthrough representative summer. Opening batsman Blake Nikitaras is among an array of promising hopefuls to gain rookie status after scoring 44 and 56 on debut in the final red-ball game of the season, in Adelaide in late March. Those also lifted to rookie status by…

TASSIE’S SELECTION SNUB Tasmania began the new representative season needing to make up ground, fast. Only one of its cricketers, Matthew Wade, was considered among the nation’s top 40 cricketers who represented Australia or Australia A in Sri Lanka in winter. The re-signing of Peter Siddle, 38 in November, was a tribute to the ex-mainlander’s passion, skill and mentorship, but highlighted the scarcity of distinguished cricketers in the state. With Tim Paine no longer involved, not one Tasmanian has a national contract. While the side is invariably competitive and finished third in both the Sheffield Shield and Marsh Cup competitions last summer, the need to produce more Australian-standard players is pressing. ‘We have a good mix of senior and emerging players within the list,’ said head coach Jeff Vaughan. ‘We…

This entertaining and unique dictionary touches cricket at all levels.A 224-page softback, it is ideally priced for Christmas at $19.99. Find out about: • The boys who saved Shane Warne and Don Bradman from drowning, 50 years apart;• The bush batting legend who forgot his bat;• The noted stone-waller who played boogie-woogie piano;• The bush ground where one boundary is so close you are given only two;• The fast bowler who went AWOL to the Caulfield races and was timed out;• The Test paceman who bowled in bloomers;• The 73-year-old who played first-grade; Here is a sneak preview: AB ‘Bev’ Kerrigan: Captaining Trinity Grammar in a school match, he was feeling rather pleased with himself, having struck seven boundaries in the final over before lunch, only tobe told by coach…

Shane Warne was as loved and idolised in Australia as Don Bradman. Bubbly, approachable and unaffected, his death in autumn, aged 52, stunned cricket fans globally. Many of us still are numbed. Warne was an on-field genius who reinvented a lost art and left a breath-taking legacy to a game he fell into. His Twitter following of 2.4 million rivaled the popularity of even the Hollywood stars. Richie Benaud often marveled at Warne’s skillset, saying he would spin his heavenly leg-break even on ice. Thank goodness he chose cricket over his first sporting love: AFL. Victoria’s coach David Hookes once asked him at one of his first pre-season sessions after injury how many days – or weeks – it would normally take him to feel like he was back in…

‘EVEN ONE EARLY LOSS COULD DERAIL AUSTRALIA’S WHOLE CAMPAIGN…’ The springtime Twenty20 World Cup is likely to be the farewell tournament for Australia’s captain Aaron Finch, his opening partner David Warner and long-time white ball wicketkeeper Matthew Wade. Thirty-six in November, Finch has already retired from first-class match play and says there is little point playing again even at white-ball domestic levels, as it would deny younger players of opportunity. He says it would be a career highpoint to hold the ICC Trophy aloft in his hometown Melbourne come the final on November 13. Australia is defending its 2021 crown won in the UAE last year. Australia’s long-time short-form captain is wishing for a fairytale finish. Warner, 36 and Wade, 34 will almost certainly also be making their final T20…

Nathan Lyon has bowled almost 30,000 finger spun deliveries on 44 Test grounds home and away since 2011. Add another 20,000 balls domestically, plus hour upon hour of practice and backyard and driveway teen tests, it makes for a lifetime of unwavering commitment. So conditioned is he that ‘Gazz’ could probably bowl a sharply spun off-break on a good length in his sleep. He’s a natural who shows little sign of wearing out. But he must – one day. Eventually the ball won’t have quite as many rotations and won’t bounce with the same fizz, like his delicious opening delivery of the series at Galle in June which all but castled Sri Lanka’s captain Dimuth Karunaratne on his way to nine wickets for the match. He’s grooved, fit and fantastic…

‘HIS SHOULDER CONTACT… WAS RECKLESS AT BEST.’ While Pat Cummins’ status as the No.1 fast bowler in the world is fully merited, challenging consistently for the top-ranking mantle is a South African with just as many skills and attributes. Kagiso Rabada has an established top five ICC ranking, more Test wickets than Cummins, a comparable bowling average and a superior strike-rate. He is also faster. Rabada’s quickest deliveries border on 150 km/h. That’s genuinely discomforting pace – and a notch or two above the speed levels engendered by Australia’s most menacing paceman. Their spells maintain unrelenting pressure on a batsman. There is no relief. Even on flat, lifeless pitches, they hit the pitch hard on a difficult length. Their pace and variations can unseat even champion batsmen, well set. Like…

CAPTAIN DEAN ELGAR Aged 35, Titans. Left-hand opening batsman. Test debut: 2012-13, Tests: 76, 4864 runs at 39.54, highest score 199, 13 100s, strike-rate 47; 15 wickets at 44.86, best bowling 4-22 v India, Mohali 2015-16. Tests v Australia: 10, 604 runs at 33, hs 141*, Cape Town 2017-18, 2 100s; 3/172. ODI debut: 2012, ODIs: 8 (last ODI in October 2018). Leading into the wintertime Tests in England, Elgar had captained South Africa in 11 Tests for 8 wins & 3 losses. Third tour of Australia. Resolute opener who operates to the old Jack Hobbs adage: never cut before lunch or hook before May. Few build an innings or bat time like the gritty left-hander. Six of his Test centuries have come since he turned 30. Exclusively a red-ball…

PEIRSON ON THE VERGE Jimmy Peirson’s stocks continue to rise with his call-up in winter into the Australia A squad in Sri Lanka. Locals believe the energetic 30-year-old is the second best keeper in the country, especially at red-ball level, behind Testman Alex Carey. The Bulls bolstered their pace stocks for 2022, adding Kane Richardson (South Australia) and Liam Guthrie (West Australia) to its squad. Neither played a red-ball game last summer and could do their best work in the Marsh Cup and at BBL level. While Billy Stanlake shifted to Tasmania, fellow paceman Gurinder Sandhu earned a full Bulls contract for the first time after a dominant season in which he captured 25 wickets in six games, including back-to-back ‘five-fors’ in Adelaide and Melbourne. Left-hander Jack Clayton, who made…

MURPHY’S FAST-TRACKING A BOON The emergence of bespectacled spin bowler Todd Murphy, one of the youngest at 21 currently on a full state contract, has been one of the foremost ‘good news’ stories for Victorian cricket. Murphy emerged from bush cricket and the BBL into Victoria’s Sheffield Shield team for its final home match of the Covid-shortened 2021-22 summer. He appeared in the unofficial Australia A ‘test’ series in Colombo late in June. Murphy plays at St Kilda, where his father Jamie was a stellar first XI batsman for years. Two more of Victoria’s most promising cricketers are fast bowlers Cameron McClure and Brody Couch, the Australian Cricket Society’s Young Cricketer of the Year who both played at first-class level for the first time. McClure’s improvement was recognised with his…

After the captivating highs of its Ashes success and Commonwealth Games involvement earlier in the year, Australia’s champion women’s XI has new challenges ahead. White-ball series with Pakistan in January flow into the defense of women’s Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in February. While disappointed not to also have a Test match scheduled with the touring Pakistanis, captain Meg Lanning says the women’s game is about to take more giant strides, especially with an Australian version of the IPL planned, either in 2023 or 2024. Several of her squad played in The Hundred competition in the UK, Ellyse Perry and the returning Sophie Molineux using it as valuable practice ahead of the WBBL 8, starting in mid-October. Both turned out with Birmingham Phoenix. Molineux has had an injury-interrupted run,…

TEST TICKETS CRICKET SUMMER GUIDE readers can again win tickets-for-two to all of this summer’s much-awaited five men’s Test matches. We have double passes for the Australia-West Indies Tests at Perth Stadium and the Adelaide Oval from late November and the Australia-South African Tests in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney from mid December. The tickets are courtesy of Cricket Australia. NEW BOOKS • Dan Liebke’s latest book, The 10 Greatest World Cup Wins in Australian Cricket (Affirm Press)• Signed copies of Ken Piesse’s ABC of Australian Cricket (Echo Books)• Signed-by-the-author copies of On Ya Warnie (Wilkinson Books), signed by Ken Piesse and Paul Harvey.• Sultan, Wasim Akram’s masterly biography written by Gideon Haigh (available November, from Hardie Grant Books) A BAS BAT THANKS to Eagle Sports, the Australian suppliers of BAS…

England is looking to in-form Test trio Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow to be instrumental forces in its bid to win the 2022 Men’s Twenty20 World Cup. ‘They’ve played little cricket in coloured clothing of late and enjoyed getting back into the group for the series with South Africa,’ new coach Matthew Mott said. ‘They didn’t have to change a hell of a lot the way they played in the Tests.’ He believes the distinguished threesome will be pivotal in helping new captain Jos Buttler make an immediate impact. Mott says Buttler is among the world’s foremost short-form cricketers who is ‘truly magnificent under pressure’. Mott has promised his team will continue to be brave with bat and ball, just like the Test team which played so wonderfully…

Key personnel changes in Australia’s elite Test XI are inevitable as age, form and a vastly increased workload impacts on the team’s composition. Fourteen Tests in less than 12 months will inevitably trigger a new look. After years of Covid-induced fixture restrictions, casualties are certain at the very top from opening pair Usman Khawaja and the polarising David Warner down. Both are 35 and in the twilight. While they can survive early, especially against an under-strength West Indies, the heat provided from Brisbane immediately afterwards by Kagiso Rabada and the South African pacemen will be intense. At 33 and with his Test average in decline, former world No.1 Steve Smith is another prime target. He and long-time No. 3 Marnus Labuschagne have not been as prolific of late. A stellar…

CAPTAIN PAT CUMMINS Fast bowler. Club: Penrith. Test debut 2011-12, Tests 43. No Tests v West Indies. Tests v South Africa: 5, 104 runs at 11, highest score 50, Johannesburg 2017-18; 29 wickets at 20, best 6-79, Johannesburg 2011-12 (on debut), 2 5wI. ODI & T20 debut 2011-12. ODIs: 73. T20s: 39. Australia’s Test captain since 2021-22. Games as captain: 9 (5 wins, 1 loss, 3 draws). Australia’s best player at the height of his powers, with a magnetic boy-next-door appeal, Cummins has a King Midas touch about his cricket right now. Has lost just one of his first nine Tests as captain. Averages almost five wickets per Test and from November is Public Enemy No.1 for both sets of tourists with his bounce, pace and vitality. His duel, in…

Scott Boland used to work part-time behind the bar at Doyle’s hotel on the Mordialloc Creek, serving beers and picking up dirty glasses. His car, a battered blue Mitsubishi Magna, was littered with fast food wrappers. His weight blew beyond 18 stone (118 kilograms) and despite promising performances with Frankston Peninsula’s second XI, with bat and ball, many remained unconvinced that he could play Premier ‘Ones’. The club’s bowling coach, the celebrated West Australian Ian Brayshaw thought him breakdown material, believing his load-up was ‘crossed’. Furthermore he believed his action didn’t allow him to consistently swing the ball ‘out’. Head coach Nick Jewell was more concerned at Boland’s sheer bulk. ‘He was huge,’ he said. ‘He had all this puppy fat’. Boland won the Jack Ryder Medal in his first…

After Covid-reduced programs in the last two summers, a new and hopefully uninterrupted Sheffield Shield season will give a fresh band of starry-eyed youngsters the opportunity to excel and press their claims for national honors. After 25 games in 2020-21, just 24 were played last summer – instead of the normal 31. Australia’s forward program in 2023 includes the World Cup in India from March, one of the pinnacle trophies in world cricket, plus a full Ashes campaign from July, adding fresh opportunity to those who perform best domestically. Western Australia is looking to protect its No.1 status at both four-day and one-day domestic levels and again has a strong squad, with just one absentee, Liam Guthrie who is now with Queensland. The Bulls’ attack was further bolstered with one-day…

PRIDE OF GRENFELL Henry Hunt’s Australia A call in winter was a just reward for one of the most improved batsmen on the first-class scene. While he started with a ‘pair’ in Colombo, he did better in the second unofficial test with 28 and 107 at Hambantota. Originally from Grenfell, Stan McCabe country, Hunt scored three first-class centuries and captained South Australia for the first time earlier this year. The 25-year-old hails from one of the sportiest NSW central west families. His father James was a distinguished rugby league full-back with Canberra Raiders experience, while his sisters Clare and Anna are outstanding soccer players. After another season in which its Shield and Marsh Cup attacks were again exposed as cannon fodder for the best players from the eastern states, the…

SEASON NO 22 FOR MARSH WA’s re-signing of Shaun Marsh ensures that the polished left-hander is celebrating his 22nd season of major cricket in 2022-23. Forty next July, Marsh is the elder statesman of Australian cricket with 126 national appearances across three levels. His first season with WA was in 2000-01. His contract extension sees him training and working alongside players as young as teenage batting prodigy Teague Wyllie, signed until 2024. Teague played the final two first-class games earlier in the year, including the winning Sheffield Shield final. New Australia A representative, Willeton’s Aaron Hardie has a three-year deal. He was also one of the stars of the final, when he made 13 and 174 not out and took three for 54 in his only bowling innings. WA has…

The 12th season of the BBL is featuring some of the cricket world’s biggest stars including ex-South African captain Faf du Plessis. Younger compatriot Rilee Rossouw, who dominated England’s T20 Blast competition in 2022, is also among the marquee players impressed by the new enhanced earnings on offer of upwards of $300,000. Du Plessis, 37, is a star of the white-ball game. He lifted Royal Challengers Bangalore to third place in the 2022 IPL with almost 475 runs for the season, as an opener. In a bid to enhance interest and once again trigger peak television audiences in high summer, Cricket Australia promised ‘globally competitive rates’ for those who nominated. A window of opportunity is open too for Australia’s Test players to play franchise cricket after the final Sydney Test…

Until Scott Boland’s incredible Ashes Test debut in Melbourne last Christmas, the best known of all the First Nations cricketers was Unaarrimin, Johnny Mullagh. His bush origins and the story of his trailblazing 1868 Indigenous team, the first from Australia to visit England, is told with great pride at the tiny west Wimmera cricketing outpost, the Harrow Discovery Centre. The new and improved interactive museum tells how a group of courageous Wotjobaluk and Gunditjamara men were the first team to ever represent Australia abroad, in any sport at the time of early colonisation. Mullagh was the star allrounder of a young and proud team which endeared themselves to the crowds with their skill and athleticism. In Matt Scullion’s 1868, he sings: ‘It was before Smith and Warnie, was before the…