Cycling From Lord's To The Gabba

Cricket does something odd to people. The Ashes does something even odder. I don’t know what it is, but it seems to inspire crazy, unlikely ideas to spring out of nowhere; cricket acts as a platform on which the maddest of plans are hatched, and most of them come off. The latest comes from Oli Broom who writes in with the cheery news that he’s going to cycle, on his own, from Lord’s to The Gabba in Brisbane and he hopes to raise £4 for every kilometer. His legs will have taken him 25,000km.

There’ll be a fuller piece on this at Cricinfo in the next day or two but, in the meantime, here’s what Oli is planning:

In October this year I am starting a 25,000 km solo cycling expedition from Lord’s to The Gabba in time to take my seat for the first Ashes test in Brisbane (the Ashes tour itinerary hasn’t been set but the first test is likely to be around 25th November 2010).

In short, the expedition has 3 aims:

1. To cycle from Lord’s to The Gabba in time to see England play Australia in the first Ashes Test Match of the 2010/11 series. I’m hoping to have friends / colleagues join me for certain legs of the journey - quite a few have expressed an interest.

2. To raise £10 for every kilometre that I cycle (so about £250,000). Funds raised are to be divided between two charities – The Lord’s Taverners, whose mission sits very well next to the aims of the expedition - and the British Neurological Research Trust at UCL (a close friend I used to play cricket with broke his neck and is now paralysed and needs 24 hour care - the BNRT undertake ground breaking research into such injuries).

3. To play cricket in as many countries as I can on my way across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Sub-Continent, South-East Asia and Australia. These games wont all be scheduled matches, although I’m hoping to get a few proper ones through contacts at the ICC, MCC and Lords Taverners.

Ponting And Murdoch

Not Rupert. Or James. But Billy Murdoch. He was the last Australia captain to lose an Ashes series twice in England, and Ricky Ponting is fast closing in on that dubious record. That much we know. But we (well, I, certainly) are less knowledgeable about Murdoch himself, so do have a read of his obituary - if only for the wonderfully antiquated language.

And here’s the Wisden Almanack report of the Australians’ ill-fated 1890 tour. “From whatever point of view it is looked at,” the report says, “the seventh tour of Australian cricketers in England can only be regarded as a failure.”

There is poetry in the similarities between the pair. Now that Ponting has overtaken Allan Border as Australia’s leading run-scorer, he can comfortably be described as one of their greatest-ever batsmen. And in 1890, so was Murdoch.

Naturally a good deal of the interest of the trip centred in the doings of W.L. Murdoch, who had returned to the game after an absence of about five years, and, as in 1880, 1882, and 1884, was captain of the side. It was rather a risky experiment for the greatest of all Australian batsmen to come back to first-class cricket after such a long interval, but the result proved that he had not misjudged his powers. It would be an exaggeration to say that he added anything to the laurels he had gained during his previous trips in England, but inasmuch as he scored the largest aggregate of runs and came out with the best average, it would be equally wrong to say that he failed. His style was as perfect as ever, and when the wickets were good he gave many a display of batting that was worthy of his best days.

Not Too Late For Ponting's Teams To Start Believng

The Australians need to put away frowns and attack. Fear is corrosive and it’s not too late for the Australians to fight back. According to Peter Roebuck, writing in theSydney Morning Herald, a captain cannot be held responsible for everything. He is not a puppeteer, though by Leeds, Ricky Ponting might finally have a full deck of cards to play.

In any case, Australia need to stop contemplating their navels. Touring reporters have become frustrated at the way the team has gone to ground. Repeated requests for interviews with bowling coaches and players have been turned down. It is a bad sign. Apart from anything else, the game needs all the publicity it can get. This circling of wagons indicates a fragile state of mind. That needs to change.

Darren Lockyer and Ricky Ponting play different sports - rugby and cricket respectively - but are golden children from golden eras. At a time when the game is getting really tough for both men, can they maintain their zest for the game in teams which are a ghost of what they were? Robert Craddock draws up an analogy in the Courier Mail.

One of the most painful sights in sport is that of a champion struggling, which is why no one wants to really talk about Lockyer's form problems this year.

Like Ponting, he is such a gifted talent and a modest, unpretentious fellow that you feel like you are shooting Bambi when you mention the words "Lockyer" and "form slide" in the one sentence.

In his blog on the Herald Sun website, Craddock believes Australia should find room for Stuart Clark. If the Ashes are lost and given the pressure and penetration he can cause, he didn’t get a game, it would be a crying shame.

There are few more magical sights in cricket than high-class seam and swing bowling of the sort that James Anderson and Graham Onions produced at Edgbaston. When such mayhem unfolds, the game appears to be played under different physical laws. Modern Test cricket is all too often a batsman's game but when the ball starts to swing, it does not matter how flat the pitch, how big the bat or how great the reputation, the bowlers are turned into conjurers and batsmen clowns, writes Simon Wilde in theAustralian.

Gautam Gambhir

Irfan Pathan

Full name Irfan Khan Pathan

Born October 27, 1984, Baroda, Gujarat

Current age 24 years 280 days

Major teams India, Baroda, Kings XI Punjab, Middlesex

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Left-arm medium-fast

Relation Half-brother - YK Pathan

Statistics

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	29	40	5	1105	102	31.57	2076	53.22	1	6	131	18	8	0
ODIs	107	78	18	1368	83	22.80	1761	77.68	0	5	127	33	18	0
T20Is	16	12	7	133	33*	26.60	106	125.47	0	0	6	6	2	0
First-class	80	106	23	2481	111*	29.89			2	14			25	0
List A	152	109	26	1870	83	22.53	2371	78.86	0	7			27	0
Twenty20	55	42	14	542	40	19.35	433	125.17	0	0	38	24	12	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	29	54	5884	3226	100	7/59	12/126	32.26	3.28	58.8	2	7	2
ODIs	107	105	5194	4547	152	5/27	5/27	29.91	5.25	34.1	4	1	0
T20Is	16	15	306	395	16	3/16	3/16	24.68	7.74	19.1	0	0	0
First-class	80		15328	8079	270	7/35		29.92	3.16	56.7		13	3
List A	152		7471	6310	220	5/27	5/27	28.68	5.06	33.9	6	1	0
Twenty20	55	53	1142	1392	63	4/27	4/27	22.09	7.31	18.1	1	0	0

Zaheer Khan

Full name Zaheer Khan

Born October 7, 1978, Shrirampur, Maharashtra

Current age 30 years 300 days

Major teams India, Asia XI, Asia XI, Baroda, Mumbai,Royal Challengers Bangalore, Surrey, Worcestershire

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Left-arm fast-medium

Statistics

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	65	86	22	883	75	13.79	1678	52.62	0	3	98	17	18	0
ODIs	162	88	35	701	34*	13.22	927	75.62	0	0	58	23	35	0
T20Is	9	2	1	4	4	4.00	3	133.33	0	0	0	0	1	0
First-class	127	167	37	1900	75	14.61			0	4			42	0
List A	215	116	43	956	42	13.09			0	0			49	0
Twenty20	35	21	11	102	26	10.20	113	90.26	0	0	10	0	7	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	65	119	12962	7107	210	5/29	9/134	33.84	3.28	61.7	11	7	0
ODIs	162	159	8097	6566	225	5/42	5/42	29.18	4.86	35.9	7	1	0
T20Is	9	9	184	222	11	4/19	4/19	20.18	7.23	16.7	1	0	0
First-class	127		26046	14377	519	9/138		27.70	3.31	50.1		29	7
List A	215		10745	8669	300	5/42	5/42	28.89	4.84	35.8	10	1	0
Twenty20	35	35	766	971	37	4/19	4/19	26.24	7.60	20.7	1	0	0