Cricket Diary: Bresnan's sound advice

By Richard Gibson

Tim Bresnan got some sound advice from England team-mate Graeme Swann before heading off to the Mayo Clinic in the United States to undergo elbow surgery last week.

Concerned that the Yorkshire all-rounder would be caught out by the sub-zero temperatures in Minnesota, as he was when dispatched for surgery with elbow specialist Shawn Driscoll in 2009, Swann advised him to be prepared by packing lots of warm clothes.

Half-suspecting to be the victim of a wind-up, Bresnan soon discovered this was no joke – an online weather check revealed Minnesota was secheduled to be -27 fahrenheit (or -15 celsius) on the day of his arrival.

When Swann travelled to the USA from an England Test tour of the Caribbean, he did so without a coat!

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Two Twenty20 innings from around the globe this week carrying statistical significance: Chris Gayle struck his 10th hundred in cricket’s shortest format while fellow left-hander Quinton de Kock set two record highs in South African domestic cricket.

There is no dispute that Gayle is king when it comes to 20-over hundreds, and his latest, 114, for Dhaka Gladiators against Sylhet Royals in the Bangladesh Premier League, means he now has twice as many as his nearest rivals David Warner and Brendon McCullum.

In fact, to put his productivity into perspective, only six men – Ian Harvey, Hamilton Masakadza and Adam Gilchrist the others - have scored more than two Twenty20 career hundreds at the time of writing.

Recently-capped Protea De Kock blasted six sixes in an unbeaten 126 for Highveld Lions against Owais Shah’s Cape Cobras – the biggest individual score and most sixes in a tournament known as RAM SLAM this year.

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Staying in South Africa, Matthew Maynard might not have won anything this winter following his double-winning debut season as coach of the Pretoria-based Titans franchise in 2011-12 – but he is highly enough regarded to have made a brief return to the international coaching scene.

Ex-England assistant Maynard was one of those chosen to work alongside South Africa’s regular coaching staff in the build-up to the current Test series against Pakistan.

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It has been a case of like father like son over in the Caribbean where Tagenarine Chanderpaul is two matches into his first-class career at the tender age of 16.

While dad Shivnarine was over playing in the BPL, Chanderpaul junior was run out for 32 in the second innings of his debut against Leeward Islands, and followed up by being dismissed twice for single-figure scores by new Sussex signing Chris Jordan at Barbados’ Kensington Oval.

Observers have already noted the most striking likeness between the Chanderpauls – opening batsman Tagenarine has inherited the elaborate marking of his guard by bashing a bail into the pitch.

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Two other teenage cricketers with famous dads have been plying their trade with some success in Adelaide.

Liam Gough, son of former England pace bowler Darren, struck a pair of half-centuries for the B grade team of Sir Donald Bradman’s club Kensington before returning home to the UK.

And Usman Qadir, whose action resembles that of his father, Pakistan leg-spinner Abdul Qadir, turned out twice for the South Australia Under-23 team on his winter scholarship.

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Fair play to Australian fast bowler Kane Richardson, who straightened himself out with great success following fears about his chronic follow-through.

Richardson, 22, was bought for a whopping $700,000 by Indian Premier League franchise Pune Warriors earlier this month while in the middle of remedial work on his approach to the crease.

Reports of a shorter run-up have far from diminished his threat, however – upon his return he took a combined 11 wickets in South Australia’s one-day defeats to Victoria and New South Wales.

*Follow me on Twitter @richardgibson74


Date: 18/02/2013 14:39:24 by Richard Gibson
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