The new Bradman? Quirky Smith rises to exalted heights

Agencies
December 19, 2017

Sydney, Dec 19: Steve Smith has broken English hearts and smashed records with his phenomenal Ashes batting and is being acclaimed as the best Australian batsman since the greatest of all, Don Bradman.

That is rarefied company for the quirky 28-year-old skipper, who led Australia to reclaiming the Ashes with an imperious 239 -- his highest Test score -- in Australia's mammoth first innings 662 for nine declared in the third Perth Test victory yesterday.

Ashes-winning skipper Smith has almost single-handedly batted Joe Root's team out of the series, accumulating 426 runs in just four innings at an average of 142, which allowed his bowlers to do the rest.

Smith, whose idiosyncratic style -- moving across his stumps as the bowler delivers -- flies in the face of cricket's purists, has a career average of 62.32 from 59 Tests.

That places him second only in Test history to Bradman, whose average of 99.94 at the pinnacle was forged from 1928- 48.

Records have tumbled for the cricket-obsessive Smith, who broke into the Test arena as a leg-spin bowling all-rounder batting at number eight in 2010.

Since then Smith has reeled off the milestones to draw comparison with the greatest batsman the game has ever seen.

He has amassed 22 Test centuries, 14 of them in 29 Tests as captain.

Bradman made 14 hundreds in 24 Tests as skipper.

Smith is only the fifth Australian captain, one of them being Bradman, to have scored two Ashes double hundreds.

Rival skipper Root has tried everything during the current series to dislodge Smith, to get him out of his "bubble", but to little effect.

Over the 15 days of the one-sided series Smith has batted for more than three full days. He has simply been the difference.

Much has been said about Smith's unconventional batting technique, in some ways similar to Bradman, who would bring his bat down in a rotary movement.

Smith is similarly unique and possesses rapier-like reflexes. He rarely hits the ball in the air, cutting down risk and making him even harder to set fields against.

"You wouldn't coach a young player to hold a bat like he does with such a strong bottom hand or move around quite as much," observed former England captain Nasser Hussain.

"But when his bat comes down in contact with the ball it is the full face and his hand-eye coordination is just phenomenal."

Former Australia captain Mark Taylor added: "At the moment his bat looks six-foot wide.

"Smith has got an insatiable appetite for runs. You can see when he bats, he gets in that little bubble.

"He's almost oblivious to everything that's going on around him, except the ball that is coming out of the bowler's hand."

Such is Smith's attention to detail that he gets his fiancee Dani Willis to act as a bowling-machine operator in their backyard for extra batting practice.

"He sets everything up and I just load the balls," she revealed.

Smith is a notorious fidgety character while at the batting crease.

Host broadcaster Channel 9 counted 23 different ticks, fidgets and movements by him during his routine preparation before facing the bowler.

Other maverick moments have come to light during the Ashes series.

At a Perth drinks break while Smith was batting in his 399-ball epic, team support staff brought a chair onto the WACA Ground so Smith could sit down -- not to rest, but redress.

As with tennis superstar Rafael Nadal's fastidious obsession with the precise placement of his water bottles by his courtside chair, Smith also has a peculiarity where he is distracted by the sight of his shoelaces.

As Smith sat on the chair, he had the laces re-taped to avoid seeing them.

"I have always had an issue with looking at my shoelaces when I'm batting," Smith said of his habit earlier this year.

He said the sight of laces "would sort of do my head in a bit".

"So I ended up getting a physio to tape my shoelaces to my socks. I just like just seeing my shoes and everything to look sort of clean ... just no shoelaces."

Another of Smith's oddities is that he changes his batting gloves every 20 to 30 minutes during an innings, and has up to 15 pairs of gloves in his kit.

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News Network
February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: Skipper Virat Kohli has become the first Indian to reach the 50M followers mark on social media platform Instagram. Kohli, who is breaking cricketing records with each passing match, has a great social media following.

The 31-year old has so far made 930 posts on the platform and his social media posts continue to enthrall fans worldwide. Overall, Instagram's official account has the most number of followers and it is followed by Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 200M followers.

In terms of Indians with most number of followers, Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra is on the second spot with 49.9 followers while Deepika Padukone is on the third place with 44.1 followers.

Last year, Kohli had become the most successful Indian Test captain, surpassing Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Currently, Kohli is in action against New Zealand and his side would take on the hosts in the two-match Test series, slated to commence from February 21.

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News Network
June 20,2020

Melbourne, Jun 20: If 15 teams can be allowed to enter Australia for the T20 World Cup then fans will not be stopped from watching live action from the stadiums, Cricket Australia's interim CEO Nick Hockley said on Saturday.

Hockley replaced under-fire Kevin Roberts, who recently got the boot from Cricket Australia, which is grappling with financial woes.

Different possibilities are being worked out for the T20 World to go ahead as scheduled later this year and one of them is to host the tournament before empty stands in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Hockley said crowds will be allowed, though, hosting 15 teams with players, officials and support staff is "complex" as of now, hinting that probably the ICC flagship event could be pushed back.

"The reality is, and we've got much more understanding about this in recent weeks, is crowds are most likely to come back before international travel. Our biggest challenge is getting 15 teams into the country," Hockley told cricket.com.au when asked if he would like to see the World Cup proceed without fans.

"If I compare it with the prospect of a bilateral tour, you're talking about bringing one team in and then playing individual matches. But the prospect of bringing 15 teams in and having six or seven teams in one city at the same time, it's a much more complex exercise."

When specifically asked whether crowds would be permitted by the time borders have opened to the point that 15 teams will be allowed to travel to Australia, Hockley replied in an affirmative.

"That's the current thinking, yes."

Hockley said it came as a shock when he was asked by Cricket Australia to replace Roberts.

"I've had very mixed emotions. I was very shocked to be asked. I didn't see it coming at all, so I probably haven't had time yet to process it. I feel very sad for Kev (Roberts). On the other hand, I feel this is a massive privilege to be asked, it's a massive responsibility and a massive opportunity even if it's only for the next few months," he said.

Hockey did not commit when asked if he would like to assume the role full time, but he did say that he would quit as CEO of the T20 World Cup Organising Committee.

"My approach throughout my entire career has been to focus on doing the best job I can with what I've been tasked with, and the future will look after itself. And I'll continue the same approach.

"That's (T20 World Cup) been a real priority over the last 48 hours. We're reasonably well progressed and we will be appointing an interim because you just can't do both," he said.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Melbourne, Jul 21: Cricket Australia's chief executive Nick Hockley has said that the Indian players and staff will most likely be asked to face two weeks of quarantine before the four-match Test series.

This scenario will bring the Adelaide Oval and its newly constructed hotel firmly into view as the sort of biosecure bubble, ESPNCricinfo reported.

India and Australia are slated to face each other in a four-match Test series, which is to begin from December 4 at Brisbane.

"The two-week quarantine is pretty well-defined. What we are working on is making sure that even within that quarantine environment, the players have got the absolute best training facilities, so that their preparation for the matches is as optimal as it can possibly be," ESPNCricinfo quoted Hockey as saying.

"Certainly the fact that the Adelaide Oval has a hotel. It does provide a facility not dissimilar to Old Trafford or Ageas Bowl where the hotels are integrated into the venue," he added.

Hockley also said that an exacting standard of biosecurity and testing would be applied before the series against India as the coronavirus cases are spiking in the subcontinent.

"It's widely known and it's unlikely that international travel restrictions would have lifted by the time that India will be due to come into the country. Clearly there will be testing regimes. We will be able to test people before that they get on to the plane and it is the nature of the situation of making sure we have the quarantine arrangements in line with government and health authority protocols," Hockley said.

"The key thing for the players is that there's regular testing and that we appropriately quarantine them when they come in and all of those plans are currently in development," he added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced the postponement of the T20 World Cup 2020 slated to be held in Australia from October 18-November 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the announcement, the BCCI is likely to go ahead with the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the October-November window. However, it is known where the T20 tournament will be played as cases continue to rise in India.
"I think the BCCI has made no secrets that they are considering what that means for the IPL. For us, it's about getting a bit of an understanding and certainty around what that means. Clearly, in a normal course, some of our best players are obviously top picks for those IPL teams," Hockley said.

"It's a bit premature to speculate on that. We need to understand what the plans are if any and once we understand that we will make decisions accordingly," he added.

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