The response to the proposed halfway mark Simply the Best compilation IPL XI was reasonably conclusive. Before I extrapolate, a confession. I deliberately did not give all four import positions to Australians for fear of accusations of favouritism at best or nepotism at worst. With the quality of commentators that read 99.94 my fears were unfounded, paranoid and unnecessary.

Obviously, Shane Warne should be selected. He is after all the most influential player at the inaugural IPL. However, before disregarding Murali, it must be stated that he has bowled cleverly and accurately, using all his experience and skill in a losing team and he will be even more difficult to score from as the pitches become tired.

Spin may become a weapon as the series progresses. The pitches are becoming slower, lower and are turning, especially in Jaipur where Warne has assembled a squad brimming with tweakers. Rajasthan have all but booked themselves in the top four and Warne’s first venture into coaching has been as successful as the rest of his illustrious career.

Warne, who has on several occasions publicly vented his frustration in regards to former coach John Buchanan, has taken an old school approach to the newest cricketing format with great success. It wasn’t that long ago that coaches were not important in cricketing teams. Coaches had a role to play but the captain was the undisputed leader and it was he who made the final decisions on tactics, selection and training.

Greg Chappell’s dismissal after India’s embarrassing exit at the 2007 World Cup also left them without a coach and under Kumble’s leadership they achieved some success and perhaps it is time to reassess the boundaries of coaches and reassert the responsibilities of captains.

With their undisputed leader on the field and not in the dressing-room, Rajasthan lead the league table and the fair play award and Warne and his men should be proud that they continue to win while upholding the Spirit of Cricket.

I have more work scheduled than I’m likely to manage in the coming fortnight and regrettably will not be able to post as regularly as I would like but rest assured there will be reports on England’s first Test against the depleted Kiwis, the beginning of Australia’s tour of the Caribbean and the final rounds of the Indian Premier League. Until then my friends be well, keep your eye on the ball and your blade straight.

With the Indian Premier League at the halfway stage it seems an opportune time to choose a team of the most impressive players in the tournament. The team has been chosen much like an IPL side with only four foreigners allowed and to qualify a player must have participated in at least half of the seven matches contested.

With top order batsman dominating it was difficult to find a balanced line-up and more than a few deserving players were left on the bench. Of the foreign contingent Adam Gilchrist, Michael Hussey, Shaun Pollock, Shane Warne, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Asif, Brendan McCullum, Shane Watson and Kumar Sangakkara were considered as were Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Manpreet Goni, RP Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Piyush Chawla, Ashok Dinda, Abhishek Nayar, Yusef Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Jaydev Shah and Yo Mahesh from the local contingent. Albie Morkel and Swapnil Asnodkar would also have made the cut except they failed to play the required four matches.

Virender Sehwag

Matthew Hayden

Gautam Gambhir

Robin Uthappa

Rohit Sharma

MS Dhoni

Dwayne Bravo

Irfan Pathan

Ishant Sharma

Muttiah Muralitharan

Glenn McGrath

In tomorrow’s post there will be an explanation on why each player was considered worthy and where they fit into the team dynamic. If any of the readers think they can concoct a better line-up or if they think I have completely overlooked a player, be bold and leave a comment.

With news of Indian insurrection dominating the hearts, minds and eyes of almost the entire cricketing world, it is with relief that 99.94 can publish the latest cogitations from our swinging and grinning UK correspondent. This week The Tooting Trumpet muses on cricket’s most frustratingly unique, and at times thrilling paradox, the draw.

Whilst the rest of the cricketing world looks on as the IPL revolutionises one day cricket in real time, in England the focus is on the First Class game, specifically the venerable County Championship. One of the pleasures of the game’s longer format is the space it affords for rumination - and the Trumpet has been ruminating on draws.

First Class cricket has four possible results: the win, the loss, the tie and the draw. The first two results speak for themselves, the third is very rare, but the fourth is the most difficult to explain to those portions of mankind unfamiliar with the game - “Five days play and it’s a draw?” scoffs the cardboard cut-out American wheeled out on such occasions. But does the tobacco-chewing NASCAR fan have a point? The Trumpet is beginning to think so.

However, before we go any further, draws must be split into two categories: Honourable draws and Dishonourable draws.

Honourable draws can occur either as end product of an epic resistance (as at Old Trafford 2005) or as a strategic secured result within a series context (as at The Oval 2005). The Trumpet, like any cricket fan, relishes the honourable draw.

Dishonourable draws are characterised by timidity, lack of imagination and stubbornness, primarily on the part of the captains, but these days coaches must also shoulder some of the blame. Dishonourable draws’ scorecards can look rather dull - no surprise, as they represent a series of missed opportunities for the captains to come together, cut a deal and risk defeat in pursuit of victory. To settle for the draw out of the fear of losing is not an honourable act for the leader of combatants.

Here are a couple of examples from the current round of matches to illustrate my point.

Firstly, Sussex’s draw with Surrey. After a day lost to rain, Sussex compiled 475 having batted about half of the available overs - clearly the strategy was to go for the innings win. By the start of the final day, Surrey trailed by 311 with 8 first innings wickets in hand. This is the point at which the captains should have hammered out a deal. Two declarations there would have set a final day target of 312 which sounds fine to me. If that’s too generous, four overs of long hops would have set a target of 350 in 90 overs. Whatever the agreement, a positive result is in play once the deal is struck. What we got was Surrey’s plod towards the follow-on target and net practice after that. A Dishonourable draw contrived by two of English cricket’s most experienced captains, Chris Adams and Mark Butcher. Such net practice is never described as joke batting, but the mere hint of setting up a declaration invokes the tired cliché “joke bowling”.

Secondly, Glamorgan’s shock win over Gloucestershire. Rain played a part in this match with four sessions washed out on the first two days. Gloucestershire’s Jon Lewis wasn’t prepared to let that get in the way of a result and declared his team’s first innings 136 runs behind in order to set up a last day chase of 315 in 80 overs. His team fell short by 114 runs, but that isn’t my point - his team had a chance of winning for most of the day and lost, not because of the declaration, but because of the all too familiar English disease of “six out all out”. Lewis’ team were defeated but it should have been an Honourable draw.

I will be amazed if there is so much as a whisper of criticism of Adams and Butcher when the journalists write up the match, but Lewis faced the full wrath of cricket’s conservative press. The BBC preferred the innuendo of “…Jon Lewis reflecting on a generous third-day declaration.” The Times favours “…Jon Lewis, the Gloucestershire captain, looked to be getting away with his gamble to declare on Thursday”. The regional press were more direct, “But it proved to be a foolhardy decision which the home skipper eventually regretted.”

I leave the last word to Gloucestershire’s century-maker in defeat, ICL outlaw Hamish Marshall. “”We’d probably do the same again,” claimed the New Zealander. “We knew it was always going to be difficult to chase that many runs on a pitch which was doing a bit, but we felt we had to give it a go. The only way to get out of the second division is to win games, and we’re committed to playing positive cricket.””. If Jon Lewis stays true to his batsman’s promise, The Trumpet will cheer on his team every step of the way.

Unlike at the World T20 championships, where there was a vast difference in talent between the competing nations, the IPL consists of eight fairly evenly matched teams and it is the first time that a healthy percentage of the world’s best cricketers have collectively played the T20 format consistently on a day to day basis. Although the Indian Premier League is yet to reach the halfway mark of the initial league stage, successful strategies and dominant patterns are emerging from the chaos.

It is evident that the same basics apply for the shortened format as they do in longer versions of the game and much of the early theories concerning team balance have proved less than sapient. As the game developed professionally in the UK it was thought that stacking the batting with middling allrounders was a successful strategy and while it may have had some merit in the less intense atmosphere of County cricket, at the higher stress levels expressed in the IPL these sorts of players are more hinderance than help.

Players, even with reputations like Andrew Symonds, whilst making significant contributions with bat, have been found wanting when bowling. Every over is important in such a concentrated format and it is patently clear that specialist batsman and bowlers are far more important to a team’s fortunes than wannabe allrounders.

Obviously there are some true allrounders displaying their wares in India and these players are faring well. Irfan Pathan, Dwayne Bravo and Shane Watson have all contributed with bat and ball yet like in red ball cricket these sorts of players are rare and priceless. Effectively they are two players in one and they allow the captain added flexibility in terms of selection and match strategy.

It shouldn’t surprise that both Pathan’s and Watson’s teams are compiling impressive winning streaks and since Bravo’s arrival at Mumbai they too are improving and winning. Allrounders are indeed valuable in T20 cricket but a batsman that isn’t a top notch bowler can’t suddenly become effective because of the shortened format. In fact, it appears that the shorter game accentuates and exposes their limitations.

The new ball battle between the top-order batsman and the opposition’s opening bowlers, like in every form of cricket, is of the utmost importance with most matches won and lost in the first six overs when the initial fielding restrictions apply. This emphasises the need to have, like in other forms of cricket, at least four specialist bowlers and considering that partnerships generated between overs nine and sixteen have also been important factors in winning, at least five specialist batsman, preferably six.

So for all the intended and anticipated innovation that T20 cricket was expected to bring, the result from the first three weeks is that cricket is much the same as it has always been. Sure there have been more boundaries but the batsman with the best techniques and hand to eye coordination score the majority of runs, the clever bowlers who can bowl a length and can extract seam, swing, drift and spin take the wickets, the intelligent, innovative captains win more than they lose and the better fielding units excite with their athleticism, energy and skill.

The much hyped revolution, if there is one, must be taking place off the field. For on the arena, the same cricketing principles apply for success. Cricket is an ancient, much studied game and the Indian Premier League has done nothing more than successfully market the reinvention of the wheel. To be fair, it is a fast, colourful and disposable wheel but nonetheless essentially the same perdurable wheel that the legendary shepherds of the Weald began rolling many long centuries ago.

The Rajasthan Royals, colloquially and affectionately known in Australia as Warnie’s Mob, defeated the much vaunted yet underperforming Kolkata Knight Riders in what became a testy and spiteful match at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur by 45 runs last night.

It was the fourth match won in succession by Rajasthan and it was even more impressive than previous victories when you consider that their two best performing batsman, Graeme Smith and Shane Watson, only contributed a measly two runs to their competitive total of 196/7.

Smith was cleaned bowled failing in an adventurous contemptuous hoik against Ishant Sharma while Watson was adjudged lbw first ball to a delivery that was glanced from the middle of the bat onto boot and then to fine leg boundary. It was probably the worst decision of the tournament yet a bemused Watson accepted the decision without remonstration.

Warne, never one to rest on his laurels, produced a surprise selection in the slight opening batsman Swapnil Asnodkar. He appeared unflummoxed by the reputations of Kolkata bowlers and was particularly severe on Ajit Agarkar carting him for four fours and a beautifully struck six over long on. After he was dismissed for 60 by Umar Gul in the twelfth over the consistent Yusuf Pathan took up the reins and methodically hit the bad ball to the boundary while rotating the strike throughout in compiling 55 from 33 balls.

Ten an over is a difficult task batting second and when Salman Butt, the promoted Agarkar and Brad Hodge were back in the shed before the initial fielding restrictions were lifted the responsibility fell to Ganguly and David Hussey to rebuild while continuing the chase. Some tight middle overs by Munaf Patel and Siddharth Trivedi saw the rate climb to almost 12 by the halfway mark and with the pressure mounting Warne took the ball and marked out his run-up.

His first over was tight only leaking seven but as he was warming up for his next an incident occurred that swung the match heavily in his favour.

Sourav Ganguly was caught cleanly by a low diving Graeme Smith deep in the outfield and while Smith’s team-mates sprinted from all corners of the ground to congratulate him Ganguly, now at the non-striker’s end, began complaining to the umpire about the dismissal’s legality. This is clearly against the rules and also unfairly calls into question the integrity of the South African skipper. Umpire Pratap Kumar relented and referred the dismissal to the third umpire against square-leg umpire Rudi Koertzen’s advice. After two dozen replays where the commentators all agreed it was out the third umpire decided otherwise. It was a curious decision that turned the match sour and Ganguly should be held responsible. His identical actions sparked the animosity on the final day of the Sydney Test and like last night emboldened and stiffened the opposition’s will to win.

Warne was most displeased but kept his cool and as he passed Ganguly on his way to his mark he was overheard on the stump microphone saying, “Justice will catch up with you one day, Sourav”. Warne’s next series of deliveries were to David Hussey who promptly hit two boundaries and a single and with his next ball to Ganguly Warne’s prophecy was fulfilled. He tossed up a loopy over-spinner that dipped suddenly causing Ganguly to hit it straight to Mohammad Kaif at deep mid-off. The elated fieldsman held both arms aloft in triumph, index fingers pointed to the heavens as the whoops of joy and derision followed Ganguly to the dressing sheds. It was an instant karma moment and Kolkata never recovered. Such was the spirit and momentum created by Ganguly’s indiscretion that Rajasthan annihilated Kolkata thereafter taking the final 6 wickets for only 32 runs.

The team spirit at Rajasthan is a testament to Warne’s belief in himself and those around him. He is the greatest cricketer of his generation and history will record his name alongside WG Grace, Sir Donald Bradman and Sir Garfield Sobers as a unique player beyond compare. Every player in his team is playing above expectation and to see the young Indians and the usually dour South African captain playing fiercely with a disciplined joy is a further testament to his influence on all who express their cricket in his company.

An interesting sidelight in yesterday’s battle in Jaipur was the appearance on the bench of Dimi Mascarenhas. He was looking extremely fit and content and the eloquent and knowledgeable Caribbean commentator Tony Cozier produced a remarkable interview with the England limited-overs representative.

Dimi responded to Tony’s introduction with a natural “G’Day Mate” and when asked his thoughts on being the only England player in the IPL he responded with a chuckle, “I’m travelling on my original passport, mate. The structure here under Shane Warne and Darren Berry is the closest I’ve been to an Australian first-class set-up and I’m loving it and learning alot.”

Mascarenhas will likely have his chance to display what he has learned on Sunday in the top of the table clash against Chennai and like the rest of the men under Warne’s control he’ll no doubt be striving to produce his best for his inspirational larger than life leader.

Bangalore Royal Challengers, languishing at the bottom of the Indian Premier League table after five rounds, face an uphill battle to make the semi-finals after another disappointing loss last evening in Delhi.

Captain Rahul Dravid, confused to the point of not knowing his own place in the batting order, called correctly at the toss but his decision to field was a poor one. The pitch was slow and not difficult for batting with little seam or swing and the Delhi top order of Sehwag, Gambhir and Dharwan took full advantage.

The three of them added 160 of the team’s score of 191/5 with Sehwag run out at the end of the fifth over for 24, Dharwan freakishly caught at mid off by Dravid at the end of the fifteenth for an even 50 and Gambhir showing his class top scoring with 86 before throwing his wicket away in the hurly burly of the penultimate over.

Regardless of the format, snaring the opposition top three cheaply is the key to success and Delhi were well on their way to victory after Glenn McGrath had Bangalore reeling, cleverly taking three wickets in his first three overs. Sehwag returned him to the attack with four overs remaining whereupon he took his fourth consecutive wicket of the innings.

Prior to that crucial breakthrough the uber-experienced pair of Kallis and Dravid had rebuilt the innings batting ten overs while adding 87 to give Bangalore some hope of pulling off an unlikely victory. Dravid played some beautiful shots straight from the textbook including an exquisite memorable late cut but eventually the pressure of continually chasing nine an over was too great. When he fell Bangalore were 135/4 still requiring 57 from 27 balls which may have been possible except that Sehwag had patiently saved Daniel Vettori’s final two overs for the death.

Vettori was hardly hit off the square all evening instinctively changing his pace and trajectory while making subtle changes in length so that no batsman could get his measure. Both he and McGrath put on a masterclass of limited overs bowling and Delhi’s decision to stack their bowling with imports is proving a wise one.

Bangalore, on the other hand, have erred in their selections both before the auction and after. How Pakistani T20 legend Misbah-ul-Haq can be continually left out of the first XI is a mystery. Last night Bangalore’s four imports were Kiwi Ross Taylor and the South African trio of Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher and Dale Steyn. Taylor now departs for England so perhaps coach Prasad and Dravid will belatedly include Misbah but I feel it is too little too late. Chanderpaul is also waiting in the wings for a start and unless Boucher or Kallis is dropped there will never be a spot for both.

Experimentation seems to be the norm at Bangalore however not with team selection but with the batting order. You need a settled line-up to succeed and Dravid has been the worst offender. He has opened and also batted as low as number seven. If the captain does not understand his place it is hardly surprising that the team is losing and often from winnable positions.

Last night Praveen Kumar, a lower-order batsman at best, was sent out to open and predictably an old fox like McGrath removed him quickly and efficiently. Kumar is a good prospect and a clean hitter but to succeed against the likes of experienced and proven world-class bowlers you need a solid technique. Basically, Bangalore threw the youngster to the wolves and the time has come for the brains trust at Bangalore to make some hard decisions and stick with them.

It is all too clear that the team is out of balance and the onus of restoration lies with Dravid and what role he plays. Should he open with a dasher like Boucher? For Jaffer and Dravid in partnership are not dynamic enough for the shortened format.

Should he instead take the gloves from Boucher creating an extra place for an import? Rahul is servicable behind the stumps and with Kumble assisting in the field perhaps a radical move could help them turn the corner.

Should Dravid as he did last night bat in the middle-order never taking the game by the scruff of the neck but providing support to the batters around him?

Should he resign as captain and hand the reins to Kumble? Or should he just pack it in and retire?

These are questions that need answering urgently as Bangalore will be out of contention by the halfway stage if the confusion and lack of a plan continue. It’s never pleasant to witness a champion out of his depth and on his last legs. For his team’s and his own reputation I hope that Rahul Dravid can find his feet and develop a strategy before it is too late.

The Rajasthan Royals, captained and coached by Shane Warne, have been winning a plethora of good press of late for their team spirit, energy and optimism during this inaugural Indian Premier League. They have a list that on paper and in terms of value is less than all others competing but they have won, and won handsomely, in three of their four games to date.

Every press agency has explained this by lashing praise on Warne, for his tactics, his presence, his pure genius and his ability but what few of them know is that Warne’s masterstroke was who he brought with him from Australia. He is there on the bench for every Rajasthan match, slapping backs, filling bottles, motivating and imparting his wisdom that comes direct from every South Australian and Australian captain since 1962. He is the Baggygreen’s secret weapon, well known in cricketing circles on the dry southern continent and the most respected man in Australian cricket, Barry Nugget Rees.

The people in Rajasthan are probably unaware that they have a man of Nugget’s standing motivating their charges. A trusted confidante of Ian Chappell and Sir Garfield Sobers, another friend Adam Gilchrist describes him as “the most honest, open, loyal, respectful human being you’ll ever come across.”

He was the special guest at Steve Waugh’s final Test, gave the premier speech at David Hookes wedding and is godfather to Darren Lehmann’s children. He’s had lunch with the Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth and by all reports charmed them both with his witty simplicity and all too natural honesty.

Rod Marsh describes him as the most important man in Australian cricket and few in the know would disagree. Eminent surgeon Doctor Donald Beard, the SACA medical officer for many years concurs, “Barry Nugget Rees is the most remarkable person I have ever met.”

His wit has disarmed many an explosive or depressing moment and Ashley Mallet tells an anecdote that illustrates this perfectly.

When you get out, Nugget is first by your side with a cold drink and a comforting word. Once Lennie Pascoe clean-bowled me first ball and when I got back to the room, Nugget sidled up to me and said, “Bad luck Rowdy… it was a bad decision.”

Steve Waugh tells a similar tale.

Having Nugget around I think just gives you perspective, you know. When things aren’t going well on the field and you’ve come off and you’ve played a bad shot and you’ve been dismissed, I mean, you feel pretty angry with yourself and then you see Nugget in the corner of the room, sort of waiting there, saying, “Well played, bad luck. It was a terrible decision.” All of a sudden he brings you back down to earth and grounds you.

In the Adelaide Oval dressing room where Nugget holds court he gives the team speech before Australia take the field and no-one is spared including the captain or coach. In John Buchanan’s first Test in Adelaide Nugget put him in his place early by telling him “to turn that bloody computer off mate! No-one ever took a wicket or scored a run with one of those.”

Shane Warne who first met Nugget in 1992 calls him regularly no matter where he is in the world and has described him as “his inspiration” That he was invited by Warne to India is probably Shane’s most astute move as captain/coach for with Nugget on your side everyone’s a winner.

The Australian Broadcasting Commission produced a documentary on Barry Nugget Rees and his special place in Australian cricket that can be viewed via this link. It runs 28 minutes and it gives a unique insight to the people and culture of cricket on the southern continent. If you want to know why Australian cricket is the world’s best then check out our secret weapon, the man they call Nugget.