Hello everyone and welcome to this weeks editions of Paul Seaborne on Cricket. This week I will be reviewing the 3rd Test between India and Australia, I shall be looking at the career of Anil Kumble, since he announced his retirement from Test cricket this week, and finally I shall be looking at the week in Antigua, which culminated in victory for the Stanford Superstars in Saturday’s winner takes all show down. It’s been quite a week, so make yourself a nice cup of tea, sit back and read all about it.

Ok, so the third test in the keenly contested series between India and Australia ended up as a high scoring draw. This was very surprising as Delhi has a reputation for being something of a result wicket. And as India stuttered early on to 27/2 it appeared that another result was on the cards. However as the ball lost its shine, Australia once again found  they had no spinner to turn to, something I have pointed out at various times this tour, and India settled down and managed to score a very impressive 613 all out, with double hundreds from VVS Laxman and Gambhir. As they scored these runs a fairly rapid rate of nearly four an over, India were strongly fancied to complete the job in the remaining 280 overs. However, on the eve of this test, India lost their most potent weapon in Harbhajan Singh due to a toe injury, and that was to prove a crucial blow to their hopes, as Matthew Hayden finally found some form, ending with 83, and the rest of the Australian batting line up contributed to ensure they not only avoided the dreaded follow on, but that they also inched closer to India’s imposing target. Eventually falling just 36 runs short in the first innings, Australia had done enough to ensure the game ended in a draw.

It could all have been so different though, had India’s old nemesis not come back to haunt them, not Hayden, not Ponting, Not even Michael Clarke’s crucial 100. No, it was once again their bowling and fielding, namely catching, that let them down again. Three times they dropped Clarke, Hussey survived a couple of dropped catches as well, and apart from the occasional off spin of Sehwag, not one Indian bowler looked threatening. The fielding was lacklustre, on numerous occasions the ball went through legs or hands for four. If you are trying to win a test match, you simply cannot allow these things to happen. Not only do the batsmen get gifted extra runs or an extra life, but it also shifts the balance of the game. India had a significant chance to kill this series off, but they have allowed Australia back into the series with one to play, and that is something you should never ever do. It could come back to haunt them.

Unfortunately during the game, old rivalries, and some new ones, appeared to rear their ugly head again. There isn’t too much love lost between these two cricketing nations, and after the race affair in Australia early in the year, tempers have blown up again, and this time at the centre of the scandal is Simon Katich and Gautem Gambhir, VVS LAxman and Shane Watson. In fact, Ghambir has been banned for one test following his elbow of Shane Watson as the two crossed paths whilst Ghambir was attempting a single, and Katich had plenty to say to VVS Laxman, after Laxman made some comments regarding the defensiveness of Australia’s approach. The Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, has hit back at these claims, and speaking after the Delhi test, Ponting said "It's interesting that they say those things when they've got 400 on the board," Ponting said. "They had a chance to set up a game [on day five] and chose not to. So who do you call defensive? It's easier to say those things when you're in front, but I didn't see them saying too much in Bangalore”

So the war of words has begun again, and it all makes for a bubbling, exciting 4th Test which begins in Nagpur on Thursday.

One player who won’t be appearing on Thursday is Anil Kumble. Kumble has announced his immediate retirement from all forms of the game this week, so this is an ideal opportunity to have a quick look back at his career, and pay homage to a quite brilliant bowler and a more than capable batsman.

Kumble started his international career 18 years ago, taking three wickets in the first innings against England at Manchester in 1990. A bespectacled Kumble (as he was then) went on to become one of India’s finest players. A true gent of the game, he has single handedly won more games for India than any other player, and has broken pretty much every record going. In 1999, in a home test against Pakistan, India’s fiercest rivals, he claimed all ten wickets in an innings, instantly making him a hero to the millions and millions of fans who follow India. Then, in December 2001, he became India’s first spinner to claim 300 wickets, a huge feat considering how many great spinners India have had over the years. In January 2008, he completed 600 victims in Test cricket, a feat only equalled by two other greats of the game, Shane Warne and Murali. This perhaps goes some way to proving just quite how underrated he was.

Kumble ended his distinguished career with a total of 619 wickets, at an average of just 29.65 (anything under 30 is considered excellent) and was also a more than useful lower order batsman, and I was at the Oval in 2007 to witness Kumble’s maiden century, one that had taken 118 matches to achieve, and believe me, the pure jubilation on his face that day, proved to me he had wanted that for a long long time.

It’s a shame to say goodbye to such a true gent of the game. Very rarely have I seen him lose his temper, and always played the game in the correct spirit, we bid farewell to one of India’s truly great bowlers.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, England, the Stanford Superstars, Trinidad & Tobago and Middlesex have been competing in the Stanford Twenty Twenty for 20. In case you have been living on the moon these last few weeks, the idea of the competition was for a winner takes all, $20m match between England and Stanford Superstars on Saturday. With the players earning $1m for winning the 20/20 game, bankrolled by Sir Alan Stanford.

In case many of you aren’t aware, Sir Alan has introduced this tournament to help the West Indies cricketing fortunes. And one can only sit back and admire the intention behind it. World Cricket needs a competitive West Indies side, and this event has been created to get the stars of tomorrow, and indeed, the stars of today, to put down the basketballs and the footballs, and pick up a cricket bat instead.

However, the implementation of the event hasn’t been as smooth as Sir Alan would have likes. The event has been surrounded with controversy, with Stanford pictured with the England’s players wives and Girlfriends, the WAGS if you will. The whole event did seem a bit “cheesy” with Stanford being the centre of all the attention, rather than the cricket.

It wasn’t helped by the standard of the pitches either. Fans of 20/20 want to see runs galore, and as the pitch was very turgid, it soon became obvious that a score of around 130 was going to win the game.

As it was, in the winner takes all big event, Stanford Superstars won the game emphatically, after dismissing England for just 99, which openers Chris Gayle and relative newcomer, but definitely one to watch, Andre Fletcher made light work  of the small total, earning the superstars a cool $1m per man, and England leave with nothing but a suntan.

I for one was extremely glad the Superstars won, and being English, that is one thing I thought I’d never say. But if you at it from an objective point of view, the windfall will do more for West Indies cricket and their players than it ever would for England’s.

You only had to look at the celebrations, the fireworks, to realise the joy this money has brought. Ok, so if I had just won $1m I’d be dancing around like a lunatic as well, but if this helps create awareness and competition for places in this once great cricketing nation, then I think Sir Alan Stanford can be forgiven for bouncing the odd WAG on his knee.

And finally this week, allow me and all here at Priceform to pass on our condolences to Richie Benaud, after hearing the sad news this week that he lost his mother to a long term illness. She was to achieve something that even Benaud couldn’t; she scored 104 before finally giving her wicket away in the early part of last week. Condolences to all the family.

Well that’s all I have for you this week, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

So for now, be lucky

Paul.