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Worcestershire 172 for 5 dec and 337 for 4 (Smith 98*, Moore 65) beat Yorkshire 319 and 188 for 5 (Rudolph 92*, Rashid 73*, Ali 4-40) by six wickets
ScorecardWorcestershire registered their first Championship win of the season in superb fashion. Set 336 to win in 65 overs by Yorkshire at Kidderminister, they applied a mixture of courage and good fortune in racing home by six wickets with eight overs to spare, in what was inevitably a declaration match. It was a good team performance, with Ben Smith’s top score of 98 not out sealing the victory.Yorkshire resumed their second innings on a shaky 32 for 4. The day began with a wicket, as Doug Bollinger yorked Gerard Brophy for his overnight 13. Then the balance swung back in Yorkshire’s favour, as Jacques Rudolph and Adil Rashid responded aggressively. Rudolph produced many aggressive drives through the covers, one of them bring him his fifty off 63 balls, while Rashid, not content to rest on the laurels of his first innings century, looked like a specialist batsman as he played with vigour and maturity. The bowlers began to look innocuous as the batsman scored almost at will, but they did better than they had first time round in conceding only four extras, compared to 48. Kabir Ali this time lacked the inspiration to break through.Yorkshire, as desperate for victory as Worcestershire, declared at 188 for 5 and Worcestershire were left to score 336 to win in a minimum of 65 overs; some felt this generous on a good pitch, but the home team’s batting has not inspired much confidence this season.They were given a cracking start by Phil Jaques, who hammered 44 runs off 33 balls, mixing powerful drives with boundary snicks and actually having 40 on the board, out of 49, before his partner Stephen Moore, who had little of the strike, got off the mark. He was out in the ninth over (62 for 1), but his innings was crucial. It set the spirit for the run chase and Worcestershire never lost it.Vikram Solanki found some good form with a brisk 44, while Moore played the anchor role with 65. Graeme Hick helped with 31, including three fours in an over from Darren Gough, but the man to see the side home was Smith, whose place in the side had been questioned due to his poor form. He was left stranded on 98 at the end, denied the century he deserved for an innings full of strokes all round the wicket and superb running.Worcestershire did enjoy considerable luck, scoring quite a proportion of runs through edges that all seemed to reach the boundary, but fortune favoured the brave; Yorkshire, for their part, were at times sloppy in the field. Rashid was unable to follow his batting scores with bowling success; though the attack never fell to pieces, neither did it ever look dangerous.County matches are always difficult when much time is lost to the weather, but the two captains, Solanki and Gough, deserve credit for doing the best they could to turn a lemon into lemonade, and bringing about a good finish without reducing the play at any time to a farce. For Worcestershire, although still bottom of the table, the victory will lift their spirits; for Yorkshire, the result will almost certainly extinguish their Championship hopes for this year.

Bowler of the dayJames Anderson was a left-field selection for this match. Everyone predicted that Stuart Broad would replace Steve Harmison, but no-one truly imagined that Matthew Hoggard would also be sent to the dog-house. Even so, Anderson was the “captain” of England’s bowling during their summer series against India, and their Man of the Series to boot, with 14 wickets and a five-for at Lord’s. As far as Peter Moores is concerned, his time is now. Doubtless it helped that Anderson spent four days up at Auckland last week, finding his match fitness with 38 arduous overs in an innings defeat. The benefits of that work-out were fully apparent in a spectacular day’s work, much to New Zealand’s chagrin.Delivery of the dayAnderson is not a like-for-like replacement for Hoggard. On the credit side he is quicker, on the debit side he is more erratic, but when he’s on song, he is capable of bowling balls that no cricketer in the world can keep out. Matthew Bell discovered that in Anderson’s first over of the morning, when he was turned inside-out by a beauty that swung in at pace, pitched and seamed past the edge to clip the outside of his off stump. There’s no answer for that in the coaching manual. It makes you wonder why he insisted on banging it halfway down the track all through the one-dayers.Edge of the dayThere were a few flying around today – five catches in the cordon and two drops as well – but as far as Tim Ambrose is concerned, there’s only one that counts, and that was the one that flew off his splice through the vacant third slip and away to the boundary to bring up his maiden Test century. Rooted on 97 overnight, he had had to endure two of the finest maiden overs that Jacob Oram can ever have bowled – one to end last night’s play and the other to resume the ordeal this morning, and Oram thought he had his man when he jagged a lifter off the seam and past Ross Taylor’s outstretched hand. But Ambrose was not to be denied, as he became the first English wicketkeeper to score an overseas century since Alec Stewart at Auckland 11 years ago.Take of the dayAmbrose’s hundred was an innings of remarkable confidence and aggression, but then so were those of Matt Prior and Geraint Jones before him. The real reason for excitement about England’s latest wicketkeeper is that his glovework appears, at this early stage of his career, to be second-to-none. He was blemish-free on debut in Hamilton, and so far in this innings has taken every chance that has flown his way. The most impressive effort, however, came off a Stuart Broad short ball that climbed violently past Taylor’s nose. Ambrose – all five foot six of him – timed his leap to perfection, hung for an eternity, and plucked the ball in a single outstretched glove.Fielder of the dayMonty Panesar has improved his fielding no end from the Bambi-legged bundle of nerves who first took the field at Nagpur two years ago. But he’s still prone to the occasional moment when he’d prefer the ground to swallow him up. Such as the moment in the 28th over when Taylor drove speculatively towards him at mid-off, only for the ball to bounce straight through Monty’s legs and away to the boundary. Or the moment in the 34th over when Stephen Fleming hurtled for a suicidal single and Monty fumbled the (admittedly poor) throw from Kevin Pietersen. Or the moment in the 53rd over when Daniel Vettori clipped Collingwood to fine leg where Monty, yep, let it through his legs. Two balls later, at the start of the new over, Collingwood struck to remove the tailender, Mark Gillespie, so perhaps we’ll let him pretend that last one was a plan.Rearguard of the dayDaniel Vettori is better than a mere No. 8 batsman these days. Much better. In fact, since New Zealand’s tour of Australia in November 2004, he has averaged 46.18 in 22 Tests, which is nearly 20 runs better than his career mark of 27.65. He made a critical 88 in Hamilton, but his unbeaten 50 in this innings was arguably even better, seeing as he lost Brendon McCullum early and had to marshall the tail as well as give the ball some humpty. No shot was better than the extraordinary flick for six that brought up his half-century. He simply leant back and dabbed the ball up and over the slips, and the pace and bounce of Broad did the hard work for him.Disappointment of the dayThe Wellington crowd is probably 80% English, but there are still enough Kiwis around who realise that Fleming has never yet scored a Test century on his home ground, and that – with his retirement looming – this is his last chance to correct that statistical anomaly. Today’s innings, sadly, was a struggle. He needed a bagful of luck to get as far as he did, as he inside-edged over his middle stump and earned a reprieve from Collingwood at slip. But just when it seemed he’d got over the worst, he produced the worst shot of the lot, a limp waft outside off – half cut, half leave – that looped ever so gently to Pietersen at point. Fleming did at least pass 7000 runs in his innings. His next target is 7160, which will guarantee him a career average of 40. He currently has 7016 …

Jason Gillespie says he was “not totally shocked” by Shaun Tait’s decision to take a break from cricket but he is certain Tait has not walked away for good. Gillespie said he had spotted several signs that Tait was struggling to handle the physical stress from his unusual bowling action.”Being a fast bowler and a pretty good mate, you pick up little things, and I could tell he was hurting for a while,” Gillespie told the . “Seeing his warm-ups, seeing him getting strapped and preparing for games, even walking back to his mark, there were some little signs there.”This has stemmed from physical pain. He has had trouble getting past some ailments and mentally that has got on top of him a bit. What he has done is a really brave thing. He could have kept going through the motions but that would not have helped anyone.”Gillespie said Tait had given indications during South Australia’s one-day game in Traralgon on Sunday, following his Test return in Perth, that he was not enjoying his cricket. “I knew things were bugging him a bit,” Gillespie said. “There were a couple of comments in the huddle or at drinks breaks that made my ears prick up. I certainly didn’t expect him to give the game away, but I wasn’t totally shocked, either.”I can absolutely guarantee he will be back. He is 24, he went from playing cricket in the hills to playing professional cricket very quickly. It takes some time for your body and mind to adjust to that. It has got on top of him, but I am very confident he will be back. I have had a couple of messages from him saying ‘I’ll be fine’ and he will be. He just needs to take a bit of time away.”Another of Tait’s South Australia colleagues, the now-retired Darren Lehmann, who is also the Australian Cricketers’ Association president, said Australia needed to be aware of the pressures on young cricketers. “We have to make sure we have mechanisms to ensure these young cricketers develop as people and not succumb to a vicious circle of homesickness,” Lehmann said in the . “It is great representing your country but behind the glamour there are the empty times and heartache of missing friends and family at home.”

Mike Procter, the match referee, has delayed Harbhajan Singh’s code-of-conduct hearing, originally scheduled for Saturday, until after the conclusion of the ongoing Test in Sydney on Sunday. Harbhajan was charged with a level-three offence under the ICC Code of Conduct following his on-field altercation with Andrew Symonds on day three of the second Test.”At the request of the India team manager and under the circumstances I have exercised my discretionary powers to postpone the code-of-conduct hearing until the conclusion of this Test match,” Procter said. “I am satisfied that with a further 24 hours India will have time to sufficiently prepare for this hearing.”The possibility of lawyers getting involved cannot be ruled out. The charge was laid by match umpires Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor after the close of play after they received a complaint from the Australia captain Ricky Ponting.”They reported to me that there was a breach of conduct, reported to them by Ponting,” Procter said while talking to . “It’s a level three, which is pretty serious. The umpires didn’t hear anything, they didn’t know anything about it. I’m the adjudicator at the hearing, there will be witnesses called. The end result is what I want to achieve. To answer your question, yes lawyers could be involved.”The incident occurred while Harbhajan was batting and Matthew Hayden walked past Harbhajan after his confrontation with Symonds but did not reveal any details of the accusations or the conversation. “We believe we have a very strong case,” Hayden said at the close of the fourth day.”It’s a scenario none of us want to be in, we love the game and we hope we can move forward. Andrew’s a very strong character who had a great, tough upbringing in Charters Towers [in north Queensland] and we all love him and Australia love him.”Meanwhile, the ICC have asked British barrister Nigel Peters QC to advise Procter during the hearing. Talking to PTI, an ICC spokesperson said that Peters, who is also an elected committee member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, had assisted them in the past.If found guilty, Harbhajan could face a ban of between two and four Tests or four and eight one-day internationals. The hearing will take place after the conclusion of play on Sunday.

After a wait that seemed interminable on the reserve day, the momentum inthe semi-final swung South Africa’s way off the very first ball. PieterMalan had one more delivery to complete the 19th over of Pakistan’s innings and he strayed down leg side. The wicketkeeper Bradley Barnes moved quickly to cover the lineof the ball and, once Umar Amin had overbalanced, he whipped the bailsoff in a trice to stump the batsman even as the umpire signalled wide. Somepeople called it a lucky break but South Africa’s coach Ray Jennings saidit was anything but.”We set out to try and control the first ten balls today,” Jennings said. “The wicketkeeper was picked because he was the best in the country and he can stand up to someone like Wayne Parnell [the left-arm medium-fast bowler]. You haven’t seen the best of him yet, he can stand up to the stumps from the first ball.”Barnes has been standing up to the stumps to South Africa’s medium-pacers once the shine wears off. On Saturday, the ploy of having fielders in the circle worked as several Pakistan batsmen holed out while trying to clear the in-field.”I always believed that if we got a score like 260, no side is going to bat second and beat us,” Jennings said. “The only way they could have beaten us was if the rain affected the game through some sort of calculation. Nine out of ten times teams don’t make that score. We really bowled badly last night to start off with but I was quite confident that it was a matter of time before Pakistan collapsed.”The situation overnight though was precarious. Had there been seven more balls, the game would have been decided by the Duckworth/Lewis method and there would have been no need to come back on the reserve day. When play was called off, Pakistan needed five runs off seven balls to win the game on the D/L method, albeit without losing a wicket. Jennings felt Pakistan had read the situation poorly, for there were frequent interruptions which slowed down the pace of the game and hindered the completion of 20 overs.”Pakistan really went off the ball last night,” Jennings said. “They interrupted the game 4-5 times with [by calling for] batting gloves and water. So if they hadn’t done that they might have played the final. I think they interrupted themselves and paid the penalty.”The South Africans, however, were extremely pleased with the game going into the reserve day for as JJ Smuts, the opening batsman said: “It’s much easier to score six an over off 20 overs. It’s difficult to do over 50. In a shorter game the chances become a lot tighter. We backed ourselves to win if we played a full 50 overs to win the game.”

MCC won by an innings and 83 runs – ScorecardVictoria had to take the field without Ponsford, who was unfit. The home side contained no fewer than five left-handers, and their presence appeared to upset the MCC fielding, which was marred by some wild returns. Victoria lost two wickets for 14, but the young left-handers, O’Brien and Darling, added 90 runs for the third wicket by good cricket, and Oakley carried his bat for a very sound 83, always looking for runs whenever possible. At the close of the first day’s play MCC had scored 41 for the loss of Allen and Pataudi.The next day was nearly all Hammond, who, after taking great care to play himself in, scored his second 50 in an hour, and his third in 28 minutes, many of his runs coming from powerful strokes through the covers. He was severe on Fleetwood-Smith, who also came in for punishment from Wyatt. When 32, Hammond might possibly have been caught by Alexander at mid-off off Fleetwood-Smith, and at the close of play his score stood at 169 out of 362 for 7.Despite heavy rain overnight, the wicket was not difficult when Hammond continued his innings, and the Gloucestershire player reached his 200 just before lunch, play having been held up during the morning by a heavy shower. Jardine declared at the end of Hammond’s innings, which contained twenty-three fours and one six – a magnificent piece of batting.Victoria began their second innings on a treacherous wicket, and, after Woodfull’s dismissal the last seven wickets fell for 35 runs. The MCC fielding showed a welcome improvement, the inclusion of Paynter strengthening the out-cricket. Darling strained a muscle during the match, and had King, the twelfth man, to run for him.

The abysmal showing and the humiliating experiences of the Indianteam in England in 1974 brought back hideous memories of the 1936tour. On the field the visitors went down to heavy defeats; offthe field there were numerous seamy incidents making it arguablythe worst tour ever undertaken by an Indian team.Sunil Gavaskar put it all succinctly when he wrote in : “It was a totally disastrous series and the tour wasone of the worst I had made. There was no such thing as teamspirit. Instead there were a lot of petty squabbles that didn’tdo anybody any good. The many incidents that gave the team such abad name didn’t help. It was all extremely frustrating.”And yet when the team landed in England in April, there were noindications that the tour would end in such an unmitigateddisaster. The nucleus of the 1971 side seemed very much intact.The captain was still Ajit Wadekar, the spin quartet was at itpeak and the batting remained strong. Sure, the Indians would betouring in the wetter first half and not in the drier second halfas was the case in 1971. This was one factor reckoned to beagainst the visitors. But not even the most cynical Indiancricket follower could have bargained for what really happened.England won the first Test at Manchester by 113 runs. But the endcame in the 13th of the 20 mandatory overs so it was after a gamefight that India went down. But in the second Test at Lord’s,India touched an all time low. They conceded 629 runs, which wasthe highest England total at the game’s headquarters and thehighest by them against India. On the third day, India repliedwith 302. Following on, the Indian batting touched rock bottom.In just 77 minutes, they were bowled out for 42, their lowestever Test score and the lowest-ever total at Lord’s. The marginof defeat, an innings and 285 runs was the second biggest thatIndia have suffered. From one disaster the Indians stumbled on toanother.In the third Test at Birmingham, India went down by an inningsand 78 runs inside three days and after taking only two wickets.This was only the third time that a team was winning a Test afterlosing only two wickets, the earlier occasions being in 1924 and1958. To cricket fans who had seen their team pull off two greataway triumphs in the West Indies and England in 1971 and thenfollow it up by defeating England at home in 1972-73 it was toomuch to swallow. The batting had crumbled, the fielding hadwilted and the famed spinners had been mastered.As if the heavy defeats were not bad enough, stories of riftsbetween players and factions in the team made the rounds. Therewere also unsavoury incidents concerning the team at a partyhosted by the Indian High Commissioner in London. And around thistime, shiplifting charges were made out against Sudhir Naik.In India, the mood was predictably ugly and there were stories ofWadekar’s house being stoned and the 1971 Victory Bat, erected atIndore to commemorate the triumph three years before, beingdefaced. As it to symbolise the lack of team spirit and thefactionalism, the players came back in batches.Predictably enough, there were very few gains. Gavaskar, GundappaViswanath and Farookh Engineer did reasonably well under thecircumstances. Gavaskar’s 101 in bowler-friendly conditions atOld Trafford is considered to be among his greatest knocks.Generally, however, the batsmen came a cropper against theswinging ball, their technical limitations being exposed. EvenEknath Solkar, the eternal fighter, found it difficult to getruns, averaging less than 20 while Wadekar with 82 runs in sixinnings, was a total failure.The bowling too was a disaster with the spin quartet anything butmenacing. Compared to the 37 wickets that Bishan Bedi, BhagwatChandrasekhar and Sinivas Venkatraghavan took three years before,this time the four of them shared just 15 and at enormous cost.The tour results also showed the team in poor light. Out of 18matches, three were won, four lost and 11 drawn. The team alsolost both the one-day internationals at the end of the tourincidentally the first two such games that India played. Gavaskarlived up to his reputation by getting 993 runs at an average of41.37. Naik, Wadekar, Viswanath and Solkar all topped the 700-runmark. But for younger players like Brijesh Patel and Gopal Bose,the tour was a disaster.Bedi emerged as the leading wicket-taker with 53 but Chandra’stally fell from 50 in 1971 to 26 this time and Venkat’s declinewas even sharper 63 to 18. And all of them including Prasanna,were very expensive. Abid Ali’s all-round showing was a minorsilver lining.Against such weak-kneed opposition, England had a whale of a timein the Tests. Mike Denness got hundreds in successive Tests, JohnEdrich, Dennis Amiss, Keith Fletcher and Tony Greig also hitcenturies, David Lloyd hammered an unbeaten 214 in only hissecond Test and Geoff Arnold (4 for 19) and Chris Old (5 for 21)caused the debacle at Lord’s. The rout was total, complete andabsolute and there could not be any excuses for such a feebleshowing.

Michael Clarke will give Australia a view of the future when he leads the team in the Twenty20 international against New Zealand on Tuesday. Clarke, who is tipped to be the next Test captain, will step in for Ricky Ponting, who will miss the Perth match to allow the younger players to be on show.Clarke, 26, leap-frogged Adam Gilchrist and Michael Hussey – the move is sure to disappoint the local supporters – and he will be in charge of a squad including Adam Voges, Ashley Noffke and Shaun Tait. Gilchrist remained the vice-captain while Matthew Hayden was not picked.”It’s any young kid’s dream to captain their country, I’m stoked,” Clarke said at the SCG. Thoughts of being the new leader were the last things on Clarke’s mind when he heard the chief selector Andrew Hilditch, nicknamed Digger, wanted to speak to him.”When Digger gives you a call over the phone it’s normally for bad news,” Clarke said. “I thought ‘please tell me I’m not going to get dropped’. It certainly was a shock to me, I was a little bit speechless.”Hilditch said the appointment was made “to enhance the leadership skills of Michael Clarke to assure the long history of strong leadership of Australian cricket is continued into the future”. Hilditch also said the squad marked the start of preparations for the 2009 World Twenty20 in England. “It represents a clear indication that we will at all times be picking Twenty20 sides which will be specific to this form of the game,” he said.Voges, who made his ODI debut in February, came in as reward for his strong domestic form – he struck 180 in the current match in Hobart – while Noffke deserved his call after taking 24 Pura Cup wickets and scoring 490 runs. There was no spot for Ben Hilfenhaus, the out-of-form Tasmanian, but Tait was given a chance to continue his rehabilitation from a serious elbow problem.Clarke’s maturity since returning to the Test arena in 2006 impressed those around the team and he was Hussey’s deputy during last season’s Chappell-Hadlee Series until withdrawing with a hip injury. John Buchanan, the former coach, believes Clarke will be Australia’s next Test leader, Ponting has said he was the “obvious choice” and there were even predictions before his debut that he would captain his country.”This is a great opportunity, but there is no doubt Ricky is our leader and will be for a lot longer yet, but I’m certainly proud and honoured to be given this opportunity,” Clarke said. “For me it’s about trying to grab it with both hands and really enjoying every minute of it. I’ve spent a lot of time standing beside Ricky throughout my short career for Australia so I think I’ve learned a lot.”Clarke said he had consulted Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ian Chappell since coming into the Australian team. “Any young player would be silly not to.” Next Tuesday it will be him giving the instructions.Australia squad Adam Gilchrist (wk), Brad Hodge, Michael Clarke (capt), Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds, Adam Voges, Brett Lee, Ashley Noffke, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait.

Ottis Gibson, the former West Indies fast bowler, has been named England’s fast-bowling coach. Gibson has been working with the England team on their tour to Sri Lanka, and has also been involved in the ECB Fast Bowling Programme at the National Cricket Performance Centre over the last four years.”I am delighted to be a part of the England team in a full time capacity as bowling coach,” Gibson said. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with the team over the past few weeks in what has been a successful ODI tour of Sri Lanka.” England wrapped up the five-match ODI series 3-2, and the stand-out aspect throughout was the performance of the bowlers.”I feel I’m well equipped to take up the position as fast bowling coach,” said Gibson, who will continue to work within the Fast Bowling Programme under Kevin Shine, the ECB’s lead fast-bowling coach. “I’ve been involved with the ECB Fast Bowling Programme for a number of years now and have worked with both the senior England bowlers and several younger England bowlers. With the future looking so bright for England’s bowling stocks, I’m extremely excited by the prospect of working alongside Kevin Shine with such a talented group of bowlers in both the Test and one-day arenas.”Hugh Morris, the managing director of England Cricket, said: “The contribution Ottis has made to the ECB Fast Bowling Programme over a period of time has been outstanding and this has been further supported by his work with the England ODI squad in Sri Lanka recently.”Gibson had a superb season with Durham in 2007: he finished with the most number of wickets that any bowler has taken in a season for Durham, and was named Most Valuable Player and Player of the Year. Gibson’s international assignments with England this season will include a three-Test series in Sri Lanka in December, followed by a five-ODI and three-Test series in New Zealand early next year.

Here we go with another round of the almost threadbare personality debate, as if one great saviour from afar or at home will save us from the seemingly interminable decline of West Indies cricket.I know many who still harbour hopes of a revival sometime in the foreseeable future, or even a few of those who are resigned to things becoming increasingly bleak, are tired of being hammered over the head with all of this negative news surrounding something that has given us all so much pride and joy for such a long time. In protesting that they have had enough, their concern is essentially that there seems to be almost an eagerness to pick apart whatever vestiges of respectability that are left.There is certainly some merit to that argument, yet it still seems that too many people, especially a few in positions of influence, harbour the belief that it’s nothing that an academy, a superstar coach, plenty money and a fully professional league won’t sort out in a few short years. Will it really matter if the West Indies Cricket Board chooses to again go foreign in appointing the apparent favourite, Dav Whatmore, as head coach?On the other hand, can Ottis Gibson or any other Caribbean candidate do anything meaningful to even slow the decline (I think we’re all agreed now that the turnaround that many were confidently predicting year after year was just a mirage)?More and more, those who were prepared to be guarded in their observations, for fear of being seen as jealous former players only intent on hitting our current crop of heroes for six, are starting to swing for the hills in the manner of the just-concluded Twenty20 World Cup.A report in yesterday’s Nation newspaper in Barbados highlighted just the latest of those instances, with the greatest all-round cricketer of them all venting his frustration that our once proud legacy has come to this extremely sorry pass, due in no small measure to players who seem totally disconnected from their relevance as West Indies cricketers.

“Players have to start thinking about the game as a team game and go out there and try and play the best for their team and forget self performances,” said Sir Garfield Sobers, who was speaking after participating in the opening ceremony of the island’s National Heroes Gallery and Museum of Parliament on Wednesday. “Cricket in the West Indies is very important to the people in the West Indies, even if the players don’t think it’s important to them.”None of this is especially earth-shattering, as we’ve heard it said by many personalities before over the past decade. But when someone of Sobers’ stature takes a turn in the players’ tail, you know it can’t just be dismissed as the ranting of some run-of-the-mill naysayer.The only living member of Barbados’ current list of ten officially designated National Heroes, Sobers was assigned to work with the senior West Indies squad as an adviser in October 2004 at the same time that Bennett King had commenced his term as head coach. Many viewed the appointment as a public relations exercise to soften the public backlash at choosing a foreigner to take charge of the regional side.His comments of two days ago suggest that even if he were sincere and committed to the effort, the reaction of the players turned the whole thing into a waste of time.”A lot of the young (players) think players like myself, Sir Everton Weekes and Wes Hall have passed and have nothing to pass on, but that is where they are wrong,” he contended. “I think we have more to pass on. We’ve been through it, we know what it’s like, we know how to build a team and what a team needs to win.”Again, we’ve heard this all before from other sources, except that you can almost feel the deep sense of hurt in Sir Garfield’s words. I wonder if he was ever made aware that another left-hander of more recent vintage (no, not Brian Lara) once claimed to be better than Sobers after being admonished by a member of the technical staff for a particularly poor shot in the nets during the 2001 home series against South Africa?Incidents like that which used to raise eyebrows or cause others to splutter in disbelief, are now accepted as a matter of course from this lost generation of pretenders. Almost everyone can refer to his or her favourite moment, either on or off the field, that encapsulates the causes for the plummet from the summit. It may be a wild swipe when the match could still have been saved or a wild swipe at a teammate at a nightclub bar.Never let it be said that the champions of previous eras were all paragons of virtue, certainly not Sobers, who enjoyed the good life and nightlife as much as anyone else. Yet as his peerless record reveals (8,032 runs at 57.78, 235 wickets at 34.03 and 109 catches in 93 matches – to go into further detail will require two more columns), he never let external distractions get in the way of delivering on the field.Compare that with the abysmal statistics racked up by most of their strutting, image-conscious successors, and you realise that the more our golden icons expose the naked emperors who now represent us, the better the chances of reality taking root and bearing fruit in the next generation.