Kieron Pollard has reiterated his commitment to West Indies despite becoming a Twenty20 cricketer for hire as he travels the world playing the shortest format

Andrew McGlashan08-Jul-2010Kieron Pollard has reiterated his commitment to West Indies despite becoming a Twenty20 cricketer for hire as he travels the world playing the shortest format. However, the allrounder added that drastic changes were needed to the way the game was run in the Caribbean.Pollard drew an angry response from the West Indies Cricket Board after he declined a place on the A-team tour of England in favour of his Friends Provident t20 deal with Somerset, but he believes he was completely within his rights to make that decision because we wasn’t on a retainer contract with the WICB.”I don’t want go into that too much, it’s a fairly unique situation I found myself in,” he told Cricinfo. “Things haven’t gone smoothly in West Indies in recent times and a lot of things need to be fixed. But it was about me being a professional sportsman and I will always be committed to the West Indies team whenever I am called up.”It’s my dream to play Test cricket and that will never change,” he added. “At the moment it is Twenty20 which has presented itself as my opportunity, but if the chance comes to put the whites on that will be a dream. I’m still young and would love to play for West Indies in all formats.”Pollard has been a great success at Somerset with 248 runs at a strike-rate of 177.14 and has claimed 20 wickets at 12.45, but he added the results of his county stint have no bearing on how he feels about shunning West Indies A. “I would have stood by my decision even if I hadn’t performed well for Somerset. At the end of the day the decision has been made and I will stick by it.”He has certainly left a mark around the county scene. On his debut against Middlesex, at Lord’s, he hit 89 off 45 balls which included a mighty six onto the roof of the pavilion. “It was big,” he said. “I don’t know how many metres, but it was a great start.”Pollard has taken his Twenty20 skills around the world over the last year. He was an overseas player for South Australia, has an IPL contract with Mumbai Indians and now can also add Somerset to that list. In a few weeks the West Indian domestic Twenty20 begins and, depending on his county commitments, Pollard is due to appear for Trinidad and Tobago.”It’s just the way it has happened for me,” he said. “I’m not contracted by West Indies and the Twenty20 format is something that suits my game. I don’t know how many more will follow, but some players might think of it as an option.”Trinidad and Tobago are the leading Twenty20 side in the region and will be early favourites to reach the Champions League which will be staged during September in South Africa. That would leave Pollard having to chose between his IPL team and his home team having already told South Australia he won’t play for them.”I’m looking forward to playing for Trinidad and qualifying for the Champions League,” he said, “and if that situation arises then I’ll make the decision who to play for. I’m going to give my all for Trinidad and Tobago.”Kieron Pollard is playing for Somerset in the Friends Provident t20. For more information on Friends Provident’s pensions, protections and investment products visit www.friendsprovident.com

Essex and Warwickshire found themselves locked in a tense struggle at Southend
on a day which saw a total of 17 wickets fall for 234 runs

05-Aug-2010
ScorecardDavid Masters dragged Essex back into the game before Warwickshire’s bowlers demolished the Essex top order•Getty Images

Essex and Warwickshire found themselves locked in a tense struggle at Southend
on a day which saw a total of 17 wickets fell for 234 runs. After Essex had lost their final wicket in the morning to be bowled out for 150, Warwickshire responded with 155 before reducing the home side to 78 for 6 in their second innings.Bryce McGain, in only his second and probably last County Championship game
for the county, was the key figure in Warwickshire’s demise. The 38-year-old Australian legspinner took 4 for 33 in 10 overs to add to his five-wicket haul in the previous match against Kent.McGain joined Essex a fortnight ago as a replacement for Danish Kaneria. But
now that Kaneria has been axed from Pakistan’s touring squad, Essex are seeking
to re-register him for the remainder of the summer, a move that will signal the
end of McGain’s spell. His last outing for the county is expected to be in the
Clydesdale Bank 40 duel against Northamptonshire on Sunday.McGain’s arrival heralded the first sight of a spinner in the match in the 85th
over and he struck with his first delivery to have Tim Ambrose caught behind
by James Foster. He also needed Foster’s help to remove Neil Carter and Imran Tahir, before which he also trapped Keith Barker lbw for 22.Darren Maddy and Rikki Clarke grafted away for nearly half of Warwickshire’s
total. Maddy’s innings of 39 spanned 88 deliveries while Clarke’s 36 came from 80
balls. Both eventually became lbw victims of paceman David Masters who went on
to finish with 3 for 51 from 19.4 overs.Jaik Mickleburgh and Mark Pettini began encouragingly enough when Essex
embarked upon their second innings, taking the total to 33 before the West
Midlands county hit back strongly.Pettini was caught behind off Boyd Rankin and Tom Westley edged Clarke to second
slip before Carter struck twice in consecutive overs to leave Essex on 56 for
4. First he had Ravi Bopara caught behind and then ended Mickleburgh’s
resistance by trapping him leg before after the opener had reached 30.Essex were then to suffer a double blow just before the close. Foster was superbly caught low down at first slip by Maddy to provide Chris Woakes with success and with the day’s final delivery Tony Palladino was stumped when moving forward against spinner Tahir.It all left Essex going into the third day with an advantage of just 73 and with Warwickshire nursing high hopes of claiming only their third Championship victory of the summer.

Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, has promised “prompt and decisive” action if any players are found guilty of spot fixing

Cricinfo staff30-Aug-2010Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, has promised “prompt and decisive” action if any players are found guilty of spot-fixing following the allegations that emerged during the fourth Test between England and Pakistan at Lord’s.Previous investigations into corruption, including the Qayyum report in 1998 which looked into a number of former Pakistan players, have been slammed for not being firm enough and ridding the game of match-fixing. ICC have said they will let the police investigation take its course but are determined to come down hard on offenders.”Make no mistake – once the process is complete, if any players are found to be guilty, the ICC will ensure that the appropriate punishment is handed out,” Lorgat said. “We will not tolerate corruption in this great game.”The integrity of the game is of paramount importance. Prompt and decisive action will be taken against those who seek to harm it. However, the facts must first be established through a thorough investigation and it is important to respect the right of due process when addressing serious allegations of this sort.”However, the ICC’s own code sets out a variety of punishments that can be enforced ranging from a five-year ban to life depending on a number of factors.Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir are alleged to be among those involved in spot-fixing scams exposed by the News of the World which involve bowling no-balls at specific moments during the Test. The trio, who travelled to Somerset with the rest of the Pakistan squad on Monday ahead of Thursday’s match against Somerset, have had their mobile phones confiscated by police while Mazhar Majeed, the man at the centre of the newspaper sting, has been released on bail pending further questioning.”Currently, senior ACSU investigators are in the United Kingdom conducting enquiries into the allegations directed at some Pakistan players during the recently concluded Test against England at Lord’s,” Lorgat said. “That investigation has the full support and co-operation of the ECB and PCB. In addition, ACSU officials are assisting London’s Metropolitan Police with their criminal investigation.”All allegations of betting irregularities or fixing of matches or incidents within matches are investigated thoroughly by the ICC’s internationally respected Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) and this case is no different.”Meetings have been going on throughout the day to determine the fate of the Twenty20 and one-day internationals due to start next week but at the moment officials insist the games will go ahead. Investigators from Pakistan have flown into the UK and Sharad Pawar, the ICC president, said he expected initial reports in the next few days.”Until and unless the British authorities complete the investigation, which we hope will be done in two-three days, and establish there is prima facie case, it is difficult for the PCB to take appropriate action,” Pawar said after a teleconference with ICC officials, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt and ECB chairman Giles Clarke. “ICC is waiting for the British police to complete investigation. ACSU is also looking into the details. It is also preparing a report in two to three days. The report by British Police and ACSU will give us a proper picture.”

The WIPA has “condemned” the exclusion of Ramnaresh Sarwan from the WICB’s list of contracted players, and has questioned the board’s reasoning behind the decision

Cricinfo staff14-Sep-2010The West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) has “condemned” Ramnaresh Sarwan’s exclusion from the WICB’s list of contracted players, and has questioned the board’s reasoning behind the decision. The WICB said it had cut Sarwan because of concerns about his attitude to fitness. According to a WIPA release, Sarwan’s recent injuries had occurred while playing for West Indies and that he had shown initiative in trying to recover quickly, following all directions issued by the board.According to WIPA, Sarwan had been informed by the WICB chief executive, Ernest Hilaire, of the board’s concerns about his attitude to fitness following a report on West Indies’ tour of Australia in November 2009. Neither the players’ association nor Sarwan, however, had seen the report. According to the WIPA, in a letter dated January 11, the board said it was not highlighting specific incidents illustrating its concerns about Sarwan but only wanted to sensitize him to the problem.In its reply to the WICB, the players’ association had asked for specific instances when Sarwan did not meet the standards demanded, and wanted the batsman to be given an opportunity to state his case. No reply had so far been received by the WIPA.The players’ association also highlighted that Sarwan’s recent injuries had occurred while on West Indies duty – a back problem during the tour of Australia, and a hamstring injury in the home series against South Africa earlier this year. It also outlined the measures Sarwan had taken on his own initiative and expense – undergoing treatment in Florida and Canada – to recover from the injuries. The WIPA also said that there had been no complaints from the team management about Sarwan’s attitude or his commitment to training in the past and during the series against Australia and South Africa.Sarwan, however, had said that he was expecting the setback but that the disappointment would not affect his focus in leading Guyana’s ongoing Champions League Twenty20 campaign in South Africa.

Kevin Pietersen has apologised for the foul-mouthed Twitter outburst that followed his omission from England’s one-day squad for the forthcoming series against Pakistan

Cricinfo staff01-Sep-2010Kevin Pietersen has apologised for the foul-mouthed Twitter outburst that followed his omission from England’s one-day squad for the forthcoming series against Pakistan, and has set his sights on rediscovering his form during a two-and-a-half week loan spell with Surrey that gets underway with a floodlit CB40 fixture at The Oval on Wednesday night.Pietersen accidentally broke the ECB’s squad announcement embargo on Tuesday afternoon when he posted a message to his Twitter feed declaring: “Done for rest of summer!! Man of the World Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too. Its a f**k up!!” Though the message was swiftly deleted, it was inevitably picked up by several of his 38,000 “followers” and circulated around the internet.”It came out in a way I obviously didn’t want it to come out,” Pietersen told Surreycricket.tv. “The Twitter thing was a direct message – as anyone who is on Twitter knows, you can send direct messages to your friends, or whoever’s following you and you follow them – so I must apologise that it ended up in the public domain, and also apologise for the language I used in it. I would never ever swear on Twitter when going out into the public domain, so this is a big apology, and now it’s a case of looking forward what is going to be an exciting couple of weeks.”Although Pietersen was not best pleased at being dropped, he insisted the anger had been a spur-of-the-moment reaction, and that he fully understood the reasons for the selectors’ decision, after he struggled to a tally of 140 runs in the four-Test series against Pakistan, with a top-score of 80 at Edgbaston that involved at least four clear-cut chances.”It was just a mistake,” he reiterated. “I hold nothing against the England selectors and the England set-up at all, I was just pretty upset and frustrated with my own form. I’ve spoken to the coach [Andy Flower], the Twenty20 captain [Paul Collingwood], the chairman of selectors [Geoff Miller], and the managing director of English cricket [Hugh Morris], and they all totally understand. It’s onwards and upwards.”Pietersen will be available for two 40-over fixtures with Surrey, as well as two Championship games, and he was effusive in his praise for a club that has stepped in to help both the man himself and his employers, the ECB, after his relationship with his previous county, Hampshire, soured to such an extent that they refused to pick him on the rare occasions that he was released from England duty – not least their victory in Twenty20 finals day at the Rose Bowl last month.”Surrey have been absolutely amazing, I cannot thank them enough,” said Pietersen. “They are a great club with a great history, and some great people who’ve been very welcoming. There are some familiar faces here and also a dressing-room full of promising cricketers, so I feel pretty good and they’ve made me feel very comfortable in the rooms already.”One of the big reasons why I decided Hampshire wasn’t the best option for me, was that I could easily do all my training and rehab in London. Hopefully I can repay them by passing on my experience to the younger players, who can pick my brain over the way to do things – and not do things – and also by scoring some runs to get back into some reasonable form, and enjoy a couple of weeks at a fantastic club with some fantastic people.”The most significant matches from the point of view of Pietersen’s pre-Ashes rehabilitation are Surrey’s final two Championship fixtures against Glamorgan at home and Gloucestershire away. Since making his England Test debut in July 2005, Pietersen has featured in a solitary county four-day fixture, for Hampshire against Somerset at Taunton in May 2008, and he himself admitted that the opportunity for a low-key stint in first-class cricket would be invaluable.”Any opportunity in the middle is an opportunity I’ll grab with both hands, but the two four-day games will be ideal for my preparations,” he said. “It’s understandable that the selectors would like me to play some four-day cricket, because since my Achilles injury the only four-day cricket I’ve played have been Test matches, and it’s pretty difficult to sort your game when you go into a Test match set-up, if you’re not playing at the top of your game. It will be a wonderful opportunity to get back into nick and get ready for a very exciting winter.”

Pakistan have announced a 15-man squad to take on South Africa in two T20s and five ODIs later this month in the UAE, but surprisingly not named a captain

Osman Samiuddin07-Oct-2010Pakistan have announced a 15-man squad to take on South Africa in two T20s and
five ODIs later this month in the UAE, but surprisingly not named a captain.Shahid Afridi has been – bans, punishments and Test retirements notwithstanding – the limited-overs captain since June this year and is in the squad but not yet as leader. No selector was available to comment on the decision. The chairman Ijaz Butt, selectors and management were involved in a day-long meeting at Gaddafi Stadium and the issue of naming a captain is thought to have been discussed only briefly. One official who attended that meeting told ESPNcricinfo that Butt insisted a captain would be announced later.Predictably, the non-announcement has already sparked speculation of possible disharmony. One TV channel reported that a negative report against Afridi’s leadership during the England tour from the team management has led to the decision to not name a captain yet. Afridi was outside the country on a commercial assignment and only returned on Thursday.The other surprise is the return, yet again, of Misbah-ul-Haq to bolster the middle order. Misbah was dropped from the set-up after the winless tour of Australia earlier in the year – he had only gone on that tour after the original decision to axe him was reversed – as the selectors looked to move towards younger options. But an impressive Man-of-the-Tournament performance in the RBS ODI cup earlier this year – where he top-scored with 490 runs at 163.33 – won him a return to the national team. Azhar Ali and Umar Amin, who have both been part of at least one
ODI squad since June and were loudly trumpeted as the future, have been left out.The team will also be without Kamran Akmal who has just undergone an
appendicitis operation. Zulqarnain Haider, who replaced Akmal for one Test
in the summer against England and scored a valiant 88, has been given an opportunity to build on that first impression.Pakistan will already be without two key ODI players in Salman Butt and
Mohammad Amir, both of whom are provisionally suspended by the ICC for
their alleged involvement in a spot-fixing scandal during the England tour.
Mohammad Asif, the third suspended player, would not have been eligible
for selection in any case as he is barred from entering the UAE. There
continues to be no place in the side for a pair of former captains, Younis
Khan and Shoaib Malik.There have been key changes in the management as well, the most
significant being the return of Intikhab Alam as manager of the side. Intikhab,
a veteran manager, takes over from Yawar Saeed. He was also coach of the
side until earlier this year and in an inquiry committee after the
Australia tour in January called his players “mentally retarded”, as well as
suspecting the motives of some of them in the now infamous Sydney Test
loss.Ijaz Ahmed, the batting and fielding coach on recent tours, has not been
re-appointed. David Dwyer, the popular trainer who arrived with former
coach Geoff Lawson, has also not been retained after the series in
England.Pakistan squad: Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Shoaib Akhtar, Tanvir Ahmed, Zulqarnain Haider (wk).

Australia captain Michael Clarke has said his side were outplayed by Sri Lanka in the only Twenty20 game between the two teams

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Oct-2010Australia captain Michael Clarke has said his side were outplayed by Sri Lanka in the only Twenty20 game between the two teams before they play three one-day internationals starting on November 3.Sri Lanka cruised to a seven-wicket win at the WACA, restricting Australia to 133 for 8, their lowest ever total at home.”They [Sri Lanka] played really well,” Clarke said. “We were a little bit disappointing with the bat, especially up front losing four wickets early. I think we got outplayed. No doubt conditions were different to what we just faced in India, but look, we’ve had great preparation here, the nets are very similar to what we faced out in the middle so we have no excuses. Sri Lanka bowled really well.”Kumar Sangakkara made an unbeaten 44 off 43 balls to see Sri Lanka home with 3.3 overs to spare, sharing a 71-run partnership with Tillakaratne Dilshan. Both batsmen looked at ease at the crease, unlike the Australians, who struggled with the bounce offered by the WACA pitch.”They played the cross-bat shots really well on a bouncy wicket,” Clarke said. “I think we can learn from that, I think we tried to bowl a bit too short because there was a bit of pace and carry.”Sangakkara was full of praise for the way his bowlers and fielders performed. “We played a pretty good game from the start. We knew them winning the toss was an advantage for them but it just kept getting better for the batsman. I think the way we played first up with the choice of deliveries and the way we fielded, it was a great achievement to keep them down to around 130.”

The Titans chased the third-highest target of the MTN40 to beat the Lions by three wickets in the first leg of their semi-final in Centurion, successfully reaching 300 with eight balls to spare

Firdose Moonda27-Nov-2010
ScorecardRoelof van der Merwe’s all-round performance lifted Titans to a three-wicket win against Lions•AFP

The Titans chased the third-highest target of the MTN40 to beat the Lions by three wickets in the first leg of their semi-final in Centurion. They successfully went in search of 300, finishing with eight balls to spare, thanks to a Roelof van der Merwe assault. That inflicted a fourth consecutive loss on the Lions, despite the return of captain Alviro Petersen and Paul Harris.Neither of the two national caps made a major difference on the field. However, young Jonathan Vandiar, playing only his third match of the season in this format, was in a bullish mood. He smacked the second ball of the third over back over Albie Morkel’s for a six, and the bruising had begun.Vandiar’s fireworks ultimately included 13 fours and three sixes as he reached his highest limited-overs score, 130, off 108 balls. Forty of his runs came off a riled-up Andre Nel. Vandiar shared in a 100-run second-wicket stand with Richard Cameron, who made 45 off 37. The Lions had a middle-order wobble when van der Merwe removed Chris Morris and Neil McKenzie cheaply in consecutive overs. However, they were already well set for a meaty total, and Zander de Bruyn’s unbeaten 53 added the spice to lift them to 299.Last week, the Titans put on 310 for 4 against the Lions, so they wouldn’t have been too intimidated by the tall target. What might have scared them was Ethan O’Reilly’s opening spell. He struck with his third ball, an inswinger that trapped Henry Davids leg before. O’Reilly then removed the Titans captain Jacques Rudolph in his fourth over, getting him caught at backward point for 11.Gulam Bodi – who reached 3500 List A runs during his 41 – kept the Titans in the hunt. However, he fell to a stunning catch by Petersen in the covers off Werner Coetsee. Even with Bodi at the crease, the required run-rate had climbed to nearly 10 an over. Faf du Plessis and van der Merwe eased the pressure with a fourth-wicket partnership of 119 that came in only 12 overs. Both played an array of dazzling shots, particularly pulls and drives, with special punishment reserved for former team-mate Harris, who leaked 36 runs in his first four overs.de Bruyn removed du Plessis for 61, as the in-form man inside-edged onto his stumps. In the next over, van der Merwe’s aggressive knock, that included seven sixes, ended in tame fashion when he was caught on the square-leg boundary by Friedel de Wet for 93 off 51 balls. He had almost managed to resurrect the Titans from the dead. Morkel tried the resuscitation technique as well. His 24 off 17 included two sixes off Werner Coetsee, both of which just cleared the long-on rope. Three deliveries later, O’Reilly had him trapped lbw for his third wicket.Ironically, it was O’Reilly’s last over, which saw him getting smashed all around like a rag doll for 19 runs that killed off the match. Seventeen of those spewed from the bat of David Wiese, who was the Titans’ savior in the end. He denied the Lions any revenge over their provincial rivals, who beat them by 96 runs at the same venue in a pool match last week. The second leg of the tie takes place on Wednesday at the Wanderers.

Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis have jointly claimed the No. 1 spot in ICC player rankings for Test batsmen after the conclusion of the Cape Town Test on Thursday

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jan-2011Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis share the No.1 spot in the latest ICC player rankings for Test batsmen following the conclusion of the Cape Town Test on Thursday. Both Tendulkar and Kallis have 883 rating points, just one ahead of Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara at No.2.Tendulkar, who scored 146 and 14 not out in the third Test in Cape Town against South Africa, gained one place in the rankings. Kallis, who was the top run scorer for the series with 498 runs including three centuries and was declared man of the series, earned 77 points to jump four places.Tendulkar last topped the rankings in October after he scored 214 and 53 against Australia in Bangalore. This is the tenth time he has claimed the No.1 spot. Kallis last claimed the No. 1 spot in 2005, after the Sydney Test against Australia.England opener Alastair Cook, who was the leading run scorer with 766 runs from just seven innings in England’s 3-1 victory over Australia in the Ashes, jumped eight places to No.5. He ended the series with a career-best rating of 803 points. Meanwhile Gautam Gambhir, the India opener, who made 93 and 64 in the Cape Town Test, moved up seven places to No.15.Dale Steyn comfortably held on to his No. 1 spot for Test bowlers, moving to 899 points after taking 21 wickets at 17.47 against India. England fast bowler James Anderson, who finished as the leading wicket-taker in the Ashes, moved up one position to No.3. Kallis, of course, continues to lead the rankings for Test allrounders.

James Anderson has been a key part of England’s success in retaining the Ashes he he banishes memories of four years ago

Andrew Miller31-Dec-2010″I don’t know what it feels like,” groaned James Anderson on the morning after the night before. The Ashes had been retained and the celebrations had, by all accounts, been a controlled explosion – sufficiently forceful to shake the foundations of the team hotel in South Yarra, but at the same time respectful to the circumstances of a series that remains to be wrapped up. It is a measure of an astonishingly well-thought-out campaign that even the moments of euphoria have been professional.And so it was that, even through the fog of his hangover, it was possible to glimpse in Anderson the character that has carried him towards the pinnacle of his career. His softly spoken words were made softer still by the throbbing in his head, but if you listened carefully they had an unmistakable edge to them – emboldened, no doubt, by the triumph to which he had contributed only 24 hours previously.”I always knew that I had a lot more ability and skill than I showed in my early career,” said Anderson. “I knew I could improve a hell of a lot, and I also knew I could perform at this level because I did so to a certain extent when I started out. So I just thought if I could try and improve as much as I can, work hard at my game, I could perform for England.”It’s a great achievement, and it was an amazing place to do it at the MCG,” he added. “It was a fantastic atmosphere from the English fans, and a great place to retain the Ashes. For me and the rest of the team, we’ve grown up watching some unsuccessful trips to Australia, and I’ve been involved in one in the past, so it was a dream come true, and brilliant to be part of such a fantastic performance.”Anderson deserves his moment more than most. Not only is he the leading wicket-taker in the series with 17 scalps at 29.29, he has also matured into his role as the true leader of the England pack – a process that might have looked inevitable when he made his international debut at the MCG back in 2002-03, an astonishing eight years ago this month, but which had seemed virtually inconceivable in the latter years of Duncan Fletcher’s reign. On the last Ashes tour Anderson had seemed belittled and withdrawn, an ever-wobbly spare wheel whose five wickets at 82.60 were a precise reflection of his fragile state of mind.Now, however, he is a character transformed, a player who has burrowed so deep into Australia’s psyche that one of his worthier opponents of the series, Shane Watson, described an error that he made while batting as a nightwatchman on the third evening at Perth as “one of his favourite moments on a cricket field”. Such hyperbole betrays the extent to which Anderson has rattled the opposition on this trip – the “pussy” who was derided by Justin Langer in his leaked dossier during the 2009 Ashes has grown a mane and learnt to roar.In the opinion of David Saker, England’s plaudit-strewn bowling coach, Anderson is close to becoming the best fast bowler in the world, with only South Africa’s No. 1-ranked Dale Steyn challenging him in terms of current form, and on the evidence of 2010 it is hard to disagree. At Melbourne, he became the 13th England bowler to pass 200 Test wickets, but 49 – or nearly a quarter – of those have come in the past 12 months, including a career-best 11 for 71 in the first Test against Pakistan in July, and two critical first-innings four-fors in each of England’s Ashes wins at Adelaide and Melbourne.While Anderson acknowledges Saker’s role in tightening up his methods on pitches that do not offer natural swing, he puts the rest of his dramatic improvement down to the work ethic that comes from representing a team on the up in the world game, and an eye for detail that comes with experience of international cricket.”It’s just practice,” he said. “I’ve learnt from watching a number of other international cricketers, and tried to develop different sorts of deliveries. Mohammad Asif hits the seam and wobbles it, and can swing it as well, so I learnt from that last summer, and last time we were in India, Zaheer Khan was hiding the ball went it was reversing so I picked that up from him and tried to develop it to suit me. Also you also listen to your own top-order batsmen, and what they find difficult facing.”Long consigned to the dustbin is the notion that Anderson would be an easy beat on the flat Australian pitches, when armed with the Kookaburra ball and its mechanically stitched, bowler-unfriendly seam. Like Matthew Hoggard on the 2006-07 tour, Anderson has developed his methods as a natural swinger of the ball, and armed himself with enough tricks to prove a handful regardless of the conditions.The process, however, has not been an overnight one, no matter how suspicious the Aussies may have been of his credentials going into the Gabba Test. And in the same week in which Kevin Pietersen revisited old feuds with his reference to the demise of Peter Moores, Anderson provided another reminder that, regardless of how maligned the former coach may have been by hindsight, he did have his moments during his brief stint at the helm.The start of Anderson’s second coming as an international cricketer was at Wellington in March 2008, when Moores purged Hoggard and Steve Harmison from England’s front line, and the thrusting young pairing of Anderson and Stuart Broad were handed the pace bowling duties alongside Ryan Sidebottom. Anderson’s first act was to take five first-innings wickets in a series-levelling victory, and since that date he’s taken 143 of his tally at 28.23.”When Peter Moores was in charge, he wanted me to lead the attack and gave me a lot of responsibility in New Zealand,” said Anderson. “Hoggard and Harmison got dropped, me and Broady came in – it really was a lot of faith in us, and it boosted my confidence. And we’ve also had the bowling coaches since then – Ottis [Gibson] was fantastic, Allan Donald I really enjoyed working with, and now Sakes has been brilliant. We’ve all been developing some good skills, because we’ve shown in the four games so far we can swing the ball, seam the ball and reverse-swing the ball.”David Saker has been credited with bringing the best out of England’s quick bowlers•Getty Images

More than that, however, Anderson has been learning how to lead, and right now he is the kingpin in an England seam attack in which any three of six fast bowlers could be trusted to front up and perform their duties for England. It’s a far cry from the little boy lost who once used to take the field for England in venues as diverse as Johannesburg, Adelaide and Colombo, and find his methods dissected as quickly as his morale used to evaporate.To his credit, Anderson recognises his flaws of yesteryear, and like his counterpart in the middle order, Ian Bell, has worked extra hard to eradicate them. Instead of shirking the confrontation, he’s developed a willingness to square up to all opponents, not least Mitchell Johnson whose one glorious spell at Perth has been undermined by a raft of supine performances, in which he himself has looked a bit like the Anderson of old – toiling for swing, baffled by its absence and bereft of explanations for why.”Body language is a huge thing, certainly as a bowler,” said Anderson. “You don’t want to be seen trudging back to your mark all the time, so I try to keep my shoulders back and be as positive as possible, because in the past I’ve been pretty average in that respect. There’s a difference between various people telling me and me actually seeing it when we look at games back on TV. I could obviously see that it wasn’t good enough.”And much like the excitement surrounding Australia’s increased chirpiness in the field at Perth, Anderson has discovered that a well-placed comment is every bit as potent as a well-directed bouncer, especially when you are the side on top. “I think it’s just part of my natural game,” he said. “I don’t always do it, but it gets me fired up when the time is right, and I try to pick my players as well as I possibly can.”I don’t really have a favourite, but there are players not to pick,” he added. “Ponting, if you get under his skin, he’s more likely to dig in and enjoy the contest, so we might stay away from him. I think in the past it was an emotional thing that just came out, but over the last couple of years I’ve learned to control it much better. Whatever goes on when I’ve bowled a ball, I know when I go back to my mark I’m 100% focused on what I’m about to do with the ball.”For all of the revelry of Melbourne, however, Anderson concedes that the job’s not done yet. “We want to go out on a high, whether that’s 2-1 or 3-1, because to go home 2-2 would take the gloss off,” he said. “Four years ago was a completely different story and not worth remembering to be honest, but it will be a nicer feeling knowing that we can not just retain the Ashes but win the series. We celebrated [on Friday] and deservedly so, but we’ve put that behind us to focus on five days at Sydney. It’s really important we go out on a high in the series.”