Escaping the Taliban
The best cricket stories of the week, 19th to 25th October 2024
1
Escaping the Taliban
Sydney Morning Herald’s Daniel Brettig talks to Afghani player Firooza Amiri about her and her teammates’ escape from the Taliban, and their struggles to rebuild their careers in exile.
“A cover story was agreed, whereby the family were travelling to Pakistan for a hospital visit…But outside Torkham [on the Afghan-Pakistan border], this story came unstuck. Taliban guards argued over the fact there were no medical certificates for the hospital visit, and for a few moments it appeared that Firooza and her family would be blocked from reaching Pakistan and eventually Australia.
“Then my brother says, ‘OK, I’m a basketball player and I have a match I have to go to’. And so they said, ‘OK, you can go’, because he was a man. That was how we got into Pakistan.”
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2
The Hundred? More like The Forty
Being Outside Cricket’s Danny Frankland decided to get into the numbers to determine how much anyone should pay for a Hundred franchise.
“But even with all of the intangible benefits, the potential of the women’s teams and the cost-cutting I’ve listed above, I cannot fathom why anyone would think the total value of the teams could be worth more than £400m or so. Even that figure feels highly generous. If the ECB and counties are expecting a billion pound payday, I expect they will be disappointed.”
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3
A little luck, and a lot of effort
Good Areas’ Jarrod Kimber looks at the statistical impact of different New Zealand players - historically and in the final - to show how the White Ferns won their first T20 World Cup.
“At almost every single turn of this tournament, when they needed something, they found it. That's what happened in the final. In the end, it wasn't even close. They were about 15 runs above par and South Africa never even got close to par.
New Zealand are the World Cup champions.”
ESPNcricinfo’s Firdose Moonda wrote a great piece profiling the stories of the South African Women’s players; “The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the South African sky”
4
The best of the rest
The Times’ Simon Wilde recounts how tours used to be when players and journalists travelled together, stayed together, and fought together; “Ian Botham’s taxi brawl and not much golf – Pakistan tours of the past”
ESPNcricinfo’s Kartikeya Date tries to build a statistical model to determine a team’s ‘luck’ over a series; “How lucky were India on their last tour of Australia? A statistical model tells us”
Cricket.com’s Shubh Aggarwal & Aakash Sivasubramaniam talk to DC’s new coach Hemang Badani about making an impact in a short time frame; “Hemang Badani Interview: What to expect from DC's new coach?”
The Guardian’s Tanya Aldred profiles Pat Cummins’ Cricket for Climate organisation that was borne out of Covid boredom; “Pat Cummins takes lead on climate crisis as cricketers pitch green plan”
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5
The best videos and podcasts
Test Match Special has a fascinating interview with Shoaib Bashir & Rehan Ahmed about identity, as the Brit spinners prepare to launch a twin spin attack against the country of their ancestors at Rawalpindi. [Apple Podcasts]
The Grade Cricketer’s Ian Higgins & Sam Perry talk to Pat Cummins about the Australian captaincy, the 2023 World Cup win, Steve Smith and David Warner, & how to out-relax the English on tour!
Test Match Special’s Jonathan Agnew talks to former Pakistani captain Urooj Mumtaz about her childhood struggles to become a cricketer, the opportunities for women now compared to the past, and how she juggles cricket commentary with her new career as a dentist! [Apple Podcasts]