text:
Justin Langer

Justin Lee Langer (born 21 November 1970) is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. He is the former coach of the Australia men's national team, having been appointed to the role in May 2018 and leaving in February 2022 and became the coach of Lucknow based IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants in July, 2023. A left-handed batsman, Langer is best known for his partnership with Matthew Hayden as Australia's test opening batsmen during the early and mid-2000s, considered one of the most successful ever. Representing Western Australia domestically, Langer played English county cricket for Middlesex and also Somerset. He holds the record for the most runs scored at first-class level by an Australian. As Australia's coach, he led the team to victory in the 2021 T20 World Cup.

Born in Perth, Western Australia, Langer excelled at cricket from an early age, representing Western Australia at under-age level, as well as the Australia under-19 team. He also won a scholarship to the Australian Cricket Academy at the Australian Institute of Sport in 1990. Langer made his first-class debut for Western Australia during the 1991–92 Sheffield Shield, and, after good form at state level, made his Test debut for Australia the following season at the age of 22, during the West Indies' 1992–93 tour. Although maintaining his place in the side, he struggled for form, and only made sporadic appearances for Australia until his selection for Australia's 1998–99 tour of Pakistan, in which he scored his first Test century. Establishing himself at number three in the batting order, Langer maintained this role until the 2001 Ashes series. Having been injured for the first four Tests, he replaced Michael Slater as Matthew Hayden's opening partner for the final Test, and scored a century in Australia's innings win. This was the first of three centuries in consecutive matches that secured Langer's position at the top of the order.

Except for injuries, the partnership between Hayden and Langer (with Ricky Ponting moving to Langer's previous position at number three) persisted until Langer's retirement at the conclusion of the 2006–07 Ashes series. Their partnership included a total of 5,655 runs over a period of 113 innings, second only to the partnership between West Indians Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes. Langer's retirement came after several injuries had restricted his batting, including a concussion sustained during Australia's 2005–06 tour of South Africa. Despite having been one of the leading runscorers in Australia's domestic limited-overs competition, he only played eight One Day International matches for Australia, all during a period from 1994 to 1997. After his retirement, Langer played one final season with Western Australia (having served as the state's captain since the 2002–03 season), as well as continuing as captain of Somerset in English domestic cricket. He retired from all forms of the cricket at the end of the 2009 English cricket season. Langer was the Australian national cricket team's batting coach and senior assistant coach from November 2009 until November 2012, when he was appointed senior coach of the Perth Scorchers and Western Australia.

In 2016, Langer became interim coach for the Australian team while then coach Darren Lehmann took leave to scout for the Ashes and away matches late in 2016. In a fan poll conducted by the CA in 2017, he was named in the country's best Ashes XI in the last 40 years.

On 3 May 2018, Langer was announced as coach of the Australian national cricket team, following a ball tampering scandal which led to the resignation of Darren Lehmann. His four-year term began on 22 May 2018.

On 4 February 2022, Langer announced his resignation as head coach of the Australia men's team. His contract was set to expire in June 2022, and he turned down a short-term extension.

1993–2000
Langer made his Test debut against the West Indies at the Adelaide Oval, in January 1993. He received a rough welcome against an in-form West Indian bowling attack, including being hit on the back of the head by his very first ball in Test cricket, delivered by Ian Bishop, who went on to become a close friend in later life. Along with the rest of the Australian team, he took numerous blows from their pace bowlers. After only managing to score 20 in the first innings, Langer top-scored for Australia with 54 in the second, a famous chase by Australia that fell just 2 runs short. In the fifth and final Test of the series, Langer only managed to score 11 runs between his two innings in a match that was dominated by the bowling of Curtly Ambrose and Ian Bishop.

He retained his place for the following tour of New Zealand. After decent but not awe-inspiring totals in the first two Tests (63 & 24), Langer suffered the indignity of getting a pair in the third Test, falling for a duck in both innings. He was subsequently dropped, and other than a few scattered appearances did not return to the Australian Test team until October 1998, for the tour of Pakistan.

In November 1999 at Bellerive Oval in Hobart, he shared a match-winning 238-run partnership with Adam Gilchrist to rescue Australia from 126/5 chasing a victory target of 369 against Pakistan. The century scored in this innings was scored in 388 minutes, an Australian record for the slowest century.

2001–2002
Langer was a number three batsman until 2001 when he was dropped after failing to convert a series of starts during Australia's 2–1 loss in India. During the second Test in Kolkata, he bowled a single over when V. V. S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid defied the Australian attack for the entirety of the fourth day, forcing captain Steve Waugh to try almost all his players as bowlers; it was the only time Langer ever bowled at Test level. Shortly after though, he replaced Michael Slater as an opening batsman for the final 2001 Ashes series Test at The Oval where he celebrated his return with a century. He did not get dropped again and as an opening batsman he averaged 52.38 and scored 14 centuries in 44 matches; previously he scored 7 centuries in 41 matches at an average of 39.04. Langer returned to Australia in the 2002–03 Ashes series, where his very successful partnership with Matthew Hayden developed. In this series, Langer scored his top score of 250 against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

2003–2007
Langer personally outscored the entire Pakistan side in the Perth Test of 2004. He scored 191 and 97 while Pakistan made 179 and 72. It was the first occasion of a player being dismissed in both the 190s and 90s in a Test.

He captained the Prime Minister's XI in December 2005 in their match against the West Indies.

In the 2005 Ashes series, Langer top-scored for an unsuccessful Australian team, with 391 in the series. His top score was 105, scored in the final test.

After this, pressure was mounting on the opening partnership of Hayden and Langer. Calls were coming to have the pair replaced by a younger duo, that would ensure the future and stability of the team to come. However, the partnership had support from the Australian selectors and was only disrupted in the 2006 Summer series when Langer was out with injury. He was replaced by Mike Hussey and Phil Jaques for two tests.

Langer then suffered a number of injuries, increasing the pressure on selectors to drop him for rising star Phil Jaques. Langer was selected over Jaques for the 2007 Ashes series, which turned out to be his last. Langer scored an 80 and a century in the first test, but it was slim pickings to follow for him.

Despite success in the Australian Test team, he did not get recalled to the one-day team, even after he was named as the domestic ING Cup's player of the season in 2002/03.

Retirement
On 1 January 2007, Langer announced his retirement from Test cricket after the fifth Ashes Test against England, starting at the Sydney Cricket Ground the following day. In doing so, he joined Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath who had both announced their retirements earlier in the month, and it came only three matches after the surprise departure of Damien Martyn. He came to the decision during the previous match in Melbourne, having earlier decided against retiring after the tour of South Africa to help Australia reclaim the Ashes. He said of his decision: "Everyone keeps saying 'you'll know when it's time'. Well, at one o'clock two days ago I knew it was time – it just came to me."

Despite his retirement from international cricket, Langer opted to continue to play first-class cricket, with Somerset announcing on the same day that Langer had agreed to return to the English county in 2007 as captain. Langer had said during his retirement announcement that he was relishing returning to Somerset: "There's an amazing challenge at Somerset. They're at the bottom of everything, and I've got a great regard for the coach over there and I'm looking forward to that challenge." Langer also stayed on with Western Australia for a final season in 2007–08.

List of international centuries
Langer scored his first Test century against Pakistan at Peshawar in October 1998, scoring 116. He scored his final Test century against England at The Gabba in November 2006. His highest Test score is 250, scored against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in December 2002.

Langer never made a century in the ODI format; his highest score was 36, which he made against India at Sharjah in 1994.

Western Australia
Langer was the captain of the Western Warriors until the end of the 2006/2007 season. He became the highest run-scorer for Western Australia in 4-day matches, after passing Tom Moody's old record of 8853 runs on 5 December 2007 against Tasmania at Bellerive Oval. On 5 March 2008, Langer announced his retirement from Australian first-class domestic cricket. Earlier in the year, Langer had announced his retirement from the Australian domestic one-day cricket. However, Langer said that he would play another season for Somerset in county cricket. Langer played for Western Australia in a career spanning 17 years, leaving as the highest run-scorer in Western Australia's history.

County Cricket
Langer played county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club from 1998 to 2000, captaining the side in 2000. In his first season, he scored his maiden century in English domestic cricket in superb fashion with 233 not out against Somerset at Lord's, in the same match that he was awarded his county cap. He went on to score centuries in his next two County Championship matches, and achieved 1,000 runs for the season after only eight matches. He finished the season with the second highest runs total and batting average in the Championship, behind John Crawley on both counts.

In June 2006 it was announced that he would join Somerset later that month for six weeks, while fellow countryman Dan Cullen was on duty with Australia A. On 20 July 2006, he made his highest first-class score of 342 playing for Somerset in a County Championship match against Surrey at the Woodbridge Road ground in Guildford. This was also the highest score ever by a Somerset batsman, breaking the record of Sir Viv Richards who made 322 against Warwickshire at Taunton in 1985, and is the 10th highest score in a first-class match in England. During his six-week spell at the club, Langer also enjoyed particular success in the Twenty20 competition, topping the batting charts along with fellow Australian Cameron White.

On 20 April 2007 he became the first Somerset player to score two triple centuries in the County Championship when he hit 315 against Middlesex in a match noted for its batting. Responding to a Middlesex first innings of 600, Somerset set a new ground record at the County Ground, Taunton with 850–7 declared. On 19 September 2007 it was announced that Langer would stay with Somerset (as captain) for the 2008 season. In 15 first-class matches for the county in 2007, Langer scored 1215 runs at 57.85 and a further 764 in one-day competitions.

Early in the 2008 season, Langer and Marcus Trescothick put on a 272-second wicket partnership during the second innings against Hampshire at the County Ground, Taunton; falling just 18 short of the 1924 ground record.

On 23 July 2009, playing his 615th innings, he surpassed Sir Donald Bradman as the leading Australian first-class run scorer when he scored his 86th century while playing Worcestershire. At the end of the 2009 season, Langer announced that he would not be returning to Taunton in a playing capacity the following season, and retiring from all competitive cricket. He commented in an interview with BBC Somerset that he was in discussions to potentially return at some point to the county in the future in a coaching capacity. Langer played his last home game in English domestic cricket on 27 September 2009, captaining Somerset against Durham in the Nat West Pro40. A game which Somerset lost by two runs. Langer's last act as Somerset captain was to lead the side to the second stage of the 2009 Twenty20 Champions League.

Post-playing career
Langer through to the end of his career remained publicly undecided about what he wanted to do after his retirement. Speculation hence rose in the media with suggestions of a coaching position with Middlesex, and an open invitation to return to Somerset in some capacity. In November 2009, Cricket Australia announced the appointment of Langer as assistant coach of their Test team under national boss Tim Nielsen, as a batting coach and mentor. In November 2012, Langer was appointed to the position of senior coach of Western Australia and the Perth Scorchers, after the resignation of Lachlan Stevens, with a contract until the end of the 2015–16 season.

In July 2017, Langer was appointed to the board of the West Coast Eagles football club.

In May 2018, Langer was announced as the coach of the Australian national cricket team, and then in October 2019, Andrew McDonald was appointed as his assistant coach. In 2019, he coached Australia to the semi-finals of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, losing to England by 8 wickets. It was noted before the game that Langer had got Australia to walk barefoot around the edge of Edgbaston before the match in a bid to capture "positive energy coming out of the earth".

Langer was announced as the head coach of Lucknow Super Giants in July 2023 replacing Andy Flower.

Famous duels and partners
In his 100th test, Langer was hit by a bouncer from Makhaya Ntini (South Africa v Australia, 3rd Test, Johannesburg, 2nd day). He suffered concussion and underwent scans in hospital. Despite the risk of being killed if hit on the head again, Langer padded up to bat in the second innings if it was required of him. Captain Ricky Ponting wrote in his diary that because of Langer's intention of defying medical advice, he would have had to declare the run chase and forfeit the match to prevent Langer from facing the bowling. Brett Lee scored the winning runs before Langer was needed.

Langer's most notable opening batting partner was Matthew Hayden. The opening pair represented Australia in more than 100 Test innings. The pair made 5654 runs while batting together in partnerships, with an average of 51 runs per partnership; only Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes of the West Indies have scored more Test runs as a partnership, with 6482.

Personal life
Langer is an alumnus of Perth schools Newman College and Aquinas College. The Justin Langer Shield is played between year sevens of Newman and Aquinas.

He is the nephew of Rob Langer, a left-handed batsman for Western Australia during the 1970s and 1980s. Langer is married to his high school sweetheart, Sue, and has four daughters. When resident in Somerset, the family stayed in a rented home in Hatch Beauchamp: "Mate, I say this with the utmost affection and respect, but it's like living in the olden days."

He is a martial artist and has obtained the rank of Shodan-Ho (probationary 1st degree black belt) in Zen Do Kai.

Langer has written five books. His first was entitled From Outback to Outfield: A Revealing Diary of Life on the County Cricket Circuit. His second, an autobiography released after his return from rock bottom in 2001, entitled The Power of Passion. He also released a book with Steve Harmison entitled Ashes Frontline: The Ashes War Diaries of Steve Harmison and Justin Langer about the 2006–07 Ashes series in Australia. He also wrote Seeing the Sunrise which has been described as "a handbook for overcoming self-doubt, for revelling in success, for aiming high. It is about mastering physical and mental goals, enjoying victories and fighting adversity." His most recent book is Keeping My Head: A Life in Cricket.

Melbourne rock band Telemachus Brown wrote a song about Langer entitled (Wrong about) Justin Langer. It was released on their 2006 EP Medicine Songs and was a hit for the band on Melbourne university radio. The song could be a reference to Langer's transformation from being an average Test batsman in his early career to a world-class opener later in his career.

Langer is a devout Catholic, as was his Australian opening batsman partner Matthew Hayden. Politically, he is conservative, an admirer of former Liberal Australian Prime Minister John Howard, and considered running for office as a member of the Liberal Party of Australia.

title: Justin Langer


text:
Charles Bannerman

Charles Bannerman (3 July 1851 – 20 August 1930) was an English-born Australian cricketer. A right-handed batsman, he represented Australia in three Test matches between 1877 and 1879. At the domestic level, he played for the New South Wales cricket team. Later, he became an umpire.

He is most famous for facing the first ball ever bowled in Test cricket, scoring the first run in Test cricket and making the first Test century. This innings of 165 remains the highest individual share of a completed team innings in Test cricket history, despite more than 2,500 Test matches being played since that first Test. Ironically in another first, he was forced to retire hurt; when a ball broke his finger.

Early life
Bannerman was born in Woolwich, Kent, England to William Bannerman and his wife Margaret. Not long afterwards the family migrated to New South Wales, Australia, where he joined the Warwick Cricket Club in Sydney. At the club he was trained by William Caffyn, a former Surrey cricketer who was then a representative of New South Wales. Bannerman started playing professional cricket in 1871, before making his first-class debut for New South Wales. In his first match, against Victoria, he made 32 and 3 runs.

Test matches
Bannerman played in the first three matches that were later designated as Test matches. The first of these, between Australia and England was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in March 1877 and Australia batted first. Bannerman opened the Australian innings and is thus retrospectively deemed to have had the honour of facing the first ball ever bowled in Test cricket (the bowler being England's Alfred Shaw) and scoring the first ever run in Test cricket. Dropped before he reached double figures, he went on to score 126 on the first day and then added 39 on the second day to reach 165 when he was forced to retire hurt, his finger having been broken by a ball from George Ulyett. Only Harry Jupp (England) scoring 54 on the second day bettered Charles Bannerman's 39 runs on the second day. Again retrospectively, his innings was the first-ever Test century. It remains the highest score by an Australian batsman on debut and his 165 runs, out of Australia's total of 245, is still the highest proportion (67.35%) of a completed innings in a Test match. No other Australian exceeded 20 in either innings, as Australia won the match by 45 runs. For his feat, spectators at the match collected £83 7s 6d to present to him.

Bannerman played in two more matches now recognised as Tests, the second in 1877 and one in 1879. His Test record is 239 runs at an average of 59.75. At the end of the first Test on 19 March 1877 Charles Bannerman had become the first Test batsman to score 150 runs in a Test career. He finished the Test on 169. In terms of batting partnerships. Charles Bannerman and Nat Thomson were the first ever international batting partnership (the first ever international opening batting partnership) and they made 2 runs together before Nat Thomson was bowled by Allen Hill for 1.

Charles Bannerman was selected for the 2nd Test of the 1876–77 Series. He opened the batting at No. 2 once again partnering Nat Thomson. He and Thomson added 29 for the first Wicket when Thomson was dismissed for 18. Charles was then joined by Australia's wicket-keeper, batting at No. 3, Jack Blackham. However, after batting for 55 minutes he was bowled by Allen Hill for 10. He had now increased the record career score to 179. On the 3rd day (3 April 1877) Charles batted at No. 3. He came in when Australia were 88 for 1 to partner Nat Thomson. He partnered Thomson and Thomas Kelly. After just 13 minutes when on 30, he hit George Ulyett's bowling to Harry Jupp. He became the first, at that time, to score 200 runs in a career and now had scored 209.

On the first official Australian tour of England in 1878, Bannerman topped the averages and scored the first century by an Australian in England, but no matches recognised as Tests were played on this tour. He had a career first-class batting record of 1,687 runs at 21.62. He did not represent Australia again, officially because of ill-health, but it was suggested that he could not cope with celebrity status, and that gambling debts and alcohol left him impoverished. He continued to play for New South Wales until 1888.

Umpiring
Between 1887 and 1902, Bannerman stood as umpire in 12 Test matches in Australia. His first match was between Australia and England at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) from 28 to 31 January 1887. England won by 13 runs after scoring only 45 runs in their first innings. His colleague was Elisha Rawlinson, standing in his only Test match. Bannerman's last match, at Melbourne in the 1901–02 season, was also a close low-scoring affair with Australia winning by 32 runs. On this occasion his colleague was Bob Crockett standing in his first season as a Test umpire. In two of the matches in which Charles Bannerman officiated, his brother Alick was a player, but no accusations of bias could be made as Alick scored only 23 runs in four innings.

In the fifth Test of the 1897–98 series, Bannerman turned down a confident lbw appeal against Australian batsman Joe Darling when the match was in a tense situation. The lbw was reportedly "obvious" but the bowler had run in front of the umpire who was unsighted and had to reject the appeal. Darling, then on 50, went on to score 160 and Australia won the match. After the game Bannerman lodged an official complaint against the English wicket-keeper who had accused him of cheating, and the player was rebuked.

In all, Bannerman umpired 58 first-class matches between 1887 and 1905. In December 1892, he and George Searcy umpired the first-ever Sheffield Shield match. His last matches were the two played by the Australian touring team against New Zealand in Christchurch and Wellington in March 1905.

Benefit and family
In the 1922–23 season, the first radio broadcast of a cricket match anywhere in the world was a match played as a benefit for Charles Bannerman, from which he received £490.

He died in Sydney, survived by his widow Mary Ann, née King, two sons and three daughters; three of the children were the issue of his first marriage to Ellen, née Neale.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Charles Bannerman


text:
Talk:Paddy Doyle

Untitled
"World's Fittest Man," you'd have thought, was a title. But it redirects to the current holder of the title. This is irregular eh. How is the title determined anyway? Wetman 06:01, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Endurance Competitions
Official Rules and Sancioning bodys

The following World Record Authoritys cover the physical fitness disciplines, which are recognised as World Fitness Endurance Records.

Rules and regulations are in the control of the following World Record Authoritys .www.recordholdersrepublic.co.uk .www.alternativerecords.co.uk .www.worldrecordfederation.com

title: Talk:Paddy Doyle


text:
Category:Wing Commander (franchise)

This is a category of articles in the fictional Wing Commander video game series. For other articles, see the subcategories listed below.

title: Category:Wing Commander (franchise)


text:
Deepal Warakagoda

Deepal Warakagoda is a prominent Sri Lankan ornithologist. His early working career was in electronics, but for many years he has studied birds and also works as a professional guide for birding tours of the island. He is mostly known for his records as the ornithologist who has seen the greatest amount of species in Sri Lanka. Deepal Warakagoda is also one of the major roles of the Ceylon birds club. He works hard to conserve natural sights and fauna in Sri Lanka and has his own career experience for over 25 years.

Discoveries
He discovered a new species of bird endemic to Sri Lanka, the Serendib Scops owl. His expertise in vocalizations had enabled him to realize that an owl he heard calling near Kitulgala rain forest was an unknown species, and he later saw this bird in January 2001 in the Sinharaja rain forest with assistance of a few. He surrounded the bird's habitat and took photographs while it was roosting under a thick bush. This new-found species of scops owl is now on the IUCN Red List. He has also identified (each for the first time) 15 new migrant species of birds in Sri Lanka, and has published a large number of articles on the avifauna of Sri Lanka.

Creations and experiences
Warakagoda is Sri Lanka's foremost sound recordist in natural history subjects, and has produced and published the only comprehensive audio guide to the island's birds (on tape and CD). He has an unmatched knowledge of Sri Lanka's bird songs and calls. His recordings of the island's distinct bird species have played a major role in the recognition of several of them as endemic to Sri Lanka in the book Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide (2005) by Pamela C. Rasmussen and John C. Anderton.

Although best known for his knowledge of the avifauna of Sri Lanka, and expertise in finding and identifying birds, his knowledge extends to the island's mammals and butterflies.

Warakagoda founded the Drongo Nature Sounds Library,  the only one of its kind in Sri Lanka, and is joint secretary of the Ceylon Bird Club. He is a national coordinator in Sri Lanka for the Asian Waterbird Census. He is a founder of Bird and Wildlife Team (www.birdandwildlifeteam.com), a company specializing in natural history tours of Sri Lanka and India, and works as one of its tour leaders. He is also a leading tour guide of the organization 'Wings birds'

He is currently working on several new publications in the print and audio/video media, for the betterment of the future of bird watching in Sri Lanka.

Publications

 * A field guide to the birds of Sri Lanka (2012)- by Deepal Warakagoda, Carol Inskipp, Tim Inskipp and Richard Grimmet ISBN 978-0-7136-8853-5
 * A Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka Third Edition (1998)- by G. M. Henry, revised and enlarged by Thilo W. Hoffmann, Deepal Warakagoda, and Upali Ekanayake - ISBN 0-19-563813-1
 * Photographic Guide to Birds of Sri Lanka (2000) - ISBN 1-85974-511-3
 * The Bird Sounds of Sri Lanka. An Identification Guide Part 1 (1997, 2nd ed. 2001)  audio tape
 * The Bird Sounds of Sri Lanka. An Identification Guide Part 2 (1998)  audio tape
 * The Bird Sounds of Sri Lanka. 99 Species  (2003)   audio CD
 * The Bird Sounds of Sri Lanka. Habitat Edition 2005  (2005)   audio tape
 * Bird of Sri Lanka, MP3 sound and image collection (2008) CD-ROM – by Deepal Warakagoda and Uditha Hettige.
 * Bird Sounds of Sri Lanka, Vocalization and Image Guide (2008) CD-ROM – by Deepal Warakagoda and Uditha Hettige.
 * Indian Bird Sounds, The Indian Peninsula (2009) A set of 5 audio CDs – by C. Chappuis, F. Deroussen and D. Warakagoda.
 * The Bird Sounds of Sri Lanka. Habitat Edition 2017 (2017) MP3 digital album.

title: Deepal Warakagoda


text:
Dennis Lillee

Dennis Keith Lillee, (born 18 July 1949) is a retired Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation". Lillee formed a new ball partnership with Jeff Thomson which is recognised as one of the greatest bowling pairs of all time.

In the early part of his career Lillee was an extremely fast bowler, but a number of stress fractures in his back almost ended his career. Taking on a strict fitness regime, he fought his way back to full fitness, eventually returning to international cricket. By the time of his retirement from international cricket in 1984 he had become the world record holder for most Test wickets with 355, and had firmly established himself as one of the most recognisable and renowned Australian sportsmen of all time. He was a part of the Australian squad which finished as runners-up at the 1975 Cricket World Cup.

In a fan poll conducted by the CA in 2017, he was named in the country's best Ashes XI of the previous 40 years. On 17 December 2009, Lillee was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Cricket career
Aged 20, Lillee made his first-class debut for Western Australia in 1969–70 and impressed with his raw pace. Lillee took 32 wickets in his debut season to be WA's leading wicket-taker. At the end of the season, he toured New Zealand with an Australian second team and took 18 wickets at 16.44 average.

Early career
The following season, Lillee made his Test debut in the Sixth Test at Adelaide in the 1970–71 Ashes series, taking 5/84 from 28.3 eight-ball overs. His first Test wicket was John Edrich, caught by Keith Stackpole for 130, but it was not until the Seventh Test at Sydney that John Hampshire became the first batsman to be "caught Marsh, bowled Lillee". The following season, during the series against the Rest of the World XI, which had been arranged in place of the cancelled series against South Africa, Lillee announced himself during the first innings of the second unofficial "Test" match at his home ground in Perth, destroying a powerful batting lineup that included Garry Sobers, Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai and Sunil Gavaskar to finish with 8/29 in only 7 overs, which would remain his career-best bowling figures in an innings. Sobers would later comment that as far as particular spells went, Lillee's bowling that day was the fastest he had ever faced. Lillee then backed up with 4/63 in the second innings to end with match figures of 12/92 as Australia won by an innings.

Lillee followed this performance with a successful Ashes tour of England in 1972, when he "asserted himself as a great bowler". In a series that ended 2–2, he was the outstanding bowler on either team, taking 31 wickets at an average of 17.67. This earned him selection as one of Wisden's five Cricketers of the Year for 1973.

John Snow believes that Lillee saw reduced effectiveness after being overbowled by Western Australia and Australia in 1971–73.

Back injury
During a Test against Pakistan in the 1972–73 season, Lillee felt sharp pain in his back for the first time, but continued to play. On the tour of the West Indies that followed, Lillee broke down completely and was diagnosed with stress fracture in his lower vertebrae. Forced out of cricket, he spent six weeks during the winter of 1973 wearing a plaster cast that encased his entire torso. After the removal of the cast, he played club cricket for Perth as a specialist batsman. He returned to the bowling crease towards the end of the season, guiding Perth Cricket Club to the final at the WACA Ground.

There was speculation that his bowling career was nearly over. Lillee persevered, undergoing an intensive physiotherapy routine, formulated by sports scientist Frank Pyke, and remodelling his bowling action. In 1974–75, he returned to Test cricket for the Ashes series and was paired with New South Wales fast bowler Jeff Thomson to form one of the most effective opening bowling combinations in Test cricket. The pair was a major factor in Australia's emphatic 4–1 victory. In 1975, the University of Western Australia timed Lillee's bowling at 154.8 km/h.

Lillee and Thomson
The impact of the Lillee/Thomson bowling attack was summarised during the 1974–75 Ashes series, when Sydney newspaper The Sunday Telegraph ran a photo of Lillee and Thomson with a cartoon caption underneath that read:

Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust, if Thomson don't get ya, Lillee must. Lillee toured England again in 1975. During the inaugural World Cup he captured eight wickets in five matches, including 5/34 against Pakistan at Leeds, which was the first five wicket haul in ODIs. His aggressive bowling was not always suited to the run-containing style required in the one-day game. In the subsequent four-Test series against England, Lillee claimed 21 wickets as his team finished winners by 1–0. With the bat, he made 73 not out at Lord's to rescue Australia from a difficult situation.

Another 27 wickets (at 26.37 average) followed in the summer of 1975–76 against the West Indies. At this time, Lillee was one of the most marketable personalities in Australia, but he was frustrated by the small amounts that he earned from the game. Outspoken in his opinions, he came into conflict with the game's administrators. Lillee suggested that a made-for-television exhibition series could be played each season with profits given to the players. John Cornell, his manager, took this idea to Kerry Packer, who later fashioned it into World Series Cricket (WSC).

An injury to Thomson early in 1976–77 forced Lillee to take on a greater workload during the six Tests of the season. He responded with 47 wickets including match figures of 10/135 against Pakistan at the MCG and 11/123 at Auckland against New Zealand. In the Centenary Test, his 11/165 was the decisive performance in Australia's victory. However, the extra exertion created "hot spots" in his back and not wanting to reaggravate his previous condition, he made himself unavailable for the 1977 tour of England.

World Series Cricket
Remaining in Australia to do television commentary on the tour, Lillee was isolated from the furore in England surrounding the plans for the breakaway professional competition, WSC. He was announced as one of the WSC players in May 1977. The Lillee image and personality were key components in WSC's innovative marketing of their games. However, he struggled on-field during the first season of WSC and in the winter of 1978 made further adjustments to his action. He also spent time working with ex–World professional sprint champion Austin Robertson, improving his running technique and fitness. In nine "Supertests" (four in Australia and five in the West Indies) during 1978–79, Lillee captured 46 wickets at 22.5 average, with a best of 7/23 against the West Indies XI at the SCG.

Cutting down his pace and the length of his run up, Lillee now concentrated on moving the ball off the seam with an occasional faster or slower ball for variation. During the season of his return to official cricket, Lillee collected 35 Test wickets in six matches against the West Indies and England, and gave Australia's bowling attack stability while the selectors experimented with the team. In the World Series Cup, his changed style helped to bring him 20 wickets (at 12.7 average) in eight ODIs, including 4/12 against West Indies and 4/28 against England, both at the SCG. However, the tour of Pakistan that followed was ruined for Lillee by flat batting pitches prepared by local curators to blunt his effectiveness. He managed just three wickets in three Tests.

Australian and world records
Against New Zealand and India in 1980–81, Lillee took 37 wickets in six Tests and was the leading bowler in the World Series Cup for the second successive season. He contributed 25 wickets to Australia's first victory in the competition. After breaking Richie Benaud's Australian Test record of 248 wickets, Lillee toured England in 1981 when his preparation was compromised by a viral infection. A return of 39 Test wickets (at 22.30) for series was the best of his career and he won man of the match awards in the first and last Tests. Lillee formed a penetrative partnership with fellow West Australian Terry Alderman, who claimed an Australian record of 41 wickets. Despite possessing this potent attack, Australia lost the series by 1–3 when Ian Botham turned in a series of brilliant individual performances. Yet, these efforts led him to achieve the number 1 ranking in ICC Test Bowling Rankings for the year 1981.

Granted a testimonial for 1981–82, Lillee's season got off to a poor start when he was involved in the infamous incident with Javed Miandad (see below) in the first Test of the summer. Suspended for two ODIs, the level of his on-field aggression was again criticised. However, he continued taking wickets: 15 in three Tests against Pakistan and 16 in three Tests against the West Indies. Against the latter, his 7/83 and 3/44 at the MCG in the first Test took him past the world record for the most Test wickets held by Lance Gibbs. His ODI season was less successful, with 12 wickets in 12 games. His best effort was 2/18 in ten overs against the West Indies during the third final of the World Series Cup, the only match in the final series Australia was able to win.

Retirement
Bowling as a first-change, Lillee had an uneventful tour of New Zealand in March and April 1982 before suffering a serious knee injury in the first Ashes Test at the WACA Ground in November of the same year. This forced him to miss the rest of the series and Australia's 2–1 victory, which reclaimed the Ashes. Returning to the team for the latter stages of the World Series Cup, Lillee was no longer an automatic choice to take the new ball. Nevertheless, his 11 wickets in six ODIs helped Australia win the tournament with a victory over New Zealand in the final.

His wicket-taking capacity was diminishing. During Australia's brief tour of Sri Lanka in 1983, Lillee took three wickets at Kandy in the inaugural Test between the two nations and went wicket-less in two ODIs. Later in the year, his ODI career finished during the third World Cup in England when he conceded 52 runs from 12 overs in the match against the West Indies at Lord's. Dropped from the team, Lillee acknowledged that he was not fully fit.

During the first two Tests of 1983–84 against Pakistan at Perth, he took only one wicket and looked set to be dropped from the Test team as well. Fate intervened when Carl Rackemann, the man of the match from the second Test, was injured. This allowed Lillee to play the rest of the Test series and he finished with 20 wickets at 31.65. Along with Greg Chappell he announced his retirement during the final Test at Sydney, and took eight wickets, including a wicket with his last delivery in the match.

Caught Marsh bowled Lillee
Throughout his career, whilst playing for both Australia and Western Australia, Lillee was also famous for his partnership with wicket-keeper Rod Marsh. The scorecard entry 'c Marsh b Lillee' appeared 95 times in Tests, a partnership record between wicket-keeper and bowler that is yet to be broken. Coincidentally, both players ended their careers with 355 Test dismissals; Marsh took 343 catches and had 12 stumpings. In 1988 the Western Australian Cricket Association honoured the two players by naming a new grandstand at the WACA Ground the Lillee-Marsh Stand.

Statistics correct at 26 February 2015. Source:

Aluminium bat incident
During a Test at the WACA Ground in December 1979 between Australia and England, Lillee went to the crease with an aluminium bat manufactured by a company owned by a friend. There were no rules against using such a bat, but trouble began when Lillee hit a ball that went for three runs. Australian captain Greg Chappell thought that the ball should have gone for a four, and instructed Rodney Hogg to deliver a conventional wooden bat to Lillee. As this was happening, English captain Mike Brearley complained to the umpires that using such a bat was against the spirit of the game and that it was damaging the ball.

Lillee refused to change the bat. Brearley, Lillee, and the umpires held an animated discussion for almost ten minutes, before Chappell insisted that Lillee should change bats. In a fit of pique, Lillee threw "the offending lump of metal fully 40 yards towards the pavilion", and grudgingly took the wooden bat. He was not disciplined by the ACB for this incident. After the game, sales of the bat skyrocketed for a few months, before the laws of the game were amended, specifying that bats had to be made from wood.

Betting
At Headingley on the 1981 tour of England, Australia was in such a strong position at one stage of the third Test that bookmakers at the ground were offering odds of 500–1 against an England victory. These odds were flashed on the scoreboard during a break in the game and noticed by the Australian players. Lillee and Rod Marsh believed that the odds were so ludicrous that, via a third party, they each put a small wager on the outcome, later describing their actions as a "joke". Between them, they collected 7,500 pounds when England pulled off a comeback victory. Both men openly discussed the incident and received no official censure or sanction, although some criticised their actions. There has never been a suggestion that the bets compromised their efforts in the game. However, the issue has been re-examined in modern times following the match-fixing scandals that have plagued international cricket since the mid-1990s.

After retirement
Lillee made a brief comeback to first-class cricket in 1987–88 for Tasmania, taking a wicket with his first ball. In 1988, he played eight matches for English county team Northamptonshire before suffering a severe ankle injury. In his autobiography, Lillee claimed that he played again as a preparation for a possible comeback to the Australian team that was suggested by the then captain Allan Border.

Since retirement Lillee has dedicated himself to mentoring and coaching young bowlers, most notably Brett Lee, Shaun Tait, and Mitchell Johnson. He was also associated with MRF Pace Foundation in India. Lillee continued playing cricket until 1999 for the traditional Australian Cricket Board President's XI match against touring sides at Lilac Hill. In his final match he took three wickets and played alongside his son Adam.

From 2004 until his sudden resignation in September 2015, Lillee was the president of the Western Australian Cricket Association.

Legacy

 * He was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1973.
 * He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1981 for services to cricket.
 * He was one of the ten inaugural inductees into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 1996.
 * He was selected in the official Australian Test Team of the Century.
 * He was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000.
 * He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2010 Australia Day Honours.
 * Lillee was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985.
 * He was immortalised in the Men at Work song "No Restrictions" (Cargo, 1983) with the line: "Hear the cricket calling, switch on the TV, sit and stare for hours, and cheer Dennis Lillee".
 * He was also mentioned in the Iain Campbell Smith song "Blue Guitar". In a lyric where the narrator is describing unlikely, fantastic events he sings "I hit a six off Dennis Lillee and I clean bowled Gavaskar". When performing in the United States, Smith will often change the lyric to "I scored thirty-seven points off of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."
 * He was named as a bowler in Australia's "greatest ever ODI team."
 * He was named an Australia Post Legend of Cricket in 2021.
 * He was elevated as the 43rd Legend in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2021.

title: Dennis Lillee


text:
Talk:Najah Salah Ali

Biography assessment rating comment
WikiProject Biography Summer 2007 Assessment Drive

The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- Yamara 18:39, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Discussion
This says Najah Ali was "the only Iraqi to qualify for the 2004 Athens, Greece Olympics" .. but the Iraqi men's football team also qualified?! —Stormie 06:02, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)

The only Irqi BOXERL

"Antonio Slepy Martin"

title: Talk:Najah Salah Ali


text:
Damien Martyn

Damien Richard Martyn (born 21 October 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player from 1999 to 2000 and a regular Test player in 2000 until his retirement in late 2006. He was primarily a right-handed middle-order batsman with a 'classical' technique, known in particular for his elegant strokemaking square of the wicket on the off-side and through the covers. Martyn was a member of the Australian team that won two consecutive world titles in a row: the 1999 Cricket World Cup, the 2003 Cricket World Cup, as well as being a member of the team that won the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy.

Martyn was also an occasional medium-pacer and distinguished fieldsman primarily in the covers who was capable of creating spectacular run-outs. He also very occasionally kept wicket at first-class level. He was named man of the series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy in 2004, to help Australia defeat India on the subcontinent for the first time in more than 30 years, and was named in early 2005 as the Australian Test Player of the Year at the annual Allan Border Medal presentations.

Domestic career
Martyn moved with his family to Perth, Western Australia at the age of three, and was educated at Girrawheen Senior High School, before being selected for the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide in 1990. He made his first class debut for Western Australia the following season, in which he scored 822 runs at 51.37.

After returning to the domestic arena Martyn was appointed as captain of Western Australia in the 1994/95 season at the age of 23, the youngest player to have been given the honour. He also captained Australia A in the international ODI tournament of the same season. The following season, he relinquished the captaincy to Tom Moody, in order to concentrate on his batting.

On 1 September 2007, it was reported in the Daily Telegraph that Martyn had joined the break-away Indian Cricket League. However, since then he has pulled out of the event due to the birth of his first son, Ryder, but rejoined the ICL for 2008.

On 19 January 2010, Martyn was signed for US$100,000 to play for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.

International career
Noted for his daring and sometimes cavalier strokeplay, Martyn was selected to make his Test debut against the West Indies in November, 1992 at the Gabba, a surprise replacement for Dean Jones. He batted in the middle-order, scoring 36 and 15. He played in all Tests in that season, apart from the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval where he was replaced by fellow Western Australian Justin Langer after sustaining an injury before the match.

However, his performances were unconvincing, totalling 168 runs at 28.16 for the series, passing 50 only once with an unbeaten 67* at the MCG. Martyn was also a member of the ODI squad in that season, playing less regularly in only four of eleven matches, and aggregating 45 runs at 22.5.

Struggling form
Martyn was subsequently dropped from the Test team in the early 1993 tour to New Zealand, until being recalled for the Third Test at Eden Park, Auckland after Mark Waugh was dropped, scoring 74. Martyn also played in some of the subsequent ODIs on the New Zealand tour as well as on the 1993 Ashes tour to England, but was dropped from the Test team after Waugh scored centuries in the warm-up matches and had been the leading run scorer in the New Zealand ODIs. Waugh was third in the Test batting averages, confining Martyn to playing in tour matches against county teams. Martyn was given another chance in the 1993–94 Australian season when Steve Waugh tore a hamstring and Martyn played in the Boxing Day and New Year's Tests at the MCG and SCG respectively. Although he managed 59 in the first innings of a low scoring match in Sydney, it was his performance in the second innings which blighted his reputation for many years into the future. With Australia stumbling while chasing a small target of 117 against South Africa, Martyn had trouble scoring, with an unconvincing 6 from 59 balls in almost two hours as he and Craig McDermott took the total from 8–75 to within sight of victory at 8–110. He then attempted an airborne cover-drive off Allan Donald and was caught, and Australia lost the Test. Martyn was heavily criticised by the media who blamed him for the defeat. He played three more ODIs in that season, before being dropped upon Waugh's return from injury. Although Waugh would have reprised his position in any case, Martyn lost his position as the reserve batsman and was dropped from subsequent national squads altogether. He would not play ODI cricket again until 1997 and Tests until 2000.

Late career
He re-appeared at the start of the millennium when he replaced an injured Ricky Ponting on the tour to New Zealand in early 2000. Despite topping the averages in New Zealand he made way for Ponting for the home series against the West Indies in 2000/01. He played one test during that summer, replacing an injured Steve Waugh for Australia's victory at Adelaide where he remained not out in both innings.

He was selected on Australia's tour to India in 2001 and was considered unlucky not to replace a struggling Ponting. His chance to consolidate a permanent position in the side came during the 2001 Ashes tour where he replaced fellow West Australian Justin Langer in the first test. He posted his maiden test century in the first test at Edgbaston. He was chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year as a result of his performances in The Ashes in the summer of 2001.

Martyn subsequently put in regular appearances for Australia, becoming integral to the middle-order and eventually filling the void at no. 4 left by Mark Waugh's international retirement. His best form came over a twelve-month period beginning in March 2004 where he scored two crucial centuries to help Australia to a 3–0 series whitewash in Sri Lanka. He was then man of the series in India when Australia claimed their first series victory on Indian soil in over 30 years. He made two centuries and narrowly missed out on becoming the first Australian batsman since Don Bradman to make three centuries in three innings when he was dismissed for 97 in the second innings of the third test. Two centuries at home against Pakistan over the 2004/05 season and another in New Zealand in 2005 rounded out a stellar 12 months in which Martyn had made 1608 runs at an average of 61.84 in 12 months including 7 test centuries.

Martyn was presented with the McGilvray Medal in 2005 as the ABC's Test cricketer of the year as well as being adjudged Test Player of the Year at the 2005 Allan Border Medal.

Following a poor Ashes tour of England in 2005, where he recorded a total of 178 runs at an average of 19.77, Martyn was dropped from the Australian Test side to play in the ICC Super Series 2005. However, he was retained in the ODI side over the 2005/06 summer.

He was recalled to the Test squad at the expense of Brad Hodge for the three-Test series in South Africa in March and April 2006. Chairman of Selectors Trevor Hohns cited his experience as the major reason for his recall. His contributions in the first two tests were minimal but he repaid the selectors' faith with an important century in the second innings of the third test that helped guide Australia to victory.

In the 2006 Champions Trophy Tournament, Martyn won back-to-back man of the match awards against England and India. He also played an important unbeaten innings in the final against the West Indies to help Australia win the tournament for the first time. He was Australia's leading runscorer in the tournament.

Retirement
Martyn played in the first two Tests of the 2006/07 Ashes series, where he managed to score just 45 runs in three innings. Dismissed for only 5 playing a rash shot in Australia's run chase in the second Test, his place in the side came under increasing scrutiny in the media, although he received several statements of support from members of the Australia team, notably Mike Hussey and Justin Langer.

Despite his poor form Martyn was widely expected to retain his place due to Shane Watson's lack of fitness and the fact that the third test was to be played at the W.A.C.A. Ground, Martyn's home ground. It came as a surprise when on 8 December 2006, Martyn announced his immediate retirement from all domestic and international cricket. Commenting on his decision, Martyn said: "I would like to advise of my retirement from cricket, effective from today. I do so with a deep awareness of the opportunities that the game and Cricket Australia have provided for me." Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland insisted that Martyn had not been pushed and that Martyn was originally going to be named in the squad for the third Test.

International centuries
Martyn scored a century (100 runs or more) on 13 occasions in Test cricket and 5 in One Day International (ODI) matches, but has not scored a century in Twenty20 international.

Test centuries
Martyn scored his first century, about 9 years after making his debut, in The Ashes, against England on 5 July 2001 at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham scoring 105 runs in the process. His performance in the series earned him the Wisden cricketer of the year award for 2001. His highest score of 165 runs came against New Zealand on 18 March 2005 at Basin Reserve, Wellington. His last Test century was against South Africa on 31 March 2006 at The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg where he scored 101 runs. Out of his 13 Test centuries, 8 has been scored on the first innings and the rest 5 in the second innings.

ODI centuries
Martyn's first ODI century came against New Zealand on 3 March 2000 at Eden Park, Auckland, he scored 116 and remained not out. A knock of 144 runs from 149 balls against Zimbabwe on 4 February 2001 at the WACA Ground, Perth is his highest ODI score. His last ODI century was against India on 1 November 2003 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai where he scored 100 runs and also won the man of the match award.

title: Damien Martyn


text:
Talk:Inference rule

Merge?
As far as I can see, this article ought to be merged with Rule of inference. Does anyone disagree? Neilc 06:04, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Inference rule


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tropic of Cubicle

Vanity. This book hasn't even been published yet, and the publisher seems to be non-notable. RickK 06:04, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)
 * Although I gave those articles a bit of a polish, I'm inclined to agree and vote Delete. Does anyone know if Spork Press is a real publisher or vanity press? —Stormie 06:09, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)
 * Granted, Spork Press is a small press, but it is not a vanity press. They publish a quarterly hard-bound magazine (and archive online) and otherwise put out chapbooks and novels. Just to be clear, unlike vanity presses, publication with Spork is based on decisions by editors, and writers do not pay for publication. Tropic of Cubicle is a small book, yes. But, by all accounts, it is a real book. The point that Rick makes about a "non-notable" publisher seems dubious. Wikipedia has entries for plenty of small presses such as So New Media, with small, devoted followings, but which aren't big money-makers or household names. Wikipedia also has plenty of entries for "small-time" authors and impresarios: Zulkey (Claire Zulkey), Ben Brown, etc. Maybe you guys should reconsider, and allow non-mainstream literature and culture to get by the Wiki gatekeepers now and again. Oh, and, naturally, I vote to Not Delete. -NVFD, Aug 12, 2004
 * Delete. Google only finds one book published by Spork Press. Andris 12:11, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)
 * The press is real, and worth keeping. An entry on a inor not-yet-existing book, on the other hand, seems pointless. Delete. -FZ 12:51, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: NVFD, the book may well achieve notability after its publication.  No one here is judging the worthiness of the effort or, honestly, the merits of the press.  However, Wikipedia is limited to entries on notable authors and books.  After publication, the book will need to sell fairly well to make it into the encyclopedia.  This limitation helps keep the Wikipedia both inclusive and yet practical.  If you'd like, I think it might be a great idea if you were to set up a user page and store the information on your user page.  When the book is published and catches on, gets talked about on NPR, gets a NYT review that makes your cheeks burn, goes on Oprah or whatever, you could push it over into the article space.  (BTW, Tropic of Cubicle, and it's not pornographic?!  Henry Miller will be ticked.) Geogre 12:53, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Important note: The listing on VfD is for Tropic of Cubicle and Roderick Maclean.  The article on Roderick Maclean is good, and I like it muchly.  My vote pertains only to the former. Geogre 12:56, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment. There was a mistake in the section header. The second page in the listing should have been Roderick Maclean (author) who is the author of Tropic of Cubicle, rather than Roderick Maclean'. I just corrected it. If anyone voted based on Roderick Maclean page, please revisit your vote. Andris 13:21, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)
 * Actually, at the time of listing on VfD, the Roderick Maclean article DID refer to the author. The disambiguation was made after the fact.  RickK 19:32, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete both: nonnotable. Getting a book published is truly no big deal, except to the author; being a published author (or book) is not enough to merit an article, by far. Wile E. Heresiarch 15:11, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Weak Keep Roderick Maclean (author): He does seem notable, although he's on the edge.  What he wrote of himself (it it was him) was not invented.  He seems to have the accomplishments that he lists, including many publications.  He's not Charles Dickens or even Faith Popcorn, but he passes my test, and when I say that I put reality ahaed of fiction, this is what I mean.  A real guy with some pubs is ahead, for me, of a character.  Geogre 17:44, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Andris: consult the entry on Spork Press for more information. -- NVFD, Aug 12, 2004
 * I'm sorry, Geogre, you picked the wrong man for a "real guy". Besides a couple of poems from Tropic of Cubicle at (so, it's a novel with poems interpersed ... ?), there's another poem at, with the footer "The pieces (like this one) in Tropic/of/Cubicle the book are character studies for Tropic/of/Cubicle the Broadway musical, which is itself a promotional vehicle for Tropic/of/Cubicle the boardgame and Tropic/of/Cubicle the ice vending machine, among other hotly-anticipated consumer products." Not quite BJAODN material, but pretty good, Roderick (are you there?).  Vote: delete, or speedy delete, hotly-anticipated Wikipedia entry Tropic of Cubicle. And delete Roderick Maclean as a vanity entry, unless Geogre has a link for some accomplishments and publications on the web. The Google hits are a little hard to sort out from other people with the same name, and all I'm definitely getting about Roderick Maclean the author that's not about Tropic/of/Cubicle the joke is a note that he was or was scheduled to be the centerfold in the April issue of Naked Male Authors Quarterly, a publication notably lacking in web presence. Bishonen 21:51, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Bishonen, you seem so easily persuaded by a little humor. If it's verifying that Roderick Maclean is real that you're after, it's not difficult to find a few links to writing and references: TOC excerpt & pic in 3AM Magazine TOC excerpt in Diagram Short story in Bullfight Short story in Midnight Mind Short story in Spork TOC excerpt in Spork Short story in Monkeybicycle Short story in Eclectica Recognition in Million Writers Award Review of short story in Newpages Random blog entry Reference to public reading Pushcart nomination Oh, and Bishonen, run -- don't walk -- to delete the entry to Nabokov's Pale Fire because you've never heard of poems being used in novels before. -- NVFD, Aug 12, 2004
 * "A few" links? Not at all, you've gone to a lot of trouble. Thanks. I don't want to delete the author article for any doubt of the person existing, only for doubt of his "real" encyclopedic quality, and I don't mean to insult you by saying that. Shoot, insult him, I mean. Neither of you, seriously. It's just that Wikipedia goes by present rather than future notability. And for the Tropic of Cubicle article, it's a little unspecific to claim that the upcoming "small book" is "by all accounts" a real book. If some of all the accounts are on the web, could you link to them as well? I appreciate the problem of providing evidence of existence before publication, but, well, that's part of the whole problem of having an encyclopedia entry before publication. Bishonen 00:33, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * delete both, vanity --Jiang 23:02, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Vanity. Not notable. Delete both, IMO. Skyler 02:15, Aug 13, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep: Roderick Maclean (author). Is interesting and somewhat notable. Delete: Tropic of Cubicle. Book's not out yet.--Ern 02:35, Aug 13, 2004 (UTC)
 * Please note that all of the above user's edits have been to VfD discussions. RickK 04:25, Aug 13, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete Tropic of Cubicle. Since it's not yet available in stores, it might achieve sufficient notability by being widely anticipated, or by being the next book in a famous series, or by having a famous author, or by having been in the news for some other reason, but in this case there's no evidence of those things, nor any evidence to suggest that it will probably become notable in the future.  If it does, let someone else re-create the article at that time.  I abstain for now on the question of Roderick Maclean (author).  If the other claims in the article are true, then he's notable enough for me.  However, I'll note that a quick search of Google    and Wired   does not turn up any independent verification of those claims.  Keep and maybe expand Spork Press, not that we're actually supposed to be voting on it.   —Triskaideka 18:14, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * merge and redirect Tropic of Cubicle into Roderick Maclean (author). Keep the latter, assuming that the various other claims are accurate. -- Jmabel 19:56, Aug 13, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete "Tropic of Cubicle". It can have an article after it is published and has become notable.  NVFD provided proof that "Roderick Maclean (author)" is not a hoax but has not yet convinced me that he meets our standard of notability - delete. Comment: In the future, please submit these as separate nominations. Thanks. Rossami 20:38, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete both. Can't all News reports of things not yet released just go to Quick Delete? There are people on the Wikipedia project who have written real books that have been available for years whose works are not listed and they aren't crying for them to be listed. Jallan 22:10, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete - no evidence of notability and possible self-promotion. -- Cyrius|✎ 05:38, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)


text:
Sociolect

In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language (non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group.

Sociolects involve both passive acquisition of particular communicative practices through association with a local community, as well as active learning and choice among speech or writing forms to demonstrate identification with particular groups. The term sociolect might refer to socially restricted dialects, but it is sometimes also treated as equivalent with the concept of register, or used as a synonym for jargon and slang.

Sociolinguists—people who study sociolects and language variation—define a sociolect by examining the social distribution of specific linguistic terms. For example, a sociolinguist would examine the use of the second person pronoun you within a given population. If one distinct social group used yous as the plural form of the pronoun, then this could indicate the existence of a sociolect. A sociolect is distinct from a regional dialect (regiolect) because social class, rather than geographical subdivision, substantiates the unique linguistic features.

Overview
A sociolect, defined by leading sociolinguist and philosopher Peter Trudgill, is "a variety or lect which is thought of as being related to its speakers' social background rather than geographical background." This idea of a sociolect began with the commencement of dialectology, the study of different dialects in relation to society, which has been established in countries such as England for many years, but only recently has the field garnered more attention. However, as opposed to a dialect, the basic concept of a sociolect is that a person speaks in accordance with their social group whether it is with regard to one's ethnicity, age, gender, etc. As William Labov once said, "the sociolinguistic view ... is that we are programmed to learn to speak in ways that fit the general pattern of our communities." Therefore, what we are surrounded with in our environment determines how we speak; hence, our actions and associations.

Distinguished from dialect
The main distinction between sociolects (social dialects) and dialects proper (geographical dialects), which are often confused, is the settings in which they are created. A dialect's main identifier is geography: a certain region uses specific phonological, morphosyntactic or lexical rules. Asif Agha expands the concept by stating that "the case where the demographic dimension marked by speech are matters of geographic provenance alone, such as speaker's birth locale, extended residence and the like". However, a sociolect's main identifier is a socioeconomic class, age, gender, and/or ethnicity in a certain speech community.

An example of a dialectal difference, based on region, is the use of the words soda or pop and coke in different parts of the United States. As Thomas E. Murray states, "coke is used generically by thousands of people, especially in the southern half of the country." On the other hand, pop is known to be a term that is used by many citizens in the northern half of the country.

An example of a sociolect difference, based on social grouping, is the zero copula in African American Vernacular English. It occurs in a specific ethnic group but in all areas of the United States. William Labov gives an example: "he here" instead of "he's here."

Definitions
Code switching is "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation".

Diglossia, associated with the American linguist Charles A. Ferguson, which describes a sociolinguistic situation such as those that obtain in Arabic-speaking countries and in German-speaking Switzerland. In such a diglossic community, the prestigious standard of 'High' (or H) variety, which is linguistically related to but significantly different from the vernacular or 'Low' (or L) varieties, has no native speakers.

Domain is "different language, dialects, or styles are used in different social contexts".

Language attitudes are "social in origin, but that they may have important effects on language behavior, being involved in acts of identity, and on linguistic change."

Linguistic variable is "a linguistic unit...initially developed...in order to be able to handle linguistics variation. Variables may be lexical and grammatical, but are most often phonological". Example of British English (h) which is sometimes present and sometimes not.

Pragmatics is the meaning of a word in social context, while semantics has "purely linguistic meaning".

Register is "a language variety that is associated with a particular topic, subject, or activity...." Usually, it is defined by vocabulary, but has grammatical features as well.

Tamil caste system
The following is an example of the lexical distinction between the Mudaliyar and the Iyengar groups of the Tamil-speaking people in India. The Iyengar group is part of the Brahmin caste which is scholarly and higher in the caste hierarchy than the non-Brahmin or Mudaliyar, caste. The Mudaliyars use many of the same words for things that are differentiated within the Iyengars' speech. For example, as you can see below, the difference between drinking water, water in general, and non-potable water is used by one word in the non-Brahmin caste and three separate words in the Brahmin caste. Furthermore, Agha references how the use of different speech reflects a "departure from a group-internal norm". For example, if the non-Brahmin caste uses Brahmin terms in their mode of speech it is seen as self-raising, whereas if people within the Brahmin caste use non-Brahmin speech it is seen as pejoratives. Therefore, depending on which castes use certain words the pragmatics change. Hence, this speech system is determined by socioeconomic class and social context.

Norwegian dialect-based sociolect
Norwegian does not have a spoken standard and is heavily dependent on dialect variants. The following example shows the difference between the national written standard and a spoken variant, where the phonology and pronunciation differ. These are not sociolectic differences per se. As Agha states, "Some lexical contrasts are due to the phonological difference (e.g., R makes more consonantal and vocalic distinctions than B), while others are due to the morphological difference (e.g., difference in plural suffixes and certain verb inflections) between two varieties.

Diglossia
The chart below gives an example of diglossia in Arabic-speaking nations and where it is used. Diglossia is defined by Mesthrie as "[a] situation where two varieties of a language exist side by side". The Classical Arabic is known as الفصحى, or al-fuṣḥā, while the colloquial dialect depends on the country. For example, شامي, or šāmi, is spoken in Lebanon and parts of Syria. In many situations, there is a major lexical difference among words in the classical and colloquial speech, as well as pronunciation differences, such as a difference in short vowels, when the words are the same. Although a specific example of diglossia was not given, its social context is almost if not more important. For example, Halliday states that "in areas with Diglossia, the link between language and success is apparent as the higher, classical register is learned through formal education".

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
Below is an example of African American Vernacular English, showing the addition of the verbal -s not just on third-person singular verbs in the present tense such as in Standard American English, but added onto infinitives, first-person present verbs, and third-person past perfect verbs.

 * 1) He can goes out.
 * 2) I don't know how to gets no girls.
 * 3) He'd knows that.

Further examples of the phenomenon in AAVE are provided below.

Below are examples of the lack of the possessive ending; -s is usually absent in AAVE but contains a rule As Labov states, "[the] use -s to indicate possession by a single noun or pronoun, but never between the possessor and the possessed."

"This is hers, This is mines, This is John's, but not in her book, my book, John book"

"Interview with Bryan A., seven years old, a struggling reader in a West Philadelphia elementary school:
 * 1) If I don't get out my mom room, I get in trouble and when I don't get out my sister room she hit me.
 * 2) Bernicia penpal gave me one.
 * 3) That's what he did to my cousin Raymond dog at my cousin house.
 * 4) I was acting like I stole my sister food.
 * 5) At the museum, it was fun, we went in somebody heart."

Code-switching
Many times within communities that contain sociolects that separate groups linguistically it is necessary to have a process where the independent speech communities can communicate in the same register; even if the change is as simple as different pronunciation. Therefore, the act of code-switching becomes essential. Code-switching is defined as "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation". At times code-switching can be situational, depending on the situation or topical, depending on the topic. Halliday terms this the best when he defines the role of discourse, stating that "it is this that determines, or rather correlates with, the role played by the language activity in the situation". Therefore, meaning that which register is used depends on the situation and lays out the social context of the situation, because if the wrong register is used, then the wrong context is placed on the words. Furthermore, referring back to the diglossia expressed in the Arab-speaking world and the Tamil caste system in India, which words are used must be appropriate to not only the social class of the speaker, but the situation, the topic, and the need for courtesy. A more comprehensive definition is stated, "Code-switching is not only a definition of the situation but an expression of social hierarchy."

title: Sociolect


text:
Russel Arnold

Russel Premakumaran Arnold ரசல் பிரேம்குமாரன் அர்னால்ட்;( born 25 October 1973), or Russel Arnold, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer of Tamil descent, who played all forms of the game. He played as the finisher role in the Sri Lankan team batting down the order at international level. Arnold currently works as an international commentator. He was the first Twenty20 International cap for Sri Lanka as he was part of Sri Lanka's first ever T20I team. He retired from cricket in 2007 after playing the final in 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Early life
Arnold was encouraged to take the sport of cricket by his grandfather. He played school cricket at the St. Peter's College, Colombo where he received his primary and secondary education. He played for Sri Lanka Under19 cricket team and impressed in the tour of England in a 3 match test series in 1992 where he scored 242 runs at the average of 48.40. He first arrived to domestic cricket in 1993 at the age of 20.

International career
Arnold made his Test debut against Pakistan on April and his One day international debut against South Africa later in the year on 6 November 1997. His test debut came as a blessing in disguise as he came as an injury replacement to Roshan Mahanama who was injured in a batting session in the nets. He was initially called into the Sri Lankan reserve squad for the home series against Pakistan in 1997 following his performances in domestic circuit.

Originally an opening batsman, Arnold has since moved down the batting order mainly due to the rise of Marvan Atapattu. He is most famous in the pearl island as a very versatile player, making him ideally suitable for the limited over version of the game. However, when he started his career, he was seen primarily as a solid top order batsmen where he impressed against Australia during the AIWA Cup of 1999, as well as the subsequent test series against them, where he batted at no 3. He batted at no 6 for the first time in his career during the Coca-Cola Champions Trophy 1999. The then Sri Lankan team head coach Dav Whatmore had felt that Russel could be utilised well when he plays down the order.

In an ODI match against Zimbabwe in 1999, Arnold along with Sajeewa de Silva set the record for the highest 10th wicket stand for Sri Lanka in ODI history (51). During the final of the 2000–01 Sharjah Champions Trophy against India in 2000 at Sharjah, Arnold helped Sanath Jayasuriya to post his highest individual score of 189. Sanath and Arnold had a good partnership until Sanath stumped after a brilliant 189. Russel provided good support scoring unbeaten 52 off 62 balls in the match. Sri Lanka eventually won the final by a big margin of 245 runs. He was part of the Sri Lankan team captained by Sanath Jayasuriya which won the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy jointly with India.

Arnold's failure in the 2003 Cricket World Cup saw him sidelined for many months as selectors opted to groom the youngsters into the side. However, he fought his way back into the side with a string of good scores in domestic cricket for his club, Nondescripts. A calm and cool player in a crisis situation, Arnold has dragged Sri Lanka out of many sticky situations. He is highly valued for his gritty qualities and is considered an unselfish team man. He is considered an ideal No. 6; he is a Methodist Christian of Tamil descent.

Arnold has been nicknamed "Rusty" by Roshan Mahanama and Pramodya Wickramasinghe, due to it being a very common nickname for the name Russel, and for his batting style as tough and durable, though not really pretty. His late cut shot is admired by many critics at that time where he used the shot so often to spin bowling.

Arnold made his T20I debut against England on 15 June 2006, which was incidentally Sri Lanka's first-ever T20I match. It was also his only T20I match in his career and Sri Lanka won the match by two runs.

Retirement
During April 2007 he announced, through team manager Michael Tissera, that he intended to retire from international cricket after the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup final, which came as a shock to Sri Lankan cricket. He cited the pressure of too much travel as his reason.

After retirement, he played A-grade cricket in Sydney for Hornsby District Cricket Club and has also played numerous games for the Melbourne Super Kings in Melbourne. He also played for Chennai Superstars in the Indian Cricket League. He also coached at Barker College, a prestigious private school in Sydney's north. He also was assistant coach to Deccan Chargers in the IPL before the team was removed from the competition.

In 2018, he was appointed as the tournament director of the Lanka Premier League by the Sri Lanka Cricket but the proposed 2018 edition of the LPL was cancelled due to the dissolution of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board. He also played for Sri Lanka Legends in 2020-21 Road Safety World Series which was captained by Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sri Lanka Legends became runners up to India Legends in the final.

Current career
Arnold is now a popular television commentator and also writes a weekly Q+A column on Island Cricket. Russel also keeps his fans entertained using his iPhone app 'Ask Rusty' launched in 2012. It was launched in 2012 along with the T20 World Cup. The iPhone app allows Russel's fans to ask questions directly from Russel Arnold. In addition, it consists of feeds of Russel's match predictions where the user can actively participate in voting. He also wrote articles for ESPNcricinfo for brief stint. He also worked as a radio broadcaster for a short period of time.

On 1 December 2016, Arnold won the Dialog Sri Lanka Cricket awards for the International Commentator of the year 2015. He is currently regarded as just one of two Sri Lankan international cricket commentators alongside Roshan Abeysinghe. He has worked as a commentator in international cricket matches involving Sri Lanka as well as worked as commentator in Test Match Special, Indian Premier League, 2020 Lanka Premier League. He has also engaged in giving commentary in Tamil during a pre match analysis prior to the start of a test match between India and Sri Lanka in 2017 and in the 2020 Indian Premier League for Star Sports Tamil.

Following the success of Russel's comic strip "Chilling with Russel" during the Road Safety World Series, he launched his YouTube Channel Talk show alongside friend and Manager Shyam Impett titled "Chilling With Russel" in July 2021.

In August 2021, he was appointed as the mentor of the Northern Rangers PUBG Mobile team for the Gamer.LK's Singer Esports Premier League.

Controversies
During the final of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy which was held in Sri Lanka, Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly became frustrated with Arnold who was seen stepping onto the main danger area of the pitch while batting and Ganguly gave him warning to avoid stepping into the danger area of the pitch.

He along with four Sri Lankan players were banned by Sri Lanka Cricket from taking part in domestic cricket competitions in Sri Lanka after taking part in the unofficial Indian Cricket League in 2007. Russel was alleged that he retired from international cricket in order to play in the Indian Cricket League but he rubbished the claims. A year later in 2008, Sri Lanka Cricket lifted the ban imposed on all five players and they were allowed to return to Sri Lankan domestic cricket circuit.

title: Russel Arnold


text:
Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar (born 4 December 1977) is a former Indian cricketer and a commentator. He is the current chairman of the BCCI selection committee since July 4, 2023. He has represented India in more than 200 international matches across all three formats of the game. He is the third highest wicket-taker for India in One Day Internationals (ODIs). He was the part of the Indian squads which won the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy and the 2007 T20 World Cup and finished as runners up at the 2003 Cricket World Cup and the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy.

He played for the Delhi Daredevils (Now Delhi Capitals) and the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, and captained Mumbai to its 40th Ranji Trophy title in 2013. He made his Test and ODI debuts in 1998 and T20I debut in 2006. In 2013, Agarkar announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Post-retirement, he began a new career as a cricket analyst. He holds the record for the quickest 50 in ODIs by an Indian coming off just 21 balls (against Zimbabwe in 2000).

Personal life
Agarkar was born on 4 December 1976 in Mumbai, to Meena and Balachandra Agarkar. He has one sister, Manik Agarkar. Agarkar started out as a batsman since his childhood before he was entrusted to cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar by his father. On Achrekar's insistence, Agarkar shifted his school from IES to Shardashram Vidyamandir for Grade six. He developed as a batsman who could bowl a bit during this time while practicing at the Shivaji Park. He went on to perform consistently as a batsman scoring heavily in the inter-school Giles Shield tournament for the Under-16s making a triple century when he was 15. He carried the form into the Harris Shield under-19 tournament scoring consistently "showing signs of being another Tendulkar in the making." It was during this time that he began shifting focus to his bowling after it was "pointed out to [him] that it would be hard to make it into the Mumbai team as a pure batsman, and that he stood a better chance as an all-rounder". As a child, Agarkar idolized pacers Kapil Dev, Michael Holding and Ian Botham; later also taking a liking to Allan Donald.

Agarkar is an alumnus of Ruparel College in Matunga. He married Fatima Ghadially and has a son named Raj with her. He resides in Narayan Pujari Nagar on the Worli Seaface in South Mumbai in Maharashtra.

Bowling style
He is relatively short compared to other fast bowlers, but he could still bowl at speeds more than 90 mph (~142–150 km/h).

He was generally a wicket taking bowler being the fastest (at the time) to 50 wickets. During his career, many questions arose about his economy rate. However, his career economy rate was fair (5.07).

International career
Agarkar made his ODI debut against Australia at Kochi, on 1 April 1998. He took the wicket of Adam Gilchrist in that match.

Soon after his debut, a 20-year-old Agarkar achieved his first Man of the match award in a crucial Coca-Cola champions trophy match against New Zealand taking four wickets including the crucial wickets of Stephen Fleming and Craig McMillan while India was defending just 220 on 17 April 1998.

The positive start to his early career, Indian fans were hopeful of him forming a strong bowling partnership with Javagal Srinath. Srinath had been sidelined by injury during Agarkar's 1st season and was the only successful pace bowler in the National Team. The emergence of Ashish Nehra in 1999 and Zaheer Khan in 2000 created further competition for pace bowling options especially in home conditions. Frequent injuries to Srinath, Nehra, and Agarkar meant India struggled with pace bowling resources.

While Agarkar remained a part of the team, he was not able to hold down a guaranteed place due to frequent injuries and severe competition for places especially after the emergence of Irfan Pathan in 2004. He was an important part of the hugely successful Indian team in 2002 and 2003 with Agarkar contributing some memorable performances with the bat and the ball. During this period, he was also a member of the Indian team which finished in the runner-up spot in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, although he did not play in a single game throughout the tournament.

Amongst Agarkar's better performances were his performances in Australia in the Test series of 1999, and also in the test series in 2003. At Adelaide Oval in 2003, Agarkar took 6/41, to help India to win their first test in Australia in over 20 years. Agarkar has performed better in ODI cricket, where he takes wickets regularly, although his economy rate is high. He has also had a number of good batting performances. He was the best Indian bowler in the one-day series during India's tour of West Indies in 2006.

As a batsman, Agarkar is one of the few players who scored a Test century at Lords against England during India's tour to England in 2002 when he scored 109 not out. Although India lost the test, his batting skills were quite noticeable. He also holds the record of the fastest fifty in ODI's for India when he scored 67 not out in 25 balls at Rajkot against Zimbabwe in 2000. However, his batting exploits have been frequently overshadowed by seven consecutive instances of no scoring against Australia, five in Australia and two at home. His first four dismissals also happened to have been on the first ball he faced.

He is currently the 3rd highest wicket taker (288) for India in ODI's after Javagal Srinath (315) and Anil Kumble (337). One of the notable performances in the domestic cricket came in the 2009–10 Ranji trophy finals against Karnataka in which he took 5 wickets in the second innings ensuring a narrow win for Mumbai.

On 16 October 2013, Agarkar announced his retirement from all forms of cricket just before the start of the 2013–14 Ranji season.

As an all-rounder
John Wright used to send Agarkar as a pinch hitter in ODIs up the order to increase the scoring rate. He demonstrated good batting skills with extra slogging. Some of his acclaimed knocks in ODIs are when he smacked the fastest 50 in 21 balls in 2000 against Zimbabwe and took 3 wickets as well in that match, in another knock his 95 against West Indies in 2002 at Jamshedpur when he was sent up the order at number 3. In the same season in 2002 he joined the group of few Indians to have scored a century at Lord's, when he scored a century in the first test of series batting at no. 8. He got a runner-up medal in 2003 World Cup.

Records
Early in his career, Agarkar broke Dennis Lillee's world record for the fastest 50 wickets in ODIs, achieving the feat from only 23 matches. He held the record from 1998 until 2009 when Ajantha Mendis achieved the feat from just 19 matches. Agarkar holds the Indian record of scoring the fastest 50 in ODI: he scored 50 off 21 balls. Agarkar also holds another ODI record, which is the quickest in terms of fewest matches played to take 200 wickets and complete 1000 runs. Agarkar achieved this feat in 133 matches breaking the previous record held by South African Shaun Pollock, who accomplished this feat in his 138th match.

During India's 1999-2000 tour of Australia, Agarkar set a record of five consecutive innings (seven consecutive innings against Australia) resulting in ducks (four of them first ball), which earned him the nickname "Bombay Duck". The wicket takers were Damien Fleming, Brett Lee(twice), Mark Waugh and Glenn McGrath.

Domestic career
Agarkar represented Kolkata Knight Riders in Indian Premier League for three seasons. In the fourth season, he was contracted by Delhi Daredevils for US$210,000.

In February 2012 it was announced that Agarkar would captain Mumbai in the 2012 Vijay Hazare Trophy.

He was also the captain of the Mumbai team that won the 2013 Ranji Trophy. In the quarter-final, he scored 52* (from 53 balls) against Baroda to ensure a mammoth total of 645/9 declared. In the semi-final against Services, he scored 145 and made a 246-run 7th wicket partnership with wicketkeeper Aditya Tare (120) to rescue Mumbai from 169/6, and take the total to 454/8 declared.

title: Ajit Agarkar


text: Category:Gay writers

title: Category:Gay writers


text:
Hemang Badani

Hemang Kamal Badani (born 14 November 1976) is a former Indian international cricketer. He is a left-handed batter and an occasional slow left-arm bowler. He had represented the Indian cricket team while also representing Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Haryana and Vidarbha in domestic cricket. He was part of the Indian squad that finished as runners-up at the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy.

Early life
Hemang Badani was born on 14 November 1976 in a Gujarati family in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Badani is fluent in languages Tamil, English, Gujarati, Hindi and French.

International
Badani made his ODI debut in May 2000 in the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh at Dhaka, scoring 35 in an Indian victory. Badani was part of the Indian team that played the 2000–01 Sharjah Champions Trophy against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. Badani played all the five matches in the home series against Zimbabwe that followed, scoring 153 runs with two fifties. Badani played the subsequent home ODI series against Australia in which he scored 166 runs in five matched with his only international century coming in the second match on 28 March 2001 at Pune.

Badani made his test debut for India against Zimbabwe in the second test at Harare Sports Club during the India tour of Zimbabwe in June 2001. He was also part of the triangular ODI tournament with West Indies and Zimbabwe that followed the test series, scoring 83 runs across four matches. Badani scored just 78 runs in six matches in the triangular ODI tournament featuring Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Badani played only four test matches with the last match coming against Sri Lanka in August 2001 during the same Indian tour to Sri Lanka. Overall, he scored 94 runs in four matches at an average of 15.66 in test cricket.

Badani continued to play ODIs and was next part of the squad for the home series against England in January 2002. But he again had meager returns scoring just 89 runs across six matches. Badani played very few matches over the next few months due to his inconsistent form. In November 2003, he made a comeback in the TVS cup against Australia and New Zealand. Badani was part of the VB series in January 2004 in Australia in which he scored 133 runs at an average of 44.33. Badani played his last ODI on 13 March 2004 in the first match of the India's tour to Pakistan at Karachi. Overall, he scored 867 runs in 40 matches at an average of 33.34.

Domestic
He made his debut for Tamil Nadu in 1996-97 and played domestic cricket for them for thirteen seasons. He was a prolific scorer in first class cricket scoring more than six thousand runs with 14 centuries at an average just below 46. Badani reached the finals of Ranji Trophy two times with Tamil Nadu in the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons. Badani captained the team that won the domestic one day cup in 2004–05. Badani represented Rajasthan in the 2009-10 Vijay Hazare Trophy and Haryana in the 2010–11 Ranji Trophy. He played for Vidarbha from 2011-12 to 2013-14.

T20 cricket
In 2007, Badani signed up and played for the Chennai Superstars in the Indian Cricket League (ICL). BCCI banned the players involved in ICL before granting amnesty in 2009 with a mandated cooling off period of one year. On 27 January 2010, he was signed by Chennai Super Kings for the 2010 Indian Premier League but did not make it to the playing eleven for any of the matches.

Post retirement
Badani has served as the head coach for Chepauk Super Gillies in Tamil Nadu Premier League since its inception in 2016. He has coached them for seven seasons with Super Gillies winning the title four times. He also served as a consultant for Jaffna Kings in Lanka Premier League. In December 2021, Badani was appointed as fielding coach and scout of the Sunrisers Hyderabad team in Indian Premier League and continued in the role till July 2023.

He is also an active commentator in Star Sports Tamil.

title: Hemang Badani


text:
Ashish Nehra

Ashish Nehra (born 29 April 1979) is an Indian cricket coach and former cricketer who played in all formats of the game. Nehra announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in late 2017, with the Twenty20 International match against New Zealand on 1 November 2017 at Feroz Shah Kotla Ground his last appearance. With India, Nehra was a member of the Indian team that was one of the joint-winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, which the title was also shared with Sri Lanka, and was a member of the team that won the 2011 Cricket World Cup although he didn't play in the final.

Early and personal life
Nehra was born in Sadar Bazaar, Delhi Cantonment to Diwan Singh Nehra and Sumitra Nehra. Nehra was very passionate about cricket from an early age. Nehra would ride scooters with Virender Sehwag to the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium to be able to play cricket. This allowed him to grow success and eventually rise through the ranks. He eventually join the Delhi team to participate in the Ranji Trophy.

International career
He made his debut against Sri Lanka national cricket team. On 26 February 2003, during the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup, Nehra took 6 for 23 against England, which was the best bowling figures by an Indian bowler in Cricket World Cup history until Mohammad Shami surpassed it against New Zealand on 15 November 2023 during the semi-final of the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Nehra was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 T20 World Cup by the ICC and ESPNcricinfo.

In the 2013–14 Ranji Trophy, he took 6/16 from 10 overs to bowl out Vidarbha for a meagre 88 in the first innings at the Roshanara Club Ground at Delhi.

After recovering from the ankle injury that prevented him from playing for the Delhi Ranji Team in the 2007–08 season, Nehra joined the Indian Premier League and signed up for the Mumbai Indians franchise. For his performances in 2014 and 2015 for Chennai Super Kings, he was named in the ESPNcricinfo CLT20 XI.

Coaching career
In January 2018, Royal Challengers Bangalore appointed Nehra as their bowling coach. He retained his position for the 2019 IPL.

In January 2022, he was appointed the head coach of newly formed Indian Premier League franchise Gujarat Titans. In the 2022 IPL season, Gujarat Titans finished top of the table and went on to win the trophy in the final against Rajasthan Royals. Nehra also became the first Indian head coach to win the Indian Premier League.

title: Ashish Nehra


text:
Zaheer Abbas

Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani PP, (in Punjabi and Urdu: سید ظہیر عباس کرمانی; born 24 July 1947), popularly known as Zaheer Abbas, is a Pakistani former cricketer. He is among the few professional cricketers who used to wear spectacles in the cricket ground. In 1982/1983, he became the first batsman to score three consecutive centuries in one-day internationals. Sometimes known as 'the Asian Bradman', Zaheer Abbas is regarded as one of the finest batsmen in the history of cricket. In August 2020, he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Career
Abbas made his Test match debut in 1969; in his second Test he scored 274 against England, which is still the sixth-ever highest score by a Pakistani batsman. This was the first of his four Test double-centuries; only two men from Pakistan (Younis Khan and Javed Miandad) have scored more. The last was an innings of 215 against India in 1983, the first of three centuries in consecutive Tests, and his hundredth first-class century; Abbas and Geoffrey Boycott are the only two batsmen to have scored their hundredth first-class century in a Test match.

Abbas had great success in first-class cricket, and is the only Asian batsman to score one hundred first-class centuries. He had a long stint with Gloucestershire; joining the county in 1972, he remained there for thirteen years. During that time he scored over a thousand runs in the majority of his thirteen seasons. He also made over two thousand runs in a single season on two occasions for the club (1976 and 1981). During those thirteen years at Gloucestershire, he played 206 first-class games, scoring over 16,000 runs. He averaged 49.79, hitting 49 hundreds and 76 fifties. Abbas is the only player to have scored a century and double century in a first-class match four times, finishing each of the eight innings not out.

Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian Test captain, once said while commentating that the Indian players would often say to Zaheer, "Zaheer Ab-bas karo", which means "Zaheer, stop it now" in Urdu and Hindi, referring to Abbas' free scoring.

Abbas had two stints as captain of the national team in 1981 and 1984. He retired from international cricket in 1985, and has officiated as a match referee in one Test and three ODI matches. He has also worked as the manager of the national team. Zaheer was one of the player who was famous for his title. Zaheer Abbas was called Asian Bradman. In 2018 Government of Pakistan awarded him Sitara-e-Imtiaz. In 2015 he became ICC president, the third cricketer after Colin Cowdrey and Clyde Walcott, to hold the post.

Zaheer Abbas held the record for scoring the most runs by any batsman in a 4 match bilateral ODI series (346 runs) from 1982 to 2015. The record was broken by Hashim Amla of South Africa in 2015.

Personal life
Zaheer Abbas married Indian born Rita Luthra (now known as Samina Abbas) in 1988.

His first marriage was to Najma Bokhari with whom he has three daughters, Rudabah, Roshana and Hiba.

Autobiography
In 1983 he co-wrote his autobiography Zed with the British cricket journalist David Foot.

Awards and recognition

 * Pride of Performance Award in 1971 by the Government of Pakistan
 * Inducted in ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2020.
 * Inducted in PCB Hall of Fame in 2021.

title: Zaheer Abbas