Book review: The Art of a Beautiful Game, by Chris Ballard

This review is a re-post of it's original entry from our sibling book review site, Books with Balls.

You may think that Dwight Howard's a monster rebounder because at 7 feet and one inch, 265 pounds and with steel springs for legs he's the NBA's most perfect physical specimen since Chamberlain.

But you're wrong.

Because Big Ben Wallace, the Pistons' 6'8 fireplug centre rebounds just as well, age and infirmity permitting. What Big Ben and D12 have in common is their uncanny ability to read direction, velocity and arc of the ball straight from the shooter's fingertips; analyse in a fraction of a second where the ball will impact on the hoop or backboard, and adjust their reactions to be where they need to be in order to pick up the loose ball. Kevin Love, the NBA's rebounding leader, uses the same principles and does it looking like a rec club baller, doing it for the love of the game. So much goes into the art of rebounding that Chris Ballard devotes an entire chapter to it in his book, The Art of a Beautiful Game.

When it comes to NBA journalism, Chrises seem to be everywhere. ESPN boast three of them: Messrs Sheridan (New York), Forsberg (Boston), Broussard (the key story-hound). Chris Ballard continues the tradition, though being a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. After covering the NBA for many years and through chats with players, formal and casual, he's pieced together a short-ish but beautifully crafted work about how certain players in the NBA are good at their jobs. Each chapter describes an aspect of the sport, from the high-profile shooters to the understated beauty of a perfectly-set screen. When it comes to a particular skill, who better to hear it from than the best? Ballard watches tape with LeBron, plays H-O-R-S-E game with Steve Kerr and his encounter with the World Free-Throw Shooting record holder, Dr. Tom Amberry. The "Big Kahuna of Free-Throw Shooting" set the record as a seventy-one year old in 1993, nailing 2750 straight free-throws before the gym in which he was shooting asked him to leave - they had to close for the night. And that's just the research he did especially for the book - also recorded are conversations he's had, professionally and privately, with the NBA's greatest. All go together to make an elegantly rounded picture.

Each chapter describes in detail the importance of biomechanics, athleticism, attitude and the ability to read play. Not just focusing on technical aspects, he describes taking a weeklong course at Coach David Thorpe's Florida training academy to see what devoted NBA stars get up to in their alleged down-time and a morning spent with a performance guru who works out players before draft day. And when Ballard's there, the reader is there: whether it's not kicking a leg out when shooting jumpers, out-thinking David Robinson in a battle for a rebound or trying to stop Chris Morris from getting arrested at the end of a long road trip.

What's most startling about his adventures and conversations is Ballard's writing style. As Howard is an artist on the boards, Ballard is with words. He writes so easily, fluidly and - there's no other word for it - beautifully, that the book is consumed within a matter of a few hours and leaves you slightly disappointed that it's finished; but therein lies more art, knowing when to finish.

The Art of a Beautiful Game by Chris Ballard scores footballs - an outstanding piece of literature.

Announcement: Balanced Sports on WCW podcast

Hi all. Balanced Sports' principal author, Matthew Wood, featured on last week's One Hand, One Bounce cricket podcast from World Cricket Watch. In his 20-minute spell, he discussed cricket in Canada as well as reaction to the sentences passed down to Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif & Mohammed Amir. You can listen to it here or find it in your iTunes store.

World Cup Predictions: Surprise Packet

Part three of our eight-part series with Subash Jayaraman, Dave Siddall and our own Matthew Wood sneaking a peek at who's primed to surprise on the subcontinent.

Matt Wood

It’s probably telling that with the amount of TV and internet coverage the game gets these days, there really isn’t the bolter-in-the-pack that we’ve come to expect from past tournaments. The glory days of most sports relied on hearing what others had done rather than see them for yourself, and their mystique only increased. With UDRS, slo-mo, hotspot and hawkeye the game’s been robbed of some of that mystery. Flat out, it may be the biggest and most satisfying surprise of the tournament could be an Australian run to the final or even the title. As a cricketing nation they’ve been told it’s well past bedtime, but with Tait, Lee and Johnson they have three bona-fide matchwinners. Unfortunately for the Skippies, they’re all bona-fide match-losers as well if their accuracy doesn’t hold up. The lack of a first-class spinner could hamper them, but of all the teams selected really only India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka have world-class ODI tweakers.

WC Surprise package: Australia?

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Subash Jayaraman

Ahmed Shehzad. I watched the entire Pakistan-New Zealand ODI series. (Don’t ask me why, I just did). Of all the Pakistani batsmen, the only one that oozed confidence was this young lad Shehzad. May be it was the confidence that he was only facing the New Zealand bowlers or he was secure in his opening slot since the back up to him would’ve been Kamran Akmal, I do not know, but his batting seems to be destined for greatness. I expect him to score at least 1 century in the tournament and will not be surprised if it is two and is featured in the top 5-7 of highest run getters.

WC Surprise Package: Ahmed Shehzad

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David Siddall

It seems almost bizarre to consider this player and team for such a title, especially when you consider their standing within the game. Nevertheless, it’s going to be done. The team in question has won 4 out of the 9 World Cups that have ever been played and they have also won the last 3 World Cups in 2007, 2003 and 1999. Despite such an imposing history, very few people are tipping Australia to win the upcoming tournament. They might have been humbled in dominant fashion by England in the recent Ashes encounter, but this perhaps shouldn’t be an indicator of their one-day prowess. As the crushing series victory over England which shortly followed testifies, Australia are a very tight one day unit with ability in every department and a winning mentality.

One of the brightest sparks to emerge from that one day series is the return of the sprightly looking Brett Lee who at 34 has had dreadful luck and been forced to retire from Test cricket. His energy on the field does not reflect his age. He is as hungry and as fired up as a pit-bull terrier you locked up, went on holiday and forgot to feed for a week.

Brett Lee is desperate to reclaim his standing as one of the most devastating one-day bowlers in the world and he will be the bright spark that Australia need if they are to make a serious impression in the World Cup.

WC Surprise Package: Brett Lee and Australia

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Pure Cycling: Irrational Love

There cannot be a professional sport with such a disassembled and bureaucratic structure as cycling is. A combination of national cycling associations, private race organisers, rider guilds as well as multi-sport organisations such as the International Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games Federation all pool their collective desires together annually and an international racing calendar is drawn up. Above, at times within, often below this chaotic and ridiculous quantity of administrators, the International Cycling Union (UCI) as the nominal governing body of the sport tries to pull all of these desires together, and also conduct a cycling tour of their own.

It is therefore no real surprise that for a lay person with a passing interest in the sport would struggle to draw a consistent line through a season's schedule or the cyclist world rankings that are drawn from results within. A cyclist has had in the past the very real possibility of riding in a lower level semi-professional race along back lanes in northern Europe one day before being thrust into a high profile event the next and be expected to perform in both.

Such dramatic pressure on cyclists has reduced in the modern era. The peloton, readily abused by a series of sadistic administrators and team directors for 100 years, began to fight back in the late 1970s. A picture of a defiant Bernard Hinault refusing to begin a stage in the 1978 Tour de France, the race that year would later be his first of five wins, shows just what a struggle the cyclists believed the poor scheduling to be. Hinault of course was later to become, if he wasn't already, the 'Patron' of the peloton, therefore all the other cyclists that day refused along with 'The Badger'.

But today the collective power of the cyclists themselves is not an uprising any more against a sadistic oppressor, they themselves have become just another group of voices in a swirling vortex of disorganisation. The current, and some would say self-appointed, Patron of the peloton these days is Fabian Cancellara. Anyone witnessing his constant hijacking of last years Tour de France could only conclude that the thinly veiled selfish desires of him, and other riders seeking patronage, are just part of the bureaucratic problem in cycling and not a response.

There are great races every year that can only be won by persons seeking to put in a performance of a champion on that particular day, week, or longer period. In fact this is how cyclists these days approach performance as against the champions of the past. Where Eddie Merckx wanted to win all three grand tours in a year plus all the 'monument' classics, these days training and entry is tailored for cyclists that they will only be able to put in a champion performance in a specific race.

Of course the ridiculous unwieldy scheduling is just one of cycling's problems. Cycling's ongoing endemic scourge of doping is probably the worst. But I love it. It is an irrational sport, calling upon an irrational thing called love. We know the problems, the abuses, yet we return year after year, race after race, ready to forgive and be sucked back into its waiting arms. Maybe irrational love is why problems never gets fixed. Like Hugh Hefner refusing to grow up, cycling doesn't need to, it knows we will return.

by Ben Roberts. Pure Cycling will be his semi-regular look into life on two wheels.

The NBA doesn't deserve men like Jerry Sloan

Two basketball stories in two days! The Utah Jazz have accepted the resignation of head coach Jerry Sloan after twenty-three years at the helm of the Deseret franchise. After the team's leanest period in some time, matters came to a head last night as the Jazz's slip became a landslide against a strong Chicago team. Sloan was understandably incensed at star PG Deron Williams' ignoring his play calls to run his own set. Sloan, a proud, commanding but intense man who was a key member of the hard-nosed 1970s Bulls teams, kept the team locked indoors after the loss and met with Jazz VP Kevin O'Connor. It's thought this was to discuss his resignation just a week after signing a one-year contract extension. Apparently his team-over-player ethos had passed it's use-by date.

Yet another example of player power in today's NBA. A man who will be a free-agent in a year thought highly unlikely to re-sign with the NBA's most inappropriately named franchise, dismisses the instructions of his highly respected coach - a man whose combative nature wouldn't settle for such disobedience; a man for whom Williams has played for six years and would know his actions would provoke a reaction. Williams obviously had decided to tune out his boss in an act of civil disobedience of which Gandhi would be proud.

The autocratic Sloan, and his long-time assistant Phil Johnson probably realised their time had passed. When a player whose entire life is only two years longer than Sloan's Utah tenure - no matter how important a player - disregarded his instruction, there could be no way back from such punkdom. It was time leave, and fair enough too. As a player, sometimes the feel of the game comes easier to those involved on the floor, better than to those watching it; but to diss your coach like this? To the point of him walking away? A slur, and not one Sloan was prepared to live with. So he's taken his patterned, incredibly efficient offense and decided life was too short for players like Deron Williams.

An incredibly stable franchise for twenty-five years suddenly is thrown into flux. Karl Malone's replacement, Carlos Boozer, left this offseason. Sloan exits half-way through this season. Williams is likely gone next year even if he does like the new coach's methods. The man in charge of creating those new methods, Tyrone Corbin - remember him in the PC game Lakers vs. Celtics? - will either adapt Sloan's procedures or ramp up his own. Today is a fixed point, from here: the Jazz will go one of two ways - a normal, successful future or a parallel reality like in Back to the Future 2. With that one action, Sloan farewells the longest one-club tenure in professional basketball and 1000 NBA regular season wins being the only man to achieve that feat with one team.

He shouldn't coach another team. It would be too much like seeing Michael Jordan in a Wizards uniform. After three middling years coaching the Bulls soon after retiring as a player, Sloan has spent twenty-three years in what amounts to the middle of nowhere, leading teams with great, but never championship talent to the playoffs year-in, year-out. For the longest time Utah has been respected as a group of team-first guys led by Williams; taught and mentored by Sloan. But like all things, it was time to end.

After his wife of forty-one years died of cancer, Sloan has recently remarried and probably decided that spending the last third of his life was better spent enjoying his retirement and not fighting with petulant hip-hoppers a third of his age. At sixty-five years old, hopefully his coaching tenure has come to a close. The NBA doesn't deserve people like Jerry Sloan any more.

What you don't realise about the Miami Heat

The Miami Heat are stronger this year than we could have imagined, especially after all the dramas in December about how LeBron and the coach weren't getting along. LeBron is having his usual, MVP-type season, Dwyane Wade is playing well, Chris Bosh's head remains exceedingly-small and the steadiness of Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Erick Dampier has offset Joel Anthony's growing pains as a pro centre. You get the feeling they're going to cause some grief in the playoffs - and that they may be the NBA's third best team after Boston and San Antonio.

But the Miami team wasn't built for this year. It was built for next year. The team knew it was still missing a couple of key ingredients for a title this year, namely a centre who can defend the paint while not being a complete zero offensively and a point guard who can shoot the trey. They were well aware of this when the Key Three signed in July - news to noone.

The Heat were hoping that during this offseason's Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between NBA owners and players, the Mid Level Exception (MLE) isn't rescinded. The MLE was created a few years back to allow teams near or over the salary cap to sign players annually to try and improve their team. It's worth $5 million, and can be split any number of ways. Contending teams usually give the whole amount to one key role player, or split it between two older pros who can still help. The players like it - it decreases salary pressure ever so slightly, meaning more pie for the guys who play the game.

But it's increasingly looking like the Owners as a group don't see it helping them and want it removed. Existing MLE players like Ron Artest of the LA Lakers and Mike Miller of the Heat will still be paid what they're owed, but MLE deals are likely become as insubstantial as the Salary Cap will be hard. (Currently the cap is "soft", meaning teams are allowed to exceed it in certain ways such as to re-sign their own free-agents, but are penalised financially for doing so).

So where does this leave Miami? With a hard cap and no salary cap exceptions? With pretty much the same roster but very few tradeable assets unless a club is prepared to pay well over the odds for Anthony or the ageing Udonis Haslem. It's almost certain at some stage they will win a championship - they're just too talented not too - but the dynasty so many predicted may not happen simply for a lack of depth. The last couple of teams build around a "Big Three" - Boston and Chicago had excellent reserves of depth: the Celtics had PJ Brown, Leon Powe, Kendrick Perkins and a young Rajon Rondo. The Three-peat Bulls boasted Luc Longley, Ron Harper, Toni Kukoc, Brian Williams and Steve Kerr.

Miami may go the way of many championship contenders and try to pick up cheap veterans who have accepted salary buyouts from lesser clubs who don't need them anymore and want to avoid paying their hefty wages; but that limits the Heat to one guy per year who may or may not have anything left in the tank. What should be of comfort to the South Beach faithful is that with their current form and health, the Heat are an absolute lock to beat nearly everyone who comes knocking.

Until the playoffs, where Mario Chalmers, Carlos Arroyo and Juwan Howard will have to face up to playing serious minutes against younger or better opposition. It could be a glimpse of the future for the Heat. Not quite dystopian, but not the haven the wise guys in Florida expected on July 8th, The Decision day.

A-League's declining crowds need addressing

Though streets ahead of the factional National Soccer League, peacefully and thankfully euthanised in 2004 after a fraught reign as Australia's national football competition, failing supporter bases for the A-League means once again the FFA is faced with the challenge of enticing and maintaining supporter interest.

In the NSL days much of the public was alienated by violence and the overly patriotic fans boasted by each club. Clubs were divided very much along national lines: if you were of Greek parentage you supported South Melbourne Hellas. Even 1/16th Croatian heritage meant a Melbourne Knights fan. It's the way it was. Furthering the league's violent image were the stories told by old security guards of the old Olympic Park: the most galling I heard was punters making sure their flares got into the game by hiding in a stroller beneath a sleeping baby. The A-League's come a long way just by renouncing the nationalistic culture endemic and integral in the NSL's supersession.

Shortly after the Perth Glory's Nik Mrdja banged in the winner that snared the 2004 NSL Cup, the twenty-seven year competition ended mercifully and without complaint - as pros say about retirement, "it was just time". The football public was promised more: an eight-team league. Partisan, but friendly crowds. The sport would burgeon Down Under.

But NOOOOooooooOOOOO! (Channeling John Belushi). The A-League, encouraged by a smart and sustainable start decided on expansion. The initial eight teams though each had enough recognisable faces and interest sufficient enough to support a reasonable fan base. Spurred on by the Melbourne Victory's incredible second season - on which laurels some argue the Victorian club still rests - where 50,000 regularly appeared in their Docklands home base, the A-League included franchises from North Queensland and the Gold Coast. The struggling Auckland-based New Zealand Knights, horrible nickname and all, were reborn on the South Island as the Wellington Phoenix.

While Melbourne and Adelaide have continued with strong crowd number, other A-League clubs have struggled - see the chart below. Last year the Victory boasted average crowds above 18,000 , Adelaide United drew 11,000+ and the Melbourne Heart with nearly 9,000. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Queensland franchises struggled; the appallingly-monikered North Queensland Fury's attendance barely reached 4,500 and Gold Coast FC appealed even less. The latter club's owner, mining magnate Clive Palmer, even caused controversy last year by locking out some Gold Coast fans rather than spend extra money opening other stands in their stadium. It's telling that in all of last season, the Melbourne Victory - with identifiable stars Kevin Muscat, Archie Thompson and Danny Allsopp - featured in eight of the ten highest-attended games. However they are not immune to the malaise which has engulfed football in Australia; their declining crowd numbers this year can be attributed to several factors, most notably the Melbourne Heart emergence as a second franchise for the city.

After last night's debacle, the FFA and A-League must acknowledge that change is needed for the A-League to retain its credibility. The 17-11-1 Brisbane Roar (sporting an awful mascot) defeated hapless North Queensland in front of only 1003 spectators. True, North Queensland has been devastated by a combination of natural disasters usually only seen in movies like 2012, but 1003 fans attending what is ostensibly a top-flight league is embarrassing and harmful for the A-League's future. It seems the Gold Coast fan base is to blame: they have also turned out record-low crowds on two other occasions this season. For a team playing such delicioius football as the Roar to draw such a pitiful crowd should finally close the book on the experimental expansion franchises North Queensland and the Gold Coast. They no longer deserve their teams.

The examples of league overinflation are obvious, patent and alarming. The NBA went from the ultimate in excitement to uninspired within a period of five years as undeserving cities received franchises: Vancouver, Memphis, Charlotte, Atlanta, Oklahoma City and New Orleans each have done enough to receive a team, but not enough to justify an owner spending money to create a winning team. The NHL is similarly afflicted: the Bettman Masterplan of expansion into the USA's southern reaches has been enough of a failure that several franchises are investigating selling their home games to cities who regularly sell in order to balance the books. By starting their Gold Coast and West Sydney franchises this year, the AFL should be heeding the FFA's mistakes even though their own brand is infinitely stronger.

It's time for the A-League to fold or relocate North Queensland. Unfortunately, there are limited options as to landing spots for the Fury - Auckland perhaps? The reality is that with North Queensland recovering from floods and the effects of Cyclone Yasi, football is likely to be the last of their priorities. The warning signs were there for the club after Robbie Fowler wasn't able to collect his paycheck and forced to move to Perth: now, as the Hornets did to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, it's time the Fury bid farewell to their home base and perhaps even to existence. That they don't have a major benefactor like Palmer, crowd numbers notwithstanding, is why they may be doomed.

The Gold Coast, funded by one of Australia's wealthiest men, is a different story. They should have the population base to fund a club yet have struggled for attendance since Palmer bought the rights and recruited stars Jason Culina and Shane Smeltz. It's embarrassing that such a vibrant area draws so poorly and both Palmer and the A-League must take their shares of the blame for their failure to thrive. The A-League needs a base in the Gold Coast as it's Australia's most rapidly growing "city", yet Palmer's reluctance to spend means task of growing football's identity in South Queensland becomes the responsibility of the FFA and the A-League.

When compared to other sporting codes in Australia, the A-League does poorly in almost every aspect. Only the Victory and Adelaide have crowds with average attendance over the lowliest Rugby League crowds, the next lowest draw in the Australian sporting hierarchy. FFA should aim for a leaguewide average of 10,000 fans which would ensure a healthy competition as well as room for growth. Before any expansion can be considered, clubs need to be certain that they themselves can survive.

Hope though can be drawn from the struggling Scottish Premier League. The SPL includes twelve teams, with only two ever having a chance at the title, Celtic and Rangers. The remaining ten clubs have voted overwhelmingly to reduce the number of teams in the top division from 12 to 10, meaning each team receives a greater percentage of the league's TV rights money. A ten team league nearly indistinguishable from the current setup where the only interest is who will be relegated. The mooted Scottish setup, no matter how broke the clubs are, proves an allegedly elite league can exist with only a few teams. With Australian sport looking more to American models than to European, it appears unlikely that the SPL model will be adopted.

There has never been a more crucial time for the A-League.

World Cup Predictions: Leading Run Scorer

In part two of our seven part series, Dave Siddall of World Cricket Watch, Subash Jayaraman of The Cricket Couch and our own Matthew Wood evaluate who they think will score the most runs in this year's World Cup.

Matt Wood

In order to be the leading runscorer, a batsman must have three things going for him: a top of the order role, a successful team giving them plenty of opportunities to score and the ability to read and respond to flat subcontinental pitches. So of all the obvious candidates, that eliminates Chris Gayle. Other than that, all the usual suspects have form at being able to master lower-tempo pitches: Gambhir, Amla, Watson, the Little Master, Sangakkara and Dilshan. Dilshan’s form has been consistently excellent over the past two years so has a strong chance to carrying off top honours, while both Gambhir and his opening partner Sehwag will score heaps. Gambhir’s more circumspect and as such, probably more liable to convert his runs into big, big scores. Man-crush and all, you can bet your bottom dollar that Dave’s going to opt for one of the top two, Amla, so I’m happy to plump for another Sri Lankan: their maestro captain Kumar Sangakkara. Had he been born in any other country he’d probably receive his just due: possibly the second-best keeper/batsman ever to play the game.

WC Leading Run-Scorer Prediction: Kumar Sangakkara

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Subash Jayaraman

The requirements to be a top run getter needs those of the top wicket takers (deep run, weak opposition) and in addition, someone batting at the top of the order. That puts the following on my radar: Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Tillekaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Kevin Pietersen, Mohammed Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Chris Gayle, Tamim Iqbal and well of course, Sachin Tendulkar. Of these, only Sachin Tendulkar has actually accomplished the task of being the top run getter in a tournament. Twice (1996 and 2003). Sehwag, Dilshan, Tharanga, Ryder, Hafeez, Iqbal and Shehzad are very good, aggressive and explosive batsmen and can single-handedly take the game away from the opposition, but I do not think are as consistent as is required to be top run getters. That leaves us with the usual suspects. Since I already picked Muralitharan based on the “swan song” theme, let me pick Tendulkar as the top run getter as this surely is the last time he will be playing ODIs for India. Plus, there is an oddity that caught my eye. He is the top run getter every other tournament. Since he wasn’t the highest run maker in 2007, surely 2011 sets up for him.

WC Leading Run-Scorer Prediction: Sachin Tendulkar

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David Siddall

One billion people in the subcontinent and probably even more elsewhere are hoping for a fairytale World Cup for the “little master” Sachin Tendulkar, the most complete one day batsmen of all time. Sachin could easily hit 3 centuries in the tournament bringing up his 100 hundreds in all formats of cricket and guide India to a famous World Cup victory. You couldn’t write the script any better. You can’t help but feel that it is even likely when you consider the Bradmanesque twilight years of his career. But another candidate likely to pile on the runs in the sub-continent is a South African in a similar rich vein of form by the name of Hashim Amla. Averaging 60 in ODIs at a strike rate of 93 and the ability to bat right through the inning (as a conversion rate of 7 hundreds and 12 fifties testifies), he can only be described as a run machine. From the turn of 2010 to the present day he’s scored 1300 runs at an average of 72 and recorded 6 centuries.

Other notable candidates can be found and are scattered throughout the meaty middle orders of India, South Africa and Sri Lanka along with the likes of in form Jonathan Trott and Shane Watson. You also have a feeling that KP decides to show up when something is actually at stake. But Hashim Amla is the one to watch in these stakes for me.

WC Leading Run-Scorer Prediction: Hashim Amla

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The English Game: Somerset & Middlesex

by Balanced Sports columnist Ben Roberts.

Somerset

The early history of Somerset County Cricket Club was less than successful and this perhaps helped set the tone for the county until today. Post the Second World War Somerset began to recruit heavily as the strategy for success on the field. Fearful of failure, Somerset have continued to be a heavy recruiter of both English and International talent up until the present day. Some limited over trophies have been won by Somerset, but the County Championship remains conspicuously absent from the county's honours.

In the 1950s Somerset followed the trend of most county's in dispensing of its policy of only appointing amateur players to captain. Maurice Tremlett (grandfather of current English fast bowler Chris) was the first professional to captain the county. At the same time they recruited former Australian test player Colin McCool from Lancashire league cricket. McCool had emigrated to England after being unable to get back into the Australian team. Ironically when McCool was selected in 1948 to tour England it forced the unselected Bruce Dooland to make the same decision, Dooland ending up a Nottinghamshire champion.

From the 1950s onwards the list of players to have represented Somerset reads like a 'Who's Who' of cricket history. Probably the greatest group of players collected together was in the early 1980s when Ian Botham was joined by the West Indian pair Joel Garner and Vivian Richards. So great were Richards performances for the West Indies and the county that he later went on to become Sir Vivian, and the gates at Somerset's home in Taunton bear his name. All three departed the county in acrimony, yet one of the replacements was another fluent stroke maker in Martin Crowe.

McCool is one of the noted Australians to have played for the county but he is not alone with many of his fellow countrymen having become residents of the West Country for a period. The earliest was Sammy Woods who having played test cricket for both Australia and England went onto lead the county as captain for 13 seasons at the turn of the 20^th century. In recent times current Australian selector and former Tasmanian batsmen, Jamie Cox, led the county for 3 years, and Justin Langer upon his retirement from international cricket also took on the captaincy of Somerset for the same length of time. Current Australian T20 captain Cameron White has set county records as well in the shorter forms of the game during the past few seasons.

Despite the cavalcade of great players to have taken the field for Somerset, they are yet to break through and win thecounty's first championship. Potentially the regular desire to recruit high profile players has led the county to continue to field teams of champions, and not the cliché of a champion team.

Middlesex

That Middlesex finished the 2010 County Championship in 8^th position in division 2 and Somerset 2^nd in division 1 is an opposing reflection to the relative success of each county. Where Somerset are yet to win their first championship, Middlesex have won 12. Maybe it is because the county's home is at Lords, the home of cricket, but Middlesex have always produced leaders of the English game.

Present captain Andrew Strauss is a former captain of the county, and still calls it home when not playing for England. In the earlier years of last century, Pelham 'Plum' Warner was captain of Middlesex and England before later becoming president of the Marylebone Cricket Club. In between these two figures many have captained both county and country. In the most successful period for the club during the 1970s and 1980s Mike Brearley followed by Mike Gatting (both English captains as well) led the county to 7 championships.

Again to make comparison to Somerset, unlike them Middlesex do not have a history bursting with individual champions of the game. That is not to say they have not had great players, most of whom have been home grown talent rather than recruited. That the historic county of Middlesex includes regions of and nearby to the densely populated London maybe is a primary reason for not having the need to recruit from elsewhere. England representative Fred Titmus was a long time stalwart of the county. 30 years after his retirement he still leads the county in wickets taken. Titmus finished his career with over 2,300 wickets for Middlesex.

Justin Langer, again mentioned above for his time at Somerset, also spent three seasons at Middlesex. This included captaining the county also, in 2000. Langer at this time was still yet to become a regular in the Australian test team having been in and out of the national side since 1993. Langer and Gatting combined for an opening partnership record of 372 in 1998, Langer's first season with the county.

More recently the county has not experienced great on-field success. Since their last county championship in 1993 and the split of the championship at the conclusion of the 1999 season, Middlesex have been transient between divisions, spending more time in division 2 than what would be expected of a county with such a successful history.

World Cup Predictions: Leading Wicket Taker

In a seven-part series, our own Matthew Wood goes head to head with Subash Jayaraman of The Cricket Couch and Dave Siddall of World Cricket Watch to send down their predictions for this year's World Cup.

Matt Wood

A quick glance at the stats from the last couple of World Cups reveals that the leading wicket taker has taken on average about 2.5 wickets per innings. In 2007 it was the indomitable Glenn McGrath while in South Africa Chaminda Vaas managed the most scalps. With that in mind, only a few of the bowlers on display this tournament have any chance of approaching those numbers: Malinga, Steyn, Brett Lee (involuntary shudder), Zaheer Khan and Pakistani pair Wahab Riaz and Umar Gul. Others may have the talent, discipline or unpredictability but these are the bowlers who are both in-form and better suited for the conditions available. They’re all pacemen, yes, but I remain unconvinced that any of the spin bowlers on show will be more than defensive stoppers. Lee will almost assuredly break down, so we can eliminate him; Pakistan produce the expected as often as they do adult film stars; leaving Khan, Malinga and the best fast man in the world, Dale Steyn. Steyn’s consistency sees him more likely to take a “Michelle” against a minnow, but Malinga’s slingers can be too much for even the best batsman to face – let’s go with the Sri Lankan.

WC Leading Wicket Taker Prediction: Lasith Malinga

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Subash Jayaraman

There are couple of requirements for players to be featured in the leading wicket taker column. 1) Their respective teams need to make a deep run in the tournament 2) Face as many weak opposition teams as possible in the early round. Chaminda Vaas was the top wicket taker of the world cup in 2003 based on the fact that he took 12 of his 23 wickets against Bangladesh, Kenya and Canada. Of the total 10 matches he played in that tournament, he took more than half his share in just 3 matches against what could be called as weak opposition.

Looking at the 2011 World Cup Schedule, Group A has more number of weaker teams (Kenya, Canada and Zimbabwe) than Group B (Netherlands and Ireland). Bangladesh cannot be called a weak ODI squad anymore. It is not 2003 anymore and they are playing at home, where they have beaten New Zealand 4-0 in a recent series.

Therefore, by my hypothesis, the top wicket taker will emerge from Group A from the teams of Sri Lanka, Australia or Pakistan. Since the team has to make a deep run in the tournament and potentially play in the finals, I am more leaning towards Sri Lanka (Lasith Malinga or Muralitharan) than Australia (Brett Lee or Shaun Tait) or India (Zaheer Khan) or Pakistan (Umar Gul) or South Africa (Dale Steyn). Since Matt and David are already going for the pacers to be highest wicket takers, let me pick Muralitharan. This can be his swan song from all forms of international cricket.

WC Leading Wicket Taker Prediction: Muttiah Muralitharan

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David Siddall

The leading wicket taker in the tournament will come from a team that goes a long way in the competition. Currently if you were asked to name the best quicks in the world [excluding the likes of the Mohammads Amir and Asif] the same names would crop up time after time – Dale Steyn, Zaheer Khan, James Anderson, Morne Morkel, and Lasith Malinga. Of those names Dale Steyn is the best bowler in the world.

We mustn’t forget spin however, as it is likely to be a huge factor in the sub-continent and a determining factor in the outcome of the World Cup. I’m of the opinion that the leading wicket taker won’t be a spinner for two reasons: 1) attacking spinners are thin on the ground with Muttiah Muralitharan, Graeme Swann and Harbajhan Singh seemingly the only exceptions and 2) spinners tend to bowl in those languid middle overs where consolidation and keeping the scoreboard ticking over are the main concerns for the batsmen.

Thinking strategically about the aforementioned quicks and every angle explored leads to one figure being the leading wicket taker in the tournament. Lasith Malinga might not be the best bowler in the world, but unlike Dale Steyn he is head and shoulders above his fellow countrymen’s pacemen. When you also consider that he is the finest exponent of “death” bowling in one day cricket with a wicked yorker and a devilishly disguised slower ball, the justification for the slinger becomes even more apparent. A strike rate of 32.9 isn’t half bad either.

WC Leading Wicket Taker Prediction: Lasith Malinga

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