HOWZAT MAGAZINE

This Edition Includes:

- World Cup 11- Dunstable Town CC- Yorkshire CC- Exclusive With Ben Duckett

Editor’s Notes

This magazine gives you a little insight on the world of cricket. Our love for cricket plays a huge role in everything that is published and as the edi-tor it gives me great pleasure to oversee it all puz-zling together. In this edition we gave our opinion on what we thought would be the best eleven in World Cricket at the current time. A look at a star in the making, Yorkshire winning the County Championship last season and a little insight of what’s going on in grass roots cricket.

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Shoaib Rashid

Editor’s Notes Contents Page Page 4-5 - The Untouchable Eleven

Page 6 - Ben Duckett Exclusive

Page 8-9 - County Cricket Round Up

Page 10-11 - Dunstable Town CC, Grass Roots Cricket

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The Untouchable Eleven Brendon McCullum - One of the most explosive batsmen in World cricket at the moment, and you would be silly not to have him in your side. He has scored 5 hundreds and 30 half centuries averaging 30.67 with a strike rate of 93.87 in 256 games.

Chris Gayle - With an eye of an eagle no one can hit a ball as good as he does, simply stand and deliver, a joy to watch and one of a kind. Gayle has scored 22 hundreds and 46 half cen-turies averaging 37.23 with a strike rate of 84.40 in 268 games.

Kumar Sangakkara - A veteran of the game and will go down as one of the greats for Sri-Lan-ka, he has scored runs throughout his career. He has scored 25 hundreds and 93 half centu-ries averaging 41.98 with a strike rate of 78.86 in a remarkable 404 games.

AB de Villiers - Plays a completely different style of cricket to anything in the textbook, a crowd pleaser and someone who is completely out of the ordinary, simply a phenomenon. He has scored 20 hundreds and 45 half centuries averaging 53.21 with a strike rate of 56.16 in 186 games.

Michael Clarke(C) - Captains the Australia side and is a class act both on and off the pitch, has been around for a while so bags of experience and he’s no gimmy with the bat either. He has scored 8 hundreds and 57 half centuries averaging 44.82 with a strike rate of 78.81 in 242 games.

MS Dhoni (Wk) - Played a huge role in India winning the World Cup 2011, and is a great finisher and stays cool under pressure. Has a magnificent helicopter shot which he has mas-tered brilliantly. He has scored 9 hundreds and 57 half centuries averaging 52.67 with a strike

rate of 89.13 in 260 games.

Shahid Afridi - Has not been in the best form with the bat but on his day he can be as de-structive as anyone in World cricket. Just depends on how he turns up on the day. However his bowling gets him into this side, has the ability to tie teams down in the middle over’s and is a nightmare to face with his darting leg spin. He has taken 395 wickets with an average of 34.43 in 397 games.

Mitchell Johnson - His slingy action and pace is a pleasure to watch. Swinging and seaming the ball around at frightening pace, and has come into real form before the tournament. He is not bad with the bat either and just a brilliant all round athlete. He has taken 233 wickets with an average of 25.93 in 150 games. This side would be a match for any cricketing eleven in the history of the game.

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The Untouchable Eleven Dale Steyn - Has been the leader of the South African attack in recent years and is undoubt-edly one of the best pace bowlers in World Cricket at the moment. His energy is electric and really gets into the opposition. He has taken 161 wickets with an average of 25.26 in 103 games.

Wahab Riaz - Has the ability to bowl extremely quickly and is brilliant in the death over’s, the best reverse swing bowler in World Cricket and he has the ability to take wickets at key mo-ments in the game, he deserves a place in this side. He has taken 75 wickets with an average of 30.29 in 53 games.

Trent Boult – he is the new kid on the block and will be brilliant in the World Cup. A lovely action and gets the ball moving around, causing all sorts of problems. This kid will be one of the best bowlers New Zealand has had in the next ten years. He has taken 33 wickets with an

average of 26.15 in 22 games.

This side would surely be a match for any cricketing eleven in the history of the game.

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Ben Duckett Ben Duckett is certainly one to keep an eye out for; and the 20 year old is currently playing for Northamptonshire CC. He has also represented England at under-19 level and is one of two players who has averaged over 60 in the under-19 World Cup the other being current England test captain Alastair Cook. This is quite incredible considering the vast majority of cricketers that have played in this elite international tournament with many players going on to play for their international side. He managed a gutsy 61 against India in the quarter final and a ton against Australia in a third place play off.

He made his Northants first team debut aged just 17, and played regularly last season in the County Championship, T20 and Pro40, he also scored his maiden ton for them last season with a 144* which changed the complex of the game and they managed to scrape a draw. Duckett was also called into the first team back in 2013 on finals day when they won the T20 competition and this was because of injury to wicket keeper Kyle Koetzer. Seems daunting for a 18 year old but he handled the pressure superbly.

He went on to say “I never thought when I started out playing cricket that I would become professional and earn a living from doing something I love, it’s remarkable. I’ve been at Nort-hants since I was 11 and am thankful for everything they have done for me, the staff here is amazing. When I played in the under 19 World Cup it was an incredible feeling representing England. I just need to carry on playing well for Northants and hopefully in years to come I get the opportunity to play for the national side”

“When I got called in on finals day it was the most nervous I have ever been on a cricket field, but winning it was the best feeling ever and those are the days you dream off, it was such a big occasion for the club.”

“I am now part of the first team and it’s not as nerve racking as it was when I first started. We train together day in day out and you just get more comfortable with everyone on your team,

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Yorkshire had a brilliant run last year and lifted the County Cham-pionship after 13 years with a victory over title rivals Nottingham-shire by an innings and 152 runs at Trent Bridge. Keys players like Ryan Sidebottom, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jhonny Bairstow and Tim Bresnen were vital to their success all having done well at the in-ternational scene also.

They have been a cricketing county for years upon years and final-ly the fans got what they had been waiting for. However the ques-tion that remains to be answered is can Yorkshire carry on this momentum into the new season and repeat the heroics of last season.

Also the national T20 competition is bringing in record crowds and with Sky backing the campaign things can only get better for English cricket as a whole. With the likes of Australia’s internation-al pinch hitter Aaron Finch coming over to play it shows that we are heading in the right direction, as long as we bring over more overseas internationals things seem bright.

Players like Alex Hales and Eoin Morgan have also played in the Big Bash League over in Australia and this shows that we are final-ly merging in like all the other big international playing nations. However more players from our county circuit need to go over to India and compete in the IPL as this is currently where all the big names are playing, and bringing in vast amounts of money. This is not only beneficial for our players but beneficial to England as our players will then have the chance to play against the best around the world and play all year round.

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County Cricket Round up

Yorkshire Lifting the LV County Champion-ship last season at Trent Bidge, 2014

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Grass Roots Cricket

People’s lives have changed and dedicating a whole day to cricket may have played a major factor in the decline of grass roots cricket across the country. A national survey shows that a 7% drop in players this year from 908,000 to 844,000 is drastic.

Adam Davies, 70, has lived in Dunstable since he was 4 years old and said that “the local village club was the heartbeat of the town and we have lost our way. I shared many brilliant memories down there but the atmosphere is just not the same anymore. I still go down for the odd drink but it’s just not the same.”

Phil Lewis, Colts Manager at Dunstable Town Cricket Club has been help-ing out with up and coming talent for a number of years said, “Finances are very tight at all clubs and other sports such as football and rugby can be a bigger priority. Cricket is also a long game and people with family commitments cannot always spare evenings and all weekend to play the game.”

“ECB and clubs are all looking at ways to make cricket more appealing to the masses with ideas on female cricket, T20 competitions etc and this can only be good if we are to raise awareness and get more people in-terested in playing cricket.” PAGE 10

“We have a programme called ‘chance to shine’ which allows us to de-liver cricket within state schools and train teachers so cricket continues when the coach finishes within that school. There is a big push around getting more 16-24 year olds playing as well as there is a big drop off within this age range. Volunteer roles are vital for the life blood of clubs to survive.”

“Less money is filtering through from the top which has a knock on ef-fect for funding. The money which comes in from Sky is a major benefit to local cricket as money from that does filter down to the local level. Without sky’s interest in the game we would be worse off as a game.”

Obviously the social aspect has changed, this has affected old traditions but with modern day society we have lost traditions in many things not just cricket. Free televised cricket may have also played a pivotal role and this may have had an impact also.

Dunstable Town Cricket Club, 2014

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